00:00:02,901	S1:
City. Current. Produced by Dakota media access. In-depth discussion with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on government access channel 602 HD or tune in to radio Access 102.5 FM. Always local, always current.

00:00:25,467	S2:
Coming up on City Current, we'll talk about a number of safety improvements through Dot grants. We'll take a look at the Oeta boundary discussion and see what's next for that. And last night at the City Commission meeting. Update on the keeping of chickens within city limits. Thanks for joining us. I'm Tom Gearhart from Dakota media access. And joining me, Jason Thomas, the city administrator for the city of Bismarck. Good to see you.

00:00:54,200	S3:
Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

00:00:56,300	S2:
It's the seasons are changing. But one thing that doesn't change. City commission meeting.

00:01:01,801	S3:
Second and fourth Tuesday of every month. That's right on the Bismarck side.

00:01:05,467	S2:
That's right. So last night, a number of interesting topics. Let's start with some discussion about Dot highway safety improvements. As somebody who grew up here, I found these interesting for improvement opportunities within the city of Bismarck. This map's a little tricky to see, but we'll walk through them. The first one we'll talk about is up by Century High School and Gateway Mall, which is a very busy.

00:01:33,801	S3:
Popular pedestrian crossing right there with high school on the north side of the street. You've got Gateway Mall and some food attractions on the south side of the street. And then when you've got events and activities, it's entry avenue. And then of course, you've got the volume of traffic, two lanes in each direction, 35 miles an hour. Uh, yeah. So the the request would be to install the, I believe they call them the rapid rectangular flashing beacons. Those are a button that's activated by a pedestrian. Prompts some brightly flashing lights on each side of the street to help motorists recognize that there's a pedestrian in the corridor, and they need to slow down and give the pedestrian the right way, because there is a marked crosswalk at that location.

00:02:11,868	S2:
At someone who I'm thinking of Washington Street up north. When the pedestrian hits that flashing strobe light, it really does catch your attention that the driver is a motorist.

00:02:22,667	S3:
Seventh Street, ninth Street, both by Bismarck High School.

00:02:25,267	S2:
That's another place.

00:02:26,100	S3:
Previous projects under this same highway safety improvement grant through the Dot. So I'm I'm glad that we're seeing more of these in the community because you're right. They do attract your attention as a driver. And we're not just putting them everywhere. We're putting them in strategic locations where they're necessary.

00:02:41,667	S2:
Here's the second location. This is Washington Street and Avenue B in the historic cathedral area.

00:02:48,868	S3:
Another pedestrian corridor. We've got elementary schools that kids are traversing through it, obviously a very attractive neighborhood in our community. A lot of people like to just get out and walk. This is a very walkable neighborhood with short blocks and beautiful tree canopy and wonderful architecture to look at. We've got a church just on the west side as well. So another another good candidate for some pedestrian improvements, as well.

00:03:13,501	S2:
As out cheering for my son and a number of others. During the Bismarck marathon a couple of weeks ago, and it goes right past the third place here on our map, which is the Riverside Park Road south of Memorial Bridge. You can see the bridge there at the top. And as you mentioned, that crosswalk arm had been taken down.

00:03:34,100	S3:
It's it's no longer operational. Our street light and traffic signal division within Public Works Service operations did everything they can to keep that crosswalk blinking and active, and it is just not able to stay online. So here again, they'll be looking for double sided flashers and signs on both the. I guess it'd be the east and west sides of Riverside Park Road. A lot of us still call this River road, but name changes right by the bridge.

00:04:05,400	S2:
I didn't know that I learned a lesson last night. And yeah, super popular place for people riding bikes, joggers, walkers.

00:04:15,300	S3:
The whole trail connection for that whole riverside trail network that runs along the corridor there.

00:04:21,601	S2:
The fourth is Airport Road and Lee Avenue.

00:04:25,267	S3:
This is an interesting one. Lee Avenue, of course, East west street that connects between Airport Road all the way over to 26th Street near the South Walmart. Uh, one of the things that we learned through a study that the Metropolitan Planning Organization did that was called the Safe Routes to Services for many that recognized the Dream Center on Park Avenue. Dream center offers services, primarily meals for people throughout the day, and it Lee Avenue has become a corridor for people to walk between the South Walmart. There are other services and uses along that Lee Avenue route, but this is an area where we do have a high volume of pedestrians and we do not have sidewalks throughout the entire corridor. So the fourth of four improvements here would be to fill in the gaps and install the sidewalks. And then also, um, similar to what we did along expressway close to that Washington Street, Third Street area. There's a center median. There would be a pedestrian refuge area between the four lanes of traveling public, but then also another pedestrian actuated, activated, uh, rapid flashing signal beacon in that area as well.

00:05:41,901	S2:
So that passed out of uh, the commission passed that unanimously. And then we'll move on. It's kind of hard to keep these, I think, separate as just a citizen watching on the city commission. But the next was Dot transportation alternative funding programs. And there's a couple of other projects that I wanted to talk about and show people that would be in the works for the future. And the first one is, uh, requested trail rehab. And that's you can see if you look about between the two red boxes would be I-94 running east and west. So that gives you a little bit of an idea along State Street of where this trail rehab would take place.

00:06:20,267	S3:
Yeah, we're talking about the trail just on the northeast corner of the Capitol grounds, and it moves north along highway 83, up along Gateway Avenue. And then there was a trail extension from Calgary Avenue up to 43rd Avenue that was completed in 2024. Typically, these trails are built from asphalt and asphalt, has a useful life. And when that trail starts to deteriorate, cracks start to form. It becomes harder for people, especially someone with rollerblades or small wheels on, maybe a skateboard or a stroller or whatever the case might be. So the request is to rehab the older section of that trail. And I guess I should mention, Tom, these potential grants are through the North Dakota Department of Transportation. They are ultimately federal grant dollars, and there is an 80 over 20 split. So there would be some cost share for the city for any of these projects, but 80% of it would be covered through the the local, I'm sorry, through the federal grant that's initiated and then distributed by Ddot.

00:07:18,467	S2:
Oh yeah. I'm glad you added that big piece of the pie there. The second, uh, Grant would be and this is a little bit tricky again, but this is the the Claremont family, uh, Park Conservation Park. And the red line, you see, would be from just off Tyler Parkway. And that would be a paved, added, paved shared use trail.

00:07:42,601	S3:
Correct. And it would tie down into Claremont Road, which is that main roadway off of Burnt Boat Drive up into the Promontory Point and Elk Ridge Neighborhoods. There would be a paved trail extending off of the the stub of Golf Drive, which is the road between the funeral home and the bank, paved trail down into the coulee and then back up, nearly paralleling Claremont Drive. But then also Commissioner Risch asked if some of the trails that are established in the area, which are currently unpaved, are just a single track hiking, walking, biking trail? Will those be paved? And the answer was no. So there's going to be a blend of paved surfaces, but then also traditional natural surfaces, which are in many cases established in the Claremont Family Conservation Park today. So I'm glad to see these different ways to access existing trails coming forward and just further bolstering the connectivity of this wonderful trail network that we have throughout the community.

00:08:41,400	S2:
Nice to have paved, but I, I know a number of people that like those, uh, single track.

00:08:46,100	S3:
Single tracks or funds, their funds, the right equipment, they can be a really good time.

00:08:50,300	S2:
That's right. Moving on to the third piece in that, uh, also through the this is urban grant funding program, I should say two projects. And this is completely replacing the signal here at West Broadway and Washington.

00:09:08,601	S3:
Correct. This is one of the, I guess I'll call it a legacy signal, meaning it's not on our current network. Much of the traffic signal network has been improved over the last several years by connecting them with fiber. So we can monitor these things. We can work with these things from a central location at the public workshop on 26th Street. These older traffic signals are different. They they're not they cannot adapt to the new systems. They're timed differently. They don't have some of the same safety features. That new technology has turn signals. You know, we're seeing a lot more dedicated and flashing yellow arrows at some of these major intersections. Those are the types of upgrades that we would be seeing at both Broadway and Washington Street, and then up the street a few blocks at Rosser and Washington as well. It was pointed out by the city's traffic engineer, Chris Holzer, last night. The Rosser Avenue corridor is a pretty significant one for emergency response, and I'm thinking primarily ambulance. We've got both hospitals on just off of Rosser at seventh and again at 10th Street, having emergency vehicles traveling from Mandan to the hospitals. Makes a lot of sense that they're coming through this Rosser Avenue corridor to have the new technology so those first responders can move through the intersection more quickly without, you know, conflicting traffic from both directions. I think that's another. Another nice side effect that comes from these improvements is we're further enhancing safety features as well for those that need them.

00:10:45,767	S2:
And for traffic flow. These left turn Arrows, I think, have been a major agreement.

00:10:51,567	S3:
Yeah. As a guy that lives here, drives here, I wish we would have had this type of technology in the past. But the fact that they're here now, I think it's it's really wonderful. I also heard Chris say with the pedestrian activated crosswalk, the pedestrian actually gets about a five second head start before the lights turn green. So it gives the pedestrian a little bit more time to work through the intersection again further enhancing safety. So we've got just all these nice new features that are available thanks to the technology. And if we're fortunate enough to receive these grants, then we will see these improvements in the not too distant future.

00:11:27,300	S2:
Yeah, well, thanks for breaking that down and taking the time to walk through it again. I found all of them really interesting to see what potential improvements could be made or would be made if those grants are come through in the future. So then let's move on to the ETA boundary discussion. And the beat kind of goes on there. But last week the combined commissions met and the city maid provided a proposed map. And just back us up a little bit and tell us what happened last week leading into last night.

00:11:57,567	S3:
So the Bismarck Berlin Combined Commissions Committee is composed of Mayor Schmitz from City of Bismarck and myself from the Burleigh County side of things, its commissioner, Steve Bakken, and the auditor, Mark Koski. So the four of us are on a pattern. We meet the first Tuesday of every month, and it's to continue to collaborate and share information and what, you know, projects that we're both working on. But lately, yeah, it's no secret. We've been talking about the Oeta and extraterritorial area. And so this is the the jurisdiction that the city of Bismarck has outside city limits. It relates to development. It relates to planning and zoning and ultimately future land use from the city side of things. This is a very important tool for us to help negotiate as we continue to grow. We've added 20,000 people in 20 years and it isn't by accident. We have been very intentional about the extensions of infrastructure, meaning water and sewer, roadway networks, traffic signals, all the things that go along with growth. What Berkeley County had proposed at that meeting was a much different map, a much smaller, virtually zero extraterritorial area. And they were, I think, I think the the volley came from the county commission to say, Bismarck, trust us, let us handle your growth. And when people are ready to annex, they'll they'll come to you. I appreciate that sentiment, but we are poised and we'll continue to plan for the future of the city of Bismarck. We have corridors that we need to be able to maintain. Primarily highway 83. We've got the area to the north and to the east along I-94 and up into the Silver Ranch neighborhood, and then certainly to the north and to the west as well. Those are very key areas of future growth for the city of Bismarck, because we can extend water and sewer and all the other services that come in incremental steps along the way. I guess the the proposal that Bergen County offered, compared to the proposal that the city offered. The city's offer to modify the extraterritorial area. Recognize that there are a number of established rural subdivisions that are around the city, and the likelihood of the city ever annexing those properties is extremely slim in my lifetime. And when I say annexation, what that really means is the city's ability to provide service water, sewer, police, fire protection, garbage collection. Those are the services in addition to a number of other things. If we can't provide water and sewer to a neighborhood, we have no business annexing them because we would be taxing them without being able to provide the service that comes with it. So for the rural subdivisions that are out there on the edges, a mile out, the likelihood of the city coming in and being able to provide those services is very slim. And by recognizing that the proposal that the city offered to modify the extraterritorial area would remove 95% of the existing residents within the ETA. And when you break that down and maybe say that a little differently, in my mind, what it is doing, it is continuing to preserve those raw land corridors where we know there will be urban growth. We're not opposed to rural subdivisions. We're not opposed to people having larger lots with larger outbuildings. And we get that. That's a lifestyle that people appreciate in Bismarck and in Burleigh County. What we are looking to do is to systematically continue to grow the city footprint of the urban density. And by doing that, it helps support the city of Bismarck. Because House Bill 1176 capped property tax at 3% over last year. But it does open the door for new tax on new construction. Not only is the city of Bismarck collecting tax on that new construction in city limits, but so is the Bismarck Public School District. Bismarck Parks and Recreation District and Burleigh County. Every time something is built in the city of Bismarck, all four political subdivisions will capture the property tax off the value of that land. With that in mind, I'm certainly not a burly county commissioner, and I'm not trying to tell them how to how to do their jobs. But at the same time, I believe Burleigh County benefits from the growth of Bismarck without really providing any additional services or resources for those places. To me, that's kind of the crux of the issue here. We've got two different sides. There really hasn't been much as far as concessions or compromising, and I think it was Commissioner Zenker last night that noted there really hasn't been a tremendous amount of teamwork between the county and the city staff. We generally work well together, but at the same time. This is kind of an elected officials thing that's going on back and forth, and I'm trying to tiptoe around that. That's not my role. I don't want to get into that. But at the same time, the North Dakota centric code and the United States law allows extraterritorial areas for urban cities, just like the city of Bismarck. And we are we're not changing the rules. We're not acting any differently than we have. This has been a decades long commitment to organized urban growth, and our commissioners spend a little bit of time talking about the map that Daniel Naran had prepared.

00:17:23,868	S2:
We could throw that up again. And not to interrupt you, but maybe in a second. Have you kind of explain to those who are watching? Absolutely.

00:17:31,300	S3:
So for those that can see the screen, we've kind of got three colors to really simplify it. The the center color, the light yellow tan color that that you can see that is city limits today. And you'll notice that it is not a square box. It is a very squiggly line that carves out specific parcels that we can provide services to. And keep in mind, the city does not force annexation. The city responds to a request for annexation if a landowner is ready to develop their land, meaning turn it into a neighborhood, a subdivision, a commercial court, or whatever the case may be, that landowner applies for annexation at their request. Then we work through that. Can we extend services? Can we get the utilities to that property? Does it make sense? What are the roads look like? All of that goes into this discussion. So we're not out grabbing land and saying you can develop here. You have to develop there. That's not how this game works. So the tan color is city limits today. The immediate green color around the outside, that is the area that we are comfortable growing into. And by growing into I mean the extension of water and sewer and all the services that I continue to mention, the kind of gray color or the hatched color that's on the screen, those are the existing areas within the ETA that would be given back to Burleigh County. Many of those areas are some of the established built out subdivisions. Some of the area is raw land that could be developed into the future, but those are the areas where we, as the city would struggle to be able to provide the services that we continue to talk about with water and sewer. So. So where the commissioners left it after last night, essentially there will be three options offered to Burley County, and I believe it is our intent to request an OP request, a position on their agenda for next week. Three options. Number one, status quo. We keep the entire negotiated ETA and we don't make any changes. Number two would be to accept the map that's on the screen today, as presented with a few minor tweaks. We did hear from some residents out on that kind of northeast edge that said, you know, I'm not sure you're really going to get to me in 20 years. And our planners said, you know, you're you might be right. We'll take a look. We'll we'll make some minor adjustments there. Or the third option. And the commissioners talked about a joint powers agreement that is an understanding between the two political subdivisions, that this is how we will collectively work together. I guess kind of the third option would be to ignore the JPA and go to the full two mile boundary that the city is afforded through the North Dakota Century Code, and that's the answer.

00:20:15,868	S2:
So it's valid back to the Berkeley County Commission.

00:20:20,567	S3:
The county commission.

00:20:21,868	S2:
And then depending upon how they react, that'll set the future in the three options that you just described.

00:20:29,267	S3:
That is my understanding. That is my hope. We've spent a lot of time talking about this. I know this is a subject that gets a lot of people Excited, but at the same time, there's, you know, thousands of residents that are living in the Aeta that quite frankly, haven't said anything. We haven't heard a lot from people that support the ETA. I understand that if life is good, you know why? Why do you need a change? But if you're somebody that opposes the ETA, if you're opposed to one of the common themes that keeps percolating and the commissioners address this again last night, the comment about not having representation, not being able to vote for the commissioners that are making decisions in these urban or rural subdivisions. North Dakota entry code simply doesn't allow it. If you don't live in a municipal area, if you don't live in a city, you can't vote for city commissioners. We can't change that. That becomes state law. But because you and I that live in Bismarck, we are also Burley County residents. That affords us the opportunity to vote for city commissioners, Berkeley County commissioners, school board members and park board members. But if you live outside city limits, you can't vote for city commissioners.

00:21:42,167	S2:
And we did here not to extend this conversation, that there have been a couple of bills historically before the legislature that haven't really gone anywhere materialized. Yeah, well, we'll see what happens next week and go from there. Uh, another hot topic last night, the keeping of chickens. There was a amendment. There was an appeal of a previous denial. If I have that language right.

00:22:07,100	S3:
Yes. You got it. So the process for modifying an ordinance in this case, it's a zoning ordinance that would allow the residents of Bismarck to have chickens within their personal property, within their yards. The process to create a new ordinance starts with staff doing the research, developing the draft language, working with stakeholders, committee people doing the research to see how how could this work in Bismarck? The group that went through this previously. Kind of rejoined and tuned it up a little bit, changed some things around with the ordinance, and proposed the keeping of urban chickens again in the Planning and Zoning Commission on a mixed vote. A few months ago voted to deny or not recommend support of the ordinance. So typically if that's the case, the work stops there. However, as with many things, there is an appeal process, and Commissioner John Risch, who sits as a city commissioner, is not part of the city planning and Zoning Commission, but is an officer of the city requested to appeal the decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission. So last night, Tuesday night, what we saw was Jenny Smith, with the planning division within the Community Development Department, brought forward the request and presented the information, and there was some discussion at the table. Commissioner Risch is certainly a supporter of the idea of having urban chickens. And he pointed out, you know, there are neighborhoods in the community where we've got flocks of turkeys, we've got geese, we've got deer, we've got a variety of pets, exotic animals, from reptiles and amphibians to the fuzzy pets that we all like, the cats and the dogs. And it was Commissioner Rich that respectfully asked the commissioners to support the appeal, which would then allow a public hearing at the city commission table. The mayor shared his concerns with chickens at large. He, of course, is part of the Planning and Zoning Commission and noted that he did not vote to support the ordinance when it was at that point, and remarked about some concerns with fire hazards. If you've got winter, you've got livestock, you've got to be able to keep them warm and there could be a potential for, you know, straw heat lamps, things like that that would cause problems. But at the same time, he noted that there are many neighborhoods in the community with covenants that just simply wouldn't allow chickens in in their areas as well. I think another concern that was raised was the idea of chickens at large. So our police department is not interested in catching chickens. Obviously they deal with cats and dogs when they have to, and that's a little different scenario. But the a place to keep a loose chicken, we don't have one. We've got a kennel for dogs and cats and that it would take an investment on the police department's part to house these things, try and find the owners. I don't think there's a chipping system for chickens right now, like there are dogs and cats, so I'm not sure. I'm not interested in having chickens personally. But, um, at the same time, uh, the the motion was made to call for the hearing. Unfortunately for Commissioner Risch, who was in favor of this, there were only four commissioners at the table last night, and the vote went 2 to 2, which means it died for lack of majority. So the request to appeal to bring the conversation to the city commission is able to have one more public hearing on whether or not we would allow chickens and city limits. Was not successful.

00:25:38,367	S2:
So maybe you can answer this. Is there a way it comes back in the future after last night's decision?

00:25:47,300	S3:
I certainly don't want to say no. There's there would be a way to start over and invest the time and energy again. I guess I've thought about that as the city's administrator, as is the person that's watched a lot of staff time get invested into this topic, and it really hasn't come to fruition. And now this is twice. I'd be pretty cautious about encouraging any type of chicken talk. And then in the near future, we've we've been down this path on two separate occasions. We've had different commissions that have weighed in. There just isn't the support. I understand from the citizens perspective. There are people that are very interested in this, and it's my understanding this isn't just a cheap hobby. You're not going to suddenly save a bunch of money because you're collecting eggs. The front end investment in this is in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. By the time you get a chicken coop and the fencing and the animals and the feed and all the things that go into it, and I'm sure like any other urbanized animal or pet, whatever you want to call them, there's work that goes into keeping them healthy, keeping them clean, keeping them safe, and all of that. So, um, I think the comment was made at one point that there are a small number of residents that are very, very interested in supportive of this, but the vast majority of Bismarck is pretty ambivalent and just not there. And so the idea of writing law for a handful of people in a community of nearly 80,000 residents, it's probably not the most practical use of our our tools. But I understand both sides. I understand the passion and the interest and the education and the forage and the experience for a kid and a family and sourcing your own food. I get all of that. Again, I'm personally not interested in that. I don't mind getting my eggs the old fashioned way by going to the store, which isn't really old fashioned, I get it, but.

00:27:38,567	S2:
Well, I asked the question. I appreciate the answer. Just I think a component of the show that I enjoy is the educational aspect to understanding how city government works. And in this case, um, is this a dead issue or or would there be a chance to come back? So, uh, not trying to strike up any controversy or further movement, but just trying to understand the process or pass that along to people watching. Well, finally, uh, you were able to come up at the end of the commission meeting and talk about, uh, organizational structure for the city of Bismarck. And you have a plan that you presented to the commissioners last night that lays out, uh, some changes, some changes.

00:28:20,400	S3:
And the changes were brought forward as a result of a departure from our organization. And we talked about this on a previous episode, uh, previous program. Our former Community development director Ben Erath, resigned in August. His last day was in mid September. Rather than just move forward with posting the position and trying to find another leader for that department, I was able to just take a deep breath and step back and look at what we have. As far as resources within the department, who do we have for talented leadership and and staff in those roles today? And it also gave me the opportunity to look not just at the community development department, but also our finance department, which has what we call divisions. It has subcategories within the department. So community development is the department. The divisions are the Planning division, the Building Inspections division. And then we have the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the MPO, the long range transportation planners, and then also the Housing and Urban Development and Community Development Block Grant, HUD, CDBG. That's the current composition of community development. The current composition of the Finance department is fiscal services. That's the folks that are handling the money, paying the paying the bills, receiving the checks and the payments. We've got information technology, it. And then we've also got the city assessing. And so just to kind of shorten this entire conversation, the recommendation that I brought forward last night was to dissolve the community development department, but then to create or to stand up a planning department and a building inspections department. We've got two very talented individuals that have been leading those divisions for a number of years, collectively. And quite frankly, they are ready to lead their own departments and the IT department, which has been housed in our I'm sorry, the IT Division, which has been housed in our finance department, frankly, has outgrown the the leadership of our finance director. We've hired someone who is a CPA, a former auditor. He's a numbers guy. He's not an IT guy. They are two completely different worlds and just the evolution of this organization. We continue to grow and we can continue to become more diverse. We've got to pull out it as well. It is in every conversation because they are one of the internal customer service departments that impacts all city departments. So in the end, what did we end up with? Um, mixed support, but they're the majority supported the the requests that I made to create a planning department, create a building inspections department, create an IT department, promote those three individuals that are managing those divisions today to department director positions, but then also the assistant city administrator position, which is the one that is held by Doug Wiles. It's the position I had before being the city's administrator. The role of the assistant administrator will be changing as well, and the assistant administrator will be very much ingrained in the work that is done by our growth forward developments, those that are helping support the growth and infrastructure of our community with engineering. Public works services, public works, utilities and now planning department and the building inspections department. So those five Doug Wiles will key his attention. And on those areas not to, um, not to necessarily oversee their work, but to learn from them and the work that they do, because the growth of our community. I said it earlier on this program. I said it last night at the commission meeting. The growth enabled the city of Bismarck to have an additional 1.5% over the 3% cap for our budget for this year. That is a tremendous opportunity for us, which means we if we're going to continue to rely on that type of additional funding for the organization, we need to focus our efforts on continued growth and very sustainable and intentional growth. And by Doug, having exposure to those five departments and being ingrained in that process, it further bolsters his knowledge and understanding of our entire organization and why it's important to support those things. I'm fortunate coming from the planning department. For the last I worked there for ten years. I was part of all of that and understand how it all fits together. For any assistant city administrator, I think that is a critical component to their knowledge base to realize why we do what we do in the sake of supporting growth and development. And so some of Doug's efforts will be focusing on those five departments. Collectively, we will manage the other departments that are internal customer service, be the finance, IT, human resources and the legal department. And then I will be able to focus the rest of my attention on those other departments that are not development related. So public health, police, fire, the library, the airport, the event center, and so on. So a pretty interesting change for us as an organization. I look at it as an evolution of who we are. I said this to the commissioners at the meeting. I believe this works because of the people we have here today. We have extremely talented professionals that are doing wonderful work, and I want to recognize that, but then also lift them up and help them get better at those jobs, provide better service to the community, provide better leadership to their departments, and by kind of diversifying the roles that Doug and I have. As the administrator and assistant administrator, I think it just amplifies all of that and it's going to push us into the future.

00:33:51,467	S2:
One concern was fiscal impact, but I think people can rest easy in that regard. Maybe you don't want to get into the whole thing, but it sounds like there'll be minimal, if any, fiscal impact with these changes.

00:34:03,868	S3:
Correct. Because we're taking the former community development director position and converting that to a lower graded position, a lower salary, that position would become a code enforcement officer. That would be part of the Building Inspections division. But the three individuals in it building inspections and planning are managers today, and so when they are elevated to the director status, there is a slight salary increase. Of course, there's no secret there, but the savings that will be realized from removing one director position to create a lower grade position will offset those adjustments. And I think in the end, we're very close to a net zero, if not an overall savings to the entire organization by making these adjustments.

00:34:47,267	S2:
Well, a lot happened last night.

00:34:49,100	S3:
It was busy.

00:34:51,200	S2:
Yeah. Well, interestingly, I had a teacher conference last night, so I wanted to remind people that they can download our app because I listened to part of the meeting on Radio access 102.5. And then while we were waiting to talk to some of the educators, I called up the DMA app and found a quiet corner and watched another ten minutes or so. So you can watch us wherever you are, however you can, and we invite you to download the DMA app and the Radio access 102.5 app. Jason, thanks for joining us. Thanks to all of you for joining us. And we'll see you next time on City Current.

00:35:27,200	S1:
For more information on what was discussed in this episode of City Current, visit Bismarck gov or call (701) 355-1300.

00:35:37,167	S1:
If you have suggestions, comments or issues you would like addressed in future episodes, contact us at info at Free TV. Org. This program airs on Government Access channel two and 602 in HD or on Radio Access 102.5 FM. It's also available as a podcast on radio access and as a video viewing link at free TV. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of City Current.