00:00:07,000	It’s 5 o’clock, um, do we have a chaplain in the room? no chaplain, but I think we’re gonna do the Pledge of Allegiance anyway. Allegedly allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice

00:00:33,770	for all. OK, I’ll call the March 17th meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to order. First item on the agenda is roll call of members. Comm Bakken. Here, Mr. Schwab. Comm Woodcox here. Comm Munson. Chair Bitner here. Comm Munson is on vacation today.

00:01:07,800	Um, next is the approval of the agenda, any additions, subtractions. We are going to add something under other business, um. Comm Bakken is going to discuss his trip to Washington. Other than that, entertain a motion to approve.

00:01:30,270	Motion in a second to approve any further Comm Bakken. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Consideration of the December 16, 2024 meeting minutes and March 3, 2025, meeting minutes and bills, Commissioners, what are your thoughts? Um, so I did, uh, go through the bills and all looked in order, and I did sign those, so I would make a

00:01:51,730	motion to approve the bills. We’ll have a discussion on the motion a second to approve the bills. Any further discussion? See nonecul rule. Comm Woodcox. Yes, Comm Bakken. Yes, Comm Schwab. Yes, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carriers. OK, uh, meeting minutes. Who wants to.

00:02:21,000	When I broke those up just because I wasn’t sure if anybody else had any concerns on uh the minutes because it’s kind of been ongoing for a while. Um, I did go through the March 3rd minutes and, uh, I didn’t have any corrections to those if everybody else did, um, and then I don’t know where you’re still at on, uh,

00:02:40,870	December 16th meeting minutes. Like, I do have an email that, uh, That discussed something with that. OK. And I, I have to, I’ve got so many emails and I’m not seeing it. So, um, I would consider a motion to approve the March 3rd, 2025 meeting minutes.

00:03:44,370	So No motion is there a second? Second, Motion a second to approve the March 3, 2025 meeting minutes.

00:03:51,800	Any Woodcox? Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. There was something else on that December 16th that um that should be changed and I’m just now finding it now, so. Oh Really curious I would move to that then until our next meeting, so you can find that. OK. Motion to table. Second, motion 2.

00:04:20,100	Any Comm Bakken. Yes Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Consent agenda, abatements. Anybody wanna? anything out there for discussion, otherwise I’ll entertain a motion. for a second. Motion is second to approve any further discussion. Call the roll Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcox? Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries.

00:04:47,470	Next thing is public hearing regarding a plan on redesignating elective office of Burleigh County Auditor Treasurer to a point of office, and as I did on the last one, I’m gonna go ahead and turn that portion of the meeting over to Vice Chair Bakken. Uh, thank you.

00:05:02,800	Uh, once again, this is a public hearing regarding a plan on redesigning the elective office of Burleigh County Auditor, treasurer to an appointed office, um. Just as far as guidelines, uh, you must be a Burleigh County resident to speak. Uh, one topic for discussion, and that’s the, the topic at hand. No discussion on previous home rule charters or other positions, uh, 5 minute time limit.

00:05:22,500	Speakers cannot yield time to another person, uh, Speakers sign in and provide comment at the podium. Uh, try not to repeat what was already stated. If you have already provided comments at a previous public hearing. Uh, please allow others an opportunity, uh, to speak, um, we’ve already, uh, Collected your comments and we do greatly appreciate that.

00:05:44,100	Um, also, if anybody wants to see as per the duties of the a treasurer as per the century code, uh, there is a copy up there on the podium, uh, so feel free to, uh, grab that. We do have some other public hearing dates that are coming up besides this regular meeting, uh, March 22nd, 10 a.m.

00:06:05,270	Wilton Memorial Hall at 105 Dakota Avenue in Wilton. Uh, that’ll be on Beck as well. March 22nd, uh, 2 p.m. Sterling School 118 McKenzie Street in Sterling, March 29th, uh, 10:30 a.m.

00:06:31,000	at uh 2021 North Fifth Street in Bismarck at the uh, uh, Bismarck Burleigh Public Library and April 7th, uh, will be, uh, at our regular Burleigh County Commission meeting, so a lot of opportunities and pleas if you have not done so, um, you do have an opportunity to weigh in online at uh www.burleigh.gov. Uh, there is a public input form there available on our website, so feel free to, uh, Way in there as well.

00:06:52,730	And, uh, with that, I open up the public hearing for anyone wishing to speak, uh, please sign at the podium, state your name for the record, and, uh, I already signed in earlier.

00:07:12,630	And Well in this case, Steve, thanks for traveling to Washington on our behalf. Appreciate that. Um, I got a meeting upstairs, so I’m just gonna read, and I know you put some conditions on and things, but it’s. I can’t reword it. That’s fine. I’ve spent too much time in front of people today.

00:07:31,630	Oh, name for the record, just, uh, Mike Conneley. And a resident of Bismarck. Yeah, resident of Bismarck, and elected official, um, stating my opinion on. Uh I would like to begin with anything that I share tonight is on behalf of the Citizens of Burleigh County to assume different would be wrong.

00:07:56,200	I am not here to defend the auditor. I’ve been told by people in this room that they think that’s my intention. Let me be clear, I am here on behalf of how I view. Respect to the citizen. Um, and that’s my opinion, no more, no less, um. Uh, the auditor can own.

00:08:24,500	His decisions regardless of my friendship with him and anyone else in the room. He does have a history of not attending meetings. This was something that was true when he was representing Bismarck as a part-time elected official, and he said as much during the uh videos, um, that we all can see.

00:08:49,230	Um I go and I watch an enormous amount of meetings and many have witnessed as such over the last decade in my part-time availability as a citizen, I am not able to defend. How that leaves leadership and compromise on behalf of representing the citizen.

00:09:09,470	I do think he has the qualities for his elected position and only through his actions will that improve. I also want to mention, um, because I respect every seat here is, I will not be part of any recall efforts, um. And any of that nature, um. I’m paraphrasing there out of respect.

00:09:37,770	Uh, number one reason I’m here today is to defend the checks and balances of citizen representation through the elected positions in Burleigh County, that is currently 8 positions, and I believe that it should always be 8 positions without exception. If the county wanted to create 1 or 2 additional positions or add job descriptions under current positions to cover the topics like investments or administration nuances than just do it.

00:10:02,470	Leave the auditor position and elected position. The reason I say what. I have is that this topic of appointment has been a topic. Since way before Mark was ever elected.

00:10:21,470	In 2020, the citizens the position to appointed in 22 my application to be on the County Commission Home rule charter subcommittee was accepted with the purpose of drafting language for asking the voters to delegate permission to the Burleigh County Commission to enact additional ordinance. Opportunities outside of their planning and zoning authority.

00:10:43,530	Again, no more, no less. We had a handful of meetings and when Close to the end of the meetings, we as a subcommittee were throwing a curveball at best during the 11th hour.

00:11:06,470	We were presented to us the wording of Article 3, which we were told was just a clerical adjustment to bring the words within the home rule charter and compliance with state century code. Much like our current year state measure adjusting wording and how the Anne Carlsen School is depicted in Century code.

00:11:32,470	Many members of the committee of the community were paying attention, and I personally received numerous calls stating that this was an effort to overturn the initiated measure vote in 2020, respecting the calls, I reached out to the state’s attorney, and we had a long phone conversation and based on that conversation, I felt assured that it was truly presented. In the recently shared recording by another citizen, Dustin Gawrylow.

00:11:57,730	In hindsight, I was being 2020, I believe we were led astray and the impacts of the purpose of adding Article 3 wording to the ballot language from the 2022 initiated measure. At first, I was trying to determine if it was just a mislead or was or was it intentional or unintentional, just not genuine or a flat out lie.

00:12:19,000	I’ve worked diligently during the last couple of months to define the difference, and it was not until Dustin Gawrylow’s recent town hall meeting that I have determined that we were lied to in 2022.

00:12:41,270	At the beginning of the meeting when I started to share my experience, I was asked if I thought it was a lie, and I said I was not sure, but I definitely didn’t think that the articles 3 was presented in a genuine manner. Later, shared a response to an email he sent the state’s attorney with the very question to the Article 3 discussion from 2022 and paraphrasing the response stated.

00:13:05,470	Was that late in the recording that the citizen could contest the appointment and the petition for a vote. by the people again. You can listen to the recording yourself. She did say it.

00:13:24,730	The problem is, is that by saying it turns the context from changing the wording in the Hor Rule charter from just a clerical alignment with the century code to where we are today. I and it’s significantly different. Thus I am totally convinced that we were lied to in 2022. The voters went. On to barely pass the measure, they had very little understanding of what the ramifications were going forward. Now I stand here before you today with a request.

00:13:47,630	Have this put on the next ballot. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle of this problem and thus we have to grow through it. Do not move to a point without hearing from the voting citizens do not make the lie, the foundation of what you.

00:14:10,100	upon by making the citizens collect signatures in 30 days after a resolution to force a vote. If you do move to a point. Have the state’s attorney bring several copies of the petition to attending members to hand out.

00:14:27,100	In that case, I will personally try to right that wrong because I feel that was part that in part is on me from the 22, 2022 uh home rule charter committee, which I was a member, and I will be collecting signatures. In summary, I will encourage, um, the Burleigh County Commission to place the question as an initiative on the next election.

00:14:49,000	To the citizens so we can right this wrong and we, the county can adjust internally to serve the citizens more efficiently so we can get back to the citizen’s business. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Connelly. Uh, this is a public hearing.

00:15:11,470	Anyone else wishing to speak regarding uh the plan on redesignating an elective office of Burleigh County Auditor treasurer, uh, to an appointed office if you have not spoken before, please come up. State your name for the record. Ryan Marcourt. Did you sign in on the sheet? I’m I’m gonna sign here in a sec. Yep. Mhm And are you a Burleigh County resident? Yes, sir, I am. This Chair, members of the committee.

00:16:10,170	The Burleigh County Auditor’s office upheld election integrity. And I was, and I am here to share how verifying my signature insured my ballot was counted demonstrating my rigorous. Safeguards are essential to fair elections. I like to share my personal experience.

00:16:31,800	Regarding the integrity of Burleigh County Auditor’s Office and county auditor, Mark Splonskowski. During the first week of early voting. I cast my absentee ballot, signing and dating it.

00:16:48,130	Before a submission office requesting that I verify my signature. As I did, as As it did not match. The one on the record. At first, I was annoyed. I’d taken the time to vote.

00:17:10,730	Done everything right, or so I thought, and now I was being told that my vote would not count. Worse yet, if I did not verify my signature, my vote could be contested during the canvassing process. Despite my frustration. I visited, I visited the county yard’s office to present my identification card. The staff retrieved my ballot and pointed out the issue I had mistakenly used my initials instead of my full signature.

00:17:43,500	In that moment, I understood it wasn’t about inconvenience. It wasn’t about bureaucracy. It was about election integrity. I provided my full signature ensuring my vote would be counted. The experience demonstrated the diligency of the auditor’s office, their commitment to verifying, verifying every ballot.

00:18:07,770	Even when it meant additional steps for voters, highlighting their dedication to maintaining the integrity of our elections. For that, I extend my gratitude to the Burleigh Counters, uh, Burleigh County Auditor's office and the auditor, Mark Splonskowski Their work ensures that every valid vote is counted. Every, every process is followed and every election remains secure. Thank you very much. Thank you. This is a public hearing.

00:18:36,370	Anyone else wishing to speak, please Uh, Mark already spoke, but we can let him speak again, but yes. Awesome, thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward. Sign at the podium, state your name for the record, and are you a resident of Burleigh County? Uh, yes, Kyle Engelhardt. Uh, resident of Bismarck.

00:18:57,200	Um rise today in opposition to making the uh auditor treasurer and appointed position, um. This The issue came before the public here just a couple of years ago, uh, and the public did not support making an appointed position, um.

00:19:19,130	If we’re Going to go down this path again, I think that It needs to go before the public again, but I mean this was just a couple of years ago. Um And so, um, You know, there’s a reason why. Uh, it is an elected position and not an appointed position. Uh, and that’s because the auditor should be accountable. To the people, um.

00:19:43,100	And not To the commission, who In a large part as auditors, they’re overseeing and so um. It, uh would be best, um. If it remained. Outside The appointment, um. That way it’s truly accountable to the people, uh, and not. To the commission that it’s overseeing. Thank you. Thank you. Questions? public hearing. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward.

00:20:17,830	Hi, my name is Joe Gross. I had signed on that other sheet. Is that OK? What was your name again? What’s that? What was his name? Joe Ross. Nice to meet you. I’m a resident of Burleigh County.

00:20:34,870	Um, I was hoping that that pile of, um, issues there would have been read before we commented, Is there any way we could do that or no? No? Are we going to be Finding out what’s in there. Yeah We will, OK. Because I think, um, This looks like a broken system. I mean, I’ve heard the auditor say he’s accountable to the people, but the people don’t know what’s going on.

00:20:55,900	We don’t know what’s going on. Between, uh, you guys and, and the auditor’s office and the employees and, uh, You know, we, we have no idea before we can vote on um. An auditor, it would be nice to know. You know, what’s, what’s been happening, so.

00:21:19,830	Um, I know he’s been given his side on the radio, but we haven’t heard the other side. And I just think if the system’s broken, which it sure looks like it, and it was mentioned last week that this system is set up to fail if you guys aren’t getting along or whatever one of them’s not doing their job. Um, it would be much better if The auditor was accountable.

00:21:42,130	To the commissioners here and I think it should be a pointed position, and that’s That’s my thought, so. All right. Thank you. Hello, I’m Michelle Junt, and I live in Burleigh County.

00:22:15,800	Uh On the KFYR radio show on March 7th of 2024, you said, our auditor said, the Burleigh County Commissioners think they are my boss, and I only answer to the citizens of Burleigh County. Everyone here in this room, including the commissioners are all citizens of Burleigh County. We have been attending these meetings because we want answers from all sides.

00:22:35,500	Two weeks ago, a young lady testified that she does not trust the commission. I would like to say that we do. We completely trust these five commissioners and want and watch. Over all aspects and we want them to watch all uh all aspects and um county operations and financial matters. According to North Dakota Century code, the county auditor’s position is more like a chief financial officer.

00:23:04,500	Does our current auditor agree with this assertion? Does he or his office ever perform any audits of Burleigh County books and

00:23:21,000	reasons for filing the lawsuit against the North Dakota State Election Commission. We would like to know why the county election coordinator resigned two weeks before the November 5th, 2024 general election also. We understand there has been. A complete turnover of the auditor’s office staff over the last 18 months.

00:23:54,630	Why is that? Was our current County auditor involved in a negative campaign advertising. Advertisement by uh brighter future of Burleigh. Against Burleigh County Commission Chief Brian Bitner. Put out one week before the November 2024 general election. truth or false. Regardless of whether it’s legal or not, as the Burleigh County auditor.

00:24:21,830	Is it right to send emails or texts during office hours, urging citizens to vote against the Burleigh County Commission chair who happens to hold the auditor’s portfolio. No, it is not. And in numerous appearances on KFYO radio. And a speech at the town hall in February 2025.

00:24:45,500	Why has our current auditor not taking responsibility for any Of these issues And what steps Has he taken or is taking to resolve them. We would like the current auditor to explain the potential negative impact of the citizens of Burleigh County should he should his position become appointed, the focus should be on the role of CFO for the county.

00:25:10,530	And according to the Bismarck Tribune just days ago on March 5th. Our current auditor asked the county’s emergency management director, Ms. Senger, for the final budget yet told the Tribune you needed 5 months. So he could ensure the accuracy of the budget numbers.

00:25:31,830	How could our current auditor have been spending 5 months on working on verifying numbers of a final budget, he did not even have in his possession. Other than this hearing from the commissioners here. How would we have known all of this? Without them Thank you for Thank you uh for your time. That’ll be all. Thank you. This is a public hearing.

00:25:59,730	Anyone else wishing to speak who has not spoke yet. Please come forward. State your name for the records, sign in on the sheet, and are you a resident of Burleigh County? You Thank you. Chair and Commissioners, my name’s Jonathan Hooker. I am a resident of Burleigh County.

00:26:30,470	Um Local business owner, um, my wife and I are children’s pastors over at Mandan. Um This has a lot of concern for me as I’ve looked at this, I, I’ve, I’ve had the privilege of looking at this situation from a few different perspectives, um, one being just the, the specific situation of um whatever’s going on, um,

00:26:51,470	between and and I’ve heard the arguments. I had the privilege of having a lengthy conversation with Comm Munson about some of these. Um, issues, um. And, and some of the concerns that you all rightly have, um, it sounds like, um. I’ve also, I’m my I’m. I’m, I’m family to Lisa Hart.

00:27:15,900	So I know her, I’ve heard her side of the story, and the last thing I’m here to do after I’ve heard all of this is actually to bring up the situation with um a specific person.

00:27:38,370	Um, I understand the concerns of um Of the fact that um we are managing a large budget here, um, and that it requires some expertise, um. But that being said, we have a, we have the, the, the, the value as citizens of being able to evaluate who we’re electing and take a serious look, um, and, and voter conscience.

00:28:02,470	Um, if we don’t like the people we see, we either can choose to put someone else up or or choose not to vote for that person, um, in this case. Um, we have, you know, the, the citizens chose to elect someone and um. In that role, and that’s where I’m kind of at is I, I want to keep the role and the, and the person separate.

00:28:23,100	Um, I think the person there there’s issues with some people, um, and if there’s a need to recall someone in a in a position, we should do that. Um, as, as citizens. If there’s legitimate issues that as citizens we see, we should, we should pursue a recall vote. um. With any elected official, period. Um.

00:28:45,530	My biggest concern in all of this is this idea of separating auditor from of keeping the auditor separate from the commission. Um, I have been Uh, my, my roles have led me through multiple big large businesses where I have worked with auditors extensively, um, both in technology as well as

00:29:06,800	in financials. And as I’ve looked at how the auditors work in the, we always want to keep integrity between the business and the audit And so often in most cases, we, we have outside audits just for this reason, um, now. I appreciate what was said by, and I forgot his name, the first person who spoke today.

00:29:27,730	If there are specific roles that need to be peeled away, well, maybe we should look at doing that. Maybe that should be a vote that’s sent to the people to, to look at peeling certain certain pieces of, of the management of certain parts of the finances away from that role and maybe make it a truly

00:29:45,870	and truly an audit role. But the Office of the Audit needs to be in, it needs to maintain its integrity. And so I’m standing here in opposition of of this pos of of moving this position into an appointed role because of the fact we need to maintain that integrity, allow the voters.

00:30:07,730	To make the decision if it needs to be brought again, bring it again, um, I, I, I, I was surprised. I, I guess I should have remembered. I voted back in 22 and um I need to go review my vote back in 22 as to what I did.

00:30:23,730	Um, I’m fairly certain I would have probably voted against it, um, at that point. If it needs to go back to the voters, take it back to the voters. But, but my stance is just that Stan I stand against and I ask you all to do the same. Thank you. Thank you.

00:30:39,200	Just a little reminder too, uh, if anybody wants a copy of, uh, the duties of the auditor treasurer as per the century code because they’re, they are laid out very specifically in the century Code.

00:30:57,470	There’s a copy of those, uh, at the uh little sign up table by the piling, um, once again, this is public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak, please come forward.

00:31:23,000	Sign in at the podium, state your name, and are you a from Burleigh County. Your name again? Oh, I’m from, I am Trina Schweitzer and I’m from Burleigh County. And I’m here in standing in opposition to to changing the auditor’s office from, uh, an elected position to an appointed position.

00:31:43,000	I believe in checks and balances, and I think it needs to stay this way. Um, I’ve always voted against it, and I will continue to vote against it. Um, I think it’s just too easy for if it becomes appointed, if there is something between the auditor doesn’t like and you guys do like, you can just fire him and

00:31:59,870	he’s gone and you just get a new one, and that’s not serving the people. And so I would ask you to please leave this position elected so we can elect our own auditor. Thank you. Thank you. It’s public hearing. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward. Second call for public hearing.

00:32:26,530	You already spoke, Ryan’s OK. OK, from last week. OK. OK? Um, I, uh, nope, we’re just, nope, we’re just going through it and, uh, one and done last, there’s some good stuff I think. He spoke twice at the last meeting, so.

00:32:52,730	Then, um, uh, so the recourse on that is the recourse on that is to file online, so there’s common opportunity online. Uh, we’re just taking new people who have not had an opportunity to speak yet. Anyone wishing to come up and speak. I’d like to speak. Now limit one per session and then. One procession with the commission’s permission, I would request an equal opportunity as these gentlemen.

00:33:18,870	had last time speaking twice before. But you spoke at the last meeting. So this is an opportunity for you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak before me? I’m not holding anyone else back. You spoke at the last meeting, so we already heard what you had to say and you were opposed to to separating it out.

00:33:38,230	So if there, if there’s a presentation you’d like to share with the commission, feel free to do that. You can also register any comments online position hasn’t changed. Right. And I would like to respond to some of the comments that the commissioners had made, and I see Mr. Munson no to him, Tim, no.

00:33:57,000	So here’s the. You spoke at the last one, so you don’t get to speak at the. the next one. He didn’t speak tonight. He spoke twice. Not tonight. He He He He did not so why can’t I? Not that, you only get one is a violation. You get one meeting to speak at.

00:34:17,630	This is this is that’s not the rules. You get, yes, it is. You get one meeting tope at. Was a violation of my First Amendment. You spoke at the last meeting. I’m not worried about that. You spoke at the last meeting. Why are you allowing people to speak twice and not me this time.

00:34:33,770	We let anybody that wanted to speak twice at the last meeting. Oh, you didn’t have that rules. Why are you changing that. That was the last meeting. Well you, you spoke at the last meeting. I tell you what to say. Oh. And I’ll be done. Briefly. Sure. OK. No. Everyone, No one is perfect. You guys aren’t perfect.

00:34:53,470	I’m sure Mark isn’t perfect. He gets an annual audit on his office, right? I’ve not heard any problems that have been raised from that. OK, and if there are problems, well, sometimes it’s clerical errors, sometimes it’s something that got missed like I guess there was a $3.

00:35:13,130	7 million fund that was found that was, um, Half of Mr. Bitner’s Tenure, but You guys have a responsibility to focus on the position and not the man. The, the problem is not. Mark isn’t doing his job. Well, I don’t care who’s there. I’m not concerned about the individual. I’m concerned about the job.

00:35:39,100	Well, you haven’t presented any evidence that the auditor’s office would work better if it was appointed. All, all that says is that you would have more control, OK? But you already control the duty, the roles that he does. You can prescribe him work in any many fashions of the policies that you want.

00:35:59,730	There are, there are no, there are no, no That, that you do not, uh, set policies for the auditor’s office. Right, we don’t control. You, you know, he has, he has his Judy duties and descriptions by the North Dakota Century Code, but the policies of how he carries those out. is set by you guys. Don’t know that I can.

00:36:22,100	Yeah, well, I believe one of your requirements was an annual report or quarterly report, I don’t remember which, for submitted to you guys. That hadn’t that hadn’t been presented that you changed it to an annual requirement.

00:36:40,900	You changed it By a policy, which is why the newly hired finance Guy gets up here and says, hey, this has never been done. I’m gonna go do this. Well, yeah, when you change it, you make a new requirement by policy or let’s talk about the investment policies. You guys can change those policies. If you think that his office isn’t getting you the gains that you need.

00:36:58,800	You change the policy that determined how he invests. That’s not a mark problem. That’s a commission problem. Entirely wrong. No, you guys, you guys you’re saying that you don’t control the policy of how they make the investments Chair. We have an investment policy that the county has. He is not.

00:37:19,630	by heating out, don’t interrupt. He is, he is not, you said the county commission does. We commissions. So if you don’t like how it’s going, change it if he keeps interrupting, how can we let him speak, Tim. OK. So now, um.

00:37:41,000	Uh, Jerry, were you the one complaining about him not taking your notes, or is that Mr. Munson? I don’t know what you’re talking about. It wasn’t meeting the complaint was that he’s not, he’s not taking, um, notes for all, all for his, um, parks director whatever subcommittee, right? He’s not your personal secretary. Yes, he is. He’s the secretary to the board. Exactly, exactly. So, at the board meetings.

00:38:05,170	On the board meetings, he, he Now, now if you have a policy that assigns that we’re getting, we’re getting off the, if you have a policy that, that, that says there’s something different. OK, 10.

00:38:22,530	Then, then open it up to us, but that’s not what’s listed on the website OK? Now, secondly, Secondly, there was an accusation that Mark just isn’t doing his job, that his staff is having to do his job for him. That’s what there What the heck do you guys hire people for? Tim, right? OK. Now, this commission has some concerns. This has got nothing to do with Mark.

00:38:45,200	It’s about the duties of the position as per century code, really, that’s, that stack is all personal. Everything I’ve heard from you guys is all personal. OK, well, that’s, there hasn’t been a that’s your opinion. Tim, we’re done. If you have something to pass out, please pass it out now. Now here’s the other thing you guys are going.

00:39:03,730	To Mark, this is another personal attack that you keep going back to and say Mark hasn’t, doesn’t have the qualifications although we by law state law he does. He doesn’t have the experience. You want to increase those, and you’re told you can’t do that by law.

00:39:22,170	But then You don’t have any factual data saying Mark’s failing in his duties and responsibilities. I haven’t seen anything presented to the public. OK? Yet on August 5th. Of last year Uh, Comm Bitner and someone else I didn’t catch who said it, admitted that you don’t know how to do the 3rd most important job. Under the Northwest entry code. OK.

00:39:46,530	Now you also said Mark has has too much, too many job duties and responsibilities. Mark and the finance director got up here and you had a resolution, and he asked, um, I want you to clarify what you’re asking for that we’re gonna do the taxes at the same.

00:40:07,800	Same dollar figure as last year, and that affects a change in in middle level rates. OK. And you said That’s the first time I’ve heard of this, so you’ve been assessing taxes. That’s the 3rd listed duty of the commission. For how many years and you don’t know how they’re figured out. You and another Comm both said you can’t do your job.

00:40:27,730	What about the weed board? You guys, you guys kicked everyone off the weed board and they resigned. I don’t know the whole history of it. This isn’t about the Wheat board Tim. Tim, this isn’t about breaking the law. OK. I have that portfolio. And I’ll tell you something.

00:40:44,830	Do you, do you have any people that the best movement they’ve made out of hand. This is, this is, this is no, no, we’re, we’re done, we’re we’re done here. We are done here. It’s not about the weed board. We’re not discussing the weed board. That’s something we’ve been very public about and have discussed openly at this table.

00:41:01,200	It’s our job. Because it’s legal. And because we’re also the cardboard. We’re also the board of health. It’s a process. It takes time to get fixed. We’re done talking about that. So Tim, if you have something to pass out, please pass it out because you’re done.

00:41:19,100	Here, here, here are your duty duties and responsibilities as a commission. There are 14 pages listed here, then pass them out. I have one copy. I’ll give it to you. OK. Mark has 8 pages in total. And fewer specified duty. I will get copies of this and get it distributed among the board. So my, my, my sincere request for you guys is.

00:41:39,530	Stop wasting our time. This has been voted on twice overwhelmingly, the population don’t like it. Overwhelmingly that what you have heard at these meetings, the population doesn’t want you to change it. Your one voice, so thank you for your voice and I’m referring to the others that you have heard.

00:41:55,130	so if you’ve got a problem with Mark you’re not the only and it’s not about Mark, it’s about the position of doing the job it’s not. It’ll Prove that’s, that’s proved to me. Tim, you’re done. Can anyone can anyone prove to me why it’s Mark. You’re done. Yeah, yeah probably go into some of that. No, the. Go ahead.

00:42:13,800	We would love to hear. It’s been asked for at least once. do that later. Good evening. Uh, my name’s Travis Jensen, um, lifelong resident of Burleigh County, um, have dealt with you guys on several occasions. I wasn’t going to speak tonight, but after what we just witnessed.

00:42:36,270	We got some problems, um, you guys wanna tell us these problems lie with the auditor. That’s what we’ve led to, uh, been led to believe is that these problems that we’re seeing here. And that anybody who has followed along with Burleigh County over the last 5 to 7 years has been led to believe.

00:42:54,630	Is that this, this is all the auditor’s problem, this is what’s causing it. You guys have lost control. And if this meeting Has not shown that. You guys have lost control. It’s, it’s, it’s simple as that, um. You can all go back and look at uh. Your political downfalls.

00:43:17,370	So before we start pointing the finger at the auditor for what he’s done or what he hasn’t done or, um, you know, Jerry, one of your comments at the last meeting was, well, is he qualified? Do you feel he’s qualified? I’m not sure you’re qualified.

00:43:36,000	Quite frankly, I’m not sure you’re qualified because if you remember right, the public spoke, and they gave you your walking papers, not so long ago when you got re-elected. We can all do better, right? Go ahead. I’ve been elected 6 times, so it’s not too bad, I don’t think. Yeah, I mean, the people spoke though.

00:43:57,100	That’s, that’s what I’m getting at is they give you your walking papers, you ran again, they gave you another chance to. Hopefully change, maybe on a newfound uh. Confidence in you, I don’t know, but we can sit here, guys, and we can look at each one of you. And say you’ve had political downfalls. Steve, City of Bismarck gave you your walking papers. You know, but we spoke.

00:44:18,770	We had the right. As citizens, To decide that for ourselves, what is best for our community. I’ve been told by, you know, several of you that there’s people contacting you because they have concerns. Um I guess I’m not hearing him.

00:44:41,130	Um, I’m sorry, you’re not what I’m not hearing those concerns about the appointment, um, can I, can I interrupt and 11 instance that I got today. Go ahead. OK. I got a letter from a, uh, Bismarck resident, Burleigh County taxpayer just today, and he, we approved these abatements all the time. We do them every, every month.

00:45:01,100	Well, his abatement was approved in January, which means he got a tax reduction because of homestead tax credit or something misappropriate. He’s supposed to get a check back from the county.

00:45:17,000	This was in January, I don’t know exactly the date, 7th or 8th, something like, first meeting in January, you know, when he got his check, he hasn’t gotten it yet. And the reason why? Because he came, he came in in February and said it’s been 30 days, where’s my check? And he’s got a right to say that.

00:45:29,870	And where is, where is it supposed to be done by? Our chief financial officer right over here. It hasn’t been done. It came back another 30 days. Now, this is like last week, and it, He said, where’s my check? Oh, we’re too busy. We just haven’t, it’ll be another 3 or 4 weeks. So here we are, this is his job.

00:45:46,270	We send him on normally every month, we should, we have to get them every month. He hasn’t gotten his in two months. Now that’s one of the small, small things. That is happening. So just one.

00:46:05,370	So that’s an a a for instance right there, and there’s a lot of them, I mean, there’s 50 of them we’ve, yeah, we supposedly got a Pile of paperwork, they’re almost 3 inches high, that’s being kind of just flaunted in front of us. You know, like I said, I wasn’t, I wasn’t planning on speaking. I was here to observe, but after watching the circus that has taken place, you guys are all at fault. I’ll be quite honest with you, bringing up the whole real charter thing.

00:46:20,000	A lot of us have concerns about that because we feel that the committee was misled. And that goes back to the picking and choosing. That brings some serious concerns.

00:46:40,370	You guys, you guys are bullying just like we’ve seen with when the public health, you know, some of us watch these meetings for quite a while. And, uh, we watched, uh, City of Bismarck come up here and, you know, basically try to strong arm the county into this whole public health debacle. Um, some of us were watching at me, and we remember how that went down. What I’ve been seeing here, trying to look at it objectively.

00:46:55,900	I don’t really like any of you, to be honest with you, I think you guys have shown that, uh, None of you are really leaders anymore. I used to have a great respect for, for a couple of you, but you’ve all let this go down a road that it should never have gone down.

00:47:11,170	So you brought up the abatements, right? You, you open the door for that. As a leader and as a representative of that individual that contacted you? What are you going to do about it? What am I gonna do about it. Well, yeah, but he contacted you. I’m gonna fall.

00:47:28,730	I already I already contacted the person said, we’ll get on it and I’ll be quite frank at this, trying to look at this objectively. I’m looking at you guys want to appoint because you got control. You guys have not. Addressed whether she misspoke or intentionally or not intentionally, you guys have not addressed it. Some of us want to know, because there’s a couple gentlemen have said themselves.

00:47:50,130	They feel like they misled many of us who made phone calls to them and said, what do you think? And they went off the information that was presented to them, but you guys don’t want to address that.

00:48:09,900	Like I said, we’ve all had downfalls, um, this board has done great things, but lately, you guys need to be ashamed of yourselves. These aren’t the leaders that I don’t think any of us elected. If I had my, you know. We talked about recall tonight. I think we should recall you start over. That’s fine. You can get up there and talk. Thank you, Travis. Anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward.

00:48:31,730	Second call for public hearing. 3rd and final call for public hearing. Public hearing is Come up. State your name, uh, for the record, sign in at the podium, or are you a Burleigh County resident? Yes, sir. Thank you. My name is Francis Schweitzer. Uh, I live in Lincoln, but I don’t know if you need to do that, but.

00:48:58,470	Uh-huh I just wanted to say that uh. Us young people are, we are not involved very often. I just wanted to let you all know that we’re, we’re paying attention and there’s scary stuff happening all over the place, but uh.

00:49:17,200	I just think that we should always have the right as a people to vote for every, every position, honestly, and but it doesn’t happen a lot of times, but I just think for uh. The city auditor, we should definitely be able to vote on who’s going to be city auditor. That’s all I just wanted to say. Thank you, thank you. Third and final call for a public hearing. public hearing is now closed.

00:49:38,000	Just a little reminder, uh, our next Public hearing will be on March 22nd at Wilton Memorial Hall, uh, and then, uh, it’s uh Ten pm or 10:00 a.m. and 10 2 p.m.

00:49:59,370	at the Sterling School on the same day, the following will be on March 29th at 10:30 Library, and then, uh, uh, the final public hearing will be on April 7th at our regularly scheduled commission meeting. If you have not done so, feel free to weigh in.

00:50:18,530	Add comments, form available on the website. Uh, so with that, I will pass this meeting back to Chair Bitner. Thank you, Commissioner Bakken. Um I should let you know a little bit about, uh, a little bit about that stack of stuff. Um, it’s been going on for quite a while in the public hearing is closed, um.

00:50:42,530	So we’ve been keeping track of, of a lot of issues, and I’d be happy to share that information with anybody that wants to spend the time to go through it. Um, I I should start though with talking a little bit about an article that was in the Bismarck Tribune, um. Saturday.

00:51:02,870	One of the things that was said in that letter was was that there was a cut to the senior citizen’s budget. Um, and I, and I think that was probably in uh uh misstatement, but There was no cut to the senior citizens’ budget.

00:51:26,870	What happened during the budget hearings as they came in with a fairly large request for some maintenance-related items and different things like that. And, um, And the director of the senior senior center, um, decided that she could do away with some of the Increases for this year. So as I think I don’t know, 54,000, 57,000 or something.

00:51:50,000	So it was, it was, there was never any cut to the services or the programs of the senior center. It was kind of a cut to some landscaping and and some of those things that didn’t need happening. Um, so that was one thing.

00:52:08,730	Another thing that that really is serious to me, uh, since I hold two port a number of the portfolios that are um involved here. Um, there was a comment that The finance department. was was uh specifically or essentially forbidden from working with the auditor on the budget. And I’m here to tell you folks that never ever happened. Uh My position is for The finance department.

00:52:37,270	To do what they can for the benefit of Burleigh County because they do work under the county commission. And um in, in case there’s any question about that, I’m sure the finance director would be willing to speak about that very briefly. Bitner and Commissioners, um. Yeah, that I never.

00:53:05,130	I never took any of our conversations, Chair Bitner as, as forbidding us to work on the budget. Uh, in fact, we met, um. We met 3 different times with the auditor treasurer, um.

00:53:26,000	To go over the budget line by line, essentially or different parts of the budget line by line, the, the, the first that I recall was. I think it was in September or it was at least prior to the final budget hearing and the auditor treasurer asked. Myself and the deputy finance director to.

00:53:45,830	To do this, to come and meet with him and go through the budget and we went to his office and we sat in his office and went through line by line. Um I think it was the general revenues, uh, there may have been some other. parts of the budget that we reviewed and the second time was recently, um.

00:54:06,000	Again, as I recall the the auditor treasurer requested that we meet and, and we went line by line through the budget that had been passed was myself, deputy finance director, the Deputy Auditor treasurer, the elections coordinator who’s kind of our jack of all trades. He’s, he’s also our accountant and um the um. The auditor, treasurer, and we met and went through the budget line by line.

00:54:30,100	And that was, I think, in February and then we had yet another meeting in February to go through, uh, I think it was the transfers in and out and maybe some other items line by line. So we have been, uh, you know, assisting and um. Prior to this, we had met in May of 2024 was myself.

00:54:52,630	The Deputy finance director, deputy auditor treasurer, auditor, treasurer, and HR director we met to discuss. The budget, the job duties, and um That there was some disagreement, the auditor treasurer felt very strongly that I was essentially responsible for the budget, um, he Produced my, uh, job description and began reading through my job description. And I, I found myself repeatedly.

00:55:25,530	redirecting him to the first word of many of the job duties which is oversea. And so, yes, the budget is, is in my job description, but it’s an oversight position and um and so that was kind of maybe how it all That was the first meeting, I guess that we had on the budget. OK. Thank you.

00:55:50,730	Appreciate that Comm Whit our final budget was approved back in September, right, of last year? Correct. And it was just posted last week. Well, do you have any reason why it took 6 months, 6 months to post the budget, final budget, so people could understand and read it and peruse it and complain

00:56:07,200	about it, whatever it was, it took 6 months. Was there any reason why that? That you know of? Well, Maybe, I mean, there, there might be some reason for delay because we had, uh, I think after the final budget, I think there was, correct me if I’m wrong, 2 other times that the budget came, uh, before the

00:56:29,000	commission prior to the deadline, so there isn’t, I think it’s an October deadline to by by state law to pass the budget. So we were within that deadline, but I think there was, there were two other times that came before the commission after that, is there a reason? probably not.

00:56:45,100	Not that I can think of. I mean, some of the reasons we were given is Something to do with the accounting software. I, I don’t think that’s relevant, um. I had questions, concerns about the budget. I, I put the the posting the budget to the website.

00:57:05,870	I, I put those in an email to the uh county auditor in January, um, but no, I, I can’t think of a good reason, Comm Woodcox, and I understand that their auditor asked our emergency manager to post the budget. Why would that be? Well, I think to post, posting the budget, I think our emergency manager.

00:57:25,530	Um, much like our elections coordinator wears many hats. One of them is the website, you know, person. So that would be maybe the reason to post it. I did not see that. I, I’m sure I, I don’t recall that email. I’m sure I saw it, um I’m not talking about an email.

00:57:43,230	I’m talking about what actually happened was he asked the emergency manager posted, which is his responsibility, not emergency manager. That’s what I was concerned about. Yeah. It, it, it may be in her capacity as the website sort of person. I’m, I’m not really sure. OK. Thank you. OK, thanks Lee. Um There was also a mention and I did pull out one thing.

00:58:08,470	Out of the stack, um, the big concern I had was that people would think that it was some sort of a personal thing. Um, but I need to point out to you that, that we’ve had problems. Um, even before this, The for the year ending December 31, 2023.

00:58:32,630	Which was actually under two auditors, so 2023 was under two different auditors, so the results for the 2023 state audit would be reflective of both persons in that position. So it’s not this is not a question of whether it’s personally but. So, um, They ask you some questions and then they give you some findings at the end of the audit.

00:58:52,830	And I think there was mention about that they didn’t find any mishandling or or something with money. Uh, the problem is, um, under internal control over financial reporting. question is material weaknesses identified. The answer is yes on this form, significant deficiencies identified, not considered to be material weaknesses, yes.

00:59:17,200	And then noncompliance material and financial statements noted no. And they go on to give us some of the. The what’s called adjustments to the books. So right now the finance department from Burleigh County is in the process of going through the books of Burleigh County to make all necessary corrections. And the last I heard.

00:59:41,200	They’re up to approximately 30 corrections to the to the accounts for Burleigh County. Hopefully we get those all corrected and anything else we find before it goes to the state audit because the goal is to have a cleaner audit than than here. Um So Some of the things that had to be done with the general fund.

01:00:01,000	Uh, we had to establish a due from other funds asset to offset negative cash balances and special revenue and debt service funds. Uh, Doe from other funds. There was a cash. error of 1.72. Million Uh, remove February 2024, state aid from intergovernmental receivables and the revenue into intergovernment intergovernmental receivables was 496,424,000. Reclassify interest income to change in investment market value.

01:00:37,370	Um, 156,293. Uh To record reimbursement from Morton County for Burleigh Morton Detention Center, expenditures over to service revenues of 148,000. Reclassify salary expenses to contracted services expenses.

01:01:15,730	120,370 Reclassify interest income from internet service fund to transfer in 75,671, uh, special revenue fund, different subject here, establish a due to other funds asset to offset negative cash balances in a special revenue fund with the general fund. OK, so this is different from that other one. That’s 1.691 million there. Adjustments to decrease inventory for 2023 used amounts $579,738. Adjustment to record retainage payable. From expenditures to retainage payable 82,350. Reclassify interest income to change in investment market value. 271,702.

01:01:54,200	Special revenue fund reclassified Prairie Dog funds from the transfer into an intergovernmental revenue, 4,160,000. Reclassify miscellaneous revenue to intergovernmental revenue and sale of assets 755,539. Another debt service fund established due to other funds asset to offset negative cash balances in debt service fund with the general fund 30,000. 286. Adjustment to record of book activities for the 2020 sales tax bond. 31,924, 816.

01:02:32,630	Um Plus uh intergovernmental receivable 2,106,392. Principle and expense on that 2,647,750. Interest and fees, 781,718. Net change fund balance, um, that’s where you move those other things too. Internal service fund prior period adjustment to record missed payable from 2022, 224,159. Reclassify interest expense to transfer out 75,671.

01:03:13,200	Government-wide activities prior period adjustment to remove 66th Street Pro from CIP reclassify assets number, number, numbers to CIP and to add back asset 4053 to capital assets, 351,000. Adjustment to record current period asset additions for assets 4578 and 4579. 61,480. Adjustments for the water resource district fund level adjustments to record audit found payables, 150,829.

01:03:45,870	To record, retainage payable expenditures to payable, 11,050. So that To say that there was not a mishandling. Um Within the books would be a real gross understatement. And, and I do want to point out that we know.

01:04:09,230	That that is over the course of more than one auditor, so nobody’s gonna sit here and say it was just this one person and it’s a personal thing. Now that’s one thing, and we are going to get into some more of that.

01:04:27,470	Um, I think an additional public hearings yet because it’s obvious it’s a lot of information to unpack, um, if, if anyone, if anybody wants to meet with me, you serve, you serve whatever, you know, you want to go through that information, we sure can. I’d like to get the meeting back on to meeting business unless there’s anybody who wants to comment about that thing I just read. OK. Thank you. Next item, county engineer Marcus Hall? No, not you. Come on, come on.

01:04:48,730	You know, I’m, I’m joking, all right? No, no, no, no, no I’ll give you a very simple small window. I’m, I’m not an auditor, right? I’m, I’m familiar with generally accounted generally accepted accounting principles, right? And, and the function of the audit, as you said, was to make sure that everyone goes to

01:05:09,470	the state audit, it’s, it’s cleaner. You’re a business owner you file taxes. Have you ever had to file a corrective tax return? No. No. No. You’ve never had to, uh, Change your but your Bank account balance to match everything. You have everything perfectly recorded.

01:05:26,770	I, I pay guys to do that for me, though. But I pay guys who have those qualifications. OK, anyway, all those things it’s about me. All those things that you, that you mentioned. Um-hum. are, there are some structural things. One of them is a lack of segregation of duties, which you might not, I read it.

01:05:43,770	You might not have mentioned that, right? That’s, does he have the peak personnel to run his office. With enough separation that you can have two-person controls. Right? And that’s, that’s not a a finding of fault, that’s a, hey, there’s a risk here.

01:06:03,000	OK, so I didn’t, that’s why we have, that’s why we have the finance department separate from the auditor department, because that is that checks and balances like you’re talking about and and we also finance directors doing that you’re blaming Mark for. He’s the new Guy, he’s the finance director has responsibility of oversight. Under the Burleigh County Commission. That job is to Basically Oversight is a supervisor.

01:06:28,100	Yeah, oversight, you know, like I said, there’s over, you know, I read what was it 19 or 20 deficiencies of that. State audit, right? And right now, We’re over 30 before we can get it to the state audit, so we’re making corrections, and that’s through the finance department. That’s the purpose of that.

01:06:45,730	You do, you do the audit, you have an auditor to make sure that all the finances are right and, and well, except that you see that the finance director is fixing it after it’s gone through the auditor’s office, OK? Yeah They work together.

01:07:08,100	Right? They’re not, they’re not silos we’re gonna move on, OK? You know, I’m not, I’m what you’re talking about, they’re not not material mishandling of the money. It’s, it’s a list of things that need to be corrected because that’s what you do at the end of the month, you balance your checkbook.

01:07:20,630	Did, did you, did you hear the amounts that I was talking about? $3.7 million missing for 30 years. We didn’t have $3.7 million missing. It was off books, um let me ask you this. Yeah. In our budget, Which spill over this. You remember we had a raise tax. 7.5 mLs. Remember that? We are mills. Mills rates.

01:07:53,530	That’s, you had to raise the mills or you had to raise, raise the amount of taxes. We Had a raise, we were short money. Not, not if your property values increase. Let me finish this little tale here. But unfortunately, 3.7 million wasn’t shown on the books. We can’t go in and do the books. It’s not our job. So when you, I’m not done.

01:08:21,730	So all these people out here, I want to remind you. It was never necessary to raise your taxes, but we can only go By the information that comes out of the auditor’s office. On what’s in accounts and what’s not, and if they don’t disclose to us. That they’re short not short, but they’re not showing 3.

01:08:46,000	7 million. Well, we got to raise your taxes, and that spilled over last year and into this year. So, in other words, we actually Have overtaxed you $8 million on account of that. And we don’t have access to going in there and doing that. We can’t go in and say, get your stuff straightened.

01:09:07,370	So, what do you So, what do you think do you think that’s right to all these people out here? When did it go missing? That’s their tax goes up like that. It was unneces.

01:09:18,000	When did it fall off the books? Pardon me? When did it fall off the books? When wasn’t it put back on the books is the question. When was it? Wasn’t did it fall off the books when a person My understanding is it was like 30 years ago. No. No. Anybody that owns a business, when you get in there and you buy another business, first thing you look at, it’s the books.

01:09:34,370	And you, and The banks that we have money sitting in are constantly Sending this is. So I had a couple of Commissioners. So the thing about it is if it isn’t counted, we can’t count it when we do the budget because we don’t know when did it go missing? When did it fall off the books.

01:09:53,730	Right, because if it didn’t fall off the books in the last two years, it’s, it’s not Mar wasn’t put on the books. It was never put on the books. When was it supposed to have been put on the books? A year and a half ago.

01:10:07,000	OK, when, how, uh, if it was supposed to be put on the books a year and a half ago, so it’s more than a year and a half ago. Then it was lost off the books, right? It was in his, his It was in a bank account that no one knew was there. OK, we can agree on that.

01:10:21,370	When that, when was that argue about this. I, I have no idea. I’m going to ask, I’m not going to, I’m going to ask you to sit down, it’s short and the longer it was information from the auditor’s office came, she comes to us every year, but when we’re doing preliminary budget, they say we’re gonna take in and I’m estimate, say

01:10:35,800	if we’re taking it $40 million in taxes, what we’re going to be spending 43, so we got to raise taxes, $3 million to take care of that. They came with the information saying you need $3.7 million more, so we raised, and I, I wasn’t on there. I was there about 2 years I wasn’t elected.

01:10:53,530	Anyway, they raised the 3.7 million. Another in next year, no, don’t interrupt. Don’t interrupt. Don’t interrupt. The next year we did the same thing. We’ve got $8.1 million of, of, of extra taxes that were assessed that should not have been.

01:11:13,100	That should not have been entirely because of the estimates that the auditor’s job is to give us those estimates. So there we go. But he has the files that he has. Pardon me? He has the files that he has. If, if, if he lost $3.7 million you should fire him today. We can’t. That’s why we’re gay.

01:11:30,370	But none of you have said that he has lost it. You said that he didn’t put it on the books Fat It wasn’t on the books, and there’s a big difference. I didn’t say he lost it. Sure, sure.

01:11:42,730	We did not know that account had that money in it, and we had to make up for it in the budget, so we raised taxes. If you have a you know, if you have a computer with a hidden file, pardon me, if you have a computer with a hidden file. You, you, a computer with a hidden file. You opened it up.

01:11:58,000	And you’re looking there and you don’t see it. How do you know it’s there? How does, how does Mart know it’s there? I told you the send you out statements. Yes, but if those, if those statements aren’t coming to the proper address for whatever reason. I’m, I’m done. I’m done.

01:12:13,100	Do you have, how about. All I can tell you is,, $8 million. I appreciate is atrocious. Stop, stop, stop. Just. Just stop. That’s Stop. Just work it out with him, and he’ll be. I don’t. Do you understand the word stop auditing being done by the audit. G. Our auditor doesn’t audit.

01:12:33,270	Our auditor is not you got that right. He’s, you OK, Marcus, you’re next. a lot of that going on. Good evening, Commissioners. I have one item on the agenda.

01:12:55,730	Uh, it’s a developer’s request, uh, under our pavement policy, a developer may make a request to wave the pavement policy, uh, under the current policy, they are required to construct and pave at least one roadway in a proposed subdivision connect to to connect to the existing paved highway system. Skyhan and Lincoln Township, and there’s a map included in your packet showing this particular proposed subdivision. Planning on a one lot subdivision.

01:13:17,530	As part of this, uh, particular subdivision, they’d be required to pave out and construct about 10 mile of roadway. Um, granting this waiver, uh, does not preclude the county and township, uh, from requiring the property owners to share the costs of construction and paving these roads sometime in the future.

01:13:40,470	However, it does allow the, the developer to move forward on this particular subdivision, there are two resolutions in your packet. I would recommend approval of those resolutions. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Bakken. One question, Marcus, it is in our packet listed two different ways, Skyhaven. And ski Haven. So just for clarification that, that is correct. I’ll make sure that that’s the correct spelling Skyn? Yeah.

01:14:04,130	OK, uh, with that correction, I would move to approve. Motion 2 to approve any further discussion. No. Fisher Wood Cox Comm Bakken. Comm Schwab. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carriers. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Uh, County State’s Attorney Julie Lawyer, salary variance request. Julie. Thank you.

01:14:33,900	In your packets, you’ll find, um, a memo from me regarding a salary variance request for our investigator position. Um, the person that we’ve offered the position to comes to us with, um, as I gave you his resume, that’s obviously not a public record yet since he’s just a candidate and not an employee, um, but you can see the depth of his experience there.

01:14:50,000	He comes to us with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and nearly 30 years in law enforcement, 24 years of which was investigations for a minimum qualifications for our investigator. We require a 4-year degree and 5 years of investigative experience.

01:15:07,630	He’s got 19 years of experience over and above our minimum qualifications, which is why I’m asking for the variants to start him at a step 9. And I’ll stand for any questions. Commissioners, any questions? motion the 2nd to approve any further discussion, seeing none. Mr. Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab? Yes.

01:15:29,500	Comm Woodcox, yes, does this put us on, uh, workforce. Um, we did hire, um, offer, uh, conditional offers to 4 individuals, 4 attorneys who are graduating in May, um, they’re scheduled to take the bar in July if they do pass the bar, then they will be um eligible to start practicing once they’re, um, licensed

01:15:47,100	attorneys, which would be September or October, and with that we would have all of our full-time positions filled and we just have a part-time position that would be open. Thank you. Thank you. OK, um, discussion regarding Burleigh County courthouse rental.

01:16:19,130	Who’s got Who’s got that? This was placed on the agenda at the request of the Bismarck, um, Burleigh Commission’s Joint committee. Uh, and so they requested me to put this on the agenda, just basically just to begin the discussions on the rentals and see how long we might, may or may not be renting from them for 2026. Um. Comm Bakken.

01:16:42,100	Um, so, I am the Burleigh County representative, uh, along with our auditor treasurer on that. Um, basically what they were looking at is, um, trying a space plan as the Provident buildings coming on board, um, so it was a discussion about our use of the, uh, city county office building, and as part of that discussion was where we’re

01:17:01,900	at with the, the lease agreement for um, The Burleigh County Courthouse rental, basically just some housekeeping and, and they’re getting into their preliminary budget, so they were just asking that we’re aware of that, um, and where we are in our budget process as well. OK.

01:17:24,730	With respect to scheduling or anything with the provident building. We, we obviously have not received bids yet. And as part of that process, we anticipate that there will be liquidated damages and there will be a, a set timeline, but the difference is on this particular bid, the, the contractor that wins the bid would negotiate with the

01:17:45,000	architects and the owners, um, to come to uh completion date. So then they’re gonna, they’re gonna have to buy into it. They’re gonna say, OK, we’re gonna be done and. Whatever amount of time, and then we’ll know, um, when to expect that, that we would be um. Ready to move or what have you. OK.

01:18:02,730	And then the question on the I’m not aware of any change or any, any need for a change on rental at the courthouse, and that was my thoughts on that cause I, I didn’t, uh, have any indication that we had an appetite or changing any of the.

01:18:18,730	No, I don’t. That current structure, so no, and I’m not aware of anything that, uh, as far as buildings and grounds, that is 11 of my portfolios. Nobody’s mentioned to me any need for, you know, anything additional over there, so. OK. OK. Anything else on that one? County emergency Manager Mary Senger consideration of burden restrictions. OK.

01:18:46,500	You might have noticed this kind of dry outside. Yes, it is. Chair and Commissioners, you have a before you, uh, the fire emergency and burn restrictions tied to the daily fire danger rating, uh, the fire chiefs have approached me and are, I’ve heard back from all of them except for one, and they

01:19:03,470	are all in support of instituting their restrictions. Um Before we, before we go into a motion or something on that, I want to point out. Great teamwork between Burleigh County staff, um, Recently we’ve got a uh an email from a citizen that talked about a, a, a wood pilele that was on fire, or

01:19:25,800	still burning at his neighbor’s place. And I forwarded that to Mary and she forwarded it to the sheriff’s department and the rural Fire department and everybody got on it and apparently nobody was home, that fire was burning there in the yard and that wind was, uh, forecast to kick up that day.

01:19:43,000	I think it was Sunday last. A Saturday or Sunday Saturday or Sunday, whatever it was, but anyway, everybody got together, went up there and put out the fire and everything was, was, was good, and I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that responded and was part of that, including you.

01:20:01,630	People appreciate how dry it is out there in our high wind conditions, so. Um, so in lieu of, uh, getting the wind to stop blowing and getting a little moisture, I would move to approve the burn vent. OK.

01:20:23,100	And motion a second to approve the burn ban as presented and um There is this will be on the website, I’m sure, so that you’ll be able to see because there is particulars and the burn ban is tied to the Grangeland fire danger index here in North Dakota, so. Any further discussion. Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcox. Yes. Comm Bakken, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Thank you.

01:20:48,730	Um Other business Comm Bakken wants to give us a little bit of report on this sightseeing trip to Washington DC. Yeah, so, um, had an opportunity to go speak for the Burleigh County Commission in Washington DC, um.

01:21:09,100	A group of, uh, About 60 or so people from across 8 states, uh, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana, um, we’re all meeting in Washington DC to meet with their. Uh, legislators and discuss the Constraints and and nuances of carbon sequestration, um, So I had a great opportunity to go meet with uh some upper level staff of our two senators, uh, did not meet with our senators did not meet

01:21:43,100	with our representative either, uh, and, uh, her staff was actually, uh, Rather disappointing, I will say that a lot of other states did meet with their legislative caucus and uh I had an opportunity to meet with uh some of the other states representatives as well.

01:22:04,470	Uh, the discussion really going on in Washington DC and there’s a draft in Uh, on the house side bipartisan, uh, concerning the 45Q and 45Z tax credits, um, so gather a lot of great information on that, uh, Getting rid of them, I, I would think is probably not going to happen, um, because there seems to be about 21 Republicans that

01:22:31,130	are holding out for uh free green money as well. Uh, however, there’s probably a good discussion that’s to be had about. overhauling what that program looks like, whether or not that program stays in the purvey of the IRS or moves over to more of a commerce or a grant program

01:22:52,100	with, with caps on it, uh, but it was very insightful, uh. Spoke with a lot of great people that are fighting uh uh various different pipeline projects and carbon sequestration issues in their home states and gleaned a lot of great information in DC and, uh, I want to thank everybody

01:23:14,470	that I met out in Washington and, uh, I definitely want to thank uh the legislators and representatives that had an opportunity to meet with and some of their staffs as well, so. It was uh some pretty good discussions. Commission Speaking of uh summit carbon.

01:23:37,870	By the way, is there a representative of some carbon solutions here? Didn’t go along with you on that trip? Uh, no. Oh, you did not. Sorry, Comm. Uh When the ruling came down and the law was signed in and In South Dakota that they couldn’t couldn’t use imminent domain.

01:24:01,470	There was an article in the Tribune that is so fair, unfair to the other states. That want this project is basically what they The propaganda they put out. And I know some of carbon watches these meetings, why wouldn’t they? They just embarrassed to show up. I want them to know that. In my opinion, you’re uh Colluding with the state.

01:24:29,730	between the state people and you are the only ones who

01:24:37,100	County, come up and say, We want this project. So Like I say, in my opinion, if they want to lie, you still got to watch him. That Snake is growing another head. I want you to be aware of that. And they put out that, that That garbage Uh.

01:25:03,000	And now they’re kind of, I think the thought is, well, we’ll run into Nebraska and now. In Morton County and through, well, they haven’t given up. There’s too much money involved, but Keep an eye on what they say. And one other thing. Don’t forget I want to have another thing after this. OK. But I think I know where you’re headed with that.

01:25:26,370	You have till the end of the month for that $500 tax rebate on your home. So I keep saying if uh the elderly can’t do it. You fellows, young ladies, go over and help your Your parents.

01:25:47,000	Or your grandma, grandpa, and get that stuff done because it’s 500 bucks. Better you get it in Summit. Now My last thing might take a little time here. Uh When I get a call from somebody that doesn’t get the proper Tax information. So they fill out their taxes. Uh And it seems to be concerning the poll workers.

01:26:24,100	I went through this stuff, but Auditor Splonskowski always complains you can’t say anything. Could you come up here and tell us what happened. Yes, sir, what are your questions? Pardon me? What was your process? Did you mail out 1099s? No. You didn’t. No. Did you mail out W-2s? Yes. When Uh, I hear about, uh, week or two, about a week ago.

01:26:54,470	So you were late with him? Yes. Well My main concern on that, and I’ve got a lot of emails here and I’m sure there are more. It’s no use going through it. I want to forewarn you. And the other departments. We’re probably going to get audited by the IRS, and there better not be any shredding or deleting going on.

01:27:17,770	It wouldn’t surprise me if the state doesn’t come in and probably News people Documents are not to be discarded concerning this. Because there’s a lot of stuff wrong with the way these people were treated. I agree.

01:27:36,730	And I would, I would love your responsibility, and I would love for them to be able to see the emails back and forth. What am I supposed to tell him? I have no control over you. I can’t go in there and tell you. You could ask me and I told you. Yeah, uh 1099s are for contractors only.

01:27:56,800	Yep, and we were not go out like you get. We, we were directed alternatively from our um HR department. So why did it take that long? What? No, you weren’t. Because it worked, worked well. I can send you the emails. Don’t send me any. Well, wait a minute here.

01:28:13,800	Look, I don’t, I don’t think we’re gonna bother with emails because there’s there’s like 5 or 6 meetings about it that we have the record already and we know that there’s in excess of 40 emails about that, so, and early on thing, uh. Um I think there was some uh. kind of manipulating going on there, Mark, um, go ahead, Comm.

01:28:35,130	This is a, a information for the people in the audience who are listening. Uh, we had an election last fall, and this happens all the time. We have election workers, we hire them, we train them, they come and work the election and it’s all done. They get paid.

01:28:52,000	And they get, it depends, the dispute is how do they get paid. Well, they get a 1099, which is if you weren’t more kind of complicated. If you earn more than $600 were required by the IRS to send them a 1099. In other words, saying that you earned this much, they report that on their income, and that, that’s the way it goes.

01:29:10,100	Or they could be a a W-2, which is regular employee. Well, we had, what happened with our office here, nothing. They didn’t get anything. So we had. I think it was 42 employees or 52 employees that didn’t get anything. Now they’ve already filed their tax return.

01:29:27,630	And now here, here we come now, the last week we sent out some, some W-2s and here are these people all have to file an amended return and pay additional taxes because they didn’t declare this income. Well, that’s happened not only this time, but last year, the same thing.

01:29:45,200	Just because of What do you think? In action of the auditor’s office, um, in action is definitely not the word for it, um, in fact, we, uh, went out and got consultation from a tax attorney to make sure that it was correct, um, I reached out to the HR director? That was done this, this spring. Because there was an issue found.

01:30:02,830	And, um, it was, it was they were, there was concerns brought forward that it shouldn’t be 1099s. Now, that being said, um, we had all the you don’t want me to talk.

01:30:23,000	OK, I do want you to talk, but, um, you said this spring, but I think it was in February here after the deadline had already passed for submitting W-2s. By the time you um took the advice of staff, staff, both the HR director and the finance director recommended. That, um, from what I understand that you contact The tax attorney. For an opinion.

01:30:48,770	So that was after the deadline had already passed, and I further understand that you had meetings, um, with multiple people in attendance, and I believe some of those meetings were even recorded where you were notified about this whole issue, like last year. And probably At the beginning of the year. Uh, produced the emails.

01:31:12,000	Because what we ended up doing is we got W9 from every single election worker, and there was there was concern, and there was questions brought forward on, on how to properly handle the election workers. And one thing I do specifically remember coming out of those meetings was HR informing us, do not have them go over a certain dollar limit, I believe it was $2000. Otherwise we have to add them onto payroll.

01:31:29,800	And so we had several meetings to manage our election workers to make sure they did not go over that. deadline that, that, that, um, that, uh, amount, which they didn’t. Nobody did. And I know that we had every single election worker fill out a W-9. Which would indicate that they would receive a 1099.

01:31:48,270	This, uh, issue was brought forward to me or start over again. What did you say every all election workers got a 1090, a W-940. They filled out. Yes AW9. Yes, which would indicate that they would receive a 1099, and so they didn’t they get a 1099? They did not because it was found that it was be, that would be the incorrect way of

01:32:05,100	filing it. So I reached, I reached out to HR and said, hey, which one should we give them? And she said at 1099. And so we had a meeting. We, we had a discussion between HR and myself and finance. And the finance director recommended that we get a tax attorney.

01:32:24,000	And so we, I did, I reached out, tried to find a tax attorney as, as quickly as I could. When did they fill out those W-9s. We ended up finding them, and we got correct direction from him. Saying that we need to send out W-2s. That being said, I reached out to the state’s attorney.

01:32:41,500	That’s correct this is all after you missed the missed the boat, I think HR director wants to responsibility was all that to do all that. Not mine. We reached out to HR and tried to implement it as we saw, as we understood from them. OK. And again, I’d like to see the emails.

01:33:01,200	I’d like to see the video recordings of the meetings, uh, because You know, we want to get to the truth here. Don’t want to go down that road. Chair Bitner, Bitner and Commissioners. It’s not quite working here. Um, I would like to tell you how that. Happened.

01:33:29,100	We did have a meeting back in April last year that said, If your election workers are getting close to $600 because that is the limit for the 1099. You need to let us know. We need personal action forms because we have to do I-9s, we have to put them on as employees and we have to do payroll. We have to do timekeeping.

01:33:49,730	That was not done So in February, I get emails from our auditor saying you need to put, you need to get these. Employees W-2s. They’re not my employees. Payroll is done. Payroll is done on, on our last payroll once W-2s go out for employees, uh, before January 31st, it’s done. We can’t undo anything.

01:34:08,470	It’s not like a general ledger system that you can adjust. Payroll does not adjust. So we have no payroll records for these 32 individuals because I was never informed or given the right paperwork. To put them on.

01:34:30,100	So what Auditor Swanskowski asked me to do is, in my opinion, commit fraud, because I do not have payroll records for these people, but yet I was supposed to issue him a W-2. Our system automatically issues W-2s and does the uploads to the IRS. It’s an HTML files, it’s not copies of the W-2s. Uploads happen through HTML. We do all of our stuff the legal way through payroll, everything was done. This came along later.

01:34:50,130	I can’t help it that he didn’t follow my directions. I have the emails. I have an audio recording. Where he admits that, yeah, you told me. Hm Obviously, we’ll, we’ll ask you to get that to myself and to the state’s attorney. Thank you, Ben. You know, Comm Mark can address this.

01:35:15,730	The thing that worries me is that there’s Two things in particular. Number one, How those people were treated. By not getting the returns and they wanna file. And that could trigger off an IRS, like I said, audit. There’s probably going to be all kinds of stuff now.

01:35:38,730	It’s one of them things, everybody says, bring it up, bring it up. Well, OK, here it is. How do you replace election workers. These people that this happened to, they’re not going to be there next year. Half of them will quit and say, we’re done with it. And it’s extremely hard to get. People To work the elections.

01:36:02,770	And for, from my perspective, Why is it so important to make sure they don’t go over the $600 limit. If they go over 100 bucks, you pay them 100 bucks. And they’re going to appreciate it because this is part-time and most people are are retired and stuff that are doing this.

01:36:24,530	There is absolutely no excuse for this, and Like I say, we’ll see where it all. Where it all goes. I’m Don Mark you can go I don’t know if you guys all got, got the contact, but I even got a contact from a former.

01:36:42,130	Secretary of State for the state of North Dakota want to know where his paperwork was so he could file his taxes. That that really got my attention. I got one from a former county Comm. Said the same thing. Yeah. I’d like to file my I’ve I’ve actually gotten quite a few, yeah. OK, um, I guess we we’ve pretty well covered that for today, Comm Bakken.

01:37:02,500	Uh, one more reminder, uh, for the public hearings for redesignating the elective office of Burleigh County Auditor Treasurer to an appointed office and, uh, this does come back to just input of

01:37:20,100	is March 22nd, uh, that’s this Saturday 10 a.m. at Wilton Memorial Hall, 105 Dakota Avenue in Walton, uh, March 22nd. Also this Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Sterling School, 118 McKenzie Street in Sterling, uh, March 29th at 10:30 a.m.

01:37:39,870	, uh, 221 North Fifth Street, Bismarck Burleigh Public Library and April 7th, uh, the final public hearing will be at our regularly scheduled Burleigh County Commission meeting in the Tom Baker room right here on April 7th at 5 p.m. Uh, once again, public input is available. There’s a form available on the website at BurleighND.gov.

01:37:59,530	So uh please, we do want to hear from our residents of Burleigh County. Thank you, Comm Bakken. I appreciate that update.