Meeting Minutes
March 31 - April 1, 2016

Attendees

Staff and Guests

March 31 Minutes

Open Discussion

Bill welcomed everyone to Cascade and mentioned there would be a slight change in the Agenda. John had asked that we substitute Seth Griggs' update on the Legislative session with open discussion.

There was a discussion involving police department's being unionized. John said they just instituted an ongoing fitness requirement in their police department, in addition to hand –hand and shooting requirements twice a year.. They have been working this in over the last year and the officers appear to like it. They sold the program as a benefit to the officer because of the physical nature of the job.

They are small enough that each officer has his own car and they are able to drive the cars home. This is a benefit to the officers.

Dave said he has been pleasantly surprised that we haven't had a spike in heroin usage. We have talked about this several times over the last couple of years. The usage has come up a little bit, but not compared to other areas. He asked if any of the other members have noticed any increase in heroin usage. Kelly said it's usage has raised a lot in rural areas in Owyhee County and they have seen an increase in the Homedale, Marsing area.

Dave said nationally, heroin is at epidemic levels. Tammy said their anti-drug coalition has seen an increase over the last several months because it is cheaper and more accessible than meth.

Bob said they have seen a slight increase in the heroin traffic. They have noticed they are seeing bigger quantities than they have in the past.

Rick asked Kelly for an update on the recovery from the big fire in Owyhee County last year. Kelly said they have a five year plan on reseeding the grass and sagebrush. This next fall they will be seeding where they did the herbicide application. There is about a $67 million project on recovery for the area. It equates to $420 an acre.

Darin said he had a local anti-drug coalition that wants the City of Middleton to be their fiscal agent. He asked if anyone had done anything like that. The City would keep the books and be the grant recipient. Several members said they have done this in the past. Kelly said they had recently done this for a nonprofit. Basically they kept track of the admin fees and the nonprofit can use that as in-kind contributions. He said if you asked the clerk, she probably wouldn't do it again as it has been a headache.

Generational & Cultural Effects on Local Public Policy

Bill introduced Jeff Lyons an Assistant Professor at Boise State. Bill mentioned that during last fall's Annual Planning meeting the issue of generational effects on public policy was discussed and this was an attempt to fulfill that request.

Jeff said he would spend some time talking about young folks and will have a discussion about the growing Hispanic population in the valley.

The Treasure Valley has a faster growing youth population and Hispanic population than the nation. Understanding these groups is important for setting public policy.

If you are like him, you are probably tired of hearing the word millennials. Sometimes it comes across as young people are an entirely different breed of human. He gets tired of the label.

Millennials are ages 15-35, born between 1980-2001. This is the largest generation in our population comprising approximately 90 million people. Most importantly, they are entering that age range where they are going to be the drivers of the economy and the most important part of our workforce. Where they choose to live and what they choose to do is going to be important for cities and what the future of cities looks like.

There are a few distinct demographic differences. On average, this is a more educated generation. One of the problems with this is an increase in the levels of debt millennials possess. Tammy asked if this was true in Idaho as well. Jeff said the rates of educational attainment in Idaho are lower than the national figures.

Millennials are a more diverse group. Over 15% of this population is born in a foreign country. These are not necessarily citizens, but residents.

Dave asked how the foreign born statistic relates to the baby boomer generation. Jeff said the statistic for millennials is quite a bit higher. He said we saw a surge in immigration in 1910, so in our oldest citizens we actually see a high foreign born percentage.

The last thing we will talk about is, this group was very highly affected by the last recession we had. When you look at unemployment rates for this group and compare that to other time periods, it is quite a bit higher.

Jeff showed a graphic that showed the percentage of people married in the different generations. Millennials are delaying marriage. The average age at which millennials are getting married is 29-30. Which means, all the things like buying homes and, having kids is all getting pushed out a little bit?

So what? It used to be the case that people were pretty mobile when they were young. Then they were going to settle down, get a job and buy a house. What this means is this group has pushed these activities off and enter into that age later in life.

Millennials are also a lot less religious. He showed a chart comparing the different generations and their religious affiliation.

He asked the perceptions about how we think the younger generation is different and how what they want, might be different.

Bob said he has three kids in this age group. In his age group, you would get a job and you would stay there. All three of his kids are thinking they will be moving along bouncing from job to job. They don't seem to have that sense of loyalty. Jeff said part of what is going on there, is companies are moving away from things like pensions that tend to keep people longer.

Tammy said she felt the younger generation looks for purpose filled types of life activities. They want to know that what they are doing contributes to a larger purpose. Jeff said he would be showing a graphic that shows Tammy is right about that.

John said his perception is there is more of an entitlement attitude in this younger generation.

Kelly said from his perspective, and what he has heard from the community, one of the hard parts is finding someone from this younger generation that will show up for work.

Nathan said when these young kids saw their parents lose jobs and houses during the recent recession, this could have had an effect on the attitude of finding and being loyal to work.

Rick said he feels that millennials are more skeptical of government and corporate America.

Stan said with corporate America, the baby-boomers saw their parents get laid off just before retirement. This millennial generation is the generation that got the American dream for nothing down. His daughter graduated, moved here and bought a house without having a stable income.

Craig said his observation is they are a relational community. They have an almost a communal context, their priority is with their group of people they call community.

Tammy said he sees this generation as having a more open mind than previous generations. They embrace diversity and lifestyle differences more than the previous generations.

Dave said the social media influence is profound. Jeff said, Facebook became a thing in 2004. Social media structures relationships differently. It structures communication differently. When people say they want to interact with or get information from government, they follow city government on twitter.

Darin asked if millennials believe in the information they receive in these social media forums. Jeff said he feels they are skeptics. They think that all information is slanted in one way or another and are used to that. What he sees is they are skeptical of everything and believe a lot of things are a sham.

Jeff said the social media helps people hear more about what they want to hear vs. the canned approach of the newspaper. They can like a topic and will get fed more information or news on that subject through social media and other sources. In some aspect it makes it harder for them to see other opinions because they have been conditioned to hear what you want to hear.

Jeff said the effect of social media is a huge one. It is really important to understand. Think about how these people want to hear from government and how they want to interact with government.

Bob said his children are past Facebook because Facebook has been taken over by their parents. Jeff said they are on Instragram, Snapchat and Twitter.

Jeff wanted to steer the conversation to things about the millennials that are important to cities/counties. They are going to be the drivers of economic growth and development. And if you want a vibrant professional class then you have to find a way to attract some of these folks. In addition, they have different political attitudes, policy preferences and demands on government.

The numbers of youth in the Treasure Valley rose 30.7% in Ada County and 41.2% in Canyon County since 2000 and comprise 14.7% and 13.2% of the populations of these two counties. The growth in this group mirrors what is happening nationally. Tammy mentioned that a few of the cities in Ada County were getting older. Jeff said we do kind of have this two-tiered growth in the valley. We have a growing population of millennials and a growth of retiring individuals.

Look at the metro areas across the country where we see strong economic growth and an influx of new business, they tend to be the places where the millennials want to live in. The kinds of things they want are different than what the baby boomers wanted. They want a dense, close-knit and a vibrant community. They want walkability \and easy access to amenities. Now baby boomers would also say the same things basically, but the difference is the degree of prioritizing these things over others.

In a poll of 10 major cities, 66% say access to high quality transportation is one of the top three criteria for choosing a place to live. And 86% say it is important for their city to have opportunities to live and work without a car. Now this is a poll of 10 major cities, but in the Treasure Valley, we are projected to have over a million people here shortly and this high quality access to public transportation is a big need.

Public transportation will matter more and more as you see the area grow and you see congestion on the freeway rise. We have traffic in the Treasure Valley but it doesn't even come close to what you see in Seattle or Denver. But as you move in that direction, you will see this rise on the list.

Does this mean the suburbs are doomed? Absolutely not. But it does mean that these close-in suburbs will have a better advantage in the future on some level. This narrative that millennials want to live downtown in a condo or a loft is true, but the reality is most can't afford to do that. While people want to do this, the numbers say that more millennials moved from a city to a suburb than vise-versa.

As these folks get married and have children in their early 30's, we expect that there will be movement from the cities to the suburbs. But the preferences for walkability to amenities, transportation, parks, etc. will remain.

This raises some topics for conversation. The Treasure Valley is looking pretty well with respect to the number of millennials moving here. But we want to say as we grow, we want to attract these citizens, what can governments do? Tammy said we need hip downtowns with high-density housing opportunities around it.

Darin asked what s downtown? Bob said they have three downtown designations, downtown historic, downtown village and downtown business. Dave said they are in the process of expanding this definition.

Dave said one of the challenges we have in the tech area is attracting and keeping a talented employee. Because their concern is if they lose their job, will they be able to get another one here? We have a lot of tech employers and the number of firms staggers people. The other thing we have to do is counter peoples impressions of Idaho. He had five different young hard charging business leaders comment on when the governor's debate went viral. They say it has hurt their business directly and set them back. So, we have work to do to guard against these perceptions.

Bob reiterated this perception of being a red neck state has hurt him in his conversations with prospective employers.

Tammy said they have a 26 and 33 year olds on the Council. Some of that is getting youth involved in cities. Some cities are having local city and school district elections, where a teenager can vote through a local initiative to lower the local voting age to 16. Other cities are having youth sit on council as nonvoting members. It is trying to think differently so we can figure out how to engage this generation. We don't think like them so how can we start binging that thought process into our decision making?

Bob said, in Nampa, he is putting a lot of the millennials on committees such as historic preservation, planning and zoning, etc. and it seems to be working out as they are getting input.

Darin said in Middleton they have a population of folks that have been around for a long time and have strong ties to history in they want to promote museums. What tie do the millennials have to history? Secondly, there is a saying that 10% of the people do 90% of the work. How will that stack up with millennials? As the ones he has been exposed to, he wouldn't put in the 10%.

Jeff said, in regard to history, he thinks there is interest in history, but in terms of going to a museum, his hunch is they will as they get older, but right now they don't have an appreciation for it.

In regards to the question, do we see millennials in the 10% that produce, from his perspective he knows a number of hard workers and when he looks at his students he is impressed by a number of them. They may not do things the same way, but it doesn't mean they are not being productive.

Jeff said, interestingly there is a push back from millennials regarding sitting at a desk for eight hours. There is more of the idea of working remotely and changing things up a little bit.

Jeff said millennials see things in similar ways as other generations. In regard to whether taxes are appropriate, there is not much of a difference in age range. In regards to the direction of the State of Idaho, millennials are more positive than other groups. In regards to the role of government, they are not significantly different than other age groups regarding taxes for example.

In regards to differences in attitudes between the age groups, on a survey regarding school funding, millennials overwhelmingly say the system needs more money whereas other age groups believe the education system needs more reforms.

Looking at national data comparing millennials, generation x and baby boomers. The millennials say contribution to society is more important to them than the others. They have a preference for amenities and parks. With regards to living closer to family and friends, surprisingly millennials want to be proximate or have their family close to them.

Regarding the question should we allow same sex marriage, millennials are significantly more pro this issue than the generations before them. Every generation has an upward slope on this issue surprisingly.

In regards to legalization of marijuana, millennials by far are more favorable that other age groups.

Regarding party affiliation, nationwide you see more democrats as a percentage in the millennial age group. In Idaho, you don't see much of a shift from the age groups along party affiliation except for those that say they are strong republicans, where the millennials are significantly less likely to declare.

A big gap has emerged in recent years regarding party presidential candidates. The millennials are voting for the democratic presidential candidate by more than 60%.

This generation sees republicans more extreme than democrats.

Millennials have a much different perception with regards to immigration than older generations do. Way more millennials believe immigration helps by a 20% margin, whereas the percentage flips for those 65 and older.

Millennials are slightly more favorable of environmental protections than their older generations.

In Idaho, a significant number of millennials (63%), agree that government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and sleep. Dave noticed the drop in the percentage of those agreeing with that statement after the recession era of 2007.

Jeff asked if there is interest among the Partnership about shaping some of the types of questions they can ask in their upcoming poll that Boise State is conducting in the valley. So those questions you want to know, about the role of government, or other issue, be sure to contact him.

Dave referred to the chart where it talks about whether government should ensure people have a place to live and something to eat. Number one on their recent survey with the City of Boise was housing and homelessness. Affordable housing has never been first through six cycles of this survey. The problem for us will be housing prices. Our ability to affect this is almost nonexistent. Dave quantified there is a gap of a need for 5,000 units within an income range. The public's expectations that we can do something about it is a problem.

Other states have housing trust funds, rent controls etc., and we don't have any of that.

Kelly agreed that in rural Owyhee County, affordable housing is their biggest issue as well. They are losing business because they have no place to put the people. Tammy mentioned that you have to go all the Wilder to find rentals under $700.

John said he once did an analysis on how much affordable housing the City of Garden City could afford considering the difference of the tax benefits compared to the service load. It makes it pretty easy when you are looking at a comp plan and how you are zoning things. We have to keep it in mind to continually provide incentives to provide affordable housing, because as Cities we won't be able to fill that gap in Idaho.

Dave said that even though we are constrained in public transportation just as bad, he is more optimistic we will be able to offer that sooner than we can affect affordable housing. The best thing we can do is make it easier to get to where the housing is affordable meaning a valley-wide system.

In terms of questions, Tammy said we always argue about local control that the State is always trying to restrict. Maybe a question could be, at what level of government, should issues be solved. Should the discussion and solution be provided in state or local government?

John suggested a question on how people view where money should come from to pay for affordable housing and public transportation.

Darin said that the term affordable housing is not capturing what millennials are saying. So, maybe a definition of the dollar amount considered affordable could be on the survey.

Jeff showed data from the population statistics of Ada County and Canyon County concerning the Hispanic population. Canyon County has more than 25% of the States Hispanic's. In Ada County, Hispanics comprise 7.6% of the population. What is interesting about these numbers is the speed at which these numbers are growing.

From 2000-2010, Idaho's Hispanic population grew by 73% compared to 17% for non-Hispanics. What is important is not only is this growth, it is young growth. Roughly half of Idaho Hispanics are under the age of 20. Significantly, about 25% of all the births in Idaho are Hispanic. It is a population that is growing through U.S. based births for the most part.

Let's look at some of the unique challenges of the Hispanic community. It is a group that believes it is necessary to get a college education but don't expect to attain one.

In the survey they state why they think they will go to college. The leading concern was the anticipated need to support family followed by limited English skills. Dave asked a clarification on whether this was a family they are going to have or ones they have. Jeff said this was current family.

About 1 in 4 Hispanic females age 19 are mothers. This is far higher for any other race or ethnic group.

The high school dropout rate for Hispanics is 17% compared to 6% for whites.

On some metrics, U.S. born Hispanics are performing much better than foreign born Hispanics. Nationally they are proficient in English, enrolled in high school or college, etc.

Assimilation is the changes that occur in areas there are large populations of immigrants. The Hispanic population qualifies as one of those. Looking at changes across generations speaks to speculation about the future.

On the whole, about half say they identify themselves by the country they come from for the first generation Hispanics. By third generation, about half identify as American.

Jeff thanked the Partnership for the opportunity to come and speak. He handed out his card and indicated the school is really interested in getting involved with the needs of the community.

He reminded people that if there is input on the metro pole they are doing in the fall, please be sure to get ahold of him through email at: jeffreylyons@boisestate.edu.

Housing First Initiative

Diana Lachiondo thanked the Partnership for the opportunity to speak about this issue.

More than 10 years ago, several organization started working on a detox facility in Ada County. Five years ago that culminated in the Allumbaugh House. This was an unprecedented effort of cooperation across many organizations to get this in place.

During a recession people aren't doing things. In 2010, not one multi-family building permit was issued in the entire Ada County. Coming out of the recession, what they are seeing is a pent up demand but little investment. We have a very low vacancy rate of 2% which means housing is real hard to come by.

We also have changing demographics. With millennials, they either don't want to buy a house or they can't qualify, so there is a bigger and bigger pool in the rental market. She has come to learn that a healthy rental market has a vacancy rate of around 5%.

Another factor on the homelessness side is mental health and substance abuse issues. It is helpful to step back and look how these issues were handled historically. Fifty years ago, if you had a mental illness it is very likely you would have been institutionalized.

When we as a society raised the bar on the need for institutionalization we did not follow that with the funding to make those services happen at a local level. Practically speaking, this population is unhoused and has mental health issues.

Kelly asked if she is seeing private businesses participating in funding. Diana said this is starting to happen.

This multi organizational roundtable on housing and homeless has identified three priorities. One is to develop permanent supportive housing to chronic homelessness. Rapid re-housing to address family homelessness, and expanding affordable housing to prevent some homelessness.

To address the top priority chronic homelessness it is helpful to understand what this is. Chronic homelessness means you have been homeless for over a year, you have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years and you have some sort of disability. Taken all together, these will help you qualify for federal funds.

In Ada County they do a point in time count of the homeless by the numbers. For 2014 and 2015 the number of homeless stayed nearly the same. But in 2016 it appears that the trend will be going up. Of the 755 people in 2015, 100 were considered chronically homeless.

Through an exhaustive effort with BSU, medical providers and others, we now know that one homeless person will cost us about $53,000. That figure does not count housing. It comprises costs for emergency medical care, the criminal justice system and support through the shelter system.

Based on case studies they reviewed from across the country. They saw that housing first was the best approach to address chronic homelessness. Traditionally, if you are homeless, you go to a shelter then to transitional housing and if you are lucky, you go to permanent housing. Housing first flips that on its head. We get you into permanent housing first then wrap around the supportive services that will help people be successful.

In the State of Utah, they have been taking this approach since 2005 and they have now seen a 76% reduction in their chronic homeless population.

Over the last several months the round table has identified two strategies to accomplish this housing first goal. One is a scattered site strategy where they use existing units, prioritize those units to this population and then provide supportive services around the community. The second strategy is a dedicated project to build up new units and provide supportive services.

In February, the City of Boise and the Idaho Housing Finance Authority announced a partnership to put out an RFP for a development for the single site project. They have received three letters of intent from developers. In the mean time they are working with their community partners to identify additional resources.

When you look at how these projects get put together across the country, they are very complicated. There are multiple layers of stake holders, because it takes a vast amount of resources and partnerships to make these projects a reality.

Kelly asked how many regulations the low income tax credits carry with them. Diana said they are highly regulated. They don't administer them however, Idaho Housing and Finance does that. They get to control the tax credits and can allocate them to projects. Then the developer sells those tax credits to a bank that uses it to write down their tax liability. Without these tax credits however, she does not know how they could finance the project.

The partnership goals are to affect at least 15 persons experiencing chronic homelessness. They are going to operate under an Assertive Community Treatment model which keeps pretty good supervision of helping people access treatment and community services.

Kelly asked what happens to those that won't accept the help. Diana said the difference with this model is it is about the relationship that is developed with the person by the case managers.

In regard to Cooper Court, they knew there were about 15-20 of the people that were chronically homeless. The problem wasn't those folks; it was the additional people this attracted. It attracted a younger more violent population that was there for the party.

Dave said you want to be able to offer the carrots but you need to have the stick as well. They spent a bunch of time litigating to be able to site people for camping. It is a last resort sort of thing, but you have to try to get rid of these camps and keep them from forming. The camp in Seattle is horrendous and they have had a hard time getting rid of it. Having the anti-camping ordinance has been helpful. Diana said she would send the ordinance to Bill so he could send out to the members.

Tammy asked about veterans. Diana said we have veterans that have vouchers that can't find a place to use the voucher.

Illegal Drug Distribution in the Treasure Valley

Bill Lutz thanked everyone for the opportunity to provide an update on what is happening in the valley. He said the working relationships in the valley are like no other place he has been.

Bill said Meth is still king in Idaho. Sadly, the purity is through the roof at 98-99% pure. Years ago 30% pure meth was good meth and was primarily produced in our State. We went from hundreds of lab call outs per year to four last year. These were primarily what they call one shot cooks. The greatest law that's been enacted in Idaho was the Pseudoephedrine law, where they put it behind the counter. He talked to a friend in Wisconsin recently and their one-shot meth cooks are through the roof.

The second concern regarding meth in the State is the economics. When he got here a pound of Meth was $12-15,000 now it is about $5,000 and purity is through the roof.

They had a recent case in Caldwell where they got 30 pounds out of the guys shop and he was doing 100 pounds a week. It has set them on their heels as that meth was going to get distributed in the valley.

They are starting to have some Cartel influence. Generally we have a State that is independent in nature. However, when you get to a certain level, the organizations are from Mexico. Most are illegals.

For many years our sources of supply was in the Nampa, Caldwell area. Now it has moved over to the Rupert, Burley area.

If we take a step down from Meth, what is next? Bill would have to say prescription pills. They had success on the doctor front and on a criminal organization front that has really reset the card on this. Two years ago there were a lot of pills on the street and now it is really hard to buy oxycodone clandestinely. With regard to the criminal organization, the individual leading it admitting to selling 150,000 pills a year at $30.00 each.

Rick asked where the inventory is coming from. Bill said two places. His was all coming out of Sacramento. They had what they call a Smurfing organization. This is where they have people that go into doctors who are not doing diligence, and get 300 or so pills a month. They would transport these pills in Beaney Babies through Fed Ex.

They have seen a drastic decrease in pills on the street. What people are saying is prices are going up. The litmus test has always been a dollar a milligram. Now that price has raised about half. He believes we, in the valley are doing good, because as a community we know we are not immune. There is a lot of public service and attention that is getting on the front end of this.

It is Whack-a-Mole, as the pill availability goes down and the price goes up, what is the substitute. It is heroin. It is coming.

The typical user in Boise is a white male between the ages of 20-24. They are not seeing it in the Hispanic community. People start with pills and progress from there for a variety of reasons.

The economics of this is fascinating. They just stopped a car last week with two white males ages 22 and 24. Both were from Portland who had relocated to Boise. They went to Oregon and picked up four units. It consists of 25 grams. They paid over there about $30.00 per gram. They came to Boise and if they sold it by the gram they could sell it for about $300,

Heroin is sold in what they call a point which is a tenth of a gram. A tenth of a gram in Boise costs $30.00

Bill said one of the things that scares him is they are starting to see Fentenol. This is a synthetic opiate about 30x more powerful than morphine. It was originally designed for terminally ill cancer patients.

Bill said they struggle in this State with the Coroner form of medical examiner. He doesn't think there is a central location where statistics might be cataloged. They recently had like three OD's in a 24-hour period and there is no place to go to get this kind of information if you are trying to see a trend across communities.

Bill said if you talk to ISP and the folks on the Eastern side of the State, they would tell you heroin is the number one problem. It comes out of Logan, Utah. Kelly added we are seeing it come through Marsing and Homedale as it comes down Hwy. 95.

Bill said we are not seeing transshipment here. This is where the heroin comes in and is destined for resale elsewhere.

For a while there they really had a rough time with the synthetics. They were able to help curb this by going after the pipes. Through this they were able to make a dent in the spice trade. It is not as grim as it seems.

Dave said the normal route is from pills to heroin. If the pills have gotten harder to get and more expensive, is there hope we will hold our own and keep people from going to heroin. Bill said there is an argument out there that says strict enforcement of legitimate pharmaceuticals can cause an increase in the demand for heroin.

John asked if we didn't create a centralized data base for prescriptions. Bill said we do have what is called the Prescription Monitoring Program. In this state, you are mandated to register, but you are not mandated to use the program. If a doctor had to use this program it would stop some of the pills. The good news is that his sense is that doctors are starting to use the program more.

Rick asked what the size of the DEA staff is? Bill said they have thirteen sworn agents, three supervisors and ten other staff.

Bill thanked everyone for their time and encouraged everyone to contact him if he can help in any way.

Open Discussion

Stan asked if anyone knew anything about a new law the legislature passed where teenagers that get stopped for a DUI can get let go the first time. Dave said they changed the minor in possession in that it can be an infraction the first time. They were having trouble at Boise State. Kustra was getting a lot of calls from parents because kids were getting caught drinking and they were getting misdemeanors. This was only on possession and had nothing to do with driving.

Darin asked if anyone could explain the new permit less carry law in a sentence or two. Tammy said it means you don't need a permit to carry a gun. John said this was really a misnomer. The concealed permit doesn't exempt you from a federal law. An example is under federal law you can't carry within 1,000 feet of a school. So if you are carrying concealed without a permit and you are near a school, you are breaking federal law.

Dave said that the Urban Renewal legislation final version doesn't allow you to have a majority of Mayor and Council members on the Urban Renewal board. Bob said he had a discussion with Rick about this and agreed with him. He felt it was Mike Moyle that was pushing for this change.

Stan said that Mike Moyle has a mindset that the UEA should only be used for a single project. Then when it is done, you close the URA and open another one.

In regards to the foregone, Dave said you are kind of forced to. If you run the numbers on the multiplier over time, if you don't take it, the inflation will eat you up. He said that the inflation they pay every year is a whole lot higher than the CPI.

Kelly, they didn't take the 3% one year on the District Health Board. It was a tight year and they thought they would be fiscally responsible and only did a 1.5% increase. They got hammered the next year and the funding went down because they didn't spend it all. Rick said that if you don't take your 3% they will lower your State funding. Kelly said they will never do that again.

John mentioned he had meetings with several different HOA's and explained raises in sewer and water rates and how the money was going to spent. He explained briefly what the Foregone property tax is and that we need to do that to maintain the level of the police force, and our library staff, etc. He didn't get any questions at all. He said what really helped in these meetings was he defined what fiscal conservative is. He defined fiscal conservative as funding depreciation so you are not taxing somebody down the line. Because deferred maintenance is a tax. People can grasp that.

John added that it took him four years to tell the Counsel there is a community pride component we need to imbed in the budget. We are not going to have dented up, crappy looking public works trucks even though they still run. It gives the wrong impression. He thinks there is a value to the public perception component of your public services.

Tammy asked if anyone had lighting standards. John said he has them and Dave indicated they have them as well. Tammy asked Dave to send a copy of that over to her.

Dave said they were successful at the Public Utilities Commission in getting fire hydrants put on to the water system. They are the only city that doesn't have control of their water system and won the right to put them onto the water bill.

Bill said as a wrap up to the day's events, he reiterated that we were successful in getting the increase we have been seeking for years from the Legislature on the SAUSA Program. We are going to get $70,000 per year and he doubts we can get more.

Bill said in a conversation with Mayor Paul Loomis of Blackfoot, Mayor Loomis said we rode their coat tails to the increased funding. At which Bill said, our first task was to build the coat tails to ride on.

Rick asked Tammy on an update on the TIP – Trauma Intervention Program. Tammy said she didn't have the numbers off the top of her head but she has the Meridian numbers. She thinks that Ada County as a whole is using them very nicely. They just had a conversation with the fire department on why they are not using them. She added that Boise is using them nicely.

Tammy said the first year went real well. They have had a few bugs to iron out but nothing really major. The whole reason they were excited about a citizen helping a citizen in crisis is the best way to deal with that and you are putting your resources back in service.

April 1 Minutes

TVP Business

Bill thanked everyone for coming to this year's Annual Planning Meeting.

Bob moved and Tammy seconded to approve the minutes and financial statement. Motion Approved.

Bill pointed to a draft letter to Representative Youngblood and Senator Bair. He felt it was important to thank them for their support in getting the increased SAUSA funding passed through JFAC. Tammy felt the letter was good as it is.

Bill said this SAUSA win threw him for a loop in regards to identifying this upcoming year's membership dues. He had planned on just repeating the dues and budget they have had for the last couple of years.

With this increase for the SAUSA, it gives us an opportunity to adjust membership dues. He has taken a look at census estimates for the jurisdictions in the valley and pointed to this handout. The Ada and Canyon County estimates come right off of the estimates produced by COMPASS. For the Owyhee County jurisdictions he found estimates from American Fact Finder.

We gained approximately 63,000 folks in the valley since 2010.

On handout 2 is a review of last year's dues for each jurisdiction. It included the SAUSA Supplemental dues which we do not need any more.

We don't have to make this decision today, but Bill proposed we utilize the population figures provided in the population estimates and bring back membership dues to original 12 cents per person. That will give us a net change of minus approximately $15,000 in membership dues. Handout 3 lists how your jurisdiction's dues will be affected. There is only one jurisdiction that will see a net increase and that is Star for around $32. Their population growth compared to their size canceled out the gains from the increased SAUSA funding.

Bill showed handout number 4 which is an estimated budget for FY 2017. You will notice that a couple of budget categories are blank, that is because he would like to see an small increase in these operational categories as the last several years, he has been trying to hold down the annual projected $2,500 deficit to its lowest level.

John said our legislative agenda needs to be represented with AIC and IAC. Now they are co-housed at ICRMP's building, their cohesiveness will get better. We kind of defaulted our legislative function which is undefined with TVP. If we have an agenda needs to make sure it is represented by AIC and IAC.

One of the challenges we have in the room is the "Great State of Ada" kind of thing. Our legislative representation is not necessarily in lock step with our needs. So if we think of anything in our region is of importance that our messages are the same with AIC and IAC.

Bob asked Bill to briefly talk about the SAUSA funding.

Bill said for quite a while we have been paying $65,000 of the funding for the SAUSA Program. The State provides $35,000 toward the program. For years we have been trying to get the percentage the State provides flip-flopped. And we finally got there.

Bill said there is a pretty good fund balance in the SAUSA Program and feels that is a good thing. For a couple of years we were paying more than the $100,000 in salary and benefits.

Tammy said we go through our share of employees in the SAUSA Project. Do we need to increase the pay?

John said that how it works is the SAUSA is an employee of the Canyon County Prosecutor's office but assigned to the U.S. Attorney's office.

John agreed with Tammy and that maybe we do need to increase the pay for the SAUSA. He said he would be comfortable letting Bryan Taylor take an allowance based the employment policies in Canyon County that there is room for that person.

Bill said that traditionally we have a discussion about what the members want to see in the future. We had yesterday's presenter from BSU as a result of a conversation we had last fall.

John had a visit with Garret Nancolas and after visiting with him, the roots of the organization (Partnership) was based around establishing and maintaining the relationships with the leaders in the three counties. If we get our time together encumbered with outside folks that come in, the there is a balance there we need to discuss.

John felt personally, the thought the Annual Meeting program was great. Personally he thinks it is profitable to have this time and the time we had in open discussion talking with the other members. It is supposed to be a lot about the relationships.

Over the last several years Bill makes this request regularly, he gets very little response and there is an opportunity for him to feel an obligation to build these agendas each month. Perhaps we don't need an agenda for every minute of every meeting. And just leave it for free flowing discussion like we had yesterday.

We have done a lot of things over the years. But to have educational times every month may not be necessary.

Tammy said she thinks there needs to be a balance and thinks Bill has done a good job of providing that balance. We are a unique thing that people see an opportunity to get all of us in one room and talk about issues, get feedback. Bill has to balance those requests to come in and speak to us with what is relevant to the people in the room.

She does know that because we are dues paying, our Counsels expect some kind of outcomes. Then you can show them minutes and agendas and the topics that important. And that it is not a social club. She said all of us that were City Council members prior to coming on, we thought it was some social club for the elected officials. It was nice to step in and see it had functions of collaboration and communication.

Bob said he liked the fact we had three speakers yesterday. What would be beneficial to him is to not have a speaker on Friday. He would like more time to share with people on how to do things. He would love to have his code book with him and be able to share those things. Having the, how do you handle that; type of discussions is a very beneficial thing.

Nathan said the benefit for him and little Parma, is to listen to each of you describe what is going on in your area. Because he doesn't have a clue what the wider world was. He said this time right now was the best part.

John said we have not done as good a job as we might do in helping Bill determine what we want to see as a group in our monthly meetings. Tammy said we did pretty darn good yesterday. Lol

Tammy said she would like to know what is going on in your communities. What are those things that keep you engaged and passionate about what is going on. What are the challenges and what are the exciting things that are happening. She thinks this type of conversation needs to be a regular part of our annual meeting.

Bob said you can be pretty frank in this environment. Joe said this is what he likes about the Partnership meetings the best. We can relate and it helps keep us grounded.

Bills only caution is that he remembers getting beaten up in Eagle for a couple of years because of the perception of it being a social club. Tammy said everyone got beat up in Eagle during those years.

Darin said he learns so much from coming to the meetings. Some of the subjects he would like us to explore, would be, a river walk, high capacity public transit in the long term, and developers and developer practices to be aware of.

Stan said he doesn't really know the structure of the Partnership. He confirmed that Bill is part-time. The meetings rotate each month. Bill said he likes to let who is hosting the meeting lead the agenda. Recently, he has been giving an hour to open discussion each meeting.

College of Western Idaho – Strategic Plan Update and how Vo-Tech Education is Affecting the Valley

Dr. Glandon thanked the Partnership for the opportunity to come talk about the College of Western Idaho. He mentioned he received a call from the President of the University of Idaho asking him about his athletic teams. Well they don't have athletic teams because they don't have student health insurance. Any way a group of CWI students had gotten together and had been playing games with the U of I and beating them. It was just a funny story as they don't have athletics.

The student health insurance has become a big issue for them as they have 23,000 students now. They are working with St. Al's and St. Lukes on a student health insurance package.

The only sports they are possibly capable of doing is probably soccer. As a club sport, not as a competitive team sports. They could do tennis as they would have access to tennis courts and they could do cross country and track. They have been reluctant to do it because of the dollar figure.

Under Title 9 you have to have a men's sport and a women's sport. If you are going to play competitively, it is about $1 million per sport. You got to have coaches and administration which makes it expensive.

Dr. Glandon said the board meets Monday. They have three different proposals for zoning, per the bill that passed that you have to have five zones per district. Basically, there will be a zone in west Canyon County. Zone 2 will probably be split between E. Canyon and W. Ada. Then there will be three zones in Ada County.

They don't want to be accused of gerrymandering it but there is a problem in that three of their board members live with a couple blocks in Boise. One of the proposals didn't make any sense in that it wrapped all of unincorporated Ada County, Kuna and Star into one zone. The problem is you have to come up with 128,000 people in each zone.

The other issue is that guns are now legal everywhere. This just doesn't create the right kind of environment to have people strolling around campus armed. He argued at the legislature the Idaho Permit is an eight hour class and you have to shoot so many rounds. And police have to qualify. Now we have all kinds of people that may or may not be able to shoot, carrying guns.

He was talking with a colleague where this kind of thing was done in another State. This really puts a damper on the kinds of discussions you can have in the classroom.

John wanted to know what is going on in Boise. Dr. Glandon said they are sitting on that property right now. The zoning thing they have to get cleared up by July 1. Three of the five board members are up for election in November. They are debating a bonding issue. They have not agreed, but the scary part of where they have to go with bonding is upwards to $100 million.

They are talking about a health science building on the Nampa campus and consolidating all our lease buildings in Ada County to one building down there. To do this, we are right at $115 million. This would equate to about $25.00 per 100,000.

CWI was given $5 million to start up. If we had stayed at 2,000 students we would have been fine. What happened was the second semester of a full body of students they were at 3,600 students. Now they are at 23,000 and we still only have the $5 million.

The college was established with $13.80 per 100,000. Comparing apples to apples, CSI in Twin is at $90.00 per 100,000 and North Idaho at $120 per 100,000. When you look at what we are drawing out of our community with our property tax base, it is embarrassing. They have to take their 3% every year to stay level.

The new board will be faced with engaging a conversation to raise the levy to $50 per 100,000. The crusher in this State is this 66%. It makes it hard to get things done.

When he was President of Treasure Valley 20 plus years ago, they were at 2,800 students. They are now at 400 students. Inadvertently they crushed them, and they are trying to work this out together.

Dave asked if they have to have 66 2/3 in each county now. Dr. Glandon said they can aggregate the vote again.

Dave asked if the convention center case help the cause. He said they have talked to several developers to a build lease buy back. They have really wanted to build seven stories. They can't fill seven stories. The goal was to have a cohabitated use sort of thing where there are businesses on the main floor and various kinds of services on the second floor.

We know that the model for education has got to change in terms of how it delivers. One of their biggest drives is to have corporate driven business and industry relationships with every program. Western Cat was one of the biggest breakthroughs for them. They took a two year program made it into fourteen months. Western Cat helped sponsor it and they helped picked the students. They go eight hours a day, five days a week for fourteen months. Then they graduate and have 100 percent employment.

They also changed the way they were doing English. It used to be if you didn't qualify, you had to take several remediation classes before you got to take English 101. Now everybody takes English 101, but if you don't qualify because of remediation reasons, then you take 101 + which has a lab for three days a week.

They went from a 45% go on rate to an 89.9% rate because of the English 101+ concept.

Tammy asked if they can run Post. Dr. Glandon said they can run Post.

Kelly asked if the students coming out of high school are even qualified to go to college. Dr. Glandon said for the dual credit students, yes. 73% of the students coming out of high school need remediation in English. 80 some percent need remediation in math. One of the things that skew the data for math is that sometimes the student doesn't have math that last year of high school and lose the skills by the time they start college.

The other area that is huge and they are making progress on, is Professional/Technical Programs. They have been helping align high school programs to the technical colleges programs. They, ISU and LCSC have been active at doing this.

Darin asked about the serious student. When he teaches in the high school s you might have one out of thirty that is mature and focused. Dr. Glandon said this has their people really concerned. What do you do with the masses that don't have the maturity to attend college and have funding go to an outcome based systems?

This is a good question because you can't force maturity.

He said one of the scariest things is the bored student in high school. We have a lot of preconceived notions on how to move people through the system. Students that are bored are probably brighter than their peers and they end up never catching fire.

They shut down the culinary arts program in December. Their commitment then was they are working with Marriot, Sodexo and others to try and put together a company sponsored culinary arts program that is value added.

That is one of their mantras. It has to be value added for business and industry or we are not doing it.

In January they are going to have their own stand-alone accreditation. When that happens they will have the flexibility to realign their programs.

Bob asked if demographics have changed. Dr. Glandon said they have a Hispanic initiative to recruit 3-5,000 Hispanic students that can benefit from attending CWI. They are working with two different professional groups now to generate Hispanic mentors for these students. They found in Denver that having a mentor that meets with them once a week produced a 97% retention and graduation rate.

They think this Hispanic initiative will add quite a bit of membership to CWI.

Dave asked what the cost of the downtown building. The ballpark estimate is $43 million.

Dr. Glandon said they have to go out to bond this November. Two of the buildings are on the Nampa campus and they are going to put one building in Boise. Once the board settles, we will go out and try to drum up support.

Kelly said if you go out and market it properly, bonding for education seem to be pretty favorable in the State. Dr. Glandon said they will be asking for support when they go out to bonding.

Meeting adjourned