2018-06-13 Budget WorkshopMeridian City Council Meeting Agenda Wednesday, June 13, 2018 – Page 1 of 1
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1.
BUDGET WORKSHOP AGENDA
City Council Chambers
33 East Broadway Avenue
Meridian, Idaho
Wednesday, June 13, 2018 at 1:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X Anne Little Roberts X Joe Borton
X Ty Palmer X Treg Bernt
__X___ Genesis Milam __X___ Luke Cavener
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted
3. City of Meridian FY2019 Budget Presentation Workshop
Adjourned at 5:11pm
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Meridian City Council - Budget Workshop June 13, 2018.
A Budget Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 1:00 p.m.,
Wednesday, June 13, 2018, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Genesis Milam, Luke Cavener, Ty
Palmer, Anne Little Roberts, and Treg Bernt.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt
__X___Genesis Milam __X___Lucas Cavener
__X_ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and start this Budget Workshop. For the record it is
Wednesday, June 13th. It's two minutes after 1:00 will start with roll call attendance, Mr.
Clerk.
Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda.
De Weerd: Okay. Two is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we adopt the agenda as published.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 3: City of Meridian FY-2019 Budget Presentation Workshop
De Weerd: Item 3 is turned over to Jenny.
Fields: All right. All right. Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
Welcome to your FY-2019 Budget Workshop Number One. I'm going to be walking
through some changes that have been made after we delivered the Mayor's budget
proposal. So, in front of you I have handed out a packet of changes. So, we will go
over them really quick. First notable change is a decrease to an enhancement called
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Harvest Transit Contribution. You will find this enhancement in the Other Government
tab in your workbook or your budget book. What happened here is a -- an automobile
insurance policy quote that we received from Valley Regional Transit. It was a lower
cost, so it was a reduction to this enhancement by 1,440 dollars. If you want to go to
that section of your workbook and replace the Harvest Transit enhancement with this
new updated version. With that change -- a change into the summary sheet. That was
submitted to you. So, in your summary section of your workbook the next series of
papers that's bundled with a paperclip, replace under your summary tab. So, all those
that are in your summary tab, please, replace that. Should be in your first -- very first
tab. The whole tab. All right. The next item is the assigned vehicle listing. This is just
an additional information that we would like to provide. So if you don't mind inserting
this in -- under your supporting document tab. It is the last tab in your workbook. And I
also provided you with the updated presentation schedule for today and tomorrow and
our July Workshop that I supplied to you earlier. So, with that -- is everybody ready?
Okay. So, what I would like to talk to you about --- well, I provided the information and,
then, I'm going to talk to you about how -- how did we get here today and what will be
presented to you over the next two days and what is needed of Council between today,
tomorrow, and the July workshop. So, how did we get here today? Well, it all started in
February. We -- the budget process started in February. Finance delivered the first
draft budget to all the departments. In March we -- the Mayor, departments, and City
Council reviewed and discussed our base budget items. As a group we discussed all
the base budget line items in detail in March and, then, in May the Mayor and
departments and Finance delivered our FY fiscal year -- fiscal year 2019 Mayor's
proposal. Budget proposal. As you can see, a lot of time -- a lot of time and effort has
been put into this -- how we got here today. Developing the annual budget is definitely
a team effort and I just want to thank everybody for a great job. So, what will be
presented for the next couple of days. Over the next two days the departments will
present their vision and mission statement, budget dollars at work. This is what they will
be talking to you about what was accomplished during this fiscal year 2018, what the
funds that were provided to them. They are going to talk to you and present to you their
enhancements that were provided to you in your FY-19 Mayor's budget proposal. Then
the road ahead. You will have the departments providing to you a sneak peak of items
that will be presented to you in the future year. So, what do we want of Council today,
tomorrow, and the next budget workshop? We would like you to ask questions. We will
have clarification. Communicate with city staff and fellow Council Members. We would
like to see all outstanding inquiries, questions or concerns resolved before our July 12th
budget workshop, so that we can establish a balanced budget proposal to our citizens.
We will be presenting to you a lot of information over the next two days. We need
Council -- you to feel as comfortable as you can with the budget that is proposed to the
citizens. Please ask questions, request clarification, and just communicate with -- some
of the answers to your questions and/or information that you have requested, either
today or tomorrow, may not be readily available, but we will follow up with that -- with
the information and we will provide you with the responses prior to our July workshop.
With that I will turn it over to our CFO.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Before we begin I just -- I think all of the Council certainly appreciates Jenny.
The work you did leading up to today, in particular, trying to round us up and asked us to
come meet with you and provide input and guidance and answer questions and kind of
-- sort of forcing that issue a bit, which I think was really helpful, so that was much
appreciated.
Lavoie: Well, good afternoon, guys. Fiscal '19 budget. I hope everyone is excited
about it. We have put a lot of time and effort into this. We look forward to it every year.
Again, we have appreciated everybody's time, like Jenny stated. We have many staff
members that have put a lot of effort into this balanced budget, which we are proud of.
With that I'm going to briefly go over what is presented to you within the book itself. So,
my agenda today is going to discuss the revenue sources and how we got there for the
General Fund and the Enterprise Fund for you. Fiscal 2018 considerations, property
tax, compensation, medical benefits. And, then, we will also make a high level view of
the Mayor's budget proposal as submitted to you, i.e., the summary sheets that we just
submit it to you for inclusion into your books. Then, of course, anytime you have
questions, feel free to interrupt me at anytime if you want to discuss anything. We have
the subject matter experts here. Again, as Jenny stated, if we can't get you the answer
right then, again, we will do our due diligence and get you the information as necessary,
so we can get you the answer of your request. So, with that I will start off with revenue.
Fiscal year 2019 revenue, I'm going to start off with the General Fund. So, if you want
to look at your summary sheet, it would be the first one that Jenny offered to you. It
should say General Fund at the top. I'm going to briefly discuss the information that we
used to calculate the revenue for fiscal year '19. The presentation I have on the screen
for you does not include impact fees. Impact fees are a restricted revenue source with
restricted expenses. We really don't take those into consideration when we are
balancing this budget, because we have to do that separately. We can't spend more
than what we have on the restricted side, so just know that these numbers do not
include the impact fee revenues or expenditures. So, with that, if you're looking at your
summary sheet at the very top right section you will most likely see a number that says
42 million 249. That is what we call our base budget for fiscal year 2019. In other
words, it's our current revenue sources for fiscal '18. We call it our base budget
because if we had no more growth, if we didn't have any additional sales tax revenue,
any additional liquor revenue from the state, this is where our budget would be, with no
additional changes. So, we consider this our base budget revenue. This is the revenue
for the General Fund that allows the Parks Department to provide the resources or the
services to the citizens today. This is the revenue that allows the Police Department to
protect and serve their citizens and customers today. So, this is our base budget
revenue for what we need to get done today. Inside the proposal we are proposing
taking the three percent allowable tax. If you -- on the summary sheet still in the top
section you will see allowable tax 924,000 dollars. Again, we are proposing to utilize
this and we are going to add this to our available revenue sources for fiscal '19. If we
turn the page on your summary sheet and go to page three, we have another section of
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revenues, what we called new growth. New growth revenue is additional revenue
generated from the sales of new homes, commercial additional sales tax, liquor
revenue. So, this is what we consider the new growth function of our revenue source.
Obviously, if we didn't sell permits, we weren't approving developments, no additional
sales tax, the new growth would be zero. But, luckily, we live in a dynamic environment,
as I kind of talked about yesterday. So, this represents our new revenue sources year
over year. You add that up, we end up with a little over 45.9 million dollars for fiscal
year 2019, which would be found on page number four on the summary sheet. But we
also have an additional line of information we want to bring to your attention that we are
requesting the use of our fund balance of a little over 481,000 dollars, so we can
balance the fiscal year 2019 General Fund budget. When we add that into our available
revenue sources, we end up a little over 46.4 million dollars total for fiscal year 2019.
So, that's an overview of how we arrived at our revenue for the General Fund, how we
divide up their base revenue, to the new revenue, to the fund balance. Now, the next
slide I'm going to show you is, again, the summary sheets on one slide. I'm going to
show you the revenue and expenditures at a high level view without the detail that was
provided to you in the summary. Again, you can follow the -- follow along and I will let
you know where I'm going on this. So, if we take those same revenue sources that we
started off with on the previous slide and we start off with 42.2 -- so, we are on page one
again in the summary. We throw in our allowable tax of 924 -- to me I put the allowable
tax on the top line, because I believe that's an operating expense. You have heard me
say that I believe the allowable tax should be utilized for our cost of doing business. If
we did not have the growth we still have the cost of doing business of increased --
increased utilities. Stacey Pechin over at the Police Department, she needs to make
sure all the vehicles have gas. Unfortunately, the gas prices are going up, so she needs
additional dollars to make sure she can fuel vehicles rigs. I believe that this is where we
can use these revenue resources to pay for the cost of doing business expenses. If we
are still following on page one in the top section you will see a fund transfer line of
462,000 dollars. This is a practice that we started two fiscal years ago. This is an
automatic transfer of property taxes into our savings for our capital improvements in the
future and our Capital infrastructure needs in Public Safety and this is on page one of
your summary sheet. You will see a reduction of 462,000 dollars from our available
revenue sources. When you do the math on that and add in our base budget expenses,
which is the yellow line of a little over 42 million dollars. Again, these are those base
budget line items that Jenny mentioned that during the month of March you sat in the
meetings with the department directors and their representative staffs -- staff members
and you discussed the base budget items in detail and at this point -- at that point in
time we agreed that this is what the base budget would be and that's what these
expenses represent. This is what the Parks Department needs to provide the services
today and you do the math that leaves us 614,000 dollars of discretionary revenue.
That's what we call the revenue left over at this point. So, we have taken our base
budget, we have added the three percent allowable tax, we have slid some money into
a savings account for future use. We have removed the base budget expenses. That
leaves us 614,000 dollars for the next phase of our budget. The next phase of our
budget is replacements. In replacements are items that previous Council members
have approved that we still need to maintain, so that we can provide the services that
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we are providing to our citizens today. So, when we add in the replacement expenses
of 1.1 million you can see we now have a deficit situation of half a million dollars. From
a financial business practice this is not a good number to have, but, luckily, we have
some growth revenue we can lean on. Again, what I would like to see is this number in
a positive position. That means my operating function of the city's General Fund has
the necessary revenue sources to pay for the necessary expenditures on a year-over-
year basis I do also want to point out that the 500,000 dollar deficit is taken into
consideration the three percent property tax revenue. If we decide not to take the three
percent property taxes we would be in a deficit situation of 1.4 dollars. Again,
discussions would have to be had continuing on how we would fund that. So, I just
want to point out that right now that the operating function of the General Fund is in a
deficit position of 500, but we are going to lean on the new group -- new growth revenue
to help pay for this gap and that's where the next section in your summer sheet will go is
what we call the new growth revenue. Again, as the previous slide showed you, we
have 2.7 million dollars in additional revenue available to us. We also are requesting
the use of fund balance. You will have 2.7 million dollars of enhancements presented to
you over the next two days and when you do the math and look at the very bottom of
your summary sheet, you will see that we have a balanced budget for fiscal year 2019.
What I am trying to depict with this slide is -- oh, sorry. What I'm trying to depict with
this slide is we break down our budget in what we call our operating and our growth
based functions. We want to make sure that our operating revenue can cover our
operating needs and our new growth revenue covers our new growth needs. In this
particular fiscal year we are borrowing from new growth or fund balance to pay for the
deficit in operating, which is -- you know, it's doable for this fiscal year, but not a practice
I would promote for the long run, because we cannot guarantee the new growth
revenue will be there, like Mr. Bernt said last night, this is a great time, but we know
growth will not sustain itself forever. So, we cannot depend on new growth to always
pay for the gap in our operating needs. So, with that -- that's our General Fund
revenue. I'm going to do the exact same thing for our Enterprise Fund, so if you want to
go to your Enterprise Fund summary sheet, if we start at the very top, base budget
revenue, same purpose, same function, same way of going about it. Our current year
revenue sources with one time items pulled out of it, they have a little over 25 million.
New growth revenue we are anticipating a little over 13 million dollars for the Enterprise
Fund. That's our new hookups, our assessment fees, water meter sales, so forth. We
are requesting no use of fund balance for fiscal year '19. Total revenue source is a little
over 38.1 million dollars. Again, just like the Enterprise, I will bring that summary sheet
into one slide for you and break it down into a growth and -- an operating and growth
function. So, if you go to your Enterprise Fund summary sheets you will see -- oops.
Don't hit that button. There we go. We go to the very top of the Enterprise Fund, we
get a little over 25 million. Our base budget expenditures that were discussed in our
March meeting, of 19.3 million, that leaves 5.7 million dollars for enhancement -- or, I
apologize, for replacements or what we call discretionary revenue. The Enterprise Fund
is requesting a little over two million dollars in replacements. That leaves 3.6 million
dollars for enhancements. So, you can see Enterprise Fund has enough funds in the
operating side of business to pay for the operating needs. When you bring in the
growth function of the Enterprise Fund, they have a little over 13 million dollars in
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revenue that we are projecting. They are presenting to you over the next two days a
little over 14 million dollars of enhancements, which leaves them in a position to add to
the fund balance of a little over 1.9 million dollars. This is a fundamental practice we
have had here at the City of Meridian for a number of years. Stacey, the previous CFO -
- previous Council, has always adopted the save before you spend. This is one of those
years we are going to be saving in the Enterprise Fund to build up the fund balance, so
when the next major project comes along the Enterprise Fund has those dollars
available to them. So, this is a position wherein the save function of our save before
you spend for the Enterprise Fund. So, with that, that is the revenue broken down for
the General Fund and Enterprise Fund. I did not do the Community Development Fund.
It's in your book. I'm more than happy to answer any questions on that, but community
development is reported separately and on its own. So, I will move into your budget
considerations, fiscal year 2019. As I previously had mentioned, we are promoting to
you and proposing to you to maximize the three percent allowable tax, which is 924,000
dollars as we have listed to you. Based on our current valuation of the city assets, we
believe three percent would approximately cost of 100,000 dollars in property tax value
of 80 cents -- 83 cents a month. So, by taking the 35 -- or the 35 -- I apologize. By
taking the three percent we would be asking citizens that have 100,000 dollars worth of
value of their property, we would ask them to pay 85 cents more a month to live in the
City of Meridian to receive the public services, the public safety, the parks and
administration in the City of Meridian for fiscal year 2019. I'm going to kind of dig into
the property taxes a little bit more. It was asked to me what property tax value meant.
Ada county was here last month, Mr. McQuade. He mentioned to us that the median
home price in Meridian is 250,000 dollars. So, in this example, if we take 250,000
dollars at the median home price, property tax owners have the right to have a
homeowner's exemption of 100,000, which would, then, reduce their taxable value to
150,000 dollars. So, that previous slide I showed you, if your house is 200 grand, you
get to remove a hundred, that means you would pay taxes on 100,000 dollars. In this
example, this taxable value has 150,000, so if we took the three percent, we are
estimating that this homeowner we would request them to pay $1.28 more to receive
the services in the City of Meridian as they are receiving today and, then, this is just a
snapshot of a house in south Meridian. This is their tax levy record. You can see that
we represent -- the City of Meridian represents 30 percent of their total tax bill. Seventy
percent of all their taxes that they pay, we have no influence on. It's managed by a
different agency. So, again, we will impact 30 percent of their total tax bill at the end of
the day. So, I can't promise any taxpayers that their taxes will go up or down. Seventy
percent of that is influenced by somebody other than us. But I can influence -- or I can
tell them what we expect their proportionate share would be of the City of Meridian. In
this case it's $1.28 per month if we took the three percent allowable for this example.
Every house would be different. It's all based on your house value. I want to touch on
how taxable value is calculated. It's all done by Ada county. It's not done by us. It's
done by the county themselves. So, that is a proposal consideration that we are
promoting. Three percent. The compensation plan as presented to you in your book,
we are presenting a three percent merit for the city's merit pool. That does not mean
everybody gets three percent. We are a pay for -- pay for performance organization, so
every employee, other than Police STEP plan members and Fire Department union
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members will undergo a review and, then, they will follow the currently adopted and
approved compensation plan. So, this fiscal year 2019 proposal is based on the current
approved plan as it's stated. What's in the budget -- budget proposal. We have the
Police STEP plan adjustment of 1.14 million dollars. Just to remind you the STEP plan
is only adjusted every other year. So, the last year the STEP plan was not adjusted, so
those within the STEP plan did not receive an adjustment to their salaries if they were
maxed in their particular grade. This is to catch them up and follow our compensation
plan as -- as we have set forth in the City of Meridian as well. The Fire Department
adjustment is a bi-annual adjustment as well. The fire department union negotiations
occur every two years. So, again, this is following our current compensation plan and
our current negotiations timeline. And, then, the last item is we are asking for a two
percent market adjustment to our pay scale and we have subject matter experts here if
you need to ask any questions or for any clarifications on any of this. So, again, those
are the compensation recommendations that we have for you in your 2019 budget and
the last item for this presentation for considerations is medical benefits. Blue Cross
came back to the City of Meridian with a reduction of their -- of our premiums, which is
awesome. 2.94 percent reduction year over year. But we are also asking for a
consideration in our proposal to bring our dependent coverage back to 80 percent and
what I mean by that is during the great recession we asked the employees to pay 25
percent of their dependent coverage to help out during those times. We feel during the
times that they are now, we believe we should go back to 80 percent to bring the
employees back to whole, back to where they were pre great recession. So, what that
means is employees would now only pay 20 percent of their dependent coverage,
instead of 25 percent. So, this is a request that we are making for our employees. We
believe this is a good time to bring our insurance dependent coverage back to the whole
in the times that we are in today. So, those are the considerations that we have
provided to you within the book. I am now going to go over the budget as a whole
quickly for you, so you can see what has been presented from a bottom number. The
total city budget for this fiscal year is a little over 89 million. This is all three major funds,
the Enterprise Fund, General Fund and Community Development. That's down 19
percent year over year. That is made up of a base budget amount of a little over 66.3
million, transferred to 462, total replacement of 3.2 million and total enhancements of 19
million. Over the next two days you will hear in detail information regarding
enhancements of 19 million dollars. The base budget was discussion -- was discussed
with each of you during our March meeting, so we will not really get into the 66 million
dollars in detail. We spent an entire month doing that with you and your fellow directors
and, then, the replacements, again, we discussed those with you -- or those discussions
were had between the liaison and the directors during the months of March and April.
So, that's the total city budget. Total General Fund -- we are looking at proposing a little
over 47.7 million. Again, you can see the numbers accordingly. Base budget is up ten
million year over year. That increase for the General Fund is primarily made up of the
budget amendments that we approved late for Fire Station No. 6. Year over year -- that
was late in 2016. That's what was presented -- or 2017 the impact is your -- your year-
over-year change and, then, we added a few more additional police staff. But that's the
major change for your base budget increase year over year on that. Community
Development. You will see that the total base -- budget proposal in your book is 5.1
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million and, then, that is made up by 4.89 for your base budget replacements and
enhancements. This is primarily made up with the amendment that we just approved
for the change in our managing and providing services to our customers. And, then,
last, but not least, is the Enterprise Fund. We are proposing 36.2 million for them.
Again, down 36.3 percent year over year and you can see the line items that make up
the budget against these numbers are all represented on the summary sheets that were
presented to you by Jenny a few minutes ago. So, with that just wanted to touch on a
few items on improvements. Every year Jenny, myself, and the Mayor, we reach out to
you, Council, and ask you for your thoughts, improvements, considerations. We also
reach out to the employees. What can we do to make this process better? I just want
to reiterate to you that we do take this seriously and we do work with our staff members
everyday to figure out what can we do better to be -- to be more efficient, to be better
stewards of our property taxes, our ratepayers. You have seen some improvements.
This room. I mean this is something that I think Mr. Borton and Luke -- I think you guys
brought this up. Can we do this. Improvements. We listened. We made it happen.
The way we manage our computers. You know, David Tiede presented -- let's have a
controlled method on how we manage our computers. So, again, we -- we listen, we try
to make changes. I just want to bring a few items to your attention that we are
continuing to do. Again, it's not -- we can't get everything done in one year. We would
love to, but we are applying continuous improvement. This year we are doing copier
management. We are going to apply the same rules that David Tiede applied in his
computer management. We are going to apply with copier management. We are going
to allow departments to select from a choice of copiers that are IT team could support
and manage. But we are also diving into a little bit more analysis to determine what is
the best value for the city by conducting at lease the acquisition comparison, return on
investment, long-term, short-term. So, again, graphs like this will help us determine
what's the best avenue for the City of Meridian for copier management and we will make
those recommendations. We want to be prudent with the dollars that we have and we
want to make sure that we are efficient and that we can maintain the copiers that we
manage. Citywide vehicle assessments. This was the first year you will see a citywide
assessment tool. I talked to Luke Cavener last year, you know, can we do something. I
said we sure can. So, with his guidance I worked with Stacey Pechin. I worked with the
Police Department. Alex Freitag. David Miles out of Public Works. I worked with our
team. We said let's devise -- or let's develop a citywide assessment tool and I can tell
you that we have successfully done that. Within your book you will see a document that
looks somewhat like this. It's an assessment tool. Again, so we are listening to what
you're asking for. Within this process we also took it a step farther and we actually hired
an independent auto mechanic to review every car that was going to be assessed. It
was a pilot project to see is this a value added step for us to manage our vehicles.
Again, we will review that during this year and determine it was the value there. But we
had an independent inspector actually review every single one of these vehicles. If you
have a vehicle replacement in your book you will probably see an independent
assessment supporting that document as well. I can tell you I did talk to a few directors
and they said that they did find value with the citywide tool and they found value by
asking an independent auto mechanic to review the documents. Let them have a
strong comfort with the data that they were making sound decisions for the vehicles that
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they proposed to you. So, I think it was a win-win on that particular item. And the last
item I just want to bring to your attention for continuance improvement is fuel card
management. We use a company -- a company card called Chevron. We are now
using a card called WEX. This is a fleet card management system that we worked with,
again, the Police Department, the Fire Department, how can we be more efficient and
how can we be more effective with our citizens' dollars and how can we get the best
bang for our buck. This simple -- not simple, but this tool that we implemented I can tell
you saves at least five hours a month in the Fire Department managing their fuel
receipts and I know I have spoken to Jeff in the Police Department, numerous hours
managing those fuel receipts. This is now a fully digital receipt management system.
They can go to 98 percent of the -- I guess fuel stations in the City of Meridian. So,
again, it was a win-win-win from an efficiency standpoint. From a financial standpoint
we do not pay fees anymore. We used to pay fees to Chevron to utilize their system.
Instead, WEX actually gives us a rebate every month. So, we actually make money, as
opposed to paying money on using this fleet system. So, what I'm trying to I guess say
with this slide here, we as a city are continually looking at what we can do better for you
-- you as a Council and the citizens. We can't do everything in one year, but I can tell
you we are trying to be prudent and responsible for the citizens every single day. Again,
with that you will hear from all your departments over the next two days about their
improvements and efficiencies and with that that's your fiscal 2019 budget book in a
nutshell and I'd stand for any questions and we have subject matter experts here for you
as well.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Todd, always awesome. A few questions for you. It's so weird
hearing myself echo on this thing. You used the term new growth revenue for the
General Fund. What exactly is that?
Lavoie: Sure. Great question. New growth revenue. We deem that as new
construction revenue that Ada county informs us about. So, that's that new
development, that new -- all those plans and permits that you approve here, they build
them. So, let's say there is a new Costco that comes in. That would be new
construction growth revenue that they allow us to add to our revenue source today.
Also annexation. Let's say you annex some property somewhere in the city, they will let
us know what we have annexed. That, then, gets added to our tax role. So, that is now
taxable value that we can increase our revenue source for those annexation choices.
What we do is we work with this state, we determine what was the sales tax revenue for
last year, what's their anticipated sales tax projection for '19. We call that gap growth.
Those are the additional sales above and beyond what we currently have in '18. So, we
call that new growth revenue. We do the same for liquor sales. We do the same for
franchise fees. So, we go through every revenue line to figure out what is the growth
year over year and we call that new growth revenue and we deem that to be if the city
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did not grow we would not have those additional growth revenue sources and that's how
we define new growth.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, follow up? I have got a question -- more on that --
Lavoie: Okay.
Palmer: -- later, but the other question I have got for you -- so it -- and answering can
come when ever -- not right now, but -- so, how much of the three percent -- how much
would we need to take your scenario of the -- the median home value owner-occupied --
in that scenario how much percentage would we need for that -- that home -- that
example to be neutral from the city's part? If that makes sense. The three percent
results in $1.28 a month; right? What percent would -- could we take for that to be
zero?
Lavoie: So, if I hear -- you want to know if I -- how much revenue would I need to make
the property taxpayer in that example have zero increase in their annual dues to live in
the City of Meridian for fiscal '19?
Palmer: Right. Just the city -- because if I understand how it all works right, because of
the increased total value to the city we should be able to take somewhere in that
percentage and it not actually increase their portion that they are -- their actual dollars
that they are paying for city taxes; correct?
Lavoie: There is a lot of variables there, but --
Palmer: Sure.
Lavoie: -- again, Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, I will definitely try to work that for
you. I will get that to you. I don't have the number. I will have to do the math. Whether
or not it's doable, because there is a lot of variables involved -- but I will do what I can
for you to see if there is even a number, because right now we are in a deficit situation
of 500,000. I need something to get me balanced. If you take the 924, I need -- I will
need 1.5 million somewhere else to pay for this. So, again, I can say you have no more
money from taxpayers, but I need -- I would need to find revenue from somewhere else.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Well -- and, then, you're going to have another house that's paying less and
someone that's paying more than the $1.28.
Lavoie: Each house will be represented differently, because as the value of the house
increases at a different rate than the amount of -- the amount of increase to our property
taxes that's a different situation as well. We had one example in our analysis last year
the house paid less than they did year over year, even though we took three percent
and, again, I presented that in I think January for you guys, but every house is going to
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be different. So, to say can I get that house to pay zero, that doesn't mean every single
house will pay zero, if you're okay with that.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Absolutely. Yeah. I understand -- I understand that every house is going to be
different. Some are going to be more, some are going to be less. My goal is
understanding -- the term I feel is -- I hate the term, but the cost of doing business.
There is justification for that, assuming everything in here is appropriate, given the
growth. So, for me, if we can get to an example -- like I feel like a justifiable example is
the median -- or the average homeowner in Meridian -- owner-occupied. If they are not
paying any extra, because maybe they aren't getting an increased level of service, they
-- I feel like we should be doing no harm. So, if we can get to that example where they
aren't paying more that's just -- a percentage that I'm looking for.
Lavoie: Well, the simple answer would be zero percent, then, because I -- zero dollars
added to the property tax would be zero percent. If I go .1 percent you can see that will
be like eight cents. The only way I can get to zero if I have a zero percent.
Palmer: So, at --
Lavoie: In this example. But, again, house value -- the tax levy has not been defined
yet, but I think in your example the only way I can get that number to zero is if I put in
zero on the first part.
Palmer: A simpler answer -- perfect. If I may follow up. And it's -- it's not that we need
to find additional revenue to make up for that, it's that we could find ways to spend less.
But kind of a final question for you. You had mentioned the -- the proposal was to go
from 925 to 220 on the insurance. I'm sure it's in here somewhere. If I can write it down
and not mess it up. What is that dollar cost to us?
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Members of -- Councilman Palmer, I'm going to have to do
some math on that one for you. So, let me go do the math and I will see if I can figure
out what the five percent gap is for you. I will do that for you.
Palmer: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Todd, so to calculate the tax in your levy rate, wouldn't you just multiply the level
rate times the taxable value?
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Lavoie: That is how you do --
Milam: Yeah. How do you come up with the 15 dollars?
Lavoie: How do I come up with the 15 dollars? This example right here?
Milam: Yes.
Lavoie: It is going to be -- well, it's a little bit more complicated than just that. It's going
to be taking the tax levy times the total taxable value within the city and, then, we
actually break it down -- this is where it's going to get complicated -- we have four
functions and, then, you do base -- Mrs. Milam, I think it would be best if I -- I provide
that to you in -- I will take that off line, because it's much more detailed than just simple
math. There is many other components. I would be more than happy to print out the
example. I can print that out and supply you guys our mathematics behind it, but it's not
just taking one number against a number, you have to actually break our revenue
source into four quadrants and, then, that's how you get into the three percent property
tax calculation. I would be happy to provide you the math.
Milam: I'm not talking about the three percent, I'm talking about the levy rate. To
calculate the tax.
Lavoie: Okay.
Milam: So, if I take 150,000 dollar value --
Lavoie: Yes.
Milam: -- and I multiply it times our levy -- ah, I don't know what just happened there.
Lavoie: .037?
Milam: Uh? .0037.
Lavoie: About 500 dollars?
Milam: Yeah. Which is like 50 dollars a month, not 15.
Lavoie: That would be for the total 150. So, I'm promoting -- what I'm trying to do is
value what the three percent decision would be. Yeah. So, they have -- they already
have a base tax they must pay. I'm trying to represent if you take the three percent it's
going to be $1.28 month more on top of the current levy that exists.
Milam: Right. I know that. I was trying to figure out math in my head and I got --
Lavoie: Yeah. This house will pay about 520 something dollars --
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Milam: Five fifty-five.
Lavoie: Yeah. You got --
Milam: Plus maybe a couple, but --
Lavoie: You're a hundred percent correct. That's all based on the value that Ada county
determines.
De Weerd: Other questions at this point? So, in front of you is the Mayor's budget and
that was derived through sitting down with your senior management team, really
focused on the needs and responding to decisions that have been made over this last
year in both growth and in the previous budget. Much of the base growth came from
personnel added to respond to levels of service and there was a 3.45 percent increase
to the base and some of that was also growth related in increased cost of -- of providing
those services. The base actually represents work with all of you. The liaisons -- I first
want to thank you for spending time with us going line by line in talking about the -- the
variances and the questions that you ask and the discussion we have, I also want to
thank Jenny and Brad who sat through each of those. Brad, what an introductory
session to the City of Meridian and he's still here. So, I think that's all good. Appreciate
the detail that each of our departments put together, so that we could talk about the
variances of over, under, why you want more and -- and those kind of things. You offer
a lot of detail, probably more than many, and I think that helps each of the liaisons better
understand the needs in those departments, but also it helps Jenny, Brad, and I as -- as
we -- we look at them as well. Certainly some lines are -- are to looking at the ones that
are not fixed that are -- are costs like power and gas and those kind of things, those are
fixed. The detail that you get is to show why they were asking for that particular amount
and I think that once you look at those, then, the decisions that you make, the directors
would, then, prioritize how -- how those are spent. Some are based on an FTE. For
example, tomorrow we have our city picnic. So, you do have costs in there that is
figured by an FTE cost and -- and that's how those lines are derived. In many regards I
think Todd gave you an excellent overview of the growth. Those are the decisions that
were made over this last year and as those developments are come on, they have the
same expectation as our current citizens to have a certain level of service and -- and
that they will have the same levels of service. I think that's why they are investing in our
community. We are continuing to grow. In the first five months we had 130 more
permits than last year. Last year was 877. This year 1,003 and commercial was up 25
percent. When I came and updated you on the strategic plan I had one of our
departments talk about some of the things that are extra pressure to our staff in terms of
keeping up with levels of service and -- and that growth meets demand and -- and this is
just a couple of examples. So, with the increase in development projects and the
largest valued portfolio in Meridian's history -- um, I wonder what department that might
be -- it can be in representative measures on track in residential assessment revenues.
There is an 18 percent increase year to date compared to total annual budget for
commercial assessment revenues. There was over 70 percent increase in total value of
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invoice payments made on engineering projects, over 30 percent increase in number of
projects being actively paid on, over 50 percent increase in meter installations during
the first five months compared to the same period last year I guess what I wanted to
emphasize is that this growth comes at a cost to what we expect of our employees and
not in your binder is whether our people -- our employees are doing to keep up with
that, that growth meets the demands -- are on that in -- in this growth period. We are
asking them to be more efficient, to find continuous improvements, to be more
accountable, do more and serve more. We have tied discussions regarding this budget
to the city's -- to the city's vision of being a premier place to live, work, and raise a
family. The budget focuses on -- on the definers that are in your strategic plan of
development is balanced with the resource delivery and -- with resources and is -- we
are leveraging partnerships. We have examples for that. We need to ensure that
services meet demand and financial prudence is -- is taken and the priority to safeguard
our community's health and safety and it does also stress that we have a well-educated
capable employee -- group of employees. We think that premier starts with our people
and so we have focused on them, because if you look at the definition of premier, it's
first in position, rank, and importance and I think that the Meridian Way and the premier
is defined by our employees and you will see that there is a focus on our employees this
year and so you will also see that in the replacements we have a smaller price tag than
we did last year, but even with the three percent and even with not taking the half
percent and the percent to put into savings to be prudent, the base is still not covered
with the three percent. The enhancements you see are growth related, with the
exception of one of my favorite, which is the ADA enhancement. But I think that you will
see that all of those enhancements really are responsive that service meets demand
and that we are maintaining levels of service. So, I think we are proud to present this --
this budget to you and -- and look forward to the discussion.
Field: Thank you, Mayor. With that I think we are going to jump right into Enterprise
Fund presentation.
De Weerd: The Enterprise is really excited to kick off our budget workshop -- I will turn
this over to --
Bolthouse: Okay. So, Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you for the
opportunity to present to you the Enterprise Fund budget, specifically here I guess
initially the Public Works and the effort that is associated with that. Mayor, we
appreciate your opening comments in regards to the fundamentals that have gone into
building this particular budget that we are going to present to you and we would like to
also thank Todd and Jenny and that group for their guidance as we have worked
through this and I swear we started before February, but I know that that's what the
chart said, we are excited. We think we have an excellent budget before you that we
have been working through and trying to -- to meet all the needs. Obviously, these
things don't come together without the work of a lot of people. I want to just take a
moment and -- and make sure we introduce, you know, our panel here of Alex, Laurelei,
and Warren and Susie. This is the budget panel and that represents our -- you know,
our senior management team. But there are significant amount of other contributors to
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this process as we move out into the various divisions and things and -- and we
appreciate your support here. They are available to ask questions and such and so we
have -- we think we have got all of our bases covered in anticipation of whatever your
needs may be. So, as -- as Jenny mentioned to you, we are kind of going through a
standardized format, so will -- I hope you will see something similar from the other
departments as they follow us today and tomorrow. We start with our mission statement
up there and I -- and I chose to -- to underline a couple of words, anticipate, plan and
provide services, because that's a lot of what's being reflected in here. Financially or
fiscally responsible goes without saying. So, we certainly want to make sure that our
budget is -- is considering what our -- what our needs are going to be. The Mayor set
the table on premier status of the city and the fact that really premier starts with our
employees and -- and this is a photograph -- I think the most recent one we have of the
Public Works Department. You know, we are a hundred plus professionals serving you
in the water, wastewater, and engineering efforts for Public Works and -- and I wanted to
stop and just think a little bit about this. As we -- as we look at this picture and this --
and this great group of people and wanted to reflect a little bit on, hey, what is it that the
city asks of this group of people, you know, knowledge and the experience, the
expertise, reduce risk of failures, doing more with less, doing it all the time anytime,
24/7, 365. This team is in action on behalf of you and on behalf of the citizens of this
community and I was -- I was stunned to find out that this team represents 1,744 years
of applicable experience in delivering that service to this community. There are 212
certifications and licensures required for us to do that job on behalf of the city, 52
educational degrees and things that are required and, then, my mind shifted to what are
they asking of us in return. Right tools and technology. A safe environment for them to
come to work, do their job. Train me. Compensate me fairly and recognize me
occasionally for a job well done. That formula leads to premier people who deliver a
premier service. And with that we are going to go and take a look at some of the great
things we have got going on in FY-18. These are the irons in the fire. So, last year we
-- we appreciate your support. We had 20 enhancements, in addition to the base
budget, of which we are making very good progress on here in fiscal year '18. To
refresh your memory, we got a -- we got a simple summary up here. I would remind you
that, you know, our -- our real season of activity is the spring, summer, and early fall as
many of these are construction projects and so as you will see there is some of these
that we are making appropriate progress, but we are still early in the heart of our -- of
our construction season. This is the portfolio in front of you of the wastewater projects
that we have. You will see that a number of these are a hundred percent complete. I
draw your attention to the wastewater projects, both the capacity upgrade and the head
works project. Most of you had an opportunity to join us earlier this spring to get a view
of the progress and you would not recognize it today from that point and we look
forward to giving you another view coming up late summer, early fall, because there is
just a substantial amount of good work going on and we are making great progress on
that front. We also are doing and making great progress on the south Meridian sewer
line extension and we expect that project to be wrapping up here this late summer as
well. So, that's a -- that's a look at the 28 thousand -- 28 million dollar, pardon me,
portfolio of wastewater projects. On the water side we have got a -- we have got a
number of efforts happening there. Some of these you will see are a hundred percent
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complete. Others are just getting started as we enter into the time that we would -- had
planned to do these. The water corrosion study, which is a regulatory requirement for
us to do, is now underway and will be completed by fiscal year end. The third year of
SCADA system upgrades, which is largely focused on our 26 pressure-reducing valve
stations that help us balance zone to zone, pressure flow and volume. The security
improvements. This is the fourth year of a five year effort coming out of that homeland
security inspection and this completes the facility fencing -- a security fencing and things
around our -- around our well houses. The Well 15 construction project we are making
good progress. This is a -- this is a great cost improvement opportunity to take a well
that was starting to fail and see if we couldn't reconstructed it, find a high quality source
of water and -- and do so for a substantially less cost than actually constructing a new
well. So, we look for -- for that to complete and be able to offer that opportunity to the
city. The maintenance vehicle has been received and we are waiting for the final
accoutrements to be added on to that vehicle and placed into practice. The water main
extensions, again making very good progress and -- and should be wrapping up here in
the next 30 days. Well 32 in pressure zone five, it's year three of three. That will be
wrapping up this summer. Well 33, which is on pressure zone two, this is the first year
and we are off and running on that project for test wells and pumping facility design
efforts and, then, we finished this portfolio with a couple of water treatment facilities.
We are in year two of two at Bear Creek. If you haven't been passed that water facility,
construction is underway and by end of summer we will see our fourth water treatment
facility come online. And, then, Well 28, which is down off of Taconic or near Black
Rock, is in the first year of that two year effort. So, very good progress on that particular
portfolio project as well. Additionally, we had in our Public Works administration a
request for an additional inspector and thank goodness we did. We have that individual.
They are on board. We are at a pace of -- of inspecting over 300 projects this year.
That's a significant increase from prior years. So, our infrastructure inspection team is --
is working hard to make sure that the projects that are going on throughout the city are
being done so to the requirements of the city. In addition to that I think there is I think --
I was told by Clint another 40 projects that are in the pipeline in the planning process to
add onto that. So, desperately needed resource and immediately we put that to work.
In addition to the enhancements, we have some other things we would love to share
with you in terms of things that we are accomplishing and working on. So, very briefly,
on the water side they are regulatory inspection called a sanitary survey that is done by
the Department of Environmental Quality and they went out here about a month ago
and completely did a full records process and facility inspection that included over 2,300
data points that they evaluated in our water system to ensure that we are in compliance
with the regulatory requirements and I'm pleased to announce that we had no non-
compliances in that inspection. So, a tremendous effort on that team and -- and a heck
of a scorecard for that effort. Almost afraid to -- to say it without knocking on wood, but,
you know, we did -- we did successfully survive the Eagle Road main break and trust
that we won't see that -- that very often, but I think that was a success in terms of how
our employees responded to a -- to a pretty significant issue and as you have heard
here in the last week or two, we are not the only community that -- that occasionally
suffers that kind of an issue and that kind of an impact. So, great work by that group
and on the legislative front there was quite a movement to -- to modify backflow
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regulation and by staying on top of it and our team working, we think we were part of a
successful defeat of that particular legislative effort. On the wastewater side, you know,
last August we started our new five year NPDES permit. The group has done a
tremendous job of getting started on that effort here. We are now about eight months --
almost nine months into that. We have met all of our milestones and -- and hurdles
associated with that. We were well-prepared going into it and that was I think solidified
by a recent EPA facility inspection that we have. That comes a little bit more frequently.
We almost get that now annually, but that also is a -- is a full compliance inspection of
both reporting, monitoring, facilities, processes and I'm equally pleased to announce
that the wastewater team also came through that without any non-compliance or
violation items identified in that. So, we feel very good about that. Our new reclaimed
water permit is -- which used to be a three year -- four year permit, whenever they got
around to it -- is now a ten year permit. So, we have that. We have got it in place and
that was a real success by that group. We completed the work primary power project,
so we now own the utility -- power utility infrastructure at the wastewater treatment
facility, giving us the flexibility and the oversight to do the kinds of things we need to do
at the facility, but -- but also saving the city the money of the annual rental of that
particular infrastructure and so it's complete, signed, sealed, delivered. We haven't --
we have a subcontractor that is on call as a -- as our high voltage response team, so
that was another -- another very good success. On the engineering front, obviously, as
as the Mayor mentioned, the largest portfolio that we have ever managed, including the,
you know, wastewater projects, well construction projects, line extensions occurring
primarily to the south. You have seen major road structures tore up where we have
taken advantage and either modified or upgraded our infrastructure in Franklin Road
and Pine Street, which is happening now. The treatment projects. We have completed
a street lighting project on Cherry Lane and the -- as I mentioned, keeping up with the
infrastructure projects that are -- that are before us. As we look at some of the other
divisions within, we did complete a -- a SCADA program analysis, which is helping us to
guide our resources and requirements in the overall SCADA area. It just -- it continues
to become critically important to managing the scope and the scale, the complexity of
our utility operations. The -- the fleet management evaluation -- I think we may have
jumped that a little earlier than what Todd had started for the citywide effort, but it's
dovetailed very well. We went out and -- and surveyed all of the major organizations, a
lot of them private, that have large fleet management programs and assessed how do
you determine your fleet -- your fleet needs and replacement schedules and those kinds
of things and from that, you know, created a process by which we could consistently
evaluate the Public Works vehicles. I know that, like I said, that worked well with the
city effort and -- and the result of that is that we are -- we are going to expect longer life
out of our assets and we have no vehicle replacements in this budget cycle. I think
that's a first. Also very exciting -- I think is if we have -- we have re-engaged with an
environmental resource and an environmental department supporting the strategic plan
initiatives and one of the ways that you -- you have seen that is the re-implementation of
the environmental excellence awards and very important recognition for the efforts that
are occurring throughout our city. We completed our fifth group of the leadership
development program. That's the covert project that we have with Boise State
University. We now have over half of our staff in Public Works that has been through
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very good orientation into leadership, problem solving, continuous improvement
fundamentals, teamwork fundamentals and that's -- and that's paying good dividends for
us as we continue to grow and -- and look towards continuous improvement
opportunities. Warren's team this year, recognizing that it's tough to draw people into
certain disciplines within our department, one of those being engineering and -- and
Warren's team took it upon themselves to go out and try to promote those types of
careers that in Public Works we can support and they sponsored the Dream Big movie
for four to five hundred high school students that had an interest in that, as well as
sponsored some engineering week activities where we invited students that had an
engineering interest to come out to our facilities and learn about what we do and how
we do it and worked with the collaborative some of the engineering organizations in -- in
the valley here. We also completed our internal communication plan with our new
communication specialist on board and -- and things we have -- we have been doing a
great job of implementing many of the internal and external communication efforts. I
hope you got a chance to join us for at least a piece or part of the Public Works Week
celebration. The Expo that we had I thought was awesome. That we made this effort
available on Facebook through live feeds and all kinds of postings and -- and I could not
be more proud of the Public Works team and the efforts to put on for a few activities that
we had. We do have a couple, though, that I think warrant a little special recognition as
this effort and, then, that we had. The state of Idaho lab analyst of the year, Nate
Howell, amongst our wastewater lab team. Keith Slack as the collections operator of
the year and a -- and an important certification Max Jensen achieved the building
operators certification as we -- as we continue to build. So, congratulations to them for
some very nice individual rewards. So, with that I'm going to turn it over to Alex. We
will -- we will move forward with the '19 budget, but as you can see we -- we have a
busy year. We have got a lot of things going. It's -- it's been fun. It's been exciting. But
we have got a lot more to do. So, Alex.
Freitag: Thank you, Dale. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, good afternoon.
So, I'm going to show you a graphic that we -- we kind of start off with each year as we
transition into looking at FY-19. This is a little more of a granular look at the expense
side of the equation. Todd talked to you just a few moments ago. The Enterprise
Fund's total proposed budget for FY-19 is 36.2 million dollars. This pie chart here
shows you the breakdown of how that spend is currently allocated. It stands in fairly
stark contrast to the budget we presented to you last year, which was round 57 million
dollars. A fairly significant decrease. The bulk of that 20 million dollar decrease is on
our caf ex side of -- of the equation. We still have a fair amount of large projects going
on and it's still a very large portfolio that we are spending, but considerably less than
last year, so -- and you can see the numbers just kind of break out where our operations
expenses are around 17 million. We have just a little over 14.7 million in
enhancements. Inter-fund transfers at 2.7 million. And replacements at a little over two
million. What this chart doesn't show you is the projected 38 million in revenue. So,
again, we are very pleased to be able to present a budget this year that doesn't
contemplate use of existing fund balance. I showed this graphic to you last year. We
have updated it this year. This is an attempt to try to show you the breakdown of the 13
enhancements that we are presenting to you this year for the Enterprise Fund. Seven
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of them are multi-year or water or sewer line extensions, which are all projects that are
either in motion, have been approved by you previously and the bulk of that 14.7 spend
there is related to those seven enhancements. In fact, it's about 13 -- a little over 13
million. So, over 90 percent of the enhancement budget this year are projects that are
already in progress. Of the six new projects it's just a little over one million and you're
about to hear about some of those as we go forward, so -- just a couple of precursors to
kind of get you ready for the overall pain and suffering. As we go forward now are going
to talk about each division's enhancements. We are going to start with the wastewater
group. I'm going to turn it over to Warren to discuss that.
Stewart: If you want to turn to the wastewater tab in your books. So, this year on the
wastewater side of the department we have six enhancements for a total of
approximately 11.4 million dollars. The two largest of these are multi-year projects that
are currently under construction and you know those -- the capacity expansion project
and the head works project out at the wastewater treatment plant. Laurelei and I will
kind of take turns going back and forth through these. I will cover those that are
primarily engineering in nature, she will cover some of the enhancements that have
more of an operational component to them and so we will be bouncing back and forth.
But I have the first two slides here, so I will go over some of these. So, first, the
enhancement we want to talk about is the capacity expansion project. We are currently
in year two of construction, year four of the actual work of this five year project to
expand the capacity at the wastewater treatment plant. The enhancement for this year
is 7.2 million dollars and will allow us to complete the capacity expansion project as
planned and put the new facility into service. It will also enable us to keep up with rapid
-- with the rapid growth that's occurring in the city, as well as meet our new regulatory --
our interim regulatory compliance requirements. This project is currently scheduled to
be completed in October of 2019. Enhancement number two for the wastewater
department is the head works and order control project. This project is currently under
construction and we are requesting another 1.3 million dollars in 2019 to complete this
project and put it into service. 2019 will be the fifth and final year in the design and
construction of this project and this project will allow us to keep up with the pace of
growth, while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the head works process.
The third enhancement that I want to talk about is the secondary access project. Bill
and I have recently been in and talked with the Council -- with all of you about this
project a little bit, but this enhancement is for 800,000 dollars in 2019 and will enable to
purchase some property and construct an access to the -- a secondary access to the
wastewater treatment plant and also to acquire enough property to eventually relocate
the water division operations facility to the same located area. We planned to purchase
the land the first year and construct the access in the second year. The drivers for this
access -- or for this secondary access are primarily due to the narrow entrance off of the
Ustick Road in the fact that we have to take all the construction and delivery traffic and
everything else right by our administration building, which has a fairly significant amount
of pedestrian traffic. We are trying to avoid that. But the most important driver is that
this plant continues to grow when we put more buildings on there and more rooftops out
there, we eventually reach a threshold and have reached that threshold where the fire
department has said you have to have a secondary access in order to meet the fire
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code. So, they have given us until, essentially, the end of our compliance schedule for
our first permit cycle, which is a five year permit cycle. We have already gone through a
year now. So, we, essentially, have four years to get this property purchased and get a
secondary access into the plant in order to meet the -- the fire department requirements.
The next project I want to talk to you about is our sewer line extensions project. This is
kind of an annual ask. We come back and talk about this particular enhancement every
year. In 2019 we are asking for approximately 1.87 million dollars in this category. This
cat -- excuse me. This category is most often associated with ACHD projects where we
-- when ACHD goes and does a new road, we look at the opportunity to put new sewer
and water infrastructure in the road at the same time. It saves the city money and it
reduces the inconvenience to our citizens. However, this year the vast majority of this
money -- almost all of it is going to go towards the Linder sewer trunk line extension,
which is the final sewer project in the south Meridian portfolio projects that we
committed to do when we annexed the property out there. So, this is the dollars to put
in that last phase of that sewer line extension for that project. After this year we should
go back, as you can see in our projections, to a more normal, essentially, request for
sewer line extensions that kind of follows along with the ACHD projects. I do want to
say, though, there is a caveat to this is out there just beyond the horizon that you can
see is the McDermott Road sewer trunk project, which we have talked about before,
which we are eventually going to have to start -- roughly it's 2025 is when we have --
currently have planned to start that project. It's the trunk line that is necessary in order
to service that area of southwest Meridian. So, although it goes back down for awhile,
there will -- it will eventually be showing that ramping back up in order to cover those.
This is just a map that shows, essentially, the work that has been completed and
greened. Recent projects on Ustick Road and Franklin Road. The project in yellow is
the Black Cat sewer trunk line, which is currently under construction on Meridian Road
and, then, the one project you can see in red -- it's kind of hard to distinguish those
colors, but, hopefully, it shows up on your -- your maps in your book. That's the Linder
Trunk project that I just talked about. With that I will turn the time to Laurelei.
McVey: All right. So, this enhancement is for an instrument technician for a total of
103,872 dollars. This is a single year enhancement. This enhancement is for an
additional staff member for our utility instrumentation and SCADA group. As you guys
know, technology and automation has increased in all of the Public Works facilities and
the need for skilled staff to maintain, calibrate, troubleshoot, and repair these
instruments has become increasingly more important. Many of these instruments are
required by regulation and help us maintain compliance with our permits. With the new
capacity expansion in the head works project just in wastewater alone, the number of
instruments in the plant will increase significantly. This position will join the existing
instrument TAC and SCADA system administrator to serve the instrumentation and
SCADA needs for utilities. By bringing this position in house we expect to increase
instrument reliability, accuracy, and reduce outside contractor costs. This enhancement
is for a wastewater operator three for a total of 78,226 dollars. This is a single year
enhancement as well. So, with the plant nearly doubling in size and strict new permit
limits in place, the need to move to 24 hour staffing at the plant is becoming increasingly
critical. This enhancement will add an operator three, which will help reduce the
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number of unmanned hours at the facility. However, this addition does not get us all the
way to 24 hour staffing. Over the next several years you will see additional
enhancement requests for operations and mechanic positions that will allow the city to
move to the seven day a week, 24 hour staffing of the treatment plant. We put together
this little graphic to kind of show you our thoughts to get us to that 24 hour staffing. We
are strategically adding staff to meet our goal by having 24 hour a day staffing by 2020.
That is a significant milestone for us, because that's when the capacity expansion phase
one is complete and so having a maintenance staff on site seven days a week and
operations staff on site 24 hours a day is very critical. The addition of these couple
personnel over the next few years gives us the minimum number of staff required to
meet these goals and, then, as we move further out you will see that target of fiscal year
2026 we have some more additional staff members over those years and our goal is to
have full shift supervision and two members on site at all times to increase safety. So,
this kind of just shows you our progression through the next couple of years and, then,
forward looking for a little while further. And with that that completes the six wastewater
enhancements and so we will shift over to the water side. We also have six
enhancements on the water side for a total of a little over three million dollars. Warren
and I will cover all of these in detail, just like we did for the wastewater side, and I will let
Warren kick off this set.
Stewart: So, the first enhancement that I want to talk about is the water main extension.
This is very similar to the sewer main extensions that I already had had conversation
with you about. These are projects that we typically try and do in conjunction with
ACHD projects, but there are situations where we actually do main line extension
projects to try and close gaps that will improve pressure and fire protection in areas.
Again, in this particular instance the vast majority of this money is actually to do the final
water main extension, which is what we committed to do with the south Meridian
projects. So, this particular project is, essentially, to construct the water main line down
Victory Road at Ten Mile and complete the loop from where the current water system
ends on Victory passed Linder Road down to Ten Mile and, then, back down to
Overland where we can connect it back up with the existing water system and that will
be the final of the major water main improvements associated with the south Meridian
portfolio projects. Once this project -- again, once this project is complete you will
notice that the -- there is a pretty sharp reduction in the -- in the annual dollar amounts
that we will be requesting in the future, because the south Meridian portfolio projects will
be complete and we will go back to a more normal project portfolio. This is just a map
showing what we have currently -- or what we have done recently. You will see, again,
the Ustick projects that's associated with the ACHD project up there on Ustick Road
near Settlers Park. You will also see the Franklin-Black Cat-Ten Mile project and the
project we recently completed out on Locust Grove and Lake Hazel. The project that's
currently under construction is the Amity Road at Linder in yellow and the project that I
just described on Victory and Ten Mile is the one in red.
McVey: So, this enhancement is for a well technician one for 114,188 dollars. It is also
a single year enhancement. So, the city now operates and maintains 26 well sites and
are growing rapidly. We currently only have one person that is responsible for
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maintaining these sites for access, security, and regulatory compliance. This position
will ensure that we have available staff to escort contractors and chemical deliveries to
all of our well sites, increasing the site security, which is critical to protect and maintain
our public water supply. We have simply outgrown a single position and this position is
expected to serve us for some time into the future.
Stewart: I'm up again. So, this project Dale touched on just briefly in his summary that
he was doing at the beginning, but this is the well water treatment project. Well 28 is a
productive well, but has been used sparingly because it has elevated levels of iron and
manganese and we receive complaints from our customers when we use this well very
often. It actually has the advantage of being able to serve both pressure zones four and
five. It's located in pressure zone four, but it has a booster with it that can actually
pressure up five as well. So, this enhancement request is for 900,000 and will fund the
construction of the shelter building and the installation and commissioning of the filter
equipment. Pilot testing has already been done and the filter system equipment is in
the process of being selected and purchased. This project will improve water quality in
the southeast Meridian and, hopefully, reduce customer complaints in that area and
they allow us to utilize a very prolific well or one that would be greatly advantageous to
us in an area which is rapidly growing and the next picture is just a map of where that is
located. So, it's just off of Eagle Road on Taconic just below Black Rock.
McVey: So, this enhancement is for water system security upgrades. So, you heard
Dale talk about year four of this. This is year five and the fifth and final year of this
project and it is for 100,000 dollars. Like Dale talked about, we worked with the
Department of Homeland Security to identify the necessary upgrades to the city's
existing well sites to increase security. We have been working to complete these
security upgrades for things like fencing, motion sensors, and security signage over the
last few years. This enhancement will complete the recommended security upgrades at
the city's well sites and just so you guys are aware, all of the new well sites are being
constructed with the updated security requirements from the start. This enhancement is
for dechlorination equipment. It is a 20,000 dollar enhancement and is a single year
enhancement. This enhancement will fund the purchase of up to six dechlorination
units for the water division flushing staff. So, DEQ requires us to add chlorine to our
water and they also require us to flush our system twice per year, but, then, they also
require us to remove the chlorine before we discharge it to storm drains or surface
water. So, what this will do -- this equipment allows us to meet that dechlorination
requirement when we complete the flushing.
Stewart: So, this next enhancement is for Well 33. We are requesting 400,000 dollars
in year 2019 to complete the second year of this three year project. This 400,000 will
actually fund the construction of the production well at this location, which is in pressure
zone two. Pressure zone two is in northwest Meridian, so it's one of the fastest growing
areas in the city. Pressure zone two -- oh, I have already talked about it. Pressure
zone two is -- is one of those fast growing areas that I was just going to show you a map
of where this is located. So, McMillan -- near -- right near the intersection of McMillan
and Ten Mile Roads is where this new well is going in. We are currently in the process
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of drilling and doing the test well. So, that's -- hadn't been done yet, but we are going
through the process to start construction for drilling of the test well. That will allow us to
identify the best water quality and, hopefully, we will be able to find some good water
quality in this area and, then, we will do the production well next year. That's followed in
the third year with the actual well house and all the equipment that goes inside of it.
Freitag: Okay. Public Works admin has just one enhancement this year. I think this is
the smallest enhancement we have both in terms of dollar and actual size of the
equipment. So, this enhancement is 3,348 dollars for two small GPS reader units.
These are -- these are tiny little interface units that actually plug into the field
personnel's city phone and allows them to communicate with our GPS system and take
points, identify infrastructure. This is -- this enhancement kind of goes hand-in-hand
with the replacement that we are also submitting this year to replace our whole aging
Trimble units that are out there. There are hand-held GPS units. They are approaching
end of life at this juncture. These new GEO units are cheaper, they are more accurate
and we get to eliminate a third-party software that we are currently paying maintenance
and software costs for it, so it's a really good story here on that. So, this particular
enhancement we will buy two additional units, which will take us to a total of nine, so
that we can insure that our additional inspection personnel or water personnel and
utilities coordinator has access to this equipment. Which takes us to the road ahead,
which I think is back to Dale.
Bolthouse: Okay. Thanks, Alex. So, you have had an opportunity to see your money at
work in '18. We have talked about what we need in '19 to -- to continue that -- that
effort. I will take the next couple of slides here to talk to you about some of the other
things that I guess -- not all it will keep us awake at night, but what we are thinking is we
try to get and stay ahead of the issues, you know, that face Public Works and our
utilities. So, with that I had a couple slides here. Workforce development, retraining
employees, you know, as you're aware low unemployment rates -- we are seeing -- we
are seeing a churn amongst our workforce, particularly those in entry level roles that are
-- that are finding what they believe to be better opportunities and so a lot of effort on
succession planning, a lot of effort on getting the right people hired and, then, being
able to retain them once they join our team. So, continuing focus, obviously,
understanding the complexities of the growth of the city, navigating I guess our way
through those impacts and how do we stay ahead and that's not only from an
infrastructure standpoint, but from a -- from staffing, policy decisions, those kinds of
things. We do our best to stay on top of what the emerging issues are on the regulatory
front, but that in itself is -- is a bit of a Ouija board as well. We are in this completing the
first year of our wastewater permit. There is a lot of activity on the water front in terms
of regulations. We try to have as many tentacles out in every potential area that we can
stay on top of it, but that is a -- that's an ongoing effort within our department and we are
always interested in hoping to project what's coming down the road in terms of
regulatory impacts. With the effort that we have spent on our -- our SCADA process,
resources, identification I guess through a very good work breakdown structure of that
effort, we foresee our needs now directing towards a master plan for our SCADA
program, much like we have master plans and other critical areas and in our
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organization. So, that's coming down the road. Rate and fee administration is -- is a
continuous effort making sure that we have a very good handle on what we can project
in terms of our revenues and making sure that we have the funding in advance of our
needs to support the -- the longer term requirements of the department. This year we
have placed a lot of emphasis -- and there is a lot of work going into better
understanding our key performance indicators, defining our level of service. It is
probably more complex than just turn the faucet on and it runs, you flush the toilet and it
goes, and we have got a number of fronts trying to give us a better idea, so that we can
have information and data to help manage our business and -- and know we are going
on that front. Integrating sustainable practices into our operation and organization, you
know, really, this activity starts at home right here and what we do everyday, set
ourselves up as a good example and offer the opportunities to share that throughout the
community in an effort -- it's Warren and Laurelei have been challenged with is -- is
really take some time and characterize the City of Meridian's infrastructure and where
we really stand in relationship to concerns as -- as we look down the road and this is the
long-term future. So, every day in the news, you know, you can read about areas in our
country that's -- that are suffering from inadequate addressing of that infrastructure.
These are cities and locations that have had infrastructure in the ground for a hundred
years, 150 years. They are faced with billions, if not trillion dollar efforts to try to
resurrect and -- and -- and reconstruct their water and sewer infrastructure and, man,
we are so fortunate that -- that our town is relatively young, more modern materials in
our system, but it is very, very expensive to -- to replace that kind of thing down the
road. We have five to six hundred miles of both water and sewer infrastructure today,
let alone what we are adding, you know, 20, 30 miles, you know, a year at some points
in our history. That all has to be addressed sometime and in characterizing what that is,
both from materials and an age standpoint and, then, knowing some of the options and
how we want to address it, we want to inform the Council on what that looks like and
whether or not you should join us in losing sleep or not and at this point I think, you
know, we are not in that situation, but it behooves us to understand it, track it, and make
sure that we are in a position, so that we can avoid some of the things that we are
seeing in -- in other areas of the country. So, really excited to see the results of that
effort and be able to come back and -- and share that learning with you. On the
capacity side and wastewater, we looked at a couple of utility specific things here. We
have spent a lot of effort on the liquid stream capacity side of our operations. In our ten
year CFP we know we have to also consider the solids processing into that. So, effort
in that will be coming very -- very soon. We do have monies in our ten year CIP to
address that, but we have to characterize that liquid stream phase two. That's the part
of the project that what we are doing today allows us to gain in capacity and meet our
interim limits. Liquid stream phase two allows us to ultimately meet the final ten year
limits of our permit and that's going to require effort to retrofit the existing equipment
once our new treatment train comes online in our capacity project out there.
Sidestream nutrient removal is -- is going to be a requirement to help us meet our
nitrogen and phosphorus requirements in the ten year plan, as will tertiary filtration.
Unfortunately, there is no technology that can get us all the way there without some very
sophisticated filtering equipment on there, much like you would have in a drinking water
treatment facility. So, we have those regulatory things. Warren mentioned that as we
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wrap up the south Meridian infrastructure to help support that area, the next thing that
we have on our list is -- is kind of the southwest area, which includes things like the
McDermott trunk line and -- and those, but we are anxiously awaiting the results of our
Comprehensive Plan update and whether or not that takes us in any different direction
and being prepared for that is -- is very important. We do have some key replacements
out in front of us. Our existing filtration equipment will require some effort and the
infamous sewer cleaning vehicle -- the original one we have as it moves towards 12 to
13 years of life, will be on the docket. We made a decision just in the last week or two
to spend 20,000 dollars for a new motor to keep that system running and gaining us
another few years, so we are experiencing significant investment in that, but you're
talking about a half million dollar piece of equipment, so we can afford to do that, but at
some point in time in the not too distant future we are going to need to consider a
complete replacement of that truck. Warren mentioned second access. The final step
in really making us feel good about our wastewater electrical distribution is ultimately
taking that system and putting it underground and so we have that on our docket. We --
we considered including that in the original effort, but felt like that complicated it further
than what was necessary, so we will be looking at the next few years bringing you the
opportunity to underground those power lines and really eliminating what we think to be
probably the highest risk issue for us and that's something like a bird strike on the wire
or something along those lines that could cause some problems. And, then, of course,
as we approach our five year expiration of our NPDES permit, what kind of goodies do
we have to look forward to on -- on that front. On the water side the -- you know,
continuing to stay ahead of growth with water -- thank you, Lauralie. Water production
facilities, continuing the introduction of unidirectional flushing, which really optimizes
that effort. Sampling and monitoring. We are seeing a trend in that, you know, I think
was somewhat borne out of Flint, Michigan, and similar kinds of challenges, but there --
there is a growing desire by regulatory agencies to demand and require us increased
sampling and monitoring of the water system and so as we watch that carefully, so that
we are prepared to accommodate those efforts on that front. Water treatment. We
have talked about the facilities that we are adding and we will -- we will be looking -- we
will be looking to continue that effort in the long term. Water source protection, keeping
track of where our wells are and what water quality concerns we have as -- as others
around us possibly influence that. Again, the comprehensive growth strategies. Water
rights management, which is -- which continues to be key. Kyle and his team continue
to work that to make sure that we have the water we need to support the growth of the
community, that we have the rights that will insure that that water will be there and --
and ultimately the final point here is the -- is water supply mitigation as we look at
opportunistic areas to, you know shore up our water supply efforts. So, with that we
have concluded in hopefully far less than two hours our part of the effort to present to
you the '19 budget and we would be more than happy to stand for any kind of questions
you might have, so thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale. Council, any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Sorry.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Dale, while President Trump has kept the news media
occupied with his Twitter account, in the background he's been reducing a great load of
EPA regulations, mostly I believe in the energy sector. Is there anticipated that any of
his efforts are going to make its way to your department?
Bolthouse: Madam Mayor, Council Member Palmer, that's a very good question.
Unfortunately, I would say today we have seen no influence of that effort. There maybe,
you know, on a broader scale, but, you know, the things -- I guess the rules that we are
marching against have been in place and I think most of his efforts have not been to
retrench or retract on what's been in place, but maybe to -- to look at what and how they
manage future regulatory requirements. Our EPA to DEQ transition on the wastewater
side I think has more promise for us in terms of having more available options and
things to address and attack the challenges that we face here in our valley and state of
Idaho, but I honestly can't say that at a local level we have seen any change or
influence in -- in the regulations that we have to comply to.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Another unrelated question for you. Where do you foresee our
reclaimed water program necessarily going into the future now that we have come
through this last process and that breather and -- expand it? Get rid of it? Keep it as it?
Bolthouse: You know, we brought that back to the Council, Council Member Palmer,
here not too long ago and our recommendation was to -- to operate the system that we
have available to us. The changes in our NPDES permit that occurred last August did
alleviate one of the primary purposes for the reclaimed water system and that was to
enable the city to continue to grow and still maintain a volume discharge limit to our
outfall at Five Mile Creek. So, that -- that effort is certainly -- or that issue is removed
from us. But we do see possible benefits as we looked at what might be coming down
the line. One of those is temperature. Our municipalities surrounding us all have
temperature requirements for their discharge. We do not. However, we are currently
tasked with substantial monitoring both of our discharge water for temperature, our
discharge stream locations, upstream, downstream and it feels like it's being postured
for implementation of a temperature criteria, honest, and I think at that point in time,
again, reclaimed water could come in and play a very strong role as we look to possibly
remove our discharge from, you know, surface water and look at other -- at other
options. So, I think we continue today to stand and operate it as it is, support the
customers that we have that are using it today, probably not make major investment
until such time that we see what other opportunities or requirements may be coming
down the line, but, yeah, we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater at this
point. I think it's -- it's a minimal cost to keep it operating today and it is a good use for
our wastewater. So, stay the course is the recommendation until we see what's coming.
Palmer: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
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Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Not a question, more of a comment. It's rare that we get kind of the whole
team in the room at once and so I just wanted to commend the Public Works team on a
-- on a great presentation and really applaud your innovative approach to vehicle
replacements. I think that you were -- don't have to, but are definitely forward thinking
about how every decision you as a department makes impacts our community and I
think that this is a great example for the rest of the city to follow, which it sounds like
now that we are. I was really impressed with your presentation. I'm supportive of all of
your enhancements. So, job well done.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: So, one of the items that we allocate money to in the General Fund and, then,
we see on our -- our monthly reports is the depreciation reserve and would it be prudent
for -- and maybe it's the next budget where it starts, but where there is an annual
allocation of a percentage of revenues towards the depreciation reserves, similar to
what we are trying to do in public safety fund or the capital improvement fund or the
General Fund. It just seems that that's a -- it's a -- a certainty that we are going to have
to grow that, but we don't seem to have the structure to allocate annually into it.
De Weerd: Todd, you want to --
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, love where you're going with this. This is
something that Alex and I have talked about for a number of years. I think even you and
I have even tossed it around a little bit. It's a great financial approach to saving --
setting ourselves up for success. I think Mr. Bernt made the comment yesterday save
now so we can be prepared for the future. I think that idea where you're going supports
were Dale was talking about, what is our future replacement. Let's set our future council
members up for success or future decision-makers up for success. I can tell you it's on
our white board. We continue to discuss it every year that we do need to build some
kind of replacement fund methodology, that would be like the two funds that we have for
the General Fund. So, we are in support of your mindset. We are discussing it. When
we deploy that in a particular year we still need to develop our policy, kind of our
mindset in how we are going to fund it and limitations, but we are in support of that
decision and we are discussing it on the executive side.
Borton: Great.
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De Weerd: Anything to add, Alex or Dale?
Freitag: I think it got characterized appropriately. It has been on its own radar. We
know it's something that -- that definitely needs to be dealt with. I think the strategy that
we develop right now it -- first let's assess where we are at, what this really looks like,
because as Dale alluded to earlier, we really don't have a good feel right now for the
materials -- a majority of the materials we have in the ground, how long they are going
to last and so an entire strategy probably needs to be developed around that piece to
understand how long can we reasonably expect the infrastructure to last and, then, go
ahead with a funding strategy.
Borton: Madam Mayor? To that point there is internal horsepower to allow that to
happen between -- probably already ongoing, but between now and March, for
example, when next year's budget process is starting, that that might be one of the
pieces of the puzzle.
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, by next March I can't guarantee we will
have a policy that -- policy in place. We still have some work to do like -- we have to
have a strategy. We need to find what we have, define the process. Again, we need to
get a fund -- fund balance policy first. So, can we get it done by March? Yeah, we can
put it on the white board, but I can't make any promises we are going to get it done by
March. But we love where you're going with it.
Bolthouse: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, just to add to that. So, I think that --
that is our intent to understand what that is and the sooner we recognize what may be
required and when we can develop that strategy and -- and that kind of an approach
and I believe that we will be able to at least educate and characterize the system that
we have and, then, some options on how we may want to approach it in the next year.
Borton: Okay.
Bolthouse: So, as I mentioned, we are -- we are very fortunate. We have a relatively
young infrastructure system. A large majority of what's in our ground is PVC pipe. We
are participating in the efforts by experts at the University of Utah and -- or excuse me,
Utah State -- it happens to be a resource that's -- that's nearly in our backyard that is --
that is considered probably the experts on infrastructure longevity and things and so we
are -- what is that -- webinar. We are sitting in on a webinar here that represents the
most recent study on infrastructure and longevity projections and those kinds of things.
So, it's really exciting. I would be happy to add you to the -- to the distribution list for
that one, but I think we are going to have a lot better understanding of what we are up
against here in the next several months and we will report that back to you.
Borton: Great. That's awesome. Awesome. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
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Borton: One other question on the -- it's just a broad question, it's not specifically a
project, but you mentioned the CFP, phenomenal tool, to plan out these expenditures
and Public Works more than any other department has wild swings in those
expenditures, our last year to this year. It comes in bunches and I am -- we have got
1.9 million going back in the reserves. Is that -- is that forecasted, so to speak, that the
1.9 is sufficient to get you to the expanded -- the reserve necessary to pay for the 2022
expenses, give us kind of a snapshot in comfort level of why socking away enough to
meet those future CFP planned obligations?
Freitag: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, that's a good
question. I think -- I will refer to our rate model as probably our best tool in that -- in that
the realm and so as you know we -- we try very hard to -- to straddle that line of making
sure that we collect the needed revenue for -- for operations, but we don't collect too
much revenue. We are, as Todd mentioned earlier in his presentation, moving back into
a save cycle probably for the next -- at least from a projection perspective the next
seven years or so we will see those fund balances continue to increase before we hit
that next spin cycle, which, not coincidentally, lines up with probably our next permit
cycle and how --
Borton: The CFP accounts for that?
Freitag: And the CFP accounts for that.
Borton: Awesome. Awesome. Okay.
Bolthouse: Short of any surprise or something like that we would be like we have -- we
are in reasonably good shape and I think we shared earlier that out at the end of that
ten year plan we see some concern and we have got to -- I mean we have got work
going on right now to figure out what we are going to do at that point in time.
Borton: So, it sounds like it's kind of a Todd guarantee? Is that what we call it? A Todd
promise. A little asterisk on it.
De Weerd: Anything further? Well, thank you and -- and you have -- you have
highlighted several successes and the year is not over, so we appreciate what you and
your team does to serve our community and to look further down the road to manage
those resources to make sure we don't have a collision at some point. Thank you.
Bolthouse: Thank you.
Field: We on for a ten minute break if you want to.
(Recess.)
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De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and call this meeting to order again. Please. Okay.
up next is street lights.
Stewart: So, the -- Alex and I are going to take the opportunity to talk about a couple of
enhancements that are related to the General Fund and I will talk a little bit about street
lights and, then, turn some time over to Alex to talk about a few other things associated
with the building -- buildings that the city owns. So, the street light program. In 2018
the City Council provided essentially 50,000 dollars for the installation of new street
lights. The current 2018 project is slated to install new street lights at key locations
along Ten Mile Road between Cherry Lane and Ustick and this project is currently out to
bid and will be constructed this summer. So, that's just kind of an update on where we
are with the money that you provided to us for this year. This next slide is, essentially,
the enhancement for 2019, which is also for 50,000 dollars and would allow us to
continue the installation of street lights where the street lights currently do not exist in
the city. We plan to continue our focus on school walking routes, accident prevention
and crime prevention and we will continue to collaborate with ACHD on their school
sidewalk projects whenever possible. This is a map that shows, essentially, where --
what projects that we have recently completed, what projects we have planned in the
planning process and also ones that are kind of currently under construction. So, far
this year 2018, the project way out on the left is the -- the enhancement that I just
requested. I don't know if it's a -- oh, you can't see it on there. So, that little blue line,
that's the Ten Mile project. There is some key intersections that need to have lights out
on the Ten Mile project. You will also see two other blue projects. I wanted to kind of
take a moment to talk about those. The one in the middle is actually another street
lighting project that we completed this year which is related to CDBG grant funds. So,
we were able to use some of the CDBG grant money to -- to install street lights in that
area and the one down on the lower right that's in blue is the Pine Avenue project.
That's actually also going to receive a bunch of street lights, but MDC is ultimately going
to pay for those lights, although that's a pass-through and Al has been significant in
coordinating and working with them to make that happen, that ultimately will be paid for
through MDC. And, then, the ones in yellow are our future projects and we are going to
talk a little bit more about those. So, this slide shows, essentially, a written list of the
projects that we currently have slated. The one in bold is the one we have proposed for
2019, which is a project that will install street lights on 8th Street between Cherry Lane
and the water department. That's really near Meridian Elementary -- or not -- Meridian
Middle School and there is a significant number of kids that use that corridor to walk
back and forth to school. There has also been an increase in the number of vehicle
burglaries and some other things that have occurred in that area. So, we think this is a
great location to add a street light project. The other projects that you see on that list
essentially represent 50,000 dollar increments. In other words, each one of those
projects identified -- I think there is like nine of them -- represents what -- approximately
50,000 dollars, which we kind of -- we have -- since about 2009 our normal ask for the
street light program has been 50,000 dollars and so we have identified that many
projects out in priority that would, essentially, be those annual asks. So, if the City
Council were to -- to, you know, want us to do more, would, essentially, do a couple of
those projects. But just so you understand the nature of those projects, each one of
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those projects anticipates lights that would add up to approximately the 50,000 dollar
ask as we go forward. This next slide -- oh, I thought it was a map of -- another map.
But I apologize for that. So, that's essentially -- the 50,000 dollars that we are talking
about for this year is the enhancement that we are requesting. I do want to say that we
have had some discussions with some of the City Council members about maybe
increasing the number of street lights that we put in or accelerating the schedule on the
street lights. We are certainly able to do that if that is something that City Council
decides they want to do. I just wanted to characterize it for you so you understood that
each one of those projects represents about 50,000 dollars and I will stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Warren. Any questions from Council? Okay.
Freitag: Okay. So, moving on to City Hall. Just to give you a status update on the two
FY-18 enhancements that we had approved. There was a building maintenance worker
we were adding to our staff and City Hall Plaza electrical work. Both of those
enhancements are one hundred percent complete for this year. Moving on to our sole
request for FY-19. This is City Hall ADA parking compliance. This enhancement is for
37,400 dollars. This is primarily to -- affects updates to the sidewalk area to the north
side of City Hall Plaza for the area from the handicapped parking on Broadway to the
entrance of City Hall. I will stop there and pause for questions if you -- if you have any.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Freitag: That concludes the enhancement.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, it looks like we are waiting for one more person, but we
will start without him. We haven't seen him for ten weeks, so what's another couple of --
what's another couple of hours, so -- thank you for your time today. We are here to
present our FY-18 kind of a wrap up and highlight some of our projects and, then, I will
summarize FY-19 enhancement. As Jenny pointed out earlier, this is just a format we
are going to follow. We will talk about our mission. Excuse me. Share with you dollars
at work from FY-18. Give you an enhancement summary. And, then, talk about each
individual enhancement and, then, just give you a couple points of what to expect for
the future. I guess we are waiting for two. We have covered the mission statement
many, many times in the past and just really -- just the highlights is that we work
together in partnership with our community -- thank you -- realizing that we can't do it
alone and that enforcement is not the only thing that we are tasked with. We are also
tasked with educating our community, as well as working on preventive measures as
well. So, budget dollars at work. As you recall last year we had a request for two
additional lieutenants and the reason for that was the burnout rate that I was seeing for
the two patrol lieutenants that we had. Lieutenant Stokes to my right, your left, and --
De Weerd: And he was burnt out --
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Lavey: He is burnt out for a whole different reason. And, then, Lieutenant Brown, who
could not be here today, because he had a freak accident and just is recovering from
surgery at -- at home. So, he's with us in spirit. We spoke with him. He's doing really,
really well, but his -- his recovery time is going to be extensive. So, it's probably a good
thing he is a lieutenant at the point, because he will not be in the field for probably a
year. We promoted Lieutenant Harper and you guys can give him a bad time about
being late when he walks in and, then, we also promoted Lieutenant Ford all the way
down here at the end and it is working really well for us. And, of course, anytime you
have promotions, then, it moves up and we have -- we have promoted sergeants and
corporals as well within our area. Seven additional police officers. We have had a time
hiring lots and lots of officers, but with the retirements and several officers leaving for
the private sector, that number doesn't -- it doesn't really decrease all that much and so
we have hired those seven officers, but, then, we have ten current openings. As we
speak. Out of those ten current openings we have six conditional offers out there and
as of today it looks like five -- hoping for six --
Stokes: We should be good for six
Lavey: -- starting on July 9th. So, we still have three additional positions to fill. And
code enforcement officer -- not only did we delay this at first, but, then, we lost our -- our
code enforcement supervisor when he decided he was going to retire. So, we put the
focus in on hiring a supervisor before we hired a code enforcement officer. We actually
hired two code enforcement officers and, then, we were fortunate enough to get that --
that open position you guys gave us last year -- has not been filled yet and the
supervisor position -- next week is the interview for that or job offer. Workstations.
Patrol. Maybe refer to Berle to talk about what went on down there.
Stokes: Yeah. Some new stations installed on -- if you have ever been in the patrol
room, both sides -- both walls have new countertops and we were able to add one or
two computers by just kind of redesigning that space and, then, we added two new
stand-up workstations, which get a lot of use. So, an officer can come in with a short
report and stand up and knock that report out pretty quick and not get trapped in a chair
and so it's been very good.
De Weerd: Does it have a treadmill?
Stokes: No treadmill. Maybe we should add one.
Lavey: Lieutenant Ford, do you want to talk about the wraps?
Ford: So, the wrap restraint is a system that we purchased to help restrain a suspect.
It's a -- it's a lot like a straight leg brace. Y'all know what a straight leg brace is. It's
something -- we will lay the suspect face down and it actually wraps their legs up almost
like a taco would and it keeps him from kicking and fighting. Then you can get them in a
seated position. You can put a -- it's a harness that goes over the top of the shoulder
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strap and it actually allows them to have their hands handcuffed behind their back and,
then, it attaches to their feet and it keeps them in an upright position and keeps them
from fighting and kicking and creating injury to themselves and other officers. It's
something that we have used for protective custody holds. It's been a great tool for
blood draws -- forced blood draws on DUIs. If somebody's combative we can place
them in that and, then, the fire department can come in and they are able to pull blood
with no problems at all.
De Weerd: And those are already received and --
Ford: How many of those do we have right at the moment?
Harper: Fourteen.
Lavey: They have been used quite often already.
Campbell: Yeah. They aren't -- and they have really changed -- a lot of uses of force
that in the past apply a hobble or a hobble restraint, those -- those tend to get extended
and continue for a long period of time. Once we get somebody in that wrap restraint it's
over and so it's much safer for them and the officers and the jail staff and it's -- it's a
great tool and we were kind of the pioneers of that in -- certainly in Ada county. I don't
know if other departments in the valley have started using it, but it's a great tool. It's
money well spent.
Ford: Particularly when you're dealing with people in a mental health crisis it's a great
tool. It's a much more humane way to restrain somebody than traditional law
enforcement practices have been in the past.
Lavey: Lieutenant Harper advised me he's done it a hundred -- one hundred?
Harper: Between juvenile and adult.
Lavey: Shawn, talk about trauma kit.
Harper: So, the trauma kits, thanks to you all, we finally got those all out to all of our
sworn staff. We have got 98 of them in the field total for all of our sworn staff.
Everybody has been trained. We put on a four hour training, thanks to the Ada county
paramedics, their TacMed program. So, they put on all the training for us, which was
really nice to have them -- them there and since we have had them we have used them
four times in the field for immediate trauma care as recent as two days ago for a stab --
a subject who received stab wounds and we have got a lot of good feedback from our
medical first responders, as well as trauma surgeons, on the use of the equipment. So,
if we have gotten some good feedback on the application of it, as well as -- in this case
it saved the guy's life, so it's a pretty big deal.
De Weerd: That's awesome.
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Lavey: This is kind of off track just a bit, but I'm going to -- want to give kudos to
Lieutenant Harper for his continued work in the school safety function. He has been
instrumental in our city and it's really kind of spread across the state, trying to do
everything that we can to ensure school safety. The trauma kits were part of that as far
as being able to deal with officers and -- and the kids within our schools, but beyond the
actual trauma kit, just the protocols and the messaging in everything we do is -- has
really kind of taken off over the last couple of months thanks to Lieutenant Harper. So,
kudos to you.
De Weerd: But, chief, maybe -- I know you probably weren't asked to, but I know you
have it top of mind, because we just communicated, but can you just give a brief
overview of the work that's been happening with the school -- with our school district,
but also the area.
Harper: Yeah. I will try to make this as brief as possible, but from our communication
and, obviously, the focus on school safety and -- and everything that's going on around
the country, we have really worked hard to bring all of our partners and our local law
enforcement together to figure out what we can do to progress the programs that we
have going currently, which we are doing a lot of the right things, but we always have to
find something to -- to progress and continue to improve on. So, with that we --
somehow or another I was able to get 33 representatives together all at the same table
and start talking. So, all of Ada county, all of Canyon county is covered, from the school
districts, fire, law enforcement. So, that's been -- and, obviously, the school safety
department -- Idaho department -- I forget. Building department. School safety. So,
anyway, they -- we have -- we have all gotten together and we are actually moving
towards standardizing this valley wide and, then, hopefully, be able to push this
statewide at some point, so that we are all doing the same things and evolving as a
state, instead of just locally. It's pretty neat. There is a lot more to come on that.
De Weerd: That and your collaboration on the first slide as well.
Harper: Yes. Working with all first responders and closely with the school districts,
because, obviously, it's -- it's really important that we have them in the same room and
-- and getting their input and their direction as well.
De Weerd: Thank you. And thank you for your leadership on that. And welcome,
Tracy.
Lavey: We said it was -- he had been gone for ten weeks, what was a couple extra
hours.
Basterrechea: That's right.
Lavey: He was just trying to catch up. We know that's what he was doing. The next
item is the firearms range membership and I know that this was an interesting topic last
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year and I was going to have Lieutenant Leslie talk about it, but he's decided to take the
back row, so I will punt and you can add anything if I mess up. But this has actually
turned out to be quite beneficial to us, yet challenging at the same time. It's not
designed in such a way that we would have designed it, therefore, we are -- tactically
we are restricted in what we do and it limits some of our training, limits some of our --
our amounts of people that -- that we can train at one time. But we have adapted to it
and once we have adapted to it it's turned out quite remarkable. I could tell you that to
Jared Heiner, the owner of the business, and Ryan Later, the general manager of the
business, they have been phenomenal to work with, not only in using their facility, but
also trying to bring classes to the valley, including school safety net classes. Lieutenant
Harper and myself work with them quite often and they have, essentially, turned the
keys over to us. We have full use of that facility from 6:00 to 10:00 o'clock in the
morning and we also have full use of that facility after they close at night. They give us
the keys, alarm codes, and trained our people said have at it and they even allow us to
store our equipment there as well. So, in that partnership it's working out quite well and
we have kind of fine tuned the invoicing on it and so it's -- it's -- it's working out for us.
It's better than having nothing and the windshield time is no longer there. So, we train
more often for shorter periods -- shorter periods of time. If you have more specific
questions one of our head firearms instructors is in the room and, then, Lieutenant
Leslie is in the room as well, so maybe if there is a question there we can pause.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I just wondered who the partnership is with.
Lavey: Independent Shooting Range. The indoor shooting range. The farm simulator.
The farm simulator was approved last year -- and that's when your mic should be off.
When we originally scoped out the farm simulator we had a different route we were
going and we changed some of the -- the learning and equipment that was first bidded
out, so it had to be rebidded and I'm advised that they are just wait for the purchase
order to be issued and, then, they will be purchasing that equipment. The scenario
village, this has been drawn out for some time with the vendor and we were just getting
updates on it today as far as what's actually going on here. But it's been going through
the process -- through legal, through contracts, through negotiations, trying to get a
contract before you. Hopefully you will see that soon, but we are probably going to
have to carry the monies -- carry the money forward, because it's going to be a four
month process once we get a contract finalized. So, with that -- Jamie, if I have
misspoken anything? Okay. Video management system was to install the video
equipment in our interview rooms. There was a couple different areas that we are
exploring, how to do that. This involved the Police Department, IT, and Purchasing and
it's in progress, but I'm not sure we are going to be able to complete the project before
the end of this budget year, so if we have to roll money forward we will roll money
forward. But it's currently in progress. This is our enhancements that you're going to
see and we are going to talk about individually and they are -- they are numbered in
priority starting with number two and I didn't put two, three, four on there, so how many
are there -- one, two, three, four -- six. Well, that's two through six. We will be talking
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about -- in answer number one for the end of this presentation, but I am going to defer
the first two items to Tracy that he can discuss.
Basterrechea: All right. Welcome back. The first is -- especially if we are unable to get
a PIO and mix social media to software, which gives us the ability to reach out on all of
our social media platforms at once. The other thing that it does is it gives us the
opportunity to have people respond back to us. Some of the things we are really
looking at using it for is our recruiting. So, we can give out cards or send something out
on social media and it has a -- I think it's a four digit number or a six digit number. They
can type that in and it takes them right to our recruiting page and puts them right in the
process of dealing with us, as opposed to the traditional going to career fairs, talking to
kids and, then, telling them to come find us. So, I know that L.A. sheriff's department
has been using this and they are very, very happy with this as a recruiting tool. They go
out to different events, they hand out that card, they talk to people, they give them the --
the number they need to contact them and, then, they contact the sheriff's office and put
them right next with the recruiting team and they get the process going. So, that's one
of the reasons we are really looking at that tool in specific is it's a little bit different than
the one that Kaycee uses where she can reach all the social media platforms, but it
doesn't have that interactive aspect to it, like this one does, especially with one or just
two of us who have other jobs that we really should be doing -- handling all of our social
media, it just makes it a lot easier than having to go and tweet and, then, go to
Facebook and do all of those different things. We look at the public safety PIO, which is
the next one on the list. Oh, the other thing that's nice about this also is we don't have
to keep an e-mail list of all of our media contacts. They opt in. If they want our press
releases, if they want anything, they opt in and they will get it. If they don't, that's on
them. Citizens can do the same thing. So, they can get -- can opt in and so when we
put out a press release they get the press release just like the media does. One of the
things that, quite honestly, we would like to do with this and the PIO is we want to
control our message better than just letting the media control the message getting out
there. So, looking at -- at a PIO that is a public safety PIO would be shared between
ourselves and Fire. We are really looking at enhancing our ability to get out to the
public and get our story out to the public. Our officers, our fireman, they all do a
phenomenal job on a daily basis, but when it's you're expecting me to get out there and
put those feel good messages out there all the time, quite honestly, I don't have time to
do it and, honestly, I think it's great that they are doing those great things, but it's not on
the top of my list to go, oh, we need to get this out to the media, we need to get this out
to people, so they know what a great thing our officers did, because we are focused on
the operations portions of our job, the most important portion, the public safety aspect of
it and we can't use Kaycee for all of our media things, it would completely overwhelm
her. Pretty quickly early on when she came on and took over the position at City Hall,
she realized quickly when I started calling her this is what we are out on, this is what we
are doing and she was going, man, that's a lot, I can't -- I can't make it out there. I can't
do this. So, I really ended up doing the same thing I have been doing and it's -- quite
honestly, it's really -- it's piecemeal. We want somebody that can monitor our social
media stuff all of the time -- it's very hit and miss with us, but we try to keep it as
narrowed as we can, because we want to make sure we are getting the same message
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out, the same person is putting out the same message, so it's really hard for us to keep
up with those issues in the -- in the public and so those are the two things that we are
really looking at doing. One over the other, certainly we would prefer the PIO, but if we
can't do that, next is -- certainly the next best option for just us, if we're going to
continue operating the way we operate.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Tracy, have we utilized our -- the -- there is a lot of existing programs that are
free or -- I mean like one of the most common one to use for this kind of scenario -- and
I think it's the most expensive option, it's like a hundred bucks a month.
Basterrechea: Yeah. One of the things with those is you got to be careful on what
message you put out. I'm not an expert, but when you're tweeting and when you're
doing Facebook how those end up getting put out. You don't want to put out the same
message on both and Nixle has a very limited -- or very wide ability to kind of arrange
how those messages go out, how they go out into the -- I don't know what you call it --
the mediasphere -- mediasphere. And Hootsuite is not interactive like Nixle is. For
instance, I can't say send out this number and now they click on it and it takes them
right to our recruiting page or it takes them to the site they need to go to to get the
information that they need within the city and so that's one of the things that -- that we
are really looking at doing is we want it -- we are having trouble recruiting, everybody is,
and we want to get that leg up on recruiting and that's really one of their big features
with Nixle for us is we can hit the younger kids, because going to career fairs isn't
working and isn't going to work. Putting out things traditional on your traditional media
and in the newspaper isn't going to work. Facebook -- I can't even -- I don't know that
kids even really use Facebook anymore, there so many different things. Instagram and
those types of things. And so we can kind of hit all of those media platforms and get the
response back that we want from the people we are trying to recruit. I can have an
officer on a call, hand them a card and go dial this number, text this number and it will
put you right into our recruiting page, as opposed to, hey, you know what, call
somebody at the -- at our office and talk to Lieutenant Caldwell and he will tell you how
to become a Meridian police officer, they are never going to call Lieutenant Caldwell,
they are going to text that number and they are going to -- because they know it's going
to take them right to the page and they can do everything on their own, because that's
the world that they all live in.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Palmer: If they have got some kind of a demo or a video or something that -- that
helped sell you guys on it, if you could -- or the marketing materials --
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Basterrechea: Yeah.
Palmer: -- so that we could get a better idea as well.
Basterrechea: Yeah. Absolutely. We can get that for you.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, just go Google it. Google Nixle and it will
explain it all to you. It's geared toward law enforcement and geared towards schools
and it is phenomenal in what it does. I will tell you that we have worked with Kaycee
and with IT, though, to sit there and say is there other options out there and right now
this is specific to law enforcement and it's specific to another item that's very, very
important to us and I will have Lieutenant Harper speak on that.
Harper: For messages for the school safety side of things, for lockdowns, one thing we
have worked with the West Ada School District on is improving our speed of messaging
when we have a lockdown or an incident at a school and we have done a good job,
because they use Blackboard as their way of communicating through text or e-mail and
with Nixle this can also be something where we can help get that messaging out
quicker. Can we ever get it out quick enough? I don't really think so in today's time.
But it will help us there to get that messaging out once people start registering for this --
this program. So, that will be a big help, too, because that's one area I know a lot of
parents have -- have got concerns on wanting to know what their -- at least some
generalization information on our having some sort of incident in one of our schools.
So, the next item -- the next two items I was going to have Lieutenant Colaianni present
on and, unfortunately, he couldn't be here today. He's on some bereavement time and
it's kind of sad, because he's been really, really actively involved in this and so it's a
missed opportunity for him and so I told him that I would do my best to cover for him.
But one of the things I asked is that -- is staff to prepare an executive summary on why
this next position was important and I'm just going to ask that it be just passed out and
this is something for you to just take with you and read and study over the next couple
of weeks, because I can't do it as what is in there. As you know, the city has grown
tremendously and we have one person doing crime prevention. You heard me mention
earlier in the -- in the presentation how that is one prong to what we do. Crime
prevention, education, and enforcement. Crime prevention is key to what we are trying
to achieve in this city and make it the best city, the safest city in Idaho. But one person
cannot do that mission alone and a couple of the areas that we are finding that we are
lacking in is the retail community and the business community and into the multi-
housing community, i.e., apartments and they have crime prevention through
environmental design. You have heard in the past it's where you make environmental
changes to assist us in crime prevention, such as walkways, such as lighting, bushes
away from the building, that sort of thing. They also have crime prevention through
environmental design for multi-housing units and this person could also focus in on that
specialty training as well and also serve as a liaison to the retail businesses where we
are getting lots and lots of fraud. In fact, we are getting so much fraud in our
businesses -- within our valley, not just in Meridian -- that businesses aren't even
reporting them and that's sad. And so working together with them to see how we can
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partner and prevent further crimes and financial losses to those businesses as well and
that's what that position is. So, read the -- read the summary at your leisure, reach out
to us as you have further questions over the next couple weeks in that position and,
then, I will have Lieutenant Colaianni here up for the next budget workshop as well if
you have further questions or call him when he returns.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Don't you think it's important, maybe, then, to capture, since there is going to
be some follow-up conversations -- I'd really like to see the impact of this position on
driving down crime and being able to show us why adding another position -- the impact
it would have. So, maybe it's speaking to missed opportunities that the current position
wasn't able to do, because their schedule being so busy. This is a position I -- I think I
have a good idea as to what -- and also I think I'm very naive and I would I really like
some really targeted data that can speak to -- by bringing on this position the impact to
our community that we are going to be able to see.
Lavey: Fair enough. I will pass it on.
Cavener: Great. Thank you.
Lavey: Data clerk positions. We do have the subject matter expert in here that can
speak to this. She's probably judging everything I say on this one, but we have
mandated reporting we have to give to the state and to the FBI and it involves data
entry. We have grown so much in the city that -- and we always try to play catch-up on
the support side -- on the support staff side and part of where we are at is our
adjudications that come in, which is our cases that -- they come through, they get
adjudicated, there is a -- a finding, a closure, and, then, we are not -- and, then, we
have to -- we have to send that back to the data entry in the back to get our clearance
rate adjusted on our National Incident Base Reporting System or NIBRS. We are two
years behind. We do not have the staff time to keep up, because we are putting in so
many reports that are being generated that we don't have the staff time to go in and
follow through and keep up and so what happens is when you see our crime stats come
in it's going to show that we are solving far less crimes than we are, in fact, solving in
the city. We are doing a much better job of closing those cases out, but if you monitored
our clearance rate over the last couple of years it keeps declining, declining, declining
and that's because we don't have adequate staff to keep up with our data entry. So,
these are two positions that would assist with that workload. And, then, I have a
supervisor of the analyst division here if we have additional questions or not. I couldn't
have done that good of a job on it.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: Chief -- and maybe this is an off-line conversation. I'm -- I'm trying to kind of
wrap my head around, again, the value -- the importance these positions bring and I'm
hearing that it creates greater clarity and more accuracy to the great job that you're
doing, but I know there has got to be more than that, so --
Lavey: It's federally mandated and it's federal mandates that we cannot keep up with.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: What's the -- what's the timeline for the -- the mandate? Are we behind
what's already being asked of us? Are we within the threshold? I know that the federal
government moves a little slower than local government.
Lavey: Yeah. So, we release -- we release the crime stats every April and we are two
years behind that. So, yeah, we are -- there is no -- there is no penalties that come in
that you're this far behind, it just affects our crime rate and that crime rate is what we
rely on to enjoy those nice rankings that we get, you know, second safest city in the --
Cavener: Okay.
Lavey: -- the third safest city, those -- that's -- those numbers affect that rating.
Cavener: Great.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, in that case, chief, without getting up to date with the increase population
and crime, we might be better off two years behind.
Lavey: Well, I always told the Mayor the best way to adjust the crime rate is not report
the crime and that's kind of the logic you're going with, but I think that misses the point
of --
De Weerd: And you're kidding.
Lavey: This strategic plan of being the safest city in Idaho is our goal and this assists
us with that goal. But I do understand where you're coming from. Yeah. You can't have
it always.
Basterrechea: We just like to be accurate.
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Milam: Madam Mayor, follow up.
De Weerd: You like being accurate. Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, you have -- you're asking for two positions and what is your projected time
frame for -- to get caught up and would one be sufficient or would that just get us -- I
mean at some point they are going to get caught up I'm assuming and, then, will there
be enough for them to -- for two -- I mean if we are using them to get caught up from
two years behind, is there enough to keep them full time busy for -- into perpetuity?
Lavey: If you stop saying yes to everything that comes into the community we would
probably be, but as we continue to grow it's very, very, very challenging. So, I can't
answer that, because everything would have to like stop, but I can tell you right now we
are doing everything we can just to keep our heads above water. So, there was a
request for four and I cut it to two. So, I think the need is there.
Milam: Thank you.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: How complicated is the job itself? How much training does it take? Does it
take a background check? Is the information they are seeing -- what's -- what kind of
person do we need in that position?
Lavey: Yeah. So, that's -- there is -- there is two questions in there as far as how
complicated it is and what legal requirements are necessary to do the job. They are
completely two different things. Because it's EGIS protected information you need a
complete background check, polygraph, the whole shebang. You cannot use temporary
employment without finding that right candidate to do it. As far as complication, I think
with the skill set that we are seeing with the students that are coming out there now, you
just need to know computer and be trained in it. So, I don't think it's -- without
minimizing what they do, I don't believe it's complicated, but it does require some pretty
stringent requirements to not only get hired, but, then, to maintain the security
clearances to do it, because it is FBI data. Community service officers. Back
approximately two years ago when we originally talked about the -- the PAM model, the
Patrol Allocation Model, we talked about the officers for calls for service, how many calls
for service per officer we were experiencing and we were discussing having additional
patrol bodies and, then, also is there any other mechanisms out there that could reduce
our call load and we had been talking about the community service officer positions.
The community service officer positions would be a more cost-effective program that
would allow less time sensitive calls -- stale report calls. Maybe some traffic crashes,
abandoned vehicles, those quality of life type calls that do not involve or need an armed
police officer that has arrest powers to minimize the amount of calls that the officers are
going on, so they can go out and handle the more serious calls. We are ready to put
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that -- that forward and that's what these positions are. These are full -- not full -- four
FTEs that would be the community service officers. In the enhancement it also has
some specialty equipment for photography and evidence collection and crime scene
processing and that would be their primary roles. One of the things that we have
discovered looking at several different programs -- and I think, Councilman Cavener, we
talked about this before about the program, they exist in Boise and it exists in Nampa.
They are ran completely different ways and neither one is wrong, neither one is right,
that's just how it works for them. But one of the things that we have discovered is that
there is certain duties that they are allowed to do and, then, as time permits and you
have them trained and you can train them into doing anything you want them to do, as
long as you work to the liability and they don't need arrest powers and it doesn't put
them in danger. So, they may not be taking a burglary call and a hold burglary call at
the very, very beginning, but as we get confident in what they are doing and their skill
level, then, we could train them in how to take a burglary report, what are the elements
of the crime. The other thing is is that this is a mechanism to maybe hire a younger
person that isn't eligible to be a police officer yet, yet has that interest, build up some
training and, then, move into the police officer side of it. That's how I would like to see it
work, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's how it would work, because you are
going to have a lot of people applying for the job. And, then, there is some other people
out there that frankly do not want the job of police officer, but they still want that -- that --
that taste, that feel, and they want to be a part of it and this would be a perfect position
for them. So, this is that program for four FTEs.
Borton: Chief, ask you a question on that. Is there also with that a request for vehicles
for those four?
Lavey: That has four vehicles in there. That -- so, just to give you an idea, that has four
trucks, some specialized camera equipment, some evidence collection materials,
uniforms people. So, the first -- first year is -- I think there is a hundred some thousand
-- forty-seven thousand I think capital equipment that would not be -- that's one time
only.
Borton: So, if there is -- is there an opportunity -- and probably already went through
this -- to some of the other vehicles that are being replaced, that perhaps -- because
they don't meet the requirements of lights and code calls, but perhaps a less intense
user might be able to get by by utilizing them, even though -- so, there might have been
a vehicle, for example, in this new replacement policy that is supposed to come offline
because of these certain benchmarks, but could -- could still be used for this less
intense user.
Lavey: Yeah. So, that's -- that's an interesting, because that's exactly what you're
going to see I think tomorrow is that there was a request to take a couple of our vehicles
and convert them over to something like that and I said with the new mechanisms we
have in place, the vehicle assistance we have in place, I cannot replace a vehicle until it
has met a critical need. So, if I'm sitting there coming in front of you saying this vehicle
needs to be replaced, because it -- it's in critical condition, how can I justify giving that to
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someone else? Granted it's different than if you ask that question about -- for a police
vehicle, pursuit rated, it can't do that, which I think is what we are going at. It can't do
that anymore, but normal driving, it can do just fine. Unfortunately, the types of vehicles
that we spec'd out for this we don't have as patrol vehicles. We -- we have police
interceptor SUVs and Tahoes and Caprices and these are actually pickup trucks, so we
can store the equipment we can store the bicycles and -- and those things that we see
that are out there. The barricades -- the traffic barricades. So, it could possibly be in
the future, but I just don't have those vehicles --
Borton: Okay.
Lavey: -- today.
Borton: Okay.
Lavey: But, yeah, that's -- and that's -- that would be one thing that as we replace new
vehicles we could sit there and go, okay, we are going to replace it with this type of
vehicle, because in three years we are going to roll it into this position. Very much -- but
we are just not prepared to do that for the first time.
Borton: Is there -- is there a possibility that other departments might have vehicles that
-- that fit their needs -- you know, Fire and Parks, for example, this year each have
trucks that are being replaced, but other department's might have vehicles that when
they are done with them, to meet the specific needs -- just trying to repurpose --
Lavey: Yeah. And normally --
Borton: -- extend the life maybe.
Lavey: -- and -- and I wouldn't -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, I would say, yes,
normally, but what I have seen here in this group is we drive those vehicles to the
ground before we ever replace them and they are already doing the -- just driving
around town and doing the basic work on it --
Borton: Right.
Lavey: -- so, if we are finally getting to the point where it's time to replace them, it's time
to replace them, not kick them over to us. So, yes, I do think if we are willing to replace
a Parks vehicle much sooner, then that could work or, vice-versa, if we had them in the
Police Department and roll them over in the Parks Department, I think that would work.
But we run these vehicles we have into the dirt, that they just need to go into a
graveyard somewhere.
Borton: Okay.
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Lavey: That's probably a good segue into this next discussion. Vehicle maintenance
records software. You heard Todd over the last couple hours talk about Stacey Pechin
and refer to the police department Stacey Pechin. Stacey Pechin is a -- a gem when it
comes to a hire that we have done. We don't always get it right, but we got it right on
this one, and we hired her as the general manager -- service manager out of a business
in Boise that she had been doing the job for 17 years and so she's taken over our entire
fleet of the police department and she might even be in charge of the entire fleet of the
whole city before it's all over with. But she has worked with Todd and his department on
vehicle assessments, vehicle replacements. She's, I believe, the one that brought the
WEX gas card forward, if not she gets credit for it today. It is trying to find everything
that we can to make assessments on these vehicles the best we can and so she has
found a fleet maintenance software that is currently 300 dollars a month -- month by
month fee for the size of vehicles that are in our fleet, the Police Department, we are
currently using that and studying that and hoping that this is going to be the software
that we can adopt for the entire city. I was able to find some monies to start that now,
but I do not have budgeted monies to fund that for the entire year and so this 3,600 -- I
almost said a thousand. Would that be a lot? Yeah. Thirty-six hundred dollars is 300
dollars a month fee to keep fleet maintenance records and, then, that would also be
able to monitor how much money we are spending on replacing -- or repairing these
vehicles, maintaining these vehicles and it would give the perfect opportunity to answer
those questions, Council Borton, that you just said. Can we roll this over into some --
some other division or does this vehicle need to go away. But right now we don't have
adequate records. As you heard me say in the earlier part of the presentation I had
several enhancements to share with you that was rated number two through number
six. Number one enhancement has to do with our people and every two years we do
pay for a study on the market rates of police officers and this year was the year for
police departments and that is our highest priority and why is it our highest priority?
Because car people are the foundation for what makes things work. There is a
foundation for everything that we enjoy. They are the ones that get us the safest city
ratings. They are the ones that give us the Kudos. They are the ones that do the hard
work out there and, frankly, they are doing above and beyond what I would expect from
anybody and I don't know how they do it, but they do it and they do it well, but they are
burning out and we need to recognize the work that they do or we are going to lose
them and I sent a thing out this morning -- I apologize due to technology Berle and I set
it up to have it delivered last night while you were at Council. We figured you would
review it at the kiosk. It didn't go out and, then, when I sent it out this morning -- of
course I didn't send the attachment, so it's definitely user error --
De Weerd: But you did. You did it twice.
Lavey: Did you get it twice? Well, then, we are in bonus.
De Weerd: I was going to reply, but I thought -- eh.
Basterrechea: You doubled down.
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De Weerd: Got it twice.
Lavey: I know who it was, but -- someone over here told me they didn't get it. Here.
Maybe out here. You know, it's like -- No. We joke. We just wanted you to have
opportunity to -- to look at that. We are in a position of -- of trying to figure out what to
do as far as when it comes to retirement to preparing for the future and we had worked
with HR -- closely with HR and the reason why this guy is -- looks so stressed out and
burned out over here is because when I say we it's actually he who does a lot of the
work on the police side and, then, I have a couple of people behind me in uniform as
well that I'd like to recognize for their hard work, too, as far as Justin Northway and Eric
Strolberg for the hard work that they have done in this and, then, I surely cannot forget
HR -- I think over here with Crystal and Laura Lee. Laura Lee has been passionate
about doing this and working with a third-party consultant. So, that is where the
information that Todd gave you at the very beginning of the presentation came up with
and so kind of defer to Berle for a quick little blurb here and we will leave it at -- for
questions.
Stokes: It's a lot of information. If you -- if you had a chance to read it -- that's why we
wanted to get it to you ahead of time and I think we may have further discussions in
detail at some point in the future. Yes. So, the -- the pay committee, for lack of a better
term, was created, you know, roughly a decade ago. I have been a part of it much
longer than I ever anticipated and I probably have some gray hairs or white hairs,
whatever color my hair is, associated directly with my being on that committee, but it's
been -- it's been, you know, just one of those things that we have done. This year we --
you know, we really took a step back and looked at why is this important and what are --
what are we doing here and looking internally and, you know, the biggest challenges we
face now and certainly over the next decade is getting police officers here and the
competition for police officers across the country and in this valley is very, very high. As
you will see when you read that -- or -- or just do a quick Google search, there is not a
lot of people that want to do that, even in a great community like this. So, we are facing
tough times ahead, tough times currently. I think with our ten openings -- and I know we
are hoping to get that whittled down to four here shortly -- we just filled positions this
spring that you gave us a couple of budget cycles ago and so we have operated with
many open police cars and I don't know how long that is sustainable. So, we -- the
point of that is just we know we needed to take a look and really see what our
challenges are and what we need to do to position ourselves to give us a fighting
chance moving forward filling those positions and if you had a chance to look at the --
you know, the attrition forecast that we have ahead for retirements and what our PAM
model suggests we need for officers, can look a little scary, you know, and you add in
those -- those newest PAM numbers and we probably need to hire in the neighborhood
of 80 officers in the next six and a half years and, you know, that the department as we
were talking has authorized 114. So, we were talking about, you know, kind of
duplicating our police department. That's assuming growth calms down a little bit, which
I don't think any of us think that's going to happen, at least today. So, that -- that's why
there is a little more to it this year than there has been in years past and -- and really
trying to figure out what we need to do to position ourselves to be competitive in the
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world we live in and keep the great ones we have and get the great ones we need for
the future. Many of the folks here won't be here in three, four, five, six, seven, eight
years. I mean we are -- you know, we are in the -- a lot of us are in the fourth quarter of
our careers.
De Weerd: Except maybe one.
Stokes: Yeah. There is a couple of us that will still be, but -- so, you know, we -- we
don't want to be left in a bad position. So, we -- we know we need to be in a competitive
position in this county to make sure our city remains prosperous like it is today, so --
Lavey: So, our intent was to keep this at a very high level discussion and we would say
that we would like to bring the team together and have a further in-depth discussion, if
that's what you would like, to go over anything that you want and I will just tell you this,
the handout that we gave you earlier today -- twice -- I think it lists -- I might be off by a
couple numbers, but I think it lists nine sergeants, four lieutenants, a chief and a deputy
chief that are going to need to be filled within the next eight years. When you look at
the market adjustments currently that our consultant came up with, those positions
currently in our department lack anywheres from 12 to 20 percent gap in what other
departments are paying in the Treasure Valley. We are going to get a tipping point
sometime. I don't know when that is. I told the Mayor this morning I sure hope it's when
I am not here anymore, but if we don't do something, if we don't make this adjustment,
we are going to lose our people and so the question is if we don't make it now when do
we make it? But I would be willing to get the team together and discuss this in any
venue that you think is appropriate prior to July 12th when you have to make that
ultimate decision on where to go.
De Weerd: Thank you, Chief. Questions from Council? Okay.
Lavey: Any questions on the -- the STEP plan part or comments or -- so, last slide. The
road ahead. You heard us talk about the PAM model. I think Berle Stokes has talked
about the PAM model. I will tell you on the PAM model that -- that Council adopted back
in December 2017, at that time, at the most conservative level of an officer one time a
week in a neighborhood, we need nine additional bodies and I will tell you that the
growth that we have experienced in the first six months of 2018 has surpassed all of
2017 in six months. So, my guess is when we come in and give you the updated
requirements in -- or the updated stats in December as we promised every December,
the PAM model is probably going to show we need in excess of 18 officers. In excess of
18 officers based upon those standards. Now, those standards were developed -- and I
have those in front of me as a level of service and I got a level of service of what we
wanted to adopt and where we are currently at. But you may ask why I didn't ask for --
or we didn't ask for additional bodies now. It doesn't make any sense for me to ask for
bodies I can't fill. It doesn't. And so I don't come in front of you today asking for ten
more positions or these nine more positions knowing when I have ten positions I haven't
even been able to fill, because it doesn’t make sense. That's why we thought the
community service officer positions made more sense. But we are hoping that we can
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get these positions filled, get the community service officers position filled, establish
some benchmarks and see if we can potentially reduce that need of that many officers,
but we won't know that unless we get these other positions filled and these positions in
place. In December we established that you wanted to have 55 percent unobligated
time for our officers and that you might ask why do you want that much unobligated time
and that means that they are not assigned to something. That means they are out there
to do our proactive policing. That means they are out there in our neighborhood, they
are out there preventing crime, and that we wanted -- we come up with 30 percent of --
of public initiated calls for service where we are responding to 911 calls or request for
report-type calls and, then, 15 percent that we just control, that's court time, that's
writing reports. We thought that was pretty decent. Now, you can tweak that five
percent here, ten percent there, it's whatever you desire, but right now we are only
achieving 40 percent of an obligated time, because the other 15 percent is in calls for
service. Our calls for service -- public initiated calls for service continues to increase.
You see it quarterly when I send you the reports. That reduces the amount of free time
for our officers to go proactive policing. That's -- that's the results. That's what the
model says. If you want to have more officers doing proactive enforcement, more
officers in the neighborhoods, we need more bodies, because the population and the
calls for service is not allowing that and I will tell you right now that we are not in the
neighborhoods unless we responded to a call or we are requested for a problem. We
just do not have the time to patrol the neighborhoods like our communities want and --
and expect, because we are out on the main streets handling the calls. I'm going to
pass this out as well just -- just so you have it. And the reason why this is important to
have the adequate staff is to maintain our level -- to maintain our levels of service, to
maintain our response times. We are fortunate that our response time seems to be
adequate and I say that in that we don't get complaints, but an example -- and I have
said this before is we use the range of three to five -- three to five minutes for a code
three call, which is an emergency. This is a life-threatening emergency and we are
currently at four minutes. Four minutes is a lifetime when you're waiting for help. Three
minutes is a lifetime when you're waiting for help. We need to make sure that that does
not increase. Code two calls, our urgent calls, we are currently at eight minutes, which I
think is acceptable and our code one report calls -- I think we do a darn good job in
there, because we are there within 15 minutes and I think we can stretch that a lot
longer and still be adequate. Those are our response times that we currently look at.
Twelve to 15 minutes for our code one calls. Eight to ten minutes for priority calls.
Three to five minutes for priority three calls and we are maintaining those ranges at the
sacrifice of -- there is nobody in the neighborhoods. And, then, the last thing on here is
a police trainer. This was in the capital financial plan for this year. It got pushed back,
but there is a critical need for a trainer. We are -- as we add more staff we need support
staff that can maintain what we are trying to do and we need to have a full-time person
that is coordinating our training, that is doing data entry on our training, that is bringing
the classes to the Public Safety Training Center. One of the things that we -- we
jokingly said if we build it they will come and that is what happened on the training
facility. It allows us to bring POST more training here, rather than send people out.
What -- like Tracy and his PIO duties, we all have other jobs that we are doing and we
are missing opportunities out there to do the best that -- the best that we can, especially
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with our hiring and the other investigations that we do, we are just at a breaking point
and I will tell you that training is the most critical thing that we can do in the police
department, because it's the first thing that is always cut in cities and counties when
they are meeting financial crises and it's the first thing that is always mentioned in --
when something goes bad. Lack of training. Lack of staff. I will tell you that this
Council has done a phenomenal job of getting us the tools that we need and the training
that we need and now we need to make sure that we make those adjustments to the --
to that as well. With that being said, I do not have anything else to say. Does anybody
have anything to close out the day? And if not we will take any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Any questions from Council?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Thank you. Madam Mayor, chief, and the rest of you, first of all just
thank you so much. Thank you for what you do and how busy you are every day. I just
know from being your liaison how everybody's plate is overflowing and, then, the time
and effort that you put into these reports and everything is -- has been truly amazing to
watch and thank you so much, because I know it's been a lot of hard work and a lot
from the heart, so thank you. And my question doesn't have anything to do with wages,
although I think that has been the bulk of what we have to focus on. Right at the
beginning when we were talking about the PIO and Nixle, it almost sounded like they
were one or the other, but if I understand things correctly, it would be really good to
have both, the difference in --
Basterrechea: It would be better to have both, but, like I said, if we had to choose one
the PIO would certainly be the best all the way around for us.
Little Roberts: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Chief, I don't -- I don't want to call it a fluke, because I have been on several
ride alongs with your department, but I notice that in every ride along I have done we
have ended up in multiple neighborhoods. I don't know if it just happens more at night,
because that's always -- that's actually when I have done my ride alongs, but checking
everything from construction sites to neighborhoods without street lights, brand new
neighborhoods -- I mean it's been a noticeable amount of neighborhoods time, at least
in the ride alongs that I have done.
Lavey: So, Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, that would be at nightime, too, and
that's when calls for service drop off after a certain period of time. During the day when
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the complaints, again, are really traffic involved, in the school systems and in -- during
rush hour morning traffic, rush hour evening traffic, kids, reckless driving, those are the
types of things that aren't being addressed, because we are out handling the crashes
and the calls during the daytime. At nighttime fortunately in that we do have
opportunities to get into the neighborhood response. So, you are absolutely correct in
your observations that over a 24 hour period we are not doing the coverage that we --
that the citizens are requesting.
Basterrechea: It's just that officer knows he has a councilman with him.
Lavey: That never hurts. That never hurts. That is probably pretty accurate. They
know what our expectations are and, therefore, when a councilman is in the car they
make sure they do that.
De Weerd: And all their peers are covering their work; right?
Lavey: Any other comments or questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: A couple of comments. I just need to reiterate Council Member Palmer's
point. If there is an opportunity for us to see a demo -- I have been on the website when
I saw the enhancement. There is not really a way for us to -- to see that particular
piece. The piece that I'm really interested in is the part you talked about recruitment. I
think that we have got some good resources in terms of communicating with the public,
but that's a different take that I hadn't heard, so I'd like to see that particular piece and,
secondarily, just thanks. I think that we have got a lot of hard decisions in front of us
over the next two days and I know that puts you guys in a different position where we
don't wear the badge and we are asking the hard questions, because we don't quite
understand and you guys have to implement and do the work and appreciate the
candidness and the continued conversations about some of these issues.
Lavey: Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I appreciate the perspective in particular with the -- the model level of service.
Lavey: That was for you.
Borton: Noted.
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Lavey: My notes said -- my notes said Councilman Borton, charts and graphs.
Borton: So, here is why I love it. One of the most fundamental functions of local
government is to keep the city safe; right? And its citizens. Nothing can ever come
above that. That's one of the key -- really the key principles of local government and we
have to and will -- at least in my perspective demand levels of service are met and no
exceptions of cultures are maintained and -- and training and cultivation of the new
leaders -- all that has to happen without exception and it can't be diluted at all and the
flip side is you got to make, then, the hard ask to say, well, if that's the perspective --
which I think you're doing, that's what you demand and we are not going to dilute
training and dilute the level of service standards we need and -- and blunt -- and you are
and that's good, because that's one of the -- the areas that would be of concern is to --
to slowly degrade those principles which make Meridian so successful and you all have
made that happen and when you look us in the face and make that ask and say this is
what we need and here is why, we have got great faith that you done the research and
have the proper basis, whether it's PIO or -- or community service officers, investigated
vehicles to see what's the least expensive option to use others, so -- so, those are
critical principles. If I -- if I worry about anything it's to dilute that. It's to have -- to
capitalize on that opportunity to not take care of your department in the way the citizens
demand and we are mindful -- and you made a comment very briefly at the start, the
manner in which the community grows year over year -- right now it's extremely rapid.
Usually there is normal growth, but at this pace every time that we expand our city we
are in a sense mandating the expenditure of resources. You can call it an unfunded
mandate, but some of the things we have to be mindful of as we grow and we are not
going to vary this, we are not going to dilute any of our principles of public safety, then,
we are committing to expend resources to ensure that level of service is maintained.
We do that throughout the year. So, I'm kind of on a soap box, but this is really an
important principle with a really big department that we are going to commit to allow
growth to be the way we have been growing, we have got to pay the piper on the flip
side and make sure that we don't dilute the -- the cost of resources necessary to
maintain that level service and that means you make a hard ask, that's great, because
we have got the obligation to match that commitment.
Lavey: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, I appreciate you saying that,
because that's exactly where we are at is that we are reaching that point of critical
mass, that we ask our people a lot. The expectations we have set, the accountability,
the Meridian Way, we ask a lot from our people and they deliver. They absolutely
deliver. But we are getting to a point where we are growing so rapidly that if we don't
make these tough choices we are not going to like the consequences, because we are
not going to be able to enjoy those things that we currently enjoy and we realize that
revenue is tight. We realize that only so much comes in. So, I give you the information
and, then, we have to talk about timing. When do we do it? And how far down the road
we kick it. You don't pay me to tell you what you want to hear, you pay us to tell you
what you need to hear and we are telling you what you need to hear.
Borton: Appreciate it.
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Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I -- I just want you guys to know how much we appreciate all you do. It's one
thing to show up to work because you have to, it's another -- it's another case when you
show up to work because you want to and you care. And to me -- and I'm sure that this
body would agree with this -- you can tell -- you can feel that you guys care and,
ultimately, that's very important, because it's -- it's evident in how people look at our
police department, not only in our city, but without. So, I just wanted to say thank you to
you guys for all you do. It's -- I promise you it's not overlooked.
Lavey: On that note, Madam Mayor, we started early, so we have time still. So,
Councilman Bernt and I had a conversation yesterday and talked about the Mayor and
talked about people who care and someone has to care. So, I appreciate that. It kind
of segues into our discussion yesterday. But there was something else that just popped
up that I recall that I wanted to talk about and share with this group and there is two
people that can mention that. One is Tracy and one is Brian in regards to our video that
we had done and talking about our culture and our values and I would like for them to
both share their recent exposure to that -- that video. Hopefully you remember the story
you told me and didn't make it up.
Campbell: Obviously, part of the process of hiring good people is we put a lot of work
into their backgrounds and so we spend a lot of time -- because, apparently,
everybody's leaving the state of California at a high rate of speed and so when I travel
down there to do backgrounds a lot of times I get contacts from local officers in the area
who are interested in moving their families up here for obvious reasons and I was
recently contacted by an officer from the Los Angeles police department and he wanted
to meet to talk about a potential job and so I met with him down there in between
appointments and invariably asked, well, how -- how did you find out about Meridian
and -- Meridian, Idaho, and Meridian Police Department and he is like, well, I Googled
great places to live, raise a family, and Meridian pops up. So, then, I went to your
website and I watched that video on the recruitment and he said when he watched that
video, when you heard how those officers were speaking, what their values were, what
their goals were, his answer to me was I want to work there. That's what that did for
him.
Lavey: We have hired two from LAPD. He would be number three. And, then, recently
in the FBI National Academy there was many different cultures there, some good, some
not so good, and I was back there this last week meeting some of Tracy's friends and
they were telling me how Tracy kept bragging about his department and them, basically,
calling him a liar, saying, yeah, this doesn’t happen. So, he used that video in
something and so I would like to -- him to share that story.
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Basterrechea: So, we had a masters level class in the essentials of police leadership
and we had to either discuss a crisis or how you get a department back on track and so
we talked about that -- my presentation was changing the culture of an organization and
went from the time that I came to the Meridian Police Department. The issue that we
had throughout those years and how we ultimately changed the culture and came to
where we are at today. I finished up by showing the video and literally had several
people from the class -- we don't want to hire them, because they are commanders, but
we had several people from the class come to me and said, man, I want to come to
work for your agency. That's the agency I want to work for. And literally sitting in the
academy -- it was a great opportunity and I thank you all for giving me that opportunity.
But what I found the most interesting at the end of our time there was -- I was ready to
come home. I was ready to come back to Idaho. I was ready to come back to work at
the Meridian Police Department and you don't know how many of those commanders --
these are people leading an organization who sat there and said I don't want to go back.
I don't want to go back to my agency. I don't want to go -- and that told me everything I
needed to know about the culture we have at the Meridian Police Department, but
culture we have in the City of Meridian, compared to these other areas and these other
agencies and they were, honestly, people that I had come to respect over time in the
class, but literally did not want to go back to their agency and it goes to what
Councilman Bernt said when he said people who want to come to work and I just
thought that was -- when he said it a little light went on that, yeah, I wanted to come
back to work and there were all these other people who didn't. I think that says a ton
about the Meridian Police Department, but even more about the City of Meridian and,
quite honestly, our electeds, because there are a lot of people that would rather stay in
Quantico in the mouse trap back there and the humidity then -- then go home. So,
thank you guys for doing what you do for us.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, we -- our people continue to -- our people do great
things. They can continue to do great things. They will do great things regardless of
what happens. We will continue to celebrate our successes and we thank you for your
time.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief.
Field: Madam Mayor, since we are ahead of schedule can we -- would you like Legal to
go today?
De Weerd: Does legal want to --
Borton: You might get bumped.
Nary: Oh. That's okay. I can wait.
Field: Okay. So HR.
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Ritchie: I will do my very best to get through this in the next 15 minutes. Certainly I'm
here to give you as much information as you need for improvements that you need to
make over the next couple of weeks. So, first and foremost, Madam Mayor, Members
of the Council, thank you for having me this afternoon and thank you, Bill, for being
flexible and switching spots with us. It means that we can prepare the picnic tomorrow.
So -- and these are the presentations that you had in front of you today and again
tomorrow, you will see that we have a focus on the city's mission and vision statements
and here you will see that we have it again that by 2035 Meridian will be the west's
premier community in which to live, work and raise a family and how does HR support
that? Well, I can tell you that we have a staff that is one hundred percent dedicated to
supporting each and every single city employee who does work hard everyday to
achieve and work towards achieving the mission and vision the city has established.
So, we would like to thank the employees who do this everyday. I personally would like
to thank the HR staff who provides the service and support as well. So, premier does
start here and this is a slide that has the human resources staff and I really struggled do
I want the resources and staff up on the slide or do I want the city employees up on the
slide, because in HR I represent our HR department and the team that supports these --
our employees, that as a department we represent all of the employees here at
Meridian and our employees are the foundation of the strong city that we have today.
They are doing a lot. We ask a lot of them. I know we get a lot of service requests in
human resources. Collectively as a team we work hard and you will see me get very
passionate about that later in my presentation, but without the employees that we have
here at the city we could not do collectively as a whole what we do every day for the
citizens that we support. So, our thank you to all of them. So, the next few slides I want
to cover with you are the budget dollars that you awarded and approved to my request
-- to our request last year and kind of wanted to give you a quick update as to where we
are. So, your budget dollars at work. So, the first thing that I wanted to share with you
is the employee engagement survey. We talked about that last year. This year is the
time for another survey. The survey is going to be administered by AmeriBen. We have
used a third-party administrator for the confidentiality perspective that our employees
appreciate when providing a survey of this nature. We will be launching the survey in
August. So, we have been working with AmeriBen over the last several months to
secure the logistics, prepare a briefing so that we can roll out in August, wrap up by the
end of August, and, then, our intent will be to share the overall city results at the annual
city employee meeting that I will be talking about shortly, but it's scheduled for
November.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Crystal, is that citywide meeting, is that the event where we close down --
Ritchie: Yes.
Cavener: -- the city? Okay.
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Ritchie: I'm sorry.
Cavener: We close down the city for --
Ritchie: Council Member Cavener, yes, it is. The next budget dollar at work update that
I have for you is, again, for Peak Academy training that you approved for our leadership
team in last year's budget hearings. So, just to let you know that our leadership training
has been completed and when we say that leadership training it was not just the
directors or the senior managers, it was designated leaders from each department
within the city. I think we had approximately 20 individuals that did participate in this
training. The training was a three day training that was very well received amongst the
20 participants. We surveyed those participants, how -- what they thought about the
Peak Academy training and they felt like the tools, the methodologies and the
information provided is going to be of value for them to bring back into their departments
-- so, their respective departments and look at how to apply those methodologies, tools
and practices to improve efficiencies in their departments. So, we are going to continue
to evaluate learning opportunities through the Peak Academy. We are going to continue
with our next steps on how to implement that into our departments.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, Crystal, I saw several departments did have Peak in their
budgets. Does that continue -- are we going to continue to have a trainer come out
here? Is this them individually going there? If you could elaborate on that if -- or if I
need to ask the departments I can do that as well.
Ritchie: I might lean on the Mayor a little bit for that one --
Little Roberts: Okay.
Ritchie: -- because that is a -- or Todd. That is in the individual departments' budgets
as we are looking -- first of all, we are not looking to be sending anyone to them for the
training, we are looking to bring the training to us and so we are continuing now as a
leadership team to identify what that will look like. As we have more information on that
I would be happy to share with you the progress that we are making. Todd, would you
like to add anything to that in regards to budgeting?
Lavoie: Well, Madam Mayor, Council Woman Little Roberts, the budget that you see
established that you will have that does represent continuing to improve on our Peak
training for management. So, that's what you see there for fiscal 2019 for the training to
occur here, not to occur in Denver.
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De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I have a similar question as Council Woman Little Roberts. I
hear it's complete and I see that it's in people's travel and training budgets and just
trying to figure out the disconnect there.
Ritchie: So, the leadership training is completed. So, the next step initiatives are at the
department level at this point and that's what they have built into their respective
budgets to share with you based on your questions as it relates to their specific
departments.
Cavener: Madam Mayor? Maybe a question for Todd then. Todd, why do we see it last
year as an enhancement and this year it's built in for department's base budgeting?
Lavoie: This year -- I apologize, Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener. This here you
see it as an established training protocol or training request for their employees. Again,
we asked the directors, as Crystal stated, the research -- or the survey stated that we
enjoyed the training and it was productive. So, then, it was posed to the director's
should we continue this. We do have a training budget that we follow from trying to I
guess better our employees and that was a choice that we decided that we should go
ahead and train our next level management, just like any other training class you see
there, if I go to the general finance accounting manager thing, that's a decision that the
Mayor has allowed me to kind of choose that that's how I should empower Jenny.
Cavener: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well, some of that is the result of the survey and the -- the desire for
employees to learn the process improvement and processes, so they can bring better
efficiencies and, actually, do them by training the trainer and, then, in turn, hopefully
coming up -- a lot of the examples we got were teams that were trained that, then, came
through the process of system improvements through their team and it was driven by
their team.
Ritchie: The next update for the budget dollars at work are in regards to the succession
planning consultant that we asked for and you approved last budget -- budget cycle.
So, this directly relates to the strategic plan objective that we have, 3.B.3, developing a
succession planning program. So, we did go out and secure a consultant. We have
been working with that consultant over the last several months to go ahead and develop
our leadership training. We have not only developed it, we have already facilitated and
delivered that leadership training and we are now moving into the next steps, which will
be for the consultant human resources and the department directors and designated
individuals within those departments to sit down, look at the criteria, and really identify
what those key critical positions are within each respective departments and, then,
move forward and we are currently with our project plan on track for a completion date
of October for the program. And, then, finally, the annual employee meeting. This is
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something that we have been working towards planning. So, in an effort to put this
together we have developed a planning committee meeting. Excuse me. A planning
committee. The event has been scheduled for November 7th of this year. We are going
to be hosting this event at the new Wahooz Galaxy Event Center. Wahooz is very
excited to have us. When they opened and they were -- we are very excited to be able
to bring all of our employees together in one location for an event that is intended to
have -- the theme for it will be Unity. I don't want to disclose too much, because we are
making a formalized announcement in our HR newsletter that's going out at the end of
the week, but it is a chance to bring our teams and departments together. It's going to
have a focus on the growth that we are experiencing, the current vision of the city,
strategic plan updates, some employee recognition, a little bit of our city culture, some
inspirational aspects. So, we are really excited as we are developing that and really
looking forward to November 7th.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Is it anticipated that -- maybe I missed it. Is there a proposal -- budget
proposal in this to do this next year or is this a one time thing?
De Weerd: This is a carry forward.
Ritchie: It's a carry forward.
De Weerd: Because primarily we couldn't find a place in Meridian that we could even
hold it. So, they are going to be opening and we are going to be one of their first
events.
Ritchie: We really worked hard to accomplish it this fiscal year. We could not find a
venue that would support 400 employees, so -- all right. So, that wraps up our budget
dollars at work and so for those budget dollars we appreciate that. Thank you very
much. And that takes us into the enhancements that we are putting forward to you
today and I'm going to do my very best not to be as emotional as the Mayor gets at
times when talking about our employees when I talk about our request to you for an HR
generalist. I can tell you that we have a very dedicated team in human resources and
that dedication comes from -- they involve even Meridian Way, they care about the
employees that they support each and every day. Me sitting here expressing that to you
does not do justice to the team that I have upstairs, but along with that comes a lot of
work based on a lot of demands that are coming daily, not only from employees, but
from departments. I have three professional staff, including myself, who are exempt
employees and we put in the time needed to service the departments and these
employees, but I don't want to forget the two hourly employees that I have upstairs that
makes our team a whole team. If I would let them work overtime -- I don't have an
overtime budget, but if I would let them work the overtime I can tell you that they are so
dedicated that they would be here with us when we are here after 5:00, before 8:00, and
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on Saturdays. I do have to give kudos and some acknowledgment to Laura Lee and
she will get me later for doing this to her, but she is right there with me and I can tell you
that the hours that we are putting in we do it because we genuinely care and we want
our employees to get the services they need, we want our directors and departments to
get the services they need, but at the same time I'm coming forward to you to help
balance the work and life balance that my employees need to have upstairs.
De Weerd: And you need to have.
Ritchie: It's about my team. But thank you. My team does not mind coming in and
putting in the extra hours, but I can tell you from experience in my career that if I
continue to tap into their generosity I'm going to start experiencing some burnout and
that is certainly not anything that I want to have for my staff and I know nobody here at
this table wants to see of any city employee. So, when I considered a human resources
generalist addition to our staff, I did not take it lightly. It was something that I have
thoroughly thought about, vetted out and really looked to see how that position will
benefit us and you have some information in your packet to let you know that we are
currently funded at 480 and a half full-time employees here at the city and we are a
department of five. The employee ratio from five HR staff member to 480 and a half
employees -- and I have updated it from the time that we put your books together -- is
one employee in HR to 96 employees. To narrow that down even further of you, three
of us are professional HR representatives, so we are the only individuals within the
department that can handle certain employee requests, department requests, and that's
not something I can spread amongst a staff of five. So, when you scale that down to
three staff members in HR to provide primary employee supports, that number changes
from 1 to 96 to 1 to 160. When I saw that number that told me that this is something
that I wanted and needed to report all of you and I said to the directors -- some of them
are in the room -- that when I got up here to speak about this request that I was going to
have each of them stand behind me, because they do recognize the efforts that my
team is making to give them the services in a timely manner that they need and we
recognize at the same time that we are doing our very best, but we could do better. So,
you guys are awesome. Thank you.
Lavey: So, Crystal?
Ritchie: Yes.
Lavey: I talk too much --
Ritchie: Don't make me cry.
Lavey: -- I talk to much and I don't know how appropriate this is, but I'm going to talk on
your enhancement. I presented in front of you last year about the necessity of adding
two bodies because of potential burnout. I see that burnout. They won't admit it.
These two ladies are burned out. They are still doing their all and they do it well, but
they need help. We do things for them that HR should be doing, because they don't
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have the staff time to do it. We need to listen to them and we need to help them, or we
are going to lose two great people, so --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Lavey: -- if we could help them I would appreciate that and I feel so strongly about that
that we would give up some of our stuff to fund them, so -- I told you I would say it and I
didn't to make you cry, but we have got to talk about being real.
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Crystal, thank you for that amazing dramatic ending of our day presentation, but
I think you -- I think you had us at, hello, I need help. So, as far as I'm concerned you
don't need to worry about this. We see how hard you work and we know -- we hear it
from other departments and from the other directors. So, to me this is one of the
easiest enhancements in the book.
Ritchie: Thank you very much. And I apologize for the tears. I generally don't do that,
so thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share that with you and to express my
emotions.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
Ritchie: Now, let's see if I can read these next enhancements if there are no further
questions.
Palmer: Yeah.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I had a question. So, we have heard a lot of enhancement requests for people
and I have flipped through a bunch of them and when it comes to furniture needs for
them, wastewater's person they are asking for a thousand for that. Water is 800. Police
has several, two thousand each of them. Yours has office and desk chair for 5,500
bucks. Is it a Tesla? Does it include breakfast? What -- growing up in the furniture
world I'm like -- man, I could buy a lot of furniture for 5,500 bucks.
Ritchie: So, it is -- I'm going to look to finance, because they have a formula for adding
FTEs, so --
Cunningham: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, yes, it is for -- all the other
enhancements you see in there they already have an existing cubicle.
Palmer: Okay.
Cunningham: For HR it's --
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Palmer: So, it's a lot more than just a desk and a chair?
Cunningham: Yes.
Palmer: Okay. Because it just said office, desk and chair, so -- that makes a lot more
sense.
Ritchie: Was there a question? No? All right. Thank you. And thank you for that
second opportunity to -- okay. So, the next enhancement that I'm bringing in front of
you is a benefit of -- evaluate or valuation analysis and so this is directly tied to Strategic
Objective 3-B-1, which is to develop a cost-effective and competitive benefit plan and
I'm not going to read all of that. You all know the objective. I report -- the Mayor reports
out on it frequently for you. We spend -- we have a benefits committee and we spend a
lot of time in due diligence looking at the benefit packages that are most frequently
referred to as medical-dental-vision, but our benefit package is more than that and so
one of the things that we are starting to experience in Human Resources, since we are
doing a lot of recruitment, a lot of staffing, a lot of job offers, things of that nature, we are
seeing more and more questions from an applicant or -- and/or a candidate of choice.
Applicants are job shopping now. With the environment, the economy has changed,
and we are not -- no longer getting just the questions about the medical and vision
benefits that we offer, we are getting questions in regards to what type of vacation
accrual rates do you offer. Sick leave accrual rates. Do you offer a buy down option.
What kind of voluntary benefits do you offer? Those types of things that make up a total
rewards package and it is time that we take a formalized approach and we do a full
benchmark study and we take a look at where we are positioned with our total rewards
package as it relates to other employers in the Treasure Valley and even within the -- I
would say the immediate Treasure Valley area. There is a cost of 25,000 dollars for us
to do this benchmark. The industry best practices are showing that responsible
employers who are invested in their employees and the benefits that those employees
are being offered should really do a full analysis every three to five years and so we
need to start doing that not only based on the best practice, but the calls, the questions
-- we are getting to a point where the talent that we are extending job offers to are talent
other organizations are wanting as well and it -- and those candidates are doing
comparisons and it's no longer just about those primary benefits and so what I don't
want to see us have to be in a position to do is to try to compensate for a lack of a
benefit by increasing a job offer wage. That compounds from the day that they start that
can cause inequities with the employees that we currently have working for us. So, we
would very much appreciate your consideration and approval for these funds to do that
analysis, so that we can bring forward to you in the future the right types of benefit
enhancements to keep us competitive in the marketplace. So, taking a look at the road
ahead. So, here are the things that you can look for and expect to see from the Human
Resources Department moving forward into fiscal year '19. We will continue to work on
the strategic performance objectives that we have in front of you. I believe we have five
more in front of you. We closed one out this past year. We will complete -- we are
scheduled to complete a few of those and we will continue to progress on the ones that
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are scheduled to be over the next couple of years. In addition to that, we will be
wrapping up the last year of our three year plan for an internal alignment review. We
successfully completed year one and two over the last two years. We will complete
year three this year. That will give every position here within the city on our kinds and
levels charge, if you will, a full job description review in a three years time frame. That
will insure that all the job descriptions are updated, all of them accurately reflect the
current responsibilities of the employees each and every day. The next one that we will
want to work towards next year is a recruit -- recruitment process review and this relates
back to the Peak Academy training. So, one of the things that we have -- I have
struggled with personally is we have had on average -- which is an industry specific
standard of about 92, 93, 96 days from a vacancy to -- until we have the position filled --
is a little over three months of recruitment time that's staff time, interview time, prep
time, materials and the spreading of work to other employees while that vacancy is
there looking at our recruitment process there are things after I have personally gone
through the peak training that we can apply to that process as a team to make that
process more efficient. We have not been able to -- to tackle that this year as you know,
based on the staff and the workload and the operational priorities, but we want to make
it a priority next year and apply those methodologies that we were trained here just a
few months ago. Performance management review. Anytime that you implement a new
program in human resources when it relates to performance management or
compensation, you generally want to keep that program in place anywhere from about
four to five years and, then, it's really time to take a -- a good strong look at it to ensure
that you have a very strong and healthy program in place and so we would be up for
that next year and so we will want to take a look at our performance management
process as a whole for the city as a whole and see what we can do to make that more
efficient, more applicable, more relevant, more user friendly for all of our managers who
execute those every year and the employees who receive that valuable feedback. The
next one that you have is our level market review studies that we will be embarking on a
full review of that next year. We do a post check every year. I sit down with the Mayor
and go through a lot of data that I pull and gather and analyze in preparation for the
budget hearings every year, so we will be scheduled for that initiative again next year
and, then, of course, our compensation program will be at its five year mark here in FY-
19 and it will be time for us to review that to ensure that our compensation program that
we have in place positions us to be competitive with the marketplace, in addition to that
allows us to be fair and equitable for all of our positions in all of our employees' pay that
are currently with us today and in the future and I know I went over five, so I apologizes,
so -- but I appreciate that and, of course, I sit for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Every time you talk and you tell us what your department does it just exhausts
me, just -- so, I know what I --
Meridian City Council Budget Workshop
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Ritchie: We will work on that. No.
Milam: It's not -- it's not -- it's a compliment. It's not something bad. I would say we
see how much -- there is so much that you're doing for the entire city and thank you --
thank you for trying to speed it up and have a great presentation and --
Ritchie: Thank you.
De Weerd: Small but mighty.
Milam: Yeah.
Ritchie: And I will extend your sentiments to each and every member who have already
gone this evening, but I will do that on your behalf and I know that it will mean a lot to
them. It will touch them the way that it has touched us today and they will greatly
appreciate the feedback and your appreciation and, quite frankly, we are a team, but we
couldn't do it without all of us upstairs, so thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Crystal.
Field: Madam Mayor and Members of Council, just to remind you that we are back here
tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.
De Weerd: 8:00 a.m. Okay. Thank you so much. I would entertain a motion to
adjourn.
Borton: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:11 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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Meridian City Council Budget Workshop
June 13, 2018
Page 62 of 62
C. JAY COLES, CITY CLERK c.
FY2019 Budget Workshop
June 13, 2018
www.meridiancity.org
Provide and review additional materials
How did we get here today?
What will be presented over the next two days?
What is needed of Council between Today,
Tomorrow, and July 12th?
www.meridiancity.org
Agenda
www.meridiancity.org
February 2018
The Budget process started
March 2018
The Mayor, Departments and Council reviewed and discussed Base Budgets for each
department
May 2018
The Mayor and Departments developed the FY2019 Mayor’s Budget Proposal
How did we get here today?
Vision/Mission Statement
Budget Dollars at Work
Enhancements
The Road Ahead
www.meridiancity.org
What will be presented over the next two days?
www.meridiancity.org
Ask Questions
We would like to answer as many questions before July 12th workshop
Request clarifications
We would like to provide requested information before July 12th workshop
Communicate with City staff and fellow Council members
We would like to share all information obtained before July 12th workshop
What is needed of Council between Today,
Tomorrow and July 12th?
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www.meridiancity.org
FY2019 Budget
Workshop
Public Works
www.meridiancity.org
Mission Statement
The Mission of the Public Works Department is to anticipate, plan and
provide exemplary services and facilities that support the evolving needs of
our community in an efficient, customer-focused and financially responsible
manner.
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Premier Starts Here
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FY18 Budget Dollars
At Work
www.meridiancity.org
Public Works
Budget
Performance –
Your FY18 $$
at Work
20
13
7
0
5
10
15
20
25
Enhancements
FY18 Total
Approved
In-Progress
Completed
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Project Title Value % Complete Estimated Completion Date
SCADA Control & Telemetry Upgrades $25,000 100%Complete
WRRF Facility Capacity Upgrades $20,400,000 50%August 2019
WRRF Headworks Upgrades with Odor Control $6,650,000 60%March 2019
Mechanic II $75,489 100%Complete
Sewer Line Extensions $1,160,000 80%August 2018
WRRF Emergency Pump $55,000 100%Complete
Tertiary Filter Building A Crane $100,000 100%Complete
WW Operations Computers $3,600 100%Complete
Total $28,469,089
FY18 Wastewater Project Status Update
www.meridiancity.org
Project Title Value % Complete Estimated Completion Date
Water Quality Specialist II $114,539 100%Complete
Water System Corrosion Control Treatment Study $100,000 10%September 2018
SCADA System Upgrades $300,000 10%October 2018
Water System Security Improvements $100,000 75%September 2018
Well 15 Reconstruction $300,000 70%October 2018
Valve Maintenance Vehicle $142,820 80%August 2018
Water Main Extensions $2,200,000 70%June 2018
Well 32 $900,000 20%October 2018
Well 33 $450,000 10%August 2018
Well 22 Water Treatment $900,000 10%October 2018
Well 28 Water Treatment $800,000 50%August 2018
Total $6,307,359
FY18 Water Project Status Update
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Project Title Value % Complete Estimated Completion Date
Inspector I $114,466 100%Complete
Total $114,466
FY18 PW Admin Project
Status Update
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FY18 Department
Highlights
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Engineering
•Capacity Expansion & Headworks
WRRF Upgrade Projects
•Construction of Wells 29 & 30 Completed
•South Meridian Utility Extensions –
Locust Grove & Lake Hazel
•Franklin Road, Pine Street
•Wells 28 & 22 Water Treatment Progress
•Cherry Lane Lighting Project
•Infrastructure Inspections
Water
•Successful DEQ Sanitary Survey
•Eagle Road Main Break
•Backflow Legislation
Wastewater
•New NPDES Permit Compliance
•IPDES –IDEQ Management of
Permit Process
•New Reclaimed Water Permit
•Successful EPA Facility Inspection
•WRRF Primary Power Purchase
Completed
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Business
•SCADA Program Review Completed
•PW Fleet Management Evaluation
Completed
•Implemented Environmental Excellence
Awards
Administration
•Leadership Development Program,
Group 5 & Continuous Improvement
•Supported Dream Big Movie &
Engineering Week Activities
•PW Communication Plan Completed /
Implemented
Nate Howell –State of Idaho
Lab Analyst of the Year
Keith Slack –SWIOS
Collections Operator of the Year
Max Jensen –Achieved
Building Operator Certification
PW Department
Personnel Notable
Accomplishments
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Public Works
FY19 Proposed Budget
Overview
www.meridiancity.org
$16,977,248
$2,091,244
$3,034,178
$11,405,200
$3,348 $2,719,362
POM
Replacements
Water Enhancements
Wastewater Enhancements
PW Enhancements
Interfund Transfers
Enterprise Fund Proposed FY19 Budget Breakdown
Total
Proposed
Budget:
$36.2M
www.meridiancity.org
$9,950,000
$3,365,000
$1,115,797 Multi-Year In-Progress
Water / Sewer Extensions (Includes S. Meridian)
1st Year
5 Enhancements
2 Enhancements
6 Enhancements
Enterprise Fund Proposed FY19 Enhancement Breakdown
Total
Enhancement
Budget:
$14.7M
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FY19 Enhancement Summary
•Wastewater
•Water
•PW Admin
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Wastewater
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FY19 Wastewater Enhancement Summary
Enhancement Title (in priority order)Service Level (increase or maintain)Amount
1. WRRF Capacity Upgrades Increase $7,200,000
2. WRRF Headworks Upgrades with Odor
Control Increase $1,350,000
3. WRRF Second Access Maintain $800,000
4. Sewer Line Extensions
(Linder Rd. Trunk Construction)Increase $1,865,000
5. Instrument Technician Maintain $103,862
6. Wastewater Operator III Maintain $78,216
Total $11,397,078
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WRRF Capacity Upgrades
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $7,200,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth PW Tactics:3.D.PW.8 -Achieve compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 5 of 5 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$36,279,699 $7,200,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $43,479,699
Enhancement Description:
•Project expands the liquid stream process
–Provides hydraulic capacity to keep up with growth
–Provides technology to meet low NPDES interim permit limits
•Includes additional primary and secondary clarifiers, aeration basins,
chemical addition facilities
•33 month construction project
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WRRF Headworks Upgrades w/Odor Control
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $1,350,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth PW Tactics: 3.D.PW.8 -Achieve compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 5 of 5 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$14,650,000 $1,350,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $16,000,000
Enhancement Description:
•Project includes an influent pumping facility, a headworks
facility with odor control, influent flow measurement, grit
removal and screening upgrades
•Increases the capacity of the headworks
•Provides better screening upstream of nutrient removal
treatment processes which increases process efficiency
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WRRF Second Access
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $800,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of 2 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $800,000 $450,000 $0 $0 $0 $1,250,000
Enhancement Description:
•Second entrance to the facility is required
due to:
–Fire Code
–Ten Mile entrance limitations
–Operations/construction
–Future utility expansion
•Time is of the essence –declining options
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Sewer Line Extensions
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $1,865,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost –Year: Multiple –Ongoing Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$7,560,000 $1,865,000 $270,000 $270,000 $275,000 $275,000 $10,515,000
Enhancement Description:
•This project builds and improves sewer collection system
infrastructure and provides funding necessary to construct
new sewer infrastructure and improvements throughout
the City
•Notable projects for FY2019 include the South Linder
Trunk Sewer project
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Instrument Technician
•Significant instrumentation, automation, and controls exist
at the Utilities
•Every new project adds instrumentation
•Many instruments assist in meeting regulatory requirements
•Instruments require maintenance, cleaning, calibration, and repair
•Highly technical discipline
Personnel Cost:$87,493 Operating Cost:$8,369 Capital Cost: $8,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 -Ongoing Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $103,872 $89,578 $89,578 $89,578 $89,578 $462,184
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Wastewater Operator III
•Significant WRRF facility expansion
•Increasingly stringent NPDES permit limits and high
degree of technical operational requirements
•First step toward 24/7 facility staffing
–Reduction in unstaffed hours
Personnel Cost:$75,057 Operating Cost:$3,159 Capital Cost: $0
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 -Ongoing Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $78,216 $76,132 $76,132 $76,132 $76,132 $382,744
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Water
www.meridiancity.org
FY19 Water Enhancement Summary
Enhancement Title (in priority order)Service Level (increase or maintain)Amount
1.Water Main Extensions Increase $1,500,000
2. Well Technician I Maintain $114,178
3. Well 28 Treatment Increase $900,000
4. Security Upgrades Increase $100,000
5. Equipment –Dechlorinator Maintain $20,000
6. Well 33, Bridgetower Maintain $400,000
Total $3,034,178
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Water Main Extensions
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $1,500,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: Multiple –On-going Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$6,620,000 $1,500,000 $300,000 $300,000 $300,000 $300,000 $9,320,000
Enhancement Description:
•Expands and improves water distribution system
•Brings isolated pressure zones together
•Enables continued development
•West Victory Road & South Ten Mile Road
planned for FY19
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Well Technician I
Personnel Cost:$65,784 Operating Cost:$8,394 Capital Cost: $40,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 4.A -Establish Meridian as a Premier, Safe Community
PW Tactics: 4.A.PW.1. -Enhance the safety of the City's drinking water / 3.B.PW.1. -Improve organization performance by developing, retaining
and attracting quality employees / 1.B.PW.1. -Develop water supply & protection plans & strategies to meet demands
Total Enhancement Cost –Year 1 -Ongoing Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $114,178 $70,678 $70,678 $70,678 $70,678 $396,890
Enhancement Description:
•Operates and maintains 26 Well facilities, 2 water treatment facilities &
future growth
•Responsible for well operations, maintenance, repair, site access and
security, and regulatory compliance
•Position will facilitate reduction of gaps identified in Department of
Homeland Security Vulnerability Assessment
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Well 28 Water Treatment
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $900,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth / 4.A –Establish Meridian as a Premier, Safe Community
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: 2 of 2 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$800,000 $900,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $1,700,000
Enhancement Description:
•Design, equipment procurement, and construction
of a water supply treatment facility
•Primary purpose is to remove Iron and Manganese
•Improves water quality aesthetics
www.meridiancity.org
FY19 Well Project
www.meridiancity.orgwww.meridiancity.org
Water System Security Upgrades
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $100,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 4.A -Establish Meridian as a Premier, Safe Community
PW Tactics: 4.A.PW.1. -Enhance the safety of the City's drinking water
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: 5 of 5 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$400,000 $100,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $500,000
Enhancement Description:
•Project phase 5 of 5 to protect and secure drinking water facilities
•Security Improvement Plan developed in partnership with
Department of Homeland Security
•Projects include site fencing installation and upgrades, providing
motion detection sensors, admin building security, electronic door
access, door latch guards, and security signage
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Equipment -Dechlorinator
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $20,000
Strategic Plan Objective: 3.D –Improve Operational efficiency and organizational excellence / PW Tactics: 3.D.PW.3 –Develop a water
system unidirectional flushing program / 3.D.PW.6 –Develop & deploy department-wide continuous improvement program
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: 1 of 1 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $20,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $20,000
Enhancement Description:
•Flushing required 2x per year
•Required to remove chlorine before
discharging to storm drains or waterways
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Well 33
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $400,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: 2 of 3 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$450,000 $400,000 $800,000 $0 $0 $0 $1,650,000
Enhancement Description:
•Second phase of project includes design and
construction of production well
•Enables continued growth & development in
Pressure Zone II, aiding expansion in NW
Meridian
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FY19 Well Project
www.meridiancity.org
PW Admin
www.meridiancity.org
FY19 PW Admin Enhancement Summary
Enhancement Title (in priority order)Service Level (increase or maintain)Amount
Juniper Geode Multi-GNSS Receivers (GPS
Units)Maintain $3,348
Total $3,348
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PW Admin –Juniper Geode Receivers (GPS Units)
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $3,348
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: 1 of 1 Funding Source:Enterprise Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $3,348 $0 $0 $0 $0 $3,348
Enhancement Description:
•Purchase 2 Juniper Geode GPS Units
•Provide accurate readings for City assets to
be placed in City GIS
•No 3rd party software needed as in the past
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The Road Ahead
www.meridiancity.org
Upcoming Initiatives
•Workforce Development / Retaining
Employees
•Managing Growth
–Rapid Pace
–Staffing
–Non-contiguous Land
•New Regulatory Impacts
•SCADA Master Plan, Resources
•Rate / Fee Administration
•Key Performance Indicators / LOS
•Integration of Environmental Sustainable
Practices into Daily Operations
•Long-term Infrastructure Maintenance /
Replacement
Public Works
The Road Ahead
www.meridiancity.org
Wastewater Utility
Capacity
•Solids Processing, Digesters
Regulatory
•Liquid Stream Phase II
•Side Stream Nutrient Removal
•Tertiary Filtration Planning
Main Line Extensions
•McDermott Trunk Sewer
•Support Comprehensive Plan
Growth Strategies
Key Replacements
•Cloth Disc Filter Panels
•Original Sewer Cleaning Truck
Other
•WRRF Second Access
•Underground Powerlines
•IPDES, Next Permit Planning,
5-year Expiration
The Road Ahead
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Capacity
•Water Production Facilities
•Unidirectional Flushing
Regulatory
•Sampling and Monitoring
•Water Quality / Treatment
•Source Water Protection
Main Line Extensions
•Support Comprehensive Plan
Growth Strategies
Other
•Water Rights Management
•Long-term Water Supply Mitigation
Water Utility
The Road Ahead
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Questions??
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Wells, Lift
Stations &
Established
Pressure Zones
www.meridiancity.org
FY2019 Budget
Workshop
Street Lights &
City Hall
www.meridiancity.org
Project Title Value % Complete Estimated Completion Date
Street Light Design, Equipment
& Supplies $50,000 10% -Out for bid*December 2018
Total $50,000
FY18 Street Lights Project
Status Update
*Ten Mile, Cherry Lane to Ustick
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Street Light Design, Equipment & Supplies
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $50,000
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 1.B.4 -Promote and guide desired growth within investments in infrastructure and
services ahead of growth
Total Enhancement Cost -Year: Multiple -Ongoing Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$349,582 $50,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $399,582
Enhancement Description:
•Design and install new streetlights
•Focus on school walking routes, crime reduction, accident
prevention
•Coordinate with ACHD on school sidewalk projects
www.meridiancity.org
www.meridiancity.org
FY 2019 Street Lights
The following is a list of Street Light projects the Public Works Department would like to complete. Each project represents the typical
enhancement funding of $50,000/year. The order of these projects may change if opportunities for partnerships and alternate funding
become available.
∙ Top FY19 Project: NW 8th Street, Cherry Lane to Water Building. In-house design and installation of seven (7) street lights.
∙ Pine Ave., Linder to Ten Mile. In-house design and installation of five (5) street lights near Meridian High School.
∙ Intersections in Meridian Green #1, Country Terrace, Running Brook Estates Subdivisions. In -house design and installation of ten (10)
street lights. This may be in two phases.
∙ Pine Ave., Eagle to East City Limit. In-house installation of five (5) additional street lights.
∙ Fairview, N. Records Way to East City Limit. In-house design and installation of five (5) additional street lights.
∙ E. Chateau, East of Locust Grove. In-house design and installation of seven (7) street lights.
∙ Intersections, Cherry and Ten Mile. In-house design and installation of seven (7) street lights. (Phase 1 of this project was completed
in 2017)
∙ W. Park Creek Drive, Deer Creek Lane, N. Lauderhill Way. In-house design and installation of eight (8) street lights around Chaparral
Elementary.
∙ Ten Mile, Franklin to Cherry. In-house design and installation of six (6) additional street lights. (Phase 2 of a project started in 2018).
www.meridiancity.org
Project Title Value % Complete Estimated Completion Date
Building Maintenance Worker $72,631 100%Complete
City Hall Plaza Electrical Work $5,800 100% Complete
Total $78,431
FY18 City Hall Project
Status Update
www.meridiancity.orgwww.meridiancity.org
City Hall ADA Parking Compliance
Personnel Cost:$0 Operating Cost:$0 Capital Cost: $37,400
Strategic Plan Objective: City Strategic Objective 4.A.4 –Deploy programs and identify gaps to enhance the community’s perception of
public safety.
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 2 of 2 Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$42,050 $37,400 $0 $0 $0 $0 $79,450
Enhancement Description:
•Provides funding to effect updates to City Hall
entrance / sidewalk from parking area to comply
with ADA.
www.meridiancity.org
Questions??
FY2019 Budget Workshop
Meridian Police Department
www.meridiancity.org
Vision/Mission Statement
Budget Dollars at Work
Enhancement Summary
Enhancements
The Road Ahead
www.meridiancity.org
Agenda
To provide the highest quality service, in partnership
with our community, to preserve and protect life and
property through education, prevention and
enforcement.
www.meridiancity.org
Mission Statement
•2 Lieutenant positions
•7 Officers
•1 Code Enforcement
•Work Stations –patrol
•Wrap Restraints
•Trauma Kits
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Budget Dollars at Work
•Firearms Range Membership
•Firearms Simulator
•Scenario Village
•Video Management System
www.meridiancity.org
Budget Dollars at Work
www.meridiancity.org
Enhancement Title (in priority order)Service Level (increase or maintain)Amount
Nixle Social Media & Media Tool Increase $8,500
Public Safety PIO Increase $92,537
Crime Prevention Specialist Increase $71,231
NIBRS Maintain $147,515
Community Service Officers Maintain $485,532
Vehicle Maintenance/Records Software Increase $3,600
Total $ 808,915
Enhancement Summary
www.meridiancity.org
•Software system which would allow MPD to push messages out to media and public
in one tool. Also being used as a recruiting tool by other agencies throughout the
country.
•Also could be used for such things as parent messaging on lock downs or school
threats.
Personnel Cost:$ 0 Operating Cost:$ 8,500 Capital Cost: $ 0
Strategic Plan Objective: Responsive government-communications
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $ 8,500 $ 8,500 $ 8,500 $ 8,500 $ 8,500 On-Going
Nixle Social Media & Media Tool
www.meridiancity.org
•This position will assist police and fire with media coordination as well as monitoring all
department social media accounts. They will be a direct report to the City’s
Communication Manager and rotate between City Hall, Fire and the Police Department.
•PD has the most social media followers, proactive info that is a general interest of citizens.
Personnel Cost:$ 86,582 Operating Cost:$ 5,955 Capital Cost: $ 0
Strategic Plan Objective: Responsive Government –Proactive Communications
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $ 92,537 $87,827 $87,827 $87,827 $87,827 On-Going
Public Safety PIO
www.meridiancity.org
•This position will do public outreach as well as proactive community service in the area of crime prevention in both
residential and retail/commercial venues.
•We will identify opportunities to grow Meridian’s Crime Prevention programs through evaluation, including:
•Be an active liaison to local retailers for crime reduction measures.
•Conduct security surveys for Meridian businesses.
•Apartment Community Crime Reduction & Prevention Program: Crime Prevention through Environmental
Design for Multi-Housing Units.
Personnel Cost:$ 64,876 Operating Cost:$ 6,355 Capital Cost: $ 0
Strategic Plan Objective: Positive contribution to a safe city through education and prevention of
crimes.
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $ 71,231 $66,121 $66,121 $66,121 $66,121 On-Going
Crime Prevention Specialist
www.meridiancity.org
•These positions (2 FTE’s) will process crime reports, arrests, case adjudications and
assist with research and investigative needs of the police department. The positions
support the State and Federal mandated reporting for FBI’s Crime reporting (UCR) and
National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBTRS).
Personnel Cost:$ 137,937 Operating Cost:$ 9,578 Capital Cost: $ 0
Strategic Plan Objective: Responsive, efficient government
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $ 147,515 $139,107 $139,107 $139,107 $139,107 On-Going
Data Clerks -NIBRS
www.meridiancity.org
•Concept of using non-sworn personnel (4 FTE’s) to handle less time sensitive incidents
at a more cost effective range. These positions require less training, lesser specialized
equipment and vehicles and will have quicker response times to serve our citizens.
CSO’s will handle low and medium level calls which do not require armed officers with
arrest powers.
Personnel Cost:$ 274,919 Operating Cost:$ 63,345 Capital Cost: $ 147,268
Strategic Plan Objective: Safest city in Idaho, quality of life
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $ 485,532 $295,691 $295,691 $295,691 $295,691 On-Going
Community Service Officers
www.meridiancity.org
•Fleet maintenance software on a monthly subscription. PD will be a test department
for the entire city fleet.
Personnel Cost:$ 0 Operating Cost:$ 3,600 Capital Cost: $ 0
Strategic Plan Objective: Efficient and effective management toward fiscal responsibility
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $3,600 $3,600 $3,600 $3,600 $3,600 On-Going
Vehicle Maintenance Records Software
Our People First
www.meridiancity.org
www.meridiancity.org
•Highest Priority –Lt. Stokes detailed report
•Market adjustment to the Police Step Plan
•Consultant Recommendation #1
Personnel Cost:$ 1,141,000 Operating Cost:$ 0 Capital Cost: $ 0
Strategic Plan Objective:
Total Enhancement Cost -Year 1 of On-Going Funding Source:General Fund
Prior Year(s)
Funding
FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 Total Estimated
Project Cost
$0 $ 1,141,000 $1,141,000 $1,141,000 $1,141,000 $1,141,000 On-Going
Police Step Plan
www.meridiancity.org
•PAM model indicates 9 patrol positions needed
based on December 2017 data
•Data will be updated December 2018
–Maintain levels of service
–Response times
–Patrol within neighborhoods
•Police Trainer FTE –high priority
The Road Ahead
Crime Prevention Specialist Executive Summary:
As the Meridian Police Department and city continue to grow, the need for another
Crime Prevention Specialist is imperative to the productivity, public outreach, and proactive
community service level we have. The Crime Prevention Specialist mission is to develop,
implement and administer community based crime prevention programs designed to reduce
the fear of crime, reduce criminal activity, increase safety and reduce the likelihood of crime
victimization. The new Crime Prevention Specialist position would facilitate crime prevention
efforts for our city and allow further development within the Crime Prevention strategic plan.
This Crime Prevention Specialist would fill the prevention gaps that have formed with our
limited resources, allowing us to focus on new requests from our citizen's verses maintaining
current programs. This new position would enhance community outreach, build greater
accountability, and is an opportunity to meet the Meridian citizen's requests for more programs
that help empower our residents. The Crime Prevention Specialist would report directly to the
Community Service Lieutenant and work directly with the prevention office. In 2017 Meridian's
Crime Prevention Specialist conducted 143 educational opportunities, reaching over 17,702
Meridian residents. Having another Crime Prevention Specialist would allow this division to
invest more time within our ever growing city of over 100,000 residents. As Meridian continues
to grow, education and prevention is imperative and needs to reflect within the growth of the
city.
Public Talking Points on utilization of position:
• Recognizing the growth in the community, this position would sustain the quality of
work our prevention office currently has, while building opportunities for new
programs.
o New programs would include more CP presence in the commercial industry of
Meridian (Commercial vs Residential Crime Prevention Specialist).
• The new position would be cooperative with the current Crime Prevention position,
working closely to develop a vast knowledge base of all areas within the crime
prevention field. Some examples would be National Night Out, Neighborhood Watch
and Public Safety Academy.
• We will identify opportunities to grow Meridian's Crime Prevention programs through
evaluation, including:
o Be an active liaison to local retailers for crime reduction measures.
o Conduct security surveys for Meridian businesses.
o Apartment Community Crime Reduction & Prevention Program: Crime
Prevention Through Environmental Design for multi -housing units.
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