I'm gonna call this meeting to order.

And welcome to a Cordelane City Council meeting for December sixteenth, two thousand twenty-five.

A roll call, please.

English.

Yes.

Miller.

Here.

Gabriel?

Here.

Evans.

Here.

Thanks.

Invocation is David here.

David, welcome.

We could stand for the invocation and stay standing for the pledge, please.

Good evening, everyone.

Tonight in the season of Advent and Expectant Waiting.

I want to invite us all to pray these simple prayers written by Carla Matterneck in her booklet for short Advent devotions for families as families gather and may pray these prayers together one by one over this season.

Let's open our minds and hearts to God, making these simple prayers our own.

Help us serve you by giving to others.

And help us remember that you are near now and always.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

May it be so here in our deliberations and actions for the sake of the people of Court Elaine at this year's end and in this holy season and on into the year ahead.

Amen.

Thank you, David.

Kenny, would you lead us in a pledge, please?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God and visible with the justice.

Thank you, Kenny.

Any uh amendment for the count agenda, council?

Hearing none.

Uh we have a presentation from Todd down on the streets.

You want to give us an update on the museum?

Yes.

Something to be happy about, right?

Yeah.

Yes.

Let's see.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor McEvers and Council members.

Uh, thank you for having me tonight.

Uh, one to go over our uh winter or lack of winter, however, you want to look at it, right?

And then do uh brief uh update on the final numbers and leaf fests.

So uh anyway, so yes, uh winter is upon us.

Uh we haven't seen much of it yet, but streets and engineering is ready.

If you remember last year, I brought to you a new winter operation plan.

We used to call snow plan, and um told you that I wouldn't be bringing it back unless we're gonna make any changes.

We have not made any changes, but I wanted just to update you that the fleet is ready and some reminders.

So this map is uh a good uh look at what we plow, uh, all the streets, uh, arterials in the red, uh, green is collectors, uh, the gray is all of the residentials.

We left the highway 95 interstate just for reference up there.

So uh that is what we plow in any given storm.

Uh we have storm names that we were uh that were provided by um classic Christian Academy last year.

They gave us three years worth of storms names.

The kiddos came with a bunch of them, and uh we were able to get three sets of names, so this is our new set uh this year.

So hopefully we will utilize a few of those.

Um you can always report snow removal issues online at our website.

This is a map that kind of shows you do that.

Go to snow removal issues, and you can put your name, address, and report the concern.

Uh this is a big one.

I like to get out there and remind everyone.

We do use snow gates at the city of Corlain.

They're a very useful tool.

Snow gates reduce the berm, they don't eliminate the berm.

So if we always try to coach and show you what the berm looks like on each side of your driveway, and then what you were left with.

We can't back up.

There's too many driveways.

We have to do our best.

Hopefully, we're gonna be a six-inch berm or something like that.

Um just a reminder that we do not plow alleys and the abutting property owners are responsible to clear their sidewalks.

We will do our best not to push the snow back onto your sidewalk.

Um, but we do ask for your help in cleaning the sidewalks.

Uh municipal code there, uh it's unlawful for any person to deposit or cause to be deposited uh snow thrown up into the street or in the public right away.

So that's a big one for us.

We get a lot of people that like to clear their driveways out into the street, use their snowblowers.

I get it, it's crowded, but unfortunately, when we plow, if you do that, we're just gonna push it back in front of your driveway, which makes it harder to gate.

Anyway, uh that's all I had for snow.

Hopefully, it comes soon.

Uh, but we are busy doing other things right now.

Um I did want to update you on leaf pickup this year.

It was a great success.

Um, this is kind of how I look at it.

This is kind of my recipe on the day.

If you look at it, I broke it down that way for you.

Um, we start early.

The grinding this year at our campus starts at 6 a.m.

Cannon Hill comes and starts to grind the leaves.

We purposely have them show up about three to four days after we've started leaf pickup because that big machine can eat them faster than we can bring them.

So we have to get a certain amount to the campus before they can start doing their job.

It requires 35 streets and engineering crew members to do leaf pickup.

Typically, we borrow from water or parks department this year.

We had four water department employees that helped with uh Leaf Fest.

We utilize nine dump trucks, five loaders, one grader, five sweepers.

We do all this in uh 12 working days.

That's our goal uh to get done before Thanksgiving.

Actually, this year we had to finish up with sweeping after Thanksgiving in a couple small piles.

Um our total loads that we hauled off the streets of Corlane back to Streets and Engineering was 1,104 loads.

That's about on pace for what we've done the last two years.

So uh it seemed like the leaf count was a little low to start.

Uh, but by the end, the northern end of town is starting to produce more leaves, so we are right there about where we normally are.

Um took 149 loads uh to the Corlane Airport where we farm them and till them into the ground.

Uh, this is typically what leaf pickup looks like.

This is a good picture.

There is a lot of streets that look worse than this.

When we show up, that's what we're gonna see.

Uh, and then we come in and we push them into a pile.

It does leave a small mess, but at the end of it, that's what our goal is.

Uh, I do want to take this chance to explain.

The sweepers are set up differently this time of year to pick up the leaves.

They're in leaf mode, so they don't pick up the fines like they do in the summer where we can pick up everything.

The heads are opened up and they pick up the larger piles of leaves and occasional sticks.

So doesn't do quite the same job that you're used to in the summer months.

This is what our sweepers see.

If we run three or four in a row, they try and go across the whole road.

Um, and then the last sweeper would clean up the gutter.

That's the sweeper that fills up the fastest and slows us down the most, is because all the debris normally is in the gutter, so it picks up more, and they just kind of leapfrog and take turns.

So the next picture, uh, our mayor loves the process of how we till the leaves in out at the airport, and he loves to take videos of the operation in pitchers.

Uh, can't thank you enough for that involvement.

The crew love seeing you out there.

Uh, we didn't get a good picture last year.

It was the same tractor, and there was a good picture of Woody in the cab helping till in the wee leaves.

And then finally, uh this is the crew that picks it up.

Some of the crew, actually, most our streets and engineering crew, Woody and Council members normally come out uh for one day to about midpoint in the process to give our guys a pep talk and make them have energy to get through the whole uh program.

And then uh I like to end with uh to Mayor McEvers uh from Streets and Engineering Director.

Can't thank you enough for the support that you have provided for our department through all the years, even down to his council president nitpicking some of the I felt silliest things on bills, but he always questioned them.

So uh you will be missed, and we've enjoyed you out there at the airport.

You're welcome to stop by any time.

Thank you.

Is there any questions?

I just want to point out that Woody is outstanding in his field.

That's good.

That's old.

Thank you, uh, Mr.

Mayor uh director.

Very fine job.

And certainly the crew did a beautiful job in my neighborhood.

It looks fantastic.

But my question is now Woody, when he rides with Santa on the fire truck, they have GPS.

Do you have GPS so the citizens can track when you're coming?

We do not currently.

Uh we are looking at um some software.

Uh I have a meeting after the first of the year we've looked at it.

It's a new mapping program asset management, so it would lump in on maintenance of all the equipment as well as uh there would be GPS capability with our equipment.

Right, because almost everyone's asking, when are they coming?

Where are they?

So I will um I will own that this year.

We disabled part of the map.

Uh, me and my assistant director talked about it.

We have a lot of battles with the map.

So our old map that we have isn't very accurate and it lags a lot.

Um if we've try and forecast where we're going, what we run into a problem with is garbage day every time.

So if we have a breakdown or something, or we didn't get quite as far as we wanted to, once the map goes live, it's hard to correct it.

It creates a lot of confusion.

Um, at the beginning, we have the whole city, so my least favorite thing to do is bounce.

And so we might be south of Sherman, oh, garbage cans.

We're gonna go north of Sherman.

We get into week two as we move up north where we run out of places to go, and we I'm our last thing is always to go somewhere where there's garbage cans because it's not it's hard for us.

We don't do as good a job, it's very problematic.

But by the last couple days, I mean it's almost inevitable we're gonna run into garbage days somewhere.

So uh, but yes, we are looking into that technology.

So thank you.

Yeah.

Can you uh give us an update on the museum?

Ah, um, the museum that it's a pile right now, it's not uh we've taken down most of the walls.

Um we're in the process of hauling it off.

Today was our second day on that project.

Um it's uh been fairly successful as planned.

Um, so our expectation is hopefully by the end of the week to have most of it gone uh to be fence and dirt back in there by Christmas.

So that's that's our goal to make it look like it belongs again.

Uh, right now it's a little messy, but we're getting close.

It's day two.

Kind of opened up the view.

You see the lake earlier now, right?

Yeah, great job on those guys.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on, we're coming up to public comments, and hopefully, you guys, if you want to come up and talk, you put your name on this list.

Um, first up is Mike Sims.

Welcome, Mike.

Bye.

Good to see you all again.

Welcome.

As you know, for the last five months, I've petitioned you on behalf of 154 people who are owning 77 homes that border Atlas Road between Prairie Road and Hanley to lower the speed limit to 25 miles per hour.

Well, you have every one of you have in your hands today.

Um there were seven people who took on the job in their block of representing all the rest of the people on their block, and I am still representing all of them.

Okay.

Now, why have we ask you to do this?

Our property lines are only 13 yards from Atlas Road.

There are 9,000 cars a day that travel Atlas.

This has been verified by streets and engineering.

The speed limit is 35 miles per hour, but streets and engineering verified that between the 85 percentile travels on that road are 42 miles per hour, and the other 15% are exceeding it greatly, believe me.

Okay, let's do a check on common sense and reality.

Vehicles traveling at 25 miles an hour will burn less fuel, thus emitting less emissions and make less noise than vehicles traveling 42 to 50 miles an hour.

Okay, that just kind of goes without saying.

If ounce of intelligence is in it, it states it all.

So I ask you, please read all the information submitted to you today, especially the information on the disbursement of emissions from vehicles.

The emissions from vehicles travels horizontally before going vertical, and prevailing winds and fast moving vehicles are pushing that pollution directly into our backyards.

Lowering the speed limit to 25 will not completely solve the problem, but will abate it a great deal and make life more tolerable for us.

We deserve this the same as you would.

There are three divisions of Atlas Road in Cordelaine.

Prairie to Hanley, Hanley to Kathleen, and Kathleen to Celties.

The only division of that is between Hanley and Prairie is 95% homes.

Okay, the rest of them are about 30 to 35 percent homes with a lot of space in between on either side.

Okay, Atlas between Prairie and Hanley is a straight shot with nothing to stop traffic.

Okay, a straight shot.

A straight shot.

Slowing the limit to 25 will not impede the flow of traffic in the least because there's nothing to impede it.

There are two stoplights between Hanley and Kathleen that slow traffic.

And I'll tell you what, you don't see any traffic snarls there.

It will only cost drivers less than one minute out of their lives to travel the distance at 25 instead of 35.

What's more important, taking a minute out of the lives of the drivers or continuing to subject 200 people to physical and mental harm.

We are sucking up a ton of pollution from that road.

So I hope you will really read that part of that thing and take it to heart because it's a fact.

Well for humanitarian reasons, we hope that you choose to act on this.

It's about time.

Thank you, Mike.

Okay, thank you very much.

Next up, uh Carol Root.

Welcome, Carol.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

Thank you for this time.

It's me again from Indian Meadows.

Um I want to take this time to just give a little bit of feedback on the December 9th meeting for Cortair.

Um, this was the first planning and zoning meeting that I've ever attended, and I was somewhat shocked by some of the commission members' conduct.

During the public comments, there were 13 people that got up and spoke, and at least three of them were interrupted continually by two commission members in particular.

And we're only allowed three minutes to talk, and I just believe that we're entitled to those three minutes.

And then if somebody wants to ask questions after that, then that would be the time to ask the questions.

But from being constantly interrupted, it was just it was just kind of disrespectful, we thought.

But I would like to note that Commissioners Kopus and Jama Jamas, I'm not sure if I'm saying that right, they were actively listening to residents concerned.

They were super respectful, and they had excellent follow-up questions to the city staff addressing our concerns.

So kudos to them.

The following day I re-watched the video, all four hours of it, and then I spent several hours kind of typing up notes with various talking points.

So I'm going to email you all a copy of that for your bedtime snoozing reading.

So we were happy to hear that the developers have purchased the parcel at the end of Industrial Way.

That was a really nice thing for them to do, and they have accepted the responsibility for providing the access from industrial loop to phase one of Quartaire.

One of my concerns continues to be the condition of Atlas Road following the approval of phase one.

The current TIA of phase one assumes Atlas is widened to three lanes.

Chris Bosley stated that a few years ago, he believes a 4.8 million dollar federal grant was proposed to reconstruct Atlas from Celtees to Hanley.

But the projected timeline for construction to begin is maybe 2031 or 2032.

Sean Messner stated by 2030, they are assuming Atlas will be a three-lane roadway.

So there's no confirmed timeline, no funding or assurance that these Atlas issues will be addressed, and the impacts to Atlas will only increase if the widening is delayed.

So I keep hearing that the planned build-out is like 20 to 30 years down the road.

But time and time again, um, we've seen other developments that complete their build out way ahead of schedule, partly due to the increased uh demand for housing.

Um we recognize that demand, but we must address the infrastructure impacts and plan ahead.

So is it too much to ask that we address these issues in the planning stages rather than trying to fix the problem on down the road?

So thank you, and thank you, Mayor, for all your years of great service to our community.

We appreciate it.

Thanks, Carol.

Next up, Pam Holcomb.

Pam.

Welcome.

Mayor and City Council members, thank you for your attention and uninterrupted listening skills, which I'm appreciating more after going to that planning and zoning meeting.

And I'd just like to talk a little bit about that experience.

There were two comprehensive plan goals and objectives that were talked about in the P and Z meeting on December 9th regarding CORTER.

Excuse me.

One of them is the Court d'Alene citizens are well informed, responsive, and involved in community discussions with the objective of fostering broad based and inclusive community involvement for actions affecting business and residents to promote community unity and involvement and to maintain the community's friendly, welcoming atmosphere and its small town feel.

Well, we, meaning all of the neighborhoods that are affected by Cortair, want to be a part of this decision making, but it's really hard to feel like we're being listened to when we have three minutes to get our point across.

We cannot talk to any of you outside of this venue, and there are no town hall meetings and or question and answer periods.

At the planning and zoning meeting, they told us twice that we're just volunteers and that we have received hundreds of pages to read.

Fourteen letters were written to P and Z for a total of 37 pages that were in the packet agenda.

But it just leads me to believe that the letters we write may not be getting read.

So if we can't guarantee that our letters are being read, and we only have three minutes to talk to you, how can we be a better part of this process?

I've written several letters to everybody, city staff, city council, P and Z, and I have heard back from Dan Guken, Tracy Clark, and Chris Bosley.

We were at that PNZ meeting for four hours.

I was interrupted several times during my three minutes by questions.

We were told at the beginning of the meeting that we couldn't talk about anything other than phase one because of the city code.

Um is this a flawed code?

Um because regarding the traffic and circulation, we need to be looking at the whole development.

I mean, we really went there to talk about industrial loop being used as a collector, and the impact of how that is used really affects us on Nez Pierce and Appaloosa Roads.

And then after the meeting, I talked to six people that spoke that night.

None of us slept very well, and one gentleman who is my neighbor, went home with a racing heart rate, vomited, and was sick all the next day.

So overall, we didn't feel very listened to or valued.

Um the decisions for CORTERE are being made right now.

And we we want to be well informed and we want to be responsive, and we want to be involved in this community discussion like the comprehensive plan wants also.

Um it's much, much easier to talk to you guys than it was to the PNZ meeting.

Um you don't interrupt and you listen, and I would just encourage you to listen to that the parts of that meeting where the public comments start and the interaction with them, and that starts at 1.52 minutes in the video for the PNZ meeting on December 9th.

And for the gentleman that spoke ahead of time, I think every are you still here?

Is he gone?

Well, everything that he said is going to possibly affect us too because we're gonna have nine to eleven thousand cars coming down per day.

Um but there is a backup already between what he said there wasn't, Kathleen and Henley, I think it's what he said.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Pam.

Tom Burkey.

Welcome, Tom.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Council members.

Last week I attended the planning and zoning meeting, and I was shocked by the complete disconnect between members and the city residents.

We totally dismissed a room full of people out at a common message.

We expressed our concerns and offered solutions, and they would not even hear it.

They kept hiding behind the comp plan that night's agenda, and we're pushing the decision to connect our neighborhood roads down to some future meeting when they know it's too late to make changes.

They're supposed to be the planning commission, and they have a plan, all right, and it's obvious.

They're totally on the side of the developer.

Repeatedly they told us they were volunteers.

Like that somehow makes it okay.

Does that mean they would care more if their decisions were if they were getting paid?

The old saying, good work isn't cheap and cheap work isn't good fits them to tea.

Lastly, a slip from one of the members seems to indicate she's already moving into Quartar.

She spoke about how dangerous it would be to connect Quartaire to industrial way, how her student driver's son would be at risk next to all those large trucks.

That she would rather have her student driver, his 4,000 pounds of steel driving down our neighborhoods next to our next to our children on their bicycles.

Her logic is truly baffling.

And this is someone that's been empowered to make decisions that will shape the city.

City Council, we have a problem on our hands.

You and us.

We're asking for your help.

We will not go away.

This problem goes far beyond Quartare, and now is the time to plan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

Suzanne Knutson.

Welcome, Suzanne.

Thank you.

Mayor McEvers, City Council members, thank you for your service and for your attention to our concerns.

And thank you for your invitation to the public process over the past several years.

While public hearings can be tense and uncomfortable uncomfortable experience, you have always been cordial and respectful, if not also encouraging and kind.

So thank you.

It was a very unfortunate meeting on last Tuesday, and there will be more opportunities for residents of Indian Meadows, North Shire, Queen Anna States, Fairway Forest, and others to participate in the PUD public hearing process in the coming years.

And it would be more appropriate if citizens were met with a welcome and not an admonishment, hostility and condescension by planning and zoning commissioners.

But tonight I would like to speak to the process or the process.

On October 21st, by motion and unanimous vote, council directed staff to meet with Kooteny County Land Company and resident representatives from Indian Meadows to find alternatives to using Appaloosa and Nez Perce for through traffic from Corterra.

That meeting was finally held on December 3rd, but your direction has been circumvented by a flawed process and system.

There has not been a council meeting since that December 3rd meeting.

So there has been no open meeting opportunity for anyone to weigh in or for council to make any further directions to staff.

Staff met, but Nate and I, and we were there, and we were met with an attitude that the city is using Appaloosa and Nesperse, and we are not considering industrial loop, and we might open five more streets also.

During the meeting, the question about the new fire station number five was asked, but the current population was used in the study to determine where that might be, rather than the projective prop projected population of 10,000 plus more residents in the western side of the city.

How productive is that?

During the process leading up to tonight, and also to that meeting, we learned that the traffic impact analysis was not included in the packet for the March 2023 public hearing that Cortera Master Plan.

Also, we learned that the Cortera Master Plan was written concurrently with the latest comprehensive plan and not after it was adopted.

And at last week's meeting, the planning director insinuated in an answer to Commissioner Copus's question that residents have many opportunities to be involved in the PUD planning, which is not entirely true.

The opportunity to amend the development agreement to make industrial loop primary collector has now been decided in favor of the developer and their desire to max out single family homes in their neighborhoods with no consideration of ours.

So what's the point of council's direction to staff?

We haven't had an update.

Because the PUD was held before council received an update.

Did staff ignore council direction?

Did staff override the process?

We don't know.

Nate Dyke sent our notes to you this morning from the 12-3 meeting.

Um please consider taking a look at those notes.

That's from our perspective.

Please consider putting the brakes on so industrial loop can actually be fully considered before going forward.

Um and please review the current PUD process and city code that prevents surrounding impacted neighborhoods from being considered in the PUD before more irreversible damage is done.

Thank you.

Thanks, Suzanne.

And Alison Croos.

Hi, Alison.

Hi there.

Good evening.

I'm also here to express my disappointment about the treatment of the residents of Indian Meadows and the adjacent neighborhoods during the planning and zoning meeting on December 9th.

I believe that you guys really need to know what happened, and my neighbors have done a good job thus far.

The meeting started out on the wrong foot when the commissioners told us that Core Tair Phase One has nothing to do with the neighborhood concerns because it doesn't back up to the residential area, only the industrial area.

And we were told, and I'm paraphrasing here, that if we came to speak about our traffic concerns, we shouldn't bother because phase one doesn't affect us.

But we we were baffled because since when does a major planned development get designed one phase at a time without consideration to subsequent phases?

It's strange.

It was obvious to all of us that the street layouts of Core Tair Phase One will affect phase two, which will affect phase three.

So that's why we were there.

However, the meeting became very contentious when several of the neighbors were interrupted or cut off during their three-minute testimony by rude and condescending comments made by the commissioners.

The disrespect for the homeowners in our neighborhoods and they are taxpayers in this city was appalling.

It really was.

We left feeling angry, unheard, and extremely discouraged.

For some reason, it appears that the planning and zoning commission thought that our neighborhoods had been fully involved, informed of the design layout and of the traffic issues, but we were not.

And when we told them of such, they were we were ridiculed by the commissioner for being uninformed and unorganized.

It was a slap in our face.

To date, there's only been one meeting.

Um that included the developer, the city staff, and the neighborhood representatives.

And that one meeting occurred just a few weeks ago.

So it was very clear now in hindsight that phase one had already been designed and determined by by that meeting.

So it was smoke and mirrors.

So we really feel and we really would like to see the code changed so that um and revised so that the impacted neighborhoods can be considered if not involved in PUD planning activities.

The neighborhoods east of Quartare on both sides of Atlas are going to have such severe traffic impact from Quartare.

But we've had absolutely no say in the matter, and we have not been heard.

And we don't feel it's fair, and we don't feel it's right.

It's really a travesty.

So we're asking you, can you please consider revising the city code to better consider impacted neighborhoods during the PUD process?

We really want and desire to be involved.

Thank you for your time and thank you for not interrupting.

Thank you, Allie.

I think I'm sure we'll have this discussion in the future here.

So hang in there, you guys.

Moving on.

Announcements, council.

Amy.

I have several announcements tonight.

Um, first I want to congratulate and thank Tony Burns for his years of service as our Ignite executive director.

Um and his dedication and time that has made such a lasting impression on our community and the various projects that both Ignite and Tony have been a part of.

So congratulations once again to Tony.

Also a reminder to um all the citizens out there that have so much free time.

You can volunteer on one of our wonderful committees, um, Bike and Pedro is recruiting volunteers, and you can find more information on CDAID.org.

And last, I want to apologize for missing city council last week.

But I had the wonderful opportunity to head to Florida to watch the number four women's soccer team in the nation play in the national um championship.

So I want to say a huge congratulations.

We have one of the team members in the audience with us tonight.

Congratulations to the College of Idaho women's soccer team.

And also with her is um a dear friend who is a College of Idaho football player, and congratulations to the football team who just left Florida this weekend.

Um they were there for the national um tournament for the playoffs for the national tournament.

So a huge congratulations to College of Idaho football team as well.

And just the dedication and perseverance of being a college athlete has just been so fun to watch.

So this is our or her senior year, so I have to take this opportunity to say congratulations in person.

That's it.

That's it.

All right.

That's such a good mom.

Kiki.

I've got a couple things.

One is just since the last time we met, uh sat in on a meeting with the Gem State Housing Alliance, which is a new statewide coalition that is looking at attainable affordable housing issues.

They have a five policy agenda that they just rolled out.

There'll be their uh website kind of explains what they're going to be doing in this next year, but they're working with organizations across the state to try to build a larger voice and really affect some change in in housing.

Um to dovetail with that, I just re uh reviewed the uh Senator Crapo's housing survey, which some of you may have taken.

It was out this last spring.

The first draft of that was just released actually at a presentation at NIBCA's joint government today.

And they have about four or five uh changes in policy that uh they're gonna be putting forward.

Um the thing that I feel uh great about is the housing solutions partnership that has been together out of um this area for the last five years, has um really been echoing this the data that's coming out of these types of organizations and putting forward really solid solutions.

And I there were three uh legislators there today, and they are all very committed to putting forward actionable items in this upcoming legislation.

So I mean, call me hopelessly optimistic, but we got to stay at it so we can do something so our our kids and our kids as kids and the people who need to work here have a place to live.

So that's what I'm still in the middle of.

Good job.

Kenny, be optimistic.

I'm gonna be optimistic.

That's a good thing.

And Lucy, I remember when you were that big, I can't believe you're a senior already.

It goes by way too quick.

But it is that time of year.

Santa Claus is coming in a big break fire truck, and they start tomorrow, correct?

And it's one of the most popular things that the fire department does from a PR standpoint, and it is also one of the goofiest things because it's where we get the absolute most complaints.

Because it is a lot of city to get through in a little bit of time.

So take a look at that sanit tracker, see where they're at, and it's one of the greatest things we do, and please by all means give what you can because it goes to the food goes to a great cause.

And speaking of that, our city staff did a great job with 1,100 pounds of food that was donated and brought forward for the food bank from our staff.

So I believe planning was first, right?

Well, they won it.

So well done to them.

So great job, staff, great job, everybody trying to reach out and help our community in as many ways as we can.

So thank you and a Merry Christmas to all of you.

Christy.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, you'll be on that fire truck, correct?

I'm hoping to.

Okay.

Just kidding.

Uh well, I do have a couple of things, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh, I was asked to attend uh sit in on our behalf for a CityLink meeting, and you may have read about it in the paper.

Uh Troy and I attended, and Randy.

And uh I thought we were going there to work on a um agreement that had been worked very hard on by a by a committee within that group.

And all the cities showed up, and I think what we discovered is that the county commissioners hadn't decided amongst themselves what their philosophy is towards CityLink.

Um, whether they would agree to anything with the cities.

So it was a little confusing, um, a little unfortunate.

I will say that the there was a letter uh to the editor about the city leaders leaving before public comment, and I can just tell you on my behalf, and I I think I speak for these two as well.

We didn't know that there was going to be a public comment.

Their meetings run a little bit different than ours.

We we take public comment prior to making the decision, and we take that input.

And this was comment would have come after the discussion.

So I I just simply didn't know, and we thought our time was up when we got up and left.

And so it by no means did we mean to slight the the gentleman that wished for us to stick around for public comment.

Moving forward, I don't know if Troy could even tell you what's gonna happen with CityLink.

We sure hope we get um a really solid agreement between all of us because in our opinion, there's no question how important that that uh service is to our citizens, and we absolutely need to continue that.

So I don't know, Troy, did you want to add on to that?

No, I think all the cities are in support of the way that it's been operating.

And there was a plan that was presented that does reflect more money that the county could collect to offset their overhead costs, and uh we've confirmed that today.

So we're we're looking for councils to get something back from our commissioners that say here's the agreement, uh, intergovernmental agreement.

Perfect.

Let's hope let's hope it happens.

Um, Mr.

Mayor, additionally, I did attend Park and Ruck last night and just wanted to give everybody uh council a heads up.

There was a really nice presentation by Lindsay with the specialized needs recreation and uh Bill Greenwood.

There's just the start of a conversation about them building a new facility, they'll be doing a capital campaign for that.

And there'll likely be a request for a parcel of property that we own.

That seems that it would be a great fit.

But that's gonna take some time and a lot of moving parts, but that was the heads up we got last night.

Very good.

Mr.

Gook.

My turn, and I have lots of things.

So I want to state that um so earlier this month I did meet with all the legislators, not all the legislators, uh legislators from this district, but also George Redmond to talk about our property tax situation and what we can do in the legislature to provide relief.

And they seemed positive on some of the things, including the resort cities tax, which I don't know if that's going to go forward.

They're they're different down there.

They do things oddly, but they are aware of it, and they were very sympathetic and understanding, and we floated a lot of ideas.

So hopefully that moves forward and get some things done.

Um I would also like to invite Chief White to come up and address us regarding uh something that's going to be happening tonight and tomorrow, which is the windstorm, and the city is preparing for this, and I thought it would be good to inform the public about what's going on.

Thank you, Chief White.

Well, good evening, Mayor and Council.

Uh yeah, we're hoping Mother Nature is gentle with us tonight.

Uh but either way, we're prepared for it.

We have a number of staff coming in.

Um, the emergency operations center at the police department in the training room is being stood up in the early morning hours.

Uh we'll run unified command out of there with police and fire, and we'll have direct liaison with streets and parks to get us through this event.

Uh anyway, we're preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best, and uh we'll we'll get through tomorrow.

Excellent.

Thank you, Chief.

And I also was handed this.

Uh this is public comment, and I'd like to read it into the record.

This was uh provided to me by a resident of Indian Meadows who um is elderly, does not have a computer or a car, and would like this to be read.

So I will read it.

These are the words of Carl Kruger.

Forty-six years ago I moved to Quarter Lane, Nez Pierce Road was paved only to Moccason Road.

There was just one stop light in town.

The scale of development now proposed was unthinkable.

I grow a big vegetable garden.

People walking by often stop to talk about garden things.

Will I be able to spend 10 to 12 hours a day working in the garden with the traffic noise and exhaust fumes that will occur?

I don't think so.

I love to walk.

Recently, while walking across Northwest Boulevard in a crosswalk, walk sign on, a car ran the red light and coming from behind me turned left just in front of me.

I was almost hit.

There were no mitigation measures that would work when overcrowding takes makes people crazy.

So I have been walking our neighborhoods, talking to people, gathering signatures.

It's been great.

I met people I should have talked to 20 years ago.

Many are energized by their concerns about this project, but there is another group of people.

These folks will not come to the meetings.

Um they will not write you letters.

So I thought maybe I should try to say a few words on their behalf.

When I start talking to these people, there's a deep sadness in their eyes that grows and grows.

So I just ask, well, would you be interested in signing our petition?

Their heads drop and they stare at the ground.

Sure, I'll sign the paper, but it won't do any good.

They don't care.

They just don't care.

What I would ask is that by our actions, we would reach out to these people and say to them, no, no, that's not the way here.

We listen, we care, we care.

Really, the only thing that does not destroy the character and livability of our neighborhood is to use only industrial loop as a connector.

If you so decide to push ahead and destroy our neighborhoods, I would ask that you at least start at the north end, use industrial loop and work south, at least give those of us who have lived here 30, 40 or 50 years some time, 10 years or so, to try and figure out what we are going to do and where we're going to go.

I would ask that you show us that we listen, we care.

Thank you.

Good.

So that gets entered.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All right.

Look for consent calendar, please.

Mr.

Mayor, make a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented.

Second.

And moved and seconded discussion.

Roll call, please.

English.

Sorry.

Would yes.

Evans?

Yes.

Miller.

Aye.

Gabriel.

Yes.

Guken.

Yeah.

All right.

Next up, resolution 25071.

Approval of additional budget authority in the amount of 66,009 dollars and 85 cents for purchase of software upgrade to the enterprise resource planning software suite.

And all the way from this the money bank downtown.

Katie's here for our city treasurer.

Welcome, Katie.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, Council.

I have it's pretty rare that the finance director would come to you asking to spend more money, right?

But uh this has been a project that's been in the works for a number of years.

Upgrading our current um ERP suite, which ERP is a fancy word for accounting software.

So just all the accounting functions, payroll, accounts payable, um, our utility billing, general ledger, pretty much everything that has to do with money is running through our current ERP, which is Springbrook.

And Springbrook is um they they put in quite a bit of RD to create a new product called Cirrus, which is a cloud-based um software, and it I've I've had some time now to see it demoed a c twice and have a little bit of training on it.

It is um so much more modern than our current Springbrook, and I could count um many many ways why it would be good for the city department um throughout the departments to modernize this this software.

So I'll stand for any questions.

Council Mr.

Gukin.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

So I met with Katie to talk about this, and it was really funny because when I was going around the city doing research for my next job, uh one of the complaints I got was that our software, Springbrook, was so old.

And Katie kind of proved that and she showed me a lot of stuff that she wants to do.

A lot of the accounting in this organization is run by spreadsheets that were created 30 years ago.

And it's just a very awkward way to run what she does.

So you went to Vegas, right?

Say again, you went to Vegas.

Yes, for the criteria.

It was a conference, so you're not down there spending, you know.

Even though we suggested that.

Um so you saw this thing and you were like, wow, that's what we need.

And the reason you're here is because this just wasn't in the budget, so um we are gonna add that extra expense so that you can get modern software.

Yeah, and typically we would have done better planning, bringing it in the budget process.

However, what I learned at the conference is that the current version of Springbrook that we're on is effectively no longer being supported, and we're seeing that when we give them a call and ask questions.

They have a very robust engineering team that has built this new platform, and uh they're not spending a lot of time with the old software, so it it's it's time to do it, and I think moving to the Springbrook platform that is upgraded, Cirrus makes sense as far as um not reinventing the wheel with the new software.

I think they're competitively priced for the type of product that they create.

So questions, Christy.

Thank you, Katie.

Normally, you know, I don't like things that are outside the budget process, but this sounds like it's uh something that will actually improve our budget process.

And if this is approved tonight, how soon would you be utilizing it?

We would want to get the contract signed by the end of the month, and that would uh there it was explained to me as far as the migration process is there's a bit of time for their developers to look at any customizations that we have with our current Springbrook product, which is likely a number of customizations because we have some in uh in-house built applications, and so we want to make sure we get all that set up and they are that's part of the fee for um that one-time cost of setup.

And so it's my high hope that we would be working with the new software when we go into the budget process around March.

But um that's optimistic, I think, as far as my migrations can take can take some time and also our other um products like our badger meters have to, you know, work with the new system.

So I'm really hoping we can get going and get it get it implemented in um in about March.

So thank you.

Mayor like to make a motion to approve resolution 25071, approving additional budget authority in the amount of 66,049.85 cents for the purchase of a software upgrade to the Enterprise Resource Planning Software Suite.

Second.

And moved and second.

Discussion.

Hearing none.

Roll call, please.

Wood?

Yes.

Evans.

Yes.

Miller.

Hi.

Gabriel?

Yes.

Guggen.

Yep.

All right.

Moving on.

Resolution 25072 authorizing the application and if awarded acceptance of the American America 250 in Idaho grant and amount of $2,500 for Historic Preservations Commission.

America 250 and Idaho celebration at the Kootney County Courthouse on July 3rd, 2026, and all the way from the planning department.

Thank you, Hillary.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I am here before you requesting your support to apply for the grant for America 250 in Idaho.

So the decision point is should City Council support staff and the Historic Preservation Commission in applying for America 250 and Idaho grant funds in the amount of $2,500.

And this would be for a joint event with Kooteny County's Historic Preservation Commission.

So a little bit of history.

So we formed the council did formally formed our historic preservation commission in 2019.

And we became certified local government.

We've been great in applying for and receiving grants with your support from the state through our certified local governments program.

This is a new grant program.

It's being done nationwide in Idaho's SHIPO is working on having this America 250 and Idaho celebration funds available.

And so we are asking to apply for these funds.

The goal is to celebrate not only America Turning 250 in 2026, but Idaho became a state on July 3rd, 1890, and the Kooteny County Courthouse turns 100 in 2026.

So all these things are converging.

We thought this would be a great event.

The county's historic preservation commission reached out to us and said, would you partner?

We'd love to have the city partner in this event outside of the courthouse on July 3rd.

And the fund, the celebration fund allows for seed money to do these types of celebrations.

So that's the goal for what we're looking to do that we're also able to apply jointly.

So we will be each seeking $2,500 for a total of $5,000.

So we'll be submitting a joint grant application with the counties Historic Preservation Commission.

This is kind of what we're looking at at this point.

We may refine that as we get further along, but the county has the county commissioners have already approved the purchase of a time capsule that will be buried and will be able to be uncovered in a hundred years.

So maybe a video of the event and then other things that we could do as part of that are advertising and commemorative items.

There is no cash match, which is rare with these, or even in-kind match, so it's no fiscal impact to us.

And so really just looking for your support this evening and applying for $2,500 for this event.

With that, I would stand for questions.

Questions, Council.

Easy one.

Hearing none.

Look for a motion.

I would make a motion uh to authorize the application for and if awarded acceptance of an America 250 and Idaho grant in the amount of $2,500 for the historic preservation commission's America 250 and Idaho celebration at the Kooteny County Courthouse on July 3rd, 2026.

Second.

Thank you.

And moved and seconded discussion.

Well, Mr.

Mayor, we what are we going to put in that time count?

What are you doing in about 20 years?

We're putting it.

I think the county wants it, right?

Yeah, I guess the county wants it.

All right.

A roll call, please.

Evans, yes.

Miller.

Hi.

Gabriel.

Yes.

Guggen?

Yeah.

Wood.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, Council.

Next up, Council Bill 251021 ordinance amending municipal code.

15.05.

010.

Modifying when firefighters air replacement system is required.

Welcome, Craig.

Perfect.

Mayor and Council, thanks for having us tonight.

So this is just a little bit of a change as you might remember back in December, we repealed the ordinance for the firefighter equipment rooms in lieu of moving forward with firefighter air replenishment system, essentially a air standpipe system in uh larger uh high-risk buildings.

And at that time, we wanted to tie the trigger to require the FARS system in with something else in building and fire code so that it would not be would not be forgotten.

We chose to uh tie it to when a water standpipe is required in building and fire code uh at four stories.

Then our first project come in as four-story buildings.

Uh we started to move forward with them and have some conversations about what this new system and its installation would look like.

And as they started to dig into it, they felt that it was cost prohibitive to uh mid-rise product um products and development.

Um so we we had several meetings with them uh with the installers, the air coalition, uh, and and a bunch of other uh good solid work to try and figure out a good solution for everyone.

Uh we looked at some of the fire departments down in southern Idaho who had pre who have previously adopted FARS ordinances as well, and we looked at their triggers and we found that their triggers were at a higher level than ours, uh, where we were looking to install these at four-story and above buildings, uh, meridians at five stories, NAMPA is at the definition of high rise, and um Boise installs them at 120 feet, but they also have 100 people to put on high-rise fires.

So uh we're in a little bit of a different situation there, so I wanted to look at what the next trigger could be and worked with our city attorney, and we believe that uh tying this to the definition of a high-rise building uh as it's defined in the building and fire code is the logical step where if you're building a high rise, you're expecting some additional uh costs and and safety features, and so we feel like this is the this is the place to put the trigger now, and it more aligns with what other departments in Idaho are doing as well.

Questions council Kenny?

Not a question but a comment and appreciation for looking at this and making tweaks because it's easy to throw something at it at the beginning, but as time goes on, you look and see that there's tweaks.

I think that moving it to the definition of a high rise was a great move.

So I appreciate that.

I think that was the intent to begin with.

Was specific for high-rise fires and you know how difficult it is for us with the few amount of people that we can put on a fire computer, the hunter down in Boise.

I think this is a very positive step.

Thanks, Greg.

Good job.

You bet.

Craig, can I ask you?

So how tall are we going?

Where are you re-establishing how big?

Uh so right now the current definition of high rise in the building and fire code is 75 feet above the level of um exit fire department egress.

So uh 75 feet is where the definition currently stands.

And that's where you're gonna stay.

So uh I'm tying it to the definition.

So should the definition change it at the code council on during part of the the process of evaluating and rewriting codes.

Um we don't have to come here again and and change the ordinance again, and we'll just stick with that.

We'll stick with the definition, and if that changes down down the line, we'll be able to do that.

Can you explain what FAR is?

Yeah, absolutely.

So FARS is the firefighter air replenishment system.

Uh and as a briefly clean kind of glossed over there, it's essentially a air standpipe for firefighters to re refill uh our SCBA bottles.

So as an alternative to carrying two or three spare bottles with us up to upper levels of high rises, because we don't necessarily want to be using uh elevators when the high rise is on fire.

Um as an alternative to carrying a whole bunch of bottles up a whole bunch of stairs uh and wearing our guys out before they even uh see fire.

Uh this is a system that will allow us through an umbilical cord that's um attached to our breathing apparatus to connect directly into a fill port in a pressurized stairwell where the uh air should be good and good and healthy, and it's coming uh from a lower level in a air compressor, and we've filled filled bottles right there, and uh you don't have to take bottles off.

It's it's all happening happening in real time, quicker fills, uh less less wear and tear on uh personnel moving up and down the the stairs prior to fight and fire.

That's pretty cool.

Other questions, discussion?

Look for a motion.

Thanks, Greg.

Thanks.

Second.

Discussion.

Hearing none, roll call, please.

Miller?

Hi.

Gabriel?

Yes.

Guggen?

Yep.

Wood?

Yes.

Evans.

Yes.

Read the title, please.

Council Bill number 25-1021, an ordinance providing for the amendment of Court of Lane Municipal Code 15.05.010B, providing for the repeal of conflicting ordinances, providing for severality, providing for the publication of a summary of the ordinance, and providing for an effective date thereof.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Miller.

Hi.

Gabriel.

Yes.

Yep.

Wood?

Yes.

Evans, yes.

All right, moving on.

Resolution 25073 approval of voluntary separation incentive agreements.

Katie, welcome back.

Thank you.

All right.

I have a presentation to elaborate on the resolution in front of you all for the voluntary separation incentive program.

So I'll just jump right in.

First, we'll go over the incentive program just to refresher as far as what the program is and what the criteria was approved by council.

I believe it was on November 5th or 4th.

And then I'll talk about the eligibility and the calculation methods that we used in order to determine eligibility.

Next, I'll list the participants to be approved there also in uh your resolution there, and um give a detail of the calculations.

And I'll go over a summary of savings as well as just some um closing thoughts on the savings.

Here's a refresher of what was approved.

The um we had a deadline and we uh required that they the retirement or I'm sorry, the separation would be no later than next uh December 31st in 2026.

We needed to show that there would be at least 25,000 savings in the first year.

These individuals would not be eligible for the retirement consultation benefit.

And the city administrator, the um department head, the finance director, and we had um help from HR as well, looked through the criteria, and council tonight would give the final approval.

And this would be binding for these employees.

So they provided a date, and upon approval tonight, their um uh separation date would be irrevocable.

As far as how the incentive was calculated, it would be one percent of base wages and um times the number of years of service.

So years of service is really going to affect those um incentives as you'll see.

There were a couple other um items, the 100% of the employees eligible sick leave payout uh what would go to the HRA Viva plan that saves the city a little bit on those associated PERSE as well as um FICA costs.

And another key factor would be that the employee and eligible dependents would agree to opt opt out of the quarterlane the city's medical coverage.

And so these individuals would they wouldn't be using the COBRA or any sort of retirement continuation of the city's medical coverage.

As far as the eligibility and how we calculated whether or not someone was eligible, we met with department directors.

We discussed a number of ways that there could be savings if there were after the separation.

So one would be promotions.

Did the director have any employees in their department identified that may be interested or have the have the skills to promote?

And so we talked about what savings would be if someone in the department promoted.

We also talked about filling the positions with recruitments, where would we find that replacement coming in to fill the position?

Where would they land based on how we hire and the ranges of our recruitments, uh the wage ranges for our recruitments?

We also talked about department reorganization.

So sometimes when you have these, uh we have a number of key employees on this list.

When you have the separation of certain positions, you can look at, okay, maybe it's not going to be that position can't be eliminated, but is there another position within the department where we you know move things around where we could eliminate a position so that that can provide quite a bit of savings.

If the savings from filling the position was less than $25,000, so if we're looking at where the um the separating employee is as far as their wages, and where we project that someone would come in to fill the vacancy, the difference between that, if it was not at least $25,000.

We discussed how many months that the position would need to be held in order to reach that minimum $25,000 in savings.

Here is a very large table of the individuals who are brought forward to approve.

And I wanted to show the methodology, just that some of these totals feed into a summary I'll show, but essentially, this is the savings portion that we're detailing here.

If you take the employee, that's where we're talking about that employee is leaving at a certain wage, and the person we're bringing in would be at um a lower wage.

The difference is in this first column.

So a total of 558,000.

And then when you look at some positions, especially our public safety positions, there are um agreements within the the contracts with the employees that um promotions would happen relatively quickly after those positions are vacated.

And so eventually you may not have savings from the promotion based on how the agreements with those those employees are, but eventually when all the individuals move up the step of the ladder, you're creating a vacancy for the either a police officer position or a firefighter position.

And if you're filling that with a recruit, you can see that that's quite a bit of savings.

Beyond this, this is where we start talking about was there enough savings?

As you can see, some of these had enough savings from these two calculations, some did not.

So we looked at how long would we need to leave the position open until we got to that 25,000 savings.

And so these are the minimum number of months that the positions would need to be open in order to be eligible.

And these have been discussed with the directors.

Um, you know, it some of them might be tricky, but they are willing to do this in order to help their employee be eligible.

These are the minimum numbers.

So we always hope that we are going to have more vacancy savings when it's possible, when it isn't going to affect operations to a significant level.

So we get down to this total of the total savings.

Um, some of them are one time, some of them are ongoing.

928,933 is where we're, I mean, these are projections, but I feel very comfortable that this is close to what we'll be seeing.

Then you get to the cost area up here, cost of incentive, and these are the incentive amounts coming to uh just under $610,000.

And that it's also important to note that these would be subject to our public employee retirement system as well as Social Security and Medic Medicaid or Medicare on the employee side.

So that adds an additional cost, bringing the cost of the incentives to 700 and uh just about 736,000.

Any questions on this?

So again, the minimum number of months is what we're listing there in order to achieve the 25,000 in savings.

It's not the recommendation.

The recommendation from the financial standpoint is we to hold as many as these um positions as we can for as many months so as to not interrupt um operations, but being really strategic with recouping some of those extra um one-time savings to cover the one-time cost of the incentive.

So the summary of savings can be a little tricky because it goes by fiscal year.

So in fiscal year 26, we're a few months in.

If we have someone retiring, let's say closer to the end of the fiscal year, closer to September 30th, then we're not going to see the 12 months of saving in that fiscal year.

So our savings in FY26 are projected at 281,000.

The incentive cost is uh 458,000.

So a net savings that would be a um net cost in FY26, and I would uh expect to bring this as a budget amendment in the FY26 budget amendment process.

When we go into FY27, that's where we start to see the higher number of savings because we're um it's a more of a fiscal year in order to see those savings, and the incentive cost is lower because we're starting to taper off of what is being paid out.

So you see net savings there of just under 317,000.

In FY28, we'll still have a little bit more savings.

So for example, if someone is retiring in December, um December 31st of 2026, there would be some savings in um in FY28.

So there wouldn't be an incentive cost, those should have already been paid.

The net savings here is just under 200,000.

And you might, I mean, this is where it gets a little tricky because these add up.

Um so the 281,000 from FY26 is going to add to the savings that we realize in FY27.

So it sort of snowballs as you go, which is why we're um stating that the ongoing costs would be 862,000 from this calculation.

These would be fully realized as savings and after FY28.

So as the years go on, um, it'll gradually we'll see those savings.

And the tough part here is that attrition is um a really it's a natural part of our budget, and it also plays such a huge factor when we build the budget.

So I want to give an example of um going from FY25 to FY26 as far as the budget process.

We start the process as a base budget when it comes to staffing.

And we um when we say flat, we don't necessarily mean it's going to be the same cost.

We mean we're we're budgeting for the same number of employees and where they are on our wage um ranges.

So if you were to take just the difference of going from FY25 budgeted salaries total for the city, and you go to FY26 by awarding um the merit-based wage increases that employees receive that aren't topped out.

We typically will have an increase to health benefit premium costs, which have been really great at the city, but medical insurance uh doesn't seem to go down.

I don't think it's possible.

And then we have scheduled PRZ rate increases, and sometimes we'll get a holiday on these, but eventually we're going to see um PERSI rate costs go up.

So when I took the staffing of FY28 and the cost, and just applied these three events with no wage increase, even negotiated wage increases I hadn't put in there.

We had an increase in the budget of 873,000.

And this is including attrition that we have.

And so the reason I share this is my fear is going into some of these budget seasons and getting the question well, where where's this savings?

It's going to be calculated as part of the flat budget process along with the other events.

Any questions on that?

I will go into one-time savings analysis.

So this would have the one-time savings of 66,000.

Um they are reflecting obviously those temporary vacancy savings, and this is where we make the case that uh those savings can be higher and offset this uh more.

So I will stand for any questions.

Council Christie.

Thank you.

Um Katie, thank you for the presentation.

I I what I gather is what kind of where we thought we would be.

The the savings aren't going to be immediate this year, but we're going to see the savings as we move on.

Council is the last couple of years especially been put in a position of well, we don't our budget is a little upside down here.

And so we've had to take a tax increase because we hadn't taken one for so long, and uh we didn't want to do that.

Um, but we were in a position where we just had to to keep operations the same.

But what we're looking for, I know what I hear from my fellow counsel is we want to look to how to impact the budget with savings, not necessarily just go get more revenue.

And that's always a struggle.

How do you do it?

Because everything is essential.

It really is.

The stuff that our staff performs and our employees, these are essential services that our citizens want.

So I saw this as a way to look for areas to cut the budget and find and realize some savings.

I do think we will probably realize more than what's projected just because some of these positions will be open for a few months or maybe even longer.

I'm really anxious to hear the results of the audit.

I'm hearing quite a bit of money was saved, at least at the police department this year, and and that impacts on what we would have to do next year.

So I think we're gonna see more savings, but I I appreciate what you put together for us.

Yeah, and um the audit is ongoing.

We will be um in a deficit, although much less of a deficit than was projected with budget.

So savings are really important as far as um I did see that the police department had quite a bit of savings, and typically that's just a natural, you know, with attrition and that sort of thing.

But unfortunately, we have other departments that um you know, just by the nature of how those departments work, um, for example, constant staffing in our plea or fire department, those can offset.

So it's very fluid as far as um you know whether or not we're going to see money being added back into our fund balance.

I'm not seeing that right now, but we're eating into it far less than budgeted.

So I'm pleased to see that.

I'll ask you the question.

So if you don't, if we don't do this, what would be the impact?

Would there be any savings just from people who are gonna be leaving anyway?

I the way that um the it's hard to say, right?

It's sort of who would have retired if this incentive weren't there.

So I I don't know that I'd be able to calculate if if there are any the different numbers.

We know of the dates now, we know what the savings are, so it it's it's hard to say what what the difference would be if this were not to go forward.

So from your perspective though, it looks like it's it's a good way to go for the savings is worth the effort and the payouts and the cash flow.

I um I don't want to put it in.

I'm trying to think of my wording.

I'm going a little blank here.

I think that um it's good to know about there are a lot of operational benefits to to having these retirements uh known.

For example, if we know that um some of our public safety positions are going to be open uh at certain times, there's enough to get together a um a uh a cla a course for the incoming employees.

I'm not using the correct terminology, so that's very very helpful.

That can reduce constant staffing, as I alluded to with our fire department.

So I think that there are so many variables at this, it's really hard to say.

My fear is saying that that this is a a good move is that we're gonna go into a budget process, and it will almost feel like I misled the fact that those savings will go away because of the natural increases.

So, you know, I'm been accused of being half glassful before.

So I think that there are more considerations here that council has um at them.

So thank you.

Thanks for all the effort on this.

It's uh a new language.

Council Mr.

Mayor, I'd make a motion.

Make a motion to approve voluntary separation incentive agreement with the following employees.

Troy Timeson, George Daly, Bill DeWriter, Jeff Fletcher, Mike Frederick, Tom Grife, Katie Hurst, Blaine Porter, Matt SOA, Winita Knight, Allison Palmer, Bill Greenwood, Mark Walter, John Cantrell, Judy Griffin, Louise Martin, Brandon McCormick, Tim Neal, Bill Tilson, Lee White, Dennis Grant, Terry Lee, David Hauser, and Larry Parsons.

Second.

50.

Do you see how I did that?

Yeah.

Well, this is a dollar sword for me because every single person on this list I've known a long time and have worked with for a long time, and what they have done is made great contributions to this community, and they have made this city great, and it's a because of their hard work.

But we go to work and we work hard, and the goal is to retire.

So for that, all I can say to them is thank you, each and every one of them.

Thank you so much, because you will be missed.

And I appreciate all the work you've done over the years.

Kiki.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I echo a little bit of what Kenny said.

I think that these are all deserving folks, but I'm really sorry to see that they're going.

It's just a tremendous pool of talent and dedication to the city.

So um, best to all of them, but I'll miss you.

And I do hear Katie clearly that this is a short-term savings program.

This isn't an ongoing forever, and I think we have to make those moves.

And I do like that we are able to clear up the crystal ball a little bit so that there is some planning for replacing some of these positions and knowing what's coming for this little interim.

So I think for that reason it's a good program.

And I will agree with you guys.

I think the chances of reorganizing, I've watched that over all the years here that sometimes these guys are really smart about thinking about how they do things here.

And I just I enjoy that the most looking back on how things have changed, and usually always gets better, you know.

So other comments.

Um roll call, please.

Gabriel.

Yes.

Guggen.

Yep.

Wood?

Yes.

Evans?

Yes.

Miller.

Aye.

Thank you, you guys.

Next up, all the way from the water department, Glenn.

Resolution 25074, acceptance of a low bid of approval for agreement with filtration technologies in the amount of 122,575 dollars for the purchase of and installation of myox chlorine generation unit to be installed on the locust well.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Thank you for having me tonight.

As you stated, uh I'm here to present to you uh the recommended purchase uh and installation of a MyOx chlorine generation unit for um the our locust well.

A little bit of history of our chlorination process.

Uh when I first started in 2009, all of our wells were using 100 percent gas chlorine, which is a very volatile and dangerous type of chlorination.

Um it's uh basically you cannot see it if it's leaking and if it's inhaled, it's extremely dangerous.

And anything that comes in contact with moisture or oils or anything, it becomes hypochlorous acid, which as you know, acids pretty much eat anything they come in contact with.

With technology advancements, we sourced a company that uses a liquid salt solution and it passes through a cell with metal plates in it, and it also has direct current energy that is applied to it, and through the chemical process of that, we the result is uh liquid chlorine or sodium hypochlorite for the chemical solution.

This process creates a less than half percent solution, which is much more feasible for our employees to uh work with in case there's leaks or any type of fittings that uh need to be replaced, much less caustic.

But as you can see, some of the flooring, if we get chlorine on the floor, it eats it still has issues with uh eating paint.

This was all freshly painted when we installed this unit.

Uh and as the years come by and leaks happen, we we still have issues with that.

So the current brand that we have installed in this well is a microchlor brand.

It has stood the test of time very well.

Unfortunately, the company has had some issues, and we're having a hard time sourcing products from them.

Um the expenses, of course, have gone up.

So the myox brand units that we do have in our other well sites currently have uh are very robust.

We do have maintenance issues with them, but the good far outweighs the bad with these newer units that we're using.

Um a little bit of the financial analysis.

Staff advertised for bids for this, um, and we were only returned with one bid from filtration technologies for a 15 pound per day unit that would be enough to meet the demands of our uh 3,000 gallon net locust well to keep up with the minimum residuals required by DEQ to keep in within compliance.

Uh we did actually reach out to a couple other companies that do source uh similar types of equipment, however, they failed to uh submit bids when we did the opening.

So uh we we definitely like new technologies we try to find new resources to have some backing if we do ever have issues with this type of unit, but unfortunately we did not receive anything from them.

As I said, uh the uh myox chlorine generation units, we do have them in all of our other sites.

This is the last one that we need to be replaced.

As you can see in the picture, it's a nice clean unit.

Uh, everything's housed inside that panel.

We have our salt tank on the right and our solution tank on the left.

This is one of our larger wells that we have.

Uh while this solution less than half a percent solution is still caustic, it is much easier for our employees to use and and work with on a daily basis.

So and with that, the recommendation uh for council would be to accept the bid and award the contract of filtration technologies for the supply and installation of a myox chlorine generation unit in the amount of 122,575 dollars.

And I would stand for questions.

Questions, council?

Mr.

Mayor.

Christy.

Thank you.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Clearly, it's needed.

My question is uh this is obviously a standalone unit.

What my question is about the safety alarms that will protect you and your fellow employees.

Do we have sufficient safety alarms?

Um in these types of scenarios, uh, the biggest alarm that we would have is our pumps failed to inject the chlorine to stay in compliance with DEQ, which we do have some of those looped into our SCADA system to alarm us if those are if those do fail to produce.

We do we are at those sites daily uh when the wells are running to make sure that we don't have any leaks.

Um if those if we did have a leak in that a simple hose down to to dilute the solution would be appropriate for getting rid of the chlorine on the floor.

Um so as far as alarms go, um we would have to do a sub a great deal of sensors throughout the floor to be able to do that, but this solution is not caustic enough to harm the building, harm the floor or anything like that.

It gets eaten up pretty fast if it hits the air.

Okay, thank you.

Questions?

I have to ask just so I keep hearing some cities chlorinate their water, and I guess we all do.

Some places they say I can taste it.

Ours are is ours.

How do you inject how much once a gallon a day or something like that?

So there's uh there's a complex formula for how many gallons a minute we pump from our well.

We have to maintain a minimum residual through our uh distribution system required by DEQ.

Um we like to keep what's called a minimum of a 0.2 residual, 0.2 parts per million in the system.

That seems to be a good finite line between taste and odor complaints.

Okay.

If we do often find taste and odor complaints, it is because of the lack of chlorine in the water.

And so if we start seeing springtime of the year, the the water coming out of the ground is perfectly good to drink.

Um I can go in in depth uh in detail for why we have the chlorine and why DEQ requires it, but uh the simplicity simplistic version is basically that we can protect our customers and keep make sure we have good potable water.

So if we have to sometimes we do have to increase that because we have taste and odor complaints, and so if we do have to increase it, it's very minimal, and we get feedback from our community.

So I thank you.

I had to ask, you know.

Alright, no other discussion.

For a motion, please.

Mr.

Mayor, I make a motion to approve resolution number 25074.

Accepting low bid and approving an agreement with filtration technologies in the amount of 122,575 for the purchase and installation of a myox chlorine generation unit to be installed at the locust well.

Second.

Been moved and seconded.

Discussion.

Guggen.

Yep.

Wood?

Yes.

Evans?

Yes.

Miller.

Hi.

Gabriel.

Yes.

Alright, moving along.

Resolution 25075, approving change orders number one and two.

The police support services building project contract with Geno Construction Company in the total of 16,320.55 cents.

And Adam, our building maintenance no guy that knows everything.

Welcome, Adam.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm here tonight asking for council's approval to ratify two change orders that were issued over the course of the project for the PD.

I always want to say special services, but our support services building.

Change order, or I should preface with the uh project was budgeted for $1,095,000, and the two change orders came to a total of $16,320.55.

That brought the total project cost to $1,11,320 and 55 cents.

Change order one included over excavating the uh site which unsuitable soils were found and recompact the structural fill to meet the compaction test to be able to put the new building on top of.

Um during the site prep that the initial building that was previously there didn't have the proper documentation for the soils.

And so the contractor uh first posed uh to us that uh they could excavate the entire site about three feet down and uh refill and compact in the layers uh for a price tag of I think around 30,000 on that item alone.

Uh George and our uh building department uh helped us navigate that and recommended we do the tear and recompact, and that brought that down substantially.

I think that one was around uh three thousand to fix that one.

So that was uh navigated correctly.

Uh the second, and I have the pictures on the next slide, uh, was to utilize the uh ongoing progress of the project and take the news of the approved PD training center and trench and stub our utilities over for the future use of that training facility and where the uh old salt storage uh at the street department once excuse me once stood.

Um another item was to install a vault to maintain maintain access to an underground ball drip valve for the fire sprinkler system, and we needed relocate the sprinkler system tie-in, which was originally planned uh to tie into the hydrant.

Uh however, with the sprinkler system and the hydrant tied together, if both were ever needed, we'd run into some pressure issues there.

So we relocated the tie into a water main.

Um here on the left, we have the utility trench, which we ran the conduit for the electrical for the future PD training center as well as the gas line.

Uh in the center, we have the volt for the FDC ball drip valve, and that again maintains access uh where it originally sat without the vault.

It was inundated by all the utilities around, and should it ever need service or maintenance, we'd have to excavate all of that, and that would be uh a challenge.

And then on the far right, we have the water line connection to tie into the hydrant, which was uh originally planned to be tied in back here.

Uh change order two, uh smaller and less exciting.

Uh during the electrical rough in walkthrough, um the PDIT department requested for additional outlets and data drops to support the uh future operations and growth of that department.

Um thing we did that offset that uh we had to omit the sheet rock on the underside of the second floor to accommodate for uh plumbing and mechanical rough ins.

Um so we saw some savings there to offset the cost of the uh electrical and data revisions and last, which is pictured below, which is not terribly exciting.

Uh we had protective ballers installed, which were intended to protect the unit heater that is located above these.

Uh once they were installed, we noticed they would obstruct uh command trailer from being pulled through.

Uh so we had those removed and the concrete patched.

Um along with this, uh I had some photos to recap the project.

Uh on the left is the uh remnants from our structure fire, and on the right is our new PD support services building.

Um here we have the new building.

Uh on the left, we have uh the vertical the new building going vertical with the framing.

And we see the trusses being set along with the sheathing on the far right.

Uh here, the progression of the building.

We have the roof uh constructed and the building wrapped in tie back.

Uh the siding going on in the middle, and the uh exterior finishes on the far right.

Uh here's the interior finishes near near completion of the project.

Uh the bay and the first floor where the support services are located, and the second floor where the IT is located.

Uh we've since moved in, and here's what it looks like with staff and furniture moved in and operational.

Uh once again, I'm asking for council to approve the ratifications for change orders one and two uh in the total of sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty dollars and fifty-five cents, which can be covered from the insurance proceeds from the fire.

Questions great presentation, loved all the pictures.

Thank you.

Um need a motion, please.

Mr.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve resolution number 25-075, approving change orders one and two to the police support services building project contract with Geno Construction Company in the amount of sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty dollars and fifty-five cents.

Second.

And moved in, second discussion.

Kenny.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Sixteen thousand dollar change order on a million dollar job is pretty good.

We did all right on that.

We're pretty pleased.

I gotta hunch it out a lot to do with your oversight, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, no other things.

Wood, yes.

Evans, yes, Miller.

Aye, Gabriel?

Yes, Gugin.

Yep.

All right.

Thank you.

I think it's our last resolution.

Katie, resolution 25076, authorization of Mayor Daniel K.

Gukin to be added as authorized signer on all city of quarterlane bank accounts, investment accounts, and financial instruments effective.

January 7th, 2026.

Thank you.

Yes, this is uh hopefully straightforward.

We have dual signature authority on the um bank accounts for the city as an internal control measure, and it's been uh typically the mayor and per statute the treasurer.

So we hope to get ahead of the uh curve here and be able to send out a resolution to the banks so we can get going on uh there's quite a bit of paperwork for our uh 14 accounts out there.

So questions?

So just to be clear, the two signers are you and the and the mayor, yeah.

Mayor Gukin.

Okay, thank you.

Any other discussions, questions?

Did we do a background check?

I don't think he was elected.

Well, I think you get what they sent you.

Mr.

Mayor, I make a motion to approve resolution number 25-076, authorizing Mayor Daniel K.

Gukin to be added as an authorized signer on all City of Quarterline Bank accounts, investment accounts, and financial instruments effective, January 7th, 2026.

Second.

Discussion.

Hearing none.

Roll call, please.

Wood, yes.

Evans, yes, Miller.

Hi.

Gabriel.

Yes.

Kukin.

Yeah.

Come on.

Come on.

It'll be fun.

Um, I need a motion to move into executive session.

So Mr.

Mayor, I'm going to move to enter into executive session pursuant to Idaho Code 742061 sub A.

Consider hiring a public officer, employee staff member, or an individual agent, wherein the respective qualities of the individual are to be evaluated in order to fill a particular vacancy or need.