HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 02-09Meridian City Council Meeting February 9, 2010
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:05 p.m., Tuesday,
February 9, 2010, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, President Charlie Rountree,
and Brad Hoaglun.
Members Absent: David Zaremba.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, Matt Ellsworth, Steve
Siddoway, Scott Colaianni, Ron Anderson, Kyle Radek, Terry Paternoster, Robert
Simison and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
O David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you for your patience and waiting with us. For the record it is
Tuesday, February 9th. It's a few minute after 6:00. We will start tonight's meeting with
roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance and Flag Ceremony by Boy Scout Troop #1
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post # 113
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight we'll be led in the pledge
and the posting of the colors by Troop 1 and also the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post
113. So, I will turn it over to our Boy Scouts, Troop No. 1.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
De Weerd: And just a special notation, Troop No. 1 is the oldest Boy Scout troop in the
state of Idaho. It just celebrated it's 90th anniversary. So, congratulations to the boys.
I did tell them they didn't look that old. But we appreciate you carrying on a great
tradition and our thanks to the years of service that your troop has given this
community. You have made a huge difference. So, thank you for joining us this
evening.
Item 3: Community Invocation by Steve Moore with Ten Mile Christian
Church
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is our community invocation. Tonight will be led by Pastor Steve
Moore. He is with Ten Mile Christian Church. I would invite you to join us in the
Meridian Ciiy Council
February 9, 2010
Page 2 of 34
community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of reflection. Pastor,
thank you for joining us.
Moore: Dear God, we are blessed to live with you guiding and leading our lives and we
are grateful to know that we are not alone. I pray tonight that you would direct the
thoughts of these servants in our community, that the ideas they exchange and would
stimulate each other, that truth and right and justice would prevail. We are grateful for
the service that they give, that they put their lives in a position where they are criticized,
and so we pray for courage and insight for them. We pray that this meeting will serve
the needs of this community, of this city, God, that we would have our priorities in order,
realize that various dimensions of life are all connected, that they intersect. We are
grateful for your grace, in the name of Christ I pray, amen.
De Weerd: Thank you for joining us, Pastor Steve. It's always nice to see you.
Moore: Thank you.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda.
De Weerd: Item No. 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Before we adopt the agenda we need to go through a few changes. If we
look under the Consent Agenda, number 5-F, final order of repeal for approval, the city
attorney wants to make sure all the I's are dotted and T's crossed on that, so we would
like to remove that for this evening and we will see that in a future meeting. So, 5-F
would be vacated from the agenda. Under item -- under the agenda Item 7, department
reports, we want to move up Item F and have it heard right after B. Item F, Police
Department budget amendment for the Justice Assistance Grant. And, then, we have
two additional budget amendment requests that we will also place following that. The
first one would be the economic development administrator request and it's a line
transfer in the amount of 71,986 dollars. And also following that one would be the
request by the Fire Department for the Emergency Operations Center work equipment
and labor cost, not to exceed 7,500 dollars, and, Council Members, you should have
copies of those -- both of those. And also under 7-B, that resolution is number 10-711,
appointing Mr. Mitzel to the Traffic Safety Commission. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I
would move approval of the agenda -- adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. All those -- I'm sorry. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 3 of 34
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Approve New Beer and Wine License Application for Don
Diego's Restaurant; located at 2951 E. Overland Rd., Suite 190
B. Acceptance Agreement with B. Love for Display of Artwork in
Initial Point Gallery
C. Task Order #10069 with Murray, Smith ~ Associates for Water
Master Plan (Master Agreement dated June 11, 2007) for an
Amount Not-to-Exceed $199,547.00
D. Agreement with Paul Construction for Riprap Repair at Various
Flush Station Sites for aNot-to-Exceed Amount of $49,220.00
E. Agreement with ACHD for Transfer of GIS Data
De Weerd: Item 5 is our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor. Under the Consent Agenda, as mentioned earlier, we are
removing Item 5-F. And with that I move adoption of the Consent -- move approval of
the Consent Agenda.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is
no discussion, Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, absent; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carves.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Robert, if you could get Luke or after your report get some City of Meridian
pins, enough so we can give them to the troop, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Open Public Hearing ~ Comment Period for Substantial
Amendment to PY2008 CDBG Action Plan
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6, under Action Items, we have an open public hearing and
comment period for our CDBG. I'll turn it over to Matt.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 4 of 34
Ellsworth: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. In order to stay in
HUD's good graces from a timeliness standpoint and move forward spending funds per
-- per timelines as they expect from us, staff approached Council several weeks ago to
discuss a couple projects that were not moving forward quite as quickly as we hoped.
The direction that Council provided to staff at that time was to begin the process of
reallocating some of those funds to other activities that we felt may be able to move
forward a little more quickly. This evenings actions do exactly that, they initiate that
process to reallocate those funds. The specific beneficiaries of this reallocation include
the Meridian Senior Center for public service activities to the tune of 14,795 dollars.
The Meridian Food Bank for $18,271.95. The Ada County Housing Authority for 15,000
dollars and Public Works to design some infrastructure replacement in the low,
moderate income -- excuse me -- the low, moderate income part of town. The process
from here includes a minimum 30 day public comment period and a public hearing. So,
presumably, the next available Council meeting during which we could close the public
hearing and Council could consider the proposed action is March 23rd. So, that's the
tentative timeline looking forward here that will allow enough opportunity to field public
comment, for Council to consider that comment, along with the proposed action on
March 23rd, should the agenda allow. So, with that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Matt. Council, any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Is there any member of the public who would like to provide
testimony at this time? Okay. This is a 30-day comment period. We would invite you
to submit any comments in writing, if you should have any, and we will just have this on
our agenda on March 23rd.
Ellsworth: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. And I don't need a motion or anything to continue;
correct?
Nary: No.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Planning Department: Budget Amendment Requesting
Spending Authority of $249,947.00 that was Pre-Awarded for
Program Year 2009 CDBG Entitlement
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7 under Department Reports, our first department is the
Planning Department and so I will tum this back over to Matt.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 5 of 34
Ellsworth: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The second item for
you this evening was originally very specifically worded on the agenda in order to get
the city by -- between right now when we receive the final paperwork from HUD,
including a grant agreement and the other necessary paperwork to begin spending for
the current CDBG program year 2009, yesterday late in the day I received from HUD
the official grant agreement and the paperwork that would allow the city to do so. So, a
slightly modified request for you this evening is two fold. On the one hand I'm
requesting spending authority in the same amount that was identified on the agenda,
that's for 249,947 dollars and the second part of the request before you this evening is
that the Mayor go ahead and sign the grant agreement, so we can forward it back to
HUD and make it official. Again, the activities that are proposed for use with the
249,947 dollars are outlined in the 2009 CDBG action plan, which HUD approved
several months ago. With that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Has the proposed agreement or the agreement provided by HUD been
reviewed by legal?
Ellsworth: Sorry, Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, can you repeat the question,
please?
Rountree: Has the agreement you received been reviewed by legal?
Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, I do not
believe so. We just received it last evening. It, to my knowledge, has not been received
or reviewed by legal. It would be the same paperwork that we received in each of the
previous CDBG program years, but I'm happy to forward that onto legal for review, if
Council would be more comfortable with that way.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any further questions? Mr. Nary, I guess this is pretty consistent in the
paperwork. Do you feel that Council can make action without your review first?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, certainly. I mean if it's the same
documents we have had year after year. I just don't know that, because I've not
reviewed it, but -- and no one on my stuff has. But they generally don't change. I think
this is, what, the third or fourth set of these we have had. Third. So, I'm certainly
comfortable if you want to go forward. If you'd like us -- if there is no urgency, certainly
holding it over to two weeks --
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 6 of 34
De Weerd: Matt, is there a time element?
Ellsworth: I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, could you repeat the question?
De Weerd: Is there a time element on approval of this amendment?
Ellsworth: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, not necessarily. I mean there is
always the overarching timeliness consideration that you have to keep in mind, but the
difference between considering it this week, as opposed to next week, two weeks from
now, isn't going to make or break the city on this one. We just wouldn't be able to move
forward spending 2009 dollars until we have that signed agreement in hand.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the budget amendment request in
the amount of 249,947 dollars and that we authorize the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to
attest the grant agreement upon the review of legal counsel.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, if you would
call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, absent; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
B. Mayor's Office: Resolution No. 10-711: Appointing Andrew J.
Mitzel to the Traffic Safety Commission
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Rountree. Okay. Item 7-B. Council, in front of you you do
have a resolution and a resume for an appointment to our Traffic Safety Commission.
Mr. Mitzel feels that he can bring the use perspective to this commission. He's very
interested in getting involved in our community and is very anxious to serve as a
volunteer for the city in which he lives. If you have any questions I would entertain
those at this time.
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 7 of 34
Hoaglun: I move approval of resolution number 10-711 appointing Andrew J. Mittel to
the Traffic Safety Commission and for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. If there is no discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, absent; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
F. Police Department: Budget Amendment Requesting Spending
Authority for Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) in the Amount of
$165,757.00
De Weerd: Okay. We added two amendments to our agenda at this point after the
Police Department. So, I will go to 7-F on our agenda, which is our Police Department.
Lieutenant Colaianni.
Colaianni: Madam Mayor, Council Members, thank you. What you have in front of you
is spending authority to release funds so we can -- this is a JAG grant. I believe the
deputy chief and the chief prior to leaving to Quantico briefed you on this. This is JAG
grant involves us purchasing alarms for domestic violence victims and burglary
suppression and the related software that goes through that. We have the JAG grant to
purchase that and what we are looking for is spending authority for the 165,000 -- and
my eyes are getting bad -- 757 dollars. I don't need those. I need to take my contacts
out. Sony. So, we can move forward on that. And I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: None.
De Weerd: Thank you. I would need a motion.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve the budget amendment for the Justice Assistance
Grant in the amount of 165,757 dollars.
Hoaglun: Second.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 8 of 34
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Madam
Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, absent; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
I. Amended onto Agenda: Budget Amendment- Mayor's Office
for Economic Development Administrator for $77,737.28
De Weerd: Okay. The next item was added to the agenda for the economic
development administrator. We will turn this over to Robert.
Simison: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, what we have before you tonight is a
budget amendment that would enable the city to hire afull-time economic development
administrator. We have closed out our contract with the previous contractor, so there is
no further expenses coming through from his side and this is a switch primarily from
operating expenses to personnel expenses for this position. A candidate has been
selected and offered the position contingent upon the approval of this amendment
tonight and is scheduled to begin work on March 1st accordingly. And I will stand for
any questions if you have any.
De Weerd: Thank you, Robert. And Councilman Zaremba was part of the process and
he is not here. Council, do you have any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Robert.
Rountree: Your liaison is not here this evening, Madam Mayor, so I will make a motion.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Rountree: I move that we approve the budget amendment for the economic
development administrator in the amount of 71,986 dollars.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, absent; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 9 of 34
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
J. Amended onto Agenda: Budget Amendment Fire
Department for EOC Equipment and Labor Costs for $7,500.00
De Weerd: Okay. The next is a budget amendment on the EOC equipment and labor
costs. Mr. -- or chief. Sorry.
Anderson: Madam Mayor, Council, Deputy Chief Niemeyer was going to present this,
but we thought this was going to be closer to the end of the agenda, so I let him go
home to be with his family and I will present this. What this is -- this is for some costs
that were associated with the upgrades to the city's EOC, Emergency Operation Center,
which is located at Fire Station One. If you will recall we were the recipients of a
165,000 dollar homeland security grant that paid for upgrades in audio and visual
equipment and teleconferencing in that EOC. What the grant wouldn't pay for -- it
wouldn't pay for any electrical work or phone work, it was just for equipment. So, we
have -- had to have an electrician come out, move some outlets, move some conduit,
we had to have some phone work done and, then, additionally there are three DVD
recorder tuners that need to go in the cabinet over there and, then, we also need a
mount for a display. And, then, we have one other additional item and that goes in that
command trailer that we purchased last year. At the time that was installed the
television stations were still transmitting in an analog mode and now they have switched
to digital, so we are asking for an antenna to switch that to digital, so that the total cost
of this is the 7,500 dollars. It's a little bit less than that, 7,488, but we are asking for a
not to exceed 7,500 dollar budget amendment that would come from fund balance.
De Weerd: Council, any questions for Chief Anderson? I see a signature by the
Council liaison.
Bird: I -- this should have been taken care of under the other liaison, but somebody
dropped the ball. I move that we approve the budget amendment for 7,500 dollars.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Madam
Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, absent; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carves.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
C. Legal Human Resources/I.T. Department: Strategic Focus
Update
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 10 of 34
De Weerd: item 7-C is our Legal, Human Resources, IT Department. Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We, actually, have two
separate presentations tonight as part of our update. We have talked about our
strategic update just a few months ago on the different things that our departments are
doing and what we decided to focus on tonight is two areas more specifically. One is
the IT section and some of the changes that we have done and some of the
advancements and additions we have done to IT and Terry Patemoster, our IT
manager, is here and will do that. The other portion we will talk about after that is our
training program and Crystal Ritchie, who is our training coordinator, as well as our HR
analyst, was to be here tonight, she had some family commitments and so she isn't able
to be here, so when we get to that I will do that presentation for you. But, first, I'll tum it
over to Teny to talk a little bit about IT and what we have been doing.
Patemoster: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for this opportunity to
come before you tonight to discuss some of the strategic update and just giving this to
talk about some initiatives we have going on within the IT department. The plan tonight
is to, basically, just talk about these initiatives, give you a really high level view,
otherwise, we could be here all night, and, then, take any questions at the end. The first
thing I just wanted to talk about is just, basically, give you the organizational structure of
the IT department. Things have changed considerably over the past seven years that
we have had an IT department within the city. As you can see, we have, basically, had
the IT department and inside that we, basically, have two different sections that we have
divided out, basically, with application development and, then, also with system
services. The application development is really more of software, implementation type
services, and system services is more taking care of hardware, network, and wiring.
You know -- and one thing I want to just say about this is that, you know, I just present
this before you tonight, because I think that it's critical, you know, just to give recognition
to the people who are listed here, because I think that a lot of our past successes and
definitely our future successes are dependent upon the people who we have hired and
we think we have done a really good job. Moving forward -- oh why didn't -- let me see.
Forward.
Canning: Maybe if I could help you out.
Patemoster: Okay.
Anderson: Want me to get somebody from IT to come help you?
Patemoster: Yeah. If you could do that forme. Okay. Oh, I got my little pen. Thanks.
The first item that I really wanted to address with you is just our land management
software, which is, basically, the enhancement that we did a couple of years ago
regarding consolidating some of the city-wide services and data bases into a system.
We -- I have called that land management, because that seems to be the -- the catch
phrase that's used by a lot of the software vendors today. And, you know, starting with
that, I just want to, you know, recognize at the top that, you know, we have hired a new
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 11 of 34
individual to take on this role to help lead us to our next step and that's Scott Nicholson
and Scott was kind enough to come tonight and be here for this presentation. You
know -- and I believe that Scott, you know, really is playing an integral roll in are
success with this application. You know, at this point, you know, you have the funding
and now we have the person and so what we are -- our strategy is with this particular
enhancement -- and it is to work with the departments to explore and understand their
needs, so that as we go forward with writing out the RFP, that we make sure that the
critical needs are identified and assessed and weighted properly in the process. You
know, throughout this analysis we believe there is several different software packages
available today on the market that will meet our needs and are confident that will move
forward. We do plan that, you know, sometime early mid spring we will have an RFP on
the street, so that, hopefully, this fiscal year we will actually have a product purchased
and implementation started. The next system that I wanted to talk about, the strategic
initiative, is our Hansen system, which many of you know is used to manage the assets
out at the wastewater plant and it's currently also going under some configuration for the
water department. Basically, the approach that's being taken there is to -- they went out
with RFP a couple months back and have contracted out to get services to come in and
train them on how to implement that system and how to configure it. They recently just
finished the configuration training last week and so at this point they are matching up
the processes that they have identified in-house with the configuration, so that they can
start implementing this project and moving forward with some testing. From talking with
Cathy just this morning -- Cathy Buttars, who is leading that process, is she says it's
going well and that they look forward to, you know, getting the product working. Going
on from that, you know, one of the key pieces that's come to our attention and one of
the strategic initiatives that we have taken on is, you know, regarding GIS. GIS has
been a hot topic for the city for several years and it has largely been utilized by our
Public Works and Planning Department. Upon, you know, some recent departure of
some staff within the GIS about six months ago, IT sat down with Public Works and had
some discussions about maybe how we could lead this to the next level and, really,
what would be best to meet the city's needs going forward, not just for Public Works, but
also for the city. During those discussions we came to some mutual conclusions that it
made a lot of sense, given the directions that Public Works was heading and some of
the things with a new position that had been approved with IT, that it would make a lot
of sense to move some of those GIS functions out of Public Works and really take more
of a central citywide roll with those -- those functions, especially some of the
development. So, with the position that you guys -- that you guys had approved for us
last year, we decided that one of the things that we would go out and do is instead of
just hiring for someone with a development background, we would also look for
someone with GIS background. We were fortunate enough to find an individual who
had 15 years of background in GIS, but was largely looking to get into more of a
development role, which happened to meet what we were seeking at the time. Rob
Zosnowski -- I put his picture up there, so you could see him. He was hoping to come
tonight, but due to some family issues he was unable to attend -- is leading that venture
for us and, really, what the goal with this particular task -- GIS is really the core
infrastructure that not only affects, you know, GIS in Public Works and Planning, but it's
also the core technology that really is tied to our land management system and to our
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 12 of 34
asset management system and so, really, what Rob's been tasked with doing what our
focus is with our GIS, is to upgrade us to the latest GIS technology, which is tied to an
amendment which was done -- or an enhancement which done last fiscal year for this
year, is for our GIS server, which is more of an enterprise technology, using that
technology it integrates in with the land management system and with the Hansen
system that's already been acquired. Some of the other things that we think are critical
to our success with moving GIS forward is to educate departments -- clearly Public
Works and Planning have a good understanding of what GIS lends, but a lot of the other
departments don't really recognize or don't understand some of the value that the GIS
can bring to their projects and so our goal is to form a citywide committee, get
individuals on there, and, then, to move forward by education, training, and assisting
departments and to try to get some early wins by trying to pick off some low hanging
fruit, so that we can have some early successes to really move forward. The next
system is our police incident tracking system. A few years ago the police department
had moved to recording audio when they go out on incidents and so, basically, if you're
pulled over they have audio recorders that are recording the conversation and they use
this oftentimes for cases and when people come back and, you know, just have
questions about how a certain incident was handled. We had a case for a couple of
years and one of the issues was is they were looking for a better way to manage these
audio files. One of the things that came to our attention when we started to do some
analysis on how we could best implement this type of system was that there was a lot of
data redundancy happening at the police department, where, basically, an ofFicer would
go off into the field, he would write up something, come back, manually enter that again,
come back a third time, they would scan it into records and, then, enter it again and so
there was a lot of redundancy in work. As we started to analyze that system, you know,
Mike Tanner, who is our senior developer for the city, said, you know, there is a lot of
improvements that could be made here through just a little bit more effort than what it's
really going to take for putting in an audio tracking system and, you know, I'm really
proud of Mike and just the efforts that he's taken, because he's done an excellent job of
trying to identify some areas where some efficiencies can be gained. The Police
Department will attest we have already shown them mini mock-ups of a product and
some of the development's been done and they are really excited, because they
recognize the value that this product is going to have for their department, not only for,
you know, going out in the field and recording information and saving staff time, but also
working with the prosecutors and making sure that information is tracked and is
recorded from, basically, the life to the death of the incident. Not only has this product,
you know, gained, you know, interest from the city and from our own police department,
but the county and the city of Boise have also been very very. interested in this product,
just because of the high scale level of the application that's been developed and have
recognized that they are using some of the same old systems that we are and that this
could just save hundreds and hundreds of hours per year through this application and I
guess my goal for tonight is just to kind of make you aware of, you know, the effort that
is going. We expect this application will be released sometime in the next month. Right
now we are undergoing testing and so we are really proud of this particular product.
De Weerd: Can we sell it to them?
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 13 of 34
Paternoster: That is definitely up to the city. You know, I guess on that line, you know,
with the police department, you know, we could sell it them and maybe if that's what the
city wants to do, it's well within our -- our prerogative, I think, but, you know, a lot of the
applications that we have used in the past the city has been the beneficiary of
development that's been done by Boise and Ada County and there is mutual
cooperation and so I definitely think that --
De Weerd: You don't need to take everything I say serious.
Patemoster: Okay. All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. The last item that I was
asked --
De Weerd: Just looking to make a profit.
Patemoster: Hey, you know, if we could tum us into a -- you know, get us out of the
General Fund, you know, and -- we would be glad to be enterprise, so -- the last item
that I had is the capital improvement plan. I have been working with the Finance
Department and definitely at the Mayor's urging have been eager to try to put together a
capital improvement plan to identify some of the expenditures that the IT Department
plans on and things are probable will happen sometime in the next five years. I have
talked to the Finance Department and although many of these items on here are capital
type items, one of the goals that I had was to try to put together an overall budget of
exactly what are some of these expenses that we have within the IT Department. A lot
of them are software related and so they will still continue to come through as
enhancements moving forward, rather than just as capital improvements, because they
really are more operating expenses, but I thought it was good for you, the Council and
for Madam Mayor, to be able to see some of the expenses we have. One of the big
ones on here -- and highlighted it in red, is our fiber network and one of the needs that
we view is critical to moving the city forward is having our own fiber infrastructure. Right
now we have been the beneficiary of using some fiber from ACHD, but there are some
limitations with utilizing their fiber, i.e., they, basically, can give us how much they want
and it's always a tough commodity to come by at times and so there are some ways that
maybe we can cut this down through some shared use of ACHD fiber, but there are
some limitations with that that we can't always get fiber to some of the locations that we
are at, because the core of the ACHD fiber really is around the heart of downtown and
doesn't really get out to where the wastewater plant or out to some of the fire stations.
I'd stand for any questions. That was my last slide and I'm happy to address anything
that you might have or any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 14 of 34
Rountree: Terry, on your last slide, your capital improvements, have you done any
prioritization or is that just a wish list? Is there priority to the order that's listed there or
that just happens to be how they fell out?
Paternoster: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, thank you
for your question. This is just, basically, a lot of the expenses that we think that we are
going to incur over the next five years. A lot of them, like servers, uninterruptable power
supplies, desktop, laptops, router switches, those are already items that we currently
request every year as needed for replacement under our current plan. Some of the
more wish list items are definitely up in the wireless, the 97,500, and the fiber networks,
those are items that we believe are critical to moving the city forward and, really, having
more of a consolidated network and shared communication platform. As to like the
enterprise system, which is like 200,000 dollars that's already an incurred expense.
Once we -- well, not incurred, but budgeted for as part of the enterprise land
management system when we move forward that is the expected maintenance cost per
year and so those are just normal operating expenses that we plan on.
Rountree: Well, just a suggestion for your strategy is to take a look at those things that
we think we are going to need in the future and prioritize them- and build a case for
phasing them in.
Patemoster: Thank you. I will.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Question for Teny on -- if you look at the city overall and the various
agencies, how are we doing in terms of agencies coming along and going in the same
direction, making sure we are using common systems -- I know software can be
different, because they have different functions and jobs to do, but at the same time we
won't have different platforms, different things where each .agency becomes a silo and
they grow what they have, but, yet, we can't communicate across those agency
boundaries. How are we doing in that respect?
Patemoster: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, in my
opinion I think we are doing excellent. I mean one of the first -- I mean I think that the
city's well -- well above and we do a better job than a lot of the agencies that I see
around us and it's not just to be arrogant, I really do think that we have done an
excellent job of trying to standardize on platforms that are common. I mean when I first
started with the city seven years ago we were using some technologies that were
difficult to find staff who could support those technologies and my goal is to phase those
out as quickly as possible, because I realize that it was expensive to maintain those
technologies and it was even more expensive to find staff who could support those,
because it was rather specialized. We had standardized on Microsoft platforms, not
only with our systems, but also with our development platforms and we use
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 15 of 34
visualstudio.net. A lot of the integration like with the police incident tracking system, you
know, Mike has done an excellent job of making sure that that system not only
integrates with how the city operates, but we had tied in with the county systems, with
ITD, with ISP, to make sure that it's pulling out those pieces of information to insure that
we are using the common technologies that other people today are using to insure that
we are not only viable for today, but viable in the future.
Hoaglun: Good. Glad to hear that. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well -- and I think one thing that our IT Department has done is kept up to
date and in tune with what others are doing around us. They have a good
communication system in terms of that and we do have a policy as software packages
are requested that IT has to have an evaluation of that for exactly that reason. So, we
are not creating isolation or silos that we -- we do have a integrated system and they
have been very good at pointing out what would work and what might not work and why
we shouldn't be making those purchases. Some of our departments get maybe
sometimes frustrated with that, but, you know, there is at the end -- at the end of the day
-- and Robert will get after me that I said that -- that we have these policies or these
steps in place so that we can make sure that we are communicating not only verbally,
but through our different tools. We appreciate your report. Thank you for being here
and thank you for having faces to those that do our great work and thank you, Mike, for
what you're doing.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I do want to take a second, too, to
acknowledge Terry. Tent' doesn't get noticed very much. I know we usually come up
here with their presentation once a year at the budget time. We have lots of
information, lots of technology we are trying to get all over the city and I think many
times what gets lost is both management of a group of people that are really excellent. I
mean out strategy as a city is to be at the forefront of different things, whether it's police,
fire, public works, legal, human resources -- well, IT is another area that our city is a
leader in this area and our local area around. The folks that we have there are excellent
and coveted by other people and other entities, because of their excellence and Tent' is
a great leader of that group and Terry has a great challenge in that, because he has to
manage not just the professionals in IT, but he has our award winning internship
program that we have had for a number years with the Technical Charter High School,
as well as some of the college interns and so Terry has a great challenge daily of
managing both teenagers trying to assimilate into the workforce and be part of our work
group, as well as our other professionals that are in there and having that vision and
that long-term look at things is not the easiest thing and as you all know, a few years
ago IT was one person and it was one contracted person and IT was a same day
service sort of entity and we are not like that anymore. I mean the service our
employees get is immediate, it is responsive, and Terry is a great reason why that
occurred and so I wanted to not pass up that opportunity to mention that. As I told you,
Crystal had a family obligation that took her away tonight, so I'm going to take over her
presentation tonight and, hopefully, just give you a little bit of a snapshot of where we
have gone with employee development and training. We met a couple of years ago in
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 16 of 34
the budget and asked for a position for human resources, we felt it was necessary as a
city to create a better development program for employees for a variety of reasons and
one is local training can be expensive and time consuming. Sometimes sending people
out of state for training can be expensive and time consuming and for certain positions
it's not very practical to do. But, yes, there is a necessity to make sure that we have
some good development of employees, for two primary reasons. One, to give them
better skills and abilities in the jobs they perform and to give them the ability to advance
into other positions in the city. What you don't want is people -- because we are a very
small workforce and still are a small workforce, you have people that perform in
positions that may not have a natural position to advance to in the short term. They
may be the immediate subordinate supervisor of a department director and unless they
are going to be the department director, they may not be able to advance any further or
they may not have a position that really is above them, except for the department
director, so they may not have something. So, what we didn't want is employees feeling
as if they are sort of stuck. They get here, there is no training, there is no opportunity
for advancement or skills for them and could we do something in an economical and
practical way to provide that opportunity without really increasing our budget greatly.
We have had money that -- over the years for training in different areas, could we do
that with, basically, trying to do some of it ourself and some of it with outsourcing. So,
Crystal Ritchie was hired to do that. She came on board with us just a little bit over a
year ago and has done a great job, because Crystal came with both a training
background, as well as HR background and so because our HR section is small as well,
she's been able to essentially wear a couple of hats. She's been able to help
departments in all the HR functions and necessities that we have, hiring, disciplinary
issues, employee personnel types of problems, as well as develop this training program.
So, again, this training program was implemented to create some tracks for people,
both in general employees, supervisor training, as well as executive training, and we
created a track system by meeting with the department directors and getting a sense of
what exactly people want, as well as surveying employees seeing what they would like
to have or what they'd like to see. So, we did the training and stuff and it was Aspiron.
Aspiron, as you all know, was our prior contractor that we had. We are no longer under
contract with Aspiron. We got the results just a little over a year ago, December of
2008, and we took those results and, then, worked with our departments to be able to
create this training program. So, far we have done -- we have identified the categories,
so, again, we have general employees, supervisors, executive. We have identified the
training categories of needs for the different things and, then, we have identified
guidelines. What we wanted to do, again, was to create a track for folks, so they would
have some way to see progress and see where they go, what kinds of things they
should have in their tool box when you come on board, what should they be taking just
to continue in their job and what should they 6e looking at for different departments if
they are wanting some sort of succession planning for different personnel. So, here is
just alittle -- a little snapshot of how we identify them, the employee categories.
Obviously, general employees, they don't have any supervisory responsibilities, they
aren't lead workers or anything, but they have individual contribution. So, that's one
group of employees that has a certain curriculum that we are developing for them.
Supervisory staff, obviously, has supervisory responsibility, team leader on specific
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 17 of 34
projects or a particular work assignment and, then, of course, the executives are the
mid to senior level manager, lead supervisors, they have the longer term visionary
responsibility, the strategic responsibilities for departments and how do we. again,
assist them with that. Training categories. We looked at -- there is a couple of different
things that you have to always evaluate. There are things that are necessary from a
compliance standpoint. We have to train all employees on issues dealing with sexual
harassment, for example. Everyone has to go through that. How we deal in a
respectful workplace, which is a different part of that same coin of sexual harassment.
There is other things -- customer service that are -- call it mandatory and necessary.
Performance management only deals maybe with certain types of personnel
supervisory. Leadership, strategic planning, again, for the supervisory personnel,
accountability different -- that's for everybody. So, trying to identify the different
categories and what's necessary was, again, part of this task that we worked through
with the directors. Resources. We have a trainer. Crystal has done a number of
trainings so far. We have -- what we did last year, we had taken the funds that we had
last year, after we developed the curriculum, we decided we would need some of that
curriculum we'd have to purchase, software, we worked with IT to figure out what would
make the most sense to us, because some of the training can be done very simply and
one of their ideas was to be able to do some of the training simply at your desktop at
your desk. Things that could be done online very simply, again, with supervisor's
approval, but it's not something that we have to always gather people in one room to
train them. We want to find other methods that we could do that. So, we purchased
some of the cumculum with our budget money last year about in August and September
of last year Crystal had tested a bunch of these different curriculums, which would work,
looked at a bunch of other agencies, what types of things they did, all of it was
customizable. That was one of the keys we were looking at in training material that it's -
- it's very stale to people to look at a training video or training material and it's generic
city USA, it's better if you can take that material and put our format in them, our forms,
our logo, our policies into the material itself and, then, take the other material that's
provided by the vendor and be able to incorporate that training into that. It has much
more of a connection to the employees, we think it's a much better way of teaching. So,
we purchased some of that cumculum and so this year we have money, then, set aside
in our budget that when the necessity is to roll out some of these training courses,
Crystal, obviously, can't train everyone on every single topic or has the time, but we can
hire trainers to come in and train on one particular subject. We are going to do a
subject matter of some sort, whether it's -- again, the one that it always comes back to,
because we have to do it so often, is sexual harassment. We can have Crystal train
every employee on sexual harassment every year and by year two or three they will be
tired of hearing it. It doesn't matter how -- how interesting we can make it, it doesn't
matter how dynamic your presentation can be, you just need to hear it a different way in
presenting it, you need to hear different voices presenting it, different method, so some
of that money that we have set aside for training is for just that very purpose. No knock
at Crystal just because she wasn't here. The intent of this program was to work both
horizontally and vertically and you will see that in a second. We want to make sure
employees can develop in their job, we want to make sure employees have the ability to
move ahead in their jobs, whether it's into a different department in the city, whether it's
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 18 of 34
a different function they are going to have in their own department, some of our larger
departments, obviously, have greater opportunities, some of our smaller departments
may not have the same level of opportunity for advancement, but there is still a
necessity that our folks are still trained and valued and that we -- whether it's
technology, whether it's something else, whether it's the latest in what the law changes
are -- and the clerk's office is a great example. It's a small department, yet the law
changes greatly in areas that are their specific need to know, so we want to make sure
we can provide the appropriate training that's necessary for them. They can't always
rely on AIC or someone else to provide that, so we want to make sure we are
responsive to those. Again, as we have talked before, this requires training, things that
are required from a compliance standpoint, versus things that are optional, there are
things that are going to be more for individual development of the employees and
depending on where they are in the organization and how long they have been there
and what the director of that department is willing to allow them the opportunity and time
to do, we want to make sure that's available for them. This is what we have done to this
point. This is just, basically, what Crystal has been able to do in a little less than a year.
I would say -- I'm trying to guess -- I wish she was here for this one, but she came on
with us in January or so of last year and so I think her first training that she did was
probably in March. So, just under a year she's been able to do ten different sessions of
respectful workplace, 99 people or employees who participated in that. Customer
service, she's had 125 people in eight different sessions. Sexual harassment she's
done two of those. So, she's facilitated with another 49 participants in that and the new
hire oientation -- we took a different approach on new hire. We -- when I came here
new hire orientation I think was done just like it was done probably everywhere else and
it was very boring, pretty stale, it was pretty much looking through the handbook, here is
the handbook, turn the page, here is the one that says we can terminate you anytime.
Here is the one that says when you can take vacation -- very very static type of
presentation. And, then, the rest of the presentation was here is hundreds of forms that
you have to fill out to be on our medical plan and your dental plan and all of those
things. Now, we try to get that information to the employees earlier in the process, so
they can think about all that stuff before they come to the orientation. They have a little
bit more time, we try to group them together, we try to make it a little more dynamic, we
split up the way the presentation is done, we do benefits at a portion of it, we also do --
one of the things that Crystal noticed as one of our new -- when she was a -- as a new
employee -- we don't spend enough -- she didn't feel -- we didn't spend enough time
educating our employees on what kind of culture and what kind of environment we are.
We do think we are unique. We do think we are different in the way we do things, and
she felt- it was important to make sure people understood that and that we needed to
start people from day one that this is who we are. This is who the Mayor and Council is,
this is how the departments work, these are how the city works as a whole, this is how
we integrate to being a team and team environment that we try to promote. So, we
have changed our way of doing orientation and we have found so far that it's been
successful, it's -- you know, it's always a work in progress in all of these things, but we
think it's been a better way of doing it, people gain a little bit more out of it, we try to give
them a little bit better information, at least better edited information, so they make sure
it's not just a -- a stream of type and print and text and nothing else, so --our next steps.
Meridian Ciry Council
February 9, 2010
Page 19 of 34
What we are doing is finalizing up the program. We should have that done here by I
would say in the next week or two, get that back up okay with that and, then, we can,
then, start figuring out how do we, then, communicate that to the employees, set up the
actual classes, so the employees can start really picking and I don't think -- see if we
have a slide for that. We don't. The intent was, like that -- like that table or that slide we
had on the table in a box, you can look at a new employee and see over the course of
time -- and what we looked at is about an 18 month window that a new employee, if
they just came in to work in say utility billing, over the next 18 months we have a certain
number of courses that we think make sense for an employee to take to understand
their job, understand how the city works, understand how different things go, not just
basic orientation, but a variety of the different subjects that would fit on a menu for that.
Now, they don't have to take them all, it's not something that's required of folks, it gives
them an opportunity. There are things on the leadership side, whether it's the
supervisory track or the leadership executive track, that are going to be a little bit -- a
few more things that are mandatory. So, every one of the tracks has things that are
mandatory and things that are optional to give employees, again, the opportunities for
growth. Certainly, obviously, a little bit more -- a little bit broader perspective type of
things, strategic things for the executive track, but the intent is to, again, give subject
matters to the different sections and, then, again, put it back to the departments. The
departments have to -- one of the things the departments were concerned with and we
were certainly in agreement with -- we didn't want to make things either so mandatory
that you have people going to training more than working and, secondarily, we didn't
want to make things so mandatory that it appears that the employees are sort of driving
that bus and the reality is the department needs to drive that bus. So, we want to make
sure there is opportunities for folks to become better skilled in their job and that as the
department can address those needs with them and the department feels that it can fit
those into the workplace -- into their workload, they can have them attend these
different things. And, again, we are looking at things that are both on site, maybe on the
site where they are at, we do a lot of the training -- for example, when Crystal did some
training with the fire department a few months ago, she went there to this -- to the fire
department to do it, because of the way their work is set up, it doesn't make it practical
for them to come here on their off days, pay overtime, and those things, so she went
there. Police she's done the same thing. So, those are things that we think are more
valuable to the employees to be able to do that, so I wish I could answer more about
that specifically, but that's kind of our next step is to get that and you will see that in
front of you again and, then, we will start educating the employees as what's available
to them and bring that forward. Do you have other questions?
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Nary: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: You know, I do think that we should recognize how far the training programs
have really progressed. I think that we are covering a lot of ground in things that have
been pushed aside, because we didn't have time or the appropriate training
opportunities. So, this has definitely helped and having the facility to use as well,
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 20 of 34
because we do use that -- the IT area to do
well. I appreciate your -- your presentation,
No? So, Bill, did you have anything further?
some of that training and enhance that as
Bill, if there is no discussion or questions?
Nary: No, ma'am. I wanted to just focus on those two things tonight as part of our
strategic plan, because I thought those were both things you hadn't heard and some
new information and some opportunities for taking forward, so -
D. Parks & Recreation Department: 2010 Fee Schedule
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Our next item under 7-D is our Parks
and Recreation Department regarding the 2010 fee schedule. Oh, we did? Okay. We
are actually doing the nonresident fee policy first.
Siddoway: Yes, ma'am. Thank you for allowing us to reverse the order. We do need to
discuss the nonresident fee policy before we adopt the annual Parks and Recreation fee
schedule. As you will remember, we were -- we came before Council in November with
a discussion about nonresident fees. Took comments. We were directed by Council to
go back and develop a program. I would like to introduce to you tonight Garrett White.
He has joined our team from Orland, Califomia, at the end of November, as our new
recreation coordinator over the sports program. Garrett comes to us with a great
background in sports and recreation programming, including experience with
nonresident fees. Tonight we do need some Council direction on the nonresident fee
policy in order to make this part of our spring softball registration process, if we desire to
do so. You do have two proposals as options in your packets tonight and we will
present, excuse me, a recommendation on which one we feel will be the -- the best.
So, here to present those to you tonight I'd like to welcome Garrett White.
White: Thank you.
De Weerd: Hi, Garrett.
White: Madam Mayor and Council, thank you for having us here tonight. In front of you
guys you guys should have option one of the nonresident fees and what this is is a
player fee structure based on resident players versus nonresident players. I do have a
little bit of background coming from -- or past employment at the city of Folsom,
California, and with the city of Orland in Califomia as well. Taking the background on
that, asking them kind of how they came up with their nonresident fee structure, talking
with the city of Boise and their recreation department and the city of Nampa with their
recreation department, they do it all different ways. There is different ways of doing
things. So, other than recreating the wheel, we just kind of pieced together what others
have done in the past that works good for them. So, option one is the option that we
were going to recommend to -- recommend to you. Option one is the player resident
fee. The team fees -- well, all the fees based on the program. It will be different for
volleyball, for basketball, to softball, depending on, you know, the different prices and
the different costs of the program. What the resident player fee and the nonplayer fee
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 21 of 34
would be a fixed rate, I guess, or a fixed fee. For a resident player it would be ten
dollars, for a nonresident player it would be 20 dollars. Even with doing all the budgets
for each one of our programs, we are still right in the middle, right in the same ballpark
as everybody around us -- the recreation departments around us when it comes to fees.
We are not the most expensive, but we are, obviously, not the most less expensive
around, we are right in the middle. So, the option two would be the team fees and it's
just a strict team fee, not -- not strictly a player fee, but the city of Folsom has it as if 60
percent of your team is a resident you're considered a resident team. If 60 percent of
you are not resident, you're considered a nonresident team and they base it on that and
they collect proof of residency per person per team to proof that and they have the
personnel there to go through and check that out. So, we are recommending that we go
with the player fee policy of a resident player fee of ten dollars and a nonresident fee of
20 dollars. If you guys have any questions for us.
De Weerd: Thank you, Garrett. Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, just to clarify that the resident, nonresident fee would be on
top of the team fee?
White: Yes.
Rountree: Okay. Okay. And, Madam Mayor, a follow up.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Rountree: I see there an enforcement activity here. I assume when folks sign up for
these they are appraised of the penalty that can be imposed and my question is
probably for Mr. Nary. Is that within the authority of the Parks and Recreation
Department to enforce that the way they are talking about to suspend players for a
given period of time, et cetera?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yeah, if it's -- as long as it's advised to
them, I think they already do that now for behavior and I think this is just a different form
of behavior.
Rountree: Okay. All right. Thanks.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I think where we might come into a problem and the~difference -- you'd
be suspended unless you make up the difference, so that gives them the hammer.
You're going to be suspended, you know, cough up the extra ten bucks and that's a
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 22 of 34
good hammer. But we will find people who think they are residents, because they have
a Meridian city address -- well, I live in the city limits, look, my address. And, no, you're
outside the city limits itself, but, yes, you're -- you got a Meridian address. So, you may
come across that from time to time, but I think with that hammer, just say, look, you
know, pay the difference, you're not a resident, and you move on and if they don't want
to, at least you have got something to say look -- and if you don't, we do have some
teeth there, so I think that works out pretty well.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Hoaglun, maybe to
follow up on that, in this policy statement here you may want to state that, that the
player may either be suspended or may be required to pay the nonresident fee, so that
way you do have that option, because it does seem somewhat onerous to suspend
somebody if they only have to pay ten dollars if they would have done it in the first
place, but that's up to you, but if you want to provide that, then, we want to make sure
it's clear in that statement.
Rountree: It's clear.
Bird: It's very clear to me.
White: Yeah. Basically -- Madam Mayor and Council, basically, what it says is that if
we -- if you are caught, basically, lying on your address and what it is, you're
automatically suspended for two games. That's to keep people honest, to keep people
saying, yeah, okay, we are just going to pay the extra ten dollars for nonresident, you
got us, here it is. But there are going to be some of those that do try to get by with the
resident fee and this and that and that just -- basically, if you are caught with that, you're
just automatically two weeks no matter what, two games, that's what it is.
Nary: I'm song, the way Iwas -- I was reading it incorrectly. So, you got it right. That's
fine.
Rountree: The only other comment I would make is you emphasize that they need to
cant' this proof of residency. Their phone bill won't prove their residency of the City of
Meridian, nor a rental receipt, nor driver's license, or DMV identification. About the only
two on there that you could really see that they are paying Meridian property tax or
Meridian utilities is utility bill or property tax statement. The rest of them I don't think
you're going to have the resources to say, well, they live on XY and Z Green Street to
see if that XY and Z Green Street is in the City of Meridian, so I wouldn't give people the
false impression that if they cant' their phone bill or their driver's license with them that
they are going to be able to demonstrate that they live in the City of Meridian.
Bird: Most of the programs that I know of you have to take your utility bill in.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 23 of 34
Rountree: That's the best.
Bird: I know Boise and Nampa is that way.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor and Councilman Rountree, we can -- we can certainly do
that. We wouldn't be able to use the phone bill to verify in the field, but we would have
to -- if that's what they had, we would have to verify the address back at the office. Or
we can just take those out and say that they need to provide either a utility bill or a
property tax statement as the proof of residency.
Rountree: That's the easiest for them and it makes it a whole lot easier for you.
De Weerd: Because you don't want to spend a whole lot of staff time on that.
Siddoway: Right. And we won't be checking everyone. We talked about this in
November. But this gives us the ability to spot check and people know that -- that we
intend to and they need to be honest and there is a penalty if they get caught being
dishonest.
Rountree: Okay. Great.
Hoaglun: And just a last comment. It looks like option one is the cleanest way to do all
this. It's a lot easier for everybody involved.
Siddoway: It's also simpler -- often people will add players to their team. This way if --
under the team policy, if people were to add players after the fact, then, we have to
worry about, okay, are they now under the 60 percent threshold and it seemed a lot
simpler just ten, 20 dollars with each person.
Hoaglun: Yeah. We don't want to go the route of the European basketball leagues and
how many American players can you have versus European players and all that good
stuff, so --
Siddoway: We used to have a player fee system in our fee schedule. We only recently
went to a team fee. This would just be going back to a similar fee schedule that we had
just a couple years back.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from Council?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Thank you.
E. Parks ~ Recreation Department: Non-Resident Fee Policy
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 24 of 34
Siddoway: Direction and Garrett will be sending out the registration packets for spring
softball hopefully tomorrow. We will include the nonresident player fees in that
information. And our next discussion will be a formal adoption of the fee schedule with
Collin.
White: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Garrett.
Moss: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I am here today to present
the department's 2010 fee schedule. On it you will see there is several sections where
we -- I already inputed our proposed nonresident fee structure and so I guess with the --
with the new direction we will be looking at all of the -- the shaded areas where -- where
I have inputed the new nonresident fees. So, unless there are -- are there any specific
questions about the fee schedule for this year?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I did have a question. When I was looking at this earlier, I want to be sure I
understood it. If we take basketball, for example, there is a team fee of 595 dollars,
that's the existing and, then, you go down to basketball nonresident fee structure
proposal, which was the new team of 475, so instead of the 595 we are replacing it with
the 475 -- explain to me the difference between the 595 and the 475. I guess I was
confused between those two.
Moss: Sure. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, basically,
what this says is the -- formerly when we had the team fee of 595, that was the team
fees, the player fees, the USSSA fees, all rolled into one simple fee that we would
charge teams when we did away with the player fee system a couple years ago. In
going back to the team fee system, now that we have nonresident fees, we are putting
the player fees back in there and so, essentially, the resident and the nonresident player
fees would, essentially, make up the difference between the team fees.
Hoaglun: Okay. That's -- I thought that's what the deal was, but I just wanted to be
sure I didn't miss something there, so -- thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor? Collin, Isee -- particularly on the activity classes, that there
is a lot of them that are going to be removed. I assume those fees are removed,
because you won't be offering those classes.
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, that's correct.
And, to be honest, this is a lot of housecleaning with -- with this particular fee schedule.
We have left a few classes in over the last couple of years just in case they came back,
but we -- we went through and we kind of identified a lot of classes that we know are not
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 25 of 34
coming back and so we are just removing them from the fee schedule to make it a little
cleaner.
Rountree: Okay. Very good. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further questions, Council? Thank you, Collin.
Moss: Okay. Thank you. We will -- I will clean this up a little bit, so that it reflects all
the new nonresident fee structures and we will have it on the Consent Agenda next
week.
Nary: You have to advertise it. You have to advertise for two weeks.
Siddoway: Right. So, we will work with legal to get the advertising and the resolution
and the -- is there an ordinance or is it just a resolution?
Nary: It's a resolution.
Siddoway: We will get the resolution for the fee schedule and bring it back to Council
with that.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: If we are not changing the fees -- and I don't see any fee, other than going
down, do we have to --
Rountree: Some of the new ones.
Bird: Oh. We have to publish it.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you only have to publish the ones that
are changing above five percent. So, you have a few that are changing. You only have
to advertise those. The problem is if you only advertise those and not all of them, then,
it sometimes gets lost in the shufFle. But you don't have to. You only have to do the
ones that exceed five percent and those appear to be, when I was just glancing at it,
appears to be activity classes.
Moss: Correct.
Nary: All the rest aren't changing or are going down? So, you can adopt all of them by
resolution after advertising the ones that are required or we can adopt them in two
phases. We don't have a meeting for two weeks anyway, so --
Siddoway: Thank you.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 26 of 34
Moss: Thank you.
G. Legal Department & Clerks Office: Draft Procedure for
Handling Public Records Requests
De Weerd: Thank you. ®kay. Item 7-G is our legal department and clerk's office. Mr.
Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm just going to tum this over to -- just
kidding. I threatened Ms. Holman I was just going to tum it over to her. But, actually,
the clerk's office handles the public records requests that come into the city from the
various sources, other than the police department and the fire department directly. But
what we were looking for is you have in your packets a memo from Mrs. Kane from my
office in conjunction with the clerk's office on the method of how we want to do this in a
more standardized, uniform fashion. And the main reason -- and I know all of you know
this -- the main reason is because there is a three day turnaround that's required to
respond to public records requests and depending on the nature of the record or trying
to acquire the record or review the record in a timely fashion, there is a possibility it
could be ten days. What still happens occasionally from folks is that they don't -- and
part of this I think is a training issue more than anything, is they get a request from an
outside source, it may be citizen -- usually it's a citizen asking for something that doesn't
really ring to the person who receives it in the department -- and this is a public records
request and there is a time limit that we have to respond. There have been occasions
where we haven't responded sometimes for ten days or two weeks without even
notifying the person and that does violate the statute. Now, again, they haven't gone to
court and there hasn't been any ramifications from that, but we want to make sure we
train folks as to what's necessary. Police have been doing this for a number of years
and, actually, the city of Boise reviews the majority of their requests, they get dozens of
daily requests for reports. The fire department gets a fairly significant number of
requests and those have a certain different concern, because of HIPAA requirements
and what they are requesting and who is requesting it and there are some things that
have to be looked at and both the fire department and my office look at those closely
before we send those out. But we get dozens of other types of requests, from the
press, from the public, from lots of different folks, and we want to make sure we have a
standard process. The other thing that you will see in this memo -- and I don't want to
take a lot of your time tonight -- give you time to review it. What we would like to do is
also bring back -- one of the issues that comes up periodically is charging folks and
under the law -- what the law says is you can charge people under three conditions,
either it takes you more than two hours to find it or retrieve it and review it, or it's more
than a hundred pages or you have to redact anything. So, if you have to redact
anything, which is usually the most common one, you have to delete something in there,
there is a privacy consideration, there is somebody's personal phone number, Social
Security number, then, you can charge them for the whole thing. What other agencies
have done, because of that, is it's very cumbersome and very time consuming for most
agencies to charge people five cents for a document. What we would like to do is
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 27 of 34
establish some cut off -- and our recommendation right now is ten dollars -- that we
establish a cut off that until it reaches ten dollars that we are not going to collect the fee
back. We already passed the fee schedule with -- in front of you by resolution with the
clerk's office over what the charges are for copying, what the personnel charges are for
reviewing, but we have found there are occasions where we didn't redact something
and all we wanted was three pages. So, they would, in theory, without us setting some
cut off, on theory they would redact an item that took us five minutes to locate, but
because we redacted it, now they are going to have to pay us 15 cents. It takes more
effort to collect 15 cents than it does to collect the money and more time and cost. Also,
many times you're going to charge people for something that, in reality, again, didn't
take much time, yet they are going to have to incur some costs that are more than just
the hard costs, like you could charge people the cost for the CD or a tape or something
else like that or mailing. Those are different. So, we'd like -- we'd like to bring this
forward as a policy to bring forward for your final approval and also include in that some
cut off as to what would be appropriate for charging folks. We do feel that it is -- like I
said, there is a point where it does make sense and the public should recoup that cost
and there are times where, really, the cost is pretty inconsequential and us processing a
15 cent payment through finance is more time and money than it costs to -- we don't
recoup it with 15 cents. Do you have specific questions? I don't know if Mrs. Holman
has any additions to add. I think we have done -- we have gone through this with the
departments. I think our next step, really, is once it's approved by the Council to, then,
do the training to make sure all the folks that get things -- that's what, again, is one of
the things that the training piece that's been missing for our organization is people don't
realize that we may be the custodian of a public record and their request for somebody,
whether it's over the phone or at the counter, qualifies. The other thing in the memo you
may see, there are certain things that we also want to train folks that we can just give to
people. We don't have to take three days -- and here is a common example, especially
in the month of January and February, many people come in and they have proof that
they reside at some residence and all they want is a copy of their utility bill for the last
year, so they know what they have spent on their water bill. Well, that we can hand
over the counter. We really don't need them to fill it out in writing and wait three days
until we can print it off and hand it to them. We can give it to them over the counter.
So, again, we want to train folks to make sure we can be customer oriented and provide
those things that are really simple, they don't require legal review, they can be given to
folks very simply, but the other things that do maybe have some legal review necessary,
they understand what those are, why we do it, what the requirements are and, then, we
can provide it to them in a timely manner. Do you have any questions?
Rountree: Bill, there is a point here under oral request for public records -- I think it's on
page three -- page two. And one of the bullet points under there it talks about factors
that are present, if you can, then, disclose the information. But the third point says no
research or analysis is requested or required. Do we have to respond to a public
records request that requires research in the sense of creating new information from
information we have or analysis of information that we might have or is that the
responsibility of the requester?
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 28 of 34
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, what was
intended by that statement was no analysis by us is required.
Rountree: Yes.
Nary: That fits the criteria that can be released with or without -- with redaction and
that's exactly -- what was intended by that is for things like Iwant -- I want a copy of my
utility bill. Here is my address, here is my driver's license to prove I live there, there is
no -- there is no analysis by the MUBs clerk to provide that to them.
Rountree: Okay.
Nary: But you're right in your other statement, we are not required to create documents
for folks and that's been another -- I think a training tool for folks. Sometimes it's easier
for some of our departments that are really good working with spreadsheets and Excel
spreadsheets and things like that, to create documents and it's been hard to tell them --
most of the time we really don't want to do that -- really, what the law says is you
provided the document and they make their own analysis and so we don't really want to
be doing that. Not that we don't want to be customer friendly -- and there are occasions
that, obviously, we do that when we create financial statements we are creating an
analysis document, but we do it for a general purpose and for our purpose and not for
an individual's purpose and that's really the difference is we don't want to be
customizing reports for every single person who walks in the door, that's not very
practical or efficient.
Rountree: I would say things have changed in the last three years and apparently they
haven't, so that's good.
Hoaglun: Mayor. Bill, I kind of remember if we deny them their request, there is the
appeal process. What was that appeal process again?
Nary: They have 28 days in which to appeal to the district court for that document, for
whatever they have requested. So, we retain whatever we -- whatever we found or
located and what we provided them and, then, we are, then, required to go to court.
The biggest risk -- there is two risks in going to court. One is the statute says that the
entity -- if the court deems their denial was unreasonable, then, they are subject to
1,000 dollar fine that, actually, doesn't go to the individual, it actually goes to the court
system, but they are also subject to attorney's fees and that, as you can imagine, is way
more expensive than 1,000 dollars. So, you do want to be cautious. Most of the time
when I have been training I have told folks we want to, as an entity, comply with the law
in a timely manner. We recognize as long as you are communicating with the person --
many times that's really all that's necessary. If you tell somebody you want documents
that are going to take us 20 hours to review, so I can't give them all to you within three
days and I can't maybe get them all done in ten days, do you really want that, because if
you do it cost X. Most people understand those kind of things and they may change the
request, alter the request, or they may be willing to pay for whatever the document is.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 29 of 34
We are allowed, under our policy and the statute, to provide people an estimate. We
had a recent request for -- what happens many times is people ask for any and all
documents regarding Kleiner Park. That's a lot of documents we have. But they may
only want something regarding Kleiner Park specifically to one particular phase of it or
one particular part of it. So, usually we can talk to folks and say what, exactly, do you
want, because you're asking for something that might be thousands of pieces of paper
and thousands of a-mails and you're going to pay for it, or do you really want something
different. Many times folks figure that out, they understand that they probably asked for
it incorrectly, we try to work with them and communicate and, occasionally, people will
so, no, I really want all of it, I'll pay for it, and if they do, then, we have to provide it.
Questions? What our intention would be is to put this into a policy format and, then,
bring it back to you with a resolution for approval, so we can move it forward.
Rountree: Do so.
Nary: Okay. Thank you.
H. Legal Department & Planning Department: Expired
Development Agreements Discussion
De Weerd: Okay. And 7-H is also legal and planning. So, Bill or Anna, who is taking
this?
Nary: We can turn this over to Mrs. Holman, I think. No, just kidding. I'd just like to
start, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, there is a -- there is a memo on your
packets that Anna prepared and I added one little piece to, but what the start of this
discussion was -- and, then, I'll let Anna sort of take it from there -- we have a number of
development agreements that are attached to projects that have been approved and we
have -- the oldest one I think we have here is 2005. Never been signed, it's not going to
be signed, they are not interested in signing it anymore, yet it's still out there. The
clerks office track this. Our normal process has been after the Council approves a
project that requires a development agreement, the development agreement gets
prepared, it gets sent from my office to the clerk's office, the clerk's office sends it out to
the applicants, the applicant signs it, sends it back, it comes on your agenda for
approval with the appropriate annexation ordinance. For varieties of reasons some of
these have lapsed and they have lapsed intentionally by most of them. They are not the
applicant any longer. The project's gone away. They, obviously, were thinking of
flipping it and it never happened -- anyway, for varieties of reasons. What we felt was
two things. You needed to know about it and, then, you needed to help up figure out
what to do about it. We -- what I didn't want is that all of you -- and many of you have
been here a long time, remember we approved something on that site or that parcel or
that location and where is it? And the reality is it's still not annexed and it still hasn't
come through, because they have never signed it. So, we felt that it would be
appropriate to periodically -- and we, I think, decided that probably once a year made
sense, to come back and bring to you all of the agreements that are expired, so that you
have a chance to give some direction on what do you want to do with them. The other
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 30 of 34
thing is is in our ordinance it currently says that if you don't sign the development
agreement in a year -- or excuse me. You are required to sign it within a year. There is
no penalty, there is no provision as to what happens after one year has past. It's our
opinion that after the one year has past that the agreement is voidable, which means
the city is not obligated to sign it if you don't sign it. But that being the case, there are
occasions, like in the current ones that have exceeded a year, that we are still working
with the applicant. There is some outstanding issues. They are not -- they haven't gone
away, they haven't let it lapse, they really are working on it, but there is reasons that are
legitimate why they haven't signed their development agreement and we felt you
needed to know that as well. So, our intent was to bring forward this discussion for you
and to get your direction on what would you like to see done and maybe this is a good
point to tum it over the Anna to tell you kind of how we would bring that process in front
of you and, then, what would happen next.
Canning: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. What I did was look at
each of the projects and try and figure out its status and make a recommendation on
whether it could be rescinded, if that's the pleasure of the Council or -- and what the
ramifications to the city might be. On the majority of them, I think the project is either
done or gone away. That would include Ten Mile Development -- that one was done.
Essentially they did everything in the DA, although they never signed it. So, there is
really not a need for the development agreement at this point. Cheny Lane Christian
Church, Vanelli Springs, Grouse Subdivision, Shaley Estates, Villas at Lochsa Falls, are
all projects that have died for one reason or another. The plats are dead and/or the
conditional use permits are dead. There is really not any benefit to continuing the
development agreement at this point. And they are all residential properties. None of
these are commercial properties. There were some where the plat or the conditional
use permit was still alive. One of those was Matador Subdivision. This was one of
three five acre properties along McMillan. It's right in the middle of those. But the plat is
still alive. They did file a time extension, so they may be seeking a new buyer for the
project. So, I felt that until the plat expires it would be worthwhile keeping the
development agreement alive. Similarly, with Knighthill Center Subdivision, I suspect
that they didn't sign the development agreement because it includes a provision to not
have access to Eagle Road, but that plat is still alive, so we may want to keep -- to be
consistent we may want to keep that development agreement alive as well. And, then,
South Ridge Subdivision, the applicant came in for modification to the development
agreement to get rid of the mega blocks concept that was in the original South Ridge
and to also locate an assisted living facility on the site. That conditional use permit
expires in May. I hadn't heard that it had completely gone away, but it may have at this
point. I'm not sure. But it would seem prudent to keep that development agreement
modification alive, at least until the conditional use permit expires. In that instance we
still have a development agreement, this was just a modification to the previous one.
De Weerd: Any questions, comments from Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 31 of 34
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Anna, with these development agreements not being signed and stuff, we are not
-- we are not -- if they come in for building permits and stuff, we are not issuing them,
are we?
Canning: No. They are not annexed yet, so --
Bird: I know. That's what I mean. They are not annexed or anything, so I -- I
wholeheartedly agree with your evaluations of it and stuff and this has always been a
sore spot that we have always kind of swept under the rug and it's -you know, we just
haven't been able to stay on top of and I like the idea of at least once a year going
through all the inactive I'd call them DAs and let's see what we are going to do with
them, because a lot of them, like you say, they are going to -- they are not even owned
by the original people anymore. They are in -- the bank's got them or somebody -- you
know, some mortgage company has got it. So, I think that idea, Bill, is -- I don't know if
we have to do it at an ordinance or just a policy, that they should -- all DAs that are not
active should be looked at.
Nary: What we thought we would do -- in fact, by happenstance of us having this
discussion, Councilmember Bird, now, was we thought at the end of the year, basically,
we were looking at everything that expired, you know, more than a year ago and that
looking at all of those and, then, you know, each year coming back -- and, obviously,
the list will get smaller, but in making this analysis and recommending, which is up to
you, and, then, basically, if the decision is to go forward with the rescission of that order,
then, we can put that on your agenda, you know, a week or two later and, basically,
rescind those approvals for that particular project, because, again, nothing's happened,
so I mean there is no -- they haven't been annexed yet and what I guess, like I said,
more than anything I wanted to do was stop tracking something that is not necessary to
track anything longer and occasionally what happens -- and it hasn't ever harmed us,
but in reality some of these -- I guess technically they are expired, but since they are not
void, someone could sign this DA and come forward today and that may or may not fit
the character any longer. It may not -- it may not be appropriate, but yet it's already
been approved. Nothing's ever hurt us that way, but that was our other discussion point
was, you know, there is probably some logic to just simply getting rid of these that
nobody has an interest in signing. We have had a couple of them -- and I don't
remember -- I'm assuming they are on here, I don't remember in our discussion which
ones they were, but where they had told us we are not going to sign that. We don't like
the conditions the Council imposed and we don't want to go forward any longer. Well, if
they are not going to go forward, then, they should start over, like anybody else would.
The parcel's still in the county and they can just bring it forward like any new application.
Bird: Wholeheartedly. So, what's your recommendation on how we take care of it?
Nary: We would -- Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, what
we typically do is if -- basically a motion from the Council to bring forward whatever
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 32 of 34
one's on here -- and, again, you don't have to do it tonight, if you want time to read this
recommendation, and bring forward rescission orders on everyone you want us to
rescind those approvals and, then, we will prepare that and bring it forward.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: That would be my preference is to let us study over and -- it's a -- a couple weeks
isn't going to hurt anything.
Nary: No.
Bird: And, then, bring it back and we can decide what we want to take off or take on. I
mean keep on or keep off. I appreciate this.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: My preference would be very similar to Councilman Bird's, but I would
suggest we rescind them all and -- and let the applicants, let the owners, let whoever
has got them know we are going to do that and they have 30 days to notify us that they
intend to move forward with the project and want to remain, ultimately become part of
Meridian, and, then, in those cases we keep them active. But, otherwise, you know,
given an opportunity to play the game, but if they are not going to come forth, I don't see
any value in -- in wishful thinking that they are going to come some day. They have had
their opportunity, even if the plats are -- as you say, still alive, in my opinion, if they have
been sitting around that long and they have had to have been extended and the DAs
haven't been modified or looked at or they may not even know they have a DA, because
it's the third or fourth owner -- let's clean house.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, that
brings up an interesting question. We didn't put in several 2009 projects that the one
year has -- has expired. It's perhaps a flaw, perhaps not, in the code in that a plat
approval is good for two years, but the annexation, once Council makes the decision, is
only, essentially, good for a year. Would you like us to maybe at least go out to the two
year mark, so that we are -- if there was a plat with it -- because I think most people
focus on the timing of the plat. They are not quite used to the idea that that
development agreement has a timing issue associated with it. Or we can send them to
all of them and they can -- all they need to do is write back and tell us they are still
interested.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, either to Anna or Bill. Is that a state regulation as it relates to
planning and zoning activities or is that our ordinance? And if that's our ordinances, I
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 33 of 34
would like to see our ordinances consistent. It seems to me rather odd that we have
two years for a plat and one year for a DA -- or annexation.
Bird: Yeah.
Rountree: They ought to be the same.
Bird: I think that's --
Rountree: I mean I don't understand why they are different. Maybe we can talk about
that at some point in time. But I would say let's take alook -- this is a good time to take
a look at that stuff. Not much is happening in that regard and maybe we need to
change that.
Canning: I can do that and with your permission I think I'll change -- we have the -- if
there is a conditional use permit with a plat, we gave them 18 months, instead of two
years. But I think it would make it more consistent if we moved the conditional use
permit and made it longer, rather than making the plat shorter. So, again, making
everything two years with Mayor and Council's permission I can start a UDC
amendment to that effect.
Rountree: Consistency would be what I'm after, not necessarily the time.
Nary: And, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, I mean
our intent was to notify all of -- any of the ones that we were going to bring back for
rescission, send them notice, tell them the Council will be taking this up in 30 days, they
have to notify us before that if they, you know, want to -- us to consider it. Something to
make sure they are on notice. My fear is for most of these people they are not any of
these people anymore, they are not -- the only address or name that we have is
somebody who is not even here. But that's okay. I mean that's just the way it is.
Rountree: Great.
Item 8: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. We are at the end of our agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: Before I make a motion to adjourn, remind everybody that Friday, 6:00 o'clock, the
technology building, Meridian High School, is the breakfast, am I not right, Brad?
Hoaglun: FFA's breakfast.
Meridian City Council
February 9, 2010
Page 34 of 34
Bird: It is the 12th. FFA's breakfast. The kids do a great job. We need to come out
and support them. With that I make a motion to adjourn.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:40 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
~~ .~' oZ ~ ~3 , aoi o
MAYOR MY \De ~~~~®~/~'/'/ DATE APPROVED
~`~,,
~c- T: '
JA CE . HOLMAN, CITY CLERK
~~AI,
~G ~~~o
O `~~
si /1~ ....r~/ ~~
,,//////1j11111It1,11111\``\