2016-12-13Meridian City Council Workshop December 13, 2016.
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:02 p.m., Tuesday,
December 13, 2016, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Keith Bird, Genesis
Milam, Ty Palmer and Anne Little Roberts.
Members Absent: Luke Cavener.
Others Present: C.Jay Coles, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Bruce Chatterton, Warren
Stewart, Jeff Lavey, Mark Niemeyer, Perry Palme r Mike Barton, David Tiede and
Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X_ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X_ Keith Bird
__X__ Genesis Milam _____ Lucas Cavener
__X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Welcome. This is our new system, so if we blow you out of here, we
will apologize in advance. So, welcome to our City Council workshop. For the
record it is Tuesday, December 13th. It's two minutes after 3:00. We will start with
roll call attendance, Mr. 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.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Under 4-P, that's a budget amendment is for the IT Department. Under 6-B,
the resolution number 16-1185. 7-A has been asked to be vacated. And with that
I move we approve the amended agenda.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 2 of 67
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement between Pet Care
Clinic and City of Meridian
B. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement between The Pet
Doctor and City of Meridian
C. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement between the Idaho
Humane Society and City of Meridian
D. Dog Licensing Designee Agreement between Meridian
Veterinary Hospital and City of Meridian
E. Professional Services Agreement with WineGlass Arts
Development for Concert Series Production Services
F. Professional Services Agreement with Stephanie Inman
for Proposal for Park Identity at Heroes Park
G. Professional Services Agreement with Ken McCall for
Proposal for Park Identity at Heroes Park
H. Professional Services Agreement with Trademark Sign
Co. for Proposal for Park Identity at Heroes Park
I. Agreement for Donation of Real Property - Reta Huskey
Park at Isola Creek Subdivision No. 4 with Toll ID I, LLC
J. Agreement to Transfer Real Property between the City of
Meridian and the Treasure Valley Family YMCA for the
Hillsdale Park
K. Approval of Change Order No. 2 to Granite Excavation,
Inc. for the “Five Mile Trunk Relief and Water Line
Replacement at 8th Street Park” project for a Not-To-
Exceed amount of $105,370.94
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 3 of 67
L. Interagency Agreement with ACHD for Sewer
Construction at West 1st Street, Broadway Ave to Pine
Ave Ada County Highway District (ACHD) Project
816003.005 and City Of Meridian Project 10721.A
M. Approval of Contract Amendment No. 1 to Varsity
Facility Services for “JANITORIAL SERVICES” for a Not-
To-Exceed amount of $198,325.08
N. Approval of Task Order 10601.F to MTI for the “WRRF
CAPACITY EXPANSION SPECIAL INSPECTIONS”
project for a Not-To-Exceed amount of $333,107.00
O. Approval of purchase of Motion Tablets from CDW-
Government, LLC for a Not-To-Exceed amount of
$89,984.00 and authorize the Purchasing Manager to
sign Purchase Order #17-0121 for the Not-to-Exceed
amount of $89,984.00
P. Budget Amendment for On Call / Overtime Budget for
After-hours Support for a Not-To-Exceed amount of
$15,822.00
Q. Utility Line Easement between Bedford Place
Homeowners Association and City of Meridian
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: As stated earlier, Item 4-P is under the IT Department and with that I move
we approve the Consent Agenda. For the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 4 of 67
Item 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Mayor’s Office: Expanding the Membership of the
Planning and Zoning Commission and Appointing
William "Bill" Cassinelli to Seat 6 and Jessica Perreault
to Seat 7 of the Planning and Zoning Commission
B. Mayor’s Office: Resolution No. 16-1185: A Resolution
Expanding the Membership of the Planning and Zoning
Commission and Appointing William "Bill" Cassinelli to
Seat 6 and Jessica Perreault to Seat 7 of the Planning
and Zoning Commission
De Weerd: So, we will move to Item 6-A. Council, in front of you are -- is the
information for the two appointees to fill the two new seats for the Planning and
Zoning Commission. We have these seats starting in -- after the beginning of the
year and Jessica is here this evening and I will ask her if she wants to say a few
words after action by the -- by the Council. Do you have any questions of these
two candidates?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing how we have no questions. I move that we approve Resolution No.
16-1185.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 6-B. Mr. Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Jessica, thank you for joining us. Yes, please.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 5 of 67
Perreaut: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for having me here. I just want
to say thank you to Ann and Genesis. They may not remember a conversation we
had a few years ago at Mayor Tammy's house about the City Council and it planted
a seed in my head to want to serve and at that time it was not a good time for me
to do that with my business and the growth of my business, but this opportunity
came along and I was approached by our government affairs director for the Boise
Regional Realtors to consider putting in my application for the Meridian Planning
and Zoning Commission and put a lot of thought into it, asked Caleb a lot of
questions, and decided that now is the time for me to -- to begin my official service
to the City of Meridian. I'm very excited for how I will be able to contribute, for what
I will learn, and I know it will -- it will grow me as a person and it will, hopefully,
grow my business as well. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. We appreciate you joining us. I -- I know you had another
commitment, so we appreciate that you came and spent a few minutes to introduce
yourself and put a face with a name.
Perreaut: Yes. Thank you.
C. Idaho Avenue Placemaking Grow Smart Award
Presentation
De Weerd: Thank you, Jessica. Okay. Item 6 -C is -- Marty Schindler is here to
talk about the Idaho Avenue Placemaking Smart Growth Award that recently was
presented to those that were involved in this project . So, I will ask Caleb and Marty
if you want to come and make comment.
Schindler: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Councilmen. Thank you for allowing
me a few moments of your time today. I wanted to -- on behalf of MDBA and a
personal show of gratitude, I wanted to bring back the concept that we went
through about two years ago in the planning. It was the Idaho placemaking
initiative and I want to take a moment just to say we had great success out of it .
First we -- we did it under budget. Two is that we actually through that process
created a new entity on the tree and that today stands as Blue Sky Bagel. That
Blue Sky Bagel, in fact, came because of this placemaking effort. Mark Hansen is
the owner of Blue Sky and that franchise and saw it as an opportunity to engage
in the community and bring out -- shed a new light to his entity himself and I would
say without us doing that those acts that we did over a period of a year and a half
-- I wouldn't have been fortunate enough to actually have him as a tenant in one of
our buildings that we just happen to own, but -- and with that said, Caleb, did
you --
Hood: Yeah. I just -- I just wanted to show off our nice cutting board that we have
here that we won this last month at the Idaho Smart Growth awards. So, I believe
on behalf of the MDBA Marty wants to present this to the -- to the Mayor and
Council. We do appreciate your involvement with this, both on a personal level
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 6 of 67
and representing the city with some of the resources. It was good to be at that --
that award ceremony, because it was a statewide award ceremony. There were
six or seven different awards that were granted from all over the state of Idaho, so
good publicity for the City of Meridian to have a project like this recognized, again,
statewide. So, there is some measurement of success, too, that -- to do projects
like this that reinvigorate our downtown. So, I think with that, Marty -- I don't know
if you have anything else you want to add, but thank you.
Schindler: And, again, thank you.
De Weerd: Thanks for passing that along and for representing us at the awards
banquet. I believe our director was there, as well as Caleb and Brian and Marty.
So, the key stakeholders and the movers and the shakers of this program and
project. So, we are excited about what it's -- it's done and see -- see how the
businesses along Idaho utilize that space as we move forward. It's got two years.
Do it. Okay. Thanks for joining us.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Finance Department: Quarterly Update
De Weerd: Item 7-A is under our Finance Department and that has been
requested to be vacated and -- because our CFO was -- was called away
unexpectedly.
B. Information Technology Department: Annual
Department Report
De Weerd: So, we will move to Item 7-B and turn this over to our IT CFO -- or CIO.
You don't want to be the CFO. And we are benefiting from Dave and his staff's
expertise and diligence. So, I'm turning this over to you, Dave. And we will see if
you can use the equipment.
Tiede: We shall see.
De Weerd: We are glad that you're the first to test it.
Tiede: So am I.
Bird: I can't even get my PC up.
De Weerd: And I will ask the clerk to turn on the annotations, just in case we --
Bird: There we go.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 7 of 67
Tiede: Okay. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, happy to be her e before
you again this year. Here for our annual update to Council. I'm sure you guys
have seen me enough this year, but -- sorry. You get me again. To start off I
would like to talk briefly about our staffing changes. Over the last eight months IT
has gone through a variety of staffing changes due to shifts in personnel or new
positions. So, our first one is our support tech, which has recently been filled by
Ryan Doonesberry, who is not able to be with us because he's doing tech support
right now. And, then, Krystal Goodman was recently promoted to a support
specialist position. Actually, not recently. I should say almost a month ago now.
She's going to be fantastic in that role.
De Weerd: I don't see her.
Tiede: I think she's also doing tech support.
De Weerd: She hiding.
Tiede: Paul Macelli has recently been promoted to support specialist and is here
in the audience as well. Jamie Bean has been recently promoted to systems
administrator.
De Weerd: You can smile, Jamie. There you go.
Tiede: He is in the audience as well. We had a couple of new positions we added
this fiscal year. One of them is our new web developer Catherine Roebuck. She's
out in the audience as well. She's going to be helping with our website.
De W eerd: You need to raise your hand. There you go. Thank you. And she hit
the ground running, so that's awesome.
Tiede: Yeah. And, then, Eli Daniel has been promoted to network administrator,
which is a new position as well. So, he's here with us as well.
De Weerd: And you, too, Eli. There you go.
Tiede: And, then, of course, I was recently promoted to Chief Information Officer.
So, I put that on there, even though you already heard that, but --
De Weerd: And you can raise your hand, too. Sorry.
Tiede: Hello, Mayor, Members of the Council. So, the next thing I wanted to t alk
about was go briefly over our department and services we provide and staff
associated with that. As you probably know, IT has changed a lot over the last five
to ten years and what we provide now versus what we provide d ten years ago,
quite a bit different. So, to start out I'd like to talk about what I call our service
desk. This is really where people start when they contact IT. If they need
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 8 of 67
assistance they start with our service desk and typically our help desk guy -- we
have couple other people in there as well. So, what we provide as part of our
service desk technical support for our hardware and software. We do purchasing
and asset management for all technology-related acquisitions throughout the city,
so we have made an effort to do that across all departments, including hardware
and software maintenance items, so that we have a central spot where we are
managing those and also maintaining those, keeping them up to date and make
sure they are not falling into any situations where you have penalty fees or things
lapse or things like that. So, we have a person that is doing business analysis and
project management and that's Christy, who has been a huge asset in this project
that you're sitting in right now, the chambers revamp, and, then, we have an intern
that does graphic design work for us as well. But if you look at this little org chart
here, this represents service desk. Graphic design is under a different person,
that's why it's split out. But, really, the tech support folks are the support techs,
support specialist and, then, our intern Jared Day and, then, Stephanie, our
administrative assistant does the purchasing and asset management and, then,
Christy Vigil, our systems analyst, does the business analysis and project
management. So, that makes up our service desk and that -- part of that is what
we probably had ten years ago. It was really just that technical support function.
As you'll see on upcoming slides it's grown. So, a number of years ago IT started
down the path of centralizing GIS and we have a couple folks in GIS that work in
our IT Department. GIS analyst, which is currently vacant, and the GIS developer.
What they work on is creating and maintaining data that's used in our GIS system.
Mapping services, map requests, everything from a wall map that needs to go on
a wall for a department, to a map out in the field that they may use for collections
and addresses or things like that. Analysis. So, more in-depth review and how to
apply all the GIS services and make decisions off those that impact the business.
And, then, development and automation of systems. So, what that means is we
integrate things into other systems, so Accella, for example. Our land
management system has GIS integrated into it and you can actually look parcels
up on a map and see associated records with those. But also going into the side
of automation, integration with other systems. So, for instance, we have a system
called MEAD, which is Meridian Enterprise Addressing Database, that is the sole
source or the source of truth for all addressing in Meridian and that is integrated to
other systems like our new utility billing system or Accella or other systems. So,
that is what our GIS team does for us. Moving on. We have Infrastructure Services
and this is really the back end. So, this is our systems administrator and network
administrator and they handle all the back-end stuff. So, application servers, when
you're talking large applications that have a back end, like Accella or TrueBill or
even our accounting systems, they all reside on a server so that many people can
access them and that data is centralized, it's backed up, we maintain it, we make
sure the integrity is good, et cetera. We have storage that is shared -- a shared
resource pool for all of that use, so servers and storage are also part of that. We
do virtualization, which I won't get into a lot of details, but, basically, it allows us to
acquire hardware and software and use them as a resource pool. So, that means
when we -- when we get a new large system like TrueBill we actually try to make
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 9 of 67
sure we have resources available already for those types of things. So, we have
a little bit of flexibility there, but it also allows us to keep things up and running
better. So, that kind of plays into disaster recovery, which I will mention briefly in
a minute. We handle the network from an infrastructure standpoint, and that
includes everything from phones to other connected devices . As you probably
know, you have probably heard of the term internet of things, more and more it
become network-connected these days. So, that's a big piece of the -- big chunk
of work that we do. We handle security for all those things. That is, obviously,
information security, so -- and, then, disaster recovery for all those services as
well. So, that makes up infrastructure. And you are welcome to ask me any
questions along the way or hold them to the end. It's up to you. The next area
that we have is software engineering. This is a new one as of about eight, nine
years ago, but it's been -- there has been a lot of value that departments have seen
in this. So, it continues to get attention. The application -- software engineering is
made up of application development, so we develop software for other
departments that are our customers and, in turn, they get a product that they like,
that works, that they can use and in most cases it's at a significantly less -- or
significantly less cost than what they are going to pay for something off the shelf
and works a lot better, because we can develop something around their business
processes, rather than them trying to fit in a box of, hey, look, this is how this piece
of software works, which is great. We support all those applications that we
develop internal -- or internally, but another big thing that happens when we
developed software is process improvement. When one of our software engineers
starts working with a department, they also take a look and say is there a way that
we can do this more efficiently? Is there a way that it should talk to or integrate
with other systems or work with other departments , so we could build that in and
get a better process in the long run as well, not just, hey, look, here is a piece of
software. So, we are actually getting efficiencies out of doing this. So, the next
piece that we do is integration and this goes along the same lines as GIS, where
we will integrate two systems to work together, as an example, and I think this is
mentioned later, but I will mention it again here. Our new utility billing system, we
actually did integration so it will actually dump data into our finance -- financial
system, rather than people having to go and do that data entry that's already
happened in the Utility Billing System, it just automatically gets pushed over there
and they can review that if they would like. That, obviously, makes it a lot easier.
Saves them -- saves them a lot of time, so -- we also do third-party application
support. So, systems that are a little more complex or need a little more attention
just because of the nature of their complexity will support those. A big one of those
is Accella, just because it's a large enterprise system that is used by many
departments and there is a lot of different needs that come up, so -- and, then,
obviously, we do web development and that's something that we are going to be
working on more, so -- this is really the breakdown of the areas in IT. So, this
represents the entire group on one page. You can see our various services that
we have. So, next I just wanted to go over some highlights from this last year and
these are really focused around efficiencies or things that we have done for other
departments that have helped improve their efficiencies . So, this is the list and I
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 10 of 67
will just kind of go into a little more detail on each one . Accella is one that we
continue to work with especially Community Development on. They have made a
lot of strides this last year, even the last six months to improve things for their
customers, which kudos to Bruce and his team. We have gone through and done
things for resubmittals, so they are more apparent to people when they come
through the system. People can submit them electronically online and they don't
get lost in the weeds or in the mix of everything else that's going on. We have set
up e-mail notifications so that the contractors that are working with the system get
notified when something gets approved and is ready for a fee to be paid . They
know, hey, look, I need to pay a fee and, then, the permit will be released and also
get an e-mail when it is ready to go, which is great. We set up things like automatic
backflow inspections, where -- where we have eliminated duplicate data entry as
soon as something gets issued -- a permit gets issued that is related to backflow.
It will actually go create an inspection and the inspection team will know, hey, look,
we need to get out there, instead of, well, it's in there, it's been approved, now
somebody needs to go follow up and find out where the data is, where things are
in the process. It's all automated, which is fantastic. And, then, we have continued
to do more scripting of application fees and other areas of the system. So, again,
a lot of it is driven by Community Development in looking to improve processes for
their customers, which has been fantastic. The next area I want to mention is
automated -- or automatic vehicle location or AVL. We have done this for a few
different departments now and we can get real-time location of vehicles throughout
the city. Right now we have this on a number of police cars. I'm pretty sure most
of the fire engines and, then, also a few water vehicles, with plans to expand to
others. This does a number of things for the departments that have it, besides
they can figure out where -- where a piece of equipment is at any time, which is
fantastic. But it also gives them -- for police, for instance, they have to replay
history, so they can see where areas are problematic in the city, where -- if there
was a hot spot in the area or in the city that had more events or more officers going
to, they can see, hey, look, where is this happening real-time they can see where
the cars are going and know this is a hot zone that they should be looking to, you
know, deal with it however they want to, so -- for water we have -- they have used
it in a little bit different way. They actually have been able to determined, based
off the vehicle location, who is closer to the job that needs to be done . So, if an
emergency comes up they can say, hey, look you're over here close to this, rather
than sending somebody else all the way across the city, let's send somebody
close. It will take him five minutes and, then, they can get back to what they were
doing, instead of spending, you know, 30 minutes going back and forth, which is,
again, a time savings for them, which is great. We have set up geo fencing
alerts --
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: David, on the locations of the vehicles, are -- is that a 24 hour -- it's on 24
hours?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 11 of 67
Tiede: It is on 24 hours.
Bird: Because the emergency vehicles, you know, work more than 8:00 to 5:00.
Tiede: Yes. It is on 24/7.
Bird: And who monitors it?
Tiede: Right now all the data gets pushed into a system it can be pulled up at any
time. Nobody is monitoring it per se all the time, but it is captured.
Bird: It can be pulled up by --
Tiede: It is captured.
Bird: -- up by department heads or --
Tiede: Yes. Yes. Right now we have developed an application that -- it's in
progress. There is still some features or functionality that's being worked out, but
we have developed something that Police and Fire and Public Works can pull up
and view that information.
Bird: Thank you, David.
Tiede: Yes. We have started playing with geo fencing, which is basically setting
up a fence around a location -- a virtual fence around a location and be able to
trigger notifications or alerts based off of crossing that, which is really cool
technology. And, then, we have given the ability for Fire to pull up locations and
unit statuses on vehicles, which is a little bit more than what we have done with
the other departments, but it's -- that's also a work in progress. We have been
working with them on what their needs are and how it can apply to them. So, that's
generally good. AVL is a very powerful tool, so -- next item that I want to bring up
was our work on a project that we call TrueSense in Time Card. This is one of our
software engineers here that works on it. Basically what this -- what this did was
-- Fire uses a piece of scheduling software to schedule everyone out in the field,
their captains, their battalion chiefs, DOS, time off leave requests, whatever, and
on top of that they had to deal with entering a time card and making sure those
were synced up and somebody is managing those. Well, what we did is we
automated that process, so that what is put in that scheduling system gets moved
to the timecard system and, obviously, that was staff saving time, because they
don't have to worry about going through and entering that or rectifying anything
that may not match up correctly, it's all part of the system. Reduces some potential
for errors, just because it's automatic. They are very familiar with the scheduling
software. It's intuitive, easy to use, and having one system that they go to instead
of having to worry about managing their hours in two different spots, has made
things easier for them. And, then, it also -- I mean, like I said, the -- getting one
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 12 of 67
software where they have one pane of glass where they are managing their hours,
which is great. So, that was a big win for us, but also for the Fire Department, just
because it's improved things a lot, so -- next area is a product that we call citizen
relationship manager -- or management. This is a product that we have been
working on with the Mayor's Office for a better way to manage all of the
communication that happens between the city and citizens. So, basically, what
happens is as a department is in contact with a citizen , they will enter what
happens -- what the communication was in the system and , then, that's available
to other departments as needed as well. So, that increases communication
between those departments. Sometimes we may have a citizen that comes in and
is frustrated or upset and they talk to one department and, then, they go to another
department and that department has no idea that they talked to somebody else or
where things are at or whatever. This will help that, because there will be -- we
will be able to bridge that gap.
De Weerd: Our kids do that, too.
Tiede: Yes, they do. It also saves on staff time, again, because we are reducing
duplicate data entry. Many departments were entering these types of situations in
whatever it was, Accella, spreadsheets, or Word documents or e-mails, trying to
keep track of what they need to do to do their job , to make sure that we are being
accountable to our citizens and it was just -- it's hard to manage when it was this
aberrant system, but now it's all centralized in this system, so it will make things a
lot better that way. Our system is relatively easy to use. There is not a lot of
training or involvement needed, which is great. And, then, it increases the
accountability of us, but also our accountability to our citizens, because we have
the ability to follow up better, because we know what's going on in one spot , so --
anyway, overall great improvement. It's something that's going to be going out
more and more to other departments, so -- another project that we worked on is
the easements project and that has -- has been a big -- big improvement. We --
we kind of went through and worked with the departments that deal with
easements and tried to work on defining the process and, then, centralizing and
standardizing things. Easements are -- there is a lot of different types of
easements and they go through many different departments in the city and
because of that it always was handled a little bit different here or there, depending
on where you went, just because the process varies by -- per department. So, we
went through, defined process, standardize it, in a centralized system that
everyone has access to and everyone can be notified and be aware of what's going
on. It gives us the ability for more accurate tracking and reporting, which is great.
It's just a lot easier overall. It enables us to have better communication. We get
e-mail notifications on it. We have -- again, people are in there, they see things
when they come up, when they happen, and, then, we are also increasing time for
-- or decreasing time for turning these types of things around, just because they
are -- they don't get lost as easily in the mix of things, because they are in one
system, with a defined process of how -- of how we deal with them. And, then, we
are also leveraging our Enterprise Land Management System, Accella, which is
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 13 of 67
great. Continue to use that product to help us with these types of scenarios . So,
it has been a good thing. We have a few kinks to work out still. I know that getting
things over to the clerk's side and recorded is something that we are working on
still and there may be a few little changes here as we go through and use this
process more and more. But overall it's been a great improvement, so we are
pleased. Another area that I'd like to highlight for this year is these devices,
Surfaces, we have a number of departments that have struggled on meeting their
business needs with the various devices that we have out there . So, in many
cases this means that they have one device, two devices -- however many they
need to fit their needs, right, to make it so they can do their job more efficiently and
with this we are able to do some consolidation and remove some of those
redundant devices. So, we are replacing this in places that make sense where
they may have an iPad and desktop or an iPad and a laptop or whatever, where
we can say, hey, look, here is your device. They can do everything with this. It
can be used as your desktop computer, so we actually have a little -- the dock. It's
a Microsoft Surface dock that can be plugged into an external display, so they can
actually come into the office, dock this, it goes out to two displays, full keyboard or
mouse, and they can use it like the regular workstation and walk away with it and
have everything at their fingertips still, which has been great. But also savings on
device costs, because we are going down to one device. It's also a little more
portable than any of our other ones in the past, which is nice for people that go to
a lot of meetings and don't like to lug heavy things around with them. Anyway, it's
been good. It's been a good improvement. The next item I would like to talk about
is some of the work that we did behind the scenes on TrueBill. I'm sure you will
probably hear about this project many times from many departments . Public
Works and Finance, obviously, did a lot of work here as well. But I just wanted to
highlight a few areas that IT worked on specifically that are more back-end things,
but, obviously, had a big impact to our customers internally. So, we went through
and did cleanup of all the addresses and aligned them with our MEAD addressing
system, which, again, is the sole source of truth for all our addressing t hroughout
the city, which -- which you think is not really a big deal, but when it comes down
to it when you have -- when you have a system and you're pulling up a customer,
which is referenced by address and it shows the address five times in various
different formats, 55 East -- or 33 East Broadway Avenue or 33 Broadway
Avenue, 33 East Broadway, it's really confusing and having a central point where
that can all be combined and in an accurate, you know, spot with everything, it
makes a lot of sense. So, that was something that we did. I already mentioned
the MIP integration that we do with TrueBill, so I will not mention that. And,
obviously, talked a little bit about MEAD. We revamped our shut-off applications
that are used in the field for the wate r department. Obviously you're probably
familiar with the shut-off process that happens a couple times a month. We have
made things easier for them. They no longer have to manually import things
through the system, it's all automated. They can generate statistical reports of the
data by shut-off areas. They can pull up real-time Google street view right within
the application, which is great when they are already on the page, they can see,
hey, look, am I in the right spot and, then, it -- one feature that's probably one of
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 14 of 67
the biggest things is they are able to drill into customer history right there on the
spot in the field, which normally would have to call back into the department -- you
know, somebody else in the department and say, okay, I need some more
information on this account, they can see it all real-time in the field, so they can
see, hey, look is this an area where we expect this or whatnot, so -- anyway, good
improvement. Another thing that we did was work with water meters and excess
use. We integrated water meters and excess use into the system and we are able
to capture things such as warranty deeds, models, and other information about the
system that was all part of the manual data entry and various separate systems.
It's all centralized into one spot right now. We were also requested to create an
application that would make this easier for people to assess what happened. This
is a much simpler process than what we have dealt with in the past, since it was
streamlined to be more efficient for them, which is great. So, that is kind of -- that
kind of wraps up the highlights for this 2016 . Obviously, those are just highlights.
We have had a lot of projects. I could go on forever. I don't want to bore you, so
-- I wanted to mention a few current projects that we are working on that are -- that
will be going on for a little bit. One is SCADA improvements. You obviously heard
-- probably hear a lot about SCADA from Public Works. But we do help out in
some areas as well. So, a few of the improvements that we are looking at is getting
the remote access from their various workstations throughout the city, so
engineering can get into anyone else. That's one item that's being worked on. We
are helping with some of the redundancy of their back -end systems, just so the --
so they have redundancy, basically. If something were to go down, they -- the
plant would continue to operate or water, whichever side it is. And then -- trying to
remember the other, because I didn't write it down. My mistake. Obviously,
Council Chambers is another project that we are working on and we will be
wrapping up this month. So, it is a work in progress at this point and so far we are
very pleased. An ongoing kind of project that happens every year for his is
deployments and that's more daily operations for us at this point , but I mention it
on here, just because it does take up a lot of staff time. We have a lot of machines
going out. Part of what happened -- is happening this year is we are continuing to
get CradlePoint routers out in the field for police, which will, again, kind of wrap up
the AVL for them, so they will have some better AVL out of the field for the rest of
their fleet, because right now it's -- it's hit on -- hit and miss on some of the older
units, so -- we are working on a CFP system with Finance. That's just in its infancy
at this point, but you have heard about the CFP many times. We will have a system
that we can manage it through and all our departments that need access will be
able to see things and manage priorities and things like that in the system . We are
working on a public records request system. We, obviously, can receive public
records requests online or over the phone or via e -mail, but we want to have a
system that can -- we can track those things and manage them more accurately,
so that we are getting things rather than -- again, kind of more partly defining the
process, like I mentioned, with the easements. But it's helped out so far a lot. So,
we look forward to that one. And, then, we are also working on a piece of software
for the strategic plan to manage the objectives and things in there and, hopefully,
make it easier to get things done, make sure we can -- make sure people are
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 15 of 67
accountable for their respective areas and track things and give reports and
whatnot off of it, so that's also a work in progress. I won't go into details, but those
are some of our current projects. And that pretty much wraps up my department
update for this year. I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dave. And, believe me, there are many more -- I think
there is multiple pages of projects and -- that are constantly being reprioritize that
I think it makes your head spin, doesn't it? Council, any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Quick question. Dave, what's our -- you talked about vehicle location.
What's our cost per vehicle to have that into a car or with any vehicle?
Tiede: At this point it's part of a group cost, so we determined need for -- at least
Fire and Police for the CradlePoint routers. If you recall we came for an
amendment here this last year. It's really a GPS device off of the existing device;
right? So, there is no additional cost beyond that and beyond staff time to develop
and capture that information on IT's side. So, that's what it is at this point.
Palmer: Thanks.
De Weerd: And I think some of the other vehicles it comes in the -- already
installed in the vehicles. So, I believe in Public Works, in the sewer treatment
plant, the -- they are building those in.
Palmer: Follow up, Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Palmer: And the reason I asked is I love it and I was just wondering if there is any
-- has been any conversation about expanding it into all city-owned vehicles?
Tiede: From IT's standpoint we have talked to a few other departments about it.
Public Works is very interested in continuing on that front. But, otherwise, we have
not been in conversations about expanding it further. But it is always an option for
us. There is going to be a cost, because for emergency services they already have
LTE or cell service enable devices, because they need that for that public safety
component. For many Public Works vehicles they already have that, because they
are out in the field doing stuff remotely, maybe for other city vehicles that's not
always the case. So, it depends on the area, so --
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 16 of 67
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Dave, can you give us a quick snapshot of the status of Open Gov?
Tiede: Absolutely. Happy to. We have signed an agreement with them and the
purchasing side of that is done. We had a kickoff meeting with them -- I'm thinking
it was last Friday, but it might have been the Friday before -- to start the process
and meet the resources that they have on their end and that will be available for
us. I believe next steps are to have another meeting to talk about our chart of
accounts and make sure we have those nailed down and I believe that was
scheduled in the next week and a half or so. That was with Jenny and maybe
Todd, so they could probably speak better to it than I would. After that there was
another meeting about two weeks later to talk more in detail about the reports and
that they are going to start working on, but they also need our feedback on what
we are looking for and what we want out of the system and, then, there is an
administration training that was I think right before Christmas. So, we -- at least
initial talks we had thought we would have something to test internally sometime
in January, but we still are on board with trying to meet that February 9th go live
date --
Borton: Okay.
Tiede: -- for external and we are focusing on the external side. They also have
internal reporting we can do. We are focusing more on the external side to get
that out there for our citizens as a tool for them. So, that will be the first step and,
then, we will bring the other part on later.
Borton: Thanks.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dave. Okay. If there is nothing further, I would like to
thank you and your team. I don't know if Dave ever brings back the -- the multitude
of compliments that the team gets from the customers that you serve , but we
appreciate your can-do attitudes and -- Johnny on the spot was the only thing I
could think of. So, sorry. I might have just aged myself. But we do appreciate
your customer service and your solution problem solving that you bring to the -- to
the mix. So, thank you to each and every one of you. You are a great team and
we are lucky to have you all. So, thank you. Thank you, Dave.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just to add to that, it's so impressive to hear in particular the efficiencies
you create. I mean every department struggles with tight budgets and -- from law
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 17 of 67
enforcement, to Fire, to Parks, to Public Works, everybody is stretched really thin
and when we hear all these great examples of efficiencies created through the
software developed and implemented, it allows for each of those departments to
benefit and the citizens to benefit with making the resources go further and that
goes unsung often. But it's not lost up here for sure. So, I can appreciate that,
because it truly does allow every department to benefit much greater and have
more resources to do what they do.
Tiede: It does. And that's -- that's what we -- that's what we see technology is in
our department, is a tool for departments -- people to be more efficient at their jobs.
So, that's something we try to do and we have a great team that helps with that,
so give kudos to them. They are fantastic.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Tiede: Thank you.
C. City Clerk’s Office: Annual Department Report
De Weerd: Okay. Our next department up is the City Clerk's Office. And, again,
the two appropriate departments going back to back on this launch day.
Coles: I will get this technology figured out yet.
De Weerd: Where is that timer, because I'm backing off this much time from his
presentation.
Coles: That would be good. Let's -- we can shorten it up as much as you would
like. I can get started initially. I'm grateful to be here today. I have been in the job
for -- I believe it was four months three days ago. I started August 10th. So, it's
kind of fun to put together a presentation for a department for an entire year when
you have been in the job for four months. But I feel like the luckiest employee in
City Hall. I work with a tremendous team. They take care of everything. They
make my job extremely easy. So, I'm grateful to work with them every single day.
As soon as we get up I will show you a really awesome picture of all of them. Hey,
there we go. There is our super awesome picture. This was taken during our --
our staff retreat, if you will. We did the historical walking tour in downtown
Meridian. It was a lot of fun. I'm the new kid on the block. I'm sure you recognize
everybody else in that photo. I'm the new kid in the City Clerk's Office. But, again,
I'm grateful to work there and work with them every single day. But we have
Machelle Hill, who is our Deputy City Clerk, and who covers our Planning and
Zoning Commission meetings every other Thursday -- or the first and third
Thursdays of the month. Now, we have Nancy, Sheree, and Charlene who work
as our assistant city clerks. Nancy does primarily temporary use permits and
licensing for -- for our office for the city. Sheree is our lead passport agent. She
takes care of everyone that walks in that has passport questions and passport
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 18 of 67
appointments, she's our lead in doing passports for our office. And, Char, she
does a little bit of everything. She's really good at doing that. She handles
passports. She handles helping Nancy with temporary use permits and other
licensing. She also helps handle helping Machelle with Planning and Zoning
Commission and land use applications. So, she kind of floats around where our
needs are the greatest. She's very versatile, very flexible, and we are really
appreciative of that. And, then, we have Barb Shiffer, who has worked in a few
different departments in the city, so her knowledge in the clerk's office is
tremendous. When you have someone that calls, someone that walks in and they
have a question of who they need to talk to or where they need to go, Barb is really
good at helping them find an answer to their question, because she has worked in
a few different departments in the city. So, we are grateful for her. I was going to
put on here our winning picture -- our Halloween costumes. Third year in a row
the clerk's office has won. But staff didn't want me to. They liked this one better,
so --
De Weerd: Yeah. They thought it might be seen as bragging or --
Coles: They might. Maybe. Maybe that's what they were --
Borton: It's a good thing you brought it up, though.
Coles: Yes. So, in a nutshell, here is what we do. I -- I feel like sometimes that
we are -- if you have seen the movie Apollo 13, I feel like we are mission control.
That information is flowing in and out of the clerk's office at a very rapid pace. I'm
probably taking my life in my own hands with IT in the room talking about mission
control, because they are in terms of IT, but in terms of disseminating information
and having questions being asked of us and directing information, I feel like we
kind of handle that responsibility. But we manage the phone line for City Hall, the
main number for City Hall. I will have some numbers in a few slides about how
many phone calls we actually receive at the city on a yearly basis for this past year.
We administer the records retention schedule. So, we work with every department
on their records retention schedule specific to their department and make sure that
they have the records in order and I will talk about that in a little bit, because we
have got some exciting news coming up next month about records retention. And
we maintain all the records for the city, so we have the laserfiche software that IT
does actually manage that software for us, but we move files around in and out of
that software system. So, we manage all the records are maintained -- excuse me
-- all the records for the city. Public records requests. As Dave mentioned, we get
public records requests in various different ways. E-mails. Phone calls. People
coming into our office and asking for records or submitting a written request in our
office. So, we process those requests and disseminate those -- those requests
through the various departments. We are a passport acceptance facility, City Hall
is, and the city clerk's office is where the passport acceptance agents are located.
Public land use noticing. That comes out of the city clerk's office. Will mail out
notices. We e-mail out notices to interagency partners within -- you know,
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 19 of 67
departments within the city and, then, mailing out to property owners within the city
as well. We provide support for commissions, committee and the City Council.
Some exciting news about that on the next slide as well. And, then, we issue
permits and licenses for the city. Temporary use permits, which include all sorts
of things. Events. Fireworks. Christmas tree lots, because we have those right
now. We issue those -- hey, that -- and I didn't even touch it. Mobile sales units.
We issue those licenses. The beer, wine, and alcohol catering licenses we issue
those. Pawnbrokers, precious metals, and, then, new this year to the city clerk's
office or exclusive to the city clerk's office is dog tags. We took that responsibility
over from the Police Department. Last month I was before you to talk about some
of those changes in the code and I will talk about those here in a little bit as well.
So, structure and staffing changes in the city clerk's office over the past year.
Jaycee Holman became the Support Services director. She was previously the
Information Services director and the city clerk and, then, prior to that the city clerk.
So, if she wants to jump in at any time in this presentation she's more than welcome
to, but she became support services director and added two more departments
under her purview. So, the city clerk, IT, HR and Finance. Now, I became the city
clerk in August of 2016 and we are really excited about Hillary Bodnar. She's going
to be joining our staff. She's the arts and culture specialist. She's currently housed
in the Finance Department. She will be joining us on December 21st. So, next
week. We are really excited to have her. In having her come over we are looking
at the title of her position. She supports primarily the Meridian Arts Commission
and the Historic Preservation Commission. It might make more sense that she
joins the clerk's office to be the committee and commission specialist or something
like that. But she would still primarily support Meridian Arts Commission and
Historical Preservation Commission, but we are looking at having her integrate into
some of the other commissions as well and provide support to them. But we are
excited to have her. So, here is the 2016 snapshot. I probably should have named
this like 2016 numbers in review or something. But, anyway, this is -- this is
exciting data that we process every single year and here is 2016. So, land use
applications processed through the city clerk's office . So, being transmitted from
the planning division to the city clerk's office was 134. That is right on par for where
we were last year. Right around that same number. The number of notices that
we mailed out to property owners within a certain vicinity, usually 300 feet of a
particular property, was 5,159. Now, the two bullets up there you will see -- so, the
previous way that we would mail out notices -- public hearing notices -- you will
recall was stuffing about four pages into an envelope. So, it took staff time to fold
those papers and stuff them in the envelope and, then, mail regular mail out. So,
it was not only the price of the stamp for a regular letter, but the price of a staff to
-- to stuff those letters. That would have cost -- if we maintained that same way
this year, $8,615.53, which is an average of $1.67. That's the relative cost of each
letter that would have gone out. Last year we changed -- city clerk's office changed
the way we mailed out. We mail out postcards -- a double-sided postcard that has
all the relevant information and, then, a link or directions to go to search those
documents, laserfiche, where they can find more application materials. That costs
about 53 cents per postcard to mail out. So, the total this year was $2,734.27,
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 20 of 67
which is a savings of 103 percent savings over the previous way that we would
have done that. So, we are really proud of the change in process there and the
way that we have saved money in how we handle mailing out notices. The number
of meetings that we noticed for, which includes City Council, Planning and Zoning
Commission, and, then, various other commissions if they required us to notice
that they were going to have a public hearing of some kind or needed public input
was 140 meetings. Public records requests. We received 216 public records
requests and that was through the end of November. We received a few more
since then, but last year total we received 208. So, that was all the way through
December of last year. So, you can see we are up slightly there. One interesting
item of note for public records requests is -- so, last year with 208 requests, 20
percent of those requests -- or 40 total requests required a ten-day extension. So,
we -- we have three days to respond to a public records request, unless we need
a ten-day extension and request that extension. So, 40 of those last year we
requested a ten-day extension to find the information to provide that information.
For the 216 noted here on this slide, only 14 requests required a ten-day extension.
So, that is roughly seven percent of the public records requests requiring a ten-
day extension. So, with all of the changeover in staffing and we had some limited
staffing ability in our office, we have had some people in and out, we are pretty
proud of the fact that we have still been able to respond to a majority -- a vast
majority requested in that in a three day period and not request a ten-day extension
that we were allowed to request. The number of licenses that we have issued were
571 licenses. That's up 5.2 percent from where we were last year. The number
of phone calls that we received -- again, we manage the main phone line for City
Hall -- was 16,408. There is a little asterisk there. So, our data that we are able
to -- to capture is only available for 90 days. Three months. We are missing
quarter three data for the phone calls. I have got Q1, Q2 and, then, Q4 that I had,
but quarter three we weren't able to -- to capture. So, last year there were 19,000
-- roughly 19,000 phone calls. We are on average -- when I look at the other three
quarters that I have access to that data, we are right on pace for that 19,000,
perhaps even more, but quarter four was over 4,000 phone calls into the main line.
So, we are right about where we were last year. The passport phone calls -- again,
we don't have the quarter three data, but 4,703, with the three quarters that we do
have data for, last year's total was 4,800. So, if we had the Q3 data we would be
well over the overall -- the total number of passport phone calls than we were last
year. So, more people are getting their passports. And in the passport process,
2,114, which equals to the city 52,850, which is up 20 and a half percent from
overall total last year passports processed. So, we have done more, obviously,
this year. This next slide is more about projects -- overall projects that the city
clerk's office has engaged in. So, Dave mentioned in his presentation e-recordings
with Ada County. We are really happy about this. I think the first week that I came
into the city clerk's office -- Nick came downstairs from IT and started talking about
e-recording at the county and I had no idea what he was talking about. Said are
we ready to do this yet. I don't know what this is. I don't know what we are talking
about. But this has been really beneficial to the city clerk's office and to the city as
a whole. So, after City Council meeting or -- or we have documents that require
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 21 of 67
recording with the county, an easement, a development agreement, an ordinance
from a land use application or land use hearing, we send those to the Ada county
recorder's office, they get recorded, and, then, we upload that into a laserfische
software and it has got an instrument number attached to that. The old way was
we would hire a courier service, they would come pick up the document and drive
down to the courthouse, get it recorded, bring it back. It could take some time to
get that accomplished. So, with e-recording we can just upload it into a file that is
shared with the Ada county recorder's office and within -- it could be as fast as 30
minutes that -- that the document can be recorded and turned around and we can
receive that back. So, it's cut down on staff time. It's also cut down on the price
of having a courier take it down to us -- or take it down, excuse me, to the recorder's
office and the paper costs. So, we are saving about 100 dollars a month through
e-recording versus having some hard copy documents go back and forth. Another
exciting one was the early voting. So, City Hall was an early voting location for the
general election this year. We had a total of 9,379 early voters come through City
Hall. You can see that's 3,000 more than their other early voting locations, except
for their main headquarters at Benjamin. So, it's more -- 3,000 more than Boise
city hall and 3,000 more at least than the Eagle Senior Center and, then, it was
4,000 more than their mobile trailer that Ada county had traveling around the
county. We asked for some feedback from Ada county elections on what people
thought as they came here to early vote. Number one piece of feedback was they
loved it. They love that City Hall was a location that they could come and early
vote. The number one complaint was the time. So, we had it from -- or Ada county
elections had it open -- it was 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. People would show up at
8:00 or just before 8:00 trying to vote before they had to get to work, they weren't
available, they were ready. So, we are looking at next year -- Ada county elections
is looking at next year -- or next election at changing that back to the 8:00 to 5:00
that it was in the previous time we had as a location here. So, again, that was the
number one piece of compliment and number one piece of complaint there. But
overall the message was -- from Ada county elections that the voters really enjoyed
this location. Last month I talked to you about updating our dog licensing process
and our animal control code. We have done that, so the tags, of course, are sold
out of the clerk's office and through our dog license vendors . So, we have just
various veterinarian clinics throughout the community. And the biggest change
that we made in -- in the code was tags now expire one year from the date of
issuance and no longer December 31st of that given year. So, if someone gets
their tag in August, it's going to expire August of the following year, instead of
August -- you buy it in August and, then, it expires four months later in December.
So, that has been -- when we have had people come in getting their tags and we
explain that to them, they are really happy about that. All the dog owners are
saying finally -- all the veterinarian clinics that we have spoken are saying finally
now it's no longer that shortened period of time and it allows people to buy tags in
August or September and them saying, I'm going to wait until the next year to buy
tags. We worked with the city attorney's office to establish the alcohol catering
ordinance. The City of Meridian actually didn't have an alcohol catering ordinance
that we would process those catering permits through, we just did -- did it based
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 22 of 67
on the state statute. So, we in August came before Council and created that
ordinance, which I think the biggest items there were, one, it described the
information that we have got to collect on the application, because, again, we were
just going off of what the state statute was. So, now if someone wants to read our
ordinance -- an applicant wants to read, they know the type of history we are going
to collect, so they know what a permit can be revoked for or a permit can be denied
for, what those reasons would be. It also sets a three-day deadline. We need to
have the application into our office at least three days prior to the event. There
were many times -- not since I have been clerk, but I have heard stories about
many times applicants would come in the day of and we would be scrambling
around trying to get the signatures, trying to get the approvals to -- to have that
event and get that catering permit. So, now it's at least a three-day time frame, so
we can go through a process to get those proper approvals and have some time
to do that. And the last one there is the updated records retention schedule. So,
back in July the -- our records retention schedule for the City of Meridian was
updated. It was a comprehensive update to that schedule. The records
management committee had met for -- I think years prior to bringing that update
back in July and so now we have got -- which leads actually into my next slide. So,
the in-progress items -- so, now we have got an update records retention schedule
based on the updates to the state statute and updates to our ordinance. I'm going
to come back before Council in January to present a resolution that will be city
wide for records destruction of certain documents, certain records. This will be the
first time that there has ever been a resolution that includes just about every
department within the city for records destruction . Before it was the department's
would come individually before Council asking for destruction. Now we are going
to come altogether as a unified city and ask for -- based on their approved schedule
-- every department can destroy certain records. So, I will be back in January
about that. But the -- the all department committee and the records management
committee has met regularly to determine what those records would be. They
have started gathering those records. The city attorney's office is working on
drafting that resolution to include all the departments. So, we are excited about
that. Novus Agenda. That is an item still in progress and the Mayor asked me
about that a few minutes ago. So, we have moved away from Agenda Manager in
terms of creating the agendas for our City Council meetings, but Novus Agenda is
also supposed to allow for packet creation for Council, so you can see all the
documents. That hasn't happened yet. We are working with Novus Agenda to
make sure that our needs are met specifically and that we can have packet creation
the way that you would like it, the way that the city would like it, and the way that
we need it, so you can have all the information together. So, we are working
diligently with them to make sure that that gets done and I'm hopeful that sooner
rather than later we are going to have that to you to use. Dave mentioned in his
presentation, the public records request software application. Mike and Duane
have been working on that and something has been built and we are tweaking it
and moving forward with that, so we have a central location for the public records
request in terms of how we receive, how we disseminate the information and how
its tracked from the various departments and how we get that information internally
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 23 of 67
as well. And, then, the easement process that Dave also spoke about in Accella,
the city clerk's office -- it's -- it's great for us. We had our first one -- actually I think
came through on Consent Agenda today from the -- the Accella process for one of
the easements -- a utility line easement. It's a great process. It cuts down in terms
of how the city clerk's office is tracking easements and where they have gone and
where they have come from and where they are at now. So, we are really happy
and pleased with that. It also creates for us, the city clerk's office, consistency with
input to laserfiche and creating greater ability to find those easements. Now,
oftentimes the city attorney's office will need to find an easement or the Public
Works Department will need to find an easement and their name is in in all sorts
of different ways that you can imagine. But now through using Accella we can use
the same naming convention all the way through from start to finish. With the name
in Accella will be the name that goes in on an agenda and, then, into laserfiche, so
we know exactly the name of the ease ment that we are looking for when we are
trying to find it. And, then, I would like to end on our C.A.R.E. value successes.
So, I like to end on positive notes whenever I speak with people or give a
presentation and these are three different comment cards that we received in the
clerk's office from three different individuals and I don't necessarily need to read
those to you there, but what I do want to say is -- as I started my presentation, I
work with a tremendous team of committed individuals. They are committed to the
Meridian Way, to our C.A.R.E. values and probably most importantly to the 90,000
plus citizens of the City of Meridian. When we get a phone call, when we have
someone walk in, when there is a need that needs to be met and they have asked
the clerk's office to meet that need, everyone in that office goes above and beyond
in meeting those needs. And when someone comes in for a passport appointment,
I never heard anything but positive feedback about the passport application
process and how we deliver that information. So, I am -- like I say, I feel like I'm
the luckiest employee for the city in working with such a great team. So, we commit
to the C.A.R.E. values and we embrace the Meridian Way. And with that I will
stand for any questions you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, C.Jay. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Well, thank you. I appreciate, Machelle, that you joined C.Jay and that
you have his back.
Coles: She has to hear me and see me every day, so I'm surprised you even came
in. If she can get away from me, say, yes, please.
De Weerd: We appreciate -- and certainly I think you do -- are a great example of
the Meridian Way and our C.A.R.E. values and so thank you for everything that
you do to put a very positive face on the city. So, you -- you definitely do. So,
thank you.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 24 of 67
Coles: Thank you.
D. Fire Department: Response Time Performance
Standards
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-D is under our Fire Department.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Council, good evening. Let's see if I can get this right
here on the mike. Thanks for your time. This is a follow-up to a previous
discussion last month and a couple more prior to that . While C.Jay brings up a
graphic presentation I will delay a little bit here while he gets that going. But just
to recap on what we are discussing and what the request is, so we have been
discussing the adoption of performance response time standards for the Fire
Department. Going back really to the conversation that has occurred over the last
five years, however, we didn't have the proper tools and data to be able to have
great discussion and in particular answer some of the questions that came from
the Council. So, with a couple of changes rece ntly -- meaning within the last 12
months, David Tiede did a great job of articulating the AVL system now that all fire
departments and EMS agencies in Ada county have and are actually dispatched
from. A recent change in the CAD program from the county di spatch center -- so
CAD being computer aided dispatch. As well as the completion of our master plan
that just got months to complete and the discussion around what are our response
time standards that fit Meridian. I'm going back to why response times are
important. They go all the way back to NFPA, National Fire Protection Association,
1710 recommendations and that is somewhat best practice. The
recommendations from NFPA were developed based on fire to flashover time. You
recall the video that I presented several months ago on how quickly a fire builds
and, then, also cardiac arrest survivability rates. The challenge with NFPA 1710
is that across the nation nobody can meet it. The times are such that no
municipality, including the largest metro areas, have the funding to meet what 1710
calls out. In talking with Chief Alan Brunacini who chaired that committee several
years ago, 1710 was really initiated to have conversations at a local level on what
response time expectations should be within your local area. This is not a foreign
concept. For example, in Washington state all fire departments are required to
submit to the state fire marshal what their response time expectations are. Here
in Idaho the larger municipalities have implemented response time standards and
so we are -- we are simply trying to catch up to that. With that, why is it important,
in my opinion, to Meridian and certainly to our department? As we continue to
grow that ability to plan for future stations and know where that growth is going to
occur and know how we are going to potentially meet that growth, knowing what
the expectations are in comparison to the growth maps that you will see at the end
-- I want to thank Brian McClure for his work as the associate planner in helping to
develop those maps that are now being used by all the departments here in the
city and so we are working directly with them. But having that ability to plan for
growth and knowing where we should focus our energy and efforts on looking at
future fire stations is very important in that planning process . I believe having a
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 25 of 67
standard that all the department members know what our goals are helps with the
department in our performance. And, lastly, I believe it's one of most transparent
ways that we can articulate to you as Council what our current performance is and
what our capabilities are as you consider new development throughout our area
and it's also a very transparent way to talk to our community. As you know, when
we have folks move and they don't always move into the metro and urban areas,
they move into sometimes the rural areas. However, they sometimes expect urban
responses and urban services. Having a response time standard that we can sit
down and explain what our current capability is and, then, what are future capability
will be as the area grows I believe is very transparent. So, with that I want to briefly
-- I will trust you. So, briefly I want to talk about AVL and I really want to call out
and thank Doug Green from the IT Department. He helped not only pull all the
data to answer your questions that you asked last time we were here, but to help
create this visual. So, we have a good understanding of how we used to get
dispatched and how we get dispatched today. So, what you see -- right there in
the middle is Fire Station No. 3 on Locust Grove. The outline that you see around
that was the old sub district as we refer to as we talked in the years past about
areas of responsibility for stations. In past prior to AVL, any call that occurred
within that boundary right there was sent to that fire station, that fire engine,
regardless of where they were in that sub district, if you will. In today's environment
with AVL we now send the closest available unit , regardless of this sub district.
So, again, thanks to Doug Green for creating this visual. So, C.Jay, if you will hit
the next one. So, with AVL that response area now moves with the unit. It is
directly tied to the unit and moves with the unit. So, if we could next, we are going
to see that we have a call over to The Village. That's in Engine 33's area. Go
ahead and keep going. As that unit moves -- go ahead and keep going, C.Jay.
You can see that that response is going to move with it. In other words, that area
of coverage that that engine now has, because it is tied to the engine, not the
station, is moving with it. So, if you go ahead and click a couple more times, C.Jay.
We are going to assume here that that unit is on the call, they have now cleared
the call, the issue is done, they are in service again. So, if you click next. In the
old days this secondary call that just came up on the screen would have been
handled by that unit that is just clearing The Village. Okay? With today's AVL, as
you can see through the distance, the closer station to that call, even though it's in
a different district, is Engine 35. So, if you click through again you will see that
Engine 35 takes that call. And so that is the change that has occurred with AVL,
that the actual unit is the response, not the station anymore. So, with that, moving
into -- in your memo that I sent out -- you have a hard copy in front of you -- really
moving into page two there is some questions asked by some of us here that we
weren't able to get the information from. Now that we have the AVL data -- the
AVL dashboards that David Tiede mentioned, in the last three months that has
taken off. We have access to that now. So, working with Doug Green in IT we did
get the answers to the questions. The question was how often are units
responding from within their station and how often are the units responding from
the road and so in total 75 percent of the time our units are responding from their
station or a station. Twenty-five percent of the time they are responding from the
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 26 of 67
road. That's for various reasons. They could be clearing another call, they could
be coming back from the hospital after picking up firefighters as they transported
into the hospital. They could be going to a public -- public education event. They
could be going to do a building walk through . They could be going to training.
They are somewhere on the road for some reason. To break that down further,
how often did the unit respond from within its sub district, looking at it in the old
days, and from the station, that was 61 percent of the time. How often did the unit
respond from its sub district from not within the station. That was 17 percent of the
time. And the rest of the -- the two below that were because another unit
responded into that district. The other unit was out of service for some reason.
This data only takes into account calls that were single unit responses . So, the
time frame we looked at was March 8th to November 14th . March 8th is significant,
because that's when our new CAD system was implemented in the county and so
all the previous data was archived with the old CAD system. Everything below in
three -- I'm not going to go through that entire list. Those are all the call types
directly taken from the dispatch center in which we send multiple units. So, all of
those calls were not included in the data analysis that was done by IT. So, with
that that was the questions that --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: Sorry. If it's okay, Mark, I'd like to ask a question before you go on --
Niemeyer: Yes.
Milam: -- or I will forget. So, for clarification. On your -- on your number that you
just went over, 75 percent of the time a unit responded from a station, but 61
percent of the time from their own station. So, does that mean that they are moving
around, they are responding from -- from another station?
Niemeyer: No. That would be if they are responding from another station that
means that that initial unit that would have been closer to the call is already tied up
on another call and so that other station is the closest station, then, to respond into
that call. So, coming from another district, but from within their station.
De Weerd: Just like the example that he did.
Milam: No. I understand that. I guess -- I guess that's not really what -- the
question I'm asking. So, I'm not explaining my question very well. So, if a -- if a
unit responds from a station -- 75 percent of the time --
Niemeyer: Yes.
Milam: But only 65 percent of the time from their own station --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 27 of 67
Niemeyer: Correct. Yes.
Milam: -- so, I guess the difference would be when they are going to a different
district.
Niemeyer: Yes. Correct.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Before we move on. Mark, in the multiple dispatch, cardiac arrest, does that
include the ambulance, then, as the second pin. Is that what it is?
Niemeyer: That can include that. In some cardiac arrests where we get
information from the calling party -- for example, a patient -- get this politically
correct -- that is obese that needs more hands to move than the number of crews
we could get with the initial engine and ambulance responding, then, we would
send a secondary unit to go assist with that. Part of the change in cardiac arrest
that came through our medical directors as well is what is called pit crew CPR. In
other words, rotating crews on CPR every two minutes and so having enough
hands on the call. Granted, that's a very low frequency call. The number of cardiac
arrests we have here in Meridian are not extensive or large, but when we have
those calls with the medical directions we have received on how we are to perform
CPR and the other interventions that we perform, it requires hands to do that.
Bird: Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Mark, then, in other words, we could have two engines out and an ambulance
on scene.
Niemeyer: We could, depending on the severity of the call. Yes. And, again,
that's -- that decision and that intervention is driven from the medical directors,
indicating what our standing written orders are.
De Weerd: Okay.
Niemeyer: So, with that I have covered the questions from the last presentation.
I'm hoping we have provided enough information to get an up or down vote or a
decision on this issue. As I mentioned, we have been talking about this for quite
a while, but we would like to move to some other projects that need some attention,
but certainly willing to answer any questions you may have.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 28 of 67
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mark, I take it you're asking an up or down vote on these first five items?
Niemeyer: Correct.
Bird: Let me get my glasses on, so --
Niemeyer: And I apologize --
Bird: -- so I can make sure I'm seeing something --
Niemeyer: -- Council, there was one more item I forgot to cover and that's the
maps. My apologies. So, with the maps that are attached to the document, the
first map shows what our current population densities are. So, you can correlate
what can we do today as far as what I'm asking you to adopt. So, anything in red
is our Urban Metro densities. They are one square mile densities. Those are the
areas where we would expect to be able to do a five minute travel time 90 percent
of the time. The two yellow areas are the suburban densities. That's a seven
minute travel time based on the recommendation. And, then, everything in blue is
the rural densities, which it has a nine minute travel time associated to it. The one
that has been eliminated that you may have seen previously is a 15 minute travel
time for frontier densities and, as you recall, that's less than 50 people per square
mile. We don't have any of that here in Meridian and so that has been eliminated
from the request. The next page simply shows the projected population densities
through 2020 and how those one square mile population densities change and ,
then, lastly Ryan went all the way out to 2035, which will be after I'm gone. You
can get an idea of what the growth is going to look like all the way out to 2035. So,
what this does is it allows us to look at population densities and growth. I can tell
you simply looking at the maps it indicates to me that -- that -- we have talked about
Station 6, that's still the right call. I was convinced just anecdotally that the
southeast corner was going to be the largest growth area where we need ed to
refocus our efforts in the future. What this map shows me, if it holds true, is that
the northwest corner is actually going to be the highest priority if growth occurs the
way that projections indicate. So, from a planning perspective this is very
important to us.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mark, on the northeast corner our Station 5 has still got the smallest calls.
They can take a lot of that until we get somebody out there, can't they?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 29 of 67
Niemeyer: If you look at Station 5, that is -- so, if you look at the map, the existing
stations are just in red. The future fire stations have the halo around them.
Bird: Yeah.
Niemeyer: So, if you look at Station 5 today you will see urban and metro densities
all around that station, along with the growth that we are seeing along Chinden
Boulevard from the commercial aspect and so certainly that station -- I know when
it first started it didn't have those densities for that growth , but as we are seeing
now, we have a population there that drives call volume, along with the businesses
that are going in along Chinden Boulevard.
Bird: Okay. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Back to my first question, Mark. These first five is what -- what kind of an
adoption do you want? I think it would be great if they are your SOPs and we shoot
for them all the time and -- and I know you will, but are you wanting this in a
resolution or what kind of an adoption?
Niemeyer: Just a -- just an acknowledgement that together we agree these are
the standards that -- that are our goals and, then, it allows us to come back to
Council and report annually on our performance. It allows us to put that out to the
community on our performance and certainly allows for future planning. So, I don't
-- I don't need a resolution. I will defer to legal on anything like that, but just an
agreement that we have made that these are the goals that we want to set forth
for the Fire Department and, then, request that we articulate those outcomes to
you.
Bird: And I agree with you on that, Mark. I have no problem with setting them as
an SOP or whatever and I'm sure they are going to change from time to time and
-- everything does. But it's certainly a benchmark to shoot for. I do -- I will say one
thing, we need to get this out to the public as much as we can to let them know
what our response times are.
Niemeyer: Absolutely.
Bird: And -- you know. And while we can't meet them a hundred percent of the
time, we are going to meet them a majority of the time.
Niemeyer: And to that end, Councilm an Bird, we -- the staff does a great job of
producing a very comprehensive annual report every year that posts to the website
so our community can read that and this would now become part of that, as far as
telling the community what we are -- what we are doing.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 30 of 67
De Weerd: So, chief, the standards that you're recommending that we meet, are
we meeting them today?
Niemeyer: We are close, but we have some work to do and that -- by setting the
standard that helps us talk to our crews -- you know, as I mentioned in previous
presentations here, the piece of this that we have total control over is when the
bells go off how quickly we get to the engine and get on the road. The piece that's
harder to control is the travel time, because of weather, as we are going to see
tomorrow, and road construction, all of that, that's a little bit harder to mitigate, but
it does help us by setting the standard. If we are not meeting it to look for root
cause and figure out why that's occurring. Is it simply because of traffic or is it
because of our location or is it because of what we are doing. So, on the -- on the
chute time standards, the things that we can control, Chief Butterfield has been
working diligently with our RMS system and the CAD to be able to pull that data.
He's been able to pull all of the calls together. He's separating out those EMS and
fire-related calls as per the standard that we are talking about. We are very close
to having that done. But with the response -- or the chute time standard average
throughout the department we are about 92 seconds.
De Weerd: What are other departments doing? How do these compare to the
standards that have been set?
Niemeyer: Yeah. So, Boise fire, as an example, they have their -- their city of
Boise area and, then, as you -- as you may know they contract with North Ada
County Fire and, then, they also are responding out to Whitney's old fire district
and so for the city core their travel time standard is five minutes and 30 seconds.
Anything outside of that I believe is at nine minutes. I'd have to confirm that with
Chief Oldenberg. As far as other cities, Caldwell as an example, they were part of
this master planning process. They have adopted the same standard that we are
discussing today. Nampa had previously implemented the NFPA standard, 1710
to the letter. They are having a difficult time achieving that and so they are taking
a look at what our standard is that better fits their community as well.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't look at the other standards -- I mean they are nice to know, but I look
at what our department needs and what our citizens need and, you know, I don't
think I have -- I don't -- in fact, I know I have never got a call on our response times.
I think people understand that as we grow the traffic -- I mean, my goodness, right
now you can go out on the streets and have traffic that ten years ago you didn't
have at 5:00 o'clock. I sometimes wonder if people work. But, anyway, Mark, I
think this is a good standard to set the deal . You're going to kill me, but -- I'd like
to know if we can break out how many calls come from 8 :00 to 5:00 and the
response time on them and how many comes from 5:00 to 8:00 at that time?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 31 of 67
Niemeyer: I won't overcommit -- Chief Butterfield is back there.
Bird: I knew somebody was going to kill me, but --
Niemeyer: How about this? A good compromise, we will start looking into that.
Bird: Yeah. No problem at all.
Niemeyer: If we can get time of day data.
Bird: The time of day and -- well, maybe we should go from -- when does the traffic
start lightening? 7:00?
Niemeyer: It's typically our --
Bird: Say 8:00 to 7:00 or 7:00 to 7:00.
Niemeyer: Yeah. We kind get 5:00 to about 7:00 is -- 5:00 in the morning when
the traffic is starting to flow, until about 7:00 p.m. when the traffic is, essentially,
moved. But you all have seen the roads at 5:00 o'clock.
Bird: Sure.
Niemeyer: So, that traffic is on the roads until at least 6:00.
Bird: No, you don't have to do it overnight.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Bird: But yesterday would have been good.
Niemeyer: Chief Butterfield, you got that covered.
Bird: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Other questions from Council Members? I -- I guess I do. So, I just
wanted to -- to compete with Council Member Bird. But as we look at what other
departments' standards are, the reason I ask that is I -- I would like those compared
to their budget. You know, you can throw money at it and expect maybe different
results, but not always get them --
Niemeyer: Sure.
De Weerd: -- but if you're achieving some good response times, is some of that
the number of stations, the number of apparatus, the number of firefighters, is
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 32 of 67
helpful to compare that with and it's something that I think all of our departments,
since we are looking at what is our level of service and what does it cost to maintain
that, those are going to be important things to consider as we move down the road
and understand better what the triggers are to that next station or to the other
alternatives that are being considered.
Niemeyer: Yes.
De Weerd: So, I didn't mean to throw a wrench in it, but I do think it's valuable
information to have. So, as we make budget decisions we are knowing why. Okay.
Anything further?
Bird: Thank you for the information, Mark. Appreciate it.
Niemeyer: Okay.
De Weerd: Thank you. And I guess a final question is how often will you report
back? Is this going to be quarterly? This will be part of the quarterly dashboards
that you get to Council.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, that -- that -- it's something that can easily be
incorporated into dashboards and, then, sent to Jaycee -- certainly as an annual
report. What we need to be careful of -- we want to look at the aggregate summary
of responses over the course of a year ideally, but we can certainly give quarterly
updates. You may see ebbs and flows, but the goal every 12 months is to meet
this objective. So, we can provide those quarterly updates, but, then, also provide
the annual report as well.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Chief.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I like the idea of having -- I don't have a question, it was more of a comment,
but -- getting them quarterly, because we will see the ebbs and flows and we may
see that one certain quarter, like say the winter, the times are a lot more due to
weather, whatever, which will, in effect, change the entire year's averages and so
it would be good to know that those were -- if that is the fact, based on just one
particular quarter --
Niemeyer: And a comparison quarter to quarter, year over year.
Milam: Yeah. Would be really helpful.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 33 of 67
De Weerd: Well -- and I think you're going to notice some anomalies depending
on what road is closed or where there is road construction and -- and there will be
other considerations that lead to a healthier discussion of the -- the rise behind the
response times. Okay. Mr. Borton.
Borton: Yeah. Madam Mayor. It's -- it will be an interesting add on at open.gov.
I could see that being a feature where we can query it or the public can query it
and see response times based on station or engine location --
Niemeyer: Sure.
Borton: -- going forward.
De Weerd: Primarily when we first roll out open.gov it's -- it's financial. I just want
to -- to make sure expectations are managed. That is down the road. Thank you.
Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor. That AVL is a game changer --
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Borton: -- for your department. It truly is. And the response time data that you
have really hasn't captured the efficiencies created by that --
Niemeyer: Right.
Borton: -- going forward. If you're near this I -- it probably will fall to come degree
at least based on efficient dispatch, which is fantastic. We have talked about this
-- you and I have talked about this a lot and you have brought it up to Council a lot
and it sounds like really what you're asking for is -- It's not a resolution, but a motion
to adopt one through five is what we expect clear direction to you and the
department to meet for chute time and response times on these terms. So, Madam
Mayor, I would move that as a city we adopt one through five as the time and matrix
that your department will strive to abide by --
De Weerd: Give him the most sensitive mike, please.
Borton: I would move that we adopt the chute time and respon se time set forth in
items one through five in your memo.
Milam: Second.
Bird: Question.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Discussion, Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 34 of 67
Bird: Mr. Maker of the Motion.
Borton: Yes, sir.
Bird: That is in SOPs only; right? Standard practice.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I'm unsure of the location of -- and how it's documented
and memorialized. The chief may be able to comment on it.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor and Councilman Borton, I can. We do have a policy of
the services we provide, we could simply add the approval of this motion into our
department policy of the services we provide that can be articulated to the public.
Bird: I can vote that way. If --
Borton: Okay.
Bird: -- if it's something else I won't vote for it.
Borton: If that's the recommendation, the motion is made with that caveat.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Borton: Thanks, chief.
E. Parks and Recreation Department: South Meridian
Regional Park Theming/Identity Discussion
Bird: Thank you, chief. Next up Parks and Recreation. Which gentleman -- man,
did I blow you out? Your ears okay, Dean? Michael, how are you?
Barton: I'm good. Thank you, Mr. President, Council Members. We would like to
give you an update and bring a discussion this afternoon regarding our -- our next
big park, south Meridian regional park. It's -- as you know, we have been working
with The Land Group since last summer in design and kind of what we did is -- the
process we were -- we started out with schematic design and we quickly kind of
realized that in order to do this right and for this to be a real community asset, that
we needed to give this park a real strong identity and a theme and not necessarily
a name, but that kind of creates that sense of place, like what -- what is this park.
So, if you go there it's very memorable, it's distinct, it would be unlike any other
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 35 of 67
park that we have. So, what we did is we put together a number of theming ideas
and we kind of bounced them around. We pared those down to two. Those two
ideas we took to our Parks and Rec Commission a couple of weeks ago, presented
those. The Parks and Rec Commission voted and had a real strong opinion
towards one of them and what we would like to do this afternoon is I'm going invite
Bob Schafer with The Land Group up to kind of walk us through a couple of slides,
go into more detail about what each one of these themes are and -- and really --
really explain the one that the Parks and Rec Commission liked the most. So, I
think with that I'd like to invite Bob Schafer up now and I will be available for any
questions you might have afterward, but take it away, Bob.
Schafer: Mr. President, Members of Council. Hello. Thanks for having us out this
afternoon. As Mike said, I'm Bob Schafer, I'm a landscape architect with The Land
Group. We have been working close with Mike and Steve and park staff and parks
commission all summer on this -- this project. Also from our office is Dave Koga
in the back there. He's here to listen to all your comments as well. So, with that I
will just jump right in. This is, essentially, the same -- the same presentation we
gave the parks commission a couple of weeks ago and we did just a few minor
tweaks here and there, but it's the same thing they all saw and we discussed two
weeks ago, so this way we are all on the same page and, hopefully, we can move
-- move forward. So, with that I will just jump in. Just a quick kind of refresher to
start out about the park site and, then, we will jump into what a theme is, the two
themes we presented to the parks commission and, then, bring you guys up to
speed on our next steps and how we are going to move forward. So, I think -- I'm
sure many of you, if not all of you, are familiar with the site. It's a 77 acre site in
south Meridian on Lake Hazel Road between Locust Grove Road and Eagle Road.
Currently a turf farm right now. And as you all are aware, the setting there in south
Meridian is primarily residential. It's ag land, transitioning to residential. The
backdrop of the Boise Foothills there to the north. As Mike mentioned, we were
moving into true schematic design for the park and honing on our -- honing down
our program for the park and we decided to take this step back and to discuss
more what the character and the theme for the park should be. So, this is -- is the
program -- kind of the key elements of the program as it stands today. We are
looking at a destination playground for the park, some sort of water feature, be that
a splash pad -- traditional splash pad or some other type of water feature. Possibly
a pond. A baseball or softball complex, small in number. Quite a bit of passive
green space, trails, those types of amenities. Public facilities to include picnic
shelters, likely a concession stand in conjunction with the softball complex.
Restroom facilities, those types of facilities. And, then, right now we are discussing
phase two of the park being primarily soccer -- soccer complex. multiple field
soccer. So, our theme discussion -- we began to really think a little bit more about
what the park looks like and that's where we came up with the idea of a theme and
really what the theme is going to do for us is help to guide the character of the
park, what the park looks like, helps us with layout of some of the amenities and
some of the program elements and helps us make design decisions as we move
a little further into schematic and design development and construction documents
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 36 of 67
in the summer. As Mike mentioned, we came up with a handful of ideas. Our team
at The Land Group, working with Mike and Steve and park staff, we honed all of
those ideas down to we felt like were two themes, two pretty robust, pretty well-
thought-out themes. The first theme we settled on a title of Meridian Ranch or
Pioneer Park and the inspiration really for that theme is -- is a lot is the location of
the park itself. So, you know, we are in south Meridian, between the Boise and
Snake Rivers, there is a lot of agricultural heritage in that -- in this area and
traditionally where we used to develop the -- the desert to farms, now we are
developing it into a park. So, we went and looked up, you know, a bunch of
Meridian history and imagery and we look at everything from the Oregon Trail to
Meridian's agricultural past, the railroads, the dairies and in the orchards here in
town and used that as our inspiration to sort of develop this theme a little more.
So, what would that theme look like when you apply it to the park? Well, with that
theme we would look to traditional farm buildings to form the architecture of the
park buildings, so we would look at regional barns, silos -- grain silos, that type of
architecture to help form the park architecture. If you dive a little bit deeper, we
would also look at other iconic symbols of agricultural life, so such as windmills,
split rail fencing. We could even look at farm signage to create our wayfinding
signs throughout the park and, then, when you really start to apply some of those
images to the park infrastructure, this would be one example of what that might
look like. You could use your red barns on your playgrounds and start to give the
playground kind of a farm character. To summarize that, we felt like this first
theme, again, really reflected the local heritage of south Meridian regional park.
It's kind of playful, kind of kitshy, you know, it really kind of plays off that -- that
traditional farm-style. There is quite a bit educational opportunities we could make
use of, you know, going to even irrigation, but water use, agriculture, sustainability
and, then we saw this theme as creating a park that would really be Settlers Park
sister park in south Meridian. So, really, an expansion of that character. So, that
was a -- sort of a quick run through of theme one. The theme two -- this is -- to be
really honest, this was the theme that really resonated with the parks commission
when we presented it last -- last month. With this theme, rather than looking more
at a history of Meridian and history of the site, we were sort of looking at where is
Meridian now and what is -- where is Meridian going and what is -- well, maybe
more the contemporary style of, whereas maybe the previous theme a little more
looking -- looking backward.
De Weerd: I thought it was the get dirty park.
Schafer: Sorry?
De Weerd: They get dirty.
Schafer: Dirty park. So, the inspiration for this one was really -- when you look at
the site there there is not a lot, other than there is a few farm fields there. Some
are the midst of development, but that part of the town is going to grow and
develop. So, we see the park as maybe being first in line to start to create that
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 37 of 67
sense of place in south Meridian. We wanted to look at using steam or STEM
education as a component for the park. So, using it more educational
opportunities, really diving deeper into that aspect. Using learning landscapes and
nature play. That would play right into the dirty park. And, then, using more
contemporary design. Maybe a little more newer design element, new -- new --
there has been quite a bit of change in playgrounds, for example. So, using a little
more contemporary style in the park itself . So, our inspiration for this one -- we --
I think we kind of took a little broader brush when we look at our inspiration for this
one. You know, science, everything from astronomy to geology and ecology. The
image on your upper right is the only big sculpture park in Seattle. So, thinking
about the arts and creating maybe more an iconic park. Then on the lower right
that's Millennium Park in Chicago and, really, that was, again, just thinking about
how can we make this park maybe more iconic and really making it a showpiece
for the City of Meridian. So, the character, again, very -- very iconic playground in
this image here. This is actually at the Seattle Center in Seattle. If you follow
parks and rec design, there has been a big movement lately in sort of stripping
down playgrounds and using more topography and landform in the playground.
So, again, a little more contemporary style, but also thinking more iconic as well.
Again, this is another play structure that uses typography, rather than just dropping
a play structure down on the ground on a flat surface , so just thinking about using
-- how can you use the landform itself as an amenity in the park for the kids . And,
then, the learning opportunities. I mentioned that one of our program elements is
a -- is a water feature of some kind. We started to talk quite a bit with park staff
about doing more of a -- of a hands-on water feature, instead of a traditional splash
pad, so here, you know, you have water pumps and kids are down in really
exploring how water flows through amenities and through -- through -- along the
ground. So, this is something we could look to. And, then, right along with the
dirty park is -- is sand play is now increasing -- increasingly popular with water
features. So, here this is giving the kids an opportunity to really get down and
experience the park, get their hands dirty, play in the water, and to really learn and
explore. And, then, we could take it so far as to do bigger features in the park, like
a sundial here or with the softball complex that we are looking at in the park, using
that as an opportunity to explore science with kids -- sports science with kids. We
could do interpretive displays about kinetics and physics and that type of thing.
And, then, with the steam focus art -- did you guys lose yours? Is yours on? I'm
still black here. Okay. Perfect. I can still control here? Okay. This is an example
of an art installation at a park in North Carolina, so playing off the -- the hard focus
of steam -- steam theme or steam activity. So, really, the summary for that -- that
second theme is creating a new sense of place at the park in south Meridian, using
contemporary design, newer styles, with the features there and focusing on that
experience opportunity for the kids. Like I really -- on the slide I think that shows
it's best is probably the sand play water feature, but really giving the kids a learning
opportunity to get out and explore and have fun, get dirty in the park. Now we are
back. This is a very brief summary of -- of some of the Parks commission
comments from our meeting last week. I presented this to them. They voted in
unanimous support of our second theme of a discovery park. They were quite
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 38 of 67
supportive of the idea that the park could be an outdoor discovery center and may
even attract field trips out to the park and they really did like the idea of encouraging
learning opportunities and the newer style that we are thinking of for that theme.
So, since that time we have -- we have had a few more conversations with Park
staff -- and just a few other slides to show you, some of the ideas we are knocking
around with this theme. Challenge courses or obstacle courses for more of that
the physical activity side of the experience in the park. Pollinator gardens, using
amenities like that to, again, reinforce the science learning aspect of the park. And
going so far as to maybe incorporating like solar panels to power the picnic
shelters, some of the facilities in the park. Trying to think of a park as a system
and using it holistically with the site. That really sums up our presentation to the
parks commission from last month. Now I will just give you guys a quick update
on our schedule and how we see this progressing over the next year . Essentially
we are -- we are not starting over with schematic design, but, you know, with this
theme discussion we are still in that schematic design phase. We are very early
in the process, so we are -- we are just now beginning of -- coming up on 2017.
We are hoping to wrap up schematic design by the end of February next year. I
think probably that time you will probably see us again to have an update,
discussion about where we are at with the schematic design. We will have most
likely -- begin to have some cost estimate ideas at that point as well. Then we
move into design development into the middle of the summer next year.
Construction documents towards the second half of next year. And, then, we are
looking at construction of phase one beginning a little over a year from now. In our
discussions right now we are thinking that phase one of the park is probably
somewhere around the 35, 40 acre range. So, a little over half of the park itself
will probably be built in phase one. And we flush that all out, of course, in greater
detail as we move into the layout and the design. So, with that we would stand for
any comments or questions you all have.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I just have a comment, not really a question. I love the Discovery Park as
well, particularly the hands-on portions of it and the learning. I love watching those
kids pumping water. I had to do that for drinking water when I was a little kid , so
-- you know, keep it going. It's great.
Schafer: Thank you.
De Weerd: Other comments?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 39 of 67
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Is there -- are there any elements of the park that are sacrificed more with
one theme or the other, meaning whether it's softball or baseball or other uses that
were intended for it -- if you went one way or the other -- okay.
Schafer: No, I don't think so. I think this is something that we would apply to all -
- all the provenance that we decide on, either way.
Borton: Okay.
Schafer: Yeah.
Borton: All right. Thanks.
Schafer: Uh-huh.
De Weerd: Thank you for sharing, Councilman Little Roberts. That's a better idea,
turn it off before playing with it. That isn't a subtle message, by the way. Any other
comments or feedback? Certainly I think the second option, the discovery option,
is -- is one that has a lot of potential. From the comments we have received in the
-- the public in terms of -- a pollinator garden was another aspect that I was pleased
to see as an add-on, as people have noted on the botanicals and how you can --
it's about education. It's about family experiences. It's about creating the -- the
imagination and the -- the wonder of kids and building on it. It's experiential and I
think that that's going to add a real new element to -- to one of our signature parks.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: As liaison I was able to participate in the conversation and it was
really fun to hear the commission and how excited they were about all the potential
with the discovery and -- and the things that you said about the things that the kids
could do and get dirty and play in the water and so I think we are really going to
see a lot of enthusiasm as this continues on, because it is -- living in that area, too,
it's garnering a lot of excitement that something's about to happen in this space.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. I'm not sure if this is a better question for yourself or for
Mike. You had mentioned -- you had shown on the slide with the -- the timeline
plan. I'm curious if -- is the anticipation that the remaining at least two acres would
continue to be a sod farm or would we take it back over to have it available for
soccer fields or what the plan is there?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 40 of 67
Barton: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, so the remaining acreage would --
would be a sod farm, but, basically, flex space. I mean because -- because the
back -- because the back half wouldn't have an underground automatic sprinkler
system, it would need to be farmed. There is -- they have wheel lines that go back
and forth and a lot of -- you have to attend to that a lot. I mean we could possibly
do that. I don't think ACHD would really appreciate too much heavy use in the
back if we didn't allow -- make an allowance for traffic circulation and parking, so
there would be a lot of things that would have to be flushed out if the back was
used too heavily, but it could -- it could -- it could flex a little bit for sure.
Palmer: Thanks.
Barton: Yes.
De Weerd: I think we can do this very affordably. Just leave it in dirt. I think kids
can use their imagination to do all kinds of things in dirt. Just call it a park and --
Barton: So, I think the next steps for us is to pursue this theme, develop it more
-- at least I believe that's what I'm hearing -- and, then, the next step is to come
back and present to Council a more refined schematic design and -- and, then,
add some specific amenities and ideas and really refine the ideas. I mean,
obviously, the -- the park in Chicago with the -- that's not what we are doing, but
it's just inspiration for what we are going to do, but -- so, we will come back in
February at some point and -- and I will show you a more refined design with a
specific list of amenities and get some direction at that point.
Bird: Good.
De Weerd: Although I do want a giant bean. You know, it -- it was really
interesting, because I was there just a week ago and how many people spent so
much time by that bean and -- with their iPhones and doing silly things and looking
at the skyline and it was just kind of fun to just stand there and watch. So,
interesting choice on the parks you chose. And also an example of corporate
sponsors and you can -- you can maybe get companies who have an interest in
some of the elements that -- that they can sponsor the discovery piece to it.
Barton: Great idea.
De Weerd: Always looking for partnerships. So, thank you for the presentation. I
think -- I think you have a sense of what Council has done. You don't need an
official motion?
Barton: We actually don't. We were looking for feedback and I think I'm hearing it
loud and clear, so --
De Weerd: Okay.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 41 of 67
Barton: -- appreciate you -- appreciate your time.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Barton: Thank you.
F. Public Works Department: Recycled Water Update
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item is under out Public Works and it looks like Stewart
is up.
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council -- are these working?
De Weerd: Yes. I'm assuming they are. Can you hear him in the audience?
Stewart: Hello. It didn't sound quite like it used to. All right. So, Madam Mayor,
Members of the Council, reclaimed water is one of the reasons that I'm here to talk
to you today. We started the reclaimed water program back in about 2008 and we
are kind of at a crossroads with regards to reclaimed water and so I want to come
here tonight and seek your direction, but in order to do that I know many of you
really weren't here when reclaimed water was started, so I'm going to provide just
a little bit of background. So, I will take you through this -- this is just the agenda.
Will we do some background, talk about the system -- the early system
development, why we did what we did back then. Talk about the investments that
we have made to date, our current operating costs. How the landscape or our
understanding with regards to reclaimed water has changed, what's made those
changes and, then, discuss maybe some options for proceeding forward . So, just
a little bit of history. Back in the 2008-2009 time frame we were approaching -- the
outflow of our wastewater treatment plant was approaching the seven million
gallon a day mark and our existing NPDES permit limited our discharge to Five
Mile Creek to seven million gallons a day. So, we were in a situation where if we
didn't find a solution that would allow us to continue to grow it might actually be an
impediment to growth. Our permit was issued in 1999 and was due for renewal in
2004, but was administratively extended by the EPA clear until that 2008 time
frame. As a matter of fact, it's still administratively extended. But we needed a
way to allow the city to continue to grow while we didn't exceed that limit, because
the EPA can have some pretty steep penalties for exceeding those limits if they
want to. The EPA about this time was also sued by an environmental organization
to expedite those NPDES permits. So, they had been extending them for a long
period of time and because of this lawsuit we felt like it was probably going to be
some action or some movement on the EPA's side of things in order to make these
new permits come to pass. We also knew from some things that were being said
that phosphorus -- our low phosphorus limits were going to be a part of any new
NPDES permits that were issued and that was in large part due to the fact that
there was a TMDL, which is a total maximum daily load limit, that had been
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 42 of 67
imposed on the Snake River and there was -- essentially we were getting the
message that they were going to take that TMDL and use it to, you know,
essentially force limits on discharges along the Boise River. So, we knew those
were some things that were going to happen and we also knew that the TMDL
limits on the Snake River at that time were seasonal limits . In other words, they
were only going to be imposed during the summertime, because that's the time
that the impact of phosphorous had -- that phosphorous had the greatest impact
on the river. So, we were thinking, all right, if we can come up with a solution that
will allow us to reduce the phosphorous limits during the summer when it seems
to be a problem, which is what the EPA and the TMDL in the Snake River was
telling us, that -- and allow us to grow or to continue to grow, that sounded like a
great option, especially if we could do it cost effectively and that's, essentially, what
reclaimed water allowed us to do. We were able to take that water out of the
discharge, put it out for irrigation on facilities that it made sense for us to do so,
limit the amount of phosphorus and the amount of flow that we were discharging
to Five Mile Creek. So, the first project that we, essentially, put into place or that
went forward was to irrigate the Heroes Park park. We got a Class A reclaimed
water permit for Heroes Park, which just, essentially, means that incident -- excuse
me -- incidental human contact is allowed for incidental human contact and we
developed a low pressure system that would, essentially, utilize existing
infrastructure for the most part to transfer or to transmit the water from the
wastewater treatment plant to the park and put it in a pond where they can irrigate
with it. We had some challenges associated with that in that the reaction -- we had
to highly chlorinate the reclaimed water per our permit requirements and that
caused two things to occur. We didn't realize at the time there were little fish in
Heroes Park and the little fish didn't like the chlorination and they died and that
was not very good and it also had a reaction with the organics in the pond and it
turned it an ugly color brown and so we thought, well, that's not going to be good
for public perception if we are going to develop a reclaimed water system, so we
took a second look, made some changes, decided to go with a high-pressure
system similar to our water system, so we didn't have to have any open ponds and
we also at that time decided that we would take a little bit bigger approach and
actually do a city-wide permit that would allow us to go to areas more than just the
-- the permit we had was just specific for Heroes Park and we wanted to be able
to reach out and use reclaimed water in a -- in a broader area. So, we did that.
We put in a booster station at the wastewater treatment plant and we put in some
storage tanks, so that we could store the water there and see the pressurized
irrigation system. We also -- I think I have got one here -- put in about six miles of
water main to deliver that water -- I will make sure I didn't forget anything. Oh, I
wanted to mention before -- at this time we were also looking at the possibility of
incorporating recycled water in a larger sort of effort to maybe do pressurized
irrigation throughout the city, similar to what some of our neighboring cities have
done. So, we were -- we were also -- parallel at this time we were looking parallel
to do a feasibility analysis on what that looked like, if that made sense for the City
of Meridian. We have kind of completed that work and I think we reported back to
you some time ago that was not promising and we have recently decided not to
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 43 of 67
proceed. That was not -- it's just not feasible -- not economically feasible to
develop a system at this time. So, I want to talk a little bit about what we have
invested in date. So, we spent just shy of five million dollars on total capital
investments. That's the storage tank, the booster station, the water mains that we
have got in place. We have ongoing operational cost to run the system of about
80,000 dollars a year. That's for the -- everything. The chemical cost for chlorine,
the power cost, staff cost and so forth. That's the estimated cost. We currently
serve essentially three customers. There is Fast Eddy's that uses our reclaimed
water for irrigation of their landscaping, as well as for their car wash. Walmart uses
it for landscaping up at Ten Mile and McMillan . And the City of Meridian, via the
Parks Department, uses it at Heroes Park and also at the Ten Mile interchange. I
put this slide in here at this point, because we are going to have some discussions
here in just a few minutes about the alternatives and this is an important thing to
consider when we are talking about the various alternatives and this is what it
would cost -- for instance, if we were to shut off reclaimed water today, this is the
cost that would be incurred to supplant or replace that water in another fashion.
So, Heroes Park, we have a pump system there that would have to turn on and
pump irrigation water. The cost for electrical for that is approximately 8,000 dollars
a year. These are annual costs. So, this 8,000 dollars a year for the electrical bill
to run the pumps. So, that's kind of an offsetting cost right now. The booster
station at the wastewater treatment plant does that. That cost would be, you know,
transferred to the pump station at the -- at the park. The Ten Mile interchange --
essentially, the only water that's available to irrigate the Ten Mile interchange is
system water from the City of Meridian's municipal system. So, we would have to
pump it from our wells. The estimated electrical cost for pumping it out of our wells
is about 5,000 dollars. If that water was to be sold to the public, that water has a
value of about 33,000 dollars. Now, we wouldn't bill ourselves, obviously, but that
water is -- if we sold it through the -- through the distribution system like we
normally would, that's what its value would be. Fast Eddy's would have --
essentially, we would incur an electrical cost of about 9,000 dollars -- or they would
for the utilization of that water, as well as the potable water cost of about 6,000
bucks. So, it's going to cost them that much more if we were to shut reclaimed
water off to them. And Walmart -- you can see the numbers there. Essentially,
there is an electrical cost to pump that water from our wells, as well as the cost for
-- they would actually pay for that water. So, these are offsetting costs. I wanted
to kind of give you this perspective, because right now the operational costs are
about 80,000 dollars. The total costs, if we were to, you know, shut it off and do it
another way would be about 65,000 dollars, about 15,000 dollars difference. So,
I wanted you to be aware of that. I wanted you to have that information as we
talked about alternatives later on. So, what's changed? There is several things
that have changed over the past five, six years that have changed the landscape
with regards to reclaimed water. One of those things is the EPA has come out and
now not only have they put this in existing permits that have been issued in the
valley, but they have also put it in our draft permit that they have now decided that
they need to limit ammonia and phosphorus year around. We always knew about
phosphorus. We thought it was going to be seasonal. That's what the talk was for
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 44 of 67
a long time. We now know that phosphorus is going to have year around limits
and they have also -- which was not something we had anticipated back in 2008
and 2009, ratcheted down significantly the ammonia limits. Those both play into
our ability to use reclaimed water. We can't irrigate in the middle of winter. So, we
have to put in infrastructure at the wastewater treatment plant to treat phosphorus
in the middle of winter regardless. So, if we are going to have to invest in that
infrastructure to treat in the wintertime, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have
investments in reclaimed water and investments at the treatment plant. In addition,
the ammonia limits that have been imposed are also going to really impact our
ability to deliver water in the colder months of the spring and in the fall, because
the way our biological nutrient removal system works, the bugs like certain
environments, if you well, and the bugs that treat ammonia don't like cold
environments and it makes it very much -- it makes it more difficult for us to utilize
reclaimed water. Our new proposed NPDES permit is going to have limits on both.
Treatment technology has also improved and has gotten somewhat less
expensive, so because these permits are being issued all over, not just here in the
valley, a lot of companies are starting to improve the treatment technology for the
removal of ammonia and for the removal of phosphorus, making the treatment
costs slightly cheaper than they used to be. We also have a better understanding
of the service limitations associated with reclaimed water. One of the things I
talked about was we now know that the system wide -- or the citywide system for
pressurized irrigation is not feasible. We also understand that even at full build out
of the city our reclaimed water -- the total volume that's going to come out of
treatment plant really isn't going to serve a very big area of the city and we also
understand from talking with other municipalities across the west, especially the
southwest, that residential service of reclaimed water is just not feasible. So, you
can reach out and do golf courses, commercial areas, things like that, but
residential reclaimed water service has just really not worked anywhere that they
have tried it before. California. Arizona. It's just really difficult to administer. There
are so many rules that you have to require each household to live up to and there
is no way to monitor all of that. There is also the issue of the irrigation districts.
We ran into this -- we knew this was going to be a challenge. We had been talked
-- we talked with some of our legal counsel and they had indicated that they think
we would prevail if we had to have a fight, if you will, or we had to go to litigation
with the irrigation districts, but we know that the issue of the city requiring other
developments to use reclaimed water as the primary source is a concern to the
irrigation districts. The Ten Mile interchange, the project we just approved with
Brighton, that was a huge concern to them . They were afraid of getting caught in
the middle between a fight between the City of Meridian and irrigation district over
which water they had to use and we resolved that on an interim basis by,
essentially, allowing them out of that, because we weren't sure we were going to
be able to provide that water for them. We knew we wanted to have this discussion
with all of you and find out what your direction is . We are also facing a similar
situation with Ballano Park. There is a new subdivision up there, just a small park,
we had planned to use reclaimed water. The irrigation district is not very happy
about that and it -- we know that if we persist in expanding the reclaim ed water
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 45 of 67
system that there is going to have to be a resolution with the irrigation district and
that may not be an easy one. So, I want to talk about, essentially, maybe three
different options that we have and some of the pros and cons for how we move
forward. Essentially, option one that we are showing you is the option to,
essentially, to mothball the system and, obviously, there is pros and cons to this.
It stops -- and some of the pros are we stop non-essential spending on recycled
water. We can reallocate the resources, redistribute the staff resources. It
eliminates the administrative burden of administering the agreements, like
between Fast Eddy's and -- and Walmart and it also eliminates one of the permits
that we have to administer. We have a reclaimed water permit that we have to
monitor and provide annual updates to DEQ and so forth. It also eliminates our
potential fight with the irrigation districts. Some of the cons are the lost
environmental benefits that we currently see from being able to recycle water . We,
essentially, have some capital costs for what we have invested so far. There is
public perception, existing customer frustration, and by that I mean the possible
frustration of Walmart and Fast Eddy's, because they will have to find other
resources for water that are going to be more expensive and possible development
incentives. We have had some people who were interested in locating out there.
None of that actually came to fruition, to be honest, but we have had some
companies that have expressed interest in developing that area , because recycled
water was available and that was part of what their corporation was all about. So,
there are companies like that. We wouldn't be able to provide that incentive for
them to locate in that area. Option two. A lot of the same things in different --
different order, but, essentially, this is let's just continue to serve reclaimed water
the way we currently are today. Not expand it. Serve Fast Eddy's, served Heroes
Park, serve Walmart, serve the Ten Mile interchange and don't -- you know, don't
invest any significant investments -- capital investments or anything like that in it
and give our chance -- give us a chance to see how the landscape changes over
the next five years. We are going to get a new NPDES permit in the future and we
anticipate that there is going to be new requirements associated with that NPDES
permit. We don't know exactly what those are. There is a possibility that reclaimed
water might actually be a benefit to us. So, we could just hold on, kind of as a
status quo, until we get to a point in the future when we can evaluate that again
and make a decision on what we do. So, you can -- I won't go through all the pros
and cons on this one, but that's kind of what this option two is. And, then, option
three is, essentially, to go forward and expand the system and try and grow it as
-- as much as we possibly can. There are some pros to that. There is some
environmental and conservation benefits. We will be helping to conserve water.
We continue to utilize those existing investments, got the possible development
incentive, but you also have some significant cons and you have got to figured out
our service area and we have got a complete -- essentially develop -- completely
develop the documents that we need to use for the agreements that we are going
to have with different folks. We got a resolution with the irrigation district that's
going to have to be made in some form or another and we also have capital
investments that are going to have to be made. We are going to have to have --
we are about at the limits of what our current system will produce, so we are going
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 46 of 67
to have to invest in larger pumps at the booster station , more storage and maybe
even some off-site booster stations in order to provide service to some of the areas
at the end of our line. So, with that in mind I want to get sort of your direction. As
far as the recommendation from the Public Works Department, we always like to
come to you and let you know what we f eel like seems to make the most sense
and based on the fact that we have -- there is still some benefits to water
conservation and so forth to keeping the investments that we have currently made
going and there may be some future benefits in future permit cycles, we think the
thing that makes the most sense is probably just to continue to utilize the existing
system as it sits. Make the most of what we have got and see how things change
in the future and sort of the status quo option is what we are recommending. But
we are really looking for your direction.
De Weerd: Thank you, Warren. Council, any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Warren, can you help me understand the irrigation
district's issue.
Stewart: Yeah. So, the state code requires that if a piece of land has an irrigation
water right for surface water prior to development, that they have to develop a
system to utilize that water and provide that water to the residents of that land after
it's fully developed. So, they require them to utilize those water rights for irrigation
purposes on their land. City of Meridian also adopted an ordinance some time ago
that, essentially, reiterates the same thing. So, we actually have an ordinance in
the city that says if you have existing water rights for your land , you are required
to develop it and use it on that land if you can. So, they -- their opinion is that the
City of Meridian is supplying irrigation water that's competing with the district's
water and they are contending that the state code says that their water is -- that
they can be the first to be used. That they are the prime water provider for irrigation
water. If it's available. And the nuance is there has also been some -- and, Bill,
you can correct me if I'm wrong. There has been some decisions recently that
have said if a wastewater treatment plant is, essentially, utilizing that water, not as
an alternate source of irrigation, but as a disposal method for their wastewater
treatment plant, then, they can insist that their water be used first. So, if we
characterize our reclaimed water system as our disposal method for our
wastewater effluent, we have been told that there is a -- we think we could prevail
in a -- in a disagreement with the irrigation districts, but the irrigation districts look
at it as you're providing an alternate source of irrigation and the law says we are
first. So, you can come in and do the shoulder seasons after we are done, but we
get to be the primary irrigation provider. Does that help?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 47 of 67
Palmer: Immensely. Thank you. I -- I think that's a -- a fight worth dealing with
and so it sounds like -- and I think you said you recommend option two as what
you guys would -- all powerful would move forward with; right?
Stewart: Excuse me. Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, option two was that
let's just keep the status quo. So, the irrigation districts don't have any fight with
us right now with what we have.
Palmer: Okay.
Stewart: We have kind of worked through all the nuances for -- for Heroes Park,
for the Ten Mile interchange, for -- actually Walmart, somehow or another, more
power to them -- got themselves excluded from the irrigation district. So, they don't
have to worry about that. And, Fast Eddy's, they have kind of -- they are afraid of
looking like they are opposed to conservation. So, there is reasons that they are
not exactly excited about this fight, but they had -- they think there is a lot at stake
as well and I anticipate that they -- if we push the issue -- so, what we are
recommending is just stay the course as we are. If we do that I don't think we have
a fight with the irrigation district, at least not now.
De Weerd: Well -- and I think it's important to note that there was a risk from Fast
Eddy's to be a partner to utilize the reclaimed water and, you know, it is maintaining
a commitment to -- to that business. So, maintaining the status quo and preserving
the option of -- if there is a high water user that is using it for economic development
or a business reason, it -- this does preserve that and it could be a more feasible
option of -- of going down that route and at this point we don't know what -- what
new regulatory environment there is going to be and that this may once again
become a strategy or not. It's a commitment from the -- the Public Works
Department to continue to analyze it, look at what the costs are and see if there
continues to be a cost benefit and so I -- I certainly support that. What we thought
at one time was going to be a major program and a less costly solution to the
phosphorus is -- has been negated with -- has not a seasonal permit on the
phosphorus and it's not as -- as much of an interesting I guess solution to the
phosphorus issues.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Warren, I agree on the staying -- on number two, but we -- we need to look
ahead, too. This program -- we worry about the potable water in our aquifer.
Everybody worries about surface water. If we -- if we -- if we could get -- if we by
chance would get industrial things -- companies come in here that use a lot of
water to cut, like water jets or all those kind of things, this is a perfect water for it.
It don't have to be potable water. Save the city. I'm for -- we got -- we got the
investment now. You tell us it's costing us approximately 80,000 a year --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 48 of 67
Stewart: Correct.
Bird: -- and I -- I think there is a benefit to keeping it myself. I -- it's just -- what's
going there is less potable water that's being used. Mostly.
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird, you are
correct. We could get, you know, some sort of a user down at the Ten Mile
interchange that would have a high demand for water -- for process water. This
would be a much less expensive water for them than our municipal water would
be and we could preserve that highly treated, high quality water for in-home use.
De Weerd: Any other comments, questions? Agreement with the strategy at this
point to maintain what we are currently doing?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Any opposition to that? Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I agree with option two, but not necessarily just -- to just sit on it and look
at it in five years, but to really think down -- look at the future and -- I don't know
why the irrigation companies want to fight it when they are running out of water
every year. But looking at legislation or whatever we need to do, so that we can
go and expand. It's all right for now to sit on it, but with the intention of expanding
it down the road, because it is -- it's a wonderful program for conservation and for
those businesses that don't need potable water it makes a lot of sense.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Milam: Know a legislator that might take --
Palmer: I don't know any. No legislators. I don't know any. I completely agree
and want to even double down on that in that doing what we are doing right now,
while actively working to remove hurdles for the future, should we choose to move
forward and the EPA not stop us anyway. Yeah.
De Weerd: We will continue to look at the cost effectiveness and even the cost
effectiveness of growing the program, so -- is that enough direction --
Stewart: Yes.
De Weerd: -- Warren?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 49 of 67
Stewart: I think so. I think we can -- we can keep our eyes and ears open as to
what opportunities avail themselves come -- that may come up. But, in the
meantime, we just keep the system live and keep our options open and don't invest
a lot of money that may not make a lot of sense.
De Weerd: Because at this point it would be costly to grow the program, u nless
there was a good reason to do that.
Stewart: Thank you.
G. Public Works Department: Sewer Collection System
Rehabilitation and Replacement Software Program Sole
Source
De Weerd: Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. The next item is also under Public
Works and, Emily, I will turn this over to you.
Skoro: Okay. Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, I'm here today to
discuss the approval of a sole-source for the Infomaster software for the city's
sewer collection system rehabilitation program. So, throughout the FY-17
budgeting process -- can you hear me? Sorry. Budgeting process the Council
already approved the wastewater collection system rehabilitation program
software enhancement. The enhancement was developed to purchase the
software, to create a model of the city from the software, and to train the staff. So,
with that to, through extensive research on the Public Works part, we determined
that Infomaster was the best program, because it is the only out-of-the-box
software program that could achieve all the city's defined objectives. A brief
reminder of the city's main objectives and functionality of Infomaster is that it is an
art GIS based program that can manage asset integrity and perform capital
planning for wastewater collection systems. It can also utilize our existing GIS
data, asset management data, our own hydraulic model, and operator field work
to maintain and update the model and it also uses mathematical models to be able
to predict if a sewer pipe or manhole will fail, which allows the city to take a more
proactive approach in maintaining its existing infrastructure. Also it can rank and
prioritize rehabilitation projects based on our own defined criteria and it can help
engineers and project managers create preliminary project budgets and
construction schedule. So, I'm here today to request that you approve a sole -
source purchase for Infomaster software. The Public Works Department also has
legal and purchasing support for the sole source. I also wanted to show you a few
samples of other cities that have gone through the same soul source process to
purchase the software. So, with this, I ask that you approve the sole source for
the Infomaster software and I will answer any questions you may have. Thank you
for your time.
De Weerd: Thank you, Emily. Any questions from Council? Okay. Do I have a
motion?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 50 of 67
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we approve the single source for the sewer collection system
rehabilitation and replacement software program.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 7 -G. Any discussion?
Mr. Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
H. Community Development Department: Fields District /
Future Land Use Map Amendment
De Weerd: Thank you, Emily. Item 7-H is under Community Development.
Discussion on the Fields District and future land use map.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This presentation is
going to sound a lot like the presentation, a discussion we had a bout three weeks
ago.
De Weerd: Yes.
Hood: The main difference is we are in a different part of town. So, when I was
here -- I believe it's three -- three weeks ago talking about some outreach we were
getting ready to do with the property owners near Eagle and Overland intersection
-- again, this is in that same -- this is that same type of a project. So, the clerk has
a handout. I wasn't quite sure if I was going to be able to access the memo that I
had in the packet, so this was kind of a -- a back-up plan in case the technology
failed or whatever. But this is, essentially, the same information you had in the
packet. So, if I had a chance to review that, this just summarizes that information.
There is a couple of maps that I'm going to put on the screen, just to kind of orient
you a little bit. But you probably heard about the Fields District and the four square
miles. The four square miles is bound by Chinden Boulevard, Ustick, Can-Ada on
the west and McDermott on the east. So, again, I have a couple of maps that will
show that a little bit. There is 2,536 acres in that area, 116 parcels that range in a
bunch of different sizes and various ranges of development potential and
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 51 of 67
speculation going on out there. So, in the memo I also talked about giving you just
a brief update about the Growing Together process. We have had two meetings
-- two roundtable meetings with this Growing Together group. The most recent
one was just on the 8th I believe was the date , so about a week ago. We -- we
have a great group of folks that are brainstorming and figuring out ways of -- kind
of what this is. But a lot of that is bigger picture policy kind of related ag
preservation or different -- if not regional, then statewide policies of how do we
preserve some of our farm ground for future generations and more tools and things
like that. So, that's really what I'm proposing, just kind of break off from -- at first I
thought that group could help do what I'm going to talk to you about , but that's
going to be a longer process. So, really what I'm going to -- what I'm proposing is
to address more of an immediate need -- and immediate probably isn't -- isn't the
right word that I use in this memo, but there is a pressing need there and we would
like to address this again really for what I just talked about before, the development
pressures are moving this way and so we want -- we want to get on the same page
with landowners now and potential in the future developers to -- so they have an
understanding of -- as they speculate this ground what they can expect to happen
and the real driving factor here is -- if you don't know, there is a seven million gallon
liquefied natural gas facility located near Can-Ada and McMillan and I do have a
map here that I will show, but it's a hazard. We have talked with them about that
-- without scaring folks, if there were to be something catastrophic that happened
there, their recommendation would be to have no one within a half mile radius of
this -- of this site. So, there is a -- there is under pressure liquefied natural gas
that comes into this facility. It is changed in form somehow -- I don't understand
exactly what they do -- and then it's distributed back out. Now, I'm sure you're all
familiar with the line that basically takes a 45 degree angle that 's -- that's distributed
from that facility serving all the customers in this area, but this facility in particular,
again, has about a seven million gallon capacity and right now -- if I can get the
other exhibit now. So, that's -- that's the exhibit that's highlighted on the map that
you see in front of you. So, on our -- thank you. On the future land use map today,
as you can see here, we have property -- this property is low density residential
and properties around it as medium and low density residential , but the school is
not too terribly far away. Not very good planning. I'm not real proud that this is
what we currently have on the books or on this site. We have known about this
facility -- I mean I have known that there is a facility out there, but until we recently,
just this last year, met with Intermountain Gas and they talked about expansion
and bringing a training center to this area, didn't really understand the operation
that was going on there. So, we have been talking about this again for about a
year to say we should probably change our map, because we don't want to
encourage people to live around this thing. So, really, what I have got for you is
-- is three options to -- and just to be clear, option one is what staff would
recommend here, is to just do a -- what I have quoted as a simple future land use
map change. It's really not simple. We will still talk to the stakeholders, we will still
do public involvement, we will still notice all the meetings, but it really is sort of
accelerated and really focused on the properties that are within a three-quarter to
a mile radius of that site and address the land use issues in that targeted area.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 52 of 67
So, that's really what option one is. It's us using our existing land use designations
-- probably what I would envision as a starter for -- for property owners in the area
is what I would propose is a mixed-use, non-residential designation. It's the same
designation we carry around the wastewater treatment plant . It allows commercial
and office and industrial and other things, you just can't live there. So, something
similar we might need to look at the text in the comp plan to say , you know, hey,
in this area we really don't even want, you know, a mass grouping of office
buildings either, maybe not a good idea. But we will come up with -- but something
like that is kind of what we envisioned . But homes are -- and schools probably
aren't the best land use, but something, again, nonresidential in that area. Again,
that -- it still will take some time, because, again, we got a public involvement
component to that, but that's something we can do in house. We have got the
resources. Send the postcards, invite people, have an open house, do some
planning exercises with folks, get their feedback and take that through the
application process. Option two is -- is kind of splitting the difference a little bit.
It's a little bit more comprehensive, but it's not the Growing Together exercise. It's
not working with Nampa, the counties, legislators and others to kind of figure out
what good policy is for preserving farm ground in this area and other parts of the
region or state. But, again, it -- but it does address more of a long-range -- our
needs kind of in this four square mile area, which could include something like --
and you probably heard some of these terms before, but Agritopia, ag tourism, ag
business parks and an ag land preservation. So -- or some combination or one or
two of those elements. But that is a little bit more involved. We would want to, you
know, have some market analysis. Can we support whatever it is -- the preferred
land use concept in this area and it would also include -- at least in vision it would
include some text changes to the comp plan that talk about a new land use
designation. I don't think we have anything currently in the suite of land uses we
can put on properties that would do this. We really -- again, all of these kind of
assumed some agricultural component and really were -- we are an urban city and
we don't have really anything, except for the low density residential, which, again,
we don't really envision people maybe living in this area. So, probably looking at
both a map and a text amendment to the plan. A little bit longer process. I think
we could probably still meet everybody's needs if we did that one , but it is -- it's
kind of a tweener. It not -- it's not -- probably won't happen real quick and we may
get some -- some folks out there that would like to develop sooner rather than later
or they feel like the vision changed on them and they didn't know about it or we
took too long to work with them on changing that vision and they are ready to
develop now and if this is what we have on the books, let me develop with what
you have on the books now. I don't want to wait another year to do something out
here. And, then, the third option is -- again, it's, essentially, just letting the Growing
Together process kind of drive this and depending on some of the outcomes of
that, we can use that as the baseline to implement some things in this four square
mile area. So, I won't run through everything in my memo that talks about kind of
the pros and cons that Warren went through a little bit there. Again, that's going
to be a little bit longer process -- well, probably quite a bit longer process, would
require more consultant support, you would probably want to look at detailed
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 53 of 67
market analysis, putting up a website, doing more detailed public outreach and
participation. Again, I said I wasn't going to read all that, so I won't. But -- but
those are kind of the options. And, again, I don't necessarily need a vote, but I
wanted to, one, really more notify you this -- we will do option one unless you see
something better or different that you want us to do and look at tackling this sooner
than later. Before I stand for questions, I just will let you know, Intermountain Gas
has been at the table and participating in the Growing Together work group and
they are very interested and invested in what happens in this area and I would
venture to say even what happens in the valley, but particularly in this area, since
they have an interest in this property and Ed Marconi with -- with Intermountain
Gas is certainly very interested in us. He has been great to work with so far. He's
been very understanding. But I do think they would like to see some resolution to
this matter, at least, you know, the square miles that they are in, so with that I will
stand for any questions, directions, clarifications you may have for me.
De Weerd: And I guess I would give a little historic perspective on it from maybe
the elected officials point, is when this was designated it was a placeholder and so
where you said it took too long -- it has. This was one of those areas that it
anticipated Ten Mile area specific plan activity as -- that's why the Fields District
white paper was written and it was to capitalize on the Highway 16 vision and was
to consider that alignment once it was cast in concrete, because of the -- the
expressway that was envisioned, the proximity to railroad and also access to the
airports, that there was some job opportunities or economic value in planning this
in a less dense -- and they even talked about looking at a CID in that area to help
maybe escalate the timeline on the Highway 16 extension there. So -- and,
actually, that is why the Growing Together activities have been moving along, is
that commitment to a longer-term vision in that area. I guess this is on the heels
of the city giving input and having some participation in Nampa 's comprehensive
plan activities and -- and their vision for this kind of stretch between Chinden and
I-84 and considered the -- the next step. So, you have good stakeholders at the
-- at the table and whether it's -- I think the -- the group has looked in -- with interest
to that agricultural piece to it, not necessarily a preservation per se in this area,
because of its proximity and the opportunities for economic value and bringing jobs
closer to where people live, but that's a discussion that's pretty young and can
further develop. So, comments, questions, and ideas?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Caleb, would it be fair to say that option -- if you were to do option two you
would really want to do option three? It seems as though that almost one and
three are really the two true choices, if that -- if that Growing Together process is
to be collaborative, wouldn't do two without neighbor involvement.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 54 of 67
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, option two wouldn't be my preferred.
Would I prefer one over three -- and it's kind of a toss up. Two is there, because
it is kind of in between. We are doing it twice, essentially, with option two.
Borton: Sure.
Hood: It's -- it's -- it's neither here nor there. Option one, we may need to change
that again, too, to some degree, depending on what happens. But we aren't
investing a whole lot of effort now, we are really addressing the hazard and kind of
another placeholder, if you will, around there, that may be something different.
Again, especially if there is some ag component. That could be a great use around
this, if that happens, but, yeah, one or three if -- but two probably isn't -- isn't one I
would -- I would -- but it -- we could do something there, but I wouldn't have a lot
of confidence that it's -- that that's our long-range vision for this area.
Borton: Okay.
Hood: Forever.
Borton: Thank you.
De Weerd: Do you know what he just said?
Borton: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Because I don't.
Hood: Don’t pick option two.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: With regard to option one, it is a -- is it an ag designation kind of -- as a
holding category? What would you call it?
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, in what I would envision is a
designation real similar to what we have around the wastewater treatment plant.
We also used that same designation out at Meridian Road near Amity where you
have got the pits out there --
Borton: Okay.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 55 of 67
Hood: -- we put nonresidential, because people living next to the wastewater
treatment plant and people that are excavating dirt and earth, not a good idea. So,
that's the use I think we start with and, again, we may need to fine tune that a little
bit. Just as an example, you see on this map we have got mixed use interchange
designations. That -- those designations are specific when you get into the text of
the comp plan and it talks about the mixed-use interchange designation along
Chinden being these types of uses and a mixed-use interchange designation at
Ustick being these types of uses. So, it's even specific -- it's in color on the map,
but when you get to the text it really gives you more details about that and we could
do the same thing with this. Mixed-use non-residential that allows, you know,
offices, retailers, nonresidential, essentially. We could fine tune that and say, you
know what, we really don't want an office park there either, because if an accident
happens or an act of terrorism or something happens at 10:00 o'clock in the
morning, that's still not a good idea, you have got people nearby. But something
that still uses the land, but --
Borton: Right.
Hood: So, anyways, I think we have -- that's what I would start with and we will
go from there. We may come up with another use. We don't have an ag
designation --
Borton: Right.
Hood: -- so, option -- that's the one thing I do like about maybe option two is we
would have another -- we could potentially develop a new land use designation to
give as an opportunity here. We could call it civic or something else. But, again,
that -- private property calling it civic, that's probably going to ruffle some feathers.
So, we will see where this goes. But, initially, that's kind of what I would propose
is this designation and get feedback.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: It was my understanding that they were buying up land around it, so
-- because -- with the knowledge that they -- they did desire the kind of buffer that
-- that you had mentioned. So, again, we have to have a solid plan out in this area.
So -- and the -- the extensive and inclusive participation of property owners and --
and those interested in developing in the area and The economic opportunity that
-- of bringing jobs closer to where people live, so that we don't become a parking
lot, continues to be driving reasons, in my opinion, for moving to option three and
the sooner the better, because there are growth pressures out in that area and we
do owe the landowners in that area some -- a vision.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, I know it's not a question, but I totally agree, and if I
thought that we could do option three in a quicker time frame -- I don't know your
take or -- or Council Woman Little Roberts' take on that, but I see that taking some
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 56 of 67
more time and, as you know, expectations out here and those development
pressures are growing and speculation is growing, so I'm okay with option three, I
just want to let you know I have got kind of Intermountain Gas over here saying
can you do something and, then, I have got, really, the preferred option three going
on, but at a snail's pace almost. So, that's why I'm here to kind of say, you know,
ideally we would do option three, but time is sort of the essence, too, and we don't
-- I don't have a lot and I don't want to have to continue that frustration from land
owners and speculators and, you know, this is what we tell people is the vision.
There is no asterisk right now that says hold on, it's the vision right now, but it may
change in six months or a year or two or -- and we do -- I mean that's part of the
process. It's not set in stone. But this is where city limits are tending to push and
people are buying and holding within -- with some expectations based on this. So,
that's why I'm here. Again, option three, I agree, if you think we can do that through
that -- that group --
De Weerd: I think you need to do it in parallel to that group.
Hood: I'm sorry, I didn't really explain that very well. I will bring some of that group
into this process, too, but an abbreviated version of what they are doing.
De Weerd: I guess just the -- the final thought is you do option one and you're still
-- you still are lacking a vision in that area and it's just a band-aid. So, it is backing
up, letting the property owners know that we are asking them to be involved in the
planning activities, so they do know what the vision for that area is and maybe we
can include our transport departments to have a clearer idea of what that long-
term transportation solution is going to be as well, because I will tell you right now,
putting them on Chinden or on McDermott is not a real good option , regardless of
what we want to do out there, so --
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Caleb, does doing option one preclude us from doing option three?
If we do option one with a half square mile, we still have the four square miles or
greater. Can we do them in stages? Do one and continue on to three?
Hood: Madam Mayor. Yeah. Essentially, that's -- yes, that is -- that is, essentially,
what would happen. It is a band-aid and there may be further changes to that. I
guess I didn't explain that -- Growing Together is going to still happen. That's still
going to go forward and depending on what comes out of that , we may need to
come back to these same property owners and say we need to change it from what
we changed just a year ago or whatever the timing is there. So, yeah, I would --
it's not -- again option one is really to break apart from what's going on in option
three, but depending on what happens with option three we will have to do this
over. The positive that I see is we potentially get others that are interested in what
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 57 of 67
we are talking about, the Growing Together. Real stakeholders here that have a
vested interest in what comes out of the Growing Together and they may want to
join us to some degree or be involved or whatever that can help also keep that
moving forward. So, yeah, option one and three -- if we do -- if we do option one
-- if we do the band-aid option, we would still do option three, at least for as long
as we are going to be involved or leading that charge. So, yes.
De Weerd: I think this could certainly give a little bit greater sense of urgency to
-- to getting this area planned and -- and I'm not sure that we were ready to extend
sewer and water and police and the urban response times in this area either.
That's -- those -- this is a low priority growth area for those services and so there
should be some policy decisions on that as well, because it certainly will be a cost
burden. Are you looking for a decision tonight or is this was just food for thought?
Hood: Again, Madam Mayor, I don't need necessarily a motion or a resolution or
anything like that, but I was -- you know, wanted to let you know that staff does
think a band-aid may be appropriate, but if you don't want us to do the band-aid
approach and want us to just try to accelerate the Growing Together somehow and
-- again, just some of the things I even heard last week kind of scare me a little bit
with how long that may take to develop some of these things that we could
potentially use in this area. I'm a little skittish and I really am concerned about the
hazard out there and again -- I have stated said my concerns, that we need to
address that sooner, rather than later. Will another year or two -- maybe that's
okay, but I don't see it -- I don't see it changing anything sooner than that if we do
option three.
De Weerd: And I have seen us sit on it for ten years and now we have an urgent
need. So, I -- I don't know.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor and Caleb, maybe someone from Council could remind
me was it right here or was it further south that we had denied an application for a
subdivision that was going to be west of McDermott, simple because it was west
of McDermott?
Hood: It's on the screen, so it was just south of McMillan and west McDermott.
Palmer: Okay. Then in that case -- I mean there is, obviously, a desire to move
in and develop it. I think that the band-aid option, you know, while understandably
it's a band-aid, but it prevents you from bleeding everywhere, might be the best
option to, then, move into three and -- so that there is something there that there
is notice that we are working on it still and can still amend it later, but that we don't
just leave it as it is while we be government and figure it out over time.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 58 of 67
De Weerd: I guess the concern is whatever the vision is out in this area, if it is to
be considered for economic development and what the economic opportunity is in
this area, you have a lot of yellow and we are trying to protect business investment
by being encroached by rooftops and depending on what the outcome is on what
kind of jobs you want to attract in this area, unless you show that you are protecting
that -- that investment, there are going to be certain employers that are not going
to be interested in risking their investment on what potentially can be built around
their investment. So, the idea was to look at it in terms of what is the economic
opportunity and what are the appropriate buffers needed to have long -term job
sustainability out there to -- to show potential employers that their investment is --
is protected through land use and the traditional or transitional land uses that would
protect that -- that long-term investment. So, those -- those have been the
conversations over the last decade of why that needs a specific area plan, so that
it helps in attracting the types of jobs that are envisioned for that area that have
been studied as well as through the state economic development strength s study
and what we were able to capture in our white paper.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: No, it sounds everyone is saying the same thing. That's how I hear it. So,
I hear and agree with Caleb, option one is something to do today -- start today and
it will be known that that's on the tracks at the same time, like Council Woman Little
Roberts suggested, option three, which is the true solution, at least gets initiated.
Understanding it's going to take a long time, but you run those in parallel,
essentially, one to put on immediate notice to landowners that activity and planning
is going there, but there is also an immediate band-aide, if you will, just to provide
notice, if nothing else, residential use here is not being anticipated.
Hood: Right.
Borton: So, one and three happen together.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: All right. Thank you.
I. City Council: ICRMP Update
De Weerd: Okay. With that said, Councilman Borton, it's your turn. You have had
us all sign, so --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 59 of 67
Borton: You signed before you completed. So, this will be seven minutes. This
will be quick. I'm here -- I'm doing this on behalf of the HR and this is something
you guys have done in previous years and I understand, but --
De Weerd: They have been asked to do.
Bird: Yes.
Borton: Well, it's being done. So, this is exciting stuff. ICRMP, obviously, insures
the city, does a fantastic job and they also -- as fantastic as they are, provide a
discount for completing certain training. Each department is required to do it,
including ourselves. Required is the operative word. And we are provided a
rebate, so to speak, for doing so. It's just under 15,000 dollars. So, your good
efforts over the next four minutes save taxpayer dollars to the tune of just about
15,000 dollars. So, you got to do six things. It sounds like a lot, but it's really not.
Two of them we are going to do today. Okay? There is six things. There is two
online reviews -- and I'm going to pass out some info here in a sec. Online reviews.
You're going to review personnel policy and review vehicle use policy for the city.
You're going to read it and review it, check some boxes that you've done so. Those
two tasks are done. Two other tasks we are going to do today in the next four
minutes. They are driver safety. Wildly exciting and we are going to get credit for
doing it. You're going to learn about driving safe. I will teach you. And the last
two things are online courses, again, the information I pass out will tell you about
them. One speaks to the golden rule at work and the other is called: Driving. Just
Slow Down. So, that will be a doozy, too. And the information you're going to have
will show you how to do that. So, there is your -- pass these down. I will be your
Troy McClure to talk to you about safe driving.
De Weerd: And that's great before a severe weather storm coming in.
Borton: That's right.
De Weerd: So, very well timed.
Borton: So, the deadline to do these six tasks, again, is the end of this month. So,
turn to the first page. The first page we have checked the items that are being
done. The two circles we are doing today in the next couple of minutes, the four
checks are the two online reviews of policy and the two online courses. Super
simple and easy and quick to do them. And you will see what some of the other
departments are doing. And this isn't just us, all departments are doing it and it's
-- it's really important, all kidding aside, that -- that we participate in full. You know,
you can lead by example and show that this is important, not only for the financial
savings, but to be -- to be safe and to understand our city policies and make sure
we all abide by them that all employees, including ourselves, must do so. So,
those are the checks of what's -- what we are going to cover. The next page is for
the two online courses -- that are on that first page. The second page shows you
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 60 of 67
how you log on. Really straight -- straight forward. And you will find the -- the
online review and the online courses here. If you haven't logged in before -- I don't
think a lot of us have -- the bottom of the second page has new user to the program.
Really straightforward instructions to log in and complete those classes. Again,
the online reviews are quick and the classes are pretty quick, too. About 15
minutes. Okay. HR also did indicate that they will help do any and all of it with
you, for you, meaning you can go and sit in their office, schedule an appointment,
sit down at one of their desktops and they will watch you through the whole thing
and they will talk to you about any questions you might have. So, should be self-
explanatory, but do call Crystal and go see her in December -- it has to be in
December to get this done. Okay. The next two pages -- the last two pages are
your -- your two instructional portions for the evening. Okay. Defensive driving
and intersections. So, safe driving and you. I'm going to review these things, ask
you a couple of questions. It would be dandy if somebody would -- would answer
a question when I asked it, it makes it a little more engaging. So, defensive driving.
Right. Most accidents are caused by driver error and we all need to ensure we
drive defensively. So, how are we going to do that? This paper tells you how. In
no particular order -- actually, it is in order. What you're supposed to do when
you're driving safe tomorrow when it's snowy; right? This is scan, make sure you
know what's going on in front of you. Look ahead. Look to the sides. This is good
to review with your kids, too. Any family members as well. Look left, right as you
approach any place where there is other cars. I like to tell people assume that the
other car or the driver might be a ding dong, might not be paying attention, don't
trust that they are driving safe. So, you drive defensively. Check the traffic behind
you frequently, several times a minute. Check for blind spots. Scan the road
ahead for potential hazards. Always important when it's winter conditions and
when it's late leaving a city council meeting like we are tonight. Predict. After
spotting a potential hazard try to predict what will happen and assume the worst.
So, play it safe. And at that point you decide what to do. The key to defensive
driving is making a sound decision ahead of time, rather than reacting to danger
at the last second, all right, and, then, execute the final steps. Execute a decision
in a smooth, predictable manner. Okay? Pretty crystal clear on how to drive
defensively. Very important that you do to protect your safety. So, the question
-- anyone here had a close call in driving? Council Woman Milam, you have had
a close call driving?
Milam: Several of them.
Borton: Defensive driving help you avoid disaster in that close call?
Milam: Absolutely.
Borton: Good. How about Ms. Holman?
Holman: Yes.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 61 of 67
Borton: Yes? Okay. Anyone else?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Yes, we've all had.
Borton: Anyone here consider tailgating acceptable?
De Weerd: No.
Borton: Warren? Tailgating? Is that good?
Milam: Only when they are going too slow.
Borton: No. Tailgating is unsafe. Unsafe. How about this? Do you think driving
feels safer, less safe, or about the same safe -- same safe -- about as safe as you
did five years ago? Madam Mayor? About the same? A little more? A little worse?
De Weerd: Can you ask the question again?
Borton: Do you think driving -- do you feel safer now driving, a little more safe, a
little less safe?
De Weerd: A little less safe.
Borton: A little less safe.
De Weerd: There is more traffic.
Borton: Well, the good thing about that feeling is you can alleviate it today by
driving more defensively.
De Weerd: I am a defensive driver.
Borton: Using these tools -- being a defensive driver ICRMP has provided us these
tools in how to drive more defensively. Any questions about any of these tools?
Bird: Just saying they have got some real good things on here.
Borton: They do. There is no exceptions. You don't turn the switch on and off.
You always drive defensively.
Bird: If you have got -- if you have someone stopping in front of you --
Borton: That's right.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 62 of 67
Bird: -- get your brakes on, the first thing you do is look in the rearview mirror to
make sure somebody isn't coming after you, so you got a way of escape.
Borton: There you go. That should be on the list.
Bird: But driving safe or less are about the same as five years, I think a lot of us
-- you guys know so much as -- as myself, as we get older we -- our dexterity and
our stuff isn't quite as like --
Milam: Reflexes.
Bird: -- like it was at 20 years old.
Milam: Well, the texting and driving makes --
Bird: Texting -- I don't do that.
Borton: That's right.
De Weerd: That's why you have to drive defensively.
Borton: That's right.
De Weerd: Because it's the other drivers sometimes that you have to be --
Bird: Their cell phones in their ear.
De Weerd: -- most aware of.
Borton: Well, assume the worst, assume the other party is not paying attention.
De Weerd: Did we pass?
Bird: We got one left.
Borton: You did. Oh. We are not done with the class. We are done with defensive
driving.
De Weerd: So, we passed --
Borton: Oh, yeah.
De Weerd: -- defensive driving.
Borton: Yes, but --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 63 of 67
De Weerd: Awesome.
Borton: -- what do you always think about when you're driving defensively?
Intersections; right? Well, that's the next topic. Let's talk about intersections and
you. One of the more unsafe parts of driving, with different crossings and entering
movements by both drivers and pedestrians. An intersection is one of the most
complex traffic situations that motorists encounter, including Eagle Road. Dangers
are compounded when we add the element of speed -- of speeding motorists who
disregard traffic controls. Motorist who aren't driving defensively. So, red light
running is one of the most serious safety hazards in an intersection. Did you know,
Councilman Bird, that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that half
of the people killed in red light running crashes are not the signal violators, they
are the drivers and pedestrians hit by red light runners. Another example of why
you drive defensively. Keep your head up. Keep your eyes out for -- for those
around you. There are three driving focuses at intersections that we all are going
to take from this training here today, compliments of ICRMP. One slow down
before entering an intersection and look left -right-left. Don't enter -- enter into an
intersection that has not been visually cleared. Critical. Number two, try to avoid
entering an intersection within the first three seconds of a light change. That's the
time in which a majority of collisions occur. Folks that are not paying attention,
trying to run a yellow and don't make it, invariably go banging through an
intersection, probably speeding to try and get through it and they crash into you.
So, the final focus for intersections, look left -right-left, be sure no one is running
the red light, the and road is clear of pedestrians . That's really important at
nighttime. It's really important as we encourage -- whether it's safe routes to school
and using bikes more around our time -- around our town, that we have the
opportunity to encounter those risks. So, I don't know about you, but, Councilman
Palmer, have you or someone you know had a close call at an intersection?
Palmer: Yes.
Borton: Did you drive defensively and avoid collision at that intersection?
Palmer: Yes, I did.
Borton: Chief Lavey, have you ever driven through a red light on purpose or on an
accident?
Lavey: Yes.
Borton: Have you seen others do it, too? It happens, doesn't it?
Lavey: Yes.
Borton: So, you always have to be defensive, keep your head on a swivel and
look out for folks like Chief Lavey, who may be running a red light.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 64 of 67
De Weerd: Well, he has his -- his lights flashing.
Lavey: You didn't ask me if I could legally do it, though.
Borton: Oh, God, you're good. Good. Good point.
Bird: I have rode with him enough. He's ran through a lot of them.
Borton: Well done. But you have seen other -- Chief Lavey, all joking aside,
though, you have seen other citizens in our community run red lights, not paying
attention or otherwise. Even if by accident. Haven't you?
Lavey: Does this morning count?
Borton: Any morning. It wasn't me, was it?
Lavey: No, it wasn’t you.
Borton: Okay.
Lavey: This time.
Borton: Well, it happens. So, drive defensively left-right-left. Keep your eyes out.
And, finally, Council Woman Little Roberts, what I would like you to do , in your own
free time, is create a list of things a safe driver should do as you approach an
intersection and think of those. Okay? And use these tools from today's training
that ICRMP has provided -- you have all signed before you started your
acknowledgment of completing this course, which you have now done so. So, the
last -- you have done two of the six, leaving those four things -- are the four checks
on that first page.
Bird: I only got three checks.
Borton: Well, look down on the bottom left, you will see number four is --
Bird: You need to complete. Oh, I see on --
Borton: Yeah. Yeah. So, there is two online courses and they are good -- they
are great courses. It's great information. It's really important that we not only know
our policies for the city and abide by them --
Bird: Sure.
Borton: -- we expect it of it of all our direct -- all the departments are doing it, all of
them are required to report back to HR to insure compliance, so let's have the
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 65 of 67
Mayor and Council be the -- the first crew that gets it all done. So, again, HR will
help you with anything you need. The log in instruction is here. You can do it on
your own. Do use your city address on your log in. Don't do it from a personal
address. Okay? And, again, any follow up questions on how to do so ask HR.
De Weerd: Good job.
Borton: Thanks to ICRMP, again, for insuring us and providing us with that
discount. It saves a lot of money.
De Weerd: So, you can use one of the city computers --
Borton: Yes.
De Weerd: -- and Crystal can get you set up in HR to -- to do the -- the four things
and --
Milam: We can do it from home; right?
Borton: You can do it from home.
Milam: Okay.
Borton: You have to log in --
De Weerd: If you know how.
Milam: Using our city e-mail address.
Borton: Correct.
Milam: And how do we let Crystal know that we completed everything?
Borton: She knows.
Milam: Oh, she will know. So, I don't need -- all I do is just do this stuff.
Borton: Yeah. They get a report I believe -- they get a report of who has done it.
Nary: Yes. As you complete each section it acknowledges that there is a finish
command and that will acknowledge that you have completed it and, then, it all
goes back to HR to know who has completed the courses.
Milam: Thank you. Good class.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 66 of 67
Borton: Yeah. We have got to have a good -- we have got to have a certain
percentage of compliance in order to get the benefit. So, if we blow it off, we -- we
not only lose and opportunity to learn about great policy and be safe, we also lose
the opportunity to save a lot of money. So, get it done. December 31st. Hard
deadline for us.
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Thank you, Councilman Borton. Good job. Future meeting topics.
Upcoming events. In ten minutes you can start the Scentsy Points of Light holiday
concert. Homecourt grand reopening next Tuesday, December 20th, from 1:30 to
3:00. 2:00 o'clock is the ribbon cutting and 2:15 the basketball -- celebrity
basketball game begins. We would love to see many players from this dais,
including our basketball camp at the very end there.
Coles: Madam Mayor, I will actually be I believe announcing the game, so
deploying my vocal skills, not my athletics.
De Weerd: Well, I think you can do that from the -- on the court. I think it would
make it more interesting.
Coles: I will just use a lapel mike and do that as -- like a Globetrotter.
Bird: Meadow Lark Lemons did that all the time.
De Weerd: So, we are still recruiting. I know that Kaycee would really appreciate
-- even if you want to be a bench sitter, that you will come and -- and maybe dribble.
That's not down your chin, it's on the court. Retirements. Peggy is having -- well,
we are having a get together for Peggy next Tuesday, the 20th, from 4:00 to 5:30
in Conference Room A and B. Peggy is a long-term employee. We would love to
see you. As is -- and she's half of what John Overton has done and his is next
Thursday, the 22nd, from 3:00 to 4:30 in Council Chambers. Right here. So, would
love to see you there.
Bird: Next Tuesday after Council is our dinner.
De Weerd: And, remember, we have dinner next week after Council. So, with that
said, if there is nothing further, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Bird: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2016
Page 67 of 67
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:19 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
03 X/7
MAYOR TAM e WE D DATE APPROVED
ATTES
4,,Z -4x.
C. JAY COES, CITY CLERK
O�pORA
�G
X0
t-5 � I� w
I
St
gL�°i