2021-02-16 Work Session Minutes Item#1.
Meridian City Council Work Session February 16, 2021.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:34 p.m., Tuesday,
February 16, 2021, by Mayor Robert Simison.
Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Treg Bernt, Brad Hoaglun
and Liz Strader.
Members Absent: Jessica Perreault.
Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Mark Ford, Joe Bongiorno and Dean
Willis.
ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE
Liz Strader _X_ Joe Borton
_X_ Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt
Jessica Perreault _X Luke Cavener
_X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison
Simison: Council, I will call this meeting to order. For the record it is Tuesday, February
16th. 4:34 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance.
ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Simison: Next item up is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I move adoption of the agenda as presented.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Yes, sir.
Cavener: For clarification, don't we need to remove an item from the Consent in order to
continue? No?
Johnson: Mr. Mayor, we would -- when you take Consent you can act on it at that time.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, I approve the motion then.
Simison: I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor
signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it.
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MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item]
1. FedEx Shipping Center Re-Use Water Main Easement
2. Gander Creek South No. 1 Offsite Sanitary Sewer Easement No. 1
3. Final Plat for Delano No. 1 (FP-2021-0001) by Challenger
Development, Inc., Generally Located West of N. Eagle Rd./SH-55 and
South of E. Wainwright Dr.
4. Final Plat for Impressive East Ridge Subdivision No. 2 (FP-2021-
0002) by DevCo Development, LLC, Located North of E. Lake Hazel
Rd. Between S. Locust Grove Rd. and S. Eagle Rd.
6. Final Order for Shelburne South No. 1 (MFP-2021-0001) by Kent
Brown Planning Services, Located at 4425 S. Selatir Way and 4320 E.
Amity Rd.
7. Second Addendum to Development Agreement Between the City of
Meridian and C4 Land, LLC (Owner) and G20, LLC (Developer) for
East Ridge MDA(2020-0096) (Inst.#2018-052339) and Termination of
First Addendum (Inst.#2019-021791)
8. Construction Contract with Between City of Meridian and Titan
Technologies for Chateau-Jericho Water and Sewer Main
Replacement Project for a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $911,785.00
9. Interagency Mutual Aid and Memorandum of Agreement for Peace
Officer Training Between the City of Meridian and the City of Nampa
to Update Signatures of Authority
10. Resolution No. 21-2256: A Resolution Vacating the 20' Wide
Landscape Easement Platted on the South Property of Lot 5, Block 3
of Olson and Bush Subdivision No. 2 in the City of Meridian, Ada
County, State Of Idaho; and Providing an Effective Date
Simison: Next item is the Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: As Councilman Cavener was referencing, we would like to move Item 5 from
the Consent Agenda and move that down for action later and I would, then, move approval
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of the Consent Agenda as amended.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Appreciate the eloquency of Council Member Hoaglun and I will second that
motion.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda with No. 5 moved
off. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The
ayes have it and the motion is agreed to.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item]
11. [Previously Item 5] Final Plat for Sky Mesa Commons No. 5 (FP-2020-
0021) by J-U-B Engineers, Inc., Generally Located West of S. Eagle
Rd., Midway Between E. Taconic Dr. and E. Lake Hazel Rd.
Simison: Next item is items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just a note of explanation. They are working on a landscaping plan. They did
need an additional week to get that completed, so I would move that we just hold Item 5
to action on the Consent Agenda next week.
Cavener: Second the motion, Mr. Mayor.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to continue this item to next week. Is there any
discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it and
the motion is continued.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item]
12. City Attorney's Office: Annual Report
Simison: Next up is Item 12 under our Department/Commission Reports. This week it's
the city attorney's office annual report and I will turn this over to Mr. Nary.
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Nary: All right. Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, it's my privilege to be here today and
give our annual update. I know you look forward to this all year. It's always enjoyable.
will thank all of my team for being here. Ted's online and on YouTube. Michelle Albertson
is here in the room. Emily and Andrea are both online at home. This has been a year
like no other. I think we all agree and we have all heard that term enough. This is -- I
have to thank Emily for the template here. She's the one that found this very COVID
centric template for this presentation and it seemed very fitting for this particular year.
Again, our mission statement -- you have seen -- how do I advance the slide here, Chris?
Don't I just click it? Can we -- can we back up a couple? We are going the wrong way.
There we go. Okay. There we go. Okay. So, here is our team. This is early on in COVID.
This is us trying to meet online. So, again, our team is the same folks that you see. Ted.
Emily. Andrea. Michelle. Myself. Council Woman Strader is our liaison for the second
year. She drew the short straw two years in a row it appears. But this is us meeting from
home. You can see everybody's got their home in the background and can see how that
all looks for everyone. Again, unlike most any other experience I think any of us have
ever seen. All right. Chris, this mouse is just not clicking.
Johnson: Try just the right arrow on your keyboard. I wouldn't --
Nary: Oh, right arrow. Okay. I will do that. Okay. All right. Again, here is our mission
statement. I added a little 2020 edition of COVID will not define us or detour us. One of
the things that we felt was greatly important from our office this year was we weren't going
to blame COVID for things. We are not going to blame COVID that we can't get things
done or we can't get our work accomplished or we can't get deadlines met. That's not
who we are. That's not who we are as a city. That's not who we are as a team. And so
we didn't. We got all our work done. We got things done on time. We got our ordinances
done. We got contracts done. Everything that makes the city function that we touched
got done and we figured out how to do it and we had to figure it out pretty quickly in a
much different way than we had ever done it before. So, I asked each of my team to tell
us a little bit about what 2020 meant for them. How did it affect them. You know, both
personally and professionally and what -- what was different about it and I included those
slides in here and I won't read the whole thing. I did highlight a few things. Here Ted
mentioned not only we talk regularly as a team on Teams and, then, we also get
everything done and functioning. So, we still function as a team, even though we aren't
all physically in the same place. I think recently Michelle and I were in the office a
particular day and it happened that Ted came by for something and happened that Emily
came by for something and it happened that Andrea came by to pick up something --
there was five of us here for the first time since last March. We just found a different way
to function as a group and, again, it's a testament to all of my teammates and them
wanting to make that work, wanting to make it function, making sure, again, the work can
get done without a break. Again, looking forward to all of us being in the office together
again soon. I think that is the goal of us, as well as many other of our teams around the
city. So, what I did is we tried to highlight the things both what we do and the things over
the last year that were very unusual for what we normally do and as you will see the list
of that's pretty long. I don't want to make it seem like if we took off the unusual we don't
have enough to do, because we have plenty of things to do. But if you look at some of
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the things I tried to highlight, you know, again, we became experts and the state leaders,
frankly, in this particular area of how to deal with this, how to get information out to the
public, how to get information out to the employees, how to navigate through very
confusing orders and very conflicting orders that we were getting and how to do things
and when to do things and having to do those very rapidly and -- and in a very changing
environment that all of you are aware of that was constantly readdressing it from the
governor's office, Central District Health, local leaders in how -- what's the best thing for
everybody and trying to figure it out literally on the fly. If I recall originally the Mayor had
proposed early March as an experiment to try to see what it would be like to have to work
remotely and, then, suddenly we had to work remotely. There was no experiment
anymore, we were actually going to have to do this and to figure out how to take home
desks, chairs, computers, printers, scanners, whatever we needed to do to make things
function we had to figure it out in a very short time and a testament to both everybody in
the city and especially IT in making things work and happen and it being pretty seamless
for -- for most people in how things happened. But this was just some of the things that
we did just for the Mayor's office, to the Council, for the commissions in trying to keep
functionality of the city going. This was extremely unusual. This was the night we had
the protest out front, which I think I'm actually -- myself and the custodians are the ones
who actually saw it. It was on the news. Because we don't deal with the building. Chris
is on the other side of the building, so he didn't even notice it was going on at the time,
because he was in his office and I was up in mine. So, that, again, extremely unusual
situation for the last year. So, again, what did 2020 mean? You know, the shutdown
period we learned how to do our jobs differently, as Michelle stated here. The challenges
have been something to I guess look at as a mild success. Obviously, there is nothing
that could overcome the tragedy of 2020 for hundreds of thousands of people, but the
workplace world shifted and we figured it out and -- and we still maintained our
connectivity, we still maintained our ability to meet -- it would be efficient and -- and many
of our folks -- and my team especially, but many throughout the city will say they found
much more ways of being efficient working from home that we didn't imagine was really
feasible a year and a half ago and now it's like it's very feasible for many people to do
that, because there is less distraction, they can be very focused, they can be very directed
because they don't have the -- the interruptions and the phone calls and people walking
by and things like that. So, they are at home, they can be very focused. So, it can work
at a work life balance for people and a lot of the functions of the city. Again, the clerk's
office -- open meeting law compliance. Again, a completely new area to deal with. The
governor gave us a little bit of relief on having in-person meetings with everybody for a
period of time, but we still had to figure out how to do this. A testament to Chris and his
office on making all of these functional platforms work and if you recall out of the entire
year since -- since my last report we missed one meeting. One meeting we had to cancel
because we couldn't get the Zoom and the YouTube and all that to work at the same time
and that's it. I mean everything else got functioned and worked and things got held, we
held hearings and things -- things happened. So, again, we had 664 public records
responses. So, this, you know, is a growing rapid area that we are seeing. Now, again,
the police reports, they get about 3,000 over there a year. These are just the ones that
come through here. So, these are ones from -- through the clerk's office and -- and my
folks -- my team, primarily Emily and Andrea, touch every one of those. Now, many of
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those might simply be, yep, you got it, send it, but many times it is much more complicated
than that. We had one this year that's related to a lawsuit that ended up being I think a
thousand dollars in fees of all the documents that had to be looked through before we
could release it. It was hundreds and hundreds of hours of time for that. So, it really is
becoming a very active, busy area for us. In Human Resources, as you can imagine,
again, our -- our team is helping advise Human Resources in how to address all of these
employees concerns and fears and what to do and when to do it and how to do it and so
it was very much a time consuming exercise to make sure we try to get it right and try to
do the right thing for everybody and try to provide them the best legal advice in an area
that has very little legal -- you know, we are looking at a case law from a hundred years
ago to figure out can we do that or not do that and, then, should we do that or not do that.
So, again, very busy, very new, very exciting, very interesting, but a much different world
that we were living in a year ago. One other thing we did that although I put it into the
usual, but it was a lot of effort is the city policy handbook has been in a rewrite stage with
HR and Legal for the last -- at least -- well, aggressively for the last year. Lots of time.
Andrea has been the lead for us on that. Laura Lee from the HR department. Lots and
lots of hours to get this work done and accomplished and we are nearly there. We had
to do a rewrite of the veterans preference and Andrea worked with Gowan Field and the
guard out there to make sure our policy on employee and veterans use of their time for
our employees matched up with what the federal requirements are and how they get
compensated and what time off they get and how that all works and we updated our policy
to make sure we were on track with the federal government. Again a lot of time and effort
to get that done and get it done right. Finance Department. Again, the CARES Act.
CARES Act funding. How do we use it? Can we use it? What do we use it for? Lots of
questions. Answers were sporadic at times. Inconsistent at times. Vague at times.
Again, it was a lot of effort and time to try to, again, help Finance -- help Todd and the
Finance Department deal with all of these and create policies very quickly on what we
would use these for and how we could use it and -- and make the best use of taxpayer
dollars that we really felt were necessary and because of the changes that we had due to
COVID that we have to do. So, again, another new area of expertise for us. So, as you
know-- we all know Emily and Emily had a lot to say. But it's -- all of it -- I didn't cut hardly
anything. Emily doesn't like to be edited. Sorry, Emily. But also there wasn't really
anything to edit. I'm, obviously, not going to read it all, but I mean there are things, you
know, as Emily noted in the first one, it was a year where we hit experts in areas we were
completely unfamiliar with. Also we got to see people's homes. We got to see what their
bookshelves look like or what their -- what their living room looks like. Kind of interesting.
What kind of plants they have. Do they have fish? Do they have a dog? If you had a
dog in the meeting you got extra points. So, it was very interesting to see people in a
different light and opportunity. But also, again, as we saw, there were so many things --
not just in the city, but -- but all over the city of people really showing grace and
compassion to others, because it needed it and people needed it and people did a lot of
things out of their way to make somebody feel better, because they needed it and both
sides needed it and so it was an interesting year from that respect, because we have got
to see, again, people in a different light and people in different manner than we had before.
The Fire Department. Again, we did our collective labor agreement and it should be on
next Tuesday for ratification by you. The union is having a meeting on Monday night to
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ratify the contract that we came to. Thanks, again, to Council Member Hoaglun and all
his time and effort. Council Member Bernt also spent some time and Council Member
Strader. Again, great assistance from the Council to make this come through and it took
us only I think seven months. But, you know, lots of places take a lot longer than that.
So, I think we got a good contract for you. I think we have got a good agreement with the
union. I think they would agree. And so that was not necessarily unusual. It was a little
different this last year than it has been. On the unusual side, again, HIPAA, ADA,
emergency powers, screening, enforcement of these orders, vaccination protocols --
mean all things we have never really encountered to the degree we encountered them
now and, again, the science has changed, the information with the science has changed
greatly, so it's been quite an interesting year in that regard. Police Department. Again,
could not highlight the park arrest. Obviously, that was a significant moment. That case
is still ongoing. It's still pending. The Attorney General's office is prosecuting that case.
So, that's still an outstanding matter. But, again, we had a lot of code enforcement and
interpretation of orders and how to deal with these things and contact from the public and
their concerns. And the schools. So, it was definitely a challenge to make sure that we,
as the legal team, could both be conversant in those issues, as well as to help advise
everybody on an area that nobody felt very comfortable in in trying to make sure we could
navigate through the day. Parks and Rec, again, huge -- huge area of time and effort on
all of our parts for our team, because we had playgrounds to close, we had programs to
cancel, we had lots of refunds to process. I mean, you know, thank goodness for the
parks staff and Steve and his whole team in processing through all of that. Events that
were cancelled and vendors that were disappointed and lots and lots of changes that we
saw in a very very short window of time and impacting everyone in how we do things. So,
as you can see by just that list how many different things changed slightly or greatly
because of it and in the middle of that we also transferred the golf course to the city and
got that process all completed within a very small window of time as well. So, again, it
was a very interesting year as you can see in every single department you can see where
COVID has touched people to some degree. Community Development. Again, we had
the small business grant program that we helped develop with -- with the Mayor's office
and Community Development and Tori. So, it was really a challenge, because, again, it
was a very short window of time frame. There was a great deal of effort by Tori and
Crystal to weed through those applications and help our business community to kind of
foster through that and in the middle of that we added a new urban renewal district in
downtown. So, again, lots of things to do and lots of things to do that we normally do, as
well as things that we don't normally do on top of that. You know, 2020 -- I think Andrea's
comment here that I left in was so profound to me I didn't want to edit it or take it out and
it says it has a profound and prolonged sobering effect and I think it does for all of us and
I think that's what we saw in the workplace is it was a change and not that it was a bad
change, as I have said, but it was a change that we didn't anticipate and have really
weathered I think as much as possible and it probably does feel like being stuck on the
spin cycle in a washing machine for a year. It's not quite over. I think we are in the 14th
month of 2020 is what it feels like, so we are not quite -- not quite through it all yet. So
Public Works. You know, we -- we sort of looked at this one and they are, you know,
steady and consistent. I mean that is Public Works to a tee. They still purchase things.
Now they switched purchasing items and PPE and things like that, but also the other
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projects they had, many of them could continue to go through. The contracts bid through.
We processed all of those and, then, on top of that we went and bought 40 more acres
for the wastewater plant that we are going to be adding to the -- to the plant in the future,
as well as we have those two bore strikes that we have talked about and dealt with those
two -- with a land -- with an appeal to the state board, as well as a potential appeal to
court on top of that. We got that resolved. We also had the other one on -- on Ten Mile
that we also got resolved. So, again, there was some fairly unusual circumstances on
top of the general workload that we normally get through Public Works. So, we do the
kind of year-to-year comparison and I did ask, you know, was there a particular reason
for some of these and -- and there really isn't. I mean there is not an identifiable driver.
A lot of these I think, for example, development agreements, it looks like we did a little bit
less. I think, though -- I think Michelle told me in January we had 20 -- no, ten. Sorry.
Ten in January. So, some of it is based on the cycle of the development. So, it really has
nothing to do with us. It's the same thing for the easements. It looks like we have a huge
growth in easements, but, actually, I think two or three years before we had about a
hundred and something -- 125 or something. So, again, it's really development driven.
It's not driven by us. It's when they choose to develop and, then, the easements are
necessary either for the utilities or their construction schedule or phasing. So, those
things are pretty cyclical. But as you can see we do have some changes and, you know,
we are going to continue to see that same level of growth, if not more. ICRMP claims.
Again, those are fairly steady as you can see. We had a little bit more situations of
damages to the city's property, but not a great deal more. I attribute some of these things
that are less is because, again, people for a lot -- for a certain period of time did less.
They didn't go out much. They didn't do much. So, they weren't running into things and
not breaking things. So, some of that really is fairly static and pretty consistent year over
year. Again, I think as a team we have done a good job of catching these things, reporting
them properly, getting them, you know, in our system so that we can track them a lot
better. I think the system has gotten much better over the last few years. And now I have
a little pause for a moment. With us online is Denyce Udink and Kevin Borger from the
city attorney's office in Boise. As you all know they provide our prosecution and police
services and have since 2002. 1 will turn it over to Denyce and to Kevin to give their --
their report.
Udink: Mr. Mayor, Council Members, it's really our privilege to be here today to talk with
you. We always enjoy coming every year to give you an update on the prosecution and
police services that we provide for the City of Meridian and I don't know if any of you know
how long we have had this contract. Any guesses by anyone? Anybody know? Maybe
Joe. Councilmember Borton might know.
Borton: Fourteen years. Sixteen years.
Udink: It's been a long time. 2002 is how long we have had this contract. So, yeah, it's
been a -- it's been a long time. It's been a great relationship I think between our office
and the City of Meridian. So, again, we just appreciate it. We do try to work really closely
with the Police Department and we are excited for Chief Basterrechea. He will do a great
job. And we also try to work really closely with Bill Nary's office and those folks that work
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there, just so that we can make sure we are providing the services that Meridian really
needs. So, we appreciate the relationship. I need to echo some of what Bill Nary talked
about with COVID as it affected everybody and affected our office as well and we really
had to quickly learn how to keep doing business and keep getting the work done remotely.
So, our office has actually been closed for the most part to in-person working, so we have
been working remotely ourselves and court has been being conducted pretty much
virtually remotely, which has been a very interesting experience. So, we are getting ready
to start up jury trials again, which will be an interesting experience. We haven't been
doing them since March of last year. So, those prosecutors that haven't done trials for a
while are going to have to brush off their skills and get ready for trial. But I just want to
quickly give you some information just about the prosecution duties and, then, I will turn
it over to Kevin Borger to talk about police advice. I'm going to try to share my screen, so
I hope this works. I'm not as proficient as some people. So, can everybody see that
home screen? Okay. Perfect. So, again, we are just here to talk about information and
updating on the contract. Let me see if I can figure out how to forward it. I apologize.
Just one second. Well, let me see if I can figure out how to do this. Just a second. I
apologize. Okay. Did that -- did that work. It should have forwarded to the next slide.
Can everybody see that? Okay. So, just to give you a little bit of background about our
office. So, our office -- we have 15 prosecutors and what that really means is 14 and a
half. One of our prosecutors is part time. And, then, we have one full-time victim-witness
coordinator in-house in our office that provides victim services for Meridian cases, as well
as Boise cases. She primarily focuses on domestic violence-related cases, but she can
also provide services on other types as well. Our prosecutors handle five full-time judicial
calendars. But, then, we also rotate amongst other calendars as well. We do have a
specialty court, domestic violence court, which is now full time for us. It used to be a part-
time calendar, but just due to the number of cases that are going in we have created a
full-time calendar for that. And, then, we have other types of calendars that we cover
primarily for in-custody arraignments. We have something called FTA court that we cover
and that is for people that have warrants that are outstanding, they can make a request
to come in, appear in front of a judge and get their warrant quashed or possibly get their
case resolved at that hearing and, then, we also have our infraction calendar, which
actually keeps us pretty busy. We have a number of court trials that we -- that we handle
as part of the infraction calendar. We also have settlement conferences and we also have
what's called an online dispute portal that we created in our office. When COVID shut
everything down we didn't have the ability to go in and have settlement conferences with
people that wanted to contest their infraction tickets, so we had to create a different format
for them to contact us and to be able to negotiate those cases and so we do have an
online portal that we advise people about. Meridian police officers have information on
their e-sites that will tell people how to contact us through our portal. So, we have a lot
of inquiries that come through through the portal just to talk about infraction cases and
see if there is a way we can resolve those cases short of a trial and, then, we also do
have the settlement conferences again. So, the court just instituted that again. Those
are all remote still, but we also have an opportunity there to talk with people that want to
contest their traffic tickets and see if there is anything that we can do for them. So, those
are just some of the calendars that we cover. It does keep us pretty busy that's for sure.
With respect specifically to prosecution services, there are a number of things that we
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provide for Meridian. So, they are kind of broken up into what do we do in-house versus
what do we do through the court system. But, essentially, we are reviewing every single
misdemeanor citation that gets issued by police. We review every single misdemeanor
arrest that is made by police, just to make sure that everything is -- is compliant with
evidence and probable cause standards and things like that that we have a duty to -- to
honor. And, then, we also -- for those cases where officers are not able to take any sort
of enforcement action or if they have not -- if they are not quite sure what to do, they can
send those reports to our office and we have a screening team of three prosecutors that
reviews all of those reports that are taken by officers where they haven't otherwise taken
any enforcement action and we can decide whether we want to charge, who we want to
charge, and do we do that by a summons, which is a written notification, or whether we
do that by an arrest warrant. We also provide victim services. I talked about the in-house
victim-witness coordinator that we have and so she handles a lot of our domestic violence-
related cases. But we also work in conjunction with the victim-witness coordinators that
are employed by the Meridian Police Department in making sure that victims are notified
of the rights that they have in criminal cases. We have contact with them. We can meet
with them. We provide notice to them about court hearings and plea offers and things
like that. So, a lot of -- of services to victims and, then, if they have other types of needs
we can also provide resources to them through our victim-witness coordinators. And,
then, at court, of course, we handle a number of hearings and I'm going to show you some
numbers about specific hearings in just a second, but I just wanted to give you an
overview of the types of hearings that our prosecutors handle. We -- we handle the case
from beginning to end. So, at the beginning, which is an arraignment, all the way through
adjudication and, then, even beyond that. Sometimes our cases get appealed after
conviction and so we handle all of those appeals. Sometimes offenders will file a post-
conviction action and so we handle from beginning to end and, then, beyond. We do this
discovery review. Discovery is the process where we provide the defense with the
information that we have in our file, police reports, audio recordings and things like that,
just to make sure that they have the information that we have with respect to the case.
And, then, of course, we work closely with police about preparing officers for court,
preparing them for testimony and things like that. So, a lot of things happen kind of at the
--the back end of these cases. I just wanted to give you a little bit of a -- an understanding
of the number of cases that we open and how many of those are attributed to Meridian
City. So, this chart shows that our office in 2020 opened 12,572 cases. That is total
misdemeanor and infraction. Of those cases 3,763 were from the City of Meridian. There
were 16,939 charges within those 12,572 cases that were opened. So, total charges
open for Meridian City is 5,153. And, then, these are the number of hearings that our
prosecutors handled total in 2020, 29,979 hearings for 15 prosecutors -- 14 and a half.
And of those 8,425 were for Meridian cases. So, I'm not a math person for sure, but
roughly one-third of our caseload is attributable to the City of Meridian. So, we certainly
appreciate that. Just to give you a little bit of historical information. So, this chart goes
back to 2010 and it just kind of shows you, you know, from year to year how many charges
we have opened for the City of Meridian. So, you can see right here in 2020 we opened
5,153 charges. That's down a little bit from 2019. And I, actually, was pleasantly surprised
by the numbers, because I was expecting a little bit that COVID would have a pretty
significant impact on just the number of cases that were being opened and it's probably
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going to take us a couple of years to really see the impact that COVID has had, but for
the most part it's not a huge drop in the number of charges. You know, a few years ago
we had more and I'm not really sure, you know, how -- how that trend has happened or
what's caused these different trends, but just a little bit of information to give you a
historical perspective about the charges that are coming in. This next slide is just a
breakdown by category of the misdemeanor offenses that we see from Meridian. So, this
is just a pie chart. As you can see right here really the traffic cases are what constitute
the biggest categories of cases. So, we have got traffic misdemeanors here. Traffic
infractions are the biggest category of charges. But, then, we have broken it down a little
bit further. The miscellaneous category can be things like probation violations or contempt
that happen post -- post-adjudication or once a case is closed somebody isn't compliant
with their sentence and so they will come back on a probation violation or a contempt.
Parking. Zoning. These would be the code enforcement cases that we work. With
domestic violence. DUIs are another big one. Controlled substances are pretty big for
Meridian and, then, property crimes down here. So, this is just to give you a little bit of
an idea of the categories of offenses that we see from Meridian charges. And, then, we
always like to throw in this top ten and it's a little bit backwards, because the top ten -- it's
backwards. So, number one is down here at the bottom. But for Meridian cases from
2020 the number one charge that was charged with was possession of paraphernalia
and, then, they go up from there. Another big one you can see is DUIs are a pretty big
chunk. Domestic battery, funny enough, is not quite as big as you might expect, although
that is a very important charge for our office to prosecute. And, then, disturbing the peace
here with 99. But you will see speeding, which is an infraction, is in here. So, just a
smattering of charges in the top ten. But we always like to throw that in just so you can
kind of see what's happening with Meridian cases. Now, before I turn the time over to
Kevin I just wanted to stand for questions if anybody had any questions for me.
Simison: Council, any questions at this time?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Udink: Okay. I pass this to Kevin.
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Oh, hey, Denyce.
Udink: Oh, yes.
Cavener: I'm sorry. Just one quick question. I think two slides back when you had the
pie chart with -- with all of the charges -- I know that oftentimes when there is a charge
it's not solely just that charge, but there is oftentimes two or three different charges. How
does your office break that down in the pie chart? If, for instance, if you -- somebody is
pulled over for speeding, but they also have a controlled substance on them, how do you
guys, you know, quantify that in that pie chart? Are they each separate -- separated out
or is it the lead charge that you guys are classifying?
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Udink: Yes. Mr. Mayor, Council Member -- is it Cavener? I'm sorry, I can't see
everybody's faces on my screen.
Cavener: That's okay.
Udink: Yes. Yes. So, they will be broken out still. Even if they are opened up in one
case our system will still apportion them into the category that they belong to. So, the
controlled substance will go into that category and the speeding will go into the speeding
category or the traffic infraction category.
Cavener: Thank you.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Thank you, Denyce. I was -- it caught my attention your comment about jury
trials being delayed by COVID. I was just curious what's the, you know, backlog of that
looking like and does that just mean that cases are delayed and is there an estimate on
that or any further info on when that might get cleared up?
Udink: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, there is a significant misdemeanor backlog
for jury trials. So, what we are doing right now is we are putting together lists of all of the
cases that have been pending trial since the court basically stopped doing jury trials last
March, so -- and, then, we are trying to prioritize them according to what is --what are the
top ones that need to go to trial first. Anecdotally I haven't pulled the list together yet.
Our prosecutors are working on that right now. But I would say that we probably have --
between all of our judges close to 200 jury trials that are backlogged. When you consider
that some of our judges are only going to have one, two, maybe four jury trial days a
month, it's going to take us a while to get through those cases, so --
Strader: Thank you.
Simison: Okay.
Borger: All right. Thank you. I will go ahead and begin. Kevin Borger. It's my pleasure
to speak to you again, Mr. Mayor, Council Members. I am trying to remember how many
years it's been and I can't recall, but I have been able to work with Meridian for a number
of years now. The main thing for me regarding COVID is that I haven't been able to come
into the office and one of the things I enjoyed most is three afternoons of the week I would
spend time at the Police Department and that allowed me personal interaction with the
officers and just a lot more --just increase the ability to have the questions that just come
up previous shift or something and those aren't as easily answered now, but still at home
and the computer has allowed for e-mail questions and all of that continues. A little bit of
background. I actually live in Meridian and have done so since 1986. So, working with
Meridian is more of -- very personal for me, because these are my people I feel like and
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1 have been privileged to work for the city of Boise for 30 years now. Bill Nary hired me
back in 1991 and so I know Michelle. Emily. Ted and I shared an office back in Boise.
So, very comfortable working with your legal staff and I appreciate them all very much
and feel like we have a very good working relationship. One of the things is that if I ever
feel like the police are asking me to do something, I contact Bill to make sure I'm not
overstepping our bounds, because I know there is a line there that we don't want to cross.
But you can see on the screen there the various things that I'm responsible for and the
legal questions still do come in and we work with those. The weapon disposition is
probably one of the consistent ones that happens every -- every week and, then, we go
through those. The next slide, Denyce. Regular legal updates. I found -- and Kim -- Kim
Smith is my supervisor and she also is available for questions and there is some things
that the police go directly to her for and one of those -- she became the go to person
regarding protests and I know she shared that information with the police department as
well, but she asked that I do legal updates. So, every month beginning I have been giving
the police department an overview of the legal cases that have come down from the
previous month with -- regarding Idaho, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme
Court. So, since I'm not there in person in order to answer the questions or just bring it
up in the way I used to, provided it in a paper format, and, then, address any questions
that come from there. Briefing bulletins. If there is something that can't wait or it's more
unusual, we will bring that up. One of the ones that is still lingering -- if you remember
State v. Clark is one thing that we continue to struggle with and how to deal with and that's
where officers, if the crime -- misdemeanor crime does not happen in their presence they
are not allowed to initiate an arrest and notice just today, in fact, that there is discussion
in the legislature to have a constitutional amendment that might address that. So, that's
certainly something that's encouraging. So, we have worked very closely with the officers
on best practices on how to address that with the citizens, how they can make sure they
are in compliance with the rules as they have come down and, then, the case law is
continuing to progress and so we keep track of that. Classroom training. I spend a
considerable amount of time getting ready for that and, then, command staff decided not
to have that in person. I was scheduled to do that in February. So, that's going to be put
off a little bit. They haven't determined a date for me. So, the work is done, the topics
are ready, it's just a matter of when we are going to do that. So, we are prepared to do
that whenever -- whenever they determine it's appropriate. Okay. Next slide, Denyce.
Here is just an example of one of the bulletins done and it talks about exceptions.
Custodial -- I'm having a hard time. My eyesight isn't as good. But, you know, a lot of
times we will give a scenario and, then, also an answer, some notes, and, then, case law
per se that goes along with that. But that gives you an idea of the -- of the format and,
then, allows the officers to digest that and, then, ask any questions that they have. Okay.
Denyce. Past trainings. We -- use of force is always a big one, because we know that
leads to problems with the citizens. We are very cognizant of the important aspect that
plays and case law describes for us how to deal with that and one of the things that comes
up a lot is the people with mental difficulties and so I have -- I have trained multiple areas
on how to deal with the mentally ill and I think we are doing well in that area. Some of
the different ways you deal with those folks is very important and so we also have been
trained on that. We have talked about body worn cameras and how effective those can
be, not only in prosecuting cases, but also in liability situations where police departments
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all over the U.S. have been able to show that one person's perspective isn't -- isn't actually
shown on the -- on the video. So, those have actually been very helpful. Okay. Denyce.
Available with the -- with the advent of the cell phone I am available 24/7 and I do get
calls in the evening occasionally and the officers are respective of my time, but they do
call occasionally. On the other side, the prosecutors, there is an on-call team and so
anytime there is a question, but particularly if there is a need for a warrant -- and blood
draw warrants are a big one and the on-call prosecutors handle that, as well as arrest
warrants. The Clark situation I mentioned earlier, one way of dealing with that is to call
the magistrate judge and ask for an arrest warrant while dealing with the individual, so
that the officer isn't arrested on his own authority, but he has the backing of the judge after
hearing probable cause statements in order to execute that warrant and so that's a service
that's provided and that's available 24/7. Okay, Denyce. So, when you wrap all that up,
I think the--the city of Boise is very proud to represent Meridian and when the prosecutors
go to court one thing Denyce didn't mention is that -- and I did a lot of prosecuting in my
day when Meridian was part of the -- part of my caseload. There is no distinguishing
between a Meridian case and a Boise case. The prosecutor often won't -- if they do notice
they don't -- don't distinguish. Their cases are handled the same and very proud to be
able to say that we work for the city -- with the City of Meridian and I will stand for any
questions.
Simison: Thank you, Kevin. Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just a quick question for Mr. Borger based on his long experience with Meridian
and what you just wrapped up there. Would you say this -- this type of contract and this
relationship is a win-win for -- for the office there in Boise, as well as our citizens in
Meridian?
Borger: Well, I certainly think so. It allows the prosecutors -- I think we have additional
-- a couple people on staff -- when you look at the numbers I think it's a -- certainly a win
for Meridian when you consider how many additional people you would have to hire to
handle that sort of a caseload. The prosecutors in the office are able to assimilate the
cases without the additional burden of running from courtroom to courtroom and yet they
gain the experience of dealing with different officers and perhaps a slightly different way
of doing things, but not that -- not that much. But I know they certainly have appreciated
the work and I know I do.
Hoaglun: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Kevin.
Simison: Thank you. All right. Mr. Nary.
Nary: How do I get my presentation back up? Kevin kind of buried the lead there a little
bit, too. This might be Kevin's last report. Kevin is planning on retiring here in late spring
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before summer. So, he's going to be passing the torch over there. Kevin is a great person
and a great attorney and a great person to work with and, you know, when I first got
promoted at the city of Boise back in 1991, 1 had to hire two attorneys and the first person
I hired was Ted and the third person I hired was Kevin and he never let me forget he
wasn't the second person. But I think after 30 years it's worked out for Kevin pretty well.
So, I congratulate Kevin on being able to retire and move on to the next phase of his
career. He has been a great asset. On the contract I will add to your question, Council
Member Hoaglun. Now, again, 35 years ago it was a lot different world we lived in. But I
was the Meridian prosecutor for three and a half years and running from courtroom to
courtroom all day every day is very exhausting and you never feel like you are very good
at it. Getting folks that this is what they do, they do it very well, very professionally day in
and day out, this is part of their work, part of how they do business, it is a great asset to
the city, it's a great asset to the city of Boise. As you can see we use -- we are about a
third of their caseload, so it does help their teams, it does help us. So, it is a very good
marriage we have had now for almost 20 years. So, I appreciate Denyce and her team
and Kevin and all the folks at the city attorney's office, they have taken a huge burden off
of us. Again, those 3,000 public records requests that go through the Police Department,
again, those all have some touch to the city attorney's office. Again, it may be a very
simple, yes, that's the right information, send it, to much more complicated requests. So,
they do provide a great service to the city for a very fair value that we pay. To wrap up,
again, my thoughts on the last year. Again, I am incredibly appreciative to work for the
city. I have lived here for 35 years. I really feel like I'm a Meridian guy and this is what I
do and I don't think people remember I worked anywhere else anymore. I feel very
privileged to work for the Mayor and Council in the city. I feel very good for the city and
what we do and I especially appreciate the team that I work with every day. We are in
our 17th year now, Michelle and I and Ted. Emily has been with us 15. Andrew has been
with us 13 so -- going on 14. So, we have a very good team. We work well together. We
know each other very well. We know what we do well and we know who does -- who
does what the best and -- and if we can't figure it out we usually give it to Emily; right? I
think that's kind of the way we tend to think. But we really do all get what Meridian is
about and what the Meridian way means and this year, again, I think -- I can't emphasize
enough how important it was to use and I think to our community to keep things going.
The development community was very appreciative that we could keep things going. The
business community was very appreciative that we could keep things going and -- and as
much as people don't know, most of the time what the legal department does -- because
I get that question all the time. What do you guys do all day? How in the world is there
work for four attorneys every day and, you know, I could send them my presentation, but
they just don't know, again, staffing all your meetings, reviewing every single document
in some form, either we wrote it or we reviewed it of every single thing we do, whether we
are buying things, selling things, whatever it is, we have some level of touch to that in
some fashion and because we have been here for such a long period of time generally
we are the ones that have done it. If it wasn't done by some other attorney from ten years
ago or 20 years ago. Our team found ways to remain connected. It definitely helped that
we have a long term history together. That's certainly helpful. We had an intern last
summer for a short period of time. It was a little clunky, but we did the best we could and
she was a great intern and did a great job for us, but it wasn't quite the same level of
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experience, because, again, we generally have two people in the office every day. I'm
here every day. Generally there is one more person right now that comes in every day,
so that we can make sure we can be responsive as necessary to any of the needs. But,
again, Teams works great. E-mail works great. The phone works. All of those methods
of communication we found that we didn't think would work very well do and so we could
keep things going and I think, again, our community appreciated that. I think, you know,
I personally appreciated that. So, I don't have anything else, unless you have some
questions for me or -- again, all of our team is online. So, if you have any questions for
me. Otherwise, again, it's a privilege to be here for another year. A privilege to be able
to present this to you to show you a little snapshot of what our year was like.
Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions for Bill or are you opening up all of your
staff to questions?
Nary: If they can. I think Ted is only on the phone, so it's a little harder for Ted.
Simison: Okay. Michelle, she's here, too.
Nary: Michele is here. So, yeah, if you have a question for Michelle that's fine.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's not a -- it's not a question, just a comment and I
always appreciate your presentation, but I think for all of us it's a good reminder what the
last 13 months has looked like and your ability to kind of -- feels like a lot, but you have
done a great job of kind of responding to every curveball that this past year has thrown at
the city and your department and you guys just make it look really really easy and by
doing so that makes the city look better, it makes the Council, the Mayor, our employees
all look better. I know it's not easy. I know it takes a lot of time and attention. I just want
to say thanks to you and Michelle and your team. You guys really are a solid team and a
good example of what a legal department can look like. Thank you.
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I echo those comments as well and I don't think you guys really skipped a beat,
Bill, and -- it's been great getting to know everybody. I guess looking at two years -- it
feels like this past year the workload has been a lot higher. Do you think that's the
exception or the new normal? Do you feel like you are adequately resourced right now?
Maybe give us a feel for that -- your view on that caseload that everyone's handling.
Nary: Yeah. Council Member Strader, that's -- that's a great observation and comment.
You know, right now we have talked about that. We had --we had actually in the -- in the
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-- in the -- in our budget plan we had potential for adding another attorney on staff this
coming fiscal year for FY-22. We pushed that back a little bit, because the trade off of the
workload volume is the lesser travel, the ability to be more concentrated at home for folks.
So, there is --there is some trade-offs to those things that allowed us to continue it without
it feeling overwhelming. But we are always monitoring that. You know, we have -- we
have talked for a number of years about potentially the police services or the prosecution
services changing model, but at this time there is really no reason to. I mean the -- the
-- I will add one more comment about the city of Boise. In the 16 years I have been the
city attorney here I have never had a complaint for the Police Department about anything
the city attorney's office has told them, advised them, trained them, ever. They appreciate
them greatly. So, I don't see -- I think we are going to -- you know, we will always keep
that in mind as we grow. As soon as things get back to whatever the next normal is going
to be, we definitely want to make sure we don't get burnout, we don't get overload, we
want to make sure people, you know, can take a vacation when people actually do those
things anymore and go do things occasionally when people can do things and so we may
have to be very flexible about staffing in the future. But, you know, I'm not planning on
going anywhere anytime soon. I don't think any of our team's planning are going
anywhere anytime soon. But we definitely will keep in mind of the future for our office.
We definitely would never want to leave the city in a bad situation where we don't have
adequate staff.
Strader: Thanks, Bill.
Nary: All right. Well, thank you everybody.
Simison: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: Just real quick. That last comment you made, Bill, is a big deal. Among
everything else, the fact that Denyce and Kevin and that leadership with the prosecution
team and our Police Department, having all their issues addressed accurately and timely
and there is not complaints and concerns, that's a really big deal and hats off to you both
in -- in providing those kind of services and prosecution services to the City of Meridian.
Denyce, Kevin, I have known you both for a long time. That's really appreciated. That's
a very important point and it's a testament to the work that -- and leadership that you are
providing. Kevin, good luck to you. I don't I know if it's retirement or changing careers
somewhere, but you have been a hell of an attorney for a long time around the valley and
a lot of us know that. So, appreciate you both and keep up the great work.
Nary: Well, thank you.
13. Planning Department: Valley Regional Transit Fiscal Year 2021
Cooperative Agreement
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Simison: Thank you, Mr. Nary, for that reminder of what 2021 -- I think I tried to forget a
lot of the stuff that you remind us that we did this last year, but -- very much. All right.
Thank you, Denyce and Kevin. Appreciate it very much. With that we will move on to
Item 13, which is the Planning Department and Valley Regional Transit Fiscal Year 2021
Cooperative Agreement and I will turn this over to Mr. Hood.
Hood: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. Can you all hear me okay? Okay.
Great. It's -- it's my pleasure to be back in front of you all. It's been a little bit, so good to
see you all, at least virtually on my -- my screen. Before I get going real quick I do want
to just piggyback on the last topic and thank Mr. Nary for his help and his team. I'm a little
hurt that this topic we are going to talk about here wasn't highlighted in his PowerPoint,
but they do a lot for our department, so I get it, I understand that, so, again, thanks to the
legal team. I will also say I do have my -- my puppy is here. I don't know if you can see
her. But I should get bonus points since, you know, we are on this virtual call, I got a dog
on the screen, so -- anyways, I will jump into the topic at hand. Annually the city does
budget for VRT services and our dues and we also annually establish a cooperative
agreement between the city and VRT that outlines how the city funds are to be used. City
staff from legal -- so, Ted Baird was the primary lead from legal helping to craft this
agreement. Members of the Finance team and Planning, particularly Miranda, have been
working with VRT staff to prepare the FY-21 cooperative agreement between VRT and
the city you have in your packet, which covers, again, how the 272,000 dollars that we
have got budgeted for their services, capital improvements, dues and overhead and
assessments will be used. Some slight changes have been made from the FY-2020
template. We have been using largely the same agreement for many years now, but we
did have to update the -- the template. Surprise. Surprise. A lot of that had to do with
COVID; right? And the associated CARES funding impacts. So, we didn't necessarily
reinvent the wheel with this agreement, but it got a pretty hefty overhaul. Stephen Hunt
and Leslie Pedroza are here. I see them on the screen. And they are going to walk you
through some of those services that we receive with VRT and contribute to and I will stand
for any questions you may have, though, at the outset before turning it over to them for
their presentation.
Simison: Council, any questions for Mr. Hood at this time? Okay. Then we will turn this
over to Stephen and Leslie.
Hunt: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. My name is Stephen Hunt and I'm
the development director of Valley Regional Transit and I'm trying to share a presentation,
which I think you all see now. So, as -- as Caleb mentioned, we are here just to provide
a brief update on the changes to the 2021 cooperative agreement and a couple of things
that we wanted to highlight with that is how the delay to the fixed route expansion
impacted our original agreement and -- and, then, we will talk about other updates and,
then, conclude with a discussion about the Veterans Transportation pilot, which is
something that's starting this year. So, to start off, the -- the VRT board did approve
delaying the start of the service in Meridian until FY-22 and so our -- our current program
start date is October 1st of 2021 and reasons for that include the ridership decline that
we have experienced because of COVID and the increase in telework, which we continue
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actually to see through the start of this fiscal year that ridership has not rebounded and
so we are holding off on starting that service, which would have started this -- kind of late
spring and summer until the fall of -- of this year. We do believe that the service is still
meeting its original objective or will meet its original objective of supporting both the
residential and employment growth that's occurring in Meridian and along the corridor.
We -- also with this delay we would be applying the service credit in FY-21, instead of
onto the service onto -- onto other services that are provided in FY-21 and that's reflected
in the update to the cooperative agreement. So, the agreement itself --
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Stephen, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I don't know if you are going to be
covering this later in your presentation. Are you prepared to kind of break down for
Council what those other services are and where they are located and how they are
benefiting Meridian residents?
Hunt: Council Member Cavener, Mr. Mayor, I don't have a specific slide with those broken
down. I can speak to them as they are presented both in the -- in your packet and --yeah,
I would be happy to share more about the specific services that are being provided in FY-
21.
Cavener: Great. You can do that now or towards the end of your presentation, whichever
is best for you. But I think that's an important piece to be discussed.
Hunt: Thank you, Mr. Cavener -- Councilman Cavener. And I will do that on this slide as
we talk about how the cooperative agreement is -- has been updated and one of the --
one of the things that was included in this update is the service exhibit and -- and in that
service exhibit, which, again, is included in your packet, is a description of the different
services that are supported by the various contributions from the City of Meridian. So,
the cooperative agreement was updated both to reflect the delay in service and to simplify
the agreement from where it had been and provide both transparency and flexibility in
how we leveraged resources that were available to us. This is what Caleb was alluding
to when he talked about CAREs resources being available to us this year and what we
wanted to document in the cooperative agreement is both the amount that we are
requesting and what we are delivering in exchange for those contributions and so we
included a service exhibit, which highlights the services that are being provided to the City
of Meridian and those include --there is a regional overhead portion of that, which --which
covers any of the VRT planning support efforts. So, that would be all the planning work
that VRT is doing with the City of Meridian on -- whether it be fixed route or the Harvest
Transit services or the pilot that we will be talking about in a little bit, all of that planning
work is part of that regional overhead, along with support that comes through customer
service and the transit IT, which is what supports things like being able to see where your
bus is on your phone when you are -- when you are scheduling a trip, et cetera. The
other part of the contribution is the service contribution and the service contribution is
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based on the number of miles -- the percent of miles that are provided within the city limits
and currently there are two fixed route services that make up the service contribution for
FY-21 and those are the Route 40 and Route 42. Route 40 is a route that begins in
Caldwell, serves Nampa, serves Meridian and goes into downtown Boise. It hits a peak
hour service connecting those regional employment and residential centers in the valley.
The Route 42 is -- similarly runs between Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian and Boise. It does
not go all the way downtown, it goes to Town Square Mall in Boise, which connects to the
rest of the fixed route network. It -- it serves more of Meridian, however. It goes down
Overland going -- goes down Overland between Ten Mile and Maple Grove. So, with
stops all along the way and that's been a corridor that we have been working with Meridian
staff on in terms of thinking about how that continues to develop today, that that's the
service that is on the Overland route -- Overland Road corridor in Meridian is Route 42
and that runs throughout the day and provides local types of connections in both
directions, both to Nampa and to Boise. And there is about 21 percent of the -- of the
miles on those two routes traveled through the City of Meridian and that's where -- that's
how that service contribution is -- is calculated. This year there was not a specific capital
contribution. In years past we have requested for capital when there is a need for capital
that supports City of Meridian services. Last year, as you will recall, there was a capital
contribution request made for additional vehicles, so that we would be able to provide the
service that we will be providing at the beginning of FY-22. This was for two additional
electric vehicles, along with the -- the pedestrian and passenger amenities and stops
along -- in Meridian. And, then, there is a special assessment that we -- that we make for
our -- for our partners when there are specific services or programs that support their
communities and in Meridian that includes Harvest Transit, as well as rides -- the Rides
To Wellness program, which provides free transportation to medical appointments at
participating clinics, including those in the City of Meridian. Harvest Transit provides
transportation to -- free transportation to seniors and persons with disability Monday
through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Excuse me. So, the
-- the cooperative agreement outlines each of those -- those services and the -- the role
that VRT has in providing those services in exchange for the -- for the fees and I will
pause now if there are any additional questions about services that are provided to the
City of Meridian in exchange for -- for that -- for those fees.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Stephen, I guess a two part question. Part one is -- is it, then, VRT's belief this
city isn't already paying for those services and I guess part two would be a breakdown of
cost allocated to each of those items that are -- that are identified in Exhibit 1.
Hunt: Thank you, Councilman Cavener, Mr. Mayor. Your first question is it our belief that
the city does not pay for those services already. Was that what you asked?
Cavener: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, if I may.
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Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I guess, Stephen, where I'm trying to get at is I -- again, maybe I'm -- I'm not
looking at this correctly. The city provides a funding allocation to VRT on an annual basis
and we increased our allocation this year with the belief that we were going to establish
a fixed route service in Meridian. We are now not doing the fixed route piece, but VRT is
still asking the city to fund at the same amount to go towards these four items that are
identified in Exhibit 1. But my belief is that with our funding allocation we have already
provided the funding for that. I'm just -- I'm just trying to understand if -- if -- if I'm wrong
and if I'm wrong, boy, it wouldn't be the first time, but if I'm not I'm trying to understand
why these additional funds are needed to go to these four items.
Hunt: Thank you for that clarification, Council Member, and I will be happy to take the
first stab at that. Caleb, if you want to follow up with anything else. So, we are here
talking about a cooperative agreement for -- for the current year that we are in in part
because of some of the changes that were made late in the -- in the-- in the year, including
delaying the -- the start of fixed route service, as well as incorporating CARES resources
into -- into the VRT budget. So, we have not yet billed and Meridian has not yet paid the
contribution for services that have been provided since October 1 st and will continue
through this fiscal year. That's what will be happening once this cooperative agreement
is completed. So, to your -- to your point, the local cost allocation, the methodology that
we use to -- to determine what fees we would be requesting from the City of Meridian are
the very same that we used in -- in this process. It's one and the same and the -- so, I
hope that is -- I hope that's clear and the amounts that we are requesting for FY-21
consider the fact that we have delayed the start of service until the beginning of FY-22.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I will hop off this. But, Stephen, there are -- there are savings, because we are
not doing the -- the route in Meridian.
Hunt: Yes.
Cavener: Okay. But you are wanting us to allocate those dollars that we would have
already spent for the fixed route service in addition to what was already called for in
Exhibit 1. Is that also correct?
Hunt: No.
Cavener: Okay.
Hunt: There are about 170,000 dollars that we had requested -- that we had anticipated
to request for FY-21 that we are not requesting from the City of Meridian because we
delayed service -- because we delayed the start of service until the beginning of FY 22.
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The original request, if I remember correctly, was about 442,000 and that's what we had
been working with staff on. We -- we have delayed the start of service until the beginning
of next year and, no, there hasn't been an exchange of any funds for FY-21 services as
yet. So, the only request we are making are those that we are asking for and describing
in this presentation of 272,000. And I -- the breakdown of those costs I think was the
second part of your question, unless, Caleb, there was anything you wanted to add, which
would be about 60,000 dollars or what -- 63,000 dollars for regional overhead and with
the contribution -- or the credit -- the service credit that we rolled forward from FY-20 into
'21, there is only about 35,000 dollars -- 36,000 dollars in service contribution. There is
no capital contribution and the special assessment, those that are supporting Harvest
Transit and the Rides To Wellness program, was 173,000 and that totals the 272. Happy
to answer any other questions if there are any on that.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just real quick, Stephen. I was just kind of curious. Under the special
assessment service contribution it's based on -- on annual hours of service and, then,
under that funding made available through the CARES Act, the pilot service between
Meridian and Boise Veterans Medical Center, it was based on annual rides. Was that just
a requirement of the federal system and on how to -- how to count that to fund?
Hunt: Council Member, Mr. Mayor, no, the difference just had to do with how we -- how
we end up being charged for those funds with some of the services, like Harvest Transit,
that's based on hours of service provided. Other -- other funding models are based on
-- on trips provided and the Rides To Wellness program and what we would be doing with
the -- the Veterans program is intended -- is expected to be on a -- on a per trip basis and
so when we describe the -- the budget for those programs, we express those in assumed
number of trips.
Hoaglun: Got it. Thank you, Stephen. Mr. Mayor.
Simison: Councilman Borton, did you have a question?
Borton: I did. I might have shared some of the confusion on the numbers and maybe this
question for Caleb will put -- highlight it. Can you remind me, Caleb, in the August of 2020
we allocated X amount for the combined VRT services and what I was struggling with in
understanding this presentation was what's the amount that we budgeted and due to
COVID or otherwise, what's the -- is there a different amount that's being requested and
I had read this the same way, that the 51 ,000 dollars that had been budgeted for the fixed
line services isn't needed, but the request is that they want to retain that 51 ,000 and
sprinkle it amongst the other areas that we have already funded. So, that's -- that's where
I got a little lost in the numbers, so I couldn't track.
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Hood: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Borton, Council Members, I don't have -- I'm trying to pull
up my numbers from Finance. But let me just talk to you about the methodology we use
without getting into the numbers. We did have a discussion with VRT and the Mayor's
office about should we roll the 50 -- the service credit of 51 ,250 forward another year,
because that is, quote, unquote, earmarked for the start of the -- the Ten Mile through
downtown to The Village and back service and we thought it would be cleaner working
with Finance -- Todd and Jenny both recommended let's not keep that on the books, let's
basically use that, even though it was budgeted for that this year, that way we don't have
to keep tracking it that way, spend that and -- and, then, not carry it forward again, but
use that money and, then, next year we will come in with an enhancement for that service.
So, the numbers do get -- I apologize that it's confusing, but that's what Finance
recommended we do. I will just -- and we can get the numbers, I just don't have them
handy -- the numbers in August that you all approved for the budget. I think it's more
coincidence that the -- the dollar amount that we are spending that's addressed in the
cooperative agreement is very very similar to the budgeted amount that you approved in
August. But to Councilman Cavener's question and yours, Mr. Borton, we aren't
reallocating those -- we kind of are, right, the 50 -- 51 and change we are using, but we
aren't fully spending what you authorized us to spend this August in FY-21 . So, we will
come back next year with an enhancement for that. So, it is confusing and I'm sorry I
don't have all the numbers in a nice table to show you how that works, but that -- that is
the case here. I will just --just also say some of that cost allocation method that Stephen
mentioned did affect our, you know, year over, so for the last several years we have been
-- we have been providing relatively a flat -- you know, it's based on our population, some
of it, and service hours and some of that. That has also taken an increase. So, those
regular services that we received from VRT have had a small uptick in -- I think some
coincidence on why the numbers are really close. But, hopefully, that helps and I will still
-- I will look for that table, because I do have one that shows the breakdown and get that
to Council so you can see that a little clearer.
Borton: Okay. Thanks.
Simison: Council, any further questions at this point in time or would you like Stephen to
continue? All right. Stephen, I will let you go ahead and continue.
Hunt: Thank you. So, the last thing that we wanted to talk about is the -- the Veterans
Transportation pilot. So, I'm going to -- I'm going to change slides and turn it over to Leslie
to speak about this pilot program.
Pedrosa: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Members of Council. I'm Lisa Pedrosa, I'm the
operations director and I'm the one that was challenged with helping spend that 51 ,000
dollars you are all asking about with this pilot for Veterans Transportation. So, I worked
with our staff, as well as city staff, and we came up with an idea to pilot a transportation
program that would offer within the same service area that Harvest Transit and Rides To
Wellness provide service for and have transportation strictly to and from those residents
to the Boise VA in downtown. So, we are looking at starting in the spring of this year,
piloted through the rest of this fiscal year. Our service providers, who currently give rides
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for the Rides To Wellness program, will continue to do the same rides for the same
service. It will be available 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. We made
some assumptions. We assume -- we will start with, you know, up to ten trips a day and,
then, once we kind of pilot the program, see how it's going to work, see what those costs
may be, then, we will do the next steps to assess what it will cost for the following years
to come. Some of the -- the way we would fund this program is we pay a boarding fee,
plus a mileage per trip basis for each person. So, those are the costs that we came up
with and between now and the end of September we don't expect to spend that full 51 ,000
dollars, so that's -- that's our plan is to not spend that amount, but that -- that's what we
are going to do with the funds to pilot this program and see -- it's been a need. It's been
asked about a lot from the riders of Harvest Transit of how they can get there. So, we
hope this will fill that gap.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I'm a little -- I don't want to muddy the waters, but I am having a hard time sort
of tracking and following. It does say in -- I guess page five of the agreement that funding
is made possible to get from Meridian to the Veterans -- to the VA, that that -- that that
funding is from the CARES Act. But, then, you are saying that there is this 51 ,000 dollar
credit that's helping to fund it. Is it both? And I guess just a general question. How does
this compare to like giving people an Uber or something? Give me a feel for that.
Pedrosa: Thank you, Council Woman Strader. As far as the Lyft-Uber option, we do have
some programs that do use that first mile-last mile connection and whatever the cost is a
person pays a flat fee and, then, we pay the balance of that ride. We chose not to do that
with this option, because they are not, for the most part, wheelchair accessible. So, we
wanted to make sure that we have that ability to provide the trips for anybody who needed
to get to the Veterans Administration. So, we opted to go with our providers now that are
wheelchair accessible. Stephen, I don't know if you want to address that question about
the CARES Act funding. That's your department.
Hunt: Thanks, Leslie and Council Woman Strader. I think that we probably
misrepresented -- the 51 ,000 that was the service carry forward from 2020 wasn't the
source of-- it isn't the -- those aren't the monies that are being used for this pilot. It is the
CARES resources and the monies that I think we were able to save because of COVID
and we were not having as many trips and as much demand on services that we had
planned on through 2020 and so we were repurposing those resources, but it wasn't the
-- the 51,000 that we have talked about a couple of times. That -- that amount of money,
which was set aside for expanded fixed route service, is being applied as a credit to what
otherwise would be a larger service contribution.
Strader: Mr. Mayor, thank you. I -- I think I understand now. Curious -- a pilot is a great
idea to see if something is successful, but it's hard to take a service away once we start
providing it. Do you have an estimate of what the annual operating cost would be for this
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program, so that we could know that, because in the future there won't be CARES Act
funding.
Pedrosa: I believe the estimated amount we did for an annual cost was around 170,000,
if I remember correctly. I will have to get back to you on that with the exact number. But
we did allocate a whole year's cost as well.
Strader: Okay. Is that -- sorry. Is that for Meridian specifically? Our share would be
170,000?
Pedrosa: No. That's -- that is the fully loaded cost. So, that would be -- a portion will be
federally funded and, then, there would be local matches I could provide.
Strader: Okay. That -- that makes more sense. Thank you.
Pedrosa: You are welcome.
Simison: Council, any further questions or any further information needed to be shared
by Stephen or Leslie?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: To either Stephen or Leslie. You talked about the Harvest Transit riders asking
for this service. What's been the response from the VA? I was under the impression the
VA provides a transit service already and so I'm curious if I'm -- again, if I'm mistaken so
be it. But what's -- what's been the communication and direction from the VA about this?
Pedrosa: Mr. Mayor and Councilman, so we did reach out to the VA. Currently the
Disabled American Veterans do provide transportation from Canyon county in and they
did say that they would make stops in Meridian on a space available basis, but for the
most part their vehicle does fill up in Canyon county before it gets to Meridian. So, that
limits the amount of rides that they would be able to take continuing on into Boise.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I feel like that we are kind of -- I don't know. I'm not getting a lot of direct
answers today and it's -- it's getting a little frustrating. Is the VA asking for this service or
not?
Pedrosa: No. It was not brought to us by the VA.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you.
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Simison: Councilman Cavener, I can speak to that. This was something that was brought
to my attention at, quite frankly, the Rock of Honor event with veterans where they were
expressing problems with using Harvest Transit does not -- does not go outside of the
City of Meridian limits and so they were looking for a way to get the users, which Harvest
Transit currently serves, to the VA, which is one of the main areas they need to go.
Cavener: But I guess, Mr. Mayor, is it that they are choosing to not want to use the
services that are provided by the VA or the VA is not meeting there -- isn't able to provide?
I guess that's the piece I'm -- I'm under the impression that the VA will pick up people in
Meridian and take them to the VA, whether it's part of a trip to Canyon county or not.
Simison: That is not the experience that has been shared with me by our local veterans.
Cavener: Okay. Appreciate that.
Hunt: Council Member Cavener, Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Mr. Hunt.
Hunt: So, this pilot project initiated as a conversation between City of Meridian staff and
VRT to see what we might be able to create in terms of a connection between the City of
Meridian and the VA.
Simison: Council, any further questions or comments at this point in time?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: What's the next step that you or staff or VRT is looking for?
Simison: Mr. Hood?
Hood: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, Council. So, we do have this on --
on your agenda for you to authorize us to enter into this agreement with -- with VRT. I
can share some of that information that we have talked about today, so you -- I mean we
want you to be comfortable, obviously, with this, so I can show you the -- the dollars
budgeted for this year versus the -- the corporative agreement if you want another week
or two even if -- if need be. There isn't a dire need to approve this tonight if you are
uncomfortable. So, that was the idea going in, but you brought up some good questions
and I feel like we should probably share some of that information with you first. So, I think
we can, again, continue this to next week and we will share the dollars a little bit more
and, hopefully, that's a little clearer.
Cavener: That would be very very helpful.
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Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: Yeah. I would agree that we are, obviously, not ready to make a -- you know, a
recommendation tonight or to vote on anything. I -- next week may work or even, you
know, sometime into the future, if it's not imminent. It just looks like there is just a lot of
questions that are unanswered or that there is a lot of confusing data that's not making
sense and so maybe we should swerve back and make sure that, you know, the questions
that were asked tonight are answered probably in a more clear way, so we have a better
understanding of what you are asking us to do and what that looks like and so whether
that's next week or two weeks or three weeks, we just need to get it right and so we are
all on the same page.
Simison: Mr. Nary, do we need a motion to move something or can we just add it at a
future agenda that makes sense? It's under Department/Commission Reports, so it's --
Nary: So, Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, you can -- you can just simply add it to a future
agenda.
Simison: Okay.
Nary: You don't have to do it today. You can -- you can set it in our are normal agenda
setting.
Simison: Okay. All right. Then we will work to bring the information to Council within a
more clear concise way, so that you can track what's being asked and the details of this
process and if we feel like there is -- that information is shared, we can bring it back for a
future conversation or revert back to what was originally approved in the budget.
Hood: Thank you.
Simison: Okay. Thank you very much. With that do I have a motion?
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I move we adjourn our work session.
Cavener: Second.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. Is there any discussion? If not, all in
favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it and we are adjourned.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
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MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:03 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
3 / 2 2021
MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK
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