00:00:12,430	I have 5:15. It’s the 11th of August. We’re in the Tom Baker room of the city County building. We will be having our board of City commissioners meeting here briefly. But before we begin, if Chaplain Callis would mind invocation and leading us in the pledge as well.

00:00:39,130	Thank you for the opportunity to open this meeting in prayer. Let’s stand together as we pray and have the pledge. Heavenly father, thank you for this day, for this beautiful evening. Thank you that we can live in a place where we experience and enjoy the change of seasons and the warm summer weather.

00:01:00,030	Grant safety and strength for farmers and others as harvest continues. Thank you too, for the privilege of living in this city of Bismarck, as well as in this state.

00:01:17,570	Thank you for the many blessings and opportunities that this local community offers for our families and each of us who live here. And I pray today for those who are in the offices that govern this community, I ask that your spirit guide, as they make decisions. Thank you to for the freedom citizens have to speak up and be heard. I pray for Mayor Schmitz and those who work in that office.

00:01:33,570	I pray for each commissioner as well as other elected officials and city workers, and ask that each one would be blessed by you as they carry out their responsibilities. I also pray for our first responders, those who put themselves in harm’s way to protect the citizens of this community, our police and other law enforcement, firefighters, EMS workers,

00:01:57,070	dispatch, health care workers, and others. Please protect them in their line of duty so that they might protect those of us who placed our trust in them. Help them to be resilient as they deal with their own emotions when facing impossibly sad and heartwrenching conditions. Grant them wisdom and peace.

00:02:17,630	So, God, we ask for your guidance and everything said and done this evening. I’m thankful for each and every one of the blessings you give. In Jesus name, Amen. Say the pledge together. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

00:02:41,870	Thank you sir. We will now call our meeting to order. If we can call. Roll, please. Commissioner Risch. Here. Commissioner Doll. Here. Commissioner Connelly here. Commissioner Hull. Here. Mayor Schmitz here. At this point in time, it’s public comment. Public comment is restricted to the items on the consent agenda.

00:03:10,770	The regular agenda that is not a public hearing or prior city commission agenda item. So anyone who wish to speak, please come up forward to the microphone. Make sure you signed in. Identify yourself and tell us what you’re speaking to. Hello, my name is Sarah Karloff. Just print that quick. Okay. Um. Good afternoon. Um, again.

00:04:03,100	My name is Sarah Karloff. I am a very concerned mom. Last week, something happened that I’d never encountered before in my lifetime. Yeah. Can you tell us which topic? Kratom. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Absolutely. Um, last week, something happened that I’d never encountered before in my life.

00:04:22,830	Someone that I voted for in government made a bold and brave move to protect their citizens. I first encountered kratom when it first appeared in gas stations and bottles, like five hour energy drinks. I worked at a senex, and we only had a few early morning customers that would grab one. After a short period of time.

00:04:40,070	They were buying several every morning with their breakfast. Then it became a whole box. Not long after that. Then one day one of them came in and bought every box we had for a grand total of over $900, which he split between three credit cards.

00:04:59,030	My manager was a responsible human being and made the right decision that day to never reorder the stuff, because it was obviously highly addictive and dangerous. There is a wave of new substances and synthetic substances, compounds overtaking our youth and majorly competing for their attention.

00:05:20,000	Smoke shops are popping up everywhere and every and advertising aimed to grab young people’s attention is also quietly desensitizing our younger children, making it not so scary when someone offers them some for the first time. Kratom and its synthetic forms, as well as other highly addictive synthetic substances, are very dangerous and can be deadly.

00:05:37,600	And at the very least, they are a distraction for our kids. Our kids have enough to deal with in this crazy world. The least that we can do is protect them from the newest wave of dangers. As North Dakotans, we set ourselves to a higher standard in this country.

00:05:55,700	Hard, nice, honest, and traditional values are some of the words that I would use to describe us. I ask that my government officials also be bold and brave at this time, and say no to kratom and 708 permanently. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Public comment is still open. Hi, my name is Lexie Gunderson and I’m here speaking on the kratom agenda as well. Sorry, I’m a little nervous here.

00:06:52,870	Um, Nick Gundersen was my brother in built and friend. He had a joy for life and was building homes in big Sky, Montana up until his passing. Nick.

00:07:11,770	Nick graduated in 2011 with a business degree from Montana State Bozeman, where he also snowboard as much as possible while still getting his degree in four years in his heaven on earth. The mountains, his football days at Century High School here in Bismarck unfortunately led to repeated knee injuries along with chronic pain from snowboarding, injuries. Um. Excuse me. This led to his opioid usage and self-medicating due to depression and anxiety.

00:07:34,500	To avoid the side effects from prescription meds, he turned to what he thought was a natural just, um, supplement, which was kratom. Easily found at any gas station or convenience store. He used capsules or made kratom tea, which was not only available, um, but totally legal.

00:07:58,030	This all came out when he entered his one and only rehab in 2017, in Billings, Montana. He told my parents and I and extended family during the rehab. He would never go back on opioids, but was more afraid of kratom because the withdrawals were awful. Each time he tried to get off it on his own, kratom availability also alarms him. Hardly any of us, nor authorities.

00:08:18,870	We asked back then in 2019. Um, we’re even aware of kratom and we couldn’t find much about it back then. Nick’s recovery was successful for two years from July 2017 until July 2019, when we got the call that he was found dead by a friend in his apartment. New apartment. Initial reports indicated an overdose.

00:08:47,700	Likely, but we waited two months for the official coroner’s report and all the time wondering if he had relapsed on opiates. So sorry. Accidental overdose was the final report with a high level of nitrogen, which is the natural botanical kratom. No opiates. He hadn’t gone back to opiates. He had turned to kratom instead, thinking it was a natural dietary supplement.

00:09:14,230	Research has now shown that kratom affects the same receptors as opioids promoting addiction. Severe withdrawals, even fatalities. The deep pain of such a senseless loss of life is beyond and has really affected my life over the last seven years.

00:09:40,970	My family’s hope is that other families don’t go through another tragedy because of a substance like kratom that is prevalent and legal in most of the United States. I support the governor’s ban and hope this ban will remain permanent for all kratom products, including the newer synthetic seven oh Metro, nine, which is even more potent.

00:10:01,230	Um, thank you, commissioners and Mayor Schmitz for listening to my brother and Nick’s story. We are here with a deep concern for our children and community, safety and well-being for the future. And just to close that, the 7.0 was not around seven years ago. Really? Um, so like I said, my brother did die of the natural, but it kills.

00:10:19,900	And so I did give, um, one of your, uh, persons a, um, a flyer with, um, seven things to know about kratom. And, um, I also have some sheets and stuff that were given to me from the Burleigh public health. But you probably are made aware of those. Um, I just wanted to share our story because, like I said, I can’t bring him back.

00:10:38,100	But the 708 stuff is you don’t want to mess with. So, um, this tragedy you don’t want to mess with actually, any of it. So I fully support, um, the governor and his band. Thank you. Thank you. I’m sorry. A little shaky. Public comment period is still open. Anyone wish to speak? Please come forward.

00:11:10,670	How are you guys doing this afternoon or this evening? What about a calendar? Sorry. Um, Um. I apologize, I don’t have, like, a formal written speech. I just have some, uh, bullet points. Uh, so really quick. My name is Allison Smith. I’m the director of government affairs for the Global Kratom Coalition.

00:11:29,530	I’m actually in town because I plan to speak at tomorrow’s public. Um, uh, roundtable. Um, and I just checked the city agenda and saw that this was on. So I decided to come by. Um, I do want to start by saying I’m very sorry about your loss. That is a terrible tragedy. Um, so I specialize in, actually localities and municipalities.

00:11:49,100	So this is definitely much more in my realm. Um, but our state lead, unfortunately, was available, so I’m in town. Um, Governor Armstrong and the attorney general are right that there is a problem in the state of North Dakota and across the nation.

00:12:05,700	Um, I do we do have some disagreements with how they are addressing it. Um, our personal take is that there are two types of products. There is natural, and then there are lab created synthetic drugs.

00:12:22,170	So just a quick background, traditional kratom products, these are referred to as quote unquote natural because they are leaf products that reflect the chemical composition of how the leaf looks in nature. Um, so these are they are used by 23 million Americans and they’re have they’ve been around since the 1970s. They were brought over after the Vietnam War.

00:12:41,570	Um, and then you have the creation about half a decade ago, give or take, of these lab created high potency drugs. These are where individuals and manufacturers have taken the leaf. They have stripped the alkaloids. They have stripped the antioxidants, they’ve stripped the fiber. It’s a plant. It’s 50% fiber. Um, they have combined it with pool shock and other harsh chemicals. Press it into a tab and labeled it as kratom.

00:13:01,170	And they are selling it with minimal to no regulation. And it’s caused obviously significant public concern. Um, if I can give a metaphor, if you eat an apple, um, the seeds have this chemical called amygdala. And when you consume it in your body, it breaks down to cyanide. But you can’t eat.

00:13:18,830	You know, if you eat an apple or you accidentally consume or two seeds, it’s not going to harm you. However, if you consume hundreds of those seeds, you will find a lethal dose of cyanide in your body. Um, we are seeing that’s the best comparison I can give to what’s happening here in kratom. It’s.

00:13:34,300	They are taking these products chemically, isolating 1 or 2 chemicals and then labeling Apple. They are very different from one another. Um, these deceptive practices are intended to create confusion. And so chaos.

00:13:53,630	In fact, the state’s own attorney general during his press conference, I believe last week he came out, he had three products on display and he said, this is kratom. This is horrible. It’s going to ruin your life. But those were the synthetic products. They were not the natural leaf plants. And I’m not going to sit here and say that any product is without risk. There are always risks.

00:14:08,130	You can harm yourself by consuming too much water. But that’s why we regulate. We regulate tobacco. We regulate, regulate alcohol, we regulate. Um, well, I was going to say cigarettes, but driver’s license, I mean, everything has some sort of regulation on it to help protect the public.

00:14:26,570	Um, and this context is very important as we consider this conversation, because I’m not just telling you this as Gcsi, I’m telling you this because there’s science to back it up. The University of Florida has a kratom program dedicated towards research. Johns Hopkins has conducted studies on this. The FDA, Nida, they’ve all done research on this, and they have firmly come out and said there’s two different types.

00:14:42,100	There’s benefits and consequences. And what those look like. Um, additionally, the stance is reflected in policy. I’ll try to wrap it up quick, I promise.

00:14:58,770	Um, earlier, well, I should say earlier this year, last month, July 6th, the DEA published a notice of intent, which is it goes into the Federal Register and essentially says, if you are a manufacturer of concentrated seven zero products of these synthetic derivatives, you are put on notice in 30 days time, give or take. This will be a controlled one substance. And we’re coming right around to that deadline. Um, it’s August.

00:15:15,230	D.C. moves a little slow this time of year, so. But I anticipate that will become finalized soon. Um, and so that’s why I’m here. This is important context. This is a very niche. It’s a very complex issue. Um, and that is why I’m here. Because I want to be a resource.

00:15:32,700	I would love to answer any questions. I understand we’re in the public comment portion, but I’ll be around for this conversation later this evening. And I would be more than happy to to field any questions. If I can’t answer it, I will find someone who will answer any questions or concerns. So thank you. Thank you. Questions, Commissioner. Question.

00:15:49,830	You know you’re going to ask. A question. Okay, Mr. mayor, um, Allison. So the federal rules that are coming out, uh, establishing it as a class one substance, will that apply to the synthetic and the natural trade off? No, sir.

00:16:08,430	Uh, the Federal Register, which if there’s a clerk or someone, I would be more than happy to send the link to the actual notice so you can review it. It says explicitly that it will classify set seven hydroxy beginning above a specified threshold.

00:16:24,630	And then there are 4 or 5 other synthetic derivatives, um, that they will they will also schedule because they don’t want this to be a game of whack a mole. Um, they want to address it. They want to address it immediately because, as I said, 23 million people who consume this, there’s obviously some individuals that benefit from it.

00:16:36,370	Um, adverse events do happen. They are rare. And that’s why we need to regulate. But the focus of the federal government and a lot of the states that have passed consumer kratom consumer protection acts have been concentrated synthetics and and those derivatives. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Again. Public comment is open.

00:16:58,230	A second call for public comment. A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one else coming forward. Hearing no one else. Public comment period is now closed. Uh, consent agenda is next.

00:17:22,630	But before we get to that, I ask to pull E to the encroachment and waiver agreement with Church of Ascension. I have a conflict of interest, so I can’t vote on that. Is there anything else from anyone? Uh, for me it’d be a G5 with the airport contract with kale J. Okay. Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest.

00:17:42,530	So my request to the commission first would be with regard to, um, the rest of the consent agenda, what are your wishes? I move to. Approve as presented. Second. Is there any discussion? We don’t have to save the do that. We should. So I’ll amend my motion to remove or approve the consent agenda as presented with items. Uh e two. And you said G5. Yes, I believe it’s G5.

00:18:12,500	G5 is the railroad state. Yo. Sorry, that’s what I meant. Sorry, kale j I just, I remember. So with items E two and g5 removed. Okay every second that okay. Thank you Commissioner. Any other discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Doll. Yes. Commissioner Connelly. Yes. Commissioner Hull Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Mayor Schmitz.

00:18:41,470	Yes. And Commissioner Risch, if you would mind taking at least E2 through. I don’t think we need to step away because I don’t expect any discussions. But. Okay. I’ll move. We, uh. Call for. You’re the chair. Acting chair. Now you’re the acting chair. So I’ll move to approve. Item. Item. No, I got it.

00:19:05,270	E2, uh, the encroachment agreement for Church of Ascension as presented. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Call the roll. Commissioner Connelly. Yes. Commissioner Hull. Yes. Commissioner Doll Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Now we’ll go on to item G5. Any action? Anyone want to make a motion on G5? Motion to approve G5. Second.

00:19:46,330	Um. Oh, I guess you should have taken over. I just want to comment on it. Now that we’ve got it out in the open, I wasn’t going to G5 is a passenger rail. Uh, siding study k j engineering along with a partner is going to determine where these passenger rail stations are at.

00:20:06,430	And I’m concerned that some people say, well, Bismarck doesn’t have enough room at the depot or someplace in Bismarck. When I think we do have plenty of room. I used to operate passenger trains. These passenger trains are maybe 1000ft in length.

00:20:20,670	Um, at some of the quick stops that I would make at Rugby or Stanley or whatever like that, not even 5 to 6 minutes, we would stop these trains, off we go again. So we wouldn’t even if we did block a crossing, say a third street or fifth street, it’d be very minimal.

00:20:38,330	Uh, it probably blocked the crossing for less time than a coal train going through town. So, um, I just want to encourage I know we have a representative from here, um, that they, you know, really do some good work on this because I’d like to get a station in Bismarck if we ever get to that point. Okay, uh, we’ll call roll on that. Commissioner Risch. Yes, Commissioner. Doll. Yes, Commissioner. Connelly.

00:21:05,900	Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Moving to the regular agenda. Sorry for the confusion over all of that, but just. We’re just trying to make sure we we don’t do something we shouldn’t do.

00:21:26,800	Uh, regular agenda item A is a public hearing on application for class C two hotel, motel alcohol license by Jazzy Bismarck 29 Corporation doing businesses. La Quinta in a public hearing. Anyone wish to speak? Please come forward. A second call for public comment. A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one in hearing no one to public comment period is now closed. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Approve as written or presented. Second.

00:21:55,570	Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Roll. Commissioner Risch. Yes, Commissioner. Doll. Yes. Commissioner. Connelly. Yes. Commissioner. Hull. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Next. Item B is public hearing on ordinance 6674 to amend sections 205, 0120502 and 6090 for the city of Bismarck.

00:22:27,100	Code of ordinances related to term of office duties, powers fee assessments for funding of crime, victim and witness program. Is there anything you need to present, Julie? I don’t think so. Okay, so this is a public hearing. Anyone who wish to speak, please come forward. A second call for public comment. A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one. Hearing no one. Commissioners, what are your wishes? Motion to. Approve. Second.

00:22:53,200	Is there any discussion? Yes, Mr. Mayor, it’s a change in ordinance. Maybe Julie can just give us a brief overview. I read through it. It looks fine to me, but why are we doing it? Somebody watching it on TV, we’re. We’re changing an ordinance. Maybe just kind of a high level overview of why this is necessary. Julie.

00:23:11,930	Um, well. Commissioner Risch. Mayor, commissioners. Um, the this one. Let’s see. Six. Seven. Four. Four. It’s been a while because we had some publication issues. Um, we have a victim witness requirement, a fee requirement that the court has to impose.

00:23:37,030	And and the cemetery code requires that we put those funds into the into a fund for a victim witness program. Our office does not have one. The local municipalities usually don’t. So the the state’s attorney’s office does have a qualifying victim witness program. So we’re going to deposit those funds with them.

00:23:58,300	And if we have a case where somebody needs victim witness services, they’ve agreed that we can use their services in exchange for the funds. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any further discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Doll? Yes, Commissioner Connelly. Yes, Commissioner Hull Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Item C, Public Hearing and Ordinance 6678 to amend sections 501 0150106501075011350305.

00:24:42,170	The City of Bismarck Code of Ordinances Related to Alcoholic Beverages and Civic Center exception, and the repeal of 501 20 uh, related to the enclosed booth and excessive booths and access to liquor to licensed premises and 5005 1001 related to Sunday opening of grocery stores. Um, again, this there’s some cleanup of the text, primarily. Correct? That’s correct.

00:25:05,670	Um, so that this is the public hearing, um, I’m going to open it. We are going to not be able to finish it because we have some notice requirements that weren’t quite met. If I understand correctly. Right. So we’ll open the hearing and then we’ll continue it. Um, next meeting hopefully. Okay.

00:25:26,630	So if there’s anyone who wish to speak, please come forward. I’ll call second time. I’ll call a third time. I see no one. But I’m not going to close public hearing because we’ll just reopen next meeting and then we can take action. Uh, I would like a motion for that to. I would motion to approve.

00:25:53,630	The continuance of the public hearing until August 25th at 515 at this location. Second. Is there any discussion on that? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Connelly. Yes. Commissioner. Hull. Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes, Commissioner Doll? Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Item D public hearing on the release of access water, main sewer. Sanitary sewer.

00:26:21,000	Stormwater drainage and utility easement on lot one less south five feet in all of lot two, block one tree top addition. First three. Plot. Go ahead. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Uh, Hanson LLC is requesting release of an access water main sanitary sewer, stormwater drainage and utility easement on lot one.

00:26:51,430	Less the south five feet and olive lot to block one tree. Top edition. First replant. Um, as you can see on the screen in front of you. There we go. The project area is located in North Bismarck, south of 57th Avenue, west of highway 83, on the north side of Canada Avenue. Um.

00:27:15,100	The easement was granted with the plot of Treetop Edition First Plat, which was recorded in 2021 by City Policy released of any easements other than a franchise utility easement currently requires a public hearing with the city Commission. Uh owners of adjacent properties were notified as part of this request.

00:27:33,730	Um staff have not received any comments regarding it. Uh, as a result of all findings contained in the staff report, City of Bismarck staff find that the requested easement release, as described in the attached resolution, would not adversely impact the public health, safety and general welfare and is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan Code of Ordinances and State Law.

00:27:51,700	Therefore, staff recommends approval of the release of the access water, main sanitary sewer, stormwater drainage and utility easement on that one less the south five feet and olive lot to block one treetop addition. First three plat. Do you have any questions? Does that appear any? Lauren thank. You, thank you. I’ll open the public hearing.

00:28:12,170	Anyone wish to speak? Please come forward. Thank you. Mayor. Swanson engineering representing the applicants on this one. Uh. Nothing significant to add to what Lauren presented to you, but I can certainly answer any questions if you have them. Anyone have questions? Okay. Hopefully not have any. If if we do, you’ll come up.

00:28:39,170	Thank you. Anyone else who wish to speak, please come forward and sign in and identify yourself. So that would be more camp. That would be Mark Hanson. Uh, the Hanson man.

00:29:03,370	Um, at least make you guys aware that, uh, we’re trying to figure out a roller rink because we kind of think that, uh, the kids in this town could maybe use something to do in the wintertime. Um, so we are not anticipating that we’re ever going to make any money at this. Um, but we do have a heart for kids.

00:29:24,500	Um, so, uh, uh, I guess just to make you aware that, uh, the intent is to try to figure out how we would extend the, uh, the building itself to the existing building. If you’re familiar with ail works building, um, we bought that building, and, uh, uh, we have a little store in there right now called Buffalo Gypsy.

00:29:45,500	Uh, but the intent of buying the property behind that location was to hopefully be able to build a roller rink. I can tell you that we have a little bit of sticker shock going right now. Um, so, uh, uh, Mayor Schmitz, I guess we have a meeting with you tomorrow sometime. Uh, we’ll try to figure out some things, but, uh, anyhow, that’s what the intent is.

00:30:05,300	So that’s why we’re looking for removing that easement. So any questions? Anybody know how to roller skate? Anybody? You grow up roller skating? Well, we’re hoping to bring that fun back into our world. So give our kids something to do other than creating. Thank you. Sir, I got to sign my name, I guess. Yes, please.

00:30:32,870	I see nobody else put addresses down. Do I need to. Know? No. Okay. Thank you, thank you. Anyone else wish to speak this item? A second call. A third and final call for public comment. Seeing no one else and hearing no one else in public comment periods closed.

00:30:59,500	Commissioners, what are your wishes? I’ll move. We approve as presented. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Hull. Yes, Commissioner. Risch. Yes, Commissioner Doll. Yes. Commissioner Connelly. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Next item E consider a request to receive an update on the water treatment plant expansion project and approve funding sources. Michael. Don’t set your laptop on the.

00:31:45,500	Perfect. Well, good evening, mayor and commissioners. Um, yeah. I’m here tonight to give you a brief update on our water treatment plan expansion and come up of our next steps.

00:32:01,200	Um, as we have some new commissioners here at the table, I know a lot of you have gone through Citizen’s Academy, so you’re pretty familiar with our water plant. Um, but just to give a little background for maybe those online of where we’re at in this project and where we’re going in the future. I’ll start with some of that. So our water plant was originally built in 1924.

00:32:24,500	Um, and some of that plant is still in use today. Uh, we had some major expansions in the 1950s to add our river water intake. And 74, we added a 12 million gallons per day expansion on that as well. That river intake we still utilize to this day.

00:32:43,200	Um, and we’ve looked at it and everything is still in good condition. So some of the stuff that we’ve done in the past in our plant, what I want to say is, you know, we’ve we’ve worked really hard with, with a good maintenance program, with building our plant to the size that we need when we need it.

00:32:58,630	Um, a lot of this has been funded through local investments and state funding in the past. Bismarck Water Plant is also a regional hub in our area. Um, we serve a few other, um, local institution education institutions. Some cities, uh, South Central water.

00:33:22,370	So like I said, Bismarck provides water to the city of Lincoln, University of Mary and UTC. This allows them to manage and operate their own distribution system without having to operate and maintain a plant facility in itself. So this is our our site.

00:33:45,030	I’ll just briefly kind of go over this, um, where you see the one this is our existing 30 million gallons per day lime softening and media filtration plant. Uh, the river water intake comes off of this plant. Site two is an existing pretreatment building that we’re going to be repurposing in our next phase of construction. And site three is where we’re anticipating building, uh, 10 million gallons per day.

00:34:08,130	Ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, osmosis, um, addition site for this is our existing, uh, sludge process plant. And then what you don’t see on here further south, we have another intake. This is our horizontal collector. Well, we call it the spaceship on the river. You probably have all seen it, but that is a groundwater intake.

00:34:24,700	So I just want to give you a timeline of where we’re at in this project, because it’s been a while since we’ve been at the commission. Um, it started back in 2020, where we did a condition assessment and master plan of our water plant.

00:34:42,770	Um, through that, we identified a need that the plant would have in order to continue to support growth in our community. Need we need to add a 10 million gallons per day expansion. So that master plan ended in 23. We went to work with the legislators and we were able to, um, get $50 million appropriated towards the project. Um, through that process.

00:35:06,300	And our project cost at that time was 83 million. And I want to just highlight why it was 83. I mean, when you look at very high level master plans, you start with an understanding that it generally costs 12 to $15 million per MGD in a new plant facility.

00:35:25,300	What we were looking at is we had an existing plant, we had existing river water intake, we had an existing pretreatment building. We had a clear well. And so that number got reduced down to about 6 to $7 million per MGD with, you know, engineering and other fees associated with that.

00:35:44,170	And so again, what you have to look at with that master planning is we’re very high level. Um, and so we kicked off our design with the CMR process. And at 30%, we did a design cost model. So that means we’re 30% into our design.

00:36:02,600	We asked our CMR, uh, can you give us an idea of what our cost is so we don’t have everything figured out? You know, it might be hey, we know that we’re going to be putting pumps here for for moving water up to the West End. We didn’t know the size of the pumps. We didn’t know how many pumps. So they’re putting an estimate together based on that information.

00:36:18,430	Uh, at that time it came in at $127 million. So that’s in 2024. Um, we we worked at that point to say, okay, well, what what other things did we miss on this? And at that time, we had identified a few other parts that weren’t noticed in the master plan that

00:36:36,130	that we found out of the 30% that needed to be also incorporated into the plant. And I’ll share what those are in a little bit. Um, so in 2025, we reached our 60% design where project detail sequencing and construction, uh, became clear.

00:36:57,400	So this updated cost model went to 143 million. Um, at this point, we we went back to the DWR, uh, Department of Water Resources to update them on our project, um, so that they were informed of where we’re at. And they said that we should also talk with the legislators of the water topic subcommittee.

00:37:17,100	So at this point in 25, we put a pause at the end of 24 and 25, we put a pause on our project in design, um, until we could get a better understanding of what fundings, uh, is available out there for us to continue with this project. We presented to the Water Topic subcommittee in March.

00:37:37,100	Um, and there we we got some good information that there really isn’t any funding even left this year, in this biennium from the DWR, the municipality budget’s been emptied. Um, so the next available funding potentially wouldn’t be until 2027, 29, biennium 2728 biennium, which would probably have about $100 million allocated statewide for the municipal bucket.

00:38:06,770	Tied with that, the Department of Water Resources, also reviewing their cost share policy. And there’s a lot of uncertainty of what decisions will come out of that. And we won’t know what that would be until later this year or even early in 2027.

00:38:26,630	So future funding grant funding from the state wouldn’t be available in this project until July of 2027 at the earliest. Where we’re at right now is this star on the line? Um, we’ve been evaluating in our model.

00:38:48,300	Where can we see some potential savings? What can we remove? Um, and we’ve proceeded to what we’re going to have is our 90% cost model in September. Um, and so our CMR, we just submitted the plans for them to look through that, to be able to give us cost estimates back on that. So where are we at currently under construction? This project is built into a few different subprojects. Um, you know, we’ve back up here.

00:39:10,870	We’ve already completed a few of them, like the uninterrupted power supply and the horizontal collector. Well, um, we’re currently working on our high lift pump improvements and our skate and network. All of these other subprojects help us to to get set up.

00:39:29,970	Well for when we bring in the 10 million gallon per day expansion plant. And currently with that, we’ve already pre procured our ceramic membranes because there’s a long lead time. And to be able to get these. So we’ve already have $29 million in contracted services to date. So what does that leave us.

00:39:55,770	Um we’ve we looked at our project scope as a whole. One portion that we removed is the low lift pump replacement and zebra mussel mitigation. This is something that we feel like we don’t need to immediately address today, but we will need to address this down the road.

00:40:15,030	I mean, zebra mussels are starting to enter in the state way on the south side, and it’s going to make its way up here eventually. We just don’t know how long. So we’re we’re monitoring that. We’re watching it. But it’s something that we said we can address later on. So we don’t have those costs today.

00:40:31,370	Our anticipated project budget right now is 130 million. So you all want to know, how did we get from 83 to 130? Some of these things were parts that we identified through the project. As we got further involved with this.

00:40:52,930	Um, again, just to mention the 83 comes from a very high level estimate of 6 to 7 million gallons per MGD. Since we’ve originally put that master plan together, we’ve seen interest rates at 3 to 4%. You know, it’s projected from 2023 to 28. That’s a $20 million increase from when we originally put the project together to where we were sitting. When we’re going to start construction.

00:41:16,770	Again, when the design kicked off in 24, a couple things that we found out was that the sand in the river, even on our current process, we don’t see a big issue with it.

00:41:30,100	We found out that the sand is very fine, and we have to figure out a way to deal with that, because if we put it through our membranes and our pumps and our Ro system, it could cause an 8 to $10 million repair cost for us over the next 20 years. So the investment in a sand removal system today for 6 million, um, would certainly help to relieve those repair costs.

00:41:51,070	The original um, master plan assumed that we would have a clear well that we could utilize our clear. Well, after further, uh, investigation in that, we found that there wasn’t it wasn’t the best option for us in that our new plant needed to have its own clear, well and high service pumps.

00:42:08,570	Um, again, that building that we’re reusing that is a older technology called a super pulse setter. Um, through more discussions with our water plant staff, it was identified that that that treatment process works very well in high turbidity. We’re what we call spring runoff.

00:42:28,230	After that time, the the effectiveness of that process doesn’t work. Um, so we are going to redo the internals of that building. Now we are going to be saving $7 million from tearing down the building and reconstructing it.

00:42:46,570	But our original master plan based our our information on the fact that we’d re utilize that whole system, which wasn’t going to work for us. We’ve had a few site conditions come up, stormwater ponds, retaining walls that add to this that weren’t identified ever in the master plan.

00:43:08,300	Um, but one of the other parts that we’re, we’re looking for is, um, how do we make sure that our plant is set up for the future? So there has been some strategic decisions that we made to, to make sure that we’re sizing our pipes appropriately, that we’re sizing our sand removal appropriately because our site is very constrained. We don’t have a lot of ability to expand in the future.

00:43:24,470	Going into an existing building and trying to upsize a pipe is very hard. So there are some key points where we installed maybe pipe a little bit bigger now so that in the future we don’t have to go and reinstall it when we’re adding an additional 10 million gallon expansion 20, 30 years from now.

00:43:41,970	Um, so that cost today is 4 million, but it could save us anywhere from 10 to 50 million, 10 to 20 million. Let me get my numbers right. In the future, if we have to replace some of those. So these are big numbers. Um, what you don’t see in this table are other things that we’ve removed.

00:43:58,630	Our plant was designed to run on both of our sources. We’ve determined that today we can run this purely on the river source and not the horizontal collector. Well, we removed a blending vault that also had some pretreatment, um, oxidation in it for the magnesium in that water.

00:44:18,300	We remove that to save us about $6 million today, something that we’re going to look forward to install in the future. But what we identified as our needs today is we would be okay with not having that one of the best parts about having a CMR. Again, this is a contractor that’s helping us through design as they can identify some, potential pinch points.

00:44:37,700	And one of the ones I like to highlight is where we had originally placed a clear wall structure. The contractor had come up and said, hey, if you place that there, I need to now rent a bigger crane, which is going to cost $1 million more.

00:44:57,230	If you can just move your structure over to this other location, it saves you $1 million. And when we looked at the cost, because instead of going deeper in the ground, we could have more of a surface level structure. There was also additional cost savings there.

00:45:11,170	So there are a bunch of stuff that we’ve worked on in the background to to trim up as much as we can to find efficiencies in our budget for this, um, that we don’t always see here. And the other part is our contractor is our CMR, is aware of our project budget. They are aware that we’re targeting this $130 million project, and they’re invested in doing this.

00:45:34,630	Um, we always have an off ramp with them. If we can’t get to that price with working with them, we can always go and open bid. This project. So the last thing, where is project funding coming from? Again, our project $130 million. Currently we’ve already secured $50 million from state funding.

00:45:55,030	The additional funds that we need is 80 million. There are a couple of options that we’ve looked at and reviewed. Um, one would be using our utility reserve balance that we have. There are additional state grants that we do plan to seek and go after.

00:46:13,130	However, we won’t have access of those until July of 2027. Uh, would be the soonest we could go and get some of them. We have looked at issuing water utility revenue bonds through the city. Those interest rates tend to be a little bit higher five, maybe 6%.

00:46:33,900	Um, but what we’ve really looked at and what we’re pursuing right now is DWR, SRF funding. This is funding through the state. What’s great about this is it has a lower interest rate, around 3%, that we’ll be able to get on this. Um, we don’t have to draw everything that we request.

00:46:50,970	So that’s the other good part is if we were to request the 80 million and through this, we get additional state grants and we decide that, hey, we don’t need that. We we’re only going to draw 70 million or 80 million or 60 million from that. We’re not penalized for for drawing. We also draw as we go.

00:47:06,670	It’s not something where they give you the funds upfront. So we’re only paying interest as we draw, as we reimburse our funds. Um, so it gives us the best way to, to be able to move, to monitor our funds, to move forward. Um, what I’m trying to do is make sure that we have funds secured completely, um, for paying for this project.

00:47:24,900	Before we get into the bid side of things. And so my request tonight, um, is to ask for your approval to apply for and accept the award of a SRF funding of $80 million. Um, as well as we’re going to continue to seek out, uh, state grant funding if and when available. So with that, I’ll stand for questions. Commissioners questions.

00:47:49,670	Commissioner Risch, Mr. mayor, commissioners. Michael, um, I didn’t see these numbers till I got to the meeting tonight. So I’ve got quite a number of questions. Um, one of your slides says we provide water to the city of Lincoln. University of Mary, United Tribes Technical College, south Central Rural district.

00:48:09,500	About what percentage of the overall water we process goes to those outside entities. Do you got a guess? Let me think about my numbers real quick. All combined. I want to say 5% of our revenue that we collect comes from from that. No no no no. What percentage is the water. I don’t know, the water gallons.

00:48:31,870	Could my I guess my question is overall is if they’re using 10 or 20% of the water, they should probably be paying 10 or 20% of these expanded costs. Certainly something that we can look into.

00:48:52,830	Um, they’re their rates are structured very similar to what all of our other users rates are. We do look at what um, they, they pull from our system. What tax? I don’t call tax. They put on a system. What use they put on peak demand that they put on in their rate to structured around that. Okay. Mr.

00:49:11,900	Mayor, uh, the next question, the exiting sludge processing plan is that the contaminants you take out of the water and it goes on a pile and you mess with them, or what is it? I mean, I’m not familiar. With that. Mayor Commissioner. Commissioner Risch, that is in our lime softening process, we introduce lime into the water to help soften it.

00:49:29,130	It has sand in it. It has some contaminants in it. Um, particles that settle out. So yes, that that sludge goes to that processing plant where we do water it further, and then we’re able to have a contractor haul it off and dispose of it for us. Okay, Mr.

00:49:50,300	Mayor, so we went from a your initial plan in 2023 to 83 million. The state was very generous at $50 million. That’s pretty incredible. I thought, um, but in a mere two years, it went to.

00:50:08,130	And you explain a number of the reasons why 143 million, um, but the state, as you mentioned, said, we’ll have probably $100 million more available, but it probably wouldn’t be until 2029. And of course, all the communities in the state will be vying for that 100 million. If they look at us and say, oh, we just gave you a 50 million, that might make it a little more difficult for us to get a tremendous amount more. , uh, mayor and commissioners.

00:50:24,500	Commissioner Risch it it has the potential to, um, you know, our our request when we went to the state was for 36 million to continue following their 60% cost share that they do with municipalities on on water supply projects.

00:50:46,530	That cost share is under review right now and could go down to 40%, or even a $5 million cap. So there’s a lot of uncertainty. So there’s a chance, just based on their historical cost share of 60%, that we could do okay or get some more.. Mayor, Commissioner Commissioner, we don’t know. We are competing with other municipalities on different projects.

00:51:12,070	Um, so where where we fall in their list of 100 plus projects in a year and the funds they have available, I we wouldn’t know until July of 2027. Commissioner, it’s part of our request that we’ve already started to build, that we’ve begun with discussions with our local delegates on, okay, the funding for that, how much we get. And there’s some sensitivity.

00:51:30,130	It’ll be the last days of the session. Yes. Uh, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. Michael, um, so in the upcoming budget that we preliminary approved, there is a modest increase for water fees and sewage fees. Um, is that enough? Not going to be enough? It’s enough.

00:51:53,030	We’ve anticipated that in our budget this year, the 3.5% anticipated utilizing this $80 million grant fund or not grant fund, loan fund for it, um, typically, we’ve been on the 3% rate increase per year is what we’ve seen needed that additional half a percent is what it would take to cover the additional needs that we have. If we completely funded the project with SRF funding.

00:52:25,100	Mr. Connelly. I just wanted to make a point. When your predecessor, Michelle, was here, we and the water utility rate changes, um, with all of those other outside entities, they take care of their own infrastructure.

00:52:48,400	And that’s part of the negotiated contracts we have with them, because they have a smaller population to take care of that infrastructure. So there is some mechanisms of fairness put in place. So we’re not subsidizing them with our resources. It’s a rubric that’s meant to, uh, to where we can produce the water. But they’re taking care of their own infrastructure. Is that correct? Still. Mayor, commissioners? Commissioner Connelly.

00:53:11,430	Yes, we we provide water up to their point of connection. Um, they’re responsible for everything in their own interior system. Commissioner Hull, I just want to thank Michael and your team.

00:53:29,230	You know, for such a large project where we only have to do an extra half a percent, you know, to that head, head on planning of, you know, making sure they’re not spikes where, you know, future generations are going to help, you know, benefit from this. So they’re they’ll help pay for it essentially as well too. So thank you. Any other questions through the budget process I actually asked all these other questions of my. So I knew he had already planned.

00:53:50,730	So we weren’t going to have it that we could cover it through the planned the planned inflationary adjustments, uh, to water rates. So, uh, the request would be for us to give you permission to apply for the loan. Correct. And accept if. And accept if awarded. Yep. Okay. Move to approve. Second. Okay.

00:54:15,670	Do we have discussion? I thought it said, excuse me, Mr. Mayor. The recommendation is approved. The loan application. It’s not a grant, right? It’s a loan. It’s a loan application. What’s that? It’s a loan application. Yeah. And. And then if if awarded to accept it.

00:54:36,070	If you want me to bring it back, to have you guys accept it, we certainly can. Um. No, I don’t think so. Any other discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Commissioner Risch? Yes, Commissioner. Doll? Yes, Commissioner. Connelly. Yes. Commissioner. Hull. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Thank you. Michael. Next item. F is considered a request from the Finance department to accept the 2025 audit results in the 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

00:55:08,600	Ryan, welcome. Mayor. Members of the commission. I’m here without Eric for the first time, so bear with me. I’m flying solo for the finance department today.

00:55:28,830	Uh, the agenda item in front of you, uh, and linked to the agenda in the packet you have is our annual comprehensive financial report for 2025. So we’ve been obviously looking at a lot of budgeting for 2027. But I’m going to take you back a little bit into 2025.

00:55:49,770	Our fiscal services team, um, every year prepares this complete set of financial statements, which recaps all of the financial activity of the city of Bismarck for a year. So this year we just finished, prior to me starting the 2025 act for as we recall, or as we call it. Um, I want to make you guys aware that these are all readily available on our website.

00:56:08,030	Uh, the link that’s in the the agenda packet, uh, takes you to that site that has all of the last five years versions of these, um, at 130 plus pages apiece. They’re a they’re a significant wealth of knowledge, a wealth of information. I know everybody in our offices uses them very, very regularly to to look up items. Uh, there’s a lot of good comparison data in there.

00:56:27,030	Um, a lot of factual information on the city of Bismarck, historical information. And then, um, first and foremost is our financial information for the city.

00:56:49,530	Um, in addition to compiling this information, um, state statute requires us to have our financials audited by an independent auditing firm, uh, each year, as in past years, I Bailey, has done that audit for us. We’ve contracted with IDE Bailey to do it recently. Um, before I go into any details on the on the report itself, I want to make them take a moment. I want to recognize that that our team, our fiscal team puts a lot of effort into this.

00:57:06,730	Uh, it takes a significant amount of manpower to put this information together. It’s a significant undertaking for them to do that. And it’s like I said, it’s a great resource for our for our city.

00:57:23,100	Uh, they also put a lot of effort into working with the auditors to make sure that the auditors, uh, get everything they need in an efficient manner, make that audit process go smoothly. Uh, every year, uh, we take this this process, and, and it takes a good chunk of time. And like I said, I want to make sure that that we recognize that team because it’s going to continue.

00:57:40,370	And it’s a big part of their their processes every year. Um, happy to report that the city received a clean, unmodified audit opinion. Uh, for my Baily, the highest level of assurance that an auditor can provide means our financial statements present fairly in all material aspects.

00:58:04,200	Material respects the financial position and results of the operations of the city, and they are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. So, in short, it’s saying our financial reporting is reliable, transparent and compliant. Uh, a few few key points to note. Um, the auditors noted no material weaknesses and no additional significant deficiencies in internal controls. We do have one carryover finding.

00:58:26,230	Um, regarding the event center, uh, we do have an action plan in place with especially with OPG now in place that we expect that to be corrected and taken care of by the end of this year. So we would expect to not see that finding going forward.

00:58:43,230	Uh, the city continues to maintain healthy fund balances, strong liquidity across major operating funds. Uh, this positions us well for managing ongoing services, capital needs and future obligations. Uh, it complies with standards. All required disclosures, accounting, treatments and reporting elements were presented in accordance with Gatsby requirements.

00:59:06,900	The auditors did not propose any material adjustments, which speaks to the accuracy of our day to day financial processes, and I, Bailey, completed their audit work on schedule, worked collaboratively with our staff, and provided constructive feedback that will help us continue improving our financial practices going forward. Overall, this this clean audit of our of our aquifer reinforces that the city’s financial management is sound.

00:59:30,230	Our internal control processes are functioning as intended, and the residents and stakeholders have a confidence in how public funds are that our public funds are being managed well. Again, I want to thank our finance team for their hard work throughout the year and during the audit process.

00:59:46,230	I’d be happy to answer any questions, provide any additional detail you see fit, and beyond that, I would request acceptance of the report and the audit findings. Anyone have questions of Ryan? You put him on the spot. Not too tough a spot. Um, Ryan, thank you.

01:00:04,930	And I think it’s incredible, uh, analysis of what’s going on, but I’m looking at page 25, and I know I don’t 158 page document. I’m on Nick you on one little page. But when I look at page 25, it shows the net position balances in various funds. It shows the airport with $180 million. We’re just talking about water.

01:00:31,030	And they show a $190 million in the water fund, sanitary sewer, about 130 million. Is that like real money we have on hand? Uh, it’s excellent question. Um, there is there is a certain amount of money that is out there. That is, one is committed, um, for future processes. We do have reserve balances that are out there, um, that we anticipate spending there built into our processes.

01:00:50,730	I’d have to look directly into those specific funds to give you a better answer on those specific ones that you indicated. I’d like to get a a better answer from from Eric and the team as well. Um, but yes, there is there is money out there. Um, we do have reserves.

01:01:06,270	We want to be conservative. We want to be able to, you know, if and when, um, funding doesn’t come in for 4 to 6 months that we’re able to continue operations until we’re able to make a fix and correct that going forward. And so.

01:01:24,500	If and when we want to expand the airport, if and when we want to expand the water treatment plant, I. Mean. We do have reserve balances. Um, not to that those, those dollar amounts, um, they’re not all they’re not available excess reserves. Uh, they’re Funds that have been built up in are part of the plan to spend. Going forward. I would not say their excess reserves.

01:01:43,000	So what page are you looking at? Page 25. Of the audit report or page 25. Financial Report PDF. The Financial. Report PDF. Page 25. It’s the document. Page 17. Called the Financial Report Comprehensive Financial Report. Yep. I’m just trying to get to the right page so I can I might be able to answer your question.

01:02:10,800	Well, you’re the accountant who. Is that one you. Have right there? Yeah, this. One. Page two. Page seven. Statement of net position in the management and discussion and analysis. Is that where we’re looking? Yes. It’s in the management discussion analysis page 17 of that. Okay. So. That so that’s a net position of all funds.

01:02:55,270	That doesn’t necessarily mean cash. That’s other assets as well. So. Oh so you mean includes the value of the water treatment plant as it is. It would include the depreciated value of fixed assets on the books. For example. So it’s not all cash like we have other assets. Sure, sure. Buildings. So the building the airport itself? Yes.

01:03:21,270	Okay. I was getting my hopes up. So but we I, Commissioner Risch. Mayor, members of the commission. You there there is. You know, we talked about it in the budget process. There is a reserve balance that we have on the books.

01:03:43,700	It’s it’s it’s not to the extent of hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is out there as a, as a cushion for our, our, our activities going forward. I just want to clarify that we’re not sitting on all this cash we do have. We do have reserve cash as we should appropriately. We have a we have a policy for the general fund. Um.

01:04:00,730	I appreciate that, Mr. Mayor, because I just looked at and said balance balances. So. Okay. Jumped out. At me. Are there any other questions? So the the request of the commission is to accept the audited financial statement and the act for, uh, as presented by the audit firm and

01:04:21,770	the finance department. And then if we accept it, then it’s approved and then it can be moved forward, actually, there’s probably going to be a demand or a request for us to submit this information to other governmental bodies. I move, I so move. Second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we’ll call roll. Commissioner Doll. Yes.

01:04:46,170	Commissioner Connelly. Yes. Commissioner Hull. Yes. Commissioner Risch. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes, Ryan. Do thank the team. Because, as you know, they they were running short staffed. And this is a major lift to prepare because they prepare the statements. It’s not like we subbed this out to I.T.

01:05:05,970	Bailey to draft the statements. We do them all internally. And, um, appreciate their. Absolutely. And we’ll do. Sir. Okay. Uh, item G, consider request by Commissioner Connelly to discuss the upcoming special session on September 2nd. Uh, of the legislature and the topic of Creighton. Go ahead, Commissioner. Yeah. Mayor. Commissioners.

01:05:32,630	Thanks. Uh, Jason and staff also for putting this item on. Um, I’ve been working with, uh, Lisa Meyer, uh, House of representative, um, for a while now, and we were looking at bringing forth some legislation in 2027.

01:05:55,570	Um, on behalf of, uh, looking at a ban or regulation of kratom and getting buy in for that. Um, but with the governor’s announcement, it moves that conversation up forward and found out that there’s a lot of people that have been talking about it. So people have been talking to me over time and putting it out there. Even more people have come to me in the last week.

01:06:14,300	So giving them an opportunity to speak tonight was part of it. But I would also ask, uh, would it be prudent for us to ask staff or come up with an official statement to add to the testimonial conversation for the special session in September? So I don’t know what the bill is going to be yet.

01:06:34,770	So I don’t know how we take a position. I suspect we have a general sense what we would like to see, which has probably been already expressed by the residents who spoke tonight, but I don’t know how we take a position on a bill we don’t know is out

01:06:50,170	there, or what bills are going to be out there. Um, if we would get wind of what bill is going to be the top bill, which I would anticipate, it’s going to fall in line with where the governor is right now. Um, we could certainly have a special meeting to then give that direction to formalize that.

01:07:10,400	Um, but it’s a little hard for me because I don’t know, like, I don’t know what to. You know, what? You know, we don’t have an A bill identified to take a position on. Well, it’s a fast moving conversation.

01:07:26,100	Uh, just putting it on our radar is even a benefit, because as we saw tonight, there’s definitely people that have, um, experience. Uh, negative consequences to this being out there on demand. And so if you’re, if you’d be comfortable with that, if we once we know what’s out there to take a position on, we get call special meeting.

01:07:46,270	Um, Jason and I don’t know Whitney is not here. So we have our superstar back up Alyssa to make sure we get that noted. I have no problem with that. I just I don’t know what the what to say right now as an organization.

01:08:01,100	Okay? I don’t know how the rest of the commissioners feel, but that’s kind of like I don’t want to get on the wrong side of a bill. Right? Yep. No. And that’s understandable. I do have some examples. I forwarded one to, um, Jason as like ordinances that other communities put in place. But as the state develops theirs, it may play into that factor and stuff.

01:08:20,870	And if the state does what we hope it does, we won’t need an ordinance. Yep. Commissioner Risch. Mr. mayor, commissioners, Commissioner Connelly, um, they’re going to be listening to the experts, I would suspect, and they’ve had an initial interim committee hearing. And I’ve read the stuff about that.

01:08:37,930	There was a good editorial in today’s paper explaining the difference between Creighton and these awful, off, which is questionable, but the awful, awful synthetic stuff that’s doing most of the killing out there. Um, I don’t know that the legislature is really going to be looking to us for counsel and advice compared to the experts.

01:08:57,530	They’re going to show up at the legislature who know all about it, like the young woman on the national level that spoke to us earlier. That’s my only thoughts. So I don’t know if it would make any difference if we did take a position. Okay.

01:09:16,600	I’m I’m looking for just consensus at this point in time to see if we want to request a special meeting, should we find out there’s a bill out there that we need to take a position? I have no problem. We take positions on bills throughout the entire legislative session, but I just don’t know where to. I don’t I don’t know what the position should be yet.

01:09:32,800	I get that, um, I can keep monitoring on it and certainly come forward as it develops and that my background, um, that’s the reason why I moved here, was in the field of addiction. So. Okay. Oh, we have consensus then to follow it that way. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Next is item age.

01:09:54,700	Consider request by Commissioner Connelly to discuss non-disclosure agreements relating to City of Bismarck staff and North Dakota open records laws. Commissioner. Um, I was on the radio, um, with, uh, on 5:50 a.m. Michael Bell. And they always sometimes you get questions, they catch you off guard.

01:10:16,100	But, uh, was asked a question about a staff member in a smaller community that actually was asked a question by their council, um, to speak on an issue that they were dealing with and that, um, employee stated they signed an NDA and couldn’t talk to the very commission they were in front of, and it was announced me on the radio and asked how I

01:10:39,300	would address it, and I said I would ask the question here, not knowing the background. And so I reached out to Jason and, um, it’s going to be more of an educational piece, but I think it’s a good place setter to know that we’re aware of some of these conversations that cause some turmoil in other

01:10:56,630	communities. And then what’s not on the agenda, but further in the conversation, there were some appointed and elected officials on the east side of the state on an active topic around the data center conversation, to where they signed NDAs, and they’re not talking to people that elected them.

01:11:20,170	So, um, I don’t know where the conversation would evolve to, but it is a concern that some citizens have out. There. So I’m first off, I’m going to ask Attorney Meis to come forward and address, which already is in Sentry Code, which probably already addresses this. Um, and knowing that we abide by open records rules under central code, and I expect that of staff. Go ahead.

01:11:48,900	Okay. Thank you. Mayor Commissioner. Commissioner Connelly. So. Julie, can you. I’m sorry. I do this all the time. I’m so sorry. Okay, so under the sentry code and or the Constitution section six, the default is that everything is open unless there are specific exemptions or confidentiality portions relating to open

01:12:10,900	records. So everything that the city does is potentially an open record. Any writing, any email, text, those could be requested by the a member of the public. Now there are within the open or the open meeting and open records law 4404. There are some exceptions to that.

01:12:42,400	And those things include, um, let’s trade secret proprietary, commercial and financial information. Those are confidential. If they are of a privileged nature and it has not been previously publicly disclosed. So if there’s a trade secret by a company or proprietary information by a software company, the city employee could not disclose those.

01:13:09,830	And there are penalties if an employee or an official knowingly, discloses that information and that’s contained in title 12.1, um, there are other exemptions, including location of or potential locations of prospective businesses. Um, so I’m not sure where these cities are or what they’re doing with the non-disclosure agreements.

01:13:36,630	They I don’t know that that’s a great idea, actually, because there are open records, except for the things that need to be remain confidential. So those are already contained within the Constitution and the Sentry Code. So our expectation is we would follow the law. Um. Well, both the Electeds and the, the staff and I, I’m confident we are. Well, and I really appreciate that. Like I said, it’s good education.

01:14:04,030	A lot of smaller communities don’t have the staff that we do. It’s good that we tape it. So when these questions arise, some of these discussions, especially around things like data centers, they’re getting highly controversial. So it’s good that we have something to where we can reference this because these are recorded. So I appreciate your time on. It..

01:14:20,100	I absolutely and I would just like to say for everybody, the Attorney General’s office puts out an open meetings manual and an open meetings or open records manual. Those are available online. I refer to them all the time. I quoted from them in here.

01:14:37,430	So I would also refer the smaller communities. Anybody can access those and likely call the Attorney General’s office. If there are questions. Commissioner Risch, um, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, thank you. Commissioner Connelly.

01:14:58,100	It was the Harwood event with the data center that really brought this to light, and it was people saying, wait a minute, you’re going out there and discussing these things and you’re signing non-disclosure agreements. It actually really undermines people’s faith in government. So I’m going to go on a record and say, I won’t sign one. I don’t care when or what. I won’t sign a nondisclosure agreement. That means I don’t get the information. Fine and dandy. I appreciate that, Commissioner Risch.

01:15:19,000	And whenever I talk, whether it’s on the radio or other, I say it’s in my opinion, but I concur. I won’t be signing any either. Um, so. Okay, is there anything else to this? I think I think we’re, we’re in shape and practicing appropriately as it was. So, um, there are two other business at this point in time.

01:15:40,230	Does anyone have other business? I do, but does anyone else? Uh, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, I was just going to mention I got another call yesterday about the flock cameras. There’s a lot of news articles around the country about some communities are putting in these flock cameras. They read license plates or even evolving to facial recognition and stuff.

01:16:00,570	And there’s a lot of blowback. And for anybody who’s watching this, I want to just assure them that the city of Bismarck does not have flock cameras. We don’t we don’t have them as a public entity.

01:16:14,900	But there are some businesses in Bismarck that do have flock cameras with at least license plate reader readers. So I just wanted to throw that out there. If anybody’s watching is concerned about all these articles, a number of articles I’ve read in last two weeks. So anyway. Commissioner Connelly. And to follow up on that, um, constitutionally, uh, the Constitution regulates the government. It’s not supposed to regulate private business.

01:16:37,770	Um, except for certain circumstances. So if private businesses are using them, that’s on them. But, um, me personally, in my opinion, I would not endorse them at our level. So. Okay. All right. Anybody else have other business? Okay.

01:16:58,100	I have one item and it’s because I think it’s, you know, it’s been hashed about it’s time to pull together and reconstitute a task force to address it. Uh, would be the street fee. Uh, we are we are in no way, shape or form ready to go forward with it. We need to do a lot more work.

01:17:13,800	And I would like to have the permission of this commission to establish a group of committee or task force to further and help, uh, engineering to develop what should be the fee, how it should be done.

01:17:29,930	And then not only that, but also educate and engage our community, because I think one of the things we’re missing is truly education and engagement. Uh, if it’s not something that can be done to replace repairs, uh, specials, that’s fine. But without having that engagement and, uh, seeking that, that, uh, feedback, we’re not going to get there one way or the other.

01:17:53,170	And so I would ask that this body give me the permission to establish that, and I already know of some people who have volunteered to do that and certainly will involve city staff, because they’ll have the numbers. But we need to make sure that it’s done right. If it’s if it’s done and we don’t, we are.

01:18:13,900	This is not something coming forward for a vote yet because it’s not ready. So it won’t be ready. Uh, hopefully it’s ready for the next not this coming election in November. But, you know, maybe the next two year cycle. Mr. mayor, we’ve been studying this for quite a while now, and. I know, but but it’s been put on the back burner and we need a refresher.

01:18:33,470	I understand. That, but it just it’s appealing to me because we could save millions of dollars in interest, all kinds of money and administrative costs, and it would just take away this uncertainty of people getting nailed with these high specialist assessments for street resurfacing. So I think it’s something we should pursue.

01:18:52,970	Um, and certainly you want me to I’ll make a motion that we allow the mayor to, uh, put together a committee to study it further and report back to the commission as necessary. Second. Any discussion Commissioner.

01:19:14,230	Connelly? Well, prior to being elected, I think most people are aware I sat in on every rate meeting, um, for the nearly decade, isn’t it? We’re worried about. A decade. We’re about a decade now. Um, the only thing the difference is, is that, um, as a citizen, prior to 2008, you didn’t get to speak, um, where now you do. Um, so we might get some, um, benefit to that. Maybe we don’t.

01:19:34,130	Um, but I agree, I, I appreciate the fact because this would be a huge swing and to try to put the fairness into it to where people could understand it. And one area that I think would stand to benefit that didn’t come up in previous discussions. I mentioned it lately a couple of times.

01:19:52,630	Is, um, when Colonial Estates started seeing they’re at one of many um, there were bought out by corporate companies and all of a sudden their lot rent went up significantly. One of the reasons for the increase of those initial rents was always the specials around the surrounding area. Well, the rents always go up.

01:20:12,500	They never go down. Once the specials paid off. So if there was a a utility rate fee and the one thrown around, say, of $30, that’s a tangible number. And they could have any reason for raising those rates. But they you can’t really blame it on a assessment or anything at that rate.

01:20:34,500	And we have some very difficult questions when it comes to how do we get to I don’t even know if the term affordable housing without subsidy exists, but attainable housing, because a lot of people are out there struggling. So I think that has some merit in the conversation. Agreed. Okay. So I have a first and a second.

01:20:52,200	Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, I’ll call roll. Commissioner Doll? Yes. Commissioner Connelly. Yes, Commissioner. Hull. Yes. Commissioner. Risch. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. If no one else has any other business, we are