I have 515.

This will be the Board of City Commissioners meeting, but before we start, we'll have invocation, and then we'll have a swearing in of the new commissioners because we have to have a full quorum.

So we need to officially have everybody sworn in ahead of time.

So if Chaplain Huenfeld would be able to provide invocation in the Pledge of Allegiance, I would appreciate that.

You did a wonderful job of pronouncing my name.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for helping me ahead of time.

It's a privilege to be here.

Shall we pray?

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you today with grateful hearts.

As the Bismarck Commissioners gather together to serve our city.

We ask for your wisdom and guidance and discernment as we consider matters before us.

Help us to listen with respect.

Speak with integrity and work together for the common good.

Bless the citizens of our city and help us to be faithful stewards of the responsibilities entrusted to us.

Many of us present here this evening are aware of King Solomon, the great leader who replaced King David.

Of great importance was his humility when God gave him the opportunity.

He asked for anything he wanted.

And his response was to ask for wisdom.

And I quote, so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong.

Those results were fantastic.

And in our city, may these esteemed leaders before us be also gifted from above with wisdom.

And may our efforts esteem, may our efforts promote uh people, prosperity, and opportunity for all who live, work, and visit our community.

Guide us in every discussion and decision.

May your actions reflect wisdom, service, and care for our neighbors.

And in addition, we are mindful of thousands of school children who are out and about in our neighborhoods.

And we do ask of you special protection for them during this summer.

Amen.

Amen.

Shall we stand?

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

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

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you, sir.

So now we'll have the swearing errand, swearing in ceremony for the new commissioners and for myself as well, as this is a new term for me.

Um we'll have attorney mees lead that.

I'm not sure how you want to proceed.

And then I'd also think there's a desire to have a photo of the commission subsequent to that, correct?

Okay.

So do you want the commissioners first?

Do you want me first?

Do you want to do all three at once?

Um I think all three at once would be fine.

Nope.

Nope.

I'm gonna stand away from the camera.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah, if I stand over here, Kaylin, do you not get me in the picture?

Okay, you ready?

Please raise your right hands.

I fill in your name.

Of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Do you solemnly swear?

You solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of North Dakota.

And the Constitution of the State of North Dakota.

And I will faithfully discharge the duties.

And I will faithfully discharge the duties.

Of the Office of Commissioner of the Board of City Commission.

Of the office of the Commissioner.

Do you want me to repeat?

No.

Okay.

For the City of Bismarck.

For the City of Bismarck.

And the County of Burley.

And the state of North Dakota.

And the state of North Dakota.

According to the best of my ability.

According to the best of my ability.

So help me God.

So help me God.

There's another little phrase here.

I further swear.

That I am under no direct.

And I am under no direct.

Or indirect obligation.

Or indirect obligation.

To elect or appoint any person.

To elect or appoint any person.

To any office position or employment.

So maybe office position or employment.

Under the city government.

Under the city government.

All right, congratulations.

All right.

If we can call the meeting to order, we'll call roll, please.

Commissioner Rish?

Here.

Commissioner Dahl?

Here.

Commissioner Connolly?

Here.

Commissioner Hull?

Here.

Mayor Schmitz.

Here.

I'm going to have Jason come forward and we have a couple of items preceding public comment that we'll go through.

We're going to keep it more brief than we maybe have in the past because I think already the new persons to the commission have met with everybody and have an idea what is going on, but we just should highlight a few things and also note that go ahead, Jason.

But sure.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners, and welcome Commissioner Hull and Commissioner Dole to the table.

It's been a while since we've had some new faces, so apologize if I uh don't have my notes from before because I didn't get to do this before.

Um but the first item on the agenda that we wanted to bring to your attention, uh hopefully you had a chance to review it uh prior to the meeting.

It's the leadership code uh for elected officials.

And this is a fairly new uh document, more for reference for you as a commissioner.

Uh it'll provide um some cues or some notes on how to navigate your role as a commissioner, not just here at the table, but then also in the public and in addition to working with staff.

Uh this was a document that was primarily led by uh Mayor Schmitz back in 2024.

It was adopted uh nearly two years ago in August of 2024.

Um just wanted to call this out and give you an opportunity to ask any questions or perhaps some clarification points that you may have, but then also uh to open the floor to Mayor Schmidt since he was the kind of the driving force behind uh much of the content that is here.

So um no specific call-outs, I'm not gonna read through all 15 pages by any means, but did want to provide an opportunity for questions and answers, not just from the new commissioners, but also certainly Commissioner Connolly or Commissioner Rish if you had any questions after reviewing it again.

Um but I'm happy to answer any questions or uh Mayor Schmitz, if there's anything you would like to add.

Is to it is that um after having served two hours in office and realizing that we didn't have an actual code of conduct for elected officials in our community, I thought it was important that we actually establish that because code of conduct is very important.

Uh it also helps us establish some ethical um rules and conflicts of interest rules to make sure that we are all upholding what is really our constitutional obligation and is formalize it.

And so that that's why I push for it to occur.

Go ahead, Commissioner Richard.

Well, thank you for your leadership in putting this together, and it was good for me to review it once again like I did when it first came out.

But there's a few little things I think we could massage at some point in there that uh and and certainly it's open to I mean it's a living document.

So I mostly want to point it out, remind everybody it's here and would be open to you know some modifications where we need to to for clarification.

Yeah.

I would just ask that if there are some of those, let's work with Jason so we can and Julie so we can accomp accomplish that sometime in the fall.

Commissioner Connolly.

Um what I would encourage the uh new commissioners to do too is that it was uh um good discussion when the mayor brought it forward.

We tabled it for a couple of weeks and we had a discussion with some modifications that were adopted in the first run of it.

So it was a good exercise on what we do at this table.

And all of that's on Dakota Media Access.

So any other questions or comments.

Okay.

If not, Jason, if you want to proceed to just the kind of orientation, so to speak.

Sure.

And commissioners, uh please bear in mind this presentation was originally composed with the idea that you were rookies and had no idea what you were doing here.

Um clearly that's not the case.

You've invested a lot of time prior to today, both as uh a member of the Citizen Academy, but then also your involvement and engagement throughout the meetings as the election season was going on.

So I'll keep this pretty brief and high level, but there are some important points in here that attorney Meese will call out uh when it comes to open meetings, uh Roberts rules, some of those sorts of things along the way.

Um but I we we start a lot of things here talking about our strategic plan and our mission and vision.

Again, I'm not gonna read all the content on the slides, but the the point of the strategic plan is uh a guiding document.

It is our roadmap for the next three to five years as an organization.

And whenever we can remind ourselves why we're here and what we're doing for the community, we take that opportunity.

So uh for what it's worth, the uh the mission statement together we deliver exceptional public service and our vision statement, uh Bismarck is a dynamic community committed to an extraordinary quality of life values, these were also recently refreshed with our uh recent readoption or refresh of the uh strategic plan as an organization.

We value service to the community, stewardship, managing the resources that the taxpayers entrust us with, uh respecting all the individuals and organizations that we encounter.

Uh certainly we care about our workplace and the community we serve, and we are always looking for innovation and ways to embrace creativity and meet the current emerging needs.

High level overview.

17 departments, 650 full-time employees, depending on the season, we're between 50 and 100 part-time employees.

Um Bismarck ND.gov is where we share all of our information.

Uh we would encourage you to um share that website and information with others.

Uh everything that we do as an organization will end up there for the public to consume.

Uh the agenda and meeting management.

We've talked about this with you individually.

This is where all the agendas for the city commission and all the advisory board, authority board committees that the city staffs are part of the agenda and meeting management.

Of course, we're here at 515 on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month in the Tom Baker meeting room, and as Commissioner Risch will attest, we have many special meetings as needed.

None of this would be uh as valuable if we weren't going to talk about our friends at Dakota Media Access.

Uh they are a tremendous partner in transparency and government.

Um for me, Dakota Media Access is the demonstration of transparency in action, whether it be through the broadcast of these meetings or any of the advisory board meetings, but then also some of the special programming that uh we as a staff or as an organization have committed to.

And Dakota Media Access has been kind enough to uh to broadcast and to host on their website and to share.

So if anybody that's watching at home on cable, you're likely watching through Dakota Media Access.

Um if you're consuming this online or on demand at your convenience, hopefully it's coming through their website as well.

So we just want to call them out and thank them for the work that they do uh to help us bring these meetings to everybody.

With open meetings, that takes us to the attorney's part of this where she'll talk about quorums, public business, the type of activities that we have here.

Are you gonna join me up here or you want to go from over there?

I'll make way for attorney Mees.

Oh, where is I only have like what, three slides?

Good evening.

So I I'm again going to also assume that the new commissioners and the previous commissioners and the mayor have read these slides.

Um I also want to emphasize that regarding open meetings and open records.

Can you pull them all?

I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this.

Um The Attorney General's office has kindly put on online guidelines and manuals regarding open meetings and and open records that I use all the time.

So if you have any questions about them, you can certainly feel free to go online to the Attorney General's website or ask me and I will do that.

Um the things I want to emphasize are the quorum.

So we have five commissioners, so a quorum is more than half, so that would be three.

So if one commissioner meets with two other commissioners on a specific topic relating to city business, that is a public meeting that we have to notice.

And admin has the capability of noticing those up.

Um social or accidental meetings, if you run into another commissioner at the ballpark or a grocery store, that's not a public meeting.

As long as no public business is discussed.

Um sometimes we'll have constituents, cities uh or citizens will email all of the members of the board and want to share information.

That is not necessarily an open meeting violation.

What we get into regarding open meeting violations is if the constituent or other community member wants a consensus on a specific topic.

So I would ask that you not all respond to that constituent because we could have a serial meeting violation there.

All records, emails, text messages, letters, notes, all of that are potentially documents that will be open to the public.

So if they are relating to city business, I'm going to ask that you use your city email and your city equipment, your city phone, your city laptop to do any city business, so we could access that if we have any open records requests.

Any questions about any open records?

Commissioner Rush.

Commissioner Rish.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioner Julie.

So if I bump into somebody at the grocery store, right?

Mm-hmm.

It's only one other commission.

I Commissioner, I bump into Amelia.

I'm perfectly okay to discuss something city related with one commissioner.

That's correct.

Because I can't talk to Commissioner Dahl and one of the other Commissioner Hall about the same thing on two different occasions.

That's correct.

The one issue I have with where you have the uh serial meetings where you explain serial meetings and for sake of discussion.

Serial meeting is if I talk to Commissioner Dahl and Hall and then Conley and everybody, that would be separately.

That would be a serial meeting, violate the open meetings law, and I bad thing to do.

But the example you have is that a citizen talks to a commissioner A, then to Commissioner B, and then Commissioner C.

I've been involved with interacting with government all my adult life, the North Dakota legislature, the U.S.

Congress, and individuals can certainly talk to each one of us.

They certainly can.

I mean that that's I don't want to people because I had we had a uh issue come before the commission and a citizen asked me about my position on it, and I visited with her, and she said, Well, I was told I can only talk to two commissioners.

I said, Well, no, that wouldn't be right.

Um you could talk to all the commissioners and the mayor individually about it.

And certainly when the issue comes up, you can of course uh talk at the commission meeting itself.

But the open meetings is for the public entity, so members of the public entity, not uh towards the citizenry.

Right.

So if it's not worded like that when I look at in our thing.

Okay, so isn't it the risk is for us as commissioners if a constituent contacts each one of us trying to build consensus without us actually meeting before the meeting, that's where the serial meeting risk comes in.

So if there has been an ability or a desire to talk to three of us out of five to get us all to basically agree to support something in a vote that's upcoming, that would be an open meeting through serial meeting.

It could be if there was a potentially right.

So that's just the risk to be cautious of as as we receive.

And so I would just encourage the commission members not to respond individually to that citizen who's who is seeking consensus.

Or more than a quorum, so or a quorum or more, I should say.

For the sake of argument, we don't even know that she's talking to the other commissioners.

That's true.

You know.

So I mean that's down a rabbit hole.

And and you know, if there is a specific topic about a specific department and the commissioner A is not the portfolio holder, I think it would behoove Commissioner A to refer that citizen to the portfolio holder, just to be careful.

Yeah, along that line, if I may, Mr.

Mayor.

That's the best way.

Let's say it's something related to whatever portfolio Commissioner Dahl has, somebody contacts me and say, Well, you know, it would be best to talk to Commissioner Dahl.

But there's been times where somebody I really know and they're pushing me, and so I'll just call the other commissioner themselves and say, hey, do you mind if I look into this issue for the citizen?

But I certainly keep the commissioner that has the portfolio in the loop on whatever the issue is.

I think that's a very good practice.

Yep.

Anyone else have comments or questions?

I mean, I just want us to make sure we I err on the side of caution.

Right.

And then um regarding Robert's rules of order, we have uh a Bismarck version of them.

And so I was just going to briefly go over general procedures regarding the rules.

And so in general, the um So and I'm sure everyone, well, the commissioners who have been here and the commissioners who are newly elected have watched commission meetings.

So generally we'll hear a presentation by a com a staff member or citizen.

Um if it's a public hearing, uh we will wait for the public comment period to close.

The mayor will then ask Commissioner, Commissioners, what are your wishes?

And then at that point, a commissioner can make a motion, which is a proposal of an action.

For example, I the commissioner would say, I move that we approve ordinance, whatever, as presented.

Another commissioner would second.

If there is no second, then the motion dies.

And the second does not mean that the seconding commissioner supports necessarily the motion, but just wants discussion to go forward.

The mayor, as the chair of the board, will recognize commissioners who want to discuss or debate.

The mayor will end the discussion when the discussion is over, and then we'll call for a vote.

The clerk will call roll, each commissioner will vote.

And I just want to clarify that if there is an abstention or a pass of a vote per our ordinance, that abstention or pass is considered a yes vote.

And if you So that would mean if someone needs to abstain because they feel there's a they have a conflict of interest, they should step away from the table.

They should step away.

And if there's And then it wouldn't be a yes vote?

Correct.

Correct.

If there's a conflict of interest and the commissioner needed to step away, then that would not count.

We would still have a quorum, but we would still need a majority, uh concurrence of the majority to pass the vote.

And and on the conflicts of interest, if there's someone concern concerned about that, it is appropriate to disclose that at the table, and then we as the rest of the commissioners can determine if we feel it's a conflict of interest or not.

Um because we've had that situation even in the last three months, I think, where we determined it wasn't a conflict.

Right.

And if there is a a need to amend a motion, we follow the same process.

There needs to be a motion and a second.

The majority would vote to amend, and then the approval of the amendment would follow, and then there would be a move to act on the original motion.

Um it's similar to withdraw motion, the movement, the movement can move to withdraw the motion.

If there's no objection, that motion is withdrawn.

If there is an objection, which I don't think I've ever seen, the withdrawal will be put to a vote.

Any questions about that?

It's pretty straightforward.

No.

And the one thing that I did not include on the slides are social media.

So there was a recent Supreme Court case within the last few years about public officials and social media.

So if you have a personal social media page, I would just ask that your personal page have has a label and a disclaimer that that's your personal page and you're not representing the city on your personal page, and not to use your official title or official contact information on your personal page.

Um if you choose to have an official social media page, that's where you engage with the public.

Your personal page is for family photos and trips and things like that.

Any questions about that?

And always feel free to call me if there's any questions or email, and I'm happy to talk to you about any of these issues.

Okay.

Any questions for Julie?

And we she's always in the room or a representative of her office is in the room when we do have a commission meeting.

So help us keep in line.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mayor and Commissioners, I'm happy to go through the remainder of the slides.

I'm guessing you've all had a chance to review those ahead of time.

Basically, everything that's left is a rundown of all the departments and the primary tasks or responsibilities uh afforded to those departments.

So if you'd like, I'm happy to go through those, but I'm also happy to pass on that and just simply pause and stand here and answer questions that you may have about any of the information that's contained in the slideshow or anything that you may have just heard from Julie or anything in general that will help you become more comfortable and oriented in your role as commissioners.

Commissioner Risch.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners, Jason, maybe you can explain a little bit what your thoughts are on a commissioner's role in dealing with their portfolios.

Should they be meeting with them on a regular basis?

Should they be interacting?

Certainly the port the head of the department calls the shots, but they they should be meeting with them periodically, is that correct?

Certainly.

Yes, the uh Mayor Schmidt's, Commissioner Risch, Commissioners, uh, thanks for the question.

So portfolios, uh I guess it may depend a little bit on directors as well and what they would be looking for from a commissioner.

Um oftentimes the the role of the portfolio holder is to be very familiar with the department, particularly larger projects or initiatives that are coming forward.

Uh the role of the commissioner is to engage with the director, but then also to understand what those projects are and effectively support those to the best of your ability at the table.

Now, if you're if there's an initiative or a project that uh you're strongly opposed to, that would be something that you would want to work through with the director before it ever comes here.

If we had a an adversarial relationship where the director and the portfolio holder were at with their backs to each other over a project, I think that would obviously be uh uh an is an interest an interesting conflict that we would work through.

Um but primarily I think it's it's good to be aware of what your departments are doing.

Um it's good to know what their large projects are.

Now we certainly don't expect you to know every personnel member of the staff.

Uh some of these departments are quite large.

Um you're not uh the expectation is not that you're there for the day today.

You are there for the the bigger items that are coming to the commission or those major initiatives that would be coming forward.

Um I had another thought here on uh the role of commissioners, and now it's escaped me.

Um, it was relating to liaison positions and then also board appointments.

So some of you may find yourself on an advisory board or an authority board or as a liaison.

A liaison position is a little unique in that uh it is effectively just that.

It is a bridge between an established board.

Um so in the case of Dakota Media Access, the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library, uh the parking authority, the uh event center authority board, and there's one more that I'm missing, forestry advisory board.

Um those would be positions where the expectation is that you would attend those meetings and participate, uh, not necessarily in a voting capacity if you are a liaison, the board is already established, but you are there to provide information from this organization to that board or to that other organization in which you are or have been assigned.

Um again, it's basically an information share.

It's not necessarily asking you to take a position or uh be an active member of the board.

Uh maybe you attend those meetings periodically, maybe it works with your schedule that you attend every one of those meetings as a liaison position.

But the appointed committee positions, whether it be Renaissance Zone Authority, Historic Preservation Commission, Planning and Zoning Commission, where they are taking action and providing recommendations to this board.

The expectation would be that you would make every effort to be at those meetings because you would count towards a quorum.

And so your attendance would be appropriate and necessary on a regular cadence for those meetings as well.

I believe, Commissioner Dahl, you currently served or previously served as a Renaissance Zone Authority member.

Commissioner Hull, you were with the Historic Preservation Commission, so you're familiar with those advisory role positions as well.

Does that answer your question, Commissioner Rish?

Thank you.

Any other comments for Jason?

I have no other comments unless there's questions that you may have, or I will offer this.

Uh city administration would certainly be your first point of contact if you have any questions.

You have our emails, you have our cell phone numbers.

Uh either Doug or I would be happy to try and direct you in any way possible to find your path to success.

So feel free to lean on us now and in the future.

And when you're comfortable and even when you're you're well adept at being commissioners, we're still happy to be here and help you do your jobs.

Okay.

And the last thing I will add is it wasn't in the agenda packet, but I just had it handed out is back right after I was elected.

I had asked for city staff to have three S's, so to speak, simplify, streamline, and serve.

So just that's why I provided that so everybody kind of keeps that in mind that our goal here is to really serve our constituents in the most streamlined method possible and simplified as much as possible.

So if you see opportunities to guide your portfolios departments in those, please please help them because we want to make sure it's it's already hard to navigate through government processes.

We want to try to find a way to make it as simple as possible.

So anything else before we move to public comment?

Not we'll open up the public comment period.

It is for items on the consent agenda or a regular agenda item that is not a public hearing or a prior city commission agenda, excluding public hearings.

I already said that I'm sorry.

So anyone who wish to speak, uh please come forward, identify yourself, tell us the topic, and also sign in.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Seeing no one coming forward, hearing no one, I'm going to close the public comment period.

Commissioners, uh, what are your wishes with regard to the consent agenda?

I'll move we approve the consent agenda.

Second.

Do we have any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Dahl.

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Risch?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Um we have three very similar items, A, B, and C on our regular agenda.

Uh so we'll start with the first one.

They're on the regular agenda this time for sure.

Um they normally would have been have been in the past on consent agenda, but I thought it was an opportunity for some educational proper uh opportunities related to these.

So uh these are letters of requests for letters of support.

Um we have with us uh two gentlemen from the chamber EDC to make those presentations.

So we'll start with the first one is for ear properties or letter of support for the North Dakota for funding from the North Dakota Opportunity Fund loan program.

Noah, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners.

Welcome, Commissioners Dahl and Commissioners Hall.

Uh Alex Koske from our office.

Our Vice President of Economic Development just handed you a brief two-pager, um, which will have some background for these programs that we're about to introduce, just uh for our new commissioners to fully understand what these three are, better understanding.

So my name is Noah Roman.

I'm the business development coordinator for the Bismarck Man in Chamber EDC.

I introduced Alex as well.

Um this Chamber EDC is contracted by the City of Bismarck to provide the following services economic development strategy, economic development analysis, and assisting public-private partnerships between the city and various private institutions inside of Bismarck, our businesses.

The Chamber EDC in practice works with local companies, large and small, members of the Chamber EDC and non-members in order to retain and grow their businesses and workforce.

One of the more visible ways the Chamber EDC will interact with this commission is by presenting applications for local businesses interested in the Bank of North Dakota's PACE or Flex PACE programs.

These programs were implemented in 1990.

PACE stands for partnership and assisting community expansion.

The PACE Fund helps communities expand their economic base by assisting primary sector businesses that make an investment or create jobs in the community.

FlexPACE provides assistance to businesses that do not meet primary sector standards.

The max buy down for the program is 500,000.

The Flexbase program is up to 200,000 in interest buy down.

So it buys down the interest rates from whatever prime is down at most 5% with a floor of 1%.

So it's really helpful for our smaller businesses enabled in order to make ends meet in their first couple years of operation.

These programs are tools that communities can use to drive economic development with a focus being the community slash economic benefits of the project.

Each community developed its own criteria for assessing these projects.

Projects within the city of Bismarck have three options for securing the local match portion of the PACE program.

The local match is 35% for Bismarck, so the city puts up a 35% loan that it will eventually get paid back to its vision fund.

BND puts up a 65% of the match grant that is given to the businesses and the business keeps after the completion of the buy down.

Option one is through a loan from the City of Bismarck's vision fund using city funds.

None of these three are vision fund projects.

Option two is providing an in-kind contribution, such as a property tax incentive or donating land.

This must be quantifiable.

We do not have a track record of doing these in the City of Bismarck.

It's something that BND is open to.

Option three is using non-city funds through Lewis and Clark Development Group's North Dakota Opportunity Fund Loan Program.

Along with fulfilling Lewis and Clark's requirements for funding, the project seeking this route must also secure a letter of support from the City of Bismarck, stating the reasons the city supports the business receiving an interest rate incentive.

The following three agenda items are letter of supports.

Again, the letter of support passing the city commission merely communicates the B and D that a business project provides community benefit and has the support of the governing entity.

These do not and will not require city dollars to be spent on the local match.

One last note before starting our first agenda item.

The Chamber EDC works to retain existing businesses, support expansion, and attract new investment because they strengthen Bismarck's economy and workforce.

Supporting businesses that positively contribute to our community helps reinforce that Bismarck is a stable, predictable place to invest.

Bismarck has historically had a pro-business climate.

Part of the pro-business climate is being consistent with applications for incentives.

Businesses seeking these programs must publicly disclose purchase plans and appear before the commission, as you can see in the letters in front of you.

Making a consistent and predictable review process is important.

While every request deserves thoughtful consideration, letters of support should remain focused on whether the business is a positive member of the community.

The city should not vote in favor of every letter in support without appropriate due diligence, like we are doing today with the letters in our presentations.

Likewise, routinely denying letters of support, absent a clear concern, can have unintended consequences for Bismarck's pro-business climate and the willingness of businesses to invest in our community.

The Commission's decision today is not whether to finance or approve a business transaction, as those determinations are made by the project, the lender, and in this case the Bank of North Dakota.

The question before the Commission is whether the city supports the business and recognize the project's benefit to the community.

Thank you.

Alex will now go through our first project.

Thank you, Noah.

So our first agenda item today is the flex pace letter of support for ERE properties LLC, which is the real estate holding company for Midtown Dental.

Midtown Dental is a local dentistry owned by Dr.

Andrew Schmid, the lead lender for the project is credit or capital credit union.

The business is seeking a flex pace program to assist in their purchase of an existing commercial building located at 2000 North 12th Street in Bismarck, North Dakota.

That is the previous Schlotsky's building.

The complete letter of support is in your packets.

And the chamber EDC recommends providing the letter of support for the following reasons.

Increasing employee count from 15 full-time employees and three part-time employees to approximately 24 employees.

This increase will also include at least one full-time dentist.

Secondly, the increase in space with the new building, along with the increase in workforce, will allow Midtown to better serve their 4,000 current patients.

Wait times currently stretched into eight months, while the best practice between appointments is closer to that six month range.

Increasing the room in area that Midtown can operate in will also allow them to continue investing into technology to further enhance the patient's experience.

As a reminder, this project will not utilize City of Bismarck dollars.

And at this time, um Noah and I, along with Ryan from Capital Credit Union, are able to stand for any questions that the Commissioners or Mayor Schmidt's might have.

So I'll point out that this one did come to the Vision Fund first.

The Vision Fund viewed it as a project that was worthwhile but not worthwhile of the Vision Fund funding the buy down because it was not providing a new service or service in a critical need business per se because there are multiple dental offices in town, but still because they're increase in the value of the property and bring in additional employment opportunities to our community, felt that it does deserve support.

So the vision fund actually in the minutes of the vision fund uh recommended approval of or recommended that to the city commission that we would approve this letter of support.

So go ahead, Commissioner Hall.

Mayor and Commissioners, uh, just question I was looking up Google Maps because remembering Scholatsky's is part of the building.

Are they taking the whole building or are they gonna be next door to Cinnabon and make a bit of visual irony?

Okay.

They'll occupy that form building.

Yeah, with that the staff number is like, are they gonna fit?

So all right, thank you.

Commissioner Rish.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners Alex.

Noah.

Um I think I'm really pro-business commissioner.

For the record, I believe in free market capitalism.

Uh I like businesses to compete with one another.

But this is an existing business buying an existing building.

There's nothing new being created here.

Um I talked to my own dentist about it.

I said, You dentists, you're you're struggling a bit, are you?

She said, Ah, in fact, no, we're not struggling at all.

Um, she was didn't think it was a good idea.

But um, so my concern is, and I know it's not city tax dollars, but it's state tax dollars, that it could be a substantial amount of money, is that we're interfering with the market.

We're going to pick this dentist like we did the other dentists on North Washington Street and all these other dentists, they didn't get any of this.

And I don't blame the dentists that have applied for this.

They should, and I'm not criticizing them, and I think they're great members of our community.

But this sort of stuff interferes with the market.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Connolly.

Um I forget your name, sorry.

Alex.

Alex.

Um I'm in agreement with Commissioner Rish on that is capitalism, the republic, and how business thrives in America was not to where we elevate unnecessary public-private partnerships.

Um in a sense to where it's uh free for all.

Um that I'm very consistent.

I think I'm pro-business as well.

Um, like the basketball entity next to Cashwise, very unique, not competing with anybody, looking for unique staff, looking bring something special to the community.

Or when it's um an entity that's addressing a problem that will never have the resources to meet uh meet, like addiction, like the challenges with homelessness and those entities.

And those are perfect areas because uh for the government dollar per se, because all of those organizations, just in the homeless coalition.

If you look at their email list, it goes out to 160 people and 45 different entities.

They're all fighting for those same dollars where the private market and the competition, that's what really we want the businesses that are contributing to the community that are interacting under all of the same rules that I would if I was studying my own business.

Um we have some really awesome businesses.

I've read once upon a time that uh North Dakota has the most millionaires per capita, and they built those not having these programs.

So a lot of dentists in the area.

Um I'm consistent, and my vote will be representative of that.

So my comment is number one, this is a Bank of North Dakota program that we are tapping into, and if we choose to not be proactive in allowing this to occur for businesses that with this is a letter of support.

So again, we're not using our own vision fund money for this.

We're not providing tax abatements or incentives to accomplish this.

And we are going to see businesses wish not to reinvest in our community and potentially go to elsewhere.

So Fargo, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Minot, Dickinson, Williston, they're tapping into this, and we are harming our own business constituents by not allowing them to access this program if we deny things like this.

There have been some that have come forward that may well have been in this particular profession.

They came to us after the building was built, and they are already but we did not approve a vision fund uh advance for it, similarly here.

And so I ask, because I am I'm truly pro-business.

I want business to grow.

We need to grow in the city of Bismarck.

We need to grow property values by improvements.

That's how we will be able to continue to fund our operations as a city.

And this will improve the building and increase the tax base on it.

And it adds employees.

So that's my lecture.

So I'll let others comment.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

Mayor and Commissioners, um, I guess do you know if there are other reviewing organizations for this?

Do you know if they if their um review review process would you know um address you know Commissioner Connolly's concern of like what makes this dental age you know firm more you know special than the other, other than the fact that they applied?

Yeah.

Thanks for your question, Commissioner Hall, Mayor, Commissioners.

I think the other main mechanism would be going through Lewis and Clark's application for the flex pace dollars.

Um Bank of North Dakota receives that application.

They don't really vet Lewis and Clark would be a vetting um organization as that.

And this this commission is.

Um the due diligence is an important factor as Commissioners Rish and Commissioner Connolly have pointed out, that's important.

Um so this commission is another one of those vetting processes.

Commissioner Dahl.

I think that um you brought it up an interesting point.

This money is going to be used in uh in a community somewhere in North Dakota.

And if we don't approve it to be used in our community, we are missing out on a great opportunity to have development.

I recently had to take my um son out of pediatric dental care and move him into adult dental care.

And the soonest I could get him in without a cancellation was nine months.

There is a need in our community for dental care.

I think that we would be disappointed.

It would be a disappointment if we did not pass this.

Any other comments?

Commissioners, what are your wishes with regard to this application?

Or letter of support, I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Commissioner Dahl.

I move to approve writing a letter of support.

Second.

Do we have further discussion?

Hearing none, I'm gonna call roll.

Commissioner Connolly?

No.

Commissioner Hall?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

No.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

We'll move to the second uh item B, the second letter of support request.

Go ahead, Alex.

Mayor, Commissioners.

Our second agenda item is for a flex pace letter of support for JH Commercial LLC.

It is the real estate holding company for Horner Lawn Service LLC.

Horner Lawn Services owned by Jordan Herner.

Horner Lawn Service is a local business that specializes in residential and commercial landscape maintenance.

The lead lender for this project is Kane from Bervara Bank.

The business is seeking the flex pace program to assist in their purchase of an existing commercial building located at 1701 Battalion Street in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The complete letter of support is in your packet.

And the Chamber EDC recommends providing the letter support for the following reasons.

Number one, revitalizing and strengthening a severely underutilized property in Bismarck.

It'll create a permanent commercial presence on the property that will contribute to the city's long-term economic stability.

That property right now has a lot of I would just say garbage outside of it and is kind of an eye source.

So they would the first task they would do is clean that up, which will immediately improve the property.

Number two, double the number of employees from five roughly five to eight full-time seasonal employees to approximately 16.

And finally, this move will provide capacity for future business growth that was limited while the operating company was operating from a residential property.

The business was always running out of Jordan's personal shop.

So this brings a central location in Bismarck that will make it easier for them to access access their customers.

No and I, as well as Jordan from Herner Lawn Service and Kane from Brevera Bank are happy to answer any questions that the committee might have.

Commissioners, do you have questions?

One question I would have, because you didn't state it.

Uh in addition, is there any improvements to the building other than the grounds being cleaned up?

I believe there's going to be Jordan do uh possibly cut please come forward and uh address us at the mic, please.

Uh Jordan Horner and uh yeah, possible expansion.

Um definitely a lot of room for improvement there.

Um it's more of a it's uh it's the the building as it sits is pretty you know there's pretty a blank canvas.

I mean there's there's nothing really there.

So we'd like to definitely improve that and and um add on to it some kind of office or indoor um it's it's cold storage now, so it definitely it needs some work.

So you're gonna do something to it to be able to use it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's Mike, one question.

Anyone else have questions or comments?

If not, Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Uh move to approve the uh letter of support.

Second.

Any discussion?

Commissioner Rish.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, I might as well just say this.

Again, it's an existing business competing with a bunch of other lawn care people, buying an existing building.

I'm all for that.

Good luck to you.

All the best.

And then I'm a no.

Commissioner Connolly.

Um additionally to what Commissioner Rish said, um, estimated value on the buildings 320,000 2,000 square feet.

So even with just cleaning up the property.

Um when we talk about increasing uh value and things.

Um I don't see where that pencils out either.

So that'll weigh in as part of my because it doesn't meet the two that I go by normally, but what some of the others um say is the reason.

I don't see that being part of the reason either.

Okay.

Any other comments.

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

No.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

No.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Next item C consider request for letter of support for opportunity fund loan program for Zinker Enterprises.

Go ahead, Alex.

Commissioners, Mayor.

Or third agenda items for a flex paced letter of support for Zenker Enterprises, which is the real estate holding company for interstate laundry.

Interstate laundry is a local commercial commercial laundry business that provides high quality laundry services to Bismarck residents.

The lead lender for this project is Capital Credit Union.

The business is seeking the flex pace program to assist in purchasing of an existing commercial building located at 1414 interstate loop in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The complete letter of support is included in your packet.

And the chamber EDC recommends providing a letter support for the following reasons.

Number one, this purchase, and when they move in, it will increase employee count from one full-time and eight part-time employees to four full-time and twelve part-time employees.

Additional space will allow for interstate laundry to modernize its technology to continue serving their medium to large businesses.

The new space will also allow for an easier pickup location and delivery services options that weren't previously available.

And finally, this will strengthen the city's small business ecosystem supporting entrepreneurship, local business, and workforce retention.

This project will also not utilize any city of Bismarck dollars.

And Noah and I, along with representatives from Zenker Enterprises and Capital Credit Union are happy to answer any questions the Commission might have.

Questions, Commissioners.

Commissioner Rish.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners Alex.

Are there other laundry businesses in Bismarck?

I mean I know of dry cleaners, but are the other laundry ones?

Yes, there are, Commissioner Rish.

Commissioner Dahl.

Do you know if they're going to move their entire operation to the new location, or are they continuing to operate in both?

Because those are pretty close together, correct?

I believe the plan is to move operations, but I will let the question.

Are you going to because right now you're at just like up the street from this new location, correct?

So are you going to operate out of both locations or are you moving all of your work to the new one?

Yep, our current location has a car wash in the same building.

That will stay there.

Can you speak right in the middle of the case?

That will that will stay up in the current location.

We're just moving the laundry operations to the bigger building down there, which is the former Capital City Restaurant Supply Building.

We're probably tripling our capacity as far as the laundry goes, and a lot of our customers are calling for pickup and delivery service, which we really would like to help them with.

So thank you.

Commissioner Rush.

Mr.

Mayor, what what's in the building currently?

I know Capital City was.

Nothing's there right now.

We've purchased nothing's there right now.

We've purchased the building.

Yep.

It's been vacant for since Capitol City moved out, right?

Um they had rented it to proximal 50 for about a year before they moved into their new location.

Other questions?

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Move to approve the approve the letter of support.

Second.

Further discussion.

Hearing none we're going to call roll.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

No.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Mayor, Commissioners, thank you.

Item D is public hearing on the application for a class F1 alcohol license by the landing LLC at the landing at 1700 River River Road.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone who wish to speak to this topic, please come forward.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

Seeing no one coming forward, public comment period is now closed.

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Move to approve.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Item E is a public hearing on a request for a new class I2 complementary alcohol license for North Nail and Lash LLC doing business as North Nails up on Coleman Street.

Anyone wish to speak at this public hearing?

I'll open the public hearing.

Public hearing is open.

Please anyone who 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?

Move to approve is presented.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Item F.

It's public hearing on ordinance 6669, annexation of lot 45, block 4 of Silver Ranch, 5th edition and adjoining Davies Drive right away.

Go ahead, Daniel.

Good evening, Mayor.

Commissioners.

This is a request from Invest Corps Incorporated for the annexation of Lot 45 block 4 of Silver Ranch Fifth Edition and the Davies Drive right of way.

So you can see on the map here in the northeast uh quadrant of our our city or 2B part of the city.

Uh this is a um request really for the purpose of constructing Davies Drive, because right now uh all of the properties on both sides of Davies Drive are within the city limits except for a little five-foot segment of this lot uh that does touch Davies Drive.

And so in order to create the street improvement district, we all we need to have all the lots in the city.

Um and so that is the immediate need in the long term.

This lot will function as a stormwater management, the drainage uh for Silver Ranch uh fifth edition once that gets constructed.

Uh there is also an easement for a shared shared use path along this.

Uh the Platinum zoning has already been done.

This is just an annexation request.

Uh so the planning commission and planning zoning commission did consider this during their May 27th uh 2026 meeting.

Uh when the annexations come alone, they don't hold a public hearing, they just on um have a consideration and a uh and a recommendation.

Uh so they did recommend to approve this to you.

Uh but then you do hold a public hearing that has been advertised for for this meeting.

Uh so once again, planning commission recommends approval staff records move approval of this annexation of lot 45 block four, silver ranch fifth edition.

Any questions of Daniel?

Commissioner Rish.

Mr.

Mayor, Commissioner Daniel.

So it's a really odd-shaped piece of land that we're planning on annexing.

And it's currently parks and open space, and it will remain that way.

Uh Commissioner Rish, Mayor Commissioner Ish.

That that is correct.

It'll be open land.

Uh, you know, it looks very odd, uh kind of on its own.

Um when you see the whole plat, there is a line of of lots that have already been approved as a subdivision plat, uh, just to the north of that lot.

Uh and once those are annexed, uh they'll they will be adjacent to it and the city limits will be more contiguous.

It'll be main um uh open space.

Correct.

Okay.

The entire lot is encovered by an easement for just for drainage only.

Any other questions?

Doesn't look like a Daniel.

This is this is a public hearing.

Anyone who wish to speak to this, please come forward.

Second call for public comment.

Third and final call for public comment.

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

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Move to approve.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Moving to item G is a public hearing on ordinance 6672 to amend the amend chapter 702, salary and payroll and chapter 703 of the City of Bismarck Code of Ordinances related to sales use and gross receipts.

Julie, do you have any comments?

Uh just Mayor, um 702 or 6672 for 702 is just a addressing um salaries for the commissioners that they will be set by ordinance.

Set by this commission.

By this commission.

And then for 703, so the home rule charter was amended by vote, so that's been ratified.

This change to chapter 7 enacts those changes within the fiscal or the financial title of the code.

Okay.

Is there any anybody have questions of attorney means?

Go ahead, Commissioner Rish.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, Commissioner Julie.

Mayor, Commissioners Julie, when I look at it, it looks as though we're over striking the current salaries that were established in 1989, $700 a month for the mayor and $400 a month for the commissioners.

And we're paid somewhat more than that.

And then we're it looks as though they were, I don't know, paid bi monthly, and now they're going to be paid bi-weekly.

We already do a bi-weekly, correct?

Correct.

That's correct, Commissioner.

Well, I guess my only thought is that we've been paid more than what was allowed for in the um existing ordinance.

That's correct.

And I'm not sure when that change happened, Commissioner Rish, Mayor Commissioners.

The um we have paper copies of the ordinances going back.

I'm not sure when it's remained the same, but the the salaries have been included in the budget process, my understanding.

And that's where it's set by ordinance.

And so part of my task is going through these older ordinances and trying to clean up the language, and that's what this.

And I thought since we're in chapter seven or Title VII anyway, I might as well fix 702.

Any other questions?

Do we have to pay back the money?

I think because the salaries have been set by the ordin the budget ordinance, but this is a cleanup of uh an ordinance that would have required every time there was an adjustment to be it um probably isn't probably isn't the appropriate place to actually have those, because that could have meant also all directors were set that way at one time.

So all right.

I'm gonna open the public hearing.

Anyone who wish to speak to this, please come forward.

A second call for public comment.

A third and final call for public comment.

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

Commissioners, what are your wishes?

Move to prove approve as presented.

Second.

Is there any discussion hearing none will call roll?

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Moving to item H, consider request to receive presentation on the half cent sales tax for roadway prioritization funding strategy and project selection.

Gabe, okay, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Uh my item before you is to talk about our half cent sales tax.

Uh, the ordinance that you just passed a moment ago uh took care of the Title VII components, and now my request is for some direction on where to take this program moving forward.

Uh three things that I'll want to visit with you about tonight.

First is just an overview of the program financials of where we're at today and then what we've spent those dollars on and then what we'd anticipate in the future.

Uh, then some funding guidance uh really in terms of what's participating, what are some other uh uh items that come along with the decision to to do a project and then what are the other elements that go into that?

And then lastly, hopefully we can use some of that information to prioritize some of the projects that are on the list to understand that these are the ones that we want to pursue evaluating that and developing them to the next step.

So first item here on the program financials, the chart on the left and in the graph on the right of the same information.

Uh it shows the over time, the years, as well as the projects that we've spent money on in this half cent sales tax program, the half cent revenue uh accumulated over the the course of time back to 2019, and then really an estimated balance to see where how much was cash flowed at any given time.

I say estimated because some of these had some advanced construction from the DOT, so we might have paid out early and then were reimbursed some of those dollars later, uh, one or two years later.

Um, even the project costs as we get into you know the 2020 project, that's in the books, it's done, but the 2026 and some of the 20 or uh more recent projects are still off of the approved project budgets and are not the final numbers.

So if I give you this chart again tomorrow, maybe not tomorrow.

Next year, you might find different numbers than what we're showing here today.

Uh but the main point that I wanted to draw your attention to are the two main points I want to draw your attention to is really at this point at the end of 2026, uh we'll find ourselves with an estimated balance of about five million dollars or so in in the hole.

In reality, we're probably not going to be because it's Tyler Parkway, and some of those improvements won't be constructed necessarily by the end of 2026.

So we're probably in a in a in a good spot.

But the main point would be that we don't have a whole bunch of commitments that the city commission has made of other projects that are in the queue that we've decided the X and Y and Z are going to be the other projects.

Really, it's a pretty clean slate at this point in time.

There are no other projects on the docket to be used for half cent sales tax would be the thing I wanted to point out.

The other thing I wanted to point out was the revenue that we've seen in this program going back to 2021 has been generally hovering around that $10 million mark with some slight increases over some period of time, but then in 2025 a little bit lower, but now our 2026 is tracking a little bit higher than what 2025 was.

So it's a funding stream that we would consider as stable, but not one that we see is increasing by leaps and bounds and 10, 20% a year that we should be anticipating a whole lot more than what we're maybe receiving today.

So we're when we look at what we're budgeting.

Um I'm making the assumption that we'll hold at that $10 million mark for the extended revenue, not as big of a deal initially in the program's existence, becomes a bigger deal as you get later on in the deployment of this program to know how many more projects do you have.

Really, you can pick any project that you would want the first year, there's gonna be dollars to do it as you get further into the program, you'll have to look more closely at what are the available resources left before that that tax expires in 2038.

So the available revenue, what we'd anticipate would be around 118 million dollars through 2038 on this program.

Um that assumes the 10 million dollar amount uh consistently through 2038.

As you look at program costs, uh that's where we see that if we did everything on that project list of what we think would be the most realistic improvement on that list, uh, we'd be in upwards of 240 million dollars of 2026 funds.

Um, anticipating that we're not gonna do all those projects, some of those are very dependent on activity, and if that activity adjacent to it doesn't uh occur, well then there's no reason for us to build that new highway out to the extent in some of those locations.

Um the 240 million dollars plus uh the the dollars to engineer acquire right-of-way and relocate utilities, primarily pipelines.

When we cross pipelines, that to be sent tends to be the most expensive sort of relocation.

We find ourselves somewhere at 288 million dollars of doing everything on the list.

Now, as you can see, the available revenue is is quite short of that.

So it further brings into focus the need to prioritize and figure out exactly what we want to do with these first steps.

Um on the right there is just some planning level estimates.

Uh, that's pretty much the the level that we've taken most of these concepts to is what is a typical four-lane facility cost.

Okay, how long is this roadway?

Okay, let's take this planning estimate per mile times this length to get to a number.

So we're not getting any more detail than that at this point in time.

Um so that would be subject to change as we get more involved and more information about some of these projects.

So now into a couple of funding guidance discussions that I want to chat through.

The first would be water and sewer funding.

Uh so in a project that we're building a half cent sales tax uh eligible roadway.

Uh, previously, when we've done projects on 43rd Avenue on Ashcoole Drive on South Washington Street, if there were utility extensions that were needed, uh utilities being water or sewer or municipal facilities, the public works utility operations department was uh the primary funder of those particular improvements.

They would look for rates uh funding for that as well as funding through state uh reimbursement programs and those around the arterial roadway network.

We would recommend continuing with that arrangement.

We think that's appropriate for us to take care of the large water mains on our arterial roadways as a city responsibility, and then we would work in tandem with public works utilities to make sure that we aren't putting a road where they don't have funding to do the water main and vice versa.

I'm just making sure that we're in alignment for that.

What's going to be unique about the program moving forward is that some of these roadways are not arterials.

So we'll have to make a determination kind of charting new territory for the commission of how do we want to fund some of those sorts of improvements.

Um typically when we see improvements on the local or collector network or anything that's really not an arterial roadway, that adjacent landowner, usually a developer is generally speaking responsible for that uh infrastructure for to putting in the water and the sewer charge.

So we would want to continue with that assessment or continue with that philosophy that if we are putting in a uh an improvement on a local or residential local or collector street, and there are utilities that are needed, that those utility costs are assigned to that adjacent property or that benefiting property, either through our three-way uh process that we have now, if the developer believes that that is a uh more cost-effective way to make that improvement, go right ahead and put that improvement in before we get there with the street.

That's perfectly fine.

There's probably other scenarios where a special assessment may be needed if there's uh disparate ownership and not really a developer per se owning the land, but just 10 people own the land adjacent to some of these corridors.

Um it's it's our position that those 10 people should uh receive the benefit of that sanitary sewer line that may not be there today and therefore be financially responsible for that cost.

Within that, there's some nuance, and this is more detailed in the uh agenda memo for those properties that have a local or collector's street.

If the city needed a large water main, we would still take care of the charge or the upsize cost from the difference of what the the developers normally responsible for versus what the city may need in a particular corridor.

So we would still take that cost on, similar to our cost policies that we have for other development.

And then lastly, that last bullet there, there are some situations as well with the project list that if we were to put in water and sewer, some of those adjacent properties aren't in the city at this point in time.

So we would have a uh the city would pay for that uh improvement on that property's behalf, and then if and when that property comes into the city, we would then carry that assessment and tag it to that property through a held in abeyance component.

Um in fact, one of the agenda items I think that you had earlier today was uh maybe I'll back up.

I think there's a park improvement district that will that was on the agenda that was the same concept that an entity paid for that park um prior to that property being annexed, and now it is it's uh that assessment is being transferred over.

For the purpose of streets, uh similar type of conversation we'll need to have the arterial roadways that we've had all of the improvements on thus far through the half cent sales tax program have been funded uh primarily through the half cent and not an additional special assessment.

So my recommendation would be to continue with that methodology for those project properties or projects excuse me on an arterial in the major street plan or located on a section line that will capture all of these situations or as well as we think we can.

Those should be funded without street special assessments.

As we then talk about the local and collector streets, this is a kind of a value proposition for the commission to think through.

There are in some of the public comments that I have received through through having conversations in the community, uh a desire to understand what is the role or what is the level of investment that that adjacent landowner will have on a local street.

So some of these are some pretty gnarly areas engineering-wise, difficult to get through, and that's why they haven't been constructed.

So to what level should the city pay for that and what level should that adjacent property owner pay for that?

So our recommendation is to treat every roadway that's not classified as the arterial uh through 80 percent funding through half cent sales tax with a 20 percent special assessment.

It is still a very uh generous contribution from the city in terms of beating uh that project across the the finish line, uh, but also represents a still a significant investment from the landowner so that uh there is uh a desire from them to look at costs and to build things efficiently and not just look at this as a free road and someone else is paying for it.

So trying to find a blend between those two.

Can I interrupt you, Gabe?

Commissioner Connolly got my attention.

So a chair uh uh mayor and Gabe.

Um charter amendments are unique.

And trust with the citizen is very specific.

I agree with you on the first um box here on this page.

But this second portion, as far as the recommendation, that was never conveyed during the entire election process.

It was these corridors.

And that was their understanding.

So I think you treat them the same way as you do collector.

They're part of that.

Any deferred maintenance or maintenance down the road, those will go back to special assessment.

But I think we wouldn't be being genuine with the citizen when they're voting on something, thinking that that's going to be a covered expense under the half cent.

And then we come back after the fact and say that it's an 8020.

Mayor commissioners, if if I may, uh Commissioner Conley, never once did we say in anything that it was exclusively funded with sales tax.

Um, there's a lot of projects that we funded with your combination of funding sources.

Um it's really been this board's decision, every single project, whether or not to use a special assessment, and it's only been through that decision that that has ever been been made.

So uh I maybe would argue a little bit that we weren't misleading the public, nor did we really get a sense um from the public their true understanding of of the of the the question on the ballot.

I will say that in every public engagement that I've had, it was a question that was asked, and it was something that I would when asked, display or or or uh communicate what the intention would be.

And in all those situations when someone came up and asked a question about the fairness equity component, and when I addressed that there would be contemplating a policy level discussion on what the appropriate local share should be.

Um many of those citizens found that to be a very acceptable solution.

Commissioner Rish.

Uh just to follow up, Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners uh Gabe.

Um, we're not going to be able to fund half the projects on the list with this half cent.

So I actually I look at this 80-20 percent.

I think it's probably overly generous.

Maybe maybe that's stronger than we need to go, 80 percent.

I don't know.

You're the expert.

But I'm just that's my reaction.

Eighty percent is a big number.

Commissioner Conley.

Okay.

I would ask when this goes to a vote if we can go box by box as far as a vote.

Sure.

I'm not sure if we're voting necessarily today, but I follow you.

Yes.

Commissioner Hall.

Uh I forgot.

Okay.

Proceed.

Okay.

Uh just as another nugget to the local and collector street component.

I I do want to recognize that some of these are tricky projects because of some extraordinary component.

Maybe it's a river crossing, maybe it's some floodplain, maybe it's it's something else is what's driving why this is happening.

Um so in those situations, I would recommend that those elements are um identified and then pulled into a hundred percent city cost for that traffic signal.

So really the the adjacent landowners paying for just a typical street, not having to pay for the traffic signal or the roundabout or whatever the element might be that is relatively unique and and um not consistent with what everyone else has to normally pay.

So I just want to um stress that point on the first bullet.

And then the second bullet there, if this is uh the decision direction to use special assessments in any way, uh it would be either initiated through a petition where we would ask for a petition from those benefiting properties, and then if we receive those petitions, we'd be able to create the district and move forward.

Alternatively, it would be through a creating of a district on this from the city's perspective and then producing a resolution of necessity similar to do with other street projects where those entities would have the opportunity to uh protest out the improvements, even if the city is paying 80 percent the uh uh the financial threshold wouldn't matter.

It would be still a 50 percent of the benefiting property area if if protesting would have the ability to protest out the improvement.

So I just wanted to uh bring those items to you as well.

And then the last funding guidance component that I have is uh there is a policy that was created in 2013 that was uh uh created in a manner to try to address what we're doing right now, whether we have rural roads in our community, rural being a ditch section roadway.

This policy was created initially to look at funding for improving some of these sorts of facilities.

Uh so I want to stress or request that that's the policy that was included in the agenda memo uh regarding the rural roads applies to only to those projects and the the original allotment of those, uh I think it was about a million dollars of sales tax money was put towards towards that, and we and we have used it on certain occasions, but usually primarily from those situations where the uh adjacent property is not annexed into the city of Bismarck and there's an improvement, the rural roads fund is what pays for that uh held in abeyance component.

Um many of the projects that we've used rural roads uh funding on uh are not eligible for the half cent, but I want to make sure that we don't have a policy out there that just calls out in general all uh rural roads are subject to this um policy when I I believe that this should be used strictly for the application of when to use the one percent money uh that was uh allocated back in 2013.

So maybe this would be a good point to pause for for discussion on funding and and and the like because some of the prioritization that I have would potentially change if the funding guidance is looked to be done differently than what I've recommended.

So there's probably no reason to keep continue on to that path if we want to tackle some of this earlier here.

Sure.

And I think based on Commissioner Conley's comments and that's appropriate that we at least address that.

I do think it could have an impact on prioritization.

I have some questions on the prioritization of myself because I think I just have some questions.

So commit but before we get started, Commissioner Hall, did you have a question or a comment?

Go ahead.

Uh thank you.

Uh Mayor and Commissioners I've got a few questions, but I'll go one at a time, you know, so everyone everyone gets their questions as well.

Um if if the so going back to your table where it showed the, you know, so we were in the hole for this year.

Um I guess that if the half-cent sales tax had not been extended and we finished the projects that have already been approved or and underway, where would we end up financially once all is said and done?

Uh Commissioner Hall, Mayor and Commissioners, the anticipated balance at the end of the if the sales tax would not have been extended would have been about 17 million dollars or so.

In the whole no, to in the good.

Oh, yeah.

We would have still collected for two more years, two years and some change from now.

Um so we would have had time to collect enough to pay for Tyler Parkway and then make some final decisions on what are the the remaining projects that we would use for the remaining dollars that are there.

Perfect.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

I can uh ask others, yeah.

Um go go ahead.

Um so I saw on your list uh that it was I guess it was the uh the scored projects rankings um that Ottawa was at the top.

Uh I wasn't sure if blue meant they were already underway or or uh in there some of the streets like Tyler Parkway has are marked blue, presumably they're already approved and underway.

Uh I guess I haven't been on Ottawa recently, but I remember seeing signs saying you know, construction coming soon.

But I didn't see how it was blue.

Is that one already approved?

Or Commissioner Hull, Mayor and Commissioners, we can discuss maybe the projects once once we get through the funding piece of it.

I think that that would be more applicable once we get to that point.

All right, sorry, thank you.

Commissioner Rish.

Um Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners Gabe, how did you come up with the 80 percent 20 percent?

You just thought that might be pretty fair or uh Mayor and Commissioners, Commissioner Rish, uh some of it was through our negotiations that we had through the process with the the Ottawa Street project.

I mean, some of that informed it when we've when we've looked at things as a 50-50 split.

Can what does that look like for cost participation?

And when we were on the Ottawa Street project, we still saw that some of those costs were in the excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars to some of those properties.

So we we look at this as uh a community need and it's a community resource being reinvested into our our roadway network.

Um so I think it's appropriate to put a lot of funding towards that goal while still having some skin in the game, if you will, for that adjacent landowner.

So it's that's why it kind of landed at 8020.

It represents a very sizable uh investment from the city while still having a pretty sizable, honestly, special assessment for some of these parcels when it's all said and done.

Mr.

Mayor, if I can follow up.

So the Ottawa Street, you've already determined an 80-20 match on on the Ottawa Street.

I know it's torn up, it looks like it's well on its way.

So Mayor and Commissioners, Commissioner Rish, we have not decided that.

I mean, that would be uh hopefully a decision that comes out of tonight's meeting as well if we make a decision based on what our future projects are that we would have the that funding ratio be applied to our current project of Ottawa Street would be one of my recommendations out of this meeting as well.

I'm just I'm looking around.

Go ahead.

If there's I I am just saying some of these things are really unique, like you keep saying.

And it Ottawa Street is one example.

I mean the special assessment for some of the property owners would be just excessive.

And I can see the 80-20, but some of the others might not be in that same situation.

So the 8020 might be more generous than we need to do.

I don't I don't know.

What are your thoughts on that?

I mean we have to establish 80-20 and that's it or something.

Mayor Commissioners, Commissioner Rish, I put a lot of value on consistency.

And so for me, uh being able to say the the Ottawa Street package is something and then be able to go to the next project and the next project and the next project can offer the same thing and not go through uh what it will amount to a negotiation and then a renegotiation, because now all of a sudden if we said 50-50 is the right number, and then we get two projects in and that group says, ah, we want 80-20 as our split.

Well, now what do we do with the three projects that are already kind of in development?

So I'm trying to get to a number that we think we can consistently get support from the adjacent landowners, um, provides a lot of city resources towards these things.

And in all honesty, the the the package of the initial list of projects that would be eligible for this is is I'm gonna say only with some air quotes around it, only the 40 to 50 million dollars of the package, which gets you a lot of roadway reconstructions and extensions um compared to some of the larger one mile-long um urban arterial roadway reconstruction type projects.

So just to follow up on that, and the under the bullet point, local and collector streets and then this first bullet point under that where it talks about the extraordinary items.

Would it be potential that there could be one of those collector roads that is largely uh funded by special assessments to the property owners, but where there's a unique difficult thing, like a crossing, where then maybe this could be applied to help that situation because maybe that roadway would not be completed if the crossing couldn't be put in.

And I'm thinking of one in particular up north.

Sure.

Mayor and Commissioners, I mean that I think that's what we're trying to look at.

I mean, and we could talk more at the project prioritization.

I think we'll always look for the other opportunities that are out there as well.

Um I will say that the fleet farm improvements on 64th Avenue was not on our radar when we passed this in 2018 originally, um, and only through the realization that here's a good community benefit for for some turn lanes and the reconstruction and construction of a portion of State Street and using the half cent sales tax to do that.

It was it was never on a prioritized list.

It really was an opportunity to invest in a very particular uh development related improvement that improved safety and opened up additional areas for the city.

So maybe my question is it could be a project that that we all use half cent sales tax on for a particular component of that project versus applying to the whole roadway, maybe.

Correct.

Mayor and Commissioners, Mayor Schmidt's.

Our goal is still to have our our developers pay for their roadways for our citizens to have special assessments if that's the direction.

This absent sales tax is a very limited resource and needs to be very strategically invested into those important locations where a little bit of funding can put something over the over the edge and make them now on par with other developable areas and now we might be able to open up and bring in more property into the city as well.

Okay.

Other questions.

So I'm trying to think of how we proceed based on Commissioner Connolly, your comment as to provide guidance.

Mayor, if I if I could, you if you want to look at just the the water and sewer funding recommendation and be able to say if if if if there is support for that concept that water and sewer associated uh improvements, I'll go back to that slide here.

So if there's a uh a motion to accept or to to follow staff recommendation for here and then you can have the reach.

Okay.

I just want I I'm trying to respect Commissioner Conley, because I think you had a fair question.

So okay, we can proceed that way.

Okay.

So I guess this would be the the first recommendation that water and sewer funding is per staff's recommendation, I guess would be what I would state.

If there's a motion for that, great.

If if there's something else, we'll we'll follow that as well.

Sure.

I move to approve.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

Go ahead, Commissioner.

Um this was consistent with what was there before.

Um with this particular um passage of this sales tax portion versus the one previously.

There's a lot more projects on this one.

There's a lot more moving parts.

So it's gonna be with each case.

I mean, you're very good at educating people, gig Gabe and uh when it project by project.

Um I think uh keeping it consistent with the way we did it before is a really good move.

Okay.

Any other comments?

Hearing none will call roll on that motion.

Funding for the water and sewer recommendation by staff.

Or yeah.

Yep.

Go ahead, call roll.

Commissioner Dahl, yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Then we'll go to the next funding guidance, which might be two.

I'll Commissioners?

I'll move we approve as presented here for street funding recommendation.

I'll second.

So that's for both the arterial and the local collectors.

Okay.

Just clarification.

So I have a first and a second.

What discussion do we have?

Commissioner Connolly.

At public works, I went to one of those meetings.

I sat in the back, and uh there was probably 18 people there.

Maybe that's a little generous.

And there were a lot of different well, we could add this, or we could even look at do we dedicated it to sewage project product or projects that weren't I mean favorable to the group or part of that discussion.

And so they weren't included in the sales tax portion at all.

And you're right in the sense that the previous one, I remember when the 43rd Street discussion came up.

I remember at the time Commissioner Mark were talking about it, and they were really if we do this, it's only half cent, not special assessment, and then it carried status quo after that.

Um that was the message that citizens grew comfortable with.

There are nuances.

You did explain the difference.

So it allows you to kind of keep a foot on both sides of the door and in the gray.

When we live in a society that wants more clarity and a genuine, honest and transparent manner.

And this isn't going to be the last home rural charter amendment.

This isn't going to be um even at the state level.

We have a precedence, and I think we should follow that.

And then my vote is going to res reflect that.

Other discussion.

I'm going to call roll.

Commissioner Connolly?

No.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

No.

Uh are we to the rural road, the rural road recommendation?

If we're here, might as well keep going with it, yeah.

I move to approve as presented.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing then we'll call roll.

Commissioner Hall?

Yes.

Commissioner Rish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly.

Oh.

Mayor Schmidtz.

Yes.

Okay.

Now we're to the project list, I guess.

I think I'm if I'm on tracking the I think that that's correct.

Um kind of to pick back up here.

Uh on the screen here is the revised project list.

This would include every eligible project in blue.

This includes projects we've completed, projects that we have done zero work on, but they're all that would be what would be considered eligible at this point in time for funding for construction and reconstruction.

Uh this is the same slide that I had at our uh the previous commission meeting that just kind of worked through why we want to, as an organization, have some sort of methodology to approve or to prioritize uh to and move forward with projects here.

As we work to our next slide.

This was the matrix or the the criteria that we developed, and we were given some approval at the previous meeting to say, yep, go ahead and use these items.

Uh we'll put on the screen here for at least a short minute what what the what these mean to us as engineers, planners that might look at something.

Um I'll pick on safety over there.

It could be uh addressing a crash history could be an important consideration.

Uh we might prioritize a higher speed facility in a turn lane on a higher speed facility that we know is more likely to result in a uh serious injury or fatal crash, probably more so than we would say is a safety concern of a person walking on a street because there's not a sidewalk.

But we still recognize that the separation of traffic from sidewalk and vehicle is a safety benefit, but maybe not to the same level as a uh a turn lane on a high speed facility.

So try to figure out the best way to to grade and and view all of these.

Then leads us to converting what was the what is the project list into 50 logical segments or corridors that we would consider doing a approvement on in the home rule charter and the and in the ordinance now.

We'll have language that says um say state street from Calgary Avenue up to 71st Avenue slash uh 1804 is eligible.

It's probably unlikely that any entity will ever build a two and a half mile long um 50 million dollar improvement.

So we'll cut that into chunks.

So what sort of m bite-sized chunks we think are the most likely to uh to happen because the prioritization for I'll use that state street example again, a state street improvement from Calgary Avenue up to Boulevard or excuse me to to uh skyline boulevard and to the Walmart area is probably higher than us building uh a mile from 57th Avenue to 71st.

There just isn't the same need.

So splitting these up gives us the ability to look at what the maybe the highest priority is on a longer corridor.

Uh our goal will through this exercise was to uh use this methodology to come to some sort of score.

Uh we included the the rankings as well as an alphabetical rank or alphabetical listing with their score in the agenda memo.

I don't have that here.

Um and really the main point is we're supposed to just use this as guidance.

It's not to say that we're gonna give a rank order that project number seven is somehow better than project number 10.

Um but all the projects one through ten are probably the ones we'd want to pursue, is really the the point of this exercise.

It is very subjective when you look at traffic operations safety, all of these criteria it and putting a human in charge of rating it, uh that human will will come in with their with their biases and will rate as well as they can.

Uh but ultimately still a very subjective process to get to here.

Um but the goal of this is just to get a what do we think are the good projects we want to pursue and what are the ones that we think are maybe um less desirable at this point in time with full acknowledgement that at any given time we can pull something off from the middle of the list to the top of the list if the um some activity happens in our community that is important and we want to recognize that perfectly appropriate to do that.

We just don't want to have a uh system that somehow weights that project um greater than others.

So with that all being said, this is what we landed at for our highest uh 12 to 13 or so segments.

Some of them are brought in uh mainly because there might have been another driver that brought them, driver being a figurative sense, not a literal sense here, um uh that brought in that particular corridor.

Um but the first one that we would have is Ottawa Street.

That is a project um Commissioner Hall as you asked, that is under construction that we've had um commitments made that we will fund at a certain funding level uh with this commission action.

My my recommendation would be to come back to you with a revised project budget reflecting now this new rate and be able to communicate that new special assessment to the property owners that would be in this area is kind of our first new half cent sales tax project.

It's already under construction.

Um if we do receive funding for the Ottawa Street uh through our um state flexible transportation fund application, uh we would look to keep the funding participation level the same percentage for the locals.

So we wouldn't look to split the dollars as we were proposing previously if awarded the the DOT funding, but we would just use less half cent sales tax and more other funding source um to pick up the city's share while keeping the special assessed share of the same.

So but this would be the list.

It if you do notice it is a lot of the collector type roadways, the non-arterials that are on our community that I believe it would be my professional opinion that reflect more of a need that we have right now than building um some of the more uh arterial-based roadways on the outskirts of town that may be needed as we see some of those developments occurring, but those developments occurring might be two or three years or four years out from now, and really not a need to prioritize that particular improvement um so early in in the program life here.

Um so that is the list.

My recommendation would be to pursue that prioritized group, and we'll do this in kind of a scatter shot approach here.

Um those projects if we exclude the utility costs would represent about $50 million worth of work.

Uh we would look to fund that if the 20% holds true here.

Just once again, there could be some other elements that change that exact percentage.

Um but the $10 million worth of special assessments and 40 million dollars worth of half-cent sales tax, as we can recall, it this sales tax brings in around 10 million dollars a year.

So this represents about four years or so worth of work if we could program all these and get them out the doors as soon as we possibly can.

Um but our goal would be to refine some project scope and then solicit petitions from those benefiting properties, and then if if need be, even create some preliminary special assessment districts to understand what those boundaries look like so we know who we'll be engaging with.

Uh there might be opportunities to engage with some engineering firms.

Uh that's kind of to be determined.

We'll come back to commission if there if there's an action for that.

Uh but the some of these we know that we'll be able to do in-house within engineering, and some of these will be uh more sophisticated than our in-house uh capabilities would allow.

That might mean we're just farm out pieces of this, or maybe it's the full project.

That's kind of to be determined once we get a little bit further in knowing exactly which project we want to do.

Um why I while I would like to say this is the number one project, this is the one we're doing next year.

Because of the complications that we're we're adding to this process by using special assessments, we can't just go into a particular right-of-way and build the thing that we want to build.

There will be uh more necessary engagement to understand from those property owners what elevations work for them, what sort of improvements do they foresee on some of these properties so that we can build a facility that works for the public as well as works for that adjacent landowner.

Um but that extra issues that we're running into is worth it in my opinion, because that does give us a more fair um program eventually for the entire community.

Um last two bullets there would be updating our Ottawa Street project budget and preliminary assessments so that we can communicate that new number.

And then lastly, would be just open to other projects and opportunities.

As I mentioned before, there could be other development activities, there could be other needs that are more pressing that would supplant some of the list that I had uh earlier, and we'd be more than welcome to have that conversation and bring those up on a case-by-case basis as needed.

So I have one question related to who all was involved in the ranking and scoring.

I'm hoping it was I would like to know that.

Sure.

Mayor Commissioners, Commissioner uh Mayor Schmidt's initially it was me that I I went through it of just ranking projects, and then I came back with the criteria, and at that point in time I had all other engineering staff look at the ranking and prioritization.

Um and everyone comes at it from a different point of view.

Um the traffic engineer in particular wants state street improvements, because that would give us the most benefit that we would have to our community.

Uh it's my my opinion that I'd want a state street improvement to happen, but on previous conversations that we've had with the DOT, they have been unwilling to look at that as a corridor that they want to invest in until we take care of some of our roadways like 19th Street and some of the other corridors.

So for me, I would put State Street as a number one project.

If the DOT came and said we want to invest money in this corridor, City Can you participate, we would say yes, of course, that's great.

But based on our previous conversations that we've had with with the DOT, I don't anticipate that happening.

So therefore I'm prioritizing building 19th Street.

So some of those things I think are difficult to capture because there's not too many people that are involved with as many of the rationale that we put together to get the project list in place in the first place.

And so um, I guess that's what's my my long-winded answer, it'd be me and then some of our staff at engineering is who looked at the same time.

So were any of the community development planners involved?

Uh I'd say not directly.

Um directly, I did reach out to transit to understand how these criteria affects them and which projects and which corridors would be useful if there was a transit uh improvement for for bus routes in particular.

Uh but that's probably the extent of the engagement that I've had with other staff members.

And so I I don't the the list in general I don't have a particular concern with.

I just wanted to make sure I understood because as we move forward, I I do think there's going to be some movement.

Sure.

And that's and I'd say two mayor and commissioners.

Uh planning is an excellent job of bringing in engineering and bringing in public works when there are development inquiries about pieces of land so we know that something is happening.

So we're we're pretty tuned in to that because there is an infrastructure ask usually when that planning and development occurs.

So we're pretty tuned into the what those needs are as well.

Okay.

Anyone else have questions?

Go ahead, Commissioner Rish.

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor, Commissioners Gabe.

I'm looking at the prioritize group, and I'm wondering which ones are arterial and which one are local and collector streets.

Mayor Commissioners, Commissioner Rish, pull that one back up here.

I would say all of these, yep, all of these would be non-arterial roadways.

Non-RTR.

Yep.

Whether they're a local or collector, I'm not really making too much of a distinction between those.

Um we have a lot of collectors that have more traffic than arterials sometimes, and even some local roads that function as a collector.

So I don't make a big distinction between those two types, but none of these are the section line um arterial type roadways.

So we would anticipate special assessments for every single one of these if that is how how we move forward with this program.

Commissioner Hall.

Uh mayor commissioners uh gabe, I'm happy to see you know Arabian bucks get cold uh you know on your list, because I I remember when I canvassed there before, it's like the number one issue they had everyone had around there was complaining about the quality of the road.

You know, it's it's you know, county, you know, township style road where it's you know it's no sidewalk, it's just ditch, you know, they've got this beautiful nice walkway along Washington, but technically our kids have to walk in the street to get to it.

Uh so I know people complain, you know, or you know, had issues on arterials, you know, focusing on arterials with this half cent sales tax, which is fair.

But I I don't know.

I felt it's like the rest of the community let that part, that let that part of the community down where it's like they still have if you go a little over the speed limit, it feels like you're on roller coaster.

Not that I've ever done that off, you know, please chief.

Um but um I did have one question.

So you were talking this would be about you know 40 million, so four years.

So would you be coming back to us in four years to be like, hey, what's the next batch?

Or is this something we'd because you you mentioned the example of Fleet Farm where it's like, hey, this is an opportunity that came up.

So I wasn't sure how often we'd want we'd be approving projects.

Sure.

It's a good question.

Mayor and Commissioners, Commissioner Hall.

What I would envision is that this is the list, but before we take any serious actions, we would come back to the board for approval.

We would either say we are now here and we have um petitions from every single person that lives on uh Lee Avenue to build this facility.

So that the next step would be creating a district and would give us the opportunity to talk to this board about that action before it takes place before any really solid engineering development costs or or timelines are are are uh impacted.

Um I'd anticipate what I'm asking for is just approval that these are the types of projects we want to be pursuing initially, but really kicking off any one of these will involve additional commission action, especially because they would be special assessed and there would be a component like that that would have to be addressed.

Thank you.

And Commissioner, it could well be that 12 months from now, Gabe comes back to us and says I need to have a ticket take another look at this prioritization list because ABC or D happened in the community.

Commissioner Connolly.

And I think now that they are approved and that um just what you said, Mayor, is that it's kind of like the Tyler Parkway discussion.

As soon as it was approved of in 2018, that was always part of the conversation, even the ones not on this list are still always going to be part of the conversation.

And depending on what goes on with development, it's gonna move stuff up the list and what's down the list.

What I'd say right now is since we have another year for Tyler Parkway to be complete, and Ottawa's under um construction now.

Let the existing portion revenue catch us up to where we're not showing that debit.

Pay that off, and then go on into the next projects at that point.

So I I think actually by the time we finish Tyler Parkway, we aren't gonna be deficit because that's 2027, and the budget number is all inclusive of what is planned for 2027 spending on Tyler Parkway.

That's correct.

Mayor and Commissioners, um, is it I can go back to that slide here.

Would that still be the case if we uh figure in Ottawa?

Well, we would probably be pretty close because we probably have I mean, using those numbers, we're gonna have somewhere around four million dollars, give or take.

And that maybe stress too that the known revenue stream that is the sales tax to whatever degree we believe that that to be certain does provide an opportunity to front some of those costs initially.

I mean, you can see that even last year there was at the end of the 25 season, we were two million dollars in the whole.

But that's just for that small program.

There's other dollars available that the city can use to fund that improvement, so long as the half cent sales tax is the one that eventually funds that.

So there's ways to cash flow that that we've looked at as the organization.

And I mean this because there are obviously implications of waiting until we have 10 million dollars in the bank before we start a project that usually increases the cost, and it's now 11 million dollar project.

So for us to try to kind of be as well as we can, hovering right at that zero mark or near it, but not being afraid to go a little bit on the whole is kind of how we would want to proceed with with this program.

Answer your question, Commissioner?

No, that answers it.

I just don't like deficit spending.

Well, again, I I think if we truly look what's going to be spent in 2026, we're not going to be five million dollars deficit at the end of 2026, likely in this fund.

And I'll also state we have an advanced construction from our South Washington Street project that we'd anticipate the DOT writing us a check for another million dollars or so this year that's not recognized here yet because we haven't received the funding.

So there's all these are kind of in influx at some point in time, and that's how we're not uh uberly focused on getting to zero when that's kind of always a moving target, even the zero.

Are there other comments?

Um again, timing is still unknown on some.

I mean, Ottawa Street, I think is obviously something to address here, but we had a plan for how we're going to fund that already.

This would be altering that plan, correct?

That is correct.

And it would free up some of the one percent sales tax that was used for that particular project and replace it with then now this half cent sales tax that is more restrictive as well.

So do you want a motion?

Uh Mayor and Commissioners, if we could have a motion that would you know direct staff to further develop the projects here and come back prior to you know significant milestones or however you'd want to phrase that, I think would be perfectly appropriate.

Because we still wouldn't be actually taking an action on, for example, Ottawa Street, how much that additional share is going to cost.

We don't know that number for sure.

We have probably get a good pretty good idea on basically.

Correct.

Mayor and Commissioners, we would come back if this moves forward, we would come back with a new project budget that would show here's the you know 20 percent or so cost share that's special assessed and the 80 percent or so that would be um city funded, and then that would be the action that the city uh board of commissioners would approve.

All right.

Any other questions or comments before I ask what your wishes are?

Commissioners, go ahead.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, I'll move that we adopt the recommendations as presented, pursue the prioritize group and $50 million, all the stuff in the box at the end.

Second.

Further discussion.

Hearing none will call roll.

Commissioner Ish?

Yes.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

Gabe, thank you.

Yes, go ahead, Commissioner.

Do you want to be back?

Yes, please.

Gabe, could you come back for a second?

On all of these projects, communication with the citizen.

It was a large part of the discussion last year that I was part of, and I talked to a lot of citizens.

On projects as they come forward, could you add a public input meeting in the fall in addition to the spring one, right before projects begin?

Um Mayor and Commissioners, Commissioner Conley, I think we would develop a public engagement plan for each project specific to that project's needs.

Um I can't I can't say that that means that there's a fall meeting or a spring meeting or when when that will take place.

Um I'll say that some of these projects uh rely on a lot of input from the adjacent landowner, but maybe that's probably the main stakeholder we would want to engage with and the general public maybe isn't as engaged in that process potentially.

Um not to say that we wouldn't inform them or have opportunities to have them informed.

Um, but ultimately some of these are pretty straightforward.

It is we'll build this road, it's our typical city street, and it'll go from point A to point B, and that's really all that we're planning to do.

To what degree the board would want to have uh additional public engagement, that would be at your discretion.

But every project we would initiate would have some sort of um opportunity for that, whether it's at this sort of meeting when we create districts and go through those processes or through a special you know process where we are looking for input and trying to understand what are the needs of that particular corridor.

Um some of these we we think we have a pretty good understanding of the needs, and and our more immediate mission is just to communicate out what we're doing and what we're what we're what where these projects are going and what's being construction status, uh but the actual implementation or or the elements within that project um maybe are all that interested uh to the general public.

Well, something to work on, I wouldn't guarantee.

Otherwise, that will be an upcoming issue again.

Okay, anything else.

Thank you.

Item I is considered recommendation from me for the portfolio assignments and designation of vice chair for the board of city commissioners.

Um the the development of the assignments uh was through inquiries with Jason and Doug and myself to various department directors and and receiving some input also from I think every commissioner in one way or another at least provided some some desired results.

Um you'll do will notice if you look at the list from last year compared to this year.

There's it's it's like a consolidation, but it's really just putting under public work service that they have several sub-departments in there, but it's still one director, and so uh and same thing with uh public works operations.

So it probably makes it a little clearer.

It also kind of aligns with what our ordinance says there should be commissioners for in particular, and what uh kind of follows some other guidance.

So these were this wasn't just a blind shot.

It was certainly some uh fair amount of I don't know, probably three or four weeks worth of discussion and and consideration before it was developed.

And so uh that's my recommendation.

I ask what the commissioners wishes are.

Go ahead, Commissioner.

Commissioners, I'll move we approve the uh portfolio assignments as presented by the mayor.

Second, do we have discussion here and then we'll call roll.

Commissioner Dahl?

Yes.

Commissioner Connolly?

Yes.

Commissioner Hull?

Yes.

Commissioner Resch?

Yes.

Mayor Schmitz.

Yes.

We are to other business.

I'm gonna first ask the commissioners if they have any other business.

Commissioner Rish.

Do you have the advice to the You've made the mo you just made the motion?

That's all.

It's part of your portfolio.

Well, what the heck?

Does anybody as any do any of the commissioners have other business?

Commissioner Rick.

I almost always have other business.

I just want to welcome our new commissioners.

We've got two new commissioners.

I think they're really talented, ran good campaigns, and I just welcome aboard as we say in the railroad industry.

Okay.

Your $50 check is in the mail for saying that.

Okay.

Uh I am not paying you anything.

Is there any other business from okay?

I I have a request from Jason or to Jason.

We have a new team member.

Uh and I'm gonna let Jason introduce him and let him then introduce himself.

Yes, uh, mayor and commissioners, thank you for the opportunity.

As you recall, back on June 2nd, I believe it was, uh, the previous commission had a special commission meeting, and it was to accept the recommendation from the hiring committee to bring forward Ryan Score as the new finance director.

Uh that was a unanimous uh support on June 2nd, and Ryan's first day with us was last week, Monday, July 6th.

And I'm pleased to report that he is still here and has come back for week two.

Uh, but I would like to provide Ryan a little opportunity to introduce himself to you and perhaps answer any questions that you may have of him.

Welcome, Ryan.

Good evening, uh, mayor, members of the commission, as Jason mentioned, Ryan Score.

Honored to be here as your new finance director and and join the rest of this great City of Bismarck team.

Uh I also know that they put me at the very end of your agenda and ahead of probably lunch or dinner for a lot of us, and so I'll I'll be brief uh in what I have.

Uh western, northwestern North Dakota, born and raised.

Um my wife and I relocated to Bismarck about 15 years ago.

I spent a good chunk of that time with the state treasurer's office up at the Capitol doing uh director of finance work up there, and so I have good experience here in the community.

Um I think this position came along and it it seemed to very much align with my experience in my education and and what I've done here in the community already.

And so I I felt a good pull to this position and and was was honored when I was offered the position.

So like Jason said, I've been here for seven days now.

Uh I've met with and and interacted with a a number of the departments.

Uh I can say I've been generally very impressed with everyone I've met.

Uh I think the city's in a great spot.

I think we're we're poised to to continue growing, continue to prosper, move forward.

Um I look forward to and I've been working closely with the team.

I the team up in the fiscal and assessing area.

Um Allison and and Eric have been you know taking me under their wing, and I I can tell you I'm learning from the best.

Um Eric has been nothing but helpful, um, Allison the same way, uh, and I think I'm learning from the best as we go forward.

Um as we leave tonight, you know, if there's any questions you have, anything that you want to ask of the the finance department, please feel free to reach out.

I probably won't know the answer right away, but I think I'll I'll have that as a great excuse to learn right along with you guys uh and and make sure that I have that answer going forward.

So I definitely open it up to any questions.

Well, I just know you're drinking from the fire hose because budgeting season is a publicity.

100%, yes.

Anyone have questions?

Welcome.

Thank you.

Happy to be here.

Thank you for being here.

I'll ask one last guy.

Any other business?

Not we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.