2017-05-09Meridian City Council Workshop May 9, 2017
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday,
May 9, 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, Caleb Hood, Berle
Stokes, Charlie Butterfield, Todd Lavoie, Steve Sidoway, Warren Stewart, 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: I would like to welcome you to our City Council meeting. For the
record it is Tuesday, May 9th. It's 3:00 o'clock. We will start with roll call
attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Okay. 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 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the agenda Item 8-S, the resolution number is 17-2013 and under 9-A
the ordinance number is 17-1727. With that I move we approve the printed
agenda.
Borton: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as stated.
Please for the record note that Mr. Palmer is here. Any discussion? All those in
favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Proclamation for Better Hearing Month
De Weerd: Item 4 is a proclamation for Better Hearing Month. I will ask Ed to
come up to the podium and join me. Well, it is Better Hearing Month and so this
proclamation is all about that. So, whereas hearing healthcare professionals in
the City of Meridian, Idaho, observe and celebrate better hearing month each
year during the month of May and whereas the City of Meridian, Idaho.
recognizes and values the efforts of all who work to eliminate or minimize the
isolating effects of communication disorders in one of five families affecting --
affected by them. And whereas more than half of the people with hearing loss
are younger than age 65 and whereas hearing loss is the third most common
health problem in the United States and whereas our citizens who have
overcome communication disabilities through the service of hearing care
professionals, are able to lead in dependent, productive and fulfilling life and
whereas the City of Meridian is proud and honored to have hearing care
professionals offering quality education and healthcare services to its citizens,
therefore, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, proclaim May 2017 as Better Hearing
Month in the City of Meridian and encourage the achievements of hearing care
professionals in improving the quality of life for people with communication
disorders. We appreciate this, because I think we could all say we are impacted
-- someone in our life is impacted with a hearing disability and it makes it not only
extremely challenging for them to be productive in a world of -- where hearing is
-- is needed, but it takes them out of the conversations. I know my dad is hearing
impaired and he really struggles with that. So, we appreciate you bringing it to
the attention and letting us recognize this important challenge in our community.
So, thank you, Ed, for joining us.
Ed: Thank you very much. Just a couple of -- couple of quick words. Forty-eight
million Americans -- in the U.S. suffer from some type of hearing loss. One in
four people. So, if you look around the room, one in four are probably suffering
from some type of hearing loss. Get over age 65 it's about one in three and one
of the latest statistics for teenagers is one in five. So, when they are listening to
their games or doing their video, whatnot, again, tone it down a little bit, try to
protect it. So, I appreciate the honor to have you proclaim the month of May as
Better Hearing Month. Thank you.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of April 18, 2017 City Council Regular
Meeting
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B. License Agreement for Use of Boise Police Department
Firing Range Facility
C. Development Agreement for Firenze Plaza ( H-2016-
0102) with ABS ID-O, LLC located on the northwest corner of
E. Amity Road and S. Eagle Road, in the SE 1/4 of Section
29, Township 3N, Range 1E
D. Consent to Annex for Mark Choi at 5035 W. Franklin
Road
E. North Black Cat Lift Station Natural Gas Service –
Contract with Intermountain Gas Company for
$30,209.54
F. Brinegar Prairie Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer
Easement No. 1
G. Brinegar Prairie Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer
Easement No. 2
H. Approval for Finance to Pay Vendor Payments of
$1,134,467.67
De Weerd: Item 5 is the Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve the Consent Agenda as published and for the Mayor to
sign and the Clerk to attest.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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Item 6: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 7: Community Items/Presentations
A. Recognition of Parks & Recreation Commissioners
Phillip Liddell, Matt Stoll, Craig Robinson, and Spencer
Meinburg
De Weerd: So, we will move right into Item 7-A, under our Parks Department
and I will turn this over to Steve Siddoway.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, I'd ask if you might join me down here
while we recognize some of our Parks and Recreation commissioners. Once a
year we like to come before the Council and acknowledge the efforts of those
who have spent time with us on the Parks and Recreation Commission and have
served their -- their term and then moved on and left the commission. So, we
have -- we have four people this last year that have left the Commission that we
want to honor for their service today. The first -- if you would come up and join
me is Phil Liddell. Phil, would you come on up here. Now, Phil s erved on the
commission just short of ten years. Well, we are going to stretch and call it ten
years today. From May of 2007 to September of 2016 he served as president of
the commission in 2012. He served as vice-president in 2011. And he was chair
of the park's amenities and signage committees on numerous years '7, '14, '15,
'16. During that ten years this department has seen a lot growth and a lot of
change. Heroes Park does -- you know, back in 2008, was the -- probably the
first dedication you attended. The community center. Gordon Harris Park.
Centennial Park. Diana and Winston Moore Pathway, Julius M. Kleiner Memorial
Park. Our maintenance facility on Lanark. 8th Street. The tennis complex and
Settlers and Storey Bark Park -- all occurred while Phil was on our commission.
So, we want to thank you for ten years -- nearly ten years of -- of amazing
service to this commission and for the incalculable help that you were to us over
those many years. In honor of your ten years we have for you an engraved plate
and a stand that goes with it. The plate reads: To Philip Liddell with gratitude for
your service on the Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission , May 2007
through September 2016. And it's with our heartfelt thanks that we give this to
you.
Liddell: Steve, you're making too big a thing of this. I was just a participant and
a contributor whenever I could. I enjoyed every minute of my nearly ten years.
Many of you I have met. Some are new and I really haven't, but I know you by
name anyway. But it was a great time. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the contribution,
staying connected with people, and just contributing and I think everybody should
volunteer a little bit. So, thank you.
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Siddoway: Matthew Stoll, would you, please, come up. You might know Matt
Stoll from his COMPASS hat, but he also has been willing to serve as a volunteer
for the city he lives in and calls home. Has been serving on the Parks and
Recreation Commission for a little over five years. So, he has put in a full five
years from March 2011 through August of 2016. And Matt served as president
for two consecutive years in 2014 and '15. He was vice-president in 2013. And
he, too, was a chair of the park's amenities and signage committee in 2013.
Now, the second half of what you heard me read for Phil 's list, Matt has been
around for quite a bit also, including the Diane and Winston Moore Pathway
dedication, the Julius M. Kleiner Park opening, the maintenance facility opening,
the 8th Street Park dedication, the tennis complex and the Bark Park opening.
And Matt has been a great addition and contributor to all the things that we have
been able to do over those last five years. So, for your five years we don't have
a plate, but we do have a mug inscribed with Matthew Stoll for the Meridian
Parks and Recreation Commission. Has a certificate. To Matthew Stoll in
recognition of your service, dedication and participation on the Parks and
Recreation Commission for the City of Meridian. On behalf of your fellow citizens
we thank you for your years of service and commitment to improving the quality
of life in our community. So, thank you very much, Matt.
Stoll: Well, since it's only been five years compared to Phillip's ten years, I will
try to keep it half as short. I appreciate the opportunity to serve the citizens and
the City of Meridian. It's a great city and City Council and I appreciate working
with all of you. But a particular joy -- and also the Mayor. But a particular joy are
the staff from the city parks and rec. They are outstanding staff and you have got
a great group that's running your department and keeping things running . I look
forward to see the day I have a little bit more free time being able to served my
city in a more meaningful manner. So, thanks again.
Siddoway: That's all that's here. We have two others that we want to recognize
that I want to mention to you. They are not here today, but Craig Robinson
served on the commission for one year from November 2015 to November 2016 .
He served on our marketing committee and was part of the group that helped
with the Tully outdoor park fitness equipment. We have a certificate for him that
we will get to him. And, then, Spencer Meinburg was only with us a short six
months before he had to leave for a trip to Thailand and needed to step down for
the winter, but he's been involved with Ward for a number of years at the pool as
the head over there. While we only had him a short six months, we were very
appreciative of the perspective that he brought and so I want to thank both of
them and we will get their certificates to them . Thank you.
B. Solid Waste Advisory Commission: Program Report for
Recycle a Bicycle
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Okay. Item 7-B is under our Solid Waste
Advisory Committee. We are excited to hear about the recycle-a-bike program.
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Cory: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Thank you for
allowing me to follow up on our promise and give a report on the recycle-a-
bicycle project. As you may -- as a matter of background, the inception of this
came out of an article in the Statesman back on February 28th , talking with
Rachele Klein from Republic Services who is here about bicycles that have been
delivered to the transfer station and based on the interest that was involved in it,
it blossomed into putting together a project with the Unplug And Be Outside
project that the Parks and Recreation has here for the city and so in a short
seven weeks we attempted to put together as many bicycles as we could to go
ahead and encourage people to get active. I could not go too far without pointing
out our chairman for this -- the committee and this effort Cheryl Caldwell. This
took a yeoman's effort on her part to go ahead and shepherd it to completion.
These are some of the people that worked on the bicycles and -- I do want to go
ahead and point out that this was a combination of collaboration between
Republic Services, Parks and Rec, and SWAC and it required volunteer effort by
some technicians. This is one of our technicians John Cartwright, who supplied
the expertise on what's going on and Dave Torin, who also contributed time. And
through their efforts and staff we were able to put together about 48 bikes to
bring over to the effort. Through Parks and Rec we were able to go ahead and
allow people to sign up for a time to learn how to take care of their bikes and to
pick up their bikes. There was about 27 people who signed up for that and we
tried to get some indication of their -- the value the bike would have to them.
Twelve of them identified that they would love to have it to be able to get back
and forth to exercise. Seven of them to school. Three of them to get around
town and five of them to play with friends, but -- and the nice thing about that is
those 27 -- we usually had at least one and two or maybe three frames to look at ,
see which one that they kind of wanted to go ahead and use and after we gave
that flexibility to them, we were -- we had about 14 people that walked up that we
also gave bikes away to. So, we were -- we had about 41 clients at the event
that day. These are some of the people -- the two gentleman in the center were
some of the people that received bikes. These are some other photos of some of
the people. You know, I talked with some of the people and one of them
expressed a case where their doctor had told them that they had a chronic
condition that bicycling would go ahead and help stave off, but their bike had
broken -- the forks had broken and so they didn't have a bike anymore and our
being able to supply them the bike allowed them to be able to get back on the
road and fulfill the wishes of their doctor and I can't tell you -- I know -- there was
a number of them of some -- some that had special needs that there is a program
in the city that facilitates teaching how to ride a bicycle and while the programs
free, you have to have your own bicycle and by us giving them their bicycle they
were able to actually join the program and get involved and so there is definitely
a lot of partnerships that come out of this that we hadn't really even realized.
Certainly adjacent to our event, the Meridian Police Department had put together
a bike rodeo program and many of the people that attended had not brought their
bike and so they borrowed our bikes and learned some skills and, then, returned
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the bike, but St. Luke's brought many bicycle riding helmets and it's amazing how
many of the people kind of went from the station to pick up a helmet , pick up a
bike, learned some things out on the rodeo and, then, go off with a huge smile.
In some cases, you know, someone would come for a bike for their kid, but we
were able to even give one to the parents , so the family could ride together, so --
and I did have a few of them that mentioned that they had a job and they could
get to work, but they didn't really have -- they didn't have a driver's license for
whatever reason and so having a bicycle would make it easier for them to be
able to get back and forth to employment. So, just a lot of great stories and, of
course, this was the volunteer's favorite, putting together this Boise State bike.
Anyway, it was a great event and people that were involved in it were really quite
happy with it. Our -- they turned out to get those bikes on the road and we
needed to buy about 289 dollars' worth of parts. So, I thank you for your
generous approval of our ability to cover the parts for that . But in order to get the
bicycles ready to service, one of the technicians said that they could give us
some more time, but we were taking them away from their day job and so they
needed to be compensated for their time and so there is a labor charge that's in
there and as you noticed in our report there we were asking if we could have
approval for the remaining 211 dollars to be let loose to go ahead and cover
some of that labor cost. Republic Services has graciously promised to cover the
majority of that labor bill, but we felt like it was a great event and -- and this
particular case where we are trying to get something quick, it required a -- kind of
some creative efforts to go ahead and get it together. Clearly we learned huge
amounts and in the future with the long lead time I think we can do a lot more on
a volunteer basis and with that I would stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Steve, maybe you -- missed this. How many bikes total?
Cory: We were able to take 48 of them there and we gave 41 of them out.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Milam: Oh, go ahead.
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
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Little Roberts: I just wanted to say, Steve and Michele -- Rachele. Sorry.
Wonderful job. Just absolutely amazing seeing the pictures of the kids and just
what -- taking from a great idea to an amazing event in such a short time . Kudos
to you both.
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Madam Mayor. Yes. Given the short time period that you guys had to
work with, I know that you were out there working really hard and you had a lot of
volunteers out pulling bikes apart and -- for days in the rain. So, great job and to
Cheryl and the whole team. And I know you were only -- I think hoping for 35
bikes and you had a better turnout than what you even had hoped for. So, I think
this is a -- for a pilot program, the first year with very little lead time, just an
amazing -- an amazing turnout and I got to hear a lot of those personal stories
about the recipients of the bicycles and so I look at the pictures and I'm almost
crying because know some of the background stories on these. But these
people really needed the bikes and it's really helped and it affected a lot of
Meridian families. So, great project and great job. And are you looking for --
you're looking for approval today for spending authority --
Cory: Correct.
Milam: -- for 211 dollars to --
Cory: To cover some -- some of the labor cost.
Milam: To the bicycle repair.
Cory: Yes. Okay. Well, Madam Mayor, I move that we authorize the spending
authority for the Solid Waste Advisory Commission to cover the repair costs --
Bird: Amount of 211.
Milam: For 211 dollars.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. 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.
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De Weerd: We appreciate SWAC and some of the innovative programs that
you're getting involved in and certainly we appreciate our -- our partner Republic
Services. This is a phenomenal program and I think a really good use of the --
the money that is earned through the -- the commodities and -- and kind of
reinvesting back into that recycle fund exactly what it was intended to. So much
so Rachele was sharing the story with my husband and I and we have a
challenge out there and we are hoping that we have some matching dollars to
continue to be able to get this different transportation mode to the people who
really need it and can't afford it themselves. So, thank you so much. I hope you
take that back to SWAC our appreciation for this program. Certainly our -- our
thanks to Republic, to our Parks Department, and to all the volunteers that were
involved. As we move forward we have talked about this program with our Faith
Ambassadors committee as well and there is an interest in tapping into the
different places of worship for volunteers that can help with the bicycle repair and
that sort of thing. So, thank you for making this a success.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: While we have Mr. Cory here I just would like to get -- I expect maybe
you will come and bring us a full presentation on the Trash to Treasure, but
where that just recently happened I just was curious was that successful, was it --
where people can come and pick up the treasure off the step.
Cory: Councilman Cavener, I must apologize. Unfortunately, I was out of town
last weekend for a regional board meeting that I had to go to. Rachele, do you
have some first-hand experience on the Trash to Treasure? Yeah, if you want to
come up here. I will -- I will say on Monday I did go back over and I saw signs
that there was heavy participation. Certainly I wouldn't be surprised if they
almost had to dedicate a truck to that neighborhood. People know about spring
cleanup more than they did in the past, which is something we wanted to
advertise. Anyway, Rachele.
Kline: Sure. Thank you, Madam Mayor and Councilman Cavener. Yes, I think it
was -- for a first-year event it was a big success. We had three -- three
subdivisions, Havasu Creek, Copper Basin and Burney Glen. That's right. And
they are all close to one another in town and so we put up six banners and
saying this is the weekend for Trash to Treasure. We I think had good
participation. There was some things that we probably would do differently next
year. We coupled it with spring cleanup, with the idea that whatever people
didn't take they could just put them out with their trash and be taken away. The
trick with that was that people forgot to prepare it properly, so -- like you would
find a hamster cage in a pile of T-shirts or, you know, things like that where they
weren't really in a tight bundle or a trash can or things like that. So, it may help to
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split those and not have it the weekend before spring cleanup. That way people
just focus on spring cleanup. The other thing was -- we didn't think about was
people would -- they put out like a headboard and, then, an old dryer and thought
maybe someone would recycle the dryer or things like that. So, if their service
day was Monday, they put those things out and they didn't get taken and so,
then, they called us and said, well, we didn't send the truck by to get my
appliance, but we recycle those, you have to just call ahead of time. So, we --
we had some -- we got everything picked up, but we had some organizational,
operational challenges that we didn't -- we hadn’t thought through ahead of time.
So, now we would know to separate them and if something needs to get picked
up they could call in a bulky item question and we would send the right truck, so -
- but I think it was a big success. Genesis -- Council Woman Milam could
probably speak to it -- it was in her neighborhood -- probably more to
participation at that level saw and what was left on the street, so -- it looked like
plenty. So, we can tell what was left over from that and what was from spring
cleanup. We had a lot -- we had a lot of extra material picked up, so spring
cleanup is a big success.
De Weerd: Yes.
Kline: Thanks.
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam?
Milam: Madam Mayor. So, my subdivision combined -- combined it with a
garage sale on Saturday and, then, Trash to Treasure following that. So, sell
what you can, give away what you can't, and, then, the rest would go to the
landfill, but -- so, I put some stuff out -- I'm sorry, I didn't do a garage sale, but I
put some things out on Saturday and I walked around my neighborhood, kind of
seeing -- I took some pictures, I wanted to see how --
De Weerd: Looking for treasures?
Milam: Looking to -- no. I just wanted to see what the participation was. It was
more educational. I don't need any treasures. I took some pictures and sent
them to other people. But anyway -- so, people were having garage sales and I
talked to some of them, I said are you participating in Trash For Treasure and
most of the people didn't know about it, a couple of them didn't understand, so I
explained it to them and they are like, well, yeah. This is great. So, I got a little
extra participation. But by the time I made it around my subdivision, which is
small, and back home, all of -- almost everything was gone that I had stuck out.
So, either had some really good colorful toys and stuff out t here or -- or, yeah,
people were coming in and taking stuff for sure. So, it seemed successful and I
know that the survey says that it was successful, but Brett will probably be back
with a -- I don't want to I steal the thunder from Brett and --
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Kline: We did a post-event survey and all of it was --
Milam: Most of it was really positive.
Kline: We had one I think that was marginal, but for the most part -- we had a lot
of respondents and they were for the most part all positive, so -- thank you.
Cory: Thank you, Council, for your support and I will take your -- your kudos
back to the SWAC.
Item 8: Department Reports
A. Parks and Recreation Department Annual Report
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Okay. Item 8-A is under our Parks Department
for their annual strategic update.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This is our
annual strategic update to the Council. We are kind of fond of our nickname, the
department of fun. We try to live up to that. I don't like it when people stand up
and read mission statements to you, so I won't do that. But I do want to just --
since this is a strategic update and I do want to use them and just mention some
of what we see as our pillars of our main focus areas. So, in our mission
statement I say they are path, parks, pathways and, then, those recreational
opportunities, which we deliver in a myriad of ways and many of those stories we
will try and touch on today. Our vision -- well, citywide vision is to, you know, be
the premier place to live, work and raise a family. We play off of that family
vision citywide by providing those family-focused opportunities that help them
create lasting memories. And our focus areas are quality, community and fun.
Those words have come to mean a lot to me over the years. I could talk quite a
bit about each one, but how we seek to deliver, you know, quality parks and
quality programs, we seek to build community with the things we do, like events
and at the end of the day we hope to make it fun and provide some of that -- the
balance part of the life balance for some of our citizens. So, who we are. This
picture includes some of our -- our seasonals for this spring, but while we are a
growing group, we are also a lean, mean machine with lots of ones out there in
the columns for different roles and responsibilities that we will talk through as we
-- we move forward. But this is a team that I would say has great ownership of
what they do and they -- they own their programs and they deliver them with the
focus on those pillars of quality, building community and fun. We just heard
earlier about some of our commissioners who have left. Let me introduce you to
those that are our current commission. I would also like to acknowledge our
Council liaison Ann Little Roberts who participates with the commission and --
and helps us out in many regards as our liaison . But we do have nine members
on our commission. We are back up to full staff. This is eight of them in a photo.
Hannah Sturtevant, John Nesmith, Jessica West, Creg Steele. On the bottom
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Kayla McMay, Sharon Borton. Our President Joe Greer. Our vice-president
Debbie Shaner. Keith Bevan came on recently, right after we -- the month that
we took this picture. But Kevin Bevan is our most recent addition and rounds out
our current Commission. Our administrative offices, of course, are here at City
Hall, but most of our maintenance focus happens out of the facilities
maintenance shop over off of Locust Grove on 170 0 East Lanark. We also have
a very active and busy community center just down the street on Idaho and it's
where all of our classes and programs and -- and things happen. Now, the
Meridian Home Court I just want to say a little bit about, because that was a big,
big deal for us this last year and I want to -- Garrett White, if you would raise your
hand. Garrett is our Home Court facility manager. Garrett has taken on the role
and responsibility of managing that facility. We are very excited to have it. Four
indoor courts is huge for us. Something we have not had and long wanted and
it's a lot of work and a lot of maintenance and a lot of scheduling and things that
are going on there and Garrett is doing a -- just a yeoman's job of taking that on
and all the challenges that come with operating as a brand new facility for us,
although as a used facility it comes with its own challenges . Now, one of our
focus areas is, obviously, parks, plazas and open spaces and -- and Roger
Norberg -- is Roger here? Roger? So, Roger is our maintenance foreman and
he oversees all of the maintenance activities that -- that take care of all of these
parks, plazas, open spaces and a lot of the buildings that are associated with
them. Here is our -- here is our system map and one thing I'd like to look at on
here is just the geographic distribution, because we are always trying very hard
to make sure we are not just serving one area of the community. We try to make
sure that we are geographically diverse and spread out and serving north, south,
east and west and while we have similar levels of service in terms of acres per
thousand north and south, one thing that south Meridian does not have today is
one of our major parks known as a regional park in our nomenclature, but we will
be -- I will be presenting to you in a minute -- and as you know we are bringing
one down south soon with South Meridian Park. But I did want to just touch on
the -- the park classification, because this was something that we recently
reviewed and updated with the parks system master plan that was approved --
boy, has it been two years now? Wow. Time flies. But the regional parks are
the really big ones; right? Like Julian Kle iner Park and Settlers Park. We have
two of those. Community parks are those larger midsized ones that have
community-wide activities happening in them, like Bear Creek, Heroes, Storey,
and Tully pictured here. We have our neighborhood parks, which is our smaller
parks, generally around seven acres in size. You can see that we have got
seven of those that are throughout the community and, then, we have some --
some special use parks that -- and pictured here is the Storey Bark Park, but
these are -- are areas that have a specific use and are generally much smaller
than even our neighborhood parks. Then we created a new classification for
those that may not fit quite into the other park classifications, but really have a
focus on sports, like our management of the Heritage Middle School ball fields
and the field over near the West Ada School District offices that we still refer to
as Jaybill field. One thing that I just wanted to -- one story I wanted to tell related
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to the Middle School ball fields. It will be the -- the site -- as well as Settlers this
year for the first time we all see Settlers. The Heritage Middle School ball fields
have been home base for our girls fastpitch tournament. It happens the weekend
of Memorial Day coming up later this month. We get -- last year we had 43
teams. We are still registering teams. Right now we have got 37 at the moment,
but still registering teams. We have got teams registered from -- mostly from this
area, but they also are coming to stay in Meridian from Oregon, Washington,
there is a couple of neighboring states sending teams and so this is a great
tournament and it's big and it lasts three days Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So,
this is a summary of that list. You will see the numbers I put off to the side,
1,320. Often I'm asked how many parks do we have and I usually respond it
depends on how you want to count them. So, you look at the left side, the
regional, community and neighborhood parks. Those are parks that I would say
people would generally stand in and say I'm in a park and we have 13 of those.
We have seven others that are these special use parks and sport parks. So,
total we have 20. So, we do often use the number 20 as our -- the total number
of park facilities that we operate. So, just wanted to help you see how those
numbers are counted. But, in addition to those parks, we also have 132 acres of
future park land that we are maintaining and currently mostly being farmed, but
we also have 43 acres of other landscape sites, everything from interchanges,
split corridor landscaping, things like that. Well sites for the Public Works
Department. Fire stations. Police station at -- so, 43 acres at 41 other sites that
we help to maintain. Oh, let me go back. I got Rachel's name down there,
because -- Rachel, would you raise your hand? Rachel helps us --
Bird: Everything.
Siddoway: So, I figured this was a city slide to put her name on. But Rachel
keeps us organized and does many, many things, as you might imagine, from
helping us with budgets to tracking our parks and acreages and things like that.
So, thank you, Rachel. Jay -- is Jay here? Jay. Jay is our parks and pathways
project manager and he's responsible for the pathway development in the city.
He's also been working heavily on the Rail With Trail. Currently we have about
15 miles of pathways that we maintain. There is almost an equal number out
there that we don't maintain that are owned and maintained by the HOAs out
there in the community. About half of our pathways are in parks, but the other
half are out there, like the Bud Porter Pathway that many of you are familiar with
along the Five Mile Creek. Those older kind of pathways along the canals that
we operate and maintain. I have given each of you a copy of what we call a Z
card map. We call it the Z card map, as you can see, because it's not quite
laying flat, it kind of looks like a Z, but on one side of this we have a view of the
current pathways and parks as a map and the other side has a table of those
parks and the amenities found within them . These are -- these have become
very popular. We recently updated them and we wanted to provide you with a
copy, so that you could take a look at how the system is starting to come
together. Urban forestry. Is Elroy here today? Elroy. Elroy Huff is our city
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arborist and two weeks ago we held Arbor Day where we plan ted a tree at
Hunter Elementary. And you see the Mayor and I on the bottom photo holding
the -- the 15 year Tree City USA flag. This is our 15th year as a Tree City USA
and Elroy has been here for every one of them. He got the Tree City USA
program started for the city and he has seen it through every year and we
currently have grown our urban forest to the trees that we maintain to over 4,300
trees, which is a remarkable program. So, I just want to acknowledge Elroy and
his efforts to bring trees to our city and help us to be a Tree City USA. I like this
slide, because these are the downtown tree boxes and we have been whittling
away on this -- there is a lot of fifteens in this particular part of the presentation,
fifteen years as a Tree City USA, we have been whittling away at the downtown
tree box replacement for about 15 years and there are 15 tree boxes yet to be
replaced. But we are about 84 percent done and this is good for me to see.
Looks like we are within striking distance within a couple of years of having the
old tree boxes replaced with what is for us an annual tree box replacement
program. Now I want to say just a few words about our classes, camps, and
excursions. These are the events that come out in our activity guides. You have
probably seen those activity guides. We bring -- put them out three times per
year, in December, April, and August. The April activity guide just came out last
month. It's our spring and summer activity guide and full of all of the -- the
summer camps and the summer classes. Summer camp growth is one of the
stories that I wanted to -- to just touch on. We have two sites. We have a north
Meridian site at Willow Creek Elementary and a south Meridian site at Sienna
and last year we averaged over 40 kids per week the entire summer and the max
is 50 that we can even take with staffing limitations and for the first time ever we
had weeks that -- that did max out with a waiting list and so we foresee the need
for a third site and in the agreement that Council approved -- I don't know if it was
early this year or late last year -- I think it was early this year with the school
district agreement update, the school district did acknowledge that they would be
providing free of charge to us an additional site as needed. So, we hope to
expand summer camp to a third site in north Meridian and, then, further out a
fourth site would come in -- in south Meridian when needed. But the immediate
need is for a second sight in north Meridian and we are looking to expand that
program. I also just want to mention the addition more senior activities. Jake
Garro has been great at looking at the gaps in the programs and what we can
bring on that are needed and new and just last week we had a senior trip that
went down to Shoshone Falls that was a very popular trip as you might have
heard. There was a lot of excitement about Shoshone Falls this year with the
amount of water that's going over it, but that's one example. The photo on the
bottom is also a senior rafting trip. So, there is a variety of different activities for
seniors that have been added recently to the activity guide . So, Jake -- would
you raise your hand? Jake right here on the end. He is our recreation
coordinator for these classes and camps. We track our numbers and the
numbers down near the lower right I just wanted to look at for just a second.
Four thousand five hundred and eighty-nine. That's the number of enrollments
that we had last year in 2016 for classes and camps. Go back five years it was
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2,533 and go back ten years it was 1,368. So, that's the kind of growth, nearly
doubling every five years in these activity guide registrations. Now, Tyler
Robbers is one of our newer staff additions. Right here. Took Garrett's place
when Garrett moved over to the Home Court. Tyler has been a great addition to
our team and manages the adult sports leagues and tournaments. Basketball.
Softball. Flag football. Volleyball. And here is some of the numbers that we are
seeing there. So, this is the number of teams, not participants. I think I have that
next. Yeah. So, in terms of teams, excuse me, last year we had 559 teams play
on the myriad of sports teams that we provide. Five years ago 386. Ten years
ago 114. So, again, lots of growth and popularity of the sports program in
Meridian. You can see the -- the trend with the number of participants also
rising. The reason for the blip back in 2009 it was higher, we used to allow an
unlimited roster for the same price, we just had a team price with the rosters.
When we implemented the resident, non-resident fees, that's when we went to
pay per player and the participant numbers dropped that first year, but, then,
have continued to rise since then. Colin, I put your name on this one. He does
many things besides registration software, but this has been one of his focuses.
Colin is our recreation manager. He oversees all of the recreation side of the
division. The classes and camps, the events, the sports program, Home Court.
But one of his current focus areas has been on trying to get some better
registration software for our department and we talked about this last year. Our
goals are better customer service. To get online facility reservations. It
continues to bug me that a citizen can't get on and reserve their own picnic
shelter from their home computer and they have to call us and it's also one of the
more expensive systems out there that we currently have and so we would like to
see one that saves our citizens some money and remove those online
transaction fees. Are current contract with Active Network is up at the end of
September. So, by -- sorry. End of August. So, by the first of September we are
looking at starting a new software. We thought we had one identified, but it has -
- as we have been test driving it over the last several months we have found
limitations with it. We have also discovered new options out there. There is a
very concerted effort out there comparing and contrasting all the different options
and we are using that time right now to vet the best option for us to move to at
the end of the summer. Ali and Jeannette are not here right now; correct. They
are both upstairs, because our front desk is hopping. When the weather gets
good the phones really start ringing. But they are the primary ones that use this
software to take registrations, although I will say when the phone get busy, the
phones do ring back and this whole team kind of helps out with -- with taking
registrations. Renee White. Would you raise your hand. Renee is our special
events coordinator. She cooks the special -- the special events, as it were. You
-- and these are just some photos from some of last year's events. Here is a list
and you just heard about the recycle a bicycle program, which was awesome.
That was one of about 40 events that were part of Unplug And Be Outside Week.
Meridian has really taken that event and found ways to grow it, find sponsors. Of
course we missed the weather by one week, so there was a lot of scrambling
going on that week, finding out how we could move some things to Unplug And
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Be Outside, to Unplug And Be Inside, but -- Movie Night is coming up. Of course
Gene Kleiner Day in June. And I'm not going to read the whole list to you, but
these are the ones that we put on ourselves. There is a whole other list of the
ones that we partner with that reserve space in the parks and Colin helps to
coordinate and reserve those. But Renee has her focus on building these and
making them bigger and better. Now Barb Hatch has been a great addition to
our team and we love our volunteers and the volunteer program has really
expanded with the addition of Barb to our staff. We have the park ambassador
program. You see the volunteers always out here at the information desk. The
tour guide, Barb helps to coordinate volunteers for all those. We also have a lot
of community volunteer projects in the parks, including a number of scout
projects, both Girl Scout and Boy Scout, and, then, a lot of churches like to
donate their time. We have one coming up later this month to do a huge flower
planting effort throughout the park system. I like this graph. You see this past
year how it shoots up, but that's because with Barb in our department we are
now able to count those park ambassador volunteer hours in the City Hall front
desk, volunteer hours that we didn't used to count, because they were there, but
a part of the police department I guess at the time. But we are now tracking
those as part of the overall volunteer program and, of course, that has a huge
cost savings to us as a city. You can see the line at the top from 33,000 on the
left to 46 and a high of 79. Up until 2016 -- I haven't got the multiplier yet for
what they are saying 2016 volunteer hours are worth, but if you just base it on
the 2015 numbers it's about a 195,000 dollars of savings to the city realized
because of the -- the volunteers that are part of the programs that Barb runs,
which is awesome. Now, we have three new parks coming in in 2017 and Mike
Barton -- raise your hand. Mike is our -- our park superintendent and he is the
project manager seeing these all through -- all of these through to fruition. The
first is Hillsdale Park. Hillsdale Park is the one that's on the site of the Hill
Campus. It's with the -- the partnership with the YMCA, the school district and
others. We have ten acres there as a park that is coming. We are focused on an
agricultural theme there and we are developing some fun art as -- as part of all of
these parks that helps reinforce that identity and become part of -- of this project.
It will -- the entryway sign has like a Holstein cow theme. You have seen some
of the stuff before, like the hay bale benches and the tractor looking element on
the playground. It has a loop pathway with extra -- with stations on them that the
kids can use and we are looking at -- well, it's going to be spring of '2018 before I
think the entire state of the grass will be ready. We are trying to sod part of it is
our goal, so that there is the closest -- part closest to the school can open this fall
and provide some grass for the kids at Hillsdale Elementary. Keith Bird Legacy
Park is the next one. We brought you the naming request here earlier. We
formerly referred as Bainbridge Park and before that Wayne Wadson Park. But
it's a seven and a half acre neighborhood park. It's in Bainbridge Subdivision up
near Chinden and Ten Mile and this one is here to celebrate a legacy that
Councilman Keith Bird has provided to the city. It's a multi-generational park. It
has some -- some great elements, including the playground, game tables, the
loop pathway, basketball. It's going to have some unique art. Some interpretive
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signs and we are really looking forward to this park and it is under construction
now, if you go by and take a look. The third one is Rita Husky Park and I
mentioned that we are doing some work with an artist. Thankfully this artist has
been -- has successfully found out some more information than we had before
about Rita Husky and who she is and what she likes and we are using that
information to help theme and create identity for this park. She loved flowers, so
you will see a lot of flowers on the signage and near the front of the park. It's
almost nine acres in size, if you include the leg that goes all the way out to Ten
Mile Road with the pathway. That pathway is under construction this summer by
the developer and we are developing the rest of the park. It's near Ustick and the
Bellano Creek Subdivision right near Bridgetower. But it's got -- it's also unique
in that it had -- will have some actual pickleball courts in it, as well as some
exercise equipment for parents while their kids are playing on the playground and
things like that that try and make it so that multiple youth can play on these park
elements. While not being built this year, but certainly in very active planning
mode for us, we are designing the south Meridian regional park. The full park 77
acres. As we talked before, we can't build the entire 77 acres in one phase.
Settlers Park was built in multiple phases and so will this one. But it is l ocated on
the south side of Lake Hazel between Locust Grove and Eagle. We have talked
about this discovery theme and that discovery theme that we are going to try and
build on is, you know, playing off of things like stem or steam, science,
technology, engineering, art, finding ways to -- to build that in. But it's also got a
softball complex, tennis courts. Think of this like South Meridian's Settlers Park
and we -- but the question is where do we draw the line for phase one. Well,
right about here there is a major gas pipeline that runs through the site . That is
going to become our phase line. We have received some information since our
last presentation to Council, an update on this, that the pipeline has some big
replacement work planned for the next three-ish years and anything we build
over the top of that will be tore up when they come in and replace it. So, we don't
want to build a lot of infrastructure over the top of that easement. Of course even
afterwards you won't have structures within the easement, but still the roads, the
hardscape, things like that could be and will be in there, we wouldn't want to just
build to have it ripped out in a couple of years. So, right now this approximate 30
acres of the site is proposed to be our -- our phase one and you will see it doesn't
build the entire softball complex, but it will build the first two of the overall -- of the
overall complex. Now, we may come down into the phase to area with some
gravel overflow parking, because we know even with just to phase one there will
be demand for events. We are trying to think through some of these things and I
think where can we put some investment that will have a big bang for a smaller
buck in that area until we can fully develop it. So, now we get to the strategic
plan on the first of, good, bad or indifferent, with the update on the strategic plan
to the Council, all of our objectives -- they all focus under one focus area, which
is number five, culture, arts and recreation. Makes sense. That's where our
home is. We have two of the strategic goals, 5-A and 5-B. 5-A being spring
development of quality, regionally significant facilities for recreation and
entertainment in Meridian. 5-B, develop and maintain and foster a portfolio of
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activities and events that serve the diverse needs of the citizens of Meridian. So,
what does that mean? Well, this is where we get into the objectives and we have
been before you in the last month and talked about some of these, so I will
mention that and build on what we last presented. So, 5 -A-2, you can see the
addition of the word public in identify desired public works facilities. We came
before you and asked, you know, would you like to see this one focused on
public or private -- the partnerships. The idea that we got back from Council was
that they should be public sports facilities or complexes and partnerships that
foster their development. Well, the Home Court I already mentioned was kind of
the big story for this one last year. We acquired it right at the beginning of the
fiscal year and that has been in operation with partnership with the Y since then.
The Y does plan to move out next year when the south Meridian site is finished
and, then, we will take over the full operation s and management of -- of the
building. The next big public sports facility will be the softball complex that will be
part of that south Meridian regional park and I wanted to spend just a moment to
talk about why softball. You know, why -- why pick softball as the public sports
facility that's needed, as opposed to -- well, I guess volleyball would be in Home
Court, but the -- you know, some other sport. So, softball is our department's
most participated in recreation program by far. In 2016 over its two leagues,
spring and fall -- a spring league, fall league, softball accounted for more
participants than the total of all six volleyball and basketball leagues combined.
The numbers, for those of you number junkies, 2,650 in softball, 2,531 for
volleyball and basketball combined. Looking at the participation numbers,
softball accounts for just -- just under half of our entire adult sports program of all
sports, 2,650 that same number, compared to 5,358 for the full program. We
also note that we reached the capacity of our softball program back in 2011. We
have not -- we have been maxed out -- we capped the teams at just over a
hundred and have since 2011 and while the numbers we showed, you know,
may have seemed impressive -- they certainly are to me -- that's with -- without
advertising softball, because we know we don't have a place to put more teams.
So, there is a demand for -- for softball. We -- it always has been and it appears
that there always will be and it's -- it's growing in demand and building another
public softball complex will not only help us meet the demand for future growth in
that program, but also gives the ability to host some real tournaments. So,
Objective 5-A-4 is the fostering of development of discovery parks that uniquely
blend arts, entertainment and culture. The reality is this objective and the last
one are on the same timeline, because we believe the discovery park is the
south Meridian regional park. So, this is kind of a two-for-one objective. I think
they really should be combined into the one set, but the -- we are looking at -- at
developing this discovery park theme as the strategic plan suggests, with the
destination playground. There seems to be a lot of excitement in the sand play
water feature that could be developed there . The green space focus on the
experiences -- and we are still defining what all of that means and we will be
bringing a separate update on that. The first phase of the softball complex and,
then, developing that out in phase two as well and phase two could be two, three,
four and five. You know, we don't know how many phases it will take. It
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depends on available funding and partnerships and things like that. Then
Objective 5-B-1, this one -- we had direction from Council to strike, but just to
confirm the intent here, it was to determine, attract, promote and maintain a
signature event for the city. I think the feeling was we have signature events in
Dairy Days and Movie Night and the Christmas in Meridian Parade and tree
lighting ceremony and we want to continuously look to improve these, but we
also will -- and will remain open to partnerships from events that could come to
us, but I think the real reason this is being stricken is not because we don't want
awesome things or events, it's because we are not spending proactive strategic
time going out and looking for new ones, we are being open to them and we are
improving what we have. So, that's the direction we have there? And, then,
objective 5-B-4 is to set targets, identify gaps, deploy programs, activities and
events that provide the family-centered recreation opportunities. In some ways
this is an ongoing thing for us. I mentioned how Jake is always looking for where
are the gaps and adding things like senior programs, things like that. But there
will be an actual concerted effort as part of this strategic plan to do a focus
review and reporting of the -- the gaps and opportunities that we identify and it --
per the strategic plan that objective is beginning now. Finally, I just want to
mention our efforts with social media and ways people can follow us on
Facebook and Twitter and our website and I wouldn't be doing justice if I didn't
identify -- mention Shelly Houston who helped put this presentation together, as
did Rachel, but Shelly did all the base work for it and she helps us keep our
social media on track. So, with that I thank you for your time and I will stand for
any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Thank you, Steve, for that great presentation and to the -- how many
viewers? We have six viewers maybe? Is there some event coming up you want
to plug?
Siddoway: Boy. There is a lot. I mentioned the upcoming Memorial Day
tournament. Movie Night kicks off every Friday in -- in Settlers Park, June, July
and August. Family friendly movies in the park. The Paws in the Park event is
when, Shelly? Saturday, May 20th. And, then, one other I want to mention is on
Memorial Day there will be a nice ceremony at the Rock of Honor at 11:00 a.m.
on the Memorial Day.
Milam: Thank you.
Siddoway: Thank you.
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De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor and Steve and your team. I would just like to say
thank you. It's just an honor to get to work with you and everybody just does
such an amazing job. You never cease to amaze me and I just really appreciate
all the hard work that you put in each and every one of you every single day to
make Meridian such an amazing place to live. I get to see it when I go to work in
the park and today was a great example of -- it was just crazy busy, people just
loving our parks and all that we provide for them. So, thank you very much.
Siddoway: Thank you.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I have got a question. Steve, the other day I was
signing up to sponsor an event and through the software that you were talking
about I noticed there is a lot of solicitation for -- I couldn't tell if it was the parks --
you know, asking to sign up -- people to sign up for -- to receive information
about things at the parks we are promoting or if it was the software's third party
that would be using that information to try to share it around.
Siddoway: So, was it -- was it in the form of an e-mail or on the website?
Palmer: It was on the website as I was going through it made me -- like I had to
consciously think skip this.
De Weerd: Shelly, come on up.
Siddoway: Come on up, Colin. We will get it from the man who knows.
Moss: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer. So, when we signed on
with ActiveNet in 2006 one of the things that we did at the time to get a lower
percentage on our credit card transactions is those that signed the agreement
allowed for them to sell magazines during our -- during our checkout process.
That's, obviously, something that we want to go away with -- do away with and so
they also try to sell subscriptions to active.com, which is -- doesn't have anything
to do with -- with our department, so those are things that we -- a couple things
that we do not like about our current software system and one of the reasons
why we are trying to get away from that.
De Weerd: Well, we appreciate you trying to save costs at every turn.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Steve, I echo other Council Members compliments to you and your
team. It's infectious being around the Parks Department. I can't help but smile.
Talking about softball fields. Any idea what it costs to build a softball -- one
single field versus a complex?
Siddoway: I'd have to get back to you on that . I do know that our -- in general
our cost per acre on parks is about 200,000 per acre.
Cavener: Sure.
Siddoway: But to get down to exactly what a softball field is I would need to do
some research and get back to you on that.
Cavener: As we progress in the conversation on budget I think that will be really
helpful to have for me.
Siddoway: Okay.
Cavener: That's worth including in your strategic plan pieces in your
presentation, being first on that particular thing.
Siddoway: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other comments or questions?
Siddoway: Thank you very much.
F. Mayor’s Office: Resolution No. 17-2013: A Resolution
Appointing David Ballard, Ryan Hall and Vincent Koontz
to the Meridian Transportation Commission
De Weerd: Thank you. Your team knows what I think. I think I tell them often
enough, but it's always nice seeing all of you. Okay. Council, I would like to
move Item 8-F above Item 8-B. Mr. Ballard is sitting in the audience and I -- I
would have actually moved it up prior to now, but I knew he wanted to hear the
parks update. So, Council, if I may, in front of you is Resolution 17-2013
reappointing David Ballard, Ryan Hall and appointing Vincent Koontz to the
Meridian Transportation Commission. I would stand for any questions. Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: I would move that we approve Resolution No. 17-2013, resolution
appointing Brian Ballard, Ryan Hall and Vincent Koontz to the Meridian
Transportation Commission.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Just for the record it is reappointing David Ballard, Brian Hall and
appointing Vincent Koontz. Okay. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: So, David, you can just tell Ryan that we missed him and have him
on the record just for the heck of it. Come on up. Thank you for being here.
Ballard: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, I appreciate the
reappointment and you taking time to consider that today and so I wanted to be
present and express my gratitude. Served for four years and looking forward to
another three years. So, I do appreciate you taking the time to consider that.
De Weerd: Well, I would tell you, David, that -- and to Council, that Mr. Ballard is
at almost every transportation-related discussion and not just representing the
commission's viewpoint, but having that presence of -- of having the
Transportation Commission visible has -- has meant a great deal and so we
appreciate your intense involvement in all things transportation and we just thank
you for your service and look forward to another term with you.
B. Quarterly Finance Department Update
Ballard: Appreciate the kind words. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Thank you for allowing me to shift that up. Item
8-B is our quarterly Finance Department update.
Lavoie: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of Council.
De Weerd: Hi, Todd.
Lavoie: Appreciate you allowing us to present to you this quarter's financial
update. We get the joyous task of following the fun department, so I will make
this as fun as possible. It is finance, but we will call it the fun fact report. How
about that? We will put a little fun into it. Today what we are going to discuss is
the demographics. We are going to show you some graphs that kind of show
you what's been going on for the last 13 years, then, we will look at what's called
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per capita. We have had a few inquiries from Council Members that we look at
per capita. So, we are going to show you what we do look at from a per capita
and per median income perspective. We are going to look at some water usage
trends, permit data, and, then, talk about what we are looking at in the future.
So, with that, demographics. Before we start looking at the data I just want to
inform you that the data that we do present to you -- it's a collaborative approach.
We work with the Community Development team, Public Works team. We work
with COMPASS, census, and we also work within our own Finance team to
compile and collect the data that's going to be presented to you in the next few
slides. So, again, none of this should be too much of a surprise to you, but the
city population, as of calendar year ending 2016 we had as 91,420. That's up 95
percent since 2003. Again, total utility counts since that same time frame we are
up 111 percent. Total city FTEs. You know, these are all your staff members
that work for you and the citizens up 103 percent. Total p ark acres. You just
heard Mr. Siddoway present to you we are at 255 total acres. That's up 183
percent since that starting year 2003. Total single family homes. So, these are
those rooftops that we are out there servicing every day. Up 91 percent. Total
multi-family homes, kind of a newer product, but up 151 percent. Total square
footage for commercial. A huge increase there. I think we have all seen we are
building more commercial. We are getting more businesses here and it definitely
shows up 250 percent. And, then, total city taxable value. This is what Ada
county provides us. This is the total value that's on top of the ground that we
service every single day and you can see that's up 215 percent since 2003. So,
these are all the apartments, the buildings, the structures that we must maintain
and service on a daily basis. So, again, this here represents the summary of the
eight slides that you were just shown -- and I just showed to you. Again, I don't
think any of it's too much of a surprise to you, but what you can see is the city
has grown. Some parts more than others, but the city is growing every single
day. You know, we have a little bit more of this, we have a lot of that, we
sometimes even have twice as much of that. But, again, at the end of the day we
must service and provide service to all our customers on a daily basis . So, we
are going to kind of change gears into per capita. This data is provided by
census and what this represents is household median income adjusted for
inflation over time. City of Meridian per census has the household median
income of over 63,000 dollars per household income. U.S. average is about 55.
The entire state of Idaho is residing at a little over 48,000. So, again, the City of
Meridian, we are doing good in comparison to the United States as average and
the state of Idaho. Again, another way of looking at it is we are 13 percent better
than U.S. or 30 percent better than the state of Idaho. Again, this is per census.
We use this in some of our annuals and you will see it coming up in our per
median income data. So, as I just mentioned, we use some of the median
income to help us do some other analysis. The next few slides just want to put a
little disclaimer out there. We use these slides and -- as a test -- as kind of a
smell test. Are we still doing well. In this slide here what this shows you is we try
to determine how much of that median household income -- this slide -- does
each household pay for the services rendered here at the city. So, we figure out
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the total budget of the city, then, we can back into the dwellings and how much is
earned at each average dwelling and right now we are at about 2.53 percent of
the household average income goes to the City of Meridian services and you can
see how it's trended over time and what we are doing with this is we want to
make sure we are not, you know, peaking and valleying, we want to stay in line
with population and median income, is our budget growing faster that we think it
should. Again, these are smell tests, because income doesn't necessarily pay for
property taxes or -- per se or for utilities one to one direct. It's an analytical tool
to make it -- to verify that we are on the same page as where we believe we
should be. So, another way we look at it as a smell test again -- the next few
slides are in this manner. This graph shows the amount of money each citizen
would pay if they paid property taxes. Again we as citizens don't pay property
taxes, the properties pay property taxes and those that own the property pay the
property tax. So, we take our total budget and divide it by the 9 1,000 people and
this is kind of showing us -- again, another smell test. Are we growing faster than
the population and vice-versa. Again, we like it to look flat. Again, we as
individuals don't pay the property tax one on one, it's the residence, the dwelling
that pays the property tax. So, you could have a hundred people living in one
residence, but only that one residence or that one dwelling would pay the
property tax. So, again, all smell tests -- another way of looking at it is how much
does each citizen pay per functional unit here at the city. Again, all smell tests,
all looking flat, all looking good from my perspective. You might be asking so,
yeah, these perhaps look fine and they look flat, what have we learned. Again, in
my opinion from this analysis that we do on an annual basis, it does not appear
that the City of Meridian's cost of doing business is outpacing population or
income providers to pay for the city's services on an annual basis . Again, all
smell tests, because I guess as citizens one to one do not pay all of these
expenses for all the services here at the city. We have fees that are not income-
based per se. We have property taxes that are income based as well. Again,
smell tests. We just wanted to kind of show you a different way of looking at it
from a per capita, per median income perspective. So, with that I will change
topics to what we consider water usage. Again, another fun fact. That's all this
presentation hopefully is going to show you is fun facts. We track this on an
annual basis. It shows that 70 percent of our users use less than 8,000 gallons
of water on a monthly basis. This helps us with rate modeling. You will hear
from Public Works in a few minutes about the upcoming rates. We use this to
help determine what we need to do in the future . You get a majority of our
customers as you can see are using what we call a conservative -- conservative
amount of water, which is fantastic to some extent. We have to take this into
consideration when we reject future revenues, because if we continue to use less
water, then, we need to make sure we account for that in our future modeling.
Yet another way we look at the water usage is the type of customers that we
have. You can see historical they are right about 93 to 94 percent of all of our
customers are residential and I have a feeling that's going to probably stay that
way for quite a while. We are getting more and more commercial properties, but
historically you can see City of Meridian is predominately residential dwellings.
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Again, all this information we utilize for modeling future projections. We use the
census data. We use COMPASS data. We use permit data. Again, all this
information we use on an annual basis for the modeling and projections that we
provide you. So, we are going to change -- I guess approaches here. We are
going to go to permit data now. Again, permit data. You have seen this. I put an
arrow in there. The arrow is going up. 2005 was a pretty fun year for the
Community Development Department. They survived. They are still here. Most
of them didn't quit, which is great. It was rough. It was a very rough time of year.
They pushed out a lot of paper and reviewed a lot of documents and I can tell
you right now that it's still growing. Over the last -- since 2011 the trend is
upward. So, what -- what we can see here is the City of Meridian is growing. It's
still growing. And even during the great recession, the Community Development
Department averaged 500 permits of processing every year, even during the
great recession. So, the City of Meridian is a -- is a good city for development
and growth is what we are seeing here. This item here is a report that is
provided to the Community Development Department. They provided this to me.
This report here is calendar year 2016 in whole. You can see who the winner is,
it's -- if we are talking winners -- and this is -- we are the highest growing city in
Ada county. We pushed out about 1,500 permits that you have heard about in
the past, but the items that I want to focus on are the other two items . Platted
and planned has about 3,000 items still to be presented to you and permitted and
that's just in 2016. We haven't even talked about the '15, the items left over from
'14. So, if we did 15 -- 1,500 permits in '16, guess what we are going to see in
'17, '18 and '19. So, we have a good pipeline of growth coming. We need to
make sure we are prepared for that. I know Bruce's team is. But just wanted to
bring this up to you to bring to your attention the City of Meridian is attracting a lot
of growth, a lot of development, and it shows in these reports. And same
company provides that last slide. This is Q-1 of 17. The item I want to kind of
focus on is the term they use, the flurry. Even during their first quarter we saw a
flurry of activity, you know, and I guess even during snowmageddon we still
represented 33 percent of those 1,100 permits pulled. We as a city did. So,
even during the great recession, the snowmageddon, people are still very
attracted to do business with the City of Meridian and it shows and we need to
make sure we prepare ourselves accurately and correctly for the future . We
want to set ourselves up for success with all this data . So, again, we are going to
change the topics here. We are going to go to population. COMPASS is our
primary provider, our resource for COMPASS -- for population and for
forecasting. This is their data and you can see it's a -- it's a big number. I'm
going to bring this up for Mr. Bird, you know, did you ever think that the village of
Meridian would be 100,000 people in 2018? I don't think many of us did. But
your village is not a village anymore, Mr. Bird. Not at all.
Bird: It's still a community.
Lavoie: It is a community that is awesome. But, again, this is what we need to
prepare for. The city is still growing and we need to make sure we are ready for
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it. We have done great the last 13, 15 years. Let's make sure we do the next 13
and 15 years successfully as well. So, again, what's next? We have seen the
city grow tremendously in the last 15 years to some extent even double. We
have seen what has been approved by Council for future development. We need
to prepare ourselves. We are growing south. You have asked the Enterprise
Fund to put utilities down to Amity Road on Meridian, bring development down
that direction. We have an urban renewal district now on Ten Mile to bring
development and interest into that region. We as a city must continue to manage
this phenomenal growth in the best interest, not of -- only of citizens, but our
visitors or business partners and our employees and, then, we would -- again, as
I have said, we must set ourselves up for success, because we are growing, we
are moving and people are coming. So, again, this is just a recap. We have
been growing -- we continue to grow, not surprising. We heard from Bob
McQuade last week, Ada county. He gave you a report. I think he stated the
exact same -- same things I have stated to you. We are hot. We are growing.
Things are moving. We had a 13 and a half percent increase in values year over
year. So, with the entire Treasure Valley growing as you saw in that one slide
from that one provider, Bob McQuade told you last week the Treasure Valley is
growing. The entire Treasure Valley puts an increased resource request on our
departments -- Parks Department, as you just heard. Steve was talking about
hosting a big softball tournament. He's got to make sure the resources and parks
are ready for that. Jeff -- Chief Lavey and the Police Department, they need to
make sure they can enforce these additional visitors coming to the City of
Meridian. We have the Treasure Valley growing. We have visitors coming every
day. They are not only visiting, they a re working. They are staying here. They
are eating here. We need to provide services to all of those, not just the 91 or
soon to be 100,000 people that we call City of Meridian residents. We need to
make sure we set ourselves up for those visitors as well, not just the ones that
we have living here. So, again, COMPASS data, which I just showed you, we
are growing. We just need to make sure we set ourselves up for success for the
additional needs that just those few departments I mentioned are going to have,
because those visitors on -- those visitors don't directly give us revenues on a
day-to-day basis. They don't pay property taxes to provide the softball
tournaments per se. They don't provide the salaries that Jeff and his police
department need to provide those services. They are visitors and we welcome
them, but we need to make sure we properly plan our revenues to support those
additional visitors and daily workers that we have here at the city. So, again,
that's the fun facts. Not as fun as parks fun stuff, but, again, that's our quarterly
report. Just wanted to show you what we work with in data when we use our
projections, when we develop our forecasts, when we work this department, to
make sure that the revenue numbers that we provide you on an annual basis are
sound. We double-check things. But with that I stand for any questions. Happy
to research anything for you anytime. The Finance Department is always open.
Stop by and say hi. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Council, any questions?
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Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Todd, I don't want to put you on the spot, but it would be interesting to
know of that -- the 70 percent of our customers using a thousand gallons or less,
how -- what percentage of that are residential?
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I can definitely research that for
you. I will figure out what percentage 78 percent equals residential customers for
you.
Cavener: Great. Thanks.
Lavoie: Thank you.
De Weerd: Other questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Not really a question, Todd, but those were really fun facts and charts.
Thank you for keeping it fun.
De Weerd: You set up the fun. You say the thing growing, so --
Milam: Like Sesame Street. Word of the day.
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor. I love the data. I do. And as you walk through it I -- I
sense this might have been some of the early steps of the C FP development
where just walking through the -- the background of the growth trends over ten
years, leaving you to develop the growth assumptions going forward, then, have
departments develop what they will need going to maintain the service levels
based upon those growth assumptions and within the constraints of state code
and the finance -- financing that's provided, you and your Finance Department
develop the consolidated financial plan, which allows -- assuming these growth
assumptions are accurate, allow that consolidated financial plan to be a valuable
tool going forward that we use in June and through this budget session and in
future years. So, it seems like this is the front end of it. All of this data, this -- it's
not just anecdotal. The back bone behind the assumptions that the whole CFP is
based on, so --
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Lavoie: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Members -- Councilman Borton, you're a hundred
percent correct. All this data is the driving facts to what we do in the executive
branch to provide you with a one year, five year and ten year financial plan.
You're a hundred percent correct. This all drives what we as the executive
branch must put into our consideration to make sure we meet the levels of
service to -- as I quote Mr. Bird, a first-class service, first class community, all
these items, all these data points help drive those decisions, yes.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: A statement, not a question, but, you know, I think the -- I am so proud of
our employees and all the elected officials since 1992 when we started getting hit
with this growth, because let me tell you, we were not prepared and our
employees have stepped up to the plate like you can't believe. We have -- we
have -- our police department has -- has three times the area to cover and stuff
and our Public Works and everything, I just can't -- I hope that the future growth,
while we are set up for it -- or better be set up for it, it's half as smooth as what
this growth since '92 has been, because I'm -- every elected official and every
employee can be proud of themselves.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd.
Lavoie: Thank you.
C. Finance: Award of Bid and approval of Construction
Contract to Milestone Construction Group, LLC for the
Not-To-Exceed amount of $574,814.50
De Weerd: Item 8-C is also under the Finance Department, but under
purchasing and so I will turn this over to Keith.
Watts: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council Members. I have a contract --
construction to bring before you again tonight. This is one that, again, is out of
the ordinary. We did receive only one bid once again for a sizeable contract. It's
574,814 dollars and it is for a water and sewer line replacement. We did receive
only one bid. However, this bid did come in significantly under our engineer's
estimate, which was a good sign, so we are headed in the right direction as far
as that goes and when I was here last week I let you know that we had a -- we
hold a pre-bid meeting where we only had one -- zero bidders actually attend the
pre-bid meeting. We did get on the phone and start calling contractors and we
actually received four bids today for that project. So, I think that's the -- the
avenue we are going to have to take is to literally calling and e -mailing
contractors directly and asking them if they would take the time to look at our
projects. We had a pre-bid today where we had one contractor and it was -- it's a
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very large job. So, we are doing the same thing with that project. But I will go
back to -- to this contractor. This is a contract for West Washington Street water
and sewer line replacement. The single bid that we got was $574,815.50 and
that was from Milestone Construction Group.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would move that we approve the construction contract with Milestone
Construction, LLC, for not to exceed $574,814.50.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -C. Any discussion?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, just a question. Keith, what was the engineer's
estimate?
Watts: It was -- I have it here. Six hundred thirty thousand.
Palmer: Thanks.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk.
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.
D. Public Works: Rate and Assessment Fee Update
De Weerd: Thank you very much. Okay. Item 8-D is under Public Works and
it's Alex's turn. Thank you for joining us, Alex.
Freitag: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We appreciate the
opportunity to come before you tonight and update you on the Public Works utility
rates and assessment fees. If you thought the Finance presentation was fun, just
hang on, we are going to try and make this more interesting, so -- so, the goal of
today's presentation is really informative. We are not looking for any action on
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the Council's part tonight. Our goal was to really just get out there and give you a
quick update on where we stand on our utility rates and assessment fees . We
certainly appreciate the support and guidance that you give us on this topic, so
we commit to bringing this back to you on an annual basis and that's what we are
doing tonight. One of the main takeaways we would like to kind of leave with you
today -- we feel pretty good about where we are at right now. We are going to be
able to show you that at least for the next five years or ten year forecast we are
cash flow positive. Some of this data you will be -- you have seen -- you will see
is stuff that Todd just covered with you and some of it you will be very familiar
with. We do have some funding challenges going forward into the second half of
our ten year forecast, but before I get into all that I do want to just show you what
the agenda is going to be tonight. I'm just going to take a couple of minutes to go
over the fund real quickly, revenue and expenses. We are going to talk just a
little bit about the rates and fees themselves. I will show you what they are.
Show you some benchmarking information related to those and, then, we will get
into the heart of the presentation, which is really our rate model update. That's
our forecast that looks out ten years, it shows us what our Enterprise Fund
ending balance is and, then, we will do -- we will do a wrap up with conclusions
regarding what we feel like that model is telling us and some next steps that we
would like to move forward with. So, our Enterprise Fund, as you're aware, we
have a -- this is an FY-17 -- everywhere we have this is a FY-17 projected budget
numbers I'm going to show you here of the 35 million dollars we projected
revenue this year. The vast majority of that comes from our -- our sales, our
customers. That's the almost 33,000 accounts that we have out there right now.
The monthly usage and charges that we -- that we give them. The next largest
piece of that pie, as you can see, his assessment revenue. Assessments --
sometimes you hear them referred to as hookup fees or connection fees. This is
a one-time fee that's charged when the structure on a customer connects to our
water and sewer system. We have two other pieces of the pie. The EPA fee,
which I will talk a little bit more about in just a minute and, then, we have another
other category that kind of encompasses a lot of those -- call them miscellaneous
fees, for lack of a better word, but, really, it's the meter sales, repair, those kinds
of things. All of that revenue goes into our Enterprise Fund and we spend it. So,
as you can see our expense side of the equation -- again FY-17 numbers on a
projected budget of 55 million spent, this is how it breaks down. Personnel,
operations and maintenance, which is essentially our -- our baseline operating
budget, about 14.5 million, the vast majority of the expense piece goes for our
capital expenses and, then, we also have about 2.3 million dollars in inter -fund
transfers. That's the money that the Enterprise Fund send s back to the General
Fund to make sure that we are -- we are funding the help we get from other parts
of the city. So, diving into the sales piece of this just a little bit closer. This is our
customer rates. Again, this is our monthly usage fees that we are talking about.
You can see here the water and sewer base stays in usage fees. Usage fees
are based on a thousand gallons of usage. So, every thousand gallons of
additional water the customer uses they could charge that additional $1.90.
These fees were last increased in 2014. That was about a two percent increase
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at that time. The other big chunk of that revenue, as I mentioned just before, was
the assessment fees as you can see. Connection fees here are water and
sewer. The water connection fee was just last increased last year on June 1st.
That represented almost a ten percent increase. We are now sitting at 1,973
dollars for a water connection fee and our sewer connection fee we raised in two
phases. The first was on June 1st in 2016 and, then, we have the la st half of that
phase increase that takes place on June 1st of this year. So, in just a couple
weeks. Which constitutes 12 percent increase overall. I mentioned I was going
to come back to the EPA fee just as a reminder. The EPA fee was imposed in
2015 and was to aid in the regulatory requirements that the wastewater resource
recovery facility was facing. That's a flat $3.75 fee that we charge on the
customers' monthly bill and that's currently scheduled to sunset in 2024. So, we
all like to see how we are compared to our fellow municipalities in the area here.
So, this is some benchmarking data. We are -- I will say this on the
benchmarking data before I get into it. It's always kind of a double-edge sword
when you benchmark rates from a city persp ective. Every city has a different
infrastructure profile, different aged infrastructure, different amounts of it. There
is even calculations that go into how they calculate their fees. So, it's a little bit of
an apples and oranges comparison, but still necessary. We like to see where we
stand. So, as you can see Meridian is in the top half of our overall average
monthly bill there. Some data for you. Give you the same information here on
the assessment fees. This includes the final increased fee t hat will go into effect
for the sewer here in about three weeks and you can see we are right in the
middle of the pack there as far as overall assessments are concerned. A little
more data for you here. Kind of a recap of what you just saw. We all know that
account growth is continuing, so this is the last eight years of customer account
growth. That graph you have in front of you, the blue bars are our water
accounts and the gray bars are our wastewater account. The red line just
represents revenue. You can see that it paints the same picture that you have
here and I think was kind of a theme tonight. We continue to grow. Assessment
fee revenue. Same kind of picture here. This is last eight years ' worth of
assessment revenue. Gradual growth continues and that revenue is continuing
to -- to pour in, so -- so, getting into our rate model, this is our ten year forecast
tool. Like any forecast model we take the input, we apply assumptions to them.
This slide here just shows you what some of those inputs are. I will say that as
with any forecast tool, assumptions, they change on a fairly regular basis. So,
we can always change that data to reflect what we are thinking from that
perspective, so just something to kind of keep in mind. Forecasts are just that,
they are forecasts. So, it's one of the tools we use to just try to help us predict
where we feel the Enterprise Fund is going to be at any given time, so -- so, this
is the output of the Enterprise Fund rate model. This is a shot of the first five
years. This data you have also had a look at when you saw the CFP graph
about a month and a half ago when Finance presented that to you. You can see
that we have a fairly steep spending curve that we are on right now. Certainly
through 2017, 2018 and, then, that curve tends to flatten out or our costs become
a little more baseline. Now I'm going to show you a full ten year model. You can
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see a challenge starts to develop in that second half of the model. So, if I split
that model into two, it's really the second half of the model that we are going to
kind of focus on going forward at this point. Out there in 2027 that represents
about a 16 million dollar gap in funding. So, that's really the thing that I think
going forward we are going to want to try to develop a strategy around . This line
that you're looking at here represents the undesignated ending fund balance of
the Enterprise Fund. That simply means that we have already factored in our ten
million dollar reserve here, so when you look at this and if you see the ending
fund balance at five million dollars, the ending fund cash balance is really 15
million. That's all that's telling you, so -- so, this is just another way to look at the
data. Sort of a graphical here. Same ten year period. Just kind of showing you
from a spending profile. The blue shading just represents revenue. Shows what
we would expect. Revenues relatively stable. The tan lines here -- the tan
shading is, essentially, our spend and curves, peaks and valleys there, so -- and
you will see that we -- we have additional challenges in that second half of the
ten year period going forward. So, what is really all this telling us? Well, again,
we feel pretty comfortable where we are right now for the first five years of this
forecast. We feel like the save-spend strategy that we have employed for a long
time now is working. We have built the balance up in the funds. We are in a
period right now of pretty aggressive spending. That stops in a couple of years
and our spending profile becomes a little flatter. The challenge, if there is one, is
out there in that second five years of forecast and that's where we -- that's where
we feel we need to focus our attention going forwa rd. Another thing to note that
EPA fee expires in 2024. So, as you see that fund balance kind of tail off there,
that's also that same time period there where we -- we lose that additional EPA
funding, so -- so challengers for the forecast. Just a couple of things to mention
here as I have kind of talked about this a little bit, but economic conditions can
change. In fact, we would expect that they do. We may enter a period of
economic slow down. That changes our growth projections. Fluctuation in
regulations occur. Federal and state requirements might change. We know we
will have another permit cycle as we get close to the end of this forecast period
where we will have to -- have to deal with additional changes in regulations. Our
assumptions that we use can change. In fact, growth projections are a prime
example of that. Todd mentioned that the Finance Department, Public Works
Department, Community Development, got together a bout seven months ago to
go through what we term the growth summit. That was to try to come up with
standard growth projections that the entire city can use going forward. That
changed our assumptions in the model when we finally agreed on the final
numbers on that, so -- and, of course, technology in process continues to evolve.
It will always change, especially in our wastewater treatment plant. How we
process the water. The science behind that is a constant evolution and we don't
know what those things are going to do from a finance perspective, so -- so, what
does all that mean? We are not recommending rates and fees at this time. As I
mentioned, we are really just trying to start the dialogue with you and indicate
that we think we need to start looking at that second half of our ten year forecast.
So, what we would really like to do is we would like to take time and develop a
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strategy to address that funding challenge. We would like to come back to you in
three or four months, toward the end of the fiscal year and present some
recommendations to you regarding what does that look like and how do we
address that issue. Does that involve rate increases again. Do we sunset that
EPA fee. These are things that we can look at and model out for you and
provide you data to make good -- a good educated decision on -- on how to --
how to address that going forward, so -- so with that I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Alex. Council, any questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Alex, what is your best guess on the future capital expenditures that are
enhanced capacity related versus non-enhanced capacity?
Freitag: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, if I
understand your question correctly, are you trying to get at -- of that capital
spending over the next ten years what portion of it is growth based versus non-
growth based?
Borton: Yes.
Freitag: Essentially?
Borton: Yes.
Freitag: Okay. It's a great question. In our ten year period -- in this first five year
period that we are looking at right now, most of our capital expenditures are
heavily weighted towards the capacity side of that equation. Well over half I
would say. In the second five years of that forecast period the regulatory
commitments become a little bit more pronounced on that . So, not to mistake, in
the entire ten year period we have commitments for both growth and regulation.
Borton: True.
Freitag: But the picture does change. So, in that first -- in the five year period we
are in shall we say now, capacity heavy, second five year period regulatory
heavy.
De Weerd: So, Alex, I guess I'd put a third category in there in terms of -- first
you have growth, regulatory, and, then, replacement.
Freitag: Yes.
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De Weerd: Or, you know, due to depreciation, maintenance, those kind of
things. So, you actually have three areas. The regulatory is related to existing
and new growth. So, it's -- it's kind of neutral in that, but --
Freitag: Madam Mayor, correct. Yes. I would agree. I would say from -- from a
rate and assessment fee perspective, if we are -- if we are thinking in terms of
making sure that we get the revenue and the expense in the right bucket, if you
will, we think of growth and assessments together and, then, everything else
really ends up falling on the back of the ratepayer. So, yes, you're absolutely
correct.
De Weerd: Would be the regulatory.
Freitag: Correct.
De Weerd: Because it doesn't matter if you're growing or not.
Freitag: Yeah. Regulatory, replacement, optimization, any of those kinds of
things. Sure.
De Weerd: Other questions?
Borton: Yes. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: Maybe a question for Todd. Maybe for you. But in our monthly report --
and I think I e-mailed you about this, Todd, but there -- we used to have a line
item that referenced depreciation reserves in the Enterprise Fund and that's no
longer set out individually, so can either one of you refresh our recollection as to
where that --
Freitag: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, I actually
think I will let Todd field that one, only because I think he will be able to answer
the question a little clearer than I could on that.
Borton: Okay. Thank you.
Freitag: Sorry.
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, you're correct. The reports say you
had submitted to you -- just recently changed this last month where it went from
15 -- or 13.5 million to ten million dollars on your reserves I believe is what you're
referring to?
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Borton: Madam Mayor. It was -- it had split out emergency reserves,
depreciation, and a third one that escaped me.
Lavoie: That is correct. So, we have made that change this past month over
month, playing catch up. I believe I sent -- I believe we researched it and it was
a December 2015 decision --
Borton: Right.
Lavoie: -- that was in conjunction with Council that we would change it from 13.5
to the ten million dollar reserve as stated. So, the monthly reports were updated,
you know, I guess in -- in lieu of that decision the Finance Department in error did
-- updated their reports to recognize that decision 2015.
Borton: Madam Mayor? So, did the amount change or did the -- the bifurcated
reserves all get squished into one category?
Freitag: The reserve amount did change, Councilman, yeah. So, we were sitting
at -- I think the number was 17 million reserves and we went to ten million.
Borton: Okay.
Freitag: So, what that -- that consisted of a million in emergency reserves and
about nine million operation reserves, if I remember correctly.
Borton: Okay. Okay.
De Weerd: That's the technical term.
Borton: Okay. So, the -- Madam Mayor, the -- and I apologize if I'm repeating
stuff from 2015, but the difference -- that change in the reserves was expended
on capital projects?
Freitag: Yes.
Borton: Okay. Thanks. Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Bird: Good job.
De Weerd: Thank you, Alex.
Freitag: Thank you very much.
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E. Public Works: Invitation to Public Works Week
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item is Susie Dierdorf. Hi, Susie. Thank you for
joining us.
Dierdorf: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm here to bring the fun back.
I get to conclude the fun.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Dierdorf: We appreciate the Council's support of Public Works Week in the past
years' events and we would like to encourage your participation this year. This
year our theme is Public Works Connects Us. So, I'm here to formally invite each
one of you to participate in the 9th Annual Public Works Week events. As you
know, events of this magnitude don't happen by themselves . This is the
committee this year that is helping to plan all the events. This is just the
committee. It doesn't include all of Public Works and all of the vendors and
consultants that help make this happen . The Public Works Week is a series of
events designed to educate the public and our citizens and even our staff and the
community about what Public Works does. So, this is the timeline of the things
that are going to happen this year and I'm going to explain a few of them in detail.
We first pick up our week with the Poop Scoot. We start on Saturday, June 3rd,
at 8:30. Registration starting at 7:30 a.m. There is no entry fee for this fun event
where everybody gets to move, except for a non-perishable food donation to the
Meridian Food Bank. We have a trophy created for us by our wonderful st aff at
wastewater for the winner and we have generous prizes thanks to some of our
Public Works Week sponsors. We have also got a wastewater tour available at
the end of the race if you're interested. We do have one challenge this year.
Due to some construction in some of the parks that we usually have as part of
our route, we have had to step back and find a new route. So, we are still in the
process of that. So, we will have a new starting location. Will have a new
starting -- a new route. It should still end up at the wastewater plant. But we are
in the works right now trying to find that new location and so we will keep you
updated. The website will be updated with that information as it becomes
available. Next is our exciting Go With The Flow tour. That's on Wednesday, the
7th. It starts at 5:30. I know Councilman Palmer joined us last year and
Councilman Milam has joined in years past. The bus fills up quickly, so if you do
want to participate this year we have a new route , so there will be different things
to see. We have got the always popular water tower spot. We have got the new
state-of-the-art water treatment facility at our Well 27 and upgraded lift station at -
- at the South Black Cat lift station and we always finish at the ever-expanding
wastewater plant. This behind-the-scenes tour of the city infrastructure is always
well received by the attendees. We get rave reviews and high praises for all of
the city and for the staff at this event. And, finally, our cornerstone event, the
Expo. We take over the City Hall plaza. This year we have over 15 participants
and consultants, in addition to our Public Works Divisions. This is the largest
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number so far in our nine years of having these events. The fun and educational
activities are for adults and kids and they help you learn about what Public Works
does. We have got the big trucks and the heavy equipment for those fans. We
have got the hands-on displays for the people who like to learn by doing. We
have got many heavy equipment there and we have got the learning tour. You
get a chance to learn the building permit process and thanks to Home Depot and
their ever popular birdhouse event. And if you need an incentive to come, we
have free hotdogs and popcorn. In addition to the educational components of
Public Works Week, thanks to our generous Public Works Week sponsors and
their donations, we also are able to support several of our local Meridian
Community needs. Usually we end up sponsoring the Meridian Food Bank . This
year we are also going to contribute to the parks care to share scholarship
program and, again, this year we are going to donate to the community recycling
fund. So, I'd like to join -- ask you to join us at the Meridian Public Works Week
as Public Works Connects Us. And with that I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Susie. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Looking forward to it.
De Weerd: It's a great event and, you know, I think that I -- we recognize a lot of
work goes into that. But I believe that the community really appreciates the
opportunity to see what goes on under the ground and if you can't see it that
doesn't mean it's not there and it's not working. Usually when it's not working it's
above the ground, but I think -- I have heard a lot of public comments about the
pride that our -- our employees exhibit and the knowledge and -- and the comfort
that gives their citizens to know that they are being well taken care of in all of
their needs and the environmental stewardship is -- is reassuring as well. So, it
goes a long way. It may be a lot of work, but when something does go wrong
you have people that already believe in you and give you the benefit of the doubt .
So, this is a great program. So, thank you for all that is done.
Dierdorf: Thank you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Well, these are all really wonderful fun event s and the Go With The Flow
tour is awesome. So, my son just was -- he's a third grader and we were here
last week for at the City Hall tour and we had some -- you know, we had some
Public Works talking to us and, then, they went back and they created a -- they
had a questionnaire and it talked about their field trip and so what -- what would
you like your next field trip to be and his said he wanted to see the sewage
center and he drew a picture of it. That's what he called it. So, I know when we
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did the expansion that we would talk -- there was talks about tours with a school-
age children. Are you doing anything like that, scheduled with the school district?
Dierdorf: We currently I don't have scheduled tours, but anybody who wants to
go do a tour just needs to call our wastewater resource recovery facility and they
can schedule a tour and they give probably half a dozen a month or more. That's
just people saying we would like to see what you do.
Milam: Thank you.
Dierdorf: So, if the school wants to -- to go out there they can definitely call to
arrange that. It's under construction right now, so it's a little harder to get around
and hard hats and safety boots and things like that are required.
Milam: So, maybe next year, but --
Dierdorf: Maybe next year might be better.
De Weerd: I think we are constantly in a state of construction.
Dierdorf: We are. The ever expanding wastewater plant.
Milam: Anyway -- yeah. Kudos to your team.
Dierdorf: Thank you.
Milam: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you so much for the invitation and definitely will --
I won't be at your running event, but -- we will be there.
Dierdorf: Thank you.
Milam: Thank you. Robert.
Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I have been
threatening Kyle Radek for all year that I'm there to de-thrown him in the Poop
Scoop, so as we are getting a couple weeks closer I'm going to have to pick up
my pace if I'm going to do that, but -- I like that they put it at the front of the week,
instead of the back of the week on the Friday. So, that's good.
De Weerd: I think someone actually did beat Kyle. Who was that? Do you
recall? Austin Petersen. Okay. So, there is an opportunity and I hate to use this
word as it relates to Public Works, but he was dethroned before. Wah. Wah.
Wah.
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G. Mayor’s Office: Budget Amendments
1. State of the City Not-to-Exceed $10,447
2. Mayor’s Walking Club Not-to-Exceed $4,250
Simison: Madam Mayor, Council, before you you have two -- two amendments.
I just talked to them both, if that's okay, since they both are really the same type
of amendments. These are amendments which are from funds which are
sponsorship funds which have been raised to support the Mayor's State of the
City, as well as the Mayor's Walking Club specifically. Both of these
amendments are budget neutral and they do go to support the events , activities,
and programs that are taking place in the Mayor's office, ranging from the youth
scholarships, which you will see the winners for that here in a couple weeks.
They supported the MYAC travel costs. The chamber sponsorship, which I know
Councilman Palmer was able to represent the city in that group for those
purposes. We have some communications expenses to help improve our
communications here at the city in the electronics area. The Walking Club. Do
The Right. Banners for the Mayor's Youth Farmers Market, so we can put them
up on Main Street in Meridian to help draw attention to that, supporting that
activity. Traffic box art wrap. And the last Gowan Thunder on this list. We are
hopeful that we will get some more information about a city sponsorship for
Gowan Thunder. This will be -- help to offset that cost if the City Council wishes
to sponsor that event as well from that standpoint. So, with that I would be happy
to answer any specific questions you may have about these amendments.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing none, I move that we approve the budget amendment for the State
of the City not to exceed 10,447 dollars for the Mayor's office.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-G-1. 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.
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Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve the Mayor's Walking Club not to exceed 4,250 dollars
for the Mayor's office.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -G-2. Any questions
or discussion? Mr. Clerk.
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.
Simison: Thank you.
H. Mayor’s Office: Citizen Notification for Public Hearings
De Weerd: Thank you. Item 8-H is also -- you will be kicking this off? And I
know we have a couple of others that will join you.
Simison: That is correct, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm here to
bring up a topic which --
De Weerd: Thank you.
Simison: -- I know you all have had some comments from in the public in the
past. There was -- at some of the public hearings we have been doing. So, what
we are here to do is we are here to talk about the noticing of public hearings. As
I mentioned, you have heard some comments about this, whether it's people
saying they haven't seen a letter or a postcard, they might live outside the
noticing area. Maybe the sign wasn't -- the sign on the property wasn't a good
location. They don't receive the newspaper, so they don't see it, with Meridian
Press being our paper of record. So, Caleb -- we put together a group that
included the clerk's office, planning and Mayor's office to discuss some -- some
ideas to try to help improve our noticing requirement. So, we are going to talk
about a pilot program, but we are first going to have Caleb come up and discuss
our current noticing requirements, processes. I will talk a little bit about what we
are proposing and, then, C.Jay will walk you through an a ctual example. So, with
that I will turn it over to Caleb.
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Hood: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, so I'm here, as Robert just
mentioned, to give you a little bit of the background on what we currently do to
notice development applications. This is all -- it can be found if you want to
follow along. It's a Meridian City Code, Title 11, 5-A-6 has all of our public
hearing noticing requirements. So, the first part of that is we require applicants --
or potential applicants to hold a neighborhood meeting with all the property
owners that are within the 300 feet of external boundary of the property. They
need to invite those neighbors to a meeting. We don't dictate where that meeting
-- it doesn't have to be held at City Hall o r a school or a church nearby, but we do
encourage them to hold it near -- it could be even on site. Wintertime that makes
it a little bit more interesting, but, again, we -- they have to send out a letter --
prepare a letter basically inviting property o wners within 300 feet to meet up with
them at a time and a place to discuss their project. That notice has to be two
those property owners, again, no sooner than five days before that meeting.
After the meeting they can't submit an application back to us any sooner than five
days. The intent there is that they have heard the neighbors and maybe they
make some changes to their plan. So, you can't just hold it one night and submit
it the next morning. The idea is you got to think about any comments you m ay
have received. So, that's the first -- the first process are a neighborhood
meeting. That does expire four months after that meeting, so if you have a
neighborhood meeting in January and you want to submit now, you would have
to have another one, so they do expire as well. Once the application is submitted
we work with the clerk to send the postcards to those same 300 feet of -- the
property owners within 300 feet of the property. We provide the project
description and a list of those property owners to the clerk and, then, the clerk
works their magic and, you know, gets all the -- the postcard formatted and mail
merges that and sends those out. Typically those go out about 20 days before
hearing. Per hour ordinance it has to be at least 15 days. B ut the clerk's usually
ahead of that curve a little bit and 20 or 25 days is kind of more typical. We do
have in our ordinance a requirement to notice for heavy industry and cell towers
a thousand feet. So, those two uses we do go a greater distance than the 300
feet and, then, there is a discretion of the director for any application to notice
additional properties. The one time we have used that is when the gravel pit on
Overland near the freeway -- when that application -- we use that and we noticed
further than the 300 for that. But we use that pretty sparingly and don't -- we
typically just use the 300 foot for the postcard or radius notice. And, then,
regarding the newspapers -- or the -- excuse me -- the four-by-four signs, at least
ten days before the hearing the applicant has to post a four foot by four foot
public hearing notice sign. We have specs on how big each of the letters need to
be and what they need to say. Time. Date. Location. General project
description. And that needs to be placed on each roadway adjacent to their --
the project. So, if you have four streets, you're on a corner with internal streets,
you would put them on your property, but any -- near any roadway adjacent to
your project. Newspaper notice. Kind of the same thing. I will just note this is
the only form of notice that the state requires us to do, so everything that I have
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already told you about is in addition to , you know, us trying to be more
transparent and get the word out. It is -- it's not optional, because it's adopted in
our code, but we have chosen to implement those things. So, the newspaper
notice, again, is consistent with the Local Land Use Planning Act. At least 15
days prior to the hearing they have to publish in our newspaper and as Robert
mentioned that's the Idaho Press Tribune Meridian Press. So -- and, then, we
also have it on our website. So, we are trying to get more and more people --
direct them to our website and the clerk through searchable documents. You can
get -- see the application, review all the site plans, get the staff reports, once
those are already. So, there is a couple of different ways you can access that
information through the projects tab or the hearing tab, depending on when you
actually inquire about a project. And, then, the clerk also does a transmittal to all
the political subdivisions. So, the school district, ACHD, ITD, utilities, irrigation
companies, health department, all get a transmittal as well. So, that's pretty
much our current process. Oh, I did want to also let you know we do have
alternative forms of notice that we use occasionally. When we do a larger project
and more than 200 people are required to receive the notice, there's an
alternative form that we can use, we don't have to, but say there is a thousand
postcards that need to go out and we are like, eh, that's too many, we can do a
PSA, public service announcement, and do an additional notice in the newspaper
and that satisfies the -- it's in lieu of sending out the postcard. Again, we don't
use that very often, but sometimes we have done comp plan amendments or
large annexations that we initiate where it's kind of -- if you remember last year
we had like ACHD properties here and there. Well, you hit 50 at each one and
they were kind of a cleanup and so we used that this last year when we did some
of the enclave cleanup annexations. Moving right along. So, I just want to show
this to you. This is all of the development applications that you can submit to
planning. There are 14 types of public hearings. The process I just mentioned to
you, those are highlighted in yellow. Again, there is 14 under that process
column that require that public hearing process. Just quickly we have
administrative level applications, which don't require a public hearing. We have
public hearings and we have public meeting, which is, essentially, the same
thing, it's just not a noticed public hearing and, typically, there is not an
opportunity to provide public input, so -- to take public testimony, but that's at the
discretion of the Mayor and Council. So, a few of them are PMs. Again, you will
notice a final plat, it's not a public hearing, but we can take notice on that, but we
don't notice final plats, just as an example. The othe r thing I want to point out on
this slide is of those 14 one of them you don't get and that is a conditional use
permit and that would be for just a standalone conditional use permit. When --
let's say you want a conditional use permit for a daycare, but you also have a
subdivision to go along with that, you do hear that. But if it's just a daycare, that
just goes to the Planning and Zoning Commission. So, not to get to the punch
line, but the solution that we kind of developed that Robert's going to kind of
outline and C.Jay is going to kind of put some more details on, these are the 14
application types we propose to use . Some of them, quite honestly, people are --
probably don't care, but it was easier just to say all public hearings do it the same
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way. Get in the processor, rather than have an exception to the rule and say
don't -- don't notice for vacations of public utilities, although no one ever comes
to testify about that. We would just notice it on Nextdoor, like Robert is going to
explain to you, rather than have, again, the exception to the rule. Public hearing.
Raise it Nextdoor. So, with that, that is my portion and I will turn it back over,
unless there is any questions.
Simison: So, what -- what Caleb alluded to -- and I'm -- I'm sure you all read
your packet, so you already read the memo, so you knew the punch line was
coming anyways. But what we are proposing as a pilot project -- and by that I'm
going to -- from my standpoint the UDC is planning, but they are recommending
we are not going to change the UDC at this point in time to try something new,
because it's really a new edition and they would probably even recommend even
long term that some of these don't even get change d into the UDC for a couple
various reasons. But what we are recommending is a pilot project that has three
changes to the current process. The first is posting to Nextdoor. The second
would be to e-mail -- e-mail the postcard to the HOA association, whether it be
their property management company or address on file. And, then, a revision to
the postcard language that will hopefully -- A, it modernizes it a little bit. We still
have facts -- facts on there -- on the postcard, as well as information about their
responsibilities as the people getting the card to a certain extent. So, with that
I'm going to launch into the first -- the first one, which is Nextdoor. So, what we
are proposing is create a pilot project for six months. The reality is the
conversation is already occurring on Nextdoor about many projects. If it's
something the neighbors are concerned about, they are already talking about it
on Nextdoor. So, it makes sense to a certain point to have that. That's what
Nextdoor is -- is really set up to do. You know, it's a great way for neighbors to
communicate with each other about things going on . When I first -- the first draft
of the memo I wrote for the Mayor I had a number of 15,100 people were on
Nextdoor. Over the three weeks before it got in front of you we had 1,500 more
people in the community sign up on Nextdoor. So, people are continuing to go
that -- that direction, so there is now 16,000 users. It's also great, because the
information can exist in a stagnant location on Nextdoor to enable it to be easily
found by others. So, what we would propose doing is creating a post using the
project postcard that we will talk about and, then, a link to the application on
Nextdoor. We would share it to all the HOA groups within the project square
mile, using the arterial roadways that define that. When that would vary is if --
when we talk about the 300 square foot radius , so let's just put a project right on
a corner and let's say a home in all three corners of the 300 square foot radius
are the ones that are notified and they are all in HOAs that are identifiable on
Nextdoor as a group, we would also notice every -- all those groups from there.
Not the entire per square mile, just those specific groups from that standpoint.
But we are really talking about a square mile notification or HOA notification on
Nextdoor. The one house in that area would hit. And in that context we would
not take public comments on those. So, we would have the ability to lock it
down. It is just providing the information and the link to the application. But there
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will not be public comments at that location . It does not mean that there will not
be community comments that are -- could be started a thread on Nextdoor, but
that is -- as I mentioned, that's already occurring now, because it's not
uncommon for -- if an HOA gets these notices now I'm seeing more of them --
more of them posted on Nextdoor by the management association, which is
starting a conversation. So, with that I will go ahead and pause in case anybody
has any comments about that specific item. C.Jay will walk through kind of what
that looks like in a second.
De Weerd: I think the nice part about putting it on Nextdoor is you can also link it
to the -- the application. So, if someone else puts on a post, they can almost go
in and grab that and put it out there, which is one extra step of getting them the
information they need. Any questions on this one? Okay.
Simison: All right. The second one is to notify the HOA representative via mail,
e-mail when possible. So, this is just a screenshot. The Klamath Basin
Homeowners Association that's available on the Secretary of State's website.
That is one place that we would automatically go to to look and see what is on
file. We would also envision working with Jodi in the Mayor's office for -- if she
knows -- or has the list of property managers, associations, and who they
represent. The clerk's office would have that information, so if they -- when they
go on Nextdoor and they see the HOA, that they, too, could easily identify that
and get it to the property management association, because not everybody is in
the Secretary of State's website. It's hit and miss. But it's one easy way to do
that. This does require staff to identify the HOA, you know, and in addition to this
our Information Technology Department is working on making improvements to
our HOA database to where it's -- it's going to be moved into a web-based
system that's a little bit more dynamic than what has been in the form of GIS from
that standpoint. So, would allow more access and different access to information
if we are able to keep that up to date. HOAs are always changing with the
people. That is the -- that is the challenging part with this one, even if we go and
get them all one day and we think we got a great contact, it could be gone by
next year when we go to do a notice. So, this one we will do our best. Any
questions about that?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Robert, just for clarification, you're doing this in addition to the regular
mailings. This isn't replacing the traditional --
Simison: Correct.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you.
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Simison: And, of course, it's our hope that the appropriate person from the
property management company or the HOA person on record or the president,
they do something with this information, but at least we have notified someone
with authority within the HOA if we have the ability. So, the third item is the pilot -
- is the postcard revision and for this one we are really looking at the -- in this
case the second paragraph and the last little line. So, as I mentioned, we
updated to include e-mail testimony versus facts and, you know, hopefully, that
will get more people that -- when they read this they won't just go on talk on
Nextdoor that they want to do something that they will e-mail their comments in
proactively. Put in the hyperlink directly to the application and, then, the other
part is the last line we say applications are subject to change throughout the
public hearing process and it's incumbent on those who are interested to follow
the process in person, online, or by contacting city staff. You know, that is in
response to something where someone said, well, I saw it at this point in time
and it was fine and, then, it changed. This may not capture that all, but at least
it's a start to try to let people know, you know, the process can change and make
that part clear. So, with that I will see if you have any questions about this item.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, Robert, I think this is fantastic. I know a lot of effort has gone into
this. We have had a lot of concern from the public. I love this idea. Really glad
that we are moving forward so quickly on getting a change done. My only
thought on this -- this particular piece here would be -- especially if this is going
to be mass shared probably several times on Nextdoor, that we put the -- change
the language -- I mean to us it's like, okay, you know, we know what a C-G
zoning is and the CUP, but, actually, break that down and -- so that people have
a little bit more of an understanding -- not necessarily a definition, but just not
using the acronyms and using the words.
Simison: Madam Mayor, Council Member Milam, I'm going to turn that over to
others who -- I know the biggest issue is the size of the postcard. I had a hard
time getting what little word changes on it that we are suggesting, so if we need
to look at more explanation I think that's another question about no longer being
postcards and probably going to letters of some sort. That would be my guess,
but I'm going to let the clerk's office speak to the point, either now or when he
comes up in a second. Or Caleb.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Council Woman Milam, this is just an example. Charlie
Sheen I don't think has ever applied in the City of Meridian and we typically do --
for C-G we do typically put in -- parenthetically we do put general retail and
service commercial district or at least general retail and service district. So, this -
- this isn't exactly -- and you do see we do put in their conditional use permit after
CUP. So, we do try to make it so most people can understand just if you read
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this and don't go to the application itself, but we don't define, like you said, what
that means. I don't if that helps anybody. C-G, general retail and service
commercial, I know what that means, but you really don't. It's not intuitive. It's a
commercial zone. But we don't say commercial zone, because that's not it's --
Milam: A commercial zone is C-Z.
Hood: Yeah. So, we do -- again, typically we do have in parenthesis after each
zone the name of what that zone is.
Milam: That's all I'm asking. Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Maybe in light of Councilman Milam's point, the only other piece that I
would like to see is some call to action to testifying. So, how to testify as either
above the directions, maybe bolded. I think by and large people get stuff in their
mail and it's a quick glance and maybe they look at it, maybe they don't. So, an
easy identifiable way to come and testify to me would be a nice addition. Just my
two cents. But I agree with Council Woman Milam, this is a good step in the right
direction.
Coles: Madam Mayor, Council Member, Council Member Cavener, I don't know
on -- so, this is a sample of -- of Nextdoor that we are looking at right there. I
don't know that on Nextdoor you can bold items. I think it's just straight text as
far as my understanding goes in terms of its functionality. On the postcard I can
bring up a -- a copy of the postcard that we send out, which is very similar to
what we are putting on Nextdoor.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions or comments on this? Okay.
Coles: Here is what the front of the postcard looks like. You can see that we do
bold some -- some items that -- that take place there on the front of the postcard.
The back of the postcard has a vicinity map and, then, language similar to what
the Nextdoor post is. We don't have it currently bolded on the postcard, but
that's an easy change. We use Microsoft Publisher to create the postcards and
we could bold those items if that is a direction we would like to go to that create
action and make it easy for the eyes to see. Continuing on what our process
would be here. Should we go forward with the Nextdoor posting, which I believe
we are going to, is -- I have shortened some of the steps here, because I have
prepared for the meetings. You don't have to see where everything is located in
our folders internally, but here is what Nextdoor looks like internally as we create
posts. So, what we would do in the clerk's office is we would take that postcard
that you just saw a sample of there, we would create the post here. I would take
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the language from that postcard. Let me -- let me get that. We would drop it in --
drop it in here, which has the notice of public -- notice is hereby given. Has a
description of the project here as it is given to us from the planning division and,
then, we have down here again those -- those wishing to testify and that
language that we were just speaking about. I would then -- as the application
has been uploaded at this point already to searchable documents, I would go in
and grab that link unique to the application specifically and I would drop it in right
here and I selected the -- it looks like the project is actually coming up. It's the --
the Bannock Ridge Subdivision project, which will be coming before -- I think
Planning and Zoning Commission on their next meeting. Up here at the subject
line we would input City of Meridian notice of hearing and, then, this is where the
fun is for Nextdoor. We would open up the neighborhood selection. So, to give
you a sense of the maps that we look at to generate where we send the
postcards out to them -- I'm going to show you two. One is a vicinity map. This
is what actually goes on a postcard that is mailed out. What you see here is the
subject property that will be under discussion and review. The other map I'm
going to show you is the map of a 300 foot radius. These are the property
owners that live within 300 feet of the subject property that would receive the
mailing of the postcard about this project. Give you an idea of what that is for
this specific project. The mailing is 65 -- 64 properties or property owners that
would get that for this specific project. So, using this map and the 300 foot map
we were just looking at and going to Nextdoor and it's at the Locust Grove and
Victory. So, right in here. So, the affected property right there. Looks like it's in
the Meridian Greens Subdivision. So, that's the subdivision you would select.
Then, again, continuing to look at the properties, we actually cross over Victory
Road into the south there. So, I'm going to select that subdivision. And, then,
this subdivision, because there was a few properties right here, but you can see
it selects the entire subdivision. It's not property specific. It's a subdivision. And,
then, continue with the square mile that was closest , which is Los Alamitos and,
then, again, that crosses over Locust Grove and, then, Sportsman Point. So,
that square mile, plus other affected properties and, then, we have grabbed
those subdivisions wholly. So, we had a mailing that was going to go out to 64,
65 property owners. Sending this particular Nextdoor post out we are looking at
almost 2,000 -- 1,800 residents that would receive this. So, you can see the
benefit of Nextdoor that way. I'm actually -- we are going to close the replies
here, as Robert said. We would not accept any public comment or replies on this
post and we direct individuals how to -- to reply or provide comment to our e-mail
address or written testimony to our off ice. I'm also not actually going to post the
message, because, then, it would go out, but that is the process that we would
use to create a Nextdoor post.
Simison: So, with that I think that concludes at least the presentation of the three
items. I did tell Caleb I would save this, so he didn't have to. We don't know
what the impacts of this are going to be to staff time. You know, at least in the
Planning Department. If you notify 1,800 people are we going to have 1,800
people, then, call Planning and Zoning and say what's going on with this project?
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So, that's part of the reason why we are doing this as a pilot project. We can see
how beneficial it is. Maybe we are overshooting with our notification and we
need to undershoot to bring it down. You know, if the calls are just coming in,
they are really not people that know -- understand. So, we -- we try this for six
months, we see how it goes, see what the impacts are and maybe it's -- maybe it
answers all their questions and it reduces staff time. You know, we don't know
the answer to that question. But we are not recommending making changes to
the radius notice of mailed postcards at this time. Technology seem to be a way
a lot of people are getting it and, you know, we think this is the best way to
proceed forward at this time. I will be happy to answer any questions you have.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Robert, it sounds like you and the team have put a lot of thought into
this. I'm just curious if you can share what's a scenario in which we wouldn't
want to continue doing this after six months? The staffing issue I think that can
be addressed, but I'm just --
Simison: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I think that's part of it, you know.
If it comes to the point where community development is just spending all their
time answering phone calls from people and if Council doesn't want to give them
a new staff member to do that, to answer phone calls from people, those are the
type of questions I think that would be to ask. There is also I think some -- we
have talked about some -- maybe some unintended consequences to this
process. Missing people. You know, expectations of people. It is a manual
process. If we are -- if it's -- for whatever reason and purpose this -- while it
seems very intuitive, maybe we are making a lot of manual mistakes and it's not
worth it from that standpoint. Those might be some things. I would hope that we
have the ability and capability, but you obviously see not everybody is on
Nextdoor. Not everybody has a Nextdoor account. You know, this maybe a way
to address this, but when it's all said and done maybe the true answer is just
expanding the radius to 500 feet versus -- or a thousand feet to get to the heart
of the issue from that standpoint. So, I think those will be the things. But I'm not
saying we wouldn't still use Nextdoor, but maybe we don't do it the same way.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: That time is really an opportunity to work out the kinks and see how
well it's functioning and even if Nextdoor still is out there, we think it's going to be
-- it's been well used -- certainly in our area, but it's also something that is
external that we don't control.
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Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: In light of this, Robert or Madam Mayor, for the team, I recognize the
six month pilot. Is it your intention to come back to us in six months? Is it the
intention to come back in three months and give us an update as to how things
are progressing? Can you shine some light on it as far as logistics?
Simison: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I don't think that we -- I think that
we will see how it's going. If we see a big problem right away you will probably
find out. I think that you all should be the best judge of that to a certain extent by
what you are seeing or hearing from the community in testifying. You know, if we
continually hear from people that they weren't notified, that they didn't see things,
you know, I -- we all get Nextdoor. There is some things on Nextdoor I look at
and some I don't. So, this may or may not be the solution, but I think at a
minimum we -- we would have some sort of an update at that point in time.
De Weerd: I think if we are going to say it's a six month pilot project you will --
you will get some kind of an update in six months.
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Yes. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Robert didn't mention.
Legal is part of this as well and -- and I think this is kind of the best I think we
could try to really expand the notice, but we do -- you know, part of the
conversation with you today is to understand you're going to have people come
in front of you, just like they have been saying about the current state of notice
that they get, that they didn't get Nextdoor, they didn't see Nextdoor, they didn't
get the notice. Their neighbor did, they didn't. You know, again, we looked at,
you know, would this be the solution to expand the radius notice? Well, that's
easy. I mean there is some expense to it. It's a lot less staff intensive than --
than this particular is, but someone that's a thousand and one feet away doesn't
get the notice, too. I mean it's the same issue. It doesn't change. So, you know,
understanding when you have folks in front of you in these public hearings that
part of the -- you know, what we try to do on the staff side and what you folks will
probably have to do occasionally is educate the public of , well, that -- this -- you
know, again, we are trying this. This is a pilot program. This is a courtesy notice.
These are things that we are trying to see of a way to get it out there. Like
Robert said, we really don't know if this will have a huge impact to staff time or
not, but we thought as a group when we were collectively discussing this that this
would at least get us a little further down the road in getting the public's attention
to projects and at least that issue may not be quite as prevalent for them,
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especially since the volume of projects is increasing greatly, we thought this was
a good time to try it.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from Council?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, when we had the most recent project where this seemed
to be a lot of the people's complaints, I feel like their complaints that -- that they
used the avenue of we didn't get enough notice as their reasoning for wanting a
new hearing, when, really, the issue that's addressed with that new sentence that
it's incumbent on the interested persons to follow the process through, rather
than just go to the neighborhood meeting and assume that what they were told is
going to be the final word. As Bill pointed out, no matter how far we expand
there is always going to be the next neighbor that didn't get it and so I think this is
a good way to still increase getting the word out without , hopefully, increasing a
lot of expense through staff time, but I think expansion of noticing wasn't really
the issue, it was just a means to try to get a new hearing for that particular
situation. I like it.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Robert, if you stated it and I missed it. I apologize. Do we have a
start date or a start hearing for this six months? Or C.Jay.
Coles: We could -- Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member
Little Roberts, we could start it as soon as next -- the next available hearing.
Little Roberts: Great. Thank you.
Coles: Okay. Thank you very much.
Borton: Madam Mayor, can I --
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: -- offer two cents as well? One, thank you very much for following up on
this from that last meeting. We can always at least explore doing thi ngs better. I
don't know how it would be done, but if there is some means over the course of
the next six months to have some outreach to some of the communities over the
past year that none have expressed concern I'd love to hear a compilation of the
citizens' complaints or concerns with noticing as it applied to them. We heard at
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the last one, you know, signs falling down or being obstructed by snow or -- it's
just a different approach to hear from the consumer . You know, what should go
on a postcard? Right? We -- we think we know what should go on a postcard
and we give a whole bunch of text, but to the recipient is that what is going to
make them investigate? You know, perhaps not. Perhaps you can cut out half
the text, have larger bold or have things in color and make it not look like a
government form, but something that might make them inquire further. I would
be interested to hear all of those comments. I think we might come up with
something that none of us would think about. If we are tryi ng to encourage and
incentivize somebody who gets a postcard or drives by a sign to take action -- if
they choose not to, they choose not to. But we want to give them the best
opportunity to know to look further. There might be some -- some out-of-the-box
ways of providing notice, either what goes on a four -by-four sign or how the
postcard is laid out that -- that we haven't yet thought about. So, I think all this is
great, but it's just a huge opportunity, you know, for the City of Meridian to do
some of these things different than everybody else. Maybe the citizens might
have some input on that.
De Weerd: Caleb.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just quickly on -- on that and we are certainly
willing to -- at least I am to put together, you know, some of these folks that have
contacted me or the Mayor's office complaining about how the process is broken
and maybe how it could be better. I do want to just let the Council know some of
the things we do are antiquated, but we did just within the past couple of years
change the noticing on the four-by-four sign. Before it -- now it says notice of
public hearing is the biggest thing. Before it was like -- it was -- I can't even
remember what it was like before. But we have flipflopped. Gener ally the same
information, but we formatted it differently because we are hearing from people
like I'm driving by at 40 miles an hour, I can't see the phone number. So, we
made the phone number contact planning bigger and the phone number bigger,
kind of stood out more and so we have tweaked it that way. I will also just point
out -- and C.Jay wasn't in the clerk's office yet, but two and a half years ago,
roughly, we went to the postcard instead of a letter, so you don't even have to
open it up. You know, you pick it up and the information is right there, because,
again, people were complaining, oh, it says from the City of Meridian, round file
it. So, you have made those changes fairly recently, just on a couple of -- not to -
- again, not that we can't always improve on that.
Borton: Right.
Hood: Some of the text we have to -- we have to put on there. Some basic
information. But I just wanted to -- we are trying to improve and make it more
user friendly and -- and both of those changes at least are fairly recent. That's
all.
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Borton: That's great.
De Weerd: Yeah. Fairly recent within the last half dozen years. Time flies when
you're having fun. Yeah, it is a constant evolution of how we can do better. I
think this one is using the -- the tools that our neighbors are out there utilizing
and so since they are already on them, we are hoping that it will get you a bigger
bang for your buck. We haven't gotten a lot of complaints. I think that the -- the
recent ones -- they did come with solutions and some ideas and feedback that
have been followed up on. So, we will continue to test case this, pilot project,
and see if -- if, indeed, along the way it's making an impact.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Doing so we are not codifying that would leave the city vulnerable if we,
then, fail to take a particular step that a hearing has to be renoticed -- we don't
want to set ourselves up in that regard. I presume this is -- this is above and
beyond -- not required by code, so if something, for example, doesn't get posted
to Nextdoor it doesn't require an automatic rehearing or --
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the only thing I asked for from the
Legal Department side was we not put it in the code. One, we don't know if
these platforms will last. We don't know if these are effective. And for that exact
reason, Council Member Borton, I didn't want that being -- once we put it in the
code we are required to do it and we will miss something, we won't know that, so
that was our number one ask, so --
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Simison: Thank you.
I. Clerk’s Office: Paws in the Park Dog Fair Fee Waiver
Request
De Weerd: 8-I is under our clerk's office.
Coles: Just want to get my exercise by coming down here. Madam Mayor,
Members of the Council, thank you. If you recall, last fall'ish I came before you
as we were updating our dog license agreements with our vendors -- our
veterinary vendors that sell dog licenses and we had mentioned that we were
toying with the idea of -- of doing a dog fair at Storey Dog Park. Storey Bark
Park. Excuse me. That's the official name. And a team of us have worked
together to put this event together. During that discussion we talked about -- or
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toying with the idea of offering free licenses on that day for dog owners that don't
know they need to license their dog or they have failed to license their dog or
their license has lapsed and they have yet to renew their license -- in an effort to
increase the number of licensed dogs we have in the city. We estimate, with the
police department's help, about 17,000 or so dogs within the City of Meridian and
if we are lucky we get a quarter of those licensed every year. So, we wanted to -
- we want to increase the number of licensed dogs we have within the city, so
that the Idaho Humane Society or animal control have that information. Should
they pick up a lost dog they can quickly return that dog to their owner. So,
working through that idea of having a dog fair to do that on May 20th is when we
are having this event -- this dog fair and free dog licensing opportunity. I realize
that at that meeting when we talked about -- and toyed with the idea of offering
free licenses that we didn't actually get Council's approval to -- on the record to
offer free licenses on that day. So, that's why I'm here before you today is to
make sure that that sentiment with Council was accurate , that I interpreted that
correctly, that Council would like to see this event happen with offering free
licenses on that day. I do want to run through a couple of scenarios with you to
make sure we understand what we are offering free licenses for. So, it's for
spayed and neutered dogs only, which is the sixteen dollar license. That's what
are we are offering, the free license for. We did receive a comment from a
citizen who became aware of the event and they had already registered their dog
and paid the 16 dollar fee to license their dog this year and they were upset
about that. So, in thinking about that we thought we could at the event , if you
show up to the event and you have already licensed your dog this year, that we
can provide from the clerk's office a stamped certificate saying, yes, you actually
came to the event on the day of . If you hang onto this stamped certificate and
you mail that in with your license next year, we will honor that free -- that free
license, because you came to our event. So, we will waive the fee, with Council's
approval, next year should they have that certificate, because they showed up to
this event. And on that theme, if someone shows up to the event with their
spayed and neutered dog, but they haven't brought proof of spayed or neutered,
because we need proof that that actually has happened, we would like to offer
that same certificate to -- or a version thereof to that dog owner to come to our
office, bring that certificate to the clerk's office and redeem their free dog license ,
because they took the time, brought their dog to show up to the event to -- to
receive that license. So, we would like to invite all of you to come out on May
20th at Storey Bark Park for this event.
De Weerd: Bring your dogs.
Coles: Bring dogs. We have all sorts of fun vendors lined up, both for those that
already have dogs and those that might be interested in becoming a dog owner .
The Meridian Canine Rescue just recently opened and they will be bringing some
of their adoptable dogs for those that may not yet have a dog, but are looking to
get a fury companion. So, anyway, we have got a lot of fun vendors lined up for
that day. But I will stand for any questions that you might have.
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Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: C.Jay, it sounds to me like we are not going to -- we don't need to charge
any fees at all for spayed or neutered dogs. If you're going to retroactive ones
that are already purchased, why do we even have a -- and if you are going to
give them out free -- which I don't have any problem with it. Don't give me
wrong. I want to see the dogs registered. But why do we even have a -- a fee if
you can have them retroactive, if you -- if you already bought it, you will give us
next year's free or -- if you come out there the 20th you're going to get your
license free; right?
Coles: Correct.
Bird: And I'd just give the license -- if you got a spayed or neutered dog, give
them a license.
Coles: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird. So, the --
the intent with this event is to increase the number of licensed dogs that we have
with -- within the city. So, it's a one-day only, three hours only event in which we
are looking to waive the fee. The intent with retroactively providing the license --
the free license is if someone takes the time to actually come down to the event
and they say, oh, darn it, I didn't realize I could have gotten a free license on that
day, I have already paid for that license, but I have taken the time to come to this
fun dog event. We wanted to make sure that it was fair and equitable to all
involved if they took the time to come to the event. That's what -- that was our
intention in providing that proposal.
De Weerd: Well, you want to build your database, so that every year you have
that -- those additional addresses. There is a cost to animal control and these do
help offset some of those costs, so it's -- it is just to -- to build the -- the number
of licensed dogs.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, I think this is great that you're doing this. I -- I'm sure that
everybody's not going to show up, but I hope a lot of people do. On Nextdoor I
am overwhelmed by the amount -- I think the number one post is found dogs or
lost dogs all day long. Found a dog. Lost a dog. Found a dog. Lost a dog.
Probably like 30 a day, which -- just within the people that are posting to my
neighborhood. So, hopefully, this will prevent some of that and clean it up , so
that we could see more important things, like public hearings is coming up. So, if
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somebody comes there to -- and they don't have their -- their space or neuter --
do you have something specific you're going to give them to bring in ?
Coles: That is correct. Yes.
Milam: Okay. So, anybody can't randomly come and say, oh, I forgot my thing
and I went to the park.
Coles: Correct. They need to bring -- they need to bring that certificate that we
give them, along with the proof of spayed or neutered.
Milam: All right.
De Weerd: Ms. Holman.
Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, our thoughts were -- with this
first year we have a legitimate complaint from a lady that said I just paid for mine.
So, I didn't know about this event. Well, this is the first year we have done it. So,
I think this first year it is acceptable -- or it's totally understandable to say we
have never had this once a day -- one day a year event before, so you can get a
free one. I don't know that that's something we would do every year and say --
you know, we could have lots of people that -- what we are trying to do is public
outreach, education, get people who have never licensed them before to bring
them in for the first time you license your dog, it's free, now we have got you in
our database, we can send you reminders every year, all that. But for this first
year it was a illegitimate complaint, I didn't even know there was a free event.
So, anyhow, that was kind of our thoughts behind that.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think that we probably have the most four-legged friendly Council in
Meridian's history. We are all dog lovers. I appreciate this event. I think it's
great that we are trying to grow our licenses by having people bring their dogs to
the event. I think it would be a great event whether we did free licenses or not. I
appreciate the intent of licensing people for free there. I have to say, I'm with
Councilman Bird, if we are going to start creating all sorts of exceptions, then,
have it be dog month and everybody can come in and get a license for the
month. To try and carve out all these special times and special exceptions I just
think that we are going to run into a lot of issues and I appreciate the intent
behind it, I just -- I see this becoming a mess. I also think that if this is
something that we are planning to do this year, I guarantee the dog -- we know
this. The dog community speaks to each other and people are going to say,
man, there was this great event in the park and I got Sparky licensed for free and
next year everyone is going to say, boy, we can't wait for Paws in the Park,
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because we are going to come bring our dog and get them licensed for free. So,
just think that -- you know, I always talk about precedent and so if this Council --
whatever we are in favor of supporting now, think about giving something away
and nobody gets upset until you take it away, so I think you just need to be
prepared for long-term decisions based on what we decide we want to do. I for
one support licensing at the event for people who haven't licensed and bring their
dogs and that's it.
De Weerd: All kinds of opinions. So, we are -- we are looking for direction and I
-- I think the conversation is -- is great and I don't know if this is an event that you
plan on -- or an opportunity you plan on offering every year or if this is a one -
time-only. What it does raise is on our dog park we should have some kind of
signage that dogs should be licensed. That will at least allow people to know, oh,
I didn't know there was a dog license. So, just -- it kind of -- during the
conversation as I -- wow, they are coming to this thing, I don't even know if the
dogs within our park are licensed and they should be.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think this is about the same conversation we had a year ago, some of this
stuff reminds me of last year when we were talking about it. But I don't -- I don't
mind giving the free license and stuff, but it would be nice to get them registered
and everything, but, you know, if I -- if I'm one of the guys that I -- January 1st
come in here and purchase a 16 dollar deal and, then, I can read about it in the
paper that if I had waited until May 20th I would have got my 16 dollars free, I
would think the Mayor's office would get a call real fast, so --
De Weerd: Well, excuse me, it would be from the Mayor.
Bird: Yeah. Because you purchased yours.
De Weerd: I did.
Bird: And so did -- I got a grandson that did, too, so -- anyway I think it's a great
idea to get them licensed. Hopefully -- hopefully we can get more than 25
percent licensed in the city.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: C.Jay, this is already out; correct?
Milam: Yes, that's what I was going to say.
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May 9, 2017
Page 57 of 63
Bird: Yeah.
Borton: The ship has sailed. This -- May 20th we are going free licenses. The
big question is afterward you will see what worked and didn't. Just -- it might
make sense to not represent this will be the annual event to do free licenses if --
De Weerd: And this was brought up when C.Jay brought this whole program out
there, so it's just coming back. Any additional comments? I guess since it is out
there I -- I don't know if you're really seeking approval. I guess what would be
important to bring back is after this event what was the response and what is
your recommendation moving forward. Okay. Any other -- any other takeaways
or things that you would like to have brought?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I imagined it as maybe -- if it was something that we -- after a year
maybe as having some data as to how many of those people -- if we track who
got the free one and how many of them came and paid for the second year, that
it may be something that we do every year five years, so that they know they are
not going to be able to just get it free every year, as long as the y show up to the
event, but that every five years we do it as an attempt to try to get some of the
unlicensed ones licensed, especially if it does prove that a lot of those who got
the free one, then, did the right thing the next year.
De Weerd: All kinds of opportunities to bring information back . Okay. Thank
you, C.Jay.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Did we answer the question I think that C.Jay asked. Are we -- are we
providing special circumstances for people that have already registered or for
people who show up, but don't have the proper documentation.
De Weerd: That's a good question. I think you're just saying right here is it's free
-- it's free if you come and you bring your receipt.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
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Page 58 of 63
Milam: I, honestly, don't think a whole lot of people are going to show up in this
window of time just to get 16 bucks back that they have spent a few months ago
and a few may and I think that that's the Meridian way, I mean I think it's -- I don't
think it's a huge deal. I don't think you're talking about a ton of money or a ton of
work for anybody and it keeps people happy. It's customer service. I just don't
see what the problem -- what the big deal is. We are advertising that. So, first of
all, we are not putting out there, hey, if you have already paid for this, come on
by and we will -- we will get you for next year. There is going to be a few people
that happen to feel like, oh, darn it, I already did this. I don't -- I don't think it's
going to be mass numbers. I could be wrong.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I think by going with the plan that you've already got , that you can,
you know, get a free year next year. It's going to give us information. I agree
with Councilman Milam, I don't think we are going to have many people do that.
For one, I wouldn't think, you know, a lot of people would think it was worth their
time. So, either they want to go or they don't and I would say let's go with your
plan and bring us some information back. If you get inundated with people that
want free licenses, then, plan B for next year.
Milam: Do it again. Whatever.
Little Roberts: Yeah.
Borton: Once you give a dog one free thing --
De Weerd: Once you give a bog a done -- bone.
Borton: Two things the dog is going to want a doggie pad, treats --
De Weerd: Oh, my gosh. We can make any subject really -- all kinds of --
Bird: We can take a fine minute subject and make it five hours. Go get her
done.
Borton: Make it happen.
Milam: Good job, C.Jay.
Borton: Thank you, C.Jay.
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Page 59 of 63
De Weerd: So -- now, wait. Did we have clear direction here? Is this only for
the day only and not for those that have existing license or don't bring their proof
of spayed or neutered?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: At least we can make a decision on that. Mr. Bird.
Bird: It says in the advertisements, which ha s gone out -- and I have seen out --
free for one year. Please bring receipt or proof of spayed, neuter if applicable.
De Weerd: What does that mean?
Bird: It means that if you show up and have your --
De Weerd: If applicable.
Bird: -- and have your certificate that says the dog is either neutered or spayed,
then, you get the license free; is that not right?
Coles: The -- Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, the
receipts -- the intention behind that is not our receipt, it was receipt for having the
proof of spayed or neutered.
Bird: That's what I mean. From the -- from the veterinary --
Coles: Correct.
Bird: -- saying that they have been spayed or neutered. It don't say anything
about bringing in your receipt from the city and we will give you back 16 dollars
next year.
Milam: Right.
Coles: That was not -- yeah. That wasn't a scenario --
Bird: And that don't say that, so I would just go with what that says.
De Weerd: Yes?
Borton: Agree.
De Weerd: Okay. So, it's just going to be for the day only. This event --
Coles: Okay.
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De Weerd: Okay?
Coles: Very good.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Coles: Thank you.
Item 9: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 17-1727: An Ordinance (H-2016-0102
Firenze Plaza) For Annexation for a Parcel Located in
the Southeast One Quarter of the Southeast One Quarter
of Section 29, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise
Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as Described in Exhibit A
and Annexing Certain Lands and Territory, Situated in
Ada County, Idaho and Adjacent and Contiguous to the
Corporate Limits of the City of Meridian as Requested
by the City of Meridian; Establishing and Determining
the Land Use Zoning Classification of Said Lands from
RUT to C-C (Community Business District) (16.33 Acres)
and R-8 (Medium Density Residential District)(24.05
Acres), in the Meridian City Code; Providing that Copies
of this Ordinance Shall be Files with the Ada County
Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State
Tax Commission, as Required by Law; And Providing
for a Summary of the Ordinance; and providing for a
waiver of the reading rules; And Providing an Effective
Date.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-A is ordinance 17-1727. Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
read this by title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 17-1727, an
Ordinance file number H-2016-0102, Firenze Plaza, for annexation for a parcel
located in the southeast one quarter of the southeast one quarter of Section 29,
Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise meridian, Ada county, Idaho, as
described in Exhibit A and annexing certain lands and territory, situated in Ada
county, Idaho and adjacent and contiguous to the corporate limits of the City of
Meridian as requested by the City of Meridian; establishing and determining the
land use zoning classification of said lands from RUT to C-C, Community
Business District, 16.33 acres, and R-8, Medium Density Residential District,
24.05 acres, in the Meridian City Code; providing that copies of this ordinance
shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the
Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; and providing for a summary of
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May 9, 2017
Page 61 of 63
the ordinance; and providing for a waiver of the reading rules; and providing an
effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard -- yeah. Do I have a motion.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 17-1727 with suspension of rules.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-A. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk,
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 10: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Upcoming events. You have an opportunity for free fishing at
Settlers Park, on Thursday, May 11th, from 4:00 to 8:00. The library district has
a food truck rally on Saturday, May 13th, from 4:00 to 8;00 at City Hall. And
remember every Monday you have Meridian Mondays starting at 6:00 right out
there in the plaza. Is there anything further?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Hoping to maybe get a quick update, Steve provided strategic plan
update as part of the annual report. I would have liked to have been able to have
reviewed this strategic plan via the web portal before his presentation. Do you
have an update as to when we will be able to -- to log into that? You shared that
we would maybe have access in mid April and April is come and went. Just
hoping to have an update.
De Weerd: Right. Well, we are still working with the -- the strategic plan,
because it hasn't been approved. So, I will be getting an e-mail out tomorrow.
We would like -- as we talked on Friday, we don't know how much time we need
to schedule for Council to go through the objectives. So, I will be getting the plan
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May 9, 2017
Page 62 of 63
out as it is with all the updates from the directors and ask if they are -- which
items we have your feedback and we have some from Councilman Borton and I
believe Councilman Palmer. But if you will just give us a better indication of what
of those objectives that we will want discussion on, so I even know what directors
to have here. What we thought we would do is do the discussion by focus areas
and so we may just put those on various City Council meetings by focus areas.
We will group the ones that don't have as much discussion and -- and try to do it
all in that fashion. So, I will get that out to you and -- but we are waiting to -- to
get feedback before staff goes through and does a lot of work on it and get those
updates in. So, we want an approved plan before we get in there.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: So, the portal is complete, we just don't have access?
De Weerd: It's not complete. It still has some updates to do.
Cavener: Okay.
De Weerd: Ms. Holman, do you want to make any comments?
Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, technically, yeah, the access
would be complete, but right now you wouldn't be seeing fully updated data. So,
that's what I think Madam Mayor was referring to is getting the direction on the
plan, going back, letting us make those updates and, then, providing the access
to.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, maybe a question for Jaycee. Jaycee, will there be a
difference in what the Mayor has said she's going to send to us versus what we
would be able to see in the portal?
Holman: I don't understand the question. What are you asking?
Cavener: I'm -- the question I'm asking is the data that the -- the Mayor has
indicated she's going to send us to look at for comment, is that different than
what we would be able to see in the portal?
Holman: Yes, it is. Right now we haven't made those changes. There has been
a lot of discussion and I filled out that spreadsheet that got sent around where I
had the column that had director feedback. What they wanted change d, Council
want -- what they wanted changed, but it has not been changed in their -- all of
those suggested changes, because they haven't been agreed upon.
Cavener: Okay.
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Page 63 of 63
De Weerd: Okay. I will get an e-mail out to all of you tomorrow. Okay. If there
is nothing further, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Bird: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:10 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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