And create things instead of having to go out and buy it.

Our 3D printer, I think, is a great example of that.

We see often people putting in requests for things that they need to use around their home that they would rather 3D print for free instead of having to go out and buy that.

And so I have a receipt here that shows a good example of this.

A patron came in, checked out an item.

It cost them $15.

It would have cost them $15 had they gone and bought that themselves, but because they utilized the library, they were able to save that $15.

Over the year, they've saved over a thousand dollars by using library resources.

And because they've been a patron for many years, they've been able to save over $1,000.

And so I think that's a great example of how again the library is stretching taxpayer dollars and providing them that resource.

So as we looked at who's using the library, uh, we've seen that we have around 44,000 active cards in the community.

Uh we mapped this here on a map in the uh handout that I provided you.

If you turn to the next page, there's an enlarged uh picture of this map of NAMPA.

So we've broken it out to the dist different districts so you can see how many library patrons are in each district.

Uh we're about 10,000 below half of every NAMPA resident having a library card.

Uh my goal would I would love to see us get to half.

Um so as we look at that, and again, I I do have uh if if council would like to reach out after this, I do have a link to an interactive um map for this map, so you can actually drill down into individual uh neighborhoods and things.

But what you typically see with these numbers and the fact that we're just low just barely below half of every NAMPA resident having a library card, do you see that nearly er or every neighborhood has nearly half of its residents having an active library card.

Uh we do um our library cards do expire after two years and you have to renew them.

And so definitely uh this is a pretty uh within the last two years an accurate view of how many people have it.

And so I mean it's just amazing to me to be able to look at this and see how many people throughout our community are actively using our library on a regular basis.

As you look at our statistics, as I mentioned, uh people coming into the library using the bookmobile or using our window uh book pickup.

Um we've increased that by 11% uh last year.

And again, that was uh an increase from the previous year in 2024 with 11% more people using the library.

Um our circulation we increased by eight percent.

Our reference desk, we actually changed uh how we record those numbers and because we made that change, we did see a decrease in it because we're not counting as many questions that come through because some were repetitive and things like that.

And so I feel that this will provide us a more accurate number as we move forward.

Um our library book our library and bookmobile program saw a 25% increase that's down from 30 from the previous year, but again, just showing that more more people are utilizing the library.

The attendance um two programs that did not see an increase this year simply because we are starting to get to the point where we're to stay within fire code, we have to start uh putting up uh a reservation so that you have can come and be part of that program to keep us within the numbers of the fire code.

And so just because we're uh confined by the space of the library and not being able to go beyond that for the safety, we didn't see any increase in the numbers, but we are seeing that uh that is starting to become an issue as more people are using the library.

We're starting to have to say not as many people can come because we're limited on that space.

Um our volunteer hours increase by 14%, and then our collection size is only up by 3% because last year we did do a large change to the collection, making it a lot easier for patrons to be able to find the collection by doing more of a uh uh um a genre-based title.

So you can go in, you can see where the history is, you can see where the biography is, because not everyone knew the Dewey decimal system.

So because we made this change, uh, we did see a decrease the previous year, and we're now rising up front uh this last year.

And then study rooms obviously is a huge request from our patrons.

They love those spaces, they love the ability to come in and find a quiet space to either study or have a meeting, and so we saw a 17% increase in that.

Um for our org chart, we did we were able to decrease um the amount of employees by two percent this uh past year.

We've taken two 19-hour positions and combined them into two 29-hour positions, which decrease that.

But other than that, our uh positions have stayed the same.

The the two areas where we have the most staff are public service, so serving the community, putting on those programs, answering the questions that patrons have, and then uh obviously our circulation area uh as books come back in, they need to be put back on the shelves, they need to be sent to other libraries.

That is a uh huge uh department that we have well, I shouldn't say a huge department, but a huge aspect of what the library does on a daily basis, making sure that materials are put where they need to be so that patrons can either find them or get access to them.

Um as I move into this next uh section, I do want to preface it by saying uh as we met with Mayor Hoganbohm, he made a request that we actually meet with the legal um and our finance department to kind of talk about how the budget of the library is is made.

And so as I go into this, I do that at the request of the mayor.

Just he wanted some answers or some questions answered, and so I provide that to council um upon his request.

Council President.

Yes.

We want to save questions till the end.

I'd like to hold the questions if you'll make a note.

Thank you, please, and we'll continue to let Jared finish the presentation and then we'll we won't attack him, but we'll ask some questions.

Um so the city receives funds uh taxpayer funds that are then levied to the different departments, one of those being the library.

Um according to city council, city or city the city attorney, the city council then approves that fund that is allocated to the library.

And then according to library uh Idaho library law, the Board of Trustees has oversight on the actual expenditures of how those things are um funded out and for what purpose.

Uh those laws are found in section 332603 and uh section 332609.

Um so as we move forward uh meeting with the Board of Trustees to kind of figure out how they wanted to allocate those funds.

Uh, we did look at the fiscal year 25 budget, looking at our property revenues as well as just the the small amount of revenues that the library does create to kind of get our baseline.

And so, with that, what the Board of Trustees are just proposing to City Council is that uh no less than currently what they're doing with the three just under three and a half million dollars uh be allocated to the library for uh this coming fiscal year.

Um, that is 76% going to salary and benefits, eight percent going to the collection, and then twice 25% just going to operations.

And with that, I'm more than happy to take questions.

Okay.

Councilman Griffin.

He started there to start there and come.

Back to the I don't know if this is on or not.

I don't have a green light anymore again.

Mic check.

Okay.

The org chart set up and showing that there's a full-time equivalent of 33 employees, understanding that it's both full-time, part-time, and very part-time.

How do we fare compared to other similar-size facilities in the state?

Idaho Falls, I don't know how many libraries Meridian has.

I know Boise is not comparable because they have multiple buildings.

So for a single facility.

So I I would first say that there's not one library that's really close to our size.

We we kind of fall in between I I think ADA and say Idaho Falls, and there's a big difference there, obviously, in size.

What that means is we actually see more requests coming through the library, uh, more books being sent to other libraries, things like that.

And so as I said, that there's not one that we kind of fit close to size-wise, but we are one of the more heavier used libraries in the Treasure Valley.

And so when we look at the staffing needs and requirements, um I I feel that we're actually right where we need to be, um, just based on the volume of things that are coming in and through the library, the amount of people versus also the amount of material that's coming through.

Um we do try to we do work on keeping our um teams um low, not overburden heavy where people are just standing around.

And I've been able to actually see that, you know, as we go into the back where people are sorting materials, uh answering a call from someone that's at the window or running out to help lines that are backing up out at the front.

Uh we're able to do that with a small enough number to be able to put people where we need them, but then keep everything moving.

So I I think we actually fare pretty well.

Thank you.

Councilman.

Um, thank you for your information.

Uh I what I want to ask you is a couple of questions.

The first one is when was the last time that the uh the NAPC the NAMP library budget was increased.

When was each services increased to take hold of your budget needs?

Um so uh just as a reminder, I've only been here just roughly over a year, so I don't know that right off my off the top of my head, but I I it's my understanding that it's been a few years.

We haven't increased in quite a while.

Okay.

So here's here's my issue.

Um you have kind of a kind of uh an equation here.

It's it's volume versus demand of services versus cost of and increases to the year budget.

And it's the same budget.

Or it was last year and the year before.

So I I don't know if what you have in this budget this year other than what we have shown here, but your increases overcome your needs.

So uh and this could be for Doug.

Could we increase based on the levy the needs of the library?

Right.

So just to answer the first part of your question a moment ago.

Um in a typical year when we take the property tax levy for library parks, airport, and cemetery, I give them enough of the levy to cover the cost of increases of health and wages.

But I don't give them much more.

The last substantial substantive increase to library was about three years ago when we brought the bookmobile on.

Part of that was from a grant, and part of it was for additional operational costs to manage the the bookmobile after its receipt.

If the the allocation of resources is starts off with finance guesstimating what would is the appropriate amount, but it is up to or allowable for council to suggest deviations or changes to that if they wish.

But it's a zero-sum game.

We we take from one bucket and we put it in another.

Uh in this case, as it has been for years, the vast majority of the funds go to public safety, and then the residual um goes to the parks library, but we give them we I truly, truly wish there was more to give to the parks to the library and places like that to help them thrive and grow.

We give them enough to keep them alive, but not really to grow.

So the answer would be then to like all the other departments in the city is to increase your service, increase the fees.

Do you have a do you have a uh a chart that that would show that um not currently on hand, I don't.

Do you have a do you have a uh a chart that that would show that um uh not currently on hand, I don't um we would also want to do some updated studies, you know, look at you know, you could look at what it costs for someone in the county to come get a library card and see if we're on par, do we need to raise that and things like that?

Um the one thing I will say to increasing fees like that is they're such a small percentage that it'll make a little difference, but not enough to actually see a difference.

Okay, uh one more follow-up, uh President.

Do you have a reserve?

Uh we do have a reserve and fund balance.

And how much is that?

Um I think currently the library has two and a half million in there.

Okay.

I'm not saying to use that, by the way.

I just well we're just curious.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council President.

Yes, Councilman Griffin.

I I have more questions now.

I I didn't realize that we gave library cards to county residents.

Do you have a percentage or know the number of county residents that have a library card and use our facility?

557 non-resident accounts.

Thank you.

In order to utilize the library, they do have to pay a fee because they do not pay taxes into it.

Is that a one-time fee or ongoing?

It's an annual fee.

Okay.

And how much is that?

For one year, it's $52.

And we do have a senior uh rate for $33.

The only reason I ask is we've found in the last few budget cycles that a lot of agencies aren't paying the play.

We support the Family Justice Center pretty much independently, and now I'm hearing that the county residents, even though they pay a $52 annual fee, we're supporting them as well and bearing the brunt of it.

Uh I I would be interested in not only seeing fee increases, but also a study on the percentage differential with counties, how much of the county makes up our budget that we're giving services to, and if that $52 is sufficient to be able to service them without putting more of the burden on city taxpayers, so making sure they pay a fair share of what the cost is.

Obviously, for city residents, they're paying property taxes.

It's difficult to calculate an exact number, but I'd love to dive into that no more.

Um, the map that we did provide also, you can, as you look at that a little closer, it does show how many people also where they're located throughout.

And it's often those who are either in city limits and they happen to be in one of those weird, you know, spots where it's county controlled or just barely out of the city limits.

2,9157.

Yeah.

Mr.

President, I have a question for Doug.

I think um Doug, why do we carry such a high fund balance uh for the library?

What kind of emergencies do they expect?

Um the fund balance for the library, I don't recall exactly it's a little north of two million, I think.

Um has been essentially unchanged since I came in.

We haven't really added anything to it nor pulled much out of it.

Um so we have left it there for them to deal with uh if they have a significant structural problem, say an HVAC go out or an elevator go out or something that's a significant cost, they have something to rely on because the buildings are expensive.

We know that in the new Nichols building, the HVAC is much more complex, but it's nearly a million dollars to repair that.

So we need that there in place in case there primarily is a big physical problem with the building that requires an immediate repair that they have the funds to cover it.

But that again can be addressed through council uh sessions and talk and discussions.

Okay, and a follow-up.

Uh so are we scheduling the deferred maintenance on that building?

So we're funding that ongoing.

That's part of the facilities group.

They um I know that a couple years ago we did in fact replace the elevator in the library.

And I believe you may have had conversations with the facilities on maintenance issues.

Yeah, so uh councilman Reynolds, uh, we do have some projects that are coming up.

Uh the lights that were installed in that building 10 years ago when it was built.

Um, they no longer make those bulbs and things, and so that's one thing that the city has earmarked here in the next couple of years where we'll go and put in new lightings that can actually be replaced by facilities on a regular basis.

Um I believe the carpet is coming up that eventually that will be replaced.

And so there are some upcoming uh facility needs that facilities are working to make sure that it's in line with their projects coming up that we'll be working on.

Just think of a foundation.

I don't want to challenge a force or anything like that.

I'm just trying to not understand.

There's 257 county users, that's 6% on the 44,000 active card holders.

172,000 of our two nine 2.9 million dollar budget.

I really think we should look at what that increase looks like in the county under I'm not basing that on the overall budget basing on library money property revenue of 2971.

And that that number should be added in the revenues below, you'll see that it's there, that makes up the overall total for the library.

I actually think there's with that 6%, we always help pays this to know six percent of our budget should be shared in the account.

Pay to play people $52 or county on funded, and they can get free library fund.

And I will say that I think um when you uh and and I could be wrong, Doug might know this better than I do, but um, when you take what the property tax is versus the amount of users, that number I believe is pretty close to what county uh county users are paying.

So like per patron.

And I think that's what we kind of based on.

We want to make it pretty close to what our NAMPA residents are paying in taxes.

So a follow-up to that is council, if you end up studying the map that they've provided where all the user uh folks are at, you'll notice on the map that uh there's uh a hand well more than a handful, but uh there's a lot of users who live in the city of Caldwell using the city of NAMPA library.

And so they may have a NAMPA address, but they don't live physically inside the city of NAMPA because of the mailing situation.

So do you know if those who are in the actual city of Caldwell or so we we do see um a high number annually of individuals who are coming from Caldwell to use NAMPA?

Um from discussions I've had with individuals that live in Caldwell, often I hear that NAMPA just has such a much better library than Caldwell does.

Um it's bigger, it provides more resources.

Uh the children's area is a little more uh robust than what Caldwell is providing.

And so, yeah, um again, it's one of those things that people are looking for those resources that are looking for that, and so they will get a library card so that they can come and utilize that resource here, and and so they do we have a large number just simply because our library provides so much more.

You know, and and we do have percentages you get people from Eagle and from Boise and other places that as they're traveling around, maybe they're visiting family, they'll come in and utilize the library as well why they're here in NAMPA.

So it's not just Caldwell, but we see people from all over the Treasure Valley when they're in the area coming and using the library.

Sure, I understand.

I just what I'm wanting to ask whether you know or not is are we differentiating which which list are you using to determine if it's a resident of NAMPA or an outside?

Um so on this map, we provided only those who live in NAMPA and have a NAMPA library card.

Um, so that that map is showing just that you can go get a Caldwell library card and use any of the libraries here in the Treasure Valley.

Okay, for clarification.

Are you using their postal address as your determination if they're in NAMPA?

Yes.

Okay.

So some way Well, and I I would say because some live in the county, we we were looking at active NAMPA card holders specifically.

So it's a NAMPA library card versus say a Caldwell library card or a Meridian.

Well, what I'm trying to differentiate is is that folks live in the county and also live in the city of Caldwell, and they have a NAMPA mailing address, postal address.

Those folks are not paying for the library service.

If they do not live within city limits, they have to pay for that card.

And I'm trying to ask, how do you distinguish and know that they live in the city limits?

So each person as they come in to either get a card or renew a card, we go back and look at the address that they're located at and then look at the actual boundaries.

We just had this the other day.

Uh person lives technically in the city limits, but they actually live in one of those pots that is still county, and we had to inform them that they had to pay to get that library card.

They're in one of the enclave areas.

Yes.

Right.

Okay.

So yes, we are uh we're one of the libraries in the Treasury Valley that that is one of the things we educate our staff on and really drill into them that whenever anyone's coming to get a library card or renewing or double checking that to make sure that we know whether they're getting that because they're paying property tax, or if they're outside in county, they need to pay for that.

Okay, thank you very much.

To the right, any questions?

Okay.

Um, President.

Would it help you your department specifically if we were to make those enclave properties part of the city so that everyone in City Limits is just a city NAMPA city residents?

I know that um there's many people that would love that.

Many people in the community that would love that.

Um what would it help the library specifically help you differentiate that?

It would make it easier, um, I think, because you wouldn't have to go into those enclaves to see, you know, is it in or out?

Um it would save time there.

Um it might also boost the amount of property tax coming into the city as a whole, you know, which would help us.

But thank you.

And then follow up.

Um, is there have you done any comparison on the piggyback of Councilman Griffin's questions as far as um what the comparison is for other libraries in the communities that are around us as far as the um the county people that have license or fees?

Oh my gosh.

That they have um library cards.

Have you looked at those to see how much in comparison that we are with others?

We do have that information.

I don't have it with me right now.

I apologize for that.

But we do fall in the um as far as our non-resident fees are about the middle of them, some are much higher.

Some are lower, COVID is lower.

Um CUNA is lower, but um we fall in about the middle of that.

Do you feel like it's something that we could raise a little bit to fall still fall within those numbers that you've seen?

Uh that would be a decision for the board and Jerry to talk with them, but I do know that our fees have not gone up uh since I started.

I started in 2003, and we did an increase in 2003, and our non-resident fees have stayed the same for those 20 some years.

So that's helpful.

Thank you.

Well, that's gonna be a a request coming.

But if we haven't had an increase in 23 years, everybody else has taken increases.

So that's an offset that we're gonna have to we're forced to to look at every every option because of the tightness of budget and the lack of legislative funding.

So please be advised that that's likely uh gonna be a request and or we're gonna need to start to spinning down some of that fund balance and to offset these programs that are subsidizing other folks.

So I mean, council that that's gonna be a decision to contemplate and think about uh forthcoming.

So Jared, thank you very much.

For Doug.

Yes.

Jared, we're gonna let you have a seat and uh Andrew.

I should be able to remember that.

My son's name is Andrew.

That's all right.

So councilman, if you can hold that question for the moment.

Yes, I'll read it down.

We'll bring it, we'll bring it up at the end.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, sir, good morning.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you, Council.

My name is Andrew Luther.

I'm the general manager of the NAMPA Civic Center here in town.

Uh our organizational chart, I have a bit of a hybrid role.

As you know, I oversee the Ford Idaho Center and the NAMPA Civic Center at the same time.

However, we have a facility director at the NAMPA Civic Center who oversees the day-to-day management of the operations.

Uh on the rest of the team, you know, we've got the the basic things accountants, event managers, um, office coordinators, operations folks, and then the benefit of you know, things have changed in the last few months, but the benefit of having the Ford Auto Center in town has been remote support.

So the Ford Idaho Center lends a lot of remote support as far as box office finance and marketing services go to the NAMPA Civic Center.

So recent achievements.

Some of these are large, some of these are small, but they're all big to us in certain ways.

Completed the phase two LED upgrade.

So the entire conference center in common areas are now LED, which is great, especially given the constant increases from Idaho Power on utility billing.

Um St.

Al's partnership.

So many of you have been to the Civic Center, but you'll see the I guess the entry that faces the best western is now exclusively branded for St.

Al's.

That was a large deal that started at the Ford Idaho Center with St.

Al's becoming the exclusive health care provider of that venue.

But we wanted to bake in the Civic Center and St.

Al's obvious community values.

It was an excellent fit.

So that's about $10,000 a year for having some some signage on that uh on that facility entry.

So we really like that.

Uh combined marketing departments this year.

So that's been a departure from what has been the norm since at least I've been here for the last 10 years.

I can't speak before that.

But we just had a lot of turnover in the department, and we have a very strong marketing department at the Ford Idaho Center.

So we were able to add some duties to them, decrease the labor allocation to the civic center and increase the quality of the marketing that was taking place at the venue.

So that's uh kind of a slow burn.

I'm looking forward to seeing that pay off in time.

However, I do think leveraging both venues together still puts us more in an advantageous position than having siloed venues right now.

Cleaning equipment purchases deals directly with the elimination of third party janitorial.

We went ahead and just made the plunge and buying all the equipment needed to run our own janitorial service.

So it used to be outsourced, and the impetus behind that is one cost savings, but two, keeping our current staff busy also.

We follow the school calendar.

So keeping a roster of part-time staff who know what they're doing can be challenging through the leaner months when they need to still make a buck.

So adding janitorial to the tasks helps keep a stronger staff, lowers costs, it's a win-win all the way around.

So a refresher on this year's current budget.

So heading into this year.

We also decreased operating expenses by $70,000.

So I did not anticipate a large variance heading into the end of this fiscal year, which is coming true.

Um I'm seeing about be about a zero when we come to the end of the year.

Traditionally, we've been 150,000, 100,000 ahead of the budget, which has been really, really good.

But just cost factors keep increasing and challenges remain as far as generating revenue and cutting expenses that put us in this position right now.

Then some of the obvious changes that I'll get into next.

But I uh we increase rental rates two times the last two years.

We're gonna be looking at doing that again, and that's likely gonna happen again going into fiscal year 27.

Our busy season wraps up in about six weeks.

So we try to kind of take the calendar as a whole and take the the summer slower and institute all those rate changes.

Events are essentially flat year over year.

So the booking content still remains high.

We do about 370 events annually.

Every event is a little bit different shape, different size, and different financial outcomes.

But the event mix overall has not changed significantly.

That would lend to uh more challenging revenue producing circumstances.

Um then essentially is budget cuts are making up the difference.

So the 70 grand that we cut out from Indirex last year, or maybe it's showing itself in the bottom line.

So heading into the coming fiscal year, and to preface this, I have not met with Doug yet on this.

So this is just us putting our first draft of numbers together.

We have a meeting later this week where we'll sure we'll dive deeper in.

But right now, if we go into the next budget season today, you know, our deficit would be 397,000.

So that's 38,000 higher than the current year.

Reasons for that, um, labor and benefits are up about 88,000.

So that's a pretty significant cost.

But what happened is the Ford Idaho Center was conveyed to the College of Western Idaho, and that support staff has to be allocated as a percentage base of their expense to the NAPA Civic Center.

So there's more FTEs on the org chart than are physically in the building because FIC provides a lot of supplemental staffing to the NAMPA Civic Center.

Uh we also reduced the overhead by another $50,000, and that was through cutting supplies, cutting utilities, and cutting janitorial costs, all of which are reasonably doable and not really cut into bone there, just budgeting the actual cost that we're seeing this year heading into next year.

Just budgeting the actual cost that we're seeing this year heading into next year.

Further increased costs coming from the split, the IT was $900 a month, support staff.

You can see that monthly breakout, payroll processing, and then the booking system.

So you can see things that have been able to be pooled and still create financial success for both venues over the years.

But now because there are two different owners, they have to have a true allocation to each venue.

So if we just take those increased costs and look at our reduced overhead, that's where the budget forecast is right now.

Again, haven't met with Doug yet.

I'm sure a lot more conversations that come from there.

So 2027 priorities obviously is a achieving budget.

There's extraordinary budget pressures being applied this year, as there is every year in every department.

We will be going through rate increases.

Um, and then we continue to cost cut and streamline where we can.

I am getting a little nervous that we're might be looking cutting into bone here sooner than later.

So there are some more levers that can be pulled, but I think if I had to fast forward a year, we're gonna be having the same conversation and probably in a more advanced phase.

So I just want to be ahead of what's going on here.

Uh replacing the theater seats.

That's been the evergreen for years and years.

You've heard me drone on about that.

But um, and this is a need slightly updated, but the NAMPA Auditorium District met this week and approved a quarter million dollar investment into those theater seats.

So right now there's about 500,000 of that overall 1.2 million dollar project funded, which is not just seats but also walls, um, aesthetic upgrades inside the theater, carpet, etc.

The seats themselves are probably 65% of that 1.2 million dollars.

So a heck of a lot closer as of this week, which is great.

Um last year I also discussed developing a phase renovation plan, which I'll get into in in later slides.

But we were able to achieve that this year in the capital budget, work with Designs West on both the theater renovation, also the aesthetic renovation of the civic center as a whole, including the conference center and exteriors, and that's a three million dollar all-in cost.

So combining the whole theater renovation and phase development plan, it's about you know 4.26 million overall.

So it's not it's not cheap, but I think there's ways to do this, break it up, get the auditorium district involved.

There's it's a big number, but we're on the step one of figuring out how to do it.

So I think it's exciting.

So what can be done and what has been done, the marketing department restructure.

I think that's going to be one of the more critical things to happen at the venue, utilizing all the assets and resources that FIC has with a larger team and being able to duplicate work across both venues is going to start paying dividends in time.

It's not going to have an effect today, but over time, this the subscriber base to the venue, the just the intrinsic knowledge of the community and having the extra people to be able to educate those around us to what the civic center can offer.

Um rebranded in-house events.

So, as you know, we produce a bunch of in-house events, and those are having a uh a lot of focus being put on them, especially with our marketing team.

So we're trying to create those into something much much bigger.

You know, Oktoberfest, for example, it's the only one that happens in Canyon County.

Well, we need to we need to double that in size.

So that's the goal for this year.

And that's a large revenue producer for the venue.

So we're aggressively pursuing those in-house events, which it's all the risk on the Civic Center, but also all the reward.

Uh and then pursuing new content.

So some new things that have happened over the last few months.

We've created some partnerships with the theater and Palm Springs and also Twin Falls.

The theater in Palm Springs sounds far away and way more expensive than here, but that's an OVG venue.

And they're that's the same size, and they're doing a lot there that we can do in NAMPA.

So we're examining a lot of opportunities with them as far as routing and kind of booking in tandem.

Then the same thing in Twin Falls, a little closer and more reasonable distance as far as um events to events traveling.

So when we're booking an event, we're reaching out to Twin Falls.

When Twin Falls is booking an event, they're reaching out to us, and we're trying to go at these projects together instead of separately.

And that has come to fruition already.

Um I don't know if anyone's a fan, but we booked a Dungeons and Dragons like live live show.

So this happened in Twin Falls, but it's going to be successful.

It's going to happen in June, which is normally during uh a slow time of year, and that came directly from us just picking up the phone and say, Twin Falls, what do you got?

What do you got going on?

And coming up with a creative deal that we hadn't done before.

We're basically pushing all the chips into the pot.

We're splitting revenues, and it's taking up a Tuesday in June that would normally go unbooked, and I think it has a high chance of being successful.

So the moral in the story is that I'm not trying to sit here and say things are getting more expensive.

You know, more money is needed.

We're trying to get very creative and come up with ways that are going to benefit the venue and then the taxpayer in the long run, not sitting on our laurels here.

So I had this slide in last year also, but competition keeps coming.

So now we're up to nine event nine new event venues opening since 2018.

You probably saw some articles in the paper about the Boise Auditorium District buying $25 million property to expand the Boise Center, whether that happens or not, I don't know.

But things are all constantly happening around us.

So I go back to needing to stay on a competitive edge against what is out here in the community.

And I remain um fairly convinced that doing something with our branding at the civic center or upgrading the venue itself is going to be needed in the short term here.

So we worked with Designs West to come up with a conceptual budget and also concepts for how this is.

Obviously, these have not been vetted.

This is the first time anyone in the room is are seeing these, so a long way to go.

But we want to at least get some of the legwork done.

Because I think we're going to, you know, we we need to create a product that is wanted to be used by people.

I was talking to a hotelier the other day, and they said every seven years they have to do an aesthetic upgrade, and every 14 years they have to fully renovate.

The civic center is pushing 40 with none of those things happening.

Different industries, I I completely get it, but I think at some point something's gonna happen.

And if we take the the theater seats that are, you know, they're they're truly failing, you know, what else is also happening at the facility.

The good news is the bones at the venue are very strong.

The mechanical infrastructure, the electrical, all the things that are come with the big, big price tags.

I mean, this does too, but the the things that keep you up at night are in good strong standing, which is which is really great and a testament to everyone who's operated the facility for for years and years and years, even before us.

But I think it's exciting, exciting things.

You know, the theater itself lose a little bit of capacity, but we gain in comfort and customer service is gonna pay for itself easily.

We worked with uh then uh City Nampa grant writers to develop the proposal to the NAMPA Auditorium District.

They did a fantastic job and had a lot of great conversations with them.

So I anticipate a lot more of that partnership to continue.

Um, but the theater project is is certainly an excellent one.

I just have some miscellaneous slides as I wrap up to my very cool questions slide.

Great.

Uh counsel, any questions can start to Debbie with you if you have.

Okay, Natalie?

Uh yes, thank you, Andrew.

I'm gonna say some dirty words.

Having the Idaho Center already been transferred, and you seem being a part of that process.

Um, do you feel like without government's hands involved?

Has that been, I know it's early, but has that transition really helped you guys?

And when it comes to this venue, would something like that also help you?

Oh, it's a great question.

It's nuanced, certainly.

I don't think we've really seen the effects yet of it not being of the Ford Idaho Center not being controlled by the city.

I think there's its own innate challenges because it they're still publicly funded, and we're just getting into like budget and capital season with them.

So we haven't been through this whole song and dance like we have with the city for years.

I it does appear that they are nimble and are willing to spend or are trying to phrase this the right way.

They're certainly spending money to review the processes and operations of the of the facility.

I would think there's several hundred thousand dollars into consultants and other project managers to get it to a point where they'd they can still be involved in in 20 years.

Now, for this for the civic center, you know, hard to hard to say.

You know, it loses money every year.

So private industry would not be involved.

Um, it just doesn't work that way.

I think it's more of a question of what's the goal of the civic center.

Is it supposed to be a cutting edge facility to compete with the Boise Center and be a hub for regional convention and trade shows?

Or is it supposed to be a community center and price it accordingly and you know, amenities follow accordingly also?

So I think that might be more where I would lean.

I don't know if I answered that completely for you, but yeah, no, it just gives me direction.

It's just something to think about.

One of our arguments for the Idaho Center transfer was very much we shouldn't be in the in the entertainment industry, we shouldn't be competing with the private sector, and this still falls, in my opinion, still falls kind of in that realm.

And this still falls, in my opinion, still falls kind of in that realm.

So I just was curious with the transition if you had any insight on that.

I mean, the dollars are vastly different, as you know.

So Civic Center is a whole lot less risk, but you know, in a vacuum, it's obviously still a lot of money.

Yep.

Thank you.

And Stranger Things has made Dungeons and Dragons a lot more popular.

So we've got to be able to do that.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

Natalie will take two tickets.

I actually have the game, the board game in my closet.

Just saying.

I don't even know what that is, Natalie.

You'd love it.

Okay, I probably wouldn't.

Um a couple of things.

And then you're doing in you're going in the right direction with with uh with the civic center.

But one thing I wanted to do was to see whether there was any impact people could use, or if there's any at all we could use for the expansion, actually for the capacity in the dining area.

Um that's the first question.

So go ahead and answer that one.

Then I follow up.

You you could expand.

Um you had that garden area outside on the best western side of things, and you know, that's it's it's essentially wasted space.

You know, we use it a few times a year, but it doesn't do anything, and parks keeps having to maintain it.

So there's sunk expenses there that are used.

But I don't know a number as to adding that 20, 30,000 square foot, what that would cost.

That has been discussed many times in the past, though.

I think we would need to study, you know, how if we added square footage, would that be enough to offset the the cost?

Maybe, maybe not.

Maybe it's worth not offsetting the cost, but still having the square footage.

You know, if there's just a lot of a lot of routes to go down.

The second thing, the the second question is this if we don't use that garden area, how can should we uh uh take take the garden area out and make it into more parking?

Because the more parking, the better the occupancy, more money coming in for revenue.

What do you think about that?

Yeah, I that'd be that'd be fine too.

You know, parking is always a necessity.

What I would think longer term on if the city was ever interested in buying land as it became available around the Civic Center, you know, if the whatever businesses go away in expansion, you know, just thinking what City Hall look like 20 years from now or the civic center itself, um, parking garage, pedestrian crosswalks to building whatever that future might be.

But yes, either either way.

So what what um and this is for council president more than anybody.

So uh how do we how would we do that if we wanted to is that a council decision or is that a um C TWI question for removal of that garden area for parking uh no you're you're talking the parking around the civic center?

Yes, uh the the garden area.

That's a council decision.

Is it okay okay?

So those those changes would be a council decision.

Yeah.

Okay, Andrew, could you get some numbers on that just for just for just to see what it what it would be?

Sure.

Because I think it would be beneficial for us because there are times when we come to the council or and cars are parked all over.

We can't even park in the backyard here.

So uh would you mind doing that?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Absolutely.

Andrew, a follow-up is uh I've heard some comments over the past year that it was a mistake to put the motel there and took away parking and caused uh issues.

I would appreciate some feedback.

Do you see the motel there as being beneficial to the facility or not, and what their occupancy is doing, et cetera.

Yeah, I I do.

I think it's a net positive for the venue.

You know, if you look at the amount of spots the hotel took up, I I don't know the exact number, let's call it 100 for fun.

You know, we're far exceeding 100 street parking spots anyways for a lot of major events.

So maybe if the hotel wasn't there, some of the the middle size events couldn't, you know, self-park on site and not affect the neighbors or go to other businesses.

But you know, on the on the whole, if the hotel wasn't there, I think we still have the same problems with parking places.

I mean, there's events where there's a thousand people at the facility, something in the theater, something in the conference center, and no matter what, that's gonna far exceed a parking lot even without a hotel in it.

And then it's the benefits of being able to stay on site for um for events that do choose to do so, which there is a significant amount of room nights.

I think there was a contribution of something like 4200 room nights, not all of them to the best western, but directly from the Nampa Civic Center itself.

And I would certainly think the best western leads the pack in the room nights used there.

So I think it's a net benefit.

Do you get any feedback from them that they're operating in the black and doing okay or they just renewed their sponsorship at both venues for larger sums, so I would assume things are going okay.

All right.

That helps me understand to counter the too.

Yep.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Council President.

Council.

Thank you.

And Council President Bills and I have had this conversation, I think a few different times.

Balancing what is actually a community center and what's a entertainment center.

And what's the vision?

I really like what you're presenting because I think it's an overall positive for the end of entertainment industry in Nampa.

However, I look at it as a common citizen who's paying property taxes on the venue, can't afford the rent to be able to use the facility.

So I that's just something that I think about frequently in these discussions.

I think the renovations need to be done.

I think Natalie's gonna have a blast at Dungeons and Dragons.

I think having those grow and more opportunities like that is good and important.

So uh I'm not saying that to pour cold water.

Uh maybe even more so that we figure out a few specific days of the year.

I don't even want to limit you from being able to book out whatever, because a random Tuesday in June that normally would have been not used is now being used.

But maybe finding a way where citizens, a regular citizen, can get a discounted rate or pretty much a cleaning cost to use the facility, so it's truly still a community asset that we can utilize.

I know I've personally booked the venue, and it's in the thousands.

And unless you're taking tickets at the door, and that comes with insurance and all kinds of other things that make it difficult for a regular person to use the facility.

So I don't know if you have any ideas or thoughts on it.

I'm not pushing it too hard.

I actually would like to see that garden area removed.

I accidentally went in the garden area once thinking I was leaving the exit.

And I got locked in at the fence and got stuck out there and had the bang on the door.

I'm like, what is this?

Where am I right now?

Uh and it's not it, it's not functional.

So if it is turned into parking spaces or turned into a cocktail area where it's all just pavers and made into a nice space, I don't want it to be a smoking area.

People can go smoke over in the dirt parking lot across the street.

So same wavelength, same wavelength on some issues and different all around.

So thank you.

I think we're on the same page.

It's examining any and all options.

It's community days or multi-million dollar renovations, you know.

All can be the right answer.

Any other questions?

We're at that point.

Andrew, thank you very much.

I thank you all.

I appreciate it.

Jeannie, we're gonna let you uh come up and get started.

Good morning.

Um thank you so much.

Um, Council President Um Bills and Council members for allowing us to come today.

Thank you for your early morning rising to hear us.

Uh we appreciate your service to our community as well.

Um, let me just advance the slides here.

So the NAMPA, I'm I am Jeannie Stroweyer, the executive director of the NAMPA Family Justice Center, and um the Family Justice Center has a mission, and our mission is to promote safety, self-sufficiency, hope, and healing to those affected by abuse.

We serve victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, stalking, and human trafficking.

We have approximately 30 um employees and 30 staff, part-time and full-time.

I wanted to show you on this organizational chart that those that are highlighted there in yellow, those are supported by the city of Nampa.

All the other positions are grant funded uh primarily.

Um, and so we're gonna talk more about how that looks and how that breaks down.

But I want to show you on the organizational chart that um we do have a good amount of staff that's covering um the the need and the city supports the three positions there.

So I want to talk about our recent achievements.

So we have had we've been in the the city for 20 years, and we celebrated our 20th year anniversary.

We rebranded.

Um that was an important uh milestone in our community.

Um we we are one, just to let you know, Family Just Center.

There's 150 in the country.

We are one of them.

We are affiliated on a national level with the Family Justice Centers.

We are also an accredited child advocacy center and nationally affiliated with them.

Those are very important to note because that means we we have to maintain a very high standard of service.

And so it is a process and very um takes a lot of work to maintain that accreditation affiliation, but we do it because we want to do excellent work here in the city of Nampa.

Also want to mention that we served client visits last year.

I want to be very clear, excuse me, um very clear that this is ongoing and new clients.

I gave you an impact report that's going to detail a lot of things that I don't have time to cover today.

Um, but I want you to see this on one of the pages here.

Unfortunately, they're not numbered, but oh, yeah, they are.

Sorry.

Page 40, no page four.

Um, you're gonna see there that we served 2,315 individual clients for the year, and 864 clients monthly.

So that what that means is we have clients that are coming back over and over, and that is success for us because again, our mission is to promote safety, self-sufficiency, hope, and healing.

Our goal is not crisis oriented only.

Uh, we want to make sure that we are helping people to thrive in our community, break that cycle of violence, and help them to participate and be productive members in our community.

And so that is why um them coming back over to get the help they need is very important.

We added a child mentoring program going back to recent achievement.

We we added that program, which is so vital.

If we don't invest in our children, if we don't help them when they're struggling through when they're being abused themselves or they're watching abuse in their homes, what happens is they repeat that pattern as they get older.

A large percent of kids do that.

So we have got to intervene in these situations so they can shift and they they don't follow the pattern of what they've seen.

That makes our community a safer community and a community where people are gonna thrive.

And in the future, we are going to have less crime, less um abuse because of the work that's being done.

So child mentoring is really important.

Volunteer program, we have um in 2025, we had 89 active volunteers, which would amount to about 390,000.

We're very intentional about that because we recognize that every dollar counts, and the services that we provide is very important to uh making sure that we cover everything that we need.

So I want to I'm gonna go back to the goals really quick, but let me just go really quick to the priorities, and then we're gonna go to the goals.

So I just want to focus on the priorities really quick here, and then we'll we'll we'll talk about our goals.

But we want to maintain current funding and apply for additional funding.

Um so we are actively constantly pursuing funding to sustain the work that we have.

As you saw, the city supports three positions of all the positions that we need to do this work.

So we are constantly looking for funding.

Jenny is gonna talk about that in a few minutes, uh, more of what where we're at and what we're doing with that.

Um, we want to add more client rooms right now, two to three times of the week, we run out of space for clients to come.

So we work with our foundation very closely so they can help us create spaces that we need.

We have some um support from them, so we are doing that without requesting help from the city currently.

So I just want you to know there's a lot of things happening that we're not coming to the city and we're asking you for for that help because we're trying to figure that on our own, working with our foundation and and the community support.

Uh we provide X our our goal always is to provide excellent services, as I mentioned.

What we know is everybody that comes into our building, they are no, they think they believe that they are not wanted, that they are have no purpose, no meaning, they believe that nobody cares about them.

They believe that they're worth being abused, they believe that um they are worthless, and our job, our goal, um, and what changes our community is when people know that they are wanted, loved, and of great value.

When they know that everything we say and everything we do with them is to help them know they're wanted, loved and of great value.

That is what changes people's lives.

That's what changes when people um will they will not allow people to abuse them.

They will not allow people to abuse our children when they believe that they have purpose and meaning and that they're cared about.

And that is what we do, and that's where life change happens.

And so that is why client services is so so important for our community because oftentimes what we see, and then you have a document there.

And I want to just show this to you really quick so you can look at it on your own.

But the impact the family justice center is making in our community where there's decrease in crime.

Um that is part law enforcement is doing a phenomenal job, and the family justice center has part of that, and we are making a difference in decrease of um because we're working with our children as far as helping them and intervening in those areas where they're gonna go off typically and go use drugs and use substance uses.

We are stepping in and intervening in those areas.

So we partner with law enforcement.

Law enforcement sends um clients to us, they are the majority of clients that we get is coming from referral from law enforcement, so we can partner with them to do good work in our community.

Um then we also provide community training that's essential for our community understand how to identify report and um refer people to get help for abuse.

Those things make a difference in our community.

So thank you for for listening to that the priorities and knowing that these things actually are impacting our community tremendously.

And so we're gonna go back to our priorities.

I mean, our goals here, and Alyssa's gonna share a little bit.

Hi, I'm Alyssa Group, so we're 5% increase in the number of clients.

Um last year we had pushes.

Sorry about that.

Um so we had 70.25% of our clients, they return for ongoing services.

Um we didn't actually hit that goal because it was not a 5% increase, it was 70% last year as well.

Um so we actually are changing up that goal because that's a really high percentage that we want to see those clients coming back again for those services.

Um, another goal is to achieve 5% increase in grant funding.

Um we had a 21.2% increase in funding from our last fiscal year, so we did have a big increase.

Um currently we are waiting on four federal grants that we have written and we have not heard back from.

And so we are again waiting and hoping that maybe that funding would still come through, but we don't know at this point.

Um, and then finally, just a 5% increase in community awareness.

And this includes training events, conferences we hold, um, booths that we participate in.

Um, we go and we do presentations at different colleges, and so this year we met that goal.

Um, we had 66 total, um 24.5% increase.

And my name's Jennifer Perry, and I'll be talking about the financial piece of the Family Justice Center.

So, really, our budget is divided into three different categories.

Our admin account is really what is supported by the city, and that is right around 460,000 projection for fiscal year 2027, with 98% of that going to those three positions you saw on the org chart, our IT costs and iCrimp.

And so that remaining 11,000 is for our operations, which includes things like our fire and security coverage and just operating expenses like office supplies, and we do have a couple of uh membership accreditation dues that are due every five years or every other year, depending on which ones those are.

And so this is only an increase of 462 dollars from last year of the the amounts that we control.

So the amount of that 11,602.

And those um did that did increase partially because Alyssa and I uh recently got city cell phones.

Uh, prior to that, we were just using our personal cell phones, so um that will be helpful.

And then our other uh bucket of funding is our client services or donations account, and so that uh brings in about uh 7% on this chart, but I'm gonna switch to a different chart in a second and talk about some of the funds that do not filter through the city.

So uh the staff is the greatest amount.

Alyssa talked about those four grants that we haven't heard from about yet.

And so some of the staff projections that we put in here are really a cushion to help cover when there are gaps in funding or unknown funding.

Our grants are very uncertain.

We have um applications in that we may not hear about in a timely manner, and most of our grants don't run on the city's fiscal year, so it's very tricky to account for um when grant funding is coming and going, as most of them run on January or April or July start dates rather than the city's fiscal year start date.

Um when we look at the foundation um support.

So we saw that um 157,479 amount on the previous page that's coming for from donations, but we also have 55,000 um coming from the foundation that does not run through the city.

So those are additional um positions that support the work of the family justice center, but are not city employees.

Um and we also have additional client services funds that they pay for directly that never make their way through the city's system.

Um and then one final uh note that we wanted to make was our cost savings to the NAMPA police department.

Uh Jeannie mentioned how that we partner with law enforcement, and so we uh looked at the costs for some of the services that we provide and what NAMPA police does not have to pay for because we are providing it in our community.

So in 2008, we started offering forensic interviews and child advocacy center services, and in 2015, we started offering sexual assault services in um in the area, and so before that families um victims were having to travel to Boise, and that meant all of our law enforcement detectives, victim witness coordinators were also to have um having to travel over there.

And so the amounts of the 237,000 and nearly 50,000 are um really showing an estimated amount that we're saving law enforcement from their um time at those appointments, time between appointments, travel time to and from, mileage, and then um we did talk with one of our victim witness coordinators who shared that the work that our advocates are doing, they law enforcement would likely have to hire an entire um position to cover some of those things that we're able to take off of their plate.

We we can um kind of stop there and maybe have some questions because of time, but I don't know if you have any questions for um regarding the finances or anything that you would um like to share or ask.

Thank you.

Appreciate the team's presentation.

Any questions?

Council President?

If I could you know I'm a big time advocate of your organization and group and what you do for the city.

Uh I've had the recent experience of being able to be at the prosecutor's office, and I know how much you guys are an asset, not only to this city but the whole valley, and we see it there as well.

I we've mentioned a few years in a row.

Right.

The differential of NAMPA, Baron the Brunt, and library heard the same thing today, and you heard the same thing slightly in a different form and fashion.

If there is a time, I will make myself available to go and advocate for money from the county and the state level to make sure that you're funded well and and funded properly.

Um I can't imagine the stress you carry looking at your org chart of only having three really guaranteed roles funded by this city and the rest are coming from grants that may be in perpetuity or may not be so uh potential for annual change is is uh of concern.

But and then my final comment is I know recently, earlier this year and probably the end of last year, the report came out that NAMPA makes up two-thirds of the human trafficking cases in the whole state of Idaho.

And that was a black eye for some.

When you dive into that, we should all be proud of that number because it's NAMPA that's fighting and targeting these individuals.

That's right.

Anybody who's trying to uh be a predator, we're attacking them at the police front, and you're supporting them here in NAPA.

So a lot of individuals have that mixed up that oh my gosh, there's all kinds of crime happening in Nampa.

No, just other cities aren't giving it the same amount of resources and attention.

Absolutely.

We have the resources in partnership with the police and you to do that.

Keep doing the good work.

I don't like the headline, but I like the data behind the headline showing that NAMPA's working hard in comparison to any other city.

I appreciate that.

And you are absolutely right.

This is happening in every community throughout the country, and because we are dealing with it, um, we are showing things like there.

Here's some stats right up here.

One in four girls and one in thirteen boys are estimated to experience sexual abuse before the age of 18.

That happens here in our community everywhere, but we're dealing with it.

So thank you for bringing that out because you are correct.

And I want also to mention the state last year gave us um close to 300,000 for our child advocacy center.

So we have been working on getting out there to get more support.

And they are getting giving it to us this year as well through the millennium funds.

So we are we are um getting some more traction there, and I appreciate your support.

I have no doubt you're doing a good job.

I just say it as if you need a council's support.

I'm sure all of us would uh happy to go and lobby on behalf of this group.

So grateful for you, thank you.

Other questions?

Yes.

Thank you, Jeannie.

Thank you for your service.

I really appreciate you guys.

Just like last year when we went over those numbers of the citizens that were getting served that were outside of Nampa proper.

Um, could you get those numbers to us again just so that we can get on this early and maybe get a letter out to the other cities, let them know the statistics behind it.

I think this council, I can speak for myself, but I'm sure they would agree that we would all be willing to sign that letter and see what we can do to help get some funding there to offset that.

I will do that.

Thank you, Gene.

Other questions.

Okay, Jeannie, thank you very much.

Thank you.

We're very grateful.

Thank you so much.

Well, I'm we we are very grateful for you all.

Thank you very much with that.

Uh our uh workshop uh budget uh information session.

We will unless you have a uh can we circle back to library for just a quick second?

It's more directed towards Doug, but just for information.

Yes.

So uh I want to be a partner for the library, especially on this issue, because I think it affects all of us.

Just the quick numbers, and you Ezekiel and you can run it uh behind the scenes, taking that overall property tax revenue number of the 2.9 million, six percent if we base it off the two five five seven, divide it out.

You're close, you're at fifty-two dollars currently for uh annual dues for county residents.

Is that correct?

If you increase that to 67.52, that offsets if it you continue at that 2,557.

I don't necessarily want to offset, I think it's a benefit to come into somebody else's community and use their resource.

So if you made the nice round number and presented it to the library board, if we'd like to increase our dues for county residents to $70, it might be a slight decrease in that number, but the increase in the offset makes up 174,000.

So I think that's a a big chunk of change that alleviates this council.

Uh, and I think it brings clarity to the county.

If you're using NAMPA resources, you should also be paying for it.

And I think there's a balance too.

Nampa taxpayers on their property taxes don't get to opt out every year.

So if a county member says, ah, I don't want to renew this year, I'm just not going to pay my due.

Well, we still have a budget and we still have to maintain, and there's still other county residents.

So I think at $70, uh it might be good to inquire on that.

I don't know, Doug, is that something that's council driven or is it more the library board that makes that recommendation?

Um I can speak to that.

Um so councilman Griffin, so that is um to the board of trustees, we'll bring that kind of present that information, then they would vote and put that into policy.

Thank you.

And same deal for that I offered to Genie offered you to attend one of those board meetings and speak to it from my perspective.

I think it would help us significantly, and ultimately it helps you when it comes budget time.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh with this, we're going to adjourn our 7:30 uh department workshop meeting.

We will convene a uh city council meeting at 9 a.m.

And so that takes uh we have a few minute break.

So