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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2021.09.09 Regular Meeting Minutes MINUTES McCall City Council Regular Meeting McCall City Hall -- Legion Hall VIA TEAMS Virtual September 9, 2021 Call to Order and Roll Call Pledge of Allegiance Approve the Agenda Consent Agenda Public Comment Chamber Department Reports Presentation Business Agenda Adjournment CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Giles called the regular meeting of the McCall City Council to order at 5:30 p.m. Mayor Giles, Council Member Callan, Council Member Maciaszek, Council Member Nelson, and Council Member Nielsen all answered roll call. City staff members present were Anette Spickard, City Manager; Bill Nichols, City Attorney; BessieJo Wagner, City Clerk; Erin Greaves, Communications Manager; Linda Stokes, City Treasurer; Michelle Groenevelt, Community Development Director; Kurt Wolf, Parks and Recreation Director; Rick Stein, Airport Manager; Eric McCormick, Golf Course Superintendent; Meg Lojek, Library Director; Justin Williams, Police Chief; Vlatko Jovanov, Network Administrator; Dallas Palmer, Police Lieutenant Also, in attendance were Dave Petty, Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, and Amber Green, Chief Operating Officer, and Dr. Kinney, Head of Emergency Room Services, for St Luke’s McCall Mayor Giles led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVE THE AGENDA Council Member Nielsen moved to approve the agenda as submitted. Council Member Callan seconded the motion. In a voice vote all members voted aye, and the motion carried. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 1 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting CONSENT AGENDA Staff recommended approval of the following ACTION ITEMS. All matters which are listed within the consent section of the agenda have been distributed to each member of the McCall City Council for reading and study. Items listed are considered routine by the Council and were enacted with one motion. 1. Payroll Report for period ending August 20, 2021 2. Warrant Register – GL 3. Warrant Register – Vendor 4. Accept the Minutes of the following Committees a. Airport Advisory Committee – July 7, 2021 b. Housing Advisory Committee – June 14, 2021 c. Housing Advisory Committee – July 19, 2021 d. McCall Redevelopment Agency – March 9, 2021 e. Public Art Advisory Committee – July 26, 2021 f. Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee – July 21, 2021 g. Planning and Zoning Commission – June 1, 2021 h. Planning and Zoning Commission – July 6, 2021 5. AB 21-223 City Licenses Report to Council Per McCall City Code: Per McCall City Code Title 4 Chapter 9, the City Council has determined the City Clerk shall be delegated the authority to process and grant or deny all alcoholic beverage license applications, other than certain circumstances involving catering permits, which the City Clerk shall review the application for catering permit for completeness and forward said application to the Police Chief. The Police Chief upon receipt of the application shall make a recommendation to the City Clerk to approve or deny the application. Whenever the City Clerk shall determine that an application for alcoholic beverage license transfer or renewal is complete, the City Clerk shall approve or deny such application. All decisions of the City Clerk shall be reported to the City Council at the next regularly scheduled City Council meeting after such decision. The City Clerk is also responsible for all processing of business, taxi, snow removal, pawnbroker, child daycare licenses, vendor permits, and public event applications. Action: Council to review the License report. 6. AB 21-226 Request for Approval of a new Hangar 427 ground lease for Lori MacNichol and Chris Berge: Over the past months staff has been working with Ms. Lori MacNichol to find a suitable location to construct a hangar. A location has been determined, and Ms. MacNichol has requested a ground lease. Ms. MacNichol, owner of Mountain Canyon Flying, is first on the Hangar Waiting List. Ms. MacNichol will go through all applicable permitting processes prior to construction. The 2020 Airport Rates and Charges resolution sets the lease rate at $0.3127 per square foot per annum. A CPI adjustment will occur on October 1, 2021 and will be invoiced at the newly calculated rate. The proposed lease consists of 22,758 square feet of property. At the current rate, the annual lease payment is $7,116.43. This lease payment will increase slightly after the CPI adjustment. The purchaser has been provided with a copy of the current lease, current Airport Rules and Regulations, and Airport Minimum Standards. The City Clerk will record the document and keep a copy for the City’s records. Staff has requested a $200 transaction fee and the lease has been reviewed by the City Attorney. The Airport Advisory Committee has reviewed the request and recommends that the City Council MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 2 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting approve the lease to construct a new hangar. Action: Approve the new Hangar 427 ground lease for Lori MacNichol and Chris Berge and authorize the Mayor to sign all relevant documents. 7. AB 21-227 Request for Approval of a new Hangar 543 Lease for Mike Weiss and terminate the existing Hangar Lease of the Ray Glass Jr. 1995 Trust: A request has been made by the Ray Glass Jr. 1995 Trust to cancel the existing Hangar 543 ground lease and execute a new lease for Mike Weiss. The 2020 Airport Rates and Charges resolution sets the lease rate at $0.3127 per square foot per annum. A CPI adjustment will occur on October 1, 2021 and will be invoiced at the newly calculated rate. The existing lease consists of 1,512 square feet of property. At the current rate, the annual lease payment is $461.90. This lease payment will increase slightly after the CPI adjustment. The purchaser has been provided with a copy of the current lease, current Airport Rules and Regulations, and Airport Minimum Standards. The City Clerk will record the document and keep a copy for the City’s records. Staff has requested a $200 transaction fee and the lease has been reviewed by the City Attorney. Action: Approve the new Hangar 543 Lease for Mike Weiss and terminate the existing Hangar Lease of the Ray Glass Jr. 1995 Trust and authorize the Mayor to sign all relevant documents. Council Member Callan moved to approve the Consent Agenda as amended to remove AB 21-225 Request for Approval the GFL Holdings (360° Ranch Development) Avigation Easement and move AB 21-226 Request for Approval of a new Hangar 427 ground lease for Lori MacNichol and Chris Berge to the Business Agenda. Council Member Nielsen seconded the motion. In a roll call vote Council Member Callan, Council Member Nielsen, Mayor Giles, Council Member Maciaszek, and Council Member Nelson all voted aye, and the motion carried. PUBLIC COMMENT Mayor Giles called for public comment at 5:35 p.m. There were no written comments received and no in person comments. Hearing no comments, Mayor Giles closed the comment period. DEPARTMENT REPORTS Chamber of Commerce Report Lindsey Harris, Director of the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce was available for questions or comments from the Council. Council Member Nelson commented on the message of kindness the Chamber was promoting. He also had some questions regarding the covid taskforce, if there had been any progress regarding divisiveness among the public or among the members of the Chamber. Ms. Harris responded that the divisiveness is related to how citizens perceive Covid-19 and the hope of the kindness and respect concept will assist with mending the community. Meanwhile the task force will continue with messaging for social distancing and wearing masks MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 3 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting Council Member Nelson commended the Chamber of Commerce for being focused on more than just economics. Monthly Department Reports Council Member Nelson expressed his appreciation of receiving thorough reports from the Department Heads. Council Member Callan wanted to know if the airport keeps track or count the number of planes coming into the airport. The Airport Manager responded that information is not tracked. Council Member Maciaszek commented that he appreciates all the work City staff had been doing. AB 21-224 Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee Annual Accomplishment Report Dave Petty Chair of the Parks and Recreation (PAR) Advisory Committee presented council with the Committee’s annual accomplishment report. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee is established pursuant to Idaho Code 50-210 to advise and make recommendations to the McCall City Council on matters pertaining to the operations, management and programming of the McCall Parks and Recreation Department. The Committee consists of seven voting members serving rotating three-year terms. Mr. Petty expressed his appreciation of Staff and acknowledged the challenges of trying to provide recreation services that are safe during the Covid-19 pandemic. He complemented the efforts put into the outdoor ice rink and the torch lite walk at the Golf Course. He commented that he did not think that there is any way to capture the dollar value of what Parks and Rec does for this community. Including the “dirty” jobs like picking up beer cans the night after Fourth of July, these things just seem to happen without many people acknowledging who and how they get done. He thanked Council for approving the funding for the development of the Parks Master Plan and the relocation of the Parks maintenance shop. He commented on the development of Brown Park and the asset it will be once completed as well as the anticipated improvements coming to the shoreline of the lake north of the Marina. Council Member Nelson commented on the positive impacts on both health and economically that Parks have on the community and the quality of life. Council Member Nielsen looks forward to having a meeting with the PAR Committee to kick off the Master Planning Process. Parks and Recreation Director Kurt Wolf stated that the PAR Committee had requested that input from Council for the Master Plan process on priorities and things they’ve heard from the community, so he will be working with Community Development as well to set up a work session with Council. PRESENTATIONS AB 21-229 Presentation by St. Luke’s McCall on Current Hospital System Capacity, Patient Medical Services Availability, and COVID-19 Amber Green, Chief Operating Officer, and Dr. Kinney, Head of Emergency Room Services, for St Luke’s McCall provided Council with an update on local conditions related to COVID-19 outbreaks in our area and the hospital system’s capacity for provision of medical services to the community. The purpose of the update is to provide situational awareness to the Council and the community. Amber Green, Chief Operating Officer at St. Luke’s McCall, gave the Council the following information. She stated that the data she will share is St. Luke’s McCall Data only. She cannot MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 4 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting speak to the testing data received from Albertsons or RiteAid. She stated that there was a surge in testing last month with 1014 tests in August, the highest month since pandemic started, and that trend is continuing into September. Of the 1014 test completed on August, 142 were positive equaling a 14% positivity rate. For the first eight days of September there have been 365 tests and 65 of those were positive equaling an 18% positivity rate. She stated that St. Luke’s now can break down the data by zipcode and know the specific McCall numbers. With such a large number of tourists being tested they have had numerous requests to break down how many of those are in McCall. She reiterated that whether those being tested and ultimately testing positive are residents or tourist, they are still in the community and the virus is here. She stated that as far as transmission of the virus goes it is irrelevant whether they are residents or not. She explained that of 65 positive tests, 54 were in the service area of Valley County, Adams County, and into Riggins, and 34 were in McCall. The Delta variant is the dominant strain throughout Idaho and is also true for McCall. She then talked about Hospital capacity stating that St. Luke’s McCall does not have a critical care unit and has a very small Emergency Department, Many patients are transferred to other facilities if those other facilities are not full. She stated that throughout the St. Luke’s system, they are operating above capacity. Every St. Luke’s facility is cancelling all elective procedures to open additional units. Also, capacity is dependent on staffing, there is a staffing shortage nationwide, in Boise and in McCall. Currently in McCall, 13 of 15 beds are occupied and one is a Covid positive patient. Dr. Kinney, Head of Emergency Room Services, then shared that there have been some surges over the past 18 months and this one is the big surge. He stated that they are transporting many of the sickest patients to other facilities. Most of the patients with Covid are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. There have been very few breakthrough cases and of the breakthrough cases, none have been hospitalized. He stated that system wide the vast majority of the hospitalizations are unvaccinated, about 90-93%. The death rate is higher than before. He stated with this wave they are seeing a lot of kids; however, children are not getting as sick as adults, but the Delta variant is more virulent among children. Nationwide as well as locally we are seeing an all-time high for children in the hospital for Covid. One 11 year-old on ventilation now and some pregnant women on vents. Ms. Green then shared some hospitalization data from across the St. Luke’s system stating that there are 233 cases of Covid patients hospitalized compared to early in summer there were only 20-25; 38% of all inpatients are Covid patients, 95% are unvaccinated. There are 63 total patients in the ICU, and 45 of those are Covid patients equaling 71%. Of those Covid patients, 98% are unvaccinated. There are 3 pediatric cases, 2 of which are in the ICU. She stated that shows why they are functioning above capacity. St. Luke’s is currently diverting all patients from outside the St. Luke’s organization. Patients from McCall have been transferred as far as Twin Falls as there has not been room in Boise. She also reiterated that with the staffing issues everywhere, nurses from McCall will be re-deployed to the valley to assist. Currently, across the St. Luke’s system, they are 96% compliant with the vaccine requirement. Council Member Callan asked out of the 54 local cases in the first eight days how many of those were children under the age of 17. Ms. Green responded stating there were 11. Council Member Callan asked how many were in August. Ms. Green thought there were about 22. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 5 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting Police Chief Williams asked how capacity is determined, is it based on staffing levels of what you have available to provide care or is that a physical location. Ms. Green responded stating that it's determined by both. Most of their clinical units down in the valley were at capacity and full which is why the decision to shut down some of the elective surgeries. That then gave them the ability to open more space in those units to take those patients. The same has been done in McCall, they have 15 patient beds in the McCall hospital, but they have five additional beds pre and post-op for surgery. She stated that these beds are not ideal but in the event of emergency they will fill them and attempt to staff them. Council Member Nelson asked about their projection over the coming weeks. Ms. Green stated that they are not yet at their peak. They are anticipating to the peak at the beginning to middle of October. City Manager Spickard asked what triggers a crisis standard of care, is that done by central district health region or is it done by hospital system. Ms. Green replied that it is made by the state health department, and it is based on the stretching or the inability to continue to care for patients with the resources available. Chief Williams stated that the CDC site shows Valley Co projection going down, what is St. Luke’s McCall using as their projection? Ms. Green responded that St. Luke’s McCall has their own data model that comes from state and CDH epidemiologist data. St. Luke’s McCall can share their information with Chief Williams. A CDC Valley County projection is likely inaccurate because it’s such a small data set. It is better to use regional data. Council Member Nelson commented that after listening to the information, at what point is the Council asked to take action? He stated that he is not saying a mandatory mask mandate or anything else, but what are the range of interventions that a city might take. City Manager Spickard stated that after Chief Williams update at the end of the meeting the Council may choose to give direction to staff. BUSINESS AGENDA AB 21-228 Request to Approve Re-allocation of Local Option Tax Dollars for the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce Lindsey Harris presented the following request. Due to the pandemic, Local Option Tax Funds received by the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce were not able to be spent on Winter Carnival Fireworks as approved by Council. The Chamber is requesting to reallocate some of those funds. She proposed that in honor of everyone’s hard work and to show some community love, the Chamber would love to throw an outdoor celebration to honor and thank the community the last weekend in October. They picked this weekend to coincide with the Mill Whistle event that would kick-off the festivities on Thursday, Oct. 28th. They would host a community concert at The Ponderosa Center’s terrace venue on Friday, October 29th to provide free music, tokens of appreciation, and food. Additionally, on Saturday, Oct. 30th, another community organization is making plans to host a drive-in movie and Sunday, Oct. 31st (Halloween) will be Trunk or Treat to round out a fabulous weekend for all. They plan to brand this as a FREE, family-friendly community celebration weekend, come rain or shine, for all of us to celebrate everyone’s hard work and recognize the efforts of our town. Ms. Harris did recognize that with the rise of Covid- MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 6 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting 19 cases this event may not happen and asked for the ability to delay the event for up to a year if needed. Council Member Nielsen moved to approve the request from the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce to re-allocate Local Option Tax funds of $5500 toward a Family-Friendly Community Celebration Event and authorize the Mayor to sign all necessary documents; and, if for public health reasons the event needs to be delayed, an extension of 12 months is granted. Council Member Callan seconded the motion. In a roll call vote Council Member Nielsen, Council Member Callan, Mayor Giles, Council Member Maciaszek, and Council Member Nelson all voted aye, and the motion carried. AB 21-226 Request for Approval of a new Hangar 427 ground lease for Lori MacNichol and Chris Berge: Over the past months staff has been working with Ms. Lori MacNichol to find a suitable location to construct a hangar. A location has been determined, and Ms. MacNichol has requested a ground lease. Ms. MacNichol, owner of Mountain Canyon Flying, is first on the Hangar Waiting List. Ms. MacNichol will go through all applicable permitting processes prior to construction. The 2020 Airport Rates and Charges resolution sets the lease rate at $0.3127 per square foot per annum. A CPI adjustment will occur on October 1, 2021 and will be invoiced at the newly calculated rate. The proposed lease consists of 22,758 square feet of property. At the current rate, the annual lease payment is $7,116.43. This lease payment will increase slightly after the CPI adjustment. The purchaser has been provided with a copy of the current lease, current Airport Rules and Regulations, and Airport Minimum Standards. The City Clerk will record the document and keep a copy for the City’s records. Staff has requested a $200 transaction fee and the lease has been reviewed by the City Attorney. The Airport Advisory Committee has reviewed the request and recommends that the City Council approve the lease to construct a new hangar. Council Member Nielsen had asked that this item be moved from the Consent Agenda to the Business Agenda as this is the first proposed development in the new zone at the Airport. He wanted to make sure that the newer Council Members were aware of the new area for development at the airport since the process has been in the works for several years. Airport Manager Rick Stein gave a brief summary regarding the undeveloped area on the airport and that there will be a more defined plan in the Airport Master Plan. He explained that with this large hangar, Hangar 427, the lessee has agreed to build part of the taxiway that is planned for 3-4 years in the future. It was also explained that there is a long hangar waiting list for people interested in buying or building hangars and Lori MacNichol is on the top of that list. Mr. Stein also explained that the FAA has been consulted with regarding the hangar size and location and the entire infield development area. Although the Airport Master plan has not been officially approved, the FAA has agreed with this development. It was clarified that the Hangar owners were responsible for hookups to utilities such as sewer, water, and electric. There was some discussion regarding the size of future hangars, taxiways and FAA required safety areas, Council Member Nielsen moved to approve the new Hangar 427 ground lease for Lori MacNichol and Chris Berge and authorize the Mayor to sign all relevant documents. Council Member Maciaszek seconded the motion. In a roll call vote Council Member Nielsen, Council MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 7 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting Member Maciaszek, Council Member Callan, Mayor Giles and Council Member Nelson all voted aye, and the motion carried. Covid-19 Update and Review of Mask Metrics Status Police Chief Williams gave the following update to Council. Currently the state of Idaho is still in stage four. The weekly cases in Valley County are currently 40 and is still in a high transmission area with more than 307 cases per 100,000. The state and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) lo want it to be less than 100 per 100,00. Valley County has a 20% positivity rate for testing. For the mask mandate metric set earlier by Council, it needs to be below five percent. He stated that he will break down the statistics a little differently than what was previously stated by Amber Green, Chief Operating Officer at St. Luke’s McCall. According to St. Luke’s website, 70 of the ICU patients are Covid-19 related so within the St. Luke’s system 70% of all patients in the ICU are Covid related illnesses and are responsible for 36% of all hospitalizations statewide. That is up from 28 % two weeks ago. From the State’s Covid-19 website the metric for a crisis situation is 50 or less available ICU beds and less than 50 available ventilators. Currently there are only 10 ICU beds available according to the state website, and 521 available ventilators. The last two weeks there has been quite an increase in the number of ICU patients that are being admitted for Covid related illnesses. Note that this metric does not distinguish between Covid patients and other illnesses only the total number of available ICU beds. Chief Williams explained that he pulls his data from the CDC website. The numbers he has shared has always been for Valley County total. This week in Valley County there have been 40 cases. The CDC is forecasting looking one week ahead that Valley County will be at 41 cases, in two weeks at 30 cases, three weeks at 37 cases, and in a month at 38 cases. Currently for the State of Idaho there were 5,350 cases in one week, it is anticipated to go to up each week as follows 7,800 cases, then 8,600 cases per week and then by week four they project that Idaho will have 9,300 cases in one week. With data and information changing quickly, protocols and recommendations are changing as well. He stated that beginning next week, for all City Facilities and City Vehicles, masks will be required. Face-to-face meetings will be discouraged and no drop ins, only appointments to meet with City Staff. All internal meeting will be virtual, this does not include Council and Committee meetings that still need to abide by the open meeting’s law. Staff will be encouraged to telework when possible. He stated that there is much divisiveness within the community of those that are pro-vaccination and those that are antivaccination as well as those that are pro-mask and those that are anti masks. There was some council discussion regarding exploring vaccination incentives, providing support for employees and families and the health care workers. What can the City offer to employees and the public to help incentivize vaccinations? Could the City use some of the Covid expense funds to educate and vaccinate. Council Member Maciaszek likes and education campaign, and city council meetings should have hybrid choice for attendance with Teams. He was not interested in going with a mandate of any kind. Council Member Callan had no direction to staff beyond current protocols, and to keep up the education effort. Council Member Nelson was interested in vaccination efforts. He wants to understand what actions the city can take, understand what businesses need, and how to explore MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 8 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting vaccinated too. He wants to take care of city employees and preserve city services. Mayor Giles had no additional comments The overall consensus was that it is a community effort to get through these difficult times. Upcoming Meetings Schedule Discussion Council discussed upcoming meetings. ADJOURNMENT Without further business, Mayor Giles adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m. s���tHtlHttgy OF 1+1' c- ATTEST: �► 1 -a;• PRobert S. Giles,Mayor BessieJo Wa er, City Cl hounuttut'' MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 9 of 9 September 9, 2021 Regular Meeting