00:00:06,530 S1: Good evening. It's 501. Like to call the Bismarck Burleigh Commission Committee to order. Uh, first item up. Roll call, please. 00:00:17,170 S2: Administrator Tomanek here. Here, Commissioner. Rish! Yes, here, Commissioner Balken here. 00:00:23,970 S1: Next item up. Public comment. Anyone wishing to speak on any of the items on the agenda, feel free to come up to the podium. Second call for public comment. 00:00:37,010 S1: Don't point fingers at each other. Third and final call for public comment. Third and final call for public comment. Hearing none. Public comment is now closed. Next item up. Approval of minutes. 00:00:50,850 S3: Move to approve. 00:00:53,170 S2: I'll second. 00:00:53,890 S1: Motion a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Call the roll, please. 00:00:58,910 S2: Auditor. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, Commissioner. Batkin. 00:01:02,630 S1: Yes. 00:01:03,110 S2: Administrator. 00:01:04,110 S3: Yes. 00:01:05,390 S1: Uh. Next item up. Uh, garrison diversion update from Burleigh County. Uh, County administrator. Mary, do you want to speak on this, or would you like me to. 00:01:17,030 S1: Either. 00:01:17,990 Or does it matter? S4: Yeah. I mean, there's not much to tell. It was denied. So until the county commission meets again, we have no updates. 00:01:23,750 S1: Yeah. There's no update until we meet as a full commission. So. 00:01:27,310 S5: Mr. Chairman, I put that on the agenda just because I was wondering what the status was. I know you you know the Burleigh County and I think it's 28 counties in total are involved with, uh, garrison diversion. And it was pretty amazing to me that the Garrison Diversion Board can just say, you can't pull out and you can come in, but you can never there's a song about hotel can't ever leave. Um, but, um, so the only other recourse then is to actually take garrison diversion to court and tell them you want to litigation. Correct. 00:02:02,330 S1: But that's a decision we have to make as a county commission as a whole. 00:02:06,610 S5: Right. But but it's an issue for Bismarck, because Bismarck residents make up a large part of the contributions that go to it. 00:02:12,810 S1: It's an issue for the entire state. I mean, in my opinion, they function as an NGO in North Dakota, and we know how NGOs function on a federal level, and their duties would be better consumed by the state Water Commission, in my opinion, because that would be better transparency and equal for taxpayers across the state of North Dakota to benefit from the projects. 00:02:35,850 S5: And their big projects is to take a 72 inch water line from the McClusky Canal to the Cheyenne River, which is great, but we in Burleigh County are not. 00:02:44,810 S1: Okay. So when was that project first initiated. 00:02:49,570 S5: The pipeline or the canal? 00:02:51,610 S1: Yeah, from the canal to get into the east. 00:02:54,170 S5: I'm not sure. 00:02:55,430 S1: Is it done yet? 00:02:56,590 S5: Oh, no. 00:02:57,390 S1: Exactly. 00:02:57,750 S5: It's 125. 00:02:58,750 S1: Mile. 00:02:59,030 S5: Long line. 00:02:59,830 S1: Yeah, exactly. 00:03:00,870 S5: Okay. Well, anyway, I was just. I brought it up. Um, Bismarck residents have a dog in this fight because it's a lot of money at stake, so I just. 00:03:09,190 S1: Yep. It's a mil. Um, next item up. Uh, so you're up. Mary. Uh, emergency operations center lease. 00:03:19,190 S4: No updates on that, either. From the city commission's last meeting until the county commission meets again on. Green. Lights on. Okay, green means go. 00:03:29,550 S1: Yeah. 00:03:30,110 S4: I don't want to eat it. So. Yeah. So no, no updates until the county commission meeting meets. 00:03:34,790 S1: Yeah. And we're waiting on attorneys. 00:03:36,630 S4: Mhm. 00:03:37,150 S1: Okay. 00:03:37,830 S4: Yes. 00:03:39,190 S1: Anything else on that item? 00:03:42,750 S5: Other than the city believes you're responsible for the full tab. So we just encourage you to head that direction. 00:03:50,950 S1: Uh, next item up is committee composition and meeting frequency. Uh, so one of the changes, um, and I'm fine with this being, um, at the expiration of, of Mark's term, uh, now that we have a county, uh, administrator, then that position will fall to the county administrator. 00:04:22,970 So, um, anybody have any concerns or comments over that? S6: Mayor Schmitz uh, Mayor Schmitz, my only comment is, I think when this was established, it would have been up to the county to make that decision, the commission to make the decision who the person besides the commissioner. 00:04:33,450 S1: I'm just apprizing the. So this committee. 00:04:35,970 S6: Just from a background standpoint, I think whatever your decision is, it's fine as long as there's two representatives. Yeah. 00:04:45,450 S3: Would the change take effect January? Yeah. 00:04:50,050 S1: At the end of, uh. 00:04:51,610 S3: How does the auditor's term works in November. 00:04:54,940 S1: Done. And it depends after the election. 00:04:57,020 S7: If I win the election as a county commissioner, I would have to resign from auditor before being sworn in as commissioner. If I lose in November, I would be auditor until April 1st, 2027. 00:05:07,580 S3: April. 00:05:08,100 S1: Okay. 00:05:08,940 S3: That's right, I. 00:05:10,340 S5: So when does the County commissioners take office? 00:05:13,580 S7: The first meeting of December. 00:05:15,100 S5: Okay. 00:05:18,540 S1: Um, the other thing I'd like to discuss concerning that item two is the frequency. Um, a lot of times we don't have a lot of things on the agenda. Uh, so whether this would be quarterly or twice a year where a lot of the value really lies is coming budgetary time. Um, so meeting monthly, I don't think, uh, serves a lot of purpose at this time, but I'm open for discussion. 00:05:48,460 S5: Well, I guess we should meet when we have things to discuss Overall. 00:05:52,120 S1: Well, and the big. 00:05:52,960 S5: Ones, if we just put it on there every month and we don't have anything to discuss, we just don't have a meeting. 00:05:58,760 S1: I think we'd be better served off quarterly from a transparency perspective, because people will know that that when that meeting is scheduled. Um, for me, the big time is when we start getting into budget discussions. Sure. And, and knowing what each municipality is doing when it comes to financing, because it's all the same pool of money, it's the same taxpayers in a lot of cases. Um, for citizens of Bismarck, um, that is the case. So, uh, where we can manage those funds in a more efficient way. I think that's where the opportunity for this committee really resides. 00:06:44,080 So any thoughts or inputs into that, or would you like to have that at a later discussion? S3: As long as we set a schedule that is out there for the public to understand, and we do have a regular cadence of things. We have other city boards that meet quarterly that don't have the need to meet monthly. Um, I'm fine with quarterly. I'm fine with the composition. However, the county chooses to provide two people. That matters not to me either. 00:07:05,340 S1: Why don't we start taking a look at strategically the best times to hold those quarterlies. Uh, as things are coming up, of course, probably two going into the budget, um, would be absolutes. So we can play with those dates and come back at this meeting later. 00:07:29,100 S1: Anything else on item number six? 00:07:33,900 S3: Would we be looking at for quarterly? Are we looking at January, April. Is it then August or July and October? Is that what you're thinking or. 00:07:43,620 S1: Yeah, probably just so we can start teeing up budget and then right before budget. Now the other thing is to. 00:07:51,760 S1: We don't have either on the city side or the county side, the ability to make decisions. We just bring things back to our board. 00:08:12,240 Does it make more sense if a function of this is full commissions twice a year? S1: I mean, this basically it's informational and a little bit of advisory board as it is. So if that was the function twice and then the full commission, one of those four or twice, two of those four, I think we're going to be better served. 00:08:28,280 S7: Commissioner. I ever since I became auditor, that's been a goal of mine. That's been a desire, I should say. I was auditor for only a few months. And we had a full commission meeting, both city and county, because I think we. 00:08:41,080 S1: Can accomplish something. 00:08:42,000 S7: Then I think it would be beneficial for at least once a year to have the full county and full city commissioners get together and just and just discuss things in an effort that always seems like it's failing to improve our relationship between the city and county. I would be up for at least one annual full city and county commission meeting. 00:09:09,260 S5: Well, would you know, would this commission meeting. Both commissions here? Could we actually take action at that meeting? I suppose we conceivably could. It's not. 00:09:19,820 S1: A well, if. 00:09:20,740 S5: Meeting. 00:09:21,020 S1: If we're going to have it, if we're going to have an agenda and it's posted out two weeks in advance. 00:09:25,140 S5: Yes, we should be. 00:09:25,940 S1: Able to things that are on that agenda. We can make decisions at that meeting. 00:09:30,860 S5: Okay. Well, why don't we try one a year full commission meeting, maybe do it just prior to the budget. No budget. 00:09:40,460 S1: Times. I would probably say two prior to the budget or like because the when we get down to crunch time on final budget budgets should be pretty much done by June, or at least have a good direction. So having one right before the budget doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because those things are pretty much locked in. 00:09:59,470 S7: What if we had it in that second quarter, that April, April meeting that way? 00:10:03,670 S1: It's yeah. 00:10:04,470 S7: 2 or 3 months removed from the final budget. But then we can we're teeing up. 00:10:08,550 S1: The next. 00:10:08,870 S7: Budget. 00:10:09,670 S1: Yeah, because you can't start too early on budgets. So Jason's your thoughts. 00:10:14,990 S3: Yeah, I I'm fine either way. Not being at that particular meeting. I'll be the staff to support that. I know in the past we have been fairly nimble and when a need to have a special meeting with both boards, we were able to pull that off to just by polling and finding availability. But I guess there is some dependability of having a set date where that meeting would be held. And as long as there are agreed upon topics for the commissioners to consider, I don't think it's a terrible thing to spend some time. 00:10:46,430 S7: Um, Actually, it might be good timing because I was going to put the 2027 calendar for consideration before the commission on Monday or next week's meeting. Um, so Jason, I don't know if you want to throw out some potential dates and I could just throw it to the full commission next week and get the ball rolling. That way if we add it on our schedule. It's right there, right. 00:11:06,890 S1: And everybody can look online and find those. Uh, why don't you two coordinate with, um, county administrator singer and we'll get those dates nailed down. 00:11:19,490 S3: I think what we'll start with typically where we struggle is the availability of this room with all the other groups and committees that are in here. So our office has the the master schedule for this room. So we'll look at dates that are available. And did I understand April was the preference. 00:11:36,850 S7: And that's and that's why I'm that's why I'm so far ahead of the game as far as the calendar being approved, because that's not necessary for a few months, but I know that in this room is becoming increasingly desirable. So. And booked. 00:11:53,710 S3: Okay, I will work with Whitney on our side of things to see what's available for April, and then hopefully come back with at least 2 or 3 possible dates, and then see what works best for both groups. And we'll just. 00:12:07,270 S1: Plug it in on that too. So awesome. Anything else on item six? No. Moving on to item number seven. Uh, City Planning and Zoning Commission composition update. 00:12:21,870 S1: So. 00:12:24,870 S1: As far as the planning and zoning and while there is still some ETA that remains, how do we manage that? Because not having a county commissioner on that. 00:12:42,830 S1: I get representation questions. 00:12:48,290 S3: I think our city attorney, Julie Meese, has some information where Century Code will guide us on this document. And if I'm if I recall, the century code requires three representatives from the county to who reside in the ETA to serve on the Planning and Zoning Commission. Um, without three willing persons to serve, those seats just remain empty and the quorum reduces. So instead of, I think, a full composition, it's. 11. I believe there's one individual that represents the ETA today, and I don't think the composition actually changes until October 1st, because that's when the new city Land Development code takes effect. 00:13:29,290 S1: Right. And going into this next session, because I've had a lot of conversations with, you know, what ETA should look like, as I'm sure you have as well. Um, if there's anything we need to put forth to be able to manage that better. From a representation perspective, I know there's legislators that are willing to carry that water for us. 00:13:53,780 S3: And I don't have any concerns with that, other than just to be mindful that of the residents that are in Burleigh County, 95% of those individuals will be removed from the ETA, correct? So that leaves a very small number of citizens. My only concern is that it would be commensurate with the percentage of people representing Burleigh County. So if 4% of Burleigh County's population lives in the ETA, I don't think there should be three people on the City Planning and Zoning Commission. That's. No that's not commensurate. I also don't this is just my preference of speaking as a former planner for this organization, I frankly have questions why an ETA representative would even have input on something that is not outside city limits. A zoning change in downtown Bismarck does have has very little, if any, impact on the ETA. 00:14:49,920 Why would those individuals need to have a vote on a situation like that? S1: And I agree on that because we ran into that quite a bit, um, with a couple individuals that were on that, um, planning and zoning at the time. So, um, there's just got to be a better pathway. 00:15:02,520 S3: Yep. And with the session coming forward, I think this could be a time to address it. 00:15:06,560 S1: Now is the time. 00:15:07,520 S3: I suspect when the ETA was created in the 70s, there probably wasn't the expectation that there would be a modified or a negotiated boundary. There was this four mile, okay, you got this huge area. You'll need all these residents. We are much different than that today. And I think I would hope to think that our legislators would be supportive of something. 00:15:27,840 S1: And the representation needs to be commensurate with what those numbers bear out. So. Absolutely. Uh, Mayor Schmitz. 00:15:33,880 S6: Yeah, my only one thought that I've had, and I don't know if this handles representation or not, but under the under the century code, it says three from the ETA doesn't reference a county commissioner. One thought I would have is if. If it would be desirous that the century code be amended to allow one of those three positions to be a county commissioner might make some sense. Quite frankly, one of those county commissioners very well probably lives within this within the city of Bismarck boundaries. In our particular case, there's 4 or 4 or five. 00:16:06,860 S1: We have three currently right now. 00:16:08,140 S6: So and so that might be something to think about. But then leaving the third, if there's only two, that's it. Then the third position just be as vacant because we can't fill it. We got to have a willing participant. Um three is certainly overrepresentation of the ETA, but that's what century code is. I have a hard time telling the citizens of Bismarck and Burleigh County that we shouldn't still have three representatives, potentially as long as they live within the ETA or if it's authorized, that a county commissioner who sits on the county commission could be one of those members that that would make sense to me. 00:16:44,560 S1: Yeah. One of my concerns are too, is if that number got down to 1% and you still have three members. 00:16:49,720 S6: But then but then we need legislative action. 00:16:51,960 S1: Yeah. Well, but now is the time to have it. 00:16:54,960 S6: I think it's a good discussion to have. And certainly I think we as a city and the county could get on the same page on that. 00:17:00,680 S1: Yeah. Because I think, uh, we could probably carry a little weight with the Bismarck caucus on that and getting something accomplished. 00:17:07,320 S5: So about what percentage of the overall population of Bismarck is in the ETA? If we included the a t a, is it even 1%? 00:17:17,160 S3: I, I don't have that number off. 00:17:18,680 S5: Very small. 00:17:19,280 S3: But it is a small percentage. Yes, we I suspect Daniel Aaron, our planning director, has that information. Um, maybe a question for the county. We at the city work very closely with the North Dakota League of Cities as we get ready for legislature. Are you guys working with the Association of Counties for this type of thing? So to Mayor Schmidt's comment, if we could come together on something that makes a little bit of sense. I think it would probably bode better in the session if we both agreed that this is a good idea. We bring it forward with the league and talk to our local representatives. You bring it forward with the Association of Counties and do your work. I think we're better together that way. I think we all agree that three is too many, but how do we get we can't change it without the help of the state. 00:18:01,940 S1: So yeah. And who those three are, it's like I still have a hard time not having a county commissioner. That would be part of that as well. 00:18:09,020 S5: So make more. 00:18:10,020 S1: Sense. It does. You know, if it was if we could get it down to two, you know, one at large, and if it were one resident, one. 00:18:18,140 S3: Rep and one county commissioner that serves on the Planning commission. 00:18:21,420 S1: To me that makes a lot. 00:18:22,140 S3: Of sense. 00:18:23,060 S1: Yeah. To me that makes a lot of sense. 00:18:24,660 S3: So because then you have representation from the residency, but you also have representation from the elected side of things as well. 00:18:31,540 S1: Um, do you want to start working on a draft of what that might look like with your planning. Um, we'll start doing the same and bring that back for conversation. 00:18:50,790 S3: Yes, we can, we can come back with some numbers and some draft language of what we could offer to the league. 00:18:58,550 S1: Ultimately, the legislature is going to have to carry that. So. 00:19:04,630 S1: Any other discussion with city Planning and Zoning commission composition. 00:19:11,550 S1: Moving on to other business. Is there any other business. 00:19:16,590 S3: So with this item now needing further follow up, are we planning to meet in October? Would there be other things that. Well, I'm guessing the. 00:19:25,790 S1: I would leave it scheduled. Okay. Um, if like some of the other meetings we don't have an agenda, then it would be canceled. But I wouldn't move. I wouldn't screw with the calendar for the rest of this year. 00:19:37,450 S3: Okay. Is Burleigh County planning to address the Emergency Operations Center lease? 00:19:42,770 S1: Uh, we're working on that with our attorney right now. So. 00:19:47,770 S1: Um, you mentioned something about city attorney on. 00:19:52,210 S3: I think I probably spoke for her in regard to the composition of the century code. I know she was ready to go. 00:20:00,570 S1: Yeah. 00:20:01,130 S3: But she didn't cut me off. So I think. 00:20:03,330 S1: Okay, perfect. 00:20:03,930 S3: Provided the. 00:20:04,650 S1: Did you have anything else to add or. 00:20:07,290 S8: No. Jason did a great job. 00:20:09,010 S1: Okay, awesome. Perfect. Uh, any other business hearing? None. We're adjourned.