00:00:11,230	We’re in the Tom Baker room of the City County Building. This will be the border City Commissioner’s meeting, but first, before we call the order, we’ll have the invocation of Chaplain Chey could come forward with the invocation and all the pledge of allegiance. Thank you, Commissioners and Mayor. Let’s pray.

00:00:31,130	God, we thank you, um, that we live in a country where we get to elect and go vote and express our own personal Our beliefs and uh we just pray for all of our elected officials that serve us um as we the people are just bless them and their families.

00:00:53,970	Uh, thank you for, um, all of our services, uh, especially the hospitals I got to personally enjoy this last week, um, Lord, for all of our family and friends that care for us and care for each other and we just pray for our thriving community continue to do just that to thrive.

00:01:15,900	Ivan, uh, pray for supernatural provision protection favor health over all of the community members are exposed and remove any evil so that we can continue to see your kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

00:01:37,770	And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir. Buss. Or if we can call meeting order by calling roll. Comm Risch. Here Comm Zenker. Here, Comm Connelly. Here Comm Clery here. Mayor Smith here.

00:02:07,700	At this point in time, we are open for public comment for those items on the consent agenda or regular agenda item excluding any public hearings, so I would. podium is open. Anyone who wish to speak, please come forward, sign your name, and tell us who you, who you are and what you’re speaking about.

00:02:34,900	Other than that, I’m speaking on the sales tax initiative, uh, that was passed by the voters, I would just ask you to, give careful consideration, but also when you do that, give the money to Bisman Transit, uh, You know, and have some strings attached so we can Keep our service the way it is.

00:03:02,170	And maybe think about expanding, so I would just ask you to, Have us be involved as advocates and I’ll be the lead advocate on that. For the riders. Is this is a big win for our community. Thank you, E. one other item is the event center RFP. I would just caution you when you do that select, you know, A person that Can give good recommendations. Inaccessibility and Things like that too, I know.

00:03:32,030	I have told you, Mayor Schmidt before about. The bathrooms aren’t accessible. You guys need to really look at that, so. It’s hard to go to a football game or any concert when I can’t even fit in the stall, so I would appreciate that. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir.

00:03:58,900	So This is public comment and one wished to speak, please come forward. That’s Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. My name is Susan Dingle, and I would like to speak on regular agenda. I consider the request to discuss results of Bismarck measure one.

00:04:47,270	I was one of the people who helped together signatures to get this on the ballot, so I have taken quite an interest in it. The vote, I would say made it pretty apparent that people supported the measure it passed by something like a 60% margin. And there are Several Previous commission meetings where the need for increased local support for operations of Bismzan Transit.

00:05:29,170	Has been made and one of the most important documents as well as presentations in support of that document. Made here and in other public meetings was the Transit Development plan in which a firm Subcontracting with the main consultant established that projecting from Financial trends and what they were able to see. It was likely that a 1.3%, 1.3 million. Deficit would probably continue.

00:06:05,300	Now some of you have heard that this year the deficit is lower, yes, there was money left over from COVID funds and maybe some other factors which as somebody wiser than me and more in touch with the finance like the executive director can and probably will address.

00:06:27,100	On the other hand, the deficit is not gone and it is not going away, and the need gap between what the grants from federal, state, and local property tax. Give to Bisman Transit, the gap remains, and this is not unusual. It is across. Many Transit agencies in these United States.

00:07:02,900	Deficits are across transit agencies in the US and guess what? sales tax measures have been resorted to, to help reduce the deficit on transit agencies in the US. So this is following a trend, and I am very glad that the citizens supported this. And it probably helped the police and fire measures were in there too.

00:07:29,100	I certainly know from conversations I had with people when I was collecting signatures that that also affected their interest in the measure. I think too, we probably need to discuss what were the provisions of the measure, and again, I am not the authority here. Various people can talk about them. But I think some people think that.

00:07:54,700	The money going for public transportation somehow is to reduce property taxation, which, to my understanding, it is not the only thing in there that I saw that had to do with property tax alleviation was money toward the burly Morton detention center. Well, I think this kind of stuff needs to be made crystal clear.

00:08:22,630	But I also think that city commission needs to step up and support giving money to Bbizman Transit from this sales tax measure because without it we will not have a transit system. And that is a fact. And again, this is a trend across the US. This is not unusual. It is something that everybody is grappling with, and we need to join that group and grapple with it and support our citizens who use it.

00:08:51,300	There is an increasing writership on the fixed route. It was almost 12,000 people last month. Approximately 7300 people are using Perransit. These are not small numbers, and this is not the kind of Writers that could just be scooped up by some private service. There’s a reason we have public transportation.

00:09:21,330	There’s a reason why we need to support it, and I would like to see us move forward and do that. Thank you. Thank you. This is probably common. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Hearing and seeing no one else, public comment period is now closed.

00:09:52,800	Comm, what are your wishes with regard to the consent agenda? Moved to approve is presented. Second, Is there any discussion? Harry none will call roll. Mr. Zenker. Yes. Mr. Connelly? Yes, Comm Cleary, Yes, Comm Risch. Mayor Schmidt. Yes.

00:10:21,170	First item A on the regular agenda is consider a request to receive an update and discuss the Bismarck Arts and cultural master plan project. Go ahead. Good evening, Maring Commissioners. Um, my name is Lauren Oster. I’ll be doing a quick quick update, um, on this, and then I’ll hand it over to our consultant Jasmine, who’s with our consulting firm for this plan.

00:10:48,730	Um, this is a community-wide effort that we are creating here, um, we have partnered up with Dakota West Arts Council, um, Bismarck Parks and Recreation District, Bismarck Public Schools, as well as, um, other artists. within our community and the sacred Pipe Resource Center. They are all part of our steering committee for this endeavor, um, but we have reached out to other stakeholders as well through the community.

00:11:12,770	Um, part of the funding for this project is through a grant, um, it is a 1 to 1 match. So, um, That’s just some of the information for that. Um, however, I will let our consultants speak on our current progress for this plan. Thank you. Thank you, Lauren. Are we able to see the presentation that we have pulled up. There we go.

00:11:32,270	Thank you. So I’ll go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Jasmine Metcalf. I’m an urban planner with Designing Local, uh, we work primarily in the arts and culture, public art, creative placemaking, urban design and landscape architecture space we do this work nationally.

00:11:54,930	We are based in Columbus, Ohio, where a team of around a dozen employees, Arts administrators, landscape architects, urban designers and planners, um, the reason why we work in places like North Dakota and Texas and Washington is because this type of work. is highly specialized. It’s unique.

00:12:16,370	It requires a lot of strategy around engaging the community in a community vision for the role that arts and culture should play and how it can strengthen our communities, our social fabrics, and our places, um, so we kicked off this project. One moment.

00:12:42,900	So we kicked off this project in late summer, as Lauren mentioned, our advisory committee or our steering committee is comprised of members from Dakota West Arts Council, Sacred Pipe Resource Network, uh, the school district, the Parks district. It’s also funded in part by the NEA grant, as Lauren mentioned, and we’ve also engaged in indigenous facilitator to help with some of our engagement work, and she was in town just the last couple of days at two engagement events that we held, uh, we had our attendance of nearly 40 across both events.

00:13:00,630	of artists, um, administrators, organizers, people in the community that really value this work and support this work. And so it was really excellent to see the community turn out. General Pro phasing, um, it began in the summer with a mobilization. So we got together a plan on website, which is Bismarckcultureplan.

00:13:24,800	com if anyone’s interested, there’s a survey on the website still, which is available for submissions, uh, drafting that survey, putting together a package of engagement materials and coming up with a strategy to engage the community.

00:13:42,230	And then we met in, um, early September for our on the ground engagement event, we attended the street fair and we spoke to many, many, many people and got some dots on boards and um really started to kick off the process with a great first taste of what Bismarck is like and when the community likes to get together.

00:14:00,200	Um, upcoming deliverables, I’ll talk about a little bit more, but we’re kind of at this flexion point between the community dialogue and synthesis. So we’ve had a Sorry. I’ll show an image of that street fair real quick so you can see some of the engagement that we received. People talking about what types of goals the plan should have, what types of art it should create, how this can shape experiences locally.

00:14:21,730	Also images of the project website, the survey, which is still available and um some of the social media and engagement collateral we’ve been pushing out. So that said, engagement to date, so we’ve had 24 1 on one conversations with artists and administrators and organizers within the community to really hear from them their perspective on what this plan should do for Bismarck.

00:14:41,970	Um, we are in the process in the next week or so of releasing a report out on the findings and the consensus building across that report. Uh, we were at the street fair, as I mentioned, we’ve been sharing things out on social media, and we are approaching 200 survey responses.

00:14:57,130	We’re at 188 right now. I say 200 because I would really like to get 200. And then we’ve had two events across the last couple of days and like I mentioned, we had a turnout of almost 40 people.

00:15:17,300	The stakeholder report that you guys will be receiving um talks about opportunities for arts and culture, barriers to experiencing arts and culture perceived cultural programming opportunities, big desires for planned outcomes and a vision for the future, and that vision is really what we build our strategy recommendations, policies and processes to that we can be good stewards of that public vision. Upcoming steps, um, so like I mentioned, we’re synthesizing everything back out.

00:15:37,630	This is the flexion point between community dialogue and plan recommendations, strategies, and outcomes. So we’re finding what the right fit is for Bismarck right now, based on what we’ve heard from the community.

00:15:58,070	In the next couple of months, um, January, Februaryish, we’ll start floating some recommendations by our steering committee and our client group and likely out to this group as well that’ll look like strategies um for consideration policy. recommendations that can support a great arts program and then any potential process information that you guys might want to adopt to help smooth things along and create a healthy arts ecosystem locally. So that’s all I have for you today. Thank you for your time.

00:16:19,770	Any questions, Commissioners? OK Thank you. Thank you. Next item B is consider a recommendation from the Vision fund to support a PACE program interest buydown for the Etai cafe Corporation in Nathan, I think you’re gonna kick it off, right? I am. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the commission, you have in front of you.

00:16:45,370	An application um from Eat Thai Cafe Corporation for the local match of the Bank of North Dakota’s PEE program, um, for up to $111,606.79 to come from the vision fund. Um, so the, the, the project here, uh, typically, uh, a restaurant like Eai probably wouldn’t qualify.

00:17:12,700	However, recently, um, the owners of the restaurant recently purchased a facility where they started out by just um having a place to do meal preps and things like that, uh, many of you that have been there know that it’s not a very large facility, um, so there wasn’t a lot of room for storage and meal prep, and so they bought a facility to do that.

00:17:27,700	In doing that, they opened up other opportunities to start making um and producing some retail products. Um, and so this, uh, this loan here is, um, for the financing of the facility and equipment to start, um, uh, producing retail products, sauces and things like that, and I’ll let the project owner come up and talk to you a little bit about

00:17:48,530	the project. I won’t steal her thunder, but, um, but, uh, so just, I just wanted to make it clear this isn’t necessarily for The restaurant portion, it’s for the retail production side of things, the, the bottling, the, the canning and things like that that go along with um the retail production,

00:18:07,670	so be happy to come back up and answer any questions, um, regarding the request, but I’ll bring up um Ben to talk about the project uh herself.

00:18:31,570	Hello everybody, um, my name is Benjamma Skillen, and I am the owner of the EThai Cafe and um right now I just um started the the other new facility that will help me out to make more food, um, 6 years ago, uh, before I have the cafe, uh, I ask myself like, what’s next? I was cooking in the food truck, the tiny area, and then it came up with the idea that I need a bid to make a restaurant.

00:18:53,570	And now the same creation came up again. What’s next? have the, the restaurant. Do I need another restaurant or uh do I need another location up north and, um, yeah, so many questions came up and uh the facility at the cafe that I have right now, uh, it’s not. It can’t allow me to do more food as we gain more customer.

00:19:17,000	So, um, I think I need to Move forward for the food production and the food industrial. So I think I can make more food for sale. As, um, um, every year we eat Thai cafe, we, we, we gain more customer and how can I make more food, something like that.

00:19:42,500	So I just got the the loan from the local bank. Help me out to get the shop condos. Um Then I, I, I need a place that I can, I can make more food and I need a place that I can fit the equipment that allow me to make my food. So that’s why this um project.

00:20:05,030	Came along with and then with the vision fund staff, to be honest, I, I didn’t know that this thing even exists. To, to our community. I got somebody that um from the state.

00:20:31,100	kind of explained to me that um what I’m doing, um, is qualified for the they call like primary stick, like, um, you can make more food and, and what, what we, um, came, came out from our discussion like I my goal right now is I want to make a lot more food with like. Like good Quality, big quantity and sell like anywhere else. Besides, North Dakota. So, um, yeah, I got, uh, to know Na and OK, you. Probably need some support.

00:20:58,470	Um, last meeting with the Ren Fan meeting, um, yeah, I got approved. Thank you very much. I didn’t, I didn’t even say thank you to everybody that say yes to my project. So if you wanna get me any questions regarding what I’m doing. Yeah, I can Give you the the the answer.

00:21:22,470	Thank you and then just for clarification, the, the goal is to produce to sell wholesale and retail, not just from your facility, but to. Grocery stores or other avenues I should say, I think a lot of people kind of um wanna ask me that.

00:21:46,530	What I, what I am really doing right now, um, I, I would like to explain like uh the cafe. Started everything. Like the sauce that we make, the rice that we made, the drink that we made it, it, they are made from scratch. And I feel like the feedback that we get from the from the cafe is really good.

00:22:11,670	So how about make it more? Yeah, that’s, that’s all I, I, I would like to, to explain to everybody right here. Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead, Comm. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Ben. I love the restaurants on the south side, don’t move to the north side. I live on the south side. But anyway. Just to clarify, this is for Retail sales, grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, wherever you could sell these products.

00:22:34,100	It’s not, you’re not setting up another restaurant that may be in competition with the other restaurant. And to be clear too, this is actually a loan, not, not a grant. OK, so I just want to make sure whoever’s watching or listening to this, those two distinctions. Yes, that’s my understanding.

00:22:54,170	I, I, I, my understanding too is the law, it’s not. It’s not a free money, but um my first plan, I already got really. I, I, I don’t, I, what can I explain? It’s, it’s, it’s kind of speechless to say like it it is a big support from everybody and, and my local bank, they already got

00:23:16,500	approved. Let’s say like even I don’t get anybody try to support me right here. I will, I still move everything forward, even I need to pay a lot of money to the bank. Yeah, so, um, since I learned about this program that the community kind of have this available.

00:23:39,630	I, I run the, the numbers and I calculated everything and wow. In, in, in the couple more years, um, you know, from now I can save a lot of money. That’s, that’s, I don’t plan to save that money.

00:23:59,070	Because I want to use that extra money that I get from from the program to to build out my business to make it better, to make it uh more than what I expect, expected to do. Yes Any other questions? Mrs, what are your wishes? Move to approve Second Is there any discussion Comm Connelly. I like the food as well and have had it on a takeout basis and things. Um, I watched the Vision Fund meeting.

00:24:32,570	It wasn’t unanimous support in that, and we add money to this fund periodically and things. And how it was set up as far as, um, The things that I like about it are um organizations, even though one didn’t go through, say, for providing the addiction treatment because of the needs will always be greater than the resources and

00:24:55,500	things and um When the roll call goes around, um, I’m gonna say no because You’d mentioned in the Vision Fund meeting that It was going to happen one way or another. Um-hum.

00:25:16,500	And there was another program in Fargo a few years ago to where a company came in and said they didn’t want any of the incentive and. The commission at the time said, well, we don’t want to set a precedent saying that we encourage people to say no if something’s offered. And they gave that anyway, so I appreciate the fact that you’re willing to come here, do business, contribute and compete with everybody else on the same playing field.

00:25:40,300	Without that portion, and, um, hopefully I can eat more, so you’re more competitive in that market, but, um, there are limited dollars here and we’re gonna have more projects that come before us. Um-hum. That might need that extra little push where they wouldn’t succeed before, so I do appreciate. you presenting. Yeah, that’s totally understand.

00:26:03,970	Any other discussion, Comm Risch, Mr. Mayor, Comm Connelly, I think Ben is just being honest about it. I think a lot of these other projects will go forward without the vision fund contribution as well, but she’s just being honest and I’m gonna support it. Any other discussion. Harry Nunn will call. Comm Cleary. Yes, Comm Risch. Yes. Comm, thank you.

00:26:28,830	Yes. Comm Connelly? No. Mayor Schmittz. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy. Thank you. Next item is application for a new class F1 restaurant alcohol beverage license for one lodging management, doing business as courtyard in Bismarck. This is a public hearing.

00:26:56,200	Anyone who wish to speak to this topic, please come forward, state your name and sign in. 50s. Woah, I’m sorry. I mean, you’re right, I did. Sorry about that. We’ll go, we’ll back up. Because we didn’t start it. Well, I had opened the meeting, but we’ll close that one and we’ll pen it and come back. Right Sorry about that.

00:27:23,300	This is a class 1 F1 like restaurant license as well, uh, for Barry investments for LLC doing business with Rocking 50s. This is a public hearing. Anyone who wished to speak. Please come forward. A 2nd call A 3rd call for public comment. Hearing and seeing none we’ll close the public comment period on this one, Commissioners move to approve. Any discussion. Wear. Comm Rich. Comm Zenker.

00:28:02,300	Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary, Mayor Smith. Yes. Now I’ll try. Item D Application for a new class F1. Uh, restaurant, alcohol beverage license for one lodging management doing business as courtyard in Bismarck. It’s a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment.

00:28:31,670	Have someone on if the, if you guys have any questions. OK. A 3rd call. There is no public comment. I’ll close public comment period and I do we have any questions for the applicant? OK. Any discussion Commissioners, what are your wishes? I’m sorry. Move to approve. Second. Any discussion Hearing call roll. Mr. Zenker. Comm Connelly, Comm Cleary Yes.

00:29:07,030	Comm Risch, Mayor Schmidt. Yes. Next is item E, a application for a new. Class F1 restaurant. alcohol beverage license for Uh, this is a salty steak of North Dakota LLC, and I know I cannot pronounce the doing business as, but Fo Goho or. Um So it’s a public, public hearing. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward.

00:29:42,800	A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Hearing and seeing no one. public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? A move we approve is presented. Second. Any discussion Here none will call roll. Fisher Connelly. Yes, Comm Cleary, yes, Comm Risch, Comm Zenker. Mayor Smith. Yes. Excuse me.

00:30:16,430	Next item is consider a request to continue discussion discussion on the garbage collection survey results and next steps. Steve. Good evening, Comm, um, Mayor, Commissioners, um, back in February, I had presented um to the then commission, um, some challenges that the landfill operation um will be experiencing, um, based on because of a manufacturer. Discontinuing the, um, production of the multi-pack.

00:30:45,630	Um, body for the garbage trucks that we use for residential collection. And at that time, you had asked that we develop a communication plan and, um, present that to the citizens, um, Caitlin Ost did an excellent job, um, getting the word out.

00:31:06,870	Um, you also would ask that we do um conduct a survey and, uh, get feedback from, from the public on those challenges. Uh, we did that. The survey ran from August 9th through September 16. And um I presented the results of that survey at the last commission meeting. Um, at that time, you had decided to table the decisions, um, to give the public one last opportunity to comment.

00:31:33,730	On the results of the, the, the survey. And I’m here tonight to, um, present the um people that had reached out to me on on the results of the of that survey. I had one individual um inquiring um if we were planning to eliminate the cleanup weeks.

00:31:59,370	Um, I had responded back to that individual that, um, we have no intentions of getting rid of the spring cleanup week and the fall, um, Free disposal weeks, um, as we had done this past year, um, we plan to continue those.

00:32:23,930	I had another individual that recommended that the 2nd can, um, be able to be Split between two neighbors, um, asking that we would split the, the fee amongst those two neighbors and that they’d be able to share that can. I’d prefer not to split the fee, um. Anticipate there could be some challenges if one neighbor put more than 50% into that can and I really don’t want to get involved in that.

00:32:49,030	Um, I’d prefer just to work with each individual homeowner on those extra cans individually. Um, that Individual also made a comment that large items should be done on a rotating basis every 2 weeks or every month. That was the special collection of those large items.

00:33:09,500	Um, for those items, We’d like to do it on a trial basis to see what works. We don’t know how many. Um, people are going to request that service, um, if we do it once a month or, you know, we try to work that out. So in my recommendations later on. Um I’m hoping that you give us the flexibility to, to work with that.

00:33:27,670	Um, if you decide to go that route. Um, he also recommended that we establish a telephone number, um, for them, for people to call in, um, to request that additional collection, um, we already have a telephone number I’m set up for that.

00:33:50,970	Um And he also requested, you know, that citizens, um, state the number of items that they’re picking up in the type of items to be picked up, and that was also her intention that we, we know what we’re picking up, so we go with the proper equipment. It’s prepaid, so we go out there, it’s already done, it’s sitting at the curb, we just pick it up.

00:34:09,030	Um, that individual also thought that the $50 fee was a little excessive, and, um, Had requested that we waive the fee if they pick up the bin for themselves at the landfill.

00:34:31,570	Um, the, the $50 fee that we’re proposing was more of a, um, delivery slash service fee, um, to kind of offset a little bit of the cost of those cans, and so I Recommend that we continue moving forward with with that, um, that fee. At another individual that reached out inquiring if residents could opt out of garbage collection altogether and just take their items to the landfill on their own.

00:34:57,400	Um, After thinking about this, I Really recommend against that one as well. Um, we really don’t have a Database for our drivers to know that this resident opted out and this one opted in. Um, it would be, it would make it very difficult.

00:35:21,130	This is kind of like the water rates if every citizen, um, is entitled to water, garbage collection, um, so I would recommend that we just continue down that same path. Um, we had, uh, another individual that reached out and didn’t use these exact words, but, um, so they really don’t care what we charge as long as we pick up the garbage. Um, they don’t want Bismarck looking like New York.

00:35:41,500	And then the, the last one that had reached out is, um, The Asked if there’s going to be any changes for the alleys. Because currently the alleys have they furnish their own cans. And in taking that into consideration, um, we added item number 3 on tonight’s agenda to add.

00:36:08,370	For the city to furnish 96 gallon cans for the alleys as well that way. All residents are treated equally and fairly. Um, they also had um a concern that, um, folks may just drive through an alley and just drop things off. And wondering how we were going to handle that, those items.

00:36:33,270	Um, I’d responded back that that is more of a, would be considering a kind of a law enforcement issue because that would be considered littering. And they would most likely want to look at some of the surveillance video in the neighborhoods to see if they could see who actually dropped it off.

00:36:49,330	Um, even though they may call us and law enforcement call us and say, hey, can you pick this up? Um, they’re going to have to do the investigation first just to make sure that it wasn’t one of the homeowners just putting something out there and wanting extra collections picked up.

00:37:05,300	And then the last concern that they had was if a renter leaves and they place all their junk out, what’s going to happen there? And I responded back with that one that it’s the property owner’s responsibility to give a reer would leave to clean up the outside similar that it would be to clean up the inside of a, um, an apartment or a house that they’re renting, so.

00:37:25,030	Those were the only comments that I had received after since the last meeting. So, um, with that in consideration. Um, I’d go back to it is um service operations recommendation that we would implement Option E. Uh, which would be to no longer accept the extras that um you place beside your 96 gallon can.

00:37:50,470	Um, but allow Residents to purchase a bag for $2 that they could set aside for that occasional time that they may have some extra items. We were We’d like to implement a 30 pound weight limit on that bag, those bags are have a weight limit of 30 pounds and so anything beyond that we feel

00:38:13,730	would They wouldn’t, first of all, it’s, um, not overly safe for our operators to continue to collect really, really heavy bags and then the breakage on these and so we’re looking for the ability to tag anything that would be excessively heavy. And not pick those up.

00:38:37,770	And then I, I just need to note this because I know it’s gonna happen and so I just want to get it on the record that anything that is placed inside the 96 gallon can. Does not need to be in a special bag. The special bags are only for items that you would put beside that can.

00:39:01,630	The, um, in addition to that option, they’d also have the ability to, um, Purchase a 296 gallon can, um, For a one-time delivery slash service fee of $50 per each extra 96 gallon can. Um, and then there will be a monthly fee of 1 half of their current collection rate that would exclude the uh waste um the recycling waste management recycling portion of that.

00:39:36,300	The The um, we would also request that we have a 12 month minimum. Sign up for this service. Um, we don’t really want to be taking them out and pulling it back and, um, so if we take them out, we’d like to keep them there for a period of 12 months.

00:39:54,500	And then here I need to stress also that we would continue to deliver the, the first trash can, 96 gallon can like we do today at no service, no charge to the residents, the $50 service fee would only be to the for the second count. For the, for the additional. Um Extras that they may have.

00:40:19,630	And then part of option C on that one is they could also continue to take any extras that they have to landfill for normal landfill fees. And then we also recommend for number 2 would be implement a special pickup service for the bulky household items such as mattresses, couches, appliances, and that we do this on a trial basis, uh,

00:40:41,370	for the public’s um to kind of um gauge the public’s interest in this service. And for this, we would have the following, um, requirements is that there would be a $20 pick-up fee. Plus the cost of the disposal of the items.

00:41:02,330	So, um, if you have one on one item, and you have to tell us what it is if it’s a bed, uh, it’ll be a $20 fee for that plus the disposal for that, that mattress. Um We would like, we would limit the pick up to 5 items for that $20 service fee.

00:41:22,570	If they had more than 5 items, there would be an additional $20 pick-up fee for the next flight of items. What we’re trying to avoid is someone cleaning out their entire house, and we come and pick it up for 20 bucks. Um, there’s private companies that are out there that do that, and so we’re trying to, trying to avoid that.

00:41:41,230	Um, we ask that the pickups would be prepaid and not part of their normal utility bill, so they’d call in and we could just take a credit card over the phone, um, get that prepaid. Um. Any extra items that they would put out there.

00:41:57,170	Say they call in and they say, well, I have one item, and then all of a sudden we get there and there’s 2 or 3, we’d only take the one item. Um And I don’t want the drivers. I don’t want them to be allowed to take any cash for additional items.

00:42:21,800	Um, that just Creates um an environment that is full of temptations, um, and I, I really would like to avoid that if all possible. And then, um, just give us the ability um to be flexible with the days and times to whenever it’s um we have staff available, we can um arrange that.

00:42:39,500	And once we kind of gauge the interest in the program, we’d have a better handle of, OK, we’re going to do it on this day, um, in time and we, we’d let those homeowners know that, OK, have it out on the curb on these days and we’ll pick it up, so. Um, that was recommendation number 2, and then the third recommendation would be to convert all the alleys to a 96 gallon can.

00:42:59,700	Um, currently, the alleys, they furnished their own cans and then we, we pick up, um, Those cans and we dump them into the back of our rear load trucks. Um, there was some concerns that We’d be treating the alleys differently than we’re treating the other residents, and we found a way that we can dump the 96 gallon

00:43:22,170	cans into the back of the rear load vehicles, you know, we can purchase a Can tipper that we can roll the can up to the back and it’ll tip that can and dump it into the back of the truck. And so Um, we’d like to treat the all Steve, we have a question from Comm Zinker.

00:43:41,370	If you don’t mind. So, uh, thank you, Mayor Kusher. So, you said tip it into the back of the rail load trucks, but aren’t those going away? No. The, the dual one ones are going to work.

00:43:58,200	So we’re always gonna have we’re always gonna have rear loads because there we do dumpsters with rear loads loads? OK. All right. And we have, and we also have front loads for dumpsters. But so we will always have severe loads. OK. It’s just the duels that are going away. So anyway, um, we found a way to dump the, the 96 kon cans into the back of those rear loads.

00:44:16,630	And so we’d like to convert the alleys into the 96 gallon Kans as well. That way all residents are treated equally and fairly. We’re furnishing them the can, if they have any extras, they would do the same as everybody else with the, um, with the, the bag or the extra can or take it to the landfill on

00:44:33,170	their own. And so, um, They’d be treated the same way if they wanted a second um can for any extras, they would follow um item 1B that we recommended earlier, um, and, um, so that way we ensure everybody is being treated fairly.

00:44:58,300	And the only stipulation on this one is we would request that the homeowners, um, Make sure that they keep an open path for us to grab that can in the winter months.

00:45:19,400	Um, most areas have a, um, a garage or a driveway where they park, we just ask that we have, we can take that can and roll it back to the, the garbage truck, not that we have to go over a 4-foot bank, um, with those cans, and so those are our recommendations based on the the garbage collection surveys. Minister’s questions. Comm Connelly.

00:45:42,500	So with the rear loading ones, there would always be 2 people with the truck, one to drive and one to hook it up to the apparatus that would dump it in the back. That is correct. OK. And then on the front loads, if you didn’t have the additional bag option where somebody would have to move the bag into the can. Um, you could get by with one driver, just go stop to stop, correct? We are still looking at That has been a one driver operation.

00:46:08,230	Um, right now, we are anticipating. A lot less bags. And so for the occasional bag that is out there, um, we’re anticipating that the driver would, would get out of the truck. They would put the bag into the can, they can get back in the truck and then dump it again.

00:46:31,170	Um, we’re trying to avoid the two-person operation on the side arm for safety of our operators. We don’t want someone walking up to the can while someone accidentally hits a lever and injures that individual. So we’re trying to avoid that, so we will still continue with, with the one operator that is currently the plan. Other, other questions? Mr. Clery.

00:46:57,400	Um, I don’t really have questions for Steve, um, but I’ve probably spoken to most of the people that he’s spoken to, and I just have a couple other things to add from either people he that only talk to me or maybe our conversations just ended up a little different, um, but, uh, other than the stuff he already

00:47:13,500	went over, the only other feedback that I received was, I had one gentleman who um wanted to make sure that, uh, there’s some residents that already have 2 cans.

00:47:32,170	For some reason or another, and so to just make sure that we’re doing like a full inventory so that it’s being tracked as to who’s paying for 2 cans and who isn’t, um, which I believe, um, the team has already started, um, so that is happening, um, and then, uh, He had questions about um.

00:47:51,230	Paying like why they only would have to pay a half rate for the monthly fee of the second can, and he thought the 2nd can should cost the same amount as the first can, uh, and I explained to him and Steve Ken too if I don’t do a good job of this, but that like it’s a half rate not only it it because that’s all that’s required to make sure that we’re not subsidizing because obviously it doesn’t cost the

00:48:08,000	exact same to be picking up a second can because they’re already there, they’re already on the route, um, that sort of thing. Um, and then I did speak to a lady to Um, we talked a lot about, um, how people will utilize the different um options that are given to them, um, she has some concerns that

00:48:27,130	people won’t want to buy the extra bags, they won’t want to pay for the extra bin, so they’ll just let their trash collect, um, outside their home and just fill their bin as much as they can every week, um.

00:48:46,770	I did explain to her that there is ordinances within public health about what can be kept outside your health for house for health reasons and that sort of thing, so hopefully we do a good enough job of explaining how it can all be utilized that we don’t run into issues like that, but that there are ways to, to deal with them if we do so those were primarily the conversations

00:49:01,170	that I had with with individuals that contacted me or Steve and myself, um. Other than the things he’s already talked about, so, um. That’s really all I have to add, um, with the extra time we gave them to contact us, that’s those were the conversations I had, so. Any other comments or questions.

00:49:21,030	Go ahead, Comm Zenker. Comm, so I had a couple, um, one is the, the big concern with the, because we didn’t have the fall pickup cleanup week that, um, obviously when you provide good service and you take that service away, people are unhappy, so they would like to see the, the two cleanup weeks, um, continue, um,

00:49:39,130	and then the other, I had uh one asking about whether recycled, do we really need to, does everybody need to recycle? Um, I explained to him, we had a presentation. Uh, about a year ago, I would think about how many people actually use it.

00:49:57,230	Um, that person for whatever reason, uses it very seldom or didn’t see the, the, the reason for it and then the last comment I got is um. Um, it seems to be more of a nuisance for the $2 extra bag thing when they’re just gonna get out of their truck and throw it in the can already and you know, we could do the same thing with a

00:50:15,370	couple of KitchenAid bags, I guess, is what they’re thinking, so. Um, that’s what I got, I received for feedback. Other comments Go to your What are your thoughts, Commissioners? M Risch, Mr. Mayor, my street right now is covered with bags full of leaves, so I think there’s going to be some.

00:50:46,000	People concerned that, uh, when they’re no longer picked up. Um, my, I myself, I have a pickup truck, so I can haul them to the landfill, no problem, or one of the, one of the drop-off places.

00:51:01,300	That’s the only thing I, I, I’m going to see coming up next, next fall with these people that don’t have pickup trucks or trailers and are raking up their leaves and I don’t know. Um God. With all of the items suggested, if we Made a motion tonight, but we did bring back the thought process of maybe what would it look like for a fall cleanup where you talked about manpower stretched a little thin because we’re trying to close up road

00:51:37,600	projects and those type of things, and there’s some shared usage between departments we get spread a little thin is maybe we can keep that discussion open and maybe, um, talk about similar as your piloting out the ongoing. pick up that people can order, um, with the $20 paid ahead purchase, um, allow the same.

00:52:05,900	Payments or something in a fall bigger cleanup or whatnot, just kind of keeping that on the table and we can continue to see what that looks like.

00:52:22,370	I don’t know what your thoughts would be on something like that as we go forward because I’ve heard a lot of angst about losing that fall clean up as well. And then secondly, um, similar to what Comm Zenker said, I called around to other communities that use the bag option and it’s hasn’t been.

00:52:44,830	There’s been a few here and there that are uh positive about it, but the majority of ones that I talked to did not like the bag option, and I’m thinking in relation to efficiency, if we can keep the driver in the truck knowing everybody driving by and winners and all of that and how things get as icy, um, 2 cans would be if safety is the issue, the two cans is a much safer option than anybody getting out of for one bag here and one bag there.

00:53:06,370	Mayor, Comm, Comm Connelly. I’ll be perfectly honest, we’re not a big fan of the second bag either, um. But we were looking for options to accommodate. The residents for those occasional times they have a holiday that they have a little bit extra.

00:53:29,870	What do they do with it? And instead of keeping it storing it beside the house for and another, another week. We just, we came and decided that maybe we bring that forward as an option. If you want to mix that option. Um We won’t have any concerns with that. Um I know there’s a lot of communities, most communities don’t do that.

00:53:54,170	Um, given we have been collecting Unlimited extras for so many years. We just Decided to bring forth an option. That somehow allows them to throw a little bit extra if they need to, and so that was the reasoning behind that one. Yeah. Excuse me, and as far as the the fall cleanup week, um, this year we tried the, the free disposal of the landfill.

00:54:20,470	We received very, very few calls that week. And so, um, In based on the number of calls that we received, we looked at it as a success, and so we thought we’d continue that, um. If you as a group, um, would like to bring that back, um.

00:54:47,100	We would just have to work that into our operations and we will continue to borrow our Staff from other departments to make that work during that fall time period as well, just like we do during the springtime. Mr.

00:55:11,700	Cle, I think um, to Comm Connelly’s point, I would like to see how the like individual pick up like scheduled big item pickups if people utilize that before we like go ahead and bring fall cleanup week back, um, like cause we we’ll have time like all spring to see if people are even utilizing it and into the summer before we have to like.

00:55:31,430	Decide if we’re switching the free disposal week back to a cleanup week, um, I think we could kind of see if that service gets utilized before we make that decision, but we could certainly like bring that back to the table at another point after we see how some of this implementation goes. That’s on a thoughts on a recommendation.

00:55:59,700	I mean, we can, as Steve has mentioned, if there’s something here, we want to pull out. We can, I guess if we want to add something with theoretically can as long as we know kind of what that, I don’t know what we could add per se, but. Comm Zenker, sorry. Yeah, I would, I just. I don’t know. I’m not really sold on the whole package, so to speak, um.

00:56:35,500	I’d, I I do agree that The I mean, there aren’t very many communities if any any more that that do pick up the extra stuff, so. Um But that cleanup week, I think, is, is a bigger deal than. And um we’re anticipating.

00:57:02,270	I think a lot of people, especially the, the spring one, some people forget about the fall and they save all their stuff for the spring, but the spring one is kind of that. He the 40 inches of snow was finally gone. Let me clean my garage.

00:57:18,270	All this stuff’s been hanging around here since Christmas, so to speak, type thing, and, and it just gives a, a much better opportunity for that. Spring cleaning, so to speak. Staying for sure. Yes, absolutely 100%. He’s also nodding his head, yes. Spring is I might want to see that in writing. Just because Steve can put that in writing for you. OK. All right.

00:57:40,630	Uh, but yeah, the plan is that spring cleanup would stay exactly how it is and that fall clean up as it was this year transitioned to a like. free landfill week where people could utilize the landfill for free, um, so that was the change, but that we’re not changing spring clean up to that, it’s, it was just a way to get to because of the amount of staff and time that goes

00:58:00,000	into cleanup week every year as a way to try to get us down to one cleanup week and spring gets utilized almost twice as much as fall from what I remember from the numbers they showed me. So when we approved the agenda to go to 2 free weeks for next year.

00:58:15,430	What was the 2nd week for? I think it’s because it’s also free during cleanup week in the spring Mayor Comm, Comm Zenker. So, The, the first one was first a free. Um, curbside cleanup in the spring, which is the free cleanup week. Along with the free landfill week.

00:58:40,430	So if you want to bring your own items out to the landfill that week, you can do that for free as well. And in the fall, we had the free landfill week, so the spring. Cleanup week We’ll be staying and if you want that in writing, I can put that in writing. Get out of jail card.

00:59:00,430	OK, all right, I appreciate that. Thank you. Mr. I, I, I guess the bigger issue here is we can’t buy the trucks with the rear loaders anymore. We have to go to this, um, this other system. You can’t buy them with both loaders. With both loaders, correct, yeah. So that’s, that’s the issue before us, bigger than anything else.

00:59:28,430	I do think to like with the survey results that we got and a lot of people, a lot of people filled out the survey, um, it did show us that. An alarming amount of citizens would prefer that they keep their garbage cost low and that we transition to.

00:59:51,430	One or all of these options versus trying to implement collecting extras. By Running two routes through everything or the other ways that we would have to do it, so, um, I, I think it was 71%, um. Wanted to see some version of Uh, no extras, but.

01:00:16,070	Helping them maintain that level of service in the way that I guess if you combine all of these things, it’s just a way to try to make sure, you know, the, the extra bags, services, a different type of citizen than the second. gallon or 296 gallon can does, um. I agree.

01:00:35,700	I don’t know if the bags are as useful as the second can, or if we would have as many people utilizing them, um, so if, if we want to try it without that option, I’m fine with that, um, but I do think that we need to figure out what we want to move forward.

01:00:57,030	Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I mean, if we get down the road 6 months or a year and we see things aren’t going as smoothly as we would like them, we can change. Absolutely, yeah. Mm We’re not like locking the decision in for an extended period of time. I knew that to be the case, but let let everybody else knows this is. We know this is a change. To what we’ve been doing.

01:01:15,300	And I think that the whole team is aware that like with the implementation of some of this stuff, there’s going to be a learning curve where they’re gonna try to do it the way that they think works, but if they have to change things along the way, um, there might be a point where we have to.

01:01:30,230	Switch the way that things are done, whether it’s with the bulky house pickup or with the second can usage, um, they’re gonna run into some learning curves and we’ll have to adjust as we go, so. Comm Connelly.

01:01:57,900	Um, in the medical field and things, um, a lot of people are, uh, familiar with the term, uh, lean techniques and that, um, I remember reading a study on the admission processes to where they were just trying to reduce the amount of time they spent on minutes, um, and then their goal was 7 minutes, and they actually accomplished 11 minutes on a certain process and that whole quarter because they’re all along the east coast, um, the saving of that

01:02:15,930	amount. of time during the process saved more than $100 million. Now that’s medical. I don’t know how it would apply to garbage per se, but I would say by not having the bags on to where the driver can stay in the truck.

01:02:34,400	That might be some of the efficiencies that we always talk about at the table that we want to look at in order to benefit the citizens, so we can try to leave fees as flat as possible or monetary expectations as low as possible.

01:02:59,500	Well, we might find that this is more efficient in a way that’s beneficial, um, and if after legislative session, there might be some nuances and things if there’s some things that come out of that, maybe we can look at, um, things differently as well. Just food for thought.

01:03:28,270	All right, well, with that being said, I would move to implement as presented but removing option 1A where we wouldn’t have the extra bag option for $2 each, but would, um, start the process of implementing all of the other items that Steve presented. Second, OK. We have a 1st and 2nd discussion. So what’s the magical inflammation inflammation date. Cause you got a lot of policies you got to come up with here, it looks like it. Mayor Commissioners, we were hoping for a January 1.

01:04:00,970	Um, that’s what we had, um, talked about before. Um, would be a January 1 as far as the alleys go, um, if that’s approved today, we will have to order the cans, um, and that one would be whenever the cans get here, we would send out a letter notifying the, the residents of that and giving them a date when we would have

01:04:21,030	those delivered and so that one would be flexible, but um as far as the um the discontinuing of the extras we would just anticipate that would be a January 1. Any other discussion. Here he none will call roll. Mr. Cleary, yes, Comm Risch. Comm Zenker? No. Mr. Connelly.

01:05:01,170	No Mary Smith Yes Motion carries Next item G G Consider a request for approval of the selection committee’s recommendation for the Bismarck Event Center’s management and operations RFP, Jason. Evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

01:05:25,770	You may remember back in August, I was, uh, at this podium in front of you with a Draft of an RFP for operations and management study of the Bismarck Event Center, and, uh, the purpose of this study is to, um, really figure out what is the best method, model and approach to managing this particular department of the city, uh. August 16th, uh, the RFP was posted to the city website and uh proposals were due in September. I’m glad to report that we received 5.

01:05:49,730	A very qualified proposals from different entities across the United States, a selection committee composed of 7 individuals was formed the different individuals and entities represent stakeholders in the community, community leaders, business leaders, um, and, and quite frankly, I’ll just run through them.

01:06:19,630	Um, Brendan Egel is the president and CEO of the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC, uh, Sherry Grossman is the uh executive director for the Bismarck Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau. I’m sorry, the CEO of the Bismarck Mandan CBB. Uh, Chief operating officer with the Downtowners, Kate Herzog and general manager from Kirkwood Mall, Jen Wilson and Mayor Mike Schmittz and Aing Event Center Director Amanda Yellow.

01:06:43,630	As well as myself, we’re part of the selection committee. These individuals were chosen because of their organizations, because of the interest that they have and the success of the event center and frankly the impact it has throughout the community. Uh, the proposals were evaluated on 77 different criteria including general qualifications of the firm.

01:07:08,230	Their understanding of the project, the project approach, the project team, the plan for public participation. And the reliability of the consulting firm along with the proposed expense or the cost that would go along with this of the 5 proposals, expenses or costs range between 50,000 on the low end, up to 128,000 on the high end.

01:07:31,630	Uh, the selection committee met and evaluated the 5 proposals and determined that of the 52 of the firms would be interviewed for the final determination. Uh, the two firms that were interviewed, we had a little bit of a delay in between those interviews.

01:07:50,300	One of the firms was their office was impacted by some of the hurricane activity in Florida and so we allowed them a little bit more time to get their office back in shape and completed that second interview very recently. Uh, I, I will say this as part of the selection committee is the facilitator of the process and the person that compiled the scores at the end.

01:08:08,530	The two firms that interviewed the scores were extremely close, and by telling you that, I guess what I am saying is I’m very confident that either of the two firms that were interviewed would be able to perform a good job for us. Uh, in the end, the firm.

01:08:28,300	That was chosen or I’m sorry, it will be recommended, uh, proposed a four phase approach, uh, with the first phase basically being data collection, a little bit of a historical, uh, metrics and evaluation of past activities. A lot of that would be information that could be provided by events center staff.

01:08:50,700	Uh, the second phase would involve the community and staff engagement and research on local assets, which would help determine the direction, any concerns or opportunities or potential involvement in the future, uh, phase 3 will incorporate the analysis of a market and demand study for the event center, and we’ll include reviewing past and future Event Center, uh, calendars and activities, um, and evaluating, um.

01:09:13,570	The venues and the opportunity for increased activity, and then phase 4 would be the recommendation phase and the deliverables which would include recommendations on the management structure and the operations plan that would best suit the city of Bismarck, uh, to recommend uh operations for the different venues.

01:09:34,430	The Bel Mayhews, the exhibit hall in the arena, all combined as the Bismarck Event Center, and then uh recommendations on various operational models that will best suit each facility. So with that in mind, um, I would like to recommend, uh, based on the selection committee’s work, the firm of Jones, Lang, and La Salle, America’s Inc.

01:09:55,770	or as it was Wene them, JLL, uh, we would recommend that, uh, the project be awarded to them and happy to note that that particular firm is the one that had the $50,000 proposal component to it as well, so as part of the recommendation, it should be noted that the anticipated budget would be $50,000. With that, I’d be happy to answer any questions. I should say thank you to those that participated in the process.

01:10:15,570	We do have some of the selection committee members here as well. They gave a good bit of their time and certainly their talent and resources to help us get to this point. We wouldn’t be able to provide a recommendation without their efforts as well.

01:10:30,130	So thank you to all of them, uh, for the work that they did as, as part of this. Happy to answer any questions if you have any. Commissioner’s questions. I, I will just make the comment that both of the organizations that we interviewed one of the concerns was, you know, when they said stakeholders, we want to make sure it was both those who might be favorable or those who would also be unfavorable,

01:10:52,970	so we’re grabbing from All sides in the community. And that was important. They both came right out and said that that was part of their criteria. So I, as Jason said, mentioned.

01:11:12,000	I actually think we could have had all 5 of them would have been qualified, but it just, it’s just the way the scoring came out. So Mr. Mayor and Commissioners, if I may add one more thing, uh, it was the desire of the selection committee to have the results of this by April of 2025.

01:11:30,770	There are some other projects that are in line as well at the event center and uh with any recommendations in April that will feed more information and decisions as we get into the budgeting for 2026, which would of course be right on the heels of that month as well. So Any other questions? Or your wishes, Commissioners, motion to approve. As presented Second. Any discussion Here and done we’ll call roll. Miss nervous. Yes. Comm Zenker? Yes.

01:11:56,100	Comm Connelly? No. Comm Cleary, yes, Mayor Schmittz, yes. Next item is consider requests from the legal department to receive guidance on social media for public official matters. Go ahead, Janelle.

01:12:23,700	Mayor, Commissioners, in your packet, you have the memo that was prepared by Assistant City Attorney Meese regarding the Supreme Court case that came down, uh, earlier this year, I would note there actually was a recent North Dakota Supreme Court case that came out last week, I believe, with Jan Murdo, and that one was a lot different from the US Supreme Court case that individual, the other side was not represented by an attorney, so there were bunch of procedural issues that he failed to overcome.

01:12:46,770	And, um, so it didn’t give a whole lot more guidance other than just as the state senator or state legislature has exempted themselves from open meetings and open records, um, you know, they get a little bit easier way with social media as well. So the main context of this is that.

01:13:06,430	Social media can be a great way of reaching out to individuals, you just have to be very careful of not accidentally entering into an open meeting violation, and if you do have or manage any pages, your campaign page or, you know, certain pages where you’re speaking, um, blocking people and deleting comments are the things that are very Problematic to do.

01:13:29,630	It’s very rare that those are. First Amendment Protected for the elected official. So do you have any questions? Can you Give a little clarity just so we understand when you say Blocking of people, uh, what, what does that mean? Because I’m old, so Facebook, I know is more traditionally for older people, and we have the ability

01:13:58,700	to block an individual if you choose that on your social media, I think Twitter and Instagram have similar functions, but I honestly, I’m not the right person about the technical part of it, and they will have, uh, that means then that individual doesn’t have the right to express their opinion on something.

01:14:18,970	Likewise, when you delete a comment that, you know, it’s a very very difficult and and even as staff we have problems with it because there’s things in social media that are posted on our posts that are not true in staff’s opinion. However, every, it’s an open forum we.

01:14:38,770	Can’t shut down comments unless you shut down all comments, and I think that the People who do social media or marketing will say, if you want to shut down all the comments, you probably shouldn’t be on social media. That’s the social part of the media is the interaction. OK. I think I understand. I don’t know if I do.

01:15:01,770	Just, they just don’t use social media. Well, that’s always an option, absolutely, yeah, but it’s just to make sure you don’t accidentally, North Dakota in their open meetings lasts makes it very easy to accidentally get into an open meeting violation. OK. OK? Any questions? Thank you.

01:15:31,170	Uh, I I consider a request to discuss the results of Bismarck measure number one. Mayor and Commissioners, you have the election results, the city auditors are required to report those, and he has done so. We expect the questions won’t necessarily be with the election results, but the process of what’s next, and, uh, I have, I had already prepared an ordinance.

01:15:56,870	We have to do an ordinance to enact the sales tax before the North Dakota Department of Taxes will start collecting it. It has to be in place. We have to notify them and then there’s a whole quarter that has to lapse before. can be effective, so I had already compared uh, prepared the ordinance.

01:16:18,670	I believe that the finance director or administration has forwarded that to the tax department in case they have any issues. It’s pretty much identical to the one they approved in 2018, except for the content of it, so I would be surprised if they have a question on it, but we haven’t heard anything to my knowledge, back from them, that was last week. I believe that we provided it to them.

01:16:35,770	The results of the election are not yet certified. They will be certified later in the month. My intent would be because you only have 1 December meeting. I will put on the agenda, the ordinance first reading call for a public hearing for the last meeting in November, even though technically I may not have the certification approved

01:16:56,770	by the date of my agenda memo deadline. You can always pull it if for some reason the results get changed, then you would consider the first on consent the end of November, and then your December meeting would be the ordinance hearing to enact the home rule charter amendment that was approved by the citizens.

01:17:21,700	And then you collect April 1st, which Says the revenue probably comes Q 3 Yeah, it’s not quite a full quarter if I recall how it worked, but yeah, it’s gonna take some time.

01:17:44,100	It’s not immediate that you get start getting the money, um, and then if there are any questions about the language of anything about what it is, I can certainly answer those as well. Comm Risch, uh, Mr. Mayor, uh, Janelle. So we won’t be able to start collecting the tax until after the first quarter. Correct. OK. And what, what, what do you anticipate the revenue will be on a 0 cent sales tax.

01:18:03,300	That would be a question for your finance director or your city administrator. About 10 million bucks. Mayor and Commissioners, the anticipated boy is Demetri on? Oh, let’s let Demetri answer that one. Sorry. Um, thank you, Jason. Mayor Commissioners, uh. my estimate the collection on that sales tax will be uh.

01:18:27,430	A little bit north of $10 million depending on how the economy goes, but close to between 10 and $11 million a year. If and and growing. Um OK. Keep talking to me, we can’t quite hear you. Oh, can you hear me now? Nope. Hello? Can you hear him well enough? Yeah, he did. He said $10 million. That’s just estimated 10 and 1110 and 11. So Janelle.

01:18:56,630	So just identify so we all understand it so the public understands. That half cent sales tax is carved up into a couple of pieces and what, what Do those two pieces provide the dollars can be used for. Mayor Comm, so the 2/10 of.

01:19:28,770	Of the scent is for public transportation needs for elderly socioeconomically disadvantaged, uh, type individuals, the 3/10 is for the Burleigh County Morton, uh, County Detention Center jail costs. Those have been running 800,000 up to a million, um. Those fluctuate. Those are paid out of the general fund right now, uh, it would also pay for police and fire vehicles. I believe our vehicles for police have been funded out of regular operating for the general fund.

01:19:52,770	I do believe though, some of those fire, the fire, I mean those fire trucks are expensive, so I think those might have been one time used from basically the money that we had for one-time expenditures, but they have other needs and then, um, the building a fire station, a police station, those types of things and, uh, I know that

01:20:12,970	the fire station you’ve already started the process to, you know, it takes time with the architecture and. Um, and then to construction, so it would be for those buildings and if uh. Future police station is needed. Or add on to the current one, it would be for that building construction.

01:20:33,930	Just so we understand, you know, there’s restrictions, but I mean there are, they’re They’re not super tight, but there are restrictions around it, Comm Zenker, Mayor Commissioners, but there’s also processes that got to be, um, right, I mean. Just, we had two citizens speak on behalf of Bisman Transit. This money isn’t just Quote unquote earmark for Bisman Transit.

01:20:56,700	They have to go through a process, right, to do that we’re gonna have to figure out how we get you to make the decision. It is the city commission’s discretion, Mayor Commissioners, Comm Zenker, you make the decision, um, how you wanted that done.

01:21:13,870	The one thing I would tell you is you do have that brokerage agreement with Bisan Transit as an entity, so that is a contract you need to honor or expect you pay. To break it. Right. Yep. No, I appreciate that. I just want to put that out there too. It’s just like it’s not earmarked for them.

01:21:31,030	There’s a process and we have some work to do, this is step one, so to speak, yeah. So I probably, go ahead, Comm Connelly. Um, to address one of the comments during the um public commentary, um back in ’87, the state set it up to where through a referendum process, a community as part of an MPO could levy up to 5 mills

01:21:54,300	through a vote of the people in Bismarck passed with 3, and the only way for that to change now that measure, um, the measure for failed is it would take a vote of the people to Um, change that and which case, um, that’s going to be present regardless of the function that this measure does.

01:22:18,900	Um, but, uh, Um, as far as It’s intentionally designed the way that it is, um, to be flexible. It’s about protecting the ride and there can be a lot of conversations with who provides that ride.

01:22:42,430	If it’s transit, if it’s somebody else, if it’s a combination, those are all open for discussion going into the future, because as we change dynamically as a community and try to drive our economic development and the needs, um, having that flexibility available. The biggest win for this is that. Public transportation was always competing with the other things that go to our general fund. So it was police, fire, snow removal, and road repair.

01:23:05,370	This creates a designated space for uh the only one of them to where it’s a separate entity. It’s not one of our departments, so that money is designated for that space too, because they’re always a little lower on that discussion of some of those other needs out there. So with that space, they’re not fighting with those other entities anymore.

01:23:28,300	We can talk about their need almost in the same continual. If that makes sense. Comm Zaker, did you have, I didn’t want to OK. So with that, with that being said, and we know what the process is, and we’re not going to collect that first. Hal sent until April is there that gives us kind of some time.

01:23:47,500	I think I would like to see, uh, Deidre and her team and you’re the liaison to them to bring back some ideas, so we’re not hashing out the ideas at budget time as as Jason just referred to, if we can do that early in the 1st quarter of next year, I think, I think that would be

01:24:06,770	beneficial for everybody. Uh, I, I agree. I think, I mean, I, I hate to say that we need more. Committees or things, but we need to have some format to be able to gather that data, what makes the best recommendation is to how this will flow and that may involve more than just Bizman Transit in Comm Connelly

01:24:28,870	probably should involve potentially some other users. I don’t know, but maybe we can, maybe we can talk about that in, in the next meeting or two. Right. Give some thought to it, I think, Comm Connelly. Kevin, would it be OK? sorry. Mayor Commissioners, I was, I’m bad about that. I apologize.

01:24:45,800	But, um, can I have Deidre come up and kind of explain the timeline a little bit. Part of the reason why this initiated measure came to fruition is they were literally running out of time and the state measures on the ballot and how much reserves they were going in 2026, uh, there would have been

01:25:04,430	a question what that service looked like, and it would be very minimal. So knowing that We have to, one, get the approval, have the collections, and 2026 is the timeline, we will have revenue ready about the same time that they needed a need an answer. Right then. Um-hum.

01:25:26,030	So if Deidre can, if you can come up and explain that. Thank you, everyone, um, yes, so Comm Connelly is correct. Um, some of the projections that came from the transit development plan on where our deficit would be, were a little steep.

01:25:47,130	Um, we did get a little bit more federal funding than we had anticipated, but we are still projecting, um, about a $600,000 deficit in 2025, 2026 was really that we need a solution, timeline. With the cost of our contractor going up pretty significantly, um, we’ll, we’ll still be on that similar timeline of of 2026 needing an actual, um, solid plan.

01:26:12,370	Um, obviously I understand there needs to be, um, a set process for how we’d go up for these funds, whether that’s an application or very similar to other grants that we go out for, you know, we provide documentation, we provide our budget financial statements, whatever, um. And show that there is a need, not just you handing us money and we say, OK, yeah, we’ll put it in our bank account.

01:26:29,000	We don’t actually need it right now, although that might be the case today, um, that’s not going to be the case in 6 months. 10 months a year. So that’s fine. I just think maybe we can think about it for the next.

01:26:45,300	Meet or two and come up with some thoughts because I do think we need to also look at And what the plan looks like, you know, how do we also enhance The system. Oh, absolutely. I think that’s why, and I, I obviously I give B business transit and Comm Connelly the first nod because it’s kind of how it all got done, right? So we got a, there’s some other things.

01:27:04,630	I mean, Um, for instance, in South Washington, we created two bus where the bus could pull off and pick people up. I think there’s opportunity to have that larger discussion, and I did talk to Gabe about this, so he wouldn’t get blindsided today, but I mean there could be how we discuss the routes and, and build those,

01:27:23,830	those bump out so we’re not impeding traffic and those types of things, and it’s a little bit safer. So there’s a, this, this is a big deal for the city of Bismarck for the future, right? So we just got to make sure that we just, and, and I appreciate Deidre and hey, don’t just give me.

01:27:35,970	The money, I’ll earn it, type, so to speak, without comment. And I think we can do some very good justice and fiduciary side of things with this with this money, so thank you. Thank you. Does that makes sense that we can. All right, thanks, everybody.

01:27:58,270	Um Item J It may be willing to make the motion to go into I’ll make a motion to go to executive session under Century code 44-04-1922 regarding contract negotiations under NDDC section. 44, Holy cow, did you know that those are the same thing a first and a second, OK, uh, Carol. Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly. Yes, Comm Cleary,