Meeting Minutes
February 27, 2008

Attendees

Staff and Guests

Mayor Scott Dowdy welcomed the members to Kuna. He indicated that their Sewer LID issue is a hot topic as the Legislature is messing with the LID process and it is making the City of Kuna nervous. He stated the city is growing quite a bit. In 2005, the City of Kuna consisted of about 3,000 acres of space. In 2006, they annexed about 3,200 acres and currently they have about 3,400 acres that is up for annexation. Even though the housing market is slowing down, the developers have not slowed down in the city of Kuna.

Mayor Dowdy mentioned that he really appreciates the camaraderie that has developed from membership in the Partnership and feels that there are real benefits of the members meeting on a regular basis.

He turned the meeting over to Paul Woods to go through the covered loads issue. Paul indicated that this issue in Ada County is encumbered due to ACHD having ordinance authority. He felt that we need to push this issue forward. We need ACHD to use their authority and the municipalities in Ada County to utilize their police powers to implement this ordinance.

Paul indicated that he has talked to Mayor De Weerd and she is ready to pull the string on the ordinance. In the latest draft, Agriculture is exempted. Phil Bandy wanted to clarify the intent. He had understood there were two intentions surrounding the ordinance, one, air quality and two, public safety. Paul indicated that the air quality issue comes from dirt leaking out of trucks and getting ground up which leads to increased particulate matter. However, the real issue is public safety.

Scott Dowdy asked about the two drafts that were in front of the group. Bill indicated that one was the draft put together by the work group and the other was the draft as proposed by the City of Meridian. A discussion ensued about the penalty portion of the drafts. The discussion settled that the penalty should be a misdemeanor.

John Evans asked why we have to wait on the ACHD. Paul indicated that the AGC has influence over the ACHD. John wanted the partnership to move forward on instituting a Covered Load ordinance. Tom mentioned that the only issue they had was enforcement. He wanted to make it an infraction just like a speeding ticket. Tom felt that the simplest we make this to enforce the better off we will be.

Scott Dowdy added that most trucking related infractions are misdemeanors. He felt that if we moved the violation provision from the Meridian draft and substitute this language into the draft developed by the work group, we would have a workable ordinance.

Paul stated that he will take this back and bring forth a final draft. He will route it around and look forward to completing this process at the March meeting. We will invite the AGC to the March meeting, get their feedback and finalize this ordinance at that time.

Scott introduced Tony Poinelli from the Idaho Association of Counties who was invited to lead a discussion around current legislative issues.

A discussion ensued around the State trying to take control of emission testing in the Treasure Valley. Tom Dale mentioned that time and time again, local leaders in Canyon County have asked for the science that indicates emission testing is making a difference. There has been no forthcoming information. With the upcoming proposed drop in the ozone requirements, he felt that local leaders will increasingly lose their voice in this matter.

Paul Woods stated that he has to agree with Tom on this emission testing issue. We need to work this out among ourselves and going to the State for assistance is a bad idea. John Bechtel indicated that emission’s testing is leaving out a large percentage of the vehicles that need to be included. Brad Holton agreed that if you look at fuel usage, we are not even looking at trucks and other vehicles that are not as efficient as passenger vehicles. Scott Dowdy added that emission testing doesn’t do much to fix the problem. He added that approximately 85% of the vehicles pass and that it seems unrealistic that the 15% that do not pass are causing the problem.

Scott indicated that the money being raised by emission testing is not being used to help mitigate the problem. The money is being used to pay for the bureaucracy of the Air Quality Board. Testing is not addressing the problem. Phil Bandy stated that we still are not addressing the source of the problem. Paul mentioned that he agrees with Tom on that we need to be committed to the idea of local control.

Brad stated that the scope of the problem goes far beyond Ada and Canyon County. This does not address the contributing factors. He felt that we need to be proactive and work together to identify a solution. Additionally, there is a lot of fuel that is being burned that is outside the scope of current testing.

Paul mentioned there is a large disconnect between budget and assessed value. We need to get some sort of information campaign to educate people that it should not matter what happens with your assessment. You cannot have more than a 3% increase in your budget.

There is a push to consolidate elections. Tony indicated that this 105 page document has not been shared with local leadership. There would be a maximum of four elections per year. This will cause some hardships for local municipalities.

A discussion ensued around the proposed vehicle registration fees. It was felt that this issue would be revamped numerous times before it settles on a number.

Tony stated that there will probably be another study on property tax. They have never really focused on what property taxes should be used to pay for. The concurrent resolution ACR 45, the overall intent seems to focus on law enforcement and corrections. We will have to see how this goes.

There is a bill from ACHD regarding eminent domain. John Evans stated that lets assume we have a piece of property on an intersection that ACHD has to come and take part of it to improve the intersection. The property then becomes nonconforming to City specs. The property owner then states that you have rendered my property useless and the resulting lawsuit settles on the original value of the property. The Bill basically says that the property owner cannot settle on the original value. But the property has to be treated as it is conforming for the rest of time. This bill is all about reducing the acquisition costs to the highway district.

The focus of the meeting switched to the next agenda item, water storage. Paul Woods mentioned that there is current legislation at the state level to study water storage. He indicated that the Bureau of Reclamation and ID Water Resources is happy to partner with us to look at this issue. He would like to invite these folks to the next meeting. He mentioned that he would like for us to invite some of our staff to the next meeting and look at the feasibility of this. Do we want to look at a regional water storage project that would also help with flood control problems?

John Evans moved and John Bechtel seconded to approve the minutes and financial report. Motion passed.

Meeting adjourned.