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.