HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-11-12~~E IDIAN:---
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
MEETING AGENDA
~l'~ENDFD ACIG~D~
City Council Chambers
33 East Broadway Avenue
Meridian, Idaho
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 3:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba O Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted (Pg 1-2)
~. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg 2)
A. Bellabrook Villas Subdivision Recreational Pathway Easement
B. Approval of Water Main Easement from Richard and Beth Davies
C. Professional Services Agreement with C.J. Rench for Fabrication and
Installation of Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2 Public Art Project for an
Amount Not to Exceed $95,000.00
D. Professional Services Agreement with Delta James for Meridian Arts
Commission Strategic Planning Services for an Amount Not to Exceed
$975.00
5. Community Items/Presentations
A. Light My Fire Donation Presentation (Pg 2-4)
B. Annual Lakeview Golf Course Update by Erik Oaas and Annual Rent Waiver
Approved (Pg 4-8)
6. Items Moved From Consent Agenda None (Pg 8)
7. Department Reports
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, November 12, 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.
A. Fire DepartmentlPolice Department: Public Safety Strategic Presentation
(Pg 8-30)
B. Public Works: Department Report Regarding the Number of Connections
Allowed on a Single Water Main Moved to 11/19/13 agenda. (Pg 30-31)
8. Future Meeting Topics (Pg 31)
Adjourned at 4:50 PM
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, November 12, 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 November 12, 2013
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:03 p.m., Tuesday,
November 12, 2013, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, David Zaremba, and
Keith Bird.
Members Absent: Brad Hoaglun.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Jacy Jones, Caleb Hood, Kyle Radek, Jeff
Lavey, Scott Colaianni, Mark Niemeyer, Warren Stewart 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: Welcome all of you to our City Council meeting. It's always nice to have
guests come and join us. For the record it is Tuesday, November 12th. It's a few
minutes after 3:00. We will start with roll call attendance, Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: One minor modification to the agenda would be the moving of Item 7-B until
the 19th of November. With that change I move that we approve the agenda.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as changed. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page2o131
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Bellabrook Villas Subdivision Recreational Pathway Easement
B. Approval of Water Main Easement from Richard and Beth
Davies
C. Professional Services Agreement with C.J. Rench for
Fabrication and Installation of Meridian Split Corridor Phase 2
Public Art Project for an Amount Not to Exceed $95,000.00
D. Professional Services Agreement with Delta James for
Meridian Arts Commission Strategic Planning Services for an
Amount Not to Exceed $975.00
De Weerd: Item 4 is the Consent Agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approval the Consent Agenda and authorize the Clerk to
attest and the Mayor to sign.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Madam
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, absent.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 5: Community Items/Presentations
A. Light My Fire Donation Presentation
De Weerd: Item 5 under Community Presentations, we have the folks from Light My
Fire to present a check to our fire department. As you're coming up -- come on forward.
I don't know who is coming. But I do want to thank you. You know how to put on a
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page3of31
great event and you certainly know how to squeeze money out of anyone's pocket that
attends, so I'll first congratulate you for that.
Cahoon: Okay. Well, on behalf of the committee -- you see all these awesome people
up here today -- I have the honor and privilege to represent the committee. Over here is
Pam Orr, Meridian Fire, she's a tremendous support to the committee and Mitch with
Paul Davis Restoration and, then, we have Jack Mason, Meridian Fire, and, chief, he's
there. Last year he actually worked really hard to -- held off the water and did a pretty
good job of it. Over here is Judy Ricketts, she's one of our originals. She's been with
this committee for 20 years, both she and her husband Bob with Ricketts and
Associates. Andrea Bradshaw with Belfore and Chrissy Taylor with CTR. And this
represents the hands and legs of the people that work so hard to bring in the money --
bring in the money, that's what we do, and over the last 20 years we have raised
between 280 and 330 thousand dollars. Originally it was with Boise. For those of you
that don't know much about Light My Fire, it's not an Internet dating site, but it's a
fundraiser where we work hard to give that money back to the communities. It started
out with an essay contest to find out how much kids remembered from the stop, drop
and roll in the second grade and, then, sixth grade they wrote an essay to see how
much they remembered -- you know, how much they remembered from that and, then,
Shane Walker from Boise Fire came up to the Boise Independent Agency Association
and said, hey, you know what, our firemen are out there in the middle of the night,
sometimes families don't have their shoes on and in their pajamas or not, and our
firemen are giving the money right out of their pockets and can you help us with a
fundraiser and that's where that originated. And, of course, the agency association said
yes and, then, eventually we expanded that out to Meridian with the fire on safe houses
and prevention and it's been a tremendous ride. As you say, we come up with great
things to do. You were there last year, Mayor, with our pirates and gypsies theme and
last year we were able to raise 26,000 dollars -- 26,500 at pirates and gypsies and,
then, we had a golf tournament and we thought, you know what, we are not raising that
much money this year and we upped the ante to say can we reach a higher number to
8,000 and instead it was 7,300, we are going to do that again. So, we are splitting it in
half. Well, 60 percent will go to Boise, because they are bigger, 40 percent to you guys,
because you're a little bit smaller, but very important to us, and so I have the honor
today of giving away two different checks -- I hope I didn't drop one on the way up. Oh,
there we go. So, on the prevention side -- that would be the chief, 6,760 dollars. And,
then, on the burn out fund, the same amount, 6,760 dollars. So, on behalf of this
committee, thank you. I would also let you know that we are having our fundraiser
again this year and -- yeah. By the way, we would love for you guys to come. We like
to have fun, as we say, and it's going to be a stop, drop, rock and roll '50s theme and I
have a save the date stand-up cam on this one. It's got a handout. It's on February the
8th. So, please, mark that on your calendars. We won't have a registration up online
until December the 1st, but put that on your calendars, because we would love for you
to come and we are going to encourage you to break out your bobby socks, poodle
skirts, rolled up jeans, and T-shirts to rock and roll, raise some dough, while having fun
for Prevention and Burn Out Funds.
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 4 0131
De Weerd: That's great. Oh, good, I didn't have to ask you to comment.
Niemeyer: You didn't even have to ask, Madam Mayor. You know me, I can talk.
Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you hear me talk a lot about collaboration
partnerships and we are going to talk a little bit about it later on today in the
presentation, but surely that partnership of Light My Fire has been incredible for us and,
really, it's to the hard working people that you see behind me and many more. We are
here to support it. We do whatever we can to support it, but, really, the work is done by
the folks behind me and to be able to hand a check to somebody who has been burned
out of their house is something you don't forget. When they receive that and they are in
their darkest hour and their worst day and we can help them out a little bit, based on the
work that they have done and the work our association does as well, makes it all
worthwhile to be able to be there for those people and so, Susan, we appreciate all the
work that you guys put in. We couldn't do it without you. I know on Pam's side, on the
prevention side, these dollars go a long way helping get the fire prevention and safety
message out to our kids, to our at risk populations. You know about the smoke detector
programs and the things we do and these donations go an incredibly long way to help
meet that mission. So, I would thank all of you. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. And I would say that I know our fire administration, we
have some firefighters in attendance, our -- our pipes and drums participate. I certainly
know Pam and Judy have been good about that. I will challenge our City Councilmen
to, please, look at this on their calendars. Our new City Council Members as well. And
it is a great time. I have been the last two years and a bunch of good people. It runs
amazingly well. There is some good, healthy fighting going on among the items. I think
Chris Amenn, if he's here, he still did get our item. It was for his daughter. We just
couldn't -- we couldn't win on that one. But I think you guys do an awesome job and it
does to a great cause. So, you're helping us serve our citizens, our community in a
fashion that many don't think of. So, heartfelt thanks for all you do. So, thank you for
your joining us today.
B. Annual Lakeview Golf Course Update by Erik Oaas and Annual
Rent Waiver
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 5 is our annual Lake View Golf Course update and I will
invite Eric up at this time. Thank you, Eric, for joining us.
Oaas: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Eric Oaas with Lake View Golf Course and I want to,
first of all, thank you, Madam Mayor and Members of City Council for inviting us here to
make our annual report. The golf course continues, in my estimation, to do some
amazing things and we believe we are -- we are making steady progress with each
passing year. Operational update from a management standpoint, Lake View Meridian
Investors, which is Steve Laney and myself, are the sole members and sole owners and
operators of the lease from the city. Earlier this year we decided not to extend the
contract that we had with Raven Golf Services and it was certainly nothing against
Raven Golf Services. They did an outstanding job for us during the period of time that
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page5of31
we were working with them. They helped -- honestly, they helped us through some -- a
very difficult period that -- that we had, which I'm sure we are all well aware of. They
told us at the time that they came -- that we brought them on board that they ultimately
-- we would ultimately outgrow the need for them and we decided that that, in fact, had
taken place this year and we were ready to move on and we left -- we parted company
with them on very good terms and if -- and, in fact, we are continuing to utilize them with
some of their equipment on a maintenance agreement. So, certainly a lot of thanks to
them for helping us through a difficult period and if we ever called on them again I know
they would be back. From a personnel standpoint, we have made some -- a key
change this year. Our head golf professional is a gentleman by the name of Ryan Roll.
Ryan has an extended history with -- in the golf business and has been working on his
PGA professional certification for about four years and he expects to have that
completed in the spring of next year. Just a fabulous individual and we are -- we are
just delighted to have him with us. Course superintendent continues to be Rich Rush.
Rich, as anyone knows who has been around the golf course for any period of time,
Rich has just done a phenomenal job. He and his crew are just -- just incredible and
certainly -- certainly we appreciate all that they do. Let's talk a little bit about the
maintenance -- just general maintenance we did this year. Per the agreement with the
city all -- all of the items that were -- that were listed on the -- the maintenance
agreement were performed and were completed as per plan. We also, just from a
maintenance standpoint, removed several trees that were -- that were a hazard. Some
of them were -- you know, the big cottonwood trees that were certainly great for
providing shade when the course was built, but after awhile they grow real big and they
die and, then, their -- their limbs become a real hazard. So, we -- we had a professional
tree service come out and take down the one on -- on the 12th fairway and we took
down two of the other ones on our own with our own team. We rebuilt the bridge on the
number four fairway and this year we -- thanks to Jaykers nursery donation of trees, we
planted another -- another 14 trees this year. That brings the total to just under 200
over the past couple three years and now we are getting people saying don't plant
anymore trees, you're making it too hard for us. But, nonetheless, all of the locations --
some of the trees went into spots where -- where the ones -- you know, where you lose
a few from year to year. We always, from a maintenance standpoint, due to the fact
that irrigation in the canals was cut off early -- a month earlier than usual, we had to set
up a -- sort of a special connection with the Ashford Greens well in order to -- to provide
us just the bare essential watering for the course in the month of September and
October and, fortunately, you know, it actually worked out, you know, reasonably well.
The improvement for this year -- we bought five new golf carts -- new to us. But
completely refurbished by Stan's Golf Carts here in the valley, at a cost of 13,000
dollars. We replaced -- purchased and replaced all of the patio furniture that was in
pretty bad shape. We also today, as coincidence would have it, today we launched a
new website for the golf course and the url has changed slightly to make it a little bit
easier for people to find. It's lakeview-golf.com and you will find -- we would encourage
everyone to, you know, take a look when you have a chance. The website is just -- it's
been redesigned, the Creative -- launched by a firm by the name of DTX Creative in,
you know, up the valley a little ways, but they are very strong patrons of the golf course
and they just did an outstanding job. The cost of that was 7,000 dollars. The tree
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page6of31
planting was another two and we have had some -- as you know, we have had a couple
-- a couple of break-ins over the last couple of years. One even as recently as this year.
I'm pleased to say that the Meridian Police Department solved the crime and found the
individual responsible, but we have decided that we really needed to get better camera
coverage of the restaurant and in the -- and in the pro shop. Total -- total capital
expenditures for this year were about 25,000 dollars. Current challenges, which is
something that we -- we talk about all the time, but the irrigation system continues to be
our number one and greatest challenge that we have. It's -- it's a very spendy project.
The crew that we have from a maintenance standpoint are doing an incredible job hand
watering in places where necessary and, gosh, we just -- we just hope that Tom
Funkhouser lives to be 150 years old, because he -- he knows that system backwards
and forwards and nobody even tells Tom what to do, he just handles it and he's out
there day and night, weekends, holidays and he's quite a guy. He can't hear very well,
but by gosh I will tell you what, he know the golf course and he knows that watering
system. So -- so, we pray that he will live to be 150, but in event that he doesn't, we are
-- we are still very hopeful that the city is successful or continues to be successful in its
efforts with the EPA and your permitting process. We ultimately would -- would love to
be able to use reclaimed water. It makes good sense for us and for the city and it
makes good sense for the environment. Current opportunities. As I have mentioned
before, the loyalty of our golf course community is incredible. Our mens and womens
associations and our individual patrons continue to, you know, put forth a tremendous
effort to -- to help improve the golf course and the facilities. We had folks helping us
with the bridge repair this year. We had folks that donated a new ceiling fan for the
restaurant and -- and bar area. We had a patron donate a large screen TV. I mean
these are -- these are, for the most part, unsolicited and, you know, it's just amazing the
community and the community atmosphere that people feel at Lake View is -- is
certainly proven by, you know, what they will do to help continue to improve the facility.
Our maintenance, as I said, is excellent and with the -- just unbelievably hot
temperatures this year our greens were just incredible. Capital improvements plan.
You have seen this before and because it's -- it's a seven year plan there are no
changes to it this year and the golf carts that we purchased this year -- well, you know,
the capital that we -- capital expenditures that we had were well in -- in excess of the
6,000 dollar minimum. Finally, then, I just would like to thank you, Madam Mayor and
City Councilmen, in general, especially Councilman Rountree who attends all of our
focus meetings and Mr. Siddoway who is an incredible supporter of -- of everything that
we do out at the golf course and our patrons, our contractors, our suppliers, we just are
really very excited and very grateful for those that helped continue to make the golf
course a -- you know, a success and we believe we are working on that one year after
the next. I'm open for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Eric. Any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page7of31
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Just for general information, Eric, have you seen a continued flattening or
has there been an increase in play this past year?
Oaas: There has been -- we did see -- excuse me. We did a see a slight uptick due to
the fact that Foxtail closed this year, but generally speaking, you know, it's pretty flat.
You know, golf in general is -- you know is -- it's not a -- you know, it's not something
that the people -- all the investment community are rushing out to invest in. So, it's
pretty flat. We are -- not that we were glad that -- to see a golf course close, but -- but it
was helpful -- you know, I mean that -- that land was used for something much more
valuable, but it was -- it did -- that golf course in particular and ours, you know, sort of
share and overlap some of the people that we serve, so -- so, it did help a little bit.
Rountree: Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would just like to comment that from the very beginning I appreciate that
this was called a progress report, as opposed to just the annual report. That's a good
word choice and just your appearance is much more optimistic this year than I
remember previous years. You looked troubled many times when you have been here.
I'm happy to see you smiling and I know it's still squeaky out there, but from my view
from my house things are improving and happy to see you smile. So, thank you for your
report.
Oaas: You bet. Thank you, Councilman Zaremba
De Weerd: And I just wanted to make sure that Steve and his staff were properly
appreciated for the tree plantings. I know that there is a lot of organization to -- to
placing and making sure the neighbors are okay with it and organizing the Eagle Scouts
and all of that. So, certainly kudos to Elroy. Anything else from Council?
Bird: I have nothing
De Weerd: No?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I don't know what form the motion is, but I think a motion is in order, right,
Bill, on the --
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page8of31
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you can do that, since Mr. -- since Mr.
Oaas is here. In the future you would have the report and, then, do that -- it's
automatic --
Rountree: It's automatic from now --
Nary: Yes. Going forward.
Rountree: -- in the next cycles. But -- okay. Thank you. I move that we accept the golf
course annual review and move that we waive the annual rent fee of 6,000 dollars
based on the capital improvements that have been made.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discuss? Madam Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, absent.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: And I would note that, Caleb, thank you for pulling up the website. You
have it on the overhead screens. So, it does look nice.
Oaas: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, City Council. I sure
appreciate it.
Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Thank you, Eric. Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent
Agenda.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Fire Department/Police Department: Public Safety Strategic
Presentation
De Weerd: So, we will move to the item you're all just dying to hear from. I will turn this
over to our -- it looks like Chief Lavey is up first.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, thanks -- thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
A couple of things. And I see the rumors have already got out there that I was trying to
compete with Mr. Barry in slides. I have 36 slides today. I do not intend to cover all of
those in depth, they are mere -- they are there to create dialogue and I also have --
noticed in going through some of those slides they are really kind of hard to read,
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page9of31
because of the size. I thought I was Finance there for a minute and wanted to shrink
them down and I will forward electronic versions out to everybody.
De Weerd: Trying to be like everyone else. Can you be original, chief?
Lavey: Yeah. Except for -- to open it up today I'd like to say that in a recent cleaning of
files at City Hall the Police Department came across an entry level exam for fire
department. Now, I do not recall what year this was, but I do recall what question
number one was. Which is larger a watermelon or lima bean. That is why I'm going first
today. And I got that in writing and I will leave it right at that. So, Madam Mayor,
Council, I believe it was last month and it could have been the month before that, I was
supposed to come in front of you and about our strategic update for the Police
Department and due to a scheduling conflict I wasn't able to do that. Now, we have
these planned out several months in advance and they talked about doing this on a
different night. We talked about scheduling it in February and it was something that we
wanted to do this year, rather than next year, so we discussed having a public safety
strategic update and that's why you will see police and fire here today to present. I
noticed you cleared the entire agenda, except for these -- this item and I guess that has
to do with the fact of anytime you have two chiefs talking who knows how long we are
going to be here, especially when they have 36 slides. Some of these slides you're
going to recognize, because we covered them I believe in last week's presentation, but
really I think the theme of today is investing in our future. Our mission at the Police
Department merely is to serving our community through education, prevention, and
enforcement. Before we get too far I really want to give kudos to the men and women
of the Meridian Police Department, the brothers and sisters of the Meridian Fire
Department, and our community for everything that they do. Our success is because of
their hard work. It has nothing to do with me or the fire chief, it has to do with having a
great staff working together to make us successful. And, then, the full mission
statement for the police department is to provide the highest quality service in
partnership with our community to preserve and protect life and property through
education, prevention, and enforcement and that's really what it's all about for us.
Bird: Finance printed this out for you.
Lavey: What's that?
Bird: Finance --
Lavey: Finance printed this one out. This was -- this is our current org chart. As you
can see it's quite large. When I came to Meridian in 1997 I was the 31st police officer
and now we have 87. We have talked about this in the past and this is just a real quick
refresher, but your Police Department has four divisions. Administration. Patrol.
Community Service. Investigations. We have 87 sworn officers. We have 27 support
personnel and two of those are part-timers. With the administration it really covers
myself, the deputy chiefs, administrative assistant and, then, someone is assigned to
special projects and IA on a part-time basis. Patrol is really the people that the public
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 10 of 31
sees first. They are the first responders. They are also the ones that do the traffic unit,
the motor unit, the K-9 unit, the bicycle unit and everything else that gets pawned off on
them. Your investigations you will generally see -- it's your crimes against people, it's
our crimes against property, it's your impact team, which is your proactive enforcement
team. ITAC, Internet Crimes Against Children. Metro Violent Crimes task force and
your DEA task force. Community services makes up your school resource officers and
your neighborhood contact officers, the code enforcement officers, crime prevention,
crime analysis, volunteers, MADC and your alcohol compliance team. I guess this
would be a perfect opportunity right now to give you a little update on your alcohol
compliance team. We recently just did another operation this last weekend and I
believe there was 12 restaurants, stores, and bars that were contacted. We had one
hundred percent compliance. Now, that's disappointing, probably, to the officers that
were on the team, because they probably wanted to do something, but that is a
powerful, powerful statistic. One hundred percent compliance. I have been working
with our city PIO Natalie and we are going to put together a story on that success and
identify the establishments, so they are aware that their hard work is paying off. So, to
our kids. I came across this picture. This is Red Ribbon Week down at the state
capital. Ponderosa Elementary is in there, but this really is going to kick off the
discussion that I have for MADC. This is kind of a unique group. This is the Mayor's
Anti-Drug Coalition or the Meridian Mayor's Anti-Drug Coalition and this has been
something that has been going on for quite a few years now and it's housed down at the
Police Department. So, really, it's a partnership between the Mayor's Office and the
Police Department that make this work for us. I want to tell you that I'm not the best
spokesperson for this, maybe the Mayor is, maybe some of my staff is, but I will tell you
in my opinion that the biggest impact is in our schools and our community with what the
Anti-Drug Coalition does. It provides the drug awareness and prevention and education
to our citizens and to our children. It's partially funded by a federal grant and that was
for the last five years and the reason why I want to bring this up to you today is we did
not receive our federal funding for year six and, really, the biggest impact that this has
for us is about 40,000 dollars in salaries. We would request that we continue this
position and if we need to convert it to a crime prevention officer we can do that, too, but
we would like to continue with great successes that we have and maybe I can yield to
the Mayor at this time and see if she has additional comments to Council on that note.
De Weerd: Council, I think it's no -- no secret as to the impact the MADC has had in our
community, not -- not just in our schools, but on our playing fields and our -- on our
streets with some of the activities that we get these -- the volunteers to step up and help
us in. Like the Meridian Valley Humane Society, the members of the coalition have
locked arms and provided a service I think you can't put a value on and raising
awareness and being part of prevention efforts and partnering with the Police
Department and a common goal was of keeping the problem at bay before it gets out of
control. We have augmented much of the -- the cost to our community through the
grant for the last five years and we have national award winning programs that have
been established. We have seen great impact in some of our numbers and we are also
taking some of the lessons learned to other communities to help them out in their
prevention activities. Everything that the MADC has done has been with the mind set of
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 11 of 31
can it be replicated in other communities, which I think has been really important. We
are a police department that the rest of the state looks to when they are trying to find
solutions to issues that are faced in there -- in their city and I guess what all of that
means is we have a solid program with a pretty small cost to the large impact that it has
in terms of prevention and in terms of solving something before it becomes an issue.
So, we -- we are hopeful that -- it is budgeted. What isn't budgeted or was also
budgeted, but won't come in, is the grant, because we did anticipate getting it. So, we
will need action at some point from Council in -- on this item and would ask if there is
any questions.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't -- I -- it's something we got to continue and where we find the money,
whether it's in the Council, the Mayor's Office, or something, we got to get it done. I
don't want to see it taken out of our salaries of our police officers, but we definitely got to
continue to have that group active like they are, like you say they are, the leaders -- in
fact, in the state as far as I'm concerned, at getting the drug prevention out to our youth
and that's a major proactive item that we need to continue and continue more. So, we
will find the money somewhere I believe.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I agree with everything Councilman Bird said and I would add I think a point
that's probably already been made as well, that awareness, prevention, and education,
even if there is a cost to it, is far cheaper than playing catch up later. I think these
programs have been effective, that's why Meridian is in the lead here and I absolutely
support -- as Keith said, we will find the money someplace. I think whether the federal
government has ended their contribution or not we need to keep this going and it's
worth us doing it.
De Weerd: Well -- and I would tell you that I know Lieutenant Overton is certainly
committed to applying again next year and so we are not going to leave that alone, but I
do know when we went in to applying for the drug free community grant five years ago,
there was a commitment from the city at that time that regardless of if we got the grants
or not this is an important outreach prevention, certainly as Councilman Zaremba
mentioned, does cost less than the alternative and certainly this is in the best interest of
our community as well, so --
Rountree: I support moving it through the budget process
De Weerd: Okay.
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 12 of 31
Rountree: -- to firm it up
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, thank you. It is already budgeted. The only difference
is that we would not have revenue coming in to balance it out at the end of the year, but
I will talk with Finance and see what we need to overcome. The other thing is we also
filed an extension with the federal grant -- federal government on the grant to use up
some of the monies to carry us for a few more months before the grant closed out, so
we are in pretty good shape right now. Really, it's just a discussion point for next year
when we have our budget workshop. So, I thank you. I'm going to turn a little bit and
talk about the future. One of the things that we are increasingly faced with is that the
growth that this city is experiencing is putting greater demand on the services. It's not
just the police department, but it's all the services that the city provides. Today I am
speaking on behalf of the police department. Public safety must grow to maintain or
improve the current levels of service that we now enjoy. The exceptional quality of life
and the low crime just doesn't happen. It happens because we invest in it. I'm going to
talk alittle -- this is where some of it might be hard to read and so I just want to give you
a five year trend and a call for service. On this graph we really talked about the 911
calls coming in and, then, the calls that came in on nonemergency line, unknown calls,
and, then, officer-initiated calls and as you see we are currently tasked with -- or about
62,603 calls last year and 45,545 just through September of this year -- I believe the
next slide indicates that they are estimating our call to service are going to increase
about 65,000 by completion of FY-13.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree
Rountree: Jeff, just looking at the trends, those things that you would anticipate are
good things, look like they are happening, that calls are reducing, but can I correlate the
increase in officer-initiated calls as a possibility of why that's happening, if there is more
activity?
Lavey: Yes.
Rountree: Okay.
Lavey: When we actually had the -- that's one of the biggest things that we saw when
we added the impact team is there was a lot of proactive enforcement taking place and
that's why you saw some of that increase.
Rountree: And that's good.
Lavey; Yes. Response times. This is a little bit of the bad news. Last year we were
celebrating some great response times. We saw a trend where the response times
were deceasing each. Just so you know, at the bottom of the page you will see priority
three, priority two, priority one. Priority three calls are the lights and siren type calls,
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 13 of 31
they are the emergency calls where you have to get there as quickly and safely as
possible. Priority two type calls are urgent type calls where you need to get there
without stopping for coffee and everything else. It's fairly urgent that you get there.
Priority one calls are like the every day calls that are coming in, it's a report call, no
suspects on scene, when an officer has finished up his priority three and priority two
calls, then, he will go to the priority one calls. If you will notice that our five year trend is
projected response time -- right now it's four minutes for a priority three call, seven
minutes for priority two calls and one -- eight and a half minutes for a priority three call.
Now, those are all great response times. If I had a report to file with the police
department and it took an officer eight and a half minutes to get there, I'm probably
going to be pretty happy, but if I have an emergency and I'm calling 911, that's going to
be the longest four minutes of my life until they get there. So, anything that we can do
to decrease our response time is beneficial to the person calling us. We don't know
what the correlation is right now, but I guess that some of it has to do with construction.
We had a major construction project that we just finished, although we are getting ready
to start a major one again. That may have had some impact on -- on response times,
but the other thing is with the increased calls for service, it's just taking officers longer to
get freed up to go to the next call. So, that's a trend that we are currently evaluating as
we move forward. These are some performance indicators. I have to tell you that my
crime analysis person told me that this is a draft form and she didn't want me to bring
this up, so I will tell you it's draft, draft, draft. This is just some of the things that we are
starting to work through. But it gives you just some indications of population of the -- of
the city, some projected populations. Officers per thousand, the land area that we
cover, some annual operating budget and our personnel budget, our training budget,
just kind of toying with cost per capita, how much it costs per citizen for a police officer
and our overtime usage. I like to see that negative number there on the -- the overtime
usage. Talks about the authorized personnel, which is a total of 114. We have already
gone over the 87 and the 27. So, we will go down to the bottom and she's just toying
with right now with the number of -- of arrests and you can kind of see there from 2009
through 2012 the number of adult arrests, juvenile arrests, that we are making and how
it relates to the rate of per thousand. If we were to maintain our officer-to-citizen ratio as
it stands right now, based on the projected numbers and that -- that ratio, these are
some of the numbers that we are looking at over the next number of years. Now, I do
not believe by 2015 we are actually going to make 94,289, but I could be wrong, but our
projected numbers for 2013 are really spot on right now. More -- this is similar -- the top
portion is similar to what we just covered. The bottom portion actually talks about
crashes and the good news on this one is that our injury crashes are decreasing by 12
percent. The bad news is is our property -- our property damage only crashes are
increasing. They increased about 1,100 -- or not 1,100 -- but by 100 this past year.
And you can look at this at a later date, but you can kind of study the trends. I think this
is just a different look at some of the other figures we have. I'll pass over this.
DDACTS. I'm not a fan of acronyms and so I actually had to write this down, so I didn't
mess it up, but we talked about this in the past, Data Driven Analysis of Crime and
Traffic Safety. And, really, that's a fancy word to say that we have someone that's
sitting down and studying our crime rates, our crash rates, putting them on a map,
overlapping them and saying where is the biggest problems that we are experiencing in
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 14 of 31
our cities and without adding additional resources how I can actually send an officer to
that area and work it and maybe help reduce crashes and maybe help reduce crime.
I'm going to go over these real fast. This is the DDACTS zone that we are going to talk
about. This is one -- the primary one that we established really has to do with the Eagle
corridor. Fairview as the northern boundary and just north of the interstate is the
southern boundary. You can kind of see the western and eastern boundaries. As you
see the -- the larger the dot the more crime is occurring and you can see that the larger
dots are within the area of our DDACTS zones, both for crashes -- especially for
crashes and for crime. These are some of the numbers -- I really found them hard to
read. I can't even read this and so I will forward this to you in an electronic version so
you can have it. These are some of the graphs that we are putting together. But this
one is also hard to read, but you can kind of see the negative numbers there. That's --
that's the reduction in actual crimes that are occurring in the area. But, really, this is
graphic tells a bigger story. If we talk about the reductions that we are seeing from
working those areas. The ones there at the bottom are DUIs, drugs, narcotics,
shoplifting, theft and vandalism, I will tell you that that's the one area that we have not
seen a major impact on is shoplifting. I don't believe that shoplifting is having -- or us
patrolling those areas has really had any deterrent effect to the shoplifters within the
stores. But I will tell you it does have an effect on people that are going to those stores
to commit fraud, they will see officers that are patrolling the area and, then, move on
and go to a different area. The one thing I would like to point out, though, is that the
northern zone of our DDACTS zone right now is the Meridian Village and one of the
things that we have discovered so far is that calls for service have increased 25 percent
in that area this past year. One thing to note is that the Meridian Village is not fully
operational and if we are seeing this 25 percent increase now what are we going to see
in the future and some of the -- the problems that we are facing -- the number one
problem is crashes, but we are also seeing thefts, alarms, and I put disorderly type
conduct, because it's a wide range of disturbance type calls, people not wanting to pay
their bills, suspicious people in the area, that sort of thing. And, then, because of the
activity that we are seeing we are adding a new DDACTS zone for 2014 and that will
encompass the Meridian Village on the southern end and it will go to the -- I believe it's
to the Boise -- because the city of Boise kind of crosses us at the northern area -- go up
to the border of Boise city. I always get a point for adding Scott into my presentations
and so I had -- I found this one yesterday and I had to put that in there. I do not know
what he's going to -- trying to be a lieutenant colonel or something in the military or
something, but I figured this is the subject line to talk about succession planning. You
can just stare at it for a moment or two or three or -- you're loved, Scott. I want to talk
about future potential enhancements. We talked about this last week as far as the
remodel and the expansion of the main police department. We talked about the added
training annex to the police department. I think we briefly might have touched on
substations and let me just cover that a little bit in that some of our thinking is that if we
reduce the size of the building expansion we can actually put the officers out into the
field and work out of a substation. We currently have a substation in Fire Station No. 5,
which is a room where officers can go do reports and make phone calls and that sort of
thing, but it does not have a public access to it where the public can actually come in
and so we are actually studying the concept of -- in the area of the Meridian Village
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 15 of 31
putting in a substation that would actually have public access where it might be staffed
by volunteers who could run the front desk and people could come in and ask questions
and get information and officers could work out of that. One of the other things that we
are looking at is putting in a similar substation in -- in Fire Station No. 6 in the southwest
portion of the city and that would cover any future growth in the Ten Mile corridor area.
Currently that substation is not planned to have public access, but that's something we
could explore at a later time. We are looking at increasing the size of our dedicated
bicycle unit. We currently have two full-time bicycle officers that work approximately ten
months out of the year on bicycles. One of the things that we are exploring now is
maybe putting bike carriers on the back of cars where they actually can carry their bikes
with them and, then, go out into the area and possibly ride bikes when the staffing
allows, but we would like to -- we have seen such great success with the bicycle unit we
would like to add additional officers dedicated to that unit. Special events team. This
past summer we actually put the bicycle officers in charge of special events. Anytime
you had movie night, anytime you had some sort of function going on in Kleiner Park or
over in the Village or anyplace else within the city, we sent the bicycle unit to work it.
So, we are calling that kind of the special events team. They always deal with parades
and everything else that happens within our city. Sometime in the future we are going
to have to look at having afull-time PIO. Right now our deputy chief is the PIO and he
fields calls on an every day basis. We do utilize Natalie, but we get to the point where
we almost feel like we are taking away all of her time, which was not the intent. One of
the things that Mr. Nary and I have discussed over the last couple of years and we
really need to take a serious look at this, is the full-time attorney for the Police
Department. If you look at our public information requests alone that come in on a
weekly basis we can keep an attorney busy full time just on that alone. One of the other
things that we want to explore for next year -- and I believe there is a conference call
tomorrow with a vendor to talk about equipment and costs for agencies in the valley.
Forensics analysis. It may not come as a surprise to you, but the computer fraud type
cases that we have, the smart phone type problems that we have, other technologies
that we deal with has surpassed anything that we ever have seen in law enforcement.
We currently have a detective that is assigned to handle a lot of these things, but they
can't keep up. Just to have the state crime lab analyze a computer the back log is nine
months now for a computer. So, we are going to have to invest in some staff to pick up
the slack there. If you remember in my presentation earlier I talked about having apart-
time person assigned to special projects and IA. We believe it's time that we need to
make that afull-time position and probably make it an administrative lieutenant position
based on the types of duties that they will be assigned to. Back in early 2000s you had
a former police chief Bill Gordon put together a -- an org chart that represented a rank
structure that was probably too early for its time, but I think he was probably putting it in
for the wrong reasons, but when you look back on what we was putting in place then,
it's something that we need now, we have to explore bringing back our captain
positions. We currently have our lieutenants that are assigned to administrative tasks
that are way beyond their level as a lieutenant when you look at their job description
and what they are tasked to do versus what they are doing. They are not being
compensated properly for that. They are not available to be out there in the field when
we need them to be out there, because they are working all these different projects. We
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 16 of 31
need to start looking at bringing some more administrative positions in place. We have
talked about this in a -- over the years, but I currently have a sworn officer, a sworn
supervisor that is covering fleet issues, building issues, logistic issues within the police
department. It's time that we make that a civilian position. And, then, one of the things
that we are looking to add is another K-9 position. Our goal all along has been to have
six K-9s, one for each patrol team, but it seems like we take one step forward and we
take two steps back, just when you think you're up to full staff and something else
happens. So, we are currently sitting at five K-9 officers. So, sometime in the future we
would like to add another one. Another thing that is not on the -- this presentation
today, but I was reminded of is that we had sent a third officer to motor school and our
intent was to put in for a motorcycle for FY-14 and as you recall we did a budget
amendment in -- earlier in the year for a replacement motorcycle, because the costs of
repair were far greater than the value of the bike and so we bought a new motorcycle
this last year. Well, somewhere in the process we mixed that up thinking we already
had a bike and we missed the third bike, so now we have three officers that are certified
in motor patrol that are sharing two motorcycles. So, sometime in the future we are
going to have to add a third motorcycle. This is just for you to study into the future, but I
just talked about adding those positions and this would be what the org chart would look
like if we sometime in the future added those positions. Future considerations. One of
the things I had discussed with our staff and I believe we discussed this with the Mayor
as well, is police officers are expensive. It's about 255,000 dollars for three police
officers and perhaps it's time that we look at what sort of duties our police officers do
that someone of a civilian nature might be able to do and so we have explored
community service officers. They might be the officers that deal with found property.
They might deal with closed reports. We don't know yet. We are in the very early
stages of researching this. But a community service officer we could pay less than a
police officer and, then, we would have a police officer that would be available for some
of the more high risk type calls. Again, it's early stages, we are thinking outside of the
box. I know other agencies that have explored these, but I realize I can't come in here
and ask for ten police officers, it's just -- financially we are not going to be able to do
that. But we are going to have to do something. One of the things that I mentioned
earlier was -- was volunteer staffing at the community substations, increase volunteer
patrols in other parks beyond Kleiner. One of the things that we did when we put our
park patrol in for Kleiner is we told everybody let's start small, baby steps. Let's see if
we have great success. If we have great success, then, we can move that into other
parks. We had great success this last year. I don't know if I'm ready to say let's move it
into parks, but -- and, then, we talked about this last week at the presentation, but I just
want to keep this fresh on everybody's mind is that once we start the construction on the
-- the training center we are going to start engaging our community in the scenario
village partnerships. We see a major major opportunity there with a bunch of different
groups and once they see construction I think we might have greater success in getting
them on board. And, then, we talked about this I believe last week and so this is only to
spur conversation if you'd like to explore it further, but part of the remodel it is add
additional work spaces, add additional locker room spaces, a larger briefing room,
increase evidence storage and additional employee parking. And we covered that last
week, so I will leave it at that. I saw -- this was another photo and this is -- Shelly -- is
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 17 of 31
she walking there? But Shelly is kind of walking out here, but this is David Gomez and
I'd just like to say a couple words on David Gomez. He's a school resource officer for
Lewis & Clark Middle School. You might have seen him on the news. He has been
teaching classes on cyber bullying, he has been teaching classes on Internet safety,
he's been involved in MYAC, he has been involved in MADC and probably everything
else he can get his hands into. He's a great asset to the police department, but every
time I see him dancing with the kids it kind of makes me cringe, but, then, realize that's
what it's all about, him being himself and engaging. The true measure of engaging our
youth in a successful manner. So, with that I stand for any questions or comments the
Council or the Mayor may have.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none. Just a nice report, chief.
De Weerd: Nothing?
Rountree: Chief, even though you didn't ask, you did ask, and I guess the response at
this point is is this going to be a part of the budget process next year?
De Weerd: No. It will be a fun capital improvement plan process.
Rountree: And capital improvement plan as well.
Lavey: You know, I think the fun starts tomorrow when we have our impact community
meeting and, then, it starts later on when we have other discussions. You know that
there is a many step process that we go through. It will definitely be spirited. Well, if
there is no other questions or comments, I will turn this over to my partner Mark
Niemeyer and we will see what he has to say for us.
De Weerd: Thank you, Chief.
Niemeyer: I don't have any test requirements for the police department with me. Those
are going be locked. I don't know where Jeff keeps them, so I can't come back on that
one. I will say when Jeff came to me and said what do you think about doing a joint
presentation, I just felt like, you know, what a great fit. You all see the little competition
that goes on between he and I and between our departments, mainly at my taking, but
what you don't see is the amount of text messages, phone calls, lunches that we just go
out and talk and talk about our organization, talk about the city as a whole and to have
somebody like Jeff and his knowledge and his expertise, his mentorship, has been very
valuable to the Fire Department. Hopefully we have been the same in that partnership
and so to Jeff and his team, you know, thank you in all sincerity and I wish I had a
picture of Scott, that was kind of nice, but I don't. Yeah, if you can get me one for my
next presentation that would be great. Really, I will admit I don't have as many slides as
Jeff. This is more of a conversation that we are going to have. But the focus on this is
not necessarily a strategic department update as it is a collaborative partnership update
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 18 of 31
and to me that's in the fire service, both locally in our department and in Ada County.
That is the way we are going to have to move forward to continue to provide service, to
breakdown barriers and walls, which we are doing very well right now and we are going
to update you just a little bit on that. So, we will go ahead and hopefully I do this right,
but, Jaycee, you got my back in case I don't. So, just a quick look back at where we are
right now. You all remember that the 2011 through 2016 strategic plan that we brought
to you back in 2011, what I can tell you is that is reviewed annually, it's updated
annually, we are on pace to complete the strategic objectives that we laid out in front of
you when you adopted that plan. I distinctly remember Councilman Rountree saying
that's a pretty aggressive plan, good luck with it. We kind of take that as a challenge
sometimes and say let's get this thing done, let's stick to the plan and keep moving
forward. We have found a couple things that we said -- may be applicable back in
2011, but the climate has changed, the issues have changed, and so we have modified
the plan as needed, but not drastically. Those core objectives are still there that were
there back in 2011. So, I am happy to report our staff has worked very hard to stay on
task with the plan that we have put in place. Just a quick update on our division chief
program. As you know we merged two disciplines together, command response field
supervision with the administrative functions. We are continually reviewing that and
trying to find solutions to the gaps. We just met in September, the entire staff. We
identified two very significant gaps with this program and we are working this year to fix
them. Long term, again, I told you two years ago, I told you last year, and I will tell you
again today, is this along-term solution -- I don't know. But before we go to anything
else or look at anything else we want to make sure we have exhausted all avenues to
try and make this program stick. The benefit is we have staff members that are willing
to try anything and that's a big asset to any department, when they are not so closed
minded that they are not willing to try something. The down side is I can't call chief so
and so and say how did you overcome this issue, because they don't have those
programs in place. So, we will keep forging away and the next review for this is going to
be September of 2014 to see if we are still meeting our mission and the goals that we
have for this program itself. One of the areas that has been identified in the past in
every internal survey that has been done by the employees -- and we do take those
surveys seriously -- is training and that's an area where everybody says we just need
more of it, we need to focus on it and so I want to give Deputy Chief Amenn, Division
Chief Kevin Fedrizzi who came to us from Henderson Fire Department, they are one of
the most well respected fire departments in the west, he's got 25 years of fire service
experience that he brought with us and since his arrival you can just see a few of the
things that we have now got in a place. What I didn't list there is a comprehensive
training plan that also includes professional development along with it. As you can see,
an officer development program, that was put in place to get those company officers
prepared to be a company officer before they even took the test. That's -- that's a
switch from what we did before in that rapid growth time where we were just trying to
get staffing going and get it online where it was kind of a learn as you go on the job. We
are now preparing them a little bit better. We have an engineer academy. Engineers
are the drivers of those apparatus, they are required to pump the water and do so many
other things. We partnered with Nampa fire and currently we have an engineer
academy going. So, the folks that are going to be taking that test to promote into the
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 19 of 31
engineer position in the future are learning everything on the front end, so they have all
the tools and resources necessary to -- when they do take that test and they get that
promotion they are ready to go. Command training, blue car command training, there is
a program that we adopted, developed by the chief, and his two sons of the Phoenix fire
department. We looked everywhere for good, comprehensive command training as we
rolled into this new era of having our chiefs on scene in that command role. We found
this to be the best model. We partnered with Caldwell and Middleton of all people, on
this initial project. We now have Boise fire department that are on board. Eagle fire -- I
just talked to Chief Winkler today, he just sent three guys down to Phoenix to become
train the trainers. Initially when we brought this to the other departments they said what
the heck is this and now everybody is doing it. You know, we try where we can to lead
by example, we try to collaborate and we have been able to get people on board, so
now you're going to see across the entire Treasure Valley -- Star, Nampa are coming
along -- that we are going to have one unified way at running command on a fire scene
and for me as a fire chief, knowing I want to send men and women home every single
night safe, that -- a unification of command is a really big deal. So, I'm very excited
about that. On the training side we also have company and individual performance
standards that we did not have before. This meets our ISO and FPA requirements for
training, so I can feel very confident when I tell you our guys are trained to the right
standards. They are. And, then, also the joint public safety training that Meridian Police
Department -- and I want to throw Public Works in there. They are kind of the third leg
of this public safety stool, if you will, and so certainly Tom and the work that his folks are
doing in collaboration with us, it is a team effort. What are we currently doing? I want to
talk just briefly about the EMS Joint Powers Agreement. You all signed onto that and I
was glad you did, because we were one of the ones leading the charge on that. I just
want to tell you it's working. We have had success so far and that's very important to
me. We have a joint management system that the Mayor is the chair of this board and
knows that, because she called for the votes at our last meeting on this. Essentially, all
of our training now is in one central repository for all agencies. When it comes to EMS
training, if we are -- if we are training on chest pain everybody is getting the same thing.
All our providers are on the exact same page when it comes to training, when it comes
to the record keeping of EMS training, I will tell you that the staff below us working on
EMS issues are working hand in hand. It's nice to see. No more lawsuits, no more
fights, but collaboration and really a look forward on how do we do things better. We
have joint protocols currently in works. I just came from this meeting. It's a joint records
management system, so that we are all under the same patient care reporting system.
The benefit and the goal of this is that I start a chart or I start a report, I hand it off to the
medics that are transporting, they, then, hand it off to the hospital, it goes to a central
repository, but, then, it comes back to us. The missing link so far in the education for
our guys and gals -- when we drop a patient off at the hospital we never know what the
outcome is. So, if we are treating a heart attack and it ends up being something else,
we never know that. Now working with St. Luke's and St. AI's, we are going to have a
complete circle of information and so our providers can now see what was the final
outcome of this patient care experience. It also helps to meet some of the future health
care initiatives that are coming down. I think Ada County as a whole and this EMS
system is going to be leading the way and that others will look to. We are also looking
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 20 of 31
to develop a system wide CPR program. You all approved that for us in the last -- in
this year's budget, this current budget. Meridian will be taking the lead on that from the
this EMS system approach. They are going to be -- we are going to be the test
dummies, if you will. This will involve Meridian PD as well. We want to get ADs on
every patrol car and I can just tell you -- I received an e-mail -- I think it was last week,
Jeff. I can't remember exactly what day it was, Friday or Thursday, and it was an a-mail
from Blake Campbell, one of our division chiefs and everybody had gone out onto a
hanging suspect -- or a hanging patient and the first one that was on scene was a
Meridian police officer and when our guys showed up that police officer was doing CPR
and kept doing CPR until we had all of our equipment set up ready to go and we could
make that switch. That integration of law enforcement, where it's available and where
we can do it, is a huge component of survivability, when it comes to cardiac arrest
especially. And so to Jeff and the officer -- I know we are going to talk about that later
as far as recognition goes, but that's a key component. We sent our EMS folks up to
Seattle. King county has one of the best survivability rates in the nation and they have it
for a reason. So, they went up there and they learned about how King county set up
their CPR programs and their cardiac arrest protocols and programs and when we
mentioned that we are going to be getting law enforcement involved that's one of the
components in King county that has been very successful. At 3:00 in the morning those
guys are out on the street -- those gals are out on the street and they may be 30
seconds away from a cardiac arrest. So, we don't know exactly where this program is
going, but working with PD and working with the EMS Joint Powers Agreement we are
very excited to try it. And so I think Jeff is open to kind of switch over to the medical
side every now and then and for his officers as well. And lastly -- and I think you will
appreciate this. I hope you will. Part of the EMS Joint Powers Agreement -- I have
been meeting with the state EMS bureau and Wayne Denny is the bureau chief. I know
Councilman Bird you remember Dia, she's moved on over to the east coast. Wayne
has taken her spot. Wayne is very open minded and in four years of EMS legislation
failure what we heard nonstop was let local governments get more involved in the
structure of EMS at the local level. Quit trying to push a state wide legislation that tells
us all how to do it. Wayne heard that loud and clear, certainly I did and I know
Councilman Bird did as we went through that. And so working with Wayne do you have
any advancement of our EMS Joint Powers Agreement and our system currently,
Wayne is willing to do a trial in which some of that authority and responsibility comes
down to the local level. A big area of this that I can give you as an example -- you see
the big circle in the middle, this is essentially -- the center of this property and
everybody round that circle is an issue or something that the state has their hands in
significantly today. What Wayne has said is if you can show us that you have this built
and designed properly, let's let you oversee this and let's let you sign off on it. A good
example of that is relicensure. Our men and women relicense every two years on the
paramedic side, every three years on the EMT side. We keep all the records, we keep
all the data, and we send that form off to the state and, then, takes them months,
because they are getting this from all around the state, to go through and to insure that
we are compliant with the rules. What I said to Wayne was how about if our board and
our medical directors oversee the compliance and send you a letter saying the following
people are in compliance and anytime you want to come in and audit anything, come
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 21 of 31
right on in and audit it and that's an example of how when you have a good system set
up -- I came from Washington state and that's similar to how it was in Washington state,
where they pushed a lot of that down to the local level from established systems, like
ours with a board, they oversee this and with good medical directions. So, I'm very
excited about the possibilities here, I think it's going to be a good advancement when
we can get there. So, what are we doing today as well. Data collection analysis. This
has been one of my forefront issues and I have mentioned it to you all in the past. Our
data was not good. Our collection was not good. We had flaws in the system. Deputy
Chief Amenn is a master when it comes to putting all this data together. What we didn't
have is a DIS component from the IT component that we needed to really pull this all
together. Chris went to Mr. Tanner up in IT and I just want to say thank you to Jaycee --
and know she left -- but for the entire IT team. They worked together with Chris and
now we have Matt Snow one day a week in our department and eight hours a day him
and Chris will sit in their office working the data, cleaning it up, looking for errors, and,
then, analyzing the data. So far in the last seven months they spent about 800 hours
cleaning up the database, updating it, sorting it, and analyzing it. As a result I will tell
you that in the last probably four years we have been getting bad data from Ada County,
from their dispatch center, because of mechanism that were broke in the process and I
can't even begin to tell you how many little different loops and trails you got to follow for
us to get the data from them to us. Working together with the county we are now
getting that data within about five minutes and according to Mike Tanner it's everything
we have always wanted and all it took was hours of sitting down, talking about it and
seeing how can we make this work. So, that is now in process and that is now coming
across where we can truly analyze what our calls are, our call volume, our response
times, et cetera. What we have also made a decision to do -- we, like many, got
wrapped up in the all in one program. All in one will do everything you need it to do.
What we found is in those all in one programs you just get a little bit of what you want to
do and it's not real accurate. We have begun looking at best of breed as we are calling
it. If you look at the ICMA past conference this past year one of the things they focused
on was good data versus bad and one of the things they talked about at their annual
conference was these all in one programs and the fact that the promise was it's going to
be easier for you to maintain everything. The reality is it's more difficult. So, we have
been looked at sitting down with our staff -- for example, Perry Palmer on the inspection
side and say, Perry, what programs best fit your needs and can we collaborate with
other city departments to meet that need. Accella is one that Chief Palmer and his
inspection staff are going to be using for their inspections. On the flip side the EMS and
fire suppression side are going to be using a certain database program for their
reporting of patients and of fires. We were working with Public Works on their Hansen
program to log all of our logistical needs. So, we are getting away from the all in one.
We think it's going to be time very well spent, easier for the end user that's actually
working on that data specifically and not worry about the others. So, that is a switch for
us, but we think it's the right switch and it's a good switch. On benefits and the hours
spent. Eight hundred hours is a lot of hours. Chris has mainly just focused all of his
time on this, but we knew it was that important. So, what are the benefits we can
readily identify? Response times compliance. We can articulate to the public what our
service level is and what it is not. We can plan for future growth, i.e., the CIP. We can
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 22 of 31
identify trends. We can identify high risk target hazards and populations to develop pre-
fire plans, public education, and put it in places that it needs to be most. It also allows
us to maintain collaboration with other city departments. I mentioned the collaboration
with IT, as well as Public Works Department. The Police Department on some of their
crime -- what did you call it? DDACTS. That's a pretty cool acronym. I hate acronyms,
but I like that one. This is our DDACTS if you will. And it is important to us and here is
an example of what we have now that we didn't have before. Now with the GIS analysis
that we can do -- in the past we took a fire station, we drew a 1.5 mile radius right
around it -- it didn't take into account road speeds, it didn't take into account traffic
congestion, numbers of people on the road, it didn't take into account access points.
So, the assumption was everywhere in the circle we can get to in five minutes. That's a
one minute turn out time and a four minute travel time. We have known this not to be
true, we just couldn't articulate it the way we wanted to. For example, Station 5 -- when
you go to Station 5 and you go to their back garage door and you look at the subdivision
directly behind them, we cannot hit that in a four minute travel time. It doesn't make any
sense to the folks that say, well, you have got a fire station right here, why can't you get
to my house in four minutes. Because of the road and the distance and the access we
can't do it. What you will see in these maps -- and this is a -- this is a 30,000 foot view,
but when you blow these up you can start seeing pockets where we just can't hit in four
minutes. This helps us have the conversation at least about service level delivery and
what we can and cannot do. To give you an idea of what it looks like once we plat this
out and what you can see on here is Station 1, 2 , 3, 4 and 5. You also see Station 6
down at the south and Station 7 is our next planned station, that's up in that northwest
corner and I will get to that in a little bit on collaboration. But if you notice we are going
to look at Station 6 -- and I don't know how to write on this thing -- it's going to be done
in your lower left-hand corner, that fire station. Now with our GIS analysis we can say,
okay, if we put a station there what's that response coverage that you see in the light
green now. You will notice that it's no longer circles, it's actually polygons that take into
account the load speed. We have a policy that says you can go ten miles an hour over
the posted speed limit. So, when we look at response time standards we say this plus
ten on a code three emergency run. You can see some areas of overlap and that
overlap are the areas that we can absolutely guarantee a four minute response, even if
the current station, the main station, is out on another call, the next station over can hit
an overlap area in four minutes. So, we know where our overlap areas are. To get to
there in the future and what we are looking at is pulling GIS data and what those dots
represent are clusters of calls, they are not individual calls, but they are clusters. We
can now look at this -- and much like Jeff does and his team does with crime analysis,
and where is the call volume happening and where we are not able to hit. So, as we
look at CIPs and we look at future fire stations, it's not a guess, it's not saying we think
the building is going to come here and we think the growth is going to come here, we
can also look at actual numbers to help us create that plan and we think that this is a
much better way to move forward than -- than just kind of thinking what's going to
happen in the future. It gives us more tools in the toolbox to analyze these things.
These are just three snapshots. Chris and Matt have put so much work into it they have
about 60 snapshots so far. I didn't want to bring all 60 to you, but I want to give you an
idea of what we are doing with our data and how we are getting there. Challenges that
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 23 of 31
lie ahead. We have two very significant challenges. One is maintenance. How do we
maintain what we currently have? The rapid growth in the past has now put us in a
position where everything is coming due for replacement. I won't tell you what the
Mayor said when she saw our CIP, but it's an issue that we have to face. Now, certainly
we are going to walk through it, we are going to talk about it, we are going to figure out
how we can do it within the budget that we have. We understand that. But at the front
end we at least need to put it out to say this is where we are at today. Engine
replacements. We need a fundamental question answered through the group that we
are going to put together on do we replace engines based on the ten year mark that is
the industry standard and that gets you resale value or do we just let them run out until
the wheels fall off and we donate them to somebody? And that's a fundamental
discussion to have. Do we purchase them with cash? Do we do a lease? Do we do a
lease to own? These are all things we are working with Finance on right now to say
what is the best plan for Meridian. We looked at the industry standard, best practices --
just to look at it to compare what else is going on out there, but we are not going to use
that solely as we determine what we are going to do. This will be a collaborative on the
part of the Fire Department, you as elected officials, Finance, everybody that's involved
in these big items. SCBA replacement. The NFPA standards changed. This is one we
do have to change next year. We have talked about it, we have been working with
Finance and the Mayor for the last year and a half on this one, knowing it's coming.
That's a 380,000 dollar replacement. This is our lifeline on a structure fire. Without
these things we don't go inside. Right now Chief Welborn is in charge of this project.
He's working with all of the other agencies in the valley who are -- have the same
expiration issue we do to see if we can get a federal grant to purchase these. He's
working with Kuna, Eagle, Caldwell, Middleton. Boise is not expiring yet. I think those
are the four departments right now that he's working collaboratively with to see if we can
do a federal grant through FEMA to try and get these replaced. This is a big ticket item
across the country. So, that is a big issue that we are working on. Safety replacement
I'm talking about components here, not tearing down the whole station and replacing it.
I will say I'm very pleased with the work that Chief Shaul and Chief Amenn have done
on a replacement schedule. I know the Mayor has seen that. We worked very hard
with Finance and the Mayor's office on making sure that it makes sense. And so I think
with the replacement schedule that he has for things like HVAC system, all the things
that are within a house or a fire station. Those are getting replaced at the proper time.
I'm very comfortable that our plan is good and that it's fundable. So, that one doesn't
concern me as much now that we have a plan in place and staffing I'm not talking about
new staffing here, but we are about four years away from some pretty big significant
retirement groups. That's going to be a challenge for us. All the -- I won't say old guys,
I would be wrong. All the guys that started in this department and started way back,
they are going to be up for retirement here in about four years. So, that's something
that we got our eyes on that's coming down the road that we are going to -- we know we
are going to have to -- not only get some replacements for, but how do we -- how do we
capture their knowledge, their experiences and make sure that we pass those onto the
new guys coming in, because they have a lot of experience and you don't -- it's hard to
lose that experience when you lose it, so we are going to try and capture that. The
other challenges that we have -- and Jeff really alluded to this and this is a concern for
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 24 of 31
us, is the growth and I think I said last time I was up here we are seeing some fairly
significant rapid growth again. I wish it would slow down just a little bit on some of the
building construction, so we could go through this methodically, but we do need to have
it planned for and that's the CIP. The question really becomes do we maintain current
service delivery levels? Do we need to alter them? That's a decision that we are going
to have to make. Part of what Chief Amenn is working on that I didn't mention earlier is
what's called a standard of cover. I have watched the Public Works Department and the
Police Department both go through the accreditation process. In the fire service there is
a similar accreditation process that Chief Amenn is going through. Part of that is the
standard of cover and what that is is a document that says what our current service
level delivery is, what it can be in the future, what our growth is, what our target hazards
are. So, increase the plan for service delivery. I will tell you I spent a lot of time talking
to Chief Alan Brunacini, who chaired the 17-10 committee and I know 17-10 the SBA
standard is something you have heard me talk about, certainly Chief Anderson talked
about and probably others. That is the national response time goal. It's five minutes 90
percent of the time. It's unachievable. I will just tell you that Phoenix has all the tools
and resources they could have and they are at about 88 percent. The picture that I
showed you of overlapping fire stations, Phoenix has them nearly on top of each other
to try and meet that five minute goal. When I talked to Chief Brunacini I said that's a
pretty lofty goal, chief, and it is based on science and it is based on data. I will tell you
that. It's based on flash over. We know five minutes after the call comes in if we don't
get there in time the risk of flash over increases greatly. That's a science that's been
proven. We know in cardiac arrest if we don't get to somebody in five minutes we will
start pushing on their chest to get the blood flow going that the chance of survivability is
greatly diminished. We are now finding out stroke is the very same thing. If we don't
get to folks in time, we can't get them into the cath labs, into the neurosurgeons in time
to get that reversed. So, there is some science behind it, but at what cost. And that's a
hard discussion. How much do we spend to insure a five minute response time. The
standard is five minutes 90 percent of the time. Our standard currently here in Meridian
is five minutes 80 percent of the time. As we developed our standards or our strategic
planning process my question was do we increase the amount of time it takes us to get
somewhere and still maintain a 90 percent. What I was told is the better way to do it is
to change the percentile. The amount of -- the percent of time you're going to be able to
get their within five minutes. They recognize that if a station is out on a call our chance
to get there in five minutes is out the window. Jeff alluded to the road construction. We
have done studies that show the road construction and the road closures that we have
experienced here have significantly affected response times. We have been able to
weather that, change response districts, because we knew there was a better good out
there. This opening of Meridian Road has helped us move along a lot better now that
it's over. And Ten Mile, we are getting ready to go through that. We know that's going
to slow down Station 2 significantly, but the short-term pain is worth the long-term gain,
if I can bring a sport analogy to the discussion. As we look in the future personnel is
going to be an issue. Station's apparatus, how do we get them in the places they need
to be. Specialized needs -- I want to hit on this just very briefly. I have always shied
away from the special teams. If you look at some other fire departments around us you
will hear the special teams. I get really worried when we start talking about those,
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 25 of 31
because of the very specialized training that needs to take place, the overtime that can
take place, et cetera. I do not want to put on a hazmat team. We don't need one. We
have regional teams, one to the east and one to the west of us, so if we have a
significant hazmat spill we are going to call them. Through an analysis our biggest risk
right now is through technical rescue, whether that's rope rescue, trench rescue,
confined space rescue and what concerns us is that many businesses in our city, as
part of their insurance, have to document who is your technical rescue team. If
somebody goes down in this confined space who is going to come and get you and the
assumption is the Meridian Fire Department is. Confined space rescue -- and Public
Works can certainly attest to this -- requires very specialized training and so that is an
area that we are looking at, seeing if this is a need of our city we at least need to
evaluate it and look at it. It's different than going into a short manhole and pulling
somebody out, as opposed to going in underground and I am very sensitive to this. I
buried two of my friends in Yakama, Washington, that did a confined space rescue and
ran out of air and died and so it is not something we take lightly. So, we will be looking
at that and discussing that with the stakeholders involved. Just to mention real quick on
the service level delivery or the standard cover document I talked about. Our
anticipated completion date internally in the fire department is January. The next step is
we will be bringing that to an internal focus group, which I will, hopefully, be asking
some of you the participate on, as well as other departments in the city to look at and,
then, from there we take it to an external public stakeholders group to evaluate and get
input from. At the end of the day the ones that really set that service level delivery
expectation -- and I can tell you going through this strategic plan -- I mentioned this
before -- when the question was asked how quickly do you want the fire department to
get there, I had everywhere from 30 seconds to whenever you get there. That's a pretty
big gap in what the expectation is in the public. So, we need to hear from them, what is
your expectation of the fire department and give them the information and, then, get
back the -- the feedback from them. So, those are our challenges as it pertains to
growth, which we know is coming. How are we approaching growth? I will tell you at
every turn where we can identify strategic partners we will. You saw Station 7 way up
there in the northwest corner as a potential future station. That land tentatively has
been donated by the developer at The Oaks that -- it's a big subdivision going in up off
of McMillan, but as we sat down with our neighboring departments in that area, mainly
Star Fire Department, we said what can we do here together. Is there an opportunity to
do a joint station, joint staffing of a station, how can we work together to make this
happen. I just had the same conversation with Chief Winkle from Eagle Fire as he looks
at the northeast corner of his -- of our district and whatever the northwest corner --
southwest of his. These are areas that we want to work together on. Kuna is another
example. As we need something out south how can we work with the Kuna Fire
Department -- the Kuna Fire District to potentially bring something out there and
decrease the cost for both of us, which, in turn, is the best use of tax dollars, in our
opinion. We also now are looking at using a system response performance as these
barriers have been broken down through automatic gain. Before we just focused on
ourselves, the walls were up, and how can we get there in five minutes. Now we look at
it as how can all of us get there in five minutes. There is very few structure fires we go
on now where we don't have an allied agency with us or we are not with somebody else,
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 26 of 31
because it's on a border call. That new approach to reporting, the new centralized
database is going to be able to allow us to analyze how did we do together. Did we
meet the goal together. On the EMS side we are looking at the exact same thing, as
the Mayor could attest, through our discussions at the joint powers agreement, how can
we look at stopping the clock together, instead of looking at it just as an agency
ourselves. That's a better use of tax dollars. We are going to continue to partner with
other government or public agencies to increase demand. One of our great
partnerships that I'm very proud of is with the Meridian School District and their fire and
emergency services program. We are helping to build the next generation of fire
fighters and EMTs and, in turn, they are riding along with us and so they are giving us
feedback. That's a great feedback mechanism. Citizen academy is a great mechanism.
Volunteers for public educational logistics, we are working on that right now and looking
at that, so we are exploring every possibility we can to not just do this by ourselves, but
it do together with partners. Again, we are going to continue to work with IT,
COMPASS, the assessor's office, to identify those areas of growth and need. The
standard covered document I have already covered, so I won't cover it again. We need
to hear from the public, the patient, the end user, and so one of the things I'm happy to
announce -- we have a new staff member that you all approved -- I just totally blanked
on her name and I didn't bring my phone. Have Judy send me her name. She's a
recent graduate of NNU and I will e-mail you her name. I forgot it up here. She brings
a very good background. So, the position itself is a front desk and records clerk
position, but with -- with her varied background and the experiences she has, we think
she's going to be a great member of the team. One of the areas that we are going to
put her on is creating a feedback mechanism from the public and the people that we
see out on calls to see how we are doing and what their expectations were and if they
were met. This is going to give us data, again, to see how are we doing, are we
meeting the public's expectations of their fire department or are we missing the boat
somewhere and some of the projects she worked on at NNU -- her final senior year as a
business major they had a competition and went all the way up to Seattle. They had to
start a company from scratch and I kind of put her on the spot in the interview, I really
made her feel uncomfortable and she handled it really well. I said if you were to create
a feedback mechanism today for our fire department how would you do it and within ten
minutes she had a program for me on paper and on the white board of something that
our staff could do. So, I know we have the right person to help us with that as well.
Thank you. Emily Stroud. Nothing like one of your chiefs saving you. Emily Stroud.
De Weerd: They got your back.
Niemeyer: They do and I'm really glad. That orange i-Phone scared me, though. I saw
that out of the corner of my eye and -- so, we will continue to evaluate that proper
staffing and service levels and measurables and that is going to be a team effort and
when I say team I mean all of us, to make sure that we are on the same page. I have
looked at -- you know, parks has acreage standards. The police department has
officers per population. Really, our standard is response time, because of the science
behind it and so we will work together of make sure we develop that service level
delivery that we all can be okay with. And as we are trying to establish growth is in all
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 27 of 31
fire departments in Ada County of have a master plan for all departments. You talk
about a master plan within our own, how about a master plan for all of us, so that we
can see collaboratively where is everybody putting stuff and making sure that we are
not putting things on top of each other, that we are maximizing our use of dollars and
personnel. Just a couple of examples of that training. We have our training meeting
regularly right now. They are making a lot of progress and that's a good thing. We want
to look at a master response plan and probably the one thing that I can tell you that is in
place or going to be very soon is a joint application, testing, and recruit academy
process. It is a collaborative effort right now in Boise and Eagle Fire Departments, the
City of Boise, and the Eagle Fire District. This is going to be done by March. We are
going to be put on a joint test, there will be a joint application process and subsequently
there is going to be a joint recruiting academy. Why is that important? Well, it's
important, because right now a recruit academy cost about 60,000 dollars to put on.
Right now we kind of have a team of and he just came up and showed me his i-Phone.
We are not putting all of our resources together, decreasing costs and getting a better
product in the end. We are all testing to the same standard. Those folks that we hire
are all going to be in the same room together, so that nine months from now when they
go on a fire together they are going to know each other's name and that helps. That
makes our scenes run a lot smoother when we know who we are working with and so,
again, reducing dollars, putting our staff together to maximize efficiency and, then,
getting those folks in the same room together from day one and not day 101 when they
are out there on the fire trying to figure it out. So, that's going to be a very good thing. I
do want to thank the city of Boise. Their HR department has kind of led the charge on
that, as our HR department has had challenges with staffing and some transition stuff.
But with that said, we have had both Crystal and now Patty at least informed of the
process and they are fully on board. So, we do have HR -- our HR team involved. At
some point I'm sure our legal team will have to answer some questions as we finalize
that plan. So, what do we need from you as the City Council? We will need your
involvement and we have got some -- we got some challenges coming, especially with
the growth, and so we are going to need your involvement in that standard to cover to
say what is our response desire. What do we want to give to the public and how fast do
we want to get them there. We are going to need your comments, your thoughts, your
challenges to us and, then, subsequently once we get there we need your approval and
so that will be coming down the road. Supporting the plan. We certainly don't want to
overpromise and we don't want to under deliver. The plan is going to be our guide for
how we move forward. It's a plan that you can see and a plan that we can see and a
plan that the public can see, so it's very transparent. And, then, continue to collaborate
and cooperate with allied governments and I will walk lightly on this one, but I will say
this: I think Meridian leads the way. We have always said let's work together before we
fight each other. And you all as a City Council have done a very good job in doing that
and setting the tone. It's allowed us on the EMS Joint Powers Agreement to maintain a
good collaborative atmosphere, but there is a lot of other issues as we know that we
need to collaborate with our partners, ACCM and emergency management is one. The
dispatch center is another and that involves working with the county commissioners.
The Mayor and Jeff and I talked about this one by regular e-mail. He bailed. I guess I
got boring to him. These are issues that are coming down the road that if we can set
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 28 of 31
the tone and maintain the tone hopefully we can continue to come together and to find
solutions to problems and not put on patches, as we call them in the first service. Take
the patch off and let's work on solutions together. You all have done a great job of
setting that tone, I would just ask for your continuance in doing so, because it really
makes a difference on my end as a fire chief, I know on Jeff's end as a police chief and,
then, throughout our other city governments. So, I would just ask for you support in
that. And with that I would stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I do have one question and I'm sure you can answer it, Mark. It's not regarding
your deal. On a stroke they tell me if we can get this medicine to -- within an hour --
Niemeyer: Uh-huh.
Bird: -- are we -- is our paramedics -- do we carry that medicine? It has to be
administered by an MD, don't it?
Niemeyer: Yes. That's adoctor -- that's a doctor drug. But that really is where the time
-- to compose that, Councilman Rountree -- or Bird. You're spot on and I think you're
going down the right path. It's early notification. So, our education programs -- we have
got to get the education to people to say when you experience this call 911. The
second part is we need to get them to the hospital right away and we do have about an
hour window. The changes are encouraging, though, to where we can extend that a
little bit. But, really, it's getting them into the ER, getting the neurosurgeon, the CT
scan, and, then, getting that medicine in there and all it does is open up the arteries.
Bird: It keeps -- I had three friends that have -- well, have taken major strokes and
wound of being minor --
Niemeyer: Yeah. It does work.
Bird: Because they got there within --
Niemeyer: And I will applaud both St. AI's and St. Luke's, they put out very good PR
campaigns, we just need to keep doing it, so folks know if you get to us soon enough
we can get to you and, then, we can get you to the hospital.
Bird: I didn't think we was allowed to --
Niemeyer: No. That's a little bit beyond our purview.
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 29 of 31
Bird: Yeah.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You mentioned in the IT arena that you're looking at eliminating the all in one
aspect of data collection and going there program by program. I just want to caution
that every time you get a program to do an individual or a limited function it requires
somebody to support it and our IT department probably is getting pretty close to being
able to say they can't support too much more stuff. So, as we look at these we need to
look beyond what your costs are going to be. They are going to be more costs to the
city. Additionally, you buy programs to do one thing -- as with all good data collectors at
some point in time you're going to want to do something with that data and that might
mean you want to use data from multiple programs and if you have different databases
and different programs and different data tables and whatnot, then, you really start
getting into some extreme costs trying to utilize the data that's already cost you a fair
amount of money and oftentimes you spend as much trying to use the data as you did
trying to collect it. So, I just caution you and I have made this caution many times
before, that we don't want to develop data silos and I think the new term is intellectual
cylinders, but we don't want to go there. We want to be real cautious. First off, if you're
going to collect data make darn sure you're going -- you have got a use for it. And
make sure that it's usable with other data and you don't have to put the same data in
five different programs, you can borrow tables from one another. So, I know IT has
heard me before and I will say that again when I hear you say it, we can find a program
that will do this, but will it work with that.
Niemeyer: Councilman Rountree, I'm smiling, because we did hear you before when
you mentioned that and I heard you before, so just a couple things. One is whatever
program we are looking at we are insuring that the company is called open source. The
IT identified that as one of the biggest problems with data is these companies put out
their program, then, when you try and go in and mine the data they say, uh, no, that's
us, that's ours. No. It's ours. We paid for it and we are the end user and so we are
only purchasing open source software. Any software we are looking at we are working
with IT to make sure, yes, it meets what the city has. A couple of really important
issues. One is Chief Amenn found a company and got in the ground floor, IT supported
it in that they approved it, it does pull all those different data fields together into one
place, so we can look at one reporting, but it pulls in from multiple databases. We
worked with IT on that. We are also -- and I give Dave Tiedi and Mike Tanner a lot of
credit, they are looking at Cloud based services as well. So, our EMS reporting and fire
that I was talking about, that wouldn't even be maintained on our city server, it's
supported and maintained in the Cloud, which I had to get kind of up to speed and get
brought up on, but, yeah, big server up in the air that we all tie to. What IT liked about
that is that it doesn't require them to do all the maintenance of that sequel database, but
they can still pull into it. And, again, the open source to Cloud, iPads, all that good stuff,
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 30 of 31
it's all working well together, but we did hear that and we have worked closely with IT on
that very issue. That's as technical as I get.
Rountree: Well, what you don't want to find yourself in is you have an IT department
within your department.
Niemeyer: Yeah. And that's why I applaud them. We have been working really well
together and we appreciate their work. They are pretty good.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further?
Bird: I have nothing. Thanks, Mark.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Well, Council, you have got a lot of information and certainly
appreciate both our chiefs. Certainly I don't think there -- there is another city in our
state that has two departments that work closer together and the winner is our citizens.
So, thank you to both our chiefs. Great idea to combine. Next year maybe you can
each do each other's and it will be even more entertaining, so --
B. Public Works: Department Report Regarding the Number of
Connections Allowed on a Single Water Main
De Weerd: We did move this Item 7-B to next week.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: One comment one both reports. It is good to see that we are forward
thinking. I wish we could fund all forward thinking, but as we know it is going to be an
exercise in the next few weeks to try to figure out how to meet some of those goals with
the limited resources we do have, but I appreciate the thinking anyway and we know
where we need to try to hit and we will do the best we can.
De Weerd: And the fun does begin tomorrow with our impact fee committee as they
look at capital improvement plan. One of the things that Finance has worked with both
the chief and determined some of those staffing needs and it's going to be -- you know,
it's at some point not even just needs versus wants, it's trying to figure out needs versus
needs. Urgent needs versus maybe not so urgent needs.
Rountree: Priorities.
De Weerd: Yeah. It really is. And hope to be able to fully vet that and so when we
bring it to City Council we can have a robust discussion about that and how we came to
Meridian City Council
November 12, 2013
Page 31 of 31
some of the conclusions. It's -- it's going to be a fun first topic for our new City Council
members. So, stay tuned, we will have some fun ahead. So, if there isn't anything
further on this --
De Weerd: -- we did move our 7-B to next week.
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Council, any items for future -- as future topics for meetings upcoming?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. If not, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 4:50 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR T Y DE WEERD
ATTEST:
~-- ~ ~ ~ n
DATE APPROVED
r_~~~,. ~
CITY ~''
F'~
JF t