HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001 08-29 SpecialMeridian City Council Special Budget Meeting August 29, 2001
The special meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday August 29, 2001 by Mayor Robert Corrie.
Members Present: Mayor Robert Corrie, Tammy de Weerd, Cherie McCandless, Ron Anderson, and Keith Bird.
Others Present: Stacy Kilchenmann, Bill Nichols, Gary Smith, Janice Smith, Reta Cunningham, Ken Bowers, Bill Musser, Mike Wardle, John Shawcroft, Rick Clinton, and Tom Kuntz.
Item 1. Roll-call Attendance:
X Tammy de Weerd X Ron Anderson
X Cherie McCandless X Keith Bird
X Mayor Robert Corrie
Corrie: Okay. I want to welcome everybody here this evening. I see a lot of familiar faces and Frank as soon as he gets settled we’re all set. I might Frank just as a sideline before
I open the meeting, Thursday the 4th, or Tuesday the 4th come about 5:30 or 5:00 and we have dinner for you. Okay. I open the City Council regular meeting on; excuse me, the special
meeting for the budget of 2001-2002 fiscal year on Wednesday August the 29th. Sorry I’m stuttering up here, I’m reading two different things so I’m trying to get it right here, at 6:30
P.M. Mr. Clerk, if you’ll have roll call attendance please. At this time I will open the public hearing on our budget of 2001 and 2002 fiscal year.
Item 2. Public Hearing: Budget for 2001 / 2002 Fiscal Year:
Corrie: We’ll start with our finance director Stacy Kilchenmann, will give us a presentation. Stacy.
Kilchenmann: First I’m going to introduce you to yourself since we don’t have a large public gathering here just incase you’ve forgotten your neighbors. Our Mayor Robert Corrie. Council
seat No. 4 President Keith Bird, liaison to finance and the enterprise funds. Council seat No. 2 Vice President Ron Anderson, liaison to fire and human resources. Council seat No. 1
spelled correctly, Tammy de Weerd, liaison to parks, planning and zoning.
De Weerd: That’s pronounced incorrectly.
Kilchenmann: Okay, how do you pronounce it?
De Weerd: De Weerd.
Bird: De Weerd.
Kilchenmann: De Weerd.
Anderson: Just put a v in there instead of the w when you say it.
Kilchenmann: Okay. Council seat No. 3 Cherie McCandless, liaison to police, and the city clerk. What we’re going to do is we’re just going to go through some of the highlights of the
budget process. We have tons of numbers and information should you want anything more. Then we’ll end with a chance for questions or comments. Okay, the whole theme of this budget process
is dealing with the growth in Meridian. So, we’re going to keep coming back to this problem, challenge, and opportunity of growth. The City of Meridian has several functions that we
perform, park space, recreational opportunities, utility services, public works, public safety, planning and zoning and city administration. Does that guy look familiar?
(inaudible discussion amongst Council)
Kilchenmann: Before we get started, there are a few budget definitions that we need to go over. I’m sure everybody will remember for the quiz at the end. Maintenance of base operations,
you’ll hear me refer to that a lot. Those are the expenditures necessary to maintain the same level of service. That’s where everything stays equal. So, it’s the same personnel with
personnel increases for cost of living increases. Its operating expenses like gas that we may have to increase because of the increase of fuel costs. So, it’s just those things we need
to stay where we are today. Capitol outlay refers to assets that cost $1,000 or more and have a life of 3 or more years. We’ll refer to capitol a lot because we separate capitol and
personnel and operating when we talk when we go through our budgeting process. Replacement capitol outlay are when we replace existing assets that we already have that are worn out.
For example if we have a police car that is worn out and we replace it. We’re not getting a new asset and we call that replacement capitol outlay. Then the term enhancements, we use
that term to refer to when we add a new program which we really didn’t do at all in this year’s budget, or we have to add additional personnel , operating or capitol to maintain the
same level of service but for a larger population. So, where do we start? We looked at the whole city revenue. This is how the whole city looks by type and you can kind of see our biggest
source of fee or revenue are utility service fees followed by property tax. But, something that’s important to remember when you look at this graph is that those fee sources by statute
can only go to provide certain services. We’re going to talk about each one of those funds. We’ll refer to them as funds. So, for example the utility service fees can only be used by
our enterprise fund. Property tax is only used by our general fund. As we go through the presentation, we’ll get into that detail. Then if we look at the flip side or the operating costs,
and this is just personnel and operating, not capitol. That’s sort of how the pie is divided up. You see that police, they’re our
largest department so they have the largest slice of the pie. Followed by wastewater and then by water. Then if we look at the city’s capitol budget, that’s how it breaks down. There’s
another term that we use a lot in the budget process and that’s that word carry forward. Those are projects that were budgeted in this year but didn’t get completed so we have to carry
them forward to the next year. You can see by that white column that we have a lot of projects that didn’t get completed that we’ll be working on next year. So, the purple are the new
capitol project and the white are the current year. The first fund we’re going to talk about, or program is what we refer to it as special services. That’s where we can identify a service
and we can charge a specific fee for providing that service. We have 3 programs within that broad category of special services. The first one, planning and zoning processes applications
for land use and zoning and is involved in city planning. Code enforcement, they actually report to the police and the building department reports to public works. So, they all have
a separate reporting structure. The building department issues building permits and also is responsible for building inspection, like electrical and plumbing. All the building inspections
are done by the building department. I really like that picture because I walk a lot and that’s kind of what I see when I walk in Meridian. Planning and zoning in addition to processing
200 properties, applications, also is responsible for putting into place a landscape ordinance which really will effect the quality of life in Meridian. The 5 percent open space requirement,
parking lot landscape requirements, storm water drainage requirements. They also developed a sign ordinance and a project that they’ve been working on for a long time, the comprehensive
plan is going to public hearings. This is how their budget looks and this is their over all budget. The first column are revenue. So, we’re projecting that the revenue will be about
the same as it was this year. Then this includes their OE capitol outlay and personnel. So, this is their total budget. That’s a comparison with the white being the current year and
the purple the projected budget. Then general funds. That is the one that is the most complex and controversial area in any kind of government accounting or government budgeting process.
That’s because there’s services that we need but we cannot identify, or we can’t deliver them on a fee basis. So, we cant charge the person that gets stopped for speeding, well we do
charge them, but we don’t specifically charge them for the whole cost of providing that service. We can't charge for general police service and we don’t charge people for putting out
fires or responding to medical calls. There’s a whole wide variety of services in there. There’s public safety which is I think the first thing that people think about, the police and
fire services. We have recreation and open space which are our parks. Then we have other areas that fall under that fund type that we probably don’t think about. That’s accounting, our
elected officials, human resources, the city clerk, our community partnerships. For example maintaining city parking lots, the historical society, the senior citizen’s center. Also our
legal falls under there. We pay for those with the big bulk of it is property tax. I want you to remember property tax because we’re going to keep coming back to that. State revenue
sharing, for example, we get a portion of the sales tax, some liquor fees, several miscellaneous services fall under there. Then directed revenue, for example park
impact fees which we get from developers that can be used for only park development so those are restricted revenue streams. I want everybody to look at this and remember this because
you’re going to see why it’s important. This shows the percentage of Meridian’s growth, that huge yellow column, and Meridian’s levy rate which is the rate per dollar that you pay of
your taxable property values. That’s that little tiny yellow column. Our anticipated for 2002 general fund revenue totals 9.9 million. This shows you where it will come from and of course
the biggest piece of the pie is the tax revenue. You can see that 53 percent. By far, the biggest chunk of the pie. This is what the maintenance of operations looked like. Do you remember
the maintenance operation is personnel and operating? Most of it goes to the police. Again as we said the police have, they’re the largest department in the city. We also have a piece
of pie in there for the overpass. The overpass is kind of a unique thing that came up in this year’s budget because we’re getting it in the budget by reserving a portion of the fund
balance. So, it kind of distorts our administration because accounting wise to do that we need to do that through the budget process and then as an operating item. We kind of separate
it out so it doesn’t distort the other departments. This is what the general fund capitol outlay looks like this year. The column to the far right, the capitol fund, our excess of revenue
over what we spent we earmarked that we’ll put it in our capitol fund for future construction. Now, we’re going to talk about each of the departments. The first one is the city rural
fire department. They provide several services besides the obvious, the fire suppression, emergency medical service, special response, public safety and education, code enforcement and
community services and of course the salmon barbecue. The fire department and the Council participated in a consumer oriented strategic planning process where they got input from all
the stakeholders and the operations and really that was kind of a major strategic planning exercise centering on what customer expectations and concerns were. These are not all of the
expectations and concerns but some of the major ones that were identified and that we’re using kind of as an underline base for this year’s operations and for the 2002 budget. Some of
the expectations are rapid response, well trained personnel, sufficient state of the art equipment, sufficient personnel to be effective, and making the switch from a small town fire
department to a city type fire department, having to deal with commercial and more traffic, et cetera. Concerns that the current stations are not adequate to serve the area. Response
times are too slow. Not enough personnel and just generally not keeping pace with growth. In FY 2001, the fire department opened the second fire station, the Ten Mile station. They hired
and trained 6 full time fire fighters and they hired and trained 6 part time on call fire fighters. They are not putting out a fire at the fire station. In 2002, keeping in mind those
customer expectations and concerns. These are the enhancements that we are proposing for the 2002 budget. The opticom which is necessary to stop traffic at intersections when the truck
goes through, we have $10,500 one time money. Fire fighters, we have 3 for $156,000. That will be on going money that we feel is very necessary to keep pace with growth and will also
allow us to have trained staff for a future third station,. Then equipment, miscellaneous equipment and air packs for $70,000.
Just equipment that they need to keep up with adding the new fire fighters, the new growth, et cetera. A vehicle, one for the deputy chief of training, that will be $38,000 one time
money and $3,000 for on going. A fire engine, and its important to note that the fire engine will be coming from the fire truck fund. So, it will not be coming from the current revenue
but from money that we’ve been saving and setting aside specifically for fire trucks. That will be $300,000 as a one-time expense. Then finally, training props, this is the start of
installing training props at the Franklin station so that the training can be held in Meridian. That’s kind of seed money to get that started is $50,000. That’s what the fire budget
looks like compared to last year with the white being the prior year. The one time money last year was more of course because we added the fire station. That makes that column bigger.
The police department, they also provide several services. Uniform patrol, the school program, criminal investigation, traffic, drug enforcement, crime prevention and volunteer programs.
They also participated in a customer centered strategic planning program, or exercise and they also have expectations and concerns that resulted form that. Expectations include more
drug enforcement programs, expanding community policing, crime prevention programs, and high uniform officer visibility in school and public. Concerns, understaffing, vehicle replacement,
police station will never be built, employee retention and training. So, with those as a base in FY 2001, they did the customer centered strategic plan that I referred to which was an
extremely comprehensive process that involved all of the stakeholders. The resulting plan is again very comprehensive with goals, objectives, performance measures and targets, many of
which they already have in place or have planned to put into place. The city implemented a STEP plan for officer compensation that will aide in the retention of officers. Yeah, they
started building the new police station.
Anderson: I’ve got a beef with that last slide. The steps should be going up not down.
Kilchenmann: Well, she just got to the top. In one year, she got to the top.
Bird: Who drew the dog? Tico’s not going to like that.
Kilchenmann: A clip art person drew the dog. The police station, I think it’s started.
Bird: Its done.
Kilchenmann: Its done? So, that was a major project, just getting through the bond issue. We hired 3 additional patrol officers, 2 additional school resource officers, 1 additional animal
control officer and 2 records positions and established a reserve police officer program and have 6 reserve police officers. So, for 2002, keeping in mind those customer concerns and
objectives, we have the following enhancements. A new investigative vehicle, this will be used by a school resource officer who has to travel between 3 schools. $20,000 one time
and then $25,000 for on going. The next kind of work together, Laserfiche records archiving software and digital recording equipment will allow them to record records digitally and store
them on CD Rom which will make the huge difference in the amount they need to use for record storage. Then a digital recording equipment for $3600 one time and $4,000 on going will allow
them to record the crime scene and store it digitally and transfer the case files to any law enforcement agency anywhere in the world. The new police station furnishings, moving, lease
payment, increased utilities, 200,000 one time 10,000 on going. Then also the annual lease payment of $400,000. Part time evidence technician, 4300 one time, 22879 on going. We’ll have
somebody that can work in the evidence room and will free up the sworn officer who has to spend a great deal of time doing that currently. Then a part time community policing coordinator
to coordinate, COP, Neighborhood Watch, Crime stoppers, and special events 4300 one time 22879 on going. This will also free up sworn officer time. A canine and vehicle, a dog for drug
enforcement and building area search 50,100 one time, 12,428 on going. So, we’re pretty excited about that because the canine is proving to be extremely effective. We’ll finish the animal
shelter. We need to finish the sheetrock interior walls. That’s one time 10,000. Then fleet replacement which you se on the bottom, 140,000 for 3 cars. That’s what the police budget
looks like. Again, the one time, the white column which is 2001 is high because of the police station. Parks and recreation, no that is not a Meridian park now, but that’s a Meridian
park in the future, the parks department provides several services. Select, plan, design, develop and maintain park land, provide year round recreation programs for youth and adults
and work with business, community, and volunteer groups to partner parks and recreation activities. We also have some customer expectations and concerns. Expectations; more green space
for youth and adult sport activities, a city wide pathway plan and expansion of life enhancing recreational programs for youth and adults. Concerns, Meridian is 170 acres short of the
average amount of acres per thousand residents. Accomplishments; design, bid, and begin development of the long awaited skate park, excitedly waited skate park. Design, bid, and begin
development of phase 1 of Chateau, Bear Creek, and the 56 park. Completed phase 2 of Generations Plaza, increased adult sports activities and programs and instituted the volleyball equipment
rental program. Worked with a new pathway committee to complete one-mile section of pathway between Linder and Meridian Road and to develop a proposed pathway system. Hired architect
to design a renovation plan for Storey Park and developed a parks master and action plan. So, the enhancements that we’re proposing for the year 2002 include, an addition to phase 1
of the 48-acre park. This is from park impact fees. So, those are those reserved funds that are used only for park development, $300,000. Purchase additional parkland and again this
is from park impact fees $100,000. Renovate Storey Park, 120,000. Mower, 58,000. Asphalt the shop yard for the park equipment, 10,000. Seasonal recreation aide for 5980. That's what
their proposed budget looks like. They also have the column in the white for last year’s large and one time so they have some projects left that will be carried forward, quite a few.
Administration, they have numerous functions as I
mentioned before. This is where we have the Mayor, the city clerk, human resources, street lighting, accounting, legal and City Council. Also we have numerous partnerships, we have the
shuttle bus program, the midday express, Valley Transit, Community planning Association, Association of Idaho Cities. We also have a partnership of activities with the historical society,
the senior center, parking lot maintenance, Pine School maintenance. There are just all kinds of things that fall under this other government group. So, administration enhancements,
the major one being the contribution to the Locust Grove overpass which is an overriding public safety concern for the city and the only way that they can impact any kind of road development
or maintenance or construction is to actually contribute some money. We did this by reserving part of the existing fund balance for 1.8 million. The Treasure Valley Transit increased
substantially to 46600. The senior center, we are partnering with them for $10,000 and record keeping and data management, which that was a nice way of putting it. We’re going to make
the City Council use computers for $10,000. Now I want you to think back to when I showed you that big huge column for Meridian growth and the little tiny column for Meridian’s levy.
That ties into this slide which shows 2 columns that show how, what we were not able to fund. The one on the right is our revenues. In the very top little yellow slice is what we had
left over for the enhancements that we just discussed after we got done taking care of our base operations. The column on the left which shows expenditures, that big black lump on the
top is the amount that we were unable to fund. So, we think here’s some of the things that we were not able to do. This is kind of the bad side. The good side we just talked about.
There were a lot of things. 4 new police officers, the second new fire truck, the fire inspector, the fire office addition, fire training props, park design services, parks vehicle,
fire substation 3 and land for 4, park land expansion, park ground keeper, clerk specialists, 2 new police officers, all requested replacement vehicles, 58 acres phase 2 and softball
bleachers. We think why not? I mean we have all this growth why can’t we keep up with it? The problem is the formula for calculating the mill levy and to not get too complicated, the
levy rate decreases as the city’s population increases. That doesn’t make sense. The reason is that the way the mill levy is calculated, the top number is what the budget was for the
last year. So, lets say we’re starting with a base budget of 4.5 million and its divided by the market value or the taxable market value. The first sense it’s 1.4 million, that’s fine.
We end up with the mill levy which per thousand dollars we get $3.10. Then the next year by statute we can only increase that numerator, we can only increase it by 3 percent. Look down
below what happens is our taxable market values increase. I think I took our Meridian, I looked at our actual increases by about 16 percent. So, when we do the math, we’re only getting
$2.80 per thousand. When you can see what happens the next year, it just continues to decrease and decrease. Here’s another graphical way to look at one of the impact of what happens
to us. This is a historical that will last for years of how much money we had left for capitol which you remember that’s any kind of construction or vehicles or anything over $1,000.
The amount that we have left is just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. Just to look at some of the costs that we have now. When you move
from the small town to a larger city environment. The cost to develop an acre of parkland is $70,000. So, the total cost to develop the 58-acre park will be over $4 million. The cost
for one police officer is $100,000. One fire truck costs $300,00 plus one ladder truck is a million dollars. I probably should have put a plus there too. One fire substation is 1.2 million.
If we were to complete the training structure, we need for the fire station, it would be $300,000. So, now we’re going to move off that and we’re going to go to completely different
area. We’re going to talk about the enterprise fund. The enterprise fund is kind of the top of the enterprise fund and what we call the public works department. They oversee wastewater,
water, building, and utility building departments. These 5 departments build, construct, and operate our water and wastewater facilities. We operate those just like a private business
with operation, expended through user fees and development assessments. It’s really important to remember that those can only be used for the enterprise fund. They cannot be used for
any other area of City government. Public works people are really busy people. They, if you look at some of the projects they completed in the current year, they’ve had 32 subdivisions
of 1600 lots, 26 commercial building projects totaling over almost $12 million. The dewatering project is a project they completed. T-Pac clarifier project, they landscaped the water
storage tank, completed well 18, completed phase 3 of the water line extension, and completed the wastewater digester which I have been told is just like a stomach and I thought that’s
all I needed to know. Enterprise revenues that we project for 2002 will be just about 11 million. You can see the biggest portion comes from water and sewer user fees with a smaller
portion coming from assessments. Here’s what the personnel and operating budget is projected to look like, about 6.5 million. See the wastewater plant takes the biggest piece of the
pie with the water department not too far behind. Here’s their total budget including capitol. You see that big yellow chunk of that column, are carry forwards. So, those are projects
we’ve already budgeted that have not been completed yet. If you look, you can see that most of there budget is spent in capitol projects. Those are those big infrastructure expenses.
Intense projects take most of their budget. Water’s proposed budget enhancements include a water rights acquisition plan for 180,000. More meter wands and update their SCADA program.
What that is, it just operates the, or tells the wells how to even out the pressure between the wells for 60,000. A backflow prevention officer for 57750. Fire hydrant replacements for
90,000. Water main extension work for 200,000. Design and just start, this is not the whole cost of a well, this is just to start a new well for 200,000. A bypass well for 10,000 and
to complete 4 new wells $567,117. The wastewater plant, their proposed 2002 budget enhancements include a new mechanic and centrifuge operator for $82, 665. Lab software, phone, and
furnishings for 20,800. A pre-design, this is just a pre-design stage for wastewater treatment plant upgrades of 200,000. Wastewater treatment plant to finish landscaping, lighting,
and asphalt of 192,000. Waste thickener project for half a million. Slip Line creek crossing for 70,000. That word I cant even say, filter and digester bypass lines for 38,000. upgrade
the Ashford pump 15,000. New pickup and equipment 24,600 and UV out fall addition for almost half a million, 435,000. that’s what the whole
enterprise, with water, wastewater and billings look like together. Again the white column is the prior year and the one time expense represents capitol projects which is you saw a lot
of them will be carried forward. That’s it, I’m ready for questions or comments.
Bird: Nice job.
McCandless: Very nice.
Corrie: Thank you Stacy.
Anderson: Lights please so we can see.
Bird: So we can see who’s out there, so we can duck.
Corrie: Okay, very good. This is a public hearing. That might be a good idea (inaudible).
(inaudible discussion amongst Council)
Corrie: Okay, I guess we’ll get you plugged in first. Thank you Will. This is a public hearing and I invite the public to any comments, questions they might have. So, if you would like
to come up. State your name and your address. The floor’s yours. I can see there may be three so I’m not going to limit your comments to any more than 5 minutes unless you get off the
track. Then I’ll bring you back. Who would like to – anybody? Yes.
Losness: Dick Losness. I’m president of the Meridian senior center. I just want to come down (inaudible) all for your budget. As a member of the senior center, we want to thank you for
your consideration of the center in your budget proposal. We hope this is the start of a long partnership between the center and the city. I’m glad to say our audit will be started next
Wednesday, should be done. We’ll let you know whatever it is. If it’s bad, you’ll read it in all the papers anyway, as I say. I was very disappointed when you had your last mill vote.
Not so much that it didn’t pass or did pass, I was disappointed in the people that they wouldn’t come out. It was like a slap in the face of the police and the fire department. I hope
when you have another one that there’s some way the senior center can help you get some more votes out. That’s all I have to say and I thank you again on behalf of the center.
Corrie: Thank you. We appreciate that.
Donahue: Richard Donahue. I’ve lived in Meridian a long time so I’ve been here before. Listening to your budget, I have a few questions. But I believe you do have the money for additional
police officers. Listening to Stacy, I believe you do have the revenue for 6 to 8 more police officers to be added. Just listening to
your proposal to your budget. Also, I believe also you do have funding right now to start a new fire station in the next 30 days. And also fully staff it with 9 full time fire fighters.
The reason I say that is I was noticing the overpass thing you’re stating you’ve got on the budget there. A long time ago the city got out of the highway construction business when all
the voters decided it should be all through the taxing entity of the County Highway District. With it being an interchange, this is a federal and state project, with the secondary roads
that would be controlled by the Highway District and funded by all three entities. The city should never be donating money to highway project when this money is being taken away from
your police and fire and parks department. That’s where the money is coming from. I’m kind of concerned. I mean, here you can fund 6 to 8 more police officers right now, no question.
You’ve got the money. Build a new fire station, no problem. Put the firemen in it and then you can buy a new truck. There you’ve got it. I just don’t understand that. The other thing
I’ve got a question on, how can you do a mill levy increase when the money you have, you’re giving away to the Highway Department. I just don’t get it. I mean, you’re suppose to be using
the money for public safety and here you are giving the public safety money away to a highway project which you don’t even have anything to do with. This is separate funding through
these entities and you should not be funding other entities. I mean, I’m sure every entity around here would love you if you give them money all the time or even once in a while like
that. A couple million bucks is a lot of money. I’m sure, you know some of the rural library districts would love it. I’m sure neighboring towns would appreciate it. I’m sure the highway
department would appreciate it more. They’ve got more road projects in the area. I mean, a little more funding, they never turned anybody down yet. That’s my concern. I just --. I don’t
get it. I mean, public safety is pretty important and the highway department -- . well this should be a different meeting on highway, like federal state or county meeting. City’s gave
that authority away some time ago, the people did. They believed it should be one, not all separate. That money is a lot of money and public safety is very important. That’s all I’ve
got to say.
Corrie: Okay. Thank you Richard. Anyone else like --? Okay, since we had some questions here. I think we can answer a few of those. Mr. Anderson.
Anderson: (inaudible) some of Richard’s questions. First of all we agree, we would love to have more police officers and more fire fighters. I guess a couple of the concerns I think
we had the way out is that annual income versus the fund balance and the use of the fund balance. It’s kind of like your monthly income as an individual versus your money that you put
in your savings account. Hiring police officers and fire fighters from the estimate that we saw up on the screen there during the presentation was a police officer was around $100,000
a year. That includes all the incidental, police car, radio, and all that kind of stuff. Those are on going costs. The other statistic that Stacy showed us was that money that’s available
for capitol and how that is shrinking every year. This year we actually had less, we had right around $1.5 million to fund capitol items. That’s
the money that based off our income that we can use to build new fire stations or buy police cars and those types of things. So, it would kind of be like taking your savings and going
out and buying something that you would have a monthly payment on at that point. It wouldn’t take very long for us to completely deplete that fund balance. We are using some of that
fund balance I think very creatively to help improve the community and indeed to improve public safety too. For example, the fund balance that we have built up over the years, we are
going to use that money and use the interest off that money to fund a new police station that’s going to be built. We’re going to do a lease purchase on that, that we’ll pay off over
10 years. That fund balance has helped there. As far as the overpass, that was a project that this whole community has been crying out for, for a number of years. There needs to be an
overpass there. There’s needs to be another interchange. We’re working to secure funding and to get it moved up for the Ten Mile interchange also. Those projects were not even in the
20-year plan of being built. So, by us partnering with Ada County Highway District and with the state, we’ve been able to push that overpass from not even being on the plan to be funded
up to within the five-year plan. Those things wouldn’t even happen in our community for years to come had we not partnered. We felt it was a very good use of the fund balance. We do
appreciate you concerns and we are trying to do what we can to make the improvements to the public safety. With the mill levy and the on going cost of hiring those personnel, that’s
the limit that we’re going to be faced with over the next few years. We have to keep money available every year to fund capitol expenditures. If we spend every dime we make on just the
base budget, then we’ll never be able to replace buildings or equipment as it wears out. Thank you for your comments.
Donahue: (inaudible)
Corrie: Okay, go ahead.
Donahue: I’ll be brief. It doesn’t cost $100,000 to fund a police officer. I mean, one car --. Numerous officers use one car and that’s just a fact. The money for the highway department,
I don’t know why its more important. It was never --. This is news to I think a lot of people where all of a sudden the city’s more interested in the overpass and the concerns of transportation
when it has no authority other than giving money away and public safety is under. This is not your priority. I mean public safety is a priority of the city. You’re in the wrong business
when you’re giving money to the state or the county to fund transportation. That’s taking money away from the taxpayers. When you come back with mill levy increases for the voters, well,
yes I guess so when you’re giving a couple million dollars away to other taxing entities. I guess you’d have to because you’re not properly using the money you’re using right now. That’s
just simply --. I don’t understand that. That’s wrong.
Bird: Mr. Mayor.
Corrie: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the overpass, we felt and I feel very strongly that that is a public safety. Getting back and forth, now that we will in 2003 have a high school sitting out there, that is a
big concern to getting safety, public safety vehicles across to the south part of Meridian. As it stands now, you either go to Eagle or you go to Meridian Road. The traffic is very congested
and public safety was one of the utmost things in our minds when we decided to do this with this overpass and get it moved up.
(inaudible discussion amongst Council)
Anderson: Two additional comments. The $100,000 figure was a number that was given to us by our police department. Those aren’t numbers that I made up or our budget director made up.
They were numbers given to us by our police department. Additionally I agree with Keith. The response times for the fire and police to that side of town will be considerably reduced
by having an overpass with the new fire station on Franklin Road that’s going to cut response times to the other side of the freeway there considerably. So, we feel it is a public safety
issue also and a great benefit.
(inaudible discussion from audience)
Corrie: We’re not going to. Let me also add for the other people in the public, there’s a – When we started this overpass, we thought we could get it a little quicker by helping buy
some of the right-of-way for the road and then like they said the public safety, the fire department, the police department. With that new high school going to be built and ready to
go on line in the year 2003, we just felt that it was a safety issue. Then EPA got with the government federal highway monies that has been set back a little bit. Then we went from an
almost a $5 million project. Now it’s a $9 million project. As you wait and wait, the price goes up and up. One of the things that we did, able to get the Ada County Highway has going
to be with us Tuesday is the fact that they have increased the timing on the Overland Road and the Franklin Road. So, where we were going to have that in about 2006, we may have it all
done by the year 2004, 2005. It has helped is and it has a safety factor there. It’s something that we definitely need. With that new high school going in there –
***End of Side One***
Corrie: -- is a safety factor as well. Anything else, anybody else wants to say?
Bird: Mr. Mayor, I would like to add one thing. The biggest point I want to bring is its 1 point, up to 1.8 million.
Anderson: Right.
Bird: If it don’t --. We are strictly –
(inaudible discussion amongst Council)
Bird: Up to 1.8 million. That’s just strictly for right-of-way. If it don’t cost that, we don’t pay it. Our money is not going to anything but right-of-way. We’ve already I believe had
some of the right-of-way donated to us. That goes against our debt.
McCandless: Mr. Mayor.
Corrie: Yes, Mrs. McCandless.
McCandless: The money for a police officer is not merely the police officer’s salary. That includes equipment, uniform, and a lot of training and benefits. So, it does cost $100,000
for a police officer.
Donahue: I disagree. I’m not here to argue. I just wanted to state my opinion.
Bird; You got it.
Corrie: That’s what we’re here for. You’re perfectly right to get your opinion in. We’re not belittling it, I’m not at all. I don’t want to stand here all night and be going back and
forth and it gets into a big contest. We wont do that.
(inaudible discussion from audience)
Corrie: Okay.
(inaudible discussion amongst Council)
Corrie: Anybody has have anything you’d like to say? Okay. With that being the case, I will entertain a motion then to close the public hearing on the budget 2001, 2002 fiscal year.
Bird: Mr. Mayor.
Corrie: Mr. bird.
Bird: I would move that we close the public hearing on the proposed budget for 2001, 2002 fiscal year.
Anderson: Second.
Corrie: Motion made and seconded to close the public hearing. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES
Item 3. Ordinance No. : Annual Appropriation of 2001 / 2002 FY Budget:
Corrie: Therefore with closing the public hearing, we do have an ordinance for the annual appropriation of the 2001, 2002 fiscal year budget. Ordinance No. 01-924. At this time I would
ask the City Clerk to read the ordinance by title only at this point.
Berg: Thank you Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. Ordinance No. 01-924. An ordinance providing for a title providing for findings, providing for the adoption of a budget and the appropriations
of the expenditure of some of monies to defray the necessary expenses and liabilities of the City of Meridian in accordance with the object of purpose and in the certain money herein
specified for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2001 and ending on September 30, 2002 and providing for an effective date and the filing of a certified copy of this ordinance with
the secretary of state.
Corrie: Okay, Council. You’ve heard the reading of the Ordinance No. 01-924 in title only. Is there any questions, discussions?
Bird: I have none.
Corrie: Hearing none, then I will entertain a motion on Ordinance No. 01-924.
Bird: Mr. Mayor.
Corrie: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would move that we approve Ordinance No. 01-924, for the 2001, 2002 fiscal year annual appropriation with a suspension of rules.
Anderson: Second.
Corrie: Okay. Motion is made and second to approve Ordinance No. 01-924, the 2001, 2002 fiscal year annual appropriation ordinance. Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call vote
Mr. Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, aye; De Weerd, aye; McCandless, aye; Anderson, aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES
Corrie: Thank you. At this point, we have fulfilled the agenda on the Council meeting for Wednesday August 29, 2001 and I will entertain a motion to close –
Bird: Mr. Mayor. Before we do this, I’m going to pull a Tammy. I want to personally, this is Ron and I’s fourth budget year. I want to thank your department, the financial department.
Through your leadership of putting on this budget. It has by far been the best budget that I’ve had the privilege of sitting through. I just want to make sure that you guys know that
we appreciate it very much. I believe I’m speaking for all 4 Council People that we appreciate the leadership you’ve shown and the people and the job they’ve done.
Corrie: Since he’s mentioned the 4 Council People, I would like to say thank you. It was a great job this year. I’ve gone through it 10 years now, 10 times. He’s absolutely right, it’s
the best one that I’ve ever been through for the City of Meridian. I also want to thank the staff for all their preparation for this meeting tonight and wish you lots of success for
the year 2001 and 2002. I know you’ll do a great job. Again, thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thanks to the public for coming tonight, the press. Anyone else, anything to say?
Bird: Mr. Mayor.
Corrie: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we close the special Council meeting on Wednesday August 29, 2001.
Anderson: Second.
Corrie: Motion been made to close the hearing at 7:27. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:27 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
APPROVED:
/ /
ROBERT D. CORRIE, MAYOR DATE APPROVED
ATTESTED:
WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., CITY CLERK