00:00:16,000	It’s Tuesday, April 7th, when the Tom Baker Room of the City County building. This is the Bismarck Burleigh commissioners meeting. I will. It’s 4:00. I think I said that earlier. We’ll call the meeting order. If we can call roll. Administrator Tammany here. Auditor Splonskowski here. Mayor Schmitz here. Commissioner bacon. Here.

00:00:39,430	Okay. Everyone’s here. It is time for public comment. Anyone who wish to speak to an item at last month’s meeting or the agenda this month, please come forward. Seeing no one rising from their chair. And I don’t hear anyone online, I’ll just close public comment for this meeting.

00:01:03,630	Third item is consideration of approval of the minutes from last month. Moved to approve. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Roll. Auditor Splonskowski. Yes. Mayor. Schmitz. Yes. Commissioner Bakken. Yes. Administrator Tomanek. Yes. Next item is to receive an update on the Provident Life Building renovation project.

00:01:31,800	So we have timelines from our standpoint. So I don’t know who. I got you. Okay. Thank you. Everything is still on schedule. Um, it’s also on the Burleigh County website, the provident remodel. So you can watch the timeline, the pictures.

00:01:53,800	Um, we did meet with, Jason Timmons, and we will need one more year of lease rent for this facility, as well as one more year of the IT contract. And again, we’re still on track for the end of 2027 for completion. Okay, I guess that’s probably the reason we needed to know mostly is whether we are earlier than 2027 or or not. So I’m still on track.

00:02:11,270	Okay. Jason, do you have any questions? Commissioner Bakken? Any comments? No. Uh, construction is going great. Uh, we are going to start moving. And actually different agenda item, but we’re going to start moving. Uh, some departments over into the Provident building in the very near future.

00:02:36,370	So, uh, things are on track and, uh, appreciate the city of Bismarck’s latitude as we get settled. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that. Next is the Public Health 2027 budget discussion. Um, or it’s on the agenda because we have obviously the commonality of that.

00:02:56,370	Um, and we’re going into budget season as, as the county. So we’re just starting the process. I don’t know where the county sits and what their desires are. And so we can plan for public health on our side. I don’t know. If, uh, so as of right now. Uh, and without speaking for the entire commission, we’re still committed to the 25%.

00:03:19,970	I don’t see that number growing. Um, but, you know, if anything’s open up for discussion, so, uh, Commissioner Munson can bring that forward to the county commission. Uh, as we get into our budget process. But, um, to the best of my knowledge, we’re still committed to the 25% going forward.

00:03:41,500	All right. So basically the same as we are this year. Correct. Status quo. I’m looking back at public health. Any concerns with that or are you good with that, Renee. Thank you, Mayor Schmitz. Um, I am good with that. I can plan accordingly for budget for 2027.

00:04:07,600	It’s good to know, just for planning purposes, if you guys are still, um, wanting to look at your own health unit, that we can plan accordingly. But for now, we’ll put it in as 25%. Okay. All right. Thank you. Hey, Mark, can you make a note of that? Just, uh. Um, slide that in as a discussion point for our next commission meeting.

00:04:32,230	Yes, I’ll get that added. Thank you. Okay. All right. Item six is the Burleigh County Emergency Management building lease agreement. It’s on here, so I don’t know who’s leading this. Mary. So as we move forward with the provident remodel, some floors are being returned back to us in a month or so.

00:04:59,600	It is the intent for Burleigh County emergency management to move out of the facility on Coleman and into the county building. Um, DCN has been very gracious, very accommodating to us. Um, the original lease I know was signed and was for 20 years.

00:05:25,800	Um, again, our exit from that floor is simply to be with the county building and the remodel and our other departments, and off the city network and on the county network. So fifth floor is available. May 1st and sixth floor will be available mid-June. Around that time period is when we are looking at exiting the facility. The furnishings in the facility.

00:05:51,170	Um, there’s a lot of furnishings that were purchased for the 2020, um, completion date. And of course, some were purchased through grants. Our intent is if it’s mounted to the wall. So every investment we had in the technology, the restaurant system, the monitors, the wall mounted whiteboards, um, the amateur radio stuff, er, media, the Wi-Fi points, telephones, projectors, screens, all of

00:06:19,100	that would stay. If it’s mobile, we’re going to take it with us. And then, um, use it for a county EOC in the county building. Okay. A, I’m, I’m hearing you. So I don’t know if. Gary, do you have any thoughts? I’d like to share some comments. Thank you. Yep. That’s why we’re here.

00:06:54,230	Um, just, I suppose just to touch on just a couple of items, the, you know, as far as what’s portable, the, um, tables and chairs, for example, the. I’ll just talk about the tables and chairs.

00:07:15,100	They’re all purchased with 2017 Homeland Security grant funds, 100% funded, zero cost to the city, zero cost to the county. I have all the documentation illustrating that I’m the one who requested those dollars coordinated with the state. Um, Deb is sitting here. I’ve got the emails that illustrate that I’m the one who reached out to the state.

00:07:31,800	I’ve also got the email that explains the technical reason why the state opened up an existing county grant just out of convenience. So my my take on it is, um, to, to claim that, um, that equipment which has a purpose of that shared EOC.

00:07:54,600	And when you look at the, uh, the number of tables, chairs, whiteboards, and you look at even the cost share, you know, 75, 25, all of that, it just points to the fact that that equipment and supplies really belong to the city of Bismarck from a, um, from just a common sense, uh, perspective. You know, there is a technical issue. I’ve got the emails that, um.

00:08:19,270	And I’d be glad to even just I know Splonskowski is the only one here from the county, but, um. Hang on a second. So I’ve got this many emails that demonstrate that I’m the one who requested the funding.

00:08:47,500	The grant funding? That I’m the one who coordinated with Deb, who is sitting here, shared the information that she needed, provided all of that. The email communication from Deb is in here, that it explains why she opened up a Burleigh County grant. It had nothing to do with all this, um, you know, tables, chairs and whiteboards.

00:09:05,170	Being county property, I think to be blunt, I think it’s misleading to refer to it as county property. I saw the list that she shared. Um, I’ve got a breakout of the same list. Oh, and Bakken’s not here in person, but I’ll hand a copy here to Splonskowski.

00:09:40,270	So as far as those portable items that are highlighted in yellow, those are the ones I’m discussing, you know, that were again funded 100% 2017 Homeland Security Grant dollars. And again, I’ve got the the emails that demonstrate that not only am I the one who requested those, but I’m also the one who coordinated and requested meetings with Mary to get this stuff identified purchased.

00:09:58,530	Do all of the, um, requesting of quotes? Now, there is some equipment on here that is, you know, specifically purchased with Verde County funds that I’m not suggesting otherwise. But at the bottom of the list, it shows, for example, a total of 142,000 for the county.

00:10:20,970	When you take out the, uh, Homeland Security grant funds, which are 100%, not to mention that should actually be on the city side versus the county side. And then if you also eliminate the 32,000 in the home or the the additional grant funds for Ave equipment, you know, illustrates that the that those out of pocket expenses are

00:10:40,630	quite a bit lower. Same thing on the city side. Um, there’s, you know, showing a list there of some equipment that was purchased in 2020 at a total cost of 143, minus the grant funding. So that kind of illustrates a little bit of a little bit of that.

00:10:59,500	So I did share these same email communications with Jason. So he’s aware of some of the, um, efforts that went into it. Um, things that aren’t in there, you know, even when it came to, um, you know, as an example, even with the whiteboards that were purchased when they came in, you know, there’s a couple of them that are portable.

00:11:16,430	I’m the one who assembled them, brought them down. Um, when it comes to the tables, there was issues with them. I’m the one who coordinated with the fireside to come in and put lock washers on the bottom of every one of those tables.

00:11:31,070	So, again, all the effort from the beginning of that stuff to the end of it is just an example of, um, um, where, you know, the work and effort is by far I would estimate 90% of it, my work and maybe 10% on the county side just for the grant management part. So the grant flowed through the county.

00:11:52,630	That is that is correct. And I’ve got an in here in the email communication. I got a um, I’ll just pull it up and just read the statement real quick from that came from Deb Larcombe here. And that was both grounds.

00:12:21,000	Uh, well the, the um the grants for the AV equipment, those were pretty distinct. There was grant money that went to the city. There was grant money that went to the county so that that EV equipment is, is pretty distinct. But like Mary said, you know, they’re not interested in taking that because it’s mounted. And it would be difficult to take it.

00:12:35,530	Not only that, it would probably almost be worthless to take it, because you’d have to try to figure out how to reassemble it and make it work. And it’d probably be more, more cost than it would be worth to the county to to take that equipment.

00:12:48,170	But so basically it’s just a one paragraph thing. So I’ll just read it. Um, from Deb McComb to me with a CC to Mary. She says we don’t have enough funding for the AV system. She’s talking about a different grant. I’ll get back to you later today with a dollar amount.

00:13:03,730	For the rest, remember not to purchase before we award, and that you will need to get quotes for any purchases over ten grand. Again, this email is from Deb directly to me. Uh, CC to Mary. She says I will reopen the Burleigh County Award and add the funding into that and just have rocks.

00:13:21,800	Short for Roxanne issue an amended award. It has to do with the restrictions the feds have placed on us due to Covid. So basically it’s just an explanation that opening up the county grant was just out of convenience or what they what they needed to do at the state side to, to, um, help manage this grant.

00:13:42,170	So and again, there’s some work associated with grant management. So I’m not writing that off. But again, I’m just pointing out that, um, normal procedures would have put this grant for those for that for the portable, uh, tables, chairs and whiteboards, um, into the, into a city grant in normal, you know, in normal standard operating procedures.

00:14:07,270	But there was just an exception or a need to reopen the, the, um, you know, county grant and I don’t know, Deb, if you wanted to provide any additional comments on that, but that’s basically all I’m illustrating here is that from a common sense perspective, that stuff is. Um. All right.

00:14:33,370	Any questions? Go ahead. If you did anybody else I don’t at this point in time I am I’m just trying to understand. Commissioners or auditors. Yes. So, um, Mary, do you do you have this list as well? I’m not sure. I, I do have an equipment list of what was purchased through Burleigh County.

00:14:59,000	Again, I’m not negating that there were grant purchases. There is about there is 90 some thousand dollars in grant purchases. And what we’re leaving that we’re not taking with us also has that 90 K value. Okay.

00:15:18,730	And so yeah, one of the reasons I was asking that question is because I see that in the white portion here that looks like it belongs to Burleigh County. Um, some of these things are maybe things that we might not want to bring with us. We know. Yeah. If they’re mounted to the wall, they’re part of the technology. They’re the Wi-Fi access points, the monitors, all the whiteboards.

00:15:38,730	Our investment in the Creston system, anything for amateur radio, all of that stays. All of that technology stays. And so if that if those things are things that Burleigh County did indeed purchase, and both parties admit that they purchased them, maybe there could be some common ground to say, okay, we’re going to leave this amount of value in the

00:15:56,800	building that we in fact do own, and maybe we can come up with some sort of a trade agreement or, or some sort of a common, common denominator that we can both agree to. Is that something that might be a possibility? Absolutely, absolutely. Sit down at the table and talk it out.

00:16:14,800	Yeah. And our initial meeting with, uh, administrator was basically just to start the negotiation point, discuss, uh, what the exit point would be and how that’s going to affect both the city and the county. So just this is just high level struggle point, which, again, wasn’t right, wasn’t around when any of this happened.

00:16:43,170	But, you know, the the problem I am seeing or struggling with is all those mobile items that’s basically taken all those things out of the facility that the facility needs to run on, that we need still need to operate. And so I think we have to figure out a solution that at least accommodates us.

00:17:03,070	The city of Bismarck, in some fashion for that. Not saying all those tables per se, but my other struggle is and this is I’m going to look right at Gary. It’s like the grant was in the county’s name. I think that’s a problem for us. The city.

00:17:25,370	Well, and our intent is to we’ll sit down, negotiate and come up with something that is amenable for both sides. You know. If we can come down, I guess that’s my. Yeah, Commissioner, I think that’s my request is let can we figure out a happy solution or probably not. Everybody gets everything. They want to get to a happy solution.

00:17:44,530	That’s typically how things go, right? Everybody gives everybody takes a little bit. Um, but, you know, I don’t know what we need or don’t need from the city’s perspective. We probably have to still acquire something. I don’t know. I’m sure.

00:18:03,270	Mayor and committee members, when we met, we being Commissioner Bacon, uh, emergency manager Sanger and myself, um, where we left it, at least my understanding was kind of a next step. What I had put on my notes. Berkeley County was going to draft a proposal, and then we get the lawyers together. Julie Lawyer, Julie Meese, and go from there. Right.

00:18:23,230	So based on this information, you know, we’re we’re Gary’s at, um, knowing we’ve got some grant dollars here. Um, I think I heard from Gary and maybe I misunderstood. Although the grant was recorded to Burleigh County, it maybe not. It should not have been. If I get that. But you’ve got documentation.

00:18:41,100	Or it or it had to be. It’s just the way the master was. So which sticky note did you make those notes on? Jason? I’ve got six of them here. So. So that would be my request before you know. Then then I can come to the two commissions once. Once staff and arm wrestle with it. Well, yeah.

00:19:03,200	And we still have to get our attorneys together to, to kind of hash through the finer points of this. So this is on the agenda to kind of operational awareness so that everybody’s working towards the same page.

00:19:22,800	Uh, but, you know, with Julie’s schedule and your city attorney schedule, uh, I don’t believe they’ve had an opportunity to get together on on this yet. So. No. No, Commissioner, Bacon, the, uh, the victim witness fees, the coordination that was on your agenda last night. I believe that that topic predated this one.

00:19:41,630	So now that that right has been remedied, now we can probably add this one to the front burner for the attorneys to to take a look at. And I, I asked to have this on the agenda only because we initiated the conversation. And I thought in the spirit of having these regular monthly meetings and having something to talk about, this would be the appropriate place to bring the discussion.

00:19:57,300	Yeah, I have no problem with that. I just. Like very much. So it becomes our job as the joint committee to ask our staff now to move. next steps, next steps, and and move it forward and, and realize that, you know, I understand what Gary was saying.

00:20:14,100	I get that, you know, he may have led the grant process, but we have to follow the the legal path of things, too. And if we can negotiate, as long as we’re not violating a grant award by having equipment shift from one entity to another. You know, I think we have some flexibility.

00:20:31,330	Then, um, the question I have is, so I’m assuming you’ve dealt with the landlord as far as your lease, because the landlord’s not the city of Bismarck. As I, as I understand it. So just to update you, our lawyers, state’s attorney lawyer is reviewing the lease and this information. So, um, as of last night, she hasn’t had a chance to review it yet. Okay.

00:20:51,170	It’s it’s on her stack. Just wasn’t on the top. Okay. That’s fine. But you are correct. Near the the lease is between the building owner and the city of Bismarck. The city of Mandan and Burleigh County. All entities signed with the building owner, Dakota carrier network. So are they in separate leases or.

00:21:11,370	That one lease? One lease signed. Jointly with joint and several liability. Correct. Okay. So we have some more work to do. Yeah. It it’s kind of a mess, but we’ll sort through it. Okay. And DCN is aware that we will be exiting the facility. They have been they’ve known that for a few months.

00:21:32,970	I understand that, but I mean I think there’s still they still will they and their mind have a receivable from the county that they need to address somehow or on going forward, because a 20 year lease is a long lease, not 20 years into it. So, okay.

00:21:52,170	Well, I would suggest that we have this on the next monthly meeting as well. So at least we can stay abreast here. Does that make sense? Commissioner Bracken? Yes, absolutely. Okay. All right. Thank you Mary. Thank you. Gary. Is it okay? Yeah I.

00:22:12,700	I I’m glad to hear that you guys are going to sit down and work things out. But I do want to provide to you for the federal rules for disposition of equipment purchased with federal funding. Thank you. Um, so for for our standpoint, we’re mostly concerned with, with equipment that has a fair market value of 5000 or more.

00:22:41,870	Um, so if you do end up trying deciding to sell any of that equipment, um, if you sell it for more than 5000, there are some disposition rules that have to be followed. We have to inform the federal government that type of thing. Any item that’s has a fair market value under 5000.

00:22:59,370	The federal government essentially says that that’s yours, and you don’t have to provide any additional information to the federal government once you dispose of it. So, um, I just wanted to give you those rules so that as you guys are sitting down with your lawyers and talking it through, you have the information that you need.

00:23:15,470	What about equipment? That’s potentially abandoned? So so essentially what’s going to happen if you look at the disposition rules is that you have, um, you can transfer title of that equipment over to another, uh, federal or another government entity.

00:23:39,530	So Burleigh County, for the stuff that Burleigh County has that they’re going to abandon, essentially, as you’re saying. Um, they will just transfer title. They can transfer title to the city of Bismarck, assuming. Yeah, assuming the city of Bismarck wishes to assume. Right? Right. And then and vice versa. The stuff that City of Bismarck purchased, if they don’t want it, they can actually transfer it to.

00:23:56,300	At least the path forward on that. I mean, I guess that to me is maybe where some of the potential fair market value items exist, because once you get to tables and chairs piece by piece. They’re under that $5,000 value. Yep, yep. And so they’ve got age on them.

00:24:14,270	And so you used office furniture after it’s been put in the office for one day. Tends to drop in value. Oh just like a car right. Yeah. So okay. Okay. Any other questions for me. So your name for the record. Sorry. Debbie Larcombe. Thank you. You’re welcome. All right. Thank you.

00:24:32,900	Is there any other discussion on this topic? Hearing none. Then is there any other business for the good of this committee or commissions Committee? Um, chair, I do want to bring up one, uh, one piece that we’re kind of working towards on the county side, uh, out of

00:24:50,600	our meeting last night, uh, we kind of had to pivot a little bit, but, uh, discussion point being, uh, with UTV ordinances for Burleigh County, now we’re working through some, some issues that have arrived with private landowners and damage to the properties.

00:25:12,470	Uh, what that looks like the long term solution is actually getting the trail system in. So where we’re working with the state right now, and it’s a private group that is putting together a riding club for the purpose of tapping into state dollars for, uh, a trail system.

00:25:37,000	Uh, that trail system will be closed in to, uh, the city of Bismarck. So at some point, I think it would be best us to engage the city of where some of those trails may potentially be advantageous to traverse the city of Bismarck from north to south and going to the east, uh, as it lays in with that local system that we’re looking at putting in to Burleigh County.

00:26:02,100	Uh, bigger picture is the state needs to step up and establish a statewide trail system, but it’s that connectivity in close to Bismarck, where we’ve been having the problems. So there may be an opportunity to work with the city in the future of some of the places that the city may want to address.

00:26:23,500	Transferring the city with some sort of a trail system for, uh v ridership. Okay. Thank you. I think we can at least put it on our radar. Yep. We look forward to how you how you progress with your process. Thank you. Okay. Any other business? If not, we stand adjourned. Thank