HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-03-08 SpecialE I DIAl`~T
IDAHO
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
MEETING AGENDA
Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 6:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
David Zaremba Brad Hoaglun
Charlie Rountree Keith Bird
Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Pledge of Allegiance (Pg. 1)
3. Adoption of the Agenda (Pg. 1-2)
4. Consent Agenda (Pg. 2-3)
A. Approve Minutes of February 22, 2011 City Council Regular
Meeting
B. Approve Minutes of March 1, 2011 City Council Special
Meeting
C. Approve Minutes of March 1, 2011 City Council Regular
Meeting
D. Beer and Wine License Renewal for Kahootz Pub & Eatery dba
Kahootz Steak & Alehouse located at 1603 N. Main St.
E. Acceptance Agreement for Display of Artwork of Marcella
Gillenwater in Initial Point Gallery July 15 to August 19, 2011
F. Acceptance Agreement for Display of Artwork of Meridian
Parks and Recreation (MPR) Community Center Art Group in
Initial Point Gallery October 7 to November 4, 2011
G. Access Control Contracts for Water and Wastewater
H. Sanitary Sewer Easement Agreement With Meridian Friends
Church
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, March 08, 2011 Page 1 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 10-003
Waverly Place by Robert Mortensen, Mountain West Entrust
IRA/FBO Located at 2150 E. Magic View Drive: Request:
Preliminary Plat Approval of 24 Residential Building Lots and 4
Common Lots on 4.9 Acres of Land in a Proposed R-8 Zoning
District
I•~
6.
J. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: RZ 10-004
Waverly Place by Robert Mortensen, Mountain West Entrust
IRA/FBO Located at 2150 E. Magic View Drive: Request:
Rezone of 5.17 Acres of Land from L-O (Limited Office) to R-8
(Medium Density Residential) Zone
K. Resolution No. CPAM 10-001
Waverly Place by Robert Mortensen, Mountain West Entrust
IRA/FBO Located at 2510 E. Magic View Drive: Request:
Amendment to the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map
to Change the Land Use Designation on 4.9 Acres of Land
from Office to Medium Density Residential
Items Moved From Consent Agenda (Pg. 3)
Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Resolution No. A
Resolution of the Mayor and the City Council of the City of
Meridian, Appointing Matthew J. Stoll to Seat 7 of the Parks
and Recreation Commission, and Providing an Effective Date
(Pg. 3-4)
B. Economic Development: CORE Update with Earl Sullivan;
Chairman, The CORE (Pg. 5-11)
C. Finance Department: Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Audit Report
Presentation and Acceptance with Eide Bailly (Pg. 12-17)
D. Mayor's Office and Planning Department Joint Report:
Welcome to Meridian Signs (Pg. 17-26)
E. Planning Department and Legal Department: Consider
Rescinding Various Development Agreements (Pg. 17-37)
F. Parks and Recreation Department: Discussion on Tully Park
Snow Cone Stand Proposal (Pg. 37-45)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, March 08, 2011 Page 2 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
G. Public Works: Water and Sewer Rates Discussion (Pg. 45-53)
H. City Council: Air Quality Board Update (Pg.53-54)
I. City Council: Public Transportation Discussion (Pg. 54-59)
7. Future Meeting Topics (Pg. 59-60)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, March 08, 2011 Page 3 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting
' ' Meetin March 8 2011
~. Meridian Cit Council Worksho
' the Meridian Cit Council was called to order at 7:05 p.m.,
A workshop meeting of Y
Tuesda March 8, 2011, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
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de Weerd Brad Hoaglun, David Zaremba, Keith Bird
Members Present. Mayor Tammy ,
and Charlie Rountree.
nt: Bill Na Ja cee Holman, Anna Canning, Tom Barry, Tracy
Others Prese ry, Y
rk Neime er Steve Siddoway, Brenda Sherwood, Stacy Kilchenmann,
Basterrechea, Ma y ,
Robert Simison, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X~Brad Hoaglun
_____ 'Rountree ____^_Keith Bird
X Charlie
____._
_X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
erd: I'd like to welcome ou here this evening. We appreciate you joining us.
De We Y .
he record it is Tuesda ,March 8th. It's 6:00 o'clock. We will start tonight s meeting
Fort Y
with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
rd: Item No. 2 is the Pled a of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
De Wee g
pledge.
Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 in adoption of our agenda.
Hoaglun; Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoa lun: A cou le items to note on our agenda for tonight. Under 4-K, the Consent
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nda that resolution number is 11-774. And under 6-A, Department Reports, that
Age . , .
ion number is 11-775. So, with those two additions, Mayor, I move adoption of
resolut
tonight's agenda.
Rountree: Second.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 2 of 60
ion and a second to a prove the agenda. All those in favor say
~. De Weerd. I have a mot p
aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A rove Minutes of February 22, 2011 City Council Regular
A. pp
Meeting
B. A rove Minutes of March 1, 2011 City Council Special
pp
Meeting
C. A rove Minutes of March 1, 2011 City Council Regular
pp
Meeting
D. Beer and Wine License Renewal for Kahootz Pub & Eatery dba
Kahootz Steak & Alehouse located at 1603 N. Main St.
E. Acce tance Agreement for Display of Artwork of Marcella
p
Gillenwater in Initial Point Gallery July 15 to August 19, 2011
F. Acce tance Agreement for Display of Artwork of Meridian
~., p
Parks and Recreation (MPR) Community Center Art Group in
Initial Point Gallery October 7 to November 4, 2011
G. Access Control Contracts for Water and Wastewater
H. Sanita Sewer Easement Agreement With Meridian Friends
Church
I. Findin s of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 10-003
g
Waverly Place by Robert Mortensen, Mountain West Entrust
IRAIFBO Located at 2150 E. Magic View Drive: Request:
Prelimina PIatA royal of 24 Residential Building Lots and 4
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Common Lots on 4.9 Acres of Land in a Proposed R-8 Zoning
District
J. Findin s of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: RZ 10-004
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Waverly Place by Robert Mortensen, Mountain West Entrust
IRAIFBO Located at 2150 E. Magic View Drive: Request:
Rezone of 5.17 Acres of Land from L-0 (Limited Office) to R-8
(Medium Density Residential) Zone
K. Resolution No. _ _ : CPAM 10-001
Waverly Place by Robert Mortensen, Mountain West Entrust
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 3 of 60
AIFBO Located at 2510 E. Magic View Drive: Request:
,...~ IR
nt to the Com rehensive Plan Future Land Use Map
Amendme p
e the Land Use Designation on 4.9 Acres of Land
to Chang
from Office to Medium Density Residential
De Weerd: Item 4, Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
d under the Consent A enda, Item 4-K, that resolution number is 11-
Hoaglun. As note g
royal of toni ht's Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk
774. And I move app g
to attest.
Rountree: Second.
r : I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is
De Wee d
no discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Resolution No. ___,_ _ ~ A
Resolution of the Mayor and the City Council of the City of
Meridian, Appointing Matthew J. Stoll to Seat 7 of the Parks
and Recreation Commission, and Providing an Effective Date
De Weerd: We will move to Item 6-A under Department Reports. Council, in front of
ou is a resolution 11-775 appointing Matt Stoll to the Seat 7 of the Parks and
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Recreation Commission. We did have a number of applicants. We conducted four
interviews a week or two ago and we felt that Mr. Stoll has a lot of experience and
knowled a that he can bring to the Commission in the form of pathways and certainly
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from the famil erspect~ve as well. So, in front of you is his letter of interest. I m open
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to any questions you might have.
Rountree: I have none.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 4 of 60
De Weerd: okay.
Rountree: Seeing no questions, Madam Mayor --
or I 'ust would comment that I'm thrilled that he would be
Zaremba. Madam May ~
' nd look forward to his expertise and skill. I think this is
interested in applying a
wonderful.
ntree: I a ree. And with that, Madam Mayor, I would move that we approve
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resolution 11-775 and welcome Matt to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Bird: Second.
Weerd: I have a motion and a second. If there is no discussion, seeing none,
De
Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: I thou ht I would at least get the vote over before I asked if there was any
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comment from ou, Matt. Would you like to make any comment? And maybe introduce
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your family.
Stoll: Madam Ma or, Members of Council, thank you. My name is Matt Stoll. I brought
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with me m wife Silvana and my children Emma and Ellie. Appreciate the opportunity to
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serve on the Commission and I look forward to it. I thought this was a great opportunity
to ive back to the community in a way that will help my family, but also help the
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communit and utilize m skills and knowledge that I have acquired over the years. I do
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look forward to it and thank you for the privilege.
De Weerd: Well, we look .forward to having you on our Parks Commission. I know
Steve is excited, as was Michael Martin, who participated in the interviews as well.
Stoll: And after oin to Settlers Park this afternoon one thing I did learn is that I need
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to address more warmly.
De Weerd: Well, that's one thing we can't help you with.
Stoll: Yeah. I know. Thank you.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 5 of 60
onomic Develo ment: CORE Update with Earl Sullivan;
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Chairman, The CORE
Well thank ou, Council. I appreciate that. Item 6-B is our
De Weerd. Thank you. Y
I will turn this over to Brenda, who will also introduce our guest
economic development.
tonight.
' dam Ma or Members of the Council, I'd like thank you for
Sherwood: All right. Ma y ,
nit to u date ou a little bit on some of the activities that we have
giving us this opportu y p Y
' ni ht we decided that we would focus a little bit on the Core for a
been involved in. To g
sons. First of all because I had talked to you in October when l gave you
couple of rea
' nd said that we would come back and look at some of the
my strategic plan a
n number two because we are benefited by Earl Sullivan being in
measurables and, the , , ,
r velin so I thou ht it would be nice to hear from him. And, in addition,
town and not t a g, g
' re has been so much activity in the Core, there has been a lot of press in
dust since the
d the news a er I thou ht that it would be important for them to --for
both the news an p p g
ate ou on some of the activities within the Core. One of the things that we
you to upd y
in October when I ave ou my strategic plan was we were looking at
talked about g Y
bviousl we want to make sure that we are getting the best value for
measurables. 0 y, .
Ilars in a time when we are coming out of the recession and we want to put our
our do
ur efforts towards somethin that's going to produce the most activity. So,
money and o g
m talkin about businesses that we have retained, businesses that will be
here I a g .
nded and also ones that we attracted into the Core. So, we are looking at a base
,,+"'•,,r expa , Iso lookin at
line of how many companies are actually in the Core and, then, we area g
man 'obs will be created within the Core as well. And, plus, you know that I have
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f r statistics and at the end of the day I like to be able to measure everything I
that love o
We have a new Core ma .It's not new, the boundaries are the same, but thanks to
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' 't's been u dated and we were able to send this map over to the Department of
planning ~ p
or and their GIS s ecialist worked with me to actually look at the fobs that are in this
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ma . So the reen area is what we are going to be talking about. So, here is how we
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roke it u . Now this is not a science and we, basically, pulled out some of the
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industries that we thou ht were oing to be specific to the Core. It doesn t mean that
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next ear when I ive ou the next strategic update that we can t go back and say here
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' n ther Indust that we are lookin at. We might end up being surprised. We might
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nd u with a manufacturer in a er goods that are coming in to work in the Core. We
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don't know what's going to happen in this year.
De Weerd: Or a wickless candle maker.
Sherwood: Or a wickless candle maker. Exactly. So, we can go back and break this
out. So this is not written in stone. But these are the ones that we thought that we
should real) take a good look at. So, obviously, healthcare and assistance --
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healthcare, there is 60 establishments, 2,096 fobs. Now in the city -- I wanted to give
ou actual) the full number and I know I have it here somewhere. But the full number
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is about 4 700. So, we actually have quite a few healthcare fobs that are in Meridian,
~~ ~ direct) in the Core. So, that's healthcare. In healthcare we are
dust not represented y
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 6 of 60
• f course is re resented in this number, other providers
.~. looking at doctors, St. Luke s, o p
' ' doctors rehabilitation, those kinds of offices. The next
for healthcare. So, specifically, ,
• ' al and medical manufacturing. Now, these we pulled
one is manufacturing, b~otechnic .
_ ~ 17 establishments -- a good portion of those are in the
out - believe it or not those
uite an arra and with ISU s, you know, new dental
dental industry. So, we have q Y
' i usl a lot of activit . We have about 363 fobs in manufacturing
school there is, obv o y, Y
hat we are ho in , as we target some of the medical
now, that s one area t p g
efinitel increase. Educational services. Now, I just pulled out
manufacturers, to d y
' a the Ma or and I were talking about that it might also be good for us
higher ed, but tod y y
k and look at the local schools, the District Two, just because we -- there is so
to go bac
' ' ' in healthcare so we mi ht be able to look at some of the jobs that will
many initiatives 9
he ex and alon with ISU. So, right now we have three colleges and
be created as t y p g
' Professional science, and tech services we have 34 establishments. Now,
167 fobs. ,
we talk about rofessional, science, and tech services, those are primarily things
when p
' me s mana ement cor orations, those types of areas, not so much technical.
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When we et into like PKG's, that's in the biotechnical. So, technical services are more
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or less sort of that back office type of positions. And, then, the final one, of course, is
insurance carriers and we all know why that number is pretty big, because of Blue
Cross. So we have 28 establishments and 698 jobs. So, that's pretty much the
breakdown. Like I said, that's not written in stone. We can go back next year and look
at 2010 and different industries. So, whatever we decide to -- you know, if we see
somethin rowin we can still kind of gauge that. Anyway, that's it. That's our
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,~ baseline. That's what we are going to measure how many jobs that I create, how many
new establishments come in and I think with the Core I --when Earl comes up and talks
to ou about what -- the activities that are going on in the Core, I think we will see quite
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an increase in some of these numbers. I m pretty confident with that. So, anyway, are
there any questions forme?
De Weerd. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thanks, Brenda.
Sherwood: No? Okay. Well, then, what I will do is introduce to you Earl Sullivan. He,
as ou all know, has been quite the driving force behind the Core and he is going to tell
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ou a little bit about some of the activities the Core has been engaged in. So, thank you
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for your time.
De Weerd: Thank you. Hi, Earl.
Sullivan: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for having me here tonight.
M name is Earl Sullivan, I'm the chairman of the Core and I'm here to give you a little
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bit of an overview of what we have been doing over the past several months. I believe
ou're all familiar generally with the Core, so I will run through the first part of the
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resentation rather quickly. It outlines what we are trying to accomplish and spend a
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Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 7 of 60 .
• ~ recent activities and follow that with some questions.
.~. little bit more time on some of the
arch technolo enterprise corridor. We all know that
So, the Core is a health and rese 9Y
' si nificant s end over the next decade or more and we are
healthcare is going to be a g p
' m etenc in this health and research corridor. Currently
focused here creating a core cop y .
' www.thecoreidaho.com. In early April we should be launching a
we have a website at
' ebsite that will have a better assessment of our current
much more dynamic w
me of our ke members and givers, as well as a lot of
membership banners for so y .
' s back and forth in social media and other formats of updating
information that goe
roactive level versus a very static website, which is what we have
people on a more p
' went over the ma of the Core and so we are all familiar with the
today. Brenda dust p ,
was -- the Core's vision is apublic-private partnership and that s really
general area. It
' is is -- it's ke that we have both the private and the public sector involved
important. Th y
' his. This is a lar a economic development effort that we are undertaking and getting
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the cit the educational universities involved, and other public and private enterprises is
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' be ve im ortant for the -- for the success of the Core. We also have a fair
going to ry p
number of existin assets, as Brenda just outlined, with the current businesses that are
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'n the Core and a lot of ve ood infrastructure. This particular area is wired very well
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from a utilit stand oint and from a services standpoint. It sits in close proximity to the
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air ort has a ood access to the freeway, services, service businesses, so we really
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are establishin an enterprise corridor in a very favorable area. So, our goals are to
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row 'obs foster economic rowth, develop quality healthcare science education and
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recruit new and build companies. When you break that down its really creating a core
com etenc in the area for health and research to create an eco system so that we can
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row these healthcare companies and as companies look at relocating, as they look at
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rowin the ick this articular area to be their home base. We want this to be a really
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vibrant area an area that eople look to that to go for education and health-related
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fields and research fields to go to for small business, growing businesses. As you look
at some of the Core benefits for our members we talk about Core capital and the access
to ca ital Core education, and the access to specialized workforce, Core data and the
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access to the t e of resources that are necessary to grow companies. So, we want
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this to real) row into a vibrant community. So, currently the Core leadership -- myself,
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I'm CEO current) at Connects Med Pro Systems, a software healthcare company here
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in Meridian. Bill Cannon, who is the CLL of PKG, User Interface Solutions, who is -- dust
broke round on a nice campus here in Meridian and the Pinebridge Medical
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Communit . David Santa from RBC Wealth Management. Dennis Baker, who helped
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ut that deal to ether with PKG. Kathy Moore has recently joined us ~n place of Pam
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Bernard, so that's a change in our organizational structure. Kathy was the CEO at West
Valle and is now running the operations at St. Luke's and is a very dynamic and
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ener ized new member to our executive board, so we are very happy to have her. John
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Francis from MWI. And Joe DeVare recently from Washington Trust Bank. Again, we
brin in a broad range of people, we take a very broad view of health and want to make
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sure that not only are health-related and research-related companies there, but the
service industries that support them and, obviously, we have the Mayor and Dean -- Dr.
Bess Akesalmedes from ISU that participate in our board, along with the Brenda and
Robin Dodson. So, we are really looking at regional economic development. I hope
.~.
that in a number of years myself, as the chair, or somebody else as the chair will come
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 8 of 60
' I economic develo ment, but we have to take baby
to ou and talk to you about nationa p
'~`'` Y kin amon st education institutions.
ste s first. We are working on encouraging networ g g
p I haven ISU but BSU and U of I
We believe that one of the keys to success is not on y g ,
' -- cational institutions involved and want to bring them into
and other economic or edu
' to what is ex erienced in eastern Idaho under the Kay's
the Core in a model similar p
dvanced Ener Studies. We actually have a meeting this
model with the Center for A gY
' iscuss how we ut BSU, ISU, the U of I and the VA together in
Friday with the VA to d p
' r model for us. Create an environment thats supportive for
the Core to create a simila
reate that core com etency in health and research. So, recent
entrepreneurs and c p
' ' ies. I obvious) have a face for radio, but I ended up on TV. There was a nice
activit Y~ ~ I t
' ne on us in the Statesman talking about a recent trip to China. A o
article that was do
stion how this benefits Meridian and I think that it's really important to
of people que
that we have a ve lar a rowing economy in China, they are in desperate
understand ry 9 g
f services and roducts that meet a western standard and anyone that wants to
need o p
iness in Chen du under our contract will have to become members of the Core.
do bus g
' a ve lar a undertaken to build a medical park and all the associated
This is ry g g
' ses in Chen du. We have turned in a 40 page scope document to the Chengdu
busines g
dia Grou is a branch of their overnment, quasi-government, if you will, and we
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ice ate hearin in late March as to the next steps for this. This will take a national
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rt for us to ut this to ether with a lot of different companies to come together and
effo p g , ,
we look at that as an o ortunit to attract attention to Meridian, to the Core, and to
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what we are t in to do and, a ain, anybody that would want to work in China under
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our contract would have to become members of the Core. It gives us a national
r sence in some res ects. We articipated PKG's groundbreaking. We were one of
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he s Bakers and of some ve ood time to express how we work with companies and
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hel them develo in the Core. We are in a membership drive right now. We have
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current) 13 dues ain members. Complex Care. Mike Fenello at Complex Care was
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the latest addition 'oinin this past Friday at the. trustee level and we are looking at
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addin one to two a month at this rate. There we go. Thank you. We have regular
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meetin s with the three VPs of research and tech transfer, including hosting the hosted
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social event. We find it im ortant to communicate with all of the different educational
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institutions and we find them to be very proactive and productive in discussing how they
would hel us. We have had regular meetings with Don and his staff at the Department
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of Commerce to kee them involved in what we are doing. I was recently a participant
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on the HERC committee, awarding the 330,000 dollars in educational grants from the
Hi her Education Research Council for technology -- early stage technology coming out
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of the universities and so as a member through the ITC and our code relationship with
the Core had a seat at 'ud in those and providing some feedback on which --
the ITC, 1 g g
which research ro'ects got funded at 50,000 dollars each. So, that was something that
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recent) ha ened and will be announced shortly if it hasn t already been announced
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throu h this recent session with the State Board of Education. We are in the process of
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develo in an An el Fund in the Core. Part of our Core membership benefits our Core
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ca ital and access to capital that includes money in, like Angel Funds or Community
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Reinvestment Act funds or venture funds, but also avoids money out, like property tax
abatements and workforce development grants and anything that would help a
com an et movin . We are in the process of talking to accredited investors in the
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Meridian City Council Warkshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 9 of 60
ted in Meridian focused on health and research, not
,~ local community to have a fund loca ~ .
n't sa that its onl going to invest in health and
-- not specific to that, I mean we ca y Y , .
he communit that is trying to grow in this area. We
research, but focused on that fort Y
' rou s for the Core that will link with the new website
have established social media g p .
i ter and Facebook a es and we will add Youtube and
thats coming out, which links Twt p g .
' his month. We have talked about the website. We have
Wordpresser blogging later t
' I Solutions which is a more seasoned group of MBA students.
worked with ISU s Benga ,
ho have been in business and have gone back to -- for not an
These are people w
' a true MBA and are working through what's called Bengal Solutions
executive MBA, but
rkforce Ian for the 2011 ear for events that we can do that will
to help us develop a wo p Y
r members that we have accomplished something of value for their
demonstrate to ou
' ollars. So the are oin through all of our different benefits right now
membership d Y g 9
' ' five to ten different events that we could do that would demonstrate some
outlining
course of the ear and it will help us drive to kind of an action plan for
success over the Y . .
f ur of those in art of their articipation in the Core. We have looked at hiring
three or o p p
R firm to hel us develo web content and increase the image of the Core in
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ri ian. It was a reat o ortunit with China to get in front of the news, both on the
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nd television but I think we need to expand our reach a little bit broader and
press a
mebod who is more of an ex ert at that is probably a better use of our time than
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elf. So we have -- we are workin with a local firm to try to very carefully craft that
mys 9
messa e. We are working with Boise State and Idaho State on a research symposium
g
that the Core would be a co-sponsor of that would help teach researches how to
ommercialize the technolo without messing up their patents or their -- their
~ c gY .
intellectual ro ert and it's one of the challenges that both Boise State and Idaho State
p p Y
have ex ressed some frustration at. We have also advised Boise State on their
p I
chnolo showcase that's ha ening on March 10th, helping them outline what shou d
to gy pp
be involved and bein a -- kind of a liaison to give them some guidance on that
g .
articular function because there is a healthcare component to it. And we have also
p
started to outline a bud et and seek funding for an innovator workshop, which is a new
g .
educational ro ram for entre reneurs, kind of similar to whats going on in Boise with
p9 p
the Cohort ro ram, a rogram -- 12 month program designed to work with an
p9 p
entre reneur on a month) basis to give them some additional resources to help them
p Y
with develo ment of their business. And I promise this is the last slide. Met with the U
p .
of I law clinic and established a relationship, they are very interested through their Boise
cam us to come u here and help us with education for entrepreneurs and businesses
p p
on different law matters free of charge to help stimulate the growth, work on different
t es of le al documents at a very reduced rate for Core members. We have also met
Yp 9
with the Boise State University technical writing program and have recently gained an
intern for the summer to do an expose on every Core member. So, we would have
them o and write somethin about the Core member, get some information about the
g g
com an and then, we would publish it on our website and have it available for other
p Y ..
eo le to see and that's coming free of charge through the BSU technical writing
p p .
ro ram. And, as I said, we are meeting with Denny Stevens at the VA on Friday to get
p g ~ I st
them involved with the Core. So, it's a -- it's kind of a rundown of this last -- the a
three to three and a half months. We are -- we have a good group that's -- that's
focused on develo in the economic area of health and research in Meridian and I'm
p9
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 10 of 60
' ha with the support the city's given us and I
~. excited to be a part of it. I m very ppy ,
' __ I and fiscal su ort that the city has provided. So, if
appreciate all the both emotiona pp
ou have an questions I'd be happy to answer them.
Y Y
De Weerd: Thank you, Earl. Any questions?
• or I have no uestions, but it's great to see the things you have
Rountree. Madam May q
' ast few months com ared to our previous indoctrination, so to
accomplished in the p p
' some excellent activities and I look forward to some of the
speak. You re doing
cesses that ou're oin to have. Appreciate your effort. Good job.
suc y 9 9
' ell we are an all volunteer force, so there is a lot more people behind me
Sullivan: W ,
than just me doing that, so --
Rountree: Terrific.
Sullivan: -- I extend that to them as well. Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoa lun: Yeah. I 'ust want to echo -- first of all, thank you for your leadership in this
~ g 1
and it is -- it takes a lot of eople to make this happen, but it wouldn t happen if folks
P
didn't ste u and sa ,oka ,let's -- we are going to commit to this and do it. So,
P p Y Y
a reciate that. I 'ust had a uestion when it related to the Angel Fund. I was just kind
pp 1 q
of curious for the health and technology field, access to capital, how is that going these
da s es eciall established companies versus the start-ups, I mean are the established
Y, p Y
com anies oka for access to capital? Is it dicey like for a lot of other folks or --where
p Y
are we in that particular arena?
Sullivan: I think the capital markets in general are tight all around, both from a
traditional ca ital standpoint, as well as venture capital and private equity, all the way
p ,
down to An el capital. The Angel capital market typically focuses on the pre-revenue,
g
earl revenue com anies, and we would hope as the Core develops that we would add
Y p .
funds that would be able to work on the entire continuum of companies that we have in
-- in the Core and generally in the health and research space. We have to start
somewhere and we think that the Angel Fund is probably the easier of the funds to get
established because of ex ressed interest by accredited investors in the community and
p
in the state in eneral. The state of Idaho currently has one documented Angel Fund,
g .
the Boise An el Fund, which is a bit of a misnomer, I mean they -- they are part of the
g
Rain Source Ca ital Group, which is out of Minnesota. I happen to personally be a
P .. .
member of that fund and we are, compared to states of similar size, significantly behind
' r of An el Funds. The Dakotas have six to ten funds apiece and we view
in our numbe g
this as more of an effort to raise awareness of the ability to access capital than to real
~~
lack of access to ca ital. People -- entrepreneurs who are scrappy typically go out and
p
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 11 of 60
ant to do is rovide a resource where they can go to a
,~ find the capital. What we w p ,
' r access to that ca ital and, again, as we expand and grow
consolidated format for easie p .
' d a CRA fund and a venture fund and have private equity companies
we would Ike to ad
' ted but in eneral I think that across the board access to
get involved and get interes g
ca ital is a little bit tight right now and our intent is to increase awareness.
p
Hoaglun: Okay. Great. Thank you.
ou mi ht also add -- one of our members NWI had identified agap -; a
De Weerd. Y g
and throu h the Core partners they were able to respond, bring
workforce related gap g
v the discussion. It wasn't necessarily the solution was one of
people to the table to ha e
i was actual) outside of the Core, but that is one of the benefits as
the Core partners, t y
' workin on a harmac --bringing their pharmacy MBA and looking at
well. ISU is also g p Y
' ' ' n. As we talked earlier on in Workforce Advisory Council a couple
bringing it to Meridia
' ntified in the health sciences you can have a specialty and have great
years ago, ide
' rose but not necessari know how to run the business and so by bringing
medical expe Y
business ex ertise to su ort our existing businesses, but also to help
some of that p pp
i in that area the are looking to expand that option to this campus as well.
tra n Y
' that would be for all of their allied health. I mean I'm married to one of
Sullivan: And
' i ians who doesn't uite understand business, so I personally experience this
those clan c q
ular basis. Their idea is to rovide that MBA type program early on to the
onareg p
ro ram but to ex and it to all their allied health programs and we -- and it's
,,~ pharmacy p g p
a ve ood oint, we look at education across the scope. INW needed veterinary
ryg p .
nicians which is a hard asset to find in the valley, it s a hard asset to find, actually,
tech ,
i Hall and we of our Core members together to try to solve the problem in the
Hato y g
Core. We couldn't in the time frame that was necessary for our Core member, so we
outside the Core to a still re Tonal local community college to get this resolved.
went g .
That tau ht our Core members in the educational component something about speed to
g ~ ore
market and that was hel ful for them I think and we solved the problems for the C
p
ember which was ultimate) what was important. So, we look at this educational
m Y
com onent a ain, 'ust like capital education for the students and the people who are
p g 1
omin out of s ecialized workforce development programs, all the way up to CEOs
c g p .
and ou know entre reneurs like the innovative workshop. So, we want to provide that
,y ~ p
access to education throughout the process.
De Weerd: Just an excellent forum to support the businesses that are here today and
work to ive value as well as to be an attractive place to bring your business. Well,
g
thanks, Earl. We appreciate you being here.
Sullivan: Thank you. And I, too, appreciate your leadership.
Sullivan: Thank you.
,,..~ De Weerd: Thank you. Thanks, Brenda.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 12 of 60
' e De artment: Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Audit Report
~,,.~ C, Financ p
Presentation and Acceptance with Eide Bailly
next item under 6-C, I'm sure we will have a riveting report on
De Weerd. Okay. Our
our audit.
' nmann: Well I noticed the huge audience we have. Before I --
Kilche ,
Bird: You didn't do such a good job. We have an audience.
' ~ I introduce Kevin I wanted to give thanks to an employee of mine
Kilchenmann. Before
__ ~ ~ relit for the audit, but she's really the audit captain, the audit
that s I d like to take c
' blic reco nition so it's with special joy that I brought her here today.
pilot. She hates pu g ,
' ham our em to ee -- or our controller has really taken ahold of the
But Rita Cunning p Y
' -- a uides the whole audit rocess, she understands how to create the
audit. She sh g p
' f masterminds all of our assi nments throughout the audit period, and
reports, she kind o 9
-- ause we don't have an administrative assistant type person she also has
she also bec
e the audit includin all m messy stuff where I transferred graphs and
to format and typ g Y
' k re uirements for the fund has to be just right and dashes have to be just
the very pic y q
' ra so I real) wanted to reco nize her, because the city does owe her a big
right, et cete y g
thanks --
De Weerd: Yes, we do.
Kilchenmann: --for the work she does.
De Weerd: Thank you, Rita.
ird: Yeah. I'm lad ou said that. But, you know, she -- her and Kevin I think are
B g Y
bl the two that started this audit down its way in 1999 I think was our first audit --
proba y
' when I come on board and of it going and I think those two have been heading it
or 98 9
and I know Kevin don't as much anymore and Rita does more, but we do appreciate
up
it Rita what ou do. I have always appreciated what you do, young lady. Thank you.
Y
'I henmann: I'd real) like to introduce Kevin Smith. He's our audit partner from Eide
Ki c Y .
ill and we real) a reciate his staff, who make us sweat in the most kind and
Bay Y pp
rofessional wa . So, without any further discussion I will turn it over to Kevin.
p Y
De Weerd: Thank you, Kevin, for being here tonight.
Smith: That's uite an introduction. I have never had one of those. I am happy to be
q
here toni ht and I was kind of thinking about, you know, going back in history a little bit
g .
and ou know some of the process and, hopefully, you guys will recognize some of the
Y ~ two
im rovements that have been made and that is, you know, contribution of those
p
ladies that sit behind us today that -- you know, that put this together. You know,
~.
several ears a o there wasn't anyone who could come close to putting the document
Y g
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 13 of 60
ther now -- ou know, one of the things I do want to point out is that we have -- we
~, toge y .
we call our ast ad'ustments, which are amounts that we come up with
have what p 1 , , ,
' audit rocess that are not of a significant nature, so we don t actually make
during the p
' for those and in this ear there were two and they are closely related --
~ournal entry Y
the are both related to ca italization of copy machines, so, you know, they come in as
Y p
o eratin leases and the really should be capitalized and those two amounts -- or one
p g Y .
is about 17 000 dollars and one of them is 28,000 dollars. When you put that in
of them .
' of our financial statements with net assets of -- in excess of 300,000
perspective y
' ' ollars ho efull that fives ou some assurance that, you know, in any given
million d p y g Y
know our financial statements of 300 million dollars may be off by 17,000
month, you , y
rs. So ou know ho efull ,that kind of helps you see, you know, the big picture
Jolla , y p Y .
when ou're makin decisions, you know, in this meeting that you re making it on
and y g , , .
financial information. We did issue an unqualified or clean opinion again this
accurate
as I have mentioned before there are other types of opinions that can be
year and
d and we do issue other t es of opinions and, you know, the most common is a
rendere Yp . .
' ' d o inion if we had some variation from the unqualified or clean opinion, and
qualifie p . ,
that 'ust means that, ou know, maybe something is not -- we are not able to audit it as
1 Y
mmon ractice it ma be fixed assets that haven tbeen -- you know, Gust hasn t had
co p ~ Y
the records or ke t track of them over years and so we would say everything is okay
p
exce t ou know, fixed assets, which we were not able to. So, you know, in this city --
p,Y
of this nature we are able to audit everything and we do, we are pretty thorough, we ask
a lot of uestions we ask for a lot of documentation of the amounts and -- and they
q
rovide them in a ve timely and efficient manner, which helps us to get through our
~, p ry .
re uired ou know documentation in a timely manner also, so we appreciate that. We
q ~Y
also issue a re ort -- two other reports this year which is a little bit different than prior
p
ears because of the federal money. The federal grants that come this year were
y ral
a roximatel 800,000 dollars. Anytime you receive over 500,000 dollars in fede
pp Y
mone ou're re uired to have additional procedures done related to federal grants and
YY a
so we had some additional rocedures and you will see some additional reports on the
p
back of the financial statements. One of them is related to internal controls and we
' ernal control and we do rocess on internal controls, but we don't issue an
assess an int p
o inion on internal controls, but I can tell you in our procedures it's very very clean. We
p .
look at the rocesses and procedures and what is outlined in the manuals and, then, we
p
do rocedures to see that they have followed those processes and procedures and
p
that's ou know, who handled the documents. When an invoice comes in the door, you
~Y
know who handles that, who records it, who approves it, who signs the .checks and,
then on recei is the same thing and when money leaves, you know, haw is that -- how
p
is that handled. And so we kind of flow chart that and make sure that there is proper
se re ation of duties, that it's being handled in a proper manner. And we also issue a
9 g ..
report in the back. It's a compliance report. And this one we do give an opinion,
because it's related to the federal money and that everything was complied with in a --
in areasonable -- reasonable manner. With the -- with the federal money it also
re uires additional audit procedures and so we -- we select samples of that federal
q .
mone the have specific guidelines of what needs to be followed called compliance
Y Y
documents and so we assess those compliant documents and go through additional
rocedures related specific to that federal money,. making sure that it's spent the way
p
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 14 of 60
~ the rant was written and in the way that it should be -- it should be spent. There was a
g
new ronouncement that come out this year related to governmental accounting that
p
was number 51 that's related to intangibles and so all the easements, right of ways,
those type of assets that are just, you know, easements and, of course, it's being, you
know, the rights to some property and so that had never been recorded -- it was never
re uired to be recorded in the past, but this year with this new pronouncement it was
q
re uired to add that to your balance sheet and so across all funds that equaled about
q .. ..
seven million dollars, approximately, and with that seven million dollars we didnt have
to o back and add that one, but it was just added this year and, then, you know,
9
forwarded as new easements or right of ways are purchased and that will be -- will be
added on. And, you know, with -- with that those in the accounting department had to
come up with, you know, formulas on how to, you know, go back and calculate that. It
was eve thin from 1980 on and so they went back and found all those easements,
ry g
everything that had been recorded and, then, you know, assigned a value to those, a
market value to those, and come up with that seven million dollar amount and, then, we
audited that amount. Once again as in prior years we have no management comments,
which means that, you know, there is just no comments that we felt were material or
si nificant deficiencies that we --was necessary to bring up and, you know, those would
g.
be if we -- if we saw something in -- especially in the control structure that we felt was
deficient we would bring it to your attention. And as I mentioned we didn't have any
adjustments to the trial balance that we were provided when we started the audit and so
all the numbers that we started with is what ended up in this document. There were just
,~, a couple of items I wanted to kind of highlight in the financial statements and the easiest
part of reading the financial statements is the management discussion analysis and in
this, you know, they put some great graphs and some pictures and I'd just like to go
through just a couple of those. First of all, on page three it talks about the financial
highlights and in there they describe that fund balance for the governmental activities
increased by approximately four million dollars, a little bit less than what it had in the
prior year, but there was some -- there was some spending -- you know, some reasons
for that that are explained later. And, then, in the business type activities, that
increased about 13 million -- almost 14 million dollars. Apart of that was because of
some rate increases that took place in the water and the sewer funds and that was
planned for about the past three years, so those have gone up, and so we expected that
to happen. Moving a little bit forward on page nine, ten and 11, show some -- I think
some great graphs of some history that can show -- you know, compared to the prior
year on page nine and as you look at these graphs on some of the personnel expenses
and, then, on the operating expenses and the explanations are on page eight of, you
know, each one of those and, you know, why they went up or why they decreased and
very good explanations. On page ten is where we look at the Enterprise Fund or water
and sewer funds and there is where you can see, you know, those increases and the
revenue going up, but also, you know, understanding that those -- you know, there was
a purpose for that and it's for, you know, a future maintenance and replace of some of
that, you know, equipment and things that it takes to operate those two funds. On page
11, this picture, you know, really is a -- I think a very good picture of, you know, what --
,,r•,,, what we are seeing in the economy and I know we blame a lot of things on the
economy, but this is a great picture of what happened, you know, when you had that
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 15 of 60
,~, s ike in those connection fees and water and sewer when, you know, housing was
. p
boomin and ou know, commercial was booming and people moving in and you had
g ~Y
all these connections, but, then, you can see it going back down and we are just almost
the exact same lace where it was ten years ago. The last thing I wanted to kind of
p
oint out on a e 16 -- as we did the audit procedures, you know, we not only looked at
p pg
the actual, ou know, what happened, you know, actual expenditures and revenue, we
Y
also looked at the bud et, because we know the budget is really what drives a lot of
g .
those because that's what --that's what the plan was and one of the things that I noted
on both of these ra hs as we look at personnel expenditures and governmental and
9p
also the o erating expenditures and you notice that they are under budget, so there was
p
reall some, ou know, efforts to control the spending and, you know, part of that control
Y Y
-- ou know, that's why your net assets in your fund balance increases each year is, you
y .. ,
know, the revenue, you know, is from specific sources and some of that you cant
control and that's --you know, that's just--that's going to come in in property tax or, you
know whatever the nature of that may be. But the expenditures is where you can
control it and over the years, you know, we have seen, you know, the fiscal
responsibility of, you know, the Council and of management to really control those
expenditures and that's why, you know, fund balance is where it is and that's why net
assets is where it is and the Enterprise Fund and so you are prepared for, you know,
what's to come in the future and, you know, we don't know what that is yet, but, you
know, there could be some big projects, some things come up where, you know, having
that -- having that money or that fund balance set side is -- you know, is going to be to
your benefit. But encourage you to continue to -- you know, as you find those projects,
-- f r those
continue to earmark those fund balances and those those net assets o
specific projects, which, you know, you have done some of that, but there is still, you
know, some that's available -- you know, unrestricted that's available, you know, for
general operations, but, you know, continue to earmark those as those projects come
up. And with that we could -- we could keep going page by page, but we will stop there
and that's enough of the numbers. But, you know, I concur with everything that Stacy
talked about, you know, that that group does a phenomenal job, you know, in where we
have come over the last few years you know is results of this document and they put
this document together, which is very rare. You know, as we go around and audit there
is just a handful of entities that actually, you know, put this whole document together
themselves and, then, we actually audit that. You know, we are still preparing this
document in a lot of entities. So, you know, I concur with Stacy with, you know, her
comments and, you know, her included, that they do a great job and, you know,
hopefully as Council members that you're comfortable with the numbers that you see.
Any questions or comments that I can answer?
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor, I don't have any questions, I just got a comment.
De Weerd: Do you have your mike on?
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 16 of 60
~~ Bird: Oh eah it is on. A ain, another nice job by our staff, by your staff, both. Kevin,
. ,y g
we a reciate the work ou do. It's very nice. Very readable for a dumb person like
pp Y
me.
Smith: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Bird. Any other comments or questions?
Rountree: Just a bi thank you to everybody involved, particularly Rita and Stacy, and
g
good job. Getting ready for next year.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just want to comment, again, the finance department does a wonderful job in
making sure everything is done correctly and reported correctly and it's great. Now they
just need to dust off the crystal ball and predict what's coming down the pike we will
really be in good shape.
De Weerd: They have already dusted it off and are working on that.
,,,~,, Bird: And the revenue is down.
De Weerd: Thank you, Kevin. We appreciate you joining us.
Smith: Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think it's appropriate --
De Weerd: Can you pull your mike a little closer?
Bird: I think it's appropriate to approve the -- the audit for the year of -- fiscal year of
2010, so that it is public record and the public is welcome to come look at it. I will make
that motion.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the audit that's in front of
you. If there is no discussion, Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 17 of 60
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Before we leave that, let's -- we also need to give credit to each one of our
de artments. As ou have seen in the graph they all come in under budget, under their
p Y ..
actual, it's down under budget, which shows that they realize how important it is to stay
within a bud et and even come back and give some money and I don't think -- I don't
9
think we took any money from them for doing that, nor would we ever do that. So, I just
want to thank all of the employees and all the departments for turning in something like
this. It -- it shows the confidence they have in the city and it should show our taxpayers
that we really have their dollars at our heart. Thank you.
D. Mayor's Office and Planning DepartmentJoint Report:
Welcome to Meridian Signs
De Weerd: Thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Bird. Okay. Item 6-D is a report on
Welcome to Meridian signs. It's very timely. I just got a comment today at Coffee with
the Mayor on were we going to update the population on our signs.
Hood: That is very timely. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I will be tag-
teaming this presentation this evening with Robert Simison. I'll start off the
presentation, obviously. I'll let Robert explain the -- the neon Las Vegas sign that was
the reason for us coming up with new signs for Meridian. I think you will see some
similarities between that sign and what we are proposing this evening. But these signs
are just some -- some samples of what other communities have done throughout the
United States. What we have currently in Meridian, aside from the main sign there at
Main, Meridian, and Waltman, are the green welcome signs and, seriously, what really
brought this on was that those signs are not only outdated with the population number
that's on there, it's 56,152 or something like that. So, that's very tough to keep up with
and keep accurate. We hopefully -- I think later this week should see census -- official
census numbers, but that's one reason. And, then, the other reason and the reason for
the slide is the location of those. It's not Meridian. Ada County Highway District, we
thank them for putting them up, but they have them on our area of impact boundary for
the most part and not where our city limits are. So, that's kind of two of the main
reasons for a proposal to put some new signs, some branding out there, and at
locations that are consistent with our city limits. So, at the staff level we came up with a
concept to try to design three different signs. This is all certainly up for discussion at
your discretion, but we thought it would be a good idea to have -- to replace, essentially,
,~..,,, the green welcome signs with a two foot by three foot welcome sign. That's, basically,
the biggest sign that we can get on a single break away metal pole. So, it needs to not
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 18 of 60
hazard if someone were to veer off the road, they hit that, the sign breaks
,~, be a safety
ou o an bi er than that ou need a dual post and, then, you're dealing
away, and y g y gg Y ,
' f wa and rivate ro ert owners to plant those things in the ground, So, I
with rig ht o y p p p Y
have another slide I will show you the locations, but to just kind of keep the progression
' -- then a small monument si n, which we are just kind of in infancy stages, I
moving g .
hink is robabl the ri ht wa to define that, with what these signs may look like and,
t p Y g Y
then, something a little more grandiose. Maybe not this sculpture there on
Meridian-Main-Waltman, but something larger certainly at -- at major intersections or at
' r corridors when ou come into Meridian. State highway off ramps from I-84, those
ma~o y
t es of laces where ou et large volumes of people and you expect a lot of people to
Yp P Y g
be enterin our communit via those corridors. So, some of the lesser corridors, like a
gY Y
McMillan sa , we would do a smaller sign, maybe a small monument, or just a two-by-
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three si n. But the lar er sign would be on the larger volume corridors. So, that s kind
9 g
of the hierarch of the sign structure that we will be working in or talking to you about
y
tone ht. The si n locations -- and I realize this map is going to be hard to read, so I did
g 9 ,.
rint off a co . It's a little bit better. But I'll hand that out for you here. So, in addition
p pY
to the three types of signs that we have kind of kicked around, we have this initial phase
is kind of what we are proposing to you this evening where we would -- where we are
ro osin to install about 27 signs at the -- at or near city limits. What you got in front of
p p g
ou now is the map that you see on the screen, as well as a descriptor for those signs.
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So, most of them to the west and south of our current city limits will eventually move to
our build out city limit lines, so you will see a temp or an ultimate description for the
si ns and the will sa what side, enerally, an intersection they are on. So, that's kind
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of the -- the make-up of our proposal this evening as, again, 26 or '7 signs that
correspond with current city limits. We would propose to move those back roughly
annual) . So, we will take an inventory of all of the annexation ordinances that have
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one into effect and notify ACRD, hey, we need to move this sign back a quarter of a
9
mile, because we annexed that property and we do that again probably annually is what
we are thinking. If we have the boom time that we did, you know, 2004, '5, '6, we may
look at semi-annually, but I think annually will probably be enough for right now. We
have talked -- I will let you know we have an agreement that we are looking at entering
into with ACRD, if we do get your blessing this evening for these signs. It's just a
license agreement, essentially, They are looking with a finer tooth comb at the locations
that we have identified, essentially the same thing that's in front of you now, to make
sure that the don't conflict with regulatory signs, like speed limit signs or stop signs,
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those types of things. We can't place a sign on in front of those. Also that they aren t
conflicting with any pedestrian movements or any other movements that they need to --
to watch out for. So, we are in the process with the highway district. Same with ITD.
We have got some standards from ITD. I sent them our --the sign that Robert will show
with you, they have commented back, we are still working with them -- not quite as far
along with ITD as we are with. ACRD, but I am prepared to work with them further,
a ain, if the Council decides that's the direction you want to go. So, this is the initial
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phase. Again, this would be the immediate phase of -- or as soon as the Council is
comfortable moving forward. Now, the last slide that I have this evening is the build-out
,...~ slide and what I would highlight a little bit more in this one is the small and the large
monument, because those are the permanent locations for all signs in Meridian, what I
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 19 of 60
-- filed to mention in the initial hase is we would put all of these two-by-three
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' -- ven where we ma show an ultimate or a -- excuse me -- a small or a large
signs e Y , , .
' he future or the initial hase ou have, we would propose to at least initially start
sign in t p Y
' II these locations havin -- excuse me. When I say all these locations I m talking
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I the ellow locations. So, for example, on the on-off -- or off ramps from I-84
about al y
le Road we would still ro ose to put up a smaller two-by-three sign initially
onto Eag p p
e we desi nand have ac uired the larger sign we would, then, replace that with
and one g q ,
I r er monument si n that's et to be designed and constructed, so -- but, again, the
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build out would be as the cit limits get to our periphery we install these signs. I will let
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ou know that some of the signs at the staff level we envision working with private
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ro ert owners on ma be partnering with us to give us a key intersection to maybe put
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a lar er monument si n, but most of these are in the ITD or ACRD right of way is what
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we are t in to do is t to keep them in -- in the right of way where possible. We do
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have some abilit ,too -- as we see new applications come in for annexation that are at
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a location where this ultimate build out map shows a sign, we can make that part of our
recommendations to the Council on -- for a development agreement provision that says
we need ou to install or assign somewhere on your frontage a welcome to Meridian
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t e si n. So, just want to throw that out there, too, that this is something that the
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Council likes. We can work up some development agreement provisions and I will let
ou know we already have one currently in effect -- one development agreement that
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re uires that. So, it would be at the northwest corner of Chinden and Linder, the Knight
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Sk development, there is a development agreement provision and they offered to
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construct that sign, so just after you cross over the river and come to the intersection
there they put up a nice welcome to Meridian sign. So, I think that's probably enough
from my end, so I will tag Robert, unless there are any questions forme at this time.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Not at this time.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Zaremba?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor? Just a question. I think at one time ACRD offered to install
them at no charge, but if we are going to start moving them every six months, do we
think they will still do thatfor no charge?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, yes, I have talked to the district about
installation and they will do that. I can't remember exactly what Terry Little's a-mail
said, but they will move them back on a -- for us. If we ask them every month to do that
we'd probably be -- you know, I don't know that they would put up with that for too
terribly long. I think annually, though, or something in that time frame where they are
fairly accurate to city limits, I think they will accommodate that for us. But that's one of
the details we haven't quite worked out with them, but they are willing to move them
back over time for us.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 20 of 60
~. Zaremba: Great. Thanks. And, Madam Mayor, just another observation. 0n signs that
are oin to show the population, we might want to have numbers on wheels, sort of
g 9
like an odometer that we can just get them up --
Hood: I'll let Robert cover that.
Simison: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Thank you, Caleb, for passing on
that uestion. But I would say as Caleb kind of alluded to, one of the things that we --
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ou will see in our proposal -- we are actually going to propose not to put any population
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numbers on the si ns that are in Meridian. They will still be on the interstate as part of
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the interstate art so when you're driving down the interstate, but that s really the people
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that don't know Meridian that are traveling to --that are primarily going to see it. A lot of
the people that are coming into our community, they know what Meridian is, because
the are traveling from Kuna, Eagle, Boise, Nampa, in and around our community. So,
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o ulation robably isn't as important wefelt as agroup on -- at that level, just to kind of
pp p
ive ou same -- a little bit of point. But part of the reasons also why we felt that these
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si ns were important is a lot of people dont necessarily know when they are traveling in
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on these arterial roads when they are entering into Meridian and these really will give
that community identifier to people that are traveling in. But to the -- we created -- at the
Ma or's recommendation, atask force and we --the people that have gotten on the task
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force -- we have a couple members of the Arts Commission who have been involved,
obviously Caleb and myself, and, really, what we did is we looked at the locations where
si ns were and that's what Caleb kind of showed you to say here is where we think
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signs should go. And part of this process we thought, well, maybe we will want to
engage the arts community in doing something a little bit more than just the green signs,
as well as, you know, the monument signs. Wanted to look at what this might cost and
finding opportunities and, then, obviously, propose recommendations to City Council
and that's why we are here tonight, at least on phase one. You know, we are not here
to give you everything, but just a little bit. So, in our first meeting what we were trying to
come up with -- what would be a good Welcome to Meridian sign. We were sitting
around and we thought we had a great idea and one of our members looked out the
window and saw the Meridian flag flying on the flag pole and said how about that? And
it actually caught all -- everybody's attention in the room and said that's a pretty good
idea personally. So, all we did was we added the word welcome or welcome to on that
flag and we thought that that would be a good community identifier for us. And, Caleb,
can I just get you to help. I will be Vanna. You don't have to be Vanna. But this is the
actual size what the si n would be. As Caleb kind of pointed out, that -- that is the size
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at which ACRD and others will allow us. Just to give you some perspective about what
it might be. Thanks. Caleb kind of covered that and as he mentioned initially we have
proposed up to 27 signs for placement and perhaps a few extra for replacement, just so
we don't have to go back out if one is damaged or otherwise. And at this point in time
with ACRD covering the installation, the cost for the sign and the post would be about
125 dollars per sign to have these installed and at this point in time we have identified a
funding location and if Council's desire is to move forward on this, we would bring that
,,~.., out back as a budget amendment for you from existing funds from this year that
probably won't be expended. What we just did -- and this was something that -- just to
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 21 of 60
..~ ive ou some ideas. And we really haven't talked about this at the task force that we
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have otten to yet, but just want to give you a couple of ideas that came to Brian in the
9
Plannin De artment during his spare time. I would hate to see what he could do if he
g P
real) ut some thought into this. But he dust said, hey, here is a couple of ideas. He
Yp ...
has some experience in doing this for subdivisions and others and these are -- these
are definitely different than what you saw on the first slide. You know, the traditional
welcome to si ns that a lot of communities have are typically wider in an area -- I think
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that you're probably familiar with the ones in Eagle and Emmett that they have on a
corner that take up that corner space. It is more difficult, probably, for our community,
at least on the part that's already developed, to try to go in and ask someone to do
something or change their layout or something that is more vertical perhaps, would be
easier to do in existing right of way or right there along the edge of their property. So,
he just proposed a couple of these that we just wanted to share with you. They are
pretty much the same type of design, but you get the flavor and this is something that
we just wanted to throw out to you and get any -- any feedback that you might have,
either on that concept or any ideas that you might want us to take a look at. So, with
that, the only other thing I would comment on is at least on these monument examples,
ou notice we aren't using the Meridian logo. It is really kind of the star and swoosh and
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that is kind of something similar that the parks department has been looking at on their
signage for pathways recently as well. So, that might be one of the community
identifiers that we incorporate, if not in this type of sign, in any type of sign that we look
at. So, with that I would conclude and stand for any comments or questions.
~~
De Weerd: Thank you, Robert. Council, questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Robert, Caleb indicated that -- that you had been in contact with both ITD
and ACRD. I'm not sure, given what I saw about the two-by-three sign, that you will get
an agreement on the part of at least ITD's case to post that kind of a sign on their right
of way. I believe they have to comply with the uniform signage code and --and maybe
you have got that worked out. And, hopefully, you do.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, at first -- and, basically, ACRD and ITD
had the same thoughts going into this, that the MUTCD would control these types of
signs. It looked a little bit further into the details and said, well, these are kind of a
different type of sign. I was concerned about the blue background and what that means
and, again, with ITD they haven't given the thumbs up yet, but I have talked to Pam
Golden and she's going to talk to Dave Jones and run -- run our concept by him. But
everything else that she sent me as far as standards go I think we have got a pretty
good shot at getting these to go down. She had -- there is also some distances away
after you get off an interchange, it can't be on the interstate system, those types of
~..., things. So, locations will probably need to shift a little bit. But she didn't really give any
indications that that si n won't work. I definite) want to have a -- you know, a yes, this
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Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 22 of 60
.~. is a o from them before we purchase these signs, but this -- this has been a couple
9 .
weeks -- cou le three weeks ago now that she said let me talk with Dave and I will get
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back with ou. So, I will follow up with her. But all indications are they aren t subject to
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MUTCD rule book for signs.
Rountree: Great.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Just a comment on the monument signs. Those designs are very attractive.
-- n the ones where the swoosh kind of han s out, I would suggest that we
I would o g
think about both safety and vandalism. Those parts are likely to either get broken off or
-- if the are not way overhead it would be a safety issue for people that might run into
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them and I -- while the design is attractive, I would suggest containing them in a way
that no parts hang off the side of it. Just a thought.
Simison: And Councilman Zaremba, Madam Mayor, Members of Council, the one
uestion I would also ask for feedback on is whether you like these or whether you tell
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us, ou know what, we really like the welcome to Eagle signs that they have or we like
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the statue. If there is a particular type of thing that, you know, gets Council s attention,
ou know there is, obvious) , a funding issue and the larger you go the more expensive
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it is and we will always want to keep that ~n mind, but, you know, this -- we do plan on
oin back and start working with the Arts Commission on what something else might
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look like and si n committee, but we appreciate any feedback that you might have, if
9 .
ou have a particular type of welcome sign that Council would think would work for our
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community.
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoa lun: Madam Mayor. I want to follow u, Robert. You said something at the end
9 .
about the look that we want to have and when I think of our pathways, you know, we
have the Bud Porter sign and that was one of the first ones, but as we go around the
community and look at segments that might be named after prominent Meridian citizens
and whatnot, will that type of sign work, a monument sign, when we are naming names
on there or are we going to go to a different type of sign that has similar elements,
althou h may be a wider two post, as opposed to something like this. I -- what -- how
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far did you guys go into that discussion, if very much?
Simison: We really haven't gone into the discussion that much, other than to talk about
the desi n elements, but -- with the recent park signs that showed the star and the
9
swoosh as their kind of identifier and I don't know if that's the parks -- I assume that's
the arks department's direction to go more towards the signage, but we have talked
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about incorporating whatever we end up doing in a monument sign if we can with the
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park signs and even with signs that might identify the Core or downtown, you know,
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 23 of 60
' onent and that's how we realized the monument sign
,~ what would be that unifying comp
rand Ion er and we didnt want to try to hold up the
discussion is going to be large g
' ur communi at this oint in time while we try to work
rectan ular signs going up in o tY p ,
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hrou h what unifies as much as we can signs throughout Y g
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parks or downtown, etcetera.
' nt to be sure Madam Mayor and Robert, that -- not binding it
Hoaglun: Okay. I ~ustwa ,
' make sure the theme of the elements are within that sign and,
to this style, but dust to
can make it how it fits for what they need it for, so --okay. Thank you.
then, they
De Weerd: Additional questions? Comments?
Bird: I have none.
e: Madam Ma or I 'ust -- to Robert's comment about what do we think about
Rountre y 1
i I'm full confident that the subcommittee can come up with some design
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mmendations and I real) don't want to comment on that at this point in time. But I
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would su est that ou do keep into consideration things like maintenance,
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r laceabilit safet as Councilman Zaremba mentioned, and those kinds of practical
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thin s because as we et otent~ally a large number of these, you re going to be
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re lacin letters ou're oin to be replacing foundation pieces and whatnot. So, that
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needs to be considered in the entire concept and ultimately the cost factor is going to
,~, have to be considered.
De Weerd: And I uess tonight -- and giving direction to that committee is do you like
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the idea of extractin the star and swoosh and using that in it or do you want to use the
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to o that is also on that slide with the Meridian, Idaho, and, et cetera? That would be
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hel ful direction I think for anything the sign committee would do from this point forward,
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but also it lends to the same discussion of the sign we brought to you about a month
-- in the Diane and Winston Moore Pathway. We used the star and the
ago of regard g
swoosh in that. So, any feedback on that as an additional identifier.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, from what I see the smaller monument example here seems
ractical. The other one with the swoosh hanging out, it appears to me like that's just
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asking for somebody to hang something on that.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Rountree: So --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
..~.. Zaremba: I'm a reefing with Councilman Rountree as well, but while I like our logo and I
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think it's attractive and it's a good thing on the smaller signs that are going to be on a
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 24 of 60
~ post, if we tell the committee it's got to be the logo, then, that rett well establishes the
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shape of it. These -- the taller, slender monument aren't the sha a of our Io o so I
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would rather not hamstring them. I do like the swoosh. I do think it needs to be
contained and not hanging off, so --
De Weerd: Okay. Well, I think that provides some direction. The can use either/or in
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how you want to bring something back. At least leave the creativit to -- to full ex lore
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all options.
Simison: Assuming that these signs are okayed by ITD, was there eneral consensus
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on those -- on those signs if we want to move forward with those? And ou will
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obviously see a budget amendment for those before we were to move forward with
them, but should Caleb continue to hound ITD to find out if the are acce table or not?
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Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Hound? Be diligent. Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think they -- I think they look nice, but they are three b twos; ri ht? Three wide
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two tall?
Simison: Roughly. Yes.
Bird: Yeah. Yeah. I think they look nice. I don't know how ou're oin to stick
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something that big on one post, but good luck.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: I know that ACRD has -- had really examined what we were ro osin and
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they, too, want it to be practical they came back with a thumbs up. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Well, along with what Councilman Bird said, the two by three is the lar est
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that they will allow on a single post. The signs that are currently out there are smaller
than that, I believe, and they are certainly noticeable and I would consider the same
shape and format, but they could be a little bit smaller than that and satis me.
Simison: They are a little bit tall. They are 18 --18 by 24. So, it's not -- it is --the are
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a little bit larger. Not much larger, though.
Zaremba: I would be happy with 18 by 24 with the same design that you got here. Just
one opinion.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
,,~ De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 25 of 60
~ Bird: Are they understanding that we are going to be three foot wide and not two foot
wide? Because you look at your deal --this is always first, though. You're showing two
foot by three foot, which means two foot wide, three foot tall.
De Weerd: They did see the --
Bird: They seen the actual?
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Correct.
Bird: Okay, Robert. I -- I think it looks nice and if it will stand on one -- you know, with
just one post, no problem. And they accept it. I think it's really -- I think it looks real
nice, to be truthful with you. But I'm not an art critique, so --
De Weerd: When you come --
Bird: I'm like -- I'm like Mr. Rountree, I think our committee can pick out a much nicer
sign than I can.
De Weerd: When you come back with a budget amendment after all the approvals, you
might bring an example of the size that was noted and show both and give a cost to
both. Would that be possible?
Simison: Uh-huh.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I fear with this one -- and I really like this one -- is if you don't go three foot wide
you're not going to get the details of our -- of that sign in there. Two foot -- or 18 inches
you're going to squash it so close that it isn't going to look right.
Rountree: Pretty small.
Simison: And that was one of our considerations, once we -- once the flag shape was
determined, we knew the two actually accommodate the detail on it. We'd have to go
as large as we possibly could and we were looking at four by six, but we were told that
that was too big, so --
De Weerd: Aim high. Well, Council, are you good with the two by three?
.,~,., Bird: I am very good with it.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 26 of 60
~ De Weerd: Or the three-by-two or --
Bird: I think it's a very very nice sign.
E. Planning Department and Legal Department: Consider
Rescinding Various Development Agreements
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Our next item is Item 6-E and I'll turn this over to
Bill or Anna.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think we can start with a little bit of the
process and I think Mrs. Canning -- we helped craft a letter. If you recall last year, just
to introduce this, we had brought to you a situation where we had a number of parcels --
orproperties that had been approved for annexation with a development agreement and
the development agreements had not been signed. So, the direction from the Council
was is to notify a number of these parcels and Mrs. Canning can explain, you know,
which ones we did, and let them know that unless we hear from them, unless they have
some legitimate reason that the Council could consider, that we would be looking to,
essentially, rescind that approval of that development agreement. Again, these
properties --almost all of them, except maybe one, have not been annexed yet. So, all
that's basically done is a commitment and approval by the city to annex their parcel
contingent upon them signing the development agreement and so we helped craft a
~ letter with Mrs. Canning, Mrs. Canning sent it out about two months ago and I'll let her
take it from there.
Canning: Madam Mayor -- just a second.. I'm finding the Powerpoint presentation. For
some reason I thought Stacy and Tom were going before me, I was already to wait for a
long time. Madam, Mayor, Members of the Council, I did send out a letter and -- to
each of the properties that I will go through with you and the letter was --although it was
somewhat generic, it was tailored to their property and designed to kind of let them
know where we thought they were in the process. So, quickly going through them, this
is the Benelli Springs property, which may look familiar to Tom at this point. There is
probably not much need for a development agreement on this property. We do feel that
we know at least some owners can't -- can't enter into a contract who purchased a
portion of this property, so you can't enter into a DA with yourself, so we do believe that
it's probably appropriate to rescind this DA. The residential development that was on
here, obviously, can't move forward at this point. This is the Grau Subdivision and there
was a preliminary plat, obviously, that's expired and an annexation application. Mr.
Grau has contacted us. At the end of this presentation I will show you a little
spreadsheet that says -- has everybody's name on it and who has contacted us. I
should say Mr. Grau contacted us, but to my knowledge he has not provided a letter to
Council stating that he's interested in continuing the DA. Shaylee Estates -- the owner
actually formally dropped the project. So, it would be appropriate to drop -- or rescind
this DA as well. So, he has not contacted us since the letter went out. Matador
~. Subdivision. We have not heard from this one either since we sent the letter out. It's
located up there off of McMillan and Locust Grove. This is the Villas at Lochsa Falls.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 27 of 60
.~ Doug Campbell did contact us and the property owner contacted us as well, but to my
knowledge they have not provided a letter saying that they want the DA continued.
Sgroi has contacted us and has provided aletter -- Mrs. Holman just made copies of
that and passed it out to you or has copies available I believe and I believe Mr.
Whitworth is here today to represent Mrs. Sgroi. This is the Goff property and this
shows three properties, but it's just one, actually. It's this one that's not annexed yet.
And they have contacted me and I believe she's sitting in the back. Yes. It's been a
number of years, but -- so, she's prepared and they are interested in keeping the DA
alive. Both of those folks that are in the audience may request modifications to the DA.
We're not sure. Fignut Subdivision, a Van Auker subdivision, there was a number of
conditions that were placed on this subdivision, so I think they are not interested in
pursuing it. They have not contacted us one way or the other since we sent the letter.
And that's all of them. So, the next thing I'll bring up is just a little Excel sheet that
summarizes what's going on. So, again, Ten Mile development -- I didn't mention that
one. This is one where we are sure that they don't want to move forward. This is now
owned either by Dennis Baker as part of Pinebridge or really Scentsy owns almost all of
what was in this past development. Ten Mile Christian Church, they did a
miscellaneous application for a DA modification. They never signed the DA, but they
have done all the conditions of approval. So, there is really no need for the DA mod at
this point. And, then, the others I went over with you. So, again, the only two that we
have heard from and that are in the -- or that we have got letters from and are actually
in the audience are Sgroi and Goff. With that I will answer any questions. I can fill this
.~, out as we go along, if Council would like me to, so we can keep things straight and I
could answer any questions you may have at this point.
De Weerd: Thank you, Anna.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd.: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I may have misunderstood the original purpose. I was under the impression
that the choices were come in and sign the DA or drop the annexation. I didn't think we
were offering achoice -- you can keep the DA unsigned indefinitely.
Canning: And I'm sure that that is an option. I just -- we weren't quite sure where
Council might want to go tonight once you hear from folks or -- yeah. Mr. Nary and I
weren't quite sure where you wanted to go from here. So, what we have told folks is
that they can come and talk to you tonight, but we are not sure if -- if there is an ability
to extend it or not or if it's just sign now. So, they are aware that this is not a given, but
there are a couple folks here to talk to you.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 28 of 60
,~, Nary: Madam Mayor, to maybe make it a little murky, in the past we have not really
held any -- any real dagger over any development project. Now, five years ago this
didn't happen much. Most people tended to come in, develop, get approval, get a plat
signed, get their DA signed, get their annexation going, and it tended to move fairly
quickly and this rarely happened where you had something that sat out there for six,
eight, ten months or more. occasionally we had a few that went well beyond a year, but
yet we never really had any concerns either way as a city on whether that would have
any impact on surrounding neighbors or anyone else. Basically, no one could develop a
property except for the development agreement that been approved, so if they wanted
to move forward they either needed to do that -- once in a great while we would get
people that wanted to make some changes. If you would recall you probably --you may
recall an occasion where we would have one where they would sign a development
agreement with an immediate application to modify that development agreement, so
that they could come in and do something differently. But we couldn't allow them to
modify until after they signed it. So, even though we have had a provision in the UDC
that says you have to sign it within a year of its approval and that was within two years
of its approval. If you didn't there is no penalty. Well, what we found is that there are a
number of times where property owners are sort of in limbo as to what do they want to
do or not do and we felt there might be some value and that was our discussion a year
ago or ten months, should we put people on notice that if you don't find this and this
time period has elapsed, we are really just back at ground zero. And if nothing else to
get some contact or some conversation with those property owners to see what are they
~ going to do with those properties and when. Because it does seem to sort of leave
things landing out there in limbo. It's an interesting sort of Hitch in the code, because
they are annexed, so deannexation is not an option. They haven't signed an
agreement, so they are not in default of it, but they are in -- they are in violation of our
ordinance that required that they sign this agreement within an certain period of time
and they are, essentially, subject to your authority to simply rescind your agreement,
because all you have committed, as I said early is you have committed to annex their
property conditioned upon them signing this agreement. Their lack of signing it subjects
those property owners to your rescission of that approval and they, essentially, start
over. Some of these projects are going to have to start over regardless, because their
plats have lapsed that there is no other way for them to develop at all, they are just not
annexed. Even in the discussion in my office we had a hard time figuring out under the
code what exactly we need to do to rescind that, because there is no notice really
required, they are not within the city limits because they haven't been annexed and
there is no one that has an entitlement on that property any longer and certainly the
neighbors don't .have any entitlement to notice, so it's our belief if your direction is to
bring forward recision orders for some of these properties, that your agenda notice is
adequate, we have already notified the property owner, there is nothing to record, and
we would simply bring in front of you a resolution to rescind your earlier action outlined
in the clauses of the resolution what actions had been taken and what action you're
doing now. And we feel that's adequate notice, because, again, nothing's recorded
against these properties today, other than whatever due diligence they would do if they
,~-~, were in a sale or if they were transferring ownership to someone to figure out what they
can or can't do. But, essentially, they are a county parcel, haven't been annexed, and
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 29 of 60
~. you have a pending agreement that's just hanging out there. If you choose to do
nothing, nothing bad is going to happen, but the problem has been on rare occasions
people have signed these agreements sometimes two or three years later and suddenly
they are trying to develop something that now doesn't necessarily fit the character of the
neighborhood much anymore, because other properties may have developed around it.
With the slow down it hasn't been as significant, but that's one of the reasons or
concerns that we had is you'd have somebody that came in and that you had an
approval in 2001 and the surrounding changes to it may not fit the same neighborhood
as it was before and now you're going to have conflict. It may not violate our code, but
you're going to have conflict. So, anyway, that's the long lawyerly version of why we are
here, but you have got a number that we have sent notices to. I know we got at least
one back, because I think my legal assistant told me today we got one return to sender
that was not deliverable or forwardable, but, otherwise, most of these folks we haven't
received anything back, so as far as I know they have received it at the only address we
have for them and they haven't made any contact with us, so --
De Weerd: Okay. Council, questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
r,~ Rountree: Bill, in your explanation -- and, obviously, we don't have a procedure for
extending the DA, based on our ordinance, lacking a procedure can we make one for
convenience at this point in time, because we have a couple instances where folks are
still interested and it seems to me that we probably ought to at some point in time
modify our ordinance to include something with respect to DAs as we have with
subdivision extensions.
Nary: Madam Mayor, .Members of the Council, we have discussed this internally a few
times over the last few years. Our ordinance as I said, requires to sign the DA now
within two years. There is no penalty provision if you don't. So, the position we have
taken in the legal department is unless we proactively choose to do something or to
take this action to rescind our action, it's really no harm or no foul. I mean, basically,
again, we have always agreed is to enter into a contractual relationship and part of the
condition of that contract is we will annex their property if they will agree to that contract.
I think it's probably wise that if we go forward we will probably be doing this at least
once a year that we can craft an ordinance that says what happens, but, again, one of
the problems -- and this is more of a legal issue, is it's always problematic to create an
ordinance that only binds us to do something and in this situation it really binds only the
--the only party to --the developer, if they don't sign it they are subject to your ability to
change your mind. If they sign it within the year or they take it beyond a year, but you
haven't made a decision to rescind your decision, they could still go forward. Sort of like
deannexation. In our DAs they all say if you breach this DA you are subject to being
,~. deannexed, but it's not automatic. We have allowed people to go beyond some of their
conditions in their development agreement, as long as you are in agreement with it,
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 30 of 60
~ because, again, this city's the party and we have allowed them to do th '
at without
enforcing the --the breach clause of the agreement, so it's the same. If our de i ' '
y csion is
on the two that are in front of you, then, it requests an extension for us to not take a i
ct on
today, we don t have to, nothing changes and we can take action on the other
s and
that's perfectly fine and nothing really changes either wa .
Y
De Weerd: Any other questions? Any other questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun; Just to go through that spreadsheet a ain, the Villas at Lochsa F '
9 alts, they did
contact you, however, you just didn't receive a letter, but the want to retain th it
Y e DA.
They haven't signed it, of course, but did I hear that correct) ?
Y
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council when folks call '
ed us, Council
Member Hoaglun, what we said was Council ma consider allowin '
Y g you to sign your
DA, even though the time has. expired, but ou need to be re '
. Y p pared to commit to
meeting those obligations on the DA and I think that that's wh -- althou h
y g some folks
contacted us, not everybody sent a letter and is re uestin that the still be
. q g y allowed to
sign the DA. I think that some of them just can't commit to si nin the DA. F
g g or some of
,~. them they have a -- there is a monetary obli ation to hook u to sew
9 p er and water, so
that overrides their desire to continue the DA.
Hoaglun: So, Madam Mayor and Anna -- so, there ma be some h '
y esitation thinking if
they sent the letter they were, then, committed to that course of actin '
n, which, yes, they
still want to pursue that project as outlined in the DA but there is s m
o e reluctance on
their part to -- to incur a financial obligation at this oint in time?
p
Canning: Exactly. And it's generally tied to sewer and water. So th '
. ey would rather dust
redo the annexation application for 1,200 dollars, rather than ain th --
p y g e fees for to
hook up to sewer and water.
Hoaglun: All right. Thank you.
Canning; Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we do allow time ex '
tensions as -- as
a DA mod. So, the code was clarified for that and, then we extended
the one year to
two years. So, I was going to show you the code, but it still sa s one '
y year, so I m
looking for the other one and I'm almost there.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just a comment. It was interestin when I a '
g sked Mr. Sullivan
about access to capital for health and technolo cor orations and he ' ' '
gY p said it s still tight
and I didn t realize that would kind of play into this, but I can see where so
me of these
,,~.. projects -- because these are -- you know, banks are takin a different I '
. g ook at things
now and anything with risk associated, they pretty much want eve hin risk fre
ryt g e. Well,
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 31 of 60
~~ if you're trying to start up something that's very very difficult to do. So, it kind of puts us
in a situation there is noway out, that we have a process, but at the same time we have
no path forward, as Councilman Rountree pointed out, how do we -- if we want to
extend it, how do we do that and at the same time some of these letters that come in, I
can see the situation that they are in, where the ability to move a project forward
depending on outside capital could be very difficult to obtain right now. So, it's kind of
stuck.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we did -- I have put the code up. It
hasn't been codified yet, but it reads: A modification to the development agreement my
be initiated prior to signature on the agreement by all parties andlor maybe requested to
extend the time allowed for the agreement to be signed and returned to the city, if filed
prior to the ending of the two year approval period. So, we made that -- it was actually
two different UDC text modifications that we have made one. Was to allow the time
extension and one -- then came back and modified it to move it from one year to two
years.
De Weerd: Additional questions or comments? I think that the letters in front of you,
Council, speak for themselves, unless there is additional comment. What is your
pleasure?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, another question for Anna. Given what you just outlined to
~ us in the ordinance, there is a provision to extend the DA and I understand if it's
requested before, but we could still require that if we were looking at these and trying to
figure out how to keep some still on the books by requiring a request to extend the DAs
to make sure that the DA are consistent with what's going on.
Canning: Yes. I believe that you could allow them to -- to file a DA mod, if that's what
you would like to do.
Rountree: And for my information, as well as theirs, what's the cost of that?
Canning: I didn't come prepared to answer that question. I think it's -- I think it's close
to 600 dollars.
Rountree: That's what I thought.
Canning: I have our web page up. I can look. Five hundred and two dollars, sir.
Rountree: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, a question for Anna. These letters, though, do not constitute
a request for an extension of DA or do they?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Hoaglun, we --
again -- and I hate to be what Mr. Nary called me, murky, but we weren't quite sure what
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 32 of 60
~. Council would want to do. We weren't sure what kind of reaction we would have to the
letters, we didn't know how many folks would come forward. What we told them was
that the would have an opportunity to at least let you know that they were interested in
Y
still signing their DA.
Hoa lun: okay. Madam Mayor. And I see on the Whitworth letter that it is a request
g
for extension and reading this other letter from Hemrick it sounds like they are
interested in continuing it and doing what -- continuing the DA. So, in my mind I guess
these -- both letters would -- are requesting an extension of the DA. And one last
question, Anna. Well, I shouldn't saw last question. Who knows. Is there a process,
then, if -- do they have to come back, then? Is there a process they would have to go
throu h with your department to -- to get this one done to bring it forward?
9
Cannin : If the desire of Council is to have them do a DA mod, which is what the code
9
says now. It didn't when they went through the process, but what the code says now is
the can do a DA mod. If that is the desire of Council, then, yes, we have a process for
Y
that that includes the neighborhood meeting and posting and notice. But it comes
directly to Council, it doesn't go through the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Hoaglun: Thank you, Anna. That was not murky at all.
.~,
Canning: Thank you, sir.
De Weerd: Well, now that everything is clear, what is the direction?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I'll just throw this out. On your matrix I would say that we
rescind those DAs for --already decided for the first three. So, number five, number six,
number seven and number 11 and though we did not receive a letter from Villas, we did
receive a contact. For the remaining three, just for consideration and for some
discussion, allow those DAs to stay in effect for six months, at which point they will be
rescinded unless the applicant has submitted a DA modification request.
Canning; Clarification, Mr. Rountree. Mr. Grau also contacted us, but didn't provide a
letter. Did you want to extend that same six months?
Rountree: I was under the understanding that that was one that had been resolved, but
if that's the case, yes.
Canning: okay.
Bird: Was that a motion, Mr. Rountree?
Rountree: I just opened for discussion. I -- and the reason I say that is that we are
murk and we can maybe work through the murkiness in six months, as well as the
.y ..
,.~., applicants in terms of their financing and willingness to move forward with the projects.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 33 of 60
~: At that time, hopefully, they will be in a situation where they can decide one way or
another and we can either get them on our books or take them off our books.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Either I missed it or clarify -- the ones that we would act on tonight, that
would be we would rescind tonight?
Rountree: We would rescind tonight.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Hoa lun: Madam Mayor, just. my sense of it, I think that's a good action to take for
g
tonight.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm just going to briefly show you a
co of the letter I sent. This is the one in Mr. Sgroi and it, basically, say the City of
pY ,
Meridian will consider rescinding the approval of this project tonight. Please feel free to
contact my office if you would like the Council to consider action other than recission of
this property.
De Weerd: So, in essence, the six months is to allow staff time to clarify our processes
or -- what do you want in six months?
Rountree: Well, I'm just saying we have six months to clarify the murkiness in our
ordinance to either put a penalty in for not doing it and also allow the folks who are
under the understanding that this thing could go beyond two years without any penalty,
when, in fact, our ordinance says you have only got two years --give them six months
to figure out if, in fact, they really want to go forward with this and if they want to, then,
request an extension, they can request an extension. If the owners and/or applicants
and users have come to a conclusion that they are not going to move forward, then,
they would know that the DA would be rescinded and they would start over, so --
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Igo along with Mr. Rountree's thoughts. I would -- given the economy and the
problems with getting financing and stuff, Iwould -- wouldn't mind seeing that go from
six months to a year. While I know that's a little longer, Icould -- I could certainly accept
a year and that gives both -- not only our staff, but also the people a little bit more time
to see if they can get financing or if it's -- if it's a viable project to go ahead with -- you
,..,` know, I think sometimes in these times it's pretty hard to get anything done within six
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 34 of 60
u're t in to et financing or something. At the scale that they are
~ months when yo ry g g
going to be asking for.
or I 'ust want to -- the six months, my understanding, was that
Hoaglun. Madam May j
re toni ht that the are interested in an extension and they would
we have two letters he g Y
' hs to decide if that is what they wanted to do for certain and, then,
have up to six mont ,
' hat extension throu h our process. And the other two -- and I m
they could file fort g
' hem the same thin , because I want to be sure they understood
interested in allowing t g
' nd what could ha en to them. They contacted the staff and I
what this was about a pp
ertain that the want to continue with what they have on the books now
want to make c Y
ortunit and a ain, that gives them up to six months to decide
that they have that opp y ~ g
oin to do. And if the decide not to, then, its withdrawn and they are
what they are g g Y .
re one. But I mean if we want to go a year, great. I think six months is an
back to squa
ime because then, that extension, as I understand it, Anna --and,
adequate amount oft , .
' wron on that -- that is for an additional two years, is that correct?
please, tell me if I m g
Or is it one?
' :There is -- we didn't ut a time limit on them. They are a contract. They are
Canning p
-- '' ifficult --and that's wh these aren't as clear as code usually is, because this is a
~t s d Y .
enter with the owner and we try not to put too many sideboards on that
contract you
use the take all different shapes, sizes, and forms. So, you could
contract, beca y ,
' ou know that it's somethin you may want to let live for five years, if that s your
decide, y 9
' r ou ma want to ive it a shorter time frame, because you want to
,~ desire. 0 y y g
them to move forward more quickly. So, we didn't put any specific time
encourage
frames on it.
Hoa lun: So Madam Ma or, we are being intentionally murky on some things, so --
g Y
okay. Got you.
Canning: Don't tell the attorney that, but yes.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
ba: I have been one that was on the side of saying that the original DA needed to
Zarem
' ned within six months and it keeps getting extended and extended and, then,
be sig
' . Like an contract it's not a enalty. If you don't sign it it's just void. And that's
ignored y p
'ive it's 'ust -- it didn't ha en. I don't want to call it a penalty, I want to say if
not punit 1 pp .
ou haven't si ned it in six months -- or in two years now, apparently, is what we are
y g
loin it's void. But I also would agree that perhaps we should have a system Ike we
g' ~ nsion and
have time extensions for plats that the director can kind approve a year exte ,
n if there needs to be a second one Council has to approve it. But, like I say, I don't
the , .
consider it a enalt , I 'ust -- it dies after two years if it hasn't been signed.
p Y 1
Nary: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 35 of 60
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
rs of the Council, 'ust so I'm clear, the ones you're talking
Nary. Madam Mayor, Membe 1 .
• • ' ' riod is Grain Villas at Lochsa Falls, Sgroi, and Goff
about giving an additional time pe ,~ , ,
'Member Hoa lun, its ust an additional time period for them
and if I understood Council g 1
' n the develo ment a reement, or bring you -- bring to planning
to either go forward, sig p g .. ,
' nsion and we are oin to, essentially, extend the ability thats
an application for an exte g g
-- hat basicall all we are doing is allowing them to use the
in the code currently t y,
exists for an one to a I before their time period has expired to
process that currently y pp Y
n additional extension. These other ones -- and if I understand
allow them to request a
' ut some of these ones as ou can see, like the Ten Mile development,
the discussion, b Y
' Id. So it's not like it's -- like they are waiting around for financing,
that s seven years o ,
' h se are ones that the all have lapsed for a reason. Some of them, like
think some of t e Y
' of back a notice that wasn't deliverable any longer. So, I don't know who --
I said, we g
' v n available. But I mean if that's -- if that's your direction we could certainly --
who is e e
I certain) mana a that and, then, if Mrs. Canning feels like we need to look at
we cou d y g
' the UDC to allow that to at least put in there that the Council can extend that
amending
' ' of the code to an one. We could certainly look at doing something like that. I
provision Y
' Iwa s cautious about ettin to sort of undefined when we grant this sort of
dust--Ima y g g
' .But here because it is such an odd duck, rather than just sitting out there, we just
thing
felt it was necessary to clean these up and this is a way to get that done.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
remba: M comments were actually directed at clarifying or modifying the UDC. I
Za y
u ort Mr. Rountree's su estion for tonight. What we do tonight I agree with what he
s pp g9
ested but I'm -- in a Ion -term revision of the UDC I would to see it be pass-fail,
sugg g
with a possibility of a time extension like we do with plats.
Weerd: Oka . I think that fives direction as far as moving forward and what would
De y 9
ha en further down the road, bu s time for four to -- four of these items to come back
pp Y
and let us know how they would like to proceed within the six months period, so --
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we rescind the DA for those elements in the matrix before us,
Ten Mile develo ment, Ten Mile church, Benelli Springs, Shaylee Estates, Matador Sub
p .
and Fi nut and that the remaining four, Grau, Matador, Villas -- no. Excuse me. Yeah.
g
.,.~.,, Bird: Not Matador.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 36 of 60
~~~ Rountree: Grau, Villas, Sgroi and Goff be notified that the have six months for
. Y
consideration of applying for an extension of the DA and if they choose not to, then
their DAs will be rescinded at that point in time.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk will
you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, ea.
Y
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Canning: Madam Mayor, I'm sorry, can I ask for a clarification, 'ust so we are clear. So
> >
they dont -- if they~ust want to sign the DA tomorrow that's not an o tion the need to
. p ~ Y
bring in and file for a DA mod for an extension of time?
Rountree:. They have six months to sign the DA.
Canning: Okay. So, they also have six months to sign the DA?
Rountree: Sure.
Canning: Okay. And just for staffs direction, if we could -- if I could et a feel from
g
Council on the director time extension, the initial one. Is that somethin Council as a
9
whole wants? I didn t hear much discussion on that.
Rountree: I would say make it similar to what we have with subs and ou have the
. Y
discretion for one year --
Canning: Okay.
Rountree: And I agree with what Mr. Zaremba said, to clari Ian ua a about the two
fY g 9
years for the DA, that it -- at two years it's done if it's not signed. That wa it doesn't
., Y
have to come back to Council and you don t have to make a decision. The decision has
been made for them.
Canning: Yeah. Okay.
Rountree: If they request an extension within that two year window, then ou have of
~Y g
the discretion for a year and after that it comes back to Council.
tom. Canning: Okay.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 37 of 60
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, Anna, ou have on that -- '
. Y it says under item two for owner to
file a D.A. modification application -- do ou mean a D
Y A extension application?
Canning: The code says that the extension is a modific '
anon.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
F. Parks and Recreation Department: Discussion on Tul
ly Park
Snow Cone Stand Proposal
De Weerd: Very good. Thank you. Oka .Item 6-F. I'll turn this ov '
Y er to Mr. Siddoway.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We ar '
e here tonight to
engage the Council in discussion about an idea to add a snow cone shack in Tull
y Park
and seek your feedback before moving forward. We see this as a oten '
p teal revenue
source, but, more importantly, it's an amenity that a lot of eo le are interested in.
p p We
currently have -- most people know the snow cone shack that exists in Store Park '
y .Its
not actually owned or managed by the city, it actual) sits ad'acent to the -- to
. Y 1 the
swimming pool there and is owned or operated by -- under contract with WARD but a
lot of people that go to that park like having that amenit there. We do have
Y our own
concession stand that sells snow cones in Settlers Park. It's ve o ular. And soon
. rY p p
we will have one in Kleiner Park as well. We took this discussion to the commission I
. ast
..~, month, discussed it with them, they were very interested in it asked us to mov '
e it
forward and based on another location that we had taken them the ask
y ed us to
consider some alternative locations, which we have done and I'll let Colin address t
hat.
You have a handout that Colin has prepared, Colin's been coordinatin with ven
g dons for
our department at Settlers Park, for movie night and related thin s. He's had some
. ~ 9
interest expressed to him in this and brought it to me and, like I sa we took it to the
. Y~
commission, now up to you for some discussion. If you like it we will move forward. So
wit that as an introduction I'd like to turn the time over to Colin Moss to resent th
id p e
ea.
Moss: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council as Steve said '
,this
proposal stems from, you know, other people contacting me interested in this location
particularly because, you know, after Settlers and after Store Park Tull Park is r I
Y y ea ly
our most popular park. We have the skate park there, we have two icnic shelters that
p
are booked pretty regularly and, then, we have two softball fields that are used for
league games Monday through Thursday and Frida s a lot of times as well as week n
Y ed
tournaments every once in awhile and so there is no doubt that there is some desire
from independent contractors to utilize this facilit and so ou know I want to sta o
Y Y rt ut
by saying that we have -- we have no doubt that we will have takers for this -- for this
location and that wewill -- we will get several bids to operate it. And as Steve also said
we originally had a different location proposed. The on final location -- and ho f
. g pe u I ly
this works --was --okay. So, the original location was -- no. It's not workin .
9
Canning: Let me help you.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 38 of 60
Moss: Well, the original location was, basicall 'ust u
y, j p and to the right from where it
currently is, facing the pathway. So, in between the la round '
. p yg and the sidewalk. fur
commission had some input on that we --that the did not want as eo I '
. ~ Y p p e are standing
in line to receive their snow cones, didn t want to be blockin the
g pathway and so myself
and Steve and Elroy Huff and Mike Barton met at Tull Park and t '
y alked about this new
location and so, you know, the proposed concrete ad there wo
p uld be ten feet by 12
feet, which would accommodate a buildin that the contractor woul '
g d bring in themselves
and that -- to put in that concrete pad, as well as brin electrical to that si '
g to we estimate
that would be about a thousand dollars. That would not re uire a bud
q get enhancement.
We would be able to do that with current funds and, then I did some r
esearch on how
much we can get from a lease for a snow cone shack in other laces around th
p e valley,
get anywhere between 100 to 300 dollars a month, de endin on location and so ou
. p g ,y
know, using some conservative estimates we think we can et 200 dollars er m
g p onth for
this site. We also think a conservative estimate for over usa a is 50 dollars a mon
p g th
and so using those estimates we would recoup the cost of construction within two ears
. Y
and, then, after that, of course, it would just be all profit for the cit albeit not a lot but it
. Y, ,
would be profit, as well as, like Steve said, it would be a rest benefit to the ark we
g p
think. So, the dates of operation tentatively would be Ma 15th to Se tember 15th the
,~ Y p ,
beginning date being when its kind of starting to et nice and, then the endin date
. 9 g
would be, basically -- basically aligned with the end of the adult softball season the
second week of September. There are, obviously, other elements that would o into the
g
r process besides what s dust laid out on this proposal. In goin out with an RFP we
. .. g
would -- we would have certain specifications from bidders that would re uire ou
. q ~Y
know, a certain look to the building. We want ~t to be estheticall leasin for the ark.
Yp g p
We also require that the building be removed from the ark at the end of the summer it
., .. p ,
its not dust sitting out there all year long and so, you know, between Se tember 15th
. p
and May 15th there wouldn t be a building there at all and then -- so with that that's
about all I have. I would want to just open it up for comments or uestions at this oint
q p
to -- to find out what you think about the idea.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: First, before I ask Colin a question, Bill, can we enter into over one ear contracts
. Y
with --like awarding contracts for services for over a year?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, it de ends how
. p
we craft it. Yes, we can.
Bird: I mean we can craft a way out, but we can do that.
Nary: Yes.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 39 of 60
~ Bird: Colin, my idea on this is I think it's rest but I
g dont know why we dont put an
RFP out and let whoever is successful do the concrete the
mselves, bring the power in,
put a meter on it, so we don't have to wor about collectin an oft '
rY g y hat, thats all out on
them, and dust get a monthly fee. And I don't know if the remov --
y e I know they remove
the stand at Storey, but I know that --the don't remove that Burin ?
Y g winter.
Moss: No.
Bird: You're right. It is still sitting there. Yeah. And I don't know wh
y we would want to
remove --that's kind of like having some kind of a stand that isn't oin to be blown
g g over
or something, you know, if it gets a high wind. So, it would be attached. But I would li
ke
to see an RFP out. I'm sure you have lots of interested eo le that would a I '
p p pp y to it and
let them do ~t. Let's just take whatever you think is a fair month) deal -- we
y have no
costs, we have got revenue. You have specifications, don't et me wron . You s eci
g g p fy
how the concrete is, you know, and you speci what kind of buildin what it's li
fY g, ke, and
that way we don't have to do anything but collect the rent. That would
. be my
suggestion.
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird I -- I uess m -- m
g Y Y
first question to that -- because they are putting so much mone u front -- I mean
Y p as
you dust asked Mr. Nary about along-term contract, we would be lookin about ou
. g ,y
know, five years or so.
Bird: Three to five years. They are going to recoup -- the are oin to recou their
Y g g p
cost in at least one year, probably, because snow cone has a ve ve ood rofit
. .. rY rY 9 p
margin and if it takes two years -- I can give them a five year contract, as Ion as there
• g
is ops out. I don t know what they do at the other place. I know the one that a friend of
ours have got on Cherry Lane there, theirs is not a year to ear, it's based with the
Y
owner ofthe --
Moss: A couple thoughts I had was just if we are askin them to make the initial
. .. 9
investment it might be difficult to also ask them to do a monthly payment to us on to of
p
that. Or, you know, they might want that reduced, because of that. We --
Bird: I disagree with you. If they want to be in business -- eve bod that oes into
. ... ry Y 9
business has got an initial start-up cost.
Moss: Uh-huh.
Bird: And, you know, I can guarantee you that you go do a TI in a buildin ,the don't --
. g Y
they dont deduct your rent for the first six months or anything else if the have done
. Y
that. I think -- Steve, (think -- I think you will have quite a few takers on somethin like
. 9
this that would be happy -- I mean, you know, what's a thousand dollars -- and ma be
. Y
let s say 1,500, plus the price of a building, which most of them's of one an a that's
g Yw Y
,~,,, going to be doing it or have -- it's going to be a deal they are going to come in and set it
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 40 of 60
~"`~ down and they are going to have to ut a meter in brin '
p g electrical in and pour a pad.
And you know --
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just to uestion that -- and I d '
q on t know if you know the
answer, that is if we are going to put a requirement that ou have to
Y pour the pad, pull
the electrical, and do that, are we goin to have onl one or tw '
g y o people interested in it,
as opposed to if we do that pad and the electrical and the 'ust come in and '
. YJ set up their
stand and operate, are we going to get five or six eo le to bid? And m '
. p p y question, then,
is what --what's the criteria for determining bidder --for the bidder? Is i
t how much rent
they will pay or is it revenue sharing, what -- if we were to our th
. p e pad, what s the
criteria to determine who gets the bid for this?
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoa lun I --
g think the the
proposed lease rate would be a large portion of it, but, then, also we would base a
lot on
experience in doing it in other areas, as well as references that the are able to
. y provide
us with. Yeah. And, you know, we would definite) want to have a look at the b ' '
Y uilding
that they would propose putting there. Those would be the main --the main
factors.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Siddoway: We would probably propose more of a rent t e situation than ' '
. , Yp Just straight
revenue sharing, Just for simplicity sake, so we don't have to ather month) recei is
9 Y p
~ and calculate percentages. If we just do a flat month) rate then we know w
Y hat to
expect.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Siddoway: One thing I was going to say is what we current) do with the contrac
Y t that
we have with the vendor in Settlers Park is it's written to where it's annual but it has the
ability to be extended almost automaticall if he erforms to our satisf ~ ''
. Y p action. So, its --
is that correct, Colin? It's an annual lease with us, but it's -- has a removal clause as
part of that contract.
Bird: You have to do that. I agree a hundred percent. I -- ou don't want an art of
Y Yp
that revenue sharing, because snow cones is 99 and 9/10s ercent cash and there isn't
p
always a receipt.
De Weerd: I guess I would be concerned with the building itself, haain it sit out there.
. g.
At Storey Park there are eyes on it year around with the chain of buildin s there. In
. 9
Tully not necessarily. It ~s in someone s back yard somewhat in articular in that
p
location, but I would be concerned having an unoccupied buildin or whatever there
.. g
through the winter months and so I m not really sure if it's somethin that should be
9
there year around.
Siddoway: Yeah. That's why our initial proposal is to have it removed. If we start
talking with these vendors and that's a significant problem for them I su ose we can
pp
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 41 of 60
~~ discuss that, but, you know, if it needs to be ermanen '
p tly affixed, but with the Tully
skate park there and over -- you know, it would basicall be v '
y scant for, what, six to eight
months --five months -- or seven months of the ear and 'ust havi '
. Y J ng it vacant that many
months I think would make it prone to vandalism. So our first i '
. nclination ~s to have it
removed during the off season.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Question for Bill. Having a buildin built on site or bro '
g ught in on site by the
vendor and the pad and everything done by the vendor does that incr
.. ease, decrease
our liability exposure, as opposed to the city rovidin the ad and th
p g p e power and,
essentially, leasing that space to an individual for a fee?
Nary: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council I mean -- '
Council Member
Rountree, yeah, it certainly is a little bit of a mixed ba when ou're -- '
g y they are going to
want some coverage for their investment or we are oin to want -- versus ri h
. g 9 g t now, at
least the way the industry appears to me, is these are either ortable '
. p or semi-portable
buildings that are placed on private propert ,like arkin lots that ar
Y p g e sturdy enough
not to blow over, but can be removed if necessa and I would ima ine Fred
. ry g Meyer or
Maverick get a release of liability from the owner. So if somethin
. g happens to that
,,~,, building they are not responsible for it. That seems rett eas to do. T ' '
. p y y his one is a little
different if we are going to have them build a ad and construct a ad th
p p ere and, then,
release any liability for it in our park if we have to et an easement -- its -- ''
g ounds its a
little -- I hate to use the murky again -- it sounds a little more challen in
g g and I guess we
need to talk through that. We could certainly -- I mean to follow u on Council
p Member
Bird's idea, I mean there is certainly nothing that sa s we couldn't ut ou
. Y p tan RFP and
see what is out there in the marketplace and like Council Member Hoa lun rais
g ed, you
get one or two and they don t seem to be very viable or ~t doesn't seem like a
very
practical way, we could always reject those bids and o back to this ro os
g p p al of
constructing at least the basics, since its our park -- you know, I mean we are real) 'ust
one ste dill r Y J
p e ent that Settlers ,here is what's being proposed, because Settlers there
was already an existing building, we just put a vendor in it to o erate. Here we ar
. p e
actually asking the vendor to bring the building to operate. The other thin -- and I
uess ' ~ ~ ~ g
g I m not clear -- we had a brief discussion this afternoon about this but I think thi
s
is going to -- because it's not our building and we are askin for this tem or
. g p ary use
building, I m not sure how our parks code and tem ors ordinance re uirement
. p ry q s are
going to interplay with that. But I really haven't thought that and whether that's oin to
matter g g
whether or not they provide the building or they provide the infrastructure and the
building, whether or not that's going to make an difference. I think our inten i '
,~ Y tsifa
vendor has got a proposal really it s from about June fish to about Se tember 10th'ish
. .. p ,
we want someone to operate this facility in the park and we could robabl work
thr p Y
ough a maJority of those issues, but I mean you raise a rest uestion. I reall don't
g q y
,~. know at the moment if -- how much someone is oin to be willin to either r I
.. 9 g g e ease
liability or want some assurance from us about securit and thin s like that on '
Y g their
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 42 of 60
~ building. We certainly get vandalism in Tull Park '
. ~ y now and this is dust another attractive
thing to get vandalism for. So, thats certain) a risk.
Y
De Weerd: Thank you for makin it more murk .
g y
Nary: You're welcome.
r~
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Well, regardless of whether we did, but the ads an
p d the electrical or what we did,
whoever is going to operate it is goin to ive ou a certificat '
. g 9 Y e of insurance and they are
going to have to have the health department insurance which ou'
. y d want, whether you
put it up or you don t. I dust felt that -- I felt that, ou know we coul --
. Y d we could put up a
revenue income which -- without having to put out an cost and ou know th
. Y , Y at would
be pretty nice -- sounds pretty nice to me. And if we think '
we can do ~t fora 1, 000,
private can probably do it for 700.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I certainly like the idea. I'm kind of artial to th ' '
. p e original proposal that we
build the pad and they remove it -- the ut the buildin ou
Y p g t and they remove it during
the winter. The only thing I would ask is are we thinkin bi
g g enough. I mean do we
want to --what else besides snow cones can we sell there and do w '
. e need a bigger pad
if somebody says, gee, we could -- I mean I robabl wo
p y uld not want cooked food
prepared there, but there certainly are a lot of other thin s that the '
. g y supply besides
snow cones if -- if the pad and the building were big enou h.
g
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council Councilman '
Zaremba, in doing my
research the snow cone stand that's over at Store Park the actual) s
. Y ~ Y yell bottled water,
pop, ice cream sandwiches, several different things. I mean whatever ou can store in
a freezer or fri Y
dge. I mean they have -- they have that there and so it's a ossi ' '
. p bility.
They are certainly not limited to snow cones and ou know e '
. , Y ssentially, that is a --
that s adiscussion we would want to have with the -- with the .win '
ner bidder or, you
know, that we would want included in the bid rocess to where the '
p y would --our bidders
would tell us what they want their menu to be and we would use the m
enu also as a
deciding factor, because we would also be interested in havin '
g a large variety of
products offered. Yeah. We could certainly have more than snow cones.
De Weerd: Well, while we are working at makin this more com li
g p Gated, when you
mentioned all these additional ideas, the idea of power came to mind and wh
at they
,.,~.~, additionally plug in. Is there a way to individual) meter their ower
Y p , so the power
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 43 of 60
wouldn't be part of the lease, it would be more their res ' ' ' '
ponsibility in addition to what
their lease was? See, just another --
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council I -- there i
sawaytodothatandl--I
know that at Storey Park that is the case ri ht now. West ~ '
g ern Ada Recreation District
does not pay for power at that snow cone shack it is -- it is in -- '
the name you know, in
the name of the occupant of the snow cone shack and so
thats -- thats certainly an
option and so I suppose we would have to decide ou know if
y we wanted to go that
way would be -- would we have the occupants a for it as Mr. -- Mr. Bi
p Y ~ rd suggested or
would we put the meter in there and then -- I uess m onl -- m fi '
9 Y y y rst thought is that if
we do our lease on an annual basis that we are Chan in over th
g g e name on that -- on
that power on -- you know, depending on -- because ri ht now
. , g the one at Storey Park,
its been the same occupant for years and ears and ears and I '
Y Y dont think they even
go out for a new, you know, bid process at all. If we decided to do
that we would, you
know, change occupants regular -- uite re ularl if there i
q g y s different people bidding
different amounts. But Ithink -- that's a ossibilit .
p Y
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: There is a power line that runs just to the south of that ba k
c of the houses that go
;.~ down there, if I remember right. There is a transformer on -- on
one of those poles. All
you have to do is bring that in, individual) ut a thin on it and to '
Y p g change it over you
make one phone call and I'll guarantee to the erson that don't hav '
p e it that s given the
bill will make the phone call to say somebod else has of -- res '
. , Y g ponsible on it. I dust -- I
think that we are -- we are providing a location for somebod to h '
bu ' Y ave a very nice small
siness. Why should we put out a bunch of expense to start it u ?Let's se '
p e if an RFP
-- let them aput the expense out. The less we have to do with it -- '
we dust take in rent
every month, great, Steve. And make sure they do it to our s ecifications.
p
Siddoway: I would just say, you know, the ower is even sim
p pier than what you
suggest, because we -- when the park was actual) desi ned and built ears a '
.. Y g y go it was
actually anticipated there might be a pay phone there atone time. It never
actually went
in. But power was run to this area with the idea that somethin mi ht
g g be there and so
right next to this pad site there is power under round available to beta ed i
9 pp nto.
Bird: But that power comes off of our box and we don't want an a
y p rt of that. That
power comes through our meter. We want -- we want their own meter.
Siddoway: Yeah. And so whether -- we would have to look into whether i
t could be
metered separately directly from that location or whether it would have to be run from
the -- run from the pole separately.
Bird: Well, you know what,
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 44 of 60
,~. Siddoway: We can find that out.
De Weerd: I uess if -- we can put this back on. There is a couple more information
g .
items that need to come back and -- and maybe we can put this on in a week or two,
however long it is you need to figure some of those details out.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: I could offer a suggestion. I think the idea is great. I don't think anybody don't
think it's rest. Wh can't you guys get with your liaison and get an RFP --some kind of
g Y
a draft RFP put out --
Rountree: Hey.
Bird: --and bring it back to us.
Rountree: Glad to do it.
Bird: You have got all this source --
,,~•,~ Rountree: Yeah.
Bird: -- to look at.
Rountree: Yeah.
Bird: --within your means.
Siddowa : So, ou're saying go ahead and move forward with the RFP and, then, bring
Y Y
-- see what results we would get --
Bird: That would be my suggestion. I don't know about the other --
Siddoway: --based on construction.
Bird: --four, but I --that would be --that would be mine. Let's get it going, because we
want it up and running.
Siddowa :That's wh we are here now, because they are chomping at the bit for this
Y Y
spring.
Bird: Let's get it going.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 45 of 60
~. Rountree: Madam Mayor, I would suggest that we sit down and do an RFP and bring
the hi hli hts back to Council for consideration and get it out the door and it look
g, g , ... .
somethin similar to what Mr. Bird is talking about for the initial go and see what kind of
g .. .,
response we get. Have it out for -- Bill, I think the minimum is two weeks? But it s going
to take some -- it's going to take some getting specs together, doing some design in
terms of the pad and the electrical, but other than that I can't imagine what --what more
ou need and -- do you need a drain? Do you need a sewer hookup? I don't know.
Y
De Weerd: Not if it's a mobile.
Rountree: It's mobile, so I think it's all self contained, so --
Siddoway: I think it's self contained.
Rountree: We will work it out.
Siddoway: Yeah. We can get together and work it out and -- so, my question is are you
sa in ou want to see the draft before it goes out or -- I think based on the
Y9Y
conversation if want us to do it we can work .with Charlie, we can get it out --
Rountree: Unless something gums up the works and if it makes it more murky than it
already is, we will -- we will move forward with it. We can do it.
Siddowa :Oka . We will put it out for the vendor to construct and see what kind of a
Y Y
response we get. Okay.
Rountree: This is a design, build, operate, and move contract.
Bird: May 15th --Central District Health inspection.
De Weerd: We look forward to seeing what comes back.
Siddoway: Thank you.
Bird: People buying snow cones.
Rountree: Could be a mini C store.
G. ~ Public Works: Water and Sewer Rates Discussion
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 6-G. I'll turn this over Mr. Barry. I know they are trying to
pull up a Powerpoint.
Bar :Thank ou, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We have good news for
rY Y
ou this evening with regard to water rates and sewer rates. We were able to get our
Y
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 46 of 60
~~. resentation down to 67 slides. So, thought we would just let know. We are really
p
excited about that. We just wanted to make sure --
Bird: I was told right in there that we wouldn't be back listening to this crap.
Barry: Mr. Bird, with all due respect --
Bird: Now, Tom, you told me that.
Bar : We wanted to make sure we weren't murky this evening, so -- no. Actually, we
ry
do have some rest news and I think we can keep this brief. The finance director and
g .
m self are going to co-present to you the recommendation this evening. Let me go
Y
ahead and first et started by letting you know kind of whats on the agenda tonight. We
g
are oin to first talk about the fund status. That will be Ms. Kilchenmann and, then, we
g g
will talk about the current model projection, what -- how we model, what the
assum tions, were, 'ust to get you back familiar with how we developed the model. We
p 1
will do a little bit of fund reflection, looking back three years and also looking forward to
the next five, rovide our formal recommendations and, then, finally Stacy will follow up
p
with future considerations for the Enterprise Fund and, then, we can have open
discussion from that. So, without further adieu I will turn it over to Stacy to discuss the
status of the Enterprise Fund.
Kilchenmann: I'm just going to go over a couple graphs and I'm sure you all read your
:~,.
audit re ort, so ou have seen these graphs, so I will just, basically, review them. The
p Y
first one is, a ain, directly taken from the audit report that we always show you and it
g
shows utilit sales versus operating expenses. So, our goal for this graph is to have the
Y
revenue exceed the expenses, which we haven't had for a few years, but we are
leased that this ear we actually are showing a trend. So, far FY-'9 it's -- it started and
p Y
in FY-10 we did have a positive revenue effect there. So, the next graph, again, is the
one that ou see every month when you look at your financial statements and it's the
Y .
unrestricted net -- or the net assets compared to unrestricted fund balance. So, it
mirrors the ra id rowth in the Enterprise Fund and our efforts of putting infrastructure in
p g
lace and, then, it also looks at the funds that we have available to do all the things we
p
have talked about, the depreciation fund, unrestricted balance and operating fund and
emer enc fund and we can show how we started to go down in unrestricted fund
g Y
balance and now the fund balance is stabilized.
Bar :Great. Thank you, Stacy. We will jump right into the model. As you know we
ry .
have been usin for the last three years a rate protection model that we developed in
9
house had certified with some folks out of Denver, both the finance staff and the Public
Works staff have worked closely together for the last several months updating this
model and makin sure that it's calibrated and whatnot and so we will just go through
g
some of the inputs here that we included in the model for this year. We upgraded -- or,
excuse me, u dated our operating reserve to reflect what the Council had decided for
p
us last bud et c cle and those are the numbers that appear on the screen. We made
.~. 9 Y ,
some reductions in the capital transfer and water. We found that we didn t need quite
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 47 of 60
i al revenue based to u comin capital projects for the five year period.
...~. as much cap t p 9
t water was modified sli htl with regard to the capital transfer. We continue to use
Was e g Y . .
' ' n strai ht line calculations. The water depreciation amount was 1.7 million
depreciatio , g , ,
he five ear model run and, then, 2.1 million by the end of the model
at the start oft y
' Wastewater is 2.6 million at the start of the water -- or start of the model
period of 2016.
' nd then 3.2 b the end of the five year period. I have talked to you before
year perood a y ~ .
ulato reserves and the Council s decided the last two times I brought this up
about reg ry .
' de a re ulato reserve. I am going to make the recommendation again this
not to inclu g ry
r to include a re ulato reserve and I will show you a little bit more about that as we
yea g rY
r we formalize that reserve or not, the money would still be available in the
go. Whethe
' balance so it's not real) a bi deal. We just wanted to earmark it so that
ending fund Y 9 .
' t it aside and we can do that informally, you know, just on paper internally.
we kind of se
what we did run in the model was a two year accumulating reserve for the
I n any event, .
r fund com onent of the model so that at the end of the five year period we
wastewate p .
.million in a re ulato sort of earmark or reserve account and, then, again, at
had ten g ry
' i n of Cit Council we develo ed a five million dollar emergency reserve for
the directo y p
' fund. So those were the in uts. The assumptions that we used to run the
the entire p
I are rett t ical or similar to last year's. The population growth factor was
mode p y yp
' mina) at 25 ercent. The rowth factor for the personnel is mostly related
essentially, no p g
E increases labor merit increases, those kinds of things. So, we reflected
to the PERS ,
r e ercent each ear in the five year model period. Construction costs inflator
that at th e p Y
n the five ear E&R avera e, 3.4 percent included, and, then, we aligned our
based o y 9
' ex enses with our historical execution rates, which is really key in making the
,,,~,, operating p
n this ear. We had not done that in the last two years and I'll touch on that in
model ru y
little more detail later in the resentation. The approach that we used this year is
a P .
' it r to last ear's and the ears prior. We utilized the leverage capital financing
sim a y Y
We attem t to antici ate our current revenue needs based on future
strategy p p
Tonal ca ital de reciation, and now regulatory requirement needs and we
operat p p
roached the model b t in to avoid this scheduled rate increase. So, let me go
app Y rY g
'ust share the results of the model run with you. The nondesignated fund
ahead and j
hich is real) what we are most interested in, is plotted here on this graph for
balance, w y
it shows that -- a ain, we se crate the Enterprise Fund for -- internally. It is
you and g p .
we have mans ed it internal) as two separate funds, again, on paper and
one fund, but g Y
' ed or nondesi Hated fund balance for water begins in 2011 on this model
the undesignat g
r million and takes a di in 2013 and, then, ends up at around three and
run at about fou p
' ' r so. Wastewater starts around ten and a half million at the beginning of
a half million o
I eriod and then decreases slightly and ends the five year period at about
the mode p ,
million. So the total what we call undesignated or nondesignated fund
7.8 or 7.9 ,
e ins the five ear model eriod at about 14 and a half million and ends at
balance b g Y p
nd a half million and that's the yellow line on the very top of the two other
about 11 a
' ou see there. So what's im ortant about this is -- can be detailed in the next
lines that y p
' u will see four lines here. The dark blue and the dark green lines, which are
slide. Yo
li ht reen and the li ht blue line, depict the difference between last year's
above the g g g
nd this ear's model run. Now, you may recall back in 2008 when we first
model run a y
' modelin we had this sort of reverse J curve and it was pretty steep and it
,~...,, started this g,
Y out ri ht around the 2012 time period and what we are seeing here is that
bottomed g
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 48 of 60
' and from that articular oint in time we have reached what we categorize
,~ moving forty p p
eriod for the Enter rise Fund, given the impacts and the assumptions that
as a stable p p
ed in the model and that's important, because that's where we want to be
we have us
' and indefinite) .We'd like to have smaller rises and falls in both expenditures
going forty y
enues and not have to o through a major increase scenario again. Anyway,
and rev g
' h a ain also shows is that we have performed better than we expected
what this grap g . ,
last ear's administration of the Enterprise Fund and this year s administration
between y
d that was not b chance. I wanted to remind you by taking a quick look
of the fund an Y
ome of the thin s we set out to do in 2008 and give you a status as to how we
back at s g
date and wh that erformance is allowing us to, essentially, not need this
performed to y p
' rease. You ma recall that more than three years or so ago our Public
third rate inc y .
ent in res onsibl forecasting its revenues and expenditures, realized
Works Departm p y
'ustments were needed in the administration of the Enterprise Fund.
that many adj
ited the enter rise fund, both the finance department staff and my staff,
I nternally we and p
i h about a dozen and a half recommendations, almost all of which have
came up wt
been incor orated or implemented. Many of the recommendations appear on your
p in and
Green. Some of the im ortant ones were for strengthening the fund report g
s p ,.
filiation of all Enter rise Fund activities, utilizing our cash position for solvency,
reconc p
i h is how the model is enerated and run. Improving our project estimating.
wh c 9 .
' a Public Works atekee er, anticipating better and quantifying capital needs
Identifying g p
to in Ion er term and more robust capital improvement plans, as well as
and deve p g g .
facilit and master tans. The list goes on, but it's there memorialized on your screen
Y p .
net this to ou if ou're interested, in the detail as well. There were other
~,,4 and we ca g y , Y .
' nts that I think are also noteworthy, however. We developed financial tools
improveme
and strate ies. This model is a great example of one of those -- to improve our
g ..
ountabilit and erformance of the fund. We also modified the rates, which was
acc y p
ou h es eciall in our economic climate, but it was important and necessary. But we
t g, p Y
' ' sto in 'ust t in to increase our revenues, we took aggressive steps to tracking
didnt p ~ ry g
trendin erformance data and using the results of that data to guide improvements
and g p
' he delive of our ro rams, plans, projects, and services throughout the entire
in t ry p g
' Works o eration. We develo ed a myriad of SOPs and strategies and
Public p p
hnolo ies incor orated those into our overall operating system, which has helped us
tec g p
reduce costs over that three ear period. We also reduced personnel costs by delaying
Y ..
the hirin and in some cases freezing positions. Incorporated energy efficiency into our
g veral
tans and o erations, savings us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past se
p p
ears and then, instituting significant cost reduction strategies and techniques across
Y transfer into
the entire de artment. So, what does that really mean and what does that
p .
it relates to our recommendation? I will get to that in a minute. I forgot this last
as
m onent which real) ou have seen in our strategic plan -- conceptualizes our data
cop Y Y
driven decision makin rocess where we collect data to gain knowledge and improve
gp .
r understandin of rocesses, which allows us insight to visualize and ultimately
ou g p
'ncor orate im rovements known as continuous process improvements or total quality
~ p p
na ement into our eve da function. So, like I say, what does that mean? Well,
ma g rY Y
with re and to erformance of the fund I'm pleased to report that we have been able to
g p
reduce our ca ital construction costs over this three year period by 3.3 million.
0 erationall we have been able to show a 1.8 million dollar reduction in this last three
p Y
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 49 of 60
' Iwise we have reduced our personnel costs over the last three
,~ year period. Personne
' ' Idin onto ositions, as I mentioned. And grants -- although
years by 2.4 million by ho g p
sive about -- more a ressive than we have in the past about
we have been aggres 99
' r sources of external funding, we haven't been as successful in
pursuing grants and othe
' ' ve onl received about 300,000 in the last three years. One
receiving those. We ha y ,
' make -- and I credit the finance department for this also and I m
other important note to
' ou don't know but our actual revenue protections over this last
not saying something y ,
r our actuals which is a reat spot to be in. So, we were able to
three years were uncle g
' ' .1 million dollars over the last three years in addition to our cost
pick up an additional 3
' ' n efforts for a total change of around 11 million dollars. So,
savings or cost reductio ,
' Orkin hard over the last three years, having an increase in
those improvements, w g
' econom ive us some time to postpone some protects, taking
revenue, having the y g
' different a roach b stud ing what we do and being methodical
different strategy and pp Y Y
' 'n the im rovement, has allowed us, as I mentioned, an 11 million
about implements g p
ion over a three ear eriod, which, essentially, offsets, for the most part,
dollar reduct Y p
r his third increase. So, we are really proud of that and I wanted to share
the need fo t
' Lookin forward, I wanted to give you a picture of what the Enterprise
that with you g
will look like on a ear-b -ear basis from 2012 to 2016 and what you see here is
Fund Y Y Y
ries. The lower blue cate o is just the undesignated fund balance and
five catego g ry
can see is this black line that I have put on the screen represents exactly what
what you
del results I showed to ou earlier shows. If you bracket that line with the line
the mo Y
ve it that I have 'ust added, ou can see that that chunk there between the two lines
abo 1 Y
' r all our reserve. Those are the reserves that Council authorized Public Works to
,~.,,, is e y
et aside and what ou will see is that the reserves fairly closely mirror the trajectory
s Y ,
line of the undesi Hated endin fund balance. Now, this upper portion here, the very
9 g
or ti s of the columns that are light light blue, turquoise, whatever that might be on
top p
our screen here hi hli hted in the shaded area, is what I m recommending as a
y g9 ,
ulato reserve and I want to oint out that while it is true we don t yet know all of the
reg ry p
details about what's oin to have to happen under our new National Pollution
g g .. .
Dischar a Elimination S stem ermit, NPDES permit as you might all be familiar with,
g Y p
we know that we are oin to have to do something and there has been enough
g 9 ..
information collected that we know that the EPA is pretty -- pretty set on requiring this
re ion to meet a 70 micro ram er liter limit for phosphorus. And so we feel it's prudent
g g p
to be in 'ust settin mone aside for that, because we know we are going to have to
g 1 g Y
com I with it. A ain, if we didn't model the regulatory reserve in this particular model
pY g
run all of the mone that ou see here in that shaded area, would have to be added to
Y Y ,
the endin fund balance, so ou would see that increase your ending fund balance. So,
g Y ,
it's not reall critical one way or the other, but I Just wanted to let you know that that s
Y
our interest is to be in still that separate financing for regulatory requirement. One
g
other thin that I want to mention to you is that looking forward -- you know, we have
g
this model which ro'ects five years out, but we are going to try to start seeing if we
p 1
can't ro'ect even farther. Now, it may not be to the detail that this five year model has,
p1 ,
but we know we want to look a little further down the road and so I asked staff -- the
en ineerin staff and others to put together the next five year capital program list that
g g .. .
oes from 2017 to 2022. And there is some stark realities that we are going to need to
'~'` g isin
be in to re are for. If you look at the capital plan that we presented and are rev g
g pp
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 50 of 60
' is ear from 2012 to 2016, we have 41 million dollars in projected
,--~.. for you again for th y
' that five ear eriod. That period again 2012 to 2016. If you look at
expenditures over y p
ve an additional 78 million dollars during that next five year period
2017 to 2022, we ha
in to have to come u with money to upgrade our system. Largely you
that we are go g p
a'orit of that move comes from wastewater treatment plant
can see the m ~ y Y .
' r el driven a ain, b more stringent regulatory requirements. So,
improvements, la g y g Y
' ent increase in ex enses between the period of 2012 and 2016 to the
this is a 90 perc p
' 22. I don't want to scare anybody, but what's important about that is
period 2017 and 20
we know that we .have now essentially ten years to begin to make
that as long as
' 'stead of three four, or five or in the past one, because we were doing
modifications, in ,
' basis. So there is this concept that we are working through and
things on an annual ,
-- the will be art of this overall concept and the concept kind of
the finance staff has y p
' -- nd it's a conce t that's used quite a bit by a lot of facilities around the
works like this a p
' ou want to have our revenues slightly ahead of your costs to build
country and that is y Y
'all if ou're in a a -as- ou-go kind of financial policy as we are. So,
up funds, especi y y p Y Y
t the area here where our revenues are above your costs is money that you save
tha Y .
cket and then ou use that money to offset the times where your costs are
and po , Y .
r revenues. So ou take that safe money and you apply it to the spend
greater than you , Y
' and what ou're able to do from a rate standpoint is level out and make
section there y .
ni n an t e of revenue modifications going forward. So, this is going to bean
more beg y yp
om onent to what we will want to look at as we go forward. So, I Just wanted to
added c p .
there and share that little bit of information and let you know that we are thinking a
stop
' erterm althou h we are onl modeling forthe five year period. So, finally, the
,,..~ little long g Y
tion is that there be no increase this year, the third year of the scheduled
recommenda
' rases and that we modi the current ordinance that reflected an automatic increase
inc a fY ..
' ear as it did eve ear riot. That's going to need to be modified. I talked
in this third y ry Y p
' a about the need to do that. We have until April the 20th to modify that. I
with M r. N ry .
five da s before that, because the ordinance takes -- needs to take effect five
guess y
da s after the ordinance assed. So, we have plenty of time to modify the ordinance,
Y p
if the Council concurs with this recommendation not to increase the rates for this
but .
ear then there would need to be a change in the existing ordinance, so -- if that was
y ,
ase this is what the rates look like. I mean this is what they currently are and what
the c ,
Id be in -- or what we would also suggest they be, since they are not changing in
we cou g
r to base and usa a for water and sewer rates. So, you can see total monthly bills
rega d g
w II as avera a famil water use and average family sewer use of 8,000 and 5,000
as e g Y
Ilons res ectivel . What's interesting about our demographics is that about 75
ga p Y .. . .
rcent of all the accounts in utility billing use less than 8,000 gallons of water and,
pe
refore an associated 5,000 allons or so of sewer or less. So, I'm going to turn this
the 9
back over to Stac who will finish up with the future considerations for the Enterprise
Y
Fund.
'I henmann: I'm 'ust oin to touch briefly on the projects that the finance team and
Kic J g g .,
the Public Works team are going to be working on over the next year. I guess it s
ra idl dwindlin to a close. But Ijust -- I think we have developed a system of working
p Y g
to ether and when you have engineers and accountants in the same room can you
g lad to send
ima ine how excitin ? I mean if anybody wants an invitation we will be g
9 g
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 51 of 60
he items we are oin to look at --one is kind of an old pet peeve of mine
~. you one. So, t g g
is lookin at the actual composition of the rate structure and our rate structure
and that g .
its of the base which, in theory, our costs that are fixed. Well, usage in theory are
cons s ~ - real) most of our --
costs that are variable. And in cases - well, we know in water that y
refixed. So that's wh we see that the usage can vary from practically
our expenses a Y
' nd it doesn't real) Chan a our cost. And so that's something that I
nothing to high a Y 9
rked with with Brad or we had talked about and it has to do a lot of it where we
have wo
' ion et cetera. So that is something that we are going to address again
move depreciat ,
' hat rate structure. We have a goal, of course, of preventing unplanned
and look at ~s t
' he fund balance and we have a goal that we don't want to do drastic fee
fluctuations in t
' in. So this rocess that we have started in the last couple years will be
increases aga p
' at we will o throu h on an annual basis, you know, with presentations at
something th g g
' ' .kind of in-de th anal sis, so that we avoid that. It's not that we won't
Council and this p Y
balance because as Tom showed you sometimes we will save and
fluctuate the fund
' will s end. Same thin we have done with the General Fund. But I think
sometimes we p g
' rocess we will know what we are going to do in the future. Some of the
this planning p
' we are oin to be lookin at this year that we need to get done before the
things that g g g
he ear the Fund Balance olic that you need to formally adopt, so we will be
end oft y p Y
' t how much are we oin to put in depreciation, how are we going to decide
looking a g g
send de reciation what kind of reserve do we want to keep. I'm sure you all
when we p p
ud et olic because that's in there, how we are going to determine some of
read the b g p y, .
erve balances. What we need to develop a policy for where we maintain fund
those res
n es like at X ercent of revenue, et cetera. I won't go into all that, but that's
,~ bala c , p
thin that we will be workin to ether to do before the end of the year. We will be
some
g g
kin at rowth. We will bet ing to predict assessment revenue. That s a big
loo g g rY .
nknown for us. As well as re ulation, a big unknown for us. But I think we have a lot
u g
of rocesses in lace that will put us a big distance ahead of where we were three years
p p
ago, so --
De Weerd: Thank you, Stacy.
Bar :Think that draws our presentation jointly to an end, so if you have questions or
comments both of us would be happy to address those.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
Rountree: Good news.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I do think that's excellent news. That's wonderful. Just so long as you're
~.
comfortable with some of the capital projects that were put off are still going to be able
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 52 of 60
~.. din them out I -- I don't recall that anything was just flat cancelled,
to happen by sprea g ,
' re Bela ed so as Ion as we are going to be able to cover those costs
some things we y g
when they come, I think this is excellent.
mba es we are able to do just you have described and we have put
Barry. Mr. Zare , y ,
e ro'ects off and rescheduled the prioritization of others and in some cases
som p ~ 'her combined or
eliminated some ro'ects that we didn t need, because they were eit
p ~ ~ s with
elements of them were no longer needed. But, yes, we dont see any mayor issue
car in forward the capital plan as we have described it.
ryg
Zaremba: Cool.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
DeWeerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Madam Ma or I 'ust want to commend Tom and his staff for the work that
Hoaglun. y 1
did on this. The ut a lot of effort into finding ways to -- to avoid that 30 year
they Y p .
' e. The understand the economics out there, what people are going through,
increas y
real) went throu h thin s with a fine tooth comb and we appreciate that and
and they y g g
everything you have done, Tom. Thank you.
~,,~,, Barry: Thank you.
Weerd: Yes. And we a reciate that you and finance are on the same page. Love
De pp
his dual resentation as well. Yes, I'd like to reiterate the message to your staff
to see t p
f r workin dili entl at seein how we could avoid that 30 year increase and balancing
o g g Y .g ,
the need of the system and finding those cost savings.
Barry: Thank you all. We appreciate --
De Weerd: Good. We quieted Councilman Bird this time.
Na :Madam Ma or? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just to follow up on
ry Y
somethin Tom said. The fee increases were done by resolution, so all we need to
g .,
brin to ou is a resolution to rescind that provision of that resolution you passed in
g Y
2009 that re uired it automaticall be done on April 20th. So, we could bring that back
q y .
to ou within a cou le weeks and you could take action and, then, they could hold off,
Y p
essentially changing it from April 20th, so --
Rountree: That would be good.
Bird: That would be very very good.
~,,,, Zaremba: Go for it.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 53 of 60
,~ De Weerd: Thank you.
Barry: Thank you all. Appreciate it.
H. City Council: Air Quality Board Update
De Weerd: Okay. And the last two items are Councilman Zaremba, so Item 6-M. I will
turn this over to him.
Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I will try to be brief. The first item is
re arding the Air Quality Board, which is the local vehicle emissions testing group here.
9
As ou ma recall several months ago now, the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council,
Y Y
which is a different group with a much more expanded roll than our group, sent a letter
to the city asking that the city ask the Air Quality Board to contribute to the Treasure
Valle Air Quality Council a sizeable chunk of money to fund a comprehensive
Y.
education program about air quality. The air quality board has now discussed that
re uest. We have -- or the Air Quality Board in the past has spent or contributed
q
between 12,000 and 15,000 dollars a year either on in-house education programs or
education programs run by Valley Regional Transit orCOMPASS or DEQ --whether we
did it ourselves or contributed to it. And that has been our contribution to education
about vehicle testing. Just as a side issue, some of what we discussed at the last Air
Qualit Board meetin ,man of us that have been on the board for years have at
Y 9 Y
different times wanted to make suggestions about general comprehensive air quality
and are consistently reminded we are the vehicle testing program, nobody wants our
o inion on anything else. It grates a little bit to be asked to fund the comprehensive
p
education program when we have been told we are not the comprehensive issue. That
aside, the request was to increase our contribution by over ten percent -- over ten times
what the contribution has been. Now, for one thing the Air Quality Board runs a very
lean program and beginning January a year ago when we changed our program to
testin vehicles every other year and not testing the first four years, as opposed to
9
testin every year, the Air Quality Board and our individual station owners immediately
g
lost 54 percent of their business. In order to pay for the Air Quality Board to have a
small staff and an office and phones, we had to raise what we charge the owners per
test from an original 2.50 to now I think it's 3.75 in order just to cover the administrative
costs of having a program. This would require an additional -- I think we figured out
1.75 or something like that to be taken from the station owners in order to increase our
--our contribution by ten times. So, the discussion was before we even considered that
kind of a Chan ewe needed to know more about what the program was going to be. If
9
we are going to contribute we need to know the funding and many suggestions were
made about other groups that are doing things for air quality. Meridian has a number of
air uality measures. Not idling cars. Not smoking in the parks is an air quality issue.
q
Covered loads is an air quality issue. Meridian has a number of those things to help
im rove air quality. A number of the other jurisdictions do as well have things. There
p ..
are also commercial entities that are doing their own air quality. So, the upshot of the
discussion was that in the end we, the Air Quality Board, sent a letter back to the
Treasure Valley Air Quality Council saying that we have received your request and to
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 54 of 60
hel us consider how much we would contribute we need to know what their plan is for
~ .p ,
this educational rocess and who else is contributing to it. So, that s a long story, but
p
that's where we stand.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Hoa lun: Real uick, Councilman Zaremba. Did -- in your budget is -- do you still have
g q
bud eted the on final 12 to 15 thousand dollars that you contributed in the past?
9 g
Zaremba: Yes. And we can see -- it would be a small issue to increase that to maybe
even 20,000 dollars and we would be happy to give it all to the Treasure Valley Air
Qualit Council to help run their program. The issue is where do we get 150,000
Y .
dollars? But, es, we would -- we would immediately contribute what we have already
.y
been budgeting. We need more information before we discuss going farther.
Bird: Understand.
De Weerd: Okay.
I, City Council: Public Transportation Discussion
Zaremba: All right. Thank you. The next issue is kind. of a pet project. I am spurred on
b how highly public transportation ranked in people's answers to the city survey.
~ Y
Valle Re tonal Transit, of course, is putting together some very excellent regional
Y g .
tans that will be just wonderful, if there is ever regional funding. Spurred on by the
p ..
res onse, I have been thinking about what kind of a system could Meridian have to
p
serve our Meridian customers and since I have been in the bus business for about 40
ears I have actually gone out and estimated some routes and done a little bit of
Y
discussion about what it would take to put together a public transportation system. The
uestion is how does it get funded. My estimation is if you add together all of the
q
elements that would go into a public transportation system, including our annual dues to
to VRT, our current contribution to the inter-county routes, a proposal that VRT is going
to come to us with in the near future asking for increased contribution to some new
inter-county routes on high priority corridors and add to that having what appears to me
ood service within the city with three routes, the total cost of that is about 1.3 million
g
dollars. If that were to go on the property tax assessment it would cost about 32 dollars
a ear for each 100,000 of homeowner value. As the first exemption, which for next
y ..
ear is 94,000, I originally started thinking, okay, this would compete with
Y
enhancements from the department. If the city took the three percent increase, then,
we'd still have to ask all the departments to cut maybe a half percent out of their budget
in order to make this happen. It, then, occurred to me that that's probably not the right
wa to do it. The ri ht thin to do is to ask the voters how seriously they want public
y g g
trans ortation and to put this on the ballot in November. The issue there is to get it on
p
the ballot requires a resolution of the City Council that has to occur -- the deadline is in
Se tember. The county would like it sooner than that. So, the question that I am
,~. , P , .
bran in forward is I am volunteering to put -- use my expertise to put a plan together, to
9g
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 55 of 60
ather to ether stakeholders to make improvements to whatever plan I put up, and my
~~ g g .. .
estion is would this Council, after I make a plan, be willing to consider the plan and
qu
nsider a resolution to ut it on the ballot for the public to vote on or would this Council
co p
sta dro dead we are never oing to do that? I'm willing to put considerable time into it
Y p g
et a steerin committee to ether. From time to time the involvement of city staff
and g g g
mi ht be occasional) to answer questions, finance and legal might have a little bit more
g Y
involvement than that writin the final proposal and writing the actual language for the
9
ballot mi ht re wire some legal time, refining the actual numbers would require some
g q .
finance time. But other than that I'm volunteering to do the footwork and to organize the
ommittees and et this oin . So, my question is should Ibother -- if I can bring back
c g g g
a decent Ian would you listen to it and consider putting it on the ballot or are you
p
a ainst utting it on the ballot no matter what I do? There is the question.
g p
De Weerd: Council, any comments? Questions?
Hoa lun: Question, Madam Mayor and Councilman Zaremba. One of the components
g ~ i nal
whenever ou ut an thing on the ballot for public vote nature is an educato
Y p Y
component, whether it's a candidate or an issue --
Zaremba: Absolutely.
Hoa lun: It's a ve lar a undertaking that's organized and there is strategy, different
g rY 9
thin s. What do ou foresee for an education component so residents have an
,,,~,, g Y
understanding when they go to the booth to vote what --
Zaremba: If I'm iven the go ahead I will go pick the brains of Shirl Boyce, who was
9 .
involved in the CWI ballot as to what is needed. I will use a steering committee to
actual) accom lish whatever it is we think we ought to be doing, but I absolutely agree.
Y p
Between the time that the Council would need to do the resolution to put it on the ballot
and the time of the ballot, which would be two or three months, there would need to be
a rest deal of voter education. And to put it in perspective, the 32 dollars per hundred,
g ~ ~ ff the
if the buses can take -- depending on the time of day between five and 45 cars o
road even eo le who never ride the bus are likely to get a couple more green lights
p p
when the o out or et throu hared light in one cycle as opposed to two or three. If
Yg g g
that saved them a allon of as a week, 52 gallons a year at current rate of three dollars
g g
and somethin that's 154 bucks a year they would be saving. So, to be costing them
g~
32 er hundred is actual) a savings. That's for people who never ride the bus. So, I
p Y
mean when ou add up the people who do ride the bus they would get greater savings.
Y
So that would be -- off the top of my head that would be part of the education process.
But the stakeholders that I would engage in putting the program together with people
would be the eo le who did the CWI program successfully and anyone else that
p p
wanted help.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 56 of 60
Bird: Councilman Zaremba, I of a question, too. Who is going to finance this
g
education? CWI s ent thousands -- hundreds of thousands of dollars -- or I should say
p
taxpayers -- on it. Who is going to finance the education --
De Weerd: Are you turned on?
Bird: Yeah.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: I need to talk into it, I uess. I'm trying to be quiet. Who is going to pay for all this
g
education financing, because --
Zaremba: You're ri ht. To run such a campaign is going to take some money and I
g .
would ut that to the stakeholders and the steering committee as to how we could raise
p
that. It would be my intention to raise it independently, not from city budget.
Bird: I can serious) tell ou that being a family of the survey, the transportation
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uestion was never -- there was never anything asked would you be in favor of
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financing it.
Zaremba: That's correct. And that's why I made the decision --
Bird: It's like eve thin else. Yeah, I think it's great to do something if I don't have to
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pay for it.
Zaremba: Well -- and -- and that's why it occurred to me this should be on the ballot
instead of bein a budget decision that's made by the City Council and -- and whatever
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eventual) ha ens at the legislative level, if some day perhaps we get a local option
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sales tax for trans ortation approved, that would have to go on the ballot as well and I
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absolute) a ree with the fact that the voters, the taxpayers, should be the ones that
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make the decision and it would be up to me and the steering committee to make the
case that would et them to a rove it. The one piece of good news is if they vote it
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down, then, I will be quiet forever.
Bird: I don'tthinkso.
Zaremba: Well, I will be quiet for a couple weeks.
De Weerd: Well, I uess, Councilman Zaremba, as we looked at -- and we still want to
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have further discussion on the transportation element at the senior management level,
we can find that the first uestion in the survey, the single most important issue --traffic
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con estion was listed as number two, road expansion upkeep numberfive, and only two
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out of the 132 eople that listed traffic or roads even mentioned public transportation.
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think some of the savin s that you can capture can also be captured in eliminating four
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Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 57 of 60
wa sto si n intersections and timing with the lights, so that you stop the idling cars
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i in at the traffic li hts. I think our approach is the right approach, I do not think it s
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' ht timin . Ri ht now we have so many expansion or improvements for the traffic
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em alone in movin traffic -- same traffic that bus would be sitting in, I just don't
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n to ut the cart in front of the horse. I do agree with you this would be up to the
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citizens and an task forces that you would put together to -- to answer those questions.
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I 'ust don't want to 0 out and ask the question before we have the right infrastructure to
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a successful cam ai n. So, how you have laid it out I believe really is the right
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r ach. M uestion more is it the right timing for it, not just the economy aspect, but
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even the roads and the system that we would be putting that -- that on.
a: Madam Ma or I uess m only response to that is that if we wait until all of
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hose im rovements are made we will continue to be the largest city in Idaho with no
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blic trans ortation for erha s another ten years, twenty years, and I feel we need to
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do something sooner than that. Personal opinion.
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Ma or, I -- obviously public transportation is an integral part of the
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trans ortation s stem and I, too, read the survey, but I didn t come away with the same
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resoundin su ort for public transportation, but other transportation related issues.
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Havin said that, I think whatever you do, seeing what's going on downtown right now
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on somethin like this is its -- it's dead on arrival. I don't -- I don't think there is enoug
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su ort to 'usti the ex enditure of the money that might go into the education at this
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oint. I would like to see that money -- and there is talk of an initiative as it relates to
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the abilit of the citizens to fund public transportation or some other infrastructure
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the mi ht choose through an initiative process. If, in fact, the support that appears to
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be showin some ossibilit of happening this year in the legislature to support local
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o tion's abilit to tax for such things as transportation. So, to me the timing -- I agree
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with the Ma or, the timin 'ust simply is not right, unless you want to bring the subject
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u and I believe et the answer that I think I .already know you're going to get with
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eo le -- eo le aren't -- people will perceive this as an increase in taxes, not asking
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whether or not the want a public transportation system, and without a horrendous
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ex enditure in education I do not believe you re going to overcome that perception of
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the voters. I'm sor , but I think that s -- you have seen it in several things in the past
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few ears as it relates to anything that potentially could result in increase in property tax
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is not favored b the electorate and when you look at it and when you pay it you can
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understand wh . I a ree that the public ought to be telling us whether or not they want
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ublic trans ortation, but I would rather spend the money on education at some point
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when it a ears that ou mi ht have some chance of getting some general. support for
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it, much as CWI did, on an area-wide initiative, whether it be VRT's two county area or
some other area, whether it be north Idaho communities transportation or Lewiston's or
Bonneville count or Pocatello's or whom ever. But Ijust -- I just don't think -- I would
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not favor, iven the mood of -- of all of us -- I mean none of us want to see any
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increases. And it may be tough to talk about when we have to talk about it.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 58 of 60
,~~ Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun.
Y u know bein on the Cit Council and discussing city issues and you try to
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r fin er on the ulse of the community and know what s going on and what are
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' finds and --and that's wh in some ways I hesitate to kind of say, well, this
on people s m Y
' hink because well, let them take the vote and they can tell us what they
is what they t ,
' I have to a ree with Councilman Rountree, I don't think there is an appetite
think. But g
ran increase in ro ert taxes. The one exception might be in some education areas,
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' even i in the atmos here today and thats one that I know the Joint School
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District No. 2 has alwa s had strong support, but even I think they would be hesitant to
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0 out there toda for somethin to increase property taxes and it is something when
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look at Ion term what are we oin to do public transportation in a bus system and
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as it ertains into a lon -term plan for congestion and traffic flow, but do you do damage
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if ou do it now and it's a resounding no, is the damage done for such a long time that
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there is nothin viable unless it comes from another source or a regional type of deal, or
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do we wait and en a e when a campaign should be waged and have a chance. Like I
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said I hesitate to s eak for the people, because, like I say, you try to have your finger
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on the ulse, but ou can always be wrong. But I dust -- my thinking is it s not the right
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time to 0 out there and say, hey, just 32 dollars per year per 100,000 dollars --folks, I
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mean ou look at what happened on our sewer and water rate increases that we did.
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And that was minuscule for something that everyone receives and we got touted on that
and -- I don't know. I mean it's something that if folks really feel strongly about and you
-- I would come back and sa if ou felt strongly about this and you had
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stakeholders that felt strongly about this, show me the plan -- say, okay, go for it. But,
remember, if this fails and it fails big it's done for a very very long time and I hesitate to
risk failure of that level, when it would have repercussions down the road when we
really need something like that. That's my thoughts on that.
De Weerd: Well, I guess I go to Councilman Rountree's -- when I looked at the survey,
too I didn't et uite that same. I know the public transportation was rated as the
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lowest cit service, but we don't have it. So, that was kind of a no brainer. When asked
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the o en ended uestion of what would you like the city to do better, traffic still was 27
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ercent of those res onses. Public transit was four percent. So, again, dust going off of
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the surve , I don't know what the public's appetite for --for this particular question as in
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ma be we need to do some survey monkeys, get some more -- seek more additional
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information, but I do know the publics appetite for taxes period are not -- its -- there is
no appetite.
Zaremba: Not that I want to keep arguing the point, but we apparently did read it
different) . I saw 68 percent rated it as very high in their priorities. Either the top priority
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or their second priority. So, I will have to find that again. But, at any rate, I think I m
ettin the answer that I was asking for and that is that even with a good plan you don't
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feel this would be the time to put ~t on the ballot. Is that a consensus?
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Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 59 of 60
r~ Bird: Madam Mayor?
Rountree: It would be mine.
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: That would definitely be mine. I could not support it at this point.
Zaremba: Thank ou. I'm lad I asked the question and I appreciate all your thinking
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o n it.
Rountree: But if ou want to develop a plan and put it in your hip pocket, that might be
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somethin that VRT can look at as they develop their regional plan for Meridian.
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Zaremba: I would be happy to do that.
Hoa lun: And, Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree -- I think what Councilman
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Rountree 'ust su ested is ood advice, because, you know, there is not an appetite for
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taxes and eo le are oing to be hit by higher pump prices, gasoline, and now you have
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a conflict, ou know, I'm paying more, what can I do about it and there might become a
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time where they go, you know, transportation --public transportation --
,~, Zaremba: Get out of the car and get in the bus.
Hoa lun: Get out of the car and -- and, then, we might be behind the curve if we don't
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have a Ian on moving something forward. So, being proactive from that standpoint ~s
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robabl worth the effort to go through that exercise and prepare something and, then,
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when that iron is hot that's when you strike. So, something to consider.
Zaremba: Thank you all.
Item 7: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Thank ou. Okay. Item 7, future meeting topics. Anything in particular
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Council would like to see down the road? Very well. If you think of any we will have this
on our agenda again next week.
Bird: I move we adjourn.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 60 of 60
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:17 P.M.
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