6 2025 to order.

Clerk, could we please have roll call?

Ten present, two absent.

Ten present, two houses.

Please note the Commissioner Fisher and Commissioner Anderson are absent from tonight's agenda.

Um Commissioner Walker, could you leave us in the prayer and the pledge?

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under Godisible with liberty and justice for all.

Next we'll move on to any public comment on any item on tonight's agenda.

If you'd like to speak on any item on the agenda, please come forward.

State your name, your address, and what number you'll be speaking on.

And then I've got a um you got three minutes.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm Pam La Kraust, 3189 South Rocker Road.

Teresa Duffy, 2991 HECLA.

And we are speaking on Do you want to pull the mic close to you?

There you go.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Uh communication 2025-370.

And um Deputy County Attorney Aaron Reigns has a handout for all of you since our time is limited.

Um we are asking for a raise.

Um and how this came about, we're non-union, so um we're doing this ourselves.

We um so how this came about, Matt, our boss and Ruth came to us with a spreadsheet that he had and showed us new numbers of what our salaries would be.

And um I confirmed with him at that time if you know those were already approved, and he thought yes, they were.

Then a couple weeks later we found out that they weren't, and then those amounts were removed before even hitting the preliminary budget.

So we are speaking with you guys today to ask for so the numbers Matt showed us would have been three dollars and twenty-five cents an hour.

So we thought that would be fairer than to ask for three dollars an hour.

It's for Pam Laurie and myself in the office.

Um if you would please take a few minutes to review the handouts.

It has different information from surrounding counties.

We are a lot lower than other counties in our area.

It has um the breakout of three dollars an hour for the three of us.

It has uh the job duties.

Now the job duties is several pages long, and it actually does not cover all the so this it these job duties were for the um study that was done, the market analysis.

We have had more added to our plates since then, so um it's even longer now.

Uh we do feel like we work hard and would deserve a raise at this amount, and we are just asking for support um from all of you to help us bring it back into the budget.

And being that we aren't union, you know, we're we're not represented or anything.

We really haven't had anybody that could go to bat for us, so we thought we would take it upon ourselves and just it it can't hurt to ask.

I mean, you know, it's we've been working really hard, we've had double the felonies.

I mean, we went from 200 a year to 400 a year.

It's all in that handout, but um our our duties have significantly significantly increased in the last couple years, and we keep you know, we're we're just trying to look out for ourselves.

I mean, we know we're we show up for work, we work really hard all day, we're here from eight to five.

There's always one of us in our in that chair every single day.

And we love what we do.

So um our office, as you guys most probably know, we deal with um homicide, attempted homicide, molestation and incest, um, mental commitments, child porn neglect, animal abuse, and the list goes on.

We deal with all of it in our office.

It's not just the attorneys.

We also um, you know, see this stuff, read about this stuff, and we put the trial exhibits together, the trial notebooks, you know, and so we're exposed to everything.

And we do a lot in the office for our attorneys and just ask for some consideration on um our requests.

We just appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any other public comment on tonight's agenda?

Mike Clegg, 124 Rampart.

I'm here to also support the administrative assistance in our office.

They're the first people that people that have been seriously abused deal with in our office.

They're the ones that are the first person that abused wife comes to talk to.

And they are the first people to talk to them.

The administrative assistants, they will have to deal with the raging alcoholic whose drugs whose car has been booted or impounded because they can't drive.

And every time over the last 25 years that when somebody comes to our office needing help or just wants to be angry invent, the administrative assistants do that.

They treat the public with grace, with humility and kindness.

And they deserve every opportunity to be compensated for what they do.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Clay.

On the budget, I sent you an email, JP.

I have all the support for these ladies.

I believe they're probably the hardest working people in the county.

So I do think consideration should be given them to them for a raise.

Thank you.

Is there any other public comment?

Um, County Attorney.

I I don't think you can step aside from your job and then be part of the public.

Understood.

Okay.

Thanks.

But I understand where your position is.

I did receive your email.

Okay.

Is there any other public comment on any item on the agenda tonight?

Seeing none, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes for the July 16, 2025 regular meeting.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

At this time, I'll make a motion that we approve the regular meeting minutes of July 16th, 2025.

Is that we have a motion and a second to approve the July 16, 2025 minutes?

Is there anything on the question?

Could commissioners please vote.

And would anyone like whoops?

I think we're missing a couple there.

Commissioner Walker, there you go.

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

Ten years, zero name.

Tenye, zero name.

Motion passes.

Moving on to items not addressed on the agenda.

I don't believe we have any that are not uh addressed on the agenda tonight, so we'll go on to the chief executive's report.

Um just kind of want to talk about in Friday, August 1st.

I received a call from uh Chief Executive Bill Everett from Anaconda requesting Butte Silverbows and Mutual Aid over Tanaconda under the uh the um mutual aid that we have with Anaconda Deer Lodge.

Um that that phone call didn't even need to happen because before I needed to call Sheriff Lester, Sheriff Lester and his department were already on it.

Um the tragic events that happened in a community are one that that none of us would ever want our community to go through.

Uh Anaconda and Butte are so tied just in our history and uh the people that that live in our communities that are friends, their neighbors.

Um I'm so proud of our department, Sheriff Lester, and and the response that Butte Silver Bowl did for Anaconda and uh uh chief executive ever to reach back out and express that to me as well.

Uh I talked to Sheriff Lester over the time.

Um our our uh police force, our tactical squad team, our bear cat.

Um our our uh our police force, our tactical squad team, our bear cat, they've all been over there nonstop over this time, and um, you know, uh I've got to give some credit to the to the governor as he came and declared um and provided funding for communities that are they're sharing that responsibility.

I was gonna come to this council tonight and say um no matter what the expense was, I was gonna we were gonna look to amend the budget to make sure that we cover the costs that were associated with that because Anaconda Deer Lodge or other communities of our size just don't have those type of resources to be able to pay for the resources that needed for that response.

But I will give credit to uh Governor Giamforte to release funds to to provide those services for them.

And so I just want to say our prayers go out to Anaconda Deer Lodge.

Um it's tragic events that nobody ever uh wants to deal with in their community and and uh it's it's a sad day for them.

And I'm as we even heard with our our county attorney's office, people deal with tough stuff that the they still stays with them.

So um I I just uh wish everyone in Anaconda and all those associated that are affected by this that our thoughts and prayers are with them from Bute here.

Um other things I just kind of want to talk about as as many as see the windows are being replaced in in the courthouse.

We're gonna be under construction.

I think maybe by the next time we have our meeting up here, the window up here will be replaced.

So all the west side windows will be done here soon.

And it will be a phase project of doing all the windows.

It's a it's a big task order, uh, expensive task order, but we'll continue to do that project here.

Um as you may see the bathrooms.

Um I'm kind of disappointed Commissioner Fisher is not here because this is his uh his project that he wanted to make sure that we got done, but the bathrooms on the second floor and the third floor are being remodeled as well.

And we found some very interesting artifacts in the behind the walls in uh in there, and some that uh uh not appropriate to share and some uh things, but it a lot of history that was uh left in the walls of the courthouse that now are with the archives, and and so even some of the the uh I guess the the booklets that we found are historical in nature.

One was the year that I was born, so it's uh it goes that far back.

So um that's uh that that's interesting to see the things that that are behind the walls.

And then I just wanted to um thank everybody from the um the fair.

Um Commissioner Boyle, I know you put in a lot of time and effort into that, and all those that that attended and and the fair went off uh with although had a big washout on Thursday night, but uh moved forward and had a very successful fair fair.

So for all those involved, I want to thank you, and uh, and we look forward to continued success of the fair.

And then of course we got Henri Rod that's uh that's gonna kick off this weekend.

And so uh Friday I'll do a proclamation at noon and then we'll kick it off in Henri Raw, we'll be going in the weather so far, looks good.

Um hopefully the luck of the Irish this year is not the washout luck of the Irish because it's tended to be over the last few years, but uh we're looking forward to on your raw this weekend.

And so with that, I know we're gonna have a presentation on the budget tonight, so I'm gonna close out the chief executive's report and we'll move on to section one bid openings public hearings and presentations.

Um the first one we have is item number one.

I should bring these, I should use them.

Communication number 2025-370, Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director requesting council of commissioners authorization to schedule a presentation on August 6th, 2025 agenda to make a presentation on the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Director Hassler, welcome.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, members of council for the record.

My name is Karen Hassler.

I'm the finance and budget director for Butte Silver Bowl.

And tonight um we have a presentation on the fiscal year 2026 uh budget.

So each one of you was handed um out a packet, and we also have the screen to follow along with.

Um the first page just has some kind of bullet uh talking points.

Um, the first being um budgeted appropriations and amendments.

Um you have not seen any amendments yet.

We just have a handful of them, but we are still reconciling some of our grant um funds, and so uh instead of giving you five, I thought we'd wait until we had those grant uh reconciliations done, and so we will have amendments before you next week.

Um there's also discussion about revenues and other financial items and then budget um matters and our timeline for approving the budget as amended for this fiscal year.

Whoops.

There we go, that was that one.

So the fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget appropriations.

The preliminary budgeted appropriation is 168.7 million dollars for this year compared to the final budget of 180.2 million for fiscal year 2025.

So this is a decrease of 11.46 million dollars or 6.36%.

And this isn't really unexpected as we've had ARPA dollars that we've um appropriated in past years for projects, and as we begin spending, um, as we begin completing those projects, our appropriation for that will decrease as well.

So this isn't an unexpected decrease.

We're actually coming back down to uh what we what we we would consider um a normal budget year for us.

So fiscal year 2026, your next slide shows um the fiscal year 2026 budget compared to the 2025 budget, and it is by function.

So in government, we um appropriate our funds by what we spend it on.

So we have general government, public safety, public works, public health, um, social and economic services, culture and recreation, housing and community development, internal services, and then some miscellaneous funds.

So general government funds make up um appropriate approximately 11% of this year's budget, very similar to last year's budget at 11%.

General government services include items that are in our general funds, such as the chief executive services, finance and budget services, um, the county attorney services, um, anything in your budget book that it starts with in the base sub-element, a 41.

So all of these numbers are when you look at your your budget book, you can tell what type of service they're associated with.

So public safety is obviously the law enforcement services, detention center, fire.

Um, public works is uh parks and recreation, water, metro, landfill, roads, bridge services, anything that's related to public works and so on.

Public health is our public health department, and then all of the grants that are related to public health.

Social and economic services are our senior citizens fund and the money that is appropriated to support the Silverbow Disabilities Council.

Culture and recreation services, um, this is the library.

I misspoke earlier when I said parks and recreation, it falls under this.

Um the library, parks and recreation, um, the archives, uh, housing and community development is primarily uh Karen Burns department related to community development in our community.

Internal services are services that are provided just to Butte Silver Bow.

So our county shop is an internal service fund.

They work on equipment, but just within Butte Silver Bow.

They provide services just to the departments in Butte Silverbow.

Payroll, human resources, GIS services, those are all considered internal service funds.

So if you look at the percentages, um general government as discussed earlier, 11% compared to 11% last year.

So it's very consistent across all of these funds, the percentage that goes uh into each function of operating our government.

So public safety last year was 14%, this year 15% of our budget is allocated to public safety.

Public works last year 46%.

This year's 42%, it's down because of the funds that have been spent on our ARPA projects.

Uh public health was at 6% this year, it's was it 5% last year.

So we're very consistent according to how we're spending and appropriating our funds according to function within Butte Silverbow.

This just gives this is the prior graph, but in a chart form that just shows the percent of the budget and how it related to what was appropriated last year and the amount of the changes.

So then we talk about expenditures based on type.

So aside from the function, we also classify our expenditures based on type.

So personnel services is wages, salaries, and wages benefit and benefits.

Operating expenditures are the expenditures that the departments are need to operate.

So it varies depending on what department you're in.

What the coroner needs to operate his department is very different than what the county attorney needs or what the roads department needs.

So it's just what they what the expenditures that are needed to operate their departments.

Obviously, are the funds that are required to pay down the debt that we owe.

So we have some general obligation bonds that we're still paying on related to the archives and a fire apparatus.

And then we have the aquatic bond, which is for our pool.

In prior years, our personnel services have decreased a little bit, but that's related to the number of ARPA grants.

You could see that the capital percentage has gone up.

Those are the usually the two highest is capital and personnel services.

So this year personnel services is up to 32% compared to 30% last year, and that's just because we're spending down the capital using those ARPA funds.

Operating expenditures are up 2% this year over last year to $43,170.

Debt services are actually down a little bit, about $400,000 as we have extinguished some debt related to the public safety project that purchased new radios.

I think it was five years ago for law enforcement and our fire services.

So the increases in operating expenditures are primarily related to utility increases.

And so we have budget for budgeted for those increases within our budgets, especially for our largest users.

So Metro Sewer uses a significant amount of power in their operations.

The pool, the civic center, this county courthouse, the water utility treatment plants that rely on electricity for their operations.

We have budgeted, you know, that those increases in this year's budget.

Some of these increases have been offset by re reduction in other services, such as some professional services that was removed from the budget in our TIFAD number two fund and some fuel reduction and fire mitigation contracts that we had through the water division that were over 300,000.

So they'll that those reductions help to offset the increases that we are budgeting for as well.

So this is just another graph that shows the difference between what was budgeted for in fiscal year 25 and 26 according to expenditure type.

So personnel services is showing an increase of 3.14% overall or 1.67 million dollars.

Operations and maintenance is an increase of 10,000 or 2%.

Grants and increase of 1.4 million and capital outlay, a decrease of 14 million dollars.

So they're they're helping to continue to build the infrastructure out in that area.

We also recognize 100,000 for support in the for the operations of the rescue mission out of the local option tax for the marijuana sales, 278,000 in Montana Opioid Abatement Trust Fund dollars, and this budget also includes as it has in past years $300,000 in Big Sky Trust Fund dollars for Praxis.

And then we're still working on some CDBG grants.

We have a 1.2 million dollars in this year's budget for the Phoenix Building, the Finland, the Aspen Place Apartments on the Rescue Mission.

In addition, this year we have an additional $750,000 for the Paul Brun grant, which is money that is available for restoration and rehabilitation of historic properties in Uptown Butte.

So this page specifically talks about salaries and the different categories that we have related to salaries, the different types of wages that we pay.

We have salaries, overtime, special pay, tool pay, travel pay, comp cash out.

Overall, you can see the change between fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 26.

Last year's number, we had $37,403,000.

This year's number, $38,000 or $38,556,925 for an overall increase of 3.08%, which is in line with the 3% cost or cost of living adjustment that has been budgeted across all funds in the budget.

The chart below that or the table below that is the are the benefits.

So we have our FICA, Medicare Unemployment, State Pension, Union, all in all, there is also a 3% increase included in this budget.

As you know, when your wages, your gross wages go up, it affects all of the amount of the benefits that you have to pay along with it.

So especially state pension, it's related to state pension.

FICA Medicare is all driven by your gross pay.

And so once you have an increase in your gross pay, then that drives up your benefit cost as well.

So overall, there's a 3% increase in the benefits budgeted in this the fiscal year 26 budget as well.

It's kind of hard to see on the screen, so we can make this available, this presentation available on our website as well for people.

So these are the additional staffing and uh position changes that we have for fiscal year 26.

Um it is, oh, the total isn't on there.

I apologize for that.

I want to say there's a very slight increase in the number of positions.

Um, the total impact is 246,000, 637.

We don't only have additions, we have some reductions based on some reductions and grant funding that we are seeing in our programming at the health department.

So you'll see some reductions there.

Um there is an addition of 0.25 as a receptionist floater that is funded through our internal service funds.

So this is a person that is funded through from other departments within Butte Silverbow.

We have the reduction of a 0.5 health educator at the health department, 0.5 FTE of a WICAD, the addition of a.20 health educator in the prep program at the health department, uh the reduction of a.5 health educator at the family planning, um, the addition of 1.0 community-based care coordinator, um, and an addition of 0.42 in disease intervention specialist at the health department.

So anything that says health educator, WICAID, all the way down to disease intervention specialists, those are all grant-funded positions that have either been added or deducted from the budget.

We also have the addition of a 1.0 FTE.

Um, it is in here as a clerk, but I do believe we are potentially looking at a reclassification of this position at the request of the county attorney's office as an acknowledgement of the volume of work that they have down there.

They are looking to take this out of the clerks union and add it as another legal assistant to help with the volume of work in that office.

No, you know, acknowledging that they are considerably busier than they have been in the past and that they have been working shorthanded, that an addition of a legal assistant would be more beneficial than a clerk.

So tax supported funds.

Tax supported fund, the appropriation within the tax supported funds for fiscal year 2026 is $75.2 million, excluding operating transfers, and this is compared to $73.2 million in fiscal year 2025.

So this is an increase of $2 million and the tax supported funds are $2.7%.

I do want to mention that this isn't necessarily a tax increase of $2 million.

Taxes are only a portion of the dollars that go into funding tax supported funds.

So there's a lot of money that helps support the tax supportive funds that aren't necessarily taxes.

So when you see the increase of $2 million, it's not all we're not necessarily looking to raise taxes by $2 million to support these funds.

There are other streams of revenue that help support this.

So we talked about all together the government wide.

So a lot of the things that we will talk about here are just a repeat of the entire budget of a whole because we're now bringing breaking it down between tax supported funds versus non-tax supported funds.

So tax supported funds include the general fund, road, the bridges, weeds, district court, compensation insurance, civic center, the ridgewaters, senior citizen services, emergency services, the economic development mill levy grant program, transit department fire, the geo bond debt service, and our aquatic debt service.

So fiscal year 2026, we're seeing personnel services have increased.

Last year they were 35 million,439.

This year 36,595.

One thing to note about tax supported services is the majority of the services that we talk about here are driven by services provided to our community community.

So they are related to wages, salaries and wages and benefits because that is the biggest portion of what we provide in the tax supported funds as services to our community.

So the majority of the expenditures are related to salaries and wages.

So this is just kind of a bar graph that you can see that again the salaries and wages are up.

Operating expenditures are also up about a million dollars.

The debt services are down the 400,000.

Grants are also, those are up about 100,000, and then capital outlay is up about less than just over 100,000.

So salaries, wages, and employer provided benefits increased by 1.16 million or 3.26% in the tax supportive funds.

Operating expenditures decreased by 6.01% or just under a million dollars.

So these are operating costs that are related to the increases at the detention center, or the fact that we carried over the economic development mill levy money from last year because it wasn't spent in time, and we carried it into fiscal year 26.

That also increases that operating expenditure.

So debt service decreased by 412,000 again related to the extinguishing of the debt for the public safety improvement project.

Grants and donations increased by 100,000 again related to the Montana Opio Aid Abatement Trust Funds, crisis diversion grants received for the mobile crisis and crisis diversion grant that is run through the health department.

There's still 176,012 in building and demolition grants that is handled through our code enforcement budget and then 177,000 in support for Action Inc.

Capital Outlay increased by $131,000 or 0.7%.

And this is primarily due to the addition of $190,000 for two paratransit vans that are being purchased and funded $86% by the 5311 transit capital grant.

It is also related to two fire rescue vehicles that are budgeted in the fire prevention services.

These vehicles are going to be paid for funds that were earned through deployments to wildfires through the fire department.

So while you see that is an increase, it's not going to be an increase in taxes because they have brought in the revenue to cover the cost of those vehicles.

So this again is just a table showing the difference personnel services, the change, the dollar amount, and the percentage change from fiscal year 25 to 26, along with the percent of the budget that the total percent of the budget by type for fiscal year 25 and 26 in a comparison of those two.

So again, fiscal year 2026, 75.198 million, fiscal year 2025 is 73.227 million dollars.

So non-tax supported funds are any funds that we didn't mention earlier.

These are special revenue funds that are funded through grant dollars that come in.

They can be capital improvement funds for projects that we have deposited into capital improvement budgets.

There are enterprise funds, which are water, metro, landfill, stormwater.

We have some community facilities and our enterprise funds, and also the internal service funds.

So the appropriations with the non-tax supported funds exclusive again of interfund transfers for fiscal year 2026 is $93.6 million compared to $107 million in fiscal year 2025.

So this is a decrease of $12.5% or $13 million.

Again, not unexpected, being that the majority of our capital projects funded by ARPA are in the non-tax supported funds.

So a bar graph showing how the expenditures are laid out by expenditure type.

So in the non-tax supported funds, the majority of the expenditures come in the form of capital.

So they um the water division, the metro division are driven by capital.

That's how they complete their daily operations is through all of the capital that they have.

And so that tends to be our largest expenditure type.

Salaries and wages comes in at about third operating expenditures a second, especially when you look at the utility use and the chemical use that is required of those big plants.

Labor comes in as the third highest expenditure for the non-tax supported types.

So here's just another table with the same comparison of personnel services from fiscal year 26 to 25, again a 3%, not unexpected due to the 3% cost of living adjustment budgeted for operations and maintenance costs have gone down by a million dollars.

Also the drawdown on some other contracts that we have, such as the ADA accessibility study comes out of a non-tax supported fund.

So as we have completed those contracts, it will drop our ONM costs, those are one-time costs that we budgeted for in prior years.

So overall, we're seeing a reduction of $13.4 million in overall budget for our non-tax supported funds.

So our revenue projections, I did not include a copy of last year's projected revenues.

I can provide it to anybody that is interested, but the revenue projected revenues are almost spot on percentage the same in comparison from fiscal year to 25 to fiscal year 26.

Health self-funded health insurance makes up 2.3% of our revenues, 3.84% in internal service charges.

Those are the fees that one department pays to another to complete those services we talked about.

So each every department that has equipment or vehicles that need to be serviced by our shop, pay a fee to the CEM, which is the county equipment maintenance shop to do that, and it's it's part of the internal service funds.

So they pay the fee in order to have those operations.

So every department, Butte Silver Bow that has equipment or vehicles will pay that to the garage to fund their department.

Same with GIS services or phone services, computer services, all of the 800 lines in our budget book are a fee that are paid by departments in order to fund other departments within Butte Silverbow.

So we have interfund transfers of $12,745.

Those are transfers that come from other departments, such as the water and metro and landfill, pay a transfer into the general fund to help pay for administrative costs.

So they pay for the cost of the county attorney for legal advice or to help them with contracts.

They pay into the administrative fund to help fund the finance and budget office to reconcile and report their grants and take care of the audit.

So all of these departments also, not all of the departments, but there are certain departments that pay an interfund transfer into the general fund to help lower the tax, the number of taxes or mills required to be levied to balance the budget and also to pay for services that are provided administratively.

1.61% in investment revenue.

So when we have idle funds, they are invested in our STIP account where we earn a higher rate of interest that helps offset also the number of mills that are required to balance the budget.11%.

We have private grants and donations of 4.6%.

This amount of $5.7 million is primarily related to the funds that are given to Butte Silver Bow from Atlantic Ranch Fields or British Petroleum to help fund the rec the Department of Reclamation and their services.

2.28% for special assessments.

So these are sidewalk and lighting SIDs, 0.3% on rents and leases, 0.25% on fines and forfeitures, 17.02% on charges for services.

Charges for services are charges that are paid to the county for water, different services that are provided, whether they be in the enterprise fund or they be through our general funds.

So it could be for rental of the archivist facility or for charges for the clerk and recorder to make copies or for water.

Then we have 33.89% of our revenues are made up of state, federal, and intergovernmental grants.

So we have a running, I believe that oh, sorry.

So if utilities are up and the price of copper is up, people might think that we're going to see more in gross proceeds, but we may not because it just depends on what their operating costs are.

So for this fiscal, you can see how it fluctuates.

What we do is we divide this by the number of mills that were levied last year to determine how much additional tax revenue we will receive.

And when you take the 567,000 divided by the 301.5 mills that were levied in fiscal year 25, it equates to about 171,000 in additional tax revenue that we will see for this fiscal year.

So this again helps to offset the number of mills required to be levied to balance the budget.

So we mentioned last time some of the effects of the property tax reappraisal that happened in our 2025 legislative session, and the tax rates and how that affects us here at the local government level.

So the certified values, the countywide general from the Department of Revenue, we received them on Monday, and we are down 9.1%.

So last year the certified value was 101,183.

This year we're at 91,928.

So on average, market values across all taxing jurisdictions increased by 20%, but taxable values overall have decreased by 4%.

So how this will impact an individual will depend on the value of their property and the class tax, the classification code and the tier in which it is taxed.

So in prior years, our homes up to, I believe, is $1.5 million were taxed at 1.35%, and anything over $1.5 million was taxed at 1.89%.

So this year they are implementing a tiered tax structure.

So any home that has a market value of less than $400,000 will be taxed at 0.76%.

So you can see how that could potentially affect our taxable values, where we were taxing at 1.35%, and now we can tax it at 0.76%.

Any home that is over 400,000 up to a million and a half will be taxed at 1.1%.

Again, that's down a quarter of a percent from what we've been able to tax in the past.

And any home over a million and a half will be taxed at 1.89%.

And just knowing the demographics of our county, there are not a lot of homes that are going to be valued at over 1.5 million dollars.

So maybe in other counties, that is a benefit will be a benefit to them where we have you know big growth and higher tax base, better tax, but not better tax base, but um better earnings, I guess.

Um here we're not gonna recognize that.

I would say the majority of our homes are valued at 400,000 or less.

Um some of the new construction that we're seeing may come in at 400,000 to $600,000.

So we really have to take the certified value that we received on Monday, and we have to look at it across all of the different values that we have in our county.

So we might be able to say we have to look at how it impacts different people.

So you can take somebody that their home was maybe valued at $200,000 last time and it's valued at $300,000 this time and look at the potential impact that the tax rate has on them, and then look at the next tier and say maybe somebody's home that was valued at $375,000 last time, but is now up over that $400,000, how it will impact them.

So we really need to take a deep dive to see overall how this is going to impact our entire county instead of looking at just the people that are under $400,000 that are gonna be valued under $400,000.

So the good news is is that centrally assessed properties, which includes utilities, railroads, and telecoms, those are businesses that have assets that stretch stretch beyond our county lines and affect that their assets go across several counties.

They take the value and they go statewide and then they allocation allocate a portion, uh appropriate portion to your county.

Um the good news is that that did increase this year over last year.

So the last time that we had a change in our tax in the assessed value from the Department of Revenue, there was a shift in the tax burden where the majority of the increase went on to the residential property owners and the centrally assessed went down.

And so we didn't see that this year.

So that is it's a small correction that we're going to recognize this year when we're looking at the overall impact of the number of mills.

So the new tax-tiered rate structure and its impacts to Butte Silverbow, as I said, is being analyzed and we'll discuss over the next several weeks once we have a chance to sit down and really look at how it is going to impact the different class tax classifications of tax codes that we have in our county.

So just to briefly talk about some significant grant revenues.

Again, we have $7.9 million dollars for the Roosevelt Drive Realignment Project, which has been ongoing for several years.

But we will continue to carry it on $7.9 million.

We have $3 million in economic development grants for our Silver Lake Water System line to replace some pumps and different parts and pieces along our industrial water system line.

And the state of Montana minimum allocation and competitive ARPA grants still total $7.68 million for the molten water treatment plant project.

We have two different projects at Metro Sewer, one related to effluent reuse and the other is related to solids handling, and then some stormwater projects.

So next we'll talk about assessments and user fees.

We are have budgeted for a 3% increase in user fees for our metro service metro sewer service that is required to meet our debt service margins and increasing operation and maintenance costs.

And we also have budgeted for an increase of 20% or $21.30 annually for our contracted solid waste collection services contract.

We also do not anticipate any increase for the countywide road maintenance district.

The cost will remain at $87.71 cents per unit.

And fees for fire hydrants and lighting districts are assessed based on actual costs and established in the resolution at the end of fiscal year 2025 and when this budget has been adopted.

And so for our timeline beginning next week, we do have a public hearing scheduled regarding the metro rate increase, the proposed metro rate increase, the proposed landfill solid waste collection, and for the fiscal year 2026 budget.

So after that time, we will continue, we will hold the public hearing open throughout the process so people have the opportunity to come up at the beginning of the meetings and you know talk about the budget.

We also can talk about it at any meeting up until the budget is adopted.

Right now we have a tentative adoption of the final budget on August 27th.

It does have to be adopted within 30 days of receipt of the certified values, which they were received on Monday, which was August 4th.

So we can, you know, we will, if necessary, we can hold a special meeting to adopt the budget in that last week of August.

But until that time, we will continue to bring forth or will bring forth amendments and keep you updated on the analysis of the certified values and how that could potentially impact the number of mills that we need to levy.

I do have to say that with the reduction in the certified values, it only stands to reason that when that number is less, we have to levy more mills in order to raise the same amount of money, but that doesn't necessarily equate to a tax increase.

It's all based on the taxable value of the home.

And that's why we really want to do a deep analysis of what that is going to look like across the different values of the homes so that we're making the best decisions and adopting the best fiscally sound budget that we can for our community.

Thank you, Director Hassler.

Thanks for the very comprehensive overlook of our budget.

As we look at the budget and as we've worked through all the process, the assessment of the properties is and the rates really do affect what what comes out.

And over the last few years we've been able to say we're reducing the amount of mills because our mill value went up and we try to balance it that way.

Now that the assessments are going down and property tax uh rates are going down, although the values are going up, the the um rate that the property is going to be assessed is going to drop.

So their property belt or um the assessments are going to on taxes are going to go down as well.

So we'll have to raise mills to make up for that difference.

So it'll be a different structure than what we've looked at in the past.

So although we're not really raising taxes, or we're going to try to at the very minimum, you know, we always say we want to keep it under 2% of raising, and I think we'll do that again.

Um but it's always how the pie is divided.

Last year centrally assessed commercial industrial, they dropped, and uh and property values and property assessments went up, so the property owners ended up eating more of the pie, but we dropped the mills down to try to make up for that.

And so it's not a game, but it is a it's really trying to balance the budget the best that we can and and be the most efficient that we can with the budget.

So I want to commend uh Director Hassler and her team and and all the directors as we've tried to work to bring a budget that is that you know we think that is fair to the community.

So with that I'd open it up for any questions of commissioners or Director Hasler.

Uh Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Uh just had one question regarding the tiered rate structure that you were talking about.

Uh I'm always concerned about tenants and what they end up paying.

Is there is that rate structure the same across single family, multifamily, large multifamily?

Is it is it essentially the same across the the whole thing with the with the tiers, the 400,000 and I can't remember what the next tier was, but uh I guess if you could give me some clarification around that, that'll be great.

Commissioner O'Leary, uh, Director Hassler.

Uh thank you to the Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Leary.

Um it is for all dwellings, so it depends on the cost.

So rent rental multifamily dwellings in excess of two million dollars go up to a maximum graduated rate of 1.89%.

But if they are less than the $2 million, um the first 400,000 is taxed at 0.76 percent.

The next 400,000 to 1.5 million is taxed at 1.1 percent.

So um it is a maximum graduated rate of 1.89 percent for multifamily dwellings.

Thank you, Director Hasler.

Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Thank you, Karen.

I want to thank you and your team for an incredible amount of hard work you guys do for these budgets, and I don't know how you do it year to year, but I guess one of my questions would be the health department, and they're funded a large part by grant money.

What do we do?

Do we have a cushion there?

Because a lot of that grant money is being cut at times we don't know.

If we put a budget in for the year and we lose some of this grant money down the year down the road, what do we do to cover those costs?

Commissioner Callahan, Director uh Hassler.

Uh thank you.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Callahan.

The majority of our grants at the Health Department are reimbursement-based.

So we spend the funds and then they reimburse us based on the grant contract.

So if the funding is cut, there is no money coming in to help pay for supplies or for personnel.

And so this budget year, and I think going forward has been particularly challenging for the health department for two reasons.

Our health department used to have contracts that ran on a year that coincided with our fiscal year.

So when June ended and July came, we already had the contracts for the next year going into the next fiscal year.

We knew how much money we had.

So a lot of our contracts now start in October and run through September.

So we have grant funding that we know runs through October, but we are unsure of what is going to happen effective November or October, October 1st.

Those federal fiscal year runs from October to September.

So we don't have those contracts yet, and it's kind of a guessing game.

Some of them, such as WIC, they seem to be a going concern.

We budget for a full fiscal year knowing that you know the funding is probably going to be there.

If for some reason that funding were to be cut or the contract was canceled, we would be coming back to you to amend the budget to remove those items.

But you would bring more money in than what you expended.

The only way that we could absorb any of those costs would be to reallocate any potential costs or people to the general fund, which would result in using tax dollars and probably dipping it, coming back to this body to dip into reserves because we don't we don't budget for the loss of a grant if that were to happen.

Okay.

Follow up, Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you.

I guess my one question would be also tonight, you know, these ladies come up and ask for this very minimal raise.

You know, it's it's you can't even compute how small it is on a hundred and forty-eight million dollar budget.

What would the process be if this council decided to go in favor of what they're asking for?

Could you explain to us how the process would go for the council?

Commissioner Callahan, Director Hassler.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, um, Commissioner Callahan.

Uh the process would be to work with the supervisor would need to contact HR and ask for a reclassification of those positions.

Um those positions were classified by the CMS wage study, and um they were implemented last year.

And so um if their supervisor were to look at their job duties and feel that they were not being compensated fairly or they were doing more work than um they are c than is in that level at classification, they would work with the human resource director um to look at their job duties and reclassify them and potentially be reclassified at a higher grade.

Follow up, Commissioner Callahan.

Could that happen in time for this coming budget?

Commissioner Callahan, Director Hassler.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner uh Callahan.

Uh we have about three weeks until the final budget is passed.

Um I'm not sure how long a classify a reclassification or um a look at a classification would take.

Um I would have to defer to uh Beth Worm, who is the human resources director.

And Commissioner Callahan, I I would speak to that, you know, um, as we went through the CMS study, that was to address exactly what we're kind of talking about and and the classification system that wouldn't went through very extensive time and and uh and how things were classified.

Now there is a process that we can look at the classification if the director are uh or in this case the county attorney come forward with added job duties, and it's really not the amount of work that would be that would be really addressed, it would be what difference the work is.

But we also have within the the study the ability to move percentages and this year those that have not met the minimum because the goal is to bring everybody up to minimum, there's an extra percentage within that.

And so that's that's the process to and that that process hasn't been brought forward to to me from the county attorney.

So um he came in and talked about things like all directors did and managers and and the county attorney, but that would be the process.

Now that could still happen, even after we pass the budget.

So that that process could still happen.

But I would recommend that we follow that process because if we don't, you're going to have, and I'm just going to just give a real clear explanation.

When I took over as chief executive five years ago, I had almost every director, every manager doing the same thing that just happened today, come in and ask for that reclassification.

If this is if it's going to be changed in here by the council of commissioners, you're gonna have every director, every manager, every single person that runs a department that's gonna be up here that's gonna that's gonna ask for things for their employees because they're gonna fight for them.

But we have a process that we can go through that.

And so that's what I would recommend.

Follow up, Commissioner Callahan.

I totally agree.

I I know we put that money up for this study to get people up there, and our goal was to improve the the the wages for our people that are at minimum.

We moved people up last year that were below minimum.

And our goal was to get people back up competitive with other communities.

And I believe we need to do what we can to work on that.

And what whatever it takes, I think we gotta work at it.

Commissioner Callan, and as I said, that's that's the process that can happen.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Director Hassler.

I just have a clarification question.

On slide number nine for the staffing changes for fiscal year 2026.

There's like the the first line is a receptionist slash floater, and it has a salary cost of 53,715, a benefit cost of 257.

Total cost of the position is 79, 478.

The FTE increase and decrease is 0.25.

So why is the total salary accounted for in this graph?

Commissioner Morgan, Director Hassler.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, um, Commissioner Morgan, that is an error.

It should be 25 percent.

It was only an increase.

This particular um employee was a 0.75 before, um, is now 1.0 FTE, and so it would just be 0.25% of that amount.

Okay, so the that's the there's an error.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you, Director Hassler.

Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Uh, just another uh follow-up on the same thing.

Further down in that same uh same table, it has the disease intervention specialist at 65,000 306 and uh.42.

Is that the same same scenario where growing up from a point?

I guess that would be uh a points uh five eight to uh to a full-time Commissioner O'Leary, Director Hassler.

Chief Executive Gallagher, uh Commissioner O'Larry, yes, that is correct.

Okay.

Commissioner Morgan, thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

One last question on slide number eight.

I noticed that there's a holiday bank that has like 476,000 that was budgeted.

That was 24 25 was 326.

Never mind, they just answered my own question.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Morgan.

Any other questions of commissioners?

Seeing none.

Oh, Commissioner Thatcher.

Sorry.

No, you're good.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Uh no real questions.

Just want to make a couple quick comments.

Um, in case anybody is confused about the tier structure, I believe that that was in the legislature this year, and it's House Bill 231 and Senate Bill 542.

If anybody wanted to understand that, Commissioner Early, if you wanted to check that out some more.

Um then just wanted to thank you, Director Hassler.

I mean, this is a lot of work that you guys do, and you guys always do a very good job.

So thank you.

Oh, and last thing is uh property rebates, send that stuff in starting next week, I think August 15th.

So thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Thatcher.

And that is that's a great reminder.

Um our treasurer's office will help people uh and have over the past if they need it, just some questions on that.

Um, not that they're gonna fill it out, but they can help walk them through it a little bit.

But um, and also the library knows help people as well, and so does the Belmont Center.

But there's a lot of people that just don't understand or don't have the electronic means to do it, so um, there is support if you know anybody out there that does that.

Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

Karen, thanks always for answering all the questions when we need them and always available.

Appreciate your department very much.

The Roosevelt Drive thing, I know it's an ongoing deal.

Is this something that we can push back on the state?

I mean, it's to how do we fight back to make that happen?

I mean, how many years has this truly been going on?

It does anybody know us.

Annoying, thank you.

Commissioner O'Neill, I don't know if that's for uh uh director Hassler to answer, but maybe uh Director Neary.

But I all I can say is it's it's the it's kind of out of our control.

We've been awarded it, but we have no control of the project.

But Director Nary.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Commissioner O'Neill, that's that's true.

We applied for the FLAP grant, and it's federal money, not state.

We applied for it, and we were awarded it, but then we just kind of stand back and wait.

It's in design right now.

We have a meeting.

I think I think it's this month to look at the 70 percent design.

But I mean every year, prices go up and and the job the uh the outcome of what the job will be is gets to be less and less every year, but it's it's out of our control.

Thank you, Director Neary.

Um, yeah, that's it's frustrating for us as well.

That's it you know, we we celebrated winning 7.9 million to get something that uh a project that we needed done up in Roosevelt Drive and and the the length of time it takes the federal government, you know.

We think we move slow sometimes in local government, the federal and the state.

It's it's a slower process.

So follow-up, Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

One last follow-up just on the I know we're starting to talk about the the fire tax and whatnot, and I know there's a we're gonna go through a process, but how it affects the budget of what I mean.

I know we were just kind of targeting the um one part of town, but how do we go about getting that?

Is it probably a next year project?

Um, and probably get eggs thrown at my house from other people who don't pay into the fire district.

But how do we get it the whole county to everybody all pay their part that everybody's paying?

Is that something that probably I guess it's don't need to answer that question now?

I just hope that that's something we work on as a council and so we get that so we have more money in the budget for fire prevention to protect our people of our county.

Thank you.

Thank you, um, Commissioner O'Neill.

Are there any other questions of commissioners?

Seeing none.

Thank you, Director Hassler.

All right, moving on to section two, consent agenda A one through four and B one through make sure I got the number.

One through thirty-one.

Are there any friendly amendments and or segregations?

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chi.

Chief Executive.

I just have a couple of friendly amendments.

It was brought to my attention that on communication number 27 and 28.

Um on the caption, it says it runs through December 31st of 2023.

That should be 2030, and the same correction on number 28 25-418.

Just on the caption.

Yeah, just on the on that date to 2030.

Is there commissioner um Shay?

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Uh, a friendly amendment to um item number one, communication number 2025-391 to correct the spelling of Diane Reagan for the record, so we can have her name correct.

It's D I A-N-E R-E-G-A-N.

And also I have a segregation from the committee of the whole judiciary committee item number four, twenty twenty-five-three one.

That's how the judiciary committee number four, twenty twenty-five-three one.

Are there any other friendly amendments or segregations?

Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Uh-oh.

There we go.

One sec.

Sorry, just went the wrong direction there.

I would like to say great communication.

Um 30 number 2025-420.

That's item number 30, communication number 2025-420.

Are there any other friendly amendments and our segregations?

Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

Okay, thank you.

I would like to segregate number 26, communication number 2025 force 16.

That's item number 26, communication number 2025-416.

Are there any other friendly amendments and or segregations?

Seeing none.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

At this time I make a motion to approve Section 2, the consent agenda, a the committee reports 1 through 4, with the exclusion of number 4 2025-31 out of the Judiciary Committee meeting report.

B communications 1 through 31 with the exclusion of number 26 25-416 and number 30 2025-420.

We have a motion and a second to approve tonight's consent agenda.

Is there anything on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And what anyone would like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

Ten Ye 0 name.

10 years nay motion passes.

Moving to the item of the judiciary report, that's item number four.

Find it here.

Just had it.

Oh, there we go.

Um resolution number 2024-2 or 2025-3-1 resolution of intent to alter the boundaries of the city, county of Butte Silver Bow, Montana, Solid Waste Special District to include the boundaries of the Home State Meadows to subdivision and providing for an effective date here in.

And that was Commissioner Shea.

Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Uh this item was uh moved to final in error.

Um we need to wait for the protest period to close before we can move forward with this resolution.

Um so I would make a motion to refer communication 2025-31 back to the Judiciary Committee.

We have a motion and a second to move uh item number four of the judiciary committee resolution number 2025-31, move it back to the judiciary committee.

Is there anything on the com on the question?

Commissioner Mankins.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

What would be the reasoning to move it back?

Just I missed out on that.

Commissioner Mankins.

Commissioner Thatcher, I think, can answer that question for us.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Commissioner Mankins, um, it was advised to move this like most resolution jar to final reading.

However, the Homestake Meadows subdivision, um there's still a protest period for those with the the fee, and so that protest period isn't over, so we have to move it back into that protest period is over.

Thank you, Commissioner Thatcher.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you, Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you.

Okay, so there's a motion and second.

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

10 years and A.

Motion passes.

Moving to item number back there.

Number 28.

Is that right?

Oh, 26, got it.

Um communication number 2025-416.

Karen Burns Community Development Director requesting Council of Commissioners approval of the sale of unit A modular.

Oh, of the unit A modular home built in partnership with Highlands College through a grant for the Butte Silverbow for Butte Silver Bow.

Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

I think maybe Karen can answer these questions if she could, please.

Commissioner Callahan.

Ms.

Burns.

This was uh ARPA grant that Butte Silver Bow gave the Highlands College maybe two, three years ago, maybe three, four years ago.

Anyway, uh time has no meeting.

Unit A, I believe, is the first one they built.

We're just now asking to sell unit A.

They're on unit three.

I'm assuming that's unit C.

Commissioner Callahan, Director Burns.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Callahan, members of council.

You are correct.

Um the first unit that was built is unit A.

Um, that is the unit that they have been trying to market uh for some time now.

In the agreement that Butte Sverbeau signed with Highlands College as part of this grant award, we had put in some stipulations on this first unit about how it could be sold and what would happen if there was money made on that unit and how it would need to be reported and tracked and you know put back into the program at Highlands.

That's always the intention of you know to keep that program going.

Um we had some difficulty in getting a buyer identified for this unit.

So we went through our means of trying to sell a piece of property.

We put out two requests for proposals, worked with Highlands College in conjunction to advertise those, push them out to the market.

Um and unfortunately, neither one of those was successful, those attempts.

Um and I think it's a learning process for uh Highlands College and how they can run this program and market those units.

And I'm not saying they did a bad job, I just think it's a it's a process that we have to learn how to do better.

Um taking into account these homes are great, they're beautiful, they're well constructed, um, but they also have to be moved to a site that has you know utilities and a foundation and meets all the right requirements in terms of planning and zoning.

So there's a lot of costs associated with just moving that home.

So after we had those two failed attempts, we kind of talked with um with Highlands College and said, market this any way you can.

You need they need to move it.

They needed to move it.

So in our agreement with Highlands, there was a stipulation that this body got to approve the sale of that home.

Um and so they have a buyer, they are ready to move ahead with the sale of this first unit, and they already have identified buyers for those second un the second and third unit, but in our agreement, we said that this body would get to say yes or no on the approval of that sale.

So, really, I'm here to ask you, would you please approve the sale of the home for Highlands College so they can move ahead and get that first unit moved and then they'll move forward with those next um next units without necessarily this body's approval.

Thank you, Director Burns.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Okay clearance.

Commissioner Callahan, would you like to make a motion?

I will motion that we concur in place on file communication number 26, number 2025-216.

416 416.

Yeah, okay.

Second.

So we have a motion and second to concur in place on file communication number 2025-416.

Is there anything else on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

Tenye 09.

100 nay, motion passes.

Moving on to item number 30, communication number 2025-420, Cairn Burns Community Development Director requesting Council of Commissioners to approve the issuance of a request for a proposal to facilitate the sale of 305, the business development center.

Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

I just have a question since Karen's here.

Might as well get you up here as many times as we possibly can.

So we don't want you back there sleeping.

Um thank you for um letting me ask this question.

Um is there a reasoning?

I mean, we're getting rid of the building.

Do we lose money on it?

Do we I mean that's what I kind of figure I mean we have an asset.

You know, if you're selling an asset, you're there must be a reason, and I just I want I'd like to know why.

Thank you.

Commissioner O'Neill, Director Burns.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Neill, members of council.

Um the Business Development Center at 305 West Mercury has a long history with Butte Silver Bow.

Um, as I I wrote in my communication, it was originally um purchased and um renovated in the early 90s, maybe even before that, to be a small business incubator and function in that in that vein.

Um Butte Silver Beau had many offices there.

Our Office of Economic Development was there.

That was before the merger of community and economic development into the same office.

Um the Butte Local Development Corporation was there, Headwaters R C and D was there, along with a lot of other supportive services to businesses.

And businesses would be brought in, they would be counseled, they would set up shop, and then they would be incubated out into the community.

And it was um under that premise that this building was established as a Butte Silverbo asset.

Over time, um, fast forward to now, um, we are operating as landlords to an office building.

We only have uh one office currently located in that building that is truly a Butte Silverboat office, and that is the coroner's office, which I do believe they're looking at moving out.

Um and so we are managing an office building.

Um we are not really great landlords.

I don't think we should be landlords necessarily.

Um and so you know, our budget for this this building, we've done a really good job of maintaining it.

There is deferred maintenance that needs to happen.

Um we have a malfunctioning wheelchair lift from the third floor to the fourth floor.

Um we have some HVAC uh things that need to be handled.

Um so our office of community development basically manages this building, but in conjunction with a lot of other Butte Silver Bow departments that are taxed and asked to help us with managing of this building.

Um government facilities with John Sullivan, where he is he and his crew are constantly helping us at the building.

Um the parks and rec department helps us with maintenance of the building, and also public works um helps us tremendously with the maintenance of this building.

So all of those kinds of costs are not reflected into what the expenses are on our just our our budget that you see for this building.

We are 97% full.

We do have great tenants in the building.

They are providing services to our community, um, mostly um small uh therapeutic or counseling services, um, some other kind of service industries.

Um MSU Extension is in the building, and Silver Bows Disability Council is in the building, which is no longer um it was sort of meshed and tied, as you know, to Butte Silver Bow, but now they are standing on their own as their own entity.

And so giving all of those facts, um, we did really feel like it was time to to see if there is a buyer out there in the private sector that would take this building on.

And with the conditions that you know if someone does buy the building, they need to honor all of the leases that are existing in the building.

Um they can't just come in and say, okay, we're gonna take this, you know, kick people out, raise rents.

That's not what we're obviously what we're looking to do.

We're looking to protect our tenants.

Um we all have current leases.

Um we also have a few state offices in the building.

But I do I can tell you that it is not a moneymaker for Butte Silver Bow.

It is not a revenue generator for Butte Silver Bow.

Um, and so we do feel like it's the right time to market the building to see if there is a private individual that would like to take it on that is community-minded, that would agree in their uh agreement of purchase how to manage the building that would be beneficial to our community.

Um, and then obviously be a taxpayer within our community and pay property taxes on that on that building uh to Butte Silverbow.

So that's the kind of the reasoning.

Um we've talked about it for multiple years now and really felt like it was probably the right time to to market it.

Thank you, Director Burns.

Uh I'd I'd just like to add to that, and I I've talked extensively with Director Burns and about you know what we do at that building and and the maintenance issues that are that are there and and the extensive amount of time that we we do that.

We put in new doors, put in um, you know, uh um locks and and security system and things like that.

But we're we're constantly getting called there and and truthfully the taxpayers paying to kind of subsidize businesses at at this at this building.

And so um when it worked as an incubator when we were we're incubating businesses to send them out into the community to become bigger to establish their business, that's just not what is being done at the at this building again.

So that that's kind of the the genesis of where this all came about and really kind of protecting the taxpayer in that in that sense.

So follow up Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Chief.

Executive, and thanks, Karen.

So is it fair to say that we we were losing money if I say that in the public that that's why we're we it's a loss leader, like a business sense decision to get rid of that as we're we're losing it, so we're we're getting rid of it.

Is that fair to say if I can Commissioner O'Neill?

Um I would say yes, but I'll let Director Burns say as well.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Neill, and members of council.

I agree with that statement.

Um I do think it's a drain on our our taxpayers are our supporting and subsidizing this this building.

Um but I do think that it, yeah, I think that it it'll be a better asset to the community when it's not in um our ownership.

Uh I'll go Commissioner Kellen and then I'll come back to you.

Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

I guess I'd caution in your language on trying to sell the building.

If you force the people to keep the contract you have on a building that don't pay taxes, you're gonna have a tough time selling that building.

So those are some things you're gonna have to look at pretty hard.

I also did I hear that it was prized at about a million dollars.

Commissioner Callahan, Director Burns.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Commissioner Callahan.

We had two comparative um market analysis or commercial market analysis done on the building, um, both with a local commercial appraiser and then another commercial appraiser out of Belgrade.

They both appraised or valued, not appraised, because it wasn't a full-blown appraisal, but they both valued the building at about 450,000.

Follow-up, Commissioner Callahan.

So would that be our minimum price that we would take for the builder?

Commissioner Callahan, Director Burns.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Callanhan, um members of council, yes.

Um we in the draft RFP um that I did intend to have uh included on the agenda.

Um it was missed um in the absence of of staff uh for the council.

Um it does say that the mint that would be the minimum acceptable um price.

Thank you, Director Burns.

I'll go Commissioner O'Neill and then back to you, Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

One last question.

How are we going to market the building cell?

Commissioner O'Neill, Director Burns.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallery, Commissioner O'Neill, members of council.

Um we would be issuing a request for proposals with certain criteria.

Um those certain criteria I did kind of summarize in my communication to you.

I do have that draft RFP, I'm happy to share with you.

Um we would be pushing that out through all channels available to Butte Silver Bow, including uh the local newspaper, but also social media, our website, and any other channels that we we can market it.

Um for whatever reason we have you know rumors, people talk in this community, whether we've actually said we were ready to to market this building or not.

Um I've I have been approached by uh different folks within the community that say they're interested.

So hopefully it would be a successful um issuance of an RFP.

Thank you, Director Burns.

Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Uh Director Burns, thank you for for the explanation there at the beginning.

I uh the state assessment on this building is about 2.6 million dollars, uh, which is a little bit interesting.

And I it's my understanding that the market analysis that we have are a couple years old.

Uh my couple is that if that's not correct.

That is not correct.

I'm sorry.

Commissioner O'Leary.

Uh Director Burns.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Commissioner O'Larry, um, we did have two different market analyses done.

The first is a couple years old, the second is brand new, um, and they both agree on the and these are based on not necessarily what the Department of Revenue would base their value on since they um they don't really do valuations of these kinds of commercial structures um for assessment.

Uh so it's not up to date that value that the DOR has on their on their um the cadastral data or their website.

Um so we did ask for two independent uh market analyses to be complete.

One is from 2023 and one is from 2025.

Follow-up, Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you for that clarification.

Um if we we we were having this discussion about the Mammoth Park uh thing as well and whether or not we can sell a property below the DOR's uh assessed value.

Have we vetted that out entirely and and fully understand that we can do that?

Commissioner O'Leary, Director Burns.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Leary, uh members of council, yes, we can.

We can set um prices below the DOR's value if we choose to, um, especially if we are issuing a proposal and asking for conditions to be met.

Thank you, Director Burns.

Follow-up, Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

Uh Dr.

Burns, in the in the uh communication that you uh submitted to us, there is uh this mention of honoring current leases and continuing to operate the building as a business development center.

Can you kind of just describe to us how exactly we would accomplish that?

Would there be deed restrictions or is it just some kind of agreement that would be in place for a certain number of years or it is this into perpetuity?

Commissioner O'Leary, Director Burns.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Leary, members of council.

Um and so the bullet point that Commissioner O'Leary is referring to is to continue operations of the BDC in its current form and encourage small business development.

Um so that means to cur encourage that the uh purchaser would continue to operate the building as a small business uh office center, basically, um, and encourage that small businesses could locate there.

That would be part of the purchase and sale agreement that we would enter into with this entity and we would obviously negotiate those terms of the length and how uh long it would be um after we choose a buyer.

Thank you, Director Burns.

Follow up, Commissioner uh O'Leary.

Thank you for the clarification on that.

Um Chief Chief Executive, thank you, Director Burns.

Uh I I did hear from somebody that we had just um uh spent a considerable amount of money on the boiler in the last couple years.

Um I don't know if that is true.

I wasn't able to verify it uh third party, but if you could speak to that, that'd be great.

Commissioner O'Leary, Director Burns.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Leary, um, members of council.

We did replace the boiler in that building, but I believe it was at least six or seven years ago.

Um, and that was um when we did boiler replacements there, we also did it at another government building.

I think it was the health department, same time.

Um Pat Holland was our government uh building facilities manager at that time, so it has been quite a few years since we replaced that boiler.

Um we had to replace the boiler because it had completely failed.

Um and so we wouldn't want to leave our tenants without heat.

Thank you, uh Director Burns.

I'm gonna go Commissioner Morgan and I'll come back to you.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Just a question on the on the restrictions of the sale.

It at the end of the day, if we sell a building, this is gonna sound heartless.

Why do we care what they end up doing with the tenants in the sense of you know, you know, if somebody is going to be looking for a building, they're gonna have a vision of their own that they want to go through and and produce that building to do what it is.

If it's that important to us about the tenants, one, why would we not keep it in that sense, other than we're losing money on that side?

And then two, I just want to uh an assurance that if we do indeed sell the building that we're not going to be paying rent on the other end to the new owner.

Yeah, yeah, Commissioner Morgan.

I I would just like to just uh I could answer maybe a piece of that.

I I think that our our commitment is that we would request that they honor the leases that are intact.

And so uh after the leases are up, that would be up to the owner to do that.

Um and then it's our intent that we would be moving any of our offices currently our corners there or interim corner right now says that that doesn't function at all for us there.

We're looking at relocating them either to the health department or to the uh to the uh readiness center, which we're gonna rename down there as well.

So um so it's no longer the readiness center, but we're looking to take that out of there.

But uh Director Burns, that answer.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Morgan.

Yes, that answered the question.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Uh just follow up on the on the boiler thing.

Do you have any idea what we spent on that on that boiler replacement?

Commissioner O'Leary, Director Burns.

Thank you.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Larry.

I am guessing a little bit on this.

I do remember that it was in the 200,000 dollar range.

Um I worked with the budget director at that time, Danette Gleason, um, to figure out how we were going to pay for that.

Um it was sort of an emergency situation.

Uh the business development center at that time did have some reserves, definitely not enough to cover the boiler.

Um so we did borrow money from other governmental funds to be able to pay for the boiler um replacement.

Thank you.

Good.

Thank you for the Commissioner Owen O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

Um I guess so I I we we obviously didn't attach this RFP to the agenda.

Uh so I guess for the sake of procedural stuff and and for the public, um, I'm I'm gonna make a motion that we refer this to the committee of the whole uh and then revisit it there, and then hopefully we can get the RFP attached at that point, and we can all see that at that time.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to refer uh communication number 2025-420 to the committee of the whole.

Is there anything on the question?

Uh Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

I guess I don't have any issues with that, but I I think we just again have to be careful because we have staff that are qualified to do the work that we're doing.

There's another item on the agenda that we've messed up because of similar procedures.

And so I understand what Commissioner O'Leary is saying, and I have no issues holding it, but I just think that we all need to be a little bit wary sometimes of uh the requests that we make.

So that's the only comment I'd like to make.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Thatcher.

Are there any other Commissioner Shea?

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Um I don't want to speak for Commissioner O'Leary, but my sense is that this is an effort to be transparent to the public because the letter in the communication indicated that the RFP was attached and and it wasn't.

And so I I really feel like in the interest of the public they they should all have an opportunity to see it because we've already heard that there are people who are interested in it that already know about it ahead of the rest of the public.

So I really think it's just important to have that there.

Thank you for the case.

Even if it delays it a week.

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner Shea.

Uh and I think we agree that we would like to have the RFP attached.

There was a mistake, and like we said, we had some staff that was missing, and it just was inadvertently.

Uh staff did send it in with the communication, but it just didn't get attached.

So I I agree.

Any other comments?

Okay.

Could commissioners please vote?

Commissioner O'Leary.

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

Ten Yeah 0 name.

Ten yeah zero name motion passes.

Moving on to section three ordinances and resolutions for final reading.

We have already acted on this, so we don't need to do anything.

Okay.

And so we'll move on to calendar and other meeting events.

Um please note all the dates and times of meetings and events that we have.

And next we'll move on to public comment for any item not on the agenda tonight.

So if you'd like to speak on any item that is not on the agenda tonight, please come forward, state your name, your address, and what you'd like to speak about.

Seeing none.

Oh, would you like to come?

Please.

And so just push the button there.

There you go.

You got it.

Thank you.

My name's Holly Joe Saul.

I live at 420 South Idaho.

And I wanted to speak about noise pollution in Butte, Montana.

I'm sorry, could you pull the mic close?

Yeah, I don't think what they heard what you said, Holly.

Usually I don't need a mic.

I know.

Uh I'd like to speak about noise pollution in Butte.

Uh I'm not referencing the extra loud sonic rockets on the 4th of July, the last for a week.

They actually they they actually did seem extra loud this year to me.

I'm not really speaking about biker noise.

I have a lot of biker friends.

I'm just talking about the day-to-day noise from vehicles.

I don't it's noise pollution, and I don't.

I hear this at all hours of the day and night.

I live in the heart of the city.

And I don't know if everybody's taking their mufflers off their vehicles or what's going on.

But I really think it's terrible.

And uh I have had uh officers down to the neighborhood to address these things, but dispatch uh emphasizes that there isn't a noise ordinance in Butte.

That kind of contradicts what I heard from the Commissioner Barb, and I don't know if Barb's here today.

Um we we can't respond to you, but Barb is also is the is the council secretary.

And she's not here today.

Okay.

Uh she was under the impression that there was a noise ordinance in Butte.

Uh she was going to have somebody reference that to research it a little bit and get back with me.

I didn't hear anything back, and I followed up the next day, and uh she said she hadn't heard anything from that colleague that she reached out to.

And uh she invited me to this meeting.

So I did a little bit of research.

And Dur Lodge does have a noise ordinance, chapter 902, public disturbance, along with uh Anaconda 902 public disturbance.

Dylan also.

I uh checked into Missoula and they have a uh municipal 930 code, I guess.

Uh preventing conflicts, law enforcement action for any kind of nuisance complaints.

I also checked in billings also has a noise ordinance for commercial, residential, industrial, and that's also applies to the time of day.

So I guess I'm here to ask how you'd recommend that I respond, I mean that I uh approach this to move to get a noise ordinance in here because uh the officers are glad to come down and talk, but they like I say, they will say that they don't have a noise ordinance and they can't any you can't do anything except ask them to turn their music down, and I just had a renter that had really loud music on, and uh he obliged to turn it down, and the only reason that isn't still going on because this is under an eviction process is because his power was turned off.

But uh maybe somebody would be able to address how I could move to get a uh motion for a noise ordinance.

I mean, I really hate to do that because we respectfully like to have people that are just asked when there is whether it's a barking dog or a motor or fireworks.

And I think it does, I think I looked and it said that Ambut it was supposed to be like something 10 p.m.

to 7 a.m.

So Miss All um the commissioners can't answer your questions, but uh I would ask you you could uh you could reach out to your commissioner, and that's how you could you know talk about uh noise ordinance there.

But uh your comments are on record.

Well, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

That's all thank you.

Is there any other public comment on any item on tonight's agenda?

Thanks.

That are not on tonight's agenda, I should say.

There you go.

Hi, I'm Terry Street at 548 South Colorado, and I don't have any biker friends.

And I really think this taking their baffles out and going around town to where we can hear them ten miles away is getting just a little bit ridiculous.

Um I'm at the corner of Platinum and Maine, and they sit at that stoplight at two and three and four in the morning over and over and over, and we're trying to sleep.

And it's rather hot during the summer when they do ride their bikes, and so windows are often open, and it's just irritating beyond belief.

Um I think there ought to be some kind of no noise ordinance.

And those people that are taking their baffles out, um, those people that are running around with no um, I don't know how they ever got the muffler thing through, but they could at least have a muffler.

I mean, it's it's gotten out of hand, and it's not just in my neighborhood.

Um talked with people down on the flats, same thing.

It's just all hours of the night, just loud and piercing noise that people can't get a conscientiously good sleep so that they can get up and pay their taxes the next day.

Um that should be something that concerns all of you.

That's about all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any other public comment on tonight's that is not on tonight's agenda?

Seeing none, I would take a motion to adjourn.

We have a motion and a second.

All in favor, signaled by aye.

Opposed?

We are adjourned.