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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009 02-24 PreMeridian Citv Council Pre-Council Meetinu February 24, 2009 A Pre-Council meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 24, 2009, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Charlie Rountree, Brad Hoaglun, and David Zaremba. Others Present: Bill Nary, Tara Green, Matt Ellsworth, Caleb Hood and Keith Watts. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird X Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. It is Tuesday, February 24th. It's five minutes after 6:00. We will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda: De Weerd: Item No. 2 is adoption of the agenda. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: On the agenda I would like, with your permission and the rest of the Council, to move Item 4 to Item 3 and three to four, if it would be possible, so these people that are here can get done. De Weerd: Mr. Bird, I guess we have COMPASS here as well, so maybe we just put three at the end of the -- Bird: Okay. Move four and five ahead of three. De Weerd: Yes. Bird: With that I would move that we approve the rearranged agenda. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carves. Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 2 of 13 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 4: Update on Boise / Ada County Housing Authority: De Weerd: Item No. 4. Three that's four. Is an update on the Boise Ada County Housing Authority. Matt. Ellsworth: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Last week's Council meeting in attendance were Deanna Watson and Ben Duke from BCACHA and they were here with kind of a two pronged presentation on the one hand to introduce themselves and give a rundown on who they are and what they do in Ada County and also to present some information on the neighborhood stabilization program and it's potential uses within the city. The quick rundown is that the NFP program is part of a foreclosure release package signed by President Bush late last year to provide localities, nonprofits, quasi govemmentals, service providers with funds to purchase foreclosed properties, rehabilitate them if necessary and, then, either sell them or rent them to qualified borrowers who meet certain income restrictions. Based on the state's needs assessment, the City of Meridian, as an entitlement community, is entitled to approximately 1.1 million dollars through this program, if the city pursues as the primary applicant for these funds through the state. During the presentation Council raised some questions about the amount of staff time that it would take to administer these funds should the city move forward as the primary applicant. So, they directed staff to do some additional resource -- or research, rather, on the program guidelines, the requirements, to engage in discussions with BCACHA and IHFA to sort of set some of the parameters and define some of the roles and responsibilities of -- of the different options that Council has before them. So, for an update on -- on what's gone on since then, this program really amounts to two broad general categories as far as getting the work done. On the one hand you have a program administration. These are federal funds, so with federal funds come federal requirements for environmental, for labor standards, and so forth. Compliance monitoring, making sure that everything meets the bar set by the feds. As far as the onogram project implementation, it was pretty clear coming into last week that BCACHA as a service provider that's already in existence in this area with experience with this sort of work, would primarily be at the helm for that -- that aspect of things, but the main question for Council is what are the expectations of the city if we enter into this partnership and how much time would that take. So, some of the different levels of involvement would wind up feeding into the amount of time that it would take for -- for city staff to -- to hold up its end of the bargain if a partnership is desired by the city. The handout that I provided before the meeting sort of gives the quick rundown on four possible courses of action. The first of which is for the city to be the primary applicant to Idaho Housing and Finance Association. The nature of that relationship would be the city, again, as the primary applicant assuming responsibility for adherence to those federal standards that I have brushed on there previously. Idaho -- or, excuse me, Boise City Ada County Housing Authority would, then, become the implementing agency to not only come in and implement the projects on the ground, to go out and secure the properties, fix them up, identify qualified buyers and so forth, but Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 3 of 13 they have also offered to provide assistance to the city in preparing application for IHSA and, then, insuring compliance with the various federal standards that we would need to -- need to meet in order to not come into violation. So, some of the pros and cons, if that's the chosen course of action -- entitlement communities as identified in the CDBG program have sort of a preferential treatment in the application cycle through IHSA, in addition to the sort of earmarked amount of funds that can go to each of those entitlement communities. The application cycle for those entitlement communities is, basically, the month of February here. So, coming up on Friday -- basically, Monday is when they were going to open it up to the broader pool of applicants, during which your nonprofits, your non-entitlement communities can begin approaching the state for funds to use in those localities. If the city decides to be the primary applicant and if we can pull together a proposal for the state by Friday, then, again, the city would be entitled to the 1.1 million dollars. Eight percent of that 1.1 can come off that top for administrative costs and insuring compliance and so forth. On the -- on the negative side of that arrangement, on the one hand it's an extremely tight turnaround to clean up a proposal and to formalize some of those agreements with both the state and with BCACHA and it also creates a substantial amount of work for staff that we didn't necessarily see coming into last week's discussion. Some of the issues that you raised and further dialogues with IHSA and further research of the program guidelines, there is some strings attached that we didn't realize would sort of fall to staff as that is the administering entity. So, again, those are brushed on in your -- in your packet here. A second possible arrangement would be for the city to write a letter or provide some sort of general support for any implementing entity who -- who decides to pursue these funds after this February 27th cutoff for entitlement communities. In addition to BCACHA, staff has also been contacted by a local nonprofit in the area who indicates that if the city does not submit an application as the primary administrating entity for IHFA, that they plan to pursue some of those funds to spend those in Meridian. Again, somewhat of a more generic general support of NFP and what it seeks to achieve could be issued by the city and, then, provided to BCACHA to any nonprofit who wishes to pursue on these funds. That would, obviously, require a whole lot less staff time. The city would not be the accountable entity and insuring compliance with federal standards and spending those federal dollars and so it would free up some time on that level. The down side of the arrangement is that, obviously, it opens up the pool of applicants considerably more than what it would be if the city decided to pursue the more preferential application cycle that's currently open for entitlement communities and the 1.1 million dollars that right now is slated to go to Meridian could wind up going elsewhere in the state. Obviously, there would be no eight percent city admin, since the city wouldn't be the administrative entity. An additional possible course of action would be for the city to provide some specific -- a letter more specifically giving the nod to BCACHA as the implementing entity and spending these funds within Meridian. Obviously, BCACHA has been in touch with the city since the state unveiled their plan for spending these funds. They were here last week. They have a proven track record of similar projects and -- and one of the more important elements to consider with this -- this possible course of action is that they are a quasi governmental entity that has a charge to provide these services in western Ada County. These NFP funds could provide a great opportunity for them to get more involved in this side of the county and Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 4 of 13 -- and in addition they -- they work with these federal requirements all the time, they work with CDBG funds over in Boise, and they are familiar with the various hoops, the requirements, and all the strings that are attached to federal funds. It's sort of how they do business. So, in giving entitlement communities preferential treatment, in reading over all the literature and everything else that was available, the main reason that I could identify for the state's willingness to do so is exactly that, it's familiarity with these projects and, then, of course, the need and as far as I can determine, regardless of who the administrative entity is, the need is going to be the same in the Meridian area regardless, but as far as the broader pool of applicants is concerned, BCACHA would be a relatively low maintenance sub-recipient for the state, because, again, they are so familiar with these federal requirements that it's how they do business. So, in doing that, if a letter of support for them is worded accordingly, then, my hope is, best case scenario, that increases the chances that even though the city is not the primary administrative entity, that the full 1.1 million dollar allocation would still come to the Meridian community, it would just flow from the state to BCACHA into the Meridian community, rather that being routed from the state to the city to BCACHA and, then, into the community. A fourth and final altemative for Council to consider would be, essentially, no involvement in the NFP. If for one reason or another you didn't like the aims, the intent, the city wouldn't have to provide any general support for the project in general. There is a requirement at the state level when they are fielding applications from for nonprofits or anybody else that they at least inform the affected jurisdiction that -- that they would like to do work in their backyard. If number four was the chosen altemative, we would probably handle that as a staff letter just acknowledging that, yes, they informed the city, know the city doesn't have any direct comment about it at this time and, then, I think we could probably keep it at that to at least allow them afull -- a full application for -- for the state funds. Staffs recommendation on this is to -- to go with arrangement number three, which is specific support to BCACHA to, essentially, act as the implementing entity on the city's behalf due to their quasi governmental stature, their charge to provide these services in the area, and the possible chance that such a letter of support may increase the likelihood of that 1.1 million dollars still benefiting the community in the intended way. So, with that I will stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Matt. Council, you have heard four different options that -- in response to questions asked last week. Are there any questions or comments? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I have just one comment. Great job, Matt. This is as fine a presentation to us as I have seen. Thank you very much. It's very clear. Ellsworth: Thank you. Rountree: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 5 of 13 De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: On your recommended option, one of the cons is there -- there is no assurance as it relates to the money. I guess my question is if we went with option three and we got the money dedicated to Meridian and other communities chose not to go into the program and those other monies in the state -- since we were able to use the 1.1 in Meridian, is there an opportunity to expand the program with that potential additional dollars that would be in the fund? Ellsworth: Madam President, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, based on the state plan I believe there would be and the reason that I say that is they are initially going to -- to open this up to the entitlement communities who have their -- their set allocation potential. After that they are opening it up to other service providers. So, on the first cut here they are going to allocate the full 19 million that's coming to the state from the feds. All funds to each state need to be obligated within 18 months. So, the state's plan in monitoring that is to check back in six to nine months, from what I recall, to see how communities are doing, see how nonprofits are doing and at that time if they don't see substantial obligation, if they don't see some movement on their part, they reserve the right to pull those funds back from -- from those communities that aren't using the dollars and to try to use them elsewhere in the state, so they don't revert to the feds. If that's the case in certain communities for one reason for another aren't using the money that they initially are awarded by Idaho Housing and Finance, then, the only way they would be able to get that money back after the state is to come back out to the communities and say, hey, here is the amount of money we are now dealing with and figure out where to go from there. Rountree: Thank you. And I, too, think you did a good job in coordinating this information and making it understandable to us and I assume that you had your cohorts assisting in that and I think I know where I'm going to go, but we will see where the discussion -- Bird: I know where I'm going. De Weerd: I think I know where you're going, too. Bird: I know where I'm going. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Question for Matt, but maybe it might be Deanna or Ben, but what -- what are the odds of not getting that 1.1? I mean 19 million's coming to this state, you know, they do have a good track record, it's something we want to do I think Meridian's been Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 6 of 13 underserved in this area, but do we have aprofessional -- if you look at the crystal ball, do we have a good shot at getting these funds? Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, that's a tough call for staff to make, really. I think it would increase the likelihood that the full 1.1 would come to the city if the city was the primary applicant, but your points are all very valid. You know, this is an extremely qualified entity that is already administering these services within the county. Their charge is to administer them countywide and this is a great opportunity for them to do so. So, I think the argument's certainly there and that's what -- those are the points that staff would point to if Council decides on option three there in hopes that we steer Idaho Housing and Finance in the same direction. De Weerd: Do you have any comment? Good evening. Watson: (Unintelligible). Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you. De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Bird: I have none. Rountree: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. Do we have direction for staff? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: If a motion is in order, I would move that we take option number three as recommended by the staff. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay. Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Okay. We appreciate the work you have put into this, Matt, and thank you for joining us tonight and for your presentation last week. We look forward to working together. Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 7 of 13 Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, quick point of clarification. As far as staffs direction from here, would it be fitting for staff to go ahead and draft that letter -- Bird: You bet. Ellsworth: -- to bring back as a Consent Agenda item or in the interest of time in submitting a proposal for BCACHA is -- is Council comfortable with staff drafting this letter and forwarding it to the Mayor for signature or what's the best way to move forward on that? De Weerd: I think in the interest of time, Matt, that would be the best way to proceed. Ellsworth: The latter? De Weerd: Uh-huh. The latter. Ellsworth: Okay. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Bird: Get it to the Mayor and let her sign it, get it out of here. Ellsworth: Thank you. Item 5: Presentation on the 20 / 26 Access Management Plan and Report: De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item No. 5 is presentation on the 20-26 access management plan and report. Caleb. Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Just wanted to take this opportunity to have COMPASS staff give you a brief overview of the adopted 20-26 Access Management Plan and Report that the COMPASS board of directors approved on December 15th of this last year. Don Madsen is kind of shopping that plan around to all the affected cities, counties, highway districts, along the 20-26 corridor from Caldwell at 84 through Eagle Road. So, I think there is six -- six or seven cities, multiple highway districts, and two counties. He's asking for our support this evening and standing behind that access management plan and, quote, unquote, adopting it. I haven't quite gotten to the point yet of -- depending on what happens tonight I could certainly see a resolution maybe in support of, if that's what the Council so chooses to do. I will let Don maybe talk to you about what some other jurisdictions are contemplating doing with this access management plan as far as support and adoption of it. I do -- I do want to point out just a couple of -- where we stand with our current codes and policies in the Comprehensive Plan. They align very nicely. What we have in UDC as far as access management is real consistent with what came out of the access management plan and -- or State Highway 20-26. We will have to do a slight modification to our city code as that report calls for access only at the mile, not the half mile, as our current city code Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 8 of 13 allows from about McDermott to the west. So, two or three miles or so of future city limits you would looking at mile only access points there. I could also see -- again, depending on how some of this discussion goes this evening, us taking out certain sections of that report study and adopting some of those and strengthening what we already have in our Comprehensive Plan with regards to development along state highways or 20-26 in particular. We are looking at doing -- you may recall some of Anna's strategic initiatives for this year do call for revamping our Comprehensive Plan, so when we go through that process we may look to this document and pilfer maybe some of that information from there and roll it into our Comprehensive Plan. So, with that background and information I think I will tum it over to Don Madsen with COMPASS. He was the project lead with -- I believe it was Parametrics that was their consulting firm on this and is real familiar with the project, so -- De Weerd: Hi, Don. Madsen: (Unintelligible). Friedman: If it doesn't, let me know. Madsen: (Unintelligible). Friedman: I will be your cursor. Madsen: (Unintelligible). De Weerd: Don, can you explain that a little bit more. I'm sorry, I'm trying to visualize what you're saying. Madsen: (Unintelligible). De Weerd: So, Don, I participated in this corridor study and at that time I didn't hear anything about an elevated intersection even then. So, when did this all start? Madsen: (Unintelligible). De Weerd: So, it will -- COMPASS be providing input on the development application in front of the county on the northeast corner? Madsen: (Unintelligible). De Weerd: I know it's tricky, but certainly whatever happens on that comer is going to impact that whole eastern section of this corridor, because if it happens, it will open the rest of it and make it vulnerable and I would imagine the whole corridor. Madsen: (Unintelligible). Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 9 of 13 De Weerd: Okay. Madsen: (Unintelligible). De Weerd: You have 15 minutes. Madsen: (Unintelligible). Hoaglun: And question if I might, Mr. President. Don, on that -- for those existing access points in that -- from Eagle Road towards Meridian, there is already some with Banbury and some other spots. Do those remain in place, I assume? I mean are they -- Madsen: (Unintelligible). Hoaglun: Okay. Madsen: (Unintelligible). Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you. Madsen: Any questions on the (unintelligible). Rountree: Questions for Don? Bird: I have none at this time. Rountree: Caleb? Hood: Mr. President, can I ask just one question, not to let Keith get to his item tonight, no. I was curious, Don. How many of those other cities and counties have you already been to and have you heard back from them on supporting this or not or is Meridian potentially the first to jump on board? Madsen: (Unintelligible). Rountree: Don, if you would bear with me. Keith, how much time are you going to need? Watts: A few minutes. Rountree: Okay. We are getting to the end of the meeting here. I know you want some sort of action tonight, Don. I'm very much supportive of access control. The City of Meridian has always been supportive of that with our ordinances as it relates to state highways and access. My concern with this approach -- and it will continue to be a concern until ITD and the legislature can come to some meeting of the minds on access Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 10 of 13 management and access policy that until the Idaho Transportation Board adopts this, I would recommend that the City of Meridian support it, but not move forward with the formal resolution until our partners approve it, because we have approved an ordinance and we have approved policy that controls access on state highways, only to be rejected by the state transportation department with them allowing it in spots where we do not believe it's a viable alternative for the safety of the traveling public. So, I guess that's my position. I don't know about the rest of the Council, but we have got about two more minutes and, then, we got to get this City Hall issue addressed. Mr. Bird. Bird: Mr. President, I agree wholeheartedly with you. You did a much better job of saying it than I would. I agree. I don't want to be the guinea pig that gets stabbed in the back again. Rountree: Any other comments? I think we all support it, Don, but we want to make sure that the rest of the team -- and not the rest of the cities in the county, but the big player on the team and that's ITD and they know we support them. Madsen: (Unintelligible). Rountree: Very good. Bird: Thank you. Item 3: Update on City Hall Retainage by Keith Watts: Rountree: Thank you. Next item on the agenda. Keith Watts. Watts: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members. (Unintelligible). Watts: Tonight I'm here to report on the retention for City Hall contracts and how it relates to punch list and warranty items. At the end of last week we received a -- the final retention list from Petra, the construction manager. Petra had suggested that we hold retention on only two contracts. I will give those to you. That was Buss Mechanical for 15,000 dollars for a vibration issue with the chillers above, which has not been resolved, as the chillers have not been called for to run, so we are going to hold that 15,000 dollars until we can address that problem. The other is 15,000 dollars for the woodworking out in the lobby. After speaking with Ed Ankenman today, I believe that has been resolved. They have been working on that for -- for at least this week and I believe most of last week as well and we think that is done. If I approve that with Ed, we will be releasing that, but we will request that retention be released as well. In addition to those two items that -- or two contracts that Petra has suggested, the city staff has come up with eight additional contracts that we would still hold a portion of retainage on and I can go through there and give you those numbers. We will hold 3,000 dollars from Custom Glass until -- we have three panes that still are -- need to be Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 11 of 13 replaced. They have been notified of that and a schedule is being drawn up. And in addition to that I have the retainage for the roofing as we still have several leaks that have not been addressed or at least not been verified that they have been corrected. So, upon acknowledgement that those have been corrected we will, then, release retention on that. Staff will hold that until we have the verified. The next one is Thompson for our HVAC systems. We still have some issues with our I box systems which control the thermostats. I am requesting that we -- or suggesting that we hold 5,000 dollars out of the retainage. We do have -- we owe them 107,000 dollars in retainage and I'm only asking for 5,000 to be held. We want these contractors paid what is due and not hold this any further. The next item I have is Sunshine Landscaping. I'm asking to hold 2,500 dollars back on them until we get the remainder of the curbing replaced that was damaged from day one and to verify that our trees and everything are the correct numbers and are the correct items, which the landscape architect will walk that through one more time once things start to bloom. I'm also asking to hold all of Alpha Masonry's retainage. That is for our canal water feature out front. I had conversation again with our architect this morning. It is our belief that they did not put the correct stone that was called out for the -- by the architect in the specs, so we will hold all of that retainage. The architect is having another meeting with them tomorrow and I will update you as soon as I get that information as well. The next contract I have is M.R. Miller, which is also part of that water feature out front. I still want to hold at least 2,000 dollars of their retainage. The majority of that is going to be through Alpha Masonry. The last contractor I'm asking to hold some retainage on is Axelson Concrete. That is for -- we have approximately ten areas out in the plaza area of cracked concrete that is going to need to be replaced. Not extensively. So, I'm asking to hold at least 5,000 dollars of their retainage. Other than that, I'm asking that all the other retainage be released. I also wanted to let you know that we have drafted a form letter for warranty work, because we have several warranty items. Iran that by legal today and got approval to use the form to identify the warranty issues. We have got most of those letters drawn up and we will be sending those out starting tomorrow. And Iwould -- Ed Ankenman from Public Works will be in charge of finalizing any punch list or warranty items on this building and he will be working under my supervision until we get this completed. With that I guess I would ask for permission to release retainage on the contracts, other than the ones that I identified today. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Bird. Bird: Iwould -- I will be glad to make a motion, but one thing before we release the full retainage, we will have in our hands a lien release? Watts: That is correct, sir. We will absolutely verify that. Bird: Okay. So, I would make a motion that we release all the retainage that you and Ed have come up with and to hold the retainage that you listed. Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 12 of 13 Rountree: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have motion and a second. Discussion? Zaremba: Discussion if I may. De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: This is kind of a sideways question, but the retainage is held for a kind of a hammer to get people to complete things that aren't being right. Who is doing the follow-up on that? Are you having to marshal these subcontractors or is Petra doing the follow up? Watts: That is correct. I wanted to state that as well. As of today the city is taking over all management of punch list and the warranty items. We will be managing that. Ed will be my eyes on the -- out on the construction site, I will be managing it from the documents. Zaremba: Okay. De Weerd: And that's something that the group, Mr. Bird, decided? Bird: Yeah. Madam Mayor, we discussed this and also they are not subcontractors, they actually have contracts with the city and Keith has checked with Ted, who has been the head legal on this, and make sure everything we have done has been legally right and we have been holding some tremendous amount of retainage on some of these people for jobs that have been done for two months, you know, and so we felt it was time to go. De Weerd: Okay. Any further discussion? Rountree: I have none. De Weerd: Madam Clerk, will you call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Thank you. Watts: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Council. De Weerd: Thank you. Rountree: Thank you, Keith. Meridian City Council Pre-Council Meeting February 24, 2009 Page 13 of 13 Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we adjourn the pre-Council meeting. Zaremba: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn pre-Council. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:00 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYO MY Deg 1~f~RD .~`~ ~ '% Fo $EALA Es-~:~ ~~ ~,`~ JA %'~O~ ~r ~s~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~; ~~ OP ~i 17 ~~ DATE APPROVED L. HOLMAN, CITY CLERK