HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-11-13~~E IDIAN:---
CITY COUNCILWORKSHOP
MEETING AGENDA
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 3:00 PM
1
Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba
X Charlie Rountree
2.
3.
Pledge of Allegiance
X Brad Hoaglun
X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Adoption of the Agenda Adopted {Pg 1-2)
4. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg 2-3)
A. Public Works Agreement with Nampa & Meridian Irrigation
District to Encroach within the Easement of the Five Mile
Creek and to Discharge into the Five Mile Creek
B. Public Works Agreement with Ada County Highway District
(ACRD) for Construction of the Franklin Road -Ten Mile to
Linder Project
C. Pathway Easement for Paramount Subdivision No. 21
D. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement for Independent
Contractor Services for "Well 17 Upgrades - FY2013" to
Hiddleston & Son, Inc. for a Not-To-Exceed Amount of
$79,615.00
E. Approval of Task Order 10312h for "Municipal Water Supply
Well No. 16-A Evaluation and Reconstruction Design,
Inspection, and Geotechnical Services" to Hydro Logic, Inc.
for the Not-To-Exceed Amount of $82,450.00
F. Resolution No. 12-886A: An Amended Resolution Of The
Mayor And The City Council Of The City Of Meridian,
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, November 13, 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.
Appointing Jack Borton As A Youth Member To The Parks And
Recreation Commission
5. Community Items/Presentations
A. Annual Update from Lakeview Golf Course Request granted to
waive the annual $6,000.00 payment by the Golf Course due to
the capital improvements to the course by the current lessee.
(Pg 3-16)
B. Meridian Arts Commission Recommendation Regarding
Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2 Public Art Project Proposals
Motion Approved to Accept the Arts Commission
Recommendation (Pg 16-22)
6. Items Moved From Consent Agenda None
7. Department Reports
A. Fire Department: Strategic Plan Update (Pg 22-27j
B. Mayor's Office: Community Liaison Update (Pg 27-32j
C. Community Development: Business Registry Update (Pg 33-
39)
D. Community Development: Rail with Trail Grant Application
(Pg 39-43)
E. Legal Department: Commercial Commingled Recycling
Service Rate Reduction for 95-gallon Carts as Requested by
Republic Services, Inc. (Pg 43)
F. Legal Department: Resolution No. 12-889: A Resolution of the
Mayor and City Council Adopting a Reduction to the
Commercial Commingled Recycling Service Rate for 95-Gallon
Carts as Requested by Republic Services, Inc. Approved (Pg
43-44)
G. Police Department: Policy Manual Revision for Meridian Police
Department (Pg 44-46)
H. Police Department: Resolution No. 12-890: A Resolution of
the Mayor and City Council of the City of Meridian Adopting
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, November 13, 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.
the Revised Meridian Police Department's Policy Manual
Approved (Pg 46-47)
Public Works: Status and Future Options for the RV Dump at
the Wastewater Treatment Plant (Pg 47-54)
J. Amended onto the Agenda: Legal Department: Discussion on
Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2 Temporary Use Ordinance
Revisions (Pg 54-56)
8. Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 12-1532: Temporary Use Permit for One
Additional Sign for Permanent Proprietors in Meridian Split
Corridor Phase 2 Roadway Project Area Approved (Pg 56-57)
9. Future Meeting Topics None
Adjourned at 6:01 p.m.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, November 13, 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 Citv Council November 13. 2012
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:03 p.m., Tuesday,
November 13, 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, Bruce Chatterton, Sonya Wafters, Scott
Colaianni, Mark Niemeyer, Steve Siddoway, Warren Stewart, Emily Kane, David Allison,
Tracy Crane and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and start today's meeting for the City Council
Workshop. For the record it is Tuesday, November 13th, three after 3:00. We will start
with roll call attendance, Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited:)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: A couple items on the agenda today. Item No. 7-F is resolution number
12-889. 7-H is resolution 12-890 and we need to add a 7-J. This is from the Legal
Department, a discussion on Meridian split corridor phrase two temporary use
ordinance revision. With that, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda as
amended.
Rountree: Second
Meridian City Council Workshop
November 13, 2012
Page 2 of 58
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Public Works Agreement with Nampa & Meridian Irrigation
District to Encroach within the Easement of the Five Mile
Creek and to Discharge into the Five Mile Creek
B. Public Works Agreement with Ada County Highway District
(ACRD) for Construction of the Franklin Road -Ten Mile to
Linder Project
C. Pathway Easement for Paramount Subdivision No. 21
D. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement for Independent
Contractor Services for "Well 17 Upgrades - FY2013" to
Hiddleston & Son, Inc. for aNot-To-Exceed Amount of
$79,615.00
E. Approval of Task Order 10312h for "Municipal Water Supply
Well No. 16-A Evaluation and Reconstruction Design,
Inspection, and Geotechnical Services" to Hydro Logic, Inc.
for the Not-To-Exceed Amount of $82,450.00
F. Resolution No. 12-886A: An Amended Resolution Of The
Mayor And The City Council Of The City Of Meridian,
Appointing Jack Borton As A Youth Member To The Parks And
Recreation Commission
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I move approval of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk to
attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Madam
Clerk, will you call roll.
Meridian City Council Workshop
November 13, 2012
Page 3 of 58
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Community Items/Presentations
A. Annual Update from Lakeview Golf Course
De Weerd: Item 5 is our Community Presentations. Today we have with us Eric and
Jerry. Welcome. Oh. And Clint. And Clint. I saved the last for the best; right? Okay.
Item 5-A.
Oaas: Madam Mayor City, Councilmen, I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak
with you today to give you our 2012 progress report on the -- on the golf course. If we
want to flip to the second slide.
Holman: Mr. Oaas, you can take that pen and tap in the lower left-hand corner. There
is a forward and back.
Bird: Okay. Got it. Thank you. I see here. All right. Perfect. From an operation
standpoint Lake View Meridian investors, which is my partner Steve Laney and I,
remain as the lessor. Oaas Laney are the sole members of the LLC that is the lessor of
-- for the golf course. We have renewed our contract with Raven Golf --
De Weerd: Eric, can you pull that microphone in front of you? Thank you.
Oaas: We have renewed our contract with the -- with Raven Golf Services to manage
the golf course property and as you know and we have come to learn over and over
again, they are very well respected in the valley and manage a number of courses
throughout Idaho. Our head professional is John Wallace. John has been with us a
couple of years now and he is doing a fabulous job, as well as our course
superintendent Rich Rush is -- has just done a fabulous job. Our capital improvements
and what we have -- some of the things that we have done to the golf course this year
are -- we are pretty proud of. First, we spent on the clubhouse renovation, on the
restaurant and bar, about 11,567 dollars. This included painting, redoing a lot of the
kitchen area, recarpeting, reupholstering chairs. It really -- really was a major face lift to
the -- to the clubhouse operation and it certainly shows. This does not include the
amount of the -- that was contributed by the men's and women's association and the
volunteer work, this is strictly the out-of-pocket cost for the golf course. Tree planting --
we were fortunate enough to -- to be donated several hundred trees by Cloverdale
Nursery and we, with the help of Raven Golf Services, had -- and the Boy Scouts, did a
number of plantings this year at the golf course and these trees have just -- already they
are just significantly improving the esthetics of the golf course. We also installed a pond
pump on the practice range in front of the clubhouse, which from an esthetic standpoint
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November 13, 2012
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the water and the sound of the water is very nice, plus it helps with mosquitoes and it
also helps move the balls -- the floating balls closer to -- easier to pick up. And, then,
finally, we put a fire pit and a barbecue on the patio and the total -- total for this year
alone was over 20,000 dollars. The current challenges -- what I did in here is I pulled a
slide from our presentation of a couple of years ago and I thought, well, it would be kind
of interesting to see how we compare now to where we were a couple years ago. Golf
course play across the valley and nationally has declined due to the economy and,
obviously, this has continued and is continuing. The financial issues have created
significant cash flow challenges. We have made pretty substantial progress in this
regard and have certainly eliminated a lot of the dire overhead debt issues, but the cash
flow challenges still continue. The irrigation system inadequacy causes operational
problems and additional labor for watering and that -- that is continuing, but as you will
see in the video that I have at the end of the presentation, the golf course is just in
tremendously good condition and Rich and his team, under the direction of Clint, have --
have really done a phenomenal job. And, then, finally, we -- we had cart paths that
were in significant disrepair a couple years ago. Well, obviously, we know that through
a lot of volunteer help and donations and investment on the part of the golf course, we
got those in very good shape. Current opportunities. Loyalty of Lake View Golf Course
golfers is incredible. The men's and women's association have done an awesome job
continuing to do things that -- that help enhance what we are doing at the golf course.
They worked on a bridge. repair, a paver project, the bar -- oops. The bar stoop. That
should be bar stool upholstery and the port-a-potty enclosure, which is -- which is sort of
an eye sore, that they donated the materials and -- and we provided the labor to put it
up. So, they are very active and we certainly are appreciative for what they are doing.
The course maintenance is excellent. It was a remarkable effort this summer, even with
our extremely hot temperatures. The greens, in our perspective, are much better than
nearly all of our peers. Next I want to talk about a capital improvements plan. It's -- we
have put together alist -- not in any particular order, but a list of items that we think
need to be addressed and we intend to address over the next seven years. First on the
list is pretty self-explanatory. Purchase lease golf carts. When you have -- our target is
to have a fleet of 40 operational golf carts in process or in service at all times. We are
very -- came very close this past year to -- to reaching that. We had to bring in some --
some rentals from time to time, but overall we are -- we got the golf carts pretty well in
hand. We have got -- we have got the last group of batteries replaced next year and,
then, we should be in good shape. Rework and refurbish number eight and number
greens. We also want to relocate and rebuild the main putting green back to the area
that's a little bit to the -- to the west of where it's currently located and right now it's -- it's
a little bit like putting on the surface of a bowling ball, it's -- and from our perspective we
can do a lot better by getting it over into that surplus area between that area and the --
and the parking lot and maybe even making it a two tier putting green. On the bunker
renovation, this is something that -- that the bunkers are in significantly better shape
now, but -- but we will be rebuilding bunkers over the next several years. Cart paths
replacement we know that work over the next several years. Cart path replacement.
We know that the work we did last year was -- was solid, but we will -- we will need to
replace and redo cart paths over the next several years. That's just -- that's just
something that's a given. And, then, finally, we have a general area called landscaping
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November 13, 2012
Page 5 of 58
projects that will include things like rebuilding tee boxes and -- and providing additional
landscaping, you know, throughout the golf course. And, then, finally, I just wanted to
thank you, Council and Madam Mayor, for all your support, particularly Councilman
Rountree and Madam Mayor for attending our golf course focus meetings and offering
your support for what we are -- what we are trying to do and we think we have made
some pretty incredible progress. I have got a -- I have got just a short video that -- that
we had taken this summer, which shows -- and this is late in the summer. It shows the
quality of the golf course. You can see throughout that there are a lot of -- show a lot of
new planted trees. You can see the -- the fountain off to the upper right-hand corner.
But the thing to notice is the quality of the course and how green the turf is and how
incredibly high quality the putting greens are. Our --our superintendent and his
team have done just an awesome job. With that, we would like to -- I'd like to invite
Jerry and Clint to come up here and we would be happy to answer any questions you
might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Eric. Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Just -- and I thank you for keeping it up. It's the best it's looked in -- ever. All your
golfers are very happy. Keep it up, Eric. Appreciate it. Jerry. Clint. Thank you very
much.
Oaas: Thank you, Councilman Bird.
De Weerd: I think you can tell -- I appreciate the slide that you added with
acknowledging the loyalty of the men's and women's golf associations and their
confidence that is showing through, them stepping up and getting more engaged and
being more of a part of the improvements that you see out there and I think that was
probably the time that built the trust and the respect, but you can see that it's -- it's a
mutual respect and -- by what they have engaged themselves in, too. So,
congratulations on that.
Breaux: Thank you. We are really trying to satisfy --
De Weerd: You want to -- I just needed you to step forward to make sure that was on
the record.
Breaux: I wanted to make that part of the record. We are trying to satisfy Mr. Barton.
He's our -- he's the biggest -- and I also saw the score card, Madam Mayor, when you
were playing the other day with your husband and how bad you beat your husband on
the golf course. You know, that's --
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November 13, 2012
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De Weerd: Well -- and that was not even swinging a club. I just went walking with him.
I thought you were going to get after me, because I didn't pay.
Breaux: You didn't pay? Oh, never mind.
De Weerd: I didn't pay to walk. I was along -- I was his caddy. Other comments,
questions?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I, too, would like to add my thanks for how well the golf course is being taken
care of. I'm not a golfer, but many of my neighbors are and they seem to be happy with
how things are going and just from my observation of people that do go by, they -- I
know you're not as busy as you could be and it is a slow time, but I do see quite a few
golfers out there and they seem to be happy and I want to compliment you on that and
as a neighbor of the golf course lappreciate --
Breaux: Well, we appreciate that and, you know, the economy is getting better, more
people. are playing .golf, rounds are up a little bit. Not a lot, but they are up a little bit.
And the golf course continually gets better. We don't hear a lot of compliments when
the golf course is good and people are playing well, then, they don't complain too much,
so we don't hear a lot of that. So, we especially appreciate that. Eric, are you listening?
Zaremba: Well, I think the evidence is that you have more and more people playing. I
mean I remember many years ago before you guys were there beautiful days would go
by without a single golf cart out there. So, I think that's an improvement. That's it. I do
have a couple of questions about the presentation. You mentioned that it was an
ongoing issue with the irrigation where you -- it's not all in the right places -- I mean we
have known this for many years and you get wet spots and dry spots and stuff. I didn't
see on the CIP that you're addressing that. Is that something that you are working on?
Did I miss that?
Oaas: We are -- Councilman Zaremba, we are working on that. We -- we are still
hopeful that -- that there might be a possibility of -- of utilizing reclaimed water, but we
have done some preliminary work and I have also done some preliminary work to
investigate that, but there is -- there is some open issues there that we -- neither of us
have answers on yet, but, yes, we -- we -- we are aware of it, we know we need do
something in that regard. But it's a substantial investment and if there is a -- if there is a
possibility of utilizing reclaimed water, the golf course would really like to explore that,
but we just don't know right now.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor. I know the city would appreciate it if you could use -- hook
into the reclaimed water system. That's a source issue and I guess I'm talking about a
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November 13, 2012
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distribution issue really. It seems to me like some of it needs to be replumbed,
regardless of what your source is.
Oaas: It would all have to be redone if we use reclaimed water.
Zaremba: Okay.
Oaas: If just by the nature of -- of the raw material.
Zaremba: Okay. So, that would be part of the same project.
Oaas: Uh-huh.
Zaremba: A couple more little questions if I may. There was a time where you owed
money to Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District. Is that getting resolved?
Oaas: We are completely current at this time.
Zaremba: Cool. Good to have that known. And, then, one small issue on the cart
paths and that is where it uses the public sidewalk on Talamore. We have talked about
that before and I don't see it to the CIP to fix that problem either. is that coming?
I -- along with the good things I hear from my neighbors that's the one picky thing that I
do hear from all of my neighbors that walk -- they are challenged with the carts that are
on the sidewalk, so --
Oaas: Right. And we -- we understand that there will be a presentation from one of us,
the owners association in that regard today. We do plan to address that. There is really
a couple ways to fix it. We are just -- we have not set up the meeting with -- with us and
the city and all the interested parties out on site to sort walk through and figure out
what's the best alternative. The summer season -- you know, in getting through that
was more important. Now we have got the time to do that and we plan to do that very
shortly.
Zaremba: I realize it's not the number one priority, but I don't want it to disappear off the
radar screen.
Oaas: No. No.
Zaremba: And, again, thank you all for all the work you are doing.
Oaas: You bet. Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
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November 13, 2012
Page 8 of 56
Hoaglun: I appreciate the progress that has been made. It's moving forward in the right
direction. There is always challenges, things you can't control, like the national
economy and things you can, but you got to work through them and make priorities and
get to them. Just an anecdotal piece of evidence that the golf course does more than
just golfers. We have a young man in his office -- in our office with a wife and they are
expecting and they have been living in an apartment in Boise and they've wanted to
move out to Meridian for a long time and they are looking and looking and looking and
they found a house along the golf course that they are able to afford and they are
extremely excited and they think that that golf course looks wonderful. So, even though
-- actually, he's a golfer, so he will probably be out there doing some golfing down the
road, but that really helps -- it helps the housing market in that area when you have got
a nice looking project there and even for people who don't golf„ they want to be
someplace with a lot of open space and a golf course is a great place to look and so it
was just kind of interesting to hear his comments about how pleased they were to be
there next to the golf course and what it looks like. So, appreciate that.
Oaas: Thank you, Mr. Hoaglun.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Just wanted to thank you all for participating in the golf forum. I would like to
see that continue and I think we are going to be having our next meeting in December.
I would ask that -- you know, it's kind of been one sided at this point. It's been stuff from
the -- Mr. Barton and the city and you all I know have things you want to offer, too, so I
would like to encourage that. I think it's been useful, at least from the city's perspective,
those issues that Councilman Zaremba brought up are issues that we have talked about
and we have taken some action on and a growing point that you all need to be aware of,
there is a feasibility study in the CIP for Public Works for water and water delivery at the
golf course with reclaimed water. So, that's something that's yet to happen, but will
happen in probably the near future. We will get a handle on what -- what it's going to
take and what it's going to cost and, then, take the next step. But I appreciate the time
that you spend with us, so we can communicate. Obviously, we need to communicate
back and forth here a little better. And I hope we can continue and I hope that -- I know,
Eric, that you seem to be a little more comfortable as we meet this idea of having to
deal kind of in a public environment, as opposed to closed office space. So, continue to
get more use to it and we will try to make it as comfortable as we can for you.
Oaas: There have been no attempts at strangulations lately, so I think that --
De Weerd: Yeah. We actually see a natural smile on your face instead of a forced one.
Rountree: I -- I second all of the -- the part of the comments about the golf course. I
have heard a lot of people that are not necessarily regulars out there that just come and
play occasionally and they have said the greens are as good as there are in the valley
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November 13, 2012
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and these are people that play all over the valley. So, that's a real credit to -- to Raven
and your hiring and having Raven and Rich and his crew. They are doing a great job.
Oaas: Thank you, Councilman Rountree.
De Weerd: Anything further from Council?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Jerry or Clint, anything you would like to add?
Breaux: No. Thank you.
De Weerd: We appreciate you all coming and certainly, again, every single year we see
very big progress and it's greatly-appreciated and it's very appreciated when we hear
pleasant things, instead of the opposite. And we are. We appreciate it.
Oaas: Madam Mayor, thank you. I promise not to drive my Escalade out on the golf
course and chase golfers off.
De Weerd: That would be appreciated.
Oaas: Thank you. Honestly, we sincerely appreciate your support and look forward to
continuing in the future.
De Weerd: Thank you. Steve, did you have anything?
Rountree: Ted does.
De Weerd: Or Ted.
Baird: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I wanted to take a few minutes today to
let you know where we are with the -- an addendum to the lease. The changes that Eric
talked in his presentation, anything that is -- affects -- is affected or controlled by the
lease we need to reduce that to writing and what I have put before you are just some
bullet points about some of the changes that were put into that addendum. The first one
would have to do with the revised capital improvement program. As you recall, the
original lease has very specific year by year program through years one through six.
Those years have passed. The task force has discussed at length the feasibility of
holding them to that and after much discussion the recommendation from the golf
course task force is that we institute the 6,000 dollar per year expenditure program that
Eric described today. The list of items that he put forth would be the type of things --
he's the operator of that for some flexibility to do what's most important any particular
year and being able to capitalize and maximize on volunteer efforts and donations and
things of that nature. But we would be looking for verification of 6,000 dollars' worth of
capital improvements every year and that would tie into the request for the rent relief. I
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November 13, 2012
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will give you that in just a minute. Second item has to do with the accounting records.
There has been significant back and forth and, quite frankly, some lack of
communication perhaps on both sides between our Finance Department and the
operator. Stacy and Eric have agreed to sit down, get a clear understanding of what
they want, what he can give that meets the intent of what we are requiring, so that we
can verify the income of those operations and show that our city resources are being
used appropriately. So, that language isn't complete. That's, frankly, what's the last
piece that needs to fit into this. So, we will continue to work on that. Now, presuming
that the 6,000 dollar per year proposal is acceptable, we would like to get the next
seven years on an auto pilot is what I'm calling it, so that I don't have to get a call from
accounting on October 2nd saying that the golf course forgot to come in and ask for the
rent release. What I'd like to do is just say for the next seven years, as in the previous
year, if 6,000 dollars was spent that proof of that was given to the city one month in
advance and we verify that through accounting, if accounting is okay with it they put it
through the City Council on a Consent Agenda with supporting information, if anybody
on the Council has questions you could pull it off. This is not intended to take the place
of the annual presentation from the golf course, but it's just to get this piece on an auto
pilot for the next seven years. So, I will be asking for some feedback on that if Council
thinks that that's an appropriate way to proceed. One other item that Stacy wants to put
in there as a precursor to allowing the annual rent relief is that she gets those
documents every year that she's asking for, the financial documents. Finally, the. last
one is an easy one, regarding the ground maintenance. There was a detailed list in the
original lease of things that they would do to various points on the course. When Raven
came in they looked at it, they revised it for what works for them. I think the proof is in
the fly over video that you just saw, what it -- it's kind of above and beyond and what
they are doing is, obviously, working, so we are just going to replace the old
requirements that didn't make sense to them with what they are doing now. So, that's
the nature of what you will see in the addendum and I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: And, Ted, I'm sure that the language will -- that 6,000 dollar capital
improvement funding is their money and not association money, as Mr. Oaas explained,
they had -- they spent their money and it was on top of and, then, association money
was on top of that. So, that we make that clear.
Baird: That's the intent is that 6,000 dollars of Lake View money and to the extent that
they can take that and leverage it with those other donations that were talked about, so
much the better. I'm also going to draft it. I haven't discussed this with Eric, but it's my
proposal that we draft it to say if 7,000 dollars is spent in a year, we start fresh on the
following year. There is no carry over. Trying to keep track of that it would just be way
too difficult. So, that's it at this point.
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November 13, 2012
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Hoaglun: Thank you, Ted.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, Ijust -- I guess I want to phrase this as support for the
program that you're suggesting, but I want to emphasize if -- if the city were spending
6,000 dollars someplace, we would have to account for every penny of it and as you
have made clear, if the request is going to be us to forego 6,000 dollars that we are
owed, I do think it's fair to require documents proving how that was spent. That's part of
our transparency for the public and what monies we are responsible for and where they
went or didn't go, so I appreciate your thoughts on that.
Baird: Madam Mayor, Council Member Zaremba, that's why I was proposing that that
verification process go through the Finance Department. If they are not able to get the
proper verification and the deadlines upon us, that will come to you probably with
recommendation denial of the requested annual rent release. So, I think we have got a
stop gap there in the name of the finance director, so --
Zaremba: Thank you.
Baird: Madam Mayor, I might mention -- I was out of the room at the beginning of Eric's
presentation, but the accounting department is looking for a motion regarding the rent
that was due and owing October 1st of this year. Based on the presentation that was
given, this meeting would be the time to consider that and, hopefully, if we get this into
place, when we do get this into place, would be the last time you will have to be asked
for a specific motion. And one last thing before I let the podium go. Madam Mayor, I
know that you have been concerned about the safety issue regarding the students and
others using the pathway and through the golf course near Tee 3. Eric and I have
finalized the letter, agreed on the language, and who it goes to. For convenience I'll
have him sign it, I'll let you review it, if you want further changes we can -- we can
accommodate that, but I wanted to present that to you today, so that we can get that
out. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I concur in these recommendations as far as the addendum goes and I think
it's about time we try to simplify this and provide some direction, because we have really
not had specific direction in the past. Having said that and based on the presentation I
would move that we not request the 6,000 dollar rent for the past year and waive that
requirement.
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Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from Council?
Bird: For fiscalyear'12; right?
Rountree: '12.
De Weerd: Okay. Madam Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I have been asked to specifically
address the question of the golf cart path improvements that were brought up by
Councilman Zaremba, where the golf carts currently go on the sidewalk. So, this is the
area, West Talamore Boulevard where between Hole 7 and 8 from a few years ago and
there is no pathway, today there is a pathway down. in here, I can show you that photo
based on the improvements they have made -- I'm going to zoom in a little bit. You can
see on this photo how the pathway comes --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Siddoway: You can see the pathway where it comes from the north on Hole 7 to meet
up with the sidewalk and, then, they go down to the -- the curb cut.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: If I may, since we are doing a little bit of historical, let me add one thought.
The original path actually went between that green and the pond and -- and this is
previous operators. There was a time when that area became a little bit muddy, so they
swung it around temporarily to the view that you're seeing now and at the time the issue
was raised that it should not permanently be on the sidewalk, but the -- the original path
went on the other side of the green and I can understand the reason for wanting to
come around the green, instead of taking that shortcut, but just want to add that as
historical, this was not where the original path was.
Bird: That's right. But it's not the original green either.
Zaremba: Thank you, Steve.
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Siddoway: Yes. So, Madam Mayor and Council Members, at the end of our last
meeting in -- was it August or September? September I believe, we met and it was
asked if there would be a subcommittee that would go out and take a look and
recommend a solution. That group included Mike Barton, Tim Curns from Public Works,
and Jim Corea, one of the neighborhoods that lives out there. The -- this was the idea
that was talked about at that time where the existing path comes around Hole 7. They
would try and add a recycled asphalt pathway adjacent to that, put in six inch vertical
curb to separate the sidewalk traffic and the golf cart traffic, a few boulders to divert it
and help them wrap around, reduce some of the plants and median that are -- reduce
visibility currently and try and crease that visibility and that's about it. We did get a cost
estimate that puts this in the -- the six to ten thousand dollar range, if it includes all of
the elements, including the curb, irrigation and sod repair and cart path construction,
including the boulders. And I think the thing that's unclear right now is this --
improvement that would be part of capital plan for the golf course or would you like the
city to do this as we have done other projects out there, which we don't have a budget
for this, let me be clear about that, but if you would like us to prepare a budget
amendment we can or if you want to provide direction that this is an improvement for
the golf course, I think we need some direction on the -- the who, now that we have at
least agreed on the direction for the what.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve..
Siddoway: I will stand for questions
De Weerd: Council, comments?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just on the design, Steve, can you tell me on the new -- it says
new six inch vertical curbs, as opposed to, you know, the parking lot concrete stops,
that they would be putting those in there -- they would be actually poured and new and
everything.
Siddoway: I think it's just an extruded curb machine that would push along, like a
landscape curb.
Hoaglun: Okay. I was just thinking of ways to save money, but I don't know how that
would look. Probably look nicer new, so --
Siddoway: I'm not sure it would -- we could look into the option. I'm not sure it would
save over the -- the extruded landscape curb, but certainly an option.
De Weerd: You know, I -- when your committee -- or maybe Councilman Zaremba can
answer this -- is I have talked to both golfers and residents in that area and I guess I
walk away with what are we trying to solve that -- what kind of problems first exist out
there, because I know as we have golfed I have never seen a pedestrian on there. That
maybe just a simple sign that says, you know, golf carts please yield to pedestrians and
-- I don't know, again, what the -- how big the problem is.
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Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: What we -- have a committee out there was Clint or any of his groundskeepers
involved in that --guys that know how to run and set up a golf course?
Siddoway: I don't think at that site -- he's been in all the meetings where we have talked
about it.
Bird: Are they in agreed with this?
Siddoway: Did you see the solution?
Bird: That's what I thought.
Siddoway: So, it's all just happened in the last couple of months
De Weerd: And I think it will go to the committee next month.
Bird: Okay. So, I'm not ready to pass on something like that.
Siddoway: The intent was to take a recommendation back to the committee at the next
meeting. That was what was requested. I think there was interest enough on the
Council to know what was -- what's being looked at and then -- and, then, just
some general feedback as to whether -- whatever is decided you see as a city project or
not.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: And to further the Mayor's comment, there is a number of courses around here
that have to ride the carts on the sidewalks for a little area and a little sign stating yield
to pedestrians I think would work. I don't know. I have never seen a problem there, but
I don't live in the area.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Of course, a hundred percent of the people that report the problem to me are
-- I don't know how -- what percentage of the people that actually walk there that is. I
know I have run into a problem twice, but that was several years ago. It has not
occurred again in the last couple of years, maybe because the golfers are becoming
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more aware of it. One of the things that I was concerned about is whether the golf carts
would do damage to the sidewalk and as I continue to observe it over the years that this
has been going on I don't see that there is damage being created, except possibly right
at the spot where they leave the golf cart --golf cart path and enter the sidewalk. Some
of the -- the material that is on the golf cart path seems to be potentially chipping away
at the edge right there, but that's not a very major problem. So, I don't see damage as a
major issue. It's just the convenience of the people that complain that they had to step
off the sidewalk when confronted with a cart and I know that makes the driver -- the
sidewalk dirty as well, so I don't know how to solve that, but I have to agree with the
idea of asking the committee to discuss it further and this looks to me like it would be a
good solution. The question is there is always a cost, so --
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor. I don't disagree with what you said. I think probably a
simpler solution might be in order. The issue is that, yes, there are neighbors out there,
they have been in contact with code enforcement, code enforcement has been in
contact with ACRD. The information back is that you cannot operate a vehicle on the
sidewalk, either by our ordinance or state statute, so that's the rub. So, the folks that
have taken upon themselves of championing getting something done have all that
information and. I suspect that -- John is not here today, Lieutenant Overton, but I
suspect they hear of this issue more often than they wish. So, we need to do
something. I'm not opposed -- and we will talk about this in our next -- in our focus
group meeting, but I think a lot of it boils down to just courtesy on the part of the golfers
and recognizing that what the sign says there means stay off the sidewalk, except at the
designated crossing point and start there and see what happens.
De Weerd: Is there a sign out there?
Rountree: There is nothing there now. It's just -- the path, the way it's set up, just
dumps the carts on the sidewalk. That probably needs to be changed, but that's
probably the extent that needs to be changed at this point, in my opinion, with some
signage and, you know, let's not build the Ferrari here, let's see if we can't do it with a
Volkswagen and be done with it.
De Weerd: Well -- and I guess I would ask that the committee consider, you know,
certainly affordable alternatives, because there still would be the question of who pays
for it, but this is not the only place that golf carts are on the sidewalk and I don't know if
it's Hole 12 or 13 -- I was trying to count, but --
Bird: I can count backward for you. One, two, three, four, five -- between 12 and 13
that you're on the sidewalk.
De Weerd: Yeah. You know, you can't be on anything but the sidewalk, because of the
-- the elevation of the grass and the sidewalk. We have never gotten a complaint there
and if it's to look at our ordinance, certainly that's a cheaper change. We live on a golf
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Page 16 of 58
course. There are golf carts and, yeah, golf carts need to be a little bit more courteous,
but if you have to step into the grass so a golf cart goes by, I don't -- I don't understand
that rub. So, I just can't justify six to ten thousand dollars to -- so, in the -- the very few
issues -- if Councilman Zaremba hasn't seen this -- and I see him walking almost every
day -- for two years, how many times has this happened and how many carts are really
being rude and not being courteous to the walker and vice-versa. It just -- if it's an
ordinance thing we can -- we can help look at our ordinance and make it allowable in a
golf community. It just --
Siddoway: Madam Mayor and Council Members
De Weerd: I'm not looking to spend money.
Siddoway: -- that is very helpful. So, one thing we can do is take that back with this
information to the committee next month and work together on a solution.
De Weerd: We do appreciate all the -- the efforts you and your staff have gone through
and certainly Jim as well, but, yeah, we need to understand how big of a problem is this
or is it just something that has been this festering issue that -- is there really an issue?
Siddoway: We are. not. out there as park staff on a daily basis. l know that we had a
gentleman that came to our meeting --
Rountree: Ed Johnson.
Siddoway: Ed Johnson came and simply spoke to this issue at our last meeting. I
know the code enforcement folks have mentioned they have gotten several calls -- you
know, how many different people are calling I don't know, but he they have had calls
about it, like Councilman Rountree mentioned and so something needs to be done, but
how big of a problem it is or how big the solution needs to be I think is still on the table.
Yeah. Thank you.
B. Meridian Arts Commission Recommendation Regarding
Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2 Public Art Project Proposals
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 5-B is Meridian Arts Commission recommendation
and Emily is here.
Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, I'm Emily Kane, deputy city
attorney and I provide staff support to the Meridian Art Commission. I come here today
as their messenger to convey their recommendation regarding the proposals for public
art for the Meridian split corridor phase two public art project. The short story is that the
Arts Commission recommends that none of the public art proposals that were submitted
be selected for installation and that the call to artists be reopened to artists in Idaho and
expanded to states contiguous to Idaho. The upshot is that if City Council accepts this
recommendation, the public art would not be installed by September 2013 when the
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roadway project is finished. So, the logistics would be different for installation in that
roads might have to be closed or the ground reopened at the sites for the public art if
water or lighting or other footings are necessary, so that changes the game a little bit.
However, the Arts Commission felt that the opportunity to select a piece that exemplifies
the elements of the project and the community sense of place for the long term would
be even better than the three proposals that we were submitted. The -- the City Council
is the final decision maker as to what to do next. This is an unusual recommendation in
that it's a recommendation to not do something, but it comes with it some next steps.
So, City Council can accept this recommendation, accept it with modifications, or
consider the recommendation, but go in a different direction.
De Weerd: So, Emily, I guess I would like to know what does that do to the -- the
current contracts with the person who has been organizing all of this? Do you have to,
then, pay them more to put another out and when I looked at the -- the public
comments, the public comments were -- were very positive on two of the three and
certainly it seemed more positive towards the -- the arch type of thing with the piece
that's more vertical. What does it -- when we -- when we put out these calls and you get
positive feedback and, then, you don't accept any of them, how does that look as well
and what does it cost? Probably more of what does it cost.
Bird: Madam Mayor, Members. of the Council, the public art. consultant Mark. Johnston
was hired to bring the project to this point, so he has been paid. I think there is 600
dollars left on his contract for work that he has yet to do, which is, essentially, to let the
-- the artists who submitted these proposals know what's going to happen next. So, that
money is gone. That money was -- the total is 8,000 dollars and of that 7,000 dollars
was covered by a gift or a grant from the Meridian Development Corporation. So, the
city would be out 1,000 dollars and that money is just gone. It's just spent. So, if we
were to hire a public art consultant to re-issue the call to artists we would be starting at
square one. That is pretty reflective of the cost of that service. 'I think others are
available that don't charge that much and, to be frank, I think that a consultant would not
be necessary if we reissue the call to artists. I think that's something that we can do.
He was most valuable in providing insight and information from the public art
community's perspective and the selection panel meetings. So, he -- he has the subject
matter expertise to be able to advise the panel and the commission and Council on
what to do next with regard to taking a piece for public safety aspects and esthetics and
its long term viability. However, our office handled much of the paperwork and the
publicity, so I don't think that those are things that we would need an outside entity to
deal with on the second go around. So, that's a long way of saying we have spent
8,000, but I don't think we need to do that again, and that -- we are also out the money
that we paid to the artist. We paid each artist 1,500 dollars to produce the proposal and
that's money we would have to spend again. That's just kind of the going rate for the
cost to prepare a proposal. It accounts for the time and the materials and the expertise
of the artist. There was some discussion at the Arts Commission that that amount could
be reduced to 1,000 dollars and that would be more reflective of kind of this project and
what it would take to prepare proposals for this project. So, there is some cost to
starting over. I don't think it would be as much as the first time, so we are not doubling
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our cost, but there is some cost. With regard to the public comments, I think that's kind
of a question for the Council to weigh in deciding how to move forward. The selection
panel was a group of members of the business and arts community who came together
and came to the same conclusion. They met to review the responses to the RFP -- or
RFQ component of the call to artists and they selected the three finalists and, then, they
met again to review the proposal and their recommendation was also that the proposals
not be accepted -- the Arts Commission accepted that recommendation and for their
recommendation to you. So, certainly that's something to weigh in deciding on the final
decision or making the final decision rather. The proposals were evaluated based partly
on the public input, but also the quality of proposal, the safety of the artwork and
appropriateness for the site, reflection of the city's commitment to environmental
responsibility and sustainability, consistency with our community's history, character and
values and contribution to esthetic and cultural vitality and a sense of place. So, those
are all things that you can consider in your decision as well.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: If we go through the process again who is going to write the new proposal so that
we don't get the same three things that nobody wants it the next time?
Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, to be clear, I think the -- the artist who
submitted these three proposals would not be disqualified. They could resubmit another
different proposal or they could resubmit the proposals that are on the table now. And
certainly the risk is that it could be worse, that you could get less interest, proposals that
were even less reflective of the project elements or something that the public simply did
not like at all and the Mayor's right, the public input was split almost equally between the
-- The Trees, Ellen Robbins' proposal, and The Arches, by Amber Conger. There were
67 for The Trees and 65 for Amber's and there were seven for The Silo, Mr. Falwell's.
De Weerd: Although if you read the comments of The Trees, they were very
complimentary of The Arches as well, many of them, so --
Bird: And -- Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Follow up. Emily, you say we won't be able to put an end by September. It's
November now, which is ten months away. It takes ten months to get something like
this done? I mean I'm not being a -- you know, I don't know nothing about art, so I --
Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, Council Member Bird, my understanding is
that, yes, it does take that long. We were already in -- or rather are in a pretty
compressed time frame. This process started in July. The call to artists was issued at
the very end of July. The artists have to have time to submit their qualifications, then,
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submit proposals and there needs to be time to review and have public comment, too.
So, that process takes at least -- I guess August, September, October -- at least three
months and even that is understood to be a really quick turnaround, that typically artists
have two or three months to prepare even a proposal. The installation of the art is -- is
largely dependent on what needs to be fabricated and installed when a proposal is
accepted, but these proposals are reflective of something that could, in those artists'
estimation, be installed within that nine month time frame.
Bird: That was my next question is why we couldn't at least get the base, get the wiring,
water -- if they need water and stuff to that while we are doing the construction and all
we have to do is set that art piece on top of it and that would be possible, Emily?
Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, yes, I think it
would be -- as long as we knew what was coming. Certainly there are pieces that do
not involve a water feature or utilities at all and, then, there are ones that are highly
dependent on that. So, the logistics and the install really depends on what it's going to.
So that needs to be known soon or you can retrofit the site for that piece.
Bird: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I would say the power -- if you're going to have a piece you're going to have it
lit at night, so we need power. The water element we don't know. I attended the
meeting and heard the discussion that they had -- and it was quite in depth. The big
concern was the length of time and the time of the year that this proposal was asked for
was not the best time and it was a very quick turnaround, made it very difficult for
people to respond. They think they will get more response this time around, because it
is the largest public art project in the state of Idaho and there is interest out there and
certainly by doing it one time there is talk and if it's resubmitted there will certainly be
interest the second time around. The commission did look at ways to cut costs as far as
bringing forward a mockup or model of the art project and not paying 1,500 dollars, but
1,000 dollars. Those would be details that if the Council decides to resubmit they would
work out and try to -- try to find ways to make it go as fast as possible, but still not -- not
crimp the -- the project and paid for on the fiscal side. And I guess, you know, the
committee that the -- as Emily indicated brought together to look at this and review the
proposals, made a recommendation to commission to not accept and the commission
themselves looked at it and said we agree with that. So, I guess with those filtering up
to us we can make the final determination of what we want to do and how we want to do
it. I have heard ideas such as taking the Meridian sign that's at the entrance by KFC
and moving that down to here to this one or down to there. Anyway. And, then, doing
something like that and -- anyway. You know. So, there are -- there are other ideas
out there if we go, oh, we have an idea of our own, this is what we want to do, that was
an option. I'm a little more inclined to -- to follow along with what the Arts Commission
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is recommending, because my belief is there is some projects that I thought that, oh,
that's good, you know, I can see that. But at the same time we want to get this right.
It's going to be there well beyond when we are around and I want something I can go,
wow, instead of, oh, that's good. That's nice. You know, I'd much rather take that over
-- over the other. So, that's what I'm inclined to make a motion towards, but I'd like to
hear everyone's thoughts on that.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I will honestly admit I am not a qualified art critic and I don't know much
about art, but like many people I know what appeals to me and I have to admit I didn't
get any warm and fuzzy about any of the three examples that I saw. I didn't write out
any comments, but that isn't that I don't like other works by some of the same people, I
very much like the sculpture that we have in our lobby here in the City Hall. I like the --
the sculpture that Brad mentioned that's down by KFC where Meridian and Main split.
And my thinking is for something that's going to be this permanent and this prominent,
something more along those lines would be more appealing to me. So, I -- I support the
Art Commission's idea of reasking. That doesn't exclude the people that submitted
already, but) would like #o see some other options. I'm not an expert, but --
Hoaglun: Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Rountree, comments?
Rountree: Well, I almost have to take the Fifth on this one, otherwise, I might find a bag
on the doorstep.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Hoaglun: Councilman Bird
Bird: I firmly agree with you, Councilman Zaremba. I think this is -- if we are going to
put a piece of art up there that's going to be there for years and years and years and I
don't think I would be proud 20 years from now to drive by and seeing one of those
three that we had. So, I would like to see us do what the Art Commission suggests and
go do her. Get it done.
Hoaglun: Okay. Do we have a motion to accept the Arts Commission recommendation
to reopen the RFP, RFO?
Bird: So moved.
Zaremba: Second.
Hoaglun: I have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk -- we don't need a roll call vote
on this one, do we?
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Bird: No.
Hoaglun: So, all those in favor say aye. Any opposed? There we go.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: Thank you, Emily.
Kane: Thank you.
Hoaglun: We didn't have any items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Rountree: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Yes, Councilman Rountree
Rountree: I guess on the point of the urgency of having this done by next September,
I'm not so sure that the contractor is going to want an artist putzing around those two
areas during his construction activities. That concerns me a little bit. But I think the
idea that both sites. be plumbed both for povuer and water and I .would not encourage
anything that utilized water, but those areas may need to have some landscaping, get
that if it's not already on the design, get it stubbed into those sites, that way if whatever
comes comes a little sooner, they can get in their work -- they are going to be in there
working based on the discretion of the contractor and they may not be able to get in
there in time anyway to get something in there.
Bird: That's right.
Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, we have been working closely with ACHD
and Mike Barton in the Parks and Rec Department with regard to the landscaping and I
believe that the property will be stubbed for certainly irrigation and maybe we can figure
out something in time to not have to completely retrofit the site, but at least have it ready
based on ACHD's schedule and the contractors time frame.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Council, I guess I will put in my two cents worth, which seems like it's going
to contrast with what -- everything that's been said. We have spent almost 12,000
dollars to do a call and we got three viable submissions, that's why we put them out to a
public viewing and solicited public comments. If we were not ready to do that we should
not have done it. Now, it's almost 12,000 dollars later and we are saying let's throw
them out and let's have more cost. I think we did have three viable options and certainly
I think we need to move forward with them -- with one of them.
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Hoaglun: Thank you, Madam Mayor. While you were out we voted, so appreciate the
comment.
De Weerd: Okay. Well -- and that's fine. I still would have told you my opinion,
whether it was before a vote or after a vote, and I will say, if that is -- since that's the
direction of Council, but let's not do that again. If we are going to go out and ask for
comments, let's make sure it's something that everyone can agree that we want
comment on before we pay artists to go out there and do that. I think sometimes in a
building scenario this Council has hesitated to throw all out, because you wonder what
you're going to get back the second time around. There is -- so, enough said.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I think that's a good piece of advice, Emily, to take back to the
Commission and talk about the committee process to make sure that there is some buy
in before we throw it open to the public for comment, because that does cause some
conflict. So, I think that's -- that's a good way of -- to make that happen, so, not -- if they
are going to reject it, well, don't throw it out there and, then, do that. So, anyway,
something they can talk about in detail as they -- as they redo this next process, so that
would be good. Thank you.
Kane: I will pass it on. Thank you.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, we do appreciate the fact that we don't have to guess
where you stand on issues.
Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: No. Usually not. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Fire Department: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: So, without any more adieu we will turn this over to Chief Niemeyer for 7-A,
the Fire Department strategic plan update.
Niemeyer: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Good afternoon. I just
want to state for the record while this PowerPoint is coming up that having that video of
the golf course shown at the beginning of the Council meeting is not a good idea. Poor
Lieutenant Colaianni and I have been daydreaming about sunshine and golf courses
and trying to figure out how Jan lost that round. So, it's not -- this is our opportunity to
come before you. I'm going to try to keep it brief. As I mentioned to the Mayor, I'm
going to ask in about five months from now to come before you again and do a
presentation and we will get to that at the very end of this and it will make more sense
as why I'm going to ask for that. And, hopefully, I can work this confounded machine.
Or not.
Meridian Cily Council Workshop
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Page 23 of 58
Holman: Mark?
Niemeyer: Yes.
Holman: On the buttons the top, it's the one that has a little black pointer.
Niemeyer: There we go. It's your turn to laugh at me as we have laughed at others as
they have tried to work this thing.
De Weerd: We will ask the Police Department to help you.
Niemeyer: I will ask my lovely assistant Bruce to -- in fact, you could just sit there. I will
just talk.
Chatterton: I need it, too. That's the only reason I'm up here.
De Weerd: Maybe you need to take Mr. Barry's example and practice ahead of time.
Holman: I don't know if it's you or me. Mark, if you want to tell me --
Niemeyer: Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So, what I want to do first is to give. you an update
on the four budget enhancements requests that you approved for the FY-13 budget to
let you know where we are. One of those was the administrative storage cabinetry. If
you recall, the pictures that I brought to you showed what we were using at the time and
that was cardboard boxes and fold up tables to store our office supplies. This project
has been completed. Judy Gerhart was a lead on that. We did come in within budget.
You can see on the top picture, if you recall when planning was in there that welcome
area was off to the side and tucked against the wall. We now have a true reception
area where folks can come in and put their plans on the table, review those plans, fill
out forms, et cetera, and, then, the bottom slide is -- you can still see we are kind of
moving in and getting those cabinets filled up and they are filling rapidly. So, that
project is complete. Next slide. The RMS replacement request, our records
management system, we discussed this at length when I presented this to you. That
project was approved for 49,225 dollars. Deputy Chief Amann is the lead on this
project. The needs assessment has been done. We have purchased athird-party
scheduling software, that's a component of RMS, that is called Call Back Staffing
Solutions. We have looked at other options, we have been looking at it for
approximately three years. I know the Police Department has as well. The cost of
those was roughly around 40 to 60 thousand dollars for that piece of software. We were
able to purchase Call Back Solutions to meet our needs for about 2,500 dollars. So,
very significant cost savings there. I know Chief Amann did sit down with Lieutenant
Colaianni and Lieutenant Leslie and there is a possibility that they could be looking at
this in the future as well. As far as the rest of the RMS system -- and we anticipate the
RFP to be issued next month, we have a projected purchase date of January 1st and,
then, deployment and training to be done by April 1st. This project in and of itself helps
us meet five strategic initiatives found within our strategic plan and so this is a very
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November 73, 2012
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important project for us to help meet the future needs of the fire department. As station
training room upgrade, the amount you approved was 11,100 dollars. We have
assigned Division Chief Rountree to that. He's our communications chief. This is a
communications component. The wiring bids to get the rooms wired are in the process
of being obtained. IT has order the computers that are needed to do this and we have a
projected completion date of March 1st and as you recall this is a way that we could
have our crews stay in their stations when we have the classroom or distance learning
environment. Some of the hands-on things we still have to get together, but a lot of our
classroom work now we can do over the Internet and through the computer system and
they can be staying in their stations to be getting that done. The vehicle video cameras
have been ordered. The approved amount was 5,000 dollars and just as a recall, the
units we are getting are 500 dollars apiece. Ada County has similar units in their
ambulances, they spent about 20,000 dollars apiece. What we are getting
accomplishes the same thing, it records videos. We respond to a call, so we can review
that in the event that we do have an accident. But, more importantly, we also can
review what we see when we show up to a scene and that video we capture of a
structure on fire, that mass casualty incident, whatever we are looking at, we will be
able to bring that video back as part of our after action report and that's a great quality
assurance and a QI component. The equipment has been ordered, the policy and
standards for the deployment of that equipment and how we are going to use it are
being developed. Again this is another one you should -- that shows. Lieutenant
Colaianni, Lieutenant Leslie, just to take a look at it to see if there is applicability within
their department and for this we do have a projected completion date of March 1st.
Another update we are going to go through -- and, Jaycee, you can go ahead and hit
the next slide -- to provide you with is an update on the Trinity Ridge and the Pocatello
mutual aid fires that you may probably know that we responded to and these were two
significant fires that the agencies involved needed a lot of help with. The first picture
you see there is a picture from the Pocatello fire, that is a wildfire that started up in the
foothills, came down into homes and destroyed 66 homes. Needless to say, Pocatello
and eastern Idaho were overwhelmed as far as providing resources to this. We did do a
three day deployment at their request. We were fully reimbursed for our deployment,
including the cost of the equipment, the backfill of the personnel and the personnel
themselves that went. It was a great experience, an eye opening experience for our
responders and we have, obviously, never seen something like that here in the City of
Meridian. It doesn't mean it couldn't happen. And, then, we were also deployed at the
request of the national incident management team to the Trinity Ridge fire. We had a
total of -- deployment of approximately 14 days. We rotated multiple crews through,
again, completely reimbursed through FEMA. The picture that you see on the bottom is
just one of several that our firefighters were able to capture as they were there. I can
report to you that we requested as structural protection and so we were assigned to a
division that -- that was charged with protecting the structures up above Pine. As that
deployment went on, the incident commander assigned us additional duties and
responsibilities and let me tell you in talking to the operations chief when I went up there
and spoke with him, they were very impressed with our crews and their abilities and
they felt like they had that option of assigning them out to different things. That cannot
be said for everybody that was there. So, the feedback that we received from the
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November 13, 2012
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incident management team -- this is a national team that has been involved in the New
York collapses, the space shuttle explosions, that sort of thing, that meant a lot coming
from those folks and the feedback that we received from them. Okay. Our 2012 Public
Safety Day. This is our collaborative effort with the police department. It was very
successful this year again. We did have several allied groups that participated. Those
are just a few listed there and I certainly don't mean any disrespect to those that I didn't
list, but the page only has so much room. Our total attendance exceeded our
expectations. We were shooting for 500 participants. We had roughly 610 in
attendance that day. I will tell you Tom Barry and his family were heavily involved.
They went to our public safety academy and what Pam tries to do is bring those public
safety academy graduates to our Public Safety Day staffed as helpers and get involved,
so -- and Tom and his wife were there, their daughters. I did have a picture taken, I was
going to put it up here, but I lost the picture, so you won't see him in a fire department or
police department uniform. But we were very excited about this program, it's a great
way to get out to the public, it's very successful, and this will be a long term program
that we have for many years to come. Our Project S.A.F.E., our smoke detector grant
program that FEMA approved has gone very well. We have had detectors installed by
fire department personnel and volunteers. I will say that in my opinion it's been a very
successful program. We did find one glitch that we found out today about that we are
investigating, but if you look at the numbers and the amount of smoke detectors we put
in homes, 2,301 ionization detectors, 625 photoelectric detectors and probably more
importantly 110 bed shakers, that's for the hearing impaired, so the hearing impaired in
our community now have a way of being notified that there is a potential fire in their
house. It is a great program. I see this program lasting for many years as well. I do
see it developing into a maintenance program and, then, a heavy emphasis on public
education, specifically regarding battery life and the replacement of batteries and the
importance of having a fire plan within your home. So, this was the first part of that
program. It's going to be a long-term development. I would add that as we go into our
public education component and even detector program, we will probably add carbon
monoxide to that list as well. So, again, our thanks to FEMA and I think that they are
going to be very pleased with the outcome of the program and the funds that went to it.
Project management process. There is one we have really focused on this year as well.
I will tell you in the fire department we are very very good at crisis management. That's
what we do. It's the way our brains click. When it comes to project management, long
term stuff, that's not our cup of tea and it's not our specialty. So, we have looked to
others to how we can better our process and I don't want to make this a Tom Barry love
fest, however, I will tell you that Tom provided us some great insight, because it's what
Public Works does really well. They take long-term projects and they span it out and
they really work through a process. So, after talking to Tom and, then, working with our
staff, we have identified better ways to work through project management. I have got a
picture here of the two things that we try and balance, especially with our division chief
program and one is our strategic plan and those projects that we need to get
accomplished and the other is that field response and managing that time really well.
So, that's a way that we have created a process that's going to manage that time a little
bit better. Click to the next slide just to give you an idea. On the left you just see how
we have laid out who is doing what. You have our tracking mechanism and built within
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November 73, 2072
Page 26 of 58
that tracking mechanism is a comparison to the strategic plan. I distinctly remember
when I brought this to you and you approved it, Councilman Rountree said it's a pretty
aggressive plan, good luck, and I took that to heart, both as advice and somewhat as a
challenge to say we are not going to have a plan that just sits on the shelf. That's the
worst thing you could do with plans. So, as we go through this we assign these
projects, if one hits the list that is not in the strategic plan we evaluate does it need to
be, then, we plug it in. We have found some initiatives that we had planned for 2013
have been eliminated, because they are just simply not important anymore and that's
the goal of a strategic plan is to make it fluid, to move things in and out as you see, but
to maintain the core what you're doing and so we are very pleased with this process and
we think it's going to benefit us greatly moving forward. And the last thing that I'm going
to present to you is Blue Card Command training program. We have been looking for
ways to standardize our command, our incident command, and subsequently, then,
what that does is somewhat standardizes our entire incident response. So, we did a lot
of research and we found a Blue Card training program. This program was developed
by Fire Chief Alan Brunacini, he's retired from the Phoenix fire department and his sons.
It's endorsed by our parent organization the International Association of Fire Chiefs,
along with the Center For Public Safety excellence. That is the accreditation body in the
fire service. So, we did a lot of research into it, talked to a lot of folks, and we decided
this is the best thing for us. This is a collaborative effort with Nampa and Caldwell fire
departments. You maybe wondering about our neighbors to the north and to the east.
Initially they didn't want to participate, but now that we are rolling into this they are
interested and they have had a couple of meetings with me to see how it's going and if
we can standardize it valley wide that's going to be a huge benefit to all of us. But for
now we are' focusing on ourselves. It includes about 50 hours of online or classroom
time and, then, about three days of hands-on training in a -- in an training environment,
a hands-on environment, if you will -- I just lost the word. You get the picture. Again,
this is going to standardize the way we run incident command and the way we run an
incident scene and that may sound kind of silly, don't you standardize it now -- we don't.
But this is going to. It's also led to the development of incident scene standard
operating guidelines. I know the Mayor is very well aware of our internal employee
surveys and every year we hear about the need for SOGs. This program has helped us
to, then, establish and develop SOGs. Currently all the chief officers and the division
chiefs, the deputy chiefs and myself are going through the program. Next we are going
to roll that out to the company officers and what I would like to do is come back to you in
about five months and do a demonstration of how this works, because I think it's really
going to open your eyes and I will tell you we are the first department in Idaho, along
with Nampa and Caldwell to do this and I think it's really going to set the stage for the
fire service in Idaho. I would anticipate that a lot of departments are going to be calling
us asking us you how we got this accomplished. It's that important of a program to us,
it's that important to the fire service here in Idaho. So, I'm very excited about this
program. With that I told you I would keep it short, so I'm going to stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
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November 13, 2012
Page 27 of 58
Bird: I have none. Good report.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you, chief. I did have the opportunity to stop by during Public Safety
Day and there was a big crowd and a lot going on and it looked like a very successful
event and glad you plan to continue. Thanks also to the police department that
participated. It's more obvious that it's at your facility, but they were there and
participating and the whole day was exciting I'm sure, so that was good. Just a
comment on the in-vehicle video capability. You were commenting on how you would
use it as follow up and afterwards. I just wanted to throw into that at some point let the
Planning and Zoning people see some of those maybe and what comes to mind in
particular is we regularly get requests for narrower streets and as your video of a
vehicle approaching an incident -- I know we argue against the narrower streets, but I
think you probably would have good evidence for why that argument is a good
argument not to have narrower streets. So, I just include Planning and Zoning in who
you have view those things and -- it's just a suggestion.
Bird: That's a great suggestion. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words than
trying to explain things, as opposed to a video being shown gets the point home. Thank
you.
De Weerd: Any other comments?
Rountree: Just the right amount of time
Hoaglun: Actually, Madam Mayor, a quick comment. You know, you didn't want to --
you know, for all the flack you have given Tom Barry about the length of his PowerPoint,
his slides, I think it was good that you gave him thought today, so --
Niemeyer: He has helped me and now I will try and help him.
Hoaglun: There you go.
De Weerd: Well, I will just point out the size and the number of divisions under Mr.
Barry and so quit giving him crap. Thank you, chief, for that great report and I would
like to extend my appreciation to your staff as well. I think you continue to show
innovation and stewardship and that needs to be recognized and our appreciation.
Niemeyer: I will pass that along. Thank you.
B. Mayor's Office: Community Liaison Update
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November 13, 2012
Page 28 of 58
De Weerd: Item 7-B is our community liaison update. So, this is -- this is Ken's first
briefing to you, Councilmen, and he's --give him a hard time.
Corder: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, my first -- my first items I'd like for you
to -- to not listen to the Mayor's request.
De Weerd: I thought you were going to do an ice breaker or something.
Corder: If you like, Madam Mayor, I could. Everyone stand in a straight line. I'm
without PowerPoint. Lesson learned from me in my early tenure with the city is that
PowerPoint is needed for these updates, so please note in my next -- next update there
will be one. It seems to be commonplace. But after seeing the -- Chief Niemeyer's, I'm
glad I don't have to top that beautiful PowerPoint.
De Weerd: I don't know, Ken. Death by PowerPoint. I think you're doing just fine
Corder: Yeah. Well, I shall use my charm. So, I have been with the city for three
months and one week, so as my tenure with the city has been brief, I intended to keep
this update brief as well. The first name of the game for me with this new position has
been to establish relationships with the different parties that I do maintain contact with,
as well as a seamless transition from Luke Cavener to where we are currently. So, my
first order of business coming onto the city was to take on the project that we call
MYAC, the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. My first week I was tasked with going out
to area high schools to find the students who would like to join the council. We did go
out and we were in a presence in schools that we previously did not visit and because
of -- of a strong showing with these schools we actually had 235 youth show up. I do
believe that was the highest number we have ever had show interest. Now, the law of
averages says that 110, 115 will show up for the initial meeting, which was about dead
on and, then, again, to continue the law of averages another half. So, we currently have
approximately 60 regular attenders. Of these 60 regular attenders we, obviously, have
to have an executive council, along with myself being brand new, the executive council
is all brand new, so we, essentially, had to start from scratch. One of the things that the
Mayor tended guidance towards me was with the executive council and the need for
leadership training. So, we have asked all of the chiefs and directors to come together
to provide leadership training to the executive council throughout the year. We have
already held I believe three trainings and the youth seem to -- to really be engaging our
leaders and finding some traits that they are identifying for the youth. We do have three
subcommittees set up, the Teen Activities Committee, Government Affairs, as well as
Community Service. Chairs have been nominated and elected, as well as vice-chairs
for continuity moving into next year. We have had five meetings with two guest
speakers. One was a former NFL football player, a gentleman by the name of Ken
McKelvie, as well as Luke Cavener's wife Adrianne Cavener, who assisted us with
parliamentary procedure. We have had seven events, which is actually two more than
our meetings, which are the Celebrate My Drive, sponsored by State Farm, in which the
news came and did a piece on us, as well as a few single shots for Idaho State Police.
One is currently finished with production and airing right now. There is actually one the
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November 13, 2012
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Mayor and I shot, which is in production and should come out very soon. Let's see. We
did another event titled It Can Wait, which was an anti-texting event. We held this at
Rocky Mountain Middle School. The executives from AT&T mentioned it was the
largest turnout ever for an anti-texting rally in the state of Idaho. We did have over a
thousand signatures, which I proudly display in my -- in my office for youth at Rocky
Mountain. That was a great event. We also participated in the V3. V3 is a local hair
salon studio. We helped with their Healthy You project, which created awareness for
breast cancer. We also volunteered at the Community Block Party, as well as having
20 participants at the Rake Up Meridian. Let's see. The chair a MYAC, a gal by the
name of Kendall Swainston and I wrote the grant for STAND. STAND is an acronym for
Supporting Teens Against Nicotine Dependency. We won the grant and Councilman
Hoaglun actually graced us with his presence at the workshop and we now have a
thousand dollars to spend to -- to educate the youth in Meridian and which we have
selected doing an event with Big AI's, in which we will rent all the lanes and, then, we --
we do need to come up with a call to action, one of which has been discussed is
bringing to Council the idea of -- of making our walking paths anti-smoking. We also
one -- or, actually, two of our youth members from MYAC won a trip to DC, one of 12
teams nationally, so it's a huge honor for these youth. So, they will be going to
Washington DC on December 1st to learn anti-texting tools and bring them back for a
rally. Additionally, we will be sending two more youth with two chaperons and you had
to come up .with. funding -- .Sergeant Gonzales of Meridian Police Department and
myself came up with 2,000 dollars from Meridian PAL, as well as a 3,300 dollar
contribution from the Idaho -- or from the Office of Highway Safety. Additional MYAC tid
bits, you would be interested to know, I have formed some alliances, partnerships, if you
will, with my counterpart from other teen councils in the city, which a dialogue has been
started to work together for the future youth summits, as well as we have already
established a date to do a financial course for the youth titled Mad City Money. One last
tid bit for MYAC, we have changed the parameters to our Facebook page and we have
doubled the fan --the fans of the page and we utilize the Facebook to invite our youth to
the meetings, as well as to post pictures to celebrate them. So, moving on. I am also
the liaison to the faith community. One of my first orders of business with the faith
community was to create a database in which Icalled -- what I like to think every church
in this town to say hello, after sending them an a-mail notifying the church pastoral staff
and elders of who I am and what I intend to do, which is to share information on a two
way street level. During my three months I have met with the Mayor and six of our faith
leaders. One of interest would be MGT Legacy Church with Pastor Ralph Lowe, whose
church happens to be on Meridian Road and has been affected by the split corridor.
Because of that meeting we are able to find some of his issues with signage and future
plans and we are going to set up a meeting with Bruce Chatterton, to bring in another in
which Pastor Lowe is very happy and commented on our superior customer service. I
have attended two Meridian minister fellowship meetings and I have established a great
rapport uvith the gentlemen and ladies that compose that fellowship, with the third
meeting being tomorrow. And the Mayor and I actually attended the Treasure Valley
workshop held at the Mission Aviation Fellowship in Nampa and have established good
rapport and have been invited back to their next meeting held on December 11th. I
assisted with the planning and execution of the faith leaders luncheon and also very
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November 13, 2012
Page 30 of 58
nervously hosted it. And was able to secure the key note speaker, a gal named
Heather Stole with One Church, One Child, which matches up churches with children in
the foster care program. We have already been able to find five matches as the result
of her speaking at that luncheon, which is a huge triumph and win for those youth. The
other thing that -- as I have heard the Mayor say smart move, Ken, was to actually
create partnerships and rapport with the church secretaries and the pastors will let you
know if you want to get anything done with the churches you need to go through the
secretary. Moving on. I am also the liaison for the homeowners associations. My
second day on the job was National Night Out in which I personally went and visited
three subdivisions and made some contacts, which are still intact three months later and
with a great dialogue moving forward. I have attended three board meetings with the
fourth happening this evening with Tumble Creek and I have also set up a Facebook
test group and utilizing the group function of Facebook to allow the -- the residents of
each homeowners association to have a dialogue between themselves and it actually
has worked to a success where over the Halloween holiday one subdivision actually
had some kids smashing pumpkins and I was able to share that information with the
neighboring subdivision and it turns out they had the same problem and because of that
sharing of information they were able to find the children who were -- who were doing
the vandalism. Because of this I have partnered with a gentleman by the name of Mike
Madsen of MGM Property Management who oversees 70 of our subdivisions and he --
we are going to do a .special meeting where he brings his HOA presidents. and. board
members to a special meeting here at City Hall in which I will be sharing the success of
the Facebook group function and showing them how to set that up. So, as well with
Elaina Walker of AMI, she -- the Mayor and I just had a meeting with her and we will be
doing much of the same with her. So, moving on, something that Ifind -- I found great
joy in accomplishing was the prescription drug town hall. It was the first under my --
under my stewardship and we had approximately a hundred people show up to guest
speakers, the Mayor spoke, Chief Lavey, the Idaho Drug Tzar Elisha Figueroa. We had
a gentleman by the name of Shane Williams who is with Boise PD, who spoke of his
triumph over prescription medication addiction, which was a very very moving part of
the program, as well as Sergeant Arnold King with resources for our citizens to dispose
of prescription drugs and we had booths from Drug Free Idaho, the Mayor's Anti-drug
Coalition and the Idaho State Generation Rx. The Mayor's Youth Advisory Council
helped with the logistics and planning and execution of said event. We actually just had
on Halloween a secondary town hall with the Rocky Mountain -- seniors of Rocky
Mountain High School, in which we had all the seniors come in, formulate questions for
the Mayor, and a panel with -- that included Steve Siddoway, Chief Lavey ,and Chief
Niemeyer and there was just a free flow of information that I know that the Mayor and I
quantify as a success. The next town hall meeting we may be working on will
incorporate youth, primarily those in area youth groups with the faith community. They
have a huge interest in coming down to pose questions for the Mayor and want to have
their voices heard. So, my relations with Meridian schools, we have met with all area
principals before the school year to establish a rapport and begin the free flow of
information, much like my interaction with the church secretaries, we caught on pretty
quick and knew that if I'm going to get anything into these schools it's also through the
secretaries and that has been a huge success and -- as evidenced by the MYAC youth
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November 13, 2012
Page 31 of 58
members coming to our meetings and letting us know that they are hearing our news
that's being spread, so that's a wonderful thing. Additionally because of their
partnerships with the schools we found of the vacant youth on commissions -- children
to come in and fill those vacancies and -- and we actually have now been partnered up
with some area PTAs and find those to be great great partners as, you know, they have
a pulse on the schools that sometimes we don't hear from the administration. I'm also
tasked with being a liaison to our Chamber of Commerce, simply with the Chamber of
Commerce it's just been building rapport and, then, I actually have been a part of 15
ribbon cuttings in which I have spoken at 13, presenting the Pay It Forward gift. The
Pay It Forward gift is when a -- a business opens, they like to bless the next business
that opens with a small token of appreciation and a blessing, if you will. That has been
just absolutely neat to be a part of. And also I am a part of the -- well, I have
partnerships I should say with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was able to call
on the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to assist with the promotion of the Meridian
Business Day. Other additional information that the Council might find of interest is I did
meet with the senior center with Councilman Hoaglun to just let them know if he is ever
absent I will be there in his stead, as well as I assisted with the planning and execution
of the Meridian Business Day and was able to assist with our internship program, IT
was looking for some internships and I called on my previous employers, Stevens
Henager College, which have the top rated IT department to find those interns and from
the news I'm hearing that's going okay. And, then, I do regularly attend the Kiwanis and
share pertinent information related to the city with fellow Kiwanians. So, I now stand for
any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Ken. Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't have a question, I just got a comment. Ken, I have been fortunate to be
here a couple of Mondays when you have been with the children -- or the young adults
and your interaction with them is fantastic and I think it's great. I really appreciate it, the
interaction you show with those youth. It's fantastic.
Corder: Appreciate that, Councilman Bird.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I run into you all over the place.
De Weerd: Do you have your microphone --
Zaremba: It is on this time.
Meridian City Council Workshop
November 13, 2012
Page 32 of 58
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: And you are being well received in the community and I am glad you are
hear and doing this. I went to the faith leaders luncheon and you did an excellent job as
MC, so you -- you can be confident if you need to do that again, you did that very well,
so thank you for all that you're doing.
Corder: I appreciate that, Councilman Zaremba.
Rountree: It's been a busy three months for you and congratulations on succeeding so
far.
Corder: Thank you.
Rountree: And staying above board here.
Corder: I equate it to drinking sips out of a fire hose.
De Weerd: Well, if you couldn't tell he's got a lot of energy and certainly a lot of passion
for the youth and his. role as the community liaison, so appreciate it.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, just a comment. And it's great to see the young people
that are involved. I mean we have got some great young leaders that are -- are
stepping up and learning a lot. The workshop I was able to participate in, I was
impressed with those young kids and, yeah, you've got some great kids to work with
and it will be exciting to see how they develop over the years.
De Weerd: Well, Council, he's all over the place. He was in the stands advocacy
training and, then, this last weekend he was at the PTA group and, then, we had a
retreat for our officers and executive members of MYAC at my house that evening and
meeting last night, so he's -- he's burning the light on both candles -- or both ends.
Bird: Good thing he's young
De Weerd: That was good.
Corder: I very much appreciate that last comment, Councilman Bird
Bird: We were all there once.
De Weerd: Still are. What are you talking about. Anything further? Okay. Thank you,
Ken.
Corder: Thank you.
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C. Community Development: Business Registry Update
De Weerd: Item 7-C is our Community Development Department. Bruce.
Bird: Yeah. Bruce.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Members, we thought it was high time to update
you on the business registry project. What I want to do is show you -- and I may need
some help advancing slides, Jaycee. Let's see if it's working now. It is. All right.
De Weerd: You see that, chief?
Chatterton: See. What I want to show you very briefly is the message that we are
showing to focus groups. I think we found with this -- this idea of this project that we
were trying to conceive a thing of whole cloth just internally talking to ourselves with
staff. Not the right way to do it. If this really is a solution to a set of problems, let's
clearly articulate what those problems and issues are and let's talk about whether or not
something like the business registry is a reasonable solution to those problems. We
weren't talking enough to the stakeholders. We had the choir on board, if you will, the
chamber. It's great to have the chamber on board. If we didn't have the chamber on
board I don't think we would be proceeding with this idea. But you need more.. You
need to actually talk to the folks that are actually being most affected by this or perhaps
perceive that they would be negatively affected by a business registry. So, what I want
to show you very quickly here is what we are showing them -- what we showed at focus
groups about two weeks ago and what we are doing later on this week with another
focus group. We are seeking out the potential naysayers, that is the folks that might
feel that their ox is being gored by something like this and honestly asking them does
this work, how can we change it to have less impact on you, what do you think. And so
far we have had a pretty good -- pretty good response. The first focus group about two
weeks ago had several folks, including former state senator Patrick Malloy was there
and we had a great discussion and, frankly, learned a lot and some of that I'm going to
be showing that to you in terms of what we learned from these folks. So, I'm going to
talk about some problems and issues -- the overall concept and, then, try to get -- if you
will -- I'd also get your help in honing this idea as well, so that we can make it as good
as possible for our community. There are three major areas that I'm concerned with -- I
think the city is concerned with and at first glance they don't really come together.
Economic development, job creation, and retention. My pet area customer service,
getting customers in early so that we can talk to them and help them. And public safety.
Those areas don't seem to come together too much, but I think if we look at them we
will see that there may be some relationship. So, first of all, in economic development,
we said this before, no one knows exactly how many businesses we have in the City of
Meridian. We estimate it's anywhere between 3,200 and 3,600. We are in the -- in the
situation of knowing our residents, the folks that live here quite well through the tax rolls
and other -- other ways. But it's almost like we have blinders on when it comes to our
business community and even other businesses don't know what's available locally for
products and services, so that they could be customers of other Meridian businesses.
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An anecdote that Brenda came up with was an example actually from Boise and Boise
very much would like to have a business registry program, as would other Idaho cities
as well, that is the staff of these Idaho, should make that clear. But in this situation
Micron was looking for business analytics for a specialty tech service. They looked
around, couldn't find anyone locally or they certainly weren't aware of anyone locally.
They went to a large consulting firm in California, that firm said, yeah, we can do that for
you. Turns out that that firm outsourced to a Boise firm, Clearwater Analytics. So,
Micron could have made that connection if, for instance, say they had a business
registry. Just one example of even our businesses not knowing each other. So, we
have -- we have an overall idea that we would like to develop economically, but what is
our -- you know, the old saying you can't manager what you can't measure. We have
no idea what our baseline is to begin with and so if we say that we had easy targets,
what exactly is it that we are aiming for and how do we know if we have actually hit that
mark. We also are facing threats. There has been technology disruption going on.
Businesses have to adapt to a mobile world in order to connect with our customers. We
all know that mobile devices are increasingly part of what -- of the competitive
advantage of everyone in business and government alike. The number of mobile
subscribers now exceeds the population of the United States in the United States and,
you know, several folks, the Mayor included and me, have several mobile devices that
have -- so, those -- that equals a subscription. And accessing maps and directions, how
to get. places, especially businesses, is the number one mobile. activity.. So, how can
Meridian businesses adapt and flourish in that quickly changing environment? And just
an example, by 2014 more folks will be using these mobile platforms to -- to access the
Internet than will be using PCs. So, that is -- that's the actual threat. How do we
connect and how do our Meridian businesses stay competitive, how do folks even know
that they are there when you can shop effectively globally. Customer service. This is
what I care about. We hear this again and again. Our professional customers really
like us. You talk to the professional developers, architects, engineers, contractors, and
for the most part they say you guys are pretty darn good. Where we fall down, though,
is what I refer to as the poor lost souls. The folks that may be really great restaurateurs,
nail salon owners, small business owners, they know their business, but they have
never had reason to engage the city government or other agencies ever before and
maybe they will only have to do it once or twice. They get very frustrated. They don't
know what it takes to open a business, all the way from ACHD to health department to
even the various areas within -- within the city, some within Community Development
and some outside of Community development. The clerk's office, for instance. So,
what I hear again and again and the Mayor's office hears again and again is that if I'd
only known at the beginning how difficult this would be -- they fill in the blank. Either I
wouldn't have attempted it or I would have been saved a lot of time and money. We
hear things like who is -- who is over there looking out for me, looking at the -- at the big
picture. Who cares about my project. So, how do we get this information to new
owners? One idea that we would like to do in the future, if we can get the resources for
it, the staff resources, is the idea of a small business concierge. The idea being like a
hotel concierge that this individual knows what you need to do to get from point A to
point B and can connect you with all those. So, for instance, you would have checklists,
if you need to do a restaurant downtown here are the agencies you need to check with.
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Get over to the highway district right away, find out if you're going to have impact fees.
If you need to appeal those impact fees here is what you need to do. And really be
watching out for, filling that role of watching out for small businesses. This is a good
model and I actually have had a chance to implement it in Boise. There is a small
business coordinator for the downtown, but limited success. The folks there that
actually use the small business coordination role work with the coordinator, they loved
it. They said this is fantastic. The problem is with connecting customers, getting them
in there. We -- we had no way of getting customers in contact with the small business
concierge, because they were going to the city clerk's office, they were going to the
highway district, they were going to Public Works and thinking because they had gotten
something positive or solved one problem there that they were done. So, connecting
with those customers is a big reason why you want to do this -- Karen Sander, who is
the downtown business association executive director in Boise said she has no idea
who her members are and she would love to be able to connect them with a small
business development coordinator. She doesn't know who they are often until they are
already underway with their business idea. Finally, public safety. Our emergency
responders lack contacts for businesses. They don't know necessarily who the
responsible party is for a business. The existing databases that we have are
inadequate, they are almost always out of date and they really don't have a way of
turning over a facility that's been secured to someone, often you will have the
emergency responder having to spend a lot of time at that.-- at that location and they
often don't know if hazardous materials are present. A business registry would be one
way of learning this information. So, the economic development, customer service,
public safety seem very distinct. Where is the sweet spot between those things? Well,
the concept that we have been talking to folks about with business registry is, as you
know, a directory of all the businesses in Meridian. There may be an annual fee,
although we are looking at a way if possible to make it free at the beginning or perhaps
free in the long run. We are looking at that. And it would be a simple application.
Basically tell us who you are, what your business is, what -- are there hazardous
materials stored on site, who is the responsible party, and that application could be
completed online or with the assistance of a city clerk. So, the idea behind this is it
helps us set that target. We know what we are shooting for in terms of job creation, job
retention, overall economic development. It allows the city and the chamber of
commerce to connect with new business owners early on, get them in there so that we
can help and get them services and it gets emergency responders the information that
they often lack when they are responding to a situation. Connecting businesses to
customers and connecting up businesses with businesses is important and that all
important mobile web directory that allows our local businesses to say we -- we are
here. There is a screen shot of a possible mobile app. We actually have some
software and that might be responsive to what we learn from our business community
and so you would be able to search your businesses, you would be able to map where
they are and connect those customers with Meridian businesses. Well, you know,
you're talking about three really different sets of problems and just like a Swiss Army
knife, the nail doesn't do the same thing as the scissors, doesn't do the same thing that
the pocket knife or the screwdriver does. This is one tool that helps to meet all those
various sets of issues. After the first focus group we learned several things. Those
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folks told us that they -- they first of all asked why do you need to get into this business.
There is Urban Spoon. There is Angie's List. Why did you need to be in this business,
City of Meridian? And the answer as we talked it through, is that there are some things
that would distinguish our business registry from all the others out there. First off, it's
the only one that would be comprehensive. If we do this right we will have captured
information on all the businesses in the city. Second, it would be the only list out there
that would be updated annually. And, finally, if there is any additional information added
to the listing it would be done by the business owner. Only the business owner would
be able to add that. So, you wouldn't get the negative reviews. Other sites I know have
served important functions by allowing negative and positive reviews. We wouldn't put
that burden on any of these business owners, only they could -- they could have special
information out there, you know, on tie-ins with promotions, coupons, that sort of thing.
They also told us that we needed to heavily promote the web application and we would
look to do that through the chamber, among other sources and in the first focus group
they said that we needed to make sure that we know what the actual store fronts want
and need. What features are most important to them. Finally, I think something we are
going to need to address is the idea of a new government program of some type, being
a slippery slope that will get bigger and more onerous in the future. We have to be
aware of that and actually define what it is that we want to do now and not let it become
slippery and head down that slope. So, next steps. As I mentioned, we will have the
second focus group this week and. we are going out of our way to try to bring in folks
that we know can be skeptics. We are conducting shuttle diplomacy. We are going to
be contacting some of the larger employers, such Scentsy and St. Luke's. We are
going to be talking to some of the developer owners, such as Brighton Corporation and
Van Auker that have multi-tenant complexes. They -- these folks wouldn't be so much
affected by this as the folks that are in there -- that are the tenants of their complexes.
Small businesses. We will be talking to the Game Changer. The Better Business
Bureau also has its own searchable index of businesses that's out there as well. And
based on what we will hear from those folks, we want to refine the proposal, looking to,
if we are successful, to have a draft ordinance to you to review in January, with possible
action starting in February. That's where we are with this right now. I'd love to have
any thoughts if you all can be our focus group for a minute and, you know, tell me where
the lines are, I would appreciate it.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: First of all, not the focus group. I happen to know of a small business very close
to the person that's bringing it in and -- and a very skeptic person that isn't afraid to say
his thoughts and is very very happy. He come down here to find out what he had to do
and thank God he got somebody like Barbara Shiffer -- has had no problem. So, we are
doing something right. Bruce, I -- I think this is a great idea, but I -- how far do you go
with individual businesses? You know, we look to the chamber, which probably at the
most has 20 percent of our businesses in their deal. The hazardous material stuff we
pay -- we pay 45 firefighters and everybody else to be covering that every year to see
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what is in those buildings inspecting them, but Ithink --Ithink you got a great idea. I
think you're approaching it right. How far do we go? That -- that's my only question. I
think it's a great great idea and you're approaching it right.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Member Bird, really, we are moving forward as a --
as aconcept at this point. We are honestly listening and we have made some changes
already based on what we are hearing. We probably, frankly, did a little too much of
working on it in-house, thinking we were going to get it perfect. We are never going to
be able to do that.
Bird: No.
Chatterton: It's going to affect people and we need to hear from them. And so that's
the process that we are in.
Bird: Follow up, Mayor. The main thing I believe is we have got to benefit the majority.
You're always going to have the naysayers. You're not going to satisfy everybody. But
you're taking the right approach, Bruce, and I appreciate that. And Ithink the
businesses appreciate that.
Chatterton: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Question, Bruce. As you have the focus groups and you're listening to
people, I would be interested, you know, is this something that can be done on a
voluntary basis, as opposed to mandatory basis? You know, I don't know if there will be
enough participation that way to fund the necessary items and to do the things that it
would be a good idea to do, but that also tells us something. If people aren't willing to
do it on their own, are we willing to force it upon them because we want to help them? I
mean that's -- that's part of the slippery slope and so, you know, it's something I would
be interested -- the feedback that you're hearing out there, if this is a great thing -- you
can't -- everyone is not going to happy, but at the same time if it's not something they
are willing to participate voluntarily that makes it a lot tougher.
Chatterton: Mayor and Councilman Hoaglun, it was before my time, but I understand
that we did try a voluntary program. We heavily publicized it. It was called, Mayor
Biz --
De Weerd: Biz Reach.
Chatterton: We promoted it heavily and I think at first thought we were getting some
response, but it turned out that most of the entries were from the IT guy in-house doing
test test test and filling out the application. Frankly, the voluntary programs are out
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there right now in the market and when it comes to a voluntary program, they can
probably do it better than we can. It's really the strength of our approach, if we do this,
would be that it's comprehensive, therefore, mandatory and that it would be updated
constantly. That really would be the strength of the competitive advantage that we
would have with this in terms of benefitting the community and adding value to the
business community. I don't know of a way to work it voluntarily. It would be a different
project than this.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Brad brought up one of the points that 1 have thought about, this is the
mandatory aspect of it versus voluntary and both have issues. I think if it's mandatory,
then, you're going to have push back for those folks that don't like government
interference. You also have the issue of enforcement. What do you do? How are you
going to know who isn't providing the information you want if you don't know that they
are there to start with and how are you going to enforce that. On the flip side is if it's
volunteer how do you -- how do you sell it to folks to see that there is a benefit for them
for participation. And divulging this information that people are more and more not
wanting to and they hear more and more horror stories about identity theft or those
kinds of things. Having been there it's an issue and it's not fun to deal with. Cost.
Concerned about cost. I think if it's that beneficial for the city the city ought to bear the
cost, but how do you -- how do you find the money to make a program responsive
enough, current enough, consistent enough to be of the value that we anticipate it's
going to be? And the final issue is the slippery slope of data gathering and information.
How do you put sideboards on it, because as soon as you start doing data gathering
and information gathering of folks, then, something is going to raise their hand, well,
wouldn't it be nice if we did this or wouldn't it be nice if we would do that and all of
sudden you're gathering information that maybe one or two people thought it would be
nice to have and it's not information that really is doing the city any value, not doing the
system any value, it costs you money to gather data, it costs money to keep it current
and many of these systems that grow into that situation get so large that -- and so
expensive to maintain you lose sight of what we want to do and I think your point is in
your first slide about what's the problem and what it is we want to do are critical and
they have to establish some sideboards that will move it forward and it won't go beyond
this and there needs to be hard and fast rules against that. But those are some issues
that I see with it. I just -- I can see the benefit of knowing some of this information, but I
can see the really down side of trying to accomplish it and the frustrating side of trying
to do it.
Chatterton: Mayor and Council Member Rountree, all excellent points. In fact, I don't
know that I have an answer to all of your points, except that we are going to continue to
ask these questions and address them. On your point about the -- how we
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November 13, 2012
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appropriately use the information, I think it would be very very similar to how we handle
a lot of the information we have about our citizenry right now from the property
appraiser and from other sources, is that it's -- you shine the light of day on this being
public information available to all and not in any way hoarded, but the information would
be -- would be your approval of a program like this would be an indication that the
community is saying we can be transparent in terms of who our businesses are, what
they do, who owns them, who the responsible parties are. And so we definitely need to
put the sideboards around it, so it doesn't grow bigger and that the information is
handled in an appropriate and very transparent way. Those are all excellent points and
I don't pretend to have answers to all of your points right at this point.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: First let me say I'm glad we are working on this. I think it's a good thing. I
appreciate the comments that have been made and I think they are constructive ideas.
I appreciate the progress that has been made. I have probably said this before from
other places that I have lived, this kind of a program is very common, it's always
mandatory, there is often a considerable cost to it. We are trying to keep that cost down
as much as we can.. But cities as they grow have found the. need to do this kind. of a
program and my feeling is that we are either already or are soon approaching the point
where we do need to have a program like this and what I really appreciate is putting
together with -- with your ideas and Brenda's ideas and the focus groups, not just how
this benefits the city, but how it benefits the individuals that would participate in it and I
really like the emphasis on helping them find other customers and suppliers locally and I
think that's an excellent point to leave with, but in general I'm in favor of moving ahead
with this and it's uncommon in Idaho, but it's not uncommon in rest of the country.
De Weerd: Well, I will just say that the list of stakeholders that Brenda and Bruce have
put together are very diverse and they are not trying to surround themselves with like-
minded or yes people, they really are trying to get that diverse opinion and I think
Councilman Rountree's questions could very easily be taken to that -- that group to
discuss each of them and look at the pros and cons, because I think they are very
excellent points and you have a good stakeholder group that will give you a variety of
opinions and good critique. So, I appreciate your update. If there is nothing further
from Council, if there is anything else that you think that this stakeholder group would be
good to help that or answer certain questions, I think that would be helpful to give those
to Bruce if you come up with more. Okay. Thank you.
Chatterton: Thanks for listening.
D. Community Development: Rail with Trail Grant Application
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-D is our -- also under Community Development and Public
Works and looking at a Rail To Trail grant application. Hi, Tim. I saw it under
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Community Development and, then, you stood up and I thought, okay, Public Works as
well.
Curns: We want to confuse you tonight. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council,
tonight I'm here to talk a little bit about a possible grant or a grant opportunity that we
have been looking at in the Rail To Trail group. We have been meeting regularly still
trying to do our best to make sure that this moves forward and this -- this is kind of a
fast moving thing here, actually. This application is due pretty much at the end of this
month, but it was something that we felt we couldn't pass up. It's called the
transportation alternatives program, so it's a federal funding through COMPASS and,
really, Rail With Trail group we have kind of been in a little bit of a holding pattern
strategizing on how to address some of the concerns that were brought up when we
met last year with Union Pacific Railroad and one of the things that we felt we need to
find a way to address was arterial crossings of the proposed Rail With Trails. This is
something that the railroad was very concerned about how people were going to cross
Meridian Road or Ten Mile Road or Locust Grove at the -- adjacent to the railroad
crossings and their concern was simply, you know, some of these crossings, no matter
what the signal or crosswalk or whatever it is, how are we going to make sure the cars
aren't backing up over the tracks and now we have a safety issue. So, in talking with
them, you know, there certainly are options that we could think of right off the bat for
doing that, but they have kind of a hard time visualizing that and what we also v/anted to
do is kind of find a way to reach out into the transportation realm nationally and gather
some information about what treatments might work at these specific locations, get
something with more meat to it so we have that to take at some point back to the
railroad in our conversation. So, looking at this transportation alternatives grant, which
we did by the way run through the finance grants review committee, we have their buy
off on this. If we were going to do something constructive wise or full design of a
segment, we needed to have land locked up in order to apply for this and we just were
not there yet, but certainly these crossings were something we wanted to address. So,
the group came up with the idea of applying for this grant to do some conceptual design
work in getting tool box of design alternatives for these crossings and that's something
that we can do under this without the requirements of having the land locked up for the
complete pathway system and it's also a lot less labor intensive in terms of reporting,
because it is, essentially, like a planning document, so we weren't too worried about,
you know, the reporting from this going through as federal funding as far as being too
onerous to where we just didn't even want to bother with it. The proposed amount that
we are looking at would be 85,000 dollars at the 7.34 percent local match. That means
we would be on the hook for about 6,200 dollars of the total. Now, it's -- because of the
way the funding works if we were awarded the grant we would have to put that money --
give that money up front through ITD and, then, we would be reimbursed back, so in the
end we only end up spending the max amount, but we have to be able to pony that
dollar amount up first. And so as I mentioned the application is due at the end of the
month and so what we are looking at is kind of getting your feedback on whether or not
the Council and the Mayor think this is a good direction to go, go ahead and apply for
this grant and, then, we can put that together and have it back to you just in time to
meet that grant deadline here at the end of the month. One other important thing to
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November 13, 2012
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note, after we kind of got this all in processing, got it on an agenda of ACHD -- Caleb
did some footwork, talking to some of the other agencies, because agency support is
very important to this application and ACHD did say they are supportive of this, it
crosses their facilities, obviously, so they have skin in the game here and this is
something that we -- they would be involved in the process, but they also did mention
that if we weren't successful with this and we wanted to go back to them and try to fund
it locally, they would be more than happy to do that, look at ways to funding it through --
fund it through their program. So, that's something else to throw out there. So, that's --
that's the quick rundown. I don't know if there is any question you have about the grant
specifically or how we got to this point, but I'm ready to answer questions.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think it's a great opportunity. My concern is it almost seems to me that
somewhere out there somebody's done this before and I don't know if you have done
any transportation research board searches or NCHRP any of those, but federal rails or
federal highways, they do this stuff all the time and there is nothing out there in the
research or design guides with respect to railroads and railroad crossing?
Curns: Councilman Rountree, you know, we do have some knowledge about the real
basic kind of crossing that's going over or under as one way to solve this problem, but
as far as maybe signalized systems in such a close proximity to the actual signalized
crossing system, haven't been able to find much, which kind of surprised me, because I
thought for sure somebody would have had something very similar to this by now and I
have actually done quite a bit of asking around at COMPASSes I have been at and
other engineering firms and other cities and I have yet to find substantial information
about this. In fact, I asked some planners from the city of San Francisco and they said
if we found something out they wanted to know how we ended up doing it, so --
Rountree: I guess, then, it's probably not so much of a search for an answer, but it's
conceptualizing potential answers and putting together conceptual design solutions. Is
that more of the direction you're leaning?
Curns: Councilman Rountree, yeah, we are looking for -- to get a number of different
treatments we could use at each location as opposed to just one this is the way to do it,
but this is -- these are the ways you could do it, here is about how much they would cost
and here the ups and downs to doing them.
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Rountree: And final question. Given ACHD's interest in this, would they be willing to
share the match with City of Meridian?
Curns: Councilman Rountree, I don't know if we asked them that specifically, but if they
are -- if they have told us they are willing to look at ways of funding the entire thing if
they had to through their program Iwould -- I don't see why they would be opposed to
sharing the match. I don't -- I thought we might have someone here tonight from ACRD,
but I don't think we do. We scared him off.
Rountree: Because I see this as, you know, it's something that's a national significance
if you come up with something that has multiple options. Definitely regional and more
specifically it's Ada County wide, but if there is other people that want to participate in
that that would be great.
Curns: I will certainly inquire.
Rountree: Yeah.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba; Madam Mayor, at the Meridian Transportation Task Force meeting Caleb did
bring this up to the task force and somebody pointed out that there are places around
Idaho where there are trails on railroad right of way and, then, somebody else pointed
out that, yes, but in every one of those the railroad has removed the tracks. There
aren't actually trains on those pathways, so they were not exactly equivalent to what we
are looking for, but the point I wanted to make is that in the end the Transportation Task
Force was behind applying for the grant. We felt there was no particular down side to
applying for the grant and trying to do some research as a result of the grant. So, I
believe that the task force recommended applying for the grant.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: As we found this one is going to be a challenge dealing with the railroad and
issues that they have and whatnot and one of the challenges how do we -- how do we
do these crossings, especially in proximity to an active rail line and so I'm of the mind,
you know, you just work on challenges as they come forward and try to pick them off
and I think moving forward to find out what options are available and we can -- might
utilize, I think that's a good thing. So, I think we could move forward with this.
De Weerd: So, it sounds like it's favorable to move forward and look forward to seeing it
come back, so it can be submitted and when you come back maybe you can have
inquired with ACHD on if they would participate.
Meridian City Council Workshop
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Curns: Absolutely.
De Weerd: Okay.
Curns: Great. Thank you all.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tim.
Rountree: Thanks, Tim. Good idea.
E. Legal Department: Commercial Commingled Recycling
Service Rate Reduction for 95-gallon Carts as Requested by
Republic Services, Inc.
De Weerd: Item 7-E is our Legal Department.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. You will see on your
agenda there is a resolution that's Item F. After we had gone through the analysis with
SWAC on the rate change and the rates were all adjusted according to the Consumer
Price Index,. after all the advertising is done. our. vendor,Republic Services said they
actually felt that it was more appropriate to lower the rate on some of the commercial
ones and put them in line with the city of Boise, since the costs are very similar for them
for commercial rates. So, they have proposed lowering the rate. That's what's here.
Since we have already approved the rate increase as part of our standard yearly public
advertising, we are not required to re-advertise for a lower rate, so we want to make
sure that we have the consistent schedule of rates, so that's why you have a new
resolution for that. So, if you're accepting of the lower rate, we can move to Item F and
approve the resolution.
De Weerd: Any concerns on Item 7-E? Okay.
Zaremba: Sounds good to me.
F. Legal Department: Resolution No. : A
Resolution of the Mayor and City Council Adopting a
Reduction to the Commercial Commingled Recycling Service
Rate for 95-Gallon Carts as Requested by Republic Services,
Inc.
De Weerd: Would say 7-F is Resolution 12-889. Council, what would you like to do?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
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Rountree: I move that we approve Item 7-F, Resolution 12-889.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second approve Item 7-F. 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.
G. Police Department: Policy Manual Revision for Meridian Police
Department
De Weerd: Item 7-G is under our Police Department. Do you have a PowerPoint?
Colaianni: No. There will be no PowerPoint. In fact, Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council --
Bird: Have 540 pages to read.
Colaianni: -- I know that you have been sitting here for a while, but I made an
interesting observation. I know policy and procedure manuals are not the most exciting
things to talk about. There will be no fly overs. There will be no fountains, greenbelts,
pathways in my presentation, but I did notice that we are somewhere in this -- this
department report between commingled recycling, but we are above the. RV dump. So,
I'm not sure what to think about that.
De Weerd: Should be a message in there somewhere.
Colaianni: And we are above meeting topics -- future meeting topics, too. Tonight I just
wanted to kind of bring you up to speed on how we got to this point with the policy and
procedures manual. The last time the police department had a comprehensive update
-- entire update of the policy and procedures manual was in 1995. A lot has changed
since then. The city has grown and grown and our department has changed. We have
become a more full service department. The calls that we take, the things that we do
have gotten more complex, thus there was a huge need for us to redo our policy and
procedures manual and when things finally slowed down that gives us an opportunity to
take a look at what we needed to do. I was assigned the project in 2011 with the goal of
having it done in a year. Unfortunately, there was a skiing accident and I broke my leg
in five spots and so I took about eight months off and so we are to the point now where
I'm ready to move forward and I think we have got a good product here. The company
that we picked to assist us with this manual, it was Lexipol. They are out of California.
The company was founded by retired police officers, risk management people, and
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attorneys. They also had a fire component in the department, corrections component,
state police component. Obviously, the component we used was the city police
component. Right now there is about 1,400 police departments across the United
States that use Lexipol. The way it's -- the way the policies manual is set up is that it's
specific to our state. They use the federal laws, the state laws, the local regulations,
ordinances, and things that we want in our policy manual, so it's customized to what we
need and what fits us. The unique thing about this is that it's all electronic, it's all online,
so every year, twice a year, we get updates to our policy manual, so we stay compliant
legally with any federal laws, state laws, Ninth Circuit Court rulings that affect us and
how we do business. The prosecutor's office -- excuse me -- if they have something
that changes, we can go right in, update it, and we are ready to roll. It literally takes
minutes to stay on top of this. We won't have this problem that we have had in the past
with our policy manual being outdated. From a risk management standpoint, from a
liability standpoint, I can't tell you how much easier it is to have a policy manual where
we have established predictability in how things are going to outcome in our call. The
other component that we have is that there will be daily training bulletins and I have
worked with Dave Sasser at ICRMP and they have agreed to pay for the first year of the
training bulletins in the way it -- they are going to pay 7,200 for us and the training
bulletin to go with it. Every day an officer comes to work they will log onto their a-mail
and there will be a training bulletin that pops up and the training bulletin takes two or
three minutes to take and. it ties directly into the policy manual and it creates an
electronic footprint, if you will, on all the training they have been through and so they
learn to understand and apply the policy manual in a real world scenario. So, ICRMP
has helped us out there. I was also able to wiggle my way onto a state advisory board
that is headed by Dave Sasser, myself, and several other agencies that we work with
Lexipol on building policies that align with what we do here in the state of Idaho and my
first meeting is next month and so I'm really looking forward to that and turning this into
something special. I want to thank Mr. Nary, he loaned me Erin Montemurro for the
better part of a year as part of this process and she has been dynamite, she's been
there for me when it comes to the human resources side. That's not my expertise.
Every one of these topics in a 50 page manual had to be vetted out by a subject matter
expert. The command staff had meetings twice a week for months, almost a year, I can
tell you there were some very spirited debates on getting this thing done, but it is done.
Really, that's all I have and I will stand for any questions or comments.
De Weerd: Thank you, Scott. Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: It occurs to me to wonder if -- if the contractor that's supplying this has such
a broad base of other people that they are working with, is there any reverse benefit
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where they give us best practices or can they suggest to us any state legislation that
may need to change? Is that not part of their --
Colaianni: Well, Madam Mayor, Council Members, Mr. Zaremba, the way it works is
that if we need a policy specific to us we reach over to Lexipol and say we need a policy
dealing with ride-alongs in our police department, they go to their templates and they
will say, well, we have these, they have been vetted out by risk management and these
are best practices. We can, then, take that and customize it to fit our needs or take
what they give us and just adopt that. If they don't have something on the shelf, so to
speak, then, what I can do is I can go into their program and I can send out an agency --
all the agencies across the United States for a specific policy that we are looking for in
an agency say in Connecticut may have one and send it to me and so I can do that. So,
it goes back and forth as a sharing of information.
Zaremba: That's cool. Thank you
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree:. Not a question for Scott, but Bill. Has this manual been through some kind
of legal scrutiny at the city level and has it got your blessing as well?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, yes, the --
the manual is prepared with -- with Lieutenant Colaianni, as well as Lexipol, Erin
Montemurro from my staff, Terry Durden from our prosecution staff, as well as myself
and Dave Sasser from ICRMP. So, we are all comfortable that it meets the current
standard and actually better than that, so we are ready to move it forward.
Rountree: Cool.
De Weerd: Anything further from Council?
H. Police Department: Resolution No. : A
Resolution of the Mayor and City Council of the City of
Meridian Adopting the Revised Meridian Police Department's
Policy Manual
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve Item 7-H, Resolution 12-890.
Bird: Second.
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Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and several seconds to approve Item 7-H. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: I almost was going to predict that. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
I. Public Works: Status and Future Options for the RV Dump at
the Wastewater Treatment Plant
De Weerd: Item 7-I is our Public Works Department. To discuss this exciting topic.
Allison: Yes. We are excited.. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, David Allison,
engineer with the Public Works Department. Tonight we will be discussing the future of
the RV dump facility at the city's wastewater treatment plant. This is an illustration of
typically what happens at most RV dumps. Our current RV dump is located on the
southwest corner of the existing kennel at the wastewater treatment plant. You can see
here in the illustration. The reason for tonight's discussion is that during the upcoming
construction projects of laboratory expansion of the new administration building, as
shown here, the current location of the RV dump will no longer work. The laboratory
itself will impede the flow of the traffic as they come through and the new security fence
will be constructed beyond the administration building will inhibit the public from going
back to beyond it, so its current location will no longer be feasible. The Public Works
Department has worked together to develop three possible options for the -- for the
future of the RV dump. Our first option is to onsite relocate the dump station. This
would be rebuilding a new facility on existing wastewater treatment plant property. The
second option would be to relocate the dump station off site at another piece of
property. And the third would be to eliminate this facility altogether without rebuilding a
new one. The Public Works Department worked directly with JUB Engineering and they
developed this concept as to what the facility onsite could look like. Currently we are
only able to allow one vehicle to dump at a time. This would -- the construction of this
would implement the center island, which would allow for two vehicles at once to dump.
It would also expand the road, which would allow for more queuing and stacking of
vehicles, as well as a turnabout and a third lane to allow vehicles in and out of the plant.
In developing these options we also developed the pros and cons that we felt were of
major concern. Some of the major --some of the bigger pros for onsite relocation would
be the customer service. We are currently providing for the citizens and have for some
time, so building on site would maintain that. We would also have the improved
dumping oversight. As it is now the vehicles have to pull up very close to the
administration building, so we were able to -- to the best of our ability see what's going
in and see what types of vehicles are dumping at our facility. There is also the
convenience it's located off of Ten Mile, so citizens know where it's at; it's easy to get to
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and currently to relocate on site, we have the property, it's ours, and we also have the
entitlements in place to be able to provide for this. We would also have the continuity of
service and improved traffic flow as we added that third lane in and out of the plant.
Some of the major cons there would be limiting facility access on some of the major
holidays. Memorial Day, Labor Day weekends, as well as the Fourth of July,. sometimes
the vehicles stack all the way up to Ten Mile Road and out and that can also be
inhibiting to people coming in to just do work at the facility itself. There is also the
capital cost associated with constructing the facility, as well as the ongoing L&M. We
currently have staff that maintain when they need to out there. Also, another area of
concern is limited available space. As the plant is building out and developing that --
that room and space that we have now is becoming very critical and for plant processes
and as we move forward tying that up with the RV dump station could -- could pose a
problem. Additionally, another con that we have is that the service is open to all
members of the public, it's not just City of Meridian residents. So, anyone with an RV
can pull up and utilize it now. It is noteworthy, though, that City of Meridian, city of
Boise, as well AS the city of Nampa, all provide this -- this service free of charge to the
citizens, to the public. There are 21 other dump facilities located in the valley, but only
those three municipal agencies provide it free of charge. Our second option is to
relocate the dump station off site. Some of the major pros here would be increased
plant security. We would no longer have the vehicles traveling up to the plant in and
amongst. our buildings, even on site. There would no need for them to be there.
Building off site, though, would also continue the service that we are providing and the
customer service that we have for our residents. There is also -- if we decide to go with
an off-site location we could -- looking at a potential public-private partnership with
some sort of a business where they may provide them land and we provide the
infrastructure and such. Some of the major cons would be decreased oversight, off site
we have no regulation, we have no oversight of really what's being put into the -- into
the dump itself. We also have to acquire the land, whether that be another city-owned
facility, such as a park or another -- another -- you know -- anyway, really we are
actually going out and purchasing more land. As it is with the facility being on site, we
can utilize our own staff. If it's moved off site we may have to either delegate that work
or even hire to maintain an oversight. There is also the construction and capital costs
for that and there would also be a lapse in the service. The construction of the lab and
the admin buildings will start sometime in late spring, early summer, and from the land
acquisition, planning, and construction phases we could be looking at a couple of years
until this facility could be up and available for use by the public. We would also need to
acquire the entitlements to be able to provide this at another location. Our third and
final option would be to relocate -- or to not relocate and just continue the service that
we are currently providing. A major benefit to that is there is no cost associated with
doing nothing. Reduce O and M, we wouldn't have anybody delegated to do that work
and there would also be increased security at the plant, because there would no longer
be any vehicles traveling in and amongst the plant. We also have the reduced impact of
the RV dump waste. Some of the chemicals they utilized to knock down the odors
contain formaldehydes and other chemicals that can be detrimental to some of the plant
processes. Also would be the elimination of service. That's something we have
provided for some time now and the public has gotten used to it, the facility is heavily
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used, all throughout the summer, anytime during the day there is regularly an RV
dumping there. So, there could be some public backlash, there could be some upset by
eliminating that. And there would also be the concern of the environmental impact and
you all remember Cousin Eddy and that ended up -- that ended up directly into the
storm drain and that's not something that we want to see happen. So, moving forward,
if the Mayor and Council decide that this is a service that we would like to maintain and
continue here at the city, Public Works stands that we would like to recommend it to be
located on site. One of the major benefits of that would be the ability to oversee what's
actually being dumped, who is dumping. Also it's widely used by the citizens, so to
keep it on a public facility, keep it where it's at, would be of a huge benefit. Our current
engineering estimate 290 to 300 thousand dollars for the overall construction cost and I
guess that concludes it. Any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, David. Any questions from Council?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: David, you indicated there is 21 dump stations around in the valley. How
many are in the Meridian area? Do you have that?
Allison: We have got three, including the City of Meridian. There is Acorn Self Storage
and Boise Meridian RV. So, those are the only two other ones if we were to eliminate
ours. And both of those are fees.
Hoaglun: Do you know what fee they charge by chance?
Bird: It's typically around five dollars. It's nothing huge, but --
Hoaglun: And I would assume they have to have staff there to collect that fee, so --
Allison: Yes.
Hoaglun: -- do they have certain hours --
Allison: That I am not aware of.
Hoaglun: And ours would be 24-7?
Allison: Yeah. Right now they are able to pull up at anytime and utilize it.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Hoaglun, actually, you
know, we do close the security gate at the RV dump from -- or at the treatment plant at
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night, so they would not be able to dump at night. And I think it's also important to note
that like at Acorn Storage, that facility is only available to its members, so if you're not a
member of Acorn Storage or you don't store stuff there, you could not utilize that site
even for a fee.
Bird: And the RV park out here is only for people staying there.
Stewart: Yeah. That could be true also.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? Warren, if we were to go to recommendation one where it's
outside the fence, is there -- are there still going to be hours or is that going to be --
Allison: The same security fence would be in place. It is actually behind the main gate,
but --the plant gate is what we --
Hoaglun: Okay. That --thank you for clarifying that. Okay. Got it.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I think I would automatically eliminate the -- don't provide the service option.
I just -- to me there are people who will dump inappropriately and I think as long as we
can say we have a free spot where you ought to be doing this, then that gives us more
leverage if we catch somebody dumping inappropriately to say you can't do that, but
here is a free option, you know, why are you doing that. So, I would eliminate that and I
actually support the doing it on site. So, I think we do need to provide the service, I
think we need to provide it for free, as we have been doing, and the on-site option would
be my preference.
De Weerd: Any other comments from Council? Mr. Hoaglun?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, you know, it doesn't look like there are adequate private
options out there and especially in the City of Meridian. So, you know, out of the 21
and, boy, we had eight of them located around and there was enough places for people
to go, you know, that's one thing, but we -- we don't want to have people dumping
inappropriately and that would certainly cause problems and we don't want to have
those problems. It's significant, but at the same time I think on-site we can control it,
watch it, and we double the capacity, if you will, by making two lakes, there will still be
some jam ups and there will still be some little issues, but I think that's the -- that's the
best option available.
De Weerd: Well -- and what is the cost of not doing it? I guess the illegal dumping
scenarios certainly could pose additional problems in particular if they dispose of it in
the storm water drains and it's not cleaned before it hits the river. Certainly that's the
worst case scenario, but is it an option maybe to talk to the two businesses that do
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provide it, that we would provide some cost for Meridian residents and what is the -- the
benefit of doing it that way?
Allison: We would definitely explore that option, yes
De Weerd: That just kind of occurred to me. It helps on our land design and our
staffing, but it always goes back to when it's been on site our staff has been able to see
some things that people were going to start dumping that shouldn't be dumped and with
that supervision that we have been able to provide when it's on site, I think it's proved to
be invaluable as well. So -- we don't know where they go after we say no and they drive
off, who knows if it ends up there anyway, but -- I don't know. I guess, Tracy, with you
here this evening, you certainly oversee the eyes on the RV dump, maybe you have
something you want to add.
Crane: I do. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you. Yeah. So, when we
-- we do watch. This year alone we have a couple of disaster clean-up type vans pull
up full of mud and dirt and our staff will let me know and I will go out there. I generally
will direct them to a commercial dumping facility, either in Boise or the city of Nampa
both invested quite a bit into automating their commercial dumping facility, so we try to
give them the proper place to go, so they are not pulled up. We had some new signs
made. in our facility now that says. it's for private RV dumping .only and are staff our
pretty diligent about it. I will tell you that it is heavily used. If you come there on a
Monday, say after Memorial Day or Labor Day and there will be folks lined up for a long
time. So, sporadically used during the day, we do open it at sun up to sun down,
basically, is when the gates are open, but we will have to have overflow garbage bins
on the three day weekends and bring another dumpster out there just to handle the
residents. So, it's widely used. So, our preferred option is to -- folks are going to use it
and they are used to it. I would add, of the three, the one at Acorn Storage is behind a
locked storage gate, so I don't know that that's areal -- and if we closed ours down I'm
not sure, you know, how much of a viable option there is out there for the folks that are
using it.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think the option leaving it there, doing the double. I can't see partnering with
Acorn or Boise out there, because the -- I mean you would probably spend a lot more in
getting a facility out there to get people through. The one out there is like any other RV
park, it's set aside and you get one in there every ten, 15 minutes. Well, I have been
out there when you don't -- you need to get through. I think if we are going to do it let's
do it out there and do it the double.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
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Rountree: We have established a precedence, so I can't imagine that we would want to
impose a fee for the service. We provide the service, so we want to continue to do that.
I don't see how on off-site public partner -- or private partnership will work without the
exchange of some fee. So, I think that concept falls just with that idea. So, that puts us
on site. On site is really the only place where you have any control, it's the only place
we will have full time staff, it's the only place we can really accommodate the necessary
clean up and policing that's required. So, I would say on site and have that additional
lane for vehicle storage and queuing. My concern is is that at all times we need to have
two lanes of traffic open to the facility for nothing else for employee safety. But it just --
there is no way we can allow that to plug up, so -- so to speak and no pun intended.
Allison: And Mayor and Councilmen, I think that's the conclusion that we talked about,
that we sort of came up with as well. Traffic flow is -- is very important and we think the
new design will dramatically improve that. It's not very good and also blocks the -- our
animal shelter folks, they spend the whole day or two where they can't get access to
their facility on those days, so we think it will cover a multitude of those problems as
well. And access. That is our only access in and out of the facility. We have one. So,
for even public safety it's important that we keep these RVs from blocking up the entire
lane on those days and get enough queuing area that we can maintain, you know, the
access to the facility for sure.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: Question. Given the length of time the construction activity is going to take,
is there some temporary solution we can come up with that might work? That's going to
be painful.
Allison: Yeah. So, Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, we have discussed that as
well and thought maybe try to get out in front of it, maybe put some notices in the sewer
bills or something and the capital construction -- and you can speak to that about how
long we think it would take.
Crane: About six months, we would assume.
Allison: So, really, there is not a lot of options, maybe some advice that the city of
Nampa and the city of Boise has some dumps or some other places, but if we could get
out in front of that and say we are improving it, we are making it better, and try to do a
little bit of up front work it might save us some -- some issues in the long run. And if we
were to get started maybe in the winter it would be preferable to get it done throughout
the winter than the actual camping season.
Rountree: Could this be done prior to the rest of the activity out there on site?
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Crane: Absolutely. I assume we could start design sometime in late winter, early
spring, construction could start sometime and complete before -- like you said, before
camping season started, before the heavy flow would be in there.
Steward: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree, I think, you
know, the issue is -- the existing RV dump will be available until we start construction on
the actual laboratory facility and the laboratory facility, the design process and getting
the permits and everything else, is going to take the better part of this construction
season. We plan to start construction on that I think late summer. Is that correct? Is
that the current schedule, David?
Allison: Early summer.
Stewart: Okay. Early summer. Late summer. So we may be able to maintain some
excess or some availability of the existing site through a portion of the summer, at least
enough time to give us the ability to get this construction on a new RV dump
significantly underway. I do think there is likely to be a lapse in service there, but I think
we can coordinate that to where we can minimize that as much as possible.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I would only add that as -- if such a lapse is going to exist, as
soon as we can identify that, put up signs at the old location that the facility will lapse for
this three weeks or six weeks or however -- if you can identify it, let's get some signage.
De Weerd: Well, it looks like you have direction and obvious choice, so at some point
you will need to bring a budget amendment and --
Allison: Okay. Thanks for your time this evening
De Weerd: Thank you, David. Thank you, Tracy.
Steward: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Stewart: Members of the Council, I do think it's probably important to note that the
actual money for doing something with this is included in the -- in the cost of moving the
laboratory. We may have -- you know, depending on how much the bids actually come
in on the laboratory and so forth, we may have to accommodate a portion of that in next
year's budgeting cycle, but I do think -- we did put money in this year's budget for this
laboratory construction with this in mind. So, I don't know that we will need to come
back with a budget amendment per se.
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De Weerd: Awesome. I love it. That's great. Good job. Thank you. We will take this
-- this page of the public minutes and -- Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -
Tuesday, November 13, 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.
J. Amended onto the Agenda: Legal Department: Discussion on
Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2 Temporary Use Ordinance
Revisions
De Weerd: Item 7-J is the Legal Department.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Nothing tells you where you
belong in the organization than when you follow the RV dump discussion, so I will be as
brief as possible.
De Weerd: But you're not sandwiched between garbage and the RV dump, so --
Nary: That's true.
De Weerd: At least you're on the better side of it.
Nary: That is true. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I just wanted to take a
moment to just report on the ordinance that's in front of you and, actually, the written
one that's in front of you is the one we are asking you to pass today, not the one that's
in your packet and there is a slight change and I just wanted to explain why. This is
about as expedited a process as we've probably had for any type of issue of this type
and I do really want to thank Sergeant Stolberg, Caleb Hood, Brian McClure from
Community Development, Sergeant Stolberg from police, Emily Kane for the numbers
of times that she rewrote this ordinance and when I saw her exasperated expression
when I said did you think you were done with that, because we have one more, she was
fine, as she always is, and ultimately really Nancy Radford of the clerk's office. We
recognize this problem has been brought to our department in regards to the split
corridor and the need for some additional sign and we have kind of used the term bonus
sign a little bit, providing at least some additional means for people to get noticed and
be reminded of the public that they are there and try and meet that need. Late on
Friday we had another need pop up, we discussed it last week in regards to the 32
square foot sign, for the businesses fronting Meridian Road. The addition that's in your
-- in front of you that we want you to pass, allows also fora 120 square foot sign on the
building. Because some buildings actually face another street and as you can imagine,
if you drive down West 1st Street and you don't know where the business is, you have
only the orange and black sign on Cherry Lane to tell you it's somewhere down here
and no way to know where it is. You could turn to go look for Fred's Barbershop and
you run right into the barricade before you would see it, because the building faces
Meridian Road. So, we wanted to make sure the buildings had the ability to put up a
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November 13, 2012
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sign. Also on their building -- and our current sign ordinance doesn't allow for that or
has a limited time that's allowed, we wanted to exempt that and allow them to have that.
Cherry Consignment has one in the rear of the building, it doesn't make sense to want
to put a permanent sign there, because a year from now it's not going to be needed.
MGT Legacy Church bought a banner sign for the same purpose. Again, they don't
need it there permanently, but they need it there temporarily. We felt we had all the
Meridian businesses probably had a similar need. They all don't have enough wall
space to have a 120 square foot sign. We wanted to give the flexibility for that and,
again, we didn't have something in the current code. So, that's the only change you see
in here. I do want to show you -- I didn't prepare a PowerPoint or anything, Sergeant
Colaianni and I are on the same page, but we have a map that we will have as part of
our application. We have a draft application already completed. It's ready to be rolled
out now. Jared from code enforcement has been out walking the streets notifying
businesses about our parking changes that are going on in downtown and notifying
them at the same time this will be available to you soon. You can go fill out the
application. It's free. All we expect of this is there is a couple of different quirks with it
and so that's why we created the map. Our intent was -- is to make a map so you could
tell us where your business is and where your sign is going to go. The other little
wrinkle that's in here is that there is an area in the downtown, based on our recent
agreement with Ada County Highway District that we control the sidewalk and we have
control over what goes on the sidewalk. We -- the early -- we governmented ourselves.
to death on what could go there and what couldn't go there and what if somebody wants
to put a 32 square foot sign in front of the open window, do we need permission and I
said, you know, it's not -- we are not going to put a 32 square foot sign in front of a
window parallel to the street where you couldn't see it. You can't put it perpendicular to
the street because it would block the sidewalk, so the reality is it's not going to happen
and if it does and we are that uncomfortable with it, we will bring it to you and ask for
your permission. Well, we think we have got it solved until something else comes up we
didn't think of. But we think it realistically is ready to go and we'd like your approval to
pass the ordinance today.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you, Bill. Any question regarding this ordinance?
Bird: I have none. I think it's very well written.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Councilman Zaremba.
Zaremba: Just a comment. The fellow that's going up and down telling people that this
will be free, make sure he's clarified that the permit will be free. We are not paying for
the sign.
Nary: Correct. Yes. Providing just the information on what is clearly provided. Yes.
Zaremba: Thank you.
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Hoaglun: And, Bill, how is this information going to get out? Is ACHD assisting? I
mean you talked about code enforcement, but how is this information getting out?
Nary: We have had a couple different things. We are going to use social media and
our website and probably some other means. We think that, really, the door to door that
Garrett's doing in the whole downtown area -- or that Jared's doing is probably going to
be probably the first sign. The other thing we are concerned with -- and, again, we are
trying to push it out through a variety of the public sources that we already have is the
same problem that already occurred. Somebody sees a sign, thinks, well, I can do that,
too, and maybe they can't. So, we want to make sure we get it out as much as
possible, so we have worked with the Mayor's office to push it out through all the
varieties of different methods that we do. We will probably add it to This Week In
Meridian, we will probably add it to the West Side, a variety of different places.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?
Rountree: Just a comment to Bill and staff. Thank you for fine tuning this. I think that it
will work and accomplish what folks seem to think they need in the way of signage for
now.
Hoaglun: And just for fun tomorrow, Bill, I'd go to Emily and say, oh, Council had one
more -- no.
Nary: If there is 245 32 square foot signs all over downtown Meridian, so be it.
Hoaglun: Yeah. Thanks for your work on this, Bill. And with that, before we vote on
this matter, I will turn it back over to the Mayor.
De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further --
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Item 8: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 12-1532: Temporary Use Permit for One
Additional Sign for Permanent Proprietors in Meridian Split
Corridor Phase 2 Roadway Project Area
Bird: I move we approve Ordinance No. 12-1532 with suspension of rules.
Zaremba: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-A. Did we read this by
title?
Bird: Oh, I'm sorry.
Hoaglun: We did not.
De Weerd: Okay. Before I ask for roll call I will ask Madam Clerk to, please, read this
ordinance by title only.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 12-1532, an
ordinance of the City of Meridian adding a new section of Meridian City Code, Section
3-4-3C-10, relating to standards for one additional temporary sign for permanent
proprietors in the Meridian split corridor phase two, roadway project area, upon
issuance of a temporary use permit and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: Okay. We do have an active motion on the table and a second. Madam
Clerk, will you, please, call roll on this item.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: We are now at the end of our agenda with Item No. 9. Any topics for future
agendas?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. I would entertain a motion to close.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:01 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR T Y DE WEERD
ATTEST:
DATE APPROVED