00:00:11,170	On Thursday, May 14th, 2026. And this is the appointed time place of the Bismarck Parking Authority’s monthly meeting. Um, I see that we have a quorum. We don’t do a roll call, do we? So for the parking at 30, we do for the Renaissance zone. So, um. So welcome, everybody. Welcome.

00:00:26,870	Mayor Schmitz is with us this morning. Appreciate having you here. Uh, first item on the agenda before we get to the agenda is if there’s any public comment.

00:00:43,970	Is there anybody here wishing to comment on any items related to the current agenda or the past agendas? If not seeing none, we’ll close the public comment period and we’ll move on to consideration of the minutes of the April 9th meeting. Uh, any changes, comments, corrections? If not, is there a motion to approve? I would I would move to approve. Trevor moves to approve. Okay. Is there a second? I’ll second. And seconded by John.

00:01:04,170	Uh, any further discussion? If not, all in favor, say aye. Aye aye. Opposed? Same sign. That motion carries. We’ll move on to the regular agenda, starting with the financial statements from April. And as per usual, we’ll ask management to comment on any extraordinary items or anything they’d like to bring to our attention. Jeremy. Yeah. Mr.

00:01:23,070	chairman, authority board members, uh, this is the April, um, statements for the parking authority, and there’s no surprises. Uh, nothing out of the ordinary or unusual. We’re tracking well for, uh, budget on income. Uh, expenses are in line, and our reserve account balance, uh, is 3,434,800 and 300, $383. Excuse me. And $0.34, uh, combined. And then checking account is $350,644.91. Combined total of $3,785,028.25.

00:02:01,700	Okay, we’re probably going to spend some of that today. So it’s nice to have a nice positive, uh, balance in the reserve account. Any comments or questions on the financials? Anybody have anything for Jeremy today? Um, if not, we would consider or entertain a motion to approve the financials as presented. I’ll make that motion.

00:02:26,270	Is there a second? Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? If not, call the roll, please. Sue. Goodbye. John. Todd? Yes, Jake? Yes, Trevor. Yes, Jim. Yes. That motion carries. We’ll get on to the, uh, the bids. We’ve got a couple, uh, a couple of projects that we’ve been working on and we’ve received bids.

00:02:50,330	Uh, first one item four on the agenda is to review the bids for an RFP for surveillance cameras project. And, Jeremy, if you kind of give us a little brief background summary, again of why we’re looking at this. Well, yes, Mister. Mister chairman, authority board members.

00:03:06,330	So the RFP that went out for the surveillance cameras upgrade project, uh, was to upgrade the analog cameras, uh, to digital. Uh, some of the cameras have been replaced to digital. Um, just a handful of cameras in each of the ramps, um, over the years. But this would be to get everything on digital.

00:03:29,270	Um, upgrade from the analog, uh, and then, um, add a few extra cameras as well. Uh, on some of the ramp, uh, lanes, areas. And this was separated out as a tier one and a tier two.

00:03:49,600	Um, the reason we did that is tier one takes into account just the ramps and driving lanes, parking areas, uh, full visibility of those ramps, um, replacing the existing, uh, analog cameras over to HD and adding a few extra HD cameras, uh, to some of the where we found that we do have dead spots, uh, or blind spots, I should say, in some of the ramp areas. Uh, tier two consists of putting, uh, additional adding, um, cameras to the stairwells of the parkade ramp.

00:04:11,470	Third main ramp, and the Galleria ramp. Currently, we do not have cameras in those stairwells. We feel that that would be an added benefit for, uh, safety of the public and being able to better monitor, um, uh, for the ramps.

00:04:29,270	And we weren’t sure what that would entail for cost wise for the tier two. So that’s why we separated it out to give you guys more information of if we should do the project as a whole, tier one and tier two combined, or stick with just the ramps themselves. Um, but the tier two did come in.

00:04:48,370	Um, relatively affordable, I guess, compared to the whole project, uh, when adding them both together. So, uh, I guess it would be up for the board to decide then to, um, which direction to go for that project. Now, the bids that we received, uh, we did receive three bidders, Electronic Communications Inc., also known as ECI electro, Watchmen Inc.

00:05:05,900	and New Vision Security. Uh, you do have those spreadsheets that were included in your packet, um, page. The first page does show the totals of tier one and tier two, and then the totals of those combined, and then pages two and three separate out the tier one, uh, base bids and licensing.

00:05:23,730	And then page three, the tier two, uh amounts for each of those ramps. Um, the bidders amounts were, uh, electronic communications, uh, totals for tier one and two, $181,502.33. Elektra. Watchmen was $193,960.97, and New Vision Security. This is kind of, uh, whacked, I guess you could say. But $510,984.63.

00:05:55,630	I did ask for their explanation of why there’s was more than double than the other, uh, bidders, and they, um, on the bid sheet, they included a carry down from their original number into the licensing number. And it was the same number in both, but we had to add those up because it was what they included on that line.

00:06:14,430	Regardless, their base bid was higher than the other two bidders. Anyway. Questions of Jeremy. I, I would Trevor for for approval staff’s recommendation. Both the tier one and tier two.. Okay. Um, are there questions of Jeremy, Jake. Uh, Jeremy, I just had a question on the annual licensing fee.

00:06:49,530	There’s there’s two of them that have an annual fee. There’s one that doesn’t. You kind of walk us through what that is for. And the pros and cons of that. Um, yes.

00:07:06,470	Mister chairman, authority board members, I know that representative from ECI is here, and I guess if it’s okay with you, I’d like to request you to direct the questions to him as the vendor. So I don’t misspeak on that. Sure. sure. Look them up. Yeah. Please open identify yourself. I’m Randy Coover with electronic communications. Randy, welcome. Um, so you’re asking about the annual fee. That is just the fee to keep the system updated.

00:07:27,470	You have to have a current license in order to download updates from a visual on, to make sure everything stays the par. It’s an optional fee. You don’t have to do it. Um, but when it comes time to up to upgrade or to get additional benefits of the system, you won’t be able to until you pay that to get the license up to date.

00:07:46,800	It’s it’s optional, but we recommend it. We like keeping our stuff up to date and running with the latest, greatest. But the system will continue to operate on whatever correct series we’re on. Correct. It’ll continue to run. Its just when new cameras or new stuff comes out. You might have issues getting those the integrate with the system.

00:08:03,700	Okay. Does that answer your question Jake. I think. So, yeah. Other questions of Randy while we have him at the podium. Anybody? Thank you. Randy. You’re welcome. Um, other questions of management. Anybody? So, Randy, can you come back? Come on back. Randy. You just looking too comfortable. There.

00:08:24,500	I know what technology changes all the time. I mean, and I know you guys want to cover your tails and make sure we’re not having problems, but is there a lot of updates going on? Like in everything else? Yes. Yeah.

00:08:43,330	There’s constantly updates, but like and and you can update marginally. You just can’t update uh, like from 8 to 9 or 9 to 10. Um, you can do 8.1 to 8.2 kind of thing. So the mundane updates that, uh, security updates, those are the work. You just ain’t going to be able to upgrade the entire platform.

00:09:00,800	So the license fee applies just to the big upgrade, not to the incremental upgrades. Correct? Okay. And how often I think is, is where we’re going with the question is that every couple of. Years. Every couple of years, they seem to the main number flips or switches to the next.

00:09:17,270	And at that point we’re looking at 2 to $3000. Yes. For that upgrade okay. Yes. Does that make sense? Okay. Okay. Uh okay. John, do you have anything? No. Um, well, Trevor. Go ahead. Yeah, I have something to add. I would like to see the license fee added.

00:09:40,270	Well, it’s our understanding we can pay that at the time that we upgrade. Correct. So we don’t need to prepay it. Correct? Correct. Okay. Okay. So it’s been recommended by management that we do a combined total of tier one, tier two and get the cameras in the stairwells, which should have been done a long time ago

00:10:01,070	probably. Um, and it’s a very nominal part of the overall cost. Um, ECI is the low bidder. Um, I believe we’re not required to take the low. It’s the lowest and best, but. Correct. Where is that sound? Right. That be correct. City attorney’s not here. So you’re the city attorney. Typically, it’s going to be lost.

00:10:21,470	And there’s a reason not to correct. So that would be, uh, ECI so we did entertain a motion to uh, to award to ECI for the total of tier one and tier two in the amount of one, 81, five, oh two and $0.33. So we want to make to. Move to approve.

00:10:41,700	Trevor motion by Trevor. Is there a second. Zack? One thing would we is this motion to include the annual maintenance fee or hold off on the annual maintenance? I think it was to hold off. It was the the bid of 18150233. Is there a second. second moved and seconded? Further discussion. Further discussion.

00:11:08,530	Any further discussion? If not, would you call the roll please Sue and we’ll move on to the next item. John. I’m staying on that one just because I work for the company. Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s right. Noted. Thank you. Todd. Yes. Jake. Yes. Trevor. Yes, Jim. Yes. That motion carries.

00:11:29,730	We’ll move on to item five on the agenda, which is to review bids for a request for proposal for third and main ramp elevator project. And Jeremy will again give us some background information on that project. Um, yes. Mr. Chairman, authority board members, the RFP for elevator controls modernization project specific to the third and main ramp.

00:11:51,630	Um, there’s parts that the elevator is still working, but there are parts that are becoming obsolete as things do after 35 plus years. Uh, and so it was, um, recommended to us for there’s an item list within that, uh, RFP bid packet of things that, uh, that should be replaced, uh, to keep things operational for years to come.

00:12:12,470	And, um, and so we did put that out for RFP, and we did receive, uh, two bidders. Uh, Larson, elevator and Otis Elevator Company. Uh, the Larson bid came in at $112,776. Otis elevator, $155,200. And I should add, uh, Mr.

00:12:41,270	Chairman, authority board members, when we had put this on the capital projects proposed list, uh, we had earmarked, uh, a rough budget amount of 100,000, uh, for the elevator project. But that was based on numbers that we had from about two years ago.

00:13:01,170	And I had asked Jeremy to get some, uh, everybody’s familiar with Otis because Otis has been around for 200 years, but, uh, Larson elevator is kind of a new entity to me anyway. And, uh, I think Jeremy circulated by email some of the projects that they’ve done in the area, and they’re Fargo based, but they have offices here as well.

00:13:22,100	Uh, and they seem to check out so questions of Jeremy on this project or these bids. Any questions? Trevor, do you have any questions? Not at this time. Okay. I would, um, I if you’re ready for a motion, I would move to approve a little bit. It’s been moved that we accept the Larson elevator base bid in the amount of $112,776. Is there a second? I’ll second.

00:13:48,200	That moved and seconded. And any further discussion on this one? Further discussion? Um, if not, call the roll, please. So we’ll move right along. John. Yes. Todd. Yes. Jake. Yes. Trevor. Yep. Jim. Yes. That motion carries. Thank you. Um, I do have an after the motion question.

00:14:11,630	Uh, you know, I’ve read through the bids and the the RFP and the bids. This does not include a full cab upgrade in terms of, like, wall panels. Correct? That’s correct, Mr. Chairman. The wall panels were not part of the.. It’s essentially. All mechanical. And mechanical control boards.

00:14:30,530	So if that’s something, um, I don’t know how many people at the table are use that elevator on a regular basis. But and I don’t either. I mean, I’ve used it, but I’m not in that ramp on a daily basis. But it’s my understanding that that cab dates to 1991, when we built that structure, or when the city built that structure 20, 35 years ago.

00:14:47,600	So we might want to take a look at that. Uh, not obviously we can’t add it to this project at this point, but it’s something we could if we so decided we wanted to do. We could, you know, do it. So. So that might be something to do. And I, Jim. Trevor, go ahead.

00:15:06,000	Um, I would recommend that we look at that, uh, you know, because I’m in that structure too, and it’s, it’s. Uh, pretty dated. It’s pretty dated. And by Van Parks there and sometimes it’s kind of acts up. It kind of does its own thing. So. Okay. All right.

00:15:30,700	Well, we’ll ask Jeremy to do that and maybe bring back some ideas. Numbers together and see what. That would be. And I would encourage everybody to to just kind of go take a look at it. So okay. Um, that concludes the regular agenda. We’ll move on to other business. And Kate from The Downtowners is here.

00:15:44,470	We haven’t seen Kate for a long time. Oh busy busy person. I missed you guys. Uh, we missed you. What do you have for us? Chair Christianson, authority members. Thanks for having me. I have a few things I wrote down. I don’t want to forget when Jeremy said that after 35 years, things become obsolete.

00:15:59,900	I feel like my memory is one of those. So. And I don’t know if that was directed at me, Jeremy or not, but, um, it does fit. Um, I wanted to go over a couple of numbers and then some things that are coming up downtown.

00:16:12,730	Um, as you know, we subscribe to, uh, placer AI, which is a location based software, um, that can track visitors and trade area and things like that. Um, each month I pull a report for our board, but just wanted to let you all know, and I’ve sent some to the mayor and administration as well.

00:16:29,900	But, um, looking at a few things downtown, the event center, which is now, um, Oakview Group, has taken over and started their contract for management there and at the bell. But the event center, we’ve seen a bump year over year where 8% up from the previous year.

00:16:45,100	So there’s a nice steady incline now I think going, um, in terms of visitors to the event center, I also have a kind of a map of the downtown zoning districts in that area. So I can see how many visitors are coming in their visits to the downtown. Zoning districts are up.

00:17:00,900	When I pull in just a little bit and kind of look at the street fair area, same thing. Visits again are up over last year and over a few years, so everything’s trending in a really nice direction. Uh, wanted to remind you all that there will be a concrete pavement repair project on Main Avenue this summer.

00:17:16,330	Will they’ll be replacing, just cutting and replacing some of the concrete panels. It’s not a full, uh, reconstruction or any underground work. It’s just the surface panels. A lot of the panels that are, uh, maybe more damaged are between third Street and sixth Street.

00:17:32,900	So you might see more work there, and you might see more, um, folks in the ramp, just as there’s staging or they’re closing lanes and things like that. So something to be aware of. Um, we’ll start going to the construction management meetings when those kick up and be able to get you guys any updates that you might need.

00:17:47,800	Um, just to kind of prepare for the ramp situation. Um, we went to Eclipse Venue yesterday and there’s an event there tonight, which is the old borrowed bucks space looks fantastic. Um, they’re already booking a lot of events. They’re going to have a big events during, um, McQuade as well.

00:18:07,170	So just expect, I think, some some more movement over there, which will be fantastic. There’s a few other events that are coming up that tend to see some busy times downtown graduation. High school graduation tends to be a big one. Um, that’s coming up at the end of the month.

00:18:24,270	I think the 2026 a little bit before the end of the month art walk is June 11th. Uh, McQuade is at the end of the month. Elbow room tends to have up an outdoor party as well, so we might see that, um, eclipse venue is going to have, I think, an outdoor, um, band and parties as well for McQuade.

00:18:38,370	So you’ll see that come back um, Street Fair September 18th and 19th, just to put on your radar a little late this year, the way the calendar falls, um, we’re going to do the pollinator plantings again in some of the new beds. Usually do it during Pollinator Week.

00:18:53,530	If the if the weather, um, holds out for us, some of the beds that we have planted near the ramps, the soil is just full of salt or gravel just from the winter, which makes sense. So we got some volunteers from Capital Credit Union.

00:19:11,170	They came, we did soil amendments and things like that. So we’re going to rethink, I think, what we do on the south side of the Third Street ramp a little bit because of that salt and sand situation. Um, Petra Hunt was nice enough to donate, um, to the project and plant materials and dirt and things like that.

00:19:26,730	So thanks to them. Um, lastly, I wanted to say thanks to Jeremy and the crew. We turned the ramps red for Nurses Week. Um, I saw that everybody was Sanford was doing that and a bunch of others. So, um, the ramps were lit up red to support our nurses for Nurses Week.

00:19:45,730	And hopefully we keep doing more of those types of things. But thank you guys for switching them out. And thanks, Jeremy, for for being open to that. And, Jim, um, I know you guys wanted to be done in 12 to 15 minutes for your meeting, so I did as fast as I could. We’re doing fine, thank you.

00:20:00,170	Any questions of Kate? Anybody? Thanks for the updates, Kate. Anyone else have any other business? Um, I have a brief update on the continued conversations we continue to to meet with, uh, representatives of potential large users of a potential parking structure, a new parking structure downtown, uh, with representatives of the mayor’s office as well as city

00:20:20,630	administration. Those conversations, I think I reported at the last meeting, have kind of got renewed vigor. Um, they’re heading in a positive direction. I’m hoping that soon we’ll have actually have something to talk about and present to the parking authority.

00:20:39,100	Uh, but those conversations are continuing, and they’re continuing in a positive direction. So that’s about all I have to say on that. So anybody else have anything else? Trevor. Yeah, I just want to let the parking authority know I’ll be there in person next month as my schedule’s busy. I’m having my final meeting with the DD Council today, so.

00:20:58,500	Okay, just to have that. So I’ll be there at all the meetings. It’s just these last two have been difficult to get to. So I’ll be there. Oh no problem. Sounds good. Thanks, Trevor. If there’s no