00:00:13,600	It’s 5:15. It is October 14th 2025. We’re in the Tom Baker Room of the City County building. This will be the board of City Commissioners meeting, regular meeting, but before we get started, if I can call Chaplain Carford for invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr.

00:00:34,170	Mayor, Commissioners, again, thank you for the opportunity to serve you in this way. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we gather here today, uh, with open hearts, seeking your guidance and wisdom in all of the discussions of this city council.

00:00:53,630	Father, we recognize that in the hustle and the bustle of daily life, it is easy for us to forget and pause and acknowledge your presence among us. Help us now to take a moment to breathe deeply and invite your Holy Spirit into this meeting. Father, as we look around this room and we see the diverse group of people that are gathered, we know that there may be discussions and there may be disagreeances.

00:01:10,330	Father, may your hand be upon everyone who participates tonight. Also, Father, we pray for your protection upon our city workers, our first responders and their families. Watch over them, protect them, provide for them, and be with them. And we pray this in the name of your Son. Amen. Amen. Please stand and join me in reciting Pledge.

00:01:31,000	I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, uh, we’ll call him in to order if we can call roll.

00:02:02,600	Comm Risch, Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, Mer Schmitz here. Um, first item today is public comment. Public comment is for items on the consent agenda or the regular agenda that is not a public hearing or for any item on the prior meeting of in September last the last meeting in September.

00:02:29,270	Soon who wish to speak, please come forward, uh, identify yourself, sign in and tell us which topic you’re speaking to, please. Oh hello So I’m gonna sign in here. Mayor, Commissioners, thank you so much. uh, for your service, for your time today. Uh, my name is Roslyn Weber.

00:03:04,600	I’m a resident of, uh, Bismarck, the city of Bismarck, um, I, I had the pleasure of, I, I’m hoping to speak today about the Backyard chicken ordinance, um, uh, I had the pleasure of serving on the stakeholder committee, uh, that met numerous times earlier this year and it was actually created at the, um, at the request of this body Um, the, the stakeholder group had the opportunity to meet

00:03:23,630	numerous times, spent many hours working on a, um, and drafting an ordinance that, uh, we believe is very defensible from a public health, public safety, and from a natural resource standpoint as well.

00:03:43,900	Um you know, I, uh, I am thoroughly enjoyed working on the, the committee and, uh, one might ask why it was on the committee because I am just a member of the public, um, but I, uh, grew up on a farm, uh, not in North Dakota.

00:04:00,170	I married a North Dakota boy and moved here, and, um, reluctantly moved into the city at his wishes, um, and so, uh, we bought a house in, um, uh, in the city of Bismarck near Sleepy Hollow area. Um, it’s a beautiful home, uh, I think I’m one of the only residents, uh, potentially outside of the south of Bismarck that has a actual forest in my backyard.

00:04:18,800	Um, it’s a pretty remote area, even though I’m right in the middle of this of the city, um, and nothing, uh, would please me more than to have, you know, backyard chickens and keep chickens. Uh, this is an issue that is near and dear to my heart.

00:04:37,900	Um, I’m, uh, you know, somebody that would love to have chickens and, um, this is, uh, you know, truly comes down to a property rights issues. You know, we really, we pay taxes, we’re members of very involved members of the, of the community, um, and, uh, chickens are pretty benign issue. Our neighbors all have dogs. We don’t have dogs because of an allergy.

00:04:56,600	Um, so I can’t have dogs or cha uh or cats, but I can have chickens because there’s no chicken allergies. Although the only thing standing in the way though, is the ability to keep chickens, so that’s why I’m here today um, you know, I, so many communities in the state of North Dakota, and cities in the state of North Dakota, allow for the keeping of chickens,

00:05:14,800	including Mandan, Fargo, West Fargo, um, I think, uh, Williston even allows chickens, so it feels like Bismarck’s a little bit behind the times, uh, here.

00:05:33,470	So, uh, you know, really, this is, you know, obviously not the, the final opportunity to vote on this today, but, you know, there were some uh concerns raised, um, at the Planning and zoning Commission meeting that we’re were valid.

00:05:50,530	And so I, I, I hope that we have the opportunity, uh, moving forward to, um, to allow further discussions and refining of that ordinance to um address some of the concerns that were related, um, and raised that planning and zoning actually. So, um, again, I appreciate, uh, your service and your time, and, um, thank you and hopefully you’ll support, uh, Backyard chickens ordinance moving it forward. So thank you. Thank you. There you go.

00:06:32,170	My name is Robert Shield, Mayor Commissioners I usually have a barrage of things I want to bring up, but uh on the chicken issue, I personally have chickens, but I’m out in the ETA, you know, the cursed ETA that we always argue about. So I don’t think it would hurt anybody in this town if somebody had 4 chickens next door. It’s been blown out of proportion.

00:06:49,170	Everybody gets all excited about it. Most people that do get chickens probably won’t have them in 6 months because they’re actually are a certain amount of work They don’t just live on their own in free range in the yard. But being the ETA was just brought up by me.

00:07:10,630	If, if things can’t get resolved to go with the map that you guys presented. I think you guys should allow us to vote. because if you’re going to have power over controlling our land. We at least should have the ability to vote for who’s controlling us. and I don’t know how that ever got passed, that we don’t have the right to vote.

00:07:31,430	Does anybody have an answer for that? Comm Zinker? Yeah, I can do that, uh, because I checked into it. Um, first of all, it’s not our option to allow people to vote or not vote for us. That’s all, that’s all done with the state of North Dakota. They set the guidelines.

00:07:49,100	In fact, I asked our city attorney to check into it. For that went after, after one of our, uh, commission meetings with Burleigh County and, and they just to confirm what I, what I had thought, and they con they set the, the parameters of who can vote for who in elections. Now there were two times that it came up to the state.

00:08:12,000	One time, the, uh, the bill didn’t make it out of committee because I, I called one of our local legislators and asked for a history lesson. Um, one time it didn’t make it out of committee. The other time it made it um through the Senate, once it got to the floor, it was voted down in the Senate.

00:08:28,000	Me personally, I don’t have a problem with people in the ETA vote for me or not. And if we had an option to do that at this board, I don’t see a reason why we wouldn’t allow it. It’s not our decision. It’s not the county’s decision. It’s the state’s decision because that’s a state law.

00:08:42,470	And we can, you can have that conversation about whether it’s constitutional or not and those types of things. And they’re all valid concerns, but to be able to get that to change, it has to go to the state, have them change it, have the governor sign it, and then we can move on.

00:08:58,470	So I, and I’m, I’m with you. I mean, it doesn’t, again, it doesn’t matter to me. but that’s, that’s the parameters that have been set, and we all take oaths that we got to uphold the state constitution, and that’s in there. Whether we like it or not, it’s, it’s in there.

00:09:15,000	And there’s a ways to change it, um, you just got to go through the process. So, we would have to go to the legislature. Yes, sir. Yup. Wow. That was a good job passing that law. You’d have to go back in the history and find those people that did that.

00:09:29,100	So I can. Yeah, most of them are probably dead. Well, there’s a chance, yeah. Hopefully. Yeah. So, but I hope you guys can reach an agreement because then you wouldn’t have to see me here all the time because I would be out of the ETA. So I’m right on the edge.

00:09:46,700	But there is some other people that are right on the edge that don’t want to be in the ETA and thinking about what was said last at the last meeting. You guys said you didn’t want to really give up anything north or east. You know, it, it came to mind, even though it’s not ETA, if somebody owns 40 acres there.

00:10:03,600	It doesn’t mean they aren’t going to, you know, it doesn’t change whether or not they’re gonna sell that to a developer. whether it’s in the ETA or not. So by you guys holding the reins on what people can do out there, doesn’t change whether or not they’re going to sell it.

00:10:20,100	So you really aren’t controlling it at all. because they could sell it to whoever they want to. So, you know, you can’t decide, well, that’s proposal is going to say there’s a development going there. they may never sell the property. They may make it a land, a family land trust.

00:10:39,270	So I mean just to hold an ETA doesn’t mean continued growth. Noted Comm Connelly, let me add some context, and I appreciate it, Comm Zenker, for what he said and what it, it is true when it comes to the state.

00:11:03,900	Um, I’ve talked to a couple of legislators on that committee, and, um, when it comes to, say, with the way it stands now, we’re talking, I heard the term up to 12,000 people. That’s a lot of people, and that can sway an election.

00:11:21,530	There’s a lot of things that don’t impact people in the ETA that impact city proper and that, so that becomes an interesting conversation in and of itself. If the current map proposal as we’re negotiating it to be, were to come to fruition.

00:11:43,000	Um, if it’s 5%, that’s not a lot to where it would sway that marker one way or another, and then writing a bill saying basically um say if the legislature were to approve it and things, that local entities could draw their boundaries accordingly, and like Bismarck, um, the school districts do.

00:12:02,700	They have both county citizens that are voting in city citizens based on their jurisdictions, that might be a different conversation, so the Fargos can be Fargos and the Bismarcks can be Bismarcks, and I’m, I’ve mentioned it more than one time. I’m willing to write that. I’ve written a couple already that have gone to a vote at the state level. It’s just a matter of this is the biggest swing on this conversation and arguably 34 decades.

00:12:23,100	So it would be important for us all to be grown up enough to move that needle, and this is a big swing, so that we can have those conversations and continue negotiations going into the future. You know, and, and one more issue.

00:12:45,530	um, I think everybody should take the homeless crisis in this town, seriously? The when you go to the parks, all you see is those little alcohol bottles thrown everywhere. And I know we don’t need to pay city workers to pick them up, and I’m sure you aren’t going to change their habits. But why can’t you pass an ordinance getting rid of those tiny bottles that are strewed everywhere.

00:13:03,630	at least if they’re carrying around a quart bottle of whiskey, the cop has a chance to see it. He ain’t gonna see that little bottle that’s in his pocket, and then he throws it on the ground. And just go walk around the parks. I mean every park, even right next to Myre. is full.

00:13:20,630	So, so I, I appreciate your comments, but that’s not on our agenda tonight and it’s not on the prior agenda, so let’s just try to stay to the topic. That’s as far as I was going. OK, thank you. I appreciate the comments, but right, this is public comment. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward. Good evening, Mayor Schmitz and Commissioners.

00:13:57,900	Uh, my name is Heidi Shirado. I I I am a resident of the ETA of Bismarck. I submitted my comments and notes to you earlier via email. The only thing I would like to add is that it just seems like this issue of the ETA is trying to be pushed so quickly through.

00:14:16,100	I know it’s been ongoing conversations prior, but with this deadline of the end of October, I just don’t feel like that’s a realistic date, considering how of an important topic it is to so many people.

00:14:34,370	Um, so I just hope, and I’m asking you just to continue to have open conversations and discussions with the county and be open to some of their ideas and working with them because so far I really have gotten a sense that it’s either your way or no way, and, you know, sever a relationship, and I don’t think that’s gonna gain anybody anything.

00:14:53,900	Um, if the county, I understand the ETA residents can’t vote, but if the county, if the ETA residents, excuse me, felt like there was a good working relationship between the county and the city on this topic, and some of the ordinances come into line, um, and mirror each other more. I think you would get a lot more support of ETA residents, um, on this issue.

00:15:13,270	So I appreciate you. Thanks. Thank you for your comments. Did you sign in? I’m sorry, I didn’t. I wasn’t. OK, thank you. Public comment is open A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Seeing no one and hearing no one. Public comment period is now closed.

00:15:38,270	Commissioners, what are your wishes for the consent agenda, Comm Zinker, uh, Mayor, Comm, so I just wanted to confirm um, item D1 and D2. Um, it did not say in the uh in our agenda packet that’s, it says staff recommends approval of the transfer.

00:16:02,500	Is there a is there a public hearing at the next meeting for that. I think that was, I thought that was the intention, but you’re right, I don’t recall seeing it in the memo, so we should clarify that this is a call for the public hearing.

00:16:18,330	So that is so, so, I, I’ll make a motion to approve the consent agenda with a notice of a call for a public hearing for items D1 and D2 that were not listed in our um packet and they’ll be advertised in the Tribune this coming Saturday and the following Saturday. Thank you for the public hearing.

00:16:42,000	is there any further discussion Hearing done we’ll call roll Comm Zenker Yes, Comm Connelly, Comm Risch, Mayor Schmitz, yes, and thank you, Comm. Thank you for clarifying that because I, I totally missed it as I read through it, because that, that was the, that should have been the intention. Not All right, moving to regular Agenda item A. Consider request to receive an update on the Bismarck Arts and Cultural master master plan. and Lauren.

00:17:08,530	uh, good evening, Mary Commissioners. Thank you for having me here tonight to speak on this issue. I’m, uh, I will be providing a brief overview of the Arts and Culture master plan draft, and we’ll ask for any final input, um, from this commission that you may have on it. Um, thank you.

00:17:27,730	Uh, so, uh, just a little bit of background, the arts and culture master plan aims to develop a community-driven vision for the role that arts and culture plays in the community. To achieve this initiative, the City of Bismarck partnered with Dakota West Arts Council, Bismarck Parks and Recreation District and Bismarck Public Schools.

00:17:47,530	Um, we also contracted with designing local and nationally recognized firms, especiallyly specializing in arts and culture planning to help with the community engagement as well as the plan’s creation. Um, I believe one of our consultants, Jasmine, uh, Metcalfe is online to help answer any questions at the end of this presentation.

00:18:08,870	Um, so, uh, I’ll just give a quick overview. There’s 5 chapters, uh, With the plan and the plan’s roughly 70 or so pages. Uh, the first chapter starts with explaining how the process to create the plan came about and the last portion of that plan finishes with an action plan that supports the

00:18:30,270	implementation of plan recommendations. Um, as you can see on the screen here, these are the five chapters included within that plan. Um, I’ll just go about, uh, explaining some of those chapters.

00:18:49,900	Um, so in 2022, the city of Bismarck was awarded the an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, um, to create an arts and culture master plan for Bismarck. Uh, the effort to create this plan stemmed from several factors, including the city’s 2019 strategic plan, um, objective to create a vibrant local art community.

00:19:14,230	Uh, additionally, there were a series of community arts conversations among artists, performers, cultural bearers, and arts administrators in 2022, as well as the creation of Bismarck’s gather 2045 Comprehensive Plan in 2022, which included several goals related to arts and culture. Um, this chapter chapter describes what an arts and culture plan is and what it should do for a community, as well as identifying our project partners, um, which are included on the screen here.

00:19:36,900	Um, so as part of the creation of this plan, we had multiple opportunities to engage with members of Bismarck, um, to gauge their thoughts for the role arts and culture plays in Bismarck.

00:19:59,800	So this included, um, 23 1 on one stakeholder conversations with representatives from the Arts and Culture Organizations, city government, um, public schools, uh, the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District, small businesses, and I cannot economic development organization s as well as local artists. Um part of the engagement also included 6 focus groups, a non-scientific online survey, as well as a public workshop. So, uh, from those engagement opportunities, several reoccurring themes emerge from that.

00:20:32,000	Um, these are included on the right side of the screen here, and I’ll just read them out for you. So opportunities for arts and culture, barriers to experiencing the arts, cultural programming opportunities as well as desires for planned outcomes.

00:20:54,430	So those 4, reoccurring uh themes were then compiled into a series of values, uh, that would be used to guide the development of the plan recommendations. Um, and those are included on the right hand side of the screen there.

00:21:22,600	So, uh, the third chapter, um, is uh it, it’s a comparison of our pure cities, and this is included to help gauge the relative success of Bismarck’s arts and culture efforts, um, related to those specific cities. It highlights um art’s economic impact data from the Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 report from Americans for the Arts, um, for each of those peer cities, uh, where data was collected for them.

00:21:44,530	Um, additionally, it notes which cities have current policies, commissions or funding mechanisms in place that support the arts and culture sectors in their communities. So the fourth chapter provides an introduction uh to various ways that arts can present themselves for the community.

00:22:09,800	It highlights multiple examples under four main areas, um, visual arts, public arts, performing arts and literary arts, and those examples, um, could be utilized to support some of those uh strategies that are included within the action plan. Um, so the last chapter provides multiple strategies within an action plan, um, to help implement the overarching plan recommendations. Uh, they’re laid out in a now soon next framework with the various years noted for each of them.

00:22:40,600	Um, and that provides a flexible, um, yet strategic timeline that prioritizes projects and foundational program elements so that future investments can best leverage the momentum and increased capacity. built through those prior phases.

00:23:01,800	Um, this chapter also notes some potential funding opportunities for arts and culture, and it highlights some arts activation and discovery discovery opportunities that can be used for some of those strategies called out With the plan. Um, so there are some strategies, uh, called out in this chapter that I, I just want to bring the Commission’s attention to as they may be, uh, next items to work towards if the plan is adopted in the future by the City Commission.

00:23:16,370	Um, that would be a strategy 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. So, uh, 1.1 is to adopt the public art policy. Um, there will be a um, draft language, uh, public art policy that can be reworked, um, in the future if this plan is adopted.

00:23:38,170	And what that would do, um, it would likely be the next step for expanding and supporting Bismarck’s arts and culture offerings for the community. Um, it would provide clear processes and guidance for, um, staff, uh, for selecting, commissioning, placing, and maintaining art for both city staff and community members.

00:24:01,730	Uh, the other two, which are consider consider the dedication of staffing to support arts and culture programming, as well as formally assessing or assessing the public art collection, um, would, uh, further support that policy effort and uh provide that basis for further strategies to build off of.

00:24:25,900	Um, those recommended strategies and action plan are meant to provide a decision makers such as yourselves with clear goals and objectives for implementation in order to best follow through on, uh, your commitment for creating a main maintaining a vibrant local arts community. At this time, we’ll ask for any questions that you may have for me, uh, or final input on the plan that you may have.

00:24:43,870	Mrs, Mr. Risch, Mr. Mayor Lan, uh, good job, by the way, but I was looking at the various cities here, and there’s two of them doesn’t have the economic impact? Is that because the data is just not tracked and what is it? Grand Forks and Billings? Uh, great question, Comm Risch, that is correct.

00:25:01,170	Um, so that report, that there’s a little, uh, within the actual plan, it calls out a specific report that’s provided by the Americans for the Arts, um, for those cities, they, they just didn’t include data um to that group for that report. Um, so it’s not able to be fully compared in that sense. Thank you.

00:25:21,800	Other comments, Commissioners You need, you need approval to move forward? Uh, at this time, uh, we’re going to both the city commission as well as our other uh our partners, boards and commissions, um, to gauge any final input. However, this will be back to you within the next uh meeting or so um for final adoption.

00:25:45,800	Perfect. Thank you, Lauren, for your presentation. Moving to item B, the ETA discussion. and I guess I’ll because I attended the meeting last week, and Daniel’s here with some additional information, but um during, during that meeting, uh, with our joint committee’s meeting we presented to the county and all those present

00:26:19,630	the map that we had, it was generally the same map that we had discussed at the Joint Committee, joint media both commissions, um, that the, that the city was proposing. There were some minor adjustments to that, I think. Daniels, that, that’s this map here, correct? That’s showing on the screen Correct, yeah. With the minor adjustments in.

00:26:45,630	um, go ahead, Comm. Maryor, what were the minor adjustments? Daniel, can you kind of describe them? They were kind of some edge edged tweaks, I believe. Correct, uh, Mayor Comm.

00:27:02,330	So, so there are minor adjustments and there may still be minor adjustments as the map goes forward, uh, the, the primary one, there was a little bit of confusion along the river, um, just because of the way the lines were drawn on our map, it appeared as if we were giving to the county the responsibility of managing the floodway and flood plain along the Missouri River, even inside of city limits, that was not intentional and so we did

00:27:17,730	change the map to make, to make that clear, um, and then there were, there was one change with a rural residential subdivision that uh was previously shown Asster Ridge is the name as previously shown as, uh, inside of the ETA, but like most other RR zoned areas.

00:27:36,370	We, we moved it out, but those are the only two changes. So then this was presented and then the county presented their proposal which was corporate limits of the city. at which time I said that’s not an acceptable item. We need an ETA for the city to be able to manage its growth and um it was pretty much left at that.

00:27:56,370	Then there was a concept thrown out of a regional planning and zoning committee which uh by law would state that there’s 5 members of that, however you define it, in the city we’d only have 2 members, never mind, we’d have the largest land, not the largest land, but the largest

00:28:13,270	population out of the 5 and the other 3 would effectively be from the county, which in my mind does not make a lot of sense for planning and zoning within the city of Bismarck. So one thing I did ask Daniel to do, and I don’t know if Daniel, I don’t know which order you’ve got these maps in.

00:28:30,800	But I asked him because this particular map includes some portions of an ETA that would be outside the 2 mile radius of the corporate limits. So I said, Daniel, can you present a map or prepare a map that would an ETA that was just 2 miles.

00:28:47,900	mid the 2 mile boundary, and the purpose for that is that we eliminate the need for any joint jurisdiction and the and it would eliminate some parcels.

00:29:04,470	Now there is some confusion potentially as to, you know, we may have some kind of flags, so to speak, or flag posts of developments that have been annexed into the city that are kind of out outside of the general corporate boundaries and so they may not actually count within the two-mile radius. They, and so, and that’s fine. I don’t care about that.

00:29:21,000	But I wanted to get a sense as to what would happen and what other parcels might be eliminated from the ETA with knowing that we have heard the concerns from the residents in the ETA that they don’t like being regulated by the city and how many homes and parcels can we remove and look general to be, you know, where’s the land that we’re most likely going to develop in the next 25 to 50 years.

00:29:43,900	Whether that happens or not, don’t know, because, frankly, the developer, the landowner has to ask. to want to develop. They could sell it to somebody else who never wants to develop the land. So as you can see, if we flip flip back and forth, there’s not much change.

00:30:00,900	We keep generally our corridor with the one exception of going north along kind of 83, which might be a little bit concerning, but we could do that. So the question we, I would have to all of us here at the table, uh, for our discussion is what steps do we wish to take? We can choose to say commission, we’ve presented you

00:30:20,630	a map that is very reasonable. This is kind of what we feel needs to be negotiated, and it’s the one we’ve already shown them. or if we want to try to pull in and just try to avoid some constant ongoing battles, I suppose would be the term, um, we could withdraw from the joint powerers agreement and

00:30:38,500	then come up with a map that looks maybe closer to the 2 mile radius map. and just avoid joint jurisdiction. So I’m, you know, I, I think we’re trying to accommodate what we’ve heard from the residents in the ETA as best we can.

00:30:55,100	We’re not going to eliminate 100% of the residents that are in the ETA, but we’re probably 2 miles were under 5%. of what was there before, so. that’s kind of the background, um, that came out of that meeting and I wanted it on this table. I had mentioned to Comm Bakke back in the first part of September, it would be lovely if we could get this done.

00:31:19,500	earlier than later with a targeted like the end of October, because I thought actually the map that was presented, and there were two commissioners that seemed to think at the Burleigh County that it was a reasonable map that we could actually get a deal done.

00:31:31,730	So I don’t feel that we’re there right now. In fact, I feel like we’re further away when we start with a corporate limits for the ETA. I think we went backwards between our in our negotiations. so I Comm Risch. uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

00:31:49,370	Thank you for your work on this, and I thought the offer was awful generous. The 95% of the homes, 45% of the land value or land mass, I think that was incredible. But uh uh one of the people that testified here earlier mentioned, I think her name is Heidi, that uh she didn’t think the county had much participation.

00:32:08,630	in drafting the map, and I, you give us your perspective on that. I think I announced Daniel to come forward. I would bet he will say that there was an offer to speak with the county planning staff on more than one occasion.

00:32:25,730	Sureery Commissioners, and we did, we, we met with, um, both the building official and planner, uh, Mitch Flanagan, and also, also the, the highway department on a couple of occasions, uh, and so, you know, of course, they, they needed to go to their board, uh, to get direction for how to uh respond and, and they did and um and right now at least uh

00:32:42,270	the map that they provided, provided to us at the city limits is there, is there a counteroffer? So it’s not that the the offer wasn’t extended and I wouldn’t want to call anybody, but I know there’s at least one of them in the crowd, and I’m hoping he concurs that they were at least reached out to.

00:32:59,870	And he’s shaking his head, so I take that as a concurrence. Comm Zinker So I think that’s the, there’s two things. One, I’m just gonna, I’m gonna discuss this from, from this perspective is, um, when, when they get pulled from their board that take the gloves off, those types of condescending things that, that doesn’t, doesn’t

00:33:26,600	provide a teamwork atmosphere to their staff, and that is not, not anything to do with their staff. That is their bosses telling them what to do. So I appreciate the fact that they acknowledge that.

00:33:42,230	But then on the other hand, we have meetings together and you, you hear comments from the county that, hey, we wanna work with you, we wanna do this, but I don’t see, I don’t see that coming back. you know, um, I, I will, I will, um show tell Danniel who did a great job coming, coming back with some type of map that was, that was workable.

00:34:00,100	I mean, if we were stubborn about this and we said, no, you know, pack your bags, get out. We’re taking 4 miles outside the ETA that would have been done and, and managed for years, decades before it got here.

00:34:15,870	So I, I think, I mean, I don’t have a problem working with them and trying to come up with an idea, but it, but it has to be a visionary idea. And currently at the board at Burleigh County. I don’t see a lot of vision I don’t see them planning for the future. you know what, and, and here’s a prime example.

00:34:31,800	Um, but they’re, they’re poor, as much money as we put in engineering, so we can maintain roads and do those types of things. They’re poor engineering department gets cut from budget year after year after year.

00:34:48,800	So what vision is that to make sure that you’re providing safe, standard roads for county residents to drive on, more than, not more than city guys going out there and hunting. You know, that’s your primary focus. And if you don’t have a vision just to take care of your basic needs of what you got. So then how do you have a vision to help the city grow so the, so the entire community can blossom.

00:35:02,730	How do you make the whole thing vibrant? When you got a board who’s just known to, excuse me, no,, no, no, no. But yes, yet wants to work with you. At their last meeting, they, they cut the partnership with the city parks. That’s not a, that’s not a visionary thing.

00:35:20,370	That’s, it just doesn’t make any sense. So, so unfortunately, um, and I’ve had a couple conversations. In fact, I talked to Comm Munsen today, you know, he, he would advocate for instead of going out to the 50-year thing, we just started the 20 go to 25 and call it good and, and if we were

00:35:41,630	working together as boards and, and not making our our stabs, um, both Burleig and city staffs kind of butt heads a little bit because we give them those instructions Fine, but it’s not happening that way.

00:36:03,070	There’s, there, I don’t, I don’t see that Burleigh County board, I think there’s, there’s more gamesmanship and willing to work together from a staff perspective than it is the elected perspective. And that’s the sad thing because that means that all residents are caught in the, in the middle of this little power struggle, I’ll call it, so I’m, I’m happy with the options that are out there if we need a,

00:36:20,100	a few minor tweaks to it. We can do that. Um, but until I see some visionary type decisions made from, from, uh, Burleigh County, I would suggest that we go with the original map that that Daniel had with those minor adjustments that you had.

00:36:39,900	So, do you want to put that back to the county commission for next for Monday to accept that as what our offered ne go ti ated ETA is, or do we wish to potentially exit the joint Powers Agreement. I, I’m not asking a question because I don’t know what a good answer is.

00:36:57,470	And that’s that’s a very valid question, right? Cause next year, some of those seats are going to change on both boards. So maybe we just got it, it’s a, it’s a 15 round boxing match and we just got to get to two more elections and it’ll change type thing. I don’t, I don’t know.

00:37:12,100	That’s a great question. I don’t know if we need to exit out of the, out of the, uh, Jot Powers agreement, but I mean, there is that, that that scenario where we can say, hey, either, either take this or leave it. right? Because there’s really 3 options. The 4 mile, which we already don’t have.

00:37:31,100	status quo what we have today, or you take the new map and, and leave it. And then that’s, and I would completely agree with that assessment.

00:37:44,970	And, and so, so I think we should, so I didn’t answer your question, did I? Well, I mean, it could do that to my wife to try to confuse her. Comm, it could be kind of both answers. You could be saying, here’s the map, and if you choose not to accept it, then we, we’re left with no alternative but to withdraw from the Jot powers agreement.

00:37:59,530	So I would, I, I would be I would be OK with the two changes that, that, uh, Daniel brought up um I don’t remember what he said and, um, but the rural residential, the, the new modified map.

00:38:20,430	Um, there may be an option for them where they have the um Burleigh County where they, they have the 4H building and that kind of stuff, where they might not want that in the ETA. I would be amenable to that too, just because it’s there their area, they’re gonna take care of it. They’re gonna do, they’re gonna want to do their own thing. Um, so I’d be, I would be fine with that.

00:38:34,630	So I’ll, I’ll make a motion to send it back to the county with the two adjustments that um, Daniel made along with a couple minor, minor modifications and then that’s the final, final. And then if they don’t accept it, what is our next step? I think we need to have that, we can have that discussion if whether they do or don’t.

00:38:54,900	wait till the next. OK, I just want to, can I add to that, yes, I knew you had your hand up, so I was gonna get back to Comm. Yeah, um, well, I can second for discussion, we can go from there.

00:39:10,900	Um, what I would, uh, like to add with it is, is, can we take the, uh, 3 people that asked. um, to be removed from the ETA along TG TJ Lane. Um, can we take them out, um, and let them go back to the county.

00:39:36,530	Um, I also got calls along, uh, from people along, um, Calvary Drive, um, and I know that has some impacts from the airport side of things. They currently have wells on that east side, um, the water is not great, it kind of has an odorous to it.

00:40:04,530	and it’s um really that decision between if it’s annexed, then it’s city services, but or r water um for a different discussion, and is it possible that, um, allowing it to go to the ETA, um, on the west side of the right of way of that Calvary drive. That’s up for discussion. I don’t know.

00:40:19,800	Sure, Comm, we could probably have Daniel come up to speak to some of these map standard that’s why I said minor min or uh, you know, if there’s somebody and those that someone today might not want it, just like the mayor said earlier, and Mr. Field said the same thing.

00:40:33,230	Someone could sell it in 50 years and then all of a sudden they’re 40 years and, and hey, they they wanna annex to the city, so yeah, I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just trying to get my visual now for the specifically the question that Comm Connelly brought up on the TJ Lane one because one of those persons is here tonight, and I, I know I had you look at some things and how that could actually work And I think that’s an easy

00:40:48,170	adjustment if I’m not mistaken. Sureery Comm, that, that’s correct. Yeah, the, the areas are on TG Lane are up here and, and they’re really sort of on the borderline, so that, that can be just without impacting the map too much.

00:41:01,500	I, I will remind you, yeah, the map is calibrated at the 50-year kind of growth horizon. So we do calculate projections and then try to make sure we have enough area for that. So, but those changes won’t affect that much. Um, the, the Missouri River Fairgrounds, I heard that brought up the county does own that property where the 4H is.

00:41:17,500	That is actually inside the city limits, so that one we really can’t change unless you were short of de-annexation, they, we can’t change that.

00:41:31,900	However, they own the land, so of course, they pulled the cars and how that gets developed as the property owner, um, the other area that I, Comm Connelly was bringing up Apple Creek Industrial Park, uh, just sort of northeast of the airport.

00:41:47,270	You know, that, that is currently outside of City Limited’s industrially zoned, uh, now there are others who know more of this than I do, so it might need more study, but I know recently changes to the floodplain, the FEMA floodplain, have really brought that some of those areas out of the flood way and made them much more easy to develop, much more easy to annex, much more easy to bring in city services. So there might need to be a broader discussion about that area.

00:42:00,700	There is city water currently on Morrison and Yin, on the corner and sewer there as well. So, uh, that, that is probably worth a discussion on, on how that could be urbanized in the future if possible. Um, and I’d, I’d recommend that before making any major changes in that particular area.

00:42:18,270	Comm Connelly, um, I know, I talked with um Greg a little bit about it too and um Greg, could you come up and kind of explain some of the things you were explaining to me, so we have it out there where people can reference it.

00:42:41,730	Mayor Commissioners, yeah, Comm Connelly came up to me before the meeting and just asked a few questions about, uh, the approach area often that northeast, uh, uh, quadrant of the airport, um, as if an aircraft is coming in from the northeast to come in to land to the, uh, on our crosswind runway there, and I guess we, we have airport uh zoning

00:43:02,630	ordinances that go along with the cities, uh, zoning ordinances, uh, were required to protect our approach zones, um, as, as much as we can, uh, to, to protect the investment that we have in the airport. Um, so we enjoy working with uh the planning and zoning department.

00:43:26,070	um, on a number of different issues that come up, you know, we’re certainly concerned about height of buildings, uh, whether they, if they’re an industrial uh uh processor and they produce a bunch of smoke, or they have reflective things, you know, maybe a, like a solar farm or that kind of thing, reflections, um, electromagnetic interference,

00:43:52,230	uh, uh, uh, there’s a whole host of different things, um, that can cause us problems operating in the airport for the pilots, um, coming and going.

00:44:11,470	So, you know, we, we encourage you to hang on to, uh, those pieces and parts that are left in around the edges of the airport, so that we have a little bit more protection. We we’ve got a huge vested interest in hanging on to those uh edges, uh, and being able to utilize the planning and zoning rules and ordinances that we have available to us to protect that, to protect the airport, to protect the operations.

00:44:31,270	OK. So the way that this sits right now, that would be the, that’s what the ETA is there around that is for those protections and we’ve had a number of different discussions, uh, you know, over by Lincoln as Lincoln has grown so much in all different directions.

00:44:50,070	Uh, we’ve had a number of discussions over the past, uh, uh, about some of those developments, uh, in that area, and, uh, you know, we certainly don’t want to keep, uh, areas from developing, but we want to make sure that the, that the development that goes in there is appropriate for, you know, keeping, uh, the airport, uh, approaches uh safe and secure.

00:45:12,270	That doesn’t mean we couldn’t still address the water issue some other way. Oh, the waters a whole another thing. Yeah, that’s underground or not. Yeah, yeah. So that could be just a different topic to address that particular issue for those particular property owners, I think. So, OK, thank you. Yep.

00:45:28,900	OK, so we have a motion in a second. My only concern with not having kind of an endgame, but we as long as we’re comfortable that we bring it back to our next commission meeting if they don’t accept, I’m fine with that.

00:45:46,070	I just like, we gotta get to an endgame because we need to get some resolution here. And if, and if we end up exiting the Jot powerers agreement, it’s a 6 month notice and we have to go through some public hearings because we’ll have to define uh, what our ETA would look like, and so, I mean, I just think the clock continues to roll and we create

00:46:03,270	with with ambiguity out there. And so that’s my only concern about not, not kind of putting some actual hard date to it. Comm Connelly Maryor Commissioners, uh do we need to amend then in order to remove the 3 from TJ Lane as a OK.

00:46:25,900	I think we’re just going to give direction to Daniel to, for the map. OK. And then the other thing, um, when the whole discussion came about, I talked to, um, Senator Dever.

00:46:48,470	He heads the committee that has, um, had these discussions at the ETA and he mentioned that it’s out of the 1,000+ bills, it was one of the most difficult conversations they’ve had and the conversation has just been reoccurring with very little moving of the needle on the conversation, and this would be a substantial change. It’s I’ve heard it from several people both in the county and the community, that this is the biggest swing at making a change and getting a little, a lot closer to right.

00:47:09,870	The question of regulation without representation. We can tweak things and we can adjust things going down the road, but I say we um go forward with taking um what we’ve worked on so far and then improve on it from there, both at the state and local level.

00:47:30,070	Any fruit Comm Risch, I just have a question. So if we, um, they say no next week, Monday or whatever it is, and we say, OK, that’s a done deal. We’ll implement this map. Do we have to eliminate the joint powers agreement? We’d have to do it now. We have to. Right.

00:47:46,170	Well, that prolongs things Yep. I mean, it’s, it’d be best if they would accept our map. from a negotiated because it could be implemented November 1 And one last thing with it too is that um I mean, if it goes a little longer, November, even the December 16th meeting.

00:48:11,800	Get into next year gets difficult because like Comm Zenker mentioned, uh, the both are commissions might change in the next year. And once the election cycle goes, conversations sometimes go into rabbit holes that are uncomfortable for everybody, and including the citizens, they’re in a difficult position it’s hard to keep up on things. OK. No.

00:48:33,900	So, again, as long as, as long as we’re committed to dependent if their answer comes back, no, that we’re going to address it at the next meeting. I’m OK with that. Otherwise, I would like to just have a date because I just think we’re going to otherize continue to drag it on.

00:48:48,170	Comm, if I could just add to that too. So I just, I just want to reiterate that we don’t force annexation to anybody. They, they apply to be annexed to the city to get water, sewer, or whatever urbanized scenario that they want to do.

00:49:07,430	So, um, if your land’s in the ET A all we’re asking is that, that we have an opportunity to provide some guidance, some vision as to what that could look like. And if you don’t ask to, to do things, that’s fine too. I mean, it’s, it’s not, it’s, it’s up to the landowner to do that, not for the city.

00:49:22,900	I’ve, I’ve heard a couple of comments about how come you don’t develop this part and this part and that part, it’s like, well, we don’t own the land They, the landowners on the land, if they don’t want it annexed to the city, that’s their decision, not ours.

00:49:36,730	So, I’m sure it’d be really easy just to have one jigsaw puzzle and you start from the bottom and you keep working up or to east or west, it doesn’t happen that way. That’s why we have some donut holes and things like that, so. Thank you.

00:49:49,430	Is there any other discussion? Daniel American Comm, if I, if I may just add one comment on the timeline. So, so once the final decision is made on on the map, on which you wish to do, with or without a joint Paris Agreement.

00:50:03,630	uh, there, there is a little bit of time that will be needed on both ends to just make the legislative changes we, we’ll need to change the ordinance in a couple of ways in our plans and, and some of our processes, uh, we would recommend doing these changes in the winter rather than the summer just because in the summer we have a lot of things in process that would have to jump from one to the other.

00:50:17,700	Uh, so that, that’s the one thing, uh, but it, it could take a few months, so I just wanna make sure you’re aware of that. But when I said November, like we could have the deal and then we could move forward with whatever changes are necessary, but if we have if we drag it out because we have to exit, then

00:50:30,000	we’re, we’re gonna be working on the map during the winter months, no matter what, as we go through the hearings, but so any further discussion um that we’ll call roll. Comm Connelly, yes. Comm Risch. Yes, Comm anchor. Yes. Mayor Schmitz, yes.

00:50:50,270	And one thing I would like to add, and this is related to the ATA, but it’s not part of the motion, but I would like to have Daniel and his team work on the zoning ordinance change for the accessory buildings and the ETA to match the county’s current zoning like ASAP.

00:51:08,900	Like, and I think you’re gonna plan on talking about it at the PNZ meeting next week, but just so everybody knows like we’re gonna move on that already. It’s in the works. Thank you for the discussion. Item C, application for a new F1 restaurant alcohol, um. license for Fith Underground events. This is a public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to this topic, please come forward.

00:51:41,470	A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Seeing nor hearing anyone public comment period is closed. Comm, what are your wishes? Motion to approve. Second. Is there any discussion? hearing no we call roll Comm Risch. Yes, Comm Zenker. Yes. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz, yes.

00:52:07,700	Next item D uh public continued public hearing on Ordnance 6635 annexation of part of 1, block 2, Northern sky, 2nd edition. Daniel. Good evening You just let me, uh, pull up my slides here We had a bet last time. Oh, no. I was landing here for, oh, OK, we’ll see what he says.

00:52:38,070	So OK, I’m there Mayor Comm, this is a, uh, familiar to you by this point, uh, William Will Development LLC is requesting approval of an annexation of the eastern portion of Lot 1, Block 2, Northern Sky’s 2nd edition, 1st replat. Uh, so we did, uh, this is an annexation.

00:52:57,800	The area is shown on the map on your screen, uh, City of Bismarck staff did find that the proposed annexation would not adversely impact the public health, safety and welfare, and we did recommend approval, uh, and that is in your staff report if you’d like more details on that.

00:53:14,070	The planning and zoning Commission considered this request during their June 25th, uh, regular meeting, and they recommended approval, uh, so you’ve opened this hearing before and it’s, it’s been a continued a couple of times at the request of the applicant.

00:53:29,500	So here we are again and uh the hearing continues, uh, and if you so wish this would be the final hearing on the annexation, um, for the lot one, block 2, Northern sky, 2nd edition, 1st Street. OK. Thank you. Any questions for Daniel? No. No. The public hearing is reopened Who wishes to speak, please come forward. Thank you, Mayor, Lanon Adlers, Winston Hagen Engineering representing Wilmont Development Office.

00:53:53,230	Uh, thanks for Daniel. I know most of you were not familiar with this project in any way, so that was good to get that out there. We have had movement. Unfortunately, we’ve had movement in the wrong direction. So tonight we’re actually asking that the request be removed or denied, whichever is makes your lives easier. Yeah.

00:54:08,470	I think we have to deny it logistically, don’t we? Motion to deny? OK. Well, we got to. We got, we got to finish closing. I got the public hearing first. Anybody want to talk and keeping it open? You poor bugger Oh. We’ll, uh, close the public hearing Commissioners, motion to deny.

00:54:28,100	It might be the first time I ever did. Any discussion? hearing on on call roll Comm Rischch here, yes Comm Zenker. Comm Connelly, yes, Mayor Schmitz, yes. Next item. I got the right one here, uh, I F. Public hearing in Ordinance 6641 annexation of all of Elkerridge, 4th edition. Daniel.

00:54:56,370	Good evening, Comm. There are 3 annexation hearings this evening. So this is the 2nd of 3. this one is actually the city of Bismarck as the petitioner, uh, requesting approval of an annexation of the portion of the dedicated E Century Avenue right of way adjacent to Lot 24 Block 7 and

00:55:11,500	lot 1, blockade of Sattler Sun Ra, 6th edition, as well as the dedicated Rights of Way of East Century Avenue and 5 2nd Street Northeast as described in the right of Way Platt recorded as document number 974737. Uh, the map is here, uh, shown on your screen.

00:55:34,330	Uh, this is the extension of East Century Avenue. This project is underway. Uh, the construction, uh, is scheduled to be completed by the end of this season, uh, and that would connect from East Century Avenue up through 5 2nd Street into Silveranch Subdivision. And so this would be annex in the city limits.

00:55:46,900	It’s already owned by the city, the right of way was purchased, uh, uh, a couple of years ago. The, uh, public hearing was held, I’m sorry, this is the public hearing, but this did go to, uh, the plan ning zoning Commission in August for 27th, and they, uh, consider this request and

00:56:01,600	recommended approval, uh, as always with all annexations, we published this in the Bismarckch Tribune, and we notify the township and county, uh, before this, this hearing that you have today. So, uh, staff is recommending approval, um, of the annexation of the area I, I mentioned, uh, I can answer any questions you may have.

00:56:19,170	Any questions? Just clar, I have to clarify cause I, I got one item ahead. I did say this is actually E and it’s, um, I apologize, but you described it and all the public hearing for 6640 which is the right of way anyone wish to speak, please come forward. The second call for public comment.

00:56:43,630	The 3rd and final call for public comment. Public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes for 6640? Oh, move we approve the ordinance 6640 as presented. Any discussion He none will call roll Comm Zener Yes, Comm Connelly, Comm Risch, Mayor Schmitz, yes, now we’re to item 6641, the annexation of all of Elkerridge, 4th edition.

00:57:12,600	OK, Mary and Comm, Section 18 Land LLC is requesting approval of the annexation, as you mentioned of all of Elkridge, 4th edition, the area is as seen on your screen, just north of the promontory Point development and west of Elk Ridge development, uh, the prim the Elk Ridge Fourth

00:57:31,370	edition has already been approved by this body, uh, the Plat, the final plat, and also the zoning map amendment, uh, so the next session was kind of following that a little bit but would not take effect until Elkridge 4th edition is recorded.

00:57:46,800	Uh, that is still going through the process of recordation uh at at this point, so we would just hold this annexation until that point. Uh, the Planning zoning Commission did hold a public hearing on this one as well, August 26th of 2025. Uh, and they do recommend approval.

00:58:03,470	Uh, so we, the public was duly notified of this hearing through the Bismarck Tribune, as well as letters to the township and county, uh, so based on the findings in your staff report, staff is recommending approval, planning zoning com Commission is recommending approval as well of Elkridge 4th edition annexation. Any questions Thank you, Daniel It’s a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward.

00:58:27,270	Thank you Oh no, we’re gonna, we’re gonna get something approved one of these times and tonight is our that is our request. As Daniel mentioned, the, the platting and the zoning have already gone through the process, just came in a little bit late on the on the annexation, but hopefully we can start construction when, uh, when

00:58:42,500	spring comes. Any questions that I can happily answer them for you. OK. Thank you. Thank you. This is public comment. Anyone wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment A 3rd and final call for public comment. He in Encinola, the public period is now closed.

00:59:05,630	Commissioners, what are your wishes? We move to approve is presented I. Is there any discussion? He none will call roll Mister Connelly? Yes, Comm Risch, Yes, Comm Z anchor. Yes, Mary Schmitz, yes. Next item, health and safety. assessments. This is a public hearing for those assessments.

00:59:33,900	and anyone who wish to speak regarding those uh assessments to be assessed, uh, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A 3rd and final call for public comment. Public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes with regard to the 2025 health safety health and safety assessments to prove was presented. Second.

01:00:03,330	Is there any discussion here and I will call roll Comm Risch, Yes, Comm Zenker. Yes. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz, yes. Next item is a public hearing on the confirmation of the 2025 Special Assessment Districts. as amended and uh this is a public hearing for those, so anyone who wished to speak regarding those public those special assessments, please come forward. A second call for public comment.

01:00:33,730	A 3rd and final call for public comment. Hearing and seeing no one coming forward, the public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? A move we approve as presented. Second any discussion He none will call roll Comm Risch. Yes. Comm Zenker. Yes. Comm Connelly, Mayor Schmitz, yes.

01:00:57,270	Next item is I I consider a request to pursue North Dakota Department of Transportation’s highway safety improvement program funding Mayor and Commissioners, uh, Chris Holzer, Bismarck traffic engineer, I met Sonia before, but not all of you. Uh, Gabe is at a conference tonight, so he asked me to present for you guys. Thank you, Chris. Pleasure.

01:02:09,370	Different, uh, buttons in my computer. pounder one I will say I learned, uh, after the fact we can submit things to uh have them prepared ahead of time. I wasn’t aware of that. Sorry. All right, our first one, Highway Safety improvement program, NDDOT, uh, North Dakota Department of Transportation is soliciting for safety projects.

01:02:42,530	Uh, they do that each year. Um, and this year we’re looking at applying for 4 different locations Uh, we’ll start at the top of the map and work our way down. Uh, the first location is near Century High School, uh, crossing Century Avenue, uh, to get to Gateway Mall.

01:03:16,600	Presently there is a crosswalk and signs there and we would like to add the rectangular rapid flashing beacons. Uh, they look like strobe lights and then also add uh a sign and strobe lights in the median in that area.

01:03:43,870	I got a picture here Um, so the top one is the existing conditions, uh, looking east from entry or on Century Avenue and then we would add uh in the median, we would add another sign and a push button similar to the bottom figure, which is from Bismarck Expressway down uh west of 3rd Street. Then our next location Location number 2 is Washington Street and Avenue B. Um, this is a busy north-south corridor.

01:04:18,070	Uh, we’d like to replace the existing ball flashing beacons with the, the strobe light style beacons and then add signs on the backside also, uh, to add extra visibility Uh, location number 3 is on Riverside Park Road, uh, fun fact, I always thought this was River Road, but south of Memorial Highway, the name changes from River Road to Riverside Park Road.

01:04:45,170	Um, this used to be a flashing beacon system, but last year, uh, there were malfunctions and public works wasn’t able to keep it running. Um, so it’s presently just static signs at that location.

01:05:08,470	Uh, we would like to install uh the remove that mast arm and install the post-mounted rectangular rapid flashing beacons, uh, double sided so they’re visible from both directions. And then the last safety location is down at Airport Road and Lee Avenue.

01:05:34,100	Uh, last year, the MPO did a Sei routes to services study and during one of the field trips, uh, we went to the Dre Center and supposedly there’s people walking from the dream center to the South Walmart, and there’s not many sidewalks or crosswalks in that area. Uh, we’re not exactly sure what we want to do yet.

01:05:56,370	We, uh, we haven’t done the cost estimates yet, but we’re looking at, uh, post-mounted signs and flashing beacons, uh, with a median in the middle of the road or possibly uh overhead mastar, uh, like that bottom picture similar to South Washington Street down by Solheim. So I went through those pretty quick. I can elaborate if you wish or uh. listen to your wishes. Wish there’s any questions? No. No. What are your wishes? Move to approve as presented. Second.

01:06:20,870	Any discussion He none will call roll. Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly, Comm Risch, Mayor Schmidtz, yes. Next item J. Consider a request to pursue North Dakota Department of Transportation, Transportation alternative program funding. Mayor and Commissioners, um, this is one of those DOT grant applications again. Uh, we’re asking to submit for two different locations.

01:06:51,800	Uh, the first one will be State Street, the bike trail on the west side of the road from Divide Avenue up to I-94, and then I-94 up to Calgary Avenue. Uh, the trail was installed, I think it was 2003, so it’s getting towards the end of its life.

01:07:09,700	We have been sealing the cracks and all that. It’s getting to the point uh, we could do an overlay now, as in lift overlay, just mill and overlay, Pretty simple.

01:07:25,530	If we wait too much longer, the cracks are going to get too deep and get into the base, and then we’ll have to do a, a full reconstruction if we get to that point. Um that’s our first location Second location is over by the Tyler Parkway interchange, uh, just west of that, northwest. There’s a Claremont Conservation Trail proposed by the Bismarck Parks and Rec Department.

01:07:56,370	Uh, they have to go through the city as a almost a pass-through organization to get the DOT funds. So this is on behalf of the Parks and Rec Department Uh, they would like to install that red trail on the map. Uh, so, this is Gulf Drive by the funeral home.

01:08:19,370	Uh, it would be a trail over to, uh, what’s presently a dirt trail and go up sort of parallel to Claremont Road. um. So those are two locations proposed for the TA funding Comm Rischch Mr. Mayor Chris, is that going to be an asphalt walking trail or is the red one would be, yes. Uh, if you look really close, there’s some brown dashed lines.

01:08:46,270	Uh, those would, I believe the one on the east side of the Cooee would stay a brown dash line. Any other questions, Comm Connelly? When they originally, cause I watched the Park board meetings too, that they were going for this designation to be a minimum maintenance nature park. When we start adding infrastructure like sidewalks and that starts getting away from that nature park.

01:09:11,630	where there any discussions along those lines because I mean, there was a lot of heartburn when they tried to put the mini-ins in that section too. And that went somewhere else. Comm Connelly, I was not part of those discussions.

01:09:29,800	I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going from the ground, but there might be some questions to ask the park board because what was originally presented to the citizens, this seems like it’s going a little bit away from that. Sure. This is what we were given from them. So, but we can follow up with them, sure.

01:09:53,730	Any other comments questions Commissioners, what are your wishes Move to approve is presented. Second. Any further discussion Hearing none will call roll Comm Connelly, Yes, Comm Risch, Comm Zener, Yes, Maryor Schmitz, yes. Next item, consider a request to pursue North Dakota Department of Transportation’s Urban grant funding program. Go ahead, Chris Commissioners last item for us tonight, um, DOT is asking for urban grant.

01:10:23,730	applications. Uh, we have two projects we’d like to submit. This first one is from Gabe, um my understanding is he’s uh applied for it the last couple of years. It’s reconstructing Main Avenue, uh, between 7th Street and 9th Street.

01:10:43,530	So it’d be a full, full depth reconstruction going down into the base, uh, redoing all the concrete, the curb and gutter, the sidewalks. um part of that, uh, he’s proposing to make it a three-lane section and either widen out the the boulevards or add parking along the sides of the street.

01:11:06,070	uh, with some pedestrian lighting to make it more friendly for the uh pedestrians that walk in that area. Presently, the sidewalk is right against the the street and it’s not ah comfortable for pedestrians.

01:11:34,900	Then our second spot uh would be 2 traffic signals on Washington Street, uh, Broadway Avenue and Rosser Avenue Uh, the Broadway Avenue signal is getting, uh, to the end of its life. The polls and everything. Uh, so we’d like to replace that intersection, the traffic signal. as part of that, we would install left turn arrows for north and southbound traffic. Uh, they have exclusive left turn lanes.

01:11:54,500	and then we would add uh one head per lane per through lane, uh, to meet current standards, we would add push buttons and the uh leading pedestrian intervals, uh, where if you push the button your rock symbol comes up 5 seconds before vehicle traffic starts moving. Uh, also at Washington Roer Avenue. Uh, this one doesn’t have any video cameras presently or push buttons, so it’s just pre-timed.

01:12:20,100	Uh, we’d like to add video cameras and push buttons, to help it be more responsive to traffic, uh, which would also help ambulances that are coming. There’s an ambulance barn, uh, west of here, and they frequently come through this intersection, uh, with the pre-time signal. It, it doesn’t respond to them quickly.

01:12:40,900	Um, if it had cameras and push buttons, it could skip traffic or the it wouldn’t have to go through the pedestrian countdown if no one had pushed the button. Uh, yeah, I will accept any questions.

01:13:02,430	Is any questions, Comm Connelly? I’m just going to state if it was merely the streetlights and we had the option of 3 or 5 line in the future discussion. I would be a yes on it. I’m a no on it when it’s the three lane as the exclusionary option, just stating that upfront. Um, irregardless of the lights. I voted no on it last time too, so. Any other comments, uh.

01:13:25,230	What are your wishes, Commissioners? Move to approve as presented Second any further discussion Here I call roll. Comm Risch, Comm Z anchor. Yes, Comm Connelly? No, Mayor Schmitz, yes. Item 11. Consider the appeal request to make a determination on zoning ordinance text amendment related to the keeping of chickens. Hi Mr.

01:14:09,070	Mayor Comm, is this agenda item is an appeal of a denial of a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow chickens to be kept within city limits, and to eliminate setback requirements for coups within a residential properties in the extraterritorial area or the ETA.

01:14:26,100	At your meeting on excuse me, on your meeting on February 25th of this year. You asked staff to pursue a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow chickens to be kept in city limits, planning staff worked with the stakeholder group, including representatives from the public, the city commission, Dakota Zoo, and DSU extension, and city staff from the police department, public health

01:14:42,270	department, and city attorney’s office to draft the ordinance. The group met 4 times between April and July to review requirements from peer communities and educational project products from NDSU extension in Burleigh County.

01:15:03,600	The group focused on drafting an ordinance to provide city residents with residential within residential zoning districts an opportunity to keep chickens with clear and enforceable requirements. The Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on this request on August 27th and voted 6 to 4 to not recommend approval of the zoning Ordinance text Amendment. The zoning ordinance also makes provisions for appeals. I’ve been here before. I guess I’m your appeal person.

01:15:21,100	Um, any final decision of the planning and zoning Commission can be appealed to the City Commission by either the applicant or their representative or department or board member, bureau, anyone from the city. Comm Risch has requested to appeal the decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

01:15:37,630	Certainly, Comm Risch is here to answer any questions you have this evening. But before you, um, before I turn it over to him, staff does recommend that you consider the appeal and take action to either uphold the planning and zoning Commission’s denial or reverse the decision of the planning and Zoning Commission.

01:15:53,100	If you do reverse the decision of the planning and zoning Commission staff suggests you, um, make a motion to call for a public hearing on the zoning Ordinance text Amendment at one of your next meetings. Any questions of Jenny Commissioners Well, Mr. Mayor Jenny, thank you so much for all your work on this.

01:16:12,500	We asked planning and zoning to look into this, and they did a very good job, got put together this excellent committee of experts. We had numerous meetings like Jenny mentioned and um came up with a very good proposal.

01:16:30,000	Um, we even did a survey, uh, did a survey and there was a strong majority of Bismarck residents said yes, they’d approve of a chicken ordinance. So I think we’re in a pretty good spot. I, I’m a vote today is just to um proceed forward. That’s not a final vote. We’ll still have to have a public hearing, and after the public hearing, we can then make a decision whether or not to ad adopt the ordinance.

01:16:46,100	So voting today, yes, does that mean you’re going to vote in the end in favor of the chicken ordinance. So I respectfully request that you vote yes just so we can proceed forward. Um, at the zoning Commission meeting, no one spoke against it. Today, we had one person speak, or two people speak in favor of it.

01:17:03,100	Um, time and again, um, there’s a lot of support for it. Here in Bismarck, we can have dogs, we can have cats, we can have snakes, we can have lizards, we can have rabbits, all kinds of things, but you bring a chicken into Bismarck and you’re in trouble.

01:17:21,270	So I think it’s, um, very minimal impact on the community when uh like Rosalyn mentioned, we, um, interacted with the various cities across the state that, um, already allow for chickens, including mandan. There’s virtually no issues. There’s no issues. Um I, I, I just moved, but I lived on the south side of Bismarck on Augsburg Avenue.

01:17:39,000	Any given day, I’d have 30 wild turkeys in my yard tearing up around my shrubs and things of that nature. My neighbor had 4 hen chickens that would make virtually no noise in a coop that would have zero impact on my life. So, um, I think it’s a modest thing. It, it tends to get overblown.

01:17:58,000	Um, people claim the sky will fall if we get chickens at Bismarck, and the sky would not fall. So I respectfully ask that of my fellow commissioners and the mayor to vote yes on approving the appeal and then the plan is that the next meeting, then there would be a call for a public hearing

01:18:13,170	because I won’t be at the next meeting, and I’d like to be here when there is a public hearing, and then a meeting after that, we’d actually have a public hearing. Well, obviously I was on planning and zoning, and I was one of the votes to deny it.

01:18:25,430	I’m not going to deny that I was, but I don’t think it was a strong majority because the survey results were like 53%. So just, just set the record straight and some of the concerns that were expressed in the planning and zoning meeting were, um, and one in particular and actually

01:18:42,900	the one of the persons who spoke about the chicken ordinance is the one who brought it up. Um, the potential fire hazard from heating of straw and so forth to keep the chickens warm in the winter, especially because you can’t, you’re not probably not gonna have them in the

01:18:58,600	house. And then one of my concerns is, is, and it’s probably a selfish one, but it is a concern as we’ll get calls for chickens at large, and there’s nothing we can do with this ordinance because our, our law enforcement’s not going to track them down and retain them and house them.

01:19:18,070	So, um you know, I think that’s, that was one of my, those are the two concerns that really bothered me is fire potential risk, which I think is real. and second uh the, the, we have dogs at large and we had calls on that.

01:19:35,900	We have an action plan we can take for that, but we would not have an action plan we can take for chickens at large under the ordinance. The plan and we discussed this extensively about uh chickens at large. Uh, chicken at large, it’s life expectancy would probably be under 24 hours. If a chicken gets that large, he’s not going to do any damage. We don’t care. He gets at large.

01:19:52,800	We might be able to talk, call the people in the neighborhood that have signed up for chickens and have their permits for chickens and tell them, hey, there’s a chicken loose in your neighborhood. You might go, want to go find it.

01:20:07,270	As far as a fire hazard thing, there were no reports of anything of that nature at any of the other cities in North Dakota that I’ve had chickens. I just know that Yeah, I just know it was brought up. So, so I just bring in the tech context to the meeting forward, so.

01:20:22,170	Comm Connelly um I, uh even the first time when I was hurting, I wasn’t a Comm at that time. Um, in the name of property rights and things, um, similar information. I’ve actually looked into a lot of other communities in that and I would make a motion to call for the public hearing.

01:20:40,330	I don’t think we make a decision on it tonight, but what I would say is that with the at-large portion, whether it’s uh 2 strikes and you lose the ability to have chickens in your yard for a period of 5 or 10 years. um, or 3 strikes, and that as that checks and balances.

01:20:59,170	I can see that, but for the people that are stewards, there’s a lot of different ways we allow for a lot of things. Uh, let’s have that discussion. That’s a motion for the public hearing and I would say 4 weeks from now or the so Comm Risch can be here. Excuse me, I think you’ll have to make a motion to approve the appeal.

01:21:18,270	not, not call for a public hearing. Uh, that’s where we’re at now, correct correct. And, and I may have led you, Comm, um, astray. You don’t need to consider this, um, item, this text amendment, if you do approve or reverse the decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission, you can call for a

01:21:34,430	public hearing at at the next meeting. You don’t need to have a separate meeting to consider this item. OK Then I’ll withdraw the original motion, and I’ll make a motion to, uh, reverse the appeal. And then I would ask, um, at the public hearing that it’s not the next time, but the meeting after next.

01:21:54,630	So all commissioners can be present. Second is there any discussion, Comm, I’ll just remind everybody that it was not a unanimous concession, uh, consensus to send this to staff. and I haven’t changed my mind. That’s all I got. OK. Um, any other discussion Carry number or call roll Comm Risch, Comm anchor? No. Comm Connelly, yes, Mayor Schmitz, no.

01:22:31,370	motion dies Next item M. Consider request to receive presentation information addressing the some proposed modifications to the current composition of the city of Bismarck Organizational structured Jason. Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Apologies. Will I get my myself set up here Uh, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Um. I owe you a fair bit of information here.

01:23:13,630	Admittedly there was very little included in the, uh, agenda packet, um but it maybe just, if I can start at the beginning, uh, probably mid-August of this year, um, our former community development director Ben Ereth, uh, came to me and shared with me that he had accepted a position in another community

01:23:32,470	and would be resigning. His last day was September 12th. Um, when an opportunity like that presents itself, I feel the responsibility to stop and take a deep breath and make sure that the steps we take next are going to be appropriate and with the best interest of this organization in mind, um.

01:23:53,000	I use this time to kind of evaluate, uh, where do we go from here? And uh if I can get the screen, I’m gonna rely on a little bit of a presentation put together here.

01:24:13,900	So what you’re looking at, oh, there we go, uh, what you’re looking at today, right now is the current organizational chart for the city of Bismarck. We have 15 departments, uh, variety between general fund, enterprise fund, that’s not necessarily germane to this discussion, but, um, top of the chart, obviously the residents of Bismarck, those are the individuals that elect all of you and then you direct, uh, the policies and uh projects for the city, uh, as the city, city’s

01:24:35,800	administrator, it is my responsibility to oversee and support the various departments within the organization. Some of those departments have a little bit of a unique composition.

01:24:56,600	I’ll point at the library board, which is on the far right side of the organizational chart and also the SENCO board, uh, library and CEO have separate boards that um really guide and direct uh a lot of the day to day operations, but ultimately because the library and CEO are still part of this organization. I still have a role here as well.

01:25:10,700	Um, I am not the direct supervisor for the library director nor the SENcomm director, but my role is to continue to support and um um administer as best necessary when those departments uh come forward with projects.

01:25:34,000	We haven’t yet adopted the strategic plan, but I couldn’t help myself in digging into some of the information that’s there and some of you may have seen this, um, I believe Doug Wis will be coming forward in the not too distant future with a final version of all of this, but I wanted to peel out a couple of pieces in here, uh, one of them is a strategic focus area uh, that’s one of our highlighted, uh, components of the strategic plan and this particular piece is organizational excellence.

01:25:52,600	and uh apologize for all the text on the screen here, but I’m, I’m gonna read it verbatim. Goal number 4 as drafted, is to improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness through streamlined processes, data-driven decision making and cross-department collaboration. and when you get into those specific objectives within goal number 4.

01:26:16,170	It talks about conducting a comprehensive review of the existing organizational structure, including reporting relationships, role clarity and workload distribution of staff. Uh, it talks about analyzing vacant positions and current workflows to determine if functions can be consolidated, redistributed, or redefined. And then also to compare the organizational structure with peer communities and identify innovative and efficient models.

01:26:39,100	So those are really kind of the guiding principles that uh I was looking at as I walked through this conversation. Back to the original org chart here.

01:26:57,270	Um, some of these departments which you’re not seeing are divisions within departments and a couple of the departments that I’d like to maybe shine a light on and and focus our attention on are going to be community development and finance, uh, so the bottom two boxes on the organizational chart.

01:27:17,000	Community Development Department today exists with divisions, uh, the building inspections division, planning division, you’ve got the HUD and CDBG programs and then also of course the Metro po li t an Planning Organization on the finance side of things, that’s the department that’s led by Dmitry Chernyak. We’ve got assessing fiscal services and then information technology and GIS So why are we looking at these two positions, um, maybe just a little bit of history before we get to that part.

01:27:35,170	Building inspections. how did building inspections get to be part of community development. Um, I have the pleasure of being a city employee for almost 20 years, and I can tell you when I started in this organization that the building inspections division was actually part of the fire department.

01:27:55,630	You might ask why was the building inspections part of the fire department because at that time, the staff that we had in those positions, it worked. If we go all the way back, uh, to the fire chief that was here before our current fire chief Joel Bay Fleg, the gentleman’s name was Jack Hagadas.

01:28:15,000	Jack had the distinction of having not only the fire chief responsibilities, but he was also the building official. Building inspections was part of the fire department. It was housed at Fire Station one up on Capitol Avenue, and it just worked at that time. We were a smaller community, we were a smaller organization, and the staff that we had at that time could serve those roles.

01:28:31,730	When Mister Haas retired Chief Joel Bassflug was hired, and the decision that was made at that time was recognizing that Joel came in from the fire service, and Joel was not a building official, so a determination was made to hire a building official.

01:28:51,100	The building official worked under the leadership of the fire chief. So there was a division within the fire department. We’re building inspections lived. In 2006, the city started renovating this building that we are in today, uh, the first floor that was renovated was actually the 2nd floor, which today houses community development and engineering.

01:29:12,870	In 2006, in October when that renovation project was completed, the building inspections division was moved out of the fire station at headquarters and moved onto the 2nd floor in positioned physically next to the planning department at that time. The building official uh, still was part of the fire department until uh a retirement that occurred in 2008.

01:29:38,470	And in 2008 when that building official, the retired, the Community Development department was born, and the community development department at that time is what we know it today Inspections was moved out of the fire department and into community development along with planning and the MPO and that was the first time we’d ever talked about community development.

01:29:56,170	Prior to that, it was exclusively planning, and it was building inspections as part of the fire department. and all of that made sense, given the positions and the players we had in place at that time. Um a little bit more texture, we kind of covered all of that.

01:30:15,370	The other side of things, the finance side, as I mentioned, we’ve got assessing fiscal services and information technology or IT and then geographic information systems, GIS. um what I am proposing is to modify the community development, I’m sorry, to modify the finance department, uh, frankly, and this is by no means a a dig or any disrespect to our current finance director

01:30:37,900	Dmitry Chernyak, who is a certified public accountant and former auditor. One thing he is not is an IT professional. Um, Demetri and I have had this conversation in the past and, and quite frankly, IT has outgrown the support that Dmitri is able to provide to them because we are far beyond his aptitude when it comes to

01:30:58,530	information technology and GIS and frankly, IT is a part of nearly every discussion that we have in this organization, and it is one of the internal service departments that is internally facing, affecting and supporting all the departments within the organization.

01:31:16,530	And so what I’m suggesting here and I’ll work through this as we go through the slides. What I’m suggesting is that finance is modified to remove information technology and GIS and then finance would remain with assessing and fiscal services and ITGIS would be stood up as its own department. When you flip to the other side of the line, you’ll notice community development disappears.

01:31:38,630	What I am recommending and suggesting here is that we have two very talented individuals that are leading the building inspections division today and the planning division today that would be Brady Blaskowski and Daniel Nairren, uh, respectively.

01:31:58,000	What I would recommend and suggest is that building inspections and planning become their own free standing departments, um a little bit more on that as we go forward, um, one of the things that is really driving a lot of this decision in my head is the growth and the development that Bismarck has experienced over the last 20 years.

01:32:22,000	We have very been very intentional about the support and the engagement that we provide to help grow this community. In 20 years we’ve added 20,000 people, and some might say I liked Bismarck the way it was back in the 90s. It was small, I could get anywhere, well, sorry, folks, that’s not the reality of of the way things are.

01:32:38,470	The capital city is growing as an organization we benefit tremendously from that growth, and I’ll hearken back to just a few meetings ago when this Comm approved the budget for 2026. you’ll all remember that House Bill 1,176 capped local budgets at 3% over last year’s amount.

01:32:58,630	However, House Bill 1176 also opened the door to recognize new growth and construction in a community and you heard our finance director tell us this year that because of the growth and the new construction in our community, we have had an additional 1.5% on top of the 3% to work with for our budget for 2026.

01:33:18,900	Frankly, Commissioners, I think that is a, a huge relief to the 3% cap because it was able to afford us the opportunity to do more things with the, the funds that are new funds and available.

01:33:36,330	And so thinking about development, thinking about the growth, thinking about the departments that focus on that and support that, that takes us to this slide where if you’re looking at the right side of the line, we’ve got some yellow highlighted boxes engineering public works service operations, public works utility operations the new building inspections department and the new planning department With planning, HUD, CDBG, and the MPO would still exist as a division within planning.

01:33:56,970	Why are these particular departments highlighted and not the others because these 5 are the ones that are intentionally supporting the growth and the development of this community and this organization that will get us beyond that 3% cap year over year.

01:34:18,270	I thought with all of this is again, back to the supporting the organization and, and supporting the staff that we have here, helping them grow to become better professionals and essentially setting them up to do the best jobs they can from now and into the future, what I’m recommending with these 5 departments is that the role of the Assistant City administrator changes.

01:34:35,870	and I have the pleasure of not only spending 10 years in the community development department as a planner, but also 8 years as the assistant city administrator. and quite frankly, the assistant city administrator role is an opportunity to learn as much as you can about this organization inside and out because it is one of the few positions that is extremely fluid and working with all the departments within the organization.

01:34:56,100	If we are going to do the best we can to help the assistant city administrator grow in that position and potentially be ready to take on the next role, which would be the administrator role is my perspective that that person currently today Doug Wiles.

01:35:17,000	that person is intentionally working with these 5 departments that are on the leading edge of growth and development because that position needs to understand the value of what we’re doing in those 5 departments to continue to grow this community, to add citizens to build out all the opportunities that we have. Mr.

01:35:35,270	Wiles, as you all know, was our city forester for 10 years and had very little to do with the growth and development of this community. What I’m not asking of Doug is to be the manager of these 5 departments.

01:35:52,170	What I am expecting is Doug to have the opportunity to work hand in hand with all five of these groups from development, from start to finish. In an effort to number one help him realize and understand what these departments do and why it is so important to grow, but also to expose him to all the things that need to happen when we’re talking about growth and development.

01:36:08,370	If we are going to continue to say we are open for business, we are welcoming growth, we are welcoming new neighborhoods and opportunities is my perspective that these 5 departments are the ones that are going to be the first ones out there having that conversation and having the assistant city administrator ingrained in those processes and those discussions and those projects

01:36:25,870	is tantamount to that person’s understanding and knowledge of the entire department. So then you might say, well, Jason, what are you gonna do? Well, I’m still here, not going anywhere.

01:36:46,630	I’m not looking to divest myself of any responsibilities, but if you look at the boxes that are highlighted now, we’ve got a blend of general fund departments, enterprise departments, and then also the library and CEOm that are, as I mentioned a little earlier, unique. These departments are not necessarily impacted by growth specifically, we all are impacted by growth, but these departments are not on that leading edge of growth, but yet they still need oversight. They still need direction.

01:37:05,330	They still need leadership, and I am proposing that my role would be to focus on these departments while letting Doug focus on the 5 departments that are focused uh that are uh working towards growth and development.

01:37:30,070	Um Municipal court City attorney, um these are, uh, city administrators responsible for the direct oversight of each department with the exception of Municipal court, which we have an elected judge, the city attorney, which is an appointed position by this body, uh, the assistant city administrator, which is currently an appointed position by this commission and then as I mentioned, the library director and the CEO director, they both report to their respective boards that

01:37:48,170	guide the policies and the day to day operations of those two departments. So in the end, we end up with um colors that aren’t really showing up on the screen, unfortunately.

01:38:07,870	Um, but we also, what you’re not really able to see here is a green color that is over the city attorney, the human resources, the information technology, and GIS and the finance department, those four departments are core departments that are again internally focusing on the organization, the staff, and supporting all the departments. I would propose that those four departments are departments that Mr.

01:38:32,370	Wise and I share the responsibilities and the leadership for because much of the conversation that happens involving those departments will impact every every department and almost every, if not all staff throughout the organization. So really what we’re looking for here is a combined role of the two administrator and assistant administrator, leading city attorney, human resources, ITGIS and finance.

01:38:57,900	C administrator with direct oversight for airport CENO, public health, fire, police, administration department, and then also liaison support availability for public, uh, Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library and CEO. So that’s kind of the big dynamic shifts that we’re talking about here, um, again, all of this is made with the best intentions to support the organization.

01:39:26,170	Uh, they are deeply rooted in the idea of succession planning and helping all of our staff achieve the professional goals that they have set for themselves and, and, uh, for the departments as well. Um, so I guess I will just kind of run through the recommendations as they’re coming forward, um, first recommendation would be to dissolve the community development department.

01:39:46,530	which would result in the creation of the building inspections department. which then subsequently requires the promotion of Brady Blaskowski to the building inspections director position, and then also the creation of the planning department and the promotion of Daniel Nairren to the planning director. Modifying the finance department by removing information technology and GIS and creating an ITGIS department.

01:40:11,630	which would also involve the promotion of our current ITGIS managerandra Kraft. And this is one that might be a little, uh, it might be worth some conversation. Um, as I mentioned, the assistant City Administrator, the administrator, and the, the city attorney are all three appointed positions.

01:40:34,070	Um, I’m grounding my thoughts in, in the future of this organization and worst case scenario, um, so my position is an appointed position. I serve at the pleasure of this commission and for some reason in the future if the Commission were to decide that I am no longer the right person for this job.

01:40:50,600	What I would like to think is that there will be people behind me that can still pick up the pieces and carry the organization forward. One of those key people that would be in the position to be able to do that is the current assistant city administrator.

01:41:10,370	And so what I’m asking for your consideration and support on is to uh modify the assistant city administrator position to align with all the other department directors, meaning that position is no longer an appointed position by this commission.

01:41:31,230	It would be a position that is hired by the city administrator with the committee, but ultimately it would also include civil service protection for that position, and I see value in that recognizing that, again, if a commission were to make the decision to eliminate the appointed officials, uh, myself and the Assistant administrator that would leave the departments without any internal leadership aside from commission direction, and I think that would be extremely disruptive and very problematic for this organization going forward. Um, so that’s ultimately, um, my proposal to all of you.

01:41:55,170	I’m hopefully you have questions. I’d be love, I’d love to try and answer them. Um, I’ve talked about this with a number of uh staff. I’ve talked with individuals both inside the organization and outside the organization and ask them to uh kind of shoot some holes in this to, to find

01:42:12,270	the fatal flaws and throughout the last six weeks or so as we’ve been exploring uh these recommendations and potential changes, um, I’m, I’ve yet to be confronted with a question that we don’t have an answer for.

01:42:28,800	And so I guess what I’m telling you is that I have nothing but the utmost confidence in the staff that we have here today. These changes work because we have professionals in these organizations and within these departments that can do their jobs, um one thing I should mention, uh, the Community Development Director position that is currently vacant. That position would not be eliminated.

01:42:49,600	It would be reclassified and where would it be reclassified and what would it look like? It would not be a director position. in conversations with Ben Ereth before his departure and then Daniel Naren and Brady Blaskowski.

01:43:08,900	One of the things I asked them was where are you guys spending your time? Were you getting bogged down in some of these kind of nitty gritty things that are happening and independently, the three of them shared that they are spending an exorbitant amount of time with code enforcement, zoning code enforcement, building code enforcement, um what I am proposing is that we use the position vacated by Mr.

01:43:28,870	Ereth as the Community Development Director, and we retool that to create a code enforcement position that would be housed within the building inspections department to free up Mr. Nairn’s time and Mr. Blaskowski’s time and to dedicate a single city employee exclusively to zoning code enforcement.

01:43:50,470	It would not only would it free up time for the two individuals to direct their departments and focus on the work that is in front of them. It would also alleviate some of the responsibilities that have been inherited by our environmental health division within public health. Our current environmental Health Administrator Anton Sattler.

01:44:10,800	supports the community development department when it comes to certain zoning enforcement issues, primarily the accumulation of junk and uh you know. debris and things like that that are littering up properties. Anton has been more than gracious to take on that responsibility. I would see a shift in that work, leaving the environmental health division and allow him to continue to focus on all the things that environmental health should be doing.

01:44:29,530	and have a code enforcement officer that is 100% dedicated to those types of issues along with all the other enforcement that goes with the zoning and building codes. So. um I hope I covered everything. I had a lot of thoughts in my head and I think I got them all out. I guess maybe just to highlight.

01:44:50,800	thinking about the growth and the development and the support that this organization provides to that community is really the driving force behind all of this. We want to continue to be able to grow. We want to continue to add citizens, residents, businesses at a sustainable pace and adding 1000 people a year for the last 20 years.

01:45:10,630	we’ve been able to keep up. Uh, we are adequately staffed. We have the right people in the right places, and I think we’re doing a great job of supporting development by making some of these changes, it frees up some people uh to really focus on the talents that they have and

01:45:27,170	the skills that we’ve asked them to provide. Um, when I thought about this a little bit community development, we’ve had two directors in my time and in the entire time that department existed, we’ve had two directors, both of those individuals were professional planners first. Neither of them were a building official or came from the construction trades.

01:45:48,530	Uh, Mr. Ereth did a phenomenal job learning that side of his department to support Brady and the staff that are part of building inspections. So I asked myself, what would happen if the next community development director didn’t know anything about planning, but only knew things about the building trades It’s really a, it’s an unfair

01:46:08,330	disadvantage to that entire department to try and find somebody that is strong enough to support both building inspections and planning because they’re two completely different things.

01:46:25,370	Now, yes, they do align when it comes to growth and development, but let’s be honest, it’s not the same profession on, on either side, so because of the staff we have today, because of the opportunity that’s been prevented, uh, presented in front of us because of the strategic plan is encouraging us to have these conversations as my proposal to you tonight is to create a community of or I’m sorry, Creative planning department.

01:46:42,970	with Daniel N Naren as the director, Create a building inspections department with Brady Blaskowski as the director, create an IT GIS department with Ter Kraft is the director and two modify the assistant city administrator position to eliminate it as an appointed position and have it be recognized as a true department

01:47:02,800	director that is civil service protected and on the same level as the other. currently 15 department directors that are here. Commissioner’s questions Mr. Risch Mr. Mayor Jason, so at the end of the day, with your proposal, we’d have 2 more departments or how many more departments? Mayor and Commissioners, Comm Risch, currently we have 15

01:47:24,600	Through this proposal, we would end up with 17. So we’d get two more departments, of course, a department head received more pay and we’ll, we’ll need additional employees as well. No additional staff, no additional employees, but we’ll have to adjust the pay of the department heads.

01:47:41,230	Um, and then you plan on giving some up some of your oversight to the assisted. City administrator, uh, Comm Risch, Mayor Comm I struggle with the word oversight. I struggle with the word management and direction. Really what it, in my vision of things, I’m not relinquishing any responsibility.

01:48:02,700	I’m not asking Doug to be the final say on any of these things, and some of those departments would ask, well, who, who, who do I go to? You go to Doug for support, you go to Doug for those conversations and, you know, working through the problems. Ultimately, I’m still the administrator.

01:48:20,170	I still have according to the organizational chart, authority over all the departments. What this really does for the assistant administrator position. It is, it immerses that person into the growth and development side of this organization, and it helps them build a knowledge base of why we do what we do, why do we say yes to certain subdivisions.

01:48:36,800	Why are we supporting growth in these areas and maybe not in those areas. Without that foundational understanding, I don’t know that that person uh currently Doug has the uh the wherewithal to really fully understand the organization as a whole I am different because I spent 10 years working in that environment, working in, in the

01:48:58,070	community development part and realizing how important it is to be supporting of growth and business development and all of that has become a very real scenario with this year’s budget development, having an additional 1.5% is huge for us. If we were capped at 3%, there would have been a lot more nos in this year’s budget.

01:49:18,270	But because House Bill 1176 allows us to recognize the growth that is occurring in our city. I think we need to capitalize on that opportunity. Well, uh, to be fair, you could assign Doug these oversight without changing its position. I like the idea though of having them, um, be a department head though.

01:49:39,630	I mean, as far as having civil service protection, that would be a good positive move, but that being said, you could just say, hey, Doug, this is your area right over here. I, I, I planted a new focusing on this area without changing the structure of the department.

01:49:54,600	I mean, I think he’s kind of saying that’s what he wants to do and he’s asking us to bless that, which, or at least go along with that concept. So I appreciate I’m sharing that with us. is the way I’m viewing it. I mean, so, um, Yeah, he, he could. You’re the administrator.

01:50:10,000	But, but I think it’s fair that he shared that with us. That’s transparency to the community as well. So, Comm Connelly, I don’t, I, you had your hand up, I thought.

01:50:30,900	Oh, Comm Risch actually asked, uh, most of the questions and, um, I’m not in favor of expanding departments or government, and I’m a lot of people talk to me and they feel like they’re having a loss of control to where government doesn’t have to answer to the people, you know, less and less, and, um, we’re elected, we’re part of that checks and balance, um.

01:50:50,630	taking cogs out of that realm and moving them to where they’re more internal. I’m not in favor of, I’m not in favor of the county doing it right now. And I’m not going to be in favor of that at this table. myself Comm Zinker, do you have any comments? Yeah, I do. Um, so first of all, thanks, Jason.

01:51:06,730	I appreciate this. Um, and I think I like the plan, but here’s, and here’s why Um, I understand your question about he could just assign Doug to do that. It’s transparent.

01:51:22,170	I mean, it’s gonna be a little bit of change instead of Jason going to some meetings, that’s going to be Doug, but it’ll work out. Um, and I, and I’ll put this out there. I think it’s very critical because coming from the construction side that um our Brady’s department is a department because it really is.

01:51:47,730	When you talk construction um, you have very few conversations with the planning team and most of your, most of your conversations are, are with the, with Brady’s team. Um, the other thing is, is that Ben stood at that podium. It took a lot of bullets and I fired most of them, to be honest with you.

01:52:04,470	And I think we’re all held accountable And if there’s always someone shielding certain scenarios, I think it’s beneficial that um um that that shield is taken away. And in, in this scenario, it would be. And Brady’s gonna have to answer to some portfolio holder and, and it’s gonna put a little bit more pressure on them, to be honest with you.

01:52:25,170	And moving, moving tundra out, GIS and IT is in every conversation of every department. And, um, you know, it’s probably gonna take some time, uh, give some time back to, to Dmitry to take care of the other stuff the financial side of things instead of worrying about what IT’s doing.

01:52:42,730	Cause I mean, Demetri’s really good at finances, but he is really bad at, at, um, IT stuff. He’s the Guy who has the most problems at the podium. So, let’s be honest, right? So I, I don’t think it’s, I don’t think it’s growing government. Yeah, we give it a little bit more money because they’re directors and those are types of things.

01:52:56,630	We’re not creating, we’re not creating anything new. All we’re doing is reallocating, putting people where they’re, where they, where they should be and have more accountability to us as commissioners. because they’re all they’re gonna be additional portfolios.

01:53:18,630	They’re gonna have maybe another level of guidance or, or maybe more communication with the Comm instead of somebody always delivering it for somebody else. I mean, and, and I’ll I agree with you, Comm Zenker.

01:53:37,270	I mean, I had I have community development as my portfolio, what department, one of them and my meetings were with Ben Now I would have the opportunity to have a meeting with Brady and Daniel or however we divide that up, I think it’s a more direct communication to the, to the elected official. I also don’t view just because we create, we’re creating depar. The fact is we’ve had these departments.

01:53:57,170	They’ve just been sheltered underneath another department and pretty sure that, you know, in many ways, Brady has acted in, and operated as the building official, which is a lead person in our community. Now, he didn’t have to always stand up to the podium and take some of the questions, and Ben did. It’s gonna be a growing opportunity for him.

01:54:15,800	That is also why I view what Jason is proposing with the Assisted mini assistant city administrator, maybe the title changes that we, as we move to something slightly different, but regardless, it’s gonna give that person the ability to guide that department.

01:54:36,530	Now there’s another person besides the Comm giving guidance directly to those departments and honestly if we have 15 departments I, I can tell you I know how many hours Jason Tamatik is working. He was on vacation last week and he probably worked. 30 hours during that vacation time. That’s, that is not right. and so this, but, but that’s on him too. That’s a that’s reality. It is reality because when you’re, when you’re quote unquote a business owner might be gone.

01:54:55,600	You’re always working, but he’s running it. He’s running a corporation with 650 employees. He’s always working. He gets it. He, he, he is, but we need, but there’s part of this growth and, and also if we look at our job as an employer, we need to give individuals the opportunity to grow to that

01:55:12,900	next thing. Doug Wilds needs the opportunity to grow. It doesn’t mean he’s going to become the city administrator here in Bismarck. He might apply for Grand Forks or Fargo or wherever, but someplace in another state, but if we don’t give them the opportunity to grow, that’s bad on us as an employer.

01:55:27,730	No different than it’s bad enough to allow some of these department directors to grow because they may be something I, I’m actually, I am, I’m glad that Jason, you thought outside the box because this is what, this is what’s important. It’s become strategic, so I’m in support.

01:55:45,530	I, I do believe making the Associate administrator more online with the department directors is appropriate from a civil service standpoint, I think it probably should have been that way all along because technically it should have been the administrator hiring his assistant. So, um, that’s my comments.

01:56:03,600	I’ll letcom Commissioners have any other thoughts or or give direction and, and, uh, how we move forward. if I may, Mayor and Comm, Comm Risch, I didn’t want to leave your comment about salaries, unattended, um, so the community of Community Development Director position, uh, would no longer exist, but as I mentioned, we would be looking to create a code enforcement position as well.

01:56:24,430	That would have a significantly lower salary, so there’s cost savings there. We’re not adding any additional staff, um, and for those individuals that would become department directors, our internal policy uh talks about a 5% salary adjustment with that type of a move or moving to the bottom of

01:56:41,600	the salary range. So there are some procedural things that we would have to work through with HR and our uh consulting associates to make sure that we are in line with position grades and salary compensations and things like that, but I guess what I’m ultimately telling you is we would not be

01:56:57,470	adding any additional staff. We would be recognizing individuals that are already here performing in, in many cases in full capacity and for lack of anything else, in many cases, most people think building inspections is a department. Planning is a department.

01:57:16,270	It really comes down to just our nomenclature and back to the org chart of how Do the boxes all fit together. So it’s a, it’s a net zero addition to staff as far as the overall budgetary impacts.

01:57:33,270	They will be minimal if even a razor may even be a decrease once we are able to work through all these numbers, and frankly, by creating the code enforcement Officer position. It gives the directors of those uh subsequent departments, the freedom that they need to lead and guide those departments 100% rather than sharing the responsibilities of code enforcement and interpretation, which has been a tremendous amount of time over the last several months and years. OK Mr.

01:57:55,070	Connelly and work out the numbers and back up what you just presented. OK. If we vote tonight I’m not there yet. I, I’d be happy to work with our finance director in HR staff to determine what the grades would be and then figure out how the salaries work, um assuming there is no

01:58:18,100	significant increase, uh, to the proposal. I’d be happy to report that out, but if there is a change that we’re not anticipating, by all means we’re going to have that discussion right here at the table.

01:58:35,870	That’s not something that we’re going to hide and bury and this isn’t a ploy for me to shed any responsibility or take on more responsibility or build a, oh, now we’ve got 17 departments instead of 15 that, that, that there’s nothing about me in this conversation. This is all rooted in the betterment of this organization as a whole, thinking about succession planning, thinking about internal opportunities for growth and professional and professional development.

01:58:55,470	Frankly, it works, and I’ve said this to others, this plan in my mind works today because of the professional staff that we have already doing these jobs. currently. I, I’ve roughly calculated the compensation dollars and it’s real close to net zero.

01:59:13,270	It’s not even gonna I mean, I, I already kind of know where it’s gonna land and in fact, it would not surprise me, it was a slight decrease. in total dollars out It won’t surprise me one bit. So I would like to see us move, give Jason the direction to move forward.

01:59:37,700	I’ll make a motion to approve as presented I’ll second Kate, we have a motion in a second. We have further discussion. Hearing and we’ll call a roll Comm Zenker. Yes, Comm Connelly. Be out this too long. Not there yet, no. Comm Risch? Yes. Meers Schmitz, yes.

02:00:06,900	Thank you, Jason Is there any other business Comm Connelly Um, I was watching the Water Resource District meeting and Dave Meyer was presenting from the Park District and I have not talked to Dave, Kevin, I meant to get that call out there today, and it just didn’t happen.

02:00:24,700	But, um, they’re applying for, they asked the water district for, um, letters of recommendation for, um, applying for a grant, um, McDowell Dam, there, it would be a 3-year grant, um, to where they’d get 8 concert opportunities. and I I talked a little bit about it at the board meeting for DMA, um, just throwing it out there if we want to do something formally.

02:00:43,270	I’m going to do something personally, but McDowell Dam’s kind of one of those unnoticed gems by a lot of people. A lot of people do access it and um whether we do it people choose to do it informally or if we wanted to do a formal one. I just wanted to let people know that that might be a unique thing during the summer months at McDowell Dam.

02:00:59,270	I have no problem supporting it, but I think they need to make a request to us to, to do that. Yeah I can reach out to him. OK.

02:01:14,270	Any other new business? I just wanted to mention we had some real problems with garbage around 23rd and 24th Street between the uh soup kitchen and the ministry on the margins and a number of business people contacted me and I contacted Renee over public health, and she had a meeting of the business people. The chief was there, um, uh, public health was there a number of other folks at the meeting.

02:01:30,900	Um, then she organized a cleanup day and uh a number of city employees helped clean up the streets over there, the bunch of the people that were a bunch of the people that were home homeless folks were helping as well.

02:01:46,430	So we did get it cleaned up at that one point, but I just want to commend Renee for taking the lead on that, organizing the meeting, organizing the cleanup, and it looks a lot better and let’s try and keep it that way. It is, and I do appreciate the staff that helped with that in public works for getting the dumpster out there. So if any other business not, we stand Adjourned. Thank