It's 5 15.

It is October 14th, 2025.

We're in the Tom Baker room of the City County Building.

This will be the Board of City Commissioners meeting, regular meeting.

But before we get started, if I can call Chaplin Carr forward for invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners, again, thank you for the opportunity to serve you in this way.

Let us pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we gather here today with open hearts, seeking your guidance and wisdom in all of the discussions of this city council.

Father, we recognize that in the hustle and the bustle of daily life, it is easy for us to forget and pause and acknowledge your presence among us.

Help us now to take a moment to breathe deeply and invite your Holy Spirit into this meeting.

Father, as we look around this room and we see the diverse group of people that are gathered, we know that there may be discussions and there may be disagreiences.

Father, may your hand be upon everyone who participates tonight.

Also, Father, we pray for your protection upon our city workers, our first responders, and their families.

Watch over them, protect them, provide for them, and be with them.

And we pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.

Please stand and join me in reciting the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

All right.

Uh we'll call a meeting to order if we can call roll.

Commissioner Rish?

Here.

Commissioner Zenker?

Here.

Commissioner Connolly?

Here.

Mayor Schmitz.

Here.

Um first item today is public comment.

Public comment is for items on the consent agenda or the regular agenda that is not a public hearing, or for uh any item on the prior meeting of in September, last the last meeting in September.

So anyone who would wish to speak, please come forward, uh, identify yourself, sign in and tell us which topic you're speaking to, please.

Hello.

Hello.

Sorry, I'm gonna sign in here.

Please.

Mayor, commissioners, thank you so much.

Uh for your service for your time today.

Uh my name is Rosalind Weber.

I'm a resident of uh Bismarck, the city of Bismarck.

Um I had the pleasure of I I'm hoping to speak today about the Backyard Chicken Ordinance.

Um I had the pleasure of serving on the stakeholder committee uh that met numerous times earlier this year and it was actually created at the um at the request of this body.

Um the the stakeholder group had the opportunity to meet numerous times, spent many hours working on a um and drafting an ordinance that uh we believe is very defensible from a public health, public safety, and from a natural resource standpoint as well.

Um, I uh I thoroughly enjoyed working on the the committee and uh one might ask why I was on the committee because I am just a member of the public.

Um but I uh grew up on a farm uh not in North Dakota.

I married a North Dakota boy and moved here and um reluctantly moved into the city at his wishes.

Um and so uh we bought a house in um uh in the city of Bismarck near Sleepy Hollow area.

Um it's a beautiful home.

Uh I think I'm one of the only residents uh potentially outside of the south of Bismarck that has an actual forest in my backyard.

Um it's a pretty remote area, even though I'm right in the middle of this of the city.

Um and nothing uh would please me more than to have you know backyard chickens and keep chickens.

Uh this is an issue that is near and dear to my my heart.

Um I'm uh you know somebody that would love to have chickens, and um this is uh you know truly comes down to a property rights issue.

You know, we really we pay taxes, we're members of very involved in members of the of the community.

Um chickens are a pretty benign issue.

Our neighbors all have dogs.

We don't have dogs because of an allergy.

Um so I can't have dogs or ch or cats, but I can have chickens because there's no chicken allergies.

Although the only thing standing in the way though is the ability to keep chickens.

So that's why I'm here today.

Um, you know, uh so many communities in the state of North Dakota and cities in the state of North Dakota allow for the keeping of chickens, including Mandan, Fargo, West Fargo.

Um I think uh Williston even allows chickens.

So it feels like Bismarck's a little bit behind the times uh here.

So uh, you know, really this is you know, obviously not the the final opportunity to vote on this today, but you know, there were some uh concerns raised um at the planning and zoning commission meeting that were were valid.

And so I I I hope that we have the opportunity uh moving forward to um to allow further discussions and refining of that ordinance to um address some of the concerns that were related um and raised uh planning and zoning, actually.

So um again, I appreciate uh your service and your time and um thank you, and hopefully you'll support uh Backyard Chickens ordinance moving it forward.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

My name's Robert Shield, mayor, commissioners.

I usually have a barrage of things I want to bring up, but uh on the chicken issue, I personally have chickens, but I'm out in the ETA, you know, the cursed ETA that we always argue about.

So I don't think it would hurt anybody in this town if somebody had four chickens next door.

It's been blown out of proportion, everybody gets all excited about it.

Most people that do get chickens probably won't have them in six months, because there actually are a certain amount of work.

They don't just live on their own in free range in the yard.

But being the ETA was just brought up by me.

If things can't get resolved to go with the map that you guys presented, I think you guys should allow us to vote.

Because if you're gonna have power over controlling our land, we at least should have the ability to vote for who's controlling us.

And I don't know how that ever got passed that we don't have the right to vote.

Does anybody have an answer for that?

Commissioner Zinker.

Yeah, I can do that.

Uh because I checked into it.

Um first of all, it's not our option to allow people to vote or not vote for us.

That's all that's all done with the state of North Dakota.

They set the guidelines.

In fact, I asked our city attorney to check into it for us at one after after one of our uh commission meetings with Burley County.

And they just to confirm what I what I had thought, and they confer they set the the parameters of who can vote for who in elections.

Now there were two times that it came up to the state.

One time the uh the bill didn't make it out of committee because I I called one of our local legislators and asked for a history lesson.

Um one time it didn't make it out of committee, the other time it made it um through the Senate.

Once it got to the floor, it was voted down in the Senate.

Me personally, I don't have a problem if people in the ETA vote for me or not.

And if we had an option to do that at this board, I don't see a reason why we wouldn't allow it.

It's not our decision, it's not the county's decision, it's a state's decision because that's a state law.

And we can you can have that conversation about whether it's constitutional or not and those types of things, and they're all valid concerns, but to be able to get that to change, it has to go to the state, have them change it, have the governor sign it, and then we can move on.

So I and I'm I'm with you.

I mean, it doesn't again, it doesn't matter to me.

But that's that's the parameters that have been set.

And we all take oaths that we gotta uphold the state constitution, and that's in there.

Whether we like it or not, it's it's in there.

And there's a ways to change it.

Um you just gotta go through the process.

So we would have to go to the legislature.

Yes, sir.

Yep.

Wow.

That was a good job passing that law.

You'd have to go back in the history and find those people that did that.

So I can't.

Yeah, most of them are probably dead.

Well, there's a chance.

Yeah.

Hopefully.

So I hope you guys can reach an agreement because then you wouldn't have to see me here all the time because I would be out of the ETA.

Because I'm right on the edge.

But there is some other people that are right on the edge that don't want to be in the ETA.

And thinking about what was said last at the last meeting, you guys said you didn't want to really give up anything north or east.

You know, it came to mind, even though it's not ETA.

If somebody owns 40 acres there, it doesn't mean they aren't going to, you know, it doesn't change whether or not they're going to sell that to a developer, whether it's in the ETA or not.

So by you guys holding the reins on what people can do out there, it doesn't change whether or not they're going to sell it.

So you really aren't controlling it at all.

Because they could sell it to whoever they want to.

So you know you can't decide, well, that's proposal is gonna say there's a development going there.

They may never sell the property.

They may make it a land family land trust.

So I mean, just to hold it in the ETA doesn't mean continued growth.

Noted.

Commissioner Conley.

Let me add some context, and I appreciate Commissioner Zenker for what he said and what it is true when it comes to the state.

Um I've talked to a couple of the legislators on that committee.

And um when it comes to, say, with the way it stands now, we're talking I heard the term up to 12,000 people.

That's a lot of people, and that can sway an election.

There's a lot of things that don't impact people in the ETA that impact city proper.

And that so that becomes an interesting conversation in and of itself.

If the current map proposal as we're negotiating it to be were to come to fruition, um if it's five percent, that's not a lot to where it would sway that marker one way or another.

And then writing a bill saying basically um say if the legislature were to approve it and things, that local entities could draw their boundaries accordingly.

And like Bismarck um the school districts do, they have both county citizens that are voting and city citizens based on their jurisdictions.

That might be a different conversation.

So the Fargo's can be Fargo's and the Bismarcks can be Bismarck's.

And I'm will I've mentioned it more than one time, I'm willing to write that.

I've written a couple already that have gone to a vote at the state level.

It's just a matter of this is the biggest swing on this conversation in arguably three, four decades.

So it would be important for us all to be grown up enough to move that needle, and this is a big swing, so that we can have those conversations and continue no sh negotiations going into the future.

Yeah, and and one more issue.

Um I think everybody should take the homeless crisis in this town seriously.

The when you go to the parks, all you see is those little alcohol bottles thrown everywhere.

And I know we don't need to pay city workers to pick them up, and I'm sure you aren't gonna change their habits.

But why can't you pass an ordinance getting rid of those tiny bottles that are strewed everywhere?

At least if they're carrying around a quart bottle of whiskey, the cop has a chance to see it.

He ain't gonna see that little bottle that's in his pocket, and then he throws it on the ground.

And just go walk around the parks.

I mean, every park, even right next to Myri, is full.

So I I appreciate your comments, but that's not on our agenda tonight, and it's not on the prior agenda, so let's just try to stay to the topic.

That's as far as I was going.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate the comments, but all right.

This is public comment.

Anyone wish to speak, please come forward.

Good evening, Mayor Schmitz and Commissioners.

Uh my name is Heidi Sherato, and my r I am a resident of the ETA of Bismarck.

I submitted my comments and notes to you earlier via email.

The only thing I would like to add is that it just seems like this issue of the ETA is trying to be pushed so quickly through.

I know it's been ongoing conversations prior, but with this deadline of the end of October, I just don't feel like that's a realistic date, considering how of an important topic it is to so many people.

Um so I just hope and I'm asking you just to continue to have open con conversations and discussions with the county and be open to some of their ideas and working with them, because so far I really have gotten a sense that it's either your way or no way, and you know, sever a relationship, and I don't think that's gonna gain anybody anything.

Um if the county, I understand the ETA residents can't vote, but if the county, if the ETA residents, excuse me, felt like there was a good working relationship between the county and the city on this topic, and some of the ordinances can come into line and mirror each other more.

I think you would get a lot more support of ETA residents on this issue.

So I appreciate you.

Thanks.

Thank you for comments.

Did you sign in?

I'm sorry, I didn't.

I wasn't okay.

Thank you.

Public comment is open.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Seeing no one and hearing no one, public comment period is now closed.

Commissioners, what are your wishes for the consent agenda?

Commissioner Zenker.

Uh Mayor Commissioners, so I just want to confirm item D1 and D2.

Um it did not say in the uh in our agenda packet that's it says staff recommends approval of the transfer.

Is there a is there a public hearing at the next meeting for that?

I think that was I thought that was the intention, but you're right.

I don't recall seeing it in the memo.

So we should clarify that this is a call for the public hearing.

So that is so I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda with uh notice of a call for a public hearing for items D1 and D2 that were not listed in our packet.

And they'll be advertised in the Tribune this coming Saturday and the following Saturday.

Thank you for the public hearing.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

Hearing general call roll.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Vish?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes, and thank you, Commissioner Zenker, for clarifying that because I I totally missed it as I read through it.

Because that that was the that should have been the intention.

All right.

Moving to regular agenda item A, consider request receive an update on the Bismarck Arts and Cultural Master Master Plan.

And Lauren Uh Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Thank you for having me here tonight to speak on this issue.

I'm uh I will be providing a brief overview of the Arts and Culture Master Plan draft, and we'll ask for any final input from this commission that you may have on it.

Um thank you.

Uh so uh just a little bit of background.

The Arts and Culture Master Plan aims to develop a community-driven vision for the role that arts and culture plays in the community to achieve this initiative.

The City of Bismarck partnered with Dakota West Arts Council, Bismarck Parks and Recreation District, and Bismarck Public Schools.

Um we also contracted with designing local, a nationally recognized firm specially specializing in arts and culture planning to help with the community engagement as well as the plans creation.

Um I believe one of our consultants, Jasmine uh Metcalf is online to help answer any questions at the end of this presentation.

Um so uh I'll just give a quick overview.

There's five chapters uh within the plan.

Um the plan's roughly 70 or so pages.

Uh the first chapter starts with explaining how the process to create the plan came about, and the last portion of that plan finishes with an action plan that supports the implementation of plan recommendations.

Um as you can see on the screen here, these are the five uh chapters included within that plan.

Um I'll just go about uh explaining some of those chapters.

Um so in 2022, the City of Bismarck was awarded the an R Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to create an arts and culture master plan for Bismarck.

Uh the effort to create this plan stemmed from several factors, including the city's 2019 strategic plan, um, objective to create a vibrant local art community.

Uh additionally, there were a series of community arts conversations among artists, performers, cultural bearers, and arts administrators in 2022, as well as the creation of Bismarck's Together 2045 comprehensive plan in 2022, which included several goals related to arts and culture.

Um this chapter chapter describes what an arts and culture plan is and what it should do for a community, as well as identifying our project partners, um, which are included on the screen here.

Um so as part of the creation of this plan, we had multiple opportunities to engage with uh members of Bismarck to gauge their thoughts for the role arts and culture plays in Bismarck.

So this included um 23 one-on-one stakeholder conversations with representatives from the arts and culture organizations, city government, um, public schools, uh the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District, small businesses, and economic development organizations as well as local artists.

Part of the engagement also included six focus groups, a non-scientific online survey, as well as a public workshop.

So from those engagement opportunities, several reoccurring themes emerge from that.

These are included on the right side of the screen here, and I'll just uh read them out for you.

So opportunities for arts and culture, barriers to experiencing the arts, cultural programming opportunities, as well as desires for plan outcomes.

So those four uh reoccurring uh themes were then compiled into a series of values that would be used to guide the development of the plan recommendations, um, and those are included on the right hand side of the screen there.

So uh the third chapter um is uh it's a comparison of our peer cities, and it this is included to help gauge the relative success of Bismarck's uh arts and culture efforts related to those specific cities.

It highlights um arts economic impact data from the arts and economic prosperity six report from Americans for the arts for each of those peer cities where data was collected for them.

Um additionally, it notes which cities have current policies, um commissions, or funding mechanisms in place that support the arts and culture sectors in their communities.

So the fourth chapter provides an introduction uh to various ways that arts can present themselves for the community.

It highlights multiple examples under four main areas, um visual arts, public arts, performing arts, and literary arts, and those examples could be utilized uh to support some of those uh strategies that are included within the action plan.

Um the last chapter provides uh multiple strategies within an action plan to help implement the overarching plan recommendations.

Uh they're laid out in a now soon next framework with the various years noted for each of them.

Um, and that provides a flexible um yet strategic timeline that prioritizes projects and foundational program elements so that future investments can best leverage the momentum and increase capacity built through those prior phases.

Um this chapter also notes some potential funding opportunities for arts and culture and highlights some arts activation and discover discovery opportunities that can be used for some of those strategies called out within the plan.

Um so there are some strategies uh called out in this chapter that I just want to bring the commission's attention to as they may be uh next items to work towards if the plan is adopted in the future by the city commission.

Um that would be uh strategy 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.

So uh 1.1 is to adopt the public art policy.

Um there will be a um draft language uh public art policy that can be reworked in the future if this plan is adopted.

And what that would do, um it would likely be the next step for expanding and supporting Bismarck's arts and culture offerings for the community.

Um it would provide clear processes and guidance for um staff uh for selecting commissioning, placing, and maintaining art for both city staff and community members.

Uh the other two uh which are consider the dedication of staffing to support arts and culture programming as well as formally assessing or assessioning the public art collection would uh further support that policy effort and uh provide that basis for further strategies to build off of those recommended strategies and the action plan are meant to provide uh decision makers such as yourselves with clear goals and objectives for implementation in order to best follow through on uh your commitment for creating and maintaining a vibrant local arts community.

At this time, I'll ask for any questions that you may have for me or final input on the plan that you may have.

Commissioners, Commissioner Rish.

Oh, Mr.

Mayor Lauren.

Um good job, by the way.

But I was looking at the various cities here, and there's two of them doesn't have the economic impact.

Is that because the data is just not tracked in what is the grand forks and buildings?

Uh great uh question, Commissioner Rish.

That is correct.

So that report, the there's a little uh when within the actual plan it calls out a specific report that's provided by the Americans for the arts.

For those cities they they just didn't include data to that group for that report and so it's not able to be fully compared in that sense.

Thank you.

Other comments Commissioners you need do you need approval to move forward?

At this time uh we're going to both the city commission as well as our other uh partners boards and commissions um to gauge any final input however this will be back to you within the next uh meeting or so um for final adoption okay then perfect that thank you Lauren for your presentation moving to item B the ETA discussion and I guess I'll because I attended the meeting last week and Daniel's here with some additional information but um during during that meeting uh with our joint committees meeting we presented to the county and all those present the map that we had it was generally the same map that we had discussed at the joint committee joint media both commissions um that this that the uh city was proposing there were some minor adjustments to that I think Daniels that that's this map here correct that's showing on the screen correct maybe with the minor adjustments in go ahead commissioner mayor commission what were the minor adjustments Daniel can you kind of describe there were kind of some edge edge tweaks I believe correct uh mayor commissioners so so there are minor adjustments and there may still be minor adjustments um as the map goes forward uh the the primary one there was a little bit of confusion along the river um just because of the way the lines were drawn on our map it it appeared as if we were giving to the county the responsibility of managing the floodway and floodplain along the Missouri River even inside of city limits that was not intentional and so we did change the map to make to make that clear um and then there were there was one change with a rural residential subdivision that uh was previously shown Astor Ridge is a name that was previously shown as uh inside of the ETA but like most other RR zoned areas we we moved it out but those are the only two changes.

Okay.

So then this was presented and then the county presented their proposal which was corporate limits of the city at which time I said that's not an acceptable item we need an ETA for the city to be able to manage its growth and um was pretty much left at that then there was a concept thrown out of a regional planning and zoning committee which by law would state that there's five members of that however you define it in the city would only have two members never mind we'd have the largest land not the largest land but the largest population out of the five and the other three would effectively be from the county which in my mind does not make a lot of sense for planning and zoning within the city of Bismarck.

So one thing I did ask Daniel to do and I don't know if Daniel I don't know which order you've got these maps in but I asked him could because this particular map includes some portions of an ETA that would be outside the two mile radius of the corporate limits.

So I said Daniel can you present a map or prepare a map that would be an ETA that was just two miles meet the two mile boundary and the purpose for that is then we eliminate the need for any joint jurisdiction and the and it would eliminate some parcels.

Now there is some confusion potentially as to you know we may have some kind of flags so to speak or flag posts of developments that have been annexed into the city that are kind of outside of the general corporate boundaries and so they may not actually count within the two mile radius.

And so and that's fine I don't care about that but I wanted to get a sense as to what would happen and what other parcels might be eliminated from the ETA with knowing that we have heard the concerns from the residents in the ETA that they don't like being regulated by the city and how many homes and parcels can we remove and look in general to be you know where is the land that we are most likely going to develop in the next 25 to 50 years.

Whether that happens or not don't know because frankly the developer or the landowner has to ask to want to develop they could sell it to somebody else who never wants to develop the land so as you can see if we flip flip back and forth there's not much change we keep generally our corridor with the one exception of going north along kind of 83 which might be a little bit concerning but we could do that.

We keep generally our corridor, with the one exception of going north along kind of 83, which might be a little bit concerning, but we could do that.

So the question we I would have to all of us here at the table uh for our discussion is what steps do we wish to take.

We can choose to say commission we've presented you a map that is very reasonable.

This is kind of what we feel needs to be negotiated, and it's the one we've already shown them.

Or if we want to try to pull in and just try to avoid some constant ongoing battles, I suppose would be the term.

Um we could withdraw from the joint powers agreement and then come up with a map that looks maybe closer to the two mile radius map and just avoid joint jurisdiction.

So I I'm you know, I I think we're trying to accommodate what we've heard from the residents in the ETA as best we can.

We're not going to eliminate a hundred percent of the residents that are in the ETA, but we're probably at two miles, we're under five percent of what was there before.

So that's kind of the background that came out of that meeting and that I wanted on this table.

I had mentioned to Commissioner Bach and back in the first part of September.

It would be lovely if we could get this done earlier than later with a targeted like the end of October, because I thought actually the map that was presented, and there were two commissioners that seemed to think at the Burley County that it was a reasonable map that we could actually get a deal done.

So I don't feel that we're there right now.

In fact, I feel like we're further away when we start with a corporate limits for the ETA.

I think we went backwards between our in our negotiations.

So I Commissioner Risch.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you for your work on this.

And I thought the offer was awful generous.

The 95% of the homes, 45% of the land value or land mass, I think that was incredible.

But uh one of the people that testified here earlier mentioned, I think her name is Heidi, that uh she didn't think the county had much participation in drafting the map.

And I so give us your perspective on the I think I can ask Daniel to come forward.

I would bet he will say that there was an offer to speak with the county planning staff on more than one occasion.

Sure, mayor commissioners.

We did, we we met with um both the building official and planner uh Mitch Flanagan and also the highway department on a couple of occasions.

Uh and so you know, of course, they they needed to go to their board uh to get direction for how to uh respond, and and they did, and um and right now at least uh the map that they provided provided to us at the city limits is their is their counter offer.

So it's not that the offer wasn't extended, and I wouldn't want to call on anybody, but I know there's at least one of them in the crowd, and I'm hoping he concurs that they were at least reached out to.

And he's shaking his head, so I take that as a concurrence.

Commissioner Zinker.

So I think that's the there's two things.

One, I'm just gonna I'm gonna get discuss this from this perspective is um when they get told from their board that take the gloves off, those types of condescending things, that that doesn't provide a teamwork atmosphere to their staff.

And that is not not anything to do with their staff, that is their bosses telling them what to do.

So I appreciate the fact that they acknowledge that.

But then on the other hand, we have meetings together and you get you hear comments from the county that, hey, we want to work with you, we want to do this.

But I don't see I don't see that coming back.

You know, um, I I will I will um uh show tell Danny did a great job coming coming back with some type of map that was that was workable.

I mean, if we were stubborn about this and we said, no, you know, pack your bags, get out, we're taking four miles outside the ETA, that would have been done and and managed for years, decades before it got here.

So I I think I mean I don't have a problem working with them and trying to come up with an idea, but it but it has to be a visionary idea.

And currently at the board at Burley County, I don't see a lot of vision.

I don't see them planning for the future.

You know, and and and here's a prime example.

Um they're poor as much money as we put in engineering so we can maintain roads and do those types of things, their poor engineering department gets cut from budget year after year after year.

So, what vision is that to make sure that you're providing safe standard roads for county residents to drive on more than not more than city guys going out there and hunting.

You know, that's your primary focus.

And if you don't have a vision just to take care of your basic needs of what you got, so then how do you have a vision to help the city grow so that so the entire community can blossom?

How do you make the whole thing vibrant when you got a board who's just known up excuse me, no, no, no, no, no, but yes yet wants to work with you.

At their last meeting, they they cut the partnership with the city parks.

That's not a that's not a visionary thing.

That's it just doesn't make any sense.

So unfortunately, um, and I've had a couple conversations.

In fact, I talked to Commissioner Munson today, you know, he he would advocate for instead of going out to the 50 year thing, we just start at the 20s go to 25 and call it good.

And uh if we were working together as boards and and not making our staves um both Burley and city staffs kind of butt heads a little bit because we give them those instructions, fine, but it's not happening that way.

There's there I don't I don't see that Burley County board.

I think there's there's more gamesmanship and willing to work together from a staff perspective than it is the elected per perspective.

And that's the sad thing, because that means that all residents are caught in the in the middle of this little power struggle, I'll call it.

So I'm I'm happy with the options that are out there.

If we need a few minor tweaks to it, we can do that.

Um but until I see some visionary type decisions made from uh Burley County, I would suggest that we go with the original map that that Daniel had with those minor adjustments that you had.

So do you want to put that back to the county commission for next for Monday to accept that as what our offered negotiated ETA is, or do we wish to potentially exit the joint powers agreement?

I I mean I'm asking a question because I don't know what a good answer is.

And that's a val that's a very valid question, right?

Because next year some of the seats are gonna change on both boards.

Yep.

So maybe we just got it, it's a it's a 15-round boxing match, and we just got to get to two more elections and it'll change type thing.

I don't I don't know.

That's a great question.

I don't know if we need to exit out of the out of the uh joint powers agreement, but I mean there is that that scenario where we can say, hey, either either take this or leave it, right?

Because there's really three options.

The four mile, which we already don't have, status quool what we have today, or you take the new map and leave it.

And then that's and I would completely agree with that assessment.

And and so the So I think we should so I didn't answer your question, did I?

Well, I mean it could do that.

Commissioner, it could be kind of both answers.

You could be saying, here's the map, and if you choose not to accept it, then we we're left with no alternative but to withdraw from the joint powers agreement.

So I would I I would be I would be okay with the two changes that that uh Daniel brought up.

Um I don't remember what he said, and um, but the rural residential, the the new modified map.

Yep.

Um there may be an option for them where they have the um Burley County where they they have the 4 H building and that kind of stuff, where they might not want that in the ETA.

I would be amendable to that too, just because it's their area, they're gonna take care of it, they're gonna do they're gonna want to do their own thing.

Um so I'd be I would be fine with that.

So I'll I'll make a motion to send it back to the county with the two uh adjustments that um Daniel made along with the couple minor minor modifications, and then that's the final final.

And then if they don't accept it, what is our next step?

I think we need to do that.

We can have that we can have that discussion if whether they do or don't.

Wait till the next okay.

I just wanted can I add to that?

Yes, yes, I knew you had your hand up, so I'm gonna get back to commissioner.

Yeah, yeah.

Um well I can second for discussion, we can go from there.

Um what I would uh like to add with it is is can we take the uh three people that asked um to be removed from the ETA along TG Lane TJ Lane?

Um can we take them out and let them go back to the county?

Um I also got calls along from people along um Calvary Drive.

Um and I know that has some impacts from the airport side of things.

They currently have wells on that east side.

Um the water is not great.

It kind of has an odorist to it.

And it's um really that decision between if it's annexed um then it's city services, but or rural water um for a different discussion.

And is it possible that allowing it to go to the ETA on the west side of the right-of-way of that Calvary drive?

That's up for discussion.

I don't know.

Sure, Commissioner.

And we could probably have Daniel come up to speak to some of these maps.

And just to extend it that's why I said minor minor.

Yep.

You know, if there's somebody and those that someone today might not want it, just like the mayor said earlier, and Mr.

Field said the same thing.

Someone could sell it in 50 years and then all of a sudden they're 40 years and and hey, they want to annex to the city.

So yeah, I don't have a problem with that.

I'm just trying to get my visual now for the specifically the question that Commissioner Connolly brought up on the TJ Lane one, because it one of those persons is here tonight.

And I I know I had you look at some things and how that could actually work.

And I think that's an easy adjustment if I'm not mistaken.

Sure.

Mayor Commissioners that that's correct.

Yeah, the the areas are on TG Lane are up here and they're really sort of on the borderline, so that that can be adjusted without impacting the map too much.

I I will remind you, yeah, the map is calibrated at the 50-year kind of growth horizon.

So we do calculate projections and then try to make sure we have enough area for that.

So but those changes won't affect that much.

Um the the Missouri River Fairgrounds, I heard that brought up.

Uh the county does own that property where the 4 H is that inside of city limits, so that one we really can't change unless you're short of de-annexation.

Maybe we can change that.

However, they own the land, so of course they hold the cars and how that gets developed as the property owner.

Um the other area that I Commissioner Conley was bringing up, Apple Creek Industrial Park, uh just sort of northeast of the airport.

You know, that that is currently outside of City Limits, it is industrially zoned.

Uh now there are others who know more than this than I do.

So it might need more study.

But I know recently changes to the floodplain, the FEMA floodplain have really brought that some of those areas out of the flood way and made them much more easy to develop, much more easy to annex, much more easy to bring in city services.

So there might need to be a broader discussion about that area.

There is city water currently on Morrison and Yegan, so on the corner and sewer there as well.

So uh that that is probably worth a discussion on on how that could be urbanized in the future if possible.

Um I'd I'd recommend that before making any major changes in that particular area.

Commissioner Conley.

Um I talked with um Greg a little bit about it too.

And um Greg, could you come up and kind of explain some of the things you were explaining to me?

So we have it out there where people can reference it.

Mayor Commissioners, yeah.

Commissioner Conley came up to me before the meeting and just asked a few questions about uh the approach area off in that northeast uh uh quadrant of the airport uh as if uh aircraft is coming in from the northeast to come into land to the uh on our crosswind runway there.

And I guess we we have airport zoning uh ordinances uh that go along with the city's uh zoning ordinances.

Uh we're required to protect our approach zones as as much as we can uh to protect the investment that we have in the airport.

Um so we enjoy uh working with uh the planning and zoning department um a number of different issues that come up.

You know, we're certainly concerned about height of buildings, uh whether they if they're an industrial uh uh processor and they produce a bunch of smoke or they have reflective things, you know, maybe a like a solar farm or that kind of thing, reflections, um electromagnetic interference.

Uh there's a whole host of different things that can cause us problems operating the airport for the pilots coming and going.

So, you know, we we encourage you to hang on to uh those pieces and parts that are left in around the edges of the airport uh so that we have a little bit more protection.

We we've got a huge vested interest in hanging on to those uh edges uh and being able to utilize the planning and zoning rules and ordinances that we have available to us to protect that to protect the airport to protect the operations.

Okay.

So the way that this sits right now, that would be the that's what the ETA is there around that as for hell's protection.

And we've had a number of different discussions uh and over by Lincoln as Lincoln has grown so much in all different directions.

Uh we've had a number of discussions over the past uh uh about some of those developments uh in that area.

And uh, you know, we certainly don't want to keep uh areas from developing, but we want to make sure that the that the development that goes in there is appropriate for you know keeping uh the airport uh approaches uh safe and secure.

That doesn't mean we couldn't still address the water issue some other way.

Oh, and the water that's a whole nother thing, yeah.

Whether that's an ETA or not.

Yeah, yeah.

So that could be just a different topic to address that particular issue for those particular property owners, I think.

So okay, thank you.

Yep.

Okay, so we have a motion in a second.

My only concern with not having kind of an end game, but we as long as we're comfortable that we bring it back at the our next commission meeting, if they don't accept, I'm fine with that.

I just like we got to get to an end game because we need to get some resolution here.

And if and if we end up exiting the joint powers agreement, it's a six-month notice, and we have to go through some public hearings because we'll have to define uh what our ETA would look like.

And so I mean, I just think the clock continues to roll and we create with and with ambiguity out there, and so that's my only concern about not kind of putting some actual hard date to it.

Commissioner Calmly.

Mayor, Commissioners, uh do we need to amend then in order to remove the three from TJ Lane as uh okay.

I think we're just gonna give direction to Daniel to for the map.

Okay.

And then the other thing um when the whole discussion uh came about, I talked to um Senator Dever, he heads the committee that has um had these discussions at the ETA.

And he mentioned that it out of the thousand plus bills, it was one of the most difficult conversations they've had.

And the conversation has just been reoccurring with very little moving of the needle on the conversation.

And this would be a substantial change.

It's uh I've heard it from several people, both in the county and the community, that this is the biggest swing at making a change and getting a little uh a lot closer to right the question of regulation or without representation.

We can tweak things and we can adjust things uh going down the road.

But I say uh we um go forward with taking um what we've worked on so far and then improve on it from there, both at the state and local level.

Any fruit commissioner?

I just have a question.

So if we um they say no next week, Monday or whatever it is, and we say okay, that's the done deal, we'll implement this map.

Do we have to eliminate the joint powers agreement?

Yep.

We'd have to do it now.

We have to.

Well, that prolongs things.

Yep.

I mean, it's it would be best if they would accept our map from a negotiated because it could be implemented November 1.

And one last thing with it too is that um I mean, if it goes a little longer, November, even the December 16th meeting, getting into next year gets difficult because like Commissioner Zenker mentioned, uh the both our commissions might change into next year.

And once the election cycle goes, the conversations sometimes go into rabbit holes that are uncomfortable for everybody.

And including the citizens.

They're in a difficult position because it's hard to keep up on things.

Okay.

So again, as long as as long as we're committed to depending on if their answer comes back, no that we're gonna address the at the next meeting.

I'm okay with that.

Otherwise, I would like to just have a date because I just think we're gonna otherwise continue to drag it on.

Commissioner Zinker.

If I could just add to that too.

So I just I just want to reiterate that we don't force annexation to anybody.

They they apply to be annexed to the city to get water, sewer or whatever urbanized scenario that they want to do.

So um if your lands in the ETA, all we're asking is that that we have an opportunity to provide some guidance, some vision as to what that could look like.

And if you don't ask to do things, that's fine too.

I mean, it's it's not it's it's up to the landowner to do that, not for the city.

I've I've heard a couple of comments about how come you don't develop this part and this part and that part.

It's like, well, we don't own the land.

They the landowners own the land.

If they don't want it annexed to the city, that's their decision, not ours.

So I'm sure it would be really easy just to have one jigsaw puzzle and you start from the bottom and you keep working up or to east or west, it doesn't happen that way.

No.

That's why we have some donut holes and things like that.

So thank you.

Is there any other discussion?

Daniel.

Mayor Commissioners, if I may if I may just add one comment on the timeline.

So so once the final decision is made on the map, um, which you wish to do with or without a joint powers agreement, uh there there is a little bit of time that will be needed on both ends to just make the legislative changes.

We'll we'll need to change the ordinance in a couple of ways in our plans and in some of our processes.

Uh we would recommend doing these changes in the winter rather than the summer, just because in the summer we have a lot of things in process that would have to jump from one to the other.

Uh so that that's the one thing.

Uh, but it it could take a few months, so just want to make sure you're aware of that.

But when I said no, like we could have the deal, and then we could move forward with whatever changes are necessary.

But if we have if we drag it out because we have to exit, then we're we're gonna be working on the map during the winter months no matter what, as we go through the hearings.

But so any further discussion.

Um not we'll call roll.

Commissioner Connolly.

Yes.

Commissioner Rish.

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

And one thing I would like to add, and this is related to the ATA, but it's not part of the motion.

But I would like to have Daniel and his team work on the zoning ordinance change for the accessory buildings in the ATA to match the county's current zoning, like ASAP.

Like, and I think you're gonna plan on talking about it at the PNZ meeting next week, but just so that everybody knows like we're gonna move on that already.

It's already in the work, it's in the works.

So thank you for the discussion.

Item C application for a new F1 restaurant alcohol um license for fifth underground events.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak to this topic, please come forward?

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Seeing or hearing anyone, the public comment period is closed.

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing no call roll.

Commissioner Rish.

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Next item D.

Uh public continued public hearing on ordinance 6635, annexation of part of lot one, block two, northern sky, second edition.

Daniel.

Good evening, just let me uh pull up my slides here.

We had a bet last time.

Oh, is Landon here for oh, okay.

We'll see what he says.

Okay.

Um Mayor Commissioners, this is a uh familiar to you by this point.

Uh William Wilmant Development LLC is requesting approval of an annexation of the eastern portion of lot one block two and northern sky second edition first replat.

Uh so we did uh this is an annexation.

The area is shown on the map on your screen.

Uh City of Bismarck staff did find that the proposed annexation would not adversely impact the public health safety and welfare, and we did recommend approval.

Uh and that is in your staff report.

If you'd like more details on that, the planning and zoning commission considered this request during their June 25th uh regular meeting, and they recommended approval.

Uh so you've opened this hearing before, and it's it's been a continued a couple of times at the request of the applicant.

So here we are again, and uh the hearing continues.

Uh and if you so wish this would be the final hearing on the annexation um for the lot one, block two, northern sky, second edition, first reply.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions for Daniel?

No.

The public hearing is reopened.

Who wishes to speak?

Please come forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Lennon Admirals once again.

Engineering representing Wilman Development Office.

Uh thanks for Daniel.

I know most of you were not familiar with this project in any way, so that was good to get that out there.

We have had movement.

Unfortunately, we've had movement in the wrong direction.

So tonight we're actually asking that the request be removed or denied, whichever is making your lives easier.

I think we have the demand logistically, don't we?

Motion to deny.

Okay.

Well, we got to finish closing.

I got to public hearing for anybody want to talk and keep it open.

You poor bugger.

We'll uh close the public hearing.

Commissioners.

Motion to deny.

It's probably the first time we've ever been.

Any discussion?

Hearing on call roll.

Commissioner Rish.

Here.

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker.

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Next item.

Forgot the right one here.

Uh item F.

Public hearing and ordinance 6641 annexation of all of Elk Ridge fourth edition.

Daniel.

Good evening, Commissioners.

There are three annexation hearings this evening.

So this is the second of three.

This one is actually the City of Bismarck as the petitioner requesting approval of an annexation of the portion of the dedicated East Entry Avenue right of way adjacent to lot 24 block 7 and lot 1 block 8 of Santler Sunrise, 6th edition, as well as a dedicated rights of way of East Century Avenue and 52nd Street Northeast as described in the right-of-way plat recorded as documents number 974737.

The map is here shown on your screen.

This is the extension of East Century Avenue.

This project is underway.

So uh staff is recommending approval of this annexation of the area I I mentioned.

I can answer any questions you may have.

Any questions?

Just clear I'll have to clarify because I I got one item ahead.

I did say this is actually E, and it's um I apologize.

But you described it and love the public hearing for 6640, which is the right of way.

Anyone wish to speak, please come forward.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Public comment period is now closed.

Commissioners, what are your wishes for 6640?

I'll move we approve the ordinance 6640.

Presented.

Any discussion.

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Zenker.

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Now we're to item 6641, the annexation of all of Elk Ridge 4th edition.

Okay, Mayor and Commissioners.

Section 18 Land LLC is requesting approval of the annexation, as you mentioned of all of Elk Ridge 4th edition.

The area is as seen in your screen, just north of the Parliamentary Point development and west of Elk Ridge development.

Elk Ridge 4th edition has already been approved by this body.

So the annexation was kind of following that a little bit, but would not take effect until Elkridge 4th edition is recorded.

That is still going through the process of recordation at this point, and so we would just hold this annexation until that point.

So we the public is duly notified of this hearing through the Bismarck Tribune as well as letters to the township and county.

So based on the findings in your staff report, staff is recommending approval.

Planning zoning commission is recommending approval as well of Elk Ridge fourth edition annexation.

Any questions?

Thank you, Daniel.

Is a public hearing?

Anyone wish to speak, please come forward.

Thank you.

No, no, we're gonna we're gonna get something approved one of these times, and tonight is our that is our request.

Uh Daniel mentioned the other the plating and the zoning have already gone through the process, just came in a little bit late on the on the annexation, but hopefully we can start construction when uh when spring comes.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is public comment.

Anyone wish to speak, please come forward.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Hearing and seeing no one, the public comment period is now closed.

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Move to approve is presented.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Next item, health and safety assessments.

This is a public hearing for those assessments.

Anyone who wish to speak regarding those assessments to be assessed, uh please come forward.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Public comment period is now closed.

Commissioners, what are your wishes with regard to the 2025 health safety health and safety assessments?

Move to approve is presented.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Mayor Smith.

Yes.

Next item is a public hearing on the confirmation of the 2025 special assessment districts as amended.

And this is a public hearing for those.

So anyone who wish to speak regarding those public those special assessments, please come forward.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Hearing and seeing no one coming forward.

Second.

Any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Rish.

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Next item is item I consider request to pursue North Dakota Department of Transportation's highway safety improvement program funding.

Mayor and Commissioners.

Chris Holzer, Bismarck Traffic Engineer.

I met some of you before, but not all of you.

Gabe is at a conference tonight, so he asked me to present for you guys.

Thank you, Chris.

Different buttons in my computer.

Almost there.

I learned after the fact we can submit things to have them prepared ahead of time.

I wasn't aware of that.

Sorry.

All right, our first one, uh highway safety improvement program.

Uh NDDOT, uh, North Dakota Department of Transportation is soliciting for safety projects.

Uh they do that each year.

Um and this year we're looking at applying for four different locations.

Uh we'll start at the top of the map and work our way down.

Uh the first location is near Century High School, uh crossing Century Avenue to get to Gateway Mall.

Presently there is a crosswalk and signs there, and we would like to add the rectangular rapid flashing beacons.

Uh they look like strobe lights, and then also add uh a sign and strobe lights in the median in that area.

Got a picture here.

Um the top one is the existing conditions uh looking east from century or on Century Avenue, and then we would add in the median.

We would add another sign and a push button similar to the bottom figure, which is from Bismarck Expressway down uh west of third street.

Then our next location.

Location number two is Washington Street and Avenue B.

Um this is a busy north-south corridor.

Uh we'd like to replace the existing ball flashing beacons with the strobe light style beacons and then add signs on the back side also to add extra visibility.

Uh location number three is on Riverside Park Road.

Uh fun fact, I always thought this was River Road, but south of Memorial Highway.

The name changes from River Road to Riverside Park Road.

Um this used to be a flashing beacon system, but last year uh there were malfunctions and public works wasn't able to keep it running.

Um it's presently just static signs at that location.

Uh we would like to install uh the remove that mast arm and install the post-mounted rectangular rapid flashing beacons, uh double-sided so they're visible from both directions.

And then the last safety location uh is down at Airport Road and Lee Avenue.

Uh last year the MPO did a safe routes to services study, and during one of the field trips, uh we went to the Dream Center, and supposedly there's people walking from the Dream Center to the South Walmart, and there's not many sidewalks or crosswalks in that area.

Uh we're not exactly sure what we want to do yet.

We're uh we haven't done the cost estimates yet, but we're looking at uh post-mounted signs and flashing beacons uh with a median in the middle of the road, or possibly uh overhead mast arm uh like that bottom picture, similar to South Washington Street down by Solheim.

So went through those pretty quick.

I can elaborate if you wish, or uh listen to your wishes.

Commissioners, any questions?

No.

What are your wishes?

Move to approve is presented.

Second.

Any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Vis?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Next item J.

Consider request to pursue North Dakota Department of Transportation, Transportation Alternative Program funding.

Go ahead.

Mayor and Commissioners.

Um this is one of those DOT grant applications again.

Uh we're asking to submit for two different locations.

Uh the first one will be State Street, the bike trail on the west side of the road from Divide Avenue up to I-94, and then I-94 up to Calgary Avenue.

Uh the trail was installed, I think it was 2003, so it's getting towards the end of its life.

We have been sealing the cracks and all that.

Uh it's getting to the point.

Uh we could do an overlay now, a thin lift overlay, just mill and overlay.

Pretty simple.

If we wait too much longer, the cracks are going to get too deep and get into the base, and then we'll have to do a full reconstruction if we get to that point.

Um that's our first location.

Second location is over by the Tyler Parkway interchange, uh, just west of that, northwest.

There's a Claremont Conservation Trail proposed by the Bismarck Parks and Rec Department.

Uh they have to go through the city as a almost a pass-through organization to get the DOT funds.

So this is on behalf of the Parks and Rec department.

Uh, they would like to install that red trail on the map.

Uh so this is Gulf Drive by the funeral home.

Uh, would be a trail over to uh what's presently a dirt trail and go up sort of parallel to Claremont Road.

Um those are two locations proposed for the TA funding.

Commissioner Rish.

Mr.

Mayor Chris, is that going to be an asphalt walking trail?

Or is that the red one would be yes.

Okay.

Uh if you look really close, there's some brown dashed lines.

Uh those would I believe the one on the east side of the coolie would stay a brown dashed line.

Any other questions?

Commissioner Connolly.

When they originally, because I watched the park board meetings too, that they were going for this designation to be uh minimum maintenance nature park when we start adding infrastructure like sidewalks and that starts getting away from that nature park.

Were there any discussions along those lines?

Because I mean there was a lot of heartburn when they tried to put the mini links in that section too, and that went somewhere else.

Uh Commissioner Connolly, I was not part of those discussions.

Um I don't think there's anything wrong with going from the ground, but those might be some questions to ask the park board because what was originally presented to the citizens, this seems like it's going a little bit away from that.

Sure.

This is what we were given from them.

So but we can follow up with them, sure.

Any other comments, questions?

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Move to approve is presented.

Second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Next item.

Consider request to pursue North Cota Department of Transportation's urban grant funding program.

Go ahead.

The last item for us tonight.

DOT is asking for urban grant applications.

We have two projects we'd like to submit.

This first one is from Gabe.

My understanding is he's applied for it the last couple of years.

It's reconstructing Main Avenue between 7th Street and 9th Street.

So it would be a full, full depth reconstruction going down into the base, redoing all the concrete, the curb and gutter, the sidewalks.

Part of that, he's proposing to make it a three-lane section and either widen out the boulevards or add parking along the sides of the street with some pedestrian lighting to make it more friendly for the uh pedestrians that walk in that area.

Presently, the sidewalk is right against the street and it's not uh comfortable for pedestrians.

Then our second spot uh would be two traffic signals on Washington Street, uh Broadway Avenue and Rosser Avenue.

Uh the Broadway Avenue signal is getting uh to the end of its life, the polls and everything.

Uh so we'd like to replace that intersection, the traffic signal.

As part of that, we would install left turn arrows for north and southbound traffic.

Uh they have exclusive left turn lanes.

And then we would add uh one head per lane per through lane to meet current standards.

We would add push buttons and the uh leading pedestrian intervals uh where if you push the button, your walk symbol comes up uh five seconds before vehicle traffic starts moving.

Uh also at Wash or Rosser Avenue.

Uh this one doesn't have any video cameras presently or push buttons, so it's just pre-timed.

Uh we'd like to add video cameras and push buttons to help it be more responsive to traffic, uh which would also help ambulances that are coming.

Uh there's an ambulance barn uh west of here, and they frequently come through this intersection uh with the pretime signal, it it doesn't respond to them quickly.

Um if it had cameras and push buttons, it could skip traffic or the it wouldn't have to go through the pedestrian countdown if no one had pushed the button.

Uh yeah, I will accept any questions.

Commissioners, any questions?

Commissioner Connolly.

I'm just gonna state if it was merely the street lights and we had the option of three or five line in the future discussion, I would be a yes on it.

I'm a no on it when it's the three-lane as the exclusionary option.

I'm just stating that up front.

Um, irregardless of the lights.

I voted no on it last time too.

So any other comments?

Commissioner What are your wishes, Commissioners?

Move to approve is presented.

Second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing and we'll call roll.

Commissioner Vish?

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

No.

Mayor Schmidt?

Yes.

Item 11.

Consider the appeal request to make a determination on zoning ordinance text amendment related to the keeping of chickens.

Hi guys.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners, this agenda item is an appeal of a denial of a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow chickens to be kept within city limits and to eliminate setback requirements for coupes within residential properties in the extraterritorial area or the ETA.

At your meeting on FEP excuse me, on your meeting on February 25th of this year, you asked staff to pursue a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow chickens to be kept in city limits.

Planning staff worked with a stakeholder group, including representatives from the public, the city commission, Dakota Zoo, and DSU extension, and city staff from the police department, public health department, and city attorney's office to draft the ordinance.

The group met four times between April and July to review requirements from peer communities and educational project products from NDSU extension in Burley County.

The group focused on drafting an ordinance to provide city residents with residential within residential zoning districts an opportunity to keep chickens with clear and enforceable requirements.

The planning and zoning commission held a public heat hearing on this request on August 27th and voted six to four to not recommend approval of the zoning ordinance text amendment.

The zoning ordinance also makes provisions for appeals.

I've been here before.

I guess I'm your appeal person.

Any final decision of the planning and zoning commission can be appealed to the city commission by either the applicant or their representative or department or board member, bureau, anyone from the city.

Commissioner Rish has requested to appeal the decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Certainly, Commissioner Risch is here to answer any questions you have this evening.

But before you um before I turn it over to him, staff does recommend that you consider the appeal and take action to either uphold the planning and zoning commission's denial or reverse the decision of the planning and zoning commission.

If you do reverse the decision of the planning and zoning commission, staff suggest you uh make a motion to call for a public hearing on the zoning ordinance text amendment at one of your next meetings.

Any questions of Jenny?

Okay.

Commissioners.

Well, Mr.

Mayor Jenny, thank you so much for all your work on this.

We asked planning and zoning to look into this, and they did a very good job, got put together this excellent committee of experts.

We had numerous meetings like Jenny mentioned, and um came up with a very good proposal.

Um we even did a survey, uh the thing did a survey, and there was a strong majority of Bismarck residents that yes, they'd approve of a chicken ordinance.

So I think we're in a pretty good spot.

I vote today is just to um proceed forward.

That's not a final vote.

We'll still have to have a public hearing, and after the public hearing, we can then uh make a decision whether or not to adopt the ordinance.

So voting today, yes, does not mean you're going to vote in the end in favor of the chicken ordinance.

So I respectfully request that you vote yes just so we can proceed forward.

Um at the zoning commission meeting, no one spoke against it.

Uh today we had one person speak or two people speak in favor of it.

Um time and again, um there's a lot of support for it.

Here in Bismarck, we can have dogs, we can have cats, we can have snakes, we can have lizards, we can have rabbits, all kinds of things.

But you bring a chicken into Bismarck and you're in trouble.

So I think it's um very minimal impact on the community.

When uh like Rosalind mentioned, we um interacted with the dip various cities across the state that um already allow for chickens, including Mandan, there's virtually no issues.

There's no issues.

Um I I I just moved, but I lived on the south side of Bismarck on Augsburg Avenue.

Any given day, I'd have 30 wild turkeys in my yard, tearing up around my shrubs and things of that nature.

My neighbor had four hen chickens that would make virtually no noise in a coop that would have zero impact on my life.

So um I think it's a modest thing.

It it tends to get overblown.

Um people claim the sky will fall if we got chickens at Bismarck and the sky would not fall.

So I respectfully ask that of my fellow commissioners and the mayor to vote yes on uh approving the appeal, and then the plan is that the next meeting, then there would be a call for a public hearing because I won't be at the next meeting.

And I'd like to be here when there is a public hearing, and then the meeting after that we'd actually have a public hearing.

Okay.

Well, uh obviously I was on planning and zoning, and I was one of the votes to deny it.

And I'm not going to deny that I was.

But I don't think it was a strong majority because the survey results were like 53 percent.

So just to set the record straight.

And some of the concerns that were expressed at the planning and zoning meeting were and one in particular, and actually the one of the persons who spoke about the chicken ordinance is the one who brought it up.

Um, the potential fire hazard from heating of straw and so forth to keep the chickens warm in the winter, especially, because you can't, you're not probably not gonna have them in the house.

And then one of my concerns is the rule uh, and it's probably a selfish one, but it is a concern, is we'll get calls for chickens at large, and there's nothing we can do with this ordinance.

We because our our law enforcement is not going to track them down and retain them and house them.

So you know, I think that's a that was one of my concerns.

Those are the two concerns that really bothered me is fire potential risk, which I think is real.

And second uh the the we have dogs at large and we had calls on that.

We have an action plan we can take for that, but we would not have an action plan we can take for chickens at large under the ordinance.

The plan, and we discussed this extensively about uh chickens at large.

Uh chicken at large, it's life expectancy would probably be under 24 hours.

If a chicken gets at large, he's not going to do any damage.

We don't care.

He gets at large.

We might be able to talk call the people in the neighborhood that have signed up for chickens and have their permits for chickens to tell them, hey, there's a chicken loose in your neighborhood.

You might go want to go find it.

As far as the fire hazard thing, there were no reports of anything of that nature at any of the cities in North Dakota that I've had chickens.

I just know that.

Yeah, I just know it was brought up.

So I'm just bringing the tech context to the meeting forward.

So Commissioner Connolly.

Um even the first time when it was heard, and I wasn't uh commissioner at that time.

Um in the name of property rights and things, uh, similar information.

I've actually looked into a lot of other communities in that, and I would make a motion to call for the public hearing.

I don't think we make a decision on it tonight.

But what it I would say is that with the at-large portion, whether it's uh two strikes and you lose the ability to have chickens in your yard for a period of five or ten years or three strikes, and that as that checks and balances.

I can see that, but for the people that are stewards, there's a lot of different ways we allow for a lot of things.

Uh let's have that discussion.

That's a motion.

For the public hearing.

And I would say four weeks from now, sorry.

So Commissioner Rish can be here.

Excuse me.

I think um you'll have to make a motion to approve the appeal.

Not call for a public hearing.

Uh that's where we're at now.

Correct.

Correct.

And and I may have led you, Commissioners um astray.

You don't need to consider this um item, this text amendment.

If you do approve or reverse the decision of the planning and zoning commission, you can call for a public hearing at a next meeting.

You don't need to have a separate meeting to consider this item.

Okay.

Then I'll withdraw the original motion and I'll make a motion to uh reverse the appeal.

And then I would ask at the public hearing that it's not the next time but the meeting after next, so all commissioners can be present.

Second.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Commissioner Zink.

I'll just remind everybody that it was not a unanimous concession uh consensus to send this to staff.

And I haven't changed my mind.

Okay.

Um any other discussion?

Hearing number call roll.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Zenker?

No.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

No.

Motion dies.

Next item.

Um consider request to receive presentation information addressing the some proposed modifications to the current composition of the city of Bismarck organizational structure.

Jason.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Uh apologies will I get my self-set up here.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Um I owe you a fair bit of information here.

Uh admittedly, there was very little included in the uh agenda packet.

Um, but it maybe just if I can start at the beginning, uh, probably mid-August of this year.

Um, our former community development director, Ben Arith, uh, came to me and shared with me that he had accepted a position in another community and would be resigning.

His last day was September 12th.

Um when an opportunity like that presents itself, I feel the responsibility to uh stop and take a deep breath and make sure that the steps we take next are going to be appropriate and with the best interest of this organization in mind.

Um I use this time to kind of evaluate uh where do we go from here?

And uh if I can get the screen, I'm gonna rely on a little bit of a presentation put together here.

So what you're looking at, there we go.

Uh what you're looking at today, right now, is the current organizational chart for the city of Bismarck.

We have 15 departments, uh variety between general fund, enterprise fund.

Um that's not necessarily germane to this discussion, but um top of the chart, obviously the residents of Ismark, those are the individuals that elect all of you, and then you direct uh the policies and uh projects for the city.

Uh as a city city's administrator, uh it is my responsibility to oversee and support the various departments within the organization.

Some of those departments have a little bit of a unique composition.

I'll point at the library board, which is on the far right side of the organizational chart, and also the CENCOM board.

Uh library and CENCOM have separate boards that really guide and direct uh a lot of the day-to-day operations, but ultimately because the library and CENCOM are still part of this organization, I still have a role here as well.

I still have a role here as well.

I am not the direct supervisor for the library director nor the CENCOM director, but my role is to continue to support and administer as best necessary when those departments come forward with projects.

We haven't yet adopted the strategic plan, but I couldn't help myself in digging into some of the information that's there.

And some of you may have seen this.

I believe Doug Wiles will be coming forward in the not too distant future with a final version of all of this, but I wanted to peel out a couple of pieces in here.

One of them is a strategic focus area.

That's one of our highlighted components of the strategic plan.

And this particular piece is organizational excellence.

And apologize for all the text on the screen here, but I'm I'm gonna read it verbatim.

Goal number four, as drafted, is to improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness through streamlined processes, data-driven decision making, and cross-department collaboration.

And when you get into those specific objectives within goal number four, it talks about conducting a comprehensive review of the existing organizational structure, including reporting relationships, role clarity, and workload distribution of staff.

It talks about analyzing vacant positions and current workflows to determine if functions can be consolidated, redistributed, or redefined.

And then also to compare the organizational structure with peer communities and identify innovative and efficient models.

So those are really kind of the guiding principles that I was looking at as I walked through this conversation.

Back to the original org chart here.

Some of these departments which you're not seeing are divisions within departments.

And a couple of the departments that I'd like to maybe shine a light on and focus our attention on are going to be community development and finance.

So the bottom two boxes on the organizational chart.

Community development department today exists with divisions, uh the building inspections division, planning division, you've got the HUD and CDBG programs, and then also, of course, the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

On the finance side of things, that's the department that's led by uh Dmitry Cherniak.

We've got assessing, fiscal services, and then information technology and GIS.

So why are we looking at these two positions?

Umbe just a little bit of history before we get to that part.

Building inspections.

How did building inspections get to be part of community development?

Um I have the pleasure of being a city employee for almost 20 years.

And I can tell you when I started in this organization that the building inspections division was actually part of the fire department.

You might ask why was the building inspections part of the fire department?

Because at that time, the staff that we had in those positions, it worked.

If we go all the way back to the fire chief that was here before our current fire chief, Joel Baseflug, the gentleman's name was Jack Haggadis.

Jack had the distinction of having not only the fire chief responsibilities, but he was also the building official.

Building inspections was part of the fire department.

It was housed at Fire Station 1 up on Capitol Avenue, and it just worked at that time.

We were a smaller community, we were a smaller organization, and the staff that we had at that time could serve those roles.

When Mr.

Haggadis retired, Chief Joel Baseflug was hired, and the decision that was made at that time was recognizing that Joel came in from the fire service, and Joel was not a building official.

So a determination was made to hire a building official.

The building official worked under the leadership of the fire chief.

So there was a division within the fire department where building inspections lived.

In 2006, the city started renovating this building that we are in today.

The first floor that was renovated was actually the second floor, which today houses community development and engineering.

In 2006, in October, when that renovation project was completed, the building inspections division was moved out of the fire station at headquarters and moved onto the second floor and positioned physically next to the planning department at that time.

The building official still was part of the fire department until uh a retirement that occurred in 2008.

And in 2008, when that building official the retired, the community development department was born.

And the community development department at that time is what we know it today.

Inspections was moved out of the fire department and into community development along with planning and the MPO.

And that was the first time we'd ever talked about community development.

Prior to that, it was exclusively planning, and it was building inspections as part of the fire department.

And all of that made sense given the positions and the players we had in place at that time.

A little bit more text here, we kind of covered all of that.

The other side of things, the finance side, as I mentioned, we've got assessing, fiscal services, and information technology or IT, and then geographic information systems, GIS.

What I am proposing is to modify the community development, I'm sorry, to modify the finance department.

Frankly, and this is by no means a dig or any disrespect to our current finance director, Dmitry Cherniak, who is a certified public accountant and former auditor.

One thing he is not is an IT professional.

Dimitri and I have had this conversation in the past, and quite frankly, IT has outgrown the support that Dimitri is able to provide to them because we are far beyond his aptitude when it comes to information technology and GIS.

And frankly, IT is a part of nearly every discussion that we have in this organization, and it is one of the internal service departments that is internally facing affecting and supporting all the departments within the organization.

And so what I'm suggesting here, and I'll work through this as we go through the slides.

What I'm suggesting is that finance is modified to remove information technology and GIS, and then finance would remain with assessing and fiscal services, and ITGIS would be stood up as its own department.

When you flip to the other side of the line, you'll notice community development disappears.

What I am recommending and suggesting here is that we have two very talented individuals that are leading the building inspections division today and the planning division today.

That would be Brady Blaskowski and Daniel Narran respectively.

What I would recommend and suggest is that building inspections and planning become their own freestanding departments.

A little bit more on that as we go forward.

One of the things that is really driving a lot of this decision in my head is the growth and the development that Bismarck has experienced over the last 20 years.

We have very been very intentional about the support and the engagement that we provide to help grow this community.

In 20 years, we've added 20,000 people.

And some might say I liked Bismarck the way it was back in the 90s.

It was small, I could get anywhere.

Well, sorry folks, that's not the reality of the where things are.

The Capital City is growing.

As an organization, we benefit tremendously from that growth.

And I'll hearken back to just a few meetings ago when this commission approved the budget for 2026.

You'll all remember that House Bill 1176 capped local budgets at 3% over last year's amount.

However, House Bill 1176 also opened the door to recognize new growth and construction in a community.

And you heard our finance director tell us this year that because of the growth and the new construction in our community, we have had an additional one and a half percent on top of the three percent to work with for our budget for 2026.

Frankly, commissioners, I think that is a huge relief to the 3% cap because it was able to afford us the opportunity to do more things with the funds that are new funds and available.

That takes us to this slide, where if you're looking at the right side of the line, we've got some yellow highlighted boxes: engineering, public works, service operations, public works, utility operations, the new building inspections department, and the new planning department within planning, HUD, CDBG, and the MPO would still exist as a division within planning.

Why are these particular departments highlighted and not the others?

Because these five are the ones that are intentionally supporting the growth and the development of this community and this organization that will get us beyond that 3% cap year over year.

What I'm recommending with these five departments is that the role of the assistant city administrator changes.

And I have the pleasure of not only spending 10 years in the community development department as a planner, but also eight years as the assistant city administrator.

And quite frankly, the assistant city administrator role is an opportunity to learn as much as you can about this organization inside it out because it is one of the few positions that is extremely fluid and working with all the departments within the organization.

If we are going to do the best we can to help the assistant city administrator grow in that position and potentially be ready to take on the next role, which would be the administrator role, it is my perspective that that person, currently today Doug Wiles, that person is intentionally working with these five departments that are on the leading edge of growth and development because that position needs to understand the value of what we're doing in those five departments to continue to grow this community to add citizens to build out all the opportunities that we have.

Mr.

Wiles, as you all know, was our city forester for 10 years and had very little to do with the growth and development of this community.

What I'm not asking of Doug is to be the manager of these five departments.

What I am expecting is Doug to have the opportunity to work hand in hand with all five of these groups from development from start to finish.

In an effort to number one, help him realize and understand what these departments do and why it is so important to grow, but also to expose him to all the things that need to happen when we're talking about growth and development.

If we are going to continue to say we are open for business, we are welcoming growth, we are welcoming new neighborhoods and opportunities.

It is my perspective that these five departments are the ones that are going to be the first ones out there having that conversation.

And having the assistant city administrator ingrained in those processes and those discussions and those projects is tantamount to that person's understanding and knowledge of the entire department.

So then you might say, well, Jason, what are you going to do?

Well, I'm still here, not going anywhere.

I'm not looking to divest myself of any responsibilities.

But if you look at the boxes that are highlighted now, we've got a blend of general fund departments, enterprise departments, and then also the library and CENCOM that are, as I mentioned a little earlier, unique.

These departments are not necessarily impacted by growth specifically.

We all are impacted by growth, but these departments are not on that leading edge of growth.

But yet they still need oversight, they still need direction, they still need leadership, and I am proposing that my role would be to focus on these departments while letting Doug focus on the five departments that are focused that are working towards growth and development.

Municipal court, city attorney, these are uh city administrators responsible for the direct oversight of each department with the exception of municipal court, which we have an elected judge, the city attorney, which is an appointed position by this body, uh, the assistant city administrator, which is currently an appointed position by this commission, and then as I mentioned, the library director and the CENTCOM director, they both report to their respective boards that guide the policies and the day-to-day operations of those two departments.

So in the end, we end up with colors that aren't really showing up on the screen, unfortunately.

But we also, what you're not really able to see here is a green color that is over the city attorney, the human resources, the information technology, and GIS and the finance department.

Those four departments are core departments that are again internally focusing on the organization, the staff, and supporting all the departments.

I would propose that those four departments are departments that uh Mr.

Wiles and I share the responsibilities and the leadership for because much of the conversation that happens involving those departments will impact every every department and almost every, if not all staff throughout the organization.

So, really what we're looking for here is a combined role of the two administrator and assistant administrator, leading city attorney, human resources, IT GIS, and finance, city administrator with direct oversight for airport, CENCOM, public health, fire police, administration department, and then also liaison support availability for public uh Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library and CENCOM.

So that's kind of the big dynamic shift that we're talking about here.

Um again, all of this is made with the best intentions to support the organization.

Uh they are deeply rooted in the idea of succession planning and helping all of our staff achieve the professional goals that they have set for themselves and and uh for the departments as well.

Um so I guess I will just kind of run through the recommendations as they're coming forward.

Um first recommendation would be to dissolve the community development department, which would result in the creation of the building inspections department, which then subsequently requires the promotion of Brady Blaskowski to the building inspections director position, and then also the creation of the planning department and the promotion of Daniel Narran to the planning director.

Modifying the finance department by removing information technology and GIS and creating an IT GIS department, which would also involve the promotion of our current IT GIS manager, Tondra Kraft.

And this is one that might be a little might be worth some conversation.

As I mentioned, the assistant city administrator, the administrator, and the league the city attorney are all three appointed positions.

I'm grounding my thoughts in the future of this organization and worst case scenario.

So my position is an appointed position.

I serve at the pleasure of this commission.

And for some reason in the future, if the commission were to decide that I am no longer the right person for this job, what I would like to think is that there will be people behind me that can still pick up the pieces and carry the organization forward.

One of those key people that would be in the position to be able to do that is the current assistant city administrator.

So what I'm asking for your consideration and support on is to modify the assistant city administrator position to align with all the other department directors, meaning that position is no longer an appointed position by this commission.

It would be a position that is hired by the city administrator with a committee, but ultimately it would also include civil service protection for that position.

And I see value in that, recognizing that again, if a commission were to make the decision to eliminate uh the appointed officials, myself and the assistant administrator, that would leave the departments without any internal leadership aside from commission direction.

And I think that would be extremely disruptive and very problematic for this organization going forward.

So that's ultimately my proposal to all of you.

I'm hopefully you have questions.

I'd be love, I'd love to try and answer them.

I've talked about this with a number of uh staff.

I've talked with individuals both inside the organization and outside the organization and asked them to kind of shoot some holes in this to find the fatal flaws.

And throughout the last six weeks or so, as we've been exploring uh these recommendations and potential changes, uh I'm I've yet to be confronted with a question that we don't have an answer for.

And so I guess what I'm telling you is that I have nothing but the utmost confidence in the staff that we have here today.

These changes work because we have professionals in these organizations and within these departments that can do their jobs.

Um the community development director position that is currently vacant.

That position would not be eliminated, it would be reclassified.

And where would it be reclassified and what would it look like?

It would not be a director position.

Uh in conversations with uh Ben Aerith before his departure, and then Daniel Narran and Brady Blaskowski, one of the things I asked them was where are you guys spending your time?

Were you getting bogged down in some of these kind of nitty-gritty things that are happening?

And independently, the three of them shared that they are spending an exorbitant amount of time with code enforcement, zoning code enforcement, building code enforcement.

Um I am proposing is that we use the position vacated by Mr.

Aerith as the community development director, and we retool that to create a code enforcement position that would be housed within the building inspections department to free up Mr.

Naron's time and Mr.

Blaskowski's time and to dedicate a single city employee exclusively to zoning code enforcement.

It would not only would it free up time for the two individuals to direct their departments and focus on the work that is in front of them, it would also alleviate some of the responsibilities that have been inherited by our environmental health division within public health.

Our current environmental health administrator, Anton Sattler supports the community development department when it comes to certain zoning enforcement issues, primarily the accumulation of junk and uh debris and things like that that are littering up properties.

Anton has been more than gracious to take on that responsibility.

I would see a shift in that work leaving the environmental health division and allow him to continue to focus on all the things that environmental health should be doing and have a code enforcement officer that is 100% dedicated to those types of issues along with all the other enforcement that goes with the zoning and building codes.

So I hope I covered everything.

I had a lot of thoughts in my head, and I think I got them all out.

I guess maybe just to highlight thinking about the growth and the development and the support that this organization provides to that community is really the driving force behind all of this.

We want to continue to be able to grow.

We want to continue to add citizens, residents, businesses at a sustainable pace.

And adding a thousand people a year for the last 20 years, we've been able to keep up.

We are adequately staffed.

We have the right people in the right places, and I think we are doing a great job of supporting development by making some of these changes.

It frees up some people to really focus on the talents that they have and the skills that we've asked them to provide.

When I thought about this a little bit, community development, we've had two directors in my time.

And in the entire time that department existed, we've had two directors.

Both of those individuals were professional planners first.

Neither of them were a building official or came from the construction trades.

Mr.

Aerith did a phenomenal job learning that side of his department to support Brady and the staff that are part of building inspections.

So I asked myself, what would happen if the next community development director didn't know anything about planning, but only knew things about the building trades.

It's really a it's an unfair disadvantage to that entire department to try and find somebody that is strong enough to support both building inspections and planning because they're two completely different things.

Now, yes, they do align when it comes to growth and development, but let's be honest, it's not the same profession on on either side.

So because of the staff we have today, because of the opportunity that that's been prevented, uh presented in front of us, because of the strategic plan is encouraging us to have these conversations.

That is my proposal to you tonight is to create a community development, or I'm sorry, create a planning department with Daniel Narin as the director, create a building inspections department with Brady Blaskowski as the director, create an IT GIS department with Tom Decraft as the director, and to modify the assistant city administrator position to eliminate it as an appointed position and have it be recognized as a true department director that is civil service protected and on the same level as the other currently 15 department directors that are here.

Commissioner's questions.

Commissioner Rish.

Mr.

Mayor, Jason, so at the end of the day, with your proposal, we'd have two more departments, or how many more departments?

Mayor and Commissioners, Commissioner Rish, currently we have 15.

Through this proposal, we would end up with 17.

So we'd get two more departments.

Of course, a department head receives more pay.

And we need we'll need additional employees as well.

No additional staff.

No additional employees, but we'll have to adjust the pay of the department heads.

Um and then you plan on giving some up some of your oversight to the assisted city administrator?

Uh Commissioner Rish, Mayor and Commissioners.

I struggle with the word oversight.

I struggle with the word management and direction.

Really, what it in my vision of things, I'm not relinquishing any responsibility.

I'm not asking Doug to be the final say on any of these things.

And some of those departments would ask, well, who who who do I go to?

You go to Doug for support, you go to Doug for those conversations and you know, working through the problems.

Ultimately, I'm still the administrator.

I still have, according to the organizational chart, authority over all the departments.

What this really does for the assistant administrator position is it immerses that person into the growth and development side of this organization, and it helps them build a knowledge base of why we do what we do, why we say yes to certain subdivisions, why are we supporting growth in these areas and maybe not in those areas.

Without that foundational understanding, I don't know that that person currently Doug has the uh the wherewithal to really fully understand the organization as a whole.

I am different because I spent 10 years working in that environment, working in in the community development department realizing how important it is to be supporting of growth and business development and all of that has become a very real scenario with this year's budget development.

Having an additional one and a half percent is huge for us.

If we were capped at 3 percent, there would have been a lot more no's in this year's budget.

But because House Bill 1176 allows us to recognize the growth that is occurring in our city, I think we need to capitalize on that opportunity.

Well, uh to be fair, you could assign Doug these as oversight without changing his position.

I like the idea though of having him um be a department head, though.

I mean, as far as having civil service protection, that would be a good positive move.

But that being said, you could just say, hey, Doug, this is your area right over here.

I I plan on you focusing on this area without changing the structure of the department.

I mean, I I think he's kind of saying that's what he wants to do, and he's asking us to bless that, which or at least go along with that concept.

So I appreciate him sharing that with us.

I mean so um you've got to you're the administrator, you have to say, but I think it's fair that he share that with us.

That's transparency is to the community as well.

So Commissioner Conley, I don't I you had your hand up, I think believe.

Well, Commissioner Ish actually asked uh most of the questions, and um I'm not in favor of expanding departments or government.

And I'm a lot of people talk to me, and they feel like they're having a loss of control to where government doesn't have to answer to the people, you know, less and less.

And um we're elected, we're part of that checks and balance.

Um taking cogs out of that realm and moving them to where they're more internal.

I'm not in favor of them, not in favor of the county doing it right now, and I'm not gonna be in favor of that at this table myself.

Commissioner Zinker, do you have any comments?

Yeah, I do.

Um so first of all, thanks, Jason.

I appreciate this.

Um and I think I like the plan.

Uh, here's and here's why.

Um I understand your question about he could just assign Doug to do that.

It's transparent.

I mean, it's gonna be a little bit of change instead of Jason going to some meetings, it's gonna be Doug, but it'll work out.

Um and I'll put this out there.

I think it's very critical because coming from the construction side that um our Brady's department is a department, because it really is.

When you talk construction, um you have very few conversations with the planning team, and most of your most of your conversations are with the with Brady's team.

Um the other thing is is that Ben stood at that podium and took a lot of bullets, and I fired most of them, to be honest with you.

And I think we're all held accountable.

And if there's always someone shielding certain scenarios, I think it's beneficial that um that that shield is taken away.

And in this scenario, it would be.

Um Brady's gonna have to answer to some portfolio holder, and and it's gonna put a little bit more pressure on him, to be honest with you.

And moving moving Tandra out, GIS and IT is in every conversation of every department.

And um, you know, it's probably gonna take some time, uh, give some time back to Dimitri to take care of the other stuff, the financial side of things instead of worrying about what IT is doing.

Because I mean, Dimitri's really good at finances, but he is really bad at at um IT stuff.

He's the guy who has the most problems at the podium.

So let's be honest, right?

So I I don't think it's I don't think it's growing government.

Yeah, we give it a little bit more money because they're directors and those are the types of things.

We're not creating, we're not creating anything new.

All we're doing is reallocating, putting people where they're where they where they should be, and have more accountability to us as commissioners.

Because they're all they're gonna be additional portfolios, they're gonna have maybe another level of guidance or or maybe more communication with the commissioner instead of somebody always delivering it for somebody else.

I mean, and and and I'll I agree with you, Commissioner Zenker.

I mean, uh I had come I have community development as my portfolio department, one of them, and my meetings were with Ben.

Now I would have the opportunity to have a meeting with Brady and Daniel, or however we divide that up.

I think it's a more direct communication to the to the elected official.

I also don't view just because we create we're creating departments.

The fact is we've had these departments.

They've just been sheltered underneath another department.

And pretty sure that you know, in many ways, Brady has acted and and operated as the building official, which is a lead person in our community.

Now he didn't have to always stand up to the podium and take some of the questions, and Ben did.

It's gonna be a growing opportunity for him.

That is also why I view what Jason is proposing with the assisted administant city administrator.

Maybe the title changes that we as we move it to something slightly different, but regardless, it's gonna give that person the ability to guide that department.

Now there's another person besides the commissioner giving guidance directly to those departments.

And honestly, if we have 15 departments, I can tell you, I know how many hours Jason Tomonik is working.

He was on vacation last week and he probably worked 30 hours during that vacation time.

That's easy that is not right.

And so this but but that's on him too.

That's it, that's reality.

It is reality.

Because when you're when you're quote unquote a business owner, you're right, he's gone.

You're always working.

But but he's running it, he's running a corporation with 650 employees.

He's always working.

He gets it.

He he is he is, but we need, but there's part of this growth.

And also if we look at our job as an employer, we need to give individuals the opportunity to grow to that next thing.

Doug Wiles needs the opportunity to grow.

It doesn't mean he's going to become the city administrator here in Bismarck.

He might apply for Grand Forks or Fargo or wherever, or someplace in another state.

But if we don't ever give them the opportunity to grow, that's bad on us as an employer.

No different than it's bad enough to allow some of these department directors to grow, because they may be something.

I I'm actually I am I'm glad that Jason, you thought outside the box because this is what this is what's important.

It's become strategic.

So I'm in support.

I I do believe making the assistant administrator more online with the department directors is appropriate from a civil service standpoint.

I think it probably should have been that way all along, because technically it should have been the administrator hiring his assistant.

So that's my comments.

I'll let commissioners have any other thoughts or or give direction and uh how we move forward.

If I may, Mayor and Commissioners uh Commissioner Rish, I didn't want to leave your comment about salaries uh unattended.

Um so the community develop community development director position uh would no longer exist, but as I mentioned, we would be looking to create a code enforcement position as well.

That would have a significantly lower salary, so there's cost savings there.

We're not adding any additional staff.

Um and for those individuals that would become department directors, our internal policy uh talks about a five percent salary adjustment with that type of a move or moving to the bottom of the salary range.

So there are some procedural things that we would have to work through with HR and our uh consulting associates to make sure that we are in line with the position grades and salary compensations and things like that.

But I guess what I'm ultimately telling you is we would not be adding any additional staff.

We would be recognizing individuals that are already here performing in in many cases in full capacity.

And for lack of anything else, in many cases, most people think building inspections is a department.

Planning is a department.

It really comes down to just our nomenclature and back to the org chart of how do the boxes all fit together.

So it's a it's a net zero addition to staff as far as the overall budgetary impacts, they will be minimal if even a raise.

There may even be a decrease once we are able to work through all these numbers.

And frankly, by creating the code enforcement officer position, it gives the directors of those uh subsequent departments the freedom that they need to lead and guide those departments 100 percent rather than sharing the responsibilities of code enforcement and interpretation, which has been a tremendous amount of time over the last several months and years.

Commissioner Connolly?

Then work out the numbers and back up what you just presented.

Okay.

If we vote tonight, I'm not there yet.

I I'd be happy to work with our finance director and HR staff to determine what the grades would be and then figure out how the salaries work.

Uming there is no significant increase uh to the uh proposal, I'd be happy to report that out.

But if there is a change that we're not anticipating, by all means, we're gonna have that discussion right here at the table.

That's not something that we're gonna hide and bury and uh this isn't a ploy for me to shed any responsibility or take on more responsibility or build a whoa, now we've got 17 departments instead of 15.

That that that there's nothing about me in this conversation.

This is all rooted in the betterment of this organization as a whole, thinking about succession planning, thinking about internal opportunities for growth and professional up and professional development.

Frankly, I it works, and I've said this to others.

This plan in my mind works today because of the professional staff that we have already doing these jobs currently.

I I've roughly calculated the compensation dollars, and it's real close to net zero.

It's not even gonna I mean I I already kind of know where it's gonna land, and in fact, it would not surprise me it was a slight decrease in total dollars out.

It won't surprise me one bit.

So I would like to see us move, give Jason the direction to move forward.

I'll make a motion to approve his presented.

I'll second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second, we have further discussion.

Hearing and we'll call roll.

Commissioner Zanker, yes, Commissioner Connolly.

Been at this too long, not there yet.

No.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Mayor Schmidt.

Yes.

Thank you, Jason.

Is there any other business?

Commissioner Connolly.

I was watching the water resource district meeting and Dave Mayer was presenting from the park district.

And I have not talked to Dave.

I meant to get that call out there today and it just didn't happen.

But they're applying for it, they asked the water district for letters of recommendation for applying for a grant.

And I I talked a little bit about it at the uh board meeting for DMA.

Um just throwing it out there if we want to do something formally.

I'm going to do something personally, but McDowell Dam is kind of uh one of those unnoticed gems by a lot of people.

A lot of people do access it, and whether we do it and have people choose to do it informally or if we wanted to do a formal one.

I just wanted to let people know that that might be a unique thing during the summer months at McDowell Dam.

Well, I have no problem supporting it, but I think they need to make a request to us to to do that.

Okay.

I can reach out to them.

Okay.

Any other new business?

I just wanted to mention um we had some real problems with garbage around 23rd and 24th Street between the uh soup kitchen and the ministry on the margins, and uh number of business people contacted me and I contacted Renee over public health, and she had a meeting of the business people.

The chief was there, um uh public health was there, a number of other folks at the meeting.

Um then she organized a cleanup day, and uh a number of city employees helped clean up um the streets over there, the bunch of the people that were bunch of the people that were home homeless folks were helping as well.

So we did get it cleaned up at that one point, but I just want to commend Renee for taking the lead on that, organizing the meeting, organizing the cleanup, and it looks a lot better, and let's try and keep it that way.

It is, and I do appreciate the staff that helped with that and public works for getting the dumpster out there.

So if any other business not we stand adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.