00:00:07,530	Chaplin, please Let’s stand and pray and then we’ll uh do the Pledge of allegiance. Father God, we just thank you for today. We thank you for uh this uh new year.

00:00:30,170	Thank you for the holidays Uh, there’s so much to be thankful for, and I, I pray that you’ll be with uh this uh meeting tonight as we go through some of the, uh, the stuff we need to do at the first of the year, uh, just help, uh, each person to do what they’re they’re asked to do, and, uh, especially for this county, continue to be with uh our

00:00:46,100	first responders that are out there and uh doing what they do so well, and we’re grateful for how they protect our county and, and, uh, get there as soon as they can, and we just, uh, thank you for that. We do this all in Jesus’ name. Amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

00:01:07,430	and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You called the January 5th meeting of the Burleigh County Park Board to order. First item is roll call of members. Comm Bakken, Comm Schwab, Comm Hermann. Yeah. Comm Baim. Comm Ben.

00:01:47,430	Fisher Woodcock, here, Comm Munsen, here, Chair Bitner here. Next, uh, consideration of the December 1, 2025 meeting minutes. Move to approve Second. Motion is 2nd to approve any further discussion, Caro. Comm Schwab. Comm Hermann. Yes. Comm Woodcoxck? Yes. Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken, Chair Bitner, yes, motion carries. Next item is public comment.

00:02:16,800	It is restricted to Burleigh County residents and landowners. Um, does anybody wish to offer any public comment? Second call. Does anybody wish to offer any public comment. This is a public comment period. Third and final call. Anybody wish to offer a public comment, I’ll close the public comment. section and, um, next, Comm Schwabab discuss future park management. Comm Schwab. is good.

00:02:45,630	Yes. Am I allowed to speak on this stuff up? The stuff on the e-mail OK up here weird Anyway to kind of update things, some things uh we have room for a park administrator or ranger, whatever up at the highway department, we’ve got a got it set up for them.

00:03:24,330	I’m going to put him right next to Darren Johnson so they can play pinouckle. Anyway, we that’s an item that’s taken care of. but there’s some items I’d like to comment on and, and, uh, we got I got and another Comm got an email from another Comm that I think was a meeting and

00:03:57,230	on account of that, we couldn’t go any further and do things that we were working on. I couldn’t read what Darren Johnson had come up with. I couldn’t really talk to the highway department. because it was sent to 3 well, sent 2 commissions by 1 commission, so Julie said she’s kind of sorted that out.

00:04:22,800	find out what we can do. So I got to be able to talk to people in my departments. So I think what you’re referring to was an email that um a Comm had sent regarding information about how we were going to go forward, um, without the Bismarck, Parks and

00:04:40,170	Rex taking care of things. And so you can talk to your departments about it. You just can’t make any decisions with other commissioners via email. That would be consisting of a meeting, um, so you talking to your department, and other Comm talking to their department that they’re the portfolio holder of and then bringing all

00:04:57,170	that information to this meeting so that you can all discuss that at an open meeting would be the way to do that. um, not responding via email to make those decisions, um, would be the way to proceed because you don’t want to have a meeting via email, um, making decisions

00:05:14,530	Well, the reason I didn’t respond to the email is I just got done doing 8+ hours of continuing head. and this exact same thing came up. and they did call it whoever was instructing it a meeting. but whatever.

00:05:44,500	So I really can’t discuss anything else because I haven’t seen this stuff but we do have a place for the, uh, for the Parkhead OK, do you want to discuss the, um, the items that were in the in the email so we can kind of knock that around, Comm. Well you sent the e-mail, Wayne. You are correct. And, and for that I apologize.

00:06:10,230	I included the, the, the second Comm because they were asking me to make sure I communicated with you, um, not thinking about open records, I, I was completely incorrect. Uh, the email that I sent out was basically a list of items from the Bismarck Park Board.

00:06:31,000	uh, giving us a day by day, week by week, month by month, uh, process that they had done for us and so I had sent that to uh, Comm Schwab along with Marcus since he was head of the highway department and there were some items on there that maybe they could they could help us out with, uh, also to Darren because of the weed

00:06:51,230	officer situation, uh, to see if they could, uh, assist us in that. um, if those two departments could not, I needed to go out to find private um both department heads did respond and say that they could.

00:07:12,100	Mars obviously with a limited list of items, um, uh, Darren did respond that he would work up a quote with their vendor when that is chosen and when they put that out for bid, uh, for the spring, uh, and I also sent them a job description to uh head of HR to have her decide if that is the correct job description, uh, auditor Swanskowski helped me out quite a bit with that, and

00:07:33,000	I appreciate that, Mark. Um, so now we’re just, uh, at a holding pattern of when HR gets an opportunity to look at that, and then I can bring that back to uh, this board You, you’re also sending to Comm Bakke, and that’s where we have a problem Mr.

00:07:50,630	Bakken had asked me to make sure I was communicating with you and I wanted Mr. Baca to make sure communicate with me. I’ve, I’ve told you several times on the phone, because I don’t like this stuff happening. Yep.

00:08:05,100	Well, just for the record, I never opened the Just for the record, I never opened the e-mail, so they’re Still Technically no breach, but Still, I created an error. Yeah, yeah. Well, um um, the building and grounds director forwarded that email to me. um, asking what, uh what position he should take on this. And obviously I was not responding because of the same exact concern.

00:08:30,500	um, but for the record, the building and grounds department is too maintenance technicians short today. Correct. And we’re not able at this point to task any uh maintenance staff with maintenance needs of the parks. Yeah, now if something comes up that we think we could maybe handle some small things, you know, like fixing a doorknob or something.

00:08:55,070	it would probably utilize the regular uh, work order system that Burley County has in place, and we would see if, if we could accommodate that. But right now the, the maintenance staff is really bowed up.

00:09:13,230	Oh, and, and I didn’t ask you because you and I had a verbal conversation and that was your, your response at that point. That’s why I reached out to Pam to start creating a job description for a part-time seasonal, um, that can do the dailies and the weeklies, um, you know, all of the other things like gar b age and sewer pumping and all those other things are

00:09:31,070	taken care of, uh, Comm Schwab’s group, uh, with the highway department has done a phenomenal job keeping the snow out of of both complex and the parks, so there’s, there’s no questions there, uh, where I will reach out to uh the director of, uh, facilities would be purchasing items like bathroom cleaner and toilet paper.

00:09:54,900	that we’ll have to stock somewhere so that we can do our daily and weekly checks, uh, within our, our parks. Right, well, in regard to, you know, the stock stuff, I think we, we maintain a significant amount of stock throughout the county, and I don’t think that would be anything, um, out of

00:10:13,730	the ordinary. Yeah, that’s. So, we want to keep it, now, just so you understand, we’re going to keep it very minimal because like I said, the they’re backed up at the jail. They’re backed up at the courthouse.

00:10:26,600	They’re backed up to the problem that they’re my goal is not to ask your staff for any, uh, because of the shortages that you are, that’s why we’ll look at hiring a part-time seasonal. to do the majority of that work. right to do the leg work. Um-hum.

00:10:47,870	Daily check-ins with campers and daily check-ins with bathrooms and the minor things, because I’m not going to see maintenance staff driving around dropping off toilet paper or anything they’ve got one more important thing to do, one item that we did discuss with Auditor Spoonskowski as we were going down to the list as the fish cleaning station, uh, if there is a maintenance issue there, uh, we’ll have to come up with a solution for that.

00:11:05,900	um, since I’ve never looked in one, I’m gonna have to look in one and figure out the mechanics of it and we’ll figure that out later on, but I’ve got a few months before we have to worry about that.

00:11:20,800	I wonder if North Dakota game and fish doesn’t have somebody that is more adept at that because of additional, um, facilities that they may have. The Park District always took care of it, but I can certainly reach out to Game of fish to see since they sell them or they they supply them, they install them. Maybe they have maintenance. Yeah, I’ll ask. OK.

00:11:34,730	I can show you how to fix the grinder, but that’s about it. That’s what I’m gonna need help with, cause people like to put whole geese and whole carp and whatever else down that thing without don’t do that. OK, is there any other, um, discussion um, that needs to happen around that item.

00:11:54,970	I, I think as soon as I get a chance to get back with uh Pam to define that part-time seasonal, then I’ll reach back out to each individual uh, Comm to talk with their portfolios. OK Sounds like a plan Anything else, Comm Schwab? Uh this guy’s going to have to have a hardened do work.

00:12:21,100	This guy’s going to have to have a department work out of. and I, it’s working real good with, uh, Darren absolutely flawless So you have to decide what department you want to work out of.

00:12:46,800	And I, I if you need to get two people hired full time, that’s fine because we can always use them in the backside if they’re out of the highway department. So that way they have staff to help them. They have supervision. and, uh same problem I had with the Wii board, we’re starting this thing out and it’ll work out.

00:13:05,700	Well, years ago when we had a park ranger, there was just one person on staff, and he didn’t seem to have any problem keeping up with the, with the day to day. So at this point, I would certainly look for one. and go from there, uh, Comm Bakke.

00:13:27,470	Well, we’ve had the discussion about what that department is going to look like moving forward with some potential changes, um, with Missouri Valley Complex and some other things, um, does it make more sense to hire an FTE that could be utilized for backfill it, either the highway department or with Darren.

00:13:46,170	uh, you know just kind of spitballing as we would probably get more value out of somebody that can manage those because right now there’s not, you know, seasonal part-time, but it might be easier to find a, an FTE that could do a little bit more, so maybe it might be worth the discussion of broadening the scope of what that position looks like. Um, I’m getting a head nod in the back of the room.

00:14:06,370	Yeah, OK, so, yeah, so I mean we, we, it might be, might be easier just to do go that route and be able to have, you know, kind of the the Swiss Army knife that, you know, when they’re not doing the park stuff, then helping out Darren or helping out the

00:14:24,000	highway department because we know that we always have use there. So I uh, what that would look like as far as HR is concerned and how you divvy up that payroll is, we’d have to work through, but that, that might be the better route to go cause my budget is more efficient.

00:14:44,370	It might be more efficient. My budget can’t handle a full time. That’s why initially my, my thought is seasonal part time, but if Mr. Schwab’s group can, can use additional labor in his off time winner, you know, maybe visit with the department heads and, and see what that looks like and, and visit with Darren and see if

00:15:04,000	even the part-time seasonal stuff for the parks is probably 10 to 20 hours a week. Yeah. You know? So, yes You can uh. Good evening, Comm. You can. Darren does quite a bit of stuff once in a while up there, doesn’t he? Yeah, he helps out where we need him. Yeah.

00:15:27,700	And it wouldn’t hurt to have somebody else that’s able to do that. Uh, yeah, we can always use hands, especially in the summertime. So. So, if, if there’s some downtime where he’s not busy doing other things, we can certainly fill in the time with the highway department stuff. I don’t foresee that being an issue.

00:15:41,800	Well, and that plays into what we’ve been trying to accomplish anyway as far as cross-pollinate positions so that we do have that flexibility in the workforce, so that this might be an opportunity to go down that road. And if an FTE is easier to hire than a part-time seasonal, I would much rather have the FTE.

00:15:59,000	Well, the other, the other thing is that, like. Cause we need Darren as a full time employee is on a different pay scale though, because he is the Wied department technically. Right. But he’s got a place where he can punch the clock and stuff and all these records can be kept So it’ll work out, yeah.

00:16:22,470	I just think it’d be cleaner OK. Thank you for bringing that up, Comm. Thank you. OK, sounds like we got a good path going forward. Hopefully you’ll work closely with Comm Schwab. Absolutely on the, um duties and whatnot. They Just email him I was doing what you asked.

00:16:46,100	I was letting you know what I was doing, but it was incorrect. good intentions thing I wanted to see about, about that. So everybody knows uh, Darren is really busy. and he’s got a, he’s got seminars to go to. We’re still upgrading, upgrading. I figure by the end of this, this year, we’ll have the number one we control department.

00:17:12,170	in North Dakota computerizing. So he’s not gonna be able to go out and do parts. Oh, no, no. So, just so everybody understands, when he’s got a slow time, I’ve been in there and and, uh, somebody from the shop Darren, we’re ready to go. Well then, I have to I’m rudely told to leave.

00:17:39,900	But if you see, if you understand what I’m saying is, is that, uh, it does work out. OK. All right. Comm Buck. Just to follow up on that, the, uh, stateheat board is this week as well, uh, tomorrow and Wednesday.

00:17:59,800	So, um, you know, I do a welcome for them every year and, uh, have discussions with the on the state level and they’ve paid attention, they’ve noticed the job that Darren’s done, um, so kudos to Darren for that, and, uh, um, we’re definitely going in the right direction with, with what we’re doing on the Wheat board and the changes that have been made.

00:18:17,970	So, and I’m hearing it back from the state level, uh, that, uh, they’re very pleased with what Burleigh County’s doing. Well, I, I, I kind of think we’re the example of how to do it, but there’s one other caveat here. the highway department cannot have him on tarri. Yeah.

00:18:40,700	That’s not allowed, or if you had a park ranger, that wouldn’t be allowed because they’re helping out the highway department, but they’re not going to go out and tire highways. Right This. Which makes sense. Rita.

00:18:57,870	Uh, discussion of a lot of this is with our one Weat officer, which he’s doing great, and, but we don’t have a weed board, uh, uh, do we have, do we need to have a weed board? We haven’t discussed that. We’ve been without one, we are the weed. I know. Do we need a volunteer we board. No, he does not. And that’s what I want to discuss. He does not want one.

00:19:09,100	He does not want one. He wants to come up here. You saw what he did last meeting here, a couple of meetings ago, and he wants to report directly here Uh, I did ask him if he had a, had a separate weed board, how many times you meet

00:19:24,970	Maybe once a year So I’m not gonna wreck reign on his parade, and he’s doing a hell of a job uh. and I’m not going to push for changing it because it’s working out great, plus we’re saving about $15,000 a year.

00:19:49,100	There’s that? Oh And like I said, all the other thing is it’s transparent and everything’s videotaped, which we were having a problem with, uh, and we were having a problem. not to bring you into this, but with yourle meetings up there at the old park where there were no way to control it. In this way, it is, scrutinized and uh everybody knows what’s going on.

00:20:10,430	There’s been no decisions made up there. Uh without us right here knowing it being televised except one. and that was of a farmer comes in and wants to buy a little mill milestone to spray around his corrals who get where the weeds really grow in the summer, we will sell it to them.

00:20:33,900	You know, it costs that’s about the only thing that was never has never been mentioned here, and that’s probably about 80 bucks. I think maybe one Guy did it. You know, we’ve been doing that for years. Yeah, yeah. That’s techn practice just not utilized technically your roads and pastures, not corrals.

00:20:50,500	Oh but they hold all that stuff out of the crowds and spread it all over the place. We’d rather have them spray it. And if they want to do it, fine. We don’t spray for them. Sure. So, that’s the only thing that’s never been brought up, so.

00:21:06,500	I think it’s under the umbrella that we’d control low in the whole county. I think it makes sense to continue that. but. good Yeah, I just, I, you know, initially my thoughts were at some point, go back to the weed board or you’re re-establish a weed board, but given what I’ve heard back from the state and how well it’s working now.

00:21:25,870	I, I am not in favor of, of changing what we’re doing right now. Darren’s doing a great job and the transparency’s there. which didn’t exist before, which is the reason that, uh, um, this commission had to step in for the Wheat board, and, uh, I would be in favor of just leaving it the way it is right

00:21:44,000	now. If something arises down the road that we need to address, it’s right here because we are the Wii board, um, and it, and it doesn’t.. No, it doesn’t add anything to it an extra burden to this commission anyway, so. OK. Anything else on that subject? Any uh any other business for the good of Burleigh County Parks.

00:22:04,700	If not, we’ll Adjourn the Park board. Note that it’s 522. and, uh, I’ll call the January 5th meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to order. Um, first thing to do is a board reorganization as usual. The election of a chair and a vice chair and assignment of portfolios.

00:22:33,730	and I’ll uh uh turn this over, I guess, to the auditor to handle that part. Yes, so county Comm at this time, I would, uh, entertain nominations for the 2026 Chairmanship for the County Commission.

00:22:58,330	Are there any nominations? I would move the continue Comm Bittner as the chair, um, just my rationale on that is just we’ve got so much going on that he’s seen, um, with the Provident building until that project comes to fruition, I think you’re probably best suited for that. OK, I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of balls in the air when it comes to 2nd All right. Are there any other, any further nominations? Yes, I would like to nominated Comm Munsen for Chair.

00:23:26,970	Second my rationale for that is exactly the same way Comm Bittner’s been in charge of those for several years and the prominent life buildings are major project, probably will be for a long time if he retains that portfolio, he’ll still be in charge of that like he is now as, as, as completing that project.

00:23:42,470	My concern is we’ve had for the last, uh, 234 years we’ve had a turmoil in half of our departments, and I think it’s time for a new leadership to move forward, a new outlook, and a new cooperation with the city, which I think had really been suffering in the last couple of years and, and I think he’s had his hands

00:24:00,730	full and he’s worked hundreds and hundreds of extra hours, which I think it’s time to, to get a new, new outlook and a new leader and let him retain the the uh portfolio for the Provident life building and everything will go along smoothly.

00:24:16,600	I, I, I’m real concerned about, uh, uh separating from the city. We’ve, we’ve, we’re moving in with the park board, we’re moving away from that joint, uh, venture. We’re moving away from the joint venture with the Health department.

00:24:34,330	Uh, it just, I think for the benefit of the, of the, the uh taxpayers of Burley County, which is 80% city or 85%. Uh, we need to be cooperating with them, not kicking sand in their hand in their eyes every time we, we turn around. I think that’s been happening and that’s one of the real concerns I’ve got, and I think, uh, we just need new direction and, and, uh, uh, a new outlook.

00:24:49,700	Well, I can appreciate you saying that, Comm Woodcox, but I don’t have much of anything to do with the city. I don’t have anything to do with, uh, uh, public health, don’t have anything to do with, uh, park board. None of that had anything to do.

00:25:04,100	Well, we vote on something, it’s always 3 to 2 or it, it, it, and, uh, the, the, the fairgrounds is the same way every time we have to, anything comes up for the fairgrounds and the new building we’re looking at, it’s 3 to 2 and we have, we have really we can’t get anything done with

00:25:19,530	3 to 2. It’s very difficult, not that we need to be unanimous, but I just think we need a new direction and a new, and, and you’ve, you’ve been at it for 4345 years, and I think everybody should have a chance to be a Chair, uh, not that

00:25:32,530	it’s any more fun, but, uh, it’s still, you realize what goes on in the county a lot more when you’re, when you are the Chair. I think everybody should have a shot at it.

00:25:47,900	Well, of all those political subdivisions you mentioned, I think we’re the only one that’s lowering taxes, so that’s that’s kind of where I, I the line on that, so. Um. That’s great. I’ve heard more comment about people saying, hey, my taxes went down.

00:26:01,730	And, and then I said, look at the pie chart, look at the pie chart, and that’s where you realize that’s just said, not everybody looks at where the lower taxes are coming from and that was a joint venture of of all of us, we all did that. So, uh, very happy with that. I have. I have a couple of comments on that. Uh. like the highway department we board and other departments, we’re actually in the process of streamlining.

00:26:27,370	We’re saving money and the thing about it is streamlining, it’s like remodeling the kitchen. It doesn’t look good until it’s done and you get things going. You go, you know, it isn’t just right now going to happen right now. I cannot support any anybody that votes not to take that errison diversion out and get live.

00:26:56,730	let the taxpayers have their meal. I, to me, that is, uh, as a Catholic, it would be called a mortal sin. And the thing about it is, is that if anybody wants, wants to defend this position. Tell me why. giving them 9 and $10 million.

00:27:26,270	over 10 years, and we get 800,000 back and then they come up with an excuse Well, you know, if you guys had asked us for grants, we’d give them to you. So we give them the money and then we have to ask it for it back.

00:27:44,730	So why in the hell are we in it? It makes no sense and you know, I and I think there’s a lot of fluffing what’s, what’s been going on in this county. We’ve had about 4 or 5 meetings here now where people are, are stealing Bellor from the other side, the garrison diversion, stealing valor by economic development. to pump it up and keep the, the cash cow going for him. And I’m going to call it out. It’s fluff.

00:28:05,630	It’s fluffy There’s nothing there So that’s why I’m I am I’m gonna support uh Chair Bittner Mr. Chair, I don’t know that the, that the garrison diversion had anything to do with being Chair of the board, uh, any more than any other department.

00:28:28,500	What I don’t know what he what the position of Chair board was that to do with garrison diversion. Well, you referred to a 3 to 2 vote Comm. Yes, there are, there are 3 to 2 on, so many departments. That was a 3 to 2 boat. Right. Yes.

00:28:42,900	So, I think it reflects maybe more on your position than on the majority of the boards. No, I just think we need a new direction and a new leadership. I give Chair M Munsen the chance, not Chair much, and I’m sorry, Comm Munsen, a chance because I know he wants to do it and he’s had for the last couple three years and, and

00:28:56,330	Chair Bittner, you’ve been on there this time for 2 or 3 years and previously you’ve been on as Chair. I just think it’s time for a new direction, a new outlook, and, and really bugs me that we’re not cooperating with the city. And I, you, you say we are, but I don’t think we are at all.

00:29:11,800	The city doesn’t cooperate with us. It’s a two-way street, absolutely. Yeah, it’s a two way, but, you know, sitting here and say the county doesn’t try to work with the city. you know, the, the mayor during the ETA was, what does the county do for the city? Well, let’s see here.

00:29:34,900	Senior citizen center, we put a road in out of McKenzie, so the sand can be hauled in for construction in Bismarck at our cost. uh there’s numerous things that we do. for the city There’s a capital crime committed.

00:30:01,900	We handle it It isn’t like the city isn’t getting money back, but the way it was presented was fluff again. Oh, look at this. What do you do for us? The park board come in, and what did they say? They were supposed to talk about administrative fees, and, well, no, we never turned anybody up down from the parks in Bismarck, even the county residents can use them And I take issue with that because they were

00:30:25,970	they were hinting that we don’t let people go out and use county parks and county boat rents. And that’s running down us. And you know that He never said one thing about administrative fees, all he talked about was hey, you can come to our parks, but man, I don’t know about them other guys. Not true.

00:30:47,370	Well, I’d add a little bit to that too. There’s some, uh, one particular cheap shot that I thought was gonna uncalled for, that doesn’t make me support the city was when we were talking about public health and the mayor was out there saying that the county needs to pay more so that the city can

00:31:10,800	reduce property taxes on the citizens. That’s totally disingenuous because city taxpayers are county taxpayers. Oh, absolutely. And so there was, there was some kind of a notion that if the people outside of city limits would simply pay more than the citizens inside the city limits.

00:31:31,700	That’s disingenuous as heck because we’re all the same taxpayers when it comes to those budgets. Is that offended me, and you want me to um, what, play nice when that happens See, I don’t attend meetings say, I didn’t say that at all. Yeah.

00:31:51,370	Well, you’re, you, you indicated that some of this had to do with me, and I simply don’t have I probably have more better communication with the city than the entire board because I sit on the city planning and zoning Commission, and I have those meetings every month.

00:32:06,970	And, um, we seem to get along just fine, as a matter of fact, I realized I was going through some paperwork that I’ve been on that city planning and zoning since January of 2008. Might be time for new blood. That’s what I’m thinking. We need new blood. A new option. We should probably be on that. I think you should probably be on that planning and zoning board. However, um, we’re digressing a little bit. Yeah.

00:32:23,430	From the Axual. We’re getting off the beaten path the question. Call the question. Well, are there any further nominations? Any further nominations Any further nominations, we will do a, uh, roll call. Uh, the first nominee is, uh, Comm Bitner. Uh, Comm Woodcoox, No. Comm Munsen? Nope. Uh, Comm Bitner. Comm Schwab Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes.

00:32:53,270	The next nominee is, uh, Comm Munsen. uh, we call that a role as well. Uh, Comm Munsen, yes, Comm Bittner, No. Comm Bakken. No, Comm Schwab? No. Comm Woodcock We’ve got to wear boarding. Yes. Yes means a no and no means a yes on some of these. Oh.

00:33:16,230	All right. So, we’ll uh, Comm Bitner is elected Chair for 2026. Uh, next up we have, uh, where we entertained nominations for the 2026 vice Chairmanship. Are there any nominations? I would nominate, Comm Munsen. for vice chairir Just for argument’s sake. second are there any further nominations? Yeah, I would nominate Comm Bakken for vice.

00:33:46,800	I think he’s been doing an excellent job. I would second that. Thank you Are there any further nominations? Are there any, I would nominate Comm Schwab or Woodcocks. 2nd.

00:34:10,370	That’s fine Are you penalizing me? Is that what you were trying to do? No, I, I wouldn’t mind if, if I’m nominated or if I’m elected, I’ll serve. That’s no problem at all. I just think we need a new outlook and a new move forward, so. OK, are there any further nominations? Any further nominations? Any further nominations? Hearing none, the first nominee is Comm Munsen, for the 2026 Vice Chair, uh, we’ll call the role, uh, uh, Chair Bittner? No.

00:34:39,600	Comm Bakken No Comm Schwab? No Comm Woodcock. Yes. Comm Munsen, yes. The next nominee is Comm Bakken. and we’ll we’ll call that, uh, Comm Bakken. Yes. Mr. Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcoxox. Yes. Mr. Munsen. Yes. Chair Bittner. Yes. Got you back. The next nomination is Comm Woodcock, uh, roll call of, uh, Comm Schwab. The next nominee is Comm Woodcox.

00:35:13,170	Uh, he’s too old. No. Comm Woodcock. No. Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm, Chair Bitner. No. He’s from Bakken. Yes. All right. I knew that was coming. Enough of the humor, that’s good. OK, now that brings us to the subject of assignment of portfolios.

00:35:39,370	How do you guys want to handle that? Um, Mr. I’m not, uh, Fisher Munsen. I had requested earlier to be taken off of the um uh uh public health and, and after consideration, I will keep that portfolio I appreciate that Um I really do OK I’ve spent 3 years on it. I might as well keep on going.

00:36:04,530	I mean, I know it. I, I enjoy it. Well, I, I think that’s real important because one of the questions I was gonna have is, is what does Burleigh County gain by switching you off of that. And I think we have more to gain by you being there.

00:36:18,800	than, than by switching you and I want you to know I appreciate your willingness to continue. Um, does anybody else have issues with their current, um, portfolios. Um personally, I don’t have a a real love for continuing on the planning and zoning, but I will, um. unless somebody else is interested in it.

00:36:44,600	And I, and I’ve always enjoyed planning and zoning and, and I was gonna ask if you wanted me to sit on the city side. I would certainly take on that role if you wish.

00:36:59,800	You and I shared anyway, as far as the county side, but if you wanted to lessen your load a little bit, I would certainly take on that city. Um, you know, how about if we run this for another year because now, right now we’re in the middle of swapping over the ETA and there’s there’s a lot of, um, not that I, I welcome the chance to, you’re you’re a lot of nuance

00:37:17,100	to it. Yeah, there’s, there’s a lot of ordinance things that we’re going to be needing to deal with as far as trying to make sure that the ordinance that applied when the city had the ETA versus where we’re at with the county. There’s some things that we have to get right.

00:37:33,270	And, you know, I want to try to make sure that everybody is, is, um, uh, held harmless, you know, and everybody is, is, is good with, with that. You had asked. That’s why I offered. Yeah, I appreciate that. And if you were coming off the planning and zoning completely, then.

00:37:49,370	you know, maybe if we get everything kind of dialed in and, you know, get the ordinances straightened out and whatnot because I am real familiar with the ordinances. I wrote a lot of them, um, then maybe we could look at switching sometime later in the year or something. Yeah, I’d be more than happy to jump in there that OK.

00:38:07,270	Any other, any other discussion regarding portfolios? Um, I did have one question. Uh, Comm Schwwab, um Yes. It was wondering if you would have an interest in giving up MPO. Yes All you do is go over there and vote yes. I’m the only Guy that ever votes no. Voting is not effective over there.

00:38:35,100	Um, that’s something I enjoyed when I was mayor, and we actually have some moving pieces right now that I’ve got reinvigorated, um. concerning some state as well as the rail. Um, that I would, uh, be interested in taking over the MPO. Now, that being said, I got a pretty full load.

00:39:07,530	I was wondering if you would have any interest in uh um Sencom or What? The Cencom, the 911 center. Not really. OK. You walked into this. Well, I, I, I know. I, I’m willing to take on more. But if, if you could take a little something off the plate, I would appreciate it, here, here’s the reason why now we lost, uh, our county engineer We have a lot of projects up there.

00:39:35,330	and uh I don’t micromanage, but I help in any way I can, but a lot of my understand we have a lot of change in the. I want to see get this highway department up. Another year we should be where we should be. OK. Fair enough.

00:39:55,600	uh, roads are so important to me that maybe I spent too much time in there. I know I do when I drive by and I see crew out there shaking their fists at me. So, at least it’s only the. I’m doing my job, to, and it does take a lot of time. Fair enough. OK.

00:40:14,430	So, you want to move the metropolitan Planning Organization MPO Comm Schwab to your portfolio. OK, we’ll do that Um, you had expressed some interest in that Missouri Valley complex and your combination with, um, uh, uh, 4H Well, yeah, that’s, that’s another portfolio that I would be interested in.

00:40:52,800	MPO I uh I am not a good fit for that, but there are so many things out there. I can go down a list of things that haven’t been done yet and I, I don’t want to get into it now if Comm Munsen wants to get together with me. I’ve harped on a lot of this stuff for three years.

00:41:07,630	Uh, fully capable of doing it, but you gotta do it. Like fix the roads. the pavements cracking, and that brings up another thing uh Comm Munsen, you said you were waiting for a bid from the highway department. No, I have the bed. We’re waiting for the sewer to go through.

00:41:31,730	and and fix. The thing is, is that legal? if you put if we put something out for bid and we only take the highway department. It was, it was never officially bid.

00:41:52,530	The highway department is simply fixing their own road, the county road, and so when I had highway staff meet me at the facility, uh, Marcus and Casey Casey, so there was, there was at least 3 highway department people out Dan wants to put in some. Good evening, com Commissioners.

00:42:13,430	Uh, I think it was last year sometime, uh, Comm Munsen reached out to us to put together a quote to repair some bad spots along that frontage road at the Missouri Valley Fairgrounds. Um, we put together a rough ballpark estimate of what it would take for our crews to do that, perform that, that service, um, and so it wasn’t really a bid, it was just a more of a quote on what it would cost to repair.

00:42:28,370	Yeah, so, Julie, what is the what is the procedure for putting something out for bids and if the county bids low because they have gover funding. Well, the county wouldn’t bid on the county projects.

00:42:44,630	If we’re able to take care of that in-house, we wouldn’t need to bid on that. So I’m confused as to your question. What you’re saying then is if we get high bids and the county wants it, they can just be $1 cheaper the next bidder bidder. That doesn’t sound right.

00:43:01,970	Well, if the county can do its own work, then why would we bid it out for somebody else to come in and do it. The county wouldn’t bid for a county project. Well, yeah, but that’s what that’s like that slide up at the river here this last landslide. Um-hum. We contracted that out because we’d have had to take all the snowplows off.

00:43:22,230	and if we got a blizzard we would be in I understand that, but if, if you had set it out for a bit and then decided that you had the equipment to do it yourself and you were gonna do it yourself, you wouldn’t have to go forward with that bid.

00:43:37,170	Like the county isn’t part of the bid process. So if they’re able to fix the road themselves and put together a quote as to how much it’s gonna cost within their budget to do that. They can do that and you wouldn’t have to put that out for a bid.

00:43:50,000	I, I think in this case it was not bid out. Correct. So they’re not undercutting, um, any private bids in this case that I’m aware of. It was it was, it was, it was an estimate for the Missouri Valley complex to have that money in their budget so that we could reimburse the highway

00:44:07,100	department for that work that was done. We need to call estimates, estimates, and bids bids. because it was not clear to me whether it was an estimate or. And that one, those words are two different things. Estimates, I can understand estimate of cost OK but I’m, I’m not willing to give up that portfolio.

00:44:31,100	Well, I, I think you should work, um, a little closer with, um, Comm Schwab on some of the concerns out there. that that would be helpful, I think, because. there was that confusion OK I think we pretty well beat up on that. Is there anything else with, uh, portfolios that we’re gonna move on.

00:44:54,100	Uh, first thing is roll call of members. I should have probably done that first. No, here. No one here on the right one. Yeah, OK. Uh, Comm Bakken. Comm Schwab, Comm Woodcock, yeah, here, Comm Munsen, here, Chair Bitner. Yes, here.

00:45:12,900	Um, the next thing is approval of the agenda at the request of the County Highway Department. I want to add one item under um well under the highway department 66 Yeah, under 6, County highway department where we have a developer waiver request. I want to add, uh, LGO Trust paving waiver, LGO Trust paving waiver.

00:45:41,630	That was part of the information that was submitted for the Agenda packet, but it didn’t make its way into the packet. Um, that it, that it’s not late breaking or anything that was should have been on the thing. Um other than that that’s all I had to add. Anybody else have any changes or additions? Move to approve the adjusted agenda. Amended. Second, motion the 2nd to approve the amended agenda.

00:46:05,730	Any further discussion? Caro. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcocks. Yes, Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken, Chair Bittner. Yes, motion carries, um, next item is consideration of December 15th, 2025, meeting minutes and bills, Commissioners, I have two things right off the bat to um to change on the, uh, on the start time of the meeting.

00:46:32,430	If you look at the page right ahead of the county commission meeting minutes was the Park board meeting minutes. and they we show an adjournment time of 5:18 on the Burleigh County Park Board. and we show a um, call to order at 5 p.m. on the Burleigh County Commission. I think it would probably be more accurate to, to make that 518.

00:46:58,430	as a change and then on the, on the section where it talked about, um, um, the Attorney General’s opinion regarding the meeting violation. I presented information that, um, I called in at 128, and the call lasted for 67 minutes.

00:47:22,500	Um, and, and that would give us a, uh, an Adjourned time of 1435 because we took the two minutes from 1:28 to 1:30 off, that would’ve left 5 minutes, and, and so instead of 233, um, it’s 235. I, uh Mr. Chair, I reviewed the bills, um Taylor was not in today.

00:47:49,700	He doesn’t get back until tomorrow, but, uh, they looked in good order. So, um, pending his review tomorrow as well. I would move to approve the bills and the minutes with the amended changes. Second, yeah, motion a second to approve. Any further discussion? Follow the rule. Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen. Yes. Mr. Bakken? Yes, Monsieur Schwab. Yes Chaembitner. Yes, motion carries.

00:48:17,430	Um, I did get an email from Taylor earlier. He said he, he had, uh, had a flight canceled the day ahead of time. Must have had something to do with the activities over the weekend, right? And, um, and so he was gonna be flying in late and wasn’t going to be, so that’s, that’s legitimate. Next item, uh, consent agenda.

00:48:36,170	Um I would move to approve the consent agenda, but I want to pull, uh, D and E for discussion. It’s actually in a little addendum to, to those two items, uh, but other than that, I would move to approve the consent agenda minus DNE. Second.

00:48:57,630	OK, motion in a second to approve the consent agenda minus D&E. Any further discussion? Caro. Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken? Yes, Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcoxox. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries, Commission, uh, Comm Bakken, go ahead with the Dean.

00:49:17,730	So, D is a resolution of authorizing county treasurer, uh, to make payment upon demand for all invoices and claims for utility services, gas, fuel and oil per bill payment policy. E is a resolution ized in the county treasurer to make payments upon demand for all invoices, uh, for appointed county coroner, um, and the only reason I wanted to pull these out because I wanted to have a discussion about, um

00:49:36,970	the auditor’s role now that we’re into tax season and just because this kind of falls under the treasures, that’s why I pulled those, um so Oeronskowski, who was kind enough to volunteer his services as we’re collecting taxes, but we changed that job description and I wanted to run

00:49:55,170	it by the commission, the full commission that we allow the auditor to help during tax season to receive payments and, and work up at the front counter as that position has done in the past.

00:50:17,170	So um, that it makes a lot of sense and, and the auditor’s kind enough to pitch in with his expertise where, where he can do some good for county residents, so Yeah, I don’t have any problems. I would agree. Yeah. It’s OK.

00:50:36,370	So, I, I would make that a motion to, to, with that, I would, uh, uh, make a motion to add to the consent agenda that the auditor has the ability to help it, uh, pitch in when, uh, when he’s available and is needed, and I would move to approve D&E. Second, motion of 2. I guess we understand what the motion was. Any further discussion? The motion is to allow the auditor or the, or both of these? No. Well, it. It allows the auditor to Help out, uh, I realize that.

00:50:58,800	Which one are you voting on? Both together or, both together. OK. Yeah. So, the, the only reason I pulled those two, out as the discussion point for this is because everything falls into the treasurer now, so and this was kind of a finance piece, so it was just like it just made a lot of

00:51:13,700	sense to instead of do something different, just attach it to this. for discussion purposes. Col room Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes Comm Woodcock, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion. Next item 6, County Highway Department authorization to advertise for bids acceptance of plattered right away and developer waiver request. Mr.

00:51:36,870	Chair, while he, I should have asked before, but what is our IT contract? What is that? 2026 IT contracts it’s not in there. What? It’s in there. Is that with the city? It’s in. That the city contract? OK. Yeah. That, uh, never mind. Thank you. Page 19. Right.

00:51:52,370	And it was, it was presented essentially with no changes from. your, go ahead. OK, good evening, Commissioners, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. uh, 3 items on our agenda for 4 items now that we made the adjustment, um, first item on the agenda for the highway department is the authorization to advertise for bids for our yearly uh, painted pavement markings,

00:52:12,070	crushing of gravel, township gravel hauling, dust control, and chip seal projects. Every year, the Burley Coney Highway Department puts out bids for those following for the previous items, um, we’re asking for permission to allow the proper county officials to properly advertise those things if you would like to further discuss any of those items, we

00:52:32,430	can certainly pull, pull them out and do them separately, but, um, there is a proposed resolution for all of those items in your packet, and I would stand for any questions. Move to approve. Second, motion is second to approve the opposed resolution. Any further discussion? Call the rule. Comm Bakken.

00:52:52,370	Yes, Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm Wootox. Yes. Comm Munsen. Yes, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carriesick. All right. Second item is accept plat of the right of way shown in the attached plat. Burleoney is required to accept a right of way on plats that are approved by the City of Bismarck, City of Lincoln, or Burleigh County.

00:53:10,070	The Ridge Third subdivision has been approved by the City of Lincoln, and we are requesting that the county board accept the right of way that is shown in the attached plat.

00:53:24,430	It’s a, it’s 80th Street from um, Lincoln Road that would go all the way up to 22nd Street, um, there’s a proposed resolution in your packet, and we can try to answer any questions for you. Whoo to approve? Uh, wait. I have a question. Go ahead Uh, well, let’s get a motion in a second and then we can discuss a second. Motion a 2nd, go ahead.

00:53:42,600	Do these, uh, roads, are they matched up now Uh, define matched up. Are, are they open? No, no, no. Are, are they into county specs, you know, we don’t want to, uh, other than they haven’t been. The road coming in and 100 ft away from the other side.

00:54:03,000	Yeah, Comm Schwab, uh, right now they are, they are built to a gravel section standard, um, from Lincoln Road to the end, and they’re, it’s currently open currently open question about alignment? Is it about the alignment? I’m, I’m talking alignment, Dan. OK. It’s Yes, it. You know, you don’t want a road coming in. and then another one on the other side. Yeah, they’re, they’re all matched up right now. Yeah.

00:54:25,330	OK, so, um, I had a little question on the, on the map, which would be on the, uh, on the side, it’s too small for me to read, but. Yeah. Where the, it turns into a single lane on the very low corner of the. um you know, you go from a, uh, what looks like a two-lane road.

00:54:49,370	when it hits the property line, and it turns into a one-lane road. Yeah, so, you’re talking on the southern portion, um, near 80th Street right near, uh, Lincoln Road, I mean, um, that’s because we have platd right away along the other side of that. So the right of way already exists.

00:55:07,500	So this is just acceptance of the opposite side of that, perfect. Good answer. Any other questions or comments? Call the roll. Uh, Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcock. Yes, Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken. Yes, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Go ahead.

00:55:26,900	Uh, the third item we have is the uh review and direct the Coy Howard department on how to proceed with the developers paver waiver pavement waiver request. Under the current pavement policy, developers are required to um pave all internal roadways and adjacent section lines and construction of and paving of at least one roadway that connects to the existing paved highway system Patrick and Gayle Le Legenfelder in the north half

00:55:50,230	of Section 28 in Apple Creek Township are proposing a one lot subdivision, Coomer Rach subdivision, and are requesting apa waiver. Under the pavement payment policy, the plotting of this property would require them to pay 0.8 miles of township subdivision roadway.

00:56:08,070	uh there is a proposed resolution in your packet if you choose to adopt it, that would grant the paving waiver. So this waiver, um in line with, uh county’s previous policies has been, this is um more often than not with these one lot subdivisions, we have granted these in the past.

00:56:39,370	This is not preclude them to participate in any sort of road construction or paving at a later date. This just allows them to waive the pavement requirement for this particular subdivision. Moved to approve. Second, Motion second to approve any further discussion. Comm Schwab. Yes. Mr. Woodcock. Yes. Comm Munsen? Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. K.

00:57:04,900	The last item on the agenda is the review and direct the highway department on how to proceed with the developer’s request, um, under the same, same payment policy, um, the LGO Trust in the south half of Section 23 of Burnt Creek Township is proposing a two-lot subdivision and is requesting a waiver of the payment policy under the payment policy, this plotting

00:57:26,870	of this property required them to construct and pave 0.33 miles of subdivision and township roadway, um, waiving of the payment policy allows the county board to approve the proposed plat without the developer reconstructing and paving the required roadways at this time.

00:57:44,000	It does not preclude the county or township from requiring the property owner, from sharing in the cost to construct and pave these roadways in the future, um, I know this was not in the packet. Could you So, do you have a map of it there? How many miles did you say? 0.

00:57:58,100	3333 if you could just put it up on the Elmo so the public can see just everybody has a reference for where the project is. please. So this particular parcel is along 2/6 Street, and I’m just trying to, uh, here’s a better mouth. 6.

00:58:33,000	so that that blue outline is the outline of the particular parcel and the map I showed prior to that is, the piece that they will be required to build and pay the parcel size on that then. Um, shows 57 acres, 57.35 acres. OK. Commissioners moved to approve So I got Motion second to approve the LGO Trust paving waiver. Any further discussion? Paul roll. Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes, Comm Schwab. Yes. Chair Bitner.

00:59:07,100	Yes, motion carries. Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you, dear. Uh Coy Planning Director Flanagan got Spring Coolie subdivision, Hughes spin subdivision and attorney retainer agreement. Welcome, Mitch. Good evening, Comm, Mr. Chair. Uh, 3 items to present tonight. First up is the uh Spring Cy subdivision Replat.

00:59:36,630	Uh, Larry Lavea applied for a building permit earlier this year to construct a 2600 square foot accessory building to be used for storage workspace, etc. The parcel described as lot 2, block 1 Spring C Cee is the location of where he intends to build this accessory building. However, there’s no principal structure or primary residential structure on this lot, which is a requirement of Burleigh County ordinances.

00:59:58,430	He was advised to combine both lots uh to create that one single lot subdivision in order to build. Uh, this is a replat of a spring coolee original subdivision, uh, stormwater Management uh waiver was not requiring paving waiver was not required, and at the December public hearing, it was recommended to approve the

01:00:20,270	final plot by 8 to 0. I stand for any questions Move to approve. Um there’s some conversation about the impact of approving this on the, what would be the, the westernmost lots on the. That’s next I. That’s the next one. That’s the next step That’s. Oh, OK. All right.

01:00:50,170	Motion to second, any further discussion? They combined lots Did they combine the lots? That’s what this is, um, uh, you see on your, uh, lot exhibit, you see the little triangular underneath your hand there. That was the, the previous slot, the Spring C the original plat, and he combined the, the North lot to it. OK.

01:01:13,100	To create one It’s called Where’s Munsen? Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcock. Yes Chair Binner. Yes, motion carries. Next up, commissioners is the Hughes final subdivision. It’s a property located at 11,009 Lakeview Drive. It’s in Apple Creek Township. Uh, a lot size is 13. proposal outsize is 13.10 acres.

01:01:41,100	Um, for this lot, paving waiter was not required because the access to Lakeview Drive is already there. Stormwater management waiver was approved. Apple Creek Township has recommended approval of this flat. There were 6 revisions of the plat that were made to reach the requirements of Article 33 At the uh November meeting, additional information was requested for regarding a master plan for the area in your country Viewates because

01:02:06,600	there’s, there’s some. um, objection to the plot. and also a legal opinion of whether that lot can be removed from the uh existing subdivision, um, regarding Century code Title 40. Um at the at the December public hearing, it was recommended to vote for 8 to 0.

01:02:35,970	The, basically this is, is a vacating just one single lot out of that, uh, country view of states. uh, get that up on the Elmo here in a minute. Lo, the law has country view is this right here on that red line, which is the Countview states subdivision. plot line You want he intends to uh um combine these to build a, a rather large uh horse Serena.

01:03:25,600	and he needs to do that, uh, that square footage to reach what he wants to do for that so. The question is whether we can vacate that subdivision lot and create a new one. Um. referring to entry code title. Title 40-50.

01:03:57,100	um, basically it reads uh that recording of this, it reads that you can vacate that if it’s privately owned. Uh, any part of the lot, any, any part of the subdivision of Singalot or the entire subdivision can be vacated. We do this all the time We create new subdivisions out of existing uh uh subdivisions, uh, as additions, as uh second plats, that sort of thing.

01:04:20,530	Um how do existing covenants play into that? Do they carry over to or how does that work, M Mitch? If, if they’re in effect, I, that would, they would have to include that in the approval of the plat and record them as a separate item. We do not enforce covenants. They’re not an ordinance.

01:04:48,270	They are a private agreement from all the owners of that property to follow those covenants. Um the owner did, um, ask each one of the um residents of Countryview estates, if they were opposed to him having horses out there and according to the owner, uh, that they, they had no problem with it, combining the lots, they had no problem with the

01:05:12,430	horses either. So the question is whether we can vacate that single a lot out of the subdivision and create a new subdivision. We do it all the time. Chair, I know I’m not, I’m not comfortable without that addresses this question.

01:05:35,900	Well, and I, I know there’s representation from the developer and if there’s any other, uh um, residents out there that are here, I would like to hear from them. Yeah OK, come on up and give your name for the record, please. Afternoon, Comm. I’m Dan Anderson. I’m an attorney. I represent mariners, a developer on this issue.

01:05:59,370	the biggest thing is can you vacate it? Sure, but there’s so much legal ease in this right now with there’s currently covenants on that 1.5 acre lot. Can you would the subdivision, the new one? record those covenants against the next 10 acres, or are they going to vacate. They can’t vacate the covenants because they run with the land.

01:06:19,100	And so I think there’s, in my opinion, there’s so much legal ease in this that is commissioners, I would highly recommend a state’s attorney get involved in the opinion on can you do this? Because in my opinion, you cannot, and so I could argue with the state’s attorney on that.

01:06:37,800	It’s not our argument Also, I haven’t seen any plans for the subdivision and also consent from the property owners. They say they have consent, but we haven’t received any paperwork, signatures, notarizations, anything.

01:07:03,370	and so I I recommend that this is tabled at least until we have a state’s attorney involved to figure it out because I it’s this is a major legal issue to say the least. Yeah, I, I, I can agree that it is. Um, Julie I’m assuming provide me the information. Yes, provide me all the information and I’ll review it and give you an opinion. OK, and we’ll table it to The next meeting. Next meeting Next.

01:07:24,170	If I get the information, I can get it done within a couple days. Um, it was my understanding too that the developer’s not necessarily opposed to this project, but it’s just a question of making sure everything’s the legalese is done, correct? I can’t answer that for you right now. Well, fair enough.

01:07:47,270	There’s a lot of balls up in the air legally right now, right? Correct. OK. And that’s why it should be tabled in my opinion, is just to make sure we’re doing everything correctly. OK. OK. So anybody else wish to speak on this item? Thank you, dear. Hello, Comm and Chair.

01:08:13,470	My name is Amber Hughes for the record, and I am the landowner. You can’t hear me. No. Oh, you’re good. Oh, yep, you’re good. Just speak a little louder. So what was your last name again? Hughes. Hughes. So I’m just a little uncertain if you guys could explain to me what are the legalities that we’re worried about here? If it’s not against uh Century code.

01:08:41,530	of pulling our 1 acre. out. I don’t, I’m not understanding. They say they’re not opposed to it, but yet they’re bringing an attorney and already had conversations with you guys. So what’s the issue Well, from my perspective, um, the issue is, is kind of simple.

01:09:07,730	It involves covenants on a lot that, that’s already in an existing subdivision. OK. So lot two in that, um, already is against the covenants. It has um a barn with no house on it. le Well, we, we’re not going to get involved in that because we don’t forced covenants, but the thing of it is we, we don’t have the ability to remove covenants either. Nobody’s asking.

01:09:41,900	We’re asking we’re not asking to violate any covenants. We’re asking to rezone it so we can build. We have no plans of putting any uh farm stuff, any animals on that first acre.

01:10:08,100	We will so honor the covenants if you look back at the image, my writing arena doesn’t even go over my outdoor arena does not even cross over the first acre So we’re not, we’re not doing anything to it, so I don’t understand what the issue is. I truly don’t. Mr. Chair, if I can, Comm Munsen, Ma’am, I think, I think we’re we’re at as a commission is cautious.

01:10:31,600	We would like to have the state’s attorney look through everything and make sure all of the ducts are in a row before we make a decision. We’re not attorneys. We need to have legal guidance and so we’re just, we’re not saying no, we’re not saying yes, we’re saying please give us two weeks, and that’s fine.

01:10:50,270	I’m just, I just don’t really understand what the issue is at all. If they’re not opposed to it. There might not be any issues OK. Just checking. OK. Yep. OK. And along with this, it was not notarized, but we did have signatures from our neighbors, and it was on that document with the letter that was sent to all the landowners are the,

01:11:13,800	all the residents of the neighborhood. Is that something you get to mix. So that we could have it in something that that they already have. Yeah, we saw that at Planning and zoning, didn’t we? Yes, and we already did all of that.

01:11:35,800	OK, I think, I think what, what I would prefer doing is, is taking the route of caution to make sure that, um, the state’s attorney weighs in on any kind of questions that I just want to make sure, you know, we didn’t miss anything on what we need to present since it keeps coming up as, as an issue.

01:11:51,700	It’s good to do it because. And I’m fine with I’m, yeah, and I’m fine with that, but get it, get the ducts in order. OK. So, you know, go ahead and build if you’re going to build.

01:12:06,270	Yeah, I, I was gonna say I, I imagine that um the state’s attorney would be willing to take input from you as well or hearing from an attorney on on that, and I guess if you, do you have an attorney or you want to just represent yourself or? No, I don’t have an attorney.

01:12:19,630	I’m just cur I’m just curious. I know it was going to go to the state attorneys and the one meeting, but they didn’t hear back from them. So I’m just wondering what what the issue is Well, the issue really is simply what happens with those covenants and and whatnot, if we were to um essentially change the, the zoning of that particular spot.

01:12:46,330	So. um, you know, obviously people around there buy into those properties based on what the covenants say. and we’re, we’re not able to remove them. That’s a whole different category that’s in the civil law. OK. And that’s why we want lawyers to look at it. Simply. OK. OK. Thank you. Thank you.

01:13:08,500	Mr. Chair, I would move to table this agenda item until the next meeting. Hopefully we’ll have state’s attorney, uh lawyer’s opinion by that. I’ll second that, uh, but was there any neighbors or anybody else that wish to speak? OK, we have a motion of second.

01:13:30,970	Anybody else wish to speak on this item? OK. Second then OK. Any further discussion? Follow the rule. Comm Schwab, Yes, Comm Woodcock, yes, Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes, Chair Bittner. Yes, motion carries. Mr. Chair, third item is attorney retainer agreement, um, consider approving a service contract to provide legal assistance and interpretation of legal issues regarding Burleigh County.

01:13:57,170	Um, the, uh, in your packet are two proposals, one from, uh, Brian Schmidt and another one from Lawrence King. Uh, their fees are fairly similar, um they differ a little bit on their full partners, associates and Paroele.

01:14:18,530	Uh, it would be my action request is to approve a retainer agreement for a legal services. I would, I would, um, request that you approve both of their proposals. They’re very similar in you know, it’s not a contract doesn’t cost anything to retain them. We do proof Second, both of them Um you do realize there’s a difference in price between the two.

01:14:42,100	If you look at one, there’s a, there’s a, a difference in hourly price? Yes, uh, Comm, uh, Chair Briitnerner, the, the full partners, uh, Lawrence’s $300 Bra Schmidt is 250. The associates attorneys, uh, are 250 from Lawrence King and Brian Schmidt is 225. And the paralegal for Lawrence King is 150, uh, for Bra Schmid, it’s 175.

01:15:09,230	So it depends on how many paralegals you use, I suppose, would make the difference. I think the bigger question is, uh, you know, if one’s tied up, and we have to go the other route.

01:15:29,000	We need to, uh, a secondary system, but I would, uh, hope that we would lean towards the better fiduciary route whenever possible. State’s attorney weigh in on this? I know we had talked about this before due to staffing in my office. I can’t get to everything all the time. Um, the only issue that I would have is to make sure that they’re appointed as, um, special assistant states attorneys to do county work.

01:15:50,870	would not be overseeing them then under that. Um, not, not necessarily overseeing them, but, um, involved in what’s going on, so I’m in the loop with things. Correct. Chris Schwan Uh right, I forgot the name of the firm that has taken care of the provident life.

01:16:13,730	Who is that? Um, that is we don’t, we don’t have an attorney on the Pro. Well, the one that, on the, excuse me, detention center. That would be Lawrence King Lar King well. King, King. Yeah I don’t have a lot of confidence in him. Actually, I don’t have any Mr. Chair I’ve reached out to several attorneys, um.

01:16:56,530	and they don’t reply These are the only two that responded. I’ve reached out to 4 different legal firms. OK, well, we have discussed this sort of thing a lot over the years. Um, and I, and I think we simply. do need additional, um, attorney services take a little load off of the state’s attorney’s office.

01:17:24,330	As long as the motion matches what she said about the um, specialists. Yeah, specialist just look under. Special assistant. And specialate’s attorney. And what Special Assistant state’s attorney, and they both know that we’ve worked with both of them in the past, and they know that they need an appointment.

01:17:48,330	I would amend my motion to add the language that the state’s attorney has used. motion. The second is changed. OK. Any further discussion? Caro. Comm Woodox. Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken, yes, Comm Schwab, yes, Chair Bittner, yes, motion carries. Thank you, Comm Mitch.

01:18:16,330	No, I think that’s, that’s not necessarily, uh, state’s attorney, lawyer, that’s not necessarily just isolated to like a planning and zoning issue that can cover other needs, you know, we’ve had some questions, I think, through HR and through Yes, and in looking over the, um, agreement that they’ve included, it’s for civil matters. It’s not limited to just planning and zoning. It’s any civil matter. OK.

01:18:37,900	But the notion is that you’ll be involved, there’ll, you’ll be in the loop anyway, OK Thank you Uh, Human Resource Director Binner, um, Burleigh County job openings and data insight for 2025. Welcome, Pam.

01:19:14,730	Thank you, Chair Bittner, Commissioners, um, I kind of did a rundown of the positions that we currently have open and recruiting or we’re getting ready to recruit for. Um, you’ll see the first one on the list is the finance director. That one did close. We had no qualified candidates. Uh, we had people that had some experience but no CPA. So we’re looking at next steps there, um. OK, let’s, let’s talk about those next steps.

01:19:36,370	Um, Palm made a suggestion. We had a conversation regarding this, and, um, I would, I would concur with her, um, suggestion that we should put out a request for proposals for uh qualified local firm. to provide this CPA accounting firm for CPA services for like the and year-end financial stuff, you know, Short term? Yeah.

01:20:08,170	Um, um, because we simply don’t have a CPA in-house today, and I think we, I, I totally think we need to have a CPA or a or a firm with a CPA, um, uh, going through our books. I, I think our, our staff is doing a fine job at this point.

01:20:31,630	but we’re lacking the CPA and, and for, for, um meeting all the generally accepted accounting practices and all that. Is that consistent with what? you were thinking about? Mr. Chair, what’d be just a temporary arrangement at this point, yes. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know that we would need.

01:20:50,970	What do we do, what do we do with, uh, like our investment committee, we’d have to have a representative of their firm to be in our investment committee. I would say so. And, uh, you would think you’d want some consistency there with person that would be a good idea. Well, I won’t require that we’d have. No. a CPA that’s on our investment committee, I would think.

01:21:07,430	Sure. Are we meeting, are our investment committee reading regularly, they’re required to meet quarterly or monthly or. Um, I, I think that’s, uh supposed to have them, I know that’s a quarterly meeting, um, I’m drawing a blank on when our last meeting was. I know it was this year for sure. um.

01:21:25,630	not this year. Last year. Last year. Last year. I got it, and I’m still rating 25, right? I’m just concerned that our investments are being done properly.

01:21:40,070	That’s the problem we had before with their their investments are done properly and on time and, and, uh, getting the best interest rate and all that kind of stuff. Are we getting that done? Yeah, that, that part has been done and that’s brought up to speed and, um, when Taylor gets back, I think I’ll, I’ll process that discussion with him because he would be the, you know, the next Guy.

01:21:55,970	Lee was, uh, you know, the finance director was obviously the person who was calling those meetings, but I’ll, um, I’ll check with him and see um the status on that but I think that, um, it would behoove us to do a motion, pass a motion to um, proceed with um uh a request for proposals to retain a an firm.

01:22:23,370	I would make a motion to put out an RFP for retaining a CPA firm on a temporary or are, is there a time frame you would like to put on it? I would say for this year. I, I, I don’t want to put, I, I’m a, you know, it may wind up, might wind up being the route we wanna go.

01:22:51,530	So I, yeah, I would say do it for a year and then we can revisit it next year. Mr. Chair you. Can I ask, why, what’s our difficulty is that the CPA is at the range of salary range that we’re offering or what is the problem’s the CPA getting the certification.

01:23:08,100	OK, but what if. Should we be raising our salary rate, so we would entertain a CPA Would that do it? I mean, I, I’m saying is that may or may not. It just depends on how many CPAs are out there. Usually they’re pretty busy this time of year.

01:23:21,900	Um, and they’re not looking for another job because they’re booked with taxes and and year-end. That would be my concern with a firm doing it as well. Certainly I, I think we can continue, there’s no doubt we could continue, you know, reopen applications and whatnot.

01:23:48,270	I reviewed the applicants that that applied in you know, there, there was no actual CPAs. so, you know, we’ve had that in the past where we had a couple of times where we did the underfill. and that simply didn’t work out for us. So I, I can’t recommend we go that route again. Did we have a second I have a motion.

01:24:10,000	Is there a second Second I have a motion in a second for uh, request for proposals for, uh, CPA firm. May I ask? How firm CPA firm. Mr. Chair, what are our per year, for a year. Yeah. We’re going to hire a CPA firm to do what? Do we have, are we gonna ask them to do the finance director duties.

01:24:32,970	The majority of the finance director duties we are going to ask them to do, um, more of the CPA stuff, the auditing, that kind of thing, because, um, Taylor can do the other stuff as the deputy finance director.

01:24:50,700	and then just it’s the CPA stuff, the auditing and the kind of reviewing and acting as the comptroller. We need a CPA in that in that job and that would be then the finance portfolio holder that would be directing that person to go through that work. Yeah.

01:25:11,970	Well, I’m just, because, because who on staff is going to do that? Right, right. No, I, I think that’s a pretty high level. Well, that’ll bring us to the next discussion about finance director position too. And so let’s get through this first and OK. They call the rule Richard Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcock. No, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries.

01:25:30,170	OK Mr. Chair, I want my concern of voting no. I don’t want us to kick this can down the road and say, oh, we got a rear, a year now with the firm in there doing their job. We need a finance director that’s qualified, that’s got a CPA, long term.

01:25:48,900	I’m not worried about the next month or something like that, but, uh, I don’t want to see the can kick down the road for another year and we, and we try and really try and get somebody.

01:26:03,170	I think the intent is to kind of do the reset like we did with Marvin Heinert when we brought his CPA firm in to kind of do the review, kind of see where, where we’re lacking, what we need and to help us get back on our feet and to help train someone. because we may be able to grow our own CPA, but that’s not gonna happen overnight. Chris Bach.

01:26:17,800	Well, and I think that brings us back to the rest the discussion that we’ve had last year. Um, about hiring an interim finance director, and somebody to, on the county side to go through that.

01:26:38,430	that internal audit and take a look at what that position was, and I thought we had that solution in place, um, but I think we need to go back down that road. removing the CPA component of that at least for this year because we’re going to have that firm. So Let’s see if we get somebody to apply for that. Yeah.

01:27:01,100	So um, I, I would, I would say that we should open up the, the finance director position again, minus the CPA requirement if we’re going to have a CPA firm that’ll be able to manage those duties, but again, going back to our last discussion on this, I think it’s important to have outside eyes come in and take a look and evaluate what

01:27:22,730	where we’re at and kind of put a plan in place of the direction we need to be going moving forward. Lee took us so far. Lee did a great job.

01:27:40,100	um, but what’s the next vision of getting us to where we need to be for the financial solubility of the county, long term, and I think some outside eyes in a finance director, the one we identified would do a great job in that. So I think we need to go down that road. I thought we were already moving forward with that.

01:27:56,370	I mean, I look at budget coming up in 6 months, and whoever’s walking in only has 6 months to be ready. Yeah. Um for that process and that’s a lot to take in to get ready for budget So what do you guys requesting? Because what you gave me approval for is a temporary employee.

01:28:15,800	Temporary employees can’t work longer than 6 months out of a year. OK, well. Or we have to convert it to a full-time and we don’t have a budget for a full time if we’re gonna use some of that money budgeted for the finance director for a CPA firm.

01:28:30,500	Well, you’re just all kinds of fun Yeah well she’s not. We do have a deputy finance director as well at this point who’s acting as the interim treasurer, um, and he’s the internal candidate for the treasurer, but we do have 3 other very good candidates as well.

01:28:49,730	So there is a chance that we will have a deputy finance director and a treasurer, being two different people. She’s more fun when she gets a window back. Spent too much time in the old jail. OK, so do you, what do you think would be the better path than Palm was instead of the temporary position what we we still got a motion on the table.

01:29:15,870	for hiring a. We passed it, didn’t we? I’m sorry. Yeah, that’s, that’s done. And I’ve, yeah, yeah. I would recommend that we wait until we fill the treasurer position to see where we’re at. because we’re in the interview process for that one.

01:29:32,470	We’re getting ready to schedule interviews, get the panel together. And so we should know what’s going on with that, and then we can. figure out what positions we have open. Excuse me. What’s the timeline on that? That depends on you. you and uh Brian Bitner, who are on that panel, um, so whenever you guys can get together and we can get two other members.

01:30:00,170	and we can do the interviews. OK, but just closed. It closed, um, right before Christmas or right before New Year’s. right before New Year’s, Um, well, I think we can start the interviews this week. We can schedule them for this week or we can schedule this week. We won’t be doing them this week, but yeah.

01:30:25,870	So the question is, do we bring somebody on in the, in the meantime? I I’m still in favor of bringing on a finance director for, you know, the, especially the individual we discussed just to um, there’s a lot of institutional knowledge that comes from outside, and I like outside eyes. I, I, I really do.

01:30:46,800	So you need to take a look at everything now and then Um what that looks like is a part-timer I, I don’t, don’t know. That’s I think it’s part, part-time temporary is the best I can come up with at this point because we are talking about the treasurer thing.

01:31:08,000	So I think moving forward with a part-time temporary where I get hung up on it is the 6 months. So, cause I think that because getting through budget, that person needs to help get through budget and be there for that. That’s going to be beyond 6 months, so is it That’s the Affordable Care Act in ND Pers. regulations or North Dakota Century Code.

01:31:31,530	that tells Do we change the, the pay scale and call it a full time or what do we do? Right. But then OK, so which position are we going to convert? The actual finance director position? convert that to an intern, a full-time. and then amend the budget for consulting fees for the CPA firm.

01:32:00,330	So do we. But it, but it wouldn’t be full time. Yeah, but do we, do we part. OK, so the question is, we can call it full time, but do we lower the pay scale, commensurate to not having the CPA attached to it. and it does function as a 30 hour a week position.

01:32:22,730	What 30 32, 30, 32 hour a week position. Mr. Chair. Comm Munsen, my concern there is, OK, so we bring this individual on as a full-time employee.

01:32:54,170	um with that person knowing that as soon as we get treasurer taken care of and deputy finance those other positions done, we’re gonna go back out and advertise for a finance director, I would assume, with a CPA because that’s really what we want in the end. Yeah, but that’s gonna be at least a year out. I get that, but you. are we better off than hiring them as a consultant. with that way they understand they’re not a full-time employee.

01:33:14,530	They understand we are going to find another person for this position. When you hire a full-time employee, it’s pretty tough to look at the full-time employee and say, 16 months from now you’re out Well, the other part of that is, as well what if the best road, because

01:33:34,470	this is part of the reason why I, I would like somebody to come in and give their opinion and, um, smile outside eyes is what if the most cost effective way is to remain with the outside CPA firm. We don’t know that right now. We don’t know that until we do that right now.

01:33:54,630	Right? So, if that’s the most cost effective for the county, then what if we stay on that road while that changes what the finance director position does, and it comes back to more of the leadership role and, and I don’t want to use consultant because, because, um, but basically that’s, it’s that the director or the direction that it’s providing

01:34:20,170	for the services we provide to county residents. That’s, that’s kind of the way I’m looking at it. So maybe we are better off doing that 32 hour position pay commensurate to that, and it is an FTE. but at a reduced salary to reflect this lack of CPA and the 32 hour work week.

01:34:46,900	That, that’s where I’m kinda you know, it’s just it, it I can see it both ways but. what if we stay with the outside firm? We’re missing out on a, a good candidate because of a nuance that could might possibly happen. Mr. Chair, Mr. Wood.

01:35:09,000	We’ve had 4 finance directors in the last 4 years. I mean, we, uh, what are we doing wrong? I mean, we, we got to be doing something wrong. The salary’s not adequate or something. I, I don’t know what it is, benefits, salaries, or we need a CPA in there.

01:35:21,100	We don’t need to be a, a band-aid approach. We just, we can’t keep doing that. We just can’t. Well, yeah. That’s what the outside firm does because frankly I can’t afford a finance director with the CPA. I mean, you want, you know’st extremely cost prohibitive Whereas if we have a, an outside firm on a per diem basis. that might be more cost effective.

01:35:46,730	I would, I would highly out over the next. I would highly doubt you’d fire an outside CPA firm to fill in for a CPA that we could hire for the adequate salary that you’re going to draw a good candidate because it’s got to be that that’s

01:36:00,100	holding us back. And uh, I, I, long term, I just can’t see us putting a Band-aid to it We haven’t, so. Right. You haven’t, what? So I haven’t been able to hire that CPA’s look at the qualification then.

01:36:18,800	That’s why I say, what are we doing wrong? What do we need to do, and we got to look at what are we doing If it’s doing the same thing over and over again. If we’re only paying 150 and we need 250. We need to go to the 250.

01:36:30,730	We got to hire somebody that’s going to be doing the job that we’re going to have long term, more than 6 months or more than a, a daily, hour to hour or a meeting to meeting, that’s not going to work. It’s just not gonna work for us. Mr. Chair, if Comm Munsen.

01:36:47,800	So we’ve approved the hiring of an outside CPA for an accounting firm to we we we we put out the RFP If we did in. without the CPA requirements with the understanding that it is a six month position. um we then have the next 4 to 5 months to make sure the outside firm is doing what they’re doing, what the finance director is doing that is required.

01:37:19,000	and then we can evaluate where we’re at. and I think it’s gonna be harder to bring somebody in going, hey, you get a 6 month gig. That’s my fear. That, that, that’s gonna be almost impossible. And we, I think we should look at our. Would you take that Qualifications? No.

01:37:36,800	Not just that you’re a CPA, but how about the Psal? How about the pay scale? I mean, we’ve had, we may have our head in the sand saying we can hire somebody for what we’re asking now, it’ll never happen.

01:37:50,530	But we may, we may need to bump that up by, uh, I, I hate to throw out figures, but, uh. Well, that’s why we lost our last finance director. Pardon me, that’s why we lost our last finance director, and wet 4 in the last 4 years, so, uh, they’re getting hired away for the one we had. We were doing an excellent job. Got hired away because of salary. So let’s look at those qualifications.

01:38:07,270	Let’s say, OK, here they are. What are we going to do? What can we do? What, look at what we’re, what are CPA firms are hiring CPAs, they gotta be doing something.

01:38:21,700	They’ve got to be providing the right salary is what I think it all gets down to. Yeah, you, you’re not just to be clear, you’re not saying qualifications, you’re saying salary. Well, that’s, I, I consider that a qualification, not, not a qualification, what do I want to call it a. It, it’s Calleary. A salary. It’s a benefit. It’s a job benefit, whatever that might be.

01:38:37,530	And we can look at, we can do a study, we can look We’ve got to do you wear the ballpark is. Pam, if we did a, a part time physician and we’re constrained by 6 months. on that. What happens after 6 months? Do we have the option of moving them to another 6 months? Another, no.

01:38:58,800	So we’d have to make them full-time or or or Call him something else. Yep. Good. Well, it’d still be an option though. Yeah. But if we go over and you decide you’re not going to make them full-time, then we get into trouble with the benefits, the Affordable Care Act, because then we have to go back

01:39:18,170	and offer him coverage, but we didn’t offer him coverage. It just gets to be a mess. Dan Schwab. I, uh getting kind of confused with all these ideas, but I can. I’ll give you an idea.

01:39:44,270	When we hired Darren Johnson He had no sprayer license He was actually a shot in the dark But when he came in and said, I’m gonna do the ed, I’m gonna do this and that. So these people have to start somewhere.

01:40:08,870	and if you’re gonna have, if you’re going to have, uh uh hire part-time Guy and you’ve got this an outfit that’s kind of going, he can learn and move up like Darren did. It’s a learning experience. Well, there’s a timeline associated with that though too, because what I’m saying is you don’t have to start out. Well, and Taylor’s working on a CPA, but that takes time. Yeah. It takes a lot of time.

01:40:26,730	So we’re kind of looking at what to do in the interim and, and I look at this as an opportunity to, we had an individual identified that could be of great benefit for the county, and I think we should go down that road, uh, I, I’m whatever it looks like, we should get down that road so that we can start, uh

01:40:47,270	building the bigger picture for where we need to be. It’s, I, I, I always have a concern. It’s like, stop thinking where we are, where do we need to be, and where do we need to be in 5, 1015, 20 years, and, um, that goes back to the

01:41:02,730	4 finance directors over a very short period of time because it was where we were, not where we needed to be. And I think that’s why we need to go down the road with that individual that we were talking about, so um yeah I’m comfortable with the 32 hours.

01:41:30,500	and an FTE um, on a year-long contract and where that goes from there, I don’t care. Otherwise, you know, maybe it is the 6 months and then we look at continuing that as an FTE, but it, at some point we’re gonna have to call it an FDE and we can make the pay commensurate to a 32 hour week.

01:41:50,270	which I, I think that individual would be amenable to, but not CPA pay and not 40 hour week pay, but that’s what that would look like. But we can’t put a time limit on a full-time. position. If you want to put a year time limit, then it’s contract position, which is not an employee. Well maybe that’s the route then.

01:42:11,700	I don’t, I, I’m just spitballing, but we need to move in a different direction than what we’ve been doing. That’s kind of why I mentioned the consultant, if you will, rather than employee, rather than a part time or full time Hiram as a consultant at whatever we decide. then we’re not dealing with all of the other.

01:42:35,100	issues that Pam has to work through. that simpler approach Well, chair, you’ve had conversations with that individual, or is that a Yeah, I think he would, I think he would go with the consultant thing as well, you know, to utilize them for the time we need them. OK. You know.

01:42:56,170	Well, we’re, we’re dealing with millions and millions of dollars, and we’ve fought, we know what we’ve just come through in the last two or three years with misinvestments, just one little thing that we did wrong or we did late.

01:43:12,600	If we hired a state, a, a CPA now with double the salary that we’re offering. We’re going to say that by doing the right thing at the right time. Whereas making a mistake and not doing the right thing and delay ing something or not doing it right or let something sit. We’ve all gone through that.

01:43:26,070	We’ve listened to that for 3 years now, so I’m just tired of it. I think we’ve got to make a permanent solution. If we have to look at our qualifications. I said, qualifications again. Look at our salary range. If you, if we know that a CPA is being hired by a private firm for $300,000 a year. We can’t be getting anything for 150. We just aren’t going to do it.

01:43:42,630	Well, if we go down the consultant route, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve already approved this, the RFP for a CPA firm for a year contract. Um so if we do the same with the consultant for your contract and see where that goes from there.

01:43:59,500	That’ll give us a year to figure out if that’s the best, most fiscally responsible route that we’re doing, plus the individual we’ve been discussing is an investment professional. I mean, that’s, that’s what they’ve done their entire career. And they’ve worked with municipalities in that space, and most notably counties.

01:44:21,530	So that’s from, from my perspective, that’s a win, win, win, win, win for the Burleigh County right off the top. Everything else can trickle in, but that’s a win. We’ve been without Lee for a month We’re gonna have the RFP for the CPA firm is gonna take a month or two.

01:44:37,470	The sooner we get a consultant in to take care of our, our needs, the better. We need to get in ahead of in, I think, I think budget process needs to start February, early March. Yeah. Not waiting till June. Right. So that individual being in So I, I, I’m fine with the consultant side of it.

01:45:00,370	If if that’s the direction we want to go, is bam, does that work for you if we It would be the simplest, but that would be Julie’s area in the consulting with the contract. state’s attorney lawyer. We’re asking her to do a lot this week, Mr. Sherman. She’s thinking, Mr. Chair, Mr.

01:45:23,870	to change the subject internative, but we need to look at our salary structure. Our state’s attorney sits over here trying to hire attorneys and we’re, and we’re low ball and this salary range there and we get them for a year or two and they quit and go some other place for more money. And so we’re a training ground.

01:45:37,270	We need to look at that department, the highway department, we’ve had the same thing with hyway department people. If we’re, if we’re low all the way around, if we’re, if we’re out of the ballpark, that’s what we’re going to get. We’re gonna get out of the ballpark people. or no applicants, what we’re getting right here, no applicants.

01:45:54,270	It’s crazy. And we’ve got a, we’ve got to seriously look at what we’re doing and keep in mind we do not have a merit pay system. We have a pay scale pay step system similar to a union pay scale pay step so it doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s how long you’ve been here in that position.

01:46:15,000	we need to look at that too. We’ve got our work to be, our laid out. Yeah. Chair, do you need a motion to hire the or do we need the state’s attorney’s lawyer to put together a contract first before we approve.

01:46:32,870	I think we could approve it subject to a contract from the state’s attorney. I would move to approve the hiring of a contract employee um to fill in our finance director position without the CPA requirement. Pam, does that work How’s that going to work with our consulting firm? That’s it’s going to, we’re gonna, we’re gonna, we’re they’d have to dovetail into each other, yes, yeah, so second.

01:46:57,800	Julia, any concerns with that Not at this time All right, call the rule. That was a horrible answer Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Wood Cox. Comm Munsen, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Go ahead. OK. Um, I did mention the treasurer position that we’re getting ready to interview for that one.

01:47:22,370	Also, the county engineer that closed today and we have two applicants, so we’ll get ready to interview for that one. administrative assistant to front desk. This is a county recorder.

01:47:42,270	That one is open we’re actively recruiting, how we managed worker one, there’s possibly two positions that we’re recruiting for, but we have received some good applicants for that. Um, building technicians 1 and 2 were posting. Um, we don’t have anything yet for those, um, Deputy Veteran Service Officer that is to replace, uh, Chris Berglund’s position as he’s now the BSO. um, so we’re waiting on approval to post that one. Uh, legal assistant one, legal assistant 3.

01:48:04,530	We’re waiting on approval to post those. um, we have Assistant states attorney 1 and 2 ongoing, um, as Comm Woodcock said detention officers, we have 8 positions starting January 20th and Deputy Sheriff is February 2nd, and I also received a voicemail from Comm Woodcoxx regarding the county administrator position where that is at is there has not

01:48:29,730	been an approved job description We kind of left off with the draft. So that has to come back to the commission to get approved before we can even start the recruitment process at that time. I think we should get that on the next agenda. Absolutely. ASAP Hm. OK.

01:48:51,500	Put that on the agenda for the next county Commission meeting. Mr. Chair, we’ve all seen, we had a draft, didn’t we look at a draft? Yeah. And we just tabled it, correct? Correct. Yeah, I never got followed up on. There was other things that took priority. OK So I will bring that to the next meeting.

01:49:08,000	OK, well, and at the time with where we were in the Provid building and some other things I, I wasn’t in favor of a county administrator at that time, but moving forward into this next calendar year, we’re, we’re gonna have to be there.

01:49:28,330	I mean, we, we, we’ve got a lot of things working and, and some of those issues you mentioned, uh, Comm Woodcock, with some of the other departments and looking at that, that would be a big role for the county administrator.

01:49:48,800	So we’re actually in a position now where hiring that position, identifying that individual to help with a lot of those other issues are going to clean a lot of things up and and we’re gonna, you know, like Comm Schwab said earlier, you know, we’re working on efficiencies right now and, and streamlining things and adding that position is gonna go a long way to do that, hiring the right person for that.

01:50:07,270	OK, so she’s going to put that on the agenda for the next submission, meeting with the, uh, the draft job descriptions, right? And then just a quick we’re looking for approval to post legal assistant one legal assistant 2 from the state’s attorney. sent that email tonight. Only two? Um, those two physicians, yes. 6 total Um, those are the attorney physicians. Yikes No, she’s shorthanded, there’s no doubt.

01:50:40,900	So just moving forward, uh, doing some statistics for 2025. Our headcount, we ended at 364 employees. Our average employees were 388.4. We hired 63 employees, we termed 62 employees over the year. Our turnover rate was 17%, and our average employee tenure is 7.5%.

01:51:06,530	You can see the chart where you have each department with the number of employees and also the percentage of the whole. and this is coming from our payosity software. So starting in 2026, we will have the statistics on demand and more. We’ll be able to track our overtime, our compensation pay, um, we’re working on trying to do, upload the budget, budget to actuals, um, to get reports out of that.

01:51:27,370	And we also have like two charts that I included were employment type and pay type, so it’ll tell us how many hourly, how many salaryary, how many elected. so we’ll get data Mr.

01:51:51,000	Bucket, I know there was some couple rough spots with Pelosity and getting it integrated with across the departments? Is all that taken care of now and We’re working on it. The, the time card is, is a work in progress. Is that still the one that we have. We have so many departments that do different things so we’re trying to cater to each department.

01:52:07,470	So when we fix one it breaks another, so we have to just keep fixing them until we get them. OK. Uh, timeline as far as because I know that’s extra stress on your department, and I know that’s occupying quite a bit of your guys’ time as well, so Well, it’s actually going pretty smooth on the timekeeping.

01:52:27,270	The timekeeping part of it, the universal timekeeping system, the payroll is going smooth. Um, we are getting ready to implement the benefits module and we have the HRIS module and maybe sometime this year we’ll be able to learn how to use it because we’ve been so busy implementing stuff we haven’t had time to train and really figure out the resources that we have.

01:52:46,370	but everything else is working well. It’s gonna be a good addition to the county. It should be a good addition to the county. Well, thank you for all the time you and your staff are putting in on that. Cause I know it’s been a lot of extra work. Mr. Woodcock.

01:52:58,630	You back up a little bit. You said our departments are not all doing the same thing? What do you mean by that? Well, we have the detention and sheriffs that are 24/7 operations you have the Bur Burley County Human Service zone that operate quasi-state so they have different timekeeping

01:53:16,530	regulations in our highway guys have um overtime call in, and so do our building and maintenance. So it’s, it’s not just you’re an hourly employer, you’re a salary employee. It’s you’re 24/7, you’re on 24/7 on call You’re hourly 24/7, so we just have a lot of nuances.

01:53:36,100	Those, those will all fit into our new system eventually. Is that what you’re. They are fitting in. We’re just, we’re finding that if we fix something we’ll break another but we’re getting to the end of fixing, so hopefully the last fix will fix everybody else. Eventually when you’ve got everything broken, you’ve fixed everything then.

01:53:54,170	Yeah, hopefully good work Yes, very good work. Anything else we need to address? Thank you. All right. Thanks, palm. Auditor Spowskowski, City County Building leases and auxiliary board applications.

01:54:19,270	Uh, so, uh, Chair and Commissioners, I just wanted to bring up one point real quick, uh, with the approval of the minutes, um, I, I reviewed the minutes and there may have been a mistake made, um, uh, Chair Beinner, the Park board meeting is from December 1st. and the commission meeting is from December 15th. 0, is that right? Yep. So, they’re completely different times.

01:54:38,100	And I did, uh, we did review the minutes from December 1st for the county commission. And it does say a start time of 5, 5:18. So, but with your, with uh in reference to your phone call time, that correction, that, that would, that would be fine, um, but if I could get a motion to approve the start time on the counter Commission moved your proofs.

01:54:56,700	Second, motion of the second, any further discussion, Calderro? Comm Bakken? Yes, Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen. Chair Bitner. Absolutely. All right, thank you very much for that.

01:55:13,270	Um, and then, so, uh, the first one here is the City County Building leases, uh, that is in reference to the City City building here that we leased from the city and then the courthouse portion that the city leases from us, uh, it’s basically exactly the same as it was prior, uh, the same rates, nothing has been changed, uh, or anything like that. Moved to approve.

01:55:37,270	So I can Most of the second to approve any further discussion? About the only thing I would add is I just don’t think we should, either one should be paying rent to the other one. Just call the rule. Agreed. Comm Schwab, Yes, Comm Woodcock, yes, Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken. Yes. Uh, Chair Bittner. Yes, motion carries. All right. Thank you. And then the auxiliary board applications.

01:55:57,700	I did reach out to the individual who, uh, who put out, put on there any other board, and he said he would be willing to be on the special assessments board. I also received an application from Mr. Jensen for that board as well. Um, I also did receive in the application that we spoke of last week from uh Mr. Mayer.

01:56:16,800	or the, uh, water management, uh, the, uh, Burleigh County Water Resource District Board. So I have a Brian Mager who has applied for that as well as a Garrett Bryan. Uh, we, and so those are for the water district, and then I have a Jeff Neuberger and Travis Jensen for the special assessment board.

01:56:40,230	What does that leave for, uh, vacancies? Uh, that pretty much fills up everything except for the school, uh, redistricting pool. OK. Mr. Chair, Comm Woodco. On the school.

01:56:59,000	I visited with our superintendent schools today and, uh, Mary McDonald is already well she’s already on the board, and she wants to be re-upped again and then he’s still looking for a second application, so I have to just postpone that until he gets, he, he’s, he’s recruiting somebody, so. OK. I’ll put down the agenda once I receive those applications. It, it’s on their redistricting when they want to go into the Bismarck School District.

01:57:16,100	That’s the committee that that is, and they only meet once or twice a year, so is there are no immediate time frame to jump right in there. And the two water board ones and that’s my portfolio, and I visit with, uh, uh, our Chair Neuberger, the today, yesterday, and I would like to look at both of those

01:57:33,170	first before we do that. So, I’d like to postpone those. I would make a motion to approve the other applicants. So, we had two applicants into one position. For the special assessments Oh, OK. We just had the one, OK. I’m going to make a motion on that one.

01:57:58,330	Uh one of them specifically is for that and the other one which you prefer to serve. We have one opening. Yes, and I spoke with, uh, uh, Jeff, because I was uh directed by the Comm Give a call to see if he would be interested in that board.

01:58:14,270	He said he would be interested in the I’m going to, I’m going to I think if Prevacid a chance. and I’m gonna tell you why. He comes to the meetings, he beats up on us a lot. Maybe he’ll have a meeting, we’ll schedule the meetings, right? I would second that. There we go. OK, Motional seconding further discussion. Paul the rope Comm Woodcock. Yeah.

01:58:36,730	Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. I was wondering if this Jeff Guy has a CPA. He’s bachelor’s double major in accounting and business. We don’t care.

01:59:01,170	Well, the one thing I would say is, uh, thank you for the applicants and anybody who’s willing to serve, especially if, uh um, making Travis’s case who does engage us a great deal, which I do appreciate, um, the best way to learn how things work and why some things don’t is to be part of the system, so.

01:59:24,270	What about, what about that water resource board though? Uh, we’re going to post. I just asked to postpone that until our next meeting. Yeah. OK. Because we have two applicants for one physician and I don’t, haven’t looked at one application yet. Oh, I see. OK. Sounds good to me. Haven’t met with him yet.

01:59:42,730	OK Um down to other business, any other business for the good of Burley County. There was something I was supposed to bring up, but I forgot it now. Did you say it? What’s that. You get e-mail from Taylor this morning. Is that enough? Yeah Um did you understand what the, what the thing was um, there’s, there’s some confusion here. regarding guardian and protective services, and, um, public administrator.

02:00:13,730	um I, I think I think we’ll need Taylor to be here, and I think we should invite the person um, that, that sent the e-mail. Um-hum Um, concerning the different duties, there’s some kind of question about the duties and who’s paying for what.

02:00:36,900	And when we did our budget this year, as far as I remember, we discontinued the budget for the public administrator because that, uh, guardian and protective services or whatever that was called, we discontinued that budget because the state of North Dakota has taken over those functions, those Right.

02:01:03,970	Costs And so I forwarded that email to Aaron Burst from North Dakota Association of Counties because he’s the person that was directly involved in that and, and that legislation that created the Office of Guardianship and Conservativeship and so while the, the bill that created the OMB bill.

02:01:31,270	um uh, somehow or somehow another the somehow, the, uh uh association of counties was handling the funding, you know, through them, but now the funding will be held through um office management and budget. and um there, there were two different bills as far as the one bill established the office and a different bill established the funding for it.

02:01:55,230	So there’s a confusion between the current Guardian Services and what the state is actually doing. So I think the best bet would be to invite both of them the the Scott, is it? And Mr. Bernstein or or his um recommended person Aaron Burst from North Dakota Association of Counties because he would be the most, certainly the most knowledgeable about what went on there.

02:02:15,600	Are we supposed to function as a pass through and still budget it and with a reimbursement, that, that was the confusing part. Yeah, that, that’s the part I, I don’t know. Um I don’t think so I, I believe from my understanding direct payment from the state. Right.

02:02:40,630	It’s, it’s, um, the, the he says, I’m not sure what gaps we’ll be doing for the county outside of what they already are getting paid for and will in the future so that payment is all apparently taken care of.

02:03:00,900	but I think that if there’s any question between those positions, we could get it, we should get it directly from the people who have those questions rather than us just kind of speculating because I believe it’s taken care of. Is that a pretty good assessment? You got anything else to add? Um, um, I, based on what I read on the email, I think Mr. Bernstein is of the opposite mindset, but I think it’ll probably be best is to get both parties here to discuss it.

02:03:19,630	Right. OK. I think that’s a good path. We’ll put that on the agenda, and you, would you make the appropriate invitations, please. Was Aaron going to work through legislative council and or with the directive of that bill was because. that that might make sense. It’s already been done at first.

02:03:35,070	I, I know it was. I understand it. Wouldn’t be the first time language got in the way of. a piece of legislation. So, um, there are intent of what Um-hum.

02:03:59,600	Aonn worked on versus what actually came through and what OMB is sitting with is that where it needs to get relimated, or is it actually us I can’t answer that. Yeah, curiously that might be, you know, in your discussion with Aaron, maybe it would be beneficial to have somebody from OMB that’s running that program involved as well. So we have full clarification.

02:04:25,800	Mark, do you think you could contact OMB also? See if, see if there’s somebody there that, you know, would have some kind of CDA, man? Yeah, well, it is Office of Management and Budget. Yes, it is. Um, we can I’ll reach out to them. Yeah. They poach from us, so. OK, so we’ll have that on the agenda anyway, so we can discuss it. Anything else? Yeah quick question.

02:04:45,630	Um, our budget’s coming up quickly and we’re gonna be behind the eight ball, is the finance department in charge of the budget? Finance department or is not the auditor, is what it’s the it’s the finance department. Finance or treasury. Treasurer, yeah. Yeah. And, or, or and.

02:05:07,430	So we’re gonna because we’re gonna have to dig into that quickly, and we need somebody to run the ship, so to speak, who would, who would be the Well, the, the, the clearest answer to begin with would be a combination of, of Taylor and probably Britain and and the other South. OK. Um, at this point the, the most knowledgeable I think. Yeah. Sure.

02:05:28,800	But that would also kind of fall to this um position that we’re talking about tonight. Yeah. The consultancy. Well, that’s what I’m concerned about our consultant or CPA firm come in. Are they gonna be handling the budget? Assisting they’ll have to be part of it? Yeah, absolutely part of it. Um Mr.

02:05:49,700	Woodcock, where are we at with the 250th? I visited with the mayor and the, the, the, the city administrator both, uh, I think last week, maybe a little bit before, and there was concern about that, that parking lot on the south side of the Pro Life Building of them using it for

02:06:05,170	some reason to put it building up. We heard that it might be a office building or something, and then both of them indicated there was no, no plans at all in the next few years, whatever that might be, or and then foreseeable future is what they said, uh, of using that parking lot other than a parking lot.

02:06:21,630	So, they both did, fine, go ahead and do what we’re doing. So, and then any conversations with the state as far as coordinating between county, city, and state No, not yet. OK There’s going to be a lot going on, a lot of things going on. I know that.

02:06:39,330	So, Do you think it would be, behoove us to working with the state? Oh, absolutely. We’ve already had visitations with them. I had 13 or 4 months ago, and they, they were excited about the opportunity, but we have not coordinated what the governor’s going to be doing or what, you know, that type of thing, whether he’s going to be or, cause we’ll have a

02:06:56,370	presentation of some kind and we don’t, we have never date, we haven’t heard of anybody else having a date too, other than Trump’s going to be your weird.

02:07:11,870	Have you gotten any, um, any other information on how, how something would be attached to that building because I know from a structural perspective, we got a real concern with any kind of moisture infiltration or anything in the brain. They’ve got that information. I don’t have it myself, but this is. Do you want me to bring it? for you to, I go to get an update, you know, No.

02:07:26,330	So we can kind of, because if there’s anything that’s gonna harm the building. We, we gotta, we can’t do that, you know, I mean, um, I know they’re working with a general contractor on the provided building already. They’ve had a meeting with them, uh, maybe 10 days or 2 weeks ago. Uh, that brings up another question.

02:07:46,000	Any problems we’ve had with the budget on the prominent construction, no surprises yet. Oh, there’s been surprises. Yeah. Yeah, there’s been surprises. We had some additional asbes to s work that needed to be that needed to be resolved.

02:08:04,100	We had issues with um you have some water in the water coming through the wall, um, through some conduit apparently at some point in the future that nobody, nobody let us know about it. There’s no record of it that, uh, uh, one day the staff was in there and, uh, water was pouring in through the, through a con conduit that was coming in from the outside of the building.

02:08:21,730	and they traced it down and moved a bunch of snow and traced it down to when that Bizman Online was in there. They had had had somebody run some fiber optics in into their for their service.

02:08:42,100	and the box um, had gravel in the bottom of it, but it was all frozen and with the, with the heat heat hot spell or, or, you know, there was a, a flash melt and filled that box up and it was running it into the to the tune of hundreds of gallons of water was running into the into the building that we never had any idea on, so, um,

02:08:58,070	obviously had to get on that and, and work on getting all that stopped, and we think that’s under control. um there was issues about matching finishes, the architects, um kind of neglected to address what do you do when you tear out a wall and move it and put

02:09:17,230	a new wall here, what do you do to match those finishes? And so we had to make a decision on, you know, match finishes where needed and if it’s not, you know, it’s not someplace that you can see it directly, then maybe leave the one and and kind of use your best

02:09:35,370	judgment on, on what needs to be matched and what doesn’t. We ran into some structural problems with concrete. Um, and that’s still being looked at by structural engineer. We don’t know much about that yet.

02:09:53,000	Had to do with toilets and whether you do floor mount or or wall mount toilets, and we’re not going foralmount toilets. I can tell you, and we don’t want that. Um, there’s issues, um, um, I’ve, I’ve asked for two issues to be, I’ve asked Mary to put two issues on the next agenda for the Coycom Commission meeting. Um and, and we’ll see that when it comes out for the Agenda packet.

02:10:16,500	One of them is the elevators, um, there’s a after we went through there’s part of the bid package is to modify the elevators somewhat to do. kind of a a dress up on them.

02:10:36,370	Well, it turns out after they did some evaluations that obviously some of the equipment is so old that you can’t get parts and such anymore for it, so it kind of led into, do we remove that from the project and and do a separate bid for actually upgrading the elevators, which is, well, we’ll, we’ll get the information, but you know, we’ve been having problems with, with the elevator kind of locking up mid, you know, like somebody who

02:10:58,100	goes to push the button and it goes part way and then stops and you know, everybody’s getting kind of scared of that. And so that’s, that’s something and there’s some wiring, um, kind of issues, but those things will be on the agenda for the next meeting, so.

02:11:17,900	that kind of an update Any other Comm Munsen? It’s about where it’s supposed to be Yeah, I, you know, we’re, we, we’re into, um, some of the uh contingency funding. but at this point, we’re not into um nothing major orders and.

02:11:40,330	Yeah, just small, pretty basically small stuff that are we still on the timeline as far as St starting to move some departments over because I, yeah, they’re, they’re actually doing real well. I keep promising HR they’re, they’re going to get to go. Yeah, they’re going to get daylight. They’re going to, they’re going to get. You’re going to get Winds back. Yeah, they’re going to get, and then, they’re going to be really nice windows too. They’re gonna really love their new space, so.

02:11:52,530	we talk about the next meeting being January 20th. It’s a Tuesday not a Monday because Monday’s a holiday. Oh. So, I just I discovered this the other day talking to the auditor and I thought it was something I should make sure I mention here. Yeah.

02:12:09,270	So that we’re all not showing up for Monday for a meeting. Monday. I appreciate that. Mr. Chair. Comm Woodcock. Uh, another thing to mention, Comm Schwab was had a birthday a couple of days ago, so happy birthday to you. I’ve had too many birthdays already. Now you’re the same age as Jerry. What’s that? Now you’re the same age as you. I can’t catch him.

02:12:26,270	You don’t want to arm wrestle you, boy. I’ll take you out. No way, you win. But thank you. Was that a motion to sing or please say no. OK, gentleman, we’re, we’re kind of digressing. We are