HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-02-14~~E IDIAN--
CITY COUNCIL REGULAR
MEETING AGENDA
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 3:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted
4. Consent Agenda Approved
A. Approve Minutes of January 3, 2012 Pre-Council Meeting
B. Approve Minutes of January 27, 2012 City Council Special
Meeting
C. Ten Mile/Ustick Intersection Project Cost Share Permit
D. Professional Services Agreement with Kathy Drury-Bogle for
Human Resources Training Services
E. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with Meridian Vet Located
at 421 W. Franklin Rd., Meridian, Idaho
F. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with Settlers Park
Veterinary Hospital Located at 3220 N. Meridian Rd., Meridian
Idaho
G. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with Treasure Valley Vet
Hospital Located at 2600 S. Meridian Rd., Meridian Idaho
H. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with Pet Care Clinic
Located at 1151 E. Fairview Ave., Meridian Idaho
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, February 14, 2012 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.
I. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with the Idaho Humane
Society Located at 4775 Doberman St., Boise Idaho
5.
6.
7.
J. Dog Licensing Agreement with Intermountain Pet Hospital
Located at 800 W. Overland Rd., Meridian Idaho
Items Moved From Consent Agenda
Community Items/Presentations
A. Ordinance No. 12-1503: An Ordinance of the City of Meridian
Amending Title 1, Chapter 8 of the Meridian City Code,
Relating to the Titles, Duties and Responsibilities of Director
Positions Approved (Pg. 3-4)
B. Mayor's Office: Appointment of the Community Development
Director Approved (Pg. 4-7)
C. Private Security License Denial Appeal by Dennis Hogan
Denied (Pg.7-9)
Department Reports
A. Meridian Parks & Recreation Commission: Presentation
Regarding 2011 Accomplishments & 2012 All-Commission
Goals (Pg. 10-13)
B. Finance Department: Audit Report by Kevin Smith with Eide
Bailly Motion Approved to Accept the Audit Report (Pg. 13-18)
C. Mayor's Office: Strategic Plan Update (Pg. 18-28)
D. Clerk's Office, Code Enforcement, and Legal Department:
Temporary Use Permit Code Updates -Proposed Time Limit
Extension for Temporary Sales Units, Garage Sale Frequency
Clarification, and Temporary Construction Site Standards
Motion Approved to Move Forward (Pg. 28-34)
E. Finance Department: Budget Amendment for Project
Management Software for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of
40,383.00 Approved (Pg. 34-35)
F. Planning Department: Discussion on Annexation
Requirements/Concept Plans (Pg. 35-38)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, February 14, 2012 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. Planning Department: Meridian Road, Ustick to Chinden -
Discussion on 3 Lanes Versus 5 Lanes (Pg. 38-43)
H. Purchasing Department Report: Approval of Award of Bid and
Agreement for "NW 1St Street Water Main Replacement -
Construction" to Start Construction LLC., and Authorize the
Mayor to Sign the Agreement and the Clerk to Attest for the
Not-to-Exceed Amount of $88,619.50 Approved (Pg. 43-45)
I. Fire Department, Clerk's Office, and Planning Department
Discussion: Fireworks Code Updates - Application and
Inspection Process, Signs, and Standards (Pg. 45-50)
J. Legal Department: Board of Adjustment Update (Pg. 50-54)
8. Future Meeting Topics
Adjourned at 5:59 p.m.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, February 14, 2012 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 February 14, 2012
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday,
February 14, 2012, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, David Zaremba, Keith
Bird, and Brad Hoaglun.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Pete Friedman, John Overton, Perry Palmer,
Steve Siddoway, Stacy Kilchenmann, Rich Dees, and Keith Watts.
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: -- Council meeting. We would like to welcome you here this afternoon. For
the record it is Tuesday, February 14th. It's five minutes after 3:00. We will start with
roll call attendance. Madam Clerk.
Item No. 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
{Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item No. 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Under today's agenda, Item 6-A, that ordinance is number 12-1503. And with
that noted, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda as printed.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as printed. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 2 of 55
Item No. 4: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of January 3, 2012 Pre-Council Meeting
B. Approve Minutes of January 27, 2012 City Council Special Meeting
C. Ten MilelUstick Intersection Project Cost Share Permit
D. Professional Services Agreement with Kathy Drury-Bogle for Human
Resources Training Services
E. Dag Licensing Designee Agreement with Meridian Vet Located at 421
VII. Franklin Rd., Meridian, Idaho Dag Licensing Designee Agreement
with Settlers Park Veterinary Hospital Located at 3220 N. Meridian
Rd., Meridian Idaho
F. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with Treasure Valley Vet Hospital
Located at 2600 S. Meridian Rd., Meridian Idaho
G. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement with Pet Care Clinic Located at 11x1 E.
Fairview Ave., Meridian Idaho
H. Dag Licensing Designee Agreement with the Idaho Humane Society
Located at 4775 Doberman St., Boise Idaha
I. Dog Licensing Agreement with Intermountain Pet Haspital Located at
800 UV. C)verland Rd., Meridian Idaho
De Weerd: Item 4, Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: No changes on our Consent Agenda
Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
I move approval of the Consent
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. 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.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 3 of 55
Item 5: Items Moved Fram Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item fi: Community ItemslPresentations
A. Ordinance No. 12-1503: An Ordinance of the City of Meridian
Amending Title 1, Chapter $ of the Meridian City Code, Relating to
the Titles, Duties and Responsibilities of Director Positions
De Weerd: We will move to Item No. 6-A, which is Ordinance 12-1503. Madam Clerk,
will you, please, read this ordinance by title only.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 12-1503, an
ordinance of the City of Meridian amending Title 1, Chapter 8, of the Meridian City Code
relating to the titles, duties and responsibilities of director position.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title only. Is there anyone who
would like to hear it read in its entirety? Seeing Wane --
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve Item 6-A, Ordinance 12-1503.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 6-A. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk.
Rall-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Zaremba: Does that need a suspension of rules?
Rountree: That was the maker's intent.
Nary: It should be in the document.
De Weerd: With suspension of rules.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 4 of 55
Rountree: Yes.
De Weerd: Did second not think that he was seconding that?
Zaremba: Second agrees. Yes.
B. Mayor's Office: Appointment of the Community Development Director
De Weerd: okay. Item 6-B under my office. Certainly Council in front of you you do
have information regarding the appointment of our community development director.
Bruce Chatterton is with us today, who I will introduce to you in a moment. We are very
fortunate to have this appointment in front of you far your consideration. We started
advertising far it late this summer and have had several different interviews and as I told
our Development Services, our Building Department, and our Planning Department, is
we were not going to settle until we found the right person and, Council, I certainly feel
that we found the right person for our community. He comes with 25 years of
experience. Certainly has had experience bringing teams together and to a unified
effort and we think that as our first community development director we couldn't have
selected a better person to unify these -- these two departments and start moving our
planning and building and permitting efforts to that next level of service. So, I would
stand ready for any comments or questions.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think it's a great opportunity for the city. Anytime we can take the talent
from our suburb to the east and bring it to -- bring it to Meridian where it belongs, it's a --
it's agreat day. So, welcome to Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you. And I was going to ask Bruce to say a few words, but I will do
that after he has already been appointed, so he can't back out.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was just going to add that I had the opportunity to meet him and see him at
a couple of conferences and have been impressed. I'm very happy to have him joining
us and I'm pleased to be the liaison to the department that he will be creating and
transitioning and look forward to working with you throughout this next year. I think
that's great.
De Weerd: And, Council, I would add that we did have him in to do a presentation in
front of the two staffs, like we have done with the other candidates, and I heard nothing
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 5 of 55
but positive comments at the canclusian of that. Sa, I stand far a motion on this
appointment.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. -- any questions?
Bird: No. I was just going to make a motion.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we appoint -- approve the appointment of Mr. Chatterton to our
community development director.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, the only thing that worries me from a different perspective --
you're going to have him speak after we vote. See, then, we can't change our vote
once we hear him speak, so --
De Weerd: There is always reasons for my insanity.
Hoaglun: But I think he will be okay.
De Weerd: Thank you. Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Bruce, would you like to say a few words? We appreciate you being here.
By the way, his first day is going to be March 12th.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Members, thank you for that literal vote of
confidence. Appreciate it very much. I look forward to working with you all. You know
-- and I have to apologize for looking a little scruffier than I usually do. I didn't -- I'm in
the middle of growing back my beard and so no disrespect intended, please. You know,
one of the things I'm concerned about in talking with the Mayor and her team is this idea
of a motto that you guys are actually putting into -- into reality, the idea that Meridian is
built far business and designed for living. That balance between economic
development and the quality of life, you know, those two things being intertwined.
Family friendly and yet also being business friendly. That's an idea that we really want
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 6 of 55
to explore and I think one of the things I want to paint out and I'd love to -- you know,
with the Mayor's direction, talk with each of you individually is what you all as a group
are -- and individually are interested in. I am not going to be bringing ideas from Boise
or any other place that I have worked previously and try to shoe horn them in as the
solution for Meridian. We have to craft solutions that are appropriate for Meridian's
unique set of needs and make sure that we are solving for the right problem. Sa, with
your help I think we can get there. And, again, thanks so much for your vote of
confidence.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Any questions or ribbing?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, just -- Bruce's outreach to us as individuals and I welcome
that opportunity and would enjoy the opportunity to sit down and talk about what -- what
we have done the past year in terms of the Council and making the decision to combine
these two departments. What I have seen with my terms on the Council and the
directions that we have been going over the years and just get a sense of what you
might be bringing as well, so --
Chatterton: Very good
Rountree: We will make time to get that done I believe from my point.
De Weerd: Well, I'm grateful that Bruce accepted the offer and we are very enthusiastic
and excited to have him on board and to get rolling, because we have got work to do.
Chatterton: Yes.
De Weerd: Sa, thank you, Bruce.
Chatterton: Thanks so much.
De Weerd: And, Council, I would like to take amotion -- or a moment and thank Rich
for taking the reins and pulling the two work groups together into one single physical
space. He did that well above the time frame that I had asked him ta. You know,
actually, half the time frame, I believe, and so, Rich, we certainly appreciate all of your
efforts in terms of bringing these two work groups together and to look at some of the
items and have them well flushed out before Bruce take the reins, so that you can brief
him an same of the issues facing the department. I know you have been in a data
collection mode and -- and certainly Bruce will be the benefactor of that. Additionally, I
would like to thank Pete for the several hats that he's been wearing as we have looked
at the transition and we are real excited about haw this will look in the next several
months to came and I -- I can say that both of the divisions in Development Services
and Planning have been very receptive to ideas, they have embraced the merging of
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February 14, 2012
Page 7 of 55
the two departments, and this is all positive in moving this -- this effort forward. Rich, do
you have anything you wanted to add?
Dees: Thank you, Madam Mayor. No. Just to say thank you very much far your
support. I appreciate it very much. A lot of folks did a lot of things in those first few
weeks and I'm very happy that you have a great team now in Building and Planning and
with Bruce's leadership it will do nothing but blossom. So, thank you very much for the
opportunity.
C. Private Security License Denial Appeal by Dennis Hogan
De Weerd: Well, you were a breath of fresh air. I will say that. So, thank you. Okay. If
there is nothing further on this item, Council, we will move to Item 6-C and it's -- is
Dennis Hogan here? Are you Dennis? Please come forward. Thank you for being
here. If you will, please, state your name and your address for the public record.
Hagan: Dennis Hagan. 822 East Ronel Avenue, Nampa, Idaho.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hogan: I would appreciate any reconsideration for the license application, because I'm
-- it's the first time I have been in trouble in 45 years. The last time that I can remember
ever having anything is -- besides a speeding ticket, which I think most of us have had --
is 1964, three days home from the service and got in trouble right here in your lovely
city. But, anyway, this was a verbal argument between myself and a neighbor lady. I'm
across the street. There is a street separating us and I made a comment that -- it was
out of line. I admit that I did say it. But I don't know that -- you know, I can't understand
haw she heard me, because -- even though I'm deaf. But there was her and another
lady and she was clear up by the neighbor's garage and she even claims she heard my
comment. Well, there was two of them and one of me, so I was having a difficult time
disputing what they had said -- you know, what I had said to her. So, consequently, I
did have to pay the price.
De Weerd: So, Council, you do have Mr. Hogan's appeal in front of you and certainly
he is available if you have any questions.
Hogan: This is my livelihood, too. I just work part time. I'm retired and if I don't get the
license I can't work.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I don't know if I -- I think all you have in
your packet is the appeal letter from Mr. Hogan. I don't know if you need some
background. This is an application -- and if Madam Mayor's okay with it, we can ask
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 8 of 55
Lieutenant Overton to also provide some information. Basically, Mr. Hogan has applied
for a private security license. We do a background check that's required by our
ordinance. What we discovered in the background check is that he has a conviction far
a misdemeanor charge and under our ordinance that's a disqualifying event far having a
license of this type. Having any type of misdemeanor charge within the last five years,
other than a traffic misdemeanor, prohibits you from having a license for private
security. The police department and Lieutenant Overton did the background checks
and has the information on the specific conviction of what that was for to provide you
and that's the basis of Mr. Hogan's appeal.
De Weerd: Lieutenant, do you have any additional information you would like to add?
Overton: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, just to lay a little more
groundwork. As Mr. Hogan has stated, this came in as an application for a private
security license and my job as the chief designee on all licenses is do backgrounds
under city code far the clerk's office and in doing those I discovered the 2009 conviction
of a misdemeanor, disturbing the peace, out of the city of Nampa and that is an
automatic disqualifier under the city code for a misdemeanor that occurred within that
five year period and at that point when I get those I notify the clerk that from the
background aspect of that license application we recommend denial and at that point I
did recommend it to the city clerk's office that the application for Mr. Hogan be denied
and I'm open for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, lieutenant. Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, just a question far Bill. On the appeal of this and the
decision of the Council identified as the appeal process or would it require a variance to
the ordinance and, then, some action on the appeal depending how it went?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, in the
ordinance what it states is that if -- if an application for a license is denied your appeal is
to the Council.
Rountree: Okay
Nary: It doesn't state -- I mean in this particular circumstance we would be having ta,
essentially, waive that requirement of the ordinance and the only way -- the only thing I
could recommend to you to do that is if your direction is you want to change the
ordinance entirely for everybody that applies. In this circumstance, otherwise, there
wouldn't be any other -- there is no mistake or error or time issue that's in error that may
have been a cause for that. So, it certainly falls within the ordinance as it's written.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council? Mr. Hogan, any final remarks?
Hogan: Pardon?
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 9 of 55
De Weerd: Any concluding remarks you would like to make?
Hagan: No, ma'am. I appreciate your time.
De Weerd: Thank you. Appreciate your time, too.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Based an our ordinance and the language in the ordinance, I don't see any --
any reason to establish a precedent where we weigh the merits or non-merits of a
misdemeanor offense that has been prosecuted and there has been a conviction. So, I
would say that we deny the request to overturn the appeal.
Bird: Second.
Rountree: Or we deny the appeal.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Zaremba: Just a question. I'm assuming that there is a time limit an it. Once five years
has past since the offense he would be welcome to apply again?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Zaremba, yes, that's
correct. Five years is our cutoff date. So, once that five years has expired the person
would be --that wouldn't disqualify them any longer.
Zaremba: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. I appreciate that clarification, Mr. Zaremba. Any further discussion?
Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Thank you for joining us, Mr. Hogan, and I'm sure you understand the
precedence that we are very reluctant to set in this. So, we do appreciate you being
here with us today.
Hogan: Thank you.
Item 7: Department Reports
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 10 of 55
A. Meridian Parks & Recreation Commission: Presentation
Regarding 2011 Accomplishments & 2Q12 All-Commission Goals
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council, under Item 7, Department Reports, we have
our Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission chair. Phil, thank you for joining us
today. He's here to give a year end review and kind of an overview of their coming
year.
Liddell: Goad afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of City Council. Phil Liddell with the
Meridian Parks and Rec Commission. A week ar sa ago we submitted a letter to the
Mayor with regards to our accomplishments and our goals for the upcoming year and at
this time I'd like to just kind of review those with you and I will just read, basically, the
contents of the letter and if you have any questions I'll take those at the end. So, each
calendar year the Parks and Rec Commission sets goals and priorities to strive to
accomplish. I'm pleased to report that in 2011 some of the major accomplishments
were as follows: There is three committees, to begin with, as you're well aware and we
ask far each one of those committees to submit an item ar two that they had
successfully accomplished. So, I will read those to you. The park amenities and
signage committee has been focusing their efforts on several goals over the past year.
Most notably they just completed an in-depth assessment and evaluation of each of
Meridian's active and passive park amenities and features. The information will be used
to help determine and recommend the need for new amenities and any other park
modifications or improvements. A second task that the committee has been engaged
with is developing a design far individual park dedication plaques for each of our
individual parks. The vision is to create a prototype plaque that would be used and
tailored for each specific park. Generally the plaque would indicate the park name, a
dedication date, a brief dedication statement, a listing of key individuals and
organizations that played a major roll in the park's development, along with those city
officials who were seated at the time of the park dedication. The prototype has been
accomplished and we are moving forward with the individual park plaques. We plan to
bring this before the City Council early this calendar year and just far your information
that plaque would resemble something to the effect of the one on the outside of the City
Hall here as you enter through the double doors there. The third task has been the
development of a new standard for citywide signage regarding our parks and pathways.
The creation of a new pathway signage for the Diane and Winston Moore Pathway. We
are in the process of several styles of signs from a local sign maker. The pathway
directional signs will include the name of the pathway, along with the city's logo and a
list of recognizable other international symbols indicating activities deemed appropriate
for the pathway. The community liaison committee saw the accomplishment of --
through the dog park task force beginning their quest to raise money for the
development of the future dog park at the Borup property. The task force -- dog park
task farce attended many events seeking donations and raised aver 2,700 dollars in the
first annual bark park scramble last summer. In addition, the committee started the
process of reaching out to the citizens of Meridian, better informing them in regard to
Meridian's parks and pathways through an updated department brochure and approving
online information. The recreation and special events committee took the lead to plan
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 11 of 55
and coordinate one new fundraising activity for last year, which was the first annual bark
park scramble, which was held last May at Lake View Galf Club. The golf tournament
was well attended and we look forward to this year's second annual event and the funds
raised far that will be cherished and put forward to the dog park. In December of last
year, as we do in each -- each December, the commission identified its 2012 all
commission goals as follows: Number one -- first of all, let me brief you how that is. We
go through and plan out -- or list our goals we'd like to consider. Then each one of the
commissioners votes and puts them in a priority order and, then, we add those and
make an average and we came up with this list of priorities. So, number one was the
pathways implementation, coordinating safe routes to schools, working with ACHD
community programs, east-west bicycle connections and the rail corridor. Number two
was work with the Kleiner Park trust to develop the memorial park, to get it completed,
and to open -- and open to the public, keeping the commission updated on activities.
Number three, create a partnership proposal process, an application, a policy. This will
be to work with other agencies in cooperative projects and similar interests, so we can
interact Glaser with these other agencies, whether they be other parks departments or
agencies of some sort. They have similar goals. Start the production of Meridian Parks
and Recreation Department community video, which would highlight events and park
futures and generally profile what Meridian Parks and Recreation is all about. We are
excited about that and that's something that's going to be exciting to see complete.
Refine and implement for property concept plan and continue to work with the dog park
task force to create benchmarks, investigate any potential expansion opportunities and
investigate the feasibility of a softball complex or a rodeo facility. Number six was
improve communication among commission members through combined workshops
and other events, whether they be a social get together in the farm of a party, a
barbecue, or committee workshops, dog park task force workshop, et cetera. And
engage in this type of setting so that we have this cross-committee participation and
unification, if you will. Engage other task force commissions and agencies through
workshops and other outreach. Hald an annual team building event, such as a softball
game or bawling ar a ropes course or some other activity that we still need to shake out.
Implement the park dedication signs at all parks. Like I said before, we are hoping to
get the majority of those to you this -- early this year. Improve external communication
with the public by streaming and archiving commission meetings on the Internet and
updating publications and using social media outlets and forums, such as Facebook,
more effectively. So, those are -- those are the accomplishments from last year and
what we plan to do this year and we are hoping to achieve those -- as many as possible
and, as you know, some of those don't always get accomplished and get carried
through to the following year. So, we will see how this goes and we are excited about
the year and what it holds. 5a, with that if you have any questions or --
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Thank you, Phil. Council, any questions?
Bird: Just a nice report.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 12 of 55
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Just a comment that the goals they have accomplished this past year are
really tremendous far our parks program and their recreation program, but in my mind it
always comes back to the amount of time and the dedication that Phil and the rest of
the commission put into this. I mean they are really and truly dedicated and a
tremendous asset to the City of Meridian. I want to thank you for your dedication and
your time and the value you have actually added to the city in the Parks and Recreation
Department.
Liddell: Well, I thank you very much.
Rountree: You all do a tremendous job.
Liddell: It's definitely a team effort.
Rountree: And I know you didn't see me much last year and I knew what you were
doing and I very much appreciate it and I don't want to mettle and mess up with what
you guys have got going, because it's a good thing.
Liddell: Thank you very much. Appreciate that. We appreciate that you're actively
involved and can attend when you can, so -- it keeps you abreast as well.
De Weerd: Well -- and, Phil, I think that Councilman Rountree speaks for all of us. We
note the hard work and diligence that the commission does and the many
accomplishments you choose -- or you achieved last year and certainly of 4,400 hours
of volunteer hours that the Parks Department had last year, we know that a major chunk
of those was from our parks commissioners. But I think that as -- certainly a model that
people want to be involved and I think that really speaks to the volunteer hours in that
department is people see citizens involved and they want to be a part of it and certainly
if we put out position openings an the parks commission it's always well responded to
and I did think that that's because people do see the energy and synergy among the
commissioners. Sa, a heart felt thanks to you and the rest of the commission and we
look forward to seeing great things happen. I don't know if Mr. Siddoway wants to make
any remarks, but he's sitting over there like a proud poppa ready to burst, so I thought
better call on him.
Siddoway: That's fine. Either way. But I am a bit of a proud poppa or son. I don't know
which.
De Weerd: See, I was more politically correct, Steve.
Siddoway: But the commission has come a long way. They -- we used to have quite a
hard time keeping people engaged on long term showing up to meetings, you know,
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February 14, 2012
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having a full quorum was an issue several years ago, but over the last four years it has
not been an issue and so we have been there aver that time and they are engaged,
they not only meet during the commission meetings, they -- there is so much interest
and involvement that they meet separately outside of those meetings as committees to
follow up on work tasks. So, I commend them for their efforts, thank them for their
service and appreciate you being here today.
Liddell: Thank you, Steve.
B. Mayor's Office: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: Thank you. And so our next department report, Item 7-B, is our Finance
Department and I know Stacy always wants people to talk about the budget and
certainly in an -- in an ever changing world of audit requirements, financial reporting,
regulations and GAAP and all of the many acronyms that fall under Stacy's department,
Stacy has every reason to be proud of her department, her staff that keeps up on all of
these issues and certainly during the audit report is that time to really show the due
diligence of her and her staff and so thank you, Stacy, for being here and I will turn that
--this over to you.
Kilchenmann: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Sa, once again, we
have finished an audit and it was really a lot of fun. We all had a great time. Actually, in
reality, we do appreciate the professional staff that we work with from Eide Bailly and I
will turn this over to our partner in charge, Kevin Smith. Eide Bailly is going to become
Eide something I can't pronounce. They are undergoing a merger. So, I will turn it over
to Kevin.
De Weerd: Good afternoon, Kevin. Thank you for joining us.
Smith: Thank you far giving me the opportunity to be here again, Madam Mayor and
Members of the Council. It's my pleasure to be here and to present the financial
statement for the fiscal year ended 2011 and as I look at this document you made those
comments about the processes and what goes on in the accounting world and the
auditing world and the standards and I was thinking back, you know, a few years ago
suspect -- and I could look back, but I suspect that the document has probably doubled
in size. It's now 60 pages. And I'd say here probably ten years ago it was probably half
that size. So, a lot does happen. But some of it, you know, is not so exciting for -- for
most of the people, but that's kind of what keeps me going, so --
De Weerd: I thought it was Stacy writing the narrative.
Smith: Well, that's part of it. That's getting -- that's getting longer, but it's -- that's great
information and we will go through some of that. Maybe. But with -- you know, as far
as the audit process -- and a couple things right off the bat and I usually leave it to the
end, but to begin I would like to thank those that we work with on a daily basis here and,
you know, so that you know, I do receive phone calls and a-mails and questions
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 14 of 55
throughout the year and sometimes on a weekly basis or monthly basis and I appreciate
that, because that means that, you know, when things come up that they will ask, rather
than maybe struggle or try to guess or try to, you know, find answers somewhere else,
but they will -- you know, they will come to us as a resource and so we are able to help
them with some of those transactions that come up that just aren't your everyday
transactions and we are happy to provide that service during the year. They are very
prepared for us when we come in. It seems like each year is just mare efficient, you
know, from our standpoint. The information is ready. It's available. Documents are
prepared. Reconciliations are done. And this year we had no adjustments -- na audit
adjustment, which is fairly rare in an audit and that's, you know, the progress that has
been made and I know that Mr. Bird, you know, recalls, you know, same of those years
that we had pages of adjustments that were made, sometimes, you know, 20 different
adjustments. So, you know, sitting on the Council the decisions are a lot easier to be
made when there are no adjustments at the end of the year, because that means during
the year, you know, that information is also complete and making, you know, decisions
based on goad information. Also we had no letters of comment this year, which is
another area that, you know, you should be commended on, because that means that,
you know, they take the process or procedures and the internal control systems very
serious and they adhere to those processes and procedures and the ordinances that
have been laid out. There were a couple of -- what we call as auditors -- we call past
adjustments. There was items that were noted of dollar amounts that just weren't
significant to the financial statements. In the governmental funds -- governmental wide
across all funds, the cumulative effect of those misstatements was 17,000 dollars. So,
you know, based on your budget, you know, 17,000 dollars could have -- there could
have been more, but that -- that's just a fraction of a percentage of the amount that
you're working with in dollars. And, then, in the Proprietary Fund, the Enterprise Fund,
the water and sewer, that misstatement cumulative amount was 1,500 dollars. So, it's
nothing. And those are just adjustments that we noted that just -- that we didn't make,
because of the dollar amounts being insignificant. We did issue an unqualified or clean
opinion this year and we also issued a letter related to the internal controls, the
processes and procedures and we da a lot of procedures, tests of those controls and,
you know, find those in compliance, especially as it relates to the federal money. We do
same separate procedures on the federal money that comes in, specifically to the
compliance of those, that that money is spent in accordance with the compliance
requirements that those -- that that money falls under from the federal government.
There was one new pronouncement this year that really had no financial affect, but it's
disclosed in the financial statement and in the opinion letter and it was related to your
fund balance. I think we talked about that in Meridian Development Corp. And part of
that is just the wording of the fund balance under the General Fund it will be a little bit
different. Rather than just being unrestricted and restricted, it is now spendable,
unspendable, and so the dollar amounts don't change, but just the headings or the titles
change a little bit for -- just far the governmental funds. In the governmental fund -- or
stand alone before it is rolled up into a full accrual, there was an increase in fund
balance of about 500,000 dollars and if you look on page 16, if you have the document
in front of you, it talked about, you know, the part that Stacy writes and this is -- this is
the part that her and her staff put together and I wanted to spend a little bit of time just
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 15 of 55
kind of looking at these graphs and these pictures, rather than going through a lot of
numbers. But on page 16 on these graphs it shows, you know, the General Fund and
where the actual revenue comes from and, you know, the bulk of that revenue,
obviously, is property tax, being 61 percent. But, then, on the -- down in the expense
side when you compare the expenses to the budget, it gives a good picture of 2010,
2011, and just note how close those graphs are and sa that means that what you plan
during the year and what's carried out is very close and, obviously, as I look at the
numbers there were very few of those amounts that went over as far as from a budget
standpoint. In fact, maybe not any of them. Maybe there were a couple line items. But
-- so, that means that you set a budget and, then, you adhere to that budget and you
keep track of those funds in going forward and when you amend the budget, you know,
when you have that opportunity to make those changes appropriately and, then, adhere
to -- to those decisions that were made at the beginning of the year and follow that plan.
In the Enterprise Fund, on -- starting on page eight, we have kind of the same type of
graphs. I wanted to walk through just a couple of them and Hate acouple -- couple of
items. Actually an page nine is where that starts. And these trends won't surprise you.
I mean it's the picture that's been painted for the last four or five years. They have gone
back from 2004 to 2000 -- to 2011 and it shows the graphs of -- on this particular graph
shows the capital -- the capital expenditures and, then, the developer contributed
capital. And you can see those as trending dawn, you know, since 2000 -- especially
2007. You know, we obviously know -- know the reasons for those trends. And, then,
also on page ten that you will see the -- invested in capital assets and it's just kind of
leveled out and I suspect we will continue to see that. And, then, also on the
unrestricted fund balance, just leveling out also. And, then, the connection fee on page
11, I thought this one really told the story of what's happened in the community and
throughout -- throughout the nation is, you know, the hook-on fees, which in -- back in
2005, 2006, was significant and, then, that's -- that was the source of the revenue at
that point. In fact, you couldn't hook them an fast enough, you know, the demands were
so great and, then, as you see that trend just are going down and -- you know. So,
those pictures are -- I think really tell the story of what's happened. But also, you know,
with that excess -- the excess funds that you have put away since 2005 and 2006, you
know, when that was available and, you know, put the money away, at some point --
you know, at least I think we talked about this before, you know, those -- the sewer
project, the water project, and the wells, the pipes, the lines, all that's going to have to
be maintained and replaced in the future years and there could be same additional
growth and there has been some really good growth in just the last few years most
significant things have happened, especially in the business sector in the City of
Meridian. And, hopefully, that will continue. There is going to be demands on that -- on
those funds and so, you know, I'd just recommend that you continue to put in place, you
know, plans and, you know, how you're going to spend that money and earmark that
money the best you can, you know, far future -- future growth and future repairs. Any
questions that you have of me?
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 16 of 55
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't have a question, I just gat a comment. Kevin, again, thank you far a great
audit. The timeliness of getting it out. You beat our ordinance time. Right, Stace?
And, you know, Mr. Rountree and I had the privilege of hiring you guys in '98 and you
certainly haven't disappointed this Councilman and I have enjoyed working with you.
You guys have been first class. You have given us a lot of good ways to go always,
have always been helpful to us, and always turn out a first class audit. Thank you very
much, Kevin.
Smith: Appreciate that.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for the partnership, because those calls --
what they have to deal with when looking at the new regulations and laws coming out of
Washington, D.C., and things are changed, to be able to call you and get some
guidance on that, because it is very confusing. I mean it's not clear what comes down
and I know you guys scratch your heads quite a bit and try to figure it out. You
comment about no audit adjustments. That's wonderful in your letter. The comments.
That's great. They did a great job. But I do have to say they do complain about some
of those things. They have ta. Sa, it's not without complaint that they do these things.
But they do them and they get them down and do it right.
De Weerd: Finance complaining?
Hoaglun: I'm sure -- I'm surprised all departments don't {unintelligible}, so -- but we do
appreciate that partnership and the ability to access your work and the knowledge and
that of your firm, so -- anyhow, I was just curious and my one question is what -- what is
Eide Bailly becoming. It's not Eide Bailly Morgan Stanley? It's not going to be
something like that, is it, I'm sure?
Smith: No. We are actually going through a merger. It's effective June 1st and we are
merging with a firm out of the midwest again and it's a firm by the name of Wisley and
they are based in Wisconsin and Illinois and they are almost the same size as us. It's a
little bit smaller, sa we will just about double our size. Now, as far as the effects on our
City of Meridian, probably absolutely none and so we will all stay intact, the staff will
stay intact and if I -- no changes from the Boise office. We are hoping that will give us
more opportunities to expand same of our services and they da a lot of similar things we
do, other than they don't do very much governmental. They do a lot of healthcare,
banking, and that -- you know, some of our bigger areas, sa it will help us expand with
some bigger facilities.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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Hoaglun: Great.
Bird: We will keep you.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was just going to comment the same. The support between our two groups
and the help that you give us in being able to meet compliance and the report back that
we are meeting compliance is all very appreciated. I would add to that. I serve on other
boards and commissions, a couple of which also use Eide Bailly's services, different
personnel from you, and everybody is very professional and sounds like a goad
company. Just one clarification for me. The items that you mentioned, one of them
added up to 17,004 dollars, and the other was 1,00 dollars or something. That doesn't
represent money that's missing ar unaccounted far. Are you -- just make sure I
understand correctly. What we are talking about is it could have been accounted far
differently, it's just not missing.
Smith: That's -- that's very accurate.
Zaremba: Okay.
Smith: And what it is -- and I will give you an example and I don't recall exactly what the
17,000 is, but an example is maybe there were some accounts payable -- maybe there
were some invoices that, you know, come in late and didn't get recorded, you know,
September 30th. And so that's an example. Dr maybe it's a prepaid expense. Sa, it's
just something that, you know, should have been recorded that wasn't. But it has no
effect on -- yeah, it is -- it's capital leases that are accounted for as operating leases and
so they shouldn't capitalize them in depreciated and the dollar amounts just aren't
significant from year to year.
Zaremba: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I -- I think that it's another great audit and -- and the audit
and the results of the audit are an example of the terrific work that you our staff does
and I thank them all sitting in the room for a job well done and for the partnership and
the ability for you all to work with our auditors to identify answers to questions that might
came up in the ever changing world of government accounting and thank you all for --
for the excellent results. You have come a long ways and we are getting better every
year.
Bird: Amen.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 18 of 55
De Weerd: Amen. So, thank you, Kevin. I said my remarks at the beginning of the new
meeting. Stacy, do you want to have any conclusion remarks? But thank you for being
here, Kevin.
Smith: Thank you.
Kilchenmann: I'd really like to thrill the rest of the staff and read the audit report in its
entirety, but I'm not going to. I just want to take a second to thank my staff, some of
who have come in. They do all work very hard. We are a fairly small staff, so
everybody does feel some pain and, yes, we complain, but it's kind of like a superstition,
the more you complain the better it will came out. Thank you.
De Weerd: Oh, good golly. Okay. Now, we know why you get a good report. Thank
you all for what you do and we appreciate you being here.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we accept the auditor's report for fiscal year 2Q11.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, roll call,
please.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. Thank you.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Mayor's office: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: Under 7-C. This is a strategic plan update far the Mayor's Office. I will turn
this portion of our meeting over to our Council President for him to run the meeting.
Hoaglun: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I understand that you will be doing that
presentation. As she gets down there, do we have any comments about the number of
slides that she has on her powerpoint? Now is our opportunity.
Bird: Haw many slides?
Hoaglun: Yeah. Haw many slides.
Bird: Is she going to beat Public Works?
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 19 of 55
De Weerd: I will tell you, Mr. President and Council Members, that we have half the
slides and they are much higher quality.
Hoaglun: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yau may continue.
De Weerd: Well, it's certainly a privilege for meta stand in front of you to share with you
the direction that our city -- our office is helping to facilitate and also to introduce you to
a number of the staff. Certainly you all know them. But I would like to specifically note
those that work very diligently in our office on a number of the initiatives and programs
that you will be hearing about today. Certainly first Robert -- and I thought Robert was
going to be sitting in the closet and sa I was going to mention that he's in the closet
again, but I see he's over there running our slides, which is good, because I was quite
concerned after seeing at our town hall meeting how the slide presentation went with all
of the presenters and I'm privileged to not have to go through that exercise. Shelly
Houston is in the back. You know -- you know Shelly. Luke is at the legislature right
now with the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council offering testimony on behalf -- unless he's
in the closet. Okay. Offering testimony on behalf of the proposed texting while driving
law by Senator Hammond. So, they were doing us proud when I left. Peggy Gardner
I'm sure is watching this online, as is C.Jay Coles, who is a part-time help in our office.
And Brenda -- and I think that Doug Jones next to her, thinks he's part of our staff as
well, but he's nat. But he's -- he's certainly helping us out and I will mention that real
briefly in a moment. Jaycee, our city clerk, and Jacy -- we have this rule that we need
the clerk and deputy clerk to have the same name, so we don't forget it. Nancy in the
back. Sherry. Machelle, and Eli. This consists of the Mayor's office and City Clerk's
office that you will be hearing about today. Recognition that we have received as a
community and certainly some of that asks for collection of data that the staff pulls
together. But that is some of the words that we received during this last year. Certainly
would like to recognize on the best -- one hundred best places far young people. That
is the fourth year that we have received it out of five years. So, that just goes to show
some of the programming and certainly the community that is involved in lifting up our
young people are commendable. And it is recognized. And it's also -- a strong partner
is our school district. These are five strategic priorities that I outlined in the State of the
City for the next four years and these were certainly things that those of us that
campaigned last fall heard a lot about when we knocked on people's doors or at the
various community events and sa I just wanted to summarize it into these five different
areas. Safe community. Responsive government. Places for our families and our
citizens to go. Family wage jobs. And transportation. People want more time at home
and not on the roads. So, certainly those partnerships with our transportation agencies
are critically important. Safe community. I'm glad to see that Lieutenant Overton is
sitting here with us, because certainly the prevention aspect of this and being pro-active
to our efforts in maintaining a safe community is very important and I gave an example
in the State of the City of the Mayor's anti-drug coalition. But certainly many of our
crime prevention programs -- crime prevention programs are part of this and partnering
with our community with coalition members to reiterating that point that we can't do it
alone and certainly our policing efforts augmented with the community efforts are going
to certainly have a lot mare benefit and go a lot further. So, our programs with the
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February 14, 2012
Page 20 of 55
Mayor's Anti-drug coalition are big. As well we will continue the impact team and some
of that routine of crime that we are doing within our police department, we are incredibly
proud of what our police department is doing in really targeting and finding those root
causes of crime and finding those areas within our community that we need to stay
focused on. Responsive government has a large deal to do with our department and
how we work with the other departments in the community or in the city to communicate
and tell the city's story, to talk about different programs that we have, to raise
awareness as to those opportunities to have a voice in the direction that this city is
going. We are rolling out the Meridian Way, which is building upon our culture of
service and we talk about our care values of customer service as that C part of it and
that C part is certainly a behavior and so we have come a long way in our customer
care to our citizens and our customers and we convened a group of our top performers
in the customer care areas that came together and they strategized on how we can
raise our service to our community to the next level and so the Meridian Way is rolling
out into our different departments, they are identifying different activities and action
items that they are doing to really roll out and have a greater say in that behavior of
customer care. And as we build upon our communication tools to keep people informed
and to give those citizens a voice, we will look for some of the recommendations coming
out of a focus group, but also we are constantly evaluating and seeing how we can we
do a better job at communicating with our citizens. Places to go falls under Steve's
department in part with our parks and some of those strategies and certainly the
commission plays a big roll in that with Phil and some of the items that he talked about,
that this will be a focus as we bring to you the capital improvement plan that you will
have certainly a say in and seeing how our finances go, but also a focus to our
downtown and that downtown, it -- the city plays a huge roll in many of the aspects of
Destination Downtown and looking at the CDBG through Lori and through Pete's
purview, but there is a lot of different things that we have to coordinate in that and many
of those come out of the Mayor's office. So, focusing an those places to go is going to
also take a lot of our time as well. Family wage jobs is certainly an effort that comes out
of our office through Brenda's responsibilities and she will be giving you an update on
that in August. But also it's going to be working with Bruce and that newly combined
effort in our community development services and how we can get -- find a more
seamless approach to our way of doing business and in finding that inspection to grave
and past the grave as the community evolves. 50, this is an exciting time for our city.
Certainly I'm excited about the direction we are going and to look forward to sharing with
you results of the efforts we have underway. Our focus on value added jobs will be
delivered through our strategic business enterprise corridor. We have been working
with Doug Jones on the fields district. We had a white paper written several years ago
and Doug has been working with Brenda, as has Roger Batt, in trying to narrow the --
the idea. Certainly we had kind of a buck -- or a buckshot perspective in that white
paper and now they are narrowing it, so we can better focus on -- on who to target and
what is realistic to the strength that we have in the valley as a whole and they are
talking to a lot of different people and I look forward to them bringing that information
back to you. As you see we also added in our State of the City the public safety district.
As we looked at the public safety training center, we saw that that would be a great
foundational piece to a new enterprise zone that we look at in public safety, homeland
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 21 of 55
security, and related areas. We went to a trade show last month and I know I have
talked to a couple of you briefly about that, but also we will be leaving tomorrow to Salt
Lake to visit a couple of different facilities to again narrow and better define what this
project is that you heard from the consultant in December and haw we can build upon
that in attracting business and family wage job as well. This is a great opportunity and
we are seeing how we can leverage what we are doing, what we need to do as a city
and how it can translate into other opportunities to bring those family wage jobs to
Meridian. And, lastly, is transportation. Certainly that's not the least important. They
are all equally important. But as we look at our time allocation right now, we are
focusing on two things. The split corridor phase two and how that rolls out in
partnership with our Public Works Department and Ada County Highway District and
how we can maintain those relationships and communications with effect to residents
and downtown businesses and how we can continue to work on our community as a
whole to remind them how important it is to support this project, support the businesses
and those that are affected during the construction. That's going to be key. Also in the
Meridian Road interchange, working with Caleb and Robert and Councilman Rountree
on the task force that has been working to really get their arms around it and how to
better communicate our story and look at different ways that we can reach out into the
community and beyond to raise the level of awareness for this project, look under every
rack we can find to find financing and ways to progress this -- this project. And those
efforts are diligently being pursued. In transportation I would like to also commend
Caleb for all of his efforts and being that point person with Ada County Highway District
and ITD and also Tim Cerns as well in our Public Works Department. So, with all of that
I will turn this over now to Robert.
Hoaglun: Welcome, Robert. Glad to see you're out of the closet.
Simison: Well, thank you very much. And that leaves 25 for me. I didn't make it to
Ignite Youth. But I think I can do 25 in five minutes and we put this up against Eli's
wining performance and see who you like better. How about that? Well, we could
actually just stop the presentation right there. That's a lot of work for us to do over the
next four years in my personal opinion, but in addition to doing that we do have the
more day-to-day things that we focus on in the office. Same of those are definitely into
these larger projects that the Mayor spoke about and some of them are just the things
that we do on a more -- every day we do. So, I'm going to try to focus on some of those
and what you see right here, it's kind of what we described as the five main areas that
our staff time is kind of devoted to. You know, communications is obviously huge.
Customer service. The Mayor kind of touched on that. We have our hand in a lot of the
city events that go on in one way or another. The programming through the Mayor's
Youth Advisory Council and Meridian's Promise and Faith Ambassador's Council and,
then, just the general things that we need to do to operate the office from the Major's
scheduling to other aspects. Sa, as it relates to communication, you know, you have
seen this stuff before about what it is that we are doing. Just to provide you a brief
update. I know you hear from Luke an some of this stuff, but we currently have over a
thousand Faceboak fans, about 1,400 Twitter followers. This Week In Meridian for
where we can see how many people are seeing it, we are getting about 70 average
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February 14, 2012
Page 22 of 55
viewers to our website. We don't know how many through Facebook, but we know that
it's substantially more on Facebook. City Council average viewership, you know, we
just in the last few months, we have seen about six people at a time and, then, five
people afterwards going and rewatch a portion or all of the City Council meetings, so I'd
like to think that you're doubling your viewership from the amount of people you might
have here in a normal evening through that process, so -- and just on the websites, just
to give you an idea, we have right now about 20,000 visitors to the website each month
on average. From that they are visiting 82,000 pages. Now, 20,000 of those are
probably the first home page, but they are going to three additional places where they
are on the website on average, just to give you an idea. We are doing eight scenes a
month now. City news has gone from a quarterly publication to a monthly publication
within this last year and we have also begun monitoring comments which are placed on
places like the Statesman about the city and having an active voice in that. If we know
a story is going to come out we are trying to be on there and provide our feedback if it's
-- they didn't cover the things that we felt needed to be covered. If other people start
making falsehoods or comments, we are going to post our comments really to that. So,
that's something new that we have been doing to try to make sure that we are not just
being talked about, that we are part of the conversation. And in all of these we are
going to be spending the next year really looking at the time allocation, as well as the
results that we see from doing that to figure out what are the strategies that are working
that are reaching the people and the time allocations, et cetera. So, related customer
service. These are some of the groups that we feel that are our constituents from our
office that we really kind of work with. Obviously, Luke, with the work that he does with
the homeowners associations where, you know, went to about 32 HOAs this last year.
The businesses that the Mayor and Brenda go out and visit, too, throughout the year
where there is about 30 scheduled businesses in the last year. Obviously, countless
more are counted, but the formalized activities. We are active with service groups.
Attending the Kiwanis weekly, the Mayor has also been present at all the Meridian -- the
Rotary, the Optimist and the Kiwanis making presentations during this last year, as well
as being with our faith organizations and one on ones between -- with the Mayor and
staff. Our city events that you -- we do on a regular basis what we are really kind of
looking at -- I know you all know about Coffee With The Mayor and townhall meetings.
What we tried to do far this upcoming year is look at putting them on a set schedule, sa
you all know when they will occur, so there will be four townhall meetings, four Coffee
With The Mayor, set on recurring dates, trying to get those spread out throughout the
city, so we can go and interact with the different groups. Some of it's a little difficult to
try to plan that, because you don't want to manufacturer an issue, but you at least want
to give the people an opportunity to be heard and if we can make it a random issue
that's being discussed, we are going to do that, if we know. If not it may just be an open
mike type presentation, but we are really trying to get out to all different components of
the community. Obviously, just came off the State Of The City where we had five to six
hundred people who were present at that event. Meridian Business Day continues with
our office involvement, because, obviously, it's another group that's leading that, but we
are heavily involved in some of the activities, say about 300 people attend that one.
Then also this last year we started the first Meridian Neighbor Night, something we plan
on continuing in this upcoming year. As it relates to programming, you have heard from
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February 14, 2012
Page 23 of 55
MYAC, you know what they are doing, you know the numbers that they are seeing are
above the previous year's pretty substantially, especially as we continue throughout the
year. The Mayor and CD's book club we -- active engagement with the youth and the
business community. That continues. The Faith Ambassador Council this last year has
heard from the Christian Children's Ranch, Monte Stiles, they were involved in the
community block party. I'm going to talk a little bit more about them here in a little bit.
And, then, Meridian's Promise continues with their events, including Family Fishing Day,
which will be coming up later this year in June and talk a little bit more about them later.
But, generally, you know, we have the main thing -- the nuts and bolts is what I like to
call this and, you know, that's just finding people to sit on the city boards and
commissions, putting those out and getting the people. Doing the proclamations that
people ask for. Finding volunteers to -- its a pretty much volunteer helping them find a
place to go. But general office functions. And kind of the new one that we have really
stepped up this last year is really our legislative efforts, not just in our department, but
on a citywide level where we -- I think we started to get up about buy in from all the
departments. I think everyone's always known haw important it is, but they are really
starting to put some staff resources and attention to what's going on and finding ways to
get involved. So, it's a learning process for everyone, but that has been a focus and we
kind of see how we do over the next month and a half and, then, see what changes or
things that will make sense for us to do in the next year. I just want to give some
examples of some of the projects we have undertaken recently. obviously, the Mayor
talked about the Meridian Interchange Task Farce, the Meridian Way. We spent some
time doing some office repositioning. I will touch an that in a few minutes. But the focus
groups that the Mayor has established, obviously, will have an impact on and we have
been kind of helping coordinate those efforts with getting them underway. You heard
earlier in 2011 about the gateway signage that we have helped do that. Doing the
Meridian Road interchange ribbon cutting, you know, we had a large portion of that
working with a couple of our partners and, then, putting Meridian First, which is
something that we will be talking to you mare about here in the next few weeks. I'm not
going to spend any time talking about the Meridian Interchange Task Force. The Mayor
already did that. But we are ramping this up. The bill has been introduced far those
who aren't aware. It's was introduced in the senate state affairs committee. We
anticipate it moving forward here with a hearing before too long. We don't have a date
set. But things are looking goad on that and we will keep you posted. The Meridian
Way -- this is something, again, that the Mayor's touched upon, but just want to paint
out we had an intern from Boise State who came into our office and really was helpful in
this. Vincent Koontz. He is no longer with us. He was there for about four months. But
he really kind of helped shepherd the city towards the Meridian Way. Now, this may not
be the end product that he thought that we would come to, but this is where we ended
up. I think he really helped us get to this point generally. And so I just wanted to
publicly thank him for his efforts in helping us get to that point in time. What I would say
is that as you start walking around the different departments you should start seeing the
Meridian Way up on walls, if you haven't already seen it, with these comments. Sa,
when customers come into City Hall and they see this, they should know what type of
service to expect through this process. So, more to come on that in the future, but
goad. Sa, really to office repositioning. What we really did is we just kind of looked at
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 24 of 55
what people were doing in the office and, then, looked at what they could do with --
what they like to do and what they could do better and we just -- we did some basic
tweaking, nothing major. But I just wanted to -- we wanted responsibilities more closely
to the individuals through this process. You know, Peggy Gardner, she's really our
customer care service expert. So, we have taken some things that maybe Luke would
get off of Facebook and instead of him going through the process, we are giving it to
Peggy to let her handle it and just so we can align those, instead of having four or five
different people working on things in a central -- centralized one person. Shelly is really
good at internal customer service through the city departments and whatnot. So,
working to keep her focused on those things, event organization, and execution, just to
make sure the nuts and bolts are going. Where on the other hand Luke is going to
make sure that they get promoted actively through the various ways that we are
communicating with the community. So, that's kind of -- it was pretty simple, but we just
took some time and want to make sure the people were spending time doing the things
that they could do well and I think that we have got some things laid out. The Mayor
talked about the work groups that she has put in. And I justly really want to highlight
from this group for us is communications. Obviously, jobs will be important to Brenda
and the city. That will maybe fall more into some of the recommendations that come
and you will hear more about that in August. The communications group, obviously,
any recommendations they have could have an impact an our office. That's being led
by Chief Lavey and some others. So, we are looking forward to those
recommendations to see what might we be able to do or improvements we make or
changes in direction they think the city should take a look at. So, we are excited far
that. Moving forward, the Mayor already kind of already touched on about this, but this
had been one of the areas that our office is going to be focused on leading up to the
split corridor phase two. Obviously, if someone calls with a question we want to know
the answer to that question. We want to let the public know about what to do. We want
to help the businesses succeed through this process. So, while Brenda maybe doing
certain things, the rest of our office will do as well. In fact, Shelly found something
online about what they are calling cash mobs. This is a -- it's like a flash mob, except
for it encourages people to go to an area and spend their money.
Rountree: There might be one or two that don't, but --
Bird: I was going to say, I don't.
Simison: She just found that information. We kind of put that on the -- on the side to
say, yeah, maybe this is something that we can help da to orchestrate getting people to
certain parts. So, we are going -- we are going to stay involved in this process as much
as we can to help. Meridian's Promise. This is one of those things that we have been
looking at. It's -- Meridian's Promise kind of has their functions down. They know what
they want to do. They have their volunteers. They have their members. They have
their events. So, one of the things we are going to be looking at doing is displaying
Meridian's Promise from the city and creating -- and helping them create a 5Q1(c}(3},
you know, then, they have got their legs underneath them, they have their funding
sources, you know, we will still be an integral part of their success in helping, but, you
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 25 of 55
know, helping them set up their own organization. So, that's something that we are
going to be looking at doing. I understand it can take awhile and that promise will -- it
will be ready for fiscal year '13 to remove them. But, hopefully, they will wait until fiscal
year '14. Another group that we have kind of revamped a little bit ar in the process of
doing that and that's the Faith Ambassador's Council. Just currently working out a
stranger focus an community interaction with the faith engagement and it's going to be
less program driven, event driven, fewer meetings, more focused on meeting with the
right people to have the appropriate discussions. You always have those -- you have
people that -- they are committed to this organization, so we find ways to put them, you
know, to use in other ways, rather than just having a monthly meeting where we bring in
someone to talk to them. So, that's something that Luke has been working on that will,
then, continue to have a strong engagement with our faith community just in a different
way. Homeowner association outreach. This is going to be kind of the last thing. A
couple years ago we kind of put together this HOA database. Of course, they turn over
frequently with people and we have got to be reaching out and doing -- getting updates.
So, now it's really kind of -- we have done some mailings and those things, now we are
trying to take it to the next level in getting regular contacts with the folks, picking up the
phone, calling them weekly, having their -- interaction with them, find out when their
board meetings are in terms of when they have their officer turnover ar when they have
their annual meeting, sa that we can calendar that ourselves to know the appropriate
time to reach out to them. You know, a week after this meeting occurred if they -- so we
know if they have new members or a week before the meeting to see if they want us to
ga. Kind of on both sides of the equation. So, we are just taking information that we
have had and putting more focus into that. So, that's a brief update, hopefully, on what
we are looking at doing and I would now turn it over to Jaycee for information on the
clerk's office, unless you have any questions now you would like to ask.
Holman: I'd like to start off by saying that my perception of five minutes is much more
brief than his. This is just -- I know that you all know what it is that we do on an annual
basis or daily, all of our responsibilities. So, this is my opportunity to just kind of remind
you of all the different things that we handle and to recognize my staff and each -- the
part that each of them play. Who is responsible for what -- what duties. So, we do
licensing and permitting, which runs the gamut. Mainly that is Nancy Radford in the
back. She handles the majority of this and we had a major transition this year in moving
to Accella and making it more of an automated process instead of just scanning in
documents and e-mailing. It's a nice software. It has definitely sped up the process and
I think has made us much more efficient. City Hall information center. That is us. We
answer every phone call question you could possibly think of. So, I think Sherry can tell
everybody haw to get rid of gophers. So, Sherry mainly handles all the phone calls. It
goes as well to Nancy and everybody else next. But, bay, Sherry sure -- she does a
really fantastic jab of being -- just getting great customer service, following through to
the end, getting someone's question -- questions answered with things that really don't
honestly have a lot to do with City Hall, but people just came to us for information and
know that we will track it dawn and at least get them the right phone number and get
them same resolution, so -- Sherry also handles room reservations for City Hall.
Doesn't sound like it would be a lot, but, bay, it sure is. Those roams are banked out
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 26 of 55
constantly and between taking payments and figuring out who gets -- who doesn't have
to pay for a room, who does, what we will rent rooms for, what we won't rent rooms for,
Sherry really handles a lot of that. Checking out keys, making sure people understand
haw to lock down the building, making sure we get the keys back and she does it with
an awful lot of patience and a great attitude. Public records requests are handled by
Jacy Janes. That is a lot. Unaware of how many flow through the city on an annual
basis, we hit almost 300 last year. We were two shy. Considered sending fake public
records requests just so Jacy could hit her 300, but we didn't. So, she does a wonderful
job in tandem with our legal department and the other departments within the city. I
think you can rest assured that we are doing our part and our due diligence of providing
the records to our public that they have a right to see and also making sure to protect
the records that -- that necessarily can't be released for one reason or -- you know,
protecting people's privacy and stuff like that. Our legal Department does a great job of
going through and making sure that we are doing the right thing and abiding by the
public records law. Noticing for meetings and publishing agendas, that's handled by
several people in the office. Jacy Jones does the bulk of City Council meetings, putting
those agendas together, all the supporting documents. When we have a really long
Consent Agenda of 25 or 30 items, that is an entire day's work for her after a meeting.
You guys approve it a two second motion, but it's a whole day of work for her tracking
all those documents and making sure that everything has signatures, everybody gets
the copies they need and that we are retaining the records permanently and can
retrieve them in the future. So, Machelle Hill handles our Planning and Zoning from
beginning to end. She does the noticing. She gets packets ready. She automated the
process last year as far as -- instead of paper packets and mailing things out and faxing
them, we now have more of an a-mail, an automated system that they can go --
different agencies can go to our website and review documents and records retention,
that's all of us. So, everything that passes through the office we are retaining and
maintaining and not just retaining, but being able to manage and produce the record on
demand, so -- 2011 projects. Worked with the Legal Department and many other
departments in the city to do the records retention phase one, which I won't go through,
this was just before Council recently. Boy, that is so much more of a project than I ever
thought it would be. So, anyhow, we will be heading towards phase two here in the
near future. We had the city seal redesign, which you all approved a few months back.
Elections. 2011 elections. It was our first election cycle with consolidated elections,
which made our duties and responsibilities quite a bit less, but we did our best to assist
the city and Ada county elections with providing as much information as they -- we could
help out with and provide to the public to get people out there to vote. I won't go
through the numbers. There is permits and licensing. Just it's a lot and we are busy
and we are happy to be busy and have the work, so -- moving forward. Records
retention phase two. So, that is finishing up Public Works and all that that
encompasses, which is going to be huge. The Police Department, the Clerk's Office,
and Finance. Sa, hopefully, we will be coming back in, I don't know, six months or so,
and passing the entire policy as everything is rewritten. Permitting and licensing, we will
just continue to go along and stay as busy as it has been. Annual records and a-mail
purge. This was part of the records retention policy deciding how to get rid of e-mails,
when we get rid of e-mails, how long do we retain them. This is going to be an
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 27 of 55
education process since we have never gotten rid of any, so myself and Emily in the
Legal Department are working together to educate our employees, make sure they
understand time frames, when a-mails will be deleted, what e-mails will be deleted and
this will happen throughout this entire year and we want be deleting any e-mails until
January of next year. So, just purging old ones and keeping the ones that we need to
keep far the permanent records. The Accella citizen access implementation, citizen
access portion of Accella allows our customers and people who want permits and
licenses to go online, do it from home and start their application process, pay online, all
of that. I spoke with Rob Sysnawski today in IT and asked him where we are at on this.
He said they sent Accella a list of about 12 questions that they needed answered and
able to get Planning moving forward, because they are going to start with Planning and
allowing the Planning Department -- or I guess the Community Development
Department to do online citizen access applications. They have had about nine
questions answered. They got about three more to ga. Hopefully, we will wrap those
up by the end of the month and, then, we will move forward with the Clerk's Office
whenever we are ready. So, that's good, positive, and that's, basically, what we are up
to. So, is there any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor? Jaycee, you mentioned the amount of effort far rooms and
the use of the rooms. When we crafted those processes and procedures we,
essentially, had just moved into the City Hall. We have got a few years under our belt. I
think it's probably time to take a look at those and see if we want to modify those,
because I think same of them were fairly stringent and might not need to be. Might add
that to your list of things to do next year to help provide some time for doing something
a little mare constructive and trying to figure out what we intended to do.
Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, I agree
wholeheartedly and even have already been heading dawn that path of thinking of
bringing that back. I think specifically when we brought it forward we had a list of
certain organizations that did not have to pay to reserve the rooms. It would be nice to
revisit that and I can see maybe loosening it up just a little bit more, so there is a little bit
possibly less staff time involved and just more customer service to our citizens in what
they can use those roams far. So, I think it's been good. We haven't had any major --
Rountree: Very good.
Holman: -- problems. I think people have been very respectful of our space and treated
it well and those rooms look just about a new as the day we moved in, so --
Hoaglun: It sounds like a future meeting topic. Any other questions far Jaycee? All
right. Thank you.
Holman: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Appreciate it. That conclude's the Mayor's office report, unless we have any
other comments, questions? Turn this back over to the Mayor.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 28 of 55
Rountree: Mr. President, good report and some interesting topics that they are willing to
undertake and some major accomplishments that have been made. Kudos to the
Mayor's office and the staff for a great year and looking forward to four more great years
ahead of us.
Hoaglun: Thank you. I will turn this back over to you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you. And I will note that, Jacy Janes, I did not even recognize you.
Oh, my gosh, you added bangs or something and it was like who is that sitting next to
Nancy.
Bird: I thought we had a new employee.
De Weerd: I thought so, too. I wouldn't ask Jaycee if I missed someone back there. I
knew I would be given a hard time if I didn't mention it myself.
Rountree: I thought it was Katie Perry back there.
De Weerd: Wow. Her hair is not blue.
Rountree: Well, it's the bangs and -
D. Clerk's Office, Code Enforcement, and Legal Department:
Temporary Use Permit Code Updates -Proposed Time Limit
Extension for Temporary Sales Units, Garage Sale Frequency
Clarification, and Temporary Construction Site Standards
De Weerd: Oh. Okay. Okay. Item 7-D, under our Clerk's Office, Cade Enforcement,
and Legal Department. So, who is taking this?
Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Mrs. Kane in the Legal Department
was so nice to put together a memo for me, which I'm fairly going to close to read
verbatim. Basically this is an update to -- a draft update that we are wanting far a
temporary use code, which has three components. It proposes an extension of the time
limit for temporary sales units. It changes the way code enforcement monitors garage
sale frequency and it adds standards for temporary construction sites to address
complaints regarding street blockage and litter. I will just hit them one at a time and
maybe open each one of them up far discussion or would you prefer that I just go
through all of them and, then, discuss all areas of it?
De Weerd: Jaycee, I think if you just go through all of them. If there is a question we
well take them at that time.
Holman: Okay. And we also have Lieutenant Overton and Bill Nary here that can
answer other questions, too, so --
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 29 of 55
De Weerd: Okay.
Holman: The current temporary use code limits temporary sales units to 60 days of
operation. My office frequently receives complaints from vendors that this period is too
short. Often this complaint comes from snow cane vendors. They feel that the limit
hinders their profits and leaves them unable to withstand the risk of a week or two of
colder rainy weather, because they cannot be open all summer. This draft ordinance
would respond to these and similar complaints by extending the time limit far temporary
sales units to 60 days -- or, I'm sorry, to 90 days of operation. Code enforcement
officers have faced difficulty in tracking how many garage sales have been held at any
one property within the previous 365 days. Because as the code currently reads day
one of that calculation is a moving target and they need to determine or note what day
one occurs -- or when day one occurred is not always apparent until after a violation has
occurred. This update would make day one January 1 of every year, placing side
boards on the enforcement period and facilitating enforcement. Third item. Code
enforcement has received increasing complaints about messy construction sites where
garbage is allowed to blow onto neighboring properties. Though construction sites are
generally required to order a franchisee's dumpster, the code does not actually contain
a provision that allows code enforcement to cite for failures to keep the site's garbage in
the dumpster. The littering codes focuses on the active littering and the solid waste
codes provisions focused on which container is appropriate far the use. But there is a
gap in the code in that keeping a clean construction site is not required by city code.
This proposed update would repair that gap. And, lastly, code enforcement has also
received complaints regarding construction crews storing their material across
sidewalks or in some cases blocking or impeding the roadway. Neighbors have
complained that it creates unsafe and inconvenient conditions for pedestrians and
drivers. ACRD could, in theory, permit or prohibit the use of right of the way far this
purpose, but, typically, they are not notified until it is a complaint, at which paint they do
not have an enforcement arm and they look to city's code enforcement to address the
problem. This update would prohibit this activity without ACHD's permission and the
safety measures that would be required as part of that permission. And what we also
provided was a draft ordinance of these updates. So, with that I would stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I just want to -- I think I know the answer to this, but I just want to make sure
and check with legal on this. On that section where we talk about it's unlawful for any
person to store construction materials or equipment in or upon a public right of way, in
my mind that makes it -- if I think of sprinkler blowouts when they use a big generator
and whatnot and they come in and they park on the street and, then, they ga about their
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 30 of 55
business and in my mind they are not storing any equipment. I mean they are there to
perform the job and, then, they move on and there shouldn't be any problem with them
continuing to do that, is there, Mr. Nary?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, Council Member Hoaglun, I think you're
right, I think the difference would be that it's in constant use and we can certainly make
sure that -- like with our other ordinance in regards to trailers on the -- parked on the
street, that we have a prohibition on how long they can park there, whether they are
hacked to a vehicle or not hacked to a vehicle ar they are in use ar not in use and I
think, really, the key component here is that there has to be safety measures taken. So,
you know, again, the biggest concern is either these are in the roadway in the day ar
when they are left in the roadway at night and so, then, there is no -- there is nothing
around them to show people there is a danger there. So, that's, really, I think the focus
of what we are looking at. So, I don't think that would prohibit the activity you're talking
about.
Hoaglun: All right. Thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: On that particular topic, with respect to enforcement, for a minute I wasn't
sure what the language was, but does that include that we would have an agreement or
a joint powers agreement with ACHD, since, in fact, it is their responsibility to make sure
that streets are not blocked or permitted and things are permitted in such a way that
they block streets and access, to allow us to establish an ordinance that, then, would
provide the enforcement folks the ability to da it on properties that are not necessarily
the City of Meridian, as much as we can issue a ticket on ACHD roadway or state
roadway.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, we still have
the authority under the state code to issue citations in the right of way for both traffic --
just like we do far trailers and other things that are parked in the right of way illegally.
So, we don't need a -- we don't need a -- we don't need a joint powers agreement with
ACHD to enforce that. All we are requiring is that they either have permission, just like
we would on a trespass issue or something else. We have proof of permission and,
then, take whatever appropriate safety is necessary.
Rountree: So, that would require some kind of a relationship to be established with
ACHD?
Nary: No.
Rountree: Or just -- well, it seems to me in order to enforce it you would have to be able
to either see a permit stuck an a trailer or a pile of joists across a sidewalk ar whatever
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 31 of 55
far our enforcement people to know they either or do ar do not have a permit, as
opposed to calling up someone at ACRD who has that authority and can query
whatever the database is and say, yes, at that address we have given them a temporary
permit because of the unusual canstructian materials they have to implement for this
construction job, to allow them to stare their trusses for a period of three days across
the sidewalk and blocking access to this driveway. I mean to me we are creating a
solution to a problem, but I don't know that we have thought the problem all the way
through to have the enforcement people to be able to enforce this stuff. I mean it's the
same thing with the garage sales. We have all the specificity in the ordinance and the
more specific you get the harder it is to enforce and do we just let citizens' complaints
drive the enforcement of an issue and fall back an whatever vague ordinance we have
to try to get compliance. To me we are just going in circles on some of these things with
ordinances and enforcement and confusion and clarification and more ordinance and
specified ordinance, more enforcement requirements and I -- I know what we are trying
to do, but I'm not sure how we are going to get there. I think the temporary use sales is
the only thing we got clear direction on. We can extend the duration of the permit and
establish a time window.
Overton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, in many
cases one of the enforcement issues that stops us is the fact that we don't have a
specific code ar the code language that we can show the canstructian teams or we can
show the neighbors that would address that situation. In working with this legal, under
the understanding that we already had that authority and that right of way, we hope to
be able to limit, on a case-by-case basis, because, as you know, it's not something that
we are just immediately going to take out and search far. I mean construction is not at
the levels it was four years ago. But we just recently had one where they blocked off
the access to an alleyway. Why? They didn't care. There was nothing in the code
section that allowed us at that time to deal with that situation. Did we ga out and plead
that they move it? Yes. But that calls to the Mayor's office and calls to our office to get
it done and we had no specific language to deal with it. This amendment to the code
was actually in progress at the time that that latest one just happened. I don't think it's
perfect, but I think it really does give us an additional tool to take to the streets to give to
the code guys that in plain language that they understand -- the complainant will
understand and I think we can make clear to those people that are violating it. I don't
think it's the perfect code, but I think it's the best for the language we have gat right now
and I think it will work.
Rountree: And what's the penalty? Is it an infraction? Is it a misdemeanor? Or is it
simply a fine?
Overton: No. If we don't get compliance, which is, of course, what code enforcement is
always reaching far is compliance, they are all misdemeanors.
Rountree: Okay.
De Weerd: Anything mare?
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 32 of 55
Zaremba: Madam Mayor? I know I have read this before, but now it's confusing me for
same reason. Section one, paragraph five, where we are talking about temporary sales
units, reading the sentence: For temporary sales units that stay on the site far the
duration -- far the full duration of the use -- then skipping -- whether such days are
consecutive or not -- that confuses me. What is full duration of the use? If -- are we
talking about days that it may be there when nobody is using it? And what I'm trying to
get at is how is code enforcement going to count the 90 days if we change it or how to
they count the 60 days now if we change it and I guess my question is what does full
duration of use mean and does that conflict with consecutive or not.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Zaremba, right now
they tell us what 60 days are. That's the problem that they run into, is they have to pick
those 60 days up front and, then, they don't know if it's going to rain or if it's going to be
cold and that's one of their days they have designated they are going to have. So,
that's how we determine the 60 days now. So, that we don't have to guess which is day
one, they have to tell us that. So, that's what they are seeking is they just want a longer
window of time in which to be able to sell their items and, again, the majority of these
ones that come up are -- some are sales things, but -- and we looked at the possibility
of would it make more sense to simply just designate the summer, you know, Memorial
Day to Labor Day, but, again, not everybody that sells something is always a summer
person. It may be someone that sells things at other times of the year. So, that doesn't
work. So, the compromise was do we ask -- the compromise to ask Council do we
extend the period from being 60 days to 90 days instead and that would satisfy the
majority of the types of questions, but it certainly could raise others.
Zaremba: I'm still not sure I understand what full duration of use is
C?verton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Zaremba, if it will make
you feel any better, we are not having any enforcement issues on this. This is simply a
request to extend the time. The code -- code officers know when they start and they
knew when their city days end. The matter of change on this one is simply because the
vendors themselves are requesting that we move this to 9Q days and we think it's a fair
request. So, we are not having any enforcement issues on the 60. In fact, we are doing
a very good job on the 60, which is why they are requesting 90.
Zaremba: Okay. I just want to make sure there doesn't came some argument up later
that -- that makes it difficult. But if it's working now, that's fine. I will make a comment
on that, if I may, and this is just philosophy. We had quite a bit of discussion about this
section when we were discussing the committee that was put together to create the new
Uniform Development Code and we actually started out that a temporary use was good
far a weekend and, then, somebody said, well, we ought to make it good far 30 days
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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and, then, somebody said, well, okay, those 30 days may not be consecutive. Then it
got stretched to 6th and now we are stretching it to 90 and part of the discussion was
and many of these temporary uses look very temporary and they are not real attractive.
They take business away from our brick and mortar businesses who are here doing
business every day and trying to provide many of the same service that these
temporary ones do and it just resurrects what some of the discussion was at the time
from the people that were giving input. The fixed place businesses are not real happy
about any of these. Ever. And I guess I would have to say I understand why the
temporary use people are asking far more days. That doesn't really work in favor of our
fixed place businesses and I guess I really don't know which side I came down an that,
but I just wanted to add that's been part of the discussion.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De VVeerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it took me a moment. I apologize,
Council Member Zaremba. Your other question, just to -- you don't leave with that in
your mind. That -- the term -- or the language of temporary sales unit that stay on the
site for the full duration of the use is talking about the selling of the item and it's to
distinguish between the mobile sales. Sa, it's to distinguish in our code -- these are
people -- these are sales units that don't move versus the sales units that move. So,
that's what it's far. But as Lieutenant (Jvertan stated, that hasn't been a problem in the
definitional enforcement, it's really on the time period. But I just wanted to answer your
question, because it took me a moment to understand what the difference was and
that's what it is.
Zaremba: Thank you. That helps.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just a comment on something. You know, Councilman
Zaremba brings up a goad point about competition brick and mortar and whatnot. But a
lot of times I have noticed that where these places locate is done where there are lease
agreements in place sa they cannot compete with those that are in that particular
parking lot or that development. Now, may compete against the person down the street
and across the street, but within that development there are protections in place that the
landlord and the lessee negotiate and different things like that and for us to get into and
say, okay, now we have to protect the guy down the street, I hesitate for us to get into
that and decide who should be and who shouldn't be in business. So, I understand your
concern on that and as long as there is not fights breaking out within that parking lot, I
guess the business dawn the street, they just have to sharpen their pencils a bit, I
guess, so -- but it is a tough issue.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I guess the question is do we want to see these move
forward far hearing and action on the part of the Council. This seems like a question
that Councilman Zaremba brought up as one that would be one well debated in the
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February 14, 2012
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public hearing, so I would move that we go ahead and move these proposed changes
forward and see the ordinance amendments in the near future, so we can act on them
and the public can have an opportunity to comment on them.
De Weerd: Okay. Do I have a second?
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to move these forward. And, Mr.
Nary, what is the time frame?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Ithink -- I think they are ready to bring --
to be brought forward, so we can certainly maybe space them out over a couple of
weeks, so we don't just have one -- I mean they are all separate items, obviously, but I
mean -- so, we can space them out over the next couple of weeks and bring them on for
a public opportunity for a hearing.
De Weerd: And certainly as you look at how best to schedule and set those apart, look
at the potential stakeholders of these that might be impacted that you want to give
special notice to, get with our office in getting it out to the media and social media, sa
people know it's coming up. Okay. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor
say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
E. Finance Department: Budget Amendment for Project
Management Software for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of 40,383.00
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-E, Finance Department. Keith.
Watts: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the budget amendment before you is
for the project management software that was inadvertently left off the carry forward
from last year. This was going to be used far the E builder project that we are working
on now.
De Weerd: Okay. Any questions from Council?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I don't have a question, but I'm ready to make a motion. I move approval of
the budget amendment for project management software for the not to exceed amount
of 40,383 dollars.
Rountree: Second.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the budget amendment on Item
7-E. If there is no discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
F. Planning Department: Discussion on Annexation
RequirementslConcept Plans
De Weerd: Item 7-F is under our Planning Department. I will turn this over to Pete for
discussion on annexation requirements and concept plan.
Friedman: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. If you will recall back in
December when Council was in the middle of deliberations on the Ten Mile annexation,
at that time there was not a concept plan with that and so there was some real
discussion an whether or not one should be required and what our current requirements
are and we need to look at our -- either our code or our procedures in doing that and so
Council just put it on today's workshop far that discussion. By way of background, our
code currently does not require a concept plan. However, our annexation and rezone
checklists do. So, it's not based in code, but the code actually has same language in
there that the application forms will be of a form and a content that are established by
the city. Sa, we do have requirements on our checklist right now that a concept plan is
required or in the case of a project where it's not -- specifically where it's not a plat or it's
not a land development, because if it's an annexation mast of the time it's going to be a
plat accompany and that would give the Planning Commission, as well as the Council, a
good visualization of that. We, as a matter of routine, counsel all our applicants for both
rezones and annexations to provide Council with a concept plan and justifiably so
sometimes they say, gee, we really don't know who our end user is going to be, what
this is going to look at. This could change. And we say, you know, that's really okay,
because there is a fairly short modification process that allows Council to review those
and allows staff to do an evaluation of it, but, generally, it's going to be a harder road for
you to hoe if you don't have a concept plan. The Ten Mile one was a little bit of a
change, because what happened when we had our initial discussion with the
representatives of those property owners, our goal was to get that collector system
pinned down in terms of the alignment and we said, you know, as long as you come in
with that and you reflect the plan, then, you know, we can write the development
agreement that -- before any development occurs that you submit a detailed concept
plan. Well, consequently, what happened was at least one of the property owners
decided that they were going to seek a zoning designation that was not consistent with
the plan and things sort of transpired as they did there. Sa, again, I leave it to you, your
comfort level, what you would like to do, whether you would like to just keep it at the
administrative level right now or would you prefer that we actually insert some code
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February 14, 2012
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language into the annexation section of the UDC that says a concept plan will be
required. My thought is -- I have got some language we could put in there. We might
have an escape clause, if you will, that would say unless otherwise waived by Council,
but at that point an applicant will have had to go through the P&Z to get to you and their
initial request would have to seek a waiver on a concept plan.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Guessing that I'm the one that keeps pushing this, I will weigh in with a
comment, and, as I said before, my history is that when I was on the Planning and
Zoning Commission my recollection is we did no annexation without a plat and near the
end of that time we accepted a few concept plans instead of a plat and the argument
was exactly as Pete says, that the developer is saying I don't know exactly who is going
to want the space developed. But I know my feeling at the time and I felt the Planning
and Zoning Commission at the time felt that they needed to provide us with something
that we could hang our hat on and we got stung a couple of times by people who
promised us something, then, sold the property to somebody else who hadn't made that
promise and we ended up with some things coming through that had an entitlement that
weren't at all what we intended and we got stung by them and felt like our hands were
tied and my feeling is I -- I would like to see something added to the ordinance --
probably pretty much as you have described it -- that gives a little bit more teeth to it,
gives Planning and Zoning the ability to say, well, you must provide the plan and, yes,
they are easy to modify, but you must provide something and gives you the teeth and,
yes, maybe if we do need to say, you know, City Council can approve an exception to
this, I would rather have it be in that order, as opposed to what we generally don't
require it, but we would like you to have one and I don't know if I'm the only one that
feels that way, but I just feel for our protection in future years as properties get sold, we
need to have either a plat or a concept plan that we can look at and say, well, okay, we
don't mind if this is modified a little bit, but the concept plan shows office buildings and
you're proposing an airport, that's going to be an uphill battle and we need to put some
teeth into making that an uphill battle. So, that's my personal opinion.
De Weerd: okay. Thank you. Mr. Rountree?
Rountree: Madam Mayor. I don't disagree with what David said. I think we -- we ought
not to leave the checklist at the discretion of the director or staff. I mean to me that's --
that's aburden that you don't necessarily need to carry around. I think we ought to -- if
we are going to -- if it's of use to us, it aught to be in the ordinance. I don't know haw
you're going to characterize it in an ordinance. By definition. By example. By whatever
means. The idea that it can simply be modified, fine. But that's where I start having
issues is how many times, at what cost, who bears the cost, those kinds of things. We
have some -- had some damage in the past and we have gotten one that's probably
going to be a dandy for us for many years to come that we are going to have to figure
out how to deal with, but I think if at least it's in the ordinance and we can get some --
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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get our arms around some of these things that will fall out of the requirement for a
concept plan, like modification and extent of modification and how many times can you
modify it in a five year period or whatever. I don't -- I can see that that really opens the
door to a lot of extra work as well. But I like the idea of the concept plan being in the
ordinance, with a degree of specificity of what it consists of, how binding it is, what
processes would be in place to modify, and try to keep the costs at a nominal level, I
guess.
De Weerd: Mr. Haaglun.
Hoaglun: Well, thank you, Madam Mayor. And this is the dilemma that, you know, I,
too, agree, I think I'd like to see the concept plans, but I have been thinking about, well,
how do we build in flexibility, because we know, because of the time frame, change of
ownership, those types of things that may occur, changes will happen. But as
Councilman Rountree points out, you know, how do you do that, haw far do you go? I
mean what -- what, then, becomes a standard when there is no standard, if you allow
too much flexibility and if there is a way to -- to put in same parameters I would say as
long as it's within this and I don't know what those are. That's -- that's the thing. And
maybe you do, Pete. I hope you have an answer to that.
De Weerd: Well -- and certainly in the Ten Mile area with the area specific plan, I think
same of those protections are already built in and it's not just protections against a
particular project, it's protections against -- far the adjoining properties or the property
across the street. You know, I did have one developer say I will do a high end
development, but who is to say you don't have a low end user across the street from me
and that diminishes that investment. So, there is a balance and I don't know what that
is. I kind of gained through Planning and Zoning Commission, similar to Councilman
Zaremba and where we -- we were operating under the direction from City Council, is
we don't want to see any annexation without the plat and it's not just the city, it's the
citizens that came and testify during those public hearings in knowing what to expect is
going to be built in their backyard or across the street or down the street and what that
impact is going to have on them and how that changes and that came across a little bit
in the design guidelines and the discussion we had last week in terms of when it came
through public hearing, you're right, it was a different economy, it was a different
environment, and the styles do change. But where is that fine line. We don't want to
add bureaucracy to the process, but we do need to give you tools to -- to better
understand what is that tipping point that -- and it's a fine balance. We don't want to
leave the city exposed as well, because there is an allowed use and an unintended
consequence saying that doesn't belong there, but it's allowed in the use as defined, but
they didn't have a plat even anticipate that might be a potential end user. Sa, it is a
balance, you know, and certainly maybe our new community development director can
help weigh in an some of these complexities and using his experience with it as well.
But it is -- and I'm glad it's on the agenda. It's something we need to get our arms
around. We gave -- we kind of went to the concept plans thinking we were giving more
flexibility to the -- the broker in particular in the commercial realm, so that -- but as we
started looking at it, even in the Ten Mile area, if you're not changing the spine -- the
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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transportation infrastructure and -- that there is still a lot of flexibility with those plats, sa
I just look forward to the -- the future discussions an this and maybe some of the
different things that Council can consider in trying to find a comfort that is a win for the
city and also a win for the property owner and developer.
Friedman: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. And I think just for
clarification I appreciate those comments. What we are really looking at is -- if I'm
hearing you correctly -- is codifying what we currently apply administratively and we can
build same of those sort of book ends on it in terms of things we would like see, either in
a concept plan ar a plat. We want, in my mind, be really changing any process next,
because, of course, we will be tying those concept plans to a development agreement
typically or worst case we might be tying it to a Conditional Use Permit. So, anytime
that there is an approved concept plan that is part of a DA -- and that's what I was
speaking to -- and there is a change of ownership, there is change in circumstances,
there is a change in the economy, there some change, it always does come back to
Council as development agreement modification. Based on what the Mayor just said, I
thought Icould -- we do have a slate of UDC amendments that I'm anticipating getting to
in March. However, picking up on the Mayor's direction, I think what I may do is not
include this in those, so I da have the benefit of our new director's wisdom to look at
those and follow up after that round with another set. But I think if -- I get the message
pretty clearly and we will take it from there.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I would just comment -- I'm not necessarily trying
to solve this today or yesterday. Many of our things are long range kind of things. But
March, April, May, you know, take the benefit of our new director's knowledge and
certainly our work together with you guys as the liaison to your department as well. But
I just kind of do want to see it move that direction and what we eventually come up with
would be probably a change to the UDC and -- but, like I say, I'm not looking for it
tomorrow. Thanks.
De Weerd: But certainly as we see the economy starting to improve there we don't
want it to ga an too lang.
Friedman: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, believe me, it won't ga on
too long and, secondly, we will still remain not only vigilant, but consistent on requiring
concept plans.
G. Planning Department: Meridian Road, Ustick to Chinden -
Discussion on 3 Lanes Versus 5 Lanes
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Anything further on that item? Okay. Next item is also
the Planning Department. I will turn this aver to Caleb.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 39 of 55
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Speaking of things you
don't want to go on tao long, that would be my presentation. Happy Valentine's Day to
you all. With your permission, Madam Mayor, I would request just one quick update
announcement request before I jump into the thing that's on the agenda, if that's okay.
It will just be 30 seconds tops.
De Weerd: Okay. Go.
Hood: ACRD has set up on their website an area where you can subscribe to a project
update. That's typical for all their projects. I would encourage you to subscribe to the
split corridor project, because you will get at least monthly updates and as the project
moves into construction get weekly updates. I plan on giving you updates, but that one
will be, essentially, in realtime. So, if you want to sign yourself up, that's great. If you
want me to sign you up I can do that, too. But I wanted to at least let you know if you go
to ACRD, if you go to their projects page on the split corridor, it's right there on that
page there and you can just type in your e-mail address.
De Weerd: I would just sign them all up.
Hood: And I can sign everybody up. I just didn't want to do that without getting your
consent. So, however you would like me to do that.
Rountree: Fine with me.
Hood: Okay.
Zaremba: If you're going to do all of us, include me, too.
Hoaglun: Yes.
Hood: And I will include Councilman Bird, unless you don't think that's appropriate.
Hoaglun: We would vote for him to be in.
Hood: Okay. All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And, then, onto the business at
hand. I do want to start off this presentation by apologizing for having an incorrect date
on the top of my memo. I did cheat and use the memo from a similar discussion we had
just a couple months ago on Victory when we discussed that being potentially five lanes
and it's only planned for three lanes at ACHD. So, again, I apologize for that and there
is some extra pages and exhibits on the memo that were also carried over. I'm
apologizing for not proofreading my work a little bit more closely. But the text that you
have in front of you is accurate and I am here to discuss with you the potential to look at
Meridian Road north of Ustick becoming five lanes. Right now the capital improvement
plan at ACHD's master street map at ACHD, which we also have adopted and
referenced in our comp plan, as well as the North Meridian Transportation Plan, all
show Meridian Road as ever being ultimately three lanes wide. We had, again, that
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February 14, 2012
Page 40 of 55
discussion an Victory. There was same general discussion about all arterials being five
lane as a general rule. And, in fact, that was the rule back before we started doing
specific studies, like the north Meridian study that happened in the early 2000s. That
plan only called for Meridian to be three, so ACHD adopted it, and, then, you have the
policy that's in place. So, same of the justification why we are here today, just with
Meridian Road being a direct tie into the interstate, our downtown, we are seeing some
development in there on Meridian Road that we just -- I wanted to explore through the
option of exploring Meridian Road being a five lane roadway with ACHD and what that
would mean would be amending those documents that I -- that I previously mentioned.
So, I don't have any reference necessarily one way or the other, but based on same of
our discussion from last time and I think save McMillan, which has same real
encumbrances with the canal and the large power poles, I just wanted to put this out in
front of you to make you aware that it is only currently three lanes wide and see if you
would like me to explore five lanes with ACRD. So, that's all I have. I haven't really
done dug into it too much at this paint. I wanted to get your okay or, no, we are fine with
three, before I went any further. I did speak with Justin Lucas from ACRD just for a
minute before the meeting. He's here and he may have a couple of things to add. But
before he comes up I will stand for any questions or comments you have at this time.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: My short answer would be, yes, as you can probably guess. One of the
things -- and during the time that I was on ACHD's CICAC committee we did have the
discussion that all arterials should be five lane and preserved for five lane and I keep
being surprised by these little ones that aren't on the record as five lane. I guess
should have looked at each segment myself. But I assumed they were all five. One of
the things I have learned later is in much of their traffic modeling -- and whether it's
done by COMPASS or done by ACHD, which also has their own traffic model, they had
programs that say, okay, where does traffic go if it's too busy on street, where does it go
if it's too busy on that street. What I don't believe they included is where does traffic go
if far same reason an arterial is closed and -- and even if the modeling wouldn't justify
that Meridian or a section of McMillan or some of the other streets for normal daily traffic
-- it may not justify that it needs to be five lanes, but when something happens on
another arterial and that becomes the escape route, I know there is a big deal about,
okay, what are the alternatives if I-84 is closed or if Chinden is closed, the east-west
ones seem to get some attention to that. But if something happened on Linder or
Locust Grove, Meridian would be where we people would go and -- and even if it isn't an
everyday need for five lane, I feel there is enough justification to preserve it to five
lanes, but I would say please go forth with that.
De Weerd: Caleb, I guess my thought is it would -- weren't same consideration at least
looking at the modeling, at the traffic numbers, our land use, there has been a lot of
approvals along that corridor and if those approvals would warrant that, but it doesn't --
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 41 of 55
it doesn't have a connection over the river, so I think that's probably why there was
some narrowing of that north area. So, I -- without more information it's hard to say.
But certainly it's worth that consideration. I would also say how does it correlate with
our VRT and future transit type of plans. If there aren't any, I -- I would hate to add
additional expense in a corridor that may not warrant anything more than three lanes,
because when you get into five lanes it's -- you have, then, other unique things that are
associated with that, too, with dividing what an arterial does. But those are just my
thoughts.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I was trying to remember, Caleb, from Ustick going south to Meridian Road or
from -- sorry -- Ustick on Meridian Road to Cherry Lane, what were the plans for that?
Was that just going to be three or is that going to be five for sure?
Hood: It's five. So, north of Ustick is where it goes down to three.
Hoaglun: Okay. Because I want to -- definitely want to make sure we don't go from five
down to three and, then, hit the new Meridian Road section headed -- that will be
undertaken next year or later this year. So, with that being five, looking out to Chinden,
then, does -- and it's fairly well developed. There is still a few areas, but it's fairly well
developed. Will that -- and I think the Mayor was right on. Will that warrant going to five
far those particular areas and -- because it -- the fund does get bigger going to -- to the
freeway from those points forward. So, I would be interested in seeing that. I always
want to error on the side of caution in making sure we preserve rights of way and not
lose it, because it's -- once you do that it's way harder and much mare expensive to get
them back for five lanes, but if it really looks like we are not going to need that, then,
let's not. But, again, I would prefer to error on the side of five if it looks like there is
going to be some need for that.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: I have always been a proponent of five lanes on the arterials, particularly the
section lines. We have, however, gone through the planning process with the North
Meridian Transportation Study and it indicated three lanes. Now, apparently, we have
information that travel demand model indicates it might need to be more than that. I
don't know haw in depth that's gone. Plans are certainly just that and subject to
change, if, in fact, some change is required we need to do that. I will say that it's not a
real high priority with me and point out, again, that this is the kind of thing that kind
drives ACHD crazy and their planning requirements and their fiscal responsibilities and
how they prioritize and spend money. So, I think we need to take this as a lesson and
keep that in our perspective as we deal with ACHD, that, you know, if we are requesting
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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or there is something that we plan and it said three and now we are looking at five, that
might be the right thing to do, because change is always there in front of us. But let's
not lose light of -- of that and the issues that these kinds of things da, in fact, create far
ACHD and one of the rant cause of doing such things as Blueprint Far Gaad Growth
and those sorts of things that have not necessarily panned out all that well. But I would
say, yeah, it merits -- if it's the right thing to do we need to do it. But let's just keep that
in the back of our minds when we start thinking about ACHD and what they are doing
for us. I would say, though, it's not a priority. I think there is some other north side
corridors in Ada county that need same improvement, but it's the east-west corridors
that need the money spent an right now. So, until we get Chinden and McMillan and
Ustick and all of those streets up to same capacity so we can get some load off of same
of the interstate and some of the east-west, this will be a real low priority for me.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, Council Rountree, just to follow that, I -- this is something I
want to put on the radar screen, not to, you know, take a whole bunch of my time or
ACHD's time to look at, but just is it worth any time at all to start to explore this for
probably the next CIP update, which is going to happen in four years. So, it's doing
small modeling, does it make sense in bringing that back before you or is it just a
nonstarter. So, that's sort of where we are at and to hit on a couple of the other
comments real quick, it's -- I will look into it further is what I'm hearing, but it's not going
to -- you know, our priorities aren't going to turn upside down.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, question far Caleb and Planning staff. On the developments
that we are seeing ar have improved from Ustick north, have we required setbacks that
would accommodate five lanes and I guess your question is should we continue to do
that and my response is, yes, even though the ultimate build out may only be three
lanes.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, right now we are not preserving for
five lanes or getting the 70-60 ar whatever it is. Not the 96. So, right now -- and that's
the question. It's not moving up construction, but should we preserve the right of way,
even if it's doesn't get built for SO more years or more, should we have at least a
preservation of the right of way necessary, sa we aren't going in and buying trees ar
homes or other things that may be encroaching in the set backs. So, really, this would
be more of a preservation mode, not let's move it up an our priorities to get it
constructed as soon as possible, so -- and just one more point that I think about all of
you hit on --
De Weerd: And I'm sure they are sick of hearing our priorities, so adding another one
that doesn't have as high apriority -- I can say every road in Meridian is a priority, but
we need to select it accordingly.
Zaremba: Well -- and, Madam Mayor, I would support the preservation priority, not
necessarily the building and now I agree with that.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 43 of 55
De Weerd: Just to move this discussion along, let's move it along. Justin, do you want
to say anything?
Lucas: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Justin Lucas, Ada County
Highway District. I really don't have much. I appreciate your respect far the time it
takes to do these types of analysis, because it does take time, and I think trying to put
this question in the process -- in the existing process, like the development of our capital
improvements plan or some other planning process that we had in place, rather than
asking us for a specific analysis through -- you know, just far this project, would be the
best way to ga about it, because, honestly, if we do the analysis and look at, we
certainly can change this, it's not something we cannot change, but -- and as has been
stated, the width of a roadway has a great significance on the community. It really
does. And Icon -- part of my jab at ACHD is to advocate for pedestrians and bicyclists
and so every time I get the chance I try to do that and a three lane road versus a five
lane road and what that does to a neighborhood, it's a big difference, and sometimes
you can make a decision to constrain a roadway just because you want it to be three
lanes, you don't want it to be five lanes and that does push the traffic elsewhere, you're
absolutely right, and those -- those cars have to go somewhere. But sometimes you
have to make those decisions. So, maybe a pathway crossing, there may be some
other reason why you want that road to be three lanes and that's what comes out of that
planning process and Ithink -- and I'm pretty sure that's why when we talked about this
as three lanes, because there is other things going on on that corridor. And so I just
wanted to add that. I don't have much more than that. Just thank you -- thank you far
your time and I can certainly answer any questions.
De Weerd: Well, I appreciate those comments. They are right on. And I think we could
do some initial look in terms of our land use along that corridor and -- to see if it even
warrants even that initial step. So, appreciate those comments. Anything further from
City Council? Okay. Thank you, Caleb.
H. Purchasing Department Report: Approval of Award of Bid and
Agreement for "NW 1St Street Water Main Replacement -
Construction" to Start Construction LLC., and Authorize the
Mayor to Sign the Agreement and the Clerk to Attest for the Not-
to-Exceed Amount of $88,619.50
De Weerd: Okay Item H, our Purchasing Department. Keith Watts.
Watts: Madam Mayor, Council Members, last week we brought an agreement before
Council that was dependent on a license agreement with the Nampa-Meridian Irrigation
District and the city. You will remember that we did not approve that agreement,
because the city and the Nampa-Meridian Irrigation did not reach an agreement -- a
license agreement. Rather than rebid this project, I negotiated a change order with the
contractor to remove the portion of the work that was going to cross the lateral, actually
postponing that work until the spring of 2013, pending the city, once again, reaching a
license agreement with Nampa-Meridian. If that -- in the change order language, if that
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 44 of 55
license agreement is not reached by February 1st of 2013, the contract will, then,
terminate and each party is released from any further obligation. This allows us to
continue with the work that is needed and required at this time, without obligating the
city to have that portion of the award under the lateral in place prior to a license
agreement with the irrigation district. My request would be for Council approval and,
then, authorize the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest upon city's receipt of the signed
changed order from the contractor.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I would have a question far Public Works.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Mr. Dees.
Dees: Yes, sir.
Rountree: Have you reviewed this approach and is it acceptable from an engineering
standpoint to have this agreement be this protracted?
Dees: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, yes, we have.
Warren Stewart's reviewed it, as have the other staff engineers and they think this is
probably the best option to keep things moving.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree -- I'm sorry. Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I would move approval of the award of bid and
agreement for the Northwest 1st Street water main replacement construction to Star
Construction, LLC, and authorize the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest, the not to
exceed amount of $88,619.50 following the contractor's signing of that document.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 45 of 55
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Fire Department, Clerk's Office, and Planning Department
Discussion: Fireworks Code Updates - Application and
Inspection Process, Signs, and Standards
De Weerd: Okay. Under Item 7-I, our Fire Department, Clerk's Office, Planning -- why
da we list everyone and their kitchen sink? Wha gets to take this one? Okay.
Palmer: I guess I get to take it.
De Weerd: You're it.
Palmer: I'm it. Tag. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the last time that the
fireworks ordinance was updated and approved was in 2007 and based an requests
from vendors, as well as staff, we felt it was time to revisit this ordinance and make
some adjustments. So, just to cover some of the highlights of this, the current fireworks
code requires the applicants of fireworks stands to permit information that's not needed
or even used, things like Social Security number, name of contact information, and
criminal history of corporate officers. The draft that's before you would remove those
requirements and make the application process a lot less cumbersome for the vendors
and more streamlined far the staff that has to administer the permits. Another item is
the current fireworks code involves a lot of different agencies within the city. The
planning, the building, electrical, fire and code enforcement, to conduct site inspections
and there is a lot of overlap between those different agencies when we go out and do
conduct the inspections. So, what we are looking at is narrowing that down to,
essentially, the Fire Department would be the lead. When it's identified that electrical
maybe an issue, then, the electrical inspector would be involved. But, essentially, all
the things the other departments are looking at, the Fire Department can review those
and if there are any major issues, then, we can involve the appropriate agency in the
city. The current fire code application starts in April 15th. What happens many times is
people bring in a preliminary application that's not fully filled out, because they don't
have all the information, and so we get recurring updates to the application process all
the way up usually around June 1st. Sa, our -- and it's not reflected in the draft that you
have, because it came up today. But we are proposing that the deadline far
applications be moved to June 1st. We feel that this will be a lot more complete
application process and cut down on confusion for the staff, as well as the customers,
and make the whole process a lot mare streamlined. The current fireworks code
standard does not provide for standards for signage, so this would incorporate some
standards for signage where they can have two signs of 32 square feet each. The
parameters would be consistent with the temporary use code that's currently in place.
And, then, the -- lastly we found that applying the current code to our fireworks is much
more restrictive than what our neighboring jurisdictions impose, as well as what the
current International Fire Code stipulates. Things like the distances where they can
have smoking ar where they can discharge fireworks. It's a lot more restrictive and,
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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quite honestly, I am not completely convinced that I can make a persuasive argument
as to why it needs to be at the distances that it is when the International Fire Cade
stipulates shorter distances. So, I am open for questions.
De Weerd: Council, questions? Mr. Zaremba?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor. I think at the time that we adopted this code we were
thinking that we were doing it in concert with other jurisdictions who were going to
adapt, essentially, the same code, at which they eventually did not, which kind of meant
we were shooting ourselves in the foot without support. But one comment on changing
the deadline for the application, I have no problem with that. I probably would insert the
word that's the deadline for a completed application, so that it's real clear that that's not
putting your half application and keep adding to it. I would make that word complete a
specific part of that change. Then as to relaxing the requirements, many of the
requirements we put in were led by the Fire Department at the time. If you're
comfortable with backing off from those I suppose there is no reason I would argue with
it. If you don't feel you can justify the mare stringent requirements. I do know there was
a time where we -- I think we have worked on the state law as well -- about whether or
not vendors in our city could continue to sell fireworks that are illegal in Idaho merely by
someone signing a paper that says they are not going to use them in Idaho. We at one
time tried to include a rule that our vendors could not even sell them and I don't believe
we got away with that. But I sure would like to see that idea be there again somehow,
Fireworks that cannot be used in Idaho, I would just as soon weren't sold in Meridian.
I'm sure that's an issue that comes up every Fourth of July when the Fire Department
and the police are going around answering reports of sky bombs and all these other
stuff that we are not supposed to have. But I --that's just a personal opinion.
Holman: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Zaremba, your
comments about the completed application by June 1 st, I agree with that. I would like to
ask Nancy Radford, though -- two of the things that they end up getting to us at a later
date sometimes is on the current application they list the people that are actually
working at the stand. I believe that's still on the current application; is that correct?
Can you come up here? But sometimes they don't know that a full month in advance.
Sometimes that information that they get to us a couple of weeks before as they are
figuring out who is going to work these stands and the other one is a certificate of
insurance. Do you see any problem, Nancy, with that as far as them having that a
month ahead of time?
Radford: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the certificate of liability insurance
tends to be the thing that comes in the last, because they don't want to put the money
out until they need it. But I think June 1st is a good time for that. They often don't know
who their operators are going to be until the week before. You know, when you talk to
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February 14, 2012
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like TNT or same of the bigger vendors, they have four or five stands, they have to
actually get operators and they don't know -- typically I take the applications anyway
and, then, we just put it in there. But that's only one or two items.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: On that particular item do we use that information to do background checks
or anything on those names? And, if so, why? I mean what value are they to us?
Overton: We have done background checks on them before, but we don't have a code
that says -- that stipulates that we would turn them down if they had such and such and
such. So, it's been more of a -- find out, make sure we don't have somebody who is
actively involved in crimes sitting at a stand that doesn't have anything to do with
disqualifying them.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Would it solve that by having a -- in the application a paragraph that they
have to sign that says they won't employ anybody under 18 and anybody with a recent
felony and put the onus on the owner not to employ such people, rather than ask what
each of the names are and -- or does that make it more difficult for us?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, I think part of the
issue -- is it 25 dollars for an application? The mast we are allowed to charge. And isn't
29 -- how much does it cost to run a background check now, 29 something? Is that
what our --
Overton: A background check as we do for all the other permits and licenses is 29
dollars.
Holman: Right. We could certainly do that, but there is a cost benefit. So, I guess that
would be something we would be seeking your direction on. We can certainly
background check the people that are listed on these applications.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I didn't make my comment to have that done. My comment
was do we really need this and use this information. If not, take it out of the ordinance.
Zaremba: I think that's the direction I was going. Don't ask for the names, make it their
responsibility to make sure they -- they don't hire somebody that's under 18 or a felon.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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Overton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we are totally good with that. We
view that -- we have information. It's one of those things we did, because we have
always done it that way. But its years of being useful are over.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, just a general comment. I quit going to the Fourth of July
fireworks show, because I don't have to leave my backyard anymore. So, my hope and
issue about this is the ordinance is effective and, you know, it's kind of like the 65 mile
an hour truck speed, all that's done is make a whole lot of truckers in violation of the
law. Our fireworks ordinance, if we could enforce in total, would put a significant portion
of our citizens in a violation situation. So, are we accomplishing -- I guess my question
is do we have the numbers to show what we have done and what wasn't adopted by our
sister communities, has it been of value. We have got 11 pages of ordinance here that
my observation -- I'm not sure we accomplished a heck of a lot.
De Weerd: I would say it has improved things and I would say it for a number of
reasons. Certainly the challenge of availability of illegal fire -- or firearms -- fireworks
does make them go somewhere else and does make it more purposeful. It does make
them more aware that they are actually breaking a city code and when we get the
phone calls the day after the explosions we can at least say we do have a local
ordinance that we work hard to enforce, but -- so, you know, there is same trade offs,
but Iwould -- I would hesitate to take that house out, because, then, you think you get a
show now --
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, to answer one of the questions, it's still
illegal to sell those fireworks in the City of Meridian. It is not illegal for them to sell them
in other places. So, that's the ones you're seeing. They are not buying it from the one
that's in front of Fred Meyer, they are buying it from someplace else. So, the -- this is
only part of the problem that Council Member Rountree I think has hit right on it. I mean
we are trying to manage how they are sold within our city, rather than prohibiting them
entirely, but the end user is still a challenge. So, the more we can eliminate them, this
is clearly -- a statewide would be better and some states are moving more and more
towards eliminating fireworks of any kind. But our legislature hasn't seen fit to do that
yet. So, we are still going to see illegal usage, we are just trying to curb or curtail the
illegal sales and I think all we are trying to do in this is really -- sort of like your other
earlier recommendation of looking now back at our rental policy for our room, we have
looked at our policy in regards to the fireworks stands and found these are the ones that
are more practical to change, but it won't impact the products they sell. They are still
only allowed to sell safe fireworks if there is such a thing.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: That is a little skeptical.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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Hoaglun: One comment and, then, I have a question on our draft ordinance here. My
one comment is I must be getting older, because I'm always for a goad fireworks show,
but, bay, once they hit midnight I want these things to be done and they are not. My
question on -- under Item O, it's related to the temporary signs. I want to be sure under
~, item one, it says na mare than two temporary signs shall be installed or erected ar
posted or displayed for the purpose of identifying, promoting, advertising, directing
patrons to its operation. okay. So, I can see somebody on a corner -- you got one on
this corner, one on that corner. The next sentence of that I want to be sure -- I
understand that -- I think the next sentence would mean there is only one sign, then, on
the business itself, because it, basically, repeats itself. It shall be unlawful for any
person installing, post or display or to allow or cause installation or posting or display of
more than one temporary sign per operation identifying, promoting, advertising, or
directing patrons to such operation. So, I'm assuming that's the sign that is on their
temporary structure, because I -- the language is almost identical -- first sentence says
no more than two and, then, it says no more than one per operation. So, I just want to
be sure if that's the thinking that we have an that, that you have got two say sandwich
signs sitting out there, one on this street, one on that street, and, then, got you have one
sign that's -- so, that's my question on that, Bill. I think I know -- to me that's what it
says, but I'm not sure that's what it says.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I'm going to call on Pete, because I think he's gat same
enlightenment on this subject.
De Weerd: He sure looks like it.
Friedman: Madam Mayor, Council, Council Member Rountree. Thank you. I wish I
could rise to your expectation, but I really don't, because when I saw this on the agenda
I immediately went to Christy and said what do I need to know about this. She said
nothing. It's taken care of. However, what I did glean from her was what we have done
with the two signs, wrapping them into the fireworks permit, we have, essentially,
removed them from obtaining separate signage from Planning. So, we would pretty
much stay out of the fire -- approving the fireworks stands far thane designs. However,
if they do want mare than the two signs allowed under this ordinance, should the
Council pass it, then, they will have to apply for the limited duration sign and go through
that process. So, it is conceivable they could have more signage, but, in essence, as I
understand it, they get two with the fireworks stand permit. We don't look at them, as
long as they don't exceed the 32 square feet. If they want anything more than that,
then, they pay for it and go through the limited duration sign process.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, question for Pete. In the language in this, even though the
Fire Department would issue the permit and not come to Community Development, is
this the same language that applies to other temporary users and their permit
requirements for signs? And if it's not, then, it should be, because we shouldn't be
treating these vendors any different than atemporary -- other temporary user. Sa,
maybe just make sure that that's the case.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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Radford: Thank you, Mayor, Councilman Zaremba -- Councilman Rountree.
Rountree: Whatever.
Radford: The temporary use ordinance allows for so many signs and there is nothing
over and above. So, if this changes in the fireworks code, it would be two signs and if
they want one more they can request one more. So, how I hear what you're saying is,
na, just a few signs. That's what temporary uses are. They can't go to planning and get
more signs.
Rountree: So, it's consistent is what I'm hearing.
Radford: Uh-huh.
Rountree: All right.
De Weerd: Anything further?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I guess that there is na action on this item this afternoon, we
would move forward for public hearing and hearing opportunity and -- sometime
possibly by the end of the month. I don't know. Bill, you can schedule a date and get it
going.
Nary: We will do that.
Rountree: And if you would make sure that this language is consistent with the sign
ordinance, so we don't do something special for these permits.
De Weerd: Just far some consistency.
Rountree: Consistency.
J. Legal Department: Board of Adjustment Update
De Weerd: Thank you. okay. Item 7-J. I will turn this to Bill.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I had promised -- I was
trying to get you out of here by 6:00, so I will definitely take less than 15 minutes for this.
We changed our code a little over a year ago. If you recall we had the board of
appraisers sitting for people that had issues or concerns regarding their water bills,
trash payments, and the like. We changed it to the board of adjustment and we had
anticipated not having a tremendous amount of hearings, since we hadn't had a board
of appraisers hearing in about two years. So, we had four hearings last year and one
hearing this year so far. So, that didn't work. But the --the question I wanted to bring to
you for discussion is in the board of adjustment what we have done and when we have
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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dealt with these issues, so far we haven't had any issues ar any adjustment requests in
regards to water billings in regards to nonpayment or inability to pay. All of them have
been related to, for lack of a better word, leaks that have occurred on the property.
Primarily been by property management companies. One was by a business. And the
board's position -- the board is made up of myself, Tom Barry, and one citizen Tom
Sauer acts as the chair and the board's position has been consistently, but for the most
recent hearing, that city's responsibility is to deliver water and if the water is used in an
inefficient manner or wasteful manner because there is a leak on the property and you
don't fix it far a period of time and you have, essentially, used up the city's water, you
will have to pay far it and so the first four hearings we had we did not grant adjustments
based on leaks, because the leaks occurred on the property owner's side of the meter
and that's our -- been our standard. The most recent one we did have -- we did grant
an adjustment and, basically, it was not for a deviation from the standard of practice, it
was because we had made an adjustment in internally ourself in the city as to when
billing reads occurred and when the billings were done and so we gave the benefit of
that change, because this particular property owner sort of fell right in between that time
period that we were making those adjustments ourselves. Sa, we granted that benefit
to the property owner and gave a slight adjustment to their water bill. But their water bill
was still significantly higher than normal. But issue ar the problem that we have had is
that -- and what we wanted to bring to you is that one of the issues that's come out both
from a number of the users and through our own research is that other entities that
deliver water in our area provide some relief for leaks. The city of Nampa has a very
strict little system they have developed in their code that gives a very limited time period
in which a person can request relief from their excess water bill. They have to provide
proof that they have fixed the leak and, then, the city is allowed to adjust their water bill
by a very limited amount over a very limited window of time. So, they have to ask for it
and I don't have the exact amount, but it's in your -- it's in here. The code. But you
have to ask for it within two billing periods and they can look back within two billing
periods and so it's very limited. But it is relief that is granted and it is trying to relate to
what their normal usage is. Again, the conflict that we have run into from the board's
perspective is we have always related back to the property owner is that it's their
responsibility -- it's their incentive to fix their leak. If the -- if the property owner, who
has the water delivered doesn't pay far it, then, essentially, it's absorbed as a business
cost to the city, which means all the other users are paying for it. So, that's why we
have been pretty strict about providing it and our ordinance doesn't grant anything else.
So, the question we were asking of the Council to consider is do you want us to look at
and bring you a proposal of some relief possibility? Are you comfortable with the --
obviously, no one's appealed the board's findings up to you, but are you comfortable
with that position that we have? Again, we haven't had a lot of hearings -- well, we had
a lot more than we anticipated and, again, a lot of them are -- at least two of them have
been property management or landlords and, again, our response has been it's your
property, you're required to maintain it. The leak wasn't caused by anything the city did,
the leak was caused maintenance issues. One of them was an apartment complex
where they had a number of maintenance issues. The other information that's been
provided to us -- and I don't have that in front of you -- United Water, which is the
biggest water provider in our area -- also grants same relief and it's unclear to us exactly
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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what that is, but they have granted some relief to people that have leaks and bring in
proof of repair. But, again, they are much larger entities, so maybe they have the ability
to absorb it, but --
De Weerd: Well -- and, Bill, they are afor-profit company.
Nary: Sure.
De Weerd: And if we are making a profit we shouldn't be. And so to compare us with
United Water is not apples and apples.
Nary: No. I totally agree, Madam Mayor. All I'm saying is that's the information
provided to us, that other users or other providers in our area provide relief and we
provide none and so -- and, again, I don't have what -- what United Water does, but it is
a completely different business model than municipal water providers, but our other
municipal water provider to the west does provide some limited relief and we can
certainly craft something to bring back to you if you would like us to do that, but before
we went through that -- that exercise as a group we felt we'd ask the question if you
want us to even consider that, because, again, we have not provided it but for this one
and it wasn't related to the same issue.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think relief is probably a reasonable approach based on the timeliness of
the request. I mean if people are observant and do pay attention to their utility billing
and see a change and report it, how else are they going to know? Particularly a small
leak, other than getting a billing. And if they are timely in reporting that and getting it
fixed, I can see where the city could participate in same relief there. But if it's, you
know, a leak that's been going on for six or eight months and, then, all of a sudden the
light comes that, hey, I'm paying more than I was six or eight months ago, what's the
deal. And, oh, by the way, I have gat a leak and now I want the city to -- I'm not sure
how much relief is appropriate in that situation. Again, I don't know I'm going to have a
small leak in my water delivery line until I get my water bill.
Nary: Well, a good example, Council Member Rountree, is one of the recent ones --
and, again, it wasn't for this basis that we granted relief, but there -- it's an unoccupied
building. They did not realize they had a leak until they turned on their sprinkler system,
which was in the summer, so their normal usage in the wintertime was just the base
rate, which is five dollars and change. So, when they turned on their sprinkler system in
the summertime, then, it shat up to a hundred dollars, which is when they called, we
sent a person out, we told them that they may have a leak and there was some delay.
So, part of it would have been their fault by allowing this sort of language far a period of
time. But the next water bill they got they went from around a hundred dollars to 800
dollars. So, suddenly they realized, yeah, they really had a huge leak, but they -- but
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
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they certainly could have addressed it sooner and that was, again, a different issue.
But, you're right, for some of these folks, other than maybe having a little bit of soft spot
in their yard, they don't know. Dr if it's a residence, we had one where the residence
had a leak, it was under the house. They didn't even know it was there, so -- until they
got a water bill. 50, those are the -- some of the issues that we wrestled with and if the
Council would like we can at least create a proposal to bring you to consider looking at
some of the -- at least the other government entities and how they grant that and see
whether that's of your liking.
De Weerd: I don't know. I guess I don't want to appear insensitive, but we are on a
cost model and, you know, I guess we -- we all pay the same rates and I would be
concerned, because when I have a backup in my sewer and I don't expect the city to
come and help me pay for my cleanup cost in my house, because everything just
backed into my floor, so it's where do you draw the line and these are unanticipated
costs, but I don't know why it should be my cost. I'm just saying --
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: In looking at the Nampa language, I mean it -- no allowances will be made
covering mare than two billing periods, including the billing period in which the protest
was made and, then, they have to show that the repairs were made promptly. So, it is --
it's very confined to a certain period. So, like the case you talked about, they didn't
realize far quite awhile that they had a leak, so -- but part of my mind is just like with the
Mayor, you know, it's -- okay, you had a leak, you didn't know about it, now I'm trying to
wrap my brain around, well, why should the rest of the rate payers pay for that? I mean
part of me -- I want to be compassionate and, oh, that's too bad, let's fix that, you know,
get it fixed and we will take care of the bill for you and go back to your normal, but at the
same time it's -- those things happen and how do we balance -- because that will have
to be adjusted in the rates that are paid. So, I don't know, I can't say right now if I would
be -- be for that or not, so --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, just as a thought. Rather than forgive an expense like that,
might it be helpful to say, okay, we understand what happened. We will let you spread
that excess over five months of payments or -- I mean rather than saying, okay, that 800
dollar bill is due two months ago, say, okay, your normal bill is a hundred dollars, how
about 150 for the next -- well, until it's paid off or something like that?
De Weerd: I think they have been.
Nary: We do that now. They work a payment plan right now with -- I mean some of
them have been commercial accounts and they have just paid it. They have just asked
far relief, but they have just paid it if they have gotten a ruling against them. But, again,
a residential one they will just work out a payment plan.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 54 of 55
Zaremba: Okay.
De Weerd: okay. Any thoughts or direction far staff on this one?
Rountree: Well, we got them on both sides, so --
De Weerd: I know.
Nary: It can be a future topic. You don't have to decide today. I just wanted to raise
the question, because it's been brought up and, as I said, we have taken the position,
again, if -- if the user doesn't pay it, the city is going to pay it. I mean someone has to
absorb that cost.
De Weerd: But we don't have that many -- I mean why are we going to make this an
issue when it hasn't been? I mean everyone is going to ask the question. I mean the
answer is always no if you don't ask and sa you increase the percentage if you ask. But
when I was on it people reluctantly agreed that, you know, it shouldn't be a cast that is
shared by all and I don't think there is the realization that this is a cost neutral model,
that it's -- we are not for a profit. So, that cost goes to someone and that would be all
rate payers if you don't pay for your leak. So, I don't know, I don't want to -- to be
talking about a solution when we don't necessarily have a real issue, so -- Mr. Zaremba,
were you wanting to make a comment?
Zaremba: No. I think it's pretty much the same comment. Again, while I want to be
sympathetic about a problem that a person has had, somebody does have to pay for the
water that we process through our system and if it's not the person that had the
problem, then, it's everybody else and I'm not sure that's fair. If we can work out a
payment plan that makes it a little bit easier and we already have that process, I --
think I'm coming down on the side of it's not brake, let's not fix it.
Nary: And, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, with just another piece of that. You
know, our sewer system charge is based on an average. So, one of the things here at
the staff level ar at the board, we have been able to make sure that their sewer rate
didn't raise because of the excess water, which is critical, since the sewer rates are
normally higher as well. So, we have -- and sometimes it is just a communication thing,
as the Mayor stated, that people don't understand how the system works ar that --
again, it's not a for profit business. So, we do explain that and so, therefore, you
haven't seen appeals. But I did want to at least report it to you, because it has come up
enough that before you get a call I wanted you to at least be aware that's come to us --
I'm not recommending it at all, I'm really comfortable --
De Weerd: Mr. Nary, you have two minutes.
Nary: I'm perfectly comfortable saying no, as we have been to this paint, but I just
wanted to bring it to your attention.
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 55 of 55
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Thank you. We appreciate that on Valentine's Day. Okay. Item No. 8,
future meeting topics. Council, is there anything that needs to be considered to set far
future meetings? Okay. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 4:59 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR TAMMY DE WEERD
DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
JAYCEE HOLMAN, CITY CLERK
Meridian City Council
February 14, 2012
Page 55 of 55
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
ou. We a reciate that on Valentine's Day. Okay. Item No. 8,
De Weerd. Thank y pp
s. Council is there an thing that needs to be considered to set for
future meeting topic Y
future meetings? Okay. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 4:59 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR T ~ Y DE WEERD DATE APPROVED
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