2017-04-11Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m.,
Tuesday, April 11, 2017, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Joe Borton, Genesis
Milam, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer and Anne Little Roberts.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Jaycee Holman, Bruce Chatterton,
David Jones, Todd Lavoie, Warren Stewart, Mike Barton, Dale Bolthouse, Jeff
Lavey, 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 __X__ Lucas Cavener
__X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you for joining us. I will go ahead and get tonight -- or
this afternoon's meeting started. For the record it Tuesday, April 11th. My son's
birthday. It's 3:00 o'clock. I 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: I move we approve the agenda as published.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as published.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
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MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of March 28, 2017 City Council Regular
Meeting
B. Approval of Finance Department Vendor Payments in
the Not to Exceed Amount of $1,123,369.03
C. Award of Bid and Approval of Agreement to AME
Electric for the “SCADA SYSTEM UPGRADES for PRV’s
2, 6, 10, 14, 23, AND 26” project for a Not-To-Exceed
amount of $181,000.00.
De Weerd: Item 4 is the Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve the Consent Agenda as published.
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, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Item 5. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Meridian Development Corporation Annual Update
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De Weerd: So, we will move right into our community presentations, starting with
6-A, with an annual update from the Meridian Development Corporation . Thank
you for joining us, Dan.
Basalone: Thank you, Mayor Tammy, President Bird, Members of City Council.
It's always a pleasure to be back before you to give the report for the Meridian
Development Corporation. Before I do, however, I want to thank you for adding
our two new members, Diane Bevan and Steve Vlassek. They are going to be
welcome additions to our board. Thank you so much for that action last week.
You should have the report -- the written report and the financial audit statement
in your packet. Turning to my report. The City of Meridian was developed from a
small rural village to an incorporated city by the dedicated work of its citizens who
volunteer their time and contributed their resources to build a community . This
spirit of volunteerism and building community based on common goals still exist s
today. Nowhere is it more evident than in our historic downtown. The
revitalization of our downtown core was and continues to be the vision of the
Meridian City Council and the many citizen stakeholders who value the historic
and economic value of a vibrant downtown. By establishing the Meridian
Development Corporation as the urban renewal agency for the revitalization of
the downtown core, tax increment dollars could be used to upgrade downtown
infrastructure and remove any blight, so that downtown could continue to be
economically viable and most importantly a source of historic pride for all
citizens. Another goal was to make sure that downtown with City Hall as the
center of city government was accessible to young and old alike . Our downtown
embodies the culture and history of Meridian for our children . During 2016 the
Meridian Development Corporation continued the progress made in prior years to
revitalize downtown and the urban core. Partnerships have been the key to the
promotion of activities for everyone in Meridian to enjoy. MDC partnered with the
West Ada School District and the Meridian Arts Commission to wrap electrical
boxes with student art. For the second year in a row approximately 1,500
Meridian third graders, supervised by their teachers and parent volunteers were
able to experience the historic walking tour and learn about city government with
MDC, the West Ada School District, and the City of Meridian as partners. The
Meridian Parks and Recreation Department partnered with MDC to replace trees
in new graded wells to enhance streetscape and allowed trees to thrive .
Summer concerts on Broadway in City Hall Plaza were expanded from three to
four concerts, which included pre-shows featuring student musician performers.
Concerts On Broadway is a partnership among the Meridian Arts Commission,
the City of Meridian Parks and Recreation Department, many private sponsors
and MDC. This summer saw the development of the Youth Farmers Market in
City Hall Plaza, which was held from 9:00 a.m. to noon on Saturdays from June
to September. This partnership between the City of Meridian, MDC, and private
sponsors also included young vendors and their families . A special thank you to
family-owned Cackleberry Farm for support and great farm products throughout
the summer. Idaho Avenue between Main Street and East 2nd Street was
dedicated as a lighter, quicker, cheaper outdoor seating venue and was used as
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a focal point for the first annual art walk and sidewalk chalk art displays in
September. A special thank you to Marty Schindler, local businessman, and the
city planning staff for championing the Idaho Avenue project. 2016 was also the
year when downtown branding came to fruition with signs and banners and six
kiosks designating Meridian historic downtown as our downtown core. Economic
growth was also visible with the development of two key projects. First Marty
Schindler converted a former chocolate shop in to a location for Blue Sky Bagels
on Idaho Avenue and our thanks to Josh Evarts for not only renovating the
building on the corner of Idaho Avenue and East 2nd Street , but keeping its
historic roots with a facade reminiscent of the original bank building. Josh calls
the venue The Vault and it has been used for many public and private
gatherings. Frankie's Java took over the location formerly used by The Grotto
and added to outdoor seating in Generations Plaza. A special thanks to the
Meridian Downtown Business Association for providing a way for local
businessmen and property owners to give input to the City of Meridian and MDC
regarding downtown needs and activities. A special thank you to Joe Kozlowski,
local attorney and businessman, who has served as Business Association
president for the past two years. As one of the fastest growing cities in the
United States, Meridian is always encouraging economic development to support
its citizens. In 2016 the Meridian City Council approved the formation of the Ten
Mile Urban Renewal Area as an agency under the Meridian Development
Corporation. The urban renewal designation has allowed private developers to
convert acres of former farmland into a commercial center whose borders include
I-84, Ten Mile Road, and Franklin Avenue. Anyone exiting Ten Mile Road will
notice the construction of office buildings and what will soon be the commercial --
a commercial area that includes retail, as well as office space. Work near where
you live is making Meridian a complete city as it converts former farmland to
homes and businesses. A special thanks to Bruce Chatterton and the Meridian
economic development and planning office for making Ten Mile become a reality.
Reports about the progress at Ten Mile can be heard at MDC meetings on the
2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month. The second Wednesday meeting is
held at 7:30 a.m. and 4th Wednesday meeting is held at 4 :00 p.m, with all
meetings, of course, open to the public. Just like long ago, volunteers still
constitute the prime resource for the development of Meridian. The MDC Board
of Commissioners for 2016 was composed of the following volunteers: Dave
Winder. Nathan Mueller. Jim Escobar. Keith Byrd. Mayor Tammy de Weerd,
Callie Zamzow, Rob McCarvel, Rick Ritter and myself. In addition, Eric Jensen,
Kit Fitzgerald and Calvin Barrett served part of the year. A very special thank
you to Jim Escobar for serving as chairperson for the last three years and for his
eight years of service on the commission board. As Aesop said in his famous
fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, slow and steady wins the race. The
revitalization of Meridian historic downtown is happening because volunteer
citizens are stepping forward and making it happen. It is also happening
because more children and their families are becoming participants in downtown
activities. 2017 is already promising to be another banner year in the slow and
steady race of progress. I would recommend that you take annual photographs
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of our downtown to record the history of its continuing development , especially
this coming year. As this Council well knows, none of the policies that you enact
could be implemented without dedicated city staff in all departments. This is also
true for MDC. We need to express our gratitude to our legal counsel Todd Lakey
and our administrator Ashley Squires, who implements our resolutions with her
outstanding expertise. Thank you to everyone who has worked and supported
the development of our Meridian historic downtown and the work of the Meridian
Development Corporation. We look forward to another productive year in
downtown Meridian in 2017. And with that I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thanks, Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dan. Council, any questions? Very thorough.
Basalone: Thanks so much.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Basalone: Always great to be here.
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Dan?
Milam: I don't have any questions for you, Dan, but there is so much you guys
have going on. So, kudos to -- to you guys. In listening to you, I'm looking
through all these things, and I'm still not even through this packet, so --
Basalone: A lot of things have been happening. I think this coming year, as I
said, is going to be an outstanding year. We have some great projects right here
on the corner, which we hope to see starting pretty soon. And pretty soon the
Pine Avenue project will be starting, as well as sidewalk replacement. There are
a number of great things that are going to be happening this year. Thank you so
much.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bird: Thank you.
B. Western Ada Recreation District Request for Fee
Reimbursement
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-D is under our Western Ada Recreation District. So, I
will turn this to Charlie. Thanks for joining us.
Rountree: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council. I can't tell you what a
pleasure it is to be on this side of dais. But I do miss the opportunity to work with
each of you and every one of you on a weekly basis and I miss the opportunity to
work with the wonderful staff at the City of Meridian. But I'm here today for
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several items. One of them I am going to give you an update on the little
renovation and building that's going on. I think you may have noticed that there
is a rather large structure now in Storey Park that's a bit like an ocean blue or
something of that nature. That is a total reconstruct of the building infrastructure
at the pool. The building now will contain new equipment room. It has a training
room for lifeguards. It has an office for the pool manager. It has an overview
deck for patrons to watch folks swim in the pool. It has a concession room. It
has a number of storage spaces for tables and chairs that can be used in a
conference facility that can be divided into two conference rooms or training.
And it will also house the office for Western Ada Recreation District. So, that's all
new and we anticipate that that should be done before the end of May . We are
about a month behind, but they pick up a little bit every couple weeks . Hopefully
we will be open for training and -- and staff introduction to the pool the first part of
May and we have got our fingers crossed it will be open for business the day
school is out doing lessons and having open swim . The one thing we did do with
the pool, we completely replaced and expanded the deck. We took away the
diving -- the high dive, which is going to be traumatic to a lot of the young folks
that use the pool, but we are replacing that with a three meter diving platform .
So, that -- that should be rather entertaining for the kids . We also expanded our
mechanical to accommodate six additional lap lanes at some point in time in the
future and with the high schools now endorsing and having swimming as a -- as
a part of their athletic program, we anticipate the need for more lap lanes and
possibility of exploring that in the near future. Again, it's been a long winter for all
of us, so we would have hoped to have been a little closer to being done by now,
but we believe we are going to be okay and we are going to be running as usual.
We will have a new pool manager, which we just hired yesterday, and as any of
these kinds of projects go on a daily basis I get an e -mail or a phone call that,
well, guess what, something on the plans changed or something is worn out that
we thought we could use and the price goes up on a continual basis. It started
as a 2.8 million dollar project, it's now over three million dollars, and that's why
I'm here today. When we started the pool we missed an opportunity in
requesting the city to relieve us of the soft costs for the permitting process and
I'm here today to ask if -- if there is a will to relieve us of that burden by paying
that back. I have a figure here of $35,828.95. I believe that's our total permit
fees, so it includes some hard costs that the city has to bear . But I'm -- I'm here
to request whatever the soft cost of that amount is and I don't have anything on
our records that would differentiate what the hard and soft costs are. So, I'm
requesting today if -- out of the goodness and precedence that you have been
following of late, that you -- as opposed to relieve us from paying that, to refund
that. I'm also here to inform you today that we are making improvements in our
park and hopefully we will be doing something as well in the park. We have
plans for a new restroom facility, which is desperately needed out there. What
we have is plumbed -- it was barely serviceable when it was new. It will be torn
down and replaced with a new restroom facility of a modern nature and one that
we believe we can keep open year around and that's our intent. And I'm also
here to request in advance of that relief of the soft costs of the building permit
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process for that particular project. So, are there any questions of me? I hope?
I'd like to answer them. I really like to ask them as you all know.
De Weerd: Thank you. I guess, Bruce, have you had a chance to have your
team look at these and -- and tell us what the amount for the soft costs are?
Chatterton: Yes. Madam Mayor, Council Members, you should have a memo --
Bird: We do.
De Weerd: We do.
Chatterton: -- authored by Bruce Freckleton in front of you. So, maybe just go
over -- I will go over it very quickly. Again, this is along the lines of what you all
chose to waive for the YMCA facility and before that the Boys & Girls Club. We
have Public Works fees in terms of total plan review in the amount of 368 dollars
even. And, then, we had building division fees. That's commercial permit review.
Things like fire plan review. Plumbing -- all those add up to $26,095.02 and
Charlie mentioned those soft costs. A portion of that, roughly 26,000 dollars,
would be paid to our contractors. That is we -- as Charlie knows, we have to pay
to our contractors roughly 12,000 dollars of that total amount and so the
soft costs would be the difference between those two. I'm showing 13,829
dollars. I see Council Member Bird shaking his head. Is there something I --
Bird: Well, what we have got on here -- Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Bird: What we have got on here is the soft cost is 26,000. 12,265 is -- is the
hard cost.
Chatterton: You are absolutely right.
Bird: And so what -- what -- if we are to do like we did with the YMCA, Boys &
Girls Club, and other ones before that, the soft cost is $26,095.02.
Chatterton: Councilman Bird, you're absolutely right. That is -- the soft costs are
26,000 dollars. Thank you for correcting that.
De Weerd: You know, I guess -- is this consistent with what -- what we do with
the school district and Ada County Highway District?
Chatterton: Yes.
De Weerd: And -- because these are our other governmental agencies that get
citizen taxpayer dollars just like we do and -- and that's what we have done with
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these other entities is to waive those costs, because it all comes from the same
taxpayer. So, it's -- it's consistent with what we have done with the other
governmental agencies and I guess I'd ask if there are any further questions --
any questions for Charlie or any thoughts, comments?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Charlie, you mentioned that you were also requesting for the park,
but we don't have those fees in here yet; correct?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, Council Member Roberts, you don't -- we don't -- we
don't have an initial engineering estimate of what it's going to cost. Probably be
several hundred thousand dollars, but we don't have a number at this point. We
have preliminary plans, hope to have plans finished this summer, and bids out
this fall.
Little Roberts: We are kind of in a situation where we can address these and
maybe address those at a later date.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, that would be great, just knowing that there is an
opportunity to do that we can come back.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: The several hundred thousand is the cost of the restroom, not the fees.
Bird: Yeah. Not the fees.
Rountree: That's -- that's the cost of the restroom.
Borton: Yeah.
Rountree: That's the basis for the fees. Yeah.
Borton: Okay. Madam Mayor, one other question. How do you add six lanes to
a pool? You redig it and make it wider or --
Rountree: We plumbed the mechanics to accommodate the additional six lap
lanes. They would be built to the west side of the pool and t here is room there to
accommodate six lanes.
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De Weerd: That would be awesome. I think you already overschedule your
facility with lessons and -- and the use for the -- the regimented swim -- not swim
play time, but swim lessons and -- and use of it.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, our -- our goal is to teach as many swim lessons as
we can, because of water safety. That's -- that's our mission and anytime that
we are not training folks and it doesn't -- it isn't just the children, it's adults. We
have adult swim lessons as well. We try to have an opportunity for people to
enjoy it either through pool parties or open swim . But, you're right, the time for
that is limited.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I don't know how many more
permits that are going to come from the Western Ada District, but is this
something the Council would like us to work on an agreement like we have for
the highway and the school district and, then, you wouldn't have to come back
each time. But whatever your pleasure. We have the models.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Certainly be consistent. Yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I believe that if this is a precedent that we have set with oth er
governmental agencies using our same taxpayer dollars, then, that makes sense
to have a similar type agreement with them.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: If we don't have any more questions or comments, I would make a motion
that we reimburse Western Ada Recreation District the sum of $26,095.02 and
also have our Legal Department draw up an agreement, so that any future permit
fees required from Western Ada District, as long as it is in the same realm as
building permits, soft costs, that we get an agreement between the two.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Do you want to restate that
motion?
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Bird: No.
De Weerd: Any discussion?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, while it's the same pool of taxpayers , it's not the same
pool of tax dollars, pun intended. I -- the community development department
does a great job of keeping up with the public and private sector projects that
have to make their way through their office, but to adequately take care of them
they need more staff and every time we waive fees it becomes more and more
difficult to -- to fund additional staff for our growing city as the community
development department is going to need as we continue to grow and so lik e
with the -- so, the precedent has been set, I feel like while they are called soft
costs because they are just our staff time, it's still money being spent on our staff
that are tax dollars anyway and so for -- if we are to adequately take care of
future projects, we need to -- to not always be waiving fees. We got to find a way
to pay for this. I'm against it.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other comments or d iscussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call
roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, nay; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY.
Rountree: Thank you all. I appreciate it. We will put the money to good use.
De Weerd: We know. You have been a valued partner and certainly h ave
provided a community service that the city has long said it's not ours, it's yours,
and you do a very good job and we are so glad you do it.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Before Charlie leaves, one thing some of the Councilmen he re probably
don't realize is our little league baseball and stuff, Western -- if it wasn't for
Western Ada we wouldn't have the ballparks. We certainly didn't have it in
Meridian until 2003 or 2004. Fuller Park is completely Western Ada and they --
they are the ones -- and Mr. Rountree is one of the leaders of getting those
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ballparks in and that's where our kids got to play ball or we wouldn't have had a
little league program.
De Weerd: Well, we appreciate your time here and -- did you want to give an
update on something else? Okay.
Bird: Mr. Rountree?
Rountree: Yes.
Bird: I got a question. Being on the other side of the deal now, not being part of
the city and having to go through the permitting service, how was the -- how was
the permitting, in your opinion?
Rountree: Well, it has some room for improvement, both as an applicant and on
the part of the city, so if you want to engage in that conversation I would be glad
to come in and do it at another time.
De Weerd: Certainly. I will take you up on that offer and I can have my office
work with you on your schedule.
Rountree: Okay. It is very busy, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: What's that? With your schedule?
Rountree: Yes.
De Weerd: We will -- we will work around it. Thank you.
Bird: Thanks, Charlie.
C. Meridian Arts Commission: Budget Amendment for
Contributions toward Concerts on Broadway and Traffic
Box Art Not-to-Exceed $10,300
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-C is under our Meridian Arts Commission. Thank you
for joining us, Hillary.
Bodnar: Hi. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I am before you today with
a budget amendment. Basically asking for spending authority for revenues that
the Meridian Arts Commission has received. So, we received contributions from
the Meridian Development Corporation for Concerts On Broadway and
contributions from a local business Bright Ideas to help support and sponsor a
traffic box and they are actually the traffic box vendor, so they will be supporting
their -- the artist cost and they are not charging us the cost of wrapping that --
that box. But those are revenues, so the actual budget amendment is zero
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dollars, so we are just requesting spending authority for revenues received. I
would be happy to stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Seeing none, I move that we approve the budget amendment for
contributions for Concerts On Broadway and traffic box art for spending authority
not to exceed 10,300 dollars.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bodnar: Thank you.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Finance: Annual Department Report
De Weerd: Okay. We will move to Department Reports and turn this over to
Todd Lavoie for our annual department update from Finance.
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, again, we appreciate this time
and opportunity to present to you our annual strategic update and kind of a year
in review for you. Today we will present to you -- I guess who we are in the
Finance Department, what we do for you and why. The expectations that we
have put on ourselves of the Finance Department. Go over our achievements
and our accomplishments, kind of the year in review. We will discuss to you
some of our goals, our challenges going forward and, then, we will touch on three
strategic plan objectives that we are the lead department on and, then, we will
stand for any questions. So, with that we start off with who we are. Now, I get
the honor to present who we are. I can tell you right now that you have 16 strong
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professional individuals that work in the Finance Department. The individuals are
strong, they are professional, they take pride in what they do on a daily basis.
The team enjoys working with each other. They enjoy working with the rest of
the team. And I think you can, hopefully, see those results when you interact
with them on a daily basis. The team stands strong with each other. They help
each other -- they help other team members out on a daily basis and they extend
their hand out to others when they are in need. So, again, I get that honor to
show the great team that we have and with that, this is a team that you currently
have in the Finance Department and we are made up of four divisions. We have
the accounting division -- the accounting division has been led by Rita
Cunningham for a number of years. She has four accounts that report to her.
We got Karen, Barb, Cortni and Amie. They do accounting functions for the city.
We have Jenny Field, she's the -- the lone wolf in the budget department. We
have the purchasing division managed by Keith Watts and we have a new
employee Sandra Ramirez -- she's not here. I was going to introduce her, but we
have a new employee and next time I will introduce you to her. But she's a new
addition to our purchasing division and, then, we have -- last, but not least, we
have the utility billing division managed by Karie Glenn and she has six
individuals that work for her and, again, we have a new name on that list, Pam
Latta. She is not here either, but we will introduce you the next time she's here
as well. But, again, I'm -- you know, I get the honor of telling you that you have
16 great Finance Department staff members in my biased opinion. Hopefully you
agree. And that's who we are as a team for you on a daily basis. So, what do
we do for the city? Again, this is a general list of what we do for the city on a
daily basis. Again, our customers are not only the Mayor, but also you as
Council Members. There are fellow staff members, our citizens, our business
partners -- again, we have many customers -- the customers themselves we
have to deliver professional services to, not only on a daily basis, but in many
forms, from complex to simple. Our goal is to be adaptive to the ever-changing
environment and make sure we exceed expectations of all our customers on a
daily basis. So, with that, the Utility Billing Division. In the Utility Billing Division,
as you know, they manage 33,000 customers these days. Since 2003 that's
about a hundred percent increase. The city has grown just a little bit, as you all
know. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. The Utility Billing Division is
responsible for making sure that all the invoices are sent to you , the property
owners correctly. I believe all of you have a home here and hopefully the
invoices are sent to you correctly. Our job is to make sure that happens. Our job
is also to make sure that we collect the revenues that we receive off the invoices
correctly. Last year that department -- that division was responsible for
managing 22 million dollars in receipts. So, again, they are responsible for that
on a daily basis. They are also responsible for the utility services management.
So, they are working in conjunction -- as kind of the middleman between you, the
customer, and our water and sewer divis ion. If you need something you work
with them to make sure that the services are sent to your house to meet your
needs on a daily -- a daily basis and, then, last, but not least, we have customer
relations. We have 33,000 customers each -- customers unique. We have to
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make sure we work with Ada County, other intergovernmental agencies to make
sure the property is in the right name, make sure the transactions occur. Every
time we sell a house in the City of Meridian the Utility Billing Division has to do
something. Every time we change a renter to some extent the Utility Billing
Division has to do something. So, again, you see a lot of transactions involved
with not only ownership, but also renters on a daily basis. So, those are the
whats we do. Again, you know, why we are doing this. We want to make sure
that we provide all 33,000 customers with the professional customer service that
they deserve. We also need to make sure we assist with any questions that they
have in relation to their services, be it water, sewer, or trash. Our goal is to
provide the customers on a daily basis the best professional service that we can .
As I stated, the city has grown since 2003 by a hundred percent for account
growth and I can tell you that since, then, the city has added one FTE in the
Utility Billing Division. During that time since 2003 the city has worked hard to
implement efficiencies, both in software and processes, to limit our requests for
FTEs, but I can -- I will stand here and plant a seed now that you will see from us
a request in 2018 for an employee. It's been a while since we have had a new
employee, but we have seen the account growth and we have seen policy
decisions kind of lead in a direction that we want to plan for, be it from the Ten
Mile Urban Renewal Agency, to the request to the Enterprise Fund to develop
five to ten million dollars of utility infrastructure to the south. When we see those
policy decisions we need to prepare our staff members with the tools that they
need to manage the development, the growth, both in residential and commercial
that are coming down the line for the Utility Billing Division. Again, they touch all
of our customers, both commercial and residential, on a daily basis. So, for
promoting this growth we are expanding to the north, to the south, to the west, to
the east. We will be submitting a request to you for an FTE in fiscal year 2018 to
help us manage the growth that has occurred since 2003 and where we are
going in the future. So, with that we will jump into purchasing. Purchasing is
managed by two individuals. They have been that way since 2006. They are in
charge of your procurement and contract services needs on a daily basis. Again,
procurement or the purchasing division -- their two members are there to make
sure the city stays out of trouble with procurement law, contract law. They are
one of the compliance departments within the city, along with Legal and other
agencies. They are there to assist all the city staff members with the needs that
go along with procurement and contract management. Since 2006 we are going
to give you some more fun facts for you. We have 162 employees that are
eligible for procured requests and we have added zero in our procurement
purchasing division. So, with that, similar to utility billing, as we hear the policy
decisions about developing the northwest corridor, i.e., the Chinden corridor, the
Tree Farm, the Aldape Park, we know there is growth occurring, we need to
make sure we establish ourselves in a positive position. So, again, I will plant the
seed that 2019 you will hear from us requesting money for software to automate
the budget -- or automate the bid procurement process. We believe software can
be utilized, instead of adding FTEs, to improve our efficiencies over the next ten
years to account for the expected growth, with all the development and
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construction we are going to have requests from many departments to, you
know, construct and establish the necessary infrastructure for the city for the next
ten years. So, again, just planting a seed in 2019 you will hear from us again.
The next number of items within the Finance Department was what we call the
accounting division. Rita is the manager of this division. She oversees the --
let's see, where are we? The accounting division. She oversees the payroll, the
AP general --
De Weerd: Yeah. What does she do? I just don't know.
Lavoie: Well, can I answer that hopefully for you. Yes. It's a good question,
though. So, she oversees payroll, AP, general a ccounting, audit, compliance,
and reporting and, then, like I said, they have a team of five that do this for you
on a daily basis. Again, the accounting division is here to provide its customers
with information, guidance, professional services on a daily basis. The team is
driven to meet the demanding requirements established by the governing bodies ,
by educating and assisting all city staff members. The accounting team works
very hard to manage the city finances in a professional manner and by -- at the
end of the day to deliver you , the Council, a clean audit on an annual basis. A
few of the departments that we will touch on real quick is payroll. The payroll
department has been managed by Barb NIelsen for ten years. She is the only
person that we have in our payroll division and she has managed the payroll
department by yourself for the last ten years, which is amazing. She works with
IT to develop efficiencies every year, so that we can keep that one FTE for
payroll, instead of asking you for FTEs. The accounts payable department,
again, managed by one person since 1996. This year we currently have Amie
Rose as our one accounts payable manager per se. She works with about a
dozen staff members throughout the city to facilitate and orchestrate the
accounts payable on a weekly basis and using technology and efficiencies we
have been able to keep that to one FTE in the Finance Department. And, then,
last, but not least, is our budget division. Jenny Fields is our current budget
analyst and she is very involved right now with the budget, as you're all -- as you
all know. She is the lone wolf in this case to manage and orchestrate and
facilitate the annual budget with you and with all the staff members in the city.
So, again, hopefully, you hear from what we are doing and why we are doing --
what we're doing. Again, this slide here shows some other professional services
that we provide the city on a daily basis. These items in blue represent what we
have provided from a professional standpoint over the last 12 months . From a
financial cost perspective we worked with the Enterprise Fund in looking at the
idea of taking on the utility infrastructure at the wastewater treatment plant.
Instead of leasing the equipment from Idaho Power, we worked with them on that
decision. Every year we work with the Enterprise Fund with their rate model. We
work with departments to analyze their fees. I can tell you that Rita and Cortni
Klucken, our accountant, are working on a fee development management
program where we will be more involved with establishing and reviewing fees on
a more regular basis. Again, you will hear more about that in the future. School
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resource officer analysis. We have another accountant Karen Wooddell. She
works hand-in-hand with the police department and the Mayor to develop and
design contract agreements between the city and the school districts for school
resource officers. A couple of business model analysis. We did one for the
courthouse and we also do an annual vehicle maintenance facility analysis and ,
then, some financial auditing. We helped with contract discrepancies by
researching the details within contracts. We looked at utility use discrepancies
and also help with any audits. In this case last year we worked on a grant audit.
So, again, those are the things -- those are the items -- those are the
professional skills that we provide you as a Finance Department to you -- not -- to
you, Council, but also to the city -- citizens and the city staff on a daily basis.
De Weerd: Todd, were you not going to explain your joke?
Lavoie: I was not.
De Weerd: Because I think only accounting people understand it.
Lavoie: If you play the game you understand it.
Cavener: I got it.
Lavoie: Thank you, Luke. We got one. Appreciate it. So, as the -- following the
agenda. Expectations from us. You know, we expect a lot from us. With all the
services defined and what we do and why we do them , again, this is the mission
statement that the Finance Department follows on a daily basis. Our goal is to
meet the highlighted -- the highlighted words on this on a daily basis with all
customer interactions, not only with you, but also citizens, business partners, city
staff and with each other. This statement here helps us understand why we
show up every day and makes -- you know, it's our -- it's our drive to make sure
this happens with every interaction. Again, we believe that we meet these
expectations on a daily basis and we hope you guys can agree with that . If not,
please, let us know. Our goal is to be there for you and meet and exceed any
expectations that you have on a daily basis. So, again, the Finance Department
takes great pride in obtaining a clean audit. We work hard on that. We are
demanding. But, again, we appreciate everybody's assistance in getting that
clean audit. Mr. Bird has been here -- I guess he has the longest tenure here
and I think he has guided us in making sure that we always deliver the city a
clean audit and we take a lot of pride in that and we are -- our goal is to always
maintain that, even after he retires, we will maintain your mentality to always
deliver to the city and its citizens a clean audit on an annual basis. So, as our
mission statement -- apologize. As our mission states, Finance is committed to
providing financial and customer service at our highest standards to those that
we serve and, hopefully, you guys see that on a daily basis. So, following the
agenda. The achievements, the accomplishments. We are calling this the year
in review, our budget dollars at work. These are the items that have occurred
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since we last spoke to you from a year ago. So, again, customer service
improvements. You're going to see this a lot. Hopefully you will see this
improvement daily and we will continue to work on this every single day. That is
why we are here. We are here to service all of our customers and we are going
to be the best at it that we can. This next one -- this one is pretty cool. You guys
know probably more about bills and legislature.
De Weerd: And someone is just back.
Lavoie: I see he just got back. Perfect. Again this was cool. The bill -- Senate
Bill 1074. Keith Watts, our purchasing manager, has been working hard for the
last couple of years. He has been working with the state, the city -- the different
cities. The AIC. Various agencies on a daily, weekly, monthly basis for the past
couple years and I will go straight to the -- straight to the end. I can tell you right
now that Keith Watts was the lead on this. He worked very hard with this and he
got legislation passed at the state. Now, you probably all know how hard that is
to do. Keith worked very hard. He just got back from the capitol of taking a -- I
believe it was a signature and a photo with Governor Otter with the signature of
Senate Bill 1074. Again, from what I understand he also only received one nay
from the House and the Senate on this legislation. So, again, it's a pretty cool
thing. He is a -- Keith is a well-respected procurement man in this state. A lot of
people look to him for guidance. And he led this -- this adventure for a few years.
He took a lot of punches. Aged a few years. But he can put this in his resume
that he got Senate Bill 1074 passed. So, again, huge kudos to him. You know,
we are all proud of him. Again, it's pretty cool that we got the man here to make
that happen. So, that's pretty cool. Utility Billing software. Again, you have
heard True Bill, you have heard True Point. It's a success. We are utilizing it.
It's in full -- full force. Utility Billing Division is managing it daily. I will plant the
seed now. I think Dale is in the room. Dale and his team have applied for a
certain -- a particular award with this. I'm not going to take the -- steal his
thunder, but maybe in a few months he might be able to report back to us if we
received the award, but we are hoping it -- the city does. It's about innovative
technology and utilizing True Bill, an asset management system. So, we are
hoping that we receive an award for that, but I will let him share that with you in
the months to come. Another achievement we had was the Comprehensive
Financial Plan. It's our first one that we were able to develop as a city. We will
continue to develop it, improve on it, and present it to both the executive branch
and the legislative branch annually. Again, more items that we had
accomplished during the year. Transparency reporting tool. You, Council, gave
us a budget to acquire some software. We did. We have successfully deployed
OpenGov as our transparency tool. We have been getting a lot of interest in it
from our citizens and business partners. So, again, we had a successful launch
there. Priority based budgeting. A couple weeks ago we had a presentation to
you there. We are starting those -- those discussions about what we will do as a
city with that topic. In February we delivered to you an updated revised budget --
revenue budget report for your upcoming budget discussions. We started new
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quarterly Council updates. Hopefully, you're not getting too tired of me, but
you're starting to see me more often . But we are -- our goal with the quarterly
updates is to give you pertinent information, so you can make informed decisions
on a weekly basis. The clean audit -- again, in February our auditor presented to
you a clean audit for fiscal '16. Again, something that we are very proud of in the
Finance Department. That's a goal of ours. And, then, last, but not least, we did
survive fiscal year 2016 with limited casualties. We encountered a lot of change
in '16 and I'm proud to say that the team stuck together and endured the pains
and punishment. So, again, big kudos to the '16 -- and the team for sticking with
the plan and sticking to each other and supporting each other and with that,
those are the achievements and accomplishments I just wanted to touch on for
fiscal year 2016 over the last 12 months. So, all in all, Finance is very happy with
the results we have provided to the city and its citizens since we have last
presented to you. Golden challenges. Again, customer service -- you're going to
see this everywhere. We are going to continue to improve on that. Accounting
division. We are going to look at a concept called replacement fund. The
replacement fund is a theory where we need to consider putting money away for
aging infrastructure in the future. We are a young city. We are a young
development. But at some point in time the infrastructure is going to come due
and, unfortunately, it's going to come due all at once -- or not all at once, but
pretty steep. So, we need to make sure we set up the future council and the
future decision-makers with a fund, hopefully, so we are going to start those
discussions. We have policies. We have statements that we have to follow in
the accounting world. Bank merger. I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not,
but Bank of the Cascades announced that they were -- they are going to merge
with First Interstate Bank. It's going to occur this summer. So, the Finance
Department is going to be busy managing a bank merger, how we manage our
accounts, how we manage our checking account, checks, things like that. Our
credit cards are going to change. So, we have that on our to do list this summer.
We will keep you in the loop on what's going on with that. But that's this summer.
And, again, another thing in the accounting division is just to look at our constant
processes and update them accordingly. The budget division. Again, customer
service. We are going to look at developing performance measures, something
called centric reporting. W e are going to look at the priority based budgeting,
which we presented to you a couple weeks ago . And, then, we are going to be
asking for some budget software, hopefully, in the near future, because right now
Jenny manages the budget utilizing -- I think about 200 W ord and Excel files to
develop the budget on an annual basis. So, we are looking at some software.
So, again, we can be efficient with technology, rather than hiring employees.
Utility Billing Division. The biggest project for them is going to be getting a grasp
of their new tool. Your True Bill. Documenting processes, changing process for
the next 12 months, getting everything tight and under control before we move
onto anything new. And, then, last, but not least, we have Purchasing Division.
As I stated earlier, they are going to be looking at some new bid software, some
new purchasing software for you guys to consider next year. As you heard, there
is some policy changing at the state level, so with that we might have to look at
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our policies and, then, with those changes we will have to look at our processes
and make sure all departments are on the same page of how we need
procurement to occur within the city on a daily basis. And following the agenda --
again, this is my last topic of the evening -- or day. Afternoon. Strategic plan
objectives. The Finance Department is the lead for three. The first one is in
focus area number one, strategic growth. We also have an item in focus area
number three, responsive government. And, then, last we have an item in focus
area number five, which is cultural arts and recreation. So, the item in strategic --
or focus area number one is to create a growth management system to foster the
growth of the city in alignment with the Comprehensive Plan. Within that we
have item number five. In general it's looking at developing a possible fiscal
impact model. Right now the status is we are working with the Mayor, we are
working with department directors and Council Members to determine what the
end solution is. What is the end product that we want, so we can allocate the
correct resources to this request. Now, the next item we have is focus area
number three, responsive government. Again, enhanced transparency. The
item we have on there is number four. Institute a priority based budget. Again,
you had the presentation a few weeks ago . Status update on that. Again, we
have introduced it, now we are discussing it at the executive level -- executive
branch level and we will report back to you with the next steps and the
commitment that we as a city want to make. And, then, the last item is cultural
arts and recreation strategic goal, letter A. Again, on this one we need to
evaluate -- evaluate available tools for financing recreation and entertainment
facilities. This one we are hoping to get done this fiscal year. It's a research
project. We work with the state and AIC and just put that in a document for us to
have at our fingertips. So, that one we should get done this year. And with that
hopefully I didn't take too long. There is the question slide for Ty.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. And, Keith, I -- my last couple votes of any
consequence up here have been no votes, where I have been alone, so I looked
up the bill, worried that it might have been my father was the only no vote against
your bill. Was glad to see that that was not the case. Congratulations and thank
you for your hard work on that and to the rest of the Finance Department, thanks
for the hard work you guys do and I really appreciate how prompt you guys are to
answer any questions that I have and I assume the rest of the Council has the
same experience as well. So, thank you for your report.
Lavoie: Appreciate the good word.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Todd, you mentioned that the customer service and utility billing seemed
to be the busiest to some extent, that you need more employees and such, and I
was wondering if in the future there might be some type of online directive for
landlord-tenants, since that seemed to be a big time consumer of customer
service representatives. I know other cities do have other ways of dealing with it.
Is that going to be like that in the future, since you're doing all this technology --
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Council Member Milam, the question is a good question.
We just had a roundtable about the renters addendum and the renters
agreements about two months ago to determine which direction we want to go.
So -- and we did bring up using technology to see if we can get submissions via
the website. Right now our agreement is -- it requires a notary. So, that's the
tough thing about it. You know, whether or not we can work with legal and
determine if we can still accept renters agreements or the renters addendums
without a notary, that's a valid question. But, again, we will continue to look at
the efficiencies. The workload is the amount of it. You're correct. You know,
whether or not we can utilize the technology to help, we will definitely continue to
look at that. I did plan to see that we will be requesting one person in 2018 due
to the increased growth and demand, but that's a valid question. We will
continue to always look at efficiencies, but right now we did consider the
automatic -- auto data -- automatic fillable document online, so we wouldn't have
the manual, but it's the notary part that gets us in trouble. So, we can work with
Legal to continue to look at that to see if there is any way we can improve that for
efficiency, but that's a very valid question and we will definitely take note of that.
Milam: Thank you. Yeah. It seems that it would be -- if you could do an
electronic signature to make an offer on a 300,000 dollar house, you should be
able to pay your utility bill.
Lavoie: Definitely respect that. There is a lo t moving parts with working with
escrow companies, title companies, Ada County, to make sure that we get the
property in the right name --
Milam: Sure.
Lavoie: -- so, there is still going to be a lot of paperwork to move, because not
everyone uses one set piece of information. But it's a very valid question. We
will definitely take those up. Thank you.
Milam: Thank you for your report.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Just reflection. Todd, another great report. The Finance Department has
always been so receptive to get back to any questions I have ever asked. It has
been timely. You guys have done such a great job leading us and I mean having
to lead us at times, because sometimes we get off kilter and making sure that we
keep these finances of the city like they are and like we want to continue to have
and -- and you guys have always been ahead of the schedule and I can't -- I can't
say enough about the Finance Department since I have been here. It's been
truly a great, hard-working Finance Department and I thank all of you guys.
Lavoie: Well, Mr. Bird, I thank you on behalf of the entire team . Again, we strive
to make sure we deliver what you expect of us on a daily basis . So, we
appreciate the good word.
De Weerd: And I know you were trying hard to say -- not say that everybody
counts, but I just could not go without having it said at least once . We appreciate
everything you do. I think you and your team, Todd, go above and beyond on
many facets and not only in -- in those day-to-day operational areas and -- and
setting policy and those kind of things, but also, you know, as far back as -- as
Rita goes you have been part of the pulse of our community -- or our city
employee community where a lot of the energy, the traditions, and the
celebrations seem to germinate out of Finance and certainly you -- you lead the
way in helping us continue to keep a focus on the employees and make our
culture here one that people enjoy as well. So, I appreciate that.
Lavoie: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything else from Council? Okay.
Lavoie: Thank you very much.
B. Mayor’s Office: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: Okay. Council, under 7-B, in front of you -- I have had a chance to
talk to a couple of you about the strategic plan and -- and, you know, where the
line is between directional and that a policy level versus operational and how we
get the work done. I have kind of equated it to -- we can ask to -- to drive and
meet up in Pullman, Washington, and all of us might take different routes of
getting there and some certainly where we want to make sure that we are all in
alignment is more in the focus areas where Council has traditionally only delved
into, which is the 50,000 foot level, I think that the goals that support those focus
areas are maybe that 40,000 foot level, but also one that we plan our objectives
and our tactics, too. So, wanted to -- to kind of backup, make sure we are in
alignment to the supporting focus areas and goals that will help us get to
achieving the vision and mission of the city and maybe focus on that , so, then,
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we can put our work -- our operational and work plans together to support these
areas. There is nothing new in this.
Bird: Did you have anything then?
De Weerd: Pardon?
Bird: Are you done?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Okay.
De Weerd: I'm done.
Bird: Holy cow. What did you do, have Finance print this for you?
De Weerd: Yes. No. Certainly I don't need any action today. We can put it
back on -- on an agenda and seek any comments and , then, we will bring back a
resolution.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Can you provide some clarity as to what action you're looking for from
Council?
De Weerd: I guess we at one point annually looked at our Vision-Mission-Values
and focus areas from the Council to make sure we continue to have the same
sights and certainly that is -- that's what's important to -- to know that we are in
alignment with the vision of -- of the -- all the electeds to make sure that these
are supporting the vision and mission of the city and that there is not a new
priority that perhaps we need to consider as -- as a whole, adding to or replacing.
Maybe -- maybe we think we are done in economic vibrancy and it's time to
replace that with another focus area.
Cavener: A follow up, Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: How does this new document pertain to the previous documents
related to the strategic plan that we have been sent?
De Weerd: I guess it's more clarity in roles. The legislative and policy-setting
role of City Council is more the high-level view and we want to make sure that
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what we do operationally supports that. But on that supportive aspect, certainly
as we have items that need -- has budgetary implications and as -- as you saw
today in bringing back an update to Council on each of the departments' strategic
annual updates, they will bring in some of those things that they are involved in in
supporting those focus areas and I will be coming in front of Council to give a
semi-annual update to where we are in moving the -- the needle in these focus
areas, as well as the goals. Additional questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: As I look through this the -- the focus areas -- of the many layers of the
strategic plan last adopted in January of '16, the focus areas and strategic goals
are what's incorporated here. Drilling down in greater detail the objectives and,
then, the tactics, which are a little more --
De Weerd: They are more operational in -- in nature.
Borton: And so that those are removed at least from the strategic plan or the
request would be the strategic plan going forward, this is just memorializing the
existing goals and existing already adopted -- excuse me -- focused areas and
strategic goals. They just removed --
De Weerd: Focus areas and strategic goals. Yes.
Borton: Removes the objective and removes the tactics, which were some of the
operational detail that -- okay. So, Madam Mayor, at the last discussion with Ms.
Holman when we were talking about certain objectives might merge with others,
certain might -- certain ones might be deleted, those wouldn't -- the merger of
those, for example, wouldn't be addressed at a Council level, maybe more of an
operational decision whether or not certain objectives have been merged or met
or resolved -- okay. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Borton: The plan that -- as previously adopted, which is much thicker, would
become a much thinner policy guidance document; is that correct?
De Weerd: Yes.
Borton: All right. Just clarifying.
De Weerd: Any -- any other questions at this point?
Bird: I have none.
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De Weerd: Okay. We will put it next week on the agenda.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I won't be here next week and I'd really love to be here for the
discussion.
De Weerd: Okay.
Palmer: I will be here the rest of the year.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Is anybody else not going to be here next week? Because I'm not going to
be here.
De Weerd: Oh.
Bird: I'm going to be in St. Luke's.
De Weerd: That's right.
Bird: I mean I could --
De Weerd: We will have -- we will have a quorum. We don't have to have this --
Bird: Yeah.
De Weerd: Will you be gone the rest of the month?
Bird: No.
De Weerd: Okay. So, you will be back on the 25th?
Bird: Yeah. I think so. I might be here next Tuesday.
De Weerd: Okay. So, we will set it for April 25th. And, again, I would -- I'm
available for any questions that you might have between now and then.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just for clarification, then, on the 25th you're looking for Council to
adopt this new document replacing the previous document that we have
previously adopted?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: And, again, because this lays the directional foundation to make sure
that as we go further into the -- the details of accomplishing these that we are all
in alignment with -- with this direction. Okay?
C. Council: Upcoming Budget Items
De Weerd: Item 7-C was requested by Council to put on a future agenda to
discuss any potential enhancements that a City Council Member might -- might
want to bring into the budget discussion and have considered as part of that
process. So, I am opening the mic up to any of you that have anything you want
to add, discuss.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think Todd sent a -- a brief e-mail to all of us to capture the moment
for our meeting I think in February where this was brought up and we came up --
and my goal was only -- I think it's fair that as we are asking the Mayor to develop
a budget that she be aware of any ideas or suggestions or proposals that any of
us have. Since that time I have had the opportunity to engage a couple
departments on a couple of requests that I had and have found it -- it can go
through the regular budget process and wouldn't necessarily need to be
something that is discussed here with -- with one specific suggestion that I
wanted to share with you that really came out -- for me out of last week's
somewhat lengthy meeting where we heard from some of our citizens in south
Meridian about the quality of their water. I think Kyle did a great job of
articulating that as more homes would connect to that line that the water quality
would improve. But from a citizen standpoint they believe right now that their
water is bad. In fact, even a citizen saying that they are using bottled water. In
my previous role when I worked for the Mayor when I worked for the city, we
encountered a similar issue in another part of town and a remedy for that
particular citizen was to offer them a credit for the amount of water that they
believe that they had used to clear their lines. Something along the lines of
3,000 to 5,000 gallons, which equates to about three to five dollars. At that time,
in order for that credit to be issued , it had to go before the Mayor and Council to
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approve. I'm not aware if that's still business operations as -- as usual. I think
there is some opportunities to improve. But my goal tonight in adding this piece
to the budget was potentially a budget item that we include a fund that if our
citizens believe their water quality isn't acceptable to them and they are able to
prove that, that we would be able to -- through operations through the Mayor and
through the Water Department and Finance be able to offer that credit. I didn't
know if that was something that we need to come through on the Enterprise Fund
to the General Fund. I think from our citizens' perspective they don't necessarily
care what fund it comes out of, but I just think that it would be a benefit that we
could be able to provide. We can discuss it here. We can discuss it through the
budget process. It was just something that I thought was worthy of sharing with
all of you to at least ponder as we move through the budget-making process.
De Weerd: Certainly I guess I would work with Dale on -- on what that potentially
can look like. I -- I will say that our Water Department immediately followed up
with the -- the neighbors in Blackrock and -- and found that there apparently are
no issues. So, we are not sure where the -- the testimony came from, because
we went to those who provided that testimony and that is the response that we
got. Certainly we know that as we flush, because of the constituents in our -- the
natural constituents in our -- in our ground are -- are such that they -- they do
cause some -- a need to -- to flush our pipes that -- that that helps to minimize
that. But we can certainly have that conversation and see how many times we --
we get those phone calls -- phone calls in today's -- today's realm and see what
we need to bring back.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around what you just said
based on -- it was so emotional last week about, six months' worth of brown
water and pictures of a bathtub filled with, you know, rust colored water. So, I
don't know if there is another way to reach out, send a letter to them, or -- I mean
if they have been -- if they truly have been experiencing this for six months like
they said, they are probably at this point not going to call in to complain , they are
just biting the bullet. So, I think that we left those -- you said those specific
people that made those claims were contacted and --
De Weerd: Our -- our Water Department reached out, because certainly they
pride themselves in their customer service and the quality of product that they
deliver and they wanted to better understand it and they -- they were equally
confused. Yes. Please.
Bolthouse: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Just to add some
clarification to maybe some of the confusion here, because we -- as well we are
a little bit confused after the testimony last weekend, but immediately following
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April 11, 2017
Page 27 of 30
the Council meeting and the concerns raised by some Blackrock citizens, we
engaged them the next day via phone calls. We contacted the original
spokesperson that was here and found that, really, she had no particular
concerns herself. The majority of the residents in that area have inline filtration,
water softening systems and things, and that they although have had occasional
brown water complaints due to the -- you know, the settling and the low usage on
that line that Kyle I think adequately explained, that it was a periodic problem that
they had had and that there was another concerned party that had the bulk of the
problem. We reached out to them as well. I did not get the sense of concern. I
think some of that was stemmed around the fact that they did have a complaint
that was logged by the Water Department. They got a response. They weren't
sure who they talked to. They weren't happy with the response. They had
contacted DEQ. DEQ was very favorable to the fact that, hey, contact Meridian,
they know what they are doing. We have great confidence in them and their
ability to handle the situation and that we feel like that situation has been maybe
overstated, the concerns, but, nonetheless, we want to take some -- some
operational action. So, we have, indeed, initiated that -- that subdivision and
area and that long supply line has since been fully flushed as part of our flushing
program. We have instituted a program because of that location that we will
accelerate the flushing frequency, to tell -- move that -- that water in there, as --
as Kyle mentioned, we have a very long supply line, very little consumption, so
that will assist in cleaning it out on a -- on a quarterly basis, as opposed to our
annual flushing program. So, we believe that that will, in turn, improve the
situation. We are looking at -- and will probably institute a PRV bypass system.
We are right there on zone boundaries and those zone boundaries will allow us
to keep a little bit of water moving in the system between zone five and zone
four. We think that will also be sufficient to improve the circumstance and, then,
finally, as Kyle mentioned to you, we will be initiating the water treatment facility
for the Well 28 in the FY-18 budget proposal. However, that will take a couple of
years, but that is a -- that is a high-volume well that we need to get into the
system and the water treatment I think will be the ultimate solution . So, we took
action. We did everything we could and we reached out to the citizens and we
think that the actions that we have taken are going to satisfy their needs. But,
yeah, we were -- we were very concerned by the tone and the expression that
was -- that was here that evening. 8:00 o'clock a.m. I showed that video clip to
the entire Water Department that next morning and said we have got an issue.
Let's go out and figure out what's going on here. And they did so. And we didn't
find the magnitude of the problem that was -- that was expressed here at Council
that night, so --
Milam: That's great. Thank you.
Bolthouse: So, any other questions that I might entertain?
Bird: Thanks, Dale.
Meridian City Council Workshop
April 11, 2017
Page 28 of 30
De Weerd: No. Thank you.
Bolthouse: Okay. Good.
De Weerd: Anything further on this item?
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Future meeting topics. I have our upcoming events. Do The Right
Day is all day tomorrow. At 10:00 a.m. we will be at Meridian High School
reading the proclamation. 10:45 at Heritage Middle School. At 1:30 at Meridian
Senior Center with MYAC and MSAD and at 2:15 at Sienna Elementary. The
YMCA community campaign kickoff is Thursday, April 13th, at 5:30 and several
area Mayor's Walking Club -- Friday we will be at Ponderosa from 10:30 to 10:45
and, again, at 2:30 to 2:45. At Peregrine from 2:15 to 1:15. Meridian Monday at
-- April 17th at 6:00 p.m. What's that? 6:00 p.m? I'm not going to be there.
Mayor Tammy's Walking Club -- oh, at Meridian Elementary at 11:55 to 1:00 p.m.
Oh. On Meridian Monday. Please join Ty and myself on Monday at 6:00 p.m. for
Meridian Mondays.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Ty. I mean --
Palmer: Councilman Cavener was there as part of our stroller gang yesterday.
De Weerd: He was.
Palmer: With all four kids, despite wrecks and scrapes and whatnot, we did the
entire four miles with two strollers and four kids. So, if we can do it, anybody
can.
De Weerd: I know. I saw you and your wife on the corner of Meridian and
Cherry. So -- it's great. So, we would love to have you all come out and join us.
I think you get wellness points to the employees, but love to have your support.
Item 9: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(f) To
Consider and Advise Its Legal Representatives in Pending
Litigation
De Weerd: Item 9.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Meridian City Council Workshop
April 11, 2017
Page 29 of 30
Bird: I move we go into Executive order as per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(f).
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr.
Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (4:27 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
De Weerd: Okay. I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Bird: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Council, I have here senior resource guides that were put together
from our Mayor's senior advisory board through the CDBG and so just to let you
know peruse that and make sure you let our citizens know that this is available
as well. It will be online as well, so -- in addition to the hard copy that is -- it will
be available online. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Bird: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:30 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR TA DE WEERD DATE APPROVED
Meridian City Council Workshop
April 11, 2017
Page 30 of 30
ATTEST:
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