Remarks by Luke Cavener
46 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
“When I took a job with the city in 2008, my dad told me to go meet with two people when I started here at the city. One is our esteemed council president. The other one is our community police chief. And that's high praise coming from somebody who I really look up to and admire. And Council President Overton, you touched on something that I think is so important. It's one of the first conversations I remember hearing from our chief. It was talking about culture. And when you're an employee, you learn about how the police department kind of functions. As a council, we really learn how the…”
“Or like recognize you're going to keep us in the loop about our responding to the complaints I got it to buckets of questions one that's kind of around. The operation of this facility and maybe what our risk is long term if we're not able to get it functioning in time and so as one of this kind of start and stop and we get one thing fixed and something else breaks. What risks do we have if we're not able to have this operating continuously by the end of the year? How does that impact the city from a potential long-term financial impact?”
“That's great news. That helps me feel much more comfortable that even if we're in still start and stop mode by January, there's not. Okay. We get to a point that we've got to reassess this system, though, if we're not able to move it towards kind of that continual operation. And what is your team kind of evaluating is what those metrics are. If this. kind of buying that first generation, if it's not going to meet our needs, like at some point we've got to reassess. Right. And I guess, tell me how your team's thinking about that and evaluating it.”
“Mr. Mayor, maybe just want to change gears a little bit on kind of just the public communication. One, commend you for being proactive and out there in the neighborhood. A couple of things I try to do while we were talking through is one, Googling what happens if I need to file an odor complaint in Meridian. I couldn't find the phone number that you provide. I think the fact you provide a 24-7 number is incredible. But if the folks can't find it, I think that can be problematic. I know that not every answer to every challenge is putting that phone number on the front page of our website,…”
“One more thing then off topic, because I think it's important we celebrate wins. Kavner family had a broken water main in front of our house yesterday, got a knock on the door with somebody very kind, explained what's going on and walked us through the repair process. Again, I think just another great example of your team being proactive and providing good customer service. And so I'm really sorry that a very small subsection of our community is wanting to throw their shots at your team for something that they didn't directly cause. But I just feel really confident that your team continues to…”
“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.”
“Council additional questions for staff with Mister mayor customer Kevin if if I recall isn't there a an application that's. This would be south of this property that is limited to the amount of their development they can do based on roadway expansion to my recall the right area the right project.”
“Becky, help me understand, did we, did you and your client not attend the public hearing for the van trust to kind of flag some of these concerns with the collector? I guess I'm just, I'm trying to understand how we got here. It seems like this is something that could have been resolved a few months ago with a public hearing notification. I'm just trying to understand kind of where the disconnect occurred.”
“Becky, you had the authority and ability to inform the planning and zoning and the planning staff and the council of that change. And I guess I'm trying to figure out why there wasn't an effort to... I mean, that's why we do public hearings is so that we can be informed. And you are the subject matter expert on your land, and we're looking at things objectively and rely on this. And I guess it's just a head scratcher for me that... We're finding out about this now and not when there were ample opportunities to do it beforehand. And I guess that's what I'm struggling with.”
“If I'm looking at the road alignment in the exhibit that shared your presentation, it actually looks like the alignment is more advantageous than if it was just a straight shot all the way through. That would be going through one and two. So I guess that's the other part that I'm struggling with. If there was an opportunity to angle it, why not angle it slightly further? And it's just, I'm just, I'm very perplexed by this particular request because I don't, I think it could have been resolved six months ago. And I just, I'm not, I still don't have a lot of clarity as to why it wasn't. So I…”
“And, you know, I. Mr. Mayor, Becky, I don't want to go back and forth on this, but again, if that's concern is shared with the council, I think the council has been really supportive in the past and hearing from how a roadway impacts a business owner's operations and I would think that we would be worth being informed of this potential impact before it's before us for a request of this type before us tonight.”
“I just think from my perspective, I think the acknowledgement of the one non-conforming property, that to me is understood. We see that happen from time to time when we bring a county parcel in. I think the hardest part for me is not requiring the development of the future collector. And that's just simply because we've limited what other applications can do as a result of transportation in that area. And if we're going to limit what one business can do, and this helps to resolve a bite of this overall puzzle in the area, Again, I'm a big Butte fence. My fence is a Butte fence. I'm a happy…”
“You talked about there's a significant grading. How many feet?”
“Mr. Mayor, a couple follow-ups, too. Councilman Cameron. So, again, I'm not the brightest bulb, so I need to be kind of up front with me. Is it a case that your client just didn't approach this neighboring complex about a cross-access? Is it that they are... Unsupportive of any type of an agreement, were you unable to agree to terms? I mean, help me understand what's going on there because I'll just be upfront. I think short of some other way to divert traffic outside of the right in right out is going to be. I understand there's a comp plan amendment, but it's going to be hard for me to be…”
“Maybe, Mr. Mayor, then a question for Senator McHenry. Sonia and again, it sounds like there's maybe this is more of a business decision about the wall, which I can appreciate. Is there any part of our code that would prohibit that cross access from the commercial to accessing a private drive for residential?”
“Mr. Mayor, just a quick follow-up. So I thought it misunderstood. I thought that there is a cross-axis agreement between the commercial to the north and this property.”
“Mr. Mayor, I think your recommendation is spot on. I mean, I don't know where everybody's landed on this, but I think you've got two paths, which is one, try to forge an agreement with the neighbor to the west and come with this residential project that you're proposing, or you can work on your cross-access agreement to the commercial to the north, knowing that that's also going to bring its own set of challenges. I think those are your two paths. given the current situation as I see it. And I know each one comes with its own challenges and trade-offs, but like I mentioned earlier, I couldn't…”
“Mr. Mayor. Bonnie, how much time do you, would you want? Is it a month, two months, three months? And”
“I want to be respectful to you. I also think, Bonnie, it's right if you're not able to come to an agreement, it leaves you the opportunity to withdraw the application. You've got greater control of your destiny in the future than receiving a denial from the council. So it does give you, I think, a few more options to kind of control your own destiny. I guess maybe looking for some insight from some of my council members. Want to go in January? Okay, I'm seeing. Okay. Mr. Mayor.”
“Unless Bonnie has any other comments to make, I don't want to step on your toes.”
“Usually I have that with me. Maybe we'll take a five-minute recess, if that's okay, and just... Thank you. Yes.”
“That's exciting. I'm going to move that we continue this application, file number H2026-0028 to January 5th of 2027.”
“question either for Mr. or Captain Stokes, and it really pertains to parental notification when an SRO is involved in an interview with a minor. I know that language was included, I think, in the previous contract. Obviously, there's a letter from the state superintendent that says that's supposed to occur. I know the language is pulled out of the contract. So where is that information captured? Is that in procedure and policy? Is that something that's been shared with the council? I just don't recall seeing it if it was, and I'm just trying to track where that information is housed.”
“THAT'S VERY HELPFUL. IT EXPLAINS WHY IT WAS PULLED OUT OF OUR CONTRACT BECAUSE IT'S NOT SOMETHING THAT'S OUR RESPONSIBILITY NOW BASED ON THE CHANGE IN THE STATE. THANK YOU. MR. MAYOR, I DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.”
“I tend to agree with the other council members on this. What action, if any, is going to be required by the Nampa City Council to facilitate this potential change? Have they discussed this? Do they have to take action to approve that? Have they had a chance to discuss this? And if it has been discussed, what has kind of been the general synopsis of the discussion?”