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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009 08-18Meridian City Council Special Meeting Workshop August 18, 2009 A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 18, 2009, by Council President Charlie Rountree. Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, Keith Bird, Brad Hoaglun and David Zaremba. Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Caleb Hood, Steve Siddoway, John Overton, Richard Dees, Kyle Radek, 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: Good evening and welcome to all of you to the Tuesday, August 18th, 2009, Special Workshop Meeting, Meridian City Council. The first item this evening is roll call attendance. Madam Clerk. Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda: Rountree: Next item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. Zaremba: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Let's see. No changes on the Consent Agenda this time. Under department reports, Item A has been requested to remove from the agenda. Item B is going to probably take longer than 15 minutes, so it will cover into where we removed Item A. And on Item 6-A, the ordinance number is 09-1426. And with those changes I move we adopt the agenda. Hoaglun: Second. Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. All in favor? Opposed same sign? Motion passes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 3: CONSENT AGENDA: A. Approve Minutes of August 11, 2009 City Council Regular Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 2 of 38 Meeting: B. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law for Approval: VAR 09-002 Request for a Variance to UDC 11-2C-3A.1, which requires a 25 foot landscape buffer to nonindustrial uses; applicant requests to reduce the buffer width from 25 feet to 5 feet adjacent to eastern property boundary for Porky Park by VJ Joint Venture -south side of East Pine Avenue and east side of North Principle Lane (Lot 6 & 7, Block 2 of Porky Park No. 2): C. Water Easement Agreement for Kennedy Commercial by DBSI Meridian 184, LLC: D. Change Order No. 13 with Idaho Sand and Gravel and Primeland Development Co. for Adjustments to Final Construction Cost Associated with Ten Mile / McMillan Road Intersection for $11,010.00: E. Task Order No. 0805a with CH2M HILL for Engineering Services Related to the Sidestream Nitrogen Removal Pilot Test for $51,093.00: F. Permanent Easement Contract for Timothy & Karen Tomasko for Construction of a Pressure Relief Valve (PRV) for $3,537.27: G. License Agreement with Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District to Cross the Ten Mile Drain for Ten Mile Road: H. Water Easement Agreement for Hobby Lobby by W.H. Moore Company: Rountree: Next item is the Consent Agenda. Zaremba: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda as published and for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Hoaglun: Second. Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the Consent Agenda. Roll call vote, please, Madam Clerk. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 3 of 38 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 4: COMMUNITY ITEMS/PRESENTATIONS: A. Julius M. Kleiner Park Master Plan Presentation by Steve Siddoway and Eugene Kleiner: Rountree: Now, this evening we have an exciting bit of news on our Community Items and the first item is the Julius Kleiner Park Master Plan presentation and I'm going to give this to the Mayor for some opening comments. Madam Mayor. De Weerd: I would certainly like to welcome our special guests this evening, Mr. Kleiner and certainly the team he has assembled that we have been working with the last half dozen years to -- to really bring today -- make it possible. And we are very honored, Mr. Kleiner, to have you here with us and greatly appreciate the vision that you have had for I think a number of years, that you have been tenacious to big ing it forward and we are thrilled that the vision is in our city and as I told you earlier, would like to assure you that we understand that vision and we have dedicated ourselves to making sure it happened and to keep that legacy alive and something you will be proud of and future generations as well. So, with that said I will tum this over to Steve and -- who has put a lot of dedication -- first as a consultant for the city and now in his role as director of the Parks and Recreation Department, and ask him to introduce the project and the folks that are here tonight. Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Mr. President, Members of Council. I'd like to first introduce the members of the Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park Trust and as the comments were just directed to Mr. Eugene Kleiner, welcome, Mr. Kleiner. Would you raise your hand, so everybody knows who you are. Mike Huter sitting over here on this side, he is a CPA in Nampa and oversees the project finances and is one of the trust members. Mr. Elden Gray seated next to Eugene Kleiner is -- he has worked the family farm, as it was, back in the '50s for the Kleiners and has been a family friend of the Kleiners for many years and also sits on the trust. Orville Teak has been brought on by the trust as a project manager for them and oversees a lot of their daily goings on. I'd also like to acknowledge the design team. Susan Graham from Parametrics is the project manager for this project and will be presenting to you shortly. There is a contingent of Parametrics folks that have been working behind the scenes on this project, but also key to this project are Don Beltz with Janson Beltz, he's the project landscape architect. And Walt Lindgren here with Johnson Architects. He's the architect on the project. It has been my privilege this year to work with -- with this team to prepare the master plan for Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park that will be presented to you tonight. It's been quite a process getting to this point already. We have had at least four meetings with the parks and recreation commission and it's been a process and several iterations of master plan that have been developed over that period. We've had meetings with representatives from the city departments. We've had meetings with several potential partners with interest in being in the park. I know we have a large Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 4 of 38 contingent here from the senior center and you have also been provided a letter from the library that are two of the partners for the park. We have had a neighborhood meeting with the public that -- where the public was invited and solicited comments from them and, then, we have had numerous staff level meetings with the trust and the design team. Copies of the process have been provided to the Council as -- over the last several months as part of the parks and recreation commission packet, so, hopefully, you have seen those along the way. Councilman Zaremba has been an integral part of -- of those meetings and thank you, Councilman Zaremba, for your input that has got us to the point we are at tonight. Council members should have received copies of the Kleiner Park master plan and you should also have received a comment and response form that documents the comments we received from the public, as well as from the commission and the response from the design team on them. It is important to note that while we are seeking approval from -- of the master plan tonight from Council, that this is not the end of the design process, this is really solidifying the beginning. It sets the vision. It defines the course that we intend to follow, but there are many details yet to be developed as we move forward from this point and go into design development and construction documents. With that as an introduction, I would like to tum the time over to Susan Graham with Parametrics, who will present the master plan to the City Council on behalf of the Kleiner Park Trust. And we are going to take just a minute and move some boards up to the front. De Weerd: You know, while they are doing that, Mr. Kleiner, I had the privilege of pertorming the ceremony of marrying my daughter off this weekend and, you know, it's -- it's those kind of projects that you put a lot of -- it's a small comparison to what we will be seeing today, but, you know, it's a project that when you tum it over you have a lot of trust, as I turned over my daughter to her now new husband, I have a lot of trust that he is going to uphold his -- what his oath was and so I know this is your baby that it's -- it's a big gift, it's in honor of someone that you love and I just want you to know that we are very grateful to have you here and we want you to know that we will -- it's in good hands. And I did remind my -- my new son-in-law of that very same thing, because I got to pertorm the ceremony and so I was watching him. Sony. Graham: Thank you, Mayor and Council, for having us here. We are very exited -- in fact, we were saying in the lobby it feels like a party, because there has been over 15 years have come into tonight. Not all of us have been involved that long, obviously, but we are really excited to bring you the master plan that we have worked really hard on and that we also hope and we believe really does reflect Mr. Kleiner's vision for the park. This is higher tech than me, so -- so, we are just going to talk about the master plan and, basically, going to walk you through a tour of the master plan. We will use this map that's over here, it's all alphabetized and will kind of -- all the slides will hit on various letters. We'd love to get your comments and feedback .and, then, we will talk about what the next steps are. So, the primary objective that Mr. Kleiner tasked us with to see this through were to create a beautiful, peaceful setting dominated by rolling hills, large water features, and that it is accessible by car, by bicycle, and on foot. That it provides predominately passive recreation, but to gather and picnic as a family in a very family oriented environment. That it serves as a memorial to Julius M. Kleiner, who Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 5 of 38 bought the land out of a love for American farming and who exhibited a life long devotion to philanthropic endeavors. And, finally, to develop a civic center to include our good friends at the senior center and thank you for coming, Stephanie and Cindy and everyone else, and to the library for the enjoyment and educational benefit of all generations. And this beautiful rendering is the fine artistic work of our partner Don Beltz, who has been working with us and with the parks commission to make our dreams and our ideas become trees and lakes and other beautiful features that we are going to walk through tonight. This is, again, the key map that we will use to kind of orient ourselves and take a little walking tour, if you will, of the park. When you first come into the park, which you will access primarily off of Records Avenue, you will come through a roundabout into a grand entrance feature that will look something like this. As Steve indicated, the master plan is the beginning for us and a conveyance of a concept and an idea, which we will work to refine over the next three to six months into actual design documents. So, the parks commission and the Council will see future iterations of what this could become. But this is primarily a stone feature with decorative iron across the top. You will come in under the arch, letting you know that you have just left behind Meridian and all your worries and you're about to enter a park where you can just experience all sorts of relaxations and green and water. When you come in you will have your first opportunity to enter the civic complex, which includes a senior center, which is somewhere in the 15,000 square foot range, a library, a civic plaza, which is in between the two, and all of which sits gently upon the south pond, which will primarily be there as a water feature and to offer views. It will not be stocked with fish. It's about an acre and a half, as currently projected, and that could change up or down as we start playing with how all the features fit together. From the civic complex you will access the arboretum. You may have heard originally we had a lot of discussions with the botanical garden, that was a partner that didn't quite pan out for this location, but this location within the park itself is perfect to establish Meridian's arboretum and possibly a formal rose garden. We talked about some exiting things there. Even today, including potentially a walking labyrinth, which would be flush with the grass, but offer some other -- some other pattern to walking paths and so, again, these are the places where the ideas are starting, which will grow from there. This will be a beautiful place to hold your next wedding and many more weddings and there is a nice large picnic shelter -- can you see if I point this? Oops. There we go. Holman: Ma'am, if you hit one of those colored buttons on the top of that smart board -- Graham: Uh-huh. Holman: -- then you can draw in that color. Graham: Oh, I don't want to ruin Don's work, so -- Holman: Oh, it won't -- it won't save it. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 6 of 38 Graham: Well, I know it won't save it, but I don't want to -- okay. So, if I could just like circle -- so, this -- thank you. This is the picnic shelter. It's one of the custom picnic shelters and Walt of Johnson Architects has helped us to design and you -- and it will also have a restroom in that location. So, you could rent this whole area for a wedding. A wedding could be conducted there and others could be enjoying the rest of the arboretum. So, it offers a lot of flexibility for private functions within the larger public context. Over here is one of the other key members of our design team has been Elroy and this is the home of the maintenance facility, which we calling it the back of house, but it's really important back of house to maintain this site and Elroy has had a lot of feedback into the park and we really appreciate incorporating operations and maintenance into the design, because it -- we will end up with a much better product for -- for you and for us in the future. We have a future building site. If you were to go left at the first roundabout towards the recreation complex, which has right above the B there, the recreation complex,, has the letter I, that is an outline of a future potential building and the site of a lot of consideration for some early partners, including a tennis center and aquatic center, and an aquarium and what we found in balancing all of the different elements and goals and objectives of the park is that really we don't have room to accommodate some of those larger needs. The tennis and aquatic center both needed several acres for their facility. We have 30,000 square feet. An acre is just over 43,000 square feet, so you can see it would be three and four times the size of what we could -- have set aside if you were to accommodate tennis or an aquatic center on this site. So, we determined that an appropriate facility on this site would take up no more than 30,000 square feet on one floor, so as a footprint would be no higher than two stories and would not require more than a hundred parking stalls. That's important, because we have provided for sufficient parking for the library, the senior center, and this future site within the parking plan that you see and it was a fine balance of providing sufficient parking so that we don't have future parking issues and providing way too much asphalt in our parks. So, that's an important criteria. Basically, based on the siting criteria, we determined that the only one of those original partners it's still feasible from a site context standpoint is the aquarium and Steve is still doing some work with them on whether or not the long term operation and maintenance plan for the aquarium is economically viable for the city and I believe is still working with both tennis and aquatics for potential siting in other locations in Meridian. Moving from there to the recreation complex. This is, really, the primary activity hub in this park. It will include several elements, alarge -- this is a large picnic structure, restrooms and concession. A splash pad. We don't have a swimming place per se for kids, but we want to have water and movement and this is the splash pad. And, then, a very large play area with play structures. That is, really, the place, if you're bringing older than toddler age kids, you could really be sitting and your kid could be doing a variety of activities. And while you're there you might want to play horseshoes, which is over here. Or basketball. And this is -- did I do something? This is a sand volleyball court, which we think is a really fun, active component to add. And while and until there is a building at the site labeled by I on the larger drawing, there is a large flat lawn area where you could throw a frisbee, throw a ball, place football, and it's not programmed for that, but it is the only large expansive flat lawn area in the park, so it -- we believe it will be well used for those kids of pick up games, because it is flat. This is an example of the family picnic shelter Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 7 of 38 and the main thing we are trying to convey here, again, is a mix of material. There is stone and there is -- there is metal and there is wood and you will see a feature that's repeated from the entry feature that has stone with some iron scrolling around it that we believe would be beautifully lit just for ambient lighting in the evening hours and just another decorative feature. This facility could seat up to 50 or more and we have several large facilities planned, as well as some smaller structures that would be for smaller, more intimate groups. This is another view of that same structure. This is a large restroom and concession stand that would be near the active recreation area and, basically, the difference between our large and our small restrooms is just the number of toilet facilities and we have planned for enough to accommodate the larger ones both in the arboretum area and the active recreation area and smaller ones interspersed throughout, so that you're never too far from -- from either a picnic area or a restroom. The grand plaza or memorial are really the signature features of the park that are unique to the Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park and to Meridian and, really, the place where we will honor Mr. Kleiner with some type of statue. We are going to be working on what exactly -- what form that takes, but it will be at the center of this circular plaza and it will potentially have a historic walk that you could trace around the roots of Mr. Kleiner from leaving Russia to his various business ventures that brought him to the Treasure Valley and will likely also direct you back down the promenade to the library where there will be a small room or display area that will be the historic -- sort of an historic museum where we plan to house memorabilia from the dairy farming era. And, then, this memorial sits up on the north pond, which is about three acres, and will be stocked by Idaho Fish and Game with fish and will be open for fishing, but not swimming, and we are still trying to determine whether or not paddle boats and fishing are compatible uses at the same time. The promenade. This is just a side view of it. This will be a beautiful spot for a wedding also. We were calling it the money shot for your wedding photograph, because it's going to be out over water with trees, the foothills in the background, and you can see down below it will be designed to have good fish habitat for the future. There is a very elaborate path system, which will be fully ADA accessible, usable for pedestrians, joggers, bicycles. While working on whether or not all those uses are compatible on the same path system or if we, in fact, have a hierarchy of pathways where if you wanted to be more of a quiet leisurely walk, you have space for that and you're not run over by the person who wants to use it as a bicycling course. So, we will be working on that. And this shows the relationship of the pond to the rolling terrain and the trees. One of our initial letters from Eugene Kleiner said trees, trees, trees, three times, with about nine exclamation points. And we have accommodated that. Don's drawing has over -- I believe over nine -- eight or nine hundred trees in these pictures -- and someone really counted those. And so we -- we definitely heard water, rolling hills, and trees, trees, trees, when we were designing this. Again, the north pond is about three acres. It will have public access fishing and it will be stocked by the Fish and Game and this is a really neat structure that Walt has offered up as a boat house, which could be used for concessions if there is a future paddle boat site. It would also be a neat place to hang out on the steps, look at the lake, have a snack or drink of water, if it ends up not being a concession. And one of the things we talked about -- you can see this as open slat on the one side, with how beautiful it would be lit from the inside at night with just light coming out of those slats. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 8 of 38 So, it may also be one of a night time esthetic features that even -- even though it might not be open, you will -- you will have these elements in a desk that would still be functional. The amphitheater and band shell, the amphitheater is seen -- it's really this area right up here and it will be just a really gently sloping informal amphitheater in terms of being grass. It is facing out west, which we had questions about. Won't that mean the sun -- setting sun would be in the eyes of performers and from folks we talked to, yes, that mean the sun will be in the eyes of the performers when the sun is setting. That's common, because they are being paid and the audience is paying, potentially, to be there and so you want to be able to see what you're looking at. The other thing on this site, if you look at the larger map it shows the context of the park to our neighbors. That gets the sound going back out towards the life style center and away from the residential areas, which was really important as well. The band shell, a concept for the band shell is shown below. Again, you will see repeating elements from the previous drawings, and one of Councilman Zaremba's suggestions is the additional signage on the actual band shell where two to three thousand people may be sitting to watch a performance and be reminded of who brought us to this place. Family picnic. There will be several family picnic areas sprinkled throughout the park. They have smaller picnic shelters and smaller restrooms, but they also have tot lots, horseshoe pits, sand volleyball, and lawn badminton opportunities again, so that if you're there with little kids, you can still have some adult activity, but it's within easy eye of the bathroom, your kids are using it, of the tot lots, of all of those things, so that there is really a way to accommodate many generations that may be coming to hang out together. The roadway, which we are calling Kleiner Memorial Parkway, is a one way loop road and this illustrates how we plan to use that road. It's about 29 feet wide and we are planning to have parking on the park side of the street, which you can see right here, so that you're not crossing across the travel lane to get to where you would want to be in the park. A travel lane and, then, a stripped bike lane. So, the outer loop road, which is about a mile and a half or so, provides a separated striped bike lane, as well as additional parking, which allows us to avoid having to provide bigger -- lots of parking back in the quieter areas of the park. We are really trying to concentrate the active areas and the vehicle oriented areas of the park at the front comer, so that the park -- the parts of the park that are bordering our neighbors and are other residential developments, are separated the louder -- as loud as a park can be -- louder activities of the park. And this meets the fire department's criteria of having enough lane width with the parked cars to still get a fire truck through, which was important. Again, Records Road will ultimately be improved all the way from Fairview and eventually all the way to Ustick. There are various development agreements that make that road happen and those are continuing to be worked out as the lifestyle center moves forward. Park Lane will be a private road providing access from Venture over to Records and, then, again, Kleiner Memorial Parkway, which is the one way loop road within the park itself. A little more about parking. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but really wanted to illustrate that we spent a lot of time talking about parking, because parking can be one of the elements of a park that you end up hearing about later and we didn't want that to be the case. So, we looked at a couple different methodologies for parking recommendations. First is ITE, which is the Institute of Transportation Engineers and how many stalls they recommend per thousand square Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 9 of 38 feet based on different land uses and we compared that to what Meridian would require and we looked at what park open space would require, both under ITE and, then, what Meridian park staff has recommended to us is a good number in terms of density of stalls per thousand acres and that is close to what Heroes has and a lot more than what Settlers has in terms of stalls per acre. That's 14 stalls per acre. So, the bottom line is we know we need at least 705, which seems awfully precise for where we are at right now and probably should have rounded that, because it implies that, but we know we need somewhere between 705 and 821 stalls on the park and currently as drawn we have about 720, which tells us as a design team that we are in the ballpark for where we need to end up and we are not overshooting and we are not missing the mark. And, then, finally, we have recommended in the master plan that any event that wants to come to the park for a special event, like a Renaissance Fair or an Art in the Park, or concert, would need to provide an event plan and a parking strategy. There is so much parking around this park. In the Walmart parking area. In what's coming for Center Cal. And we feel like they need to do a good job of reaching out to their neighbors and do a parking plan for those once -- the peak periods that we wouldn't want to provide asphalt for year around. Again, the roads. This just shows the relationship of the internal parking lot here to Records Road and what you will notice is that somewhere along here the public right of way for Records Road ends and the park starts and we will have a separated sidewalk system -- in addition to being inside the park, there will be that separated sidewalk system all along Records, as well as Park Lane. So, there is a really nice balance of pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular mobility that we are providing for. This is the opinion of cost, where we are at right now. It's about a 25 million dollar total contribution and that is made up of the park construction itself, which is about 13 million, the value of the land, and, then, two construction projects, both the senior center and the library, which are all part of the total donation that Mr. Kleiner has mad his way from Seattle today to present you with. We anticipate that we will design the park exactly as we are showing today, at a higher level of detail, but with all of these elements. If when we start adding construction costs to all of those elements, we see that we can't fit that within our budget, we will start having to make decisions about where is the money best spent and potentially saving some of the improvements. And right now that 25 million does not include any additional recreational facilities, kind of whatever that place holder building is, that 30,000 square foot, it doesn't include anything for that and no other contribution towards other facilities. So, our next steps are tonight and we are asking that you adopt the master plan. We have a press conference tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. and, then, we, actually, already started design development and it really is sort of an evolving process, so I think it started even as long ago as when we started. But now we take it to about a 30 percent design and we get a better idea of -- is what we are showing you still the things that we need to do and can we afford to do all those things and if there is trade offs where do we start making those. We really hope to be excavating the ponds as early as this winter, if we can get in before winter sets in, otherwise, we are tied to the irrigation cycle and we have to -- we really have a window of time to excavate those large areas and we are hoping to get on that November, December, otherwise, March -- we definitely know we have to be done by April, so that is the plan, with the rest of the park coming during the following season and opening in the -- expected to be in the spring of 2011 and that does assume that Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 10 of 38 Center Cal has come on board in that time and has built the water and sewer lines down the road, which will supply the park, as well as their portion of Records Road. So, that's the end of our tour and I'm sure we are all ready to answer questions. Rountree: Questions? Comments? Zaremba: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: It's not a question, but I would just like to comment from having observed some of this process, to being with it was a wonderful vision and to start out we new it was going to be a great gift, but as I have watched the design process develop and our parks and recreation commission be involved in it, we have a couple of the commissioners here tonight as well and the input from staff. The design team has been wonderfully responsive. The first drawings I saw were pretty exciting and they have gotten more and more exciting as we have gone along and this ultimate presentation is as exciting as I think it can be. The design team has done a wonderful job. I hope Mr. Kleiner feels this is meeting his vision, because it certainly is a wonderful thing for Meridian and the process has been very responsive and very good and I wouldn't be more pleased with what everybody has done, so -- Rountree: Comments? Questions? Hoaglun: Just a couple of comments if I might, Mr. President. First of all, to Mr. Kleiner, I mean this is an outstanding gift to his community and thank you very much. This is really a -- the citizens of Meridian don't realize how fortunate they are that when this is completed how wonderful this is going to be and we really appreciate that. I guess another comment for staff. As we are working with the other retail portions of this Center Cal and other areas, that event center, as we have experienced with our other parks for events and there is the spill over. The potential exists for that. So, as we develop those areas, we need to be cognizant, because there may be some event, if my calculations are right, if we have an amphitheater event at 2,500 people and you have two and a half people per car, which is rather high, that's still a thousand cars that we are going to have to put some place and if it's a Saturday event and they are retail, they don't want people who are not in their stores parking in their stalls. So, it's the conflicts we normally face, so it's just stuff that we are going to have to be looking at as we develop around that. I'm glad to see that you have got event planning in your project that you're aware of that and, you know, if we run shuttles, where are they coming from and type of thing. So, those are just the logistic things we can work through and make happen, but for our seniors, our library -- for all the citizens that are going to enjoy this. This is -- this is fantastic and thanks again, Mr. Kleiner, to all the folks you have assembled to work on this, this is something they -- they can be proud of and tell their grand children that -- something they worked on and they had a hand in making that happen. Thank you. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 11 of 38 Graham: If I could comment really brief on that. One of the things that's been really special for our team, I was in Meridian, and Doug lives in Meridian. Several of our design team live or have offices in Meridian, this is very close to our heart, too. One of my kids is here. It's -- I think you're seeing a lot of love that started with the Kleiner family, going through the design team, and it turning into a park and we are very, very proud to be part of making that happen. Rountree: Comments? Bird: Mr. President? I, too, echo what has been said and I'd like to -- Mr. Kleiner, this is a truly tremendous gift that -- this whole community thanks you and I'm sure we will all get to enjoy it. Thank you very very much what you have done. We appreciate it. Rountree: What a marvelous gift and tribute to your family. This will be cherished by all the citizens of Meridian, but it will be a high point, I believe, for the Treasure Valley, as well as the state. Your generosity is just beyond explanation and/or thank you, but thank you from the bottoms of all of our hearts, as well as all of the citizens of our community and, as I say, the Treasure Valley. Look forward to -through the whole presentation the -- I believe the first two words are the words that appeal to me the most, beautiful and peaceful. How better to sum up what we all need in our daily lives, given not only the times we are in, but the stresses we put ourselves under and this will be a marvelous place to reflect and relax. Thank you so much. De Weerd: Mr. President? You know, I guess it's all been said, but I do -- I do want to note that this park is memorializing someone. that had a very big heart and it was not just in Meridian, it was in Nampa and I think his generosity has had a ripple effect throughout the Treasure Valley. The location of this park will serve the entire Treasure Valley. Certainly we are honored to house it within our city limits, but it will be a park that all will enjoy. It's bordered by Boise and Eagle is not too far away. The center point of the Treasure Valley is right there in your park and it will certainly reflect and portray a solid heart of the Treasure Valley. So, again, we appreciate your generosity and certainly it's going to be a heck of a memorial to your father and everything that he stood for and I can see that the apple didn't fall from -- too far from the tree and your generosity in wanting to memorialize your father. So, again, our heart felt thanks to you, the team you have assembled. Mike, I still have that first list that I put together on your request and so it's come a long way. It's been a thoughtful process and we are just thrilled to be a part of it. Rountree: Now we need some action. And the action is approval of the master plan. Zaremba: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I move that we approve with great gratitude the Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park master plan. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 12 of 38 Bird: Second. Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the master plan. All those in favor? MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Rountree: Thank you. Graham: Thanks very much. De Weerd: Mr. Chairman? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: I guess we could make special note -- if you would like to leave, you don't have to stay until the end of the meeting. B. Overland Road Landscape Improvements by Steve Siddoway and Phil Hull with The Land Group: Rountree: That was my next comment, Mayor, but thank you. I'm not sure we can top that the rest of this evening, so -- next item on the agenda is the Overland Road landscape improvements. Steve. Siddoway: Thank you, Mr. President. We are going to get the dot cam for the podium up and running here for this presentation. I gave you a brief heads up about this topic last week and Mr. Phil Hull is here to discuss the project with the Council. This is regarding the Overland Road landscape project that comes in association with the -- with the Overland Road project that I believe is currently under construction. The -- as part of that project they have designed in several landscape areas, including medians, street tree landscaping, storm detention ponds and a roundabout on one of the adjacent local streets. We are here primarily to seek Council's guidance on what aspect of landscape maintenance the city should be involved in. And with that I will tum some time over to Mr. Phil Hull with The Land Group. Hull: I'll try and get this figured out. Again, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, I'm Phil Hull with The Land Group. Basically, with the Overland Road realignment project there is landscape and irrigation plans for the project, which consists of an eight foot planter strip down both sides of the roadway and a median in the middle of the road, as well as two ACHD storm retention ponds. And as part of the project, the adjacent parcels, whether it's residential, commercial as they come into play, that landscape would typically be built with each project as it marches up Overand Road. But with the Overland Road realignment project going ahead of the rest of the development, this landscaping wouldn't typically be done. So, we are trying to figure out Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 13 of 38 a way, if the city desires, to get that landscaping in up front. There is money in the budget for the actual construction of the landscape, but there is no mechanism for the maintenance and the actual water. There is water lines in the Overland Road construction project that could be tied onto and water those -- the eight foot strips in the medians somewhat temporarily until the adjacent projects come on line. That would -- I guess the benefit of doing that, it would get the -- all the trees in for that entire stretch of Overland Road from Linder to Ten -Mile all constructed at the same time, so they would have a head start on growth, they would all look similar in nature as time went on, as opposed to doing pieces of it at a time as the development progressed. So, I guess that's the main question is is there a thought or a possibility that the city would take on maintenance of those eight foot strips, ACHD storm drainage ponds, and the center median islands in Overland. Siddoway: Mr. President? Rountree: Steve. Siddoway: I don't mean to interrupt this, but I just wanted to let Phil know that we do have your Powerpoint up now if you want to use that. Hull: Okay. And that shows the overall -- does the stylus have a pointer on it that shows up? Siddoway: It should. Hull: Okay. So here is the Linder intersection here. We are showing landscape in the eight foot strip all along here. Here is a storm drainage pond here and, then, the eight foot strip continues as the center island is right here and the reason that the center island looks fairly small and only in this location is because the right of way on the north side of Overland for this entire stretch here has not been acquired yet. There has been right of way provided in order to accommodate that -- the islands at a future date once that northerly right of way is acquired so that those islands can continue further down the road. And, then, there is travel up here, there is that eight foot strip on both sides of the road and, then, another storm drainage pond at this location. I'm not sure if -- if this is on the top of your mind or not, but the phase one area that's being constructed out there right now is down here in this area. There is a residential area that is under construction. Individual slides show different pieces to give you an idea of where the trees are and you can see the island here is this location and that will continue in the future as that right of way is gathered. Hoaglun: Mr. President, can I ask him aquestion -- Rountree: Brad. Hoaglun: If you go back one slide, was that where Tasa -- where does Tasa connect into the -- Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 14 of 38 Hull: That's correct. Hoaglun: Okay. Hull: That is the curb cut for Tasa. Hoaglun: Thank you. Hull: Go back a few more, it might show up a little better on the overall. That's right here in this location. And that takes off this way and goes over there. Siddoway: Mr. President? Rountree: Steve. Siddoway: Also for clarification, Phil, the -- am I controlling -- yeah. Is the mouse up there? The -- the lone median that's part of the current project, which I think you pointed out, but I -- I think this is important to reiterate, is in this location in the bend. The concept is to have continuous medians down toward Linder, but all of the -- those additional medians would be future as the area for those medians would have to be lanes today, because the additional right of way, as you said, has not been acquired on the north side. So, for the project that you're talking about today, it's a single median in that -- in that curve. And the additional medians -- I don't know if you can speak to this -- would come piecemeal or as a single project in the future or do you know? Hull: At the time that the northern property owners came in for a development application, ACHD would deal with them to acquire this right of way and those medians could be installed in the -- in the middle of the roadway. Siddoway: And is that concept for those medians to be installed by the city, the developer, undetermined at this point? Do you know what the vision has been as this has come together? Hull: That's a good question. I know they are in the master plan Overland Road improvement drawings, so the funding mechanism I would have to check on that. It may be set aside funding already for the -- for the whole alignment project. Siddoway: In my intro I also mentioned four types of landscape areas. I believe you covered -- we have covered three of them. The storm detention ponds, the street tree landscaping, and, then, the median. The fourth one was the -- the roundabout, which would be in a local street. Is that -- do we need to discuss that or is there a concept that -- Hull: Oh, excuse me. Yeah. I guess part of the same project and being constructed by ITD at this -- you know, at the same time. But in Tasa right up here as it makes this Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 15 of 38 bend, there is a roundabout here before it heads westward and in that center island that could be constructed prior to all of the commercial development going on around that, if -- if there would be a mechanism for taking care of the maintenance on it. De Weerd: Okay. Mr. President? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: I guess I'm struggling as to why we are hearing this right now. We had original discussions when we first talked about Overland and that the city would -- because this is an entry comdor, we talk about center medians. I don't know why we are talking about parkway strips that usually come with a plat and it's generally a development's responsibility -- why are we talking about a roundabout that's not even on the arterial -- that would definitely be that as a subdivision plat -- I am struggling with why -- why are we discussing this? Is this because of TLIP that we are having this discussion? Siddoway: No, it's not because of TLIP, it's because when I met with Mr. Jim Jewett and Phil Hull a couple of weeks ago now, the -- it was presented to me that it was their understanding or at least Jim's understanding that the landscaping, including the street trees and storm detention ponds would be part of this project and maintained by the city and I had the same reaction that you just expressed, that typically we will maintain the medians, but we are not currently maintaining any street trees or roundabout landscaping and the only storm detention ponds we are maintaining are those that are part of an ACHD project unaffiliated with a subdivision. So, that's why we are here tonight, because you said, well, isn't the city to maintain this -- I had a similar reaction and am here seeking direction whether I'm to focus on just the medians and the other landscaping will come with development in the future or whether we want all of this as part of the project and to take on maintenance of it as a city. De Weerd: Just a follow up. Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: Mr. Hull, I guess my question is to you, since I don't think we have seen any kind of a plat with the street trees on there, to even have this conversation, where that impression might have been impressed. Hull: It's not -- it's not so much an agenda that I think we are trying to put forward and have the city take on the maintenance, it's more of a do you want this to be done up front and can we come to some sort of a way to figure out how to have the landscape done so it looks nice for the community up front. If it waits until each individual project goes with that frontage, that's I think perfectly fine as well. It's -- you know, we are not trying to push this out there on the city to take on the maintenance for -- Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 16 of 38 De Weerd: So, your question is mainly if the street trees were to go in -- be installed with the road prior to any platting and home ownership or association -- Hull: Right. De Weerd: -- that would normally maintain it -- Hull: Right. De Weerd: -- if you were to put it in now would the city maintain it until -- until it was platted, approved, and -- okay. Hull: Correct. De Weerd: I understand now. Hull: Yeah. De Weerd: Thank you. Hull: I probably didn't explain that very well upfront, but -- De Weerd: Trying to track it. Hull: Okay. Hoaglun: Mr. President? I guess I kind of have a comment. My seat mate to my left here had something early in the earlier session he said it was very wise and that's about fairness and consistency and, you know, I'm trying to think is this something that we do typically with other projects that -- that we be consistent if we did this and, you know, is it fair to do this outside of -- if we haven't done it with other projects, is that fair to other projects to be doing that. You know, I can understand that you want it to look nice, but at the same time, if this is something typically the developer takes care of as part of their project, then, we probably need to be consistent and fair and not be maintaining this in the interim. Just my thoughts on that. De Weerd: Mr. Rountree? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: I guess just to respond, we have never done this. You know, we have always gotten it piecemeal and so this -- this is new. Would be new. Hoaglun: Thank you. Rountree: Any further questions, comments? Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 17 of 38 Zaremba: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: If I'm understanding what's typical, it would make sense to me that the infrastructure for the landscaping -- and by that I mean where ever it's going to go, plus dry at the moment pipes that would be ready for it, probably should be put in while the road is being put in, it makes sense to engineer it and design it and build it that way, I think, but my sense is that it doesn't need to be greened until the developer is ready to do that. That has been our typical -- and I think probably we wouldn't even do the median, which we -- the city would eventually take care of the median, but I'm not so sure that that even needs to be greened at this point, since there are more medians coming, but I would say that the pieces that we don't take care of, I think I would be comfortable if they were not greened yet. Rountree: Any other comments, questions? Christie, can I get you up here for a minute? I've got a couple questions for you. De Weerd: Mr. Rountree, I guess while she's coming forward -- Kyle, are we bringing purple pipe out here? Or -- I know we are trying to get it to the interchange. Are we going to try and put it out here as well? Radek: Madam Mayor, we don't have any plans to bring it out right now. We -- we went through a kind of a cost benefit analysis and we will bring it to the interchange for sure and we will have the availability of bringing it across if we get the kind of demand that would -- would warrant the cost of bringing it out. So, we will still have that option available in the future. De Weerd: Will it be part of the citywide study? Kyle: Madam Mayor, Council Members, yes, it will. It will be part of the -- the master plan. De Weerd: Thank you. Rountree: Good evening. Little: How are you? Rountree: Temfic. We just had a great park delivered to us, practically. How else can we be? Questions on the median and apparently the Overland Road master plan. I'm trying to make some sense out of having a median starting at the bottom of a grade and going for maybe a little over a half a mile and stopping, because I don't see us putting a median down the rest of Overland Road and if it's an entryway corridor, it seems to me the median ought to be at the entry, which would be Ten Mile. So, what's going on with Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 18 of 38 that? Is that your master plan? Is that something that we gave you as a city? Is that something that was done with the master plan for South Ridge? Little: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, and Council. The highway didn't have it in any plans to have center landscape medians the whole length of the project and we typically try to -- you know, on a regular project of course work with the lead agency -- in this case I believe it was part of the South Ridge plan. City staff did have some involvement, but I don't know -- I don't know who -- who started that conversation, but the highway district did not require it. Rountree: And the drainage basins may be built per ACHD standards and landscaped per your standards, provided somebody were to maintain them; is that correct? Little: That's correct. And it will be up to the HOA to maintain those. This will not be an ACHD owned pond. Rountree: Okay. That answers the questions I had. Little: Anyone else? Thank you. Rountree: Thank you. Hood: Mr. President? If I may, just on the center median topic there, those medians originally came out of the Ten Mile charrette and the Ten Mile plan. After Mr. Jewett, working with the city concurrently on the South Ridge project, after we had talked about those center medians, they went to engineer that road and it turns out that there is -- with the curves and the curb cuts and getting closer to Ten Mile, it turned out that, basically, at every turn for that first third of a mile, roughly, there is a reason not to put a median in, just, again, because of the curves and the bridges that it would take across and things like that, so we ended up with basically no medians there. But that was kind of the evolution of why medians originally showed up in Overland Road was through the Ten Mile specific area plan. Rountree: Any other comments, questions? So, what I'm hearing is that this request for consideration is an usual one? In fact, the one that I don't believe we have ever had the request. I don't think -- know we have never responded to taking on the maintenance and/or -- at least part-time ownership of a landscaping in advance of a project, it's always been done as a phase of the project development and particularly the off -- off Broadway or adjacent right of way with the development has always been the responsibility of the HOA. Unless I'm wrong, I believe that's the position we are taking at this point and I think that's the answer we will need to convey. Do I see heads nodding otherwise? I see heads in agreement, so -- I can understand the desire to have uniformity and consistency, but getting back to Brad and David's earlier comments, is it fair and I think there is a lot of folks out there that have invested in landscaping and they develop projects that the city did not participate in, so I think our position is pretty clear. As the -- as the medians develop, I believe that's another Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 19 of 38 question, because we do have medians and that is part of our plan. If there are to be medians built, ACHD, I believe, indicates that an agency would probably have to maintain those, other than them, and certainly not an HOA. So, that's something that, you know, instead of waiting until the last minute to resolve, I think we need to continue that dialogue now that it's started, and not wait until a portion a median's already built, as has been done already. So, I think we need to continue that dialogue as far as Tasa goes, that particular landscaping with Tasa and the roundabout and any other landscaping there I believe also should be part of the HOA responsibility. Anybody else have any other summation that they want to add that? Siddoway: Mr. President? Oh. Rountree: Steve. Siddoway: If I might summarize and ask one follow-up question. Clearly from my perspective the Tasa roundabout and the street tree landscaping would come with development. The -- and should hold off and not be maintained by the city. The storm detention ponds would only be considered if it were an ACHD owned facility. We have just heard testimony that it's not an ACHD owned facility, it will be an HOA, therefore, our position would be the HOA should maintain them. The -- I think we should consider as a city the medians specifically and in my -- the only question is where there is only a small piece of medians in this specific project, should it be landscaped or should it hold off for additional medians to come as Councilman Zaremba suggested? Rountree: My thought in summation is that it not be landscaped at this point in time, but the infrastructure in terms of farming be in the ground and under the road, so it can be imgated and landscaped in conjunction with at least another phase of development on that roadway. For now it would be a very small island in somewhat of a desert and I think that that wouldn't get to the consistency issue at all. Hoaglun: Mr. President, a question that -- I need clarification. What I heard when you were talking about earlier on that meeting was the fact that do we even have it at that particular curve at all? Are we looking to move it up towards the entryway -- Rountree: Well, it's there. Hoaglun: -- and -- yeah. Rountree: It's been poured and in place. Hoaglun: Okay. So, that -- okay. Thank you. Siddoway: Thank you, Mr. President. Rountree: David, you had a question? Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 20 of 38 Zaremba: No. You answered and -- Rountree: Okay. Zaremba: -- summarized what I was thinking. Rountree: Okay. Steve? Siddoway: Oh, I was just saying thank you. I think I have my direction. We will not move forward with any direction of maintaining landscaping for street trees, storm detention ponds, or roundabouts. We will move forward in the future, considering maintenance of median landscaping, but with the understanding that the median landscaping should not go in with this project with the small piece that's being constructed today. Landscaping will be added in the future as other medians are added and -- or considered with when adjacent development occurs as part of the South Ridge project. Rountree: I think that's clear. Phil, do you have any other comments or concerns? Hull: No. Rountree: If it's confusing, let us know and we will try to straighten it out. Thank you. Siddoway: Thank you. Item 5: Department Reports: A. Cross Connection Control Update by Richard Dees: B. All Things Transportation: Presentation on Recent Involvement with Various Transportation Studies, Construction projects, Funding Opportunities and Priority Transportation Projects by Caleb Hood: Rountree: Next item on the agenda are two items related to -- oh, no. Excuse me. Caleb, you said you needed two items for this one item and more time, so you have three items. I'm not sure you're going to have anymore time. Hood: Mr. President, Ithink -- I'm glad Item A is going to be on another meeting, because I will probably use more than 15 minutes. So, thank you for making that change this evening. The first sub agenda item has to do with just a checking in with you all and update my bi-monthly -- or every other monthly check in with you regarding all things transportation. You should have received a memo in your packets from myself and I'm not -- as it typical, I'm not going to run through every single item, unless you have questions about some of those things, but I do want to highlight a couple of those things in that memo that I prepared for you. The first thing is IMAP. Idaho Mobility and Access Pathways. There has been some confusion over this process. It's Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 21 of 38 a relatively new process that the state has endeavored in with local jurisdictions, again, throughout the state. Its main goal is to coordinate public transportation and mobility services. The state is split up into 17 local mobility networks or LMNs. We are in the 3- C LMN. It's a very large LMN and it includes six counties and they are updating this plan that was just adopted earlier this year, so this -- this whole process has been hurried and is already up for an update, but, anyway, COMPASS staff is taking the lead on updating our local mobility access management plan. There was a meeting on July 27th held here. Yesterday Councilman Zaremba and I went to College of Western Idaho and attended another meeting where the sub meeting group had got together recently over the past month or so and discussed strategies to address some of the needs that had come out of some of those sub workshops. And, then, on September 8th at 9:00 a.m. what they call the super RCC or the super regional coordinating council will be meeting in Boise to kind of prioritize the strategy. Now, what IMAP is not -- at least at this time is not a way to get your -- the projects into the funding system, it is a -- it's a larger level talking about communities can provide alternatives means of transportation, aiming throughout the sub regions and eventually throughout the state, but it will feed into and determine eventually which projects get funded through ITD from those grants through the federal government. So, just a quick update on that. If you want more, I have some more literature in my -- in my office and can a-mail things. They have a website, too, so I can direct you to more information. But that's hot right now. That's happening and staff is involved with that. Also, a couple of ACHD projects that I just want to highlight for you. These are mentioned in the memo again. A lot of the projects that we are currently seeing in Meridian are vehicle registration fee funded. Community programs funded projects. This is the wave of the present. We are going to see more and more of these types of projects than your two mile road widening projects over the next -- well, the foreseeable future. You will still have some intersection and some roadway widening projects, but I think I heard the other day that they have about 33 to 35 community program projects that are in design construction at ACHD right now. So, they are using those vehicle registration fees and some of the safe up to schools and putting some of that infrastructure in. Those are primarily pathway projects, pedestrian signalized projects, gaps in sidewalks, curb, gutter, sidewalks, those types of infrastructure gaps or needs type projects. A couple of them that are going on right now are the Washington and Carlton sidewalks here in downtown. I did want to highlight also the Linder -- Linder Road between Tully and McMillan -- so Sawtooth lies in that -- in that stretch. We not only have the Ustick-Linder intersection, which is being redone, we have a HOC signal -- and I didn't prepare any presentation tonight that shows what a HOC signal is. It's really new to the county. There is actually one in place right now I believe on Ustick near Cole right by the new library in Boise there, kind of a test case. Basically the pedestrian signal stays dark unless a pedestrian comes up to it and activates it, flashes yellow, goes solid yellow, red, flashes red once the pedestrian's cleared, so -- and you'll get a longer presentation on that, but there are going to be actually two of those on the Linder corridor, one at Tully Park and, then, the one on the north side by Sawtooth and I can't remember the road that comes out there across from Sawtooth. But, anyway, there are two HOC signals and, then, they are going to fill in the gap of sidewalk north of Sawtooth up to McMillan, so they will have continuous sidewalk from the McMillan intersection at Linder all the say down to Tully Park. Now, Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 22 of 38 you will have to cross, because, if you recall, on the south side of Ustick there is a pretty good ditch that falls off there, so you only have sidewalk on one side, but it will be continuous and with those signals you can get from A to B. There are some other -- other projects going on there that, again, are in the memo and I -- unless there is any questions on those, I won't go into anymore details. I do also want to highlight, though -- and I'm sure you have probably all heard this by now, but the end of this month Congressman Minnick and Congressman Simpson will be in this room beginning at 3:30 to discuss transportation and I did want to just highlight that for you real quick and hope that you can make that. And, then, yesterday there was a discussion at the COMPASS board regarding development protocols for COMPASS staff. I don't want to spend too much time, unless that's what you all want to do. I know you have got other things on the agenda that I only had 15 minutes. Maybe I'll just plant the seed now, and let you know that COMPASS is developing draft development review protocols and they have asked for input -- it sounded like some of the other representatives from other land use agencies were going to have internal discussions about those development review protocols, so I don't know what level you all want to have that discussion. I realize that most of you don't even know what I'm talking about at this point, but, again, I'll just let you know that COMPASS is talking about reviewing traffic impact studies for larger projects or when a land use agency requests that they review a project for consistency with the long range transportation plan. I don't see this being a problem necessarily. There is a discussion about whether COMPASS should have that kind of conditions or just make findings or what their role really should be. I think the bigger picture or the bigger need is -- and all I'm going to point out today, is that ACHD currently doesn't provide this service for member agencies of COMPASS. Now, ACHD does review traffic impact studies for projects that meet a certain threshold, but they aren't charged with reviewing them for consistency with Communities In Motion or the regional long range transportation plans. So, this is something different. The COMPASS staff is familiar with that plan and I believe can provide a valuable input to the city or whoever is making a decision on land use or modifications to comprehensive plans. But, anyway, I just want to -- I wanted to let you know that that's out there and we can have further discussions. Maybe I'll pause for a minute to see if the Mayor or Councilman Bird want to go into this any further at this point or if I should just move along tonight. Bird: I don't want to go into it any further. Hood: Okay. Rountree: I'd give you one comment. If that's the direction they are going, it needs to be a simultaneous review, not one after everything else is done. De Weerd: Yeah. Hood: Absolutely, Mr. President, Mayor, and Members of the Council. One thing that -- that we are hoping for is that it doesn't slow up the development review process. We certainly don't want to add another layer of review to this and, in fact, the protocols do have a pretty quick turn around for COMPASS staff, so there isn't a delay or at least do Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 23 of 38 everything they can to not delay a project from being heard in full by a governing board, so duly noted. And the last thing in the memo -- or the last thing at least I want to touch and, then, I will deal with ACHD's five year work plan for the years 2011 to 2015, we are starting that process again. The transportation task force had a meeting on August 6th to discuss this. Members from the school district or a member from the school district and three parks commissioners were also present and joined in in that discussion. We do have a draft recommendation to the Council for tonight. That's kind of part B of the agenda item. So, before I jump into that I guess I'll pause to see if there is any of the projects that I didn't talk about in that first memo that you would like some more information on or meet -- answer questions on or whatever your pleasure is. Rountree: I see none. Go ahead and move on, Caleb. Hood: Okay. So, I did mention the task force recently met and came up with a list of draft roadway and intersection priorities for ACHD roadways, as well as ITD roadways, intersections, and -- or interchanges and overpasses. Those were -- Anna, if you don't mind, can you -- the transportation task force used last year's list as a starting point. The changes, I guess, that I'll call out from last year's list are the ones that were under construction, so you don't see split corridor phase one on here, because that one's been completed. You don't see Ten Mile interchange on here because we are -- we are certain that that one is moving forward. So, there is projects that have been -- either are in construction or that have been completed or have been removed off of it with the -- the other thing that's changed is I have taken out ITD's roadway projects, except where it goes from ACHD's roadway projects, so this list you see here is only ACHD's jurisdiction. So, those are your local streets and intersections. De Weerd: Mr. President? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: You know, I think we need to print these off and maybe discuss this next week, get it back on the agenda, give Council and I a chance to really look at it. It was difficult to read on -- on this searchable document and I don't know if anyone else had had time to print it out and really read it, but I -- I know I didn't, so -- Zaremba: I cheated. I went to the transportation task force meeting, so I have seen it. De Weerd: Good for you. But, you know, I guess, Mr. President, if we could have a chance to look at this and maybe have it on department reports next week, so -- I don't want to waste your time or Council's or who might have joined us this evening, but we will have a better dialogue if we all have a chance to really look at it. Unless you all are prepared and I'm the only one who is not. Rountree: Madam Mayor, I think that would be fine from my point of view. I don't know that in terms of staff time maybe they are just going to want to delay next week and get our comments on that. I don't know that I'm -- would necessarily ask them to go through Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 24 of 38 this yet one more time. I think we can take our homework and do it and come back with our recommendations. Bird: Yeah. I agree. Agree. Rountree: You all agree? Bird: I agree. Rountree: Okay. Caleb, thank you. Hood: Mr. President and Mayor, do you mind if I just -- Rountree: No. Hood: -- set the stage for your homework. Rountree: Please do. Hood: Just a couple of things to highlight in this list, a couple of the changes. Really, there aren't a lot, quite honestly. Again, the projects that were constructed have been removed. There is one other project .that I -- that I think I want to call up that doesn't show up on the list and that's the Ten Mile, Franklin to Cheny project. That project would have been number four on the list that you're going to review, but it doesn't show up on here, because the task force is recommending that that project is so far advanced and ACRD has basically committed to doing that project with the interchange, it ties into ITD's project with the Ten Mile interchange does the intersection at Franklin and, then, goes right up to Cherry, stops just short of. But that project is not on this list, because it is moving at a speed -- and, again, the commission has directed their staff to make sure that that project happens with the interchange, that the task force was confident that that project was -- although dirt is not moving as of yet on an equal playing field with that orhad -- in effect had begun construction. De Weerd: Mr. President? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: Caleb, was -- we had an ACRD representative there, didn't we? During that discussion? Hood: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, ACHD staff was present. They left for a large portion or basically when the transportation task force got in the meat of talking about this list there was not an ACHD staff person present. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 25 of 38 De Weerd: Well, I would suggest before we don't include it on our list, make sure that they agree that that won't harm that project by not being on there. They may have started it, I just want that assurance. Bird: I agree with you, Mayor. Hood: I will check. And maybe just -- sorry, I do have two more just bullets as you think about this, so you can know the changes from last year. The transportation task force does want to make a point to ACHD to say you should focus on comdors. Pick a corridor, finish the corridor, move onto the next corridor. Don't do a project here, a project there, but work left to right, east to west, north to south, whatever, but work on one mile corridors, essentially. And so two corridors that stuck out for the transportation task force as being important and had -- already being started, are Ustick -- Ustick Road and Ten Mile. So, Ustick, obviously, with the work done in Boise and Ten Mile with the interchange. They thought both of those projects were important. Ten Mile from the interchange up to US 20-26 being a key segment and, then, again, the portion completing the portion from Boise three miles -- so, basically, to Meridian Road. So, those projects -- there was five mile sections, three on Ten Mile and two on Ustick that moved up in priority. Not to the top five or six where it really matters, but -- they did move lot 15 anyways. And, then, finally, there were five new projects added. And, Anna, maybe if you could scroll down to the bottom of the list real quick. And I do apologize that when you look at this on your -- on this computer, it doesn't look so bad. Otherwise, when you print it out the font is about an eight font and it's hard -- it is hard to make out. But there are five new projects that have been added to the list and I will just -- I will just leave it at that, I guess, other than to say that four of the projects were added, because ACHD was -- it's already on their radar screen and they are moving through design, right of way, those types of things. Construction even for a couple of those projects. So, they have been added to the list, because they are on ACHD's list, basically. The fifth one is Chinden-Linder, which isn't on a list, it's in the CIP, but that's a pretty hot intersection these days. So, I thought that may gamer some input from the Council as you review those, so -- I think that's it and I will be here next week to hear your comments on that and, please, feel free to a-mail me, too, or call me if you have anything that comes up when you're reviewing this that you'd like to speak about. Rountree: Any comments? Zaremba: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I would just add one comment. In reviewing this over the years, ACHD uses a priority system that's based on a certain number of points and our priorities are given points in their system. Only the first five priorities get any points. So, one of the comments that was made at the transportation task force meeting is those things that we select below the first five are really staging for what happens when the first five are completed, because they will move up. So, if that makes a difference to how people Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 26 of 38 interpret what we are trying to recommend to ACHD, the first five get points in their priority system and the rest are just planning for the future. Hood: Mr. President? Rountree: Caleb. Hood: Mr. Zaremba, I appreciate that. I do want to also point out that it's not just the first five projects, it's the first five projects in each category. So, your first five roadway projects, it's a hierarchy to your -- your number one project gets ten, eight, six, four, two. Actually, anything on your list gets two. So, it's really your top four that get bonus points. But that goes for new intersections and rebuild intersections as well. So, each of those projects have that hierarchy of -- so, if you can keep that in mind -- thank you and keep that in mind when looking at this as well, so -- Rountree: Caleb, I appreciate your comments about emphasizing the need to focus on corridors and complete corridors, instead of having hour glasses and systems out there. With respect to Ustick, if the concept is to build Ustick to the west -- and, then, there is some difficulty to the point they got to now in Boise and maybe some major difficulty from that point west, it seems reasonable to me to think about that as a road that has three destinations. On the west end on the Boise side, a few folks coming to Eagle Road, but the majority of the roof tops, move them towards downtown Boise. West of Eagle Road there is a lot of roof tops that are moving to Eagle Road and it seems to me that that could be a termini for projects on Ustick Road from Eagle Road moving west to take advantage of somewhat of intersection improvements that have been done and in middle areas that lack of development that is there and probably with ease or -- it's never easy, but the less restricted access -- or less restricted the right of way acquisition. So, just something to add to your concept thinking on that. Thank you, Caleb. We will get you some answers next week. De Weerd: Mr. President? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: Caleb, can you a-mail that to us, so we can have it in color, instead of a gray scale? Hood: Absolutely. De Weerd: Thank you. Rountree: Does that complete your comments, Caleb? Do you need -- Hood: Yeah. I'm done. C. Overview of Proposed Project by Cyanergy for Nutrient Removal Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 27 of 38 and Algae Growth Project for the Wastewater Treatment Plant by Richard Dees: Rountree: Okay. All right. Thank you. Next item -- next two items. C and D. Five C and D relate to nutrient either removal or recovery and, Rich, I'm going to put those in your good hands and you can introduce and talk about whichever portions you want. Dees: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you. With me today is Maxine Prior, she's the principal in Cyanergy, LLC, limited license -- limited liability corporation. Is this thing working? It certainly is. There it is. Maxine came to us with a proposal to do a pilot test at the wastewater treatment plant to do a couple of things. The first thing she wanted to do was to grow algae to lower our phosphorus and nitrogen content in our wastewater, which is a good thing for us. We were kind of excited about that, considering we know what's going to happen in the future. The other thing she wanted to do or demonstrate was to take that algae and squeeze and get bio fuel out of it. So, we have kind of a double edge sword here, which we are kind of anxious to see how it comes out. She has a nine week program. She will be using our treatment plant as the staging area and plus a little bit of our lab. We wanted to introduce that to you and, then, possibly come back next week with a -- an agreement between us and her, which allows her to use our property and to -- and to bring the system online. I brought her here this evening to say hello and what you need to ask her is what Cyanergy means. Prior: Well, it's just a name. And cyana bacteria is a marine algae, even though that's not the actual algae we are using in this case, but -- does anybody have any questions? Rountree: Any questions for Maxine? Dees: We are real excited about the project. Hoaglun: Briefly, Mr. President, I'd just like to hear a little bit about what the algae does that takes care of our problem. Prior: Yeah. Actually, this is a continuation of a project we have done at BSU for -- since about February, which is the affluent from the wastewater treatment plant and growing the algae at BSU there in the lab and the algae uses the nutrients in that wastewater stream and uses it to grow and we found that we measure it with the phosphate was what we were concentrated on. That's really limiting nutrient in its growth and once that's gone it's going to stop growing, basically, so we concentrated on that and we got a really good removal from that -- removal of the phosphate is -- in our studies, so, we wanted to continue that on -- and used a realtime stream it's probably going to act differently -- the algae will act differently in that stream that we are going to use -- what we have used before was after the stabilization, so there weren't a lot of bacteria in it. What we are going to try here and what we'd like to try using it before that. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 28 of 38 Dees: She claims we can get between 40 and 50 percent reduction of phosphorus and nitrogen, which is -- which is a good thing for us. Prior: And was in about a 48 hour time -- you know, hold up time with it contacting the algae there. So, that could change with a real time stream and this is really just to test and see what it's going to look like and I'm confident that it will look good, but you never know. Hoaglun: And, then, to follow up, it removes 40, 50 percent if things work out or more or less, whatever. Then, what do you do with the algae? How does that process -- what's that next step in big picture terms? Prior: Right. The algae can be dried and pressed and there is oil in it. We haven't actually done that in the lab yet, we have been concentrating on the nutrients, but you -- if you press it there is oil -- there is oil inside the cells and also oil outside the cell that is used for bio fuel and there is a couple of start-up companies that have actually started processing that. I'm not sure economically they have come up -- if their process is economical or not, but there is oil inside of that. It's a strain that we have got from UC Berkeley that is -- has a high oil content and they have proven that, so -- Hoaglun: Great. Rountree: Any other questions? Hoaglun: Yeah. I was just going to comment. This is something that it's -- the research is their people are really focusing on this algae and the potential right now, so I guess we can be cutting edge. Prior: There is a lot of research going on out there, a lot of small companies, so -- really, the -- it's small scale at the treatment plant is -- it's information for me and I have been in contact with Rick Ritter and the small business development center and applied for various federal grants that would -- that would really -- really help in pushing that along. Dees: We are really excited about it. We think the results could be something that we could capitalize on, so we are very supportive of her endeavors. We will be bringing the contract back to you next week. Bird: Good. De Weerd: Mr. President? Rountree: Madam Mayor. De Weerd: I know that Rick Ritter is very excited about this experiment and the company and so I think this will be a great partnership. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 29 of 38 Prior: Thank you. Rountree: David. Zaremba: It does sound very interesting and very exciting. I just would ask our legal counsel one question. When we have contractors or sub contractors in and around our wastewater treatment plant is there some kind of liability agreement that covers us in case they fall in or -- should that be part of this agreement? Nary: Mr. Mayor, Madam President, Members of the Council, Council Member Zaremba, that -- it is part of the agreement. We did work that out with our insurer and with this contract, as well as the one that's following it, so -- Zaremba: Thank you. Rountree: Any other questions? I have a couple. One, the algae, is it a licensed or patented or -- Prior: It is licensed through UC Berkeley and we have that agreement in place through Boise State to use it for research. Rountree: And utilizing the wastewater prior to the UV treatment, when you dry the product, is that a sterilization process as well? We are not going to be moving pathogens in that stream? Dees: No. We are not concerned about pathogens going where they shouldn't go, if that's what you're asking. Rountree: Right. Dees: It will be -- we are very confident we can keep control of that, so -- Rountree: Great. Prior: And, then, after it gets put back in it will go through the UV, that way it will all -- Rountree: Yeah. Okay. Dees: Everything goes through the UV system anyway, so it's nothing -- we are not by- passing any stream at all. Hoaglun: It's not like the highway department tried to, you know, introduce kudzu to do certain things and it kind of got out of hand, you know. In another state. Rountree: I'm glad it doesn't grow here. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 30 of 38 Prior: And so we'll retain the algae. You don't want to lose it through putting it back in, so -- I'd rather retain it. De Weerd: Yeah. Because there is a second market for that. Prior: Right. Rountree: Very good. Look forward to seeing the agreement. Dees: Thank you, President. Rountree: Thank you, Maxine. D. Agreement with Ostara Technologies for Nutrient Recovery Pilot Study for the Wastewater Treatment Plant: Dees: Kyle is going to talk about Ostara, which is another pilot program we are sort of excited about as well, so, Kyle, you're there. Radek: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Mr. President, Council Members, the Ostara nutrient recovery pilot study is the next item on the agenda. Council has probably heard the term struvite before -- De Weerd: Yes. Radek: -- and are familiar with the term enough to know that it's kind of a problem. Struvite's a naturally occurring compound of ammonium and magnesium and phosphate that -- that solidifies in the waste stream and causes problems with piping and it also happens to be a really good fertilizer and if you could take it out of the waste stream and process it, you would have an actual marketable resource that serves to remove phosphorus and nitrogen from the waste stream as well. So, there is a lot of good things that could happen if you removed it. The company Ostara has a proprietary technology for removing struvite, but as of yet the past couple of years we really haven't been able to work out a pilot program that would pencil out in terms of the funding required to get it going. So, we have just a -- a great opportunity here with the Pacific Northwest Clean Water Association annual conference that's going to be held in this area September 12th to the 16th and Ostara would like to come and set up a pilot slash -- they would like to present their technology as a demonstration project is the word I'm looking for for that conference. So, we have an agreement with them to, essentially, provide the pilot testing for this technology at our plant for free and our staff would provide some in kind work that would help them set up and tear down their equipment and, then, our laboratory would do some testing for them. So, very, very small cost on our part in kind work. So, it's really a -- like Rich says, it's really an exciting thing to be able to -- to explore this technology. So, the Public Works Department recommends that City Council approves this Ostara nutrient recovery pilot study with Ostara Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 31 of 38 Technologies that you have in front of you tonight for no cost and authorizes the Mayor to sign the pilot study agreement. And I will stand for any questions. Rountree: Any questions? Bird: I have none. Rountree: I don't either. I need a motion. Bird: Madam Mayor -- or Madam President -- Mr. President. Rountree: Careful. I'm sensitive. Bird: I move we approve Ostara nutrient and recovery pilot study with Ostara Technologies at no cost and authorize the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Hoaglun: Second. Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the agreement and authorize the Mayor to sign and -- voice vote? Roll call. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. E. Mayor's Office Strategic Focus Discussion by Mayor's Office: Rountree: Next item on the agenda is the Mayor's strategic focus discussion. Madam Mayor, the floor is yours. De Weerd: Mr. President and Councilmen, it's my pleasure to introduce the Mayor's office strategic focus plan and tell you what we have been up to of late and also part of what I will be doing is a combination of all of the different departments into one, so you're going to see how it all comes into one plan tonight. I think you have probably seen this every month. It's a reiteration of our mission and vision and you approved some of the -- the tweaking that we did earlier or over this last year. The values of -- our care values of customer service, accountability, respect, excellence in care. The Mayor's office goals and objectives. We do have goals and objectives. So, I'm just here to say that we do have some reason for our insanity. We do want to be customer service leaders. We do work to engage the community and connect the community with different tools that I will explain to you a little bit later. The Mayor's office does have four employees with one part time. Community contacts. This has been a real focus of our -- of our department in looking at reaching -- reaching beyond the walls of the City Hall. So, this is just an accounting of some of the numbers that we have coming out of our office. We do focus on our citizens, businesses, our homeowners associations, and our stake holders and we do it in various ways, as you see in this slide. This city clerk's Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 32 of 38 office -- this is just an overview of their statement. This is their mission statement. They are the main support of the city for legislative and administrative functions for the Mayor and City Council and they are also the major office that has contact with our citizens, our businesses, and other governmental agencies. And these are their activity statistics just to give you an idea of what consumes their days. They do have five full-time staff and one intern. Economic excellence also falls under our umbrella and we contract that out through Verdis and Phil and Josh have been in front of you a number of times. We do also have Phil, junior, that's been involved in the core activities and a couple of other outreaches. And I'll go into more detail in this, but -- and I think you have seen this mission statement a number of times as well. On the highlights, I won't read you a list, but I did want to kind of reiterate a couple of things. We had over a hundred plus people that participated in the announcement of the branding and messaging of the core and I certainly appreciate that we had great representations from our elected officials. That sent a strong statement and I still hear comments about that today. The core has gotten the attention of the business community at the Department of Commerce and at the governor's office and they are looking to us to be leaders in showing how these industry clusters really can create synergy and they are working -- actually, Italked to the commerce director today Don Dietrich about putting it -- a portion in one of their marketing videos and. they are very anxious and excited to do that. We do hope that that is done prior to any trips we make and that's more in light of the trip that we have planned next month. So, the core marketing summit also has been launched and there have been several meetings and conversations since then and starting to package a proposal of what the core should look like, what membership would be, starting the nonprofit filings and those kind of activities. So, that is moving along as well. We have a draft of the creation of the sales innovation district that was presented to you several months ago. That right now is being reviewed from the Department of --the College of Agriculture at the University of Idaho. We have received comments from the representative that we have from INL and we should be rolling out that draft here in the next several weeks. There were 400 business people that attended Meridian Business Day and I think we had good attendance from our Council members at that as well. That was a really successful offering and it continues to have a buzz in the small business community. They see that the city is really stepped forward and embraced the small business community and feel that we certainly have a stake in their success and we have shown that we want to be part of it and that -- that good will has gone a long way. One of the other involvements we have had has been with the -- one of our local businesses has a monthly luncheon and -- and he will be -- he has asked the city to be servers next month and so we do hope that if you haven't signed up already, that you will sign up and join us at the -- that networking event. And if you haven't been to it already -- who has been? Charlie, have you been? Rountree: I'm going tomorrow. Bird: But I'll be there tomorrow. De Weerd: Okay. I would highly -- Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 33 of 38 Bird: So we know what we have to do -- so we need to know what we got to do in September, so we ought to be there. De Weerd: So -- and it's -- it's great food and great networking. There is just some really good people that attend. Bird: I never pass up food. You know that. Zaremba: I signed up for September, but I'm going to miss tomorrow. De Weerd: I wasn't going to say that, Councilman Bird. We do have a new business and professional group meeting monthly with focus on leadership, education and networking and just a lot of good stuff going on as far as our economic development outreach. Communication. This has been a huge focus of our office and we have seen many reductions in the news coverage, primarily in print news and I think we all know why. There has been real cutbacks in personnel, they just don't have the people out there to get the coverage and so we -- we have stepped forward and really taken a look on how we can tell our story and using different mediums to -- to get those words out. This is how we communicate with our citizens. We have ramped up our communication efforts through the website. We have heard a lot of positive feedback on that. Social networking has proven to be effective and I think that Luke has reported on that in his monthly reports on how that's being received. In fact, I was at a meeting today -- oh, I was at the Chamber luncheon and in our break -- breakout group I had two different people refer to the Facebook postings and they felt really a stronger connection to the city, they liked the information that we push out there and have greatly appreciated the extra tools that we have provided to communicate. And as you will see in the next few months -- I'll get that -- this one a try and this right here is going on our envelopes for our utility bills. It is an effort to really get people directed to our website. I really challenged both Robert and Stacy to say how can we start letting people know that the website is available and all the different offerings we have to be informed as to what's going on in the community. We want to direct them to the website. Each of our departments have newsletters -- it just gives us a much stronger base of getting information out to our citizens. So, this will be on -- printed on the front our billings and, hopefully, it's -- it's enough to get people's attention and we can, again, direct that traffic through our website and maybe get them signed up for the RSVP where we can push information out to those that want to be kept informed. And we have also gotten a lot of participation in our customer comment cards. These we have listed a number of accomplishments and events that our office has either coordinated, been involved in, or helped initiate. The customer comment card has been a good tool and we have had both critical comments or certainly comments that we have felt we really need to respond to and we have -- it's also been a source of being able to recognize our employees for their great customer service and so it's been a great tool. Our social networking tools have been, as I mentioned before, very effective. Our Star legislation efforts did what -- we were successful. We hope to see them utilized and I know in talking to Center Cal, they still are heavily dependent on that. So, I think that will be a very good tool. The Ten Mile interchange certainly has taken a lot of time and attention Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 34 of 38 and we were thrilled to have that kind of all accumulate into the groundbreaking ceremony, which launched a great project and the construction therefore. The core lunch, Initial Point Gallery, and the Mayor's CEO book club, we just put out over probably just a couple weeks ago our letters for this next year. We have selected the books and we already have all the slots sponsored, except one. And sign-ups will start in a week. Last year it was already filled up by the end of the day. So, it's been a very popular program and it's -- it's been supported by our business community. I think you have seen this slide before in all of ours. These are our five focus areas that Council and our senior management team put together. Economic excellence focus areas. These are the definitions that were also collaboratively defined and as I had mentioned at the beginning of my comments, these are citywide goals related to economic excellence. So, it's not just Phil, Josh, and ,Phil, Junior, or myself or yourself, it is a citywide effort in how we all contribute to the economic development welfare of our community. Action items to some of these, these -- these fall under our performance measures and we also have -- or, I'm song, our -- our goals and associated objectives. Then we put together performance measures, action items, who the leads are, the timeline, some of the measurables and so in some of these areas action items are such as keep property damage and loss to a minimum. Improve code enforcement coordination. Certainly having an esthetically visual community has everything to do with economic vitality. Create a vision for the northwest area. Funding mechanism that allows infrastructure to keep pace with development and diversify our economic opportunities in our Comprehensive Plan. Strategic growth focus areas. Again, these are the three points that were defined. There are strategic planning sessions. And here are some of the -- the different strategic growth goals in the citywide plans. These are action items that are associated with that. Five year fund projections. Impact fee plan update. The development of the community development block grant action plan. Prepare land use transportation and design studies. Implement training program for all departments. And provide high quality diverse education programs and activities. Again, that's not all of them, but I didn't think you wanted to hear every single thing. Services meet demand. Here is a list of some of those areas that we have defined. Action items include increased capacity to manage complex and emerging crimes. Develop strategic plans for long term technology improvements by our information technology. Personal visits with key customers to proactively address concerns, that's relationship building, and maintain response times of five minutes or less. Organizational excellence and focus areas. Again, defined by our management team. Nice picture, Charlie. Rountree: Nice. Yeah. De Weerd: Our citywide efforts to achieve organizational excellence. Action items include create a new employee recognition program. Enhance GIS capabilities. Best practices budget policy. Utilize technology to increase efficiencies. Payroll cycle improvements. Increase online access to planning functions and to create model programs that others can and would follow. Stewardship of the public trust. Being good stewards of the public trust is certainly one of our most important focus areas. And this says you have and will continue to find its way into public discussion. These, again, are Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 35 of 38 some of those areas and I think that one of our biggest accomplishments over this last year and we are working to transform those -- is under the transparency area. Right now we haven't had a lot of interest from our public, only one organization that has consumed mass amounts of staff time and we will be working on -- with our legal team and -- in trying to figure out those that dominate our time where -- where compensation is necessary and where it's not. Certainly maybe it's just because this is a newly launched program and it is working with a nonprofit organization that seems to be high maintenance right now, but I think that we are trying to work through those in defining -- not taking one question and giving them a book for an answer, but just answering the question. So, we have -- we have a little training to do on that. But that -- that's been a really exciting one for us in bringing greater accountability and letting our citizens see what -- what truly we are doing in our community. Challenges and opportunities. I wanted to share a few of these areas and what we are looking at, how we can increase the way we can communicate with the public, making meetings available via the video and audio and Luke has been busy doing a lot of that work and whatever we had on video, making sure it's available on our website and streaming that on so people can access it easily. Finding ways to brand outside of the Treasure Valley. That's certainly along the lines of our economic development efforts with the core and we hope at some point our northwest area, that innovation district, looking for economic development tools that will bring investment dollars into the area and those -- those are some of the things that we have been in recent discussions with and teaming that the state recently submitted another reiteration of their regional EB5 center and they have focused primarily on tech transfer and so we can use it to a certain degree, as long as it fits under that, but that tech transfer is really focused on INL and the universities and so I don't know how we can work that with the core. Certainly with the location of Idaho State University and the core, we will have some opportunities. We are exploring how when those relationships are developed, how we can capture that commitment and that business residing in Meridian, rather than somewhere else in connecting our community from east to west with a trail along the rail corridor and you saw that in Caleb's update and we have a draft right now from Alta. I have -- I have given Robert some of our comments to get back to Matt and so, hopefully, when it comes before you you will have some -- something that gives us a strong direction on what we need to do, where the constraints are, what we -- what some of those options are, so you get a comprehensive look at them. Questions? Rountree: Comments or questions? Bird: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Bird. Bird: I got a comment. Your staff, I believe, goes beyond the call of duty most of the time. Anytime we have had outside activities where the city's involved most of the time all four of your staffs out there directing and stuff or -- or doing something and --and the work they do for me as a Councilman I certainly appreciate, Tammy. I know they don't Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 36 of 38 have to do it, but I certainly appreciate everything they do outside. And it's not really part of their job description, but they show up to do it. I appreciate it. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Bird. I can tell you that I am very pleased and proud to say we have a very dedicated staff and it is to provide quality customer service, to be good stewards, and examples to follow. This might save the Mayor's office, but it is a city office that should be an example and you are -- are just as much -- they need to be responsive and accountable to you, just as much as to me. Bird: And they are. De Weerd: So, I appreciate your comments, Keith, and I agree, they do go above and beyond. Bird: Certainly do. Rountree: Further comments? Mayor, I just echo what Keith said and say that, you know, the Mayor's office -- and we all understand this is kind of the face of the community and I think you just said it, is that you need to set an example that we all strive to accomplish and set an example not only as a representative of the city -- what the city's about, but set an example for the rest of the departments in the -- that make up the city. So, I appreciate the time and effort that you, as an individual, put in to make your accomplishments and if you're to accomplish the goals you have set for your office, as well as your staff, it takes -- it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of dedication, it takes a lot of focus to try to accomplish those goals and I think you have done a whale of a job of doing that. So, thank you and your staff. De Weerd: Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, we do get a lot of difficult scenarios or citizen situations and that sort of thing. But I will tell you what, it's a team approach. We will get with the department and those departments are equally responsive and I can tell you that I think that are city does shine, for the most part. I know sometimes we -- we have our moments, but I also can say we have the pleasure and honor to tell our city's story and I think you can say not just everyone in my office, but everyone in -- on our senior management team and in the city knows we have a pretty amazing story to tell and we are very proud to be telling Meridian's story. So, we appreciate your leadership in giving us something positive to tell as well and that goes definitely to the financial situation, the budget constraints, and stories that other communities have had the unfortune to be telling. We don't. And I am just proud to be Meridian, so it feels good. Rountree: Thank you. Bird: Very good report. Item 6: ORDINANCES: Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 37 of 38 A. Ordinance No.: Authorizing the Conveyance of Real Property, Approving a Purchase Agreement and Deed to Ada County Highway District: Rountree: Last item on the agenda this evening is the ordinance 6-A and if we could have that read by title only. Holman: Thank you, President Rountree. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 09-1426, an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of certain city owned real property to the Ada County Highway District located at 303 North Ten Mile Road, a portion of Ada County parcel number S1210449020 located in the southeast one quarter of the southeast one quarter of Section 10, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute and attest on behalf of the City of Meridian the purchase agreement, deed, and other documents necessary to complete the transaction, providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing an effective date. Hoaglun: Mr. President -- Rountree: You have heard that ordinance read by title. Anybody want to hear the whole thing? A unanimous no. Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move approval of Item 6-A, ordinance number 09-1426 with suspension of rules. Bird: Second. Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to approve the ordinance in Item 6-A. Roll call. A vote, please. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Rountree: And now -- De Weerd: Mr. President? Rountree: Okay. De Weerd: We do have Coffee With The Mayor tomorrow at Gino's at 8:00 o'clock, so would invite you all to join us for coffee. Bird: 8:00 o'clock, uh? De Weerd: Meet with your citizens. Meridian City Council Workshop Special Meeting August 18, 2009 Page 38 of 38 Rountree: 8:00 until when? De Weerd: Frank? 8:00 until 9:30. Rountree: Okay. And, then, we have the networking function at 11:30 to 2:00 for those who want to come and team how to do it in September and 2:00 o'clock is the Kleiner press conference on site out there off of Fairview. Bird: Are we going to start right at 2:00, Tam? I hope, because I have got a 2:20 doctor's appointment and I'd like to be there for about ten or 15 minutes and, then, I will get -- Rountree: That was the word I got. De Weerd: Uh-huh. Bird: Uh? Rountree: That was the word I got. It would start right at 2:00. Bird: Good. Rountree: Which means it will be about 2:10. I need a motion. Bird: I move we adjourn. Hoaglun: Second. Rountree: It's been moved and seconded to adjourn. All in favor. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Rountree: Thank you all. Good evening. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:21 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) TAMMY D W RD, MA .p ''~., DATE APPROVED ~`~C~' ®'~°L'`' ,~ ~ rF0 ~=, O ~ / /1 i~ y ~ L. = LMAN CITY CL ~ th_ ,~~ ~ .~ "z~, r 1ec • ,; ,, "' O~ oa .