01102013CouncilMinutes
CITY OF AMMON
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION
THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2013
AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON
2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION
THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2013 – 4:30 P.M.
DISCUSSION ITEMS:
1.
Senior Center – Meals On Wheels
2.
Sheriff’s Office Report
3.
Building Department – Credit Card Payments
4.
Phone Stipends
5.
Drug Task Force Letter
6.
Year End Financial Statement Review
7.
Misc.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
1.Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b)
2.Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c)
3.Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f)
MINUTES
City Officials Present:
Mayor Steve Fuhriman
Councilmember Dana Kirkham (left at 6:00 p.m. and returned at 6:20 p.m.)
Councilmember Rex Thompson
Councilmember Brian Powell (Arrived at 4:56 p.m. left at 7:15 p.m.)
Councilmember Sean Coletti (Arrived at 4: 35p.m.)
Councilmember Russell Slack (Arrived at 4:40 p.m.)
Councilmember Brad Christensen
City Clerk/Administrator/Planning Director Ron Folsom
Deputy Clerk Rachael Brown
City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield
City Engineer Lance Bates
Public Works Director Ray Ellis
I.T. Director Bruce Patterson
Building Official Charlie Allen
City Officials Absent:
None
DISCUSSION ITEMS:
Mayor Fuhriman opened the meeting at 4:36 p.m. at the City building located at 2135 South Ammon
Road.
1. Senior Center – Meals on Wheels:
Lou Acre, Idaho Falls Senior Center, located in the Senior Citizens’ Community
Center at 535 West 21st Street, said he is a Board member and is on the Finance Committee. Lou introduced Valisa, the Executive
Director and Mr. Edgington, who is the Vice Chairman. Lou said he appreciates the opportunity to talk to the Council. Lou said the
Senior Center was chartered in 1973 as a nonprofit entity to give assistance to citizens of the community to promote and provide
programs, services and activities to enhance the quality of life. The main function of the Senior Center is in house and home delivered
meals. Lou said they deliver 65,000 meals per year, approximately 1,200 per month in-house, and 3,800 home delivered. The Center
has part time drivers, with minimum wage pay of $4,400 per month. They maintain five vans, traveling 3,000 miles and using 250
gallons of gas. They spend about $22,000 per year just for the vans for fuel and expenses. The Senior Center is not permitted to charge
for the meals, and they can’t even have a suggested price for the meals. The state regulation is if they charge, they would have to pay
taxes. Lou said they charge the contracted amount from EICAP from whom they get some funding, and some food is donated from the
food bank. Lou explained that the Senior Center relies strictly on donations and volunteers. Lou explained that they send a meal
14
Council Minutes 01.10.2013 Page of
record to their recipients, and from that recipients can donate if they are able to afford it. There are in-house activities with about 1,200
or 1,300 participants per month. There is a pool table to use; there is dancing, and the use of computers. The Center has a monthly in-
house publication prepared by volunteers, and handles about 1,300 information calls per month. Lou said they make monthly reports
to EICAP, United Way and the food bank. Lou said they perform all these activities with two cooks, four part time drivers and two
office staff.
Home delivered meals are the biggest activity; about 65% of the meals are delivered in the Idaho Falls area, 25% are
delivered within the City of Idaho Falls itself, and 10 % are in the unincorporated part of the County. They have talked to the City of
Idaho Falls, and to the County, and are here now asking the City of Ammon to donate funds. The City of Idaho Falls furnishes the
building, and the utilities; the county has donated $750 per month for years. Their forecast for this year is to run in the red at about
$25,000. They would appreciate anything the City of Ammon can do for them. Councilmember Christensen asked how many meals
are delivered to the City of Ammon. Lou said approximately forty to fifty meals per day. Councilmember Thompson asked how much
a typical donation is. Valisa said roughly a $1.60 per meal. Councilmember Thompson asked what it would take to cover the cost of
the meals. Valisa said approximately $7-$8 per meal. Discussion ensued regarding the actual cost of the meals including fuel expense
and operating costs. Councilmember Kirkham asked if they only deliver one meal per day. Valisa said yes. Councilmember Thompson
asked if Medicaid pays for any of the meals. Valisa said yes, on some of them, but a new ruling coming down shifts a share of the cost
to the participant, but the Senior Center cannot collect the shared part. Councilmember Kirkham confirmed that the Senior Center is
receiving $9,000 from the county, and the building and utilities from the City of Idaho Falls amounts to about $82,000 a year, and is
expending approximately $2,300 per month to deliver meals in the City of Ammon. Councilmember Kirkham asked what amount they
are hoping the City of Ammon would contribute. Lou said they would like to receive $6,500. Councilmember Kirkham said the
problem is the City did not budget for this in this fiscal year, so the best case scenario is that in October we could contribute. We want
to help where we can and the discussion would be for $7,000 in the next budget cycle.
2. Sheriff’s Office Report:
Kevin Casper, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, introduced Sergeant Jason Sorenson, and
said they are hoping to give the Council a twenty thousand foot view of what they have been doing over the last year. Kevin reported
on the calls for service summary, some of the types of issues in the community, some feedback, and some pleasant back and forth
communication with Council about volume and issues within the City such as traffic issues, traffic enforcement, and vagrancy issues.
Kevin said they would like to give a little oversight of the budget, anything the Council would like to discuss.
Sheriff Wilde said he wanted the Council to know that the Sheriff’s Department is fully engaged, here, and available from top
to bottom, all the guys. Sheriff Wild said this working relationship is so much nicer, they are enjoy working here, they enjoy the
contract, and want to make sure the Council is happy and know they can come to the Sheriff’s Department anytime. He wanted to
remind the Council of all the other entities Ammon receives services from, such as the ISP (Idaho State Police), the Idaho Falls Police
Prosecutor’s Office, and all the pieces of Law Enforcement coming in.
Sergeant Jason Sorensen explained he supervises six other deputies in the Ammon Division and over the last fiscal year there
were 7,500 calls for service; that averages out to 1,200 calls per officer for the year, and in those calls for service there were 92
welfare checks, 60 suicidal calls, with four of the suicides being completed. Within the last 90 days there have been three completed
suicide calls. Discussion ensued regarding the amount of calls. Councilmember Kirkham asked if the calls handled by the SRO’s
(School Resource Officers) in the school count against the City of Ammon. Jason said yes, that it is within the City of Ammon.
Discussion ensued regarding the cost of one SRO.
Sam Hulse handed out statistical documents to the Council that explains the calls for service, population, and fine revenue.
Sam said they are excited to be able to police for the City of Ammon and feel it has been a good mutual benefit to the citizens of
Bonneville County to combine the cost of policing, which are expensive as you all know. It gives us a footprint where they are able to
respond to situations in the entire County. He hopes that everybody recognizes how valuable that is to our entire County.
Sam explained the handout covers the calls for service, population and fine revenue from 2011 to 2012. Sam said the
population curve drives the City’s calls for service. In the fine revenue there was a huge spike that in some ways he wished it would
stay that way, but he would have to look at the data to see what drove it there and feels it was an anomaly. Sam covered the
information contained in the statistical documents, and how the current contract funds are distributed.
Councilmember Kirkham asked Sam if he gives his employees a three percent cost of living raise each year. Sam said no, last
year they gave a two percent increase. Sam said he feels the City should increase the contract by three percent. Sam explained that at
1200 calls for service per officer that is pretty elevated and generally they like to see approximately 900 calls per officer. Sam said the
potential need for another officer is in the near future and that is going to raise the City’s cost exponentially; we are not there yet, but
it needs to be on the Council’s minds. Sam said the station that the officers occupy at the fire department works, but as the division
grows you have to think about where you will move them because they are at capacity. Councilmember Kirkham feels it will be five
years before they will have to deal with that.
Councilmember Kirkham said part of the reason the City switched to Bonneville County to administer dispatch was because it
was going to be a better value for the City; but if we are still using the same formula we used with the City of Idaho Falls, she doesn’t
24
Council Minutes 01.10.2013 Page of
see that we have gained anything. Sam said when we initially did it, they were able to reduce the overhead they were charging the City
to administer the contract.
Councilmember Kirkham asked Sam about the DARE program, because she met with the school district and the idea was
they were going to go back to their board to decide if they were going to pay one third of the cost. She is concerned because it is
January and they are starting the dare program and she hates to start this if we have to take it away again. She would like to have this
resolved and asked Sam if he has heard anything. Sam said we need to have a discussion again to make sure we are all on the same
page with paying one third; his concern is as it was sitting, it was just going to go away. Councilmember Kirkham will contact the
school district to see where they are at with paying one third of the cost for DARE.
Councilmember Thompson asked how many calls were serviced within the County. Discussion ensued regarding the calls for
service within the City of Ammon, and the estimated cost per call. Councilmember Kirkham said when you figure what the City’s
contract cost is, we are credited by the amount we pay to the County for the same service and if we didn’t pay the tax that amount of
money would be incorporated into the City of Ammon’s contract cost. Councilmember Kirkham said in less than a decade we have
made a lot of progress, and are very satisfied.
Councilmember Christensen said he went on a ride along with Nick and was able to get a better sense of what the officers are
doing and he really appreciates the officers all that much more. He has heard recently about home and car burglaries. He keeps hearing
about people getting their doors kicked in and their belongings taken. Councilmember Christensen suggested having the officers have
set up a trap to deter crime. Sam said the officers have actually done this a couple of times at the Ameritel because they were having
vehicle burglaries, but it didn’t actually give them the result they had hoped for. They have looked at a couple different options and it
is a very valid point. There are a lot of wire thefts during harvest and are they looking at doing some better tracking and alarming of
certain areas.
Councilmember Powell asked Sam if his department had enough fiber connection. Sam said they weren’t really utilizing it.
Discussion ensued regarding the broadband fiber and the need to connect the Bonneville County Court house through a third party.
Councilmember Kirkham asked if there was anything the Council can do for the Officers. Sam said yes, they would like the
Council to add an ordinance for alarm permitting, and an ordinance to deal with aggressive panhandlers; people don’t understand that
by handing them money, they are feeding someone’s habit and they could be giving money to someone that may be making more
money than you are. Councilmember Kirkham said they did rewrite the ordinance. Kevin Casper said there is a 9th circuit case that
has affected their ability to draft the ordinance, but there is a court of appeals case that changed that a little bit, but Scott Hall is aware
of what we can and can’t do with the ordinance. Kevin said there needs to be a work session to discuss the panhandling issue.
Discussion ensued regarding ordinances for panhandlers and alarm permitting. Sheriff Wilde said he appreciates the Council’s time.
3. Building Department – Credit Card Payments:
Systems Administrator Bruce Patterson presented a Power Point to
the Council regarding the process for accepting credit cards through the Building Department. Bruce explained that Visa and the
banks hold the City responsible for auditing the system. Bruce said he would recommend using the current Clarity program to take the
credit card payments for ease in balancing the revenue between the Blue Prince program and Clarity. Councilmember Powell asked if
the Sportsman program for swim lessons, shelter and other sports are being audited as well. Bruce said yes. Bruce explained the
current fees for using credit cards and making check deposits with the key capture machine. Bruce said his recommendation would be
to use Clarity, Intellipay and E-Merchant, just like we do for utility payments. Bruce said we are unable to offer cash discounts
through the Blue Prince program, and the potential for errors and auditing issues is going to get very messy. Bruce said as staff we feel
we should use what we have, with no process change, no additions, and continue to use Clarity. Bruce said the one drawback is the
fees. Bruce explained the current transaction fees for processing checks, and credit cards. Councilmember Christensen asked Charlie if
there was outcry from citizens to be able to use credit cards to pay for building permits. Charlie said yes. Councilmember Slack said
the builders want to use credit cards because they receive kickbacks from using credit cards, and whether the City takes credit cards
for building permits or not, the builder still has to pay for the permit. Councilmember Powell asked about putting a limit on the
amount the City accepts as credit card payments. Bruce said the Visa agreement states that we cannot do that. Ron Folsom said the
City takes credit cards in the utility department and accept the fees as a cost of doing business. Discussion ensued regarding increasing
the Building Departments fees two percent to cover the credit card fees.
Jennifer said this is to provide a service, because we already accept credit cards through other departments. Jennifer doesn’t
like the idea of the cash discount, because it complicates things to make sure that Clarity and Blue Prints balance. Jennifer said she
and Charlie were looking at the time that it takes Gay to meet with a customer, obtain information, enter the data, collect the payment,
create a service order for the inspector, the inspectors gas and travel time, etc., that it is a lengthy process. Jennifer said we are not
trying to make a profit, and this might be the opportunity to reevaluate the Building Department fees to include a two percent increase
now and perform an analysis at a later date. Charlie’s recommendation would be to increase the fees to cover taking the credit cards.
Charlie explained that the Commercial building fees have not been increased for quite some time, and feels it is time to increase them.
Councilmember Slack said he feels it is an appropriate time to look at increasing the building permit fees. Councilmember Christensen
said he feels we should accept the credit cards, gauge the implication throughout the rest of the year, and when we do the budget we
can decide if there has been an impact of two percent or an impact of around one percent.
34
Council Minutes 01.10.2013 Page of
Jennifer mentioned the last item on the agenda this evening is to discuss the 2012 year-end financials, and to go over the
budget work sheet. Jennifer said in relation to waiting until October 1st for the adjustments, we will publish updated rates within a
couple of months for other rates that are changing, and so if we publish for building permit increases at the same time then we don’t
have additional publication fees. Ron said it gives us a few months to look at what kind of an impact the City will have in taking credit
cards.
Councilmember Christensen said he feels we should start taking the credit cards as soon as possible. Charlie feels it is time to
look at increasing fees for commercial permits. Ron said staff could begin accepting credit cards for the Building Department as soon
as tomorrow. Councilmember Slack said he doesn’t want to take credit cards yet, because the Building Department is already
operating in a deficit. Councilmember Powell is ok with beginning to take credit cards. Ron said whether or not the Council chooses to
allow the Building Department to take credit cards, there still needs to be an increase in fees. Councilmember Kirkham suggested
raising the fees and begin taking credit cards on the day the fee increase is passed. Councilmember Coletti said he agrees with
Councilmember Kirkham’s suggestion, and feels it’s a benefit we need to offer. Ron said in the spring, the Parks Department also
needs to increase fees; we could have a public hearing for both. Discussion ensued regarding the water and sewer connection fees.
Councilmember Kirkham said we need to figure out what the increase is for taking credit cards for all departments.
4. Phone Stipends:
Bruce said Ron had asked him to put together some information for phone stipends. Bruce explained
there are a lot of cell phones, and they increase every year and as you get more public works employees a lot of them tend to be on
call; so it comes down to deciding do they get a phone, do they not get a phone. Bruce said by switching to a stipend for personal
phones, the City will save a lot of money. Bruce said to give a stipend is better because, if a staff member breaks a phone he or she is
responsible and is going to have to pay to fix it. Councilmember Slack asked how much the stipend will be. Bruce said he feels it
should be between $15 and $35 and the department heads should make that determination. Councilmember Thompson asked if any
City phones are smart phones. Bruce said it depends on the staff member and what it is used for. Bruce said Shawna does not want a
stipend, she would prefer to have separate phones. Bruce said the Department Heads will need to look at each individual situation and
make a determination.
5. Drug Task Force Letter:
Ron said this is a request from Governor Otter and is asking permission to add the Council
names and include the City of Ammon. The Council said yes.
6. Year End Financial Statement Review:
Jennifer went over the Year End Financial Statement and discussion ensued
regarding future budgeting items that were budgeted for, but not used. Councilmember Slack said when we budget money for a
certain cause and don’t spend that money, we shouldn’t shift that money to a different expense. Councilmember Powell asked what
should be done with the unexpended money. Councilmember Slack said to roll it over into the next year. Discussion ensued regarding
unexpended funds.
7. Misc.:
Bruce said his department is going to contract on the two cell towers we have been waiting for. The Broadband
Department will receive $50,000 up front, and $1,500 per month revenue. Councilmember Powell asked Bruce where the towers are
located. Bruce explained that one tower is located by the Ammon Cemetery and the other one by well number ten on Hitt Road.
Lance said there has been a change with the BMPO. Lance said Crowley Road is now a principal arterial; this doesn’t impact
us today, but as we move forward along the corridor along Crowley Road, plan on it being a five lane road.
Councilmember Thompson said we are working on health insurance numbers. Councilmember Kirkham said we are
wondering at what point do we decide that the employee needs to make a larger contribution, because the premiums have increased so
much.
The meeting adjourned at 7: 52 p.m.
__________________________________________________
Steve Fuhriman, Mayor
__________________________________________________
Ron Folsom, City Clerk
44
Council Minutes 01.10.2013 Page of