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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2018.04.17 Special MeetingMINUTES McCall City Council Special Meeting Forest Service Building 500 N. Mission St. McCall, Idaho April 17, 2018 Call to Order and Roll Call Work Session Adjournment CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL I Mayor Aymon called the special meeting of the McCall City Council to order at 10:04 a.m. Mayor Aymon, Council Member Giles, and Council Member Sowers all answered roll call. Council Member Holmes and Council Member Nielsen were absent. City staff members present were BessieJo Wagner, City Clerk; Erin Greaves, Communications Manager; Kurt Wolf, Parks and Recreation Director; Justin Williams, Police Chief; Dallas Palmer. Police Lieutenant, Nathan Stewart, Public Works Director Members from other agencies present were Officer Kevin Copperi, Valley County Sherriffs Office; Officer Jason Speer, Valley County Sherriff's Office; Victoria McCarthy, Idaho State Police; Richard Taplin, IDPR Ponderosa State Park; Matt Linde, IDPR Ponderosa State Park; Laura Crawford, St. Luke's McCall; Lyle Nelson, St. Luke's McCall; Sylvia Ryan, St. Luke's McCall and Youth Action Coalition; Beau Frick, McCall Fire District; Jake Class, McCall Fire District; Lindsey Harris, McCall Area Chamber of Commerce; McKenzie Kramer, McCall Area Chamber of Commerce WORK SESSION A discussion concerning 2018 Fourth of July and future planning for the coming years Mayor Aymon briefly gave a back history on why and how this group was brought together, and the results of the last two years. Communications Manager Erin Greaves gave a brief overview on what the City has done in the past as it related to alcohol restrictions. Generally, IDPR will make their determination of what alcohol restrictions they are making related to North Beach and then the Council makes their determination. Historically, Council has mirrored that decision. Communications Manager Greaves asked if IDPR had made any decisions to this point. Richard Taplin, IDPR Ponderosa State Park stated that they would mirror to what Valley County decides. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL April 17, 2018 Special Meeting Page 1 of 4 Valley County Sherriff s office reported alcohol will be restricted on the water and on North Beach June 29-July 8th to cover both weekends. There will be a restriction on boating traffic to North Beach; however, they will open one half to three quarters of the beach to all, and specifically motorized vessels to use the facilities. Ponderosa State Park will be conducting alcohol checks and inspecting vessels as they come to shore. The only change in comparison to last year is the expansion of the beach to vessels and the encompassing of the two weekends due to the holiday being in the middle of the week. Valley County's intentions are to, eventually, give the whole beach back to the boating community. IDPR will follow suit. Police Chief Justin Williams felt two weekends was too long from the city standpoint. He will arrange a meeting with Jason Speer to discuss this further. There was a brief discussion as to what the City has done historically. Parks & Recreation Director Kurt Wolf reported that the events last year was a strain on staff so they are looking at reducing some of the events and concentrating on only one day. Looking at just the car show and volleyball on the 4th The McCall Area Chamber of Commerce is planning to partner with the City on the events and they are reaching out to the community to communicate the events and the July 10 days of fun. City Communication Manager Erin Greaves shared the idea of encouraging vendors to move events to areas away from the downtown core to mitigate traffic issues. She also stated that there will be a loss of funding this year as the funds provided by the Youth Advocacy Coalition are not available. St. Luke's reported they are looking at their funds and are trying to make some funds available to help out. There was some discussion about shuttles and parking issues. There will be a road closure on E. Lake Street for July 4th. The transportation focus only needs to be for the one day of holiday. Any traffic devices/restriction need to go through Idaho Transportation Department because of the main road through town is the State highway. Staff will be making their recommendations to the City Council, and once the Council makes their decisions, the information will go out to the public. City Communication Manager Erin Greaves stated that the second part of this meeting is to discuss the 3-year Memorandum of Understanding that the City has with IDPR to work together on alcohol restrictions and with this being the 3rd year what are the plans moving forward. Are all agencies willing to move forward? Officer Jason Speer, Valley County Sherriff's Office stated that seven years ago was when things really started getting out of control and they called McCall PD for assistance. He stated that Valley County will look at it as it goes and make any needed modifications. Valley County stated that they will not seek an alcohol restriction next year if all goes well this year. They want to see what happens the 4th year with no restrictions. They believe that that that the issue is back into compliance and that they have received the response they were looking for initially. Chief Williams stated that if Valley County choses to not impose an alcohol restriction in the Future and the chaos returns, Valley County will be on their own to deal with it as the McCall PD MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 2 of 4 April 17, 2018 Special Meeting does not have the man power to deal with that amount of people and Idaho State Police stated that they would no longer be sending support to the area. He stated that from a professional and safety standpoint he would not be comfortable giving back the ground that all have worked so hard to turn around. Richard Taplin, IDPR Ponderosa State Park, stated that their jurisdiction lies strictly to the beach, so once they are in a boat in the water they have no way to regulate what happens, only what happens on the actual beach. So, it is difficult if Valley County and IDPR are not on the same page. He is still having issues with excessive loud music from boats. He does, however, hope to get away from the alcohol restrictions at North Beach with some of the controls that have been put into place. He felt that the amplified music is the culprit for the "college" kids coming to party. Mayor Aymon stated that her opinion was that the issues and behaviors have been happening for a very long time. She felt that the reason why the culture was able to be changed was that all agencies worked together with the same goals. She stated that, in her opinion, the fuel for the bad behavior was alcohol. She felt that if the restriction is lifted then the bad behavior would return in short order. Mayor Aymon also stated that in 2020 the 4th of July is again on a Saturday and that the Council as an organization needs to look hard at the consequence of allowing alcohol on the public beaches during this holiday. City Communication Manager Erin Greaves stated that even though it seems a little premature to talk about the 4th of July, it is not as the City may have some opportunities to apply for grants to assist with the activities over the 4th of July to continue to make the event family friendly. Council Member Giles agreed with Mayor Aymon and feels there is a need to put a new MOU together to keep the agencies working together. He also felt that if there is relaxation on the alcohol restrictions within two years we will be right back to where we were before. Richard Taplin, IDPR Ponderosa State Park, reiterated that he feels that the loud music is the contributor to the party atmosphere. He feels that with the controls that have been put into place such as parking restrictions and limiting the number of people on the beach, if a limit on the noise being amplified off of a boat was regulated then there would be enough regulations to prevent the parties from springing up. With clear messages always being the same, then it will continue to be manageable. There was some discussion amongst the group on what was manageable and how certain weekends or holidays should be staffed and prepared for. Officer Jason Speer, Valley County Sherriff's Office, stated that he would meet with Chief Williams and come to some consensus for moving forward and give a longer -term planning. Lyle Nelson, St. Luke's McCall, stated that in the end all agencies need to work together. He stated that he has worked with drug and alcohol programs and has experienced that when there is an opening the issue tends to come right back. He felt that continued vigilance for a long period of time is more of a solution. From a public safety point of view, less alcohol equates in less alcohol related incidents. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 3 of 4 April 17, 2018 Special Meeting Lieutenant Palmer suggested that when the 4th falls in conjunction with a weekend will be the true test as to whether there is established change. He would suggest revisiting the possible lift on any alcohol restrictions until after we experience this holiday on a weekend. Mayor Aymon all the agencies view the YouTube Video "McCalliwood" and also review the results of the community survey that was done by the Chamber of Commerce in 2015 before making the decision to lift the alcohol restrictions for their respective jurisdictions. Jake Class, McCall Fire District, stated that since imposing the alcohol ban, their calls for service over the 4th of July have gone way down. Prior they received alcohol related calls all day long and this has now changed. They still staff the same to be prepared for any parties springing up in the woods. The meeting was wrapped up with some expectations the each agency would come up with a plan going forward. ADJOURNMENT I Without further business, Mayor Aymon adjourned the meeting at 11:00 a.m. ATTEST: sa v essieJo Wa: 'er, City CI • ttl tt o MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 4 of 4 April 17, 2018 Special Meeting