2011-07-06 SpecialMeridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Kilchenmann: Okay. Welcome to the presentations of the FY 2012 budget. I'm not --
I'm scheduled for a revenue update. I'm not actually going to do the revenue update
that -- I believe that was presented to you in the manual, but on your desk I put two
pieces of paper, one's a legal size piece of paper and one is the ever changing General
Fund projected fund balance report, which this is a fluid document, because things are
always changing. So, what I have done on this one --and this is just sort of --this is for
you to consider and mull over as we go through the next two days. But what I have
done is I have dropped into the 2012 column -- I have dropped the budget request as it
is right now -- or as it was a couple days ago. I think it might have changed a little bit
since then. But I have dropped that in there and, then, in the future years the legal
sheet of paper is our Capital Improvement Plan for five years for the General Fund, so
it's just kind of to give you a reminder of where we were going. So, I have made some
notes of the things that we didn't do that are in our Capital Improvement Plan and I
pushed some of those items off into the next years, so that you can see how they -- if
we do do them how they will affect our fund balance and the budget. So, I dropped --
there is a few things I dropped out -- just slowly -- completely at my discretion that could
be added back in. I dropped out the Rails To Trails, the animal shelter and the engine --
refurbishing the engine. In other words, they got pushed to further years, which is not
necessarily what we will do when we sit down after these workshops and starting work
on the Capital Improvement Plan again. But I just wanted to show you the impact of
those items on future years, as we -- as we still do some of those items we identified. I
also made some assumptions -- I took out the use of fund balance, except for the use of
fund balance that we are going to use this year. We have budgeted for the
maintenance shop this year and we had budgeted for kind of a savings toward the field
house. But in the future years I took use of fund balance out, because, obviously, our
fund balance has been depleted beyond what it was when we initially put together this
projection. Oh, we additionally put together the Capital Improvement Plan. So, also
when you look at '12 --that '12 column compared to the '11 column, we haven't -- in '12
there are two grants that are not included. The ARA Grant for 425,000 and the Block
Grant for 257,000. We don't have those in the '12 budget yet, so that kind of makes a
difference. So, basically, we are looking at revenue going up about four percent,
personnel going up five percent, operating going down eight percent, capital going down
four percent, which those percentages, again, are somewhat affected by those grants
that have not yet been added to '12. So, that's just kind of something to keep in front of
you as we go through the day and if you have any questions at anytime about the
Capital Improvement Plan or about this schedule, just feel free to interject and ask as
we go through each department's enhancements.
De Weerd: So, Stacy, just a quick question on the grants. Are you still figuring in,
though, the capital and personnel costs to those grants, just not the revenue?
Kilchenmann: No. What Todd does is he will go -- he doesn't like to put those in until
we actually receive the award. So, when we get the award we will do an amendment
and put the revenue and the expense and so it's a wash.
De Weerd: Even though we already have the people hired?
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July 6, 2011
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Kilchenmann: People hired?
De Weerd: Yeah. As far as --
Kilchenmann: The Cops grant's in there and the DFC grant. The only one that's not in
there is the ARA and the Block Grant and neither of those have people, except for Lori.
So, that is a point. We probably should put the Block Grant in.
De Weerd: Okay. I was just checking on that.
Kilchenmann: Yeah. I will turn it over to Todd for a brief overview.
De Weerd: As Todd comes up I will tell you that he and I had a very entertaining time
playing good cap, bad cop. I'm not sure who was who sometimes, but it was a good
experiencing going through this budget with Todd and the various departments and
Council liaisons.
Overall Budget (TL), Merit, Reclass/Increases (BN)
Lavoie: Well, thank you. Good morning, Mayor. Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council. It was fun being bad cop, good cop. We saw a number of you guys in the
meetings this year, so we definitely appreciate the time you guys took and enjoyed the
fun with us. I'm going to go over what I handed out to you this first thing this morning as
your supplemental packet. The first thing you have is just the budget schedule that we
are going try to stick by today for you. The next section paper clip is the updated
budget summary sheets. So, if you just want to insert those into your book. These are
the new General Fund, Development Services Fund, and the Enterprise Fund
summaries. The next paper is a supplemental computer replacement and capital
replacement request that we built for your review. The next item is a dues and
partnerships schedule update. It shows you what the city is paying for with all different
dues. The next five items are enhancements. We have a new enhancement that's
converting -- for the IT department that's converting a part time junior developer to a
part-time software engineer. We have a police grant that's called the E ticketing grant.
We have another police grant called the Edward Byrne Memorial JAG Grant. Then you
have the two wastewater grants that are just updating some of the text information on
those particular enhancements. One's a drying bed and one's a SCADA upgrade. And,
then, the last item you have in your packets is for the third year in a row we had a BSU
student work with the city to review its budget process and the Meridian parks process
and I just gave you a copy of the report that they supplied to their teacher and it is
actually an ex-employee Joey Schuler, he is the one who wrote the report for you guys
this year. So, it's in there for your review and give him kudos next time you see him.
think he got an Aon his report.
De Weerd: All right.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Rountree: Except he spelled my name wrong.
Lavoie: Did I spell it wrong?
De Weerd: You spelled his name wrong.
Lavoie: Did I? Sorry.
De Weerd: Or Joey did.
Rountree: Joey did.
Lavoie: Oh. Don't give him too much of a hard time.
Rountree: I will.
De Weerd: I would, too.
Lavoie: Well, with that I will just jump into my budget presentation. It should be pretty
quick. I was going to go over some of the highlights of what's going to be presented to
you guys in the next two days. Some items of interest for this year's presentation --the
revenue calculations do not include the three percent property tax allowable increase in
the numbers that are presented to you. The fiscal -- the'12 budget presentations does
include a three percent merit pool and also an adjustment to the police STEP plan that
we will discuss in a few minutes for you. And also within this budget year we are
proposing that we spend two million dollars of the General Fund balance for capital
projects. With that we will jump right into some numbers. The numbers that are
presented to you for the next two days, the total city fiscal year 2012 budget that is
proposed is 56,893,000. That's going to be up 1.01 percent from last year. You can
see how it's broken down between the three funds. The General Fund is 28,906,000.
It's going to be up 5.08 percent from last year. When I used the last year comparisons
I'm using the last as year as representative of this day last year exactly. So, what we
presented to you this same time last year -- not amended, but exactly 12 months ago
from today. And, then, the Enterprise Fund is going to be funding down 3.01 percent
from last year. And you can see with the graph that --the different percentages that the
city is comprised of, 25 percent is fire, 20 percent is police, and so on. Over the next
two days the city will be proposing some new FTE's, some vehicle replacements, and
some enhancements. The General Fund we will be presenting to you a request for 5.5
new FTE's. Development Services and Enterprise Fund will be presenting zero new
FTE requests. There will be 18 vehicle requests. Those are going to be 17 new
requests and -- I apologize. I apologize. Fifteen replacement requests and two new
vehicles in the General Fund and Enterprise Fund is requesting one replacement of
their vehicles. And, then, for enhancements you will be presented with 10.8 million
dollars of enhancements and you can see how it's broken down between the three
funds. The '12 budget is broken down by -- 80 percent of the budget is going to be base
budget, proposed is 19 percent is enhancement, and one percent of the total budget is
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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going to be replacements. Just another viewpoint on what the budget looks like from a
General Fund budget and an Enterprise Fund budget breakdown. The last slide was
total city. Again, another view on what the budget is going to look like. The top graph
shows you your total city budgets from FY-07 to FY-12. So, we are pretty flat over the
last two years. The bottom left one is the total city budget by fund. We have it broken
down by three different columns. And, then, the bottom right-hand corner shows your
total personnel and total operating budgets for the city as a whole, so you can see
personnel. The taller of the two and ongoing is the smaller of the two columns. Over
the next two days the city will be presenting to you 736,595 dollars in replacements.
You can see how it's broken down into three different funds. The bottom --the left-hand
graph shows your total city replacements over the last six years and, then, the bottom
right-hand corner one shows the same date, which is broken out by fund again. There
will be 65 enhancements presented to you over the next two days. We have 25 that will
be presented to you in the General Fund,. with a value over three million dollars.
Development Services Fund will have two enhancements, 55 -- a little bit over 55,000
dollars. And the Enterprise Fund will be presenting 38 enhancements, a little over 7.7
million dollars. Again, on the left is the graph orthe total city -- total enhancements year
by year and, then, the same data again broken down in bars for the representative
funds. During the budget presentations over the next two days you will have some
departments that will not be presenting enhancements and you can see those right
there. Building Services, City Clerk, Economic Development, Finance, Human
Resources, Legal, Mayor's Department and Utility billing. So, if you have any questions
for them, please, let us know. We did not really slot a time for them, since they had
zero enhancements. But if you have questions, please, let us know and we can get
somebody up here for you. And with that that is my part of the presentation. I stand for
any questions. And leave you with a little joke.
De Weerd: Council, any questions at this point?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Not right now.
Lavoie: Thank you very much.
No Enhancements -Building, City Clerk, Econ Dev,
Finance, HR, Legal, MUBS, Mayor
De Weerd: Thank you. Does that picture make you want Skiddles, Bill?
Nary: Good morning, Mayor and Council.
De Weerd: Good morning.
Nary: I only have a few slides to talk about FY-12's benefits, adjustments, and
reclasses and enhancements. The first one I'd start off -- I like to always start off with
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July 6, 2011
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bright and colorful. I thought bright and colorful for a Wednesday morning on budget
would be good. First thing to talk about is benefits. Benefits are always a challenge
trying to keep within a budget for that. There is a lot of unknowns that happen each
year with it and our budget -- or our benefits committee, along with Mercer, our benefits
consultant, worked through a lot of different issues on our current benefits package and
how we do things. What you have in front of you is what our renewals are for the FY-
12. You will notice one of them is still pending, but let me break them down. We were
anticipating a higher increase in Blue Cross and with Mercer's assistance and our
employee utilization numbers that have really been pretty steady have decreased. We
were able to get Blue Cross at a 6.4 percent increase for FY-12. Many cities around our
area experienced a much more significant increase from Blue Cross than that. So, we
were very pleased with that. We had actually anticipated potentially higher of an
increase. But I want to talk first about the -- the first bullet that we listed there. The
benefits committee has, basically, recommended that we make sure our employees
understand this is the last year we believe we can offer the benefit package that we
currently have as a price that is affordable to the city and to the employees. The
benefits committee would like to look at alternatives for the next fiscal year in rewriting
the plan and you will notice -- let me take one second. You will notice that the blue --
the blue folder I provided to you there is a breakdown of the various plans and this long
spreadsheet that you have shows the different renewals for Blue Cross and the current
plan that you have -- you see the 6.4 percent increase. You will notice with some slight
variation, whether it's to the co-insurance, the deductibles, the out of pocket, we can
realize some additional savings. The benefits committee is not recommending we take
on those savings this year,. mostly because we have just recent surveys and trying to
figure out what really is the most important value to employees, what they -- what's the
most bang for our buck and so we felt as a committee that we need to build -- well,
study that result, as well as see what really fits into a better plan for employees that's,
again, affordable for the city on alonger-term basis and we believe a transition year is
probably the most appropriate way to handle that. FY-14, based on the -- if there is
significant changes to the national healthcare law, there may be more significant costs
to the city and so trying to transition that in FY-13 we think is the right way to go and
trying to get a plan that, again, stays more of an affordable without changing benefits
significantly. Again, we have to educate our employees a little bit on some of the pieces
and parts of the plan. Just a good example, some -- if you don't use some of the things
-- EAP is a few notches down here. If you don't use EAP, you don't find a lot of value in
it. Yet we have a 20 percent utilization of EPA of our employees. So, 20 percent of our
employees are using it a lot. And so there is value to people and it doesn't cost a great
amount of money and we find a good avenue for people when there are crises, whether
at work or at home, that there is an avenue for employees to go. Without having that
we think this would be a detriment to our --our benefits package. So, we don't want to
necessarily just, you know, cut and burn and slash things just based on a survey, but
we want to analyze the survey and, then, see what the marketplace has. But I wanted
you to see the comparisons that we looked at on where we could save things, but we
felt it was such a -- such a tenuous time for folks and because it was within the budget
that we had anticipated, to not make changes this year, but to make sure our
employees are informed and this will be the last year this plan will look the way it looks.
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July 6, 2011
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It will be different, it will have a different deductible, it will have different copays, it may
have a different maximum out of pocket and, again, not a tremendous amount, I mean
we tried to also inform employees, you know, we are not going to come back and
recommend that we go from, you know, one level to something that's, you know, 150
percent higher. I mean that's just not very logical. So, we are not looking to do that, but
we want to make sure that we maintain an affordable plan going forward in the future.
So, on the next one, as I said, medical, our Blue Cross came in at 6.4. That was less
than we had anticipated it would be, so we are very pleased by that. Delta Dental was
very -- we had a higher utilization of dental and yet Delta Dental we were able to get
them down to a six percent increase, which we felt was fair in the market and what was
being used. Willamette was also at six percent. Willamette has a huge utilization, as in
over a hundred percent utilization of that benefit, because the way that's structured
people tend to use it more, because one of the advantages of Willamette is it has
orthodontics and so people tend to move to Willamette, so that they can take advantage
of the orthodontics coverage, so it does tend to be utilized a lot, so keeping them at six
percent was also a plus. We felt from the benefits committee that it was important that
we at least go out and market the dental plan to make sure we are getting the best
value. We think six percent is right. Blue Cross does offer a dental plan that's basically
wrapped up into their medical. We thought we would at least get a quote from them to
see whether or not it was a better advantage to the city. I hate to change too much for
people, unless you're going to really make a wholesale package change to it, but we at
least thought it was important that we evaluate that cost. So, we don't have that. We
anticipate having that by Thursday. If it's less than the six percent, we may come back
and recommend to you that we do that. If it's a six percent we'd probably recommend
keeping the ones that currently exist. The vision plan was a zero increase. Just as an
aside again, the number of people -- I think we have to educate our employees a little
bit better, because a number of folks don't understand completely how it works, so we
got a lot of comments back in our survey that it's not enough or it doesn't really cover a
lot of things and it's really meant to cover portions of your cost for eye care for classes
or contacts and I thinkwe just need to do a better job of making sure people understand
what's covered and what isn't covered. Again, the EAP, as I have stated, it's a 3.9
percent increase. We have a 20 percent utilization; it's probably one of the higher ones
around. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I think it's a good thing. I
think people as they find that this is service that's available to them that they want to use
it. We updated a few years ago, you may recall, from three visits to five. We find the
average visit now is four. So, it does fit exactly, it appears at the moment, what people
do need to help them through some difficult times. So, I think we are pretty pleased
with that one. Our United Heritage coverage for life insurance, short-term disability and
long-term disability, there is no increase for that. And, then, our flex, probably the one
comment that we receive the most from employees is their dissatisfaction with the --
with the discovery benefits and the services they provide. The flex program is basically
mandated by the federal government how it has to be administered and what's required
and what receipts are necessary to be done. So, I -- we don't believe that you will get a
significant amount of change for that no matter where you go. They have to follow the
same rules no matter who is administering it, but we have found some difficulty in
working with some of the discovery benefits folks. It's an online service, they are not a
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July 6, 2011
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local company, so the recommendation benefit manager is a local Boise company, they
have a local office, they have a good reputation, they have a number of local clients,
Mercer has worked with them, as well as other clients that use them as a service. They
have found them to be helpful and very satisfactory from the customer service side, a
very minuscule increase cost of change. Most of the cost of change will most likely --
will likely be more in just the setup cost and fee, which is a one-time cost. But we are
recommending we switch to that one, because we think we can provide a better service
to our employees. Again, that seemed to be our highest frustration point is dealing with
discovery benefits. Questions before I move onto the next slide? Wage adjustments.
We looked at all the employee groups and, again, we -- we do look at number of
different things. We look at the local market. We look at statewide surveys. We look at
various target cities within the state and trying to determine where do our employees
pay scales fall in relation to others. We did not recommend that we move the general
employee pay scale up this year. Again, this would be our second year in a row. We
feel the general employee pay scale is currently adequate in the market. We think we
may need to look at it in FY-13, but we think the last two years we have put our -- our
employee pay scale at the -- the proper entry level, that we think there is some
adjustments that could be evaluated internally at different positions, but the scale as a
whole we feel is adequate to be marketable and for both recruitment and retention of
employees. These recommended wage adjustments are a little different on the police
one you know, the police work off a pay scale that is based on years of service. There
is a graduated scale for the different levels of certification an officer may receive up to
the first five years of employment and between five and ten there is no additional
amount that's added to the officer's base wage, unless they are doing extra types of
duties. They have a second language, they perform for the -- they work in the K-9 unit;
they work on an FTO or some other areas of specialty that the chief may authorize. At
year ten they get an increase based on years of service and, again, by certifications
they get increases, as well as promotions. We recommended moving the whole entire
scale three percent. We looked at the local market, as well as statewide to stay
competitive. We feel that if we don't continue to keep the police pay scale in general at
a three percent increase we are going to lag behind some of our local competitors, like
Boise and Nampa, as well as some of our statewide competitors for employees and,
then, we want to avoid the major jumps. You know, we certainly don't want to come to
you in a year and say, well, we have held off a couple years now, so now let's move it
up five percent or seven percent, because we have to make up some gaps. We think
three percent will keep our police pay at the current market rate that's competitive with
the valley, as well as the state. The general employees merit pool, I think Todd had
mentioned that we had recommended a merit pool again for performance. That would
be the -- three percent would be consistent with this current fiscal year of FY-11. That
gives a range of potential increases based on merit performance for individual
employees. This past year we were able to do with a three percent based on the
numbers. We were able to do a two and ahalf -- two percent to about a four percent
increase for employees. This year we will see how the breakdown is on our
performance reviews to see whether or not we can still maintain it, but three percent
gives us enough flexibility to be able to give a decent increase for employees that are
performing above and beyond and to be able to maintain the cost of benefits for
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July 6, 2011
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employees as well. The fire collective bargaining agreement has a three percent
already built into that and that takes effect October 1 of this year. Next we have a few
reclasses. There is a division chief proposal you will hear from Chief Niemeyer. This
reclass only deals with the current command personnel in the department, so we have,
basically, the ops and the prevention deputy chief and the logistics and EMS division
chiefs. Chief Niemeyer will explain his overall proposal, but this 19,873.76 basically
adjusts the division chiefs to be at a level higher than the captain. What we had --
inadvertently wedidn't anticipate the --the differences between what the captains would
be making in FY-11 and '12 and, then, what the division chiefs were slotted to make and
where they were situated. So, this, basically, makes sure there is a separation between
the captain position that's a union contractual position, the division chiefs that are going
to be above that, and, then, the deputy chiefs that are above that -- for a couple of
variety of reasons, but primarily from equity you're going to want to, obviously, pay a
slightly higher amount of wage for the folks that have higher responsibility at each level
of the department. So, this amount, like I said, only deals with current personnel, it's not
going to -- this is incorporated -- if you add the additional personnel as well, that would
be incorporated in the enhancement. Reclass for general employees. This amount --
this covers six positions. We polled all of the positions in the city to see whether or not
there are some necessary adjustments either to individual positions or to positions as a
whole. Last year we took on a couple of different positions as a whole, large scale work
groups, this year we looked at some smaller groups based on department's request.
This, basically, covers six different positions and these are slight adjustments to either
market range to the first third of the range for certain positions to make sure we stay
current either with internal equity or with the marketplace for the Clerk's Office,
Planning, the Mayor's office is one position, that's just a readjustment from an office
assistant position to an administrative assistant position based on the duties, and
human resources is the same. We have an administrative assistant one that has now
taken on the duties of all three divisions of my office, as well as handling budget
matters, that's really classified as the administrative assistant two, so there is a slight
pay adjustment for that. So, all six of these positions are really just more internal
adjustments based on the duties and responsibilities and what the pay scale is relative
to other people that performed that --that function. Three quarter time employees. This
is an enhancement that we are requesting. We have found --and this really affects two
positions, one in the Mayor's office and one in Parks and Recreation. What we found --
and especially in Parks and Recreation, that's probably the one I want to start with, we
were finding that there are positions in the city -- and we, actually, ended up really
finding four positions that we identified, we scaled it back to two, where that 19.5 hours,
which is the limitation set by PERSI, that a person can only work 19.5 hours a week, up
to 11 weeks -- and there is a whole bunch of formulaic requirements to it, but, anyway,
basically 19 and a half hours a week. Well, what they find with the Parks Department,
based on their seasons, don't correspond necessarily with the growing seasons that
exist in PERSI and that's what a lot of these 19 and a half hour are seasonal positions
were designed for doesn't work, because their seasons correspond with sports seasons,
not growing seasons. So, they are sport season folks, they have to hire more people to
have enough coverage for making sure the gyms are opened and closed, making sure
there is personnel their, the officials are there, that the games operate, the different
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July 6, 2011
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things operate -- so, they have to hire up to potentially seven people to manage their
different sport schedules because of the limitations that are placed on that. If we add
them at a higher amount of work time, then, they are all going to become PERSI
eligible. So, what we did in working with the parks departments -- and, again, with the
Mayor's office -- we found that there was at least two positions that we could target,
make those positions higher. Work positions. They are PERSI eligible, they wouldn't
be eligible for other benefits, but they are PERSI eligible, but potentially either eliminate
positions, like in the Parks Department, or not run into the position that you're ending up
paying PERSI anyway or you're having to hire another person to fill the void. So, the
Mayor's office position would provide support to the economic develo ment area and
p ,
then, the parks position would eliminate at least five and potentially up to seven
seasonal part-time positions, so we wouldn't have to, essentially, hire more folks just to
make sure we stay within that, we could hire one person. The question I would
anticipate when we discuss this around the table with the directors is why don't we just
make these people full time instead and, again, in talking with the departments --
wouldn't tell you that neither of these positions or the others that we identified this year
couldn't potentially be full-time positions at some point in the future, the departments
didn't think that they needed to be full time now, that this wasn't a measure to both get
the job done without the additional cost of benefits and the other things that go with it
and were -- would allow the departments to, again, manage their workload and their
work force better than what exists today. But I'm not going to kid you and say either
these positions or some others might some day be necessary to be full time. We just
didn't feel they were necessary to be full time now. That's all I have.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: Bill, on your last slide help me understand the enhancement aspect of that.
If -- if you're going to eliminate five and possibly seven part-time seasonal positions, that
--that group of folks had a payroll burden of whatever. Is the 45,000 in addition to that
or is the 45,000 just for the two positions and there is a net savings or a minimal
increase inthe -- in the payroll burden?
Nary: That's a great question, Council Member Rountree. The 45,000 is based on just
those two positions. The seasonal -- the seasonal hires for the Parks Department,
basically, that Finance pools all of those funds. So -- and they don't slot them per
individuals. What this is based on --and the reality is this is based on a formula, so the
likelihood that this will be less than that is very high, because what we did we took the
current rate of what the employees make, but what we budget for positions is at mid
point. Neither of these positions will likely be paid mid point initially. But we took it from
the formula standpoint of how we do for all personnel positions, so we took it at mid
point, we basically up'd it from 19 and a half hours weekly to 36 hours weekly. I don't
anticipate necessarily that all the positions -- and you can certainly ask Steve. I don't
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July 6, 2011
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know that his positions will be 36 hours. Most of the departments though 32 would
cover a majority of the work that they needed, some weeks might be 34, some weeks
might be 30, especially on the seasonal -- or especially on the sports recreation
programs. But we took -- we took the max at 36, so that way we have some formula to
deal with. So, Todd, basically, just took the mid point of the range of what these two are
classified at, multiplied the additional hours -- so the additional 18 and a half hours
multiplied by 52 weeks a year. So, this is just additional cost for those two positions
only. It's not offset by the other positions, because they haven't determined which ones
they are going to eliminate specifically yet, because the seasonal ones are hired in the
pool, not necessarily by individual slotted employees.
Rountree: But there is a potential for an offset.
Nary: Yes.
De Weerd: Any other questions at this point?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay.
Nary: Thank you.
Planning
De Weerd: Thank you, Bill. Pete. Okay. We remember, Pete, last year it was chairs,
so --
Rountree: Now we need tables.
Friedman: Oh, yeah, we got to have something for us. Good morning, Madam Mayor,
Members of the Council. I will be brief. I think I have a very brief presentation here
somewhere.
De Weerd: Well, welcome to the position of interim planning director.
Friedman: Thank you. I was looking for a target. I couldn't fired one, so I guess you
will just have to have at me.
De Weerd: I know. I'm so disappointed.
Friedman: I know. It's a pleasure to be before you and give you our budget
presentation for FY-2012. 2011 has been a great year. Things are really picking up. I
think you can see that we have had some real significant milestones this year with our
Comp Plan update, the Scentsy campus underway, PKG underway, Fast Eddy's coming
out of the ground with their second facility, Center Cal starting to move forward and,
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 12 of 64
then, some of our internal tools that we have been developing this year that will assist
both our staff, as well as our clients and we are looking forward to a pretty exciting
2012. I think there is a lot of projects out there in the wings that you have been reading
about, more coming in the door every day, so stay tuned with that. Our budget
approach to this year is similar with the last three years. Consistently we are striving to
reduce costs. This year we have minimal enhancements. We have reduced our
personnel costs slightly. I'm not planning on asking for any staff increases and our
operating base costs have been reduced about 12 percent since 2011. I am
respectfully requesting one enhancement to complete the South Meridian Area Plan.
You will recall that's that kind of blank area in the southwest corner of our future land
use map that we refer to as the referral area, future planning area, when we
renegotiated our area of city impact with Ada County. The time has come. The Ten
Mile interchange is open. There is -- we have been coordinating with Nampa on -- and
ACHD on the future alignment of West Overland Road and Airport Road. Things are
beginning to pick up down in the county and we did make a commitment to those folks
when we did the South Meridian Plan four years ago that we would be back and I think
at this point in time the time has come to fulfill that commitment. So, therefore, I am
requesting an enhancement of 40,000 dollars for professional services to engage a
consultant to assist us with that planning effort. Planning on kicking that off probably
November, December time and I haven't completely thought through it, I don't think it's
going to be a prolonged planning effort. I'm hoping it won't be a prolonged planning
effort. The other one -- you know, we went through so many machinations on land use
alternatives, but we still have those. We have other information. We have had a couple
of studies done by BSU students. I will be working directly with Tom Barry and looking
closely at where we can provide services and where it makes sense not to provide
services. We plan on bringing as partners in this city of Nampa, Ada County, the
highway district, city of Kuna and Central District Health and trying to move this forward
and fill in that blank spot on the map. So, that is our one enhancement for next year.
Our total budget has been reduced by close to seven percent from 2011. So, if you
have any questions I would be happy to answer them.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Not at this time.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Thanks, Pete.
De Weerd: Thank you, Pete.
Friedman: Thank you.
De Weerd: Council, do you want a five minute break? Would you like a five minute
break?
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 13 of 64
Rountree: Sure. Why not.
De Weerd: I will go ahead and call a recess for five minutes.
(Recess: 9:12 a.m. to 9:18 a.m.)
Streetlights
De Weerd: Okay. I will call this meeting go back to order and welcome, Tim.
Curns: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this morning I have the streetlight
enhancement before you for our new streetlight installations. The FY-12 enhancement
is for 50,000 dollars and the annual ongoing electrical cost listed there is approximately
a thousand dollars. So, the purpose of this enhancement is, essentially, to increase
visibility and -- which is essential for the safety of traveling public, both cars,
pedestrians, and cyclists. The specific project description for this would be installing
lighting to meet the city's minimum lighting levels on roadways of significant pedestrian
and cyclist use and in this case this is a major focus on schools. As you see under the
goals, the immediate goal is to improve dark school walk routes along North Linder
Road from Pine Avenue to Cayuse Creek Way, which encompasses everything from
Rocky Mountain High School all the way down to Meridian High School and actually
have highlighted the entire length of Linder Road, then, I will explain why in a second.
And, then, the larger goal, of course, is to improve the mobility of Meridian residence.
And as I said, I have highlighted that entire section there, just because in looking at
what might make a series of projects to light this section of roadway, depending on how
money actually works out when you get down to it in programming projects, the very
south end there between Pine and Franklin, which serves as a walk route to Meridian
High School, could possibly be added in. It doesn't require a whole lot of additional
lighting. So, that's kind of why I have highlighted that there. But, in essence, that is the
proposed enhancement and I am ready to answer any questions that you may have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tim. Council, any questions?
Rountree: None right now.
De Weerd: Not at this point, but thank you, Tim.
IT, HR, Legal
De Weerd: Since it looks like IT is here, Council, we will just go ahead and if you don't
mind we will just launch into IT and HR and Legal.
Paternoster: I think it's pretty much just IT. We will wait for the Powerpoint to load.
De Weerd: I do like the cartoon in this section. You know, we know it's just a joke,
but --
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Paternoster: The cartoon?
De Weerd: You want to see my book?
Paternoster: I must have missed the book. Somebody did us a favor. We like that.
So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you forgiving us time this morning to
present the IT budget for FY-2012. Today we are prepared to talk about four items.
Two of those are enhancements and two of those are just replacement items. The first
item I wanted to talk --
De Weerd: Terry, do you want to start by introducing who you have with you.
Paternoster: Sure. Any IT staff please stand. So, we have Chad Neal over on the
right. Chad is our network specialist. We have David Tiede, our systems admin, who
kind of -- if something breaks it's his fault, but usually everything runs perfectly, so we
are very thankful to have him. Mike Tanner, our outstanding award winning
programmer. And, Wilma, our part-time GIS specialist, who teaches at the collegiate
level and we are very fortunate to have her.
De Weerd: Thank you for joining us.
Paternoster: Thank you. Thanks for reminding me. I appreciate it. So, the first item for
our presentation is on computer replacements and so let me find -- slight lag. And so
for FY-12 we have 44 computers that are up for replacements. This includes servers,
desktops, tough books, which we took over from police and fire over the past few years.
That 44 computers represents a little bit less than 15 percent of the total computers
within the city. On a five year replacement program we would expect to replace about
20 percent of the machines per year, but this is a low year. Part of the reason that it's a
little bit low average is that we have the Accela project that we have been actively
working on. Rob Sosnowski, our project manager, has been doing a phenomenal job
pushing that project, but one of the parts of that project was getting tablet machines for
the inspectors and the code enforcement people and so one of the ways that we were
able to save some money for the replacement for next year was to take the machines
for those individuals who had viable machines and redeploy those to other individuals
who would have otherwise been up for replacement next year. That, actually, reduced
the number by about 12 machines for next year that we would have otherwise had. The
next slide is for Microsoft Office replacement. This is a request that's been ongoing for
several years. We have -- IT's understanding of the budget and just the limitations of
the financial situation that is going on with the economy, tried to really think outside the
box as to how could we make improvements for the city without asking for all of the
money it wants and so what we have come up with is we came up with a two phased
approach as to how to take an intermediate step as to how to get the licensed upgrade.
The way that Microsoft licenses things makes it so that you can only buy current
licenses and so like if you wanted to buy a license of Office 2010, you can buy that now,
but you can't go back and buy 2003 and since the city is currently standard on Office
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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2003, every subsequent upgrade when we bought licenses we have got some upgrades
with it. So, what we are recommending doing this year is upgrading all of our Office
2003 licenses, which represents 177 licenses for the city. That's out of about 320 Office
licenses the city owns. By upgrading this 177 licenses to Office 2010, what that does is
that creates about a 60,000 dollar enhancement for Microsoft Office licenses. It allows
the city to upgrade to Office 2007 for next year, then, following for FY-13 we will come
forward with another enhancement for 42,000 dollars for the remaining 121 licenses the
city owns that won't be Office 2010 to get those upgraded and so, basically, we are
going to do 60,000 this year, we will do another 42,000 next year and we get benefit out
of both years, because next year we will get to go to Office 2007, the following year we
get to go to Office 2010 and so the city gets benefit. If you have any questions I'm
happy to get into that. It can be kind of confusing. The other enhancement that we are
asking -- or replacement that we are really asking for we have been running an older
version of Microsoft Exchange for -- we are still on Exchange 2003. We are asking to
upgrade our Exchange environment, which is our a-mail server, to Exchange 2010.
This enhancement comes to roughly 15,000 dollars. There has been numerous
improvements on the mobile front that we believe are worth the benefit to the city to
upgrade those licenses.
De Weerd: And, Mark, this doesn't improve user error.
Paternoster: So, our first enhancement is for GIS. GIS has been a hot topic of
conversation for the past couple years. The city has been using GIS since
approximately 2003 in Public Works, but one of the things -- oh, thank you, Wilma.
Wilma is passing out the GIS plan. This is -- represents a lot of work of many
individuals within the city. We really want to take this opportunity just to celebrate the
success that there is a plan that exists. You know, many people were skeptical that we
could actually get to a plan, but we are very pleased with the fact that we do have a plan
as to how we can address the needs for GIS and future improvements that are needed
to really optimize the use of GIS for the city and so we are really grateful to many of the
people who worked on that. In fact, we had a GIS team and at that GIS team meeting
we had over 22 different people within the city representing every department actually
attend meetings. In addition we had numerous inputs from individuals throughout the
city where we conducted a survey and we asked for input from on a lot of different
people throughout the city, we got numerous input and, basically, at the end of that we
consolidated all of the information and the recommendations for ways that people
thought that we could improve GIS and we came up with a list of over 140 business
opportunities. Out of those 140 business opportunities we recognize that it wasn't really
possible to do all of those at this juncture and so what we said is we said let's identify
the ones that really are high priority or have a lasting benefit. Immediate benefit. And
so we identified 65 items that were high priority and would provide immediate benefit to
the city by accomplishing those items. The methodology that we followed really was a
two factor methodology. Esri, which is the company who makes the GIS software, they
recommended a ten step methodology, which we started with throughout the plan.
When Rob Sosnowski was leading the GIS team he was following the methodology.
When Rob took over the Accela project we realized that although the methodology that
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July 6, 2011
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Esri recommended had a lot of benefits, that we really needed some more project
management experience to help us really bring the plan together and through a lot input
of resources internally, John McCormick specifically, we were able to really just bring
the plan to fruition. And so we are really proud of that plan and definitely, you know, if
you want more information about that plan or want to look at it at some point in the
future, definitely feel free to peruse it. So, the enhancement that we are asking for that's
associated with this is our first enhancement of two and what we are asking for is
roughly around 100,000 dollars for this enhancement and this is to implement a city
wide GIS plan. The plan really is made up of mostly components of personnel and so
we have 85,000 dollars, which is to upgrade to another one and a half full-time
positions. Wilma currently is a part-time resource. We would like to upgrade her to full
time. In addition, we realize that we need to upgrade -- but we actually need to add
another full-time position in order to get the plan done. If we don't add any resources to
the plan and we were to try to attempt to do the plan as it currently exists with those 65
deliverables, based off of the timeline it would take until 2028 to achieve those
deliverables, which we didn't feel was very timely or reasonable for the city. We also
were asking for 6,900 dollars in one time costs. Those are, basically, standard
personnel costs with adding a person, a cubicle, a computer, a phone, a chair, the
miscellaneous expenses that you have. And, then, we are also asking for 10,000
dollars in ongoing annual consulting money and what that is is that we recognize that
there is specialties that we have within the city and, then, there is specialties we don't
have and we realize that although we get a lot of benefit out of adding GIS specialists,
that adding like a GIS analyst or somebody who is maybe more specialized with our
infrastructure, it makes much more sense just to hire a consultant to come in and help
us out with those particular items. And so that's what that 10,000 dollars is for. One of
the things when John McCormick got involved with the plan that he said -- he said 65
deliverables is an awful lot of deliverables to do all at once and he really recommended
that we break it down into a phrased approach and so what we did is we broke it down
into three phases. At this juncture what we are asking for is try to get the funds and
resources to accomplish phase one. In addition, we think that these resources should
be sufficient to accomplish phase two and three when we get to that. But currently
phase one is broken down into 33 GIS deliverables through a needs assessment. The
primary objectives of this are GIS support and training, to integrate the GIS with existing
systems and to optimize work flows. As you may recall when Anna was here a couple
weeks ago and she provided a wonderful demonstration on what GIS actually does, you
know, she brought up some data sets and showed you some information. Well, one of
the challenges that the city's had is that the data sets don't always get up to date and so
what happens is atone point in time someone will say, well, I need this information and
so the GIS staff will hurry around and get that information up to date, but, then, it sits at
that point in time and there is not a plan in place as to how to keep that information
current and so what we recognized was if you're going to create the information you
need to have a work flow in place to make sure that information maintains so that it
keeps current. And, then, we also realize that part of this phase we need to identify
what are we going to do in phase two and three. What we recognize, even though there
is only 32 deliverables for phase two and three, we recognize that the city doesn't really
understand the benefit of GIS as well as they could and so we have recognized that
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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through support and training that people are going to recognize what they can get out of
GIS and through that recognition that we would expect that people are going to want
more GIS deliverables going forward and so part of phase two and three is to -- or
phase one is to identify what will happen in phase two, what will happen in phase three
specifically, in addition to those 32 remaining deliverables. This is a chart -- I think
Anna showed this chart before when she did the presentation a couple weeks ago, but
what this is is this is the organizational structure that the GIS team came up with for how
to best meet the city's needs. There is many ways you can implement GIS. Some
people or organizations have choosed to use a centralized model where, basically, they
take all of the GIS resources and they put them all into one department and say that
department's responsible for providing everything for every department. Other
organizations have said, no, nobody will house GIS, it will be in every single department
and each individual department will be responsible for their own resources and
maintaining their own systems. What we recognized is that the city doesn't want a one
size fits all approach and so when we came up with this structure we said what best fits
with the way that the city works and so what we have done is we started with the big
cylinder, which is IT and really as IT what we provide is we provide database support,
we provide support for departments that don't have resources, so that if you need
support as to how to create a map, how to create a database, that's something we can
provide. We also will provide training for departments and we also provide
development, so that way as we move forward we are not always relying on the Esri
tools, but we can develop tools that make it easier for citizens and employees to access
the resources within GIS. Because different departments have varying levels of GIS
resources, we recognized that -- you know, like, for instance, Public Works has quite a
few GIS resources, they have both Robin and Doug, who are full time, and so they have
the ability to provide most of their own GIS services in the way of data editing, data
mapping, querying the information. Other departments have fewer resources. Like
Planning has a resource that knows how to do some of those functions, the editing, the
mapping, the querying, so does police, but we also have other departments that don't
have any resources and so really, the bridge to that is the case management system.
Currently the city uses case management for their IT support request and so the
structure that we are recommending is to use case management to serve us and field
requests when departments don't have the resources in house, but also to work on
training in the future so that as other departments gain those resources they become
less reliant on IT always serving those requests. Some of the benefits that we
recognize from this system are that, you know, first off GIS saves time. One of the
challenges that we have is we have a lot of different databases within the city. We have
Cosell, we have Acella, we have Hansen and, really, what ties those different systems
together is a location, a point, and what GIS does is by tying those systems together,
which is part of phase one, really makes sure that we optimize the benefit of those
systems. It helps us to make it so that you can go to a point, a location, and you can
pull up information and you might recall when Anna did her demonstration that she was
able -- was able to pull up information on a point. You know, one of the things that was
pretty cool, she showed you her annexation, you know, where she said, well, let's pull
up all of the parcels in the city that are less than five acres or within a certain distance of
water and sewer resources and let's really make sure that the city knows what we could
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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annex if we wanted to. The other benefit that goes along with that is that we also have
the ability to reconcile our own information against what the county gives us.
Oftentimes the county gives us information and we just trust that information, but by
having our own information up to date it helps us to go back and reconcile to make sure
that we are getting the full amount of revenue that we are entitled to get. The other
benefit that the program provides is training and support. You know, I just can't
emphasize the training and support enough. We feel really fortunate that Wilma is here,
because of her great experience. I mean she's taught at the college level GIS several
times. We feel like that having that resource on hand is just a great benefit to the city in
the fact that we can train other departments how to support their own needs. Really,
from an IT standpoint we are not masters at the department's information. Really, each
department knows their information better than anybody and who better to keep that
information up to date than the department who knows the information the best and so
we see numerous benefits from the GIS plan. What this represents is this is, basically,
a Gantt chart and this represents the 33 deliverables in phase one. It's pretty
challenging to read. If you can read it your eyes are way better than mine, so -- but
what this represent is it's the 33 deliverables within phase one. What's important to
recognize is that this is based off of a timeline based off of precedence and
dependence. So, some tasks have to take place before other tasks can take place. But
that's not true for all the tasks. One of the things that we recognized is that, you know,
sometimes the city has needs that aren't always encapsulated in a one-time plan. This
plan and these phases can change on these deliverables as needed based off of a
steering committee that would oversee the plan and if a need became more important --
forinstance let's say that you needed to get to -- wanted to know the difference one -- or
get a layer on liquor locations and churches, there would be the ability to go and say
let's expedite that particular project over these other projects. But the Gantt chart just
basically lays out the deliverables and the precedence and dependence for those 33
items. So, what happens if the plan is not funded? Basically, if the plan is not funded,
the information and the deliverables won't get done for years. Some of the stuff will get
done, but as we stated at the beginning, if -- if there aren't additional resources
allocated it will take until 2028 to get it done. For phase one, if we do get this one and a
half resources we estimate that by November of 2012 that phase one of this plan will be
done and total plan will be done by 2015, based off of those 65 deliverables. The next
enhancement is our Bing maps and what this is is a mapping service. It's very similar to
what GIS does, but currently the city doesn't have a mapping web service available.
One of the things that the city atone time created was an alternative transportation map
and what it allowed employees to do was you could choose to subscribe and if you
subscribed in or opted into the program you could put in your name and choose that you
wanted to be in the program and that you wanted others to see where you lived and,
then, what it would do is that, then, you could view where other people lived around you
and coordinate car pooling and alternative transportation. After we had that program
enable we started to recognize that Bing had licensing requirements that said that if the
application wasn't publicly accessible, which means we would have to put our employee
information out to the public where anybody in the world could see it, that you couldn't
use their tools for free and so what this enhancement was for, it's for 8,200 dollars, it's
our second enhancement and last enhancement and it --what it does is there a 4,000 a
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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year fixed cost that Bing charges to their map service and, then, they charge a usage
fee, which the usage fee is for transactions and so basically what we have allotted is
4,200 dollars, which would allow for up to 200,000 transactions a month using the Bing
mapping service. Not only could this be used for internal applications, it could also be
used for external applications. We do expect that as time moves forward and our own
GIS mapping improves through our plan that we would be able to get rid of Bing maps
at some point in time. But for now we think this is an important necessity to just allow
us to provide those alternative services. So, that's the budget request for the IT
Department for FY-12, so I will stand for any questions and if there is something I can't
answer I do have GIS experts in the room to help answer.
De Weerd: Thank you, Terry. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mayor, at this time.
De Weerd: Thanks.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: We had delivered this morning some additional enhancements and I have
one for IT, enhancement for -- to convert apart-time junior developer to a part-time
software --was that one of those that Bill talked about of the multiple part-time ones that
you're consolidating?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Rountree, no, this was
a late addition based on some needs. This is basically -- we had an opportunity --and
this is the one for 9,905 dollars? okay. I can explain that. What we had is we had a
situation -- we have a software engineerwho is full time, SomerWelch and Somer is not
here today, but Somer, based on some -- some family needs and such was actually
going to leave us. Excuse me. She was going to leave us to stay home and take care
of some family needs, but decided that she could work part time if we had the
availability. What we found again on the engineering side, on the development side,
under Mike Tanner's group, that we had one vacant position, it was a -- we had
classified it as a junior developer and it had previously been a college intern and we had
had a college intern McKay, I'm sure all of you recall McKay Graybill, he had been a
college intern with us for about -- other than a short time period he was gone for a
couple years, he had been with us for about three years. So, that vacant position
basically was performing or was meant to perform the same functions as the -- the
regular software engineer developers, but it was at a reduced rate, because it was the
college student position. We felt if we could move Summer into the part-time position
that was available that was already an existing position, all we would need to do is
upgrade the -- the funding for it, but the duties were the same and so we felt it was
appropriate to, then, request to move Summer to that position, we had the funding to
carry it through this budget year, this is just for future --for FY-12 and beyond and that
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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still, then, leaves our vacant software engineer position, which we are currently
recruiting for, which is a full-time position. So, it was a late add on, so I'm sorry I forgot
to include that and Terry was focused on the GIS component of this, so this is a late add
on that was requested, but that's the basis of the 9,000 dollars. It's the difference
between what we were paying before and what this position is going to pay at the -- sort
of slightly above the entry level, but the first one-third of that pay grade for that position
and no benefits.
Paternoster: And if I could add just one thing that I think is an important addition to that
is when recruiting for IT positions, you know, one of the reasons that we really are
recommending this change is that it's probably one of our toughest positions to just
recruit for. I mean, for instance, right now we have the full-time position posted and it's
been posted for three weeks and we have only had three applications, which none
really appear very qualified at this juncture and so maintaining this resource, who has
already worked for us, has some knowledge, just seems like critical for the organization,
especially considering the difficulty we have in recruiting for this particular position.
Rountree: That's fine. Thank you.
Paternoster: Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just a quick comment, Terry, on that Bing if we move forward on this. I want
to -- next year I want to have some good information about usage and whatnot. I mean
it just seems like a high annual cost, if that's -- if we use it all, you know, 350 dollars a
transaction, I guess, then we are using it, but the annual cost just seemed high for what
it does. But that was just my take on it, so --
Paternoster: We don't disagree with that, Councilman Hoaglun. We did put in enough
money -- because if I go back to that slide -- you can see there is a 4,000 dollar a year
fixed cost. The 4,200 dollars annually is really discretionary and so that's based off the
transactions. The way they sell the transactions in blocks of .100,000 and so if we were
to go over the 100,000 that's when you have to -- it goes double. So, it's basically 350 a
month and so it would go --that's for 200,000 transactions and so we can reduce some
of that cost and, obviously, we will monitor utilization to determine next year if we don't
have to go through the higher level we won't spend the money, yeah.
Hoaglun: I understand. And, yeah, I thought, boy, I saw the 4,000 dollar cost, plus the
monthly, I thought, okay, 4,000 to get the system and, then, oh, 4,000 annually. So,
that kind of -- kind of throws you. You know, you know you're going to pay the monthly
transaction fee, but they throw that 4,000 annually on top, plus what you're paying each
month, so, eh, it's one of those things, so --
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Paternoster: Yeah.
Hoaglun: It will be just interesting to see usage and if we are using it, great, if we don't,
then, I think you're looking at alternatives as well as we develop our GIS, so that might
be a good thing.
Paternoster: Absolutely. Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Just a couple of things -- and on that subject of Bing maps, Valley Regional
Transit is in the process of building something that was fairly similar region wide and
open to all people jumping in the pool to see whetherthey can connect for car pools and
stuff. I don't believe it's totally rolled out yet, so it's not ready right this minute, but in
your study of your needs over the next year or so you mentioned that we may get to the
point where we would stop doing Bing in house. Take a look at what Valley Regional
Transit is doing and planning and that may be available to our employee as it is the
general public and might be able to replace this quicker. I'm not saying for this year, but
just take a look at what VRT is doing. Also on the GIS stuff, as some people know I got
to sit in on some the meetings and I thought it was excellent work. I think the plan is an
important thing to do that will have benefits throughout the city and for our general
public as well. So, I appreciated all that work. And, then, one minor thing. My screen is
doing the fuzzy picture again, so while the experts are here, somebody come jiggle the
wire that fixes it. Thank you.
De Weerd: Great timing, Terry. That just proves your point.
Paternoster: I guess some of the problems are IT.
De Weerd: Anything furtherfor IT?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Thank you, Chad.
Paternoster: Thank you foryourtime.
De Weerd: Bill, do you have anything on Legal?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, no, we don't have any additions or
enhancements for Legal or HR.
De Weerd: Okay. And the --our contractor will come in and give an update at Council -
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 22 of 64
Nary: Yes. I got a feedback, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, from city of
Boise. They gave us an earlier quote. You're talking about the prosecution contract;
right?
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: They gave us an earlier quote and I think Todd had plugged that in. I sent it to
Todd yesterday and I didn't get the percentage. Todd, do you recall? It's less than ten
percent. It was like five --four point --the annual cost is --the monthly installment now
is 24,497 is what they are proposing for the next year.
Bird: Twenty-four thousand a month?
Nary: Four hundred ninety-seven.
Bird: Four hundred ninety-seven. That isn't a very big raise.
Nary: I think it's -- it's either20 or 22 this year. I think it's 22.
Bird: It would be over 22. It's 22 something. It's less than 300,000.
Nary: It's slightly under 300,000 a year. It's 293,964.
De Weerd: We are well ahead of schedule. Is -- oh, John, are you here to present on
City Hall?
McCormick: Yes, I am.
De Weerd: Okay.
City Hall
McCormick: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for the time this
morning to speak to building maintenance specifically. We can hold off for just a
second if that's okay.
De Weerd: Council, what I will do is just have our ten minute -- are you done, Chad?
Way to go.
Zaremba: Thank you.
McCormick: That's realtime repair --
De Weerd: Absolutely.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 23 of 64
McCormick: -- in action there. Again, thank you for the time to talk to the needs of
building maintenance and this is specific to a request that you have before you for an
additional full-time building maintenance worker to do general maintenance and repair
work, focus on the City Hall building, but also in other buildings throughout the city,
which we have 11 such facilities that have needs from time to time. Just to give you
some background, we have been in very much abreak-fix mode for the last almost
three years. It will be a three year anniversary coming up in October in which we
moved into this building and have spent most of that time almost exclusively working
with repair type of incidents. This is an opportunity for us to start moving into a
maintenance area, which we badly need to do. We have squeezed in maintenance
activities when we could in between repairs when we have been able to fit small jobs in
there, like plumbing and things of that nature that needed to be taken care of. And just
to give you an idea of where we are at, we have currently a caseload of about 67 new
cases every month, that's almost two a day or more than that if you think about just
work days in the month, and it is up 38 percent over last year. That doesn't include a
number ofdrive-bys that happen just because the person is in the area and something
needs to get fixed and I have to say I take advantage of that myself from time to time.
It's just convenient and efficient to do that. So, we expect our caseload to exit this year
north of 800 cases for the year. That's compared to 611 from last year in fiscal year'10
and 506 in fiscal year '09. So, the volume continues to increase. We are getting also
more and more requests from outside the City Hall to do certain things and, of course,
we have tried to accommodate that as much as we can. We have had the benefit of
having contract labor on site to help us with that. He's quite good at his job and takes
care of the general work that needs to be done and even with him -- and he's a very
diligent worker. Even with him on board we still have just more work than we can
handle. So, just to give you some comparative numbers, I went out and benchmarked
and -- I benchmarked a number of different places. The Banner Bank building and the
Idaho Central Credit Union, both of those are LEED certified buildings and similar to the
needs that we have, at least on the HVAC side, which is a more complex part of
maintenance and certainly the more complex part of repair work. Then I also surveyed
Meridian School District, the city of Nampa, city of Boise, the Ada County courthouse
and the City of Meridian, of course, we looked at ourselves comparatively speaking to
those other entities. What we found is that averages between one maintenance worker
to 56,000 to 58,000 square feet. So, right in that general ballpark. We are a little over
100,000 square feet for this building and we have 11 other buildings on -- in the city
premises that we also have some responsibility to take care of, so we are very much
lean and mean in our staffing here comparatively speaking. And in some cases these
people have full-time managers, supervisors, of their maintenance function. I spend
about probably 25 to 30 percent of my time on that activity, depending upon the
situation that's going on at the time, so -- this is a position I think that is badly needed.
You all are acquainted and all too familiar with work that's been going on and the need
for those repairs. I don't need to go into the details of that. I will say that every time that
we have gotten into work on something we found some other issues that we have had
to work on. I would like to be in the position to discover those in advance, because it
certainly keeps our costs down, it gives us an opportunity to prevent a more
catastrophic situation from developing and that saves headaches, it saves time, and it
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 24 of 64
saves money. The other side bar to this is the opportunity for us to continue on this
path of becoming Energy Star compliant. We have seen benefits from that already. We
have to sustain those benefits at the benchmark level for at least a year before we can
get that compliance and that's -- that's quite a nice award. The real benefit and value
from that, though, is the cost savings that come from that and already we are seeing our
consumption for electricity, for example, for the months of March, April and May are
down 13 percent this year versus last year versus the year before. So, there are some
opportunities there that -- and I -- at this point I'm not going to commit to any particular
monetary goal, because if we focus on the consumption aspect and the money will take
care of itself. There are rate issues that get involved in that and it kind of clouds the
contribution that's being made, but that's what I'm requesting and I will stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, John. Questions? Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor. John, I see that you have got personnel cost and the
operating expenses associated with the position, but there is no capital outlay and I'm
assuming that if this individual is going to be mobile that there is a vehicle involved, is
there a vehicle available, are there tools, monitoring equipment, et cetera, that might be
needed to -- to do some of the preventive maintenance and it seems to me like that
could be a sizeable sum of money that hasn't been accounted for yet.
McCormick: Thank you, Councilman Rountree, for that question. Our approach here is
to use what we have. We have a vehicle. We can share that vehicle. We have tools
and we can share those tools. We can share the system, et cetera. Now, I don't know
if we get to some point in time when it becomes more complex and we are unable to do
that, where I might have to come back and -- and request something else, but the
approach at this point is to use everything that we have that would -- and it's our view
that we have sufficient equipment and tools and that sort of thing to do the job.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? Thank you, John.
McCormick: Thank you. Appreciate it.
De Weerd: Well, Council, why don't we take a 15 minute break and we will .hear the
Parks Department at 10:15.
(Recess: 10:03 a.m. to 10:16 a.m.)
Parks Department
De Weerd: Okay. I will reconvene our budget workshop and invite Mr. Siddoway
forward.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 25 of 64
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. For all the tough
questions you refer to I brought my backup team.
De Weerd: Glad to have you back, Steve.
Siddoway: We have been working on this and --for presenting our budget to you today.
We were before you last month with our strategic presentation and laid out some of our
current challenges and things that we have coming up and we will be following up on
some of those with our request. The -- the first is the replacement capital items that
were mentioned at the beginning of the day by Todd. We have one mower, a Toro 345
Ground Master that is our mower that we use out at Tully Park. It is older, about 12
years old, had a lot of use, a lot of hours. We have been limping it along for some time
and it's at the end of its life cycle. So, we have proposed to replace that mower. Then
we have four vehicles on the -- on the list. The first is a 1991 Ford F-150 pickup that is
used by the maintenance crew. The second is the same 1989 one ton pickup that is
used for the repairs in the parks. Actually put withdraw on here. It's still noted in your --
in your budget for -- for funding, but, you know, we have -- we have been looking hard
at it and talking about it internally and with improvements that we had to put into it last
year to keep it running -- it's actually running well enough for us this year that I would
actually recommend that we hang onto that at least another year. So, the '89 utility one
ton I would propose that we -- we keep that and postpone the replacement cost of that
vehicle. If we needed to offer up another one, which I don't know if we do, but just so
that you know our order of priority, that next one, the '93 F-150, we could get by for
another year with that. As we discussed it in directors meeting, the recommendation
was to keep it on the funded list, because postponing it simply will increase the spike in
a future year and we do have a capital replacement schedule for the next ten years that
we have tried to keep fairly balanced at about 100,000 per year, but, anyway, if needed
that would be the -- the next priority. But it is also at the end of its life as a '93 -- it's,
what, 19 years old now. The -- or 18. The last one is probably in the worst shape, the
'98 Jeep, even though it's the newest in years. It's one that we inherited from another
department, it was on its way out then, we have limped it along for a few more years
and it is no longer reliable. It is used for hauling equipment to events. We use it to pull
a trailer on occasion. So, we have proposed the --that that Jeep be replaced. With that
I will pause before moving into the enhancements and ask if there is questions on the
replacement capital items.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Go ahead, Brad.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor. Steve, I just wondered on that Jeep, is that going to be Jeep
for Jeep or are you just -- do you need a covered vehicle, as opposed to a pickup truck?
I mean does that matterwhat type of replacement vehicle that is?
Siddoway: Probably not a pickup. The important features -- it doesn't have to be a
Jeep per se, but it needs to have some cargo space for hauling gear and equipment for
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 26 of 64
events and sports and camp activities. If we can get something that would tow a trailer
that would be of benefit. We have figured out a way to work around if we need to tow
bicycle trailers for camp with another vehicle, but if it's something that could tow and
have some cargo space for hauling equipment, those are the important features for that
vehicle.
Hoaglun: Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
DeWeerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Steve, on the '89 and the -- oh, '91, even, the '93, how many miles -- especially on
the'89, how many miles have we put on that a year? Or hours. However you add on it.
I know you don't have hour meters on them, so --
Siddoway: Let's see if I have that with me. This is the replacement schedule. You
know, the number of actual mileage isn't that high. I mean they are driving from the
shop to the park, to maybe a parts store for irrigation parts. So, the mileage -- oh, here
we go. The '91 has 90,175. The '93 has 100,219. And the '89 only has 36,271. The
'98 Jeep has the most at 129,355.
Bird: And follow up, Mayor?
DeWeerd: Uh-huh.
Bird: Steve, on the utility, the one ton, isn't that a -- isn't that autility -- utility bed
hooked right to the frame? Isn't that one of those special beds that you buy a chassis
and put the bed on? Am I not right, Mike?
Siddoway: He's nodding behind me.
Bird: I mean I -- I can tell you in the private industry with that many miles on a vehicle,
mean the frame can't be hurt, I can't believe in 36,000 miles we got a bummer that --
that the engine could -- and I don't know which engine it is. I hope it's the 350. But
man. And a utility bed like that, to replace that I could see spending 3,000 for a new
engine or another 1,500, 2,000 for a transmission before I'd pay -- get rid of it. With
38,000 miles on it? I can't -- I can't justify it.
Siddoway: Well --and like we say, it's running well enough for us that we have actually
proposed to withdraw that from the replacement list. It --
Bird: What's it doing? Is it the motor --
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 27 of 64
Siddoway: It's the motor. We have an oil leak. Mike, would you be willing to come up
and answer some of the specifics on this? We did have quite bit of work done to it last
year when it was having problems, but --Mike.
Barton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yeah, the -- primarily the things that
were going wrong are just deteriorating from age more than anything. There is -- we
have had fuel pump issues, gauges, hoses, seals have leaked. You know, pretty
extensive list of repairs that just -- you know. And some of them -- the fuel pump are
five or six hundred dollars here, and five or six hundred there. The mileage -- it's
serving us well right now, because it's running good now and -- but when we turn
around and we -- we have a six or a seven hundred dollar repair, we feel that some of
that money is -- we are putting good money after bad and that's not to say that it can't
go anotherfive years or six years with --without any issues. It very likely -- it could. But
its -- its history has suggested to us that it's just -- that it's just kind of nickel and diming
us with our vehicle repair budget.
Bird: Well, the thing is, Mike, though, it's 21 years old and it's got 36,000 miles.
Barton: Right.
Bird: We can spend a thousand dollars a year in repairs and keeping it up for 38 years.
And in 20 -- in 22 years we have put 36,000 miles on it. I have a hard time justifying
that. You're talking to somebody that runs two and three hundred thousand on their
pickups.
Barton: Yeah. We see that -- you know, it's a tough decision. And we also -- based on
your -- some feedback that we got last year we investigated the possibility of a utility
trailer that could be shared amongst other vehicles that had the -- the tools and welder
and some of the supplies that are currently on the service truck and we would just
surplus it and acquire a trailer. We are still -- we are looking into the feasibility of that.
There is some problems with ventilating a compressor and welding equipment that
would be required, but it seems as if that when -- when we do -- if this does get to the
end of its row -- and that's if -- that it could be replaced with something different than a
service type vehicle.
Bird: Yeah. You get a -- you talk about a trailer, then, you got to have another pickup,
so you're probably talking about 40 or 45 thousand if you get a good trailer. If you're
going to carry all that equipment on it it's got to be dual wheels.
Barton: Yeah.
Bird: Tandem axle.
Barton: Just some alternatives that weare -- we are trying to work through.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 28 of 64
Bird: I just -- I have a hard time justifying with 36,000 miles. I know it's 22 years old,
but --
Siddoway: Yeah. And we -- we feel that it's working well enough to keep it again. So,
we would say don't replace that this year and we will see how it functions through the
rest of this year and right now it's working fine.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: On that same truck, just -- as you were evaluating it through the year, think
about some of the hidden costs as well. A lot of older vehicles -- I mean if it sits out and
the window is iced up, it takes an hour longer to clear the windows than it does on the
newer vehicles and somebody's sitting around twiddling their thumbs while the truck
warms up and they can see out the windows. If that's happening that would be a factor
in deciding to get rid of it I would think. So, just think about some of the hidden costs of
physically using it as an older vehicle. On the recreational Jeep, to go along with the
thought that Mr. Hoaglun suggested, what about getting like a 12 passenger van and
taking the back seat out, so that it becomes an eight passenger van, but cargo space in
the back, it seems like that would have multiple uses. Just a thought.
Siddoway: We did get the 15 passenger van this year. Not that we wouldn't have room
sometimes for the additional space, but -- I mean I like the creative thinking. The
important items are, you know, space to haul and occasionally the ability to tow, but we
can look at all options with that.
Zaremba: Thank you.
De Weerd: Steve, I guess as you're looking at that -- that truck or that thing you're
withdrawing, is -- also figure in repair -- if this is a vehicle that's needed every day and
you're taking it out of service, that's -- that's also one of those indirect costs that
Councilman Zaremba has -- I know when my grandfather passed away he was very
meticulous at taking care of his car and it had low mileage, but I have never seen a car
with more issues regardless of the miles and we gave it to my daughter, who certainly
can't afford neither it out of service, nor the repairs all the time, but it -- it is what it is.
But if you can track some of those that would be helpful as well.
Siddoway: Will do, Mayor. Thank you. After 22 years things do start falling apart, even
--and it's not used every day, but when it's needed it's needed for those major repairs.
For the enhancements I'll try and just go down the list of the summary sheet that you
have in the same order that I got from -- from Todd. So, we have six Meridian Parks
and Recreation related enhancements, half of which have been withdrawn, either
because they have been funded another way or we felt they can be postponed and we
will go through them individually here in just a second. In addition to those six there are
two that are in partnership with other departments, one with Public Works, and, then,
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 29 of 64
the three-quarter time site supervisor that you heard about this morning from Human
Resources and we will touch on that as well. So, our first enhancement for your
consideration is 500,000 dollars from fund balance. It is planned to come from there in
the -- the capital improvements plan. It is for the field house that we have talked about
before several times and it is to -- we originally had this budgeted in smaller increments
year after year from the -- the fund balance when the fund -- when the CIP was
balanced last year in conjunction with Finance, these first five years were put into this
year's lump sum to request this year. It is for capital outlay need for the field house,
which would be basketball and volleyball courts that could be used for multi-use
activities. Might also include some classroom space for our growing recreation class
programs and used by Allison in her group. We do anticipate that future year's funding
will build this fund up to 1.5 million dollars and that the future costs for land and parking
and site improvements are forthcoming with the concept that we are currently already
underway with. But just for -- to reiterate something that we said last year when we
requested the fund for that master plan, we are not talking about a 25 million dollar rec
center, we are talking about a one and a have million dollar field house that's basically
some sorely needed gym space and classroom space. So, that can still be an attractive
building like you see on the bottom right, but it would be a simple structure and much
smaller than the larger rec center, so -- do you want me to go through all of them or do
you want me to stop after each one?
De Weerd: I think if Council has a question we will let you know, so --
Siddoway: Okay. Number two won't spend any time on, because it is the new
bleachers for the Mo Brooks baseball field. We got that funded last month with an FY-
11 amendment. If anyone's been by there, the old bleachers are down and we are
getting ready to install the new ones currently.
Bird: I thought you were going to let me bulldoze them.
Siddoway: What's that?
Bird: I thought you were going to let me bulldoze them.
De Weerd: Take a position in line.
Siddoway: Number three is our pathway connection projects. As you have seen for
several years in a row now we have a hundred thousand dollars annually allotted in the
CIP for pathway connection projects, plus some incidental funds, about the 600 dollars
for maintenance. We have been discussing what next year's funds might be used for
with staff and the commission and have identified some potential projects. Just to be
clear, though, the note at the bottom does -- I do want to make sure I'm not over
promising and under delivering to you. We are not saying that we are going to do all
five of these as part of this, but these -- this is kind of our short list of the first ones that
we will investigate. One is the Bridgetower segment, which we have the design funded
right now through the Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant program and that
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 30 of 64
design project is kicking off this year. We do know the construction of that will be more
than this amount, so we can't even fund that -- that whole thing with this money. The
second item is the completion of the Five Mile Creek H1 Fairview to Badley that one will
come off, because we found a way to fund that with CDBG funds. Five Mile Creek, the
extension of -- of what we are already doing between Fairview and Pine in this area --
oh, let me draw on here. In here. There has been some interest in getting that
extended over to Locust Grove. With the recent dedication of the Winston Moore
Pathway project down by Gordon Harris Park, there is quite a bit of existing pathway
down there and there is a little bit of yellow right there that separates to existing
pathways that there has been some interest in connecting as one to look at. And, then,
with Kleiner Park coming on line and the South Slough Pathway coming together, there
has been some interest in looking at how do we connect our path system overto Kleiner
Park. So, some of our initial thoughts of pathway projects that we would investigate
more heavily and see where the lowest hanging fruit lies moving forward and we would
use those funds to help design and construct those types of pathway connections. The
fourth one is Kleiner Memorial Park add alternates. This one also came before you as
an FY-11 budget amendment and was already approved, so is withdrawn now from the
enhancement process. While we are talking about Kleiner Park, though, I just did want
to take a moment and remind the Council of our park construction tour scheduled for
tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. out at the construction site. We will meet at the
construction trailer and serve you some sandwiches and drinks for dinner and, then,
take a tour of some of the construction activities out there and let you see first hand
some of what you have been seeing in Powerpoint presentations up until now.
De Weerd: And also the town hall meeting later this month also to highlight to our
community the Julius M. Kleiner Park and the progress. So, the fliers should be out
today.
Siddoway: July 21st, if I remember correctly, 6:30 --
De Weerd: Yes.
Siddoway: -- p.m. was what I was told, so --
De Weerd: So, the day afterthe employee picnic.
Siddoway: Okay. The next one is our park maintenance facility. We have been
fortunate and blessed to be able to purchase the site out at Lanark and Locust Grove.
We closed on that property about a week and a half ago. I believe it was June 23rd.
Almost two weeks ago on that Thursday. So, we have just recently closed on that
property. The next steps will be to move that project into design development and
construction documents, so that we can move right into construction. The one and a
half million dollars plus basic operating costs are included in this enhancement. There
was some discussion early on about whether to hold off until design development is
done and we have a more developed cost estimate, because it could come in more than
this, but we are going -- we have committed to do our best to design to this number per
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 31 of 64
the CIP and we felt it would be better to budget for it now, knowing that it's coming later
this coming fiscal year than to hit you with a large budget amendment in the middle of
that year. So, we have requested those funds from the fund balance and they were
anticipated per the capital improvements that was presented to you this morning from
Stacy.
De Weerd: Well -- and I guess it's good to note, too, Steve, that this is needed
particularly with the construction of the split corridor phase two, it will be a huge impact
on operations if we --
Siddoway: Are still there.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Siddoway: And the split corridor phase two is coming, currently scheduled I believe for
2013, so if we can in FY-12 do the construction, we can move out of our current facility
and into the new one as the phase two construction of the split corridor is underway.
Number six is also withdrawn, so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but these were the
construction documents for the Storey Park undeveloped area. The master plan
process was budgeted for this year and is actually -- we have been working with
purchasing to get a contractor on board to do the design work. We felt that it doesn't
make a lot of sense to budget for construction documents until we have that plan in
place, because it could take some time and some negotiations if there are land swaps
to be involved with that, so we propose actually postponing this at least a year to 2013.
Number seven is -- this is where we move into our partnership items. I don't know that
anyone's here from -- form Public Works, but I might have to get some help from Todd
in Finance. This was originally proposed as a Public Works enhancement. What it is
for is for the improvements in Franklin Road that are -- actually will be installed as part
of ACHD's road project. Therefore, coordinated by the engineers in Public Works. But
given that they are reclaimed water lines that are forfuture irrigation of the medians and
that, Finance felt most comfortable with them being capitalized for parks --
Kilchenmann: Mayor and Members of Council, just to explain, all our medians are in the
--are in parks, so that's why this is Parks Department. And Steve kind of got the short
end of the stick, but he got to present it and his Public Works backup did not show to
support him, so --
Siddoway: So, of the 66,333 dollars, about 600 dollars will be use by parks for
maintenance contracts. The balance of it will be actually managed by the Public Works
Department as part of the partnership with ACRD to install those underground utilities
forfuture use with the medians that will be coming later. Some of the details of what the
money goes towards in there, you .know, four inch D-900 water line, two water service
connections, back flow preventers, and pipe boring, irrigation control wires, and the
temporary landscape treatment along the sides. The last item you heard this morning
from Bill, it's half of the 45,000 dollar enhancement that you heard this morning. It
would allow us to eliminate five to seven part-time staff positions. We have identified
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 32 of 64
what we think they would be down below in a list and that list is based on current
program schedules, which as program schedules change our staffing needs change as
different numbers of facilities are open at the same time on different nights, but I think
the important part to us is that the sports program is designed to cover the costs of this
position whatever it is and Garrett does work that into his budgets for the fees that are
associated with these leagues. So, with that Iwill -- I have this summary. We have
three of our six enhancements requested to move forward, one from the General Fund
at just over 100,000, two from fund balance. We have one in partnership with Public
Works and one in partnership with Human Resources. The others are withdraw. And I
will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Steve, can we go back two slides to that position enhancement. Yeah.
Supervisor. I just -- when I heard Bill talk about it it started -- you know, put it in there
and now that I see it I'm trying to figure out -- they are going to be working
approximately 32 hours a week and are they going to be doing these jobs -- I'm trying to
figure out how we take one three-quarter time person and eliminate five to seven staff --
and Iknow they are different seasons, so that helps. You aren't duplicating having to be
two placed atone time.
Siddoway: That's exactly correct. One is these positions weren't all work at half time,
you know, some were, some weren't. Some -- there are different seasons during the
year, so there might only be a couple of them that are at the same time and -- but
having this person being able to work more than 19 and a half hours would allow us to
work them more. nights per week and, you know, we --during softball season they could
take the place of the two score keepers. But, yeah, they are not all working at the same
time and they are not all --they are not all working 20 hours a week either.
Hoaglun: Okay. And I notice on a couple of these they are site supervisors, so they are
overseeing, as opposed to having to be on the field doing a specific duty at that
particular time, so --they are overseeing other people doing their activities I take it.
Siddoway: Yes. And we would also ask them to do scorekeeping duties at times at the
fields. It would depend on the events of that particular day. Their first responsibility
would be to supervise the opening and locking of gyms and the set up of volleyball nets
and fields and -- but there would be --definitely be times that they are scorekeeping as
well.
Hoaglun: And the 22,000, that's on top of -- since they are already a 19 and a half hour
position or whatever time frame that is, that bumps them up and that's the amount
needed to make that athree-quarter --
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 33 of 64
Siddoway: IT is on top of it, but like Bill presented this morning, it's based on the mid
point of the salary range for the maximum number of hours. We would anticipate
paying them less than mid point for fewer hours, so we do anticipate some salary
savings from that number.
Hoaglun: Okay. All right. Thank you, Steve.
Siddoway: Any other questions?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor -- Madam Mayor. This isn't
have presented, but I keep mulling over the impact fee
current park acres compared to -- to population and we
than would allow us to just maintain that figure.
Siddoway: Correct.
exactly on the things that you
s and I know it's based on our
can't charge more impact fee
Zaremba: But refresh my memory, do -- we don't count the golf course in that; is that
correct?
Siddoway: The golf course is not counted toward our park acres per thousand.
Zaremba: And as I recall previous discussions that we have had on that sometime ago,
that's because it's a single use thing and there is a fee charged for it, but my recent
thinking has been we don't let people have picnics on the tennis court or use the softball
courts for something else orthe soccerfields and, in fact, we may not charge somebody
every time they step onto the soccer field, but there is some income relationship there,
the same as there is on the golf course. We could improve our impact fees if we
counted the golf course and I would like to suggest that we start doing that.
Kilchenmann: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think you would get a very stiff
resistance from that, because it's not considered -- it's not open public space. I think --
Zaremba: But technically the softball fields and the tennis courts and --
Kilchenmann: But those aren't closed to members -- I mean those aren't fee based.
Zaremba: Not directly, but indirectly. Well, maybe not the tennis courts, but the --
Kilchenmann: I think if you -- how many acres is the golf course? I think if you doubled
our park acreage and took that before the impact fee committee it wouldn't -- I don't
think it would turn out very positively. I mean I don't know the exact definition in statute
of why you can't include that, because we had consultants who originally put together a
plan, but I have never seen it -- I haven't seen it included and it's --
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Zaremba: Well, I know we haven't been doing it.
Kilchenmann: We can always -- in other cities, so --
Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Council Zaremba, we do have a fairly extensive impact fee
community process underway right now with Rita and we have been crunching numbers
and looking at the impact of the CIP on the impact fees and already, even without that,
it's showing a significant increase that is already probably not palatable and so we are
already trying to figure out how we bring that down to where it's more realistic for the
development community. But what I would offer to do is as we are going through that
process we could certainly get together and go over those numbers and the direction
and thoughts and where it's headed before things get finalized.
Zaremba: Okay. Thanks. I'm just trying to think of ways to raise it and maybe that's
not always the goal, but --
Siddoway: I would also mention that with Kleiner Park coming on line within the next
year as a donation, that will in and of itself have a significant increase in our overall level
of service in a way that was done without impact fees. So, it raises that base that, then,
does allow us to use it for base calculation for level of service on a future impact fee
discussion.
Zaremba: Thanks.
Siddoway: Any other questions?
De Weerd: No.
Siddoway: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Thank you. And thank you and your stafffor being here.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Before we leave this group I just want to say I attended the fireworks the
other day and Meridian did a good job. So, thank you all and it was beautiful.
De Weerd: Well -- and I can tell you that we received a couple of comments and e-
mails and -- from a citizenry that really appreciated how you partner and the quality of
the show. I think every year you -- it gets even better and it's fun seeing all the families
and ourcommunityturnoutforthat as well.
Siddoway: Thank you. We will be sure to pass that onto the speedway as well.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Fire Department
De Weerd: Thank you. Great partnership. Okay. Chief.
Niemeyer: I will apologize, staff is not here, they are actually in a command staff
meeting currently and so they were planning on being here after lunch, so I know they
are going to be a little bummed out about this. I am a little bit nervous, because I had
you originally after lunch, I knew your tummies were going to be full and life was going
to be good, now I have you before lunch with your tummies empty, so we will see how
this goes.
De Weerd: Yeah, They will be awake.
Niemeyer: You won't be awake. Okay. That's good. And I do have a heckler to my
right, so I know that will keep things interesting as well.
De Weerd: Yeah. That's Ralph.
Bird: Yeah. But why didn't he bring donuts.
Niemeyer: I don't know. We'll talk about that later.
Lavey: Because I ate them all myself.
Niemeyer: But I would like to present to you --and I'm going to have to get some help
on this, I'm assuming, if this thing doesn't work forme. There we go. Our 2010 budget
presentation --and you will notice I put this as our Meridian Fire Department budget and
this is something I'm very proud to say has continued on. It started with the negotiations
that we talked about, about a year and a half ago, roughly, and that is a team approach,
a solution oriented approach to what we are doing and, unfortunately, the men and
women of the department are not here behind me, but I do want to give a shout out to
them for working through this budget with us to create a team approach to this.
believe we have a solid budget, it's a responsible budget, and certainly we are looking
forward to your questions as we go through it. Just a brief recap on the successes from
the FY-2011 enhancements that we had. We did have an Engine 39 and an Engine 32
refurbishment. I will tell you right now we learned some things through this process and
I believe I have talked to each one of you at different times individually about this. The
refurbishment was something new for our department. It had not been done, other than
Engine 38 just prior to this. We have learned some things through it and that is if you're
going to refurbish an engine, if you have a rock solid engine, transmission, suspension
system, it makes sense and it makes sense to send that engine to reserve status. I
believe we can get another ten years out of a very good engine. Engine 32 is an
example of that. It's a very sound engine. We did have the transmission rebuilt, that
was part of the process, but I believe it's going to be a great engine for another ten
years in reserve status at some point. Engine 39 I have some questions about that we
are working through. It's had some issues even coming out of the -- the refurbishment
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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process. As you recall we did have to do some motor work on that. That was to the
motor itself. It wasn't to the wiring harnesses, the computer systems, so we are really
still dealing with a 1993 apparatus that has some issues. So, we have learned some
things through the process. I think it was -- it was money well spent, because of what
we do have and some of the lessoned learned moving forward. We can .provide better
-- better support and better needs in the future. With that we will be working with the
Finance Department, we have already started that process on the Capital Improvement
Plan and identifying when does it make sense, when does it not, and we will continue to
work with the Council on that issue as well. Now, the five year strategic plan
development, we are in the second draft of that. We are to the point now where this
draft is going to go out to the other department directors and to the Council, the Mayor
got her copy yesterday, to begin looking at the initiatives that we have created and
objectives that go along with those. I will tell you we have nine initiatives and 32
objectives. It's an aggressive plan, I'm not going to hide that, but that's our department.
We are in an aggressive mode. The men and women of the department are behind
that, they are behind the work that needs to be done to make that happen, we are very
excited about that and I think you will be, too, once you get a look at it. And, then,
division chief of logistics, Chief Shaul -- it's become a joke in our department when we --
when we get a new hire, especially in the administration, lalways tell them I'm going to
give you a month to two months to just settle in, get your feet wet, take your time and
start looking at what you need. That hasn't happened yet. We give them about two
weeks. They are knee deep into what they are doing. Chief Shaul has been thrown
right into a lot of things, the engines being one of them and working through those
issues. Also identifying better ways that we can do business and become more
effective and efficient and more cost aware and reduce our costs, leveraging purchasing
power, better inventory control, and he's working on all of those things and that's just
the tip of the iceberg for what I see him doing. I know he's going to begin work with
John McCormick, Keith Watts on purchasing and finding out where we can leverage city
wide, as opposed to the fire department going out and just buying toilet paper or paper
towels or whatever the issues are and so there is savings to be had there, so I have
been very pleased with what he's done so far, he's been knee deep into it, like I said,
but he's made a lot of progress, I'm very pleased with it. FY-11 versus FY-12, just an
overview. In FY-11 you see ourtotal budget there of about 7.6 million dollars. In FY-12
this is proposed and this is going to change slightly and I'll discuss that in our
enhancements. You see a total budget of a little over 7.8 million dollars, it's an increase
of 3.7 percent. It is our smallest percentage increase request since 2008 and I believe
that that request is even going to come down a little bit more and I'm going to get into
that in just a -- just a little bit. The operating budget for FY-12, we sat down with
Finance, with the Mayor, and we went through our operating budget line byline. It was
a good experience, I was very happy with the experience. We did increase certain
focus line items by 21,845. These are primarily in training and personal protective
equipment and that personal protective equipment is equipment that we identified
through negotiations that had to be bought for the safety of our firefighters and so those
are the two areas that primarily in the operating budget increased. Now, with that we
were able to decrease our operating budget in stations one through five by 33,141
dollars. We identified areas that we simply don't use that money and I really
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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appreciated -- I guess I'll get to this point. I appreciated the approach that Finance had
and the approach Todd had. It was a solution oriented approach, it was a trend
analysis approach. I will tell you there is no padding in the budget. I don't believe in
padding, I believe in looking at what do we spend and how do we look at it over a trend.
I also want to take the time to give a shout out to Judy. One of the things when I came
in that concerned me a little bit is that we had really no budget manual internally. We
had our data that we could pull out of the Finance database, but we really didn't have
anything internally that what does this budget mean to us and so when the public comes
in or when you come in as elected officials and want to talk to us about a certain line
item, we can open up that budget manual and say this is what it means to us. So, we
stole a few thoughts from Finance as far as the five year trend analysis. This is an
example of the form that we are now working on. We are still in development, but I
think it's going to be a great form. We go through every line, we look at the account
summary, and that includes not only what the city account summary is, but what does
that summary mean to us, what does this line really mean and what do we use it for.
We are going to be adding measurable outcomes to the line items, so that anybody that
asks why do you need this money and this line item, we will have measurable outcomes
that we can check our performance, too. And, then, also the negative consequences.
What do we do. What's Plan B if the line is not funded. In addition, where ever we can
we are looking at what our fixed costs are and we are going to be adding those to the
line item, so it's no longer this golden pot of money or this kind of unknown amount for
whatever, it's a fixed cost and you can see this as the training budget, you can see
where those fixed costs are, so we have identified how many classes does each person
need to go to in order to maintain the proficiency in their skills. So, we hope to be doing
this with every single line item in our budget and that manual will be in our department
and we can even put it online as well. We have talked about transparency and that's
pretty transparent in my mind, so we are excited about the development of that. Good
timing. Do you have food for him, too? That would be wonderful.
Hoaglun: And, Chief, just so you know, you have backup now, so --
Niemeyer: Hey. There we go. All right. We like to make an entrance.
Kilchenmann: Oh, look, the police are here.
Niemeyer: We will take that. But I do want to point out we do have our sergeant at
arms here as well, so if things get out of hand I have brought backup in the form of our
sergeant at arms. As far as capital replacements this year, for FY-12, we do have three
vehicles that we are asking to be replaced. I will tell you we have changed our
approach in how we look at replacing vehicles. No longer are we simply looking at
every five years this vehicle needs to replace, we stole -- and I can't really say stole,
because Tom Barry willingly e-mailed it to me -- but we did steal an idea from Public
Works and that is a --amore objective way of looking for those vehicle replacements
and what the needs are and I will go through that in just a second. We are also in the
process of standardizing those vehicles. What we have found is we now have a
standard vehicle, what we believe is the most effective model and it's the most cost
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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effective model. Believe it or not, that pickup right there, base price, cost less than the
Ford Explorer or the Expedition or the other things that we have been buying in the
past. It's also much more functional and I will give you an example. When we had the
Eagle Hills foothills fire I went up and I was put in charge of a division late into the ball
game. Part of that was driving firefighters up into different areas to go evaluate
hotspots, so I had Captain Rountree and his crew jump into my little Ford Explorer with
all their equipment and not only did they trash it, they also punched a hole in the
carpeted roof of my vehicle, because of all their equipment. Not really a great
command response vehicle. These pickups are. They are very functional. It's
somewhat becoming the standard in the fire service. If -- you may have seen Boise,
Nampa, Caldwell, they used to use Suburbans. Folks are realizing these pickups are
much more effective and efficient. You will notice that's an F-250. Again, believe it or
not, on state bid the F-250 is cheaper than the F-150. So, we have gone with,
essentially, the cheapest model that we could to obtain functionality. So, the three
vehicles that we are talking about, one is the 1997 Ford Tarus. You will notice as
Kenny's car. I'm now driving his vehicle. We shifted vehicles around a little bit. I put
Kenny is a much more reliable vehicle, because he is so mobile all the time. The
734,000 miles on it -- one of the things you will identify that we don't have included in
these and we will in the future and we are in the process of getting them now with Chief
Shaul, is hour meters. One of the things that we don't capture is how man hours do
Y
these motors have on them. When we respond to a call we don't have the option of
turning our vehicle off. The vehicle has to stay on so the radios function, the light bar
functions, everything else. I can tell you for a long time the 1997 Ford Tarus and the
2001 Ford Expedition were our two command response vehicles early on. They went to
all the fires, so I don't know how many hours these motors have on them, I can just tell
you what the mileage is. The mileage on this one is 134,000 plus miles. It's not
response effective, so we will replace it with something that is. I can tell you driving this
vehicle it's a fun time. The transmission slips every now and then, so you're going down
the highway and you have to do a little Nascar driving every now and then. The next
one is a 2001. Ford Expedition, 86,000 miles. Again, this has much higher hours. This
has been the primary fire command response vehicle for many years. The interior
condition is very poor. The vehicle will be replaced again with a standardized vehicle
and the last one is Pam Moore's 1998 Chevy Blazer. It's got 107 plus thousand miles
on it. Based on the pub ed equipment that we now carry, including the bounce house
that I think many of you have seen, the blowup house that we take the kids through and
talk about fire safety, it will not fit in that vehicle. So, as you can see there is the pickup
and, then, what we are looking at is a little transit car. You may have seen these out of
-- I think Wiebold Ford has one that they drive around. They are very low in cost, I think
they are about 27,000, if I remember correctly. They are very effective for what she
does. There is a lot of room in there to put that house in, as well as the other public
education materials that -- that she uses. I believe she's also working -- correct me if
I'm wrong, Pam -- working with some businesses to possibly wrap this vehicle at no cost
to the city, so it will have a cool pub ed theme to it. It should be a very good looking
vehicle. This is an example of this replacement worksheet that, again, I say we stole
from --from Tom, but he willingly gave it to us. I just believe it's a more objective way of
looking at things, as opposed to just putting a year under capital improvement plan, we
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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can now look a little bit more objectively and say does this vehicle truly need to be
replaced or can we hang onto it for another year based on the repair cost, the mileages,
the hours, et cetera. So, I'm very excited. to have this in place. I think it will be a good
tool for us in the future. So, getting into our enhancements, we have two enhancements
to present to you. Enhancement number one is a brush 35 chassis replacement and I'd
like to explain this one. It's a little bit tough to swallow on face value. This has been a
concern of ours for approximately three years. We have brush 35, the picture above is
an single cab chassis, the bottom line is it's unsafe for three firefighters to be riding in
the front of that vehicle, along with all the equipment and the weight that goes with that
chassis. This is something that Chief Lavey and I have been discussing for a little
while, because what we recognize is they current) have no wa to tow that command
Y Y
trailer, so if they need it they have to rely on one of us to get a pickup and pull it for
them. So, we began discussing down the road in the future can we collaborate on this
project and we get a new chassis, put the box on the new chassis and, then, we would
give you this Dodge chassis. It's only got 9,500 miles on it, so it will last for a long time.
It will provide a good use for a long time. It's heavy enough to pull the command trailer.
So, this request we identified the safety need for it, which is why we brought it before
you. This year we will have some of our employees doing some of the work on this.
For example, the box that you see on the top picture will be taken off and, then,. placed
on the new chassis by our members, that's about a 2,800 dollar savings. But this is an
essential need. The three person crew on the brush rig, why is that essential? From a
safety standpoint, a best practice standpoint. Sending three people out on a brush rig is
the best practice and the reason for that is you have one driver and you have two
people on the hose line. Now, you may look at the hose and say that's a one inch hose,
do you really need to have two guys on there and the answer is yes. That second
person is not only helping guide the hose, but is that lookout for potential potholes and I
will tell you our sergeant at arms, who is here today -- I think it's two years ago, Dan?
Last August fighting a brush fire down on the river and had some vegetation covering a
deep hole and we stepped into it and twisted up a knee and he was out for quite awhile.
That's what the second person does is be on the lookout for barbed wire, be on the
lookout for whatever danger or whatever holes, whatever else may come about. So,
that's the reason we send three people in a brush rig when we go to a brush fire. There
was a question posed to me can we send two people on the brush rig and one in the
engine to follow them. My only concern is that if you look at line of duty death reports
from around the nation, one of the big ones is firefighter fatalities through engine roll
overs, engine accidents and oftentimes these are smaller volunteer departments that
send one person driving code in an engine. That's not a safe way to do business. So,
that's. why we don't send two in the brush rig and one in the engine responding lights
and sirens, because they can't look out well enough to see oncoming traffic and
something that could come before you. So, it is a risk management issue. The
questions on that one? Shall I go onto the next?
De Weerd: Council?
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Bird: I'd add to that, Mark that sometimes the engines aren't very well prepared to go
where the brush will. I think in the Meridian Fire Department, since I have known about
it, we have had two engines that have been pulled out of canals.
Niemeyer: Yeah. The brush rigs -- the .advantage of the brush rigs is they can get into
places that the engine just quite honestly can't.. Down ditch bank roads. We will go
down to the river, there is some little dirt roads that we can sometimes get into with a
brush rigs, we just can't get there with an engine. So, they definitely have a purpose.
We saw it in the Eagle Hills fire. We saw it in the Boise fire as well when we sent brush
rigs out, so --enhancement number two, this is now actually going to be -- it's a little bit
changed from what you have in your packet and I'll explain that. This is a division chief
position enhancement. Command officers in the sense of command -- field command
response, have been identified in the CIP and employee surveys for quite awhile now.
There is a need that we have for prompt reliable command response on high risk
incidents. These are structure fires, extrications, cardiac arrests, rescues, and a variety
of other things. Haz-mat calls. Currently the way we do business, the first arriving
engine at times takes command and at times must maintain it and that takes them out of
service and we will get into that in just a little bit. The other needs for these positions --
there is a need for 2417 shift coordination and supervision. We do have a need for field
shift management to enhance communications and department direction. There is a
need for 2417 risk management mitigation and there is a need for improved employee
evaluations and employee development through a dedicated supervisor that can
adequately respond to that employee --that sees that employee on a regular basis. So,
what are we doing today? What we are doing today is we have sporadic response
during the day depending on the chief officer availability. We have chief officers, but
they have administrative functions that they are performing every day. Sometimes
those administrative functions take us to Boise, take us to Nampa, take us to Caldwell,
take us to the dispatch center -- there is a variety of places that those responsibilities
take us. We don't always -- even during the day have immediate command response
and as you know emergencies happen .whenever they happen. It could be 2:00 in the
morning or 2:00 in the afternoon or 7:00 o'clock in the morning. We don't control any of
that. We also have chief officers that are taking pager duty between 17:00 and 08:00.
So, they work their eight hour day, they go home and they are on pager duty, depending
on what the shift is. I have done a five year analysis of these hours as far as how many
times does that pager go off between those hours of 17:00 and 08:00 and we can look
at it over a five year trend, you can see the numbers there, it basically averages to two a
night and I can tell you that's a fact, because I have my pager next to my night stand
every night, whether it's automatic alarms, a structure fire, an extrication, a rescue,
whatever it is. This also doesn't include phone calls that we get after 5:00 o'clock from
dispatch, from the stations, from the employees. We also have times where the engine
might go out on something and find something very unusual and give one of us a call
and ask us to respond out to take a look. Part of that we can say that's part of doing
business. If we have a big incident we know we are all coming. The pager goes off at
2:00 in the morning, it's a second alarm structure fire, it's a haz-mat roll over, whatever
the case is, we know we are coming. St. Luke's catches on fire, I guarantee you
everybody is coming and the Mayor will get a phone call. So, we know that there are
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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certain times where that's going to happen, but to have it happen on a regular basis is
the issue that we are facing today. So, there are some ineffectivenesses that we
recognize what we are doing today. We talked about the sporadic response. It does
take resources out of service and one of the things I would like to discuss is what
happens when we go to a fire and how do all those engines work and what do they
need to be doing. When we go to a fire you typically have a command response that is
overseeing the entire operation and, then, each incoming engine or truck is assi ned a
g
specific task to do. It may be a fire attack, it may be water supply, it may be ventilation
of the roof, whatever the case is -- and we saw this just a week and a half ago at the
Taco Time fire there on Progress. Each engine that came in had a very specific
assignment of what they were supposed to do. When we have an engine that takes
command when they are first on scene and they have to maintain command, we have
just now taken a resource, a Meridian resource completely out of service. We can't
send that crew just to go do their own thing, we have to have that captain with them.
That's part of good risk management, it's part of good safety practice. So, we do have
some issues there. That lack of prompt and effective command response in those high
risk, low frequency and that's what we are talking about. We have other areas in the
city that we know that's a risk as well. I know Jeff has several in the police department
where you have that very low frequency, but very very high risk incident. We know that
that has led to firefighter deaths and I'm not trying to create this worse case, doom and
gloom picture for you, but it is a reality. We just saw it in San Francisco, two firefighters
died because of a lack of good command and control. I don't want to be that
department and I don't want to be that city. Our chief officers currently are divisions and
deputy chiefs. They are working far in excess of 40 hours. They are technically in a 40
hour position. We understand the fire service and we accept it. We don't work 40
hours. But when those hours get up to around 70, 85 per week, I think we have an
issue and this is a concern to me. You know, we talk about these guys that are on call,
they are carrying their pages -- this is unlike any other city staff position within the city
as far as being on call. We are getting calls far more often than most departments.
Also, we have some ineffectiveness, probably inadequate attention being paid to risk
management in the field. During the day the chief officers are in City Hall. We have
administrative functions to do, we are not out in the field with the crews, so there is no
eyes on the field per se to identify some of those risks management issues that we may
have. Command models used in the fire service today, the typical one, the most
common one, over 90 percent of the departments across the nation that we researched
-- and we researched a bunch of them, either through phone calls or through Internet
research -- 90 percent of them, plus, use a battalion chief model. It's the traditional
model in the fire service. We recognize tradition, we are all about tradition in the fire
service, as you know. These are dedicated field response shift supervision positions
working a 56 hour work week schedule. It is a very effective model for those areas that
have very high call volume. We can Zook at areas that --that have older buildings, they
are running three, four fires a day, they are larger cities typically, but they are very
effective and it's a model that is effective for those departments, as well as others.
When I met with the Mayor and the department directors there was a challenge put out
and you know how we are with challenges, we unusually don't back down from them.
The challenge was look at every possible model out there and every possible option
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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and, then, come back with your recommendation. There was no statement made that
you have to look at this model or you have to do this direction, but at least look at every
model out there and look at those effectivenesses, those efficiencies, and see what you
come up with. So, we did find an alternative model that uses a combination chief officer
and when I say combination, what that means is they spend part of their time in the field
dedicated fora 24 hour shift and part of their time in the office fulfilling some
administrative function to help support the department. We know that you have to have
certain support mechanisms in place to support a department of five stations and 57
employees. So, two departments that are using a variation of this are Madison,
Wisconsin, where it originated, and, then, Tempe, Arizona. They use a seven division
chief model. We evaluated that and found some ineffectiveness .with that seven model,
so what we are proposing is six and I will get into that now. So, our proposal would be
for the hiring of three division chiefs that would work a 42 hour week model and why we
say 42 hours aweek -- actually, I will get into that in just a second. It's in the next slide.
This is a diversion from the traditional battalion chief model. It is a significant change
from what is used to being done and I guess I want to take a moment and pause here to
-- to recognize the team that we have developed and the relationship we have with --
withour union, with Local 4627. I can tell you in most departments if I as a chief were to
stand before them and say, fellows, we are thinking about going to this, you would
probably have found me hanging off the training tower, because it is so nontraditional
and so outside the box. Our -- our members took a look at it -- a good look at it and
gave an honest look and gave honest feedback to it. There is still a lot of apprehension,
I'm not going to lie to you, but they are supportive of looking at things that make sense.
They are -- again, they are solution based and I just want to give a praise out to them
for being that way. It makes my job a whole lot easier. So, we believe that there are
efficiencies and effectiveness to be gained through the model we are proposing. I will
tell you this belief, though, is based on our current need and I threw a number of ten
years. I don't know what that number is going to be. Right now we have a healthy
community. We have buildings that are fairly new. We have commercial buildings that
have been built under new fire codes that have made them safer. I know and we know
that ten years from now those same houses are going to be ten years older and we
know that wiring goes bad and things go bad. So, there is an anticipation that our call
volume will increase. Whether it will or not we won't know until that trend comes. But I
just want to throw out that this model right now seems to be the most effective. Will it
be ten years from now? I don't know. We will have to look at it and just gauge that.
Hopefully our --through ourfire code enforcement and our quick suppression we will be
able to keep those to a minimum, so it will be a good model, but I do want to throw that
out. So, the basics of this proposal is a total of six division chiefs. We have three
existing. Technically we have two existing right now. There is a discussion with -- with
the local of converting the training officer to a division chief as well. There is a cost
savings there. That's one of the reasons we initially began talking with them about that.
It also meets this model a lot better. So, the request this year is for three additional.
Each is assigned an area of administrative responsibility and you can see those areas
there. What I point out is there are some similarities, but they are different. So, when I
talk about similarities you can somewhat merge or not merge, but pair EMS and health
and safety with logistics and communications and training and emergency planning and
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 43 of 64
preparedness. They are their own discipline, but there are some commonalities where
they can work together on projects that they may have or issues identified in the five
year strategic plan, which each one of our administrative staff is going to have some
responsibility overseeing. Each division chief would work a 42 hour work week. They
would spend one 24 hour shift in the field and two eight hour days in the office. In the
departments I talked to one of the chiefs, had a great idea, and I like it and we would
incorporate it and that is everybody works on Wednesdays. So, once a week you have
everybody in the office to make sure communications are as good as they can be.
That's one of the issues identified with this model is you're going to have to be on top of
your game when it comes to communications. So, everybody works Wednesdays, we
meet every Wednesday morning, we go over what everybody has the previous four
days and the next three days and we cover that every week. The reason we call it a 42
hour work week is that every fifth week you would spend two 24 hour shifts in the field,
you do that for two rotations and, then, you go every seventh week for one rotation and,
then, you're back to the same rotation. So, it is kind of a different looking model. It
averages out to about 42 hours a week on average, using those 48 hour weeks that I
just identified. Cost savings to the taxpayers, there is some initial savings to be gained
by going to this model and when we are looking at this we are comparing this model to
a 56 hour traditional battalion chief model with these savings. Year one there is actually
a little bit more savings based on some number crunching that we have done recently.
Before you right now in your proposal I believe you have wages -- let me grab this real
quick -- of 241,719 for the three positions under the wages. Under the model we are
proposing what you see before you on the 241 was a battalion chief model request
when we initially did our enhancements. If we go with a division chief the wages are
going to be 187,148. So, you have a savings of about 54,000, roughly, year one. How
that would play out is that you would have three captains promote to division chief, three
drivers to captain, three firefighters to driver and, then, you would have three open
firefighter positions that we would fill and that -- all of that combined would be 187,148.
Over the next four years we would probably realize the entire amount of 241,719,
because those firefighter positions -- keep in mind, they come in at an entry level
firefighter position and they can achieve all the way up to a firefighter three level and
that takes about three to four years to do. So, there would be initial savings on the front
end, about year four we would realize the total amount of 241. But there is also
anticipated savings and we did a trend analysis onthis -- I hope you're paying attention,
Todd. Your trend analysis information. What we tried to do is identify in a year's time
approximately how much overtime would we have if we had three battalion chiefs
through vacation, through sick time -- mainly those two factors and, then, some
incidental time and we sat down with the union, we talked about this and we had a
number that we could agree upon that was reasonable and that reasonable number is
about 52,375 dollars. Through the division chief model we would not incur that
overtime, because we have enough staff on -- in place to be able to cover the shift. So,
if somebody takes vacation we have somebody else that can back that person up. It
does meet the identified need for 24-7 command response field commander. That is
our top need. That is the biggest need out of this entire proposal. It does have shared
responsibility. It balances field interaction and administrative duties. I believe it does
create through succession planning which is something we have identified as a need in
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 44 of 64
our department. It does create a mechanism to expand the ICS structure and when I
say that, if we have an incident that's big enough, you expand the incident commend
structure, you have to. You go from having an incident commander to assigning an
operations chief to assigning a safety officer. You may, then, assign division sectors.
So, you may have somebody on one side of the building and one side -- a person on
the entire other side of the building running those two divisions. This model allows us to
expand that structure. Currently today if we had a big incident we would have to call
Boise, Nampa, and probably Caldwell to be able to expand that incident command
structure effectively. We do find that it creates efficiency and effectiveness through
commonalities, so we can have some shared resources. It does maintain the skills for
all chief officers. One of the things that we identified in a battalion chief model when
you have battalion chiefs and, then, you have other chief officers that work
administration, is that those administrative chief officers lose their skills. They are still
expected to be able to respond and command a scene, but because they are sitting in
an office all the time they lose those skills and that's a natural thing. By having this
shared response you maintain those skills. We feel that's a big benefit. That does
eliminate discrepancy in pay. This is one of the things that I -- when I talk to chiefs
around the nation that had a battalion chief model, we identified some things and I
asked them specifically about it. One was the discrepancy in pay between an
administrative chief officer and a battalion chief. I can guarantee you with a battalion
chief making overtime they make a heck of a lot more than this person who has --
technically has a higher rank. It creates a lot of discontent in those departments within
those positions. Every chief I asked I said did you figure out a solution and they said
no. So, this has been an identified area of concern that they don't have a solution for.
In addition, by not having a shared workload it becomes this natural rift and I have seen
it here locally and we have seen it round the nation, the chief officers that are working
the 8:00 to 5:00, they don't have the desired work schedule. Shift work in a firefighter
world is the desired schedule. So, they become a little bit resentful, even though they
took those positions. The battalion chief s working the desired work schedule, say you
guys up here, you're always creating more work for me, I can never get what I need to
have done. There is that rift that develops. Again, I asked every chief have you been
able to figure out a solution to this problem and the answer was no. So, we have
identified those two things that do concern us. We feel that this model could potentially
eliminate those things. It does create career longevity while maintaining performance
through ability to transfer administrative roles. Another thing that we identified is that
when you have chief officers that get put into a certain administrative function, after
awhile they may get burned out. It's part of natural -- natural progression. This model
allows us the ability to transfer responsibility. So you get something new after three
years, but you're not losing your rank, you're not losing your pay, and you're not losing
where you're at in your organization, but you get something new. We feel that's a
benefit and we feel longevitywise that creates a better workforce. It also challenges the
norm and I will say this, we are not challenging the norm just to say we are challenging
the norm. We are challenging the norm to say is there a betterway model out there that
makes more sense. Fire service and change don't always go hand in hand and there
has been quite a bit of it lately, so I want to thank our guys for hanging in there. But we
are looking at this change, because it makes sense, not because it shys away from
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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tradition. So, the questions -- .there are questions with this model and I would be remiss
if I didn't bring these up. Because this is nontraditional and not widely used in the fire
service, there are certain unknowns, some of which I cannot completely answer for
anybody. There is a potential conflict in fulfilling those administrative duties by only
spending 16 hours, plus some time on shift if they have it. Can we fulfill those? I
believe we can, but that is an unknown. There is a lack of immediate -- intermediate
step from captain to chief officer typical in the fire service. Again, I feel that this model --
because they are still out in the field, provides that intermediate step. It does eliminate
a desired work schedule. That one I can't get around. There was a question about
would guys step up to fill these roles, because it is so nontraditional and because it's
outside the norm would we get the guy to step up. I believe we have the men and
women to do it and when I met with the group, the labor group, I said the exact same
thing. We have guys right now that are qualified to do this and it's a chance to take this
into our own hands and not have to hire from the outside and I believe that we have
very qualified men and women that are going to step up and want to fill these roles.
There are some potential for communication errors. We talked about that and I saw
some heads nodding yes, so we would have to identify ways that we are going to
maintain that communication. I think that rule of everybody works Wednesdays is a
great way to start that. So, those are some of the things that we have identified, the
what ifs if you will. There are options to this plan. Potential savings that you as a
Council may consider. One is to the -- to the promotion process you can see where that
-- that figure plays out, that 187,148, that's year one. I will tell you my plan would be
October 1, if these are approved, we would put on a division chief academy, which
would be a prerequirement before you test. So, it would be an academy on leadership.
Then we would go through the testing process and, then, we would put them on. That's
about a three month process. So, I would look for these two positions to be filled
sometime in January. In addition, back filling the three firefighter positions, we can't do
both at once, it's too much of a workload, so we would do these three firefighter
positions after we bring on these division chiefs. So, that's another three months. So,
we wouldn't have the firefighter threes -- or, sorry, the firefighter entry levels probably
put in until roughly six months. Our contract allows for 180 days, so we would have to
work with the local on that. So, there are some savings there by not putting all these
folks on October 1. There is even bigger savings if the Council desires to go this route,
it's not one that I recommend, but if we don't hire those three firefighter positions that
would require sitting down with the local as far as an MOU. The total cost of the request
year one would be 50,054 dollars, but we know we would have to put them on later.
Some of that savings would not be realized, because we would have to use overtime to
fill needed slots through constant manning. So, it's an option. I wanted to throwthat out
there. It's not one that we completely recommend, but I did want you to see the options
So, there is our recommendation, the approval of three division chief positions. We just
talked about how that would occur through promotions. One of the things that I am
recommending with the proposal is -- while I think this is a responsible way of doing it is
to look at a two year evaluation period. Because this is so far outside the norm there
are certain unknowns that we have and we can't answer those, so I think a good
evaluation of this plan and this program is warranted. So, I have recommended a task
force of elected officials, fire department administration, and some representatives from
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Local 4627 to establish the criteria that we are going to use to evaluate the program and
much of that we have seen in this presentation as far as the pluses that we think are
going to happen. And in two years we sit down and we evaluate how did the program
do. One of the concerns is what if the program doesn't work and that's certainly a
question that we don't know the answer to. We are optimistic, we are looking at the
glass half full that it's going to work, but what if it doesn't. There has got to be a
mechanism to still get the command response that we need in the field. So, we are
recommending that -- that evaluation period and that task force. The testing and
promotions. would take place -- and I just walked through that as far as how that would
go. During that evaluation period we may have hiccups in the road and we know that.
We are very good at adapting and so we would address those hiccups and make it work
and identify the issues that may arise. And those successes or failures would be
communicated and that changes would be communicated as well. Then at the end of
the evaluation period that initial task force would sit down and say how did we do with
this program. If it's successful it's fully adopted. If there was moderate success we
could revise it and do it for another year to evaluate it. If the plan is determined by all
parties, including the elected officials, to say this didn't work, then, we would look at that
56 hour model again. There would be no change in wages. They would be the same,
so there wouldn't be any fiscal impact to that, other than the overtime that we talked
about as far as anticipated. And with that -- Plan B, if we don't get this funded, we do
have a Plan B, it's going to be a hurtful Plan B, but it's one that we could implement. As
afire chief I cannot assume any longer the risk and liability of not having that command
response in a timely manner. If you look at every line of duty death in the fire service
across the nation when those issues are identified the command was not present. It's
not good for the department and it wouldn't be good for our city and so I have identified
this as something that we have to do no matter what. What would I do? The current
administration would have duties reassigned to meet that command response, but this
would lead to a decrease in service. We would not be able to work on the strategic
plan. Current programs for risk reduction need to be minimized. There would be a
participation in some of the other things that we do with other city departments may
have to minimized and, then, training and joint training with allied agencies would take a
hit. So, I don't want to throw the entire doom and gloom out there, but there would be a
change in what we do today, based on the need to get these folks out in that command
role. With that I'd stand for any questions. I can hear your stomachs churning from
here, so --
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mark, when I talked to you about that I forgot to ask you -- Madison and Tempe,
what size departments are they; do you know?
Niemeyer: Madison (believe -- if I remember last time I had it here was seven or eight
stations. I can't remember their call volume. Tempe I'm much more familiar with.
Tempe has six stations, they cover 49 square miles, but they have a population of
167,000 people and they run 11,000 calls a year, I believe it was, far more than we had.
Obviously, they have the university campus there. So, we could compare somewhat
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 47 of 64
apples to apples, but, then, in call volume and other things it was -- it was hard to
compare.
Bird: And they were all full time -- or did they -- were they -- was Madison full time and
volunteer or--
Niemeyer: No. Madison is full time.
Bird: That's what I thought.
Niemeyer: Yeah. Tempe is full time.
Bird: Yeah.
Niemeyer: They are having some issues in Tempe, I can't hide that, in talking to them
and their ops chief, but, again, they are using seven division chiefs to cover the same
thing that we are looking to cover. I think we have a much better model, to be honest
with you. In fact, their ops chief said if you can figure out a better way of doing
business, send it to me and I will buy you a beer when you come down to Arizona some
day. I said I drink Shirley Temples, I don't drink beer, so -- are the guys chuckling
behind me I'm guessing?
Bird: I think it's definitely worth a try, which we need -- we need to monitor, which we
will, and I think we got the personnel that can handle it. I'm for it, which you knew
already.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? Chief, we could talk about sick and vacation staffing again
and the overtime? You showed a number and I was tracking along and, then, you said
something -- you kind of reversed in my mind. That 52,375 dollars you talked about in
overtime, that is reduced by the way that works, the 42 hour. So, there is still overtime,
because, of course, you're going to have vacations, sick leave coverage that will have to
be done, but you're anticipating only about 53,000 in overtime.
Niemeyer: Right. So, under the -- under a battalion chief model, a 56 hour a week
model, we have guys take vacation, sick time, whatever the case is, and you have to
backfill that position and so we use a combination, which we use today of -- there may
be times we have to call somebody in off duty to come and fill that role. There may be
times where we can promote through the swing positions to fill that -- that shift. Either
way you still have to backfill a firefighter position. So, we sat down with the union and
figured out what makes sense, what's a good analysis of this. That's how we came up
with the 52,000 number. Under division chief model you, essentially, have two division
chiefs sharing a shift, if you will. That's the best way I can put it. So, on A shift you
have two division chiefs responsible for that shift. They do work different days to cover
the shift. If one takes vacation or sick, we can plug the next one in. So, it would create
a 48 hour work week for them, but we can do that without incurring overtime or
additional cost.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Hoaglun: Okay. Appreciate that.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor, just a comment on that fleet turnover I guess is the way I
would put it --and we have this issue in several departments. I have seen the analysis
that Tom Barry has provided to you and I think it's an excellent way to do it. The one
caveat I would put to it is as we transition into that model from the model that we have
had where we replaced a fifth of the vehicles every five years, just keep an eye on --
okay. If we say this vehicle can go three more years than we thought, this vehicle can
go two more years, put a year on that so that -- so we can look at it and say we just
decided that half of our fleet needs to be replaced the fourth year from now.
Niemeyer: Yeah. And we have identified that. You know, it certainly affects the CIP
and keeping that document fluid, so as those things change communication during
those CIP meetings is crucial to say, okay, we have pushed this back a year. I'll give
you a great example. Technically for this year in the CIP we had two fire trucks being
replaced. It didn't make sense to do it and so that's totally changed now in the CIP
where we are looking at that in a different light. So, yes, I totally agree with what you're
saying.
Zaremba: Thanks.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just a quick deal. I don't know, Mark, if it would be you or if it
would be Finance, but on this enhancement, you know, you have -- you have given the
187,000 dollar number as opposed to the 241.
Niemeyer: Yes.
Hoaglun: Would there be a way to get an updated sheet on this enhancement to see
what the bottom line is? Because when you add in operating capital, you know, for
fiscal year 2012 we are looking at 425.
Niemeyer: Right.
Hoaglun: And some of those other numbers change as FICA, PERSI and other things.
So, it would be good if we could have a firmer number to -- to compare, because I
mentioned in Council meeting the other night, we had a conflict on what we are doing in
city policy and our goals, what we want to achieve, and the goal for firefighter -- you
know, for fire department safety is the utmost goal that we have, we want to support
that, at the same time we have revenue that is decreasing, so how do we -- how do we
make that work?
Niemeyer: We have that sheet for you, Councilman, and we will have it to you after --
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 49 of 64
Hoaglun: Okay. Great. And not to pit you against other departments, but -- you know,
the Police Department doesn't get what. they want, because we are going to take care of
you guys; right? I'm sure the chief will have something to say about that, but --
Niemeyer: He goes next.
Hoaglun: Yeah.
De Weerd: He's working on keeping quiet over there. Any further questions for Chief
Niemeyer? Thank you, chief. And thank you for your support as well. Glad you got his
back. Good luck with that. Okay. We will call a recess for lunch and reconvene with
the police chief at, what, 1:00 o'clock. Do we have food here?
Rountree: It's here.
De Weerd: Okay. Why don't you go grab something and we will listen to the chief.
Okay? So, 20 minutes and we will have our police chief up.
Lavey: If you want to -- I can be done in 20 minutes and we can eat at noon or you can
grab something -- I'll wrap up after lunch if we --
De Weerd: We will hear you at noon.
(Recess: 11:40 a.m. to 12:06 p.m.}
Police Department
De Weerd: Okay. We will go ahead and call this meeting back to order and in front of
us right now is our Police Department. Welcome, chief.
Lavey: Ma'am Mayor, Council, as I told Finance, it was nice that they saved the best for
last.
Kilchenmann: Big eyeball roll.
Bird: We thought we was going to get donuts for break, but it was a little early, we just
got done with lunch.
Lavey: Well, one of the things that I found that anytime a presentation is in front of
Council they are counting slides to see how long it's going to last and as you will notice
today that I do not have a Powerpoint presentation, so I'm going to keep you guessing
on how long I'm going to talk up here. A couple things I would like to point out as far as
what's not in the FY-12 budget for the Police Department. One of the things you will
find that there is no new employees. One of the things that you will find is that there is
no mention of the public safety training center and the reason for that is that the
strategic business plan is due to be completed in mid September and at that time we
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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will come in front of Council and we will discuss that. You will also not see an
enhancement for file storage in City Hall. I will tell you that I have been attempting to
work with numerous city employees trying to get space in City Hall without any luck and
so my -guess is is when I finally get to that person with the magic answer I'm going to
have to come in front of Council with a proposal for some fencing and some shelving,
since I can't find a space for file storage currently. If we don't do that, we are going to
have to look at some sort of third-party storage and I don't believe that that's necessary.
So, I will be coming in front of Council sometime in the future for that. And, then, the
last thing that you will not see in the FY-12 budget that's currently in the Capital
Improvement Plan is an animal shelter and I will tell you that we are still studying that
issue and figuring out what is the best approach for that. So, with that being said I'd like
to move on to the current proposed enhancements and capital projects for the Police
Department this year. The -- starting with capital, the original proposal for computers,
which comes out of IT, approximately 31,000 dollars. Through some cuts and through
some extra computers we have reduced that down to 21,920 dollars. So, we cut
,approximately 10,000 dollars in computer replacements this year. So, in, front of you is
a list of computer replacements as suggested by IT and as approved by me. One of the
things that you will find in the capital plan is vehicles. What you most likely will not see
is that the original replacement schedule was for about 400,000 dollars in vehicles and
after I took many deep breaths and -- and started breathing normally again, I said you
need to start cutting and figure out what we are going to do. And, then, I asked them to
write up the vehicles as far as what needs to be replaced and what should be replaced
and come up with some sort of idea of what we could do with cars to make them last a
little bit longer. So, you're going to see -- you may or may not see on -- I'm not sure
which -- which document you have in front of you. You will see three cars that were
suggested for replacement that have been converted to new uses in the police fleet.
One was converted to a supervisor car and two of them were converted to K-9 units.
The nice thing about the K-9 units is that they are individually issued cars, therefore,
they last longer. They are only driven ten hours a day instead of 24 hours a day. So,
that gave us a significant reduction down to 322,500 dollars. And, then, through some
additional cuts that were I felt due to the mileage and the current assessment of the car
we could last another year. We have gotten that down to 285,500 dollars. You will see
that there is three of them that are extremely poor. They range in age from 2001 to
2004, with 105,000 being the highest mileage and 83,400 being the lowest mileage.
The one thing you need to remember is that the mileage reported here were reported to
Finance in December, so they are seven months old and I will also point out that these
cars -- wow. Now you can see if it compares to the list I have. The other thing that I
would point out to you is that it will be approximately one year from the time we order
these cars to the time they are put on the road and we put approximately 30 to 35
thousand miles per year on these cars. So, just keep that in mind as you look at these
figures. The additional replacements we currently list as fair. You will see that they are
2007 and 2008 patrol cars. We have tried to over the years replace the cars at a
hundred thousand miles. The one thing that is key here is that this is one area that I do
not want to give in on if at all possible due to the risk management side of things.
These are our high speed pursuit cars. Now, granted, we don't do a lot of high speed
pursuits, but these cars are not driven like the normal cars and as Chief Niemeyer said
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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recently talking about those low frequently events, they don't happen very often, but
when they do you need something reliable and I do not want to put officers' lives in
danger by driving a vehicle that is not safe. So, those are the --and those are the cars
that are actually driven 20 to 24 hours a day. With that being said I'm going to move on
to the enhancements and this is really kind of an unusual year in that we -- we didn't
propose very much. But I asked staff to look at what are our needs, what do we really
need to take care of, and one of the things that --the priority thing that we come up with
was our policy manual. We have been in it as me being the chief for the last four years,
we have made individual changes to the policy manual, because all policy manuals are
fluid, they are never --they are never -- boy, it's done and you're not to do anything with
it again. So, we are always looking through training recommendations, through case
law, through risk management assessments and everything and we are always making
adjustments to our policy. We tried to do a complete revamp and what we have
decided is that it takes a lot of time to do that and to do it right. One of the things that
ICRMP, our current insurance provider, has is a program called Lexipol and Lexipol is a
group of attorneys that have formed a company that all they do is evaluate policies, they
evaluate case laws, they evaluate state laws and federal laws and they do all the work
for you and push out the suggested changes. One of the things that ICRMP has also
done is for those departments that have adopted this policy is it's reflected on their --
their rates. No promises there, but there is a possibility of having an reduction in -- in
our ICRMP rates. So, that is our number one enhancement and it is for 8,950 dollars.
That's a one time fee. There is a 3,600 dollar ongoing expense after the first year and
that is for those constant updates that we talked about. The next item I have to say was
a little unusual in the request and it's called the vehicle appraisal software and this is the
same software that you will see autobody shops using, as far as when you damage a
car and how much it's going to cost to fix it, how much the car's worth and everything
else and I'm thinking that's a little unusual, why do we need that request? Well, the
reason why is the state legislature has adopted a new state law that puts regulations on
vehicle impounds and as you realize in Meridian is that we impound a lot of vehicles. In
the police services we don't impound a lot of nice vehicles when we impound vehicles
and we are required to do certain steps that the vehicle is under an amount or over an
amount and one of the things that we found is that if we can get the true price of that
vehicle, then, possibly we don't have to follow all of these -- these -- the rules if the
vehicle was much more. And that involves auctions and postings and those sort of
things. So, it really kind of enhances our ability to dispose of these cars a little easier.
Well, a lot of departments have gone to this vehicle appraisal software where you
actually can sit there and go, well, Blue Book on this car is 6,000 dollars, but it has
3,500 dollars or 4,000 dollars worth of damage to it and so that's really the true value of
the car, that you would not be able to get off of Blue Book. That's 1,800 dollars per
year. There is no additional costs. What we have decided is to give it a shot for one
year if Council approves, see if it really does meet our needs. If it doesn't meet our
needs, then, we are out the 1,800 dollars and no contract to continue. The third item is
for our impact team MCT's, which are the mobile -- mobile computer terminals.
De Weerd: Easy for you to say.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Lavey: Yeah. Well, they used to be called mobile data terminals, so it's the computers
in the car. And that's a significant amount of money and that would probably alarm
anybody looking at it. Why is there three laptops costing 15,495 dollars? Well, let me
first point out that those are the Panasonic tough books. Why are they called the tough
books -- Councilman Bird has already asked me today, it's the ruggedized version,
military spec computers that are able to uphold the rigors of bouncing around in the
patrol cars. It's the same vehicle -- I mean it's the same laptops we already have in the
patrol cars. It's the same laptops we already have in the fire engines and it's the same
laptop we already have in some command vehicles. In the past we have used
standardized laptops and through the bouncing around you knock the pin loose, you
damage screens, you damage hinges and everything else. Now, working with -- is
Terry is out here? Yes. Working with Terry we have actually talked about is there
additional options out there? One year we looked at Motorola as a possible option.
They have a ruggedized version out there now. One thing that we found was that they
were pretty similar in price, although they weren't compatible with the docking stations
that we currently have in our cars, so we stuck with Panasonic. One of the things that
the fire services have talked about is looking at a semi ruggedized computer or a less
expensive computer for some of the applications and we are really hoping that they will
be the test cases, because the last thing I want to do is put a cheap computer in the car
again and have to go through three computers or four computers or repairs when we
should have known better. So, I think there might be some cheaper options out there,
but it's going to require us to take a little bit of a risk and it might be where we have to
just choose one car to do that risk. So, that would include the three units. It would
include the licensing. It would include the mounting brackets and it would include the
install costs in the vehicle. The fourth item, bike patrol -- and I have talked about this
before as far as adding two additional bikes to the bike patrol program and I actually
asked Todd to withdraw that, but he didn't and so I looked at that and says, well, could
we withdraw that, could we keep it in, could we reduce it? But I will tell you that I have
purchased the two bicycles with current existing funds for a total of 3,603 dollars. We
used existing budgets to purchase some uniforms and I'm not sure we got all the bags
or everything else, but we have decided to make it work with our current budget. So,
Todd, if you could delete that one. The fifth item is for parking lot repairs and one of the
things that we have found is that we have done nothing on that parking lot since 2002.
It's starting to show some wear and tear, some cracks, .and some deterioration and we
want to do some preventive maintenance of that. The current quote that we have is
10,000 dollars per lot. That's 10,000 for the front, that's 10,000 for the back. This isn't
critical, but it is necessary and just the longer we put it off the more expensive it is to
repair it, to actually put asphalt down. But this will be for the -- for the sealant for the
lots. The next item is AC MCT's is animal control MCT's and you might ask why do you
have it separated MCT's up here and MCT's down there? We -- these are in order of
priority as we saw it. One of the things that we have found is that due to the population
in Ada County, the dispatch center has gotten a lot busier, with not adding new people
and one of the things that we found is that there is major radio traffic out there and they
have asked us to reconsider putting computers in the animal control units, so they can
actually dispatch the animal calls via the computer, rather than taking a dispatcher away
from the patrol officers to dispatch them. So, you will find that that price would include
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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the two computers, the licensing, the install, and the brackets for the two animal control
units. You may not see this on your list, but it's for an ESRO, it's for an elementary
school resource officer, and I withdrew that. I do believe it's something that's
necessary, but I don't believe the timing is right and so we will bring that back at another
time. Kind of segue into the school district SRO contract. The school district has
agreed to the contract once again this year. This will be the third year that we have not
increased the price of that contract to the school district. Therefore, it really wouldn't
make any sense to propose that ESRO position and ask for them to pay half when they
barely can pay the contract that they have. But they did make their promise to us that
they learned the hard way the first time and that they were not going to jeopardize the
school security by cutting that contract again. So, we have again agreed to keep it
stable, not increase it, but not decrease it either, so -- two additional things that were
mentioned as late entries in the enhancements. One was the E ticketing grant. The
other was the Byrne grant. I'll go with the Byrne grant first. This is the third year that we
have submitted for this grant. This is no match. It's an allocation of money. We just
have to go through the steps. It's 27,000 dollars as currently allocated toward the
Meridian Police Department for equipment. Now, we have a list of potential equipment
to purchase with this, but what I'm going to do is bring that in front of Council on a
separate -- separate meeting, so we can -- we can discuss the equipment and that
would meet the requirement of that grant. So, I believe as Finance works is they are
going to ask for the 27,000 dollar to put aside, but the grant will be what's actually
paying for that. So, there is no out of -- out-of-pocket expense on the part of the city
once we receive that reimbursement. The last item is the E ticketing grant. This is an
Idaho Transportation Department grant. This is an electronic ticket citation. So, instead
of getting the hard copy, fill it out by hand ticket, you actually use the bar code on the
driver's license, scan the driver's license, it populates all that information in there, the
officer can take the device, punch in what the violation is, and, then, a -- kind of like a
cash register receipt prints offfor your copy and everything else is wireless. And so one
of the things that we have to look at is that the benefit of being much more green and
the other nice thing is is that it helps with accuracy. I have to say that police
departments handwriting is almost as bad as the fire department's handwriting and it's
hard to read the tickets. But the other thing is that it takes away from staff time to enter
the tickets. So, you get one hundred percent accuracy from the time of the stop on.
The other way it's currently structured to go directly to the courts, so the court will
already have it on file. And the other thing is it just makes perfect sense, right, because
we are in a process of going through a new RMS system, which is a records
management system, and we would write the interface to the E ticketing with the new
RMS program and that grant was awarded to us in the total of like 76,300 dollars or
somewhere in that price range. There is a 20 percent match, so I am coming in front of
the city and asking for about 15,297 dollars I believe or close to that for the match and
with that being said I'd like to mention two other things. I'd ask for the Council's support
on the plan for the police and fire switching of vehicles. One of the things that we have
found that over the years the fire department has been quite generous to us as far as
providing that command vehicle out to the scene whenever possible, but I will tell you
that it's really impacted when we have actually requested that --that trailer, because we
didn't want to either impact what they were doing or if their truck was already out on a
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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fire it was kind of hard to call them up and say, hey, could you pull this. And the other
thing is that fire departments are getting woke up in the middle of the night all the time.
We .don't need to -- to be adding to that if it's not necessary and so actually calling them
up to say, hey, come -- come pull the vehicle for us, it just doesn't make sense. I will tell
you that because of the relationship with the police and fire they say, well, that's our job.
But it's not a guarantee that they are going to be able to do that for us and so we were
kind of looking at it as, you know, this is a win-win situation. It provides a vehicle that
the police department could use to tow the command trailer, but it would also provide for
that larger vehicle to fire department needs on the brush truck. Is this a deal breaker for
us? No, not at all. We will still survive. But we'd ask for your support on that. And the
last thing I'd like to asked for you support on is the --the IT's exchange server. One of
the things that was in front of Council last year and we -- we actually withdrew it is the
exchange server and why am I asking for support on that IT issue? Well, it's really kind
of selfish -- is as Terry mentioned earlier it helps with the -- the mobile units and we
actually have slot -- and that's the Blackberries, the iPhones and such. And it actually
-- it actually provides some greater securities for us by upgrading, but also for our
command pages. We are using an unsupported, outdated pager system, which goes
back to .the 1980s and we want to switch over to the exchange server for our command
pages. However, you need to have some sort of ability to alert when it's something you
really need to be paying attention to in the middle of the night and when it's just a
standard a-mail and there is ways to establish level one messaging and put on priority
alerts and everything else with the new stuff, but not with the old stuff. So, I would ask
for your support on that as well. And, then, I will just say this is that IT also proposed a
change in the operating system and in that Chief Niemeyer asked for the -- he goes let's
hope and pray that we get it this year, because we are two -- what did you say, we are
two --
Niemeyer: Versions.
Lavey: -- two versions behind and -- but I have to say it's not going to help him with the
user error side of things, but it would make sense that we are actually able to upgrade
that operating system --
De Weerd: That's the same a-mail.
Lavey: With that being said I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Yes, Madam Mayor. Chief, you did very well on your time on presentation.
Lavey: I was noticing that. I really didn't care on the time, but I was trying to stay as 20
minutes as much as I could.
Hoaglun: One of the things that HR had talked about earlier when we opened the
meeting was the movement on the STEP increase of three percent. I just want to get
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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your thoughts on that. Are we keeping folks close to where we need to be or -- what's
your take onthat -- on that issue?
Lavey: I try not to interfere with that, but I did ask HR to do a pay study this year and
asked for that for two reasons. One is it was a promise we made to the -- the sworn
officers two years ago and, then, the other thing was is we really had to look at do we
pay an outside consultant several thousand dollars to do that or do we do it ourselves.
And that was one of the tasks -- many many many tasks that Crystal was given and she
did herself. One of the things that we found is that we are pretty comparable on the
entry level mostly and, then, we miss it by two dollars an hour on a few agencies here
locally. But, then, when you start putting in the rest of the state, we are lagging behind
once you get on those higher up schedules and three percent makes a good dent. It
doesn't make us the best, it doesn't make us the highest, it doesn't really put us in the
middle, but it definitely puts us comparable. But I believe our staff doesn't need to be
the highest paid. They have a lot of pride in their department and everything else. But
for a chief to actually be able to recruit people and retain people, we need to be
comparable. And so I really put a lot of that trust in HR and says they believe that the
three percent will do that. I do believe the three percent will do that. Could we hold off?
We always can. But we are going to come in front of you and ask forfive percent or six
percent or seven percent eventually and so we just need to decide what's --what's right.
So, I support it. When I reviewed his presentation -- Mr. Nary's presentation yesterday it
-- it wasn't a slide that was in there and I asked him to put that slide in there, because
do think it's importantto talk about.
De Weerd: And I guess, chief, just to add to that, you know, we find that the cost --the
cost of recruiting, hiring, and, you know, not retaining far exceeds anything you will see
in the budget. Getting an officer on the street and, you know, independently on the
street costs the city a significant amount. So, we need to pay attention to that employee
retention and this is important to them.
Lavey: I will point out that what we are doing on the police department level, what we
are doing on the Council level is working. We are -- we are known to be the place to
come. I get people from all over the northwest, I get people from Florida that are
interested in coming here, Montana, Wyoming. I just had an officer--he's going to start
on Monday, coming from EI Paso, Texas. Of course you don't have to do much to want
to leave EI Paso, Texas. I just want to make sure that we are able to maintain that
reputation that we have and we are doing things well, so it's not the doom and gloom,
we are not losing people because of wages or benefits. They absolutely love where
they are working, but we just need to make sure that are comparable to the rest of the
agencies and I believe that that makes us comparable.
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Zaremba: A question about the capabilities of the E ticket system. I absolutely agree
that if you can enter something once on the spot and have it distributed to all the people
that need it without being rekeyed, that's -- that's tremendous. Is there a reverse
capability of when the officer on the scene hits the bar code on somebody's driver
license that there is an alert, hey, there is two warrants out for this guy. Is there any
reverse capability like that?
Lavey: We already have that.
Zaremba: Oh, you do?
Lavey: Yes.
Zaremba: Okay.
Lavey: It's not -- it doesn't work quite that way, but it does work. You actually have to
type the name on it. Well -- and as far as scanning the name and, then, going through
all that, yes, it would pop up, too. But we already do that. That would just be
technology doing it for us instead of someone actually having to type it in.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further?
Zaremba: No. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, chief.
Lavey: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. I guess next on the agenda, now that we have had each of the
departments that have enhancements have been in front of you, is to turn this over to
your screen and ask Council for any follow-up questions that you have from what you
have heard this morning, any additional information needed -- the discussion period of
today's agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I'm still mulling around what we are getting with Bing mapping and given that
we have VRT with a system that can distribute riders and we have Commuter Ride that
that's sole function is getting car pools set up by providing information, what more are
we getting for that 8,000 dollars?
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July 6, 2011
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De Weerd: Okay. Well, we have our IT manager here, so perhaps he can -- I can see
he's really anxiously waiting to jump up and answer that question, because I can't. And
probably Mr. Nary can't either.
Paternoster: Councilman Zaremba -- I mean Rountree --
Rountree: That's close.
Paternoster: It's close. One seat. Could you repeat the question? I was actually
talking to one of the lieutenants at the police and missed the question, which is the
dumb look on the face, it was like what do they want.
Rountree: Why do they want me; right? A question about Bing mapping and the idea
that staff utilizes that to coordinate roots and that sort of thing. Councilman Zaremba
indicated that VRT is putting up a system that will do that. In terms of public
transportation, Ada County Highway District runs the Commuter Ride and van pool
system, which will do the same thing. What is it that we are really getting for that 8,000
dollars? I'm still struggling with that.
Paternoster: Sure. That's a fair question, Councilman Rountree. For the 8,000 dollars
what you're getting is you're getting their orthophotography, their mapping. Unlike the
mapping system that the city has within our GIS system, it's much more developed as
roads, routes, paths, streets. It tracks a lot different information than what Public Work
has traditionally put inside the system and so, really, what you're getting is you're
getting coordination of somebody's maps that they have already developed. Is it
something that we could do without with next year? Sure. It's definitely probably more
optional than the GIS plan, but it definitely adds value, because it was a disappointment
to several people when we had to take that offline, because we did have a product that
was already in place, was being used by internal users and just due to the way the
licensing works is they say if you make it publicly accessible, so that the public can
access it, then, you don't have to have the licensing, but because it's an internal facing
application, it had been interfaced -- Mike had actually interfaced it in with the HR
system, so as an employee, basically, I just would hit subscribe, it would recognize my
user credentials from logging into the computer and, then, automatically populate the
address that was in the HR system and so there was very little work on the side of the
employee to actually subscribe. Could we go without it? Absolutely. If we wanted to
cut it down and say, well, we only want to pay for 100,000 transactions maximum, we
can knock off another 2,000 dollars of that request and go to 6,000 dollars for next year
and measure the benefit. I know that Mike Tanner is extremely interested in that
request as our programmer, just because the city doesn't have the mapping system in
place with our GIS system at this point to really provide the level of integration that we
can go.
Rountree: And that answers my question, but it raises another question for me.
Doesn't the GIS and the orthophotography effort on the part of COMPASS provide
some of that information for us? We pay for it.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Paternoster: It does, but what has to be written is the web service and there is some
programming and development that has to take place, which is accounted for inside the
GIS plan, but until that development has taken place so that you can integrate in with it,
it's not something that you could just instantly just turn on and start using and so there is
quite a bit of an effort, which is why we believe that once the GIS plan moves fonNard
the need to have Bing maps a couple years from now probably would go away.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
Paternoster: Sure.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Terry. Council, discussion? Any further -- or I guess any
further information needed at this point?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just wanted to ask Chief Niemeyer about -- thank you for bringing up the
budget enhancement, the changes with the new numbers. It looks like there is a
difference -- it reduced the request by at least 50,000 dollars, so that's always nice to
see and I just wanted to be sure you have a budget enhancement wage reclass if the
battalion chief positions are approved, even though we are now looking at division
chiefs, it's -- you're saying that the wage reclass enhancement is still necessary to keep
orderwithin the ranks, if you will, when it comes to salary.
Niemeyer: Correct. Yes. Councilman Hoaglun, the wage reclass -- originally we had
two proposals, one with battalion chiefs, one without, as we discussed with HR. The
issue that we had with putting on battalion chiefs is that the battalion chiefs would be a
five percent increase, the division chiefs would be a five percent and deputy would be a
five percent. We have the salary for the division chiefs, the same as a battalion chief
that we had proposed, the 80,000, but because we don't have that three additional
layers, that's why the reclass is still needed, but we actually have decreased the funds
that we would have had if we would have had battalion chiefs. So, yes, the reclass is
still needed to make sure that we have the separation between a captain and a division
and, then, a division and a deputy.
Hoaglun: Okay. Great. Thank you. I just wanted to be sure we got that.
Niemeyer: If I could follow up real quick, too, just on Terry's issue, Councilman
Rountree, we are one of those departments that has used Bing maps. You had asked
the question. We will do an operational layout, satellite imagery of a training burn that
we are going to be doing, so when we do our debrief we can have the imagery and we
can identify here is staging areas, here is this map, some sort of mapping software is
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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pretty essential, I know for Chief Lavey and myself both as we debrief different
incidents, so that's just another --another twist to the Bing map issue if you will.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: A question about vehicle slots in -- in reverse of what you're suggesting. I
like the idea of being able to take the equipment off of the old brush truck and give it to
the police department. I think that's great. Since he later talked about abandoned
vehicles that they have to deal with, can they give any of those to you for you to do fire
practice on?
Niemeyer: I'd have to look into that. I think we would have to look to the legalities of
some of that. Certainly extrication training, we are always looking for vehicles to do
extrication training on, so we end up cutting them up and they go back to the scrap yard
and also rescue training. You know, over at ISP they have a dive pool and they have
car simulation where they can lower a car into the diver pool and we actually go over
there and train with them on going in and doing underwater rescues. So, certainly some
possibilities there. I don't fully know the legalities of that, I'd have to look into it, but,
yeah, we are certainly open.
Zaremba: It was just a thought.
Council budget decisions and discussion
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, are we to the point of going through our comments and
additions and deletions of the line items? Todd's ready for us?
Lavoie: Councilman Rountree, we are ready for you.
Rountree: Okay. I just have a few to offer.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Let's start with the most recent -- with the police department. It sounds like
the 4.,780 for the bikes is something that will be reduced. You already got that, so that's
withdrawn. In the fire department we have a new enhancement sheet that changes the
division chief amount and I would suggest that that amount be changed accordingly,
which is --
Bird: Three seventy-three.
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July 6, 2011
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Rountree: --fairly sizeable reduction. Then in the police we would have the addition of
the Byrne -- Burney or Byrne Grant of 27,027 dollars? Twenty-one dollars? Whatever
that is. 27,021. Yeah. And the E tickets of 91,605. Okay. In the Recreation
Department we would eliminate the withdrawn items for Kleiner Park in the amount of
105,000. Thirty-eight thousand for the -- 38,000 for truck and the 38,825 --got that one.
And, then, on the edition of half a million dollars into the field house account, I think
when we get done I'd like to take a look at that number again and see if that's for now a
space holder or whether it goes up or down. To me that's a place where we can make
some adjustments. Those are the only ones that I picked up. I was -- I was looking at
the Bing mapping, but with a better explanation that we actually do use it for public
safety and those sorts of things, I can see why we need it.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other comments from Council? Discussion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I don't -- I don't have any. I agree with Councilman Rountree and, then, when we
see what we bought them out at we can come back on that new recreational field house
and see what we had to delete or what we have to do.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor. Todd or Stacy, if you want to address that bottom line in the
orange, the total FY-12 revenue, unrestricted 27,215,000 and our expenditure is twenty-
eight seven and use of fund balance, then, we are applying two million to that to meet
that budget; correct?
Kilchenmann: That is correct. That's the field house 1.5 million and 500,000 for -- now,
the 500,000 forthe field house and 1.5 forthe maintenance.
Hoaglun: Okay.
De Weerd: Which is part of our CIP as -- as we have brought to you earlierthis year.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Hoaglun: I need to ask Chief Niemeyer a quick question on vehicles for division chiefs.
Was there just one vehicle that you were -- I can't remember what -- what you said
about that.
Niemeyer: Yeah. Councilman Hoaglun, what we have planned or what we have
proposed in the budget is for one vehicle. This is -- I shouldn't say experimental -- we
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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are going to try this to make -- to see if it will work by sharing staff vehicles. There may
be a chance it doesn't, but we are certainly going to give it a try, instead of providing
three vehicles, one for each member that we are requesting, even though they will be
responding from home at times, I believe we have a response plan that will have a
backup, somebody taking a department vehicle home to respond if needed, if the event
escalates. The other folks come in their personal cars and, then, they can get a staff
vehicle if it's available and those will probably be here at City Hall, because that's where
our office time is going to be -- is going to be situated. So, we didn't ask for three
vehicles, we asked for one.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I have a question probably for Stacy. We mentioned that to balance this we
are taking two million dollars out of the fund balance.
Kilchenmann: Correct.
Zaremba: What is the input to the fund balance? Where does that come from?
Kilchenmann: It comes from years of revenue exceeding expenses.
Zaremba: That is set aside into that balance?
Kilchenmann: Correct.
Zaremba: And that's because of the conservative revenue projections?
Kilchenmann: Well, I don't know about that, but --
De Weerd: Well, I would like to say it was savings from the departments.
Zaremba: Yeah.
Kilchenmann: It is like a savings account.
Zaremba: Well, it's both. It's a combination of both.
Kilchenmann: Equity.
Zaremba: The fund balance exists because of previous and current good stewardship
of the monies that pass through our hands.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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Kilchenmann: That and a period of the growth.
Zaremba: Yeah. Okay.
Kilchenmann: So, really, when you look at the bottom line, the -- we are over right now
--over projections by 605,000 --
Zaremba: Uh-huh.
Kilchenmann: -- so, we are really only using 1.5 million, which is the maintenance shop
to balance the budget. But it's a wash.
Zaremba: Okay. It's a good thing. Thanks.
Kilchenmann: One thing about -- if I could add one more thing. With the field house
that will likely be an item that will carry for several years. We have done that in the past
with our land purchase account or Adventure Island or even Settlers Park, where we are
just setting aside that amount and, then, designating it year after year until we actually
spend it.
Hoaglun: I guess just a comment. What concerns me when I read through the revenue
manual, the projections, of course, those were done earlier Ithink -- was that done in
March, Stacy, or --
Kilchenmann: About March, April.
Hoaglun: You know --and you look at the declining property values and, you know, the
property taxes are base, that's a major funding source for the city and I just don't
foresee the coming year to be any better -- in fact, there probably will likely be
devaluations, looking at my neighborhood and knowing what homes are selling for on
the market for -- at auction it's shocking what some of those homes are going for and
that impacts values certainly, just to some extent when we had the assessor here and
his comments on that. You know. So, it's just -- we aren't out of the woods yet, but it's
encouraging to hear about some of the projects that are coming online here in the
community with Center Cal and some other things and those folks -- you want to think,
but you know they wouldn't be around for as long as they have without paying very very
close attention to the economic climate out there. So, there seems to be some
optimism, it may be cautious optimism, but at the same time I don't want to get too
excited and say, oh, we won't have many problems, so let's just fund everything, I think
we are funding what's needed to move forward with city services and what citizens
expect and what's needed for the public safety. It's never enough, but, again, you --
that's what we get paid the big bucks for is discern from what's necessary and what's a
want versus what's a need. So, that's -- it's -- it's always tough.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
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De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I agree with Councilman Hoaglun in terms the stuff out there and while I hate to
take out of the fund balance, I do realize that -- that the 500,000 is going to sit there for
probably three or more years. The maintenance shed needs to get started as soon as
possible. We knew that. It's not only the interchange deal causing it, it's just a matter of
fact that we need -- we need to get to a better facility, so we can get to our stuff. I would
also like to compliment every one of our departments, every one of our employees, for
being conservative themselves and making us not have to go back and cut half their
budget out, because they do it before they bring it to us. They only bring the things they
really need and I certainly appreciate that. I have been on the other side of the budgets
where we were shooting for a lot of blue sky and I think this is truly a budget and has
been for the last few years that --that is needed. There is not a lot of fluff in any of it. If
any fluff. I thank you forthat.
De Weerd: Well, just in response, Councilman Bird, I think a lot of it is because there is
a trust level and .that's been built over time. We have taken the five year trends and
shown spending patterns and questioned line item line item. There -- there is a trust
that they don't need to pad their budgets, they know in the case of an emergency or an
unanticipated event City Council is going to step fon~rard and cover what you need to.
So, it works both ways. So, appreciate those comments.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Along the same lines -- and I have said this before, but I would repeat it
again. I really appreciate that the department directors get together and, one, trust each
other enough to vet the whole set of enhancements that everybody has talked about
and give each other some advice on that and help make some of the decisions about
what ought to be brought forward to Council. I really appreciate that it has been through
that process and that the department directors are, one, willing to do it and able to do it
and -- and, like I say, believe in each other and bring us enhancements that -- that are
really sound and I appreciate that.
De Weerd: Thank you. And they have fully vetted the needs versus wants. So, I can
assure you on that. Anything further from the Council? Finance team, anything needed
at this point?
Kilchenmann: I don't think so. We -- some years we have specified the left over fund
balance to go to either the CIP fund or the public safety, which is a CIP fund. This year
we are just adding it to fund balance, which I think is appropriate for right now. And,
then, we can look again when we get into next year. When we finish out this year we
can look at what our fund balance is and we will be doing those fund commitments after
the first of the year, so, then, we can look at it again.
Meridian City Council -Budget Hearing
July 6, 2011
Page 64 of 64
De Weerd: And I will point out on the spreadsheet in front of you that we always have
to be mindful of future commitments and what the impact is to our General Fund and
Finance has been great about making sure those notes are in front of you as well.
Those are long-term commitments. Okay. Council, if there isn't anything further,
would entertain a motion to adjourn and we will reconvene at tomorrow's Enterprise
Fund discussions.
Rountree: So moved.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Any
opposed?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: We are adjourned.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 1:10 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FIL~F THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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DATE APPROVED
. HOLMAN, CITY CL RE K