HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-03-08E 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
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting March 8, 2011
A workshop meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 7:05 p.m.,
Tuesday, March 8, 2011, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Brad Hoaglun, David Zaremba, Keith Bird
and Charlie Rountree.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Anna Canning, Tom Barry, Tracy
Basterrechea, Mark Neimeyer, Steve Siddoway, Brenda Sherwood, Stacy Kilchenmann,
Robert Simison, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: I'd like to welcome you here this evening. We appreciate you joining us.
For the record it is Tuesday, March 8th. It's 6:00 o'clock. We will start tonight's meeting
with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
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.
Hoaglun: A couple items to note on our agenda for tonight. Under 4-K, the Consent
Agenda, that resolution number is 11-774. And under 6-A, Department Reports, that
resolution number is 11-775. So, with those two additions, Mayor, I move adoption of
tonight's agenda.
Rountree: Second.
•
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 2 of 60
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
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
I. 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
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
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 3 of 60
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
De Weerd: Item 4, Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: As noted under the Consent Agenda, Item 4-K, that resolution number is 11-
774. And I move approval of tonight's Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk
to attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is
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
you is a resolution 11-775 appointing Matt Stoll to the Seat 7 of the Parks and
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
knowledge that he can bring to the Commission in the form of pathways and certainly
from the family perspective as well. So, in front of you is his letter of interest. I'm open
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 --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I just would comment that I'm thrilled that he would be
interested in applying and look forward to his expertise and skill. I think this is
wonderful.
Rountree: I agree. And with that, Madam Mayor, I would move that we approve
resolution 11-775 and welcome Matt to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. If there is no discussion, seeing none,
Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: I thought I would at least get the vote over before I asked if there was any
comment from you, Matt. Would you like to make any comment? And maybe introduce
your family.
Stoll: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you. My name is Matt Stoll. I brought
with me my wife Silvana and my children Emma and Ellie. Appreciate the opportunity to
serve on the Commission and I look forward to it. I thought this was a great opportunity
to give back to the community in a way that will help my family, but also help the
community and utilize my skills and knowledge that I have acquired over the years. I do
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 going to Settlers Park this afternoon one thing I did learn is that I need
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
6. Economic Development: CORE Update with Earl Sullivan;
Chairman, The CORE
De Weerd: Thank you. Well, thank you, Council. I appreciate that. Item 6-B is our
economic development. I will turn this over to Brenda, who will also introduce our guest
tonight.
Sherwood: All right. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'd like thank you for
giving us this opportunity to update you a little bit on some of the activities that we have
been involved in. Tonight we decided that we would focus a little bit on the Core for a
couple of reasons. First of all, because I had talked to you in October when I gave you
my strategic plan and said that we would come back and look at some of the
measurables and, then, number two, because we are benefited by Earl Sullivan being in
town and not traveling, so I thought it would be nice to hear from him. And, in addition,
just since there has been so much activity in the Core, there has been a lot of press in
both the news and the newspaper, I thought that it would be important for them to -- for
you to update you on some of the activities within the Core. One of the things that we
talked about in October when I gave you my strategic plan was we were looking at
measurables. Obviously, we want to make sure that we are getting the best value for
our dollars in a time when we are coming out of the recession and we want to put our
money and our efforts towards something that's going to produce the most activity. So,
here I am talking about businesses that we have retained, businesses that will be
expanded, and also ones that we attracted into the Core. So, we are looking at a base
line of how many companies are actually in the Core and, then, we are also looking at
how many jobs will be created within the Core as well. And, plus, you know that I have
that love for statistics and at the end of the day I like to be able to measure everything I
do. We have a new Core map. It's not new, the boundaries are the same, but thanks to
planning it's been updated and we were able to send this map over to the Department of
Labor and their GIS specialist worked with me to actually look at the jobs that are in this
map. So, the green area is what we are going to be talking about. So, here is how we
broke it up. Now, this is not a science and we, basically, pulled out some of the
industries that we thought were going to be specific to the Core. It doesn't mean that
next year when I give you the next strategic update that we can't go back and say here
is another industry that we are looking at. We might end up being surprised. We might
end up with a manufacturer in paper goods that are coming in to work in the Core. We
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 really take a good look at. So, obviously, healthcare and assistance --
healthcare, there is 60 establishments, 2,096 jobs. Now in the city -- I wanted to give
you actually the full number and I know I have it here somewhere. But the full number
is about 4,700. So, we actually have quite a few healthcare jobs that are in Meridian,
just not represented directly in the Core. So, that's healthcare. In healthcare we are
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 6 of 60
looking at doctors, St. Luke's, of course, is represented in this number, other providers
for healthcare. So, specifically, doctors, rehabilitation, those kinds of offices. The next
one is manufacturing, biotechnical, and medical manufacturing. Now, these we pulled
out -- believe it or not those 17 establishments -- a good portion of those are in the
dental industry. So, we have quite an array and with ISU's, you know, new dental
school there is, obviously, a lot of activity. We have about 363 jobs in manufacturing
now, that's one area that we are hoping, as we target some of the medical
manufacturers, to definitely increase. Educational services. Now, I just pulled out
higher ed, but today the Mayor and I were talking about that it might also be good for us
to go back and look at the local schools, the District Two, just because we -- there is so
many initiatives in healthcare, so we might be able to look at some of the jobs that will
be created as they expand along with ISU. So, right now we have three colleges and
167 jobs. Professional, science, and tech services we have 34 establishments. Now,
when we talk about professional, science, and tech services, those are primarily things
like attorneys, management corporations, those types of areas, not so much technical.
When we get into like PKG's, that's in the biotechnical. So, technical services are more
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
something growing we can still kind of gauge that. Anyway, that's it. That's our
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 you about what -- the activities that are going on in the Core, I think we will see quite
an increase in some of these numbers. I'm pretty confident with that. So, anyway, are
there any questions for me?
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 you all know, has been quite the driving force behind the Core and he is going to tell
you a little bit about some of the activities the Core has been engaged in. So, thank you
for your time.
De Weerd: Thank you. Hi, Earl.
Sullivan: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for having me here tonight.
My name is Earl Sullivan, I'm the chairman of the Core and I'm here to give you a little
bit of an overview of what we have been doing over the past several months. I believe
you're all familiar generally with the Core, so I will run through the first part of the
presentation rather quickly. It outlines what we are trying to accomplish and spend a
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 7 of 60
little bit more time on some of the recent activities and follow that with some questions.
So, the Core is a health and research technology enterprise corridor. We all know that
healthcare is going to be a significant spend over the next decade or more and we are
focused here creating a core competency in this health and research corridor. Currently
we have a website at www.thecoreidaho.com. In early April we should be launching a
much more dynamic website that will have a better assessment of our current
membership banners for some of our key members and givers, as well as a lot of
information that goes back and forth in social media and other formats of updating
people on a more proactive level versus a very static website, which is what we have
today. Brenda just went over the map of the Core and so we are all familiar with the
general area. It was -- the Core's vision is apublic-private partnership and that's really
important. This is -- it's key that we have both the private and the public sector involved
in this. This is a large economic development effort that we are undertaking and getting
the city, the educational universities involved, and other public and private enterprises is
going to be very important for the -- for the success of the Core. We also have a fair
number of existing assets, as Brenda just outlined, with the current businesses that are
in the Core and a lot of very good infrastructure. This particular area is wired very well
from a utility standpoint and from a services standpoint. It sits in close proximity to the
airport, has a good access to the freeway, services, service businesses, so we really
are establishing an enterprise corridor in a very favorable area. So, our goals are to
grow jobs, foster economic growth, develop quality healthcare science education and
recruit new and build companies. When you break that down it's really creating a core
competency in the area for health and research to create an eco system so that we can
grow these healthcare companies and as companies look at relocating, as they look at
growing they pick this particular area to be their home base. We want this to be a really
vibrant area, an area that people look to that to go for education and health-related
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 capital, Core education, and the access to specialized workforce, Core data and the
access to the type of resources that are necessary to grow companies. So, we want
this to really grow into a vibrant community. So, currently the Core leadership -- myself,
I'm CEO currently at Connects Med Pro Systems, a software healthcare company here
in Meridian. Bill Cannon, who is the CLL of PKG, User Interface Solutions, who is -- just
broke ground on a nice campus here in Meridian and the Pinebridge Medical
Community. David Santa from RBC Wealth Management. Dennis Baker, who helped
put that deal together with PKG. Kathy Moore has recently joined us in place of Pam
Bernard, so that's a change in our organizational structure. Kathy was the CEO at West
Valley and is now running the operations at St. Luke's and is a very dynamic and
energized new member to our executive board, so we are very happy to have her. John
Francis from MWI. And Joe DeVare recently from Washington Trust Bank. Again, we
bring in a broad range of people, we take a very broad view of health and want to make
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
to you and talk to you about national economic development, but we have to take baby
steps first. We are working on encouraging networking amongst education institutions.
We believe that one of the keys to success is not only having ISU, but BSU and U of I
and other economic -- or educational institutions involved and want to bring them into
the Core in a model similar to what is experienced in eastern Idaho under the Kay's
model with the Center for Advanced Energy Studies. We actually have a meeting this
Friday with the VA to discuss how we put BSU, ISU, the U of I and the VA together in
the Core to create a similar model for us. Create an environment that's supportive for
entrepreneurs and create that core competency in health and research. So, recent
activities. I, obviously, have a face for radio, but I ended up on TV. There was a nice
article that was done on us in the Statesman talking about a recent trip to China. A lot
of people question how this benefits Meridian and I think that it's really important to
understand that we have a very large growing economy in China, they are in desperate
need of services and products that meet a western standard and anyone that wants to
do business in Chengdu under our contract will have to become members of the Core.
This is a very large undertaking to build a medical park and all the associated
businesses in Chengdu. We have turned in a 40 page scope document to the Chengdu
Media Group, is a branch of their government, quasi-government, if you will, and we
anticipate hearing in late March as to the next steps for this. This will take a national
effort for us to put this together with a lot of different companies to come together and
we look at that as an opportunity to attract attention to Meridian, to the Core, and to
what we are trying to do and, again, anybody that would want to work in China under
our contract would have to become members of the Core. It gives us a national
presence in some respects. We participated PKG's groundbreaking. We were one of
the speakers and got some very good time to express how we work with companies and
help them develop in the Core. We are in a membership drive right now. We have
currently 13 dues paying members. Complex Care. Mike Fenello at Complex Care was
the latest addition joining this past Friday at the trustee level and we are looking at
adding one to two a month at this rate. There we go. Thank you. We have regular
meetings with the three VPs of research and tech transfer, including hosting the hosted
social event. We find it important to communicate with all of the different educational
institutions and we find them to be very proactive and productive in discussing how they
would help us. We have had regular meetings with Don and his staff at the Department
of Commerce to keep them involved in what we are doing. I was recently a participant
on the HERC committee, awarding the 330,000 dollars in educational grants from the
Higher Education Research Council for technology -- early stage technology coming out
of the universities and so as a member through the ITC and our code relationship with
the ITC, the Core had a seat at judging those and providing some feedback on which --
which research projects got funded at 50,000 dollars each. So, that was something that
recently happened and will be announced shortly if it hasn't already been announced
through this recent session with the State Board of Education. We are in the process of
developing an Angel Fund in the Core. Part of our Core membership benefits our Core
capital and access to capital that includes money in, like Angel Funds or Community
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
company get moving. We are in the process of talking to accredited investors in the
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 9 of 60
local community to have a fund located in Meridian focused on health and research, not
-- not specific to that, I mean we can't say that it's only going to invest in health and
research, but focused on that for the community that is trying to grow in this area. We
have established social media groups for the Core that will link with the new website
that's coming out, which links Twitter and Facebook pages and we will add Youtube and
Wordpresser blogging later this month. We have talked about the website. We have
worked with ISU's Bengal Solutions, which is a more seasoned group of MBA students.
These are people who have been in business and have gone back to -- for not an
executive MBA, but a true MBA, and are working through what's called Bengal Solutions
to help us develop a workforce plan for the 2011 year for events that we can do that will
demonstrate to our members that we have accomplished something of value for their
membership dollars. So, they are going through all of our different benefits right now
outlining five to ten different events that we could do that would demonstrate some
success over the course of the year and it will help us drive to kind of an action plan for
three or four of those in part of their participation in the Core. We have looked at hiring
a PR firm to help us develop web content and increase the image of the Core in
Meridian. It was a great opportunity with China to get in front of the news, both on the
press and television, but I think we need to expand our reach a little bit broader and
somebody who is more of an expert at that is probably a better use of our time than
myself. So, we have -- we are working with a local firm to try to very carefully craft that
message. We are working with Boise State and Idaho State on a research symposium
that the Core would be a co-sponsor of that would help teach researches how to
commercialize the technology without messing up their patents or their -- their
intellectual property and it's one of the challenges that both Boise State and Idaho State
have expressed some frustration at. We have also advised Boise State on their
technology showcase that's happening on March 10th, helping them outline what should
be involved and being a -- kind of a liaison to give them some guidance on that
particular function, because there is a healthcare component to it. And we have also
started to outline a budget and seek funding for an innovator workshop, which is a new
educational program for entrepreneurs, kind of similar to what's going on in Boise with
the Cohort program, aprogram -- 12 month program designed to work with an
entrepreneur on a monthly basis to give them some additional resources to help them
with development of their business. And I promise this is the last slide. Met with the U
of I law clinic and established a relationship, they are very interested through their Boise
campus to come up here and help us with education for entrepreneurs and businesses
on different law matters free of charge to help stimulate the growth, work on different
types of legal documents at a very reduced rate for Core members. We have also met
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 go and write something about the Core member, get some information about the
company and, then, we would publish it on our website and have it available for other
people to see and that's coming free of charge through the BSU technical writing
program. And, as I said, we are meeting with Denny Stevens at the VA on Friday to get
them involved with the Core. So, it's a -- it's kind of a rundown of this last -- the last
three to three and a half months. We are -- we have a good group that's -- that's
focused on developing the economic area of health and research in Meridian and I'm
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 10 of 60
excited to be a part of it. I'm very happy with the support the city's given us and I
appreciate all the -- both emotional and fiscal support that the city has provided. So, if
you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.
De Weerd: Thank you, Earl. Any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I have no questions, but it's great to see the things you have
accomplished in the past few months compared to our previous indoctrination, so to
speak. You're doing some excellent activities and I look forward to some of the
successes that you're going to have. Appreciate your effort. Good job.
Sullivan: Well, we are an all volunteer force, so there is a lot more people behind me
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.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I just want to echo -- first of all, thank you for your leadership in this
and it is -- it takes a lot of people to make this happen, but it wouldn't happen if folks
didn't step up and say, okay, let's -- we are going to commit to this and do it. So,
appreciate that. I just had a question when it related to the Angel Fund. I was just kind
of curious for the health and technology field, access to capital, how is that going these
days, especially established companies versus the start-ups, I mean are the established
companies okay for access to capital? Is it dicey like for a lot of other folks or -- where
are we in that particular arena?
Sullivan: I think the capital markets in general are tight all around, both from a
traditional capital standpoint, as well as venture capital and private equity, all the way
down to Angel capital. The Angel capital market typically focuses on the pre-revenue,
early revenue companies, and we would hope as the Core develops that we would add
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 expressed interest by accredited investors in the community and
in the state in general. The state of Idaho currently has one documented Angel Fund,
the Boise Angel Fund, which is a bit of a misnomer, I mean they -- they are part of the
Rain Source Capital Group, which is out of Minnesota. I happen to personally be a
member of that fund and we are, compared to states of similar size, significantly behind
in our number of Angel Funds. The Dakotas have six to ten funds apiece and we view
this as more of an effort to raise awareness of the ability to access capital than to real
lack of access to capital. People -- entrepreneurs who are scrappy typically go out and
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March 8, 2011
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find the capital. What we want to do is provide a resource where they can go to a
consolidated format for easier access to that capital and, again, as we expand and grow
we would like to add a CRA fund and a venture fund and have private equity companies
get involved and get interested, but in general I think that across the board access to
capital is a little bit tight right now and our intent is to increase awareness.
Hoaglun: Okay. Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: You might also add -- one of our members NWI had identified agap -- a
workforce related gap and through the Core partners they were able to respond, bring
people to the table to have the discussion. It wasn't necessarily the solution was one of
the Core partners, it was actually outside of the Core, but that is one of the benefits as
well. ISU is also working on a pharmacy -- bringing their pharmacy MBA and looking at
bringing it to Meridian. As we talked earlier on in Workforce Advisory Council a couple
years ago, identified in the health sciences you can have a specialty and have great
medical expertise, but not necessarily know how to run the business and so by bringing
some of that business expertise to support our existing businesses, but also to help
train in that area, they are looking to expand that option to this campus as well.
Sullivan: And that would be for all of their allied health. I mean I'm married to one of
those clinicians who doesn't quite understand business, so I personally experience this
on a regular basis. Their idea is to provide that MBA type program early on to the
pharmacy program, but to expand it to all their allied health programs and we -- and it's
a very good point, we look at education across the scope. INW needed veterinary
technicians, which is a hard asset to find in the valley, it's a hard asset to find, actually,
nationally and we got our Core members together to try to solve the problem in the
Core. We couldn't in the time frame that was necessary for our Core member, so we
went outside the Core to a still regional local community college to get this resolved.
That taught our Core members in the educational component something about speed to
market and that was helpful for them I think and we solved the problems for the Core
member, which was ultimately what was important. So, we look at this educational
component, again, just like capital education for the students and the people who are
coming out of specialized workforce development programs, all the way up to CEOs
and, you know, entrepreneurs like the innovative workshop. So, we want to provide that
access to education throughout the process.
De Weerd: Just an excellent forum to support the businesses that are here today and
work to give value, as well as to be an attractive place to bring your business. Well,
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
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C. Finance Department: Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Audit Report
Presentation and Acceptance with Eide Bailly
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item under 6-C, I'm sure we will have a riveting report on
our audit.
Kilchenmann: Well, I noticed the huge audience we have. Before I --
Bird: You didn't do such a good job. We have an audience.
Kilchenmann: Before I introduce Kevin I wanted to give thanks to an employee of mine
that's -- I'd like to take credit for the audit, but she's really the audit captain, the audit
pilot. She hates public recognition, so it's with special joy that I brought her here today.
But Rita Cunningham, our employee -- or our controller has really taken ahold of the
audit. She -- she guides the whole audit process, she understands how to create the
reports, she kind of masterminds all of our assignments throughout the audit period, and
she also -- because we don't have an administrative assistant type person she also has
to format and type the audit, including all my messy stuff where I transferred graphs and
the very picky requirements for the fund has to be just right and dashes have to be just
right, et cetera, so I really wanted to recognize her, because the city does owe her a big
thanks --
De Weerd: Yes, we do.
Kilchenmann: -- for the work she does.
De Weerd: Thank you, Rita.
Bird: Yeah. I'm glad you said that. But, you know, she -- her and Kevin I think are
probably the two that started this audit down its way in 1999 I think was our first audit --
or'98 when I come on board and got it going and I think those two have been heading it
up and I know Kevin don't as much anymore and Rita does more, but we do appreciate
it, Rita, what you do. I have always appreciated what you do, young lady. Thank you.
Kilchenmann: I'd really like to introduce Kevin Smith. He's our audit partner from Eide
Bailly and we really appreciate his staff, who make us sweat in the most kind and
professional way. So, without any further discussion I-will turn it over to Kevin.
De Weerd: Thank you, Kevin, for being here tonight.
Smith: That's quite an introduction. I have never had one of those. I am happy to be
here tonight and I was kind of thinking about, you know, going back in history a little bit
and, you know, some of the process and, hopefully, you guys will recognize some of the
improvements that have been made and that is, you know, contribution of those two
ladies that sit behind us today that -- you know, that put this together. You know,
several years ago there wasn't anyone who could come close to putting the document
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together, now -- you know, one of the things I do want to point out is that we have -- we
have what we call our past adjustments, which are amounts that we come up with
during the audit process that are not of a significant nature, so we don't actually make
journal entry for those and in this year there were two and they are closely related --
they are both related to capitalization of copy machines, so, you know, they come in as
operating leases and they really should be capitalized and those two amounts -- or one
of them is about 17,000 dollars and one of them is 28,000 dollars. When you put that in
perspective of your financial statements with net assets of -- in excess of 300,000
million dollars, hopefully that gives you some assurance that, you know, in any given
month, you know, your financial statements of 300 million dollars may be off by 17,000
dollars. So, you know, hopefully, that kind of helps you see, you know, the big picture
and when you're making decisions, you know, in this meeting that you're making it on
accurate financial information. We did issue an unqualified or clean opinion again this
year and as I have mentioned before there are other types of opinions that can be
rendered and we do issue other types of opinions and, you know, the most common is a
qualified opinion, if we had some variation from the unqualified or clean opinion, and
that just means that, you know, maybe something is not -- we are not able to audit it as
common practice, it may be fixed assets that haven't been -- you know, just hasn't had
the records or kept track of them over years and so we would say everything is okay
except, you know, fixed assets, which we were not able to. So, you know, in this city --
of this nature we are able to audit everything and we do, we are pretty thorough, we ask
a lot of questions, we ask for a lot of documentation of the amounts and -- and they
provide them in a very timely and efficient manner, which helps us to get through our
required, you know, documentation in a timely manner also, so we appreciate that. We
also issue areport -- two other reports this year which is a little bit different than prior
years because of the federal money. The federal grants that come this year were
approximately 800,000 dollars. Anytime you receive over 500,000 dollars in federal
money you're required to have additional procedures done related to federal grants and
so we had some additional procedures and you will see some additional reports on the
back of the financial statements. One of them is related to internal controls and we
assess an internal control and we do process on internal controls, but we don't issue an
opinion on internal controls, but I can tell you in our procedures it's very very clean. We
look at the processes and procedures and what is outlined in the manuals and, then, we
do procedures to see that they have followed those processes and procedures and
that's, you know, who handled the documents. When an invoice comes in the door, you
know, who handles that, who records it, who approves it, who signs the checks and,
then, on receipts the same thing and when money leaves, you know, how is that -- how
is that handled. And so we kind of flow chart that and make sure that there is proper
segregation of duties, that it's being handled in a proper manner. And we also issue a
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
requires additional audit procedures and so we -- we select samples of that federal
money they have specific guidelines of what needs to be followed called compliance
documents and so we assess those compliant documents and go through additional
procedures related specific to that federal money, making sure that it's spent the way
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 14 of 60
the grant was written and in the way that it should be -- it should be spent. There was a
new pronouncement that come out this year related to governmental accounting that
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
required to be recorded in the past, but this year with this new pronouncement it was
required to add that to your balance sheet and so across all funds that equaled about
seven million dollars, approximately, and with that seven million dollars we didn't have
to go back and add that one, but it was just added this year and, then, you know,
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 everything from 1980 on and so they went back and found all those easements,
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
significant deficiencies that we -- was necessary to bring up and, you know, those would
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 --
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
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March 8, 2011
Page 15 of 60 .
spike in those connection fees and water and sewer when, you know, housing was
booming and, you know, commercial was booming and people moving in and you had
all these connections, but, then, you can see it going back down and we are just almost
the exact same place where it was ten years ago. The last thing I wanted to kind of
point out on page 16 -- as we did the audit procedures, you know, we not only looked at
the actual, you know, what happened, you know, actual expenditures and revenue, we
also looked at the budget, because we know the budget is really what drives a lot of
those, because that's what -- that's what the plan was and one of the things that I noted
on both of these graphs as we look at personnel expenditures and governmental and
also the operating expenditures and you notice that they are under budget, so there was
really some, you know, efforts to control the spending and, you know, part of that control
-- you know, that's why your net assets in your fund balance increases each year is, you
know, the revenue, you know, is from specific sources and some of that you can't
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,
continue to earmark those fund balances and those -- those net assets for those
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?
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Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
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Bird: Oh, yeah, it is on. Again, another nice job by our staff, by your staff, both. Kevin,
we appreciate the work you do. It's very nice. Very readable for a dumb person like
me.
Smith: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Bird. Any other comments or questions?
Rountree: Just a big thank you to everybody involved, particularly Rita and Stacy, and
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
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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
departments. As you have seen in the graph they all come in under budget, under their
actual, it's down under budget, which shows that they realize how important it is to stay
within a budget and even come back and give some money and I don't think -- I don't
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 Department Joint 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
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March 8, 2011
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be a safety hazard if someone were to veer off the road, they hit that, the sign breaks
away, and you go any bigger than that you need a dual post and, then, you're dealing
with right of way and private property owners to plant those things in the ground. So,
have another slide I will show you the locations, but to just kind of keep the progression
moving -- then a small monument sign, which we are just kind of in infancy stages, I
think, is probably the right way to define that, with what these signs may look like and,
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
major corridors when you come into Meridian. State highway off ramps from I-84, those
types of places where you get large volumes of people and you expect a lot of people to
be entering your community via those corridors. So, some of the lesser corridors, like a
McMillan say, we would do a smaller sign, maybe a small monument, or just atwo-by-
three sign. But the larger sign would be on the larger volume corridors. So, that's kind
of the hierarchy of the sign structure that we will be working in or talking to you about
tonight. The sign locations -- and I realize this map is going to be hard to read, so I did
print off a copy. It's a little bit better. But I'll hand that out for you here. So, in addition
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
proposing to install about 27 signs at the -- at or near city limits. What you got in front of
you now is the map that you see on the screen, as well as a descriptor for those signs.
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
signs and they will say what side, generally, an intersection they are on. So, that's kind
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
annually. So, we will take an inventory of all of the annexation ordinances that have
gone into effect and notify ACHD, hey, we need to move this sign back a quarter of a
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 ACHD, 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 they don't conflict with regulatory signs, like speed limit signs or stop signs,
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,
again, if the Council decides that's the direction you want to go. So, this is the initial
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
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March 8, 2011
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-- I think I failed to mention in the initial phase is we would put all of these two-by-three
signs -- even where we may show an ultimate or a -- excuse me -- a small or a large
sign in the future or the initial phase you have, we would propose to at least initially start
with all these locations having -- excuse me. When I say all these locations I'm talking
about all the yellow locations. So, for example, on the on-off -- or off ramps from I-84
onto Eagle Road we would still propose to put up a smaller two-by-three sign initially
and once we design and have acquired the larger sign we would, then, replace that with
a larger monument sign that's yet to be designed and constructed, so -- but, again, the
build out would be as the city limits get to our periphery we install these signs. I will let
you know that some of the signs at the staff level we envision working with private
property owners on maybe partnering with us to give us a key intersection to maybe put
a larger monument sign, but most of these are in the ITD or ACRD right of way is what
we are trying to do is try to keep them in -- in the right of way where possible. We do
have some ability, too -- as we see new applications come in for annexation that are at
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 you to install or assign somewhere on your frontage a welcome to Meridian
type sign. So, just want to throw that out there, too, that this is something that the
Council likes. We can work up some development agreement provisions and I will let
you know we already have one currently in effect -- one development agreement that
requires that. So, it would be at the northwest corner of Chinden and Linder, the Knight
Sky development, there is a development agreement provision and they offered to
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 for me 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 ACHD 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 that for 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.
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Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
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Zaremba: Great. Thanks. And, Madam Mayor, just another observation. On signs that
are going to show the population, we might want to have numbers on wheels, sort of
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 question. But I would say as Caleb kind of alluded to, one of the things that we --
you will see in our proposal -- we are actually going to propose not to put any population
numbers on the signs that are in Meridian. They will still be on the interstate as part of
the interstate part so when you're driving down the interstate, but that's really the people
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
they are traveling from Kuna, Eagle, Boise, Nampa, in and around our community. So,
population probably isn't as important we felt as a group on -- at that level, just to kind of
give you some -- a little bit of point. But part of the reasons also why we felt that these
signs were important is a lot of people don't necessarily know when they are traveling in
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
Mayor's recommendation, atask force and we -- the people that have gotten on the task
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
signs were and that's what Caleb kind of showed you to say here is where we think
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 sign would be. As Caleb kind of pointed out, that -- that is the size
at which ACHD 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 ACHD 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
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give you some ideas. And we really haven't talked about this at the task force that we
have gotten to yet, but just want to give you a couple of ideas that came to Brian in the
Planning Department during his spare time. I would hate to see what he could do if he
really put some thought into this. But he just said, hey, here is a couple of ideas. He
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 signs that a lot of communities have are typically wider in an area -- I think
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,
you notice we aren't using the Meridian logo. It is really kind of the star and swoosh and
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, ACHD 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 sign won't work. I definitely want to have a -- you know, a yes, this
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is a go from them before we purchase these signs, but this -- this has been a couple
weeks -- couple three weeks ago now that she said let me talk with Dave and I will get
back with you. So, I will follow up with her. But all indications are they aren't subject to
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.
I would -- on the ones where the swoosh kind of hangs out, t would suggest that we
think about both safety and vandalism. Those parts are likely to either get broken off or
-- if they are not way overhead it would be a safety issue for people that might run into
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
question I would also ask for feedback on is whether you like these or whether you tell
us, you know what, we really like the welcome to Eagle signs that they have or we like
the statue. If there is a particular type of thing that, you know, gets Council's attention,
you know, there is, obviously, a funding issue and the larger you go the more expensive
it is and we will always want to keep that in mind, but, you know, this -- we do plan on
going back and start working with the Arts Commission on what something else might
look like and sign committee, but we appreciate any feedback that you might have, if
you have a particular type of welcome sign that Council would think would work for our
community.
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor. I want to follow u, Robert. You said something at the end
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,
although may be a wider two post, as opposed to something like this. I -- what -- how
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 design elements, but -- with the recent park signs that showed the star and the
swoosh as their kind of identifier and I don't know if that's the parks -- I assume that's
the parks department's direction to go more towards the signage, but we have talked
about incorporating whatever we end up doing in a monument sign if we can with the
park signs and even with signs that might identify the Core or downtown, you know,
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what would be that unifying component and that's how we realized the monument sign
discussion is going to be larger and longer and we didn't want to try to hold up the
rectangular signs going up in our community at this point in time while we try to work
through what unifies as much as we can signs throughout the community might be for
parks or downtown, et cetera.
Hoaglun: Okay. I just want to be sure, Madam Mayor and Robert, that -- not binding it
to this style, but just to make sure the theme of the elements are within that sign and,
then, they can make it how it fits for what they need it for, so -- okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Additional questions? Comments?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, Ijust -- to Robert's comment about what do we think about
this, I'm fully confident that the subcommittee can come up with some design
recommendations and I really don't want to comment on that at this point in time. But I
would suggest that you do keep into consideration things like maintenance,
replaceability, safety, as Councilman Zaremba mentioned, and those kinds of practical
things, because as we get potentially a large number of these, you're going to be
replacing letters, you're going to be replacing foundation pieces and whatnot. So, that
needs to be considered in the entire concept and ultimately the cost factor is going to
have to be considered.
De Weerd: And I guess tonight -- and giving direction to that committee is do you like
the idea of extracting the star and swoosh and using that in it or do you want to use the
logo that is also on that slide with the Meridian, Idaho, and, et cetera? That would be
helpful direction I think for anything the sign committee would do from this point forward,
but also it lends to the same discussion of the sign we brought to you about a month
ago of -- regarding the Diane and Winston Moore Pathway. We used the star and the
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
practical. The other one with the swoosh hanging out, it appears to me like that's just
asking for somebody to hang something on that.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Rountree: So --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I'm agreeing with Councilman Rountree as well, but while I like our logo and I
think it's attractive and it's a good thing on the smaller signs that are going to be on a
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post, if we tell the committee it's got to be the logo, then, that pretty well establishes the
shape of it. These -- the taller, slender monument aren't the shape of our logo, so
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. They can use either/or in
how you want to bring something back. At least leave the creativity to -- to fully explore
all options.
Simison: Assuming that these signs are okayed by ITD, was there general consensus
on those -- on those signs if we want to move forward with those? And you will
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 they are acceptable or not?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Hound? Be diligent. Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think they -- I think they look nice, but they are three by twos; right? Three wide,
two tall?
Simison: Roughly. Yes.
Bird: Yeah. Yeah. I think they look nice. I don't know how you're going to stick
something that big on one post, but good luck.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: I know that ACHD has -- had really examined what we were proposing and
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 largest
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 satisfy me.
Simison: They are a little bit tall. They are 18 -- 18 by 24. So, it's not -- it is -- they are
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.
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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.
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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 --
or properties 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 1'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.
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.
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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.
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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 recission 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
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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 2007 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.
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,
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because, again, this city's the party and we have allowed them to do that without
enforcing the -- the breach clause of the agreement, so it's the same. If your decision is
on the two that are in front of you, then, it requests an extension for us to not take action
today, we don't have to, nothing changes and we can take action on the others and
that's perfectly fine and nothing really changes either way.
De Weerd: Any other questions? Any other questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just to go through that spreadsheet again, the Villas at Lochsa Falls, they did
contact you, however, you just didn't receive a letter, but they want to retain their DA.
They haven't signed it, of course, but did I hear that correctly?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, when folks called us, Council
Member Hoaglun, what we said was Council may consider allowing you to sign your
DA, even though the time has expired, but you need to be prepared to commit to
meeting those obligations on the DA and I think that that's why -- although some folks
contacted us, not everybody sent a letter and is requesting that they still be allowed to
sign the DA. I think that some of them just can't commit to signing the DA. For some of
them they have a -- there is a monetary obligation to hook up to sewer and water, so
that overrides their desire to continue the DA.
Hoaglun: So, Madam Mayor and Anna -- so, there may be some hesitation thinking if
they sent the letter they were, then, committed to that course of action, which, yes, they
still want to pursue that project as outlined in the DA, but there is some reluctance on
their part to -- to incur a financial obligation at this point in time?
Canning: Exactly. And it's generally tied to sewer and water. So, they would rather just
redo the annexation application for 1,200 dollars, rather than paying the 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 extensions 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 says one year, so I'm
looking for the other one and I'm almost there.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just a comment. It was interesting when I asked Mr. Sullivan
about access to capital for health and technology corporations and he said it's still tight
and I didn't realize that would kind of play into this, but I can see where some of these
projects -- because these are -- you know, banks are taking a different look at things
now and anything with risk associated, they pretty much want everything risk free. Well,
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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 no way 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,
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 and/or 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 -- 1 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
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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 they would have an opportunity to at least let you know that they were interested in
still signing their DA.
Hoaglun: Okay. Madam Mayor. And I see on the Whitworth letter that it is a request
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
through with your department to -- to get this one done to bring it forward?
Canning: If the desire of Council is to have them do a DA mod, which is what the code
says now. It didn't when they went through the process, but what the code says now is
they can do a DA mod. If that is the desire of Council, then, yes, we have a process for
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
murky and we can maybe work through the murkiness in six months, as well as the
applicants in terms of their financing and willingness to move forward with the projects.
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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.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just. my sense of it, I think that's a good action to take for
tonight.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm just going to briefly show you a
copy of the letter I sent. This is the one in Mr. Sgroi and it, basically, say the City of
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
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. months when you're trying to get financing or something. At the scale that they are
going to be asking for.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I just want to -- the six months, my understanding, was that
we have two letters here tonight that they are interested in an extension and they would
have up to six months to decide if that is what they wanted to do for certain and, then,
they could file for that extension through our process. And the other two -- and I'm
interested in allowing them the same thing, because I want to be sure they understood
what this was about and what could happen to them. They contacted the staff and I
want to make certain that they want to continue with what they have on the books now
that they have that opportunity and, again, that gives them up to six months to decide
what they are going to do. And if they decide not to, then, it's withdrawn and they are
back to square one. But I mean if we want to go a year, great. I think six months is an
adequate amount of time, because, then, that extension, as I understand it, Anna -- and,
please, tell me if I'm wrong on that -- that is for an additional two years; is that correct?
Or is it one?
Canning: There is -- we didn't put a time limit on them. They are a contract. They are
-- it's difficult -- and that's why these aren't as clear as code usually is, because this is a
contract you enter with the owner and we try not to put too many sideboards on that
contract, because they take all different shapes, sizes, and forms. So, you could
decide, you know, that it's something you may want to let live for five years, if that's your
desire. Or you may want to give it a shorter time frame, because you want to
encourage them to move forward more quickly. So, we didn't put any specific time
frames on it.
Hoaglun: So, Madam Mayor, we are being intentionally murky on some things, so --
okay. Got you.
Canning: Don't tell the attorney that, but yes.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I have been one that was on the side of saying that the original DA needed to
be signed within six months and it keeps getting extended and extended and, then,
ignored. Like any contract, it's not a penalty. If you don't sign it it's just void. And that's
not punitive, it's just -- it didn't happen. I don't want to call it a penalty, I want to say if
you haven't signed it in six months -- or in two years now, apparently, is what we are
doing, it's void. But I also would agree that perhaps we should have a system like we
have time extensions for plats that the director can kind approve a year extension and,
then, if there needs to be a second one Council has to approve it. But, like I say, I don't
consider it a penalty, I just -- it dies after two years if it hasn't been signed.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just so I'm clear, the ones you're talking
about giving an additional time period is Grau, Villas at Lochsa Falls, Sgroi, and Goff
and if I understood Council Member Hoaglun, it's just an additional time period for them
to either go forward, sign the development agreement, or bring you -- bring to planning
an application for an extension and we are going to, essentially, extend the ability that's
in the code currently -- that, basically, all we are doing is allowing them to use the
process that currently exists for anyone to apply before their time period has expired to
allow them to request an additional extension. These other ones -- and if I understand
the discussion, but some of these ones as you can see, like the Ten Mile development,
that's seven years old. So, it's not like it's -- like they are waiting around for financing, I
think some of these are ones that they all have lapsed for a reason. Some of them, like
said, we got back a notice that wasn't deliverable any longer. So, I don't know who --
who is even available. But I mean if that's -- if that's your direction we could certainly --
we could certainly manage that and, then, if Mrs. Canning feels like we need to look at
amending the UDC to allow that to at least put in there that the Council can extend that
provision of the code to anyone. We could certainly look at doing something like that. I
just -- I'm always cautious about getting to sort of undefined when we grant this sort of
thing. But here because it is such an odd duck, rather than just sitting out there, we just
felt it was necessary to clean these up and this is a way to get that done.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: My comments were actually directed at clarifying or modifying the UDC.
support Mr. Rountree's suggestion for tonight. What we do tonight I agree with what he
suggested, but I'm -- in a long-term revision of the UDC I would to see it be pass-fail,
with a possibility of a time extension like we do with plats.
De Weerd: Okay. I think that gives direction as far as moving forward and what would
happen further down the road, buys time for four to -- four of these items to come back
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 development, Ten Mile church, Benelli Springs, Shaylee Estates, Matador Sub
and Fignut and that the remaining four, Grau, Matador, Villas -- no. Excuse me. Yeah.
Bird: Not Matador.
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Rountree: Grau, Villas, Sgroi and Goff be notified that they have six months for
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, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Canning: Madam Mayor, I'm sorry, can I ask for a clarification, just so we are clear. So,
they don't -- if they just want to sign the DA tomorrow that's not an option, they need to
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 get a feel from
Council on the director time extension, the initial one. Is that something Council, as a
whole wants? I didn't hear much discussion on that.
Rountree: I would say make it similar to what we have with subs and you have the
discretion for one year --
Canning: Okay.
Rountree: And I agree with what Mr. Zaremba said, to clarify language about the two
years for the DA, that it -- at two years it's done if it's not signed. That way it doesn't
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, you have got
the discretion for a year and after that it comes back to Council.
Canning: Okay.
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Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, Anna, you have on that -- it says under item two for owner to
file a D.A. modification application -- do you mean a DA extension application?
Canning: The code says that the extension is a modification.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
F. Parks and Recreation Department: Discussion on Tully Park
Snow Cone Stand Proposal
De Weerd: Very good. Thank you. Okay. Item 6-F. I'll turn this over to Mr. Siddoway.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We are here tonight to
engage the Council in discussion about an idea to add a snow cone shack in Tully Park
and seek your feedback before moving forward. We see this as a potential revenue
source, but, more importantly, it's an amenity that a lot of people are interested in. We
currently have -- most people know the snow cone shack that exists in Storey Park. It's
not actually owned or managed by the city, it actually sits adjacent to the -- to 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 amenity there. We do have our own
concession stand that sells snow cones in Settlers Park. It's very popular. And soon
we will have one in Kleiner Park as well. We took this discussion to the commission last
month, discussed it with them, they were very interested in it, asked us to move it
forward and based on another location that we had taken them, they asked us to
consider some alternative locations, which we have done and I'll let Colin address that.
You have a handout that Colin has prepared. Colin's been coordinating with vendors for
our department at Settlers Park, for movie night and related things. He's had some
interest expressed to him in this and brought it to me and, like I say, we took it to the
commission, now up to you for some discussion. If you like it we will move forward. So,
with that as an introduction I'd like to turn the time over to Colin Moss to present the
idea.
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 Storey Park, Tully Park is really
our most popular park. We have the skate park there, we have two picnic shelters that
are booked pretty regularly and, then, we have two softball fields that are used for
league games Monday through Thursday and Fridays a lot of times, as well as weekend
tournaments every once in awhile and so there is no doubt that there is some desire
from independent contractors to utilize this facility and so you know, I want to start out
by saying that we have -- we have no doubt that we will have takers for this -- for this
location and that we will -- we will get several bids to operate it. And as Steve also said,
we originally had a different location proposed. The original location -- and hopefully
this works -- was -- okay. So, the original location was -- no. It's not working.
Canning: Let me help you.
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Moss: Well, the original location was, basically, just up and to the right from where it
currently is, facing the pathway. So, in between the playground and the sidewalk. Our
commission had some input on that we -- that they did not want, as people are standing
in line to receive their snow cones, didn't want to be blocking the pathway and so myself
and Steve and Elroy Huff and Mike Barton met at Tully Park and talked about this new
location and so, you know, the proposed concrete pad there would be ten feet by 12
feet, which would accommodate a building that the contractor would bring in themselves
and that -- to put in that concrete pad, as well as bring electrical to that site we estimate
that would be about a thousand dollars. That would not require a budget enhancement.
We would be able to do that with current funds and, then, I did some research on how
much we can get from a lease for a snow cone shack in other places around the valley,
get anywhere between 100 to 300 dollars a month, depending on location, and so, you
know, using some conservative estimates we think we can get 200 dollars per month for
this site. We also think a conservative estimate for power usage is 50 dollars a month
and so using those estimates we would recoup the cost of construction within two years
and, then, after that, of course, it would just be all profit for the city, albeit not a lot, but it
would be profit, as well as, like Steve said, it would be a great benefit to the park we
think. So, the dates of operation tentatively would be May 15th to September 15th, the
beginning date being when it's kind of starting to get nice and, then, the ending date
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 go into the
process besides what's just laid out on this proposal. In going out with an RFP we
would -- we would have certain specifications from bidders that would require, you
know, a certain look to the building. We want it to be esthetically pleasing for the park.
We also require that the building be removed from the park at the end of the summer, it
it's not just sitting out there all year long and so, you know, between September 15th
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 questions at this point
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 year contracts
with -- like awarding contracts for services for over a year?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, it depends how
we craft it. Yes, we can.
Bird: I mean we can craft a way out, but we can do that.
Nary: Yes.
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Bird: Colin, my idea on this is I think it's great, but I don't know why we don't put an
RFP out and let whoever is successful do the concrete themselves, bring the power in,
put a meter on it, so we don't have to worry about collecting any of that, that's all out on
them, and just get a monthly fee. And I don't know if they remove -- I know they remove
the stand at Storey, but I know that -- they don't remove that during winter?
Moss: No.
Bird: You're right. It is still sitting there. Yeah. And I don't know why we would want to
remove -- that's kind of like having some kind of a stand that isn't going to be blown over
or something, you know, if it gets a high wind. So, it would be attached. But I would like
to see an RFP out. I'm sure you have lots of interested people that would apply to it and
let them do it. Let's just take whatever you think is a fair monthly deal -- we have no
costs, we have got revenue. You have specifications, don't get me wrong. You specify
how the concrete is, you know, and you specify what kind of building, what it's like, 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 guess my -- my
first question to that -- because they are putting so much money up front -- I mean as
you just asked Mr. Nary about along-term contract, we would be looking about, you
know, five years or so.
Bird: Three to five years. They are going to recoup -- they are going to recoup their
cost in at least one year, probably, because snow cone has a very very good profit
margin and if it takes two years -- I can give them a five year contract, as long as there
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 year, it's based with the
owner of the --
Moss: A couple thoughts I had was just if we are asking them to make the initial
investment it might be difficult to also ask them to do a monthly payment to us on top of
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 -- everybody that goes into
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 building, they don't --
they don't deduct your rent for the first six months or anything else if they have done
that. I think -- Steve, Ithink -- I think you will have quite a few takers on something like
this that would be happy -- I mean, you know, what's a thousand dollars -- and maybe
let's say 1,500, plus the price of a building, which most of them's got one anyway that's
going to be doing it or have -- it's going to be a deal they are going to come in and set it
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down and they are going to have to put a meter in, bring electrical in and pour a pad.
And you know --
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just to question that -- and I don't know if you know the
answer, that is if we are going to put a requirement that you have to pour the pad, pull
the electrical, and do that, are we going to have only one or two people interested in it,
as opposed to if we do that pad and the electrical and they just come in and set up their
stand and operate, are we going to get five or six people to bid? And my question, then,
is what -- what's the criteria for determining bidder -- for the bidder? Is it how much rent
they will pay or is it revenue sharing, what -- if we were to pour the pad, what's the
criteria to determine who gets the bid for this?
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, I 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 they are able to provide
us with. Yeah. And, you know, we would definitely want to have a look at the building
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 type situation than just straight
revenue sharing, just for simplicity sake,
and calculate percentages. If we just d
expect.
Hoaglun: Okay.
so we don't have to gather monthly receipts
o a flat monthly rate, then, we know what to
Siddoway: One thing I was going to say is what we currently do with the contract 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 automatically if he performs to our satisfaction. So, it's --
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 -- you don't want any part of
that revenue sharing, because snow cones is 99 and 9/10s percent cash and there isn't
always a receipt.
De Weerd: I guess I would be concerned with the building itself, having it sit out there.
At Storey Park there are eyes on it year around with the chain of buildings there. In
Tully not necessarily. It is in someone's back yard somewhat in particular in that
location, but I would be concerned having an unoccupied building or whatever there
through the winter months and so I'm not really sure if it's something that should be
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 suppose we can
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discuss that, but, you know, if it needs to be permanently affixed, but with the Tully
skate park there and over -- you know, it would basically be vacant for, what, six to eight
months --five months -- or seven months of the year and just having it vacant that many
months I think would make it prone to vandalism. So, our first inclination is to have it
removed during the off season.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Question for Bill. Having a building built on site or brought in on site by the
vendor and the pad and everything done by the vendor, does that increase, decrease
our liability exposure, as opposed to the city providing the pad and the power and,
essentially, leasing that space to an individual for a fee?
Nary: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Imean -- Council Member
Rountree, yeah, it certainly is a little bit of a mixed bag when you're -- they are going to
want some coverage for their investment or we are going to want -- versus right now, at
least the way the industry appears to me, is these are either portable or semi-portable
buildings that are placed on private property, like parking lots, that are sturdy enough
not to blow over, but can be removed if necessary and I would imagine Fred Meyer or
Maverick get a release of liability from the owner. So, if something happens to that
building they are not responsible for it. That seems pretty easy to do. This one is a little
different if we are going to have them build a pad and construct a pad there and, then,
release any liability for it in our park if we have to get an easement -- it sounds -- it's a
little -- I hate to use the murky again -- it sounds a little more challenging and I guess we
need to talk through that. We could certainly --Imean to follow up on Council Member
Bird's idea, I mean there is certainly nothing that says we couldn't put out an RFP and
see what is out there in the marketplace and like Council Member Hoaglun raised, you
get one or two and they don't seem to be very viable or it doesn't seem like a very
practical way, we could always reject those bids and go back to this proposal of
constructing at least the basics, since it's our park -- you know, I mean we are really just
one step different that Settlers .here is what's being proposed, because Settlers there
was already an existing building, we just put a vendor in it to operate. Here we are
actually asking the vendor to bring the building to operate. The other thing -- and I
guess I'm not clear -- we had a brief discussion this afternoon about this, but I think this
is going to -- because it's not our building and we are asking for this temporary use
building, I'm not sure how our parks code and temporary ordinance requirements are
going to interplay with that. But I really haven't thought that and whether that's going to
matter whether or not they provide the building or they provide the infrastructure and the
building, whether or not that's going to make any difference. I think our intent is if a
vendor has got a proposal really it's from about June fish to about September 10th'ish,
we want someone to operate this facility in the park and we could probably work
through a majority of those issues, but I mean you raise a great question. I really don't
know at the moment if -- how much someone is going to be willing to either release
liability or want some assurance from us about security and things like that on their
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•
•
•
building. We certainly get vandalism in Tully Park now and this is just another attractive
thing to get vandalism for. So, that's certainly a risk.
De Weerd: Thank you for making it more murky.
Nary: You're welcome.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Well, regardless of whether we did, but the pads and the electrical or what we did,
whoever is going to operate it is going to give you a certificate of insurance and they are
going to have to have the health department insurance, which you'd want, whether you
put it up or you don't. I just felt that -- I felt that, you know, we could -- we could put up a
revenue income which -- without having to put out any cost and, you know, that would
be pretty nice -- sounds pretty nice to me. And if we think we can do it 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 partial to the original proposal that we
build the pad and they remove it -- they put the building out and they remove it during
the winter. The only thing I would ask is are we thinking big enough. I mean do we
want to -- what else besides snow cones can we sell there and do we need a bigger pad
if somebody says, gee, we could -- I mean I probably would not want cooked food
prepared there, but there certainly are a lot of other things that they supply besides
snow cones if -- if the pad and the building were big enough.
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Zaremba, in doing my
research the snow cone stand that's over at Storey Park, they actually sell bottled water,
pop, ice cream sandwiches, several different things. I mean whatever you can store in
a freezer or fridge. I mean they have -- they have that there and so it's a possibility.
They are certainly not limited to snow cones and, you know, essentially, that is a --
that's adiscussion we would want to have with the -- with the winner bidder or, you
know, that we would want included in the bid process to where they would -- our bidders
would tell us what they want their menu to be and we would use the menu also as a
deciding factor, because we would also be interested in having a large variety of
products offered. Yeah. We could certainly have more than snow cones.
De Weerd: Well, while we are working at making this more complicated, when you
mentioned all these additional ideas, the idea of power came to mind and what they
additionally plug in. Is there a way to individually meter their power, so the power
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wouldn't be part of the lease, it would be more their responsibility in addition to what
their lease was? See, just another --
Moss: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I -- there is a way to do that and I -- I
know that at Storey Park that is the case right now. Western 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 that's -- that's certainly an
option and so I suppose we would have to decide, you know, if we wanted to go that
way would be -- would we have the occupants pay for it, as Mr. -- Mr. Bird suggested or
would we put the meter in there and then -- I guess my only -- my first thought is that if
we do our lease on an annual basis that we are changing over the name on that -- on
that power on -- you know, depending on -- because right now the one at Storey Park,
it's been the same occupant for years and years and years and I don't 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 -- quite regularly if there is different people bidding
different amounts. But Ithink -- that's a possibility.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: There is a power line that runs just to the south of that back 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, individually put a thing on it, and to change it over you
make one phone call and I'll guarantee to the person that don't have it that's given the
bill will make the phone call to say somebody else has got -- responsible on it. I just -- I
think that we are -- we are providing a location for somebody to have a very nice small
business. Why should we put out a bunch of expense to start it up? Let's see if an RFP
-- let them ,put the expense out. The less we have to do with it -- we just take in rent
every month, great, Steve. And make sure they do it to our specifications.
Siddoway: I would just say, you know, the power is even simpler than what you
suggest, because we -- when the park was actually designed and built years ago it was
actually anticipated there might be a pay phone there at one time. It never actually went
in. But power was run to this area with the idea that something might be there and so
right next to this pad site there is power underground available to be tapped into.
Bird: But that power comes off of our box and we don't want any part 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 it 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, I --
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March 8, 2011
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Siddoway: We can find that out.
De Weerd: I guess if -- we can put this back on. There is a couple more information
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 great. Why can't you guys get with your liaison and get an RFP -- some kind of
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.
Siddoway: So, you're saying go ahead and move forward with the RFP and, then, bring
-- 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.
Siddoway: That's why we are here now, because they are chomping at the bit for this
spring.
Bird: Let's get it going.
•
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Rountree: Madam Mayor, I would suggest that we sit down and do an RFP and bring
the highlights back to Council for consideration and get it out the door and it look
something similar to what Mr. Bird is talking about for the initial go and see what kind of
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
you need and -- do you need a drain? Do you need a sewer hookup? I don't know.
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
saying you want to see the draft before it goes out or -- I think based on the
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.
Siddoway: Okay. We will put it out for the vendor to construct and see what kind of a
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.
Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We have good news for
you this evening with regard to water rates and sewer rates. We were able to get our
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March 8, 2011
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presentation down to 67 slides. So, thought we would just let know. We are really
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.
Barry: We wanted to make sure we weren't murky this evening, so -- no. Actually, we
do have some great news and I think we can keep this brief. The finance director and
myself are going to co-present to you the recommendation this evening. Let me go
ahead and first get started by letting you know kind of what's on the agenda tonight. We
are going to first talk about the fund status. That will be Ms. Kilchenmann and, then, we
will talk about the current model projection, what -- how we model, what the
assumptions, were, just to get you back familiar with how we developed the model. We
will do a little bit of fund reflection, looking back three years and also looking forward to
the next five, provide our formal recommendations and, then, finally Stacy will follow up
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 report, so you have seen these graphs, so I will just, basically, review them. The
first one is, again, directly taken from the audit report that we always show you and it
shows utility sales versus operating expenses. So, our goal for this graph is to have the
revenue exceed the expenses, which we haven't had for a few years, but we are
pleased that this year we actually are showing a trend. So, for FY-'9 it's -- it started and
in FY-10 we did have a positive revenue effect there. So, the next graph, again, is the
one that you see every month when you look at your financial statements and it's the
unrestricted net -- or the net assets compared to unrestricted fund balance. So, it
mirrors the rapid growth in the Enterprise Fund and our efforts of putting infrastructure in
place and, then, it also looks at the funds that we have available to do all the things we
have talked about, the depreciation fund, unrestricted balance and operating fund and
emergency fund and we can show how we started to go down in unrestricted fund
balance and now the fund balance is stabilized.
Barry: Great. Thank you, Stacy. We will jump right into the model. As you know we
have been using for the last three years a rate projection model that we developed in
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 making sure that it's calibrated and whatnot and so we will just go through
some of the inputs here that we included in the model for this year. We upgraded -- or,
excuse me, updated our operating reserve to reflect what the Council had decided for
us last budget cycle and those are the numbers that appear on the screen. We made
some reductions in the capital transfer and water. We found that we didn't need quite
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as much capital revenue based to upcoming capital projects for the five year period.
Wastewater was modified slightly with regard to the capital transfer. We continue to use
depreciation, straight line calculations. The water depreciation amount was 1.7 million
at the start of the five year model run and, then, 2.1 million by the end of the model
period of 2016. Wastewater is 2.6 million at the start of the water -- or start of the model
year period and, then, 3.2 by the end of the five year period. I have talked to you before
about regulatory reserves and the Council's decided the last two times I brought this up
not to include a regulatory reserve. I am going to make the recommendation again this
year to include a regulatory reserve and I will show you a little bit more about that as we
go. Whether we formalize that reserve or not, the money would still be available in the
ending fund balance, so it's not really a big deal. We just wanted to earmark it so that
we kind of set it aside and we can do that informally, you know, just on paper internally.
In any event, what we did run in the model was a two year accumulating reserve for the
wastewater fund component of the model so that at the end of the five year period we
had ten million in a regulatory sort of earmark or reserve account and, then, again, at
the direction of City Council we developed a five million dollar emergency reserve for
the entire fund. So, those were the inputs. The assumptions that we used to run the
model are pretty typical or similar to last year's. The population growth factor was
essentially, nominal at 25 percent. The growth factor for the personnel is mostly related
to the PERSE increases, labor, merit increases, those kinds of things. So, we reflected
that at three percent each year in the five year model period. Construction costs inflator
based on the five year E&R average, 3.4 percent included, and, then, we aligned our
operating expenses with our historical execution rates, which is really key in making the
model run this year. We had not done that in the last two years and I'll touch on that in
a little more detail later in the presentation. The approach that we used this year is
similar to last year's and the years prior. We utilized the leverage capital financing
strategy. We attempt to anticipate our current revenue needs based on future
operational capital, depreciation, and now regulatory requirement needs and we
approached the model by trying to avoid this scheduled rate increase. So, let me go
ahead and just share the results of the model run with you. The nondesignated fund
balance, which is really what we are most interested in, is plotted here on this graph for
you and it shows that -- again, we separate the Enterprise Fund for -- internally. It is
one fund, but we have managed it internally as two separate funds, again, on paper and
the undesignated or nondesignated fund balance for water begins in 2011 on this model
run at about four million and takes a dip in 2013 and, then, ends up at around three and
a half million or so. Wastewater starts around ten and a half million at the beginning of
the model period and, then, decreases slightly and ends the five year period at about
7.8 or 7.9 million. So, the total what we call undesignated or nondesignated fund
balance begins the five year model period at about 14 and a half million and ends at
about 11 and a half million and that's the yellow line on the very top of the two other
lines that you see there. So, what's important about this is -- can be detailed in the next
slide. You will see four lines here. The dark blue and the dark green lines, which are
above the light green and the light blue line, depict the difference between last year's
model run and this year's model run. Now, you may recall back in 2008 when we first
started this modeling, we had this sort of reverse J curve and it was pretty steep and it
bottomed out right around the 2012 time period and what we are seeing here is that
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moving forward from that particular point in time we have reached what we categorize
as a stable period for the Enterprise Fund, given the impacts and the assumptions that
we have used in the model and that's important, because that's where we want to be
going forward indefinitely. We'd like to have smaller rises and falls in both expenditures
and revenues and not have to go through a major increase scenario again. Anyway,
what this graph again also shows is that we have performed better than we expected
between last year's administration of the Enterprise Fund and this year's administration
of the fund and that was not by chance. I wanted to remind you by taking a quick look
back at some of the things we set out to do in 2008 and give you a status as to how we
performed to date and why that performance is allowing us to, essentially, not need this
third rate increase. You may recall that more than three years or so ago our Public
Works Department, in responsibly forecasting its revenues and expenditures, realized
that many adjustments were needed in the administration of the Enterprise Fund.
Internally we audited the enterprise fund, both the finance department staff and my staff,
came up with about a dozen and a half recommendations, almost all of which have
been incorporated or implemented. Many of the recommendations appear on your
screen. Some of the important ones were for strengthening the fund reporting and
reconciliation of all Enterprise Fund activities, utilizing our cash position for solvency,
which is how the model is generated and run. Improving our project estimating.
Identifying a Public Works gatekeeper, anticipating better and quantifying capital needs
and developing longer term and more robust capital improvement plans, as well as
facility and master plans. The list goes on, but it's there memorialized on your screen
and we can get this to you, if you're interested, in the detail as well. There were other
improvements that I think are also noteworthy, however. We developed financial tools
and strategies. This model is a great example of one of those -- to improve our
accountability and performance of the fund. We also modified the rates, which was
tough, especially in our economic climate, but it was important and necessary. But we
didn't stop in just trying to increase our revenues, we took aggressive steps to tracking
and trending performance data and using the results of that data to guide improvements
in the delivery of our programs, plans, projects, and services throughout the entire
Public Works operation. We developed a myriad of SOPs and strategies and
technologies, incorporated those into our overall operating system, which has helped us
reduce costs over that three year period. We also reduced personnel costs by delaying
the hiring and in some cases freezing positions. Incorporated energy efficiency into our
plans and operations, savings us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several
years and, then, instituting significant cost reduction strategies and techniques across
the entire department. So, what does that really mean and what does that transfer into
as it relates to our recommendation? I will get to that in a minute. I forgot this last
component, which really you have seen in our strategic plan -- conceptualizes our data
driven decision making process where we collect data to gain knowledge and improve
our understanding of processes, which allows us insight to visualize and ultimately
incorporate improvements known as continuous process improvements or total quality
management into our every day function. So, like I say, what does that mean? Well,
with regard to performance of the fund I'm pleased to report that we have been able to
reduce our capital construction costs over this three year period by 3.3 million.
Operationally we have been able to show a 1.8 million dollar reduction in this last three
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year period. Personnelwise we have reduced our personnel costs over the last three
years by 2.4 million by holding onto positions, as I mentioned. And grants -- although
we have been aggressive about -- more aggressive than we have in the past about
pursuing grants and other sources of external funding, we haven't been as successful in
receiving those. We have only received about 300,000 in the last three years. One
other important note to make -- and I credit the finance department for this also and I'm
not saying something you don't know, but our actual revenue projections over this last
three years were under our actuals, which is a great spot to be in. So, we were able to
pick up an additional 3.1 million dollars over the last three years in addition to our cost
savings or cost reduction efforts, for a total change of around 11 million dollars. So,
those improvements, working hard over the last three years, having an increase in
revenue, having the economy give us some time to postpone some projects, taking
different strategy and different approach by studying what we do and being methodical
about implementing the improvement, has allowed us, as I mentioned, an 11 million
dollar reduction over a three year period, which, essentially, offsets, for the most part,
the need for this third increase. So, we are really proud of that and I wanted to share
that with you. Looking forward, I wanted to give you a picture of what the Enterprise
Fund will look like on a year-by-year basis from 2012 to 2016 and what you see here is
five categories. The lower blue category is just the undesignated fund balance and
what you can see is this black line that I have put on the screen represents exactly what
the model results I showed to you earlier shows. If you bracket that line with the line
above it that I have just added, you can see that that chunk there between the two lines
is really our reserve. Those are the reserves that Council authorized Public Works to
set aside and what you will see is that the reserves fairly closely mirror the trajectory
line of the undesignated ending fund balance. Now, this upper portion here, the very
top or tips of the columns that are light light blue, turquoise, whatever that might be on
your screen, here highlighted in the shaded area, is what I'm recommending as a
regulatory reserve and I want to point out that while it is true we don't yet know all of the
details about what's going to have to happen under our new National Pollution
Discharge Elimination System permit, NPDES permit as you might all be familiar with,
we know that we are going to have to do something and there has been enough
information collected that we know that the EPA is pretty -- pretty set on requiring this
region to meet a 70 microgram per liter limit for phosphorus. And so we feel it's prudent
to begin just setting money aside for that, because we know we are going to have to
comply with it. Again, if we didn't model the regulatory reserve in this particular model
run, all of the money that you see here in that shaded area, would have to be added to
the ending fund balance, so you would see that increase your ending fund balance. So,
it's not really critical one way or the other, but I just wanted to let you know that that's
our interest is to begin still that separate financing for regulatory requirement. One
other thing that I want to mention to you is that looking forward -- you know, we have
this model which projects five years out, but we are going to try to start seeing if we
can't project even farther. Now, it may not be to the detail that this five year model has,
but we know we want to look a little further down the road and so I asked staff -- the
engineering staff and others to put together the next five year capital program list that
goes from 2017 to 2022. And there is some stark realities that we are going to need to
begin to prepare for. If you look at the capital plan that we presented and are revising
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for you again for this year from 2012 to 2016, we have 41 million dollars in projected
expenditures over that five year period. That period again 2012 to 2016. If you look at
2017 to 2022, we have an additional 78 million dollars during that next five year period
that we are going to have to come up with money to upgrade our system. Largely you
can see the majority of that money comes from wastewater treatment plant
improvements, largely driven, again, by more stringent regulatory requirements. So,
this is a 90 percent increase in expenses between the period of 2012 and 2016 to the
period 2017 and 2022. I don't want to scare anybody, but what's important about that is
that as long as we know that, we have now essentially ten years to begin to make
modifications, instead of three, four, or five or in the past one, because we were doing
things on an annual basis. So, there is this concept that we are working through and
the finance staff has -- they will be part of this overall concept and the concept kind of
works like this -- and it's a concept that's used quite a bit by a lot of facilities around the
country and that is you want to have your revenues slightly ahead of your costs to build
up funds, especially if you're in apay-as-you-go kind of financial policy as we are. So,
that the area here where your revenues are above your costs is money that you save
and pocket and, then, you use that money to offset the times where your costs are
greater than your revenues. So, you take that safe money and you apply it to the spend
section there and what you're able to do from a rate standpoint is level out and make
more benign any type of revenue modifications going forward. So, this is going to be an
added component to what we will want to look at as we go forward. So, I just wanted to
stop there and share that little bit of information and let you know that we are thinking a
little longer term, although we are only modeling for the five year period. So, finally, the
recommendation is that there be no increase this year, the third year of the scheduled
increases and that we modify the current ordinance that reflected an automatic increase
in this third year as it did every year prior. That's going to need to be modified. I talked
with Mr. Nary about the need to do that. We have until April the 20th to modify that. I
guess five days before that, because the ordinance takes -- needs to take effect five
days after the ordinance passed. So, we have plenty of time to modify the ordinance,
but if the Council concurs with this recommendation not to increase the rates for this
year, then, there would need to be a change in the existing ordinance, so -- if that was
the case, this is what the rates look like. I mean this is what they currently are and what
we could begin -- or what we would also suggest they be, since they are not changing in
regard to base and usage for water and sewer rates. So, you can see total monthly bills
as well as average family water use and average family sewer use of 8,000 and 5,000
gallons respectively. What's interesting about our demographics is that about 75
percent of all the accounts in utility billing use less than 8,000 gallons of water and,
therefore, an associated 5,000 gallons or so of sewer or less. So, I'm going to turn this
back over to Stacy who will finish up with the future considerations for the Enterprise
Fund.
Kilchenmann: I'm just going to touch briefly on the projects that the finance team and
the Public Works team are going to be working on over the next year. I guess it's
rapidly dwindling to a close. But Ijust -- I think we have developed a system of working
together and when you have engineers and accountants in the same room can you
imagine how exciting? I mean if anybody wants an invitation we will be glad to send
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you one. So, the items we are going to look at -- one is kind of an old pet peeve of mine
and that is looking at the actual composition of the rate structure and our rate structure
consists of the base, which, in theory, our costs that are fixed. Well, usage in theory are
costs that are variable. And in cases -- well, we know in water that really most of our --
our expenses are fixed. So, that's why we see that the usage can vary from practically
nothing to high and it doesn't really change our cost. And so that's something that
have worked with with Brad or we had talked about and it has to do a lot of it where we
move depreciation, et cetera. So, that is something that we are going to address again
and look at is that rate structure. We have a goal, of course, of preventing unplanned
fluctuations in the fund balance and we have a goal that we don't want to do drastic fee
increases again. So, this process that we have started in the last couple years will be
something that we will go through on an annual basis, you know, with presentations at
Council and this kind of in-depth analysis, so that we avoid that. It's not that we won't
fluctuate the fund balance, because as Tom showed you sometimes we will save and
sometimes we will spend. Same thing we have done with the General Fund. But I think
this planning process we will know what we are going to do in the future. Some of the
things that we are going to be looking at this year that we need to get done before the
end of the year, the Fund Balance policy that you need to formally adopt, so we will be
looking at how much are we going to put in depreciation, how are we going to decide
when we spend depreciation, what kind of reserve do we want to keep. I'm sure you all
read the budget policy, because that's in there, how we are going to determine some of
those reserve balances. What we need to develop a policy for where we maintain fund
balances, like at X percent of revenue, et cetera. I won't go into all that, but that's
something that we will be working together to do before the end of the year. We will be
looking at growth. We will be trying to predict assessment revenue. That's a big
unknown for us. As well as regulation, a big unknown for us. But I think we have a lot
of processes in place that will put us a big distance ahead of where we were three years
ago, so --
De Weerd: Thank you, Stacy.
Barry: 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
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to happen by spreading them out, I -- I don't recall that anything was just flat cancelled,
some things were delayed, so as long as we are going to be able to cover those costs
when they come, I think this is excellent.
•
Barry: Mr. Zaremba, yes, we are able to do just you have described and we have put
some projects off and rescheduled the prioritization of others and in some cases
eliminated some projects that we didn't need, because they were either combined or
elements of them were no longer needed. But, yes, we don't see any major issues with
carrying forward the capital plan as we have described it.
Zaremba: Cool.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I just want to commend Tom and his staff for the work that
they did on this. They put a lot of effort into finding ways to -- to avoid that 30 year
increase. They understand the economics out there, what people are going through,
and they really went through things with a fine tooth comb and we appreciate that and
everything you have done, Tom. Thank you.
De Weerd: Yes. And we appreciate that you and finance are on the same page. Love
to see this dual presentation as well. Yes, I'd like to reiterate the message to your staff
for working diligently at seeing how we could avoid that 30 year increase and balancing
the need of the system and finding those cost savings.
Barry: Thank you.
Barry: Thank you all. We appreciate --
De Weerd: Good. We quieted Councilman Bird this time.
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of th
something Tom said. The fee increases were done by
bring to you is a resolution to rescind that provision of
2009 that required it automatically be done on April 20th.
to you within a couple weeks and you could take action
essentially changing it from April 20th, so --
Rountree: That would be good.
Bird: That would be very very good.
Zaremba: Go for it.
e Council, just to follow up on
resolution, so all we need to
that resolution you passed in
So, we could bring that back
and, then, they could hold off,
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
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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-H. I will
turn this over to him.
Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I will try to be brief. The first item is
regarding the Air Quality Board, which is the local vehicle emissions testing group here.
As you may recall several months ago now, the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council,
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
Valley Air Quality Council a sizeable chunk of money to fund a comprehensive
education program about air quality. The air quality board has now discussed that
request. We have -- or the Air Quality Board in the past has spent or contributed
between 12,000 and 15,000 dollars a year either on in-house education programs or
education programs run by Valley Regional Transit or COMPASS 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
Quality Board meeting, many of us that have been on the board for years have at
different times wanted to make suggestions about general comprehensive air quality
and are consistently reminded we are the vehicle testing program, nobody wants our
opinion on anything else. It grates a little bit to be asked to fund the comprehensive
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
testing vehicles every other year and not testing the first four years, as opposed to
testing every year, the Air Quality Board and our individual station owners immediately
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 change we needed to know more about what the program was going to be. If
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 quality measures. Not idling cars. Not smoking in the parks is an air quality issue.
Covered loads is an air quality issue. Meridian has a number of those things to help
improve air quality. A number of the other jurisdictions do as well have things. There
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
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March 8, 2011
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help us consider how much we would contribute we need to know what their plan is for
this educational process and who else is contributing to it. So, that's a long story, but
that's where we stand.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Real quick, Councilman Zaremba. Did -- in your budget is -- do you still have
budgeted the original 12 to 15 thousand dollars that you contributed in the past?
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
Quality Council to help run their program. The issue is where do we get 150,000
dollars? But, yes, we would -- we would immediately contribute what we have already
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
by how highly public transportation ranked in people's answers to the city survey.
Valley Regional Transit, of course, is putting together some very excellent regional
plans that will be just wonderful, if there is ever regional funding. Spurred on by the
response, I have been thinking about what kind of a system could Meridian have to
serve our Meridian customers and since I have been in the bus business for about 40
years I have actually gone out and estimated some routes and done a little bit of
discussion about what it would take to put together a public transportation system. The
question is how does it get funded. My estimation is if you add together all of the
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
good service within the city with three routes, the total cost of that is about 1.3 million
dollars. If that were to go on the property tax assessment it would cost about 32 dollars
a year for each 100,000 of homeowner value. As the first exemption, which for next
year is 94,000, I originally started thinking, okay, this would compete with
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
way to do it. The right thing to do is to ask the voters how seriously they want public
transportation and to put this on the ballot in November. The issue there is to get it on
the ballot requires a resolution of the City Council that has to occur -- the deadline is in
September. The county would like it sooner than that. So, the question that I am
bringing forward is I am volunteering to put -- use my expertise to put a plan together, to
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March 8, 2011
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gather together stakeholders to make improvements to whatever plan I put up, and my
question is would this Council, after 1 make a plan, be willing to consider the plan and
consider a resolution to put it on the ballot for the public to vote on or would this Council
stay drop dead we are never going to do that? I'm willing to put considerable time into it
and get a steering committee together. From time to time the involvement of city staff
might be occasionally to answer questions, finance and legal might have a little bit more
involvement than that writing the final proposal and writing the actual language for the
ballot might require some legal time, refining the actual numbers would require some
finance time. But other than that I'm volunteering to do the footwork and to organize the
committees and get this going. So, my question is should Ibother -- if I can bring back
a decent plan would you listen to it and consider putting it on the ballot or are you
against putting it on the ballot no matter what I do? There is the question.
De Weerd: Council, any comments? Questions?
Hoaglun: Question, Madam Mayor and Councilman Zaremba. One of the components
whenever you put anything on the ballot for public vote nature is an educational
component, whether it's a candidate or an issue --
Zaremba: Absolutely.
Hoaglun: It's a very large undertaking that's organized and there is strategy, different
things. What do you foresee for an education component so residents have an
understanding when they go to the booth to vote what --
Zaremba: If I'm given the go ahead I will go pick the brains of Shirl Boyce, who was
involved in the CWI ballot as to what is needed. I will use a steering committee to
actually accomplish whatever it is we think we ought to be doing, but I absolutely agree.
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 great deal of voter education. And to put it in perspective, the 32 dollars per hundred,
if the buses can take -- depending on the time of day between five and 45 cars off the
road, even people who never ride the bus are likely to get a couple more green lights
when they go out or get through a red light in one cycle as opposed to two or three. If
that saved them a gallon of gas a week, 52 gallons a year at current rate of three dollars
and something, that's 150 bucks a year they would be saving. So, to be costing them
32 per hundred is actually a savings. That's for people who never ride the bus. So,
mean when you add up the people who do ride the bus they would get greater savings.
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 people who did the CWI program successfully and anyone else that
wanted help.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
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Bird: Councilman Zaremba, I got a question, too. Who is going to finance this
education? CWI spent thousands -- hundreds of thousands of dollars -- or I should say
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 guess. I'm trying to be quiet. Who is going to pay for all this
education financing, because --
Zaremba: You're right. To run such a campaign is going to take some money and I
would put that to the stakeholders and the steering committee as to how we could raise
that. It would be my intention to raise it independently, not from city budget.
Bird: I can seriously tell you that being a family of the survey, the transportation
question was never -- there was never anything asked would you be in favor of
financing it.
Zaremba: That's correct. And that's why I made the decision --
Bird: It's like everything else. Yeah, I think it's great to do something if I don't have to
pay for it.
Zaremba: Well -- and -- and that's why it occurred to me this should be on the ballot
instead of being a budget decision that's made by the City Council and -- and whatever
eventually happens at the legislative level, if some day perhaps we get a local option
sales tax for transportation approved, that would have to go on the ballot as well and I
absolutely agree with the fact that the voters, the taxpayers, should be the ones that
make the decision and it would be up to me and the steering committee to make the
case that would get them to approve it. The one piece of good news is if they vote it
down, then, I will be quiet forever.
Bird: I don't think so.
Zaremba: Well, I will be quiet for a couple weeks.
De Weerd: Well, I guess, Councilman Zaremba, as we looked at -- and we still want to
have further discussion on the transportation element at the senior management level,
we can find that the first question in the survey, the single most important issue -- traffic
congestion was listed as number two, road expansion upkeep number five, and only two
out of the 132 people that listed traffic or roads even mentioned public transportation. I
think some of the savings that you can capture can also be captured in eliminating four
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 57 of 60
way stop sign intersections and timing with the lights, so that you stop the idling cars
sitting at the traffic lights. I think your approach is the right approach, I do not think it's
the right timing. Right now we have so many expansion or improvements for the traffic
system alone in moving traffic -- same trafi'tc that bus would be sitting in, I just don't
want to put the cart in front of the horse. I do agree with you this would be up to the
citizens and any task forces that you would put together to -- to answer those questions.
I just don't want to go out and ask the question before we have the right infrastructure to
layout a successful campaign. So, how you have laid it out 1 believe really is the right
approach. My question more is it the right timing for it, not just the economy aspect, but
even the roads and the system that we would be putting that -- that on.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I guess my only response to that is that if we wait until all of
those improvements are made we will continue to be the largest city in Idaho with no
public transportation for perhaps another ten years, twenty years, and I feel we need to
do something sooner than that. Personal opinion.
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I -- obviously public transportation is an integral part of the
transportation system and I, too, read the survey, but I didn't come away with the same
resounding support for public transportation, but other transportation related issues.
Having said that, I think whatever you do, seeing what's going on downtown right now
on something like this is its -- it's dead on arrival. I don't -- I don't think there is enough
support to justify the expenditure of the money that might go into the education at this
point. I would like to see that money -- and there is talk of an initiative as it relates to
the ability of the citizens to fund public transportation or some other infrastructure that
they might choose through an initiative process. If, in fact, the support that appears to
be showing some possibility of happening this year in the legislature to support local
option's ability to tax for such things as transportation. So, to me the timing -- I agree
with the Mayor, the timing just simply is not right, unless you want to bring the subject
up and I believe get the answer that I think I already know you're going to get with
people -- people aren't -- people will perceive this as an increase in taxes, not asking
whether or not they want a public transportation system, and without a horrendous
expenditure in education I do not believe you're going to overcome that perception of
the voters. I'm sorry, but I think that's -- you have seen it in several things in the past
few years as it relates to anything that potentially could result in increase in property tax
is not favored by the electorate and when you look at it and when you pay it you can
understand why. I agree that the public ought to be telling us whether or not they want
public transportation, but I would rather spend the money on education at some point
when it appears that you might have some chance of getting some general support for
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 county or Pocatello's or whom ever. But Ijust -- I just don't think -- I would
not favor, given the mood of -- of all of us -- I mean none of us want to see any
increases. And it may be tough to talk about when we have to talk about it.
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March 8, 2011
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Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: You know, being on the City Council and discussing city issues and you try to
keep your finger on the pulse of the community and know what's going on and what are
on people's minds and -- and that's why in some ways I hesitate to kind of say, well, this
is what they think because, well, let them take the vote and they can tell us what they
think. But I have to agree with Councilman Rountree, I don't think there is an appetite
for an increase in property taxes. The one exception might be in some education areas,
but that's even iffy in the atmosphere today and that's one that I know the Joint School
District No. 2 has always had strong support, but even I think they would be hesitant to
go out there today for something to increase property taxes and it is something when
you look at long term, what are we going to do public transportation in a bus system and
as it pertains into along-term plan for congestion and traffic flow, but do you do damage
if you do it now and it's a resounding no, is the damage done for such a long time that
there is nothing viable unless it comes from another source or a regional type of deal, or
do we wait and engage when a campaign should be waged and have a chance. Like I
said, I hesitate to speak for the people, because, like I say, you try to have your finger
on the pulse, but you can always be wrong. But Ijust -- my thinking is it's not the right
time to go out there and say, hey, just 32 dollars per year per 100,000 dollars -- folks,
mean you look at what happened on our sewer and water rate increases that we did.
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
say -- I would come back and say if you felt strongly about this and you had
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 get quite that same. I know the public transportation was rated as the
lowest city service, but we don't have it. So, that was kind of a no brainer. When asked
the open ended question of what would you like the city to do better, traffic still was 27
percent of those responses. Public transit was four percent. So, again, just going off of
the survey, I don't know what the public's appetite for -- for this particular question as in
maybe we need to do some survey monkeys, get some more -- seek more additional
information, but I do know the public's appetite for taxes period are not -- it's -- there is
no appetite.
Zaremba: Not that I want to keep arguing the point, but we apparently did read it
differently. I saw 68 percent rated it as very high in their priorities. Either the top priority
or their second priority. So, I will have to find that again. But, at any rate, I think I'm
getting the answer that I was asking for and that is that even with a good plan you don't
feel this would be the time to put it on the ballot. Is that a consensus?
Meridian City Council Workshop Meeting
March 8, 2011
Page 59 of 60
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 you. I'm glad I asked the question and I appreciate all your thinking
on it.
Rountree: But if you want to develop a plan and put it in your hip pocket, that might be
something that VRT can look at as they develop their regional plan for Meridian.
Zaremba: I would be happy to do that.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree -- I think what Councilman
Rountree just suggested is good advice, because, you know, there is not an appetite for
taxes and people are going to be hit by higher pump prices, gasoline, and now you have
a conflict, you know, I'm paying more, what can I do about it and there might become a
time where they go, you know, transportation -- public transportation --
Zaremba: Get out of the car and get in the bus.
Hoaglun: Get out of the car and -- and, then, we might be behind the curve if we don't
have a plan on moving something forward. So, being proactive from that standpoint is
probably worth the effort to go through that exercise and prepare something and, then,
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 you. Okay. Item 7, future meeting topics. Anything in particular
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
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Page 60 of 60
•
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