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.