Can I please ask the commissioners to all check in?

Commissioner Fisher, Commissioner Healy.

Okay.

Would the clerk do a roll call, please?

One presiding ten present, one absent.

Okay.

Please let the record reflect that Commissioner Anderson is excused from tonight's meeting.

Moving on to the prayer and the pledge, I would ask Commissioner Walker to lead us in that.

Moving on on the agenda, I'll move to public comment on any items that are on tonight's agenda.

If there's a member of the public that would like to speak on any item that is on tonight's agenda, now would be the time to do so.

I would ask that you keep your comments to three minutes or less, and I do have the timer up here to indicate that.

If there's any member of the public, now would be your your opportunity.

Okay.

Seeing none, I'll move on to report of the chair.

Uh the one thing that I have to report is uh Mike Smith from the Montana Standard contacted me today, and they are looking for updated photos of the commissioners.

And so they are going to have a photographer come up to the council floor next on September 10th before the meeting.

If the commissioner is willing to, um, they will they will take your picture and you will have a new photograph of yourself.

So I just wanted to announce that they will be up here to take um pictures if you are willing and able to do so.

Uh moving on to section one bid openings, public hearings and/or presentations.

Uh the presentation for tonight, communication number 2025-386.

Julie Bushmaker, Butte Silver Bow Public Library Chairperson requesting Council of Commissioners' authorization to schedule a presentation on August 27th, 2025 to have Steph Johnson, Butte Silver Bow Library Director give an update on the annual report for the Butte Silver Bow Public Library.

They did ask that we move this presentation to be September the 24th.

So that presentation will not be happening tonight, but we will add it to a future agenda on the 24th of September.

Moving on to public hearings, we do have three of them.

These are a continuation that we've had the last several weeks.

Um they are number one, communication 2025 370.

Karen Hassler, or Finance and Budget Director requesting Council of Commissioners' authorization to schedule a presentation on August 6, 2025 agenda to make a presentation on the fiscal year 2026 budget.

I would ask the county attorney if we did have publications for these public hearings.

Chairman Morgan, yes, we had uh approved the publication.

Okay.

So that is for communication number 370, 371, and 372.

So at this time I will open the public hearing unless there is a staff report update from Miss Hassler on this communication.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

Um, members of council for the record, I'm Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director for Butte Silver Bow.

Um real report.

I do have some updated amendments to the budget along with the resource and requirement schedule that we can discuss later.

Um but as far as the public hearing goes, we're still discussing the Metro sewer proposed increase of three percent this evening as well as the landfill um solid waste collection fee increase of 20 percent.

Okay.

Thank you.

So at this time, unless there's any questions, I would ask for any proponents on communication 370.

Second call for proponents.

Third and final call for proponents.

If you'd please state your name and address for the record.

Ready for us, 2000 Roberts Avenue.

I am a proponent of this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Third and final call for the proponents.

Seeing none, I'll ask for opponents.

Second call for opponents, third and final call for opponents.

Third and final call for opponents.

I'll continue to leave the public hearing of 2025-370 open.

Moving on to communication 2025-371.

Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director requesting Council of Commissioners authorization to schedule a public hearing to establish the user rate for Metro Sewer.

The public hearing will begin on August 13th, 2025 and be continued until the Council of Commissioners sets a date to adopt the fiscal year 2026 final budget to fix the rate.

Unless there's a staff report, I would move right into any proponents.

Ready for Oz 2000 Roberts Avenue.

I am a proponent of a public hearing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Third and final call for proponents.

All right, I will move on to opponents.

If there's any member of the public that would like to speak in opposition of 25371, now would be your time.

Second call for opponents.

Third and final call for opponents.

Seeing that I'll continue to leave the public hearing open for 2025-371.

Communication 2025-372.

Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director requesting Council of Commissioners' authorization to schedule a public hearing on August 13th, 2025 to discuss a rate increase for the solid waste collection.

District fees to cover the cost of contracted services with McGree Corporation.

Unless there's a staff report or questions from the commissioners, I would move on to proponents.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Ready for us 2000 Roberts Avenue.

I am also a proponent of this public hearing coming to fruition.

Thank you.

Okay.

Second call for proponents.

Third and final call for proponents.

All right, I'll move on to opponents.

If there's any member of the public that would like to speak in opposition to communication 25372, that would be your opportunity.

Second call for opponents.

I'll continue to leave uh the public hearing for communication 2025-372 open.

Moving on to section two communications.

Communication number one, 2025-249.

Patty and Chris Salmanson requesting council commissioners' approval to purchase a portion of land owned by But Silver Bow, which is adjacent to their property located at 17 Tullomore Street.

I do know this communication was discussed at the land sales committee, but we are still waiting for their report back to this body.

So we'll continue to hold this in abeyance pending that recommendation coming forth.

Number two, communication 2025-318.

Uh Cory Biggers, 65 Orafino Gulch Road, Bute, Montana requesting council of commissioners to approve the purchase land owned by Butte Silver Bow north of Orofino Road and east of Brown's Gulch Road.

The primary goal of acquiring the property would be to fence it off and use for livestock and spray and treat the property to control noxious weeds that are present.

As you will recall, we did take action on this communication last week, but being that this is a communication with a number, we still have to address it.

And so at this time I would just ask that we note communication 25318 place on file and cross-reference with 25424.

Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

At this time, I'd like to make a motion to note and place on file communication number 2025-318 and cross-reference with 2025.

Communication number 2025-424.

Okay, there's been a motion made and seconded uh to note place on file and cross-reference with 25424.

Is there any member of the commission that has a question?

All right.

Would everyone please vote.

Okay, would anyone like to change their vote?

Would the clerk please record the vote?

11.

Yay, zero nay.

Okay, thank you.

Motion passes.

Number three, communication 25370.

Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director requesting Council of Commissioners' authorization to schedule the presentation on August 6th, 2025 agenda to make a presentation on the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Uh we'll continue to hold this in abeyance pending the passage of the budget next week, unless there's a question from a commissioner.

Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just for the benefit of the public.

Um the the council of commissioners uh intends to pass the budget at a special meeting on September 7th or September 2nd at 530.

Um so that will be publicly noticed.

Um for the benefit of the public.

Thank you, Commissioner Shea, for that reminder.

That is correct.

Uh one one thing to mention the reason that it is on Tuesday on the second is because we want to make sure that we allow proper time for the public and anybody else to comment on it.

And by having that as a special meeting, that will just be the only item that is discussed that night.

So just in full disclosure.

So we'll continue to hold that in abeyance pending the passage of the budget.

Number four, uh communication 2025 371, Karen Hassler Finance and Budget Director requesting Council of Commissioners authorization to schedule a public hearing to establish the user rate for Metro Sewer.

The public hearing will begin on August 13th, 2025 and be continued until the Council of Commissioners sets a date to adopt the fiscal year 26 final budget and fix the rate.

We'll continue to hold that in abeyance pending the passage of the of the budget.

Number five, communication 25372, Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director requesting council of commissioners' authorization to schedule a public hearing on August 13th, 2025 to discuss a rate increase for the solid waste collection district fees to cover the cost of contracted services with McGree trucking.

We'll continue to hold this in abeyance as the public hearings are still left open.

Number six communication 2025 373, Karen Hassler, Finance and Budget Director requesting Council of Commissioners' authorization to schedule a public hearing on August 13th, 25 for the adoption of the fiscal year 26 budget and establish the user rates for stormwater system, solid waste disposal and lighting in the fire hydrant district.

The public hearing will be continued until the council of commissioners sets a date to adopt the fiscal year 2026 final budget and fix the rates and levies.

We'll continue to hold this in a or continue to hold this in abeyance as this public hearing is still left open until the passage of the budget.

On the question, Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

I just noticed that we had some handouts on our desk, and I think it would be proper for maybe Director Hasser just to touch on all of them just quickly or briefly.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan, members of council.

Um on your desk this evening, there are three different documents.

One is a continuation of the summary of amendments that we have to the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Um for this week, new items to the budget.

Um we have a couple of different departments that we have um added or increased rent line items for as they are moving to our um armory readiness center complex.

I think we're still waiting to determine a name for that complex, but the area that was formerly occupied um by the armory down um I can't remember.

Where's it at?

It's a Gilman and Gilman.

Um some of the other bigger uh amendments that you'll see are we added two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in a special budget for the water division related specifically to um the potential water contamination um issue that our community faced a couple of weeks ago.

Uh we set up this budget specifically to track um overtime, um, employees time, supplies, additional lab testing that would be required related to this event.

Um, and then just to make it easier for ourselves to seek reimbursement for those costs.

Um so you'll see that there's 250,000 added um to this pot for this specific budget along with a revenue source to offset um those additional costs.

Um due to the receipt of the school districts um number of mills that they are levying for this year.

Um this causes also some changes in our increment districts, and so once we have those levies, we go in and amend their budgets either up or down, depending on what the receipt of the tax dollars will be.

So um we did see a decrease in our URA number two district of 576,632 dollars.

We also um see a decrease in our URA number two debt service fund of ninety-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-five dollars.

So the debt service fund um collects the increment dollars.

It's responsible for paying the debt service on the parking garage, and any increment that is left over is then transferred to the URA fund.

And so based on those tax dollars, it just is reducing the amount of the transfer to the URA fund in order to balance.

Originally was budgeted under training and other purchase services.

They have requested a change in that funding to move it to grants and donations for the year.

No change in the dollar amount, it's just a change in the line item.

We also have an additional $60,000 that is being transferred from the local option marijuana tax fund to the HART grant, which the HART grant helps fund some mental health services for people in our jails in our detention center.

This is also a contract that we have through CCCS.

We have a grant through the state of Montana from the Department of Health and Human Services.

That grant has been cut, but in order to continue to provide those mental health services, we are committing, or the chief executive Gallagher is committing $60,000 in local option marijuana tax funds to be transferred to that fund to help offset the cost, so we're not reducing our services.

So that's a summary of our amendments.

Right now we have tax supported funds.

After that particular block, we have the rest of our special revenue funds that we call and other non-major enterprise funds.

The total budget for fiscal year 2026 is $178,032,300 or $839 less intergovernmental and operating transfers of $10,126,958 for total budget of $167,000 or $167,905,881.

But again, our this resource and requirement schedule shows our balance is our budget is fully in balance.

This is difficult this year because we're not comparing apples to apples, we're comparing apples to oranges because the taxable value from the prior year is not close to the the taxable value of this year.

Without having very specific properties and knowing what the taxable value of a home was in the prior year, it's very difficult to tell somebody what their tax liability would be based on the number of mills that we are going to be required to balance the budget.

It's very difficult to tell somebody what their tax liability would be based on the number of mills that we are going to be required to balance the budget.

But for all of the residents in our community, there's no way for us to give it in this pres in this presentation or setting.

So we just have the same value for last fiscal year to this fiscal year, and it shows the effect of the increase in mills on the property tax that will be levied.

In each of these cases, two, three, four, and five hundred thousand dollars, there would be a tax decrease, a property tax decrease.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Hassler, do any of the commissioners have any questions or follow-up?

Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you, uh Chairman Morgan.

Uh Director Hassler, just a quick question on the amendments to the budget.

And the reimbursable fund that was created.

Is that safe to say then that MRI is reimbursing beats for bow for the costs that they incurred, or is that what you're referring to, or what are you referring to?

Chief Executive Gallagher.

Chairman Morgan, uh, Commissioner Thatcher.

So that will be our intent as they're doing claims where you know there's class action lawsuits and things.

We we will go forward and and then follow claim like the other businesses and stuff that do that.

And so that will be our intent with this.

Okay.

Follow-up, Commissioner Thatcher.

Commissioner O'Neill.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

Karen, thank you always.

Um my question too is on that raising the to the 250,000, seeking that this could happen again.

Um I guess I just worry about that fact that it's not this shouldn't ever happen again, and hopefully it's fixed.

Um I'm certain it's will be.

Um so wouldn't we just have an emergency fund?

I I know it's good to plan ahead, but 200.

Where does it first question?

Where does the 250 come from in the budget?

If that's if you can answer me that.

Because I know if I wanted 250,000 in the budget, right?

I'm gonna know where I can steal it from or raise it up for like you know, our our street signs that are that I would like, you know, that's another thing that I haven't pushed because I'm a wuss, I guess.

But in theory, I'd like to know why we're planning for another catastrophe.

And if there were if there is a obviously we had a fund where that came from, you know, what why does it make sense to budget this now?

Like where does the 250 come from?

If you can help me out on that, please.

Director Hassler.

Uh Chairman Morgan, Commissioner O'Neill.

Um the we're able to add the budget authority because we're offsetting it with the revenue.

So we have we're we're saying that we in our intention here is to be reimbursed for these costs for so anything that we pay out will be then reimbursed by Montana Resources.

So the expense is matched by a revenue, so it doesn't impact the water division at any time.

Follow-up, Commissioner O'Neill.

Nope, you're good.

Commissioner Fisher.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

Thank you, Karen.

Appreciate all you do during this budget season and all year long.

Could you give me uh a dollar value of a mill?

Director Hassler.

Uh Chairman Morgan, Commissioner Fisher, the value of the mill this year is $91,928.

And I believe it is listed at the top.

That is the countywide mill.

Um it's listed at the top of this resource and requirement schedule.

Um it says county.

It starts off with $96,263 for real property centrally assist, adds the personal property and then backs off the increment districts.

So the taxable valuation is $91,927,971.

You divide that by $1,000 to get $91,928.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

Uh thank you, Director Hassler, for all the work you put in here.

Uh just a clarification, I was looking at the economic development uh line item on this.

They're one mil.

I see that the amount in this budget is $193,111.

Is that because we pushed last year's economic development into this year's uh fiscal year?

Director Hassler.

Chairman Morgan, um, Commissioner O'Leary, yes, that is correct.

101,183 was from fiscal year 25 that was pushed or carried forward into fiscal year 26.

So if you take the 101-183 and add it to the value of one mil in this year, it is the 1930.

193,000.

Follow-up.

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

Uh second question, you mentioned the parking garage uh debt service.

Wondering if you just know up off the top of your head how many years left we have on that.

Director Hassler.

Oh, Chairman Morgan, Commissioner O'Leary, I I don't know off the top of my head how many years there are remaining.

Um I'm assuming there it's probably a 20-year bond.

I'm guessing at least 15 years.

That's a guess.

I would probably be close.

Okay.

Any other follow-up?

Okay.

Anything, Director Hassler?

No.

All right.

Thank you very much.

We'll continue to hold uh communication 2025 373 in abeyance pending the passage of the budget.

Moving on to number seven, communication 25386.

Julie Bushmaker, Butte Silver Bow Public Library Chairperson requesting council commissioners' authorization to schedule the presentation on August 27, 2025, to have Steph Johnson, Butte Silver Bow Library Director give an update on the annual report of the Butte Silver Bow Public Library.

We'll continue to hold that in abeyance pending the September 24th date that they would like to present.

Number eight, communication 2025 394, David Hutchins, 529 South Colorado Street, Bugh Montana requesting council commissioners clarify to Butte Silverbow Law Enforcement that law abiding citizens are permitted to recreate on the upper level the parking garage, provided they do not interfere with normal operations and parking.

I have not got an update from this.

Commissioner Callahan, have you heard anything?

Thank you, Chairman Morgan.

I talked to him today.

He's still working on looking into uh insurance policy.

Okay.

So we'll continue to hold that in abeyance pending the report back from Mr.

Hutchins.

Number nine, communication 2025-427, Marlowe and Nicole Carls.

Um hopefully I pronounced that correctly.

Uh requesting council commissioners to purchase land owned by Beach Silver Bow located on the southeast corner of Maryland and second.

We would like to use it for um our yard space for property we own at 1006 Maryland Avenue in Butte, Montana.

We'll continue to hold that in abeyance pending a report from the land sales committee.

Um next item on tonight's agenda is public comment on any public matter that's not on the agenda.

Now would be the opportunity for any member of the public to speak on any item that's not on tonight's agenda.

We do ask that you keep your comments to three minutes or less seeing none.

I would ask for a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

There's been a motion made in a second and seconded to adjourn.

Anything on the question?

Uh on the question, Commissioner Shea.

Just to remind everybody we're reconvening judiciary.

Gotcha.

Anything else on the question?

All those in favor?

All those opposed.