HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009 02-17 SpecialMeridian City Council Special Meeting Workshop February 17, 2009
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday,
February 17, 2009, by Council President Charlie Rountree.
Members Present: Charlie Rountree, Keith Bird, David Zaremba and Brad Hoaglun.
Members Absent: Tammy de Weerd.
Others Present: Tara Green. Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Steve Siddoway, Matt Ellsworth,
Jeff Lavey, Ron Anderson, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Rountree: Good evening. It's Tuesday, February 17th. I'm going to open our City
Council Special Meeting Workshop. First item on the agenda, Tara, roll call.
Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda:
Rountree: Second item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: The agenda is pretty well complete as published, except that we wish to add
one item and that would an Item 7-A, an Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-
2345(1)(f) and (c). And with that modification I move we adopt the agenda.
Bird: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda with the modification. All
those in favor? Opposed same sign? Motion passes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 3: Consent Agenda:
A. Tabled From 2/10/09: Findings for Approval AZ 08-001 -
Overland Village by Relo Development.
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February 17, 2009
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B. Approve Minutes of Janury 27, 2009 City Council Regular
Meeting.
C. Approve Minutes of February 3, 2009 City Council Regular
Meeting.
D. Approve Minutes of February 10, 2009 Pre-Council Meeting.
E. Award of Bid and Contract for Ten Mile Sewer Crossing to
Bodiford Construction, Inc. for $121,393.00 with a Spending
Authority fora 10 % Contingency Amount
F. Approve USGS Joint Funding Agreement for $17,585.00
G. Human Resources Professional Service Agreement with
Galena Consulting.
H. Award of Bid and Contract to Lake City Trucks for $316,324.00.
Rountree: Next item on the agenda is the Consent Agenda.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we adopt the Consent Agenda as published.
Hoaglun: Second.
Bird: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the Consent Agenda. All those in
favor? Motion passes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Community Items/Presentations:
A. Arts Commission Update.
Rountree: Through the busy work. Welcome you all to our workshop this evening. We
will start with the input from the community with community presentations and items and
the first item there is 4-A. Meg. Welcome.
Glasgow: Thank you. Well, this is exciting. This is the first time in the new diggs, so --
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February 17, 2009
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Zaremba: Welcome.
Rountree: All right.
Glasgow: This is very fun. Thank you very much. Well, I'm very happy to be here
reporting tonight on kind of an update to bring you all up to speed on what the Arts
Commission has been busy doing since we last spoke way back in the old building. I
printed off for you kind of a quick little statement of bullet points, kind of the action items
that we have tackled so far since last fall. A couple items that I want to highlight,
because I know you will be kind of excited about, our fundraising campaign as noted on
there has been relatively successful during these tough times as budgets and whatnot
tighten up. We have been -- we have been successful up to this point, but we have
fallen a little bit short on some of the areas, but we are continually.seeking grant funding
on different things, both in the corporate world and also national arts grants that are
available to us, so we are working hard in that department. Our first public art project
Origin, done by Amber Conger, is due to be installed here much sooner than we
thought. A couple months, actually, ahead of schedule. So, we are just delighted to
report that that will be installed here in the early -- early May. So, that is an exciting
update on that. We did have a meeting recently last week with many department heads
from the city, maintenance and facilities had brought in to talk about maintenance and
care of that and something that the artist suggested that I believe is being researched
now is an electronic winch system that would hoist the sculpture up and also allow for
lowering for cleaning, because that's going to be an issue because the artwork is
viewed from the top, as well as from the bottom. So, that's something that will be
coming to you, so I wanted to give you an update on that. You have noticed the four
original paintings that have been purchased and installed in City Hall. That is our art in
public spaces program, which is different from the public art program. Art in public
spaces we are hoping to continue this fall and summer time frame and to purchase
some more artwork for City Hall. In front of you you should have the list of the 16 area
artists that have been selected for Initial Point Gallery. I hope you got a chance to
review those. I think they were in your packets. This has been a really exciting project
for us. When we opened Initial Point Gallery we made a decision that we were going to
schedule a year in advance and we thought we would do two month shows and so we
were searching for six artists. But I will tell you we were so overwhelmed with the
quality and the high caliber of artists in our area that applied, we kind of made a
decision on the fly to abbreviate the exhibition time down to one month, instead of two,
so that we could accommodate many more artists. So, that has been tremendously
successful. So, we have slated these. We are in the process of contacting them now,
the winners and the, you know, ones we are going to encourage to attract next year.
And by charging a 35 dollar application fee, which is very standard in the arts industry,
we were actually able to net a thousand dollars on that project. So, that, again, is
fundraising that we are doing, kind of in a creative way, to offset some of the costs of
the projects that we are doing. Something we have coming up very quickly here in mid
May is we are bringing for the first time Missoula Children's Theater to Meridian. This is
really an exciting group that travels from Missoula with their little red truck and
costumes. They involve about 50 to 60 Meridian kids in this production. They will do
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the rehearsals on Monday -- or auditions on Monday, rehearsal all week long, and it
ends with aperformance -- now write this on your calendar. It's going to be on May
16th. So, that will be the Missoula Children's Theater. They will be producing Little Red
Riding Hood. So, that's very exciting to bring to town. We have been working with the
parks department and working with getting help with their putting the word out through
their community -- community education program for the additions and stuff. So, it's
been fun working with them on that project. So, our goal for this next spring, summer,
and beyond are certainly developing and strengthening our partnerships we have with
other departments within the city and also community involvement and every project we
are looking into we are trying to involve Parks Department and Meridian Development
Corporation, coordinating with them specifically on a couple of targeted projects to
downtown Meridian. The Downtown Business Association, involving them, and also the
Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, too, bringing them on board and getting them involved
in projects we have going on. Concerts on Broadway Series, we are working really hard
on that trying to pull that together. The vision that the Arts Commission has for a free
summer concert series to be held in the amphitheater right out front of City Hall. Our
vision that it be family friendly, bring your own lawn chair, picnic basket, and enjoy a
free concert series and we are hoping to kick that off at a Saturday night as a wrap up to
the Dairy Days festival. So, we are looking to kind of June 20th as a target date for that.
So, we figure with grant funding we are looking at preliminary budget prices for that
being about 5,000 dollars and partnering with Parks on some of the logistical feats we
have to tackle to pull this off and also the downtown merchants and MDC, we are fairly
confident that we will be able to partner that and pull that together and pull that off
starting this summer. So, that's pretty ambitious. That brings us to another point about
the amphitheater. It came up in our meeting last week that that amphitheater really
needs a name and so it came out of our group that it was suggested, actually, by
Dwight Williams to name it the Old Creamery Theater. We love that idea. But I wanted
to bring it to you. The other option, of course, would be open it up to a citywide, you
know, name the amphitheater contest. And so I'm looking for direction from you all
about -- about the name on that, placing comment or we can save it to the end.
Rountree: Any discussion? Comment?
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: While I'd like -- you know, I think it would be nice to have the public input, I -- that
Old Creamery Theater sounds awful good to me, seeing how the creamery for years
was the thing that give Meridian the jobs and everything and we are sitting on its
property and I think that would be a very very nice name. But whatever. If the Art
Commission would like to name it that, I would certainly support that.
Rountree: Anybody else?
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Hoaglun: Mr. President? I feel the same way. It's a nice tie in with our history and what
we have here and moving forward and having productions. Kind of nice reminder of
where our roots were for this community.
Glasgow: Thanks. Great.
Zaremba: Mr. President, me, too.
Nary: Mr. President? Mr. President, Members of the Council, not to get overly hung up
on protocol, but you did designate that spark -- the outside a park, so you might want to
send it to the park naming committee, too, to just get their input, too, as part of the
process.
Rountree: For their recommendation.
Bird: For their recommendation.
Rountree: Because I think it's a great recommendation. A good share of the area out
there was either designed around and even a portion of our building designed around
features in the old creamery. So, I think it makes a lot of sense.
Glasgow: Excellent.
Rountree: So, with all the heads nodding, I think, Bill, if you would put together a
recommendation from City Council to go to the parks naming committee.
Nary: We can do that.
Rountree: And, Steve, you heard that as well, so we will see -- we will see how they
respond to that.
Siddoway: I didn't hear the name, though.
Glasgow: The Old Creamery Theater. Moving on. Speaking of parks, we are working
with their community education program to bring teaching artists to that summertime --
spring and summertime program. It's been rather exciting the response. We have got
some artists that have been selected for exhibition in Initial Point Gallery and many of
them have also expressed interest to bring their artistic talent to the community by
teaching both children and adults, which fits very closely with our mission. So, we are
excited to be working with Parks about that. We have also began talks with MDC and
also the DBA on the feasibility of bringing a summertime farmers market to downtown
Meridian. No details to report yet. I just wanted to put that bug in your ear that we are
working towards that and we certainly would like an art aspect to that. And so I will
report on that more later. We have also been speaking with MDC about trading an artist
and residence program, utilizing maybe some used space in downtown Meridian as an
art studio, so to speak. So, working on that. Ultimately, looking at some of the long
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term sustainability issues for the Arts Commission itself, kind of thinking long term here,
but I wanted to let you know kind of the direction that we are headed, to really build a
strong arts culture in Meridian, knowing how vital that is to the strength and the core of
the community. Creating an arts district, perhaps some sort of designation in the
downtown corridor we feel would be a great way to define an area and work with
perhaps Planning and Zoning about creating arts design, you know, recommendations
and how to incorporate it into bike racks, fencing, you know, street grates, those kind of
different things can have artist elements to them. So, that's kind of an idea that's in the
back of our minds. The other -- the other issue that we are looking for a solution is,
again, on the fundraising side and we are beginning to see a real need for a friends of
Meridian arts -- Friends of Arts Commission as a nonprofit status organization that can
do the fundraising for us. We are limited about the grants that we can apply for,
because we are a member of the city and so that's been a little bits restricting for us and
so we have kind of been exploring -- exploring those possibilities. And at some point,
once we get a lot of momentum going and we see a lot of success from programs and
initiatives that we have had, a percent for art ordinance might be something at some
point that we will look into within that arts district and whatnot, so that is kind of what I
had on my mind today. I'll open up if you have any questions or any direction, any
comments it would be very, very welcome.
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Any direction? Comments?
Hoaglun: I just had a question, Mr. President.
Rountree: Go ahead.
Hoaglun: Meg, any -- have you noticed any slow down in donations? Is it getting
harder out there with the economy or what's your experience today?
Glasgow: Councilman Hoaglun, I don't think a slow down is sufficient enough term to
describe what we are going through. It is very, very difficult to go out and ask for
donations. We are finding businesses are more likely to donate in kind, kind of services
or discounted services for us. For example, we just partnered with the Courtyard
Marriott and they were able to save us 700 dollars off our bill for housing the Missoula
Theater group. So, we are trying to save everywhere we can. But, yeah, donations are
really a tough thing. With regard to the big public art project, you know, we were
counting on, you know, presenting -- you know, a donor that would -- we would name
the piece after and do all that and that just has not come to light yet. So, yes, it is
difficult. So, we are, you know, feeling the pain like many people certainly. One more
thing, may I say before we go? We miss you all at our meetings. We had at one point a
designated councilman as a liaison -- yeah. So, I would like to invite all of you to join us
second Thursday 3:30 right outside.
Rountree: You have to notice it if over -- if three of us show up.
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Glasgow: I just need one.
Rountree: She just wants one of us.
Glasgow: Just want one.
Bird: Were you the liaison, Charlie?
Rountree: Joe was.
Glasgow: No. Joe Borton was the liaison, so --
Bird: On Tuesday?
Rountree: Any other comments? Questions? I have got a couple things here, Meg.
Glasgow: Oh.
Rountree: You talked about creating an arts district and, then, you mentioned some
things that related to -- I think some guidelines that are already in place for Old Town in
terms of light fixtures and outside accoutrements that are to be utilized in that area and
you might want to get with MDC on those and find out what is created through their
process. The other question about a 503(c) status -- Bill, we have gone around and
around about this over time, but it does appear that there are a number of philanthropic
organizations out there that will donate, but they will not donate to the city. They will
donate to a 503(c) organization and I think that now is not too late to start looking into
that with the Arts Commission and possibly -- I know there is one established for the
Friends of Parks --
Glasgow: Yes. And I do have the name of a couple people. I have not contacted them
yet with regards to that, about maybe resurrecting that organization or it may even be a
mechanism where we can use that to raise funds for public art in, you know, specific
parks and whatnot. So, there is a lot of possibilities and we appreciate your support in
that matter.
Rountree: I guess my question is is that something that legal would look into or is that
something that Stacy would go after in terms of the financial aspect?
Nary: Well, Mr. President, Members of the Council, I guess it kind of depends on what
-- what direction you want to go. What we would envision is that you would probably
take -- you would end up with two organizations at the end of the day is what I would
envision, is you would have a Friends of Meridian Arts Foundation or whatever you want
to call it, that's a 501(c)(3) and you'd still have your Arts Commission. So, you would
have an entity that's still attached to the city, because there are things in our City Code
that is what the charge of the Arts Commission is for, but you would have this
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fundraising arm and the one I always use as an example, Friends of Zoo Boise is kind
of set up that way and that's how they support the zoo between both friends as well as
the city in supporting that. So, we could certainly do some of the preliminary work.
Ultimately, because it would become a private entity, they would probably have to do
some of that as the group. There are certainly folks that will do some of the accounting
stuff that needs to be done through some of the other service organizations. That's how
they have done it. So, I think we could probably do some of the initial exploration of
how could we get this done and what steps could we help to sort of facilitate that and at
some point, then, I think that group -- because it may or may not be all the Arts
Commission members, it may have some of the Arts Commission members and other
citizens, they probably can, then, take it from that point and move it forward. So, we
can certainly help I guess push it along.
Rountree: Okay.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I know a little bit about the Friends for Parks, seeing how I was on the original
organization and also still am on the board and that's -- what Bill said was just basically
we -- we took i# off from the parks commission, a couple of us, and started raising
money and donating it out, got a 501 program and went to town. They have still got a
board. If you would be -- if you would like to talk to a few of them, it would be -- and
they can do things -- raise money and they have already got their 501(3)(c).
Glasgow: That would be very helpful. Yeah.
Bird: I'll give you some names later.
Rountree: Is it the desire of Council to have -- probably, Bill, Emily?
Nary: Yes.
Rountree: -- work with the Arts Commission to explore this tax status, along with their
exploration of the Friends of the Parks, see if there is a way to maybe join them and, if
not, move forward with something for the Arts Commission. I see the heads nodding.
Zaremba: Yeah. I would say I think it's a logical next step.
Glasgow: Wonderful.
Rountree: So, Bill, that's some direction for you all.
Nary: We can do that.
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Rountree: And I think finance ought to be involved in that as well.
Nary: Absolutely.
Rountree: The last thing is that I get to appoint somebody to be the liaison.
Unfortunately, I think the liaison typically came out of the Mayor's office and with my
conflict here I would ask for a volunteer if somebody would like to be the liaison with the
Arts Commission. Or I'll think about it and appoint somebody.
Hoaglun: I can do that.
Rountree: Brad, you'd like to do that? Thank you. So, Tara, would you put that in the
record that Brad Hoaglun is going to be the liaison with the Arts Commission? Thank
you very much.
Glasgow: Wonderful.
Rountree: Anything else you need tonight?
Glasgow: No. It's been real good. Thank you very much.
Rountree: Okay. All right. Thanks, Meg, and thank you for all you guys do. You have
done great work in the last few months.
B. Presentation by Boise /Ada County Housing Authority on
Neighborhood Stabilization Program in Meridian.
Rountree: Next item on the agenda is -- Matt, are you going to introduce the subject,
the Idaho Housing -- or the neighborhood housing?
Ellsworth: Mr. President, brief little bit of background. Staff a couple weeks back
attended a workshop over in Boise on the neighborhood stabilization program and those
are federal funds that are being filtered through Idaho Housing and Finance Association
for the purpose of addressing some of the challenges with foreclosures that have come
forward over the last few months. While the presentation seemed to me like this is an
excellent opportunity to address a need and to begin working toward a solution on it, I
remember my eyes were bulging by the end of the presentation, just taking a look at the
size and the scope of this voluntary effort and I remember scratching my head on the
way out thinking that in order to take advantage of this opportunity the city is likely to
have to hire on more staff or to phone a friend, find an organization in the area that
already provides similar services and brings a lot of the expertise that's necessary for
successful projects. Lo and behold, on the way out of that meeting I had the opportunity
to meet Deanna Watson, who is the executive director of Boise City, Ada County
Housing Authority, and she indicated that -- that her organization may present an
opportunity to partner with one of those existing service providers in taking advantage of
some of that federal assistance. We got together about a week later for afollow-up
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conversation, at which point it further strengthened my perception of the possible
opportunity here for the city to partner and to meet the objectives that the feds have
outlined for the use of these funds and to -- to meet a need that -- that could be of
benefit to the City of Meridian. But prior to moving forward in that partnership we felt it
was fitting to get it in front of you guys to gauge Council's response to the whole thing.
So, this evening here with us is Deanna Watson, as well Ben Duke and Terry from the
Boise City Ada County Housing Authority, to give an overview of their organization and
what they do, talk for a minute about the neighborhood stabilization program and to
gauge Council's -- Council's feelings on a potential partnership with that moving
forward. Thank you, Deanna.
Rountree: Welcome.
Watson: Thank you. Council President Rountree and Members of the Council, my
name is Deanna Watson and I am the executive director of the Boise City Ada County
Housing Authority. I brought with me tonight Ben Duke, who is manager of our
construction and development department and Terry Brooks, who is manager of our
real estate asset management. I want to thank you for the opportunity to meet with you
this evening to talk about the Boise City, Ada County Housing Authority and, in
particular, the neighborhood stabilization program. In the time we have with you tonight
we want to accomplish two things. First we want to take the opportunity to introduce
ourselves and our potential connections with the City of Meridian. And, second, we
want to talk about the neighborhood stabilization program funding available for use with
the city and describe some ways we can be of assistance in helping Meridian address
the impact of the foreclosure crisis in particular and affordable housing needs in
general. One of the common misperceptions of our agency is that we are simply
another nonprofit focused on affordable housing and that we survive on the good work
of grant writers and fundraisers or that as our name might imply, that we are either a
division or a department of the city of Boise or of Ada County or both. And the fact is
neither assumption is correct. Our agency is established under state statutes. The
Boise City Housing Authority is authorized under Title 50, Chapter 19, and the Ada
County Housing Authority under Title 31, Chapter 42. Although both entities operate as
one organization, it is the Ada County Housing Authority that provides us with a
connection and we believe an obligation to the City of Meridian. The state statutes
established that we are an independent body, corporate and politic, and we are charged
by the statutes with the responsibility to provide certain essential public and
governmental functions for the jurisdictions we serve. State statutes provide that urban
renewal agencies can be created to undertake and carry out urban renewal projects and
related activities within established jurisdictions. Likewise housing authorities can be
created to prepare, carry out, acquire, lease and operate housing projects, to provide for
the construction, reconstruction, improvements, alteration or repair of any housing
project or any part thereof. As executive director I work for a board of commissioners
appointed in staggered terms in alternating years by the Mayor of Boise and City
Council and by the Ada County commissioners. We do not receive city or county funds.
The bulk of our funding comes from federal contracts and grants with the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development. We also receive funds from the
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Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Justice. In addition, due to our
status as aquasi-governmental entity, we have the authority to issue bonds to finance
projects and we have done that to finance our own assisted home ownership program,
to construct and rehabilitate our own non-HUD subsidized multi-family housing and
have provided conduit bonds to developers seeking advantageous financing in
exchange for agreeing to reserve a number of units to meet the needs of affordable
housing for low and moderate income families. To give you a bit of an idea of the
current scope of our programs and projects, we operate HUD programs, low rent public
housing, the Section 8 housing voucher program, the Section 8 new construction
project, a number of service enriched housing assistance programs for individuals with
mental and/or physical disabilities and home ownership assistance. We provide
assistance to approximately 2,500 families every month, nearly 200 of those living
within Meridian, and that equates to a little over 1.1 million dollars a year to -- in rental
assistance payments to Meridian landlords. Our most recent endeavor is providing
oversight in the design and construction of the Region Four detoxification and sub-acute
mental health facility. Once that project is built, we will serve as the facility manager
and owner. So, that's kind of the background on the housing authority. And, then, a
little bit about the neighborhood stabilization program and, then, I have brought Ben
Duke, who is in charge of that program, so I'm hoping you will indulge me and let me
refer any questions onto him for the expertise that he brings. But as you may be aware,
the first round of stimulus funding passed by Congress and signed by then President
Bush last summer included 19.6 million dollars to the state of Idaho for a program called
the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The purpose of the funding is to assist in the
redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes and to stabilize neighborhoods and
communities. As Matt mentioned, the Idaho Housing and Finance Association is the
administering agent for the state of Idaho and as an entitlement city, Meridian is entitled
to receive 1,158,456 dollars of that 19.6 million. Now, if Meridian hasn't applied to
receive the funding before the end of this month, Meridian's allotment will, then, be
added into the pool of remaining funds be available for application by other entities
around the state. That can include nonprofits, cities, and housing authorities. Current
statistics indicate that with the state divided by zip codes, Meridian's 83642 ranks fifth
neediest and number one in Ada County. So, as Matt mentioned, we have completed
some initial meetings and we requested this opportunity to meet with you to apprise you
of our capability of assisting you to whatever degree you desire and also to take
advantage of the opportunity to let you know who we are and that we really should be
partnering with you in every way that we can to help address the affordable housing
needs in Meridian. Ben Duke is our construction development manager assigned to this
project and he brings over ten years experience operating a similar HUD program for
purchasing, rehab'ing, and reselling foreclosed properties as affordable housing around
the state of Idaho. If you would like to access the money reserved for the City of
Meridian, we are in a position to provide you with all that you need to achieve a
successful program. As a sub recipient, the City of Meridian would be eligible for an
eight percent administrative fee to cover the cost of delivering the program. Under the
program, with or without our help, you can access the funds to acquire eligible
properties, perform rehab, and sell to home buyers up to 120 percent of area median
income or rent to individuals or families up to 50 percent of area median income. And
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all of the -- 25 percent of all of the neighborhood stabilization program funds are to be
used to house families and individuals whose incomes do not exceed 50 percent of
AMI. So, we would -- we would love to have the opportunity to work with you. We have
an interest in workforce housing and in the whole array of housing needs for we know a
great thriving, growing community of Meridian. So, with that I will stop and I will put it up
for any questions and, like I say, if it's okay with you, I may defer to Ben for the correct
answers.
Rountree: Questions? Discussion?
Hoaglun: Mr. President, just a question for Matt. What do we have in place right now if
we were to move forward on that -- that federal grant? I don't think we have much, do
we?
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Members of the Council, Councilman -- that's correct. Really
don't have all that much at all. Unfortunately, including the expertise and the familiarity
with the sort of work force housing endeavor to -- in my assessment pull off successful
projects. It would be -- it would be a bit of a challenge for -- for the city on its own to
embark on this with current -- current staffing and other responsibilities and so forth,
which is why I was so excited when Deanna introduced herself, that their organization
does bring a lot of that expertise to the table and it seemed like a very fitting partnership
opportunity for the city to work with a nonprofit organization and, again, achieving the
ends that the federal government anticipated for this program and to meet a need within
the city here of work force housing and affordable housing, things of that nature.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
Rountree: Other questions?
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I guess this is a comment that will lead to a question. A few years ago when
we were developing our new Unified Development Code we did have discussion about
requiring developers to have a certain percentage of their property be affordable
housing or workforce housing and, as I recall, we ended up not actually putting that into
the ordinance, because the discussion got to, okay, the first buyer of the house gets a
good deal and has to qualify for it and everything, but how do you keep them from later
selling it a market value and we decided we didn't have the manpower to control a
program like that. Do you have those kind of follow-up and controls or do you maintain
a portion of the ownership or what happens?
Watson: Councilman Zaremba, I can speak in general and, then, maybe I'll tum it over
to Ben to speak about this program, but in the development of our home ownership
programs we have established some deed restrictions and some -- in our home
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ownership program we offered a down payment and closing cost assistance grant, but it
was forgivable over the course of a five year period, 20 percent per year, so that would
discourage somebody from trying to turn it into a situation where they could benefit from
the profits of just tuming around and reselling the house and I think Ben can talk about
any other program.
Duke: The NSP is a brand new program and Idaho Housing is well aware and
concerned with the possibility of the first homeowner tuming around in a few years and
selling for a profit. There will be deed restrictions on the first home buyer. They are
working out how those are going to fit in. It's going to be similar to the home program, I
believe, where it will be a second on the property, forgivable, I believe, in 15 years, so
they have to live in the property for 15 years or that will go back to Idaho Housing.
Zaremba: That helps. Thank you.
Rountree: Deanna? A couple questions here. One relates to the --the stimulus money
that we are entitled to as a city and I guess I'd direct this question to staff. Did we notice
that they had an opportunity to -- to see this presentation? Were we notified as a city? I
don't -- this is the first time I have heard of it.
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Members of the Council, city staff and I believe the Mayor
received some of the announcements from either HUD or Idaho Housing and Financing
about --
Rountree: Okay.
Ellsworth: -- the workshop several weeks ago, which is what led us to the workshop.
Rountree: Okay.
Ellsworth: And you know the rest of the story from there.
Rountree: Very good. Thank you. And, then, you indicated the magic day is 11 days
from now that applications have to be in by the end of the month. My question is what --
what constitutes an application?
Deanne: With your permission I'll defer to Mr. Duke.
Duke: They want -- Idaho Housing would like to see a -- an overall view of what the
plan is for the City of Meridian. I believe the best application would be one that would
follow their statewide goals, which would be to see 50 percent of the funds go to
acquisition, rehab, and resale. Thirty percent of the funds go to acquisition rehab and
rental and ten percent of those funds go to acquisition of vacant land for blighted
property and new construction.
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Hoaglun: And, Mr. President, if I might ask Deanna what -- what was that amount
again? It was one point something million that we were eligible for? I didn't get the --
Watson: Councilman Hoaglun, it is one point -- 1,158,456 dollars.
Hoaglun: Okay. And if I might follow up, then, that is from that -- the TARP program
from I think October last year or whenever they did that and that is what I'm assuming to
be one time money. That that would come in -- we expend it for the purposes and,
then, that would go away or we would purchase the properties, rehab properties, and,
then, it continues on from there?
Duke: The way that that works is once the money is expended, then, any money that
we receive back would go back to Idaho Housing. The City of Meridian could, then,
reapply for those funds and resubmit another application. So, it would be revolving for
the next four years and the funds actually have to go back to HUD July of 2013.
Rountree: Now, in terms of an application, this is not a grant where there is
competition, so an application from the City of Meridian would, with an overall plan that
might approach these numbers that you spoke to, would result in receiving that funding?
Duke: That is correct.
Rountree: And what's the duration of that funding? Does it have to be spent within a
time period? Does it have to be obligated? What's attached there?
Duke: You have 18 months to obligate that money.
Rountree: And if it's not obligated, then, it returns to you?
Duke: Idaho Housing.
Rountree: For years?
Duke: If it's not obligated within the first 18 months, then, that money would go back to
Idaho Housing.
Rountree: And you have the ability to redistribute that for what period of time?
Duke: Four years, which ends July of 2013. Once the money is obligated, then, it can
just continue as a revolving fund.
Rountree: Does that money -- the 1.15, 1.16 million dollars sit with you all until such
time as Meridian makes an application or do you put that money to work?
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Duke: The way that that would work is once an application is submitted and the Idaho
Housing approves the plan, then, those funds will go to the City of Meridian and, then,
we will have to carry out the plan.
Hoaglun: Mr. President, to follow up on that line. If you can tell me, then, what -- how
would you work if we said, yes, we need your help in this, you know, we aren't set up,
but you still need to coordinate with the City of Meridian. What would that look like? I
mean how much time -- what type of involvement do you need -- I mean we would have
a plan, we said this is our plan, it looks good, but, then, what? Can you kind of walk me
through how that would work with your operation?
Duke: Sure. We would get together and figure out what areas that we are looking at
and targeting. We would go out and do physical inspections on the property. We
would, then, submit the properties that we would want to use in our rehabilitation and
work with the real estate agents in order to find buyers. We also have an in-house
program that's a family self-sufficiency that we can pull home buyers from and sell our
properties that way. We have to -- on our resale property we'd have to sell to
individuals -- individuals or family members that are 120 percent or below median
income.
Hoaglun: So, from a staff perspective, then, once we get the ball rolling there doesn't --
I'm trying to figure out how much of our city staff time that would be required to interface
with your organization or is it once the thing -- we tum it over and say, yes, this is what
we want to do, it's pretty much hands off, except for occasional updates or reports?
Deanne: Councilman Hoaglun, I think our position on that would be we would take
guidance and direction from you. If you wanted to give us a broad outline and say we'd
like you to focus in these areas and report back to us on a monthly basis or whatever
frequency to whatever degree, we have got agood -- started a great relationship with
Matt and so -- and even to the point of making the application, I think we can provide
you with all the assistance you need to get that done and we apologize this is such
short notice. It's one of those things where the program was signed into law and the
money had to be approved by HUD and, then, Idaho Housing held meetings and so we
have been -- we have been trying to scramble as quickly as we can and we do feel a
great obligation to the City of Meridian, because we are the Ada County Housing
Authority, but we have had very little projects or activities on your behalf and we would
like to step that up.
Rountree: You mentioned that there is an eight percent administrative fee that can
come out of that money. Is that something that we would split with you or that you
would operate on with our direction? How does that work?
Watson: President Rountree, we would see that eight percent as being of the funding
that you would have to pay for the program costs. So, you wouldn't have to worry about
reaching into any Meridian city coffers and, then, it would depend upon what degree you
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February 17, 2009
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wanted us to do and what degree your own staff would be doing and we can work all
those details out.
Rountree: So, my sense is that you could -- you would work somewhat as a consultant
to us with those fees.
Watson: Yes.
Rountree: Thank you. I have question for Anna and/or Matt. Either one. Good
evening.
Canning: Good evening.
Rountree: This is something that I'm interested in exploring, but I'm concerned about
staffing -- staff time. Is that something you have given much thought to? I know Matt
apparently has, so maybe Matt can answer this, but he's ultimately going to have to
answer to Anna.
Canning: I'll let Matt answer.
Rountree: All right.
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Members of the Council, and boss. The nature of the
relationship coming out of the conversation that I had with -- with BCACHA a couple of
weeks ago, in my mind would be structured somewhat similarly to the administration of
the community development block grant funds the city's currently receiving in that the
city isn't necessarily the program developer or the program administrator, it's the grant
administrator. We would, essentially, be a conduit though which these funds would flow
from Idaho Housing to BCA -- excuse me -- to the House Authority in order to meet the
objectives that are outlined in -- in the law. So, my take on it is that if that's the nature of
the relationship that you guys sort of envisioned as well, it's something that I as staff am
confident in taking on.
Canning: And, President Rountree, we had met with Deanna before and it seems like a
great partnership opportunity, because we don't have the expertise in actually running
these programs. It seemed like a good match even for the CDBG funds and we were
moving that way. Also, it's just a -- now where was I going with that thought? I'm
having a blond moment. I'm song, sir. It's a good relationship. They had ideas about
things that we could do that we had never thought about. I know what I was going to
say. Also we are trying not to get too many programs tied with the CDBG, because we
don't know how long as a city we will be able to continue to get those funds, so we are
not -- we are trying not to get too entrenched. But this was a good relationship we could
have while the money is flowing and, hopefully, get some good projects going.
Ellsworth: Mr. President, a brief follow up. To look at it from a slightly different angle,
as I mentioned in my introduction there, I think without the partnership that we are
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discussing here today, my concern would be that it's a missed opportunity, because I'm
not confident that with the city's current resources and staff availability that we have the
capacity to put these funds to use and it could be a situation where we are allowing an
opportunity to pass us by, as opposed to the discussions of a partnership with -- with an
existing nonprofit that has some of those capabilities, the experience, the administrative
-- they are fairly well dialed in. They are creating successful projects a little bit east of
here and this is an opportunity to spread some of that involvement further west into
Meridian.
Rountree: Thank you. Mr. Nary? We typically do not act on these kinds of things
during a workshop. In terms of the next step -- and maybe I should ask Council first if
they want to continue to explore this and pursue this. Though the time frame is the end
of the month, it sounds like we could apply at some point in time after that and still -- still
get this program rolling. So, I don't know that there is a great urgency. But would the
next step be to schedule this during a regular session, have either a hearing or a staff
presentation with a resolution or some form of authorization to move forward with this.
Nary: Mr. President, Members of the Council, that makes -- that makes the most sense
to me. I mean you certainly can act on this item if you wish. I mean just because this is
a workshop doesn't mean you can't take action, but if what you're really wanting is
direction from the staff to, essentially, work with the housing authority and, then, report
back to you on what the next steps need to be for the city, whether -- when the
application needs done, what's it going to be, what relationship we are going to have
with the housing authority, how all that's going to be done. I don't know time period Matt
might need, but that sounds like something that's a couple weeks out, not next Tuesday.
But that -- that certainly is the direction you can give tonight. It sounds like you have got
a lot of the information, so it really is maybe more formalizing it and, then, deciding -- I
guess because I don't know either, if a resolution of the Council is the form we have
used in other cities or whether it's something less than that. But that's something
probably Matt and Mrs. Watson they can figure that out and bring it back to you.
Rountree: And, then, I --
Nary: If they need our assistance we can certainly provide that, so --
Rountree: And a question to Deanna is this typically a contractual relationship or how
are they formed?
Watson: Well, President Rountree, this is, actually, a little bit of new ground for us to be
plowing as well.
Rountree: Okay. Welcome aboard.
Watson: And (would -- I would like to add that if the timing just doesn't work and we get
to that March 1st deadline and the city just felt like it was just to much to take in and
decide on, we can still make application, along with everybody else, for funds for the
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February 17, 2009
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City of Meridian and we'd still be happy to work under your direction and guidance on
where you would like to see us focus. It's just at that point, then, we are competing with
everybody else around the state.
Rountree: Thank you. Council?
Zaremba: I guess the only question I would have is how complete does that application
have to be on March 1st? I mean we have a one page summary of what we are
planning to submit or --
Duke: I believe we would want to have something fairly complete, so we would score
higher with the Idaho Housing Finance Association.
Zaremba: Okay.
Watson: And we could do most of that.
Duke: I believe so. Yeah. And we -- the Housing Authority could do most of that.
Rountree: Others comments? Direction? Desire?
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would like more detail before, you know, we jump into it, but I think that we,
evidently, from what they are saying, we have got time to do it and I would not mind
going on looking, see what it is, and see if that's the avenue we want to pursue.
Hoaglun: And, Mr. President, just a comment. You know, there are a lot of I's to dot
and T's to cross on this, but there is a need out there and I think with the money that's
available we ought to take a look at it and see if in the short time frame we could put
something together.
Canning: President Rountree?
Rountree: Anna.
Canning: Matt can work on this and get something back to you next week. I don't think
you will have it in time to get it into your packet, but he could present it to you on
Tuesday for your consideration, flush out some of the details anyway. Next Friday is
the last working day -- or week from this coming Friday. I have never known if that's
this Friday or next Friday or whatever it is, but it's the last working day of the month,
so --
Bird: Yeah.
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Rountree: Well, that would be my desire, Council, is to have staff further explore this
and bring us back something with a little finer point on it and we can move forward at
that point.
Zaremba: Sounds good to me.
Rountree: That work? Matt, that work for you? Do you need anything else from us?
Ellsworth: No, sir, Mr. President.
Rountree: Thank you. And thank you for being here.
Bird: Thank you guys very much.
C. Presentation with ACHD on the Roadways of Bikeways -
Bicycle Master Plan.
Rountree: Caleb, next item. Are you going to introduce this?
Hood: Mr. President, Members of Council, that is all that I'm going to do is just
introduce Justin Lucas. He has a Powerpoint presentation for you. We have asked
Justin to come and present this and ask for any input you may have on the roadways to
bikeways plan and get it out for draft comment and with that I will tum it over to Justin.
Lucas: Let's see. I'm just trying to get acclimated. The machine wasn't on when I
came up here and I wasn't prepared for that.
Rountree: Help is on its way.
Lucas: Excellent. Excellent. I better not touch anything. There we go. We are up and
running. Well, thank you for your -- your time tonight and for the opportunity to come
and present this to you. The roadways to bikeways plan is a countywide effort initiated
by the highway district about a year and a half ago to take a very close look at the -- the
bicycle facilities that we are providing as a district throughout the county and, obviously,
within the City of Meridian. The background of the plan -- and if there is any questions
throughout the presentation, please, feel free to just stop me. I will try to get through
this as quickly as I can. I know that there is -- it's a pretty full agenda tonight. The
background of the plan was to focus the effort towards the on-street facilities and
connectivity. So, just as a clarification, the plan as it currently stands, does not make
any recommendations to the off-street network. So, any type of pathway that's
maintained or -- maintained or gotten through development, that maybe your Parks
Department has jurisdiction over, is not looked at in the plan. We are doing our best to
look at it for connection points, because connecting the two is important, but we are not
making any recommendations to that. It's a countywide plan and the recommendations
from the plan are going to feed into our normal planning and programming of functions.
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The purpose -- really, the key purpose, was, as I mentioned, to evaluate the existing
facilities. To identify new facilities needs and, then, provide a comprehensive strategy
for enhancing and expanding the current bicycle system. And by doing that there were
several things that we did. to identify those gaps in the system and there is a lot of them
out there where there is a bicycle facility -- for example, a bike lane going down a road
and, then, it may stop and there may be a gap and, then, it may pick up a mile down the
road. And those types of gaps are difficult for the users, the bicyclists, because they
may not feel safe between those two points. And so the goal, really, is to create the
connectivity and increase the safety of the users. The development of the plan,
extensive review of the existing documents and policies within the highway district and
also that the cities already had in place, assessment of existing bicycling conditions.
So, there was a very detailed field evaluation that took place. You know, people out in
the streets looking and identifying those gaps and deficiencies. Public involvement was
a very large part of the plan. The cycling community in Ada County, within the City of
Meridian, and the city of Boise and all the cities, is pretty active and there is some
organizations that already exist out there and what we found as we went out and talked
to these people, that they have a lot of good ideas and so we did bicycle counts at 33
locations, interviews with local agency representatives. There was an online
questionnaire that took place early on in the plan asking, you know, what -- what do you
want, asking the public that, and there was over 2,000 responses. And, then, two public
open houses with over 300 people attending. So, there was a pretty significant public
involvement process that took place. And what we teamed out of that -- that pubic
involvement was that the lack of bike lanes, paths, and routes is a barrier to bicycling for
75 percent of the respondents. So, what they were saying was that, you know, we
would ride more if the system was better. And that's -- it's a good thing to recognize
that, because, you know, as part of this plan we are really trying to promote, you know,
bicycling and safe bicycling throughout the county and so that was a good thing to
recognize. They talk -- the public mentioned gaps in the bicycle network as being, you
know, one of the major barriers. They talked about education, better signage, way
finding signage and, then, connecting the cities for recreational trips. What we heard a
lot of and what I deal with, because I take phone calls on this quite often, are people
who are trying to ride from the City of Meridian to the city of Boise on a bicycle and it's
not necessarily the easiest thing. The Pine connection that recently was completed has
helped a lot, because that -- that Pine Street is, really, one of the -- one of the corridors
that we have which is the most bicycle friendly, because you can actually get across
Eagle Road there and be on a more -- it's a collector street with some pretty significant
volumes, but it's better than Fairview or some of the other ones out there, so -- but it's
those connection points between cities that a lot of people have brought up and I get
questions all the time about how can we make that better and this plan tries to identify
ways to do that. So, the goals -- I'll just read them quickly here. Complete a bicycle
facility network that maximizes safety, provides connectivity and supports the bicycle as
a viable transportation mode along the residents of Ada County and its six cities. And,
then, the second one is really to promote bicycle safety and increase bicycling within
Ada County and its six cities. And we really, as a highway district, look carefully at that
goal and, you know, part of what we do is Commuteride and some of the other
programs we have to try to reduce vehicle trips, because it helps air quality and, you
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know, there is tons of ways that that helps us as a valley and bicycling can be one of the
ways to achieve some of those goals. The recommended network -- you know, the plan
goes into great detail about -- about bike lanes and where they should be located. Sign
shared roadways, which are bike routes, which maybe a road like the picture on the
bottom there that doesn't necessarily have a striped bike lane, but it's a road with lower
volumes, lower speed, that could be safe for bicyclist to operate on without a bike lane.
Bicycle boulevards, which are like a signed shared roadway or bike route, but with
maybe special treatments like bulb outs or other things that really make it bicycle
friendly. Wide outside lanes and shoulder bikeways in the rural areas are also popular
ways to accommodate bicyclists. And I put pathways on here also, because although
the pathway system isn't specifically -- there is not specific recommendations for
pathways in the plan, the pathway network is a key -- is a key part of the overall bicycle
connectivity within the valley. So, after, you know, looking at all these things, there was
a selection process and some short-term network options and a prioritization system
that was developed for the projects that came out of this -- all this work that was done
and all those things were -- you know, there is cost summaries that were developed and
the projects were prioritized based on several factors. Connectivity. Did that project fill
missing gaps. User generators. So, what were the -- what are the characteristics of
that roadway that may create a large need for bicyclists. Excuse me. Land uses.
Overcoming barriers. Regional benefits. Ease of implementation. And, then, really,
taking all those -- those inputs into the prioritization system and, then, looking at how it
works with our-- our -- with the .way we prioritize our other community programs,
sidewalks, and things like that. So, it's, really, a process of taking all this information
and trying to come up with a way to -- to wisely expend funds that can help -- help the
network. Here is just an example of some of the short-term network improvements
across the valley. Several of those in the City of Meridian. As you can see, some
examples that I like to use -- I live in Meridian and I kind of in the near Cheny and
Linder. The -- some of the ideas, especially in Meridian, where you really provide
maybe some signage to show people routes through neighborhoods -- existing
neighborhoods and get them off the arterial streets, so, then, they may feel more
comfortable. And through signage there is a lot of existing streets that, you know, kind
of cut through at the half mile that if a cyclist wasn't aware of that he may never think to
go down that road, because you can't see all the way through. But through signage and
some other things like that there may be a way to really create those connection points
and link up with some of the existing pathways. So, that's an example of some of the
projects that -- that are talked about in the plan. The funding and implementation is a --
is avery important aspect of the plan and it gives a lot of information on how we can
expect to achieve this, especially in these economic times when -- you know, when
funding sources are limited. What we -- what we have realized is that a lot of these
things we may be able to achieve through our -- through our standard practice of chip
sealing and restriping roads. There may be some roads when the existing lanes, just
through restriping, may be able to accommodate a bike lane and that wouldn't cost the
district very much money at all, it's just a matter of identifying those areas where we can
go in and restripe after a chip seal, for example, and put in a bike lane or a bike facility.
You know, working within our capital improvements plan and looking at roadway
projects that include bike facilities and making sure that bike facilities are included in our
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projects. Identifying existing and potential federal, state, county and local funding
sources. There are bicycle resources out there that can be identified and we have a
full-time funding facilitator at ACHD who looks into these things as part of their job.
Grants go right along with that. And what we always need to do and remember is to
reconcile the funding needs of the plan, you know, versus the availability of funds and
making sure that we are making wise decisions and not -- and making sure that when
we are expending money on bicycle projects that it fits within the overall goals of the
district and of the goals of the community. Supporting programs. There is a lot of also
programs mentioned in the plan, construction and maintenance recommendations,
education and outreach recommendations and a lot of things that as a district that we
already are doing, but just are reinforced in the plan and, then, education and outreach
recommendations. Those may not be things that ACRD will be able to pursue on its
own, but there may be partnerships with local organizations and nonprofits for education
opportunities that are available. As I said, there is a -- there is a pretty strong -- there is
strong support from the bicycle community and they have their own organizations that I
have spoken to and presented to and there is a lot of support for trying to educate
people on how to safely ride bicycles throughout the county. So, that's really the -the
-- a very high level view of the plan. It just seems -- there is a lot more detail in the plan
and I would invite -- I would invite you, if you're so inclined, to take a look at it. What we
are doing right now is we are going out and giving these presentations to all the cities,
the county, trying to get back some input -- as much input as we can, so that when --
what we are concerned about as a district is that, you know, when we are making
recommendations for facilities within the City of Meridian, that your staff and you as the
City Council have had a chance to look at those recommendations and make sure that
we are, you know, meeting your goals, because we want to make sure that as we move
forward with that plan that it meets the goals of the City of Meridian and I have been
working closely with your staff to kind of reconcile the plan's recommendations to your
master pathways plan and see how those two fit together and it's something that we are
hoping to finish up here in the next couple weeks and continue trying to input all those
things into the plan. Public comment. We are requesting everything to come in by
February 27th, but as I continue to work with staff, we are hoping to make the final edits
in March and, then, get this plan before the ACHD commission for adoption in late April
or May. So, that's kind of an overview of the plan and I certainly would like to stand for
any questions. I'll just put up at the end here the website. The full plan is available on
the ACHD website for review by anyone who would like to look at it. And with that I will
stand for any of questions.
Rountree: Questions or comments for Justin?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Justin, I'd make one comment and a lot of your goals and objectives are
based on safety or maximizing safety. I would suggest that one key component of this
is, actually, doing some matrix there and collecting some safety information. Some of
the efforts that ACHD does may not necessarily benefit safety, but is expensive and I
think some of the research out there would indicate that in some cases bike lanes are
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February 17, 2009
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not as safe as just mixing bicycles and traffic, so -- not that I'm not a bicycle proponent,
have been on one for 50 years, so -- but I think that's essential that that is part of your
justification and that needs to be a matrix that not only it's public opinion, but is it
working.
Lucas: Thank you.
D. Smoke Free Presentation.
Rountree: Any other comments? Questions? Thanks. Next item, the smoke free
presentation. We have -- there we go.
Casper: Good evening. My name is Adrean Casper and I am the director of
government affairs for American Heart Association here in Idaho. But today I'm here as
a representative for the Coalition for a Healthy Idaho, whose mission is to protect Idaho
from the harms of tobacco. And, incidentally, I'm also a resident of this fair city. So, I'm
very proud to be in front of you today and, first, on behalf of CHI let me say that we are
happy and we want to congratulate you as one of your first order of business is to make
not only this building, but your entire campus smoke free. We have been encouraging
other municipalities and state departments to do the same thing and it's just great that
Meridian has really taken the lead on that and has promulgated that. So, we are going
to do things -- I have like a packet that I sent around and on the top is just kind of a
quick summary. We are going to do things a little differently. Today I have with me
Heidi Low from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, who is going to
be presenting, but what I wanted to do is really dive into what we feel is kind of the meat
and potatoes of the -- of the ordinance itself and that really is the support that we have
from the community at large. What we did is we did asurvey -- or a poll, basically, of
the Treasure Valley and as you can see here we did -- we did a number of different
legislative districts, Meridian being one of them, and some really, really interesting
numbers came out of that and I have shared those with you, but I really wanted to
highlight them, because I think that they are interesting, because I like this stuff. The
first thing that we saw is that by a margin of ten to one the voters in the greater
Treasure Valley area believe that the right of customers and employees, especially
employees, to breathe clean indoor air, are more important than the rights -- than the
right to smoke. The interesting thing -- the thing that blew our mind is that 57 percent of
smokers agreed with us. If you looked at that second page, that's where we just kind of
break down this and see that it's -- it's not really a partisan issue, both Democrats and
Republicans agreed with us, along with Independents, it doesn't really matter what your
age is, if you're a man or a woman, pretty much everybody agreed with us and what you
will see is over there on that right-hand side, those are the overall percentages. The
next is that we asked them would you -- would you vote for a candidate who supported
this and, again, what you will see is the overall numbers show that the Boise valley
voters would choose a candidate who voted for a local ordinance and, again, if you look
over on the right-hand side, it's not a partisan issue, it's pretty much down the line
Democrats and Republican. The next slide is not anything too surprising, but it's good
to kind of hear the message again. Eight out of ten voters say that exposure to
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secondhand smoke is harmful to people's health and, again, you will see on this that
smokers -- 53 percent of them, again, agreed with us. Imagine being in a bar -- being
an employee in a bar and having a -- you know, eight to ten hour shift and all of the
toxins that you would be breathing in. The next one is -- kind of addresses what
happens if we do this and, again, if a bar is nonsmoking only, Boise area voters will be
just as likely, if not more likely, to go to that bar and the first thing I have to apologize
that this has all been in black and white. I have to tell you it is spectacular in color, but
we had a little bit of printer issues and instead of throwing it halfway across the room, I
decided just to go to the black and white for tonight. But what you will see is that the
more likely -- which is that dark that you can't really see, is 37 percent are more likely --
31 percent tell you that there is really is no difference, and 50 percent of our voters say
they don't even go to bars in the first place, so -- and, then, this last one is kind of,
again, where the crux of our argument is, is that voters overwhelmingly agree that all
workers, no matter what your profession, all workers should be protected from exposure
to secondhand smoke in the workplace and is that a bar can be healthier -- again, no
surprise here, would be healthier for employees and customers if they were smoke free.
And, again, you will see that 87 percent of people say that all workers should be
protected from that harm. What we have provided with you as well is a list of people
that have formally endorsed our smoke free efforts. Now, you will see some people on
there that is no big surprise. The American Heart Association is on there. The
American Lung Association. ASC CAN is on there. The Idaho Medical Association --
again, no surprise there. But what I really want to show is that we have six different
restaurant and bar owners on there, some of which whose bars have not gone smoke
free voluntarily, they say if we do this we kind of have to all kind of do it together. And I
think that's kind of where, again, the kind of -- didn't know that would happen -- is on
there. So, we are really, really proud of them. What I would like to do is introduce Heidi
Low. Again, she's with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and she's
just going to go over a few of the other handouts that I gave you and, then, I will follow
up.
Low: Good evening. As she introduced me, I'm Heidi Low, American Cancer Society
Cancer Action Network and I'm the Idaho director of government relations. I'm going to
go over the kind of dry stuff, but important things, which is the ethics of secondhand
smoke and the impact that smoke-free laws have in communities thus far that have
already gone smoke free. So, tobacco use does cost Idaho life and money every year.
Two hundred twenty Idahoans die each year as a result of just secondhand exposure to
smoke and the annual health care costs here in Idaho for health care due to tobacco is
219 million, which translates into a 546 dollar toll on every tax paying household and
currently Idaho state law does protect many employees from the dangers of
secondhand smoke and our goal is to insure that all employees are covered and
protected, because the health hazards are real and they are measurable. Did you know
that secondhand smoke contains 69 cancer causing chemicals, including formaldehyde,
arsenic, cyanide, and carbon monoxide? These and other chemicals cause 3,000 lung
cancer deaths every single year to otherwise healthy, nonsmoking individuals. Besides
cancer, secondhand smoke can cause or aggravate a wide range of health issues,
including respiratory infections, asthma, and heart disease. No one should have to
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choose between a good job and good health. Nonsmokers working in smoking
environments double their risk of getting lung cancer. On the other hand, smoke free
policies, decreased absenteeism among nonsmoking employees, and increased
productivity. As of January 2009, 331 communities and 18 states have already
implemented one hundred percent smoke free policies, including bars. Over 23 studies
of the effects of these measures demonstrates there is no significant adverse impact on
revenues. In fact, some areas have enjoyed an increase in business. The president of
a restaurant and tavern association is quoted in the New York Times as saying: I have
to admit, I have seen no fall off in business in either establishment, restaurant or bar.
Then, he went on to describe what he once considered an unimaginable. Customers
actually seem to like it, as does he. And so specific to Meridian, according to the Ada
County liquor licenses and also doing Google searches and Yahoo searches,
comparing it to the Idaho liquor licenses, there are at most eight bars that would be
affected by this model ordinance language that touches the bars. The other model
ordinance language Adrean's going to walk through with you that covers like the small
businesses where there is less than five employees. So, looking at the bars, it's less
than eight at most. So, we just ask in conclusion that you would protect every single
worker here in Meridian from the hazards of secondhand smoke, by considering
implementing the model ordinance language that Adrean is going to go over. And I
stand for questions if you have anything on things that I covered.
Rountree: Any questions for Heidi?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Thank you.
Casper: Okay. Recognizing that Meridian is a growing economy and not only do we
need to protect the workers that we have now, but also -- I mean we don't pretend that
there is only going to be eight bars for the entirety of Meridian's history. So, what you
have in front of you is what we consider quote, unquote, model language. Now, with the
full intent on working with you to see what works best in Meridian. This is what we
considered, really, the gold standard and as being -- this would also be considered --
being considered in other Treasure Valley cities as well and this is what we are taking to
Boise, Garden City, Meridian and Eagle right now, but also working with other Treasure
Valley cities. So, what we have done here on the first two pages is really take the
current 2004 Clean Indoor Air Act, in its originality, and say, okay, where are the
loopholes, what do we need to do to really, really protect workers and, then, present
that in a quick memo in front. The first is to remove bar exemption. Obviously, that's
kind of the big thing is to remove the bars exemption, so that all -- all our workers are
protected. The next and one that is kind of relatively unknown is that any small
business with five or fewer employees is also exempt under current code, under current
statute. And we'd also like to shore up that. Also, any exemption from a theater
production site is also exempted and we'd like to define -- put tighter definition on what
we call a private club or what we have seen in places in other -- in other cities and other
states is that a bar will merely call itself a private club, charge you a membership fee at
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the door, all of a sudden it's a private club and, therefore, can allow smoking. We just
want to shore that up, so that that's not a possibility. And, then, also specifically we
want to -- we want to look at the motel-hotel exemption where we would want to provide
a minimum of 80 percent of hotel or motel guest rooms as a hundred percent smoke
free to protect, obviously, hospitality workers. Like I said, the rest of this -- what it does
is it walks through what current statute is and what we believe needs to be done to
protect all workers. We have been working with the bar owners to talk about different
patios. Will you allow smoking on patios, et cetera, and in working with them right now,
what it looks like is that we are going to put a statute in there that will not allow smoking
as long as food is being served. So, if you have a patio, you're serving food, you're a
restaurant, you don't allow smoking on there -- oops. Sony. Excuse me. If food is not
being served, then, you could have smoking on your patio. And, again, that's just within
industry talks right now, talking with different bar workers, because -- or, excuse me, bar
owners, because we, obviously, don't want to be seen as exclusionary by any stretch of
the imagination. Our bottom line is we want to protect all of Idaho's workers from
secondhand smoke. So, with that I'd like to ask if there is any questions?
Rountree: Any questions? Brad, you look like you might have one.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I -- Mr. President, thank you. I was just trying to think through that
patio situation. You know, when we have a theater production -- this is a city facility, so
there would be no smoking allowed on that.
Casper: Right.
Hoaglun: But if you're downtown there is a patio, they are serving food, smoking would
not be allowed --
Casper: Right.
Hoaglun: -- what about a coffee shop definition? I mean -- where they are serving a
liquid and there is not a menu and that sort of thing, so the people are sitting outside,
what's the situation for something like that, Adrean?
Casper: Right now -- and I'd have to check, because I don't know and I could get back
to you, but from my understanding those are considered restaurants under current
statute. But, again, I'll check and get back to you, because, frankly, I don't know.
Rountree: Come up here, please, Heidi. We need to get you on the record.
Low: Right now there is some language that covers the 15 or 20 feet from the entrance
rule. Coffee shops are not necessarily covered under that. So, technically, if
somebody's outside, not part of their property, they could smoke on it, if you do this and
you implement that 15 foot from the door rule, that's independent of the bars, then, you
would be taking care of the coffee shops. If you don't have that 15 to 20 foot rule and
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implement that, then, if they are not on the property they are not on the property. Does
that sound -- am I -- so, yeah. Does that answer your question?
Hoaglun: Yeah. Mr. President, yeah, I -- if it's within their enclosure, you know, within
their confines of their property, you know, I think if they are serving coffee it's not a
restaurant, but I think if we are going to do this, then, you need to include that, because
that will impact those that are participating and enjoying what that establishment has to
offer.
Low: Right. And what we have been talking -- when I say that exemption that we have
been talking about, has it come really from industry? If the City Council of Meridian
didn't want to include that, we certainly wouldn't have. I mean that's not -- that's not a
make or break for us.
Casper: And the model language actually has patios included.
Low: Right.
Casper: And, then, you determine -- we recommend 15 to 20 feet from the doorway,
which would pretty much cover any kind of coffee shop patio.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
Rountree: Other comments? Questions?
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would just comment -- and, of course, I haven't done any thorough research
myself, but just as I travel around in other cities and other states that have passed
ordinances like this, there isn't the kind of backlash that you would expect. It's
acceptance almost a hundred percent people feel that their environment is improved
generally and I'm very much in favor of doing this. The one thing of -- the couple places
where you define a restaurant or define a bar, I would think we would need to get
together with our ordinances and make sure we are consistent in what we already have
definitions for those that involve our licensing and our conditional use permits and stuff.
Low: Right. And, like I say, this -- and this is model language and so what we are
interested in doing is really sitting down with your staff, with legal, et cetera, and really
walking through this to figure out what is best for Meridian.
Casper: And what I can tell you is that Eagle city -- it's the same kind of thing where we
did the work session and they took the final language and now their city attorney is
drafting the model language according to Eagle city ordinance language, which it
sounds much like what you guys would do. So, same processes.
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Zaremba: Thank you.
Low: Thank you.
Canning: President Rountree? I think to answer Councilman Hoaglun's question, I --
perhaps it didn't come through quite clearly, but restaurants don't require -- or you can't
smoke in a restaurant already, so those would be covered. And a coffee shop we do
term that a restaurant. And Ithink -- go ahead.
Hoaglun: And I was just going to say, would that include that outside space of that --
Canning: No. We don't define that necessarily. That -- we don't touch the smoking
stuff right now. That's all done at the state level. This would bring it into our codes. But
a coffee shop -- and most of the places that serve liquor in town are all restaurants. The
figure eight is probably correct, but probably three or four of those are closet bars, so it's
probably -- real bars, there is probably closer to three or four.
Casper: And, Councilman Hoaglun, on the sixth page over, if you're talking about that
whole patio thing where by now Idaho statute isn't covering it, if you look at Section
1007 on the prohibition, then, you look down on A, what you could do is close that gap
there where it says the 15 to 20 feet and it would cover those coffee shops and the
patios. The Idaho statute.
Rountree: Any further comments?
Casper: Is there anything further you need from us moving forward in the process?
Rountree: I might -- well, let's see what we have got here in terms of discussion.
Preference? Move forward? Hold?
Zaremba: Mr. President, I would say it's a good idea and we should more forward.
Hoaglun: Yeah. Mr. President, there is a saying out there that says, you know, I have
the right to swing my fist until it meets the end of your nose. You know, basically,
saying that people can do what they want until it starts impacting another person and,
unfortunately, secondhand smoke is -- is something that impacts other people and the
studies bear that out and, you know, so I think we ought to take a look at this and have
a good discussion on if this is what we want to do for Meridian, but I'm inclined to move
in that direction right now.
Bird: I agree, but I want to see the ordinance first before I --
Rountree: You're a survivor.
Bird: I'm a survivor.
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Casper: Congratulations.
Low: Well, what I'll do is -- who do I need to send and -- oh, gosh. Who do I need to
send an electronic copy of this?
Bird: Send it to Bill or I
Low: Okay. I'll send it to you, Bill, and, then, we can work together to draft that.
Nary: Okay.
Low: Okay. Thank you.
Rountree: My comment is that I, too, think that this is an area we need to explore. A
couple questions. One for Bill. Is this an area where we are going to end up in court
challenging the authority of locals in an area that has typically been taken on by the
state? I'm not asking for an answer, Ijust -- you know, to me that's something that's
going to happen. And, then, for Heidi and Adrean, if we pursue this before we put a lot
of effort in it, I would like to see some kind of a public effort directed specifically to these
folks that -- you know, you might have picked a worse time in our economy to do this,
but I'm not sure. And that's going to be as we move forward with this or if we move
forward with this, that's going to be something we are going to hear, even though your
statistics tell us otherwise, those folks out there that are businesses in our community,
are probably going to have those comments, even though it might only be three of them
at this point in time. So, I would like to see some kind of a public outreach to those folks
in an education process that would not only get to those folks, but get to the folks that
have restaurants that have outside seating that are not covered by the state, because if
we are going to do this, we ought to do it in total. And there is a whole lot more than
three of those out there. And that's an effort that I would like to see some help and you
have the -- you have the background and you have the information, you have the ability
to go out and seek people that have been through this that you can bring and have
them testify or bear witness to these other folks. So, as we get into this that's
something I would ask your organizations to do for us and with us.
Low: Right. When we started this effort it started in -- just in Boise. It was just a Boise
event and, then, all of a sudden we saw this outcry from the community saying, well,
why not where I live. And so I can tell you right now that we have a number of in
Meridian already, it's always been part of our strategy to reach out to bar owners and
that's something that we have done in Boise. Haven't had a chance to do here yet, but
definitely it's part of our plan to meet with them.
Casper: And we will speed up that process.
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Low: Exactly. And that's something that we will -- we will definitely -- that's, obviously,
part of our overall strategy as well and, then, we will be able to present to you that
information.
Rountree: Very good.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would comment that I'm happy to hear that you're presenting this to other
cities and the county and everything. One of the things that's important to me when --
when you're going to make an ordinance that people think will affect them in some way,
is that we have a level playing field. We don't want them to feel, okay, my smoking
customers are going to go over to this other city and I will lose them. The broader we
can spread this and the more neighboring competitors we can get involved in it, the
better it is as a level playing field for the businessman.
Casper: We absolutely agree with you. That's why we are in Boise, Eagle, Meridian,
and Garden City.
Zaremba: I appreciate that.
Rountree: Anything else? Thank you again.
Casper: Thank you.
Item 5: Department Reports:
A. Heroes Park Update.
B. Parks ~ Recreation Fee Schedule.
Rountree: Now we are entering into department reports. Mr. Siddoway, you have the
first two items, Heroes Park and your fee schedule.
Siddoway: Thank you, Mr. President, Members of the Council. About a month and a
half ago you will recall that City Council approved authority to enter into a contract with
Harvest Design for the design process for Heroes Park. It's been a busy month and a
half and I'd like to give some accolades to Paul Norberg and his team and we kicked off
right -- right at the beginning of the year with a -- a concept planning effort. Since that
time we have had a neighborhood meeting, at which we have invited the neighbors to
come and view what's going on. We have posted that information on our website and
Paul Norberg is here tonight to give City Council a presentation and give you an update
as to the direction that the design of the Heroes Park improvements are going. So, with
that I would like to tum it over the Paul Norberg.
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Norberg: Yeah. My name is Paul Norberg and I reside at 8371 Stetson Court in Boise.
And I have a handout here for you that kind of goes along with the Powerpoint. Would
you like it -- have me give that to you? Or do you just want to follow the Powerpoint?
Rountree: If you would get one to the city clerk, I think the rest of us can view it on our
screens here.
Norberg: We need to go backwards. There it is. It's not at the beginning. There we
go. Okay. So, as Steve said, I'm the owner of Harvest Design. I'm a landscape
architect and we are the lead consultants on the project. And assisting me with the
project is Johnson Architects, represented by Walt Lindgren and Rennison Fodrea
Engineers, represented by Kelly Kehrer. Okay. You're familiar with the location of the
park? Okay. The image at the lower right is a perspective just to help you get oriented.
Ten Mile Road is down the left-hand side and you're looking north. There is houses
along the north and along the east. The project statement, basically, had these five
elements, so this as an upgrade to the park and the park had an existing master plan,
so a lot of these elements really had a place pretty much identified where they would
go. So, we've just been fine tuning them. As you can read, a primary element is the
restroom-concession building and, then, children's playground and interpretive plaza.
A maintenance building with a storage building associated with it. We are Parks and
Rec and PAL, Police Activities League, that share space and a new connective walkway
that would go around the west and north sides of the site. Okay. So, using that outline,
the first order of business was to establish the location for the restroom concession
building. For part of that we had to decide whether or not we kept the maintenance and
storage building with the restroom concession building. The thinking on that is that the
maintenance building is, actually, somewhat unsightly. It's where PAL will be actually
storing a lot of their soccer nets and that sort of thing. So, that alcove between the
private residence and the church area was an attractive place to potentially put the
maintenance building, so we looked at that and we have gone that direction and when
we get to it you will see we do have to bring utilities to it, but the trade off in terms of
what you gain by not having that extra footprint where the restroom concession area is
going to go seemed to pay off. As you can see there this is the existing condition. We
already have sewer, water, and power to the central part of the park and I think that
shows up better in the next slide. Okay. You can see where -- the image there in the
center where the restroom or concession and the restroom facility and shade structure
is located. We are referring to this as Heroes Plaza. Okay. This location had already
been established, because we -- you know, in the early -- in the master planning of the
park years ago, so as I was just saying, there is sewer and water and electricity that are
already there. So, then, it just became a matter of determining how to orient everything
and you will see that the concession building and restroom are on the right-hand side,
east side -- I'm going to go to the next slide. I lost the image at the top. There we go.
Okay. There we go. So -- yeah. That one helps right there. Again, referring to this as
Heroes Plaza, the restroom concession building being on the right-hand side helps to
screen it from buildings that -- the residential area to the east there. The actual
concession area faces out towards the park and -- rather than towards the parking lot.
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So, we like that orientation. We have got the 30 foot by 60 foot shade structure at the
west end of the plaza, which -- and, then, we ran at that east-west orientation we think
we get the best use of the plaza that way and the plans that are evolving now, we are
getting more trees around it, but this is just meant to give you a general vision for how
this was laid out. Again, you see that we have water and sewer and electricity already
there. There is some examples of what the restroom -- the floor plan for the concession
restroom building is on the lower -- on the left side there. If you had any questions
about it right now I could defer to Walt on that or we could come back to it. No? Okay.
So, the next element that we were looking at is the playground and, again, it was,
basically, planned to go at that end of the park in the beginning. So, it was just a matter
of do we locate it where you're seeing it or one other option was to go to the far east
end -- yeah, way down here and that actually -- the reason why we put it where we got it
is, number one, we do want to get the power to it, so, you know, not having to run it as
far, better orientation to the Heroes Plaza area and, then, also the future parking, we
have got a better layout of the parking by having that linear layout like you're seeing.
And more parking spaces. So, that future parking, just on a part of this project, would
come later. Okay. This image is to help you get a feel for the actual layout of the -- of
the playground area. They have two basic age groups, ages two to five, and five to 12,
and what we have done is separated them of the two to five year olds being in the
image closest to you, a shade structure in the center, and, then, the five to 12 year olds
at the far end. They each have a play structure, a swing, and a climbing rock that are
designed to their particular age group. There will be numerous benches, bike racks,
drinking fountain, garbage -- or trash receptacles and a lot of shade. We do think that
we need to get a fair amount of screening on the east end. That was sort of some of
the feedback we got from some of the residents, they wanted to make sure that we
were doing that. Thank you. Okay. One of the things I want to point out on this is --
you can see where I got the blue line, the reclaimed water for use in the restroom. So,
the City of Meridian wants to create a demonstration or interpretive plaza for showing
the use of reclaimed water. The idea is that the water that's being used for residential
purposes right now goes to the treatment plant, right now it just goes -- after that it goes
to the Boise River after it's been treated. What they are wanting to do is get a second
use out of it and bring it here to the park and use it to water the park. To give you some
idea, we did a calculation of how much water we think that is. It's between 30 and 35
million gallons a year of water. To try to visualize that, it's a hundred feet on a side by
400 feet tall. Get you somewhere close to how much water that is. We still -- currently
the water comes from a drain ditch that's up to the northeast of the site. Yeah. Out in
here. There is box right in that comer and there is a pipe that brings water underneath
the park, down to the pond here. That will still be available to us. The water -- the
reclaimed water is actually going to come from the treatment plan and fill up the pond
there at the left and that will, then, become the source of water normally that's being
used to water the pond, but if for whatever reason that water becomes unavailable,
drops, there is going to be an automatic capacity to get the water from of the drain ditch.
So, what is the -- go to the next one. Probably the most interesting fun part of this
project for me is this particular element. We are going to be displaying the water -- the
idea is to create this plaza. In the center of it there would be a waterfall. The cross-
section in the lower left probably helps illustrate that best, but we are going to have it
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February 17, 2009
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higher, water comes flowing down over the boulders into a basin. People will be able to
sit on these walls on either side. There will be a -- we are still working on the details of
it, but some sort of a monument that explains the use of the reclaimed water -- actually,
we want to use some native plant material as a part of this, showing how low water
consuming plants can be integrated and used. So, the next part of the puzzle is the
maintenance building. Again, that's going to be used by Meridian Parks Department for
storage and also by MPAL for storing their soccer goals. You can go back to that one.
Okay. So, you see here that, again, we are bringing the reclaimed water up to the
maintenance building. So, I didn't quite explain before, the maintenance -- the
reclaimed water is going to go to the restroom and be used to flush the toilets. It's also
going to happen up here, where the maintenance building goes, we are going to -- we
have got a restroom facility there. It won't be operable right to begin with, because we
have to wait until sewer gets extended along Ten Mile Road. We are going to have
piping all in place, but it won't be operable, so we can get it to that point. Trying to think
if there is anything else I need to point out there. Okay. Go to the next one. Okay. So,
the last piece in the puzzle was getting a new walkway that would go along the west
and north sides, connecting up with the existing walkways around the site. It's
anticipated to be about a -- to beaten foot wide asphalt path, meandering. We have to
work within the -- know where the existing sprinkler heads are at. Then, along the north
side we wanted to help create a buffer between the playing field and the residences that
-- yeah, the image on the upper right helps show you the massing of the plant material.
We want it to be so that people -- the residents can still -- can see across the field, but
get a sense of separation from the fields. We are also talking about doing a matched
canopy of trees, which, basically, follows along the pathway, just to be, you know, a
very bold statement with the foliage, so -- I think that's -- and, then, this is the plan -- the
overall plan that we currently are showing and displaying it upstairs. So, with that I
guess I will just open it up to your questions.
Rountree: Any questions?
Hoaglun: Mr. President. Paul, for that building next to the neighbor -- between the
neighbors and the church, is that something that you talked to them about -- I mean do
we need any particular permits or anything to place that there? I mean just the fact of
being good neighbors with them to -- they aren't all of a sudden yelling at us saying,
hey, what did you put that hideous building next to my house for, so -- where are we on
that, Paul or Steve, whoever might --
Norberg: We haven't spoken directly with Justin on that. I happen to know Justin
Martin. I never -- you know, he was -- we had the neighborhood meeting and, of
course, he was invited to come to that. We are -- probably can give him a call, meeting
with him directly and talk a bit about it. The plan is to -- number one, Elroy wants to
lower that area about a foot and a half. There is existing soil there that was placed
there when the park was originally graded, so that's going to lower that space where the
building will go. We are also thinking that we want to put some trees along that edge
between the maintenance building and Justin's site, but I'd be more than happy to meet
with Justin and go over it with him.
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Hoaglun: Yeah. I just think it's better than surprising them when the building starts
going up and that's -- that's not any fun. And the other question I had, Mr. President
and Paul, is what type of lighting is planned for the playground for the kids, that tot lot?
Is there going to be lighting or is it when it goes dark it's dark and time to clear out of the
park type thing?
Norberg: Well, the only lighting that Steve and Elroy have asked to be put there would
be motion detector lighting that would -- if anybody came through there after dark -- I
mean there is a darkness -- or a -- no lights after --
Siddoway: The park closes a half an hour after dusk. So, our intent is not to light it in
such a way that it would encourage activity after dark, but we do want to light it in such
a way with security lighting that if someone is in the park and going from place to place,
that motion sensors would be turning on lights and we would know where someone's at.
Hoaglun: And the fact that some kid lost their coat or something and mom goes back to
look for it, there is a way to see what -- that lost article, that sort of thing. Okay. Thank
you.
Rountree: Any other questions?. Comments? I guess that to Brad's point, I believe that
particular building, since it's in an R-4 neighborhood, will probably have to go through
design review anyway, so -- oh, Anna is here.
Siddoway: It does have to go through design review. We have already anticipated a
certificate of zoning compliance and building permit as part of our process and just this
week we have put Walt Lindgren in touch with the Planning Department to talk about
design review.
Rountree: Any other questions? I have a question about the reclaimed water for the
pond. Is there a prohibition about -- well, there is a no contact rule with it, but does it --
can it be open to the public as it's being proposed or does it have to be fenced off, so
you can physically deny access to that water? Do you know?
Siddoway: What I have been told is we met with Public Works and they have been
involved in the design of this. It doesn't have to be fenced off. It just -- it should not be
designed and is not designed to encourage interaction and playing in the water. It's not
a splash pad. It's not -- in fact, let me go back. What you will see as I get to the slide
there, the water basin level is actually set below -- not up at the top height of this wall,
but down below, so that, you know, they can view it, they can hear it, they can read
signs. If they really tried they could get to it. But it's not designed as an interactive
water feature.
Rountree: I guess my concern is that if there is a waterfall there, that's an attractive
nuisance and I don't care what you do, it's going to have kids in it. It's going to have
kids in it. And they are the ones we want to protect the most.
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Siddoway: Yeah. And it will be fine, so that it's clear that it's -- that it's areclaimed --
that it's reclaimed water and what that is and --
Rountree: You have two small sons. Are they going to read that sign if you're not
around? I mean that's just -- to me it's a potential issue, how attractive we make that.
Hoaglun: And I think, yeah, it's a good, Mr. President, you know, and there might be
ways to -- I like the concept, you know. You know, are there ways you can use wrought
iron or -- where you can still view, but, you know, a three year old is not going to be able
to get into that -- yeah, an adult can step over something, but how do you protect the
youngest from, hey, water and jumping right in type thing or playing. But, you know,
might take a look at it, see what can be done in a way that the study conclusion -- but,
yeah, it's something we have to consider to a certain extent. You can't protect
everybody from everything, but, you know, probably for the -- for the youngsters we got
to find a way to make sure that there is a reasonable protection for them. Something to
take a look at.
Siddoway: I'd just say that in all reality the reclaimed water that we will be using is
cleaner than the irrigation water that's currently in the pond.
Bird: That's just what I was going to say.
Rountree: I agree. I know that. But the bottom line is there are federal rules attached
to us being able to use reclaimed water.
Siddoway: Yeah. And we need to -- we will be in conformance with all the rules that
come with the permit and that's why we have had public works involved from the start
on this.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I once attended a school that had a decorative pond they wanted to keep
people out of and there were signs that said there were snapping turtles in the water. I
never knew if there really were, because nobody was willing to go in.
Canning: Piranha.
Bird: I was going to say, some three year old kid isn't going to be able to read that --
Rountree: Anyway, just make sure that we explore that the best we can as you design
that.
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Siddoway: I'll specifically engage Public Works on that question to make sure that
everything that's being done is in conformance with the federal regulations and the
requirements of the state with that permit.
Rountree: And Kyle's heard it as well, so -- any other questions? Comments? Thank
you. Get that thing done.
Siddoway: Mr. President, it's just that we are on track and moving forward. We will be
submitting for certificates of zoning compliance, building permits, and working on the bid
package in March, so that early -- by the early summer will be under construction and
have the project underway this summer, so -- thank you.
Rountree: Very good. Next item, if you will read the time limitations there, Steve, you
have now five minutes.
Siddoway: Okay. Then, there is one -- there is two ways I can do this. You should
have in your packets already a copy of the proposed fee schedule. The proposed
changes are highlighted in yellow and I can either stand for questions on the fee
schedule or I can walk through the changes one by one or I can hit a few highlights.
What would your pleasure be?
Rountree: Does anybody need to be walked through the fee schedule?
Bird: I don't need to be walked through, but I've got a few questions.
Rountree: Okay. Let's just do questions here. Mr. Bird.
Bird: Steve?
Siddoway: Yes, sir.
Bird: I see we are -- some of our increases are outrageous. And I'm speaking for a
sponsor, not only of the basketball program, but your softball programs, too. Sixty, 499
percent, 105 percent -- and I don't mind -- I don't mind the raising if you can back them
up. You will be taking men's senior softball completely out -- or we are not going to
charge anything for it, one of the two.
Siddoway: Let me start there. To the teams, I think they will find that these -- these
fees, for the most part, are not increasing, because the team fee is increasing to offset
the removal of the player fees. Today they are paying both a team fee and a player fee
and what we are doing is rolling those player fees up into the team fee and simplifying it,
so there is just a team based on the number of players.
Bird: As a sponsor I don't like that, because the athletes that compete should have to
pay some money, so -- in the first place, you should have an out-of-city charge anyway.
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Siddoway: Well, that's the second part that --
Bird: Every other town around here you pay -- you don't live within a taxing entity, you
pay a 15 or 20 dollar fee to use their facilities and play it. And I realize that, Steve. I
should have -- I knew that you had taken out the payer fee. As a sponsor I have a
problem with the players not having to pay some. And I just think, you know, some of
them are -- the men and women's coed has went from 400 -- 200 to 410 dollars, 105
percent. To me it's just -- and I realize where you're coming from, not charging the kids
a player fee.
Siddoway: And it doesn't keep the sponsor from requiring the players to pay 15 dollars
towards the fee, but for us we will just simply be receiving the team fee if that makes
sense.
Bird: And I know why you're doing it. But tell me why we are not charging for out of city
-- nontaxpayers have to pay.
Siddoway: That was the second part I was going to get to and I can jump to that right
now if you'd like.
Rountree: Go ahead.
Siddoway: The Parks and Recreation Commission has discussed in quite some detail
over the last couple of months the idea of resident and nonresident fees. We have
done research into the usage that our programs see from residents and nonresidents
and, frankly, it's about 50-50. I have some numbers that I can share with you if you
want a full presentation maybe a future meeting. But the first question -- and
Councilman Zaremba was there for this discussion and feel free to chime in, but I'll lay
some of the groundwork. The first question was are residents being turned away
because spots are being filled by nonresidents? And the answer to that is no. In fact,
what we are seeing right now is the opposite effect, that without the nonresidents
involved, classes would more likely be canceled. So, including the nonresidents --
having nonresidents participate in our classes is actually helping offer more programs to
our -- to our citizens and the thought was that it will be time to institute a nonresident fee
at some point in the future, but that right now they don't feel was the time. There
actually was an initial motion to institute a nonresident fee as a recommendation to the
City Council. That motion died during discussion and, then, it was replaced with a
motion -- this is just last week -- to recommend to City Council that we not institute a
nonresident fee at this time for two reasons, really. The first reason being the
administrative staff time that would be involved in administering the nonresident fee
program. But second and probably more importantly to them was the idea that they
don't want to discourage nonresidents in any way from participating, because the
classes simply are not overfull at this point.
Bird: Steve, we are talking about two different things. I'm talking about participation in
athletics. You're talking about programs that we give that's -- as I take it. And to be
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February 17, 2009
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truthful with you, if -- if I was a team out of Boise or Nampa or someplace and wanted to
play ball, I'd come over here, because, you know -- and I can guarantee you I'll give you
a list of kids from Meridian that play in Boise, Nampa, and Caldwell and ask them if they
get in free. They don't.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: During the Parks and Recreation Commission discussion I chimed in and I
hope didn't falsely express the opinion that I thought that this Council had originally
asked the question are any Meridian people being turned away and I thoughts that that
was what led to the discussion of whether we should charge fees or not. I suggested to
them that in the answer to are we turning people away was no, then, we weren't ready
to do a fee structure for out of town people and if I misled them I'm sorry, but I thought
that was my sense of why the question was asked and I did tell them that.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: And, David, I have no problem with that. You know, I don't want to turn any kid
away. I don't want to turn anybody away, adult, kid, senior, whatever. But in the same
token I want to -- I want our taxpayers to be treated the same as everybody else's
taxpayers. We have -- you know, we have programs that we use Boise facilities and I
assure you that we help with Boise facilities. Not as much as we probably should for
the amount of kids that we have playing at the Boise facilities, but -- and I can also
assure you after going through looking things up, that in our softball programs if we got
50 percent Meridian taxpayers in it, we are lucky. And I can tell you the fast pitch girls is
not even that.
Zaremba: Well -- and, Mr. President, if I may, some of the discussion at the
commission was that if we did not have those non-Meridian players, if they felt afee --
said, okay, well, I live in Boise and I'm closer to Boise, if I have to pay a fee in Meridian
I'm staying here with my league. Some of the commissioners brought up they felt that
there were leagues that would disappear and some opportunities for our -- we don't
have enough people in our -- in Meridian to have full leagues and competitions,
apparently, and they felt that that -- now, it's not a dead issue. My feeling was they
wanted to revisit it in maybe a year or two and see at what point it would happen. But I
just felt they didn't feel it was good today.
Hoaglun: Well --
Rountree: Go ahead.
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Hoaglun: -- I was just going to say, Mr. President -- thank you. That my perspective is
from the athletic side of things in younger days and playing in league in Boise softball
and going to Nampa for tournaments, we had to come up with that fee, you're a
nonresident. And, you know, in our mind -- it wasn't exhorbitant, but it was more than a
resident had to pay, but we understood it that these fields are provided, maintained by
the taxpayers of that city and, hey, it was great. I mean we were willing to pay that to
participate over there in that league and it was just the way it is and, you know, that's
something I think we -- we ought to be exploring to some degree, because we are
providing a benefit to folks in the valley that they can enjoy, but since they are not
taxpayers to the city, you know, shouldn't they pay a little bit more for that privilege of
something that's being provided to them by our taxpayers and, again, as long as it's not
exhorbitant. If there is a concern that, yes, we can see that there is definitely an impact,
we wouldn't be able to have the leagues -- and, again, I'm just speaking to the sports
side of things. The classes I don't know. But from the sports side, yeah, I think you can
do that, especially -- you know, I recall those days. You pay extra money to go over
and get so banged up and beat up and sore that Monday you can hardly walk and you
thought you had a great weekend, you know.
Rountree: Steve, I'll throw in my comment. There is three of us up here that have been
through that in terms of --
Siddoway: Nonresident fees?
Rountree: Nonresident fees playing in leagues, so -- of course, when we were involved
there wasn't an option.
Bird: I know. We didn't have anything in Meridian.
Rountree: There wasn't anyplace else to go. It is -- to me it is something I would like to
do, but if it means that we can't form enough active teams to have a reasonable
program and decent tournaments, then, we just really need to step back and think about
that a little bit.
Siddoway: And we don't know what the impact will be until we try it. The thought was
that in the current economy they weren't ready to try it. Like I presented to them, I
couched it -- you know, it's half of -- you could play this either way. If half of our -- our
users are nonresidents and we set a minimal fee that in no way discourages use and
that just becomes additional revenue, then, all the better, frankly. But if it has the
opposite effect of making a difference in people not coming -- in the end that was the
risk they weren't willing to take as the commission, so --
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: Steve -- and I realize this year it's too late, I do, but I'm like Brad and Charlie, I --
this is something we really got to take a look at. Your fees are -- I hope next year you
will take a hard look at player fees, regardless of what -- maybe at least out of city
player fees.
Siddoway: Specifically for the sports program --
Bird: Right now we need to be going and getting organized and getting going, so we
don't have time to jump around. Nobody hates -- none of the teams like getting
surprises, you know, after they got their teams organized and everything and it's
probably -- it's been -- if anybody's called in, they have given this information.
Siddoway: Well, it's not set until it's set. So, I'd offer two options. One option is we
could move forward this way for this year and look at instituting one next year. Or if you
seriously want to consider one next year, I can get Colin and Allison here to present to
you next week, who have been doing the majority of the research into this and we can
make an additional presentation to you next week. But I guess that's -- I'd stand for
what your feelings are.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Again, if I misled the commission I apologize for that, but they did some very
good work in preparing a nonresident fee proposal. When I made my explanation that I
thought that overriding question was are we tuming people away, they held that back.
But they have done the work and they do have a proposal that they would be happy to
make if it's the sense of the Council that that's the direction we want to go.
Hoaglun: Mr. President? Follow up on that, then. Steve and Councilman Zaremba,
were they -- was there a sense that right now due to the economy that it might be
tuming people away if they were to do that?
Siddoway: Yes.
Hoaglun: And, then, I might say, Mr. President, then, to follow up that, you know,
maybe we ought to just hold off on a year, you know, implement the new fees and -- but
still take a look at it next year and see if things -- things change a little bit. But, you
know, it's a direction I think we ought to keep considering for the future. And I did have
one other question for you, Steve, if I might, Mr. President. When they hear the new
fees, do they know that there is no longer a player fee? I mean when they see, you
know, amen's -- women's basketball team jumps from 400 to 595, they are not going to
fall over and we are going to explain to them, well, this -- there is no longer a player
fee?
Siddoway: Definitely. I mean we need to do that in order to keep their business.
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Hoaglun: Okay. Good.
Siddoway: So, yeah.
Bird: I know one sponsor you're going to have to say it to. I agree with Councilman
Hoaglun and yourself. Let's -- let's go -- I want to go one -- and I want this done. I don't
want it halfway, I want it done. I want -- I want -- off of this softball program I want to
know how many Meridian people participate and how many out of city people
participate. I don't want to guess, I want the facts and figures. Like we asked on the
girls' thing last year and we got a halfway answer. I want the full answer. And if I have
to come up and do it, I will be glad to, just get the files out.
Siddoway: Well, Ican -- I can certainly make a -- prepare a presentation for you on that
specific thing if you'd like.
Bird: Let's get our -- let's get our programs going and, then, we can do that.
Siddoway: Mr. Chairman -- or Mr. President. We committed to the Council last fall as
we were going through our budget enhancement process, that we would roll the
additional cost up for the fencing improvements out at the Heritage Middle School ball
field into the updated fees and I just want to report back to you that the updated fees for
the girls fast pitch softball does include the 25 dollar increase that we promised you we
would do. I just want to report back.
Rountree: Any further questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Comments?
Bird: Thank you, Steve.
Rountree: Next action is to bring a resolution on these fees.
Nary: Actually, to public hearing.
Siddoway: Yeah. Go to hearing.
Rountree: Public hearing? Okay. Let's do next order.
Siddoway: Okay.
Rountree: And also make sure that your data collection is spot on in terms of resident
and nonresident at least in the sports activities.
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Siddoway: And if I might, I do have some numbers that we presented to the
commission, but they were based on zip code and let me just -- it would take quite some
time to verify every address, but we can do a fairly simple sort based on the 83642 and
83646 zip codes, if that's sufficient for you.
Bird: Not both of them pay city taxes.
Siddoway: Right. There are nonresidents in both of those.
Rountree: I would say that upon registration for one of these, that the applicant have a
checkmark resident, nonresident. It's going to have to be on the honor system anyway
and we can get an intern or somebody to tally those check boxes.
Bird: I'd be glad to.
Siddoway: So, you're looking specifically for the upcoming season; is that correct?
Rountree: Yes.
Bird: Yes. This year, Steve. It's -- last year is too late.
Siddoway: Okay. We can do that.
Rountree: Let's not make it overly complicated or we can develop an algorithm here
and do some predicting if we need. Check boxes work just fine for me for now.
Siddoway: But if I understand the direction correctly, it's specifically to the sports
program, nonresident fees, not as much toward the classes or programs or the shelter
reservations; is that correct?
Bird: Oh, heavens, no.
Rountree: No.
Siddoway: Thank you. We have been looking at all of those in our discussions with the
commission so far, so -- thank you.
C. Community Relations Update.
Rountree: Very good. Luke, you have been patient. It's your tum.
Cavener: Mr. President, Members of the Council, I'll try to keep my comments as brief
and to the point as possible to you this evening. This is my first opportunity to address
you since taking the position as the community relations specialist. I will be going over
some of the accomplishments that we have had in the time since I began, my goals that
I'm laying out for some future. In addition, I'm looking for any feedback and advisement
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as to how you would like me to present this information to you moving forward. I'll just
begin, I guess, at step one. I knew coming in that there was a certain amount of time
from the point when my predecessor left the position until the point I began. I quickly
identified what the largest amount of goals that we could accomplish to get -- really get
the train back on the track and moving in the direction that we wanted. I knew that there
was a large amount of programs that I would have to devote my time to and gauge them
against how they would best impact the community organizations, such as our chamber,
school district, our service clubs, the senior center, youth council, faith ambassadors, as
well as the public at large. I knew the best way for me to serve those different
organizations was to really identify and overcome those challenges. I did that by
forming strong strategic partnerships with a variety of different organizations. Our
organizations that would help us to promote the city and the events that we were having
on different civic organizations that we would be able to recruit volunteers to help us in
the events that we had. I'm pleased to say that in the six weeks or seven weeks now
since I have taken over this position we have had a lot of accomplishments the City of
Meridian can be proud of. First and foremost my main goals are addressing, you know,
citizens' concems, whether that is one on one or in front of a group or organization. I
have made myself available to every service and civic organization within the
community to come and speak to them about what their issues and concerns are, in
addition to share what my position is and how it can be, you know, an arm that really
works along side them. Participated in numerous amount of ribbon cutting events,
along with our business partners, in addition to providing a voice for the city at our
chamber events. I have facilitated the production on a new recruitment tool to use for
our youth council. In addition, I have worked along side the youth council to coordinate
the Flame of Hope event that I believe you were all present for when the Special
Olympics came to Meridian. My goals moving forward are fairly simple. My main goals
is fostering interaction and support within our community. The best way that I can do
that is to get out from behind my desk and go out and work one on one in our
community. In addition I'm going to be working with our office to develop a numerous
amount of tools so that the city will be able to connect with the community and vice-
versa, programs such as different web based applications, social networking programs,
pod casting and video casting. So, for our citizens who for instance weren't able to
attend the State of the City, would be able to log onto via the intemet and view the
speech in their entirety, relieving us from not requiring one of our local news affiliates to
produce it, we would be able to handle it all in house. An additional program that I'm
working on is working along side Matt Ellsworth to utilize some additional CDBG funds
for a variety of different service organizations that are being championed through our
faith community. Matt had brought to our attention some discussion funds that weren't
being used and that we would be able to partner with our faith community to help with --
help and address a homeless situation existing in Meridian, as well as working along
side our school district to help some of our teens and youth that are in less than
adequate situations. In addition, I'm coordinating some fundraising events alongside
our youth council to raise money for the Idaho Meth Project. The City of Meridian has
really championed the Idaho Meth Project. City Hall was selected as the location to
launch the second wave of the Idaho Meth Project advertisement and I look forward to
continuing to work alongside them to develop that program and use the City of Meridian
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as a champion for that program. Again, I tried to keep these as brief as possible. I'd be
more than willing to answer or address any questions, concems about the past seven
weeks, in addition to anything that you would like from me moving forward.
Rountree: Any comments, questions for Luke? Luke, a comment. You indicated as
part of your activities you were out there in the community or you were sharing with the
community, you're identifying issues and concems. One of the things that the Council
has always had in mind for this position is just that, is identification of concems and
bringing that information back to us, so we can address those concems at the Council
level if need be, but we definitely support the position for that as additional eyes and
ears and somebody who can be at way more places than most of us can be at any one
point in time.
Cavener: Thank you, Mr. President. I have to admit that that is -- that is my number
one goal in every program that I step forward, whether it is the youth council or
interacting with the chamber, how can that best serve our community at large and I
have to say I'm very fortunate that we have a great staff here at City Hall that when
situations do arise, whether it's a small issue -- just off the top of my head I would attend
a Meridian chamber event and the question was posed why doesn't Meridian have dog
parks and I was able to work along side Director Siddoway and the Parks Department
to get her the prevalent information regarding the dog parks, you know, within a -- really,
an hour and a half tum around. It was really quite remarkable and the woman who I
addressed was impressed that -- to quote her exactly how the wheels of government
spin very fast here in Meridian and I was fortunate that I was able to give her such a
speedy time in response.
Rountree: Very good.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would just like to thank you for the Flame of Hope ceremony. I thought it
was very nice. Very good.
Cavener: Mr. President, Members of the Council, thank you. It was an excellent event
and one that was accomplished by the volunteer hours of our youth council and our high
schools, as well as different members from City Hall. So, thank you all for attending.
Rountree: Any others? Luke, thank you for the work you're doing and continue on.
Cavener: Thank you.
C. On Call /Call Out Policy.
D. Employee Complaints Policy.
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Rountree: Mr. Nary, you get to talk to us about on call and apparently we have some
employees that either want to paint or complain, one of the two. I'm not sure what
you're after there.
Zaremba: And Mr. Nary's special. There is no time limit next to his name.
Nary: This will be brief.
Rountree: He said it was going to be brief, so I didn't have him put a time by it.
Bird: You really don't believe that, do you?
Rountree: Well, once.
Nary: Mr. President, Members of the Council, I had a comment on Luke's presentation.
My son was at the speech at the Idaho Meth Project presentation that was here and he
did a fine job and was quoted in the newspaper and the news and was saying sometime
later last week -- he participates in debate for Rocky Mountain High School, so he was
at a debate and they were discussing drug free Idaho, the Idaho Meth Project, those
types of things, and he's in the group and one of the people in the group's quoting him
and they didn't know he was there. So, he felt pretty fulfilled by being able to participate
in something like that and so it really is a pretty fulfilling project. I only have two -- two
policies for you to review. One has already been vetted through the directors as in our
normal course. The other one I just sent out today, so I haven't gotten any feedback
yet. On the first one, the on-call call out, we had this policy in front of you about a year
ago. We did approve it. Basically, we formalized the process that we were using for
on-call or call out for the Public Works Department and for the Police Department.
What we did now, in speaking with Mr. Siddoway, we've added the Parks Department
into that policy as well, because they do have some call-outs and they found that it has
been working, but there was some necessity to really formalize what the rules are, how
the pay is made, what requirements are for return and so we just -- since we already
had an existing city policy, we just included the Parks Department in it. The other one,
employee complaints, we have in our policy manual currently a method for people to file
or register a complaint in regards to harassment issues. So, in our policy if you -- if you
feel that you're being harassed, whether it qualifies as a Title 7, protected federal
harassment type of claim or you're just feeling generally harassed in the workplace,
whether it's covered by Title 7 or not, this is a method by which you're supposed to file
your complaint, how you get it known, how you get it investigated. There isn't anything
else in our policy that advises folks if they have any other type of complaint. It may not
necessarily be harassment, it may be something else, whether they think it's some sort
of unfair treatment or something else. We deal with a lot of employee issues that aren't
necessarily harassment and the Mayor and I in discussing in felt it was appropriate to at
least have some avenue in the policy that advises folks what they are supposed to do,
who they are going to contact, who is going to look at it, and, then, of course, if there is
anything in relation to human resources, then, where that's going to go, that the Mayor's
Meridian City Council Special Meeting Workshop
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going to be involved with that and that someone is going to take direction, just so they
were aware that there is some method and forum in which they can be heard if they
have an issue and not all of those things are necessarily -- I tried to make it pretty broad
so it wouldn't necessarily be something everything -- you know, everything isn't a major
deal, but employee's issues and concerns need to be addressed in some fashion and
that's the intent here. If there is more word-smithing necessary, that's kind of what the
directors will help you if you have any suggestions on this. Wasn't necessarily trying to
open the door to every single thing, but we really wanted to make sure that people knew
that they had issues or concerns that we would address them. That's all I have. Time?
Bird: Holy Toledo.
Rountree: He was brief. Please review these and as you have comments, if you will
get them to Bill so he can -- you're going to the complaint policy you're going to vet with
the directors --
Nary: Yes.
Rountree: Okay. So, we can add any of our comments in that process and as far as
the on-call policy, you're right, we have seen that. Take a look at the modifications and,
then, we will schedule that for consideration a date in the future.
Nary: Yeah. Two or three weeks to get comments.
Rountree: In a couple of weeks. Yeah.
Nary: And, then, we can bring it back with a resolution.
Rountree: Okay. Thank's Bill.
Nary: Thank you.
F. Police Department Strategic Focus Discussion.
Rountree: That completes all of the stuff. Now for the big session. Chief, you're on.
Lavey: I didn't realize you did all three of those. I'll get a quick lesson here, too. Okay.
Mr. President, Council, the purpose of this report today is mainly to engage in
discussion on kind of where we are heading in the police department, but, really, I'm not
stuck to any particular agenda. If there is something that you want to ask that's
pertinent to what's going on currently, we can do that as well. I have been working with
Councilman Hoaglun over the last couple of months kind of educating him on what we
do in the police department and with our new Council liaison we have been slowly
meeting every couple of weeks kind of talking about when we are doing and where we
are heading and everything else. But I do have some -- a Powerpoint here to talk about
some of the things that face us, some of our things that we are doing in -- in the next
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couple of years. And so with that let's go ahead and move forward. And I'd just like to
point out, too, that Public Works is supposed to be doing this today, I was supposed to
be doing it in November, so I have had to up my time a little bit, so I didn't put together
some fancy presentation like the Heroes Park or anything else, but -- and I did steal
from Anna a little bit, too. I've got to give her credit there. First of all, just a little bit
about the police department. When I came to the police department there was 34
officers. We are currently at 80 allocated. Out of that 80 officers we have 73 that are
currently working for us today, with another 26 support personnel, that gives us a total
allocated figure of 106 employees, hereby the largest city -- or largest department in the
city. We are broke down into three divisions. Well, actually, kind of four. We have
administration, which kind of oversees these three divisions. We have patrol. In patrol
we have actually uniform patrol, the police officers that go door to door. We have the
traffic team. We have the K-9 unit. We have the bicycles. We have the neighborhood
contact officers. In community services we have records, victim witness, crime analysis,
animal control, school resource officers, crime prevention, the drug rank coordinator --
there is probably a few more there and if that commander was here today he would tell
you that I probably missed. But that gives the gist of that. And, then, we have a third
division, which is the criminal investigation division. It's has crimes against persons,
crimes against children, property crimes, intemet crimes, financial fraud crimes and any
critical incident that come up in the city. This is the mission statement for the police
department and over the last couple of months we have actually been looking at
possibly revising this or if this actually works for us and we decided that this actually
works for us with just a little bit of a different spin to it. But, basically, to provide the
highest quality service in partnership with our community to preserve and protect life
and property through education, prevention, and enforcement. Now, we have done
quite well at that, but as individual divisions they have looked it and said, okay, I'll do
enforcement, you do crime prevention and you do education and trying to get them to
realize that, no, this is what we serve under, this is -- every decision we make is based
upon our mission and your responsibility is all three of those. So, now that we have
kind of had a downturn in the -- in the economy and it hasn't grown as much, what we
are actually doing is taking this one step further and doing the community safety through
proactive education and problem identification and solving. So, instead of just being
reactive to what goes on out there, we are trying to put a proactive spin to it and now
that we actually have our heads above water, we are able to do that. I had to put this in
here for Anna. She loves this. But not so much -- and we are going to talk about the
services meets demand, the strategic growth, excellence, but the reason why it's in
there is its all the gears turning together and, really, that's -- that's kind of where the
police department falls in some of this, because when it comes to like economic
excellence, you have to sit there and go what's my part in that. But I'm still a part of that
gear -- or I may not be a gear, I might be a tooth or a couple teeth, but we will talk about
that as we go on further. Talk about some initiatives that we are currently working on
with the law enforcement community. This one here -- this law enforcement visionary
group, we have actually -- I was telling President Rountree I believe this last week is we
have actually formed a group of law enforcement executives where we are actually
looking into the future and sitting there saying, okay, where is law enforcement heading,
where is your department heading, where is our department heading, where are we
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heading as a group, what issues are we facing here in Treasure Valley, what issues are
facing on a nationwide level, and what can we do working together as partners to
combat that. Some of these we have talked about is are we -- are we actually providing
the same resources. Should we consolidate those resources. Should we actually be --
should they be the same, should they be similar, should they be the actual same
resources, such as crime lab. The state does the crime lab right now. The local
sheriffs office has a crime lab. Boise police department has a crime lab. Why do we all
have crime labs? That sort of thing. And so can we dovetail on that. One of the things
with the state's economic status is they have one forensics that is currently -- they are
currently down in and they put a major priority on that, but if they lose more people,
then, we might have to look at other resources and one of the things that I'd like to do is
talk with the sheriffs office or talk with the police department and maybe get on that,
instead of starting our own. One of the things that we talked about is working closer
with the Council liaison. I think this is an extremely important right now with where we
are heading with our -- our budgets and although we are in pretty good shape, we have
no -- none of us can look forward into the future and realize what that's going to hold
and, really, just kind of understanding Council's priorities up here and understanding the
public safety factor. We have to talk about that as well and just kind of seeing where
everybody's -- what everybody's thinking. And, then, as things are slow, as we can start
working on future planning, future growth. One of the things that we have been working
on in a citywide scope and plan to on a department-wide scope, is management of
emergency events, preparing for the future. One of the things that we have done is we
have been training all our command staff into incident command and into incident
management -- the national incident management system and this is done for a couple
of reasons. One is to get everybody on the same sheet of music, the same gorgon, the
same communications that fire's been on board with for a long, long time. But the other
thing is it's mandates -- federal mandates for grants that are coming up as well and
really kind of preparing your public safety for human caused or natural disasters. We
meet once a month on -- our city emergency management team meet once a month
and fire and police are there and we have actually got parks on board with it, we have
got finance on board with it, we even drug legal in there kicking and screaming, but they
are on board with it now. And working on how are we going to prepare ourselves for
that event if it ever does happen. Not to the point of being paranoid, but, for an example
when we did our drill down at Owyhee Plaza last year and they were dumping
everything on us and it was kind of a stressful day and you have one terror event after
the other, after the other, after the other and, really, the logic is if you can survive that,
you can survive anything. And the next thing you know they get the phone that said
they just blew up the police department. Well, first of all, that kind of upset me, because
it is a new department, but the other thing is it caused me to think, well, what do we do if
we don't have a police department? And so one of the plans is to develop that plan.
This is what we are going to do if we don't have a police department. This is how we
are going to operate. This is where we are going to meet. This is where we are going
to report. So, that's one of the things that we have to work on. Through our rapid
growth it seems like we were just throwing resources to the fire at times, at least in the
police department, and really kind of -- we need more positions, we need more
positions. Well, what are you going to do with them if we get them. So, right now that
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we have actually had time to actually take a couple of deep breaths without sinking, now
is the time to sit there and say how many people do we actually need. Are we good
with what we have? Do we need more? What do we anticipate our future needs are
going to be? Some of the other things that we are looking at right now are updating our
policies and our procedures. We are also improving our -- our training and converting it
to a full scenario based training program. It makes us kind of reexamine our priorities,
what we are doing and why we are doing it. And, then, we are also taking an in-depth
look at our local ordinances and updating or adding or deleting those laws that pertain
to the police department. I haven't dropped that on Mr. Nary yet, so more things coming
his way. Talked about this just briefly and I was kind of joking about it, as far as
economic excellence, but what does the police department -- how does that impact
economic excellence, because I don't go out there and ask people to come in here and
build in here and don't work on the comprehensive plan and everything else, but I need
-- I have a small part in making it desirable for them to come here. They need to feel
safe. They need to feel welcome. They need to feel like not only can they do business
here, but they can actually raise their family here. So, that's part of where I can control
-- and, then, I also have to support the Mayor, the Council, the directors, and work
together as a team on that economic excellence, regardless of the fact that if I have a
direct input in it or not. We are constantly improving the quality of service to our
community and we do that through the C.A.R.E's values and you have heard this time
and time again as far as customer service, accountability, respect and excellence. And
that is the values that we hold in the police department as well, but we also do several
other things. We have done our second internal survey, where the results come out
soon. We did an external survey that I came in front of Council for a couple months ago
and I'm here to tell you that I believe it's March we are going to come in front of Council
at the March workshop and present those findings. They are very, very good findings.
But I'm going to have the group that did it come forward, so they can give that
presentation and they can get recognition for the work that they did. And, then, you can
listen to someone else talk instead of me. Some of the other things that we have
worked on is face-to-face input, going out to civic groups, going out to our town hall
meetings, meeting with people, hearing what they have to say, the good, the bad and,
then, going forward in that. One of the interesting things that we have found when we
did our survey is that most of the people that -- that heard about the survey either heard
about it through the local media or heard about it on our website. They were actually
searching the -- Googling Meridian and found out the survey was on the website. So,
we'd like to focus an improvement to our website and I have actually assigned someone
that actually has the authority to make those changes as they see fit. I kind of give her
a general direction of what I want and she makes those changes and you don't have to
sit there and go up through the chain of commend and wait several weeks before we
make any changes to the web. One of the things that we have on there right now is
online reporting, but looking at can we expand that. Is there things that we can do to
improve that, that such as not -- well, I guess employee complaints, but usually the
citizen complaints, can we put that online and some of those things. We have general
report writing -- I mean report -- reporting online, are there other types of calls that we
can add to that? A couple things that we looked at is using our in-house programmer
and IT. We have had a project on the books for some time now, but working together to
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actually have someone design a program to help us with our audio files at the police
department. And, then, this is one thing that my department, Planning, Public Works,
have all been working on is a unified tracking database. This is where we can actually
store information in the computer that we all can access it. And a perfect example
would be if we are working on a -- some sort of problem house, high -- you know, high
weeds or something like that, we can make notations in the -- in this file about what we
have done and, then, planning gets a phone call on it, they can pull up the file and see,
well, the police department's already had contact with them, this is what they have done
and, then, this does happen when we have homeowners that are actually trying to play
one department off the other department, we all know what each other is doing now.
So, some of those future things that we need to work on. One of the main priorities of
the police department is to keep people safe. That's why we are here is to keep people
safe. And it's not just the community, but it's our employees as well. And I need to
provide a safe environment for my employees, I need to provide the proper training for
my employees. I need to provide the quality equipment for my employees to keep them
safe. And, then, if they have the tools to do the job, then, they can go out there and
keep the community safe. And in return some of the payoffs that we have from that is it
increases our ability to recruit quality applicants. I can tell you that in a lot of areas,
from our K-9 building to our police department, to our cars, to just how we do business,
we are the envy of the valley when it comes to the officers going how do you do this and
that's because of the support that I get from not only the community, but from the Mayor
and from Council and the support I get from my own people. Stewardship of the public
trust. Some of the things that we have done over the last -- last year is when fuel prices
were about $4.50 a gallon, we really kind of had to look at things and say what are we
doing? Well, we did several things and -- and I'm not sure it's enough, but we actually
started car pooling to court. If we could put a bunch of officers in court, car pool
together, we would do that. Some of the problems that we faced is that if one person
got out of court and then, you know, one person got hung up, then, you got to leave
them there or they'd all have to stay there and that's kind of a waste of resources, too.
But we have really encouraged carpooling. When we have meetings over here at City
Hall we carpool if we can and when we have meetings in Boise we carpool if we can.
It's kind of hard sometimes when you're a first responder, but for some of the support
staff it's a lot easier to do. Some of the things that we have also done is we have cut
the lights in the building. We actually do not have to have a full bright light through the
whole building, we will cut the lights after hours, we will make sure the lights are cut,
except everywhere but in patrol. We actually have a no idling policy. The only patrol
cars that can actually idle are those that are on a traffic control scene or have a K-9 in
the car. So, everything else has to be shut off, regardless of whether it's 90 degrees
outside or if it's ten degrees outside, your car has to be shot off. And, then, we are just
concentrating on doing what's left, whether that's less money, whether that's the same
amount of staff, how are we going to survive the future. Kind of looking at where we are
going there. These are some of the current projects that we working on. We are
looking at updating our current policy and procedures manual. Preparing for an
accreditation assessment with Idaho Chiefs of Police Association. We are studying the
staff efficiency in regards to report writing, evidence collection and the report forms
used. The main thing is are we doing it the right way and for the right reasons and at
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the right time. Some of these may seem less of a priority for some, but we are really
kind of improving our awards program. We have had an awards recognition program
for several years, but we have only done it once a year and we need to do timely
recognition. When someone does something that's above and beyond they need to be
recognized fairly immediately, not a year from now, because a year now we tend to
forget. One of the other things that I made it easier for them is that through IT we put in
an online report, so they can report the good deeds as they happen and, then, we just
have a database that collects them. So, when they first happen, write it up, and, then,
we will remember it when it comes time. Prescription drop -- drop-off program. We
have talked about this in the past as far as what do we do with those expired
prescriptions or prescriptions that we come across in maybe an unintended death or
something like that and we are getting ready to kick off adrop-off program where you
can actually drop off your prescriptions to the police department and they will properly
dispose of them. And we really are going to start off small. We had envisioned opening
it up to everybody and opening it up for other controls or illegal narcotics and we are just
really going to stick with prescription drugs and we are going to stick with Meridian city
residents for now and see what sort of need is out there and if we need to grow we will
grow and if we can accommodate, we will accommodate. A couple other things that --
that's exciting right now is that our volunteer coordinator is working on a fundraiser -- or,
actually, several fundraiser for the K-9 unit. We are getting ready to retire a police dog.
Instead of coming in front of Council and asking for those monies, we are looking at --
we got a lot of groups that love dogs and have come to us and said, hey, what can I do,
what can I do, what can I do, and so we have put some things in place for that. One of
the other things that really ought to give the fire department credit for this, because they
have inspired me in this. When I asked about the history of the Meridian police
department and, you know, my history goes back 12 years -- that's not a very long time.
So, we are getting ready to put the call out to the community, so anybody that has
history of the police department to provide us information. Old newspaper clippings,
photos, and everything else. But, then, we actually have a group of volunteers --
community volunteers that actually are putting together a history while in the police
department. So, as soon as you walk into the secure part of the police department you
will actually see all the photos and that sort of thing. So, we are working on that and it's
very very early in the process, but this really kind of inspired me after the fire
department had their hundred year anniversary this past summer. And, then, I just
come up with a couple opportunities. Despite the economic status, there are some
grants out there and we are looking at possibly obtaining some grants for new bicycles
and some SWAT equipment. This is kind of some of our present reality I'm just going to
talk a little about. If you haven't heard, the POST -- police academy has canceled all
academy classes until July. The police academy, dispatch academy, corrections
academy, you name it, it's canceled. The sad thing for us is we have six police officers
that are currently ready to go to the police academy. Now, I kind of anticipated that this
was going to happen, so 1 didn't give them a hire date, they are not on the books yet,
because the problem is the minute I hire them and the clock starts and I will have
officers that are off probation before they even get out of training. So, where are we
going to go? I have no idea. I just spent all day with a bunch of chiefs and the POST
director and I think the reason why Igot -- had a headache when I got out is because of
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some of those questions that we are facing. Our phone system. We put our phone
system in the police department when it was brand new in 2002. It is at capacity. So, if
I hire anymore people I can't give them a phone. And you should know, too, is that out
of those 106 employees we only have about 60 phones as it is, so not everybody has
actually has a phone anyways. But we are going to look at needing to upgrade. I have
been working with IT on how can we come up with a quick fix to come onto the citywide
system, with the hopes of maybe being able to put it off until 2011 coming in front of
Council and asking and asking for an enhancement for a new phone system. Our
department is at capacity as far as space. Our evidence storage is 87 percent full. We
have actually had to go do a lot of disposal of evidence, but we can only dispose of the
evidence that's already been adjudicated. Hence, some of the reasons why we are
looking at how we collect evidence. Do we have to collect every single cigarette that we
take away from an individual and that short of thing and we currently have our legal
advisors working on those issues. So, what are we going to do for space? We are
going to have to work on the space assessment. My guess is any sort of expansion is
years off and we don't have years to wait and so we are going to have to come up with
something. We -- we still have a need for a long term solution for a firearms training
range and the Mayor kind of touched on this in her State of the City and, really, I'm
going to touch on it with the -- with the visionary team when I meet with them next
month as far as what are we going to do, not just Meridian Police Department, but what
are we going to do in law enforcement in general in the future? And these -- just to give
you a couple things here, at the very very bottom -- they just came out today, with the --
regardless of what your feelings are on the economic stimulus package, part of the
package is going to have grant funding that's going to help law enforcement. One is in
the area of Bymes grants and the Bymes grant is investigative resources. We actually
use our undercover through the Bymes grants. And, then, in the past we have actually
hired police officers under the COPS grants. I know that there is Council in here and I
believe Chief Anderson was also probably a member of Council at the time when we
had some COPS grants come in front of Council. The nice thing about this time -- if you
recall it used to be a 75-25, a 50-50, and 25-75 -- the match is gone.
Bird: For years you had to --
Lavey: A hundred percent they will fund it. A couple kickbacks. One is you have to --
like Councilman Bird just said, is you have to fully fund it yourself after three years. The
other thing is is that the monies, because they are tied to the stimulus package, have to
be spent before -- sometime in 2010. I don't have all the particulars, because the bill
itself is 1,200 pages long. But still that puts us in a problem with the police academy. If
July comes around and they don't have a police academy, how can you hire police
officers? With that being said, I'm going to open it up to any comments that Council
may have, any questions that Council may have. I tried to keep it as brief as possible,
knowing that this is the last thing of the day, but I'm yours until you're ready to go home.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: Regarding the academy, is there any way -- I mean we have to pay to send them
through the state. Is there any way Boise would take six -- our six officers? You can't
afford to be without your six officers.
Lavey: Well, the sad thing is is that Boise had their own police academy that they did
for a year and they realized that they financially could not bear, so they went back to the
state. Boise was going to have their officers in this next academy until their hiring
freeze. Now that they froze, they are not in a critical situation as we are. But the Boise
police department is going to go back to the state academy.
Bird: I have a follow up.
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I mean we both know in economic tough times crime gets tougher. You have --
there is more need for police officers on the pavement than there is when it's good
economic times, because people have bad habits and they are going to do anything
they can to support them, whether they have a job or not. We have the same thing in
the fire department. You probably see more arson fires and stuff like that going on.
Domestic problems I'm sure increases. So, I don't know, is there any other academies
around the state? Does Pocatello have any or --
Lavey: I am told that the north -- northern Idaho is putting on an academy. Well, this
was news to me today and I don't know -- I don't have the information as far as do they
have housing or anything else, because it's just done by the local police department
that's actually putting it on. Either local police departments or through the university up
there. So, I don't know as far as per diem costs and everything else if we could even --
we could even afford that. One of the things that I think we need to do and I'm pushing
for is that we need to get back to the basics. We need for -- we have -- statutorily we
have to provide training to police officers within a year, which means that we can
probably do away with some of the inservice training that we have and some of the
other things that we do out there, we need to go back to the business of having basic
police academies and if we provide the basic police academies and, then, we have a
little more money, then, we can add those other things. But I think our priorities are
mixed up over there. Pretty strong words, but -- and that's only one person's opinion,
but that's my opinion.
Bird: Anything we can do to help? Any of the Council or --
Lavey: Well, didn't Derek -- who was at the meeting today, he heard what we had to
say. I think you can let our legislators know as far as what we are facing and there is a
lot of communities out there, though, that are facing tough times as well and so they
have either had to put a hiring freeze on or they don't have the monies and so it's not a
critical need for them either. The fact that we have actually been so conservative and
we are not in dire straits, we have almost been hampered because of that. And so I
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guess you could talk to your legislators, talk to the governor, I talked to the colonel of
the state police today -- I guess we just have to wait and see what happens in July. If
they don't have academies in July, then, we really need to turn up the heat.
Bird: That's a possibility of that happening in July, too.
Lavey: Well, I don't think it's a possibility. President Rountree probably has more
knowledge of that as far as the -- the state budgeting cycle, but the new fiscal year is in
July, so my guess is you wouldn't have that problem in July, but toward May of next
year who knows.
Rountree: Yeah. That would be the start of a new fiscal year. I don't know what their
budgets are coming out of the legislature right now. That's a topic we can spend a lot of
time on. I guess my comment is, chief, you did a great job of giving us a synopsis of
what you're doing and I appreciate that level of detail that's just enough to pique my
curiosity on a couple things. Once, again, you do great work and I like the idea that I
see for the first time that the police department in particular actually going out and
starting to team up and work with other departments in the city. That's great. That's
great. You identified some of your organizational excellence, things you're doing, good
stuff. I particularly am excited about hearing that you and the city are looking at
enterprise data storage. You know, there is -- now is the time. Ten years from now it's
too late. Now is the time to start doing that. And I know it's going to take some software
investments, but we need to continue to do that. You did mention a program on your
current projects, the prescription drug drop-off and I'm just going to ask are you working
with Public Works on that?
Lavey: Yes.
Rountree: Okay. Good.
Lavey: We have, actually, worked with Public Works. We have actually worked with
the state. We have actually worked with DEQ and others. I can tell you that the feds
are slow and the state are much faster and so we have been working with everybody.
Rountree: That's going to be a water quality problem one of these days, so that's good.
I would suggest one other thing and you did mention the Byrne and COPS grants, but
there may be in this stimulus package an opportunity to explore the range, as well as
some other capital infrastructure improvements for law enforce and I would not let that
drop. I would get either your chief association or somebody looking at that and -- I think
there is probably something in there that -- I think the plans we have for our range could
be considered shovel ready.
Lavey: That's what I was thinking. The shovel ready issue --
Bird: We are ready to go.
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Lavey: We are shovel ready for our needs and maybe some future needs, but as we
widen that scope we might have to increase that, but I do believe we are shovel ready.
We can break ground once we got through the permitting process.
Rountree: Yeah. So, I would not let that go. But good job. I appreciate what you said.
Bird: Charlie, a follow up.
Rountree: Keith.
Bird: And I wouldn't tum -- like Councilman Rountree said, I wouldn't tum down that
COPS, because I think Ron -- you know, even though we had -- they help you three
years and, then, you have to pick it up, at least you get three years and, then, you pick it
up. So, it's -- you're getting three years of -- of an officer without having to pay for him,
basically, or getting a percentage. I thought -- I thought it was a great program and, in
fact, was quite sorry when they shut it down on us. I don't know what Chief Anderson
felt when he -- because he sat on the Council with me at that time and if you can get
that I -- boy, I think it's not too bad to take.
Lavey: We can always say no if they say yes.
Bird: Yeah.
Lavey: But we can't say yes if we don't --
Bird: So, I encourage you to do something like that and I'm like Mr. Rountree, looking at
grants for that firing range. We are ready to go.
Hoaglun: Mr. President?
Rountree: Brad.
Hoaglun: Comment on the phone system. You know, that's something when -- working
with a state agency we were exploring phone systems. Ours is -- where I was working
was -- had its -- end of its life cycle and we were looking at partnering with other
agencies, departments, trying to -- where they had excess capacity -- I mean there was
software, different things like that. We were looking at intemet phones. I mean there
was a bunch of things out there and -- because it is costly to replace and when you
reach that end of the capacity you're kind of stuck. So, you know, just encourage you to
look at all options and who knows what might pop up out there, so --
Lavey: I didn't get -- I didn't go into great detail on that, but with the state they have the
IT network, the IT protocol phones, and so it's easy to do that. We have a digital based
system and so it's harder to do that. But I have found that working with the -- starting to
work with our vendor, an IT protocol system was for a -- it was going to be about 54,000
dollars. But acity -- or not acitywide -- a department-wide upgrade to the same system
Meridian City Council Special Meeting Workshop
February 17, 2009
Page 56 to 57
the city has is 65,000 dollars. Big difference. So, I asked the same vendors that the
City Hall uses as far as what could you do in a short term and they, actually, have come
in at about 5,500 dollars, which is pretty reasonable and I can do it with the existing
budget. But it's using a used PC card and, then, about a 4,500 dollar power switch and
then, any headset that you have to buy as to that, you know, and the one thing with the
IT phones is they are a little bit more expensive than the digital phones, but -- so, I
believe that we are under control now. It's something that we can get by until then. It
got so bad that when we actually added another phone line in the phone line actually
range at four different -- 14 different extensions into the building, so when you're calling
one person you actually called 14 people. That was the first signs that something was
going wrong.
Bird: It sounds like I wired it for you.
Rountree: Any other comments, questions for chief?
Zaremba: Thank you.
Lavey: Thank you. Let's go home now.
Item 6: City Ordinance /Policy Review.
Item 7: Executive Session: Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(c), (1)(f).
Rountree: Yeah. Go home. That brings us to our last item.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(c).
(1)(fl•
Zaremba: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to go into Executive Session. Roll call.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
Bird: I move we come out of Executive Session.
Zaremba: Second.
Meridian City Council Special Meeting Workshop
February 17, 2009
Page 57 to 57
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to come out of Executive Session. All those
in favor? Opposed?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: I move we adjoum.
Zaremba: Second.
Rountree: Moved and seconded to adjoum. All in favor?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:25 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
COUNCIL PRESIDENT CHARLIE ROUNTREE DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
JAYCEE L. HOLMAN,