I'd like to call the Butte Silver Bow Council of Commissioners regular meeting for Wednesday December 3, 2025 to order.

Clerk, can we please have a roll call?

Nine present, three absent.

Nine present, three absence.

Please note that Commissioner Mankins, Commissioner O'Neill, and Commissioner Anderson are all absent from tonight's agenda.

Commissioner Walker, could you please lead us in the prayer in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the five of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God.

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

And I know that there's a couple people that are probably going to get called up here today, so you you can wait to get called up on those if you would like.

Okay.

Seeing none, I'll move to the approval of the minutes of the November 19, 2025 minutes.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

At this time, I'll make a motion that we approve the November 19th, 2025 minutes.

We have a motion and second approving the November 19, 2025 minutes.

Is there anything on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 Yay 0 nay.

9 Yay 0 nay.

Motion passes.

We do have one item that's not addressed on tonight's agenda.

We have communication number 2025-584.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

In accordance with the provisions of Rule 7 of the Rules of Business of the Council of Commissioners of the City and County of Butte Silver Bow State of Montana.

The council hereby finds that an emergency condition exists which requires that the council rules be suspended to allow for communication 2025-584 to be added to tonight's agenda.

Based on the foregoing and to allow this matter to be acted upon, the council hereby finds an emergency exist which requires suspension of the rules to add communication 2025-584.

So at this time I move uh to approve the suspension of the rules to add communication 2025-584 to the regular meeting tonight.

We have a motion and second tag, communication number 2025-584 to tonight's agenda.

Is there anything on the question?

Could commissioners please vote.

Clerk, please record the vote.

Nine yay, zero nay motion passes.

Next, moving on to the chief executive's report.

Today I was able to probably be a part of our local heroes ceremony that was held at the Knights of Columbus.

The 12 individuals that were recognized for their service to the community were Nova Nova Barch, Cheryl Frederick, Mike Lawson, Jocelyn Dodge, Jim Colly, Shani Bailey, Susie McLaren, Dina Hamry, Callie Parr, Mike Mangan, Larry Driscoll, and our very own Bill Melvin.

All of these individuals have unique contributions to the community, and and as we talked about today, they they don't do the work that they do to be recognized, but it sure is nice for them to be recognized by the community when they do that.

Alongside those individuals, the Ancient Order of Hibernians was also recognized for their long-standing community heritage and civic engagement.

Their contributions reminded us of the Butte Strength and the heritage of the Irish people in our community.

So I just want to congratulate all of those that were recognized today at the at the local heroes dinner.

And I want to thank uh KBOW, um Ron Davis, Father Patrick Beretta, the Montana Standard, uh, as they uh and um Stephanie Sharini from the chamber as they kind of brought this to the forefront during COVID, you know, that uh the people that went out and are go above and beyond in our community and recognizing those so and it's continued on.

They thought it was going to be a one-year deal, and every year there's always deserving people, and they take nominations.

So next year is if you recognize somebody in the community that really goes above and beyond and is not being recognized for what they do.

I I encourage you to do that.

Um I also wanted to kind of talk about some of the things uh about you know, I know there's a lot of conversations about the data center and Sabi Data Center and and you know the oversight and community impact, and I I want to highlight the positive and proactive work our local government is undertaking regarding the potential SABE data center project.

This development represents a significant opportunity for Butte, and we're approaching it with diligence, transparency, and community focus.

Extensive research and collaboration.

Our local government is conducting in-depth studies and impacts the local community, particularly around energy use and sustainability.

We're working closely with Montana Tech and Bob Morris, the Lance Energy Chair at Montana Tech, to ensure that the every every dis decision is informed by expertise and long-term vision.

The environmental impact, we're diligently in examining the environmental impacts and the footprint of the proposed site.

These include careful study of noise level, light requirements, and overall land use impacts to ensure that the project aligns with community standards and environmental stewardship.

There's talk about the water.

Um have been invited to go out and visit the SABE site in Quincy and my understanding is that that's been moved to to potentially in January.

And I also understand that some of our commissioners have reservations about going under that, and I want to respect everybody's you know views about that.

I think that it's important for all of us of how we how we think about that.

Um I want to be clear that I I respect everyone's views, and at the same time, I want to commend the commissioners that want to go out and do take that trip.

As government officials, we're asking important questions about the facility being proposed in our community.

I cannot think of a better way to gain understanding than to see firsthand how such a data center operates.

A site visit provides valuable insight into the scale, infrastructure, community impacts of the project, and it ensures that our decisions are grounded in direct experience rather than assumptions.

And then I also kind of want to address a lot of the things that are being put out there on social media and it and it's bothersome to me about things that um they're happening.

And I know sometimes we're questioned about ethics of local government, employees, and officials.

I can without reservation, state that I know all the people working as directors, managers, supervisors, and elected officials are doing their absolute best for the community of Butte Silverbow.

Their dedication, professionalism, and integrity are the foundation of our local government, and I'm proud to stand with all of them, whether we have differing opinions or not.

And that's one of the things I just hope that we can continue to move in that direction.

We're not always going to agree on everything that we do up here, and we're not always gonna come to the same conclusions or same thoughts, and and but I'm bothered by some of the things that are being said in the community, and and it's it's not fair.

I I know in my position, I'm gonna take a lot of those, and that's part of running for a position like this.

And as elect officials, sometimes we do that.

But people that are dedicated to doing the work every day and and getting getting really kind of thrown under the bus.

I just want to just hope that everybody reminds those people that we have dedicated servants within our community.

And so with that, I'm gonna close out the chief executive's report and move on to section one, the consent agenda A one through four and b one through.

Are there any friendly amendments and or segregations?

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I have a couple friendly amendments.

First, ummunication 2025-578.

The caption reads that there is a um three to four cubic yard wheel loader.

Um that should be skip loader for the road department.

For it it's okay for it to be the water department.

Am I correct?

For the road department, okay.

For the road department.

Okay.

And then number six, the friendly amendment, um, communication 2025-580 reads that it's for a new skip loader.

That should be the three to four cubic yard wheel loader, and that one's for the water department.

Um the contracts on both communications do reference the correct material being purchased, but the captions are just incorrect.

And then on segregations, I would like to segregate out of the committee of the whole meeting report number eight, twenty five-five four-two, and then out of the B communications.

I would like to segregate number three, twenty-five-five seven seven.

Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I'd like to segregate item number seven, communication number 2025-581.

Thank you.

Are there any other friendly amendments and or segregations?

Seeing none.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

At this time, I'd like to make a motion that we approve Section 1, the consent agenda, a the committee reports one through four with with the exclusion of number 8, 25-542 out of the committee of the whole report.

B, communications one through nine with the exclusion of number three, 25-577, and number seven, twenty-five-five eighty-one.

Second.

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

Is there anything on the question?

Could commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay, 0, nay.

9, yes, 0, nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to uh the committee reports, item number 8, communication number 2025-542.

Will O'Connor land records coordinator requesting council of commissioners to deny council of communication number 2024-460 a request by Steve Maloney to purchase a portion of the city county owned property, portion of tax parcel number 000 18240.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

As this body will recall, um, we were reached out to by Mr.

Maloney, who at the time this communication was first introduced, was unavailable to make the meeting, and then due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there were some other reasons that they were not able to attend.

Um he did re he did ask if if he could, you know, dere he did mention that he would be at tonight's meeting.

And so uh Mr.

Maloney is actually in the audience right now.

So Mr.

Maloney, if if you want to come up and tell us what you wanted to speak about regarding your your communication, that would be great.

I just wanted to give you your opportunity to speak.

You got it.

Great.

Welcome, Mr.

Maloney.

Well, first of all, happy holidays to everyone.

Um Chief Executive Gallagher, members of the Butte Silver Boat, Council of Commissioners.

I stand before you uh tonight.

This ordeal has been going on for five years.

Uh I approached uh Butte Silver Bow when I owned 109 South uh North Montana Street, formerly Trafford's.

Uh I owned it for uh about 20 years.

Uh I started this process with Patrick Reardon, who was your land uh system administrator.

Um I'm gonna just I'll speed it up and give you a quick time frame.

All right, and if you any of you need any information, I have plenty of information from surveys, uh emails, um text messages, phone calls, things like that.

Anyway, um on February 1st to 23, the completion of this survey was done by Everlee and Associates and Brown Associates, and I paid them $2,500 to have this done.

That what the council asked me to do or the land company, um, they asked me to go out and have a survey done.

It would be my responsibility, and I did that.

Uh on February 6th, I sent a letter to you, Chief Executive Gallagher, uh asking to submit this communication that we've had the survey done and we'd like to move on with the process.

On March 3rd, uh waiting for the matter to move forward and stating survey had been submitted to the planning department.

On April 10th of 23, a letter from Everly and Associates, the survey company requesting a correction deed to be filled out with some language changes to the deed.

All right.

So now the planning department has that.

Move on to April 13th.

A letter by Dave Aguirre.

He was the land record coordinator at the time, recomm recommending the Council of Communication 2023-143 for myself to purchase the property, tax parcel 892400.

The price was set by the Montana Department of Revenue $4,200.

Now, sometime in between in 2004, Mr.

Agueri left the land records job and he became, I believe, coordinator.

I don't want to miss his title, uh, of the weed control or something.

I'm not sure what it but so there was a time period there about a year where nothing was done with this.

All right.

I had a sister die, I had a sister-in-law die, and so a lot of things that had happened.

But then all of a sudden, on August 7th, 20 uh 2025, a meeting with Karen Burns at Drizzle Ice.

We're trying to promote Uptown Butte and support these uh groups.

I told her to come down, I buy her an ice cream cone.

She came and we talked about uh the land sale.

And everything went fine with this meeting until the very end when she asked me if I would uh be interested in becoming a partner with Demetrius, and he is a gentleman I've never met, and he owns the Covelite.

And I told her at that time I would not be interested as a partner at all.

My partner in life is in the back of the room there, and that's enough partners for Steve Maloney.

Um August 22nd, the ball started moving really quick now.

A meeting with Karen Burns, Will O'Connor, Julia Crane, Bob Everly, Dave Guire, and myself.

Um when I left the meeting, Miss Burns had said suggested that I would need to have a new survey done.

Now, talking to Mr.

Everly, the survey is fine.

Um31st.

I get a letter from Will O'Connor to me, which denied the council of communication for Steve Maloney to purchase the property tax parcel.

This order came from the land sales committee.

It took place on August or October 14th.

Now you're going to hear from uh Mr.

O'Connor that there was errors in the survey.

And there were errors in the survey.

So I'll just read one thing that he said in the in the letter denying me the sale.

Through the survey and process, certain errors in ownership unrelated to Butte Silver Bow were discovered, and the process was not completed.

So if I could just pass one of these on Tsu.

It was simply this is from Mr.

Everly.

His writing is on the document.

Thank you.

Thanks.

So we're looking at it.

We're looking at the piece of property is number 22.

All right.

Now in that letter from Mr.

O'Connor, and I'm not here, folks, to point blame at anybody.

Miss Burns, Mr.

O'Connor, Mr.

Agueri, or any is what I'm trying to do is fight for something I've been fighting for for five years.

This property has sat for 50 years untouched.

When I was a kid, I used to pack my papers and uh fold my papers in the Montana Hotel.

I know the area, I just want to clean it up.

There is a beautiful memorial in there, but for Alma Higgins.

They're in the back of it.

Uh there was some street people living in there.

Uh we just need to clean it up, and that was the idea.

So as you can see in that handout that I gave you, where he says there's no uh certain what is it what it say uh certain errors in the ownership unrelated to Butte Silver Bow ownership were discovered.

Unrelated to Butte Silver Bow, folks, if you look at the first Baptist Church thing, and then you look at the area of conflict in uh section number 11, that's where the problem arose.

Now I said, Well, to Everly, should I just buy this land?

He told me I would not buy that land if you're not gonna own it all, because something has to be done with that deed.

And apparently it is something when Butte Silver Bow tore down the Montana Hotel, they gave uh an easement or something that's going went on with the survey, and that's what's caused the problem, and that's where I stand today.

So, what's the solution here?

I don't own the building anymore, but I still want the property.

All right.

Uh if you don't want to sell the property to me and Miss Burns or somebody else has another idea to do it with the Covelite or whatever.

I'll honor your judgment.

Refund me my $2,500 back, the money I invested in this deal.

And like I say, if you need any more information, folks, I appreciate your time.

Uh if you have any questions for me.

Thank you, Mr.

Maloney.

Do any commissioners have any questions?

Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Thanks, Steve, for making it here.

Yeah.

I we appreciate it.

I'm sorry for being so late and delayed.

It was tricky getting back to Butte Montana.

We understand.

I guess my first question is why were you asked to partner with the guy from the COVID line if he wasn't the one that wanted to buy it to start with?

Dan, I can't answer that question.

I guess maybe Ms.

Burns could ask me.

I I would say uh I hadn't it was the first I heard of it, and ever since then that's when the ball started rolling.

Okay.

Thank you, uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Callahan, members of council.

Um I was approached by the owners of the Covelay Theater to buy that property as well.

Um, and at the time that I suggested that maybe there could be some sort of partnership because they had a need for some of that property um for their outside deck area.

Um but I did tell the owners of the Covlight Theater, Demetrius Fases that we had an active um interest in that property by Mr.

Maloney.

Um and he said, Is there any way we could partner?

And I said, Well, I will broach that subject with Mr.

Maloney, and that's what I did.

Um there was nothing else behind that at all.

That they just had an interest in buying the property as well.

Mr.

Maloney hadn't moved forward with the sale for all of the reasons that he just explained.

And so I thought I would ask if he was interested in a partnership.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Burns.

Follow-up, Commissioner Callahan.

I guess this one could be for Mr.

O'Connor.

Welcome, Mr.

O'Connor.

Commissioner Callahan.

I'm sure you must see the map we have here with the property that's in question.

What was the reason in that they were denied because of that reason?

Part of that is in two different people's properties.

I mean, the the Trafford cater in place and the first Baptist Church, it looks to me like that's part of uh partially on their property as well, right?

Commissioner Callahan, uh Mr.

O'Connor.

I don't think the li there you go.

It's uh we didn't get it again.

There you go.

Chief Executive Gallagher, uh Commissioner Callahan, members of council.

Yeah, that area of conflict was between the two uh parcels, but it was done when uh Mr.

Riggs bought the first Baptist church, and there was an error in the legal description that Mr.

Everly found during that deed.

So it was nothing to do with Butte Silver Bows.

Butte Silver Bow still owns that, but there was just an area of conflict from the deed going west instead of east in one direction in the meets and bounds.

Follow up, Commissioner Callahan.

So why would that interfere with the sale of this piece of property that doesn't interfere with either of those buildings then?

Commissioner Callahan, Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher Gallagher, Commissioner Callahan.

It it did not interfere with it, and Mr.

Maloney could have filed the survey at the time when he still owned the building on 109 uh Montana with that area of conflict, but as he said he didn't feel comfortable doing that, and the survey was a boundary adjustment from the parking lot with that 109 North Montana, making it one whole lot, which that survey no longer can be used because Mr.

Maloney doesn't own 109 Montana.

Follow up, Commissioner Callahan.

I guess at one time we used to have an adjacent uh property owner had a right to buy the property.

But we were advised a few months back that Buttesilver Bow no longer has that.

So whether he owns a property or not, probably should make a difference at this point, right?

Commissioner Callahan, Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Callahan.

The property now would have to be resurveyed because it's all part of one parcel, which is the parking lot across the street from the library, which includes that piece with the Alma Higgins Garden.

So in order for us to sell it, we would just be losing out.

He would have to do a survey and we would just be taking land away to give to Mr.

Maloney, not adding it to anything.

Follow up, Commissioner Callahan.

I guess my concern would be that we ask a guy to go survey a piece of property to sell it to him, and then tell him no, we won't sell it.

Uh you know, to go spend your own money and then say, Well, we found something that there's a reason not to sell it.

I can understand why it at least want his money back.

But I guess my second question would be Al Mahiggins has an incredible history in our community.

Why would Butte Silver Bow want to sell that property to start with?

Commissioner Callahan, uh the second part of the question, I don't think that's for Mr.

O'Connor to to um answer that, but yeah, I think that it had gone through the process of selling the land.

Mr.

Maloney had gone through the proper channels of doing the the trying to acquire the property and acquired a body, gone through the process, did the survey, which was asked at that time.

The the challenge was is after this was all in the and the selling of one of the other properties that this came up, I think.

Um but I don't think it was you know why Silverbow was selling it.

I wasn't sitting here.

I don't know what what the intent was on there at that time.

I think a lot of it is again um having properties that you know are sitting in our tax holes that are not being productive.

Uh Commissioner Fisher, you had a question.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Thank you, Mr.

Maloney for being here.

Uh I did I did a lot of research on this.

I read through it quite a while back.

I have a friend of mine that is a retired attorney.

He's a good friend of Mr.

Maloney's he included me in on a lot of things that are happening here.

And um I honestly think that the you know, as you say, you know, the juice ain't worth the squeeze for $2,500 to give him his money back or have a legal dispute for 4200 over a piece of property.

It's just not worth it.

I think it's in the best interest of butts of a beau to either give him back his $2,500 or selling the property.

It sounded to me like giving him back his $2,500 and uh letting the property move forward is probably the best idea because it sounds like the dispute is goes back to 2024 2020 when Patrick Ridden, who was very, very educated and a real good land sales coordinator.

Uh I just think that it's in the best interest of this uh party to give him back his 2500, he shouldn't have to pay for another survey.

He already paid for one.

And it was two people, Ron Dunnett and Everly done it.

It wasn't like one person did it.

So I think it's in the best interest of this uh community to give him back his $2,500, and then if somebody else wants to buy the property, whether it be the Covelite Theater or uh Mr.

Maloney, they can do that.

But this thing has been so stagnant and stale for five years, it's really got a it's really got a lot of uh ifs, downs and butts in the middle of it.

And then uh I'm gonna listen to a little more conversation, then I'll make a motion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Fisher.

Commissioner Morgan, and then Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Uh this is a first for me that the council is kind of being asked to be the judge, jury, and executioner on on this side of things.

But a couple of questions that I just want to ask.

Um I can I can understand with Commissioner Fisher's point of view on this.

However, who Mr.

Maloney, who told you to get a survey completed, and and in a theory, it's it's kind of unfortunate because they have no authority to to require that until this body makes a motion that actually gives you the property to do it.

So that's kind of my first question of why you would go to that next step before having a set path.

And and then I can ask Commissioner Morgan, Mr.

Maloney.

Yeah.

Um Chief Executive Gallagher, uh Commissioner uh Morgan.

Uh great question.

I say I'm not here uh to throw stones at anybody.

Uh I've known Karen Burns for a long time.

She's helped me on numerous deals and helped me greatly.

Um Karen asked me to do the survey.

Uh I would I would have to have a survey done.

And at that point, it was even mentioned that the uh the price of the sale of the 4200, maybe some of that money that cost me for the survey would come off of that price.

So that's where that's where it came from.

Commissioner Morgan.

So just to follow up of it, Miss Burns.

I I know you know you you can say what you said.

Um by her saying you needed to do that.

Did that was that the green light to go and pay somebody to do it, or was it a promise?

Miss Ms.

Burns, I'll ask you to I'm I'm just wanting clarify where Commissioner Morgan, director Morgan, JP, um sorry, Commissioner Um Morgan, Chief Executive Gallagher, members of council.

This body approved the sale.

So it went to the land sales committee.

The request to purchase the property went to the land sales committee.

The land sales committee at that time was run by um Pat Reardon.

Okay.

The land sales committee reviewed the request from Mr.

Maloney to purchase the property.

Um he was going to purchase that property as he owned the adjacent property at 109 um North Montana, and he was going to improve that property and inadjacent to areas behind his existing apartment that is on the back side of that property.

And so he presented that to the land sales committee.

The land sales committee voted to sell him the property, made that recommendation to this body.

This body approved that recommendation.

So it wasn't Karen Burns saying, Hey, go get a survey, everything looks great.

It was this body approving the land sale.

The next step in the land sales process is to get a survey done, so then we can establish a purchase price for the surveyed area because we're current.

We were creating a new parcel.

Okay.

We didn't want to sell him our whole parking lot, you know, in between across from the library.

So a new parcel had to be created.

And that new parcel then would be assigned a value.

And during the discussions at the land sales committee meeting, there was discussion of what that might be and what the cost of a survey might be, and we could look at that at that time to determine you know, is there is there an offset that can be made?

But the steps in the process were request to purchase a property, referred to land sales, land sales made a recommendation back to this body, this body approved it, and then we went to the next steps of Mr.

Maloney conducting a survey.

At that time, that survey was completed or well completed, but with the problems that you just heard about.

Then things stalled out.

A lot of things happened.

Um so then when uh Mr.

Maloney came back and said, Yeah, I'm still interested in buying this property.

That's where we are again today.

And in the meantime, Mr.

Maloney has sold his interest in the property at 109 North Montana.

The survey that he completed was based on him having ownership of 109 Montana to get a new survey done to show that he does not own that property any longer is a requirement for us to be able to sell anything to do with this piece of property.

So at the meeting that he mentioned with all of us in attendance when we let he left and we said you're gonna probably have to get a new survey done because the old one is no longer valid.

It doesn't have the correct ownership anymore.

So a new survey would have to be completed.

And then we also asked if he was still interested in purchasing this property that we'd bring it back to this body, and this body would make a decision based on what would he want to use the property for without owning 109 North Montana.

I hope I didn't give you more information than you asked for, but I just wanted to say that's exactly how this progressed in a survey being conducted.

Thank you, Miss Burns.

Did you did you want to it was Commissioner Thatcher next?

But go ahead.

You're good.

Okay.

So we'll do Commissioner O'Larry.

Thank you, JP Executive Gallagher.

I just had a clarifying question on that point.

I think this might be for uh Miss Burns.

What was the are you saying that the survey was essentially tied as as like a lot line adjustment, like where it was tied or Mr.

O'Connor that this would be a lot line adjustment that you'd be integrating this parcel into the 109 parcel?

Is that my understanding?

Commissioner O'Leary, uh Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Leary, members of council, that's correct.

That it was a boundary adjustment survey where this portion would be attached to 109 North Montana as one parcel, and the rest of the parking lot would remain one parcel.

So there was no new parcels created with the current request.

There would have to be a whole new parcel created for Mr.

Maloney to own that lot.

Thank you.

So follow up, Commissioner O'Leary.

Just so just to clarify, and I think I we're on the same, we're on we're talking about the same thing here.

The survey is not valid.

This survey is not valid because it is a boundary adjustment survey, not a creation of a new lot.

So in this case, a new survey would be required to create a separate new parcel.

Commissioner Larry, Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Leary, that is correct.

The survey as it has he currently has it would give the property to whoever you sold 109 North Montana to follow Commissioner Thatcher, and then I'll come back to Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Um records coordinator O'Connor, you've done a really good job, but I just want maybe Director Crane to come up and give a little bit of insight because Mr.

O'Connor is somewhat fresh in the office, and maybe you can provide the perspective of you know time prior.

So if you could maybe fill us in on anything too, I'd appreciate it.

Commissioner Thatcher, Director Crane.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Thatcher, members of the Commission.

Uh one thing that I would like to clarify is that if we were to proceed with this sale, um, as Karen described, that is as accurate as a portrait of what happened.

I was not in my role prior to this.

Um I was not functioning in the planning department in 2020 when this was initiated, and I was not party to this in 2023 until October of that year when I assumed my position, my current position.

Um the proposal that was what placed before this body was a boundary adjustment survey that would incorporate that Alma Higgins Garden portion into the property for the Traffords building, which was 109 North Montana Street.

To proceed with a sale at this point, I just want to be clear that there would be two, likely two surveys that would be required.

One, a retracement survey, re-establishing the lots that exist within that parking lot where the Montana Hotel once stood.

And then we would have to do a boundary adjustment on those lots in order to change their location so that we can create a parcel.

And we would be doing that as an exemption under Montana statute rather than subdividing the parking lot to provide this piece of property.

Another important component that I think it needs to be communicated is that should we convey this property to Mr.

Maloney and should you vote in that in favor to do so?

There would be only access to the area from the Butte Silver Bow owned parking lot.

So if there were a development plan for that, they could not access that under our current zoning regulations from the alley.

They would have to access that parcel through our parking lot, which would likely also entail an easement to make sure that there is legal and physical access to the parcel moving forward.

Which I believe is in the letter that was communicated to or in the communication that was delivered to the body.

Thank you, Ms.

Crane.

Commissioner Fisher.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Thank you, Ms.

Crane.

So you can see with explanation from Ms.

Crane and Miss Burns and Mr.

Maloney that there are a lot of things that happen between 2020 and 2023 that complex this issue.

My point that I'd like to make at the very end is it appears that sometime in that time there was a contingency that if he'd done the survey, he could purchase the property.

Whether that'd been a verbal agreement or any type of agreement, I don't know, and it really doesn't state in any of the information we read, because it's about five or six pages of information.

So with that being said, again, I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze as the chief executive taught me that saying some time ago.

I think it's in the best interest to maybe refund him his 2500 and move forward with the property with whoever might want to apply to buy it or you know put it on RFP or whatever they want to do with it.

But I think he does deserve to get his $2,500 back.

So at this time I'm going to make a motion that we refund Mr.

Maloney his $2,500 that he paid for the survey and let the land sales committee uh decide what they want to do with the property from there on.

Thank you.

We have a motion in a second to um refund Mr.

Maloney $2,500 for survey and refer back to the land sales committee.

Is that correct?

Okay.

Commissioner Thatcher.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

I guess I'm a little confused because how I am understanding this story is that Mr.

Maloney himself paid for the survey to Everly.

So how is Butte Silver Bow refunding any money that we didn't spend or or get?

I mean, he didn't pay us to do the survey.

He paid Everly to do the survey.

So how are we as Butes of Verbeau refunding him $2,500 when we didn't get the $2,500 in the first place?

Is that correct, Mr.

Maloney, maybe because you answered that?

Did you pay directly, Everly, or did you pay Butte's request?

That's correct.

Thank you.

Okay.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I I would just have a question on that motion and then a follow-up.

But Commissioner Fisher, when you when you make the statement of just refund $2,500, where's that $2,500 coming from?

What fund would you take that from?

I mean that that's kind of the challenge that we we would have of where it would be.

And I just want to peel back a few layers of this onion, and and maybe I'm making this over simplistic.

We we had a letter or communication come before us that wanted to purchase land to do an adjacent property owner.

That came back to this body to approve the sale.

And then it went to the next step, and the next step on that would be to go through and do a survey.

That survey came in, and then whatever happened in life took over, and then it never really went to fruition.

In the meantime, Mr.

Maloney sold the property, that the Traffords building that the survey went to.

So then it kind of negated the original ask of the communication.

And then later in life, life came back on, and Mr.

Maloney wanted to purchase the property.

So there's there's a lot of like things going on here of what is right.

And obviously, we're not a court.

And I I would ask the county attorney a question on this.

Is that in this particular scenario, it would be my thought that it would be best for Butte Silver Bow to retain the property of the in question to try to negate some of that, and there was there's you know fault on on the on the process because of time and what originally took place and what is now taking place, and and really the process should start over in the sense of you know, from a complete start, and and and I appreciate Commissioner Fisher's thought on this, but Silver Bow is not the only one to blame here, and Mr.

Maloney's not to blame here either.

But you know, did I just oversimplify that?

Commissioner Morgan County Attorney Ann Ruth, Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Morgan.

Without reviewing the file that all of you have in front of you, based off of what I've heard, the original offer in this matter when you're looking at a contract for a purchase and sale of property, there's offer acceptance consideration.

The offer was for the piece of property, which was a boundary line adjustment because he owned the building.

That was one of the original parts of the request to purchase it, and then it went through land sales committee, came before this board.

This board greenlighted that, which then required him to get the survey.

Um at that point in time, if there were issues with the survey or the deeds, things should have been uh the deeds should have been corrected, which then it could have proceeded forward.

The lot line adjustment would have taken place, and the property would have been his, depending on what this board chose to sell it as.

Um now he no longer owns the building and negates the original contract, in my opinion.

While he paid the $25 to have the survey done, it doesn't matter at this point because the original contract was to put you know, it was to it was to adjust the the laundry or the excuse me, the laundry, the uh boundary line to attach to that piece of property, not to sell a new piece of property.

Um so, in my opinion, at this point, the the initial agreement is void.

We're no longer on that path, which is why I do believe the communication that's in front of you is to deny it because the original request was for a boundary line adjustment to attach to a building.

Um, and then I also need to make another point of order is that this body only has the authority to act on the communication that's in front of it, not make an additional motion to refund money that's not in front of you guys right now.

Now, if that was brought at a later date, it's definitely something that needs to be looked at.

But the communication that is in front of the the commission right now is simply whether or not to deny the purchase uh based on Mr.

Um Williams' communication.

Excuse me, based on uh Mr.

O'Connor's communication.

Thank you, County Attorney Ann Ruth.

Are there any other questions of commissioners?

Commissioner Healy.

Um it's just a thought.

I mean, you thought you said that they would credit you for the survey moving forward.

So if you had to pay again a second time, would that be the same deal?

Like, you know, it would go towards the sale.

Okay.

Uh new surveys done, and that would have to that's the last word I got.

You know, in this survey though, Mr.

Maloney.

Yeah, so if you yeah, I want to turn on you.

There you go.

Chief Executive Gallagher um Council Commissioners.

Uh it clearly states from Everly when it came back here that uh the lot 11, which was previously deeded to the city and county of Butte Silver Bowl from the first Baptist Church.

And so that's where the quick claim came.

So you had a lot of players involved in this.

You had the Baptist church, you had uh the memorial in the back.

Uh still they told asked me to go and get a survey, and I did.

I did it in a timely manner, and we tried to follow up with uh numerous uh things.

I just um the survey is a thing that's uh concerns me uh why it's no good.

Uh talking to Mr.

Everly, he claims uh if you looked at that map, the only part that is in question, 22 is all it's just that little section that is in question to the survey to that lot.

The four hubs are are there now.

There are two language things that need to be changed, and one was easterly and one was westerly.

He claims the survey is still good thank you, Mr.

Maloney.

Commissioner Fisher and then Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallery.

Once again, um I realized that the county didn't get the 2500 dollars.

I realize that.

But the thing about it is, is it worth the fight to go through?

We made an agreement.

This council passed it.

Some weren't even on this council then.

We passed it.

We gave them the green light.

You do a survey, we're gonna sell you the property.

He done the survey.

We're not selling the property.

I mean, I understand the legal aspects, you know, it could be a fight, but you can't even you can't even open a courtroom for $2,500.

I mean, and where are we going to get the money?

Whoever buys this property, we can take it off of that, because this property is gonna sell, apparently.

A couple of people want it, sounds like the covalent wants it, and uh Mr.

Maloney might still want it.

You know, and if he does, the 2500 comes into play again.

But the thing about this, and I I used to is it worth the fight for 2500 after five years, five years, somebody messed up.

And we've went through a lot of different people there, and it's no fault to anyone's, and I don't think anyone's to blame, but you know, we the council approved it, you know, and we we said get survey, we get in the green light to buy it, and he doesn't get to buy it now.

So I'm standing by my motion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Fisher.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I wasn't on the council at the time of the acceptance of it.

Yes, we did approve it, but the parameters have changed since that approval, and so with all that being said, I'm gonna make a substitute motion that we deny or we know we can concur with communication 2025-542 in place on file.

We have a motion and a second to concur in place on file communication number 2025-542.

Is there anything else on the question?

Commissioner Shea, I know you had your hand up, but I apologize.

That's okay.

Thank you.

Um there's obviously a legal reason why if the boundary adjustment could no longer be done because um Mr.

Maloney didn't own any of those adjacent properties, that there would be it, I believe, and I'm sure there's a legal reason, and maybe somebody that you know does this for a living can tell me.

Um there must be a statute.

Is there a statute that would require a new survey based on the changing of the situation where he no longer owns the property that's next to the property that was initially wanting to be purchased, maybe Ms.

Crane?

Or Commissioner Shea, I believe Ms.

Crane maybe could answer that question.

Director Crane.

She's Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Shea, members of the council.

A boundary adjustment survey essentially takes one parcel that exists.

So look at the computer in front of you.

That is your parcel.

And you want to absorb the piece of paper next to it.

You can move the lines and incorporate that in.

If you do not have the original parcel, you can't move lines.

So now that there is no adjacent property in his ownership, we cannot move lines expeditiously the way that it would have been allowed at this point initially.

So a new survey would need to be done to retrace the existing parcels that we have there, or the lots to re-establish them because they're part of a bigger parcel.

And that retracement would re-establish those lots, and then we could authorize a boundary adjustment of those.

That is the only way I see forward because we do not have the option of a boundary adjustment.

Even if we were to move lines, we would just be making the alley bigger.

There's no parcel there to change the the boundary of.

One of the conditions of the sale was that a purchase price of 4200 dollars as set by the Montana Department of Revenue, and the transaction was to be completed within six months of council's approval.

And so that was dated April 13th, so it would have been six months from the following Wednesday for that.

And that was the timeline that was granted.

So I I that is in um the packet within your communications, um, dated April 13th, 2023.

Thank you, Director Crane.

Any other questions?

Commissioner uh O'Larry.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

Uh I guess just for the sake of understanding the the full picture here to that point, uh I've got two questions.

First one is why was the sale not completed in that time frame?

This might be for Mr.

Maloney.

Why was it not completed in that time frame?

And then the second question is uh since you've sold the parcel at 109 or what yeah, 109 uh North Montana, what what is your interest in the parcel at this point?

Commissioner O'Leary, Mr.

Maloney.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, uh Council Commissioners.

Um what is my interest in the uh the property?

My my main interest was to build a garage.

That was it.

Uh property on both the on that alley on both the west side and the east side of of that alley uh for snow removal, uh yard work, things like that.

Uh the deal with Karen uh uh we discussed about wasn't a deal, uh, was we are going to clean up the Alma Memorial.

We were gonna fix that up with the uh Butte um uh gardeners uh club.

Uh we had a lot of some street people in behind uh Smithers, I mean Trafford's and uh the Baptist Church, and we just wanted to clean it up.

Now another thing is that it's an access, uh the a lot of the ladies that work for the school district, they use that as a walkway.

So that's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna build a staircase uh up to the alley because they didn't want to walk all the way around Broadway and up um Montana Street.

So that was the one issue.

To answer your first part of that question, Mr.

U Larry, what was that?

It was why was there uh issue with the time frame and why didn't you exercise the purchase within that six months?

Yeah, great question.

Uh the time frame was like I have all the the paperwork, we tried to keep uh involved with it to move forward with it.

Um we contacted uh Kimball Pipes, who owns the Baptist Church, right?

Uh they had that quick claim deed on that property when they gave it or they gave it to the county when you put the parking lot in.

Uh no one came back.

Mr.

Agueri uh never followed up on it.

All those documents went to them.

They needed to make the adjustment of that uh quick claim deed.

Those are the reasons.

Thank you, Mr.

Maloney.

Follow up Commissioner O'Leary.

I just if I could follow one one last thing about that.

You know, I've I bought and sold some property in my life, uh, but what I couldn't understand is I'm buying a piece of property from Butte Silver Bow and I had to go get a survey.

If I ever sold the property, I had to have the title and the survey already done.

So I could never understand why I even had to have the survey done.

Thank you, Mr.

Maloney.

Did you have a follow up follow-up climb, Commissioner O'Larry?

Thank you, Chief Executive.

I I guess to to the first question again, I I maybe I didn't make my question very clear, but I I'm wondering at this moment in time since you don't own 109 uh North Montana Street, you know, what what is your interest in owning the property now?

Does that make sense?

Commissioner O'Leary, Mr.

Maloney.

Yeah.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioners.

Uh yes, it is to build that uh uh garage.

Um I heard Mrs.

Uh Crane say that the entrance has to go off that uh I thought I could uh have entrance off of the alley.

So that was the reason.

Thank you, Mr.

Maloney.

Follow up, Commissioner O'Leary.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

Uh I so I if I heard the the planning director correctly, our ordinance does not allow primary access for a parcel off of the alley.

Uh would if that was the case, would that change your your interest in the property if if you were unable to build a uh garage on that parcel that was accessible from the alley?

Commissioner O'Leary, uh Mr.

Maloney.

Chief Executive Gallagher and Commissioners.

Um yes it would.

Um I would like uh to think that uh one block down the alley is uh they just put a garage in there.

And I I just don't know why you wouldn't be able to uh build a garage there.

There used to be a uh printing business that was on Granite Street, and all those employees used to park right behind Trafford's, and what they started to do, if you ever look at it, he started bringing in truckloads of dirt in there and started dumping the dirt so his employees could park in there.

And once I caught him doing that, I I said you just can't be dumping the dirt in there.

So there are a lot of things we just wanted to clean it up, and now that I'm not there, uh I want to use it to build something to store a lot of things.

Thank you, Mr.

Murray.

Does that answer your question, Mr.

O'Leary?

Any other questions?

So we'll go to the motion, and that is to uh concur.

Concur and place on file communication number 2025-542.

Is there anything else on the question?

Could commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

6 yay 3 nay.

6 yay 3 nay motion passes.

Thank you for being here, Mr.

Maloney.

Moving back to item number three, communication number 2025-577.

Cynthia Sherman, clerk and recorder, requesting council of commissioners' authorization to draft a resolution to make changes to an official precinct boundary.

I'd like to combine precinct 8.2 with 9.1 and precinct 12.6 with the 11.2.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I segregated this communication because Ms.

Sherman doesn't want us to act on this year.

So she's going to bring this communication back to us next year when it's appropriate to do that.

And so uh just at this time, I would just make a motion that we note communication 2557 in place on file.

We have a motion and a second to note in place on file communication number 2025-577.

Is there anything on the question?

Commissioner O'Larry.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

Um, I just I guess my just uh procedural question.

Is there any reason why we wouldn't just hold it in advance until next year?

Commissioner O'Larry, uh I'll let uh uh Commissioner Morgan answer you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I like to keep an agenda clean.

No reason to have communications that we don't know what when they're coming back.

Thank you, Commissioner Morgan.

I thought that would be the answer.

So we have a motion and a second.

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay 0 nay.

9 yay 0 nay motion passes movement to item number 7, communication number 2025-581.

Will O'Connor land records coordinator requesting Council of Commissioners to approve council commissioner our council communication number 2025-249, a request from Patty and Chris Salmonson to purchase land owned by Butte Silverbow, located adjacent to their property, located at 17 Tullimore Street.

Commissioner Morgan.

Oh, Commissioner Shea, sorry.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Um I see that Mr.

Salmonson is in the audience and has provided us with some information, and I would ask that he comes up and um kind of explain the information that you gave to us and um be available for some questions.

Thank you.

Welcome, Mr.

Salmanson.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Uh JP Gallagher, thank you.

Um about six to eight months ago, uh went on um, I contacted uh Julie Crane with the um the built the lands department and um discussed with her about purchasing adjacent property um next to mine.

Um they worked through it, got it all approved, went to commission, you guys approved it.

Um then it went back to them.

Um I guess to to put the numbers together.

Um the numbers are together.

This communication now that we're we're talking about looks good to me.

Um the only thing that I have a problem with is the um department of revenue.

The uh the the price for the department of uh the revenue uh valuation applies um to only buildable land.

The land that that I want to purchase for parking on it's unbuildable.

You can't you can't build on it and you can't dig on it.

Um I reached out to find out what that land value would be.

Um talked to Will and Will told me that there really hasn't been a lot of uh super fund sale, sales of uh parcels, and that uh he couldn't really get me a number.

So I did some searching on the internet, and the best that I could come up with is what I present presented you guys uh this evening.

Um it's kind of kind of the that was between um the 20 to 60 cents, I think it was where I put that information.

Yeah, 10 to 20, sorry, 10 to 20 uh per square feet uh cents.

Um I'm asking that the council review that and um see if we can get to some number um because the current number is at like a little over it's at uh 32,080, and um I also will have to pay for the survey, which is between three to six thousand dollars.

Um so for just that small portion um of land that I can't build on, nor can I do any digging on seems a little bit uh seems like a lot.

Thank you, Mr.

Salmanson.

Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Thank you, Mr.

Salmanson.

Um can you tell me where you were able to like what did you what did you find online that that gave you the comparison?

So I just did this numbers.

Well, first of all, I couldn't really find anything for the superfund.

Sorry.

Oh, yeah, Mr.

Sultman.

Yeah, Commissioner Shay.

Um I couldn't really find um any super fund information, um, but I did find a few things um through Chat GPT and and Google that um said that the average for unusable uh unbuildable property is between that uh 10 to 10 to 20 20 cents per square foot.

And that's where I came up with that number.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Solmonson.

Follow up, Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I would like to talk to uh Mr.

O'Connor or Ms.

Crane or both just to understand um if there is a difference, because I look it appears that there's a difference, but um if you could just explain to me the rationale behind that amount.

Um yeah, we'll start there.

Commissioner Shea, uh Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Shea, members of council.

So uh communication 2025 582 uh with William McGinnis is on 807 North Montana Street.

That's uh one block above uh Tolomore Street, so it's right in the exact same area.

It also is going through super fund uh reclamation right now.

So the land sales committee used the exact same valuation on both properties because they're in the exact same area with super fund as well.

So we didn't feel comfortable saying Mr.

McGuinness should pay 17,000, the Department of Revenues valuation and the Salmonsons should pay something different.

Thank you, Mr.

O'Connor.

Commissioner Shea.

Um is thank you, Mr.

O'Connor.

Is the McGuinness property unbuildable?

Commissioner Shea, um, Mr.

O'Connor.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Shea, there would have to be a survey done on that property for Mr.

McGuinness because it's already in a plated subdivision, so those non-buildable areas are not noted like they are in the Tolomore subdivision.

Jet just point of order on that.

Commissioner Morgan, go ahead.

We can't bring in that other communication.

It's German.

But it but that's not what's before us.

That's not what is part of this communication.

So I would just ask that questions be directed for this communication and not bring in another other one.

Okay.

Thank you, Commissioner Morgan.

Commissioner Shea.

Okay.

Can you tell me, are there other properties in the proximity of that area at Tallamore that are using the same valuation that are buildable or unbuildable?

Commissioner Shea, um Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Shea.

Uh we wouldn't there is no real properties like that because all the unbuildable properties in the area are mostly owned by Butte Silver Bow.

Thank you, Mr.

O'Connor.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Can you tell me, in your experience, is there a difference of how land is valued with the Department of Revenue based on a lot that's buildable versus a lot that is not buildable?

And if so, where does that come into?

Commissioner Morgan Scott.

Mr.

O'Connor.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Morgan, I have never appraised value for the Department of Revenue.

I know there's differences for the grazing and agriculture and stuff like that, but I don't I don't know if the Department of Revenue even knows what parcels are buildable and non-buildable in Butte Silver Bow.

Follow up, Commissioner Morgan.

Ms.

Crane, would you happen to know the answer on that?

Commissioner Morgan, uh Director Crane.

Mr.

Chief Executive, Commissioner Morgan, uh I do not have any knowledge of how the DOR assesses value of these parcels.

What I do know is that the parcel of land that Mr.

Salmondson is interested in is what is called the Oro Butte Load.

It is in Missoula Gulch.

It is a breeze site.

It is an impacted super fund site.

It is capped, which means that there cannot be a breach to its cap.

There are certain restrictions that are imperative there.

Um and that is to maintain the sufficiency of the remedy and ensure that there is no uh stormwater runoff that could contaminate the stormwater system or ultimately Silverbow Creek.

Um there are also are, as part of the Tullomore planned unit development, significant no-build zones that are associated with this particular subdivision because there are very shallow workings in the area.

Um making sure that you are set back from those, that you do not penetrate the cap, that you are not going deeper that might intercounter those workings is certainly a constraint.

Uh we do not have an appraiser on our team to appraise value, so we don't see the distinction there.

Um the analysis that was performed by the land sales committee looked at these two properties that are within a thousand feet of one another.

One is adjacent to what was formerly an old rail bed, which is impacted by waste as well.

Um in fact, we know that that particular parcel, although I'm not bringing it up for this one, was set to be remedied because of contamination that was identified on that parcel.

Um but the Oro Butte load is so large, it is a significantly large, I I think it's 32 acres.

I might be misspeaking.

I couldn't pull is it it's 10 acres.

So he would be taking proposing to um absorb 5,000 square feet of that 10 acres into his property.

Um it's very difficult to assess a value on a piece of butte reclamation evaluation system superfund impacted land of an acreage that is fairly uncommon in the uptown area.

Well, very common in the uptown area, but uncommon as a developed parcel.

So thank you, Director Crane.

Uh Commissioner Callahan.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gillan.

I guess I got another question for you, Ms.

Green.

Um I'd be the first one to say we don't want to disrupt reclaimed land.

I mean, obviously he doesn't want to disrupt reclaimed land.

The problem is if we sell it to them, and right now reclaimed land has vegetation to keep the the soils where they're at and what have you.

Once you start parking on it and the the soils get eroded, then the land starts eroding.

Is there is there going to be some kind of standards that we have to meet if if we sell it to them that you know to make sure this doesn't happen?

And then I guess the number two question was the whole Tallomar subdivision is in a breezeway.

And they have done multiple buildings on that piece of property.

Can you explain the difference, please?

Commissioner Callahan, uh Director Crane.

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

Uh yes, the Telomore was a really innovative approach to redeveloping mining impacted property.

Um I believe, Mr.

I think you have this survey that was prepared as part of that plan unit development where that no build zone is depicted.

Due to my experience I know that there are shafts and hazards within a hundred feet of that location that are fairly close to surface.

So the reason that the subdivision has sort of that unconventional DART northwest is because they were trying to take advantage of the landscape and developing the property but also avoiding certain hazards that you would find in a yard and that's also why some yards are very large and others might be very small it's to make accommodations for those things.

In terms of protectiveness there are two types of caps that are on the Butte Hill there is a vegetated and an engineered cap.

The vegetative caps are vegetation that have certain I guess striations of cover from a soil perspective and then grasses that are holding those soils in place.

But we have many examples across the Butell of engineered caps where the same uh dirt matrix is in place but then we will gravel the top to avoid um causing erosion deeper into that cap.

So there are um mechanisms in place to keep it protective what we're really focusing on here is whether or not it can be constructed but avoiding penetration and not putting weight and building up thank you Director Crane.

Commissioner Fisher and then Commissioner O'Larry Thank you Chief Executive Gallagher um I hope I'm not out of line on this uh Chairman Morgan can correct me if I am but it appears we're having a lot of issues with land sales uh things uh last week it was the uh you know the the the development center over there uh today we had Mr.

Maloney up here we had two on tonight's agenda that are proved but the prices are too high and stuff it looks to me like we've got some uh we've got some thinking to do somewhere in some departments we've got to fix some stuff because uh an acre of land uh square foot is 43,560 feet square feet in an acre we sell an acre of land in the TIFIT for two thousand dollars he wants to buy a five thousand square feet up here for 32000 we sold a building over there for 45000 that's a lot less than both I mean we've got we're bouncing all over the place with this stuff and I think we've got to get a little more consistency about um developable land super fundland TIFID land I mean we've got to sit down somebody's got to sit down with more intelligence than I got because I'm telling you um these things are all over the map when we sell an acre 43,560 feet for 2,000 dollars in the TIF where they get a tax break but then we're asking 32,000 dollars for five for uh for a five thousand uh five fifty three hundred and seventy foot square foot up here for thirty two thousand that going to be taxable land but you know we can't develop on it I mean there's some there's some things here that we've got to get squared away in this county because I don't know who's listening out there but it's screwed up thank you thank you Commissioner Fisher Commissioner O'Larry thank you Chief Executive Gallagher so I I guess um this might be a question for director crane or Mr.

O'Connor but the the I would assume that the intention uh of the sale of this property would be that the restrictions were related to superfund would travel with the land and the expectation for managing the surface in in conjunction with how it was originally capped would transfer to the new owner is that is that your understanding as well Commissioner O'Leary Director Crane Chief Executive Gallagher uh Commissioner O'Leary yes I think um Mr.

Salmanson and his wife have been taking care of this particular piece of property they um have been utilizing this property in their neighborhood they want to acquire it so that they are paying taxes on the property that they are using I think that within the deeds for the properties within the Telamor there Telemar subdivision there are significant covenants and restrictions about how they can use their land and so I know that the Salmonsons are very familiar with those requirements and how they impact their current use of their property those would carry with this thank you Director Crane follow up Commissioner O'Leary and then Commissioner Morgan oh and then go Commissioner Healy okay Commissioner O'Leary and then Commissioner Healy Thank you Chief Executive So would the intention be to sort of um I don't know what the correct word is for this but to uh take this property and in incorporate it into the Telemorque subdivision and the and the restrictions associated with that with the property that that the Salmans currently own and so the the deed restrictions associated with that property would would extend onto this property

Okay.

Commissioner O'Larry and then Commissioner Healy.

Thank you, Chief Executive.

So would the intention be to sort of um I don't know what the correct word is for this, but to uh uh take this property and incorporate it into the Telemork subdivision and the and the restrictions associated with that with the property that that the Salmans currently own, and so the the deed restrictions associated with that property would would extend onto this property, or would would we be creating a separate set of restrictions uh by resolution?

Commissioner Larry, Director Um Crane, sorry.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner O'Larry, members of the Commission, in this particular instance we would recommend a boundary adjustment to expand the boundary of the current parcel and the legal description for that parcel would change and then would become subject to the deed restrictions and covenants associated with Mr.

Salmanson's parcel of land.

Thank you, Director Crane.

Commissioner Healy So this communication is about approving the sale, but his issue is the price.

How does that work with this communication?

Because this is just about approving, but he's doesn't like the the price.

Yeah, Commissioner Healy, if if you uh approved the sale, I think you would I'm not positive.

I think you we would have to change it would have to be denied because it's for the approved price is what I would have to do.

And so I don't I don't know if that's what's being asked.

Yeah, that that is basically what I'm saying.

If we approve it, then he has to pay the money, but he doesn't want to pay that much money.

So we'd have to deny it.

I I would say that's Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Um, sorry.

No, you're good.

Oh, I'm in line.

Okay.

Um I just get so excited when I get to turn my mic on.

Um County Attorney Anne Route.

This sale can be amended on the floor, or would we be better to send this back to land sales if the council so chose to um ask them to um sharpen their pencil?

Commissioner uh Shay, County Attorney Ann Ruth.

Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Say Shay, I would recommend sending it back to land sales rather than making a motion on the floor.

That's particularly because that's their job.

Commissioner Shea.

Thank you.

Um I would make a motion to send this communication 2025-581 back to land sales um and ask them to take into consideration all of the information that we've talked about tonight.

We have a motion and a second to send this back to land sales, Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

Uh Commissioner Shea, would you um consider holding this in the committee of the whole so that we still have it on the agenda for them to come back and report to us without submitting a separate communication?

Commissioner Morgan, Commissioner Shea.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive Chairman Morgan.

Um yes, I would like to amend my motion that we refer this back to land sales for them to sharpen their pencil and hold in the committee of the whole.

Okay.

So and G are you good with that second?

Hold in your second.

Okay.

So the the motion is to um refer back to land sales but hold it in the committee of the whole.

Okay.

Commissioner uh Callahan.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

I would just like that Ms.

Crane acted like she wanted to make a comment.

Could she come up and okay?

Commissioner Callahan, Director Crane.

Uh Chief Executive Gallagher, Commissioner Callahan, did you did you have a question for me or I well I am I want to express my appreciation for you trusting the land sales committee.

I do feel as though I should ask for a bit of guidance from the council here.

Um as we have all been party to over the course of the last six months.

Um we've had some discussions.

I think uh Commissioner Fisher alluded to the complexities of land sales earlier tonight.

If we do not use the Department of Revenue assessed value, I I don't know what the compare what how to approach this.

Um that is the variable that we have been using to place value on property.

Um so uh you know, do we do a market analysis?

Do we get an appraisal?

Uh I those can be quite expandy.

I just I I want to bring to the land sales committee some guideposts or um parameters for which we can look at these calculations and I'm sure I can work with um assessor Cassidy to establish that but the other ensuring that how we approach this can be consistently applied as we move forward as well.

And uh Director Crane and and Commissioners I know we we pulled together and had one meeting I think that maybe we need to reconvene it it just hasn't happened again.

So the the challenge to all of this as we as we talk about is that so many of these properties are so unique that it's there's not a one size fits all cookie cutter to to say okay we do an assessment here or we do something here that it it it's very complex and um you know although we didn't have a uh a total formal meeting because we didn't have all the members there um that that was really what we talked about that how hard this would be to just say this is how we're going to do this I think um you know we do have a land sales committee as well so I I hate to create another committee that is creating another layer on top of the what the land sales committee is but I think that we can come together and and kind of have some guidance inside of that of how we we do some things and so I I'll take it upon myself to make sure that that happens and I apologize it's you know as as we all know meetings are on top of meetings but uh we we'll get that going again I think Commissioner Fisher and then I'll go Commissioner Healy and then back to Commissioner Morgan.

Seeing three hands go thank you Chief Executive Gallagher you know having negotiated a few deals not land real estate or anything like that but having negotiated a few deals in the last 39 years being in business I'd say when one party's at 32080 and the other is at 1,070 I'd say you don't have a deal I mean what where's the negotiating I mean you know if if you're a few hundred dollars or thousand dollars apart you got negotiation but when you're 3000 3100 apart where do you start who who splits first and who cuts in half I mean you know I've negotiated deals there's no deal here there's no deal on the table that I can see I mean we've got to change the process procedure and protocol for selling land we can't do RFPs for certain things we can't do uh government DOR stuff for another and then we can't do you know get an appraisal like oh we didn't do an appraisal he just came by and look and got an assessment we've got to get a process and procedure that fits certain types of property because when you're 3100 apart on a on a 5,000 square foot building there is no deal.

Thank you Commissioner Fisher.

Commissioner Healy Thank you um I guess because you came up with un prices for unbuildable lots where did you come up with your information okay okay well I mean so there is a way up Commissioner Haley we we need to that's all right just come through here and then we'll go back to to our our guest here.

Okay.

So you're asking where you got this one so Mr.

Salmanson so where did you get your evaluation?

So I did some searching on the internet through chat GPT and Google and they both kind of came up with that same amount and that same number follow up Commissioner Healy so I guess that that's my point there's a starting point there is unbuildable lots prices that can be looked at.

Commissioner it may not be this price.

Commissioner Healy Mr Salmanson yes okay thank you Commissioner Morgan and then Commissioner O'Larry thank you Mr Chief Executive again I'm probably over simplifying this but the question that is before us is we have it's it's been suggested that we approve this we have a difference in prices Commissioner Fisher mentioned but the question at hand is is there a difference in value based on buildable lots versus unbilable lots so to me if this communication goes back to the land sales committee that is what they are being tasked to find the answer at and I can tell you from my own personal um findings if you call the Department of Revenue there there's great people there that will help answer some of these questions that I know the land sales committee can get an answer for and come back and say yeah I mean there is a difference or no there's a di there's not a difference and and here's what we're doing on this particular communication I do agree that in general we have issues but that is the the point on this communication that we need to get answered.

Thank you Commissioner Morgan.

You know, the the state law, you know, we're a charter form of government, so we have our own rules, but the state law requires counties that don't have a charter form of government to get an appraisal before any sale happens.

And you know, maybe that's what we just need to put in our in our rules to address these problems.

But neither here nor there.

Uh on property that's unbuildable, one of the issues is that there are almost no sales, comparable sales of unbuildable property.

So it is really, really hard to find anything that is comparable to to look at this.

And even if we go to the DOR and and I mean, maybe some geographically challenged uh uh property, you know, something that's really steep that's not buildable, that could be a comparable.

I don't know.

But one of the challenges for for you folks on the on the land sales committee is where are you even going to find a comparable property to use to find value for this?

I don't know what that is.

I'm not sure I agree with uh 10 to 20 cents per square foot for unbuildable property, but I I certainly would agree that the $30,000 price point is probably excessive uh for somebody that isn't gonna be able to use the property except for surface surface value.

Thank you, Commissioner O'Leary.

Commissioner Morgan.

So then just to reiterate, if if the body comes back to us and says they can't find anything that would change the sale price, then we would go to commit Commissioner Fisher's suggestion that there is no deal if it comes down to it.

So that's that's what we have.

Thank you, Commissioner Morgan.

All right.

So there is a motion to send this back to the land sales and hold this in the committee.

Is there anything else on the question?

Commissioner Thatcher, sorry, I have my back to you.

No, you're fine.

Thank you, Chief Executive Gallagher.

I guess so as our only guidance to land sales.

This is probably to you, Commissioner Morgan.

Our only guidance that uh director claim crane was asking for is to just call the Department of Revenue.

Is that our only guidance to them?

Because I'm a little confused too.

Thank you.

Commissioner Thatcher, um and I know Commissioner Morgan may uh also I I think it's to look for avenues that may give some comparables, whether it's department of revenue or if there's other sources out there that could possibly do that.

I think the land sales committee could do some other research if needed be need be in this.

So um that that would be my guidance to them.

But Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Commissioner, or Chief Executive Gallagher.

My recommendation is they have a half hour 45 minutes worth of testimony that they can listen to that they can use to see what the best path for them to move forward would be.

My suggestion was to maybe start at the DOR, but uh I by no means am saying that is their only option.

So thank you, Commissioner Morgan.

All right, we have a motion on the floor.

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

Nine, yay, zero nay.

Nine yay, zero nay motion passes.

Um moving on to section two resolutions ordinance and judiciary, please note those two resolutions.

Well, oh, we have to add to the yes, that's right.

Um we need to add to tonight's agenda.

So, Commissioner Morgan.

Come lots of papers too.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

This is uh in regards to communication 2025-584 uh that we added to tonight's agenda to sign a contract um in preparation for the upcoming public hearing on December 10th, 2025 for the ADA transition plan under Title II of the Americans with Disability Acts, the ADA.

The city county abuse overboard is required to provide auxiliary aids and services to ensure effective communication for the individuals with disabilities during the public meetings.

And so this contract locks in that individual to come to that meeting and and participate um to help um with the audience on that.

So at this time I would just make a motion that we concur with communication 2025-584 and place on file.

We have a motion second to concur and place on file communication number 2025-584.

Is there anything on the question?

Commissioner Fisher.

Uh thank you, Chief Executive.

Only question I had is when I flipped through this kind of quickly as we got it tonight.

Um I see the interpreter and them are coming from Dillon.

There must not be anybody in butte that can do that.

And they're getting paid 70 cents a mile to come here.

Plus $65 an hour, $75 an hour, $85 plus $20 an hour overtime and stuff.

Is this a contract that uh somebody has reviewed?

Checked out.

Commissioner uh Fisher and uh Mr.

O'Le is not here to speak to that today, but he did uh talk to us about it.

So the the challenge that we have, he's been out looking.

We there are no interpreters here in Butte that we could get under contract with when trying to get this.

He's been he's been diligently trying to find an interpreter to get them locked in so we didn't have to end up in this situation having an um you know emergency suspension to put to put this on tonight.

Um both of them originally required a contract before they would come.

Um we were later communicated with one of them wouldn't require a contract, but this gives us an option so if one isn't available, the other one is, and so it's a requirement of the ADA transition plan to have this, and so we're required to have it.

And so to your question, yeah, there's nobody available here in town, and so it's gonna cost us some money.

Uh Commissioner Haley.

And how long is the contract for if for this individual?

It is just for that night, as we as what they do the transition plan here.

It's it's we were required during that that meeting to have them available.

Okay, thank you.

So we have a motion and a second.

Is there anything else on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Whoops, I think we're missing one.

Commissioner Thatcher.

Sorry.

Right here.

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay, 0, nay.

9, yay, 0, nay.

Motion passes.

I already went through section two resolutions introduced to judiciary.

We'll go to section three resolutions ordinance for our final reading.

We have one, two.

Three of the or four of those tonight.

Um, first one is number one, resolution number 2025-63.

Clerk, please read the caption.

A resolution amending the budget during the fiscal year after conducting a public hearing at a regularly scheduled meeting of the council of commissioners in accordance with section seven-six-406.

MCA appropriating unanticipated revenue from Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA.

Assistance to firefighters grant to be used to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus, SCBA for the Butte Silverbow Fire Department, and providing for an effective date herein.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I move to place council resolution 2025-63 on final reading and passed, having been deemed fully read at length.

We have a motion on second place and resolution number 2025-63 on final reading.

Is there anything on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay 0 nay.

980 nay motion passes.

Moving on to item number two, resolution number 2025-66.

Clerk, please read the caption.

A resolution granting conditional approval of the tractor supply minor subdivision of the city and county of Butte Silverbow, State of Montana, providing the repeal of all parts of resolutions in conflict here with and providing for an effective date herein.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I move to place council resolution 2025-66 on final reading and passed, having been deemed fully read at length.

We have a motion in second place on resolution number 2025-66 on final reading.

Is there anything on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change the vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay, 0 nay.

9 yay, 0 nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to item number 3, resolution number 2025-68.

Clerk, please read the caption.

A resolution amending the budget during the fiscal year after conducting a public hearing at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Council of Commissioners in accordance with section 7-6-4006.

For the purpose of purchasing and planting trees in Skyline Park and providing for an effective date herein.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

I move to place council resolution 2025-68 on final reading and passed, having been deemed fully read at length.

We have a motion and second place and resolution number 2025-68 on final reading.

Is there anything on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay 0 nay.

9 yay 0 nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to item number 4, resolution number 2025-69.

Clerk, please read the caption.

A resolution authorizing the sole source purchase of Solzer Parts from Falcon Environmental for the City County of Butte Silverbow Metro Sewer Division and providing for an effective date herein.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

At this time, I'd like to ask that we hold the vote until Commissioner Walker comes back.

We'll just take a pause.

I don't think we need to take a break.

We'll just give a uh few seconds here, a minute to hold the question.

So there's a motion and a second to concur in place on file resolution number 2025-69.

Is there anything on the question?

Mr.

Chief Executive, I haven't made the motion yet.

No, you didn't make a motion.

Sorry.

But I will make that motion.

I imagined you made a motion.

Mr.

Commissioner Morgan.

Thank you, Mr.

Chief Executive.

At this time, I'll make a motion that we uh I place resolution 2025-69 on final reading and passed, having been deemed fully read at length.

We have a motion and a second now for resolution number 2025-69.

Is there anything on the question?

Could Commissioners please vote?

And would anyone like to change their vote?

Clerk, please record the vote.

9 yay 0 nay.

9 yay 0 nay.

Motion passes.

Please note the calendar and other meeting and events that are coming up.

And next I'll move on to any public comment on any matter that is not on tonight's agenda.

See none.

I would take a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

We have a motion and second.

All of those in favor, signal by aye.