HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008 08-19Meridian City Council Special Workshop Meetin4_ August 19.2008
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday,
August 19, 2008, by President Charlie Rountree.
Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, David Zaremba, Keith Bird, Joe Borton, and
Charlie Rountree.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, Caleb Hood, Will Berg, Tom
Bany, Keith Watts, Clint Dolsby, Jeff Lavey, Steve Siddoway, Mark Niemeyer, and
Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Joe Borton
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Rountree: I will open this evening's special meeting of August 19th, 2008. I will start
the meeting with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda:
Rountree: Thank you. And welcome, everybody. The first item on the agenda is the
adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Joe.
Borton: Move we adopt the agenda as published.
Zaremba: I believe there is a request to modify No. 7, the Executive Session, and
delete item J.
Rountree: That's correct. Yes.
Zaremba: A little tiny note down at the bottom. If the maker is including that, I will
second the motion.
Borton: Yes.
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Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the amended motion. All those in
favor? Measure passes.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 3: CONSENT AGENDA
(a) Longitudinal Pipeline Encroachment Agreement with UPRR for
$20,870.00
(b) 2008 SRO Agreement:
(c) K2 Construction Change Order No. 3 for Water Division 2 for
existing contract for $3,557.06
(d) Community Recycle Fund Application for Meridian Academy for
Library Furniture
Rountree: Consent Agenda. Questions?
Zaremba: I move we adopt the Consent Agenda as published. I would make note that
item A for an amount of 20,870 dollars and item C is for an amount of $3,557.06.
Borton: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the Consent Agenda. Roll call.
Roll-Call: Bird, absent; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I'm sorry, I guess I thought it might have been noted on your agenda. We
did have a request from our Public Works Department to move the discussion on
Meridian Heights and the Leisure Lane, I believe to towards the beginning. I believe
there is a number of employee -- or neighbors here that maybe we don't want to bore
them with the rest of our agenda, but -- or maybe Clint thought we might bore them with
our agenda. I don't know which. But if the chair would consider moving that up at some
point within the agenda, that would be appreciated. Or at least that was the request.
Correct? From Public Works.
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Holman: Madam Mayor, I apologize, I thought that they asked to just move it before the
rate fund presentation, so I moved it up there.
De Weerd: I think any movement was appreciated.
Holman: Okay.
Barry: Madam Mayor, that's correct, the way it is reflected on the agenda is the way we
had hoped it would be in its delivery tonight, so we appreciate that.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Thank you, Mayor.
De Weerd: Anytime. Since it's not me running this meeting, I have to give my two
cents. Went down from ten.
Item 4: COMMUNITY ITEMS /PRESENTATIONS:
(a) Update from Petra on New City Hall Building
Rountree: Yeah. Went down from ten. Next item on the agenda are community items.
Presentations and update from Petra on the new City Hall. Gene?
Bennett: Thank you. My name is Gene Bennett, I'm with Petra. 1097 North Rosario in
Meridian, Idaho. You have before you the monthly report for the month of August. The
report was prepared three weeks ago, so things have progressed quite a bit
schedulewise since that report was prepared. The project is still on schedule. The
budget remains the same as it was in December. And we are -- we will go through in
detail now the monthly report, starting with Jack on schedule. At the end I'd like to close
with a few updates on things that are coming up, so that you can be prepared for that.
Jack.
Rountree: Jack.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I'll pose the question and whoever gets to answer it can answer it. Just update
me on the timing of completion of the project, the LEED clean out, testing period or
move in -- and the move in.
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Bennett: The Reader's Digest version is that we are ready for punch list the first two
weeks of September. The last two weeks of September we will be completing those
punch lists. For two weeks of October everybody will be out of the building, except for
the computer man that's going to be hooking up -- hooking up wires and we will be
blowing the building out for those two weeks and, then, occupying the building takes
place on 10/15.
Borton: The start of the move in?
Bennett: That's correct.
Borton: Okay.
Rountree: Thanks, Gene.
Watts: Excuse me. I believe that's 10/16. Right, Gene? 10/16?
De Weerd: No. I believe it was 10/15. We have it on the public record.
Rountree: We will hold him to it.
Vaughn: Well, I will just tell you that we were 20 minutes ahead of schedule, Madam
Mayor, but now I'm 23 hours and 40 minutes late, so -- my name is Jack Vaughn. I'm
with Petra. I'm the Senior Superintendent on the Meridian City Hall Project. I'd like to
review the schedule. You'll find that in section two of our booklet and as Gene
indicated, the red line is added as of the first of this month and you can see we were
progressing well and we are right on schedule with this. Flooring is actually proceeding
well. We have got carpet down on first and -- most of first and most of second currently,
so our flooring is actually proceeding a little further ahead in September, because we
have accelerated the schedule a little bit to allow us more time for punch and
commissioning. You can see on the top line there the overall project is 93 percent
complete. The last line, the move in, 10/15.
De Weerd: 10/15.
Vaughn: 5:01 in the evening. No. If you will proceed to the next page, that is our
monthly breakdown, a little bit more succinct with our progress and, once again, we are
right on line with everybody -- everything in here. Carpet this week is going down on
second floor. We plan on progressing to third floor as soon as we finish that. I mean
blinds are going in. Drywall punch. Flooring. The sheet vinyl is down. Hardware,
doors are up on third floor and hanging, and we are finishing up with the hardware on
those doors. We have already started our completion list, which is like a preliminary
punch list that Petra creates to go around and say, you know, that screw is missing on
that hinge and so forth. So, we are progressing well. And, then, the next section
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involves our site work and it's broken down, as you have seen in the past, Meridian
Road shape is the top half there, that main line across the top, gives us our total
duration. Kind of breaks down each one of the individual tasks as we go through lines
three through 12 and it continues through that same process. The Broadway
streetscape which we have -- I'm sure you have noticed, we have tom down our fence
and beginning to do our ACRD work along there, getting ready to lay curb and so forth.
So, that's progressing on schedule. The Heritage Building is the next section, next
page, starting with line 32. That duration we will finish right at the first of October and
that's progressing well. We have got the ceilings in. Mechanical is going in. Roof is a
couple days from actually being completed. Block work -- all the block work and brick
work is complete on the outside of the building. It's beginning to take shape. It's really
looking good, I believe. Plaza in general, the streamside features and all that -- it may
not look like we have made much progress in a few weeks, but we are doing a lot of the
little things you need to do to keep the right sequence. We have been actually back-
filling and plastering the building. We have had quite a bit of discussion on the finishes
of the -- of the exposed foundation and the wall over around the dumpster. You look
now, it's pretty well completed, so now we are able to start back-filling and doing those
final grade issues. Getting the last of our underground utilities in. And we will be
accelerating the utility work to the east parking lot, that bid package coming out, but we
need to go ahead and get utility lines in now, so that we are not going back and tearing
up our pavers and so forth. So, we are getting ready to do that work in preparation for
that bid package coming out. That completes my presentation. Be happy to entertain
any questions.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: So, Jack, when does -- I saw that the design was supposed to be done on
the east parking lot August 4th. So, do we have it out to bid?
Vaughn: Yes, ma'am. It went out to bid the 14th or 15th, Tom? And the bids are due
on the 28th of'this month and I believe it's -- Keith will help chime in. I believe we plan
on bringing that to the board on September 2nd, the first Tuesday after that presentation
or that -- receiving the bids and we have got slated to start September 8th for
construction. I must remind the board, though, that's dependent on some issues still
with our DEQ and our soil cleanup and recommendations from DEQ and also ACHD
comments that are still out pending and being incorporated into current plans. But we
have put the bid package together trying to anticipate those two issues. So, I believe
the only thing that would keep us from going to construction on the 8th would be ACHD
comments or the DEQ recommendation from the contractor that the board selected,
which is Terracon.
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Watts: Madam Mayor, Council Members, I do expect to hear back from Terracon
tomorrow. I spoke with Curt Priebe this evening, he -- or earlier this afternoon. He was
going to meet with DEQ today and hope to have a go ahead for us to start cleanup
tomorrow. So, I will -- if I don't hear him by noon, I will be making a call to Terracon.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Rountree: Thank you. Any further questions for Jack? Thank you.
Vaughn: Thank you.
Rountree: Tom. Oh. Okay.
Vaughn: Sony. Our LEED presentation will be by Adam.
Rountree: Okay. Adam's back with us.
De Weerd: Nice to see you back.
Johnson: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just run you through the LEED, since
Nick wasn't able to be here tonight. Kind of our same routine, the point standings, pretty
much know it by heart now. Commissioning, we are still continuing on. I don't know if
you guys have had a chance to meet Martin, our new commissioning agent. Very savvy
individual, lots of projects under his belt. He has taken it by the horns and getting us
through our documentation on that. So, the benefits of that, you guys will notice once
you get in the building, right off the bat, no problem. It's a great way to go. So, that's
going, the paperwork is following. IAQ is still a hot item, especially with all the finishes,
paints, sealants in the wood and all that kind of stuff, track and make sure everything
meets the BOC compliance. And, then, we are getting down to our building flush out,
like Gene had mentioned earlier, where we do the two week flush out and, then, replace
the filters and turn it over to you guys and, then, it's you guys from there, so --
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Did you do the test on the third floor?
Johnson: Yes, we did. We were at 9.4 percent. Don't quote me on the point. Point
three or point four, somewhere in there. So, within passing. So, we are getting the final
numbers put together on that and the final report and, then, they are going to work on
an innovation in design credit for the under floor system, so to explain the benefits of
that and the exceptional performance that we have been able to get out of it. So, kudos
to the team for doing an awesome bullet proof system on our air testing and quality of
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that floor, so -- and, then, the last page on section three is the recycled content to date.
We are still right on our rock of 80.4 percent. I don't see anything drastic changing here.
We are on the tail end of it. Probably have one more metal bin and a couple more with
hardboard and plastic and miscellaneous. So, right there, but pretty impressive that 80
percent has been diverted, so -- with that, any questions you guys can hit me with?
Rountree: Questions for Adam?
De Weerd: We should have some.
Rountree: You may just want to hit him. I don't know.
Johnson: Okay. Now I'll tum it over to Tom.
Rountree: Thanks.
Coglin: Madam Mayor, Council Members, Tom Coglin, also with Petra. Financially, as
Gene indicated, the budget hasn't changed since December. We are holding steady at
the 20 million -- 20.42 million. Currently phase two and three, the building phases, are
approximately 93 percent complete. Phase four, the plaza, is 42 percent complete.
There were a total of eight change orders approved in July. Sixteen are pending
additional action by the city, LCA, or the contractor. The one budgeted item that will
come up with the bidding is what we are calling the east parking lot, phase five, there
will have to be a budget allocation for that. So, I assume that will have to be addressed.
Flipping to section four, the overall budget, as I indicated, there is really no change in
the bottom line. Certain line items have been adjusted as the work is allocated to the
various contractors. The second two pages show how that allocation has been
accomplished through the change order process to the various subs. The~changes are
the ones approved in July, are in the dark print and at the bottom of page two that will
get you to the total of the uncommitted contingency, the balance remaining. Page three
is a projection based on what we know today for August for where it's headed. Any
questions pertaining to the budget or for progress?
Rountree: I don't see any, Tom. Thank you. Gene, you wanted to wrap up?
Bennett: Again, as I mentioned, that punch list will occur during the first two weeks of
September for the city. Those walks will be scheduled by Keith and you will be getting
notified on those. There is one last item that I'd like to cover and that has to do with
exterior signage and Will will present that. Are there any other questions for me before I
tum it over to Will?
Rountree: No. Thank you. Will.
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Berg: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you have on your place
setting with some other papers is a proposal, the RFP that we received at 4:00 o'clock
yesterday. We received only one .proposal for the sign package and you have it before
you. There is a couple things we can do. We can have you look it over very carefully, if
you don't have any problems with that proposal, we can accept it and go with what was
proposed and the prices that they quoted or you can look at it and if we need some
other little design changes or additions or deletions, we can take it back to them and
negotiate that. I think that's kind of what -- the couple options we have, unless Keith
has something else to add.
Watts: Yes. We are looking for direction from Council and Mayor to move forward with
an award and with the authority to negotiate with the selected firm, the only one that
proposed in this case, and if you have any minor changes or anything that you'd like to
see, you can let Will know and we can work through Will to get the -- any changes made
that you'd like.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: In the pictures there are several of them showing the front of the building, the
east elevation, and at the very top over the doors, what would be approaching the roof
line, some of them just say City Hall, but the last page shows Meridian City Hall. I was
kind of hoping that the choice would include Meridian. Have we made a decision as to
which way we are going?
Berg: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I have not made any
decisions. That's what we are here for you to give us direction. If you look on your
proposal, they broke it out several different ways, so we could take a couple options.
The numbers above the door is pretty much standard requirement for the fire
department and so above the doors on -- above the third floor we have the option of just
City Hall, our logo with Meridian City Hall, or going even in a different direction if you
don't like that proposal.
Zaremba: I, for one, would like to have Meridian as part of the sign on the face of the
City Hall.
Berg: Mr. President, Members of the --
Zaremba: Page five of five.
Berg: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, these -- the ones above on the building,
above the third floor, is non-illuminated. We talked about even having some -- maybe
some lights shine up there or making even a totally different illuminated signage. But
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there is that option. If you looked on the first page, there is an option of -- of those kind
of -- those kind of things. So, the direction, just point to us what you'd like to have, that
or that, and we will begin negotiations and work with them to get those signs ordered.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess, Will, what you're asking, do they want the illuminated or do they
want the logo with -- because the one on page five of five is not lit, whereas the one on
page two of five would be lit. Is that correct? Or are they both lit?
Zaremba: Halo illuminated -- it sounds like it's lit.
De Weerd: One of the reasons I guess we wanted both is City Hall could be lit -- page
five of five, we didn't know if you wanted the city of -- or the Meridian, Idaho, logo,
because it could change in the next one hundred years, if the last four is any indication.
Zaremba: Mr. President and Madam Mayor.
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I wasn't so concerned that it be the logo, I would like at least Meridian, Idaho,
to be part of the City Hall sign at the top of the building. And I agree it doesn't need to
be the logo, but I think it should be say~Meridian City Hall, not just City Hall.
Berg: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, same font, just Meridian
City Hall?
Zaremba: That would work for me.
Rountree: Any objections? Support?
Zaremba: Do we want that halo illuminated as well?
Rountree: That would be my preference.
Zaremba: It would sound good to me.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: There you have it. I don't see a number here for that, but gives us a number.
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Berg: We -- if the direction from the Mayor and Council is to go that way, we will. The
monument sign okay?
Zaremba: Uh-huh.
Berg: The lettering on the wall to give the address is okay. The letters above the door
is okay. And, then, we will work on Meridian City Hall illuminated on -- above the third
floor.
Rountree: Correct.
Berg: Above the entrance.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: I just -- we have two doors into the entry. Do they both have to have the
same address on it? Can you like center it?
Berg: Madam Mayor, my understanding was they took direction from the fire
department. If the fire department only requires one address somewhere there, that
would sure cut in the price and we could make it look good. So, we can negotiate if
you'd like.
De Weerd: If you would negotiate with our fire department to go with one address.
Niemeyer: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Very cool. I like that kind of negotiation.
Berg: Mr. President, I know Councilman Bird just got here, but if we wanted to look at
our signage and if he has any other comments, I could go over it with him tomorrow,
which you guys directed to do.
Rountree: Please do. Any further directions? Do we need a motion to give you that
direction?
Watts: Yes, please. It would be requesting authorization to negotiate and enter into a
contract for and not to exceed 45 -- say 46,000 dollars.
Bird: Just round it off, uh?
Watts: We will be --
Borton: So moved.
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Zaremba: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to accept and authorize the bid with the
amended changes. Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Berg: Thank you, Mr. President.
Rountree: Thanks, Will.
(f) Award of Bid and Authorization to purchase: Bid # CH-08-001 for
City hall Furniture
Watts: Madam Mayor, Council Members, we have the fumiture package that also goes
along with the new City Hall. It's at the end. I don't know if you want to bring them up
and have them go now as well, please.
Rountree: Please.
Watts: Okay. Kara or Elizabeth.
Rountree: Kara is going to do it. Okay.
Moser: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council Members. My name is Kara Moser, I'm
with LCA Architects. We also have Elizabeth Henson and Keith Christensen with us
this evening. We are here this evening to present the final fumiture upholstery and to
get approval and, then, to also get approval on the Mayor's suite and the fumiture and
upholstery for that as well. I will go ahead and start with walking you through the floor
plans and showing you where these upholsteries will be used and on the fumiture that it
will be used on. Okay. We will go ahead and start in the City Council chambers. In this
area we have got the City Council seating, which we had approved in the previous
meeting to be this mocha and it's an environmentally friendly vinyl that we originally
approved. This is also being used at the City Council conference and also on the third
floor of the executive conference and the Mayor's suite. I do understand that in the
Mayor's suite that we will be changing to a black upholstery. Also, in the City Council
chambers we have public seating, which we have two different chairs, one with arms
and one without. Both of those would be covered in this upholstery here. And, then,
moving to the second floor, we have some lounge seating that is in the lobby of the fire
department and parks and rec that's shared there. Upholstery for that seating has not
been yet selected, but, however, that will be selected in the same color pallet as what
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you see here, in probably a geometric pattern to go along with the design of the rest of
the building. Across from that in the lobby in the mezzanine there, we have some
sectional bench seating, which you can see here, and we have that covered in a --
again it is an environmentally friendly vinyl, which is very cleanable and washable.
De Weerd: And just to clarify, that's for LEED certification points as well.
Moser: Yes.
De Weerd: Just to let you know your environmentally friendly fabric is also for LEED.
Henson: This is Elizabeth Henson with LCA Architects. That fabric is low VLC, but we
can actually get a point for it.
Moser: This is the same product as used on the third floor in the gallery space. It's kind
of an S shape with that same seating in the vinyl and, then, across the hallway right
before you enter the Mayor's apartment, we have a small bench seat that would be
covered in this lighter fabric here. So, you will notice that we have got a dark mahogany
wood that goes with the rest of the building throughout the chair rails, doors, and, then,
these two upholsteries there.
De Weerd: Kara, that is in the -- the art gallery?
Moser: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay.
Moser: That is correct. The art gallery. And, then, in the department lobbies -- each of
the department lobbies will have some side seating or guest seating and all of those will
match, but we are proposing this upholstery here, again, with a darker wood and, then,
throughout the departments we have offices -- office side seating and apartment
conference room seating. We are proposing this upholstery on both of those seats. So,
we will not be using this upholstery here that you see. Moving into the Council -- into
the Mayor's reception, we have some lounge seating there and this is the upholstery
that the Mayor has selected and, then, in the Councilmen's office -- offices, there is a
small lounge area there for breakout meetings and we have some lounge seating there
as well in this upholstery and wood finish. And, then, we would like to go ahead and get
final approval from the Mayor on the upholstery for her seating, so I will go ahead and
come up there and present that.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: You know, Kara, I am not a very good designer, so I trust whatever you
have.
Moser: Okay. We have made a few recommendations. Do you just want us to present
that or --
De Weerd: I believe that Keith showed me that earlier today and at first I was a little
stunned, but I think it's okay.
Moser: Was there one that we need to --there was one we needed to --
De Weerd: Okay.
Moser: Okay. Very good. So, at this time we'd like to go ahead and get approval on
those upholsteries if we could.
Rountree: Keith.
Watts: Madam Mayor, Council Members, we opened our fumiture bid -- I don't have the
date on here. Let me look here. On the 15th of August. Correct. And we had three
bidders. Two of them were in the running and it ended up our low bidder, who was
1,161 dollars lower than the second low, did not bid per the specifications. I did go over
and meet with legal and verified that -- because I was concerned of having a protest by
the second low and Ted had advised me to go with the second low, as the first low did
not bid per the specifications. So, we will notify them. The second low bid was
220,551.. These were bid as unit prices, so that could vary when we come down to final
order, when we order for the exact cubes that go in. We will double-check everything. I
am guessing that that number will drop down, but I would like approval for 220,551
dollars for the cube fumiture and, then, for the miscellaneous chairs and the hardwood
fumiture, the bid was 28,619 dollars and I also believe that could vary -- that could go
up another 5,000 dollars. So, I would like a little leeway on there to maybe go to 35,000
dollars. Those are also item priced. But my request would be to enter into a contract
with Intermountain Design for the not to exceed amount ten percent was 242,606
dollars. I will be watching that and we will order only what we need and per unit prices.
Bird: Who is the 35 with? Who is the 35 with?
Watts: Excuse me. What was that, Mr. Bird?
Rountree: You mean 35,000 for --
Bird: Thirty-five thousand, not to exceed. Who is that with?
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Watts: That was -- they were Intermountain Design. They were the low bidder on both
those.
Bird: So, what -- what you're wanting is 245 total -- 245 total; right?
Watts: Correct, sir. Correct, sir.
Bird: Okay.
Watts: Two fifty-five. Excuse me.
Bird: Two fifty-five.
Watts: Two fifty-five.
Bird: That's what I was going to say.
Rountree: Any questions for Keith? I have a request if you need additional information,
we will get that, but we need to get this order placed if we are going to make that
October 15th deadline. It's going to be tough as it is.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: If I don't hear anymore discussion, I move we enter into a contract with
Intermountain Interiors with a not to exceed price 255,000 dollars.
Zaremba: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to award the bid in the amount stated. Roll
call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Watts: Thank you, Mayor and Council Members.
Rountree: Next Item on the agenda --
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: I guess before we move off and seeing LCA here, did we have some
resolution on two different items? One would be the -- the Union Pacific Railroad
encroachment for the landscape design and fencing and the second one would be to
the plaza -- whatever plaza changes are needed in response to the MDC and the tree
issue.
Christensen: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, my name is Steve Christensen
with LCA. To answer the Mayor's question, on the first one regarding the Union Pacific
right of way, in discussion with legal we are able to capture an additional five feet of
right of way, such that we can have landscaping -- landscape buffer between the back
of curb and the -- and the proposed fence there. Right now we don't -- we do not have
a selection on the type of fence that we are going to -- that we are going to put there. I
know Petra, in reviewing e-mails, they have provided I think three or four -- probably
four different options of fencing with proposed costs associated with each one and is
awaiting for decision on the type of fence, so that can go ahead and get incorporated
into the project.
De Weerd: Okay. And who has those?
Watts: I have those, Madam Mayor. They came either last night or today, I don't
remember.
Christensen: They came today.
Watts: I think I got them this afternoon. But I will get those to you tomorrow for you to
take a look at.
De Weerd: Okay.
Christensen: And, then, on item number two, as far as revisions to the plaza to
incorporate the additional pavers to back of curb on Broadway as requested by the
MDC, Meridian Development Council, we did go ahead and prepare that revised plan
and send it off to Shaun Wardle and he met with his committee and they went ahead
and approved that. So, basically, it's pretty much how we discussed that morning at the
meeting, extending some pavers out the back of curb and also extending some
additional concrete out and around the clock. So, they accepted that and we were able
to delete the three trees.
De Weerd: So, all taken care of?
Christensen: All taken care of, yes.
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De Weerd: And just, finally, the Zamzows property line issue and design how we deal
with the drainage.
Christensen: Right now I just received from Petra today -- or this afternoon some --
what the existing grades are, both on Zamzow's property -- existing grades on the
property line and we are going to go ahead and send those over to our civil engineer
and landscape architect to come up with a little keystone retaining wall there to get the
water to stay on our property -- on the city's property and, then, also provide a little
catch basin, if you will, on the Zamzow's property at the low spot. That will take care of
the Zamzow's drainage.
De Weerd: The drainage we have historically been accommodating?
Christensen: Correct. So, that's all in the works, but we don't have -- we know a
solution, but we don't have it down on paper yet, but we are proceeding accordingly to
get that taken care of.
De Weerd: Okay. But it's not causing any delays in the plaza?
Christensen: Not to my knowledge, no.
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Christensen: Thank you.
Rountree: Thanks, Steve. Any further questions on City Hall?
Berg: I'm sorry, Mr. President, we did --
Rountree: Will has some more information for us.
Berg: We just want to make a clarification, by awarding the bid to Intermountain
Interiors you are accepting the proposal -- the recommendations from LCA for the
interior upholstery design on the chairs?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Rountree: I believe that was the intent.
Berg: We just want to make it clear, so they can proceed on. Thank you.
De Weerd: They are the designers. That's confidence, Kara.
(c) Presentation on Clean Air Zone Idaho Program/Smoking Policy
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Rountree: Next item under item 4-C, presentation on Clean Air Zone, the Idaho
program, and, Amy, are you here? Yeah, she's here.
Holman: Madam Mayor, Council Members, and Council President Rountree, it looks --
we have item B. I don't believe we discussed that yet.
Rountree: Oh. You're correct. We did not discuss janitorial services. Keith, don't run
away. Okay. Sorry, Amy, we will preempt you for just a bit. Actually, let's go ahead,
Amy.
De Weerd: Because I think Tom was doing the presentation.
Rountree: Okay.
Luft: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm Amy Luft with the Department of
Environmental Quality, 1410 North Hilton in Boise, and I appreciate the opportunity to
talk to you tonight about Clean Air Zone, which is Idaho's anti-idling program. I'm sure
you're all very well aware of the air quality issues affecting the Treasure Valley and
looking primarily at ozone issues in the summertime and particulate matter issues in the
winter and the primary human cause -- reason for both of those issues is the
automobiles that we drive. There are a lot of ways to control emissions from our cars.
Obviously, the most effective way is to simply get the vehicles off the road or having
people drive less, walk, bicycle, take the bus. But we also do realize that we are a
country of people who loves our automobiles and so we also need to work within that
and work with people who are driving their cars to drive those cars more efficiently to
help improve our air quality in that manner. There are a lot of ways to do that, simply to
encourage people to do what we call trip chaining, to combine errands to make their
trips most efficient. To car pool. To drive more fuel efficient vehicles. And, finally, to
reduce idling when it's not necessary. And that's where our Clean Air Zone program
comes in. Our Clean Air Zone is designed to assist communities, schools, and
businesses in encouraging people to not idle their cars unnecessarily on their property.
It is a voluntary program and it is a free program. When a community or school or
business signs up for the program, we provide you with the tools and resources you
need to help implement the program. We provide things such as signs, which looks like
this: You may also have seen similar signs at your schools in Meridian. The Meridian
School District, as an entire district, is a member of Clean Air Zone. The one difference
is their signs have school buses on them. We also provide posters and I was pleased
to see a poster as I walked in. I brought an example, but I don't need to show it -- as
well as window decals and other things that you can use on your city property to help
discourage people from idling their cars unnecessarily. Any combustion engine is going
to pollute and emit pollutants, whether it's driving 75 miles an hour down the interstate
or whether it's sitting driving zero miles an hour in a parking lot, for instance, waiting to
pick up a spouse from work, to pick up a child from school, or waiting in a drive-thru.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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So, the goal of clean air zone is to encourage people to shut off those vehicles and not
emit those pollutants. It's one very small piece of the puzzle, but it's one piece of the
puzzle that helps us to prevent air pollution and improve the air quality in our area. If
you wish to join Clean Air Zone as a community, all you need to do is simply fill out a
form -- I brought copies of that with me, as well as additional information, and you
submit that to DEQ and we provide you with the signs, posters, and window decals in
the quantities and mixture that you need for your city property, everything from your new
City Hall, city parks, any other city properties. If you wish to go a step further, you may
wish to develop a city policy that discourages idling, that backs up the signs, or develop
a city policy that states city employees, while driving city vehicles, will not idle. You also
may wish to encourage businesses in Meridian to join Clean Air Zone. It is also free
and available to any business that wishes to encourage people to idle on their ground,
to get drive-thrus, parking lots, what have you. So, it's something I hope that you will
consider.. It is a small piece of the puzzle, but it is something that we can all do and
something easy for citizens to do, and it's also very visible, which is nice, because
people see those signs and it helps them remember our air quality issues and
remember that they can do some things to help fight those. Thank you and I will open
the floor for questions.
Rountree: Any questions for Amy?
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess we had this as a discussion item today in our executive committee
meeting at COMPASS and, you know, right now we have an opportunity to be pro
active in avoiding non-attainment. If we have a good 2009 year, we can avoid non-
attainment. And every little incremental piece is going to help add to avoiding that non-
attainment status. So, I guess that we have been looking at the car pooling and van --
van opportunities. We have been looking at how to encourage alternative transportation
forms when we get all 11 departments into the City Hall building, this would be just one
more thing to add to what part we are playing in it, just as the vapor recovery that you
adopted into the findings when we approved the Maverick. So, every little thing counts
and we are looking to Council's comments and ideas on if this makes sense for city
property at this point and so we can incorporate it into the new City Hall campus.
Rountree: Comments? Questions?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I'm sorry. Mr. President and Madam Mayor.
Meridian City Council Special MeeUng/Workshop
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Page 19 of 101
Rountree: That's okay.
Zaremba: I'm very much in favor of it. I attended a meeting this morning put on by
Boise Valley Economic Partnership, which probably was happening the same time as
the meeting you were at, but the director of DEQ made the point that we are pushing
non-attainment and we need to find ways to back off and any little thing will help.
Certainly having signs round the City Hall would b helpful, but I would suggest that we
might also to want have them in the parking lots of our parks, where people quite often
idle waiting for somebody that's doing sports or something like that. I think there is a lot
places of where we can put them. I'm in favor of it.
Rountree: Amy, you mentioned some ordinances that the city could entertain. Do you
have model ordinances that relate to those?
Moser: With me here I have sample policies, a sample of a no idle policy on city
grounds, and a sample policy for city vehicles. I do not have an ordinance here with
me. However, I do know that -- I can't remember the town, a suburb of Spokane,
though, recently passed a city ordinance and I'm in contact with the person working on
that, so I could get a copy of that for you as well.
Rountree: And if you would I would appreciate it and give us copies of your sample
policies. Get it to the city clerk. It would be beneficial. And I agree with what
Councilman Zaremba said, that I think we can -- we can start trying to do our part by
making people aware that it is an issue and it sounds like a legitimate cooperative effort
that we can undertake with DEQ.
Moser: It is. And it's also something that is easy to do for the public and there is a body
of research that shows that when someone does something -- takes a small step to do
something positive, they are more likely to take a bigger step later, so this does also
help kind of down that path of encouraging people to make larger sacrifices in the
future.
Rountree: So, Madam Mayor, you need guidance from the Council on moving forward
with this or --
De Weerd: That would be my preference.
Rountree: I don't know that we necessarily need amotion --
De Weerd: You don't need a motion, but I would like to see a consensus before we
move down that road.
Rountree: It's your last chance, Joe.
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Borton: Amy, it's great information and a great cause and I'm supportive of the policy
behind it. Before I'd feel comfortable taking it to the stage of a city ordinance, my
comfort level would be more empirical data on the results gained from that, the
enforcement costs, and it just seems ripe for arbitrary enforcement and causing more
problems than it might help, so -- I mean I like the idea, I like the sign and the
awareness, but I'm a bit skeptical on some of the --
Moser: The program as it stands now is simply the signs and awareness and it's a
voluntary program. The extra step of having the city policy is certainly up to you and the
additional step beyond that of having a city ordinance is, you know, something further
down the road that you can look at. You can, however, join the Clean Air Zone program
simply by putting up the signs and having the awareness and deciding later if you want
to take those extra steps.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: One step at a time. I'm not asking for the city ordinance, just policy at this
point.
Borton: Fair enough.
De Weerd: You jumped ahead of us. So, you're just trying to get a couple more years
under that one comment; right?
Borton: It's a slippery slope.
De Weerd: So, Council, I would assume that we should go ahead and move forward on
the policy aspect of signing city properties and considering the employee and city
vehicles, no idling policy as well. And that's something we can bring back to you once
that policy is -- personalized.
Moser: What I have now -- yes, I have it on a hard copy and on a CD, so you can
simply download the policy, change it as necessary, and fill in the blanks and move
forward from there.
De Weerd: And I do have those packets as well.
Moser: Okay. I knew you got some at the Air Quality Council. So, the packet that you
have contains those two policies.
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Okay. Thank you.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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Moser: Thank you.
(b) Discussion of Janitorial Services for New City Hall
Rountree: Thank you, Amy. You have our direction. Back to item 4-B. Keith, are you
back?
Watts: Yes.
Rountree: Okay.
Watts: Madam Mayor and Council Members, the question has come up whether we
should hire in-house employees for janitorial or go out for a -- and hire a subcontractor.
We have obtained quotes from three -- three different contractors and you can see
those numbers up there on the board and we have also got with HR and got what was
an appropriate way and put together what it would cost to hire either three or four
employees to do that job. You can see the numbers up there. We did break it down by
square foot. The dollars and cents of it show that -- as you can see that hiring the
employees would be a --abetter bargain. I also have contacted several janitorial
supplier companies and asked them their -- I asked their opinion on whether -- what are
the cleanest buildings that they see, if it's in-house or contracted folks, and they to -- the
two people that I contacted both told me that it was in-house that they thought were
cleaner and one of them was adamant about it, that you will never have a cleaner
building when you have in-house people that are there during the entire working day.
So, we are just looking for Council direction on what you would like to see happen,
either to move forward with the employees or subcontract out. Tom has some
comments as well.
Barry: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, in all fairness, we want to scroll through
the sheet to give you -- I don't want to do it yet, by to give you a full understanding of the
cost estimates associated with our scenario. Again, up there you will see three
employees on the very left, four employees, those are in-house. Subcontract one.
Subcontract two. And subcontract three. From strictly a personnel standpoint, it seems
very beneficial to utilize in-house staff, as opposed to subcontract or contracted staff.
The story changes very slightly as you move down, because we have this divided out
into personnel costs, operating costs, capital outlays, and, then, a total cost. So, what
you are seeing there is personnel costs. If we scroll down to operating costs and capital
outlays and, then, the total, you will see that the operating costs for in-house are a little
bit higher than they were -than they are for subcontracts -- or contracted staff. Some
of the vendors that we spoke to -- or the three vendors that we spoke to, having
included some of the operating expenses in their original quote and, therefore, we
subtracted those out of this initial cost comparison. What you will see here when you
get down to capital outlays is that, essentially, under all scenarios, except the
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subcontract number three, you know, the purchase of vacuum cleaners, for example, is
-- it's something the city would have to bear. When you add up the capital outlay
expenses, the operating expenses, then, also the personnel expenses, and you go
down to the total, you can see that the total for three employees is certainly -- for in-
house services is certainly less than all scenarios up there. Just as a comparison, if we
brought on three employees, we would be talking about a cost savings over our current
contract, which is subcontract one, of about 59,000 dollars. Under subcontract number
two about 54,000 dollars. And under subcontract three about 28,000 dollars. That's
under -- that's in comparison with the three employees, if we were to bring them on
board. I will say that each of the contracted columns represent less service for the
money and what that means is under the three employee and four employee scenario,
we are talking about staff that works 2,080 hours per week per -- or, excuse me -- per --
that would be a lot -- per year, whereas under subcontract number one, two and three,
we are talking about whatever the agency felt was the bare minimum to get the job
done. So, that could be 20 hours a week per employee. It could be 45 hours a week.
We don't know. But, generally, what we have been told is that the amount is less than
40 hours per week per employee under each of those subcontracted examples. So,
with Mr. Watts' analysis and including that -- in subcontract three that there is no waxing
of floors included -- there is less services provided in some of the subcontracts than
what we would be able to provide utilizing in-house employees. The recommendation
at this point is to move forward with bringing the janitorial services in house with
employees. The square footages we are talking about -- in the buildings, they are about
30,000 square feet and police about 2,000 square feet and parks 10,000 square feet
and the water department 3,600 square feet at wastewater facilities and, then, about
100,000 square feet for the new City Hall. One thing that -- to note here is that under all
scenarios, except for subcontract three, even under the four employee scenario, it is far
cheaper than -- you know, to have in-house employees, as opposed to the
subcontracted employees. I will say that having four employees provides us some
additional cross-over as relates to the building maintenance duties associated with City
Hall and other buildings. You will notice -- you will know that we are moving forward
with the building maintenance technician hiring. We have those scheduled for next
week. However, we know that it is a tall order for any one individual to be maintaining
from a building maintenance standpoint, not a janitorial one, 150,000 or so square feet
of buildings and facilities. So, utilizing four employees does give us a little bit of
additional buffer, provided that one of the employees brought on had a -- a mix of skills
between janitorial and some handyman type of services. So, we are just looking for
your direction at this point in time as it relates to moving this item forward. If you'd like
us to bring back more information, we are happy to do that. Alternatively, if you direct
us so, we can bring back budget amendments reflecting whichever scenario you'd like
or continue under our current subcontract. My understanding is that the amount
budgeted for fiscal year '09 is in the amount of the subcontract number one, so it's
about 250,000. So, even bringing in four employees starting in FY-09 would save us on
the order of about 19,000 dollars per year. So, with that we will stand for any questions.
I'm sorry. Mr. Watts has additional information.
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Watts: Yeah. I also wanted to point out that I -- the suppliers that I contacted were
providing LEED -- a LEED cleaning system -- a green -- a green building all the way
through the entire janitorial process and with purchasing materials or equipment from
these vendors, they also offered to come in and train the entire maintenance staff on
how to use those green materials per the flooring and surfaces that we have in the
building and the equipment as well. So, that will be provided by the supplier of our
janitorial supplies.
Rountree: Questions?
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I'm attracted to the in-house parts of the solution and I, actually, have a
sideways question about whether we have thought about something else. We have had
a request from Valley Regional Transit to be able to hold their meetings in our
conference rooms and I'm sure we will have other regional community meetings or even
city community meetings request to use our building for meetings. Lumped under
maybe a bigger category of custodial, they would need the room set up a certain way
and, then, somebody would need to reset it back to the standard way. I am not aware
that we have thought through how we would have non-city meetings or even all of the
commissions and -- I imagine most of the commissions and committees would meet in
the Council chambers. How we would accommodate the use of our conference rooms
by non-city people and how they would be set up and who would do that -would the
custodial janitorial staff do that?
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: We have had a work group working on a policy for that -- Robert -- Robert
can comment on the details.
Simmons: Madam Mayor, City Council, right now what's contemplated - we have had a
group put together a -- some policies that the directors are actually reviewing tomorrow,
an operational meeting that would be brought to City Council for review. It's currently
contemplated that anybody that uses the room, they are going to be responsible for
setting it up and tearing it down and putting it back into the way it was. So, that's the
current thought behind the policy. Obviously, that's one way to do it. Another way to do
it is to charge a higher fee to utilize staff resources to do that, so that is definitely
something that could be contemplated. I know there is a desire to not charge fees to
other government entities that come in and do that, but it does beg the question if they
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come in and they want the room set up, if -- are they willing to set that up or is that
going to be incumbent upon the city staff to set it up and tear it down for those
government entities. It's easier to tell somebody -- a homeowner group might come in --
you're responsible for that. It's a little bit more difficult to tell a bunch of elected officials
you're responsible for tearing -- setting up and tearing down your room, you know, with
their busy schedule. They always don't have time to do it. So, it is contemplated, but
with in-house services it does make it a possibility to have people that would be there to
help facilitate that process if need be.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Just to continue the example of Valley Regional Transit, they would also
need an audio-visual set up and plug in a tape recorder to record the meetings. They
typically have a side table with pitchers of water and juice and cookies. Are we --
De Weerd: They can do that.
Zaremba: -- being able to do that kind of stuff?
De Weerd: They can do that.
Zaremba: Okay.
Simmons: All that's being contemplated into whatever is put together. But if they have
juice and it spills and it goes onto the floor, who is going to be the person that's going to
be responsible for -- for cleaning that up or fixing it? I mean there are costs associated
with all that, that they can either have someone there to fix it or we might have to
contact whoever to replace the carpet, but there are costs associated with people using
the rooms and that's something that has to be contemplated one way or the other, no
matter which group uses it.
Zaremba: Okay. Thank you. So, I appreciate the message that this is being thought
about and I'm understanding that's separate from what we are talking about now, so --
thank you.
Rountree: Further discussion or questions? Keith, you wanted some comments. I will
give you a couple of mine. I'm not ready to hire three or four new employees. I would
like to see a maintenance manual, if you will, and I don't know if that's the right word, it
seems to me that if we are going to have people give us costs that we need tell them
what we have, what we expect, and, then, they can cost that to meet our needs.
Tonight I hear for the first time and should have known and didn't think about it -- is that
it is a LEEDs building and probably needs special attention to certain things. To me it's
Meridian City Council Special MeeUng/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 25 of 101
important that anybody we talk to in terms of sub'ing out or contracting this work
understand that and that they are capable of doing that. So, those things need to be
pulled together in a document, if you will, a punch list, however you do that. I know they
are out there. There is probably a model to follow.
Watts: There is, yes.
Rountree: I would like to see that put together and I would like to see us go out for bids
and get a cost and, then, we have something to compare against. Right now we have
kind of hip pocket guesses by three subcontractors of what this might cost us. We don't
know that. And before Imake acommitment -- me make a commitment to hiring folks, I
want to make sure that private enterprise can't take care of it just as well.
Watts: Absolutely. And I would probably ask for Mr. Nary's guidance. One of my
thoughts was to actually have Public Works bid against somebody else, so we would
actually have an apples and apples comparison.
Rountree: That would be even better.
Bird: Yeah. Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Keith, along the same lines, I agree wholeheartedly with what Councilman
Rountree said and go even one step farther. I'd be interested to know what the big
businesses are doing. I know in the private very few hire in-house maintenance people.
You say you start with four. I'll guarantee you in next year's budget you're going to want
six or eight. Because you're not -- it's just not the green building. We are talking about
some other buildings. We are talking about the wastewater treatment building, we are
talking about the police department building. In your costs up there I see no vehicle
costs. So, I'm like Mr. Rountree, let's get some true bids out, not just some guesses.
Watts: Okay. We will move forward with that direction.
Bird: Okay, Keith.
Rountree: Thank you.
Watts: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: I'm song, Will. I guess I would also suggest bringing back comments that
the directors have made as well, as to current contracts and I believe that part of the
LEED certification you do have to have a maintenance policy. So, we can bring all that
back packaged and for your discussion.
Rountree: Excellent.
Watts: Thank you.
Rountree: Thank you.
Berg: Mr. President, if I can just mention that we have somebody that's done some of
this already and that's Ada county and we should see what they have in their policy
manuals and what they have done with their buildings, because it is very important to
clean it a certain way for -- to maintain your LEED certification and make sure those
products that we put in there are well taken care of. So, we can get some other
resources and information from Ada County.
(d) No Smoking Policy
Rountree: Thanks, Will. Madam Mayor, the next item on our agenda is smoking policy
and given the time that we have spent so far this evening and knowing full well the time
we will spend on that topic, I would like to see that deferred until another time and
particularly if you haven't had an opportunity to discuss that with the directors, because
it will or could directly affect employees as well, so --
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I see no problem in deferring that to September and I'm sure Mr. Nary
appreciates that as well. We have had discussions at the directors meeting, but we will
bring that back in September.
(e) Community Liaison Update
Rountree: Very good. Next item -- Mr. Berg, liaison update.
Berg: Thank you, Mr. President, Mayor, Members of the Council. Do you like my
memo? Illustration? I have had that for quite awhile. I'm song. I'll try to push this
along. I don't -- I don't want to drag it out, but I do want some direction and guidelines
for what you guys want from me each month. We tried to arrange this so that I could
give you a -- kind of a monthly report. So, we are going to kick it off here and I'm going
to tell you all the things that I'm involved with and, then we can kind of follow up with
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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some guidelines. Be real quick. And I will just hit some highlights of what this memo
has. I guess I should first start off with dealing with the legislature and some issues that
were pretty hot topics this last winter, but they haven't fallen either. Impact fees, Star
legislation, the CID legislation, we are still working on Stars and the election
consolidation proposal that kind of died last winter is going to be coming up strong. I
have been involved with a committee, with county clerks, school districts, association of
counties, Secretary of State's Office and some legislature and there will be a
consolidation bill coming up that will regulate the number -- or the days you have
elections and who runs the elections and so it's very intense consolidation. So, we have
been working on that. I'll give you an update. We are supposed to have another
meeting in September. I have been involved with downtown parking. I'll just kind of hit
some of this stuff. I am their -- kind of the go to person with the Chamber of Commerce
and you see all the different functions I'm involved with there. ACHD. I am a member
of the neighborhood advisory committee and we have had a couple meetings. The last
one dealt mostly with the proposed registration fees and gave us information about that
election coming up. I have attended the Transportation Task Force monthly meetings. I
do attend the Meridian School District Board meetings, which that's why we have
changed this workshop several times and thank you for accommodating that. The
school board's going back on their schedule of the second and fourth meetings of the
month. So, this third one will work really fine forme reporting back to you. I do discuss
issues with the Lake View Golf Club, anywhere from the driving range balls going over
the net, to trespassing, to future improvements, to amendments to their conditional use
permits. So, we have been dealing with some issues there. I am a representative in
the senior citizens for their board meetings and I'm on the advisory board. We have
been working on capital improvement plans. I'm also still following up on the grant that
we got from the Community Block Grant from the state. I do help out with the Historic
Preservation Commission by kind of arranging that and I do attend the Historical Society
monthly meetings, which I should note that I'm the youngest one there. So, we are
trying to change that, so we can get a little bit diverse membership. I am helping out
with the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council --
De Weerd: And you are the oldest person there on that one.
Berg: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I didn't realize that.
De Weerd: I thought I'd bring you down to earth again.
Berg: Okay. Yeah. I am. I am the oldest person there. Thank you. And the activities
that they do, I help them with that. I'm on -- a member of the Meridian Downtown
Business Association representing the city. I try to attend the Meridian Development
Corporation meetings, but I do work with the administrator on certain downtown issues
and streetscape amendments for the City Hall project. I do work with Sanitary Service
on some recycle awareness. One was getting the recycling bins at the speedway, has
really helped the -- less trash going to the landfill, but also helping our recycling. I also
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
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help with the Mayor's Faith Ambassador Council. Also setting up building site visits with
our faith community. I'm still representative with the AIC, providing support and
information for them and also working with legislative issues and helping them with
training and instruction and conferences. I also am a member of ICMA, attending
conferences and meetings with the city management association and fortunately or
unfortunately, I'm the secretary of that organization and I think most of my time --
especially the last few months has been working with the City Hall building project trying
to get some finishing touches, decisions, some things in process, so we don't delay the
construction. So, in a nutshell, that's all the different things -- I have probably left some
out, but that's -- that's beside the point. I guess what I'm here is what I can my monthly
report to you about, what we need to talk about, what we need to follow up with, what
we need to get feedback on. And so that's what I'd like to make it a pretty good monthly
report and maybe present it to you and, then, if you have some comments or discussion
items, we can discuss it further. But maybe the format or the direction or guidelines.
Rountree: Discussion?
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I think my comments would be of the meetings that I attend, I'm always
listening for where I can speak up for Meridian in their meetings and listening for where
they may be going a direction that isn't helpful to Meridian. So, if you hear those kind of
things, that's probably the kind of report that we should have, so -and so the group has
decided they want to do this and I feel it impacts the city in this way. That makes you
the eyes and ears of the city to these liaison organizations that you attend, so --
Berg: Thank you.
Zaremba: Bring us any concerns that alert you when you are at their meetings, would
be my thought.
Berg: Thank you, councilman.
Rountree: Any other comments? Will, you and I have spoken numerous times about
expectations. I think I'll put mine in a nutshell again, is that you're out there as a liaison
with a multitude of groups dealing with concerns, issues, and, hopefully, occasionally
even some good things. That's the kind of stuff I would want to see in a monthly report.
We all see a-mails to either the Mayor or a Council person or a letter to the editor or
something, somebody grousing about something and typically the liaison acts as an
intermediary to deal with that particular issue. Oftentimes we don't see the resolve.
That would be helpful. I think a point in each meeting -- and no more than one at a
time, bring a summation of what these boards do, what is their charter, and from your
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
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perspective do you think they are accomplishing anything. We all attend plenty of
meetings and if we can take a few off our plate, that much better. So, in addition to all
the other things we have talked about before, but I mean those three things I would
highlight.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess just to -- to also summarize, as the ommunity liaison you are the
city's ambassador and the whole idea with this was to bring the city to the community
and I guess we can see -- we can read the minutes to many of these meetings, but what
I think would be beneficial to the Council, to the elected officials, is to get the unwritten
feedback. What is some of the discussion? You know, what are the individual citizens
saying and that sometimes don't make the minutes. And what is the general consensus
feeling in those meetings. That's what will be beneficial to this body. And as our
ambassador I would like to welcome the Boy Scout Troop that has joined us. Our
workshops we start at 6:00 o'clock, so we probably caught you a little off guard, but I do
have pencils if Will wants to give it to the members. We appreciate you being here and
wish you luck on your citizenship badge.
Rountree: And those have the answers to your homework in them, too, so --
De Weerd: That's why they are not sharpened.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Will, to add to some of these comments, I got to tell you, I'm extremely
impressed of the length of the list of activities that you're participating in. Whether it's
active or not, you're at the very least at many of these -- these organizations and all
their meetings. I saw you in chambers today and I know you do a really good job of --
by way of example, at a chamber luncheon, if there is a conversation about
transportation, you tie people into what you know about ACHD or what the DBA is doing
and you keep each organization informed of what the other ones are doing. I think
that's great. I know you do a great job of it. It's a long list. It's a lot for one person to
do. So, first, I say thanks for doing it, because I know you do a good job doing it. And,
second, that type of feedback to the Council is how you have assisted these
organizations in communicating together. That's always valuable. Because I know it's
really valuable to them, because they don't have a resource like a Will Berg to be at
each of these to see how they interact, so keep up the good work.
Rountree: Any further comments?
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Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would just thank you also.
Rountree: I as well.
Berg: Punch that guy.
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Berg: I know what he was doing today. I was at the same place that he was.
Bird: Yeah. I -- I don't have to -- I don't think I have to speak regarding Will's work
ethic. He does a great job. He's a very good ambassador for the City of Meridian. The
nice thing about this is this isn't all he does for the community either. It's just part -- it's
just his job.
Berg: Thank you. Mr. President, if I could, I know my door's open now, because I share
the door, but at the new City Hall, you know, I know we will be on different ends of the
building, but, you know, the door is open, don't hesitate to let me know what I can do
better or what you feel that we need to do, because this -- this is a city project, we are
out there reaching out to the community, showing what the city is all about. So, don't
hesitate to let me know.
Rountree: Okay. Will do. And now that our schedules are in sync, we will expect to
see you at our workshops from this point forward.
Borton: Congratulations.
Rountree: Congratulations.
Berg: Thank you. If there is not another appointment that is being made, I will be in
attendance. Thank you.
(fl Reappointment of Nancy Rountree and Appointment of Mary
Jensen and Bonnie Metcalf to Meridian Arts Commission and
Resolution No. :for Arts Commission Appointments &
Reappointments
Rountree: Thanks, Will. The last item for the community items, Meg. Or --
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De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor first, but, then, Meg.
De Weerd: Okay. I have in front of you -- I do have in your packet the letter of interest
and the resume that I received from Mary Jensen. We have five candidates that
expressed interest in our Meridian Arts Commission. Mary is with us today. She will be
what I am recommending as her appointment to seat two, which does expire in
February of 2009. Don't worry, Mary, it can be renewed. You're not just expected for
six months. It's a three year term. She is continuing the seat of Sandra Cavenaugh.
And, then, Bonnie Metcalf would be to August of 2009. And certainly I would like to
invite Mary to say any words she would like to share, if she would like to do so.
Jensen: All I would like to say is I'm really looking forward to serving the community of
Meridian in this capacity. I'm excited. I have a lot of passion around the arts. I have
some knowledge. I can't wait to receive more knowledge by working with this great
organization and I thank you for your time and, hopefully, for your vote of confidence.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mary. Now, the chair Meg Peters and I did the interviews and
so we were very excited about the passion that Mary has for the arts and also her
commitment to the youth in our community and this valley. So, that passion really
shines in Mary and we were very struck by that, so I guess before we ask Meg to start
with her presentation, I do need confirmation of this appointment -- of these two
appointments.
Bird: Two or three?
Rountree: Three.
Bird: That's what I thought.
De Weerd: Three appointments. Oh, I'm sorry. I have to reappoint our soul of the
Meridian Arts Commission, Nancy. So --
Nary: Madam Mayor? Or Mr. Rountree. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council,
Council Member Rountree, the reason the resolution is in front of you is we have not
had in the past a tracking mechanism for these commissions, so that we can be clear
when the seats began and when the terms expire. So, we thought this might make it a
little easier from a tracking standpoint, it would be easier to locate that, so that these --
sometimes we have had commissions where we have had people on there that we don't
know how long they have been there or how long they are supposed to be there. So,
we thought this would be a better tool and when Commissioner Rountree was
reappointed, we missed getting a -- doing a resolution at that point, we thought it would
be easier to just get them all done right at this time.
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Bird: What's the resolution number?
Rountree: The resolution number for that item would be 08-615.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move that we are confirm the three appointments to the Arts Commission
made by the Mayor and that we pass resolution number 08-615.
Bird: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the appointments from the Mayor
for the Arts Commission. Is that roll call? Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
(g) Presentation on Meridian Art Commission Five Year Strategic Plan
& Strategic Budget
Rountree: Welcome, Mary. Okay. Meg.
Glasgow: Thank you. Meg Glasgow with the Meridian Arts Commission. I'm going to
make this very quick this evening. The Arts Commission Commissioners have come
together with the assistance of Delta James, who is helping us with our strategic plan.
We have been working on this very very hard over the last several months and as a
dynamic and enthusiastic group we found this exercise tremendously helpful in giving
us laser focus about how we see the arts in the community of Meiridian growing and
developing over the last five years. And so what I have brought before you today -- it's
really lead our kind nine step -- or our plan step by step going into nine core areas that
was identified after we reviewed the city's Comprehensive Plan and also conducted a
pretty extensive survey of Meridian residents and visitors about what they wanted to
see. And so we identified these nine core areas and our plan is based around that and
I'll just highlight them quickly and that is public arts, which we know we are starting
pretty aggressively for the new City Hall project. Arts education for both youth and
adults. Performing arts. The visual arts. Arts awareness. Supporting local artists. A
civic center is also on our horizon and as well as sustainability, because we want to be
able to have funding mechanisms in place, so that we can continue and to grow. So,
this is what our plan looks like over the next five years. We are very excited about this.
We have also kind of penciled in until some financial numbers with the help of Nancy
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August 19, 2008
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Rountree in putting the projected budget together. That is still a very rough working
document, but I felt it important to include it in with this strategic plan for you today to
kind of give us some comment, feedback, guidance as we continue on with our plan
before we go through the process of adopting this formally. So, I am certainly here to
answer any questions you may have.
Rountree: Questions for Meg? Comments? Discussion?
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Meg, I just compliment you guys for being ashort-term commission, but at least
having a great five year strategic plan. And I think I can speak for all the Council, we
are here to help you with everything we can. We appreciate what you have done so far.
Thank you.
Glasgow: Appreciate that. Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I know Meg has heard me say that before -- this before and certainly I
shared it with Mary -- is this is a dynamic group of individuals, very committed to our
Arts Commission, and they have done an amazing amount in the short period that they
have been organized. So, we appreciate that and we are really excited about this
strategic plan, the implementation, and some of the people that are getting involved and
we hope that in going through these interviews, each one of them is another convert to
helping with the efforts of the Arts Commission and moving forward on their strategic
plan. Thank you, Meg.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Quick question, Meg. And I meant to a-mail this question to you. Was there --
was there anything about the survey results that were shocking one way or the other as
far as the feedback you got? I turned mine in and if there was something that came
back, I'm not aware.
Glasgow: I wouldn't say the results were shocking. It was really -- of course, reinforced
my own personal point of view in this, the arts are very very important. Some of the
comments that I have heard in the meetings I have attended and kind of my own
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advocacy that I'm doing about the committee -- or the community, is that many people I
have talked to really applauded us as an organization and the leadership in the city to
see the value in the arts and what that means for a community, because, really, the arts
really become the heart and sole of what a community is about and we all know, who
have lived here a long time that Meridian has often kind of struggled with creating its
own identity and that has changed and I think the arts, particularly, are a part of that,
when we have our own community theater, you know, symphony and public arts and,
you know, sculptures and art in parks and different things like that really become unique
identifiers that residents can really related to their community. So, that was -- that came
out very strong through the surveys is that that was really important to people that they
can experience those things here close to home.
Borton: Good.
Glasgow: Oh. One other comment I wanted to mention about the care of the artwork
for the City Hall, since that was discussed earlier today. I would happy to provide my
expertise and comment regarding the custodial care of the original art pieces that will be
in City Hall. So, I'm going to make myself available for that at a later time. So, thank
you.
Rountree: Madam -- it's my meeting, isn't it.
De Weerd: It is.
Rountree: Meg, I just wanted to say that you guys have done a great job in the few
months that you have been together and organized and what you brought forth is a true
value, not only to the community, but in the way you have gone about it. You put
together a strategic plan with minimal cost to the city, considerable cost of your all's time
and I support your strategic plan and the approach you have done. As far as the budget
goes, it's a starting point. I think it will grow and I think it needs to grow and at this point
a good portion of that is volunteer based and certainly the support you have gotten in
these hard times will reflect better things to come and, again, I offer whatever support I
can provide from the Council, along with the rest of the Council, but thank you for the
work and to keep it up and we are looking forward to those new pieces in City Hall.
Glasglow: It's going to be exciting. We have a lot of work to do, so thank you.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I want to add my thanks as well and before you came up I thought of some
things that I wanted to suggest to you that you should do, you mentioned them all, so I
was thrilled that you're doing all of those things. The one thought that strikes me, since
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I am the liaison to the Parks and Recreation Department, is there may be some things
that could be worked out in compatibility. I know they feel the need for a community
and civic center, they have some recreational activities that could be related to not only
theater arts, but -- not just the performing arts, but the decorative arts or painting and
those kind of things.
Glasgow: Absolutely.
Zaremba: So, there may be some interrelations that could be developed there as well
to -- for you both to help each other. I'm thrilled with what you're doing.
Glasgow: We are. Good. Good. Thank you. We do work with Parks and Rec in
developing educational programs, so we will be continuing with that and Mr. Siddoway
and I are also meeting frequently to discuss opportunities for artwork in parks and keep
in mind that it takes about 18 good months, two years, to really get a public art piece in
place in, for example, a park or the City Hall or whatnot, so we are really on the fast
track for City Hall, but we are wanting to work with parts more looking down the road,
you know, two or three years down the road to install public art projects in upcoming
parks, so, yes, that's --
Zaremba: Cool. Thank you.
Glasgow: -- on our plate.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess just to add, we do have an artist who is also a contract employee
with the parks department who has been sitting in on all of the commission meetings.
He's kind of been the liaison between the parks department and the arts commission.
We would kind of like to formalize an ex officio type of an arrangement with that to keep
that important link. So, at some point, if we see the need to formalize that, we can. But
for now it's -- it's been a great communication relationship to have their representative at
each of the commission meetings. Been very helpful.
Rountree: Good.
Glasgow: Thank you.
Rountree: Any other questions? Thanks, Meg.
Glasgow: Okay.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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Borton: Thank you.
Item 5: DEPARTMENT REPORTS
(a) Discussion on Meridian Heights
Rountree: That brings us to Item 5, Department Reports, and the first one is the
discussion on Meridian Heights. Clint or Tom, are you going to lead that off? Okay.
Thank you, gentlemen. Hope you get your badges.
Dolsby: Council President Rountree, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the
first of two county subdivisions that we are going to speak about tonight, so the Meridian
Heights Subdivision, also Kentucky Ridge, located on the southwest comer of Meridian
and Victory Road. This subdivision was constructed I believe in the late '70s. They
have been on their own sewer and water systems ever since then. A couple years ago
they received a consent order from DEQ on their water system, because they tested for
high levels of some contaminants. So, they are in the process of looking into
connecting to city services. I know we have talked about these folks before. I wanted
to introduce a representative for Meridian Heights Steve West with Centra Consulting.
He's going to give you a little presentation on -- a little background on their situation and
the proposal they want to bring forth to Council tonight.
West: Thank you very much, Clint. My name is Steve West, I'm with Centra Consulting
and I have had the pleasure of working with a number of you previously in various
capacities. I wanted to take just a moment and applaud you for the steps that you are
taking in addressing some of the air quality issues here in the Treasure Valley. Years
ago in a previous life when I was regional administrator for DEQ here in southwest
Idaho, my office prepared the first maintenance plan to deal with a nonattainment issue
here in the Treasure Valley. Worked very closely with President Rountree in the
Department of Transportation at that time, City of Meridian, city of Boise, and others
and, then, also as the state air program administrator, the issues that we are all facing
in different parts of the state, it's a huge undertaking and a regulatory fix is rarely, if ever
-- well, never the desired solution. I believe most of those challenges can be addressed
at the local level, but it takes leadership and it takes statesmanship and that's what
you're evidencing here and it's certainly consistent with what I have come to associate
with you, whom I have worked with you earlier and there is a lot to be -- you're to be
commended for that. I applaud you. And it's the same levels of leadership and
statesmanship that I'm going to be appealing to tonight on the issue with Meridian
Heights Water and Sewer Association. I have some handouts that I'd like to start with
and just -- and I apologize in advance for the small print. We do have a Powerpoint
presentation. At first I thought it was just my failing eyesight, but now, in fact, it's small
print. So, we will be talking about that. I'd also like to just start and draw to your
attention the outstanding job that your staff are doing, at least in my experience in
working with them on this issue. Public Works Director Bany, Director Canning and the
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Planning Department and their staff have been outstanding in terms of what they try to
do to help us work through the issues associated with this and -- second to none. I
have worked with a number of cities and they really have done a great job. We have a
huge -- it's impossible to overstate the challenge that we have here in the Meridian
Heights Subdivision. I think in referencing that or looking at that we also have a number
of other people here to lend support to the presentation. Mark Mason, the regional
manager for engineering for DEQ is here. Several members of the Meridian Heights
Water and Sewer Association board are here, including President Val Hill, and
members of our team, project engineer Steve Ray, Donna West, who will be dealing
with a number of the annexation issues, but what I'd like to do is just kind of quickly go
through what the issues are, what we are faced with and some proposals for you to
consider. What we are hoping to accomplish at the end of this is I think some direction
to staff in terms of identifying what the goals are to work through to try to get resolution
on the Meridian Heights issue.
Rountree: Excuse me, Steve and/or Clint. I have before me a document Meridian
Heights Water and Sewer Association. I have no attribution or date. Is that from you or
is from city staff?
West: That's from me.
Rountree: Okay.
West: My apologies for not including that. It's from me Steve West, Centra Consulting,
and finalized today.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
West: Thank you, Mr. President. Next slide. Or do I do that here? In a nutshell, the
Meridian Heights Water and Sewer Association provides potable water and wastewater
collection to most of the lots located in Meridian Heights and Kentucky Ridge -- laser
backward and forwards. Well, we will see how well that works.
Rountree: Point it that way.
De Weerd: It won't work if you point it at us.
West: Well, we will see what you say about it, Mayor. Provide total water, wastewater
collection to most of the lots located in Meridian Heights and Kentucky Ridge
Subdivision. A regulated public water system provides potable water supply from
private wells located within their service area. Wastewater is collected through a central
service -- sewer system, treatment is provided through a wastewater treatment plant
and lagoon system. Treated effluent is land applied for irrigation on agricultural property
located within an easement on adjoining property and the land application site is
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permitted by DEQ. The association was built in three phases. There were 220 lots.
Kentucky Ridge Subdivision was built -- or the Meridian Heights Subdivision. The
Kentucky Ridge Subdivision was built in two phases, 73 lots, so roughly 286 service
connections within the service area. All residential lots are connected to the Meridian
Heights water system, with the exception of one lot in Kentucky Ridge Subdivision. So,
286 water system connections. All of the residential lots are connected to the sewer
system, with the exception of three lots located within the Kentucky Ridge Subdivision.
So, 283 sanitary sewer system connections are being serviced by the association.
Now, they have an issue -- there have been some excedances and they currently --
their land application permit is expired and they have been informed by DEQ that they
are not going to renew the permit or administratively extend the permit. So, in reality, a
public health emergency is looming with regard to the future disposal of wastewater
from Meridian Heights Water and Sewer Association. The owner of the land application
site property desires -- strongly desires to have Meridian Heights Water and Sewer
Association cease land application as soon as possible and so, unfortunately, or
fortunately, whichever, Meridian Heights has no other suitable property to continue land
application. So, there really is no option for disposal of the waste -- of the treated
wastewater anywhere in the area. So, the department is going to require that Meridian
Heights cease land application activities. The only viable option -- and I mean the only
viable option in this case is to hook up to city sewer services as a means of managing
disposing of wastewater generated at the association. The basis for that requirement is
a reasonable access to the trunk line that was extended, as well as permit exceedances
or issues with the land application site that just make it no longer viable, coupled with
the current land owner of the land application site no longer wanting that -- the property
used for that purpose. Sewer service from the city was available in spring of 2008 in
terms access. One of the things that we have been looking at is the integrity of the
system, the collection system. There was a recent television inspection of the -- certain
sections of the sewer collection system, which indicated there may be some issues in
terms of being able to meet city requirements for a sewer collection system. So, that's
an issue, because we understand that for the city to take ownership of a sewer system
under an annexation proceeding, that that system has to comply with city requirements
first, as opposed to the city being responsible for bringing that up to city code. Now, city
ordinance also requires subdivisions within their municipal service area to connect with
water and sewer. An additional provision of this ordinance requires the subdivision
annexation, together with payment of certain municipal sewer connection fees. So,
there are a number of things at play here in a very short time line of being able to get it
all done. In addition to problems with the land application site or the sewer, they also
have an issue with their public drinking water system. The existing water supply has
elevated levels of uranium and so they are currently under a consent order and required
to find a new source for their drinking water. The consent order is in effect and we have
been looking at ways to deal with that. Originally we looked at putting in a new well.
However, under that annexation scenario we have gotten some indication from the city
that they weren't particularly interested in acquiring a new well. Going forward with that
well is no longer viable, so that project has been put on hold, preferring instead to hook
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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up with city water as well. And that's -- we will talk a little bit more about that later on.
Water supply service connections within the association lack individual meters -- meter
setters, other features of the potable water distribution system may be substandard
relevant to current city and/or DEQ requirements. We already know that there are
problems with some of the way -- some of the mains are sized, so that's going to have
to be something that's addressed before that system is in shape for the city to be able to
take ownership of that and operate it as part of their extended distribution system, so --
and they are also associating municipal sewer connection -- or service connection fees
with the water system as well. So, where does that leave us? Basically, Meridian
Heights Water and Sewer Association understands and accepts the DEQ requirement
to cease land application activities on the land application site. Meridian Heights Water
and Sewer Association is willing and desires to connect to city sewer as soon as
possible. They also understand and accept the terms of the consent order with DEQ
and desire to connect to city water as soon as possible. Now, part of the wrinkle on this
is that as a water and sewer association, they really -- they don't have the standing or
the authority to -- to act as the agent for annexation for the Meridian Heights
Subdivision. Kentucky Ridge has a homeowners association, which would be able to
act in that capacity. But it is an issue that we would have to deal with in the annexation
in terms of getting the approval or a percentage of the residents in the area agreeing to
that annexation and we will talk a little bit more about that at a later slide. The
preference would be a phased approach to connect first to city sewer and, then, to city
water and the Department -- DEQ has indicated a willingness to work with that kind of
schedule, recognizing that the primary health concern of the -- the urgency is really with
the sewer first and, then, to address the water. So, there is flexibility at least from the
regulatory agency to allow a phased approach for hook up of sewer and, then, water.
Now, because of the shortcomings or potential shortcomings of the distribution system
for the water and the collection system of the sewer, our proposal is for Meridian
Heights Water and Sewer Association to continue operating and maintaining the sewer
and water systems until they are upgraded to comply with city requirements. There is
going to be some -- obviously, an evaluation of the system. There will need to be some
engineering work that's done. The upgrades implemented to get that up to what the city
would require and need to see in a system that they are going to take title and
ownership to. I don't think that's going to take a tremendous amount of time, but it's
probably going to be something on the order of four, possibly five years. So, the
scenario would be that the association would continue operating, maintaining, and doing
all the upgrades over some period of time, that five year period of time, pursuant to a
development -- and pursuant to a development agreement, implement the necessary
upgrades, so that at the time the city -- if you decide to allow this approach, would be
able to take over the ownership and operation of the system. I think it's worthy -- they
certainly have a large water right that the city may be interested in looking at. There are
some assets that would come with that. They have an existing water supply, wells that
could be used for the provision of the pressurized irrigation, fire flow, for the sewer -- or
for the subdivision and, then, a sticking point in earlier conversations about this
particular issue has been the connection fees and I think Meridian Heights recognizes
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that the connection fees will now -- will need to be paid for individual homes. Now, we
are looking at doing this as a single point of connection initially and, then, do the
upgrades, pay the connection fees during that period of time, so that the city doesn't
suffer any harm or is at a loss or at any monetary disadvantage as a function of allowing
this annexation to go forward. And I think this generally encapsulates some of the
discussions that we have had with members of your staff, although, you know, there
was some recognition that some alternatives may be offered as just -- as per
consideration as to what's -- and identifying what's going to be the best way to proceed.
Another issue is that how do we insure that all of this work gets done, so it was
suggested that Meridian Heights post a performance bond for those pieces of work that
will not be secured through funding sources at least at this time. This is the area we are
proposing for annexation. You have Meridian Heights in this area, Kentucky Ridge
Subdivision here. This is the pond or lagoon for the -- that is utilized by the wastewater
treatment area and, let's see, (believe -there should be a full size map in the back of
your packets that I handed out that lists the road e Victory Road coming here and
Meridian Road, for those of you not familiar with the area. But this generally is the --
this is the area that we are proposing for annexation. It's a very aggressive timeline.
We have put something together that would allow us to complete construction this
calendar year, so we would hope to be, if the city allows this -- and this gets to be an
almost insurmountable task, the part that I talked about earlier, we do have a timeline
that would allow us to complete construction this calendar year in December of 2008,
which would solve the immediate need of being able to be hooked up to the city and
receive sewer services. This time line goes through, speaks to the time allowed for
negotiations for the annexation, the development agreement and transfer of ownership
agreements for the sewer -- and sewer and water -- for sewer and water hookup. It
would also talk about from October to December obtain the approval for design of the
wastewater interconnection and complete construction of the interconnection. Then, in
January begin evaluation of the existing sewer collection system for purposes of making
sure that it's identifying what, if any, upgrades are necessary to have it comply with city
requirements. September, December complete that evaluation, prepare the
engineering report regarding upgrades, submit that report to the Public Works
Department and DEQ for review and, then, implement the changes in January, August
2010. And, then, immediately start on the evaluation of the water distribution system,
go through a similar exercise, do the engineering, get the connection done and, then, do
the upgrades to make sure it complies with city requirements. Looking at January 2012
to June 2012, insure that the terms of the annexation development agreement are
completed and, then, July 2012, September 2012, execute transfer of the ownership
agreement, so that the city would, then, take ownership of the system and assume the
responsibilities of providing the maintenance and the operation and everything. Just
briefly on cost, we are looking at roughly 400,000 dollars for the sewer connection. We
have identified or earmarked about 200,000 dollars for improvements to the existing
infrastructure. We really don't know what that amount is going to be. Our initial review
is that the sewer system is probably in pretty good shape. There may be some issues,
but we haven't seen any looming problems right off the bat. Connection fees at 2,749
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per lot. Total estimated costs for connecting the sewer at 1.3 -- 1.38 million dollars. We
looked at a variety of potential funding sources. I helped carry the CID legislation that
some of you have heard about with regard to community infrastructure districts. We did
not think that that was viable, because of the timeline that we are working under here.
And, similarly, we did not get the funding through the revolving loan fund. We looked at
potentially private financing. Ultimately, have acommitment -- a verbal commitment
from Zion's Bank in the form of a line of credit for one and a half million dollars, which
would cover costs for the sewer connection and including the connection fees and it's
my understanding that if the association is currently negotiating the final terms of that
agreement and Mr. Hill can speak to that in more detail, if that becomes necessary. Or
you would like some more information on that. For the water supply, interconnection to
the city system, roughly 30,000 dollars. Upgrades to the existing infrastructure, 300,000
dollars, recognizing that there will have to be some main replacement. You got the
connection fees built in there. So, total estimated cost to hook up to city water at
843,000 dollars, all of which will be borne by the association. We don't see this in any
way the city's responsibility to finance or fund any of this. We have a couple of different
funding sources that we are looking at, including a 350,000 dollar loan from IDWR, who
has indicated that it is possible to change that loan. That had originally been developed
for the purpose of drilling the well, but they are amenable to considering changing the
terms of that loan agreement to use that funding to hook up to city water. There is also
-- we are in the cycle for the state revolving loan fund for a grant and loan through IDEA
and with that timeline two years out, conceivably a community infrastructure district
bonding mechanism may be a viable way to look at it. It's still kind of a new concept
and I'm sure communities all over the state are probably looking at whether or not that's
something they want to get involved with or not. I think it's going to be a great tool, but it
may take awhile to figure out how to use it, how to turn it on. So, Meridian Heights
Water and Sewer, again, would continue to own and operate the water and sewer
system via a single point connection. The city would bill Meridian Heights, they would
collect fees from their patrons and, then, pay the city. So, they would be responsible for
insuring that the city gets paid for the city sewer services until -- just to allow for enough
time for them to bring both the water system and the sewer system up to city code and,
then, Meridian Heights Water and Sewer would be responsible for the administration,
maintenance, operation, collection until this permanent solution or permanent resolution
to any deficiencies are addressed and we would expect that those would, of course, be
spelled out fairly explicitly in a development agreement with a time line and
requirements to make sure that things keep marching along and the judge has a
reasonable expectation that when they will take ownership of the system. So, that's
kind of a general overview of what the issues are. There are some other challenges.
There are some older homes and areas that are very -- on very limited incomes,
households with very modest means, who will have a great deal of difficulty in terms of
coming up with the connection fee, but we were looking at how to defray that cost
through money that the association would borrow to satisfy the city's needs for -- you
know, in the timeline that the city is looking for. It is a huge challenge, particularly in this
kind of timeline, but it is possible and we are committed to trying to -- with your help, get
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this done. One of the issues that we will have to resolve is how do -- what level of
support is going to be necessary from the residents in the area with regard to the
question of annexation. Now, we have a public health emergency -- or will have one
when they no longer have a place to dispose of their wastewater. There is no way
around that. It is an emergency by definition. We now have a -- we don't have an entity
in place with the authority to act on behalf of the residents of Meridian Heights with
regard to is annexation. So, obviously, I think we are going to have to canvas that
neighborhood. We did an initial survey and the response was 85 percent of the
respondents were supportive of annexation or would not oppose annexation. But I think
we probably, you know, would hope that with a canvassing of that particular area of that
subdivision, that a majority would be sufficient for the Council to move forward with an
annexation or allowing an annexation, given that in this instance there really is no other
choice for Meridian Heights. I think we will be able to work -- I believe that about 98, 99
percent of the residents I'm told in the Kentucky Ridge Subdivision would support the
annexation and understand the need for that and why it's -- why it's - we need to move
forward with this timeline, but that is something that we will have to address and provide
that documentation to -- to your staff, so that they can give you their report, staff reports
on how we are doing on that. So, I guess what it boils down to is we are asking you to
consider allowing Meridian Heights Subdivision and the Kentucky Ridge Subdivision to
be annexed into the city, .that the issues of the -- for the purpose of securing sewer
services, water services, that Meridian Heights -- that the City of Meridian would take
ownership of the sewer and water systems when they are brought up to city code, so
that there is no additional expense acquired by the city or foisted upon the city to bring it
up to your standards. Allow some time to do that, but in a fairly explicit timeline, but,
then, also allow us to proceed not only with annexation, but with sewer hook up as
quickly as possible in a way that would allow us to get this -- at least the sewer portion
of it done this calendar year and with that I would defer to your staff for any additional
comments they would have to this or I would certainly be willing to answer any
questions that I can.
Rountree: Thank you, Steve. If you would just hold your spot if we do have questions.
Tom, Clint, do you have any further comments?
Barry: President Rountree, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I just want to
second Mr. West's assessment that this is a monumental challenge and it is an
impending health emergency. We are working diligently with Meridian Heights folks and
Mr. West and his firm to try to come up with creative solutions as we need those to
move this particular challenge from the -- toward a solution. To that end, you know, we
still have much to work out, but we would like your direction tonight with at least some
preliminary concepts that we can ferret out during the conversation this evening. Mr.
Dolsby, do you have additional information you would like to share? Okay. So, I know
that we have some folks in the audience as well. Mr. President, I will defer to you if
you'd like to hear from them or if you'd like to continue the conversation with what's
been presented thus far.
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Rountree: Thanks, Tom. Caleb, do you have any input?
Caleb: Thank you, Mr. President, Mayor, Members of the Council. I guess I just
wanted to -- not to be Debbie Downer or anything, but just that timeline -- the timeline
that was laid out there, we need to take into account the annexation process. So, they
are talking about hooking up by the end of this calendar year, it's probably -- if they got
an application into us in the next couple of weeks, still got to go to Planning and Zoning
Commission, still have to go to City Council. We do have a process that still needs to
be adhered to to get those properties annexed, assuming they can get consent from
everyone that was in that yellow area on the board. So, I'm not -- I just wanted to
disclose that. Mostly to them, to know that timeline may not be feasible if everything
has to be done under the Public Works review, just because of the annexation process
itself.
Rountree: Thank you. Comments? Questions? Discussion? Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Mr. President, I do have a couple questions, but perhaps Mr. Nary should
comment first.
Nary: Thank you. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I guess just
to tag along with Caleb, so he doesn't look like the only buzz kill, but the only problem --
and it sounds to me like the folks have done a lot of homework here in these areas to
get information out to those residents as to what this is going to mean to them in
regards to their costs and those types of things and the only piece from the city's
perspective regarding that annexation portion is the state statute does now require not
just service, but actual consent and so 85 percent is only 85 percent of consent. That
means 15 percent of those people are not consenting to be annexed and they are
required to have it if you're going to provided them service. Now, education may be the
key to getting the rest of those people. If they recognize -- I think in our discussions
I've had in the past with the folks from Meridian Heights and Kentucky Ridge, part of the
problem that I think people haven't -- all the residents haven't weighed is their
alternatives are very limited, if any, without the city being the available entity for both
their sewer and water. So, if you realize that, the reality is is your consent is probably a
lot easier to obtain when you realize your options are pretty limited otherwise. But right
now I think probably that 15 percent of whatever that target number is is really folks that
maybe just either are resistant because it's just the nature of the beast sometimes of
dealing with annexation and, secondarily, they just may not be informed. So, again, that
may slow that timeline down a tiny bit just to get them educated that this really is a very
viable option. There is some cost and it sounds like the organization has done a lot to
address those types of concerns, but I think it's just getting over that hump, again, may
take a little longer than we'd like, because sometimes that's just the way it takes to get
people on board and comfortable with the decisions that they are making, which are
going to cost them some money are really in their best interest as well.
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Rountree: Thank you, Bill. I think the legislative tinkering with the statute this last year
has made this even more difficult, even though I understand their intent.
West: Your gift for understatement is not wasted on me.
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: First, thank you for an understandable and clear explanation of what clearly
is a difficult and complicated subject that has had a lot of thought put into it already. I
appreciate that. Actually, I have two questions, one on sewer and one on water and the
sewer question would be -and maybe I'm not understanding what a single point
connection would be, but in the long range view, are you thinking that the current plant
and lagoon would stay in service and what the city would be accepting into the system
is just what you're now applying to somebody else's land or is the eventual to abandon
the plant and the lagoon and raw sewage goes into our system?
West: Mr. President, Councilman Zaremba, well, we would envision that there is no
reason to maintain the wastewater treatment plant or the lagoon, so those would be
decommissioned and the property presumably ostensibly developed at some point. So,
a single point connection, instead of having individual connections with each home as
you do in Meridian now, the effluent would come through a single point, which be the --
the point at which all the flow from the subdivision would come in. Eventually, we need
to have individual connections, so that the city can bill individual homes, but for the time
being, until we bring the system up to city requirements, there would just be that single
point and Meridian Heights would be responsible for -- Meridian Heights Water and
Sewer would be responsible for managing everything from that single point back to the
subdivision.
Zaremba: But eventually it would just be the untreated raw -- when everything is --
West: From day one it will be the untreated -- it will be wastewater - it will be
wastewater -- it will be sewage going into your wastewater treatment facility -
Zaremba: Okay.
West: -- just like every other home in your system.
Zaremba: Thank you. And the question on water is do you have or would it be in your
plan to add fire hydrants? I don't even know -- maybe they are already there, but there
is pressure requirements for those as well.
West: The intent would be for everything in the subdivision with respect to fire -- all that
to comply with city code requirements. So, that all needs to be addressed if there is any
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question. There is an issue with some of the code -- some of the older homes have
some issues with code violations, whether they are the setback requirement for a
building, things of that nature, that dan't comply with certain elements of city code.
What we would propose in that instance is something that's been done elsewhere in
Ada county as well, but those homes be grandfathered in and that they be required to
be brought up to code at a time of sale, as opposed to requiring those homeowners to
make those changes, substantial -- many of which can't afford to do that. And it's my
understanding it's a relatively small percentage of homes in the area with this type of
problem, but has some kind of deed restriction or something that at point of sale -- time
of sale, you know, they have to comply with city code and dealt with at that point.
Zaremba: Thank you.
De Weerd: What's the liability on that, Steve?
West: Pardon me?
De Weerd: What's the liability to the city to grandfather in in that kind of scenario?
West: Mr. Chairman, Madam Mayor, I don't know the answer to that. It's probably a
better question for your legal staff. I would think that there is probably some avenue
through either personal indemnification or something that could be explored, but I'm not
an attorney, thankfully.
De Weerd: We are all thankful.
Rountree: With that you might not get a response from Mr. Nary.
Nary: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, are you talking about just the fire
protection issue? Is that what your concern is, Madam Mayor?
Rountree: I think the issue is if we grandfathered nonconforming code situations into
the city, until such time as there was a sale.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, you know,
we have had -- we have addressed this issue before in other areas when we have
annexed parcels or we have provided services within the district. The distinct is already
providing service to this facility anyway, so they are already within the fire district, so
any existing -- any existing liability, which, I guess in my opinion is probably not much,
already exists today. They already provide it now. So, if they are nonconforming, the
risk to the city doesn't get any greater, because the district is still responsible for these
homes as it is.
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Rountree: That speaks to the fire issue. I don't know if there is an issue as it relates to
setbacks and those sort of things. I don't know, but --
West: Thankfully I'm not an attorney, because, obviously, there are more capable and
qualified people that are.
De Weerd: Oh, good recovery.
Bird: You didn't have to say that.
Rountree: It's too late.
Bird: We won't be able to live with him.
Nary: Well, the speaker isn't under oath, so I take what he says and move on.
Rountree: Okay.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, on the other issues we have had that
discussion previously and certainly the code enforcement folks can work with
homeowners in regards to code issues. Certain things, such as setbacks, for example,
we probably don't have any means. We accept them as is. Issues that -- of other types
of code enforcement -- fortunately Sergeant Gonzales, who is in charge of the code
enforcement unit's here, but most of the issues that we deal with in code enforcement,
weeds, junk cars, those kind of things, we certainly would work with those. Those are
existing issues. That's not a grandfathered use. So, certainly that's not something we
would have anymore problem dealing with than we do anywhere else in the city, we
would just address it with the homeowners on a case-by-case basis.
Rountree: Steve, you certainly have addressed I think the issues that Council's brought
forth in terms of kind of a -- kind of an unwritten policy as it relates to these sorts of
things and underlying which we don't want our existing rate payers to bear any of the
cost of this. However -- and you have indicated that the deferral of hook-up fees of
some in excess of three-quarters of a million dollars for some four to five years, as you
well know that plant operates 24-7 today and every day henceforth and it costs us a lot
of money run it. To me, the putting off of the cost of a hook up to that system, which is
the value you have indicated here in the sum of 778,000 dollars, needs to be in place in
order for that plant to maintain and operate. Otherwise, we take 283 hook-ups out of
the hook-up stream and don't have, in essence, the value of that money for some four to
five years, which -- not really quick with the percentages given the money situation
today it probably doesn't amount to much, but in four to five years, you know, we could
be looking at another quarter of a million dollars in terms of the value of money and
time.
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West: President Rountree, I agree with that and I think under the scenario -- and it was
a little confusing the way I presented it, but with the one and a half million line of credit
and the hook-up fees that were included there, I think you could expect that the hook-up
fees would be up front.
Rountree: You indicated, though, in I think your last slide that they would come at
transfer of ownership.
West: There had been some discussion of that, but I think we recognize your argument
of the need for the hook-up fees up front, so, you know, in concert with -- it's my
understanding in discussion with Mr. Hill that the intent would be to pay those fees up
front and I just hadn't had time to change the slide.
Rountree: Okay.
West: But I appreciate you hinging that up.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess just getting back to the single point connection, is the association,
assuming the responsibility, then, for nonpayment, because we will bill a single entity
and you wouldn't want a shut off, because that would -- I think that would make a large
number of households very upset with someone. It won't be me. I'll have your number
ready. But is that what I'm assuming, so that, then, you would be responsible -- or the
association would be responsible for those collections and all of that?
West: As they are now. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, you are correct, the association
would assume responsibility for the operation, maintenance, administration, billing, to --
but they would be responsible for paying the city for those services.
Rountree: I guess the follow up to that is -- and if they don't pay?
West: They are responsible for the collections. The city will be paid. That's -- there is
-- as they are currently, you know, collecting for payment now, but the city would be
paid for providing those services.
De Weerd: Wow.
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Mr. President. Steve, a question kind of falls along those lines. I might have
missed it in the slides. First off, who would be the entity that would provide the security
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fora 1.5 million line of credit? What assets would secure that line if there were such
assets to secure it. I imagine if the city, in an effort to try and collect unpaid fees, would
fall second in line. Two different problems, both of which are big.
West: Mr. President, Councilman Borton, I -- well, first of all, Zion's Bank is the lending
institution that we are currently having discussions with for the one and a half million line
of credit. With regard to the assets, I'm not familiar with the intricacies of that term or
the agreement. As far as -- you know, in looking at this we have a period of time,
perhaps five years, to get everything up to grade, at which point the city would take
ownership and responsibility for operation of the system and, then, for those portions of
it -- of the project that we don't have funding secured, put a performance bond in place,
so that the city can be assured of having the wherewithal to complete the upgrades that
need to be done to ultimately end with the ownership as well. That was an idea
suggested by the Public Works Department. I think that's a good one, because it puts
some additional assurances in there for the city. I guess if there are additional things
that need to be built into a development agreement or --
Hill: May I address that and --
Rountree: If you give us your name.
Hill: -- President and Madam Mayor. Would it be possible to bring up the last slide with
the map?
Rountree: Would you give us your name and address.
Hill: My name is Val Hill. I am the president of the Meridian Heights Sewer Association.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hill: Which is a highly paid position.
De Weerd: We know those.
Hill: If I -- if I may point out here -- right here -- this property line right here and into this
property, this is at the present time a buffer zone and this is the ponds. This property is
in ownership of the sewer and water association and in working with the bank, they are
willing to take that as collateral. There are also a couple of well lots that we have that
would be collateralized. One in the Kentucky Ridge Subdivision, for which Meridian --
or Kentucky Ridge has agreed to purchase that property from the association, which
would have additional value. But the -- the means by which we are securing the loan
through the bank as the value of the properties that would be abandoned through the
sewer lagoon and the buffer zone, which could be developable properties and that's the
collateral that the association has. Plus, the basic infrastructure, the sewer and the
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water systems, which probably have no resale value, but they do have value in the fact
that they are a functioning system and that is about the only assets that Meridian
Heights Sewer and Water Association has. Does that address your question there?
Borton: It does.
Hill: Okay. I did want to point out -- I know there was some question about fire lines.
There are fire hydrants in both subdivisions and I believe that every home has a fire
hydrant within 300 feet, which is the -- my understanding of the current requirements. I
cannot guarantee the flow to some of the older systems, but I do know that in Kentucky
Ridge that the pipe sizing and such was adequate that the flows would be available
under property water supply. And, then, just -- if I can quickly on the single point
connection on the sewer, if you will look at very -kind of the end of the triangle there,
the first pond, both -- yes, there is a confluent there where the sewer system from
Kentucky Ridge and from Meridian Heights come together, they have one entry into the
pond, and that's the point at which we would like to make the connection. So, that's
why he's talking about a single point connection, rather than having to add sewer lines
to all the individual homes.
Barry: Mr. President?
Rountree: Tom.
Bany: Thank you. I wanted to just go on the record and say that, you know, Mr. Hill
has described the assets that would be used as security or collateral for the proposed
15 million dollar loan to upgrade their infrastructure and I just want to go on record that
the Public Works Department is not in support of having the collateral include the water
and sewer infrastructure, because if we were to take over that infrastructure, then, there
is question as to who, then, is responsible for the obligation of that infrastructure and
pay back. So, thus, we had suggested a performance bond as a mechanism or
possible mechanism to insure improvements were done to the site without the city
having to unknowingly take on the financial obligations of the transfer from the -- of the
water and sewer infrastructure from the association to the Public Works Department or
the city, rather. I think -- I'm not certain and I'll defer to Mr. Nary to correct me on this,
because I don't think any of us in the room are very familiar with the CID process, but
there may be an avenue, however, in which we can come up with ashort-term solution
to this particular challenge and you will still continue to work toward a CID process, such
that the loan that has been referred to this evening could be acquired by the association
to make the improvements to the association infrastructure in preparation for that
infrastructure to, then, be transferred to the city. However, of course, the city does not
want to have the transfer of that financial obligation and so perhaps before the transfer
the -- if we were running the CID process in parallel, the loan that would be secured by
the association could, then, we repaid by the CID loan, which would, then, tie the
financial obligation to the property owners and the collection thereto of the infrastructure
Meridian City Council Special Meefing/Workshop
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improvements to the taxes of each of those properties, such that we could conceivably
take on the infrastructure without taking on the debt. Now, I don't know if that's feasible.
We are working diligently here to come up with creative solutions. I'm not an attorney
as well and so I'll defer to those experts in the room to help us with the validity of that
particular more potential solution. So, Mr. Nary, if you could help us.
Nary: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I certainly wouldn't
profess to know everything about the CID process, but we do have a person here that
does. So, Mr. Carter Froelich of Development and Planning and Finance Group that's
also affiliated with Evans Keane, he is here. He is here at our request. Certainly we
weren't looking for a lengthy presentation, but we know that the CID process is probably
available and probably the most likely solution to some of these issues and so we asked
him to be here to assist us in this -- both with this issue, as well as the next item on the
agenda.
Froelich: Thank you. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, my name
is Carter Froelich and I'm the managing member of the Development Planning &
Financing Group with offices here in Boise and in Phoenix, Arizona. As I was listening
to this, I'm racking in my brain how we are going to -- and I was actually asked to come
here on behalf of Leisure Lane and talk about how we might be able to finance some of
the improvements related to that subdivision that also is -- my understanding has some
of the same issues. I'd like to make it known that I'm not representing the Leisure Lane
folks. However, I'm here for informational purposes. We were involved with Evans
Keane in the drafting and the CID legislation and I think it has some applications for the
Meridian Heights project, as well as the Leisure Lane, but I'm here to address specific
concerns that you all have about the CID process. I did not come with a presentation. I
was told to keep it short, so I'm more here to answer any questions you may have. But
to give you a 30,000 foot view of the CID process, a CID is a separate political
subdivision that is established by the city or the county on behalf of the landowners who
petition the city or the county for the formation of this special purpose taxing district that
its sole purpose is to issue tax exempt bonds to build public infrastructure. Now, when
the CID legislation was passed, the politics of how the legislation worked is that the --
for the most part they all -- the legislature only wanted the CID to be used for regional-
type infrastructure. So, we are talking about regional wastewater treatment plants,
regional water lines, sewer lines, collector roads, arterial roads, et cetera. They did also
set it up so that we could finance development impact fees as well. So, as I'm listening
to Mr. West in his presentation related to the Meridian Heights project, I'm feverishly
going through the statute trying to figure out how we can work through the statute to
finance not only some the facilities that the Leisure Lane folks are requiring, but also the
facilities that are related to the Meridian Heights project as well. I don't have any great
ideas for you, based -- because most of the infrastructure that Ivan -- that I discerned
on the -- on the listing that was put up is primarily infrastructure that fronts single family
residential homes and by statute that type of infrastructure is excluded from the CID as
being eligible infrastructure. Now, if we were to have a better description of some of
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that infrastructure, we might be able to -- there are some gray areas -- carve out some
of the trunk lines for both the water and sewer and be able to finance portions of that
infrastructure to be able to reduce some of the obligations that the homeowners or the
various associations will be asked to come up with. That may be a solution. The other
opportunity that you have available that is available for financing this type of facility for
tax exempt bonds is the Local Improvement District and I'm not sure what the political
winds are in regards to that, but that would be a situation where tax exempt bonds could
be issued, the security would be the land that is benefiting from those improvements
and that would- be the way to perhaps speed up not only the Meridian Heights
infrastructure, but also the challenge that the Leisure Lane folks are going to have is
that there is only 11 homeowners and it's -- when you look at the amount of
infrastructure that needs to be funded, our information is 237,000 dollars, that's a very
small bond issue. It works out if we were just going to issue a bond and we were able
to find an underwriter to do it, we would be looking at about a 310,000 dollar bond with
an assessment lien of about 29,000 dollars per lot, so -- I mean that's part of the
challenge. If there is a way to bring the two together to develop enough synergy and
economies of scale to make this where it's -- unfortunately, there are a lot of costs
involved with this type of thing, but we are able to share those costs among greater
homeowners -- or greater number of homeowners and, then, be able to lay down the
leans to build the infrastructure, secure that by the property -- and, here again, all the
homeowners would have to agree to this. I'm not representing anybody, nobody -- I
mean I'm just exploring a concept. And, then, that bond would be amortized over a 30
year term. The credit markets right now are in disarray. We have issued - I'm not an
underwriter, but we work primarily for the private sector financing infrastructure. The
last bond we issued was about 7.4 percent amortized over a 30 year period and
typically those bonds are in the -- in the low sixes or high fives. So, it just gives you a
feel for where we are at. Hopefully, if this were something that the homeowners and the
City Council wish to explore in more detail by the time the districts potentially were
formed, the interest rates will have come down by then. I don't have a crystal ball, but
that's my hope. So, with that I'm here to stand for any questions that you may have.
Rountree: Not pertaining to this subject, but pertaining to the last bond issuance, what
kind of bond rating are we looking at?
Froelich: They were non-rated dirt bonds. So, secured by a three-to-one value-to-lien
ratio. So, there was no recourse other than to the land.
Rountree: Okay.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: So, if you have two different areas in the scenario that you suggested might
be possible, they don't need to be connected?
Froelich: They -- are we talking about the CID?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Froelich: The initial formation -- and this is just an idea, but, typically, the CIDs are set
up for funding big master planned communities. When we were dealing with League of
Cities, one of the ideas that came across is to make this a vehicle available for
everybody, large landowners, small landowners, to retrofit neighborhoods. Let's allow it
to finance development impact fees as well. And so the idea was that a city could
establish a CID that initially would be contiguous. So, that could be one landowner, it
could be the Meridian Heights folks, it could be Leisure Lane folks, what have you.
But, anyway, an initial district would be formed that would be contiguous. Later, other
landowners could petition to annex into that district. So, this could happen within an
hour of the first formation of the district -- so, in other words, the Leisure Lane folks --
I'm using them as an example, could form a CID. The CID is formed. The city -- three
representatives of the City Council would be the governing board of the CID. Once the
-- the CID board meeting is convened, they could, then, entertain the annexation of
additional property to that -- to the new CID, provided one hundred percent of the
owners of the property to be annexed were in agreement with that. So, I mean this --
and it would not have to be contiguous. So, this district could grow over time. My
thought was that the city could establish the CID to not only assist in efforts such as the
Meridian Heights to retrofit some of this improvements and hook it up to the city sewer
system, but this -- the purpose of a district also could be for other landowners that
wanted to prepay their development impact fees up front, rather than waiting until they
pulled building permits. So, that would be the function. The city would benefit, because
it would be getting development impact fees from home builders that wished to do this.
Also, it would be benefiting residents who were either within the boundaries of the city
or the wished to come into the boundaries, who were experiencing some of these
infrastructure challenges. So, it might be something that the city could use to adapt to
addressing some of its challenges. Here again, we'd have to work within the
boundaries of the statute and the last time I checked I think the legislature meets every
year, so it has to be tweaked, maybe that could done as well.
De Weerd: Just a follow up.
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: So, because this was really designed for a master planned community,
what would be the collateral?
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Froelich: It's the land. It's solely the land and so -- and the way that we would have to
issue bonds would be through a special assessment process. That is the only way that
this type of financing -- be it LID -- well, obviously, LIDs have to issue assessment
bonds, but aCID -- issuing assessment bonds is the only way that we could get that
type of money upfront to actually fix the infrastructure challenges.
De Weerd: And, Carter, what is the passage rate on the CID? I mean --
Froelich: Meaning?
De Weerd: Property owners. Do you need a hundred percent?
Froelich: Well, two-thirds need to petition -- two-thirds of the property owners need to
petition the City Council for the adoption or the creation of the CID. Generally we have
one hundred percent of the landowners, but in situations such as this where we have
existing subdivisions, we would need two-thirds of the residents.
De Weerd: Okay. But you're saying to designate one large area and that areas could
annex into within those parameters, who is -- who are the voters? The ones that are
wanting to annex into that CID area or the entire area?
Froelich: Madam Mayor, it would be the individuals who wish to annex into, so --
De Weerd: Okay.
Froelich: And that way we were able to pretty much assure that we were going to be
able to annex into the existing district that would grow over time, so --
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member
Rountree, I mean one of the reasons Ithink -- what we were looking for tonight, once all
the presentations were done, was direction from this Council that if this is an avenue
you wish to explore more in detail, that we do that. I mean one of the reasons that I
think the -- the public entities in the state eventually I think can support a CID process is
because different than the LID, the entity that's formed is responsible for the debt. In
the LID the city is responsible for the debt. So, that impact the city is bonding, the city's
ratings, and those things and so there is a greater risk to the tax -- to the other rate
payers, which I think this Council has said a number of times that's not what you're
wanting is to fund this debt with the other rate payers having to fund it. This allowed it --
I think there is, obviously, a lot of detail, because this is new legislation, whether it
timingwise can work for Meridian Heights, I do.n't know if there is a -- part of that's a
long term solution, whether -- again, we are kind of ahead of the next -- the next item,
but if those things can be done, I just know that we don't have all the answers tonight. I
don't think you were expecting that, either. But I think we would be looking for direction
of exploring this a little further to see what could work, what we could help these
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neighbors to be able to get these infrastructure improvements done in a reasonable
fashion, but, again, there is risk to them and there is some e obviously, some work
involved on the city's end to form this, but I think we are looking to I guess continue
down that path, if that's the direction you'd like us to go.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Carter, how -- how secure do you feel that the CID is workable under the existing
statute for this -- for these two types of -- we brought both in now, but these two types of
subdivisions and stuff? As I read the statute, it's basically for large developments, new,
I didn't see anywhere where there was redo's, but I -- as Mr. Nary said, I would be
interested in a CID, if it's possible to look into it.
Froelich: Well, one of the powers of a CID is that it has the ability to improve
infrastructure. When I look at improve, could that mean repair? Yeah, it's kid of one of
those gray areas. I'm not a -- I'm a recovering CPA, I'm not an attorney. But -- but I
kind -- I look at it as -- and oftentimes the way we look at these situations, if you tell us
what the rules are and you tell us what we are trying to -- trying .to accomplish there are
ways to get from A to B to C and C being the ultimate place where we want to go and
what I would need to know is to sit down with your legal counsel and to explore some of
the -- and have a better understanding of the types of infrastructure we are talking
about, not only for the two subdivisions in question, but any others that may come in
and, then, try to get to C by whatever means we can and maybe we can't get there,
maybe we can get halfway there, but I just don't have enough information at this point in
time to be able to -- to be able to answer that question, sir.
Bird: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess Meridian Heights Sewer and Water Association has a couple of
options if this seems like a viable one. I do think that bottom line, though, more the
concern it seems in that particular proposal is the annexation aspect and because of the
new law, as I understand what Mr. Nary conveyed, is you need one hundred percent
consent and that would have to come from the association's efforts and I guess that's
the challenge in front -- in front of them.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
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Zaremba: I don't know whether there are other people that wish to testify on it, but if we
are looking for a sense of direction, I, for one, would be in favor of -- I guess it would be
Public Works staff, Planning and Zoning staff, and legal staff continuing to expend some
time on exploring where this could go. The end result of -- of annexing this area I think
is a worthy goal that will come up at some time anyhow, whether it's immediate or not. I
understand their immediate need and if the main question before us is do we want staff
to spend anymore time on it, I would be supportive of saying yes.
Rountree: Further comments?
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess, too, I'd like staff to come back or Mr. Nary to come back with if this
is an emergency situation, I guess the city takes some responsibility for that one
hundred percent annexation approval and I don't know if -- if DEQ has anything to add
to it. It's just I guess my interpretation of why they are even sitting in the back row or
our City Council chambers is to emphasize the importance of it. But I guess we do
need clarification on that end, if it has to have consent before we can actually do the
single point connection. Additionally, I would like to have better clarity. Mr. West had
mentioned a large water right that might be associated with this. Is this part of the
package and, if so, what does that mean and to bring details of that back in as well.
West: Madam Mayor, Mr. President, I would be happy to get some additional
information on that.
De Weerd: And that was a quote. Large water right. Just wanted to make sure we
understand scored that.
West: Understand.
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I mean just so I'm
expressly clearly to you -- we are very rarely talking about two different things. The CID
and the infrastructure improvements don't require the consent we are talking about, but
it has been our city's practice before we would provide service, then, we would also
want a commitment to annex. So, if I made it sound like they -- they are both required --
they are required for different purposes, but certainly if we are going to annex those
parcels, now the statute requires that not -- do we not just have to provide them service,
we have to have informed consent. So, we have to have specific consent to annex.
Otherwise, there is other means to annex, but it's much more difficult and more time
consuming. And if we are going to provide a service, I think, then, it's reasonable to
expect a consent up front. I think certainly if that's the Council direction and Madam
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Mayor, we will certainly work with our planning staff and Public Works and those
property owners to address and educate on that issue of where that needs to be done.
Again, I think more than anything in the past a lot of it is just -- it's just an education that
people haven't had enough information to understand the gravity of it. The other issue
-- and I think maybe these folks could maybe answer it better from Lisa Meyers
understanding and maybe Mr. Barry, I don't think we are talking about an emergency
today, but certainly there is a point that's sooner rather than later, that they are going to
have a significant crisis and I think that's what we are trying to avert. So, I don't think it's
imperative today, but the window very big. Is that a fair estimation?
West: Mr. President, Mr. Nary, you are correct, although in order for that emergency to
be averted, the hook up for sewer needs to occur this construction season, so next
growing season they will be unable to apply their water and a de facto emergency would
exist. The other thing that I would just -- I think if I -- just for my own clarification, there
may be, even -- even with all the education in the world sometimes people aren't always
going to -- somebody is not going to see it your way and it would be my hope that the
Council continues to be open to the potential that there may be a percentage of people,
however small, that do not want to be annexed and I would be concerned that the rest
of the population in those two subdivisions be subjected to a public health emergency
as a result of those small people. I think sometimes that can create more problems
than what a forced annexation would be able to solve, if that's the right term.
De Weerd: But -- Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess because you're going with the single point of connection it takes that
stick away from us and that is a concern and that's why I think that the onus is on you in
making the sale, because if it was a little bit different and you didn't want that single
point of connection, we could go and say, well, in order to get the services you have to
annex. Well, we can't do that with a single of connection and so that does take that
incentive away and it does put the onus, in my opinion, on you and your efforts or the
association's efforts and I hate to say that, but that is the only way -- if it was individuals,
then, you could just refuse services to them and they will have to annex, because they
need those services. The single point of connection changes that.
West: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, I think that's an excellent point that we had not
fully flushed out in our discussions earlier, but that is something that we will take a look
at in individual connections as well. So, I think that's an excellent -- thank you for
bringing that to my attention.
Rountree: Steve, you indicated you wanted to talk about the annexation process. Do
you want to defer that?
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West: I think we can defer that. It think as long as -- and lappreciate -- I think that we
have gotten direction to --
Rountree: She says it's okay.
West: That's all we need to know, that we are to go forward and, again, continue to try
to get resolution on these things and be able to come back to the Council with a
proposal on the annexation and sewer hookup and more fully develop the plan.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Along those lines, you have done a wonderful job with a really sticky situation,
in my opinion. What I would love to see clarified as sharp as possible is the funding
options that you have listed. It sounds like you're well on your way to get it lined out,
specifically with Zion's Bank, IDWR loan conversion -- it just might be procedural, but
firm up as much as possible, whether those are really on the hook or not. One of the
areas that the city has been burned in a totally different situation is to try to create a
solution like this and there is -- maybe could be -- should be some funding option, the
city does their part, things don't turn out, and, then, you come back and say, well, golly
geez, it didn't work out, but with the best of intentions, so --
West: Sure. That's entirely reasonable.
Borton: -- you run the risk --
West: Absolutely.
Borton: Okay. So, as much as you can firm up that and, then, along those same lines,
articulate the mechanism that follows from Mayor de Weerd's comments about
nonpayment of fees and collection efforts and with a single point, if I'm Joe Homeowner,
you know, and I don't pay my fees, what are you going to do, shut it off for 286 people?
That's -- nobody wants that. The hammer to enforce payment of individual fees is
missing or it needs to be articulated some way to create a solution for that.
West: Okay. President and Councilman Borton, thank you. I will do that.
Rountree: Any further comments? Guidance? Steve, thank you and agree with Mr.
Gorton's comments, you have done a good job of listening to us and there are still some
issues that we have and concerns and I think you have heard them and you're much
further along than the last time.
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West: I appreciate your allowing us the opportunity to present here tonight, so thank
you.
(b) Discussion on Leisure Lane Water
Rountree: Thank you. Next item. Leisure Lane. Discussion and, Clint, are you going
to kick that off?
Dolsby: Council President Rountree, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is the
second subdivision that's in a similar situation, but the caveat with this one is like Carter
presented, there is only 11 homeowners. They are located on Cheny Lane, oh, just to
the west of West 8th Street. This is also an older county subdivision. They are under
consent order from DEQ for their water system and with that I would invite any
representatives from Leisure Lane to come up and say a few words.
Sanchez: My name is Janet Sanchez, 1929 Leisure Lane, and I just want to thank you
all for letting us come and speak with you tonight. As Clint indicated, we are a very
small and informal subdivision. There are 11 homes on our street. Nine of those
homes are a member of a very small community water association. One additional
home that uses that well, but via a private pump in that well, so they are not part of our
water association, and the 11th home currently has city water and sewer services. We
have, however, had all 11 households involved in our discussions and decision making
processes, because we knew that anything we do is going to affect all of them. Part of
that is because we are on a private drive. So, whatever happens down that street to get
services to all of us is going to affect everyone. As Clint indicated, our well has been
disqualified by DEQ due to high uranium content and we are under consent order to
implement an alternate solution. We have considered multiple solutions both to the
water issue and funding of any of those solutions, including point of use, digging a new
well and connecting to city services and we have considered various funding and as far
as private funding or, you know, some kind of a loan, DEQ funding, those types of
things and at this point everyone has agreed that city services is really the best long
term solution to our issue, but we are still in a quandary over the funding, because none
of those .options are feasible for us. We don't have assets that we can put up to back
that funding, basically, other than our homes. We do have a preliminary design and
cost estimate that was put together for us by Civil Survey Consultants and I think that
you guys should have a copy of that in your packets and we have been having multiple
discussions for several months with city staff about our situation and possible options.
We had considered requesting an LID, but staff had told us recently that your
preference was most likely the CID and we are aware, which has been -- come even
more clear to all of us that there are still a ton of questions around the CID and how it
works. So, what we have come before you tonight is basically just to present our
situation. We have worked -- we are looking for your confirmation if the CID was your
preference, but it kind of sounds like maybe there is still a possibility an LID is the better
option. What we are looking for and I think what staff from our conversations with them
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is looking for is your direction on what option we can pursue to resolve this issue. We
do intend to install not only water, but to convert to sewer services as well and the plan
that's been put together for us includes installing hydrants and meeting that code
requirement also. So, as I said, what we are looking for from you tonight is your
confirmation or some direction and your approval for city staff to move forward with
pursuing those options and helping us form whatever the right type of district is, if you're
in support of that, so that we can move forward and resolve this issue.
Rountree: Thank you. Comments? Questions? Tom or Clint, do you have anything to
add?
Barry: No, Mr. President, not at this time. We continue to work with the Leisure Lane
folks to try to resolve the same issues that were previously identified and discussed at
length in the last presentation. As far as it relates to the LID as an option on this
particular challenge, I would like to ask if the Council does want to direct staff to look
into that more closely, the fact that there are a smaller number of properties in this
particular case may provide us a little greater flexibility as it relates to the LID. Certainly
that does not avert the concerns that we would have as it relates to administration
liability on the city's part, as well as costs to form and administer the LID. So, barring
those things with your direction we can continue to try to look into that more or if you'd
like us to just focus our efforts on the CID process, which, again, I'm not certain is
necessarily the most viable process, having heard Carter's presentation earlier. We'd
just like to accept any direction that you might have as it relates to the CID or LID or any
other financing mechanism.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Tom, what is the overall cost --
Barry: I have no idea --
Bird: -- on an LID? I mean what are we looking at, three hundred, four hundred
thousand? What is it? Water and sewer?
Bany: We do have --
Bird: Because I'm too lazy to get my computer out.
Barry: Mr. Bird, I don't believe we have enough information right now to share that with
you. Generally, my understanding of the LID does, however, require that each property
be appraised and that differences in the appraised value are used to help levy the
bonds or back the bonds, rather. Those costs for appraisals on each of the properties,
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you know, could be anywhere from two to five thousand dollars on administration fees
to acquire the loan and the loan origination fees and those sort of things will also be
incurred. I'd say, again, this is very rough, meaning a couple hundred, maybe, but that
can be rolled into the overall bond issue and so -- and, then, certainly you can also roll
into that I believe administration costs the city would bear, so you can post bond for that
as well or not post bond, but, rather, roll that into the LID assessment for each of the
properties, so conceivably we could get those monies back, but there is an enormous
amount of work up front to get that sort of process started.
Rountree: Thanks, Tom. Carter, you had comment you wanted to make?
Froelich: Carter Froelich, Development Planning & Financing Group. We had run some
-- and I'm not sure if this is what the actual question was. What are the costs for
establishing the district or what would be --
Bird: What would be the -- what would be the obligation the city would be under? Is it
going to be a half a million --
Froelich: It will be less than ahalf --
Bird: The one we just had was 1.5.
Froelich: Yes, sir.
Bird: And this was -- you stated something like three to four hundred thousand.
Froelich: Yeah. Roughly. And I was being very very general on the -- or I shouldn't say
cheap on the cost to establish the district and we were roughly at a bond amount of
about 310,000 dollars. That is assuming the costs that we were provided are accurate.
And those are just rough numbers. But I think I figured out a way to solve the CID
problem and I talked to -- so, I just want to let you know that I hope you're not taking that
off the table, because I think there is a way to do it. It's going to C by B and -- but I think
we can get there and I think we can roll this project in with it, but if not it would be nice
to be able to take a look at the LID option as well as a backup.
Bird: What kind of -- on the LID what -- what is the bond's retirement? How many --
Froelich: Well, the --
Bird: It's not 30 years, is it.
Froelich: Well, the maximum is 30 years.
Bird: Yeah.
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Froelich: Generally, city policy will dictate -- oftentimes they want the bonds paid off
sooner than that. Obviously, the longer the amortization period the less the cost to the
homeowners on a monthly basis or yearly basis.
Bird: And we are dealing with such small amount of homeowners in this -- in this
scenario that -- I don't know.
Froelich: And that's why if possible it would be nice to roll it into a bigger bond issue to
develop the economies of scale, so that -- because whether you're doing it for 11,000
homes or 11 homes, the paperwork's the same.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess probably it's worth exploring and certainly the neighbors would
probably want to know what their options are, too. If it does create choices.
Froelich: And I haven't even met them, so hi.
De Weerd: He liked that recovering CPA by the end of --
Froelich: Yeah. Thank you.
Bird: Thank you, Carter.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Not to throw another wrinkle in and I don't know whether this is a question for
Public Works or perhaps Mr. Hood of Planning and Zoning, but do we put water and
sewer lines under a private street? Wouldn't it need to somehow end up as a public
street?
Barry: Mr. Zaremba, Mr. President, we do prefer to have those in public streets, so e
but there are mechanisms under which we can entertain, I believe, that would allow for
the situation you have described. However, again, for the record our preference is to
have all public services in public rights of way or streets and, again, keeping in mind
that we don't own our rights of way, Ada County does, so -- but they are public,
nevertheless.
Nary: Mr. President?
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Rountree: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, I knew Mr. Barry would have to find a way to get
that in, but I think the other issue, though, is the -- not only is it a private street, it's not a
private street owned by these property owners either, so this is not -- the connection
point currently is from Cherry Lane to Leisure Lane and that' portion, you probably
recall, was part of the discussion with the library district and the library district actually
owns that street now on that recent request that came in front of you. So, there is a
portion there that now the library is the entity we would have to address on an easement
or access or something else, because part of that discussion was to not make it a public
street. Therefore, that limits our ability to get that service through there. So, we would
have to meet with them, too, and these property owners to see about that connection.
Sanchez: Mr. President? A couple clarifications. One on a previous discussion is that,
obviously, the cost of this is a huge issue for us, because, as you all pointed out, there
is a very small number of us. So, the cost being split amongst us is -- is pretty large for
each one of us. And so just the cost, which current estimate, including connection fees,
is about 287,000 dollars, plus we would have the cost of converting, you know, our
homes over to the city connection and our sewer over to the city connection, because
most of the neighbors are currently on septic systems. So, huge administrative costs on
top of that that would, in essence, double our cost is going to be a huge concern. So,
that's one of the questions that's still really on the table for us with either a CID or an
LID. In regards to the road and the lines, I just want to make a clarification that the
homeowners do own the road. The library owns the two lots -- the very end of our road
and as part of their project with the rezoning they just did and their parking lot
expansion, the city water and sewer lines already run part way down our street to serve
that lot on the corner of Cherry and the orthodontist and accounting office that's on the
east side of Leisure Lane on the comer of Cheny. Those lines come part way down
that street, which is, in essence, not really a street, it is an easement. The library owns
the property across that first section and it is their intention and they have confirmed to
us that as part of their project they intend to run the waterline to the north edge of their
property for us to pick it up from there. The plan indicates that the sewer line will come
from the north end of Leisure Lane. Our home is at the very end of the street. We are
currently on city sewer services and the intention is to hook into that line, which it
currently comes most of the way across our property, with, of course, an easement for
access to it and run it and that's due to the slope of the entire area. And the rest of
Leisure Lane from the north boundary of the library property is an easement. The
property lines come together somewhere in that driveway, if you will, and everyone has
an easement to use that portion of the property for access to and from their homes. So,
the property we are talking about truly belongs to the residents on Leisure Lane. There
is no portion of it that doesn't belong to someone. But the library doesn't own the entire
street, only the section that's on the two lots they own at the end. Just a comment to
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that particular point. At the end of all of this that will become the biggest issue.
Remember I said that.
Sanchez: I think we are very aware of that. I mean, obviously, we are all very willing to,
you know, provide easement and, obviously, that portion is going to remain open and
we are not going to build on it or we are not going to be able to get to our homes. There
is a concern with making it a public street, both because of the cost of that, because 1
think we are assuming that if it were made a public street you would expect us to pay for
that, which we have enough problems trying to figure out how to get services down
there, much less make it a public street. And it is not -- there is not enough space to
make a full fledged Ada county approved width road and if that were done the street's
pretty much going to be on our front porches for almost everyone on the street.
De Weerd: Two very easy projects we are talking about tonight.
Rountree: Yeah.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Gorton: Kind of go back to one of Tom's comments and suggestions. It would make
sense to report back the viability of both the CID and LID options. It sounds like Carter's
creating some potential solutions that we want to hear more about and, then, the
funding and timing of each of those.
Rountree: I agree with the comment. I think that the -- you folks probably need to get
with Carter and his firm and with the Meridian Heights folks and figure out how you do
get to A through C or -- or however you're going to do this. I'm more inclined if the CID
works to go that way. I'm not particularly interested in having the city accept the liability
of an LID, without some mechanism that may very well become onerous to the
homeowners in terms of the city having a first on property in order to pay for some
default. We just -- we don't like to take those kinds of risks for our rate payers. So, if
there is a possibility of making a CID work, I would certainly welcome at least taking a
breath and exploring that opportunity. And it would be a first, I think, if we could pull
something off in the next couple months. Any other comments? Staff, what kind of -- I
know it's going to take time, but it seems to me that the time right now is -- is back in the
court of the subdivisions to fashion a plan and, then, bring it back through Public Works
and to either -- if they can do this in the next month or next workshop or possibly the
workshop in October.
Sanchez: Mr. President, can I ask a question?
Rountree: Yes.
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Sanchez: I was speaking with Mr. Baird in the attorney's office and in my conversations
with him I was of the impression that his expectation was that we come before you and
ask for your direction to basically give approval for city staff to pursue what it's going to
take to form a CID. So, I think there is a lot of question around --
Rountree: Let me interrupt Irlght there. I think what you heard tonight is the CID is,
basically, in your hands. You have to petition the city to form the CID. The city doesn't
set up that district. So, you need to understand what your role in that is, along with -- if
it's going to work jointly with Meridian Heights, how would you play off of their petition or
how you would form a group that would petition the city to form this district. So, that's
why I say, really, it's in your hands at this point. City staff can't do that for you.
Sanchez: I understand that they can't petition and that we have to make the request. I
think where part of the question is that there is a multitude of questions up in the air
about exactly how does it work and what are going to be the costs associated with it
going to be that really need to be answered before we would be in a position to feel
comfortable coming to you and say, please, form a CID for us. Those questions need to
be answered and I think that we need to do that in cooperation with city staff, so that
everyone involved understands the answer to those questions, so we know if we want
to ask and you know how you want to answer.
Rountree: If your question is you want-the city to prepare that information for you, my
response -- and I don't know what the rest of the Council's response is, that's not our
job. Our job is to review what you present to us.
Sanchez: I think what we are asking is how can we work with the city to get those
answers and make sure that we are continuing to be in, you know, close communication
and who are the right people at the city for us to be working with, because I don't know
that Public Works necessarily has all the answers to those types of questions, it seems
that some of that is going to need to come from finance and legal, et cetera, and so I
guess I'm feeling like we need your approval for them to be spending their time on that
and us to know who should we be talking to.
Borton: Mr. President -- oh, go ahead.
Rountree: I agree. You don't want to be run around and I think what city staff can and
will do is provide guidance in what the city needs in terms of information and they can
probably give you a punch list or an outline of what are the projected costs, what are the
steps that you will be going through in a petition to request a CID. How many hookups
are there and what -- valuations are there on homes, if you want to pursue an LID,
those kind of things need to be answered. So, it depends on what scenario you want to
pursue. There is a whole lot of work that needs to be done up front for an LID and if we
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are talking the CID, I don't know that staff knows anymore than your folks about what
needs to be developed for -- because it's new.
Sanchez: Right. And part of our quandary is we obviously don't have the resources or
the funding to answer questions for both, so we at least need to know which one should
we be pursuing and we need input from staff and from you to give us direction on what
route should we be taking, so that we are actually getting somewhere and not just
circling.
Rountree: Okay. Joe, you had a comment?
Borton: No. You said exactly where I was going to --
Rountree: I will speak for myself and we can either get nods yes or no, but I think
where we are inclined to go is the CID with the information we have been provided
tonight, that there appears to be a way to get there.
Sanchez: Okay.
Rountree: So, having said that, I don't know -- Madam Mayor, you have a comment and
the rest of the Councilman can weigh in on that.
De Weerd: Yeah. Mr. President, I think there remains questions for this project, as well
as the previous project. It might be prudent to get the leaders of those two projects, our
staff, and representatives -well, Carter -- I'll commit your time to this. And see if we
can define some of those items that are needed, make the assignments on who needs
to do what and, then, you will have a better road map as to how to procedure forward.
Sanchez: That would be wonderful.
Rountree: So, staff will take the role in pulling together a meeting of the concerned
parties.
Sanchez: Okay.
De Weerd: Mr. Barry, is that --
Rountree: Mr. Bang?
Barry: Yes, Mr. President, Madam Mayor, we can certainly facilitate a meeting. We
have provided guidance, if you will, to the Leisure Lane folks, letter dated July 31st,
where we had recommended that they procure the services of qualified individuals or
firms to develop an action plan that outlines the formation of an improvement district
regardless of whether it was an LID or a CID. We also gave them some insight as to
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what they needed to include in that action plan and we struggle, however, to make
progress, as I believe there is a difference of opinion as to who should be in the
leadership role as it relates to gathering the information collecting the e the assessment
information, identifying infrastructure, all of the -- infrastructure needs, all of the things
associated with these two issues and I would suggest that, Mr. Rountree, in
conformance with your comments earlier, we do not believe that staffs role is to do all of
that background work. We have enough busy workload as it is and we cannot a we
cannot devote the staff resources to isolated projects as complex as this, we need to
rely, just as we do on the developing community to bring forward plans and specs and
cost estimates, we need to rely on these associations to do that. Now, we understand
and recognize that this is not something they are used to doing and it is something that
is unfamiliar to them and it is very complex and we will work to that end to help them
through this, but I just hope that the Leisure Lane folks understand that we cannot
provide the level of service I believe that they are requesting from the city.
Sanchez: I guess sort of my confusion is I almost feel like I'm hearing a mixed
message. I understand what Mr. Bany is saying. We do have a proposal for the
installation of the water and sewer lines, the fire hydrants included, and, you know, a
cost estimate for that. So, we do have that preliminary work of the design and the cost
estimate. Where we are stuck is with getting the funding and I felt I .heard earlier that
you had requested staff to come back to you with more information about a CID and
how they could work and that type of thing, which is really what we are asking for as
well is some further clarification on the city's stance, the city's role in the CID -- we are
not trying to ask you to go off and do it all for us, but the city plays a huge role in it and
we'd like to work closely with you to work through that process and the understanding
and the decision as to whether that's something you're willing to go forward with.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: It might answer your question. Maybe, maybe not. I think to get you to that
point is, as Councilman Rountree mentioned, the city facilitates giving you the data,
costs -- it sounds like you already have that. But, ultimately, the city's role will be voting,
you know, up or down on your petition for that mechanism. The preliminary question
you have to answer -- and it's between you and perhaps Carter's company a by no
means does the city or can the city volunteer them to do it, but an organization like that,
to answer those questions and find out specifically how it would be set up, what it would
cost, does the number make sense. If it makes sense and that data works out for you
and your group, then, you can come back to the Council and say, hey, folks, the CID
works, we can formulate a petition, here is how we would do it. Here is the timing.
What do you guys think? And I think the city can weigh in, then, if they like that idea,
but right now it might not work for you and whether it works for you or not, we can't
answer, but the gentleman in the back can help you answer it.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
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Sanchez: Could you clarify for me your comment about the city providing us with some
costs? The only costs we have are the costs that were provided to us by a civil survey
engineer for the actual installation. We don't have any estimates from the city as to
what additional fees and admin and overhead and that kind of stuff would need to be
added on top of that. And I don't know where to get those numbers, except from the
city.
Nary: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Iguess -- if I understand
the direction, what the Council is asking is for the city staff, Public Works, Planning, and
legal department, to work on this issue regarding CIDs and what would that mean to the
city and, obviously, we are looking atone large project. In addition to that, we have this
very small project that may answer some of the same questions. I think my staff and ~I
know Public Works staff and Planning staff are pretty good at being able to gather
information, which is, I think partly what Mrs. Sanchez is asking for, and being able to,
then, define to them this is the point you have to get your own counsel and this is the
point where we can't advise you any longer, we aren't your representatives, we are just
providing you some real maybe generalized information about some of that. I don't
know how much more specific we can be until we get into that, but I think the counsel's
asked for some information back from staff. We can certainly have that conversation. I
think, like Mr. Bany, had suggested of facilitating a meeting about that, but there
probably is a point that you're going to need -- whether it's through Mr. Froelich or
having your own counsel that's your homeowner's group is going to have to go out and
hire their own attorney to make sure their rights and their interests are protected. So,
we can probably provide you some of the information you're seeking through what the
Council's asked us for and there probably will be a dividing point where we as the city
are going to say this is something you are going to have to go get your own advice
about, because we can't provide that to you.
Sanchez: Understood. And I think that make sense. I think what we are asking from
the city is the same thing that you guys are asking from staff to come back to you with,
so I think what we need at this point is to know what that answer that they come back to
you with is as well, because I feel like we need that piece of information before we can
go too much further on our own or -- we don't even know what questions to ask.
Nary: Right. I don't think we are on two different planets. I mean I think we are on the
same idea, Ijust -- as long as you know that there is a point where, really, we are
providing information for the Mayor and the Council in what they have requested and we
would probably have to advise you at that point you need to go get your own counsel to
advise you folks. I don't think we are that far apart.
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August 19, 2008
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Sanchez: Understood. Okay. So, one, what should we expect - do we know now
what we should expect as far as when we might have some of those answers or --
because it sounds like we are in agreement that we kind of need to wait for that
information before we go out to get our own counsel -- I'm just trying to get a feel for
what timeline we should expect to move forward.
Barry: Mr. President?
Rountree: Tom.
Barry: Mrs. Sanchez, I'm sorry, I'm not certain what kind of information you lack or the
questions that you have and I don't mean to put you on the spot tonight, but if you have
some guidance for staff as to what it is -- the information is that you're requesting, we
could certainly tell you whether we have got the information or whether we can get the
information or whether or not you need to pursue the acquisition of that information
yourself. So, again, that doesn't need to be -- we don't need to know this evening, but
you -- certainly in correspondence with my staff -- and are free to continue to do that, we
advise that you do that, and -- but please be specific about the information in that
correspondence that you're looking for from staff, so we can help guide your movement
through this process, so -- and that's what we sort of are uncomfortable with at this point
in time, the past a-mail communications between my staff and yourself have led to, I
think in part, that misunderstanding and we would certainly like to have clarity on what it
is exactly you feel you need in order to move forward, so --
Sanchez: Okay.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess so we don't continue to just talk in circles, I think the first thing is to
facilitate the meeting, get the various voices at the table and make those definitions. I
don't know if Mrs. Sanchez really knows what information she needs at this point. But it
would be helpful that you don't talk through us, that you have Carter, yourself, our
attorney, the homeowners at the table saying what is -- what are the pieces of
information needed, who is the appropriate party to get it, and before we go into that
meeting you know the definition of what is our role, so that you can help define our
aspect of it. Does that make sense?
Barry: Absolutely.
De Weerd: Okay. Does that help?
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Sanchez: Yes, it does.
De Weerd: Okay.
Sanchez: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. And Carter is nodding in the back, so we are all good. Good
deal.
Rountree: We just need a meeting date.
De Weerd: And you can set that tomorrow. Okay.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Before we move on, just an observation and perhaps this is another
sideways comment, but a couple of issues have been raised about uranium and
drinking water and I think we have heard that subject before on other wells around and I
realize uranium is not desirable in drinking water, but it is a valuable commodity. Isn't
there some way we could extract it and make the water better and sell the uranium?
Rountree: Not in the minuscule amount you're talking about.
Zaremba: Oh. Okay.
De Weerd: Mr. President, I --
Rountree: Madam Mayor, we are going to take a 15 minute break.
(Recess.)
(c) Enterprise Fund Rate Model Presentation
Rountree: Next item on the agenda is the rate model presentation. Tom, are you going
to lead that?
Bany: Yes, Mr. President.
Rountree: Okay. The floor is yours.
Barry: Thank you, sir. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you may
recall last month, I believe it was the 14th of July, we presented information regarding
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not only our budget and requested items in the fiscal year '09 budget, as well as
accomplishments of the department and various other issues associated with our
department, we also presented a -- a rate presentation in which we described three
scenarios under which we included various inputs associated with modeling. One of the
-- one of the things I'd like to mention is that we provided that rate portion of the
presentation we gave in July to you and, hopefully, you found it in your boxes. Tried to
do that to facilitate or expedite, rather, our presentation of this to remind you of where
we left off. As you know, we have some financial issues that we need addressed and
the history that was presented in that presentation I hope laid out the fame work
associated with which the -- with which we need to work within to insure that we
continue our operation in the positive. So, tonight's presentation is at the request of the
Council to dive more into the details of the rate model that we had discussed on the
14th, particularly to provide Council some insight as to how the rate model works and,
then, to provide an interim or initial recommendation as to a modification of the rates for
the Council to consider and provide feedback on. As it relates to tonight's presentation,
the agenda is as follows: After the thanks that I'd like to give to the staff who helped
with this presentation. We certainly have many folks to thank. I get the pleasure of
presenting this, but I also want to make sure, however, that all of the staff who put a lot
of time and effort into this presentation are recognized. Certainly I appreciate the
leadership and guidance from the Mayor, as well as the Council President, my liaison.
I also appreciate the collaborative nature with which Public Works has worked with the
Finance Department, Stacy Kilchenmann, Todd Lavoie, and Rita Cunningham have
been phenomenal to work with and owe -- I owe a -- not only a debt of gratitude for, but
a lot more than that. I'd like to also thank Becky LeCary and Carrie Glen from my admin
team. Bob Field, our volunteer. Clint Dolsby and Kyle Radek from our engineering
group. Rick Clinton and Tracy Crane representing our water and wastewater groups
and our consultant Ed Squires from Hydrologic, who has been -- who has been helping
us along the way in getting our water infrastructure plans up to speed. So, as it relates
to tonight's agenda, I'd like to talk a bit about the rate model, specifically the
assumptions, the input, and the approach that we utilize. I'd like to go from there and
give you the rate recommendation that is if -with those inputs and assumptions, what
the rate model is telling us at this point in time. We'd like to follow that up with some
rate forecasting and impact analyses, just to give you some --abetter idea as to what
it's moving forward as it relates to how the model can be a predictive asset for us in
helping determine what we need to do today in order to make more palatable the future
financial challenge that we have. I want to talk a little bit about rate structure as well,
since we are talking about rates and impacts, we should maybe touch on rate structure,
get your input as it relates to whether or not you continue to agree with our current rate
structure, show you how that works and, then, also provide at least a couple options for
your consideration on the rate structure. I'll provide a brief conclusion and, then,
hopefully, we can have some time for open discussion. Having said that, we will just
dive right in. I have just one or two summary slides to pick up where we left off last
time. As you know, our financial position is one in which we need to be more diligent
about looking forward and being assertive, as well as anticipatory about what we do
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today, such that we can embrace the challenges of the future. Many of the challenges
have been brought about by our local and regional and national economic changes, the
trends that we have seen in the last several months to the last couple of years, for that
matter, have impacted certainly our operation in both the water and wastewater groups.
We have mentioned - or I had mentioned last month the reduction in utility rates in
2002 also had an impact on our revenues. We estimated that we have lost at least
about 8.1 million dollars between 2002 to 2007. We have not yet done the calculation
for 2008, but it looks on the order of about one and a half to two million dollars in
addition. We also recognize that over that five year period between 2002 and 2007 we
are experiencing reduction in water consumption and, of course, when people purchase
less water, we make less revenues and this is, of course, impacting our revenue. The
good side is we hope that that is associated with conservation practices. We think that
might be part of the key to that. We also think, however, that there may be -well, that
the continuance of bringing folks on to pressurized irrigation had had some impact on
reducing water consumption from the domestic supply. Reimbursement agreement
policies as of late have also impacted our financials. We had taken a position of paying
off all reimbursements, late comers agreements at one time, which certainly impacted
our overall ending fund balance and, then, our current practice, off and on, seems to be,
you know, in some cases payments in full upon construction, which is a policy that we
are, at the Council's direction, looking into and we will be presenting some information
as it relates to modifications to our current reimbursement agreement policy and
ordinance. Increased capital spending over a short period of time, as you know we
have grown phenomenally and to accommodate that growth we have had to invest
heavily in our infrastructure, so that has, obviously, impacted our revenues and
expenses. As is the rising cost of capital construction and, then, of course, declining
interest rates impact our -- our interest -our interest earnings on balances. And, then,
lastly, I just wanted to, again, point out that as the regulatory environment continues to
mold and modify, we expect that additional regulatory requirements are going to
continue to impact our future expenses. As a reminder, the phosphorus rulings that we
expect to come here soon impact our wastewater treatment plant. As you have heard
tonight, the impact associated with uranium to a couple of private water systems are
certainly not isolated to private water systems. We have one well that is not functioning
because of the same reason. Another well that we are keeping a close eye on. So, we
know that the regulatory environment does have an impact on our fiscal position and we
need to be aware of that. I also presented this slide, which shows our Enterprise Fund
balance history over time from about 2000. At its peak our ending fund balances were
on the order of around 48 million -- 47, 48 million. The ending year projection for 2008,
without a reserve is about 10.2 million. With a reserve, which I'm recommending, we
would -- with the Council's approval, have an ending fund balance of cash at 6.2 million.
If we project that forward into 2009, we expect with a reserve that we fall to about three
and a half million dollars as an ending fund balance. This has caused us, of course,
some pause and opportunity to really look and scrutinize the way we do things now.
What has helped us to -- to scrutinize the way we work is to look at our overall capital
means into the future and we have done a fantastic job to date and we continue to work
Meridian City Council Special Meetlng/Workshop
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on improving our five year capital improvement program plan. Currently, however, in
that plan we have identified about 15.9 million dollars over five years worth of capital
improvements associated with water department infrastructure. Some of these are well
rehabs, some of them are new wells, a variety of different infrastructure. In the
wastewater department the five year cost is looking more like 36 million or so. Again,
for new infrastructure, replacement infrastructure, upgrades, those sorts of things.
Some of the drivers, as I mentioned earlier, are more stringent regulation, repair and
replacement. As we learn more, I think I mentioned earlier that in July, as we learn
more we learn more about what we need to do and that's certainly -- it generally
includes costs to make improvements. New technological advancements which help us
in our overall operation might have an upfront cost, but may, we hope, improve
operational efficiencies and a lower cost over time. That certainly is something we want
to look into. And, then, of course, our growth related investments continue to drive a lot
of the need for the addition of our infrastructure. So, having said all of that, we
recognize, Public Works, with the help of Finance, we recognize the need to look
forward -- more forward than we have traditionally looked as it relates to trying to
identify where we are going to be in the future financially and this led to the
development of a multi-year rate projection model. Our existing model that we have
been using the last several years was a one year model. This one year model does not
do a very good job at predicting or accommodating future impacts or needs. It is
analogous to driving down the road at 60 miles an hour with your door open looking
straight down. The problems that you face will be upon you when you know that they
are problems and so your reaction time is very poor. So, we feel like we don't want to
drive that way any longer and what we would like to do instead is to lift our head and
look forward and this new projection -model -- rate projection model allows us to look
forward over a six year period now. So, if we can look down the road six years and
identify what the impacts are going to be in six years, we can prepare for them now,
thus reducing the crisis situation that might -- we might otherwise face having not had
that opportunity. A couple -- excuse me. A couple things about our -- our multi-year
rate model is that we have done a good job of separating out water and wastewater
utilities and you may recall from our earlier conversation in July that it was very difficult
for us to identify what water rate or what water services cost, what sewer services cost.
If the revenues for one covers or subsidizes the cost for the other. So, what we did is
internally we separated water and wastewater utilities. In water we separated further
our operations from capital and, of course, in wastewater we did the same. So, we took
one giant pot of money, which is the Enterprise Fund and we split it into four quadrants,
one being water operation, the second being water capital, the third being water -- or,
excuse me, wastewater operations. And the fourth being wastewater capital. This rate
projection model allows us to input a variety of different information in order to model
different scenarios and that variability in our projections has allowed us to provide
additional insight as to where we are moving and what we should expect to be coming
down the road in the future. Our multi-year rate model also now includes personnel
growth and inflationary factors, which help us to more realistically project costs
associated with each of those areas. We also can project, as I mentioned, the resultant
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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impacts over a six year period. And I want to show you the benefit of utilizing a multi-
year rate projection model in comparison to the model we currently use. What you see
here on the right is our current rate structure. Water base and usage and, then, at the
rates and, then, sewer base and usage again. Base is just the amount that you have to
pay in order to have the connection and, then, usage is what you pay on a per thousand
gallon basis. Our existing program or business model has the following input -- has
traditionally had the following impact. If we utilize for this example all of our FY-09
enhancements to keep everything constant, but we do not include an operational
reserve. We do not include a capital transfer, we do not include a depreciation reserve,
and we do not include any regulatory compliance needs. What we see is if we chart all
of this on a graph where we are financially as it relates to ending fund balance
projections. What you will see is that, essentially, our wastewater ending fund balance
is on -- for the fiscal year 2009 or ending the fiscal year 2009, is about 2.7 or 2.8 million
dollars. Water would be on the order of about 4.5 million dollars. And so you add those
two together to get your overall ending fund balance in the Enterprise Fund, which is the
red square and that tells you that you have, you know, essentially, 7.2 or so or 7.3
million dollars. That is again, without an operational reserve. Now, if you take the same
information and you move forward, that scenario -- if we were to do this year by year by
year by year and plot what was going to happen looking backwards, this is what it would
look like. The benefit of having a rate projection model is that we don't have to wait for
this scenario to unfold, we can, instead, look forward and respond. Under this scenario,
projecting our overall ending fund balances as it relates to water and wastewater cash
position, we can see that the water -- the blue line here, which represents water, comes
very very close to zero and the wastewater line goes negative in 2000 -- it's a bit far for
me to read. I believe it's 2010. What happens is as the wastewater ending fund
balance plummets, it pulls with it the cash position of the water utility and that's what this
red line -- this red dotted line means, because that is the sum of the blue line and the
green line. So, what this means is that if we continue down this -- down this path and
we were not able to look forward as far as we can now, we would expect to have
serious concerns in about 2011. So, that's one of the biggest benefits of doing a
projection model is it helps us to now have a dashboard by which we can take
information and make adjustments today in order to prevent this kind of scenario from
occurring. So, this new approach that I wanted to speak more about is the, of course,
multi-year rate projection model. I wanted to give you some of the assumptions that we
have used in the scenario that we are recommending for your consideration this
evening. You will remember in July we gave you three scenarios to consider. What we
had done in this particular example is taken our best stab at what we believe is -- or
should be considered by Council as it relates to modification of rates. So, you will only
see one recommendation here, because we have tried to streamline all that information,
and that recommendation is based on the following assumptions, inputs, and approach.
The assumptions are that population growth factor will be about three percent. You can
agree or disagree that it will be three percent, you know that right now we believe it's
floating around one and a half percent. However, we have come off a couple of years
of around 15 and a half percent. So, we wanted to be -- we wanted to be as accurate
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as we could as it related to the numbers, but certainly that's just -- you should know that
that's the assumption that we used. Our personnel growth factor. This relates to
personnel costs, insurance, benefits, staff growth, whatever, is included in here at a
growth rate of three percent. And, then, our construction costs inflator, this is a -- an
inflator as it relates to how much we believe construction projects will cost in the future
on a year by year basis. We use the five year ENR, which is Engineering News Report,
at 4.04 percent. This is just really an inflationary factor used for construction projects.
So, those are the assumptions that we use. We can --
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Tom, can I interrupt real quick?
Barry: Yes, sir.
Borton: On the personnel growth factor, is that a percentage of increase for each
personnel unit or the department as a whole?
Barry: Across the board. Across the board. So, that represents --
Rountree: Merit increase.
Bany: Merit increases. It represents our commitments to retirement or medical benefits
or all of that stuff.
Borton: On an individual basis, not the -- the cost of the department as a whole, the
personnel cost increase, because you will have new hires, by way of an example.
Bany: Right. And that is included as new hires as well. So, what we did is said, okay,
personnel might cost us 2.5 million dollars in water -- and I'm not saying it is, I'm using
that as an example. We just took that 2.5 percent, multiplied it by a three percent
growth factor year by year by year and, again, we did that, because we were trying to
cover these additional costs we know are going to be incurred with merit increases,
bonuses -- or not bonuses, but benefits, retirement, new hires, all of that stuff goes into
that. So, that was just our best -- our best guess. And, again, like I say, you should be
familiar with these assumptions, because if you don't agree, we can modify them very
easily and rerun the model and see what it says.
Borton: The only thing I would add is it seems low -- it seems the -- within reason on an
individual cost of a single employee could increase annually at that rate when the costs
for personnel for the department would increase. You know, if that's the individual rate,
plus the inclusion of new employees being greater than three percent.
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Bany: It could very well be greater than three percent. We made the assumption that
we weren't going to grow very much.
Borton: And that's okay. Councilman Bird says that's good. Okay. Thank you.
Barry: Now, you know, I can't make comment as to whether that will come true or not
and, again, that's the disadvantage of projection, we have to take a guess as to where
we think we are going to be. So, that was the number we used and, certainly, if the
Council would like us to modify that, we are happy to do that. On the scenario you
should be familiar with the inputs that we utilize as well. As you know, I'm
recommending -- and our finance director Mrs. Kilchenmann is recommending an
operational reserve. For water we are recommending an operational reserve of two
million dollars and the same for wastewater. This represents in each of those groups
about a six month reserve. That -- that should be sufficient. We shouldn't have to build
that reserve, six months should do it. Some utilities have, you know, two months, three
months, zero months, six months, nine months, it's all over the board. It's just, really,
whatever you're comfortable with. That was the number that we chose. We also chose
for a capital transfer, you may recall in July when we spoke about the need for capital
transfers and the benefits of capital transfers, we included in this scenario a water
capital transfer on the order of about 1.4 million to 1.7 million to finance capital needs.
And, then, in wastewater from 3.5 million to about 4.5 million. Certainly, the needs in
wastewater, as I -- as I presented earlier are greater than that of the water department
and, therefore, the capital transfer is greater. For depreciation financing, I wanted to
explain that I utilized a simple straight line depreciation approach. The -- the straight
line approach just, essentially, takes your total asset value of all of your infrastructure
and divides it by your service life. So, my asset value in water is about 800 million -- or,
excuse me, 80 million -- not 800 million. It if was we would have big problems. The
wastewater depreciation or total asset value is on the order of about 125 million. I
believe these numbers are low, just so you know. We don't really have a very good way
of determining what the true value is. A lot of the infrastructure was put in before we
started keeping records of it, but this is what we have on the books now and so that's
what I decided to use. The infrastructure service life. This is another variable that is
highly debatable. I utilized 75 years. Some utilities utilize 50 years, some utilize a
hundred years, some utilities will take the actual service life -- expected service life and
group those into tiers. Others will have a specific service life. But what's important here
is that whatever your service life, it does impact your overall depreciation set aside. So,
if you just take the inputs that I have plugged in here, the annual financing would be
1/75th of the total asset value, which would equate to an annual set aside for the water
department for depreciation financing of 1.1 million and for wastewater 1.7 million. That
means we would be setting aside every year 1.1 for water and 1.7 for wastewater, but
that would accrue. We currently don't accrue our depreciation financing. What we do is
we just replace it. And that's a very very dangerous position for us to be in. We should
really be accruing our financing. And we should be spending that as well. We don't
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expect that there will be a single point in time 75 years into the future where all of the
infrastructure is going to be replaced at once. Instead, we know that as infrastructure
ages and we need to repair or replace things, we should be utilizing this depreciation
financing set aside to finance those -- those upgrade replacements. So, moving our
CIP -- our five year CIP toward a depreciation and a new infrastructure financing
approach will help us to make sure that we have balance in the depreciation financing
portion of the CIP. And, then, lastly, we talked about a regulatory reserve in one of our
scenarios in July. I did not include a regulatory reserve. This is something that the
Council could ask us to consider and run the model on. You will remember the third
scenario I presented in July did include a regulatory reserve and you can see - or,
hopefully, you will remember that that was a pretty hefty investment and requirement in
increases for rates in order to cover that. Does that mean we should ignore the
regulatory requirements? Absolutely not. But we are in a position here where I think we
just can't take too big of a bite at this point in time and it may be something we need to
consider next year or the following year. And certainly I would feel more comfortable
after we got more information as it related to what really looks to be the regulatory -
impending regulatory requirements on us. Our approach was fairly straight forward.
Our model included all of the FY-09 enhancements that are proposed in the current
budget, which the Council has thus far approved with limited modification. I did utilize a
just-in-time capital financing strategy. I know that was discussed at our July meeting
and we certainly can discuss it again here. The approach here is, again, to just budget
the money that you need for any one project at any one year, but to have the Council
approve the overall project at its inception and, essentially, ferret out or allow only the
monies needed for any one particular year, that helps us to reduce our overall
commitment or encumbrance on any particular line item in the fund has its benefits, but
certainly that is something that can be discussed later, should the Council desire. The
model, as I mentioned before, attempts to anticipate current revenue needs based upon
future operational capital and depreciation needs. So, we are trying to say what are we
going to need in the future and how do we embrace that today. So, note that our capital
needs are going to increase as we team more about our system, as we get new
regulatory requirements, as we revise our capital plan, as we upgrade our existing
infrastructure. Or don't expect for the capital needs to go down, unfortunately. That
would be great. But we are a long way from that. So, I didn't actually put the model into
the screen, because it is enormous and it is full of all sorts of numbers. I'm happy to
provide that to you in a spreadsheet, which you can go through and pick apart, but,
essentially, I picked out the highlights as it related to what we utilize in our -- in our
overall rate recommendation. And I apologize for the size here, but I wanted you to -- I
wanted you to get aside-by-side comparison here. I'm hopeful this is on your screens.
No screens tonight? Okay. Well, let me help you through this.
Bird: I can see this one.
Barry: Okay. Great.
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Bird: I told you I was too lazy to get my computer out.
Barry: So, let me walk you through this, then, since it is a bit hard to read. On the left
this graph right here represents the water e the changes in the water rate. The graph
on the right represents the changes in the wastewater rates. Currently -- the current
rate is this bar right here and for water, our current base charge is $4.04 here and our
current usage charge is $1.39. When we run the model with the assumptions and the
inputs that I discussed with you, it tells us that we need, in order to sustain a positive
financial position, that we need to increase the base by 97 cents and our usage by 33
cents, bringing the total base charge to $5.01 and the usage charge to $1.72. Over on
the sewer side again, this -- this bar graph represents current -- our current sewer base
rate is $4.74. Our current sewer -- sewage usage rate is $3.04. Our proposed rate -- or
when you run the model, the model tells us that we are going to need to increase our
base rate by $2.82, and usage rate by $1.81. This brings the proposed rate under the
model scenario to $7.56 for a base and $4.85 for usage. Now, if you convert this impact
to average user, that's what this chart here at the bottom tells us. And I'll read this
across. The average family water bill currently is on the order of $15.16. Under the
new rate structure that average bill would go up to $18.79, for an increase of $3.63 or a
percentage increase of about 24 percent. The average family sewer bill is currently
$19.94. The proposed rate for the average family sewer bill would be $31.79, with a
dollar difference of $11.85 and, then, a percent difference of about 59 percent. So, the
total monthly bills are down here for the average user. That means that the total
monthly bill currently between water and wastewater -- this is the check that our rate
payers write to us monthly currently, for the average user is $35.10. That would go up
by $15.48 per month to $50.58, which is an overall increase of 44 percent. I would like
to say that the average user in this scenario is -- for water an 8,000 gallon usage and for
sewer a 5,000 gallon usage. Sewer is less, generally, because it does not include -- it is
generally an average of the winter water consumption, which does not include irrigation.
So, we don't charge folks the sewer amount, because we believe in the summertime the
water increases are going to the lawn and not down the wastewater system. So, what
does this do as it relates to ending fund balances over time? And this is -- this is what
the model tells us. It says that in 2009 we are not looking too bad. In 2000 -but,
essentially, over the time from 2009 to 2014 we had a general decrease -- for 2013 I
should say. We have a general decrease in remaining cash for our wastewater and our
water utilities. This can be disconcerting or it can also be reassuring. The thing to keep
in mind is that what you're seeing on the screen does include a two million reserve for
water and a two million dollar reserve for sewer. It also includes an annual set aside of
the amount that I specified earlier for depreciation financing. So, having those safety
nets does help us to be reassured in the fact that we are approaching a low ending fund
balance between the two utilities. However, the down side to that is if we are going to
continue under a pay go policy, that is a pay as you go for infrastructure and everything
else policy, this is not the best position to be in, because what this states is that if you
have to pay for big ticket items, you really only have 1.3 million dollars in 2014 from the
water fund and one million dollars, essentially, from the wastewater fund to pay for
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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those items. We know that there are some big ticket items coming down the road that
extend beyond the 2015 time horizon here. The model just, however, hasn't picked
those up, because it's not built beyond 2014. So,, under the general rate -- under the
assumptions that I have described and the inputs that we utilize, we end up with an
overall average increase in water and sewer of 44 percent. That coming from 24
percent increase in water and 59 percent in wastewater and this is the result. I want to
talk a little bit about what this rate modification would include. As I mentioned it includes
all enhancements as proposed in the FY-09 budget. It includes the dedicated six month
operational reserve for both water and wastewater. A dedicated accounting transfer to
both water and wastewater. A dedicated accruing depreciation reserve for the water
and wastewater utilities beginning in FY-10. Couldn't afford to do it in FY-09. And,
then, what it does not include is a regulatory compliance component. It's -- we can
accommodate that, but it wasn't included this time. Here is what the rate does -- the
rate suggestion does. It brings stability and predictability to our fund. It also positions
our utilities to meet all of our immediate needs and helps us to meet some of our short-
term future needs. It helps us to adequately finance our existing public facilities and
services and one thing to keep in mind is that it will require future adjustments to
continue to rectify the declining trend that was displayed on the model. The good news
is that it doesn't go below zero. I want to keep this in perspective and this graph and
information is presented to try to keep that in perspective. I know it's hard to read again
here. I'll go from right to left on the chart. This represents the average -- what we did is
we called up a bunch of utility companies and we said what's the average bill for your
customers? And this is what we got. In garbage we got an average bill -- monthly bill of
$15.45. With our new proposed rate in Meridian water, average bill would be $18.79.
We step that up to the sewer bill, average is about $31.79. And, then, for intemet,
phone, and cable TV, those are all coming in around 35 dollars, according to those
entities. Some folks say that's high, some folks say that's low. In any event, moving on.
Natural gas charges, of course, that depends upon your home size, your usage, the
temperature, all these things. Now, we have heard from the gas company, it's about 75
dollars per month. Of course, that's not every single month, because most people aren't
using that kind of gas in the summertime. And the same for electricity it's the inverse.
But, generally, that's 87 dollars. And, then, cell phones. This is cell phone costs on the
order of a hundred dollars. What I'm trying to display here is that the Meridian Public
Works Department provides life, safety, and essential services. Water and sewer are,
however, amongst the cheapest services out there. If you consider garbage, which is --
which is only less per month here, is really a four times a month service, which is an
important service -- we are providing services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365
days of the year, for the most part uninterrupted. I understand that this may not be the
glamorously recognized as by sirens and lights, for example, but we also consider that
our community would not be what it is without these essential life safety services. And I
also put up here for your consideration the costs associated with other per gallonage
products. A gallon of gasoline, as we know -- I had to -- because I was going to present
this a couple times, this has gone up and down and up and down, but, essentially, right
Meridian City Council Special MeeUng/Warkshop
August 19, 2008
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around $3.99. A gallon of milk $3.79. A gallon of water at the supermarket, about 99
cents. A gallon of Meridian water is one-fifth of a penny, so --
De Weerd: I thought you would say priceless.
Barry: It is priceless. Yeah. That's true. I should have said that. I would also say that
the price -- the price a -- I didn't put up here the price of a gallon of sewage treatment
from -- from our wastewater plant is one-third of a penny. If you consider just for a
moment, if we could charge what the bottled water companies charge for water, the
average bill for our citizens would be over 8,000 dollars a month. It's pretty
phenomenal. So, I wanted to just -- I know these are big numbers that we are talking
about, but I wanted to keep it in perspective. 1 also think that you may be asking the
question later what happens if we implement these rate modifications, if we so choose
to implement them at all, over amultiple -- multiple periods? And so I wanted to have a
brief discussion as to what impacts you might see or expect to see if you implemented
these modifications over time. This is a somewhat confusing chart, but it's actually very
easy to read once you know how to step through it. Consider as an example -- now,
this is just as an example. This isn't real life, except that the numbers are real life, but
the percentages are not real life. I just wanted to do it to have round numbers. But
consider, for example, that you needed a 50 percent rate increase and you decided to
take that 50 percent rate increase in a one year period. So, this is the period. The loss
of revenues in taking that 50 percent in the first year is zero, because you're getting all
those revenues in that first year. If, instead, you break up that 50 percent revenue over
a two year period, that means the first year of the two year period you're charging 25
percent increase and, then, in the second year you add another 25 percent increase. If
you do that, however, you actually lose in the water department 1.5 million dollars just
by delaying one year the overall increase. Now, you continue that trend further in this
analysis and you say if you took the 50 percent rate increase over three years, that is an
equivalent of about 16.7 percent per year, so you're going to lose over that three year
period about three million dollars. Over the four year period, although you can get the
rate reduced, you're going to lose 4.4 million dollars. Over the fifth year that's ten
percent per year for five years. You're going to lose almost six million dollars. This is
very important to consider when you're going to talk about what you may or may not
want to do as it relates to rates. Now, this is the graph that shows the same
relationship, but with a little bit different dollars in the wastewater group. The concept is
the same. Take the rate increase in the first year, you get all the money that you need
to balance in the first year. You take it over two years, you start losing revenue. Over
three years you lose more. Four. Five. So, that's an important concept to grasp. This
is another confusing chart. Let me explain this one. If you decided that you did not
want to lose the money I just described, then, you could increase the rate an additional
incremental amount and spread it over time to not lose that money. Here is the
example. If you took a 50 percent rate increase over the first year period, then, your
equivalent rate increase is going to be 50 percent, because you took it all in the first
year. If, instead, you took that rate increase over two years, you would be thinking it
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was 25 percent for two years, but if you don't want to lose the revenue that I talk about
in the previous slide, you, actually, have to tack on another three percent, which means
over the two year period our rate payers would be paying six percent more if you didn't
want to lose that revenue. If you took it over three years, the equivalent was about 17
percent, but you would have to raise it another four percent per year to have an overall
increase of 21 percent per year for three years, that means the rate impact to our
citizens would be an additional 13 percent over that three year period, which means it
costs them really 63 percent over the three year period. What this is trying to do is
describe that although it may seem prudent to delay the implementation of a rate or
distribute it over time, there are consequences financially for doing that. And as long as
we keep that in mind, if we do that and you want to make up the revenue, that's fine. If
not we know what we are getting into. That's, essentially, what this chart is trying to
help to demonstrate. I hope that you understand that, because it is a pretty confusing
chart. Are there any questions on this chart? Okay. Moving forward. Here is the effect
of delaying the rate adjustment as it relates to our existing model. Now, this chart over
here on the left, this is the actual model result with the inputs and assumptions that 1
have described to you. So, this is -- this is no different than what you saw a couple
slides back, but this represents the same input and the same assumption, but, instead,
distributing the rate over only a two year period. What you can see here is that although
we have a declining trend here, we continue to maintain positive cash flow all the way
through the year 2014. However, if we delay the rate over a two year period, you can
see that in our wastewater ending fund balance we only have about three years before
we have to do something drastic to make sure that we don't go into the red. In water we
also dip down, but don't go below zero. The red line, again, represents, because we
have one fund, the sum of the green line and the blue line, which means that,
essentially, the entire Enterprise Fund would be -- would potentially go insolvent -- I
can't read that year.
Zaremba: 2012.
Bird: 2012.
Barry: 2012. Thank you. So, this is -- this is the power of this rate projection model,
because you can plug in all kinds of different assumptions and inputs and have it spit
out for you what -- what the future is going to look like. Again, they are based on our
best guesses, but the difference between these two charts is only that you distributed
the rate adjustment evenly over a two year period. Now, I wanted to just show you the
benefit of the prediction again. These graphs are the same exact graphs with all the
assumptions, all the data is the same, the difference here, however, is that in graph A
you implement the full adjustment in 2009 and in graph B you also implement the full
rate adjustment in 2009 as the model recommends, but, then, you add on a modest five
percent increase every year thereafter. Now, I'm not suggesting we do this, I'm just
showing you what that would look like. You can see just how stable the fund becomes
with a minor modification every year thereafter, whether they are inflationary
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
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modifications or what. What we see here is that the model is telling us we need to
make a big mid point -- or mid course correction now and after that time, provided we
make that mid course correction to the level it needs to be made, we can bring stability
to the fund with minor inflationary adjustments over the six year time period into the
future. As a matter of fact, this is kind of nice to see here, where we have some
increases going on. I can tell you when we get here that's not going to look like that,
because this, again, doesn't include our phosphorus regulatory requirement, the
uranium requirement that we are still having to meet, and those kinds of things. So, this
will modify, but this is -- this is based on what we know today. So, I just wanted to give
you that background to show you what little tinkering -- what a little bit of tinkering can
do as it relates to your projection. I'd like to pause there and ask if you have any
questions, essentially, on the rate recommendation, the model, and that information I
have presented thus far, because we are going to deviate here just a little bit into some
pretty complex stuff. I'm hopeful it's not that complex, but I do want to pause for a
minute and make sure we -- I answer your questions or comments or concerns before
we move forward. So, I'll pause for those if you have any.
Rountree: Comments? Questions? Press on.
De Weerd: Todd looks like he's having too much fun.
Rountree: Todd, you want us to ask you a question? They would be, wouldn't they.
Okay.
Barry: Because we are considering some pretty -- potentially pretty big changes to our
rates, I thought it prudent that we look at how we structure our rates and I have really no
recommendation here on this next section, I just wanted to point some things out to you.
I actually do have a recommendation, but I'll withhold that at this point in time for your
comment. The rate restructuring portion here -- and, again, I didn't know that you
wouldn't have your screens. This is -- this is a bit tough to read and the next one is
going to be even tougher. Can we make copies of this for the Council? Yeah. That's
going to be tough to read, too. Do you mind blowing that up? Yeah. If you could blow
this up, that would be great. I'm going to get you copies of this, hopefully blown up, so
that it makes a little bit more sense. .
Rountree: Tom, we have eye in our health insurance, so you might -- might schedule
yourself for an eye exam. I don't have any trouble reading that.
Borton: I can read it.
Barry: I thought my glasses were strong enough, but, again, I'm a pretty good distance
away, so --
Bird: It's better than what we get from Todd.
Meridian City Council Special MeeUng/Workshop
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Page 82 of 101
Bany: This is Todd's right here. I'm going to have that one blown up. But lei's go
through this. We will step through the charts here, because it makes a lot of sense, it
just looks scary. This is water. This is sewer. And this is the combined. When we talk
about rate structures, currently this is our current structure. We have a base, which also
can be considered fixed income. We have usage, which can be considered variable
income. Our base is what we are going to get no matter what, if people are connected.
Our usage is what we are going to get based on how they use it. That's why it's
variable. If you multiply this across, even under our new fee scenario, we increase as
we are recommending here, 24 percent. These are the new fees. I have already
described those. This would be the revenue under the new rate structure for water, with
a 24 percent increase. That's the revenue that we would get, this bold number. Now, if
you take that and you divide what you're getting in your revenue from your base versus
from your usage, you see that your base is supplying about 27 percent of your overall
financing -- or funding, rather. And your usage is providing about 73 percent of your
overall funding. Now, when you say what does the base and what does the usage
cover currently, our base covers 60 percent of personnel expenses and, then, the
remaining 40 percent has to be covered by usage. The other key here is that operating
expenses, CIP transfer, and the depreciation reserve would all be covered by usage
under this rate structure. This is what the rate structure looks like. Generally, 25
percent comes from base, our revenues come from base, 75 percent comes from
usage. Now, you get something very similar in sewer. Here is the overall total revenue
in sewer. Here is the percentage that comes from base up here and from usage.
Again, about 60 percent of your base is covering personnel, the other 40 percent's
coming from your usage. And, then, your CIP, your operational and your depreciation
expenses are coming from full usage and that carries forward when you combine the
two rates for the overall amount. The question of the day is should we be covering,
essentially, our fixed costs with variable income. That's the question. Shall we cover
fixed costs with variable income. Our fixed costs are personnel and operating. So, I'm
not suggesting that this rate structure does not work, it's just a question for the Council.
Do we want to consider moving under this structure whereby we are only covering a
small portion of our personnel and operating cost with a base rate or a fixed income.
There are two other options that I want to present to you. Mr. Watts, however, is I
believe -- did they get the -- he's working on the next slide, which is pretty difficult to
read.
Rountree: We can read it.
Bird: We can read it. Get with it.
Bany: All right. I'm not sure I can and he's got my -- I can maybe move up.
Bird: Give it to Todd, he can read it for you.
Meridian City Council Special Meetlng/Workshop
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Page 83 of 101
Rountree: You can use this mike.
Barry: Okay. Okay. So, this represents -- this first column here represents what we
just went through. This is our current fee structure. Twenty-five percent of our income
comes from base or fixed income and the other 75 percent comes from usage. Option
two is when we say, okay, let's take all of our personnel expenses and cover those with
fixed income. And that's just what we have done here. You will notice that the amount
of revenue is the same in every case and so is the rate increase, okay? Or the revenue
from the rate increase. What differs here is the percent increase when you compare it
from base to usage across the board, but the bottom line increase is the same, 24
percent for water -- 24 percent from water, 59 percent for sewer, 59 percent here. But
because you're making modifications to the base and the usage you get different
percentages in here, but they average out to what we were talking about before. So, in
this case under option two, all we are doing is saying, look, we want to cover personnel
expenses with fixed income and so, therefore, a hundred percent of that should be
covered by your base. If you do that, then, you can see here that you have got on the
order of about 38 percent -- close to 40 percent coming from base income and fixed
income and the remaining coming from usage. However, in this situation we are not
covering any of our operational expenses, which also could be considered, however, as
a fixed cost. So, option three here says, all right, well, what does it look like if you want
to have your fixed costs covered by your fixed income and here we have personnel
expenses covered by a hundred percent base and operating expenses covered by a
hundred percent base and that's this graph here where, essentially, 60 percent of your
income is fixed and 40 percent is variable. Now, the impact to the rate payers, just by
changing the structure here under this example -- this is the average rate payer, 8,000
gallons of water, 5,000 gallons sewer, is exactly the same. Okay. Again, overall
increase here that is being recommended was 24 percent for water is the same in
option one, it is the same in option two, it is the same in option three. Fifty-nine percent
for sewer. The same in option one, option two, and option three and the combined
increase that we talk about at being 44 percent is the same in option one, two and
three. I will point out, however, that if you publish rate adjustments, you know, doing a
restructuring here, you're going to see in the newspaper -- for example, if you choose
this, that our base rate was going from say for sewer 4.74 to 16.86, that we have a 256
percent increase. Now, that's true if you're just doing a numbers comparison, but you
also have a minus two percent in usage and so that equates, generally, when you do
the calc, to a 59 percent overall increase. So, this can be very confusing for the public
and you should just be aware of that. It is always a challenge when you change your
rate structure to educate the public on how the structure is changing, but how it is not
intended to modify or adjust the incomes that you're trying to get, just, essentially,
covering your base expenses with your fixed income. So, anyway, that is, essentially, it
as it relates to rate structure. Just something to think about. So, in conclusion, as you
probably ascertained, we have some financial challenges that we need to deal with. I
will emphasize, however, that we do have a balanced budget. We utilize the multi-rate
projection model to help us provide insight into what's going to happen in the future. We
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know that we don't have a crystal ball, we don't have fortune cookies or anything else
that we can use to help us with that, so we have to do the best with the information that
we have and that's what this multi-year rate projection model can help us with. We do
know that as a result of this we are going to have better awareness about where we are
fiscally and we are going to have better reporting that's going to be required in order to
keep this model up to date and to keep it true and accurate. And so tracking is going to
be important as well. But this has allowed us an opportunity to really emphasize our
movement toward a longer term planning horizon, but we need to act now in order to
make our mid course correction. Many will say that now is the worst possible time for
us to be considering raising our rates and while I empathize with this, I can assure you
looking forward, using the rate projection model, that there is no better time than now to
make our mid course correction, as postponing our actions will only make more difficult
our future financial challenges. To that end we will continue to be fiscally conservative
in the way we budget and in the way that we operate. We will move more toward an
anticipatory budgeting approach, helping a using the model to help guide our decision
making processes. We will use -- we will have better use and programming and
leveraging of our existing dollars and as an example of this, I'd like to emphasize again
that in the fiscal year 2009 budget we were able to reduce our personnel and operating
expenses utility wide by 12.7 percent over fiscal year 2008, with the exception of
wastewater. We also reduced our enhancement request by 26 percent over fiscal year
2008 and we also freed up greater than four million dollars in capital expenses in fiscal
year 2009 by utilizing just-in-time capital financing. Some of the recommended next
steps we have are that we'd like for you to provide input as it relates to your agreement
or disagreement with our assumptions and input and we would like to go back and
model -- modify the model inputs to match your directive, should you have a different
directive than what's been presented this evening. After that's done, we'd recommend
that we initiate a public process for modification of our rates and/or structure to be
determined by Council. And that we revive and develop our finance policies to match
our recommended approach and be inclusive of Council's directives. So, I having said
that, I am -- that concludes my presentation and I'm anxious to take your questions,
comments, or concerns.
Rountree: I have a question for Todd. In our General Fund accounts we have a
reserve, I believe it's three months or is it six months? It's four? Okay. I was close.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I just -- it's always a bad time to raise rates, as you put out. Some times are
better, some times are worse than others and I'm reminded that somebody made a
comment one time the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time
is today. So, having identified that we have a crisis coming, the time is always today.
So, I -- you know, if we would have solved it ten years ago or something, we wouldn't be
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having the discussion, I guess. But I think to go forward in the future, we need to be
doing this, and just off the top of my head, the methodology that you went for all seems
reasonable to me. We probably will discuss whether we ought to have the same kind of
reserve as we do other places, maybe four months instead of six. That seems like a fair
question. The other discussions are things that -- this is probably something we ought
to review once a year and see, you know, do we need to adjust the assumptions, do we
need to adjust the rates. I would be inclined to suggest that we should go for the rate
increase, as you have proposed. I have some discomfort from getting that much of our
budget from the variable part of the income. I guess my suggestion would be that
maybe we go for option one, we go for the entire rate adjustment that you're suggesting
immediately, because I see the penalty of not doing that. But, two, the rate restructuring
where you get more of it -- more of the base income from the fixed base fee, I probably
would go with option two the first year and segway into option three the second or third
year, because that -- the dollar figures are the same. Even if it takes us a couple of
years to get to our comfort level with where it's coming from, that would be all right with
me. I think we should go that direction. But I'm not sure we need to make that change
immediately. Personal opinion. I'm done.
Rountree: Further comments, questions?
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Now, I guess I ask staff --and while we want to encourage conservation, we
don't want to necessarily penalize as well. So, which of those options seems most fair?
You know, should -- and I guess that's a philosophical question on who should pay, the
higher users or because your base doesn't change much, regardless of the usage, what
is fair? Was that a question you understood? It's getting late.
Barry: Well, Madam Mayor, Mr. President, I'm not sure if that's a rhetorical question or
a philosophical question or a question you would like staff to comment on, so --
De Weerd: I would like your comment on while the goal is to encourage conservation of
water -- what you flush down your pipes, you don't necessarily want that person who is
spending a lot of time and effort to conserve to pay a higher rate, because they are
conscientious of those resources. So, in these three scenarios what is your
recommendation trying to balance some of the goals on conservation and being fair?
Barry: Madam Mayor and Mr. President, Council Members, the rate structure that we
have is one in which we utilize a base to cover some portion of our operation whether it
be personnel, operating costs, capital outlays, or whatnot. And the structure that we
currently have is such that about 75 percent of our income comes from a variable
source. Now, if we really push hard on conservation, which I would like to do, we will
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not be solvent if we do that under that existing -- under our current rate structure. There
will be a point in time where we will not be -- we will not gain sufficient revenues from a
25 percent fixed income in order to sustain ourselves. And this is the big debate over
conservation. How much do you want to penalize people for conserving, because some
people look at it that way. You know, I'm getting -- I'm having to pay more for less and
that is true in a lot of different areas, as we grow as a population, as we have finite
resources that continue to be consumed by more and more people, there will be those
points in time where the resource can't sustain the population's demand on them and so
it will be required -- a requirement for folks to be conserving. But the rate structure in
each of the options that have been presented are such that those who use more will pay
more, without question. The principle behind this is how comfortable do we want to be
that our fixed costs are going to be covered by our variable income and it is a balancing
act, because we are a business. You know, the Enterprise Fund, utilities are a business
and we need to stay solvent. At the same time we also want to promote conservation
and environmental initiatives. So, where do you strike that balance?
De Weerd: Well -- and, Tom, I guess that's my question and theory is isn't that
something that you should look at annually in your fee adjustments if you are being
successful in your conservation efforts? It does go with the base is going to have to
increase, but, you know, by continuing to keep that philosophy and making sure that
that is just an annual consideration, instead of loading it up front with the -- with the
premise that, well, if we use less, we have to make up for it. I mean isn't that just an
annual consideration?
Bany: You can make it an annual consideration. Rate restructuring is not something
that's commonly done that frequently and there are certainly a lot of different structures
to consider. You can consider block structures, for example, where you charge a base
rate and, then, the first two or three thousand gallons of usage is at one rate, the next
two to three thousand gallons is at another rate, which is higher, the two to three
thousand gallons is at another rate, which is even higher, to, A, promote conservation
and, B, make up the -- or have the people who have the biggest impact on the system
pay the biggest amount for it. There is a variety of different ways we can talk about it.
You know, all I did was take our existing structure and say how much of it do you want
to continue to cover fixed costs versus how much do you want to have to pay for other
stuff. You could certainly look at your rate structure every single year. What we have
noticed, again, since 2002 to now is that the amount of consumption is reducing and I
presented in July a graph that showed, in part, the impact of that loss of consumption on
our revenues and because our current. rate structure shows that 75 percent of our
revenues in the water department, for the most part, are coming from variable income
sources, that is usage. We aren't seeing the impact of using less and the reality of the
situation is while we want to promote that, it's got to be made up someplace else. You
can front load it into a base or you can tier your usage charges, so that the people who
do end up using more actually get charged more and more as they ease up. There is a
variety of different structures that can be considered, it's just -- it's really a philosophical
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question, it's something that, you know, is more or less a city policy as it relates to how
we want to charge our customers.
De Weerd: Just one more question.
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I would be curious to see if we mirrored the General Fund's reserve at four
months, rather than the six months you have in the proposal. I'm sure it's not going to
change it significantly, but because that reserve has to be made on the front side, rather
than the back side, perhaps it will. If you can include that in a model run.
Barry: Uh-huh. Yes, ma'am, we can do that.
Rountree: Further questions? Comments? Tom, on the grade restructuring, that whole
conundrum of what to do for conservation is probably not going to be solved, but when I
look at the fairness issue, whether you're conserving or not, the cost of that well and the
cost of the infrastructure to deliver a gallon of water to the consumer, who is conserving
and the consumer who is utilizing above the 8,000 gallons on average, is the same.
And they are going to be impacted the same if that resource is not producing water. So,
I have a tough time struggling with that. I think our structure now is, if you will,
subsidizing the system. I mean if everybody were to utilize and conserve, we would not
be able to meet our base expenses. Period.
De Weerd: Or if we have a wet spring.
Rountree: Yeah. If we have a flood. There you go. So, I think we need to -- we need
to give that serious consideration. We are not going to do that tonight in terms of where
we are going to go, but I think that we need to take a look at that and find a comfort
point or move to a comfort point in that situation. And it may, in fact, be a blocked
situation to discourage high use and to award the conservers, but that base fee
somehow or another needs to be distributed amongst all users, because they all benefit
the same for having that in place. As far as the rates, I don't like the percentage
particularly, but we are living with seeing rate increases every day, whether it's power or
natural gas or -- we have actually seen some rate decreases with gasoline, but that's --
that's not going to stay. So, I think we need to look at the rates. I think we need to
discuss when we want to schedule our rate hearings. We won't do that with our budget.
And start seeking public input. And I suspect I know what that's going to be, but the
bottom line is our costs are going up, just like everybody else's costs are going up. Our
water and wastewater facilities are driven by the petroleum industry, mainly, in terms of
the infrastructure that we put in and the chemistry that we utilize to maintain them. Our
expertise is growing and needed to operate those highly technical systems and that's
costing us more. So, we need to address that and we need to have the right rates. I
don't think we can back away from that, even though it's going to be a tough decision,
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we are going to have to make that. So, I think, Tom, we need to work with Finance and
the Mayor and the Clerk to figure out when and how we schedule public hearings and
maybe some just public information on rates, rates -- the need for rate increases and
schedule public hearings.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess since Ralph benefits from all of these presentations that he -
Rountree: I was going to ask Ralph how he felt about it.
De Weerd: It would be -- it would be helpful if you asked him some of -- you know,
when we do that public outreach, what speaks to you, Ralph, and what makes sense
and where -- where we need to focus the public education aspect of this. This is not a
comfortable direction, but a necessary one.
Rountree: I think what the Mayor is asking, Ralph, would you be a sounding board. in
that process with us. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you for interpreting what I said.
Rountree: Any other comments, questions? Do you need any --
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I wholeheartedly agree with what you stated about -- I hate to see fixed costs
being financed mostly by variable usage. It costs the same to -- for every house to get
the first gallon there and, then, whatever -how many gallons you use that's where it -
that's the deal. So, as long as we can back up what we need for costs I have no
problem with the rates. I don't -- I'm like Councilman Rountree that I hate seeing this
percentage, but in the same token if -- if our costs warrant it, then, we have got to do it.
We are not in the business of losing money and evidently with your model it's working a
lot better. One of the reasons we have to go with a higher percentage is because we
don't look at rates enough, we wait too many years and, then, have to scrape the
bottom and get after it and get the black eye. So, before you put it out to public
hearings and stuff, Ihope -- and I hope that's soon, at least let us know when it's going
to be, please.
Rountree: Well, Mr. Bird, I would say that we will have all of that before we start that --
orwhat -- before we get into that process. So, we will not necessarily approve that, but
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we will authorize the presentation of at least some options, ranges of numbers, that we
are comfortable with.
De Weerd: Mr. President, Iguess --
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: -- staff needs direction on what to take to the public. You know, what is
palatable to you and certainly I'd like Councilman Borton to have this opportunity to
make a tough decision before his last meeting, so I would hate to deprive you. If we are
to move forward with this, we do need to know what -- what your direction is on how we
are moving forward.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I'll throw out my two bits. Tom, this is awesome stuff. You
have done exactly what needs to be done to fix the problem. My perspective would be
to do the full increase immediately or alter your model to increase the increase to cover
the difference to allow it to be apportioned over a number of years. I'm sure you can
tweak the formula to show that if that makes some sense.
Barry: Absolutely.
Borton: So, it still gets you there, but allows you to spread it out and maybe that's an
option A and an option B to present in a public forum. I don't think the discussion is
whether or not the gap gets closed, it's -- the gap is going to get closed and these are
two different mechanisms to get there. I don't know which is better. And, then, on the --
on the rate restructuring,• I tend to agree that putting more fixed costs into the base
makes sense. I don't know if it's option two or option three. I see where you're trying to
go. I'll just try and figure out the elasticity of personnel costs as it relates to
consumption, which I got myself -- I was graphing things and getting it confused, so
understanding that might make sense to determine which of those options you choose.
But, clearly, I think shifting some of it over to the base makes more sense, brought to
light by the change in the economy and usage that's happened in the last year or so.
So, those are my perspectives. I would favor an approach of the problem is going to be
fixed and here is how it is. And another question on that. I made a note. I didn't bring it
up. The operational reserves I presume have an inflation quotient into it, like the three
percent cost, because the operational reserves need to grow incrementally. It's not just
two million dollars to -- or whatever that figure is. That figure grows annually as well.
Barry: Mr. Borton, Members of the Council, that is true. However, in the model we kept
it flat. So, we did not increase the operational reserve by a percentage. It doesn't
mean we couldn't, it just -- it's a matter of tolerances, too. I mean, you know, the
depreciation reserve I think is perhaps low, that we are going to set aside every year,
but we can't afford what I think we need to probably consider, so, you have to start
somewhere and some of the assumptions that we used are inclusive of that. We are
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trying to be sensitive of the political will of the Council, as well as the -- the impact to the
rate payers, but on that particular issue we did not escalate by any inflationary factor the
operating reserve at all over the six year period.
Rountree: And, Tom, you and I have already discussed this and I have basically given
my blessing on the numbers you have come up with and I think that's a -that's the
starting point and we go up from there. I don't see us backing away from those
numbers. Not and staying solvent in the funds. Particularly with the inflation that we
are looking at and just the operating costs.
Barry: Thank you, sir. This is great direction. We - we are in a position at Public
Works with this model having it fully developed and having finance's assistance and
blessing on this to run any -- any input or any modification that you'd like, I can spit you
out a number within minutes. So, that -- as we have discussed tonight I want to clarify
the direction that I have and also ask for a bit more. The Mayor has requested -- and I
understand the Council has also conferred that we would like to reduce the operational
reserve to a four month reserve, instead of a six month reserve. That will shave, I
believe, about 500,000 dollars off of water and 500,000 dollars off of sewer for the
operational reserve, which means we have about one and a half million for sewer and
one and a half million for water. That will have an impact on the rates. It will, of course,
reduce the rate. If you would like for me to increase the operational reserve by an
inflationary factor on a year by year basis, that will counter that decrease and would
allow us an opportunity to keep pace with our operational reserve over time. So, I
guess I'll pause there and if you -- because I need to have that kind of clarity in order to
run the model with the direction that you would like to see. So, I guess the question is
for input, put in three months or, excuse me, four months reserve for water and
wastewater and, then, add an inflationary escalator to the operational reserve over time.
Is that -- do we have general agreement that that's how we should at least run that
portion of the model?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: Yes. I'm okay with that.
Barry: Okay. Great. And, then, the depreciation amount we will keep the same and --
let me think what else. As far as structure, I'm not really sure how to move forward
there. I mean would you like us to consider other alternatives or provide additional
information beyond what has been provided this evening with regard to the three
options, come up with a new concept, look at the blocks, you know, especially for water.
Because for sewer I don't know that you use the block system for that. So, I guess a
little more direction there would be helpful to allow me to streamline the next iteration.
Rountree: Any comments? My comment would be let's look at option two as the first
step.
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Zaremba: Mr. President, I would join that. I think option two. But revisit going as far as
option three within another year or two, probably. Somewhere down the line.
Barry: Certainly.
Zaremba: Not immediately. I would be interested in the block on the variable.
Barry: I'm sorry, Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Doing the variable part of it in blocks. That would interest me. So, that the
bigger users not only pay more, but they -- it accelerates. I think that's very reasonable.
Rountree: And I can see that just applied to the water side.
Zaremba: Yes. Yes.
Rountree: Any other guidance?
Zaremba: Apparently there are others like United Water that actually do that now. So,
it's not that we would be unique.
Rountree: Any other comments, direction? Tom, you need further clarification?
Barry: No, sir. I guess I would just ask how would you like us to present this information
to you next and what is the time horizon with which you'd like us to report back to you?
Rountree: I'd like to see it next week if we can. I mean we have got to get something
scheduled.
Bird: We have got to get going.
Rountree: We got to have this in place by -- I think by the end of September.
Barry: Okay. So, the -- coming back to you in a week's time, you're referring to the
actual rate hearing.
Rountree: No. No.
Barry: Okay. Just additional information.
Rountree: What do the numbers look like with the suggested changes --
Barry: Fantastic.
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Rountree: -- and we will go from there and if we are comfortable with those, then, we
will move forward with the public process.
Barry: Okay. We can finish the model work and report back almost immediately. The
moving toward a different rate structure, particularly a block type of structure, will
require quite a bit of work for us to make sure that the block structure is set up
appropriately, so that we don't end up shooting ourselves in the foot. So, that will take
us a bit more time and I would not be able to provide answers or insight within a week's
time on that. But perhaps, too, having said that, is it your preference that we just move
forward in a week to present to you the rate model stuff and, then, the second week
brings back the structure or just to wait and bring them both back to you?
Rountree: That would be my preference, that we get the rate now and as you look at
the block structure give it time. We are kind of in the pickle we are in because I think we
were rushed into the last rate changes without giving them full due diligence.
Barry: Mr. President, if I may, changing the rate structure will significantly complicate
our public information campaign, without doubt. I agree that moving our fixed costs
more to a fixed income is entirely reasonable. I just want to make clear that it will be
difficult to explain to the public not only the changes in the rates, but, then, how we are
changing the structure to the rate. It will also be difficult for us to say that your bill will
not change simply by changing the rate structure, because those who are not the
average users will see different impacts and I guess I don't want to set Council or the
leadership of the city up for a huge public outcry as it relates to too many changes at
once and so you may say, well, why did you even present it, but I just presented it only
to say that it's something else we should think about. If we want to think about it now,
that's great, we can incorporate it, and do that work, there is no problem doing that, but I
just want to make sure that everyone understands it will be a much more complex public
relations campaign.
Rountree: Tom, thank you for the concern. I think we all recognize the political fallout
of that. I'm not saying that we at this point in time decided to follow through with that,
but I think we want the information and if it looks like something we need to do, I think
that we are brave enough to do it.
Barry: Fantastic. Thank you, sir.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: You know, I guess in moving to option two and changing your base, I firmly
believe we have to look at this every year. One of the reasons we probably get into
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these scenarios or we are not fine tuning this every year to make sure we still -- you
know, whether it's an increase or a decrease, we are still maintaining that cost
effectiveness and, you know, it's -- I'm not concerned about the public relations aspect
of it, but it is complex. You are already changing your restructure with your base that
maybe you look at the tier structure when you look in a year to see how that works and
do it then and that was -- is certainly up to Council discussion, but I don't want to ask
staff to bite off more than we can handle at this point either. Just to discuss.
Borton: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Tom, you were probably going to do this anyway, but you when bring that back
is to have that proposed implementation date in sort of a backup calendar from there as
to when the public hearings potentially would be, informational meetings from there to
sort of see how it would roll out schedule-wise.
Barry: Yes, sir. I would be happy to bring that information back to you.
Rountree: Yeah. Thank you, Joe. You won't have to see that. Are we through with
this item? Any further input you need, staff? Todd's making an inquiry of Rita. Rita's
going to tell him what to do.
Barry: We are just confirming the expectation on the two weeks for the tiered structure
for the block on usage. Two weeks -- as I understand may be a bit tight for staff. I now
have confirmation that we can meet that two week --
Rountree: We don't need -- yeah. Mr. Gorton's correct, we don't need the tiered to
close the gap.
Bany: Okay. Fantastic.
De Weerd: But when do you want it? For this or when we look at it again?
Rountree: Anybody have a preference? I would like to keep it fresh with us and not
wait until April or sometime like that, but if we are looking end of October, first part of
November --
Bany: I believe we could certainly meet that schedule.
Rountree: Okay. On the general input on the block, so --
Bany: Thank you all for your time. I appreciate the --
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Rountree: Tom, appreciate it. Good job. Now, we will want to do this every year. I
have a comment for the record pertaining to the last item on Leisure Lane. This is one
Councilman that was working under the assumption that Leisure Lane is not part of the
City of Meridian, but the county, but apparently they are. I have asked Mr. Nary to
check into that and I would also like to find out when they were and possibly why they
do not have city services and I think that might have some bearing on how we deal with
them in the future. So, if staff would look into that.
Bird: They are all in the city.
Rountree: That's what we just found out. And I would like to get back to them, once we
find out that information, and maybe sit down with them and see if we can't figure out
what the city's part of this is, if, in fact, that's true and what our obligation is. And if staff
or the Mayor would relate that to their up front personnel, I'd appreciate that.
De Weerd: Tom, can you communicate that?
Barry: Yes, ma'am. We will have that discussion at our first meeting and make sure
that they are aware of that and I will also make sure that we follow up with Council and
the Mayor regarding the status of that.
Rountree: And would you invite me to that meeting?
Barry: Yes, sir.
Rountree: Okay.
De Weerd: Me, too.
Barry: Okay.
(d) Heroes Park /PAL Agreement
Rountree: Next item. Steve, you have been patiently nodding away back there in the
comer, so we are now two hours past our workshop closing time, so take it away and
let's get it over with.
Siddoway: Thank you, Mr. Council President, Mayor, Members of the Council. What
you have before you is an agreement for development and joint use of Heroes Park.
This agreement is the agreement with PAL for Heroes Park. Council has already seen
two previous versions of this, so I will keep my comments to the highlights. The
previous direction that we received from Council on this agreement was to write the
agreement for the 328,000 dollars and to remove all references to a promissory note,
separate from the lien on the property and to show that full amount as an encumbrance
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 95 of 101
on the sale of the property. This agreement does that, as directed by Council. In
addition to delineating those financial responsibilities, it also addresses the processes
for scheduling both soccer and in-line hockey seasons. You have three documents
before you. One is the agreement. One is titled Mortgage and Security Agreement.
And the third one is the mortgage note. I'd like to publicly thank on the record the legal
department for their work on this agreement and especially Emily Kane for her work and
direction. We are here to recommend approval of this agreement. It has been signed
by PAL at this time and to authorize the Mayor to sign all three documents associated
with this agreement and I will stand for questions.
Rountree: Questions for Mr. Siddoway or Mr. Nary? I have a question for Mr. Nary. It
has been reviewed by legal and --
Nary: Mrs. Kane wrote the document, so, yes, Mr. President.
Rountree: It has been reviewed by you?
Nary: Yes.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you. Comments?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Is a motion in order to approve this?
Rountree: I would have a question for Mr. Borton. I know he was instrumental in some
of the language as it related to the surety of the property. I just want to make sure that
the language is consistent with the direction he gave.
Borton: It is.
Rountree: Okay.
Siddoway: Mr. President, I just also point out for the record that the 328,000 that is
required by PAL as part of this agreement is in addition to the 322,000 that they have
already spent on the property, so the total amount invested by PAL in Heroes Park will
be approximately 650,000 and the 328,000 of this agreement, again, is in addition to
what they have already spent.
Rountree: Thank you, Steve.
Meridian City Council Special Meeiing/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 96 of 101
Zaremba: Mr. President, I move that we ratify the Heroes Park Police Athletic League
agreement and I guess that would mean authorize the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to
attest. Is that the process?
Nary: Yes.
Bird: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the Heroes Park PAL agreement,
authorizing the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Can we break open our sparkling cider after this one?
Zaremba: In the park.
De Weerd: This is long awaited.
Rountree: Well --
Siddoway: Thank you very much.
(e) George Fox Leaming Project Proposal for MPD:
- Peterson Indemnity Agmt
- Slawson Indemnity Agmt
-Sara Harris Indemnity Agmt
-Terry Theuson Indenmity Agmt
Rountree: -- it's not over. Next item is the George Fox Leaming Project. Mr. Nary, are
you going to tell us about that?
Nary: Yes. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is a project
that's been coordinated through the police department with Chief Lavey. George Fox is
doing asurvey -- a survey development implementation plan. This is a school project
that will benefit the police department. All the reason the indemnity agreements are in
front of you is the individuals are indemnifying the city for any injury that may occur on
our premises by them being in our building and; essentially, in the secured areas of the
building and such. I think there is one more person that may be submitting one later,
we just haven't gotten them, but it may be all of them that are covered, but that's all this
is. This is just a project with the police, so --
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 97 of 101
Rountree: And what's the action that's required? Is it just for information?
Nary: This is to approve these indemnity agreements.
Rountree: Okay.
Bird: Have you got a first name on the first two?
Nary: It's just the one that's got --
Bird: Yeah, but the first name.
Nary: Oh. First name is Emily Peterson and Stephanie Slawson.
Bird: Stephanie? Okay.
Rountree: So, we need a motion to approve those agreements.
Borton: So moved.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: You want a motion now?
Rountree: Please.
Bird: I would move that we approve the indemnity agreement with George Fox Learning
Project for the Meridian Police Department for Emily Peterson, Stephanie Slawson,
Sara Hams and Teny Thueson and Michael Garner.
Borton: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve these agreements. Roll call or
voice? All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
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De Weerd: Just before you move off the topic of police - and I don't know if Mark has
anything to add, but in the police and fire games we have been taking home several
metals. Let's see. Lieutenant Basterrechea got a bronze in wrestling. Michael de St.
Germain, he has gotten a number in track and field, the decathlon and the biathlon, the
coed biathlon. I believe that Brian Lueddeke just got one in motocross. I know that our
soccer team is still in the running. And so that's on the police side of it. I don't know if
anyone in fire is doing anything?
Niemeyer: Our guys have yet to play in the horseshoe tournament. They are waiting
on that.
Rountree: I believe those that are playing in hockey have won their first game.
Niemeyer: Yes. Hockey has just started.
De Weerd: Are you -- is the fire department participating in any of the other events?
Niemeyer: We have got hockey, horseshoes, bench press, and I believe softball we
have got fire guys signed up for.
De Weerd: They do have the fire -- or boxing is one of their main events Friday evening
at 6:30 I believe the competition starts. It is free. All of the games are free. It's a great
opportunity to get out and support our public safety officers and those in the valley. I did
go and watch our command staff participate in the dodge ball competition. It was the
funniest thing I have seen. We didn't do very well, but it was very entertaining. And,
you know, they did beat the Ada County Sheriffs Department and the command staff for
Boise police, so we figured we held our head high when we walked out of there.
Item 6: CITY ORDINANCE REVIEW:
(a) Discussion of Fire Hydrant Ordinance
Rountree: Thank you for the update. Next item is city ordinance, discussion of fire
hydrant ordinance. Mr. Nary?
Nary: Thank you, Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This is an
ordinance we'd like to bring in front of you next week, if at all possible. There was a
discrepancy we found in the fire code between the distance vehicles can park from fire
hydrants. The fire code is five feet and -- or excuse me. The fire code is three feet.
The city code is five feet. And both the fire department and the water department
enforce that and because there is a discrepancy, the fire -- the city one we couldn't find
any reason that the five feet existed, other than historically that's what they had, but
there is -- there is support in the fire code for the three foot distance. That was the fire
department's preference was that we be consistent with the fire code, since there is that
Meridian Clty Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 99 of 101
external support for that -- that clearance distance. The water department is fine with
that. So, this is one just cleaning up our city code to make it consistent. If it's all right
with Council, we would bring that back in front of you next week for approval.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I have a question about something that's being deleted. Apparently the
original paragraph A was kind of a catch all and I see that B now covers damage, but
the piece of obstructing does no longer appear anywhere. It would seem --
Nary: It's already in the fire code and the fire code is already adopted by the city. So,
that was the reason.
Zaremba: Okay. So, it exists, it doesn't need to be restated.
Nary: Correct.
Zaremba: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Does Mark --
Rountree: Mark.
Niemeyer: President Rountree, Madam Mayor, yes, we agree. I figured I had to say
something.
Rountree: Made your time worthwhile.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
De Weerd: We will tell the chief you did an outstanding job.
Rountree: Mr. Nary, question. Is there a provision, once -- if and once we have this
ordinance in place, to get ACHD or someone to designate the curb where these fire
hydrants are located? Some of them even know they have to be cleared and whatnot,
are not very well recognized in neighborhoods. And without some kind of notification, I
don't know how we enforce that.
Nary: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, currently what the water
department -- since they are the ones probably out the most on these, I can tell you that
ACHD's answer is they don't paint curbs. They no longer paint curbs for anything.
Mostly because of maintenance and the recurring cost of repainting. But what we do
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 100 of 101
currently is they provide written notice. So, when they are out reading meters or
addressing other water issues in the city, they will note -- not give citations, but put
notices on vehicles that they are parked too close. So, they do try to inform before we
really enforce and from what I have been told by the water department and the fire
department, that's been a fairly effective tool. It hasn't been problematic for the fire --
the fire department to get to a scene and have problems with vehicles, but that's the
best I can tell you, unless we wanted to go out and paint the curbs ourselves, I wouldn't
see ACHD doing it.
Item 7: EXECUTIVE SESSION:
(a) Executive Session per ISC 67-2345(1)Q)(To engage in
communications with a representative of the public agency's risk
manager or insurance provider to discuss the adjustment of a
pending claim or prevention of a claim imminently likely to be filed.
The mere presence of a representative of the public agency's risk
manager or insurance provider at an executive session does not
satisfy this requirement & (c) to conduct deliberations concerning
labor negotiations or to acquire an interest in real property, which is
not owned by a public agency):
Rountree: Okay. Last item on the agenda, Executive Session.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(c).
Zaremba: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to go into Executive Session. Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Rountree: So moved.
Borton: Second.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting/Workshop
August 19, 2008
Page 101 of 101
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Motion to adjourn?
Bird: So moved.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: All in favor?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: We are adjourned.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
ATTESTED:
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TAMMY DE WE D, MAYOR
ATTESTED:
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JAYCE L. HOMAN, EI C ERK
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