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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-07-09E ~~~~~ CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING AGENDA City Council Chambers 33 East Broadway Avenue Meridian, Idaho Tuesday, July 9, 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 Adopted 4. Community Items/Presentations A. Republic Services: Grass Recycling Pilot Program Update (Pg 2-7) B. Public Works Week Closeout Report and Presentation to Meridian Food Bank (Pg 7-14) 5. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg 14-15) A. Final Order for Approval: FP 13-021 Bridgetower Heights by Cottonwood Investments, LLC Located Southwest Corner of W. McMillan Road and N. Ten Mile Road Request: Final Plat Approval of Fifty-Seven (57) Residential Lots and Nine (9) Common Lots on Approximately 17.89 Acres in an R-8 Zoning District B. Modified Development Agreement for Approval: MDA 12-009 Southridge by The Land Group Located South of W. Overland Road Between S. Ten Mile Road and S. Linder Road Request: Public Hearing: Modification to the Development Agreement 6. Department Reports A. Fire Department: Emergency Medical Services Joint Powers Agreement (Pg 15-20) Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Page 1 of 2 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. B. Resolution No. 13-929: A Resolution Approving a Joint Powers Agreement for the Cooperative Provision of Emergency Medical Services in Ada County Approved (Pg 20-22) C. Public Works: Wastewater Collection System Program Update (Pg 22-28) Adjourned at 4:42 p.m. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Page 2 of 2 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 July 9, 2013 A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:08 p.m., Tuesday, July 9, 2013, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, Keith Bird, David Rountree and Brad Hoaglun. Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Jeff Lavey, Mark Niemeyer, Tom Barry, Kyle Radek, Mollie Mangerich, Tracy Crane, Laurelei Ball, 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: Thank you for your patience and for waiting for us. I will go ahead and launch right into City Council Workshop regular meeting. For the record it is Tuesday, July 19th at 3:08. We will start with roll call attendance, Madam Clerk. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Alliance. If you will all rise and join us in the pledge to our flag. (Pledge of Alliance recited.) Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Just one item to note on today's tonight agenda. Under 6-B that resolution number is 13-929. With that, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda as printed. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as printed. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 2 of 28 Item 4: Community Items/Presentations A. Republic Services: Grass Recycling Pilot Program Update De Weerd: Item 4 is under Community Presentations. We will start with Republic Services. Hi, Dave. Fisher: Mayor and Members of the Council, unfortunately for you I guess the second string showed up today on my part, because Rachel is getting an emergency root canal right now, so -- yeah. So -- De Weerd: I guess I'd rather be in your shoes. Zaremba: This is more fun. Yeah. Fisher: Yeah. So -- but we will limp along here as best we can. And I have a couple of gentlemen here. They can introduce themselves and -- Murgoitio: Gary Murgoitio. We have property out south of here that we are going to do the grass recycling with and we also have the wood waste from the transfer station. De Weerd: Very good. Thanks for being here, Gary. M.Murgoitio: I'm Mike Murgoitio. I'm the one that has the grinder and does a lot of the work for him. This is my dad. De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Fisher: And it really is a team effort. For a number of years in the valley we have been looking at what can we do to enhance the services we provide to our customers and one of the things that we have wanted to do was -- what can we do on the green side, the green waste side, and in the -- in the industry right now there are -- at least from our perspective that composting is maybe not exactly the way we should be heading, but we wanted to do something with -- with green waste and a number of years ago we did a -- in another city that I was involved with we did a -- a pilot program for one summer where we actually passed out 2,000 32 gallon trash cans and asked people to put their yard clippings -- pretty much just grass in those and, then, we brought them out to a farm here in Meridian -- I think his last name was Kingston and he used the ag bag process to ensile those and, then, fed those to his dairy cows and we did that for six months and he very much liked the program. The program was very successful, other than the funding side of it. The city decided they did not want to pay it out of their own general fund and that's the way the pilot program had ran, but as far as picking it up and using it as feed it was very successful. So, in thinking about that we looked at how can we go back to that model and provide that to the people that want to be involved and so that means a subscription based program, rather that just being part of the city program. So, with that thought in mind and encouragement from the SWAC committee here in Meridian that we have talked Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 3 of 28 to, we said what can we do to get grass out of our -- out of our waste stream as much as possible. In the summer our -- the amount of tons that we take to the landfill basically doubles and we attribute most of that to -- to grass. So, we said, well, let's target the biggest offender to that in a way that we can do it as the least costly to the customer and it's also on a subscription basis where they can choose if they want to be involved or not. So, in that -- we said, you know, I have been thinking about this for several years, but it's really important that we have a willing partner in this and it's really an agricultural business that is located close to the customers. If we were hauling this 20 or 30 or 40 miles it becomes very very expensive. So, in -- we started doing some business with Murgoitios and doing our wood grinding and found them to be good folks to work with and -- and someone that we could depend on and so we went to them and talked to them about -- is there uses on their farm for grass and multiple different uses and they said, yes, there is. So, with that idea -- and, then, we started working on what we have in front of you and this is the outreach material. I gave you a sample of the outreach material that we are looking at using and it -- and it talks about it. Basically, you sign up for the service. It's 7.95 a month. It will be billed quarterly in advance and at this point the City of Meridian -- we are going to be a pilot program and Republic Services'will do the billing and the collecting and that can be changed if the city desires to do that in the future and wants to accept that and begin doing that. So, from April through October we will ask the people to use the cart that's given to them to put grass clippings in that cart. Then in November they can use that for leaves as they come off the trees and, then, in December through March overflow trash, they can use it as a trash receptacle. The idea is that we are going to pick the material up. It will be on a separate truck. It won't be commingled with anything else. It will be a separate truck and we will take it out to the Murgoitios, who are, then, going to -- they need to prepare the silage pit. It's asphalt lined on the bottom and earthen walls. They have ran that design past DEQ. We went to them right up front and talked to them about it and they were supportive of it and gave us suggestions on what the ensilage pit should look like and it was designed and, then, it's been built and so we will take the material to that, the Murgoitios will push it in there, compact it as tightly as possible to get all the air out as they can and, then, they will tarp that. Grass that isn't packed tight and not covered there can be some smell. And so we want to really guard against that as much as possible. So, through this ensilage process it will be broke down. It's basically a pickling process. It will pickle the grass. It has positive -- it increases the feed value of the grass. Also we are hoping that it breaks down some of the pesticides and different elements that have been added to the grass and we actually have met with EPA about this, Department of Ag, and Murgoitios last week, along with Rachel, met with some folks from the University of Idaho and the University of Idaho is going to be working with us to analyze what -- what products people are putting on their yards and if there is some that are better than others and that we should encourage people to avoid and, then, they are going to be analyzing the ensilage to look for food value and any constituents that might -- might be a concern. So, we are going to be working with them. Probably the grass that we are going to collect this year -- we will do the ensilage process. We will get it to where it's a -- where it would be appropriate to feed it to the cows, but this time we are not going to do that. That's what will be tested and made sure that it's -- you know, we know what we are getting into here. And, then, once everybody kind of puts their stamp of approval on it and says, yes, this is -- this is something that can be fed to cows and now be -- have Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 4 of 28 a negative impact, then, next year we will start using it as a feed. In the meantime that ensilage, once it's tested, then, they can use it to land apply it and plow it in the fields and there is beneficial use there and everyone we spoke to about that have no concerns over -- over doing that. There is going to be no negative impacts from that and Murgoitios believe it's going to be a very positive impact to their soil out there. So, that's it in a nutshell. Again, this is a pilot program and we have found, though, that there are folks in the community that want these particular services and it may not be the whole community at first and we want to be able to deliver services to people that want it and do it in the most cost effective way we can based on the number of people that are involved, but it gives people an option. The folks that want to be involved can be. Those that don't want to be involved can choose not to be and we think that's a --away to enhance our services and gives people that choice as to what they want to do and not do, so -- do you have anything you want to add? Murgoitio: Yeah. I want to add, too, the reason for the testing is to make sure none of it shows up in the beef. They have had some instances in Washington state where they had a chemical that killed tomatoes and it came clear through the cows -- it came through cattle and into the compost and so that's the kind of thing we want to look before we get completely into this program. The ground applying is not going to hurt anything. And most of the chemicals we use are the same chemicals we are using on our farm crops anyway. The fact is is most of the agencies we talked to, they just kind of look at us like it's a grass. But the label for the product that they are using on the grass is not labeled for cattle. It's not that it -- it's not that it's the same stuff and it's not that it's going to be a problem, it's just not tested by the government particularly for grass on people's lawns to -- to go to the feedlots. So, we have just got to cross our -- or dot our I's and cross our T's and make sure there is nobody putting anything in there that's a problem and we figure after one summer and having that pit there that -- once it gets in the pit and makes silage it will last for a couple of years, so -- and the DEQ and the EPA have given our approve to land apply it. So, we are all legal to land apply and do everything that way, it's just the USDA inspecting the meat is the final hurdle that we have to get by and so that's what -- that's what we are worried about. So, we have got six months to a year, a year and a half to get that done and it should -- it should work really well. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: First I think it's an excellent idea. Please pursue it. All that. Two things. One is a suggestion and that is that maybe to help you with a preliminary analysis of what the people who are currently dealing with storm water runoff, such as ACRD and our Public Works Department, may be able to tell you what's in the water runoff from people's lawns and -- they already know that. So, there is some guidance there probably. The other issue is a more long range issue and I guess I'm concerned with all of us spend a lot of -- a lot more water turning this desert into grass lawns and then -- first we are using more water than we ought to and, second, we are producing this stuff that needs to be dealt with. I'm glad that you're finding a solution for dealing with the grass clippings and stuff. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 5 of 28 think that's wonderful. My hope in the long run would be that some day we have fewer lawns and less grass and more xeriscaping. So, I would worry about this not being a long range solution, because sometime we are going to have to start divvying out our water differently. Just an opinion. But it's not tomorrow. Murgoitio: They are getting better grasses, too. They are coming out with the rye grasses and some that don't take only about half the water than, you know, the blue grasses and stuff, too, so -- Zaremba: Well, that would be good. Murgoitio: They are making some strides. I got a neighbor that turf farms and that's what he's telling me, that they are doing a lot of research on that part of it. So, if they could cut it in half that would -- that would help a lot. But there is still a lot of grass to feed us. De Weerd: You wonder in our lifetime. Murgoitio: Yeah. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Question for Mike. You mentioned you had the grinder. At what point in the process are you grinding the grass? Once it gets hauled in before you put it in the silage pit? M.Murgoitio: So, what I have is I have the contract with Ada County landfill, so I will take in -- so every stick of wood that goes out to the landfill we grind up and use for cattle bedding and I sell it to numerous dairies and feedlots throughout the valley here and it started out through Republic Services. There is a transfer station right here in Meridian, they would truck it out to me and I would grind it right there on site, which was great, because -- but with the contract up there it costs a little more to haul it down and haul it somewhere else, so it's a great deal here in Meridian with that transfer station, because they are hauling it to the landfill anyway, they just turn and haul it to us. Hoaglun: Okay. I just want to be sure on the grinding, I thought are you grinding the grass -- M.Murgoitio: No. Hoaglun: Yeah. Okay. Murgoitio: That's how we got the relationship to start with. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 6 of 28 Hoaglun: And one last question, Mike. Were you as good a football player as your dad was? M.Murgoitio: I went the racing route. Hoaglun: That's what I hear. De Weerd: You went the easy way, uh? Bird: The speedway. Got to put the metal to the metal. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Dave, can you kind of -- do you have a final scenario for how this processing is going to work on your end? I know Rachel has given us the first cut was everybody's going to get a can and it's going to cost seven something a month and we will pick it up and bring it back and, then, it's -- we are going to give you a can for grass season and, then, you can use it for waste for the rest of the season and -- what is it going to be? What has it gotten into at this point? Fisher; Yeah. You know, it was -- one of the things we wanted to do is -- you know, we do have a growing season here and about five months out of the year, you know, we don't and so what can we use that can for and so we looked at what can we do to, you know, use that and I think we came up with a pretty innovative idea is that the -- this program as far as the grass will run April through October and so you can use your cart for -- for grass during that period and, then, in November when we switch to collecting leaves around the valley -- you know, in the past we have been doing that in all sorts of -- of boxes and bags and different things and leaf bags that are fairly expensive and so we thought, you know, let's use -- you know, the grass has pretty much quit growing right when the leaves are dropping, so let's use those receptacles for people collecting their leaves and we will collect those separately as part of the leaf collection programs that we do around the valley and, then, in December it can actually become an additional trash can December through March. So, what we are hoping is that the folks that have a second or a third can right now that really is driven by grass, that they can make that switch and so they will see a reduction in their bill on the trash side and, then, be able to add this grass cart and, then, they can use it as an overflow can the rest of the year. So, I think that's -- that's kind of an innovative approach, too, and, again, it will take a lot of education, but what we have found when you have a subscription program like this, people become invested in it and they really are good about following kind of the guidelines and what the restrictions are. It's just -- when it's -- when it's something they are making a decision on like that that they tend to be close follow -- you know, follow the information that they are given and they do a pretty good job at it and, you know, just from hauling -- being in the waste business for 25 years in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho, we do have educated, compliant customers here. They really do care about what's going on and doing it right and it allows Meridian Gity Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 7 of 28 you to do some things here that maybe I wouldn't do someplace else. I wouldn't launch this in Las Vegas. Wouldn't launch it in some places in Arizona, because you would end up -- you know, that grass carts would be half full of trash and that's not being disparaging to any of those folks, but just -- we are really fortunate that way, that people do really care and try to do the right thing. So, that allows us to do some things maybe you couldn't do someplace else. Rountree: Thank you. De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: I think this looks like an exciting project. I am thrilled that our SWAC is equally excited and look forward to seeing it roll out. Fisher: We have a list of several hundred customers that have called and had interest and we will be calling them this week and setting up accounts and delivering carts probably starting next week. De Weerd: Excellent. Well, Gary and Mike, thank you for joining us as well and, David, it's always nice to see you. Fisher: Thank you. De Weerd: And, certainly, you know, those emergency root canals are not fun, so -- Fisher: I will let -- I will let her know that you're thinking of her. De Weerd: Yeah. Thank you for being here. Fisher: Thank you. B. Public Works Week Closeout Report and Presentation to IVleridian Food Bank De Weerd: Item No. 4-B is through our Public Works Department and I know they are closing out their Public Works Week, so I will ask our director Tom Barry to come forward. Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. It's my pleasure to join you this afternoon and talk with you a little bit about what happened between the dates of June 2nd and June the 8th this year. We had our fifth annual Public Works Week celebration and while Dave is in the room I did want to formally thank you and Republic Services for your kind donation to our Public Works Week celebration. Thank you very much. Couldn't have done it without you guys. But, in any event, we are going to run some pictures just in the background for your entertainment, because people in those pictures Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 8 of 28 are much better looking than I am, so enjoy the slide show as it goes automatically behind the scenes here. But I wanted to give you some information and I'm going to ask Kyle up as well and, then, we have a presentation for the Food Bank as well today. But, you know, five years ago when I joined the city and talked with the staff about ways that we could outreach to the community and came up with this idea of embracing the National Public Works Week celebration and kind of taking it on and doing our own thing. The staff thought I was a little bit crazy at the time, you know, who is going to be interested in Public Works. Everything we do is out of sight. No one knows anything about it and who really cares about it and that was really the challenge, you know, to get people to understand Public Works and to appreciate all of the services that we provide that improve the quality of life of the citizens of Meridian and so we started and -- you know, five years ago and celebrated -- of course, this is our fifth year and we have just watched this particular series of events over this week grow and expand and we have had phenomenal participation and we have had outstanding comments from the community that has really stepped up and embraced what we have done. We have developed enormous partnerships that I could not even contemplate. For example, we had over 50 sponsors and a prize donating company -- or companies that donated prizes and contributors and donations and -- mean it was incredible this year and continues to grow. We have had about 17 major organizations that donated 200 dollars or more to this particular event. Republic Services donated considerably to finance our Public Works Week toward the facilities tour -- the flow tour and, you know, we had kids that have been educated, you know, as part of the outreach program and also at the expo. We run the Poop Scoot. And Kyle is going to -- I'm going to save those numbers for Kyle to give to you, but, you know, this week is -- this particular week's worth of outreach is important, not just for our community, it's important for the department, because you will talk with any of the staff and you will hear from them that they learn as much as the community members learn about our own department by interacting with one another to pull these events off. We have folks in the department that have come to me and said, you know, I never knew we did that or I never knew so and so did this or I never knew that's how it worked or this is why we do it and -- and the team building opportunities that accompany this particular event or series of events are incredible. We work for four or five months planning these events and working and coordinating, collaborating with our members of the Public Works Department, other departments within the city and staff members and members of our community as well. So, the networking opportunities that come with this week's worth of events are enormous, too. As say during this week, we do not build this community simply as a Public Works Department, we rely on the vendors that we work with, our contractors, our design engineers, our architects and others that help build the infrastructure that the city eventually owns and operates and maintains. So, it's a phenomenal event. It continues to grow and we continue to have people get excited and interested and engaged and I will share one comment with you that I had from one of the ladies who has participated with her family that I spoke to at the expo says she's come to every single one and puts it on her calendar and I sort of think in my head back to the comments that staff made -- who would ever really be that interested, but I'm telling you it's cool stuff and I know that you have been there and I appreciate your support in watching what we have done and in supporting this particular series of activities. What I would like to do is turn it over to Kyle Radek, but before I do I want to introduce the committee, who is not here -- some of them Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 9 of 28 are, but the committee that pulled this off is 14 members of the Public Works Department. Kyle Radek was the chair of the Public Works Week committee and did a phenomenal job as usual leading up this group. Ashley Newbry was on the committee and also the expo chair. David Allison was on the committee. Mollie Mangerich was on the committee and also the tour chair. Brian Kerr was on the committee. Dena Smith was on the committee and was the Poop Scoot chair. Darrell Bergen was on the committee. Janine Rodriquez on the committee. Dave Miles was on the committee. Randy Elliott, Diana Russell also on the committee. And, then, Joel Meusch was the golf chair and Susie Deardorf was the marketing chair and Carol Skinner was the community development chair. So, it takes a lot of personnel to pull this off and, of course, that goes without saying, all the folks in the community that help this happen, too. I also did want to thank ACRD. They provided six flaggers at their expense to cover the Poop Scoot to make that a safe event for us with the crossing this year. We are grateful to them as well. So, without further adieu I will turn it over to Kyle Radek. Radek: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Council Members, thanks for your time today. Just briefly what I would like to cover -- summarize what we did and how it went this year, what it cost us and, then, I want to briefly talk about what I think it's worth to us and provide a segue for Mollie to show you a video and, then, I want to present our commemorative coins to you as part of the new Public Works and, then, I want to do our Food Bank donation, which is our chosen charity for this series of events. So, although this was the fifth observance of Public Works Week, this was actually the first observance of Meridian Public Works Week. Up until now we have been observing during the National Public Works Week week, which is at the end of May and for a variety of reasons, mostly calendars, conflicts with Memorial Day weekend weather, we decided to kind of go off on our own a little bit, do it a little different for this year. We were June 2nd to the 8th and bit in the order that they occurred, but the events -- we are did our Poop Scoot Fun Run. We had 165 people attend that event. We gathered 351 pounds of food for the Food Bank as entry donations for that event. We also, interestingly enough, we -- we got a new T-shirt design this year. It worked out pretty good. People were interested in it. We had a couple people ask if they could -- instead of paying in advance, which we said you had to do, can we pay when we get there, because we happen to be from the Netherlands and so we said, well, geez, if you're coming from Holland you can have a free T-shirt. Of course, they weren't coming just for the event, but they actually -- now there are two Poop Scoot T-shirts in the Netherlands right now as we speak. De Weerd: I didn't see them when I was there. Radek: I met them there. I can't remember their names. But they did participate -- De Weerd: No. When I was in Holland last week. Radek: Oh. I'm sorry. And most importantly at the end of the Poop Scoot Fun Run we did have a tour, take a gander at the wastewater treatment plant, so that's kind of what it's all about. People seeing what we do. Our infrastructure tour, we had forty take advantage of that. We have almost a dozen waiting to get on the list for next year's tour. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 10 of 28 And we had Tom -- Tom Payne came, we had some great comments about the tour. had some comments personally from some people who thought it was one of the best tours they had been on bar none. Any tour, whether it was Public Works related or not. The expo was well attended. It's hard to estimate how many people are at an event like that. We get comment cards, but certainly not from the majority of people and you could see from the -- from the event photo there was quite a few people there. A lot of kids. think the word is out on the street about the Home Depot bird houses. De Weerd: That was so cute. Radek: And, in fact, I think a couple of -- if you want to call them negative comments, we did have a couple comments where it was -- oh, they ran out of bird houses or they ran out of, you know, hard hats for the kids, so -- and I think that just tells us it's getting bigger and bigger. The golf scramble was a step above last year. The golf scramble we had a full course, 19 teams that took part in the golf scramble. It was an opportunity for consultants and contractors to network, to market with staff and talk about Public Works. It paid for itself. It's also -- this year raised -- the golf scramble by itself raised 1,500 dollars for the Food Bank. We collected -- well, I don't want to talk about the total money we collected, because I don't want anybody doing the math. I want to save the amount we are going to give to the Food Bank for the end. But the cost -- I'm going to talk about the cost of Public Works Week real quick. The events that were not available to everybody in the community, we felt like it's not fair to expend our funds on that. So, the tour, golf, fun run, all paid for themselves and sponsorships paid for those. We do from our outreach fund pay for marketing and the expo and we believe that's fair. It cost us 3,049 dollars, which we think -- I think personally is an extremely effective outreach amount. It represents about 1/100th of a percent of our FY-13 budget in Public Works. We spent -- as an example we spent 12,000 dollars putting our consumer confidence report together, something that's also important outreach, but I think the important thing you have to ask is what's the value of this kind of outreach and this isn't an outreach by television and radio or fliers, this is outreach by one-to-one conversations with staff. This is touching and feeling, infrastructure understanding at a level that you wouldn't get any other way. We have now community leaders, homeowners association presidents that understand more about Public Works and what it takes to make Public Works work. So, we have advocates in the community that are aware of what it takes to make things happen. We also have advocates that are in grade school in the community now. You saw a lot of kids learning about what it takes to make Public Works work. So, how you put a value on that I don't know, but I think it's worth a lot. I think it's money well spent and that's my segue for Mollie to show you a video that she's developed and that we used on the facilities tour and take it, Mollie. De Weerd: Kyle, I guess I just want to add to your list of maybe the intangible benefits. From the community members that went on the tour that I talked with, the pride that our staff has in what they do and the public service aspect of it -- or public servant aspect of it, was recognized and greatly appreciated. In the expo you had kids that were excited about recycling and the sustainability to models that were shown a better understanding and Ihope -- and some people had made comment on it -- that there was maybe Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 11 of 28 germinating of interest in pursuing a Public Works field. That's the second one. And, then, the public education is part of that expo. You see little kids seeing, you know, a pollution spill or digging in the dirt and understanding composting and those kind of things. You can't put price tags on those things and you can't get into enough classrooms to see the kids experience it with their families and being able to talk about that afterwards. So, this was coins in the bank and, you know, it -- Public Works we always say you're doing your job if no one's talking about you, because it's all underground. But people are talking about you, because now they are seeing the workers and are working on behalf and delivering their service and seeing the seriousness of how you're doing your jobs and passion that you have and the pride that you have and that goes a long a way. Radek: Madam Mayor, thank you very much for your comments. I feel the same way about everything you say. De Weerd: Good deal. Mangerich: Madam Mayor, Council, to wrap up our Public Works Week presentation to you is I wanted to share with you what we launched this year, which is the first of an examination focused on one of our utilities, wastewater, and before you start it's called -- we launched it with the Go With The Flow bus tour and CDs were produced and they were placed in everybody's goody bag and, plus, they were also shown by the tour participants. All the survey cards rated it excellent. And what is so cool about this particular animation is that Natalie Podgorski is one of the voices. She volunteered her voice for the animation. And also secured the help of Mr. Ron Kern, who owns Shadow Trackers right up here on Main. A fabulous voice talent. He agreed to it. No problem. Went into the recording studio used locally just south of City Hall, Nathan Barnes with Osmosis Studios. It was a wonderful community collaboration. The purpose behind the development of this animation is to say our department's philosophy about education and outreach is to craft a message and to send it to the intended audience, but not only to provide information, but we want to engage, we want to provide insight into our utilities and we want to stimulate inquiry to the services that we provide, not only our operations, we want them to know about our services and the way in which we handle and deliver those critical services and that's through the field tour stewardship. By engaging our citizens we firmly believe that they can become better users of these very expensive capital facilities that we have in place for these services and as a result of that we become a partnership in stewardship. When you become a steward of your utility you're actually a steward of our natural resources, from thence comes our utilities. So, before I begin the animation a few blurbs. So, Natalie launched in on You Tube. We have got close to 500 hits to date. We have been tweeted. The animation has been Facebooked and we even have it blogged by third-party people. It has been picked up and posted on the national professional organization's website, the Water and Environmental Federation and also a regional, which is the Northwest Clean Water Association and that's not what we provided them, they picked up on it through the wind of the media. So far we have distributed it to -- during the tour. Lewis & Clark, their science class, they are going to be integrating this animation into their science class this next year, along with Meridian Academy. Both rode the bus. I particularly asked them to come on board and help stimulate how we can Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 12 of 28 provide education to their science classes. Also Darin Taylor, who is the mayor of Middleton spoke to Tracy Crane, our superintendent, and he was also on the bus and he said, hey, do you think I could get a copy of that and show it to his council, as they are preparing to finance several upgrades at their own wastewater treatment facility and, of course, Tracy gladly gave them that as well. The CD is now shown in front of many of wastewater treatments stores and -- tours. Excuse me. And I'm now distributing them in all of our outreach events. We have this wonderful little battery bag full of all of our little educational things, plunk in goes the CD. So, targeting those rate payers. And you will soon see a blurb about it and public service is so generous with their quarterly newsletter that they allow us to write information, departmental -- Public Works departmental news and we will be able to highlight this animation as well. So, hit it, Susie. (Video played.) Radek: Thanks, Mollie. Madam Mayor, Council Members, now we are at the fun part. get to present our commemorative coins to you. I intended to do that before our Public Works Week, but our supplier didn't seem to think that the date on the coins mattered that much and we got them after Public Works Week, so -- we did get them at a discount that way, so -- and I just want to say -- to kind of wrap things up. Madam Mayor, you said some things that -- included some words that I would have used. Like pride. The main reason that I am involved in Public Works Week is because I'm proud of what I do for a living and I'm proud to do it for the City of Meridian and I think that a public servant is one of the best compliments that you can give to an elected official, call them a public servant, and I believe that that's what we have in elected officials. You guys are a member of our team and it's because of our relationship that we are able to provide the public works services to the citizens of Meridian that are second to none and that are provided at a cost that on a national basis are outstanding. So, I thank you for what you do for us in our relationship and -- and I'd like to present a coin to each of you and, like I said, we went kind of on our own this year. It says Meridian Public Works Week, instead of National Public Works Week. The theme this year we did take from the national theme, which is because of public works, indicating the -- the difference in the quality of life good public works makes and we have -- we had the national artwork -- we didn't particularly care for what was included in it, but we took the style of it and added our own water tower to it. So, this is kind of a personalized coin. So, now, Tom, if you want to help me out with the finale here as we get to tell you what we brought in for the Meridian Food Bank and present the giant, albeit fake, but giant check -- yes. To the studio audience and to the certainly dozens and dozens of viewers that must be on the computer right now. We -- like Isaid, we -- it was a great week. The golf tournament brought in -- you know, people bought -- you know, if they can buy Mulligans and licorice, you know, to improve their golf score, they will spend that money. So, we'd like to -- we have Claire, great, and -- and Margarita from the Food Bank and, please, come up and accept this donation from -- from us for $5,001.12. Barry: Margarita is the volunteer coordinator for the Meridian Food Bank and Claire is on the board and the executive director couldn't be here today. We are sorry about that. But, Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 13 of 28 hopefully, you have got nice surprise when you get back that he will appreciate. We'd love for you to say a few words if you a have a few minutes. De Weerd: Just speak into the microphone. Claire: I'm not a public speaker, but we really -- this is a surprise. We didn't know what -- we knew we were coming for a big check. It's big and it's -- the quantity is larger than I think I anticipated, so that was wonderful. As you have already said, Margarita and I volunteers at the Meridian Food Bank and I'm on the board and we just want to say thank you to the Public Works Department and the Public Works Week sponsors for their continuing support, because this is not the first year that you have supported us and we really do appreciate it. I won't go into too much detail, but the Meridian Food Bank is entirely staffed by volunteers. We do not have any paid positions. We have 80 to a hundred volunteers and Margarita is responsible to schedule them to -- for their work days. They don't all work at the same time and -- but we are open three days a week and there are many many more hours that volunteers put in other than when we are open. We have people who are involved with picking up deliveries, receiving deliveries that come to us, and cleaning -- just generally making the place work, because the Meridian Food Bank has grown over the last decade from a small food pantry to the present organization. As you all know we have made our move -- you know, we had great help in getting into our new location. Thank you. Just so you will know, some of the numbers I was given to pass on to you, in 2011 we gave out 600,000 pounds of food, serving 1,430 individuals. In 2012 we gave out 752,400 pounds of food, serving 63,922 individuals. By the end of June this year we have already provided 400,000 pounds of food to 30,759 individuals. And the reason the numbers are so large -- we give food to families, but a family can consist of one person, two, up to -- some have ten people living in a household. We give it out by households. So, the numbers really are quite amazing and we do not turn anyone away. Anyone comes in and says they need food, we don't question why they need food or what their circumstances are. We do take information. We have to gather that, because we do get some grants, but we provide food to those who need it. I don't know if you know about the food backpack program, but during the school year there is a food backpack program, which provides needy students in our local schools with food for the weekends. During 2011-2012 school year 9,636 sacks of food were distributed. The youth worked with us in this program getting the food together and getting it to the schools where the school officials identify those in need and -- and that was 2011-2012. In 2012- 2013 12,353 sacks of food were distributed. So, again, the need in the backpack program continues to increase, just as it does in the Food Bank program, but none of this -- none of the things that we do would be possible without the generous cash donations and food donations that we receive from the community, such as this check. And so we really want to thank the Public Works Department and the Public Works Week sponsors for all their help. We really do appreciate it and we are just two of 80 to 100 people who thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Barry: Well, thank you again, Margarita and Claire. We are so grateful to have you here and on behalf of the Public Works staff, you know, when we tried to identify a charity that Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 14 of 28 we wanted to get behind and embrace, it was a no brainer that the Meridian Food Bank was going to be that charity and we -- we know that you do what we do and that is to try to make the community a better place and we appreciate all that you do to do just that, make our community a much better place and so we appreciate it and wish you success or continued success I should say in your program. So thank you. And, Mayor and Council, that's all I have for you. At this point our Public Works Week hopefully you have gained a little bit more understanding about the events and the programs and the benefits and values and, again, as Kyle said and I'll second on behalf of all the staff and Public Works, thank you very much for your continued support. We appreciate it. De Weerd: Thank you, Tom. And, you know, I guess congratulations to you and your staff. As I walked around and talked to a number of them I -- I know that your staff doesn't necessarily always look forward to Public Works Week, because it's not just a week, there is a lot of time and effort that goes into it, but, you know, all I can emphasize is the payback. The payback to our community that will get to know you and your staff better and know what you're all about and that's what that week allows a look inside the operation and a look inside the people that are the operation. So, again, I think you had great success. All of the events were -- were well received, were well attended, and congratulate you. Item 5: Consent Agenda A. Final Order for Approval: FP 13-021 Bridgetower Heights by Cottonwood Investments, LLC Located Southwest Corner of W. McMillan Roa and N. Ten Mile Road Request: Final Plat Approval of Fifty-Seven (57) Residential Lots and Nine (9) Common Lots on Approximately 17.89 Acres in an R-8 Zoning District B. Modified Development Agreement for Approval: MDA 12-009 Southridge by The Land Group Located South of VV. Overland Road Between S. Ten Mile Road and S. Linder Road Request: Public Hearing: Modification to the Development Agreement De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 5 is our Consent Agenda. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move approval of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Madam Clerk, will you call roll. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 15 of 28 Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 6: Department Reports A. Fire Department: Emergency Medical Services Joint Powers Agreement De Weerd: Item No. 6-A is under our Fire Department. I will turn this over to Chief Niemeyer. And, ladies, we won't make you sit through the rest of our City Council meeting. You can really take your check and go. But you can stay, too. You can stay. Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, long time no see. Before I get into my topic I do want to say in the fire department we pride ourselves on our community outreach and the involvement and all the kids run up to our fire engine, but Tom has presented us with some competition in his staff that I'm impressed to go out there and see all the kids and see the outreach. It was very impressive and having a chance to go out to the wastewater treatment plant with the directors and Mayor and do the tour there, I have only known Tracy as a redneck from Middleton and I got a new appreciation for his level of intelligence. So, that said, Tom, the fire hydrant opening -- we are going to talk about that, because that's our ball game. De Weerd: I will say, Mark, that it is all about the big trucks. Niemeyer: Yes, it is. De Weerd: And I talked to a number of parents whose kids came to Public Works Week and they will come every single year because of the big trucks, the machinery, the fact that they can operate a backhoe and -- I mean it's -- it's all about the big equipment. Niemeyer: I agree, but you know my competitive nature -- and Tom did offer to let me drive the big vacuum truck and I said why would I want to drive that little thing, so -- anyway. On a more serious note I would like to, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, offer up our thoughts prayers to -- Prescott, Arizona, memorial was today for the 19 firefighters lost and it's something that has affected our fire service community greatly across the nation, the worst disaster in the fire service since September 11th. Our union did pay for two members to go down and attend that funeral service and memorial. I apologize for getting choked up, but that's a big deal for us. So, appreciate your support in that. Before you today is the final draft and the final version of the EMS joint powers agreement we have been discussing for several months now. I just want to briefly touch on our involvement in this. As word goes back to the task force where the state was trying to look at legislation to address the concerns and the issues that were affecting EMS. I Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 16 of 28 will say I believe that Meridian helped lead the way between Chief Anderson and myself being involved in that task force for four years trying to make a difference. We also didn't get there at the state level. Looking back I think we all realized that this is a local issue and it's best served if the local folks can figure the issue out and address things. So, from there some of the parties started to work on their agreement and their system. They did ask me to come over and just provide input to that. I attended their meetings and was able to provide some insight into the history of the task force and you know my background in EMS, so I have been experiencing this for many years and provided my insight there. And, then, along with others we led the way in Ada County, because we realized we had to do something that brought us some long-term sustainability to the EMS system here in Ada County and to do that we needed a plan, we needed an agreement, we needed to bring people together to constantly address the issues regarding EMS even in this county. So, that is the EMS joint powers agreement, again, we have worked on for approximately two years that dates back to the days when Troy Hagen was here, prior to him leaving and going to California, he was involved in this, now it's Darby Weston. Chief Doan has been involved with it the whole time, as well as myself, Chief Winkle. Kuna has seen a little bit of turnover in their administration over the last few years, so they have had some folks in and out of that. You know the situation in Star, so Chief Winkle has represented Star through all of this. The commissioners were briefed and they are supportive of it. So far the city of Boise has signed off on this. Ada County has signed off on it. Eagle Fire District. The firefighter district. North Ada County Fire, which does still -- we discussed this before, they do still hold an EMS license, even though it's only one person that provides EMS. There is a couple sections that I do want to identify and address that we had concerns over. One was Section 4.1.2. that reflected clarification that two county commissioners would sit on this board, along with the elected officials from each city and fire district represented. The language is a little bit vague prior to where there was some confusion on how many of the county commissioners would sit. Section 4.3.1.1, that was the quorum section, in other words, how many people are needed to make up a quorum. That was identified and agreed to by all parties. I know there is some contention out there on a couple of sections that I do want to address briefly. One is 3.4, that entire section on voluntary withdrawal. The other is section 3.6 on termination. I'd remind Council and Mayor that this agreement is going to be renewed annually. I would also point out that to move anything forward once the agreement is in place regarding EMS is going to unanimous consent of the board, which means that if one person or one group, one agency has issue with the direction that we are going into, we stay at the table until we get the decision right. So, there is natural safeguards and protections there. I have talked to two other agencies about these two sections, we honestly believe that over time as we renew this every year and we tweak the language every year to reflect where we are at, that these two sections will go away. But at the start of this thing we believe that this is what keeps people at the table. I have gone through several studies, including the King county system where I came from, they have similar language that keeps people at the table. If you're not going to stay, then, we will provide the EMS for you in a county-wide type system. So, it was decided by the member agencies and the folks that sign on to leave that with a review of it every year and if we decide that this no longer needs to be in here, we have established this system, it's been running effectively and efficiently long enough and we just be able to take it out. But for Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 17 of 28 now this is kind of the hammer that keeps folks in there. I talked to Dia Gainer, she used to be the city EMS bureau and I have a lot of respect for Dia, she's a very smart woman. She's now back in Washington D.C. helping oversee EMS for the country and we went through these sections and she understood why to start off an agreement like this you need some kind of hammer in there and when we were going through the EMS co-task force she was a proponent of that as well. We talked about several different various things and Councilman Bird remembers this, too, and I apologize for not including you in the leadership of that. Councilman Bird was a vital part of those discussions. We talked about everything from fines to withdrawal and et cetera and et cetera as far as how do you keep folks at the table to start this thing off and there is going to be some contention. When we get down into the brass tacks of talking about deployment and how many providers need to be in the system and what's the best way to do that, there is still going to be some hills to climb and we need folks staying at the table to get through hills to get to the end run. So, I know there has been some concern over that. It is still in the agreement. And with that I'd stand for any questions. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: A couple of questions, Mark. I take 4/2/2013 is the date on the agreement? Niemeyer: You know, that was tentative and it will run through September -- Bird: Okay. Niemeyer: -- of this year. So, it will be the new -- Bird: And, then, if I didn't misunderstand, you said two commissioners? Niemeyer: Two commissioners. Bird: Okay. If I read this right, Ada County is a party; right? Niemeyer: They are. Bird: Each party will have one. Two elected officials from ACEMS. Whose is that? That's the county. Niemeyer: That's the commissioners. Bird: And so you're going to have all three commissioners on that board. Niemeyer: We will just have two. Let me get to that section and we will walk through that again. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 18 of 28 Bird: It's on 4.1. Niemeyer: I think it is safe to say, Commissioner Bird, that the county understands that they only have two as well in talking with the commissioners. Bird: That's not what it says, though, Mark. Niemeyer: Well, you have an official representing each party and a total of two elected officials of the board. Bird: And two elected officials of the ACEMS district. Niemeyer: Correct. And that's a discussion that Councilman Rountree brought up. actually concur. Bird: That's why I wanted to see if it had been changed. Niemeyer: Yeah. And it has been changed. That's not the way we had it before. But the problem we have is that the county commissioners are the board of Ada County Emergency Medical Services as well. They are one and the same. So, that's why you see the slash there where it says there will only be two county commissioners representing -- Bird: But it don't say that. Rountree: It doesn't say that. This copy hasn't been changed. Hoaglun: Yeah. Right here. And I would ask Mr. Nary -- one elected official representing each party and a total of two elected officials of ACEMS district, slash Ada County board of commissioners. That's saying -- and a total of two means there couldn't be more than two. Is that -- okay. Niemeyer: Although that was probably looking at the version you got online there, instead of the final version. With that, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, what I am looking for today is for action to ultimately have the Mayor sign -- there is a signing on July 17th for all the parties that will be signing to the agreement and I will stand for any questions you may have. Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: Madam Mayor, just to clarify for Council Member Hoaglun, in looking at it -- because they have included in that no more than -- or a total of two, it's not good for the district, but also for the Ada County Board of Commissioners, so that's why it's limited to Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 19 of 28 two. Because they are not saying two of the ACEMS board, it's saying two of both the board and the county commissioners. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, question for Mark. Mark, where are we in the process? Have the other jurisdictions signed? I think we are towards the tail end? Niemeyer: We are the last. Hoaglun: We are the last. Niemeyer: Yeah. We held off on this. We wanted to let it get to all the agencies first to make sure there were no further changes. Boise approved this I believe two weeks ago. The commissioners approved it I believe. Eagle approved last week. Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor and Mark, question on the withdrawal. If by chance Meridian were to withdraw from this agreement it does not preclude a paramedic being on afire truck and providing -- rendering aid when they pull out. I mean -- Niemeyer: Councilman Hoaglun, the way the agreement reads is that if you withdraw -- voluntary withdrawal, whatever amount of time is left until the next renewal -- annual renewal, you will no longer provide EMS services, you will have to reapply to the state to get an EMS license. Hoaglun: Okay. Niemeyer: I would point out that that does not mean that given that withdrawal won't have EMS services to it. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird:. Mark, as I understand the state, we won't have -- we couldn't have a license if we withdrew until -- until we could reapply; right? Niemeyer: So, I will clarify that. It gets a little bit tricky here. Each jurisdiction is required annually to provide a medical supervision plan to the state. One of the things under this agreement is that the system provides the medical supervision plan to the state, the Ada County system. So, they will identify who are the responders, who is covering what areas, et cetera. We are not to the point yet where we are going to have one license for the whole system. The state is not quite set up to be able to do that. That is a goal. But we will still have our own individual license, it's just that under the medical supervision plan that identifies who is responsible for what areas to meet what criteria, et cetera. Bird: So, our -- our license wouldn't be active until we got reapplied, because it would be through the system? Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 20 of 28 Niemeyer: Correct. Bird: Even though we still had the license -- Niemeyer: Yes. Bird: -- we couldn't -- Niemeyer: We would simply have to renew our own -- Bird: -- couldn't practice it or whatever you want to call it, yeah. Niemeyer: Correct. Yes. ~. Resolution No. : A Resolution Approving a Joint Powers Agreement for the Cooperative Provision of Emergency Medical Services in Ada County De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions for the chief? Okay. Our next item, 6-B, is Resolution 13-929 and I would ask for Council's direction. Rountree: Madam Mayor, just a point of discussion. And Mark knows this and you have all heard me before that I just don't like the language of those sections that have been talked about. Two months ago I was ready to say let's reject this as a body. The more I read it the more I dislike it. It seems to me that if that's the glue that holds this together you're holding this whole thing hostage in a whole bale of negativity. However, the more read it the more I understand that if we don't play we don't have a say and the say in this particular agreement is pretty significant. Everybody has to agree or nothing gets done. So, it's not easy to get something done on -- from either end of this. That, coupled with the fact that it's only going to be good for two months I have changed my opinion and hope that in two months we can at least put some tone of positive energy into this joint powers agreement and move forward when it's brought forward for renewal. Now you know where I stand, as opposed to where you thought I stood. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Clarification. Rountree: I guess -- and I have said it before, there is a lot of good in this and, again, those two paragraphs really -- or the two sections really get to me. I'm not sure when you really get down to it that either one of them are enforceable. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 21 of 28 Hoaglun: And Councilman Rountree makes a very good point about being at the table and that does give us the veto authority. If there is something we truly can't live with we can speak up and the parties will have to work. I mean this is pure collaboration in this process and sometimes it can be very difficult and lengthy, but I agree I think we should be at the table and make this thing work and see it through and, hopefully, whether it's two months or a year, I mean it's one of those things I think it's going to take effort on everybody's part, so -- Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I -- if this didn't expire in September 30th I wouldn't be voting for it, because we spent four years battling this same thing and Ithink -- I think it's a solution to your EMS stuff, but right now we are getting stuff shoved down our throat that certain parties within this -- that wrote it vetoed it when we were trying to get it statewide and countywide. But with the two months -- I don't know how far along you can get in two months, but at least it's a shot, so I'm like Councilman Rountree, I can support it until September 30th at least. Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move approval of Resolution No. 13-929. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 6-B. Madam Clerk, will you, please, call roll. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Thank you. Niemeyer: Thank you. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 22 of 28 Zaremba: I'm trying to remember the date off the top of my head. I think the -- I thought the chief was going to mention it, but I think we have all been invited to a ceremonial signing of this on July 17th at 11:00 a.m. Is that what it is? Niemeyer: Councilman Zaremba, correct. July 17th. I'm going to have to look up the timing again for all of you. I believe it's in the morning. Rountree: Is that at Ada County? Zaremba: Ada County courtroom -- or their meeting room. Ada County commissioner meeting room. Niemeyer: Yes. Zaremba: Unless somebody hears otherwise, I think it was 11:00 a.m. on the 17th. Bird: I think you're right. Niemeyer: I will definitely confirm and get all that to you. I believe you're correct, but I don't have it in front of me. Thank you. De Weerd: That answered your question; right? Zaremba: Yes. Thank you. C. Public Works: Wastewater Collection System Program Update De Weerd: Very good. Okay. Our last item is through our Public Works Department. I will turn this over to Mr. Barry. Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And just want to acknowledge Chief Niemeyer successfully watered down the mood that we tried to create earlier, so we appreciate that. We are going to try to -- try to liven this up again and get smiles on everyone's faces here. Actually, we love each other. Not really. Niemeyer: Game on. Barry: Anyway. You know, four years ago I -- I and the staff of the wastewater division brought to you a proposal to take in house our wastewater collection system program and at the time four years ago we had out sourced our cameraing and also our sewer cleaning and found that we weren't able to cover as much ground as we would like and for the cost that we -- that we were incurring. So, we did some internal evaluation and identified that if we brought in those services and put them in house, hired two staff and bought the equipment, that we could actually do a better job in providing a much more quick cleaning and television cameraing schedule than what we would have otherwise had we kept contracting it out and at that time I had mentioned to you that it was about a four and a Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 23 of 28 half year return on investment. It's about four and a half years and so I figured I would come back in front of you and let you know how the program is going and who better to talk about this program than our wastewater superintendant Tracy Crane and our assistant, who I think this is your first Council appearance since becoming assistant superintendent, so -- De Weerd: Congratulations, Laurelei. Barry: -- we are very excited to have Laurelei step up from the laboratory manager to our assistant superintendent. I think you will enjoy and appreciate what you hear and we are pretty proud of this program. We have a lot of benefits that's been achieved from this program and I want to thank you in advance of the presentation for your patience and support and your trust in allowing us to try an innovative way to take in house these services and provide the benefit that you will hear about in just a moment. So, with that will turn it over to staff. Crane: Thanks, Tom. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for your time. know it's been a long day, so we will try to be brief, but for those of you that have stuck around they saved the best for last, so it's probably worth it. De Weerd: Oh, brother. Bird: So, Laurelei and late -- Laurelei and I are proud to present the 2013 collections program update. We will start with a little background and history, as Tom sort of reiterated it. In 2008 we really didn't have a formal program, responsibility for spreading throughout our division. We did have three collection operators that their duties were combined with bio solids and lift station responsibilities were carried out by client operations personnel. As he said, collections, cleaning, and maintenance was being performed by an outside contractor, repairs were generally limited to emergency and infiltration and inflow was not really considered a priority. We also didn't have established cleaning schedules, we didn't have a computerized maintenance management system or a standardized way to do condition assessments on our pipe. In 2009 we reorganized the division. We took our three collection positions, we added a fourth. We did a restructure of the wastewater plant to automation, so we were able to free up some FTEs. We moved one over. The formal program, we established it, we used EPA's capacity maintenance operation -- capacity management operation and maintenance or CMOM standards as a guideline. Also in 2009 we stood before you and requested the funds for a truck and a van and two additional FTEs, bringing the total to six. This did allow us to create an in- house cleaning and inspection program and we essentially organized the duties into four major categories, which is cleaning, CCTV, manhole inspection and lift stations and now we will take a look at what the staff's been up to. First -- and for Chief Niemeyer it's all about the trucks; right? Anyway -- so, the cleaning and vacuuming truck. This crew consists of actually the truck and two full-time technicians that operate it. Since 2009 they have completed over 11,000 work orders and cleaned 2.2 million feet of pipe. They have also helped identify and establish priority lines that require accelerated maintenance schedules, things like root removal and extra grease cleaning. The use of the priority Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 24 of 28 schedule has helped reduce the frequency of customer complaints and prevented many backups by managing the root removal and grease build up in our system. Our CCTV inspection crew consists of a van and two full-time technicians that operate it. Since 2009 they have completed 6,105 work orders and inspected about 1.4 million feet of pipe. Our staff received formal training on pipe conditions, so they can begin grading our pipe condition with a standardized assessment called PACP, which stands for Pipe Assessment Condition Certification. We currently have four staff members that are PACP certified. They have documented 12,969 private service locations. This is accomplished by visual inspection of CCTV footage and recording the locations and orientation of each -- of each service. It's really important, because by code we are required to maintain those private services that are in the right of way usually from the main line to the property line. So, if we have a problem in that right of way it's really helpful to know where the service is, so we know where to start digging up the street. Elimination of infiltration and inflow, excuse me, has also been a major focus of our collections program and since 2009 our inspections CCTV crew have identified 1.1 million gallons of infiltration. An aggressive elimination of infiltration, coupled with our reuse program, has played a key role in helping us maintain compliance with the now 14 year old seven MGD and PDS limit. So, we wanted to take a look at the decision to move it in house, sort of from a financial position. So, what we have done here is we have kind of taken a look at the cost of the vehicles, all of the O&M costs, including the fuel. We also have factored in the cost of the salaries of the four employees and those are loaded costs, including the benefits and taxes and we said, well, of all the footage we have done, if we had to call a contractor and have them do what we have done so far to date, at today's current rate, the work that's been accomplished would have cost about 4.7 million dollars and the actual cost to the city has been about 1.65. So, our original forecast of payback of four and a half years -- we have done much better than that. And with that I will turn it over to Laurelei to talk about some of the others. De Weerd: Tracy, I guess before you turn the microphone over, it's not just the cost of turning that over to a private sector, but it's also that one point whatever million gallons that you're not having to clean and the chemicals and all of the costs in that and I know you mentioned it's -- it's what has allowed us to operate with continued growth under our current permit, but that's a significant savings in and of itself. Crane: Madam Mayor, you're actually right and you have just kind of stolen my thunder in my summary, so -- De Weerd: Oh. Sorry. I thought you missed something. Crane: Oh, no. De Weerd: I should have known a redneck from Middleton wouldn't have. Ball: Thanks, Tracy. So, one of the additional duties of the collections crew is the inspection and operation of the city's nine lift stations. Since 2009 our crews have completed over 5,000 lift station related work orders. We have also reduced some of the Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 25 of 28 operational vulnerability to the city by assuming ownership of three private lift stations and to develop best management practices for two noncity owned lift stations. These CMPs help insure that all lift stations are cleaned, maintained and operated to a standard that the city expects. We continually work with the engineering division to look for ways to efficiently reroute older sewer mains to further reduce the number of lift stations in the city. Each lift station that we eliminate helps reduce maintenance, power, and labor costs for the city. Since 2009 our crew has located and tracked over 9,000 manholes throughout the city. We have also completed over 15,000 manhole inspections. As you can see from the number of inspections we are nearing our second complete round of inspections through the city's manholes. The reason these manhole inspections are so important is they help us visually assess the condition of the manholes, as well as help identify areas of infiltration. These inspections have resulted in the repair of over 900,000 gallons of infiltration. As Tracy said, each gallon of water we can keep out of our lines is a gallon of potential capacity saved at the plant. So, here you will see our infiltration reduction volumes by year for a total of over 1.1 million gallons of infiltration reduced since 2009. In the CCTV video you will see how we identify infiltration. We can identify the exact location of infiltration for repairs, as well as allowing us to make gallon per minute estimations of infiltration volumes. We have also responded to and resolved over 150 customer service complaints since 2009. We have also developed a detailed emergency response plan to investigate, identify, resolve and report emergency sewer backups. Another benefit that has recently been realized is our ability to use our CCTV video to assist in determining sanitary sewer overflow causes. On April 15th we received a call from a customer that had sewer backing up into their basement. Our on-call collection staff member went out immediately and was able to clear the blockage in the city's mainline to get the sewer flowing. The next day we followed up with our CCTV van to determine what caused the backup in our line. That is when we found a large hole had been punctured into the line and subsequently repaired by a contractor without our knowledge. When the line was punctured a large amount of debris was allowed to enter the line that was not cleaned out. The debris that should have been removed before the repair was made is what caused our line to backup. The contractor in this case denied involvement. However, we were able to look back at CCTV footage from the two months previous to demonstrate that our line was in good condition and the contractor eventually accepted responsibility. So, to summarize, as a result of the diligent work of our collections crew over the last four years we are now able to accurately track inventory and maintain our collection system assets. We have 380 miles of sewer main. Over 26,000 service connections. We have almost 20,000 identified collection system assets that we track with Hansen, our asset management software and our collections crew have completed over 38,000 work orders through 2009 to 2012. So, to give you some perspective, we thought we would show you what two other cities in the Treasure Valley's collection system crews look like. The city of Boise maintains 700 miles of line with four cleaner trucks, two CCTV vans, and a field crew of six. The city of Nampa maintains 354 miles of line with two cleaner trucks, two CCTV vans, and a field crew of six. The City of Meridian maintains 380 miles of lines with one cleaner truck, one CCTV van and field crew of four. As you can see, our group does a lot of outstanding work with very lean resources. And with that I will turn it back over to Tracy for our program results and summary. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 26 of 28 Crane: Thanks, Laurelei. I couldn't be more proud of what this group has accomplished in a relatively short period of time. They have established a top notch program. They essentially moved the program into compliance with all of the EPA standards and even the Mayor pointed out, you know, we have made significant reductions in I&I and it's an ongoing effort, but they have stopped an impressive amount of water from reaching the treatment facility and just for reference, it costs roughly five million dollars to build one MGD of treatment plant capacity, so stopping that I&I is worth going after. They have improved customer service and response times. They have done an excellent job managing potential problem lines and scheduling quarterly -- accordingly. Excuse me. We now have the ability to determine the location of private service connections. The asset management program has been fully established and implemented. We have also made good progress in condition assessment. We have CCTV footage of well over 60 percent of our system, which has aided us in contractor damages and, really, they provide an outstanding return on the investment. So, in summary, you know, we have essentially improved operations in all the areas. We do have about approximately 46 percent of our sewer services located, so we have some work to do there. Well, one of the reasons we are standing here today is they have completed the first full rotation of cleaning, meaning, as you saw in the video, we have cleaned every mile of line or essentially we have cleaned from here to the Pacific ocean or to Yellowstone National Park and that's a big milestone that we just recently celebrated with our collections group and for the first time ever I can stand here and say every foot of line has been cleaned in the past four years. So, some acknowledgements I'd like to see is the collection systems staff under the direction of Tom Lee. In 2011 Tom was recognized by his peers as collection operator of the year here in southwest Idaho and Miguel Espinola and Shaun Grover, Fred Putzier, who recently retired. Jerry Shafer and Roger Waldon are our collections staff. Kathi Buttars our asset analyst, who has been the main driver in getting the asset management going. I want to recognize Gale Hammond and Rich Dees for their leadership early in setting up the program and getting the programs going, as well as Laurelei Ball, who is now in charge and oversees the program. Also the strategic leadership team and we would like to thank the Mayor and the Council for their support. And with that we will stand for questions. De Weerd: Council, any questions? Bird: Madam Mayor? Rountree: Nice report and good job and -- Bird: Yeah. Rountree: -- a terrific return on the dollar Tom and Tracy and Laurelei and your staff. A question with the penetration of that line by a contractor. Is there a deterrent for them not wanting to report that they had made that kind of mistake? It seems to me that it would be -- they would up front -- and did up front repair it, but I would have thought that they would have reported that and said are there another other complications we might Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 27 of 28 have caused? Do we fine them? Do we make their life miserable if they report that kind of stuff or be able to reward them and maybe that gets around? Crane: Well, Councilman Rountree, I can tell you what I know, because I think it's still somewhat ongoing, because that was just in April I want to say, so they are still working with our engineering staff. What I do know is that the owner of the company did not know that it happened and I think it was some -- some staff that did it and didn't want to own up to it, so they decided to repair it and bury it. As the incentive to not to do it again they get to pay not only to fix it all now, but they also talked about paying for our staff time, our emergency call out. We had to clean all day long the next day in every direction trying to remove all of that material. I'm not really sure if the case is completely resolved at this point, because it's here on the split corridor project and that's ongoing, so I don't want to speak for the folks that have been dealing with the contractor. From our standpoint we came out, identified the cause of the backup, found -- the next day found this huge hole in the line, then, we were able to go back to our footage two months ago and provide our engineering staff, well, here is what the line looked like in December of that footage, so we can prove that there is not -- wasn't a hole there. And, then, they claimed some of the infiltration they didn't do as well and so we were able to go back even two months before that and show them what the line looked like during -- because our two months was in December, so it wouldn't be in the high water table. We gave them another -- a third video that was during the high water table a few years earlier to show that some of that infiltration wasn't there. I think I -- from what I understand when they were presented with all of that evidence they decided to stand up and take care of it. I will say that we are required to report excess flows to the EPA in a letter, which we did, and in the letter we named the contractor and they get a copy of it the same day to be held responsible for all cleanout and -- charges. So, I don't think it happens that often that you see that happen. I'm sure they regret it at this point, but I'm really not a hundred percent sure of the resolution. De Weerd: Any other questions? Hoaglun: No questions, just a good job. Keep it up. Bird: Good investment. Crane: Thank you. De Weerd: And certainly (know -- I kind of highlighted Tommy Lee in the State of the City program, because at that time we were just two years into the program. It was already very early on doing amazing -- making an amazing difference. So, we continue to see that you're doing -- you're doing what you can with -- within the parameters that were set for us in 1999 and you're making lemonade and I appreciate that. So, congratulations. This is -- and I appreciate how you're to able show the investment into this program, the savings that you're showing our citizens, and the improvement you're making in that service. So, thank you. Meridian City Council Workshop July 9, 2013 Page 28 of 28 Crane: Thank you. We appreciate it. De Weerd: Okay. Any final words, Tom? Barry: No, ma'am. Thank you very much, though. De Weerd: Well, thank you. We thank you. We have been here all day. Okay. Council, we are at the end of our agenda. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 4:43 P.M. 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