00:00:00,000	Enjoy. Good evening. It’s April twenty-ninth. We’re in the Tom Baker room of the City County building. It’s 5:15. This is a special meeting of the board of City Commissioners. Uh, we’ll call a meeting order first. Call the roll Comm Risch, Comm Zenker here, Comm Connelly, here, Comm Cleary, Mayor Schmitz here.

00:00:35,500	We have 2 items on the agenda. I’m not, they’re not necessarily in any particular order. Um So, first I’ll ask if there’s a desire to change the order as to how they’re shown or not.

00:00:54,730	Um I was going to request that we flip flop them, I guess as I was going through them, I feel like as much as I have a feel like I have a good understanding of the CIP, um.

00:01:12,830	That I would It’s hard for me to make a decision on that without discussing management first, I guess, and seeing where everybody’s at with the management discussion, but that’s just my thought that I was having when I was going over everything. I never picked which order it. Right. So I’m good with that. OK.

00:01:30,030	Than if that’s OK with everyone else, we will go to the, we’ll flip the order on the agenda and start with the management operations study that was prepared by JLL. Before we get started with that, um, I just want to give some uh some comments.

00:01:55,570	Um, I’ve received a few questions and certainly want to make sure we cover some things first, the first thing is I think we have to Determine Can, can we be status quo with how we’re operating? You know that answer, that’s one answer, I think. I don’t know if I have consensus on that or not, but That doesn’t mean there’s a change per se, but we can’t, we, we have to change the way we’re operating, so it doesn’t necessarily mean you change management, it’s change the way we’re operating.

00:02:11,030	Um, and the reason I feel that way is The event center is an amenity for the community to use, but it needs to also attract people into town, so we generate sales for our local.

00:02:34,670	Hotels, restaurants, bars, and, and like which generates tax revenue, which supports the event center because the event center is not going to operate at a profit would be lovely if we could say it could get there, but from a cash flow standpoint to do enough events, we probably have to have every square foot of the building filled. 90% of the time.

00:02:51,730	At full rental value and that’s probably not realistic, just because of turning over different types of events. We still need to support local reoccurring events at the same time, but would probably have been a little bit reversed in that and that we primarily filled the building recently, maybe forever, with mostly reoccurring kind of local events and not attracting a bunch of out of town.

00:03:12,000	Clientele to to the event center and to our community. That means it’s a different type of event mix, which Jill E has said to us, we need to change our event mix.

00:03:29,530	Um So kind of a way I look at it just because we’re Um Bussy doesn’t mean we’re always being successful. Um, so, I’m sorry, I meant to hand these out, Commissioners. It’s my fault. Well, these are just notes that I put together, so. Bear with me. And there are no particular order and that they’re not meant to. Make anything. Um Necessarily a direction.

00:03:58,370	It just As I went through the proposals and as I listened to people in the community, it’s things I wrote down. So What are some expectations we need to set.

00:04:17,100	What kind of KPIs do we need to put in place so that we feel that the event center can then run at a more effective, I’ll call it operating loss, one that we can cover by the enhanced economic output from the rest of our community and, and what’s that result? Um, by filling that primary purpose of attracting some out of town people into our event center who have It would be lovely to say multiple day stays, because

00:04:35,930	that puts people in hotels. Um, that then provides economic development to the city and it provides additional sales tax revenue, which goes to support the event center and also a whole bunch of other stuff in the city.

00:04:56,730	I truly believe that the review that was done by JLL was not a review on The staff itself, we have a staff that does a lot of really, really good work. But I don’t know that they have the tools necessary at the moment. To be able to do what we need to accomplish in the event center, um, it is.

00:05:16,470	It is not uncommon for us to use outside consultants to help us achieve our goals. How we get there, that might be a whole different story. Um, I know there’s been concern raised that staff would lose jobs. Um, that, That’s in our control. If we develop an RFP, we can develop in that RFP what Those requirements are. And if they don’t meet the RFP, we don’t do anything.

00:05:39,230	But in addition to that, Um, the, the What I have learned in doing some research is in most cases those team members that we currently have are offered an opportunity to go work.

00:05:58,000	For that company, but I also will tell you, we probably have positions in other departments in the city that may be very good fits for some individuals who may say, hey, I don’t want to do that. I can go over to Department A, B, or C, or D, and retain all of their existing benefits. The other thing is, is in the RFP I would expect that we would require that the proposal.

00:06:16,170	put together a package that is similar to what, not, not exact, but offer a reasonably similar compensation in some form or another to what they currently have today. Um comment was made to me that using a third party vendor might send profits out of town.

00:06:38,000	Well, Maybe, but if they bring in a whole bunch of other business to town and increase our economic base, that’s a win for the city of Bismarck, and that’s really a win for our constituents, the taxpayers. Um The city commission will not lose local control if we look at how we can put this together.

00:06:53,770	No matter what we do, I still think we need to change our operations, and I think we probably need to really seriously consider an authority board. It’s not an uncommon practice for this type of a venue.

00:07:12,830	Because that gives more flexibility so that when there’s an event that comes into this event center and wants to do something in a manner that’s different and not on our rap sheet and doesn’t meet our insurance requirements that we have to live with as a city. We can put something in between there. That’s what a third party vendor can do also.

00:07:27,170	It gives more flexibility as to what can come into this event center, whether what they have insurance, whether they have the same insurance covery our city requires or not. Um We’re not handing the keys over. We are still very much in control. If we do it right. I would not be inclined to do that. We need to maintain the facility.

00:07:45,400	Um, and the facility is a great facility in my opinion, located in almost one of the better spots in town and to replicate that facility anywhere else. Doesn’t fix our problems, and it costs us a whole bunch of money. I think I can ask Jeff Wo roughly what that number would be, um, it’s a, it’s a big number.

00:08:05,000	So, That will lead, that leads to why the capital improvement plan is important as well because we need to take care of that facility. Um And so that’s just some thoughts I put together to help us. Be thoughtful in this process. I do not know that there’s a right or wrong answer necessarily.

00:08:23,200	I think we have to look at what’s best for the community from what we can see and what evidence we’ve been provided. Um JLL does this all the time, so I don’t think we’re talking to somebody who doesn’t know what.

00:08:41,830	What works and doesn’t work, and so Um That’s, that’s just some thoughts, and I just felt it was fair for me to write those down so I could share for you and I, you know, hopefully others have some thoughts as well that we could share before we really kind of get into discussions. So I opened the table up. Go ahead, Comm, Mr. Mayor, I concur with you.

00:09:01,170	We need to do something different, um, I reread the Smith report from last year, um, Gordie Smith, the former state auditor for One of the auditors up there, it was pretty damning. It was pretty shocking, the Smith Report. So certainly things have to change. My one concern is we had a manager that didn’t do things right.

00:09:19,270	Obviously, um, and Smith pointed out some of the shortfalls, but I don’t think all the employees should have to pay for one manager’s mistake, so I’m concerned about that aspect of it. There’s good city employees, solid, decent people, and, uh, you know, I want to make sure they’re treated right. To concur.

00:09:40,030	Others, go ahead, Comm. Either I’m sorry, I turned away. Um, I guess I, I agree with everything that’s been said so far as I was, um. Going back through the JLL report.

00:10:05,130	Um, I think like you mentioned in Gordy’s report and, uh, Comm Connelly and I participated, um, in that committee with him when he wrote that, uh, but JLL mentions it too, like there is a cost to doing nothing, so I think that that’s the other thing we need to resonate like regardless as to what we change, I think something needs to change because otherwise we jumped through all these hoops, the, the committee from last

00:10:23,230	year, both of these agenda items are on our table. Like if, if, if the solution that we come to is. Let’s leave it how it is, rehire the director position. I just don’t know when you look at the, the, the KPI and the, the, there’s a slide in the JLL report of Just Things that they.

00:10:50,130	The operation findings and the, the list he’s got 9 main ones, but he has that bullet point list on the other side, like that’s a lot for hiring one new director to have to like work through and make staff adjustments.

00:11:09,300	I think that like if we can come to some kind of middle ground conclusion that where we’re making more changes to the operations. I don’t think that it. To the Mayor’s point, means that staff is going to be losing their jobs, that all of a sudden we’re gonna be letting go of all these local events like that was one of the the things that has been brought up to me over the course of the

00:11:25,730	last week is that the way The JLL report was interpreted by some of the user groups. That are local, I think kind of more specifically at the bell too is that the JLL report talks a lot about focusing on those like 7000 attendant big arena events

00:11:44,470	and how those are needed and I just think that if we can figure out which model works for us. I Just Upfront, I do like the concept of an authority because I think it gives us the ability to to dictate like that those events are important to this community too, whether they be concerts

00:12:04,730	or basketball tournaments that like that they’re a huge piece of what goes on down there and the, the public doesn’t want to lose those, uh, but I do think that we can make changes and still achieve that, so.

00:12:19,100	I guess that was kind of where my head was at, um, I do think too that there’s something to be said about not doing anything when it comes to just the general economic development of the spaces around the event center and the core, I think that if you were to ask one of the multiple people that are sitting here that work on

00:12:36,770	economic development, whether that’s Brenda or Sherry or whoever like is there is the process that we’re going through right now, stalling people from investing. private dollars on private lands around the event center because they’re waiting for things to happen. They want to see how the city handles this and they want to see how.

00:12:58,100	It can grow and become better before they put their dollars in into Bismarck. I, I think there’s some of that too, so I just, that’s kind of the things that we’re rolling around in my head as I was going back over it, so I just wanted to like State a

00:13:12,000	few of those things, um. I think 2 just To reference, um. The authority model too that is talked about, um. In the breakdowns of models, it’s, it’s very comparable to I mean, obviously very different, but very comparable structurally to the parking authority, so it’s not something that we’re not

00:13:35,630	doing, having like an authority board or a like an oversight board is something that the city already does, um, in other capacities, so I think That there’s a lot to be discussed and I, I don’t know if I have the right answers, but I think that that that’s kind of where I would like to to start.

00:13:55,370	Comm Speaker. Well, I’ve given it a lot of thought, obviously, and I’ve stated my opinion already on the third party thing, but The more I think about this, I think we got to look at this from a much, much broader perspective.

00:14:18,370	Um Obviously We all use tools to gather information, personal contacts, whatever, social media. You can talk about, hey, it’s a if we invest money into the event center, um, now it’s a waste of money. You could tear it down, build a new one. I think what you alluded to earlier. I think we need to look at this from a totally different perspective.

00:14:38,730	Um And a less conservative approach than what we’ve used that with from the typically from the city of Bismarck. In our in our previous, um, Um, strategic plan we were considered the facilitator. There are many, many things that we need within our, within our city.

00:14:57,170	And it’s not just what the city needs, it’s what the county needs, what Parks needs, what schools need. And this could be, I think it’s time for a generational type change. Where we just not only in invest into our event center, but we sit down with parks, we sit down with, with Burleig County and we sit down with schools.

00:15:17,470	And we come up with our citywide strategic plan as to what we think that that we need to move forward. I mean, if you can talk to any athletic group, and I’m gonna, I’ll stick to the, to the sports sides of things cause that’s who I am and who our family is.

00:15:30,230	I mean, from baseball fields to golf courses to, to, um, uh, basketball courts to hockey arenas. Every group that you talk to will talk about things that we don’t have enough of.

00:15:50,030	You can talk to people who travel to Sioux Falls and Fargo, and, um, Grant Forks to play those sports and other types of, of, and other types of sports. And there’s other things in sports out there. I, I totally get that. But I, but we need to, we need, this is part of it, right? This is a critical piece because it wants, we want things to come in.

00:16:03,900	It’s not big enough event center to bring in Taylor Swift and those other bigger concerts, you know, um, you talk about, it’s, it’s a 10,000 seat arena, but really from a, from a concert perspective, it’s really only about 7200, right? So, so when JLL talks about, hey, big ticket items, big ticket items.

00:16:22,630	We can only seat so many people that we can seat in there. And I, I think We all agree that we got to change something.

00:16:36,500	Right? So the, the first thing that I would do if I was us, I would take this report, summarize this report and see what we need to change, and then write those things down and move forward and give that to our team and make sure that we’re moving forward. The second thing we need to do is we need to bring those groups together that I talked about from a generational perspective and make changes within our city.

00:16:50,400	And we need help. We need, we need those business type people to do this. We need help with the city or with the state, I mean, so we can get the interchange done in ’66.

00:17:05,370	We can, we, we don’t become the second fiddle to a Fargo Grand Forks, and, and Sioux Falls, we’ve become the primary focus. So we get those types of events that come to our city, whether it’s a sporting thing, a convention, or whatever it might be, so we can generate those sales tax dollars. And that’s the, that’s the dynamic of change that I think we need to take here.

00:17:22,400	We’re going to have some conversations. We’re gonna do some different things. Whether we all agree with them or not, but I think we really need to focus on and drive home that we need to put the, our other government entities together and we need to, we need to become that generational change

00:17:38,100	starting today and Comm, I, I also can’t disagree with that. I agree wholeheartedly with that. I think there are concepts that can be helpful to generate those other things, but we’re going to need other partners.

00:17:52,230	It can’t just be the city of Bismarck, just like you said, but we can facilitate and we are the capital city and sometimes we just need to. We need the Be the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Sorry, but that’s. So we are. I’m a really competitive Guy.

00:18:07,130	If, if, if we’re gonna, uh, I mean, I go home to my dinner table, I have, I have no problem having a ton of competition with my kids. I love it. It’s great. And I think we have to have that same mentality when we talk about business perspective and city stuff that we, we’re competing.

00:18:23,930	We know we’re competing with other cities to, to bring whatever that is to, to our city. And we gotta, we gotta change our philosophies, and we got to change our Our ultra conservative approach and take a chance. I mean, I had many, many conversations.

00:18:43,000	With the, with the previous director and at that time the, the, the Comm that held the finance portfolio about what kind of risks risk that we want to take to bring certain acts to the city. Those are big risks because you got to have a conversation about whether you’re gonna take a performer and pay them their guarantee of 1.5 or $2 million just to get them here. And then hope that you make a couple dimes at the end.

00:19:00,000	Now, a couple of those things fell through, and one we didn’t pursue, but If, if we’re gonna, if we’re gonna talk about this and we’re gonna talk about putting multi-mills of tens of millions of dollars into this facility. And we need to, we need to pony up.

00:19:19,230	And we need, we need to give the tools that we have to our staff and our and our group of people and I’ll include administration and finance and then to give them a, a, a direction. And I’ll take, I’ll take a ton of responsibility in this because when I took the portfolio and I saw the financials. And I saw what was going on.

00:19:36,630	I said, the only way that we can make this work is if we put butts in the seats and heads in the beds. Referencing back to your, hey, we got a, we gotta rent this place out and do that. If that’s the wrong approach, fine.

00:19:48,230	I’ll admit it, and we’ll move on. I don’t have a problem with that. If we want to change the dynamics of what we’re doing, then we got to give clear and concise direction to our teams. Thank you. What else. There’s a tall Soapbox. Oh, we all have our soapboxes. Comm Connelly. I Comm thinker and Commissioners, um.

00:20:19,030	That’s The biggest thing with that since 2012, a big part of all of the discussion that goes on is community buy-in. And we don’t have the support of the community right now and they’re a little bit shy about coming out of the gate and getting behind something.

00:20:38,270	But I’m OK with being competitive and going out there and trying to see if we can’t bolster that up because it’s a lot easier to do big things when you got people into it, um, say the Sports Center Park 365, they did a lot of work for two years and then they just expected because they

00:20:53,900	did work, that the community would buy in, and that one fell flat, and that was a really big push. I think we need to do strives to where we get more community buy-in, so we’re all working towards a. common goal instead of playing these odds against one another.

00:21:10,400	This has been a long discussion for a long time, and I think there’s ways that that can do, but it’s gonna take a little bit more knocking on doors instead of certain stakeholders in certain groups working on things, but to go out there to the community because a lot of the community, they’re doing everything they can just to put

00:21:24,800	food on the table. So I’ll bring it. The, the conversation’s all good, and I don’t disagree that we need to be. Bold as a community.

00:21:41,830	As a whole, but we also need to take care of the facilities we have and make sure we get those operating in the manner we. We can or or it’s not gonna do any good to be bold.

00:21:55,730	But I do want to take follow up on a, because Comm brought up a Comm Zenker brought up a point and I want to follow up with Dan Fenton, because one of the questions I would have is if we were To use a third party. Vendor To manage who takes the risk, Dan, if you can help me on this, who takes the risk on that big event that maybe has a $1.5 million guarantee upfront.

00:22:16,100	And do we, can we define our RFP that that’s the entity that’s taking the event, but then have our expectations. Yeah, Mayor, let me, let me answer it a couple of ways. One is, um, we always got to remember that the management companies are just that, they’re management companies. Right? They’re not, they’re not necessarily owners in that true sense.

00:22:37,370	So there’s certainly could be relationships established with them when it comes to taking risks on concerts that we’ve definitely seen that, but that would have to be part of the, of what we all would determine were key priorities for us, so that could be part of the of the arrangement, and I I just mayor like to answer, ask one

00:22:55,000	other thing and really sort of agree with some of your comments and really everyone’s comments here, and that is that. If we contemplate this notion of whether it’s, whether it is a third party manager or it’s the notion that that that things have to change.

00:23:12,300	The key here is that all of those priorities and you know, we, we, we’ve shown you some examples of KPIs that regardless of direction. That we are all focused on, you know, what’s right for us.

00:23:32,470	So if we were to pursue the uh take the process and pursue a third party manager, we were certainly not advocating that that be done just without any, um, if you will, really critical. Uh, prioritization in terms of what we want to see that manager do and what we want to make sure they’re focused on, including The employees and the preservation of the employees and all of that needs to be part of how we would structure

00:23:51,670	uh that approach. So we, we believe that if, if that is a direction that the council wants to go, it’s not, it’s not just let’s do that, it’s let’s let’s think about that in conjunction with all the priorities that everybody has really mentioned right now need to be part of the process and,

00:24:10,270	and, and really tailor it so that it would everybody could. Look at this and say, yeah, those are specifically the priorities that are important to us. Thank you. Go ahead, Comm. Mr.

00:24:30,100	Mayor, Dan, I’ve got a question about how If we want with a third party manager, how are they compensated? Do they, it’s a percentage basis, a straight fee, uh, how’s that work? Yeah, there’s usually, and again, I’m going to always say usually because we’re, you know, we, we would want to make sure we structured it in the best interest of that what everybody feels good about.

00:24:44,570	Usually there is a base fee of some number and then there is an incentive. And let me just take a moment on the incentive, um, we believe strongly that that incentive needs to be based on, again, those priorities. That everybody has been talking about today.

00:25:03,200	So it’s not just an incentive based on, you know, top line revenue or bottom line net income, it’s an incentive that takes into account. How have we delivered on the priorities that many of you have spoken about right now. And so we have structured agreements in the past where there, some of those KPI samples we showed you, those are specific.

00:25:23,470	Um, uh, there’s there’s specific sort of achievables that number one, the third party has to respond and tell us how they’re going to achieve those things, and 2, that that’s how they’re going to, uh, you know, basically that’s how they’re going to receive incentives.

00:25:38,300	Is all of these, these sort of things that we talked about have to be part of it, and I’ll stop here, but I just want to say one thing because if it’s just about profit and loss.

00:25:52,730	Then we may not end up with that mix of business that we want to end up with, or we may not end up with some of the community benefits that we want to make sure are part of the, uh, success of the event center so that it’s really, it’s typically base plus incentive, but we really advocate for that incentive to be based on a lot of the priorities that we are just discussing right now.

00:26:23,300	So, Dan, can you Cause I’m trying to, I think we may all be trying to get our heads around with that last statement set of statements said.

00:26:41,030	Like, can you boil it down to Yeah, I don’t know if you look at, yeah, if, if you look at slides with me here too, but there’s a slide that I think you have in front of you where we showed you that kind of, uh, the, there were 3 sort of quadrants on that slide that showed you different examples of KPIs.

00:26:56,870	Right? If you, if you look at that slide, the, the process that we would go through with the, you know, with the council and with the staff, by the way, and others would be to take that list as well as maybe add others and end up with a list of KPIs.

00:27:17,670	Most of which are measurable, that would be part of how we would define success for the, uh, the operators to both respond to and then if one was selected, this is, this would be how they would be guided in terms of priorities and how they go about, you know, supporting the operations of the event center. So if you look at, I’m just putting it up here, if you look at slide.

00:27:34,270	Uh, what is it, slide. Slide 17, you’ll see key performance indicators dash sample. Right? And if you look at that, the different subjects that are in there, we don’t have to use them all, and we think there would be a process with the council of taking this list and then really adding to it,

00:27:53,300	taking away from it and ending up with measurable. KPIs that really define success when it comes to what’s important to us, and you’ll notice here that example you’ll see event mix. That’s not top line revenue.

00:28:13,630	That’s, that’s are we bringing in the right events or things like economic impact, right? Things like this, there’s even areas you can see here around sustainability. So there’s other community benefits, so there’s tangible.

00:28:33,370	KPIs that would be part of the RFP in the first place, by the way, because we want to see how the third parties responded to those priorities and then 2, that would be part of how the the third party would be incentivized. Is that better, Mayor? I, I think so. So Then it Then if how I need to understand, well, I’m sorry, go ahead, Comm, Mayor Comm, so I got a question on that. So I mean, obviously.

00:29:00,100	How do you guarantee that you get these KPIs from that third party. I mean, because if you don’t, right? I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s no different, right? Third party goes books, books so much, um, events or whatever events or we have staff book it, right? We don’t have a guarantee on the staff side of things.

00:29:17,730	So how do you guarantee you get a, you get a something from uh, from the third party. Yeah, I mean, it’s a great question, right? And, and I think the key is how you structure the agreement and how you structure the incentive so that there is, there’s real, you know, if you want to call it motive and gain there for doing the things that

00:29:35,370	we all believe are the key priorities, right? I mean, I’m not trying to, this is gonna sound negative what I’m saying, but any of these management, you know, agreements also have termination clauses and all sorts of things about, you know, curing if there are things that they are doing that do not meet

00:29:50,230	the Standards that we have set, so there are ways to have checks and balances, certainly on third party managers. Um, but at the same time, I use the word guarantee, absolutely there isn’t a, there isn’t technically a guarantee, but we want to make sure we would structure this so that the

00:30:09,000	council would feel comfortable that we weren’t going to. Bring in someone and just go, well, it’s not working, but we have a 5-year agreement or whatever it may be that there really would be a way to monitor performance.

00:30:25,500	Like that, that’s critical to this because again I’m going to repeat myself real quickly, but we’re certainly not advocating for a third party just for third party’s sake. You know, we’re advocating if we’re going to go that way if the council thinks that would be important direction, then let’s do it in a way that really matches the key priorities that we all believe are going to be

00:30:38,800	important here. I’m gonna follow up with a different question, different line, maybe even so. If it’s, if if the third party is operating and There’s a team of individuals down there that Maybe as every one of them that comes right out of the current events Center, however that looks.

00:31:00,830	And we say it’s by incentive, um, like, what does it look like to the city, how do we operate that? Who’s? Where’s the revenue flow through that comes in the door. Yeah.

00:31:19,500	And who’s paying the bills and Because I know of another entity, another municipality that’s in our state that operates this way and I’ve actually looked at their financial statements and honestly, I He gave me a little I was a little confused by their statements. Yeah, so remember that all every asset, the bank accounts, the balance sheet of the financials, everything is still a city asset.

00:31:37,270	Right, so sometimes people get confused and they’ll say, we need to go ask so and so if we can do something or it’s, it’s like, it’s almost as if some people confuse an operator with an owner. Right? They don’t, they don’t have any, um, there are no assets.

00:31:51,630	That are in the event center or, you know, any of the, you know, when it comes to the ballot sheets or anything that there, it’s still all absolutely all public. They’re all city assets. Because the management company is managing those assets on behalf of the city. They don’t, they don’t own the assets.

00:32:09,100	Right? So, and that’s an important piece because I think Mayor Yu or one of the council members mentioned, you know, we, we don’t want to sort of quote unquote lose control, you know, we don’t want to, you know, sort of hand over the keys. We’re not handing over the keys.

00:32:25,630	Right, we’re bringing them in to operate and support our team in a manner that we have developed and we’ve shown them in terms of what they’re, what we all believe are the priorities for them. That really needs to be how the relationship is structured. I don’t know if that helped. Yeah Maybe.

00:32:45,630	I’m not sure if it does, but I, I, I maybe get my head around it. So then, Is, is there a concept and whereby the third party is. I use the term general manager or director. But not, but that’s it.

00:33:09,570	They’re giving guidance to the current existing city staff who is in the building, but those staff are not employed by the third party. Yeah, we, we have looked at this, um, what you’re saying Mayor, in other situations and um we never want to say never, so I, I, I don’t want to say never.

00:33:30,230	The, the what we’ve run into in, in kind of the scenario you’re talking about is the notion of private managers, right, managing public employees. Right? And so, you know, could there be a model there? We, we believe in theory they’re absolutely could be. There would be some things to really work through there. Just to make sure that. That was, that was functional.

00:33:52,630	Um, but we’re not, we, we do not want to rule out Um, something like that as an outcome, but there are some details and I’m sure C HR and some others, we have to really think through some details there, but I, I wouldn’t necessarily rule out that we would just have to really think through what the mechanics would look like there. OK. Thank you.

00:34:10,830	Go ahead, Comm Risch. Mr. Mayor Dean, Dan, that’s a concern of mine. These people have got a lot of time invested, invested in their pensions, got health insurance benefits, things of that nature and, and I, I don’t want to jeopardize that for the bulk of the employees at the event center. Yep, yep.

00:34:27,400	And I, I, I’ll, I’ll just say this, we absolutely violently agree here. And we think that part of that is, is everything everybody’s talking about, we need to think through. So I’m, so, you know, if tonight, I know everybody doesn’t vote tonight, but if tonight, The counsel says, OK, let’s let’s keep going here.

00:34:45,030	We would view that as a key part of coming back to sort of sort of finalize this. Would be to look at the questions that you’re asking. So we’re totally with you on, you know, how do we, how do we create something where we can protect.

00:35:01,230	Things like, especially some of the team members that have been here a long time and they’re, you know, maybe there’s relatively short term prior to quote unquote retirement. I think all of that should be part of. How we really finalize how we’re going to approach this. So we are, um, We’re in violent agreement here. I’ll just say that.

00:35:56,570	Fisher’s other Inquiries Go ahead, Comm Clary. Dan, if you could, could you talk a little bit more about like when you broke down the different models that um were reviewed in the project with the authority board concept, uh.

00:36:27,500	Like, can you talk about what that what that’s looked like in your past experience as far as like who sits on that board who, you know, does the commission appoint them? Do you know, how does that work in kind of comparison to the other boards that we, that we have, uh, and then how they interact with the third party and like what that’s looked like in other areas that you’ve done it in?

00:36:45,730	Yeah, it’s a great question, by the way, because um that is a, that’s a great example of if, if everything you’ve just asked isn’t sort of thought through.

00:37:02,930	You could end up in a situation where it’s not a particularly effective sort of governance model, right? So, let me just go through a few things here and, and talk about some different aspects of what you just asked. One, we absolutely believe that the authority board.

00:37:23,130	Needs to be selected in a way that we know we are bringing skill sets on that board that can, in fact, provide the kind of support and guidance that we want that board to provide. You know, whether it’s to the operator or to the internal team, whatever the final sort of outcome is here. So the, the selection approach as to who’s on that board is critical, number one. Uh, number 2, we have seen both government appointed and sort of self-nominated.

00:37:44,900	And I think the key there is if it is going to be government appointed, we really have to have some very, very solid criteria. That the council agrees to is to again sort of who we are looking for on that board.

00:38:04,630	If it’s self-nominated, there’s similarities there in terms of making sure the bylaws, for example, clearly state. Again, who the type of leaders that we’re trying to bring on that board are. And then the board has to have real authority.

00:38:23,770	So they have to have the ability, for example, if it’s a third party, they have to have the ability to say to the third party, if you’re in breach, we believe you’re in breach. You need to cure the breach, and we have the authority to oversee how you are doing.

00:38:42,400	Based on what’s been agreed to in your contract, they need to have the ability to look at reports, to look at data, and to have the responsibility, almost, there’s almost a fiduciary piece here too, of them being stewards. You know, of the event center. So that, you know, when we, if we were writing up for everybody, you know, kind of that, um, the board duties, if you will, or, you know, board responsibilities.

00:39:00,170	We would want all of this to be built in so that the council, the key here is that the council knows. That that board has that, you know, that that’s what they’re, that’s what they’re overseeing, that’s what they’re looking at, that’s what they’re responsible for, and then, of course, they report to the council also on results, but that board has to have authority.

00:39:18,370	If it doesn’t, it, it really slowly becomes an advisory board only and we have watched where those advisory boards become less and less effective. So we need to write up in the development of that board and the development of the authority that they have authority, you know, to, you know, make decisions, take

00:39:37,570	action. They have a fiduciary responsibility, which I think is critical to the council and, um, and those parameters need to be part of how the board is formed, and then what their charge is. Sudan, no matter how we move forward.

00:40:18,900	I’m not sure that we have all the skills set here at the table to even develop it. What, what, uh. I mean, can your firm or could your firm be Available to help develop even if it’s I’m his goal, it’s it’s an authority board and we stay with the basically the same setup we are now, but we have authority board in between it because I think that’s regardless of very

00:40:40,630	important. Component Yeah, I mean we’re happy to, we’re happy to work with the council on writing that up and really developing that in a way that everybody feels comfortable with, again, what their priorities are, what their responsibilities are, how the accountability works, absolutely.

00:41:03,500	And then with that authority board if put in place, then be the board that does the hiring of Well, let’s use the current setup, the Event Center director.

00:41:19,000	Yeah, we, we, one of the key, and this again, we think through this together, but one of the key pieces when we’ve been doing this is making sure that that if we go that route where we bring in a new executive director, general manager as part of the outcome here and figure out how to structure that to still, I think the council all agrees that there, you know, things have to change.

00:41:31,400	So how do we structure that so things are going to continue to move forward. Um, yeah, that board needs to have The oversight of that executive director slash GM so that she or he um really sees them. As um as the one that is really helping, helping guide them and helping oversee, you know, sort of how they’re doing. Yes, go ahead.

00:42:05,530	So, let me just throw this out there. Because this is, I could support this if there’s a if there’s a governing board that and we hire a director and basically Instead of 5 of us trying to run the thing we have 7 people who who know what they’re doing when they’re running this type of thing and

00:42:23,030	we keep the staff. And that that’s all in, I would, I would think that at least If we go, I’m just spitballing here, so bear with me. Um, we have 7 people on that board, 2 of them, one would be the portfolio holder, the other one would be the, uh, city administrator.

00:42:41,030	Do you like that Jason volunteered you. And then 5 other 5 other people who, who have a makeup or maybe knowledge of, of, uh, How events run or a network of people type thing, right? Um, And then they have their list. Cause we’ve already obtained a list of, of what we want fixed.

00:43:01,500	And they’re in charge to make sure that that happens and then, and then us as a commission would have to make sure we give them the tools to get that done. I could, I, I could support that because that would leave the third party out of it.

00:43:15,830	Yes, there’d be a governing board, um, Which has more know-how to to operate it and then we would keep our city employees. I’m gonna take that one step further than just falling along your line, Comm, I’m not, I’m not opposed to necessarily.

00:43:38,770	I’m not sure that’s exactly where I’m at, but I’m not opposed to it. Um, but we would still need to have someone help that board. Develop the job description for the director because I do not feel we don’t have, we do not have the knowledge anywhere in our room. Or in our operation to do that. Yeah, and I don’t disagree with that. OK. Yeah.

00:44:00,470	Because I think that’s, that’s part of the Right, that would be, that would be the foundation that maybe becomes the reason the third party was of interest to me because I don’t know where we have the tools to even hire that person. Yeah.

00:44:18,370	They’re still under contract, right, so that’s, so you understand where I’m I’m not, not necessarily in disagreement, Comm, Comm Risch. Um, I like the idea of the boarder, but my concern is, I don’t know if there’s somebody out there that can fill this position.

00:44:36,130	Is there somebody that good that can come in and actually do it, uh, run it as a, a director that can turn this thing around. That’s what leads me to say, well, maybe we can have some parameters, uh, on a third-party contractor with the expertise, have the board and the parameters would be that we keep As many employees as we can and in my personal opinion, they’d be city employees with the same fringe benefits and uh

00:44:56,900	pay that they receive now. But that outside third-party contractors. There’s experts involved there. We put out a notice for somebody to fill the position to head up the event center. I don’t know if we’re going to get a good enough candidate. I, I don’t know that.

00:45:13,100	So, I mean, that’s why we’re talking, like, We need to do something. What is it that we need to do? I do not know that. I mean, that’s why we’re having this conversation. Comm Connelly. I don’t think we know unless we allow the opportunity to ask the question.

00:45:33,370	And that we, we can turn it down, we can turn down anything, but unless we have them in the room to tell us what they’re able to do with the resources they have, um. Oh Determining that one way or another gets a lot. More difficult That was part of the reason why.

00:45:51,830	Trying to keep that element in is just to put all Options in front of us. Because it’s a, we can’t continue down the road we have everybody’s in agreement on that, um. I mean, if uh, and maybe I can ask Dan this, um, If a third party vendor, whether it’s keeping staff or not, however that’s written in, um, And Well, one, maybe Dmitriy does our 25%

00:46:19,630	portion, um, can maintain the building, uh, and cover that side of things, but if they were able to use the building and all, whether they gain money or lose money, if that was all on the third party vendor’s plate and we merely keep ownership of the building.

00:46:37,930	Is that something that’s possible? Uh, what you’re really, I think what you’re kind of heading towards is almost like a lease arrangement in a way where the Where they would take that bottom line risk, and then, um, and then you, you figure that out.

00:47:00,170	I, I will say this in the event center space that is uh really relatively rare. Frankly, um, and one of the, one of the downsides of that type of relationship is. When you, um, when like, let’s say it was all of us and we said we’re going to take that risk on and we’re going to sort of guarantee, let’s say a lease payment or something, we’re gonna want a

00:47:17,800	lot of control at that point. Right over programming and all sorts of things. And so there’s a dynamic there that would be important to consider. I will just say this generally in the public assembly space that that is rare, what you’re talking about.

00:47:45,100	Yeah Uh, I, I, I guess, go ahead, Comm, I guess to that point, I, I think too that that takes it a step. Further in the arena, I think that. Has been talked about where we’re nervous about what happens with employees and that sort of thing if you, if you lean to the direction of you’re essentially renting them the building like in that scenario,

00:48:01,530	I can’t imagine that any of the employees are retained by the city or anything like that, so I guess I, I definitely lean more towards Having an authority, um, I understand where Comm Zenker is coming from, like that that you can give that authority the power to, to, to rehire a director to

00:48:21,770	have to establish those KPIs, that sort of thing. the one way reason I maybe lean. Towards doing the authority with a third party management is that to Comm Risch’s point, then that management fills that role and.

00:48:50,630	You’re hiring a a management, a third party management team that already has an understanding of what those KPIs and incentives look like because they’re already doing it in other spaces, I would be interested in the concept of if you do that third party management, what does it look like? Keeping staff as city staff or how does it work like Dan was saying, With like maybe that long term staff that, you know, has a lot of years

00:49:11,530	put into their, their pension and that sort of thing. Uh, I would be more interested in like Seeing what that looks like and if we could get there with still using a third party management to kind of Get everything under control and rolling and moving in that new, new direction because I think

00:49:31,230	that they’re potentially more capable of doing it and doing it in a quicker manner than like bringing one person in as a director and expecting them to be able to do this like list of stuff that’s handed to them, I guess it that feels like a way longer process to me, not to say that it couldn’t be

00:49:50,370	successful, but I think that. The third party management that RFP would be designed for companies that are already doing this, already have an understanding of it, and then our authority board would present them with the KPIs and the kind of restrictions whether it be like an expectation of types of events and all that sort of stuff and

00:50:13,370	They already have an understanding of how to move forward from there. Um, I think like Comm Risch says it, it, that’s a lot to put on one person and I don’t know if even the the job description sets you up for success in that way, so obviously that would need, need some work, but I think

00:50:32,100	that I definitely lean towards having that authority board one way or the other versus just like the concept of of renting the space out to a third party where it’s just us hiring a third party, which I. I don’t think was really the suggestion in the first place, but.

00:50:52,300	So question for you, I guess we’ll put you on the spot assuming we would continue down the path using you, Dan. Timeline if we’re going to develop. The process to establish the authority board. Mhm And then maybe two options. Or I’ll throw two out and if others want to add, they can, but one option would be.

00:51:18,000	Then helped develop the job description for. A director That is totally. City employed Along with all the rest of the staff. And the second option I’m thinking of, and this is, it’s kind of where my head has been for a while, but is that third party vendor is really the GM general GM or director, but all the staff

00:51:42,030	stays with the event center and with the city and how that could work if it can. That, that’s I mean, yeah. Maybe I, maybe I’m, maybe it’s a loaded question. Right, it is a little bit.

00:52:00,730	I mean, instead of giving you an exact timeline, the one thing I think would be good here is some of the things that have been raised, give example was this, this, the notion of really what’s the, you know, how do we protect? I’m gonna use this word protect, but how do we really look at this sort of question of the employees and You know, what are the

00:52:14,730	options there? I think that exploration should be part of this. So we can really make sure that there’s a, you know, is there an opportunity there, which, you know, again, we’re talking to, you know, the City HR team and Everybody else trying to sort of think through that question.

00:52:30,200	And then um I think we can move pretty quickly on You know, getting to a point where we’re back and sort of reporting out on Mayor what you just talked about.

00:52:45,370	Setting it up so that the, um, you know, that everybody can sort of look at it and kind of make a true directional decision, if you will, if that’s what you’re sort of leading to. Um, I think we can move pretty quickly and get that back to the commission. OK, I, I threw those out. They, it came from me, so I don’t know if anybody else thought thinks anywhere along that line. Mr.

00:53:04,730	Connelly, I just want to clarify a bit if the goal is community benefit, like. Keeping heads in the beds and so on, um, Not a Doesn’t necessarily even have to be a rent scenario. If they’re utilizing the building and we maintain the building because it’s our asset or whatnot is, um, within their business model, can you figure it, whether it’s retaining employees or not, does that create enough space

00:53:29,900	to make it possible to where it can springboard into a business plan that’s workable for the city. So I would I know where you’re a transaction fee or whatnot. I think I know where you’re headed, Comm. I don’t see, again, I think I started to start with. The event center itself.

00:53:48,770	Although I would love it to not. Uh, right now, probably the annual. Uh, shortfall, let’s just say is a half a million dollars. I’d love it to not be that much. I’d love it to be less than that, but it’s probably never going to be 0 or a positive.

00:54:07,230	It’s probably, it is an event center and it’s there to drive economic value for the community by attracting people to come in. The only way we’d probably get that building, as I said earlier, to be Cash flow is if we just said, Company B, you’re renting the whole thing and I don’t care how you’re going to do it. You’re gonna pay a lease. Comm Zenker.

00:54:24,470	I’ll expand on that a little bit because, um, when I was first elected at a nice gentleman had him and I had a, oh, he had coffee, I had orange juice cause I don’t drink coffee because could you imagine me on coffee? Oh, gosh. Um, so, We had a nice conversation. He handed me a piece of paper.

00:54:41,900	Had all these numbers on the bottom of this piece of paper was a large, large dollar amount for a convention center space. And I was, you know, kind of take it back because it’s a big number.

00:55:00,100	I just looked at him, I said, If it was If a convention center space was such a positive business and, and, and 5 people could put that thing up and, and it would generate revenue. You wouldn’t need the city to build it. Right? And this is the same thing here with our event center. If it would generate revenue, you wouldn’t need it to be city owned. Grant Forks.

00:55:18,900	They, they have a funding source for capital improvements, sales tax dollars, I don’t remember what that percentage is. Fargo has the same thing. We, we don’t have a dedicated funding source other than our bed and booze tax to make capital improvements, and that’s all it can be used for is capital improvements.

00:55:34,900	They can use those sales tax dollars for, for operating funds. If we had a mechanism like that in place. We wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, and we wouldn’t have as much deferred maintenance in that building as we have. So, I’m not going to disagree with that.

00:55:52,000	I just, I put that out there for, More of my soapbox things, but I would, I would, I could, your first scenario that you talked about with the authority having that a director and that and then to build on that, I’ll look at, I look out at the crowd, that there’s a, there’s a lot of event center staff here.

00:56:10,730	And I bet if they all raised their hand who worked for the event center prior to this storm that has gone through that building and the last 24 months. I bet they’re turnover is less than other departments within our city.

00:56:27,730	And that’s the people that we need to, that’s the team that we need to, we need to celebrate because they held that thing together for all this time and made sure that this event in Iran. Now we all know they had bumps and bruises. They’re doing things, and you’re right, Mayor, it, it, we would love it if it would, if it would not lose money. But we have to understand the expectation.

00:56:45,230	And for me or us at this commission to turn our back on them who have weathered the storm and been there every day when they, when they have to probably work 17 or 18 or 25 days in a row because they have those events, I’m not gonna do that to them.

00:56:59,730	It’s not gonna happen under Risch, Mr. Mayor, you know, we keep talking about, you know, lost a half a million dollars a year here, there or the other. But I don’t think we consider the additional tax sales tax revenue generated when people come in from out of town, out of state, attend these things, and that actually

00:57:16,400	benefits the city that additional sales tax money or lodging taxes and things of that nature. I don’t, do we, I don’t think we really Get that all into the equation. It’s not, but it’s part of the KPIs that need to be developed that because, because what we, we need to build my view.

00:57:33,370	It’s my, my vision. We need to be able to start attracting more people to come in. It’s not that we aren’t doing it now. We need to be able to attract more people to come into the community you’re going to spend money. Staying overnight at a hotel. Do we have some struggles there? Not going to deny that.

00:57:48,370	We know we have some struggles there. In fact, we have a proposal to come forward in a few weeks, maybe talk about some of that. That might help. That also changes the dynamics, but I mean, I think my struggle here is.

00:58:06,900	Not that we don’t have a great bunch of employees and I’m all on board how we be able to maintain that, that group of employees. That’s why throughout the, like the hybrid of. A two routes director as an employee. And B, because I’m a little concerned whether or not we’ll hire a director. Can we hire the third party just for that position, but then they have a team.

00:58:26,100	Who is helping bring it. I don’t know if that’s even possible. Well, the benefit of the, um, third party contractor that’s already doing these things. They have relationships with promoters.

00:58:43,400	They have networks and they’ll be, you know, they’ll have some big event going one place that could maybe stop at our city in the next place. So that’s, that’s the attraction for me for a third party. Again, I’m not just I’m kind of hybrided it. I tried to carve it out, and that’s probably unique from what it’s not any of the models directly shown to us. Comm Connelly.

00:59:04,030	Um, I’ve had through this whole discussion, people say that they could step into the third party space that they think that they could do it.

00:59:17,100	Do we have to put it in an RFQ and RFP? Can they just come and present to us, say, in this format, and throw everything they want to on the table or does it have to go through. We, we need to go through the process. OK. So And I mean, it would not be, that would be potentially just handing business to somebody who knew somebody. Right. It was a century ago. Yeah. Yeah. So multiple probably sections.

00:59:38,370	Then why take it off the table on the front? I mean, why not? We don’t have to. I just threw it out there. I mean, I, I was just trying to.

00:59:49,900	I was trying to feel Dan out in JLL what the timeline would look like and what they could do to help us so we could maybe get to it, maybe we’ll get it to, so it’s down to a decision tree, OK. is all I was looking for. I don’t think we’re gonna come to a decision tonight. This is, this is what this, I mean, we could, but Um I was envisioning exactly what’s happening tonight.

01:00:08,200	Because this, this is an important important discussion. Other thoughts, commissioners? We’ll take some action. You can take, yeah, I mean, if I, we do whatever we want, we’re in a meeting. From an action standpoint to the agenda, but, yeah, excuse me. Thank you for correcting me.

01:00:41,230	I guess if you want emotion on this, I would move that we like pursue the next steps of Trying to Like lean on JLL and see what it would look like if we move forward with the authority model. With a third party management and whether or not like what it looks like as far as keeping staff or how that would relate to staff.

01:01:03,200	In that role, I wanna see like what that looks like if there is kind of like a model 2A, so to speak, um. And, and like to me that’s like the next step before we like lock in that we want to do that, like what the next step of building that authority board is, and then

01:01:19,230	also. Within that I like, is there a version of the third party where Staff either remain city staff or we have some control over how that flow from city staff to Private staff goes. doesn’t need to be Or can we just we just on that.

01:01:42,170	I, I think we could have consensus, but I would like to have, I personally would like to also see the model with the director and a job description. As well, I feel I need more than one choice. So if we could Pursue more, more information on that authority board and what it looks like.

01:02:08,230	With A director and And public staff as well as like third party management, but staff potentially remaining public. Right. I mean, that’s kind of what I was envisioning, but I’m Not trying to, you know. Sure. I think the next step in my head is like we gotta figure out how either of those would function. Comm Risch.

01:02:28,670	I think what you’re talking about is authority model one and Authority Model 2. Yes. So we just. Agree to pursue those two, but with the potential of how on to retains the public employees if that’s, that’s a possibility model too. Yeah.

01:02:56,300	Doesn’t need to be emotion if there’s consensus that we’re all generally agree that so our next step, I think. Um, I will have to ask Dan if that’s something you can start to work on. We can’t a matter of fact, I was going to say that I think that this is all really great.

01:03:10,370	And this is exactly what we need to, this is sort of the process we need to go through to make sure whatever direction, it’s really kind of It’s kind of our direction collectively. So I think this is great and We’re happy to keep moving through this.

01:03:29,470	And then I would, as part of that authority model or the authority board like help us develop the criteria for those. I kind of agree with, I kind of agree with, I kind of, I do agree with Comm Zenker that The City administrator needs to be one member in the portfolio holder needs to be another member, and then there’s 5.

01:03:45,270	From the public at large with the appropriate skill sets. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, and then you can also just to jump in, I mean, you could have the portfolio holder in the. Administrator not be a voting, right? You just gotta have, gotta have that that relationship between administration and the event center and then you gotta have that relationship between the commission very, very much like

01:04:08,370	our parking authority operates today or orZ or whatever, yep, yep. OK, are we generally OK with that, everyone? Yes. OK. Thank you. This has been a great discussion, I think we’re take one step forward at least. Great. Well, thanks everybody. We’ll keep moving. Yep. OK.

01:04:32,670	Moving to the capital improvement. plan And I got to find my stuff now. So Heard from Jeff. Last week, um, And then I believe we have a handout that should have come out that actually is from our finance department, just trying to lay out what the cash flow would look like based on those.

01:05:04,470	Particular Um, potential timelines for Uh, reinvesting into our facility, but just to get it out, Jeff, I’m gonna ask you to come up if you don’t mind. I have a question. Because I believe in retaining facilities as much as we can and rep not, I won’t say repurposing them, but keep them in good, good shape.

01:05:25,370	If we had to replicate this building in another space in town. Ballpark number what that would be. Oh, that’s a That’s a good question, because you probably would build it bigger. than what it is now undoubtedly.

01:05:46,900	Um, and so if I use the Alerus Center as an example because it’s equivalent, that’s a 450,000 square foot building. I think you could easily say from a starting perspective for the building itself, you’re in the $450 million range. Without sight and land. So Thank you. That’s really what I was looking for because that tells me why it’s so important to take in, And invest some dollars in our facility.

01:06:08,670	That’s currently existing because we That would be put in a half of, half of billion dollar liability on our citizens doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. So Commissioners, are there questions you have for Mr.

01:06:40,000	Rubble? So what would, what, what are your thoughts? Comm Risch, well, my only thoughts are the financing end of it, and I see these charts that Dmitriy’s put together and that um It looks like we’re going to, if we go ahead with this, we deficit expanded 27, 28, 29, and then things start coming around again. um Yeah. uh, we feel pretty secure about those numbers, Dmitriy. Well, go ahead, Dmitriy, I won’t speak for you.

01:06:58,900	Um, Mayor Commissioners, I actually, actually I think Mayor, you can answer that question if you want to. OK, well, the first thing is, these are the, yeah, I, I had a lot of conversations with Dmitriy on this. So I’ll, I’ll go ahead. No, you can go ahead.

01:07:22,870	OK, I, I would just say, uh, mayor Commissionerers Comm Risch. Honestly, the, the, the dip is, is basically gonna use reserves in another fund, and we’ll just get replenished over time. So that for me, It’s not a from a financial health of the liquor lodge and restaurant tax, uh, that is not a concern because I know it’s gonna get paid back over time.

01:07:43,570	And in the meantime, we’re gonna have probably some cost savings and I, I’ll let the mayor and, and Jeff, uh, Mr. Rubble kind of talked about that. You know, in terms of like doing this project sooner than later, um, and, and.

01:08:01,630	It’s probably more beneficial, more cost-effective than waiting to do it uh over the long period of time, um, because of maybe worrying about the cash flow of of one particular fund, because we do have cash across a lot of funds in the city that could be borrowed, the money could be borrowed from the other funds in order to complete this project and then replenished

01:08:18,100	once the, the liquor lodge and restaurant tax is collected over time. Does that answer your question? Yes, Mr. Mayor, is this based on like $17 million or whatever the number um Jeff came up with. So, the, The chart was based upon Using the projected Estimated cost.

01:08:42,770	That would be spent in each particular year, if we chose The route of taking care of the critical needs first, um, based upon just how the timeline would go. So knowing that we’re not going to take the HVAC and do all of that in one year.

01:09:00,370	So we are, we are going to spend $15 million in year one, we’re going to spend it in 2 to 3 years in increments, so that, that’s what gives us the comfort knowing that we have the funding available to ultimately do that and what What my, when I, when we first asked Mr. Ubel to do this after the commission agreed to it.

01:09:19,670	My first question to him is, like, I, I want to take care of the facility. We need to take care of what’s there, and that’s not expansion because expansion is not, we got to just take care of the facility because it’s a great facility and it’s got great bones, but if we don’t take care of this HVAC system

01:09:39,470	as an example, it’s a, and Comm Zinger could even speak to it a little bit. It’s a ticking time bomb waiting for us to have an emergency.

01:09:53,030	And, uh, so, so that’s where uh Jeff went as he developed that, and then the rest of it, when it comes to I said we got to make sure we also take care of things that are important from a visual perspective.

01:10:07,470	Because HVAC is not something we can touch and feel, it’s gonna make everybody more comfortable because we’ll get air conditioning and the places we don’t have air conditioning working very well right now, if at all. Um, but we need, we need those consumer touchy feely type things. So that’s the wayfinding, which is an easy number to maybe we can get that one done soon.

01:10:27,000	The other thing I asked was, let’s make sure we don’t spend all that tax revenue, because we know we’re gonna have somewhere between $250 million and $5000 at least while we’re getting the building back up to speed on things that are gonna come up that we need to attack and take care of right away, or there might be some small items we can knock off the list from the back end.

01:10:43,030	So, that’s how, was developed, um, and then once, once Jeff and his team put that together, then I said, Dmitriy, I gotta make sure it’s gonna work. Run it through your, your financial model and that’s where these charts came from. Comm Cleary. Thanks Mayor, um. I guess to Dmitriy’s point, um. When we’re talking.

01:11:09,630	From the financial standpoint, it’s not the only instance where the city borrows from the city as we’re waiting for those funds to increase and the liquor and lodging restaurant tax fund, it’s a very stable thing.

01:11:27,230	It, it tricks up a little bit, it, it’s never up and way down or anything like that, so, well, during COVID, hopefully we’re not doing that ever again, but um. But I think, so, this model where we dip in uh and we’re negative in our reserves and wait for it to come back up is not something I have any major concern about just because of how that fund functions from

01:11:43,230	year to year, um. So I guess that’s reassuring. And I also said I do not want to borrow money from outside. I just don’t want to do that. It doesn’t make sense to me, and it’s, it’s, uh, it would be a bad message.

01:12:05,400	Because that, that means that we’re short on taxes and revenue, and that’s not the situation. So Um, The Commissioners make, make one comment. Just to make sure for the public’s actually sake.

01:12:28,170	I just want to point out that the liquor lodge and restaurant tax is a 1% tax on those three things I just mentioned, and they only can be used for capital purchases related to uh at the event center. So I just based on North Dakota’s the century code. So I just wanna make that clear for everybody present and in the public. So Would you like to move forward in a manner to start to accomplish some of this.

01:12:50,030	You need more? This, I think we, we So we have a, do we want to move forward, and B, we probably need to come with a, Yeah, now I gotta ask Jeff, what was the terminology you recommend because I think this might be a longer term process.

01:13:10,370	We probably need an RFP actually to, um, Secure that particular component first. similar to what we have at the airport. Yeah, I think what you’re referencing, Mayor, is the indefinite quantities indefinite delivery contract. We had recommended uh issuing an RFP using that strategy, just simply because then you’ll have continuity over at least the early years of implementing the CIP.

01:13:34,830	And, and so the first step would be to do that RFP. And then we would then then once that is awarded that person or that entity would then begin the process of developing the Uh, plans For For whatever approach we took. I would close 88 to 10, 8 to 10 months would probably be the design window. Yeah, yeah.

01:14:01,500	Which is why we ought to, if we’re going to try to attack, I think we need to start making some movement. So that would, I’ll make a motion to approve. That we entered into that uh RFP for. Somewhere to the airport, Jason, you got that? Yes sir. OK.

01:14:25,530	Is there any further discussion? Henne will call roll. Mr. Connelly No. Comm Zenker? Yes. Comm Cleary. Yes. Comm Risch. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. There’s nothing else on our agenda, so we are Adjourned. I want to thank