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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. Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 2 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 3 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 4 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 5 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 6 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 7 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 8 of 30 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. Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 9 of 30 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? Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 10 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 11 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 12 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 13 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 14 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 15 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 16 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 17 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 18 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 19 of 30 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? Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 20 of 30 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? Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 21 of 30 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, Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 22 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 23 of 30 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. Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 24 of 30 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? Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 25 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop April 11, 2017 Page 26 of 30 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 Meridian City Council Workshop 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: C. 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