00:00:12,530	Eth were in the Tom Baker Room of the City County Building. This will be the board of City Commissioners meeting, but before we start, we’ll have the Pledge of Allegiance. I do not see a chaplain here, so we’ll just do the Pledge of allegiance on our own.

00:00:31,470	to the to to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands and justice for all. We can call the media in order if we can call a roll, please. Mr. Norris. Here. Comm anchor. Here, Comm Connelly. Here. Comm Cleary. Here, Mayor Schmidt. Here. I’d like to now call forward Chief Dave Drevich. He’s got a special request.

00:01:02,800	Good evening. Mayor, Commissioners, thank you for allowing me some time. Um, today is a very somber day for our city. Uh, Marx, uh, 14th year anniversary of the murder of our sergeant Steve Kenner. And I have never attended a commission meeting on this date, so I asked if uh.

00:01:23,700	Just say a couple of words and then maybe have a moment of silence for Steve to honor him. Um You know, I don’t talk about this much, but, you know, I happen to be the shift commander on that fateful night and uh you know Steve and I worked very closely together for several years.

00:01:40,200	And so it’s uh something that I wish I’d never seen, and I hope it never happens again here. Or anywhere for that matter. So With that, if you just join me for a moment of silence, and I just want to thank you again. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Chief.

00:02:14,330	All right, we’ll now have public comment or public comment is restricted to items on the consent agenda or a regular agenda that is not a public hearing, so anyone who wished to speak, please come forward. Let us know the topic you’re speaking to and sign in and give us your name. Good evening, Mayor Commissioners.

00:02:50,170	Um, tonight I’m here to speak on a regular Agenda item. F Um So the Burleig County Public Health is, can you just tell for everybody watching you. Travis Jensen. Um, Miami Burley County resident, ETA resident. Um, but I’m here tonight to speak on the agen a regular agenda item F.

00:03:18,930	Um, so Burleigh County Public Health is requesting 50,000. From the opioid, um, settlement deal from the city and the county last night. For those of us that were there or watching, um, we, we heard about it last night, the county Commission meeting. And I guess the reason I’m here tonight is There’s no information being given. Presentation last night. There was no information.

00:03:43,000	Well, why Why has public health become something that we don’t Explain to the public services, who it serves. It just seems like You know, we got the battle between the city and the county going on and who’s gonna cover the services, who’s gonna pay for it, how we’re gonna divvy it up. The sleeves are rolled up.

00:04:00,100	Everybody wants to fight over it. But we haven’t taken any opportunity. To educate the very people who fund it the taxpayers. Let’s go back to COVID. I want to talk briefly on COVID. I know a lot of you weren’t sitting up here at the time. So you didn’t have that stress.

00:04:18,870	I know one of you was, so you remember. How stressful that was, um, my concern as a Burley County resident, someone who, you know, I’ve lived in Bismarck my entire life. Why have we not done something to rebuild the relationship between the community and public health.

00:04:39,070	I mean, there was a lot of fighting going on and I’ve I’ve been watching these meetings, you know, since hunky stood up at at this podium and told the the county commissioners that they were going to pay for the new building. That the county wouldn’t come to the table to and discuss. So I’m asking you guys, and I’ve asked the county commissioners the same thing.

00:04:56,170	When are we going to start doing some public outreach. And getting um transparency. Trust Getting the public on board with public health. That’s, that’s, that’s my request tonight. So I’d like to, you know, that’s what brought me here is to hear hopefully.

00:05:14,800	Some questions be asked about what is this $100,000 going to get us? We can all agree that we need a triage center, we need something to deal with, uh, With what that’ll get us, but what is that money actually getting The people in Bismarck and Burleigh County. Thank you. Thank you, Travis. This is public comment. Anyone who wish to speak, please come forward.

00:05:38,270	A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Seeing or hearing anyone public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, we are to the consent agenda. I know that we do need to pull item D1 gaming site authorization application because there was some missing information to that one.

00:06:04,570	And Comm Zenker, I think you had an item you want to formally pull to. Yes, sir, Mayor K2 needs to be pulled for, it’ll come back at a future date. They just have some, um, Details that need to be worked out. Nothing, not a major deal.

00:06:22,530	And the same thing with the application, so with those two items pulled, what are your wishes to the consent agenda? I’ll move we approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? Here and then we’ll call roll. Comm Zaker? Yes. Mr. Mr Cleary? Yes. Comm Risch. Yes. Yes. Moving to the regular agenda item A. Consider a request to receive payment conditions and analysis report provided or prepared by quality engineering Services.

00:06:52,030	Gabe, are you presenting this? OK. for Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Uh, we had a process or a project that the NPO started collecting pavement data on all of our functionally classified roads they’re eligible for federal aid.

00:07:15,170	We use that opportunity to, uh, use that same contractor to look at every single road that we have in Bismarck in 2024, and I guess what you’ll see tonight is the, uh, final presentation of that 2024 analysis of all of the pavement conditions we have on from quality engineering uh services, Curt Kiefer and Mona. I butchered the last name, Nola.

00:07:35,330	Definitely butchered that, so I apologize in advance, Mona, uh, to do a presentation. I will answer any questions that you might have of me at the end, but the general ask of the commissioners to accept the report. That’s what we’re looking here today. And without further ado, uh, Kurt, I’ll hand it over to you.

00:07:50,900	Thank you so much, Gabe is, uh, my audio coming through loud and clear. Yes. Perfect. Well, thank you for the opportunity to present the results of our pavement conditions survey uh for the city this evening.

00:08:14,200	Um, this project goes back almost 15 years since I’ve been working in collaborating with city staff to implement the existing pavement management system and performing a pavement condition surveys every 3 to 4 years for more than a decade, so the scope of this project was to perform another A routine comprehensive payment conditions survey on approximately 360 centerline miles of the city’s roadway network.

00:08:38,730	The inspection was performed with an automated data collection system and we captured pavement condition index data PCI data per industry standards, ASTMD 6436433, and we also captured international roughness index values for the city’s roadways, which the bumpiness of the roads, so PCI values assess the overall condition of a segment of roadway, and the IRI values assess the bumpiness of the roadway.

00:09:07,030	We took this data, updated the city’s existing paper, pavement management system, and we linked that to the city’s GIS, and we performed several analyses and put together a final report with our findings and recommendations for the city and over the last month, uh, we, we, uh, Did uh almost 16 hours

00:09:26,870	of training with city staff to bring the new team up to speed on the system and to uh do a little bit of tech transfer there, so the project consisted of several tasks, the, the most important being the, uh, payment condition survey and then the, the ultimately the most important being the

00:09:45,970	analysis and reporting that we did using the data that were collected. Um, here’s just a quick example of some of the uh the type of data that were collected on the city’s roadways.

00:10:06,500	We collected a downward imagery of the pavement surface and we’re able to use some sophisticated crack detection algorithms to determine the amount of cracking and other distresses that were present on the city’s roadway or throughout the city’s roadway network. Um, the results of the survey are shown here, um, uh, on the right you can see a map.

00:10:27,630	Uh, that shows the PCI, the pavement condition index values for each segment of the city’s roadway network and um basically roadways that are in green are inadequate condition and we had approximately 304 centerline miles that were an adequate condition and then about 5352, 53 miles in degraded condition and about 4 that were in unsatisfactory condition. Those, uh, buckets of condition, those ranges of PCI.

00:10:55,070	were based on, uh, what other municipal agencies use, um, and we, we established these buckets of condition almost 15 years ago with the city, and there are also standard within the Department of Defense, um, which is also a user of the pay for Pa management system and show uh in the lower left corner here a definitions of

00:11:12,570	what adequate degraded and unsatisfactory roads means. So these are um uh a simple way of visualizing, uh, The condition data. However, there is significant data that backs up these, uh, scores, so city staff can go in and evaluate the the more granular data for each roadway segment.

00:11:30,830	Here are a few, uh, example pavement conditions that we, uh, pulled out from the data that we collected. We have a roadway Medora Avenue that has a PCI.

00:11:48,800	It was recently, uh, overlaid and PCI score of 94 in the upper left corner and then we have roadways ranging from 94 to 82 to 80, and roadways that are in adequate condition, uh, those scores above 70 are typically candidates for preventive maintenance, chip seals, cracked seals, slurry seals, that type of maintenance.

00:12:08,030	What we’re trying to do for roadways that are in adequate condition is to keep them in adequate condition to keep them from deteriorating below PCI scores ranging in the 60s, at which point it’s much more expensive to maintain the roadways. So essentially trying to keep the roadway assets in good condition and delay the deterioration of those roads as much as possible.

00:12:35,230	However, when pavements do drop below that 70, more significant, uh, Repairs, rehabilitation may be required, uh, seal cracks, maybe a cape seal, maybe a more structural overlay of those roadways and, um, you know, that just becomes more and more expensive over time.

00:12:53,030	Now the good news is, you know, based off the findings of the survey, uh, the city has done an incredible job of maintaining the roadways cities use the funding that they’ve had over the past decade plus to increase the uh PCI scores of the roadways and Be more proactive and they use the uh uh maintenance and rehabilitation dollars that are available, uh, is optimally as possible.

00:13:17,000	Um, after we did the condition survey, we then used the, uh, pavement management software again, the paver system to determine what types of maintenance and rehabilitation, what levels of maintenance and rehabilitation are most appropriate for the city’s pardon me, roadway network.

00:13:39,270	Um, and we evaluated, uh, different types of, uh, different levels of preventive maintenance, um, and then resurfacing and overlay and reconstruction for the city’s roadways and developed a cost estimate or not a network level, uh, estimate for funding that would be required to maintain the city’s roadways at different, given different funding levels.

00:13:59,600	And here we show the, uh, a summary of, um, 4 analyses that we performed, the first of which is the impact of the city’s current funding level over a 5 year horizon, so we did a 5 year analysis, um, using the city’s current budget of approximately 15 million a year, and we determined or at least based off of the um uh the deterioration that we were able to, uh, uh, assess based off of

00:14:23,070	historical performance of the city’s roadways, that that level of funding is Significant and will maintain wood it’s anticipated that it would maintain the overall network, uh, PCIs approximately an 80 is shown in the upper right hand graph here and the one thing I do want to point out about this,

00:14:45,000	uh, funding level is that shown in the table to the lower left, um. The $15 million a year actually um based off of the modeling that we did somewhat exceeds the needs of the network, so there is, uh, we’re showing a total 5-year cost approximately 55.

00:15:07,530	7 million, which is what would be based off of the software and some assumptions in there regarding uh inflation, things like that. What would be needed to be spent rather than the total, um, uh, 75 million. So again, that 15 million per year. Uh, results in roadway network approximately PCI score of 80 and no backlog, so there’s no.

00:15:30,330	Um, required major work such as significant resurfacing or reconstruction required of the of the roadways at the end of that 5 year period. We then evaluated what a 40% and 60% reductions in the current budget bringing budgets down to 9 million and 6 million respectively.

00:15:51,200	And we found that the overall condition scores drop a little bit below the 80s, 78 and 76% respectively. The only thing to note though is that the backlog for those budgets, basically the unfunded maintenance and rehabilitation at the end of that five-year horizon would increase if there was a 60% reduction, and it

00:16:10,630	would grow a bit if there was a 40% reduction. So basically what we’re saying is that we see some decrease in the condition. With those different funding scenarios, those uh more uh more conservative funding scenarios.

00:16:31,200	However, the backlog, the unfunded work at the end of that five-year period does increase, and that’s most illustrate illustrated through the analysis that we ran we assume no funding. So if the city decided to spend nothing, uh, the score would, uh, the PCI score over a five-year period would drop significantly down to a 72, and the backlog of unfunded maintenance and rehabilitation would spike up to approximately $72 million so that’s something to consider

00:16:53,670	when evaluating the impact of different funding levels on not only the overall condition of the roadway network, but also the percentage of the roadways that are in need of more major. more expensive maintenance and rehabilitation at the end of that, uh, 5-year horizon. So our recommendation is quite simple.

00:17:16,000	Keep, uh, keep monitoring conditions, see how the maintenance and rehabilitation activities that the city is currently performing or performing, um, as far as condition and deterioration is concerned, and when performing, um, uh, analysis moving forward. Keep tabs on what actual costs are.

00:17:39,000	We’ve seen lots of variability in asphalt prices, concrete prices over the last 5 years, um, those prices are, um, as you all well know. Up in the Dakotas, the price of oil goes up and down, and so those are the costs for maintaining roadway network is definitely subject to, you know, global pricing pressures and then continue implementing pavement preservation treatments, keep good pavements in good conditions and always be focused on applying the right

00:18:00,430	treatment to the right pavement at the right time. The study provides an overview of pavement conditions, but when determining what exact pavement maintenance or rehabilitation activity is.

00:18:20,300	needed for a roadway, that’s the time for the city engineers to be putting on their thinking caps and evaluating the uh the uh practical realities of what’s happening in the field. So with that, um, I’d like to, uh, conclude my presentation and open it up to any questions for, uh, Gabe or myself. Comm Risch. Mr. Mayor, I’m really, I’m really impressed with the report, especially when I had it on my laptop and I could expand the map on the different streets.

00:18:40,530	What kind of technology is used in that fancy van you’ve got. It’s more than an X-ray or a video tape or what, what How does that all work? That is, has been an evolving technology when I started, uh, when I got into this, uh, this profession back in the late 90s, we were using 35 millimeter film.

00:19:02,030	And we went to VHS and then we went to digital line scan cameras, and now we have 3D digital line scan cameras which create a 3D surface of the pavement of the pavement.

00:19:22,530	So as we’re driving, we’re capturing not only a two dimensional image, but actually a three dimensional image which allows us to see the depth of deformations in the surface and with the advent of AI and machine learning, it makes it easier for us to more objectively and repeatedly.

00:19:46,730	Determine where cracking is on the pavement surface, so this 3D technology came online 2014, 2015, and it’s, and it’s, uh, for the, uh, companies, the uh uh the technology firms that produce this, uh, these types of camera systems. This is 2nd generation, the latest state of the art technology that we deployed for this project, uh, in the field. So going back 15 years when he first did this project for the city in I think it was.

00:20:04,770	010 2011, the technology that we were using was a 2D imaging technology and so this 3D imaging technology we deployed for the last 2 surveys. It is quite remarkable. Lots of data. Richer Connelly Oh, thanks for the presentation.

00:20:28,300	I agree it’s impressive and that, uh, I have one question for you and then one question for Gabe, um, one might be presumption. We’re currently going under, uh, going through a reconstruction project on e-Century from Centennial, that curves around and will be 502. That showing is green, and I would presume that would be because of the projects going on right now. The 502nd Street. corridor. There’s no, there’s like blank spots.

00:20:52,200	Is that just because that rehab isn’t done or it isn’t in place yet or? Comm Connelly, I can answer that one. Mayor Commissioners, the inventory was picked up up in 2024, so it was like the fall of 2024, so they’re in on 52nd, for example, that road didn’t exist, so they would not show up on this inventory, um,

00:21:09,900	specific to the segment of century, uh, the pavement condition would show as a green or an adequate one because we did not in 2024, but in 2023, a chip seal on that roadway that although it was kind of a band-aid, some chip seal, and some patching would temporarily bring that roadways pavement

00:21:25,330	condition index, um, to. A higher level, but we would know that that would be a type of roadway that that would uh degradate at a faster rate than maybe a, a traditionally built or newly constructed, um, facility. So does that answer your question? Yeah.

00:21:39,200	Yeah, it helps with the timing and the learning curve, um, trying to keep up with all of the stuff that we do. Uh, the other thing is that it would be direct to you is that on all of those red and yellow areas right now, how many of them will come off this year because they’re being

00:21:53,300	rehabbed like I would presume, uh. new C from the one way to 16th would be one of those cause that’s under rehab right now. Sure, Comm Connelly, Mayor and Commissioners, uh, what we would find here is the, in the 2024 inventory that would show some of the, the degradated roads, the, the unsatisfactory

00:22:12,870	type facilities were likely the candidates that we then move forward with 2025 projects and if not in 2025, you’ll see them in 2026. What doesn’t show up very well though with some of those green ones that show as satisfactory are making their way towards that yellow stage or that. Rred stage.

00:22:27,530	So it’s one of those things that’s a point in time of analysis that helps us inform the decision, uh, but once we get rid of all of the yellow and red ones, we shouldn’t have the expectation that they’re all now green because some of those green that we haven’t worked on for the last couple of years, we’ll

00:22:39,500	start following their way back into those other categories. And then, uh, last question is, how old’s the street along Normandy. Now that’s starting to go towards that unsatisfactory. Cause that’s a newer development area.

00:22:57,670	Uh, I guess I’m not sure, Kurt, if you have that slide that had the age on those facilities or that was just the The Curr condition. Sure, let me take a peek here and see if I have that. I’m not sure if I had the age shown on those or not? Um, which section, uh, apologies, which section, uh, was in question? Normandy Street, Section 32.

00:23:26,670	Section 32, um, and that’s between, uh, from intersection, which, uh, which to which I guess we’re not necessarily sure where that would be. I think this is in the report is an example we’d have to dive into the data see exactly what that picture represents, um, so, short answers, I don’t have an answer

00:23:40,100	of where this is because I’m not exactly sure where Section 32 is relative to the other segments of Normandy. OK, thank you. Any other questions? Commissioners, I’ll make a motion to uh receive the report. 2. Any discussion? Hearing on call roll. Mr. Connelly? Yes. Comm Cleary? Yes. Comm Risch, Comm Zinker, Mayor Schmidtz.

00:24:08,230	Yes. Next item B, public hearing on our request for a new class C2 hotel complimentary alcohol license for Bismarck Sunrise Hotel, doing business as Wing gate by Wyndham. This is a public hearing. Anyone who wish to speak to this topic, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment.

00:24:32,730	hearing and seeing no one coming forward, the public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approved. Any discussion Here on we’ll call roll. Comm Cleary? Yes. Comm Risch. Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz. Yes, I C, public hearing on the proposed memorandum of understanding with AP construction, Ule design.

00:24:58,400	In JL architects regarding the Bismarck Events Center amenity development project. Um, this is a public hearing. Anyone who wished to speak to this, please come forward. Mhm A second call for public comment. The 3rd and final call for public comment. Seeing and hearing no one, public comment period is now closed.

00:25:36,400	Commissioners, what are your wishes? Um This was, this was so that they could negotiate. Sure. Well, I’ll move, we, um, approved the memorandum of understanding for the event center. Second, We were 1st and the 2nd. Do we have a discussion? He none will call roll. Mr. Norris? Yes. Comm Zenker. Yes. Comm Connelly? No. Comm Cleary, Mayor Schmidt.

00:26:05,300	Yes. Next item is a public hearing on ordinances 6624 and 6625 is only map amendment for proposed silver ranch 5th edition and on Ordnance 6626 and annexation of parts to Silver Ranch, 3rd edition. Go ahead, Ben. Uh, thank you, Mayor.

00:26:27,000	And one other thing I will point out, uh, that I, I neglected, I missed in the uh cover memo. Uh, there’s also one item. It is in your packets, but it wasn’t referenced in the cover memo, but it’ll also be considering, uh, consideration of the release of a of a a temporary easement, um, as well in, in Silver Ranch 5th and all, I’ll reiterate that, uh, in my

00:26:47,970	closing of, of the presentation here. But the property in question that the, the mayor referenced is in Northeast, uh, or it’s northeast of Bismarck, north of 43rd Avenue, northeast and east of Silver Boulevard, uh, project areas comprised of 42.7 acres, uh, and proposes 136 lots in 6 blocks.

00:27:14,070	Future land use associated with the proposal is designated as urban neighborhood and parks and open space and the existing zoning is currently an agricultural. Planning and Zoning Commission did consider this request at their May 28th meeting of this year, uh, aside from the applicant, there was no oral or written testimony which was

00:27:35,330	provided. And at the conclusion of the public hearing, uh, planning and zoning Commission did recommend approval of the zoning map amendment from the Agricultural zoning District to the RM 20 residential district and PUD planned unit development.

00:27:56,870	As well as a major subdivision final plat and as I referenced earlier, an easement release for associated with Silver Ranch. 5th edition And uh as well as an annexation for parts of Silver Ranch, 3rd edition and Silver Ranch, 5th edition. Are there questions that you may have related to this proposal. there’s any questions. OK. This is a public hearing.

00:28:19,070	Anyone who wished to speak on this, please come forward. State your name, sign in. Comm or um excuse me, Mayor Commissioners. Thank you. My name is Jason Patrician. I work with Swenson Hagen and Company, and we’re representing the owner of uh Silver ranch 3rd and 5th and just uh little insight, um, we’ve got two different areas that we’re

00:29:06,070	currently trying to put some pavement on here and some water sewer in, uh, one in Silver ranch, 3rd edition for a builder. And then also we’ve got one in Silver Ranch, 5th edition, um, so we do have some streets at the end of Halvorson and at the end of silver, Silver Eagle Drive, and so we’d

00:29:26,330	like to make that connection that’s located in Silver Ranch 3rd edition, and then our other project that we’d like to extend Davies into the annexation area for the silver ranch 5th, which will be a a different builder with a different style, um, in that area and that area would then have a community center and.

00:29:46,800	stuff like that. So with that, I can answer any questions if you have anything. Any questions for Jason? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Public comment is open. Anyone else who wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment.

00:30:09,730	Seeing and hearing no one public comment periods now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approve as presented. Second. Is there any discussion? Here in Noal role. Comm Zenker, Mr. Connelly, Comm Clery? Yes, Comm Rischor Schmitz. Yes. Next item E is a public hearing on the release of drainage judgment on Lot 34, block 1 Misty Waters.

00:30:36,300	Warren, you get the opportunity, huh? I do. Thank you, Marian Commissioners Derek and Chris Sandra Castelaki are requesting. Uh, the release of the 20 ft drainage easement, less than northerly 10 ft on lot 34, block 1 Misty Waters.

00:31:00,270	Uh, the property is located northwest of Bismarck, west of Burnt Creek Loop, west of Dream Drive at the Southwesterly end of Dream circle. The original easement was granted with the plot of Misty Waters on September 27th, 2005. Release of any easements other than franchise utility easements requires a public hearing with the city commission.

00:31:22,670	Owners of adjacent properties were also notified of the public hearing as a result of findings contained in the staff reports, Staff find that the release of the drainage easement as described in the attached resolution would not adversely impact the public health, safety, and general welfare and is consistent with the comprehensive plan, code of ordinances, and relevant state law.

00:31:39,800	Uh, therefore, staff recommends approval of the release of the 20-foot drainage easement, lest the northerly 10 ft on Lot 34, block 1, Misty Waters. Do you have any questions? Doesn’t look like it. Thank you. It’s a public hearing. Anyone who wished to speak, please come forward. The second call for public comment.

00:32:01,730	A 3rd and final call for public comment. Of a common period is now closed, Commissioners, what are your wishes? Move to approve. Second, is there any discussion? Harry none will call roll. Mr. Connolly? Yes. Comm Cle? Yes. Comm Risch, Comm Mayor Schmidt. Yes. Item F.

00:32:26,430	Consider a request from Bismarck Burley Public Health for the allocation of $50,000 from the cities, Ouid settlement funds to support technical assistance to the development of a comprehensive plan for the community triage center in Bismarck. Good, Renee. Thank you, Mayor Schmitz and Commissioners. Um, I guess I’d like to address the comments of, uh, Mr.

00:32:47,070	Jensen, if that would be OK, just to provide some background information for you, um, the community triage center, the uh, um, issues of mental health and addiction, homelessness, obviously have been an issue for our community for several years, and my involvement with this, um, dates back to 2017.

00:33:08,830	I was appointed by the Mayor at that time, which would have been Mike Seminary, um, 2. lead the Mayor’s Gold Star Community Task Force to address addiction and behavioral health issues in our community, um, through the efforts of that, we had a coalition. It still exists today.

00:33:29,900	It’s the Burley Morton Behavioral Health Coalition, um, we’re addressing issues like addiction, uh, mental health crisis, um, and trying to do what we can to meet, uh, the needs of the community in this area. Um, in 2019, we did a call for projects um of social health.

00:33:45,800	That is a big part of the uh strategic plan for the city of Bismarck and our current strategic plan as we’re going through our goals and objectives, social health was a big piece of, uh, the work for public health and, um, the areas identified in the community triage center. We’re dressed as a need, um, through that effort, and that was a community effort among organizations brought forward to the city commission and County commission on both sides.

00:34:06,770	Um, we’ve done community health needs assessments in 2021 and in 2024, where mental health and addiction have come up as the top priorities, and we have been working to address them in our community.

00:34:23,730	Um, of course, we had the 2020 pandemic and that became priority and, and we were working through that emergency, um, and so our efforts have reconvened in 2024 of June. 24, um, we had a community health needs assessment stakeholders meeting where people heard the results of our stakeholders surveys, it was community survey that was published on the city’s website, the local hospitals were involved, and, um, following that a couple of weeks later, we had a housing and homeless forum and a similar uh issues

00:34:47,430	were brought forward at that um. time as well. In August of 2024, um, I came before the Bismarck City Commission asking for approval, showing you statistics and information about addiction, behavioral health in our community, the needs that we have, um, and what we learned from these community stakeholder meetings

00:35:08,070	and got the direction at that point in time to see what it would take to get a community triage center up and running, what would it look like, um, to have something like this in our community.

00:35:26,130	Um, the biggest factor, there are 3 components of those things, and this was all presented to the city commission in August of 24 and then it was also presented to the Burley County Commission in, um, September of 2024.

00:35:46,630	What, uh, the concept was, um, what it entailed, and then to just start having conversations and that’s um what has happened, um, since that time, we’ve had community conversations, um, the biggest issues that we see are medical detoxification. If is um under the influence of drugs or alcohol right now, law enforcement deals with them and they’re going to the local emergency rooms, taking space um there from other health issues that are, um, emergent and also impacting law enforcement, dealing with jail and the Burle, uh, Morton

00:36:09,770	Detention Center in our Bismarck Police Department. Um, another component of that is social detox and emergency mental health crisis, uh, right now, Dakota Foundation operates a facility um on Basin Avenue, and they deal with mental health crisis response through a contract with West Central Human Service Center, um, in addition to that, uh, they do

00:36:32,930	social detox, um, at that facility and are a community partner with us on our triage center efforts. Uh, Ministry on the margins has been filling a gap temporarily, it is not a low barrier shelter. It is a coffee house where people can come in off the street.

00:36:50,230	People don’t have beds, they don’t have showers. It’s just a place for them to be, and it’s not a long term solution. And so that third component of a triage center would be a low barrier shelter.

00:37:08,200	Uh, type of facility and all of it, the concept is, and it’s not a new concept, it’s been used in other communities across the nation to be able to triage individuals, taking them out of the jail, taking them out of the emergency rooms and putting them in an actual place where they can receive care, healthcare services, and be triaged appropriately and connected to services, um, to get back into addiction treatment, uh, mental health counseling, and, and other, uh,

00:37:28,100	needs and connections. Um, that way. And so we got some stakeholders together, had some meetings, and um we were at the point of working with the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, and if you guys recall, it was in March.

00:37:47,270	I came to you and asked, I was on the agenda to ask for permission to award a contract to healthcare Management Associates, and this was technical assistance that was federal funding coming from the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services to us through a contract and at 4:30.

00:38:05,870	that day I received a phone call telling me that that money had been pulled back as of yesterday, and I came to you and said to pull that item from the agenda because our funding was not there. So we had gone through the request for proposals process. Um, I did an RFP. We had a, a committee, a steering committee that scored. It was publicly posted, um, in the Bismarck Tribune.

00:38:22,070	Uh, for the two week time period, um, that we were asking for proposals for this. We went through with the scoring process, and we have a contract vendor, a vendor that has been through and vetted through the process and scored and was chosen, but that funding that we had, which was $100,000

00:38:40,530	coming from the federal level was not there. And so we had to pause our efforts, um, I went back to the drawing board and tried to look through some additional funding options, um. found out that there was an application available, uh, for the North Dakota State opioid settlement dollars.

00:38:59,200	I applied for those funds, um, and just for everyone’s awareness, the funds that I’m asking for tonight are not tax dollars. They are, um, opioid settlement dollars and these opioid settlement dollars are coming from the lawsuits from the opioid, um, pharmaceutical providers that um prescribed or manufactured opioids and Bismarck, as you know, and

00:39:22,930	Burley County um have filed their own lawsuits specifically, so they have money that comes to Bismarck and Burley, and then the state of North Dakota has a pot of money that also comes to them at the state level. That’s the funding that I applied for, um, and unfortunately, there was a large number of applications.

00:39:39,730	There were 59 applications and just 18 awards that, um, were given in Bismarck Burley was not one of those. And so this is my option C. Um, last night I went to the Burleigh County Commission, um, requesting funding, um, from the Burleigh County portion of the opioid settlement money.

00:40:02,330	Um, at that point, um, and it would have been in October of 2024 that I had gone and um to them, we had taken care of our, uh, city of Bismarck’s allocation plan as a requirement. North Dakota Century code 50-36 requires that a political subdivision, uh, recovers monies as a result of opioid litigation.

00:40:24,230	They may deposit that money in the state’s fund or transfer the moneys to the public health unit that provides services. to that public health division, to that political subdivision. The political subdivision shall provide an allocation plan to the behavioral health division prior to an expenditure.

00:40:45,070	An allocation plan has been submitted to 50 of those entities that have received them. Bismarck’s has been submitted. Burle County’s has not, because they had not made a decision at that time. They wanted to uh keep their funding local, um, but they didn’t want to make a decision.

00:41:02,000	So last night I offered the opportunity if this were something that they would want to use their, the local opioid dollars for and there’s a certain list that, um, you have to meet its exhibit E, I believe it’s part of your packet, um, and it has to check the boxes on um what you use the funds for, so it

00:41:19,070	cannot be used for roads or streets or anything along those lines. It has to meet the requirements outlined in exhibit E. And this community triage center would apply, um, to those things and, and meet those needs.

00:41:41,070	And so the discussion, um, last night, basically was, um, that no, they would not be giving any funding to us, um, they wanted more discussion and maybe there were needs from some other departments and recommended that we go back and um meet, um, with the state’s attorney, the sheriff, and, um, My Comm, uh, Munsen. And so tonight I am here to ask the city, um.

00:42:05,530	The same question, um, basically, I have a couple of, of things to tell you, um, healthcare Management Associates is the vendor that we would have, um, offered. The contract to.

00:42:27,870	And what they would be doing as part of the contract is, um, basically coming up with a model, um, for a triage center, looking at best practices across the nation. Similar models in different areas, looking at a governance structure and what it would look like, who would own it? Would it be a separate nonprofit? Would it be a city entity, a county entity, a local hospital entity.

00:42:47,130	What are the options there? Um, they would develop a formal governance structure, including community partners. Look at a financial stability plan, um, looking at pathways for Medicaid, uh, reimbursement, and what we can do to make this a sustainable solution, because you know how we’ve seen in the past some of the local nonprofits have, um, maybe not lasted.

00:43:06,900	It’s not a moneymaking entity, obviously when you’re looking at this type of work, um, but if we can come up with a financial stability plan, um, to make this work long term, that would be part of their technical assistance.

00:43:26,070	And then coming together, Um, with an implementation roadmap would be the last portion of their contract, um, they would come to the Burle County Commission and to the city commission. Well, if Burlee County would have approved it. Um, but now to the Bismarck City Commission, if you were to approve to present this plan. So basically, the money that we’re using is to help us with technical assistance.

00:43:42,270	It’s not funding a facility. It’s not funding a center. It is looking at what it could potentially look like for our community. We have the partners that Play What are the gaps and what can we do to make this work? It’s, it’s not something that’s come up overnight. It’s been an ongoing problem.

00:43:57,330	The police department can speak to that. Um, we’ve been working closely with them, um, with their homeless ordinance. Uh, we have a street outreach team. We’re currently partnered with um Heart View and Ministry on the margins and they’re telling people to move along, you know, you can’t, can’t camp, but where can you

00:44:13,270	go? There’s nowhere that you can go. And so a triage center would be a facility that would be open 24/7 365 and have an ability for police. For the hospitals for places for people to go during the day so they’re not getting calls from law enforcement. So the businesses aren’t calling.

00:44:31,730	That is what we’re intending to do. I, um, I feel like we don’t have a marketing department, um, my marketing department is, is my public, um, comments to you guys and coming and talking to you and educating you. We’re working with our stakeholders, our community partners to educate on the work we’re doing.

00:44:50,530	I apologize if not everybody in the community is aware of every detail that we’re doing, and if we can do something better, I’m open to that, um, but I, I, I’m passionate about this project. It’s been an ongoing issue in a long complicated and complex. Issue that we need to address.

00:45:07,100	And so, I guess I’m asking for your support tonight to move this forward, because at this point, I don’t know what other option we have. Comm Cleary, um, I guess I just wanted to maybe answer one additional question that Renee didn’t, um, Elaborate too much on, uh, because Renee and I have had a

00:45:26,270	lot of discussions about this over my tenure, um, because it’s been ongoing since I took the seat, um, but With the, the opioid settlement funding specifically and how that trickled down and the strings that are tied to it, it, it is something that we’re going to continue to receive because we can continue to apply for it.

00:45:47,230	There’s going to continue to be lawsuits, um, and we currently, as of right now, have $280,000 sitting in that fund with the strings tied to it, needs to be used for public health related opioid-related things that you read through in.

00:46:12,270	In that document that she attached, um, and so I think to just keep that in our brain when we’re talking about this. It’s like she said, I mean, it’s not taxpayer dollars. She’s on option C here at this point.

00:46:33,000	She did try to, you know, Leave this money alone for other things, even though we haven’t even really determined what those things are, but Uh, and use funding that was elsewhere that’s no longer available or with the state wasn’t given to us. But I think, like, obviously, so.

00:46:54,400	In my brain, if option C is also no option D, because this is still something that the community tells us they need when we have these community health needs assessments when we have these meetings of people and user groups and facilitators.

00:47:15,830	They’re all saying that this is a missing piece and option D, if this is no, is for her to build it into the public health budget as a one-time line item and if you do that, because public health isn’t an enterprise fund, it then does become taxpayer dollars. This is a way for it to not be. These, these are what these dollars are designed for, in my opinion, I guess, would just. what I want to elaborate for her on. Commissioner’s other questions. Comm Risch. Mr.

00:47:34,400	Mayor Renee, so you’re, you’re only asking for the 50,000 tonight, even though the Burleigh County has not decided whether or not to participate. Is that correct? I guess when, when I talked to Renee after last night’s meeting, my ask because Berne had to write this a week ago.

00:47:54,400	My *** now knowing that Burleigh County is, you know, Wanting to discuss what else they could use their funding for. My ask would be that we, we do 100,000. And so that we can move along because this is really just like step one of of what could potentially be a very big project and is not going to be all public funding, but like

00:48:10,830	this is if we’re going to do this, we want it to be done correctly in this comprehensive plan is the first step of that, so. My ask would be that we do the 100,000. Mr. Connelly. Renee, thanks for the presentation and all the work that you do.

00:48:34,400	Um, so the federal government turned down funding, which could have led to this. Right now, I mean, in the paper today, the state has their own version of Doge and their goal is to reduce health and human services by 15%. So funds are going to become Even more difficult, um, how many partnerships are just in the Homeless Coalition alone. I know the room’s pretty full.

00:48:57,130	And the Homeless Coalition alone, I’m not sure exactly. I know in our Burley Morton Behavioral Health Coalition, we have over 100 community organizations, um, and that’s our coalition, so I can speak to that, um, but I’m not sure on the actual numbers, um, of the Homeless Coalition specifically. And I appreciate that too. Um.

00:49:17,530	The gaps are getting bigger. Anytime I sit in on the Homeless Coalition meetings, um, I would say at least 3 of them are saying they’ve lost funding, and it’s getting harder to meet the, um, established organizations, it’s getting harder to meet what they’ve already been contributing to the community. So even though we will always have gaps.

00:49:42,170	The needs will always be greater than the resources. This would be adding on top of it to fill in a gap, but a lot of it’s going for the same dollars that will be putting in requests for an HHS department that has a goal of reducing their funding as costs

00:49:58,000	go up. And that’s where my struggle is coming in a little bit is is that if we’re going If we build this, it’s an expansion of government if nothing else changes. Is there something we can take off of this side so we can fill in this as a need in our community.

00:50:14,530	Um, because some of the checks and balances do end up being emergency rooms, and, um, that, so that’s some of the things that I’ve been trying to look for different answers for this too, but when funding gets more constrained and all of the players we had, say go from 100 to 101.

00:50:34,530	Now the dollar stretched a little bit more, and I think Comm Connelly, that’s why we’re looking at partnerships and what we can do to work together. If we have something that’s centrally located, um, we’re sharing a space location, um, if Dakota Foundation comes together, um, Ministry on the margins is existing.

00:50:54,770	They’re coming together, um, triage, um, uh, mosaic, um, triage center, the medical detox piece would be the component for medical detox. We’re working together as partnerships, bringing resources together to try to work through efficiencies and look for cost savings, and it would be a cost savings, honestly.

00:51:10,800	I mean, that’s part of what the technical assistance piece um hopefully will show is it will reduce the number of emergency room visits, um, hopefully with the police department’s involvement, um, some of the transports and stuff that they’re doing, dropping them off, um, would help with all of that and so, um, I think your point is correct.

00:51:30,870	There are shrinking budgets, but that’s where this is actually a good thing because it’s coming in and looking at efficient, more efficient ways of community collaboration and partnerships and what we can do as a community to address this because it’s a huge social issue, complicated social issue. Very, very. complicated.

00:51:53,330	Um, it’s a small population of people that still deserve dignity and respect, uses an enormous amount of resources with a lot of needs, and I always, um, when I think of if I have money in the bank and I see something on sale, if I go spend that money, I’m still out the money in the bank too, knowing that there’s so many

00:52:07,370	other things that need to be addressing. Um, could out of the 100 that we have out there is this money better? and Addressing those that are losing funding in other areas right now.

00:52:29,230	I guess that could be something for your guys’s decision, um, part of the Part of the requirement for the funding is it has to be a collaboration with public health. And so we’re gonna be involved no matter what. And so I think this is a community-wide initiative and it kind of touches all of the partners already.

00:52:45,770	I think there’s so many people that are wondering, um, what’s happening, what is gonna go forward. We need this in the community and they want us to move forward. I presented at the Homeless Coalition, um, meeting and update because people want to see things move forward, but they can’t do it on their own. The Homeless Coalition can’t do it on their own.

00:53:00,600	Um, they’re all running their own organizations. And so if we can have the support of a technical assistance. provider and lay out a plan, um, we’re gonna have community partners involved. Sanford, CHI, um, Bismarck Mandan, um, it’s, it’s gonna be multiple entities.

00:53:17,330	It just is not the city of Bismarck. So, and that’ll all be part of the, of the concept and the planning, so. Other questions? Comm Zenker. Mayor Commissioners and, uh, Renee, if you can answer, maybe you guys don’t know, but, um, so Chris Clare, you said we had 2,000,000 and change what’s Burleigh County have? I don’t

00:53:44,570	have that number, so yeah, that the most recent 1. 19. OK. I don’t have a problem supporting the 100,000 is, and if the Burle County wants to Reimburse us for some of that. I don’t have an issue with that either. Sure.

00:54:05,130	Because some of that funding is based on the residents who live within the city limits, so. And, and I mean, I think we have a need in the community to deal with the Individuals who are suffering from medical Or drug addiction or alcohol addiction, and this is part of the way to deal with it, and I know like I just received a call.

00:54:31,330	This morning Concerning individuals who are homeless or without homes and camping and They probably have no other place to go right now, and I’m not sure this will move them off the streets. I don’t know that there’s a great answer. But maybe the getting, getting the study done. Can help us find some answers.

00:54:50,070	And I’m going to ask a question, and I think I already know the answer. Does your staff, or for that matter, is there anyone in the city of Bismarck on staff that has the capacity to do this work. Um, Mayor Schmidtz with the staff that we have right now. Absolutely not.

00:55:10,870	And so, therefore, I don’t know where we would go elsewhere. I mean, that you put it on, are part of this. And I have no problem supporting the full funding of it either. For that Comm Conley.

00:55:27,000	I would say even if we have it in place, the need is still going to be greater than anything we put in place. So it would be an extra something to address some issues, but we’re not going to ever get to that pinnacle to where we’ll ever be at like an even keel.

00:55:44,070	Um Uh when I was, uh, an intern at the State Ho and working there. I mean, the needs were always greater that they even turned people away and the multiple commitments were uh. Where people were there time after time was proof of that too. Um I, oh, sorry, go on. I just want to say, um, Renee, thanks for all your good work.

00:56:04,770	We gave you the assignment last August. You get the setback in March. You came around and came up with an alternative plan, and I certainly support fully funding the 100,000.

00:56:24,530	All right, well, I’m gonna move to allocate the 100,000 from the city of Bismarck’s opioid settlement funds to support technical assistance to develop a comprehensive plan for the community triage center in Bismarck. Any further discussion Carry on we’ll call roll. Comm Cleary, Comm Risch Comm Zener? Yes, Comm Connelly, yes, March? Yes. Thank you, Renee. Item G. Consider request for resolution receiving bids, ordering payment, excuse me, ordering preparation of engineers’s statement and awarding contract for street improvement SI 590 and water Improvement District WA 334.

00:56:56,000	Go ahead game Good evening, Mayor and Comm, if I could get the share link up on the screen for a moment. Mayor Commissioner’s, uh, street Improvement District 590 and Water Improvement District 334 are Hamilton Street Improvements in the vicinity of the new Fairview Cemetery, uh, Eastgate Funeral Home, uh, cemetery.

00:57:33,000	The funeral home was being constructed at the intersection of Century Avenue and Hamilton Street. We previously had a development agreement with this group that assigns the cost of this improvement to that, uh, entity. So we opened up bids yesterday at 4 p.m. We had 3 bidders on the project. Our low bidder is Northern Improvement Company, uh, with a little bit of $239,674.40.

00:57:55,800	Our recommendation is to approve the bid of Northern Improvement. Moved to approve is presented. Second, Any discussion. He none will call roll. Comm Risch, Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly? Yes, Comm, yes. Mayor Schmidt. Yes. I consider request to receive bids and award contract for highway construction project 132. Go ahead, Gabe.

00:58:20,400	Mayor Comm highway construction Project 132 is a two parts, the, the main part is the interchange reconstruction products that’s underway right now, uh, but the other piece of that is that the DOT is uh spooling up about 1600 ft of fiber optic cable into a pull box and then this.

00:58:38,530	project, the other part of our locally funded highway construction Project 132 would take that fiber and pull it into the Miriam fiber, excuse me, the Miriam fire station, which would then give us visibility and connectivity to the traffic signal systems that are being constructed as part of the interchange project.

00:58:52,370	So this is a project that we also opened up yesterday. Uh, we had 3 bidders on this one as well with a little bit of, uh, from Eagle River Utility Solutions with a bit of $75,500. Our recommendation is to award. Move to approve as presented, any discussion. Here no we’ll call roll. Comm Zenker. Yes, Mr. Connelly? Yes, Comm Cleary, Comm Risch. Mayor Schmidt. Yes.

00:59:18,000	I I Yeah, I I. Consider request to discuss the draft, public comment policy for the city of Bismarck Advisory boards, committees, and commissions. And I think Is there A there’s a draft that’s in our packet. Is there any further? Comments After commissioners had seen it.

00:59:50,070	And what are, what are our thoughts and Concerns generally speaking, I think we’re already at this, at this table have been addressing public comment with the exception that um We need to also include the prior commission meeting agenda as open to public comment, I think under statute, if I understand that correctly. Julie, OK. So, Um Comments, thoughts, are you, where are we at? Commissioners.

01:00:14,200	Go ahead, Comm Mayor, Comm, I, I think it’s a good idea. Somebody might be watching this on community access and all, oh, I wish I’d have been there. I could have commented on that particular issue. So at the public comment period at the next meeting, they could have that opportunity.

01:00:28,730	So I think it’s a good addition and required by law, so. Comm Connelly, did everybody get the email I sent with the underlines. Um Separate from the template. I did. I know you were out of the office on Monday, so yeah, Jason said yes Doug forward it. Oh, I did not.

01:00:50,000	I apologize. OK. I OK. Go ahead with your comments. OK it’s, it’s actually really good, um, from our, um, Po, the ordinance that we put in place for elected and appointed officials, some of the um We have written into that policy saying that public comment will be at 5 minutes, but I have down, um.

01:01:17,630	And uh Uh On line 5 after the public policy heard while maintaining a um transparent. The reason why I put transparent is, um, state law as far as open meetings, the two reasons for it is for, um, transparency and efficient um meeting, so the current terminology in the orderly and efficient, the only part that

01:01:56,000	um Wasn’t there is the word transparent, so I added that. Comm, in which section help me find it. I’m sorry. I’d have to switch screens here. Bullet 5 Um, this is right after the public comment policy. Um Could we put it up there since they don’t have a copy of it.

01:02:25,430	I, I’m just trying to envision where your place in this world I’m trying to think of the way without using too many words. OK. Is it an opening paragraph? Yeah. Great after media environment and transparency, the policy outlines a procedure for public comment to ensure that all individuals have the fair opportunity to be heard while maintaining, and then I added the word transparent,

01:02:47,900	comma, orderly and efficient meeting environment. I have no problem with that. OK. And then on, um, number two. It’s to provide public comment each individual must sign and it said previous on there. I took the previous part out.

01:03:09,930	We’ve always been doing it, provided at the podium, so people are signing there. I really think the locally, Bismarck does it better than any open meeting I’ve seen in the state. I like that because we also have a visual image. Yeah, I like it signing at the podium rather than prior. I mean, cause Yeah. They, they can works for me.

01:03:27,330	And then, uh, as far as uh individual um Provides sometimes they’re asking questions about jurisdiction, whether it’s say Misty Waters or those type of things, uh, the individual’s name and residential address, no PO box because sometimes we have follow-up questions, and that might help us following up. With people.

01:03:53,000	So I would have a concern with, with posting people’s addresses and those types of things. Just because of So scammers like to take everything, so I mean, more Bismarck, North Dakotari County the city or whatever.

01:04:10,030	I, I also said ETA, I don’t have a problem and I have a concern even if you start putting addresses out there, I just, you know, We don’t need to have attacks we post the sign-in sheet? I don’t think we post the sign-in sheet, do we? Mayor and Commissioners, the sign-in sheet that we have simply says name and phone number today, the state law that was passed does indicate the address is required.

01:04:30,330	However, it is protected by open records and would be redacted if anyone were to request it, so they can fill out the sheet can fill it out for our record, but we would not distribute that I have to. No.

01:04:42,670	I, I was, kind of the check and balance so that we can follow up on some of the comments because people expect it. Yep, no problem with that. I just don’t really want to have them have to air it. Yep, yep. Then, well, with the state meeting now too with everything that happened in Minnesota.

01:04:59,200	We want to protect our people and our elected and staff, but Um, online 5, public common agenda, um, I I added the word May. be limited to Um And made just because 2180 and that.

01:05:29,070	Uh, part of the back and forth and all of the testimonial things is, is that, um, This was never a protected right on behalf of the citizens, so this this is a citizen win at the same time, um, allowing the chair to have flexibility as far as time and minutes and that is maybe limited, and I just put in a total of 60 minutes, and that’s um.

01:05:57,470	Uh 12 people getting 5 minutes each, um, goes into uh 60 evenly, um. I, there’s been very few meetings that I’ve ever seen exceed that, so, um, it, we still have an efficient meeting. So 60 minutes versus 30 minutes. I have no word, no problem in my opinion with the word adding may limit that I still think 30 minutes is appropriate.

01:06:19,870	It still has chair discretion to extend. And no different than the 5 minute. The chair has the discretion. If someone’s got very solid information, we’re gonna want to hear it and and I’m hopeful that whoever is the Chair of the committee or a commission because this will apply to our committees as well is going to be respectful of Those

01:06:40,670	individuals who are here to give us information and what I would hope they would extend the 30 minutes, because I would certainly plan to do that. Um. Yeah, and I’m OK with Comm Zer and I, and remember this is just public comment. This doesn’t have anything to do with the Public hearing. Public hearings or anything like that.

01:06:58,300	Well, those are protected in century code, so, um, um, part of the reason why I’m looking at this is I do think Bismarck utilizes public comment better than anybody I’ve seen and that and a lot of people are struggling over this issue and wrestling with it, and it’s kind of been a haphazard

01:07:16,400	process, so setting a good example if we use it well. Um, maybe somebody looks to us. As an example, but I don’t mind being at the 30, but I thought I’d bring it up.

01:07:33,500	And then the last part, while I, um, uh, regardless of how many individuals have signed on the Speaker she per the discretion of the chair, um, and I guess the 60 would remain at 30, but those are the only things that I had as far as differences. Everybody OK. Yeah. So other than make no like couple of edits, Jason, I think then we could. We could probably just adopt it tonight. just a couple of words.

01:07:58,000	Mayor and Commissioners based on the consensus that we’re hearing, we can certainly make those changes that everyone has agreed to and then it will be our burden to get this to the advisory boards and committees and make sure that all the departments that staff those have this and implemented in a

01:08:12,470	similar fashion throughout all meetings. So I just want to check one thing. I got, sorry. Because I thought I read it. Now I can’t find it. Did we say that the current, oh yes, item 6 all comments must addressed an item on the current agenda or at least one preceding.

01:08:36,470	I, I would like to say the preceding meeting instead of at least one because the, the law says the previous one. to the Yeah, I would think so just because I think it’s more clear, it’s less vague. Well, I don’t know, that might be overthinking it, but regularly scheduled meeting because if we have a special meeting in between, does that.

01:08:58,370	Usurp it. I, I always think it regularly scheduled. OK. Um, no, I’m glad you, you added that, uh, Mayor, um, but I think this is a good swing in letting our citizens be heard. I testified on this at the state quite a bit.

01:09:17,030	All right, so are we, do we have general consensus then? Yeah. Um-hum. OK. Then, Jason, go ahead and team whoever helped put this together, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Comm. Item J consider a request to receive an update on the progress of the 2025 strategic plan. Evening mayor Commissioners, I’m here just to give you a brief update of how strategic planning is going.

01:09:47,570	Um Patrick Gubarra, our consultant, has been in town a couple of times now, most recently was June 24th and 25th. Uh, during that time, we kind of focused on 4 things we worked on.

01:10:06,670	Reviewing our current vision, missions, and values, trying to determine if it still makes sense for the strategic plan and remember this strategic plan is significantly different from what we approved in 2019 or what our current The plant is because it’s more internally or organizationally focused.

01:10:27,170	So, um, Prior to meeting with Patrick on the 24th and 25th, we had subgroups get together to kind of analyze what our 2019 values, uh, vision and mission work and had that prepared for that meeting. We also took a look at what our 2019 strategic plan was as far as goals and objectives and evaluated whether some of those, whether they were completed, relevant, if we want to carry them on to the next, uh, iteration of our strategic plan.

01:10:45,330	We did a SWOT analysis or SWOT analysis looking at our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. And then we took a A long look at our strategic focus areas, um, with our 2019 plan being community focused, um, Those strategic focus areas didn’t quite line up with, uh, the direction that we’re going with this strategic plan and I believe you have a handout of a summary of what our our

01:11:08,600	strategic focus areas are going to be moving forward and that’s infrastructure and development, economic vitality. Safe and healthy community emerging issues, engaged in foreign community, desirable lifestyle and organizational excellence. Those are quite different than what we had in our 2019 plan.

01:11:28,870	Um, before I go any further, I, I wanna just compliment our team that we’ve got working on this. Uh, there’s quite a few directors and we obviously have Comm Zinker, uh, leading this committee, but The directors get to work together quite often, but what I’ve been most impressed with is we’ve got a handful of staff that that aren’t directors that, uh, the

01:11:45,170	first time we got together really, we’re just kind of feeling their way, uh, and I can remember being in that position working with directors as being uh a lower level supervisor, and it’s pretty intimidating to get into that environment and to provide, provide feedback.

01:12:03,770	But in this last meetings on the 24th and 25th, um, and they provided some really valuable insight for our organization. So I just wanna Um Give a little praise to Sarah Berner, Kaylanos, Kate Jacky, Luke Tiggle, Jason Stelmeyer, and Tora Kraft. You guys have done a great job with this committee and we’re really looking forward to what you continue to bring. Um, as we meet again later this month.

01:12:22,830	The, uh, vision and mission were something that we were able to kind of nail down, uh, over the last time Patrick was here. And I’m going to read you what the vision was, if you don’t mind. I’m gonna read you what the vision was previously in 2019. It’s quite long.

01:12:40,930	Uh, Bismarck is a preferred destination for people who enjoy living, learning, working, and playing in a city with an enduring community pride. We embrace our rich heritage, economic opportunity, and lifelong learning to cultivate a healthy and sustainable environment, fostering opportunity for all. That’s a lot. It’s a lot to remember, um, I’ve been a part of this organization the entire time.

01:13:01,430	We, we’ve had that and I can only remember bits and pieces. So, uh, what we settled on, we want to be memorable, we wanted it to be something that we can work towards while also remembering What exactly keeps people in Bismarck, which is our high quality of life.

01:13:17,800	So our new mission state or vision statement is Bismarck is a is a dynamic community committed to an exception, excuse me, exceptional quality of life, so. Much more memorable, um, I think it’s a great reflection of who we are as a community and where we want to continue to strive to be.

01:13:35,930	And then our mission, we had a pretty great mission. I thought previously, very simple, it’s to provide high quality public service in partnership with our community to enhance our quality of life.

01:13:53,670	That’s pretty easy, but we’ve, we’ve, uh, edited a little bit and it’s a little bit more succinct than it is simply together we deliver exceptional public service, so our mission is more what we look at as staff, the vision is more community. Um So our next steps, uh, Patrick will be in town July 22nd and 23rd.

01:14:15,570	Uh, so we have two full day workshop with him and we’ll be focusing on nailing down what exactly our goals are going to be for those strategic focus areas and hopefully we get into some objectives, as well, and then once determining, you know, where we end up with those two day work with that workshop. We’ll figure out what we need to do moving forward.

01:14:28,830	Comm Zinker, if you have Anything to add? No, Dougie did a fantastic job. Um, I’ll just echo what Doug said too. It’s a, it took a little bit to break the ice in the room.

01:14:40,600	I’m sure having a Comm sitting there with you for a couple of days, kind of add some ice, but they got to see a little bit different side of me than at a commission table. So it’s all good. Um, Demetri and I, and I had a little bit of jargon going back and forth, so a couple of guys who have burned a bridge or two together, you know, we’re OK. Um, no, it’s, it’s great.

01:14:57,270	And anytime you get an opportunity to work your business, which we’re doing right now, a service-orientated business is fantastic. Um, it’s, it’s always you, it’s always, um, cause I was, I sat through the 2019. One as well.

01:15:19,100	And it’s, it’s, it’s really nice to see um how the group can have the same ideas, same thought processes, because they’re dedicated employees as to how they want to provide the service for the city of Bismarck. Um, at the end of the, uh, the, the day on the 2nd day, um, we were starting to run out of gas a little bit, um, but it’ll be, it will the final product will be very, very good.

01:15:34,470	And I’m excited to see it in the, in the next, uh, two meetings that we have. Thanks, Doug. Thank you. I, it’s great to hear the engagement that has come from. from up and down the the chain of command, so.

01:15:53,200	Um, where to other business, anyone else have any other business, Comm Risch, I just want to say since the last commission meeting, we had a couple of big events. One was the Juneteenth party and I was honored tore the resolution at the Juneteenth. There was a big party, a lot of music, good food, dancing, all kinds of things. And then the Fourth of July celebration was just incredible.

01:16:09,200	I want to thank Jason Tamani for heading up that effort. We had a good party up there and really enjoyed that. I saw the mayor was there welcoming people, so. That was Pretty good things happening. It was very well attended and it was attended not just at the ball but people all over the community.

01:16:23,630	I heard of people at Texas Roadhouse, uh, in the parking lot in Texas Roadhouse people came out and gave the kids some kind of treat at, at dark, so it was, it was amazing. And so we’ll, we’ll, any, any other business.

01:16:45,470	Comm Connelly, um, watching the county Commission meeting, I just wanted to say last night they have unanimous consensus that they’ll be at the August 5th Bismarck Burrely meeting on the 4th and the public is certainly welcome to attend that meeting as well. All right. If we have no other business, we stand Adjourned. Thank you,