City Council

November 7, 2022, Council Work Session The City Council of the City of Idaho Falls met in Council Work Session, Monday, November 7, 2022, in the Council Chambers in the City Annex Building located at 680 Park Avenue in Idaho Falls at 3:00 p.m. Call to Order and Roll Call There were present: Mayor Rebecca L. Noah Casper Council President Michelle Ziel-Dingman Councilor John Radford Councilor Tom Hally Councilor Jim Freeman Councilor Jim Francis Councilor Lisa Burtenshaw Absent: Also present: Pam Alexander, Municipal Services Director Michael Kirkham, Assistant City Attorney (Joined Virtually) Randy Fife, City Attorney Mark Hagedorn, Controller Josh Roos, Treasurer Jake Durtschi, Jacob Grant Property Management Catherine Smith, Executive Director IFDDC AJ Argyle, Broker, GBS Ryan Tew, Human Resources Director Eilene Horn, Human Resources Manager Jasmine Marroquin, Deputy City Clerk Mayor Casper called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. with the following items: Acceptance and/or Receipt of Minutes: It was moved by Councilor Francis, seconded by Councilor Burtenshaw, that council receive the recommendations from the November 1, 2022, meeting of the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission pursuant to the Local Land Use Planning Act (LLUPA). The motion carried with the following vote: Aye – Councilors Hally, Freeman, Radford, Dingman, Francis, Burtenshaw, Nay – none. Calendars, Announcements, Reports, Updates, Questions, and Discussion: • Mountain America Center Ribbon Cutting at 11 am on November 28th and will be followed by a public open house at the center from 12 pm to 7 pm for members of the public who would like to see the Center and walk through it. The food venues will be open, and it should be a fun time. • November 29th is the AIC legislative summit in Boise from 9 to 3 pm in the Boise Center. They will be going over various items that the AIC (Association of Idaho Cities) has been following. AIC (Association of Idaho Cities) did meet the week before last to review several items they know will be coming up and to identify which items AIC would have a position on or would be supporting. • The Idaho Broadband Advisory Board (IBAB) will meet on Thursday, November 10th, from 1:30 to 4:30 PM. Mayor Casper stated that the Advisory Board is looking to understand what is happening in Idaho and want members of the public to take a few moments to share what is happening in their community. The public can watch remotely. 1  November 7, 2022, Council Work Session Liaison Reports and Councilmember Concerns: • Council President Dingman stated on October 24th there was a meeting at the airport to discuss challenges and planning accruing at the airport. She noted it was a good turnout. The master planning process is continuing to move forward, there was an open house on the 20th, and hope to hear more about it at our next board meeting. • Councilor Hally stated bids were open for 17th and Woodruff and we had two bidders. The work will start next year. Councilor Hally stated the asphalt has been poured on 25th Street and should be open in the next few days. • Councilor Radford stated the Zoo is open on the weekends according to weather so you will have to watch the Facebook page. He noted the animals are a little more active in late fall. Councilor Radford stated pickleball has moved indoors and they have courts available at the recreation center. • Councilor Francis presented a few things from Downtown Development. He said Saturday the 19th is a tree lighting, and the mayor is bringing Santa Claus to the Broadway Plaza. He said Council members are invited to be a part of that. Council members will meet at 5:30 PM at City Hall to be on Santa’s sleigh which may look like a fire truck. Each Saturday after that there will be a variety of events downtown including Shop Small Saturday on the 26th of November. He said December 3rd is Santa’s Puppy. Children have a good time finding Santa’s Puppy all around town. Councilor Francis stated the artificial skate rink is scheduled to be put together and a ribbon cutting will be on the 19th. Councilor Francis stated there is a town hall meeting concerning Crime and Law Enforcement at Eagle Rock Middle School Auditorium on November 17th at 6:30 PM. He said Shop with a Cop will be Saturday, December 10th, and an event called Adoption Day on Friday the 18th from 3 Pm to 5 PM to celebrate kids that have been moved out of foster homes into an official adoption. • Councilor Freeman wanted to expand on what Councilor Hally shared regarding 17th and Woodruff. Councilor Freeman stated there were two bids and the lowest bid was about five and a half million dollars which is quite a bit higher than we programed for BMBO so next week at BMBO we will be doing some shuffling of funds. They have found some additional Federal money, but it does not cover the full increase. • Councilor Burtenshaw stated the water tower bid opens this Thursday. Councilor Burtenshaw stated per Community Development Services, the City Works company will be in town and on-site next week. Community Development Services with Public Works: Discussion regarding Collecting of Fees within Area of Impact. Director Cramer and Director Fredericksen appear to discuss the following. Director Cramer stated during the last joint city/county meeting the city imposed some questions about the area of impact determining if it was time to re-approach that agreement and the county responded with a series of questions back to the city. Director Cramer stated one of the questions had to do with the extension of utilities. Mr. Cramer stated as we think as a city about whether to approach areas of impact again, this time unlike several years ago we would hope that city and county staff can do a lot of pre-work. Find what the city and county both want and then bring it back to the Council. Director Cramer pointed out that there are a few questions he and Director Frederickson would like to get direction from the Council to have a good idea of the parameters to keep in mind when talking to the county staff. Director Cramer stated the first question is, are you interested in extending those utilities, and if so, what does that mean for the policies around it, and how do impact fees play into that? Director Cramer stated what he heard in the meeting is unless there is a way to collect impact fees in the county there is not a lot of interest in extending utilities. Director Fredericksen stated they have had conversations with the county and talked about some of the questions they had. Director Fredericksen stated one thing discussed when meeting with the county is to look at that area of impact in smaller segments for example two-year segments to expand. He noted, not the full process, just look at the area of impact. If that area of impact is closer to our existing boundaries the extension of our utilities makes more sense. He said with the opportunity to look at that on a much smaller timeline. It did change our viewpoint on the possibility that would make better sense on the extension of those utilities. Mayor Casper stated we know that counties can have area of impact fees and we know that cities can have area of 2  November 7, 2022, Council Work Session impact fees, but we are talking about the county collecting the City’s-imposed impact fees. Mayor Casper stated are you suggesting this would simply require an agreement between the city and county to consider the area of impact a special zone within their jurisdiction. Director Fredericksen agreed but feels it is not who collects them it is more a question can we do this, is it possible? He stated if they get collected and know that it is legal to collect them, that is the impetus we are trying to drive the discussion. Councilor Francis wondered if we collect impact fees from developments in the county, is that going to enable us to do more cooperative arterial developments on roads that are still in the county but would be impacted by growth? Director Fredericksen agreed it could provide more communication and collaboration on where the funds should be spent. Council members discussed the need for an agreement between the city and county before extending utilities. Mayor Casper stated there would be no reason to move forward at the staff level but to know an agreement could be put together. She said we could extend utilities they could collect impact fees we would ask for a master agreement associated with the development of arterials and time frame and responsibilities and discuss what the map would look like and how often we would revisit the conversation about extending the area of impact. Councilor Hally asked what rate we would charge for utilities. Director Fredericksen stated currently we have outside city rates; it is double for water and 110 percent for wastewater and no additional charge for sanitation. Director Fredericksen stated most cities that we have talked to have double the rates outside the city limits until they annex. Councilor Burtenshaw is interested in extending services into the area of impact and feels in a lot of cases it would be considered infill rather than sprawling outside of it and likes the idea of revisiting the area of impact. Councilor Freeman asked if the County would be incentivized to expand the area of impact if we did not do this and wanted to know if that is why they are asking. Director Cramer stated that what he has heard over the years is that one of the main purposes of an area of impact is for the city to say we intend to grow here. He said when development happens it happens in a way that there is a natural transition. If it happens in the County, then when the city gets there, it already has our standards, it has our utilities, so it promotes natural and logical growth. Director Cramer stated over the years what he has heard from the County is that one of the main drivers of having that happen is having the utility in place. He said there has been more reluctance to expand that boundary if the utility is not coming with it because it does not show a logical growth pattern and there has been a little more acceptance of moving that boundary if the utilities come with it. Councilor Francis wanted to make it clear that extending utilities would have to be part of a package its more than just agreeing to the area of impact lines as they were drawn 3 years ago, and we extend utilities. He said if we do not improve county, city-wide safety and living for the entire community there is no point in doing this. Council President Dingman noted it sounds like you are adding some things that you want to see in a future area of impact agreement. She said If we provided extensions you would want to agree on arterial road investment etc. Councilor Francis agreed. Community Development Services: Discussing parking meters. Director Cramer stated years ago there was a study done by Carl Walker about downtown parking and one recommendation was to put all parking management under one roof. Director Cramer stated that did not happen until recently when Idaho Falls Downtown Corporation created Park IF and began managing the parking. Director Cramer says they are looking for Council direction to staff to pursue what is being proposed today. Mr. Cramer stated if we move forward, it will require some changes to the City Code and it will require an adjustment to the fee Resolution. He noted if you want us to move forward with those two things that is what we are here today to find out if we have direction from the Council to go ahead and pursue that. Jake Durtschi appeared and presented information about the recent history of parking. He stated Park IF took over enforcement about 4 years ago. Mr. Durtschi said parking stations have been installed at interior lots. He explains that zone parking is a parking system that treats parking next to a storefront more valuable than free parking or zone three parking to which you must walk. The parking stations are in the interior lots located in zone two these are short walk parking. The parking stations that we are recommending are not new technology and are consistent with what is happening right now. Mr. Durtschi stated they have also worked out software and collections processes. He said the Block Face Ordinance was added to encourage parking turnover. Mr. Durtschi stated Max Clark did research and found that we have a lot of parking but need better management of the 3  November 7, 2022, Council Work Session parking. Mr. Durtschi stated Brent McClaine is a Planner and has a master’s degree in parking and provided a thesis on a downtown parking study. Mr. Durtschi stated they also spent time talking to the City of Boise Parking Department to find their best practices. Mr. Durtschi presents a slide referring to the “Carl Walker Study” The study included 37 block area from G Street to Cliff Street running north to south and Eastern Ave to Memorial running east to west. There are one thousand eighty-four street parking spaces and three thousand fifty-four off- street spaces. Mr. Durtschi noted we have a lot of parking available and just need some adjustments to the management. Mr. Durtschi says a couple of things he hears often is that people say there is no place to park downtown and that they must leave after 2 hours. He says this will not allow people to go to a dinner and a movie and we do not want them to leave after only 2 hours. Mr. Durtschi says Downtown is the soul of our community and has music, art, local food, local culture, and local entrepreneurship. Parking should be positioned to support Downtown’s unique market position. Mr. Durtschi says they are looking into the addition of Kiosks and an App called “Park Smarter” that can be utilized to add time to your meter, receive expiration notifications, extend time on your meter, and allow you to add multiple vehicles and payment information. The fee will be 2 dollars an hour for parking. Mr. Durtschi noted they do not want an enforcement approach they want to provide a customer service approach. Mr. Durtschi is proposing the management of zone three with Kiosks. Mr. Durtschi stated the times for parking is between 9 am to 6 pm Monday- Friday. Council members discussed topics such as how people will pay with cash and how will people pay without a smartphone. Catherine Smith stated for those without a smartphone there will be a text-to-pay option and the Kiosks could be set up to allow payment with cash. Ms. Smith also noted loading and unloading zones are for the public in need of a quick parking spot to run into a place of business and are not just for the delivery truck. Council members are in support and recommend moving forward with the next steps. City Attorney’s Office: Delinquent tax collection lawsuit by the State against a private individual. Assistant Attorney Michael Kirkham appeared via Teams. Mr. Kirkham stated we received notice that we were named as a party in a lawsuit between the Idaho Tax Commission and a property owner here in town by the name of Houtz. Mr. Kirkham stated Mr. Houtz is delinquent on his property taxes and the Idaho Tax Commission is taking action to condemn the property and sell it to pay the tax deficiency. The City has two hundred eighty-five dollars and fifty-one cents city tax lien on the property. Mr. Kirkham stated the City has been named as a party in this property tax condemnation suit in part because of the city’s 285-dollar interest. Mr. Kirkham stated in the conversation with the attorney general’s office on this subject, it will cost the city about two hundred dollars to file and make an appearance in this case. Mr. Kirkham stated it does not seem to make sense to spend the money if it does not seem there is a likelihood of recovering the cost. Mr. Kirkham stated talking to the attorney general’s office it doesn’t sound like there will be much left over after the state is satisfied so the legal department would recommend that we stipulate and agree with the Idaho Tax Commission that the city does not going to object to their priority. Mr. Kirkham stated it is very clear in the state law that they have priority. That would excuse the city from participating in this litigation. It would release the $285.51 that the city has lien against the property but with our investigation, it seems very unlikely there will be any money left over from the sale. Council members asked questions regarding the implications of the lawsuit if we drop out. Mr. Kirkham explained that this is just asking the court for permission to sell the property at a public auction and with the city stepping out of it, it just makes the question that much easier for a judge. Mr. Kirkham stated it is not going to damage the State’s ability to collect those past due taxes. It was moved by Councilor Burtenshaw, seconded by Councilor Freeman to write off the $285.51 City tax lien and authorize the Mayor to sign the Stipulation for Judgment in ISTC v. Houtz, et al., CV10-21-6689. The motion carried with the following vote Aye – Freeman, Hally, Radford, Dingman, Burtenshaw, Francis Nay – None. Human Resources, Municipal Services, City Attorney's Office – Requirements and Planning for Self–Insurance Director Tew stated that we are talking about our health plan. Mr. Tew is presenting slide 1- What is Self- Insurance. He said this is an insurance plan that the employer sets up to fund and pay insurance claims as put 4  November 7, 2022, Council Work Session forth by a plan document and the employer designs its benefit plan. Mr. Tew presents Slide-2 Why Become Self– Insured. Mr. Tew stated it has the potential to eliminate carrier profit margin, gives control of the plan design to the city, and create ownership in the plan. Employees have a better sense that their expenses contribute to everyone else's expenses. Mark Hagedorn presents Slide-4 as a summary of multi-year plan cost with a hypothetical of what it would have been if we were self-insured. Mr. Hagedorn stated we follow the same methodology as we do for workers comp self-insurance. Mr. Hagedorn stated that self-funded is not intended to be looked at year by year basis it is made to look at like a balance sheet over time. The first year of 2018 to 2021 is represented the same way. The very bottom line on the summary slide-4 which is the Est. Cumulative Differential shows you what the difference is over time. Mr. Hagedorn noted that this data is slightly skewed because of COVID-19. People did not go to the doctor as much in 2020 when people started going back out you can see in 2021 it is a very high year for claims. Mr. Hagedorn pointed out that when talking about health insurance the Plan year is the start of that year and is not the fiscal year. AJ Argyle stated the last column on the summary is the PEPM (per employee per month) cost in self-insurance. You do a per employee per month cost so if you were to fund those medical claims and figure out what the cost is per employee per month and pharmacy claims, the total gross claims per employee per month, and with the stop loss premium we get a credit per employee per month back so you can get a total estimated net claim per employee per month. Mr. Hagedorn noted what is important to know is when there are savings in a self-insured funded program it is designed for that program, and it stays in that program. In self-insured the third party will pick the rate and the council will have control of what the plan is. Mr. Hagedorn stated the reason for going self-insurance now is not to save money it is to mitigate the increase, control the plan, and gain ownership. Mr. Tew stated the first thing we needed to do was make sure there is adequate funding, we have set aside $4,222,890 this is a reserve as protection to make sure we have enough in reserves for excess claims and we have this money in a trust fund. Mr. Argyle stated the Idaho Department of Insurance requires any governmental entity to always have 30% reserves and for the City of Idaho Falls that would be between $3.1M -3.6M dollars and we are above that. Mr. Argyle stated we will have an actuary set the rates based on our experience and the goal is to not take anything from that account. Mr. Hagedorn noted however if we are at a deficit at some point in the year then we would have to fund that somehow. Mr. Argyle stated we will also have our aggregate that adds layers of protection. Discussion regarding steps to becoming self-insured includes Adequate Funding, Creation of Trust, Selection of Trustees, Bond for Trustees, and Tax ID number assigned to the Trust, as well as Retaining Third Party Administrator (TPA). Mr. Kirkham stated once the money is set aside into the trust it is for the backup of the insurance and will be outside the Council’s ability to take back or control. Mr. Hagedorn noted that we are waiting on the tax ID number so that we could put the funds that we have set aside into a trust; right now, we have it segregated but it is invested with all the other city investments. He said once the tax ID is created, they will open the bank account and put that into its own investment. Mr. Hagedorn stated Municipal Services will still manage the accounting and finance function of the trust and there will be a third-party audit at the end of the year. Mr. Argyle talked about additional aggregate insurance. He stated if we spend 10M a year on our health insurance we will buy the $200,000 specific that will protect us on any claim over $200,000 the insurance will come in and cover each belly button on the plan. Mr. Argyle stated we buy the aggregate at $11M. If our claims go over $11M the aggregate will kick in and pick up those claims over the $11M. Mr. Argyle stated once we have everything finalized and the rates are set, we will submit our application to the Department of Insurance. Mr. Argyle noted there is a lot that goes into that and can take 30 to 60 days expecting it will be excepted by August or September 2023. Mr. Tew noted in the Summer of 2023 HR will start communicating to Employees. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:39 P.M. s/Corrin Wilde s/Rebecca L. Noah Casper Corrin Wilde, City Clerk Rebecca L. Noah Casper, Mayor 5