Meeting Minutes
March 25, 2009

Attendees

Staff and Guests

Margie Watson opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to the City of Parma.

Bill indicated that Leonard Herr and Jason Hamilton and he had gotten together two weeks prior and discussed the Ozone Public Information campaign. Jason met with the Board of the Boise Advertising Federation the following week. The Boise Advertising Federation voted to take on the Ozone Public Information Campaign as their project for this year.

Jason mentioned that the Boise Advertising Federation is made up of advertisers and media entities in the valley. They volunteer their time to pick a nonprofit project to work on. The TVP's timing was perfect in soliciting their project work for this year. They use their resources to spread the word on an issue.

Jason stated that they can use their network of people to develop production of advertising spots. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, a Blog in WordPress will be utilized to get the word out.

Leonard asked if there will be a time to generate campaign goals and determine what the goals would be? Jason hoped that they will be meeting in the next week to identify their resources. Unfortunately the stations in town do not give free resources and we would have to be working with PSA time.

Leonard mentioned that getting good advertising time has always been a challenge. Good ad time is paid ad time. He stated that the State has no money this year and they will be looking to find some funds for PSA placement. DEQ itself won't have any money. But maybe we can work through the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council to generate some more funding for placing ads in good time slots.

David mentioned that many of these businesses that we are targeting also have advertising budgets. For example, First Choice Collision Repair is going to a water based pre-coat. Because of that, they might be willing to help sponsor messages. Anything that we can do to help you get that message out to gain sponsorships, we just need to be able to discuss the message and ads to help solicit sponsorships. Having been an radio/television advertising sales guy, everybody in every station is looking to find a way to increase their advertising sales. We do not want to start in the hot part of the summer.

Phil mentioned that the economic impact of non-attainment is huge. These businesses that could be potentially impacted by the valley going into non-attainment, should be willing to step up to the plate to sponsor advertisements. Additionally, earlier he met Lincoln Graves from Channel 6 on the Electric Motorcycle that he has on lease. During this meeting he took the opportunity to discuss Ozone and the issue we have. They talked about combining this effort with some of the "green" things they are doing. We have to be creative in combining this message with other things that are happening in the Valley.

Jason said that he can "smell" multi-part series in the month of July. The PR effort will be a very important part of this process.

Leonard indicated that they will be looking for an entity to house that PR effort. The DEQ would not be involved with this for obvious reasons. His first guess is that the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council would be a natural agency to spearhead the soliciting of funds. He will try to find an entity to serve as the source for the soliciting of funds to augment the PSA effort.

Phil felt that Pete O'Neil would be an excellent person to tap for this effort. He is well known and well liked. Leonard indicated he would broach this with Pete during the next meeting of the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council.

Tammy felt that now is a great time to utilize alternative mediums to deliver this message. We have to find different ways to reach people because they are not watching the news or reading the paper. She asked if Leonard had a Blog yet? She felt that DEQ might start looking at how they might better deliver those messages.

Phil stated that on Facebook you can create causes and if you share the cause with your group of folks. And your friends can see that cause and choose to support and send to their circle of friends. It can become viral.

Jason indicated that the social media can be a beautiful grass roots effort. And it is at little or no cost.

David asked what the next step is? Jason stated he needs to assign a committee from the Boise Advertising Federation to this project and then sit down with the Partnership and just get the ball rolling. David, Phil and Tammy volunteered to be available to work with the group that Jason puts together.

John felt that this is showing to be a great team effort when he originally thought this might be an adversarial relationship. Fred added that a lot of these types of efforts to reach the public is best served by the entity leading the charge not being the government. Too many times the public is hit with, here is another government program requiring more money. Having an independent entity looking at this helps support our effort to reach the public.

Leonard mentioned that DEQ was in a quandary on what they were going to do this year considering the budget situation. And here we are. He appreciated Bill being persistent in working closely with the Boise Advertising Federation and DEQ to get this ball rolling.

David stated that during this summer, as we have major events, we need to be creative on how we can get people to attend these events without everyone taking their own vehicles.

College of Western Idaho

Dennis Griffin thanked the Partnership for inviting him to come and speak. 22 months ago, this valley came to grips with the need for creating a community college in the Treasure Valley. The Nampa Chamber of commerce stepped up and started a petition to get the initiative on the ballot. The initiative took on a life of its own and today we have a Community College as a result.

Their mission is to provide a quality affordable education regardless of cost and distance. Boise State has been an incredible partner in the creation of the College. They ran the payroll, phones and it systems for a year. The College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls has been the accreditation partner. This means, that students can get better financial aid and are able to transfer credits to any other college or university. CSI will be the accreditation partner for five years as this is how long the accreditation process takes.

The Albertson's Foundation gave $10 million and the State gave $5 million to get the College started.

In sixteen months, the College Board got formed and they have been able to open their doors for classes. They were able to build their mission, policies and procedures and have been very successful at getting this College started. They also have high tech computer labs that were transferred from BSU to CWI all free of charge.

They anticipate that the student body will grow to as large as 35,000 – 40,000 students after several years. They will have locations throughout the valley. Right now, they are working with school districts and are offering classes at local schools. In addition, the Selland College at BSU is to be transferred to CWI by July 1.

Phil indicated that in Eagle and Star, they have been discussing utilizing CWI as a training facility for the Eagle/Star technology corridor. They are looking at CWI as a true partner in the things they are trying to do in Eagle in regards to the Viticulture industry.

Brad asked if there are going to be any teaching facilities West of Caldwell. Dennis stated that if there was enough demand, they could be offering classes this fall. He added that any good community college permeates throughout the communities surrounding it.

Fred mentioned that we need to be sensitive to the presence of TVCC. We do not want to get into a duel with this community college from a sensitivity standpoint. Dennis mentioned that he has met with TVCC and does want to work with them. They are talking about sharing a facility with TVCC.

Fred asked if they are going to be offering video classes remotely. Dennis mentioned that in their vision, they are looking at ways to offer online approaches in every class they offer. Brian stated that they are going in the direction to offer distance learning through video options.

John mentioned that they are looking at putting in a new CASA program. He felt that Wilder could be a good local school to offer classes for these CASA students. Dennis reiterated he would be happy to work with the school district and high school to offer classes. There might be a real opportunity to hook up with the high school and offer some classes to this CASA program's students and the community at large.

SAUSA Project

Bill pointed to the packet of information. Included was the latest report from Justin Whatcott on the SAUSA Project. Also included is the TVP Dues structure broken out by the percentage of each jurisdiction to the total, the 08-09 TVP budget and what is left over to put toward the SAUSA Project. Also included is the 09-10 budget, which also includes the amount left over to put toward the SAUSA Project.

Bill showed that we had left over funds from Owyhee County, and an amount of $6,250 left from the State that we can apply to the project. We will make two more quarterly payments of $18,750 to the Project till the end of the fiscal year. Also included is a breakdown of costs of Canyon County for the Project for the remainder of our fiscal year. The analysis shows that Canyon County will have enough funds to cover the Project even if we forgo our last quarterly payment.

Bill suggested that we the Partnership absorb all of the costs associated with the Project till the Partnership's next fiscal year. For fiscal year 09-10, we will have to have some sort of change. He pointed to this year's budget and that the Partnership will have funds left over, in the amount of $41,507. If we took this amount and put it toward the SAUSA Project for next fiscal year, the Partnership would only need to come with an additional $33,493 to fully fund the Project for FY 09-10.

Phil asked for clarification on the handouts. He asked about the annual costs of $84,000 for the Project from Canyon County. Bill said that the total cost of the project less the amount we are budgeting for the project of $100,00. $25,000 of that is the State contribution. This is as things are right now.

We have had numerous conversations about maintaining the $100,000 commitment as a means of building an account for the future. The Project account will have room enough within next years budget to consider a raise for Justin.

John asked if we have heard of how the change in the Status of the U.S. Attorney for Idaho will affect the SAUSA Project. Bill stated that he has talked to Mark Haws about this particular subject. According to Marc Haws, the change in the U.S. Attorney for Idaho should not have any affect on the SAUSA Project. Marc added that Idaho was one of the last States in the Union to have an operating SAUSA. They are pretty commonplace throughout the U.S. So this should not be anything new.

Margi mentioned that during the initial interviews, Marc had stated that any change at the top should not affect the Project. She added that given the success of the Project, they would be shooting them selves in the foot to eliminate it from their end.

Margie asked the status of the SAUSA Project in the Legislature? Bill indicated he heard that the project made it through the State budget process. Of course things are still in flux, but he has not heard anything different in regards to the Project.

Fred asked which State agency is the Project being housed with. Bill mentioned that it was the ISP and has been this past fiscal year as well. Fred added that he had assumed the project was housed with the Dept. of Corrections. We have had many discussions with them the past six months and they indicated a willingness to pursue the Project. Bill stated he has been working with the ISP and their impression is it is staying with them this next fiscal year.

Bill stated that in his research on getting the bill's closed at Owyhee County. He discovered that they billed the Attorney General's office for a year and ¾ for the SAUSA Project. ISP has not been billed yet. He added that he is in the process of redoing the MOU with the ISP and that should be completed by the April meeting.

John E. asked Bill, as far as the dues issue, if Bill was asking us to make a decision on finishing out this fiscal year with the fund balance and to backfill next year's SAUSA Project with an increase? If Garden City represents 2.1% of the TVP budget, should they expect to come up with 2.1% of the funds needed to fully fund the SAUSA Project?

John E. stated that we had talked about the three big cities funding the Project. But, all the members have a dog in this fight. All the Cities and Counties have benefited from getting these criminals off the street. John B.added that there have been a couple of individuals from Wilder that have been sent to Federal prison.

John E. stated that times are going to be tough this next year, but he does not want to just default to the bigger jurisdictions. He asked how the rest of the members felt about just breaking out the remaining SAUSA Project costs as a percentage like what the dues are based on. This however, would not leave the TVP with any money for any project related costs in the future.

David indicated he had only been a member for a short time and wondered what some of the other activities of the TVP in the past that we might come up on that will require additional funding. John E. felt that the air quality thing is going to be bugging us for along time to come. Bill added that the Partnership has done a lot of projects the past several years without any real measurable expense other than his time.

Brad asked Bill about his statement that we could forego TVP's the last quarterly payment SAUSA Project for this year. Bill indicated that with the lapse of two months and funds that were left over, that this is a possibility. Brad felt that this would then give the TVP an additional $18,500 slush fund to put toward any future projects.

David added that he appreciated Jason and what the project what the Boise Advertising Federation is going to do for us. What they are saying about the free PSA's is that many of the stations will schedule PSA's. However, if we had some seed dollars from this group (TVP) it could go along way's for us achieving our goals with regards to the Ozone Program.

Bill stated that according to the remaining 08-09 budget, we will have approximately $21,000 of a bank balance at the end of the year. If he is right in that we could forego our last quarterly payment, we would then have an ending TVP bank balance of $39,000. This will give us some leverage on funding future projects.

Tammy stated that her percentage of the additional $33,493 for the project would be an additional roughly $4,000 costs for the city of Meridian. She would be willing to commit to that. Is that what we are asking?

John E. stated that would be asking the City of Boise to pay 37% of the additional $33,000.

Bill mentioned that he, just then completed a spreadsheet on percentages for the remaining $33,493 project costs for the 09-10 TVP fiscal year. As an example, the Ada Counties share of the funds would be $3,309, Boise's would be $12, 536, and Meridian's would be $3,946.

Dave asked how long would this increase get us through. Bill stated through September 2010.

Brad Holton moved to approve the 09-10 TVP budget with the dues structure the way it is and adding the corresponding percentage associated with the remaining costs of the SAUSA Project. John Bechtel seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

Fred asked that when Bill sends out the member dues announcement, could he split out the regular dues and the additional SAUSA Project costs. Bill indicated that he would do so.

Idaho Power Transmission Lines

Margie stated she would only take a few minutes on this subject. The City of Parma is not against transmission lines. However it is against these large transmission lines going through areas of impact. There are nine counties that these lines are going through.

The Cities of Parma and Kuna were not notified that this Idaho Power Transmission Line was scheduled to go through their cities. Their map did not show that subdivisions were built up with houses. Idaho Power did not notify us that they were going to put this transmission line through our areas of impacts. The plans have been in the works since 2006.

This 500K line is 190 feet tall with towers every 1,200 feet. The Treasure Valley Electric Grid is a different issue from this transmission line. Idaho Power tried to put the two of them together.

The NEPA process is still going, whereas Idaho Power says the process has stopped.

Margie stated that the City area of impact is something that takes years to get identified and approved among jurisdictions. It should be "sacred ground".

This Idaho Power Transmission line is coming from Canada, going through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, all the way to Wyoming. It is a freeway for them to buy and sell power. She is for them having the capability of doing that. A little known fact is that there is only 700 hours in a year that Idaho Power has to buy power to meet the demands of the Treasure Valley.

It is cheaper for them to go through private ground in Idaho than it is for Idaho Power to go through the NEPA process to take the transmission lines through public ground.

Margie mentioned that the State of Oregon has a Council that looks after these types of projects for the State. The State of Idaho has nobody home. She found out November 20th that the scooping for the project was completed on December 14th. The only public hearing they had was in Marsing and the Cities of Kuna and Parma were left out of the process.

David indicated that when we draft a letter to Idaho Power, we have to give this map of where we want this line to go.

Dave asked if there were alternate routes in the works. Margie indicated that there was a route that the State of Oregon has come up with a BLM route for the line that doesn't even cross the Snake River. With this route, they have to give up a substation that was scheduled for the Sandhollow area.

Margie feels that this transmission line belongs on public land. There are energy corridors on public land for this sort of thing. But is easier for Idaho Power to go across private property than it is for them to deal with the NEPA process.

Scott indicated that the City of Kuna found out a week earlier that this transmission line is going through the city limits of Kuna. The first time they found out about this was when Idaho Power asked for access to survey for the line through the City of Kuna. The Birds of Prey is just south of where they are proposing this line.

David moved we approve the minutes and financial report, seconded by John. Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned