00:00:07,300	You have a chaplain? Please. Thank you. My name is Bruce Bruce Collis. I serve as one of the chaplains for the Bismarck Police Department. And on behalf of Crisis Care Chaplaincy. Thank you for allowing us to open this meeting in prayer.

00:00:33,000	If you are able, I’d like to have you stand with me for the prayer and also for the Pledge of Allegiance. Heavenly father, thank you for this day and 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.

00:00:53,230	Grant safety and strength for farmers and others as harvest continues. And we thank you, of course, for the recent rains. Thank you for the privilege of living in this county of Burleigh and in this great state. Thank you for the many blessings and opportunities that this local county offers for our families and each of us who live here.

00:01:11,300	I pray today for the commissioners gathered here that guide the affairs of the county. Thank you for the citizens who’ve come also. And I ask that your spirit guide the discussions and decisions, many of which are not easy, that they would prove to be in the best interests of all the citizens.

00:01:28,370	Thank you for the freedom citizens have to speak up and be heard, and I 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.

00:01:50,730	Our sheriff, his staff, other law enforcement, firefighters, EMS workers, dispatch, health care workers, and others. Please protect them in their line of duty so that they might protect those of us who have placed our trust in them. Help them to be resilient as they deal with their own emotions when facing impossibly sad and heartwrenching situations. Grant them wisdom and peace.

00:02:11,330	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 us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let’s 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.

00:02:33,600	Thank you. You’re welcome. We’ll call the August 17th, 2026 meeting of the Burleigh County Park Board to order. First item is roll call of members. Commissioner Herman here Woodcox. Here. Munson here. Bakken here. Schwab. Behm here. Chairman. Bitner here. Next is the approval of the agenda. Um.

00:03:07,870	Mister chair, Commissioner, I had asked Auditor Splonskowski to swap A and B, uh, before the packet came out, but I see it’s it’s not been swapped, so I would like to move to approve the agenda with A and B, uh, swapped, please. Can we approve the amended? Yes. Second. Okay. We have a motion. And second, any further discussion. Call the roll. Commissioner Woodcox. Yes. Munson. Yes. Bakken. Yes.

00:03:33,970	Schwab. Behm. Yes. Herman. Yes. Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Consideration of August 3rd, 2026. Meeting minutes moved to approve. Is there. A second? Second? Motion and second to approve the meeting minutes. Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Munson. Yes. Bakken. Yes. Schwab. Yes, ma’am. Yes. Herman. Yes. Woodcox. Yes. Chairman. Bitner.

00:04:02,200	Yes. Motion carries. Next item is public comment on this restricted to Burleigh county residents, landowners. Um, does anybody wish to speak to the Burleigh County Park Board? Once again, this is public comment. Anybody wish to speak? Public comment.

00:04:27,930	Anybody wish to speak? Seeing none, I’ll close the public comment period and move into Commissioner Munson seven B thank you, Mister Chair. Um, we had the opportunity to interview, uh, a couple candidates for the new hybrid parks and Highway Department employee. Uh, we have had some really good interviews through that process. Uh, today I’m in.

00:04:51,900	I’m before you to ask for an increase from step five to a step eight for the prospective employee that we selected. Uh, he he currently has the CDL license, uh, which is going to be very helpful for him on the highway department side. Uh, he doesn’t need it for the park board side, but he certainly would be a benefit, uh, if we were able to hire him, uh, for that hybrid position.

00:05:13,300	Our guest is he’s going to work 60% of his time for the highway and 40% for the park. So it does make good sense to add a CDL driver to to our employees. So with that, I would move to move to approve the employment offer to a step eight. Second for discussion.

00:05:33,530	Okay. I have a motion and a second for discussion. Commissioner. Uh, hang on, hang on. Steve. Steve. Schwab. What are we talking about? Wages. Uh, what is the wage? If memory serves me correctly, it’s about a buck and a half difference per hour. Um. I mean, the total wage.

00:06:01,770	Um. If Pam is here, I’d have to ask her for that help. Come on up, then. Uh, good evening, commissioners. Mister chairman, I’m just looking at the step and scale system that we currently have published, and it looks like it would be, uh, this is last year’s 2026.

00:06:44,570	So a grade three, step five, which is what we can do before we go to a variance, would be a 25, 88 an hour. Nope. I take that back. 21.38 an hour. And a step eight would be 23. Just double checking my math here. 23.30 an hour. So 21.38 versus 23.30 an hour. So almost dollar 92. How does that.

00:07:17,100	Well, you’re up there, Dan. How does that, um, relate to hiring a highway department employee with the same kind of. So, um, expectations or or. Commissioner, Mister chairman.

00:07:39,730	Um, so we we grade out our highway maintenance worker twos with a CDL at a a grade five, and the highest we would start with them would be a step. Step five. Um, which would be a 25, 88, but, um, depends on experience and things like that. So the bottom of that would be step eight would be comparable to the bottom of our step five or our grade five range. So that one would be 23.32.

00:07:59,900	An hour would be a step one. Okay. So it would be comparable to a starting brand new, no experience highway maintenance worker. Okay. That’s that’s what I was asking. Yeah. Okay. Commissioner Bakken, you had some. Y’all answered my questions. Okay. I don’t think it’s enough. To keep him permanent. But he will get stepped up after six months. Yep. Yep.

00:08:33,930	So we’ll see what its performance is. But sure. That’s the lowest starting wage. Okay. For the. And I challenge Pam, and Desiree on this as well. But, uh, because of the part time parkside where he doesn’t require a CDL, when we wrote the the job description, uh, this was the highest that we could go without.

00:09:01,100	Obviously, board approval to the step eight. Okay. Any further discussion? Do we do we have a motion. And a motion to. Yep. And a second. Yep. Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Bakken. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Still think it’s too low? Yes. Commissioner Behm. Yes. Commissioner Herman. Yes. Commissioner Woodcox. Yes. Commissioner. Munson. Yes. Chairman. Bitner.

00:09:30,230	Yes. Motion carries. Next. The next item is the the reorganization of the Burleigh County Park Authority. Um, we have had this in front of us now for about two months. The plan. Uh, the thought processes. I did want to answer one of, uh, Chair Bitner questions.

00:09:50,370	Uh, last week when we talked, uh, in the budget I do have for the 26, 27 year, uh, the hybrid maintenance worker, which we just authorized to go to, uh, step, um, eight, uh, as well as a park district manager, just the two employees, actually, one and a half, if you will, for 27.

00:10:15,930	Uh, 28 would be the additional, if needed. That’s budgeting for next year. That will have to go through. With that, I think, chair, uh, Mr. Bakken and I have done a lot of work on this over the last year.

00:10:40,500	Uh, as we’re re-envisioning how things could work within our park district and within our, our organization. And with that, I would move to approve the second line of that, uh, motion would be to ask, uh, State’s attorney lawyer to have ready for us at our 1st September meeting. Uh, the proper, um, paperwork. Uh, and missing a word here. Uh, resolution, uh, for the Burleigh County Commission to approve. I’ll second for discussion.

00:11:10,970	Give me a motion and a second for discussion. Any further discussion? Commissioner Schwab? Number one. Burleigh County and legally have a park district. That’s state law. It’s not a park district. We’re not going to be taxing anything separate for it. Well, wait a minute. Based on actual. Conversation.

00:11:42,930	What? Hang on. Say again. He wants you to speak in your microphone. Yeah. I couldn’t hear, uh, state’s attorney, lawyer. I said the use of the word district is a misnomer, because it’s not like we’re going to be taxing separately for the park board district or this, uh, this new department that we’re

00:12:06,830	going to have. It’s not going to be something where we’re taxing them separately as a park district. Well, what concerns me here. Mill levy evaluation based on actual operational data from the first six months, determines the necessity necessary mill levy for the 2027 fiscal year to maintain service levels without relying on reserves.

00:12:39,170	This is similar to what Garrison Diversion does. We’re going to be collecting taxes. They’re going to tell us we need this. I don’t think we want want, uh, this is around. It’s a run around of of state law as far as I’m concerned.

00:13:04,630	And I don’t think we should have somebody out there in any kind of an organization that can come and say, well, we need so many mills, because if we don’t, we won’t make it through the year. So they’re technically what will happen is they’ll get the Mills. And the one thing about the park board in Bismarck. They got a cap. There’s no cap here. And it’s not a district.

00:13:29,200	Nope, it’s not a district. Well, then why is the district in here? That’s my question. This. This is going to be a group no different than this park board currently is the park board. Request the budget from Burleigh County Commission.

00:13:49,000	Burleigh County Commission approves and or adjusts as the Commission feels necessary to do so. Uh, the this authority has no right to tax the residents individually. It all goes through the Burleigh County Commission. But I’m not seeing any need money up the water here. I think that what we’re doing right now works just fine. Sure. Well. Yeah. Commissioner Bakken.

00:14:21,430	Well, part of the. I think the park board commission works just fine right now in against structure. I think what we need to do is set up for future growth of not only Missouri Valley Complex, but other opportunities for parks and recreation within Burleigh County. That’s what this is.

00:14:47,870	Taking a step in doing. Um, I would like to see the county Park Board as an authority remain the same in structure. Um, but, you know, your correct commissioner. Schwab in that district is a little confusing. And case Attorney Boyer is correct that it’s a misnomer.

00:15:19,130	That’s one of the reasons we’re looking at changing it to an authority rather than a district. Um, but this is going to set up the county park authority, if you will, for the future. And it’ll be a department just like every other department. Well, Commissioner Bakken, the way I see it, and I understand what you’re saying. What you’re saying.

00:15:50,730	But if you are, uh, really read between the lines here. County commission appointing authority for lay members and mill levy order site. That’s the role of the park district. That’s exactly what it says here. And. If they decide they’re going. To.

00:16:11,170	Know if they do a project, they have a big overrun because somebody made a mistake or whatever comes up. Uh, we need to raise the mill levy. You put up a horse arena, we need to raise the mill levy. Uh, yeah, I can’t go along with your audience. Yeah. So, Commissioner Schwab, you mentioned that there’s no cap where the Cap County Commission is. The cap in structure.

00:16:36,100	This remains the same as it is. So the county commission is the authority by which it is capped. It doesn’t go above and beyond anything that we dictate in the budget. If somebody does a project out there that has a cost overrun, we’re not on the hook for that.

00:16:53,830	That’s the project’s cost overrun, not ours. So we are the cap when it comes to the authority of funding for this department. Is, as we are now, right? I mean, we I don’t see a need to make any changes. Go ahead. Commissioner. I don’t know what I understand, Commissioner Bakken.

00:17:19,570	What you’re saying, but this is opening a door to things that can happen in the future, and I just can’t go along with it. And I have spent a lot of time. Trying to come up with ideas to get that fairground moving. And I have a bunch of them, and I think they’re going to work.

00:17:44,430	So the thing is, what it is, if we start combining things and we don’t have an independent fairground that’s going to that’s going to throw a monkey wrench in. I thought that maybe Chair Nicole would be here tonight. Is she. Could you come up? While she’s coming up? Uh, Mr. Schwab, go ahead. Can you tell me where in this document it says Park District? What page? Well, there’s several pages.

00:18:19,070	You can. You can start with, uh, page nine. Page seven. On. six on that. Okay. I see that air. Yep. Anyway, Kate, you’re the chair, right? Correct. Of the Missouri Valley complex. Yes, yes. Chair. Bitner. Commissioner Schwab. The Missouri River Complex Committee.

00:18:53,770	You know, I’ve been asked several people what direction would you take? And I think that you guys need direction, right? Because you’re kind of at a standstill. Yes. And that’s one of the agenda items that was discussed at our last meeting was to request from the Burleigh County Commission direction. And I’m aware of that.

00:19:20,970	So I guess you can go back to the recording of the meeting for all I’m going to say, it’s not really too much. I think what you should do. Is go talk to the Western Power Association. You’re just up the road. Yep. Okay. Find out the voltage of the lines running through there. How close can you build? The old setback used to be 50ft.

00:19:46,630	However, some of that stuff has changed on account of guys like me that have a defibrillator. Whatever it is. Because you don’t know how much land you’ve got until you do that, there may be federal guidelines now that you got to see 150ft away, you don’t know that. Then when that’s done.

00:20:09,000	That should come out of our plot. For approvals. Next meeting at the the, um. Planning and zoning. I finish. I’m sorry, commissioners, I think we’re kind of straying from the question here.

00:20:29,930	Or, you know, the the motion and the second in front of us was to do with the the makeup of the park board. I think we can work on those things under a, you know, a different discussion. But this is discussion about. The problem that I have. Commissioner been chair Bitner is that by combining these two with what I’m going to say, probably wouldn’t be the best. I would like to say what I want to say, and then.

00:20:52,270	Okay, well, I’m okay with that. Um, but can we be a little brief, you know. Then I think what you need to do is go out and do some soil testing. Everybody’s got planned for buildings, and nobody knows the kits of the soil.

00:21:12,970	Uh, you don’t even know if you can build the size building you want on this location. Then you need a map showing the elevations. You might be able to get that from the highway department, the city, or the architect. You need that. We’re throwing a package together here. You need to consolidate this information. And then. once you get here.

00:21:41,930	I think we’re way off topic here. I don’t know where we’re headed with this, but. I’m just about done. I’m just about done. And then when you’re done with all of that, I think what you should do is try to take this thing and let private enterprise do it.

00:22:04,370	And that there are people that invest in these kind of developments out there. So the reason I’m saying this is because if you throw the the fairground in with the parks, I don’t think that’s going to work very well.

00:22:28,430	But I can guarantee you there are groups out there that would that have lots of money that are looking for places to put it. Okay. And I think you win. I appreciate that input. Thank you. Commissioner. The question is Commissioner Bakken. Uh, this was for discussion. Uh, was my second for discussion, which I’m in favor of moving this plan forward because it does help give other entities direction out there.

00:22:55,630	Uh, it gives us more control as a county commission and a park authority or park board at the moment. Um, Commissioner Schwab brought up an interesting point, though. Um, Commissioner Munson has been working through this. Other people have been working through this.

00:23:14,100	This is the first time I’ve heard him bring up. He’s got a whole bunch of ideas and I haven’t heard him before. I. I would have loved to have heard some of his input, but are you sitting on these ideas? Are you. Yeah. Kind of keeping them under your hat so something doesn’t get done.

00:23:32,500	Because if something doesn’t get done, then why the hell do we own the property? Sell the damn thing, let a if. As much as I hate it, a data center go in there or something else, I don’t care. Sell the damn property. But we need to do something and this is a step forward.

00:23:48,430	Were you asking me if I was sitting on these ideas? Yes. First time I’ve heard them. The first time I’ve heard you bring up that I have a whole slew of ideas. Where have they been? Where have they been? All I do is sit down by computer run AI.

00:24:07,300	And I had time to do it. This is what I come up with. And then I threw in my experience with development. And here you are. You’re getting this presentation, and I’ll tell you it’s going to work. Okay. Um, would you repeat the motion? I didn’t write it down in detail. Motion is to approve the. Uh.

00:24:39,200	The reorganization of the Burleigh County Park Authority. Uh, and giving uh, state’s attorney lawyer. Uh, time between now and the next Burleigh County Commission meeting to come up with a resolution for the county boards approval. County commissioners approval. Okay. Any further discussion, Mr. Chairman? Commissioner, could we have this document that’s before us. Uh.

00:25:06,070	Purified so that we have one name for what we are, either Park District. Or board Park authority. That’s a good point. I don’t have an answer for you. I think that’s a starting point. Yeah, well, I did watch the last, uh, committee meeting, and you can go ahead and sit down.

00:25:31,230	Thank you. Um, I did watch last committee meeting, and there was some discussion about that relating to county park authority, and there’s apparently nothing in the law that allows that. So I don’t think that would be the name.

00:25:47,570	I don’t see the need to change the makeup of the county park board or to call it something different. I think that at one time, it’s my understanding that there was a. Um, citizen, you know, more citizens on that board. And for some reason, the commission stopped that and became the park board.

00:26:10,230	And I don’t have good historical information as to why, but I think that was kind of a flag there, right. Um, um, this board is responsible for the financial decisions and being elected people, obviously, you’re responsible to the elected people or I mean, to the electorate.

00:26:34,570	And I think that appointing people to do the work of the Park board, um, really dilutes that authority, and it makes it just too confusing. So those decisions ultimately really come to the county commission anyway. And so I don’t see a need to make any changes, any further discussion.

00:26:59,100	My, my broader look at this is getting more county individuals or, or, uh, residents involved in the park board or the park authority, whatever, with the final name is. And we will have to refer to, uh, statutory lawyer to determine if we can be a park authority. Uh, we chose Commissioner Bakken and I chose park authority more to make sure we weren’t confused with the a park district of the city of Bismarck.

00:27:19,970	Uh, or the current park board that we have structures. So the the idea of using park authority came into play during the conversations, which made good sense to me. It was a new it’s a new group. It’s a new thought process and a new way of doing things. And so I do support it.

00:27:41,330	I think it gives us, uh, more representation on the park authority, uh, from appointed residents within our community. The trouble we ran into, or I still see with the Missouri Valley complex, they really are. And how it was designed and how it was approved by this board or not.

00:28:04,270	This board, but the commission, they’re literally just a, um, a think tank of people that get together to talk about things that can change and can be approved. And they are my eyes and ears.

00:28:25,070	They bring those to me, I bring them to you in this situation, in my opinion, uh, those park board members would have operational duties, would have a, if you will, a park that is theirs to take care of, to make sure is operating correctly and and being monitored correctly, uh, gives more, gives more input from from our residents. And I think it’s good that we have more, uh, resident involvement. And this is what it this is this will give it. Any other discussion? Seeing none. Call the roll.

00:28:50,070	Commissioner. Schwab. No. Commissioner. Behm. Yes, Commissioner. Herman. No. Commissioner Woodcox. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Chairman. Bitner. No.. Motion carries.. What was the total. For? Three. Commissioner. Schwab. Now is the time. Can I add to that? Sure. Go ahead. All right. I want everybody to understand one thing.

00:29:19,430	The Civic Center in Bismarck has never made money. It’s been wrangled over here, wrangled over there. But they never made money. And what I said tonight is possible. Very possible. There are very wealthy people at once. One jumps in, they get their friends and come in.

00:29:47,370	And the thing about it is, what did the city of Bismarck after? How long has that civic center been there? They threw the towel in and they hired somebody from the outside, and they come in and they’re going to do $5 million with a repairs. So my idea is not that far off. It’s just got to be implicated. Okay. All right. Well, thanks for the input.

00:30:07,730	Any other business for the good of the county park board seeing none, we will adjourn the county park board. Thank you guys. Um. Thank you. And I will call the August 17th meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to order. First item is roll call the members. Commissioner Woodcox here. Commissioner Munson here. Commissioner Bakken here. Commissioner Schwab. Yo.

00:30:32,600	Chairman. Bitner here. Um, approval of the agenda. You can see we’re pretty short on agenda items here today. I’m going to add something under other business. There’s going to be a, uh, my understanding is we’re going to have a little discussion about finance. The finance department. Okay.

00:30:51,300	So that will be under other business. Any other anything else on the agenda? Yeah. Otherwise I’d entertain. A. Motion to approve second motion and a second to approve the agenda. Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Woodcox. Yes. Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries.

00:31:15,100	Um, consideration of the August 3rd, 2026 meeting. Bills meeting minutes and bills. Who had an opportunity to look at the bills? Commissioner Schwab. Yeah, they were right this time. Okay. So the minutes they look good to me and the bills.. Is that. A move to approve? Okay. Second motion, a second to approve the meeting minutes and bills. Any further discussion.

00:31:46,830	Call the roll. Commissioner Bakken. Yes. Yes. Schwab. Yes, sir. Yes or no to. You made the motion. Yes. Woodcox. Yes. Munson. Yes. Chair. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Um. Public comment. Anybody wish to speak under the public comment? Period. This is a public comment, period. Anybody wish to speak on up? State your name.

00:32:18,870	For the record, I think you fill in a little thing there. Sure. Yeah. Commissioners. Good afternoon. Uh, Mr. Chair, my name is Chase Dauenhauer. There’s a card that I need to fill out. You said. I usually there is. I’m not sure if it’s there now. Or not. Apologies. I didn’t see that, but, hey, I’m.

00:32:34,370	My name is Chase Dauenhauer. I’m here on behalf of Papa's Pumpkin Patch here in Bismarck. And I just wanted to, uh. I’ve been receiving some questions. I am the new owner of Papa’s Pumpkin Patch. I’m transitioning the pumpkin patch from Dave Pierce estates.

00:32:49,770	Uh, that partnership over to my land, which is just across the fence. Um, I’m on the north side or south side of Burnt Creek Loop and east side of Fernwood, or. Yeah, east side of Fernwood Drive. Um, a couple clarifying points.

00:33:06,670	Um, that that I’ve received questions on is that I’ve not, uh, you know, come to the Planning and Zoning Board or the county commission, um, in regards to obtaining the appropriate permits. And I just wanted to clarify that I do, uh, and did come in 2020 when I hosted the pumpkin patch, um, and went through the process to obtain a PUD, um, and worked through the ordinance, um, you know, as, as I, as I saw fits,

00:33:26,700	um, you know, went through the planning and zoning, everything was published within the newspaper. Um, and there was actually a specific request, uh, to keep people off of Fernwood Drive to mitigate the dust and the challenges that that the old pumpkin patch had previously.

00:33:44,300	So, uh, one of the clarifying points that I wanted to make is that we will be working with local landowners to put signs up and stage and direct them down River Road north on River road, turning onto Burnt Creek Loop.

00:34:01,370	And I have two approaches, um, one for my, my, uh, personal residence and then, uh, near, um, ultimately what I call my pasture land on the west side of the property, there’s a shared approach between me and my neighbor. Um, that has been there, um, for, for some time.

00:34:17,370	And that’s where people will enter into about a 15 acre parking lot, which is much larger, larger than the old, um, parking lot at Papa’s Pumpkin Patch. So that should reduce, and limit any traffic. Uh, concerns on Burnt Creek Loop there. It’s not a super heavily traveled road. There’s a lot of scenic folks. And coming out to, you know, jump on Misty Waters to go on their pontoon.

00:34:37,170	But, um, we’ll make sure that we have appropriate signage, enough room for people to access, uh, into the parking area and then find their parking spot so it doesn’t come, uh, you know, to a traffic jam there at that west approach. But I’ll stand for any questions if you have. I do have some documentation.

00:34:56,130	I wasn’t prepared to submit it today, but if if staff would like me to submit it, I’d be happy to submit a digital copy. Commissioners, you have any questions? Chase, I. Appreciate you coming. Up because. I’ve been receiving some. phone calls too. And you standing up there makes a big difference, and I appreciate that. Yes, sir.

00:35:14,100	Sounds like he pretty much answered the questions that you. Yep. You talked about. Yep. Mr. chairman. Commissioner Woodcox. I drove out there a couple of days ago, and you’re already doing a lot of work. And good luck. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. Three, three and a half weeks out.

00:35:27,600	We got a lot of work to do, but I appreciate your guys’s time. Have you got enough pumpkins? They’re coming. And it’s it’s been a good season. It’s been a good season. Wet early drying the drying the summer. And then the little bit of moisture we got now. So yes, it’s going to be a good season. Good. Perfect. Thank you. For.

00:35:41,600	The update I it. Hey any other public comment once again any public comment seeing none I’ll close the public comment period and we’ll move on to the consent agenda. We got abatements authorization to public. We publish the week cutting notice 2026 Q2 Investment Report and check replacements. To. Second no motion and. Second to approve. Um.

00:36:07,600	I just have one comment to make on that weed cutting notice. Um. You know, I think I’ve mentioned before, but I’ll just mention it again on my land that abuts the county road system, uh, the county built the road up and made the slopes too steep. for any of my mowers to mow.

00:36:30,530	And so, just for clarification, I’m not going to go out there and and mow according to this notice, because the county made it. So it can’t. We’ll be checking. I know you will. I know you will. Lock and load. Um. All right. Uh, any other discussion? I seconded, I think. Yep. Commissioner Schwab yes. Comm. Woodcox. Yes. Commissioner. Munson. Yes, Commissioner.

00:36:57,200	Morgan. Yes, chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries designation of delegate to the annual North Dakota Association of Counties conference. Mr. chair, I’d ask to put that on the agenda or I’ve talked to Mary about it, actually, that I had it. I am attending that conference, and typically at this meeting we elect a delegate.

00:37:20,130	And in the past, I know we’ve always asked or Missy Hanson has actually requested to be. So I guess I’ll turn it over to Mary. And if you’ve had a conversation with miss here or not, I don’t know. I have not, but I would be willing to be the delegate if the Commission wishes.

00:37:38,800	I would. I would move to approve Mary to be the delegate. Second motion, and a second to appoint Mary as a delegate to the north coast of the North Dakota Association of Counties Conference. Any further discussion? Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yeah, I. Think so. Moving forward, now that Mary’s in the role. Of. Um. Our.

00:38:03,370	County administrator, I think that’s a duty that, uh, going forward should fall on on that position as well. So just we don’t have to do anything about it now. But I just think for discussion purposes, um, that should be one of the duties of the county admission administrator.

00:38:28,970	Okay. Well, I thank you for the input. That makes sense. Um, any other discussion? Call roll. Commissioner Munson. Yes. Bakken. Yes. Schwab. Yes. Woodcox. Yes. Chair. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Next is other business. We’re added that finance discussion. Welcome. Taylor. Thank you. Well come on. Uh, good evening, chair Bitner and commissioners.

00:39:04,200	And I do apologize for not getting this in the agenda packet. This all kind of happened last minute, but I wanted to keep you all informed. Um, of the situation here. So I’ll kind of go through this quickly.

00:39:19,670	But essentially what happened is during the calculation of the 2025 mill levies, the value that was used to calculate those mill levies, um, inadvertently included mobile homes and in lieu of taxes, which are not real estate. Technically, they’re they’re taxed with the mill levy. You know, they get tax statements, but they’re not part of the valuation that is supposed to be used.

00:39:35,200	And that was verified with the tax department. And we’ve not historically used those. And so what that did was it ultimately resulted in us as Burleigh County taxing about 900,000 less than what was certified by all the taxing districts.

00:39:49,170	And that’s any taxing district with a mobile home would have been affected by that. Um, and, and this one thing to note, too, is that actually another district kind of discovered this discrepancy because what we had provided to them last year did not match what we had reported to the state. And so I did research that.

00:40:05,270	And what was reported to the state was correct in terms of it’s what we actually taxed. It’s still it wasn’t air we under taxed what they what they requested, but that was what actually made it onto the tax rolls.

00:40:21,830	And so with that information, including a letter that I’ll be sending out this week, they’ll have the information that they need to do their 2026 mill levies for the cap purposes, because they need the historical data for those. Um, I did contact the most significantly affected taxing districts and let them know, you know, we discussed it. Um, let them know the air, how it happened. And we kind of focused on how to prevent it in the future.

00:40:35,670	And so a few things we’re going to do is we’re going to resume setting out mill levy confirmation. So, you know, the districts, they all set their budgets, they certify levy to us. We do the max mill levy calculation. And now there’s actually that’s different than the 3% cap.

00:40:49,000	The 3% cap is technically on the taxing districts themselves to figure out. We just do the like statutory Max Mills you know school general fund is 60 things like that. And once we get those calculated we’re going to reach out to them and send out mill levy confirmations. That’s something we used to do.

00:41:01,130	Just so there’s one more chance for us to double check each other’s math. You know, make sure if there’s anything that seems odd that we can they can question it, potentially address it before the budget season is over.

00:41:14,470	Um, and then another thing that we’re going to implement is the year end reporting that we do, um, after tax statements go out, we’re going to do that before tax statements go out that way. We have a couple more reports to cross-reference. Make sure all the numbers match. Um, and then again, if there’s any discrepancy identified, we have a chance to correct that before tax statements are sent out.

00:41:28,530	Um, and then obviously, we’ve documented this. We actually had a meeting with some finance, um, staff, that’s all going to be in the auditor’s office that are going to be assisting with this process to make sure we have some additional procedures so that this won’t happen again.

00:41:42,900	So we’ve documented this because that’s really one of our struggles in the office is a lack of documentation. So we’re just documenting all of this to make sure that this is one of the things we double check going forward so that this issue doesn’t happen again. Um, but I have no action requested at any time. Again, I’ve left the significantly affected districts.

00:41:57,670	That’s Bismarck schools, Bismarck parks, Bismarck, um, city of Bismarck. Um, they had no follow ups for me at this time. They’re aware of it. They have they have a potential ability to recover some of that with their, um, caps, because technically, now, if they had raised to 3% last year, they didn’t actually,

00:42:11,070	because it’s based on what was taxed, not what they asked to be taxed, so they could potentially go higher than 3% this year. But obviously that’s up to their respective boards. They may choose or may not choose to use that unused levy.

00:42:24,230	And again, that’s not something we we have to deal with on our end. That’s that’s fully in their control. Um, but at this time I’ll stand for any questions. Commissioners, any questions for Taylor? I’m not seeing any questions. Mister chairman. I got a question on something else. How’s our state audit doing? And have they got a report back yet? No, we’re still working with Bailey to get everything done.

00:42:43,130	Things were a little messy, but we. I am in contact with the state auditors, and we’re hoping to get that process started soon. But they. Because we typically been at the beginning of their list, but they’re obviously, you know, they have a lot of audits to do.

00:42:55,070	And so we just moved to the back of their list essentially. So he did just reach out to let me know that they’re ready for us kind of in their schedule, because they moved us to the later end of their schedule this year. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any other business? For the good of Burleigh County. Seeing