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02.20.2014CouncilMinutes CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL - AGENDA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014 – 7:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Council President Brian Powell at 7:00 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance – Councilmember Coletti Prayer – Councilmember Thompson MINUTES: None ITEMS FROM MAYOR: CONSENT AGENDA: Business License Accounts Payable – Exhibit A AMMON LIGHTING DISTRICT #1 (City Council acting as Lighting District Board): CONSENT AGENDA: Accounts Payable – Exhibit A PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: (5 Minute Limitation) PUBLIC HEARINGS: None ACTION ITEMS: 1.None. BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS: (Council acting as BOA) 1.None. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Rocky Mountain Power – Appraisal of light poles. 2.Judy Street Improvements 3.Misc. MINUTES City Officials Present: Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Sean Coletti Councilmember Byron Wiscombe City Attorney Scott Hall City Administrator/Planning Director Ron Folsom City Clerk Rachael Brown Public Works Director Ray Ellis I.T. Director Bruce Patterson City Officials Absent: Mayor Dana Kirkham Councilmember Russell Slack Councilmember Brad Christensen City Engineer Lance Bates City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield CALL TO ORDER: Council President Brian Powell opened the meeting in the Mayors absence at 7:00 p.m. at the Ammon City Hall building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. Councilmember Coletti led the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmember Thompson offered a prayer. 14 City Council Minutes 02.20.2014 Page of MINUTES: None ITEMS FROM MAYOR: None CONSENT AGENDA: Accounts Payable – Exhibit A: Councilmember Thompson moved to approve the Accounts Payable – Exhibit A, as presented. Councilmember Coletti seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Coletti – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, and Councilmember Wiscombe – Yes. The motion passed. AMMON LIGHTING DISTRICT #1 (City Council acting as Lighting District Board): Councilmember Coletti moved to enter into session of the Lighting District #1 with the Council acting as the Lighting District Board. Councilmember Thompson seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Coletti – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Wiscombe – Yes, and Councilmember Powell – Yes. The motion passed. CONSENT AGENDA: Accounts Payable – Exhibit A: Councilmember Thompson moved to approve the Accounts Payable – Exhibit A, as presented. Councilmember Wiscombe seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Wiscombe – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, and Councilmember Coletti – Yes. The motion passed. Councilmember Coletti moved to enter back into regular Council Session. Councilmember Thompson seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Coletti – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Wiscombe – Yes, and Councilmember Powell – Yes. The motion passed. PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: (5 Minute Limitation): None PUBLIC HEARINGS: None ACTION ITEMS: 1. None. BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS: (Council acting as BOA): 1. None. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Rocky Mountain Power – Appraisal of light poles: Ron explained that the new contract offer from Rocky Mountain Power has been raised by $800.00. The new rep for RMP (Rocky Mountain Power) is Tim Solomon; he has replaced Glen Pond. Tim said the increase was due to a few items left out of the original bid, such as travel expenses. The expired contract offering was $5,700, and has been increased to $6.500. Councilmember Powell said he was okay with the increase. It will save a lot of money to purchase the poles. Ron stated last month the City paid RMP $4,500, most of which was for the service plan for the poles. Councilmember Wiscombe asked if the City was looking at servicing our own light poles. Ray said yes, the City already owns a dozen poles along Eagle Drive and through Lighting District #1, so we are already in the business of servicing the lights. The Council is fine with moving forward. 2. Judy Street Improvements: Councilmember Powell asked the Council their thoughts on the Judy Street improvement. Ray has some numbers to help the Council make a decision. Councilmember Powell would like the issue resolved by the next Council meeting. Ron explained where the street is located and displayed a map for the Council to view and explained what the project would encompass. The estimate given by Ray is $385,000, but it’s just a rough estimate and the bid is without specifications. They are based on the past two years experience and discussions with contractors. The excavation would require the City to rent equipment, and we have the man power needed. The project includes sidewalks, and curb and gutter. There is little the City can trade in kind, it will be a huge cash outlay for the City, but it is less expensive than hiring out to be done. Councilmember Powell asked if the 32 manpower hours is for City staff. Ray said yes, it is all the City staff and the accuracy of the estimate are around plus or minus 25 percent. Discussion ensued regarding the cost estimate that Ray put together. Councilmember Wiscombe asked Ray if he looked at the soil study. Ray said no. Ron said the soil map in his office will be close and tells what type of soil is there. Councilmember Wiscombe asked if the purpose of the project is to reduce traffic on Taylor view Lane. Councilmember Powell 24 City Council Minutes 02.20.2014 Page of said the City has an opportunity to make Judy Street a road all the way through and provide another exit out of that subdivision. The residents need an additional exit, and they were promised that it would be done. The City has an opportunity with a developer probably fronting two thirds of the cost, and thinks the City should complete the project. Councilmember Thompson said usually the developer pays 100 percent of the bill, and he does not see this as an opportunity. Councilmember Thompson said has spoken to Dick Skidmore, the City did not help put in any streets in his development, and they have developed over 300 acres. Councilmember Thompson said Developer Robert Suitter put in every single road in Tiebreaker. This is a big commercial property and the road is minimal compared to other developments. Councilmember Thompson feels the developer should pay for the entire project except for the small part the City needs to get to the property and it needs to be a dedicated road. Discussion ensued regarding developer responsibility and what the City is willing to do to bring in the new development. Councilmember Wiscombe asked if commercial development is viewed differently than residential development. Commercial will bring additional revenue, the City wants to be workable, and attract new business. We want the City to be seen as a place businesses want to come. The City has done things certain ways in the past, and if we change for Ball Ventures are we going to change for the next developer. Councilmember Powell said he thinks each situation is unique depending on the project. He looks at this differently because the residents have been waiting for Judy Street to be completed. Councilmember Thompson thinks there are other roads that need improving first, such as 1st Street. Scott reviewed the City requirements when Wal-Mart and Edwards Theater came in to Ammon. Councilmember Powell said that was during a better economy, times have changed and the City cannot make the same demands. Councilmember Coletti said the City needs to negotiate with the developers; we do not want to get a road paid for but, not have a development. Councilmember Thompson said because the property taxes are lower in Ammon, the businesses will recoup the money spent on traffic lights. Ammon is different, we do require upfront payment but they get it back over time with tax savings. Councilmember Wiscombe said we need to make sure people remember the positive about building in Ammon. We want to be workable, case by case because the City does not want to miss opportunities. We want people to understand the numbers so we can keep Ammon growing. Discussion ensued regarding the cost of developing in Ammon versus the City of Idaho Falls and Bonneville County. Councilmember Coletti asked why our zoning and building requirements don’t apply in our area of impact within the County. Ron said the City subdivision requirements are supposed to be applied. The County is supposed to enforce them. Councilmember Thompson said State bylaws say development should occur within City boundaries not in the county; Bonneville County has ignored that. Councilmember Coletti said we have some time and some negotiations that still need to be done, and feels there is still some flexibility with the developer. Councilmember Powell said he would like a firmer number and to look at the soil sample. They are not putting the street in for another year. Ray said the street needs to be engineered to get a firm number. Discussion ensued regarding future road projects. 3. Misc.: Ron said he would like to create a Facebook page for Ammon Days; you can select organization when the page is created, the City can post without comments, and public comment would not be allowed. Scott said this would essentially be an Ammon Days webpage. Councilmember Powell asked who would administer the page. Ron said either he or Blair Taylor. Blair is over the Ammon has Talent. Ron is going to look for a sponsor for the Ammon has Talent portion, because we could give better prizes. Ron said we have also had a request to add a band portion. Councilmember Coletti asked the Council if there were any questions regarding the newsletter. Councilmember Powell asked about the deadline to submit articles. Councilmember Coletti said the deadline is the end of the first week of April. Councilmember Coletti said he heard the Department of Commerce has a proposed bill that is a tax credit towards broadband. He heard the bills current set up is not fair to a City like Ammon. Bruce said it allows a business like Century link to charge a property owner to improve service to the address. The property owner can then get a tax credit. Councilmember Coletti said he believes there is a requirement that you had to have fifty employees or more to take advantage of the tax credit. The City of Ammon would still have the requirement even though the population is fewer than 25,000. The City would not be able to take advantage of the bill. He asked Council to take notice of the bill so when the time comes the City can give input to legislators. Councilmember Powell said the problem is if you are giving help to a single entity like Century Link to put in their infrastructure that community is tied to them. You will never be able to shop around. Bruce reported on the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) losing the net neutrality case a couple weeks ago. The FCC is now trying to reorganize, and figure out what they can and can’t do. Part of the court’s rulings are that they are not interested in the FCC regulating fees, and they do not want the FCC telling carriers that they have to charge the same amount. The infrastructure owners have been given approval to charge companies such as Netflix that use more bandwidth and network capacity a different fee per MG than what they charge anyone else. Councilmember Powell said the background is Verizon wanted to charge Netflix more money for bandwidth, Netflix did not want the increase, the FCC stepped in with a lawsuit, and the FCC lost. Bruce explained that the FCC cannot regulate a non-telecommunication service, and they cannot regulate an information service. Discussion ensued. Bruce 34 City Council Minutes 02.20.2014 Page of stated that the FCC announced they are not going to appeal the ruling. They took the advice of the courts to not look in Title 2 which deals with telecommunications but, to go to Section 7 which pertains to infrastructure; regulate the infrastructure not the rates and deal with it at that level. The FCC wants to look at State restrictions on municipal networks. Bruce quoted the court ruling regarding state laws prohibiting municipalities from having their own broadband infrastructure “to compete against private companies”. Bruce said they are asking us to form a resolution, and have supplied language for us to use. Scott said it depends on the State’s Constitution and the State Statutes. Bruce said he thinks that an FCC rule making process is making rules to protect us; it does not clear up all the issues, but gives us a stronger leg to stand on. Bruce asked Scott to review the sample resolution that the FCC supplied us with, and then the Council will determine if it is something we want to pass on a formal method. They are encouraging the City to reach out to our Federal level representatives to inform them of our network and the contribution it makes to our community. Bruce said we need to prepare for the immediate push back from the Telco lobbyists. Congress will determine how this gets implemented and enforced, but we need to be vocal about our position. Discussion ensued. Bruce asked Scott and the Council to review the sample resolution, and then to prepare a formal resolution. Bruce will search for contacts, and he asked the Council to talk to representatives on the Federal level. Councilmember Powell said he is meeting with Senator Crapo on Saturday. Bruce said we have not had any cities turn us down to support our efforts at the state level. He would like to do a similar thing with this. Councilmember Powell suggested sending the resolution to the AIC (Association of Idaho Cities) to send out. Discussion ensued regarding an LID (Limited Improvement District). Tom Hunsaker, 2925 Carolyn Lane said he would caution the Council, using as an example the County public hearings regarding the wind turbines. A lot of the written information provided said the same thing. When it is the same thing time after time you begin to gloss over it. When you get to something unique you pay more attention. You may want to take some of the boiler plate and rewrite it into our own terms so it is more noticeable. Discussion ensured regarding broadband coalition Councilmember Thompson moved to adjourn. Councilmember Wiscombe seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Wiscombe – Yes, and Councilmember Powell – Yes. The motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m. __________________________________________ Dana Kirkham, Mayor ____________________________________________ Rachael Brown, City Clerk 44 City Council Minutes 02.20.2014 Page of