City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we'll call the meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [groaning]

Okay. Okay. Uh the clerk will note all members are present with the exception of councelor Ziegler who is excused tonight. For announcements, we have two uh city hall and city business offices will be closed Monday, February 16th in observance of President's Day. Emergency services are available by calling 911. The police department will remain open for walk-in emergencies. For water related emergencies, call 2087733517. And the city council will hold a special land use workshop this Thursday, February 5th at 5:30m. The workshop will take place in the second floor conference room at city hall upstairs here. Uh for amendments to the agenda, we have one. We're moving uh 5B, the proclamation policy to the following meeting. So that's off the agenda for tonight. Declaration of conflict, exparte contacts or site visits. Seeing none, please present the consent calendar. Item A is minutes from the January 20th, 2026 council meeting, city council meeting. Item B is payables January 21st through February 4th, 2026. And item C is painted rock subdivision master development agreement SUBD-25-3.

Questions on the consent calendar? I move to approve the consent calendar as presented. Second motion in a second for the discussion. Roll call, please. PL I. Stigler leader. I Mosby I. Luca I. Malloy. I. Motion passes. Thank you. Um, next up item two, the appointment of Brendan Anderson to the planning and zoning commission. Please come forward. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in serving on planning and zoning? All right.

Good evening, council members. How you guys hear me? Okay, good. My name is Brendan Anderson. I have been living in Post Falls for seven years. Moved my family here in 2019 from North Carolina. I'm a father, a husband, um business owner, small acreage chicken farmer, and other animals as well. um real estate investor and I work for a large corporation insurance and contracts. So I feel like bring a lot of different experience uh and obviously a concerned citizen um experienced a lot of the growth and I would say velocity of growth over the last seven years and I'd like to be part of the conversation um in the planning and zoning. So that's a brief intro. I'm here for questions.

Take it away anyone? I guess I'll start. Um, from which state statutes and local ordinances are the authorities of the planning and zoning commission derived? I would say the Idaho state code. Any in particular? There's a lot of them. I'd have to I'd have to [laughter] I'd have to research that and you know admittedly um you know I don't have all the answers to those things. I think what I bring is um experience working with like a variety of stakeholders and kind of understanding different um you know different parties perspectives. So making decisions uh we have to look at whatever laws apply be different for every situation and then um making sure that we're understanding the rights of everyone involved. So

So say you're on the commission and a proposed development comes before the commission that would require annexation into the city and a zoning and a zoning designation. What do you believe is your role as a member of the commission in evaluating that request and developing a recommendation? Yeah. So, we would have to uh we'd have to first think about what the comprehensive plan has already laid out and um you know if we would have any detrimental reliance if we changed anything around that uh we would have to uh look at what the codes were in existence and um we have to review the the plans. So, okay. Um that's all I got for now. Thanks. Mr. Mr. I have a question for you.

Sure.

Uh under your application, you were talking about how uh you wanted to help the city of Post Falls foster a transition from more mechanical development to more organic growth. And you know, I haven't lived in Post Falls a long time. You know, that sounds really good to me, but I want to know more a little bit more to you. From your perspective, what do you mean when you're talking about transitioning from I guess we're characterizing what we're doing now as mechanical development toward something more organic? Well, and maybe it's not even Yeah. I mean, mechanical development, I think, is just the idea of of all we're just going to go build the thing, right? As whereas a more organic growth would be look at if if you look at how cities um you know, in Europe especially, but other places in America as well can grow is where you kind of fill in what you already have, right? And so instead of saying we're going to just have an endless expansion necessarily where we have to go drive to get there, you can look at what's already in existence and say, well, let's build around what we already have and make it more inviting. Uh maybe that means we increase density as as it's needed, right? or we add a local business here or we add a a small shop here. And we we make it uh easier for um smaller stakeholders to do things that would improve the community as a whole instead of just saying, well, we've got to just, you know, push out a big development out here, we can fill it in. That would just kind of be like large picture, large scale.

And having lived in the city of Post Falls for, you know, a few years now, do you have any vision as to where that needs to actually take place in particular? So, I mean, we would start with the downtown. I think that that's one thing that we have a large opportunity to focus on. Um, I know there's plans for it, and I think there could be a lot more plans for it as well. If you think about even just down the road in Celane, I it's a very it's a different uh feel, right? I mean, people go there, it's a destination. You can you can park and walk. Um, and there's things to do, there's things to see. Uh there's a lot of small businesses all the way down Sherman and it's it's um they light it up and it it brings a lot of people in organically. I think that word is is there somewhere that people like to be. I think we have to start with the downtown area and I think there's opportunity to do that. So,

and then as a board for planning and zoning, how can uh planning and zoning actually facilitate someone coming in to do that? Because it's not going to be the city that's doing that improvement. So, will it be what what kind of efforts can the city take to foster that kind of change from private investment?

Yeah, I think that's a good question. Um, admittedly, I don't know all of the processes and the ins and outs of how the board works. I think um you don't always know something until you're you're in the thick of it, but I I trust my experience in the thick of other things to um make good judgments during that. I would say we definitely want to foster a um like the laws of attraction, right? Uh and that starts with with the vision of something that others can get behind. And I think that as that vision grows, you have those investors organically coming in. You have you get people that say, "Well, you know what? I'd like to put like a bakery right here and you know, or I'd like to do some multiuse and and make it look really nice." Um, I I think that first there has to be the vision and the kind of the the mentality shift which I I think is happening. Um, and it just needs to happen more and and I think that um people see what's beautiful and they recognize it and I think that they'll want to be part of it.

Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Anderson, thank you so much for being willing to come and uh stand before us and talk to Mayor Wesland about being on planning and zoning. uh is a volunteer board, so it can be um difficult to find people willing to give their free time to do that. So, I appreciate that. Um and I also appreciate your vision for downtown. Sadly, planning and zoning isn't like an active um oh gosh, I want to say offensive, but I don't know football well enough to make that claim. Um but like they're not going out and proactively making change. They're really a representative commission

um who's much like our job is to represent the best interest of the residents of Post Falls when being asked by people that are wanting to build in the city if that is if that's really um what is best for what already exists. So we do already have some um if I understand it correctly real estate like developers on planning and zoning. We also have some engineers. We have some real estate agents. What could you bring to the commission that doesn't already exist um that would be beneficial and representative of the residents?

Yeah, I think the fact that I'm not any of those things. um and that I'm, you know, a citizen um without maybe even, you know, and that's kind of the idea, the premise of like a diversity of of thought and opinion is bringing in people that are experts in their fields just to have a different critical lens. um you know just because I'm not a realtor or um you know a builder per se. I think having worked in like insurance specifically um understanding kind of like the contractual obligations um and uh like the legal landscape of of different things and then also um you know even even just thinking of like where I live out on the prairie seeing changes and and things like that. It's more of a perspective, I think, and it's more of a voice um than maybe like the technical experience. Uh maybe just being able to ask it questions like what you just asked me. So, yeah.

And what kind of investor did you say that you were? So, real real estate investor. So, I mean, so I've done Yeah. So, I've done like, you know, rental properties in North Carolina. We've done multiple like housing flips and things and these are all like improvement types of projects, right? So, doing perhaps akin to real estate development or a real estate agent, right? Yeah. Thanks for drawing that King. Thanks for drawing the similarity. [laughter] Uh the comprehensive plan, I know Joe touched on it a little bit. Um what would you say is as we go through a comprehensive plan review. Um most important to you to see changed or updated in that?

Yeah. So in in the comprehensive plan, I mean there's I mean obviously there's 200 pages and so uh there's a lot to review there, but in in a couple things I think I I touched on it is, you know, recognizing that, you know, we're building corridors, you know, through the territories. And I think while we do need to have transportation, we also need to think about what I mentioned earlier, which is like the organic growth. and it's saying that do we want to cut off do we want to cut off neighborhoods you know with interstates or is there another way and um and should we can we also fill in before we expand out and again these are these are like philosophical things um okay

but worth discussing I think on every proposal okay so per perhaps not like one individual addition or change that you could think of to put in there well you can't I mean you can't just like was mentioned you can't just go go change something without knowing a little bit more of what's already been promised, right? Or what's already in the works, per se? Um, like a commercial only zone isn't something that you would be a proponent of.

I think we we need more mixed use in general. Um, and I think that we want to make neighborhoods have like a whole feeling and so we don't want to have a neighborhood sitting here and they're far away from services when we could have them intermixed and which would again make make places more desirable and places that people want to be. Um, you know, walkability is a really important thing. And so I think that's something we need to consider is is this a place we can only drive to or can can we actually access it and um, you know, on on foot, which is what people probably would prefer to do instead of having to, you know, drive everywhere.

Yeah, that makes sense. No, thank you for explaining your vision. I just have one last question. Were you able to speak to any of the other commissioners that are currently sitting prior to coming here about their experiences or them being on planning and zoning? No. Okay. Awesome. Well, it was nice to hear you flesh out um a lot of your vision for post office calls and I appreciate that. Sure. Thank you. And uh I want to echo uh what was just said. Thank you for being willing to come forward. This is a thankless yet critical position in the city. Um so what's your why? Like um what is it that's motivated you to serve in this specific role?

[clears throat]

That's a good question. Um, there's probably multiple ones. I would say, you know, when we first moved here, we had just come here from a place kind [clears throat] of just getting settled in and, um, just kind of learning about the history of Post Falls was interesting. You know, let's get established and everything. And I say, you know, I think when we got here, there was there was no traffic. Uh, these are just kind of observations. Um, and that we always found that to be interesting. I I remember remarking and I've never I've never waited at a light before in post falls and this was only seven years ago and uh the velocity you know I like the co migration I think is a word that I've heard tossed around and and I think it goes to the point where like growth is inevitable and and it's not something that you can prevent or should try to prevent. It's just a matter of how do like what does it look like? And so as I, you know, as I'm doing my chicken farm out there on uh off of Maguire, seeing, you know, the the yellow signs go up and saying, "Okay, like things are changing." And um I just think that we need I I feel like I would like to be part of the conversation more than anything um with some of the vision that I've shared and some of my just um I guess philosophy towards towards what a town should feel like, what it should look like and and what people actually like. Not just me, but like what do people like about towns when they go visit somewhere and they come back and they say, "Wow, I really liked being there." Like I like we we should be that you know people shouldn't have to always just go somewhere else and then come back you know and I think you know we get called the bedroom community right or or the space in between Celane and Spokane right is that all we are and is that all we should be I don't think I don't think it is and I don't think it should be. So again, not having some of the technical experience has been pointed out, but that's exactly why I want to be here is to say like

let's let's bring the the ideas and the vision to the people that have it and let's marry those two things. In this role, every decision you would make would make somebody mad. [laughter] I work in insurance. Good answer. Perhaps you're used to that. Um yeah, every uh development that is that is um turned down Yeah. is costing somebody time, money, and potential. Um and then everyone that is approved is costing someone else their maybe their neighborhood they grew up with and what it looked like before or

um their desire for no growth, whatever. So, are you comfortable being criticized in that in that manner and and um being able to to defend your position as to why you made the decision you did? I work in insurance. No, I'm just kid. Yeah. No, to expand though. Um, of course, I mean, and I I joke, but it's true. I mean, in in my my line of work, in my experience, that's a lot of what it is. I mean, insurance is a contract very similar to what we're dealing with here. There's uh we have to defend every decision that we make. And I can't tell you how many denials that look, it's not in the policy. The policy says this. This is why this is what you have. Um we could we would love to talk to you about what maybe you should have next time, but this is how it is. and I can help you understand it, but no, we're I'm used to explaining um decisions and having people upset at

and and a little bit of of cover will be provided by the comprehensive plan and our goals and master plans and things. Some of it will be a value judgment and you'll just have to uh explain that. I feel comfortable that you would do that. Um, what do you think the public believes in postfalls is the number one issue? The public, some of us just ran for office recently and every door had the same answer that we knocked on as to when I asked what do you believe the number one issue is? It would be affordability probably or or growth or traffic.

Everybody said growth no matter what. I mean, nobody asked if we had the right ratio of parks to population or whatever. It was everybody, every single person said growth. And so, and there are some estimates that we'll be at 100,000 people by 2040. Um, what's your opinion about growth generally, keeping in mind the public opinion is different than what we've done in the past, we've grown. We are the 70th fastest growing city in the country. the public is upset about that and yet like you said growth is inevitable.

So what is the happy medium that you believe that the planning and zoning commission should strike? What's that balance? So as I was reminded, we might not have all the power in the planning and zoning committee. So I'll just preface it with that. Um but you know and and I said earlier that it is inevitable and no one likes it, right? I mean, you knock on every door. Everybody says they don't like the growth, but they live here. I mean, I live here, right? I I run a farm, but I also live in a spraw in a neighborhood in suburban sprawl. So, we're all in So, we're all in

I would just I would just say yes, I agree with you that growth is inevitable and it's beneficial. The rate is is the question and what it looks like. Like, look, yeah, I said, well, I would like us to grow with intention. like would you agree with that statement and um the pace of growth like I said a 100,000 people by 2040 um which when you say 2040 sounds like a long time but those of us with you know salt and pepper hair or more salt and pepper know that that time goes very fast right so so what's your what are your thoughts on that um that rate of growth

I think in preparing for this I even used the word intentional kind of in my in my notes and what is it going to look like, you know, we're at what, 50 now, so it basically be double in 20 years essentially at 4 and 4 4.8 5% per year, right? Um I think we have to to grow organically. I think if we just keep if we if if all we do is just keep pushing farther out and farther out, that's a machine like type of growth and that's what everybody hates, right? Um then again, we have the comprehensive plan. What have we already promised? we have to consider different things and I know that there's we're looking at the plan but um no we we need to grow in a way that when we knock on doors people don't say I hate the growth um and that you know the parks the parks to person ratio I think is uh is interesting you mentioned that because there's like an illusion that if we just have the right ratio like again we're talking about machine language here not the machine or not not the language of that humans actually speak or like the language of like the soul, right? Or the intellect. Um, these are all just like numbers, you know, but how do people feel when you knock on their door? You guys found that out. So, I 100% agree has to be intentional. And I don't know what the power level is in in the in the in the committee right now or the board, but um we should grow in a way that people don't hate, but we're going to grow.

I have two more questions. Uh the first is uh what do you believe is the proper role of government? [clears throat and cough] I thought about the answer to that just for you. Thank you.

And and I hope you like it. So I I think that the the role of government is to serve the common good and you may ask what the common good is and I say those are like the social conditions that enable people to live to their fullest and to accomplish what they can as a human. So I mean we can expand more but I'll start with that. Some people believe though that the common good includes free health care for everybody, including those [clears throat] here illegally. And other people say that the common good means not doing that so that people can afford to live and they don't have to pay high taxes. So, it's a little too general for my taste. I'm I'm wondering, you know, what what is government supposed to do and what are they not supposed to do?

[clears throat and cough] So the question I guess you is more of what what is the common good is what you're asking me to define. Well I mean that would be based on I mean if some people are saying one thing and other people are saying another thing then you would say would you agree it's subjective or no? Yeah I mean what should government not do? In other words, like because there's there will be people that come and say, "We need to increase the density. We need to allow people to develop whatever they want. We need to there's going to be all of these things that come up and some of those will impact the planning and zoning commission."

Um, and so what I want to know is a core value. What do you say? What would you say? You know what, that's not really our business. I mean, there's no there's no [clears throat] one-sizefits-all answer for that. I would say that we need to facilitate freedom. We need to promote responsibility. Um, there laws need to be just. Um, and there there's objective measures to those things. Um, but yeah, I mean, if you asked eight people, you would get nine opinions, I think, on that. And I mean I could I could give you one and but I think there are general objective standards of justice and treating people fairly and promoting responsibility not overstepping. Um that's where you know you have to exercise judgment and looking at the situation through both parties perspectives.

Okay. And then I'm not for for big government if that's the [laughter] if that's what we're trying to get after. That's good. Thank you. Okay. Um, finally, do you do you know or have any relationships with developers or people that want to develop land currently that might reflect a conflict of interest? I do not. Okay. Thank you. Further questions? We're kind of building off of um the last questions. So as fortunately for the planning and zoning commission is that the authorities and restraints are very well defined in state law and local codes etc.

So having admittedly not knowing what the state statutes and uh local codes govern planning and zoning. What is it do you believe the authorities and restraints on the planning and zoning commission are and based upon what do you have that belief? Well, they would be based off of the codes and the state statutes, right? But what are they? So, so I'm asking you what you think the authorities and restrictions are. And since you don't know what the state statutes are, [clears throat] so you I I don't know right this second, but I'm sure that somebody that does know could probably catch me up really quickly. You're you are asking us to give you this position.

And what you're telling me is you don't know what the authorities and restraints of that position even are. I mean, you can put it that way, but I can also I mean, there's codes, there's state statutes. Wouldn't I be able to look those things up whenever it came time to make a decision? True. But if I'm hiring a doctor and I got a heart problem, I say, "What do you know about the heart?" And he says, "I don't know, but I'll I'll look it up before I start cutting you open." That doesn't bring me a lot of warm fuzzies. You got me on that one. Okay, that's it for me.

The only thing I would like to to interject there is I I had a discussion with some of our planning and zoning members and I was reminded by them that um most of them had no experience coming into this role and that um perhaps I should not be necessarily valuing amount of time spent on government boards for some of this too. And so I I took some of that into account as well that um a lot of this is sort of oriented toward community engagement and there's an opportunity for people to learn without necessarily being an expert in in state code from from day one. But I I appreciate the question. So it's it's a good thing to check

and and I wouldn't say that somebody needs to be an expert in it, but somebody ought to at least know what the Idaho Local Land Use Act is before coming into it, for example. But you got me on that one, honestly. Yeah. If we did, if if we did appoint you, um what would you do to get up to speed?

I would definitely have to spend a few hours becoming um familiar with that the land use. And then again, like whenever there's a discussion around whatever the topic is, having to prepare for it just like I would in my in my career, right? I mean, there's um there's different state statutes and everything in in insurance. it might be a state that I don't work in very frequently and we have to go in for um some type of examining or like a large decision. I would have to brush up just like you know the same way and and become a subject matter expert pretty quickly. Um so on something that I maybe have like an idea of but not the specifics have to be able to site it. So Mr. Mayor, may I ask a question?

Certainly. Um, would you be available on Thursday to complete the [laughter] land use training? Should you be uh confirmed to the I I'll I'll work it in. Yeah, I'll be there. [snorts] Further questions? I think you guys have nailed him down. So, all right. Thank you. Take a seat. Okay. So, I'm asking for his appointment. I would entertain a motion. I move the appointment of Brandon Anderson to the planning and zoning commission. Second. Motion in a second for the discussion.

I have a question for discussion. Then does planning and zoning do they get staff reports the same way we do when they go to make a decision that analyzes the comprehensive plan and the land use codes application and what their authorities are. Do they get a staff report? Yes, they do. Okay. So, if Mr. Anderson were being asked to make a decision. He would be well educated through these reports as to what the lateral limits are of his authority and whether certain decisions are lie outside of that.

Yes, for the generally speaking, yes, the the staff report does cover the uh criteria for the individual land use action that is before the commission. All right. Thank you. That's all I had. All right. Roll call, please. Stig leader, no. Mosby, I Luca. No. Mavoy, no. Blue, I. All right, motion fails. We will bring this up at the following meeting and um so I'll have to get a different candidate and we'll bring it back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson, for being here this evening. And uh I would reserve the right to for a motion to reconsider later. Just at this point, I don't think it's ready. All right. Uh next up, uh public hearings tonight. We have none. And action items, unfinished business, returning ordinances. We have none. Uh new business item A, purchase of asphalt hotbox streets department.

[snorts]

Good [laughter] evening, Mayor Council. Uh my name is Ross Juncan, public works maintenance manager. Nice to meet the new council members for the first time. Um, I'm here tonight to uh request uh authority to purchase a hot box um for our street department. Um brief overview of our maintenance program, we have [clears throat] over 500 miles that we maintain um of asphalt. And in our tool inventory, we have a crack sealer, which kind of self-explanatory. um a Dura Patcher, which um if you're familiar with chip seal, it uh it's a trailered unit that basically puts down um a microchip and seals up cracks as well as um potholes and you can layer it up and and protect and and um seal up your roads. So, it's it's a small area um repair. And then we have uh our asphalt paver which we use for projects and we put down about a mile and a half of asphalt overlays each year in house. Um for a number of years um we've been looking at one of these hot boxes to augment our program and uh and we're um to the point where we're here asking for one. So the um unit is a a 4-tonon trailer. It'll hold four tons of asphalt and it's designed to keep the asphalt hot all day long. So, the problems that we run into is we'll go to the we'll get a dump truck full of asphalt, but we can't get a full dump truck because it cools off too quickly and then it goes to waste and we end up throwing away half of it sometimes. Um, so we're trying to avoid that. We're trying to stay on the job as much as possible on the site rather than going back and dumping the cold asphalt and getting some more hot mix um from

the plant. The other uh ability that this unit has is that it can reheat asphalt that's cooled off. So, we could use some of the asphalt in theory through the winter months and reheat it um and thus be able to do hot patches in the winter months when the asphalt plant is closed. That's our hope for it. Why only in theory? Um we haven't put it in practice yet. Oh, it's not like a known thing that it can do. In researching it, that tells us that's something that it can do. Okay. You have doubts? I have I don't have the doubt. A few of my workers, okay, fair enough. Are skeptical, but um

I'm a fan of skepticism. That's fine. Sure. You

um but we're we're hopeful, very hopeful that that would would do it for us as well. Um so we could reuse um that asphalt. And then um it also reduces the number of trips that we have to take because we can stay on the site um doing the work. Here's a picture of it. Um it has a dump feature. um puts it right where we want. There's a small patch that they're doing right there. That's pretty typical um of some of the patches we do in the winter months. This is kind of the process that we have to do. We have it's called temporary patch or cold patch and it's a pliable asphalt mixture, but it's a temporary patch. We'll put it down in a pothole or a larger um bad section of asphalt. We'll roll it or compact it. But in order to do a full permanent patch, we have to come back in the spring, cut that out, and then do a hot mix. Anyway, we're hopeful that this could solve that problem, some of that problem

during the winter months, and just do it right then, not have to come back to it. Do we currently rent these or what are we doing now? We do not have one of these. So, we're not we don't ever use one of these like rent one and No. Um, I'm not aware that you can rent these anywhere locally. Okay. So, is there any special training required in order to operate one? We're looking into that. I already asked my supervisor to look into the training um if we get approved and seeing if somebody would come. They are ordered out of the Midwest. So, potentially we could have somebody come train um be on site with our crew and go through it for a day. Just looking at what it is, does it strike you as a very complex system?

It doesn't. I mean, it's a heater. It keeps that hot. So, um there are some safety um things about it that I'm not concerned about, but I want people to be aware of when they're using it. So, we'll It's a new piece of equipment and everybody needs to know how to use it properly and safely. Yeah. I'm no mechanical expert, but it's basically a hot dump trailer, right?

Basically, yeah, it does have some other features. Um, it will have a um access for or a wand that can spray tac, which is what you put around the outside edges of asphalt when you're putting down a patch to make it's like a glue that bonds the two surfaces together. Um, and then I believe there's a there might even be crack sealer on this so we don't have to transport two different units. We can crack seal right then after we're done. So what so what do we do now that's different than I mean I understand what this will do. What are we [clears throat] currently doing when we're paving?

So when for the the use of this product or this tool, we put it in a dump truck and we drive out and go as fast as we can until that thing cools off and then we have to usually stop and throw the waste material in our yard and haul it off and sell send it back to the asphalt plant when they're done for recycling. So, what do we do with the leftover? We send it back to the um recycling plant and they turn it back into asphalt. Okay. So, they're able to to do that. We paid for it, but we're just sending it back. So, is the design for this to increase efficiency, just to reduce waste?

Very much so. Yeah. And to stay on site getting the stuff um patched. And um we're like I said, we're very hopeful we can use this during the winter. And in the winter time, we cannot put hot mix down. The plants aren't open. Um, the state's paving right now a little bit, but they have to they have to pay a big fee to open the plant

this time of year. And temperatures being what they are, it's a hit and miss. So, my previous house was uh built on a marsh land that was filled in and [clears throat] that city uh and this was a long time ago in a highly regulated state that wouldn't allow it today. Um they would take the excess asphalt and they would throw it into the marsh and um we were perpetually digging up large chunks of asphalt out of our yard. Um, so this seems like a much better option. We don't do that, of course. No, everything gets recycled. So,

yeah. Um, with this purchase, um, we would like to use the Sourcewell co-op. Um, it's open to government agencies and we get a reduced rate for that. Um so the budget that we put in um for the budget amendment that just came through not too long ago was 85,000. Um the price for this one under the cooperative purchasing is 63,48875 and um I'm here to ask for permission to spend that money. Are there any ongoing costs on this service or maintenance or

just like any other piece of equipment? There may um hoses may need to be replaced um but not it's not expected to be a major maintenance piece. Yeah. There's no subscription for XM radio or something. No, no contracts or anything with it. Any special towing [clears throat] vehicle or can just what we have will work. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Duncan, can you remind me? Have like the last three requests that you've given to us all been under budget? I say yes. I feel [laughter] all under budget for certain. Yeah. Or no contingency. And pretty much everything I've come before you probably in the last year has been replacements um already funded.

They're funded um as part of the replacement budget. This is outside of that, but it was previously um requested. seems like a overwhelmingly reasonable addition to the Postfalls fleet. So, it seems like a very reasonable price, too. I've been looking personally at hydraulic dub trailers for small scale logging and that kind of stuff, and they're not much cheaper than that. So, it's I know where you found that deal. I know where you found that deal, but a lot of research goes into this stuff. We don't just go, "Oh, that's cool." Um, we we look across the country and see what's out there and try and find the best deal, but meet our needs. Well, I would move to approve the purchase of the asphalt hot box for the street department.

Second. A motion in a second. Further discussion. Roll call, please. Mosby, I. Luca, I. Malloy. I. Blue. I. Stickle leader. I. Motion passes. Thank you. Next up is city boards and commission's code update. Maybe [laughter] I get it just right.

You don't get a presentation tonight apparently. Try this one. There we go. All right. Um, mayor and council, good evening. I'm Warren Wilson, the deputy city administrator. Tonight, want to talk to you about a proposed code update that we've been working on. This is in the sort of the mode of housekeeping, cleaning up our codes. Um, so to in we started this project because we have for a number of years had a urban forestry commission that didn't exist formally in our city code structure. um which can create problems. We needed to integrate that into our system. Um so last year we moved two of those members onto our parks and recck commission with the understanding that we would come back and then essentially update our codes surrounding the parks and recck commission to include that function. And so that's that's what started this project was sitting down and saying okay we need to incorporate the urban forestry function into parks and recreation. So, as we started doing that, we as we try to do, we took a look at the codes surrounding this section and decided there's some things that we need to clean up. There was some outdated language. There was some disconnects that didn't quite match up with existing or current state law that probably matched up when the codes were adopted initially. And so, we decided, let's just reddraft the the whole chapter dealing with our boards and commissions. So, that's what we did. Um, so I'm going to run quickly through the gist of what our the the changes uh look like. Um, the ordinance is attached that you can see what the language looks like for our planning and zoning commission. Um, they also serve as our impact fee advisory commission and that wasn't previously captured in the makeup of of how the code was written. So, we've explicitly put that in as their part of their duties. They would have seven

members, which continues the same. Four-year terms or the quorum of four, that's all continuing as it has been. Uh, residency and makeup is not really changing. It's always been county residents that have lived in the county for at least two years under our code. Um, a change in state law that we just worked through last year. We're now required to ensure that there's representation for the area of impact if we have an area of impact outside our city of limits, which we do. So that that's captured in the county residents. We also under the the impact fee advisory commission, we have to have at least two members who are actively involved in the development, real estate, um construction trades to be able to serve on that board. So, and that's based on state code.

It is. All of this comes straight out of state code. Um things I didn't capture on here that's a little bit unique about the planning commission, it's it's planning and zoning commission. um appointments. The the local land use planning act intended to isolate planning commission members from to allow them to sort of do the things that are hard to do. And so there's protections built in that you have to be removed. It has to be for cause. You can't just remove them because you don't like them. And on the appointment side, they have to be nonpartisan. You can't appoint somebody based on their partisan politics. Um

how does that work when their term is over? So then the term is just over. You can you can reappoint them. I see. Um there's actually some some nuance on like a third appointment, but we almost never get into that that range. So um essentially you can appoint them, reappoint them at that point in time for as long as you're not violating the criteria that you can't consider you. The reappoint is separate. What's that? Or not reappoint them. or not reappoint because it's it's a reappointment essentially as a an appointment. So, okay. Um, so parks and wreck and urban forestry. Um, this makeup

moment if we could go back just I just had a question about so they we don't require them to be a city resident. They just have to live within the county. Yes, that's all that's required under state law. Um, we could in theory require city residency with caveats because we also have to allow people who reside in the county in our area of impact to serve on the commission. So, it's easier just to say you've been in the county for a couple years. Thank you.

Parks and wreck. Um, same type of makeup, seven members, four-year terms, a quorum of four. This is something that we created ourselves. So, there's no state law to guide what this commission looked like. So, we have more flexibility in what this what this board does and what it looks like. Um, so for this one, our parks department thinks it's important for them to be city residents, that they've been here for a minute, so they have a sense of what's happening in the community. And because it's not governed by state code, the removal is just in under whatever processes we create for ourselves. Um, cause is not necessary necessarily. See what I did there? So the urban renewal agency is the other one that we currently well there's one more that we can talk about in a second. Um urban renewal agency they are a separate board while while the mayor and council do the appointments they are a separate body politic. So we don't control them we just appoint the members if that makes sense. Uh similar makeup again seven members four-year terms quorum of four. Um the current requirements for makeup and this is a carryover from existing code is they just need to reside in the county. This is another area where there's state laws specific about the removal of these members. You have to essentially provide notice and opportunity for a hearing to remove them. And so this is what we're changing here is a reflection of what's required under state law. We're updating the code to reflect those requirements. And there's no requirement for the urban renewal agency to have commissioners that have experience in real estate or construction or development. It seems like it would be more pertinent to have them here.

There is not than in planning and zoning. It would that be something that council would be allowed to consider or do we just trust that those are the kinds of people that we would appoint? I think you probably could. We typically have just tried to follow what the state law is because it provides more flexibility. as as you noticed noted earlier, it can be difficult to find volunteers or right pay for these positions is a little bit low. Yeah. And so we we want to have the the the the price of entry being easy enough that we can find enough bodies to fill the commissions. Okay.

U the last one that's currently in this section, I'll talk about one more in just a second, is our building code board of appeals. This is something that's required under the international building code series. We have to have a panel of people who are experienced in the trades to to rule on questions where there's a concern that the building official is applying the code inappropriately. This almost never um gets called together for a meeting. We've done it exactly once in the 12 or so years I've been here. It just doesn't happen that often. Um, so we have cleaned up and simplified the language based on what the current IBC looks like versus when the IBC when when this was adopted back 15 years ago. Um, and also frankly u on where the IBC is going. We looked at the 2024 IBC which we have not adopted yet but that's coming up in an adoption cycle. We looked at what those rules look like. made sure that we're consistent with that as well so that we're not going to have to come back and touch that one again. Um the residency and makeup, it has to be a county resident. Again, this is one where we probably want a broader pool because we need to make sure we can pull people in. You can't be a city employee because again, you're you're weighing in on the the experience or the um the decision of the building official and you have to be experienced in the trades. Do we find the seven members when we decide that we need it or

So, we we have them appointed. We keep them appointed. Um we talked about do we want to change the four-year term because we don't have them all the time. Like I said, we just it's been probably nine years since the last time we did this. Our thought process was it's probably good to have a four-year term just because that forces us to check in every four years so that when lightning strikes and we need to convene this and we start punching the numbers and you find out they've left the jurisdiction. It it would be nice to know that earlier rather than later.

Um so there's that one. There is one more board that we have that we have that is not lived in this section that's c it's codified by ordinance but it's not a it's I said that wrong. So it's it is in an ordinance but it's not a codified ordinance and that's our industrial um the the board to issue indust industrial revenue bonds. Um that's generally the mayor and two other members. And so I think our plan is, we've talked about this a little bit this morning, just for transparency, to add that to this section as well with the same kind of makeup requirements and four-year terms, the the whole essentially so that everyone can see what those boards and commissions are. Um, so that's the only other thing that I would mention to you.

So that would come back at a later date to add to this. Well, so we would bring that back with the ordinance for adoption. So this is just to introduce it, see if there's questions or amendments, and then we would bring this back at the next meeting for adoption. So with that, if you have any questions, happy to answer them. I think it's certainly important to be legal and the primary purpose of this upgrade is to keep up with newer state laws. So um and other than that, nothing is really changing all that much. I think if if later on we wanted to get more restrictive, then that's something we could look at. But for right now, I think the priority is let's let's get legal and then we can get into finer details later if we want. My least favorite things we can't change. So I have [laughter]

and one thing we have tried to do in this rewrite is where there is a state code that applies we've tried to put a cross reference in so that if you're looking at it that is a a gig to go look at that and hopefully that'll help us as we move 5 10 15 years out as codes change that we can then follow the link figure out what we need to be doing. All right. All right. If there's no further questions, then we're ready for a motion on this. I would move to approve the city boards and commission's code update and direct the staff to bring back the ordinance in the next meeting. Second. A motion in a second. Further discussion. Roll call, please. Luca, I stick leader. I Mosby

I. Motion passes. Thank you. Next up is citizens issues. This section of the agenda is reserved for citizens wishing to address the council relating city related issues that are not on the agenda. Is there anyone wishing to speak? All right. Seeing none, um then we will move on administrative staff reports. I think we have none tonight. Uh mayor and council comments. Nothing for me. Anything from council?

Okay. Then um next item is executive session. Uh, I move to enter into into executive session pursuant to Idaho code 74-206A to consider hiring a public officer, employee, staff member, or individual agent wherein the respective qualities of individuals are to be evaluated in order to fill a particularly a particular vacancy or need. Further, no action will be taken during the session. The session will last approximately 36 minutes. Second. Motion in a second. Further discussion. Roll call, please. Malloy. I sle I Mosby I Luca

I motion passes. Thank you. You will go to executive

All right, we'll return to session. Is there any other business to come forward before we adjourn? No. Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.