00:00:02,900	Good afternoon. I have 2:00 on the 15th of June. We’re in the Tom Baker room of the city County building. This is the Bismarck event Center. Authority board. First order of business will be called the meeting to order. If we call roll, please. Members Gardner here. Grossman here. Kostelecky here. Tomanek present. Wachter here. Wilson. Here.

00:00:26,370	Mayor Schmitz here. Second item is public comment and public comments limited. Anything on the agenda, this meeting or the prior meeting? That is not a public hearing. We don’t really have public hearing items at this point in time. So anyone who wishes to speak, please come forward.

00:00:46,170	I’ll give it a second call. Is there anyone online? I don’t see anyone coming forward. I’ll close public comment period. Next item would be approval of the minutes from, uh, May 6th. Move to approve. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Roll. Grossman. Yes. Kostelecky. Yes. Tomanek. Yes. Walker. Yes. Wilson. Yes. Gardner. Yes. Mayor Schmitz.

00:01:23,730	Yes. Next item is the Event Center financial report. We’ll call upon Eric and I emailed him a question late, so I don’t know if he has my answer, but I. Did see your email. Mayor. Um, uh, I was meeting with Jason, so I caught it read towards the end, but we can address that.

00:01:42,770	Um, mayor, board members, um, late Friday afternoon, I sent out the financials to you all in email. Um, and I think the probably the most important thing to note, um, with these financial statements is that these are still on an interim basis.

00:02:04,770	Uh, we have yet to at the city to receive the May financials from avg. As they’re still trying to get their feet under them. With the month end closed process, the the reconciliation, get all those things up to us. And also tackling, uh, preparing a 2027 budget for the budget committee to review this week or next week.

00:02:24,730	I don’t remember when we have them scheduled to come meet with us, but, um, so they got a lot going on. And so we’re still trying to hit our stride on what that looks like.

00:02:40,930	Um, Brad has assured us that we will have it by the end of June, and then we’ll continue to work at making sure I can uphold my promise of telling you that we can have complete financials by moving this meeting to the third week of the month.

00:03:06,030	Um, so but looking at the the financials, you’ll notice, um, looking at, um, sort of a current assets, first and foremost, we went from about 657,000 of a positive number to about 233,000 negative. Um, there again, that is because we don’t have a lot of the information yet from OPG. A lot of those transactions through the month of May are no longer being recognized on the city’s books until we get that information.

00:03:22,630	So we still had some expenditures going out, um, through the course of May, but we don’t have any of the revenue information coming back yet from those events. The the North Dakota Petroleum Council and there’s a Michael Smith event at the beginning earlier in the month, too.

00:03:40,230	So there will be some revenue recognition that’s coming back to the city. Um, we just don’t have that information yet. Um, if you look at the second page, the income statement, um, this is kind of, again, where you’re going to notice a lot of the change.

00:04:04,270	Um, our net operating loss, uh, excuse me, operating income went from about 343,000 to the positive at the end of April. We are down to about 485, 486,000. An operating loss at this point, which is roughly about 800 and 30,000 or so, um, of a big it’s a big swing. So of that there’s really four primary transactions that took place in the month of May that’s going to reflect what this is.

00:04:31,030	Um, annually, all of our non general fund funds in the city, um, provide a cost allocation to help support the general fund. That property tax just isn’t enough to cover, um, the event center being an enterprise fund. Um, they help to contribute to support the administrative functions like HR, legal admin and finance. And it primarily those areas.

00:04:52,300	Um, we have a cost calculation that we figure based on amount of time spent by, um, administrative and legal staff supporting some of these funds. Transaction counts that take place from a financial aspect in our ERP, as well as a number of devices and supported technologies that are in each of these funds.

00:05:15,970	Um, those all play into a part to help support the general fund. Um, for all of our activities, for our non generating general fund, people that are helping to support these activities, whether it’s at the event center or the airport or any of the public works facilities. Um, so they’re part of that.

00:05:32,370	That number for them is $319,800 or so. Um, for their contribution to the general fund. In addition to that, um, with the transition to of the employees down, there are no longer city employees and they have a vested benefit of annual leave payout that equated to about $144,000.

00:06:01,170	And that covers about I think it’s about 19 or 20 FTEs that had accumulated leave balances that we had to pay out at the termination of their, um, city employment. Um, also occurring in May is our semiannual debt payment on the exhibit hall expansion.

00:06:25,800	Um, you’ll remember that, uh, every month, um, we set aside, we transfer money in from our lodging, liquor, food fund, and set a set aside for the semiannual debt payment in May. We make an interest only payment, and that number is just over 178,000. So that cash reserve balance does decrease a little bit in anticipation of the principal and interest payment taking place in November.

00:06:47,770	Um, we’ll continue to accumulate that and then it’ll zero out when we make that that principal payment. And then the last big thing that occurred in May is our annual pension contribution.

00:07:06,870	Um, for our city employees, that to our defined benefit plan for the city of Bismarck, that number, um, calculated all through actuarial purposes, is 177,750 or so. Um, now, that number going forward, um, seeing as there’s no more events that are employees, that number will start to phase out as a pension contribution for the city of Bismarck.

00:07:32,000	Um, because those employees that were vested, they’ll still be vested in our pension benefit, but they’re no longer accruing additional pension benefit. Um, I should also note on the first item, the administrative fee that’s paid for or paid to the general fund, I would anticipate that number to continually to decrease over the next couple of years, as the amount of general fund staff, time for employees, um, continues to

00:07:54,500	decrease as Brad and his staff, um, become way more involved, IT staff is going to be greatly diminished. The finance staff is going to be greatly diminished just based on the amount of transactions that we perform on a daily, weekly, monthly basis for the event center.

00:08:12,930	Um, they’re not going to disappear overnight, but they’re going to get greatly diminished in 2027 and again in 2028. And that’s really probably 2028. I was where I would expect it to sort of kind of bottom out.

00:08:32,830	Um, for what that contribution is back to the general fund because legal admin, um, finance to some degree, we’re still always going to be participants with the event center. Um. So I guess looking at the the income statement overall, um, the event center at the end of May preliminarily is at about a $450,000 operating loss for the year after we take into account those four large transactions that, um, only occur once a year.

00:09:06,870	That really does answer the question. I was I mean, one of those is a one and done. Correct. I’m not going to refer um, would not be in the the payout. Of annually. Yep. And the pension numbers should go down dramatically. Correct. Moving forward.

00:09:34,330	Ultimately diminish entirely so that helps me because I knew there was some one time charges coming through and then not not having any revenue to speak up help make sense. But I do think, um, as we move forward, I think seeing the current month activity instead of just the year to date, okay would be helpful.

00:09:53,900	So we can see what what it may look like compared to the rest of the year. But you’ve answered you answered all my I mean, those are the things that just jumped out of me. Okay. What’s what happened here? I figured we had some missing revenue still, but I realize we had all these things hitting in May.

00:10:11,000	Yeah. And and really, it’s kind of a perfect storm that we see all of these things happen in the month of May. Um, myself and my staff are finishing up our annual audit and and writing the act for. And so I have some staff that started to have some time on hand.

00:10:32,900	So we actually got the annual administrative fee and the pension contributions taken care of in the same month. And typically that doesn’t happen. We usually will take care of one around March, and then we take care of one, usually around July or August. Um, as time allows. Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Walker. Yeah. Mayor. Board members.

00:10:54,770	Eric, I’m wondering, uh, would we wouldn’t it be better for us to consider establishing an accrual? So we’re accruing this on a monthly basis and then making the adjustment on an annual basis. That way there’s not such a huge hit in one month year. Are you referring to like the the annual contribution to the general fund as well as the pension contributions? Correct.

00:11:16,670	Yes. So we could look at doing something like that. Um, however, generally it’s a it’s a one time calculation that, that we prepare and we have that and it goes through the budget process and, and everything else.

00:11:34,100	So for us to to go through and do it on a month by month basis, yes, that would help to level it out over the course of a year. But that also in turn means instead of my staff processing one thing one time a year, we’re going to do two things 12 times a year, and it starts to create some more inefficiencies and some more bottlenecks than some of our other stuff.

00:11:51,370	But if that’s something that we want to look at doing, we can certainly look into it to see if that makes more sense. If we’re go ahead. If we’re going to do an accrual, can’t we just come up with a a repeating amount amount every month with an adjustment one time adjustment in the 12th month? I would

00:12:09,000	think that that would be pretty easy to do, and it would give us more accurate financial statements. Would it not? It would. I mean, I, I don’t know if you know, from a total City-Wide Financial statements, if that’s how complicated that would be across all departments, or if we could

00:12:27,770	just do it. I think because this board is going to be specifically focused on the event center, and it’s, um, it’s the one enterprise fund that is got a board looking over it. If it could do its own accrual, at least for the presentation here.

00:12:47,600	And you just take we could just take these numbers here for 2020. Six, excluding the the the compensation payout. And probably just divide those out by 12 would be a start number for us. As you know, just an accrual for the administrative charges. And you don’t have to necessarily break it out between pension and administration.

00:13:13,630	Then I think it would be more reflective of what is really going on. I don’t know how that impacts the entirety of the, you know, the rest of the city or not or it’s a question for you, maybe a question for your incoming new director. Yeah. It’s something we will I’ll definitely look into.

00:13:30,700	And, uh, we’ll talk to Ryan to see what his thoughts are and, and trying to get a smoothing effect for, for some of these larger costs. Any other questions? Mayor. Nothing specific to this other than I was told. They’re having a hard time hearing you. Maybe pull your mic a little bit closer.

00:13:53,600	Well, I think it was off the first go around. Might have been it to. Okay. Anything else? So, Eric, just to be just a point of clarification. So there’s still revenue to be recognized for the month of May. Yes.

00:14:13,430	So over is they have their own set of financials that are going on down there on a day to day basis where, um, through their operating account, they’re, they’re paying vendors, they’re bringing in ticket money, they’re bringing in, um, revenue from various aspects of those things. What we’re looking for from them is they’re going to essentially prepare information similar to what I give you guys.

00:14:34,000	And we’re going to import it into our ERP system with the things that we have from a city level that take place and merge all of that together for one set of financial presentation to you guys.

00:14:52,370	And so any of those events that they have, um, taken place through the month of May, I don’t have any of that financial information today, whether it’s revenues, expenses, um, any of those types of things. I. One thing to note to when you’re looking at the balance sheet, the I don’t have an update of customer deposits.

00:15:07,830	And so the number that I still am presenting to you is April 30th, because I don’t know what they’ve brought in for for ticket revenue or rental deposits from May 1st through May 31st, and so that that will be part of the package we get from them to, to update of how much cash on their reconciled bank balance do they have versus how much of it is tied

00:15:25,670	up in customer deposits as well. So there’s revenue and expenses that have not been recognized. Yet because they’re they’re processing their payroll, paying the vendors and the suppliers and as well as the promoters that had had come in, um, to put on the various events.

00:15:45,230	So then will we get new financials at our next meeting that shows the correct May and hopefully the correct June? I sure hope so. Okay. At a minimum, I know why we’ll have May for you I okay, I’m very hopeful that I will have June.

00:16:02,700	And essentially I’ll give you two sets of financial information and then be able to incorporate what the mayor is looking for for month to date, and then is also year to date. So you’ll be able to see essentially the April that I prepared for you guys.

00:16:22,100	Um, for a few weeks ago and then have updated May and then have an updated June, and you’ll be able to see those months transition along with the year to date balances. Okay. Thanks, Eric. Yep. Other questions. We are still a work in progress here, and we know that, um, we should probably receive the preliminary statements, although we know they’re not even probably close to accurate. Yeah. I would move to receive these. Second., any further discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Kostelecky. Yes. Tomanek. Yes. Walker.

00:16:58,870	Yes. Wilson. Yes. Gardner. Yes. Grossman. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. So next item is. It’s a process still in the works, I would say, but we did. As a reminder, I put out there for the key performance indicators.

00:17:18,830	I, I know, uh, Chad has submitted his comments that I forwarded to Jason. Um, but I don’t know if anybody is taking time to kind of think of how they would like to see those weighted or any other comments. Um, certainly we don’t need a decision today, but I just want to keep it out there too, so we don’t forget about it.

00:17:36,430	Um, because by September, I would like to have us finalize that at a minimum. So. Um, I didn’t really have an exact idea on percentage other than I. I would give customer service a much lower than the other ones.

00:17:57,770	And, and just kind of my opinion, I’m not sure if the others should be equal. Um, event mix I think, is going to be driven somewhat by the other ones, but that’s just kind of my thoughts. Chad, I know you had you sent me a nice memo. So yeah.

00:18:13,870	So I’ll just share what I’ll share with the board what I came up with. Um, I came up with the, uh, estimated economic impact at 25% financial performance. Uh, our net income at 25%. Wait. Event mix optimization, 20%. Financial performance, which is our gross revenue at 15%. And customer service survey results at 15%.

00:18:48,300	I’ve got a bunch of notes that I’d be willing to share with the with the board, that kind of outlines everything. And and I personally ranked it not completely dissimilar to where Chad was, but I, I put 25% on each of the following three financial performance, the gross revenue, the net income per financial performance, and economic

00:19:12,370	impact. Because I feel those three are going to be the drivers. And then I put 15% to event mix and 10% to the survey results. Not because I don’t think they’re important. I do think they are important.

00:19:33,300	But until we kind of see how those customer survey results are being gathered, and so we can actually interpret them or someone can interpret them, it’s hard to know for sure, but that so I’m not dissimilar from where Chad was. I could land on either one of those. By the way. Did mine. Were very close to yours, mayor. With those top three.

00:19:53,430	Um, and then it just comes down to what percentage do we have left? Is it 15 for event mix or is it ten for event mix? But either way, I would agree. Customer service is probably the lowest of the factors for me.

00:20:10,700	And if it’s 10% or 15%, I don’t think it’s going to sway one way over the other. Um, but I would agree with the others that an estimated economic impact, uh, and then net income and gross revenue, both on the financial performance, are my top three for sure. As a customer, I think customer service should be like 82%. Probably.

00:20:33,500	I’m good with I’m good with the mix that Chad came up with, actually, um, I think event mix optimization, I’d struggle with having that be lower than the two primary economic ones, just because I think it’s nice to have more of a looking forward metric.

00:20:50,270	In my mind, that was kind of more of a forward looking as opposed to what did we do last quarter or last year or whatever. But it’s a knit. I don’t I think Chad did a good job putting those percentages together. I’d be happy with that. And just my opinion. Um, I had it maybe a little closer to Chad’s. I actually had event mix optimization pretty high. Um, because obviously these are going to change over time.

00:21:09,370	Um, as we get into this, we’d like to see obviously more events, bigger events come as those more events, bigger events come than maybe that will change. And so I actually had the event mix optimization at 40%.

00:21:24,530	Um, the gross revenue at ten, because I think in my mind the event mix will drive that gross revenue and then financial performance. I had a 20 economic impact. I had a 20 in customer service. I had also had ten. Again, those are just my opinions. Um, my rankings were very similar to Chad’s as well.

00:21:48,770	Um, I do feel like customer service results would follow along with the business results. So if the net income is being maximized, there’s probably good customer service. So I did rank net income and economic impact as my two highest drivers. The gross revenue and event mix were equal, but very similar to what Chad had thrown out. So feel really good with that as well.

00:22:11,200	So maybe I would ask if everybody would just email Jason the Or or Whitnie. Maybe I’ll make it a be Whitney’s job. Uh, your your rating weighting and then come up with an average out of that. We can. And see what that looks like.

00:22:32,270	And if that seems to meet everybody’s kind of I don’t think we’re we’re all that far off, you know, maybe here and there on the between the top line revenue and the event mix. And I can go either way on those. I mean, I think they’re both going to be the ones going to drive the other and vice versa.

00:22:49,600	Help me remember, members, are we looking at these annually or are we going to set this once and set it and forget it? I would hope we’re going to review them annually because that was just. That was my recollection that we were and and you had mentioned it to Joel. So. Okay. Good.

00:23:09,870	So we then we can look at it in July. And if we think we’re comfortable, we can make that as the plan for what we’re using for 27. Because we really won’t use it much for 26. Okay. All right then moving on. Mission and visions. That’s not still there, is it? Yeah, I think you’re right.

00:23:35,600	But we had okay. Yep. Mission and vision statement discussion I guess. I’m not sure where we’re at on that. So. Uh, we’re an authority board members of the last meeting.

00:23:57,500	We I think we were really close, and, uh, it was, uh, member Kostelecky that had come up with kind of summarizing that last collection of thoughts for the shortened mission statement. But then the the vision statement. And I think this was kind of closer to where we originally started with Member Walker’s recommendations, we agreed the vision statement should be lofty and a little bigger, and the mission statement should be fairly succinct and just kind

00:24:15,330	of touching on the the four pieces that were there. So I went back and listened to the discussion from the last meeting. What’s in the packet is my recollection, but by no means is this intended to be the final version.

00:24:29,970	This is just to continue the conversation until we get to the point where we think we know what we want to say. So I have no ownership in this. Um, we’re we’re all still working on this one together. So. I think they both look pretty good. I like option one slightly better. I agree with Sherry.

00:25:07,900	I think the mission statement short, succinct to the point what we’re here to do, and I also like the wording of option one a little better as well. I would concur. I agree as well. Option one. I think we have consensus. Okay. We can probably just why don’t we have a motion to adopt those.

00:25:34,600	Um, mayor, I would move to adopt the Bismarck Event Center. Authority board mission statement. And option one of the vision statement as presented in our packet. I would second. Any further discussion here. None will call roll. Member Walker. Yes. Wilson. Yes. Gardner. Yes. Grossman. Yes. Kostelecky. Yes. Tomanek. Yes. Mayor Schmitz.

00:26:04,470	Yes. Item seven. General managers report. Brad. You’re up. All right. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Mayor, authority board members, um, as, uh, Eric has had mentioned, we are still working on our financials for May.

00:26:44,030	Um, we’ve been very, very busy with the budget. Uh, spent a lot of time with that. Um, those May financials. We are in the process of completing them. They will be sent to overseas corporate office next week, and then we will have them available probably by the end of next week. Um, to be presented to, to this board and, uh, through, through Eric.

00:27:03,800	So working on that, I can report that the 17 events in the month of May, uh, that we had over the, over our, our three buildings, uh, net event operating income was $143,820. So that’s three events in the arena, four in the bell and ten in the exhibit hall.

00:27:31,570	So we will have individual panels for all of those events, and they will be part of that. Um, reporting process. Uh, when we had those completed. All right. Moving forward in our agenda, the first thing in your packet here is in regards to parking fees and rental rates. So they’re kind of together. They’re.

00:27:52,370	So I’ll, uh, I’ll just sense parking is the first thing on the agenda here. Um, if you look at the second page after the the rental rates. We’ve done a brief comparison of parking.

00:28:14,930	It’s on the far right hand column there of what? Regional buildings, similar to our size and structure do as far as parking? Uh, as you can see, uh, the monument charges $20 per parking space for their events. And that’s down below in the. And the start area. Uh, Billings Metro charges $10. They do have a couple of of free lots, but they charge $10 for parking at their events.

00:28:38,230	Uh, some of the local areas here, like Jamestown, does not. Minot does not. The Fargo Theater does not. The Fargo Dome charges $5 per parking spot. And then if you look at the Alaris Center, they charge $15 per parking spot. So this is more of an information gathering.

00:29:00,270	But I’d like to ask the board the permission to explore more about parking. Looking at the financial impact that it would bring to the facility, and also help with the management of the lots, and also the repair of the lots. Go ahead. Um, mayor authority board members Brad and I have talked about this, and Brad, I appreciate the information.

00:29:25,330	I appreciate the perspective. I don’t have a problem with it. I mean, I can recall days when there was a fee to park near the event center and it was a dollar. And at that time I worked in a retail shop just across the street.

00:29:40,830	And part of my job was to protect the three stalls that we had, because people were too cheap to pay a dollar to park for an event that they had at the arena.

00:29:58,830	And so I drift into thinking about what does this do to our neighbor, Kirkwood Mall? And Jen has said before that we don’t have enough parking to support a full blown event. And we know cars park at the Kirkwood Mall.

00:30:16,500	So what will this do to our neighbor? Would this open the door for the neighbor to consider charging for parking when there’s an event? Or does it push people beyond our lots where they’re then walking further because they’re free? Or do we have another opportunity here? And that’s for the Bismarck Parking Authority to start mentioning that parking in a ramp downtown before you walk to the arena for an event should be something people are considering.

00:30:31,400	If you’re going to a restaurant, if you’re going to a bar before the show, why not parking the ramp? It’s just about the same amount of distance you’re traveling one way or the other. So I think there’s an opportunity for more messaging on if we do to go to a fee for parking, which seems to be perhaps a missed opportunity for revenue.

00:30:48,030	I think we need to be mindful of what that’s going to do to the neighborhood, but also there’s an opportunity here for the Bismarck Parking Authority to remind people that the ramps are open after hours. The Third Street parking ramp is open for free after 4:00 every day.

00:31:03,430	So if you’re willing to put in a couple extra steps, you could save whatever fee we have here for those that are too cheap to want to pay for parking, but others you go to other places. I heard a story this weekend.

00:31:23,870	Someone in our office went to a soccer event for their teenage child, paid $20 to park at the soccer facility, which is a parks and rec facility in another state. And this was a tournament hosted by a private sports club. You have a captive audience, 980 parking stalls. I mean, the revenue was crazy, but 20 bucks just to get in the door. So I get it. Parking it, parking is a touchy thing in Bismarck.

00:31:43,630	If you can’t see the front door, you park too far away. So we have to help change that mentality. We have to help people realize that there are other options beyond just parking within sight line of the door.

00:32:01,300	So I don’t know that I have a whole lot there, other than just some things for you to think about, but I don’t have a problem if Brad looks at other areas, other other communities to see, you know, we all know what it costs to go to a Vikings game. I mean, you’d be lucky to find a spot for 60 bucks for an NFL game.

00:32:17,430	Now, granted, we don’t have an NFL team and 80,000 people in the arena, but we do have very close proximity parking that today we’re giving away for free. Do you know, has the Alaris been charging like for several years? Is have they always done it or. Yeah, they implemented once OVC came in, which was actually spectra at that time. So that would have been in 2017.

00:32:41,670	So I’m okay with us investigating it. But I do think that, um, we probably need some kind of phasing towards it if we do ultimately implement it.

00:32:59,070	I kind of am inclined to some of the more VIP parking, and we may have an opportunity at some point in the next 30 days to have further discussion around that as well. Okay. I think I think the closer to the building justifies the parking. And as we move into some of those other lots, I’m very afraid of, if we start charging, we’re going to overwhelm the shopping mall, which would be a detriment to everybody.

00:33:20,130	I’ve put a lot of thought into this, actually. Um, and how it might be managed. It really isn’t a detriment to the shopping mall. If the north parking lot is filled with event center patrons, or if the event center patron parks in the JCPenney lot comes through the mall, spend some money, and

00:33:39,430	then heads the event center, it becomes really hard for us if, um, they’re completely filling the Petco and Verge Fitness parking lots because they don’t have another way to access those buildings. So wayward signage and things like that, we can leverage when it becomes really tricky is when it’s really cold.

00:34:04,530	That’s when the parking becomes the largest issue. And honestly, throughout the summer they stay at hotels and we see them walk through the parking lot. They stop and patron the food places. So we are a good neighbor. We want to be a good neighbor.

00:34:24,770	I will tell you, probably ten years ago we tried doing a fee for parking during a concert and we allowed like a high school team to come in and do a parking fee to park in the mall parking lot. Once the event center lot became full and it was not safe for the sports team members to be in the parking lot.

00:34:40,900	With the backlash that they had from the patrons parking, it was really actually I was out there with them and it was not safe for them, so we pulled it. We’ve never tried it again. Um, I so I feel like it has to be like a tiered sort of thing.

00:34:55,970	I do think baby stepping in is smart. I like the VIP. Like I would pay VIP parking if I didn’t have to walk in 20 below weather. I think there are a lot of people that probably would do that.

00:35:08,230	Um, and it makes sense as you get further away for the parking parking to be less, in my opinion. Um, and like I said, we want to be good neighbors. We do think that once the parking fee starts, there will be a change time frame that the lot is really full. If those large events are after seven and 8 p.m., it doesn’t really impact us because we close then.

00:35:29,900	So there’s some give and take that can happen. Um, but definitely, definitely, I think a phased process would be smart and not just for Kirkwood Mall for any of the tenants that are around there. You know who hut and you know, any of the restaurants that are around as well.

00:35:54,400	Is that enough direction? Yes. So, Mr. Mayor, um, does have a separate parking department, so we would bring them on site to do a full audit and assessment. Um, and then kind of get that information to you from there. Okay. Well, good with that. Okay. All right. Moving on.

00:36:16,130	Uh, rental rates, if you go back to the first or the third page there, um, we did do, a comparison of rental rates across those similar buildings as well. If you’ll see if you’ll look at that third page. Excuse me. Those are these are the 2025 approved base rental rates for our buildings.

00:36:39,230	So all the exhibit halls, the prairie rose rooms, the arena and, uh, the tree rooms as well. So that’s the full breakdown of our 2025 approved rates. We haven’t done anything for 2026.

00:37:03,970	And if you look, uh, at what it is in a regional context, as you can kind of see, um, we’re there, but but it’s, but it’s, you know, it’s not always apples to apples. Um, but we may be what I feel is a slight under what we are for this region with comparable buildings. Uh, if you look at Metra, um, we have a total of 990.

00:37:31,630	Excuse me, 99,000ft of exhibit space in our four exhibit areas, along with the, uh, roughly 25,000ft in our prairie rose rooms and the exhibit hall. So we’re 125,000ft. All right. For that whole area. Um, you know, we’re we’re charging a grand total of $8,000. If you look at the rates at Metra, right, there would be, you know, probably about $9,000 there.

00:37:55,230	So, you know, just trying to get equal comparisons for this board to understand, um, where we’re at and just to see if there’s any, um, advice or consideration on looking at those rental rates as well. And we can certainly reach out to more, more buildings and get some more robust information.

00:38:19,030	This was just kind of put together in the last couple of weeks. But you know, it’s it’s sometimes it’s hard getting information back. Nobody publishes rates in their websites anymore. This is why we. Hired a professional. I mean, I think I don’t have any problem with you investigating that. And if we’re below market, we shouldn’t be.

00:38:42,770	Except for the bell that should be free. Okay? Especially for the symphony. Right? How does the event center compare with other properties ran by avg. I mean, from what you can see, are we high? Are we low? Right in the ballpark? We’re low, we’re low. Yeah, yeah.

00:39:06,570	Um, what I’ll do is I can certainly reach out to Ralston, Sioux City, Brookings, those those avg managed facilities. And we can certainly get that comparison as well. Casper is another one to give you a really good idea. The one glaring one that’s super low is the arena. Uh, $3,500 for our arena is is a steal.

00:39:26,370	Uh, most, most arena rentals anywhere from 10 to $15,000 on a daily basis. I guess. My only comment I, I support all of this. I don’t have any concerns. I would just kind of echo where Jen was earlier.

00:39:48,230	Uh, if we do make adjustments that they be not major corrections immediately, but we may be phase into that to help everybody adjust to the new system. I think we’ve all been there in our own personal and professional experiences. And one thing I know we try to do here as an organization is, you know, somewhat predictable, very small rate increases year over year as opposed to doing nothing for five years.

00:40:06,170	And then we make a big jump. So it seems to be a reasonable philosophy. And if we can make some slight corrections and maybe a year or 2 or 3 from now, then we’re back. We’re we’re up closer to where we should be.

00:40:19,430	But I think making that jump the first year out of the chute is going to be a little bit alarming for the locals. And I would just make sure that if we’re as we adjust and I agree, a step in approach or phasing approach is necessary.

00:40:36,500	But, um, it doesn’t do us much good if we have rack rates, so to speak, and we’re not even coming close to charging those. And I think that’s also been a problem. So yeah, I will expand on that. Yes, that has been a tradition, uh, that a lot of these rates have not been enforced.

00:40:54,430	And, uh, a lot of our long term agreements are not even close to recreate as well. So I think that’s a discussion that I have had with Jason as well, that, um, we need to get everybody at least back up to rack rate.

00:41:11,200	And some of those agreements are, you know, three, 4 or 5 year agreements as well, that we are in the second or even the first year of. So I think that’s a consideration the authority board needs to to give some guidance on as well. You’re going to have to bring us some some examples. I think. I certainly can. Um, but yeah, we can do that.

00:41:30,730	Brad, can I ask a question about the rates? Sure. Are the rates different based on time of year or day of week, or are they a flat rate matter? If it’s a Tuesday in the middle of January or the Saturday after Black Friday? Right now they’re all flat rates.

00:41:48,370	Now, um, that’s a very good point. And most of our buildings, we do adjust for days of the week and times of the year. You can charge more in the winter when you’re in an arena, than you can in the summer. Okay. All right. I also added, um, just just for your information, the equipment, services, rental rates. All right.

00:42:12,430	These are from 2022. So again, I would just like to ask permission to go through and really analyze all of these rates since they are four plus years old and try to get those updated. I think that’s a no brainer. Please.

00:42:37,670	Might I also add, if there’s anything on here, Brad, that we should be charging for, that we aren’t, or things that we have. I’m seeing face masks on here and realizing 2022 what that meant. I don’t know that we’re selling boxes of face masks anymore, but if there’s anything else that should be here that isn’t, we’d appreciate that recommendation from you also. You bet. Thank you.

00:42:56,130	Certainly. So, yeah, I think it just needs to hold general overhaul of all those rates. Um, we do try to look at, at, uh, blocked up rates, meaning that they’re all inclusive rates.

00:43:22,370	So instead of charging somebody for every single item that’s on here, we try to give that client one rate that is inclusive of everything instead of, okay, your rents X, you’re going to pay for four chairs. You’re going to pay for five, uh, you know, tables. We don’t do that. Right. What they see on their settlement is that total amount inclusive of all those materials usually broken out by equipment, labor, rent and about five line items.

00:43:44,730	That would be very appreciated by users. I’m sorry. Yeah. So, uh, and that’s the one thing we have implemented, right? Uh, right away. So looking at our labor rates, if you want to turn over to the next page, we have adjusted those because we were too low and not covering our labor

00:44:05,570	costs. So the main thing was the conversion rates. Uh, we have not been charging conversion rates even though it is in our agreements that they weren’t where they were not being charged. So we have implemented that. We are meeting with our clients. We are talking to them about it. Contractually. They are obligated to pay those fees.

00:44:29,030	So it’s just been a matter of that. They weren’t charged. So we have implemented that. Um, and, you know, trying to be as upfront and and transparent with that client as well, that those fees are involved in there and using of the of the Bismarck Event Center.

00:44:49,370	So these are updated rates based on what we’re paying. So our, our to our, uh, employees. And these other these are the chargeback rates that we currently have. And again that is to cover the cost of operating for those events. Any questions on that? Okay. I think that’s why we are we have you here. Yeah. All right.

00:45:16,200	So let’s move on to the capital improvements projects list. I must say that was one of the better meetings that I’ve had with Jason and Steve and Jeff. Very informative. Uh, and very positive.

00:45:41,170	So for 2026, uh, Steve has offered to do parking lot repairs, mostly in lot D as a training for his, uh, employees on how to fix potholes and seams and all kinds of different areas. So Steve’s going to start that in July, and that will hopefully upgrade our parking lots. At least repair them so that we don’t have large potholes and places where vehicles can receive damage. So that will commence.

00:46:06,770	Then the HVAC project, final drawings and building are scheduled like today or tomorrow. Very soon. Jeff’s on that. Um, the arena will be the first phase and we are hoping to commence that, um, you know, this winter, which would be the cooling function. And then next year, during the summer would be the heating function.

00:46:27,030	So we will, you know, I’m sure that Jeff will keep us abridged of what’s going on with that project. And one thing, if I can just add to that, in talking with Jeff, we’re talking about Jeff Ubl.

00:46:43,630	You will design group and Brad, there’s going to be some significant coordination of activities both in the arena and the exhibit hall and the contractors that will be doing the work, because there will be periods of time where it’s in the contract this way, where the contractors are going to basically have to clean up and clear out and make room for the events that are on the books.

00:46:58,030	But then going forward, um, the hope is that the contractors have a little bit more of the preference. Um, as we get to the second phase and fewer dates on the calendar and things like that.

00:47:15,330	But, um, it is Jeff is very mindful of the activity that needs to go on with the HVAC work, but then also recognizing the building still has to be active throughout the year. And so it’s going to be a delicate balance and a lot of communication between the architect, the contractors, and Brad and his team to make sure it’s hot when it needs to be and it’s cold when it should be. So. Yeah.

00:47:32,200	So also on the dockets to be bid in August is the wayfinding project that will go throughout the building. We’ll get rid of the old really bad sign red signs throughout our building. Uh, modernize those. Super excited about that project.

00:47:51,100	Um, also, uh, bid the end of June is the lighting project and the exhibit halls. Um, that could commence as early as July 15th as well. So that’ll be new LED lighting in C and D, and then control panels replaced throughout all the exhibit halls. So no more fluorescent lighting in in those two halls, which is very much needed.

00:48:15,970	So any questions about the 2026 projects? Okay. Moving on. The 2027 projects, uh, the arena sound system, which was installed installed in 20 oh or 2003, uh, has used its useful life when you’re 23 years old. You’re you’re pretty wore out in that world.

00:48:43,370	So, um, that was actually on the capital improvement project list in 2025 and was pushed forward. So we’re trying to re-up that and make sure that we get it on for 2027. Also, we have the kitchen construction project, which we are. We did connect with Jeff.

00:49:03,430	And um, now it’s up to me to make sure that we get overseas contact people and to touch with Jeff, and we will start that process of at least having a meeting, getting some general ideas and then trying to move forward with getting that information to you regarding that project.

00:49:22,730	Again, that is a project that OVC is committed to, to helping fund or fund wherever those bids may come, come through. And ideally, we did talk about timeline with that, you know, getting it designed in the next six months and then looking at, you know, a construction phase that would could possibly be done in about 18 months from now, which we all know would be a huge game changer for our operation.

00:49:44,530	Did you say 18 months from now? Is that what you said? Okay. Yeah. I mean, exactly six months for drawings, you know, approvals and then a bidding and then, you know, as soon as we can start construction, maybe a little optimistic, but we want to try to push as much as we can. All right.

00:50:07,500	Um, the air walls and the prairie rose rooms need to be replaced. Um, that’s that’s been on the list. The east and west restrooms in the arena. Those are the upper lobby ones. Um, they’re in really tough shape. I see Jen and Jerry smiling. They’re bad. So they’re on the dockets. Uh, the party deck.

00:50:29,430	That is the roof between the exhibit hall and the arena that I actually found out. We can put those pavers back down, and we can. We can start doing things on on that deck.

00:50:46,800	So we’re going to investigate that and see how we can do that and try to at least start to utilize that area, if nothing else, to clean it up and make it look nice and presentable. So we’re trying to think outside the box.

00:51:04,100	Could it be a party deck? Could it be a an area where we have sustainability and they’ll have trees and grass and, and a nice, you know, landscaped area just to try to move that area forward. And then. I’m sorry, I was just gonna add, this is one of the areas when we did the walk with OB and Anna and Kathleen both looked at this and just lit up with the opportunity of what it could be, because it’s got views to the West.

00:51:22,830	It’s outdoors. It could be one of these premium add on experiences before an event inside the facility. And so to understand from Jeff Hubbell that yes, you can actually use that rooftop for something other than just looking at it. Um, today it’s got a black rubber membrane.

00:51:38,770	It looks like every other flat roof. But I think to Brad’s point with a few, uh, intentional improvements that could start to be a premium space that people are interested in doing a little more with before a show. We do have some leaking through that roof, which, uh, Jason and I both learned that that’s not from the rain.

00:51:58,070	That’s actually from the groundwater that’s coming off the side of the hill. Uh, so Jeff is trying to come up with a solution for us on that as well. There’s a there’s a trough on that membrane. And in my understanding, correct me, Jason. Exactly.

00:52:16,500	The the groundwater comes into that trough and it’s that trough that is leaking and causing us to have leaking in the exhibit hall because of that, it does the rain does cause it, but it’s groundwater. It’s not surface water.

00:52:33,930	And he said, we can build two floors on top of that roof right now, so you can walk and do whatever you want on, on top of it. So we were understanding and under the opinion that you couldn’t walk on it, you’d fall through. And that is that is not true. And then uh, also the arena and exhibit hall roofs are on, on the dockets as well, which those are very large scale and expensive projects.

00:52:55,170	So my only concern with all of that is, is I don’t know that we have the funding. So these this is Eric’s hiding over there. He’s got to pull out that spreadsheet that we are working on.

00:53:12,470	So anyway, that’s kind of the list of projects that we feel are the most important right now and, and need to be tackled. On the bright side, mayor, to that comment about the funding, the parking lot repairs that was the result of meeting with Brad and Steve Solway, who is our Director of Service operations, and Jeff Ubl.

00:53:30,900	And so it’s a win win because the the repairs that will be done will be done by city staff using city equipment and resources as a training for the public works employees. But in the end, we get a better surface on the event center parking lot as well. So it’s it couldn’t have happened at a better time, frankly.

00:53:48,070	Um, but to your to your point, yeah, the bigger ticket items. Oh. Don’t worry about the HVAC that needs to get done. And then trying to do the roof at the same time, because I don’t know that that fit into the schedule. Right. That fast. Yeah.

00:54:03,970	And that’s how it was on that the the capital improvements projects list. So I’m sure we’ll have a lot of discussion. And obviously, you know, some adjustments on that on that timeline as well. Some of the others are going to fit into some of that annual $500,000 set aside that we know we’re going to have to spend. But yeah, exactly.

00:54:21,170	And I guess the only guarantee is that they’ll be more come up there. Well. All right. If you scroll forward now, we can get into the budget.

00:54:39,830	Uh, and we have spent a lot of time on this trying to really define it and get it as close as we possibly can. Uh. We are creating a budget that’s, you know, upwards of 18 months in advance. So, um, you know, as it says in our contract and and as I’ll say here, these we will need to make adjustments. I would be hopeful that it’ll be positive adjustments.

00:55:02,370	But I mean, there’s a lot of of information that we’re going on here that we don’t have a lot of history for. Um, anything that we did put in here, uh, was based on pretty much the proforma that we had presented. Um, you know, during the RFP process, with a few minor adjustments.

00:55:25,770	So the biggest concern that we have in developing this is that in looking at the sponsorship revenue that was put on the RFP, um, compared to what is in actuality is a big difference. So, um, 400,000 was the target that was given to us, um, to, to pull over when we took over operations.

00:55:52,030	In actuality, we’re right around 248,000 of dollars that we are able to pull over that are on the books that are contracted through sponsorships right now. So that’s $150,000 shortfall. So if you look at that and then we have went through and tried to define our events as much as possible to maximize.

00:56:18,470	For and and there’s a list of summaries here in the back about the fourth page through. Or excuse me, it’s about seven pages through. But what we’ve had to do to try to keep this budget with in line with the Performa that we had presented originally is to to really increase those number of event days and number of

00:56:42,900	events. So in in the concert space, in the arena and the bell, we’ve identified about 34 more events that we’re going to have to push into. Or, you know, find in 2027 on top of what we already have on the books. And then for the event center, we’re looking at about 22 different type of events.

00:57:09,970	On top of what we already have. So that’s, you know, we we tried to be realistic, but we know this is also quite aggressive as well. So if you take those events and you add them to what we already have, you can see the event profit there from the different areas.

00:57:28,900	You got the arena, you got the exhibit halls and you got the bell majors. As far as the indirect expenses go. That’s the day to day operations of our buildings. Uh, we kept it right in line with the history that we have, along with the proforma that we have. We have added more positions.

00:57:50,970	So that does you know, that does create a little bit more expense for us also. Uh, you know, we’ve had to add rectitude as a network provider. Um, we’ve had to bring on, uh, you know, like I said, additional staff to, to cover some of the, the city functions as well.

00:58:14,430	But in the end of it, it’s not about expense cutting or or stopping that. It’s about the revenue generation. So that’s why, you know, we have have been very aggressive in looking at this revenue generation and adding these dates. So just real quickly. Um, and I didn’t put all these dates and opens on your in in your packet.

00:58:34,400	If you’d like it, I can I can certainly give it to you. Uh, but essentially, you know, if we’re looking at large concerts for the arena, we’re looking at to add at least three more. If we’re looking for comedy events, we’re looking to add one more. If we’re looking to add medium events in concert setting.

00:58:53,430	We’re looking to add five more and then small type of concerts like, which would be a Broadway show or a 2000 seat set in the arena. We’re looking to add five more of those as all as well with with the understanding that right now we have very little programming for 2027 in the arena, very little.

00:59:13,400	So it’s really important that that’s what we hone in on. If we look at the bell again, it’s still it’s still type. Same type of philosophy. Uh, we went with six extra, uh, concerts in the bell we went with. And that was on the large level.

00:59:31,300	We went with 3 or 4 on the medium, and then 3 or 4 on the small and concerts by by saying concerts, we also mean things like speakers, comedians, you know that as well. And then an exhibit hall.

00:59:47,830	We really focused in on a couple more large events. We don’t have a lot of time to do that from a large event standpoint. So we’re really going to have to focus in on the medium and the one day type meetings or conferences. So that’s where we came up with those 22 events as well.

01:00:08,230	So again, it’s about driving that revenue to try to meet that that budget. So any questions. Question I have is related to sponsorships. Yeah. You know I guess I didn’t wasn’t thinking of what we had on the books versus what we didn’t have on the books. I didn’t think we had actually that much on the books.

01:00:27,900	So I’m surprised we had $240,000 annually on the books, to be honest. So. So what’s the what’s the opportunity that League sees that we have out there, given 200 miles down the road? I can or not even 200 miles, whatever Fargo is from here.

01:00:51,900	They’re out there getting all kinds of sponsorships for a Division one football Bowl series team. We got to be knocking on some doors. It seems like. I mean, they got to raise millions of dollars a year. Right? No, no, I understand. So it’s really looking at this fiscal year. And so knowing that yeah, we’ve got to ramp it up. We’ve got to be able to continue to do that.

01:01:13,230	Um, but from a budgetary standpoint, all right. We want to be conservative. And knowing that most likely we’re going to be way above that. But at the same point, we got to be realistic in our expectations and getting this ramped up and where we want it to be.

01:01:28,200	And that’s probably more of the question is, is there is a way to maybe show your what you expect your timeline progression. To be? Yeah. And that’s on the performer. And I can certainly bring that again as well. Um, but it is. Yeah. It’s it’s bumps up greatly, especially in years three, 4 or 5. Okay.

01:01:50,630	And if I don’t know if you have it available there Jason or not, but. That’s fine. I just kind of remember that. But that’s. Yeah, I, I’m, I mean I’d love to see a better number for 27 than this, but I also know 27 is really the first year when we have got the baseline set.

01:02:08,200	Yeah. And I’d just. Like to say we have a kitchen in 2017 right. You know, as far as the meetings, conventions and multiday events and a lot will not be at in 2027. They’re just looking out. We’ll find some small ones together. Sure. But most of those we’ll be looking at more of those in 2028.

01:02:26,970	And you know, in that longer time frame we’ll get them booked though, right. And that’s why we had to be so conservative with it just to get just to get to that. Those numbers. Rather we be conservative and beat them. Yeah. And that’s kind of where we’re at as well.

01:02:47,770	So I mean, maybe not as rosy as we want it to be, but I think, you know, we establish the space and then then we can really hone in, especially on the sponsorship side. Okay. Anybody else have comments? All right. So event and staff updates. Um, the event report real quick like for June 1st through June 14th.

01:03:10,970	Uh, the arena had no events. The exhibit hall had five. We had the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, the flatland Gödel wedding, the Steckler wedding, the Stanford Blue Gala, and the Ink Masters in the exhibit halls.

01:03:32,800	And then the bell had dance works and dance Force Academy, um, the the event load is is, uh, very limited in the months of, of June, July and August. Um, it’s much better in August than it is June. July. Um, I know that the appetite of this board is to very much improve that moving forward.

01:03:50,770	So believe me, that is that is a high level, um, concern for us as well. On the marketing and sales end of it. Our director of marketing, our director of sales were in Tahoe at a conference last week. Um, their highest priority upon their return is to develop a no to go. No, no.

01:04:11,630	Before you go sheet for our event attendees and evaluate website and social media functions. Also, my sales person is been giving direct orders to get with Sherry and her staff on a much better basis than she has, so that will begin immediately. Uh, maintenance activity. The cooling units are in operation.

01:04:33,630	We all know that they are, on their last legs, especially in the arena. Um, so far they have been working great. And I just want to give a shout out to John Vogel for all the work that he’s done. He’s done a fantastic job of keeping us up and running. Staffing report. We hired a HR slash office manager, Ivy Brown.

01:04:51,830	She started last week on Wednesday. And then today Jayden Kettle started as our, uh, AV manager. So those were two very, very vital positions that have now been filled and, um, excited to have both those employees on. Um, there have been no safety and security incidents to report up to this date.

01:05:15,700	We are looking to implement a command center and also an incident reporting software program to make that even more robust. Uh, we are meeting, uh, this week on June 18th with the city fire department and the city police department to develop a comprehensive emergency action plan that will be that has been developed by us.

01:05:38,930	It’s going to be reviewed by the police and the fire department. We will have that all in place by the end of the month. And then we will begin our training. Uh, we’re currently scheduled for July 21st and July 22nd. That’ll be basic evacuation and emergency procedures training.

01:05:59,430	That is just the beginning of a whole comprehensive training program that we will be putting in place for our employees. And then the last is a review of that comp corporate sponsorship contract and kind of shows, um, what, what we have as far as recognizable income, uh, moving into the sub year and then we need to get with Eric and figure out what we’re going to

01:06:19,430	do with the money that he has for, um, over the, the entirety of a contract that now runs past, a May 1st date. So as a contract from January 1st to December 31st, it’s already been paid.

01:06:43,270	But we need to figure out how we’re going to account for those that monies, because part of it will go in city budget. Part of it will go on the Avg slash Bismarck Event Center operating budget. So that just and that’s kind of what that is talking about right there is we need to figure out $62,000 and how it’s going to be transferred or how we’re going to account for it. A couple of last things here.

01:07:01,400	Um. The org chart, and I apologize to put this in black and white. And I didn’t realize that until I’d killed a tree. So this is the updated org chart as of right now. We have four open positions. Warehouse supervisor. Hmm. Director of operations, HVAC technician, and event manager.

01:07:27,030	Once we get those positions filled, we will be to the point of full staffing. And then the very last thing, and I hope some of you can make the the bull riding tomorrow night. Tomorrow night is this is what’s called a nobody. Before you go sheet or a one sheet, this is what is given to our staff.

01:07:48,830	And this is a comprehensive one page overview of what’s happening in our event tomorrow night. So this is what it’s given to our staff. This is what it’s given to our, uh, promoters. Anyone who’s affiliated with the event so that they know exactly what’s going on as much as possible for this event.

01:08:06,500	And that was something that we have been able to implement just recently. So it’s, you know, as far as a, uh, liability, safety, security, this is this is a start. We have a long ways to go, but this is something that that’ll be implemented tomorrow evening.

01:08:27,230	Every single staff member who is working will be briefed on this information. And you’ll see there I mean, customer service. Remember, you are the face of the Bismarck Event Center. Happy faces and helpful attitudes make successful events. So I really push for that customer service as well. That’s all I have, Mister Mayor.

01:08:52,870	Any questions? I have a question for you. Um, there is a position prior to Ovi and I called them account reps or account execs.

01:09:06,300	I don’t know if that was actually their title or not, but it was kind of the contact person for your event or you’d set up, you know, what is the stage look like? What equipment do you need? How many when doors open and all that kind of thing? Is that now what you call it, an event manager or is that still? It is. It’s and it’s overseen by our director of events. Okay.

01:09:22,300	And so like Sarah’s old job would have been now event manager essentially. Correct. Sarah kind of was had a hybrid position where she did sales and event management, which is that’s a really big lift. So we put Sarah into that director sales position and created a director of events position to oversee the logistics of our events. And you’re actively hiring for that open one now.

01:09:43,600	Right? Right. We have two in that department. Uh, Brett Schweitzer is the director and Brian Moritz is the event manager. And we will hire another event manager. Okay. Thanks. Yeah.

01:10:00,700	Just to cover the load of what we’ve got going on, and obviously, if we add, you know, the 35 and 22 events, we’re going to need more event staff to help with that. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. You’re welcome. Before we go to executive session, is there any other business? If not, I would entertain a motion to enter into executive session. I would move that. We enter into executive.

01:10:28,970	I’ll let somebody else know because I don’t know the central code number to do that. Yeah, it’s just on the agenda I move, Mr. Chairman, I move that. We enter an executive session under North Dakota entry code section 440418.41 to discuss contract negotiations. Do I have a second? I will second that.

01:10:50,370	Is there any discussion? Hearing none. We’ll call roll. Gardner. Yes. Grossman. Yes. Kostelecky. Yes. Tomanek. Yes. Walker. Yes. Wilson. Yes. Mayor Schmitz. Yes. Okay. Let me.