Treasure Valley Partnership
2006 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes
January 23, 2006

Mayor Dean Obray opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to Kuna. He introduced Dianna Sanders who gave a presentation on the latest activities on Planning and Zoning in Kuna. She indicated that they are estimating the population of Kuna to be over 12,000.

Mayor Obray indicated that he and Mayor Tammy de Weerd have been working together to work out a comprehensive plan for both Kuna and Meridian growth issues as well areas of impact for the two municipalities. He felt that this cooperative effort has been fruitful and will lead to future positive cooperative working activities as the two municipalities begin to grow together.

The minutes from the December, 2005 meeting was unanimously approved by motion. Tom Dale moved and Tammy de Weerd seconded to approve the budget/finance report. The vote passed unanimously.

Bill indicated that the Gang Related Subcommittee has been meeting on developing the Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (SAUSA) for prosecuting gang related crimes in the Treasure Valley. He handed out an initial document that highlighted the information and tasks that needed to be decided upon to get this SAUSA working for the Treasure Valley. He indicated that the subcommittee had initially decided that they needed an attorney with at least 5+ years experience to handle this work.

Mayor Dale stated he felt that we needed to mentally make a commitment for at least two years. He indicated that he felt that the Partnership should have enough funds to fully fund this project for the first year. The Governor’s Office has been invited to our next meeting as there was a feeling they would realize financial benefits from the work of this SAUSA. (A note: The Governor’s Office did come to the last subcommittee meeting and indicated they were prepared to help fund this activity.)

Commissioner Yzaguirre stated that the two county Prosecuting Attorney’s offices had been invited to the next subcommittee meeting. There had been consensus that one of the two counties had to volunteer to be the conduit for employment and supervision of this SAUSA. He felt that from a Partnership perspective this represents a real opportunity to have an impact as we will be partnering with both the State and the Feds for tackling gang related crimes in the Treasure Valley.

Mayor Merrill asked if this SAUSA would be a contractor or employee of the Partnership. Mayor Dale indicated that this SAUSA would have to be an employee of one of the agencies of the Partnership and that the most logical place would be to house this person in either the Ada or Canyon County Prosecutor’s offices.

Mayor Watson stated that the SAUSA’s office would actually be in the U.S. Attorney’s office and the County Prosecutor’s Office would just be the conduit for pay and benefits. She also pointed out that this project will not burden the budget of the County, but the funds would pass through the Partnership to the County to pay for all expenses associated with employment. In addition, through this subcommittee’s work, she has became aware of the cost benefit for the State associated with shipping these perpetrators out of State and felt that the State should come to the table with funds to assist in this effort.

Mayor DeWeerd stated the Partnership should look at other types of funding to assist in this cause so we are not always looking to our well of funds available to fund these types of projects. Bill indicated that he has been searching databases to find potential grant funds to help fund this SAUSA project. However, to this point no outside grant funds have been identified. He stated that he believes that eventually, he will find grant funds to support this project.

Mayor Evans asked if any of the funds that have been appropriated from drug related seizures could be used in this cause. Mayor Watson stated that this issue is a sensitive one in that drug task forces and other related organizations utilize these funds for their budgets.

Mayor Dale felt that the Partnership as a group needed to get behind legislation at the State level that defines a Gang and the resulting criminal activity. Through this type of legislation, our efforts on this project will be more fruitful (Note: Senate Bill 1313 has been drafted and is in the hands of the Judiciary and Rules Committee.)

Bill introduced Leonard Herr of the Clean Cities Coalition. Leonard described the Clean Cities Coalition and described their current efforts around establishing an organizational nonprofit 501(c)(3) status. He requested the Partnership to assist the Coalition by providing $530.00 to pay for the fees associated with establishing this nonprofit.

Mayor DeWeerd indicated that she was concerned that there were several related organizations being formed, all with their own nonprofit status. Her concern was that these groups needed to band together to gain economies of scale so that there was better coordination and cooperation among these environmental, clean-air type organizations.

Mayor Merrill made a motion to spend the $530 to pay for the fees associated with establishing the Clean Cities Coalition 501(c)(3) status. Motion was seconded. Motion Approved.

Mayor DeWeerd requested the Partnership to develop a policy as to how these types of funding requests come before the group. She felt that requests should come in advance of the request. Mayor Merrill added that the requests should come in writing. Bill indicated he would develop a policy to bring before the Partnership at our next meeting.

Mayor McKeever announced that Ralph Little had passed away and the graveside services were to be held the following Thursday.

Lt. Jeff Lavey of the Meridian Police Department delivered a short presentation on the 700 MHz project that has been going on in Ada County and is also underway in Canyon County. In 2004, Boise City and Ada County applied for and received a 7 million dollar COPS Grant to fund development of a 700 MHz radio infrastructure communication system. The reason for 700 MHz is that it is a frequency band that is dedicated to public safety.

The advantage of this 700 MHz system is that will enable all public safety personnel to communicate freely without having to go through dispatch systems. For example, police, fire, emergency medical personnel, etc., can be called in easily based on the needs of the emergency situation that has presented itself.

Mayor Merrill pointed out that the FCC has an implementation date on the switch over to these types of systems. Lt. Lavey confirmed that there are some implementation mandates that phase in starting in 2008. He pointed out that the grant only funded infrastructure development. It did not fund the actual mobile radios in the cars. This is a large expense but the costs of the mobile units have been decreasing. For example, when they first started looking into this the mobile units cost between $5,000 and $6,000 per unit and currently these units are around $2,2,00 per unit.

Mayor De Weerd requested Lt. Lavey email out timelines for implementation to Bill so that he can route this information to the members.

Sue Sullivan – Idaho Transportation Department
Corridor Preservation is a coordinated application of various measures to take control of or otherwise protect right-of-way for planned application of facilities or other needs as need to be provided.

It calls for coordination of transportation, planning, project development and implementation. Coordination of land use and transportation agencies needs to be very close. There are also constitutional issues that are very complex.

She then ran down some projects she has worked on and described some of the right-of-way preservation activities that took place. Currently they are doing some corridor preservation studies on highway 20/26 and 44. They are doing a full environmental process that includes nepa clearance. Once the NEPA clearance is concluded they are able to purchase right-of-way. Another project is Highway 55 in canyon county where they are doing a quick accelerated corridor plan for that segment that includes the Karcher interchange. Highway 16 is important because this is a brand new alignment that represents some great challenges.

Mayor Merrill asked where the ITD is at on the Middleton bypass and the preservation activities going on with this project?

Sue indicated for that project they have just finished the stakeholder interviews and are ready to move forward with a public meeting in order to get information out on the alignment.

Mayor Merrill asked if the alignment on the Middleton bypass has been determined.

Sue stated that the City of Middleton passed a proposed alignment and the department needs to go through the NEPA process on that project.

Mayor Frank McKeever indicated that the big problem is when there is right-of-way preservation on private land. And the landowners tend to question the use of their land. He indicated that this right-of-way has been platted on their comprehensive plan and are just ready to work toward the next steps in the public information process.

Mayor Merrill asked at what point could the right-of-way land be purchased. Sue indicated that it depends on who is buying it. If a local municipality is buying it, they could buy and hold for the right-of-way use. If the State buys the land, they have to hold for the NEPA clearance or they have to coordinate with the Feds on the purchase of the property.

Sue indicated that there is a difference between using regulatory police power for exactions or eminent domain. Eminent domain is for a recognized public use so the transportation infrastructure includes this. Whereas police power is based on public interest for example public safety.

Meeting Adjorned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
February 27, 2006

Mayor Tammy de Weerd opened the meeting and discussed some of the changes that are happening at the golf course. The Mayors Youth Advisory Council has been extremely active in public school issues and anti-drug coalition activities. One of the issues they have tackled is drug testing for school district extracurricular activities. In addition, they have been involved with establishing a district wide policy of healthy foods in vending machines at the school district. They have a project with Habitat for Humanity for their national youth and service day.

She indicated they are doing a lot in safety services. In the local anti-drug coalition they had a front line utility workers train the trainer session. This session detailed to these front line workers how to recognize potential drug activities on the streets and who to report these potential illegal activities. The anti-drug coalition has also been involved with the Meridian High School with an every fifteen minutes program.

The City of Meridian recently received a Legislative Award for promoting positive substance abuse programs.

The City of Meridian just opened the Station 4 Fire Station. They put paramedic firefighters on each of their crews and this program has come together nicely.

They are starting a Public Safety Citizens Academy in March. This is a joint project between the fire and policed departments. They are creating a combined police/fire honor guard. They are opening a K-9 facility that will be open to other law enforcement programs that have K-9’s.

The Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast is April 5th at 6:45 am at Cole Christian School on Main Street in Meridian. First Lady Kempthorne is the featured speaker.

Bill asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Moved and seconded, motion approved.

Bill pointed out that in the financial statements the balance in the bank as of March 26th was $112,955. He indicated he would put together a budget detailing the year’s budget and how the SAUSA project would fit within the budget as prepared. Mayor De Weerd stated she would like to have the newly elected officers look at the budget and determine how the SAUSA project affects the budget. Bill indicated he would get the budget put together with all expenditures to date and distribute this to the officers.

Mayor Merrill asked about a retreat for this year. Mayor Bieter indicated that we had tried to put one together for the Railvolution Conference but it did not come off. Bill indicated he would put the “Retreat” on the agenda for the March meeting.

Mayor Mitchell approved, Commissioner Yzaguirre seconded a motion to approve the financial statements. Motion approved unanimously.

Bill pointed out a funds request policy he had drafted for the Partnership per concerns that were raised from the previous month. Mayor Merrill moved that we table discussion of this item till next months meeting to give the members a chance to review the policy. Mayor Mitchell seconded. Motion approved unanimously.

Bill then mentioned a newly drafted letter to the members of JFAC with regard to funding of $25,000 proposed by the Governor’s office for matching funds for the SAUSA project. Bill indicated that JFAC was meeting the next day on this budget request. He stated he would get the exact time of the meeting out to members by the afternoon.

Note: This $25,000 budget request ended up under the Idaho Attorney General’s budget and the item has made it through JFAC, the Senate and is on the 3rd reading in the House as of Thursday, March 23, 2006. The budget request is in Section Six of Senate Bill 1449. http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/S1449.html

Mayor Bieter stated he is a big fan of the SAUSA project and felt the process has been moving along rather nicely. He did however have a few questions/concerns about the MOU between Canyon County and the U.S. Attorney’s office. He felt that this should be a Partnership employee and that the Partnership should have the major voice in the employment decision. Mayor Dale indicated that he also felt that the Treasure Valley Partnership needed to be a signatory on the MOU.

Bill stated that during the last subcommittee meeting there was a discussion about having a second MOU between the Partnership and Canyon County.

Mayor Watson indicated that she felt we needed an official vote of the Partnership members on the funding portion of the SAUSA Project. Mayor Dale agreed and stated we do have enough of this project fleshed out that we as a Partnership can commit to the first years funding for the SAUSA. Additionally, Mayor Dale felt that between, Nampa, Caldwell and Boise they could insure that the second year of this project gets covered, but would like to see all of the members commit for the second year.

Mayor Dale moved that we go forward with the plan for the SAUSA and that the Treasure Valley Partnership commit to the funding for the first year of the project. Mayor Watson seconded. Discussion: Mayor DeWeerd wanted to know the funding formula.

Bill provided the following funding formula for the SAUSA Project.

Treasure Valley Partnership
SAUSA Project

Commissioner Yzaguirre indicated he felt he could not support the motion, and felt he could not get buy in from his fellow ADA County Commissioners at this point in time. Mayor Dale stated he didn’t understand why we needed support from our individual jurisdictions’ councils and commissioners for projects that the Partnership is undertaking. He added that he didn’t believe we have felt the need to obtain support from individual jurisdictions’ councils and commissioners on projects the Partnership has undertaken in the past. Mayor Mitchell felt that without complete knowledge of State support, we might be committing more than $73,125 to this project.

Bill followed up the discussion by adding that the timeline for beginning of the project is not till July due to State Budget timelines. Mayor DeWeerd stated we could at least approve the project in concept till we know more from the State legislative process.

Motion Restated: The Partnership will commit in concept to the SAUSA project by committing funding for the first year of the SAUSA project up to $75,000.00, contingent on the State participating in the project cost up to $25,000.00. Motion carried.

Election of Officers
Mayor Bieter moved to reaffirm the officers, as they were this past year. Seconded by Mayor Mitchell. Motion carried.

Officers for the fiscal year 2006-2007 are: Chairperson – Mayor Nancy Merrill; Vice Chairperson – Mayor Tom Dale; Treasurer – Mayor Tammy de Weerd.

Kevin Lewis provided an update on the Boise River Vision Project and handed out a draft document of the project. He indicated he would be arranging individual meetings with the members to further discuss this project. A long discussion ensued around flood plains and development along the river. A suggestion was made to add this topic to the March meeting agenda. Note: We will have a speaker on Boise River Flooding at the March meeting.

Corporal Greg Kortan of the Meridian Police Department delivered a presentation on Code Enforcement. He mentioned that abandoned vehicles have become a major issue in the valley. Mayor Bieter asked if they handled a code violation criminally? Corporal Kortan indicated that they do both depending on the circumstances.

Meeting Adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
March 27, 2006

Commissioner Matt Beebe opened the meeting and discussed some of the new things that have been happening in Canyon County.

Mayor De Weerd moved to approve the minutes from the February meeting. Mayor McKeever seconded. Motion approved.

Budget

Bill described the yearly budget and identified income and expenses as they are to date and the expenses anticipated through the end of the fiscal year. Mayor Nancolas moved to approve the financial report, Mayor Dale seconded, motion approved.

Bill then pointed out that there are a couple of jurisdictions that were interested in knowing the Partnership member dues for the next fiscal year. There was some discussion that COMPASS had approved new population estimates for 2006. A motion was made to base next fiscal year’s dues on the 2006 COMPASS estimates, seconded and approved unanimously.

Commissioner Yzaguirre indicated a concern of having knowledge of future projects the Partnership was going to pursue with the budget on hand. Mayor Dale stated that he felt that projects were not always going to be identifiable and that the Partnership had the ability to be flexible on the organization’s focus. Mayor Bieter indicated that he felt that the current SAUSA project was an excellent example of the reason we fund the Partnership. In addition, he asked, why the counties do not pay into the partnership for their city residents.

Mayor Nancolas stated that several years ago there was a discussion that city residents would be paying twice for membership dues and there was a study done at that time and an agreement made to make the membership formula simple and not have any city/county residents paying twice for dues.

Mayor Nancolas also indicated that he felt there was another project that is currently in the planning stages that might help alleviate Commissioner Yzaguirre’s concerns. That is public transportation. He indicated that we are planning the April meeting around this issue and as a result, there could be projects grow out of that meeting. Specifically, we might take on some public relations activities to assist in pushing public transportation funding through next year’s legislature. In addition, maybe we could join a subcommittee to look at the budget and identify some project activities for the next year.

Commissioner Yzaguirre stated that he agreed with Mayor Nancolas and mentioned the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council as an organization that has a project the partnership may consider looking into joining in on.

New Member Cities

Mayor Watson indicated that she has talked to the Mayors of Wilder, Greenleaf and Homedale. And, they are interested in joining the Partnership. She wanted to know how new member municipalities would get started in the process and if Homedale being in Owyhee County would throw a monkey wrench in the organization. Mayor Dale stated that he has no problem with Homedale, because they are in the Treasure Valley. Mayor Bieter felt that these other municipalities needed to be aware of the $5,000 initiation fee…….lol.

Mayor Bieter indicated he felt that opening the Partnership to new members was a good thing. However, one of the things that works for the Partnership was the relatively small amount of members and he did not want to see the group get so large that the opportunity for fellowship became lost. A question was then made, what is the Treasure Valley. Mayor Watson stated that the Treasure Valley extends from Weiser to Mountain Home.

Mayor Dale moved that Bill draft a letter to the municipalities that have expressed interest, to invite them to become members of the Treasure Valley Partnership. This letter should be approved and signed by the Executive Committee. Seconded by Mayor De Weerd. The letter would go to the Mayors of Melba, Wilder, Homedale, Notus and Greenleaf. Motion carried.

Retreat

Mayor Nancolas mentioned that he felt some of the most valuable times that have been had for the Partnership have been retreats. This time away from the office and with the other members has been fruitful from a relationship standpoint and a valuable time for planning and developing strategies to solve problems that we all face.

Mayor Dale indicated that he also felt that retreats have been very valuable and considering we might be having new members, a retreat should be in order. He suggested that we attempt to go to the Ashley Inn in Cascade.

Commissioner Yzaguirre reiterated the value he has seen in the retreats he has attended over the years, especially the opportunity to establish relationships with Partnership members.

Mayor De Weerd felt that we could use a retreat to analyze where we have been based on the planning we accomplished at the last retreat.

Mayor Bieter agreed that the Partnership is a great opportunity and has been working well, however, we need to continually go back to the planning and ensure we are always on track to where we envision our efforts.

Mayor Nancolas pointed out that one of the main points from the last retreat was that; “we wanted time for talking with one another instead of being talked to”.

Bill will identify a Retreat location and a tentative time and inform the membership within the next couple of weeks.
SAUSA Project

Bill indicated that Senate Bill 1449 did pass the legislature. This bill extends funding from the State of 25% up to $25,000.00 to match expenditures on the SAUSA Project. These funds would come through the Idaho Attorney Generals office.

A discussion ensued about the draft MOU between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Canyon County. Bill indicated that the draft that was distributed should be close to final. Mayor Dale stated that in the MOU between the Partnership/State and the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, we should strive to have the Partnership retain ownership of this project and be involved with hiring and supervision of the individual hired. Mayor Nancolas agreed that the Partnership needed to have ownership and authority over hiring, supervision and performance review.

Commissioner Yzaguirre asked if the Partnership had even made a vote to move forward with the SAUSA project. Bill indicated that during the February Partnership meeting, the Partnership did vote to approve the SAUSA project in concept and commit to moving forward with ironing out project details.

Note: Motion from February 27th meeting: The Partnership will commit in concept to the SAUSA project by committing funding for the first year of the SAUSA project up to $75,000.00, contingent on the State participating in the project cost up to $25,000.00. Motion carried.

Commissioner Yzaguirre reiterated that from the ADA County Commission, the SAUSA Project is a great idea and a great project, the ADA County Commission does not agree with the funding source (Treasure Valley Partnership).

Mayor Dale asked what funding source the ADA County Commission had identified for the funding source of this project. Mayor’s Nancolas and De Weerd asked for further clarification on what direction the Commission would like for the project to take.

Commissioner Yzaguirre stated that some of the thinking was this project was for an initial two-year period and there is some question about the caliber of attorney we could obtain for a two-year project and what would the Partnership’s role would be after two years.

Mayor Dale stated that in his recollection that after two years the project would be going to the Legislature and pointing out how much ($) this project was saving the State and encourage the State to take this project on indefinitely. In addition, from his discussion with several attorneys, the Project will have no problem obtaining extremely competent attorneys, because of the attractiveness of obtaining an opportunity with the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Commissioner Beebe summarized the discussion by indicating the SAUSA Project is a demonstration project with initial first year funding from the Partnership and the State of Idaho to build a track record for prosecuting “gang related” crimes through the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Garret Nancolas indicated he would like to make a formal motion for the purposes of getting on the record and for the purposes of the ADA County Commissioners.

Mayor Nancolas moved the Treasure Valley Partnership endorse this SAUSA Project both financially and with intent and purpose to move this forward. The MOU between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Canyon County Prosecutor’s office be approved and allow this process to continue. Additionally, the MOU between the Partnership/State and the Canyon County Prosecutor’s office continue to be worked on and be brought to the Partnership for approval at the next meeting. Mayor Dale seconded.

Discussion: Mayor De Weerd indicated that she thinks we all believe in this project, however, we do not have the details beyond the first year funding.

Bill indicated that during the February meeting, the Partnership voted to fund the project from Partnership funds for one year and other alternative funding sources would be sought for the second year.

Mayor Nancolas indicated as the maker of the motion that one year’s funding would come from the Partnership and the second year’s funding would come from other sources. He felt the proof would be in the pudding, so to speak. After one year, we would know whether or not the project was working and we were seeing these criminals move out of State.

Motion carried with one dissenting vote, ADA County Commissioner, Rick Yzaguirre.

Mayor Mitchell mentioned a Mayors Cup golf tournament the City of Star is hosting. He proposed hooking the Partnership into this golf tournament and having the partnership host the tournament. Nate indicated that the Partnership would not be required to work at this tournament but would participate in sponsoring the tournament and deciding which nonprofit to donate the proceeds too.

Mayor De Weerd felt that this might be a good idea for the partnership to pursue. She made a motion to have the Partnership endorse the idea of a joint golf tournament and have Bill and Nate get together to see if dates can be worked out. Commissioner Yzaguirre seconded. Motion approved

Mayor Bieter introduced Rob Bousfield from the City of Boise’s Public Works Department as a guest speaker. He talked about the flooding outlook this spring and the potential scenarios that could happen. He indicated we are going to be about 130% of average for water this year.

Commissioner Beebe introduced Lieutenant Chad Sarmento who provided information on the development of the new Canyon County Detention Center.

Meeting Adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
April 24th, 2006

Mayor Frank McKeever welcomed everyone to Middleton.

Mayor Nancolas indicated that during a meeting several months ago with Mayor Bieter, it was felt that we should attempt to show the legislative body a united voice for public transportation funding. He explained that we had invited numerous State legislators to this meeting and welcomed Representative Kathy Skippen as the attendee from the legislature.

Kelli Fairless mentioned the Coalition for Public Transportation and its mission to find a funding source for public transportation. She indicated that Chuck Winder and Dan Stevens from the business community have stepped up to champion this effort. She stated that this coalition’s effort was designed in stages. First there have been meetings held with the business community to explain the need and provide education. Then they targeted the local officials and provided similar education.

Out of this effort, Kelli indicated that an RS has been drafted consisting of language for State Legislation in next year’s session. This legislative effort will be centered on providing a dedicated funding source of a local option taxing authority specifically for Public Transportation. The enabling legislation would be under the Regional Transportation Authority Act. If a region undertook a local option tax for public transportation, all counties in the regional authority would be under the local option tax.

Mayor Merrill asked what the changes in leadership will do to the legislatures willingness to adopt such legislation? Representative Skippen indicated what she believed the makeup of house leadership would be. She felt we needed to spend our time and effort working with members of JFAC.

Mayor Merrill stated that the Executive Committee of the TVP has put in motion holding a meeting with all of our area legislators in November. The purpose of this Legislative meeting would be to give an opportunity for the local elected officials to discuss issues with the local legislative body.

Representative Skippen stated that Local Option Taxing has been pretty well thwarted in the past. She mentioned that at the end of this last legislative session, there were some alliances being built with Legislators from North Idaho and those of the Treasure Valley. This alliance would create a majority. Legislators from North Idaho appear to be more in favor of Local Option Taxes.

Mayor Nancolas stated that he felt the State Legislature is anti-local government. He asked what has caused that feeling and what can we do as the Treasure Valley Partnership to address this issue? Representative Skippen indicated that one of the causes is that there are very few legislators who have been an elected local official. She suggested building a personal relationship with the local legislators is probably the biggest thing we could do.

Mayor Merrill stated again that we were working on innovative ways to bring the two bodies together in a forum that would be conducive to building a rapport. She mentioned the projected November meeting and we could also invite local legislators to our Retreat in September. Mayor De Weerd suggested that we also invite the local mayors/commissioners from the McCall/Cascade area to our retreat as well.

Mayor Bieter mentioned a discussion on the Local Option Tax and that there should be a sunset clause associated with this legislation. He would hate to build infrastructure and just when the fruits of the labor are starting to pay off, have the legislation sunset. Representative Skippen felt that the sunset clause was not a make or break piece of the legislation. Kelli Fairless indicated that the sunset clause got into the RS because of an opportunity to make a simple majority election with the sunset clause. If it weren’t in the legislation, then the majority might be bumped up to 55-60%.

Representative Skippen suggested that we assign members of the TVP to certain members of some of the more key legislative committees and just start building a personal bond with these legislators.

Mayor Watson expressed her appreciation to Representative Skippen for her support on the SAUSA piece of legislation.

Business Meeting

Mayor Merrill made the motion to approve the minutes. Mayor Nancolas seconded. Motion carried.

Mayor Merrill indicated that her and Tom Dale met with Bill and went through the budget. She moved to approve the budget/finance report. Seconded by Mayor Watson.

Discussion: The budget presented was a revised budget for the year based on the SAUSA Project. Bill discussed a couple of plans for upcoming projects that were included in the budget.

Mayor De Weerd mentioned the upcoming request that TVP would be receiving from the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council and asked that this item be included in the budget.

Mayor Nancolas moved to approve the dues structure contingent on a budget for next year that details expenses. Commissioner Yzaguirre seconded with discussion. Commissioner Yzaguirre indicated that based on next year’s budget, their needs to be some clearly delineated expenditure’s on how the funds are to be expended. Motion carried.

Mayor Watson asked if we had received any interest from prospective cities for membership in the Partnership. Bill indicated we had sent the letter out and that he was on the agenda for the next City Council meeting for the City of Wilder.

Bill indicated that the MOU between the Partnership and the Canyon County Prosecutor’s office is in the process of being worked on should be ready by next meeting.

Bill mentioned that the Retreat is scheduled for September 7th and 8th in the Ashley Inn in Cascade. He mentioned that the current plan is for a facilitated discussion around City/County Relations, a presentation on Right of Way/Corridor preservation and a strategy session on the November meeting with the Legislature. He also asked the group if they had any topics they wanted to have covered at the Retreat.

Mayor De Weerd stated that we should invite the Mayors and Commissioners from Valley County to the Retreat.

There was no further discussion and the meeting was adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
May 22, 2006

Mayor Merrill welcomed everyone to the new Eagle City Hall building.

Doug Armstrong of KTVB Channel 7 delivered a presentation on the State of the City/County addresses this past year. He showed a video of excerpts from the addresses that highlighted points to think about when designing future State of the City/County addresses.

Suggestions for improving the visual impact of these addresses:

1. With the venue being used, a raised stage allows the camera to focus on the speakers without catching people eating, moving around, etc.

2. A table for dignitaries that are being introduced would assist the camera person. Or orienting the camera person with an agenda and location of the people being introduced would help as well.

3. Holding the State of the City/County Addresses between 9-11 am and 1-2 pm will allow channel 7 to enhance the exposure of the address on the Internet and allows for them to do a good job of graphics on the address.

4. Backgrounds with a variety of color assist in the visibility of the session.

5. Try to keep your visual aid projectors from directly behind you. It is best to have the screen off to the side.

6. Power Point presentations don’t come across well on television.

7. Have lights in front of speaker instead of behind them.

8. They do not have the broadcast resources past an hour per address.

9. 30-60 minute addresses work best for TV.

10. Mayor Merrill indicated that the Partnership has been talking about flood ordinances for the past couple of meetings. There are 3 things that people she has conferred with that they believe we all need to make sure our ordinances include.

11. No Adverse Affect - If you are going to develop on the flood plain, you need to prove that you are not going to have an adverse impact on the property adjacent, across, etc.

12. Minimum setbacks from the floodway.

13. The amount of base flood elevation development.

Mayor Merrill indicated that one of the things we could do to have an impact on flood damage is to require developers in their CCR’s to have set-aside money for flood mitigation.

Doug Hardman stated that as elected officials, it is important to remember that there is no flood response team. You almost have to do it on an ad hoc basis. Ultimately, who is responsible is, you the chief elected official in your communities. All your power rests in your floodplain ordinances.

Commissioner Yzaguirre suggested that we have Bill put together a matrix on the floodplain ordinances of the members. Bill indicated it would be ready for the next meeting.

Doug indicated that there are a couple of reasons to declare a disaster emergency. One is to give your self some limited immunity and the other is to request some assistance from another entity within the State.

Donna Horan gave a presentation on the Boise River Sweep Program. This is going to be the 5th year of the Program. She described the river sweep effort all the way down stream past Caldwell and discussed the fund raising efforts they have undertaken this year.

Bill Larsen called for approval of the minutes from the April meeting. Margie Watson moved to approve the minutes, Nate Mitchell seconded, motion carried.

Bill indicated that he had reworked the budget based on requests from members. The new budget, details projects for this year, and balances income and expenditures for the year. Nate Mitchell moved to approve the budget/finance report, Margie Watson seconded, motion carried.

SAUSA Project MOU - Bill stated that the MOU was just complete that morning. He indicated that the MOU appeared to lack the supervision language the TVP members were wanting in the MOU. Bill volunteered to develop the supervision language for the MOU and pass it around the SAUSA committee members to get their buy-in on the language we wanted in the MOU.

Tom Dale indicated he had concerns about the project. His concern is that with the MOU, the TVP looses oversight and control of the SAUSA Project employee. He wanted to make sure that the TVP retain control of this employee and this project.

There was a discussion about this SAUSA Project employee being a pass through employee of Canyon County. There has been some precedence of employment through one of the member municipalities for TVP and other nonprofit employees. In these instances, the control over the decision-making on the employee remained with the nonprofit. An example would be Kelli Fairless several years ago.

Meeting Adjorned

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
June 26, 2006

Mayor Bieter welcomed all members and guests to the City of Boise.

He introduced General Gayhart from the Idaho National Guard.

General Gayhart indicated his concern about the sustainability of the Idaho Guard in Idaho. Currently the Army is restructuring and as a consequence the Idaho Army is also doing the same thing. The net affect would be the loss of an engineer battalion of 500 soldiers in Lewiston. As we move units around, the result of analysis suggested moving a support battalion from Caldwell to Lewiston. We would still keep that capability and presence in the Treasure Valley but most of the battalion would be moving to Lewiston. The armored Unit in Twin Falls would be moved to Caldwell and Twin Falls picked up an MP unit and some maintenance capability.

After the restructure, we still have a brigade so we still maintain our capabilities. The Army in their restructuring is talking about eliminating six brigades throughout the U.S. And the Idaho Unit is one of those being considered. If we loose the brigade, we lose the capabilities that are critical to the communities in Idaho in case of a man-made or natural disaster.

We are fighting hard to retain the brigade by bringing the strength numbers to 125% vs. the current rate for the Idaho Guard of around 90-95% strength. This is critical in retaining the brigade in Idaho.

He indicated that the Idaho brigade, the 116th, will not be going to Iraq again.

He feels that the Idaho Guard has been detached from the community. He cited several communities where community leaders had not even been to the local armory. He stated that the local armories were meant to be used and enjoyed by the communities in which they reside. He also indicated that they want to be full partners in assisting each community and detailed some of the practices that could be implemented to assist in the development of good citizens.

Rick Yzaguirre asked if there was still as shortage of equipment. Gen. Gayhart indicated that replacements for the equipment left overseas are beginning to trickle in and the armories are beginning to get reequipped. He stated that radio capacity was still badly lacking and was a concern of his.

Mayor Dale asked if there was anything the Partnership could do to assist in supporting the Guard in Idaho. Mayor Nancolas suggested that Bill and General Gayhart get together and put a letter together in support of the National Guard. And then send this letter to our U.S. Senator’s, Representatives and Agency heads to support the National Guard in Idaho.

SAUSA Project

Tom Dale began by giving a short history of the evolution of the SAUSA Project. In going through the initial talks with the U.S.Attorney’s office, it was discovered that we needed to go through a County to pass through the funds to employ the SAUSA employee.

Tom indicated that we have been trying to generate an agreement with the Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office. There was resistance to the Partnership to be involved with Hiring and Performance Evaluation process.

Tom indicated that he had followed up with Matthew Faulks, the County Prosecutor for Owyhee County. Through their discussion, Matthew Faulks indicated that he would like to be involved with the Partnership and working with us on the SAUSA Project. He stated that one of the positive things about working the SAUSA Project through Owyhee County is that it would pull the county and some of their major communities such as Homedale and Marsing, etc., into having their gang related cases brought into the prosecution of the SAUSA Project.

Garret Nancolas indicated he had asked Bill to check with the U.S. Attorney’s office to see if switching counties for the SAUSA Project.

Marc Haws stated that they are still thrilled over the SAUSA Project. He indicated that the MOU has been through the U.S. Attorney’s office and they are ready to go. Marc also stated that it didn’t matter which County Prosecutor’s Office was involved in the project.

Marc wanted to talk about three points 1) Hiring Authority, Job Description and Advertising, 2) Performance Evaluations, 3) Day-to-day supervision regarding attitude, attendance, etc. As to hiring, the U.S. Attorney’s office is ready to go forward, they have distributed a draft position description and a work plan. Secondly, they could advertise immediately. With regard to performance appraisals, David Young has a point with regard to established employment law. The employer is responsible for rating the employee and cannot just bring some third entity to conduct or participate in performance appraisals. On the other hand, we could structure the employment contract to include the TVP representative as a member involved with the performance appraisal process. In regard to any disciplinary type activities the U.S. Attorney’s office might have to undertake with the SAUSA employee, this type of information would not be available to the Partnership.

With regard to statistics, caseloads etc, all of this information would be available to be shared easily with the Partnership. Marc added that an estimated 90% of the cases would be handled under Federal Authority.

John Evans indicated that he had heard enough, and suggested we pursue with Owyhee County the implementation of the SAUSA Project. Garret Nancolas moved we suspend discussions with Canyon County and pursue a relationship with Owyhee County and Prosecutor’s Office. Nancy Merrill seconded. Frank Middleton suggested that if we do not get headway with Owyhee County, we might also want to open talks with Gem County.

Motion Passed Unanimously

Flood Control Ordinances

Bill pointed to a spreadsheet that analyzed member municipalities Flood Control ordinances and pointed out some of the differences in the ordinances.

Dave Bieter stated that this year’s close call, should give us a wake-up call to have some consistency with regard to Flood Control ordinances across the valley. Nancy Merrill indicated we should concentrate on “no adverse affect” language in our ordinances.

Dave suggested that he, Nancy and others get together to study this issue and come back to the Partnership with some potential direction. Rick Yzaguirre and John Evans also volunteered to be involved with this process.

Project Managers Report

Motions passed to approve the minutes and budget/expense report.

Bill introduced a request for proclamation for the prevention of human trafficking.

Bill also brought up a potential Project Safe Neighborhood grant opportunity and requested permission to pursue writing a grant to obtain some funds. He indicated that the grant would revolve around facilitating programs in our communities to development of anti-gang social services in our communities.

Meeting Adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
July 24th, 2006

Mayor Garret Nancolas welcomed the Treasure Valley Partnership to Caldwell. He discussed the new additions to the Canyon County Fair grounds.

Bill Sedivy was introduced and he presented a short summary of the Owyhee Initiative. He explained that the Owyhee Initiative has been in process for five years. He indicated that the Owyhee Initiative would be presented to congress by Senator Crapo within a few weeks. He introduced Chris Salove, Owyhee County Commissioner.

Chris Salove stated that one of the biggest issues in the county is management and use of the public lands. He indicated that the resources being spent on controversy associated with the use of the public lands, led to the development of the Owyhee Initiative. He stated that one of the byproducts of the Initiative would be a research and conservation service stationed in the county. Chris felt that the development of the Owyhee Initiative has been an extremely collaborative process from a variety of directions including environmental groups, cattle associations, recreation enthusiasts and others.

Bill Sedivy then delivered a powerpoint presentation showing photographs and describing the areas of Owyhee County that were being proposed as wilderness.

After much discussion it was decided that there were a lot of questions about the Owyhee Initiative. And that individually or as a group, there could not be any vote for support for the initiative until each of the TVP jurisdictions had a chance to study the issues and come to a consensus.

Tom Dale then gave a history of the effort to put in place a SAUSA to prosecute gang related crimes in the Treasure Valley. Bill Larsen indicated that this discussion was placed on the agenda in an effort to open discussions between the TVP and Owyhee County over a host agency to facilitate the placement of the SAUSA.

Chris Salove asked what the financial risks of participating in the SAUSA project. Tom Dale and Dave Bieter reiterated that all of the funding for personnel was being covered by a grant with the State Attorney General’s office and the Treasure Valley Partnership. Additionally, the liability risks would primarily fall on the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chris Salove agreed that he would like to have the TVP deliver a presentation to the Owyhee County Commissioners on the SAUSA Project. He felt at the time, that Owyhee County participating in this project would be a good thing from several different aspects. It was agreed the he would contact Bill with a date for the TVP to deliver a presentation to the Owyhee County Commissioners. Bill would then get members of the Partnership to attend this meeting with the Owyhee County Commissioners

Nancy Merrill provided an update on the meeting for the Flooding subcommittee of the TVP. The subcommittee came up with three things that they would like for the TVP to take investigate. 1) no adverse-impact philosophical approach, 2)standard setbacks, 3) agreement on a base flood elevation number. Nancy pointed out examples of Ordinances from Ft. Collins, Colorado and Maricpoa County. She said they are involved in an analysis of these ordinances and would come to the Partnership at the next meeting with further information.

Dave Bieter indicated there were some grants available for planning. Bill indicated he had a call into the gentleman with the Bureau of Homeland Security to trace down these grants and how we may apply for them.

Tammy de Weerd discussed the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council. She asked the TVP to make the commitment to designate the funds set aside in the budget for the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council. The funds from the TVP would go toward funding the public participation process that is required of the Council.

Dave Bieter moved to approve donating $5,000 in funds to the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council. Tom Dale seconded. Motion approved.

Margie Watson moved to approve the minutes and budget report for the past month. Nancy Merrill Seconded. Motion approved.

Meeting Adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
August 28, 2006

Hosted by the City of Parma

Mayor Watson opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to Parma.

Sausa Project

She introduced David Hensley with the Governor’s Office. David described the SAUSA Project and the MOU’s that needed to be in place before we can get the SAUSA project started. He indicated that the agreement between the Attorney General’s Office and Owyhee County had some glitches. At a meeting the previous week, this MOU was ironed out and should be ready to go within a week or so. He stated that the MOU between the U.S. Attorney’s office and Owyhee County was still in process.

A discussion ensued about the MOU between the Partnership and Owyhee County.

He wanted to discuss a public signing ceremony and how we could best get mileage through the press. He indicated that there are good Idaho Attorney’s who could participate in the project. He envisioned the press conference to sign the agreements that signifies the start of the project.

Mayor DeWeerd moved to approve the MOU for the SAUSA Project between the Partnership and Owyhee County. Seconded by Mayor Merrill, motion carried.

Mayor Dale made a motion to officially invite Owyhee County to be a member of the Treasure Valley Partnership. He stated that it eventually could also include Marsing and Homedale. Mayor DeWeerd seconded, motion carried.

Bill will invite members from Owyhee County to the next meeting.

Flood Plain Ordinances

Nancy Merrill began the discussion around flood ordinances that she has been working on. She introduced Scott Van Hoff from the Idaho Division of Water Resources. Mayor Merrill passed out a draft Flood Control Ordinance.

The key components are: (1) a No Adverse Impact, (2) 2 foot above base flood elevation, (3) a minimum setback and (4) a floodplain mitigation plan. She felt that if we could institute these four components, we would have some consistency up and down the river.

She also showed a chart showing flood insurance rate chart. Mayor Merrill indicated that if we had these components in our flood plain ordinances, there would be some savings on insurance rates.

Scott Van Hoff was really pleased about the flood impact assessment summary checklist. This list came from the City of Charlotte, North Carolina. Looking through the checklist shows the do’s and don’ts and will be a big help for engineers.

He indicated the draft ordinance, if universally applied across municipalities, will keep developers from cherry picking up and down the river. He called the No Adverse Impact provisions a good neighbor policy. This gives equal weight to all developments up and down the river. Flood plain management is an engineering problem and the checklist provides good guidance for developers. With this proposed ordinance, guidance will be given to potential developers regarding their impact on the river at their location as well as the impact on neighboring properties up and down the river.

It is important for us now, because flooding is in the public’s mind. Additionally, the national trends around flooding litigation show increasing civil suits among neighboring property owners. So the No Adverse Impact language that develops a standard for future developments will limit the litigation around this issue.

A question was posed to Scott on whether the State was considering any legislation on flood plain management. He indicated that currently, the directive for State agencies is to follow the flood plain ordinances in each of the communities. There are no minimum standards from the State of Idaho at this time. There is some interest from the legislature around minimum standards. But at this time there are no minimum standards.

Mayor John Evans asked about redevelopment issues. Scott stated that some states have some restrictions about rebuilding on a floodway. In Idaho, there are no restrictions at this time. Scott said there are hundreds of homes in the floodway. If we redevelop property, then the no rise in floodway standards should be sufficient to alleviate the problems around redevelopment.

Mayor Bieter stated that the flood event we had this year was not much of an event at all. He felt we needed to keep the public awareness of this flood plain ordinance development activity as high as we can. He indicated that the U of I as well as others are working a program to in essence put in an address and identify where that location falls within the floodplain.
Scott indicated he has a program on his website that will provide a search for locations in the floodplain in Ada County. This program still has some bugs and is only about 75% reliable at this point in time. However, this tool is being updated all the time and database sharing with the County Assessor is in the process of taking care of the bugs in the search engine. This program is located at the following website address, in the floodplain section. www.idwr.idaho.gov. The direct website location for this interactive program is, http://maps.idwr.idaho.gov/floodhazard/viewer.htm.

As new FEMA maps are generated, Canyon County and other Counties will be added to the interactive program.

Where do we go from here on the floodplain ordinances? We should have attorneys and the City/County staff’s look at the ordinance. Then we should target implementation by the first of the year.

Eminent Domain/Proposition 2

Ken Harward indicated that there is a wealth of information on the Association of Idaho Cities webpage. (idahocities.org.) He passed out information on the initiative that will be voted on November 7th. The proponents of the initiative have taken HB 555 from 2006 and put it on the language of the initiative. It is not new eminent domain law, because it is already law in Idaho.

This will change the world for city/county governments and how they operate. Proponents of Prop 2 are in essence bought and paid for by out of state money, specifically, $300,000 out of $350,000 out-of-state money paid for the signature gathering phase of the proposition.

We should be putting out the word that you protect our property rights with a no vote on the proposition 2. To them it is a pure bait and switch scarring the public over eminent domain. The key ingredient is deception; it does not provide additional protections of home-owners from eminent domain in Idaho.

The Association of Idaho Cities is putting out all the information they can and will also be looking at a judicial challenge over the structure of the proposition on violating the rule of more than 2 issues on a ballot initiative.

This proposition covers the making of law as well as the enforcement of law. Either of these can trigger a complaint. Claims in Oregon have topped $5.1 million. This is a bill that gives rights to attorneys to litigate eminent domain issues. Mayor Dale stated that anything a city does in its area of impact would be open to litigation.

An economist’s study indicates that good land use regulations increases the value of properties.

Three Prong Strategy:

Project Managers Report
Bill highlighted the agenda for the Retreat in Cascade. Mayor Merrill suggested switching and combining two sessions in the agenda. Bill said it would be accomplished.

Mayor Dale moved and Mayor DeWeerd seconded to approve the minutes and expense report from the previous month.

Meeting adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
September 25th, 2006

Hosted by the City of Nampa

Mayor Dale opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to the Nampa Civic Center. He described the opening of Mission Aviation Fellowship. They provide mission aviation service throughout the world. They are saving 1,000,000 per year by moving to Idaho.

He indicated that they opened the first roundabout at Amity and Happy Valley. He felt this intersection has showed that traffic flows though this intersection. He indicated that the roundabout has showed so well that the Nampa Highway District is looking to put another one in. Tom indicated that they have all of the roundabout intersection measurements in case other jurisdictions are interested.

Tom wanted to remind people about Proposition 2 and encouraged folks to get knowledgeable about the subject. Matt indicated that they had attended an association of Idaho Cities meeting that discussed the numbers associated with this campaign. They discussed the issue of whether local officials should be on point on the education of this issue. So folks have been recruiting real estate folks and others to lead the charge on this issue.

Tom introduced Lori Fischer from the Albertson’s Foundation and Bruce Schultz from Treasure Valley Community College. They are here to talk to the partnership about Community Colleges in the Treasure Valley.

The Albertson’s Foundation has been working for 2 years to influence the community college issue. Last year they offered $15million to the State Board of Education to establish a Community College in the Valley. They had two strings attached. One is that BSU as the entity, currently in control, let go of it after 2-3 years. Second, a long-term funding source be established. She added that many of the legislators did not hear of the Albertson’s Foundation offer last year.

They are kicking off a community awareness campaign for the valley describing the need and process to the community. The following: communitycollegenow.org is a website they will be hosting on the community college issue. This website will offer up information on the issue in general and some of the nuances in Idaho that facilitate the community college discussion.

They are attempting to look at all angles and are actively working on the establishment of a community college in the valley. They will work with any entity and are willing to step forward to aid in this effort. One option is for a petition to put on the ballot for voting for a community college district. There is currently underway just such a petition initiative out of the Nampa Chamber of Commerce.

TVCC is now providing a community college presence in Caldwell at no taxpayer support. Bruce indicated that 50% of the enrollment of TVCC students is from Idaho. He felt that the very notion of providing a Caldwell presence is purely from a business aspect of providing access. They operate without tax dollars. Their mission is 2 fold. Whatever is done in Caldwell has to mesh with the main campus. Provide access to Idaho students.

Bruce described two students that indicate the type of students that are representative of those attending community colleges. He felt their needs to be a K-16 continuum in the system. Remedial students are not making it in the State College system. There needs to be a bridge for at least 3-5 students from high school to college.

They, TVCC is accredited under the same umbrella as BSU and U of I. He feels that to be successful, there needs to be continued collaboration with private industry. At TVCC, they attempt to work with private industry to prepare workers that are cross-trained and ready to go to work at living wage positions. He feels that TVCC is only providing for approximately 15% of the need in the valley.

Dave Bieter asked about why 15% was a figure being served. Bruce indicated this was based on a figure based on the population of graduating seniors in the valley. And this figure does not include nontraditional students.

Tammy de Weerd indicated that in her experience in Washington, there were significant advantages to community colleges as an option to our young people.

Margie Watson asked if we can get an audience with the State Board of Education. Tom said we probably could get on their calendar. For your information: We have secured an audience with the State Board of Education on February 22nd.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
November 27th, 2006

Hosted by Ada County

Ada County Commissioner, Rick Yzaguirre welcomed everyone to Ada County. He welcomed all of the jurisdiction representatives, including Fire Chiefs and Engineers that were present to participate in the Agenda discussions. He also introduced Jim Ferrens as the new Ada County Engineer.

He introduced Joe Silva, Meridian Fire Marshal who gave a presentation on a fireworks ordinance proposal. Joe indicated that the treasure valley fire departments have been working on this effort. Joe highlighted some problems associated with wholesaling and retailing of fireworks and indicated their group has been met with retail associations and has come up with the beginnings of a model fireworks ordinance for the valley.

He indicated that their approach has taken into consideration the city perspective as well as the county perspective on what is allowed and what isn’t. They have also taken into consideration the State regulations.

Mayor Merrill asked if they wanted the support of the Partnership as a whole on illegal fireworks ordinance modification. Mayor De Weerd asked if we could enact both city and county ordinances that banned the sale and use of dangerous fireworks. Joe indicated yes to both questions. He added that it would be a difficult task in that it is legal in the state to buy these fireworks.

Mayor Merrill moved to take these model Fireworks Ordinances back to our jurisdictions and get input from our jurisdictions and bring it back to the Partnership at the January meeting for action. Margie Watson seconded.

Discussion:
Mayor Bieter asked where the major vendors are setting up shop. Joe indicated that they usually sit for the most part in unincorporated Ada and Canyon Counties and in the counties throughout SW Idaho.

Mayor De Weerd asked if the vendors were included in the development of this model ordinance. Joe indicated that they have been worked with and believes you will not get 100% buy in from all vendors in the valley.

Motion Carried (Note: This group has met again this past week and is continuing to refine the language in the proposed fireworks ordinance.)

Commissioner Yzaguirre introduced John Caywood – Open Space and Trail Coordinator for Ada County. John provided a short power-point presentation on Ada Counties Parks and Waterways programs. He indicated that the public is talking about the need for regional parks, open space and pathways.

Mayor Bieter asked that we continue to be mindful of the distinctions between regional parks, neighborhood parks, path ways, open space, etc.; as we move forward with developing our future. John indicated that each of the proposed park developments highlighted in the presentation were part of a planned community. He indicated that he feels that development should pay its own way. He also mentioned Blacks Creek Reservoir as an example of an opportunity for a regional park.

Mayor De Weerd stated that she felt the Greenbelt along the Boise River is one of the features of our valley that residents really appreciate.

Floodplain Ordinances

Commissioner Yzaguirre indicated that all of the jurisdictions have been looking at some draft language on Floodplain Ordinances and introduced Mayor Merrill to facilitate the next discussion. She asked the Floodplain Managers representing the different jurisdictions to introduce themselves.

Mayor Merrill introduced the proposed ordinance changes, resolution changes, a checklist and a fact sheet of why we needed to do something about floodplain ordinances. She also indicated that there is an effort on the statewide level dealing with the same issue.

She showed a power point presentation on the flooding that occurred this past spring. She highlighted some of the problems that manifested themselves that highlighted the need for a “no adverse impact” policy associated with managing the floodplain.

She highlighted the four points associated with the proposed ordinance enhancements. Those proposed enhancements are summarized as follows:

She indicated that the language presented as boilerplate language as a means to insert these ordinance enhancements in place in each of the jurisdictions. Mayor Evans added that are insurance savings associated with making some of the river management policy changes associated with these proposals.

One of the participants indicated that the language might need to be modified a little to fit within the definitions associated with each jurisdictions ordinances. Mayor Evans agreed that there are some things associated with the ordinance changes that are a little more complex than the language allows. One of the participants suggested that we look to some of the FEMA resources and other sources for guidance on the language.

A suggestion was made to have all of the staffers attend a meeting to discuss this language and suggest changes that would work across jurisdictional lines. Bill indicated he would get with Mike Mongelli and schedule a location and date for the meeting of member floodway managers. (Note: This meeting was held on Thursday, December 14th.)

Mayor Bieter stated that the City of Eagle deserves an awful lot of credit for the work they have done in analyzing and recommending some floodway management practices. He suggested that we get on our calendars the Idaho Environmental Forum meetings.

Mayor Merrill moved to approve the minutes and expense report. Mayor Evans seconded. Motion approved.

Meeting Adjourned.

Treasure Valley Partnership
Meeting Minutes
December 18th, 2006

Bill Larsen opened up the meeting by welcoming the TVP members to the Holiday Luncheon. He started off the meeting my mentioning that both Owyhee County and the City of Greenleaf have been invited as members of the TVP. He stated that Hal Tolmie, Owyhee County Commissioner had indicated they would attempt to attend meetings but it was going to be tough based on their Commission meeting on Monday’s.

Bill requested to switch meeting dates between Star and Meridian on January and February of 07. A discussion ensued and it was decided to leave the meeting locations the same.

Bill reported that the closing date of the SAUSA Project job announcement was on December 15th. There is no indication at this point in time the number of applicants for the position and that we would not know till about December 15th.

Bill reported that the staff members from all of the jurisdictions had met on December 14th. Mayor Merrill passed out minutes from the meeting. Bill highlighted the discussion that had taken place at the meeting and that there were several points associated with the original Floodplain Ordinance Enhancements as they were originally presented. Those included lowest floor at the 2 foot above the base flood elevation.

Mayor Merrill indicated that she was extremely impressed with the number of staff that showed up to the meeting. The group was going to try to modify some of the language would report their recommendations to the TVP during the January 07 meeting. Mayor Merrill stated that they realized each jurisdiction’s Flood Plain management ordinances were different and the language they were developing would hopefully fit as an addition to all jurisdictions. Mayor Merrill also indicated that she is meeting with Representative’s Diehl and Stevenson on Statewide floodplain enhancements.

Bill provided an update that the Fireworks Ordinance proposal was in process. He reported that the group of Fire Marshall’s had met this past week and that a proposed ordinance would be proposed during the January meeting. Mayor Dale asked if the group was attempting to write language to eliminate some of the loopholes in the State law. Mayor Nancolas stated that the group’s focus was to eliminate some of the ownership and sales loopholes as well as some of the wholesale loopholes that existed. Mayor Merrill added that some enforcement issues were also being discussed.

Mayor Dale moved to approve the minutes and financial report for the past month. Mayor Merrill seconded. Motion carried.

Bill indicated that Mayor’s Dale and Nancolas are on the agenda for the February 22 meeting of the State Board of Education. Mayor Dale wondered about the purpose of meeting with the State Board. A discussion ensued about all of the activities underway throughout the valley and the legislature. It was a consensus that maybe the Partnership should wait to see what happens in this years legislature and with the other players in the Community College debate before we speak to the State Board.

Mayor DeWeerd stated that the Month of March is going to be the March against Meth. She indicated that several youth councils were participating. Milton Freia will be putting on a program on March 20 & 21. Drug Free Idaho is the sponsor of the event. There will be concurrent events throughout some of the Cities in the valley. Tammy asked that the member Cities start thinking about how they can participate in the event.

Mayor Bieter suggested that the Partnership could focus some of its attention on substance abuse. And, that we either collectively or individually need to continue to be mindful of a need to combat substance abuse. Mayor Dale agreed that this battle is never going to be over and that we should be diligent in our efforts and encourage our youth and other organizations to continue to be innovate to getting the word out about substance abuse.