13th, 2026, regular business meeting of the Billings, Montana City Council.

I'm happy you are all here.

It is now officially 5:30 p.m., so I am calling the meeting to order.

Would everybody please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I of the United States of America.

I'll like for which is so I thought I'd try something a little different for the invocation.

Um have us do kind of a short, I'll call it a meditation for lack of a better word on the word leadership.

So we'll just kind of have a moment of silence for about 30 seconds, and I'd just like everybody to reflect on that word, and then I'll call us to a close.

By the way, um are we ready?

Let's call the roll.

Nicholson, niece present here, Tegieray here, Kennedy, Aspenlighter, Lindley, here, Boyette, O'Donnell.

Here, Mayor Nelson.

I'm present.

Thank you.

We have minutes uh for approval of June 22nd, 2026.

Could we have a motion to uh accept the minutes?

Mr.

Boyette.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move that we approve the minutes for June 22nd, 2026 is read.

Thank you.

Uh is there a second, Mr.

Nees.

Any changes or discussion regarding the motion?

All right, seeing none, uh, shall we vote?

All those in favor accepting the minutes, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

That's unanimous.

Council courtesies.

I think we're gonna start with Mr.

O'Donnell.

Thank you.

Uh, so I have a uh statement to make to the community at large.

I wish to offer an apology to any persons who were upset by remarks that I made during the July 6th council meeting.

While the remarks I made are truly recorded, one very important fact has not been noticed or overlooked, and that is that the words uh that were read by me uh were read directly from the official packet of information prepared for the October 13, 2025 council meeting.

These words were not my own.

The wording that said this project had a quote unquote target population that was defined not by income but by race, that was uh this was understood by me as highly offensive and objectionable and unacceptable.

It is true today and has always been true that my convictions are completely anti-racist.

I have never, will never tolerate or support any program that uses race as a deciding or determining factor, such as I mistakenly thought this project was using.

This language, and thank you to Councilmember Aguirre for explaining this to me, referencing target populations.

I have discovered is a rather common language in federal contracts, and does not in any way mean that anybody's race is meant to be targeted in a negative way.

Um I used a word that many find very offensive, ghettoization, and indeed it is very offensive, an ugly word.

I use that word intentionally to convey my disgust with the racism that I mistakenly thought was going to happen in this program.

It is an ugly word.

I could not imagine any other meaning of those contract words other than that people of those quote unquote target populations were targeted to be directed to this development.

What else could targeting mean?

I hope that anyone who pays attention to this clarification and still thinks ill of my words will reach out to me.

I will meet and discuss this with anyone.

Indeed, my immediate response to the first two critical emails I receive was to ask them to call me.

To this date, neither person has done so.

Again, I apologize to anyone who misunder uh anyone who misunderstood my intent, which was to fully condemn any quote unquote targeting of any race in this project.

A position I would wholly expect would be supported by everyone here.

I agree with those who say that racism in any project merits the designation, not in my town.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

O'Donnell.

I'd like to add a few things to that also.

Um the code that rules what we do is called the Billings Municipal Code, and it states that the mayor is the presiding officer over the council.

And as such, I am responsible for preserving order and decorum during these meetings.

That's one of my responsibilities.

And another one is to ensure that council members are each given a full opportunity to be heard.

It's a tough balance sometimes.

On Monday night, I fell short.

And for that I apologize.

I don't have control over what the council members say.

Instead, I'm here to ensure that they have a full say.

But I do have a say over how things are communicated.

And to that end, I still have some work to do.

I want to start by telling everybody that I think the council has made some great strides in the last six months, and I am proud to be a member of this body.

We are perfect.

And so to that end, I hope that folks in Billings will accept these words of apology and know that we're going to work to be better.

Now, to that end, um let me say first that I don't intend to run the meetings by jumping in the middle of what people say, and I don't intend to publicly hold people accountable.

But what I do intend to do is to work with members of council when the time comes.

Accountability can be accomplished through education discussion and teamwork, and through leaning on the resources that our city, our great city, offers.

Councilmember O'Donnell has graciously agreed to meet with me and the head of our Human Relations Commission beginning next week to start talking about this issue and to work through whatever misunderstandings might be there.

I'm excited to get this work started, and I'm determined to see it through.

So thanks everybody.

Councilmember Aguirre, you have a courtesy.

Thank you.

I just would like to um recognize uh Mary Queen of Peace Parish hosting their 72nd annual Mexican Fiesta this Saturday.

Um, everyone is invited, it's free to attend.

It's at South Park from 10:30 to 3:30.

And there's a full stage schedule from Mariachis to Guadalapano Dancers.

Um car show.

Uh we have a shuttle bus coming from back and forth from uh Riverstone Clinic every 15 minutes to help with the parking issues.

But again, it's a 72nd annual, and everyone is welcome to invite to come and participate over 70 vendors.

Um lots of food, lots of good community spirit.

Um, and this this event is especially special for me personally, as my family, my ancestors were there for the first annual fiesta.

Um my dad was three at the time.

So everyone is welcome.

10:30 to 3:30.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Boyet.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, one of the duties of the city council is uh all of us are not required, but we're encouraged to be on many, many boards throughout the city, and I'm on a lot of them.

And one of them that I'm happy to be on is the Bear Tooth R C and D.

And we have the representative, Miss Myrna, if you would come forward and tell us who you are and what our what Beartooth R C and D is all about.

Thank you, Mike.

And um, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Myrna Les Tusky.

I'm the project manager and interim executive director for Bear Tooth R C and D.

And we've loved having Mike as part of our board.

Um and Mark is our is our current board member for the city.

And Mike has continued to um be on our board in a different capacity and is also serving as our chair.

So we really appreciate the involvement of both of you.

Um I just wanted to provide a quick update on some of the work that Bear Tooth has been doing that supports economic development in Billings and throughout the region.

One of the projects we're especially excited about is the launch of Guru, a new site selector tool designed to help business developers and site consultants identify opportunities in our area.

Beartooth wrote and secured an org grant to fund this project, and we're now looking at ways to make it as effective as as possible.

As we continue building out our platform, we'd appreciate guidance from the city on properties that are especially important to Billings economic development goals so we can feature those locations more prominently.

Um I guess when you feature the properties, they'll get 18 times more clicks than if they aren't featured.

So obviously, we want to boost the ones that would mean the most to the city's um development.

We also had the opportunity to support the city's recent opportunity zone application by providing a letter of support and are pleased to continue partnering on efforts that bring investment and growth to the community.

And good job to Andy for getting that all put together in a short time.

On the food and agriculture side, our food and ag director has been actively engaging local businesses and entrepreneurs.

Over the past several months, Bear Tooth has offered multiple training and networking events at Metal Art Brewing and at Rock 31, helping to connect producers, entrepreneurs, and industry partners.

We've also coordinated the recent 33 by 33 community discussion.

Right now, and I'm sure many of you know this, but only 3% of Montana goods stay in Montana.

And Governor Gianforte wants to increase that to 33% by 2033.

Beartooth brought together stakeholders for this initiative.

Looking ahead, we are exploring the development of a biomontana first home show, and we'll be reaching out to the billings chamber to gauge interest and identify potential partners.

Finally, we'll soon be starting work on our next five-year comprehensive economic development strategy or the SEDs.

While Bear Tooth service area includes many rural communities, billings obviously is a critical part of our region's economy.

And we want to make sure that the priorities identified in the SEDs strongly reflect the urban perspective as well.

If any council members are interested in participating, serving on a committee, or simply providing input, we would be happy to have your involvement.

Thank you for your time and thank you for your continued partnership.

Thanks for being here.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mr.

Kennedy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just a couple of recognitions.

One is to Senator Yakovich and the march against drugs and violence.

It was Saturday on the courthouse lawn.

We had a pretty good crowd.

It was hot that day, but there was a lot of folks that came out in support.

And I just want to give a shout out to Senator Yakovich and the committee that uh um that put that together.

The other is I want you to mark down in your calendars for August 1st in South Park from 10 until 2.

Um, the South Side Neighborhood Task Force and the Family Tree Nurturing Center, and along with other providers, we'll have a carnival in the park.

We will have 20, 25 different agencies helping families that need anywhere from backpacks to school to um to haircuts to um different um uh daycare, different uh um uh uh different services that they will need to get ready for the fall for the new school year.

So that will be we'll have the carnival, we'll have the Ferris Will, we'll have the bouncing um the bouncing houses and uh all of the uh carnival stuff with free food, hot dogs, hamburgers.

Um we'll have um snow cones, cotton candy.

Um come on down, come and uh visit with families, um, especially over at uh South Park, and uh and bring a family or two with you because uh it's very important that we get them all ready for school.

So that'll be August 1st, 10 to 2, South Park.

And Gavin, thank you very much for helping us get that set up so we can uh have that event on the first of August.

Thank you, Mr.

Kennedy.

Um move forward on our agenda.

No proclamations tonight.

Any council reports.

That was short and sweet.

Uh Mr.

Ifflin, administrator report.

Thanks, Mayor and Council.

Just a couple announcements tonight.

Uh Juliet should have sent out a uh council photo schedule for potentially September 28th.

So hopefully that dates work date works for everybody, and we'll meet in here just about a half hour, 45 minutes before council meeting uh and get that taken care of.

And most of you have probably heard that police chief Red St.

John has announced his retirement from the Billings Police Department today, effective on September 30th, after about 45 years of service, including more than 20 as chief of police.

Uh his leadership has a lasting impact on this community and the department and the city of Billings.

So we look forward uh to giving him a good farewell.

And we had no ex parte communication.

That's all I have.

Thank you, sir.

Um 45 years in the same job.

Well, in the same department.

Correct.

That's dedication.

And it's well deserving of uh a great retirement.

Oh, thank you, Chief, if you're here.

I don't see you, but yeah, way to go, Chief.

You want to stand up and take a bow?

I think he's trying to stand up.

All right, we'll move on to public comment on non-public hearing agenda items one and two only.

This is your opportunity to come up.

You will get three minutes to speak.

Please give us your name and where you live and take your three minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

My name is Jeffrey, J E F F R Y.

No E.

Last name is Kettleson, K-E-T-E-L-S-E-N.

I live in the fifth ward in billings.

Tonight I would like to speak on the Met Government Feasibility Study, which is item N.

Item N is in direct result to the unprecedented growth that we're experiencing in billings.

Soon billings will be touching laurel, and it will set off all kinds of a chain of events.

This is an indicated of of all the construction we got going on, all the all the new commercial buildings.

So item N that will be bypassed because it's under the consent agreement.

Uh inside of it, it talks about how to pay for this these new services that we're gonna have to provide out there.

It's a it's a pretty good report, and I would suggest anybody that is interested in seeing growth.

This is a great report.

You can find it under uh the city council agendas, go to N click on the attachments.

But specifically, I'd like to talk about page 30.

And I have copies here if anybody wants to take them home.

I've talked many, many times about impact fees before the city council.

I've talked about it in neighborhood meetings, I've talked about it at a lot of meetings.

And my I've been told no, we don't have those.

No, we don't need those.

Uh I I've I've enjoyed the banter too.

But the bottom line is who's gonna pay for all this growth.

It's a policy decision.

And this administration and previous administrations have made a policy that we, the citizens, should pay for this growth.

For example, what kind of growth are we talking about?

Well, the water treatment plant, there's 200 million.

The new garbage, the new garbage uh cell, that's another 80 million.

The billings heights, the water department.

Oh my god, you guys are getting 24 percent.

You shouldn't have to pay that.

Next year you're gonna get another 20.

And that is just such a disaster.

Anyways, impact fees on page 30, which are which this government produced talks about impact fees and what it could pay for.

Now I know that you don't know about these because you haven't brought it up, or you do and you don't want to, which I think it is.

So I printed off copies tonight for you.

Impact fees.

The citizens need them very badly.

It's time that we stop paying for the growth.

Thank you.

That was impressive timing.

Wow.

Hello, mayor and council.

My name's Chris Glenn.

I live at 209 Yellowstone Avenue.

And I hope I'm speaking at the right time.

I'm talking about I want to give support for the LB Lofts project.

And I see it's item G, but I don't I don't know if that's right.

But I just want to say I'm also the chair of Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council.

And I we have spoken to over 200 residents of Yellowstone County in the first part of the year.

And one of the top issues raised is housing.

And so we we are deciding to work on housing.

And I've we've actually spoken to a number of you about housing.

As you know, you're all everyone we talked to said housing is a big deal.

And I I know there's some dissatisfaction with the Sage Tower Management.

I had family and friends living there.

Definitely had complaints about that.

I am very glad to hear there's a new management company there.

Um, but it is not an easy job.

I've spent a lot of time there, and it's a hard job.

And I know that LB Lof's project has had its struggles and it's taken longer than expected, and you know, it's not been smooth sailing.

But I just want to reinforce we still have such a strong need for housing.

And I've heard people say, include on this council, that you know, we need to think outside the box.

We need to reduce the barriers.

We need to make it easier to develop.

And so I just encourage you to remember that.

And this project does think outside the box.

It's kind of weird, but hey, 102 dwellings.

That's a big thing.

And then let's not add more hurdles for them.

Let's try and help them accomplish this.

They finally got the funding.

I know it's a complicated thing to do.

I can't follow it, but they've got a plan finally ready to implement.

And so I just ask you to help them get it done.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, Council members, administration, general public.

My name is Paul Clark, and I live on the bright side of the tracks of Billings.

Board one.

We have monikers for that sign.

No need to make a new one.

Let's just put that one out more often.

I would like to talk about the resolution Restablishing compliance and reimbursements for improvements of South Park Pool.

And as you all know, that pool is less than 300 yards from my front door.

So that is a very nice pool.

And I would like to continue to have that pool at South Park.

Where we want to put it, where it's going to go, still needs to be decided.

I would think it would go really nice next to the uh the kids' sprinkle park.

One of the things at South Park that's kind of been irritating me is the downfall of nice, beautiful, strong trees that are well over 60 years old with no rot.

When we have a rotten tree, I could see that those should be taken down.

But as far as why do we not have a clearance or some kind of uh a right to know from parks and recs, Mr.

Gavin, or anyone else.

When I went up and asked, why are you taking out the trees?

I got told that it's none of my business.

Just move along, old man.

Here's your cane.

Uh no, that doesn't work that way.

Okay.

A little a one, two, ten second little brief little explanation would go a lot farther.

So getting back to it, the South Park pool.

I'd like to hear about it, and the reimbursements.

One of the things that we could do for that is sponsorship.

And what I mean by sponsorship is we have football stadiums, dailists sponsored by whoever knows this month, next year.

Why can't we do that with the South Park pool?

Businesses are looking for that kind of marquee name, whether it's the Northern Hotel or Paul Clark's chicken, whatever it is, we'd be glad to.

Have brown eggs for sale.

Uh anyway, just the sponsorship.

There's another idea than taxing and asking for mill levees that never seem to pass.

How about sponsorship?

Anyway, I'll be back.

God bless.

I'm a resident of Billings Heights.

And I am one of the ghettoized citizens in this great city we have here.

Um the reason that those words are in a lot of federal documents is because people like me or darker than myself weren't allowed to do a lot of things 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years ago.

And it still happens to this day.

Some of you may have seen me holding a sign in front of Lake Hills Golf Course.

I know there's a lot to be said about that, and that investigation is still ongoing, but anybody that says racism is not real is a liar.

It is real.

I experience it firsthand.

And those words are what brought me here today.

Uh standing outside of the building before I came in, I was listening to some music.

The security guard came out and told me I needed to leave.

Collecting signatures is not allowed.

Just holding a clipboard is not collecting signatures.

I didn't talk to one person walking into the building.

I was listening to my music, enjoying myself.

I drew my camera out and I said, Sir, you want to repeat that?

So he said, you need to vacate.

We had a little encounter outside, but that's not why I'm here today.

Why I'm here today is I filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Billings and Officer Thiel, an SRO of the Billings Police Department.

Um the SRO stated in his report.

I went to the main part of the office office and observed the suspect walking through the commons area and down the hallway and out the south door.

And I say Isaiah called for her to come back and she kept walking and refused to come back.

A few moments later, she came back towards the office.

Isaiah and myself confronted her and the commons area and asked her to speak with us.

She started to yell and swear at myself and Isaiah and was refusing to cooperate.

I told her to put her hands behind her back, and she was going to be detained.

She refused and pulled away.

I grabbed her arms and put them behind her back.

What he describes is a crime.

What did not happen was a crime.

Deal with this other way.

So scary.

Okay, put your hand behind your back.

Seriously.

Turn around.

I'm not gonna take a colour.

As Isaiah tried to get my daughter's hands behind her back.

Or deal, Isaiah ripped her phone from her hands.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

All right.

Seeing none, we'll close that period of uh the this meeting and move on to the consent agenda.

Item number one, are there any separations?

Mr.

Aspen later.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'll be recusing myself from item one T in its entirety.

Uh my company is in the payables this week.

Okay.

Any other separations?

Um, Mr.

Neys.

Item N.

Mr.

Kennedy.

Any other separations?

Go ahead, Mr.

Boyette.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move uh that we approve the consent agendas.

Uh items is read except for item DNT.

Um hold on a second, Mr.

O'Donnell.

So we're gonna uh items D and a T separations now, Mr.

O'Donnell.

Are there any seconds?

Thank you.

Any discussion or questions?

Ms.

Shaw.

Uh thank you.

I just wanted to respond.

Somebody asked a question about South Park Pool, and since it wasn't separated, I I just wanted to clarify.

It's this isn't really the time to brainstorm um new funding options, but this is a really exciting first step for the community of getting ready to embark on this project.

And basically, this just allows the city to start spending a little bit of money on the design and planning before we get to issuing the bonds.

So it's a it's a it's a great day for the community, and I don't want that to get lost in just approving the consent agenda.

Very good.

Did I see your hand, Mr.

Pittman?

So I just wanted to clarify it's just one T, not the whole of T or all of T two and three.

Okay.

All of T.

All right.

Mr.

Boyet, did you want to speak to your motion?

Uh Councilmember Boyette, Mayor Council.

I'm gonna defer to City Administrator Ifflin and on that.

So council Councilmember Boyette, yes, we still are targeting that $10 million.

We'll be bringing something to you to a work session.

This is just the amount that we possibly could bond, but it's not catched in stone by talking to the finance director.

It's kind of we've got to bring this forward at what we might use, but there is some cash in the Sabura that might be used for this project also.

Any other questions or discussion?

All right, it's been moved and seconded to uh approve the consent agenda with items D N and T separated.

Um all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those approved.

Thank you, sir.

I forgot about you on the Zoom.

All those opposed, please say no.

All right, that passes unanimously.

You guys wanna take your items separated items one at a time or I heard him.

Mr.

Lindley, are you there?

Yeah, I I'm here.

Okay, we just didn't see your he's down at the bottom.

Can you turn on your computer?

Thank you, Mr.

Finley.

All right.

Uh who wants to make the first motion.

Yeah.

Mr.

Chairman, I would I would move that we execute the contract with Thornrun Partners for federal lobbying services, and then I'd like to speak on that.

So we have a motion to execute the contract.

Second.

Mr.

Nees seconds, Mr.

Kennedy.

Go ahead.

The reason I wanted to speak on this is because it did come to my attention about it is a two-year contract.

Um, all of our uh our contracts with uh lobbying service can be uh uh with the 30-day notice.

We can go ahead and stop that.

Um so with the federal lobbying service, it's a two-year contract.

We will be working with Thorn Run Partners and with the committee for the legislative committee, and we will evaluate with the city administrator um into next year after our year of Thornrun and make a recommendation if we're gonna go forward or not.

But uh that's all laid out there, and I just wanted all the council people to understand.

Um we're going to uh see and and Thornrun, it will be our federal lobbyist group.

Okay, Kevin.

I do just want to clarify that under the terms of those contract, it is a three-year initial term, but you are correct that in writing 30 days prior to termination by either party.

So just wanted to clarify that it is initial three-year term.

Thank you.

Okay, any other discussion regarding this motion?

Shall we move to a vote then?

All those in favor of item D, uh, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

That passes unanimously.

Item N.

Met Transit, Mr.

Nees.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um because this was discussed uh last week and there was a lot of the uh discussion how the council had not been involved in this uh as far as the starting of the plan or within the plan.

I I am I'm gonna move to approve the Met Transit uh financial sustainable start a substantial and stu governance study with the condition that before any action planning or staff time spent on any of the findings of this report.

Staff is to bring first bring to a council committee for review uh of a recommended action to city council.

We have a second from Mr.

Aspen Leiter.

Um, should any discussion or uh any questions from the staff, Mr.

Iflund?

Mayor.

Maybe let us speak to the motion first before we go there.

Go ahead.

I understand because this is federal money that was spent on this, we typically have to approve this, otherwise the federal money could be lost.

And so I understand that the we have to do an approval on this.

However, because of the the uh this is probably a much longer term uh uh project, and a lot of things will have changed between now and then uh before staff acts again on something like this.

Uh this the it needs to come to a uh the council, whether through a council committee, so that the council then can be in more involved in the next study or next action that's gonna happen.

Um I think that was discussed uh quite a bit during the work session, and I I think this is just to ensure that that happens without preventing the federal funding uh from being pulled back for any reason.

Okay, Mr.

Aspen Later.

Yeah, I echo that.

I I think the the clarification here is just that before any more staff time gets spent on anything associated with this or any of the recommendations out of it, or that there's any movement whatsoever on this document because it was presented to us as informational and that we weren't gonna act on it, and that the city council was not involved in it at all.

I think we want that to come back to the council for discussion before anything ever happens on this ever again.

I that's that's my perspective.

Mr.

Boyet and Dr.

Nichols.

Thank you, Mayor.

I guess uh Rusty, do you have a minute?

You could come up.

Do you have any heartburn with this?

Is this okay bad and indifferent?

Tell us what you think.

No, that's uh I mean that's really what the documents intended for is to give you guys information um for what the what the road forward is once we hit that point with the urbanized areas uh as far as the potential with the laurel urban cluster being absorbed by by billings.

So uh no real harburn on that.

All the actions that are laid out in the plan would have required council action.

They're they're pretty big items, right?

With talking about funding interlocal agreements and things like that.

Um, so those would definitely require uh further direction from council moving forward.

Good, thank you.

Dr.

Nicholson.

Yeah, I agree with I agree with this.

I just would like to see uh more precise language uh on this on this motion.

Okay.

So council member needs I see that council member has it.

Would you like me to read it again?

Yeah, I think so.

I I would just for uh city clerk, but if you have it written out, could you hand it to her so that we can have it from my computer?

But I can email it to her.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Go ahead, Mr.

Nees.

Uh Mr.

Denise has a motion pending and he's gonna read it, so we're clear on it.

Approval with the condition that before any action planning or staff time spent on any of the findings of this report, staff is to bring to first bring to a uh council committee for review for a recommended action to city council.

Okay.

If there's no further discussion regarding this, we can move to a vote.

Uh council member Shaw.

Sorry, I would like to hear from our interim city administrator just thumbs up, thumbs down on this.

So, mayor and council and council member shot, we don't have any issue with this.

That like Rusty explained it.

It was the intent of this document that any action items would come back to council for approval anyway.

Okay.

So all those in favor of council member niece's uh motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

That one was unanimous.

Item T.

Do we have a motion, Mr.

Pittman?

I move that we approve item T.

All those opposed.

And that one issue now.

With council member aspinlighter.

With council member aspinlighter recusing himself.

Thank you, Mr.

Nees.

You're right.

We are going to move on to a special presentation regarding the air show.

You can vote on my excellent.

Mayor Nelson, uh, council members.

Um, we're pretty excited to be here to talk about the noise that we create over the city uh once every three years.

Uh it had been actually um 23 years since we've seen an air show and and since 1988 since we saw the Blue Angels.

So we had uh kind of Jake and I mistakenly just decided to bring the Blue Angels back just by having a breakfast, and we never ran into a no.

So uh here they come again.

Um, but this time we're gonna come to the city.

We never ran into a no that we accepted.

Yeah.

Uh we wanted to present um we spent about 146,000 on overtime for our different departments and first responders and airport.

Um, and in doing some research, we found out that most air shows uh don't participate in the uh the spenditures of overtime.

So our request is simple.

Um, and again, we we're we heard that this was supposed to be a 30 minute presentation, but we don't got that kind of time.

So we were gonna rip through this with Afterburners.

Uh that's a joke.

Anyway, um the simple request was that we would participate with you in the overtime.

Um we have a event that we put on on Friday night for our first responders.

Um, just thanking them.

Actually, I think it's uh a party for our police chief now that I heard that he's retiring.

Um anyway, um, it's just our thank you to all the efforts they put in because we know it's a huge lift.

Um I'll kind of go through some of the details here and just run through what we've seen over the air show.

Uh we brought in 30,000 attendees.

Uh that's in Montana and neighboring states, including Florida.

I remember.

We even had some that were from overseas.

So we had international representation at our last air show.

Um 30,000 from Friday through Sunday.

Um there was about a, we'll call it a $15 million economic impact to Billings, Montana.

When the Missoula does a um uh a game for the Grizzlies, that's about uh a $10 million impact.

It's 25,000 people that come to the game.

Um I did a you know a walkthrough with the university.

And so we we will do about two um Missoula games back to back or Bobcats, depending on who you prefer.

So it's a huge economic driver for Billings.

Um you can imagine people coming from all over what that drives.

Um our volunteer, go ahead, Jake, and and let them know about our board.

Yeah, our volunteer board is incredible.

Uh some of the the leaders from around the community, uh, whether they be elected officials or just uh leaders uh from that own their own businesses, uh, or uh that are leaders within their their particular uh community and or their business themselves.

About 40 volunteers, uh they all volunteer 100% of their time.

So nobody is paid, including us.

Nobody gets paid at all through any of this.

Uh thousands of hours go into this.

It takes us about two and a half years to plan.

Uh, we have to uh apply for the blue angels to come two years in advance, and that's a very uh intense process.

Uh they if you can imagine how how precise they are in flying uh after is it 75 years of flying, 80 years of flying with the blue angels.

Uh they're just as precise in their planning of every single air show.

They often say that they they plan 32 weddings every year.

It's kind of the same process, massive weddings where there's 30,000 people coming to each wedding.

Uh board meetings, sponsorships, logistics, uh, safety, marketing, uh, volunteer coordination, just bringing in volunteers from the community.

We need about 250 volunteers each day, and that'll be three days the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, not to mention some of the other things we do uh with the airport and trying to help them and trying to mitigate some of the overtime that they would have in the manpower that they would need to exhaust in order to put on an air show.

The budget for the air show will be roughly three million.

Um, and that's from the different elements.

This is a private show.

This is a civilian show.

Uh military base is much different.

Um there's a lot of personnel that are gonna be working, military personnel.

And for us, this is all volunteer.

Um we have a tent that we put up.

We're proud to say that we bring the largest tent in air show history.

We did it in 23, and we're gonna bring it back.

It's bigger.

Um, and that's just a private chalet where we have sponsorships that participate in it in it just as a really wonderful time.

Um, so that's our budget through the um week.

It takes, like you said, three years of planning to get through this, and and um we'll we'll spend almost a million dollars on a tent that we don't get a keep.

It comes from the waste management.

Um, and it's just a great way to for our sponsors to view um the air show.

Uh partnerships.

Um, you know, as we've done our research over time, we found that uh in in we're members of uh an organization called iCast, which is International Council of Air Shows.

And uh as we asked them and we quarried some of the the members of that, we found that it's actually uncommon for airshows to uh reimburse or to pay the overtime.

Uh we did end up paying that uh all of it, uh 146,000 last time.

Um but the the public safety partnerships in my mind, that safety aspect is incredibly important.

So we we really do enjoy our partnership that we have with the first responders, which is why we have uh an event that we we honor them and and bring them out on Fridays uh along with other uh city leadership as well.

Um we just want to show our appreciation to each one of them and say that uh we really do admire and appreciate what they do.

Um air show community uh it's an investment that delivers measurables in economic value.

Um we don't do this for us.

Uh it I guess I am a little selfish that I am uh five-year-old on the inside, and I love seeing these planes fly around and and getting to put my hands on a tank that maybe I wouldn't be able to do normally.

And I'll be honest with you, uh because of the air show in 88 when the Blue Angels came.

I at that point in time I thought, oh, am I gonna be a lawyer or a doctor or what am I gonna do?

As soon as the Blue Angels came, I decided at uh at 12 years old that I'm going to be in the Navy and I'm going to be in aviation.

And sure enough, six years later, when I graduated, I immediately signed up and I was in aviation in the Navy.

I want to present that opportunity to other kids.

That's why I do this.

I want to present just opportunities.

Doesn't mean they have to, doesn't mean the military's set for everybody, but I want to present that opportunity and show something that's really cool because you do get to play with some really cool toys when you're in the military.

So you know, uh we don't just deliver economic value to the business community and within Billings, uh, but we we deliver some opportunities for kids to uh grow and be warriors themselves.

And I think council member Shaw said it wonderfully earlier, leadership.

I I think we should be proud to know that billings set a standard in air shows.

Um we didn't necessarily have to ask the blues to come back, they asked to come back to Billings, Montana.

That never happens.

Um we set a standard in how we have hospitality.

Um, you know, the Northern was is is a great example.

They take care of the Blue Angels.

Uh, but just everywhere they were in the city, um, they came and they experienced what Montana hospitality is.

So I can tell you it's a 250th birthday of America, and Billings, Montana doesn't happen to be the 32nd largest city in America.

And you know, they go by size and commitment and they go to the same places every year.

So the fact that Billings, Montana gets to be considered and is now a location for the 250th of the Blues is an extraordinary goal.

So leadership is as is a wonderful word, and in Billings Montana displays that with the Blue Angels.

Yeah, Matthew and I were both born and raised in Billings, Montana, and I'm incredibly proud to say that.

And I haven't left except for when I was in the Navy, but that was because they made me do it.

There's not a Navy base here.

Uh, but I came back.

I raised my family here.

I'm gonna retire here.

I probably someday will pass away here.

I love this place.

I love to show it off.

Matthew and I, we we love to show off not only this city, but this the state as well.

Uh so what we're asking is a partnership from the city of Billings to help us show it off a little bit.

Um that's an incredibly large expense.

It was one of the largest line items.

And we're just asking for partnership and a little bit of help.

We need help.

Uh last time we'll even say that uh, you know, we we didn't come out ahead.

Uh it actually cost us money to have the air show.

Uh and that's okay, because we we did an incredible uh uh, you know, humbly say I I think we really pulled off something amazing and we got to show off this town.

So uh we'd love for a little bit of help.

But we're here to answer any questions.

We're not here to uh get an answer necessarily right now, but we just wanted to start the conversation.

And and uh and apologies earlier, um I got into the jets a little quick.

I didn't introduce myself, it's Matthew McDonnell, co-chair of the Yellowstone National Air Show and Jake Penwell, co-chair.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Hey, I appreciate the words of pride and and compliments for our great city.

It's the greatest city on the planet.

It is um I uh really want to be a part of this conversation, but I also happen to own a business that is does business directly with the uh the air show.

So I'm gonna ask the deputy mayor to take over the conversation and I'll just stand off to the side.

Is that okay?

Gee, thanks.

You're welcome.

Okay, so we're gonna start with some questions.

You're you know, open for that.

Yes, please.

Member Aspenlight.

Yeah, um, first of all, I'd I just say thank you.

Um I didn't uh I used to go to air shows at uh my night or Air Force Base when I was growing up in Northeast Montana.

And I didn't really understand it when I went, but I went with my dad, my uncle, and yeah, it was kind of cool.

And when when you brought it here, I didn't know necessarily I was kind of indifferent.

And then I went.

And then I went back the second day.

And it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen and been able to participate in.

And I think first I want to thank you guys for your leadership and your dedication, because this is not easy.

And and you did a a heck of a lift to pull it off, and now you're doing it again.

And um, so I I want to commend you for that.

So as we go into this, I guess this is all all a negotiation, and you you kind of know what you're asking for, and we kind of know what you're asking for, and and we kind of don't know how to get there.

Um this isn't necessarily something that I think we can fix tonight, nor is it appropriate to negotiate from the the podium, but um I also just want to be very careful too about the budgets um that we just set for police and fire.

I mean, they have dedicated overtime budgets in both, and they because of the nature of our city, they run them to both um with the work that they do.

And and so we have to be mindful of that.

I think there are some potential other solutions in in budget amendments.

Um just speaking as you know from the budget and finance committee, but we have to dig into that.

I mean, are are you too open to to working with the city administrator and the finance director and the chiefs about what that would look like?

I mean, can we work this out kind of on the fly here as we fast approach the show?

I will say uh the all the uh departments have been incredible partners, not only with the first air show, but so far with this second air show as well.

They're they're incredible, they're amazing.

Uh and and I I would only anticipate having that partnership continue as we discuss this.

Uh I I will say sheepishly, the one seat that was not at the table was the the city itself.

And so that's a again why we're here to say, hey, what can we do?

And and how can we have you guys join us as well in these discussions to figure it all out.

So a follow-up and and I appreciate that.

That that I guess will be my recommendation as we as we come out of this, once everybody kind of gets through their questions.

But um I think it's it's I'm curious also about the conversations you've had with the chamber with visit billings and the T-bid, which different, yeah, and with Big Sky EDA.

And where are those three economic partners at and what are their commitments to the air show today?

Yeah, you want so uh T-bid has come to the table and um has helped us out uh at least my understanding, I'll have to read that contract again, specifically to help out with our hotel rooms, which how much was that was a large bill as well.

I think that was close to 200,000 almost last time of just the hotel rooms that we paid for ourselves um for our for the performers and the uh blue angels, etc.

Um so they helped us out uh with a certain dollar amount and then uh chamber uh I think they're they're leaning on the T bid as their contribution.

So I appreciate your explanation that the that you're at least in your mind, and I would say even in my mind that those are two separate entities uh in big sky economic development, we haven't really heard from except for you know that they have uh helped us as far as wanting to advertise and market for us and doing some podcasts, et cetera.

Um that's not it.

The the last question any T Bit is the hotel years, and and those guys kind of get banged up for everything that comes to town because they're the only organization that's got some kind of pot of funding, but there's a restaurant tours association here in town, and there's also the Tavern Association.

Tavern Association's pretty active and they've been pretty generous.

I mean, have you had any conversations with those two organizations?

No, so that's a great recommendation.

No, no one knows.

And I'm I might even go a step further and say I would love the city's assistance in having those conversations because it doesn't just affect us or uh you know impact us.

We're we're creating this uh revenue generating opportunity, which is the air show itself that does impact those organizations and the business owners that are part of it.

I only ask those questions because I I think before the taxpayer gets involved, I think it's important that the business community who is gonna see the vast majority of the benefit of all of these people in town also have skin in the game.

And I'm happy to help.

I can help with the Tavern Association so you and I can connect offline on that, and I'll I'll do what I can there.

Yeah, but I I'd encourage you to try to reach out to those and and I guess my my parting shot here is I'd encourage the chamber to take a step back and consider what they can do separate from the T bid um and come to the table to support this.

The same thing with Big Sky EDA.

Um I don't know if those folks are listening online, they're not in the room, certainly.

Um, but I I think it's imperative that before we start throwing tax dollars in that we know that there's commitment from those two business organizations also.

I think it appreciates I hear you in your intention too, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that um uh and and we don't want to impact the departments either, because they like you said, have already created their budgets, probably didn't think, oh, well, there's gonna be an air show, so we need to account for that in our budget proposal.

So to have some of these other entities step up and say, you know what, we'll help out.

Um, whether it's gonna cover all of it or some of it, I I don't know, but uh we haven't had those conversations yet.

So uh that to me, that makes a lot of sense to ask those entities to help out and not have the burden lie on the shoulders of the departments themselves.

Uh council member Kennedy.

And then who else?

Anyone else?

Years ago.

I was on way many years ago, the other two air shows we had.

We had uh both the county and the city sitting on the board.

And that's where we started working out with being able to do the partnership.

So I know you're quite a ways into this, but I would recommend those um Councilman Aspen Letter said um you need to meet with the city administrator, the chiefs, and uh and see how the city can come on board and and we need to do a few things.

So I would recommend and and put it in your notes to make sure they are on the board um to begin with.

Um when people start planning these things.

I mean, I understand what you're just saying, but you're um without the business people coming forward and putting up the initial dollars, this would never happen.

So I appreciate it.

I appreciate you taking the risk to do that.

And I would really like to see us become a part of it.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Neeson and Councilmember Shaw.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um I guess like Scott Aspenlayer mentioned, or council member Aspenler mentioned, I I really agree with what he said.

And mainly I'll ex um uh express the point about coming to taxpayers using taxpayer dollars for this.

Um, I look at this as a uh an event um a promotional event at the Metro.

It really is designed there to promote different businesses around the town.

The the the biggest, the biggest uh um uh winners other than the people they're attending and paying their tickets to get in and see this great show, which I I've been to the first one, which and the second one, which I missed the napalm on the second one, but that with the first one was awesome, and you could really feel the heat.

But the um the the idea of having uh restauranteers, the taverns, um, all of those people who are really gonna benefit from the large crowd of people are coming into town for that day or a couple of days, uh, maybe three or four days to to see our city and participate in this event.

I think it's something that really needs to happen um before the taxpayers.

So if we had a sales tax, that'd be a different story.

We don't have a sales tax here.

The city it's not gonna generate any revenue.

It's actually gonna cost additional revenue, just not even at the show, but just around town with all those additional guests here in town with the different responses that uh we need to provide.

So it is something that um uh I would support as taking a look at.

We need to, you know, if uh if the amount that last year was too much, maybe there needs to be uh, I don't know what the cost of the services or what you expect it to pay or budgeted to pay.

Those are the kind of things that we need to uh be aware of of uh making sure that maybe if the city is providing that service, if it's too expensive.

I don't know if you've discussed it with Lockwood to see if they can provide some additional service at a lower cost or with some of the volunteers if uh uh fire stations around the area that could come in and do additional costs, something like that that maybe they could do uh some of the some of the heavy load or some of the lighter load, maybe uh that the buildings fire uh doesn't have to provide.

So thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

So this is a very exciting thing for our community.

I appreciate you uh um harping on the word leadership because I think it does show leadership, what you've brought here.

And it's it's it's it's exciting.

I I am not a person who's personally been like really into air shows, but I recognize that it's a very cool thing, and I I hope I get to you know witness it at least a little bit.

Um I I think what you're hearing, and and what and and what I want people outside of this conversation to hear is that our tax structure is very frustrating for local governments.

We are reliant on property taxes.

And that is to me not a fair system, especially when you're talking about something like this, like you're talking about generating all this revenue.

Absolutely true.

The city sees none of it.

And so we can't off like some of those other communities.

I think when I see like, oh, it's very common for them to help subsidize, I totally understand why they would do that.

In Montana, we we have to make basically all of our revenue for public safety off of property taxes, which are our local residents.

And so it makes it very challenging to sit here and advocate for, you know, trying to subsidize any any kind of event, this or anything else for that that reason.

Um, I find it very frustrating as a council member.

I wish it was different.

Um, but I I think that you're kind of hearing that refrain a little bit.

And so I just wanted to explain a little bit where that's coming from, that I don't think it's a lack of desire to participate or be a partner, but it's from that just kind of basic reality of where the taxes come from in billings and that we don't collect revenue from things like this.

And I don't think it's fair.

I don't think it's a fair system.

And I don't think it's a great way to fund a city, but it is what we've got right now.

And so I guess going forward, my hope would be that you can sit down with our interim city administrator, have some conversations about what this could look like, all some of the alternatives.

And then I my last, my kind of question for you is is there a way to put like a um, you know, I'm thinking like the Babcock, Alberta Bear, they'll put an additional cost on their tickets to fund maintenance at those facilities.

Dealer Park does it for baseball.

Can you do that for first responders?

I think I think people would get that and understand it if that was uh, you know, an additional line item on a ticket.

I that's just a suggestion that um might be a way to help kind of bridge the gap.

But um, if not, a conversation may be worth having.

Yeah, it's a good suggestion.

It's uh we do get some pushback on the the prices already.

Yeah.

And knowing that we're literally uh trying to aim for breaking even uh so that we don't have to pay additional dollars out of our own pocket again.

Uh but um I hear you on that.

And that's why we're coming to the table and asking, not necessarily for funding for everything, but just to start that conversation and then ask for your assistance as we do go to these other entities that do get money from the revenue that's created in town.

Um and I'd even I'd even turn it just a little bit and say, you know, even as a leader of a business myself, as an org of an organization myself, sometimes when we invest dollars into marketing, we tend to say, ah, are we gonna invest that much into marketing?

Because it's hard to get money back or or even quantify what those marketing dollars are going to return.

You're hoping it does, and theoretically it does, but I see this as an opportunity to market billings.

We're bringing a lot of people in, not just from billings.

We're not bringing in a third of billings into the air show over a weekend.

These are people coming in from all over why and all over the country and even internationally, as I was saying before.

So to be able to show off, have something that attracts people here, show off billings and maybe encourage them to live here at some point in time.

Although there are some you know, people that were some places where we're like, uh we don't we don't want some of those coming in.

Some people blame the TV show Yellowstone for bringing too many people into Montano.

Hopefully, we don't get painted with that brush either.

But uh, you know, there's the I see this as a marketing opportunity for this incredible city that that I love.

Councilmember Pittman.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, this is probably start with the city administrator and then maybe the two chiefs.

Uh what what is the, or maybe you guys, what is the cost and and how do we allocate that?

Are we are you asking for dedicated firemen and policemen at your event, or is it just a natural result of this event?

Yeah.

So um that's a great question for both chiefs.

Um we work closely with them.

There is obviously when you put 20,000 people into an airfield, there's going to be traffic issues with one road.

So it requires the shutdown of um of a federal highway.

So that is a huge lift um on our local police departments.

Um, and then of course, we have a lot of jets flying around, so we're gonna have a giant lift with fire.

And so I there's uh we're not saying that there was too much last time.

This is more of a situation where I look at it as an entrepreneur.

Um, I don't have any control over those entities, and I don't have any control over how many people working.

And and we're not saying that it was too much by any means.

We're just saying I didn't feel like it was our responsibility.

Um, we feel like it's more, you know, they're the employees of the city.

We feel like maybe that was more of a responsibility, much like when Garth Brooks comes to town.

Is you know, is that something that's packed in the tickets?

We don't know.

Honestly, we don't know the budget of the city and how that operates.

But we feel like the air show happened and it was something we said yes to this first time around.

And you know, as an entrepreneur, I think you do something and you lose money, you're only gonna do that once.

Next time you're gonna do it, you're certainly gonna find ways not to.

So to answer that question, I know that's a long answer.

We just didn't have any control over the overtime.

Um, and we didn't feel like that was our responsibility.

Just a follow-up.

Do you have a what was it 145,000 the last time?

It was around 146 between airport and and and we're not just saying first responders.

Also, the airport works tirelessly on all the hours of everything they do.

So the airport was wonderful to work with.

So it's the airport, it was um the sheriff's office, the police, the highway patrol, and the fire.

Okay.

140, we'll call it 147 in total.

I think there were a couple of federal entities too that came to the table and helped us out.

Umspenliner.

And then I was gonna try to wrap this up a little bit.

So I'm gonna try to put a bow on it right now.

Um action necessarily, but maybe a request and suggestion, the city administrator if you can try to work with Matthew and um Jig to try to understand what the plan is and and communicate that very clearly as as the plan is developing with fire and police and then be see where that line is.

I mean, from my perspective, I would like the city to be a partner in some capacity.

Um, I don't see us being a partner.

This is one councilman speaking, but I don't see us being a partner more than 50% of overtime costs.

But it's fair to ask.

Uh expect you to ask as as an entrepreneur myself.

Um, but I'm most certainly willing to go to the other organizations and and swing the bat for you as well to try to bring some some other money to the table to cover the cost.

But it I guess to the city administrator, if you can try to work with them, make sure that we're right sizing things um and see what the avenues would be.

I presume as you and I talked that we would true this up at the end of the year, like we do all the time with overtime budgets and vacancy savings and things like that.

And then if we need supplemental, we would come up with some areas for supplemental.

If if you can start that conversation with these guys, that would be my suggestion or request.

Anyone else?

Gentlemen, thank you so much, and we look forward to your show.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Great job.

Item number two on our regular agenda.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Thanks for having us here.

Can you hear can you hear me better now?

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Good evening.

Thank you for having us here.

So I'm gonna do a brief overview for anyone not familiar with Billings 2045.

So today we're here strictly for discussion only.

This is not an action item due to the scheduling um of three plans coming in front of you.

We wanted to separate them.

So you did not have three items on your 20th meeting for uh work session.

I just felt we felt like it might be a little much to talk about three different plans all at one time.

So we appreciate your patience.

But just a reminder for everyone that is not familiar, Billings 2045 is part of the Montana Land Use Planning Act, which was passed in 2023 by the state legislature requiring cities the size of billings to come into compliance with it by May 17th of 2026.

So we adopted a plan as a city.

The city council adopted a plan, and it's called Billings 2045.

It includes a future land use plan and map that has land use designations for how we would expect to grow as a city over the next 20 years.

Um what this mainly does for citizens is it changes applications for subdivisions and zone changes from going through a zoning commission and then to city council for final approval to if they are in compliance with the plan and the map, they are administratively approved by city staff.

So that is the change that has happened from Billings 2045.

So as a reminder, we are doing this in the state legislature wanted us to do this due to the housing boom that we saw during kind of COVID.

A lot of Montana cities were struggling.

We, the city of Billings, need 26,200 units over the next 20 years.

On average, we permit 800 units annually, which leaves us at a deficit at about 510 units per year.

So again, tonight's meeting is just a work session, no action item.

We are not amending the future land use designations that city council has worked on.

We are not amending the future land use map.

We are not extending the future land use map.

We are simply here to add items to the plan that were not included just due to the brevity that we had when we were going through initial adoption and the timeline associated with it.

So I'm going to quickly go through some of the changes here.

So just again, these place types, they're not changing at all.

Just putting them on the screen.

So anyone that might be tuning in for the first time gets to see it and they can go back and watch previous council meetings or previous um interim planning commission meetings and learn about it, but this is not changing.

This stays the exact same.

Again, this is only here so that our friends who may just now be learning about this can look at it.

Map again stays the exact same.

Again, for friends that may be just joining the conversation, they can see it.

So in regards to our plan that city council had adopted, I did a brief summary of what's changed and what has stayed the same.

And then at the end, we're gonna go through the implementation matrix just very quickly, the new items that are in the within the plan.

So chapter one has stayed the same.

It is gonna be the same title, the same contents, nothing within it has changed.

Chapter two, building the community was slightly expanded on the community composition and demographic trends.

You saw this within our SB Friedman report that was within the appendices.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but many people don't read appendices.

So some of that information was synthesized within the plan itself, and we will still keep the totality of that appendicy there and available for a resource, but just adding that within the body of the chapter two information.

Chapter three from present to future actually got moved to a later chapter.

And the new chapter three is called serving the community.

This talks about facilities, services, and communities impacts such as schools, utilities, and parks.

We had information that we had many meetings through stakeholder conversations as we went through the Billings 2045 process.

This simply just outlines items associated with that, where city water sewer is at, where the schools are at, a conversations that we had regarding that, how growth impacts those items and how they worked.

Chapter four from plan to reality became connecting the community.

So this includes a framework regarding transportation, roads, pedestrians, and bicycle facilities, transit and freight.

And feel free to stop me if you have questions.

I want to make this as comprehensive as we can, but again, just trying to give you an overview, and we can also get more information if you need more information.

Chapter five is called is called Community Characters.

So this elaborates on neighborhoods throughout the city of Billings.

We have currently nine different neighborhood task forces.

This has a brief summary of each of them, includes our neighborhood task force map, talks about those neighborhoods in detail.

Chapter six, present to future.

You had seen this formally in chapter three.

All of the contents of chapter six are the exact same.

Just due to the order of the plan, we push this to where it seemed logical, which was at present to future.

Chapter seven is plan to reality.

This is the implementation matrix that we're gonna go through with you all.

Again, the implementation matrix, I say again, I apologize, I have not said this.

The implementation matrix is a list of suggestions to city council.

Staff would not start any of the items identified within the implementation matrix without city council asking staff to start that.

So this is not we're going to immediately set foot doing something without getting a council directive associated with that.

Yeah, and I'll if I can just add before Anna moves on to that some of them, as you'll see tonight, and if you look into the plan into the detail level, there's other entities and organizations in the community that would also be involved in some of these.

So it's not all on the city or you know, to do all of this.

There's some that talk about other entities and talk about how they might participate.

So it gives a nice layout and kind of roadmap, but it but it doesn't put it all on the city or city council or staff to move all these things forward.

So plan one, the theme is the exact same.

It's talking about managed growth to align fiscal sustainability with long-term community goals.

We removed the plan objectives that were associated with adopting new zoning regulations and subdivision regulations that were under the Montana Land Use Planning Act.

We did that as a community during May.

So there's no point in leading something on the lifts.

Let's give ourselves credit and identify two new things.

Um, the first one being that the infill policy, council has directive staff that they would like us to start the infill policy and review of that.

Um, this is identifying the infill policy as an item we would need to work on.

And then continuing neighborhood planning.

So the planning division currently has uh a neighborhood planner that is a new position that we've had for one fiscal year now.

We will have in front of City Council the West End plan and the Heights neighborhood plan.

Those are neighborhood plans.

They feed to Billings 2045.

They do not outrank Billings 2045.

Whenever you look at how the map is, the maps for them actually are designed to match exactly what city council worked on and adopted, as well as the land use categories.

What neighborhood plans give us a chance to do is to drill down into specific goals for neighborhoods.

So we look specifically at issues that neighbors and their within their area would like to see improved within the community.

So we would like to identify another neighborhood to undertake this specific drill down to identify goals that that neighborhood would have.

So that's the next item that has been added.

So switching on to plan theme two.

Again, this is what is already in the current plan, aligning land use decisions uh with the capacity of long-term sustainability of infrastructure, public services, and facilities.

The two new items that are proposed under this section is to look at our water and sewer master plans in terms of how that fits in with the future land use map that you adopted in May and making sure we have identified the connection there with what's shown in the flume and how investments might be made regarding that across the city and those uh in those land use categories.

And then the last one is looking at recommendations in the future regarding similar to what we have in the eBird code regarding um development for citywide green infrastructure.

This gets into how we manage stormwater.

Um, are there ways to look at incentives and how to incorporate that green infrastructure as we do development across the city similar to what's currently in the eBird, uh the eBird code.

Moving to plan number theme three.

This uh addresses supporting transportation system that improves connectivity safety and access through multiple uh travel options.

Uh, the added piece here is to look at in the future um when we do uh come back again with updating our uh billings MPO pedestrian bicycle master plan, looking at the citywide network in terms of what types of corridors might address and carry uh the not and motorized and unmultimodal elements.

This actually goes into the transportation corridor study work that's being done right now by public works and planning uh that was something that came out of council um about a year and year and a half ago.

Um, so that this ties in with that in terms of looking at how those networks work and how the corridors might work in the future.

Moving on to um all continuing with plan theme three, two more added um items, and these came out from again um tying in with the public input and community input we received with Billings 2045 and the other neighborhood plans is looking at our in arterial connectivity and how that fits in with our functional class map.

When we do our long-range transportation plan update work here that's going to be starting uh later this year, looking at that in terms of our tirials and how that uh is um those are assessed and evaluated with our um future or functional class map and how we look at those major connections in different parts of the city, and then continuing implementation of our wayfinding signage uh regarding our multimodal transportation.

We actually heard a lot of positive feedback on this in terms of how it's working now with parks and trails and um on-street and off-street facilities and how people are able to navigate and what they can they can look.

And if you see like the way the skyline trail was done with mile markers and and telling you what's coming up, we heard a lot of uh positive input from that throughout the billings 2045 effort.

So looking to continue that and just be consistent as we do that across projects in the city.

All right, so plan theme four is the same as whenever you saw it last.

Uh, the new items are associated with uh supporting affordable housing development, so by utilizing TIFF funding and partnering with nonprofits, as well as creating a local housing trust fund.

This would utilize a local trust funding as well as TIFF funding and voluntary contributions from developers.

Plan theme five is looking at promoting equitable access to services and investment in existing neighborhoods to support quality of life citywide.

There's a variety of items that were already in the plan here.

The new uh elements here is uh strengthening neighborhood level engagement and looking at how we communicate information to our um neighborhoods and and this fits in with our task forces, both overall in terms of how we communicate and provide information to them, and then also their engagement with the CIP process and looking at how we uh continue to distribute and make sure that projects are happening across the city uh in an equitable way across all the different neighborhoods.

And this is an ongoing conversation we have when we look at our CIP projects every year, look at the map and where projects are being done.

So ongoing with that.

We've had, I'll just say we had excellent engagement and communication with the two neighborhood plans you're gonna hear more about this week and at the work session with the Heights task force and with the West Eask Force, um, really phenomenal engagement with those entities and how they both put information out, engaged in the meetings we had, proposed ways to get information out that we, you know, to help in the process.

So this really fits in with that going forward and continuing to strengthen that that effort.

Um, looking at developing um uh multilingual community engagement strategy, obviously looking at how we communicate with people across the community at all different um in different have different languages that we might be able to address and how that comes across.

And again, if you look at this in the detail, you'll see that this isn't just a oh, city staff's gonna go figure this out.

There's other organizations and things that are referenced in there that would help in in an effort like that.

Um, and then also the idea of uh equity-based, like a capital investment scoring criteria.

This goes back again to the CIP and how we look at how um infrastructure is done across the city and how we're distributing it.

And the city does this already.

Like I said, you see that when you look at your CIP mapping every year and you look at where projects are, but trying to make sure that we continue to pay attention to that and we hear from the community, you know, perceived and real about whether they see investments being made in those areas and how do we continue to help um provide that information and show how that's being addressed.

All right, plan theme six has to do with protecting natural resources and integrating parks, open space, environmental considerations.

This is the same.

The theme is the same.

The two new ones are involved with enhancing and maintain right-of-way landscape and tree canopy.

We're a billings tree city USA status, so we want to continue to keep that status.

And then enhancing the current right-of-way permitting system for trees.

So making sure that we are doing this appropriately in the appropriate spot so that we're not we're working with developers associated with those tree maintenances.

And then updating the parks and recreation open space master plan is an item that's recommended.

It was done last in 2017.

It's been almost 10 years, so identifying that and going through the capital improvement priority list associated with that.

So plan theme seven, the last theme, uh reinforcing buildings identity through context sensitive development, downtown vitality, and distinctive neighborhoods.

A couple new uh items that came up here.

One is looking at um gateway and corridor beautification standards and looking at how we people come into the community and what that looks like from different entrance points.

This has been an ongoing conversation.

We heard this again during the uh Billings 2045 efforts uh regarding what it looks like as you enter billings and how what could be um done to continue to look at improvements there.

We did have um the interim planning commission has had an initial discussion on these draft elements uh last week.

They're gonna be um reviewing it and making a recommendation to you this Thursday just on this item.

That was something they talked about a little bit, um, wanted to make sure that if this were to move forward in the future, that we look at how that might impact um, you know, private versus public property, like what is that, what how that might impact private uh properties and things of that nature, which uh has been a conversation in the past with something like this.

And so, yeah, there's no reason that that wouldn't still be the case, but trying to understand kind of what that might look like.

And again, these are all things that would be have to come back and say, okay, do we want to move this forward?

Does the council want to?

What did the community want to do before we would proceed?

But that was one that they had some discussion on.

And then lastly, um, the um looking at establishing or continuing basically to implement um uh dark sky ordinance regarding outdoor lighting standards, city right-of-way, and how that addresses um lighting in parks as well as in other public spaces.

Um, this also came out of some of the um input we got from the community and from our stakeholders and um IPC talked about this as well.

Um, there was some concern about you know, going all the way to like there there are if you go out and look nationally, there are dice dark sky ordinances specifically.

But do we are we more so interested in just how we deal with lighting and how lighting affects neighborhoods and is it focused on the places it should be lit, which goes back to SEPTED, um community crime prevention through environmental design versus you know the dark sky piece itself.

So, anyway, again, a piece that has come out of that conversation and would be something to evaluate.

IPC discussed that as well.

And then the last one is identity for neighborhoods, um, continuing to look at branding.

You heard again from uh Mr.

Clark about the bright side of the tracks.

That was something that was done uh several years ago through a grant working with Southside Task Force within working with Southside residents through Riverstone Health to come up with that type of branding.

This was brought up during the uh community engagement process regarding some of the other parts of the city and an interest in and what could we do in those areas to identify how these other neighborhoods fit in with the city and what their identity is.

And that is the last one.

Uh and those are the major added um elements, uh themes that are out there, and then as Anna talked about some of the adjustments with the chapters regarding the information and trying to better organize the document uh really to make it easier to navigate for us, navigate for the community, and as people bring up um items and things in the future.

So happy to answer questions.

This is scheduled to come back to you as Anna said, um, for on the 27th of uh July for for your action to adopt these amendments, but the RIPC is doing a final review on this on Thursday, and we'll make a recommendation to you per the code at that time.

Great, thank you to great presentation.

I think we do have some questions for you, starting with council member Kennedy.

A couple of things.

You uh went over number two, and that had complete streets in there.

Was it two that had the complete streets?

It might be three.

I think I'm sorry.

Uh continue with the complete streets design standards.

I'd like to know one thing.

Um the county did not adopt the complete streets because it increased the cost so much on the roadway and the designs and all of that.

Can you tell us um and put together, you don't have to do it right now, put together what the costs are and everything for uh what it costs us for every project, every street we look at, everything with the complete streets.

I'd love to see that.

Uh, Councilmember Kennedy and Mayor and Council, actually great um segue.

We're about to come to you.

Um, the council and the commissioners, and actually the PCC, which include the planning board, um, directed the staff and the and put into our work program last about a year, a little over a year ago, uh fiscal analysis of complete streets.

And so actually, we're coming to you with that um report that has been completed literally in the next couple of weeks.

So we'll be sharing that with the council and walking you through that analysis and what what the outcomes were for that.

We did have to look at it.

Are we gonna get it ahead of time?

It's it's been sent to you already via email, and then we have a work session on July 20th about it.

Okay.

Um the other question I have is um on the lighting section.

On the lighting section, you uh have put a big emphasis on lighting.

The council decided to go forward with new subdivisions.

I'm a little disappointed because the area and you're not saying it's a new subdivision, that area over on King Avenue that the uh uh 35 homes are going.

Um, you do not have any type of street lighting there.

So I it's a criticism.

Um I don't know if uh if it's a technicality or whatever, but you can't stand in front of us and say we need to do this, and this is what the people are asking for, and then when um different areas come up, you're not uh you're not following through on that.

So I uh I have a concern on that.

Councilmember Kennedy, your concern is directly noted, and I can I can appreciate exactly where you're coming from.

The intent of this would be to adopt a standard that would actually affect more than just subdivisions if it were the direction of council.

So it can be more than just a dark sky ordinance in my mind.

It's talking about city right-of-way lighting.

Right now, our regulations strict restrict us from doing lighting requirements anywhere outside of a residential subdivision.

When we think about dark but you you went ahead with the 35 homes right there and said it wasn't a subdivision and went ahead and approved without lighting there.

So I have some concerns on that.

So do you want to well, yeah, no, Councilmember Kennedy, Mayor and Council, yeah.

This actually came up at our um at our interim planning commission as well.

And to Anna's point, yeah.

So we that project, and I and I um we're looking into the information that we we were asked about because there are some public streets.

There's an extension of JANSMA that's in that project.

Um reached out to engineering, we'll we'll clarify that to see if there's lighting that would be required on that public street because it is a new extension.

But the issue is that what the council has adopted to this point, which was is is lighting in subdivisions.

That property is not being developed as a subdivision.

They've got land, but they're developing it without subdividing it.

So we don't have the hook there of that of what you adopted for lighting in that respect.

There may be some lighting requirements on the public street.

I would say you need to figure out if you're going to if it's good for one subdivision, it needs to be good for another one.

And I uh think you need to figure that one out.

And Councilmember Kennedy and Mayor and Council, yes, I think to the point of what this says is this would actually move us to applying it more than just in the residential subdivisions, which is what you're what you're talking about.

So that makes sense to go forward.

We would have to come back with some kind of um policy and then potentially regulation to apply it outside.

I'm just I'm just saying that it's just happened recently, and it just kind of went to the wayside.

So I have some concerns on that.

I guess to clear, I think we're using subdivision two different ways.

Like when Wyatt is talking about subdivision, we're talking about splitting a lot, which requires us to follow the subdivision regulations, not necessarily a community that people live within.

If we were to adopt an ordinance associated with dictating a master site plan, which is what they went through, that would be applicable here.

And that's what this is trying to direct us to.

So I just wanted to clarify that for most people that are not aware of that law.

Thank you.

Mr.

Ms.

Boyette.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'm just looking at the number seven.

Can we, as the council say we don't like number seven and vote against it and keep the rest of it?

Or is this just a done deal and we have to rubber stamp it since it's the state?

Uh council.

Oh, go ahead.

So council member Boyet, you are welcome to change reword amends, strike any of these recommendations here, in even the ones that were already within the plan itself.

We intentionally included them because there is no red line document.

It's hard to produce a plan that's completely redlined.

It would be very messy.

The reason they're here is so that you can ask us to make amendments.

Yeah, these were if I can add, I mean, these were brought out through the community input process, and then we were we compiled things and brought them forward.

So yeah, these are absolutely not and the IPC is talking about that same thing about making recommendations with some edits.

So that's totally within the council for purview.

So Anna, you may be here in 20 years, but I'm not gonna be.

Things change.

Murphy's law says things are gonna change.

Is this document etched in stone?

So five years or 10 years from now, if the demographics change, the world changes, we're stuck with what we have because that's a state law.

Uh councilmember Boyette, Mayor and Council.

We are slated by state law to update this document at minimum every five years.

I would envision that we would do it sooner or at least circle back with city council sooner.

Councilmember Shaw.

Thank you.

Um I mean, I like most of these recommendations.

I think it's great.

I like that we don't have to act on them, but they are in the plan, and I think they reflect community input, which is two thumbs up on that.

Um, my question is just about the city infill policy.

So I I have talked with the interim city administrator about this.

I definitely want to see us move on that.

And so my question to you guys is you don't need a council initiative on this, right?

We're just this is in the works already.

We're gonna move ahead with starting to evaluate that.

Because I think a lot of these pieces seem to me to fall into that discussion in a way that I think could be beneficial.

I I certainly agree.

I want the lighting expanded.

I think it should apply to that master plan in my mind.

And I understand why it didn't.

So I that's one where I'm like, yeah, let's let's go all the way on some of these things and make sure that they're applying across the board.

Um, but the infill policy seems to me like a way to kind of get at some of it.

Um I just wanted to hear from you guys that yes, we're we're ready to dig into that.

Councilmember Shaw, Mayor and Council.

When you all were voting on the initiatives when we discussed, say duplexes and single family homes, there was a motion made by council at that point regarding moving something to discussion at the info policy.

And it was my understanding that we would kick off that policy after wrapping up these plans.

I think that was my one that I was trying to get in.

So that's perfect.

Thank you.

Councilmember Nees.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I've got quite a few questions.

The first one I wrote down was um I think you told us that you would have to go back to the state, report what our plan was, and then see it.

Did it did you do that yet?

Have you gone back to the state?

Did they say we're looking good?

Yeah, council member Nice and Mayor and Council.

Uh, we did have um uh a session, a panel discussion at the state uh legislature at the interim local government committee.

Um and uh did all the they actually brought um communities, uh large and small communities to talk about where they were at with the process.

We had you you had adopted the the plan before um a few weeks before that in May when we went to them the end of May.

And so yeah, we did share that with them.

We didn't they didn't get into the level of they wanted to know if we had adopted it, which we said we did.

Um, and we talked a little bit about some of the challenges that we had had and the council concerns.

We conduct we conveyed some of that to them at the time.

Um, and at that point, what came out of that is that later this fall, they're expecting sort of an updated report on all the municipalities that have put it in place and how it's going so far.

Um, but we didn't they didn't give us any further um direction or had any specific concerns aside from knowing that it was in place and we were moving forward.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then uh as to the lighting issue that was just talked about, this is something that I I um I voted against when we voted in that ordinance because I believe it was it's really up to the homeowners to determine whether they want lighting, not the city.

And uh it adds to the cost of housing.

And now what you're proposing, if I understand this correctly, this if we adopt this, we would actually go out like we do sidewalks and order in lights, and then the homeowners would have to pay not only the installation of the lights, but then also uh a lighting district.

Is do I understand that correctly?

Council member niece, mayor and council maybe.

So this all this states is that if the council would like to have staff investigate looking at a lighting ordinance or a dark square ordinance, it's something that would be recommended.

Staff would still have to form some sort of committee, come up with recommendations of what that would look like.

It would still have to go through the process of amending whatever associated ordinances regulate that and then come in front of council for approval.

So maybe it just depends on what came out of council initiating us to start that.

This is these are just suggestions of what the council could look at directing staff starting to do.

And so, first of all, I would say I I don't think that should move forward.

I would my opinion is that should be struck up because as I understand, if someone wants if a neighborhood wants street lights on their neighbor in their neighborhood, they can petition the city to have a lighting district created and put those in.

Is that correct?

Uh council member knees, a mayor council.

I don't know the exact process, but yes, I'm understanding of creating like a lighting district, you have to go through a process if you're in the current existing area.

Yeah.

So that's there's there's no prevention of people who want lights to get lights.

They can they can do that.

However, if the city then creates an ordinance requiring lights, I think then we're we're crossing the line on what people should or shouldn't be doing.

We shouldn't be telling people they have lights.

So I would suggest that they go that not be included.

And the last thing uh I want to say is I think the email that with this presentation, because I read the I re I read through the report and I didn't I tried to capture what was missing and what changed or didn't change in the memo, but this is much more specific on what the changes were, and that didn't come out until 1215 this afternoon.

Um and so I don't know why it didn't come out on Friday with the rest of the memo, but uh Kevin, I guess this is to you.

If we're gonna have presentations like this, it really shows the the specific details.

I think we need to see that prior to a few hours before the meeting.

Um I there's a because when I first read the through the what was given to us in the in the memo, there wasn't didn't seem to be many changes.

This is there's some significant recommendations here that I think that we need to take a hard look at and determine whether or not we want to move forward on any of these.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember O'Donnell.

Thank you.

Um could you go back to uh slide number uh three?

The full the full one, not the partial one.

Yeah, right.

The the last word of the middle of the middle line and other high comfort facilities.

That's that's a very odd word for a planning document, comfort.

What does that mean?

Uh Councilmember O'Donnell and Mayor and Council, that's actually specifically referring to when we do transportation analysis of transportation systems and corridors and who's using them and whether people feel comfortable using them or uncomfortable.

Um so that's where that's coming from.

It has to do with if you look as an example, if you have people like um, you know, families that are out wanting to ride their bikes or use strollers and such, like whether the facility has um is set up to be comfortable for that type of use versus you know, if you're going down like Grand Avenue right now, that that would be considered not a high comfort facility for those types of uses.

So it's a term, I guess you could say a term of art to some extent, but it's within those analyses where we look at the comfort level.

Yeah, I get that now.

Thank you.

Uh I'm also uh concerned a little bit uh uh uh council member Kennedy brought up about this complete streets uh program.

Um there seems to be a lot of emphasis on bicycle uh accommodations, and I'm wondering about the cost of that.

Uh because uh everybody that I have mentioned or they that I have meant, not that I have mentioned people come up to me and they complain about the uh streets about the bicycle paths and whatever and all the money being spent on those and the the green color and and all that.

Uh it's it's a rare day when I ever see a bicycle out anywhere, not just because it's 110 degrees, but it at any time.

It seems to me you you introduced in one of these, you introduced a proportional thing uh for uh that uh improvements go to under uh historically underutilized communities, under development communities.

So you you've established the idea of proportionality on the thing.

But there are very few bicycles that seem to be getting a lot of attention, a lot of money.

Could you just talk about that?

Yeah, uh, council member O'Donnell and Mayor and Council.

Um, couple things.

I guess one of the things I'll just say overall is that throughout the process, the public engagement for Billings 2045, the public engagement for the West Billings Plan, the public engagement for the Heights plan, um, not just not specifically bicycles, but the comments that we have received across all of these efforts about wanting multimodal facilities, wanting access to for kids to get to school, for kids and families to walk, take out their strollers, ride their bikes, um continues to be something that is brought up over and over and over and across all of those efforts throughout all the different parts of the city.

And so that's partly why this continues to be brought up and why you see that is because the city has over time looked at providing facilities for different users across the city, not all the same way and not all in the same places because it doesn't work and it doesn't make sense.

And that's where you get into the financial piece of where can things be done that address, you know, is it just a sidewalk in some cases?

That's great.

Is it a pedestrian crossing that we need?

Is it some kind of transit facility?

So it's really that looking at that, how it fits across the whole city in a context.

But that continues to be something that we hear over and over again.

Um, and so that's why you're continuing to see those things brought up.

So I just wanted to mention is that you were saying that that uh over the years you've gotten a lot of comments about bicycle uh facilities uh in the city.

And uh uh just as a private citizen for years, I've heard lots of comments also.

They they div they're very diverse from from yours uh from from what you hear, I hear something entirely different.

So I just wanted to mention that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Aspenlighter, then Dr.

Nicholson.

Um two things and more more comments than anything.

When we get to infill policy, I I think that needs to be a bigger conversation to kick that off with this body, because I think at least for my from my perspective, I want to have some more conversations, not just around what our policy is, but what what are the economic incentives that we can also build into that policy?

That's not something that a committee can do, that's something that we have to do.

And so when you start the infill policy, I would highly encourage you to pull a couple council members in to be a part of that.

And I would highly encourage us to build in some time to talk about how we could have some economic impact, whether that be through, you know tax incentive stuff, tax abatement programs, things like that, to try to encourage that and build that into the plan.

Um I think that's a more robust conversation.

And I know there are other groups, one sitting in the chairs right there that met with me, um, that that want to be a part of that uh that conversation as well.

So make sure that we don't fall start there without having the right people engaged and involved in that.

Um second around the the street lights and dark skies policy.

Like I'm intrigued by that conversation.

I was one, I was probably the the sixth vote on a six to five vote that um passed that, much to the chagrin of Councilman Nees.

Um if that vote were were taken today, I would probably vote no.

And I probably would have voted to kill that policy.

It's it's costing between seven and eight thousand dollars a door to put street lighting in.

Um that's an exorbitant cost, whether it's done through a streetlight streetlight maintenance district, whether it's done through Northwestern Energy.

I mean, those are true costs that that I think we're starting to see come to bear, and we've got to get more creative.

One of the things that I was hoping in that, and maybe this is a statement in a form of a question uh to Miss Vickers.

I I was hoping, and I think councilwoman Owen was in the same camp, that we would think about street lighting in a robust way that didn't just mean sticking up traditional street lights, that we would consider alternative lighting plans with dedicated yard lights and things like that with that could be incorporated into the design of a home in a subdivision that would meet the same intent.

But to this point, from the developers that I've talked to, that's never been allowed to be part of the conversation or consideration.

And so if we're gonna make modifications to policies, I think we have to be open to some of those things brought by the building community to try to meet the same intent, not just the same standard northwestern energy light that that's costing us you know seven to eight thousand dollars per door.

Dr.

Nicholson.

Thank you.

Um could you send out that uh economic analysis on uh complete streets again, so that uh everybody can read it.

I did read it.

Uh and it was rather positive.

Uh you know, when you look at street safety and other communities, especially back east, you talk about pedestrians being killed.

We don't have that problem.

And I think that's because complete streets has been a success for uh pedestrian bicycle safety.

Complete streets are not just safe routes to school to street safe routes to everywhere.

Uh this is particularly important to me.

Uh, one of my constituents was killed on a walking along Riverside Road, which is a county road and not a complete street.

She had she was walking along the shoulder.

Uh so I think we need to be very careful about trashing complete streets.

I hear people who like bicycle lanes.

I ride in those bicycle lanes.

And they make it's comfortable riding those bicycle lanes.

And they get bicycles out of the way of people driving cars.

Thank you.

Anyone else haven't spoken yet?

All right, Councilman O'Donnell and Councilman Boyet.

Uh one of the things that you said you were going to add was a inventory of undeveloped properties in the city.

Um you were, I don't know where that is on this list right here, but I'm uh it is a tax unclaimed properties as well, but undeveloped properties.

I'd be very interested in uh the result of that.

Council member O'Donnell, Mayor and Council, that would be part of our uh infill policy undergoing and identifying parcels associated with that.

So council would be very heavily involved in getting multiple updates, I would envision the same way that you got on this plan.

I I just say uh I'm very anxious to see that plan that map.

Thank you.

Councilman Boyette.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm I agree with Council Aspen I was just recently at a new fairly new subdivision where there were no street lights, but everyone had a yard light.

And I asked about that, and they said, well, they put it in at the time of construction, and it was a couple two or three hundred dollars.

And then they just change their own light bulbs.

And I said, How does that work at night?

And he said, It's wonderful when everyone puts in their light bulb when it burns out.

But it should be it's a it was I would drove through daytime at nighttime.

So if we could ever get to that point where we could say you don't have to have this great big street light, but but have the subdivision as part of their rules when the developer bills it to put in yard lights.

I think that's it, it looks really nice too.

All right.

Anything else for our presenters?

Mr.

Pittman.

Thank you, Mayor Causal.

So just as uh a matter of how we're moving forward, this is coming back to us again at another business session.

So this was just kind of work session discussion in a business meeting, and then you're gonna bring it back to a business meeting for us to amend or adjust and get into these weeds a little farther.

Um so is it helpful that we get information to you ahead of time, or are we just gonna do this same thing again in a couple weeks?

Councilmember Pittman, Mayor and Council.

You can certainly send us information ahead of time so we can have items put on the screen for council discussion.

A motion would still need to be made by council, seconded and voted on to make amendments to the plan that the interim planning commission puts in front of you.

If you would like for us to come back to our work session, I I mean, we certainly can.

It's just changing our timeline.

We just don't typically vote on items at a work session.

We again, the only reason this is separated is there would be three plans plus the economic analysis of complete streets all in one night, aside from other items that departments have, and we were simply just trying to break items apart.

Mr.

Neys.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to echo my support for council member aspin later said, or regarding the infill policy.

I think we need to be involved in that sooner than later.

And I also like the idea of just uh owner's lamps at the street.

I lived in a neighborhood like that.

They were very nice, and so those are great options to have.

But again, I think it needs to be the owner.

I anyway, and then also I would support this coming back to our work session so that we can actually really discuss more uh these items individually so we can have it ideal.

Like I say, this the first time I saw these was tonight because I didn't I didn't get a chance to see your email uh in the afternoon.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, both of you guys.

Great presentation.

Thanks.

We're gonna move on to public comment on non-agenda items.

Non-agenda items.

Is there any public comment on non-agenda items?

Mr.

Mayor, Councilmember, Administration, General Public.

So thank you, Mr.

Kennedy, Mr.

Boyette, and Mr.

Ronquillow.

I saw Mr.

Mayor there, Chief of Police.

We were all there for the march against drugs and violence.

It was a large demonstration.

It was a very eventful and happy uh event that Mr.

Uh State Senator Mike Yakovich has been doing this for well over 27 years.

And it's more it's recognition.

I mean, how can you not be against drugs and violence?

So again, just a shout out.

Thank you for your time and and volunteering.

Um, and there's also going to be a South Side Fiesta visible at South Park, uh, 10:30.

Come early and stay late.

It should be a lot of fun.

Uh back to the bus stop on First Avenue South in front of the family services near the Gratitude and Action New Building.

It's still needed that we would like to have a bus stop for the for the poor people that uh don't have transportation.

Uh I keep bringing this up.

Hopefully, we'll get some resolution.

I was told that uh they'll be happy to put a painted crosswalk across the street.

Uh that's great.

But you and I both know how far you want to walk at 100 degree heat.

You don't want to walk very far.

So we still need to stay on top of that as far as trying to get uh a true access for the Met system to come down First Avenue South.

And these are only hours between the hours of 10 and three.

So it's not like you don't need to be there at six o'clock at night or six a.m.

with just a change of course for a few hours.

And I do realize that the school system does use the bus a lot more than most of other people do, but let's not forget the poorest of poor.

Uh perhaps even uh an incentive for maybe uh a bus pass offered out from Gratitude Action or from uh family services.

Just trying to open up the idea that these people are ones that do and would use the service.

Um again, I went back to the the trees in South Park.

Uh why are we taking out the trees?

Uh if you plant, if you take out a tree, plant two more.

Um let's hope for that.

Uh and uh I would really be interested in volunteering for the uh Big Sky Air Show.

I I stopped and asked the gentleman and he said it's uh a website that you would go to.

Perhaps someone here can give uh give it out so that it's more awareness.

They do need volunteers.

Okay, God bless.

Aloha, my name is Laye Kwai Black, and I'm here to address the remark City Council Representative Tony O'Donnell made on July 6th, 2026.

I'm Native Hawaiian.

I'm native Hawaiian.

I'm a resident of Ward 5 and one of your constituents.

I know you've already tried to deflect on this issue, but I came tonight because I think it's important that you know how your flippant and racist language is harmful.

So I'm still going to speak my piece.

In your deflective apology tonight, Mr.

O'Donnell, you claimed you were just reading contractual terms last week.

That was untrue.

You added your own commentary.

You asked mockingly whether there are any Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders in Billings.

I stand before you as a kanakamaoli or a native Hawaiian who lives in billings, and I promise I'm not the only one here.

Your quip about no Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders being in billings had nothing to do with the language of the development.

That question was an intentional choice of words.

Your words.

Upsets me a little bit to hear your language, which is why this is my first ever council meeting attend.

So was the language of ghettoization.

Where you said, and I quote, it seems to me that this strikes me on the face of it to be ghettoization of a project.

Unquote.

If that language appeared to funnel white people into communities, would you you have used that same language?

I doubt it.

Unlikely.

Own your words and sentiments, your shortcomings.

Your statements are racist and ignorant.

And although I did not vote for you, I'm embarrassed that you represent me.

You should understand that communities that are made up of groups other than white people do not create ghettoization.

Diversity is our strength.

White supremacy is one of our greatest weaknesses.

We should remember that embracing diversity empowers our communities and strengthens our shared values.

Instead of going to talk about ghettoization, I think we should talk about ghettoization of politics.

For example, weren't you, Mr.

O'Donnell accused and found to have violated a code of ethics when you were supposed to be serving the people of Montana as a Montana public service commissioner?

Weren't you sanctioned to the greatest amount lawfully available for prohibited use of state resources?

If you're going to talk about ghettoization, it should be of our political system and those willing to break those rules for their own benefit, which damages public trust and accountability.

Suggest that you should patronize our lovely public library and read a book or two.

Do better.

Quick, just as just my conclusion.

At the beginning of the night, you said you would be willing to speak with any constituent who wanted to.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

My name is Jeff Kettleson.

I live in the fourth or fifth ward.

What am I doing?

That's because on July 4th, in there on the front page of the Billing Gazette, there was a there was an article.

And the article was about the uh the baseball team for our high schools.

There's three high schools in our in our city, and they didn't have uh they didn't have a baseball program three years ago.

So a bunch of bunch of people got together and they decided that they made a deal with the uh school district that if they could fund three seasons in a row privately, this the school district would pick up the cost of the program of baseball.

To me, I was absolutely shocked.

Billings, you guys can't afford baseball.

Uh America, America to me is you know, baseball cracker jacks, apple pie, and milk.

But uh that just it just I couldn't believe it.

So I was thinking about it, you know.

Well, really, the the the question is is how did we get there?

Why is it like that?

And I came back to this.

Our tax incumbent financing increment financial districts, downtown, eBird, and suburb.

All of them combined use millions and millions of our tax dollars.

They do it every single year.

Every single year.

They're supposed to give us a turn on investment.

They don't.

The downtown 10 years ago was a low-income district.

They spent millions of millions and millions.

It's still in a low-income district.

The Eber district.

Oh God, what a disaster that is 10 years ago it wasn't in a low-income district.

We spent millions and millions of our dollars.

Dollars that could have gone to that to those kids for baseball.

This is America.

Now the EBERB, 10 years later, after the millions of dollars, it's in a low-income district.

Great return on investment.

Sabera's a little bit better, but not much.

We gave four million dollars of their money to a nonprofit that's not gonna pay us property tax.

Yeah, we got we got we got a nice arena that most of us won't be able to afford to use.

Thanks.

That money could have gone to pay for our baseball.

So, anyways, they're about eighty thousand dollars short.

And they got about till July 20th or August 17th to come up with the money.

Hey, you people out there that took our tax money, pony up.

Further public comment.

Seeing none, we'll close that portion of our hearing and move to council initiatives.

And I think Deputy Mayor Boyet.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I think Wyatt had told us or asked us to to do this some time ago when the state required the uh statutory board, but I don't know how we missed it or we didn't do it.

To me, we're cleaning up something that we should have done.

I think this is pretty self-explanatory if you read it.

Instead of having three statutory boards, we'd have one.

And uh I just think it'd be a better deal.

Especially for the the city, county, and the school districts.

They only have one meeting to go to, and I I like the idea of having it here in City Hall where it can be recorded.

We have our new urban renewal district administrator, which was the TIFF coordinator.

It'll be here as well.

I just think this is uh the way to go.

And we uh if you see I've talked to five, three or four other cities, and they'd already done this.

They'd already made it into one.

So I guess do I make the motion to make the motion?

I make a motion that we move forward with my initiative to consolidate the uh TIFF advisory statutory advisory committee into a consolidated unit.

So Mr.

Second.

Hold on just a second, please.

So are you make you you your motion is that this should come back to the council on uh rather than us just moving forward with this?

Well, I think we need to vote to move this forward.

That's that your motion then is to move it forward, put it on the agenda.

And then it comes back.

Very good.

All right, so we have a second, I think, from Mr.

Aspen later.

Any further discussion regarding that?

Any questions or discussion, Ms.

Shaw?

Uh oh, did you want to speak to okay?

I just had one question which I'd asked um Deputy Mayor Boyette earlier of it.

It doesn't specify in here who's gonna be on that committee, but I obviously that will come back to us.

And it I it's a satisfactory answer.

I just wanted clarity that it it's not specified in here how it's gonna be made up, other than the city, county, and school board representatives, but some thought will have to be put into uh if it's proportional for the districts or how that will work.

Okay, yeah, but but I will support this.

So I would imagine uh city, county, and school districts, there's three to four people, and at least it probably two people from each um original TIFF.

That's plenty.

And I think that would work.

Uh uh one thing I just wanted to say, it was I talked to two different cities, and I thought this was unusual.

They both two cities said they like the idea of having the vote of the community versus one little individual part of the city.

I I and I never brought that up.

They both brought that up that they wanted to get away from me to the word us.

I just thought that was an interesting comment.

Yeah, thank you.

Dr.

Nicholson.

Yeah, I like this idea.

Um one of the things though, I I think the uh this board would need to meet frequently uh so that you know uh proposals don't languish.

Yeah.

Yeah, at least monthly.

And um the other thing is we're gonna have this thing.

We should probably listen to the recommendations, not relitigate every uh proposal that comes along.

Very good, Mr.

Aspen Later.

Yeah, I'm gonna support it mainly because 7 30 was my bedtime and we're six minutes past.

Um I don't think we need to talk about this one very much longer.

Everybody's in general support.

I think it's a good idea.

We screwed this up with the last council when we set this up.

So now this is our opportunity to fix it and and look for some government efficiency.

Which would be wonderful.

All right, anybody else?

So the motion is to hand it off to the city and bring it forward uh to city council for finalization.

Uh all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed council member Aguirre is in uh opposition.

Okay.

All right.

Uh that moves us to the last item on the agenda.

And if there is no objections, we will adjourn.