00:00:10,070	Our gracious God, we thank you for this day and for the opportunity to gather in service to our community. We ask for wisdom and clarity for the decisions that will be made here. May each Comm be guided by integrity, fairness, and the commitment to the well-being of all residents.

00:00:36,800	Help us to listen with respect, speak with compassion, Enact with justice. May unity be our strength in the common good our goal. We are grateful for those who serve. our leaders, first responders, city employees, and volunteers. May peace and progress guide our efforts in your name we ask.

00:01:09,370	Amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with the liberty and justice for all. Thank you. you call the August 18th, 2025 meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to Order, um, first is, uh, roll call of members.

00:01:39,330	Comm Woodcock, here, Comm Munsen, here, Comm Bakken, here, Comm Schwab, here, Chair Bittner here. Next is approval of the agenda. Um, anybody have anything they want to add or subtract. I’m gonna add a little bit of a conversation under other business um concerning sales tax just for information purposes.

00:02:08,100	Move to approve Second Motion is second to approve. Any further discussion? Bald rule. Comm Munsen, Comm Bakke. Comm Schwab Yes. Comm Woodcoxx? Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Uh, next is consideration of August 4th, 2025 meeting minutes and bills, Commissioners, I reviewed the bills, and they are in good standing, so I would move to approved bills.

00:02:34,870	Second, Motion the second to approve the bills You include the meeting minutes? Um, if anybody else doesn’t have any concerns over the minutes, then yes, I would include that. Here’s the second OK with that? Yes, the second’s OK. OK. Any other discussion? Call the rope. Comm Bakken.

00:02:59,330	Yes, Comm Schwab, Comm Woodcox, Comm Munsen, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Um, Next time on the next item on the agenda is a public comment. Um, obviously it’s restricted to Burleigh County residents and landowners. There’s some time restrictions if we want to exercise them, but otherwise, if somebody has something that’s, uh, not on the agenda.

00:03:18,700	that you want to bring to the county Commission’s attention, please approach Prodium and give your name. I’m Lydia Guessley, and I called this morning about getting on the agenda. Um. as I said, my name is Lydia Gessle, and I need to provide public notice to Burleigh County.

00:03:40,630	This is in accordance with the USCS rules of civil procedure, as well as Rule 17 and Rule 20 of the United States Supreme Court. The Constitution of the United States has an overarching requirement that every state must follow. I don’t think anyone here would deny that.

00:04:00,800	The states cannot enact their own alternative legislation substituted for the guarantees of the Constitution of the United States. That would mean that the state laws are more powerful than the Constitution. Clause 1 of Amendment 5 of the United States Constitution says no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless a presentment or grand jury.

00:04:20,000	However, the state of North Dakota has enacted its own alternative legislation that permits the prosecuting attorney or police officer to charge by information, not by indictment. This is unconstitutional. An emolument violation is when you pay public officials to break the law. The Constitution has two areas to enforce this.

00:04:42,530	One is Article 1, Section 10, where it says no state shall create any law that shall impair the obligation of contracts. Police officers, prosecutors, judges are all under contract. A contract to perform that’s based upon the oath or affirmation that they took. The contract perimeters are defined within the Constitution of the United States.

00:05:04,370	When the state enacts laws that direct their agents to disobey the law, the Constitution of the United States, that would be a violation of Article 1, Section 10. Now, the 14th Amendment is the other place that you will find the reinforcement of this issue, and that’s where it says that no state shall create or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or

00:05:21,470	immunities of the United States citizens. The privileges and immunities of the United States citizens are at a minimum. Those enumerated within the Bill of Rights. the 1st 10 Amendments.

00:05:44,370	They cannot be impaired Thus the state of North Dakota has enacted a law in its inferior constitution that is permitting public officials and law enforcement whom you pay to violate the Constitution of the United States. As a result, there is an inordinate amount of people currently imprisoned in the state of North Dakota illegally and unconstitutionally.

00:06:01,000	Tanawa Downni is litigating this issue in the United States Supreme Court, and I’m here to notify you that if you continue to pay the public officers to break the law. there can be criminal sanctions that would come from that. We don’t want to go down that path, but officials must be made aware that paying people to disobey the law is an emolument violation. It is illegal.

00:06:20,100	It is unconstitutional I’m asking you, honorable people, to please look at clause one, Amendment 5, and confirm what I’m saying to be true. And then direct your public officials to act in a lawful constitutional manner, consistent with the obligations that are codified in the Constitution of the United States of America.

00:06:39,870	I have a notice that I would like to put on the record. Thank you very much. and God bless I’ll take that Thanks OK, thank you Good evening, Commissioners. Um, first off, I want to say I appreciate the joint meeting you guys had about the ETA. Um, there were some good discussion, um throughout the whole meeting, so I appreciate that.

00:07:18,330	Um, the reason I’m here tonight is I don’t know how many of you guys have heard about the changes. with Bismarck Public Schools and the bussing.

00:07:31,600	I know some of you are looking at me like how is that our problem? Um, the reason I feel it’s your problem, and I would like the county to to discuss this is because when we start having issues with traffic backing up. um, kids walking in the roads, who responds to that? Our Burleigh County Sheriff is going to be responding to that. It’s not gonna be the city places, you know, cause it’s out in the ETA. um, especially in my neighborhood.

00:07:51,370	We don’t have sidewalks. We don’t have street lights. Now we have kids that are gonna be congregating. in the road, on the road um, where our parents going to pick their children up. at the congregation point We don’t have places to pull off.

00:08:10,000	So now we’re gonna have traffic backing up Um, the next school board meeting is September 8th I would ask this uh commission. to have some discussion about it. and to possibly have uh somebody from our sheriff’s department, um, come talk about public safety with that.

00:08:29,430	um, because ultimately, if this goes astray, we’re going to be tying up officers during those peak hours. Um, I had a great discussion with our county highway department. about the traffic flow. I was actually surprised at how quickly he could produce that information. Um, found out that North side of Burnt Creek Loop has around 14, 1450 vehicles a day.

00:08:51,270	South Side has about 1650 vehicles a day. Those peak hours of traffic coincide with the time of the bus arrives. and drops kids off So now we’re going to have peak flow traffic. and we’re also gonna have, like I said, kidsneer in the streets. uh, more vehicles, more commotion. That just sounds disastrous.

00:09:15,630	Um, so I would ask this commission um and the sheriff’s department to have some discussion about it and see if we maybe can’t, uh, you know, can’t, uh, see how that’s going to affect the outlying area in Burleigh County. So, appreciate it. Thank you What’s his name What was his name? Anybody else, Mr. speaker. OK.

00:09:38,700	OK, seeing none, we’ll close the public comment period and move on to the consent agenda. We’ve got abatements, second access permits, and a budget amendment. uh Anybody want to pull anything off for further discussion, or if not, move to approve Second, motion the 2nd to approve the consent agenda. Any further discussion? Call the rope. Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodoxox. Comm Munsen. Yes.

00:10:02,170	Comm Bakken, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries Uh, Vision Zero, regional outreach coordinator Teresa Ummm. Welcome take a second to get set up here. No. have I should be taking more than vitamin Are these two separate things, Teresa? Um, they are For three things. Yeah, it’s like 404, so. So I set them all up I pulled, yeah.

00:11:01,470	So, it’s Take one? Take a whole section. OK. To see how I divide it. OK. And then. Yeah. Sorry, that’s All right. You got to have instructions for a Guy like me. We didn’t get ours. We didn’t get. We didn’t We get We. There’s some left.

00:11:17,600	We have, we, we didn’t get it we, we didn’t get it we, yes. Oh. Apparently so that Somebody’s got more than I, I was short. I only took the top one. I think I got a. Does everyone have their copies? We’ll just have to. We’ll figure it out. OK. Apologize for the confusion.

00:11:47,630	You just talk about which one you’re on and if we have extras, then we’ll, we’ll share them. OK. Sounds good. So, my name is Theresa Tom. I am the Vision Zero Coordinator for the Southwest region of North Dakota, and I wanted to give you all an update on Vision Zero and what we’ve been up to.

00:12:09,730	So Vision Zero’s goal is to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes. This is our team currently. We added a Jamestown coordinator and, um, a Dickinson coordinator in the past year. Um, so our team has grown exponentially, um so.

00:12:35,100	yeah, we added Kelly just a month ago in the Dickinson region. About 40,000 lives are lost every year in America and then in North Dakota alone, 100 people die every year. That’s 100 families, 100 schools, 100 communities that are impacted um by car crash fatalities.

00:13:07,000	These are our numbers in North Dakota in the past 10 years, um, at the end, in 2014, that was near the end of the oil boom, so you can see that we’ve tapered off and in 2022, that was the first year in 20 years, we were under 100 fatalities in North Dakota.

00:13:23,530	So Vision Zero is working and we’re getting down to our goal. And then broken down by gender in 2023, 65% of our fatalities are male and only 35% were female. And then we also have the breakdown by month. So our summer months continue to be our highest fatalities, um, and in February that is most often our least fatality month.

00:13:50,230	So that’s the safest month to be driving around. OK, so now to the packet part that I gave you. So these numbers are from 2019 to 2024. They’re the past five years, so, um, we had 2,392 injury crashes in Burleigh County.

00:14:18,530	Of those crashes, 90% were in the city um, and then from ages 15 to 19, there are 634 crashes, ages 20 to 25, there were 620 crashes and then ages 65+ was 613 crashes. So I broke that down. You can see the numbers all listed out, the ages, um, and I just added them all up and divided that.

00:14:39,270	So for our fatalities, we had 33 fatalities in the past 5 years in Burleigh County, 60% were urban, 40% were rural, um, wear helmets were applied, only 33% um were not using their helmet at the time of the crash. So that’s like motorcycles or off highway vehicles.

00:15:04,800	Um, and then wear seat belts applied 27% of the fatalities in Burleke County were rejected. Again, the ages involved in these fatalities, 15 to 19 had 5 fatalities. That’s our highest age group of fatalities. ages 20 to 25 had 3 fatalities in ages 65+ had 13 fatalities, so you can see that the ages 15 to 25 had by far our most injury crashes.

00:15:33,800	They accounted for our younger drivers, but our age is 65+ drivers accounted for more of the fatalities. Any questions on that? Yeah. That only tolls 21 or the other.

00:15:55,730	tell these So, the other fatalities are the other ages, and you can see it if you had your, if you had the packet, it would have the other ages, so, um, from 35 to 64 or excuse me, from 26 to 64, those fatalities aren’t accounted for because they were a smaller number. I’m, I’m highlighting the numbers that had the highest fatalities.

00:16:26,630	Does that make sense? OK And then I also included the urban high crash locations in the rural high crash locations. So in Burleigh County, we had the number 2 in the in the entire state was State Street and 43rd here in Bismarck. Had 498 crashes.

00:16:52,170	and then number 3 was State Street in Calgary Avenue, 466 crashes and one fatality, and then number 7 was Main Avenue and 7th Street with 6 367 crashes and one fatality. And then for rural high crash locations. I know this isn’t in Burleigh County, but I thought I’d, I’d mention it is Highway 83 N23. That intersection is ranked number one in rural high crash locations. It had a 596 crashes and 4 fatalities.

00:17:15,800	and all of these crashes were due to drivers in North Dakota on ND 23, failing to yield. And you can see on the packet, um, DOT has plans for certain of the certain crash locations. They have a plan for this one. Um, and then number 2 for high crash locations was North Dakota 1804 and Burt Creek Loop.

00:17:39,700	which I think was mentioned already. Um, with 126 crashes. All of them were angel crashes, and most were involving an eastbound vehicle. Any questions on that Mr. Chair, Miss Chaman,. Mr. Wood. Um, Bernie County has several roundabouts. Have you seen any that are relatively new.

00:17:58,470	Have you seen any fatal accidents on any of those? Do you know? Not to my knowledge, no. Um. roundabouts in decrease the they, they might increase crashes, but they decrease the fatal crashes.

00:18:27,170	so And how about, uh, Highway 83, uh, State Street Bismarck has done, or the DOT I suppose, uh, revamped that whole highway almost for a mile and a half or so. Has that seen a reduction? They, they, they said they were gonna reduce the number of accidents.

00:18:41,170	Has that happened? Um, it is too early to tell, I think, um yeah, I don’t have the answer for that unfortunately I can, I can see it and ask, but, um, this is all the data I have for right now. Yeah. Any other questions Comm Bucker. So with the roundabouts, a lot of it’s just because of the decreased speed limiting the fatalities, correct? Yes. I think it’s more than just the degree speed.

00:19:07,900	I think it’s the angle of impacts, no more T-bone crash. It’s more of like a wishbone type of huh. Right. OK. Any, anything else on this slide? OK. So now we’re going to move into community involvement. This shouldn’t take too much time.

00:19:32,900	Um, we were at the kids’ safety day at the Capitol this past July, um, we had I think over 800 kids come to kids Safety Da. I had a sticker pole with questions asking what the most important thing to do is when you get into the car, um, and I’d sit in the back, stay calm and quiet, ask the driver for a snack every 30 seconds or buckle your seatbelt and the majority of them said, Buckle

00:19:50,000	your seat belt. There were a couple kids that said ask the driver for a snack every 30 seconds. So Wayne. I hand on I OK, and then on July 31st, we had our DUY Alltar event with the Bismarck Clarks.

00:20:10,430	We recognized officers that helped to get impaired drivers off of our roadways, um, so you can see in the center picture that’s Deputy Jade Johnson. Deputy Jade Johnson, um, shaking Robin’s hand and receiving a bat and a key chain, um, and recognizing him for his hard work, getting the impaired drivers off of our roadways.

00:20:34,330	So we recognized, uh, officers, law enforcement from North Dakota Highway Patrol, the Bismarck Police Department, Burleigh County, Sheriff’s Department, um, Morin County Sheriff’s Department, Mandan Police Department, and Lincoln Police.

00:20:57,230	Think that’s all of them But yeah, that this was a great event to take part in just because we were actually recognizing officers in front of the regular everyday people and letting them know that we have officers that are doing the hard work out there, um, and they appreciate the officers appreciated it too, which was cool to see. OK, and then we we’re doing some work in tribal schools as well.

00:21:17,530	We had the party with police at United Tribes Technical College, um, you can see that the law enforcement and the people with United Tribes are, um, doing a tug of war with each other. There was a bunch of fun games at this, um, party with the police.

00:21:37,470	Um, and it was a great way for, um, the tribe to interact with law enforcement and then, um, Standing Rock is one of our Vision Zero schools, so, um, I taught the Vision Zero student leaders Setellt safety curriculum, and then they went and presented in front of their kindergarten through 5th grade peers.

00:21:54,800	about seatbelt safety, so I thought that might be more impactful than just me presenting to the students like them teaching each other is probably gonna go a lot farther. OK, and that’s all I have. Thank you so much, Burleigh County for housing this position. I really appreciate all of the support you’ve given me in Vision Zero. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Teresa. Appreciate the update. Yes. Any other questions before I head out? Comm, any questions? Um Mr.

00:22:18,370	Brocket. So what’s the next steps as far as where the program goes from here. You guys have done a lot of great groundwork where you see this going over the next couple of years.

00:22:37,630	Um, it’s always growing and developing, I think, with adding two more coordinators, we’re hoping to cover more ground across schools and across communities like we’ve, we’ve gotten into schools, we’ve done that, and I think we’re hoping to expand more in the community now whether that’s working with different businesses or um partnering with um bigger, bigger corporations, bigger companies, um, it’s just getting those right contacts. So current messaging is working. just. Yes.

00:23:01,630	Now you’re just looking at expanding that message out further. Right, yes. Thank you. Yeah, thank you all. OK, we’re on item number 8 county Engineer Hall. You got a developer waiver request, Township flexund grants, and County Flex Fund grants. Welcome, Marcus.

00:23:27,270	Union Comm, first item I have on the agenda is the developers waivers request. Um, under our current policy, under pavement policy, all internal roads of a subdivision that’s presented to uh the county or either the city’s Lincoln or Bismarck, uh, required to have their internal roads paved.

00:23:51,330	Uh, we’ve gotten a request from LGO Trust in Burt Creek Township, and there’s a map included in your packet, the location of that particular proposed subdivision. They’re creating a two-lo subdivision, and they’re requesting a waiver of our pavement policy. Under our current policy, they’d be required to pave about uh 0.3 miles, uh, it’d be a township, a mile or subdivision roadway going in there.

00:24:12,530	Under the waiver process that we have developed, this would allow the county board to let the PA move forward and through the approval process, but does not preclude uh the, the county or township from requesting that the individuals that live in that particular plat, uh, participate with any paving in the future that we may happen to do in that area.

00:24:30,530	So there is a proposed resolution in your packet. Um, I’d recommend approval, but I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. Commissioners, any questions? Move to approve Motion is second to approve any further discussion? Call the rule. Comm Woodcoox. Yes, Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Chain Bitner.

00:24:50,600	Yes, motion carries. The next item I have on the agenda is approval of support for township flexund grants. Uh, the 19th or the 2025 legislative session set up a new program basically for Township flex funds. Actually, the program did exist. They just put additional monies and stuff to that particular program.

00:25:12,430	As part of the application process, uh, they were requiring that these townships get approval from the, the county that you support the project basically that they’re putting forward. Um, we’re a little concerned with the timing of the application, when it’s due and stuff like that and how everybody puts their application in at the last minute.

00:25:29,070	We won’t be able to get it to the county board in time, um, that we would prefer to just do a blanket support of all township uh projects they present for this flex funds. I can’t imagine any uh township putting forward any particular grant that we wouldn’t support at the end of the day anyway.

00:25:47,630	So, uh, what we’re asking for is, uh, just a blanket support. There’s a proposed resolution in your packet. Uh, Un this particular program, they have a standard letter that’s signed by the auditor. I’ve talked to the auditor.

00:26:01,070	Uh, what we will do if we get a grant from a township, we’ll put the letter together, send it over to the auditor, have him sign it and return it included in part of the package. So I’d recommend approval, but I’d take any questions. Comm Bakke.

00:26:19,870	Uh, so Marcus, um, these FlexFund grants, are they just for uh townships that we have an MOU with or is it open for all the townships in Burleigh County. They’re they’re open to all the townships, organized and unorganized uh within Burleigh County. OK. So, uh, moved to approve Second. Motion second to approve any further discussion, Mr. Chair Comm Munsen, Marcus, so picked the first project at 1.75 million. What’s our cost share versus what is the possible grant.

00:26:42,730	Comm, that’s the next board letter. This one’s just dealing with the township. OK. Then I’ll deal with the county ones that. All right, so you. Maybe I’ll motion a second to approve on the township Flex Fund grants, and the other discussion called. Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken, yes, Comm Schwab, Comm Woodcock, Chair Bitner.

00:27:01,370	Yes, motion carries. The next one, you stole my thunder already, is the, is the county, uh, Flex Fund grants that we’re going to be talking about. And I just want to take a brief, this is a little background information. I, uh, presented this sheet of paper to you to just to give you an idea.

00:27:16,870	Legislative session at the very last minute, a lot of things were going on with county funding and stuff. So, uh, this kind of explains what we got, what we didn’t get, what we were expecting kind of thing going back and forth. Uh, as you can see this, I’ll just go down it real quick.

00:27:30,170	Legacy funds, we were anticipating $2 million. We talked about this last year during the budget process and stuff. Uh, we did not get that money, so bad for the highway department, but good for the residents of Burleigh County cause they’re taking that money and that’s going to go to uh, a lot of the

00:27:46,700	reduction in property tax. So it’s a good thing for the county residents just not so good for the highway department.

00:27:58,270	So, um, the next thing that they did, they did find a little bit more money for gas tax, uh, so we are going to get a little bit of an increase in the Gas X allotment that we get. The next thing is the prairie dog bunny. Uh, they did change that formula to a certain extent, so, uh, we are gonna get, and they did divide it into two different pots of money.

00:28:15,070	Uh, the first pot of money is the direct money that we’ll get comes right to Burleigh County. Um, we won’t get that money until the pot’s filled. That should be sometime next year. We don’t know exactly, but sometime next year.

00:28:31,730	Uh, in addition to that, they did, they set up some grants that were eligible to get possibly get, um, and the same goes kind of with the flex fund. They have the flexund a particular part. We weren’t anticipating any money, uh, but they do have direct allocation out of that particular pot of money. Uh, so we are going to get, uh, about 3.2 million for that.

00:28:47,170	So, um, as it sits kind of right now our anticipation of what’s going to come to us. We’re gonna be down about 867,000. So, however, we have these grants that we could possibly get um, get.

00:29:08,470	So, at this point, um, and they are doing the same graph application formula, uh form uh for both the prairie dog and the flexun. So the, the, the process will be very similar and stuff that what they’re going to go through. Uh, we put together 4 projects on this, uh, they were asking county board support for. um that kind of meet the criteria that they were looking for.

00:29:26,630	And those are kind of criteria does this, these projects connect certain points together, uh, different things like that. One of the things these grants are 100%. So to answer your question, 1.75, that’d be 100% is what we’re looking for that.

00:29:46,430	Now, one of the things that helps prove, improve your ability to get the grant is if you come in and say, Oh, we’re going to do this as a 50/50 grant. Say we use local property tax for 50% of it and 50% of it is, is a grant. So we may want to do with that kind of thing.

00:30:01,330	As we get closer to filling out these applications, they’re not due until the end of September. I, I’ll, I recommended that I work with Comm Schwab and we kind of talk about what money we actually really have to work with, and maybe one of these projects we’ll wanna do something where we say, uh, this is going to be a 50/501.

00:30:16,170	So, uh, the four projects that we were looking at is, uh, basically a microsurfacing on 71st and Centennial, that loop basically there. Uh, the paving of 66th Street, um, and Fifty-seventh Street. These are roads that we constructed not that long ago. Uh, microsurfacing of Moffatt Road from 83 all the way over to 1804.

00:30:41,900	And then uh microsurfacing of 80th from Apple Creek Road up to Seventy-first. And each one of these projects may be divided up a little bit into stages, uh, so that we stand a better chance of receiving some funds because as you can see the dollar figures associated with that are, are quite substantial

00:30:57,270	in each one of those particular cases. So um, as I mentioned, they’re gonna have a scoring system that they’ve kind of developed already. We’ve had some information received from the DOT on that. Uh, we’re in the process of just putting those, uh, grants together at this time.

00:31:15,500	Um, I would, there’s a proposed resolution in your packet. I recommend support, um, but I’d be happy to answer any questions, Mr. Bachmann. Mark is, on projects like the first one, for the microsurface of, uh, Seventy-first Avenue Centennial Road.

00:31:33,630	Does that connect up to the city limits, the city boundaries at some point, and what are their plans cause it’s a little silly to do a project if then it’s not finished because it just crosses the line into the city. So, what does that scenario look like? In that particular situation, we go from city limits basically over to 83.

00:31:50,100	So on 83, the DOT’s limit and it’s hard to stop right there. Uh, the city limit is a little bit different. Uh, at this point they’re there a discussion with as far as making sure that all the depth discussions on what they would like to do beyond that.

00:32:06,170	Their portion isn’t too bad because they’ve redone it since we did redid ours before, so, yeah, in concrete. So the, so it’s not gonna be as big a deal there as far as the changeover, so. Yeah, I just want to make sure.

00:32:24,000	You bet projects come up that we’re not creating a scenario where we’ve got a road section that ends and it comes up to the corporate limits of City of Bismarck, and then what does that look like for, for transportation perspective, so All right, thank you. Any other questions? Moved to approve Thank Motion of second to approve any further discussion. Pa. Comm Bakken. Comm Schwab, Yes, Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries.

00:32:51,630	you before you take off. Um, do we have any anticipated grant requests under the unorganized townships. At this point we haven’t decided to put anything together. We’re still looking at that a little bit.

00:33:10,800	Like I said, they have real strict criteria and, and what will be funded and so we want to be able to pick a project that helps meet their criteria. So right now we’re still looking through those details. So. Thank you. Yep. Go ahead. Next, HR Director Biner, Buildings and Grounds Department discussion.

00:33:35,470	Um, before, before we get started on that, I want to make sure that the commission knows about something we became aware of recently. Um, as of the end of last week, we found out that we’ve been losing a lot of water at the Provident building, and we didn’t, we didn’t know anything about it.

00:33:53,500	Uh, nobody brought it to my attention, but apparently this problem started Um, we, we get daily notifications and emails during the workweek from the City of Bismarck concerning our water usage. and they were notifying us of a water loss. um, started in May of 2024. and ended in October of 2024, and we got daily notices about this, but nobody informed us.

00:34:16,970	And then it quit for um the winter period and then it started up again in May of 2025 and it’s been, it was continuing up until today. And so we were losing approximately 70 gallons of water per hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for that length of time, and I did a little bit of math on that and just for

00:34:34,100	just for general numbers in this amount of time, um, that was approximately 500,000 gallons of water. And so I did a little quick math based on the average water use at my house.

00:34:55,970	and the amount of water that was wasted at at the Provident Building, um, was enough to to feed my house for 148 years. Give you an idea of how much water we’re talking about, but um, anyway, I I brought it to the attention of the maintenance staff, and that’s, that’s the reason I want to bring this up because we did a letter of, uh, thanks to um some staff that put in some additional work.

00:35:14,170	But, uh, Dean Van Leet from our maintenance staff went up there and looked at it today because we were going to have a technician from one of the contractors on the Provident remodel. Go up and look at it tomorrow morning.

00:35:30,100	And, uh, instead, Dean went up there today and took a look, and, um, in short order, he found the problem. There was a bunch of these little uh regulator disks that were missing out of the, um, water cooling tower that we’re allowing the thing to malfunction and blow water out onto the roof.

00:35:48,630	And so when I was up there the other day, I could see that, you know, I was blowing the water out and it was following this, uh, trench right on down and running right straight down the drain. And apparently everybody was of the impression it’s always been that way, so there’s nothing wrong.

00:36:05,530	Well, they found like 7 of these things that had been somehow they ended up in the sump of the machine or whatever and somebody physically collected them up and set them off to the side, and so they were sitting there, but um it was Dean that um troubleshot that problem and um resolved that and, and the city of Bismarck has this water analytic problem, so we should

00:36:22,530	be able to see a noted notable improvement in the water consumption at the Provident buildings simply due to the efforts of Dean, and I want to make sure that he gets a thank you for that. So go ahead then. OK.

00:36:42,230	Chair Bittner Bittner and Commissioners, I did put together the agenda items for the buildings and grounds department. We do have a vacancy in our facility’s director position and I do need your approval to post that position again. but what I’m suggesting is because we already have the provident remodel and Burley East underway that we post for both.

00:37:03,600	the facilities director and the facility’s manager position to see what we can get, kind of what we did with the finance director. to see which one we could get, which one would make sense. and I’m just wanting approval if you want to post both and and see what we get or post one or the other.

00:37:22,230	I would move to post both as, as you recommend. Yeah, I would, I would concur with that, folks, um, because it depends on who applies and what their qualifications are, so um, Any other comments Caro. Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcox. Yes, Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. OK.

00:37:40,900	The second item I have is the memo. Um, we have two senior staff in the buildings and grounds department. One is Dean, the other is Mike. Um, Dean’s been here since 2016. Mike’s been here since 1998.

00:38:02,370	and they have neither one wants to do the facilities manager or director position, but they have stepped up when Kevin retired. Um, they were continuing to step up well. Bob Hook was here and now they’re stepping up again. We did not pay them anything extra.

00:38:25,170	the first time, so I’m suggesting that we do pay them a stipend by adjusting their pay, um for the interim and then 3 months after the new facilities, person is hired just because they’re starting to, they, they have to train that person.

00:38:44,630	And what’s going on as well as both Mike and Dean have job shadowers because we have Shane and Nathan that are new and they’re learning the ropes so each one has to take one of those and they have a job shadow and they’re trying to do their position and part of the facilities director position, the best they can. Comm Bachan and, uh, the trigger for that going back would be the hiring of either one of those. future positions, correct Yes OK I would move to approve OK.

00:39:09,530	Motion second to approve the, uh, temporary pay variances. Any further discussion? And I do support that. Comm Buckman. Yeah, absolutely, those two individuals have, uh, um, fold a lot of holes and, uh, work through a lot of situations and, uh, um, their diligence is saving Burleigh County money by

00:39:31,430	their extra efforts, so absolutely I. Yeah. I would, be in favor of this. I, I can add to that because today I also called on Dean and Mike to um investigate a situation in the courthouse.

00:39:48,730	and they got right on it and went over there and got back to me right away. Um while I was outside looking at some projects. that they were in the middle of, uh, Donna from court administrator came over and, and was asking me about the status of these um the plumbing and the toilet replacements in the courthouse.

00:40:12,500	that apparently had fell through the cracks and and so the decision was to go ahead and contact the contractor that was involved and have them, uh, schedule a Wednesday start on that project, and Dean and Mike ran over to the courthouse and verified where the water shutoff valves and all that stuff is for the project and Mary Singer sent out an email

00:40:31,730	to all the staff relative to that building and um and we’re we’re notifying them that there may be a water shut off for at least half the day, possibly more if they run into troubles starting on Wednesday.

00:40:51,430	So, there, there was certainly extra effort in both of these guys have have, uh, stepped up and done anything that I’ve asked in addition, um, uh, during this period, and I, I want you to know I appreciate that. So any further discussion, call the roll. Comm Woodcox, Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken, Comm Schwab, Karen Bittner. Yes, motion carries.

00:41:12,330	And the third thing I have is I’m requesting a vacation annually variants for Mike Kroennberg. Um, he has been here since 1998, so he is earning a good share of annual leave and he understands that he’s probably not going to be able to take that this year.

00:41:29,630	because we won’t have a facilities director and it’s taking both Dean and Mike to get the jobs done. So I would ask for a variance for Mike to be able to carry that over for 6 months. And if he doesn’t use it in 6 months, he loses it.

00:41:46,600	But we got to give him a chance, Comm, how’s Dean’s status? Is he OK with where Dean is at OK. Yes. Uh, moved to prove. Second, motion to approve. Any further discussion, call the rope. Christian Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcock. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carriers. I just have one more comment.

00:42:07,970	I’d like to thank James, Shane, and Nathan as well. There are other 3 members of the buildings and grounds department. They are newer, but they’re still working very hard. Hm. Thank you. All right. Just noted one quick question. HR, uh, I was over there today. It’s a little humid down in the HR workspace.

00:42:26,170	I was that better now? It is better. I OK. We do have a The dehumidifier’s working that we used at the prominent buildings. So that’s working. All right, thank you. Thanks Thank you, Pam Kate, Coy Finance Director and treasurer Jacobs, budget amendment for auditor Treasurer Office. Welcome Lee. Good evening, Chair Bitner and Commission.

00:42:53,230	So this, this item has made its return multiple times. um the, the specifics of the amendment as we wrote it was to move uh the auditor and the elections coordinator out to their own budget along with an estimate of, you know, their share of the other items like, like education and training so that was my understanding

00:43:17,470	initially was that the admin assistant was going to be in the treasurers um. side of the office. so that, but that did not come through in the actual split of the offices, but I now see item number 14 is a discussion on sort of the this situation.

00:43:43,070	Do we, do we wanna wait to discuss the budget amendment until that time. 1414, uh, B temporary transfer of employees to help with treasury duties. Oh. yeah, well, we can discuss that now.

00:44:06,900	I mean, if you, if you think it’s better to, to put it under 14B, is that what you? Well, what I’m saying is the, the, the budget amendment as it’s written still has just the election coordinator and the auditor off on their own budget. So that would leave uh an an employee who currently reports to the auditor under the treasurer’s budget.

00:44:24,470	But if that’s gonna change with 14B, which I, I don’t know I wasn’t part of the, we’ll go ahead, we’ll go ahead and move it then if there’s any, we’ll, we’ll move it, take it back up under 14B. OK, thank you. OK, now, item number 11, um, just for clarification, this is, um, information that was presented by Finance Director Jacobs. um not necessarily under Comm Munsen.

00:44:53,470	I was giving him some grief that he was in the minority on the vote on that thing, and it appeared that he was looking to reconsider something that is not up for reconsideration, so he told me that there was some new information from Lee and Lee, if you want to present that new information, I guess this would be the point. but it’s not a reconsideration.

00:45:15,730	Chair, Bittner and Commissioners, I, I did get some new information on Friday. I received a call from the um our bond guys as, as I call them.

00:45:36,800	and they had a sort of a new quote for me, um, apparently what happened is the the original conversation I had asked them to prepare a quote for 5 years. at 10.5 million and 20 years at 16.5 million for the provident renovation. and so then when I received the information back from them and brought it to you, I think I had 4% for the 5 year and. 5.

00:45:57,970	7 for the 20 year. What I learned on Friday was that um they had gotten one quote and had used different time frames in that quote as a proxy.

00:46:23,000	So for example, the 5 year um quote was the 1st 5 years of the 20-year bond, and the 20 year quote was the the average rate on the or the effective rate on the 20 year bond. And so this is. this whole conversation was happening pretty rapidly the last couple of weeks, um.

00:46:46,600	and so since I was last here, they had gone and gotten a proper 5-year quote, which, again, that was, that was what I thought we were dealing with, but, um, I, I learned it was not. So they went and got a, a five-year quote and it came back at a much lower rate, which makes sense because you’re tying up your money for uh for a shorter length, but the rate was between 3.25 and 3.

00:47:08,900	4 for a five-year, um, bond, and he grabbed a, a quote for $8 million. at 5 years, callable in 3. The payment was, I believe, 1.7 million, but really the rate was what I was trying to highlight in the email that I sent out was that with a rate of 3.25 to 3.

00:47:30,330	4, it’s, it’s lower than the 4%, and it actually puts us, um, below the average or the below the 5 year treasury rate. which is because we’re um we’re seeking a, a non-taxable, excuse me, issue.

00:47:50,000	and so treasuries are taxable, and so the rate’s a little bit higher, but that was the information I was the new information that I received, Mr. Chair. Comm Munsen. So the other part that is in your packet, um, when we approved the $17 million of spending in reserve funds to pay for the remodel Lee had put together, um a little chart for us to let us know that our balance after that will be

00:48:12,530	under 10 million, which is then also under R 25% minimum reserve. So that’s an education or or at least a knowledge for you guys that we are below our minimum Once we spend the money for the project Mhm. Mr. Bachman.

00:48:36,530	So Lee, um, being that this project is going to be drug out over two years. Um, do you have an estimate of what the replacement of that reserve fund would be over the course of that 2 years as, as money’s getting spent out for the project.

00:48:58,800	Uh, excuse me, so as of right now we’ve got I, I think we’ll replace, just to answer your question, uh, we’ll probably replace maybe a million, um, this year. uh, as we finish the year, we’ll probably add a million next year, possibly another million.

00:49:19,370	Um, we do have 9 million in the, in excess half cent sales tax that I sort of put out to the side that is technically reserves, but it had, there’s been some different discussions about what to do with it, um, you know, in the past year or so, uh, I don’t think it’s risen to the level of, of firmly committing it or, you know, transferring it out of the general fund, but yeah, I think we’ll maybe add perhaps 2 million.

00:49:38,470	One of the, so that we have the resources to stay above that threshold for that 25%. I think if you set aside the 9 million which is what I did in the in the packet, we’ll be close to 25%. Uh, the 9 million.

00:50:00,430	like I said, is, is technically reserves, it’s just the reason I set it to the side is there had been some conversation about using it for other, you know, purposes, tax relief and stuff like that, but nothing has been like voted on. OK, but, but as Lee said, just in the next year of interest income. before we start making payments to contractors.

00:50:25,530	We should be able to earn enough interest to get ourselves above the 25%, yeah, I. I don’t see that as a problem at this point. Nope. OK, thanks, Lee. But again, Mr. Chair, the way we set this up though too, it’s still, we have that flexibility if needed, we can go out and bond. Yeah.

00:50:40,000	So that, that, that was the one thing that we did with the va was make sure that we do have contingencies, so there’s options if we need to be nimble because something comes up. Yeah. It’s really count isn’t such a good point, uh, position, Comm Leox. Mr. Chair, thank you.

00:50:58,070	On this one sheet that we’ve got that says balances of January 1, 2025 or 20.3 million. There’s nothing referring the ARPA funds that we have set aside for this. those are that’s, that’s true. I don’t think I captured it as such. Those are in the capital, um, projects fund. Oh, OK. There we go. That’s where it’s at.

00:51:18,900	And the, and the other you’re referring to is at the bottom it says excess half that sales tax at 8.9 million. That’s, we haven’t made a commitment on how we’re going to use that at all, right? I don’t recall a vote. I don’t think we have either. Nope.

00:51:33,900	So, that is available if we were to move that into the general fund, it would go on to the reserves, correct? Yeah, that’s technically in your reserves as we speak, yeah. Well, well, if we do that, there’s no reason. We’ll never get below that 25%. That’s, that’s the point, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK.

00:51:57,730	Thanks, Lee Comm Bach and um ETA discussion Yeah, I wanted to have an opportunity just uh a little bit of feedback for uh, the discussion that we had, um, with the Joint Commissions of both city, uh, Bismarck, and Burleigh County.

00:52:19,730	I want to thank everybody who was able to attend that, um, I think from a an introductory perspective and just from a presenting information. I think it was very beneficial, uh, to get that information. Um, I’d like a little feedback from the rest of the commission. Your thoughts.

00:52:36,970	We had a lot of residents that, uh, did speak up, and I’m looking forward to hearing from more that have issues out in the ETA, um, you know, one of the things we’ve been working on got addressed, um, and City Comm Connelly is here as well. Um, one of the things that, uh is going to change for ETA residents is the 3200 square feet constraint, um.

00:52:55,430	so it, it’s a good step in the right direction. Um, but it’s just the first step, so it’s any input from commissioners that, uh, I, I would love to hear what your take on that first meeting was? Good question. I definitely have some input for you.

00:53:17,270	Um, you probably received some pictures today in your email from uh from county engineer regarding um water drainage issues within the city. Um, that’s right down on Airway Avenue. It just so happened that I noticed that right after the meeting because I was going to the airport to pick my wife up.

00:53:33,900	She was flying in from a short vacation without me, which was great for both of us, and um I didn’t mean that you just said that on in a recording. I know. She’s going to use that against you forever. And I’m, I’m taking some liberties with that just for, just for humor’s sake, you know.

00:53:52,070	Um, but anyway, I noticed that there was a drainage problems, um, right within the city limits that are real similar to the problems that we were talking about that got us to that $5,590,000 worth of estimated work that, um, we did, so my biggest comment would be that question that I asked, and I guess it was also quoted in the newspaper, that’s the

00:54:14,600	question. that I, I want an answer. Are you going to make a lump sum payment or then I’ll that’ll work. Or you want to make payments with interest.

00:54:32,100	because that’s, that’s the question, because until we get to the resolution of the the financial impact of this ETA between the city of Bismarck has on. on, on us in the, in the county, um, the reason that’s a really big deal is because as we go through budgets and everybody knows we talk about projects and where we’re putting money, what bridges, what culverts, what roads are we working on? Then

00:54:48,100	all of a sudden we throw in this stray thing that nobody had a plan for, um, a drainage problem in a subdivision that’s resulting in flooding of basements and whatnot.

00:55:06,230	Well, how are we funding that? Well, we’re taking that out of either reserves or taken away from other planned projects and things that don’t get done, and those are tax dollars that come from all of the taxpayers in Burleigh County. And so just to say that, well, that was something in the past and like the mayor made a comment that, um, you know, the city residents pay county taxes.

00:55:24,900	What I’m saying is that this current thing is absolutely wasting taxpayer dollars, especially city residents who have no, uh, no idea that it’s costing them all of these millions to do these repairs. So that was, that was a really important thing. and with regard to a step in the right direction at this point until we resolve this, um, financial responsibility.

00:55:47,370	I think the C of Bismarck needs to get back to the city limits and do their job and we’ll do our job out in the county. Um, I mentioned during that meeting that um I made a call to the city concerning um um metal um, stuff that is blowing around from one’s one particular site out here by the rural rural

00:56:08,700	fire department. and none of that has been secured yet, so the next storm can just pick that up and hurl it around the county wherever it’s going to end up, and I work with that kind of material, and I can tell you, gentleman that’s like flying razor blades.

00:56:24,870	you know, this, this sheet metal stuff that we use on buildings, um, we secure that stuff every day on a job site so that nothing can blow around in case the storm blows up overnight. Now we’ve got that stuff literally laying around out in the open.

00:56:41,270	um just free to blow in the wind, and I can’t understand for the life of me why that hasn’t been addressed, but that’s under their jurisdictiony. And, and those are the kind of things that I’m concerned about myself. Commissioners, you’re welcome to take over. uh, Mr.

00:57:01,530	Chair, uh, from the meeting we were talking about having another opportunity for residents to come in and speak like at this meeting. Is that something still that we’re planning on doing? Absolutely. I mean, we’ve got the public comment and, and those who want to speak on the ETA issues. OK.

00:57:15,970	I wasn’t sure if we were inviting a very specific or just ask them to come I will invite people to come and speak at all times. Perfect. It’s, I want to hear from people who have concerns with the ETA so that we can bring that up to, um, other portions of the meeting, so great. Miss Mir Comm Woodcock Woodcock.

00:57:33,100	Has any action been done on the working group that we’re going to be forming? Uh, not to the best of my knowledge on our side yet, but, um, the city Comm Mike Connelly is here, I believe. Mike, if you’ve got an opportunity to if you have any insight on, uh, where things are at on the city side.

00:57:52,330	I’ve been out of town, so I, I’ve got a meeting with the city administrator later this week, but, uh, if you have any input, uh, or any of your discussions, I’d love to hear that. Yeah. Thank you, Chair and Commissioners. Uh, I think we all left the meeting a little bit.

00:58:08,430	We had some uh, consensus on guidance on where we’re gonna go, but the, there was nothing formally written down, so we were at a little bit of an impasse. Um, I did talk with Comm Bakken a little bit this morning and said that our first city commission coming out of the gate. We didn’t have a designated item on our agenda for a public comment period.

00:58:29,230	Um, so the, your comments, Comm Munsen, um, I did make a call out to her assistant city administrator today and said for the next meeting next week to uh have a designated space or mention um so we have that highlighted that people are addressing it, it’s earmarked rather than the public comment. Now. what they come up with on the agenda.

00:58:52,170	I’ve learned through experiences and I always, as a, um, other people, uh, uh, sometimes have, uh, insight on it differently, so I’m hoping that it’s designated.

00:59:14,000	We’ll see what happens, um, well, Comm Connelly did that and, and to your question, Comm Munsen, was, it was my understanding that we were having it on ours, which we put it on here and that the city was going to have it on theirs and it was kind of gonna be an ongoing thing. So, and that’s why I made that call up this morning and they said they’re gonna work on it.

00:59:28,370	So, and I think by having these discussions back and forth, we can hopefully benefit the citizens to make sure that we’re all keeping each other accountable. Um, one thing of importance that I would add to it on an educational basis, and I’ll bring it up at the meeting next week. Uh, when I moved from the table here on the question that they said that they weren’t going to answer.

00:59:45,470	Um, had a meeting internally with staff and another constituent we sat down and uh I was told that um we weren’t going to talk about certain assessment charges one way or another that does have a long history on different things because that particular practice would be employed whether the ETA conversation existed or not, and I was going

01:00:10,500	based on my own educational background and looking up things from the 1975 and 1977 legislative decisions. It was interesting in that meeting when city staff got up, they started talking about that. It’s been a state discussion since 1929.

01:00:31,900	So, um, to kind of turn the page off that little hardship to where they didn’t want to answer. It’s been in discussion for so long to bring it back to where it’s totally an ATA uh conversation right now is, um, the, uh, look back, uh, abeyances taxes, and most regards no longer are a thing at present unless a commission changed the rules at a later date.

01:00:56,970	In 2018, um, with the water utility rate changes are, um, it’s called a utility capital, um, charge, and for residential lots, um, there’s a set amount of $4700 currently for commercial, it’s 24,000, which is a good answer in some respects because when we compare it to, say, the, the Martin house that was south of

01:01:20,100	Burleigh. That was nearly a $60,000 special assessment. So, to know it’s lower for some of those, that’s probably gonna help with the discussions going forward, um, I don’t know why they couldn’t have come up and educated. Hopefully our our next joint meeting, they can talk about that because it was a pretty simple discussion.

01:01:42,470	There are 6 areas, I believe, that do have an abeyance amount, but it’s solely based on water resource district projects that would be a uh assessed.

01:02:03,170	and that’s uh a little bit of a different conversation that it’s a lot into the weeds for most people, and the assessment side is just one of many facets to the ETA that we’re trying to get through and trying to address. So,, it just. I’m still a little befuddled by that because from a transparency perspective, it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to not talk about that.

01:02:19,700	So, um, that’s something I look forward to having further conversations with, but. Right. So, as far as the working group and things, it’s, I think it takes, uh, because outside of the noticed 10 person group or each individual of 5 person group. We have to, uh, be cognizant of open meeting law.

01:02:42,270	So it would be, who are you Uh, I would say who would you designate one or two to make those calls and let’s make sure that we keep our gas on this discussion, because we don’t want to lose another decade or so. We need to take care of it now. Yeah, and I should know more after, uh, my conversation with the City administrator Tomonic later this week.

01:02:57,700	So as far as where we’re at on getting those working groups together. Yeah. Give me brief. Yeah, yeah, and rural water’s gonna be um somebody that is talking withr Water and the board s and stuff, they’re gonna, um, send me some information that plays into this conversation too, so. OK.

01:03:19,500	Uh, not going to share anything within that because I don’t understand the parameters of it enough yet. OK, thanks. Which is well. I, uh going to be kind of honest. I really didn’t like that last meeting. Nobody here, at least me. was contacted and we wanted to put something on the agenda There was no supporting documents in some of the stuff they talked about.

01:03:47,900	So they take the agenda and line parakeet cages or what? I had never seen such a poorly structured meeting This is what they want to talk about and they never asked us what we want to talk about. I’m not gonna put up with that. I, I did have the uh conversation with Mitch.

01:04:07,070	That was more of an educational perspective because um where it started with me as I actually heard a Comm that on the first boat, uh, when they did not move forward, uh, Comm Connelly, your motion to have the discussion, um, and there was a lot of misinformation that was there, and, and I heard a Comm say that, well,

01:04:27,000	anybody can opt out of it, what’s the problem? And we all know that that is not the case. And if we were to opt out of it, then it defaults back to the 4 mile, and people are further burdened Uh, so, we do have somewhat of a working relationship with the city of

01:04:46,000	Bismarck in certain areas that restricts it down to the 2 mile, but there’s a lot of work we can still do on that. So, the first meeting was more the informational piece, um, moving forward, we need to hear from residents.

01:05:02,730	So if you’re a resident of the ETA, uh, potentially a resident in the ETA is the city of Bismarck grows cause we know it will, then we want to hear about your concerns so we can address some of those things.

01:05:20,330	We all as commissioners have dealt with it long enough that we know what our concerns are, and trying to work with city staff and the city of Bismarck selected officials to have a better working relationship, um that, that’s the goal, and if we can mitigate the ETA or eliminate the ETA, um, county staff can manage it, whatever that looks like, it’s gonna be a step in the right direction. Sure.

01:05:41,530	Well, I, I have full confidence in the county being able to manage anything that needs to be managed, so, um, I wanna, uh, add to the auditor, we’ll keep the ETA discussion on the agenda for the next meeting, and we’ll probably continue that. moving forward. Yeah, and, and I would invite residents that want to come and speak, please, uh, do.

01:05:58,900	We, that’s what we have the public comment. I guess, I guess I could ask anybody in the, anybody in the, uh, room one throw anything in on the ETA at this point, or wait, um, while he’s coming up, Marcus, did you share? By the way, uh, Comm, thank you. Email regarding, um, a development.

01:06:22,630	um, there was, there was a, uh I had gotten an email from Casey that talked about a letter to the city planning with some concerns about a proposed development. I think it was black.

01:06:41,370	Yeah Did you share that, the only question, did you share that email with all of the commissioners or just me? OK, I’d, I’d like for you to, um, also, um provide that email to the rest of the commissioners, um, because there was items in there in the past, the city has said, well, we, we need to be out there, uh, doing that because we got to make sure that roads line up and um you know, things are, things are done properly.

01:07:00,070	Well, in this, in this subdivision that they’re talking about, the county engineering staff is real concerned that the city is looking at allowing something where the, the roads on the opposite side of the streets don’t line up.

01:07:17,270	And, and I know this to be a fact because um just in the mile or less than 1 mile north from my place up to Highway 10. There’s right north of me, there’s two streets that don’t line up with each other, and there are different names and then right up the road, there’s, there’s one that is lining up, but they have a different name on each side of the street.

01:07:36,900	which is like, oh what, who, who? who thought that was a good idea And so those are the kind of things that Yeah, we’ll make sure that uh, all the commissioners get that letter that, uh, we put together. So OK. We’ll see you tomorrow.

01:07:55,530	Just for those at home that are listening, the reason that’s important is we supply rural fire, we supply rural law enforcement and situations like that where you’ve got the same road and two different names. That’s confusing. And, and that is time and time is the biggest detriment to public safety. So things like that should not take place.

01:08:16,800	Yeah, in addition to that, from a highway safety point of view, uh, when you’re having vehicles come out at different points, they just creates too many places where people have to look and see and what’s going on and, and when you get elderly drivers or young drivers who don’t understand the way things work,

01:08:32,900	you create a situation where we increase the accidents that those intersections, and we just want to eliminate as many of those as we can. So, so, thank you, um. So I’ll be real quick with it. I think it’s great you guys are encouraging people to speak at the city level.

01:08:54,230	but I think a lot of us that have been following the ETA for a while, understand where city representation is with this. Um, I said that your joint meeting. I’m gonna say it again. We’ve kind of been given the bird by the city. Um, they had an opportunity to lead this. It was first brought to them.

01:09:10,270	It was a 3 to 2 vote of no. Um, part of the problem is I think you guys are kind of beating your heads up against the wall because they just don’t understand.

01:09:30,100	You guys are talking to people that have not been around long enough to understand what you’re telling them Um, I’m gonna be quite frank at the joint meeting. I mean most of us residents that have been following around long enough, understood what you were saying. and the Mayor couldn’t wrap his head around it. Why encourage residents to come talk to people that have no idea what they’re talking about.

01:09:48,230	I would like to see another joint meeting held by both commissions. because right now as an ETA resident, I feel you guys are about my only representation. And if I had to say, I would rather be a county resident, do away with the ETA.

01:10:06,230	and let us be county residents, um, because as I said at the joint meeting, I can get a hold of any one of you at any time. I can’t say that from a city level. and quite frankly, I don’t think city staff know what they’re doing either, with the ETA. So let’s just quit encouraging people to come talk to the city because they’re not going to get anywhere.

01:10:23,370	Several of us have been doing it for quite a while. and we just get rand in circles. Yeah. So, thanks, guys. Yeah. Thank you. OK, you want to move on? Got enough info there at least for the next.

01:10:45,330	Again, anybody who wants to reach out to me, uh, shoot me an email, um, because our next discussion’s going to be at the joint City County Subcommittee. Um, and then we’ll take next step forwards. I’m hoping people are going to speak to the city at their, uh, next meeting. Again, this form is always open.

01:11:06,630	Uh, please reach out to any of us commissioners and Commissioners, if you’ve got anything, contact me that you want me to bring forward as well. Uh, I think we got a a framework of where we’re going and what we need to discuss, but it, like I said, it’s just baby steps at this point. Yeah. Mr.

01:11:20,530	Chair, Comm Wood, when you talk about a working group, that was one of the things that came out of that joint meeting, but, uh, we already have a, uh, Comm, but we already have a working group where we have two city and 2 county commissions that meet regularly and we get a notice saying nothing on the agenda, meeting council and meeting canceled.

01:11:37,100	I’ve seen 2 or 3 of those, so isn’t the ETA something that this working group could tackle. I think that’s where it is. Yeah, that’s where it is right now. So. Yeah. OK. And that’s going to be ongoing on that agenda also, so. OK. Um, but again, I need input.

01:11:52,100	I mean, I, I know where I stand on some ETA issues. I know the residents I’ve talked to and what they’re dealing with, uh, I’m fairly confident I got a pretty good grasp on Comm Bittner’s, uh, because those are some long standing discussions him and I have had both when I was on the city side, um, so I’ve got a

01:12:10,170	pretty good idea of him, but as far as other commissioners, please send me your input. OK. Appreciate that Next item is, uh, Comm Woodcock, Provin mural discussion, and budget Amendment, county involvement. what. Mr. Woodcoox. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

01:12:34,800	Uh, last meeting we had, we’ve, I mentioned the fact that this mural that we’re looking at and working on it is starting to roll, but we’ve, uh, uh, Ashton to have the $5000 dedicated from the, from the, uh, community involvement fund. Well, it turns out some of that money had already been spent, which I didn’t realize.

01:12:50,230	So, uh, I would like to have a budget amendment to raise that, and this is on 2025 budget, not next year’s, this is this year’s. So we can make it budgement amendment to move that $5000 to 202,001 or 50 more, which has already been spent to a total of 8150.

01:13:15,370	So I moved Second for discussion OK, we have a motion in a second to increase to 8150. Um, I don’t know that that figure, if you add 2000 or 50 to 5, it’s 7150. But I think, I think the, the next year’s budget was going to be $6000. So, cause we added 1000 onto the 5000 that we had previously. Any questions, concerns? Sure. Comm Baker.

01:13:41,000	Um, so Comm Woodcock, uh, as far as other funding sources, have you guys been able to identify some of those as far as state Heritage Center, um, where are you looking at getting other money coming in for this project. We are working on that right now. Uh, they haven’t gotten any results yet.

01:13:58,170	There’s grants and things you have to apply for, and we’re doing that. So we won’t know that until, in the meantime, that’s what this $5000 is supposed to be for is incidental expenses that they might have.

01:14:15,370	And uh uh I don’t anticipate spending, we might spend long, we might not, but anyway, we want it available in case we need to do something because there’s fees that have to go with these applications and things, but we’re working on it. It, uh, it’ll, it’ll be, you’d be surprised how much is involved with it.

01:14:30,100	So, cause there’s 4 or 5 groups that are involved in, cause I know there’s a lot of interest, uh, from the state level and, and, and so it just takes time to get through. Yes, it does. The process. OK. Yep. OK. Paul Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm Woodoxox Yes, Comm Munsen. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes. Now, Mr. Chair.

01:14:54,630	Concerning that $5000 working with Lee at least they’re still here. Uh, he felt that the easiest way to handle that rather than the, the, uh, hip, uh, Fort Lincoln Foundation not Fortnickak Foundation. It’s a regional something. Anyway, for them to write a check out of their account, it would not be appropriate.

01:15:14,900	So we’ve decided that they recommend that we just, uh, write them a check for $5000 and then they keep track of all the expenses and, and contact me with anything that’s significant, and I’ll, I’ll monitor the receipts so that everything is taken care of and have you contacted Gerrison Diversion? Is this one of their, I on the agenda, I think.

01:15:31,230	It’s one of those things where you, you get the agenda and say, oh, no, no meeting today. So, OK. I’d love to. That’s cute OK Uh, next items under me. um which I really don’t have much to to say about. There’s a redistribution of auditor, treasure, and tax equalization department portfolios.

01:15:56,070	Um, this has to do with the conversation that you and I had, Comm Munsen. that, um, with, with the auditor and the treasurer, um, and tax equalization and the finance director, I’m willing to retain the treasurer and the finance director and the tax equalization, um, Comm Bakken has, has offered to just assume

01:16:18,530	the, the balance of the auditor position. and, um, if, if the Commission concurs, I don’t think that a motion is needed, but we could. Um. to do that So we’re gonna change the I would concur. OK. Thank you. Seeing everybody nodding their heads, so that’s what we’re going to do.

01:16:40,900	Thanks for stepping up doing that. OK, and then, uh, there was temporary transfer of employees to help with treasurer duties. Um, this is where Lee wanted to put in a little bit more information, uh, Lee. Basically what we’ve talked about is, um, uh, kind of making some adjustments to who’s doing what.

01:17:03,000	Well, as, as I said, I my understanding a month ago or 6 weeks ago, whatever it was, was that we would, we would be moving um the elections coordinator and the auditor. out and then as their own uh department and then the balance of the staff would be the treasure department.

01:17:24,800	Uh, I think what actually got voted on was that the um elections coordinator, the admin assistant, and the auditor. are on their, in their own department. That’s kind of where I left left off. I’ve had a couple conversations with uh, the HR director, um and you know, there’s certainly since the office was combined historically, there’s some duties that cross lines.

01:17:58,730	I don’t really see why they couldn’t be done in any. permutation of, you know, the department, um but the actual budget that’s in the packet is just the elections coordinator and the auditor.

01:18:27,100	and so if we’re, and I wasn’t really at all part of the discussions on this item 4B um but if the plan is to move the admin assistant over to the treasurer. then the budget in the packet would be.

01:18:45,230	would be adequate, uh, or the budget amendment rather with the understanding that it should be a, a, um adjusted to the most recent pay period because it’s like a month old um but if the plan is to leave it as is, then we’ll have to come back with a. a different budget amendment next meeting. Does that make sense? OK. I think Pam wants to add to that. No.

01:19:02,800	I can put some light on the subject, poor Lee, we kind of left him hanging there. Um, Chair Bitner Commissioners With that department when we comb when we did the combination. um the administrative assistant to that real estate position. is kind of the hybrid.

01:19:24,630	It always was the hybrid because there wasn’t enough there to just be on the treasurer’s side of it, so this position was kind of treasurer and auditor’s position. The rest of them fall pretty clear, either auditor or treasurer, but this position was a combination of both. So on Comm Bakkins. um, behest today. It’s been a Monday, sorry.

01:19:47,170	Um, I did put together these job descriptions to kind of show you. that position and it’s actually the 3rd 1 from the back, so it’s the 3rd page. And depending on the election year, that administrative assistant to real estate position. If it’s an election year, it’s that position’s gonna be dedicated more towards the elections.

01:20:07,000	On non-election years, this position does more on the treasure side. This position is always there to take payments, um, because the busy time for that office was always um December through March or April when payments tax payments are due. So that’s the explanation behind it. Right. Um, so you have a suggested motion on what.

01:20:30,000	But you want to do or are we going to review this? Or Comm Or Bachman Or? Um Or Or Comm Bachman? Um Or, just for clarification purposes, um, O Spoonskowski, do you have a kind of a breakdown of what your needs are for your office and kind of a time frame of of what that looks like, because I

01:20:46,970	know this position functions as a hybrid when you’re busy time is, what’s your calendar for, uh, election services and, and performing those duties? Can you give us a little overview on that, please? Yes, so, uh, Chair Comm, Comm Bakke, um, so as far as non-election years, uh, with that specific position

01:21:06,230	does, the, the, uh, real estate admin assistant real estate, uh, as far as on the auditor side of things, the main things that that position does is the delinquent taxes, the, uh, the, the tax sale, the notices for that.

01:21:23,800	That’s kind of one of the, at least one of the bigger things that that position does for the auditor side. Now that hasn’t been exactly hashed out yet who’s going to be doing those functions, either myself or the treasurer, um, but that’s kind of as far as like the sentry code portion of the auditors. That’s one of the bigger things that they do in non-election years.

01:21:38,900	Now when it comes to election years, uh, really, because we know it’s all hands on deck when it’s election time. Correct. From a, a, a staffing perspective what do you need for an election year For an Not counting them all hands on deck, what, what do you need for dedicated staff? That’s kind of a loaded question.

01:22:00,630	It’s extremely besides everybody’s doing it. Um, so what do you need? So, yeah, besides on on election years, what I’m gonna need is, is, uh, myself, my executive assistant, and then really in all reality, I’m OK with this position being a flex position.

01:22:18,270	Between um my,, my, my, my office and the treasurer’s office, so long as his duties remained the same as they as they currently are. This flex position will be sufficient for my office’s needs as long as I, uh, retain that executive assistant slash election coordinator. OK, thank you Is that something that requires a motion to, to do or we just.

01:22:44,470	Well, you need to make a motion if you want to transfer that position to the treasurer, that’ll clear up the budget question. And that’ll clear up the budget. OK, Comm, um.

01:23:04,700	I think we’d entertain a motion to transfer that position to the treasurer I would make that motion as long as the duties remain the same as they’re laid out, um, and that, that’s the understanding. I mean, so that’s why Pam go through this today and make a little tweak to it, so, um, as per her recommendation, that would be my motion. Check it. OK, I’m not sure that cleared up all of things.

01:23:21,900	I think we have an understanding. Well, it, it, it’s a flex position and, and as long as the duties migrate accordingly as they’re needed seasonally, then that is my motion. OK. Motion in a second. Any further discussion? Mr. Comm Wooduck, and we want to make it clear we’re not adding any extra employees, right? No.

01:23:43,170	OK. Cause I’ve had questions about saying we’re creating another job where we’re, and that’s why this flex position exists is so that we don’t have to add other employees. They’re, they go where they’re needed, when they’re needed. It was pretty good deal. Paro. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcock. Yes. Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries.

01:24:05,530	Thank you. Thank you. both Pam and Lee. I appreciate the input. WBI Energy, right of entry request. Uh, so, uh, uh, Chair and commissioners, we received this letter requesting, uh uh permission to come onto our property.

01:24:32,800	Uh, then the, the parcel is referred to in the letter, um, it’s Steckle boat ramp. is, is where they’re looking to go across. So, uh, basically what I need is, is your recommendation or your approval for, for them to be able to access the, our property to survey across it, and it looks like it’s potentially to put a a pipeline across it.

01:24:49,900	Um, but that would require your, your, uh, emotion, and then I have the original documents for signatures. Move torof. Uh second for discussion Comm Bakke. Um so depending on what they’re looking at for the full expanse of this project, would that boat ramp require being closed at any point for a potential project Um, I have

01:25:18,270	not received information, uh, regarding that particular detail. OK. Cause I, I would be very interested to see what that looks like. And, and Comm Munsen, if you’ve got any input on that. I don’t have any additional input. I mean, my motion is to allow them out to do the survey. Right.

01:25:34,730	Not construction, but there’s a subsequent potential projects potential, but until we see a map as to where they’re actually proposing. I know it says 50 ft right away, right, but until I know where that 50 ft is. Well, there is a current utility easement there already, and this is this outside of that? I do not know that. OK.

01:25:57,870	Well, that, I would approve this, but I, those are still questions we’re going to have to ask in the future, so. called good. I had a question.

01:26:14,000	I just want to make sure that we get a yay or nay on this thing if they’re going to put that pipeline right in the middle of our boat ramp and shut the boat ramp down for a season or two. We, we certainly don’t want that to happen. So at some point we’re going to get some input as to where that thing goes. Right, that’s why.

01:26:27,100	Although they’re looking to go through the right of way, so the right away is not that big. And if that right away down, right down the middle of our boat ramp, we’re going to have some further discussions, I hope, right? Yeah, so the, the, I don’t have an issue with the survey. That’s where it stops. We need to have conversation after that. Yeah. OK.

01:26:44,730	Call the room. Comm Woodcock. No. Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab? No. Chair Bitner. No. Just because Well, uh, Mister Chair. Yes. I want to know because I want a little more clarification. And so I said I agree with you.

01:27:05,100	They can come and tell us what they’re doing. We don’t, this is the first time we’ve even seen that this is coming. That’s, that’s essentially why I voted no one, and I’d like to see additional information to tell us what, what are we even surveying? I’m, I’m not opposed to pipelines and oil outside of CO2 pipelines.

01:27:21,630	This would be a, this would be a oil. They’re here, aren’t they? Aren’t they here today? No. Oil and gas and natural gas and all that, that fuels our lives, but Right. Um, that’s, that’s not the point in my having any opposition to this particular ask.

01:27:38,230	I would just like to know more information about where they’re going, like, you know, before we, before we might as well know that before we even start, right, and I, and I think it would have been appropriate for a representative of that company to be here and doing the ask instead of our staff, but go ahead, Comm Schwab.

01:27:53,100	I agree because it isn’t clear to me on the stuff they gave us, whether it’s county right away, state right away, or imminent domain right away, so, uh, they need to get a representative up here. Sure. Or at least provide some better information. All right. Give me a, give me a map of Steckle and say this is a possibilities. Yeah.

01:28:14,470	Something this important you would think they’d send somebody up. Well, it’s like I said, you know, I, I, I think some of that information comes out with the survey. Right. So, I, there’s probably some things that they can’t answer until they do. So. But I do think they can.

01:28:29,370	That, that’s why I would be in favor of the survey, but not you know, Mr. Chair, that he stops there and sure we. Do we know how much land we own there? I, uh, curiosity, I have no idea. No, I actually don’t know. I can find out for you Good. OK, we’ll learn more about that at the next meeting, I’m sure.

01:28:46,530	Yeah, I’ll reach out to them. OK. Um, and if we can have a representative on the next, uh or the information for the next. on the next agenda? Absolutely. Thank you. OK, we’re down to other business.

01:29:10,370	Commissioners I, I had some thoughts on something that I um, that I want you to consider Back when we, um, approved the sales tax for property tax reduction. Um, our goal was to reduce property tax at the county portion of your property taxes. And I think that’s an appropriate thing.

01:29:30,170	Well, the whole reason I suggested it is because I think that’s a great thing to do for the citizens of Burleigh County. But one of the things that’s come to my attention that it’s actually gonna do is give a county property tax break to out of state mega corporations that profit handsomely off of Burleigh County citizens.

01:29:53,170	and that was not my intentions to give a property tax break in Burleigh County to out of state corporations such as the Wally World or, or um any other thing of the similar kind of name. or Fleet Farm or Target or or any like that. And so I, I just thought I’d mention that to you, um, for consideration.

01:30:09,630	I asked, um, state’s attorney lawyer to kind of look into some options on on, on what we could maybe do with that, and if I, I didn’t intend for her to have any, any presentation available for this meeting.

01:30:30,100	but I would like you to ask around and to think about it because I was thinking maybe something like a, a modification to the Home Rule charter that clarifies that similar to the state’s primary residence credit. you know, a county primary residence credit in a county business. credit. not, it wasn’t my intention to give some kind of windfall thing to these, these really high dollar um property. um properties around town.

01:30:55,230	So I just wanted to bring that up for discussion so that um, you guys could think about it and then I’ll, I’m sure I’ll get additional information from state’s attorney. um, even though I didn’t have a chance to check my emails, Julie, so I don’t know if. if you’re sent, but I just sent a little blurb as to how that’s done. OK.

01:31:12,100	To modify the. OK. I was, I was, I was chasing my tail today, so I didn’t have a chance to. look at that But I think for the future, we’d like to, you know, have some additional conversations on that, if you understand what I’m I’m getting at Anything else for the good of Burley County, Comm Bakke?

01:31:29,170	Uh, first of all, is there a representative of Summit here. They left. OK. All right. They left. No. Um, Marcus, are you still? Did you come up here Um I was wondering if you could walk me through the process.

01:31:51,630	So, residents out in the ETA or rural residents that are part of Bismarck Public School District. When they lay out their bus. routes and their bus plans. Do we have any conversations with them as far as where’s a safe place for pickup. Whereas what’s not impeding traffic at certain congestion times.

01:32:11,530	Are we part of that conversation at all, Commissioners, uh, over the 17 years I’ve been here, I think I’ve had one discussion in regards to bus stop locations, bus stop issues, generally speaking, no, we have no input on, on that information. OK who is the contact with, with their bussing Um, actually, I would go through the school district itself. I wouldn’t deal with the bus company to begin with.

01:32:33,800	Right, right, but who is the contact for, for that? Um, that’s a Bismar is it Darren or is it that somebody else Darren is usually the one I’ve talked to. OK. So that’s who I would start with. With him then. Yeah.

01:32:49,800	Cause I, I, I think residents bring up some great points when it comes to their kids’ safety. Uh, and when I, I, I’m a little remiss that they’re not taking into consideration, uh, unlit roadways, no sidewalk roadways, and I understand it’s robusting and that it’s a little different animal, but I got some concerns with that as well. So, uh, that, I’ll start there.

01:33:10,600	Yeah, and there’s numerous things that we can do, um some of them are low cost kind of alterations to the roadway and stuff like that. So definitely let me know how that discussion goes, um, cause I are some things we can help that as well because, you know, if, if there’s something we can do to

01:33:27,900	facilitate it on our side that is cost effective, that helps out the school district, helps out the, the kids, then we have to look at that. So thank you. Mr. Chair Comm I have the superintendent of schools uh, portfolio and I’ll visit with Branick. Can you, OK.

01:33:47,000	And I don’t think they, he has any input into it, but I’ll find out. OK. Because, uh, Bismarck School District would be the one to handle theirs, but anything beyond the school district, I don’t know they even have bus service for that.

01:34:03,000	Uh, they may have to get the kids themselves if they’re not in the school district. But I think I’ve never, I’ve never seen a bus for any of the rural schools. No. But I’ll find out I learn anything. But they’re picking up kids for the, that live within the ETA for. Oh, sure. Yeah, OK. their system, so it’ll it’ll be interesting to see what that process is.

01:34:20,000	Well, we have rural schools in Wilton and, and, and Sterling and, uh, Meokan and so they’re beyond the, the 3 mile or the 2, what is it 2. And I think what was brought up was more the BPS. They’re more concerned about. What that looks like. So, um, we’ll start there, I guess.

01:34:35,900	Thank you. Good. And Chair, if I may, I have one thing too. I just wanted to respond real quick to the one speaker who was putting you on notice that you’re paying public employees to violate the US Constitution.

01:34:49,100	I wasn’t able to get it all pulled up while she was up there speaking, but I did want you to know that there is an 1884 US Supreme Court decision that says that that the the amendment 5 which deals with grand jury indictments, does not apply to the states through the 14th Amendment and the North Dakota Constitution does talk about grand jury

01:35:07,070	indictments, but also said the legislature can abolish the grand jury system, so you are not paying public servants to violate the law. We are in compliance with the law. Thank you. Well, that’s a relief like being within the law. Anybody else? I wasn’t worried. No, I. We’re Adjourned. Thank you.