HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 01-19Meridian City Council Special Workshop Meeting January 19, 2010
A Special Workshop Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00
p.m., Tuesday, January 19, 2010, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Brad Hoaglun, and David
Zaremba.
Members Absent: President Charlie Rountree
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, Caleb Hood, Ron Anderson,
John Overton, Steve Siddoway, Matt Ellsworth, Tom Barry, Rich Dees, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
O Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Good evening. I will go ahead and start tonight's meeting. I'd like to
welcome everyone here and for the record it is Tuesday, January 19th. It's a few
minutes after six o'clock. We have our special workshop meeting. We will start
tonight's agenda with roll call attendance. Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Gordon Slyter with Treasure Valley
Worship Center.
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led in our
community invocation by Gordon Slater. He is with the Treasure Valley Worship
Center. If you will all join us in the invocation or take this as an opportunity for a
moment of reflection. Pastor, thank you for joining us.
Slater: Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you tonight for this opportunity to
pause for just a moment and acknowledge your presence here, your sovereignty, your
watchful care. Daily, Lord, we live in the light of your gracious provision and love. As
our City Council meets tonight and deliberates we ask that you would give them wisdom
from above, which we know is defined in your word as being pure, peaceable, gentle,
reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits. Lord, help them in their deliberations and in
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 2 of 62
their decisions. Also, Lord, we would take a moment to pray for the nation of Haiti and
those who are suffering there and those who are rendering aid. We pray, Lord, that you
would place your hand upon them, that you would help them. We pray, Lord, that those
who are wounded would find your healing, those who have been displaced would find
your provision, and those who are rendering aid would be speedily and ably helped in
that task. These things, Lord, we pray, giving you thanks for all of your blessings in our
lives, through Christ our Lord, amen.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda.
De Weerd: Thank you. Item No. 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: A couple items on our agenda that we need to fill in the blanks, if you will.
Under 7-A, number one, that resolution is 10-707. And under 8-A, Ordinances, 8-A is
proposed ordinance number 10-1440 and 8-B is proposed ordinance number 10-1441.
And I think that's all we have for tonight for changes, so -- oh, and we do have under 7-
A-2 Mayor's Youth Advisory Council update, that will be tabled to next week. So, with
those changes I move that we adopt the agenda.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as presented or as
amended. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Professional Services Agreement with Linda Cowan for
Kettlebell Classes
B. PY2009 Community Development Block Grant Subrecipient
Agreement: Meridian Food Bank
C. Modified Development Agreement: MDA 09-004 Queenland
Acres by James Prather Located at the Southeast Corner of
Overland Road and Stoddard Road: Request to Amend the
Recorded Development Agreement for Queenland Acres in
Regards to Parking; Timing for Construction of the Multi-use
Pathway; Building Size; Site Plan Requirements; and Fencing.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 5 is the Consent Agenda.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 3 of 62
Hoaglun: No changes on the Consent Agenda. Madam Mayor, I would move for the
adoption of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda -- or Consent
Agenda. Madam Clerk, roll call.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 6: Community Items /Presentations
A. City Council Liaison Appointments
De Weerd: Item 6-A is our City Council liaison appointments. I'll tum this over to
Council President Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was not able to find either a Ouija Board or a dart board, so I actually had to
think this through and here is what I came up with. I hope it meets with everybody's
approval. For 2010 the Council members liaisons to the various departments will be
distributed as follows: Myself, David Zaremba, will be liaison to the clerk's office, the
Mayor's office, and Public Works, which includes building and development services.
Councilman Hoaglun will be the liaison to finance, including utility billing and other
finance operations. And also the Parks and Recreation Department. Councilman
Rountree will be the liaison to the Planning and Zoning Department and the Police
Department. And Councilman Bird will be the liaison to the Fire Department and the
Legal, HR, IT group. And those are the assignments for 2010. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Zaremba. Any comments from Council? Not that you have
a choice.
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you and we will make sure to get the information out to
each of the departments.
Zaremba: I have given the clerk a copy ad she will distribute them.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 4 of 62
B. Meridian Arts Commission Annual Update
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Jaycee. Okay. Item 6-B is our Meridian Arts
Commission. I know that Meg Glasgow is here. So, thank you for joining us, Meg.
Glasgow: Thank you and Happy New Year.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Glasgow: I'm pleased to be here to give you an update on what the Arts Commission
has been up to this pass several months, both in the area of visual arts and also
performing arts. Yes, please do. Thank you. Art in Public Spaces project was our
initiative several years ago to start acquiring a public art collection for City Hall. We
have purchased three additional pieces to the four that have already been installed last
year and we are planning on three more additional pieces to be purchased in 2010, this
year, so be looking for three new wonderful art pieces to be installed in the next-week or
so. Initial Point Gallery, the 2010 selections, artist series, has been selected and I
believe you're receiving that now, kind of a little outline of the artists that we have
planned for 2010. There are ten individual artists that we selected this year, as well as
three groups, and I'm so pleased to announce that the National Watercolor Society
traveling show will be exhibiting in Initial Point Gallery coming this fall, which is a
wonderful deal. This is the location -- their northwest location will be in Meridian, Idaho.
So, this is quite a feather in our cap and I will be excited to keep you up to date as -- as
plans progress. The other thing that has been quite a nice surprise is the revenue
generated from Initial Point Gallery in 2009, which is a combination between the gallery
maintenance fees that artists pay, as well as a voluntary commission. We have
generated over a thousand dollars for this past year and so that was a very very nice
surprise and we are glad that the gallery has been so successful financially as well as
well received in the arts community, too. It's been exciting. Under our public arts
initiative we have been working very closely with the planners for the Julius Kleiner
Memorial Park. Mack has assisted both with the drafting of the RFQ for the obelisk that
are going to be purchased, in addition to the bronze memorial statute. So, we have
been assisting them with that and they have just recently published the RFQ, if we have
assisted with distributing that throughout the arts community, both in our database, the
Idaho Commission on the Arts, as well as throughout the northwest, too. So, we will be
excited to partner -- continuing partnering with them through the selection process and
all of that. Under the area of performing arts, the Missoula Children's Theater is coming
back in just a matter of a few weeks. Auditions will begin February 22nd and the
auditions are -- rehearsals are going to be held right nearby at the Meridian City
Community Center and we are also bringing to the community three workshops. At
least two will be doing -- bring the instructors that are coming through the day, they will
go into schools, elementary schools, middle schools, and work and teach an acting
workshop. So, it's really exciting for us to be able to broaden our reach in our area of
impact with the number of children impacted by this program. So, we are very excited
about that. And this is all made possible largely by a community grant from Wells Fargo
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 5 of 62
for the 2,500 dollars, so that really helps us do this and we are very, very committed to
this particular program and we hope to bring them back every -- every year. Concerts
On Broadway was a wild success as you know last year and we are fast and furious
making plans, booking talent, for this next season. We have scheduled it the third
Saturdays, both -- all through the summer June, July, and August and a start time will
be at 7:00 p.m. So, we have already -- I'm tentatively planning on bringing the pops
concert back for the Meridian Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Kings Of Swing and
we are also talking with another jazz musician, too, to come. So, very, very high caliber
performing arts in our downtown, which is really exciting. The other news is after three
years of serving as president of the Arts Commission I am -- with a great honor, it was a
wonderful experience -- I am stepping aside for -- Nancy Rountree will be stepping up
as president. Mary Jensen will become vice-president. And our new secretary will be
Rob Walker. So, it's fun to see the new people in our commission stepping up and
taking on the responsibility. So, that's kind of a quick little update. If you have any
questions or --one more comment I will say that we are very pleased to have you, Brad,
on our -- in our group, so I hope that you're planning on joining -- continuing to join our
group. So, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Megan. And I would like to thank you for your leadership. I
appreciate your tenacity and your passion that has been displayed by how this has
progressed so rapidly. We are very fortunate to have had you in that leadership role to
get things up and going. I know that first year was incredibly frustrating for you as we
worked on getting all of the functionality things in order with bylaws, with the strategic
planning and all of that and you really made a show of how things should be done and
when you do them right how quickly you can get on your feet and start showing more
than the low hanging fruit, you have done some pretty amazing things. You have an
incredible commission. So, thank you for your leadership.
Glasgow: Thank you. It was my pleasure.
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Oh, I was just going to say, you know, since you're not going to be president
anymore, Meg, I don't know about that, but you will still be on the commission and we
do appreciate that and your leadership, as the Mayor noted, there has been a lot of
things you guys have undertaken and not all of them were easy things and I'm just
excited as we look towards this year what you have planned again and, you know, you
talked about the National Watercolor Society and this is the only stop in the Pacific
northwest that this traveling show will be making their presentation and that's -- that's a
pretty big deal. There is a lot of folks who wants these sort of things and they chose
Meridian and Initial Point Gallery and that's just a neat neat thing.
Glasgow: It's exciting.
Hoaglun: And the Concerts On Broadway are exciting and people like those and a
whole host of activities that we have and the Missouri Children's Theater again. It takes
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 6 of 62
a lot of work and our commission members do put in a lot of time above and beyond
what people would expect for this -- for that level of volunteers, but they are committed
and, Meg, we appreciate everything that you have done and glad you're still committed
to it and I know you're handing the reins of leadership over, but appreciate everything
you have done.
Glasgow: Thank you very much.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I just want to add thank you for being the charter president, chairman. You
have set the bar high and already set up quite a legacy for the group, so thank you.
Glasgow: Thank you.
Bird: Ditto. She's done a great job as usual. She's done a great job of everything she's
ever done in the city. Thank you, Meg.
Glasgow: Thank you.
De Weerd: Council -- Mr. Nary, do we need to approve the Initial Point Gallery series or
we are good to go?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, each of those come through different
contracts for use of the gallery, so you will see those.
De Weerd: So, we get them anyway. Okay.
Glasgow: Okay. Great.
De Weerd: Well, very exciting. We look forward to this year ahead.
Glasgow: Thank you.
C. Reallocation of Community Development Block Grant Funds
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-C is the reallocation of our CDBG funds. Matt.
Ellsworth: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As you're all aware, the
city receives federal funding annually from the Department of Housing and Urban
Development for the Community Development Block Grant program. We are now into
our third year with that program and what we are here to discuss this evening are -- are
several projects from years past that have not moved forward, have not yet been
initiated, in fact, in light of one of HUD's expectations for recipients of those funds and
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 7 of 62
that is that the CDBG funding recipients move through and spend those funds in a
timely manner. Logic being there is a lot of need for these and they don't want one
single community sitting on cash without advancing projects forward. So, the question
before you this evening is what we can do to keep the city compliant with HUD's
timeliness -- timeliness expectations and the requirements that are associated with it.
On screen there in front of you are a list of five projects from the city's first two program
years, that's 2007 and 2008, that have not yet been initiated. I'm going to move through
these fairly quickly, so, please, stop me and let me know if you have any questions or
some more detail would be helpful. The first project up there is -- in the first program
year Meridian Development Corporation received an award for 55,000 dollars to
advance a project from the Urban Revitalization Strategy. The discussion at the MDC
board level was to put those funds to a facade improvement project. They went ahead
and identified a project, but, unfortunately, an environmental issue arose with that
project and to -- long story short, to address the issue it's going to fall a bit outside of the
scope in the amount of available funding for this project. So, staff went back and met
with the MDC board over the course of the last couple of months. The board has
recommended a new project, not -- no longer a facade improvement project and that is
to design streetscape improvements to move forward with the construction of split
comdor phase two coming up in a couple of years. So, the next project on screen there
is the community center ADA accessibility upgrades and the source of those funds is
2007. It's a little bit different than other 2007 projects, though, in that the city actually
reallocated those funds from a different project to those ADA upgrades, which is to say
that that funding has only been on the table since May of 2009, it isn't like the other
ones that they received funding prior to the -- prior to the past year or so. The next
project on there -- and the next three are the ones that come into play as far as staffs
recommendation for reallocation are concerned. Habitat For Humanity was previously
awarded 60,000 dollars to purchase ground in Meridian for future construction of
affordable housing. Habitat was unable to identify any property that met their -- their
requirements and through discussions with staff over the past couple of months has
agreed that it's best for the time being to go ahead and divert that 60,000 dollars to an
activity that can go forward in a more timely manner. The next project up there is code
enforcement, which received funding in program year 2008 to the tune of 20,000
dollars. Staff met with code enforcement staff over the course of the past couple of
months to -- to sort of refine the documentation protocols and to refine the budget and
low and behold code enforcement does not need a full 20,000 dollars for one year of
those activities. We were able to pair that back to 9,000 dollars and as a result on
screen there staff will recommend reallocating 11,000 dollars to a different activity. The
last activity on screen here was some facilities upgrades to the senior center located
down the road here and staff actually met with the senior center to request that they
hold off on doing one component of the previously discussed public facilities work for
their center. Without going into the rationale for it, staffs request for the senior center
was to take a look at some public -- excuse me -- public service activities that they could
pursue instead with -- with just under 17,000 dollars that was still remaining of their
20,000 dollar award. The senior center has since done that and as a result staff
recommends this evening reallocating only the difference, what was left over after the
senior center identified different uses for their funds to two new activities this evening.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 8 of 62
So, in general, what staff tried to do was to meet with sub recipients who weren't moving
projects forward to see how we can work with them to move projects forward, whether --
whether that's identifying a new activity, coming up with a funding plan, just whatever
the case may be. The output of this is a recommendation from staff to reallocate in the
neighborhood of 73,000 dollars from three different activities. Those activities -- and if
you excuse me -- I'm jumping up a couple pages on the memo -- are Habitat For
Humanity, like I said, they were not able to identify a lot that met their needs at this time,
so it would be a full 60,000 dollars coming from them. As well as code enforcement,
like I said, initially they received 20,000 dollars, identified a need for 9,000 dollars over
the course of this program year, leaving 11,000 dollars that would, then, be eligible for a
different activity. And the senior center, of whose 20,000 dollars there is still 2,000
dollars remaining without a use at this time, assuming City Council concurs with shifting
16,000 of theirs over to public service activities from a public facilities activity that has
received different funding. There is also 275 dollars that was unallocated in earlier
program years, which staff figured we might as well roll in at this time to get going to an
activity. So, in taking a look at possible recipient activities for these funds, one of the
places that staff started was with the department directors and that was the topic of
discussion at the department directors meeting back in October. If you flip to page four
of the memo there, it gives some of the ideas that were floated at that meeting, some of
which will translate through to staff proposed use of this money. Other staff was
concerned that they may not be able to send the funds timely enough and sort of a cut-
off date that I was looking to with that one was October of this year. Reason being
that's when HUD is going to come in to do what they call their timeliness check. If the
amount of -- amount of funds in your account is above a certain benchmark for them,
that's an issue. If it's below, then, you're in good standing. If these are old funds and
we are trying to spend them quickly, I felt it was important to -- to shift those to the
extent possible to -- to activities that can move through projects quickly. We also took a
look at the program objectives --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: I'm sorry, Matt. Just a moment. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Matt, can you change your display to page four of the memo?
Ellsworth: I can. Yes.
Zaremba: That would show everybody.
Ellsworth: And it gets a bit difficult to see. I can zoom in or out or even just read them if
anybody has any specific questions. What I did was I went through all of the
suggestions that were floated at the directors department meeting and based on those,
the ones that are in regular black font here are the ones that seem like they may be able
to move quickly enough to -- to initiate and complete those activities by August of this
year. I also eliminated the projects that were ineligible based on the requirements of the
CDBG program. So, that just sort is to prime the pot and get -- get everybody thinking
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 9 of 62
about what possible uses for these -- these reallocated funds could look like. One that
is not on this list up here, it just came to my attention today, and that is ADA upgrades
to the old City Hall, it sounds like there was some discussions with a possible tenant at
the old City Hall and that was one out of several different requests that they had of the
city and those aren't discussions that I have been a part of, but Robert Simison may be
able to provide some additional details if that's anything the Council would like to
discuss further. So, unless there are any questions about some of the ideas floated at
the department directors meeting, we could jump over to the projects that staff will
propose for your consideration.
De Weerd: Council, any questions at this time? Okay. Go ahead, Matt.
Ellsworth: I'm going to jump back a couple of pages here and what staff is
recommending this evening for use of 73,271 dollars and change that came from
projects previously discussed are that 13,271.96 go to the Food Bank. Twenty
thousand dollars to the County Housing Authority for continued assistance in home
buyers, down payment and closing cost assistance to purchase new homes and in
discussions with the Public Works Department it sounds like they plan to redesign some
water and sewer infrastructure upgrades in the low moderate income area in the course
of the next couple of years. That seemed like another good one where it's a design
project that can move relatively quickly. Some of the projects they are contemplating
are in the residential parts of downtown, which, again, the Community Development
Block Grant program seeks to benefit residents in those low moderate income areas.
So, again, the question before you this evening, staff seeks direction on how to keep the
city out of timeliness infractions as far as defined by the feds and somewhat of a
timeline looking forward is what staff proposes doing, based on tonight's discussion and
the direction you guys provide, is to go ahead and draft the necessary amendments to
begin that reallocation process. That's all subject to public involvement process that
could begin as early as this Monday with initial noticing, moving to a hearing and an
opening of the public comment period as early as February 9th. After a 30 day
minimum public comment period or closing a public comment period and public hearing
to consider testimony and act on the amendments as early as March 16th, initiating
these projects in March and April, allowing roughly, give or take, five months to go
ahead and conclude each of these projects before HUD comes in and runs their
timeliness check. So, I'd stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Matt. Questions from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Matt, I appreciate and agree with much of the thinking that went into this. I
would just comment on the potential allocation of funds. I very much support the Food
Bank and the Public Works projects. My recollection is that the last request from the
Food Bank we were about 20,000 dollars short of what they were asking. I don't know if
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 10 of 62
I'm remembering that correctly. Which makes me mention the one in between, the Ada
County Housing Authority. They will not -- my recollection is they were not able to
guarantee that that money would be spent in Meridian on Meridian citizens and that
makes me think I might like to change the balance a little bit. I would still give them
money, but move a little bit more out of Ada County and into the Food Bank. Just a
personal opinion.
De Weerd: Matt.
Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Zaremba, I don't recall
a specific discussion of spending a grant from the City of Meridian in the unincorporated
parts of Ada County. In the last action plan drafting process the housing authority did
request an additional 20,000 dollars above and beyond what ended up going to them
this year, which was 35,000 dollars for the current program year. The way the staff
arrived at the total of 20,000 dollars is that from last year's allocation they still had 5,000
dollars remaining and what they are finding is that typically in the neighborhood of
15,000 is really what allows them to -- to go in and help their target beneficiaries to
assist low to moderate income residents with down payment and closing cost
assistance. So, to put all of this together at the total that we arrived at, it was 35,000
from the current program year, plus 5,000 dollars left over from last program year, is
40,000 dollars. An additional 20,000 from these reallocated funds, puts them at 60,000
dollars, which presumably at 15,000 per beneficiary translates into four low moderate
income homeowners assisted. I met with the housing authority over the course of the
last couple weeks, they said that they hadn't marketed it all that hard in the past, but
that they were willing to ramp it up to -- to do everything they can to spend the money
by August, they are confident that they could get there.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, just to be certain, Matt, and that is within Meridian --
within the city limits?
Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, Councilman Hoaglun, that's correct.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions, council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Matt, I kind of go along with the thinking of Councilman Zaremba, too. I'd like to
see a little more go to the Food Bank. Is there any reason that we couldn't give a little
more to the Food Bank and a little less to Ada County that -- you say they need 15,000
per person?
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 11 of 62
Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird, it's not set in
stone and what they found in years past -- for the past year anyway, was that 15,000
was, obviously, a little more helpful than 10,000. But if it comes down to being more
selective about the people that they help, then, I'm sure they will work with whatever
Council can -- can provide them.
Bird: I would suggest maybe taking them down to 15 and putting the Food Bank up to
18,271.96. And I will take a donation and we will put the not four cents in to make it
272.
De Weerd: Hey, big spender. So, Matt, the question would be can -- can we shift
monies like that to -- I seem to recall only a certain percentage could go to organizations
like the Food Bank or the Boys and Girls Club. Would that still be within the guidelines?
Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you're correct, there is a percent
cap per annual allocation that the city can vote to public services. Because we are
already proposing to shift some funds from the senior center's allocation to that
purpose, we are subject to those caps. So, to do the full 18,000 and change would be a
little bit difficult, but from what I recall 18,000 dollars to public services with this round of
allocations -- or reallocations is still within the 15 percent cap. So, we could -- we could,
basically, match the Food Bank out at the neighborhood of 18,000 dollars and put
what's left over to other uses, if that's the direction the Council would like to go.
Bird: Then we could -- excuse me, Madam Mayor. Then, we could go back to the
15,272 dollars for Ada County housing; right?
Ellsworth: That's correct.
Bird: Okay. I could buy -- I could buy into that, Madam Mayor.
Zaremba: Sounds good to me.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I think that's a good approach.
De Weerd: Okay. So, we would need to now go ahead and notice the amendments
and move forward to your time frame.
Ellsworth: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Matt. We appreciate all the time and research you
spend on this.
Ellsworth: Thank you.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 12 of 62
D. Reuse Water Program Update
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-D is our reuse water program update. Mr. Barry.
Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. You may recall or have
notified -- I placed the presentation that was given last week in your box this past week
and --
De Weerd: Yes. Thank you.
Barry: -- also -- I also included a detailed copy of the capital investment and
construction plan for that program. Although we did say last week that we would be
back before you this evening with a budget amendment, I'm sorry to report we do not
have that ready for you at this time. My staff, as well as our Council liaison Mr. Bird,
worked diligently with the design team last Thursday to identify areas in the project that
we described where we might be able to omit certain elements of the project or
alternatively to phase the project or otherwise modify the project to fit within our means,
but without compromising the overall integrity of the project or the program itself. We
did reach a conclusion last Thursday and I appreciate Mr. Bird's support and attendance
as well, but, however, we have not had sufFicient time for the design engineers to get us
back the financials on the improvements we have made to the project. We did receive
those today, but, unfortunately, have not had time, of course, to route those in budget
amendment form for the proper signatures in advance of tonight's meeting. So, we are
doing that now and we anticipate having those signatures in place and moving that
amendment forward to you next week. Our engineering manager Warren Stewart will
be here on hand at next week's meeting to provide additional information should you
require it on the project, as well as to present as well the project consultant agreement,
designed built agreement. So, that's all I have for you this evening. I'm sorry I don't
have that for you, but that is the update.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tom. And we will make sure to place it on the agenda for next
week.
Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office
1. Resolution No. :Appointing
Wendy Newton-Huckabay to Seat No. 3 of the Planning
~ Zoning Commission
De Weerd: Okay. Under Department Reports, Item 7-A, in front of you, Council, I have
resolution 10-707. It is to appoint -- or reappoint Wendy Newton-Huckabay to Seat No.
3 of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Mrs. Newton-Huckabay has agreed to
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 13 of 62
continue for another year into the six year term for -- so that we don't have too many
new members on the Planning and Zoning Commission. She did agree to extending
her appointment by one year. We need to stay within the terms of each seat, so I am
asking you to confirm this appointment and this resolution, if you so desire, with the
knowledge that I will probably be working to fill it next year with a new name to bring to
you for your consideration. Any questions on this appointment?
Bird: I have none.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I had the pleasure of working with Wendy Newton-Huckabay when I was a
Planning and Zoning Commissioner. I'm thrilled that she will continue and maybe if we
are real quiet she will stay longer.
De Weerd: I think she had to talk her family into doing another year, so I appreciate her
willingness to extend that, though.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve resolution 10-707, appointing Wendy Newton-Huckabay
to seat three of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second approving this resolution. Any discussion?
Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
2. Mayor's Youth Advisory Council Update
De Weerd: Item 7-A-2 was removed to next week, which the Youth Council will be here
to give you an update on what's going on on the Youth Council.
B. Parks Department
1. Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park Update
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 14 of 62
De Weerd: So, we will go ahead and move to Item 7-B, our Parks Department, and tum
this over to Mr. Siddoway. We appreciate the Kleiner team being here tonight. Nice to
see you, Eldon. Hope you're feeling better.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. It's my pleasure to be
before you tonight with an update on the Kleiner Memorial Park. We were before you in
August when we adopted the master plan and Mr. Eugene Kleiner was in town. We
also held the press conference in association with that and had some wonderful
activities at that time. We are here to report to you on our activities since then. What
we have done is taken steps through design development, since adoption of that master
plan, meeting with agencies, irrigation district, highway district, Public Works, others and
have been refining the master plan based on the realities of what we are dealing with,
both budgetarily and regulatory -- and regulations. So, we have for you tonight an
overview of the project. You will hear from three members of the design team. Susan
Graham will finish that overview and, then, Don Belts from Jensen Belts, our landscape
architect, will come up and talk about some of the special features and refinements to
some of the recreation areas within the park and, then, Walt Lindgren from Johnson
Architects is here to talk about the structures and, then, Susan will talk about the arts,
some of our sustainability, our schedule that we are on, and, then, request any
comments or feedback. Just as a quick brief overview and a reminder, the intent of this
park is for it to be a beautiful and peaceful setting. It's not a place where we have
programmed in active sports fields. We don't have softball fields, soccer fields, football
fields. What we have is a park dominated by trees, rolling hills, pathways, water
features, playground, picnic areas, things like that. It is predominantly passive
recreation and it's intended primarily to serve as a memorial to Julius M. Kleiner,
Eugene Kleiner's father, who this property has belonged to for a number of years. And
one of his specific desires through this was to develop a civic center that includes a new
senior center and a library. I'm going to show you -- we have been working on a -- a
video this last fall. Some of you may have seen it. I don't think it's been presented to
Council yet. I have to go over there to run it, so I will do that. Before I do I will mention
that this -- this master plan video is based on the original master plan that we adopted in
August. Some of the changes that have been necessitated over the last four months
will be what we present to you. Beyond that we do anticipate in front of Council in the
next month, approximately, to bring back a development agreement modification for
some of the -- the requirements that we have bumped into and discovered as we have
been going through the design development phase and with that, though, I will go over
there and run the video, so --
(Video played.)
Siddoway: The beginning has words with it and I won't talk over it. There is some
music that plays. It's kind of quiet and I will jump in a little later. We are going to zoom
in here to the project site, which is at the comer -- or near the comer of Eagle Road and
Fairview. Right on the comer is the Center Cal development and, then, the park site
sits to the north and -- sorry. To the east of it. Records Avenue you can see would be
extended in from Fairview to be the entrance to the park. This is a fly over of the master
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 15 of 62
plan. You can see the buildings to the very bottom are the civic center, senior center,
and the library. The major water features. And, then, the active play area at the bottom
of the screen right there. The entrance would be a memorial entrance with an arch and
note it as Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park. This is the entry road as you come through
that entrance to a roundabout. If you continue straight you would go between the two
water features and, eventually, around to the right near the senior center and the library.
This is the grand promenade, the main spine of the park. The center of that circle would
include the memorial statue to Mr. Kleiner and, then, the terminus on the north end
would be the -- the new amphitheater and band shell. So, the close up of what that
band shell might look like. Smaller venue for small concerts and activities within the
park. I'm going to go south now, I believe. This turns around. This is the recreation
complex with the signature picnic shelter, restrooms, concessions, play structure and
splash pad, as well as volleyball, basketball, and other play amenities. This is the
senior center and library and, then, across from that is the area we are calling the
arboretum, in the center of which is a labyrinth, which is something that we will talk
more about, but it was a specific request of Mr. Kleiner, along with another signature
picnic shelter. So, give a lot of credit to the design team and to the trust. They have
been hard at work -- we all have for the last several months with at least weekly and
often daily meetings and lacknowledge -- like to acknowledge Eldon Grey and Orville
Cheek, who represent the trust here tonight. And with that introduction I'll turn the time
over to Susan for the rest of the presentation.
Graham: Thank you very much. It's good to be back here and every time I watch that
video I feel like a proud parent and, yet, we still have another year and a half of work to
go. But it's moving fast and it's really exciting to see that. So, thanks for having us back
here today. We are going to give you just an overview of some of the design changes
that -- that have occurred. As Steve said, some of them are due to regulatory issues,
some of them are due to budget constraints and really trying to make our dollar go as
far as possible and Don is really going to touch on most of those items. In terms of
physically looking at the master plan you have in front of you, that there is two main
visual -- well, maybe three main visual changes you will notice. In the arboretum, which
is down where the labyrinth is, we no longer have a surface stream water feature. We
knew all along that could be challenging and could be expensive and what we found
was that our gut was right and we decided we needed to spend that money on some
other things. So, that's no longer there. At the far north of the property you will see -- it
looks like two white lines running across. Those are not power lines, those are actually
underground and those are, actually, the imgation canal. Nampa-Meridian has a lot of
restrictions on what you can do in, on, near, close to, in the vicinity of the irrigation ditch,
as you well know. So, it became apparent that the best way to have full access to the
northwest -- excuse me -- northeast comer of the park was to simply the those ditches,
open up the park site, and have a lot more flexibility and they love that concept. It takes
away a lot of liability from them, it gives us more park land, but it cost a fair amount of
money and so that did require us to rethink a few other things. So, the third big change
that you will see, which I personally believe that Don Belts has been masterful in
illustrating -- and you may not even know that you're missing anything -- is previously
we had -- and, Steve, if you want to use the pointer -- we did have an actual bridge over
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 16 of 62
the north pond. That bridge was several hundred thousand dollars and what Don has
come up with is a great -- I don't want to call it a compromise. It's a great design that
allows us to have a hard edge, feels like a peer up against the water, along the east
side, so you still have that water overlook, but, again, it gave us some more open land
to do some other things with. So, with that I'm going to let Don talk about all of the
special features and I will be back.
De Weerd: Good evening.
Belts: Good evening.
De Weerd: If you would also state your name for the record.
Belts: My name is Don Belts. I'm with Jensen Belts Associates, 495 Main Street,
Boise, Idaho.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Belts: We were the landscape architects on the design team. And it is good to be back.
Steve said I can draw on this, so watch out.
De Weerd: Well, if Steve said you can, you can. No. You really can.
Belts: Okay. Great. I may not need it, but if I do I got it. So, what you're looking at now
is really a blowup of the grand promenade and recreation area. That's an area that we
have spent more time on to do more refinement, so that we could understand it better
and get a better idea of cost. Susan covered very clearly our change to the pond itself
and the resultant space that we developed in lieu of the pond area is a~ box of trees,
lawn covered, that becomes an extension of the memorial plaza. So, that in maybe
more nonactive times you might expect to see picnic tables and people picnicking
underneath there and light filtered shade of over the lawn and, then, in times of a great
deal of activity, Arts in the Park, renaissance fair, music festivals of one sort or another,
it gives room and opportunity for expansion of those kinds of activities into that space. It
becomes a -- in some ways it becomes even a much more usable space than the pond
was in that area. And, again, as Susan had mentioned, we still have the nice strong
design edge to the edge of the water, people can come right up to handrails, there is
benches along that, and the promenade, so that they can look out over the lake and the
rest of the park and views off to the northwest off to the mountains. So, we are pleased
with it. We hated to lose the pond, but we like the solution. Just -- point out just quickly
the grand promenade. It's a little clearer here. Starting down on the south end there is
an overlook that looks out over the civic complex and, then, you move up northward,
moving through the grand plaza, and terminating at the north at the band shell and
amphitheater. Then, there is an access that takes us to the west and up to the active
recreation area and the drop-off zone and close to the parking area that allows good
public access to the central memorial plaza. This is a blow up of the active recreation
area and we are very excited about this. We have been able to maintain some of our
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 17 of 62
first elements that we were most excited about at concept and we have made them --
made them fit the budgets and so that's a good thing. As far as structures go -- and
Walt will talk about those a little bit later. There is a restroom, a signature picnic shelter
that plays off of the active recreation area and also the big open space to the south.
There is a smaller picnic shelter right in here and a concession stand located right in
here that serves the plaza area of the active recreation. The plaza itself is, again, a box
of trees. There are two botchiball courts located under that. Lots of benches. Game
tables for people to play. Tables -- picnic tables and sort of more -- tables related to the
concession, not quite so formal as the picnic tables, and, again, lots of benches. The
active play area -- the play structures themselves are located right in through here. The
half court basketball area. This is the base plaza box of trees I was talking about and
we kind of think -- it would depend on your opinion, but we really like --this is the splash
pad area and that's sort of the centerpiece of that active recreation area. Down in this
area right in here we have got a sand volleyball court.
De Weerd: So, Don what is botchiball?
Belts: botchiball is a great game. It's played on kind of a court, if you will, and there is a
series of about -- I think the scheme has four or five balls and -- and I can't think of the
terminology right now, but there is a little target ball and you throw the little target ball
out and, then, the teams try to roll the larger balls to that and so the closer balls get the
points and that's -- that's how it's played.
De Weerd: Hum. Thank you.
Belts: It's a great game you will see in -- all over the world and it's getting to be more
popular here. I have a friend that put a little Botchi court in his backyard and it really is
fun. It's a good spectator sport as well, so -- this is a shot of the arboretum. This is a --
Susan again mentioned this. This is an example of a labyrinth that we will find in
arboretum and as a center piece to that will be an obelisk and Susan will talk a little bit
about those when we talk about art in the project. In the arboretum, as well as the rest
of the park, we plan on having lot of trees. I think we have about 930 budgeted right
now and we are looking, if our numbers come in correctly, to get maybe another two or
three or four hundred trees throughout the park. The idea will be to use lots of color and
form, textural differences, so that there is something there in the park all -- every
season of the year. Same with our plantings in our planting beds, perennials and
grasses and stuff that would add interest all through the year. We started to look at
fumishings. We are not entirely specific here yet, because we are still trying to do some
shopping and we want to make sure that we get the best value for those kinds of
furnishings that we are looking for in the park. In general, if you look at benches in the
plaza area, the memorial plaza, we might find things a little bit more formal. We are
thinking about metal benches, double-sided benches, so that you can look out onto the
activities on the lake or the activities within the plaza. In the active recreation area
probably metal benches again, but maybe a little bit more color and a little bit more
character. And, then, through the more passive and informal portions of the park,
probably slatted boards and some type of recycled material throughout the rest of the
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 18 of 62
park. And these are waste cans. These are some of the play structures. It's Weevo
system and, then, a -- actually, Eevos and Weevos for the little ones. Infant bays where
we might use around the picnic shelters and around the perimeter and we just want the
little ones to be kept close to families and the larger kids can go -- older kids can go off
to the other more active play areas. Here is a shot of a botchiball and this characterizes
the splash pad. We are in the process of designing that now, but this kind of creates
the kind of character that we are after on the splash pad.
Zaremba: Excuse me. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: On your picture of the splash pad I see a low wall around it. Is that kind of
sitting height?
Belts: It would be. It would be.
Zaremba: I ask that because --
Belts: Whether ours will have one or not I don't know. We have talked about that, we
have just not made the final design, but that would be a low seating wall.
Zaremba: Okay. I ask that because our current splash pad in -- in the other park has a
lot of people trying to sit around it and watch their kids, so --
Belts: Yeah. And we plan on providing a lot of that opportunity.
Zaremba: Okay. Thank you.
Belts: Walt.
Lindgren: Good evening, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council. My name is
Walter Lindgren with Johnson Architects at 440 East Corporate Drive, Meridian, Idaho.
And I'm here today to talk about some of the structures around the park and have been
working closely with the Parametrics and the Jensen Belts group to develop these.
Really, what you see in front of you is just a list of those structures that have -- it's called
made the cut. We had some ideas of other additional structures that someday may still
happen at this point, but I think we are still very fortunate to have these being included
into the original design. I'll just go through this list. I think you've had a few seconds to
review that and we will go through these here real quickly. If I can figure this out. Here
we go. What you see here is the grand entrance and I think Steve was -- had explained
it pretty well how this -- just the entrance that meets you as you enter the park. This is
-- this is from the original model and some of the materials you will see are a little bit
different and I want to talk a little bit about materials before I get too deep into the
structures, but I think I'll -- I'll wait until I get to one that's more indicative of the color and
material scheme. But, in essence, this shows you kind of the idea of the materials with
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 19 of 62
stone and ametal -- kind of a -- type of system and, then, the signage that greets you
coming in and out of the park. As Don mentioned earlier, too, that the grand pathway
that terminates at the amphitheater band shell, again, so the idea creating -- you see a
similar type of material, the hard -- the masonry and the delicate nature of the metals.
Again, I'll talk about that here shortly as well. This is the signature picnic shelter. Again,
it's roughly 60 by 40, with a low lying wall that surrounds the shelter. This is located at
the arboretum, as well as the recreation area and I'm going to talk a little bit about
materials over here. What you're seeing to date is, you know, the continuation or the --
the repeating of certain elements within these structures and the idea is to tie these
elements together with like materials and slight variation. So, where ever you see, you
know, the stone or the strength of the masonry, we looked at using, you know, possibly,
you know, real stone or cultured stone or other types of masonry materials and at the
end of the day the one that we landed upon that we felt esthetically was going to
maintain itself over time or be maintenance friendly is a ground face masonry unit and I
think by doing that you have -- you have, for one, I think created a surface that's going
to be easy to keep clean and I think is very attractive, especially the grounding finish of
that, because it really pops the aggregate out and I think that's the idea is all these
structures you will see are very simple in their nature, but the idea is to really make
them explode with the texture of the materials. In addition to that, we also looked at --
or looking at doing most of the metal work out of this weathered steel or weathered
metal in this case and, really, the idea is that this is a -- it's a heightening process of the
weather and it's, basically, a rusticated, you know, metal piece and, then, once it's
sealed it's sealed within there and the idea is to have this real rich -- I think a very
interesting and timeless color versus something that's, you know, kind of coated or
painted for that matter. We will probably still -- as you can see the shelter still has some
accent colors, but the idea is to really keep it this rich rich pallet. And, in general, where
you see roofing materials we are going to stick with the galvanized roof system, again,
keeping very natural and very light and, then, very complimenting colors to each other.
Hoaglun: A quick question if I might, Madam Mayor, for -- that steel, you said that is
going to be sealed?
Lindgren: That's correct.
Hoaglun: So, there won't be any bleeding or any running of rust or anything onto the
stone?
Lindgren: Councilman Hoaglun, that's correct. Yeah. We looked into that. We --
talking with folks that do that here in town, Architectural Metalworks, talked to them
extensively about that, and that was certainly a concern of ours is maintaining, making
sure we are not getting bleeding all over stone, people, you know, everything.
Hoaglun: It looks great. Thanks.
Lindgren: Thank you.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 20 of 62
De Weerd: Well -- and I would like to make special note that the design team has taken
special or extraordinary steps to make sure that what they are adding to the park is not
going to create a maintenance nightmare as well and worked very closely with park staff
and experts on these to -- to assure that they are really going for the legacy and the
long term and looking at everyone's best interest on it.
Lindgren: And that, Mayor, it's a great point, because that is a concem. I mean it's one
thing that this park look beautiful and fresh at opening day, it's another thing for ten,
fifteen, twenty years ago to maintain that integrity and that's certainly a concem of ours.
And so -- and just moving on, these -- again, I'm not sure that these necessarily do the
justice of the texture and the color of these, but you start to get the idea of, again, the
repeating elements with the restrooms, again, the concession stands themselves,
masonry, the accent color with the weathering steel and the galvanized metal roofing.
And, then, the maintenance building, which is -- actually, in this case, this is actually --
because it's so remote and just more of a maintenance building, it's got a lot of the
same elements that we are incorporating, a fiber cement siding board painted in that
case. Just jumping ahead to the civic complex, the -- my screen is awfully squished this
way. I don't know if you -- if you guys can see that okay. Sony. But, anyway, the civic
complex -- these are the two -- I guess you call them the commercial buildings, if you
will, of the complex. You will see the senior center at the north -- northeast comer of
this area and, then, the library at the south, basically, connecting between those two
pieces is the connecting plaza that will terminate at an art piece, which is the obelisk.
Without getting too much into the program, basically, we have been meeting with the
individual groups, we have had very productive meetings and are progressing nicely
with the designs. Basically, just some real just beginning sketches of the senior center
and library just to kind of give you a sense of direction. Really, the idea to incorporate
some real natural materials has the buildings feel like they are, you know, part of the
nature with a lot of contrasting hard materials and soft materials in this case, breaking --
breaking tradition of -- of these materials and incorporating in materials such as brick
and wood like soffit material. And in the library itself. That lighter color represents more
of a -- the masonry like we -- I described here that I have got with me in material-wise,
and, again, very clean and simple -- simple forms, gables and shed roofing I think, just
because it's such a dynamic and, really, having these two structures not feel that they
are -- they are tied to the same complex, but they are not the same building, essentially.
I'll tum it back over to Susan, unless -- or stand for questions if there are any.
Hoaglun: Just -- Madam Mayor, one quick last question and that was on the
amphitheater, I'm assuming we have got it wired for sound that if someone wants -- for
microphones and that sort of thing, so we can have some projection out.
Lindgren: Council Member Hoaglun, we are looking at both where some might bring it
for remote. Really, the idea is that these are for smaller venues, so in terms of the
extent where we go with -- with lighting and sound is still -- I think the details are being
finely tuned, but, yeah, the whole idea is that there would be enough for projection,
whether we decide to provide those hookups or have someone bring their own amplified
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 21 of 62
-- amplifiers to the event, so those are things we are still kid of fine tuning, but are in
consideration.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I wasn't thinking of rock star -- rock concert staging or anything like
that.
Lindgren: Sure.
Hoaglun: Something that you do have a microphone and things that can amplify a little
bit, so --
Lindgren: And it's a great plan. Absolutely.
Hoaglun: Great. Thank you.
Lindgren: You bet. Thank you.
Graham: Okay. I get to come back and talk about the fun stuff again. We have been
working with Meg. It was great timing that she was here tonight and she's been
extremely helpful to the park trustees and going through the art process. I personally
haven't procured art in the past, so she's been really great in helping guide us in that.
There is a lot of art in the park that is part of just the features of the park. Walt walked
through some of them already. The entry is the first art feature that you will see in the
park and that's a key element. But there will also be a memorial statute, which will be a
bronze statute and there is an example of one there, although I think that's a miner and
not a businessman or dairy farmer. An obelisk. We put out the RFP for an obelisk just
today and there is going to be a series of them in the park, one near the band shell, one
at the -- at the -- oh, yeah, at the civic complex plaza and, then, the other is in the
middle of the labyrinth and I have to admit also that I didn't really know that an obelisk --
if someone would have told me, you know, like the Washington Monument I would have
known what an obelisk was, but we are not necessarily wanting our artist to interpret it
that specifically and I really like this example here from the Sidney Olympics, because
we really are hoping that the artists that respond to our RFQ come up with some unique
elements and not necessarily something that's heavy and blocky like the Washington
Monument, although it could be. But I thought this was a good interpretation of an
obelisk. Interpretive signage will also be an element of art in the park. There is an
example there. We intend to -- Don will be creating those, much like your signage that
you have in the plaza here, they are really another integral part of the story and of the
art and he will be working on those to tell sort of the dairy farm historical perspective,
but also there will be a placcard that talks about Mr. Kleiner's life and his -- how he
ended up in Meridian and will lead you to the senior center and the library, one of which
will house a small museum of artifacts of the area that has some of the old dairy farming
equipment and so those will -- there will also be way finding signage, which is the
bottom sign there that will move you through the park, so that you know where you're
going. It's a large site, so we will have some of those opportunities as well. And they
will all be in a theme that makes sense. These ideas here are just examples of other--
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 22 of 62
mostly of other places. The sustainability objectives, we have several for the park, but I
think the primary one is what the Mayor has already mentioned in that we have been
working from the beginning to develop a park that's maintainable, that's lasting, that
doesn't require a lot of money and staff time and so the number one goal for
sustainability would be to have longevity in the investments that we are making. So, we
are looking at that both from the site and the structures and weighing the cost and the
benefits and, then, understanding the maintenance and implications. One of the
interesting things I'd like to point out is that the -- it's awind -- it's a wind tunnel - or,
excuse me, a wind -- vertical wind structure and the lighting down in the lower comer of
that is a structure that Trima in Portland has done. It generates wind power. It's solar
lit. It's really interesting and neat looking and in some fashion could function as that
obelisk feature that ties you visually. So, just a lot of different ideas of things we are
looking at. And it all comes back to we have a budget, just like all of us in the city and in
our lives and we have been balancing a lot of those things. We are currently at about
14 million six hundred thousand dollars with the park development cost. That's
everything including our contingency, the design and construction fees. That leaves us
about 400,000 in an endowment fund, which we'd really like to have between 500,000
and 750,000 in an endowment fund, which could be used as matching funds for future
projects, it could be used to -- if there is vandalism of the memorial statue or other
maintenance type things that are above and beyond what the city would normally do in
their parks. So, we are hoping to keep that money and also be able to have an
opportunity to match things that other folks may. want to come in with memorials of their
family members. The schedule is really running starting this week even and we are
working on the final design and into construction documents by the end of May. You
will see us here -- I think Steve said in about a month or so for the development
agreement modification, but we also will be back to talk -- or Steve will about the Red
Feather parcel, which is immediately north of the park. There was a remainder parcel
that has been -- that will be given to the trust and ultimately deeded to the city as part of
the park that cleans up a northern comer that was between their fence line and our
property line and just sort of takes care and gives us a couple extra acres of park. So,
we will be back between now and May. Initial construction is expected this spring. You
will see mass grading and some utility work ahead of the design -ahead of the finer
finishing treatments and, again, we see that happening as soon as the weather is dry for
an extended period, probably April time frame. We do plan on having a formal ground
breaking. It may come after the -- some of the mass grading, but we will talk Mr. Kleiner
into coming back for that ceremony and we will do it up right with gold shovels and
everything, just commemorating the beginning of construction. We expect construction
to take about ayear -- just over a year and to have the really big party in late summer,
early fall of 2011 where we will have a grand opening ceremony and a dedication of the
band shell and music and all sorts of things that we will be working on and coming back
to you to talk in more detail about. So, that is the end of our presentation. I'm sure all of
us are happy to answer any questions that you may have.
De Weerd: Council, questions?
Bird: I have none. Just looks great, Mayor. Dream come true.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 23 of 62
De Weerd: Well, I know there has been a lot of discussions -- you know, the work and
the dedication to this project has just been incredible. I congratulate everyone that is
working on this. I had lunch with Mr. Kleiner right after Christmas and, you know, this is
kind of a once in a lifetime dream type of a thing that it's just really exciting that the city
is a part of something this magnificent. But the team is really trying to look at it from
every angle and looking at opportunities to the -- to leverage dollars to enhance the
endowment, to look for other opportunities that others can also memorialize their loved
ones in -- in this kind of fashion and Mr. Kleiner has wanted to open up that opportunity
and seeing -- I think he's tasked the team to see how we can really roll that out and
make it inviting for others to do something. Maybe, you know, most definitely on a
smaller scale, but this is going to be a real treasure that I look forward to seeing
revealed over time and so I just appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you all the
team for joining us. Orville. Eldon. Eldon, I'm glad to see that you're feeling better and
we look forward to continued updates.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Siddoway: One final point to the construction -- to the maintenance implications. It is a
drum I keep banging on and as we go through the design and trying to make sure we
are designing this to last and with an understanding of maintenance, I have been
tasking my staff to look hard at the -- the maintenance side of this and I anticipate being
back in front of Council possibly next week with an update to you about the
maintenance implications specifically. So, with that thank you for having us tonight.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve, and thanks again to the team. Any further opportunity --
this is your last chance for questions tonight on this project.
Zaremba: It's not a question. Bravo.
Hoaglun: Just a comment. Keep up the good work. It's great. Thank you.
2. Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission
recommendations regarding amendments to the
Pathways Master Plan
De Weerd: Thank you very much. Okay. Steve, you're also the next item under 7-B-2.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor. There should have been included in your packet
tonight a draft resolution, as well as some exhibits relating to amendments that we
would like to make to the pathways plan. These are clean-up items. As you know, the
Parks and Recreation Commission has been holding regular pathway tours and
Councilman Zaremba has been along with us on those. Thank you. And as we have
gone out in the field and looked at some of these things on site and talked about making
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 24 of 62
connections and looking more specifically at constraints on the ground, we have come
up with some clean-up items, five specifically, that we'd like to bring before you tonight.
I will just give you a brief description of each. The first is along Linder Road, the
connection along Linder Road to Eagle Island is envisioned. We want to keep it. The
change is that we want to keep the separated multi-use pathway from the Paramount
Subdivision north, but allow -- to clarify that bike lanes and sidewalk facilities south of
there can -- can be the -- the pathway connection as an on-street connection. Through
those already built-out areas we don't see requiring separated ten foot multi-use
pathways through existing developed and landscaped areas. The -- the second is at
Lochsa Falls near Heroes Park. On the map is depicted an on-street route. The
commission, as we were in the area, we identified a more direct on-street route, so it's
simply changing from one on-street route to another that is more direct from the existing
ten foot multi-use path system in Lochsa Falls and connecting to Heroes Park. The
third one is at Fuller Park, which is a Western Ada Recreation District park, but we do
have apathway -- multi-use pathway that goes through Blackstone, Coral Creek, into
Fuller Park, and we were looking at its extension out to Ten Mile and there is a real
pinch point there on the north side, so basic proposal is to cross the -- the facility, the
Ten Mile feeder drain right there and move the connection to Ten Mile over to the south
side of that facility. The fourth one is in downtown, which are also on-street routes and
we noticed that some were disconnected and we were, frankly, just connecting them up,
so we had an interconnected system and not a disconnected one. The final one is the
river area up in -- up north where we have recently added land to our area of impact
along the Boise River and that was added since the pathway's master plan was
developed and a pathway is not currently shown along the south side of the Boise River
and we would like to add one there. The Park and Recreation Commission has been
discussing these changes at length and at their January 13th meeting just last week
they passed a resolution to recommend to City Council approval of these changes and
with that I'll stand for any questions and if Council is amenable we will put the resolution
on -- for your Consent Agenda next week. We are not actually asking for approval of
that resolution tonight, but I'll stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
Hoaglun: Don't think so.
Zaremba: No.
De Weerd: Okay.
Siddoway: We will bring it back to you next week on your Consent Agenda. Thank you.
C. Sanitary Services Company
1. Discussion on Solid Waste Advisory Committee
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 25 of 62
D. Sanitary Services Company and Legal Department
1. Solid Waste Ordinance Discussion
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Okay. Item 7-C is our Sanitary Service Company, SSC,
and we have Nancy Mann here with us tonight.
Mann: We do have a CD presentation and I am not an IT person, so I'm going to ask
for some help. There we go and all I got to do is punch that little blue thing, uh?
Siddoway: Punch the button to the right.
Mann: Great. Madam Mayor and City Council, I'm pleased to be here this evening to
present a ten minute overview of the work we have done in the last decade. It's really
hard for me to believe that the Solid Waste Advisory Committee has been in existence
for ten years and there is a few people in this room who have been with me for those
ten years. People have come and gone off that committee, but Charlie's been around
for ten years and Steve Sedlacek has been around for ten years and Ithink -- and me. I
think those are the three that are the longest standing committee members. My name is
Nancy Mann. I am not employed by Sanitary Services, I am a private citizen in the City
of Meridian and Steve reminded me tonight that if I don't do a good job he's going to cut
my pay in half, so I better watch what I say. So, I have to give credit to Samantha Miller
from Sanitary Services for putting together this Powerpoint presentation, since I'm not
an IT person, I'm a registered nurse, I can start an IV, but I can't run a computer. So, I
don't know what else to say. So, with that said I will start the presentation, we will go
through this very quickly, and, then, we will take questions at the end. About ten years
ago, (believe -- Mayor de Weerd, I think it was your idea that we put this committee
together. In the beginning it was very unofficial. It was the solid waste ad hoc advisory
committee, and we just kind of got together about every quarter and tossed around
some ideas about how we could improve solid waste services in the City of Meridian
and it has now developed into a very formalized committee where up until December of
2009 we met once a month and this presentation will show you what we have done over
the last ten years. So, we talked about we have been around since 2000. We served
as an advisory committee to the City Council on solid waste issues and we came up
with new programs. In the beginning we weren't really sure where we were going to go,
but we put together this group of people, a private citizen of Meridian, which is me, the
City Council members, Charlie -- like Charlie Rountree, who has been with us for a long
time, the city attomey -- Bill, I believe you're the second city attomey that we had on our
committee. Bill Gigray was the first one. Parks and Recreation director, public works
director, billing manager -- Jaycee helped us out quite a bit in the past and a young
person from the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. So, we met regularly to discuss what
new programs we were going to implement. Solid issues, ideas, and rate discussions in
regards to Sanitary Services, cooperation with the City of Meridian and their rate
structure. So, we helped with that also. The biggest thing that we have done, of
course, is our curb side recycling program. When I first moved to Meridian in 1995, I
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 26 of 62
moved here from Texas and the first phone call I made was to City Hall to find out
where I could get my recycling bin and they said, well, we don't recycle here. And I was
like, what, why not? And the comment I got was, well, we -- we did a little pilot program
a year ago or so and nobody liked it, nobody liked to recycle, and I thought, well, how
could you not like to recycle. That's like not liking clean air. So, just so happened that
my ex-husband worked with Steve Sedlacek down at CH2M Hill and he got to know that
I was very interested in recycling, so he asked me to be on this committee when it first
came to be, so that's how I got involved ten years ago. So, at that point you were not
recycling, but we started to work on that issue. So, that's why I hung in there for all
these years. So, we started the curb side recycling program in 2000 and I cannot say
enough about Sanitary Services. I got to give them a plug, because I think there are so
many people in this town that do not realize when we put that program together it really
was Sanitary Services' idea that the revenue that came off the recycling bins on the
curbs would go into a special community fund program, so that we could buy really
really cool stuff for the City of Meridian. Some of their competitors in the valley, the curb
side recycling revenue goes directly to the trash hauler. In this case, you know, they
could have very well designed this program so that they kept all that money, but they
didn't, they gave it to the city and we have done some tremendous really neat, neat
things with the money. So, I can't say enough good things about how this program was
designed to put that money aside. It's -- I have a whole list here of where the money
has gone and we won't go into details, but I'm going to highlight just a few of them. So,
thanks to SSC for making City of Meridian a better place to live. We've spent over
300,000 dollars to date throughout the City of Meridian buying really nice things for the
city. People would put in applications for requesting these funds and one of the things
we did for the committee -- or in the committee meeting was to get together and decide
how much we were going to give to which applicants. There were -- the application
process, they -- they had to -- it was aone-to-one match on the funds, so if the people
requested 10,000 dollars, we put in five and they put in 5,000. The project, of course,
had to be within Meridian city limits. It had to -- this was important. It had to contain
recycled material in the actual item of the project, so if somebody wanted to buy park
benches they had to be at least 50 percent made from recycled material and had to be
proven in the application. So, after it was approved and the item was built and installed,
a sign had to be placed on the item in the park or where ever in the city to prove that --
or to show the public that if you recycle this is -- this is what happens in the City of
Meridian. So, it really helped to, you know, stimulate people that live in Meridian to
recycle in their homes, so that they could see what they were getting out of that. So,
here is some of the neat stuff that we bought for the City of Meridian. This is a play set
over at Bedford Place Subdivision. This is a reader board over at Sawtooth Middle
School. When you drive by you would never think that it came from recycled materials.
This was a very creative project that was requested and we struggled a little bit whether
we could approve funding for something like this, but 52 percent of that sign is made out
of recycled material and we also required that they run recycling verbiage on that sign,
so when you drive by it will say recycle, exclamation point. That every time I drive by it
I'm like, yes, I hope everybody's reading that when they drive by. So, we paid for that.
Or half of it. Meridian -- the Idaho Food Bank here in Meridian, I know that you talked
about giving them some money earlier tonight. I believe we gave them about 35,000
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 27 of 62
dollars and when the request first came in for this project we were also -- we struggled a
little bit over this one. How are we going to -- how are we going to justify giving them
this money. Well, it turned out that we put money into funding their van, helping the van
that goes around town and picks up food that would otherwise be thrown away and go
to the landfill. Instead we kept it here and we are feeding people in the City of Meridian.
So, we actually gave them money twice, two different separate periods of time, and you
can see on the side of the van it said Meridian's community recycling program helped to
equip this vehicle and, low and behold, see it drive around town and people get to read
that on the side of the van. So, that was a very creative way that we spent some of the
money in town here also. This was another cool project and we had a local artist,
Bernie Jestrabek-Hart, who made this sculpture out of recycled scrap metal from
neighborhood clean ups that went into our recycling bins and this was a very neat
project that was a very visual presentation in the City of Meridian. Some of the
highlighted amounts that we spent -- I'm just going to read the ones over 25,000 dollars,
which are significant. The very first item was down in Storey Park, that very large play
structure that you see down at the comer at Storey Park, was 31,000 dollars. The Bear
Creek Park playground equipment was 28,000 dollars. Adventure Island playground,
we paid for the playground surfacing material up there, which is made out of recycled
material. Twenty-five thousand dollars at Storey Park for bleachers, 19,000 one time to
Idaho Food Bank and, then, another -- I think they got another 15,000, and lots of
money went into Meridian Parks and Recreation. Steve was really happy when he
figured out that he could get some of our money. So, we gave a lot to the parks
department to pay for playground equipment all over the city. And that's just a highlight.
We've spent a total of 325,100 dollars over the course of our program. The other thing
that we did is we wanted to promote recycling within the business community in
Meridian, so a few years ago we decided we were going to give the environment at
work award and people would apply to our program, because they were recycling at
their businesses. So, the first one was given out in 2008 and here, again, the business
had to be located in the City of Meridian. They had to be able to document they were
recycling on site at their businesses. They had to be a business for at least one year in
Meridian. Of course, they couldn't have any environmental actions against them. And
they had to be visited by a -- the SWAC member, which just happened to be me. I went
out and talked to all neat people. So, in 2008 Crucial Technology here in Meridian -- I
was very, very impressed with what they are doing over there. They virtually have one
dumpster for their entire business. They recycle like 98 percent of everything that goes
through that plant. It was very impressive. So, that was our first year. And honorable
mention we had the teacher over at Meridian Academy Jeremy Whitman, he's got those
kids recycling everything over there at Meridian Academy and we also gave him money
for some library tables, picnic tables, and trash receptacles over there also. This year
we had a really nice showing for our applicants and Pro Build here in Meridian won with
the award for 2009 and I was very impressed with what they are doing over there also.
They recycle a lot of goods over there on their property and this is a picture of Tracy
Skidmore and Justin Solom from Pro Build. They are doing a very great job over there
and, then, this is Lorraine Sigler from her own individual company called In Through The
Outdoors where she recycles a lot of materials into really nice reusable items. So, here
is the big thing that we have done this year. I'm sure you're all aware that we have
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 28 of 62
gone from our individual containers at curb side to commingled recycling in the City of
Meridian. This transition has occurred, really, for a number of -- a few number of
reasons. Mostly because we have got to get people in the City of Meridian to start
recycling more. We had a pretty good participation rate when we had to individually
separate our plastic, our paper, our aluminum cans and tin cans, but now we are
throwing everything into one big bucket and I understand from talking to the folks at
SSC that the program is really picking up. Since we -- since everybody can just throw it
all in one big bin, there -- they have requests for up to 100 new carts every week. So,
the amount of product that's going over to Western Recycling is really tremendous. And
the reason for this is coming down the pike here very shortly we are going to have, you
know, can limits, you are only going to be able to put out so much with your trash
collection, so we have got to encourage people to recycle, so that we can get more out
of the waste stream, so we have to take less stuff up to the landfill. So, the commingled
recycling program started in 2009. The committee, basically, put this together with
SSC's help and so we don't have to separate it anymore and we can go to a fully
automated cart system. So, I'm sure you have all been driving around town and,
hopefully, you're all participating also. I know personally I live alone and I recycle just
about everything in my home and I'm amazed at how full I get that 95 gallon cart by
myself. I have some teenagers blowing through and some friends, but everybody in my
house knows they better not throw anything away that could be recycled. So, it's going
to be easier for residents to recycle, because everything goes into one container, you
don't have to separate it, you just roll it out to your curb and it's also much safer for SSC
employees, because they don't have to pick up bins and it's going to be a lot safer for
them. So, here is just a nice picture of what the new recycling truck looks like. It's
completely automated. The driver never has to leave the vehicle. Less chance of
injury. And very convenient, actually, for homeowners. Okay. The disadvantage. Here
is the bummer of this whole thing. I'm really excited that we are going to recycle more in
Meridian and we are going to be driving less of it up to Hidden Hollow landfill. The
problem is is that the revenue that's going to be generated from our curb side recycling
program is, basically, going to be negated and we will no longer have this wonderful
community recycling fund like we have had for the last ten years, then, the money,
basically, is going to be going away. So, I'm really sad about that, but it's just kind of a
sign of the times and we need to move forward and get -- get more recycling material
over to the recycling outfit. So, unfortunately, our community recycling fund is going to
be pretty much gone away. The other thing that we paid for, which, unfortunately, we
forgot to put in this presentation is our household hazardous waste collection, which
used to be every two weeks, it's now weekly, because there has been -- people just
showed up tremendously for that. We were amazed at how much stuff showed up over
there that ended up not going to the landfill, which is a huge environmental hazard. And
the revenue from the curb side recycling also paid for the cost of that household haz-
mat collection. So, that was a huge environmental asset that came out of the program
also. So, I already talked about what we have done. We started curb side recycling.
It's evolved over the years. We generated this recycling fund. We bought great stuff for
the City of Meridian and a few months ago we kind of were winding down and rolling out
the curb side recycling with the commingled carts and we kind of felt like we had done
done our job, we did some great work over the ten years and we weren't really sure
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 29 of 62
what -- what our use was going to be now. I'm sure doctor -- doctor -- in my medical
brain -- I'm sure Mayor de Weerd may have some ideas about this, but at this point we
thought we were, basically, going to be shutting down the Solid Waste Advisory
Committee. I guess time's going to tell on that one. I have been very happy to serve on
the committee. It's been very interesting for me as the public citizen on the committee,
I've had a great time with my partners in crime at the committee. I kind of got the
nickname of the Trash Queen here in town. I hope I don't lose that. It's been kind of
fun. Got my mind off my medical world that I usually live in and it's been a privilege
being on this committee and I'm really kind of going to miss hanging out with these great
folks and I'm really happy when I drive by and see all the play structures and the park
benches and the trash cans and the soft fall at the playgrounds, knowing that we did
that. So, thank you very much. Any questions?
De Weerd: Well, Council, before I ask for your questions, you know, certainly Nancy's
passion about this has helped -- really has been a driver behind a lot of the programs
and the results that you have seen and first I'd like to commend you for that. You have
been that one constant face on those committees and certainly you and our private
partner SSC have been tremendous to work with and you are correct in your
assumption and -- do we have plans for you? Indeed we do -- that not so quickly we will
disassemble this talented and passionate group of folks, but I think that the city
environmentally is really rolling out other programs, we are looking at partnerships with
SSC in composting perhaps. We have some more to see through in recycling and
certainly the automated pickup. So, I believe that there is still tasks at hand that we
could use the passion and expertise of this committee to continue to look forward to and
it may transition and change its profile during that task, but that will roll out over time as
well. So, I hate to let go of people who are passionate, who get results, and look
forward to --
Mann: Well, I'm not moving.
De Weerd: I know. And we will hunt you down if you did. But we look forward to your
continued service. So, Council, any questions for Nancy?
Hoaglun: Just a quick question, Nancy. And I don't know if this is -- you're the right
person to ask, but, you know, the recyclable market is a market and there are
fluctuations in that.
Mann: Yes.
Hoaglun: Where are we in that process right now? We know it's dropped significantly
from where it was, but -- and I --
Mann: I'd refer that to Steve when he gets up to talk. And historically over the -- all the
years we have been collecting the fund money, every month the amount that we would
be paid for the recycled material did fluctuate. So, we never knew exactly how much
was going to be coming in, but as you can see, 325,000 dollars over -- over nine years.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 30 of 62
Hoaglun: Yeah. And that's --
Mann: So, we did okay. And do keep in mind that -- I don't want to say -- I don't want to
reiterate too much, but that money could have not gone to all of us, but gone to the
contractor, as it usually does in most communities in this country, the revenue could
have been kept by SSC, but because of the way this program was designed, all the
citizens of Meridian did get the benefit from that.
Hoaglun: Well -- and just to comment on that, you know, that just speaks to the
partnership that we have with our companies and businesses in Meridian. I mean
SSC's a great business to have and you're just a continuation of a theme, I think, that
we see in this city. You know, Meg Glasgow from the Arts Commission was up earlier,
here is a volunteer, a business person giving of her time and efforts to make the city a
better place through arts. I mean Kleiner Park, I mean here is a 15 million dollar gift
someone is giving the citizens of Meridian and now you, Nancy, were working nine
years in creating a recycling program and getting citizens involved and making it
blossom and working with the company that wants to see it succeed and willing to
forego that as revenue, but turning it back in the community and I guess that's what
makes Meridian so great. I mean we just got people who come out of everywhere to
work and make this a great community. So, all I can say is thank you, appreciate
everything you have done and knowing the Mayor like we do, yeah, you're going to be
stuck with something, so --
Mann: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well -- And, Nancy, keep in mind that that 225,000 dollars with the one-to-
one match equates to over 650,000.
Mann: Yes.
De Weerd: So, it's pretty exciting to see that investment into recycling --
Mann: Trash into treasure.
De Weerd: Trash into treasure. Thank you. Steve, please.
Sedlacek: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just to answer your question,
Councilman Hoaglun, the -- the recycling markets are still down. We are paying ten
dollars a ton to get rid of the material that we are collecting curb side. So, last month
we paid about 2,500 dollars to get rid of that material and that was material that we
used to sell for about 10,000 dollars. So, we've also, then, taken over the payment for
the household hazardous waste cost, which is about 3,500 dollars a month. So, you
know, even if the recycling markets were positive and if they would pay us for that
commingled material, even if they got to a positive ten dollar amount, it wouldn't cover
the household hazardous waste payments, which is what it used to do. So, we are a
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 31 of 62
ways off from -- in this economic cycle we are in to getting back to the right side of the
ledger, if you will. And let me just correct -- not correct one thing, but just add a
comment. Councilman Bird's been around for a long time. I just would like -- back in
1999, 2000, when we were talking about recycling, we actually did present to the
Council the opportunity that Sanitary Service could keep all that money or the city could
keep it and -- well, the Council -- and I'd like to recognize Councilman Anderson, who
was a Councilman at the time, was very adamant about, you know, that that's the city's
money and it should come back to the city. So, it wasn't all altruism on SSC's part, I
should say that.
De Weerd: Yeah. I think three of us were -- in this room remember that conversation.
Bird: And, Madam Mayor, let me say something before Steve goes on. Even though
we didn't -- you know, we wanted to share it --
Sedlacek: Right.
Bird: -- you guys certainly didn't have to share it. You know, that come out of your
profits and I can't say enough about how much I appreciate all the money that that has
turned back to the community and like the Mayor pointed out, you give back 325,000,
which -- which we matched and I know what the legion field -- the 25,000 we matched a
little more than that, so it did go over the 650,000 and that -- that's a nice increase and
the volunteerism and stuff that we have got. I can't speak enough about your company.
You guys are just so first class.
Sedlacek: Well, thank you very much and I think that that's what causes people to
recycle more when they know it's coming back to the community and that was the whole
idea and I think that's what we accomplished.
Bird: Yeah. When we started in '99 it was -- we started talking about it, it was -- it was
an idea that we didn't know if it was going to fly or not and neither did you.
De Weerd: Now, Steve, as far as participation goes, I know that when we had the -- the
sorted recycling program our participation numbers were fairly high, but now that we are
doing the commingle, how -- how is that working?
Sedlacek: We -- well, when we had the -- Madam Mayor, when we had the source
separated at the curb in the green bin, we had an equation that we used to estimate the
participation. And it was -- it's kind of inexact, to be frank. But our participation rates
based on that were pretty high, 80 percent or more. What we are finding is the actual
volume -- if you're just looking at weights, the amount of material that we are getting out
of the waste stream through recycling has gone up at least 50 percent and maybe more;
correct? Yeah. So, that's great. So, equating that to the number of houses I'm not
exactly sure, because now we don't pick up every week, we pick up every other week,
so people, you know, don't -- they do not set out, they set out every other week. So,
hopefully, when we go to fully automated we will have an actual indicator -- we will know
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 32 of 62
exactly the number of homes that have the recycling carts and we will assume that they
are all participating, otherwise, they wouldn't have one. So, we will have a much better,
more accurate account then. But we are -- we are handing out so many carts, you
know, it's just growing and growing every week, it's hard to know the exact number.
De Weerd: But we estimate it approximately an 80 percent participation on the curb
side?
Sedlacek: Yes. Yeah. I think --
De Weerd: Phenomenal. Yeah.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: I would think you would have at least or more -- I mean on my neighborhood, now
that we have got the commingled, I mean it just -- the -- instead of three houses along --
out of our six, five of them have got those sitting out every other week.
Sedlacek: That's right. Yeah.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Zaremba: I find that I find more things that I can put into the commingled recycle bin as
well. I just -- from the earlier program to this program for the couple of three or so
months that we have been doing it, I have my actual go to the land -- go to the landfill
trash down to almost nothing, like a tall kitchen garbage bag does me a whole week.
Sedlacek: Well, we are going to -- Councilman Zaremba, we are going to have a rate
structure for you in May that will help you out.
De Weerd: I'll give you my kids and, then, I can say the same thing.
Bird: I'll go for that. We are a lot like you. One garbage bag maybe once a week.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Zaremba: Now, I'm guessing that what we have been talking about most of the time is
residential recycling and waste stream and stuff and there has been mention of -- of
businesses that are recycling. How is that handled? Are they charged for a dumpster
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 33 of 62
to recycle into or -- and, then, they put their regular trash in a different dumpster or -- it's
not free to them I take it.
Sedlacek: No. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, and Councilman Zaremba, the
commercial recycling is commingled also. We provide a five cubic yard front load
container for a particular business. They will move one dumpster for recycle and, then,
garbage and they have to pay for both, but the idea is that there is a reduced rate,
because there is no landfill fee on the recycling, so there is a reduced rate for that five
yard container and, hopefully, what they do, then, is reduce the frequency of collection
on their garbage container and it works out that they might save a little or break even
and we tried to make the rate structure such that there is an incentive to do that and we
are getting more and more business to do it. But they do it to pay for the container.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor. Steve, just a question. With the rates for the recyclable
materials where they are right now and you are operating a business, not a charity, how
long will you be able to sustain these rates and not having to do something to the rate
structure?
Sedlacek: Well, I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. Western Recycling
tells me that things are getting better, not worse. When we first were proposing this
program the economy kind of pitch into the ground a bit and I was told when we were
starting that this might cost 30 dollars a ton to get rid of the stuff. Well, landfill fees are
about 20 dollars a ton, you know, they can start thinking, well, why are we recycling if
it's cheaper to throw it away? Well, as it turned out it's only ten dollars a ton and the
recycling companies are being good to us, they are trying to, obviously -- if they jack
those prices up people stop recycling and, then, they would go out of business. So,
there is tension there, they just can't raise the rates Willy Hilly. I think if the economy
recovers we are going to be fine. Or I shouldn't say if, but when the economy recovers
those commodity values will also recover and I think we will be fine. Also, if Westem
Recycling constructs the facility that they want to construct near Costco and they start
segregating some of the material and selling it and not having it go through a middle
man, that will help our commodity pricing also. So, I think we are okay. If we are not,
we will come and talk to you.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: How -- I know how the roll out has gone, it's kind of gone a little bit -- not as
smooth as we had hoped, but I know that Councilman Bird had stressed that he would
like to see a public education program. I know that Samantha is working in getting out
information via the intemet and through mailers and inserts. How is that public
education program going and are you starting to see things settle?
Sedlacek: Oh, as far as the commingled recycling program, Madam Mayor, we are
finding it's settling out. People are -- you know, we were inundated with phone calls and
everyone wanted their cart that day and we just could only hand out so many at a time
and we are trying to keep track of the serial numbers on the carts and what addresses
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 34 of 62
they go to, so there is a large database issue we were dealing with. That's all calmed
down now. The next crisis, if you want to call it that, or bump in the road will be when
we hand out all of the waste carts for waste collection, automated waste collection in,
you know, Mayish. The same problem is going to occur, you know, someone's going to
order a 65 gallon cart and we are going to deliver a 95, because someone wasn't
reading their piece of paper properly or -- you know, there is going to be hiccups, there
is going to be human error involved and we are going to do the best we can and get --
put extra people on the street and get those -- get the right carts to the right customer. I
don't know of any other way to do it. You know, we -- I think for me one of the most
frustrating things is getting the information out to the public, getting the public to read it,
you know, getting the public to go on the intemet, maybe, and sign up for a cart. Very
few people did that when we did the recycling carts. Something like ten percent of the
populous did it. Well, that's a start, but I mean if -- it's just difficult to get people's
attention sometimes.
Bird: Madam Mayor? Steve, getting this out to the public, what about a couple of fliers
say in March and April in our water bills -- I mean I know you can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him drink, but at least Ifeel -- and I know you guys feel better -- at
least we know we have tried to get it and I had no complaints on your recyclable the
way you got the carts out and stuff. A couple of people called me about the slowness of
getting it out and I said, hey, they have only got so many men and so many hours and
they understood it, so --
Sedlacek: Councilman Bird, I think Samantha has already arranged to have those fliers
sent out; is that correct? Yeah. We are always looking for new ways to reach the
public, whether it's -- whether we had TV ads or spots when we did the -- when we did
the commingle recycling. We have had radio spots. I'm not sure -- I mean I'm not really
into Twitter and Facebook and all that. Maybe I should get into that. I don't know. I
don't know if that's more effective -- I guess the -- maybe the more avenues you use the
more effective you are, so maybe there is something we could do. I'm not sure.
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I don't know if this is a
good time to transition to the topic, but it's definitely related, but on the ordinance itself,
one of the recommendations that we have is to continue the Solid Waste Advisory
Committee, at least for a while longer, as we attempt to deal with the different issues
and one of them is the public input and how do people have an opportunity to address
what issues may be out there. I mean we have -- my staff and myself and the clerk's
office have sat down with SSC to try to spot issues early. We have to amend our
ordinance to address an automated collection system, because it's different than what
exists today and so in anticipation of that we have had this discussion. Well, there are a
number of issues that can affect the public and the solid waste committee at least is a
tool that allows people to have some opportunity to come and voice their concerns that
is at least different -- I know when we have done other things and I think SSC did with
the -- with the program in doing public focus meetings, again, it's a tool. Sometimes
people get there, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they -- no matter how many
meetings you have we still have people say we had no idea this was going on and when
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 35 of 62
did you sneak this by. I know Mr. Simison from the Mayor's office and I looked at some
of the content of material to put in the fliers and want to have the discussion with SSC
on maybe, again, how we can get the right information out at the right time, but, you
know, we identified some significant issues in trying to create a change, an amendment
to the ordinance, and if you look on your packet -- and I don't know if Mrs. Holman can
get the picture up from the -- the presentation that was just done by Nancy, but there is
a slide that shows -- and it's titled advantages. It has a picture of the recycling truck,
which I think is the same truck that -- type of truck that the trash is going to be used for,
isn't it?
Sedlacek: That's correct. Yes.
Nary: And this picture -- this picture exemplifies probably the most significant issue we
-- we felt we had to address in this ordinance and we felt that the solid waste committee
may be, again, a tool to get some public feedback about it, but when you get a chance
to look at this photo, it has a picture of a recycling cart next to a trash bag and, then, a
picture of a recycling truck that has one person in it and an arm that picks up the
recycling container. So, if SSC is going to operate the majority of their system with a
system that has one person, then, it's really impractical to have bags next to them
without it having some consequence or cost to the program, because that bag isn't
going to get thrown into that truck by a single person, it's got to be put into the cart to,
then, be emptied into the truck. So, that takes more time and effort and slows the
process down. It doesn't mean that we can't deal with the fact that people are going to
have extra stuff at certain times of the year and that's another discussion point as to
how do we deal with whether it's yard materials in the summer, leaf materials in the fall,
Christmas materials in December, but there is always the need for extra things and if
people have to pay a cost for that, how do we make that cost fair, how does SSC
account for it so it can get billed properly, how do people gauge what they actually are
going to need long term week in and week out. I mean this -- I believe that's a 95 gallon
container in this photograph. At least it looks like the largest one and so not -- the
whole idea of this program was to allow people to, then, pick the garbage trash
receptacle more relevant to what they use. If they don't have a lot of trash, they can,
you know, use a smaller receptacle. If they have a lot, then, they can use a larger one.
I would agree with the other comments that even though I have a household with a lot of
people in it, our recycling container is full every other week. Our trash container is
about half full every other week and we have a 95 gallon container. So, people can
recycle and people can do this if they want to, but to try to give people the ability to,
then, pick the size that fits their lifestyle, then, we have to deal with what occasions
when they guessed wrong, when they have either yard waste, leaf waste, something
else, how do we deal with that. So, that's a discussion point that we would like to vet
out in probably a committee environment and, then, bring a recommendation back to
you at a future workshop, so that we can stay on track to implement this program, either
beginning of May, middle of May, whenever we can really get some of these issues
decided. There is some other issues, but that was probably the biggest one is how to
deal with the extra. Some cities have overFlow stickers, they allow people to purchase
individual stickers. Again, it's the same problem. You can put a sticker on this bag, but
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 36 of 62
you're always going to have people that are going to say, well, my neighbor stuck it
there, it wasn't mine, it's somebody else's, I'm getting billed for it, it's somebody's -- you
know, or it doesn't get picked up. I mean trying to figure out what's going to make the
most sense for folks, make it as simple as we can for people, but, again, allow them to
account for it, make sure it gets billed properly, and those are things that we think the
solid waste committee could probably be of an asset to the city to have an opportunity
or forum for folks to have this discussion. I'd like to have a meeting in a couple weeks if
we could, if that's the pleasure of the Council for us to do that.
Sedlacek: Could I interject just one point. I think we are prepared to be online and offer
65 gallon and 95 gallon cart sign-ups on the intemet right now, but the one question that
everyone has is what's the price and we haven't really come back to you with any of
that. We talked to you last June I believe it was when our normal annual rate change
was supposed to occur, the landfill was in flux, the CPI had gone negative, we decided
to keep rates the same for now. We need to come back to you and say, okay, landfill
rates aren't going up, I think we know that now. We want to implement in May, what
would the rates be, and give you a suggestion. If that's something that the Solid Waste
Advisory should look at, we -- we can do that. Typically a rate structure would be
something that that -- that's something typically Sanitary Services does with the Council
outside of SWAC, but this -- this issue is different. We have to deal with many many
rate issues about is there a base rate we should -- everyone should be charged, even if
they are on vacation? Are we going to allow plastic bags or just garbage cans? Are we
going to have a tag system or not. I mean there is many, many, many, many issues.
So, it's probably very appropriate that that -- those issues go to the solid waste
committee.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I was going to say this when Nancy was up here, but she got down too fast. I
think -- I think this SWAC committee has got to stay in place strictly as a buffer, and
advisory. As far as a cost and stuff, I think you can talk to them about it, but it has to
come down from what your costs are. You have got to determine what you have to
have to stay in business. And I, for one, certainly don't want to lose you, because as far
as I'm concerned you're the best trash company in the state of Idaho. We have little or
no complaints, if any. And when we do they are handled immediately by you or Doug,
so -- but I think that committee -- I would love to see it stay in place, Mayor, and be an
advisory and a buffer for --they can do a lot of stuff for us.
Sedlacek: Thank you, Councilman Bird. And we don't have to meet every month either.
We can certainly change our schedule to meet the needs or the requirements that we
have.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 37 of 62
De Weerd: I think if it's to address some of these pressing issues, probably would want
to keep that monthly schedule until this is kind of past and, then, quarterly until we see,
really, how it defines out. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was just going to support the idea of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee
continuing. I'm sure there are long term needs that we can find for them. In the short
term this isn't a very important one. I personally don't have a clue what you ought to be
charging or anyway to figure that out. So, we try and take your word for it, but if the
SWAC can -- if you can convince them and they make a recommendation to us, I think I
would be much more comfortable with that than trying to guess on my own. I would say
on the educational materials that you have put out, the things that I have seen so far,
brochures and things that I get sent online, I understand and maybe that's because I
already heard the discussion before I read it, but we do need to be careful to things that
go out to the public that haven't been in our meetings. Robert showed me one a little bit
earlier tonight that said you can save money by doing the recycling. Well, that isn't true
yet. That may be true in May.
Sedlacek: Correct.
Zaremba: But I -- the timing on when that message gets out needs -- needs to be very
careful. It's a good message for May, but it wouldn't be accurate to put that out now.
So, that's -- that's one thought. One other thought is years ago when I moved here I
came from a place that had a commingled recycling and I had to team the little green
bin. The first time I put it out they didn't pick it and there was a nice little note on it that
said you have to take the caps off the bottles and I think I had mixed a couple of things
that needed to be in -- in separate brown bags that I hadn't done. It was a teaming
process for me, but I would see some anticipation of needing that. As we go to the
different size bin and the charge based on that and not just picking up everything you
put out, when somebody puts a sofa out there or a partition wall that they have tom
down, somebody needs to be following the truck around putting a little tag on it saying
we could not pick this up and here is why and here is what you have to do with it. I think
that would help.
Sedlacek: Councilman Zaremba, the future rate structure might state that we will pick it
up, you're just going to get charged for it.
Zaremba: Okay.
Sedlacek: For example, there might be a one dollar -- if you put an extra can out, it will
be an extra dollar.
Zaremba: But how would you pick up the sofas if somebody threw a sofa out there?
Sedlacek: Well, exactly. We do have bulky items that we are going to have to deal with
and those would have to be specially collected and we would have to tag them. You're
correct. And who do they call and what kind of truck picks it up and what day of the
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 38 of 62
week would it be and all those questions will come up. And, you're right -- I mean in our
brochures now we do have a bulky item paragraph that talks about calling us and we
arrange collection and we will certainly hand that out again.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Sedlacek: Again, it's frustrating for me to get people to read your material and I'm guilty
of it, too. I get stuff in the mail every day and Ijust -- I toss it. I toss it in my recycling
bin.
Zaremba: Well, I think my point was --
Sedlacek: But it's hard for me to even get my attention on my Idaho Power bill or my
Intermountain Gas bill or any of that.
Zaremba: I teamed after I made the mistake, because you gave me the right response
and I appreciated that. So, I, very much like everybody else, appreciate the work you
do and how cheap you have made it to -- for the citizens, including myself, and how
careful you are with all of that and -- but I also wanted to say I appreciate the
educational stuff, so --
De Weerd: Well -- and I think one thing that we teamed with the commingling is maybe
that the sticker on the lid that -- that tells us what can be put in there and what can't and,
you know, whether you're an A or B, so when I look at my little calendar on my
refrigerator, because that's where it went, I at least remember what week is my week.
But one other thing -- and I know there has been some angst of people with larger size
yards, they are wondering what they are going to be doing with their yard material with
these changes and if we could even look at working with maybe our parks department
or one of our departments, certainly our office, to look at public education classes in
composting. You know, I'd love to compost. I'm quite -- I have asked Councilman
Hoaglun to give me a class on composting and how I do it, because I know I'm going to
be one of those with a bunch of yard stuff and going what do I do with this and so as we
look at that and that's going to be something perhaps your committee can -- the SWAC
committee can discuss, is how can we start making things easier and more
understandable and what do we do with our waste and how -- how can we minimize
what that is.
Sedlacek: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, there is also a master composters
program in Ada County and I'm sure they would be happy to come out and give classes
on occasion out here. We actually at one point had a master composter sitting and
giving out information at the household hazardous waste collection on Monday and so
there were a few people that came by and talked to her -- not a lot, but some. I mean
this is going to be small steps to get to --
De Weerd: I'm still driving around with my hazardous waste. I need to dump it off at
some point, but --
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 39 of 62
Sedlacek: And that's correct. Not everyone goes to that event and maybe that person
wasn't there on that particular event. So, it was a little bit maybe -maybe it needs to
be more regularly scheduled and to help people get lined up with composting and some
other alternative mechanisms or even mulching your grass, rather bagging it is an issue.
Why not do that? Not that many people do it. It's fine to do it, so --
De Weerd: But there will always be questions that we have had that at the town hall
meeting, you know, and our Public Works director gave a very funny answer, but, you
know, on what can you put down your garbage disposal, what do you find at the sewer
treatment plant and he had some disgusting examples, so --
Sedlacek: Madam Mayor, I thought that was going to be a garbage collection question
and I was glad it went to the Public Works director. So, anyway, I was ready to answer,
but it wasn't one forme.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: That's great. Mr. Bird.
Bird: Well, while we are on it, I'm glad you brought that up. I publicly want to -- I
personally want to thank Doug and Steve for their participation and Samantha for their
participation in all our city functions. Anytime we have had something like a town hall
meeting or something they are right there with their display and willing to answer any
questions and they certainly don't have to do that and I -- I certainly appreciate our
partnership with you guys. I'm probably one of the few that has a little bit of background
with the former -- former one and so let me tell you something, you guys make it nice on
us and I appreciate it, Steve.
Sedlacek: Thank you. And, Mr. Nary, I didn't know -- were we planning to go through
the slide on -- I didn't know if Andrea was going to be here to present --
Nary: No. Actually, what we did is we -- we did create some notes, Council, on what
we have discussed on trying to come up with the ordinance and get some feedback
from you. If you would like, we can go through some of those things, if you'd like us to
use the solid waste committee first to vet those out and, then, bring back a recommend
to you, we could do that.
Bird: That would be my --
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Mayor, that would be my preference.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 40 of 62
Hoaglun: And just a question, Steve, on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, making
this transition to that type of format, is that something you're willing to work with, too? I
mean are you in favor of that?
Sedlacek: Absolutely. Councilman Hoaglun, I -- we are here to do what you want us to
do, whatever you want us to do. We have had a lot of discussions on the solid waste
committee about what it is we do want to be when we grow up, I guess. You know, we
talked about maybe this should be more broadly based than solid waste. Maybe it
should be environmental issues, which sort of start getting into, you know, the Public
Works arena, you know, but composting is going to be an overlap, you know. Basically,
we are here to serve you and the citizens and whatever you want us to do we are happy
to do that.
De Weerd: We will work that through.
Hoaglun: I like the idea and I think it would be good and we can start there and see
what -- see where it goes.
Sedlacek: Right. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Samantha. And thank you, Nancy.
We look forward to your continued service.
Nary: Just when she thought she was out, we pull her back in.
E. Planning Department
1. Transportation Overview -Presentation by City Staff on
recent involvement with various transportation Studies,
Construction Projects, Funding Opportunities and
Priority Transportation Projects.
De Weerd: I have been warning her about this for months. Okay. Item 7-E is our
Planning Department and, -Caleb, with our transportation.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Time for my by-monthly
transportation update for you. There is not too many folks left in the audience tonight,
but I did want to point out that the memo that I'm going to be using as my template from
my presentation tonight is also available online on the website, if you want to follow
along, because I'm not going to touch on all of the projects that are listed in the memo,
but I do want to highlight a couple of those projects and answer any questions on any of
them, even if I do skip over the one maybe you had a question or a comment or a
concern about. So, the second bullet point in the memo that was provided to you last
week for the packet was an update on the Transportation Task Force. We met on
January 7th to discuss the rerouting of the 42 bus, which is an intercounty route through
Meridian, starts in Nampa-Caldwell and terminates in Boise and does a return trip in the
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 41 of 62
p.m. We will -- I have prepared a draft letter and will be sending that -- our
recommendations to VRT about the rerouting of the 42 through downtown, which
currently -- it just goes through the Winco, Home Depot business park there, Corporate
Valley Business Center, and back out towards St. Luke's. But we are going to request
that they route it through downtown and, then, by ISU and Joint School District No. 2's
administrative offices. So, it even skirts that today. A draft B of ACHD's five year work
plan was also discussed by the committee. The committee did make some
recommendations to the City Council and recommending some comments to be sent
over to ACHD. That's, actually, the next agenda item, so I will stave off any further
comments on that for right now. And, then, we are going to push back our next
transportation task force meeting a couple weeks, so members can attend the State of
the City address. The next one that I wanted to talk about is stimulus two. It doesn't
really have a name yet, but there is another looming stimulus package in Washington,
like ARA phase one or the America Recovery Act stimulus, it's anticipated that funding
for stimulus two -- any projects will need to be shovel ready and, in fact, they are even
talking about tightening up the timelines and really being ready for big contracts, plus
construction so people can get to work. I did want to highlight not only that potential first
stimulus two, but also a letter that I received today that was addressed to the Mayor and
with a cc to the Council members that talked about really three projects in Meridian that
ACHD's doing with the stimulus one dollars. The first one mentioned is sidewalks and
ADA accessibility through Meridian. The second one was 8th Street, Cheny to Camilla,
sidewalk. We have talked about that project before. That's a federal stimulus project.
And, then, two forms of overlays that are going to be happening throughout town and
there was an attached map that showed kind of where some of the projects were. It did
mention some short term delays, but the inconvenience would overcome the long term
improvements that would be seen from that, so -- kind of transitioning, then, to the bullet
point that says transit center in Meridian, one potential project in phase one that hasn't
been awarded yet from the Secretary of Transportation is a VRT project. It's really a
group project, a facilities project that would -- that would build several tran centers in
western Ada and Canyon county, one of those being in -- at least one of those being in
Meridian and probably the first one being in downtown Meridian and, then, also VRT's
administrative offices. So, again, that grant hasn't been awarded yet, but I did want to
give you a heads up that VRT is potentially looking -- and it's consistent with their 2005
regional operations and capitol improvements plan to locate these transit facilities,
transit centers, in various locations throughout the valley. The reason I bring it up now
is it will probably move pretty quick. Again, those projects are supposed to be shovel
ready. This would be a category exclusion from having to do a lot of the environmental
steps if it does get awarded. But Keller Associates is working on some site planning for
that in anticipation of some funding. I'll keep you updated on that as it moves further or
you can contact me and I have lots of additional information on that topic. I think I'm
going to jump into construction projects. The McMillan-Locust Grove project
construction is scheduled to begin either late this fall or early 2011 on that intersection.
That's one of the last four-way stop controlled intersections -- at least in the east half of
the city. There is still -- still are some to the west and south certainly. But that will help
with a lot of that congestion during peak time. Ten Mile, Franklin to Cheny, is under
construction. Nampa Paving has been awarded that contract over on Ten Mile. I
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 42 of 62
wanted to alert you and -- pretty much no one else in the audience tonight, but Ten Mile
north of Pine will be closed this week and we will get something up on the website, too,
about that being closed and it will be intermittently closed throughout construction while
they are -- while ACHD is widening that stretch.
De Weerd: It's already closed.
Hood: Right.
Bird: I was going to say, it was closed last Friday night -- or Saturday night.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Hood: It will be closed the rest of this week at least for roadway construction, so -- and,
then, Red Horse-McMillan, there is a new signal going in there. ACHD is putting the
bases on the south side and, then, putting in the north side bases in this week. I don't
know exactly when that signal will be live, but it will be coming up here later this year.
And, then, attached also to the memo was this status of all the projects that are either in
design, construction, or right of way phases. So, that concludes my brief presentation.
Certainly can, again, dive into any of those or other questions if you have them.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Okay. Item 7-F is Public Work for our benchmarking
presentation.
2. ACRD Five Year Work Plan Draft B -Presentation by City
Staff on Draft B of ACHD's 2011-2015.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, I actually had two items --
De Weerd: Oh, I thought we did do the ACRD all wrapped into one. Okay. We will do
more transportation.
Hood: And, hopefully, this won't take too terribly long, but transportation is important,
so --
De Weerd: Absolutely. We are all very passionate and sometime sick of transportation,
but it is a necessary evil.
Hood: I'll try to make this not so painful. This isn't my favorite topic in the transportation
realm either, but ACHD is putting together their programming document for the next five
years. Draft B was recently released and I did hit you up last month with draft A. I won't
go into all of the differences and changes between draft A and draft B. I will let you
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 43 of 62
know that there has been a significant amount of money that they are setting aside,
though, for capital maintenance projects. Traffic materials and ITS or intelligent
transportation systems, which are, essentially, timed lights or help free flow traffic. And
that does have an impact, I guess, is -- on new roadway construction projects. So, I just
wanted to highlight that, that ACHD is starting that transition to more maintenance than
new projects or maintaining their current infrastructures. So, I did prepare a
spreadsheet that does compare the adopted five year work plan, so FY10 through '14 to
the draft A that we discussed last month and, then, draft B for this month. As I
mentioned in the last presentation, the task force on January 7th reviewed. draft B and
does have some comments that they'd like the Council to -- or the Mayor to incorporate
into a letter and sign and send over to the ACHD commissioners as they deliberate and,
then, ultimately, approve a five year work plan. I want to highlight a couple of those key
changes and they are key changes to our key priority projects, so that's why I'm
highlighting these ones. Certainly there are some other changes and those are, again,
in that spreadsheet. But Eagle, Victory to Ridenbaugh, everybody talked about that
project, everybody knows it's an important project. It was our number one priority. Draft
B does show this project advancing with the Eagle-Victory intersection and, then, some
Ridenbaugh bridge work being constructed in '10. So, they are actually using some
savings in this fiscal year to advance the construction of part of that project and, then,
they won't complete the project, then, until '11, but they will at least work on the
Ridenbaugh crossing while there is no water in it and work on the intersection as kind of
phase one of this project. The intersection could be built in April through September of
'10. So, coming up real quickly and the bridge would be constructed in November,
December of '10. In October of this year -- I guess this is the key point, even though it's
an interim condition. They can open up the Eagle-Victory intersection as a three-by-five
signalized -- three by three, excuse me, signalized intersection. So, they will construct it
as a five by five, but they can't have it neck down from five lanes to two immediately, so
they will open it up at least as a signal as a three by three this fall. So, that's some good
news. Again, it's not the ultimate situation, but it should help with some of the traffic.
Ten Mile, Chevy to Ustick, in draft B the widening has been delayed to PD, so they
don't even have a construction year for that Ten Mile, Chevy to Ustick, leg now.
However, amajor -- and this is a big however -- they are planning on advancing the Ten
Mile -Ustick intersection into 2012. So, at least that intersection would be done when
the Ten Mile interchange opens up. The gap. Ten Mile-Overland realignment up to the
I-84, Ten Mile interchange. Draft B shows this portion of the Ten Mile, Victory to
Overland project being accelerated from unfunded to construction in 2011. This project
insures that there is no gap in Ten Mile Road between the on and off ramps of I-84 and
the new realigned Overland project. Just today, this morning, I got some plans of 75
percent design. It does -- it's kind of confusing. The plans -- this project's moved really
quickly. ACRD probably six, seven, eight weeks ago realized that there was even a gap
between ITD's project and the developer cooperative project that Jim Jewett was doing
with realigning Overland and all that, but there is about a third of a mile gap on Ten Mile
Road between the two projects. So, they have been rushing to design a project. I just
got the 75 percent design plans today. One of the sheets it calls out a center median.
When you look at the details, there isn't any details of a center median. The Ten Mile
specific area plan does call for medians just in that small section between Overland and
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 44 of 62
the interchange to, basically, match what ITD is doing with their project back up to
Franklin. So, I guess my question to you is two fold. One, I know we had a similar
discussion on Overland a couple weeks ago, a month ago, six weeks ago, and we nixed
those ones on Overland, but having it be somewhat symmetrical with I-84 at Ten Mile
should -- how hard should I ask ACHD to incorporate that median in Ten Mile and, then,
the second part of that is if we do want to see a median, should it be landscaped or
hardscaped, again, to -- to keep that same look around the interchange area. I
understand from the Public Works Department that can't use reclaimed water.
Basically, it gets capped on those -- at the interchange itself and they are using
reclaimed there, but that's the end of this phase for using that reclaimed water, so it
wouldn't be able to serve any center median for this, again, third of a mile to quarter
mile project. But I did want to call it out, that our plan showed center medians, but right
now it's 75 percent they don't have those, so I'll pause and would like your take on that
and direction, please.
De Weerd: I guess, Caleb, my impression was that when Council had the discussion
further down Overland it wasn't really the gateway. This one certainly is and there was
discussion about that in the Ten Mile area specific plan, but also it would be odd to have
nothing there when you have something on the other side. So, I guess as you had
mentioned to kind of balance that out, I think it is important. And certainly nothing
comparable to the discussion that we had further down Overland by Linder or where
ever it met the bottom of the hill. Council, any comment?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Caleb, clear it up for me. The area we are talking about -- we had discussed the
other Overland Road, which is the existing layout. Are you talking from where we tum
and start up and get to Ten Mile where we come off and many up to Ten Mile there? Is
that where we are talking about?
Hood: This is actually on Ten Mile, yes, between --
Bird: From --from the new Overland Road to the north?
Hood: To ITD's interchange. Correct.
Bird: Well, I don't see where that's -- we didn't -- I don't see where that's going to hurt
anything. It would be no different than the other side, because I don't see anybody
getting on and off there.
Hood: And, Mr. Bird, Mayor, I looked at the plans today, there are two access points on
the west side. There is nothing on the east side. There is that one property that's way
down there and I think they get their access back up to the old Overland, but on the
west side there are two access points, one's a private lane and the other one's a
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 45 of 62
driveway, so there are at least two -- I think one home and, then, I think there is a
couple of homes.
Bird: I know which ones you're talking about. Yeah. One goes up on the rim there
above the canal -- or under the canal -- north of the canal there.
Hood: So, it would be a similar -- I mean I don't know how they would design that, if
they would cut that center median to allow either or both of those full access or what,
but I -- at this point Ithink we -- if it's -- if it's the Council's choice, we could ask them to
include the center median and if it needs to be cut for one of those to have access as a
full access, we are getting into the same discussion that we had on Overland.
Bird: We are cutting north of there, so I don't know why we couldn't cut an access -- I
would ask them that, I'd be in favor of that.
De Weerd: You know, Iwould -- I don't know why they would have full access there.
There is going to be a lot of traffic and that -- that's just going to be a real dangerous
cross movement if you didn't somehow restrict it.
Hoaglun: However, Madam Mayor, with all the construction that's been going on and
the issues they have dealt with, I don't think it's something we want to ask them about
right now, because we are going to have to look at -- you're right, there is going to be a
higher traffic volume there, but what the answer is I don't know.
De Weerd: You know, I guess it --Iwould ask our police department -- we'll have a fire
department just right down the street, so I guess we could have emergency personnel
immediately on the scene, but I really think that is a safety issue. This was part of the
Ten Mile area specific plan and a number of those residents participated in that. I can't
imagine that they are not expecting a restricted left out -- that you will not have a left
out, so --
Hoaglun: And I think, Madam Mayor, maybe the solution might be, just off the top of my
head, where its right out only there, but you will have to allow the u-tum at the new
Overland intersection and same when they come back the other way or -- no, they could
come up and make a right tum, but -- yeah. So, we might be able to work something
out I think down the road.
Bird: You can't be talking about four or five houses at the most.
Hood: And I can certainly make those comments or we can let ACHD work through
that. I mean I can go either way with this. Our comment could be we would like to see
the center median, it's consistent with our plans, the gateway to our city. They need to
work them out -- through the design process of how they are going to -- you know, they
have got right of way agents that negotiate those things and traffic people that look at
safety and all that type of stuff, but I can make the comment, too, if you'd like to talk
about access. They know that it's going to be -- I hate to use unsafe. They know that
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 46 of 62
it's not the best situation to have a full access right there. I don't know how they are
planning on dealing with it. That doesn't show up in the plans. But I know they are at
least saving a couple of access points. It doesn't say if they are right-in, right-out only or
full access orthree-quarter movement accesses, but --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Of the two questions, the first one being the median. I support the idea of
there being a media there. I would lean towards suggesting that there not be access. I
think the idea of a u-tum at -- an intentionally allowed u-tum at Overland is a good idea,
for what little traffic would need to do that. Second question whether it should be
landscaped or not, I know we are landscaping the ones north of -- I'm not so sure that's
necessary south of. They'd have to be irrigated somehow, even if we can't get the
reclaimed water there. I suspect I would be just as happy with a rock garden or
something that doesn't have to be care for.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: I got a couple of questions. Are we going to -- are they going to signalize the
Overland -- the new Overland intersection and Ten Mile?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bird, yes, that will be -- they are putting up some
arms. They aren't going to have that active until the rest of the roadway is widened, but
yes.
Bird: Okay. Well, I -- then I can go for the u-tum up there. If they don't, I don't think e I
think that's worse. And I -- the way things have come to haunt us, if we put in the
median, I want imgation sprinklered planned and I can tell you right now there is no way
the reclaimed is going to get there at this point. Maybe 20 years down the line or
something like that we will get south of the freeway, but right now we are not. But I
want some kind of system there for sprinkler right now done. I don't want to have to
come back in, because you can't have one side desert and the other side Hawaiian.
Lush. That's my opinion.
Hood: Madam Mayor, can I summalrize what I heard so far and if there is more -- we
will ask them to include the medians as it's a gateway and a stub in and design for the
irrigation necessary for landscaping those. I haven't heard full consensus on that, but is
that --
Hoaglun: To add my two cents on that, I think, yeah, let's design it for full. We may
change our mind later, but at least for the planning purposes it's easier to scale it back
than it is to put something in once it's already paved over.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 47 of 62
Zaremba: That works forme.
Bird: Definitely works for me.
Hood: Okay. I'll move on. Thank you. Back to the five year. That was kind of outside
the context of the five year work plan, but thank you for going down that road with me,
so to speak. The Ustick comdor --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Before you go on, since maybe we are commenting on these individually, I'd
like to go back to the Eagle-Ridenbaugh one if I may. I know I didn't bring this up at
Transportation Task Force and I don't even remember where I was discussing it. It
might have been at a parks meeting. But adjacent to the Ridenbaugh Canal there is a
multi-use pathway on both sides of Eagle and the discussion was how do you connect
those and the suggestion was made to include in the eventual bridge over the
Ridenbaugh an underpass for the walkway and Ijust -- I don't remember where that
discussion was, but I see Mr. Siddoway nodding his head, that that would be desirable.
So, when they are designing the bridge over the Ridenbaugh, which is going to have to
be accommodating the four or five lanes, if it's possible to consider an underpass for the
pathway to connect those halves, that would be something in the engineering design.
Hood: I will certainly talk with them about that. I think that project's already designed as
they are getting ready to go into construction, but I can see if they -- if it's able to -- if
they are able to accommodate that. So, I'll definitely look into it.
Zaremba: Thank you. And I'm sorry for bringing it up late. It happened -- I know I -- the
discussion was some time ago.
Hood: No problem. Okay. The Ustick corridor, which was one of the key corridors that
we requested as we did our prioritization process this last fall. Ustick from Meridian to
Eagle significantly advanced in draft A. However, the City of Boise has requested that
ACHD spend more resources on Ustick -- or, excuse me, on Cloverdale and Five Mile,
rather than Ustick. So, kind of shifting priorities from Ustick as they started it in Boise
and shifting now to the north-south roads in there. The long and short of it is the
projects were delayed one year -- all delayed one year from Locust Grove to Meridian,
Meridian -- excuse me -- Meridian, Locust Grove, Locust Grove over to Eagle Road
and, then, Eagle Road over to Cloverdale, have all been delayed one year. I just
wanted to point that out to you. Intersections. Another one that we pointed out in our --
or asked ACHD to, please, advance as they were beginning this process, several
intersections near the Ten Mile interchange. As I mentioned earlier, Locust Grove -
McMillan will be signalized later this year. Ten Mile-Victory, Black Cat-Franklin, Black
Cat-Cherry, Ten Mile-Amity, and Amity-Black Cat are not currently improved and had
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 48 of 62
either advanced or remained in the same construction year in draft A of the currently
adopted five year work plan. However, these five intersection projects have either been
delayed or even removed entirely from the five year work plan draft B. Again, I wanted
to highlight that for you, because I -- I can see the train wreck coming, too, if they don't
work on some of those intersections, particularly those five, and they are abandoning
Ten Mile south of the interchange. I know that's not -- a lot of people being served right
there probably aren't Meridianites, but certainly having four way stops south of there is
not going to help the traffic situation there. And, again, both Ten Mile-Victory and Ten
Mile-Amity have fallen out of the plan. So, I just wanted to highlight it for you, so -- what
hasn't -- what's progressing as planned is the corridor phase two is still shown for
construction in '13. Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder, which is our number four roadway
priority, is still planned for construction in '12. And the Pine-Linder intersection is also
planned for construction in '12. I do want to stop right there, though. The Pine-Linder
intersection is the first project listed in draft B to be bumped from construction in that
year if ACHD doesn't realize the revenue they anticipate. I just wanted to go down that
scenario with you that if that intersection isn't improved and split corridor comes in '13,
that will probably be a pretty major detour route for people trying to go down Meridian
Road while the split corridor is under construction. I understand there is probably going
to be some foreclosures on Meridian Road to do what they need to do there with utilities
and the widening and all that. So, you're looking at moving -- trying to move quite a few
people through that four way stop controlled intersection, if it isn't improved the year
before. Or at least before we start that. So, you could -- looking -- if that project falls to
13, then, you -- I could see some rationale on their part to say, well, we are pushing
your split corridor, then, out to '14, so -- which are already tight years and you're in a
battle, then, with whatever was in '14 is probably going to push back. So, anyway, I just
want to call that out and I guess I would request that that be part of a letter that we send
to ACHD to their commission that take that designation off that project, it shouldn't be
the first one to fall off, come up with some other way to save money that year. This
project needs to move forward, so -- and, then, I already mentioned McMillan-Locust
Grove. So, quickly, to review the task force draft memo of what they recommend the
Mayor sign as a letter to ACHD and their commissioners. It's a thank you for the
Pine-Main intersection. That turn lane there, I guess, is the point, the turn lane on Main
Street -- or Pine -- excuse me -- Pine Street at Main. Another thank you for the Eagle-
Victory-Ridenbaugh, moving that up now to be constructed as soon as possible. And
they do like that the Ustick-Ten Mile intersection can at least be done in '12 prior to the
interchange opening. And, then, the fourth point that the task force has was even if they
are temporary and not the ultimate, they do fully support replacing all stop controlled
intersections with signals. This is especially true around the Ten Mile interchange for
not -- again, for not only for interchange traffic, but split corridor phase two traffic in '13.
So, as Ten Mile will probably be a detour route as well. So, you've got people that could
detour to Ten Mile, or people detoured down Linder. So, I guess that's where the task
force left it. I'll ask you to tweak or comment or maybe we don't send a letter to ACRD.
Whatever your direction is I will take some notes. I know that went quick, too, so if
you --
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 49 of 62
De Weerd: Yeah. Caleb, I guess I would just, again, like to emphasize that Ten Mile
and Victory and the -- Linder and Pine intersections, are -- are critical. Ten Mile and
Amity, it's -- I don't care. It's Kuna. Well, sorry, Frank. You don't have to quote me on
that. But, you know, I think just to get traffic out of Ten Mile interchange area, Victory
has a higher priority and certainly that Linder-Pine is -- it's just backed up already now,
just wait until you -- you have some kind of affect in -- in 2012.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would add that I -- for some unknown reason I drove through the Linder-
Pine intersection one of the two or three days that Ten Mile and Franklin was closed
and the traffic on Linder was backed up from Pine all the way down to Franklin and on
Franklin all the way back to Meridian, both lanes, and that scenario would repeat itself if
they need to shut Meridian for any reason and it was -- I, fortunately, was going the
other way at that particular time, but the -- I could see some overheating cars and
drivers.
De Weerd: I seen the overheated drivers.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, that -- just to echo that comment, been in that and it's just for
-- from the Ten Mile and Franklin closure, it -- it was a mess and I can't imagine what it
would be like if -- when Meridian is closed and I think staff -- Caleb, you guys are right
recommending that it not be delayed. Really want to see the Ustick-Ten Mile when that
new access point to the freeway opens, everything in that northwest comer going out to
Emmett and northwest Canyon county, everything is going to there and that's -- that's
really going to be a mess if we have that one intersection as a four way stop, so glad it's
still on the list, we just need to keep -- keep pushing that and -- and, of course, Ustick
Road -- you know, I see the delays on -- on that -- you know, don't like seeing it, but at
the same time recognize Cloverdale, Five Mile, yeah, it might be a higher priority. I
can't speak to that, but, you know, I'm pushing Meridian stuff that's what we like to see
see done first, but I can understand why they have to -- we got to have some give and
take. So, those are my comments that jump out to me right now.
De Weerd: Well -- and if Boise doesn't want anymore improvements on Ustick, we will
take them in Meridian.
Bird: Absolutely. I was just going to say, they complain about everything done on
Ustick, so --
Hood: I will point out they are working, though, from -- again, back from Meridian Road
to Eagle, not just continuing it from the east to the west. .So, they have kind of left it
there at Five Mile and are coming into Meridian and, then, they are going to construct it
back towards Eagle Road. So, that's a minor one anyways. We are getting that before
the last leg of the Boise project anyway, so -- thank you for your time.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 50 of 62
F. Public Works Department
1. Public Works Benchmarking Presentation
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Tom. You're up.
Bany: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We have nothing quite as
exciting as transportation to discuss with you this evening, but we are excited,
nonetheless. I'll go ahead and introduce this subject of performance management by
saying that the Mayor had an opportunity some months ago to visit us during a
superintendents meeting at the wastewater treatment plant where we went through our
monthly benchmarking slide show for the staff -- most of the management staff on water
and wastewater and at that meeting she got to see some of the things we have been
tracking as an organization for the last year or two and I looked firsthand at how the
tracking of that information has impacted the operation of our organization and she had
asked me at that time to bring portions of that presentation to you tonight or to the City
Council and that's what we are here to do this evening. So, we will walk through
performance management really quickly and, then, I'll have Mr. Dees, our operations
manager, utility operations manager, share with you the specifics of the water and
wastewater statistical information that we have got and show you how that actually is
put to use. We are not going to throw a bunch of numbers at you and ask you to look at
a whole bunch of -- we will ask you to look at a bunch charts, of course, but we won't
ask you to look at the details of the chart, only what the charts tell us from a story
perspective. So, that's where we are at this evening. I'll kick this off first of all -- the
saying, as you know in Public Works a lot of times we are -- we are just ignored,
essentially, until we have problems, because most of our infrastructure is below ground
and so we have a philosophy in Public Works to make sure that we do a better job to
not only evaluate, but also to communicate the value of our services every opportunity
we get. One of the things that we embrace in our organization, as you know, is this
move towards performance management and performance management really is --
incorporates alot of different elements, which we will share with you this evening. But
most of all it's a process whereby we set our performance expectations or what can
otherwise be termed as targets and, then, we monitor our progress towards the
attainment of those targets, measure the results along the way, adapting our future
performance to achieve the overall desired outcome. There are many types of
performance measures. Most notably inputs, outputs, and outcomes, and I'm sure
these are not terms unfamiliar to you. This is a very interesting diagram, but it shows,
really, the level at which inputs, outputs, and outcomes are as they -- in a hierarchical
manner. One thing to keep in mind about this is that as it relates to inputs and outputs,
there are oftentimes different individuals or divisions or even organizations that are
responsible, say, for an input or a portion of an output or for the overall outcome and I
can use ACHD and the City of Meridian as it relates to transportation improvements for
our community. We provide inputs to the ACHD organization, they develop outputs,
and, then, we all have to live with the outcome. Another good example might be for a
moment the development services activities in the City of Meridian where you have got
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 51 of 62
the Planning Department, the Fire Department, and the Public Works Department
chiefly working on these various inputs or outputs. What's important is that in our
organization we measure what it is we are responsible for and depending what that
might be and at what level you're measuring at, will determine the type of target and the
overall conclusion drawn from the activity itself. There are lots of benefits to
performance measures. I'll run through quickly a lot of these. Obviously, they help us
guide the attainment of our objective. They can justify good programs from bad
programs and if we have identified bad programs or projects or services, we can either
eliminate them or modify them as needed. It also allows us an ability to track our
historical trends to see where we are coming from, because that's important to know
where you are headed and so measurement helps determine the gap between our
actual and targeted performance. Our organizational effectiveness and operational
efficiencies are also very important to us and can be captured by the performance
management process as well. Now, there are a lot of pitfalls to performance
measurement and these pitfalls are -- there are -- I'll share just a few of them with you.
One of them is fear and there is a lot of fear associated with performance
measurements. You may remember back in 1993 under the Clinton administration the
Government Performance Results Act was passed and there was a lot of trepidation
about that act and a lot of fear associated with that, but there was some interesting
information that came out of that act and mandates as well. So, there certainly was a
lot of fear -- fear that, you know, you will find out something you didn't know, which is
really the point of performance management and measurement. Fear that you might be
held responsible for somebody else's activities, action, inputs, outcomes, or whatnot,
which is also good to know if you're trying to improve systems and processes and
certainly there is a fundamental fear by a lot of folks who don't understand performance
measurement about the fear of losing their job and we don't -- I'd like to say we don't
have that fear in Public Works, but I can't speak for all of the. staff. But I can say that
there -- they should not be fearful of losing their jobs, because what we are after is
improving at every turn we can. There are also -- there is also a fundamental,
sometimes undeniable misinterpretation of results when you get those results.
Sometimes results are taken out of context, sometimes they are misunderstood and
each of those, in addition to a variety of other scenarios, can undermine the overall
credibility of the performance measures. Performance measurement and management
requires an enormous amount of time and someone committed to the endeavor long
term and the collection of a lot of data. And Mr. Dees will share with you some of the
perspectives on both of those as we go through our -- our specifics tonight -- the
specific measures. And, then, lastly, because of the first two I have just -- or the last
two I have just mentioned, they may also be costly to administer. But very good
performance measures we have learned and has been documented -- provide a way for
us to see if our strategy is working, to see if we are going in the right direction. It helps
us to ~-focus our employees' attention on what matters most in our organization and it
allows measurement of our accomplishments and not just of the work that is performed,
meaning we are after the big picture and not just how many widgets you made during
the day, but are those widgets of a good quality, are they the kinds of widgets that our
community needs, should we be making different kinds of widgets or more types of
widgets or those kinds of things. And that's, really, the bigger picture we are after. And
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 52 of 62
we also provide a common understanding of what success looks like in our organization
when we develop performance targets and measure towards the attainment of those
targets. And so, lastly, we also want to make sure that our performance measures are
valid and that we are measuring the right thing. Nobody likes to go out and collect a
bunch of data on something that doesn't mean anything to anybody and we are just
finding that we are doing that. So, it's important to understand what it is you're after, so
that you can identify the tools you need to use to measure the attainment of those goals
that you have got for yourself. And, then, finally, if verifiable, of course, we want all of
our data collection to be accurate. Now, I have been asked to also provide just a little
bit of information on benchmarking and also dash boards, because we use both of
those processes in the Public Works Department to gauge our effectiveness and our
efficiency. Benchmarking, most folks know, is just a way to sort of compare yourself to
something else. That could be yourself, for example, if you say I want to make a
thousand widgets a month, did you make a thousand widgets a month. That's a
performance target. That's an output related target, though. You can compare yourself
to other organizations. For example, how many miles of sewer line are being cleaned
around the region on an annual basis and does that make sense for our community.
You can compare it to a known standard, that might be a national or regional standard
or an industrial or even an association standard or to some sort of trend or accepted
tolerance. Benchmarking also helps us to provide assurances and identify deficiencies
in programs and services and it allows us --our organization to develop plans on how to
make improvements or adapt specific best management practices in our work. This is
an example of a benchmark we shared with you last year when we talked about the cost
per million gallons of water distribution and also sewer collection and treatment and we
provided that based off a national standard, the American Public Works Association.
So, that's very important for us in Public Works is gauging our performance against
some other known standards and making adjustments to modify. Dashboards are a
type of sort of delivery product, if you will. They are, for the most part, a quick reporting
delivery tool. There is two types of dashboards that we use in Public Works, one of
them is a status dashboard and this is sort of a snapshot of what we are doing -- where
are we on this particular day and, then, we have been working very hard to incorporate
what we call dynamic or realtime dashboards, which allow us to see at any given
moment at any different time how well we are doing. Now, certainly, our SCADA
systems in our water and our sewer plant allows us to do that, but we are also
incorporating Hansen software into our asset management and maintenance systems
and that is also something that's beneficial, because we get realtime data about the
improvements we make into our systems and our assets. There is limitations, of
course, with dashboards. For the static ones, obviously, that's a snapshot, it's only
good for that particular time and no other time, really. Also, we don't generally see
historical trends established through dashboards. It cannot offer projections, really, and
certainly it lacks a certain specificity in detail.
De Weerd: Okay. Tom, what was that picture?
Barry: This one?
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 53 of 62
De Weerd: He could go for the shinny ball, but --
Barry: Yes. Well, that's -- I'm glad you asked. Would you like the truth? Okay. This
is --
De Weerd: I do.
Barry: Contrary to my secretary's belief that these were nicely aligned buckets of poop
in the bottom of our aeration basin, these are, actually, small bubble diffusers at the
bottom of one of our aeration basins and so what happens to help mix up the
concoction that we brew at the treatment plan for treating waste, the bubbles will come
up through these screens and they will actually cause the -- the liquids to, essentially,
be mixed together. So, just a mixing process. But I'm glad you asked. This is an
example of our financial dashboard. This was presented in July of 2009. We have not
updated this. We are in the process of updating it as we get our year end close out
information from the finance department and begin to put together our new financial
model, but this was an example of a dashboard. One at a time or a static picture of
where we were financially. So, we will update this and, hopefully, get this back to you
fairly soon. Another example of a dashboard -- this financial dashboard is a static
dashboard. This next one is an example of a dashboard out of Hansen Eight software
package that will be a dynamic or realtime dashboard, where we will see daily our
overall efficiencies and effectiveness based upon the inputs that we provide, whether
that's cleaning pipe or whether that's servicing a lift station or any of those kinds of
things. Flushing water lines. You have seen this picture. I won't go into it in detail,
because I have done that already for you. You were all on the Council when I did that
some months ago, but I will say that we are working this plan. This was something that
was delivered back in mid year of last year when we talked about developing a mission
and vision and resource -- or allocating our resources, whether they be financial and
personnel and operating and that sort of thing and, then, modifying our resources and
developing strategic initiatives. I'm happy to report this evening that we are putting the
finishing touches on our final draft of the departmental strategic plan. There is still some
work to be done as we are transitioning a format to a more readable format for the staff
and for yourself, but it's my hope that the latter part of this quarter or the first part of the
next quarter we will be able to come back to you and present our formal departmental
strategic plan and ask for your input on that. In our organization there are some
divisions that are more advanced than others as it relates to moving the wheel -- you
know, moving clockwise around the wheel here. Certainly our water and our
wastewater divisions are most advanced, which is, actually, very interesting, because
when I joined the organization they were some of the most deficient as it related to
performance measurement and improvement. So, they are leading for our department
the cause as it relates to performance measurement and improvement and with that I'd
like to tum it over, because Mr. Dees, our utility operations manager, has done
wonderful things at the wastewater treatment plant and in the water division and he has
been a wonderful addition to our staff and we are grateful for his time and it is much of
his efforts that we have to be grateful for and I thank him for helping to move forward
our organization toward the attainment of these goals. So, with that, Mr. Dees.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 54 of 62
Dees: Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, this is fun stuff, Tom. I don't know
what you're talking about. I -- you know, nobody's here to enjoy it, except for the
Council people. The following slides are what we show our employees once a month
and we also show it to all of our management once a month as well. So, we go over the
data that you're going to see and Tom insisted that I put all 75 slides in there just for you
folks this evening, because the Mayor had said --
De Weerd: He did not.
Dees: Well, no, he didn't. He asked me to come down just a little bit. But there will be
a quiz, so, please, you know, there will be a quiz at the end of all this. Again, our
employees get to take a look at this. We have only been here three hours. Come on.
Oh, dear. Our benchmarks -- oops. There it is. Our benchmarks come from national
standards, basically. They also come in internally, as Tom said. We use the APWA,
the American Public Works Association, and also the AWWA on a lot for our
benchmarks, the American Water Works Association. And here is kind of our summary.
You know, this is things that you folks know about. What get's measured gets done.
Put in on screen and everybody's going to march to that thing. And if you -- if you
measure it -- if you don't measure it you can't claim reward or success or avoid
unintentional failure. If you can't recognize success, you can't team from it. Certainly if
you can't recognize failure, you can't fix it. If you don't measure results you can't tell
success from failure. And, finally, if you can't measure it you neither can manage it nor
improve it. So, these are kind of the things we go for for measurement and the reasons
we do a lot of our measurement. Here is an example of one -- one of the things that
happened. This one here is kind of a critical example. It was used just recently and
proved to be quite effective. We had some indications that there was a big difference
between our weekend flows and our weekday flows in the treatment plan and this is
looking at effluent BOD, biochemical oxygen demand and it looks at the differences
between the week day and weekends. Is there a statistical difference between the two?
There are differences. However, in the scheme of things and certainly with our permit
there were no real big differences, but the important thing also to take a look at is in
2007 we had some pretty high numbers. MG per L is milligrams per liter. We had some
high numbers in 2007 and the management team said, you know what, we got to fix
that, we got to make it better. Let's see if we can trend it, find out what's going on, and
fix it. Take a look at what happened between 2007 and 2009, a dramatic increase -- or
decrease in biochemical oxygen demand in our effluent, which is a good thing. And you
will notice also the variations that are out from the weekend to the week day, just almost
disappeared to nothing. So, this is a good example of how we use a statistic, if you will.
SPC, statistical process control, to measure what we were doing and to make a
correction in our -- in our operations. Here is another one just like it. The total
suspended solids, week day versus weekend. Take a look at the line in 2009, it's
almost flat. In fact, it is flat for variation. You can't see it, but all those things on
weekend and week days are on top of each other and the trend is heading towards the
cellar, which is a good thing. This is, again, what we want to do. We had to deliberately
change our processes, our folks had to understand what was going on. Once they did
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 55 of 62
that through the SBC system, they made that graph do that, because they could see it
happening every single day. These are some of the slides that we do, indeed, show
every month. The one slide -- this is a combination of outcomes and outputs. If you
take a look at this, it's a mix. The SSO, sanitary sewer overflow rate on top, that's an
output -- I'm sorry. An outcome. And so flow. We don't have any control over flow.
Flow is what we get. Whatever gets delivered to us is what we send out the door.
SSO's though, sanitary sewer overflows, are something that's really really bad and
something we want to prevent. It's -- what it is it's when the poopy hits the streets. It's
got to stay in the pipe and get to the plant. That's what that's all about. And the EPA
says you better make sure you do that. So, it's a measure of how many times that
happens and in July, wouldn't you know, in 2008, we had an SSO and there it is, we can
see it bump there and so we discussed it, what happened, why did that occur, what can
we do to prevent it? The other two down below, the plant maintenance PM ratio -- PM
stands for preventive maintenance and PM ratio shows us how we are doing nationally
and the idea is is we want to be above those straight lines. You see the red line and the
green line. And we are. And the idea, again, is if you do more preventive actions you
do less corrective actions and, low and behold, back when we first started doing --
making all these measurements in 2008, our folks said, hum, I wonder where -- what we
are doing, are we doing a good job. No, we can be doing better. So, they got together
and they found out they weren't doing the right amount of PMs or the correct PMs and
you can see the results. Our PM ratios are going way up and our CM -- this is the
opposite end of the PM, goes down, which is a good thing, that means you're getting
more bang for your buck in your organization. And, then, the last one is -- is a total lines
cleaned versus schedule is also an output or -- yeah, an output and you can see that
the -- since we got our hydrovac truck right there about August look what happened,
that line has just rocketshipped right off the top of the chart, which is a good thing again.
Before that we had a contractor doing our lines, they were doing a great job, they were
keeping up with stuff as best we could and they could, but when we got our truck and
started looking at things and doing things for ourselves, we had dramatic improvement.
Now, there is three other things that these charts show and I'll introduce another term.
Tom, is it okay if I introduce another term? Could I do that? Yeah? Good. There will
be a quiz. Remember that. There is the ill at ease and safety. I don't know if you have
ever heard of those. III at ease and safety. There is maintainability, reliability, and
suitability and safety. Maintainability is can you fix it if it breaks. Reliability is how long
does it go before you got to fix it. And suitability means does it work. Sounds like a
funny question, but we have an engineer in the audience and -- is that a funny
question? No, that's not a funny question. When we get through designing things we
want to make absolutely sure that it works or does what it was intended to do and
certainly one of the things we want to do is make sure it's safe for our folks when we go
work on it. Now, here is some more operating graphs. You can see the operating
maintenance treatment cost per million gallons and in wastewater -- this is wastewater.
And you can see the trend lines going down the -- you know, the -- the lines on top --
the red line in the middle is the -- is the median. The line on top is the -- or, I'm sorry,
the line on top is the worst and the green line on the bottom is the industry best. It's a
worksheet for the industry best is our cost per million gallons and you can see we are
going in that direction with that yellow line. I showed you the bio solids down there,
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 56 of 62
that's the last one I think we will show you here in a minute. But the bio solids one -- it's
not the last one. Sorry. But the bio solids one is pretty interesting, because it costs us
a lot of money. Again, I want to compliment Steve Sedlacek, he and his company really
stepped up to the plate for bio solids. As it turns out, the landfill stopped accepting our
bio solids, so we had to find another place to go. It was further away. Steve had a truck
-- got a truck, a big truck, and now he's trucking our bio solids from our treatment plant
to the new location, so we can get rid of it. And it's done in accordance with the 503
regulations. But the reason the lines fluctuate is because it shows what we are doing in
our process whenever we have to make a modification to our plan. So, we keep our
eyes very very close to this one here to make sure we are getting the right bang for our
buck and that we are getting the bio solids out of the plant and where they need to be.
Here is some water -- water slides. Turn off days is one that's sort of near and dear to
our heart and you can see what's happened for the last year, the number of turn offs we
have had and the trend is really going up now starting from about September onward,
because of the economy. If you want to see one here pretty quick, January 27th is our
next turn off day, it's going to be amazing. We know it's just going to be a very very
high number, because we haven't had a turn off in a long time over the Christmas
holidays, so it's going to be a very, very significant turn off day for us. We don't like to
see this line grow, we want to make sure it stays low, but this is one we have to work on
constantly. You can also see the O&M costs per million gallons distributed there. It's
pretty flat. We are better than the best in the industry on this particular line. We are
below all the lines, which is a good thing. And there is one down below there, it says
percent of distribution water to loss. This is water we don't get revenue on. We either
get it -- we either lose it from flushing or maybe the fire department puts out fires. We
usually track that water, but it's water that we somehow or other are not getting revenue
out of and you can see we got a trend that's going up, so you can believe we are trying
to figure out where the water is going, do we have a leak, or it's just -- are we blowing it
off? We are going to have to find out where that water is going and that's one of the
things that we work on very hard. The next one is to show you what we have to pump
each and every month and you can see summertime coming. With summertime coming
we pump a whole lot more water for irrigation and you can see when that thing starts
and when it ends. This gives us an idea of what we have to have for our distribution
system and how we have to have our wells aligned. It's sort of a demand thing. I told
you that safety was important and here is our -- here are safety slides. Before 2007 --
or during 2007 we didn't keep very good records we found out. We didn't know if our
folks were getting hurt, not hurt, or if they were getting hurt were they telling us about it.
So, the information is a little sketchy in 2007. However, 2008 and 2009 we got way
better at it and it proved to be pretty interesting. For example, we saw in 2007, if you
look at that safety incident by body parts -- this is our ghoul slide, by the way. We show
these on Halloween. They get great reviews.
De Weerd: Has body parts.
Dees: Body parts. Yeah. Well, that's kind of what it is, I suppose. Anyway, you see a
lot of foot injuries there. We had several foot injuries right at the beginning in 2008 and
we said what's causing the foot injuries. Well, if you look down below you see it was
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 57 of 62
trips and falls might have been a contributor, but it was -- it was just things falling on
people's feet. We instituted a boot policy, the number went in half. So, you can see by
just taking some -- some simple actions we can really influence what goes on here.
There is another one that's really coming up in 2009. If you look at the safety incident
by type you see where it says insect slash spider that's going off into the sunset there.
What's happening is is there is a lot of spiders around and when our folks in the water
department put their hands in the pit to go tum a valve on or off, the spider gets them
right there. And so we need to find out ways to prevent that from happening, so they
don't get those spider bites. And these are usually your friendly spiders, like black
widows, brown recluses, you know, those kind of guys. So, we have to be pretty careful
with those. And, then, there is the lost time slide. This is what happens when
somebody has an accident, how long does it take for the person to recover. We had
one person that was out almost 200 hours because of a lost time accident. It was in the
wastewater division. Anyway, rating performance does affect accountability. People
are finally -- or not finally, but they are accountable for what happens on the -- in their --
in their world. And because of that we want to make sure our staff understands what
they are being measured against and it's really helpful to put that up in front of them,
because they can say, oh, we are held accountable for making sure we don't get the
spider bites or for making sure that the TSS is where it needs to be. A couple of them
are key here, which challenges our staff to improve their areas based on known results.
Knowledge is power and if you give it to the staff, they are going to respond beautifully
and they have every single time. Take a look at the one where it says provide useful
information on how well our programs are performing and whether we are meeting our
goals. That's a big one. Are we meeting our goals, are we being successful. If you
don't measure it you can't tell if you're being successful or not. And, finally, determine if
and when our program improvements are needed and this folds in with our strategic
plan a lot. Keeping our program on target is -- is one of the things that we always strive
to do and this is -- you can read this slide here. Performance measures rely on specific
end outcomes, not just activities, but the results of those activities. There is a bullet
point there in the middle, it says strategic plan must regularly be revisited and the truth
test, goals and objectives and outcomes and measures. So, it's not something that can
stay static. What's true today -- in our slide today may not be the same as what they
are going to be three months from now or six months from now. This whole program is
going to change based on what we see this happening. You say let's start measuring it
and find out where the problem is. And look at the last one, it says the strategic plan
defines the performance to be measured, while the performance measurement provides
the feedback that keeps the strategic plan on track. So, it's sort of a check and balance
and that's why the measures are real, real useful to us. These are our next steps and
we have already started many, many, many of these. For example, we fully integrated
our data from Hansen. This is our asset management and infrastructure management
software program that we have and SCADA into our operational measurements. It's
providing data that's unbelievable and it's just providing it almost so fast we can hardly
analyze it quick enough. We want to define and report on the metrics related to our
business processes. This is where we feed it back to our employees. We certainly are
doing that now and we want to continue to do it and we want to bring a few of those to
you, so that you can see what we are up to and what we are up against. Measures the
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 58 of 62
effectiveness of all divisions. We are doing this now in water and wastewater, but,
eventually, we'd like to spread this out to the entire Public Works Department and
beyond. So, if there is a department head here that could use some of this stuff, we can
talk. Chief Anderson is going you got to be kidding me. And, finally, it provides us a
measure -- our measures are giving us a way to achieve our APWA accreditation.
That's a big deal to us and we are going to work hard to get that. APWA accreditation is
going to solidify our operational procedures, it's going to strengthen our policies, it's
going to align our programs with national standards, see if we are doing the right thing.
It's going to train our new employees and help retain our veterans. It sets expectations.
It's going to measure what we are doing and provides a thorough assessment of our
services and, finally, it's going to evaluate long term benefits to our program. So, we
are very excited by stepping into the APWA accreditation, which is a very long process,
actually, for us, but eventually everyone here in this room is going to be involved in that.
So, please stay tuned. So, are there any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, Rich. Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none, Mayor. Just a very nice report.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I appreciate you sharing this us. I'm very impressed.
Dees: Madam Mayor, I did say there was going to be a test. Doggone it all, there it is.
Sony. You know, if you just read through this right quickly, see if you guys can pick up
on this and, Councilman Bird and Councilman Zaremba, you're coming into our
organization. Councilman Bird, you ought to have these answers, so you can't answer
for the rest of these folks and, Madam Mayor, you have already seen it. Councilman
Hoaglun, that leaves you on the hook. By doing this analysis we are incorporating three
-- and, by the way, this was all mentioned in the slide show today. By doing an analysis
and incorporating 3DM we can manage our programs with dynamic accommodation of
AM and CPI, although we recognize the WED is deceased. WED is William Edwards
Demming. And I'd suggest a good healthy dose of SBC to the mix for good measure
and after the SWAT is complete the organization enters a PECA cycle. Inside the
PECA cycle we incorporate the BMTs we teamed from APWA, AWWA, PCWA, and
NACWA, recognizing we need to measure our success as we built in BCS slide show,
represents the results of our operations, including parameters such was BOD, TSS,
MCRT, as well as all of our PM and CM activities. Also listed in our measure of the
results of our plant and remove station operations based on SCADA and manual
observations and, finally, one of the best results of the measures had been confirmed,
report the findings to the EPA and our MP DES DMR each month. This is what we
have to put up with and Tom just makes us do it, I swear. Thank you.
De Weerd: A true engineer.
Meridian Ciry Council
January 19, 2010
Page 59 of 62
Hoaglun: Oh, Rich, I just wanted to say -- I understood part of that. But I think your ill at
ease, we ought to take them up to Capital Hill and have you testify before Congress that
this is what they need to adopt. I think the country might be better off, you know.
Dees: Yes, sir.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Rich, Tom, and your whole staff, I have truly enjoyed working with you, being your
liaison this last year. We have definitely come a long ways in the water and wastewater
treatment and I -- I think we are -- are really headed for bigger and better things and I
appreciate all your staff and the work they have put forward out there at those two
plants. You come in with some real problems, you got them solved, we are in great
shape. And I appreciated working with you. Thank you guys very much.
Zaremba: Councilman Bird promised me that your party -- that your department was
the party department, so I'm looking forward to that.
Barry: We have a lot of things to celebrate in our department, that is true.
Bird: Next to the police. You get donuts with that.
Barry: Well, thank you both -- or all of you. We appreciate your support and your
leadership and, Mr. Bird, we will miss you, just we have had the pleasure to serve with
Mr. Rountree, and we welcome you, Mr. Zaremba, to -- as our liaison and we are
grateful for your willingness to serve with us and look forward to getting with you shortly
to talk about these and many more issues and challenges and opportunities in our
department. As you can see, we are very serious about what we do and we find it fun
and exciting and our job is to help you find it fun and exciting as well. So, thank you
again, we are grateful for all that you do for us and this community.
De Weerd: Thanks to you both. We appreciate your presentation and the key points
and the major changes that have happened -- transpired in, in particular the wastewater
treatment plant and the water department. And, Rich, I thank your leadership in those --
in those two divisions and look forward to more entertaining presentations. We like to
have fun, too, believe it or not.
Item 8: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. : An Ordinance
Amending Title 1, Chapter 7, Section 5 of the Meridian City
Code, Regarding Days and Times of the City Council meetings.
Meridian Ciry Council
January 19, 2010
Page 60 of 62
B. Ordinance No. : AZ 09-009
Request for Annexation and Zoning of 6.16 Acres from RUT
District in Ada County to R-8 (Medium Density Residential
District) for Southridge-Hodges Located at 1785 South Windy
Ridge Lane by Linder 109, LLC.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8 is our ordinances, A and B, proposed ordinance number 10-
1440 and 10-1441. Madam Clerk. Why do I have Bill Nary's name on here?
Bird: That's what I want to know. Is he going to read them for us or --
Nary: I don't think so.
De Weerd: Madam Clerk, will you, please, read these two ordinances by title only.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 10-1440, an
ordinance amending Title 1, Chapter 7, Section 5 of the Meridian City Code regarding
days and times of the City Council meetings and providing an effective date.
Holman: City of Meridian Ordinance No. 10-1441, an ordinance AZ 09-009, Southridge
Hodges, for annexation of a tract of land situated in the east one half of the northwest
one quarter of the northwest one quarter of Section 23, Township 3 North, Range 1
West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as described in Attachment A and annexing
certain lands and temtory situated in Ada County, Idaho, and adjacent and contiguous
to the corporate limits of the City of Meridian, as requested by the City of Meridian,
establishing and determining the land use zoning classification of said lands from RUT
to R-8, Medium Density Residential District, in the Meridian City Code, providing that
copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County assessor, the Ada County
recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law, and providing for a
summary of the ordinance and providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing
an effective date.
De Weerd: Thank you. You have heard these two read by title only. Anyone like to
hear them read in their entirety? Seeing none, do I have a motion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Bill, do we need -- we probably should do both these separate, shouldn't we,
because one's alaw -- changing the dates and the other one's aland -- should we do
them separate or can we do both of them?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, you can do it
either way, but certainly moving them separately and voting separately is probably
easier.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 61 of 62
Bird: Okay. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve ordinance number 10-1440 with suspension of rules.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-A. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk, will you call role.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carved.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve ordinance 10-1441 with suspension of rules.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-B. If there is no discussion
and I see none, Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, absent; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to adjoum.
Bird: I move that we adjoum the workshop.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:25 P.M.
Meridian City Council
January 19, 2010
Page 62 of 62
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
~~
Oar / oa / a®~o
MAYOR T Y de WEERD DATE APPROVED
,~ ~
;~' rFO
ATTEST•
JAY E L. HOLMAI~, C C~
9 ,~oS'~
9 "'SST 1S.~ ~ ~0 O`\.
,,,,,o,~ c `o~.~~`!.