HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 12-14Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting December 14 2010
A Council meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m.,
Tuesday, December 14, 2010, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, President David Zaremba, Charlie
Rountree, Keith Bird, and Brad Hoaglun.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, Tom Barry, Mark Niemeyer,
Joe Silva, Jeff Lavey, Rich Dees, Steve Siddoway and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
de Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. I would first like to start
by welcoming all of you to our City Council meeting. For the record it is Tuesday,
December 14th. It's 6:00 p.m. We will start tonight's meet with roll call attendance.
Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
de Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance and I will ask our three Mayor's Youth
Advisory Council members to, please, step forward and lead us in the pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation
de Weerd: Thank you for leading us in the pledge. Okay. Item No. 3, we do not have
someone from our faith community to lead us in the community invocation.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda
de Weerd: So, I will move to Item 4 with the notation that City Council did meet earlier
this afternoon in a published meeting. We did take up a couple of the department
reports, so if you're here on any of these department reports, Item 9-D, E, F, G, I, J, K,
when we get to those if you would like to provide comment we will take that at that time,
but other than that that will be limited to those public comments. Item No. 4 is adoption
of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Yes. On the adoption of the agenda, under Item 6-B, that resolution number
is 10-759. Under Item 8, Action Items, 8-C is resolution number 10-760. And 8-D is
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December 14, 2010
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resolution 10-761. Under Item 9, Department Reports, we would like to move 9-B in
front of 9-A, so the backflow program discussion could occur first and, then, be followed
by the fire department's strategic plan update. And as you noted 9-D, E and F have
been vacated from tonight's schedule, as well as 9-G. 9-H there is a request to
continue that to December 28th Council meeting. And 9-I, J and K have also been
vacated due to our action this afternoon. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I move adoption
of tonight's agenda.
Rountree: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: RZ 10-006
Somerton Subdivision by Overland 16, LLC Located Southeast
Corner of E. Overland Road and S. Locust Grove Road
Request: Rezone of 16.12 Acres from the C-N (Neighborhood
Business) to the C-C (Community Business) Zoning District
B. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 10-006
Somerton Subdivision by Overland 16, LLC Located Southeast
Corner of E. Overland Road and S. Locust Grove Road
Request: Preliminary Plat Approval of 5 Building Lots on 13.19
Acres
C. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: CUP 10-
011 Fast Eddy's Chevron Convenience Store by ST
Investments Located Southeast Corner of E. Overland Road
and S. Locust Grove Road Request: Conditional Use Permit
Approval of a Convenience Store, Fuel Sales Facility, Vehicle
Washing Facility, Quick Lube and Drive Thru in a Proposed CC
Zoning District
D. Final Order for Approval: FP 10-009 Somerton Business Park
Subdivision No. 1 by Overland 16, LLC Located on Southeast
Corner of E. Overland Road and S. Locust Grove Road
Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of Two (2)
Commercial Building Lats on 3.9 Acres of Land
E. Corrected Sanitary Sewer Main Easement with DBSI Tanana
Valley, LLC for the Construction and Maintenance of the
Victory Road Connector Trunk Sewer
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December 14, 2010
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F. Service Agreement between the City of Meridian and St. Luke's
Regional Medical Center, Ltd. for Wellness Services
G. Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement Between the City of
Meridian and Gemstar Properties for the Real Property
Described as Lot 17, Block 01 of Tricia's Sub No. 4, Meridian,
Ada County, Idaho
H. Agreement for Independent Contractor Services with Pipeline
Inspection Services for the FY2011 Manhole Retrofits Project
for aNot-To-Exceed Amount of $120,000.00
I. Service and Scope of Work Agreement with Mercer Health &
Benefits, LLC
J. License Agreement with Nampa Meridian Irrigation District
(NMID) for the Water Line Replacement at Northwest 4th Street
to Carlton Avenue
K. License Agreement with Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District
to Cross the Kennedy Lateral with a Trunk Sewer Line for the
Victory Road Sewer Connector Project
de Weerd: Item 5, our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, there are no additions or changes to our Consent Agenda
move approval of the Consent Agenda.
Rountree: Second.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, to include Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Rountree: Second agrees.
de Weerd: I do have a motion to approve the Consent Agenda with the Mayor to sign
and Clerk to attest. If there is no discussion, Madam Clerk, roll-call, please.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
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December 14, 2010
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A. Smoke-Free Parks Presentation by Meridian Parks and
Recreation Department, Central District Health Department,
and the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council
de Weerd: We are at Item No. 6, which is our Community Items /Presentations. The
first one is Item 6-A under the Parks Department and I will turn this over to Director
Siddoway.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This item is in regards
to smoke free parks. We were before the Council previously in August to discuss this
item. There was direction given to staff to go back and do some additional work on this.
Work with the Commission, work with Central District Health, conduct some additional
surveys and come up with a proposed solution given the feedback that we were given at
the time. We are here tonight to present something to you along those regards. Since
we met last in August we have worked with Joanne Graff at Central District Health.
She's conducted additional surveys at several of our venues, including softball, and she
will present to you here shortly what she's found there. We have also conducted the
city-wide survey and I will show you some results from that here shortly. And Joanne
went out and visited all our parks, looked for signage locations at each of them, met with
parks staff, presented that to us. We, then, took information to the parks and recreation
commission last month, had this presentation and discussion there, and the commission
did pass a resolution recommending the smoke free park policies that we will present
tonight to you. Can you hit the dot cam button for me? Podium dot cam. While we are
getting up, over the past month or so we have been working on this statistically valid
city-wide survey and Council has copies of this document, but I wanted to -- what we --
we might have -- we could have been before you a week or two ago, but we wanted to
hold off until we had these results are new just in the last -- well, just this week and -- it
doesn't want to zoom in for me. But these are the results of the city-wide survey and
the question that was asked -- please tell us how much you agree or disagree that the
City of Meridian should prohibit smoking in public parks. You can see that 49 percent
are strongly agreed, another 13 percent agreed, for a total of about 62 percent in the
agree category and, then, there were 17 percent in the strongly disagree and nine
percent in the disagree category, for 26 percent who disagreed. We were able to do
some stratification by areas of the city. The strongest disagreement came from
downtown. The strongest agreement came from south Meridian residents. And
Joanne, like I mentioned, has been conducting several other ad hoc surveys across the
city at different venues. So, what I'd like to do now -- this is a general introduction -- is
invite Joanne up, she has a presentation to make to the Council tonight regarding the
work that she's done, some of her research and, then, we will present that
recommendation -- our recommendation to you. Any questions at this point?
de Weerd: Council, any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
Siddoway: Thank you.
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de Weerd: Thank you. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record.
Graff: Yes. Good evening. I am Joanne Graff. And that's spelled J-o-a-n-n-e. Graff is
G-r-a-f-f. And I work at Central District Health Department.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Graff: Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. We are
revisiting the smoke free parks and just in review, why we desire for you to consider a
smoke free park policy is that we know that smoke free parks -- or that parks promote
healthy activities and that children model adult behaviors. Tobacco free policies are
becoming the norm. We find them in hospitals, in schools, in recreational areas such
Bogus Basin. At work sites. A majority of people are nonsmokers. Secondhand smoke
can affect nonsmokers and it can cause disease and death. Cigarette butt litter is
harmful and costly to clean up and the public is supportive of these policies. And I'd like
you to remember that the majority of Idaho residents do not smoke. In fact, from the
2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 16.3 percent of Idaho adults smoke
and 14.5 percent of Idaho teens smoke. Secondhand smoke exposure, according to
the 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's report there is no safe level of exposure and we know
that infants, children, and older people are especially vulnerable. Last Thursday a new
Surgeon General's report was released, which stated even occasional smoking or
secondhand smoke causes immediate damage to the body and can lead to serious
illness or death. Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage
DNA, which can lead to cancer. Outdoor tobacco smoke. During smoking outdoor
smoke levels may be as high as indoor smoke levels and being upwind from a smoker
does not eliminate the chemicals that are found in the air. Nationally there are over 470
municipalities which currently have smoke free park laws that cover the entire park
areas. So, they are park wide. There are many others that cover certain areas. In
Idaho -- this is an update in the packet of information you have. There is also an
updated chart which compares the different policies in the state of Idaho. Policies are
found in Melba, Payette, Twin Falls, which is a new addition, for all 33 of their parks.
Victor and Wilder. Ordinances are found in Ammon, Emmett, Hayden, and Rexburg.
And those municipalities currently considering parks include Boise, Cascade, Coeur
d'Alene, Driggs, Idaho Falls, McCall and Moscow. And at the last presentation --
excuse me -- we talked about existing tobacco-free policies and whether they were
working. Minnesota has a long history of tobacco free and a survey of their directors in
100 Minnesota cities and counties show that 90 percent would recommend a tobacco
free policy to other communities. California currently has smoke free playgrounds, but
over 100 cities strengthened that to a smoke free park wide. New York City currently
has smoke free playgrounds, but on September 15th the mayor of New York announced
that he is going to begin working on -- to expand that to park wide policy. Ammon's
park-wide smoke free ordinance -- most people comply with that. In Rexburg their
smoke free ordinance is 50 feet of designated areas and they have had no complaints
or opposition. A majority of people comply. I decided to add a couple of additional
municipalities that would be somewhere comparable to the demographics that we have.
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Tacoma, Washington, has a population over 203,000 people and they have 75 parks.
They have a -- they have been park wide smoke free since August of 2009 and it
actually began as a parks department resolution, but they changed it to a city ordinance
so they could enforce it. And in speaking with a metro parks employee they said that
most people are compliant with signage. The police liaison to their parks and rec never
mentioned problems with enforcement. They have had few complaints. They did say
the local media did try to stir up a lot of dissent when the policy first went into effect, but
that was dropped fairly quickly. Communication was very important. So, these were
their lessons learned. It's so important to inform the park staff and educate the park
staff and also to educate the public. And they originally considered just a playground
only, but then -- with designated smoking areas, but, then, they decided to support a
total smoke free park policy to support the health concept. Salt Lake county in Utah has
70 parks and facilities serving four million yearly. They have had an ordinance since
2008. It's park-wide smoke free. But it does exclude parking lots, golf courses, and
native American ceremonies. It's predominately self-enforcing. They do have
occasional complaints about noncompliance and they also stress the importance of
communicating with the staff what the expectations were, as well as with the public,
strongly encouraging signage, not only with the main entrance signage, but also adding
additional signage in those areas which are used -- where people tend to gather. Public
support in Idaho. In a Department of Health and Welfare 2009 survey more than half of
Idahoans supported smoke free outdoor areas, especially when children were present,
and 68 percent of CDHD survey responses supported tobacco free parks. And if you
will -- if you would like to thumb to the yellow paper that's in your packets, there is -- the
data is shared on that information sheet and the flip side of that actually divides out the
different venues and. the results and there was an 85 percent support of smoke free
playground areas, 68 percent -- let me rephrase that. Tobacco free -- I actually
surveyed tobacco free, which would include smokeless, as well as smoking. So, 68
percent responded in support of tobacco free parks and 85 percent responded in
support of tobacco free playgrounds. South Central District Health Department and
North Central District Health Department have also completed surveys and their rates
range between 78 and 80 percent. The tobacco use supplement to the current
population survey, which was conducted in 2006 and 2007 to over 167,000 people,
showed that 79.2 percent supported smoking should not be allowed in outdoor
children's playground and sport fields. So, you can see that there is public support for
smoke free areas. Common concerns surrounding smoke free policy include the
enforcement compliance issue, personal rights, discrimination and, then, what's next to
be outlawed. And with enforcement and publicizing I have included a new sheet in your
packet which gives suggestions, the importance of posting signage, that most people
comply with the signage, and signage empowers people to enforce. And, then, letting
staff and community members know in a variety of ways a lot of suggestions that are on
that handout. And you probably remember me talking about the fact that there is no
Constitutional right to smoke. Smokers are not a protected class, such as race or
gender. It's not a violation of anti-discrimination laws to prohibit smoking, because
smoking is a behavior, it's not a condition of birth, so it's not protected from
discrimination. And, then, tobacco free kids have this great quote about, you know,
what -- should we be concerned that you're going to start outlawing Twinkles. There
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really is strong, clear reasons to treat cigarettes and other tobacco products differently
and more harshly than other products. Tobacco products are the only products that
cause disease, disability, and death when they are used exactly as intended and
directed. Some of the resources that are available from Central District is that I can
provide contact information for tobacco control efforts in your community and this would
include free tobacco cessation classes that are currently available, funded by the Idaho
Tobacco Millennium Fund. I'm available to provide ongoing support throughout the
process, helping with policy development, information from other cities and also helping
with the education to the community. And we have the free metal signs for the parks.
And I brought this example, which you're probably familiar with, you have probably seen
it at hospitals and --
de Weerd: I'm sorry, you will need to speak in the microphone
Graff: Okay. This -- thank you. And this sign is posted at Central District Health
Department, because we have a tobacco free policy and it's also area hospitals and
other areas that have adopted a tobacco free policy. And, then, I just brought two
examples of the signage. So, this one with the tree pattern and, then, this one which
shows the playground. And at this point I'd like to turn the presentation over to two of
the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council members, Janelle de Weerd and Colton Granger.
And while they are coming up preparing I wanted to share an informal petition that I
gathered at the September 18th block party, which was held at Settlers Park and if you
would like to come up and help. Okay. We decided to do a banner and --
J.de Weerd: This is the banner that they had signed at the block party. This is actually
27 feet of people who agree with banning smoking in parks and, then, this other banner
that Colton and I will hold up is three feet who oppose it.
Graff: And these additional 285 signatures are above and beyond the 750 surveys that
I collected at the five different venues during the past several months.
J.de Weerd: So, from the perspective --
de Weerd: I'm sorry. If you will, please, state your name and address.
J.de Weerd: Janelle de Weerd, 2621 North Miranda Avenue. 83646.
de Weerd: Thank you.
J.de Weerd: Okay. Coming from the perspective of a youth, I feel that smoking in
public places is inappropriate in most places, but when it's in a family park where
children are, I feel like that's disrespectful and it's not only -- it's not setting a good
image for those children who are playing in that park. There is also cigarette butts that
are littered on the ground that toddlers or young kids can pick up and put in their mouth,
because nothing really filters what they do put in their mouth, as well as keeping those
unfinished cigarettes all over the place where teenagers can get them, if they are that
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desperate and it's just gross and unsanitary and the image that it's putting on children is
not good.
Granger: Colton Granger. That was a little loud. Well, anyways, I just --
de Weerd: Colton, if you will give your address as well
Granger: 1734 West Sugarcrest Street, Eagle, Idaho.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Granger: Just to expound on what Janelle was talking about earlier with the children,
think there is a lot to be said about the stigma that we have with smoking when it is
directed at teens. As previously noted, children model their parents. Well, the same
thing happens where teens model older teens and when you have young adults or older
teens who look like they may be over 18 smoking in parks, behavior is thus able to be
modeled down for the younger teens. And also another problem that was -- Janelle
kind of presented was the fact that unfinished cigarettes are still cigarettes and the fact
is that those are now on display for anyone who feels desperate to go pick them up and
smoke them. And so the fact is that if a ban was set down on smoking cigarettes in
these parks that that stigma would go away and that the opportunity that the younger
teens would have to smoke cigarettes would also be taken away. I mean the fact is it's
a family setting, so why does this need to happen? Thank you.
de Weerd: Thank you. Council, do you have any questions?
J.de Weerd: Thank you.
de Weerd: Thank you Colton and Janelle.
Siddoway: So, since the last meeting we wrestled a little with how -- how do we
address this. You might remember that we met -- I was proposing at the time that we
consider just limiting the smoke free policy to the active high traffic areas we were
calling them. We did hear from the police department representative that were here that
night with concerns about enforcing such policies if they were signed no smoking say 50
or 100 feet of playgrounds or concessions or bleachers and so as we have been
working on this issue and trying to figure out how -- how do we address this, we like the
Salt Lake county model of the park wide ban, but excluding the parking lots and that is
our proposal tonight. We were also challenged by Councilman Rountree to find a way
to use the existing ordinance, rather than coming up with something completely new.
So, what we are proposing tonight would use the existing Meridian code that says that
smoking is prohibited where signs disallow it. If the resolution is passed tonight it would
direct staff to sign the parks as -- as smoke free, excluding those parking lots. In fact,
we had two specific exclusions to propose tonight. One is the parking lots in all the
parks and one is specifically the Harold Cox monument, which is the one right over here
by old City Hall. With that Iwill -- I will stand for questions.
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de Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, questions?
Hoaglun: Steve, real quick. Parks commission when they considered this, was
unanimous if I recall correctly; is that right?
Siddoway: Yes. It was unanimous.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Steve, on the excluded areas I think every one of our parks is adjacent to a
public right of way and Ican't -- there is a couple that may not have public sidewalks in
them adjacent to the public rights of way. I have a hard time with the concept that
somebody walking down the sidewalk that happens to be in a public park could be in
violation of the no smoking ordinance -- or no smoking resolution. So, to me that's --
that's kind of a -- that's not a gray area, it's black and white. They are in the parks, so it
would be covered by this, but to me I think that's not right. It's a transportation corridor.
Siddoway: And my understanding, Mayor and Councilman Rountree, is that those
sidewalks that are along right of way that are not part of the park property are -- would
not be smoke free, that they are part of the right of way, they are not part of the parks.
Rountree: I think in some -- Madam Mayor. In some instances we have actually
provided the sidewalk. Settlers is one example. I think the sidewalk down Ustick is in
the park, it's in our property, yet it is the only sidewalk for the public to utilize on that
stretch of roadway. This resolution would cover that, but the person walking down that
may have no intention of utilizing the park, they are just getting from the C store to
downtown or back without having to walk in traffic. So, to me that creates an issue.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I have a question for City Council -- or legal person here. Bill.
If smoking is prohibited under the existing city code, smoking prohibited if signs disallow
it, and those signs in that instance, it would be posted on the interior park -- part of the
park at least on the other side you got the road, you have the sidewalk and, then, you
have the sign. Does that get us anything? Is there any -- because you're outside of
where the sign is posted walking down the sidewalk. Does that put us in the clear on
that or not?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Ithink -- I mean I understand where
Council Member Rountree is coming from and we probably have a few of those unique
circumstances. I mean I think Steve's right, a majority of them the sidewalk's outside
the park property itself. I don't know besides Settlers off the top of my head if there is
others. I don't think there is, but I don't know that. There may be the necessity to -- for
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some of the signage in those unique circumstances to have a graphic on the sign to
make it clear where the no smoking boundary is, because I would agree with Council
Member Rountree, certainly if the sidewalk is just part of public's right of way there, but
it was provided and it's on the city's property and it happens to be because Ustick is sort
of unique, because ultimately it will become part of the normal right of way when the
road gets widened and they finish that project at some point, but we just may need a
graphic. Basically, our ordinance says anyplace the signs are posted where it's illegal
to smoke, it's illegal. So, where ever we choose to post them and we -- if we -- in some
of the areas that are more unusual like this one, we can do that. Otherwise, in other
ones -- for example, Chateau Park's by my house. There is a -- there is a sidewalk
immediately adjacent to it. The signage will be interior to the park. It will be much more
identifiable as to where that is. But those unique spaces -- I think just simply a graphic
is able to represent where that is and that's certainly sufficient under our ordinance to
distinguish between where it's -- where you're able to and where you're not.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd:. Mr. Siddoway.
Siddoway: I would just offer that -- and we have already proposed a couple of
exclusions and if the -- I don't know how the whole Council is leaning, but if the Council
were to feel to direct us to have additional exclusions, we could certainly make that part
of what we do. We will just exclude it where you don't want it.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Steve, how come -- how come we just went to the smoke and we didn't go
tobacco free? Because there is nothing worse than chew being spit all over.
Siddoway: The only reason, Councilman Bird, is because we were using the city's
existing no smoking ordinance, that -- and that's what it addresses. We decided to keep
it similar to what we currently have at City Hall and the police station campus as well,
and just model it after what the city's already done.
de Weerd: Any other questions from Council at this time? Well, there might be
members of the public who would like to provide comment on this item. Is there anyone
who would like to provide testimony? Yes. Good evening. If you will, please, state
your name and address for the record.
Hoffman: My name is Ivan Hoffman. I live at 7220 North Linder Road, Meridian.
de Weerd: Thank you.
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Hoffman: I had my first cigarette when I was four years old. I had my last cigarette
when I was ten years old. I got my first cigarette from my uncle. And the reason I
stopped smoking was a spiritual experience. I have worked in an space for three and a
half years that everyone was smokers except me. The smoking dropped 75 percent the
day that I took in a gas mask and wore it. The greatest pressure for teens to begin
smoking is peer pressure, it is not watching somebody else do it. My mother has CDP.
My sister has CDP. My brother has health problems. They did not start smoking by
watching somebody else in a park start smoking. They did it because their friends were
smoking. I don't like to smoke. And, like I said, I had my last smoke when I was about
ten years old. But clearly for people to stop smoking it is a parent's responsibility.
Parents are abrogating their responsibility to the government in this instance to get kids
to stop smoking. Thank you.
de Weerd: Thank you. Any other member who would like to provide comment? Okay.
Mr. Siddoway, any closing remarks?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I see a hand in the audience.
de Weerd: Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, sir. I'm sorry I didn't see your hand. Welcome. If you
will, please, state your name and address.
Burk: Roman Burk. 601 Tarrega Lane, Meridian, Idaho.
de Weerd: Thank you.
Burk: I'm just curious to know -- in watching and observing this process, if we are going
to be repeating this process in a year or two to enforce a tobacco free policy. It seems
as though there have been some great propositions here and certainly there seems to
be community wide support for it. I guess I would go one further in asking the Council
to consider up'ing the ante a little bit more in terms of its enforcement or its regulation of
the idea tobacco free policy certainly would sit well, I think, with the community at large,
it's only a further step beyond what has already been proposed and it seems as though
we maybe repeating this process again in the near future, if, in fact, your constituents
have a desire to up the ante even further if smokeless tobacco or other by-products are
going to be introduced into a park it would make sense that perhaps at this time, since
we are reviewing the policy at large, we would consider changing the current code as it
stands to include smokeless tobacco or tobacco products. Thank you.
de Weerd: Thank you. Anymore testimony? Eli.
E.Nary: My name is Eli Nary. My address is 2140 North Todd Way, Meridian, Idaho.
Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I come here tonight and I'm with the Mayor's
Youth Advisory Council as well, say that with any law you have to start somewhere
before you can reach the end of that full effect. So, we start now with smoking and,
then, eventually we move somewhere else, but right now we need to set down a
standard that helps out every kid in the City of Meridian, because, yes, true, it is the
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parents' responsibility, however, every peer -- as some of my own peers have stated, is
it comes from the pressure of each other. So, if you're in a park or it could be at
someone's house, but we can't regulate someone's house, we can regulate the park.
So, let's regulate the place where teenagers could smoke with their friend and stop that,
let's make this one step now and, then, possibly encompass more tobacco products
later, but let's -- let's put a foot down now and create a safe environment not just for
teenagers, but also for families who don't want to be exposed to secondhand smoke.
That's just what I had to say today. Thank you. And I will let myself to any questions if
anyone has them.
de Weerd: Thank you, Eli. Any questions from Council? Thank you. Again, I would
ask if there is any further testimony? Okay. Steve, any further comment?
Siddoway: I have nothing further at this time, Mayor.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: My perspective is in regards to Mr. Hoffman's deal is while I hate to see any
person smoke -- and being a 40 year smoker myself and paying the prices that it
caused -- this is -- this isn't -- I hope it stops somebody from smoking, but this isn't what
it is, it's to make sure the ones that don't smoke don't have to breathe in the
secondhand smoke that is just as damaging as the stuff I sucked down my lungs all the
time. So, that's the reason I'm for it. It's not -- sure, Ihope -- I hope every kids doesn't
smoke, but this is -- this is the enforcement to make sure the ones that don't smoke
don't have to put up with the -- with the smoking atmosphere.
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I would also add that I would have no problem extending this
to all tobacco products in all forms. I do agree with the idea of let's get this started and
even if we are revisiting it again in two or three years to say, okay, it's time to step it up
to the next level, I'm happy to start with this and I do hope we revisit it in a couple of
years and make it all products and even include the sidewalks.
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, thank you. When we first talked about this in August I think
we were all in a position where we thought we could move forward and I think we were
all -- not all us, but most of us were thinking in the high activity areas. That would be my
preference. I don't have any issue per se with where we have gotten. My concern --
and it's always aconcern -- is that we are going through a possible resolution process
that has a fair amount of regulatory and enforcement activity to an existing city code
6.3.2 without a public hearing. Now, I -- I understand that we have had a public
presentation. and we have had one citizen who has heard about this and wasn't aware
Meridian City Council Workshop
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of the agenda item, probably either on television or radio, because I understand it was
at least on one television station. But we have not advertised for a public hearing and in
the spirit of what Meridian has been doing for years in terms of transparency -- and I
don't say this as a delaying tactic, because at some point in time I will vote and I will
more than likely vote for it, but it seems to me that if we are going to do this and it may
just look like going through the motions, but I believe that we need to treat this like we
would any other ordinance modification or any other activity that either restricts or
causes enforcement to our citizens, particularly on all the facilities that are public
facilities. So, my hesitancy tonight is that we have not had a public hearing of this
particular proposal. And, Bill, I know we can do this without that. I understand that. But
I don't know that we have undertaken anything like this in the past without having a
public hearing advertised and moved on. So, that's my hesitancy this evening.
Bird: Madam Mayor`?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would agree with Councilman Rountree on the -- I'd like to give the public a
chance to testify like Mr. Hoffman is the only one, you know, that come up and testified
against the --
de Weerd: You need to speak a little closer to your microphone.
Bird: There is probably a lot of people that if they knew that it was a public hearing
would come and testify and Iwould -- I would be in favor of that. We have always been
very transparent and there is no reason not to be on this issue.
de Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I mean Council Member Rountree is
right, I mean you're surely not required to do that, all you have in front of you is a
resolution directing the parks department to do something, but it is unusual, it isn't
something we have commonly done before. I guess the public hearing piece of it, you
had a -- you had a previous presentation and hearing on the proposal, you directed it
back to the parks commission for comment and I don't know the level of hearing they
had there at the parks commission, I don't know if public testimony was provided, but
you can certainly provide another forum for people to come. You would only have
agenda notice, because even if it was an ordinance you would only have agenda notice,
but you could certainly promote that you would have a public comment -- you know,
whether it's next week, two weeks from now, in January, whatever your preference is,
but I don't know the level of public involvement or public comment at the parks
commission, but your earlier hearing that you had was over this issue and the direction
was to give it back to the parks for comment and a recommendation, so --
Rountree: So, Madam Mayor, I stand corrected if the previous meeting was a hearing,
but I thought it was just part of a workshop activity.
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Nary: If it was part of a workshop. I don't recall if there was public comment at that
time, other than the people that were presenting.
Rountree: There wasn't.
Nary: Your recommendation -- the Council's recommendation was to give it back to the
parks commission to get comment and recommendation from them, but, again, I don't
know what they did there, but you certainly have the ability to set this for a hearing.
Because of the holidays you may want to push it into like the second week of January or
the third week of January, so that you're not having -- if you're going to have a public
hearing and you have it the week of Christmas you're probably not going to get a lot of
people anyway, so that might be a problem. But I don't know, Steve, was there a lot of
people there?
Siddoway: Not --
de Weerd: I guess unless Mr. Nary is now running the meeting --
Nary: I just asked. I'm sorry.
de Weerd: In just a minute, Steve. But when we discussed this last fall Council wanted
more information and so the Commission did take this up and I think we have sought
more public comment than we have on any other topic in the form of a specific question
in the city survey, that the return surveys were 540 plus respondents and so that was a
statistical valid survey. That was done purposefully to find out what our citizens really
did think of it. We haven't done that on any other topic that I can think of, even a dog
park. But, certainly, if we want to put this as a public hearing -- a specific public hearing
-- when we heard this last fall we did put it out via social media. I know the postings on
the parks and recreation activities, it has not done -- gone under the radar, we have
tried to make it as public as possible, short of that article -- or that public notice hearing
in a newspaper. So, I would offer that there have been a number of activities trying to
push that out to the public for comment. For what it's worth. Certainly if you would like
to post this we can do that. It's certainly --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes.
Zaremba: And just to chime in, I am in favor of dotting the I's and crossing the T's and
let's have a public hearing. I think the end result would be more enforceable and there
would be less argument. I clearly am already in position of being in favor of this, I doubt
that anybody could say anything at a public hearing that would change my mind, but
will listen. But I also agree, I think that's probably the correct procedure to use in this
case. So, I would be in favor of a public hearing and I agree it probably shouldn't be in
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December 14, 2010
Page 15 of 44
the next couple of weeks, because I don't think we'd get the attendance that sometime
in January we would.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just to chime in on this as well. Yeah, I have no problem with
delaying it. I'm like Councilman Zaremba, I support it, unlikely any comments will
change my mind, because we are about public health and safety on this issue. The
good thing is by doing it now it's the middle of winter, our parks are not as high use and
the delay time it will be ready to go if we proceed with that by the time the parks start to
go and to afford the opportunity for citizens to talk further about this certainly is not a
bad thing.
de Weerd: So, public noticing, it would need to be sometime in January and I guess,
Council, at that time I would like -- my own personal thoughts on this is also we are
creating another enforcement act and I would like a little bit more information on how
this ordinance would be enforced and certainly on some of the same topics that we
have had come up during our on leash discussions with dogs, how it will be enforced to
those that are alone in the park, they light up a cigarette, what happens then? There is
no one around that they are affecting, if it was the concern secondhand smoke, then,
what? And those are some of the comments that I have received and I think we need to
know what happens then. Okay. So, do we want to set a date certain?
Siddoway: Certainly. I don't see a calendar over here.
de Weerd: I don't have January either.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, does it have to be that distant?
de Weerd: For a public noticing how many days, Madam Clerk, do you need to public
notice this?
Holman: Madam Mayor, this I would think -- normally when we do something that's
outside of a -- like something that's mandated as a public hearing we call it a public
comment or public comment period. So, would you like us to actually notice it as a
public hearing for two or three weeks before it's heard?
de Weerd: Two weeks?
Holman: Two weeks?
Rountree: Two weeks, one week, I --
de Weerd: And if we want a fully seated City Council during that time it's probably the --
Zaremba: 18th.
Rountree: It's in February.
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Zaremba: I will miss the first two meetings in February.
de Weerd: Okay. That brings it into the third week in February.
Siddoway: February, is that what you --
de Weerd: Yes. Councilmen Zaremba and Rountree will have some conflicts, so the
next time we have a fully seated City Council, if we want to publish this twice, if we can't
do the first week in January, it would need to be --
Rountree: February 1st.
Zaremba: Third week in February.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: February 18th.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Yes.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I guess I'm only asking this question not
-- because I'm not running the meeting, but what -- I'm not sure what you would publish.
We wouldn't normally publish, even if this was an -- if this was an ordinance all by itself
you wouldn't publish something. If you're talking about publishing like a press release,
so that people are aware they can come, that's -- you could still do it on January 4th,
but there is no -- there is no legal notice to notify anybody.
Rountree: Do it on the 28th.
Nary: Or the 28th. I mean you could do it in the next few weeks.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I think the 28th of this month would be taken care of.
de Weerd: The agenda doesn't look real heavy, so, Council, would December -- or
December 28th work? Mr. Siddoway?
Zaremba: It's fine with me.
Siddoway: I'm supposed to be in Utah on the 28th. I could cancel -- try and look at
changing those plans, but I would do that to be here for this. There is no way to do this
next week, is there? I mean we can notice this as a public hearing for next week.
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de Weerd: Next week -- next week is a -- is a joint meeting with our Planning and
Zoning Commission, with a special meeting earlier so we can clean up some public
hearing issues.
Siddoway: So, let's do the 28th.
de Weerd: I'm going to be here, so it doesn't matter to me. I think what we do want is
all of the Council to participate in that public comment period and have a full Council
vote. So, Council, do we want to try it next Tuesday? We can figure it out.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I -- I think the holidays is -- is a bad time to schedule something like this and
can't -- as bad as I'd like to get out of here early January 4th, Iguess -- everybody is
going to be here January 4th, aren't they? Are we going to have everybody here in
January at all?
de Weerd: I will be. I don't vote, but --
Zaremba: I will be here for all of the Januarys, but I will miss the two first Februarys.
de Weerd: Would you be at any of the January meetings?
Rountree: I need a January calendar.
de Weerd: Here.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I wouldn't have any problem going to February 18th.
de Weerd: Mr. Siddoway, is there any rush on this?
Siddoway: The Central District Health grant runs out in March. I think that's our
deadline. So, we need -- if we are -- if we want free signs that's the deadline. If we
don't care about free signs there is no deadline.
de Weerd: So, the middle of February does work within that time frame? Joanne,
would you like to provide -- you will have to come forward. And just restate your name
for the public record.
Graff: Joanne Graff.
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December 14, 2010
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de Weerd: Thank you.
Graff: Madam Mayor, the deadline has actually been extended and I have not shared
that information with you, Mr. Siddoway, but the deadline actually has been extended
and so it's March of 2012, so it's a two year grant.
Siddoway: Okay.
de Weerd: Okay. Well, it looks like the middle of February it is. And we appreciate
those that have come to provide comment tonight and we will put it on our public
calendar when that date is set, if you would like to join us again, but you don't have to.
Your comments are already part of the public record. Yes, Mr. Siddoway.
Siddoway: Thinking forward to that date, then, I would just ask if there are any other -- if
there is any other direction Council would like to give me -- for example, do you prefer
instead of using the existing smoke free ordinance, would you prefer we change the
ordinance to tobacco free and bring a resolution back? Do you want to just stick with
the resolution for now as proposed with the existing ordinance?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just my two cents. If we are going to have public come and
comment, let's have them comment on tobacco free and see what they think about all
forms of tobacco -- tobacco free parks.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, that works for me, too.
Siddoway: Okay.
Zaremba: I guess the question -- the additional question that smokeless tobacco or all
forms of tobacco is does it add a different kind of enforcement. I mean you can see if
somebody's puffing on a cigarette, there is a white thing sticking out of their mouth and
smoke going up, but, you know, how do you know if somebody's chewing and spitting?
Siddoway: It would have to be observed.
Zaremba: Yeah. So, I -- if we had comment on that I would support including that
subject as well.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, I have one more comment.
de Weerd: Oh. Sorry. Where did that come from?
Lavey: I am unaware of what the penalty is currently, but you might want to consider
whether it's going to be a misdemeanor or an infraction. It might be under a
misdemeanor right now and that's definitely not where we want to go, considering what
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December 14, 2010
Page 19 of 44
we are doing with other city ordinances. So, I'm unaware of what the penalty is, but it
should be discussed under the current proposal.
de Weerd: Fifty dollars?
Rountree: The table we were provided said it's a 50 dollar fine.
Lavey: Okay.
de Weerd: Okay. So, do you have enough information to know what you need to come
back with?
Siddoway: Yes, I believe so. And just so we are clear, changing from smoke free to
tobacco free would require a change in ordinance, not just resolution, so we would
notice up an ordinance change and a public hearing for that.
Nary: Madam Mayor, not to make it more complicated. That is a little different wrinkle.
So, if you would like us to bring an ordinance change for tobacco free to, then, get
public comment on that, we can do that or if you just wanted comment on whether or
not you should create a tobacco free ordinance, that's different, that wouldn't provide an
ordinance for .you to review prior to February 18th, you would be simply getting
comment on that, because as Mr. Siddoway said, we already have an ordinary that says
anyplace that's posted no smoking it's illegal to smoke. We would have to add a new
ordinance to make anyplace tobacco free, so whichever your preference is is fine, I just
need to know what you would like to have for you prior to February 18th.
de Weerd: Council, certainly my recommendation would be to seek comment on the
tobacco free, but move forward with the direction that we have sought thus far and we
can, then, pursue additional steps if that's the direction that you want to go at that time.
Rountree: I concur.
de Weerd: Okay.
Siddoway: So, we will not prepare an ordinance change at this point, we will go forward
with what we have, we will notice it for public hearing in February. Thank you.
de Weerd: I think, Steve, though, it does need to be addressed or brought back, the
discussion about the sidewalks abutting public right of ways, roadways, and certainly
the enforcement aspect of this.
Siddoway: Got it. Thank you.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. And thank you again for coming and joining us.
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December 14, 2010
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B. Resolution No. Proposed # 10-759: Declaring City Parks
Smoke Free Premises
de Weerd: Okay. We will skip Item 7-B, as we don't need to hear the resolution at this
point.
Item 7: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
de Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Close Public Hearing/Comment Period for CDBG Program Year
2009 (PY2009) Consolidated Annual Performance and
Evaluation Report (CAPER)
B. Close Public Hearing/Comment Period: Substantial
Amendment to the CDBG Program Year 2009 Action Plan
de Weerd: Item No. 8 under Action Items we do have two public hearings that need to
be closed as we were at the end of the comment period, but at this time we will turn this
over to our CDBG coordinator Lori.
Den Hartog: Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. If we
could, I would like to take up both items together, the 2009 consolidated annual
performance and evaluation report and the 2009 substantial amendment to the action
plan if possible and I will address both in my comments. We open up the public hearing
and public comment period for both of these items on November 9. During that
comment period staff has been in communication with the nonprofit groups and other
agencies receiving CDBG funding through the City of Meridian. We have not had any
comments on the substantial amendment or the CAPER. Just some highlights. The
CAPER -- the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report is a required
report from the Department of -- excuse me -- from HUD and we have compiled
everything required by HUD, have all of the necessary elements, just to give you some
highlights of our 2009 program year, the Meridian Food Bank received 20,000 dollars as
part of this grant. They provided food to over 29,000 people throughout this year. We
are looking forward to working with the Meridian Food Bank again this year, they have
been an excellent partner. The Boise City Ada County Housing Authority has provided
downpayment assistance to three low to moderate income families for the purchase of
homes in Meridian. Improvements were made to Centennial Park that you're familiar
with. And also the Boys and Girls Club has begun a transportation program that busing
students from our area elementary and middle schools to the club for after school
activities. There is a number ather things that have been identified in the report that
have been accomplished throughout this past year. It's been exciting to come into this
this fall and see what was happening during the last year. Certainly the coordinator
prior to me did a great job in establishing relationships with the nonprofit agencies that
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December 14, 2010
Page 21 of 44
are receiving these funds in our community. So, we will look forward to another coming
year and continuing improvement in our program. This is the third year we have
completed use of these funds and we have our action plan identified and just as a side
note, we actually received on Congressional release of funds for the 2010 action plan
year, so we are excited to start using those funds as we move forward. Related to this,
the proposed substantial amendment to the 2009 action plan, we have one project that
didn't proceed as anticipated and that was the facade improvement project, which was
to be coordinated by the Meridian Development Corporation. That project was identified
for 40,000 dollars. As identified in your paperwork, that project we ran into a couple of
different hiccups along the way and the site was -- had been identified, but it didn't move
forward for various reasons. So, because of that staff is proposing the amendment to
the action plan to reallocate the 40,000 dollars to an already identified CDBG project.
You may be familiar with it, the community center ADA upgrade projects. We actually
have gone out to bid and the parks department has been coordinating all of the
activities in the community center and we are hoping to get under construction in
January. We have funding that was already identified for this project. By allocating
40,000 dollars to the ADA upgrades, we will be able to complete it and be able to move
forward. I have not had any comments submitted during the comment period on this
change. We had been in communication with the Meridian Development Corporation
and they have recently had a change with their program administrator and I was clear in
communicating with them that just because this is happening we certainly are
anticipating partnering with MDC in the future. We have a lot of goals in our
consolidated plan related to economic development and we look forward to partnering
with MDC in the future on that. So, even though we are reallocating the 40,000, that's
certainly not any indication of not wanting to work with MDC in the future. So, we are
looking forward to that. There is one slight change in working with the HUD staff. I just
wanted to make you aware in your submitted documents table C for the action plan
amendment, I just needed to modify the code citation and it should be 24 CFR
570.201 (c) and I will provide the clerk with an updated copy of that. So, with that I
would respectfully request that the Council close the public hearings for the 2009
CAPER and the amendment to the 2009 action plan and adopt these -- the next items
on our agenda are the adopting resolutions and, then, if you would direct staff to send
these items to HUD for their consideration and approval. The CAPER is due to HUD on
December 30th and there is no deadline for the action plan amendment. Thank you. I
would be happy to stand for questions.
de Weerd: Thank you, Lori. Council, any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
de Weerd: Is there any member of the public who would like to provide comment on
these two items? Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, seeing none, I move that we close the public hearings on
Item 8-A and B, the CAPERs and the CDBG 2009 program addendum.
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December 14, 2010
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Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve two items, Item 8-A and 8-B and to
close the public hearing. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Resolution No. 10-760: Adoption of the Community
Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program Year 2009
Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER)
D. Resolution No. 10-761: Adopting Proposed Substantial
Amendment to the Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) PY09 Action Plan
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve resolution 10-760, adopting the CAPERs plan.
Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution on item 8-C and that
would be, then, to forward that to the appropriate agency. Madam Clerk, will you call
roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve resolution 10-761 and direct staff to submit the
amendment to HUD.
Zaremba: Second.
de Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-D. If there is no discussion,
Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 23 of 44
de Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Department Reports
B. Public Works: Backflow Program Discussion
de Weerd: We did have a request to move Item B ahead of A and so I will go ahead
and move to Department Reports and ask for staff comments on this item. Hi, Rich.
Dees: How are you, Madam Mayor.
de Weerd: Good.
Dees: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you very much for having us in
today again. We are talking again about the backflow issue, cross-connection control,
specifically dual connections. I provided you with some comments, some material over
the last few weeks and met with a couple of you to try to discuss any concerns that you
had with it. We also met with the homeowners association last Friday, Meridian Greens
and Bittercreek, I believe, came in last Friday. Summarizing where we are for the
recommendations, first of all, we want to keep the ordinances the way they are. The
ordinances are strong, they are written well, we want to continue to be able to enforce
those ordinances related to dual connection and backflow and cross-connection control.
We think there is a case to be made certainly for some backflow or dual connections
that were connected erroneously. There were five of them. We will pay fully to have
those removed from -- from the homeowners or from the property owners, whatever it
takes we will go ahead take care of that and fund that --fund that issue. Also, there are
several homeowners or property owners that have backflow connection -- devices
connected and we want to help them subsidize their removal up 300 dollars to take
those out. We think that will pretty much take care of most of the removal. There might
be some situations where it will not. If that's true they can certainly approach us and we
can negotiate it. The other thing we have -- we have figured out is that there is a device
that they could install in lieu of taking everything out, it's called a hose bib vacuum
breaker device, it's a spigot and you have them on your home. If you have ever seen
them they are the ones that are on your -- put your hose on, the little thing on the top
that sort of spins, well, that's a vacuum breaker and you can certainly put those in in lieu
of the backflow device and take care of the cross-connection issue. The current
backflow testing program has been very successful. As I noted in one memo I sent to
you, we were 86 percent on the first round of issues. Whenever we wanted to get the
backflows tested, people responded very well. This is higher than anybody else in the
Treasure Valley. We'd like to continue the reimbursement program, but at a lower level.
Perhaps by offering a coupon, maybe a ten dollar off coupon on testing your backflows,
the ones that are still required. We would give that to the backflow testers or to the
homeowners and let them take them to the testers and submit them for reimbursement
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 24 of 44
so that we could help them with defraying the cost of the backflow inspection and repair.
We wouldn't pay for the repair, but we would pay for the testing. We want to shift the
cost to repair, in fact, back to the homeowners. If the device is broken, we think the
homeowner should fix their device. The City of Meridian would allow a one year grace
period, if you will, to get all this done. There are several people -- several properties
that need to have this taken care of and we want to go through at a season, so we
thought one year would be a good range to offer for folks to take their backflow systems
-- or backflow assemblies out. We also want to put in a period of homes built -- a
consideration of a ban, if you will, of what homes are considered in this -- in this
backflow issue and we went to 1989 and we proposed we go as high as 2006. We
would allow the -- we would allow the payment assistance programs for removing the
dual connections, after one year we will eliminate that. In other words, after a year
period of time we are done with that and we are back to enforcing the ordinance, like we
should be all along. We want to work with Ada County, certainly, to get the homes that
are outside the city to enforce our ordinances to put in -- or to not have dual
connections. In other words, don't allow them. And that's going to take some work
between us and Ada County to make sure that's so. And, finally, we would like to
initiate an aggressive education campaign to educate not only the homeowners
associations, but all those who have backflow preventers in our system what their
responsibility is. I passed out today the comments that I just read to you, essentially,
and on there there is a little pamphlet that talks about backflow and it's pretty
enlightening, actually, and I know Councilman Zaremba seen it and it gets the point
across that backflow issues are serious issues that you need to consider and we
certainly take them seriously, because we want to keep our water supply system as
safe and pure as we possibly can. If you're comfortable with it, we would certainly
encourage you to allow us to adopt these recommendations and move forward, so that
we can begin the process. Even if you did that this evening it would take us awhile to
get everything generated up, so that we could get the coupon system going and get the
-- get the folks online to remove these assemblies and give them time to start doing it
before the next irrigation season. So, with that I'll stand for any questions that you may
have with regard to this.
de Weerd: Thank you. Council, questions at this point?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Would you clarify for me what -- what dual connections would be allowed to
remain? Are there some that would be legal?
Dees: The only ones that are legal is a single point. The single point connections --
Zaremba: For a whole subdivision.
Dees: For the whole subdivision. Yes.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 25 of 44
Zaremba: Okay.
Dees: Those connections are alot -- now, still backflow preventers would be required
on the several homes. I'll use mine as an example. I don't have pressurized irrigation.
use potable water to irrigate my lawn, so I have a backflow preventer between my
potable water supply system -- actually, the city potable water supply system and my
irrigation system. Those would still be required. So, there are still several assemblies
that would be required in the -- in the community.
Zaremba: And would those need to be inspected?
Dees: Absolutely. They will need to be checked every year. You bet.
de Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Rich, I think the estimated cost, based on a reasonable educated guess was
around 300,000. If per chance the number was -- that number is exceeded, it seems to
me that the notification period or the one year allowance could be extended in terms of
actually implementing the fix, as long as we knew that it was going to happen in that first
year, so if we had the thousand that we think we have and they cost 400 dollars, that's
going to exceed what we anticipate budget-wise, as long as we heard from those
thousand in that first year they could go by priority and get fixed the next budget cycle.
Dees: Councilman Rountree, Members of the Council, absolutely. If we hear from
them during the year period we are certainly willing to say, okay, you're in the mix, if you
will. And, then, if we run out of budget money, it costs more than 300,000 dollars,
because that's what our budget is, I'll have to come before you again and say I need
more money to finish paying off the -- the additions that we have to do. After the one
year period is when we -- if no one else has come forward, we'd say that's it, we are
done. So, you're exactly right.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
de Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Thank you, Rich.
Dees: Thank you.
Barry: Madam Mayor, just as a quick clarifying question regarding Councilman
Rountree's comment. I guess I'm a bit confused if we are talking about a cost share
program or on a full reimbursement for removal of these backflow assemblies. I mean it
would be good for staff to know that. The proposal was up to 300,000 dollars as a cost
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share. I thought I heard Mr. Rountree say possibly if that goes higher, then, we would
delay or roll that into the next year, which made me believe that maybe we were talking
about something more than a cost share and, actually, a full financing of the removal.
that's not what we intended, I just wanted to get clarification on that.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Tom, I think I inflated the wrong number.
Barry: Okay.
Rountree: The 300 would still be the cap, but if you had 1,400 requests, then, you'd
have the 400 over.
Barry: Understood. Thank you, Councilman.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I think I just understood that last conversation differently than I may have
understood something previously. I thought that you were suggesting that where we
knew that at some point the city had given a permit, that we actually would cover all the
cost, even if that meant replacing a patio or -- or some -- if the city gave them a permit,
even if this was eight years ago, that we would bear the full cost of removal, fixing,
replacing, landscaping.
Dees: Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, you're exactly right. There are five
homes, from 1995 to 1997 where we allowed -- we gave them permits to install the
backflow assemblies. We would pay the full cost, whatever that is. If it's 500 bucks, it's
500 bucks. If it's 800 dollars, it's 800 dollars. Whatever it is.
Zaremba: We already know that's only four possible exposures?
Dees: We think there are five.
Zaremba: Or five.
Dees: There are five exposures.
Zaremba: Okay..
Dees: We believe that's the correct number, but the rest now that's the ones that --
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Zaremba: That would be the 300 dollar limit.
Dees: Yes. That's correct.
Zaremba: Okay. That clarifies my understanding. Thank you.
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you for those clarifications. I have several members of a
subdivision that is affected in the audience. Are there any comments? Okay. Any
other comments from citizens in the audience? Okay. Any concluding remarks, Rich?
Dees: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, no. Again, thank you for your time. I
want to again thank the folks from the Meridian Greens and other subdivisions that have
come into help us out. It's been kind of a long -- long affair, if you will, and we have had
to learn a lot, we have done a lot of research and they helped us formulate the plan and
so we appreciate that very very much. The education piece is going to be very
necessary and we look forward to working with them as we roll this thing out to all the
people who need to have it sent to them. Thank you.
de Weerd: Thank you. And thank you, we know you're not here because you enjoy our
meetings. We appreciate you being here.
Rountree: Madam Mayor. I'd like to extend my thanks not only to the neighborhoods
for putting up with the process, but I think it was probably a healthy process and one
that resulted in -- in a reasonable compromise, but a special thanks to Public Works,
you know, that's probably an area that wasn't really bothering us and the old adage is if
it's not bothering you you shouldn't ought to mess with it, but we did. So, I think the
results are good. I particularly thank Rich and his staff for the unraveling of the nest of
issues that were involved here that have gone on for years and years and years and the
tacit approvals and the implicit approvals and the non-understandings of understandings
and letters that exist and don't exist and the permits that exist and et cetera. So, it was
not an easy mystery to unravel and I think you did a grand job and finally got me to fully
understand what was going on. So, that was an accomplishment.
Dees: Thank you.
de Weerd: Okay. Council, we -- you do have a number recommendations in front of
you and I'm sure staff would love to hear some decision on how to move forward on
this.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I have a question. Do you need this in the form of guidance
or does it need to be a resolution or -- Bill, can you help us on what the vehicle is here?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think, Council Member Rountree,
think -- in trying to think of six months from now or a year from now we are trying to
figure out what exactly we did, since we have seen it a couple times, it probably would
make sense to have this program adopted by a resolution of the Council we could bring
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back probably next week. Rich, do you think -- if you think it's in the form that we could,
basically, attach a resolution to, then, it's clear as to what your intent was and what was
allowed and what was discussed and if you have a desire to revisit it, then, you will
have the ability to do that as well and that way we won't -- from a -- I think from locating
it later, based on the number of discussions we had, that probably would be the best
from a clarity standpoint.
Rountree: That's your department.
Zaremba: Yeah. That works for me. Yes, I am the liaison to Public Works and a
resolution sounds good.
de Weerd: So, Council, are you requesting that a resolution be drawn up with the
recommendations that are in front of you as summarized by Rich?
Zaremba: That would be my preference, yes.
de Weerd: Okay.
Hoaglun: Might as well.
Rountree: I agree with that.
de Weerd: Okay. So, we will come back with a resolution to capture all of these points.
And that's just a resolution. You guys really don't have to come back, but you're most
welcome to. Blame Ralph. He's here every week.
A. Fire Department: Strategic Plan Update
de Weerd: Okay. We are done with that item and so we will move to Item 9-A, is our
whole purpose for the evening, our fire department. Chief Niemeyer.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Member of the Council, good evening. Before I get started
do need to give a little bit of thanks out to some folks who are here tonight. Captain
Shaul and his crew, I probably will never get them in the administration after tonight,
after they see what we do here. Thank you for coming.
de Weerd: No. It's very entertaining.
Niemeyer: And, most importantly, I want to thank the administrative staff that's sitting
there in the first two rows.. It's very rare that I get the opportunity to thank them in
public and this is a great opportunity for me to say thank you. I will tell you since May
we have had our foot on the gas and I was going to say the Corvette's running well, but
in my world it's a big Ford pickup truck is running very well. The energy level is high.
The expectations have definitely been met and without them we wouldn't be where we
are at today, so it's my chance to say thank you for everything you're doing. We have
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got a Powerpoint presentation for tonight to give you an idea of where we are at today
and where are going in the future. So, I appreciate your time. I know it's a long agenda,
but, again, I thank you for your time. If I were to summarize your Meridian Fire
Department right now it would be in this -- in these words: Tradition Meets Challenge.
And these are two cultures in the fire service. As you know, the fire service is steep in
tradition and many of those traditions are very good and valuable that we will hold near
and dear to us as we move forward, but at the same time we are challenging some
traditions that we say we can do things better. As you know when you have a
department that's very traditional sometimes that change is slow to take place and I will
tell you that the staff all the way from the administration to the line has embraced those
ideas and those concepts as we move forward. Let me see if I can make this thing
work. If not -- I get accused of being a techno geek and I don't know if I am. For the
visual folks in the room, how have we been doing since 2010 -- or May of 2010. Most of
the days are like this, they are very good days and we are moving forward in a very
positive direction. I would be lying if I said there wasn't a couple of those as well. But
that's all right. We expect that. The areas of focus that we have been focusing on since
May -- one is creating team environment through involvement. Getting more folks
involved in the process. One of the areas that we identified that we can do better in is
succession planning and we believe that the way to accomplish that is to get folks
involved in the process as we move forward. And we will be talking about each one of
these here as we go along. The other is building collaboration with allied agencies for
improved system performance. Looking at effectiveness, efficiencies, and cost. I don't
think that just because we are in the economic times we are in we shouldn't be looking
at these. We should be looking at these things all the time and I hope this is something
we all take away from the current economic environment as we move forward, even if
the times change and improve. The third one is promoting innovation and I will get to
this in a little bit. We have a couple of sayings that we repeat within the department.
We are also focusing on leadership and improving our leadership, not just at the top, but
starting at the bottom and we develop ways to do that and, lastly, establishing standards
through a standards manual throughout the department. So, in creating a team
environment through involvement, the first step that we took was to send out an
employee survey and I sent this out to every member of our department. I'm happy to
say every member filled out their survey. One of the things I was looking for is what are
you passionate about. We know you are here in the fire department, but what are you
really passionate about, because I believe when you play to people's strengths you do
very well and so we created that -- that list, if you will, of what are you passionate about.
Some people said training. Some people said history. We had a number of responses.
And so we are using that input as we move forward. Part of that was setting up four
committees in which we had representatives from the administration and from the field
to bring together that team environment, that involvement process. The first committee
is the apparatus committee. They were responsible for looking into the refurbs of
Engine 39 and 32 that we are currently undergoing. Engine 39, as you know, is back in
Wisconsin being torn apart all the way down to the frame. By getting folks involved in
this process as we move forward into the future we have more people knowledgeable
on an apparatus. You know, the goal is that if I leave tomorrow or Chief Johnson leaves
tomorrow, whoever may leave tomorrow, we have people that can, then, step up. It's
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part of that succession planning. So, getting them involved has been a good thing, it's
been very beneficial and the committee has done very good work. The next one is our
historical committee and Hannah Curtis is kind of leading this charge from the admin
team. One of the responses on her -- her survey was I love history. I love photography.
And so we dove into our history in depth. Part of that was we found an old bell and it
was tucked away at the Meridian High School, I believe, that used to be the bell in our
tower that would get rung when a fire came out and they were about ready to throw this
bell away and, fortunately, we snagged. It will be part of history. We also have
somebody else in our department that really helps us out when it comes to the historical
perspective and that's Kenny Bowers. He's a real great resource to have and is
bringing a lot to that committee and I look for a lot of good things from that committee as
we move forward. We also are looking at policies and procedures. One of the areas
that we are focusing on with that is our high risk incidents, our high risk low frequency
type incidents that we are going to start there on our policies and procedures. A lot of
the ones that we currently have in place we keep, but we are also looking at what other
areas do we need to focus on and I'll get to it in a little bit on why that's so important.
The last one is our public education committee. We feel very strongly that getting that
message out to safety, to our community is very important and we know we have both
Pam Orr, who does a terrific job with pub ed, but we also have guys from the field, men
and women from the field who have great ideas as well and so by having this committee
they are exploring new avenues to get that message out. One thing that recently
happened was the purchase of the fire safety house -- portable fire safety house. Did I
get that right, Pam? This is a way to get our message out to the school kids. We know
that everybody is under budget cuts and getting the kids to our safety center is now
hard, so this safety house is going to allow us to get the message to them and that was
done through cooperation with out association. So, very excited about that. The one
thing that these four committees have in common -- the common denominator is
involvement, debate, agreement and buy-in. And those are the four big keys by having
these committees and we have realized and support the idea that collective minds
produce a better result and just within our admin team alone we calculated this up and
my gray hair is probably going to be indicative of this -- we have 191 years of collective
experience just within the admin team alone. That's a lot of -- a lot of involvement and a
lot of good thoughts that can come through as we work as a team.
de Weerd: How many administrators do you have?
Niemeyer: That 191 came through eight people. No. Seven people. I'm sorry. Just
look at the gray hair in the audience.
Bird: Seven people, 191 years?
Niemeyer: Yeah. So, the second point that we have been working on, our focus area,
is building collaboration. I have put on there getting off the island. This is an area that
the fire service traditionally has not done as well as we could or should. Getting off the
island means how do we look at our boundaries, how do we look at our collaboration
with other agencies and make things better, do it more effectively, more efficiently, and
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look at the cost involved to the citizens. So, to that end I think we have continued a very
cooperative and productive relatil both came fromiWashington oa weeare theosame aage
that's because Chief Lavey and
or how that plays out, but we have enjoyed working with the police department, we look
forward to many joint ventures with them, but also I think we have got to focus on
working with other city departments. We are not an island as a fire department, we are
part of a bigger process and that's something that the Mayor and I talked about on the
initial interview is we want to make sure that when we create an action or take an action
we are involving those other departments, so there is good cooperation and education
and communication going on between all of us. The tough issues with our allied
agencies have been put on the table, along with accomplishing the low hanging fruit.
We have identified with our allied agencies, whether it's a fire department, Ada County
Paramedics, or our law enforcement friends, we can identify the low hanging fruit and
that's easy to tackle. But I think we are being honest with ourselves when we put the
tough issues on the able as well and we have had some tough issues. In Ada County
sometimes the fire departments historically haven't gotten along as well as they should
and we are breaking down those walls and those barriers, working with the various
chiefs and I'm happy to say I'm very pleased with the progress we are making. I'm
optimistic that that's going to continue as we move forward in the future and I think in
the end we put together a much better product for all the citizens. We don't only treat
folks from Meridian, we treat folks coming through Meridian and we want to make sure
we are providing the absolute best service we can. And the future collaborative issues
that are being discussed. One is joint stations and this is a new concept. But we know
looking at our capital improvement plan and meeting with other chiefs in other districts,
sometimes we have stations planned less than a mile apart
That doesn't make sense. And it's not going to make sense to a taxpayer. So, we are
having those discussions. The other thing that's currently being worked on and
developed is the closest appropriate response regardless of jurisdiction and I will give
you an example. Yesterday -- was it yesterday, Bill, we had that fire? We had a fire
that was actually in Boise's district and two of our engines responded. It was a
commercial structure fire. That's the way things should be done, to get the quickest
response to the incident as fast as we can. So, there we go. The third focus area is
innovation. Ideas moving forward that address effectiveness, efficiency, and cost. One
of the things that we have said repeatedly in the department is that everyone has a
talent and it's time to see it. And we saw that in the survey that we sent out. I'm going
to give you a couple of examples of that innovation that's going on right now. We have
also encouraged the stay within the lane concept. In other words, we expect folks to
take self-initiative and to tackle projects. We give them the boundaries or the wails or
the sideboards, as Councilman Rountree would say, here is the area that you have got
to play within, now make it happen. Take initiative and I'm very happy to report that the
men and women have done that within our fire department. A couple examples of this
innovation. I could rattle off a lot more, but these are two that I wanted to bring forward.
Wanted a new logo through a departmentwide competition. In reading the surveys,
what the men and women were wanting and looking for is a very traditional logo. That's
one of those traditions in the fire service, the logo, the Maltese cross, the axes, it is very
traditional. Creates a lot of pride within an organization. So, we opened that up. We
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had, I believe, 12 different entries. Those entries were voted upon by the members.
Got down to two. We actually had a tie, believe it or not. So, those -- those two did a
runoff and the new logo is that. And when we say that everyone has great ideas, from
the top to the newest guy, I will tell you that that logo was developed by the newest
member of our department. So, that kind of reiterated that everybody has value and we
want to make sure that message is sent. If you look at the logo there, you will recognize
the color scheme. That's something that Meridian fire has become known for is that
black and red color scheme. I don't think we are doing it because we wanted to imitate
Chicago, that's just us. And the guys really get around that. And so we are very happy
with this logo. Another innovative idea -- and I'm going to mention it briefly, because it
may come up later and it may not, is training videos and what happened here is this
started as a very small idea by a couple of guys on the line, Brandon Erickson and
Steve Hays, in that they wanted to do a video presentation of a physician giving a
lecture. So, we helped them get started and what it has grown into is a fully integrated
website with training videos and the cost to us was under 2,000 dollars. The long-term
return on investment is going to be huge. And beyond that I'm going to hold off on
going into that any further. That may come up later, but certainly as you move forward
the website that's been created is firevids.com and I would encourage any of you to take
a look at that. It's very innovative, very creative, and I will tell you that this website is
receiving hits from Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and we just found out China. So, a very
successful program. Another focus area is our focus on leadership and I will tell you --
and Ithink other fire service leaders would agree, this is an area where I think we can
do better in the fire service. We typically wait too long to focus on leadership skills. We
are a paramilitary organization. That is the way it is nationwide. But those leadership
skills, those core fundamental leadership skills typically don't get focused on until your
promoting to company officer or captain. And we believe that's something that needs to
change. We need to start from the ground from our newest entry level position and start
that leadership process. So, that is something that we are working on. We are doing
that at the staff level, the company officer level. We have a meeting every month for
company officers, we get together and go over different items. One of the things we
now include is a focus on leadership. It's called our leadership training opportunity.
LTO. Funky acronym, but it was quick and it is a focus specifically on a leadership
style, a leadership initiative, and there is a good discussion that takes place as a part of
that. And so we learn from each other when we do that. The other thing we are doing
-- and I know the Mayor appreciates this -- is we are reading. We find books on
leadership that we appreciate and we can get into and, then, we have a discussion on it
and one such book that we have done on so far is called It's Your Ship by Michael
Abrashoff. He is a former commander of the USS Benfold. This was a ship that had
same issues initially. He came on board, created a team environment and it became
the best ship in the Persian -- in the Persian fleet. It was a go to ship that they went to
when they needed something done. And so we took a lot out of that. There is some
books that are on the horizon that we are also going to read. Excuse me. Don't want to
be called Oprah, but we are taking the lead from the {Mayor's office. As part of that
leadership focus we will be hosting our first annual week long leadership academy to be
held in the spring of 2011. We are going to bring in some guest speakers, but also
spend an entire week on that leadership focus and looking at organizations that have
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done it right and done it well and take away from them the things that we can -- we can
use in our department. Southwest Airlines is a great example on a company that has
taken something to an extreme level as far as customer service. So, we will have those
discussions during that week long leadership academy. And, lastly, as we move
forward, the leadership, like I mentioned before, will eventually be initiated at the entry
level position, so that we start as soon as they get hired, focusing on those soft skills,
the ones that are really important. When we go out into the community -- and we have
a great start. The men and women that we have currently -- we have a very great start.
We are just going to capitalize on it. As far as training goes, that is a focus area. We
have changed the approach a little bit and we are going to focus on the basics while
taking the department to a higher level of competency in this way. The training focus
over the next few years is going to be on the high risk, low frequency events beginning
with the basics and we -- we kind of joked about it, Chief Johnson and I when we talked
about this, but, really, if you think about it, a structure fire, everything within that
operation falls within this. At any point in time things can go bad and we know that. So,
we have developed two books that I will just share with you real quick and those are
task books. This is not a new concept. We stole it. I will admit it. We stole the idea.
But as you can see this is the firefighter one task book and these are all the critical core
skills that we want to make sure that our folks can do, not 70 percent efficiency or 80
percent or 90, but a hundred percent, because these are the items that we have
recognized we don't have a lot of time to think about these things. When they happen
we have to make a decision and we need to train hard enough on these things that a
hundred percent of the time we can do them right. In addition to that, that's just the
firefighter one task book. You can see here that this is the EMS critical core skills task
book as well. Again, don't have a whole lot of time to think. We need to make sure a
hundred percent of the time we are going to hit that thing as we need to. So, that's
going to be our focus on the training. In addition to that, Perry Palmer, who has taken
over coordinating our part-time on call program has developed the expectations as well.
A reference manual for the program itself. In addition, they will fall under the firefighter
one expected tasks as we move forward. In the future this is a big project that we are
looking at. Here in the future we will have firefighter two and three task books, which
add new levels of expectations, as well as the driver operator task books. And, then,
we also are encouraging our firefighters to pursue degrees in fire science or public
administration. This is something nationwide that has taken hold. We are going more
from atrade -- away from a trade to a profession and that is something that I highly
encourage. I think we are better served when folks take the time to get a higher level of
education. So, this is something right now that we are encouraging. I think in the future
in the fire service, not only here in Meridian, but around the nation you're going to see it
as a requirement and that's not a bad thing. I think that raises the level of
professionalism in any fire service or organization. Just a quick update on open
positions. Our training officer position that is in process right now and our division chief
of logistics, which is approved for this budget, we will be posting in the next seven to ten
days. So, an update on strategic plan. The reason that I put the other slides first is that
everything we are doing from May until now was in -- in part to prepare for our strategic
plan development that was approved for this year's budget. We knew before the
company came in to sit down and develop our five year strategic plan we had to get
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these initiatives out of the way or at least started in the process, because I know the
company well enough they would be looking for these items. Have you started this.
Have you thought about this. So, everything we have done since May has been in
preparation for the strategic plan development. We have selected the company,
Emergency Services Consulting International, also known as ESCI, they have
completed numerous strategic plans for the fire service since 1976 and some of you
remember we did one in 2000 using the same company. I actually got that book out of
the -- out of the office and looked through that one recently here. We are currently in
the process of finalizing the contract between ESCI and the city so we can bring it to
you for approval. We have agreed to the scope and the timelines and so I wanted to
review that briefly with you. As far as the scope goes, there is going to be four phases
to our strategic plan development. The first phase is project preparation. This is,
basically, gathering the leg work, the paperwork to get to them so they can review
where we are at today and, then, the project initiation and scheduling, part of that
project preparation is identifying who is going to be involved in the process itself. Phase
two is our customer centered environment assessment and this is one of the options we
had in the strategic plan. They called me and said do you want the public's
involvement. I knew where the city would stand on that and I certainly knew where I
stood on that and they answered it absolutely. And we are not just looking for folks that
are going to come in and be supporters of the fire service. I want to hear from folks who
may be have a different opinion than what we would do, so that we can -- we can
identify their needs and their issues. The goal is to make sure that our agenda in
moving forward in the next five years meets what the public wants to see as well. The
ESCI will coordinate the public meeting, the assessment of customer needs and
expectations. We, then, move into plan -- or phase three, which is the planning
workshop, division mission and values and I will tell you that that task three is very near
and dear to my heart. I want to make sure we have a mission statement that every
member of our organization knows, but it also means something and this is something
that the Mayor and I talked about again in the interview process. So, we will be working
through those. the internal and external assessments. So, the stakeholder groups really
is where this -- what we are talking about the stakeholder groups and my intent is to
involve certainly not only the elected officials, but other department -- city department
representative, as well as our allied agencies, because I know when we do something
here in Meridian it could have an effect on Star or Boise or Eagle and we want to make
sure that where we are going fits in line with the bigger scheme of a system and system
development. We will make sure that we have the right stakeholders at the table and
outline the goals and objectives and, then, lastly, the performance measurements. How
are we going to measure ourselves four years down the road, three years down the
road, or five years down the road. The last phase is the publishment of the strategic
plan. My intent there is to have one at every dining room table and every fire station, so
that every member of our organization certainly can pick it up and know where we are
heading in the next five years without question. Also, in every elected official's desk and
every other city department, so that they can look at that as well. We want to make
sure we share this document, not keep it to ourselves. And, lastly, in closing, I wanted
to share something with you and as you -- as you may or may not know we are in the
process of doing 360 degree evaluations here in the city and this is something I strongly
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support. I think it's a great personal and professional development tool. This was a
comment that was in mine and I really appreciated this comment, I just loved it and I
shared it with my staff. The question really centered around, essentially, where is the
department going, where are you going, and this comment was I think he and we are
still defining how we are going to raise the bar and I can tell you we have identified the
areas of impact, areas of focus and we said these things are going to help us raise the
bar, but I will tell you, this is a great place for me to be in, I think, for our department to
be, because it's the excitement of coming to work every day, not necessarily knowing
what's around the corner and that's what I find is that new ideas come forward, new
processes come forward every single day through suggestions of our members, through
suggestions of the administration team and it's a great place to be. With that I would
stand for any questions.
de Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't have any questions --
de Weerd: Do you want to move your microphone?
Bird: Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have a question, I just got a comment. I appreciate this.
Very very nice. The department is going forward, doing a good job, so I appreciate your
presentation. It was very professional.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
Bird: Thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You mentioned your website and my question is does the website have a
process that encourages comment, criticism, or other correspondence with those folks
that do bring it up, to provide you with maybe another way of doing something that
you're training your folks?
Niemeyer: That's in the process, Councilman Rountree. The developers of that
website, Steve Hays and Brandon Erickson, this is something they have done on their
own time, but they are in the process of a -- of a -- not a blog, that's not the right word,
but a feedback loop, a feedback section. Anytime you have that -- that mechanism,
certainly you have to temper it or you have to monitor it to make sure that it's
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 36 of 44
professional. We certainly don't want anything on there. But they are working on that
as far as that feedback mechanism within the website, yes.
Rountree: And you talked about your initiatives, task books, and expectancy manuals
and that sort of thing. What kind of matrix do you have associated with those? Do you
have tests? Do you have refreshers? Or is it -- if somebody passed the test and in the
field they don't respond appropriately, how do you deal with those?
Niemeyer: Yeah. And that's really where the training and the focus on those core
principals are defined and not just doing it once, but repeating that. You know, part of
the problem in training is that we can focus on something today and we may not hit it
again for another year and a half and when we talk about those high risk, low frequency
occurrences, we want to make sure the training is ongoing and repeated. So, we do
have -- to give you an example, we have identified with a certain core principal the
components within that -- that core and they are all listed out and so as we go through
with our training officer or Chief Johnson or whoever is going to be overseeing that
particular day, we make sure we are checking the boxes and if we don't we get together
with the employee, sit down, identify the areas where there may have been some
deficiency and, then, retest and with most of our stuff, especially with the firefighter one
task book, it is a timed event, so we want to make sure that we can perform that -- if it
says two minutes, it's two minutes and not seven or eight or nine, because those are the
areas where we don't have time to think and so we have identified those -- those critical
components within each core task, if you will.
Rountree: So, .are these activities or responses included in the various employee's
PADs?
Niemeyer: Not yet. We haven't rolled this -- we are just now starting to roll it out.
Rountree: Okay.
Niemeyer: But the expectation will be to complete your task book within a certain time
frame. Some of it can be done at the station as a company, some of it will be done at
our training grounds. We are going to use multiple methods to get that done.
Rountree: You indicated you encouraged -- you're encouraging degrees and I'm not
sure what the means.
Niemeyer: Well, right now there is not a requirement for men and women in the fire
service to have a degree. Knowing that it's going that way and I believe that we can
stand and say we are in support of higher education. So, therefore, right now it's an
encouragement. Hopefully in the future in the fire service nationally it will become the
norm, but it's not yet.
Rountree: Now, is that something the city itself is participating in through its training
process?
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December 14, 2010
Page 37 of 44
Niemeyer: Yes. All the members of the department have been sent the process for --
you know, the city does offer some tuition reimbursement. That's agreat -- that's a
great asset.
Rountree: Okay. And, finally, your effort with consultant developed strategic plan, stay
close to it. You have some really good resources right here. They can help you wade
through some of the stuff that you're going to be told and probably not necessarily either
understand or want and it can be baffling, particularly when you're dealing with a
consultant who -- how has done a lot of these in different sorts of ways, because you're
going to get what's in vogue today and it may not really be what you want. So, I just
caution. Stay close and use your peers in the city that have some extensive
background in strategic planning as a sounding board.
Niemeyer: Very good advice.
Rountree: But I recommend that if you're not comfortable with taking the task on
yourself, that the consultant is probably the way to go. I would request that you put in a
piece of that in probably part of your leadership training, so you can take it on in the
future.
Niemeyer: Exactly.
Rountree: Because it will be endorsed and it will be understood by your folks if you do it
internally. It will be theirs.
Niemeyer: I agree.
de Weerd: Good points. Additional comments?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Quick comment. Just to thank the chief for what you're doing, you're bringing
a lot of great energy and ideas and looking for ideas from your team and that's a great
thing, you're taking a department that's very good and making it better. There is always
room for improvement. I'm excited to see where -- you talk about firefighting as a
profession, not a trade, and whether it's a college degree or not, that mind set of this is
what we do and we are going to do it the best of our ability and that benefits everybody,
as well as the team concept. Firevids.com, great idea. Kudos to the folks who got that
up and going. Perhaps you can find a way to make money off of it, hey, that's even
better. And we will probably look for you on Facebook next, right, for the Meridian Fire
Department.
Niemeyer: Absolutely.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 38 of 44
Hoaglun: Okay.
Rountree: Are you going to start tweeting, too?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I just wanted to comment this is exciting and things are happening and I think
that's cool. Thank you for your presentation.
Niemeyer: Absolutely.
de Weerd: Well, we appreciate all of those in attendance. Sitting through one of our
meetings is not always easy, but we appreciate you being here this evening and
certainly we are eager to see the direction that the team takes the department. We
have been extremely proud of our fire service and the pursuit of how you can be even
better is always an exciting one. It's changed and change is sometimes not always fully
embraced, but we appreciate the commitment and the leadership and -- and how you
have engaged and tapped into the talent that has just been waiting and eager to be a
part of it. So, thank you, chief, we appreciate you and the team for being here this
evening. Thank you. Do any of your team have comments they want to make?
Niemeyer: Now is your chance.
Rountree: They can stay and see how we treat Joe.
C. Fire Department: Adoption of the 2009 International Fire Code
de Weerd: He gets the real fun stuff. Okay. The next item on our agenda is Item 9-C,
which is the Fire Department adoption of the 2009 International Fire Code. Joe.
Silva: Mayor, Members of the Council, this evening I want to try to give you a brief
overview of what we are working on in terms of the proposal for adopting the
International Fire Code, the 2009 International Fire Code in the City of Meridian and I
want to kind of preface my comments by saying we did take this to the BCA this
afternoon and it was well received by them. The single question that they had was how
we were going to treat buildings in the rural district that didn't have a water supply and
so I respond to that by saying we are probably going to have to try to divide that fire
component with sheetrock, so it's going to be kind of difficult and we are -- with the fire
sprinkler issue. But adopting the International Fire Code, it's a family of codes that we
are going to be adopting and, obviously, we had the development services in this
afternoon discussing that kind of briefly, giving an overview of what they are proposing
to do. But, number one, it does maintain the life safety of the occupants of the building
and this becomes more important as we have larger and taller buildings in our
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 39 of 44
community and provides for the safety of emergency responders. We will talk about
that a little bit further along. One of the benefits of utilizing the International Fire Code
and amongst the family of codes is when we talk to design teams from national
companies on the phone it's -- it's easy to communicate what our design criteria are for
buildings in the City of Meridian and it's also, obviously, identified as a best, you know,
industry standard, best practice. So, significant changes. One of the things we
requested in our local amendment -- and it's going to be contained in the building code
adoption, but at the request of the fire department is we have had a problem associated
with having the ability to get stretchers into the elevators that are contained in two and
three story buildings and in researching it we realize there was deficiency in the code as
printed and what we are going to request Council to do is support our request for
incorporating our local amendment into our building code adoption that will require a
larger elevator to be put in buildings two or more stories -- or two or more levels up or
down to accommodate, you know, patient care in the elevator. Part of the problem
associated with that -- we can't get an -- when we get in the elevator -- these smaller
elevators down and we have a person that we are doing CPR on, we can't adequately
perform CPR efficiently in these small elevators and that's why we are requesting for
this local amendment to correct that issue. It basically kind of just real quickly it will take
-- the elevator will be seven feet four inches in width and that will allow the stretcher to
be put in there in a flat position and our paramedics and the attending medics from the
other agencies to assist us and we will have enough room in there to do that. In
keeping with the request -- or I should say the legislative action of the Idaho state
legislature this past legislative session, our local adoption document does reflect the
requirement not to have sprinklers in one or two family dwellings. So, we have reflected
that in our local amendment. One of the new things that are going to be in the new
International Fire Code's 2009 is -- one of the problems we have had with our radio
systems as they have converted from analog to digital systems is the penetration of the
radio signal into a building and out of the building and Appendix J just requires an
amplification system when its warranted to be installed in the building to improve that
signal both in and out. And so we are going to request that that local appendix -- that
appendix be adopted into our local amendment. So, with that, it was just a brief
overview. If you should have any questions, please, you know, don't hesitate to contact
us. I know you have a very full agenda and I was encouraged to keep our presentation
short this evening.
de Weerd: We anticipated a full evening and so we took care of business earlier.
Council, questions? Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Joe, you indicated that -- on the radio that national fire, that it would be
required when its warranted. How was that to be determined?
Silva: In this Appendix J there is the test criteria that it's done by an FCC certified
technician to determine the necessity of having that system installed in the building. So,
it's really never -- you're never able to determine that until the building is actually
erected. I mean some of them can be easily anticipated that we are going to need an
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 40 of 44
amplification system, but this Appendix J outlines that process that that technician
needs to test for to make sure we have adequate strength in and out of the building.
Rountree: So, how do we handle that in a building permitting or process when it's,
essentially, after the fact that we know.
Silva: It will be included in the planned review comments that testing process will be
conducted while the building is being erected.
Rountree: And you also identified the elevators as being an issue and you gave a
measurement of seven foot four inches. Is that an industrial standard? Is that
something that would have to be fabricated for Meridian? That's something that's off
the shelf or something bigger?
Silva: Yes.
Rountree: Okay.
Silva: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, when you go from the very smallest
elevator available the next size up is that one that will accommodate that stretcher. So,
it's an industry standard. And just the one other thing you have just kind of reminded
me of is that that will -- that increase in cost will be on a one million dollar project, for
example, it would be one tenths of one percent. So, it's pretty minimal in terms of the
overall impact on most projects. And I actually shared that with BCA and there was
really no concerns, but we are also going to take that to the Associated General
Contractors, because that would be the group that's most directly affected and I have
made attempts -- a couple attempts to contact the executive director, he's been out of
town.
Rountree: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, question for Joe. On the elevator issue, it's required now in
buildings four stories or higher. In Meridian that would be two or more stories in going
up. If a two story building does not have an elevator, would, then, the elevator be
required?
Silva: No. This would be -- all buildings multi level are required, up or down. So, this is
going to be -- you know, except like four-plexes, which have just got a common, you
know, stairway -- I mean, obviously, you're not going to have elevators in situations like
that.
Hoaglun: Okay. Got it. Thank you. And Councilman Rountree asked my question I
had on radio signal amplification, when that takes place, so I think we are square on
that one. So, thank you.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 41 of 44
de Weerd: Any other questions, Council? Thank you, Joe. Now, next steps, will you
be bringing this back also on January 25th at the same time the other code comes
back? Okay.
Silva: Madam Mayor, that's correct. We will be bringing back as part of a joint
presentation and a part of that public hearing process for all the family of codes we will
be looking at adopting.
de Weerd: Okay.
Silva: So, if you have any other questions for --
de Weerd: Per ordinance.
Silva: Per ordinance.
de Weerd: Correct?
Silva: Correct.
de Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
de Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Before the 25th you will get with AGC?
Silva: Yes, sir.
Bird: Because they are probably 90 percent of the builders of the ones affecting the
elevators.
Silva: Madam Mayor, Council Member Bird, that's correct. And I have made a couple
of attempts to try to get ahold of him and he's been out of town.
Rountree: Thanks, Joe.
Bird: Thanks, Joe.
D. Development Services Division: Adoption of the 2009
International Building Code, 2009 International Residential
Code, 2009 International Energy Conservation Code, and
updates to Plumbing, Mechanical, and Electrical Codes
Vacated from agenda -Item moved to December 14, 2010
Special Meeting.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 42 of 44
E. Mayor's Office: Budget Amendment for Meridian's Promise
Community Events for aNot-to-Exceed Amount of $5,000.00
Vacated from agenda -Item moved to December 14, 2010
Special Meeting.
F. Planning Department: Budget Amendment to Convert Two
Part Time Positions into One Full Time Position for aNot-to-
Exceed Amount of $21,232.00 Vacated from agenda -Item
moved to December 14, 2010 Special Meeting.
G. Police Department: Animal Control Ordinance Updates
Vacated from agenda -Item moved to December 14, 2010
Special Meeting.
H. Public Works Department: Strategic Plan Discussion
Continued to December 28, 2010
Public Works Department: Materials ManagementlRecycling
Grant Submission to the Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) Vacated from agenda -Item moved to December 14,
2010 Special Meeting.
J. Legal Department: Discussion on Changes to Standard
Operating Procedure Number 6.2.1 -Use of City Vehicles
Vacated from agenda -Item moved to December 14, 2010
Special Meeting.
K. Legal Department: Discussion on the City of Meridian
Mailroom Operations and Procedures Vacated from agenda -
ltem moved to December 14, 2010 Special Meeting.
L. Legal Department: Draft Ordinance No.: A Draft Ordinance of
the City of Meridian Repealing and Replacing Ordinance No.
1458; Providing for a New Chapter, Chapter 7, of Title 2 of the
Meridian City Code Relating to the Establishment, Duties and
Powers, Membership, Meetings, and Hearing Procedures of
the Board of Adjustment
de Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council? I think we are at the end of our agenda.
Oh. We have Item 9-L, which is our legal department.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, what is on your agenda tonight is a draft
ordinance. It looks very cumbersome, but it's really not. If you recall a few months ago
we created a board of adjustment, changed the configuration of the former board of
appraisers. It costs per page to change the code through Sterling, our code service that
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 43 of 44
we use. At the time we made the change we only changed the board of appraisers
specifically for the water users. We found afterwards -- Sterling pointed out that there is
-- there was a -- another reference to the board of appraisers in the sewer ordinance.
So, rather than them making the change and, then, us changing it again and incurring
an additional cost, we had them hold the publication of the change we already did, so
that we could add the sewer user accounts as something else that could be heard by
the board of adjustment and so it looks very cumbersome, it is a repeal and replace, but
it's because we never actually implemented the last one, because of this. So, all that's
really being added is the new information regarding sewer users. Everything else is
exactly the same as you previously had approved, so although it looks very
cumbersome, it really isn't, it really was just meant to save some cost and do it all
efficiently at once and so the repeal and replace would be a cleaner way of doing that.
So, that's what's in front of you. If you find it to be adequate we can put it on next week
for approval and get it passed and be done with it, so -- never to see it again. Or until
we need to fix it again, so -- never to see it again right away.
de Weerd: Amen.
Rountree: Let's move forward with it.
de Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you. Council, we are at the end of our agenda. Oh. And
before I entertain a motion to adjourn, I would like to thank the -- I suppose you're high
school students getting extra credit for class. Thank you for staying with us to the very
end and we will have City of Meridian pins for you for your tenacity in staying until the
end. So, thank you.
Zaremba: And the City Clerk has to put the stamp on your forehead, so --
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just for your record --
and it doesn't appear anybody else is here that wanted to talk to any of the items that
have been moved. I think you raised it earlier, but just so the record is clear, there isn't
anyone else here for those items, too, so --
de Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
de Weerd: All those in favor? All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
de Weerd: Thank you.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:04 P.M.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 14, 2010
Page 44 of 44
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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