HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-05-14~~E IDIAN:=--
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
MEETING AGENDA
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 3:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Adoption of the Agenda
4. Proclamation
A. Proclamation for Building Safety Mon#h (Pg 2)
5. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg 2-3)
A. MDA 13-003 Kingsbridge by Stetson Homes Located East Side of S. Eagle
Road Between E. Victory Road and E. Amity Road Request: Amend the
Kingsbridge Subdivision Development Agreement (Instrument #105092050)
for the Purpose of Modifying the Landscape Berm Height Along E. Zaldia
Street
B. Approval of Agreement with Ada County Highway District (ACRD) for Water
Valve Box Adjustments in Conjunction with ACRD 2013 and 2014 Federal
Aid Overlays Projects (Project Numbers 712005 and 713033)
C. Approval of Street Light Maintenance Agreement with Traditions by Amyx II
for Zebulon Village Subdivision
6. Community Items/Presentations
A. Annual Update from Assessor Robert McQuade (Pg 3-8)
B. Meridian Police Activities League (MPAL) Update (Pg 8-12)
C. Annual Progress Report and FY2014 Budget Request by Kelli Fairless,
Executive Director of Valley Regional Transit (Pg 12-18)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Date will go here Page 1 of 3
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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.
D. Presentation Regarding Senior Transportation Services by Cindy Hill with
the Meridian Senior Center (Pg 18-27)
E. Presentation Regarding Senior Transportation Services by Terri Lindberg
with Treasure Valley Transit (Pg 27-32)
7. Items Moved From Consent Agenda None
8. Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Mayor's Youth Advisory Council (MYAC) Update and Year
Summary (Pg 32-37)
B. Community Development: Strategic Plan Update (Pg 37-49)
C. Community Development -Transportation Update on Projects, Plans and
Programs -Includes Update on Meridian Split Corridor, Phase 2; the
Franklin, Ten Mile to Black Cat Roadway Project; the Rail With Trail Project;
and Other Transportation Projects (Pg 49-57)
D. Meridian Police Department/Code Enforcement and Legal Department
report: Proposed code updates to nuisance references in Wastewater,
Water, City Arborist, and Solid Waste Codes
Continued to May 28, 2013 (Pg 57-58)
E. Human Resources: Discussion Regarding City Policy 4.2 Vacation Leave,
4.3 Sick Leave, and City Policy for Travel (Pg 58-60)
F. Legal Department: Discussion Regarding Amending Meridian City Code 1-
7-2 Qualifications; 1-7-6 Assignments of Department Commissioners;
Duties & Terms; 1-7-7 Rules of Procedure for Public Hearings; and 1-7-8
President and Vice President of Council. (Pg 60-66)
9. Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 13-1557: An Ordinance for the Re-Zone of a Parcel of Land
Situated in the North 112 of the Northeast 1/4 of Section 34, Township 4
North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, Commonly
Known as Volterra South (RZ 10-005) Approved (Pg 66)
B. Discussion Regarding ZOA 13-001 UDC Text Amendment and Block Length
(Pg 67)
C. Continued from May 7, 2013: Ordinance No. 13-1555: ZOA 13-001 Unified
Development Code (UDC) Text Amendment by City of Meridian Community
Development Department Request: Text Amendment to Certain Sections of
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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 UDC Pertaining to Block Length, Multi-Family Parking, Storage
Facilities, Bicycle Parking Facilities, Street Knuckles and Other
Miscellaneous Clean-Up Items Approved (Pg 67-68)
10. Future Meeting Topics
Adjourned at 6:37 p.m.
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All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
Meridian City Council Workshop May 14, 2013
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, May
14, 2013, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, David Zaremba, Keith
Bird, and Brad Hoaglun.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Ted Baird, Jaycee Holman, Jacy Jones, Bruce Chatterton,
Caleb Hood, Bruce Freckleton, Brent Bjornson, Scott Colaianni, Perry Palmer, Warren
Stewart, Steve Siddoway and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Welcome to the City Council Workshop. We appreciate you all
joining us. For the record it is Tuesday, May 14th. It's 3:00 o'clock. We will start with
roll call attendance, Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in our
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Under Department Reports, 8-D, staff is requesting to continue this to May
28th of this year. Under Ordinances, 9-A is Ordinance No. 13-1557 and 9-C is
Ordinance No. 13-1555. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda
as amended.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
Meridian City Council Workshop
May 14, 2013
Page 2 of 69
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Proclamation
A. Proclamation for Building Safety Month
De Weerd: I will take a moment and move down to the podium and, Brent and Bruce,
would you like to come up and join me. Well, I do have a proclamation to read and,
then, I will present it to our Building Department representatives and certainly want to
make special recognition to the two gentlemen to my left. Brent has kind of built a great
service -- customer service and we have gotten a lot of compliments for how he serves
the people that come to our counter and need help and advice and so I do want to give
my appreciation and certainly under the leadership of Bruce Freckleton, we appreciate
that, too. Okay. With that said, whereas our city's continuing efforts to address the
critical issues of safety, energy efficiency and sustainability in the built environment that
affects our citizens, provide confidence that our structures are safe and sound and
whereas confidence is achieved through the devotion of our building safety, fire
prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders and others in the construction
industry who work year around to insure the safe construction of buildings and whereas
the City of Meridian uses the international codes, the most widely adopted building
safety, energy, and fire prevention codes in the nation and whereas dedicated members
of the International Code Council develop and implement the highest quality codes to
protect our community and the buildings where we live, work, and raise our families and
whereas building safety month is sponsored by the International Code Council and the
International Code Council Foundation to remind our community on the importance of
building safety, green and sustainable buildings, pool, spa and hot tub safety, and new
technologies in the construction industry, therefore, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, of the
City of Meridian do hereby proclaim May 2013 as Building Safety Month and I do call
upon all of our citizens to join their fellow citizens across the United States in
recognizing and participating in this special observance and I do date this today. I do
also want to say the long-term health of our community depends on these building
safety inspectors and personnel. That is the long-term viability of all of our communities
across the nation and so I appreciate the efforts that you give on a daily basis and
present this to you.
Bjornson: Thank you very much, Mayor. On behalf of Community Development and
the Building Services Department, I would like to thank you very sincerely for this
proclamation. I think it exemplifies the public safety awareness and the good -- the
people in Meridian and thank you very much.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. MDA 13-003 Kingsbridge by Stetson Homes Located East Side
of S. Eagle Road Between E. Victory Road and E. Amity Road
Request: Amend the Kingsbridge Subdivision Development
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May 14, 2013
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Agreement (Instrument #105092050) for the Purpose of
Modifying the Landscape Berm Height Along E. Zaldia Street
B. Approval of Agreement with Ada County Highway District
(ACRD) for Water Valve Box Adjustments in Conjunction with
ACRD 2013 and 2014 Federal Aid Overlays Projects (Project
Numbers 712005 and 713033)
C. Approval of Street Light Maintenance Agreement with
Traditions by Amyx II for Zebulon Village Subdivision
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item No. 5 is our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: No changes on our Consent Agenda. I move approval and -- for the Consent
Agenda and the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the Consent Agenda -- or approve it.
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.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Annual Update from Assessor Robert McQuade
De Weerd: Our first item up for our community presentations is our county assessor
Bob McQuade. Thank you so much for joining us tonight -- or today. I have to get used
to these afternoon meetings.
McQuade: Madam Mayor, thanks for permitting me to come out. First I want to thank
you for turning this around. As I was sitting over there thinking, okay, that is backwards.
How am I going to turn it around. That's going to be really awkward. It was really kind
of you to set it up for me. I appreciate that.
De Weerd: At your service.
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McQuade: Well, it's been a year since I have been here and there have been a surfeit
of changes. We have seen values change direction. We have seen changes in state
laws. We have see changes in rules. So, rather than focusing on the numbers like I
have done in the past, I will give you some of the important ones, but I really want to
spend more time now talking about those changes I think that are really going to impact
you and also the citizens over here in Meridian. Now, I'm just going to jump right into all
of this and talk about your total market value. This is not the assessed or tax value, it's
a total market value and these numbers are just dramatic --just dramatic over here in
Meridian. Total market value is 6.9 billion dollars. That's up 17 percent over last year's
market value. The year before last we had just about -- or last year six and a half
percent increase. The total market value -- and we need to make the adjustments in the
homeowners exemptions, we have to subtract 1.5 billion off of that. We have other
outstanding exemptions that perhaps have been approved by the county
commissioners, but not processed at this point in time, so we do want to subtract 242
million dollars from that, and add back in operating property that's not in these numbers.
Operating property is the utilities, the gas companies, the electrical companies, the tax
commission assesses all of those. We aren't going to know what that number is until
August or September, so we would had 62 million. That gives us what I prefer to call
the potential taxable value and that's 5.2 billions dollars and that's probably what you
will be levying against this year or really close to that. Just to break that down a little bit.
Again, the numbers I think are very interesting. What has happened in the residential
market -- existing residential market -- you know, we have been in that slump for several
years. In Meridian it's up. A 13 percent median increase in single family residential.
So, countywide it's only 11 percent. Meridian has just been one of these stellar areas
and I don't quite know what it is, but you have just done better than almost everyone
else. Your neighbor Kuna has a little bit greater increase than what you have had, but
you're certainly respectable at a 13 percent median increase. The median value -- this
is countywide -- is 154,000 dollars and that's at the 2005 level. So, even though we saw
somewhat of an increase last year, a big increase this year, we are still just back to the
2005 levels on single family residential, we still have a ways to go. Plus ground to make
up for those years that we had lost value. I just want to briefly discuss why we saw this
big increase. I think there are several reasons, but two just really stick out in my mind
and stick out because to me they raised a red flag. First of all, in 2004 and 2005 and '6
we were seeing property values increase because of historically low interest rates.
Well, the interest rates we have today compared to that are unimaginably low. You can
get a 15 percent mortgage -- or 15 year mortgage for 3.75. So, those low interest rates
-- when people go to buy homes they don't say I want a 2,000 square foot house, they
say I want my mortgage payment to be a thousand or 1,500 and as rates go down
certainly they can afford more. So, that to me is an important component. And the
other one is we are seeing a big increase in land and that's just what we saw going on
in the mid 2000s. One of the reasons that we are seeing an increase in the land is
when the market collapsed if you built -- developers had enough cash where they could
go in and pick up these subdivided lands that were just sitting out there and going to be
repossessed or have been repossessed. So, we have seen a real concentration of land
in just the hands of a few. Again, those are the two reasons Ireally -- predominant
reasons and I -- it's important to me, because those to components were there in 2005
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and 2006 when we saw the building real estate bubble. Are we having a real estate
bubble again? I don't know. Three things are in place. Low interest rates, increase in
land values, and 13 percent increase in value. Historically real estate increases about
three or four percent a year. I just want to talk quickly about personal property. That's a
big one for all of us this year. The legislature struggled with that early on. I thought the
issue was dead and, then, just out of nowhere came a bill to exempt the first 100,000
dollars of personal property and the legislature did pass that bill and they passed it in
just a couple of weeks, which tells me if the legislature really wants to get something
done they know how to do it. They took that personal property, the first 100,000 on.
Last year you had 191 million dollars of personal property in value and we are just going
to assume that's pretty close to what it is right now. We haven't completed the personal
property roll, we are being really careful about getting everything on that we possibly
can, because that 100,000 dollars is going to be replaced by the state. We are going to
replace it by however much is lost this year. Now, we had -- if 100,000 dollars is
coming off -- in Ada County we had 16,000 parcels of personal property last year. That
is going to go down. We are losing 90 percent of those. We are going down to 1,800
parcels of personal property henceforth. That's going to represent almost 80 percent of
the value, so we are only going to take about 20 percent of the value off. But, again,
that 20 percent is going to be reimbursed by the state. So, there is no reason for shock
and think that we are going to be losing money. Right now there is not going to be any
harm, but as we move into the future we will start to see an erosion, because those
businesses that had 105,000, 110,000, their property is going to be depreciating and so
there will be more loss in value and it's not necessarily going to be replaced by the
state. In fact, I have never heard of any discussion where that's going to be replaced.
Just theoretically over time it will all just go away, but my guess is it's going to go away
a lot faster than this is going away over time. With replacement dollars, you're going to
be -- you're faced with an interesting decision and I don't envy you to be in this position
and that is what are you going to do with your levy this year? You might say we want
the highest levy we can possibly get, so we can get the most replacement dollars for our
personal property that we are losing. So, do you want to do that knowing that that's
going to be a fixed number on placement dollars or do you want to make it lower levy
and take a lower reimbursement. That's adecision -- it's a policy and decision you
shouldn't have to make and it's really been effective for many many years to come.
Before I leave the personal property and just to bring this to a close, we have just seen
the neatest thing happened in our office. About three weeks ago someone from the
state Chamber of Commerce sent this message out saying you have to apply for your
personal property by May 1st with the assessor or you're not going to get the
exemption. Well, that's wrong. If you filed a personal property declaration last year,
that is your application for the exemption. You don't need to file any other exemptions.
What that person is confused about that you have to apply for this exemption by July --
or by May 1st where you want that exemption to apply. So, if you are an Albertson's in
Ada County, each taxpayer gets one 100,000 dollar exemption. Albertson's will
probably want to say we want it at that store at 16th and State Street in Boise, because
that's where they have the highest levy. So, that's what they were filing the application
for. Our chief deputy showed me there were three stacks -- there were three stacks on
his desk, a stack about like this of applications that actually they had -- there is some
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May 14, 2013
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that had multiple parcels, they had to tell us which parcels they want the 100,000 to
come off from. He had a stack about like that of people that didn't need to apply for an
exemption, because they already were given it, because of their personal property
declaration that they filed the year before. But he had a third stack that is about like
this. Those were the exemptions that were filed by people who had never declared their
personal property before. In other words, when it comes to paying taxes they weren't
going to pay it. Now, some of these people, such as a mechanic, I can understand they
didn't know about it, but as I looked through it these are people you know darn well
knew that there was a personal property tax out there. They were law offices, lobbyists,
physicians, dentists, people like accountants knew full well that they should have been
filing and they didn't. That's from the last -- but I think it also serves an important point
that -- why personal property. It really needs to come off, because that was one of the
arguments against it, because not everyone is paying it. But, anyway, it was an
interesting story. New construction. This is an important number, 214 million dollars.
Apply last year's levy times that to see what the increase your budget capacity could be.
That's a 73 percent increase over last year's. I'm just going to end up with the tax
burden. I always give this to you each year and that is who is paying property taxes,
residential or commercial. Residential in Meridian is 69 percent of the property tax.
Countywide it's 61 percent. That's pretty close. Commercial pays 41 percent. And it's
going to be fun watching this over the coming years as commercial property owners will
be paying less property tax now that personal property has come off. Will it get down to
50-50 -- which direction it's going to go I don't know, but we are certainly going to see
some kind of a drift in a different direction. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council,
that's my message. A lot of big changes this year in the laws, changes in values. It's
really keeping us busy. We literally have just about eight weeks to implement this new
law that causes dramatic changes in the program and if we get them done we will be
doing well.
De Weerd: Great. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: No.
Bird: Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Not a question, but just you are also interesting and informative and
appreciate your coming here, so -- you can come more often than once a year.
McQuade: It's funny you would say that. I was over at a couple places the other night
and they said did they ask questions and I said no and I said they just didn't seem
interested in it all. Thank you. I will take that message back to them.
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May 14, 2013
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Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I do have a question, Bob. You mentioned earlier about when we came from
the recession there were developers who were able to lock up land and they have that
and now that there is demand and builders want lots and whatnot and that supply is
held by a few and you guys need to assess based on what those sales were for land,
but yet, you know, you talk about these -- the making of a bubble here. It's kind of an
artificial type deal, because if you had it broad based, you know, it would probably be a
little different number in terms of sales. What that lot costs. They can dictate a higher
price than what may be normally when there is more competition in the market. I mean
we don't -- that marketplace is kind of skewed a little bit, but, really, your office doesn't
have any way to take that into account, do you?
McQuade: Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, you raise a couple of real interesting
points. First of all, on undeveloped lots there is an exemption in place that went into
place last year and is even more finally tuned this year. It's -- it's about --the exemption
is about 75 percent. In fact, the statute says if you're in that comparable property you
get a 75 percent exemption to those improved lots as long as they are still in the hands
of the original developer. The second part of your question is interesting, because there
is an aberration in the market there and that's what you were pointing out. We also saw
an aberration in the market when we saw a super abundance of distressed sales.
Typically we don't take that into consideration. But as long as it's gone on with sales in
75 percent of the market, our professional association, the International Association of
Assessing Officers, drafted a standard that said if it's over 25 percent of the market you
need to take those distressed sales into consideration. So, I think it's interesting that
you see something that I hadn't thought of and I will certainly discuss this with my
appraisal staff to see how they are addressing this issue.
Hoaglun: Yeah. Madam Mayor and Bob -- and it's just the way business works. It's not
that the developer is doing anything wrong, it's just the fact that it's business and they
are able to make extra money on that and that's fine, but there is that and maybe it's not
that big of an impact out there, but it might be worth taking a look at.
McQuade: Uh-huh
Hoaglun: Well, thank you very much. Appreciate your report today.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Well -- and, again, as I told you when we meet one on one please tell your
staff we appreciate the relationship that we have between our staffs and they have been
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very responsive, very helpful and informative. Your office has excellent customer
service.
McQuade: Well, it's kind of you to say that.
getting this resolution up there or whatever
over here, I can go back and tell people, you
they give for customer service and whatnot,
us and we appreciate it.
You would mention that. When we were
and Ijust -- for instance, what's going on
know, Meridian has this special award that
so you set a good example for the rest of
De Weerd: Thank you.
McQuade: Have a wonderful afternoon.
De Weerd: You, too.
McQuade: See you next year.
Bird: Thank you.
B. Meridian Police Activities League (MPAL) Update
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-B is under our Meridian Police Activities League update.
Tom?
Siddoway: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Oh. Well. hi. Steve.
Siddoway: I will be giving the introduction. I'd like to introduce Tom Roy and Mark
Lightner from the Meridian PAL organization. They were in front of the Parks and Rec
Commission last month, gave an update to them about their organization and the things
that they have been up to. I thought it would be fitting for us to bring that presentation to
the Council, particularly because we have an ongoing partnership with them and as part
of the introduction I wanted to provide some good news about the partnership. As you
know, we entered into a revised agreement about two and a half years ago, September
of 2010, that has PAL paying us 328,000 dollars in addition to the work that they had
already done out there. That agreement has -- gives them 15 years to pay that off.
They are on track to pay it off in five. In fact, just two and a half years into it they have
basically 49 percent of that agreement paid off. So, basically half already done and I
thought it was agreat -- great thing and a great message and I wanted you to know that
as well. With that as an introduction I will turn their presentation over to Tom.
De Weerd: That's a great introduction, Tom. How much do you owe him?
Roy: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for letting us come in and
present the update. We have a presentation to load here.
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Lightner: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Council Members. I'm Mark Lightner. I
serve as the president of the board of directors for Meridian PAL and I appreciate the
opportunity to give you all a brief update today. So, just to highlight -- an overview of
the Meridian PAL and the programs that we offer. Many people are familiar with our
soccer program that we offer in the spring and fall season and we accommodate about
3,000 youth during the calendar year for those two seasons. Our flag football program
continues to grow. We have approximately 800 participants each season, for 1,600 kids
a year and that we have also had some success implementing the MADC Leadership
First program over the past several years. This current season we are in the middle of
our tackle football season -- our second season and we have about 450 kids from the
Meridian area participating in that and we are also implementing the impact coaching
program also through the MADC program. Baseball is about to kick off and that's our
spring only program. We have about 900 kids in that program this year and, then, also
we are watching an additional program through the basketball program that we
implemented a few years ago out at Heroes Park, adding an academy format. We will
utilize some high school and college players to teach more of the fundamentals to the
youth and get them involved in games out there at Heroes Park and we will be kicking
that off next week on Tuesday, the 21st. And, of course, we offer various camps for
soccer, flag football, basketball, baseball throughout the year. So, as we talked about
our community impact over the past decade, Meridian PAL has contributed more than
500,000 dollars to the Meridian Parks through our usage fees, as well as our
partnership and development at Heroes Park and some of those are paid on an annual
basis for the use of Heroes Park and others, just usage fees for things like the fields at
Heritage Middle School or Settlers Park, et cetera. Each year through the funds that we
generate through either sponsorships from local businesses or a percentage that we
allocate from our own participation fees, we grant approximately 20,000 dollars in
financial assistance and scholarships to insure that we have several kids who are able
to participate in our program despite maybe an inability to pay on their own. I don't
believe we turn kids away regardless. So, whether we fund it out of ours or we find a
business partner to help us. For the last several years we have also partnered with the
Boys and Girls Club to insure that they can put together some teams of kids to
participate in some of our leagues. I think Tom might say we have maybe two teams
worth of children who are going to participate in our spring baseball league. And, of
course, we have developed partnership with the school principals to make sure that we
get some of those at risk kids from their schools involved in our program, because we
want to make sure we have a positive impact for them. And, of course, as PAL we have
received some different national things over the past several years to insure that we
implement youth mentoring as part of the message, that's not just about throwing a ball
or kicking one, that we have positive messages there.
Roy: And one of the things we do on the youth mentoring side, we have created a
number of programs, some of them are youth referees just to give kids an opportunity to
learn some leadership skills by getting out and putting them is a position to be leaders,
but also finding adult referees to mentor them and help kind of shape their direction and
their skills. We also do a -- in some of our programs, such as our football program, we
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take the varsity age kids and have them work with junior varsity age kids and we have
the junior varsity kids work with our senior age group. That way we give opportunity for
those kids to work with kids that are just a couple years older, but gives everybody a
good chance or a good opportunity to work together.
Siddoway: I want to interrupt for just a second. I want to make sure I didn't miss one of
your slides, because it's acting up over here. Did we get all your numbers on this first
slide?
Lightner: No, we did not.
Siddoway: If you -- well, it's your choice, but would you like to hit this?
Roy: Yeah. I will just -- so, preferably -- skip back here. We have got about 6,000 kids
that participate annually in our registration and that's up pretty close to 2,000
registrations from the time Mark and I started on the board in the last four to five years
and I think some of the impact numbers -- we have more than a thousand volunteers --
primarily coaches and about 60 committee members. We dedicate about 80,000 hours
of community service and volunteerism through our programs. And, then, you know,
our partnership with the police department, you know, we get about 20 Meridian police
officers involved in various capacities, whether it's assisting the MADC and the impact
coaching, coming out on picture day. We have officers who routinely come out to the
fields, things like that. When we did basketball last summer we had three vehicles and
an officers come out and, you know, just kind of came out as one of the nights that we
were out there. And, of course, we talked about the drug and alcohol through
Leadership First and the MADC program and the impact coaching as well.
Lightner: Yeah. So, just to seek, you know, a positive value for, of course, the
community, but also Meridian PAL for the partnership that we have in the use of Heroes
Park, you know, the partnership with the city certainly allows PAL to provide the quality
programs, you know, to the community and where there is such a strain on the park
system as it is, so that you have such a large facility out there in one particular place,
provides us an opportunity to provide, you know, one location where a family go and
spend the day and have a positive experience participating in these activities and it also
relieves the stress on some of the other parks that have such high demand for field use.
I see we have got some of the pictures. I like the one with the kid doing the back kick
there. That's something I -- I haven't been able to perfect myself.
De Weerd: I want to watch when you try.
Lightner: I used to be good at hacky sack, so --
Roy: Just to give you an idea of some of the numbers, Heroes Park provides -- we
have about 1,500 participants who play in the fall and in the spring for a total of about
3,000 kids. The basketball courts -- we continue to get compliments on the quality of
the basketball courts or the backboards and so forth. And, of course, the value of the
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relationship is -- you know, between Meridian city and PAL is that has enabled us to
continue to provide those opportunities for our kids throughout all of the programs by
having a dedicated park, such is Heroes Park, gives us more playing space than other
places, such as Settlers or Heritage and so forth.
Lightner: We talk about the financial commitment that Meridian PAL made several
years ago, probably about the time I started and maybe even before, back in 2005, we
committed to a contribution of 650,000 dollars in the initial building cost and, of course,
we find it to be very mutually beneficial to the community, but also to our organization,
so that we -- we have an opportunity to provide these programs for our -- for our youth.
During the first two phases we did contribute approximately 328,000 dollars and that
would have been approximately through 2007 and, then, of course, at that time that's
when we entered into the modified agreement to accelerate the payment and so to date
we have contributed over 461,000 dollars specifically to Heroes Park and -- over the
past two years since we -- September 2010, just averaging about 50,000 dollars
annually that we are contributing to the -- for that service for Heroes Park.
Roy: And the 50,000 dollars is under contract. I mean our annual operating budget for
our programs is roughly about half a million dollars. So, our value on that park and our
debt service certainly is a large percentage of what we do and where we dedicate our
funds, because without the park we certainly don't have a place for those kids to play.
Siddoway: And, Madam Mayor, in case you're thinking, well, this 461 is more than half
of 653, that is true. My 49 percent calculation is based on the payments since the -- the
revised agreement went into place. So, since the revised agreement they have paid
half of that amount.
Roy: So, in Heroes Park, we projected about 3,200 players, you know, paying the ten
dollar annual site -- or annual stipend, which gives us about 32,000 dollars a year. One
of the things that we have done to accelerate the payoff is we have up'd that from ten
dollars to roughly 17 dollars a player at most age groups and, then, we have also done
some additional good faith payments out of our cash reserves just to make sure that we
accumulate those funds and we continue to pay it down. So, it's been our goal to, you
know, accelerate to pay it off in approximately five years and knowing the amount of the
-- the 2010 agreement, one of the things Council asked was what we could do to
accelerate the payoff and we certainly feel like we have met that obligation.
Lightner: So, just in short, you know, Heroes Park -- obviously it's just a beautiful park
for families and kids to spend their day. You know, it's programs like us that need these
places for the kids to have positive activities and certainly we can't express enough how
much we appreciate the opportunity for our kids to be able to go out there and be -- with
such a demand on so many other facilities, you know, we ask ourselves where we
would go and would we have the opportunity to do this short of, you know, partnering
with sod farms like we did for a short time several years ago. So, we truly believe that
these partnerships at Heroes Park help keep youth sports affordable at a time when,
you know, there is a lot of distractions for kids. We think that keeping them at a price
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point that is in line with our missions to get kids involved in positive activities is a good
thing and, again, we can't thank you all enough, Madam Mayor and Council Members,
for the support you have given us, for the opportunity to come in and demonstrate our
appreciation and continue to use Heroes Park and -- it's a positive for all parties and so
we appreciate that and we think that the partnership does afford us opportunity to make
very positive impact to the youth of our community. So, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. And I would like to -- to just take a moment. We have several
partnerships with other youth athletic organizations, which help us leverage our dollars
and help us continue to -- to really walk the talk of being a family oriented community,
but I would like to thank PAL for going above that. You have sponsored our youth
council activities, helped send a team back to the National Organization On Youth
Safety.. You helped sponsor our Youth Summit. Your public nonprofit, for profit
partnership with Leadership First has been phenomenal. You're not just building skills
on the field, you're building good choices, you're building leadership traits, and -- and
that's received national attention, not only by your organization, but by others as well.
So, I would like to thank you for your investment, not just within the scope of youth
athletics, but really building athletes, athletes that we hope will be leaders of healthy
choices, of modeling good behavior instead of bad and so I just want to thank you for
your efforts on behalf of our Council, on behalf of our community.
Roy: Thank you very much.
Lightner: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any questions from Council?
Rountree: No questions, but thanks for the great job, you guys.
Bird: Thanks for the hours of volunteer. Thanks for what you do for the youth.
Appreciate it.
Lightner: Thank you.
Roy: Thank you again for the support first and certainly love being part of the
community, so --
Lightner: Yeah.
De Weerd: Thank you. Well, you are.
Lightner: Thank you. Have a great day.
C. Annual Progress Report and FY2014 Budget Request by Kelli
Fairless, Executive Director of Valley Regional Transit
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De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-C is our annual progress report and, of course, money,
money, money. Budget request. Kelli.
Fairless: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you for being here. I'm not sure if we really heard from Mr. McQuade
good news or bad news. I'm glad he wasn't real exact on that, so when you ask us for
money you keep that in mind.
Fairless: All right.
De Weerd: We don't know if we have more or less or what.
Bird: We got less.
Fairless: You know, that sounds like the way my world is all the time, so -- and we try to
-- every year it seems like we pull other rabbits out of the hat and we just kind of keep
holding this together. So, I will confess that I -- the things that cause me to wake up and
lay in bed at night and sometimes my discouragement is around how long it's taken for
us to get -- you know, it feels like we are taking such small baby steps and the answer
to a -- so many of our public transportation needs is the region public transportation
system that we have envisioned in the valley and it does get a little discouraging that it's
taken so long. But I will offer you some thoughts about where we are at this year and
the handout is really kind of highlights of our annual report from fiscal year 2012 and I --
am Idoing this by -- very good. All right. So, I want to start by reminding you all what a
regional public transportation authority is. So, Valley Regional Transit was formed by a
citizen referendum in 1998 and I always want to remind all of our jurisdictions -- we are
accountable to local governments. That's why we are structured the way we are.
That's why there is two board members sitting on our board of directors from the City of
Meridian, Councilman Zaremba and Councilman Rountree, and we have appreciated
Councilman Zaremba's participation on the executive board and will be our incoming
chair next year, so he represents Meridian very well in that. We are responsible for
delivery service, safe, effective, and efficient and some of our more -- I think primary
responsibilities are coordinating the regional providers and also encouraging private
sector in service delivery. So, over the last few years Valley Regional Transit really
operates nothing. We don't directly operate very much of anything. We try to find
partners in the community that are already doing services or professional bus
companies, things like that, and, then, try to engage them in the operation of services.
Just an overview of our direct services in our region. We have our Boise city routes,
four Nampa-Caldwell routes; five inter-county routes and those are the ones that serve
Meridian. One flex route in Nampa and Caldwell and that just started last year. It's Dial
A Ride demand response type service and, then, we have Access Paratransit Service in
Boise, Nampa, and Caldwell and we have been doing a lot of growth and development
in our Go Ride mobility programs that I will go in much more detail about. This graphic
we have been using to kind of demonstrate -- inside your handout is the Valley Connect
plan and this is sort of what it looks like graphically in terms of how it ties together the
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traditional public transportation, the commuter services and our community
transportation services and that Ride Mine is that one stop shop, it's kind of the brain or
the central nervous system of the system and we have been making a lot of
investments in technology to try to tie all this together. Our 2013 activities, we have
improved 150 bus stops in Ada County this year. Those include 39 shelter installations.
Of those 39, 24 of those shelters were installed in Ada County. We did close and we
have purchased and will open our new Canyon county maintenance and operations
base. We are very excited about that. We have secured the Happy Day Ford property
in Caldwell. That's also going to be where a lot of our community transportation
services are going to be housed. We are working towards securing a location and
developing our multi-modal center in downtown Boise. We have continued with website
improvement, technology improvement. We opened the 511 system this year, which
means that people can go online and actually watch the bus as it goes through the route
and do more realtime. We are going to make an enhancement on that in the next year
that will actually -- people can use their smart phone and figure out what time a bus is
going to come to a stop and it also includes detours and more realtime information.
And, then, we are continuing to grow our Go Ride program. 2014 we will have some
fixed route service changes. Those are primarily going to be in the Boise system and
the Nampa-Caldwell system. We will also have some inter-county service changes.
They won't directly affect Meridian, other that some timing -- time points. We are
looking at moving and transferring some of the service that goes from -- on Highway 44
down into CWI, rather than having that bus go all the way downtown, but those are
routes that don't go directly through Meridian. We are also expanding services to older
adults and persons with disabilities through our partnership at Treasure Valley Transit.
We will be developing a Canyon county van pool that will compliment the Ada County
Highway District CommuteRide program and, then, continue with expansion of our
Community Transportation. A little bit about Community Transportation and this is
something -- you know, we have had people say that our focus on these types of
transportation options may take away from more traditional public transportation
services, but, really, we have been investing in all of our different options. Our
traditional services, as well as these. It fills gaps where traditional public transportation
either isn't available today or doesn't really serve populations effectively. Again, our
mission is safe, effective, and efficient and not every single option of a fixed route bus is
going to work for every type of situation. These services are coordinated with human
service agencies and key stakeholders. We think it's a more efficient use of resources
and just as an example in Seattle and Portland where they have partnered with anot-
for-profit community, they have been actually able to cut back on some of their more
expensive fixed route services to provide more direct service to human service
agencies, again, leveraging those public dollars more effectively and these are all
developed through partnerships with the goal that they are all self-sustaining, so they
are not -- they are not subsidized through the jurisdictions, they are subsidized, they are
subsidized with partnerships with the human service agencies. Our goal of Go Ride is
to provide service to older adults, persons with disabilities, and other target groups.
Low income employees. People with other kinds of challenges or transit dependencies.
We also help reduce the cost of social service or human service agencies for the cost of
operating their own vehicles and increase their efficiencies as well, so that they can
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focus more on their mission and it's coordinated through volunteer drive programs,
again, so that we can meet the gap -- fill the gaps in service and meet these special
needs. This is a visual of how the Go Ride system is -- is materializing and it supports a
vehicle pool -- vehicle sharing pool that you heard me talk about and a driver training
component. The system is divided into work transportation options and nonwork
transportation options. The work options are really an evolution of transportation issues
based on the most -- for the most transit dependant to the most independent type of
rider. So, the village van, the way that system is going to work, we have a lot of need in
Meridian, Caldwell, Nampa, some of the urban areas where we have limited public
transportation options and there are jobs and services that people need to get to. The
way the village van will work is it will fill the gap where we don't have traditional public
transportation through a driver training program where drivers that are being trained are
going to operate the van that will help get people to low income jobs, employment
support, things that may be barriers to them being able to be fully employed. Once,
then, they graduate out of village van program and have more traditional jobs, maybe
they have moved beyond job training, they would be eligible for the job access program,
which is a van pool type service that would provide some subsidy for low income folks
to use the van pools and, again, these subsidies are coming through the human service
agencies that are supporting them in their -- in their employment options and, then, the
last part of that evolution is when they are no longer needing those additional supports,
they are able to transition into a Canyon county or an Ada County Highway District more
traditional van pool program and those are subsidized very minimally by -- by local
governments. Under nonwork transportation, those are community transportation like
the programs that are offered by senior centers, other types of programs. The vehicle
sharing pool, which also provides support for all of these different kinds of programs,
and as one of our most gap filling kind of last rest is the volunteer driver program. What
we have found in operating the volunteer driving program is that it can be very
expensive with the turnover of volunteer drivers. It probably would be over the course
of a few years more cost effective to provide everyone with a cab ride than all of the
cost of turning over volunteers. So, what we are trying to do is create a smaller pool of
volunteers that are really filling those gaps that these other services just don't fill and,
hopefully, not burning them out quite so fast. So, this is a list of our Valley Connect
partners. This list literally grows by the week. We have reached out to all of these
organizations and they participate at varying levels. You know, one of our projects I will
note that Brown Bus and Caldwell School District and Caldwell Transportation are -- are
on this list now, because we are doing a program that's serving the YMCA and they are
participating in that in Caldwell and it's really been a matter of trying to take when we
have a need, everyone rolling up their sleeves and figuring out how we can best
leverage all of our resources to -- to improve the -- the services for everybody. So, with
that, Madam Mayor, I want to apologize that I forgot on my desk the sheet that has your
budget request, but I believe that was sent to you. It's -- oh, thank you. So, as always
we have our dues, which are based on a per capita. The dues request this year is
28,408. And, then, for your limited stop, Route 40 or Route 42, is 50,188 and the
express service this year would be 28,830. I want to point out that all of these funds are
leveraged with Federal dollars, so, you're 107,420 -- anywhere from 50 percent federal,
all the way up to 80 percent federal share. So, it's I think a good use of your resources
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and were able to provide a lot more with those dollars because of those federal
programs. With that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Kelli. Any questions from Council?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Kelli, that express, what was that last number you gave for the budget?
Fairless: That is -- the express service is what -- is our route 40 and that operates at
the peak hour and it was 28,830. So, a total of 107,426.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Kelli, probably not necessarily a question for Meridian, but of interest. Is
there any hope for the multi-modal center?
Fairless: Yes, Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba -- or Rountree, I -- I have the
utmost confidence that when the members of the land board as -- individually are able
to see what it is we want to do with this site, I think they will embrace it and maybe not
unanimously, but I believe it is such a good thing for our region, we are talking about a
project that generates hundreds of jobs, which would be an improvement for the school
endowment, it would create an important piece of our -- of our multi-modal system in
downtown Boise, as well as for the whole region and it will be a great facility. So, I think
we have a lot of people who are -- or not even alot -- a few people who have imagined
what it would be in their mind and have, fortunately, gotten out in front of some of the
folks that -- and we are working on that now to try to help educate and help people
understand what it could be.
Rountree: One question about organization. Since the board meets infrequently now
with the executive board, has that arrangement been beneficial and have you specific
evidence that it was a worthwhile endeavor?
Fairless: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, what we have found has been
we are into our -- we will start our third year of the new structure and what we have
found is that when the board members -- we end up with more people coming to the
meetings twice a year than we had coming once a month and they set all of the policy
and it's really the executive board that's just keeping us honest to make sure we stay
within those parameters. So, it's respectful of people's time and I have heard from
several board members that they appreciate that respect of time, they appreciate the
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commitment of those who have committed to bring -- to provide the extra time, such as
Councilman Zaremba and I can get, then, a really smooth running and I appreciate your
leadership in helping us figure out how to do that.
Rountree: That's good to hear. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Other questions? Mr. Zaremba?
Zaremba: Not really a question, but I will expose something that may come up during
our budget discussion. Several years ago -- and I believe the Council has heard this a
couple times before. Several years ago the city of Boise suggested that they would be
willing to modify their existing Ustick Road route to come into Meridian and in discussing
that with VRT, Meridian's contribution to make that happen would be about 60,000
dollars we feel and so I have submitted an enhancement for next year's budget to
suggest that. As I say, this was like three or -- possibly three years ago that this was
suggested. I felt that there was some appreciation for that suggestion. In our system
apparently that falls into other government and those figures usually come from the
agency, not from somebody in the City of Meridian. So, it's fallen through the cracks a
couple of years and I know Councilmen don't usually put in budget stuff, the department
people do, but I put in an enhancement that will go through the rest of our normal
process of being weighed against other enhancements. But what it would do -- and,
again, it would be matched mostly with Boise funds for their portion of the trip, but also
federal funds and some fare box and pass sales. But it would connect us into the Boise
system, in addition to our connection to the inner-county line, it would actually connect
us -- connect us to an operating fixed line system in Boise and the reason Boise
suggested it is they felt it would give their businesses access to Meridian customers and
employees and vice-versa, that the same would be true for Meridian, that we would
have access to Boise customers and -- and employees and it's a good connection. It
would get our people into it and so that isn't on the list that Kelli has just given us and I
certainly want to advocate for it, but Ihave -- our directors have a big position in what
happens with enhancements to budgets over the years, but it is a possibility and it's -- to
me it's a very interesting possibility and I appreciate the city of Boise making the
suggestion. I appreciate that VRT would be the one that would operate it. So, while we
would contribute 60,000 dollars, there is really nothing else we need -- would need to
do. It's turn key as far as we are concerned. So, that is a possibility on the horizon. I
just wanted to throw that in. It would be in addition to the budget figures that Kelli just
mentioned, but it would provide what I believe is a needed service. I certainly get phone
calls and I think the Mayor gets phone calls asking, you know, where is public
transportation in Meridian and this would be not a foot in the door, but a toe in the door
and help us start and, frankly, I feel there is a great need for it. I'm embarrassed that we
are the largest city in Idaho that doesn't have an internal public transportation system
and I think it's -- I think it's been asked for. But for those that are skeptical about that,
this would be a small way to get our foot in the -- get our toe in the door and if it really
gets used, then, that's proof of what I believe I'm hearing, that we really need it. So, I
thank Kelli and all of your staff for your willingness to consider this and I'm saying to the
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public and to Council and VRT there is an enhancement in the works and, hopefully,
that will happen.
Fairless: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Councilman Zaremba. Any other questions from Council?
Thank you, Kelli. We appreciate your time.
D. Presentation Regarding Senior Transportation Services by
Cindy Hill with the Meridian Senior Center
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-D is a presentation from Cindy Hill from the Senior Center.
Oh, Walt, you will be giving it? Please come forward.
Calkins: My name is Walt Calkins. I'm representing the Meridian Senior Center. I'm
the president there. All right. What I just give Council and the Mayor is a copy of our
2012 expenses on our bus system that we operate. One other thing that's not on there
is in 2012 we transported 1,008 members back and forth to the senior center where our
bus run an average of 50 miles day, five days a week year around and we have listed
all the costs that's incurred in running our bus to transport our members back and fourth
to the senior center and it's broken down pretty good and there is one cost on there of
2,800 dollars and that is a cost for an audit and filing financial reports that the city
requires us to do when they give us grant money toward our bus system. Our bus
system is strictly a donation. It's not a mandatory requirement for them to pay to ride,
but it's a donation and we have two buses and at this time we are really not interested in
being involved in this bus system, because we feel we need both of our buses for our
own needs and at a later date we may review it again and join into it, but at this present
time we are not interested and that was voted on by the board members and the officers
of the Meridian Senior Association and I think David's idea is something that really
needs to be looked into. I think that could be big stepping stones, starting what's
needed in the valley in Meridian and that's what we are concerned about right now is
Meridian. Now, I think that his idea is very well worth looking into, but that's about all I
have to say. Thanks very much for hearing me.
De Weerd: So, Council, questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Hoaglun Walt, if you wouldn't mind running through those numbers again. You had
1,008 members ride the bus in 2012?
Calkins: In 2012 we had 1,008 passengers on our bus.
Hoaglun: Okay.
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Calkins: And we drive an average of 50 miles per day, five days a week.
Hoaglun: And you run that pretty much 52 -- 52 weeks --
Calkins: We run all year long.
Hoaglun: Okay. Year around.
Calkins: And our other bus is a backup bus whenever that bus has to go in for service,
then, it's used. But it's also used on outings that we take day trips with. We take people
on day trips.
Hoaglun: All right.
Calkins: And that's paid strictly by the people that ride it.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Calkins: The fee to cover the bus driver, for the mileage -- or the fuel that goes in the
bus and that, that's paid -- it's figured out what's needed for the trip and, then, that fee is
-- that's the fee charged to the people that go on it. So, that's not a donation that part.
Hoaglun: Okay. Got it. Are those special days counted, Madam Mayor and Walt --
Calkins: Pardon me?
Hoaglun: To continue, are those special days counted in that total ridership or is that --
Calkins: No.
Hoaglun: -- that's completely separate?
Calkins: That's completely separate.
Hoaglun: It's just for bringing folks to the center and back.
Calkins: Those members -- or those passengers are strictly what's underneath of our
bus where the city is involved and Sage -- the money we get, that's -- that's -- the
numbers I gave you is strictly that. The other day trip we take, that's separate.
Separate. That has nothing to do with this.
Hoaglun: That's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure, so --
Calkins: Yeah.
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Hoaglun: So, then, rough calculation, if I did my math quick, which I'm not good at quick
math, but about -- even though there are fluctuations in ridership, it -- but the average
would be about four riders a day; is that --
Calkins: That's fairly close.
Hoaglun: Close? Okay. Okay.
De Weerd: So, Walt, I would have a question. With four riders aday, I -- I just went to
lunch at the senior center and you have a lot of people there. Is there that little demand
for transportation?
Calkins: Well, if you looked at the age of the people that are in there, I would say in the
next one to four years that's going to change drastically, because we have a lot of
people that are in their early 80s that drive and lot of them will stop driving in the next
very few years and they will be wanting to ride the bus and some of them right now
would like to ride the bus, but they don't qualify. We could fill the bus if it wasn't for the
fact that they have a driver's license or have a car, then, that makes them ineligible to
ride and for us to get funds. But we can -- and we are doing this, making a separate
deal where if somebody wants to ride the bus it's going to be a mandatory fee to ride
and that would be separate from what's financed through the city and Sage and that.
But that's strictly a donation deal. But if we charge somebody, then, that money would
be kept separate and, then, they could ride the bus, even though they have a car,
especially in the wintertime, we have people that don't like to drive on ice and that, so
they don't come, because they don't want to get out on the highway. So, if we switch
over to where we have two different deals where -- a donation box and, then, another
one is a fee that they have to pay to ride the bus, we can get a lot more people. But we
haven't done that yet.
De Weerd: So, Walt, I guess I have a question. We don't have any strings attached to
the money that we fund for this transportation program.
Calkins: But the other does.
De Weerd: Well, they -- we spend -- I don't know what we have spent, but around
20,000 dollars.
Calkins: Sixteen last year I think.
De Weerd: Okay. So, we paid 16.
Calkins: We haven't received that for 2012.
De Weerd: And Sage -- I assume that that criteria is tied to the Sage dollars?
Calkins: That's connected to them.
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De Weerd: And they pay substantially less than what we are paying. Why are you
going off of their criteria? You know, I guess, you know, to me all of -- these are
taxpayer dollars and all of our citizens pay that and so those that you're turning away
because they have a driver's license or a car are taxpayers.
Calkins: We are not -- that's what the system is set up that we abide by. We are not
doing that. That's the rule they have.
De Weerd: But that's the rules tied to their funding, not the rules tied to ours
Calkins: Correct. That's correct.
De Weerd: So, can you not account for them separate from the other citizens that want
to use it, so that they can get transportation?
Calkins: Probably for what little we get from Sage we would probably be better off
without it and, then, charge -- and charge people to ride and then -- because we have
some that presently put nothing in the box and we -- we know they don't, but we have to
haul them anyway.
De, Weerd: I guess why would you charge them if the city is saying we will cover the
cost?
Calkins: The city doesn't cover the cost. It's right there. Our cost is a lot more than
what you give us, if that's what you're stating here.
De Weerd: Well, what -- the money that we give you is based on the -- what you bill us.
I don't know if we have turned down transportation costs. And correct me, Cindy, if I'm
wrong, but if you invoice us for cost associated with your transportation, this program,
we -- this Council is committed in their annual budget to fund it. Cindy, we will have to
have you come up and speak into the --
Hoaglun: And while she's coming up, Walt and Madam Mayor, if you wouldn't mind
thinking about it -- and I don't know if this is a fair question, because I don't know if there
is a way to calculate it, but if Sage were out of the equation and we picked up all those
costs, what type of numbers do you think you could achieve? I mean that's kind of a
guesstimate, crystal ball type thing, but --
Calkins: Well, Sage has dropped, too, from what it was and it's going to go down again;
right? It keeps getting --
Hoaglun: Okay. I'm just wondering what -- can we increase it from four per day
average to -- what number that might be -- 20 per day. I don't know. But something to
think about.
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Hill: I think on the budget for the last -- at least two to three years we have -- we have
been told I guess through the grapevine 16,000 is what you would fund for the program
and that's what we have asked with that. That was the magic number. I don't know
where it came from, but it was given to me. The other thing I think that you're -- what
we are seeing now is an increase, actually, in ridership over 2012 and usually around
six to seven people that we are picking up. Again, yes, we have room to pick up other
individuals and I think in the future with the funding from the city we -- we could do more
in the transportation program, more of a reach out to other seniors, even, that want to
just come to the center and just maybe be hesitant and don't want to be labeled. So, we
could crunch those numbers.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Cindy, what's --what's your capacity on the bus?
Hill: Ten.
Bird: Ten?
Calkins: The one bus in ten. We have another one that's 20 passenger.
Bird: How many?
Calkins: Twenty.
De Weerd: Don't you have alarger -- don't you have a larger bus that could
accommodate more than ten?
Hill: Yes. We have a 20 passenger.
De Weerd: Okay. So, if you went above ten you could accommodate that?
Hill: Yes, we could.
Bird: That's --
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Because ten is -- I mean -- I don't know why we -- what I see with only four. But I
don't even know why you run a program for four people. Go get a car and go get them.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Bird: Something has got to be looked into.
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Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And if I'm understanding what you're explaining
correctly is even if you expanded the program, even if you stopped running by Sage's
rules and Meridian contributed more of the amount, you're still talking about only --
mostly members and maybe a few nonmembers to the center. Do you have any
thought of providing more services, like maybe two days a week picking up seniors and
nonmembers included and taking them to a grocery store for a couple hours?
Hill: We do --
Zaremba: Or any thought that you would have a day where you take people to doctor's
appointments?
Hill: Councilman Zaremba, we do. On every Wednesday we take our seniors also to
grocery shopping. So, once a week they are allowed 45 minutes to an hour at the store
and, then, also our bus drivers help them in with their groceries or help them as their,
you know, need for shopping, so that's being done.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor? Is that one of the trips that you charge for or
Hill: No. That's -- that's running a program.
Zaremba: Okay. About how many people do you get using that?
Hill: Not really --about three.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Hill: I think it's because the intersection in Meridian is -- is under construction.
De Weerd: Really? When did that start?
Hill: I don't know. I just heard it. I have never experienced it.
Calkins: The Albertson's is the place that the bus has been going for a good many
years and so -- but I don't know if that's -- most everybody that rides our bus are in
walkers. They are -- they are not people just all financial, they are people that are
barely getting around and if we didn't haul them they wouldn't be able to do it. So, we
are -- we are doing them a big favor. But, hopefully, someday somebody will do that for
me.
De Weerd: Hey, that's what I'm banking on.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: I might lose my license one of these days, too
De Weerd: Did you get that, Dean? He said he might lose his license one of these
days.
Bird: Anyone, can you -- or do you think, Walt, Cindy, that if the stipulation goes away
you could fill that bus with transportation, 15 to 20 people? How many -- how many
actual people in the wintertime is not coming because of -- they don't want to drive in
the -- and they are eligible?
Hill: I'd say -- Councilman Bird, I would say ten to 12 currently.
Bird: There is some way that we should be -- there is -- 21,000 for four people --
average four people -- a lot of money. So, that same amount, excluding the 6,000 or
that same amount, regardless of how the 6,000 comes in, we can do 20 people --
sounds alot better to me. I think something has got to be worked out where the
stipulation goes away and we become more accommodating to these people and let
them -- a lot of people, even though they got a driver's license, and a car does not like
driving in the traffic we have nowadays.
Calkins: We had several people tell me that when we moved from the old center over
there they weren't coming anymore, because they didn't want to go across Eagle Road.
Some of them actually have adapted and they are doing it, the ones that told me they
weren't going to, but they are just scared of all the traffic.
Bird: We need to find out. For 21,000 if we can't get 20 or more people riding that bus
and getting them out there.
Hill: Well, we would just have to run the program different than we do. We could still
have Sage dollars, but we would do the ridership program differently to account for -- for
them as --that Sage is looking for.
De Weerd: Because it's just accounting on that aspect and documentation.
Hill: Yes.
Calkins: This was done this way before I ever got involved in the center and it hasn't
change yet, but Cindy and I have talked about two different thoughts identified here. If
you're riding on a donation -- under the donation system your donation goes in that box,
but if you're just a passenger you put your money in this box and three bucks or
whatever we decided it would be, it would be required just like getting on a city bus, you
have to pay to ride and it would be that way and we could get more people. But as far
as how many, it would have to be something that we -- some people might drive and
use a gallon of gas coming over there and going home, but when you say three dollars,
why would I do that, I will just drive over. Well, they don't look at the gas pump I guess
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when they gas up, because it's cheaper to ride the bus. But that would be something
we would have to try and see how it went. Probably take a year or something to find out
if that would work, but we were probably going to go to that anyway, because we have
people on the edge of Boise wanting to know if we can pick them up. Well, that's out of
our boundaries, because that's another Sage thing, our boundaries are set. So, we
can't go past Cloverdale.
Hill: Well, that was set originally in just the grant itself, so that doesn't have to --
Calkins: That can't be changed.
De Weerd: No, not if we are funding it. You can ask Boise.
Calkins: Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: That was set by Sage; right?
Hill: Correct.
Bird: If we get rid of them we don't --
De Weerd: We don't have to get rid of them.
Bird: Well, no, I mean off this program. Sage. Or work under our deal.
De Weerd: They can just account for it differently.
Bird: Yeah. Different. Anyway, get rid of it.
Calkins: Well, they have almost got rid of us, because the dollars -- well, it was 6,000
and now --
Bird: But if you're a member of that senior center out there and you have got this bus,
whether they live in Five Mile, Maple Grove, or where, because you did exactly what I
said you would, you got a tremendous amount of west Boise people to our senior center
when we moved out there. We knew it was going to happen. If you got a program for it
they should get it -- be entitled to it. Anymore than the people in Meridian.
Hoaglun: So, Madam Mayor, just wanted to kind of go through this -- your worksheet
again, because if Sage is accounted for somewhere else and we have an expanded
program just based on more usage, because there is less restrictions, we probably will
need -- there will be more fuel-used, insurance may stay the same, maintenance will
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probably go up, drivers might be a little more on that. It depends -- you know, if you're
just increasing the same route or a little bit longer route going from four to ten per day,
there is just going to be a little more expense to it and, then, with the Sage counted
elsewhere, we are probably looking at 28, maybe a 30 thousand dollar bottom line I
would think on something like this if we were to kind of --
Calkins: That's probably realistic.
Hoaglun: -- do a shift. So, that kind of gives us a ballpark of what it might be if we can
take the caps off, if you will, and let you guys do a fully developed busing program for
seniors, so -- because I don't know for some seniors -- and I'm sure Councilman Bird
will be like this some day, you'd be darned if he gives up his driver's license. He can't
find the keys to the car, but he's not going to give up his driver's license. So, in effect,
he --
Bird: Or the car.
Hoaglun: So, you know, that driver's license thing is, yeah, they are going to hang onto
their driver's license, because that's independence for them, even though they are
never driving again.
De Weerd: Or they shouldn't.
Hoaglun: Or they shouldn't be
De Weerd: My grandfather drove at 95 and he couldn't turn his head, so you tell me
how he saw any other car coming. Oh, it was frightening. And he didn't let anyone else
drive. Scary. Any other questions from Council?
Calkins: Well, you just drive out slow and if they honk you're okay.
De Weerd: Yeah. It was very apparent that no one drove with him on his driver's test.
Well, I think the bottom line -- we would like to help figure out how to get more senior
transportation and certainly we are very interested in working with you, with VRT
through Councilman Zaremba, and really finding out how we can better serve our -- our
senior citizens that need the help.
Calkins: I personally feel his idea of teaming with Boise with the existing -- with what
they have got would be the best thing for Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you, Walt.
Hill: Thank you, Madam Mayor, thank you, Council.
Calkins: Thank you.
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Bird: Thank you.
E. Presentation Regarding Senior Transportation Services by
Terri Lindberg with Treasure Valley Transit
De Weerd: Thank you. And 6-E is also under all things transportation without Caleb.
Terri, come on forward.
Lindberg: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm Terri Lindberg, I'm the director of
Treasure Valley Transit and we have -- to give a little history about who we are, we
operate in the rural areas of ten counties in ITD's district three. We serve 26 cities, you
know, within that area under different programs, city routes, demand response,
Medicaid transportation, and, then, our purchase of service for seniors and persons with
disabilities and that's what I'm here to talk about today, because what we have been
able to do with this program is solve a problem and I like to be able to come before you
and I can actually solve a problem and what we experienced in our -- in our areas was
the senior centers had funding initially from the area on aging. Sage was referred. That
funding decreased significantly and in our 18 senior center areas the buses were
parked. They did not have the ability to operate. So, what we were able to do through
the 5-3-10 grant funding program for seniors and persons with disabilities was leverage
that area on aging funding and be able to restore that transportation. We did so. So,
what we have done is effectively 13,000 rides were leveraged last year and that service
has been restored. What we would like to be able to do is a similar program for the City
of Meridian and that is leveraging those funds. There was the question of eligibility. In
our 5-3-10 program there is not a restriction of driver's license, there is the restriction of
age. You know, you have to meet the age requirement. That's all. And, then, be a
person with a disability that is medically noted, not what the disability is, but that there is
one for those who are under that age group.
De Weerd: So, are you saying age is a disability?
Lindberg: No. I'm saying -- no. But if you have a physical disability and you're under
the age of a senior, you're able to access this transportation program.
De Weerd: Okay.
Lindberg: So, we feel it is -- it's very successful, it incorporates driver training and it has
restored the services and leveraged funding and we feel that that model was able to
restore transportation in 16 of the areas that we serve and that was -- that was an
incredible benefit and this is done through three manners. We have -- we do a -- the
process is through a request for bid, so a senior agency, such as Canyon County
Organization on Aging or the Elderly Opportunity Agency, can apply for this service and
work directly with the senior centers. You know, that's one age area. Whereas the
senior centers apply or the service, you know, through our grant award. That's another
area. Or another private company that's doing some transportation could be a part of
this process and, then, we establish contracts, which, then, go forward and the match is
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met through leveraging or in-kind service, volunteer services, et cetera. That's how we
do it in our rural areas. It can get a little complicated, but the bottom line is we served
over 13,000 in our service area last year as a result of it and that continues to grow.
There is a limited amount of funding in our rural areas, otherwise even more would be
served.
De Weerd: Thank you, Terri. Any questions from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I appreciate the lack of list of eligibility requirements. That's very good. I
assume you wouldn't be here unless you're able to operator in an urban area. We
sometimes -- I know with VRT there is a distinction about what's rural and what's urban
and you keep mention -- I only bring that up, because you have mentioned the rural
stuff, that you are able to -- to operate in an urban area as well.
Lindberg: Right. What occurred under Map 21 is there was a shift in 5-3-10 funding
into the small urban area and actually a reduction in the rural areas. We are hoping that
will change, you know, down the road next year. So, that will enable us to be able to go
into the small urban area and, you know, under a partnership with VRT, which would
enable us to use the same program and expand the service here in Meridian, you know,
and the goal would be to work with the senior center as well and be able to implement it
in the same method.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Zaremba: And just to clarify, that is a program that does take seniors to doctors
appointments and to shopping and --
Lindberg: There -- there is no restriction. I will say that within the area on aging
funding, the only restriction that I'm aware of that they have is they do not do recreation
trips. This funding does. Any matching funding that comes into this program, you
know, would not have any limitations at all.
De Weerd: Councilman Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor. For the 13,000 trips at what program cost?
Lindberg: What we were able to do is the senior centers they do -- we purchase a ride.
It's considered a purchase of service. So, the agencies are the senior centers. They
determine what ride -- what that cost will be, whether let's say ten dollars per ride, 12
dollars per ride, six dollars per ride, depending on their area, so they bid it per ride and,
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then, the funding that's eligible, then, leverages those triple A. So, those rides would
count, this funding would leverage that and the goal for doing that also is, then, senior
centers have increased funding, they can provide more service, because they are
accessing the 5-3-10 program, leveraging the triple A funding and, then, if there is
funding from the cities or the county, as we have in our rural areas, all that comes
together and is able to build much larger, better service, and accommodate more. So,
it's based on what it actually cost the senior centers when they bid on the service,
because we want them to meet their cost.
Rountree: So, an average what is that cost per ride?
Lindberg: My -- the average in the rural areas is ten dollars per ride is what we are able
to leverage. Out of that is the match ratio of approximately 20 percent. So say they bid
a ten dollar rate, they have to provide the two dollar match, then, the rest of that, you
know, that, you know, funding goes directly to the senior center.
Rountree: So, the cost per rider is two dollars?
Lindberg: There is no cost to the actual rider. What we are paying is for the ride. We
are actually -- so, for example, under the purchase and service, the senior center says
-- or they are going to purchase rides from my 5-3-10 program at ten dollars per
boarding. They have to meet the two dollar match. So, I'm sending them a check for
eight dollars. Out of that eight dollars per ride -- and that two dollars matching part can
be the triple A funding, it can be the city funding or county.
Rountree: Okay.
Lindberg: You know, we -- as long as that match for the 5-3-10 program is there, then,
that's where that money goes directly to the senior center, it leverages those funds. It
improves the actual allocation of services, because the question you had talked about,
the fuel goes up, the maintenance, the ability to pay for drivers, that's all through the
5-3-10 program. So, you can imagine if there is 33,000 dollars available in the 5-3-10
funding program to leverage the funding that you're bringing into the program, the triple
A funding, that's how we build the program and all of a sudden would quadruple, you
know, be able to fill the existing vehicles and that's why we like to partner with the senior
centers, because they are very interested to make all those trips and we have seen the
success of it.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I understand how you have been operating and everything I hear it's a good
system. Are you able to pull this off if the senior center chooses not to operate? How
would you operate without them?
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Lindberg: Well, I can give you an example of Kuna. Now this was the first year we
operated the purchase of service. We wanted to work with the Kuna senior center.
They were in a situation administratively that they did not want to work with us for that
first year, so what we did was we went out and bid -- with the RFB another human
service agency bid on the service and we were able to provide it. The Kuna senior
center came in this year for the very contract, because they were in a position to do so,
and it turns out that the other company did not bid on it, it's back with the Kuna senior
center. So, it's not necessary, but our goal is to work with the senior centers, because
that's the best model, you know, that we be -- we could use other providers as well. It's
not limited to just one. So, for example, we have thought we would be working with the
Kuna senior center and this other provider as well and we could have done both,
depending on when the other provider operated. For example, evenings, possibly
weekends to meet some of the needs. So, we are not limited, but we truly like to work
with everybody out there and agencies that are serving the seniors and transportation.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other questions? I know Kelli had a comment.
Hoaglun: Just as Kelli's coming up, Madam Mayor, thank you, Terri, for that explanation
and going through that program. I mean the leveraging really is the key to this whole
thing and I'm glad to know when you select which level you want, ten dollar, 12 dollar --
was there a 16 dollar one? You said ten, 12, and --
Lindberg: Well, that was an example. But if we say the senior center could only
operate it for that level, that would be the level that they were awarded, but it wouldn't
go as far.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Lindberg: But we would be, then, looking for the ability for the cities and the counties to
assist in that program.
Hoaglun: Okay. I just thought maybe with a 16 dollar level you got lunch every time
you -- if it was lunchtime the meal was included.
Rountree: With four riders it won't be.
Hoaglun: Yeah.
De Weerd: Nice try.
Fairless: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I just want to emphasize the point
that Councilman Hoaglun made that this really is about leveraging dollars and I was just
calculating if the City of Meridian has 30,000 dollars available for senior transportation, if
we can bring 80 percent federal, that's a 150,000 dollar transportation system to serve
those populations and those dollars aren't available now in the area, because it's
actually the larger urban areas. So, Valley Regional Transit is the direct recipient of
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those and we would love to see those being used in the City of Meridian. They can also
be used in the city of Eagle and we will be working with that community as well and,
then, creating opportunities for connections between Meridian, Boise, and Eagle. So,
you know, I think this is a wonderful opportunity. There is about 240,000 a year of those
federal dollars that are available that we would love to see, you know, rubber on the
road and have really appreciated Terri being willing to bring this model and, you know, I
have been waiting for an opportunity to be able to have something like this here. So, I
would really encourage you in terms of -- from the perspective of the transit authority in
leveraging resources, I don't know, 30,000 becoming 150,000 and carrying thousands
of people a year, even tens of thousands of people a year and the other thing about
Meridian being a lot more dense in terms of the -- in terms of the density of population.
De Weerd: Thank you for clarifying that.
Fairless: But -- I think the smartest people live here, but because of the density of
population, you know, you can actually more cost effectively carry -- in a rural area that
ten dollars per trip might actually be a little less here as well, so --
De Weerd: Well, certainly like to see dollars leveraged to provide services to our
citizens and I know we have this issue in very capable hands with Councilman
Zaremba. So, it's all yours.
Fairless: Thank you for --
De Weerd: And apparently Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Well, as liaison to the senior center, Madam Mayor, it -- I know they have
talked to you Terri. If you can stay, I have a quick question I wanted to kind of -- as we
were speaking about our upcoming budget meeting this summer and what we are going
to be doing, you know, the senior center -- you have met with them, I have talked to
them, they are not interested in doing it yet. I have hope, but right now they are not
interested. But you need an entity to --that you can partner with and we need an entity
to partner with to make it happen. Do we have anything out there that you have ideas
-- and we don't have to discuss this now, but if we want to pursue this we need that
entity, so we are going to need those ideas to see if -- how this can be accomplished,
so --
Lindberg: In areas where the senior centers have not been willing to, there are certainly
options. That's always my last resort. So, yes, those options are available. I think
there is often when we met with senior centers there is some concern, you know, when
another company is coming in and saying, well, we can assist you, almost to the point
of, hey, we are able to hand you funding, you know, like what area the levels of service
that we are going to be able to provide, how is this going to be administrated for our
senior center and these are all questions that we can work -- because we worked very
closely with the senior center when it comes on board, so that they are comfortable with
every aspect of it and all of their questions are answered. So, it says here that the
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senior center wasn't willing. I would like to be able to revisit this program with them and
show them how it can work, possibly bring in some of the senior centers who we have
worked with and have that as an example of how this works and how it benefits, you
know, them, as well as the community, because it can seem overwhelming if there is
the thought of, well, how many people are we going to have to provide for, you know, in
a large community. But there are other options that are available.
Hoaglun: Thank you, Terri. Appreciate it.
Lindberg: Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would add one other thought and, actually, Kelli touched on this in her
earlier presentation about what Go Ride and 511 do. I know one of the hesitancies the
senior center has -- and Terri mentioned it right at the end -- how many people are we
going to have to deal with. They are worried about scheduling. Well, Valley Regional
Transit already has an excellent scheduling system, an easy way to call in and find
where services are and that would be available under this program. If we went with the
Valley Regional Transit and Treasure Valley Transit combined idea, I mean we have
some excellent partners offering us complete services -- again, as you say, leveraged
up to -- our 30,000 dollars would become 150,000 dollars or pretty close to that and,
then, all the other services that are provided around it, like I say, easy scheduling and
people who need a ride call one number and they not only would get the answer to what
the senior transportation has available, but while they are on that line, if the answer is,
well, the senior transportation isn't doing anything, they would say: But we have this
alternate thing that's near by and, you know, if you could go to hours later or maybe the
next day, we have something that would take you. So, what is available by going this
direction is far beyond what we get for 30,000 dollars or 16,000 dollars now.
De Weerd: Thank you. Anything further on this topic? Okay.
Item 7: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Mayor's Youth Advisory Council (MYAC)
Update and Year Summary
De Weerd: So, we will move to Item 8-A, which is Department Reports. We turn to the
Mayor's office and the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council.
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Knapp: Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, this year for MYAC it's been crazy,
it's been amazing, and I'd like to start off by telling you guys that I am finishing up school
-- high school now. This is going to be my last Council update, but I'm going to try to
talk slower so you guys can understand me this time. But -- so, I truly believe that you
guys are really making a difference and I want to say thank you for all the support that
you have put into MYAC and especially to me and you guys have really -- like the
dedication and hard work you put into MYAC is really -- it really affects it and lately
MYAC -- people in there have energy and passion about it and as I graduate and, you
know, get out of high school I don't want to be the guy that watches the world pass him
by, but I want to be passionate with a clear focus on what I want to do and so you guys
have really helped me with that. I don't know how much I can say thank you that it's
going to be a -- it's going to be a great, awesome, you know, high school memory for
me to always look back on that amazing opportunity you guys gave me. Am I speaking
too fast?
De Weerd: You're doing great, Caleb.
Bird: You're doing fantastic.
Knapp: So, I should probably say -- there is two of us. I'm going to be talking about the
first half and, then, McKinsey Baird, secretary of MYAC, will talk about the second half
and, then, I'm going to focus on all of our MYAC events and all the crazy stuff we did,
and, then, you will probably say something better. So, we will start off with logically
from February, because -- oh, yeah. Started off in January, the next in February. In
February we started off by the State of the City address. MYAC kids were involved in it.
We were ushers, greeters, and MYAC also helped with the Taste of Meridian reception
at the end. And, then, the next event that we had was the Ignite Youth event and this
was -- this was the event where, you know, kids get five minutes to talk about whatever
they want and a slide show, get a PowerPoint and I heard that there was some
awesome speeches. I wasn't able to be there that night. I ended up in the St. AI's
Hospital. But it was -- I heard that it was great. I'm better now. At least I think I'm
better now. Apparently a girl from Rocky Mountain won. She probably showed the
members how I think. And there were a whole bunch of great presentations that
probably made people laugh and there were even more than one hundred people in the
audience. Next was March. We were equally busy and we had an I Heart Treasure
Valley service and we made Ben's Bells and learned about Meridian. And, then, we
went as a group for the project with the Mayor and, then, that night we attended a
concert with -- what's his name? Vujicic?
De Weerd: Vujicic.
Knapp: Yeah. I know it's not Voiskeekee or anything else, but, yeah, Vujicic. And he's
a guy who doesn't have any arms or legs and I can guarantee you, Mayor, that every
single kid from MYAC that went that night was inspired to -- with their life and get a
vision and it was a concert and it was -- it was a really great opportunity and it was a
great experience for all of MYAC kids The next event that we had was STAND, which
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are the Supporting Teens Against Nicotine and it was at Big AI's and people threw
bowling balls and I didn't get hit. It was great. Well, we kids -- while we bowled kids
were able to sign pledges that they weren't going to smoke and the crazy thing is they
looked like they really meant it. Like I was actually really surprised, like new kids really
were actually didn't think smoking was cool. So, I was really glad by that and it was
really inspiring and encouraging for all of us to see that. We got over 367 teens that
day, which was very awesome. So, in the last two months we were able to hugely
impact our community. Participation with MYAC was very strong. And the -- one of the
last biggest events that we had that was really big and it took a lot of planning was a
Treasure Valley Youth Summit and that was a great day. I had a great time, and we
were able to -- the whole go cart and texting thing and don't text and drive, I think they
proved the point. Don't text and drive or else your phone flies out of the car and it's not
cool and I know I got in a car accident because somebody was texting and their phone
flew out and somebody threw a fit and it was -- yeah. Anyway, we -- anyway -- oh,
yeah. We played mini golf with drunk goggles and Ireally -- I was like, wow, drunk
people aren't that fun. Like -- seriously, like I don't know what people think they have
been doing. Like they are crazy people. And so like I was trying to hit my golf ball and I
ended up like hitting my partner. Like don't get drunk. And so, basically, these kids
they really learned don't get drunk I think. So, I think I'm speaking slow enough. And
actually -- so, as you see, it was a really fun day. Don't hyperventilate. Anyway --
De Weerd: That's all right. I am.
Knapp: Oh. Anyway -- so, to get on with it -- oh, the other thing we did -- we played
laser tag in the -- yeah. We played laser tag to benefit bullying. Now, I was always the
youngest kid in my family, so I was actually very good at not getting picked on, I guess. I
knew what it felt like. I could really sympathize with them. No? Kind of. And -- I was
actually a good kid. And it was -- it was great, because there would be like four of us
and, then, like 20 people on the other team and we played laser tag and, unfortunately,
the people with 20 people would always win. But we made a good effort and it was a
really good visual demonstration for all of us to see that bullying isn't too cool and isn't
very good. The next event -- oh, wait. Wait. Wait. We were able to finish our touches
on the suicide prevention public service announcement. Now I am reading this. The
Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline loves their work and saw our video and used it
themselves. We also have shared it with all the high schools in Joint No. 2 and, then,
nearly all the churches in Meridian. And, then -- so our big finish this year was this thing
called Ball at the Hall. Like Ball at the Hall. It was create. We decorated all of the Ball
at the Hall. The Mayor was like doing her thing, like doing her thing, doing her thing,
and -- and, anyway, that was pretty cool. Like -- I was like nobody has a mayor like this.
I mean we got -- like don't even mess with us. So, I had a great night. I hope you had a
great night. It was a great -- I hope you can do it again. It was a good experience.
This took the place of our annual dinner auction and apparently people danced the night
away. I don't think I was. I was kind of preoccupied. But, anyway, I -- we all had a
great time and we raised over 2,800 dollars, which nearly doubled our goal of 1,500
dollars. And -- oh, of the funds we wanted to raise. So, it was a huge success and City
Hall was transformed. What? Oh. Ben's Bells. That's what the whole thing for Ball
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and the Hall was about. That was the big thing is that we wanted to raise kindness and
awareness and something else. It was -- it was really good. And it was a huge
success, honestly, and we got a lot of auctions auctioned off. We really didn't have an
auctioneer. But -- so, that's, basically, been MYAC. Very interesting view this year, so
thank you. Any questions.
De Weerd: We will save them until after MacKenzie.
Knapp: Oh. Okay.
Baird: Thank you, Caleb.
De Weerd: You can stay there.
Baird: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, my name is MacKenzie Baird and I'm
from Meridian High School. MYAC has not only held successful events this year, we
have also worked on our leadership skills and implemented some new ideas that were
not only successful, but fun. We worked and paid a lot attention and hard work along
the way. Our executive council started a new off-site training program where we would
visit local businesses like Pie Hole, Yogurtz, and Red Robin. We were able to hear the
owner and manager on what success means to them, as well as leadership tips and
pointers. We heard some amazing stories of how local businesses came to be and had
some great opportunity for partners. We also had a great opportunity to hear from city
directors as part of our leadership training. It was great to hear how our city leaders run
their departments and lead their teams. We were lucky to have had their time and
learned some very successful, yet various perspectives on leading people. We had
amazing speakers at the general council meetings, too. We had a presentation from
Mothers Against Drunk Driving. We also heard an anti-texting message from the vice-
president of AT&T. We also learned more about Idaho Power's community efforts and
even had a college information night by bringing in our parents to hear from Step Ahead
Idaho, a nonprofit and helps us get into colleges. This year has also been special in
that we held larger events that were rewarding as we saw the fruits of our labor in
numerous local publications, TV and radio. We certainly were on the map this year.
We even won the distinguish Powering Lives Grant from Idaho Power. Just last night
we elected a new executive council for the next school year, which I was fortunate
enough to win a seat on. So, in closing I want to say thank you so much for investing in
us youth and please be ready to see how we raise the bar for next year. Thank you and
I will now stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you to both of you. Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: I don't have a question, but I got a statement. You young kids are the amazing
ones, not us up here. What you do for this community is amazing. It makes us older
people know that we will be in good hands as we get old when we got leaders like you
coming up. You guys have just really raised the bar for youth involvement and
volunteerism. I appreciate everything you have done. Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I have a question for MacKenzie. Number one, are you a junior this year?
Baird: Yes.
Hoaglun: Okay. And what office are you going to be holding next year?
Baird: This year I was executive secretary. Next year I have the opportunity to be the
executive historian.
Hoaglun: Great. Good. Well, as Councilman Bird put it well, you know, you guys have
got a lot of energy, makes me feel like where did all my energy go. But you really are --
we want to provide this, because it's so important to -- for the next generation to carry
on what we have in this community to make it even better. So, that's why we -- it truly is
an investment and as you turn around and move along your path and turn back and
invest in others behind you, so that's just something we need to do, so I wish you well
on that.
Baird: Thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, again, I wish you well and thank you for the job you have
done and the enthusiasm you bring to us. Caleb, I wish you well in your next journey. I
suspect you will be through college in about two and a half years at the rate you go and,
MacKenzie, I look forward to seeing you next year and both have a good summer.
Baird: Thank you so much.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, I was just going to say in the few years that this program
going -- and it seems like every year the bar raises a little bit farther and one of you
already has challenged yourself to raise the bar again next year and Ijust -- like
everybody else has said, not only your enthusiasm, but your -- your -- the energy that
you put into this brightens our future and Ijust -- I'm thrilled to know that you and the
whole group are doing such wonderful things and being positive role models for your
high school peers.
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De Weerd: Well, I can tell you they are positive role models for us. You know, I -- I
speak I think for Ken and I know that our youth council members know how Ken and I
feel about them. We are very proud and very proud of what you have accomplished
over this last year. It has truly been amazing. We had -- MacKenzie was the only
returning executive committee member that came back and we had a brand new board
and these kids just knocked our socks off. So, you guys have made a huge difference
in our community. You have continued to impress our legislators in terms of requesting
your presence and your opinion at various hearings in front of the legislature and being
the voice of youth. You have made a huge difference in our community in terms of
embracing a campaign for being kind and Ben's Bells was just a part of that. I think the
government affairs subcommittee recognized early on that bullying was an issue in our
schools and we needed to be kind. You guys are a roll model for kindness. You made
an impression in Newtown after the tragedy that that community felt in sending Ben's
Bells to their community and showing that people cared. So, I -- I do look forward,
MacKenzie, to having you back on the executive committee as an officer and, Caleb, I
know that you have expressed an interest in being involved, maybe as an advisor, but
your energy and enthusiasm is appreciated. We love you both and thank you so much
for coming and sharing your awesomeness over this last year. Thank you.
Knapp: Thank you.
Baird: Thank you. I really appreciated this opportunity, Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bird: Thank you, kids.
De Weerd: And thank you Ken and Patrick. You're awesome.
B. Community Development: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-B is our Community Development strategic plan update.
Bruce, you have five minutes.
Hoaglun: If he takes lessons from Caleb he could do it.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor and Council Members, Tom Barry was kind enough to put
the slide show together for me. I think there is --
Bird: Is this the short or the long version? The 100 or the 400?
Chatterton: Well, let's just hope it doesn't turn into another episode of stump the
chump. I'm sorry, the MYAC kids got me energized. That's amazing.
De Weerd: It's just awesome.
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Chatterton: Yeah. I think all of us, when we give you these updates, need to start with
why we exist and I think other departments do, because we really need at each point.
Departments exist only for certain reasons. They are here to carry out your vision and
so let's take a look at that once again this year and talk a little bit about the level of
business that we are experiencing in the real estate market that really is the industry
that we share with our customers. Talk a little bit about some of the projects and
initiatives that are both done and underway. We are going to talk about certain projects,
customer focus projects, things to improve service to our customers, updates to -- for
code updates and special projects we have been doing. How we are integrating
economic development in other areas of the department. Our CDBG program and
staffing news and, then, finally, I really wanted to end with some threats. Not everything
is rosy. We always have to look at whatever storm clouds are on the horizon, where we
might have some weaknesses and talk a little bit about some of the opportunities that
might go along with those threats at any point. Your thoughts, directions, questions,
please do interrupt me.
De Weerd: I'm just hoping you don't end with threats to us.
Chatterton: No. No. Threats to our wellbeing. We exist, really, to give the Mayor, as
the CEO of the city, expanded control over development review and permitting. We
didn't have that before we had a single department or you could have it, but it was much
harder to come by and also to extend the reach and effectiveness of economic
development. In a sense why do we have a community development department,
planning, and building functions? It's for economy development. We exist to insure
that development, the building environment are safe, high quality, and are harmonious
and to also remove barriers to the type of development that you all, as our electeds
want to see. So, to put it simply, we exist to prevent bad things from happening and to
make good things happen and finding that balance is important. I think we just saw a
little bit more towards being facilitators and regulators, but, then, again, that's the
Meridian way, it isn't? And whenever you get out of balance on these -- on this, then,
you're in for trouble. As I said earlier, you all -- Mayor and Council, you define what
success looks like. Our job, then, is to take that and to design and carry out steps to get
your preferred outcomes -- to arrive at your preferred outcome. Well, let's talk a little bit
about our level of business currently. Interesting to give this presentation right after you
heard from Mr. McQuade. So, a lot of this is going to be very complimentary to what
you heard. I shamelessly stole these slides from a panel I was on with ULI -- actually, it
was last October. So, these numbers are a little dated, but they are still significant.
Core logic said -- which is a national and international real estate think tank and
consulting firm, said that our housing market by their formula, is the most improved
housing market in the United States and there are -- a few of the reasons there has to
do with a formula having to do with numbers of sales, home prices, delinquencies. So,
we are the most improved in the United States from what I hear, but if you look at
current numbers you will see a similar relationship on the bar chart. Meridian really
towers in terms of total permits, both residential and commercial numbers of permits
over every other jurisdiction, the county -- in the two county area in the Treasure Valley
and each of the cities. This scatter chart is interesting. What this shows are -- is the
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frequency of building permits. Building permit activity in the Treasure Valley from 2000
on to last year. So, the darker and more purplish the dot -- I don't know how easily you
can see that --the more recent. So, let's just look at this area here. You can see really
see that we are not only just the geographic center of the Treasure Valley, we are
activity center. So, we are the center of the most improved housing market -- possible
the most improved real estate marketplace by some measures in the country. And I
don't need to tell you how well positioned we are, both demographically and physically
within the valley and in terms of the transportation network. We are trying to report this
activity to you each month in the -- our new and improved Community Development
dashboard and instead of trying to give you 20 pages of raw data, we are trying to
digest it in ways that you tell us are important. We have made some changes to this
and get everything on one page. So, it starts off with what are those current projects
and we don't distinguish between building and planning, because our customers don't,
they are just trying to do projects. We talk about some of the -- the big points in
economic development. We give you a snapshot of residential activity and, then,
housing units year to year and commercial value. Those things would be the two most
important measures of activity. Numbers of units for residential. The valuation for
commercial. As always when you get these -- any feedback, we have gotten quite a bit
of feedback in terms of the information we show on here. This is a living document. We
want to change it and help it meet -- meet your needs. And I want to give a shot out to
Bruce Freckleton -- in fact, we have a lot of folks from the department here right now.
But Bruce is the overall editor. So, Brenda and Caleb get information from their various
areas from economic development and from planning. Bruce adds the building -- the
development services data. He's the overall editor of it and he makes sure we get this
to you every -- every month the same time. Development activity. We are really --
something remarkable has happened. When you look at your plats it wasn't more than
four years ago that talking heads in the real estate industry were quoted in various
media saying, oh, we have enough platted lots in the Treasure Valley to provide a 15 --
ten to 15 year supply and we won't need to plan anymore lots. So, why the heck are we
seeing this activity now? What that -- that assessment probably wasn't wrong, except
that a lot of those lots were in Fruitland or Middleton. Those are wonderful
communities, but there is a great value to location as we know from real estate and
almost as powerful as location is having a full range of urban level services. In other
words, having a full service municipality is huge. And there is no other jurisdiction in the
Treasure Valley that meets all those -- all those tests. That's really why Meridian has
begun to recover and perhaps even -- even broom at this point. So, as we look at this
activity we are seeing that it means everything to have lots in the right location and
served in the right way, as only a full service city like Meridian can do. Some of the
certificates of zoning compliance that we have had this year -- boy, two -- two Walmarts.
One -- one of the ground, the other one almost about to start. Idaho's first Car Max.
some exciting projects that -- St. Luke's. Pie Hole. If you haven't had a chance, go
down to our new Pie Hole location and go up on the roof, get a whole new view of our
downtown and there is a whole new dynamic. I think a lot of MYAC kids will probably
be hanging out there. It's the same sort of dynamic that you see on 8th Street in Boise
and we haven't -- we have had a little bit of that. But this is -- the fact that Eric would be
making this investment in downtown Meridian says a lot. Downtown Meridian, by the
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way, I keep hearing from developers it's just on the edge of going over to being an
exciting place. We keep hearing from folks that want to do things with property, not just
-- not just purchase and acquire, but they want to develop in downtown Meridian. In
fact, the chair of the panel from ULI that gave these recommendations, has also
invested -- put his money where is mouth is in property in downtown Meridian. Very
excited also to have the -- Gary Christensen from Near Net Zero officer building -- that
will also be the first -- Gary, of course, built the first LEED platinum building in Idaho and
at the time it was one of the 12 -- 12 in the country and this would be Idaho's first near
Net Zero office building. We have talked about CZCs. The Village at Meridian needs its
own list. I mean we are -- it really is amazing. It's very difficult to describe to folks what
the Village of Meridian is going to be -- going to be all about. They are really just going
to have to see it to believe it. Several of you have been on the -- on the construction
tour to get an idea of the scale, quality -- it really is a destination location. It's not just a
mall turned inside out. It's not just an entertainment complex, it's not just a collection of
restaurants and retailers, it's all of those things and it's really a little bit more than the
sum of its parts and, of course, buzz around the Center Cal property -- we have a lot of
folks -- Brenda's constantly getting calls from -- from developers wanting to be -- to
locate near -- or retailers wanting to be near the Center Cal property. Some important
conditional use permits we have had. Big high school remodel for Meridian High.
Tate's Rental. And we have also had an important project from Public Works, the
Locust Grove water reservoir. See, Tom did help in this presentation. A number of
plats, both commercial and residential. Scentsy, of course, continues. It's a very
exciting campus. It looks like no other place, really, in Idaho. And we are getting a lot
of very high quality residential developments as well. This is one measure of how busy
we are. Revenues returned to General Fund. I have talked quite a bit to Stacy about
not misusing this number. This number is not profit. This is not -- this number --
because it's complicated, right? This is -- this is basically the amount of money we
brought in over projections. And, of course, it goes back to the General Fund. But isn't
it great to be back in seven digits again after a four year hiatus. We did fairly well the
year before, but last year, you know, the fact that our system is returning money to the
General Fund is really something to be proud of. These are customer service projects
that we have and underway. This is the staff action team. I think most of them are here
with us. This good looking crew -- I found in my career that if you do all decisions from
the top down you're not going to like the results, because you are going to end up
creating almost as many problems as you solve. The staff action team -- and they are
made up of folks from both Development Services, Building, and Planning, they are the
folks that actually carry out the things we ask them to do. So, we talk about responding
to customers in coming up with a better design for how we get things done. These are
the folks that actually have use the tools, so they want them to be efficient. So, the staff
action team --their roll is to listen to the customer. The customers define, like you all do
in another level, what success looks like. You will be successful if -- the staff action
team says, great, don't give us the solution, we will go and design that and get back with
the customer group again and said will this work and, then, we -- then we launch an
improvement, we launch a pilot program. This is not a static group. We move people
on and off the staff action team as needed and as their other work demands. It is really
a part-time job in many cases. But some incredible things are happening with them.
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First off, we have been told -- we are talking -- I'm going to talk a little bit more about this
under threats. We have launched a series of focus groups with small businesses, folks
that have been through our process and some of them who did not have, frankly, a very
good experience, not just with Community Development, but with the city in general or
with the highway district or with ITD or with the health department, you know, it's
complicated to start a small business. So, we have begun talking to them and I'm going
to talk a little bit about those results coming up here. As a result of talking to our
customers, the staff action team, with the supportive of management, support of me,
Bruce Freckleton, and Caleb, will be launching programs to streamline permitting. So,
one example of that, of a pilot program that we are looking at, is an idea of taking our
land development analyst, those are the folks that, basically, make sure that -- that the
subdivision is properly served by infrastructure, teaming those individuals with the
planners and having that -- that team follow a project from beginning to end. We are
going to see how that works. It's an exciting prospect and one that will enhance -- the
planners will learn from the -- from the development analyst and vice-versa. We are
also going to -- asking the staff action team to help us find that best mix of -- all the way
from cross-training that is doing exactly somebody else's job, to having enough of an
awareness of what they do to be able to help the customer navigate and get the
customer in the right place and do a hand-off if necessary. You can go too far with
cross-training, of course, you can go way too far with specialization, we are going to find
that right balance across the board and also the idea I'm going to talk about coming up
here, too, this idea of a small business coordinator. Some of our customer service
projects include a lot of work on making Accella, of course in partnership with IT and
other -- other departments, making Accella automation work better and serve our
customers better. Online applications are a big part of that. A big effort to Development
Services Building, for Bruce and Brent, what were the building contract services RFPs.
We ended up with more contracts, yes, but as a result they are much more flexible. We
now have the ability to negotiate -- rather than just pay that flat fee, correct projects over
two million dollars, we can choose to negotiate the actual fee, which means that -- I
mean say the shell and core for theaters at Village at Meridian. It really didn't take that
much review. It wasn't that complex. So, the flat fee, frankly, would have been all the
payment to the -- to the building special -- and to the contactor. So, Brent and Bruce
have been renegotiating these, as we are able to under the contract, and so far we have
saved over 55,000 dollars. Now, that's since we have had these new contracts in place.
That's not even a year yet. So, they are doing a great job there. We have the fee
waiver agreement with the Meridian schools, which probably was long overdue, but I
think we got it where we need it to be. You all have any number of meetings and any
number of hours spent on the -- the code changes to address carbon monoxide, how to
detect it, how to prevent it and we appreciate your patience on that very complicated
issue. We also last year won at AIC for the achievement award for permit fee
calculators. This idea that -- actually, I think it was a customer that said to Bruce
Freckleton why can't I just, you know, calculate these online and so they came up with --
with atool and it works really well and AIC thought so as well. So, a few things we have
updated and a few special projects. UDC code amendments -- you have seen these
recently, you will be seeing more, as we see problems with the UDC or, really, any of
the codes we deal with, we will be bringing them to you. We have an obligation -- one
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of the things I can't stand in my career, because I have been on the other side of the
counter, is to hear someone say that's a great idea, Mr. Customer or Developer, but it's
against the code. Well, if it's a great idea, then, we should find a way to make it
happen. And so we are duty bound to change our regulations in a way that doesn't
create more problems, but solves problems. And so that's what you're going to be
seeing with our approach on the UDC. Other special projects. The downtown
streetscape initiative -- and this is not to be confused with MDC's streetscape project
along -- along Pine. This is an overall approach to getting streetscapes right downtown,
but maybe more than anything else to get our stakeholders downtown excited about
streetscaping. Help them to understand it. So, we want our businesses to make better
use of the streetscape environment. We want the presence of our pedestrians. We
know that we are going to be needing public-private partnerships, so we have to have a
buy-in of some of those businesses. So, as we -- as we move into this initiative this
summer using some of these tools -- visual tools that you see, including cross-sections,
we are going to try to get the business community more excited about the idea of
streetscapes, so they see what's in it for them. We are really -- we are really blessed,
as you know, to have Greg, who is a landscape architect and graphic designer on our
staff, and to really get graphics like this -- you know, he did them in-house -- is pretty
amazing. You know, Boise doesn't have anything like this for in-house design. And just
to be able to visualize that, Brian did this one. The Mayor and I heard a very mercurial
gentleman, an expert on urban design, Fred Kent, we heard him speak I think it was last
summer, wasn't it, Mayor, and his approach towards making things happen for
redevelopment -- you know, usually it's glacial, right? It takes forever and you have got
a 20 year plan and things don't seem to happen the way you wanted them to, even
though we spend all this money on bricks and mortar. Well, his approach is called
cheaper, faster, lighter and that approach says let's put in temporary installations. Let's
put in things that don't cost a lot, that actually demonstrate what we are trying to achieve
and only if that's successful do you spend the money on the bricks and mortar.
Because so much bricks and mortar is built that people don't really want to use. So,
what you see here is one example of basically, you know, from ACHD and from the
business, and, then, moving a temporary side lot cafe into some parking spaces. You
know, this is not a situation where you would have to go and change the right of way or
create a permanent license agreement and get the buy-in from the actual businesses as
far as how that streetcape will benefit them. Try some demonstration projects. We
don't know if we are going to be able to pull this off yet, but we are going to be working
with Sherry McKibben to try to put in some temporary installations hopefully this
summer and demonstrate a little success that hopefully we will get people excited and
see why this should be important to them.
De Weerd: Well, now that you have this graphic -- this is phenomenal. This is great.
And now you have something that you can visually take and show people what you're
talking about, I think you can just only stimulate excitement to -- to give it a try. That's
great and I know your staff did a lot of work in working with Ada County Highway District
to get now authority in their right of way to help facilitate that, too, which took a lot of
effort and tenacity and patients and don't take no.
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Chatterton: And even stronger, Mayor, would be to see something like this and actually
see it in place and see people use it and enjoy it.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Chatterton: Some special area plans underway very soon we will be issuing the request
for proposal for the Fields District and that's going to be a three phase project. We are
going to give you a chance at every point to hear back from staff and the consultants.
What we are going to start off with, basically an investigation of the feasibility and, then,
if you want to move ahead we would do that actual feasibility study, followed by an
implementation plan. We are not going to spend the money that you have allocated --
enhancements all at once, we want you to have post points where you can say this
makes sense or perhaps we need to take a second look and go back to the drawing
board on it. We are very excited about that. The Ten Mile plan. We are implementing
it right now, because customers come in every day, existing property owners and folks
interested in locating in that area and so that living document, this important design
element for the Ten Mile interchange, really is a very unique area of Meridian -- really
almost a blank slate, we are -- the planning staff just about every week is talking to
someone about Ten Mile and the best way to implement that master plan.
Transportation projects, you know, you hear about those from Caleb all the time in
everything transportation. The Meridian Road interchange -- and you can see some of
Brian's images here as well. It's very important, of course, for that interchange to be not
just it's design, but in its sense of place something that says you are in a city, you're in
Meridian and tying that in with some of the existing entry features that we already have,
both in terms of public art and how the thing functions. Split corridor is ongoing and
that's been a great success story, not just Community Development, but many different
departments within the city, working in partnership with Ada County Highway District
and with the business community and despite the construction impacts that we all feel
around us and the businesses are feeling, that still has been -- it's been one of the best
outreach efforts I think I have seen in my career. And the ongoing coordination. A lot of
time spent coordinating with other agencies, including ACHD, COMPASS, on some of
these major -- major programs. How are we integrating economic development? Well,
we have already mentioned the Fields District. We have had a lot of discussions about
the bus registry. You know, I suppose that discretion is the better part of valor on the
business registry. We have decided that I think that the Council, if you all wanted to go
to the mat for a mandatory program we could still do that, but we have decided to see
what we can do in terms of data mining, the correlation of data in-house and see how
far we can get with that. The business registry is not something that we can -- it is
something that we probably can live without. The purpose of it was to kind of up our
game, or connection with the business community, in a number of different areas in how
we -- our knowledge and database of business are important. We are just going to see
how far we can get doing it with the data that we have. Ongoing discussions, as our
MDC board members know, on the idea of a wine tasting cooperative downtown. We
mentioned before the small business customer focus groups. Brenda has been
involved with all of those to date. And the split corridor stakeholder engagement has
been a really important part of economic development. For a public safety project,
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Brenda continues to work with -- with MPD on that project and something that we are
launching next in the month or so will be a road show through the broker community.
Brokers often say I don't get this. Why is it really so important for us to have permits?
Why is it important for us to have up to date certificates of occupancy. When you
actually sit down and show them why it's important they go, oh, so that should be part of
our best practice. The better brokers know this already. But we have a lot of success in
Boise with going around to the big brokerage firms and giving them a dog and pony
show. We are going to start that this summer with our own local brokerage community.
We have been working with -- with Natalie to generate positive media and, actually, she
don't have to work hard with everything going on in -- in Meridian, although sometimes
the media tends to be -- from a business standpoint the Statesman, somewhat Boise
centric, but we have got a great story to tell and we have started to tell that both to the
IBR and to the Statesman. The CDBG program -- really really important. As much as
the -- it seems onerous from an administrative standpoint, we are so blessed to have
Lori who, you know, is willing and enthusiastic with apart-time position to do the great
job she does and just look at these projects, they are so tailored to Meridian and to
Meridian's needs. We will be getting a five percent decrease in the upcoming year. We
will just have to shrink the program overall to adapt to that. Staffing news. As you
know, we have got a new planning division manager. Caleb. He was a bit reluctant, at
least at one point, to take the position, but, you know, kind of content where he was, but
he accepted the challenge and great things are beginning to happen. Another idea that
-- Scott Steckline, of course, who was the overall supervisor for the -- the land group,
left the city. We decided rather than bring in another manager, to bring in more boots
on the ground, to bring in another analyst. Right now Bruce Freckleton is doing a great
job of directly managing that group and everything else that he has on his plate. We
really do need more -- more help and so we are looking to recruit a -- an analyst, as
opposed to a supervisor there. And I can't say anything about this one. This is Caleb's
old position. We have had a really really exciting recruitment. We are really excited
about what looks like is happening. I just can't say anything right at this moment, but I
would say that in -- in Planning we are going to have pretty much what I would call a
dream team for Meridian in terms of the talent -- overall talent of the folks there. We did
have two internal applicants from the planning group who interviewed great and we
learned much more about them and what they want to do with their careers. We really
appreciate everyone stepping up. It was a difficult decision not to go internal, but we
will be getting, you know, a great team and we will be moving on from there. Well, a
few threats, but all these are opportunities as well. We are -- part of the -- the Meridian
Way is that you offer more with less. That's part of it. You surround folks with services.
But like the spread formation in football, sometimes you can get too spread out and so
there are some threats. We have got a very talented team, but the bench is not very
deep. Getting busier means that in Planning and in the Building slash Development
Services area we -- there may be some holes appearing in terms of our ability to keep
levels of services high. So, how do we respond to this? Well, one idea is to replace
that land development supervisor with an analyst, to cross-train staff. We are going to
get as much as we can out of cross-training and with a mind towards -- if necessary,
looking at enhancements for fiscal year '14. Perhaps we are in a bubble right now in
terms of real estate market. I don't know. I don't think so. But we will strategically be
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looking at -- at enhancements if our levels of service are threatened with falling below
acceptable levels. Another threat. We have got a great system with our contractor
based plan review and inspection. A great system. It serves us very well. Especially
when times are lean. I'm certainly aware of the idea that to not have to personally lay
people off to do the reductions in force, that the contractors increase their size or
decrease to meet our level of service and the demand, that's not lost on me at all. It's a
system, though, that is used typically by much smaller cities than Meridian -- usually are
not full service cities. And to a certain extent it limits, as good as it is, how much we can
implement the Meridian Way. We simply can't go and tell our inspectors -- our
contractors about the Meridian values as if they were employees, because, then, they
might be interpreted as being employees. We do have to keep that arm's length
distance. Not to imply they are not doing a great job. They absolutely are. But over
time -- and I'm not talking about that -- about this enhancement for this year, we should
consider a hybrid system to see whether or not we can improve on what we currently
have. It is a good system. Will it serve us instead as we go to 90,000, 100,000 in
population, we will see, but I think we also need to think about perhaps one or two FTEs
in house. No plans to do that yet, but just something on the horizon. This one is -- we
get reviews from our professional customers. They say, you know, when I talk to them
they say, oh, yeah, you know, you want to join a focus group, they say, well, sure, you
know, you can do a few things better, but you're pretty good. Where we get mixed
reviews is from small business customers. The folks that only maybe come into contact
with us one time or so. Our professional customers like our service. It's when they are
not used -- when they really are not in the industry as we say, that's where we fall down.
So, we are in the middle of focus groups. We are hearing things like who at City Hall is
watching out for me? Who can tell me where to go? Who can help me navigate this?
So, the staff action team is going to be looking at the idea of a small business
coordinator program. That would be a person that could layout all those steps that
would be necessary to open a business in Meridian. So, you would have a checklist in
opening a nail salon, if you're opening a restaurant, if you're opening an insurance
office. All the things that you would need to -- to look at or consider. Not to do the work
for them, but to give them a guiding hand and with that feedback we are getting in our
focus groups we want to hopefully before the end of the year begin to pilot that program
within the Community Development Department, working, of course, in concert with
other departments. Finally -- this one bothers me, too. We don't have a strategic plan
and we need one. When I first came here a year ago I took a look at what planning the
Planning at the time department had and I looked at what the Development Services
Division within Public Works had and I thought, okay, I can just match these up. No.
They were not speaking a common language at all. We have -- and, of course, arriving
on the scene I saw the smiling faces and enthusiastic people and it kind of hid the fact
that there really was not one single page for everybody to be on. So, folks are
enthusiastic, but we didn't score really well on the employees survey in terms the idea
that everybody is on the same page and that there is a common vision. So, we do need
that strategic plan and one of the things I will be asking you all for is a small
enhancement to get some help for developing a strategic plan, a facilitator. There is
some really great books out there and I can facilitate these meetings, but often folks,
you know, are going to perhaps want to tell me what they think I want to hear or will just
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clam up. It's great to have that third party in place there. So, we will be asking you for
that. Those are all the threats I have, although there are plenty more opportunities than
that. Love to get your thoughts.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Any thoughts or questions from Council?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think your last slide is an ah ha moment that you have reached and it's an
important one and I fully support the idea of you doing that. Because, certainly,
everybody needs to not only have one page to speak from, they need to know what to
speak to and -- and why. I think that's really important. One other thought -- and I can't
remember what slide. Some of the ways maybe to look at processes and certainly time
management is critical and all that stuff and I don't know what kind of training and
emphasis we have there, but that might be someplace you can explore. And there is
always ways to prioritize when you're shorthanded. So, you need some kind of a ladder
or approach to say, you know, what takes priority when I'm over my head in stuff on my
desk.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Member Rountree, yes, getting greater efficiencies.
That's a great consideration and having people say, hey, I am going down here, I need
help.
Rountree: That's important.
Chatterton: Very important. Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Bruce, I appreciate this. You took a good look at it and you and your staff
looked at all and what can we do better, where do we do that, and want to keep
improving. Just one suggestion for your action team. In the medical community they
have what's called a patient navigator system and, you know, someone comes in for
medical care, usually it's serious, Imean -- and it's scary, they don't know where to go
or what to do, look at how to get through this whole maze of systems and their lives are
hanging in the balance and I think some people may feel that when they come in, their
livelihoods are hanging in the balance, because they have got to get through this maze
of permitting and everything else and they have never done it. But that might be a
model that you can look at and steal some ideas from to see if there is anything that
might work for your coordinator system. So, it might be something for them to look at.
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Chatterton: Madam Mayor and Council Member Hoaglun, yeah, the whole navigator,
case management approach in medicine and in social services, yeah, that's agreat --
why should we -- the same way in which a medical patient or someone needing social
services feels that their -- their life is being threatened, you're right. Small business
folks -- exactly that. They put their livelihood on the line. So, we don't want the patient
to die. We want them to prosper.
Hoaglun: If they die we don't do well
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I just want to thank you for the progress that's already been made. I think it's
a good department, an optimistic department, and good things are happening. You
mentioned the dashboard, which I appreciate seeing every month and looking at. It's a
very good thing. You mentioned streamlining the permitting process and that's
something that has actually been an ongoing process and, frankly, I hear from some of
our repeat customers that they think Meridian has a pretty good process already. So, if
there is even more streamlining that can be done, we are going to be the stellar agency
in this and I -- your department and all of the people that work there one of the biggest
reasons that Meridian is responding first to the economic upturn. It is a good place to
do business for developers and for businesses and I just want to thank you for all of it. I
think that's great.
Chatterton: Thank you
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I have seen such an improvement in this department and they are continuing to
improve and I think the biggest thing I have noticed is the response they give to
customers, whether it's a good or bad complaints or what, they get right on top of it and
take care of it and I'm sure within the next year we are going to see a department that
might have a few flaws, but they are not going to have very many of them. I think Bruce
and his staff has got a good plan and they are going forward with it and I think we are
the best now, but we will be better within a year. Thanks, Bruce.
Chatterton: Thank you. That's the goal, certainly
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
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Zaremba: I forgot one other plus that I was thinking. I really like the -- it's been called
Concierges or navigator or whatever, but -- but the ability to hold the hand of the one off
customers, as you say, the professional and repeat customers pretty well like our
system, but I have been on the one off going into a city to find some stuff and I have
been on the customer side of that and you really can be lost if you don't know and I
really like your idea of saying, okay, when we recognize the one off customer we need
to hold their hand and have a plan that says if he -- we are not responsible for it, you
also need to do all of these things and just give them an idea of what their whole
business plan ought to look like, essentially, but being able to hold their hand and help
them navigate through, that's an excellent idea.
Chatterton: Thank you.
De Weerd: Well, I have seen a lot of jelling among these different divisions and greatly
appreciate the increased communication and a real true understanding --areal true
desire of understanding -- wanting to understand what the other divisions are doing.
So, you guys have come a long way. I have always thought you were great at customer
service and you continue to raise the bar and not only doing it because it's expected,
you're problem solvers and you're now working together with each other to solve
the problems and to better understand it. You have such great specialties and specific
knowledge in certain things and now you're tapping into the knowledge of -- of your
fellow worker and that's really exciting to see and greatly appreciated. So, I have seen
a lot of growth and development within these -- these two merged divisions that are now
thinking more as one and it just gets better every day. I also appreciate that each of
you are not afraid to expose the warts, because, you know, we all have them and you
want to know where they are so you can treat them and get rid of them. So, the
creativity that -- that you guys are expressing and showing is just exciting. I think we
have the dream team and really excited to see us continue to workout the -- the kinks
and now define the strategies and have a better road map as to where you're going as a
whole will be a great benefit and I look forward to being able to see the light.
Chatterton: Thank you. Very cool. Thank you.
De Weerd: Yes. Very cool. So, thank you and thank you all for being here and for
sticking with it. I know it was kind of scary when we merged the two divisions and, then,
we threw Brenda in the -- in the mix and just seeing how it's all jelling is really exciting.
So, appreciate all of you and the role that each of you play.
Chatterton: Thank you for listening.
Hoaglun: If they were really jelling, Madam Mayor, we would see them do the Harlem
Shake now, but I don't think that's -- oh, please no.
De Weerd: Oh, my gosh. Well, maybe next year. I won't ask you this year. Thank you
for being with us.
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C. Community Development -Transportation Update on Projects,
Plans and Programs -Includes Update on Meridian Split
Corridor, Phase 2; the Franklin, Ten Mile to Black Cat Roadway
Project; the Rail With Trail Project; and Other Transportation
Projects
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8~E. I heard that all of these are going to be really fast. Now
that lunderstood --
Hoaglun: C.
De Weerd: Oh, I'm sorry. 8-C. Sorry. When I got to 8-E I thought they really were
going to be fast.
Hood: Madam Mayor, this will be quick. Thank you, Mayor and Council. When this --
when this popped up on my Outlook calendar that it was time for my semi-monthly
update, I was a little hesitant to go forward with it. It has been -- been busy, though, so I
thought I better at least get it in front of you and provide you some of the updates you
need. Some of them have -- you have seen electronically, been getting updates on
some projects. Hopefully you have had a chance to look at my memo that I prepared
for this. As per usual I'm not going to go through everything listed inhere, but highlight
a couple of the things listed and, then, I have a couple more things to talk about. But,
again, I will be very brief. The first project, of course, is the big one here, downtown
Split Corridor phase two. Water, sewer, and storm drain work is currently happening.
The water and sewer is now south of the railroad tracks. Making progress there and still
on a timeline to complete the project September, October, but there may be limited
access to local traffic north of Pine beginning in July. So, I think that will be of great
benefit to people living and having businesses in that area that are directly affected.
One clarification in my memo. I had that the next town hall meeting will be here at City
Hall on Monday, May 22nd. Well, the 22nd is a Wednesday, so it's going to be
Wednesday. Actually you have a Council meeting that same night. Conference rooms
A and B are also booked. So, this particular town hall meeting will be up in Public
Works 40. So, their large conference room and we will direct those that want to attend
up there. But that will be at 6:00 o'clock, again, on Wednesday, the 22nd of May. So,
one typo there. I'm going to go forward to -- and this is the one project I do -- well, I
need some -- some input from you all on is the Franklin, Black Cat to Ten Mile Road
project. Just as a refresher, this is a federal aid project. It's currently programmed for
construction in FY-16. The preliminary design set of plans were reviewed over the past
few weeks. We have talked with you in the past. It has been some time. I had a lapse
since we last talked to you, but last August we discussed this project and discussed
detached sidewalks, center medians, and lighting and potentially including those as
elements within this project. Going forward they, in fact, have been included in the
project. ACHD -- or city staff has been doing the lighting design in house and ACHD
has a consultant team, Parametrics primarily, that's working on design and they have
included center medians and sidewalks. This project, the last time you were updated,
they were looking at doing an LID, low impact development project, where basically
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going pipeless for storm water and that, in fact, is what they are doing with this project.
You're looking at 12 to 14 foot wide swales on either side of the roadway with, again,
center medians that are currently designed as hardscaping. That's primarily what I want
to talk to you about today. They have a four inch thick colored tiled concrete shown in
the median area. We -- we would like to explore the possibility of landscaping that
similar to what's in in Ten Mile. So, kind of keeping that same gateway. Ten Mile plan
calls for landscaped center medians here on this portion of Franklin. You will probably
recall the mile just to the west, so Ten Mile to Linder, they are designing conduit, but
those medians are not going in with that project that's currently under construction, but
eventually there will probably be a need to put the medians in and, then, we have the
ability to landscape those as well. So, the question before you that I'd like some
direction on -- again, it's currently designed with hardscaping and would probably look
okay, but we are putting the lighting in and, again, we will have swales, so the question
is at the local match rate of 7.34 percent it doesn't make sense for the city to partner
and participate on this project and, then, buy the landscape materials and the irrigation
for that. Just as a refresher, this was provided to you before, but the process mixed
lighting that we would responsible for is 12 to 15 thousand dollars that would be our part
-- our local match rate. I did get some cost estimates today from Jay Gibbons in Parks.
We have about 4,100 lineal feet of median. There is 5,280 feet in a mile, so this -- there
is a good section of median in this project. The width does vary in there, but it's
generally nine, ten feet wide. So, it's a substantial median, you know, a center turn
lane, essentially, that's going to be -- going to be used for a median. So, the square feet
-- 43,505 square feet. Cost estimate, depending on what type of landscape material
you use and whatnot, six to 12 dollars a square foot. Total project cost for the medians,
if we landscape it and provide the irrigation, 250 to 500 thousand dollars. Again, high
level cost estimates. Our match in that range would be 20,000 to 40,000 dollars, plus
the maintenance. So, we could have an annual cost -- ongoing cost of roughly five to
eight thousand dollars a year, depending on what we are putting in the median and how
often we want to do garbage pick up, those types of things. But, again, Parks estimates
five to eight thousand. So, again, I wanted to just pause, see what your -- what your
take is on -- on that. We can do nothing and there will be hardscape colored with the
stamp or if we wanted to landscape them. So, I will let the project manager know
whatever you all want to decide on this project. So, I'd pause for those comments.
Hoaglun: Council, any thoughts on the project? Councilman Rountree?
Rountree: Mr. President. Caleb, it seems like it's premature to have that settled at this
point. If it's a federal aid project it's got a whole series of public involvement processes
that it has to go through. I would anticipate that the raised medians in this section of
road will go the same direction that they went on the one little further to the east based
on the desires of the property owners. It would be something that would come at some
future time based on the approaches and the development as it occurs out there. So, I
-- it would be nice to put them in now, but we got just a little further than this phase on
the current stretch that's being built and ended up with none, other than we will
accommodate them in the future.
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Hood: And, Madam Mayor and Council Member Rountree, just a little bit on that. That
public involvement meeting was held last August, September. It has been some time.
My understanding was when we reached out and had fairly good -- a couple of
differences between this mile and that mile. This mile is largely undeveloped and
working with those people that are still property owners there and the other thing that
we have done fairly well is those projects we have, Baraya and Ten Mile Church, the
multi-family project -- the name is escaping me now -- but we have done pretty good
with access management thus far. So, the breaks in those medians are consistent with
the large projects, large land holdings and so there really aren't the needs for access
that you have in the mile back to the east. So, I'm not going to say that that won't
happen, because it very well could, but at least the first public involvement and -- and
the acknowledgement by those property owners is that they aren't in opposition to these
medians, at least thus far that hasn't been voiced, so --
Rountree: They haven't seen the design plans either.
Hood: But it was discussed at the first public involvement. That certainly was part of
the scope and why I wanted to let you all know back last August that that's what
Parametrics and ACHD were going to present to them was a concept that included
center medians, so --
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor and Caleb?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: On the landscape medians, if I'm -- I'm trying to recall our reclaimed water
project. I think we have piping going that way, so the watering of landscaping would be
from reclaimed water and --
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, did talk with Warren Stewart last week
about this. I have a phone call currently into ITD to see if we do use the purple pipe if it
would be eligible for local match rate or not. So -- and until we know that it may cause
us -- if, in fact, we do landscape -- decide to landscape it and can use purple pipe, that
would probably be one of the deciding factors is if we can get that favorable 7.34
percent local match or if we would have to foot the bill a hundred percent with our cost
or not. So, I think it's eligible. I just haven't heard confirmation yet from the state that,
yes, it would be one of those eligible costs. We are exploring that, though, with Public
Works and the state.
Rountree: It has to be watered some way.
Hood: Exactly. Just a nuance, so I didn't want to assume that it would be eligible. We
do think that -- that it would be eligible, but I just want to get that confirmation from
them.
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Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just a follow up on that. That's going to be an important
nuance and I think of seeing how dry things are again this year and, you know, water
management, Public Works, our water department, water conservation is becoming a
very specific message and, you know, that's something we have to take into
consideration. I love the landscaping when it's in the median, how it looks and what we
did -- we got at Ten Mile looks nice, but it's just one of those things we kind of have to
go, okay, is that really going to be a priority for our water. But if it's reclaimed I mean,
then, you're getting double benefit out of it, so --
De Weerd: We are all going to want reclaimed water this summer. Mr. Bird, did you
have a comment?
Bird: Basically just exactly what Councilman Hoaglun said. I definitely don't like the
hardscape. I mean to put those things in. But, anyway, if we -- if we do have the
landscape we got to be able to water it by reclaimed and do you have any idea what per
foot or mile or however you do, what that reclaimed piping laid costs?
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, typically if it's going in the right of way
we are putting in a -- probably going to be a 12 inch. We are probably talking about 50
bucks a foot.
Bird: Fifty bucks a foot?
Stewart: In the neighborhood. Give or take ten bucks a foot.
Rountree: Spendy.
Bird: We might like to have hardscape.
Hood: Madam Mayor, there wasn't really a question, but just a little bit of a comment on
-- we haven't picked the pallet yet, but the -- I mentioned the swales on the side are --
going to be primarily -- well, one, they need to treat the water, so that the materials
chosen will need to be able to filter a lot of the contaminants that --the oils, the greases,
those types of things as the ground water filters back in. But there are also going to be
native grasses and things like that. So, we want to match some of that in. It should be
lower water type of materials in the center median. Again, we are trying to -- trying to
take some of what happened at Ten Mile and some of what ACHD is looking at
designing with these swales and incorporate a little bit of both into this if we go forward
with landscaping. Again, we haven't -- we haven't done any of that. I may also just
point out ACHD has -- is working with -- I can't remember the gentleman's name now at
CWI, but he is a plant specialist, as well for the botanical -- Idaho Botanical Garden, as
well as the Snake River Birds of Prey and they are working together to figure out what
those materials are that will do well in that harsh environment that can treat, again, the
water runoff and thrive well with low to no watering. Only the rainwater that they
receive. So, that's some similar materials. We still need to supplement that with
something, so I'm -- and infrastructure is the hard cost there. I'm sensitive also to the
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water needs that we have in the desert, but just to let you know we aren't looking at sod
or anything that would be high maintenance or high water usage either if it goes this
route. That would certainly be something we would be sensitive to.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: Again on that concept, Caleb, I assume the swales would be behind the
sidewalk?
Hood: Madam Mayor and Councilman Rountree, no, they are actually in front. They
are behind the curb. Basically behind the curb. A small shoulder with curb and, then --
and, then, it drops off into your swale at a three-to-one slope? Three-to-one slope. And
12 to 14 foot wide.
Rountree: That would be an interesting conundrum we create for the future
development of the Ten Mile area where we have allowed basically a prairie to be
between an area we would want landscaped.
Hood: Madam Mayor, I know there is not a question there either. We are aware of that
back filling, those types of things where this is a functioning -- it's not just an esthetic
thing, it is a functioning storm water. Again, we have tried to get out in front of that with
some of the current property owners -- now they may not be the developers over time,
but --but do recognize that as a challenge and we are excited about this roadway -- this
mile may look like any other mile, but we want to try to fit it in so it doesn't look out of
place. We are trying to walk that line where it's largely rural today. It is going to be -- it
is going to be different. So -- yeah. And so, anyways, we certainly recognize that
concern, too. There is a large power poles on the north side as well that add to that
look and feel and it's one of the reasons that the sidewalk has to be on the back side, at
least on the north side, so --
De Weerd: Anything else?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I just want to find from Caleb, is he getting enough direction
from us on this? I mean Councilman Rountree raises some I think good points. There
very well could be changes coming down. Your points are well taken. It is a little
different than the mile to the east, but it's one of those things we kind of -- as we go
along there might be some changes made.
Hood: Absolutely. The only real direction I heard on this is to wait for the public
involvement and my concern -- we can do that. There may be -- we may miss an
opportunity, but that's -- you know, that's -- if that's the direction I'm fine with that. I'm
asking the question. I could see it going either way. So, I don't necessarily have a dog
in this fight, but do want to -- to bring you all the facts you need to make a decision on
this. They are moving forward in design, so waiting I don't know -- if we are going to do
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something we need to start talking about irrigation water and providing that if we are
going to landscape it, so --
De Weerd: So, Caleb, what is the timing?
Hood: Well, the timing is -- again, the 75 percent design -- preliminary design plans are
done. I didn't bring the project schedule, but, essentially, they will be -- they will be
done with design this year. We need to let them know, because, again, there is -- there
is impacts to the current design in moving forward to 99 percent construction plans, so if
we are going to do that we need to come up with our landscape pallet and design the
landscape infrastructure. The design should be wrapped up here later this year.
De Weerd: Warren, do we have purple pipe -- do we have water planned in that area?
I know we have it down in that area, but do we have it planned to facilitate water
delivery?
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yes, we do. We do have plans to
serve that area. If you recall the service area map that we showed you guys a few
weeks ago did include the area south of Franklin Road over to, essentially, South Black
Cat and even a little further than that, eventually, was the secondary area. So, we do
intend to serve that area south of Franklin Road with reclaimed water at some point.
And I think Caleb makes a good point, we have possibly an opportunity here to put
reclaimed water in that roadway with only having to come up with a seven percent
match. We don't know that for sure yet, but if we can -- if it turns out that that's the case
it would probably be advantageous to go ahead and put it in at this time.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from Council?
Rountree: Caleb, I didn't hear it, but we are looking at -- I assume whatever we do is
going to be -- if it's landscaped we agree to maintain it. So, what are our maintenance
costs for almost a mile of median? And I'm not concerned about that pipe. I can't
imagine blue pipe or purple pipe or white pipe -- what difference does it make? But,
anyway, what's it going to cost for us -- what's the long term commitment if we make the
decision to go there?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, it will depend on design and materials
and how -- what level of maintenance you want to give it, but the ballpark from Parks
was five to eight thousand dollars a year.
Rountree: Okay.
Hoaglun: And, then, Madam Mayor, it's just a matter of -- if that purple pipe -- and we
get that green or -- the shrubs are looking nice like we do on Ten Mile, the sides are
going to be native grasses and it's obvious they are going to be brown and it's just the
way it is. So, kind of an interesting look. I don't know.
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Hood: And, Madam Mayor, we certainly can bring some of those concepts forward to
you, like with the Meridian Road interchange and say do you like this concept or that
concept or another. If we choose that. So, you can have some input in that. We will
know what's going in the swales and if we can pull a couple of those plants into the
center median and a couple of the plants from Ten Mile and have some browns and
greens and reds seasonably and form throughout the year --
Hoaglun: That's just like the Ten Mile interchange where coming up there the other day
and the sprinklers were running and my wife goes, oh, they are watering the weeds. I
said, no, no, dear, it's native species, native grasses. She said they are weeds, so --
anyway.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, with that information Idon't -- I would encourage us to
continue the concept of the landscaping, as opposed to hardscape.
Bird: I would, too.
Hood: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I drive that stretch regularly and this a highly technical piece of data that I'm
going to give you -- I enjoy landscaping.
De Weerd: Do you have anything you want to add?
Hood: If I can, just to clarify. That isn't contingent on purple pipe or is it? I mean is that
-- is that a deal breaker there?
Bird: Going to put it down there anyway.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Hood: Okay. If it's going to be included, then, we --
Rountree: If they have agreed to landscape it in their plans they have got to get water
there, whether -- I don't care what color pipe it's in. And if there is a difference in purple
pipe and --
Bird: White pipe.
Rountree: -- white pipe or whatever pipe they want to pipe potable water in, we pay the
difference. I can't imagine we would have to pay for one and not pay for the other just
to deliver water.
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Hood: Okay
Rountree: And' I think the question probably ought to be asked the federal highway
administration, not ITD.
Hood: Okay.
Rountree: Because they would probably say if you want it landscaped you pay for it.
Hood: Okay. Well, thank you. That was the main -- the main discussion item I had
today. I think everything else pretty much I will let stand in the memo. I will let you
know I did receive a post card -- I don't know how many of you also received it, but
ACHD is doing some roadway resurfacing work. There is one project coming up here in
June, McMillan between Ten Mile and Meridian Road will have some roadway
resurfacing work. So, just wanted to let you -- make you aware of that as well, so -- the
projects -- it is the season, so -- Madam Mayor, with that I will stand for any questions
you may have.
De Weerd: Are they almost done on Linder?
Hood: I haven't checked the status this week, but, again, it's a phased project, so they
are going to be moving further north. I think still have a couple more weeks and I don't
know if they would kick off that north of Cherry yet.
Bird: No, they haven't
Hood: But it will be -- that will be coming up. So, I believe there -- it should be done or
will be wrapping up on the segment between Pine and Cherry, but, then, they will be
moving to the north side and that will change the process there, essentially.
De Weerd: I know I already shared with the director my thoughts of their timing, but --
maybe their representative will reinforce that when he goes back.
Hood: And I do -- I do apologize, I do take some responsibility for that. I did have some
of that information and I didn't catch it, didn't check every one to make sure what was
going on concurrently, but I do apologize that I didn't at least call that out sooner before
the contract was let to say should we be doing this at the same time, so -- I know it was
-- it was just rough for everybody, so --
Rountree: Is the Ten Mile project, Cherry Lane to Ustick, still on schedule for this fall or
is it next spring?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, I talked to AI Bush recently. I know it's
advancing. They have -- and I don't know if Justin's prepared or not to give the most up
to date status report on that, but it is -- it is moving ahead. I don't know if it was fall or
spring when it's going to kick off, but it certainly is -- it's not slipping any.
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Rountree: Okay.
Hood: I yield my time
Lucas: Good afternoon. Justin Lucas, representing Ada County Highway District. You
asked a question on the Ten Mile project. At this time it is not scheduled to begin this
fall, but we are in our budget process right now where we are looking at the carry over
fund and identified some potential use of some of those funds and be advanced and so
I don't want to overpromise on that and so as of right now it's still scheduled for -- that
would be in the spring later next year, but there is potential it could move up based on
funding. And I'm sorry about Linder. That's not Caleb's fault. That's ACHD's fault. So,
I just want to apologize, these things happen, and what happened was, too, they put
down the first strip of asphalt and we did our core sample and it did not pass any test
we have and we had to tear it all out and the conversations were fun over there when
that happened, so sorry. Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Two comments. One, I appreciate that Justin comes to our meeting and I'm
glad we can ask him a question once in awhile, so he knows how valuable he is to us.
And the second -- maybe for Caleb or maybe for the Mayor. Last I hard the status on
the transportation commission was that we are still missing a few seats. How is that
going?
De Weerd: We have extended our congratulations to seven members and we are trying
to firm up two additional citizen representatives that live on the south side and we are
trying to generate some interest. Right now most of our representatives live in the same
area.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I'm ready to give Justin the Raul Ibanez award. He's a major
league baseball player. He sits on the bench the whole game watching everything and
last minute he's a pinch hitter, called up, and he's delivered many times, so --
De Weerd: I'm glad you told me who that was. I would have never known. Ditto.
Whoever that was. Okay. Anything further from Council?
D. Meridian Police Department/Code Enforcement and Legal
Department report: Proposed code updates to nuisance
references in Wastewater, Water, City Arborist, and Solid
Waste Codes
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Let's see. Item D was requested to continue to May
28th, so we will put that on the May 28th agenda.
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E. Human Resources: Discussion Regarding City Policy 4.2
Vacation Leave, 4.3 Sick Leave, and City Policy for Travel
De Weerd: Item 8-E is our Human Resources Department.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. There is three items in your
packet. They are current policies of the city that just needed some updating. I'm going
to apologize. We had two different versions of the first one, which is the vacation policy,
and the one that's on here is missing a little bit of language and I can just explain that to
you. We have had a discussion at the director's group on the use of vacation by
employees in their first six months of employment during their introductory period of
employment and the consensus of the group was that we don't run into much problem
with the -- the language -- or the prohibition against using vacation, but we do get that --
we do get that issue come up periodically and it's not a problem from the director's
standpoint to allow that if the director grants the discretion for that. Most of the time it's
a very small circumstance. It's not a new person that comes on that wants a month off
or even two weeks off, it's usually somebody who comes on within that first six months
and they have already scheduled out a family reunion or some family vacation and they
need a Friday or a Monday or something like that. We have a different policy that
allows it, but the recommendation from the directors was as long as we have language
that says you can't use except with the director's approval, then, it's -- it's manageable.
We don't, again, have a significant issue or problem with people taking time off during
their first introductory period and if they are not successfully completing it or they are
having problems in the workplace getting work done, then, that's a different issue that
we can address. So, they would like -- and I prepared that and we did, too, so it didn't
make a difference. Basically, the only difference on the second page of the policy was
the language would say they would not be able to use vacation benefits during their
introductory period unless specifically approved by the department director. The other
language in the vacation, the FMLA -- the Family Medical Leave Act, has been updated
a couple of different times and one of the things that used to be in the act was that while
you were on Family Medical Leave if you were in an unpaid status you don't accrue any
other benefits during that period of time. So, our policy reflected that. That's been
changed and now even if you're in an unpaid status on Family Medical Leave you still
can accrue sick leave or vacation benefits if that's provided to all employees. So, we
are just updating this to reflect that only when you're in unpaid personal leave without it
being Family Medical Leave would you not accrue any vacation or sick leave during that
time period. So, those two policies are really just updated for that purpose. The last
one that's in front of you is a travel policy and this one is probably one of the longer
policy discussions we have had at the director's level, but, basically, what we are trying
to do is match up our travel requirements, our policy, our finance policies and the IRS
regulations that govern travel and when travel is compensable and when it isn't
compensable and also trying to address some realities of travel. So, one of the things
that -- that is different, just to point out to you -- and I know it's a long policy and you can
see where the changes are being made in there, one of the things that is different --
what's reimbursable -- so the reimbursable section talks about what's allowed by IRS
standards, so some things that are allowed and some things that aren't, essentially,
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travel to or from your homes, not considered reimbursable by IRS standards. That
wasn't clear in the prior policy, so that's what we are trying to clarify. What's hours
worked. This is one that was a fairly lengthy discussion by the group about it. Basically
travel to and from an activity. What the IRS says is that if you fly in an airplane that's
not necessarily considered hours worked. If you drive scar -- driving the car is
considered working, not driving the car is not considered working. We have a very
difficult time from an accounting and administrative standpoint to separate those two
activities. It's easy to do the travel on an airplane, because we have an airline ticket
and we usually have a way to account for that separately, so we just don't track that
time as travel for hours worked purposes. The person still could be -- they could travel
during work hours, but they aren't considered hours worked for the purposes of overtime
and that's really the only difference from an FLSA standpoint. But the vehicle one is
more problematic. So, if you drive from here to Portland and you drive for two hours
and, then, another person drives for two hours and another person drives for two and a
half hours, we have to split all that up on a time card and it's very problematic to track
that administratively and we don't have very many people that are both hourly
employees, drive a long distance and have two or three or four people in the same
situation. Mostly it's one or two people. Most of the time they split the time in half and
accounting preferences is not to try to split those, because to that fine of a degree of
tracking individual times. The time card really doesn't support it very easily, it ends up
being a manual override every time and it comes up two or three times a year at most.
So, we wanted to clarify what, basically, traveling by a vehicle is considered hours
worked, traveling in an airplane is not considered hours worked. All the time when you
are at the conference employees -- again, we don't send a lot of hourly employees to
out-of-state conferences, but occasionally there are circumstances that would warrant it,
but, basically, we have always paid employees for their regular work schedule and so
that's what this is trying to clarify. So, if you were an eight hour employee and your
class ends at 2:30 or 3:00 o'clock, you don't have to use two hours of your own vacation
time, since you can't turn around and go home and you can't stop being where you're at,
so we have always paid the employees their normal schedules. This is, again, simply
trying to clarify what those rules are in relation to how we have done it in practice, how
the FLSA requires that how IRS regulates it. So, it sounds more complicated than it is,
but it really is, but it really is pretty practical in the outcome. If it's acceptable we can
bring it back. We need to bring it back for the resolution for approval. We can bring it
back next week. If you need a little more time to think about it we can bring it back the
following week. Just whatever our comfort is.
De Weerd: Council, what would you like to do?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I have a quick question on that vacation leave. Bill, take a
situation where like Bruce Chatterton is hiring that new employee for planning and
during the interview when they make the offer and they go, you know, love to accept, in
four months I'm going to be married, so I need a week off for wedding, honeymoon, et
cetera. Now, they are not yet a regular full-time employee. Can Bruce -- does Bruce
have that authority to say as a condition of hiring, yes, you can have that time off. It
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won't -- I mean -- because this says there is no vacation time with that first introductory
period of employment, so what's the -- how is that situation handled?
Nary: Great question. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member
Hoaglun, we have always tried to give the departments that level of flexibility at the
hiring stage. What we have always tried to make sure is to ask those questions in the
hiring process, because especially when you hire somebody at the beginning of the
summer invariably somebody has a trip planned somewhere for some purpose and we
have negotiated that in a variety of different ways. Sometime depending on when it falls
we have -- we have said, well, the employee need to use a couple of hours of their
accrued time in trying to be fair to the public, but, you know, again, they can't, obviously,
use it all or they won't have adequate time, so we have negotiated that. We usually
make sure the Mayor is comfortable with that as well as the CEO, but we have given
that level of flexibility. We'd just like to know about it. It's -- and we have certainly gone
at -- when someone has neglected to tell us and tells us three months into this, oh, by
the way, I forgot to tell you, I'm going to Disneyland and I already bought tickets and we
have addressed it and we usually try to do this up front and give the opportunity for the
department, so that we can note it on their time sheet and appreciate it so that we know
that that was what was committed to -- we try to make sure we document all of that up
front when necessary.
Hoaglun: All right. Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Sideways question about driving. I assume the first assumption is that there
is a business purpose at the other end of the trip that that's where they are going?
Nary: Yes.
Zaremba: Who is responsible if there is an accident during that time? If we are saying
the employee is on duty, the liability of the city is no different if they have an accident
right here, isn't it?
Bird: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yes, when they are traveling for work
purposes they are covered under our workers compensation at that particular point in
time. That's why we generally encourage employees to take either a rented vehicle that
is being covered by the rental agreement or covered by the city's insurance, or they take
a city vehicle. We prefer they take a city vehicle, because that's going to be clearer
about the liability, but the employee is covered -- once they are traveling for business
purposes they are covered during that time period under workers compensation.
F. Legal Department: Discussion Regarding Amending Meridian
City Code 1-7-2 Qualifications; 1-7-6 Assignments of
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Department Commissioners; Duties & Terms; 1-7-7 Rules of
Procedure for Public Hearings; and 1-7-8 President and Vice
President of Council.
Hoaglun: Anything else, Council? All right. Bill, moving on to 8-F.
Nary: Mr. President, Members of the Council, I need to step out. Mr. Baird is here to
cover that. Basically, just to introduce it and you can direct your questions to him. This
is what we brought a couple of weeks ago with some updates to the Council's duties
and responsibilities, assignments as department liaison. If you're comfortable with it; we
could put it on for approval at either next week or the following week, whatever you
would prefer. If you have questions you can always hand it over to Mr. Baird, I have got
to be at another appointment.
Hoaglun: Now pinch hitting, number eight, Ted Baird. All right, Mr. Baird. Thank you.
Baird: Bench warmer. Okay. So, just to go over some of the details, the qualifications
-- we have updated it from the state code, which was very general, to actually require
that you be a resident when you're running and when you're elected and when you
serve. Makes sense. We like that. President and the vice-president of Council, we are
bringing that up to present practice. Change the nomenclature. I'm talking about
seniority and succession and one section that's added is regarding the Mayor -- acting
president of the Council and City Council can meet each year and decide if they want to
assign different Council members to represent or serve or specialize in a certain area of
the city, so that, you know, whether you all live in the same area, we have got residents
who feel like I live in the south and I can contact Council Member X. But that's not
mandatory, it just gives you the ability to do that
Hoaglun: And, Ted, just to interrupt you there, when -- on the assignments, you know,
the language in the -- president of the City Council, after conferring with the Mayor. The
Mayor and I talked about that. It doesn't necessarily mean the Mayor has to agree with
what the Council President does, but I think it -- you know, the Council president should
confer with the Mayor, with the departments, because there might be some issues going
on that Council president may not know about, but -- anyway. So, that language is in
there and we agreed that maybe they don't agree on who it is, but that's fine. The
president would confirm with the Mayor.
Baird: Moving on to the revisions of Section 1-7-6, the duties that we refer to presently
as liaison, there was some antiquated language talking about commissioners. So, this
has been updated to reflect current practice.
Hoaglun: And that's where the language I was referring to was located. I jumped
ahead of you, Ted.
Baird: Okay. Okay. And regarding the section on public hearings, it's, again, the
same --
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Rountree: Ted, go back to that point that Brad just brought out. I think that the
president of the City Council -- well, it doesn't read well the way it's there, but the
president should -- will make a -- will make the appointment after conferring with the
Mayor and the Council. You're going to want to -- you're not going to want to make an
assignment -- in other words, in my particular case it's -- if we get singled out to be the
Council president and they want to assign me to the Fire Department, I would just have
to -- to me that's -- I can't do that.
Baird: Correct.
Rountree: So, you'd need my input. It needs to be real clear that the president is going
to make that -- those assignments.
Bird: And I -- Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Yes, Councilman Bird.
Bird: I agree with Charlie on the fact that the -- and the Council president always has
come to -- we have always went to the other councilmen and said are you okay with this
and this and, then, go to the Mayor and say this is who I have got assigned and, like
you say, she don't have -- or they don't have the final -- the Mayor don't have the final
say or anything, but they should know, because there is times that a department head
will have a problem with a councilman and won't say anything to the Council, but has
said something to the -- and we don't need that going on.
Baird: Well, Council President and Members of the Council, would you like us to work
on some additional language that would allow input regarding conflicts of interest,
challenging assignments, preferences --
Hoaglun: I'd just clean up --
Baird: Add after conferring with the Mayor and the City Council.
Hoaglun: I think that might be acceptable.
Baird: You can always come back and add something later if it's not working out, but --
Hoaglun: I think that covers that concern that -- it's in there that the president shall
confer with the Mayor and the Council members at a point -- you know.
Bird: I think I'd put the other Council members first and, then, the Mayor, because that's
what -- the final act.
Rountree: Yeah.
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Bird: Because, you know, there is no sense of going up there and assigning a
Councilman to a certain deal that he can't take, you know --
Baird: And if the Mayor --
Bird: Yeah.
Baird: Feedback there, so -- okay. Moving on to the procedure for public hearings.
Again, this is reflecting current practice. Giving preference to those who have signed up
first. Requiring that we state the names and addresses. An item has been removed
about -- it used to say the speaker cannot be interrupted until they have had their three
minutes. Well, if someone is being disruptive or rude or whatever, it gives the chair the
authority to say you're done and to handle the meeting appropriately. And so those are
-- those are what we are proposing to bring back as ordinance changes and bring them
back next week with the amendments that we have discussed tonight.
Hoaglun: Ted, on Item A on 1-7-7, on the sign-up to testify -- I mean we know when
you sign up they sign up for a specific issue. It says all persons shall be permitted to
speak -- testify or speak before the City Council at a public hearing and we know what a
public hearing is to us, but when someone reads that, do they know that it's a specific
topic, that they aren't just signing up to testify to talk about anything? I mean I know
what it is, you know what it is, you know what it is, I don't know if -- do we need to make
that clear to a lay person who might be reading that and say, hey, I can sign up to testify
and I want to talk about something totally unrelated.
Baird: Mr. Council President, I think if you look at the language it refers to the sign-up
sheet provided by the city. We have handled that administratively by having a specific
sign-up sheet for each specific hearing and as long as we continue to do that this
language funnels them into there. There is no open mike.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Baird: So, I think -- I think we can handle that without having to change this language.
Hoaglun: Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.
Rountree: Now, is that procedure, as far as the sign-up sheets, included in here?
Baird: Council President, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, it's not.
We could certainly add a few words that say -- the sign-ups sheets, which will be
provided for each public hearing be for --
Bird: That public hearing.
Baird: Yeah. That way it's
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Rountree: That additional line, yeah.
Baird: Okay.
Hoaglun: That's procedure.
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Yes, Councilman Zaremba.
Zaremba: Again on the sign-up sheets, I wonder if there might be a way to put in a
procedure that there is a blank one at the podium, so that anybody that didn't sign up
when they come up to speak, needs to sign -- and what I'm thinking about is Dean is
tasked with the preparing the minutes of our meetings and sometimes the names are
illegible. If they have only come to the podium and their name's not written down
anywhere, how does he know who they are if they said their name real fast and doesn't
get it? In order to get things properly into the minutes without him -- should we maybe
include a procedure having a blank where people need to write their name down?
Hoaglun: That's a good question, Councilman Zaremba, and what I'm really curious
about can Dean answer that and type at the same time?
Zaremba: Is that possible or is that --
Baird: Council President and Members of the Council and Council Member Zaremba,
certainly it's possible. I have got two questions. One of them is has it been a problem
and the other one is the logistics for the clerk of having a separate blank sign-up sheet
for each hearing or do we have a procedure where after the person testifies they go
over and add their name to the list that's already been collected and it's at the clerk's
desk. It's a logistical issue that you might want to confer with the clerk on.
Holman: Council President, Members of the Council, we keep those sign-up sheets, so
we have the name of everyone who signed up in the back. Anybody else that comes up
after that that is not on the sheet I note them in my notes and we just keep those as part
of the permanent record. If Dean had any questions about names, anything he usually
contacts someone in my office and we can make sure that the record is correct, if that's
what you're asking. We do keep pretty detailed notes on that.
Hoaglun: And I think, Jaycee, if I recall, there has been times when someone has said
their name really fast and the Mayor has asked for, you know, a repeat type thing, so
we make sure we catch that on the record, so I think we are fairly accurate with that,
so --
Holman: Council President, Members of the Council, we also always have an audio
recording, so we can go back if we needed to do that outside of what we take notes on,
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so we have -- we may not spell it right, but we have a pretty good indication of the
person's first and last name and their address, so --
Hoaglun: Thank you, Jaycee.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Ted, what else do you have for us on this?
Baird: Those are the items listed under Section 8-F of the agenda. I will stand for
questions.
Hoaglun: Anything else, Council Members?
Bird: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Councilman Bird.
Bird: I would like to see Ted go back with the notes and get them typed out as --
without the red lines and all that stuff in them and get them to us and I don't think it's
something we have to pass next week, but we can certainly look it over next week and,
then, bring it forward the following week with the deal, because I don't think we are
under any time limit, are we, Ted?
Baird: Mr. -- Council President and Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, no
-- no, we are not and the city attorney is going to be out of the office for the rest of the
week and that might allow us to work on that language, make sure everybody is on
board with it. Of course it will be available by a-mail, but it might make sense to just
bring it back in two weeks.
Bird: I just -- I just want to see what it's -- what we are going to print.
Hoaglun: So, Councilman Bird, what you're saying is bring it back in the language as it
is being proposed and you won't see the changes, it's just --
Bird: Different language.
Hoaglun: Everyone else okay with that?
Rountree: That would be great.
Hoaglun: Okay. All right. Thanks, Ted.
Bird: Thanks, Ted.
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May 14, 2013
Page 66 of 69
Item 9: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 13-1557: An Ordinance for the Re-Zone of a
Parcel of Land Situated in-the North 1/2 of the Northeast 1/4 of
Section 34, Township 4 North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian,
Ada County, Idaho, Commonly Known as Volterra South (RZ
10-005)
Hoaglun: All right. We are moving on to 9-A. Ordinance No. 13-1557. I would ask the
city clerk to read this ordinance by title only.
Holman: Thank you, President Hoaglun. An ordinance -- City of Meridian Ordinance
No. 13-1557, an ordinance RZ 10-005, Volterra South Subdivision, for the rezone of a
parcel of land situated in the north one half of the northeast one quarter of Section 34,
Township 4 North, Range 1 West, Boise, Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as described in
Attachment A and annexing certain lands and territories situated in Ada County, Idaho,
and adjacent and contiguous to the corporate limits of the City of Meridian, as requested
by the City of Meridian, establishing and determining the land use zoning classification
of 58.33 acres of land from the R-4, Low Density Residential Zoning District, to the R-8,
Medium Density Residential Zoning Districts in the Meridian City Code. Providing that
copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County assessor, the Ada County
recorder and the Idaho State Tax Commission as required by law and providing for a
summary of the ordinance and providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing
an affective date.
Hoaglun: We have heard the ordinance being read by title only. Is there anybody out
here that would like to hear it read in its entirety? Seeing- none, Council?
Bird: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Councilman Bird.
Bird: I move we approve Ordinance No. 13-1557 with suspension of rules.
Rountree: Second.
Hoaglun: I have a motion and a second to -- to think about passing Ordinance No. 9-A.
Madam Clerk, would you, please, call role.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
Hoaglun: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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Page 67 of 69
B. Discussion Regarding ZOA 13-001 UDC Text Amendment and
Block Length
Hoaglun: 9-B. Discussion regarding ZOA 13-001. Is that going to be -- Caleb? Ted?
Hood: Mr. President, Members of the Council -- unless Ted wants to -- okay. You
should have received a letter last week from Becky McKay from Engineering Solutions.
In fact, you should have two in your possession at this point. Originally there was some
concern from Mrs. McKay on the block lengths that we discussed two weeks previous. I
will just -- as you all know, it went through the public hearing process and that hearing
process was closed, we received a letter basically after the -- at the ordinance stage at
this point, but we were able to meet with Mrs. McKay and Mike Wardle and we think we
have come -- updated them on some of the interpretation and how this will be applied.
There is one slight tweak that we have requested in a substitute ordinance that you
should have in your packet tonight and I would request that you approve Ordinance 13-
1555 with the substitute language provided for block lengths and it, essentially, says
instead of measuring it from center line to center line, we measure it from near edge of
right of way to near edge of right of way. It also includes the comment that Councilman
Hoaglun had when we went through the public hearing process about allowing some
flexibility in design of bicycle parking facilities, so that we aren't strictly requiring a three
foot separation for all bike racks. There is some leeway in design there, while
maintaining functionality of the bike racks and safety. So, I will stand for any questions,
but that's the update and the discussion regarding that ordinance, so --
Hoaglun: Thank you, Caleb. Any questions for Caleb; Council?
Bird: I have none.
Hoaglun: Okay. The ordinance with the substitute language is before us. Oh. And,
yeah, I need our city clerk to read the ordinance by title only, please.
C. Continued from May 7, 2013: Ordinance No. 13-1555: ZOA 13-
001 Unified Development Code (UDC) Text Amendment by City
of Meridian Community Development Department Request:
Text Amendment to Certain Sections of the UDC Pertaining to
Block Length, Multi-Family Parking, Storage Facilities, Bicycle
Parking Facilities, Street Knuckles and Other Miscellaneous
Clean-Up Items
Holman: Thank you. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 13-1555, an ordinance amending
Meridian City Code as codified at Title 11, entitled the Unified Development Code of the
Meridian City Code, pertaining to block lengths, multi-family parking, and storage
facilities, bicycle parking facilities, street knuckles, and other miscellaneous clean-up
items and providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing an effective date.
Meridian City Council Workshop
May 14, 2013
Page 68 of 69
Hoaglun: You have heard Ordinance No. 13-1555 read by title only. Is there anyone in
the audience who would like to hear it read by -- in full? Seeing none --
Bird: Mr. President?
De Weerd: Councilman Bird.
Bird: I move we approve Ordinance No. 13-1555 with suspension of rules.
Rountree: Second.
Hoaglun: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-C. Madam Clerk, would you,
please, call the roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
Hoaglun: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 10: Future Meeting Topics
Hoaglun: Item 10, Future Meeting Topics. Council, anything to come before us?
Zaremba: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Councilman Zaremba.
Zaremba: I have had a request from a citizen that we have a public discussion at a City
Council meeting of the dog shelter and options about what's happening with it or not
happening with it and perhaps some suggestions from the public that we haven't
considered and I said I would ask if that could be a future meeting topic.
Hoaglun: Well, I would think on that that we are going to be hearing from the Police
Department at some point in time about their research. I don't know if that would be the
time, because I would like to hear what they present, because it might be that there is
no option, other than to continue on with what we have, maybe at a different location,
but --
De Weerd: Mr. President?
Hoaglun: Yes, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: I think it's all premature. This is going to be a budget discussion and
certainly we can -- we can invite them during that budget workshop when all of this is
presented for you all to take it into consideration, but it's premature. Right now it's all
Meridian City Council Workshop
May 14, 2013
Page 69 of 69
discussion. We haven't even gotten our budget binders and this has been an ongoing
discussion for the last five years, as I think he pointed out, but at this point putting it on
an agenda with no direction doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You have stated what I have stated to the folks that have made the inquiry
that, again, it's -- it is conceptual, it is in the discussion stage and at some point in time
when we know that there may or may not need to be some action taken at the shelter,
we will have a public process in place, but that I don't know at this point when that will
be. But probably in the budget process.
De Weerd: And Ithink --
Rountree: Ithink that's -- and I got a fine response, that that's good. That's good.
That's all we are asking for. On several occasions, so --
De Weerd: Very good.
Zaremba: I will take that answer back.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hoaglun: That's all we have on our agenda. Do we have a motion to adjourn?
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
Hoaglun: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED At 6:37 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR TA DE WEERD
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