Remarks by Brian Whitlock
27 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
“Just briefly. Growing up, my dad always used to say, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. And as I sit here tonight and as I've sat here on the council for the last couple of years and watched your leadership at the department, if it's worth doing, you've done it right. I'm impressed with those that you've surrounded yourself with, your leadership team, your command staff. You've built that culture and you've done it right. You've made us all proud. Congratulations on 30 years.”
“Mayor and Lorelei, thank you for pulling all of this information together. It's very helpful. And as you and I have talked about this situation, you know, it came about because constituents reached out and contacted me. I just want you to know that to a person that's contacted me, they've talked about the professionalism of your staff. and their willingness to come out and investigate and try to better understand exactly what's going on. So I'm sorry that there are some that have called and have not been as respectful as we would hope they would be. But in return, your staff has been very,…”
“guess our discharge to the creek is generally not a source of odor and follow-up mr mayor in one of your slides you talked about continuing to do to build on the odor study and and have that developed can you just talk me through that a little more what's involved with that uh how often do we do it um with the last comprehensive one being five years ago is is this a comprehensive or just an additive study on top of what was done five years ago?”
“Follow up. Or like you mentioned, I think a 900 foot buffer that we try to maintain, we're not encroaching on that in any at any point around that wastewater treatment facility, are we?”
“Bonnie, just refresh my memory, the property to the west, are those all rentals or are those single family?”
“I recall they were four plexes. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, follow up. Four plexes and then it looks like some single units, but they're all rentals.”
“So just following the line of questioning, I mean, really, it's not however many units are in there, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 28. You're looking at about 30 renters and one owner. I wonder if that one owner would be amenable to some of the cost sharing ideas that have been brought up tonight.”
“I'll just comment. I love everything about the project. I love 19 homes. I love the affordability of those. I love the transition. I love the proximity to elementary school, a path to walk. I love everything about it except that right in, right out. I just... You check a lot of boxes, but that access is something that I'm really struggling with tonight.”
“Can you just go back to the map as well? I mean, we have this shaped, what do you call it? Trapezoid. Did I get that right? Is it a trapezoid?”
“A small sliver to the north, north of Eustick, south of Cherry. Those are all, I think, five-acre lots on septic wells that are within Canyon County. And then we've been talking about future development, moving the McDermott trunk line, even, even farther to the south. Is there, this is a one-off. Is there any chance that there will be a second one-off because of any of those other properties that are east of 16th?”
“Seeing no other people wishing to testify, I would move that we close the public hearing on agenda item number six. Second.”
“seems pretty straightforward just subdividing that parcel, and so I after considering all staff applicant and public testimony I moved to approve file number sh P 2026 dash 0009 as presented in the staff report for the hearing date of October 6 2026.”
“Sean, thank you for the presentation. Just help me, I mean, I don't disagree with anything that's been said tonight. I'm just in my mind trying to think of where the traffics and students are coming from. And with a right-in, right-out access, any students coming from Mountain View and Renaissance are going to have to do that prayer turn in either... I'm not sure how they get around. They have to go all the way up to Franklin and then down Locust Grove. Then you have... Rocky, Hawaii, Eagle, Centennial, all coming from the north. So the ride in is not a problem for them. But when they do the…”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Curtis, thanks. I don't have quite the history with this corner as Councilman Overton does, but tell me a little bit about the neighbors. Tell me a little bit about the neighbors and have we talked to them about precast concrete? Have we talked to them about staining the inside and the outside? Do we maintain both sides? It seems to me that you would want to tear out the fence first, the existing fence before installing, but sounds like they have a say in whether or not the existing wood and chain link fence comes out. Talk to me about that process with the neighbors and how that would work.”
“We were out there last week as part of the parks to her and things were just buzzing at Lakeview and it's good to see. I'm of the belief that it's it's a good deal until it's not a good deal and we've created a good deal for the citizens of Meridian It's good to see people out there utilizing this amenity that we're able to provide. Ryan, kudos to you because the course is beautiful and it's being utilized. So good work and let's keep making it a good deal. And thanks for the research. I kind of like to be that $1 below the average of everybody else. So appreciate your work on that.”
“Ethan, the mayor brought up one of my questions on the fencing, but you also heard some testimony about the transition to the south and the prior project seemed to have that approval. Now it's 20 and 25 units in those buildings, I believe. Any consideration on density there in those two buildings, any accommodations you could make there?”
“Mr. Mayor, since I sit in between my two colleagues here, I'll straddle the fence. There's an old adage of a man who tells a young boy to bring him a rock. And the young boy goes and brings him a rock, and he says, not that kind of rock. Bring me another rock. And I look at this entire project, and they brought a rock to staff, and they said, not that kind of rock. And they recommended denial. And PNZ looked at the rock and they said, not that kind of rock, and they denied it. And then they brought it to city council and we said, well, that's a different kind of rock than you had with PNZ,…”
“seen councilman counter shake his head so must have no additional comments mr mayor okay council anything else that you'd like staff to specifically look at or consider okay councilman i'm again just assuming since it's here in the in the presentation that hermitite is part of the project moving forward we don't need to do a condition on that um on that improvement.”
“I would move that we approve agenda item number three, resolution number 26-2601, a resolution certifying the levy of $536,339 of foregone property taxes in fiscal year 2027 for the specific purpose of funding ongoing operational expenses and providing an effective date.”
“I would close the public hearing on agenda item number 4H2026-0018. Second.”
“I'll be brief, too. I think this is an approval. Is that the word? Okay. And I appreciate the applicant bringing us an approval on something that we've previously approved. So if there's no other discussion, I would move that we approve agenda item number 4, H20- I'm sorry, H2026-0018. After considering all staff and public testimony for this hearing date of August 18th, 2026 with the waiver for the excess block length for East Crimson Clover drive and the waiver to keep the Ross and canal open.”
“Chief, I'm kind of the dinosaur up here, so all this technology is really cool, but I'm having a struggle trying to figure out how it all fits.”
“Can you just share with me, I mean, what are we capturing? What is this data? You've got a camera. When I hear camera, I think of a picture. But now we have data and partial plates.”
“And that then follow up castle and that then is stored as a picture of the vehicle and the license plate until. We choose to to transfer that tax on for their training purposes, we would send them a partial.”