Oh yeah, but they did swimming college now.

I put Mara and so maybe because she loves the water thinking.

No one loves swimming.

Everyone quits, you know.

So here we are.

It's okay.

Let's see.

We're going to have a lot of things.

She will be here in forever though.

Because you know, the Marin Morris era, I don't know.

She's a country singer.

Um so now she's learned.

So she will never she's very assertive, which is very true.

And she corrects everyone.

She went up to the swim meet guy to announce her at the swim meet up state because you know she was like they use finals and everything.

So there's her name a lot.

She finally went out too much three times.

Do you want me to write it down the other?

So she went through all of the events and wrote down more than like pulled 12 nice.

12 tomorrow.

Well, they announce everybody for that, you know, like finals.

Maybe they announce all their needs as they walk out.

Yeah.

And you could just see really settings.

Well, it's annoying.

She should correct it.

This is my moment.

Okay, let's go ahead and get things rolling here.

Call the meeting to order.

Uh Emily.

Take it away.

All right.

I don't have that long script, but we don't have any public attendees here.

So what I said last time for providing public comment.

I'll bring that next time.

I see if that I say that someone that is um some we're just watching it for someone.

They have it meeting out in the hallway.

Um let's see.

Disclosures from the board.

Nothing.

Changes to the agenda?

No.

Approval of minutes.

We have all of the minutes from the last year ready to be approved, so those are all there.

I'm not going to open each one.

Um, but I will be looking for a motion and a vote.

Did you slip any fast people in there?

I hope not, but you know, unless I missed something, but no, I had to go back and time re-timestamp all of them.

So I actually wrote them all, so I move approval.

Second.

Second.

And then I'll do a roll call vote again.

Eric Nelson.

Hi.

Elaine Inderland.

Aye.

Eric Bowman.

Aye.

Randy Scully.

Hi.

And Mark Kiki.

Hi.

Thank you.

Hi, Commissioner Magic.

Hi.

Hey, thanks for rushing over here from another meeting.

Absolutely.

All right.

Um, public comments.

We do not have anyone in the room and no one online.

Okay.

Did we have action items?

Um, we will be looking to approve our fiscal year 2027 budget and work plan.

With us is also a draft budget of fiscal year 28.

The city does it on a biannual budget or biannual cycle.

Um, there's time to amend this, which we will when we set the assessment for next year, but you will see just a kind of rough numbers for fiscal year 28.

We reviewed everything in detail at last meeting.

Um slight change that I made was a $500 increase to the DBA support.

Um cash has been meeting with her board, and they requested just that slight increase, which $500 doesn't seem like a lot, but it really makes all the difference for them when they're kind of crunching numbers um into all their final programming.

Um just to highlight and give a brief review.

The idea assessment that I'm proposing is 29500,000.

Um management fee increase to 89,000 from 825 over last year.

Some of the other items that are staying in here.

Umtown safety program expressed interest in continuing to work on this.

We don't have any current projects that are in the pipeline.

Ellie and I had a meeting with Detective Hutchins with Bozing PD and then Quincy Balius, who is the communications and engagement manager for Pose and PD neighborhood services and fire.

Um just to kind of keep the conversation going of having a dedicated downtown resource officer.

Detective Hutchings express they are still working to fully staff up just even their patrol units and all of their um sworn-in officers.

So keeping the conversation going with them.

We know that this is going to be you know, kind of a long-term goal of having a dedicated downtown resource officer.

Um if any projects or opportunities come about, we do have that money in in the pot to put towards that.

Other things to highlight, um, the hazmat cleanup, which we is a new line item this year for $2,000.

That is to call it a day spring restoration to clean up any um hazmat items that come up once in a while, probably at least like twice a year, it happens.

Um that is just for the line items, and then that 295,000 assessment using this year's taxable value would put um us right here at scenario two.

So, two two per taxable dollar value.

Emily, back on the public safety thing.

Yes.

We've talked about that a lot over the years, whether there's an appetite for the police to put somebody downtown more regularly.

Are they give us a little more kind of colored perspective on their interest in helping us with that?

Sure.

So um, like I said, they said that before they're going to add any new positions to the force, they have to currently fulfill all of their vacancy positions.

Right now they're about 10 officers short.

Um they have about 70 to 72 officers on staff.

They have funding for up to 80, they're hoping to get to 82.

Um, when we spoke to um Swanson and Andy Knight last, it's probably been about two years now.

They said, you know, the same thing, they have to get fully staffed.

This might be something in the pipeline for five, six years from then.

Um so that is kind of just current staffing.

The um Detective Hutchins yesterday said that he's going to connect us to the new, is it the lieutenant patrol officers?

Is that it?

Yeah, control attend.

Um, and they are also changing their um their shift times.

So they're gonna be starting their second shift earlier.

So there's gonna be an overlap between two to five p.m.

is when most officers are gonna be just out on patrol in Bozeman.

He said there's an opportunity to work with the patrol lieutenants to kind of do more rounds, whether that's in their car or maybe they would have the opportunity to be on foot since that's when the most officers overlap.

Um that wouldn't necessarily come from our safety program funding, um, but that was kind of just a change and an update on possible additional officers presence uh being present downtown.

Um I guess that's the update as far as um an actual dedicated downtown officer.

So this 15 grand wouldn't really make a dent in payroll expenses towards that.

So my thought is having this line item if there's addition, you know, like we talked about before, any additional lighting, cameras, that this is kind of where that pot money could come into play.

Yeah, I'm nice that there's an overlap with probably two to five is probably not the time of high crime in the downtown.

Probably better if we could get them from you know eight to midnight or eight to two or something in the evening.

But is there do you get a sense there's anything we could do to kind of encourage them, help them kind of accelerate the timing of that four or five years?

Seems like a long time to wait to have.

I mean, I think we're maybe just at the mercy.

I I I don't know.

I don't have that answer.

There was anything he said that really sounded like they need to fill the current positions that they have that are vacant.

Do you know of the you kind of describe the scheduling?

Is it is it true that we have they have dedicated officers for those beats?

So are that the is it the same person that they schedule every time or are they moving those people around?

I'm not sure.

If there was an opportunity to try and at least get somebody who was very familiar with all of that, that kind of became our guy or our gal, whoever that is, that seems to be as probably as close as we'll ever get, and to the extent that we either make a place for them or you know, promote that that's that person, or you know, that seems to be the best angle rather than we're never gonna, we won't be able to substantiate enough funding.

They're never gonna fill the 10 people that they're should.

I don't, I mean, I I don't I'd be surprised if we're that far short, they're gonna they're gonna lose four people in the time it takes to get 10.

So I would think that our our best angle is to find the identify the person that is that person, see or that maybe there's two people and see if they can we can become more familiar with them.

Maybe they could spare a half hour or something, come talk to us, be like, hey, this is our person, voice what our concerns are, how can we communicate to our constituents what they are concerned about with that to them, so that there's a just a better line of communication might be the better route than trying to say we'll fund you know a no a new position or something.

Absolutely.

Um just make sure that we're not glossing over the fact that you know the police force is uh down uh 10 or whatever it is.

Fill in those positions that part of the problem too, if the force was fully staffed, they're still down.

And adding enough money to the budget to fully staff our police for just has been problematic.

We had the uh um public safety bond issue fail what was that a year and a half ago?

Um so there have been uh efforts to try to get the force fully um employed and staffed, but uh uh with our rapid growth, there's that gap.

And I think that is gonna be the case for some time.

We're gonna have that gap and the police forwards are having to go out and you know, deal kind of with our most extreme cases.

We're getting a lot of pressure right now to uh um do traffic enforcement.

So uh uh we've got two cops dedicated to traffic enforcement, but just to let you know that it's a bigger you know problem than just being I will also mention just um as we talked through this.

I think there's always been interest from them to move towards helping us and getting a dedicated officer.

I mean, they're they never want to say no to us.

It's just that there seems to be always something that kind of pushes it off.

And this makes sense now.

Um, because I think at one point it was like one to two years, and now it's like three to four years, or you know, that sort of thing.

And I think it's always based off getting the whole um police force fully staffed, which I think right now he said 73 employees, and they need 81 or something like that.

So they have a very specific number they need to get to, and I think over the years they've reached it, and then they need more, and then they reached it, and then they need more kind of scenario.

So it's like there's been a couple times that they've been really close to being able to say yes to us, and then things kind of get thrown off.

So if that helps with a little more explanation, the other part of it is um there are now two um patrol lieutenants.

So there used to be one patrol lieutenant patrol lieutenant, which would be our main contact, especially for events or if we have you know, kind of immediate type of situations that that we need um, you know, response, which has become more important over the last couple of years with the police and fire station not located downtown, right?

We need to think about things a little bit more in advance than just giving them a call and having them run down.

Um so now we do have access to two lieutenant patrol patrol lieutenants, so I think that will be a great scenario knowing that one of those two patrol lieutenants is on um call at all times, and that wasn't the case before before now.

So it's a little more info.

Yeah, so Emily, you mentioned that those funds would be used for um cameras and maybe some other um lighting.

Uh how about life safety in the specifically I'm thinking um like an AIDs.

Um we I don't know how many businesses have them.

We're um maybe there's a program that we can work with some of the downtown business owners where some of these funds can help with some of the costs.

I think they're $1,500 for each one, and maybe we just figure out where we think we want to have a position in our downtown to help anyone who's in need.

Okay.

Um I'm not sure if that would we can those funds can be allocated for something like that.

I suppose it could.

I would we currently have a grant program that covers those costs.

Um they're generally new, you know.

So like like AD, so oh later.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I haven't looked into that, but that is something we could definitely look into.

I would think that maybe they would have to be located somewhere publicly, maybe not in a business, but I'm not sure.

I could look into that.

Yeah, they can be any, they can be in a business.

They always I mean, problem is businesses are open only during weekdays, nine to five.

You don't have the opportunity on a weekend.

So maybe there's other places they can be right.

Parking garage or yes.

Yeah, any of the public places.

And then anyone problem is that cases are always left open.

So but they do have an alarm on them.

So if someone does grab and open the door, they're supposed to be supposed to notify someone that there's an emergency.

It also hopefully prevents someone from taking the equipment.

But that's the only concern about having them in a public place.

But that way you'd have 24-hour coverage with AIDS.

So that's okay.

Commissioner.

Would it be possible for the commission to have a conversation about maybe there's some reprioritization of funding that could be directed toward the safety and police department that maybe there's another area that could be reduced a bit and go toward that.

And is my second question is there a problem in finding people to apply for these positions, or is it just funding?

Um good questions.

I would say in general, you know, we all know this is an expensive place to live, so it's a very difficult place to, you know, hire, particularly for lower salaries.

Um then as far as the commission, we allocating budget.

Uh we've got budget discussions coming up uh the next couple of months.

Um so that's our opportunity.

Like I said, a lot of pressure to put more uh troops out on the streets, uh traffic enforcement, so I know that's a priority.

Um but yeah, uh we always look for people to participate.

Our budget process very often we don't get participation, so that would be a great thing to kind of weigh in on at the time.

Umily had a question for you on our the budget for the marketing.

What do we spend those dollars on?

This the 30, the three grand, 35.

That is sent to that goes to the downtown bosom partnership.

So that is general marketing just for downtown Bozeman.

So we have um kiosk spare brochure space at the airport that we pay for.

We have the four street lamp banners that are hung from our little street lamps at the base of the escalators.

Um annual report, annual report, website, upkeep.

Um just the three big ones.

Okay.

And on the graffiti contracted for removal, it looks like that went down.

Is that because we have less of it, or what's that?

I'm gonna be cautious.

I'm gonna say as of now, yes.

Um I we had budget seven grand.

It's yes, knocking wood so far, less, so I dropped it down a bit.

Um that's something, you know, if it was ever, that's not something that we would just leave up just because the budget's short.

I know you guys would all approve to have additional spending to take care of it.

So yeah, just a little bit less.

I also wanted to um just make a mention that Commissioner Magic, after our last board meeting had um mentioned that the library has been contracting with Invictus Security Group.

Um I did send an email to Susan Gregory at the library, but I haven't heard back yet.

But there is possibly an opportunity that maybe we could cost share with having a security guard, it wouldn't be Bozin PD.

Um, but that was just another idea that Commissioner Magic had mentioned that um maybe they're able to be at the library and then maybe do a lap downtown again.

Our current budget wouldn't get us too far.

We use Invictus for our events for um downtown for Christmas troll and music on Maine.

Uh but that was just something else I wanted to mention that kind of came up after our last meeting.

Two also um quick follow-ups.

Uh uh Anthony Hutchins um with police department detective, right?

He um did a presentation to the commission.

And I think he would be willing to share that with us if you all were interested.

And he did mention a lot about you know, just percentages of you know, decrease or increase of of different crime and crime rates and and that sort of thing.

He was very assertive about telling us that that crime that they're seeing in downtown is um is waning, that they've seen a de a very specific decrease in downtown.

Um we talked through traffic um issues.

We feel like we've seen an increase in in traffic issues specifically in downtown.

We know around town, um, but if you look at some of the actual stats, that's not necessarily the case.

Um so I I think I'll I'll reach out to Anthony and see if he can share that because I think that was some some pretty good discussion.

The other thing in this a little bit off off the ideas, but um kind of brings us back to safety in our community is um the commission has also um approve their commission priorities for the next fiscal year.

And I think they're I think you all will enjoy reading them.

They're a little bit more broader, they're um a little bit more on based on sense of place and and community you know, health and and and welcoming nature and safety and and things like that.

So I'll get those from you, or actually commissioners.

You've already been shared fisher.

Oh, you guys have already gotten those.

Okay, never mind.

Thanks, Emily, for sharing.

Yeah, but I if you have a minute, um, go back and review those.

I think um I think it's a a good way to look at priorities as opposed to being very specific, they're a little more broad and certainly in a welcoming in nature.

So additional thoughts or questions on budget or work plan or assessment rate.

Can you scroll down to the the tax rate piece of it?

Oops, wrong maps.

So this is this budget would presume scenario two?

Correct.

What are we what's the assessment rate to date?

We are um that actual the far left column.

2.5.

The 280.

So a little increase.

When do we get the actual taxable value of the district?

It's usually wrapped up when is that sometimes it's into the fall.

So that assumes if you know a flat taxable rate to mark.

So the rate may not actually go up, depending on where it comes back.

I don't know if it's where we sit with this in this conversation, but um I know that we've had in the past discussions about the future of the TIFF and what that means overall and where maybe it's not this year, maybe it's you know, years ahead, but if there was an ability to kind of get ahead of some of that, um and I don't know what you know this board's role is in taking on any of those particular projects, whatever they may or may not be.

But as I look at the budget, and you have you know our actuals are at a you know, what was it, 117,000, 19,000 or something?

And then we budgeted 140.

Like you did a great job on controlling costs, and obviously our expenses weren't as high as what you expected.

I my head was in a was thinking more about being much tighter on that on what you're doing to project what the budget is.

You know, and you know, be reasonable, but increase the contingency so that's our rollover number, and that rollover number might begin to build and escalate over time as we can maybe and maybe be more specific about identifying what these other future things we might want to maintain funding towards and start building that and building that nest egg, if you will, for what those things might be.

So the idea would be in this year's budget, for instance, where you saw um you know, decreases, or you were you know, you kind of you know across the board, it's all just generally increased, save for the graffiti.

Um maybe there's a way to look at that and say, hey, I think we can be at 34,000 for the flower expense.

We'll try that again.

Just increase the contingency, we'll still cover the budget.

We won't be upside down there, but we will see a bigger number start to accrue over time that could get bucketed back into a future project allowance of some kind.

Like a URD project, more infrastructure, or you think he just I'm thinking as it's starts to transition out, what things that they might be paying for that this board is taking for granted is happening already that we would be happy if to start to tackle.

Sure.

Like street lamp repairs, street editing.

Well, I I can chime in and let you know that I think we'll be in a good place to bring some of these ideas back to you for the approval of next fiscal year's budget.

We are, I'm gonna go going into a downtown realm um program where we essentially look at what projects can we complete, what projects aren't going to be complete, and what's the future of really just capital improvement projects and infrastructure and projects in downtown, and then what portions are either passed on to the city or we request the city to fund those through a different, you know, by way.

Um, what could be funded through a revolving loan phone loan fund with the remaining portion of the TIFF, um, and then what what needs to be passed on to city CIP, um BID maintenance is is more really the the focus, but I believe we'll be in a good spot to do that.

I have not determined who is doing that work for us.

Um that's really what we're what we're getting through right now is who are the experts who can really take us through this process.

Um we do want to keep in mind our current downtown plan.

Um, so somewhat of a uh taking our downtown plan as well as a downtown round plan and and wrapping it into one.

So we have plans and and actually um Commissioner Fisher has been um of great advice to to move this forward.

So we're we're working on it.

So I think where we'll be is at the end of this you know upcoming fiscal year to kind of come back and say this is what our our ideas for for the ID is, and then you know, you guys might have to attack that from there, whether that's you know, uh a new resolution to either higher the assessment rate.

I don't know for sure if that's where you'll go, but um, but I think you'll have a better picture of where you might need to go.

Do you need resources financial or otherwise to do that?

No, not currently.

Um, we have that belt into our our um URD budget right now.

So hopefully we will have that in hand to come back.

I I will say that building in a contingency um, at least from a maintenance perspective, will likely not be a bad bad idea.

I don't think that um we will be leaning into the BID when we formulate this plan for permanent infrastructure changes and and you know, things like that.

Um I'm not sure if that's you know appropriate, but I do think thinking about maintenance and some of those things is is certainly appropriate.

I think I think what we asked at the partnership level was that they go through this process and then come back to the idea of like, you know, here's the asks of what this is gonna look like going forward, and I would see that being part of our next uh reinstallment of the BID district, which happens in 2029 or 2030.

2030 will be working on it.

So we'd have to go through it in 29 of getting everybody and going out and saying, okay, here's what this is gonna look like.

Gotcha.

Um here are the things that we're gonna need to do with the TIFF being or the URD being gone now, and when everybody votes on that, they'll vote as that as part of that.

And that may mean the assessment goes up to 0.32 or something, right?

So that we can encompass some of these new costs.

And so I think that's a good way to approach it is at that time and sort of communicate that like here here's what's gonna here's what the PID is gonna look like going forward, and here's why.

And are we on board with that?

Okay.

And I think we'll be in a good place to also have you guys plan accordingly in the way of per you know projects that need to get done and potential you know, an assessment that is you know, like a special assessment or a consistent assessment.

So all in all on our minds.

But yes, you guys will have to renew as well, and I do think that that will be also an opportunity to make any large large changes then.

And also just to note that any of our money that we're saving over the year, we have it just in our just in our checking account and then our uh CDs.

So we have as of right now, I forgot it didn't attach, but we have close to $300,000 just in our quote unquote reserves between our checking account and CD.

So that is not necessarily earmarked for any projects, but that is you know, still our funding that we're able to put towards projects.

Is there a uh I mean that's a pretty substantial sum.

I mean, that's almost a whole year's worth of operation.

Is there any sense of how we would I mean if we if we all just sit here and just accept it that it just all the you know $30,000, $40,000 every year rolls over into it, eventually we'll be sitting on a pretty big amount of money.

And I just I'm wondering what we should be thinking about that.

I mean, it's it's certainly at a size that we should either project focus it or return it, or I mean it just it doesn't make sense that it we just continue to.

I mean, that's a nest egg for sure.

I didn't I didn't even think about that one.

But well, I think it has served you all really well in the past for other specific you know, projects or capital improvements.

So whether it's buying a new truck or buying a new mule, now it's those aren't 300,000 expenses, but that's I guess that's where I'm thinking is that you know, in the in the realm of you know 50 to 150, it feels like that's a number that you can kind of cover stuff that might happen.

You get north of 300 into the 500,000 dollar range, it's a number that like it's more than an emergency fund.

Yeah, it's definitely accumulated over the years.

I know we kind of talked about having like one year's of at least operation costs kind of in our savings or at least in a CD.

So it has absolutely grown over the years.

Um if I recall part of that thought process at the beginning of that reserve account was looking forward to the sunset of the URD.

Sure.

So that we would have funds to take care of future projects as well, projects operations, right?

Future improvements to your point.

Right, whatever, whatever the so we already put that in place as a savings to work forward.

I I guess the the bigger piece to me, and some of it's just advocation for myself, but is what do we want to do with it?

I mean, is it if it's truly like, hey, we just think it's for that, that's a great idea.

That could be, but I I think we should be mindful that we should be deciding what to do with it, not that it just continues to grow at a rate that's like so.

If somebody were to ask you, like, what are you guys doing with half a million dollars in your account?

You're like, well, I don't know, we were gonna throw a party, but we decided not to.

Or whatever it is that we have an answer for, I guess.

But it is, I mean, is that the is the is the notion that that's what it's for that we would just a year's worth of operation?

That seems like a reasonable.

I think it was sort of half and half, right?

The program expenses are 150,000 a year.

So I think initially we thought, okay, we we'd like you know, a six-month runway if we have if our budget didn't go through or whatever, we don't even think come to a screeching halt.

Right.

Um, but then yeah, now we've obviously rolled beyond that for a number of years and we're up another 150.

Maybe that's a future discussion for another meeting, and then you're gonna be able to do that.

And does that does that 300 include the 37 rolled in?

Yeah, okay.

No, this is yeah, just off the assessment.

All right.

But yeah, security and lighting, I think, is a you know, I think we talked about that at one point, right?

Uh maybe getting some help for the police department of where they'd want cameras and we thought that.

I mean, it needs to be a you know, a one-time infrastructure type thing, obviously.

Yeah, or I think the other option is to come up with a safety program that you would fund out of the reserve for a certain number of years until you felt like you had you could fit it into your regular budget.

Okay.

Yeah, we've had a hard time coming up with projects to spend it, right?

Like we're like it's easy to come up with programs, but they're ongoing, and that needs to be in the budget.

You know, we looked at plowing washing sidewalks and plowing sidewalks and plowing the alleys and all that's ongoing every year, and that doesn't really solve the reserve problem.

Yeah, or if there's a program that needs you know, like you know, like even like with the security and cameras and stuff like the ongoing maintenance cost, which seems to be pretty minor, but yeah, that would land in programs we could adjust our budget for that.

Sure.

But maybe just the the outlay to put the cameras in and you know, or something like that.

And all the hardware costs, obviously.

Yeah, and we could start to you know it it maybe is is wise to digest this with along with all of the information we'll get from the URD to say what are these bigger programs that you know, oh gosh, we're gonna need to have an allowance for you know the city won't take care of street lights anymore, and we're gonna have to do that.

Exactly.

Somebody will have to, whatever that is.

I mean, it's more just an awareness of what you know, as it when we're hit these budget discussions that we know that a more fulsome picture of all of the stuff we've got.

And there needs to be coordination too with city CIP funds, MBT, you know, long-term funds.

So all of these I think will have to be part of the bigger discussion.

Yeah, maybe in the next round of budgets, just talking more broadly about what we could be doing with our money, what our program should be, anticipating what's going to happen with the URDs gone, or that might layer in.

I mean the reality is we could spend $300,000 on a heartbeat if we if we put our mind to it, you know, just keeping the alleys clean would would take a big big chunk of that.

In the next budget round about kind of aligning with the URD sunsetting and I guess too, and trying to figure out you know what is there a need that somebody like the commission have a need, like does the police department have need just asking some of the you know, our community members, hey, we're not totally sure what to do with this.

Is there a need that you know of that we're not aware of?

Free downtown Wi-Fi.

Well, right, yeah, that was that popped up in my head too.

We talked about that at one point actually.

We had bids for that at one point.

I mean, I think there's probably a lot of really interesting ideas that we could we could explore maybe you know, that's part of the process in addition to knowing kind of the what was it?

Was it Commissioner Krause is always saying about how you have to eat your vegetables?

Like the the URD could tell us what our vegetables are supposed to be, but we could dream a little bigger about what we want to do and come up with ideas over this next you know, between now and then.

Well, I can tell you just from a safety perspective that the URD is also focused on trying to solve some of these issues with pedestrian safety because you know this is a top topic really right now.

Um, and so um, you know, blinking lights on some of the pedestrian areas or talking about you know raised crosswalks and and things like that.

So um there might be some avenues or partnerships.

I think our intention really meeting with Anthony and Quincy was do you have any projects for us?

You know, is there a way that we can do that?

And I mean, there was some discussions about that.

Pedestrian safety definitely came into play, which is really more of a URD role, but there could be you know some additional education.

Um that seems like it's maybe one of the hottest issues currently in downtown from a safety perspective.

That the late night scenario is a little bit less of a concern, and it's you know, more about traffic control, um, you know, congestion, pedestrian safety.

Do you guys have a you're probably closer to it on the downtown plan?

Were there any kernels in there of ideas that would say, hey, these would be a great nexus between what our constituents would care about, like oh, this would help you know promote business, this would help do these other things or make the environment better for business or better for the real estate that we the owners that we have.

Is there anything in that that would say, hey, there's three or four little missions or ideas that can came up that we we could talk about or look at too that might be another source of ideas.

I mean, I think first thing that comes to mind is kind of just you know, beautification in general.

Yeah.

So murals, sure.

URD takes care of Straptus Park and the North Black Pocket Parks.

Um I could see VID kind of you know playing into that with the maintenance, you know, our main seem there's general upkeep there, but that's really contracted out through the URD.

Um that's I don't know, kind of the first thing that comes to mind as far as downtown projects.

Pedestrian safety, you know, lighting, cameras.

I mean, those are just you know, the things that I know would help or have you know real impact.

I think from what we hear on a regular basis, what you said is what the priority is safety, lighting, cameras.

Yeah, so if we know that seems to be what we consistently hear is our priority for downtown, perhaps using that as a focus point and come up with ideas for those funds that serve that prioritize.

Well, is there category?

This is an interesting discussion because what you mentioned earlier about the conversation with the detective was that there is a misperception about the levels of crime that may be occurring in the downtown.

And so if we as business owners are concerned that the perception is about is negatively out there because downtown's not safe, perhaps more importantly, we should we should address the misperception first as opposed to pouring more money into safety projects that don't make sense.

So maybe I mean if that's true.

That's a great point.

I think my mind was kind of working on the right.

You know, you know, that's the perception that gets voisted out there mainly because it's such a hot topic to talk about.

But if you drive down there today, it's there's not a parking problem.

You know, this afternoon we could all go probably find a spot and go get lunch and be great.

So I think some of that is about trying to address the perception across, you know, even in the advertising or the marketing or whatever it is that we reach out that like you know these things are solved.

It is an easy place to get in and out and access and safe and whatnot.

It's been a while since we've pulled and kind of had new program discussions for the BID.

We talked about a lot during the renewal and shortly after, um, just with the allowance of how much we were able to up the assessment.

Um I think the things that, like Eric said, like kind of just checklist items like a new meal, replacing the flower baskets.

We ordered new banners, things like that.

So we kind of that's been filling our budget, we're doing the spider renovations over the last several years.

Um Garland will be ordered this year.

Um so I think it is just a good idea to kind of open up the discussion.

We can pull our property owners or not even just property owners, but all downtown stakeholders and have that discussion in tandem with the kind of URD sunsetting and what type of things is URD paying for that the BID would probably be easy, easy pickups for the BID and then some bigger projects too.

Yeah, I these are all great discussions.

And I do believe attacking some of these things from a perception and marketing side of things is is important.

Um, you know, we're we're doing that right now with the parking stuff, and we are hearing a lot of the perception things go back and forth, but we need to hear, you know, from people to get to that point.

Um I guess looking to you guys, when would you want to maybe have this bigger discussion?

Do you want to have kind of wait to have the URD kind of dissect the downtown plan and look at the URD sunsetting?

Do we want to have just a preliminary conversation with ourselves before then?

Did you mention uh URD at a presentation by the lieutenant in the police force?

I did, and I will share that.

I'll reach out to the street.

You can give us an idea of what the crime is like downtown, what is it an increasing, decreasing, and then that'll give us a kind of a start.

Like, well, maybe there's not as much of an issue as we thought, or maybe there is, and kind of give us some more information on how to react.

Maybe he could come to one of our future board meetings to give the presentation or the next two meetings or so.

But Emily, I think blowing up a bigger conversation about URD sunsetting, about safety, about priorities, about the downtown plan, all of that, and talking about where the bid fits going forward, this budget, the surplus we've accumulated, what future budgets look like, what things we ought to be anticipating taking on.

I think that bigger discussion, it's not urgent yet, right?

But it will be in a heartbeat.

When do you think the URD will have their kind of it probably won't be until well into the next fiscal year?

So we're getting the the um funds approved for the downtown round plan.

Um we'll start the process hopefully right at the start of fiscal year 27 or 27.

And um, I assume it'll be a multi-month you know process.

Um, my guess is that we will build heavily into the scope discussions with this board, with all of our boards with the city and and getting through that.

Um yeah.

So maybe we can start, you know, having the safety presentation from the detective and then um brainstorm if there's any other presentations or organizations we want to hear from, and then we have that larger conversation.

I mean, maybe before our budgeting.

So this year before budgeting, I think next year would be would be safe.

To me, and and you guys tell me if I if I have this wrong, we will get that report from um detective hutchings, and I think that will you know help us help guide us for some of the dollars with the downtown safety program that you guys are allocating, right?

So if you're comfortable allocating that 15,000, maybe these are discussions so that we can actually go into this fiscal year with that a dollar amount and have a program or project that it actually supports, and then maybe a full separate discussion, certainly involving safety and maintenance because that's BID about what are you know the BID roles and um duties and and true work plan for years moving forward within that URD public realm plan.

And like I said, there will be multiple chances for you all to weigh in.

Um, you know, when I'm looking at this downtown public rent plan, and mind you, I don't have the full scope, I don't have the full idea together.

Um, but a big part of it is direct coordination with the city, the BID, the DBA, you know, all of our true partners because everybody's gonna have to play a role.

So would it be helpful also?

We want to hear from our business owners and our downtown businesses and what they think they really need.

So maybe kind of the poll or or something, but instead of just us kind of spitfalling, it'd be really important for us to hear from a lot of a lot of our downtown.

Yes, we will basically pay someone to make sure that all the groups are heard and compiled.

Um, and you know, coming to the actual DBA board, um, maybe doing surveys, coming to you all, going out to our property owners, you know, I have a great line of communication with with everybody.

So I mean it's it's gonna it's gonna have to involve everyone.

Um the planning department, engineering department, uh, forestry, streets, you know, all of them are are gonna have to be part of this discussion.

They all um work, we work close closely with all of them.

All of them rely on URD funds, frankly.

Uh yeah, big discussion.

Can't wait.

I'm excited.

Yeah, I would guess the best thing would maybe it that sounds like that's a ways off for us to get a report that would say here's what the URD thinks you might have left over to manage.

Um but to the extent that we start to build um maybe it's just an ongoing kind of line item in the agenda that just says, you know, and the next next agenda is either this one or the following is with uh the presentation by the detective or something.

We just kind of keep informing ourselves, and maybe there's something, you know, rather than wait even for um this group that's gonna go out and do all this outreach.

It you know, we represent the these downtown property owners.

Maybe there's something we should do so that we know what the answer is to that question when they sit in front of us and say, hey, what do you guys want?

We're like, I don't know.

Maybe we should you know we'll just be we'll be flat footed if we don't maybe prep ourselves a little bit on what we see this.

Yeah, we can easily create just on our email server, and that can send it out when I do my VID memory boards.

So maybe it can just be an open open comment for the process of just you know, so maybe it's just it is an agenda item that we just sort of touch on each month and we kind of keep moving ahead and we make incremental steps with it.

You know, we're not in an urgent state, as you said, Mark, so we can kind of be thoughtful and move along, you know, without too much effort, hopefully.

I like the idea of getting a read on a general.

You have your email list for all of the downtown property owners who we represent in the VID.

If we could just do an email blast to them out of our own email list and just ask for their feedback, and then we could have it for either our next meeting or the following one.

They'd give us a bit of a temperature on what people are thinking out there.

And I will tell you, I do think I said I don't I really don't have my head around fully what this downtown public rum plan looks like.

I mean, I know what I want, I know what we need.

Um, I just don't have the full process together, but I do feel that we won't be able to get to the end of that line without pretty a very robust public outreach portion, and even down to surveying our property owners separate from our business owners and and how this really looks because you know one of the first thing well that's come out of some of the the parking um you know survey is some of the beautification stuff, you know, updating downtown parking lots, updating downtown signage, um, you know, things like that, and then clarifying who does that currently, right?

Um, you know, whether it's the city, whether it's the URD, whether it's BID.

So those are just some of the things that I think we're gonna have to be very, very specific about what we ask of this group that puts together this plan for us.

Um, because they're gonna have to go out and get information from you all and then connect it to who's actually doing that right now, right?

So there's gonna have to be some work, I guess, is is where I'm going.

And so yeah.

Sorry, got a little off track.

I didn't know where really sorry.

No, break up.

Yeah, thanks for the discussion, everyone.

Um I'll look for a motion and a vote or any amendments um as suggested by the board for the fiscal year 27 work plan and budget.

To give the final approval and then I still move.

I can pull up the motion.

Hold on.

Okay.

Oh my god.

So many.

Just right there.

Do you want me to say that?

Yeah.

I we have to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget and work plan.

I'll second.

Great.

I'll do another roll call vote.

Eric Nelson.

Hi.

Elaine Injun.

Aye.

Eric Bowman.

Hi.

Randy Schooling?

Hi.

And Mark Kiki.

Hi.

Great, thank you.

And Ellie and I will present our final work plan budget to the city commission on Tuesday, May 12th.

Last item, um, monthly director's report.

Oh, look, I already got it, May 12th.

Um, this year's Montana mainstream downtown conference will be held in Glasgow.

All four of us from our office will be attending.

That is at the end of April.

Um any of you are welcome to attend and join.

It's gonna be quite the hall.

We're gonna um stop in Lewistown overnight um the night before the conference to kind of break it up and check out their downtown.

Um, they always have reps from Lewistown at the conference, so it'll be a good time to check it out.

Um, Eho Peace project, you have probably noticed and hopefully you received our road closure update.

Um they are they've begun construction again.

The um partial parking lot closure, North Black and the one lane of Mendon Hall will be closed for the next four weeks.

We'll continue to send out updates if anything is played to go longer than that.

Um, and then the dedication ceremony for the uh eho Palmer Peace Park will be at August 14th, which is on one of our downtown artwalks.

So we're really excited about that for that project to kind of be in the last push and it'll be ready to go for this summer for everyone to enjoy.

Downtown parking survey, if you have not taken it yet, it will be open until March 30th.

We have been pushing this out through all of our um channels.

Um so if you have anyone else that you would like to share it with, please send it out to your contacts.

And uh we're looking really just to get as many responses and it's good by some.

Weird.

We're just gonna keep going with it.

Emily, did do you know if that went to everybody that has the downtown parking app?

Yes.

And I believe anyone that has received a citation from the city.

No, no, no.

We couldn't go there.

It was like 63,000 people or something crazy.

So they they couldn't go there, but all permit holders, um, so everyone who is I think everyone who is paid for parking in the parking garage, I believe.

Um, so they used all the smaller lists, the full citation list was not accessible, but it's gone out to a lot of people, and we currently have almost a thousand surveys um completed.

So we're like really hoping to hit that thousand the individual mark.

So let's see, Bozeman Creek Vision Plan.

The next round of um meetings will be April 6th and 7th.

We have um engage with property owners that are right along the creek, and that will be kind of one of the next groups that they're meeting with.

Um if you guys are ever interested in attending, I believe.

Are they all open to the public?

If you're interested in learning more about the creek or would like to attend any of the projects, um let Ellie and I know the group from Port is always open to meeting with different property owners.

Um, could I just back up really quick?

It might Mark, maybe you could Mark or Randy.

Could you give a a a quick update on um the federal building letter and and site and that sort of thing?

I I maybe you could just give a little bit of update.

Sorry to put you on the spot, but yep.

So not an expert, don't know all the information, haven't been in a long conversations.

Well that's my caveat to start.

But what I understand is there's sort of two groups, the GSA, the greater sort of government service agency, and then there's this appointed board that's making recommendations on excess government property.

And that board has apparently been receptive to the thought of including the federal building property in a potential excess property disposition and encouraged us, the city to express our interest if we thought that was a good idea.

So I think the city wrote a letter.

And then we collaborated to pull some downtown property owners together to write a letter.

So all those letters went a couple weeks ago.

And we got a you know, thank you for your thank you for writing your letter letter.

Um, but I don't think we have a real good sense of timing.

It sounds like, and again, I'm kind of reading Teley's different things, different people told me that GSA is going through this analysis of do we need the building as the government?

How much of the space would we occupy?

How critical is it to us, who's in it now, who could be consolidated into it?

Is it a critical government access asset?

That they think kind of late spring, maybe June, they'll have a sense of whether or not it is, which would then inform the conversation of whether or not it then could be access, which case potentially it could be disposed of.

So it's kind of moving at the pace of the federal government.

Um the good news is it seems that if they do decide it's access, and it is gonna be disposed of.

That's processable unclear.

But the city could say yes, we want it.

And but the city doesn't necessarily have to be the buyer.

They could sort of say we're gonna want it, we're gonna buy it, we're gonna control it, and then they could have a process to move it to public private partnership or to a private buyer under a certain city determined set of criteria.

And so all that kind of down the road to be determined.

But it it appears that it's slowly moving towards the decision of is it or isn't it?

And then if it if it is available, then what would that process look like in certain?

So it's it's all kind of unclear on process and timing, but appears to be generally going in a positive direction.

Yeah.

And um well said.

Yes, well said.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mark.

So I don't know, anyway.

It is a little a little wild, but that building would be I hate dare say I don't want to utter these words, but that building would be considered historic, would it not?

Like you'd have to keep it.

Like it's over 50.

So that's the that's the threshold that I'm I'm certain it would land in that category.

Yeah, I think it's 1970 era.

So but that means that yeah.

I'm just I I throw it out there as just like uh uh an unperceived hurdle of what the visioning becomes of that put that thing.

But it is in very good condition.

Well, thanks, Eric, for bringing that.

Yeah, I know I'd love it.

I think it's beautiful that you know Santa landed there in a helicopter in the 70s.

It's cool.

Well, I will just wrap up that discussion real quick and just let you know that David and Britt um have been designated to discuss um you know the future of that property with GSA and um you know send these letters and and work on behalf of the city from there, um, which is great because it is out of the URD district.

So we've had kind of some restrictions on what our role and and how we can and play into that.

So um so they're working away at that at the same time that we are from a URD working away on um establishing blight um in that area.

So we're not sure if it's that parcel or surrounding parcels, um, but we are going to go into a contract to um work towards establishing blight so that we are doing our due diligence from our end while the city does their due diligence um from the from the JSA and sales um perspective.

And I think um, you know, we're it's if this opportunity um you know allows itself, we we we're we feel like we're gonna be ready.

So that's our wrap parking.

Uh that's really all.

We have we can release time.

I just I also wanted to mention Did you share the letter that David Lose sent with the I submitted to public comment to the city?

So it's on comments out of public.

I was just asked to make sure it got into the records.

It did into the records, yes, and then I re I forwarded the actual column that you had shared with me.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else have any lighten the parking discussion by letting you all know that through this MSU strategic planning process that the number one concern from students on campus is parking as opposed to education?

All right, that's all we got.

Wellager, thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

Since we were already off the