City Council - Regular Meeting

Council will call this meeting order. For the record, it is August, April, August 11th, 2026 at 4.30 p.m. We'll begin this regular City Council work session with roll call attendance.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Kavanaugh. Councilman Taylor.

Here.

Councilwoman Strader.

Here.

Councilman Whitlock.

Here.

Councilwoman Little-Roberts. Here. Councilman Overton. Here. Mayor Simison. Here.

Next item is adoption of the agenda.

Mr. Mayor. Councilman Overton. There are no changes to tonight's agenda. I move that we adopt the agenda as published. Second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay. The ayes have it and the agendas agree to. First up is the consent agenda.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Overton.

There are also no changes to tonight's consent agenda. I move that we approve the consent agenda for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.

Motion second to approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The ayes have it. And the consent agenda is agreed to. There are no items moved from the consent agenda, so I'll move on to department reports. First item up is item 30, which is fiscal year 2027, water and sewer rate increase proposal. And it's over to Lorelei.

All right. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. So while Chris is pulling up the presentation here, we have two things that we hope to accomplish today. Oh, it's not coming. OK, well, so the first one is I want to show you a snapshot of the enterprise fund fund health and then talk a little bit about the proposed rate increase. There we go. So not looking for any official action, but essentially direction to move forward with this proposal or a different amount. so we can move into the public noticing and hearing portion. So how is our enterprise fund doing? There's a couple of elements that we kind of check ourselves on, and one of those is our comparison to our neighboring cities. So we are still the lowest rates in the Valley, now at about $35 less than the Treasure Valley average, which has risen above $100. Compared to the top 10 most populous cities in Idaho, we are still near the very bottom and about $17 a month less than the average across those large cities. And so overall, we feel like the fund status is good. We do have the lowest rates in the Treasure Valley. Our reserves are fully funded. Our current projects are funded, and we have no debt. However, the next slide I'm going to show you is our rate model, and this will show you that we do need future increases to be able to maintain the solvent position that we've had. So this is our current rate model. And don't let this graph panic you. There's a lot of things that go into it. Our real goal is to maintain solvency in the five year window. There's a lot of assumptions in here, just like the rate model that finance keeps. We tend to be really conservative in our assumptions. revenue projections, our growth projections. The biggest decline that you'll see is primarily because of significant cost increases that we're seeing in projects. So that's what's caused this to take the biggest dip here. And so what we're proposing is an overall average increase of 4.2%. And so you'll remember our discussions last year around the base versus use. And so you'll see that breakdown here, but that averages out to 4.2%, which is about a $2.71 increase to the average resident. And what that does, so the darker colored line is what will happen with that projected increase. The lighter line is where the current rate model sits today. So if we do a one-time, one-year increase, it does help us. But I wanted to show you guys that it will take sustained increases over that time period to um, maintain solvency, but we really subscribe to the go slow, um, do the smallest increases that you need to do to make sure that we get to the spot where we need to get to. Um, the good news about this is if you forecast this model out, even at that 4% increase over the 10 years, um, it would put an average monthly bill around $100, which is still less than what the Treasure Valley average is today. So I think even though that sounds like a big increase over that amount of time, we're still in much better shape than a lot of the other cities and primarily due to our solid financial planning and looking at this and our rate model and our projects and our CFPs every year. So what that will do to our rates, like I said, it'll impact the average customer about $2.71 a month. That would still put us at the lowest rates in the Valley. This graph also is the assuming no other increases from these other utilities, which likely will also happen over the next year. And so what this looks like is the information coming to you guys today. If we get the general nod to move forward, we would publish this in our utility bills and newspapers, proceed with a public hearing September 8th. And then if approved by council at that meeting, these rates would become effective October 1st at the beginning of the fiscal year. So with that, any questions?

Thank you. Council, any questions?

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Overton.

Not a question, just a comment. I appreciate the graph because it sends the message home on why we have to do this. We have a balancing act between wanting to remain one of the lowest prices in the Valley and also staying solvent. We have a financial responsibility to the consumers on both ends of that deal. So I appreciate the way you guys are looking at it. And I think your approach is fair. I hope it's enough to keep us solvent and also keep us very competitive in the Valley. Thank you.

Council, any additional questions?

Mr. Mayor.

Council Member Locke.

Laurel, I thank and appreciate the background, and it is a good foundation for us to understand what's behind the recommendation, and I'll certainly be supportive moving forward. Question, though, you know, as we look down the road and rates get up to $100 a month, I mean, at what point do we get to a level where some of our citizens just simply can't afford that? And here's my real question. A few weeks ago we had CDBG discussions here, and we have rental assistance, and Idaho Power has assistance for those who can't afford their power bills, and the gas company, you can contribute and help. Do we need to start thinking about something for five or ten years down that chart?

So great, great question, and I'm glad you actually brought it up. We do have a program today for the water sewer rates. It's administered by LADA, and we do have participation in that. It's around, I think, 100 customers per year that take part in that. I think that you're spot on, and it's something that other utilities, I know City of Boise is grappling with, that as those utility bills become significant portion of people's income, they are grappling with that affordability challenge. And we're fortunate that we haven't hit those thresholds yet. The challenging part is that a lot of these things are due to regulated requirements and DEQ and EPA won't let you even consider some of those things, you know, affordability in that. And then the other piece that's driving a lot of this is infrastructure replacement. And so a lot of these cities haven't done any planning or any planning budgeting towards that and they're starting to face some significant infrastructure replacement costs and so um thankfully we have something in place um i like your suggestion i think for the public hearing i'll make sure to include a slide that has that information for residents but it is something we have in place today so maybe a question because but i know that we we'll be up for another permit

And we think we know what's coming, but we never know what's going to come in terms of what type of additional regulatory requirements. From where you sit today with where the projections are, I mean, it even went up 10 years out on the back end. What are you anticipating in this rate as things that are related to that next permit when you're projecting out 10 years?

So good question. We actually have started putting... some funding in the years 8, 9, and 10 where the graph dips down for that save before you spend philosophy. So we're starting to build some of that savings account knowing that future regulatory permits will come and they may include limits that we don't have yet or more stringent limits. The good thing is I feel like we've really put ourselves in a good place, especially with the technology and the upgrades that we just put into place at the plant, that they will treat a lot of things as far as future contaminants. The one that could be a pretty big challenge for us would be temperature limitations, but that would take a pretty long process to actually get the water body regulated for temperature impaired. And so there'd be kind of a long runway for us to get there. So I think we'd have some some warning and some time to plan for that. But we have started putting some money in our financial model to save for future permit required elements. Thank you.

Counsel, any other questions or comments? Okay, we look forward to seeing you come back.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Next item is item 31, a discussion proposed update to Meridian City Code section 629 regarding animal cruelty. I guess the lieutenant is the only one in the room who's going to take this, whether he wants to or not, right? Okay.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of Council. The update to our Meridian City Code was really focused around making sure that it aligned with our county code to assist Idaho Humane Society with the enforcement piece. the cruelty to animals we work closely obviously with city legal and members of the command staff Idaho Humane Society the county to took to update this code because it was quite a bit outdated and I think it complicated things a little bit more than what we have now and In this, they added detailed definitions to help explain the code a little bit further and how we deal with and what is cruelty to an animal. And you'll see that under subsection A. The other big piece of this was adding a penalty. Somewhere along the way, our previous code, it was removed. We did have it at one point. I'm assuming some human error at some point, and it got removed. So the penalty was added under F. But really what this does, it simplifies things for the Idaho Humane Society to assist them in doing their job to serve our customer base. So that's about it, and I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you. Council questions.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Cavanaugh.

Thanks. I do have a couple of questions about kind of what's coming forth. You talked a little bit about definitions in subsection, I think, D, where they talk about public official. I don't know how we define public official. I assume that's intended to capture the Idaho Humane Society acting on our behalf, but I Am I a public official? Is a library commissioner a public official? HOA president a public official? How are we looking at that? And what's being intended versus what's written? To me, I see there might be a little bit of a disconnect.

I would agree, Mayor, Councilman Kavanagh. Looking at that section, I as well, I actually highlighted it myself. Okay. I think looking at it right now, I think it'd probably be good to go back in and add a definition. Okay. Describing that. So that's something I can take back to the chief as well as our city legal. But again, that's something I can't provide an answer to. So I figure a definition would probably be the best bet.

Mr. Mayor, there is already a definition. So there is a state code definition. Public officials are public employees. So public employees who are empowered to do that. I mean, if we want to put more specificity. on specific folks so it's not just any random public employee we certainly can do that but it is already defined in code so then Mr. Mayor maybe that's I guess one more question is that intended then to capture IHS because they're acting on our behalf yes okay yeah this was actually driven by IHS they asked if all the cities in the area could have a similar code so there wasn't a disparity between Garden City, Boise, Moreno, and Meadow County so

Mr. Mayor, that maybe kind of takes me to my next set of questions, which is when we talk about kind of observing tethering, and I understand kind of what the intention is on that, is to try and give an acceptable threshold for the amount of time that a dog can be in a kennel or tethered to a house or whatnot. But I go back to some of the challenges that our code enforcement faces with people parking their vehicles or boats on the street. They're allowed three days. Code enforcement comes and they said, oh, I moved it while you were gone. So how does IHS plan to kind of capture and report kind of the observed 12-hour period? Recognize they also kind of operate within limited hours for types of calls like this that a citizen would make.

Mayor, Councilman Kavanaugh. I don't really know what their investigatory process is with Idaho Humane Society. I would assume much like what we do, we need to be able to observe it if we're going to write probable cause or do something that is going to lead to potentially a fine or at some point, as you can see in the fine, it can lead up to 90 days in jail. So that's something that they've got to take very serious. Again, that's something that I can definitely get some answers from IHS on and get back to you. But it's the code code enforcement piece was spot on. It's something that they need to be able to observe and justify in their investigation. So awesome.

Mr. Mayor, maybe a couple quick more. And Lieutenant, I think you're capturing, I get what we're trying to achieve here. I'm just, there's a lot of past experiences that let's do our best that we can to learn from them. So we're not kind of going through those same things. Has there been any conversation with IHS? And I guess maybe two separate questions, but I'll ask them both at the same time. You know, tethering an animal, you know, in October when it's 60 degrees, no big deal. Tethering an animal for 12 hours when it's above 100 degrees, not like some of the weather we've had now, is maybe more problematic. Has there been any conversations about weather restrictions in addition to time? And does IHS or does the department have a recommendation?

Mayor, Councilman Kavanaugh. I do not have any information on that. Again, it's something I'll have to follow up on and get you that answer to bring some clarity. But at this point, I don't have any. I haven't had any communications with IHS.

And then just the only other last question I have is just putting in, we continue to see IHS's contract increase year after year. I assume that this will generate additional time on their behalf. Do we have... An anticipation on how many additional hours are going to need to spend enforcing our specific code that they're asking for? Do we anticipate any change of hours as a result of this ordinance has passed?

That's another question that I won't be able to provide you an answer with, but I'll definitely get back to make sure you guys have the answers.

The only question that came up when I reviewed it, and if you want to get back to us, but I noticed the veterinary care one, and I guess I was a little concerned just because it says... you know, for an injured or diseased animal. And I totally understand we don't want like animals that have parvo or like a communicable disease spreading it to other animals. But there's also a balance there where, you know, there could be a cat owner whose cat has some insane kind of cancer or something. And it's just not like economic to treat that animal. And I just, I wanted to understand how the veterinary care standard was going to be applied to, And just make sure that it's like balanced, if that makes sense. Because there are going to be cases where, you know, you occasionally hear about somebody that's going to like get their pet like an organ transplant or something. But, you know, there's a limit to what people can do for their pets. So I just wanted to make sure that we're trying to strike that right balance there. You can look at that.

I will definitely follow up on that and get you your answer.

Thank you.

So what's the intention? Do you want to come back again to help answer some of those questions, take this back? Because my understanding is what jurisdictions have already adopted this? Has this already been adopted by Ada County? Or is it Boise?

Mayor, yes, it's been adopted. Well, they have, Ada County already has that language. We were just trying to catch up and be more consistent with our partners. But I think moving forward with the questions, I think they're all valid questions that we need to be able to follow up. So I think we need to bring this back to another workshop and be able to provide you the answers that you need because I can't answer several of those questions. But I will meet with Tishra and my bosses and make sure that we have the correct answers for you.

Council, would it be helpful to have IHS present at the next workshop? Mr. Mayor? Councilman Cameron.

I'll leave it to the Lieutenant and IHS. I mean, even if it's a memo that answers this and a request to have something scheduled at a later point in time, I would encourage, though, Lieutenant, as you're working with IHS, I think when I was looking at state code, they provide a little bit more of a range in penalties. I think it's $1,000 to $5,000 and up to 60 days in jail, where we're just doing a flat... I think 500, right, or flat 300 and up to 90 days in jail. Again, if all the circumstances are always the same, then it may make sense. But again, I don't know if you, if IHS wants a little bit of discretion around that, seeing how there is some slight deviations for where state code is. Just be another question for them.

Mayor Councilman Kavanaugh definitely might I would imagine we will follow up with IHS and have that conversation I think something in writing would be preferred, but if not we'll definitely come back with those answers okay great, thank you, thank you.

Okay, thank you see you back later. Okay, with that we're on 930 here.

Mr. Mayor. Councilman Overton. With that, I move we move into executive session per Idaho Code 74-206, subsection 1A, B, and F. Second.

I have a motion and a second to go into executive session per Idaho Code 74-206, 1A, B, and F. Is there discussion? If not, quick call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Kavanaugh. Taylor. Strader. Wedlock. Little Roberts. Overton.

Aye. Ayes. Motion carries.

We'll go into executive session.

Council, I have a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we come out of executive session.

Second.

Motion to second to come out of executive session. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. We are out of executive session. Mr. Mayor. Councilman Overton. I move that we adjourn the workshop.

Second.

Motion to second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed nay.

The ayes have it. We are adjourned.

Council will call the meeting order for the record of this Tuesday, August 11th, 2026 at 6 p.m. We'll begin tonight's regular city council meeting with roll call attendance.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Kavanaugh. Councilman Taylor. Here. Councilwoman Strader.

Here.

Councilman Whitlock. Here. Councilwoman Little-Roberts.

Here.

Councilman Overton.

Here.

Mayor Simison.

Here. Next is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you'd all please rise and join us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Next time up is our community invocation, which tonight will be delivered by Carrie Laframboise. If you'd all please join us in the community invocation or take this as a moment of silence and reflection. Good evening.

Mr. Mayor. Members of the council, thank you again for the honor to come and do this. It's a privilege, and I'm honored every time I get to do it. I was reading in Proverbs 4, 5 to 9, and it is God's challenge to us. He says, get wisdom, get understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom. He repeats it several times. It must be important and in all you're getting get understanding Exalt her and she will promote you. She will bring you honor when you embrace her She will place on your head an ornament of grace a crown of glory. She will deliver to you. I can't imagine in thinking what it must take to be on this council and to run this great city. But I have to imagine that there's a lot of pressure and there's a lot of things going on. And if anybody needs wisdom, it's you guys. So let me pray. Father God, I thank you for these men and these women. I thank you for your hand upon them. You said wisdom is available. You provided understanding and said, come and get it. So tonight I pray that they would operate in wisdom and understanding. Maybe wisdom and understanding even beyond their own experience and their own history, Father. You give them wisdom. You give them understanding. Direct them in their discussions. Direct them in the business that is in front of them. And give them grace and strength to do it. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

Thank you again.

Thank you. Have a good evening. Next up is adoption of the agenda.

Mister mayor also over some there is one change to tonight's agenda we're going to vacate the executive session at the end and with that I move that we approve the agenda.

The motion second to adopt the agenda as a minister discussion. If not on paper sent by by saying aye aye those name is have it in the agenda is agreed to as amended. Counseling thing in our announcements in recognition. Okay, and we'll move on to public for Mr. Kirk anyone set up under public forum.

Mr. Mayor, yes, we have to first is Alex Eisenberg. Alex was an online sign up. So it looks like he's not here and not online. So Nancy Everard.

Good evening, you'll be recognized for three minutes.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Nancy Everard. I live at 6935 North Exeter Place in Meridian. A comprehensive plan is more than a map. It is our community's agreement about how Meridian should grow and the infrastructure needed to support that future. My concern is not one amendment or development, but the cumulative effect of repeated plan amendments and project level changes that depart from adopted land use designations. When exceptions become routine, development rewrites the plan one application at a time. This week in transportation planning, compass models and traffic impact studies begin with land use and growth assumptions. If maps reflect one level of development while approvals produce another, the data falls behind reality. Even sound models are incomplete when they're starting assumptions amid the cumulative development pipeline. Residents experience the results through congestion, delayed improvements, and pressure on roads never intended to carry so much regional traffic. These shortfalls affect safety, mobility, and quality of life, moving us away from the future the comprehensive plan was intended to achieve. Meridian faced this problem in 2001. Rapid applications were outpacing regional growth allocations, and isolated traffic studies were missing surrounding projects. ACHD commissioned the Washington Group to perform the North Meridian study to evaluate cumulative demand. In 2003, public record, Compass rejected 4,214 homes over 20 years, while Washington Group identified 15,912. This gap showed why regional allocations must be tested against actual local development proposals. Today, history is repeating that condition. There are several large phase developments in this multi-jurisdictional area that are placing extreme pressure on our roadways. Each important piece of our north, south, and east-west transportation network must function as one, and we must be vigilant to preserve vital connectivity. This can be difficult to achieve when the approach is to view each project's transportation impact inside a bubble. I respectfully ask the city to work with ACHD, Compass, ITD, and the City of Star to jointly commission a new region-wide cumulative transportation study for North and Northwest Meridian and the adjoining Star, State Highway 16, and Chinden Influence area. It should use one current land use inventory, include approved under construction and reasonably foreseeable development, test adopted, funded, and unfunded networks, and evaluate multiple horizon years in a higher growth sensitivity case. This would not assign every regional problem to one development. It would establish a shared factual baseline, coordinate capital improvements, preserve critical corridors, and provide a fair basis for assigning proportionate obligations. The 2001 record shows why this work is needed before the next generation of North Meridian is planted one project at a time. Thank you.

Thank you. That was it. Okay. With that, council will move on to item one, which is resolution number 26-2598, reporting Robert Thompson to seat three of the Meridian Transportation Commission. I'm sorry. I apologize. My camera's not on. I knew something was off in my head. I sat down with our Good Transportation Commission Chair, Walter Steed, and interviewed Candace for this position. And we were lucky enough to find Mr. Thompson, who is coming off a career at ITD here very shortly. If he hasn't already retired, he's very close to that date. But he comes from a different perspective at ITD. He's not coming from an engineer. He does have a community and regional planning certificate. He comes with a financial background and is very interested in serving in this next phase of his career and life. And we spent a good time talking about that. financial size of transportation. And even as we look at our downtown and parking and, you know, who knows if we get a parking garage in the future, how that is funded and paid for having someone with a good financial sense to be part of our transportation commission. And he has also agreed to serve on our downtown commission or downtown subcommittee that we're putting together just to focus on our downtown parking efforts. So I think he'll bring a wide breadth of knowledge in a different way. He is an advocate for public transportation. So having someone with that perspective, you know, our Transportation Commission doesn't necessarily deal with that topic. I think it's an important component to bring to the conversation. So it's my pleasure to bring him forward for your consideration. I'd be happy to answer any questions. And he is in the room if you want to ask him questions. But I'm happy to do so on his behalf.

Mr. Mayor, would he like to come forward and share a few words of wisdom with us?

Yeah, we normally like to make them accept the job first, but we're happy to have him speak.

Is this on?

I think it turned it off.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, my name is Bob Thompson. Like you said, I'm just about ready to retire. I've got a week and a half, but who's counting? I had 20 years at ITD. I was their economist, so I forecasted state revenues. I was involved with the distribution of local revenues. have a good understanding of how Compass, ACHD, LTCH, which I know you don't really do a lot with, but all the different local agencies work together to get our roads built and financed. So if there's any questions, I can answer.

Thanks, Hub.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Overton.

I think you found a real winner for our Transportation Commission and that's an important role in our city. So I look forward to making this recommendation that we approve resolution number 26-2598, a resolution of the City Council, the City of Meridian, appointing Robert Thompson to seat three of the Meridian Transportation Commission and providing an effective date.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve resolution number 26-2598. Is there discussion on the motion?

If not, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Host nay. You guys have it. I didn't agree to. Welcome. We look forward to having you in this new capacity during some of your downtime soon.

Excellent.

With that, we'll move on to our public hearings for this evening. First item up is item two, which is a public hearing for City of Meridian Fiscal Year 2026, amended budget in the amount of $250,360,333. We open this public hearing with comments from staff.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. I'm going to kick us off on one of the items on our agenda tonight is our fiscal year 26 amended budget. Our agenda tonight is very simple. I'm going to go over the high level overview of our three major reporting funds, the governmental fund, capital improvement fund, and our enterprise fund. And then I will sit for any questions and look for a motion to approve our final fiscal year 26 budget. So at this time last year, we announced our original budget of $264,498,131. We ended our fiscal year at $250,360,333. Our final budget is down by 5.35% from the original that we announced. The classifications of our changes in the three different categories, personnel, operating capital, and carry forward is all displayed in the graphs in front of you. Throughout our slides coming up, I will go over the individual funds, but just remember that these all have been presented to you throughout the last 10 months. This is more of a formal process that we announce to our citizens what our final fiscal year 26 budget is. So this, take that as a, this is more of a year in review. So we had a total of 21 budget amendments the last 10 months. And then we, with a governmental fund, Is our first major reporting fund this. went up about 4% and that's about $5.2 million. In our governmental fund, we had a total of 16 budget amendments that were approved. And some of the major ones are our Rail with Trails grant, CDBG, and a variety of our ITD grants that equates to about $1.5 million. Health Benefit Trust had a couple of budget amendments that had an impact of $711,000 for our governmental fund. And then we also had our Microsoft Office 365 subscription that had an impact of $313,000 for our governmental fund. Our carry forward adjustment actually went down $3.5 million. We had no changes in our capital improvement fund, so that stayed at $2 million. In our enterprise fund, we had an adjustment about a decrease about 14.82%, and that's about $19.4 million. What changed in the enterprise fund we had a total of five budget amendments and those again they what's on your screen is the Microsoft office 365 impact for the enterprise fund as well as the health benefit trust. The majority of the changes for our enterprise fund is within the carry forward adjustment of $19.9 million. With that, I sit for any questions.

Thank you. Council, any questions for staff?

Mr. Mayor.

Council Member Schroeder.

I guess I think I know the answer, but just to check and for people watching, is the carry forward adjustment mainly from large capital projects that haven't come to completion yet?

Correct. So if you think about our timing wise, when we carry forward our original carry forward, the fiscal year hasn't completed yet. So we had three months of execution. So when we come back during this time, we will... most likely adjust that budget down as expenditures are expended.

Thanks, Jenny.

Yep.

Councilman Taylor.

Just a quick question, Jenny. Did you say 21 budget amendments this last year? Was that what you said? Correct. You might not have this just off the top of your head, but do we sort of have an average number of budget amendments over the last three to five years that you have a sense, is it 10, 12, there's 20 kind of in the ballpark?

We do have that data, but I do not have the average calculation in my head right now. But I can follow up with you.

That would be great. Mr. Mayor, just maybe a quick comment. I think it's... YOU KNOW, THINKING BACK TO THE BUDGET AMENDMENTS WE HAD, ALL JUSTIFIED, ALL GOOD ARGUMENT, UNDERSTANDABLE. I THINK IT'S AS MUCH AS WE CAN AS A COLLECTIVE TEAM FROM THE CITY, LIMIT HOW MANY WE HAVE, BECAUSE I THINK AS WE GO THROUGH THE BUDGET PROCESS, IT'S MORE UNDERSTANDABLE FOR THE PUBLIC. WHEN YOU HAVE BUDGET AMENDMENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, IT SEEMS A LITTLE BIT LESS TRANSPARENT. SO, AGAIN, I HAD NO PROBLEM VOTING FOR EVERY BUDGET AMENDMENT BECAUSE THEY SEEMED UNDERSTANDABLE, BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE GREAT IF WE COULD do what we can for our directors of our different departments to try to cut down on that, see if those budget amendments can't wait until the upcoming fiscal year or whatnot. So I think that's an important thing I think we need to strive a little bit harder towards as a team.

And maybe just touch on a couple. We do have several budget amendments we do every year because of donations that come in. So I understand your point. If we want to project what we think we're going to get from certain types of reoccurring budget amendments, We could have those conversations, but some of that's going to be hard. I understand the point if we can, but I think we have made some budget decisions to explicitly not put stuff in the budget and bring it forward to the budget amendment because we didn't want to put it in unless we knew we were going to get the revenue. So that can be the challenge, but understood.

Councilman Cameron spot on and I guess my request would be for Jenny when you're providing us kind of that average it would be good to break down as kind of what are. Department initiated versus department reaction because we receive a grant or a donation or sponsorship like that because some of those right our department can plan for but others were responding to when we are we are contacted so I think it'd be good for us to be able to separate the two.

Any other questions for staff on this item. Okay, this is a public hearing. Mr. Clerk, may everyone sign up to provide testimony on this item?

Mr. Mayor, nobody signed up for this item.

Okay, is there anybody present that would like to provide testimony on the FY26 budget? You can either come forward or if you're online, you can use the raise your hand feature. Seeing no one raising their hand and no one coming forward, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? Mr. Mayor. Councilman Cavanaugh.

Move we close the public hearing on Item 3.

Second. I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion?

Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry if I said Item 3, but I meant Item 2.

Item 2. Item 2.

Second agrees.

Second agrees. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor say aye by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay. Aye. The public hearing is closed.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Cavanaugh.

A move that we approve the fiscal year 2026 amended budget in the amount of $250,360,333. Second. Have a motion and a second to approve item two in the amount of $250,360,333. Is there discussion on the motion?

If not, correct call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Kavanagh, Taylor, Straeter, Whitlock, Little Roberts, Overton.

Aye.

All ayes, motion carries, the item is agreed to. Next item is item three, which is public hearing for City of Meridian-Philskier 2027 proposed budget in the amount of $224,442,540. We will open this public hearing with staff comments.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. I'll be talking about our agenda for our fiscal year 27 budget process. We will also talk about the fiscal year 27 proposed budget and our three major funds and hope to get approval on our fiscal year 27 proposed budget. Our budget development process is about nine months long. We start preparing in February and in March, we meet with each department and council liaisons and mayor to go line by line and examining the base budget, make sure it aligns. At the end of May, we have the proposed budget and it's submitted for council and for public to review. We had our budget workshop here in June to gather feedback or if we had to refine budget or address any concerns and questions. And that's where we're at today. Our annual budget is approved upon closure of tonight public's hearing. It's important to recognize the process overview. This overview doesn't capture all the hard work that all the employees, department directors, council, mayor put in to get the budget at where it's at right now. There's a lot of internal discussions, meetings. So I want to extend our thanks to all of you during this process. I'll start. On our left, we have a graph that shows the expenses categories. Currently, personnel is still one of the largest items in the budget, and it's about 44%. Carry forward makes up an additional 33% of the total budget, and these are projects that haven't been finished in the current fiscal year and are carried over to fiscal year 27 to get finalized. The distribution of the budget among different departments are displayed on the graph on the right side. And two of our biggest ones is wastewater and police, with wastewater having 21% and police having 19%. Now I'll start talking about our governmental major funds. With majority being property taxes, we have some intergovernmental. Property taxes is about 58%. intergovernmental revenues. We have also state sales tax, liquor, and rural fire. In this proposed revenue, we're taking the 3% allowable property tax as an option. and which we calculate it'll be an average of about 47 cents per 100,000 of taxable value, of home value. As a reminder, we're projected to increase our levy rate year over year. In other words, if a house value did not change year over year, then the property taxes paid would be higher. Then we'll talk about our expenditures. Again, our biggest expenditure is personnel. It's about 61% of the budget. The distribution among different departments is displayed on the graph to the right. Police being, or public safety being the biggest one. It's about 59% of our overall budget. On our capital improvement fund, currently we have about 78% that is admin and we have 22% that is fire. The admin project includes the downtown parking garage and the fire is station remodels. For our enterprise fund revenues, our biggest is utility sales revenue. It's about 66%. The second biggest is the assessment revenue. It's about 21% of the overall revenue. For our total expenditures on the enterprise fund, unlike the government fund where personnel is the largest expense and the enterprise fund, our largest expense are capital projects. Between new capital funding and prior year capital projects that are carried forward, it's about 60% of the enterprise budget and the capital expenditure. The distribution of the budget among different departments are displayed on the graph on the right. We have wastewater, which is 58%, and water at 29%. And I stand for any questions.

Thank you, Carl. Council, any questions for staff?

Mr. Mack.

Councilman Kavner.

First, you're very kind to thank us. We just sit and listen and read and read and then listen and read and ask questions and read. You guys put a significant amount of work into this process long before we ever see a draft. So truly, I think on behalf of the council or commute, thank you and the finance team for great work in this year's budget. I just need a quick refresher because it's been a minute since our last budget hearing around the conversation around the reduction of FTEs for the prosecution team. I think we went from 12 to 10. I see it's reflected in the budget. And then is the plan that as we need and grow that the legal department is going to come back with budget amendments for the amount of FTEs that we need to add? Is that what's intended? I think the budget only has 2 positions yeah initially was an initial draft that we are budget hearing was what I think 12 and then we reduced it to 2.

Yes, we are we're 2 for this upcoming year. Where you may expect a budget amendment this next year or you may see the next year's budget budget or where we go.

Thanks for that quick refresher I appreciate it.

Counseling additional questions. Good evening, Terry.

Yes, it's that. Am I on? Okay. Terry Dennington. I reside at 4581 West Big Creek Street in Meridian. Mayor Simison and Council, I am Appreciate the fact that I can come and address you guys and talk with you about just thinking about budget in general. I'd like to thank Todd LaVoy and his team, Jenny and Ricardo. They're always very helpful in getting answers to me. If I have questions, they respond so quickly and I really appreciate that. So thank you guys. I also would like to thank my council representative, Luke Kavner, because he also was always very responsive to me and meets with me and answers a lot of questions for me. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much. During the workshop, when you guys were doing the budget, I think as I saw what you guys were experiencing as far as costs, and I think part of the state legislature might have had issues and created issues for you, but it seemed like it was a lot in the employee benefits and that kind of thing that we're having issues in costs that Because of those things, that was your biggest concern. You had to do those things. And so then other parts of the budget might have had to suffer or had to look at or figure out what you guys were doing. So I wanted to know if actually how you guys... look at the budget the pieces that you can touch um are are all the avenues out there are look being looked at um i know that we've got um the health trust i was talking with um attorney um nary and i know he's on the trust and deals with the health benefits but then there's other pieces on there so i was wondering how that was accessed. And if all the avenues were being looked at to look for reductions that we're actually getting the best that we can for the least amount of money, obviously that's always the issue in today's time. But I just wanted to know if that was how we were addressing those kinds of things. So, and I, again, I don't know where we look for those. I know HR deals with a lot of that, and I haven't really talked with them about how they go forward and look at those numbers and pull them together to be able to present to you. But that was, I guess, my biggest concern, was trying to figure out how we can deal with the fact that our personnel is one of our highest pieces on the budget, and so then the benefits are all a part of that.

So...

Anyway, that was my question, kind of my input, and I appreciate, again, so hopefully that all makes sense.

Thanks, Terry. I'll take the first crack at that, just because last week we did have a presentation by the trust on their process that they went through in evaluating different providers for the benefits. But the point you bring up is, I think, the larger component, and this is what this council and myself will have to wrestle with over this next year, is if we cap the despite the ongoing costs that are facing all of healthcare, if we put a cap on how much we're willing to fund, which then that's going to push that into plan design changes. which either results in increased co-pays, increased deductibles, reduction, and other types of benefits. And I think that's going to be the question that we're going to have to, as we look and see how this budget and this upcoming years look, is will that cost be borne more by the employees moving forward? That's where it comes from, because it comes from their... the cost they pay one way or the other. And I know I've had a few conversations with a couple of people up here and we understand that the benefits there's only so far you can bend before it breaks us. And that's, we're probably at that point in time where those become part of the ongoing conversations from my perspective.

Thank you. That makes perfect sense because I think we do need to look at all the avenues and that might affect the employees having to make decisions. You know, you guys presenting things, hey, you're going to have to put something in here to try and help us with the overall budget to cover all the other parts of the city's needs. We have fire and um, police and, and of course everybody loves the parks and they're wonderful and they're kept up, but, but they're all expenses, very big expenses within the city. So I appreciate that.

And those were actions we took back in oh nine, is that oh nine, oh 10, when we made changes to the percentage of the employees paid. So it wouldn't be the first time we've, we've looked at the benefits side to help in financial challenging times. Councilman Schroeder.

From my perspective, we are going to have to look even harder at that next year if we see the same trend continue to your point when the vast majority of our 3% allowable property tax increase just covers the increase in our benefits. That is a huge mathematical challenge for us. You know, I feel good about this budget. I know last year Councilman Kavanagh and I did a very deep dive into the base budgets, even above and beyond what we normally do, looking literally... with our laptops out line by line through every single row in Microsoft Excel, trying to find opportunities no matter how big or small, even to the tune of some things like let's cut people traveling to this conference. Maybe we can save 8000 here, you know, 1000 there. I do think your summary that state law changes have affected us negatively is very accurate. And unfortunately, we have very few levers that we can pull. And now we are in a position where, as you can see from the agenda, we're considering not only the 3% allowable increase, but also taking a foregone, which is very frustrating. And, you know, it is tough. It's gotten tougher. But I think we'll have to look at that again next year. And if we need to make changes to our benefits, to have a balanced budget, that's just what we're going to have to do. You know, it feels like even looking at it, having the employee benefit trust does appear to me, financially at least, to still be a benefit to us. I think that our model of basically self-insuring through that model is actually still putting us in the green. So I wouldn't recommend that we change that. But we keep looking at providers. I know they did the market, I don't know what they're calling it now, market pulse check. I think we have to continue to do that. But yeah, you're very astute. You looked at it all. And that really is the crux of where we're at is benefits are a huge factor for us for sure.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Willock.

Terry, thank you for coming and for your testimony. You go through the budget book and you can talk to the subject matter experts and you know this as well as anybody in the public. So from your perspective, are our priorities and what you just saw laid out by Ricardo, where 58% of our expenditures are going toward public safety, I think 21% toward parks and recreation, the bulk of our expenses go toward personnel, are our priorities in the right place from a member of the public's viewpoint?

I do believe that you guys are doing a really great job. I love living in the city of Meridian. I think you guys are doing a great job with the safety, the parks, of course, the fire and police being the safety piece. that's a piece that you want to have in place. And I think if you went out to the general public and just went on, that's what they would say. Yes, we want fire, we want police. But they have to be able to understand that to get those kinds of things, it's going to take some money to do that so they everybody always wants everything but they don't want to necessarily pay for it so i i do believe that you guys are doing a really great job and i and i appreciate and i appreciate um uh Councilman Strader talking about the fact that you're going to keep looking at those benefits and that piece that's so greatly affected and affects our budget so much. So I believe that you guys are doing what you need to do as I watch, as I read through the budget and do all this and ask as many questions as I do. I think I have a pretty good idea, but I learn more every year. every year I learn another piece of the puzzle as it all comes together and how it works. So yeah, I appreciate everything that you guys are doing.

Thanks for staying with it.

Mr. Mayor. Terry, I'd have been disappointed if I didn't see in the audience tonight. And I appreciate you coming back every year. This is one of those years that became a lot more tough than any budget year I've seen. When you're looking at a budget that we're approving, I mean, anyone in the room heard those numbers, you heard that our budget for this next year is substantially less than last year's. For all the years when we were doing all our growth, we always saw those budget numbers going up every year as we are growing and expanding and seeing new things. And that's not happening this next year. And Although we sit up here and we make a lot of recommendations and have the final say in approval over the city's budget, you have to put the congratulations of where we're at tonight on our department directors and their command folks in each one of those departments within the city because we task them with going back and finding ways to save money. And I'll give you an incredible example of one that's near and dear to my heart. Our police department wanted to get a first responder drone program for our city and we have it. It's up and running. It's responding to calls quicker than officers can get to them. It's providing real world data to protect people so we know what we're walking into before we get there. It's doing more than we ever could have imagined and we're just getting started. But they didn't walk up to us and say, hey, we need another $3 million for this program. The police department stepped up, understood that we didn't have the money to say we need this, and offered up three officer positions and a civilian position to help pay for that. It was worth that much in efficiencies that that program can create to do that. We have it. It's up and running. I mean, that's a significant hit to the personnel. I mean, you talk about personnel costs. I mean, that's four bodies right there that we did away with to get this program up and running. And it's a tremendous asset, not just for our police department, but it's going to be for our fire department. And eventually it'll also go over to our public works department. We are always tasked with having all of our subject matter experts look for cost savings throughout their departments. And this was probably the toughest year that I've ever seen for them to go back and find it. Now, when we did the early budget hearings, we could have done it in 15 minutes. I'm not kidding. The reason why we could have done it in 15 minutes is we... They didn't come in and pitch 20 projects at us. They knew the money wasn't there. We kept the budget almost the same as what we had before. They understood it. They agreed to it, and we made it work. And that's how we're going to go through this next year. There's not a lot of added stuff to our budget this next year. Many of those revenue streams that we're used to seeing increase decreased. The state's working to correct some of that. I wish him luck. I very much wish him luck. We're also hoping some of the things turn around when it comes to our permit activity in the city as we see things get approved and we see those come together. But it's a team effort on a scale of over 600 employees and all the departments we work in that this is when we give them the thanks for the hard work because we're We can't take that credit that we sit up here and say this is a wonderful job by six members of city council and the mayor when we couldn't do it without all their hard work and understanding for how they make this happen, the hard work they put in, the fact that they know we care about them. And they continue to make us proud every day. So I'm so happy that we have a budget here to approve tonight. I'm amazed that we're able to do it for $20 million less than what we did last year. And we're going to continue to see tough years. And I know we've got a pretty amazing crew up here to try to make sure that where we find those cost savings and those cuts to be efficient. We have to do what's best for you, providing for you, and also what's best for you and how that budget looks as well. So we have to strike that balance wherever we can to make it right. And I appreciate you standing up here and being our fact checker. Thank you, Terry.

Mayor Simison and Councilman Overton, thank you so much. I agree. I think during that workshop, there weren't a lot of people up here saying, hey, give me $10 million for this and $2 million for that. They were presenting a pretty straightforward budget. There was, like you were saying, it could have gone quickly. But then the other questions that came in, I know that the new levy created some issues with having to look at that. and how those monies the fact that you went down from 10 from 12 to 2 for the legal team because of the issues of all the money so i i understand all of that you've had to go through and i i really do appreciate all of the department and directors uh the heads of all of those because i think they work very hard to try and, like you said, you know, finding every, like Councilman Strater said, going through budget, you know, little by little, can I save a little bit here, a little bit there? So I think it's, I really appreciate that. And it's time, very time consuming. So I get to read the budget out after it's already done. Thank you, Jenny. But, so thank you so much.

Thank you, Terry.

Great, great.

And Mr. Mayor, that was everyone that signed up.

Okay. Is there anybody else present that would like to provide testimony on the FY come on up? And if you're online, you can use the raise your hand feature. Good evening.

Hello, my name is Denise LeFevre, 6706 Selvia Way. And I just want to commend the staff over here because those presentations and those graphs are really easy to follow and I really, really liked them. I also appreciate the council diving in and taking a hard look at things. I did my own quick look at the budget and compared it to Nampa and compared it to two other similar states. And cities that have approximately the same population and the same economics and the budgets within reality. So it's commendable. I do see there's an issue with staffing. It's, you know, eight point something percent above over. higher. And so with that, the only question I have, because I really do think they did a stellar job. The only question I have is, like the police over here that is looking at technology and looking at personnel costs, are we doing that across the board, all the way across administration functions, looking at how to leverage technology to help control the cost for personnel? So thank you for the chance to

short answer is yes but what we find is that technology costs almost as much as the personnel i mean that's that is the reality of the situation and that i look over to finance and uh you know when we we went to work day as a way to do our time cards for the city how many employees do we get rid of all right i don't say that how many positions does we avoid by implementing Workday. Basically, that's how we funded Workday, was planned increases based upon the growth of our employee base. We went there. How long is that good for? We never know. And will the costs go up and be more than had we just went with people to do the work instead of technology? But we are looking at it in all parts of the city of where we can apply technology to help offset personnel costs. The challenge is we can't control those costs when they are sent our direction. I think Microsoft is a great example of that when they change how often we want to buy it to the fact that we want to use it, we have to pay for it every year compared to be able to buy it once and maybe make it last an extra year because we didn't want to do it anymore. But we are looking at that in all sides of the city.

Well, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Is there anybody else present that would like to provide testimony of FY27 city budget? Seeing no one coming up or no one raising their hand online. Mr. Mayor. Councilman Overton. I move we close the public hearing on item number three. Second. I have a motion to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay. The ayes have it and the public hearing is closed.

Mr. Mayor. Councilman Overton. I move that we approve the City of Meridian fiscal year 2027 proposed budget in the amount of $224,442,540. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve item 3 in the amount of $224,442,540. Is there discussion on the motion?

Councilman Cavanaugh.

The good work again of of staff and, uh, I don't want to belabor tonight with a lot lengthy discussion. I. I really always struggling when it comes to the, the taking a foregone, I think, especially after last year's support of our citizens when it comes to the levy. I think I've identified a small handful of items that could easily reduce our budget by about $536,000 that would forego the need to collect foregone. So I get a good sense that the council wants to support the budget tonight, totally understand that, support the team, but I won't be voting in favor of the budget for that very reason.

Are there any other comments on the motion? Before the vote, I just want to extend my thanks to the team. I'm not going to say congratulations. I don't want to jinx the vote. But I appreciate finance leading the city employees and all the city employees and the directors of the team through this process. I know it's Herculean each year. So I appreciate it. With that, I square the call to roll.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you, Mr mayor Kavanagh Taylor straighter with lock low Roberts over to.

Mayor Mrakas, Five eyes one day in the items agree to. Mayor Mrakas, Next time up is item for which is public hearing to click foregone revenue associated the fiscal year 2027 budget and the amount of 536,000 $339 s up this public hearing staff comments.

We have one slide, and that is right in front of you. The foregone amount to be collected as proposed is $536,339. I stand for any questions.

Thank you. Council, any questions for staff?

Okay.

Mr. Clerk, do we have anyone signed up on this item?

Mr. Mayor, no one signed up on this item. Okay.

Is there anybody present that would like to come forward and speak on this item? Go ahead. And if you're online, use the raise your hand feature.

My name's Denise Lefevre, 6706 North Selvia Way. Unlike Luke Kavanagh, I'm not really fond of the foregone, especially because it's going towards operating cost, which sets your base and it is compounded year over year. And I do think you could take another look at some other way to adjust things to not use it. I do realize you just approved the budget and it's kind of in there. But I don't approve of this. I think you can push costs out, like the lender project, the parking garage, you can push out. You can do something. You can take another look. It's only like a quarter percent of your operating and personnel costs, a quarter of 1%. You can do something to look at it. Because once again, this is not $536,000. This is a compounded issue year over year. That's my only comment so I don't I don't approve of it. Thank you thank you.

Is there be also like provide comments on this item. If not to have a motion close public hearing this prayer. Councilman overton move that we close a public hearing an item for. I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay. The ayes have it. The public hearing is closed.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Whitlock.

I appreciate the comments that we've heard and the discussion and we went through this in our budget workshop and we've talked a lot about the past, we've talked a lot about the current with what the legislature has done and the future is unknown. But if we base the future on what we know today, it's not very bright in terms of the revenues that we'll see coming into our city's coffers. So for Councilman Overton's prior comments about the difficulty of this budget year, looking forward, I'm concerned of what those years will look like if we don't take advantage of what the state has given us the ability to do, and that is to collect this foregone. It wasn't collected when it was available and and we didn't collect it because it wasn't needed But I think with the budget that we just passed Well, let me back up even another step Prior to just passing or approving the budget for fiscal year 27 we approved the final budget for the current fiscal year that we're in at 250 million and and the budget for next year is projected to be $224 million. So I think we've done our job in terms of trying to right-size our expenditures, match them with the revenues that we have coming in, but it is a tough budget year, and I don't see any other way that we're going to be able to balance even the $224 million that we're expected to expend this year if we don't take advantage of what the legislature has given to us as an opportunity. So I'm in support of this, of taking foregone this year and ensuring that we have that $536,000 to support our city employees.

Mayor.

Councilman Taylor.

Maybe a bit of a question and maybe the finance team can just clarify it. I know in your budget that you presented to council, you presented the foregone to help pay for ongoing costs. And then we had a fairly robust discussion about the prosecution team. I did review and went back and watched the workshop. And I remember asking the question, can we earmark or designate the foregone to help build the base for the prosecution team because we wildly missed the mark on the levy with what we thought we would have plus the $800,000 of the contract from Boise. We were still needing quite a bit of money. My recollection from Mr. LaVoy too was he can't really reflect in the budget the numbers that the foregone would go to pay for or to help build the budget for the prosecution team. But my recollection was the discussion from council was sufficient enough to indicate how this money would be budgeted towards. So I'm sitting here tonight, not operating under the assumption like Ms. Lefevre brought up that this foregone is for ongoing, but that we're going to use this to build a budget towards a prosecution team because we need another was it six or seven hundred thousand dollars just to hit go and have the team up and running so am i misremembering or am i remembering correctly how we left this uh discussion and i've got my answer but i'm but todd i'm going to let you go with from your perspective

Appreciate Mr. Mayor, Councilman Taylor. I do recall us having the discussion that if we took the foregone, could we quote unquote earmark it for future funding needs for the prosecution team? Hence why we went from 12 to down to two. And you're correct. Legally, I can't put it on a notice, but the great thing is you are in charge of the budget every year. So when we build the budget for 2028, you will be able to direct to me that 536 that we're talking about here. Please make sure that funding is available for X. And that can only occur during that budget year. But you do have that authority to direct me as your finance officer, make sure the funding that if this gets approved, make sure that funding is available to fund X project in this case called prosecution. So you do have the authority, the six of you have the authority to direct me as your finance officer to make sure the funding, if this gets approved, goes to a specific fund. But from a documenting and ordinances, not that we don't go to that level. But yes, you as a legislative branch every year have the authority to ask me to allocate funds in your direction.

My answer is, in theory, yes. That that's where these dollars can be directed towards, along with the others that are in the current budget, along with the contract from Boise, which gets us very close to the number that we've been discussing.

Mr. Mayor, quick follow-up. And yes, thank you for kind of clarifying that. To me, that's important. We've, we've long touted the save before you spend philosophy on capital projects and otherwise I see this as the same thing. When we, as we went down this road and got more information from the courts about the staffing needs and when we came to realize that we were looking north of $2 million just to start because we couldn't ease into it. We needed to have a full team capable of, of running, uh, and, and handling all that. It became apparent that we needed to, um, the prudent thing was to slow down, um, and deliver on what we said we wanted to deliver on when we were asking for the public levy last year. And so, uh, I'm, uh, working under this understanding that yes we we agreed to direct that money towards I understand it goes into a big pot and that big pot kind of gets split up but I would it would be my also my request as we look forward to next year if we're needing some additional funds to for the prosecution unit that we would look to use the foregone for those in in the out years as needed until we get to the point where we're ready to go you know I've come to the conclusion that the city of boise and the city of meridian's values are not the same um i think if a family first city which i i'm proud to promote that we are i think it requires us to have a sense of safety and security and law and order i think crimes committed in meridian need to be prosecuted professionally and properly by our own team of legal experts made it clear my feelings about foregone but this year considering the circumstances and the importance I think of being transparent with our The levy process last year where we went out and asked for this money. I was a fierce proponent that we should have our own legal prosecution team In good faith working towards that outcome. I'm gonna support the foregone in as much as it's directed towards building the budget for that It's As we go into next year, we're going to have to take a really hard look at some of these other expenses. Obviously, the health care cost is probably the big opportunity for us to do that. But this year, I'm going to support the foregone because I think it is a public safety need that we have indicated is a priority. And this is the only way I think we can deliver on this promise in a reasonable time frame that's fiscally appropriate.

I'll just add to the conversation, and I hate to be a broken drum, but $2 million is what 389 has cost us so far. That's money that, frankly, under normal operating procedures would have been added to our budget over the last five years because of 389. I think it was... $200,000 just this last year, if I'm not mistaken. So I put this foregone as much as a makeup for the legislative challenges that they've put on the cost of growth. And we don't need to get into the whole values versus the levy rate versus other things. But to arbitrarily cap a number and you're growth dollars to pay for your ongoing operational expenses. This is just frankly, we are in a position where not all cities are, not all cities have City Council Chambers, This foregone you know this has been saved up for years, this has been years, where the city didn't take the full 3% because it wasn't needed, because we had other revenue sources, because we were being prudent. City Council Chambers, and setting this aside for when the time came where it might be needed, and this is the time where it is needed, and this is much a reflection of the. changes in law that the legislature has established as to how they want our state to operate, but this is still a tool and allows us to recover some of those costs. So nobody likes to do the ask, but frankly, most of this should have been available to us in the first place, just from the natural growth of the city that they determined was not appropriate. So-

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Schroeder.

Yeah, I mean, because cash is fungible, all of these things can be true. We have tremendous pressure around our operating costs. And I do echo, though, Councilman Taylor's intent to at least in concept that a big driver of the foregone revenue can be for that purpose. I think that's important. I know we can't earmark it under our policies. It's just not how it works. We can't. bind future councils to any decision that we make. But that is at least my intention as well going into this. And I think very reasonable approach for it. I think next year, a discussion around foregone would be very different for me. I'm going to be looking at structural changes to our health care benefits before I would likely consider it. And I just think it's good to flag that for everybody because of where we're at financially. Thank you.

Further discussion.

Mr. Mayor. Hearing no further discussion, I would move that we approve agenda item number four to collect foregone revenue associated with fiscal year 2027 budget in the amount of $536,339.

I have a motion second to provide him for the amount of 536,339 dollars is their discussion. If not, correct call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Kavanagh?

No.

Taylor? Aye. Straeter?

Aye.

Woodlock? Aye. Little-Roberts?

Overton?

Aye.

Five ayes, one nay, and the item is agreed to. Thank you all, finance and directors who are out there. You are relieved. the evening but we'll see you back with the actual ordinances uh in next week on the agenda so okay with that we'll move on to item five which is the public hearing for solara estates h2026-0042 we will open this public hearing with staff comments

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So this is going to be a quick one. This project came before you last year around October, and you guys approved it. It was for an annexation, alternative compliance, and a preliminary plat. So basically, the applicant is requesting approval of a development agreement modification to allow the development agreement process to proceed after expiration of the original six-month timeframe so that the agreements can be prepared, reviewed, approved, signed, and recorded in accordance with the city requirements. So under the UDC, the applicant has up to six months to complete the process of submit and obtain approval of the subsequent development agreement modification application to extend the timeframe. Unfortunately, the development agreement fee was not paid within the original six months period following the city council approval, perpetuating the need for the subject application by allowing adequate time for the necessary documents to be prepared and approved. To date, they have paid their DA fee. Legal documents can be prepared and recorded and the annexation process concluded. Staff has no objection to the applicant's request for the modification to the development agreement process to proceed after the expiration of the original six-month time frame. There's no modification to the previously approved preliminary plan, alternative compliance approval, project layout, density use, or conditions of approval for Solara State Subdivision. And with that, I'll send for any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Linda. Council, any questions for staff? Okay. Would the applicant like to come forward? Good evening.

good evening mayor members of the council thank you for seeing us again my name is cody bills and i reside at 5060 south locust grove which is actually part of the project we are grateful for your previous support and are looking forward to your current support on this small but beautiful project and like councilman taylor said the city of meridian does not operate the same as boise and we are grateful to be citizens and reside in the city of meridian and we're looking forward to giving this opportunity for a handful of families to be able to enjoy meridian as well especially south meridian where we absolutely live and love and reside council any questions for the applicant perfect thank you very much this clerk anyone sign up on this item did you mean nobody signed up on this item is there anybody present that would like to provide testimony on this item

Here online, you can use the raise your hand feature. Seeing no one raising their hand, no one coming forward, does the applicant waive any final comments? The applicant waives. No more comments.

Sorry, I just want to say it was a mis-signature, miscommunication with our partners and developers and stuff, and so that's the reason why we're here with you today, and we're going to keep a better eye on things.

Okay, thank you.

Council, what's your pleasure? Mr. Mayor. Councilman Larson. I move that we close the public hearing on H-2026-0042.

A motion to second to close the public hearing. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay. At the aye sign, the public hearing is closed. Mr. Mayor. Councilman Overson.

This is extremely straightforward. And with that, I'd like to move that we approve the approval for Solera Estates H2026-0042. After considering all staff applicant public testimony as presented in the staff report for the hearing date of August 11th, 2026. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve item five. Is there discussion? If not, quick call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Cavanaugh.

Taylor. Strater.

Woodlock. Little-Robbins. Overton.

Aye. All ayes. Motion carries. Item is agreed to. Thank you for sticking with us tonight. With that we'll move on to item 6, which is ordinance number 26-2131. I ask the clerk to read this ordinance by title.

Damien Smerritt, it's an ordinance annexing land located in the northeast quarter of section 16, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho. As depicted in the map exhibit, rezoning 23.13 acres of central property from RUT to the IL zoning district. Directing city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps as well as the official zoning maps and all official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning district of the city of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance. Providing the copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Treasurer, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission as required by law, repealing conflicting ordinances, and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Counsel, you've heard this ordinance read by title. Is there anybody that would like it read in its entirety? If not, I have a motion. Mr. Mayor. Councilman Taylor.

I move that we approve ordinance number 26-2131. Second.

I have a motion second to approve on December 26 that's 2131 is there discussion, if not, Kirk Calderon. Thank you, Samir, Kavanagh, Taylor, Straeter, Whitlock, Little-Roberts, Overton. Aye. All ayes, motion carries, Sam is agreed to. Next up is item seven, which is ordinance number 26-2132. I ask the clerk to read this ordinance by title.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's an ordinance annexing land located in a portion of the south half of the southwest quarter of Section 33, Township 4 North, Range 1 West, Boise, Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, as depicted in the map exhibit. Rezoning 4.31 acres of central property from RUT to CC Zoning District, directing city staff to alter all applicable use and area maps, as well as the official zoning maps and all official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning districts of the city of Meridian in accordance with its ordinance. Providing the copies of this ordinance shall be filed with Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Treasurer, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission as required by law, and providing and repealing conflicting ordinances and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Council, you've heard this ordinance read by title. Is there a bailout of the like of the ordinance in entirety?

Not in motion. Mr. Mayor. Councilor Taylor. Move that we approve ordinance number 26-2132. Second.

Have a motion second to approve order summer 26-2132. Is there a discussion? If not, call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Kavanagh.

Taylor. Aye. Strater. Whitlock. Aye. Little Roberts. Overton.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. I agree to counsel at the end of future meeting topics.

Councilman Cavanaugh.

A number of weeks ago, we had a workshop session with the police department talking about our license plate reader program, camera program. There were some, I guess, some recommendations or some options that the police department was exploring. Just would like to get an update either in a memo or an update from them. I know all of us continue to receive lots of questions from the community and just want to make sure that we are proactively communicating the steps that we're taking forward in response.

Okay. Anything else? If not, entertain a motion to adjourn.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we adjourn.

Second.

Motion to second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those in favor, yes, have it. We are adjourned.