HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009 03-17Meridian City Council Special Meeting Workshop March 17.2009
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, March
17, 2009, by Council President Charlie Rountree.
Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, Keith Bird, David Zaremba and
Brad Hoaglun.
Others Present: Tara Green. Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Steve Siddoway, Matt Ellsworth,
John Overton, Ron Anderson, Tom Barry, Stacy Kilchenmann Josh Grant and Dean
Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Rountree: Welcome to this evening's special Meridian City Council Workshop. It's
Tuesday, March 17th at 6:02 and happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you. Glad you could
come away from your com beef and cabbage to come and see us tonight and I wish I
was there myself. First item on the agenda is roll call attendance.
Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda:
Rountree: Next item is the adoption of the agenda. I need a motion.
Zaremba: Mr. Chairman?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Or Mr. President, rather. Excuse me.
Rountree: That's okay.
Zaremba: On the agenda we need to add an item six following the department reports,
which would be an Executive Session pursuant to Idaho Code 67-2345(1)(f). And with
that addition I move that we adopt the agenda.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. All those in favor by
aye. Motion passes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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March 17, 2009
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Item 3: Consent Agenda:
A. Approve Minutes of February 24, 2009 Pre-Council Meeting.
B. Addendum A to Professional Services Agreement with
Refinerii for Meridian City Hall Entryway Art
C. Initial Point Gallery Acceptance Agreement: Kristin Dam
D. Budget Amendment for Settler's Park Carryforward FY08-FY09
for $168,738.00
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 and for the Mayor to sign
and the Clerk to attest.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the Consent Agenda. Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Community Items/Presentations:
A. Anti-Drug Youth Video Awards Presentation.
Rountree: And the next item on the agenda on community items is the Anti-drug Youth
Video Awards presentation and, Mayor, you're going to run this?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: And we have a number of folks in the audience that are just on pins and
needles trying to find out who is going to win this. So, good luck to all of you.
De Weerd: We did tell all three schools -- we have Heritage Middle School, Centennial
High School, and Rocky Mountain High School, all with us this evening and they are the
finalists and they will find out today what place they came in. So, to not prolong the
suspense, I will ask Elisha to come up, talk about how -- how these were selected and,
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then, we will start -- we do want to show the videos, so we will start with third place and,
then, work our way up.
Figueroa: Okay. I'm Elisha Figueroa with the Mayor's Anti-drug Coalition and a couple
of months ago an announcement went out that we were conducting this anti-drug video
contest and the response was great. We received lots and lots of wonderful videos.
So, our coalition members got together, we had a nice afternoon of popcorn and videos
and we watched all of them, which was a great treat for us. And it was a very difficult
process to narrow down the top three, but after viewing the top several videos, at least a
couple of times each, we were finally able to come to a conclusion about where the
rankings should be. So, we wanted to announce that in third place was Rocky Mountain
High School. Sterling Stutzman. I believe Colton Beebe was going to accept this award
on his behalf.
(Video played.)
Figueroa: So, one of the things that we were looking for was, obviously, some anti-drug
content that we wanted to make sure that it was very clear that -- that drugs, alcohol are
very dangerous and are a great risk to our youth and through all of these videos it was
very clear that these filmmakers were passionate about this topic and were able to
demonstrate clearly the risks of abusing substances. Another thing that we looked for
was clarity of sound and picture quality. We also looked to see if it adhered to the rules.
It had to be at least three minutes -- between three and five minutes long. So, we
looked at that as well. So, those were some of the criteria that we used to narrow down
the picks on this. Also, something that I forgot to mention is that there is a monetary or
a prize award that comes with this for each school. So, for third place Rocky Mountain
High School will receive 100 dollars worth of prizes at -- that they will determine and
they will let us know and we will deliver to them. So, thank you, Rocky Mountain. All
right. For second place we have Centennial High School. And Centennial's will -- their
prizes will be valued at 300 dollars for second place.
(Video played.)
Figueroa: Okay. That only leaves one finalist left. So, the 500 dollar grand prize for
first place goes to Heritage Middle School. Our primary filmmaker does not want to take
full credit, because, apparently, he had a lot of help in this endeavor, and so all of the
kids involved would like to come up and be acknowledged.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, it's my pleasure to present this to Trevor and his team and I
have first for Trevor and Heritage Middle School.
(Video played.)
De Weerd: We had at least 15 videos submitted and so these were the top three and I
believe you could probably understand why. It's a depressing subject, but an important
one and I certainly hope that the students that participated in that will become leaders in
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our community of making it cool to say no, because you have been made aware and
you have recognized the dangers that are associated with it and we appreciate your
participation and look forward to you being the example of just saying no. These will go
on to Sun Valley to the competition at the statewide level and we will bring back the
news from the conference. Last year Pathways Middle School, their submittal won on
the state level. Again, we thank the families and the students for being here and our
appreciation to the creativity and your schools for letting you participate.
B. Update on South Meridian Transportation Study including the
Ten Mile and Amity Intersection Project Update
Rountree: Caleb, you have the honor of introducing the next item I assume?
Hood: Mr. President, that is correct. And not to duplicate any of the information that
may be presented to you a little bit later, I do want to highlight a couple of things for the
south Meridian transportation study, just as a refresher and to let you know where we
are going here this week. As you may recall the study started -- I think it was August
2006 is what the memo says from ACRD staff and it was put on hold temporarily, got to
a final draft stage and was put on hold to get some more information from TLIP and also
the city had initiated achange -- or significant changes to our future land use map in
south Meridian, so those things -- although TLIP isn't adopted yet, it's to a point where
this study was picked back up here a few months ago and we are bringing it to a final
conclusion. So, that's the reason that folks are here tonight to kind of present you with
where we are at. Right now I do want to highlight that there is an open house on
Thursday from 5:00 to 7:00 at Mary McPhearson Elementary School, south -- not only
south -- the south Meridian study, but also the Ten Mile -Amity intersection will also
have a couple of displays at that open house. So, everything transportation south
Meridian related will be discussed there, essentially, at that -- that workshop. So, I did
just want to call that out real quick. But, again, not to duplicate what -- what may be
presented here, we have got Cameron Waite from URS that is the consultant through
ACHD and Craig Hemdon is the main contact at ACHD, the project manager at ACHD
for south Meridian. And, then, Jason Madenford is the Ten Mile -Amity project
manager. So, with that I think I'll tum it over to -- to those folks and they have a brief
presentation for you and, then, discussion to follow.
De Weerd: Want to move those mikes in. Very good. Thank you.
Hemdon: Mayor de Weerd, Council -- I can't tell if I -- Craig Hemdon with Ada County
Highway District. I wanted to come to you today and give you a brief update or a brief
status of what was going on with the south Meridian study. We started the study in
about 2006 and it was put on hold once it got to a final draft, because we realized that
there were a few items that we needed to incorporate within the study that by delaying it
slightly we could get some of that taken care of. We are at that point now; we have
done an update on the study. We are currently in review and preparing the final report.
The information that I provided to you or that Caleb handed out to you just a second ago
was a copy of this presentation. Just wanted to make sure you had something, so that
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it was -- if there was a question of what was up on the screen you had that. Some of
this I'll go through rather quickly. A lot of the math that I gave you or provided as part --
was in your packet for this meeting. So, with that, the south Meridian study -- that
purpose and goal of the study -- this is an example of transportation and land use
integration within planning. At ACHD we view this as a cooperative effort and it has
been a great cooperative effort between ACHD and the City of Meridian, initially with
Matt Ellsworth and with an update with Caleb Hood and I'd just like to thank the city and
the staff for their input and involvement in that. This is the study -- it was intended to go
through and identify multiple transportation within the study area. Here we go. This
map right here I -- shows the study area, which ultimately is McDermott Road on the
west, a quarter mile west of Cloverdale Road on the east, Overland Road on the north
and we have got Lake Hazel until you get to the -- Meridian Road and, then, it goes
down to about halfway between Cloverdale -- or Columbia and Hubbard. This other
map is the land use assumption that were adopted in February of 2008 that we used as
the demographic assumption when we did the update to our study. To give you a little
bit of a history of what we went through on this, this map right here shows the one up in
the top left comer. This is the land use assumptions that we started the study out with
originally in 2006. Early 2007 there were some changes made to it and we made those
changes with the study. That's the middle picture and the bottom right-hand picture is
what we have updated our study to within those land use assumptions. The findings
and recommendations out of this from the adopted Meiridian Comprehensive Plan
indicate that a significantly higher projection than what is Communities in Motion is
reflected in this area and it also reflected by the land use above what's in ACHD's
capital improvement plans. What some of this means is that this area will have higher
costs than what had originally been planned through or accounted for within the
Communities in Motion and our capital improvements plan. This study provides
recommended number of travel lanes, intersection control measures. It provides a
revised access management plan. It goes through and presents a revised street
functional classification map by including some of the roadway typologies out of TLIP
within it and also included in it is the Overland Road connection between Ten Mile and
Linder. That's the realignment of Overland. I believe it's from actually old thumb
through the South Ridge development over to Ten Mile Road and it also provides
pedestrian and bicycle plans within the study. Key city outcomes. We have got the
roadway network recommendation, which is the proposed roadway sizing, intersection
treatment, a proposed collector network, road typologies. We have looked at alternative
intersection treatment and, then, also our pedestrian and bicycle plan. This map right
here shows the roadways with the recommended number of lanes on each segment.
The proposed collector network and roadway typologies. In talking with Caleb a little bit
earlier before this meeting, there are a couple of revisions and a couple things that we
are going to be looking at with this map that will be taken into account. Some of them
there is a couple of sections that have what looks like two collectors going through that
section and also a couple of connections that are still in there that should have been
taken out or potentially could have been out during our revision on this. So, we will take
care of some of that. This right here -- or as the next slide shows the intersection
recommendation. What we are looking at on -- or what we looked at with a lot of is
could we accommodate roundabouts. If the volumes on the intersections would -- could
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not accommodate roundabouts, we, then, went to signals. But there were certain
corridors, like the Meridian corridor, where we knew would require the widening or
improvements at those signal light locations. Some of the alternative treatments here --
Ihave shown here a single lane roundabout, a dual lane roundabout, and an option that
we are looking at, the city, ACHD is working and discussing with Brighton Corporation
over a potential way to address the Lake Hazel mobility corridor at the Lake Hazel -
Locust Grove intersection. The potential configuration that would be slightly different
than -- or would be different than a conventional intersection, but would help provide
more safety for the pedestrians in this neighborhood center. And, then, this slide right
here shows some of the bicycle and pedestrian recommendations, pathways, and
existing connections. And I know I went through that rather quickly. The study itself is
-- covers a fairly large area. There is definitely some -- a lot of different pieces that go
into it, but as we go through the next steps, ACHD -- or I have a work session set up
with my commission in a couple of weeks, then, we have a joint meeting coming up in
April where -- with any comments that the Council and Mayor have or our
commissioners have on this, we will try to address and get information back at that joint
meeting, so we can move forward with adopting it. So, with that I stand for questions
and I'll let Jason come up and talk about the Ten Mile -Amity intersection.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you, Craig, for -- for that. Let's see. I can tell that you used in your
study the growth that is currently anticipated in the south Meridian area. Did you also
include that fact that much of that area will receive Kuna's traffic? Did you deal with
Kuna coming through there?
Herndon: Mayor de Weerd, Councilman Zaremba, the -- the projections that we used
from that area are based on -- or that would be coming up from Kuna are based on what
was in COMPASS's projections through Communities in Motion. We hadn't anticipated
or added any additional specifically from that coming up from Kuna within the -- within or
along those minor artei~ ials. We definitely have impact coming up through -- along
Meridian Road and even some along Ten Mile from some of that growth down there.
ACRD was originally going to be doing a north Kuna study in the coming year and,
unfortunately, with some of the budget constraints that have going on we are having to
delay, but we are hoping at that point we will get better land use information from that
area, look at what the recommendations are out of this study and, then, determine if
there are any changes or any modifications that would need to be made based on some
of that anticipated down there, so --
Zaremba: Thank you.
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Rountree: Craig, in looking at the geometrics, my question is why Victory and Black Cat
-- of all the section line roads, you're only indicating three lanes. All the rest are five. I
don't know that the demographics are that different and Black Cat's going to have a lot
more traffic on it than Linder before it gets a grade separation, so habits are going to be
hard to break, so I just wonder the rationale there.
Hemdon: Mayor de Weerd, Councilman Rountree, the -- through the modeling and the
additional land use -- or densities that we put in there from the assumption from the land
use from the city, our volumes on that road are still showing low enough that
improvement beyond three lanes wouldn't be needed at that time. We have a couple of
roadways within the study area that our volumes are still showing that they don't need to
be wider than three lane and we are actually recommending five lanes on them,
because of connectivity or what's planned coming from Canyon county and even what's
going into Boise, so we can have more of that consistency. That's something that we
can definitely -- we can have the consultant look at and see what type of numbers are
along those two corridors and see if we have what we need to address that and I can
get back with you at our joint meeting. I can definitely do that.
Rountree: Thank you. Any other questions for Craig? Thank you.
Hemdon: Thank you.
Madenford: Madam Mayor and Council Members, I'd like to first introduce myself. I'm
Jason Madenford. I'm the project manager for the Ten Mile and Amity roundabout
project. As indicated, we do have a project information meeting coming up on Thursday
at Mary McPhearson Elementary School and we invite you to attend. The Amity
roundabout study came about -- the concept and the corridor concept and following the
ACHD commission adoption in January of 2003 -- or 2008, we are building that to a
single lane roundabout to match the rural section that's out there currently, with the
anticipation that in the future there could be some expansion to -- with development that
would require the dual lane. The project is currently in preliminary design. Our
preliminary design is what we consider 75 percent it's being designed in house. We
have had Meridian staff on our team and making recommendations for the project. We
are purchasing the right of way to the ultimate, with the exception of the southwest
parcel and that's only because the impacts that this project is going to cost that one
parcel owner, we figured with future development it would pick up the additional right of
way that we need for that as it expands in the future. With that I'd like to stand for
questions.
Rountree: Questions for Jason?
Hoaglun: Mr. President. Jason, the question I have kind of ties into that Ten Mile going
north-south on Ten Mile with an interchange in there and Amity is the only one with a
roundabout, the other ones are lights, but it looks like those lights are planned for east-
west traffic. But with that interchange coming in, how -- how will that work with
everything being lights, except at Amity Road and that one would be the roundabout?
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And I guess that gets back to the earlier question about planning in Kuna and the traffic
flows that will be coming north -- from south to north and will that roundabout work with
higher volumes or -- can you enlighten me on that?
Madenford: Madam Mayor, Council Member. Yes. But that is one of the
considerations in the study is looking at whether or not that intersection itself from the
impact -- we did a couple different models on that intersection just to look to see if it
could, once we expanded out to the two lanes, whether it could accommodate that
traffic. We understand that Amity could be seeing an increase of traffic for the -- as it
could be a corridor for the freeway, as well as a lot of more expected traffic coming from
the Ten Mile interchange opening up. But that is one thing we did address.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
Rountree: Okay. Further questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Again, refresh me on the timeline on that, would you, Jason. I didn't write it
down, so --
Madenford: Pardon me?
Rountree: The timeline.
Madenford: Madam Mayor, Council Members, the timeline we are looking at -- currently
we are following with the adopted five year work plan for 2009-2013 which has our right
of way in house and 2009 our right of way acquisition and was -- is scheduled for 2010
and our construction is for 2011. As you are aware, we are in a bit of a flux with the
economic climate and looking at all of our projects as whether or not we can continue
onto the same schedule, so --
Rountree: So, it probably has some skids on it.
Madenford: Could.
Rountree: Yeah. Thank you. Anything else? Appreciate your time. Thank you for
being here. Caleb, do you have anything to add?
Hood: Maybe just as a -- as a follow up to the joint meeting that's scheduled -- and I will
talk to you a little bit later about that some more, but if you do have any other comments
regarding either one of those projects, feel free to contact me and I can work through
ACHD staff to make sure your comments are heard or you can contact them directly,
but I'm here, too, if you want to talk to me and need some more clarification.
Rountree: Very good.
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De Weerd: Mr. Chairman?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess, Caleb, what I would like to see, perhaps, at the joint meeting is
what is the threshold before those intersections are impacted with traffic flowing from
the south, when you consider the different densities that are going on in Kuna that aren't
in Communities in Motion and certainly are not part of the modeling as it is today. So, if
we could have an idea of what those might be, just so -- so I don't know. I guess as
was brought up that the concern is what is happening to the south of us that is not
considered under the current modeling, because we still don't have an updated comp
plan to know even what they would adjust those numbers to look like.
Hood: Madam Mayor, I will sure look into that and I'm not sure what they used for
Communities in Motion for what Kuna has and I'll see what we can do. I know if new
models can be run, but we will look at thresholds and see what type of impacts we are
looking at, anyways, as best we can. It's more of an art than a science, but we will find
out what information we can -- we can get for you. It looks like Charles Trainor from
COMPASS is out there and has something to maybe talk about that, too. But I will look
into it with ACHD staff and the consultant and see what we can find out for the joint
meeting.
De Weerd: Mr. Chair?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: While Charles comes up, I just am concerned -- the intersections in the
south, like Linder and Chinden and how they have been impacted with the new number
have been three and -- I guess it's those kind of impacts that are very foreseeable,
probably, in south Meridian as well.
Rountree: Charles, good to see you.
Trainor: Charles Trainor with Community Planning Association. 800 South Industry
Way, Meridian. We are engaged in updating the regional plan at this time. One of the
elements that we are going to be working on that also is going to be used for the
adequate public facilities ordinance, is to evaluate the build outs of all the
comprehensive plans, whichever plan each of the individual cities cares to submit to us.
So, we are hoping that we can get from the city of Kuna, as well as all the other cities,
here is their plan of record or what they hope to be soon their record and, then, model
those just as they stand. There will be no critique if it's realistic or not, it's just here is
what your plan says, here is what the land uses would provide for. Take those
numbers, add them all up, and run it to see what the cumulative effect is on the
transportation system. That's something that could be useful in looking at the overall
magnitude of demand on the system in south Meridian. We are not yet to the point for
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doing that, but we hope to be soon for all communities in Canyon county. We hope to
have that underway this summer.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Rountree: Charles, I have got a question. Just a guestimate on timeline. Late fall for
some kind of answers?
Trainor: Yeah. We are going to need that information as we go into the plan update to
say here is what our forecasts are, here is what the Comprehensive Plans collectively
say a future could be and use that for what we are calling a preservation scenario.
Rountree: Very good.
Trainor: Thank you.
C. Yearly update from Valley Regional Transit $ Meridian
Services
Rountree: Anything further on that item? Next item, Valley Regional Transit, Kelli and
Mary.
Fairless: Good evening, President Rountree, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
Appreciate the opportunity to be here. I'm just going to share a few highlights from our
last year and, then, Mary Barker is going to come up and talk to you about our project
for this coming year that we are partnering with the staff at the City of Meridian to do.
One, I want to thank you Councilman Rountree and Councilman Zaremba for your
participation on our board. You have been great participants and we really appreciate --
and Councilman Rountree has been serving on our management committee also for the
last year or so. It's been a real benefit to our organization. We did have a couple of --
some highlights from last year. One, we installed bus stop systems in Canyon and Ada
counties. We started seeing increases in ridership on our Canyon county services. The
-- right before and during the installation at the bus stop signs and the Ada County signs
were installed in October of 2008. Our ridership actually started increasing last October
-- a year ago October in 2007 and we saw steady increases in ridership all through the
year. We anticipated the ridership to increase with gas prices and they did track really
closely with that, but what's been interesting is since the gas prices have gone down our
ridership is still up and we are breaking records this year over last year's records and
over the records from the year before. So, we are really excited about that trend. I
think what that -- what that's telling us is that when people have tried the transit system,
even when the cost of gas is going down, they are still seeing a significant savings on
their monthly gas bill and it's causing them to stick with it. We also started a new fare
system, a fare box system in our Canyon county service that's serving Meridian -- the
City of Meridian and that has created the opportunity for a more seamless fare system
and much more simplified and, again, I think that's another reason why we are seeing
people riding, it's making the system a lot easier for people to use. The other thing I
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want to mention is we did receive stimulus money from the Economic Recovery Act and
that -- those dollars are being targeted for a couple projects. One is they are buses for
the Nampa urbanized area, which is where we house the service that's serving the City
of Meridian and we are going to be buying the larger 40 foot buses for the inter-county
services. We have done everything we can to increase the capacity on that system
without actually adding additional -- additional routes and we are going to try to improve
the -- the quality of the buses that we are using on that service to more of over-the-road
coach, a little more comfortable commuter style -- style bus. So, we are in the process
of preparing the specs for that. The other project that we are doing are improving our
bus stops now to do Americans with Disabilities Act enhancements. So, that's going to
be -- we are doing an evaluation on the stops to determine where we need to do curb
cuts and sidewalk improvements, pad -- concrete pad improvements for boarding
passengers with disabilities. We will also be looking at shelters and lighting to improve
access to the -- to the bus system through those stops. And we are working closely
with the Ada County Highway District to identify where we might do some pedestrian
improvements to the transit system as well. I'm going to let Mary come up and talk
about the pilot project. We are working with the city of -- cities of Boise and Meridian
and Eagle to do some more detailed operational analysis and working with staff teams
to try to really target into -- on the service levels for -- for our organization and Mary is
just going to talk briefly about how that project will work. Thanks.
Barker: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Councilmen. Just to give you a --
Rountree: Excuse me, Mary. If you'd just introduce yourself for the record.
Barker: I'm sorry. Mary Barker. I'm the planning director for Valley Regional Transit.
Rountree: Thank you.
Barker: Thank you. Just a little bit of background information in terms of that increase
in ridership that Kelly mentioned. The two routes that serve Meridian, the route 40,
which is an express route from Nampa and Caldwell and Meridian into downtown Boise,
has seen a 55.7 percent increase in riders per revenue hour in the fiscal year '08. The
route 42, which starts in Nampa and comes through part of Meridian and on into
downtown has seen a 50.9 percent increase in riders per revenue hour in that same
time period. So, demand is growing and demand is sustaining, which is a great problem
to have. We are kind of doing two tiers of planning effort. One I wanted to let you know
that we have brought on an additional assistant planner, which has allowed us to dig a
lot deeper into the data, both at the COMPASS level and at the Valley Regional Transit
level to do much more detailed planning than we have had the capacity to do before.
We are starting this as we are going through the budgeting process with the cities and,
then, we are going to do some more long-term planning. Our staff is meeting with
Caleb and his planning group in the next couple of weeks to begin some efforts on both
short-term and long-term for transit planning in the City of Meridian, so that process is
going. In preparing for that, we are -- we have identified either through previous
meetings with City of Meridian representatives orthrough our own work three things that
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we'd like to look at. One is the route 42 as it goes through the City of Meridian, is the
routing the correct routing. Things are growing and changing in the city and we want to
make sure that we are using the minutes that we have available in Meridian to the best
possible use. To prepare for that we are currently conducting on-off passenger counts
at all Meridian stops, so we know the usage level of each stop in the city. And, then, we
are also looking at some rerouting options, because of the -- the new college facility
that's coming in and the Meridian School District building and things are just growing
and changing and we need to make sure that our route is serving the best populations
that we need to be able to reach in the City of Meridian. The other one that Kelli
mentioned is route 40. We are looking at trying to find ways to put additional trips on
that route. We still have some standing room only on many of our commuter trips in the
morning and the main problem that that creates for the City of Meridian is that the City
of Meridian stop is the last stop on the way into town and so it's your folks that end up
standing as much or more than anybody. So, we are looking at trying to find ways to
fund an additional trip or two on that route and so that we can serve those passengers
better and also serve additional passengers. The other thing that's come up that we
have kind of put on our list that we want to talk about is in the process of planning with
the city of Boise and do some analysis of residential densities. We did the large
residential densities along kind of the Ustick corridor. The western edge of the city of
Boise that are not being served at all and if you take that out into the City of Meridian
there are large population densities along that Fairview corridor -- the Fairview and
Ustick corridor that has no service at all. So, one of the things that we'd like to explore
is a partnership between the city of Boise and the City of Meridian to see if there is a
way we can serve both populations. So, that's kind of the short term things that we are
doing. As I say, we are meeting with Caleb and his group and any input that we get
from the city we'd certainly like to put that on our list to look at. In long term we are
putting together what we call a plan and tool kit, which is a series of Excel
spreadsheets, access documents, that will help us gather all the planning data that we
need, so that we can move detail plan routes more accurately and service more
accurately and we are looking at the City of Meridian, the city of Eagle, and the city of
Boise as some test pilots to help us use this tool kit -- to take the tool kit and the
information that we kind of laid out in our Treasure Valley transit plan, which is a fairly
genuine long range plan and lay out the details of what we would do in the City of
Meridian for the long range transit service. And so we will be starting that process in a
couple of weeks with Caleb's group and the look forward to seeing -- presenting more
detail to you as that project goes along. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Rountree: Any comments, questions for either Kelli or Mary?
Hoaglun: Mr. President, Mary. Refresh my memory. Last fall I thought we approved
some additional funding for -- I think it was route 40 to add another bus or -- refresh my
memory. What was it we did exactly?
Barker: What we did is we put larger buses on the route 42. We were running with 24
passenger buses and we had standing only issues on those routes, so we had the
larger buses, so that we have solved the standing room only problem on the route 42.
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March 17, 2009
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We already run the larger buses on the route 40, so, unless we go with the double
deckers, we need to add more trips.
Hoaglun: Okay. And one -- one last question. Can you refresh my memory. Riders
per revenue hour. What does that mean?
Barker: The reason we make it revenue -- per revenue hour rather than just pure riders
is that in the month of October in 2007, there may be more operating days just the way
the calendar falls than there are in 2008, so comparing apples to apples. So, what we
look at is how many revenue hours we operated in October of '07 and how many we
operated in October of '08 and that way it just kind of -- it balances that ridership
number, so we are looking at apples to apples, a direct comparison.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
Rountree: Further comments, questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Caleb?
Hood: Mr. President, I may just clarify. There hasn't been a coup in the Planning
Department. Anna's still the director. The group that Mary is referring to is the
transportation task force and maybe a heads up for Mary, too, and Kelli, if she comes to
the task force meeting. The task force has been very interested in getting a fixed line
service in Meridian. We know what this tool kit is about. We look forward to hearing
from you in that venue to --that's what the interest from the task force has been is some
fixed line service in Meridian, too. So, we are trying to get that kick started and we will
have further discussions with VRT, but I just wanted to clarify that to me the group as a
whole, it's the transportation task force that we offered and we asked them and they
accepted to come and present that you, so we will be working with them as we proceed
through this process.
Rountree: Thank you for the clarification, too. Any other comments, questions? Thank
you, Mary, Kelli.
Barker: Thank you very much.
Rountree: Appreciate you coming. See you tomorrow.
D. Uses of CDBG Funds from Stimulus Bill
Rountree: Next item on the agenda -- Matt. CDBG funds. Stimulus package. More
money.
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Ellsworth: Thank you, Mr. President, Members of the Council. Before you this evening
for -- for some direction on the best possible uses of the sort of stimulus infusion that
the city is receiving in addition to its regular 2008 program year allocation for the CDBG
program. A little bit of background briefly before I dive into that. Some various pots, if
you will, of CDBG funds that are currently in circulation, right now we have the -- the
funds that I just mentioned from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The
grand total on that is a program allocation as an entitlement community coming through
the state from HUD to the tune of 64,584 dollars. In order to, I guess, secure those
funds from that program allocation the city will need to submit and have HUD approve
an amendment to its 2008 action plan. So, getting back to the direction requested of
Council this evening, it's to provide staff with direction as to the specific projects to move
forward with that application to HUD. In addition -- and not necessarily on a back
burner, but I guess a tier two priority are some left over funds from previous year
allocations, specifically program year 2007. That total dollar amount is to the tune of
85,342 dollars. Those funds, prior to expenditure, will also require a substantial
amendment only to the 2007 action plan rather than to the 2008. So, kind as a -- as a
tertiary benefit to staff of tonight's discussion, I will also take that general guidance
provided by Council to use in identifying projects for that 2007 action plan amendment
as well. Throughout the presentation this evening I will make reference to the LMI
areas, so just as a refresher for Council and to orient the members of the audience that
may not be familiar with it, low moderate income areas are one of the priority targets for
use of CDBG funds. Up there on the screen is the City of Meridian's eligible census
blocks, bounded to the north by Cherry-Fairview, to the west by Linder Road. The
southern terminus of that area starts down at Franklin and jogs over to Meridian Road,
where it proceeds north to Pine, then, continues east to Locust Grove and, then, it
continues up to Fairview. So, you sort of have three quadrants there and that's the LMI
area that I will make reference to this even. So, diving into the stimulus funds for
CDBG, as I mentioned, just over 64,000, it does require substantial amendments to the
2008 action plan. The general guidance provided by HUD thus far indicates that focus
is to be given to projects that create or retain jobs. Again, this is to jump start the
economy. That's really the -- the primary focus based on the direction that's been
provided thus far. They also encourage the recipients to strive for timely
implementation of any of the projects that make their way into the program for use of
these funds. All the fiscal eligibility criteria that we are already familiar with -- or more or
less familiar with anyway with the CDBG program will still apply to use the -- the
stimulus funds as well. And, finally, the documentation requirements may different
slightly from the standard CDBG reporting mechanisms that we have -- the current
administration has placed a large priority on transparancy and use and accountability for
use of these funds. We haven't received anything concrete from HUD as to how that
will shake out just yet. I bring it to your attention only because part of staffs
recommendation to you this evening is to use the 65,000 dollars for the stimulus funds
for similar projects, but separate projects than the other -- the other uses within
Meridian. Meaning it's going to be administratively easier for staff to approach and
clearer for HUD to manage to somewhat view that as separate -- separate funds to not
mix the stimulus funds with the regular allocation and I'm interested in your take on that
later one this evening. So, some of the potential projects that jumped out to me and
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others that we were recommended by members of the community, by -- by other staff,
that was approached by -- by an interested community group are up there on the board
in front of you. As we wade through the conversation this evening if there are other
projects that you feel fits the bill for use of these funds, I'm all ears for those as well.
And I'm happy to go back, do whatever research to gauge the eligibility based on the
information that I have to determine whether or not that would be an appropriate use
based on the guidance provided by HUD. The first one is sidewalks in this LMI area
that was on the board just a couple of minutes ago and that would qualify for use of
CDBG funds under the low moderate income area benefit criteria. The future
infrastructure construction project, which is something that our regional office has
indicated, HUD, is really interested in seeing with use of these funds. They like to see
the dirt turn, they want to see actual movement, people going to work as one of the
outputs of this. The transportation task force engaged in an exercise surrounding the
conversations with ACHD, actually, with the community programs, through which they
identified several priority areas in the city that -- that staff moved forward in discussions
with ACHD on -- relating to sidewalk and community programs -- oriented projects with
dirt turning and actual infrastructure projects being constructed. It seemed like a logical
overlap here, especially in light of the fact that priority area is number one and two from
the task force are also within that LMI area. So, again, use of the funds in this case
would be to design sidewalks, crosswalks, et cetera, in the LMI area. The proposed
amount would depend on the amount of overall improvements that are -- that are
deemed necessary. There is a note at the bottom of the screen there that if the city
uses the CDBG projects -- or, excuse me, funds for these design projects, there is an
expectation from HUD that the project begins construction within a reasonable time
frame. Cloudy definition surrounding reasonable. I haven't exactly gotten a straight
answer as to what that is. I spoke to Nampa and they said that they typically try to
move things toward construction within two to three years after the design, so just to
sort of put it in perspective for you. Up on the screen it's somewhat hard to see here
with the visual, but priority areas one and two -- priority area one is south of Cheny
Lane to roughly West 5th, West 7th Street, right around in there, it drops from there
down to the railroad, extends east on the railroad to Meridian Road and, then, jogs back
out to Cherry Lane. Meridian Elementary School is right there in the middle. Priority
area two is over there east of Main Street. Similarly, the northern edge of that is up on
Fairview Ave. Bounded to the west by Meridian, to the south by Pine, and to the east
by, oh, East 5th, right around in there. Cathy. So, that sort of orients you as to those
areas. A lot of those areas don't have sidewalks. Other parts of it, based on an
analysis prepared by ACHD, has substandard sidewalks, lack of crosswalks, that sort of
thing. So, staff felt there may be an opportunity there. The second project that jumped
to staff is Five Mile Creek Pathway Segment H and I put in an H.1 as outlined in the
city's pathways plan. Segment H of the Five Mile Creek pathway continues south of
Pine. This portion was identified as a priority by the parks and rec commission and
ratified later by Council. The reason that it jumped out to staff again -- this is another
project that would work toward the direction of turning dirt, it's an actual tangible project
and it's entirely contained within the LMI area. It would provide a great link for residents
of that area to a lot of the services up north of Fairview and that's why it's -- it's up for
consideration today. It's an LMI -- LMI area benefit project. It's another future
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construction project. Again, it's priority number eight. The reason that we didn't ask for
any of the higher priorities is because none of those fell within the LMI areas. We ran
this by the parks and rec commission at their -- at their meeting last week. They were
supportive of moving forward with this project as one to present to Council to seek
direction on use of the funds for -- for this cycle with the stimulus dollars would be to
design a pathway for future construction. Public Works developed some cost estimates
for -- for us for tonight's discussion, roughly 40,000 dollars was the estimate for the
design of this project. The construction could be anywhere from 150,000 to 350,000,
depending on the type of pathway desired, which we have the in's and out's of the
difference there, should that project rise to the top as a priority to pursue for -- for use of
these funds. The same note at the bottom of five to the first -- or to the second project
that does the first project with the expectation from HUD that these move toward
construction in a timely manner. Additional projects for consideration. Number three
here is the community center, ADA upgrades. And that would qualify for the CDBG
funds under low to moderate income. Limited clientele. And that's the link with the ADA
compliance. You can either do it on an area basis or limited clientele. We can dive
further into it if you have any questions about it. The end result in this case, rather than
an intangible construction infrastructure oriented project is increase accessibility. The
use of these funds would be to remove existing accessibility barriers and the proposed
amount of necessary upgrades as gauged by LCA Architects who were kind enough to
come over with staff to walk through the building last week, was somewhere in the
neighborhood of ten to twenty thousand. They said the building from an ADA
perspective was not in terrible shape, but they did notice a couple of small clean-up
items that may be eligible for use of these funds. The fourth project up for consideration
this evening is the McFadden Market Co-op. I was contacted several weeks ago by
Margo Whale, who is the chair of the finance committee for the McFadden Market Co-
op and she delivered to staff a proposal sort of outlining what they are trying to do off of
East Broadway. The essential link here is low moderate income jobs and the proposal
indicates that long term from starting block there would be five low moderate income
jobs, with the potential expansion to 14 low and moderate income jobs. The market has
sort of a secondary benefit, although it would be necessary for the -- the path of
eligibility is that otherwise we serve the LMI area, if you recall from back on the map and
the slide there, this is just south of that area. So, it seemed like another potential
opportunity. Use of the funds could be construction renovation of the actual site itself.
And other activities as appropriate. The ambiguity in that language stems from some of
the literature that I have from HUD as to use of these funds for special economic
development activities and that's one the staff will have to do a bit more research to
figure out exactly what we can and cannot use those funds for. But, again, I thought I'd
check with you guys to see first where that falls on the broader list of priorities before
investing the time that it would take to get that conclusion. Proposed amounts for this,
there are roughly 20,000 dollars in building renovations, but the proposal identifies --
and I'm confident, based on what I have read so far, that those would be eligible
activities. The overall amount that that lined in -- the McFadden Marketplace's proposal
is in the neighborhood of 170,000. And, again, to determine the eligibility of each
component of that I would need to go back and do additional research and, again, I was
interested in Council's take before I dove in and contacted our HUD rep to get to the
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bottom of that one. So, next project up for consideration is Centennial Park
improvements, which could qualify for use of CDBG funds, potentially under slum and
blight. And the reason probably that there is some explanation here. The Department
of Housing and Urban Development recently acknowledged the city's designation of
slum and blight for the urban renewal area, which the city -- the city proposed in setting
up the urban renewal district several years ago. In doing that anything outlined in the
city's urban renewal plan is, then, eligible for expenditure of CDBG funds under that
slum and blight category. I was in touch with our HUD rep to see if park improvements
at this location would be eligible based on that designation and it was kind of a maybe
response that I got. It might take a couple degrees of separation to make that link to the
eligibility plan. As a heads up the other way to qualify some of these projects for low
moderate income benefit, rather than the census designated LMI area, is to conduct a
survey of the service areas surrounding those facilities. I have been in touch with a
couple of consulting companies to develop those surveys and anticipate proposals back
from them sometime within the next week, week and a half. From that, that would make
the link to low moderate income, if you want to look at that as a separate category and,
in fact, a priority category for use of CDBG funds in the first place. Staff is of the opinion
that if we can get the nod from HUD to pursue this under LMI benefit, that would be
preferable to the slum and blight. There is certain percentage benchmarks that we
need to reach over the course of a three year allocation period and it would certainly be
helpful if we could get that LMI designation. So, use of funds, again, would be to
purchase and install playground equipment and other amenities as deemed appropriate.
I would be in touch with Steve in Parks and also bring a more comprehensive list of
those improvements back to Council prior to moving that forward, if that's the direction
that Council wants to go. It's a close amount and I think depending on the -- be
dependent on the desired equipment, ranging anywhere from 30,000 up would be my
guess. The sixth and final -- indicated that they may have an interest and some interest
from the business community in the downtown core of -- for you in use on the 2007
program year funds. It looks at the moment like the MDC board is moving in the
direction of using the 2007 program year allocation for starting up a facade
improvement program. That would be the grant program. Right now it's funded at
65,000 dollars that goes towards -- towards removal of slum and blight in the urban
renewal area. So, this would be a continuation of that and it would be to provide a grant
to a private business owner or property owner to -- to clean up their shop and the
amount could be up to the full 65,000 potentially, although, again, there is some of
those benchmarks that we need reach and the slum and blight expenditures don't get us
any closer to the LMI uses of these funds. So, direction requested again is -- from
Council, what of these projects does Council prefer for staff to do the further research
and identify specific costs for and, then, come back with that amendment to the 2008
action plan and from that staff will also take a look at what projects should be pursued
for use of those left over funds from the 2007 program year. There is some brief notes
that we can touch on for part two of that request, but, first, I'd be interested in trying to
answer any questions that you have about the presentation so far and -- I mean I would
be interested in your thoughts on question number one, so I will jump back to the overall
project list and tum it over to you.
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Rountree: Comments? Direction?
Hoaglun: Mr. President, a quick question for Matt. On the sidewalks, for example, you
know, we hear the term shovel ready, because that's meant to -- you got a project that's
ready to go and you get the money, you can put it -- I mean that was the whole idea of
the stimulus, but when we talk two, three years down the road, that's not getting jobs out
there on the ground. Do we have any sidewalks that meet that -- that unofficial
definition of shovel ready? Are there any projects out there like that that you're aware
of?
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman
Hoaglun, I would need to touch base with ACRD to find out exactly where they are in
the design of any of the projects that are coming up on the horizon and also to check to
see which of those were included in their transportation oriented or class surrounding
the stimulus. That's a call that I can certainly make, if that is a priority for Council. From
what I recall the -- the 8th Street project over by the middle school, I believe was the
only one and I'm not exactly sure what the status of that is, if that made the cut from
ITD's -- the Mayor's nodding her head, so it may have and, Caleb, I don't know if -- but it
sounds like that may be the only one designed up to the federal standards right now
that is ready to move forward. As a nonroad building entity, we don't have those --
those shovel ready projects as other cities may, so it would require coordination with
ACHD, although I tend to think that they probably included whatever was shovel ready
in the area with those transportation oriented requests.
Rountree: We have a comment from ACRD, so if you want to -- if you could come up
here, Jason.
Madenford: Jason Madenford, Ada County Highway District. Madam Mayor, Council
Members, for the 8th Street project, yes, that project was fully funded through the
stimulus and so we are looking at constructing that. Currently the plans are in ITD's
hands right now and we are expecting that to be reviewed by them, get it back to us,
make the final completions on that, and, then, we will be ready to bid and award that in
the next two, three months.
De Weerd: Great.
Hoaglun: Mr. President, a follow up. Just a comment. For example, like the pathways
project with the Five Mile Creek, I like that. That's a neat idea. But I'm just concerned
that we can -- we can spend the money to do the planning, we don't know what the
economic future is and, then, to have -- to find 150,000 dollars at a minimum to move
forward with that could put us in a difficult situation. So, whether it's that one or others,
I'm interested, that's one I'd love to do, but unless we can identify a funding source to
complete the project, I'm leery about just committing the funds for planning and, then,
having to scrounge for funds to complete the project and keep ourselves out of trouble
with the feds.
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Rountree: Matt.
Ellsworth: President, Members of the Council, Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun,
that's an excellent point and that's a concern the Council needs to be aware of, if you
spend CDBG dollars for design projects there is, again, that expectation that these
move toward construction. One of the reasons that staff had Five Mile Creek pathway
project seem somewhat appealing was because if you were comfortable with the -- the
circumstances leading to some of the -- excuse me, to the lower of those two bookend
projects or the 150,000 side of the spectrum, that would be a manageable amount
within a future year's CDBG allocation coming up separate from both the 2008 action
plan, which will need to be amended for use of the stimulus funds and from those left
over funds that are associated with the 2007 action plan. Coming up this summer staff
is going to dive in to draft the 2009 action plan. So, with that in mind, that could be
another potential project. But you're absolutely right, the city is, essentially, committing
to finding those funds, whether it's working with the state on whatever grants they have,
foundation, committing future CDBG funds, that's an excellent point and it's one that the
Council needs to keep in mind and determine the direction here.
Rountree: Any comments? I guess on that point, Matt, unless my math is bad, we are
looking at about 150,000 dollars that we have to come up with projects, so could all of
that be dedicated to one project, say the pathway, for both design and future
construction to be leveraged against the city's participation to have a completed project?
Ellsworth: Councilman Rountree, Members of the Council, Madam Mayor, that's --
that's adirection to go and without going into the in's and out's of it, we can make it work
just on -- on the funds that are available that we could -- we could dial that in and make
it happen, whether it comes from the stimulus funds, from the left over funds, from the
future funds or some combination thereof, I think we can make it work.
Rountree: I'm just going to throw my -- my two preferences out there. One, I -- I see
some advantages in supporting further facade grants in this area and I see the
advantages of trying to leverage this money with city money to complete something that
will make a hole, which would be the pathway. If we had a sidewalk plan, I could go
there as well, but we don't have a conceptual plan per se in these areas of what groups
of sidewalks would bring a neighborhood together. So, my two preferences would be
those two.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would agree with you on that and I -- I think there has got to be some areas of
sidewalk that -- that wouldn't be too hard to get up there. But I do like the Five Mile
Creek pathway. I caution with -- with private donating -- or allocating money to private
without having the finances in place to finish it up. Do you understand where I'm
coming from on that? I mean, you know, I don't want to get -- donate something to a
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March 17, 2009
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project that don't get completed, because
Councilman Rountree, though, it would be
and Idon't -- I don't know why we can't.
scientist to put up a pathway.
it don't -- it certainly don't help. But I'm like
great to see the pathway get taken care of
I mean it's not a -- going to take a rocket
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: And, you know, I guess with the improvement, I'd like to see a vibrant
downtown and -- where we can give our downtown a face lift and give people a reason
to come downtown and create the economic stimulus that this money is supposed to be
for, if this is the additional fund. I am intrigued by the McFadden Market. I -- I know that
there is some uncertainty of how it would move forward, but the job creation and the
idea and the bringing people downtown certainly appeals to me. Also, the Centennial
Park. And I don't know what it can be categorized under, slum and blight -- well, if you
go and look at what the Boys and Girls Club could -- was selected in, it would qualify for
slum and blight. And certainly the vision that the parks director has to make that a park
that kids want to come and hang out in is certainly worthy of that consideration. We
know from the placement of the Boys and Girls Club in that area it does serve the
underprivileged and does qualify for -- for the demographics that this money is
supposed to be used for, even though it's not in that area. I know too many of the
stories that of kids that went to the Boys and Girls Club and where they lived and they
lived in that southern part of Pine and they certainly qualify under the criteria. I would
love to see those two certainly considered as well. Those are more the low hanging
fruit and I would like to see that money put to use in a visible way, so that our
community is seeing those dollars at work.
Rountree: Any other comments? Steve.
Siddoway: Mr. President, Madam Mayor and Council. So, three of those items --
Rountree: For the record, who are you?
Siddoway: For the record, Steve Siddoway.
Rountree: Thank you.
Siddoway: Parks and Recreation director. Three of those items on the list would
directly benefit Parks and Recreation. Of those three the -- the ones -- the improvement
to Centennial Park I think are particularly interesting. I have spoken with the Mayor
about the potential of bringing some play equipment, called a neos to Centennial Park
as something that could be -- it's an electronic play structure that would be one of a kind
in the valley, would make that park something that would be attractive and interesting to
-- to certainly the -- the kids in that area and would benefit the park as a whole, make it
certainly more than the grass and basketball hoops that are there today. The -- the
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pathway is one that's interesting and we did run that through the parks and recreation
commission last week to see what they thought of that and they did support Matt
bringing that forward tonight, as pointed out, that one would require a longer term
commitment to make sure it gets built. That is one that was on the list of priorities that
we brought to you for pathways priorities, but it was not the top priority, it was further
down the list. However, if this is an opportunity to use those funds and get a priority
pathway built, then, that seems like something worth exploring. And I believe that it
could be funded -- the construction could be funded with future CDBG grant funds, but it
would require some commitment that that would -- that is what the funds would go to,
while there may be other projects that we can keep for that. The third one being the
community center. We technically are ADA compliant today, although there is much --
there is several things that could be done to make it a gold start, if you will. If we were
building the restrooms today we would have to design the stalls and such that a
wheelchair could tum around within them and not just within the restroom. But if we
were doing a full renovation, I would actually recommend that we go a step further and
not just renovate them for use in the building, but find a way to design them that they
could be used for parks for the -- restrooms for the park itself and get some outside
doors, which would be a much bigger project than just renovating the restrooms that are
there. So, I just wanted to provide that input as the three things that -- three projects
that I have been thinking about and I'll stand for any questions.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Steve, I got a question. You brought up the ADA. What classes and stuff that we
are having over there that would have handicapped people involved and how much? I
mean, you know, what kind of -- is there much of a percentage, you know.
Siddoway: I don't have a direct answer. Right now we are going the senior tax aid.
There is certainly people in that group that would qualify. We have talked about the
potential of doing an adaptive recreation program through the use of CDBG grant funds
as a potential -- right now that's not one of our --one of our focuses. But could be. Any
number of the classes, though, could include someone who is impaired either physically
or otherwise.
Bird: Actually, that had skipped my mind. I think that's very important. And it's not that
expensive.
Rountree: Any other questions for Steve?
Siddoway: Thank you.
Rountree: So, a lot of good projects out there that staff needs some direction. And I
certainly can give you some if that's what you want.
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Bird: I can, too.
De Weerd: I think we all can.
Rountree: So, what kind of consensus can we come to on this particular topic?
I think I heard at least several favorable comments towards the facade improvement.
But from that point on we seem to have fairly equal support.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Precisely. It's a toss up for me. I think if I just ran through this list that -- the
ones that I picked out that are most interesting to me happened to be the three parks
ones. But I can see equal justification for all of the others. I might not move so fast on
using this money for sidewalks, because I think even if it doesn't happen immediately,
the community projects -- program of ACHD will do that eventually. Although it is a safe
routes to school issue and does need to be done fairly quickly, but I think there is
another way to get that one done, so I might not put that high on my Meridian priority
list. The McFadden Market one, even though the co-op, I believe, will be nonprofit, it is
still kind of a profit making group. I might not put that high on my list. But all the others
I could share equally.
Rountree: Any other wisdom?
Zaremba: That wasn't much help.
Hoaglun: My two cents, Mr. President, Five Mile Creek I'm very intrigued by. You
know, as we look at these new developments coming in, the amenities that developers
put in, if there are any creeks along there, waterways, they put in the paths at their
expense and -- because it's an amenity. Here is an opportunity to put in something that
benefits the whole community, but it's within a low income area and it's an upgrade for
them. But what makes me hesitate on that is the fact that we will be obligating future
dollars for a project and we really don't know what those dollars will be in the future and
that's a tough place to go in this economy right now and with -- with the budgets what
they are, not only here, but nationally. And that's my hesitation on that one. I do like
the parks project. Centennial Park is something Icould -- I could support. Community
center, ADA upgrades certainly are needed and I see that more as something that if
they are needy we need to look at it and make sure we can do what's necessary as
soon as possible. But I would be fine with that facade improvements. We want to -- we
want to make the downtown look the best we can. How is that going to work -- one of
the contracts, different things -- there is a lot more details I would want to know about
that before I went too far to say I'm wholeheartedly behind that. So, that's the only
hesitation I have there is just wanting to be sure I truly know how that works, so by
process of elimination it kind of leaves Centennial Park as my number one, if that
makes sense. If you followed all that logic there, but --
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Rountree: Not particularly, but the fact that you said it, that's great.
De Weerd: I thought it was very logical.
Hoaglun: But Ican - I can easily go with -- with the community center and facade
improvements as well, so --
Rountree: Matt, before you take off here, I -- I forgot the other and, you know, we were
just looking at these projects. I believe currently we have funds going towards some
activities at Meridian Food Bank with a grant there. Give the economic times we have
right now and given the demands and the increased folks that they are serving, I'm not
so sure that I wouldn't want to see some additional funds go that direction if it's possible.
De Weerd: Mr. Chair?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I -- I believe there is a couple of things with the food bank. In particular we
have been looking at the backpack for kids and, Matt, maybe -- is the backpack for kids
-- the program that's currently being funded or considered for funding or is that
different?
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, backpack for kids
program is not currently programmed for use of CDBG funds. This provides a good
segway -- before I dive into that, a little bit more of what I have teamed from coming on
trying to administer the CDBG program. In addition to the 70 percent minimum
expenditures for projects that benefit low moderate income individuals. There is also a
15 percent cap in each year's allocation that can go toward what they call public
services, things like backpack, things like the catch program, if that were another one
that the city felt is a good use of these funds -- would fall under that public services 15
percent cap. Now, looking back to the 2007 program year -- and up on your screen
under the second half of the -- the sort of direction thought this evening, staff will be
coming back to Council in the upcoming weeks with an additional amendment to the
2007 action plan and that will be to use the rest of those left over funds. The amount
available under that public services cap for that year's program allocation is roughly
24,000 dollars and in discussions with -- with staff, with community organizations, and
so forth, it sounds like a good bit of that money could go toward those two that I just
mentioned, the catch program and backpack for kids. We can also take a look at what
use the food bank would have for -- for inclusion in that 24,000. But, again, that's sort of
-- that's the feeling in that level of funding. The public facilities allowance there would
apply to projects like Centennial Park. It would apply to projects like the community
center and things of that nature. What staff anticipated -- staffs recommendation for
that -- that second half of this -- this request is to propose an amendment consistent
with what's on screen, to use the remainder of what's left over right now, being 85,000
minus 24,000 that would go toward the public services toward a public facilities project
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whether that is the community center or the -- the design of -- excuse me, the upgrade
to the park, what pushing that out for use in the left-over funds may do is give us
enough time, say 30, 60, 90 days to release that survey and get the results back again
and that may give the -- give the necessary justifications for use of those funds under
the LMI benefit, rather than having to use them under slum and blight, if HUD is even
willing to approve them within that funding cylinder, if that makes sense. I definitely
understand that Centennial Park is a priority, but for the city's purposes in meeting the
objectives as outlayed by HUD, hoping that the results of that survey come back such
that that is an eligible expense. The timing may work a little bit better, rather than trying
to fit the square package into the round hole under slum and blight, just to allow the
results of the survey to come back and to use those funds toward the LMI benefit. And,
again, that would be for use of -- rather than the stimulus funds, for the left-over
funds to the '07 action plan. You tell me.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I don't know if there were at that point, but I -- let me suggest a proposal for
coming to a consensus. If we each wrote down on a sheet of paper that list of -- was it
seven projects? And, then, next to it each wrote a priority number, you know, our first
priority being number one and, then, we hand those sheets to Matt and he does the
math to figure out what our priority really is. That's just a suggestion.
De Weerd: We would need to do it publicly.
Baird: Yeah.
Rountree: My preference is --
Zaremba: I don't mean that to be a secret ballot, I mean it's just -- they are so even in
my mind that the only way we are going to sort them out is to -- to each put a number
next to them and figure out what that is. We have done that on the transportation task
force a couple of times and it seems to work for making one or two things at least come
to the top. And certainly don't mean to make that secret, just because it's written down,
instead of said out loud. I'll read mine out loud.
Bird: Put that list back up there, Matt.
Ellsworth: Oh. I apologize. While I am -- going the wrong way. A bit of clarification. In
regards to the commitment of future funds -- again, coming back later on this summer
staff is going to present a draft 2009 action plan and within the entitlement allocation in
2009 the city could identify those funds for use on -- on say the pathway or actually
implementing and constructing a project should Council decide to go with the design of
a project for use of those stimulus dollars. So, just -- I'm not sure if that came through
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when I initially gave the quick rundown of way too much information for this amount of
time, so --
Rountree: You need to come forward and introduce yourself.
De Weerd: We need you on the record.
Whale: My name is Margo Whale and I'm the president of McFadden Market Co-op
board of directors. So, since the park and rec department got to state their case, I'd
really like to clarify some misunderstandings about McFadden Market Co-op for you
before you make your decision and I'd like to entertain any questions that you might
have. First of all, this is a member owned for profit business. I believe the stimulus
funds really are intended to create jobs and this -- if you would help to support this
endeavor, this would not only create jobs in the short term, this would create jobs in the
long terms for your city, as well as improve an area that's definitely in blight and
condemned currently and it would provide services to your citizens, particularly low
income citizens in the area. In addition, it supports some of the city's objectives for
green endeavors, because we will be providing economically sound products and
educating the community on the use of those. In addition, it supports your wellness
objectives, because one of our objectives is to promote awareness about food nutrition
and health and we will be providing for the members wellness and nutrition education.
So, I'd also like you to understand that we are not only seeking funds from you and I
don't want you to think that this is an endeavor that is going to go by the wayside.
There is a core of people that are strongly committed to this and this will come about for
the city. I think it would show a great support to the community if you were to lend some
support to this endeavor. We have also been in communication with Sage and they will
be willing to work with us to provide a low interest loan for us as well. But we need to
raise some additional capital as the co-op from members as well in order to be able to
qualify for the additional loans as well. So, if you were to provide some funds to this
endeavor, you would create ongoing future jobs, you would create an income stream
that would continue and to help the blight in the area and it's only a block and a half
from you. I mean it's going to provide nutritious foods and wellness education for even
city employees in the area as well, so thank you for considering this. Can I give you
some --
Rountree: Questions?
De Weerd: Mr. Chairman?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess what is the timeline? What is the anticipated timeline?
Whale: Well, it's really dependent upon raising the funds to open. So, we believe that
once we have 400 members, we will have enough momentum in order to be able to do
that. We are in the process of going through the Idaho Department of Finance to get
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March 17, 2009
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approval to request member loans and the statistic size at about one in four members
will be -- will be interested in providing a loan to a cooperative as well. So, we believe
that with member loans from about one hundred members we would be able to support
the opening of this anyway without your help. With your help it would -- we would be
able to do that with about 200 members and we have 200 people interested today in our
distribution list. The infusion of some funds with some confidence would enable us I
believe to tum the comer, so that we could open this summer. We are in the process
right now of a contingency of proposing a farmer's market in the area, so that we can
continue the momentum through the summer if we are not able to open.
De Weerd: Just a follow up.
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Is this a buy local?
Whale: It is. Yeah. We are supporting local farmers. We have -- right now for the
investigation into the farmer's market we have 20 committed local vendors and we
haven't heard from about ten more, but we believe we will have about 30 vendors --
local vendors -- local farmers. And we are really interested in educating how to create
and sustain local farming for our food system.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Whale: May I give you these so you have some information? I'd like to invite you to
become members, too.
Rountree: I have a couple questions. How long have you been soliciting?
Whale: How long?
Rountree: Yeah.
Whale: We began this idea in May when Ward Schrider was shearing my sheep last
May. So, we have been in existence for about ten months. We have really not actually
done a full out solicitation of memberships yet. The memberships that we have and the
interest on the website is just purely through free PRs that we have been able to get
through the newspaper.
Rountree: And how many memberships have you sold at this point?
Whale: We have 62 paid members right now. We have over 200 that are interested on
our website and that have completed the survey.
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
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March 17, 2009
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Bird: Ma'am, you say you can open in May. How much -- how much is the estimate or
how much cash do you have to have to finish the building and get stocked and get
ready to go?
Whale: Our total is about 170,000 dollars, as he said. I don't believe we will make it in
May. I believe if you were able to give us an infusion of funds we could probably open
in July. We could open this summer.
Bird: And which building are you -- are you taking the old grocery store or are you
taking the old bank or what?
Whale: The original plan was to take the old grocery store and rejuvenate that as the
cooperative, as well as the old bank. Those two buildings are condemned and need a
lot more restoration and the owners of those buildings is having a difficult time getting
funding for those. So, the co-op's plan now has been to move initially into 130, which is
just west of those two buildings and adjacent to them. And that particular area needs --
doesn't need a lot of restoration and we could move in there quite quickly while he's still
raising funds to be able to do the others and the long term plan would be to grow into
those other buildings.
Bird: Are they going to allow you to open that with that -- those two -- that other part?
Because they are attached, if I remember right.
Whale: They are attached and --
Bird: And they are going to allow that?
Whale: My understanding is that Ward Schrider has already been in contact with the
Planning and Zoning Commission here in regard to that.
Rountree: Further questions? Comments?
Whale: Thank you.
Rountree: Thank you.
Ellsworth: Mr. President, if I may.
Rountree: Matt.
Ellsworth: Thank you, Mr. President, Members of the Council. A couple of brief issues
that -- that are associated with McFadden Market that may have caused me to take a
closer look at some other projects instead, include -- on the one hand I'm not exactly
clear on the relationship between the use of CDBG funds and a for profit entity. I know
in some of the 170,000 dollars that Margo alluded to, some of those expenses would
not be eligible under the use of the CDBG funds. Others I believe could be, but as a for
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March 17, 2009
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profit entity, rather than a nonprofit entity, which would be the typical sub recipient for
the city in these sorts of situations, HUD will not really allow the city to enter into a
similar agreement with a for profit entity. What that translates into is considerably
elevated levels of monitoring and an administrative steps for city staff and what we
typically try to do with the CDBG projects, any partnerships, is to administer the funds,
but to try to not get into the business of administering programs. As you can see there
is a lot of need and CDBG funds go a lot of different directions. At this time city staff
has -- has a commitment at about one third of a full-time employee to the administration
of these funds. So, that's kind of some of the rationale for trying to stay out of the
business of program administration, as opposed to funding administration. As Margo
identified -- and I'm a rookie by all means, but in looking over their -- their marketing
plan here it's a rock solid plan. This is the sort of project that to me looks like it's going
to go and relative to some of the other needs in this city (have -- I'm a bit more skeptical
as to whether or not some of these other projects wouldn't move forward in the absence
of CDBG funds. So, to summarize, I appreciate Margo's information and it's a great
plan and I know it's a great project, but for those reasons I -- as staff anyway, I started
to gravitate a little bit more towards some of these other projects and set up for use of
these stimulus funds.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Or chair or whatever you are.
Rountree: That's fine. Take your pick.
De Weerd: So, what makes this different than the facade improvement? Facade
improvements are also for private businesses. I guess I'm a little bit confused as to
what differentiates them.
Ellsworth: Sure. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it sort of
comes back to which of those planning cylinders the use is classified under, as opposed
to the -- the site improvement program which qualifies under slum and blight removal,
this sort of program would -- this project, rather, would qualify under special economic
development activity. That's the way the -- to make that like job creation.
De Weerd: So, they can still be some slum and blight, which that street is slum and
blight, and would be able to apply for the facade improvement if that is where the money
went, some of it?
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Madam .Mayor, Members of the Council, I believe that would
be an eligible expense and I'd have to have more conversations with MDC's
administrator to know what his thoughts were in recommending that facade
improvement program, but that's another good one to keep in mind, in general, for these
special economic development activities, they can be used for building renovations if
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March 17, 2009
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there is that link to low moderate income jobs. Again, that's back to the distinction
between a project that benefits a low moderate income population, as opposed to slum
and blight removal. The city still has that certain -- that certain
minimum that we need to obtain to stay compliant with HUD's guidelines.
De Weerd: First of all, we use community development block grant money to help bring
power out to LP and they had to demonstrate a number of jobs and that sort of thing.
Again they are for profit. Is it only the paperwork? Because I know that we -- that had
to run through us as well. I just am trying to understand this.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, when we did that project we were
still -- we were not -- it was not through entitlement city funds, so that administration fee
was saved and we paid separately and it was a fair chunk of money, as I recall. It was
-- probably that would have been all of our administration money available for -- under
what we get now for administration, it would have taken up all of that. That's what
Sage's portion of that contract was, as I recall. So, it --
De Weerd: Okay.
Canning: And, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's not that we can't do those
things. I think all we are trying to say is that if -- if you ask us to do that, please, be
aware that it may take -- CDBG administration may take more closer to three-quarters
to full time for -- for Mr. Ellsworth, rather than a third of his time, so that's time he won't
be able to devote to other projects that have been assigned to him. It's just not
something we had anticipated. We have tried to keep his time commitment
commensurate with what we can receive from the CDBG administration funds.
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: We can sit here and talk about it for --
Rountree: Well, I'd like to just get the clear direction done tonight and move on with the
-- I don't want to play math with it. If we have to, we will, but --
De Weerd: Why don't we each give our top two.
Hoaglun: And, Mr. President, just a quick question. I want clarification from Matt on -- if
you go back to that screen that had the old money and new money, and it was public
facilities and public services and the eligibility -- I want to be sure I get this right. The
24,000 public service funding, that can go to like a -- as Council President mentioned,
we can do things like Food Bank, some of those public service, but there is only a
certain percentage that we can have that go to. I think you have mentioned -- was it 15
percent? What public service things on that list do we have to be careful of that we are
not going to go over that amount for -- for the new money?
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Ellsworth: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman
Hoaglun, to an extent it's the two separate funding pots, because, again, the left over
money, the one -- the one from this one further on here, is still under the 2007 program
year. That 15 percent cap is -- is year to year. We still can use that 24,000 dollars in --
of the '07 funds for those public services and since it's money we still have now, it gets
a little goofy, because we are not spending that money in '07, but if HUD keeps it
straight in their own mind, it's still '07 dollars. So, that's one that we are still working on.
For use of the stimulus -- stimulus funds, I anticipate that that's going to be looked at as
just a different additional revenue to our'08 funds, so it's going to change the equation a
little bit in determining what caps we have, where that 70 percent falls, how much can
go towards slum and blight, public services, all that good stuff, but it's the difference in
the 2007 program year, as opposed to the 2008 program year.
Hoaglun: But if I might follow up, Mr. President. There will be some caps, we just don't
know what they are right now with -- there is still going to be some -- certain levels have
-- some we can't fund fully, because we are already at that cap for public services with
the new money -- stimulus money.
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman
Hoaglun, I believe the answer is yes and I couldn't tell you what those total dollar
amounts are offhand, because, again, it's a percentage and in relation to the stimulus
funds, again, those total -- those totals and therefore the percentages for each I think
are going to change. It's going to be a different equation with the infusion of additional
funds. The percentage will still remain the same, even if that's the case, and you're
correct that it is 15 percent for public services dollars, but I couldn't tell you exact dollar
amounts or exactly how close we are to those fright off hand, with the exception of those
left over dollars from 2007, at which point, again, we have those -- we have the 24,000
that would still keep us under that 15 percent cap. I apologize for not being able to
more clearly articulate.
Hoaglun: No. That's fine. I just wanted to be sure that I understood that there were
some caps involved with the stimulus dollars just as though -- with the 2007 money.
And it could be we could go through this whole process, recommend some things, and
you come back and say, song, we have exceeded some caps somewhere, so --
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman
Hoaglun, that's correct, and, again, what I was hoping for is kind of some high level
direction as to what projects to pursue first. Again, even in determining eligibility and
finding out what we can and cannot spend money on, that's going to require
considerable leg work from staff. So, I guess I was just interested in knowing where to
start and where to start gauging the eligibility and also determining what is going to tip
what cap and tip what balance and all that good stuff, but, again, since -- since --
regardless of the PADA funds or the program year or anything else, any of these
changes are going to require substantial amendments. Staff will still have to come back
to you when we -- when we open that hearing and initiate a 30 day public comment
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March 17, 2009
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period. This isn't the last bite at the apple. Council is not making a final decision as to
the use of these funds this evening.
Hoaglun: I was afraid he was going to say that.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I'd be ready to give my ranking.
Rountree: All right. Shot. We'll start at that end of the table.
Zaremba: My number one would be community center. I'm not writing these down.
Matt, are you writing them down?
Ellsworth: I am.
Zaremba: Okay. My number one is community center. Number two is Centennial
Park. Number three is also Five Mile Creek pathway. Number four is facade
improvements. Number five would be McFadden Market. And number six would be
sidewalks.
Rountree: Brad, your tum.
Hoaglun: Down the line. Centennial Park number one. Community Center number
two. Facade improvements number three. Five Mile Creek four. McFadden Market
five. And, if my math is right, that makes number six for sidewalks
De Weerd: I get to vote.
Rountree: Madam Mayor. Sure.
De Weerd: This is exciting. A momentus time. I have Centennial Park as my number
one. Facade improvements number two. And I understand the additional workload the
McFadden Marketplace would have, but that would be my number three. Then, the
Five Mile creek, the community center, and sidewalks.
Rountree: Got all that, Matt? I'm going to lead you a different direction here, but my
number one is facade improvement. My number two is Five Mile Creek. I'm not going
to rank the rest of them. For the 2007 money, I am saying that the 24,000 go to public
services and we will decide what public services those go to. And the 61,342 dollars
that would remain, I'm suggesting that 40,000 go to pathways and 20,000 go to facade.
The 2008 money, 10,000 would be for public services, if the 15 percent still holds,
10,000 for facade and 40,000 for pathway, which would leave the city somewhere
around 100,000 to complete that project at some point in time.
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March 17, 2009
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Ellsworth: Okay. Council President, would it be okay with you if I -- if I --
Rountree: You beta
Ellsworth: -- either tell you where I got lost or Icould --
Canning: That's what the minutes are for.
Ellsworth: Okay. Anna.
Bird: I'm not going to tell you what to do with the 2007. I hope all of the 24,000 will be
used in public service. The two items that have been talked about are very, very
important in this community at this time. I am probably going to be a little different and I
could go with the -- I put Five Mile Creek first, facade second, Centennial Park,
community center, sidewalks, McFadden.
Ellsworth: Thank you to all and we will sort of compile this up and come up with a -- the
quantified direction and that's the direction staff will move.
Rountree: It seems my quantifier is something like Centennial Park and facade
improvements would be number one and two, but I don't know where you go with the
rest. Thanks, Matt.
Ellsworth: Thank you.
Rountree: You made it interesting. We love these challenges.
E. East 3rd Street Update
Rountree: And that will take you right into another puzzle that we have and that's the
3rd Street update.
Ellsworth: Thank you, Council President, Members of the Council, Madam Mayor.
Jump to my next set of notes here. At the joint meeting for the Ada County Highway
District on October 6th, Council directed staff to work with COMPASS and ACRD staff in
examining the appropriateness of a functional classification of minor arterial for a future
East 3rd Street connection. Staff has since moved forward with -- with the
conversations with COMPASS and ACHD staff and we are here this evening with an
update. Before I dive into that, staff also received from the consultant who was working
on the original extension and the line of study, a final draft report last week and before
jumping into the functional classification discussion and some of the implementation
considerations that we will go into, I was hoping for some direction as to the
appropriateness for consideration of adoption of that plan. The closest thing that staff
could come up with to sort of parallel this was the -- the process leading up to
identification of the split corridor as a preferred alignment for downtown. That alignment
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March 17, 2009
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was adopted by a resolution. It's also referenced in the Comprehensive Plan. So, with
that as a model that's one potential option for moving forward with consideration of the
3rd Street extension and alignment study and I would be interested in your thoughts
slash direction as to how you would like to do that.
Rountree: I think that's the appropriate way to go. Any comments, difficulties with doing
that? Ted, is there any issue that you can see?
Baird: Mr. President, Members of the Council, no.
Rountree: Okay. Yeah. I think we have done that and that's a way to -- to get it in the
comp plan and have a future reference.
Ellsworth: Okay. Thank you. Shifting gears, then, to the functional classification
discussion and I wanted to extend a thanks to Charles, he and Mary Ann over at
COMPASS were an enormous help both in - in general explaining to city staff how they
consider functional classification and also applying some of that analysis to the specific
request. You guys did a great job and I appreciate all of your help on that. And, then,
also at ACHD staff who was involved in those conversations and provided their insight
as they relate back to this specific corridor. So, a functional classification is determined
by sort of weighing a lot of different elements as they relate to roadways and roadways
within the broader transportation network. Some of those include general continuity,
spacing between parallel routes, trip lengths to travel on a particular roadway. Traffic
volumes. Level and type of access. The relation of a specific corridor, a different trip
generator or activity centers. Other land use considerations. And, again, all those
things -- not only as they pertain directly to the corridor in question, but as that corridor
relates to the broader roadway network. So, after COMPASS came in and took a look
at -- at this whole Comprehensive Plan litany of issues that you consider in making that
determination, what in part came out is that based on the conversations to date and the
-- the discussion surrounding 3rd Street, it may function more like a collector than an
arterial, all things considered, as we discussed. They also indicated that with several
adjustments or changes to the overall network, 3rd Street may begin to function more
like an arterial and to run briefly through what some of those network changes are, one
of those is to consider reclassifying Main Street from its current designation of a minor
arterial to either a local or a collector street and that seems to follow along with the logic
of the split corridor project in general. Rather than moving regional through traffic, we
are looking for that to be more of a destination that's going to be more pedestrian
friendly and sort of follows the changing color on the maps might be a logical next step.
With that, changing the color on the map won't necessarily change driver habits, so
regardless of what you call Main Street, it will still function as it does today, unless other
changes to the network also follow along with that re-designation. So, looking at a
couple of possible changes to the broader area network that may work in that direction,
one is to consider -- excuse me -- consider taking another look at the intersection of
Main and Fairview at some future date. If some of those movements were restricted,
then, not only would it be the less than ideal route for some of those through trips
wishing to continue north to Fairview and, then, westbound into -- into western Ada
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March 17, 2009
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County, Canyon county. If that were no longer an option, then, certainly people would
need to take another route to get there. One potential route, if 3rd Street were to come
through, and a signal installed, would be to jog over to 3rd Street to make the same --
same movement. Similarly, if the through movement from the intersection of Main and
Fairview for northbound drivers were removed to access into Cherry Plaza, and if
drivers had to at that point head over to 3rd Street in order to make the same movement
and access the shopping plaza, that would wind up increasing the traffic and just
elevating the function of 3rd Street in the broader overall network. Several other
network changes that might work in the same direction and from a high level what these
changes all have in common is the notion of deemphasizing and I guess making --
making Main Street a less attractive corridor for anybody who doesn't want to park on
Main Street and get out and walk around and, conversely, making traffic along East 3rd
Street flow a bit more smoothly and make that be easier for those local through trips, if
you will, as opposed to the regional through trips. Some of those may include
consolidating accesses along 3rd Street, taking a look at installing perhaps one signal at
Pine and understanding that that's a collector, but a lot of those accesses are going to
have to get over to. Considerably upgrading the -- the train crossing and -- and,
conversely, consider different treatment over on Main Street that may deter some of
those local through trips. Narrower lanes or removal of the tum lane would certainly do
it, because, then, somebody is making the tum, you're stuck behind them. It may not be
a big deal if you're shopping, but it would be a big deal if you wanted to get to the other
side. So, again, a high level -- high level consideration there is deterring those local
through trips on Main Street and more encouraging them to jump over to 3rd Street. An
additional element to consider here -- and this is more in coordination with some of the
other studies that are in process in downtown Meridian, including the split corridor
phase two and the Fairview Avenue concept design. There is also something else
that's associated with split corridor phase two to indicate that at some point in the future,
2025, based on some of the estimates that were built into ACHD's analysis, the function
of Fairview is through downtown Meridian, Main-Meridian comdor, will decrease to a
level of service F. Now, that 2025 date -- I don't want to that scare anybody. That is
based on -- on models and gross assumptions and so forth and the traffic study report
indicates that's based on the straight line growth from 2008 on. The date's not
important. The point of it is that at some point as that traffic level continues to grow, that
intersection is going to be a problem. So, part of the question, then, becomes what can
you do about that problem. In addition to working in the general direction of
constructing 3rd Street -- constructing 3rd Street could also provide that congestion
mitigation on Fairview. A couple of brief asides here. On the one hand, just to make
sure that everybody's clear, simply reclassifying East 3rd Street from a local collector,
whatever -- whatever designation it is, to a minor arterial, does not automatically
translate into inclusion in the CIP. Other steps are necessary there. Even if that road is
included in the CIP that doesn't automatically imply that impact fee funds will go to it.
There is kind of a stepped process there. In addition -- and I got lost here and I
apologize for that. The memo to Council that was included in the packet indicates that if
the city were willing to support sort of a phased-in approach to relocating the signals
from Main and Fairview over to 3rd and Fairview instead, that that may wind up
generating a more favorable response than you received in the past in discussions
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looking toward implementation with ACHD in regards to 3rd Street and I want to draw
attention to all the legal words in there, those are not on accident, because the ACHD
staff in no way, shape, or form gave any indication that -- that they would jump on board
with that. City staff feels that that might be a good way to bring that back to the table
and to open them up to the possibility of -- of considering some of the findings for this
project, so -- so, that said, staffs recommendation in regards to this would be to take a
look at and further assign sort of a -- sort of a phase in approach to chronology to how
things could unfold in the future, starting with a proposed classification for East 3rd
Street as a minor arterial through COMPASS and, again, COMPASS is the entity that
will formally change a function classification map. That's kind of where things would
have to start. Construction of the split comdor phase two, as we have been discussing
in 2012. Ongoing discussions with ACHD regarding the steps that are necessary and
the considerations we are going to take a look at in identifying projects to include in the
CIP and, then, eventually for impact fee dollars, leading us into step number four, which
is to identify a funding strategy to ultimately construct East 3rd. Again, the classification
as a minor arterial would be step one, working toward a lot of other things. Wouldn't
guarantee that's the direction it's going to go, but it would be a necessary first step
regardless. Also -- and I'm sure you guys remember some of the other factors ACRD
raised when they are -- when identifying projects for the CIP and, then, later on for the
five year work plan. Elements like -- like overall -- in addition to functional classification
traffic, overall levels of funding from an outside entity, then, it starts a partnership, things
of that nature, can bump projects up in their -- in their grand scoring scheme of things,
so identifying the funding strategy and the best way to get from where we are to where
we want to be on 3rd Street would be part of the chronology, eventually constructing
East 3rd Street extension in a manner based on the funding strategy. Moving on to
monitoring the traffic on Fairview and the Main -- the vicinity of Main and Meridian,
again, an ongoing part of this throughout -- throughout the whole entire process. But
when it hits that point so that there is at least the option of considering relocation of the
signal from Main over to Meridian, keeping that option on the table, is part of staffs
recommendation. So, depending on Council's -- Council's take on all of this and the
direction provided by this evening, if Council is amenable to staffs recommendation, this
may be an appropriate topic of conversation toward the April joint meeting with ACHD,
but before we go too far down that road, I would be interested in, once again, trying to
answer any questions that you guys have and receiving feedback that you have.
De Weerd: Mr. Chairman?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess I'll be a broken record on this one. I believe that we need the
extension of 3rd Street, but it cannot be at the detriment of the health of Main Street.
Main Street USA is important to every community and it is vibrant right now with -- with
homes and businesses on it, that I would hate us to take away from what Main Street is.
I also think Main Street has a uniqueness to it today with the -- the north end of that
Main Street with the with homes that have been remodeled into businesses. Those
businesses will need those -- those cars to go by them. Certainly they need to be cars
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that want to be there, but I -- just like when we have had discussions about Fairview, my
comments remain the same, it's going to be important to keep Main Street as a through
and not to make it inconvenient to be downtown.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: In the downtown marketing study and the follow up downtown transportation
task force or steering committee, I forget what we called it, I agree with you, Mayor, the
objective is not to kill Main Street, but it is to remove most of the through traffic from it
that has no intention of stopping anywhere along there. The split corridor is part of that
and even though our consultant continued to say that 3rd Street was outside of his
assignment, we did talk about it quite a bit and the discussion was along the lines of the
things that you just suggested in order to focus destination traffic on Main Street and get
the through traffic essentially off of it, the people that aren't going to stop there anyhow,
because they are heading for Emmett or Eagle or where ever they are going. The one
other piece was making an actual designation of 3rd Street as a truck route and the
same thing with Meridian, so that we didn't have major trucks come up Main Street,
again, in the idea of making it pedestrian friendly, so they weren't -- pedestrians weren't
dealing with the trucks, so -- as the Mayor said, the overall objective is do no harm to
Main Street, but it seems to me solving the 3rd Street problem in a way that makes it an
incentive to developers in -- even though you make the point that designating it as a
minor arterial and even getting it on the CIP, doesn't guarantee that money is going to
be spent there. Not doing those things, not designating it as a minor arterial and not
getting it on the CIP almost guarantees that money will not be spent there and -- and,
therefore, it will never happen and I would like to go the route of encouraging through
traffic, even the local through traffic to use 3rd as I think I have said before, one of the
things that was discussed is that 3rd would actually be people's access. It would
require perhaps building some parking structures that people would access from 3rd
and, then, walk to Main Street, rather than drive to Main Street, that's a vision long way
down, like you said, don't get startled by 2025, but those were some of the things that
we discussed as a future that would make downtown the heart and vibrant soul of a
walking pedestrian friendly area. So, I liked almost everything you said.
Rountree: Other comments? My position on this is that I think 3rd Street at some point
in time will be a through comdor. I think we have done the due diligence we need to do
by resolution getting this down on a map and getting it in the comp plan. I personally
believe this will come about due to development and I don't think ACHD will have any
part in it at any point in time in even the distant future will this make it through a CIP,
even if it were a major arterial. It's not -- I don't see that happening, but I think we have
in the report that you presented in some of the recommendations, Matt, the background
that as things come in here we can go to that, say here is the reasons why we think this
needs to happen as a result of this development and through development and our
encouragement, I think we can see this happen. Really, there is only -- there is a
couple of keys here, but what we don't want to have happen is what we have already
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allowed to have happen and that's have afour-plex built right in the middle of it. I think
we are to the point now we have good background information, we have a line on the
map, if we can get a resolution that isn't going to happen again. So, as those vacant
lots become prime for redevelopment or development in some cases, since there is
nothing there, we have the background now that we need, we have the justification now
that we need, we have the reasons now that we need to have 3rd as a through street
and I think we can make it happen. And I think the work that's been done is great and I
don't disagree with it, but I think the reality is we can -- we can push funding
mechanisms all day long and I think at this point in time we are premature. I think we
can do this when the heat gets turned up on that part of town. When people decide
they want to do something in that part of town, we can go back to this and resurrect it
and move forward. But I would say let's -- let's incorporate this stuff on a map,
incorporate it into the Comp Plan and away we go. I don't know that it really -- we need
to have any further discussions with ACHD.
Ellsworth: Mr. President, Members of the Council, what I'm hearing, then, if that's the
case, is that the city does not care at this time pursuing a reclassification of a future
East 3rd Street as a minor arterial and, instead, to move forward with formally adopting
the plan as prepared and the draft that we can bring back to you in the form of a
resolution and/or by referencing to the Comp Plan. Are we clear on that?
Rountree: And I think the resolution recognizes our desire that at some point in time
this will be a minor arterial and we have it as such in the future.
Ellsworth: Thank you.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: My reserve would be exactly that, I would not like to lose the thought that at
some point it probably will be a minor arterial, so --
Rountree: I agree. Any other comments, guidance, direction? Very good. Matt, thank
you and taken a lot of your time tonight and we've had some interesting topics. We
appreciate that. It makes us think.
Ellsworth: Thank you for your time.
F. Transportation Update.
Rountree: Caleb, update.
Hood: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just I think I have got five
minutes, I hope not to even take that for this item, but I do want to highlight a couple of
things in the memo that I provided to you earlier through the clerk, just to get another
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update on kind of all things transportation over the past roughly two months. Did want
to highlight that ACHD did not adopt the five year work plan for FY-10 to 14. They are
asking their staff to do some balancing of the budget and reevaluating their anticipated
revenues in bringing a revised five year work plan back to them sometime mid to late
April of the most recent time frame that I have on that and I will continue to track that.
And it has been mentioned a couple times earlier, you do have a joint meeting
scheduled for April 13th with the ACHD commission. If you look at page five -- or I'll go
ahead and read those real quick, just in case you don't have that memo in front of you.
There are five things that are currently on there based on the discussion you just had, I
attempted to pull number four off, which was East 3rd Street classification and
construction, unless I hear otherwise, but at this point it seems like ACHD is not going to
be a partner in this thing, so we don't need to necessarily discuss it with their
commission. So, I'm proposing to remove that from your agenda. Also I want to call out
number three on page five. So, the first one is South Main transportation study, which
was mentioned earlier. ACHD's actually asked for that agenda item on there, so that
was one that they added to have that discussion with you and hear the presentation
from their staff. Item number two is the split corridor and Matt asked that that be on
there and I don't think we need to get into the reasons of why it's on there, unless you
need to know that. But staff is requesting that that be on there. Number three would be
down downtown striping plan. That is something I want to highlight real quick. There
should have been two exhibits that were provided to you probably later today on East
2nd Street. ACHD staff has asked for either support or not support for the one way idea
of southbound on East 2nd Street between Broadway and Idaho, so on the west side of
the HUB project and that entire block there is a proposal that MDC has presented to
ACHD to convert that two way -- currently two way roadway to a one way roadway and I
provided you and hope we have and if you don't wave your hand or something and I'll
get you a copy of the diagrams. But it's, essentially, a one way road with parking on the
east side of the roadway, again, just one block and the ACHD staff would like to include
support from Meridian City Council in their report to the ACHD commission and their
recommendation, they want to know if we support this thing or not. So, I'll pause just
quickly to see if you have any questions and if, in fact, there is consensus that there is
support and I'm sorry I don't have more detail. Shaun Wardle, MDC administrator, is on
vacation right now or out of town. I was able to scrounge up these couple of diagrams.
I have very limited knowledge in the entire downtown striping plan. I know a couple of
you sit on the MDC board, so you probably know a little bit more what's going on there,
but that's the basic of why I'm asking for your -- again, some consensus now so that we
can relay that information to ACHD staff. Does anyone have any heartburn with East
2nd going to a one way roadway for the one block downtown?
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would comment first that that wouldn't be a problem for me. Second, has
there been a consideration of just closing it and making it a walking mall?
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Hood: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Zaremba, I
am not aware of any of those discussions. Again, I have not been at the table when a
lot of these discussions have gone on. I know of this plan. I'm not familiar with its
genesis and how it evolved to where it's at now. That's a better question for Mr. Wardle.
Unfortunately, he's not here this evening.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I was just going to ask Josh -- do you want to comment on
this? You're here, so we are going to ask you.
Grant: Josh Grant with Meridian Development Corporation. Shaun has been taking
lead on discussions with ACHD on this item. I know discussions have taken place at
the MDC board as far as block closing that for just a pedestrian walkway and there were
concerns for fire access. And Chief Anderson stepped out. I know that there have
been discussions on that. But that was a consideration. And I think in discussions with
ACRD and the city that we were -- that's where the one way came out as the most
viable opportunity and use of that space. Again, I'm sorry I don't have anymore detail.
Zaremba: That makes sense, though.
Canning: President Rountree? I also believe there was a consideration of -- one of the
reasons they want to shift it to a one way is to provide additional angled parking, I
believe. So, I think that that's one of the benefits is it's an additional -- it allows more
room for a public realm sidewalk cafe, wider sidewalks, but, then, it also allowed for
some angled parking to facilitate parking in the area.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: We originally wanted to close it, because we really wanted to see a
meandering water feature, our Ada County Indian Creek alternative, without all the
hassle. But I think because of the -- the comments from the fire department and
because of the development that was proposed and is moving forward by the HUB, who
wanted to have that public realm, have sidewalk cafes, a track of retail restaurants on
the ground floor, they felt it was important for maybe a coffee user type to have parking
near by as well. And so this was kind of the board's compromise at looking at that. So,
certainly to fit the vision of a pedestrian friendly corridor, even though it would have the
one way limited traffic, this was kind of the compromise I believe, that the board found.
Rountree: Thank you. With that information, I don't see anybody too excited about not
-- about objecting to this, so I think we have consensus that you can forward to ACHD
staff the letter if you would, our support for this concept.
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Hood: Thank you, Mr. President, Mayor, and Members of the Council. And, then, just
quickly to wrap up the rest of the memo, also on the idea of joint meeting topics for
April, I think I'll go ahead and with your permission take off item number five as well.
When they were throwing 3rd Street into the mix of making sure that ACRD staff and
city staff are coordinating with each other on what the left hand is doing, what split
comdor is being built and Fairview Avenue is under study, just making sure that
assumptions are along the same timelines and as far as constructing -- any construction
items are also being coordinated. So, again, everything -- everyone's on the same page
in knowing that each project is progressing at the same rate or different rates and so
they are all talking to each other and we have talked to ACHD staff and their project
managers about coordination and they are in coordination and we will continue to
monitor that. Matt with split corridor and myself with Fairview to make sure that nothing
comes out of one of those that isn't consistent with the other. But I don't know that there
is necessarily anything for a joint meeting discussion that needs to be had, unless you
want to have that discussion and let their commissioners know that there is a concern of
the Council
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess in addition to our support and you can draft that under my name if
you would like to, but we do -- I believe I heard at either our last joint meeting about the
striping plan for parking downtown, we certainly would like -- I knew -it would be weather
dependent on when they started, but I thought it would have been started by now. So, if
we could add on a list to get an update that would be desirable.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, that is actually on the list as number three. I'm not touching
that one. That one will stay.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: I just -- I want to make sure --
De Weerd: He's saying we may take it off.
Hood: Sorry. Item number five on that list, which is a coordination of 3rd Street,
Fairview, and split corridor, just to make sure that those are coordinated and, again, that
those project managers are talking to each other and more involved in that, too. So, 3rd
Street will stay. And, again, just on the joint meeting topics, if you think of anything --
we are still about a month out or four weeks out from that meeting. Some one or two
things may come up between now and then that I may find, that you may find, please, e-
mail me and we can add these things. So, this isn't the final list, but as of today these
are joint meeting topics that I have identified with your help in most cases, so -- but just
keep -- if you think of anything else that may be of value to talk to with ACHD's
commission, please, let me know. And, then, a couple of final last things --
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Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Before you move on, I do know our traffic safety commission or -- had
talked about the speed limits and that we needed to write a letter to ITD about Highway
69, but I certainly hope that we can get an update, because I think it was in their -- the
ball was in their court, if I remember correctly.
Hood: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, if it pleases the Council and the Mayor, I can give
a quick update, because I was at the transportation safety commission meeting today
and we did talk about that. John Wasson from ACHD was there, himself and Ross
Orien over there in traffic, are evaluating all of the requests. They have some more
work to be done just in analyzing the request to make sure that they are okay, that there
aren't any safety issues or concerns or whatever they are looking at to make sure they
can make all those changes. He said that the preliminary analysis looks good on our
request, but he probably won't have a final yea or nay on all of the roadways requested
for change for about 60 days. So, they will bring that back to you when they have a final
list of all the speed limits they can change and let you know here are all of them that we
can or here is one or two that can't, because this or that reason. But that was the
update I received from their staff today, was it would still be another couple of months
before they are able to give you that final on when they are going to start changing
these signs out in these locations as you requested. We can certainly add it if you'd
like, but I'll just -- I'm just letting you know that's what their staff today told -- told me.
De Weerd:. Let's add it.
Hood: Okay. Item number four is just an informal item. This Thursday there is an
alliance meeting at 1:30 at ACHD. The reason I'm bringing this up is it's a little bit
different meeting for the alliance -- there will be a facilitated discussion with Phil
Eastman and he will be helping the alliance members identify goals and objectives that
are key to success of the alliance and prioritize the -- the priorities for the alliance in the
future. So, there are other elected official that are typically in the audience on those
things. They are usually pretty dry, but if -- if you're ever inclined to go to one, this
would probably be a pretty good one to just sit in the audience and hear some of the
discussion if you're so inclined. So, that's this Thursday at 1:30.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess we had asked Council members for any topics that they would like
to have been included. We didn't hear from any of you, but -- and the facilitated budget
is paid for by Boise, so they must have a large list. I don't know, but --
Bird: You will be there, right?
De Weerd: Yes, I will.
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Rountree: I guess, Madam Mayor, I personally would like to get an update on the
alliance, because I'm not -- I'm not convinced it's gotten anywhere or it's ever going to
go anywhere, so --
Bird: Or it's done anything.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I believe that is the topic of -- for that discussion is what is the purpose of
the alliance and to define what that would be if -- if it is to be and --
Hood: Moving on.
Bird: Yeah.
Hood: And, then, finally, Ijust -- I want to end on a positive note, so at least at this point
it looks like there are a couple of projects, transportation realm related, that may occur
through stimulus. The governor did conditionally support the list of transportation
projects recommended by the ITD board. We had a few projects show up on there.
One is -- was mentioned earlier, alluded to earlier, was the 8th Street school sidewalks
and, then, the hardscaping, which I'm still trying to sleuth out what that really means, but
hardscaping at the Ten Mile interchange. So, hopefully, I'll have some more information
on what that all is. It allocated a ton of money towards it. I think -- I don't think all that's
going to be spent necessarily on the Ten Mile interchange, but -- but some of the
amenities, the landscaping that we were looking for potentially and hopefully will occur
through some of those stimulus dollars. And, finally, ACHD's getting a pretty large
chunk of the local money for some of their overlay -- overlays. So, we will work on them
at least in my role some of the money for maintenance should be freed up for projects
with some of the shortfall on their impact fees. I don't know if that's how they are going
to see it, but -- but, hopefully, that's what they -- they choose to do with some of that
money that's being saved, quote, unquote, with some of these stimulus projects. So,
with that that's a quick update and if you have any questions on the memo or anything
else, I'll stand for questions.
Rountree: Any comments, questions for Caleb?
Hoaglun: Mr. President. Caleb, on that hardscaping landscaping on Ten Mile, if there
is any way that includes running water mains underneath that -- that freeway, doing it
now and not having to dig it up later, why do whatever you can to make that happen.
Hood: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, just to follow up on that. One of the conversations
I have had with ITD staff, I wasn't specific to our city sewer and water lines, but some of
the purple and pink type for reclaimed water, we are trying to get into some of that. I
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don't know all the side boards of what can and can't be used in the hardscaping, that's
what I'm trying to find out. But, certainly, anything infrastructure wise that we can get
there I'll certainly do my best to see what we can do and get it in there.
Hoaglun: All right. Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess more so is -- in listening to the discussion at COMPASS where they
wanted the chair to draft a letter to ITD requesting a definition of what that money was
for. I certainly added the -- you know, we wanted to make sure that we do have what
funds are needed for the purple pipes and the landscaping. So, we want to preserve
that. As I understood from Mr. Jones, who was there, is that ITD has not defined what
that five million dollars is for. And I just want to lose whatever that portion is that we
need to go to those -- those functions. So, I appreciate you keeping an eye on it and
writing herd.
Rountree: Does that wrap it up?
Hood: End presentation.
G. Economic Development Outreach Update.
Rountree: End of presentation. Thank you. Josh, you're up next. Economic
Development Outreach.
Grant: Josh Grant with Economic Excellence team. The handout before you identifies
four trade shows or conferences that we have identified for outreach opportunities in
2009. Each of these provides a key forum or a great forum for us to make some key
contacts and tell the Meridian story to some targeted individuals and groups. On three
of the four these actually include the target industries that we have been looking at for
Meridian and this area. You will notice each of these also identifies that we are looking
at attending these with -- in partnership with other organizations, whether that be the
Department of Commerce, the Boise Valley Economic Partnership or actual Meridian
businesses and organization. I don't know if you'd like me to go into detail on each one
of these, give a summary before you, kind of give you an idea of the purpose of these. I
would be happy to elaborate on any one of them.
Rountree: Comments?
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: These are all budgeted for and as I had mentioned to our president that, as
the liaison this is something we work with him on, but I did want Council to be aware of
the outreach and the proactive outreach I guess is more appropriate. These were
selected based on our target industries and also in looking at leveraging partnerships
with our private business community. In particular, that last one we have had good
interest in looking at a community booth and so it wouldn't be just the city, it will be
business community, IAQ is interested in attending, as well as the city. So, this first one
next month is going to be the key to developing and launching our stories. You do have
three different focus areas that we can pitch and --
Grant: Five, actually.
De Weerd: Oh. Five.
Grant: Three -- I think we can -- well, because there is some that are relating to the
state on local businesses and --
De Weerd: But we will be launching that -- the health science and technology corridor
and before then we will be holding a marketing summit with some of the larger
employers and those that -- that have professional publications or newsletters that go
out and gathering information and consolidating it into a workable form, so -- on the
health science and technology corridor. So, these are what we came up with. There
were 15 different ones that -- BVEP and the other cities in the region are looking are at.
These are the ones that we narrowed it down to.
Rountree: Comments? Questions? That was quick. Thanks, Josh.
Grant: I'm a man of my word. Thank you.
Item 5: Department Reports:
A. Finance Department Strategic Focus Discussion.
Rountree: All right. Going into Item No. 5, Department Reports. Stacy.
Kilchenmann: Good evening. I'm not sure about the wisdom of putting the financial
reports at the end of a long evening, but I'll try to talk fast and expect you to digest fast.
Rountree: We thought you would enjoy being here late this evening.
Kilchenmann: Oh, I am. I'm enjoying it greatly. I usually never see this time of day. It's
unusual for me. But I'm going to briefly do a strategic plan and, then, very brief I'm
going to talk a little more in depth about our FY-08 results. I'm technical planning
assistant. Our mission can be, basically, stated in bullet points, which are our core
functions. I didn't bring the long narrative form of the vision and the mission. I just
shortened it into bullet points, which are, basically, budgeting, financial analysis and
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reporting, regulatory compliance, billing •payables, payroll, purchasing and internal
control. Our mission can kind of be looked at as what is our environment now. Our
environment -- or what our climate is. It's city govemment growth, sophisticated
planning for use of tight resources, complex -- increasingly complex accounting
structures, increasing regulatory requirements and definitely increased public scrutiny.
Our vision includes what we call our storm weather gear or how we are going to get
through this climate -- is increased financial planning and analysis, operational
efficiency, technical staff, and we think we have a duty to provide training so that -- for
all departments, so that they can step up and understand the response -- and take
responsibility for the financial play of their operation. IVew competing capability and
tools and a commitment to transparency and ethics. The underlying purpose, really, of
a govemment finance accounting department we believe is shared equally with the
Mayor and the Council. And there are -- if you read -- you have heard this slang term
GASB a lot, which is the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, because really
integrated in our regulatory agency's book for govemment as a whole and for the
accounting -- govemment accounting profession and there really are two principles that
are key to the nation's governing process. One of them is transparency and
accountability for the use of public resources and, then, there is what we call the four
E's and that is that the govemment officials are responsible for carrying out functions
efficiently, economically, ethically, and equitably and so we really feel those two
principles are kind of core to our existence as a department. Oh. And there was one
more. We do all those four difficult things while you achieve program objectives. So,
kind of to quickly review what we do now, we have -- basically, we have three people on
our technical staff, which is myself, our accounting manager, and our budget analyst.
One of our big projects is the year end closing audit and you already heard Bobby talk a
little bit about that -- I think it was last week. How different that audit is now in the last
two years than it has been in the past and there is eleven -- ten statements of
accounting standards that are called the risk assessment standards and those
standards have made -- I mean they have just made sweeping changes in the way
audits are conducted and what the responsibility -- our responsibility is in the audits, as
opposed to the auditor's responsibility. So, I'm not going to go into all that, because
Bobby talked about that briefly last week. And the budget, of course, really, just like this
massive compilation of data and analysis and I want to point out that we do that using
Excel, not budget software, which budget software, just want to get that spot out there
some day in the future. I don't know if you realize that it takes at least -- we started the
budget in January and it will continue through August, so it's -- it's -- for the three of us,
it's comprehensive, particularly, of course, for the budget analyst. The Mayor does a
thorough review of all line items and requests. I don't know where she finds time, but
she does literally read through every single line item and ask questions about it. We
would -- we are always interested in getting Council's input on how you want the
budgeting hearing to go, what kind of information you want, what kind of reports you
want. So, last year right after we finished the hearings and sent out a survey, we only
had two people respond and we will share the results with you. And one of the
questions: Did you understand all the detail in the budget workshops and we got a
hundred percent yes. Do you feel you had enough information to make decisions? A
hundred percent yes. Do you feel you were given enough time to digest all the budget
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information before the workshop and we got a 50 percent yes on that, with a comment
that they would like to see the proposed budget a little earlier. And so we are working to
do that this year to get you that information further in advance of the workshop, so that
you can ask the department questions beforehand and give them time to respond. Did
you feel you would like to see more narrative in the budget? Everybody said yes. We
have the comment: I would like to see us take a department each year and do zero
based budgeting. I believe this will help with long range planning in each department
and we can do zero based budgeting with one department each year. And we got a
resounding no, nobody uses the electronic version of the budget book. But, again, we
got the comment if we handed that out earlier that perhaps more people would use it. I
-- one thing that's kind of -- we have had it in the past, but I think it's going to become
bigger, are grants, and grants are not only through the planning department, whoever is
managing the grant they are also very time intense for the accounting department. For
example, for the SAMSHA grant, we got like a three or four day notice that we needed
to answer 17 -- a 17 point financial policy questionnaire, which included us sending the
policies that we already established to show that we were in compliance and that we
could accurately manage the grant and we had sufFcient intemal control. Thankfully,
they did decide we did have adequate financial control and we did have policies to
cover all those 17 points. But I just want to throw it out there that if you have a federal
inspector general audit, they are no fun, because I have been present when people
underwent them and not only do they look at every single transaction, but they grill the
program manager. So, it's just -- it's good to keep on the radar that we really want to
keep on top of that accounting-wise. We will have what's called a single audit next year.
There is something called a Single Audit Act and if you get over 500,000 dollars in
federal funds you will have -- we are required to have our auditors perform a separate
audit, not just the financial audit that you got last week, but a separate audit just on
grant transactions and intemal controls. And just kind of a laundry list of other things we
do. Intemal control. Special projects. Supervision. Meridian development. Training.
We tried to do IRS compliance. Financial reporting and forecasting. So, those are just
kind of some of -- a laundry list of the duties of that -- that part of our department that we
call the technical professional staff. Then, we also have the purchasing department and
I won't spend too much time on this, because you've spent a lot of time with Keith. But
some of the challenges, of course, as we all realize that have been the time spent
outside of City Hall -- City Hall construction, just the whole integration of a new
centralized function that the city was just relatively new. The quantity of work. And,
then, I think something that's going to become a bigger factor is the economic climate is
going to make any city job extremely competitive among the vendors, it's going to be
bids have to be really buttoned down and done just according -- according to the fine
penny. And some of the things that Keith wants to do as he hands off City Hall, written
standards of procedure, more training for city departments and we do have -- we do
have a purchasing user group and that kind of fell by the wayside, so he wants to get
that started again. We really want to go forward with E business, so that we have on
line vendor application processes. We can send out electronic bids. We can make it
easy for vendors to check our website and find what's out there and where the bid is --
where it is in the process. He is already planning on a how to do business with the city
public meeting that he's going to hold for vendors. I think he has that planned for June
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that he wants to do out in the plaza. And, of course, we need to work more on city-wide
contracts for savings and convenience. We also have our accounts payroll and
accounts payable and our payroll staff and I think since -- since Meridian city began we
have had one person in each of those positions. So, I think those two people are really
to be commended. We have kind of done some efficiencies, like the electronic time
card was a huge improvement. Training departments to enter invoices. We are really
encouraging direct deposit and we got a great tip from Councilman Hoaglun and we are
going to talk to somebody at the controller's office in how we might be able to mandate
direct deposit. We have created a lot of programs in Access and Excel that run
automatic reports on payroll data, checking for double check reconciliation. Payroll next
year we have been told by our auditors that concentration audit will be payroll and, then,
of course, the rest of the staff how we all pitch in, mail invoices and so forth. The
challenges is just the huge volume of transactions. As the city grows and the number of
people grow, the number of people on payroll grows, the number of accounts payable
and the complexity grows. It's also been -- since we had our IRS audit a couple years
ago, the taxable benefits have been a big challenge, because even if you have a 25
dollar gift certificate, that has to be entered separately by the payroll person, it can't be
just downloaded from the electronic time cards. So, we have vehicle taxes, we have
got gift certificates to tax. We have taxable clothing. We have a whole new issue
coming up with finally the resolution of the cell phone issue that's been in front of the
IRS. So, those -- we really need to write -- our goal is to get some policies written and
before you, so that you really understand the intricacies of those taxable benefits.
Then, to switch to kind of a new tact, we have utility billing and I think everybody knows
the functional task that they perform. One of the -- they kind of had us switch in the last
couple years and just even in the last six months and their big challenge is not so much
the technical aspect of billing, but the over the counter and the walk -- the walk-in traffic
and the customer calls that they have had in the last six months have really increased.
The number of -- like the number of water turn offs, you can see the average number in
2007 and when .it's grown to now we do have turn off -- well, you get the turn-off list
every week, so you can see how that's grown. For customer contact, it's for the month
of December 2008. Now that our phone system will record calls, they were able to track
their calls. They answered 2,600 calls directly and 913 calls went to voice mail and had
to be returned, because every line was busy. Renter directives have become a lot
bigger factor than I think they were when this city decided to do renter billing directives,
there is so many homes switching from tenant -- or owner occupied to tenant occupied.
Nonsufficient fund checks have doubled. Bankruptcies and foreclosures have
increased for one or two a year to -- they had about 41 during a six month period and
processing is time consuming for both legal and for the billing staff. And I do want to
make a note there, because although those are time consuming -- and I didn't bring it
with me, but I have calculated the loss that we have had from bankruptcies and it is just
-- it's still such a tiny percentage of our total accounts receivable it's not even calculable
to one percent. So, it's not so much an economic loss, but it is a time consuming
process. The biggest thing I think that will impact our staff is the change in the FFC rate
structure to the three can system will significantly increase the billing workload, because
of the variated rate schedule. We have had an increase in payment arrangements. We
increased those -- the number that a customer will enter to four E or to give -- to give
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people more of an opportunity to get some help. And, of course, with the rate increase
we are expecting a high volume of just disgruntled phone and front counter customers
and I think we have had something -- I don't -- we haven't really had since I have been
with the city, but we have really had a focus and have worked together with utility billing
and Public Works to work through how we are going to handle those calls, an education
process to understand why we increased the rate. We have some EAP counseling on
how to handle disgruntled customers. So, I think -- I think we are ready for it. We are
armed. I'm going to -- this isn't the next item on the agenda, but I'm going to the
rationale for it. We are asking for a utility billing amendment. Yes, I am asking for an
amendment. I think this is the first time ever. We are asking -- we have a seventh temp
in utility billing and we are asking to make that position permanent, because of the
reasons I just presented to you before. We did -- we have always kept the
administration fee that we collect for billing the solid waste in the general fund and this
past year we did move it to enterprise fund, which is where it should have always been,
because it really is for the utility billing department and that amount is about 480,000
and utility billing's budget is about 644,000. So, a big part of this need is for billing solid
waste, but I want to emphasize that Sanitary Services does make a pretty big
contribution to the cost of our billing department. We have had -- that department has
had six employees since 2000 and you can see how the water department -- or how the
accounts have grown. And so I just -- it think we have gotten to the point where
reluctantly we do need to add a seventh employee. We are looking at a program -- we
don't have it ready to bring back for approval. We are going to call it Meridian Care and
it's basically a program that's similar to project share and United Water has one that's
called UW Care. It would be administered through EI Ada and it's just an opportunity for
the city to contribute some money to help people with their utility bills during a financial
crisis. We are upgrading to a new version of our software that we believe -- the current
software will not allow citizens or customers to donate like you can through Idaho
Power, but we think our new version of the software called Clarity will allow that, so it
will become something that the citizens can contribute to, as well as the city. But we
don't -- we are having -- EI Ada already has criteria and so forth set up that they would
use and when we get that agreement finalized we still need to have it go through the
legal department and so forth, then, we will bring it back and share it with you. Okay.
Looking at the future, kind of our strategic plan, our strategic focus of where we need to
go. We kind of divided it into two groups is external forces and one is intemal forces.
External forces definitely public transparency projects. This economic down turn has
just forced governments and corporations under the microscope and I think this is the
hot button right now, this is the thing right now. I think you're just going to see this get
pounded and pounded and pounded. Policy writing. This is driven by government and
IRS changes to grant requirements, existing and upcoming audit standards. We really
have to devote -- we have similar policies, but I think the thing this is going to be
another big area that's going to get pounded. And, then, we are going to see a fall out,
because every time we have a crisis we have a down pour or regulatory fixes. So, just
like we had the risk assessment standards that poured out from the Enron, World Com,
you can bet we are going to see a whole new set of them because of the -- because of
the bank crisis and so forth. So, some of the intemal forces -- and you're probably
familiar, we have talked about these. Increase demand for financial analysis. CIP
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development. An automated budget tool. We really want to see that and prepare what
we call flash reports, which are instant reports that you will get faster, so that you have
the information faster to make decisions faster. We want to improve our web based
report consult for intemet users. I don't know if anybody uses the intemet, but we have
almost all our financial information there. Training for city employees. And we would
also like to suggest that we have an independent fiscal impact statement for department
actions that just is automatic, like they do with the legislature. So, how do we get there?
We are going to do, as my husband says in military terms, move out and draw fire.
Sooner or later -- hopefully sooner, we would like to add another professional staff
member. We probably won't ask for it this year, but we want to get it out there on your
radar. Okay. I want to just briefly talk about the city -- our FY-08 statement. I'm just
going to talk about bits and pieces of it. I put some of the enterprise fund on the end of
your handout, but I'm not going to talk about it, but, hopefully, I know you will take them
home and read them. We probably touched on this, but I don't think the auditors did a
very good job of really talking about the financial results. So, we have, basically, what
the new GASB statements are required to do -- us to do -- are called govemment-wide
statements and they change the focus of our reporting from a budget type statement
that we are usually familiar with in govemment and change it to more of an full accrual
type corporation type statement called govemment-wide statements. That's when we
blend both the -- all of the funds together and look at the city as a whole. And, really,
the whole purpose of this statement is just what does the city owe and what does the
city own. So, for us -- Meridian we really have very few liabilities. I highlighted current
liabilities under governmental, because I wanted to point out that that is deferred tax
revenue, that big 21 millions is mostly deferred tax revenue, because we deferred the
next year tax revenue and, then, our loan. So, what do we owe? We have capital -- we
have two things, basically. We have capital assets and we have debt. And the capital
assets I highlighted, so you can see we have steadily increased those. And, then, we
have cash, basically, and investments, which is our unrestricted line that I have
highlighted. So, you can see that in spite of the projects we have undertaken, if you
look at that unrestricted line it's pretty healthy, especially when you look at the growth in
assets. The next statement is called the change of the net assets and I'm just going to
talk about two things. One is that bottom box in yellow. It's excessive revenue over
expenditures before transfers. This is every revenue the city has over every expense
the city has, but on a full accrual basis, so it means we have taken depreciation and
eliminated capital assets. So, again, if you look at that you can see governmental
activities increasing 9.6 million dollars and business activities increasing 11.8 million, for
a city wide increase of 21.5 million. And, then, if you look at that second boxed yellow
line and look at the increase in net assets, you can see a total city increase of 21.5
million again, with net assets ending the year at 271 million dollars. So, if you were
selling stock, this is what people would look at and it would look fairly healthy.
De Weerd: I wish my stocks looked like that.
Kilchenmann: Yeah. Me, too.
Bird: There is a whole bunch of people that wish they had that problem.
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Kilchenmann: So, I'm just -- I'm not -- I said I'm not going to talk about the enterprise
fund, but I do want to talk a little bit about the general fund. So, this is total
govemmental revenue. Again, we are still talking about that govemment-wide basis,
but this shows all general fund revenue, 33.2 million and which source is which piece of
the pie. On govemmental fund balances, this -- we have broken out -- we have reserve
for impact fee improvements at 2.1 million at FY-2008 is basically all budgeted, but this,
of course, doesn't show the budget. The capital improvement plan -- fund is spent,
because that was all budgeted. The reserve for debt, that's simply the last payment on
the police station debt. And the public safety purchase hasn't changed. And when we
do the budget I will be recommending that we increase that by the amount of savings
that the police and fire department have, which I think is 1.59 million, something like
that. And, then, you compare unreserved fund balance that in spite of all the money we
poured into the City Hall, we only decreased that overall by 5.7 million, so still have a
fund balance of 17.3 million. Capital improvement fund had a lot of activity in 2008. We
transferred every expenditure for the City Hall went to the capital improvement fund.
But we transferred in from the general fund 11.9 million, 4.5 million from the enterprise
fund, and we expended 22.7 million on the City Hall. This just gives you the -- I'm not
going to go through each one of these, but this gives you a picture of the general fund
personnel and operating expenses and what piece of the pie each function is and what
the increases were from FY-08 to FY-07. Overall, personnel and operating costs, which
we also call our basic -- our base budget, increased 14 percent over the period. The
operating costs -- we are going to look at the budget in a minute. This isn't a budget
basis, but the operating costs are 12 percent less than the budget. And I wanted to
point out apart -- if you look at the administration and you say, oh, my gosh, it
increased 26 percent, but we did move -- we have been moving things from the
development services fund to the general fund and for example last year we moved the
street lights. Now, if we look at the budgets -- and now we are back doing govemment
accounting and this is what we call the fund basis and if -- I'm sure you have all
thoroughly read your audit reports and notice when we talk about the fund basis versus
the govemment-wide, so now we are back to budget kind of talk and that they were
more use. to a fund basis. These graphs exclude development services, so we look at
just general fund revenue. It's 29 percent -- or 29 million. You can see how property
tax takes up a bigger piece of the pie at 53 percent and, then, if you look at the graph on
the right, that shows the growth in the general fund revenue. You can see a fairly
steady increase in the general fund revenue compared to the budget. So, the budget --
the two black columns are the original and the final budget and, then, with the green --
orgreen -- the yellow being the actual. So -- we are almost done, believe it or not. We
are on the last slide. So, that's '08. Looks good. What's going to happen in the future?
It's not -- it's not probably going to be so good. I mean we are not going to have as
strong a revenue base, but I think we will come out -- we can come out of it just as
strong on reserve fund balance. Some of the things in our favor, we have a stable fund
balance. We have a controlled base. And we have achieved a lot of things during the
last decade that are already in place, so we are not -- we have achieved a lot of
program results, so we are not out there with a lot of unserved customer needs. I just --
just jotted a few of them down as I thought about them. Police station, increase in
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officers, increase in firefighters, fire station. If you look at the increase in our park lands,
recreation programs, the City Hall, the state of the art wastewater treatment plant -- I
think it's state of the art, right? Yeah. And the infrastructure we have developed. The
youth and community programs that have been put in place that were never here
before. And just, you know, programs that have -- I think they have changed radically
since I have been here. I think the Council and the Mayor are willing to conserve and I
think the department staff is willing conserve and have the realization of what we need
to do. I think the Council and the Mayor have shown a willingness to match rates with
costs. And during the last decade the elected officials have established and bill and
considerable amount of financial accountability. If you looked at where the city was in
2000 and if you look at where the city is now, it would be day and night. So, that's the
end of the presentation and, then, the other slides are the enterprise fund that you can
review on your own. So, are there any questions?
Rountree: Questions, comments for Stacy?
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: We will stay stable, too, I guarantee you. There are five people up here and the
200 and some employees that will make sure it happens. Good report, Stacy. I'm very,
very proud of the elected officials that served here and that have been conservative, so
that we are one of the municipalities that aren't out trying to scrounge up money just to
make ends meet and I think it speaks a lot for the elected officials and the employees of
this city and I want to thank every one of them.
Rountree: I guess my comment is that the U.S. government and taxpayers can bail out
AIG for 180 billion dollars and they can turn around and reward their folks that caused
that with 180 million dollars worth of raises, because they are afraid to lose their people.
I wish we were in private enterprise and we could show this spreadsheet out there and
we could reward our folks for a job very well done on really and truly at times in the past
on a shoe string, but I think a lot of the credit goes to I think staff and their good
direction and I very much appreciate Councilman Bird's comments about previous
councils and even the current Council in terms of how we approach our finances and
deliberate where and how we are going to utilize the taxpayers money. But good job.
Great report. I really -- I dream of -- some of your strategic approaches and let's move
forward.
Zaremba: Mr. President, I just want to add my thanks for your guidance and, you know,
when we went through the budget process last year the ability of the departments to
work together to -- to come to some agreement, even before the details got to us about
what was good for the city, we just have a wonderful staff all the way from top to bottom.
I'm proud to be working here.
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Hoaglun: Mr. President, I might add to that. I haven't been here that long, six months
last Tuesday night, but -- and serving as liaison to the finance department and I have
been very impressed with Stacy and her staff and what they do and the work that they
accomplish and how well they do their work and that makes our job a lot easier when
you know your finances are being looked after and budgets are being taken care of and
you know you don't have to worry about anything in the back rooms and that's a big
plus. So, I just want to thank Stacy for her work and her staff and they do a great job.
Bird: Can I interject one thing?
Rountree: Go ahead, Mr. Bird.
Bird: Can we get that zero based balancing started.
Kilchenmann: You have to pick the department.
Bird: I will be glad to.
Kilchenmann: You'd pick me.
Bird: You hit it on the head. We'll start with you.
Rountree: Well, I think now is the time to start talking about that, if we do it and how we
implement it.
Bird: We can sit down and discuss it, Stacy.
Kilchenmann: When we get that new staff person we will be right on it.
Bird: Get it done.
Rountree: And there were some action oriented requests in this presentation as it
relates to the conversion of a part-time temporary employee, hourly employee, to a full-
time employee and the consideration of a future professional and I'm -- I would support
the conversion of the one employee at this point in time if -- if we had somebody that's
working for us full time and we can keep them busy full time, I think we ought to have
them full time. I know it's probably not the best time in the world to do that, but I see if
we go with this new automated collection system, it's going to be all kinds of increased
time associated with that. I think that would more than justify the additional position --
full-time position.
Zaremba: Mr. President, in support of that, I would say that the -- when times get tight,
as they are, and as we see more work coming down, the finance department is not the
area to be shorthanded. That would be the place where we need to have enough
people to keep the amount of vigilance that we have had and that has served us well in
the past. Just as a minor suggestion on the subject of changing the waste collection, it
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might be a good idea to have some visual aids available at the counter for when people
come in. It would be a lot easier than just talking at them, if you have something you
can point to and say, you know, here is what started it and --
Kilchenmann: Definitely.
Zaremba: -- just a thought.
Hoaglun: Mr. President, just to add, the billing -- the hourly billing person is certainly
justifiable. When they go through the budget numbers they can show they can make
that work. And there is a need for another professional person in that agency as well,
but just like the other departments knowing the economic times we are in, they are
willing to say, well, we are going to put that off for now, but, you know, I encouraged her
to make sure that all the Council members are aware of the need, because it's there,
but they are -- they are keeping pace and that mantra of doing more with less is
certainly true there, just as it is in our other departments.
Rountree: If there is no further comments or questions, Stacy, job well done. Thank
you very much for the information and we will work with those amendments as you bring
them forward and finalize the action on the personnel.
B. Utility Billing Amendment.
Kilchenmann: I think that amendment is the next item. The one for the utility billing.
Rountree: That's the utility billing, then?
Kilchenmann: I just kind of incorporated that.
Rountree: So, that is the action item on the utility billing amendment. Yeah. I believe a
motion would be in order to let our desires be known.
Hoaglun: Mr. President, I would move that we approve the utility billing amendment that
would add the person from hourly to a full time city employee.
Bird: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the utility billing agreement.
Stacy, would you give me an amount.
Kilchenmann: Oh. I can find it really fast.
Rountree: Well, I guess the maker of the motion can stipulate that the amount as
indicated --
Hoaglun: Not to exceed --
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Kilchenmann: I have it. It's 46,054 dollars.
Hoaglun: Yeah. In the amount of 46,054 dollars.
Kilchenmann: And that includes a chair and computer and the person.
Rountree: Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve that amendment in the
amount stated. Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Rountree: And, Stacy, for your information, I know you said you were going to be brief,
but you were with us for 36 minutes.
Bird: Thirty-six minutes.
Kilchenmann: Are you serious?
Rountree: Yes. And if you keep talking it's going to be 37.
Zaremba: Well, she had 35 on the schedule, so she's pretty close.
C. Presentation and Discussion of the Proposed New Structured
Reimbursement Code.
Rountree: Yeah. You're right on schedule. No. No. Good job. Next item on the
agenda is the discussion on the new structured reimbursement code. Bruce, are you
going to talk to us about that? Or Tom.
Bany: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, as you know we have
been working for some time on the cooperative and reimbursement agreement code
and tonight we'd like to bring forward to you what is, essentially, the finalization of this
work. Mr. Freckleton, our development services manager, will run through the details of
this restructuring of the code, keeping in mind that we are trying to replace two chapters
of the Meridian municipal code under Title 9 and so with the details I'll have Mr.
Freckleton run through and, then, we can address any questions or concerns you have
at the end.
Freckleton: Okay. Thank you, Tom. Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council, I certainly appreciate Council's patience with us as we have been working
through this -- this development of this new code. It has been -- it's been a long time
and we -- as we got into it we found that there were some things that we needed to
update and work on with our facility plans, so we spent some time with that. But we feel
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that we have got a pretty good -- a pretty good basis to move forward with what we
have to present to you tonight. I included a lot of information in the packet. Hopefully
you have had an opportunity to review that. We have had a lot of -- a lot of people
involved in this process. One of the challenges that Stacy forgot to mention in her
presentation a few minutes ago was having to deal with -- with us and our ideas that we
have brought forward and trying to make them work within accounting rules and within
statutes and that sort of thing. So, we have also tied up quite a bit of our legal
department's time. Ted's been -- Ted's been a huge help with us to get to where we are
today. So, basically, when we were before you last spring we kind of ran down what our
current code methodology was and somewhat what the advantages and disadvantages
of that system were. The main disadvantage from our perspective with our current code
was the fact that paying in advance creates cash flow problems by paying out more
than what is coming into the fund. Some of the problems that that creates is it creates
instability in the fund. It depletes the fund to a point of insolvency. One of the
drawbacks for the development community was that it required public bid process per
Idaho Code 67-2805, which is -- which is a -- kind of a process that is -- it's onerous and
there is specific steps that you have to follow and if you trip up on one of them, it throws
you out. So, it's been pretty cumbersome. That particular section of Idaho Code also
requires the use of the low bid, which binds the developer as to using contractors that
they wouldn't normally use or don't want to use, for that matter. The revenue stream
and payouts are unpredictable, because of marketing fluctuations. The city assumes
maintenance responsibility and liability for infrastructure that's not being used. And with
the down tum in the economy, this has become -- become a big deal. I mean we don't
have the roof tops going in very quickly and, yet, we have a lot of infrastructure sitting in
the ground out there that we now have to take care of. The biggest advantage that we
saw over our current code was that it -- it shifts the reimbursement burden to all new
development -- or excuse me. Shifting the reimbursement burden to all new
development has simplified the accounting and administrative functions. So, in moving
forward we set ourselves some goals and objectives for what we wanted to achieve with
the new code. The overall philosophy of where we -- where we targeted we wanted to
go was to reimburse the developers according to the strategic value of the infrastructure
that is being built and from funds that are collected within the area being served. One of
the -- one of the goals that we had was to create maps of water and sewer mains and
trunks that show infrastructure at full build out, with a goal of delineating which portions
of the water mains and sewer trunks are high priority, medium priority, and low priority.
So, we have developed -- we have developed these maps based on discussions we
have had with our planning department for certainly targeting certain areas, the
downtown core of -- the tech corridor, those types of things. This is a map that we
would bring before you with our -- with our ordinance for adoption, so that it's formally
adopted. We want to use the high, medium, and low priority in a program that we want
to build in to -- to incentivize growth in those areas. The criteria that we used to
determine whether a location was high, medium, or low is -- number one, is it consistent
with the Council identified growth priority areas. Two, does it conform in size and
location to the master plans. Three, does it make the system more or less robust. And,
four, is it contiguous to other developments or is it remote. And we also wanted to set a
payback period not to exceed five years from the assessment fees collected specifically
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within the service area of the infrastructure being installed. As we have gone through
the development of our framework for this ordinance, we have stretched that to ten
years and I'll get to that here in just a second. We have gone through several iterations
of the frame work as we have discussed this process with you in I think a couple of
meetings and also with our conversations with finance and legal. Unfortunately, it has
taken quite a time to get to the point we are now, but we feel good about where we are
today. We do have one outstanding issue that we are continuing to work through with
our finance department and legal department with regard to the public bidding laws. We
are getting more understanding of that and we are confident that we can -- we can
come to a resolution in a short period of time. Our proposed structured reimbursement
agreement methodology, it does shift reimbursement burden to only new development
within service areas being -- of lines being installed. This will increase the accounting
and administrative function burdens for the city, however, the administrative fees that
we propose to charge for these -- for the administration of these agreements will offset
that -- that process. We also have a lot more tools in place now than we had in years
gone by when we had the old latecomers agreement process. We plan on using our
GIS system to be able to track these -- these areas for -- for finance and to be able to
help them understand which agreements are where and that sort of thing. We -- in the
new process we -- we still will assume maintenance responsibility and liability for
infrastructure that is not fully being used. Just don't see a way of getting around that.
The advantages of the new system is that we will be paying only as new assessment
fees are collected within development service areas, which creates a more balanced
cash flow situation. Reimbursement revenues and expenses balance leading to greater
stability and predictability in the fund. We put in the high, medium and low priority areas
to be able to incentivize growth and Council identified growth priority areas, within what
is more clear and a consistent with our sewer and water master plans and as a result of
our work, as I said before, these plans have been -- have been worked on and made
more robust. The issue that I mentioned just a moment ago about -- that we are still
working on, hopefully, we will get to the point where the process will be clear and
predictable and less cumbersome for developers. It eliminates the requirement for
public bid process for the majority of the cases. Developers would not be bound by
using the lowest bidding contractor. The revenue stream and payouts are directly
influenced by market fluctuations. Development community assumes the risk, instead
of the city. It gives of the ability to better capture off site growth related utility expansion
costs. The bottom is really it -- growth pays for growth in the new -- the new process.
We did take our proposed -- our proposed framework to different agencies for public
vetting. We went to the BCA, the Southwest Idaho Developers Council. I made a
presentation to them and got oral comments. I also asked them during that meeting if
their membership would respond in writing. We gave them about three weeks time to
able to respond in writing and we received no comments at all from the BCA. I also
solicited BOMA, the Building Owners and Managers Association and also the
Associated General Contractors. Again, we gave them a comment period to respond
and we received no written comment through those -- through those solicitations. I did,
however, receive some written comments -- I received comments from Jonathan Seal,
who works for WH Moore Company, as you know. Jonathan found out about our
proposals through Winston's affiliation with BOMA organization. Jonathan had four
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comments. We were able to go through them. He had some good suggestions. We
have added some clarifying language to our framework. We also received comments
from Barry Semple, River Ridge Engineering. He's the engineer for Derek O'Neil as
part of the Jayker project. Barry had five comments for us. We have gone through
those and we have added clarifying language. Again, just really good -- really good
comments from our vetting process and so where we are at today is we have our
framework that has -- I have updated it, I have got comments that were received from
public comment. I have highlighted that text in red comments that were made as a
result of discussions with our legal department. Those comments are in green. As I
stated, we just have the one issue with regard to whether we are going to have to
publicly bid projects or have developers publicly bid projects to be able to comply with
67-2805. It's an issue that we have discussed with legal and finance and we are
confident that within 30 days we can have that issue worked out and be able to be back
in front of you with an ordinance for discussion and adoption. So, with that we will stand
for any questions that you might have.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: It sounds like a lot of good work and we are going the right direction. Just a
question on the lowest bidder kind of a thing. Are we able to make it the lowest
qualified bidder -- and where I'm going with that is I know there are government
organizations that have a list of certified bidders or pre-approved bidders or whatever
you want to call it. I think maybe even ACHD has a contractor's list. You weren't forced
to take the lowest bid if it's somebody that's not qualified to do the job and -- and rather
than try and qualify everybody after all the bids are in, you would have a precertified list,
people have to apply to get on the list, there are things they can do to get kicked off the
list. But, I don't know, are we able to do that and have such a list that the developers
could use?
Freckleton: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member
Zaremba, we don't currently have a prequalified list. This has been an issue -- in fact,
the last project that went through public bid process through the city -- seeing Keith here
-- the lowest bid that came in was disqualified, because of his bond rating. He didn't
have a high enough bond rating and he was -- he was disqualified based on that. There
is -- maybe Keith could correct me if I'm wrong, but there are some very strict criteria in
the statutes as far as qualifications of bidders.
Watts: In the city process the bidder has to be bondable for the amount of the job that
he's working for and he also has to be a public works licensed contractor. So, there are
requirements of that. This was kind of a quasi-city process that we are trying to go
through. I'm not sure the city wants to get too involved in it for -- you know, which Ted is
going to come back to us with some more information as well. I think -- we probably
could state that it needs to be a public works contractor and a bondable public works
contractor and I think that would -- that would cover us. I'm leery of putting too much
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qualification into this as we are trying to leave this up to the developer and not make this
a city process. So, I don't want to institute too many guidelines for them, because that's
kind of what we are trying to get away from.
Zaremba: Good point.
Rountree: I believe Bruce indicated that this process eliminates that necessity. I see no
advantage to the City of Meridian to pre-qualifying contractors for this kind of work.
None whatsoever. Though it can be done.
Bany: Mr. President -- and that's very true. We can prequalify them on a specific
project, for example, if there is a specialty involved, but I agree wholeheartedly, we do
not want to develop and manage and monitor and maintain a contractor list of
prequalified folks. The qualification we required, as Mr. Watts has suggested, is the
Public Works contractor license. It's fairly simplistic and easy to get. It's a state license
and away we go. So, I would agree with that.
Hoaglun: Mr. President?
Rountree: Brad.
Hoaglun: Question a little different direction. On page 12, under the structured
reimbursement agreement framework, the purpose in a bullet point to reimburse
developers for the differential cost associated with the installation of sanitary sewer
and/or water infrastructure required above and beyond what is minimally necessary to
provide service to developer's project. So, does that mean if they were going to put in
an eight inch line to service their project and we said, well, you need a 12 inch line, we
are going to reimburse them for the difference? Is that -- do I read that correctly?
Freckleton: That is absolutely correct.
Hoaglun: Okay. And in the second bullet point -- to provide an incentive to the
development community for the installation of public works infrastructure and growth
priority areas. That one I was wondering how are we going to provide incentives to the
development community to -- I mean if they have a project that they are installing, we
will reimburse them for the cost if -- like I said using the example eight inch line and we
want 12, what more incentive do they need? Their costs are being covered for that.
Can you explain further?
Freckleton: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Councilmember Hoaglun, the incentive that
we have built into this is the -- the growth priority map that I spoke of, that talks about
downtown core, having it being a high priority area, the tech corridor, that sort of thing.
That map we are going to use -- on page five, if -- do you have that? In the low priority
area we are going to -- we are going to reimburse them for one hundred percent of their
eligible -- in the medium priority area they would get 110 percent. A hundred percent
coming from the assessment collected -- or excuse me. The reimbursement fee that is
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collected in the reimbursement benefit area, ten percent coming from the city coffers.
So, there is the incentive. And similarly the high priority area, it would go to 20 percent
coming out of city coffers. It's something that we would have to budget for, which we
currently do. It's just we are going to use that pot of money for incentive.
Hoaglun: And, Mr. President, if I might follow up on that. If they weren't doing the work
to begin with, is that to encourage them to do the work? Is that how you -- how you're
characterizing? Because, like I said, if they are going to do the work and we reimburse
them, I don't think there is a need for an incentive. They have got a project they want to
build, there is profit incentive for them to move forward with that, so that was my first
concern and the other concern I would have, even if we decided to do an incentive, do
we attach it -- is it -- you know, we are reimbursing them and, then, if we are going to
make a payment above and beyond that, that kind of changes the flavor. Does that
come in the same payment as reimbursement? And I'm just worried about the vehicle
on that and that might be something I'd have to talk to Stacy about, does that cause
problems if you're reimbursing something, as opposed to providing incentive, does that
become a separate payment from a different pot of money, that sort of thing. How do
you track different things like that?
Bany: Mr. President, Mr. Hoaglun, the -- I want to make sure I address both of your
questions. The first question I think that you were refemng to as it relates to -- I want to
make sure I understand it, though. You're speaking on behalf of the growth priority area
and how to incentivize that is --
Hoaglun: Yes, Mr. President and Tom, if -- and just wondering if someone is in there --
a developer is in our high priority growth area and he's got a project and he's thinking he
can develop this property and, hopefully, make some money on it, where is the need for
us to do a further incentive? If we are reimbursing for the cost of an upgrade, for
example, why are we going to be spending, you know, taxpayer dollars to incentivize
something that he's already doing?
Barry: Uh-huh. Well, the -- Mr. Hoaglun, the -- the philosophy behind the incentive
associated with the growth -- the Council priority areas that have been identified in the
map that you have been provided, was to get out of a reactionary stamp with regard to
development and get to a little bit more proactive one. The areas that have been
identified by the Council include say downtown for example. So, if we take -- take that
-- a project in downtown, downtown is very complicated to develop in. We have some
problems with water and sewer line, we have easement issues, we have alleyway
problems, we have -- it's very difficult to develop in downtown and if we want people to
develop in downtown and we want downtown to revitalize, we had developed this
incentive program to allow for payment of those for an intangible cost, if you will, that
relate to the city's ability to target growth where it wants to see growth and incentivize,
therefore, developers to move on those properties under reimbursement that would
benefit the city more greatly than those properties which may have little benefit, if you
will, from a redevelopment or a primary development standpoint. So, I don't know if that
fully addresses your question, but -- I mean I think downtown is a great example of that.
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It doesn't work that way necessarily in all areas around the city, but the idea behind it
was if we wanted to institute growth in a certain area, there is a mechanism now to do
that under this particular policy. The question for the Council is -- this isn't the only
mechanism that can be used, is there a different one or an additional one that you
would like us to consider. This is the one that we have gone through the process with
the developing community, our legal staff, and our finance staff, as well as several
divisions of Public Works, including water and wastewater staff and cease to make a lot
of sense, but, you know, if the Council should feel that no incentive is necessary,
we can certainly pull that and strike it from the ordinance and bring back, you know, a
fairly standard approach to reimbursement, which would allow for, you know, just
straight forward reimbursement without any incentive whatsoever for growth or
redevelopment.
Hoaglun: Mr. President, Tom, that example of downtown helps quite a bit.
Barry: Okay.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
Bany: The second question I believe you asked was does it come as a separate
payment. That detail hasn't necessarily been worked out at this current point in time,
but it's conceived that it would be one payment, that, essentially, we would be putting
the reimbursement on a schedule that would be set by the finance department to meet
and coincide with other schedules that they might have for reimbursement to make it
easier. But that the payment would include whatever the reimbursable amount is for
that period, in addition to the incentivized proportion. So, if they were to say receive a
hundred thousand dollars out of the reimbursement and they were in a growth priority
area, that was medium and, you know, it was a medium priority, then, that would be 110
percent, so they would be eligible for 110,000 dollars that would be paid out over the
period or the term of the agreement in installments if you will over that term. So, that's
how it's conceived at this point in time for simplicity sake. If the fund actually needs to
be cut -- or if the monies need to be cut as a separate check and issued along with the
primary check, that's a detail that has yet to be worked out.
Hoaglun: And I think, Mr. President and Tom, it's -- probably with finance we can --
whether it's one check -- if we do one check, just as long as we can track what's being
spent for our priority areas and what incentives are out there, et cetera, et cetera.
Barry: Right.
Hoaglun: So, that's probably the main thing I'd like to see happen.
Bany: Good.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
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Zaremba: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: One question that will probably have to be answered at some point, not
necessarily tonight, but you have a developer who is building a project in a low priority
area, but we are asking him to do water and sewer to and through and through happens
to be to a high priority area. Even though he's not in a priority area, he's preparing us
for a high priority area and he will probably ask for the incentive, we will need to have an
answer to that at some point.
Bany: Thank you, Mr. Zaremba. I think our -- our current suggestion at this point in
time is that the reimbursement would allow for one hundred percent of the cost we have
asked them to go above and beyond what's minimally required for their development,
but just as any other boundary in the city, zoning or otherwise suggests, there are --
there are those boundaries for reasons and I'm afraid in that situation, unless the
Council thought otherwise, our recommendation would be that this map be approved by
the City Council and administered by staff to that -- for that very reason, so we wouldn't
have to have people continually come here and ask for different types of priorities and
that sort of thing or incentives. We would want to insure that this map got included as
part of the ordinance with your endorsement, so --
Zaremba: So, his actual physical location would determine it and it has nothing to do
with what he enables up or down stream from him.
Barry: Correct.
Zaremba: Sounds good to me.
Barry: That's the recommendation. Yes, sir.
Rountree: Any comments, questions?
Bird: Mr. President?
Rountree: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I have just got one thing, Tom. I would be real careful with incentive, because
once you start them -- even downtown -- everybody's going to expect them and I have a
real problem justifying them, because they are putting them out there for their own
benefit and reasons. My main concern is to make sure as the money comes in we get it
to them, that they don't have to sit on it for four or five years like in the past.
Barry: Uh-huh. Yes, sir. Point well taken. Thank you.
Rountree: Any comments, questions?
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Zaremba: Mr. President? If we go the incentive route, I think we probably need some
discussion about how much. I'm not sure how you settle on those, but even if we are
going to do it I'd probably be more comfortable at five and, then, ten percent, as
opposed to ten and, then, 20. On a big project that could be a lot of money.
Bany: Mr. President, Mr. Zaremba, that's true. That is a policy decision if you want it to
be five or ten or twenty or whatever the percentage is. When we did some model
examples and we took let's say a million dollar project and the reimbursable amount on
a million dollar -- and let's just say of that million dollar project 750,000 dollars of that
was completely the developer's responsibility to get services to that property, you leave
say 250,000 dollars, that's a pretty sizable water and wastewater project we are talking
about, but you leave 250,000 dollars eligible, because that's what we required them to
go above and beyond what was minimally required, then, that 250,000 dollars would be
eligible reimbursement at a hundred percent, that would come from the benefit area, so
that's not city fund, as it had been in the past. So, that 250,000 dollars comes straight
from the service benefit area as those hook-up fees are collected and just passed
through to the developer, the ten percent of that is 25,000 dollars, 20 percent, 50,000
dollars, on a million dollar project. We felt that it was justified as 10 and 20 percent for
that example only. I mean if you start dealing with projects that are only around, you
know, 250,000, 300,000 dollars or -- it becomes significantly less. So, it's really a
Council call as to what you'd like that to be. When we ran the example, it -- those
numbers seemed to make sense to us to distinguish enough between low, medium, and
high priority for incentives.
Rountree: Further comments? Desired direction? Move it forward for consideration
and ordinance and hearing.
Freckleton: Great. Thank you, Mr. President. We will -- we will work with legal and we
will get that done and back to you within about 30 days. Thanks.
D. Joint Recommendation of the Parks 8~ Recreation
Commission/Arts Commission Regarding Naming of City Hall
Amphitheater.
Rountree: Thank you. Okay, Steve.
Zaremba: I figured something out. If you come to the podium you have to give your
name. If you sit over there you don't.
Siddoway: Steve Siddoway. Meridian Parks and Recreation. I was here a few weeks
ago when the Meridian Arts Commission, Meg Glasgow, was here and she presented to
Council and presented a name for the amphitheater, the Old Creamery Theater. At that
point Council directed me to -- sitting over at the staff side if I would take that to the
parks and recreation commission and vet that name through the parks amenities and
signage committee. We did that at their meeting last week. At first they didn't
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understand that their charge was to review the name proposed by the arts commission,
so they did brainstorm several names on their own and I will throw some of those out
there. Heritage Amphitheater. City Center Amphitheater. Main Street Amphitheater.
And others. Then, when we pointed out that there was a proposal on the table that had
been brought to Council and they were being asked to vet that name through, they did
discuss it. The Old Creamer Theater name that was originally proposed, they felt like
the name theater didn't quite fit, they recommended at least changing the theater name
to amphitheater. So, they are -- motion was made and sent up to Council to
recommend the name Old Creamery Amphitheater. It was passed by a majority. There
was dissenting vote. The reason for the dissenting vote was they didn't think it was
specific enough to the area. The person liked more of something related to Main Street
or something like that. But it is my understanding also in talking with Emily that the next
day the arts commission did meet, they took the recommendation of the Parks and Rec
Commission to change theater to amphitheater with Old Creamery Amphitheater and
they did also pass a motion recommending that name. So, I'm here to represent to you
that we have two recommendations, one from the arts commission, one from the Parks
and Rec Commission to approve the name Old Creamery Amphitheater.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Rountree: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Since I wasn't here for that discussion when this was brought up, the city is
in the process of looking at naming of conference rooms and those kind of things and I
think it should all be looked at as a group. I didn't know we were going to name
anything at this point and I -- I don't know what the rush is. So, I would like to kind of
put that on hold and also in listening to Steve's presentation that there were other ideas,
I don't know how this name was presented, who initiated it, I -- I guess I would like to
maybe take a step back and bring that with -- with at minimum the ideas of the
conference facilities or conference rooms in City Hall and -- and, then, maybe even
have a year to really see what develops in the plaza and see maybe what the plaza as a
whole and what naming opportunities are for the other elements. Right now we are
in the process of putting together interpretive panels. We are still kind of developing
the identity of our City Hall plaza as a whole. So, I -- are we in a hung to name -- name
it?
Hoaglun: Mr. President, I was at most of the arts commission meeting and I think what
they want to establish is an identity for this summer when they start -- kick off this
season. You know, I think early June, I think they have the first performance -- what will
happen is -- and I don't mind if we want to back up a few steps and delay it, but if we get
a name, that becomes the name. If we wait it will become the City Hall Plaza and it
doesn't matter what you do after that, if we wait for a year it's the City Hall Plaza. So,
they wanted to get out the door with a name that it's -- it's being advertised as the Old
Creamery Amphitheater or whatever is decided and to market it that way. So, it's a
marketing issue of starting from the beginning to time eternal I guess.
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Rountree: I guess to that whatever it's named it's going to be the Old Creamery
Amphitheater at City Hall. Or the Heritage Amphitheater at City Hall. So, it's all -- or
City Center or whatever. I have no comment in discussion on this topic and I can't
remember even for sure how it came up, but the comment was, well, the creamery had
a name. It wasn't the old creamery. So, I don't know if -- thinking about it, is that's
disrespectful not calling it what it was if you're going to memorialize it with the
amphitheater.
De Weerd: Do we have background on how this even came about?
Bird: I can give you what I -- the first I heard of it. I heard it from --
Rountree: Meg.
Bird: -- Meg and I thought it sounded good, because -- I mean do you want to call it the
-- the last business in this place was -- the real business, not --
De Weerd: Paint ball.
Bird: -- was Wyatt Laboratories.
Rountree: Yeah.
De Weerd: Paint ball wasn't --
Bird: Was Wyatt Laboratories. And Ithink -- I think we are sitting on -- we are sitting on
the ground. I -- I just -- I felt it was a good name and when they brought it forward, you
know, I -- and I'm like just what Brad said, you go -- you put it off the year and it will be
City Hall. That's what it will be. It won't be the plaza or amphitheater or anything. We
have a concert at City Hall.
De Weerd: Concerts on Broadway.
Bird: Broadway concerts at Old Creamery Amphitheater --
De Weerd: Wow.
Bird: Now, is that a mouth full?
Zaremba: Comer of City Hall and Zamzow's.
Rountree: It the shadow of Zamzow's.
Bird: In the shadow of Zamzow's.
De Weerd: Mr. President?
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Rountree: Yeah. Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: All kidding aside, you know, I think the concert series should have the
identify to its own and that is Concerts on Broadway and so, again, I would say -- I
would -- before you name it Old Creamery Amphitheater, to explore what other ideas
are. If we have to name it, then, let's do it, but I guess considering what those other
names were. And I appreciate the parks commission brainstorming that and, then,
finding out that they only had one choice. And usually naming has more significance
and Idon't --
Siddoway: I don't know if they went through additional names from the arts
commission. That was just the one that was brought forward that night at Council.
Bird: That's the only one, Mr. President , that I have heard.
Rountree: Yeah. That's the only one that I have heard.
Bird: We can take two years and argue over it.
Rountree: Yeah, we can. So, I'm going to make a decision here. Unless I get further
direction. That we take the recommendation under advisement and names and various
geographic areas and/or meeting areas in the City Hall building that all name be vetted
together, so at least there is some commonality in the naming to -- how they are brought
forward. Unless somebody wants to make a motion to approve that name.
Bird: I don't care.
Hoaglun: Well, if we approve that name, then, with that, Mr. President, then we are
going to have the cannery room, the separating room, the delivery --
Rountree: The boiler room.
Bird: Wyatt Laboratories.
Hoaglun: Yeah.
Zaremba: Name the rooms after cheeses.
Rountree: Anyway --
Hoaglun: I think we can wait on it. Mr. President, I'm fine with waiting.
Rountree: Okay. That's what we will do. Thanks, Steve. You are the messenger.
Just remember that.
Meridian City Council -Special Meeting Workshop
March 17, 2009
Page 66 of 67
Item 6: Executive Session: Idaho State Code 67-2345 (1)(fl.
Rountree: We now are at the point in time where we can go into Executive Session if
we have the appropriate motion.
Bird: Mr. President, before I make a motion I want to make an announcement.
Rountree: Oh, that's right, you did want to make an announcement.
Bird: I don't know if you guys read in the papers this morning or not, but our old
electrical engineer or inspector and a community guy that was born and raised here and
worked all his life here, except for I believe four years in the Navy, passed away Sunday
down in Yuma, Arizona, Harold Hudson. Just thought I would let you know.
Rountree: Thank you.
Bird: And with that I make a motion that we go into Executive Session as per Idaho
State Code 67-2345(1)(f).
Hoaglun: Second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to go into Executive Session. Roll call vote.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
Rountree: We are out of Executive Session. I need a motion for adjournment, unless
there is no other topics.
Bird: So moved.
Zaremba: second.
Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Rountree: We are adjourned.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:07 P.M.
Meridian City Council -Special Meeting Workshop
March 17, 2009
Page 67 of 67
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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