City Council

October 23, 2023, Council Work Session The City Council of the City of Idaho Falls met in the Council Work Session, on Monday, October 23, 2023, 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 Councilor John Radford Councilor Jim Freeman Councilor Jim Francis Councilor Lisa Burtenshaw Absent: Council President Michelle Ziel-Dingman, Councilor Tom Hally Also present: Heather Wade, Human Resources Manager Duane Nelson, Fire Chief Mark Hagedorn, Finance Manager / Treasurer Kirk Larsen Michael Kirkham, Assistant City Attorney Corrin Wilde, City Clerk Mayor Casper called the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m. with the following items: Mayor Casper noted that there is a campaign-related City Club event on Thursday at noon for Idaho Falls City Council candidates running for seats one, three, and five. Mayor Casper let the Council know that she has not made formal plans to participate in the Real Heros Trunk R Treat and feels that mingling with the first responders is an option to consider and encourages Council members to come and participate with the public. Mayor Casper informed the Council members of her travels to Vienna. She was a delegate to a UN conference, representing the United States. This is the second time she has had the privilege of going and feels it was a very successful conference for us. She explained that the city belongs to an organization called the ECA (Energy Community Alliance) and because we participated in the ECA and over the years of being a member and she has been selected as a Vice Chair of the Board. This year and last year the Chair and Vice Chair got to go to the conference last year and this year. Mayor Casper stated that last year they created an organization called the Global Partnership for Nuclear Municipalities. These are local governments coming together in the UK, European Union, Canada, and the United States. The organization has several objectives including five primary objectives and has solidified those over the past year they all have to do with helping find the element of engagement that needs to happen with local communities when there is a nuclear facility within that community. Mayor gave some examples of what a nuclear facility is, including a Nuclear Power Plant and Radioactive Waste Management Facility as well as Radioactive Isotopes in medicine. She said there were representatives there from African countries that would like to join this partnership but they are single municipalities and we have first encouraged them to create a league of municipalities within their country or region. Mayor Casper shared the opportunity to meet the Director General to share information about this Global Partnership. Mayor and Council: Calendars, Announcements, Events, Reports, Updates, Concerns, Questions, and Discussion: • Councilor Radford stated that Parks and Recreation has had over 10K guests over three nights for the Event Boo at The Zoo. They will leave the lights up tonight and tomorrow from 6 pm to 8 pm and you can go and see the animals at night. The downtown flower baskets have been removed and irrigation systems 1  October 23, 2023, Council Work Session throughout the parks have been winterized. Holiday lights are being hung now and will be tuned on November 18th in conjunction with Downtown Developments Christmas tree lighting. • Councilor Francis stated that tomorrow is the deadline for anyone applying for the HR Director position. Councilor Francis stated that Chief Johnson will have a lot of staff involved in the Trunk-or-Treat if Councilor members want to help the police areas and animal shelter it would be great. Councilor Francis says that he found out that the State has changed the law so that an unopposed Council member will not appear on the ballot. He said Micheal Ziel-Dingman is not on the ballot because she is unopposed in this election. Councilor Radford feels this is problematic as the number of votes and time served determines seniority. Councilor Freeman read online at the Secretary of States website about this and his understanding is that unopposed candidates would not be on the ballot because they did not want to have an election if there was only one person for that seat unopposed and was intended to save money. • Councilor Freeman stated that there was a press release today for the Idaho Falls Regional Airport Terminal Expansion. He shared some information from the article as follows: the expansion is 18,000 square feet and is 45 million dollars and is expected to start next year and finish in the year 2026. Clayco is the main contractor and is the designer and builder but will have an association with the Construction Solutions Company which is a local company in Idaho Falls. Councilor Burtenshaw questioned whether we had secured full funding for the project. Micheal Kirkham explained that within the agreement it is contingent on getting that funding and is not sure if that has come through yet. Mayor Casper will seek clarity on this. Councilor Freeman stated that yesterday was the 123rd anniversary of Idaho Falls Power. That was the day that they turned on the generator and the lights downtown 123 years ago. He also noted that Kirk Miller is the Executive Director of the Northwest Public Power Association. He said Kirk worked for Northwest River Partners before and he took Scott Corwin’s place when Scott moved up to President of the American Public Power Association and Councilor Freeman is pleased to have both in the position, they are in. • Councilor Burtenshaw stated that November 14th at the College of Eastern Idaho will be the first public outreach for the high-capacity roadway study and is something that she and John Walker have tried to work on to make sure that we have the right public input so that it can be brought back to the elected bodies of Ammon, Iona, Idaho Falls, and the County so that it is not just a study that ends up sitting on the shelf. Councilor Burtenshaw stated that after the public meeting would be a chance to come back to a Council Work Session to talk about the results of what that public input was and make sure the elected officials are still on board for the next steps. She said she would work with Chris Canfield to make sure they have the right partners in that meeting. Councilor Burtenshaw stated that she and Council Member Francis met with the Legal Department last week to talk about the Soccer Complex; she feels based on that conversation that we have a three-year contract now on the soccer fields, and we have a preliminary Master Plan for the Airport that shows the Soccer fields in the last phase and feels that we may need to get this on an agenda. Mayor Casper stated that until formal action has been taken there is not much to be super concerned about in terms of commitments being made but feels an update would be smart. She feels because the Airport is involved it will be important to have some Airport leadership in place and is planning to hire an Interim Director soon and indicated that having an update would be a little bit in the future because she would like to have informed parties from both departments. Mayor Casper shared an event coming up involving Yellowstone Teton Clean Cities Coalition on November 2nd from 2 PM to 5 PM. She indicated that one of the areas of emphasis in this meeting is EVs (electric vehicles) and the work that is being done throughout the region on EVs. They also wanted to hear a little about Public Transportation and have invited Kade Marquez to speak about GIFTS efforts to obtain some EV vehicles. Mayor Casper informed Council members that we are 1 of 10 finalists for this grant and have been identified as a Tech Hub for Innovation and Nuclear. She said our application was from Idaho and Wyoming and the City of Idaho 2  October 23, 2023, Council Work Session Falls was a party to that grand application. Mayor Casper stated that we participated today in a press conference that came out of the White House and explained that the preliminary phase for the ten finalists comes with half a million dollars to prepare for the final and the final 75 million dollars. Our application is the only one with Nuclear and is related to not just clean energy but also to future innovation. Acceptance and/or Receipt of Minutes: It was moved by Councilor Francis, seconded by Councilor Burtenshaw, that the Council receive the recommendations from the October 3, 2023, 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 Francis, Radford, Burtenshaw, Freeman. Nay – none. It was then moved by Councilor Francis, seconded by Councilor Radford, that the Council move into Executive Session. (At 3:43 p.m.). The Executive Session is being called pursuant to the provisions of Idaho Code Section 74-206 (l) (j) to consider labor contract matters authorized under Idaho Code Section 74-206A (l)(a) and (b), Idaho Code. The Executive Session will be held in the City Annex Conference Room. The Council will not reconvene in an open session after the executive session. The motion was carried by the following vote: Aye – Councilors Burtenshaw, Radford, Freeman, Francis. Nay – none. The City Council of the City of Idaho Falls met in Executive Session, on Monday, October 23, 2023, in the City Annex Conference Room in the City Annex Building located at 680 Park Avenue in Idaho Falls, Idaho at 3:44 p.m. There were present: Mayor Rebecca L. Noah Casper Councilor John Radford Councilor Lisa Burtenshaw Councilor Jim Freeman Councilor Jim Francis Also present: Duane Nelson, Fire Chief Mark Hagadorn, Treasurer Heather Wade, Human Resources Manager Micheal Kirkham, Assistant City Attorney There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:33 p.m. s/Corrin Wilde s/Rebecca L. Noah Casper Corrin Wilde, City Clerk Rebecca L. Noah Casper, Mayor 3