2018-08-14Meridian City Council Workshop August 14, 2018.
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p. m. , Tuesday,
August 14, 2018, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer and Anne
Little Roberts.
Members Absent: Genesis Milam and Treg Bernt.
Also present: C. Jay Coles, Bill Nary, Cameron Ariel, Caleb Hood, Bill Parsons, Warren
Stewart, Tracy Basterrechea, Mark Niemeyer, Bruce Freckleton, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer _ ___ Treg Bernt
______Genesis Milam __X___Lucas Cavener
__X_ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I will go ahead and start today's City Council meeting first by
welcoming those that are out in our audience. Welcome. For the record it is, Tuesday,
August 14th. It's 3:00 o'clock. We will start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Thank you. Item 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us
in the pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Item 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We are going to make one amendment to Item 10, the Executive Session. We
are going to add sub category (1)(f) as a basis for that motion and with that amendment
I would move that we adopt the agenda.
Cavener: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda amended. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 4: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Approve Minutes of August 7, 2018 City Council Special
Meeting
B. Bainbridge Subdivision No. 7 Pedestrian Pathway Easement
C. Maddyn Village Subdivision Sanitary Sewer and Water Main
Easement
D. Emergency Medical Services Joint Powers Agreement
Renewal
E. Resolution No. 18-2095: A Resolution Of The City Council Of
The City Of Meridian, Idaho, Setting Forth Certain Findings
And
Purposes To Declare Surplus Property And Authorizing The
Mayor Of The City Of Meridian To Donate Fire Hose To The Girl
Scouts Of Silver Sage
F. Agreement to Share Benefits and Costs of Irrigation System
Between Bainbridge Owners Association, Inc., Brighton
Development Inc., and the City of Meridian Regarding Keith
Bird
Legacy Park
G. Award of Bid and Approval of Agreement to U.S . Water
Services, Inc. for the “Well 28 Water Treatment Equipment”
project for a Not-To -Exceed amount of $460,062.00.
H. Purchase Orders for Continuation of Contracted Inspection
and
Plan Review Services
PO #18-0477 Idaho DBS $ 100,000
PO #18-0478 Idaho DBS $ 100,000
PO #18-0479 Idaho DBS $ 100,000
PO #18-0480 Idaho DBS $ 100,000
PO #18-0481 DMH Enterprises $ 100,000
PO #18-0482 Jackson Code Consultants $ 100,000
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I. AP Invoices for Payment 8/15/18 - $3,225,480.65
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda. Mr. Borton.
Borton: There are no changes to the Consent Agenda, so I would move that we
approve the Consent Agenda as published, for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Any
discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, absent.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Historic Preservation Commission Update in Recognition of
the
Village of Meridian's 125th Anniversary
De Weerd: Item 6-A is under Community Presentations. We are celebrating our 125th
anniversary and I do have a proclamation, but I thought I would see if Lila or our
Historical Preservation Commission has remarks first.
Johnston: Madam Mayor, Members of the Commission, thanks for allowing this
opportunity to talk about the 125th anniversary of the village of Meridian. So, with that
I'm going to pass this to Lila and, then, to our vice-president Josh.
Hill: One of the things that we have been doing getting ready for this anniversary -- or
trying to get done by this date -- is to have an inventory of the people who owned all of
the buildings in Old Town and the chain of ownership with -- as much as we could put in
at the time about businesses and the locations and -- and so forth and so on. So, here
is your document. It says: Draft and working document for original townsite building
owners, last updated tomorrow -- the 14th. Is that today? I haven't looked at the
calendar yet. But, anyway, it contains in order taken from the Alliance Title records,
which we have copies of, for the chain of ownership for every property in Old Town and
we hope that people will fill in on it as they go. I have a copy for the Mayor's office. I
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have a copy for us. One copy will go by e-mail to the Downtown Merchants Association
and I have forgotten who we did the other one for, Hillary. Oh. For HPC to work with.
So, you may be all asked to ask -- ask who owned your building before you were there.
Do you know? Do you know what business was in it? Who was there before they got
there. To try to complete the records for the Old Town. We have all -- I think all of the
subdivisions but about one or two from the Alliance Title Company, because I played old
lady and walked in and said can I have a copy and one of the ladies who was there
remembered when she was downstairs in the old high school building and I would go
downstairs and work on it and she said give her anything she wants. So, we have a lot
of resources to do property owner chains for the whole town.
Evarts: So, some things that we are going to be working on as part of this whole 125th
year. We had a really successful level of effort for our historic preservation month in
May. So, when we ran our tours two years ago it was sort of -- I think we ended up
having, you know, eight to nine folks that came out to tour with us during Historic
Preservation Month. When we did that this May we had 40 people -- we had multiple
groups of people that we were touring in the heat. Dick Nourse opened up his home
and actually allowed like a museum walk through and we took these groups around for
hours. It wasn't a quick hit, like, you know, ten minutes, walk around, get some
Pokemon, you know, and go. It was like legitimate sharing history, really -- really great.
So, when we came back as a commission after that they were like, well, what were the
things that we did right that we can, then, capitalize on going forward. So, a couple of
the things is we -- we realized that we had launched the downtown walking app the prior
year and that was a big, big motivation for people, then, to actually at their fingertips in a
digital way have content and media. So, one of the things we did when we redid our
walking guides is we had a couple of the properties that we didn't have current great
photos on, we contracted with a local photographer to take some better photos. What
came out of that, then, is the realization that we had lots of properties outside of Old
Town -- barns and old buildings and structures that we just didn't have great
photographs of and we were running into situations where we were seeing public
notices that these things were going to be developed and we wanted to capture, you
know, images of those things. So, Lori and I went out in our truck Sunday, spent about
four hours with our target list of about 23 properties in Meridian that are eligible for
national registry, but aren't registered yet. We enjoyed great cigars and we got
photographs and -- and stories. We actually found one of the homeowners was like
outside, so -- Mrs. Clapper. So, her home is actually a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired
design that's up on the hill -- South Ten Mile on the other side of the freeway looking
over the valley. It's stunning. So, all that to be said is we are going -- we ran an RFP a
couple months ago to -- to get best value photography support. So, we have two
vendors that we selected. So, we are going to be using them to capture imagery of all
these great sites that are Meridian and, then, that is feeding into your other project,
which is --
Hill: We working on -- or towards --
De Weerd: Lila, we need you to speak into the --
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Hill: We are working towards an atlas for Meridian dating with a map that Tammy and I
argue about from 1904 onward and we have really quite a good collection, I think, and
that will be coming in the future. One of the things I need to put into his remarks was
we did that first original survey in 1987. The requirement for national registers must be
50 years old. So, there has been a few years since '87. So, a lot of the properties that
have come on have come on since that first survey was done and we only did inside
town. We didn't -- we weren't as big an area for Meridian then as we are now.
Evarts: So, I would say the last thing that we are working on, which I think is probably
the most important thing for this upcoming year, is we really didn't have an idea as to
how much media and information Lila and the Preservation Society have collected and
the work that they have done. It's -- it's overwhelming. And we are -- we are so -- we
are just benefactors of all this knowledge and, yet, we have reached a place where in
this digital age it's not easy for us to share and disseminate that information. So, we got
engaged or started the process of working with a local agency that does large format
scanning, so that we can start identifying items, because we also don't want these
things being handled necessarily, so -- but we want to be able to share this information
in a way that's relevant and current and -- and is able to preserve the items. So, we are
going to be working with Lila and her team on identifying those pieces, so we can start
systematically going and creating that and we feel that that does a couple things. One,
it -- it helps preserve those items, because we will have fewer hands that are interacting
with them, but it also allows us a much broader disbursement of that history and that
knowledge. We will be able to put that up on the city's web page, we will be able to
share that through social media where people can see these things. It always amazes
me how many times people come through The Vault or the Heritage building and we
have old historic photos up there and they go, wow, I didn't realize that that existed. So,
I think the more that we can capture those stories and the images and the things
associated with it and get those dispersed digitally, I think that -- that only draws more
attention to the great work that Lila does, which is awesome. Yeah . It's incredible. So -
- she makes us look good. We are eye candy. She's the real worker bee.
De Weerd: You are eye candy.
Evarts: That's all I got. So, thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members. We
appreciate it.
De Weerd: Well, if I could come and join you I will read the proclamation and I will
present this to Lila. And I do want to thank the Historical Preservation Commission for
your engagement. I have seen the -- the change and the passion that's come over the -
- the commission over the last number of years and it's so exciting. I think Lila at one
time thought that she and just a few of her closest friends were going to be the only
ones carrying the torch for promoting the history of our city and it's nice to see that we
have a number of community partners stepping up and being an -- an engaged partner
to it. So, thank you both for joining Lila and with that I will read our proclamation.
Whereas 2018 marks the 125th anniversary of the original settlement, which is now
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known as the City of Meridian. And whereas Meridian's earliest settlers lived along Five
Mile Creek where there was running water. The U.S. Postal Service soon established a
mail drop along the rail line, which was called Hunter after its superintendent and
whereas in 1893 an Order of Odd Fellows Chapter was established and adopted the
name Meridian for its lodge in recognition of Idaho's principal surveyors meridian, which
runs along Meridian Road as it passes through the town. And whereas the original
Meridian town site was filed on August 18, 1893, on homestead grant land belonging to
Elsa Ann Zenger whose husband Christian filed the plat and called it Meridian and it has
truly become the center of the Treasure Valley. And whereas since its beginning
Meridian has been built for business and designed for living by establishing itself as a
dairy center for the state and its small town friendliness, which is celebrated each year
during Meridian Dairy Days and throughout the year being a safe, attractive and vibrant
community. And whereas we wish to thank the Meridian Historic Preservation
Commission and the Meridian Historic Society for keeping our history alive and thriving.
So, therefore, I, Tammy de Weerd, hereby proclaim August 18, 2018, as the City of
Meridian's 125th anniversary in the City of Meridian and I urge all citizens to join me in
celebrating the City of Meridian's 125th anniversary. Thank you so much, Lila, for
everything you do to preserve our history. We have a rich history and you have brought
it to life through all of your efforts. We appreciate you.
Item 7: Action Items
A. Resolution No. 18-2090: A Resolution Re-Appointing Steve
Vlassek to Seat 3 of the Meridian Development Corporation,
Re- Appointing Tammy de Weerd to Seat 5 of the Meridian
Development Corporation and Re-Appointing Nathan Mueller
to Seat 8 of the Meridian Development Corporation
De Weerd: Okay. Do we feel old? Okay. It is Item 7-A, which is Resolution 18-2090,
resolution re-appointing Steve Vlassek to Seat 3 of the MDC, Tammy de Weerd, Seat 5,
and Nathan Mueller to Seat 8.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I move that we approve Resolution -- Resolution 18-2090, reappointing
Steve Vlassek to Seat 3 of MDC; reappointing the Mayor to Seat 4; and reappointing
Nathan Mueller to Seat 8.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second?
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. Any discussion?
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Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes , Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, help me understand why -- so, that -- the very existence of
MDC is -- is the responsive -- or the reason it exists is because this Council created it
or, technically, the State created it, but the reason it exists is because a council in the
past made that happen. Why is it that this Council doesn't have any representation on
Meridian Development Corporation board?
De Weerd: Well, because individuals that are appointed are appointed as individuals
and last year when Councilman Bird was reappointed, the Council accepted that
reappointment and he will serve out the seat of his term, which was three years.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Maybe just some questions about MDC, kind of where it's
sitting. Where are we sitting with the debt on it? How much in debt is MDC now?
De Weerd: I think that Ashley had reported on that when we had our joint meeting. But
she will be reporting within this next month as part of her quarterly update to Council.
Palmer: Can you ballpark it?
De Weerd: Not off the top of my head I can't.
Palmer: Within a couple hundred thousand?
De Weerd: I would rather not guess, but I can certainly get that back to you at our next
meeting.
Palmer: Within a half a million? Madam Mayor, the reason I ask is -- I -- I mean you --
my understanding is you have been on the board since it was created.
De Weerd: No, I haven't.
Palmer: How long have you been on it?
De Weerd: I think I might have replaced Councilman Borton when he stepped off of
Council. I believe.
Borton: Sounds about right.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, when was that?
De Weerd: 2008?
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Palmer: So, a decade. And you can't ballpark within half a million dollars how much
debt?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I think the information that you're looking for is probably in the audit. MDC's
audit. Whatever that answer is is probably there.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, it's -- I mean I have it in front of me. So, in -- on September
30th the debt sat at 505,080 dollars. So, my concern is that yourself having been on
there for a decade couldn't guess within half a million dollars as to how much in debt
this board is and you have been sitting on it for a decade. This Council has no
representation on that board. So, I would hope that we could push this off and maybe
have a discussion with some of the missing councilmen and maybe some that are here,
if anybody else is interested in serving on that board, whether it's yourself or -- or that's
replaced or any of these other two, so that this Council, who is, again, responsible for
the creation of this, that has incurred debt -- you know, we brag all the time about how
we are so responsible as a city with our finances that we are -- we are not in debt, yet
we have created this slush fund organization of unelected members, with the exception
of one, that has put us into debt and that one elected couldn't even guess at how much
debt that organization was in.
De Weerd: Well, the Council did establish the Urban Renewal District in the state code
by purpose does separate, because they are two different entities and so my
representation is also as an individual, but also as the administrator of our budget,
because some of the decisions that are made by that board do impact our budgets and
need to be considered as part of those discussions, because, otherwise, they could be
making decisions on behalf of a maintenance requirement by the city and so that is one
of the reasons that -- that I have served to be -- to be that conduit. So, any further
discussion?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: With these three appointments -- I assume they are all reappointments, so
you didn't seek out new appointees for any of these positions?
De Weerd: No, we didn't.
Cavener: So, Madam Mayor, I guess I'm -- I'm safe in my assumption that we didn't
solicit any members of the City Council to see if they wanted to be involved with the
MDC?
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De Weerd: No. In fact, I don't believe that the city really needs to do the
reappointments and maybe Mr. Nary can correct me, but the MDC board can reappoint
their own commissioners. This is just a formality.
Cavener: Madam Mayor? I guess that would be -- if -- if we don't need to appoint them,
then, why -- why are -- why is this before us?
De Weerd: I do -- I do appoint new members. Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, the way the code works is the
expiration of the term is when it's considered a new appointment, even if it's a
reappointment of the same person. It's because there is a reappointment. That's what
comes to the city. When the person steps off in the middle of a term, with term
remaining, the board, then, reappoints -- that board, then, appoints members for the
remainder of the term. So, the end of the term is the trigger point for the city to choose
the representative.
De Weerd: I got that backwards then.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Then, with that I -- I move we reject Resolution 18 --
De Weerd: I already have a motion on this.
Palmer: As a substitute motion, I move we reject Resolution No. 18-2090 and would
request that before our new resolution is brought forth that it's put out to the public if
anyone is interested in filling any of these positions.
Cavener: I will second that for -- at least for the sake of discussion.
De Weerd: Okay. Discussion.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I guess, then, a question for Mr. Palmer, what he is hoping to achieve.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
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Palmer: I would like that, hopefully, there would be someone on this Council -- I don't
have the time to do it, but I would hope that someone on this Council would want to and
have the availability to serve on it and would have interest come forward and -- and, you
know, at least be interviewed by yourself or whatever the process to -- to come forward
and ask us for that and also to put it out for the public if there is anybody in the public,
especially those who are paying the taxes within the Urban Renewal District, to serve
on the board, rather than just reappoint those that are on there. And if there is nobody
else interested, then, by all means.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: From a procedural -- it may make sense, if the motion maker is okay, to -- to
table the motion, have that discussion, you have got, as I understand it, seven members
of the public on the board. Is that -- or eight members?
De Weerd: No. I believe there are nine.
Borton: And one elected official -- not eight members of the public?
De Weerd: Yes .
Borton: Okay. The deadline I believe, Mr. Nary, is the end of this month. The term
expires the end of August? Sorry to put you on the spot. Perhaps, if you're okay, Mr.
Palmer, you -- just table the resolution and, then, well before next Tuesday have these
discussions and figure out the mechanics of what you guys are trying to -- and see if
there is -- we got a couple of the Council Members, get them in the discussion, gauge
their interest in and maybe they share concerns or not, I don't know, but that -- certainly,
yeah, where you want to be and, then, on next Tuesday might have perhaps even a
different resolution. Whatever accomplishes that purpose.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
De Weerd: I think Council Member Borton is probably on the right track. I guess what I
would be interested in knowing is there any desire for me to allow somebody from the
City Council to serve in that role.
De Weerd: Well, certainly the members that are currently serving are interested in
continuing that service, so they have all contributed in a number of great ways, so I
wasn't looking at -- at finding new board members and -- and neither was the board.
So, I guess, no, it hadn't come up.
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Cavener: So, Madam Mayor, I guess I -- I think that there isn't any real purpose to delay
this any longer if there isn't any desire on your point to appoint a member of the City
Council to sit on the Urban Renewal. That same decision would be a week from now or
two weeks from now that it would be today. As disappointed as I am to hear that, I don't
see any reason to delay if your decision wouldn't change. So, I guess we have a motion
on the table. It can fail and, then, the original motion would be on the table.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: So, it's -- my whole purpose -- and especially in the uncomfortable questions I
was asking you -- are -- the point is twofold. One, I really want representation from
Council on the board and, two, I don't want representation from you on the board. So,
my -- my main goal is to definitely get a councilman on there and that's where I'm at.
De Weerd: Okay. I think the substitute motion was --
Coles: To deny the resolution as written.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, abstain; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts,
nay; Bernt, absent.
De Weerd: Okay. So, the motion fails. I mean the motion passes.
MOTION CARRIED: TWO AYES. ONE NAY. ONE ABSTAIN. TWO ABSENT.
Borton: So -- Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: The concept can go forward. Some of the questions and concerns can be
raised. We have got two Council Members missing. Explore it further. A resolution of
three people will be back hopefully next week and it might not be worked out, you might
get concerns addressed, but this will probably be next week and, if not next week, the
week after, just to meet whatever deadlines that are for the appointment.
Item 8: Department Reports
A. Community Development Department Annual Report
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Department Reports. Item A is under our Community
Development Department. Cameron.
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Ariel: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it is a great pleasure to be with you this
afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to present our annual report to you. It is
with great pleasure that I stand before you. There is -- it's been exactly -- well,
approximately, seven months since I came on as the director for the Community
Development Department and just things are going fast and furious. So, it's great to
actually pause and look back, really, on what's been going on and report to you some of
those exciting things that are happening in our department. So, I'm just going to kind of
paint a picture for you where we want to head and -- and kind of give you guys a quick -
- maybe -- a quick lay of the land as we go forward here with the presentation, but it will
also go kind of in order of -- of how things are rolling. Note as well that there are other
reports, even on this agenda today, that will give you more meat. So, for example,
Caleb is going to be reporting to you on the -- oh, C.Jay. Oh. Cool. Thank you.
Perfect. Caleb is going to be providing an update to you on the staff report. We have
had comment back from you. Obviously, the directors and other department
partnerships that we have that contribute to that. So, that will be a great report for you.
As well as Bruce will give a detailed report on the monthly update of the Building
Services Department. So, we are excited to report on those items as well in greater
detail. But I just wanted to kind of touch base on the department. What we are, what
we do and how we really are moving things together as one team. Give you some
staffing updates. Give you a little bit more detail. Caleb will dive into the Planning
piece. Bruce also will discuss the Building Services, which includes building and land
development. And, then, Brenda, unfortunately, is not well and so she's going to be
presenting to you at a later date. Hopefully the 28th if we can reschedule it for that time
for her portion. And, then, just opening it up to you all to understand what -- what you
are hearing and seeing. Things that we could -- what you like, what things we could be
doing better and -- and to get any feedback that you may have. So, with that just real
quick I want to give you just a brief look at the department. So, we got kind of three legs
to our stool. Bruce, obviously, has building services and land development under him,
but really just want to kind of take this opportunity to give you a little bit of an
understanding of some of the things that I have been doing in relationship to our
department and leadership team. So, with that, I just wanted to kind of take that
opportunity to just give some serious kudos across the board, you know, especially in --
you know, with everything that's been going on with the budget amendment, with
everything that you all have been doing and showing your support of us and what we
are trying to accomplish, it's just been humbling to be right there in the front of that
seeing that all happen. So, kudos to -- to you, Madam Mayor and Councilman Palmer
is our liaison, we just appreciate the level of support that we are -- that you are giving it.
It makes the lift that much more doable and it's just fun to -- fun to be a part of it. So,
big kudos to Bruce and Brent in the -- in the Development Services Department, along
with Sam. In fact, Brent's right now reporting to the BCA, one of our major
stakeholders, on these very topics as well to really engage your stakeholders and that's
one of the really fun things that I have been able to be a part of is kind of reinvigorating
that stakeholder group, getting to know their thoughts, their -- their feelings, how we can
best move forward with these things and that's just been a great partnership. Also, you
know, in advance of Bruce's presentation I would be remiss if I didn't give some serious
kudos to our HR team -- our city team. HR, Public Works, IT, Finance and many others
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that have -- are really just crushing it. I mean so proud to be working with them and
seeing all the hard work that they are doing and you will -- you will get a taste for some
of that as we go through the various presentations. So, real quick just to give you a
quick look at the department, kind of how it functions and flows, you know, you see here
Economic Development really is kind of the tip of the spear and as, you know, business
and the economy kind of comes into the city, how that transitions, then, into planning
and how that -- the planning function is integral into getting things entitled and moving
and in the proper zones and, then, of course, that folds into the Development Services
piece, you know, to get things -- to make sure they are -- their easements are correct,
platted correctly, and so on, addressed and, then, all the way through construction and,
then, all that comes right back to economic development and how we retain that
economy in our community. So, just -- you will see a lot more of this type of stuff from,
you know the -- the various reports, but I do want to kind of just pause and give some
kudos to -- to planning. Caleb and his team. With the comp plan coming -- I won't steal
any of that thunder, but it's just been fantastic to see the response that we are getting
because of their efforts and what that will mean to our community in the future. It's just -
- it's the right time, it's -- it's going to be an incredible effort and it's a -- it's a big boulder
to push up the hill. So, I just -- I want to give some -- some serious props to the
planning team and also just with the day-to-day stuff. We are seeing a lot of
applications come through and increasingly more complex as we do infill,
redevelopment, you know, some -- some complexity there, too. So, I'm just really --
really proud of them. Thank you all for your support in advancing the associate planner
position. We are excited about that and filling that position here soon, as well as your
support of the CDBG program as well. Just real quick. On the E side, just really excited
to see things like the Paylocity project coming to fruition, the Brighton Corporation
headquarters, a lot of expansion village, things like that going on, but just wanted to,
you know, express again our appreciation for this port of the SWOT analysis and --
SWOT analysis and the industry specific analysis that we will be doing here shortly.
That's going to be a big component of how we plan in the future, how we target specific
industry, exterior and interior to the community and so just really appreciate the
Council's support of those initiatives. I wanted to just throw this -- this slide in as far as
the org chart goes, just to give you a taste of -- kind of, you know, we are -- we are
growing not only as a community, but certainly as a department and this just gives you a
little bit of a taste of where we are heading, because you can see there is still a lot of
empty positions there, but also how we are feeling that. Again, from -- from my position
of the director -- you know, in the director role I am so pleased with our hiring efforts.
Granted, it hasn't maybe been as quick as we would like. I think Bruce is going to share
some statistics with you that really shows how actually quickly we are filling these things
comparatively speaking and the amount of time and effort that we are putting into it,
because we feel like we do need to get it right and that the people that we are hiring are
exceptional and so I am just grateful for -- for the efforts there and -- and seeing how
that's all coming about. So, just real quickly, Bruce, again, will dive into this a little bit
more. Just wanted to show you some of the team that's been added since our last
report. If you notice that whole bottom row -- we have an inspector team. I was talking
with Sam the other day and we kind of just pinched ourselves, it's like, how did this
happen. We have our own team doing our own inspections in our own way and that's
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pretty powerful. So, we are -- we are excited about Michael LeBeau. Hopefully, you will
get a chance to meet him. Just a stellar human being to build this team around and we
are just -- we are proud of each of these guys. And Riley just started on Monday. So,
we are excited about that. But more growth to come there and Bruce will -- will add
some to that. But excited about our permit tech team. We have mentioned this
previous, but Ashley and Renee, fantastic hires. High aptitude, wanting to learn more,
branch out into other things. Went -- recently went to a conference, came back just --
just jazzed about how advanced our department is -- or our permit tech team is
compared to others in the west and it was just -- it's just good to see that energy. Can't
speak enough about Stephanie Leonard. Fantastic planner. Excited about her future
with the team. Of course, we reported to you previously about Kevin. Kevin Holmes,
our new assistant planner as well, just a great hire. High capacity folks. And, then,
Ryan, as you know, is in our addressing division and just a great hire as well. So,
excited about that. And, then, we got that bloke that for some reason you can't shrink
his picture in the middle there, but just a fantastic team and I'm excited to be about -- be
a part of it. But I just wanted to kind of leave an anecdote with you. You know, a lot of
folks are saying how -- gosh. how's it going, what's -- what's going on and I -- I actually
posed these questions to staff in one of our staff meetings and I said how many of you
guys have built your own house and a few people raised their hands. How many of you
guys have started your own business? A few more raised their hands. How many of
you guys have implemented a significant software package? I think actually somebody
did raise their hand on that. Surprising. How many of you guys have hired 20 plus
employees? You know, how many of you guys have equipped those employees with
fleet and equipment and state of the art tech. And, then, on top of that ran other
enterprises. And, you know, staff kind of chuckled and I just said that's exactly what we
are doing and it's awesome. There is a lot going on in our department and I am just so
proud of -- of how everyone is working hard to -- to accomplish what's put before them.
So, it's just humbling to be a part of and just grateful for the opportunity. So, with that
I'm going to turn the time over to Caleb.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Caleb Hood here to give you a quick
overview of what's been going on in planning mostly this last year, but we will look
forward a little bit as well. You know, we see you quite a bit, so I'm not going to go into
a whole lot of depths of what we do, because, again, we are on your agenda pretty
much every week. So, you are -- I feel like, you know, you kind of know what's going on
in our department, but I don't want to, you know, gloss over that either. I do want to, you
know, appreciate our staff and want to acknowledge them and -- and really kind of look
back a little bit. So, here is our bread and butter. We will start with that; right? The
permitting. All the new projects. This isn't all the new projects, but these are some of
the highlighted projects that Bill came up with. So, Bill oversees this side of things, the
current planning side of things. Supervises this, makes sure we move forward and get
things processed efficiently with -- with his team. You know, this past year we have --
we have done quite a bit multi-family -- multi-family and storage is kind of the theme I
think this -- this last year. We see -- see them going up all over the place. For some
reason there is just a lot of those types of projects. But there is -- there is some ones,
too, on the screen -- and, again, this isn't comprehensive by any means. I do want to
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give some props to -- to Sonya and Josh. They, as you know -- you see them quite a
bit. They do all of our hearing level applications and there is, again, been a lot and I
don't want to toot our own horn or you know how busy we are and I -- it almost -- I get
tired of hearing it, because it's -- busy is the norm. Why do we keep saying we are
busy, because it's just -- that's just how it is and it's been that way for a long time, but
they do -- there is some big projects, you know, the Costco -- you know, Sonya saw
those -- those through. We have had a lot of neighborhood associations and meetings
and neighbors and, you know, educating the public, having them understand our
processes, how they can get involved, when is the appropriate time to get involved, you
know, hearings, those types of things. Hearing them out, what their concerns are and
just working with them. ICOM and some of those other -- other big projects that have
been going on just this past year with even some of the housing for that project. We are
updating -- and Bill will speak to you in I think the next agenda item. No, I'm sorry,
Finance cut in between all of our -- our presentation somehow, but on the staff report
format update. But Sonya is also taking some of that and going to update our
conditions of approval. So, that ties in nicely with the staff report as well. So, it
seamlessly integrated in with our -- excuse me -- our -- our Enterprise software. So, we
can take some of the comments we received and the conditions and roll them right into
this new template that Bill is going to talk to you about in a few minutes. And Cameron
just mentioned it, but Stephanie and Kevin have been great additions to our team -- our
front line of defense, essentially. They are on call. You know, people walk in or call,
they are -- they are the first point of contact when folks don't know who to talk to. They
help them out with zoning questions and can I build a fence here and how tall can it be
and they have stepped right in up in their customer services, so I'm just so impressed in
just a short amount of time how much of the code they have picked up and their
willingness to -- to help folks out, so -- so great there. And, again, Cameron mentioned
it, but the new associate city planner, thank you for advancing that. We are moving into
the interview stage and hope to have somebody hired just as soon as we can, so -- to
relieve some of that effort or the workload that we currently have. So, some of the other
special projects. So, we are working on, you know, our bread and butter stuff, but we
had -- we do have some time for some kind of special projects and other projects. Here
is a couple of examples. This last year Brian McClure put together a couple of these
handouts and he's great, you know, he's got kind of that technical -- he can make things
pretty for us a lot of times and he developed a couple of these new handouts. We are
hearing quite a bit of concern and -- it still exists, quite frankly, the difference between
land use and zoning and those designations. So, you see it now as the title slide in
most of the PowerPoint presentations to try to help, again, educate the folks -- the
public on the difference between low density residential in the comp plan and low
density residential in the zoning code or UDC. So, we have developed a couple of
these flyers. Some of them are on the back table, so when people come maybe they --
they are in Council chambers for the first time and they don't have any idea. Just,
again, trying to educate people and I think it speaks well to our customer service and we
really do try to -- try to help people through the process whether you are an applicant or
just a neighbor of a project. So, just some other recent efforts. And this is -- these are -
- this is really hot off the press. We have put some of these maps online and there is
hyperlinks there. These interactive web maps. So, this is basically realtime information
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you can get and -- you or the public or staff. We all use this to see some of that base
zoning information. So, some of the idea here is to let people fish for themselves. You
can select a property, it drops down the zoning, the acres. There is hyperlinks within
that. The Ada County Assessors information. So, if you want information, pictures of
the property, those types of things, it's all available here on the website through these
maps. You can zoom in, you can zoom out, you can turn some things on and off roads
and those types of things. So, I think it's a really great tool. We use it a little bit -- you
know, it's -- the version we typically use as staff is a little bit more on steroids. We have
some more information that we don't push to the public, but this is going to be a great
tool that can really, I think, again, help people understand their properties -- adjacent
properties, the zoning and -- and the like. So, I'm really excited about that. So, that's --
again, that's just live on the website as of the last couple of weeks. Here is some other
things that we have been working on and will continue to work on. So, as I said, we are
going to look backwards, but we are also looking forward a little bit on some of these
things. We completed -- Bill led the effort with the UDC work group to amend the UDC
for home occupations and, then, the food and beverage and the distinction between
breweries and microbreweries and drinking establishments and what constituted those.
You all probably remember those discussions. We are still working on maybe some
tweaks to our open space and amenity packages and residential zoning as well. Again,
the staff report reformatting Bill is going to speak to in just a few minutes. Getting ready
for the rollout for online submittal and electronic plan review. So, that's been a big lift,
kind of -- planning -- you know, as building services move forward with hiring all these
new folks, that's kind of our role in the law. This is moving to electronics submittal of an
online plan review and those types of things. So, that's really what we have been most
heavily involved with in this transition of our department is being ready with them to
implement those. Trying to keep the website up to date. Mentioned some of those just
in the previous slide. And, then, the third and last bullet that, AUP template, kind of
goes hand in hand with even the UDC text amendments that I mentioned in the first
bullet and just making that more streamlined and at the same time we did the certificate
of zoning compliance for just use changes, where there may be some things. And,
again, try to minimize the -- not only the cost, but the time to get -- get new tenants and
buildings and, then, this is something we are still a work in progress -- process, but
similar to what -- what Bruce is going to speak to in a minute, but coming up with
performance measures. How do we define success. What's the expectation for the
customer. What's the expectation from staff on any given task. How long should it take.
And so we will set some parameters and something like 90 percent of the time we want
to hit these benchmarks. There is going to be some exceptions to the rule, but,
generally, this is what we are going to tell you what we are going to try to do things and
the amount of time. Te ll our customers this is how long it takes and, then, start reporting
those things out. So, we are -- we are developing that I imagine in the next couple of
months we will be sharing what we think those things are and what we think you will
care about and our customers will care about and get some more feedback from you
and we will continue to monitor that after -- after we set that up. So, just a little bit on
the conference plan. I don't want to, you know, bore you all too much. I know you all
know we are in the middle of this process now, but I do want to, again, take a minute
here just to highlight the Comprehensive Plan. Brian McClure has taken the lead on
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this. He is our project manager on this. He's kind of the brains behind the operation,
but he also, you know, executes a lot of those things we are doing. You see him at
these events. He's on the street doing -- doing the stuff, too. But he's helping organize
and make sure we move forward with it. So, really appreciate the help there from Brian.
So, just a little bit of an update if you have been -- haven't been paying attention the last
month or so. We are into phase two now. Phase one was all about values. We had
over 1,500 people participate in one way or another through the website -- again, we
have been in a lot of events, but we asked people what they valued. We took that and,
then, we -- we crafted that into five different themes -- sorry. Five different themes and
there is four supporting statements underneath each theme and we are asking people
right now -- so, survey number two is on the website -- to look at those statements and
say, does that reflect -- adequately reflect the theme listed above. So, you see one here
vibrant, a vibrant community. So, that's there right now. If you haven't been in the
website, again, I would encourage you to -- to check it out. We are going to move into
phase three and that becomes where we get a little more technical and that's where we
are going to be setting up some subcommittees, working with our commissions a little
bit more closely, ACHD, ITD, some of our other partners and really kind of digging in,
using information from phase one and two, what we are hearing from the public, but
really kind of doing a check with our partners, our agency partners if you will, and
others, key -- key members of the community that have expressed interest in, you know,
digging in to taking some of what we are hearing and turning those into policies of
where we want to go. That's -- so, phase three we are going to be a little bit more quiet
with the public involvement as we kind of craft some more technical and, then, we will
go back out to the public in phase four and say how does this feel? Is it -- are we still on
the same page with what -- again, not straying too far -- hopefully not at all -- from the
values that we started with. Do these policy statements really reflect the values and the
vision of where we want to take our community. So, that's kind of overall -- the overall
way that the project will move forward. So, quickly, again, we have been at a lot of
events the past few months and through September we will be and then, October,
November will be a little bit more quiet and, then, around Christmastime -- well, the
month of December, again, we will have some more things where we keep the public
involved. We don't want them to, you know, I say we will go dark, but we are really still
going to be active and the website will certainly be up to date that entire time as well.
Here is just some of the things we have been at over the last few months. Again, would
encourage you to check out the website and take the survey number two, which is up
right now. I also encourage you to look at some of these other things at the bottom.
The idea wall and the pin map. We are getting quite a few comments there. So, look at
those, see what -- see what people are talking about, some of their thoughts and ideas
that they have in the community. Yeah. They are kind of neat tools, although one of the
maps is a little bit outdated with some of the street layers and we are growing so fast
the aerials are out of date and there is some comments like I can't -- I don't see my
subdivision on here. Sorry, we are -- we are trying to get that updated, though. So,
then, transitioning a little bit -- and I know the Mayor hates All Things Transportation and
I won't do that in this slide, but it's just one slide.
De Weerd: I love All Things Transportation. What are you talking about.
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Hood: Okay. Well, that -- now that the door is open -- no. This is just -- this is just a
quick summary, though, of the past year and, basically, recently completed projects. I'm
not going to read those to you. A quick update, though, on -- on Pine. I don't know if
you have driven through that intersection. It was closed this weekend, but they got the
intersection paved. They are going to be paving the rest of it in the coming weeks.
Officially, the project isn't done until mid-September, so there may be some punch list
items and things like that, but I -- I envision it will be substantially complete before that.
But that's when the contractor really says they will have things done there. State
Highway 69. I believe the clerk also forwarded you on a postcard mentioning that that
work is also under construction. So, that was last Friday I think. Just recently. So, it
was just -- this is a follow up to when ITD came. They are going to put that median
south of Overland in and do some restriping of the lanes to be a little more efficient in
getting onto I-84 across the Overland Road intersection and, then, they have two
signals they are putting in at Hubbard -- one at Hubbard and one at Lake Hazel. So,
that work is August to October. So, that work is going on now as well. VRT . You can
kind of see what's going on there. At least it's listed there. Harvest Transit will -- we are
-- it seems like it's a successful program and, again, looking at that third van this next
year through the -- the draft budget. And, then, just really really talking about fixed route
in Meridian, what that looks like to take -- maybe take the next step with public
transportation in Meridian. COMPASS. Those first -- all the alphabet soup there.
Those are the workgroups that staff participates in. Some of them are quarterly
meetings, some of them are a little more frequently, every other month or monthly and,
then, we have -- we have some pathway grants that the Parks Department manages
through COMPASS as well. On the ITD front, 2026 is the priority right now, continuing
to coordinate with them on utilities, you know, lighting, access points, landscaping,
sidewalks, those as they begin design of that corridor. I will also just provide you a
quick update. As of May 17th Costco did execute their STAR agreement with the state.
So, that's a go. That -- that agreement is -- is finalized now for at least that -- their
segment from Linder back to Star -- State Highway 16. So, that's done. And, then, I
just listed a few of the projects with ACHD. Some of the key projects and we will get
into this at the end of the agenda a little bit. But that's where some of the larger projects
are in the next couple of years in Meridian. So, that wasn't too bad for All Things
Transportation. And, then, CDBG. This is the -- the projects that are currently
underway. Some of them, in fact, have already wrapped up. Design of the downtown
sidewalk construction projects near Cole Valley or -- is complete. The design is
complete. We will move into construction for PY-2018. That action plan has been
submitted to HUD. And, then, down payment assistance program, Neighbor Works,
they are both working on getting those projects closed out for this year. And, again, you
heard from Christopher before his departure on -- on Program Year 2018. So, I went
through that pretty quickly. With that I think I'm going to hand it over, then, to Bruce,
unless you have any -- any questions in this presentation that -- so, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Thank you for joining us, Bruce.
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Freckleton: Well, thank you. It's a pleasure being in front of you today. It's been a long
time. I don't often get the opportunity to come and present and I'm a little rusty, so --
first thing I wanted to just throw out there is just -- Cameron and Caleb both mentioned
the workload, the volume we have got going on and, then, add on top of that our -- our
Community Development transition that we are doing with Building Services and I just
wanted to give a big shout out to our staff, you know, the staff of Planning and Building
and Land. Brenda even. Everybody has just picked up an extra -- an extra burden and
helped carry it. The project has taken a lot of -- a lot of hours from Cameron and Brent
and Sam and myself and Mindy and others and -- and our staff is just -- everybody has
just stepped up and picked up the load and carried it and done it with a smile on their
face. We are super excited about where we are going.
De Weerd: Don't touch that.
Freckleton: My static electricity or something. So, on -- on our report. Building permit
activity. We pulled these from the monthly dashboards that you guys receive. You
should have gotten your -- your -- your August issue yesterday. These are just some
projects that are -- I wouldn't say random. There were some that I hand selected off of
those dashboards over the last 12 months. More notable projects. The residential
activity over the past year -- you can see we have increased quite a bit on our single
family homes. The values have increased and I think you have probably seen the
reports coming out of -- out of the news about the median home prices in Ada County.
So, that's not too big of a surprise on those values. The multi-family. I think we have all
seen it and felt it, but pretty significant increase in the volume there of that multi-family
activity. Excuse me. That the value -- you know, it went up as well as you would
expect. The new commercial. You know, there wasn't as significant of increase, but
there was an increase all the same in the number of permits. However, the value is a
little bit lower. Square footage is up. The TI's, that's an interesting segment that, you
know, we -- we pretty much doubled our volume of tenant improvement projects. You
know, the value is up. The square footage is up. Don't really have an explanation of
why, other than we built quite a few shell buildings -- multi-tenant shell buildings and
they are filling up now. There is also a lot of turnover in -- in tenant spaces. So, don't
really know the reason why, but that is one segment that we have seen a pretty good
increase in. You know, Brian -- or Caleb mentioned Brian and his willingness always to
jump in and help where ever he can. You know, it was -- it was kind of funny on this
particular slide, I had asked Brian for some information, Caleb had asked Brian for the
same information and he so graciously was able to just pull it up and produce it for us.
But this is the citywide assessed values year over year. I think it's pretty interesting that
you see that total and change value over a billion dollars. So, that's a pretty significant
number. So, that comes to the end of the Development Services. Cameron.
Ariel: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you for -- again for this opportunity
and we will have Brenda come back up before you guys sometime soon. Sorry. I
touched the mic. But I wanted to take this opportunity now to open it up to you all, if you
have any questions or feedback that might be helpful to us in our -- in our efforts in
serving the community better. So, again, thank you for this opportunity.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Cameron. And thank you to your team. You have been busy
and it's -- it's been appreciated, the work that you're doing and -- and I continue -- I
always see a smile on the employees' faces and -- and a good attitude in spite of
everything that's coming your way. So, thank you for that.
Ariel: Appreciate it.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: If I may ask what, if any, changes are happening -- and, Caleb, this
might be your question -- I will direct here, but any updates regarding the position that
Chris left? I know we were discussing a different look for it potentially.
Hood: Let me touch this one and see if that -- okay. We are good. Let me start by
apologizing, because I had that in my notes and I did not bring that up. So -- yes. So,
just yesterday we got the information to HR to begin noticing for the full-time position.
That wouldn't become effective until October 1, but we are six or seven weeks out now
from the new fiscal year. So, we are going to move forward with backfilling that
position. We are also simultaneously -- and this actually started off while Christopher
was still here -- talking with Boise about doing a short-term contract with them to get us
through October to help us crunch through, again, this time where we are short and they
would be doing a couple -- there is just like three or four tasks, basically, in there. One
of the major ones is for them to help us prepare for the onsite monitoring that HUD is
going to do and in September. So, it's, basically, going through our files, making sure
everything's there that should be there. If there are duplicates, you know, cleaning it
out, basically, but preparing the files for when HUD flies in and looks at our -- our files
and things. So, I apologize, I had that in my notes handwritten and I -- I did not mention
that during my -- so, I appreciate the question.
Little Roberts: Great. Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: While Caleb is up, Caleb, can you talk to us a little bit more about this second
survey? Maybe you had communicated that to us and it went over my head, but I
wasn't aware of a second survey and just what we are hoping to accomplish from the
second one and maybe what our communication approach is with our citizens, whether
they participated in the survey the first time around or this is reaching out to new people.
Help me kind of understand that piece.
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Hood: Sure. Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener. Yeah. It's both. I mean you didn't
have to take survey number one to take survey number two. In fact, we have -- we
have made it a little bit more easy now, if you have it -- so, survey number one you had
to register and we didn't ask you a whole bunch of questions, where you were born, and
your Social Security, but we did -- but we did have you register your e-mail address.
Now you can take the survey and we just -- we asked you what part of town you are in,
so we can kind of know that we are getting representation that's, you know -- and if you
don't live in Meridian that's one of the options, too. And not in the area. But we want to
know who is -- who we are hearing from at least. But you don't have to register on the
site. So, again, survey two is based on what we heard from survey one, but it's not
exclusively to -- you didn't have to participate in one to hit two. We are trying to get the
word out to -- to everybody. We have had some community partners. For example,
Wahooz, Roaring Springs was willing to -- to send that out to their e-mail distribution list
and limited to the 83646 and 83642 zip codes. It's awesome. So, again, it's kind of a
check in. We heard what we think we heard what you value. We took that and we
made that into these statements. Vote for the statements that you most -- so, I have
been telling people when I'm out on the street or at parks, usually, at these events, I tell
them, you know, what do you most care about? What statements most resonate with
you or would you like to see City Hall work on for the future. What -- what's most
important for you for the future community of Meridian. So, pick five or six of these and
you vote for the ones that you most care about. So, that's what we are hoping to get
back is to really, then, filter through those 20 statements and say, boy, these ones really
rose to the top. This is what people care -- not that the other ones don't matter, but
these are the highest -- of the highest priority.
Cavener: Great. Thank you. Great work really.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further questions? Thank you again and appreciate the
information.
Hood: Thank you. Thank you all.
B. Community Development: Monthly Building Services Update
De Weerd: Okay. 8-B is also under Community Development and I believe, Bruce,
you're up? I guess that's one way. To do it before Bruce gets up there.
Freckleton: There we go. All right. Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council,
again, it's -- it's great to be before you. I wanted to present our monthly update on our
project. The budget amendment recap is something that we are going to continue to
keep in this -- in this presentation just to keep it fresh. That's just giving you the
numbers. I want to, again, acknowledge the inter-departmental team that has pulled
together just phenomenally to -- to make this -- this project possible. You know, I
mentioned the -- the Building -- Community Development team, but we have had
Finance and Purchasing have paid -- played a huge role. IT a huge role. HR you will
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see in a little bit. Just the work efforts that they have done for us and it's amazing. And,
then, with our -- our facilities folks doing the tenant improvement projects that we have
had on the first floor and second floor to make room for -- for the team. Again, here is
the budget amendment. Just to recap where we started -- and I will go through with
each of the sections and we will give a -- kind of a status update where we currently
stand. As you remember, we -- when we launched into this we -- we suspected that we
were going to -- we were going to go through a little bit of a struggle with the hiring
process, unemployment rate being what it is and not a lot of talent available out there in
the pool and every jurisdiction around us is fishing in the same waters. Everybody's got
-- everybody has job -- job announcements out there for the same -- the same positions
that we are trying to hire for, so our backup plan was to -- to do an RFQ selection
process and see if there were private companies that can help us during the transition
as we staff up to have them help kind of augment our services until we can get fully
staffed and get there. So, we have -- we have done a lot of work effort in that area and I
will give you a little more information on that here in just a bit. We have negotiated
short-term professional services agreements with DBS and from last month you will
recall that after we did the budget amendment we were issued a notice of termination
on the mechanical services from DBS as well and so that is an effort that we are going
to be launching into to, again, put out RFQs to see if there is other service providers out
there that can -- that can help us during that transition. And, then, of course, we will be
back in front of you to talk about what is the future of the mechanical program, because
that was not included in our original proposal. Earlier -- well, I guess it was last week
we had a conversation with DBS about -- the electrical arenas is -- is the area that we
have really struggled with. There is -- there is just not a lot of applications coming in for
the positions we have available and so we talked with DBS about the availability of them
providing services beyond the September 30th termination and they have come back to
us and said that they are willing. They have got a couple of guys that they can provide
for us and so we are in the -- in those negotiation process now. They are -- they are
putting together a proposal that they are going to get over to us. Hopefully next week
we will be able to take a look at and see what that -- see what the impact of that is.
Current expenditures to date for the building section. Now, this is just the building
section within Community Development, is at 6,737 dollars. Most of that is just buying
some of the office type things for our inspection staff that I will tell you about here in just
a minute. Like right now. So, the new FTEs that we have on board for -- for building,
we do have our building inspection supervisor Michael LeBeau. He comes to us with --
with a lot of experience. He is a certified building official. Came out of Prineville,
Oregon. He also recently has been working over in Pocatello and so he's a great
addition. As Cameron said, he's -- he's the right guy to lead the inspection team.
Building the team around him and -- and it's just -- it's been phenomenal to see how
quickly this team has really solidified. We also have extended an offer to an electrician
and electrical inspection supervisor. He's accepted the offer and we are just waiting on
the background process until we can make an announcement on him. We have hired
three building inspectors. John Shane, Jeffrey Dart, and Riley Orozco. These guys are
just -- you know, we have -- we have been very careful about our hiring process, just
like we would any other position that we hire for. You know, we kind of feel that the
Meridian team is an elite team and we want to hire the right people and these guys --
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these guys fit that -- fit that bill. We have got several more interviews scheduled and we
are continuing on. Also wanted to throw out a big thanks to Laurelei McVe y and Tim
Campbell in Public Works. Tim was our safety -- I'm not sure exactly what his title is,
but he -- he heads up the safety programs for Public Works. We wanted to get
ourselves plugged in with these guys early. Public Works has built a very strong
program around safety for personnel, especially on the construction sites and that sort
of thing. So, we didn't want to have to recreate the wheel and these guys have -- have
done a fantastic job of putting together a strong program and they have been very
gracious about sharing information with us and, you know, a lot of written
documentation and just really got us to set off on the right foot. So, big thanks to them.
So, for -- for the contracts and stakeholders. We have master agreements in place with
four different organizations and, again, you know, these -- these guys are going to
augment our services with personnel as we are staffing up to be able to provide the
services. You know, our goal is to -- to have as little of an impact on our customers as
possible and we feel that this is going to be a great -- a great way to handle that. Brent
Bjornsen is in the process of working with Keith and those -- those master agreement
contractors to get task orders in place. Task orders are the -- that's where you really get
down to the specifics, the nuts and bolts, the compensation, the expectations and so
that's the process we are in right now. State Division of Building Safety has -- as part of
the negotiated short-term agreements that we have with them, they are performing 50
building inspections per day and they are scaling back on plan reviews. So, timing of
getting our PSAs or our -- these master agreements in place with these other
contractors is -- is working out very well. We are able to just slip it right in.
Stakeholders, you know, as Cameron mentioned, we have been meeting with DBS and
some builders on a pretty regular basis and we have had just excellent support from
them. Brent is at BCA right now doing another presentation, just keeping them up to
date. Cameron and our staff has worked with Kaycee Emery. We have put together a
letter to our stakeholders just kind of explaining our situation and making sure that
everybody's on the same page. Part of the purpose of that letter, too, is to -- to let them
know some of the -- the challenges that we have. You know, these guys have a -- have
an interest in -- in our hiring process, you know, and keeping things -- keeping things
moving along and they have been just fantastic to work with. They have -- they have
offered to also write a companion letter that will go along with Cameron's letter that is
just to help support our effort and -- and get it out there. Once we have that in hand we
are also going to reach out to The Snake River Valley Chapter of the BCA, which is --
takes you over to the -- to the Oregon border. South -- southwest Idaho. And so I want
to get in touch with them, too, and make sure that we cover the entire southeastern -- or
southwestern part of the state, make sure that everybody that currently does business
in Meridian is aware of our situation. As I mentioned, the Finance Department -- Keith
Watts has been -- has been awesome to work with. We have four vehicles that we have
purchased and outfitted. We have them branded with City of Meridian logo. We have
got the cradle points installed. They are currently on the road doing inspections. It's --
it's been fantastic. Unfortunately, the timing of the 2018 models, they can't find any
more in the state and so, typically, on the state contract is what we try and buy vehicles
on and -- and, unfortunately, the state of Idaho has not issued the 2019 bid list yet, so
we are in a little bit of a quandary there, but Keith is -- is continuing his efforts to look for
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-- for additional vehicles for us. IT. Hardware. We have purchased all the hardware
and received it. The only thing I think we are waiting on is just once we get on the
second floor with our plan review team, we just need to get a printer -- an all-in-one
printer purchased and sitting on the shelf. Hardware expenditure today 42,900 dollars.
Software. You know, it's a companion with the new Project Doc software was our
Accella inspector app, which, as you might recall, we have had Accella for several years
now, but the Accella program has a -- has an application that is specifically designed
around the inspector and it operates on the IOS platform. So, we were able to purchase
iPads for all of our inspectors. It's kind of nice. It's -- it's a less expensive option than --
than outfitting them with ruggedized laptop computers. Software is -- it's pretty
phenomenal. It -- it has GIS mapping capability and, then, puts a pinpoint on the map
where every one of your inspections are and routes you to them in the most efficient
route and the status their inspections. They can take photographs on the site and it
attaches it to the record. So, it's pretty neat stuff. So, software expenditures to date,
183,158.77. Continuing on the software. The Project Doc software, it's installed.
Training was held on the 24th through the 26th of July. It went very well. City staff has
just really jumped on board and embraced it and we have got -- we have got team
members in each functional group that are -- are operating as the -- like the subject
matter expert. They are -- we have trained the trainers and now they are going to train
other staff and it's -- it's been pretty -- pretty awesome to watch how quickly they have
embraced it and -- and are willing to share that -- that knowledge. So, Accella
integration into project docs is 50 percent complete at this point. User acceptance
training is currently underway and that should be wrapped up here pretty soon. On HR,
we have reviewed -- screened 368 applications. Days to fill positions, it's 76.75 days.
We have four employees that have been hired and are currently on the job. We have
extended offers and they have been accepted, but they are not yet on the job for two
additional employees. We have conducted 58 interviews and each -- each interview
panel will have four people, roughly. We have expended 224 hours -- panel hours, you
know, and I -- it's been -- it's been a pretty amazing process to go through, because we
are not just settling, you know, we are being very careful and considerate of the people -
- not just -- not just their qualifications and their abilities, but also their personalities and
their fit with the team and I think we have hit a home run on everybody that we have
hired and it's -- it's pretty dang exciting. Recruitment expenditures. To date 16,030
dollars. Most of that's just with advertisements. We have conducted several interviews
via Skype. The furthest geographical distance away that we have done is Jacksonville,
Florida. So, we cast a big net with this effort, so -- tenant improvement summary. Max
Jensen and his team have just done a fantastic job. The AV production room for
Kaycee is one hundred percent complete and I don't know if you have had a chance to
see that yet. It's just right over here. The inspection room, which is -- is on the other
side of the mail room off of receiving over there, substantially complete on the 1st of
August. The guys are currently in there. There is still some final touches that need to
be done. They need to put the glass in the windows and hang the door and a few minor
things, but for all intents and purposes they are -- they are occupying the space and
loving it so far. There was some of the furniture that was delivered that was damaged
during either shipping or unloading and so Max and his guys are working with
correctional industries to -- to rectify that situation. The plan review room. So, this is
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the second floor. This is where all of our plans examiners are going to be. Scheduled
to be substantially complete by September 30 and final by October 31. Carpets down.
Paint's on the walls. The room is -- it looks fantastic. Again, got to get glass in the
windows and doors hung and some of those types of things and they still got some
lighting to hang, but it's coming along really, really well. Yeah. Expenditures 17,157.
This is the tenant improvement on the first floor. Inspection space. You know, we went
with the VCT tile on the floor. We got guys that are coming in off of construction sites,
potentially got mud on their feet, and it's much -- much easier alternative to keeping
things clean if you have got a vinyl floor versus a carpeted floor, so -- the second floor
tenant improvement, you see on the photo on the left is -- is back in the corner we have
it framed up. There is a conference room back in that corner. It's equipped for ten
individuals around the conference room table. We will have a TV monitor on the wall
that will be able to project plan reviews and different training things to staff and our
customers. We do have -- some of the desks have been delivered. Cubicle walls are
going to be delayed a little bit. We knew that going into it, but, you know, the pendant
lighting -- or not pendant lighting, but the -- the LED lighting that will be hung in there is
-- is coming within the next few weeks. Good chance we will be occupying the space
before we have cubicle walls and that's -- that's just the way it is. So, we are -- we are
really excited about our progress so far and -- and look forward to completion of the
project and fill in the rest of our positions and making the premier organization for the
City of Meridian. Stand for any questions.
Ariel: Madam Mayor, just real quickly. Bruce, thank you. Just wanted to mention
another quick item. We do -- we wanted to also highlight a couple of employees. Of
course I mentioned the hiring of Renee Hibbard in our permit tech line. So, we are
excited to have her and her advancement. Then also wanted to just point something
out that we have a strategic initiative in as far as the department goes, which is growing
our -- our team. That's in their own personal and career development, but also what
that means to the department. I did want to highlight Mindy Smith, who, as you know,
has been a permit tech for many years. She's now the lead permit tech and is also
doing -- in training for plan review with Sam. So, these are the kinds of things we are
trying to instill in the team. It makes us broader. It makes us stronger. It makes us
more capable of delivering service -- quality service at a quicker pace. So, I just wanted
to mention that to you as well.
De Weerd: That's great. Thank you, Cameron. And thank you, Bruce. You guys have
been busy. Any questions from Council? Very thorough update.
Freckleton: Thank you.
C. Finance Quarterly Update
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 8-A -- or 8-C is our Finance Department.
Welcome, Todd.
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Lavoie: Good afternoon. Thank you, Mayor. Pleasure to see you guys again.
Appreciate the opportunity to provide you with our quarterly update. This quarterly
update pertains to our year-to-date results. So, where are we as of today? So, the data
that we are going to provide you today represents ten of the 12 months for the fiscal
year. We are still collecting data on the last two months remaining. So, we are going to
go over the General Fund year-to-date results and, then, we will provide you the
Enterprise Fund year-to-date results. So, we will start with the General Fund. The
General Fund's current revenue position is a little over a hundred percent. That's a
great thing to be in. Again, we have two months remaining, so we are guaranteed that
we will meet our budgetary projections of our revenue numbers of 52.1 million. We
don't expect the numbers to be too much higher than a hundred percent, maybe right
around 103, 104 percent of where we are standing. It all depends on the impact fees
and the development fees that we are continuing to generate over the next two months,
but this is a great position to be in. Again, we will meet our revenue projections that we
had promoted 12 months ago. The next slide I'm going to show you will kind of display
this hundred percent in our various revenue streams that we track for the General Fund.
These are our major General Fund revenue sources. Again, if you added up all these
bar charts it equals 100.2 percent. Property taxes, a little over one hundred percent. It
was off by 1.14 on the positive side. Our goal is to be on a two to three percent
variance on either side of the budget. We are on the positive side for this one. We
should not be collecting any more revenue for this particular line of a large value. We
will get a few more payments come in, but we will end up the year around one hundred -
- 101.6 percent. I'm going to go over the items from left to right. So, if we look at
licenses and permits, again, this data here still has two months remaining in the fiscal
year. Licenses and permits, we are low, we are at 24 percent, where we thought we
would be, and that's primarily due to the collection of impact fees and the building permit
fees that we are approving here with the development of the city. Again, we do have
two more months to go. So, again, this number will be higher, all depending on the
growth and the impact of the building permits that we approve. Next one is
intergovernmental -- intergovernmental revenue. This one is currently sitting a little bit
lower than we expect, but we are okay with that. This is primarily due to the state
revenue sharing program. It's a timing issue. We have not received all of our
payments. We believe will be closer to one hundred percent as soon as the liquor
revenue and the state revenue sharing arrive into our coffers. Again, we are okay with
that where we are standing. This is a timing issue. Franchise fees. We have no
concern there. We are right about a hundred percent and we will just generate a few
more dollars between now and then. So, that should be pretty close to a hundred
percent. Charges for service. Again, we are 51 percent higher than we expected. The
difference in the bar graphs -- if you look at them currently at 600,000 dollars. Of the
600,000 dollars we can associate 200,000 dollars to be higher than we expected due to
the HomeCourt. When we built our budget last year we did not put in a budget for
revenue dollars at HomeCourt due to the variables that we were still managing at that
time. So, we weren't a hundred percent confident with the revenue generation, but this
year we -- you know, moving forward we have the revenue where we need it to be. But
that's 200,000 of that. Another 200,000 is associated to the Planning Department.
Again, as you develop -- or as you approve the developments they generate more
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revenue sources, so, therefore, it came in a little bit higher than what we expected, but,
again, starts for services 51 percent currently. It will probably end up about 800,000
higher than what we expected, primarily due to the development and the HomeCourt.
Impact fees. Again, not going to get into this one too much. That's one hundred
percent related to all the approvals of development. As we continue to see that grow
that number will grow higher. We will continue to -- continue to adjust our estimates and
projections. The annual growth committee will be meeting in August or September. We
will take the data that we have collected and adjust our projections for the upcoming
fiscal years accordingly. And the last item is other revenue. That's 106 percent higher.
You know, percentage wise it's a lot, but what that's primarily due to is our investment
income. We conservatively had a projection for investments and the market is doing far
better than we expected and so that's what this dollar represents or the percentage
change. It's about 600,000 dollars difference. So, our investments are doing much
better than what we projected. So, as the city continues to see the development, again,
as Cameron's team has just explained to you and as we continue to see more
applications presented to us, we will adjust our -- adjust our projections, so that we can
get these as close as possible to a hundred percent for you guys. The slide also shows
the revenue distribution. As you see property tax is very important to us. All the other
ones are variable or growth related. The property tax is a little bit more fixed. So, we
want to always make sure we manage our revenue sources to the best of our ability.
So, that is the revenue fund general or, sorry about that, the General Fund revenues.
Now, I'm going to talk about the expenditures. We will quickly -- quickly go over these
for you. Revenue bar graph is still there. The personnel sitting at 74.2 percent. As I
mentioned earlier, this represents ten of 12 months. So, the percentage should be
closer to 83 percent. You can use that number for the remaining of the graphs. Eighty-
three percent is kind of our goal. There are seasonality issues that you will hear me
talking about. On average General Fund ends up at 97 percent for the fiscal year. I
don't think we are going to -- based on our vacancies at the moment I do not believe we
will make the 97 percent due to vacancies and timings, but, again, we will be probably
closer to 93 percent due to the vacancy issues and, again, we did approve 21 staff
members late in the fiscal year. It's tough to get those filled. So, again, I have the
budget, but I don't have the expenditure. So, that kind of skews my number a little bit,
but I think next year we should be able to get closer back to our normal average of 97,
98 percent. Operating expense right now is sitting at 67 percent. Again, we are -- if you
are looking at a straight line number, looking for 83 percent. If you looked at the Parks
Department they are really low at the moment, but that's expected. They have a
seasonality of parks maintenance in the summertime and warming time of the year. We
expect them to be a hundred percent at the end of the -- at the end of the fiscal year.
So, we don't have any concerns there, but that number kind of draws down our number
here and, then, we also have about 330,000 dollars in the grants that are on the books
that have not been spent yet. Those dollars will be carried into fiscal 2019 where we
will spend it. But, again, that does draw down my year-to-date number comparison, but
-- so, I have really no concerns at the moment about our financial status on the
operating side and we also have 75,000 dollars in professional services that we
currently have a contract in place for priority based budgeting we have talked about.
We will be giving you guys an update here sooner than later about how we are doing on
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that, but we should be expending more of that for the remaining two months and, then,
also in the first four months of next year. And, then, last but not least, is capital. Again,
24 percent doesn't look great, but, please, note that this is primarily due to spending and
timing. We did approve Fire Station Number 6 and we did approve South Meridian
Park. Those are all timing issues. All those dollars will be carried into fiscal '19. So, if
you add up the two fiscal years you will see a hundred percent spent. So, this is more
of a timing issue. We have no concerns. All the dollars will be carried into '19 and we
will have a new station next year and a beautiful park next year. So, those are the
capital dollars. So, as you can see -- oops. Sorry about that. As you can see, the
revenue number is strong. The budgets for the operating expenses are higher than the
actuals, so that's also a win-win. So, right now you can be confident that the City of
Meridian finances are in a good position going into fiscal '19. Again, we will continue to
adjust our forecasts accordingly and adjust our calculations for every single projection
that we provide you. So, with that I will jump into the Enterprise Fund and we will
duplicate the approach with them, just like we did with the General Fund. The
Enterprise Fund is currently sitting at 93 percent of where we expect -- or where we are
at today. Our goal is kind of 83 percent. That number. This is higher than what we
expect due to the increased growth in assessment revenues, just like the General Fund
is higher than 83 percent because of their permit revenues. So, again, we are in great
positions on -- from a revenue standpoint. Again, we will continue to adjust our
calculations accordingly, like we did with the General Fund, we will look at the details of
our major revenue sources for the Enterprise Fund. Again, if you added up all these bar
charts it would equal the 93 percent that we had on our previous slide. So, if we start
left to right, water sales 66 percent. Only two months remaining. Again, this is a
seasonality issue. We are okay with this. Again, we generate a bulk of our revenue for
the water department when people water their lawns. That is okay for us where we are
at. We will get close to the hundred percent. I don't think we will grow and make a
hundred percent, but I think we will probably be right around 90 percent, which is
comfortable for us. But, again, that's why you see that. Sewer sales, just a little bit shy
of 83 percent. So we are comfortable with where we are at there. With a little bit of
seasonality and water usage that number should be right out -- right at a hundred
percent. And the fiscal year -- next two assessments. You have heard it from me.
Growth, growth and more growth. This is all based on the permits and the
developments that we approve. So, we are very strong there. Again, we will continue
to -- to adjust our projections. EPA is right where we want it to be. And, then, other
revenue. Again, we are okay where that's at as well. Engineering had the opportunity
to generate a few more review fee dollars due to the increased growth. So, that made
up about 300,000 dollars above what we expected. So, those are the revenue sources
for the Enterprise Fund in detail. Just like the General Fund I will go into the expenses.
The personnel is currently sitting at 72.5 percent. Again, we are shooting for 83. Most
likely we will end up right around 91 percent, due to vacancies. As we continue to move
forward will continue to work on getting that closer to 95 percent in the years future, but,
again, we are comfortable with where we are at with 91 percent. Operating is sitting at
63.8 percent for the year, with the ten months completed. That gap is about 2.8 million
dollars. I can let you know that one million is due to consulting projects that we are
going to carry into next fiscal year. So, that skews the number. But we will continue to
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carry those dollars in the next fiscal year. We have about 900,000 dollars over at the
treatment plant that we have accounted for and that's due to savings in chemical costs
and savings in -- in sewer line repair maintenance. Again, we had some benefits there
with the program, so we got to save some dollars on those two items. And, then, the
remaining expenses should be trued up with the seasonality of the treatment of the
water during the last two months. And last, but not least, again, is capital, sitting at 58.3
percent for the first ten months. Like the General Fund, any unfinished projects in the
capital side will be carried into fiscal '19. You're most aware of the large project that we
have going on over there with the treatment capacity upgrade. They will be expanding
those dollars next fiscal year. So, again, just like the fire station and the Discovery Park
down south, add up the multiple years you will see every dollar spent. Just right now
this is where we are spending or at -- the Enterprise Fund has a -- kind of a seasonality
in spending. They are in their high spending mode. So, you will see this number
increased for the remainder of the two year -- or two months, but feel -- feel good that
the dollars will be carried into fiscal '19 and the project will be completed according in
fiscal '19 next year. So, just like the General Fund, I believe the data here shows that
we are in a great position. The Enterprise Fund will be meeting the revenue numbers.
The expenses are being -- our expenditures are right where we want them to be for the
fiscal year. And, then, at the end of the day we should be able to present to you a
sound audit report in the month of February. So, with that, I will stand for any questions
on your year-to-date quarterly update from the Finance Department.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Council, any questions?
Lavoie: Thank you.
D. Community Development: Staff Report Format Update
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 8-D is under Community Development and I
believe that's Caleb? Bill?
Parsons: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Here to give you --
talk to you about the latest and greatest revised staff report. As you recall staff was
before you on July 10th to get some input on the previous version of the draft staff
report. Since then staff has met at the directors meeting and received additional
comments from other city departments and we want to share that input with you. So,
we are -- this revised staff report that I'm presenting -- or draft staff report that I'm
presenting to you today will highlight some of the items that we heard from Council and
highlight also some of the additional items that we receive from our Public Works
Department, Fire Department, Police Department and we will go into those changes and
in the staff report that's before us today I have highlighted those sections that have
changed from the previous version. So, we can talk in -- in length or in detail and
certainly open to any other suggestions you may have. Included in your packet that I
sent out last week I did have some matrix that the Police Department put together for
you. Scott Colaianni is here to discuss anything you have in regards to that as part of
their matrix that we hope -- again, the goal is to have those incorporated into the staff
report, so that you all get a comprehensive overview of what the impact of that
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development will have within the City of Meridian. So, if you can see here on -- on -- on
the computer screen here, I have some of the noted changes. So, again, the Police
Department did provide some substantial changes. More importantly, the response
times, the calls of service, percentage of calls for service split by priority. And, again,
Scott can go into more detail. The number of calls for crimes and, then, the number of
crashes in the area. I would also mention to you -- and it wasn't reflected -- or also
wanted to share with you that Dale from Public Works Department also sent over some
changes to the matrix portion in regards to how products will adhere to the wastewater
master plan and our waste -- or, excuse me, our water master plan as well. So, again,
these are additional matrix that they felt were important enough to get in -- in front of
you early on in the staff report, so -- and, then, if you would notice if there is additional --
additional specifics to that particular item and staff will highlight that page number and
you can go directly to that page number in the staff report and read any of the highlights
or concerns regarding that particular item. So, again, this community matrix table is
meant to give you kind of a quick blush, hey, here is some concerns or some good
things about the project and here is where to find the pertinent information to dive in
more to understand that issue or that analysis on that particular item. One of the
particular items that we have heard from City Council is they wanted to see what
developments were in the general area. So, we did -- I think this was in the previous
version, but we wanted to highlight it for you, that we have this planned development
map. So, basically, you wanted to see what other subdivisions or developments were
improved in relationship to the application that was before you, so that you could get a
greater context as to what was occurring in the area and that kind of coincides with what
the Police Department wants to incorporate with their -- with their matrix and their
comments and so we have included that graphic. One other item that I -- another item
that I recall hearing -- and I had it on the previous version, but you wanted to know
when the project was posted on Next Door. The clerk currently has that on their
checklist that they put on the website and we are inserting that in our staff reports
currently, so that's new information that we have changed -- a process that we changed
already and, then, we also heard from the Council that they wanted to have information
on the neighborhood meeting, the date, time and place when it occurred and a list of
attendees or at least the number of people that attended the meeting, so that way -- the
neighborhood meeting, so you can get a flavor -- a flavor for how contentious an
application may be. Certainly you get the packet before then, but it's certainly nice to
reference that, not only for you, but also our Planning and Zoning Commission as they
take actions on these particular applications. One of the major changes that I made
from the previous version until now is I have actually taken three of the staff sections in
the -- in our current staff report format and condensed that into what I now call the
Project Analysis Section. So, basically, one, it will -- it will reduce redundancy in the
staff report, but it will also allow our decision makers to have all the information on how
the project meets the Comprehensive Plan, the UDC, and that analysis that supports
those two documents right there under one section, so you don't have to go -- currently
the way we have it structured, we had the comp plan -- a comp plan section, a UDC
section, and, then, an analysis section. So, oftentimes we are having duplicate efforts
of explaining a situation or issue with a project or the merit -- the good merits of a
project and that doesn't always -- so, we are doing redundancy and we are stating
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things multiple times and we should just have it in one area for a clear, concise staff
report for you. So, moving forward I don't know exactly how that will be structured, but
certainly, again, having that information in one spot so that you can see the impacts,
whether or not a project complies with the UDC standards, comp plan policies that
support that project, and any other pertinent information that comes from our other city
departments in one section for you to analyze a project makes a lot of sense to staff.
And, then, under the staff summary -- I think this was kind of a two-part comment that I
heard. One from Councilman Palmer, he wanted something in the staff report that said
did it meet the minimums of the code at -- or does it adhere to the Comprehensive Plan
and meet the minimums of the code. On the other side we heard from Councilwoman
Milam that they said, well, we want to know if we strongly recommend approval, is it
approval, do we recommend denial. And so to me this is the section where, one, we
can at least share that with you and the Planning and Zoning Commission where we
can say, yes, the project meets the minimum requirements. Maybe that's not a premier
project, but, on the other hand, we can say it exceeds the minimums and, then, you
know as a body that the applicant has gone above and beyond what the minimum code
requires, so you can take that into account whether or not they went far enough to
decide whether or not it's a premier project. So, rather than coming forward with staff
strongly recommends this project, we basically say that in the staff summary that, yes, it
meets the minimums or it exceeds the minimums or it doesn't meet the minimums at all
and at least have those conditions in place or share that information with you in our
recommendation. So, I guess the question for you tonight -- or at least from -- from
staff's perspective is next steps. Now, I do want to share with the Council that
implementing this will take additional staff resources. Currently right now what will
happen is all the other departments will have to get us their comments. Planning will
have to cut and paste their comments into the staff report, so there is a level of effort
there that we are going to have to undertake in the interim, but I can commit to you and
tell you that Caleb and I are working with our IT Department to have this process
automated and linked with our Accella's process. So, any conditions of approval, any
comments that we receive from our partners, even our outside agencies and our
internal departments, would get rolled into an automated staff report and import it from
the information that we place in Accella. So, that work is currently underway. We have
a ticket in with IT to commence with that. So, again, in the interim there isn't -- there is
some extra work. We still have to kind of fine tune that process, how we get all of those
comments to you in one concise staff report, but looking towards the future -- hopefully
by later this year we will have it all dialed in and get you the right information in your
hands, so that both you and the Planning and Zoning Commission can make an
informed decision. So, I will go ahead and turn this -- I will stand for questions, but I
also want to invite Scott up to see if you had any questions regarding the information he
provided you as part of his matrix.
De Weerd: Lieutenant.
Colaianni: Madam Mayor, Council Members, thanks for the time. I just wanted to take
a few minutes. This is a new process, obviously, for all of us and we are kind of working
our way through it and I know that -- although I wasn't here -- and talking with Bill and
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he's been very helpful -- that there was some input that the Council had that they would
like to see from the Police Department. I have mocked up or had CIU mock up a few
samples for you to look at. I don't know if -- are they -- do you guys have them
embedded in this PowerPoint?
Parsons: Yeah. Scott, I will pull them up for you.
Colaianni: Okay. Thank you. I wanted to -- I wanted to walk through and -- just a
couple of them -- or a few of them and tell you what you would be looking at from -- from
the police side and these are actual development applications. I was initially going to
make some stuff up, but it's just easier to do this. So, what we will do is -- is when a
development application comes in and we are looking at it and it comes to my queue, I
will look at the address -- and this particular one is on McMillan -- we have when the
hearing data is set, so I know -- and what we do is we drop a pin for mapping purposes
on that address and what I'm having CIU do is take a one mile circumference of that
entire area around this proposed development, whether it be residential or multi-family
or commercial and we are going to pull in all the data from that one mile circumference
of that area and that's what you see here in -- in this and if you look at the top you can
see the reporting district that it's in for us, the timeframe in which we pulled the
statistical analysis -- in this case it was from July 1st of '17 until 6/30 of '18 and -- can I
do this? Can you guys move it down? I don't want to -- yeah. There we go. So, the
next area there -- you can look at what our response times are in the City of Meridian for
priority threes, twos, and ones and we are running about four minutes and eight
seconds, 7:50 and 13:22 and, then, what we do is we take a look at the map and we
estimate what the response times are going to look like for this new development area.
In this particular one, because of where it's located, it's kind of central in the city, you're
not going to see a lot of variations in response times. They may drift a few seconds
here and there, but that's as close as we can get. In this particular development you
don't have an entranceway coming off of McMillan at the moment. They are not going
to allow that. So, we have to come into the subdivision, circle around to get into it. So,
currently in that geographical area that I'm talking about, we are taking currently right
now over 1,600 calls for service in a year's time. Pretty good amount of calls for that
area. Of those less than one percent are emergency calls. Most of them are priority
twos and, then, priority ones -- 215 crime events in that area in that year's time and 25
crashes and I have tried -- I have played with this a little bit, so to give you kind of a
definition and understanding what it is we are looking at in the analysis, so calls for
service response times are consistent within the City of Meridian, we point that out for
you. The majority of calls for service were priority two, so they are not emergency.
They are not priority ones. And we give some high level of what it is -- traffic related
stuff, suspicious vehicle, trespassing calls, crime -- the most frequent one are warrant
arrests, juvenile beyond control, leaving the scene of accidents, drug -- drug issues,
narcotics issues. Those are the higher level, more frequent calls that we get in this area
and, then, crashes 56 percent were nonreportable, 36 percent were injury-related
crashes and eight percent were just property damage and, then, again, we kind of give
you a definition of what a priority one, two and three is. So, this is -- is high level. It -- it
captures what's going on within that one mile area. There was some discussion about
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providing maps. To Bill's point, this is new staff time that we have to dedicate. There is
a lot of developments and so I want to be careful initially about getting into mapping,
because that can take a lot more time. There is a lot more detail than that and nailing
down locations and stuff. So, I wanted to get that feedback from you. But this is
something we are -- we are proposing from the police end. I wouldn't want to do this for
every project that comes through, because some of them are just a matter of pulling the
CZC and -- and moving forward and -- but I would look at it for multi-family, residential,
large commercial projects, large business projects where we feel like we want to get
something to look at, rather than every little thing, because I mean there is tons of them
right now. There could be a gas station and that's all there is and so if I can get your
thoughts on that as well on -- on how much -- how much -- I mean we do everything or -
- I'm just thinking we start out with the bigger stuff and let's see what that looks like, see
what that staff time looks like, see how happy you are with it. So, you would get
something like this on the developments. You would also get comments from the police
department about levels of service, how far is it from the police station. Accessibility.
We would talk about roadways and access in and out. Parking. Sidewalks. Pathways.
We would try and hit on those things as needed. You know, resources is -- what kind of
the resources look like in terms of equipment, staffing, locations. You know, parking is a
big one. I would still attend all the pre-app meetings and meet with the Community
Development. I wouldn't, you know, unplug from that because that's important. They
have a lot of valuable input when we meet with the applicants. But by and large this is
what we have come up with, just looking for feedback, what you feel comfortable with,
what you would like to see, so I can kind of take that back and polish it a little bit and
work with Bill if you have anything, questions, comments, thoughts.
De Weerd: And it really is helpful to take a look at this list, because there is staff time
behind it. If it's information that you wouldn't use, we need to know that.
Colaianni: Yeah. Thank you, Mayor.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: That's -- that's the perfect question. This is an example, unlike others, where
there is -- we can generate all sorts of matrix, but if it's not, you know, providing
assistance either to the decision makers -- I wouldn't want to create any of this extra
work. So, the question to you on this is -- is this analysis analysis that isn't necessary to
be done within the department already in determining whether to make comments on a
particular application?
Colaianni: Yeah. That's a good question. Madam Mayor, Councilman, I -- once we set
it up to template we can populate the data pretty quickly. So, we have set this up, we
have structured it and we can pull in the data from the analysis. That can happen fairly
quickly. It's just there is a lot of development applications out there. So, this -- if we
move forward with it, I can clean up the bottom to make it look prettier and such like
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that, but the analysis is pretty quick; right? So, I'm not too worried about that. If we get
into the mapping and, then, you really want to get down into the detail of specific crimes
and locations and, then, it can get really -- it can take a lot. In terms of the comments, I
will still make comments from the police side; right? I'm not just going to give you this
and not make comments, I'm going to say, hey, here is -- here is our take on this, you
know, and I put another one in there on the Owyhee High School that -- that's coming
up. If you want to pull that one up, Bill, and I will give you an example of this one.
De Weerd: No, don't pull that up.
Colaianni: Don't?
De Weerd: No.
Colaianni: Oh. Okay. Sorry. So, give you an example of something that maybe not in
the city yet, but we can still make comments on it and pull it in.
De Weerd: We just haven't heard that application yet.
Colaianni: Okay. Sure. I understand. And so we will still make comments from the
police side about what we feel and what we see. So, you will still have those and they
will be incorporated into the overall summary.
Borton: Madam Mayor? I mean that's what -- that's what matters most, at least in my
perspective, is this is done -- all done on the back end somehow in some format and
maybe it's not to create as much work internally for your department, but some version
of this happens when you review a larger application to say we ought to make
comment, because this isn't a location where our response time is going to be slower or
there is not a view corridor or there is poor lighting and we -- we still get the narrative in
the staff report that says, hey, here is -- because oftentimes there is no comment at all.
Colaianni: Yeah .
Borton: I just -- if this is an analysis that isn't done already at least internally to say we
ought to take a look at these types of matrix to determine whether or not we ought to
provide some specific comment, we haven't already been doing that -- is doing this
helpful for the department to determine whether or not they ought to give us more info
or is it just a bunch of data that -- because if we didn't do it before --
Colaianni: Sure.
Borton: -- how does it help us make a better decision.
Colaianni: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, yeah, sure. It does, it helps us if we
have to take a little bit harder look at developments as they come in and what -- what it's
going to take and, quite honestly, a development that comes in initially won't take any
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police resources, because it's not built yet, right? And so we -- if something can be
approved and it may be years before it really requires police resources, because it may
be a multi-phase project, but it does -- it does give us a pause to look at it and weigh all
that and, then, come back with some sort of response in a summary for you that would
help all of us understand what the challenges are going to be for the police side,
response times, location of the development -- yeah. Certainly. I hope that answers
your question.
Borton: It does. Madam Mayor, I'm just sensitive to the time necessary to create
something like this, because this looks like it takes a lot of time and if -- if you were to
say this is too much, you guys aren't going to benefit as much as you hope -- good
intentions, this is a whole lot of data that you're really just going to look at and nobody's
got the interest in saying why do we do this. I don't want to -- I wouldn't want to get us
down a path of a bunch of data that --
Colaianni: Sure.
Borton: -- really doesn't help, so --
Colaianni: That's -- that's really up to you. I mean what -- what you need. I mean I can
provide a summary. We can provide this. This -- we know there is a lot of talk about
response times and what's going on in that area and roadways and stuff like that and so
this was just something we created. It's not hard once we build it. It does take time. It's
-- but it's not -- it's -- I don't feel it's excessive at this point.
Borton: Okay. Okay.
Colaianni: I'm not going to come back and say, hey, I need ten more people to do this.
Or the chief isn't.
De Weerd: And there is already certain things that you have been involved with on
each application -- on most applications already in your environmental design and --
which includes the safety lighting, exits and entrances and -- and some of those
aspects. So, this is probably one of the -- the next step was when we approved The
Oaks, for example, and the annexation went out and they started building from the back
in and what that does to stretching out the services and the impact it would have on
response times. So, this is making it more visible to the decision makers. If you want it
in a different form, that's -- that's certainly another comment we would be looking for.
But, again, this is a value to the decision makers. We are trying to give you as much
information pertinent to the development as we can.
Colaianni: You are so much better at saying it than I am.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: A couple of questions and maybe some feedback. I am not one that needs a
significant amount of maps and additional illustration. I think the value is in the data
and, then, the necessary comments that you as the expert think is warranted provided.
I could imagine a scenario in an undeveloped part of Meridian where we haven't seen a
lot of calls, but we have approved two or three developments in the past six or seven
months and so having that piece may be incorporated as far as a comment to remind us
would -- would be valuable. The question is related to the timetable. Have you guys
discussed what a -- when this comes is it -- is it a 12 month snapshot? Is it an 18 month
snapshot? Five year history? What's -- when -- when the data that you are providing us
in terms of numbers of calls, what's -- what's the band of date that you would be sharing
that with us?
Colaianni: It would be a sliding -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, it would be a
sliding scale. So, developments that we are looking at now that are coming up, whether
they are pre-apps or their applications are in, we will take that month that they are
coming in and go back a year. I hope I'm answering this right. And so it would go back
a year and, then, the ones that come in October it's just a sliding -- a sliding year.
Cavener: A 12 month snapshot.
Colaianni Yeah. It's a 12 month snapshot, but it moves throughout the year, because
we are always moving through --
Cavener: Yeah.
Colaianni: -- as the application comes through.
Cavener: Great. I think that's it for the question. I -- I would find this valuable. I don't
know how the rest of the Council would feel, but I think having this information to me is
-- there is going to be times where this is going to trigger flags that had we not had this
in front of us we wouldn't even be aware.
Colaianni: And I would add to your point, I mean there are times when we meet with the
applicant and I bring stuff up in the room and they address it before we even get to the
application process, so a lot of times you don't -- you may not see that in the final
analysis, but that, you know, we talked about pathways and lighting and making sure
they don't create corridors within their open space areas that are going to lead to people
being hidden and stuff like that. So, we have those discussions already ahead of time
to make sure that that's happening. So, a lot of that's vetted out before we get to that
point.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything else?
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I have some additional I guess questions not related to the
law enforcement side.
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Colaianni: Okay. So, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, lieutenant. Okay. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. Bill, just a couple of thoughts or comments -- additional
pieces I would like to see. First, this is fantastic. I think this is probably the resource as
a Council Member that I have been most excited to talk about probably ever. I really
applaud the work that you guys have put into this. I think it's going to be easier for us as
Council and just our average citizens to be able to understand. Was there any
conversation in there -- it identifies I think distance to schools, if I remember correctly. I
just am curious. I know that we often reach out to the district for comments. A piece
that I think that would be beneficial is to know the distance of the closest elementary,
middle and high school and, then, where they are in terms of capacity. We hear so
often from the public when they come before us that the schools are overcrowded and,
then, we hear sometimes from school administration that, well, that school actually isn't
overcrowded. So, I recognize that's relying on our partner in the school district to
provide that data, but that's a piece that I would also like to see included. And, then, my
other question was related to we -- we called out water quality, which I think is really
important for us to be kind of addressing and sharing, but I don't know if we have a
matrix in place to say here is our -- our water quality. I can't recall a time that, you
know, the south side has water quality A and north side has water quality A minus, I
don't think we have anything like that and -- and I don't know when we talked about
water quality if it's -- if it's binary that it meets our standards or it doesn't and if there has
been any discussion about that.
Parsons: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I will tackle the first part of that
question. Yes, that's still in our community matrix. We do have a placeholder that says
distance to schools and we can provide that information. Now, what I can do is -- again
as Mayor mentioned, this is contingent on getting the information from the applicant or
that resource in a timely manner. So, if the school district doesn't provide information,
we can't give that to you. But what I can commit to is I can e-mail Mr. Yo chum and ask
him if he's willing to at least put that in his letter to us, so that we can have that
information and, then, populate that in the staff report if we get it within the established
timeframes that we have in our department.
De Weerd: Well -- and the whole idea behind this one was -- in particular there was an
apartment complex on Ustick just across from Meridian Settlers Park where those -- the
kids that would have lived there wouldn't have gone to their neighborhood school, they
would have gone to River Valley. So, that would have been noted in here and, then,
there is a page number that, then, you can go and reference. Warren.
Stewart: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Cavener, maybe to
answer your water quality question, the thought process behind that when we included
that on the list was, basically, to take a look at a new project and say, all right, is there
anything associated with the extension of services to this new project that would maybe
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negatively impact water quality, i.e., is it going to be a long dead end line out to this that
may cause us a problem with, you know, stagnant water that we would have to flush
more often and make sure that we -- that we relay that information to you, so that you
could consider that in your decision or in some cases is it going to mean that we are
going to have to pump wells in order to serve that area that may be higher in iron and
manganese, which we know our citizens are not fond of. So, if the addition of this is
going to maybe exacerbate either one of those concerns, we want to make sure that if it
does you guys are made aware of that so you have that information.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Parsons: Madam Mayor, I did -- and Members of the Council, I did also want to mention
that we did receive quite a few comments from the Fire Department. We are currently
using their -- their new template, their new connections in the staff report, but I did want
to give them a shout out that they have worked closely with us and some of those matrix
are also going to be reflected in this -- this table as well, they just didn't get inserted at
this time. But there is a version that I have on my computer back at my desk that I'm
happy to send out to you so that you can also see those as well. It just wasn't part of
the staff report at this time, but we have worked closely with them and we are using
those at this time.
De Weerd: Well -- and, chief, I think it would be helpful if you shared -- you could e-mail
out to Council the -- the hypothetical that Joe Bongiorno did and what those comments
could look like.
Niemeyer: Yeah. I can certainly give a summary. We have been working with Caleb
and Cameron for a couple months now on this. Certainly appreciate their leadership on
this. Really, this goes back about 12 months and how to provide Council better
information when it looks to -- to development. As you know, Chief Bonjiorno, Perry
before that, provided your comments on access, water supply, those critical code
functions, but how do we provide better information regarding travel time, risk factors,
reliability, the closest station. So, that's the information that we -- we have proposed to
be included in the staff report. To Councilman Borton's question about is it worth the
staff time -- and that's something we had to weigh, because it is a lot more information
than just the code compliance section, but we felt very strongly that it is worth the staff
time to give you better information. I will give you a good example. We have, as you
know, travel time standards that the Council adopted and one of the issues we have
recently discovered through better GIS mapping through our IT Department is we
actually have a development in the western side of the city where we travel through a
rural response time standard to get to an urban travel time standard and so having that
information to present to you as Council as you are considering the development that
this is where this development falls within a travel time standard that you would like to
see is something we haven't done in the past and it's certainly something that I know
Councilman Borton and I have discussed in the past. How do we provide you better
information. So, I think we have information now that we are going to be providing that
looks at travel time, that looks at risk factors. For fire risk factor is a big deal. A
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residential development is a lot lower risk factor for us, meaning resource allocation,
resource tie up than say a commercial development or certainly an industrial
development. There is a different level there. And so how do we provide you
information on what that risk factor looks like as far as resource allocation should we
have a fire in that -- in that development that you are considering. So, I am very
comfortable with where we have landed and the information we can provide you outside
of simply code compliance.
De Weerd: Thanks, chief. Okay. Any further questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just two quick -- two quick ones. The ACHD staff report -- and maybe it's
referenced somewhere else, but that was one of the -- the earlier comments is some
quick references to the staff reports at the end of the hearings completed or not. Is that
one of the -- did I miss it?
Parsons: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council I -- we -- we don't have that in here at
this time, but we can certainly -- it's kind of in there that -- a yes or no on the ACHD
comments, Certainly.
Borton: Or complete, yes. Hearing complete. Okay. And the other is can the applicant
be asked to provide the school district data, rather than us have to gather it as part of
their submittal? Maybe that's another topic for another day, but can't they provide our
project is -- here is the school's -- the distance and their capacity and they can gather
that information.
Parsons: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, certainly we can
present that to them at pre-app meetings and say please include that in your narrative
or at least try to help us with that information. It's something that we can discuss at pre-
application meetings and, then, hopefully they will -- they will respond well and give that
to us.
De Weerd: I think it would be helpful if Council has specific things they would like to get
from the other agencies that we make sure they know the kind of information we need
to make a decision on. So, if there is something that is not included from ACHD or the
schools that we currently don't get, we should be saying this would be helpful for us to
have in making our decision. Caleb, did you have something to add?
Hood: Maybe just to add a little bit to what Bill said. I mean that the -- the distance to
schools either we could get or the applicant could get. Ultimately it still comes down to
the school district, though, to provide the information, either to the applicant or to us
about what the overcrowding situation is at the school. So, I don't -- we could -- we
could even amend our checklist for the application submitted, though, and require them
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to say, oh, this is the home elementary school. Here is how far it is from our site. That's
-- that's fairly simple and we could have our Planning and Zoning Commission approve
an amendment to the checklist for submittal if -- again, that's information -- it's pretty
easy for us, too, to figure that out. I mean that's -- it's a couple of minutes, but it may
make sense to put that on the applicant. It saves us the few minutes it takes. I mean
that adds up. Every few minutes helps.
Borton: I think the capacity issue might be --
Hood: But, again, the capacity issue goes back -- it's either us or the school is the only
one that really knows that. They are the ones that have to provide it. So, I hate to -- I
hate to put our applicants kind of in that pickle of like we won't process their application
until they get this information from the school district. I kind of like what the Mayor said,
we can reach out to -- to the school district and say, hey, on regular basis our Council
wants to know what -- and they can even maybe provide it at the beginning of the year
for all the schools and we have it, you know, and, then, here it is and we can report for
that school here is what it was as of, you know, September 1 and, then, it could just be
a yearly thing and we report that out. We will talk to the school district about that and --
and also applicants at pre-apps and other things, too.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further on this? Okay. Thank you, Bill, for all the time and
effort you and Caleb and Cameron have been doing in gathering information, seeking it.
I -- I just appreciate Lieutenant Colaianni for being here and -- and, again, point out Joe
Bonjiorno, I know he's eager to submit his comments and -- and he got that to us very
early in the process. So, thank you so much for everyone kind of rallying behind this
and looking at what you feel is good information to -- that you feel is important in making
those decisions and seeking feedback on -- on if it resonates with the elected officials.
Thank you.
E. Community Development: Review Initial Draft of Ada County
Highway District's 2019-2023 Integrated Five-Year Work Plan
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-E is I believe Caleb's?
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, if you're okay, I'm going to at least start my presentation from
here and not go up to the podium, if you guys are all right with that. I got a couple
things -- I will probably go back and forth on the screen, so --
De Weerd: No. That works fine.
Hood: Okay. So, this is -- again, so I don't get so long winded, I kind of have broke up
All Things Transportation and covered some of that in the department annual summary.
Got a couple things here. But largely what you are going to hear about now is ACHD's
integrated five year work plan. The initial draft was -- sorry, do one thing at a time. You
already changed it. Thank you. So, the ACHD commission released on July 18th a --
what they call the initial draft of the integrated five year work plan. So, that is projects
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that the highway district plans to do over the next five to seven years. You know, it's
kind of funds dependent, but it's -- it's looking forward to the projects they look to tackle
and, again, in the next five to six, seven years, they have a preliminary development,
which is the out years of the program, but they have submitted that to the public for
comment and, of course, us being an agency that submits comments to them on a fairly
regular basis, are seeking our -- our input on that. Shared this with the Meridian
Transportation Commission on August 6th. It wasn't a very long conversation.
Generally, the sentiment from them was that they were thankful for some of our highest
priority projects, the priority list that they draft and, then, you -- we tweaked it a little bit
this year, but it was, essentially, the -- the list of projects that they recommended to you
was sent onto ACHD. Our top priority projects are generally in alignment with ACHD's
priorities. So, that was kind of the sentiment from a Transportation Commission was
one of thanks. You know, obviously, we want more to be done, but at least it's not -- our
priority projects aren't on their list and their priority projects aren't on our list, at least the
top priority projects are the ones that seem to be moving forward for the most part. So,
kind of to that end, I -- I prepared a draft letter, which the clerk has included in the
packet, so you should have access to that letter, but the Mayor does have one on
letterhead. If there is changes I can make them relatively quickly and print that if you
don't like the messaging in there. The other -- part of the letter that -- so, I can -- again
took what the Transportation Commission's thought was to thank ACHD for their time
and their effort and general appreciation for the projects that are in there. Also
highlighted, though, really, the relationship with ITD and how 20-26 is a priority,
recognizing that's not on ACHD's system, but it all works together as a system. It's not
us and them or state and local. People that drive on the state system also drive on the
local roads and vice-versa. So, that's really kind of what the letter says is, hey, if we can
help you in any way advance these projects that are on the state system, let us know
what as a city can do to let the state know that there is some -- some priorities that
really will help the overall network perform better. So, I took some liberties in that, so
that's why I wanted to just call it out to you. That wasn't something from the
Transportation Commission, that's just me and -- and kind of, again, where -- Linder
Road overpass, 20-26, I think those could be some great projects in our community if
we could get the ball moving forward on them. Neither one of those are going to be
accomplished overnight, but -- but I think there are -- I know there are higher priority
projects for our community, but, anyways, I called them out in the letter, but if you don't
like that and want to talk about something else that is -- that is fine as well. But let me
get into a little bit of the changes that are in the initial draft first. So, on the screen you
see -- we had some -- some summer interns in our department and I asked them to
put together this summary that's largely from what -- the information that ACHD provides
to us, but this is Meridian specific. So, these aren't all the changes, these are just the
changes in Meridian or our area of impact projects. So, I'm going to run through those
real quick. So, under the new project heading there are just the one new roadway
project Ten Mile, Victory to Overland, and that's moving right -- right in, right? 2021.
That's advanced pretty rapidly into the program. Intersection projects. You can read
those. I do want to just highlight community programs projects real quick. We have --
real quick. We have 44 requests that we sent to ACHD and there is 15 of those
requests in the integrated five work plan. Boise has the lion's share of those community
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programs projects. Those are your sidewalk gap projects, your bike lanes, your
crosswalks, those types of things, which kind of makes sense. They are an older
community and have a lot more subdivisions and neighborhoods that -- that lack that
kind of infrastructure or generally are newer and -- and require that through
development to provide those -- those types of things. But I do want to call out -- and as
I do that -- see if I can. I'm going to switch off of this initial draft slide for just a minute. I
want to go and show you a cool tool that ACHD -- and they have been using it for a
while now. So, they have their integrated five year work plan on their website,
achdidaho.org, and, then, if you scroll to the bottom right there is integrated five year
work plan available for public comment. So, again, we will -- we will provide comment
as the city, but you can also do that as a citizen, if you have individual comments you
want to relate to them, that's great. I'm going to just show you -- for example -- so, you
can look at the whole -- whole program and we will go to community programs, since
that's where we are at. Right clicked the wrong one -- interactive project map and I will
turn on -- at the top there is some -- some tabs and you can look -- it's kind of the same
thing. Here is your roadways, intersections. Here is your bicycle and pedestrian. And,
again, I'm going to click on that. You can look at maintenance, bridge, so on and so
forth. I just wanted to highlight this -- this one project that was on the -- the other sheet.
This one isn't on our -- it wasn't on our priority list, but it's kind of an interesting one. It's
unfunded in the initial draft, but Linder-Meridian bikeway, Pine Avenue to Temple Drive.
So, kind of a mid block, low stress bikeway that ACHD has in their -- and, again, it's
unfunded, so it really is more of at concept level, but will be off -- in between your
arterial roadways, kind of mid block. But my point more here is to show you this tool
and if you want to look at any of the projects and see where they are at, it gives a
summary and you can enter your comments. Boy, this project should be done sooner
or, no, I don't like this project at all or I like -- I wish this project had a signal here,
whatever, but you can do that for any of these projects and you can enter your own
comments there and they will be considered as part of this process. So, really cool
interactive, a way to get the -- get feedback from folks on anything that's in the
integrated five year work plan and, again, it's broken up by -- by categories. I should
also say before I go into more of the changes, that it's -- it's interesting just to kind of
bring this back into perspective. So, we think of these things a lot of times at the city
level of, you know, well, I had to wait through two signals -- two cycles at the signal
there and so we need to get that intersection improved. That's important. I just kind of
wanted to -- it's kind of nice to refresh I think just to -- at a higher level from ACHD and
their charge -- their primary focus area is maintenance. So, maintaining what they have
already invested in, that includes bridges, traffic operations, safety and stormwater and,
then, their secondary focus, then, is more your roads and intersections and your kind of
capacity improvements. So, again, just to kind of put that in perspective. Not that these
aren't important, but they have established as a policy themselves primarily they are
going to invest and continue to maintain what they have already invested in. Safety,
traffic operation, and -- and bridges. Stormwater is also in there. So, anyways, just,
again, to kind of let you know what their priorities are. I'm going to jump back to the
initial draft changes. So, again, here is the summary. Just a couple of other things to
highlight -- oops. Where did you go. A couple of other things to highlight there. I'm
going to skip advanced projects that were less important. You can see we had three
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roadway projects and intersection projects that did advance in the program year over,
but the delayed projects, not just for these projects in particular, but overall, as I'm sure
you're aware, bids are coming in higher for a lot of construction jobs. So, ACHD wasn't
able to deliver as much this last year as they were hoping for, just because the cost to
do those projects was higher. They have had to reject some bids and delay some
projects just because, again, they weren't getting maybe the pricing structure they were
are hoping for in some of those projects or the cost benefit. If you are going to pay
twice as much for that roadway, okay, maybe we will wait to do it when it cools down a
little bit. So, some of the projects in the program overall were delayed, again, basically
because the cost of doing business has increased more than what -- what you would
have thought when engineers estimates were put together, so they have had to delay
some projects. And, then, the final one that I just wanted to call your attention is down
here on Main Street, there is -- there is some thrift stores and a pedestrian crossing
there and that -- that -- that project, to make that crossing more prevalent, has kind of
fallen victim to -- well, essentially, what I was just talking about, it just hasn't risen to the
level of warranting spending money on making it more prevalent. The good news is
there really hasn't been an incident in history there, so that's why it's not there, but we
have had some close calls there. So, I just wanted to call it to your attention that I don't
know if it's now people understand, you know, the three lane northbound right there,
people are more aware and looking for pedestrians more, but I do know -- especially
when that -- that crosswalk was put in there were some near misses. You know, it's
something we have talked about at the Transportation Commission. But, again, it's sort
of a victim of the program balancing and just not having enough funds to fit it in the
program. I'm hopeful that maybe some day it can get put back in, not because
somebody gets hit or something, but just because it's -- to avoid that potentially. So, I
think -- you know, without going, you know, project by project, which, again, I do have,
it's in your packet, here is our request and I do appreciate ACHD, you know,
responding, you know, where it's at in the program and their responses in the far right-
hand column. So, you have that in your packet. I wasn't planning today to go through
that project by project, but this is what we put together and they have added onto that
and kind of responded to it. So, I do appreciate that. Again, I do have a draft letter. We
have until -- and it's not a lot of time, but until August 20th is when the public comment
period ends for this. So, if you are so inclined to authorize the Mayor to sign the letter to
ACHD -- or, again, I can -- I'm happy to make some changes to it and if you wanted to
send something else out that would be fine. So, Madam Mayor, with that, that
concludes my -- my integrated five year work plan presentation and would stand for
direction and questions you may have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, any questions? So, you're good with the -- the
letter as is. I thought that ACHD's comments were really nice to have to give greater
clarity and context.
Borton: Madam Mayor. I think the letter is great. I think the reference on this --
De Weerd: Are you -- is your mic on?
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Borton: Yeah. I'm on. The Chinden-Overland and -- and Linder Road overpass, that
comment I think is well placed and keeps it on the front burner of what we want to have
back in, if at all possible.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: Thank you.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 9. Anything for Item 9? Just a couple of things.
There is a Cash Mob on Friday through Sunday for our Main and Pine businesses that
have had an impact from the road construction. Fill The Bucket fundraiser at The
Village on Saturday from 11:00 to 4:00 and a joint meeting with MDC next Tuesday.
That starts at 4:00 o'clock.
Item 10: Amended: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(d): To
consider records that are exempt from disclosure as provided in
chapter 1, title 74, Idaho Code; 74-206(1)(f): To communicate with
legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal
ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or
controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to
be litigated and 74-206(1)(j): To consider labor contract matters
authorized under section 74-206A (1)(a) and (b), Idaho Code
De Weerd: If there is nothing further, I would entertain a motion to adjourn into
Executive Session.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Move that we go into Executive Session pursuant to 74-206(1)(d),(f),(j),(a),(b) --
(d)? Is that it?
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, absent.
De Weerd: All ayes.
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MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:30 p.m. to 6:41 p.m.)
De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Borton: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: And for the record Councilman Treg Bernt joined us during the Executive
Session. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Borton: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor? All ayes. Thank you, Treg.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:42 P.M.
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