00:00:05,270	Welcome to the debate with the candidates for the Burleigh County Commission. I am Sargianna Wutzke, a member of the League of Women Voters, and I will be your moderator. The debate has been organised and the questions developed by the League of Women Voters, the Bismarck Tribune, the Bismarck, Mandan Chamber, EDC, AARP of ND and Dakota Media Access.

00:00:26,170	There are six candidates running for three open positions on the Burleigh County Commission, and five of the candidates have joined us here today. Jim Small, Steve Schwab, Mark Wagner, Kay LaCoe and Mark Splonskowski candidate Wayne Munson had a prior work, commitment and regrets. He is unable to be here.

00:00:48,600	Our purpose is to provide voters with information about the candidates and their positions on issues that affect the citizens of Burleigh County. The candidates have not received the questions in advance. Viewers watching this debate live on September 16th may submit questions by texting. LWVBISMAN152 to 22333 to join the session. Then text your question. This debate format is as follows.

00:01:20,070	Each candidate will have 60s to make an opening statement, and after opening statements, the candidates will respond to questions. The first responses to questions will be rotated between the candidates, and each candidate will have 60s to respond to each question.

00:01:39,270	After each candidate has responded to the question, there will be up to three additional minutes, a slot for debate, or any additional comments from any or all of the candidates. After the final question, each candidate will then have 60s to make a closing statement. Candidates are asked to comply with their time restrictions so we can get to as many questions as possible.

00:01:59,000	Our timer will let you know when your responses are down to 30s. Then 10s, and then stop. For the debate segment, they will indicate when we are down to one minute and then the stop. Now let’s get to our candidates. Each of you now have 60s to make an opening statement, and I’ll start with Jim. Good evening everybody. Um, my name is Jim Small.

00:02:20,870	Um, lifelong resident of Burleigh County. My family homesteaded were right across the road from where I live back in 1881. Grew up farming and ranching until about 2002, and started my own business in 2003. Moving dirt for city and rural subdivisions in the area.

00:02:40,600	It’s been a couple of years up in the oil patch until the pandemic hit, and that kind of screwed things up, but, um, I’d like to just tell you that I’m honest and sincere and, um, uh, if you got any any questions for me or whatever my phone’s on, so thank you very much. All right.

00:03:04,130	Steve? Yes, I also am a lifetime resident of the county, and I’ve run a business for 47 years in the county. Uh. I’ve been on the city commission. This is my first term on the county commission. Uh, I love I love representing people. And I think we have a great county, great people, and, uh, want to see it keep moving forward. All right. Mark. Like the.

00:03:34,670	Others. Uh, lifetime member of Burleigh County and been here that whole time. Other than time in Atlanta and a little bit out in Dickinson. So I do have some other exposure elsewhere, but I come to the running for commission from a different perspective. I don’t have a hot button issue.

00:03:52,730	I’m coming from a standpoint of wanting good governance, and I think that the background and experience I have in management and operations and that kind of thing lends itself well to being a good, strong county commissioner.

00:04:10,870	And that’s really what I want to do and address the issues that the county is facing. Taxes, development, the infrastructure layout and that kind of thing. And so I believe that experience and that that background and professional and collaborative approach is what I want to bring to the commission. All right. Kay. My name is Kay LaCoe.

00:04:29,570	And I first want to thank the League of Women Voters for putting on this forum and debate. I too, am a lifelong resident of Burleigh County and my county involvement started all the way back when I was a forester.

00:04:51,300	Since then, my professional background is in infrastructure, energy development, public policy and communications where I specialize in connecting people with the information that impacts their lives in a way that makes sense to them. I am a wife, a mother. I shoot guns off of horses for sport, and I am fully aware that I enable our four legged creatures, our dogs, to run our household. And I’m okay with that.

00:05:13,700	And I am running because I believe it’s time for Burleigh County to get its house in order. All right, Mark. Good evening. My name is Mark Splonskowski. And again, also, thank you very much for putting this on. And thank you for all those who are watching either here or at home.

00:05:32,970	Uh, is it extremely important that the voters do their research and know the candidates before they go to the polls? Uh, I originally grew up in Minnesota over by Detroit Lakes. I’ve been in Bismarck, or at least in Burleigh County, for the last 13 years. I’ve been married for almost as long as that. And we have three children.

00:05:49,200	Uh, I began my, uh, I should say, a political career as a Burleigh county assessor. Uh, after dealing with taxpayers on a day to day basis, I got a recommended by a lot of people to get into politics. So I became a city. Bismarck city commissioner. I got to help lead through Covid, and then became a Burleigh county auditor.

00:06:09,230	Uh, through that whole experience, I was able to get lots of experience and leadership abilities, and I’m looking forward to serve Burleigh County as a county commissioner. All right. Thank you. Okay. We’ll move on to the questions. Our first question will start with Jim.

00:06:31,730	And the question is do you support the 3% property tax cap as it currently exists? And if elected, how would you balance property tax relief with the county’s need to maintain services, infrastructure and public safety? Well, I know that there’s a $0.01 city sales tax and I think I’m talking about the right thing.

00:06:52,500	I might not be, but um, and, um, I believe that’s at the state legislature that has that law about the 3% cap. Um, and I don’t think it’s going to work very well for Burleigh County, because we’re actually with our $0.01 sales tax.

00:07:11,730	That is, we’re going to run into trouble with the state legislature, and we need to get to them and get some, some things changed so that we can continue, um, collecting the $0.01 sales tax to offset our, uh, land taxes and other taxes in Burleigh County. All right, Steve. I, um, kind of an anti-tax guy in a way. Uh, I know we need taxes, but sometimes I wonder if we’re spending them on the right programs and spending them wisely.

00:07:42,800	And, uh, right now, we’re in the middle of streamlining Burleigh County, and there’s been a lot of fat cut, and there’s probably going to be more. And the bad thing about that is you offend people when you do it, but it has to be done.

00:08:02,900	And, uh, as far as the cap, I don’t know, I think the voters would put the best cap on the on the commission and the county. All right. Mark. I tend to agree with that. I don’t know that I’m quote unquote support the 3% cap.

00:08:21,130	Uh, I would like to understand why it was really done the way it was. But the reality is, is that it’s in place. So now we have to deal with it. And how do we do that? And we got to do that by planning.

00:08:34,970	And we have to take a look at what are the things that we’re required to take care of. What do the citizens require and want and need. And we gotta we got to be doing that in a long term. We can’t be doing that on a short term basis. So we have to look out and we have to be ready and prepared.

00:08:50,370	And the 1% kind of helped us through. But what happens when that changes? We got to be prepared for that. So from that standpoint, we just need to be prepared and be ready to move forward and and go from there. Hopefully that 3% can be looked at and doesn’t need to stay in place. All right, Keith.

00:09:07,430	It’s not a matter of supporting it or not. We have it. And now it makes more sense than ever for Burleigh County to require looking at the data and analysis in order to forecast out three, 4 or 5 years from now so that we take the necessary steps that we’re not left flat footed in the future

00:09:26,470	because of decisions that are made today. As for the 1% sales tax, it’s been already demonstrated that it won’t negatively impact our cap as long as those tax dollars stay up in the county for the the sales tax.

00:09:57,870	Again, it comes down to the forecasting accurately so that we can make the necessary changes to stay within that cap. All right. Mark. Uh, so yes, I myself I am pro or I am for caps. 3% isn’t the right number though.

00:10:18,630	And also the state implemented caps on almost everybody but themselves, and which is a major concern to me. I think. Now, in that being said, we do have to plan for that. We do have to work with the state and try to get that adjusted and changed. However, until that’s a reality, we do need to have a strategic plan on where to move forward.

00:10:34,170	On how Burleigh County is going to move forward in the next two years, three years, five years, ten years, so that we can plan for that. And that’s something that really county should be doing anyways, with or without caps, because we need to look on on how to make things work.

00:10:47,570	And I know, you know, a lot of different politicians and different levels of government talked about streamlining, uh, while at the same time not really knowing what the groundwork needs to be doing in those positions.

00:11:01,500	So we absolutely do need to be streamlining government in all levels. And so in order to do that, we do need to be prepared for this. All right. I’ll now open this topic to debate or any additional comments from any candidate. One specific thing that county commissioners can do proactively regarding the 3% cap is reaching out to the legislators early and often.

00:11:21,970	It’s not a conversation that should be had after some things already gone past the point of approval. We need to be proactive in forging those relationships with the ones that are making those decisions. Yeah, and I would like to build off that as well.

00:11:43,600	Another thing that we need to do is have collaboration, not only with the state, but other political subdivisions. We need to be talking to the city of Bismarck, the city of Lincoln, Morton County, all these different entities within our area so that this isn’t just made a Burleigh County issue.

00:11:57,930	This is a greater North Dakota issue, so that we’re not just talking in a vacuum. We’re talking alone on a hill, but that we are backed up by many other other entities. We have to be communicating and collaborating with each other. And we also need to recognize that we have another option for the 3% cap.

00:12:21,430	We can, as elected officials, go to the voters to raise that cap. Should it be necessary. There is an elected official out there that’s going to want to do it, and there isn’t a taxpayer out there that wants to pay more taxes. But they did provide us an alternative. All right. We’ll move to Steve for this question.

00:12:41,670	First, how would you approach the potential of data center development in Burleigh County? Boy, I get the hard questions. First. The problem I, I have some problems with with data centers in the sense that one of the main problems that I have is when a data center signs up for energy to from a power company, they have a contract that they don’t get

00:13:10,830	their power cut off, which puts the brownouts, etc. on the citizens. Well, at one meeting I questioned the guy representing the data centers, and he admitted that that was true. So who gets to power if there’s a brownout, we have to send power to Texas. Also.

00:13:38,900	You know, there are places for them, but I don’t think right next to, uh, subdivisions. All right. Mark. Data centers are can be a good neighbor if they’re done. Right. And what we need to do is we need to plan for that, just like we’ve been talking about other things.

00:13:58,330	We need to step back and say, what are the right questions to ask? How far do we need to set this back? How big is this operation? How much electricity do they use? Where’s the water going to come from, and who’s going to pay it for the build out of that infrastructure? If that’s done

00:14:15,570	right, they can be a very, very good neighbor and a good source of income for the county in terms of property taxes that come in. So I would say that we take a look at it and we develop it upfront with the right set.

00:14:31,030	If you come in, you want to develop, if you can meet our criteria, we’ll talk to you and we should look at going forward with it. But that does not mean that we blanket approve everything either. Let’s take a look at it from that end of it. All right, Kate. I’m data center agnostic.

00:14:51,900	I approach any industrial development the same. We have ordinances already in place that set the rules for those potential projects. My job as a county commissioner is then to legally apply those rules and regulations.

00:15:26,670	I would emphasize with any potential developer that we engage in meaningful discussions about community development agreements, and that they are encouraged strongly to engage in as much stakeholder and community conversations as they possibly can. They need to demonstrate that they can be a good neighbor, but being against one thing for or another needs to be based in a pragmatic approach. Using our ordinances. All right. Thank you. Mark. Yes, Burleigh County needs to be proactive.

00:15:54,830	And we do already have several things on file regarding data centers. But I think that we need to continue to develop those. We need to continue to do our research on these. I myself, I am very, uh, concerned with data centers myself.

00:16:13,200	Uh, however, I’m willing to have those conversations, but we do need to make sure that, number one, we are taking the individuals affected and anybody in any way that’s with, with, uh, sound travel, with water usage, with power usage, uh, anything like that.

00:16:31,500	And we have to make sure that our citizens are being taken care of first, because one thing I’m not willing to do is I’m not willing to compromise anybody’s quality of life in order to get higher sales tax or more tax revenue to spend. Uh, so I am not 100% against them. However, I am extremely leery of them. All right, Jim.

00:16:52,030	Um, I would, I would like I would like to see them, but I don’t want him using our water. In other words, they’d have to have a closed loop system. The power situation. We generate power in North Dakota, a lot of it.

00:17:11,770	But I looked at my power bill tonight, and I had a peak demand charge of $78 from last month and a grid capacity charge of $25 just for my house. I’m not sure where all that comes from, and I sure don’t need a data center coming in here and building it out so that all those costs go up for me. Um, I don’t believe the county should build any of the infrastructure for those projects.

00:17:32,130	And, um, I don’t I mean, they need to be self-sustaining. They also need to add something to the tax base and employment in the state or in the county. I mean, thank you. All right. I’ll open this topic up to debate or any additional comments from any candidate. I’ll I’ll talk on that a little bit.

00:17:48,870	I agree with Jim, and I do think that we bring you into place and we do have ordinances in place. But what I’m concerned about is that the ordinances aren’t up to date. If we did them 18 months ago, we’re behind technology. To Mark’s point, we need to constantly update those ordinances.

00:18:08,000	We need to be putting it in place because the technology is changing every day. So when you look at the current ones that are being done, Morton County, Oliver County, and you look at what they’re putting out there for, for technology, the setbacks, the 100% closed loop systems, those types of things, they are now in place.

00:18:28,200	So that’s the type of thing we need to make sure that these ordinances we’re keeping up to date with the technology as well. Any other comments? I have? Um, it was mentioned stakeholders on on these data centers and there were stakeholders in. Involved in summit carbon solution. The only stakeholders that I see on this stuff is out of state.

00:19:03,830	People, billionaires coming in here and trying to do something that maybe the people don’t want. And this is promoted by the Commerce Department and the state of North Dakota, against the wishes of the people. So the thing about it is.

00:19:31,130	You can’t be running the legacy fund as a slush fund for these operations. It’s not fair. They have to, like Jim said, be sustain on their own and they need to build in the right places, not behind my house anyway. All right, we’ll move on to the next question and we’ll start with Mark Wagner. First.

00:19:52,600	What is your view on how the county commission utilizes the portfolio system, and what would you do to make it better if elected? I’m going to be at a little bit of a loss on that, because I don’t handle that system on a day to day basis, like Mark has experienced it. And and Commissioner Schwab has.

00:20:13,770	Um, but I do understand that each commissioner gets a portfolio and, and they are responsible for the elements with inside of that portfolio. So I will be upfront and honest. That’s an area that I would have to learn about a little bit more. And so what I would want to see though, is that that portfolio owner has that responsibility.

00:20:32,630	And if we’re going to go outside of it and work with somebody else and do something and somebody else’s portfolio, you work with that. And that comes back to the commission. Um, but that is an area that I would have to have a more education in to, to be honest with you. All right. Kate.

00:20:50,100	There are a lot of opportunities for the portfolio system to work really well. My concern with the current way that the portfolios are carried out is that it fractionated the relationships around the table. Too often we see portfolio portfolio holders acting in silos, and there isn’t enough conversation being had at the table.

00:21:13,700	One of the first things that I would like to engage in if I were to be elected is gaining consensus to support more consistent and frequent portfolio updates so that the general public can hear and understand what’s going on in that portfolio, such as updates on projects or initiatives that the the county has taken on. Mark.

00:21:40,830	So I honestly think that Burleigh County is a flagship example of how the portfolio system is done wrong. Um, I think that we see here at this commission table, five individuals, some of which treat their portfolio as their kingdom. And if you start trading on their kingdom, they get very angry. And that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

00:21:57,370	The way it’s supposed to work is you are representative of those department heads and an advocate for them. Um, you’re not supposed to micromanage them. You’re supposed to allow the department heads to do the jobs that they were hired to do. They are the subject matter expert in their field.

00:22:13,300	And I think that we should be deferring to them a lot more than some people are. Um, now, that being said, here at the commission table, the commissioners need to be working to get together. That doesn’t mean that we can’t have disagreements and that we can’t have debate.

00:22:27,900	But at the end of the day, we have to remember that we are here for the people of Berkeley County and not for our own personal agendas. And so I think that that needs to be addressed, that needs to be looked at after the election.

00:22:41,800	And maybe we need to have some policies and procedures so that we can have some way to move forward with some guidelines. All right, Jim. Um, like Mark Wagner, um, I’m a bit of a loss because I don’t know exactly how it works.

00:22:59,470	I’ve kind of heard some of it in the past, but, um, I think probably a portfolio system can work because it would actually spread the load out between the commissioners, because not everybody can have their nose in everything. I don’t think as a county commissioner, you have the time to do that because it is not really a full time job. I mean, obviously, but, um, I think it can work.

00:23:18,500	But the commissioners that have that portfolio need to do something, not just say, oh, I got a portfolio and I’m taking care of it. I agree with Mark Splonskowski also with, you know, some of the things that he said also, but I think it can work.

00:23:38,770	But I haven’t been within it, so I’m not sure how it works, to be honest with you. All right. Steve? Yes, I have noticed that, you know, even on the city commission and the county commission, some portfolio holders really don’t really aren’t transparent about what they’re doing. And that’s very concerning to me.

00:24:16,330	And, uh, if they can’t be transparent to the commission when they bring these projects up and what are your intentions? It seems like if you come to if you’re going to be a commissioner, your allegiance and your agenda should be the welfare of the citizens, not another political subdivision or a certain group. All right.

00:24:41,430	So I’ll open up this question to any debate or any additional comments from any of you. Yeah, I have some additional comments. One thing I would like to see, uh, is, uh, frequent or maybe even monthly or quarterly updates from each commissioner on one of their portfolios, even just one. And that brings everybody up to date. Kind of like some of the individuals here.

00:25:03,170	We’re saying not every commissioner can be an expert in every department, and that’s understandable. Uh, but it would be nice for a commissioner to do an update to the full commission on one of their portfolios once a month or once a quarter, something like that.

00:25:19,700	And just to improve communications, because that’s one thing that that can definitely be improved in Burleigh County is communications, because some portfolios holders, you see them all the time, are the ones you barely ever see at all. And that’s something that I think needs to be remedied. Any other comments? All right. So our last question was an audience question.

00:25:40,030	And so is the next one. So I’ll start with Kay for this one. How do you think the county can take a more active role in public health, instead of just contributing and allowing the city of Bismarck to run it? Bismarck.

00:25:55,230	Really, public health has been a hot topic for a long time, rightfully so, because it is one of the most important core services that Burleigh County provides. One thing that does need to be understood is what the county’s role actually is in providing county services, or the public health services. It is required by Century Code.

00:26:18,570	But there’s a talking point out there that the county is required to provide the level of service that is currently being provided in Bismarck, Burleigh public health does an excellent job, but there are very specific things that a county is required.

00:26:44,300	I would approach that with conversation, building consensus, and I would look to develop a cross-functional committee that can take a look at the issues and the concerns being raised, research that and bring recommendations back to the commission table so that we have all of the information. All right. Thank you. Mark. Yeah. So we need to improve communications. And that committee does exist that that committee was started when I became auditors.

00:27:03,300	The Bismarck Burleigh Communication Committee. And that is one of the core core topics why that committee was started so that we could discuss this Bismarck Burleigh public health, because, uh, counties need to remember, especially Burleigh County needs to remember that we are legally required to provide these services.

00:27:24,700	Uh, so if if Bismarck were, God forbid, to drop us for whatever reason, we’re going to have to start a health department immediately. And I’ve been always been a proponent of taking a more active role in public health, uh, especially during Covid.

00:27:43,930	We saw what can happen and the pros and cons of having more or less, uh, activity in that, in that sphere. So I think we need to improve communications. We need to take more active role and make sure that we are we are, uh, satisfying the state requirements, however, not exceeding them to an extent that hurts the taxpayers. All right, Jim. Um, apologize.

00:28:01,500	But this is one topic I don’t have any knowledge in. I would have to do some research. Okay, Steve. Yes, there. That’s one of the portfolios that needs more transparency. Uh, but I, for one, don’t think the citizens are behind handing out. Free syringes and all of this stuff that is happening in, like, say, San Francisco.

00:28:36,200	There’s problems there. But the problem is they’re not doing their job by promoting this stuff. And now they they’re going to build a triage center. We heard the sheriff, the sheriff say, you know, that’s not necessarily going to be the answer to everything.

00:28:56,970	The answer to everything is to get these people off drugs or whatever and get them to work. And you can’t do that unless they want to do it. All right. So I’ll open that topic to any other discussion or debate.. I’d like to address that.

00:29:17,970	Um, from the standpoint of the public health is I really don’t understand why we’re even thinking of splitting off because of the fact that the case point, Mark’s point, we are getting an excellent service provider right now, and we’re getting it at a cost share.

00:29:36,700	And I can tell you that the taxpayers really don’t care whose name is on the door, as long as they’re getting the service that they require to get. And by law, we’re required. The county is required to provide that service. And we’ve got a good program out there. They’re providing an excellent service. We’ve got a good cost person.

00:29:52,970	So why would we want to walk away from that? If we have to establish a separate county public health, what does that do to our budget from where we’re at right now? Why double up? It just doesn’t make sense. So from my standpoint, what we need to do is have a collaborative agreement of how we manage that system and work it from there.

00:30:21,300	Just saying we’re done and walking away, I think is is financially foolish. All right, I apologize now. I will open it up for any other comments. I can continue. But that’s all right. No we’re good. Thank you. Does anybody else have any debate? Yes. Yes.

00:30:48,030	I think the problem with, uh, is not so much health care, but it’s the road that the health department, with Bismarck leading. Uh, because they have, you know, they have more votes on that on this stuff than we do. They put more money into it, which is honest and stuff. But when they come up with things like, we need to start building free housing, et cetera.

00:31:14,900	And low income housing, hey, that isn’t what a health department is supposed to do. As a matter of fact, if you go down Washington Street and it says Burleigh County Housing and they just put up a bunch of units, Burleigh County has nothing to do with it. That state.

00:31:39,830	So, you know, it’s a lot it’s it’s confusing for people in a lot of ways. But if we have to start financing free housing, boy, we’re in trouble. And the state is already doing it on their own. But our name is on the sign.

00:32:05,600	Bring the conversation back to the initial question how would we approach the Bismarck, really? Public health? We need to take a look at what that joint Powers agreement looks like. We need to establish what each role is going to be and tie what kind of equity you get for a level of investment.

00:32:28,430	And that’s something that’s missing from the conversation right now, because we go back to, well, Burleigh County pays X amount and then they don’t get a vote in it. Well, we can’t leave it at that. It has to start with a conversation and, uh, cooperation. And I totally agree with that. And when you take a look at that budget aspect of that, it’s a $6.5 million budget.

00:32:47,270	And if we got to duplicate that service, we’re just doing it twice. And, and every you got to people keep forgetting that every citizen is sitting in the city of Bismarck with the Burleigh County resident. So if we do this, we’re charging them twice, and that doesn’t make sense.

00:33:07,900	And so the reality is, is that, yes, that joint powers needs to be reinvested. We need to take a look at even if we pay more, we’re better off than starting something ourselves. And this is a perfect example of what can happen when relationships between political subdivisions starts to deteriorate.

00:33:27,430	And we have to remember again, who are we serving? And also 75% plus of the citizens of Burleigh County live within the city limits. We have to remember we’re representing them as well. And so it’s not what’s best for Burleigh County. It’s what’s best for everybody. All right.

00:33:42,630	So we’ll move on to the next question, which is also a question from someone in the audience. And it’s for Mark Splonskowski first, as a county commissioner, what would your vision be for the Missouri River Valley complex? Try not to get excited. This is hard. So you know, on that, to be honest.

00:34:02,970	So I when I became auditor, I talked to then Becky Matthews, who was the chair, the chairperson at the time, and I told her use it or sell it, it’s a liability. We do nothing but sink money into that thing doing studies, and we’ve never done anything with it.

00:34:18,530	While we’re paying special assessments on it and we’re paying for studies, we should use it. It’s a great asset that we have most people in Burleigh County, I’ll bet, don’t even know we own it. I would love to see it used as a county fair. I would love to see it used as something that doesn’t.

00:34:35,670	That’s not exorbitantly, exorbitantly expensive, but is a great asset to the citizens of Burleigh County, something that we can use to build up communities, something that we can use to build up children’s programs that that encourages them to to enhance their abilities. I would love to see it used, but ultimately we need to use it or we need to sell it. right? Jim.

00:34:53,070	I can’t disagree with Mark on that. Um, I’ve always wondered why we couldn’t have a Burleigh County fair. Obviously we got Mandan right across the road here, and they do a pretty good job of putting on the rodeos and and having the parades and everything.

00:35:10,730	And I’m not sure that, you know, Bismarck could do the same thing on the same weekend. It wouldn’t work out very good. But I would like to I would like to see something happen. But we have to remember that the ground isn’t the best out there.

00:35:25,830	Uh, it’s not the best piece of land in in in Burleigh County, for sure. Um, there has been a lot of money thrown at it, and nothing has really ever stuck. So I love to see a fair here, but I don’t know if it’s feasible. All right, Steve. Well, a few meetings ago. Renee or Kay? Excuse me.

00:35:48,100	Kay was at the podium. I gave her some ideas where they followed. This is your time? Probably not. And I’ve been giving ideas to the fairground. And I think the committee out there doesn’t even know what’s going on. I think there’s a few individuals out there doing policy and, uh.

00:36:16,370	Where it’s going is nowhere that’s been tried 2 or 3 different times. We have blueprints out there of three different times. A building was proposed and they’re following the same road there, and that’s not going to work. All right. Mark. Okay. Um, I’m going to defer mostly to Kay because I know that she’s she’s very, very active out there.

00:36:36,700	Um, but I do want to make a couple of I do, too. I think it should be used. I think we take a look at it and we put some people together in a group together and say, how can this be used? How can it be utilized that it makes sense and is a benefit to the

00:36:48,630	county? And if we can come up with some ideas to do that, then let’s let’s work towards doing that. And I think there’s some things that we can do that aren’t going to be breaking the bank. And exorbitant.

00:37:05,270	And I know that like audio book stuff junction, they’ve had some events and weddings and that kind of thing. Is it a destination place? Let’s let’s get creative and think about that kind of thing.

00:37:22,630	And how can we use it for for all of that? Um, so I do think there’s some ability to do that if we can’t, if there’s absolutely no way to make it work, then maybe we do take a look at selling it. But I’m guessing by your smile that there’s some things that you’ve talked about. And I’m going to let Kay run with that. So all right Keith.

00:37:37,770	I chair the Missouri Valley Complex Committee and have for the last two years since it was developed, since the county commission developed the committee and the frustrating piece is indicative of how all of our development has been met at the commission table.

00:38:08,170	We have a commissioner and a candidate for the county commission that is systematically voted against nearly every initiative that we’ve brought forward, including raising private dollars to develop the one aspect of the Missouri Valley complex. So I do find it laughable and insulting when that particular member of the commission then decides to offer suggestions when that has been an issue. Since we have started anything out there. All right. So I’ll open for debate or any additional comments from anyone. I’m going to continue.

00:38:37,300	We have a lot of plans for the Missouri Valley complex, and it can absolutely be a major economic driver, not only for the county, but for the region as a whole. That is one of the three things that I would judge my success.

00:38:55,970	After four years of serving on the commission, is developing that Missouri Valley complex to be that economic driver. And it’s not reliant upon one group or another. But first, we need to be able to get our plat through the planning process that has been held up, mainly because of county commission. Uh, issues. Uh, relied on the ETA discussion.

00:39:24,300	We also need to have the support of the county commission to go forward and do private fundraising. So this becomes a case in point of the lack of relationship, the lack of understanding and the lack of conversations that are going on around the table. And with our stakeholders who I define stakeholders as our taxpayers, our residents and our landowners.

00:39:47,230	And a little bit of history on the Missouri Valley complex, because this this just goes back so far. It goes back decades. And I’m sure many people don’t know this, but the extension office, Burleigh County paid to build and then we hardly even had it paid off.

00:40:07,070	And we, the commission votes to deed it to the for h who deeds it to Bismarck Parks and Rec, and then the county Commission votes to give Parks and rec a very, very, very long lease for no money to have that building. So now Burleigh County has this building, gives it away, still uses it, and now we rent, rent it from Bismarck Parks and Rec.

00:40:24,570	We gave it away. We’re renting a building we paid to build. What kind of sense does this make? And so this this goes back decades on, on this whole project, this whole land. And some of those commissioners who voted to do that are still on the table.

00:40:43,870	And so that’s the little tidbit for people at home who didn’t know that before. There’s a lot going on out there, and it’s got to get dealt with. We’ve got to use it or it’s just going to end up sucking us dry. Is it a is it one of those entities that we could work with the city of Bismarck on? And have another joint partnership? Well.

00:41:01,930	We could have until we decided not to levy the recreation dollars and the city of or the Bismarck Parks and Rec kicked us out of their service. Okay. So we need to go back and remedy some relationship relationships. We there are so many bridges that have been burned. It is incredible. We need to start building bridges.

00:41:21,270	We need to unlearn a few. All right, moving on to the next question. And we’ll start with Jim. Um, what can the county commission do to make Burley County a competitive employer while remaining responsible with taxpayer dollars? You’re speaking of the actual county employing people.

00:41:44,130	Is that what the question is? I can read it again. What can the county commission do to make Burley County a competitive employer while remaining responsible with taxpayer dollars? Well, I haven’t looked at the budget of of, you know, Burleigh County, I guess, to to that extent.

00:42:05,500	But I know there’s a lot of competition with, um, you know, you got the state government here in town, you’ve got hospitals, you’ve got a lot of competition for the county. Um, I guess, you know, the only thing they can do is, is, uh, keep raising the wages until they catch up. But that might cost the taxpayers a lot of money.

00:42:21,530	But there is a lot of competition in this town. Um, holding back, you know, people just move from job to job. If it if it helps them economically, they move.. Right. Steve? Well, all comes down to wages. And, uh, if a person likes a job, they stay there. And if they don’t like a job, they don’t stay there.

00:42:48,370	Uh, we’re in a market competing against private enterprise. Private enterprise affects what we’re doing. Uh, but the county has a very good wage system. And great benefits. And then I want to go to reuse the rest of my time to answer.

00:43:14,370	Uh, what was said on that fairground? I have offered to help raise money, and as a matter of fact, since that committee has been formed, I’m the only guy that’s raised any money for the fairground by recovering $16,000 that was paid in 2018 on a fake bill. So to say, I’m not trying to help, that’s. All right, Mark. Okay.

00:43:43,770	Um, when it comes to being competitive, it really is going back and making sure the wages are competitive. We have a good benefit package. We also have to make sure that departments are being run efficiently. And we need to take a look at what are those things in place.

00:44:02,070	And if we can make sure the department is running efficiently and we can put good people in place and pay them like they should be, it’s the same way business operates. We are always looking to do it better, and so if you want to remain competitive, you got to give the benefits and you’ve got to give the pay, but you also have to have a environment that’s conducive to working,

00:44:21,670	and that’s one of the areas they think we might be challenged with a little bit. On the county side. Ricky. I’m going to build off of that because culture is key. Culture comes first. It takes forever to build a culture, but you can destroy it in the drop of a hat. It’s not all about pay.

00:44:39,830	It’s not all about wages. It is about having a place that people enjoy to go, to come or go to work. And it is also about being creative in the current confines of what we’re dealing with globally.

00:45:04,830	There are creative ways to reimburse or to pay or to support employees, like altered work hours or more flexible work arrangements. There’s all sorts of things that we can do. It’s just a matter of getting out of our own way and empowering those to go out and make those suggestions and those changes, and it costs us more money to continue to replace a dollar saved is a dollar earned.

00:45:26,430	And that’s how we save the taxpayers money. All right. Mark. Yeah. So I’m going to go ahead and keep building. So the way you get people to apply for a job is with competitive wages and benefits, the way you get to them to keep to stay there with that entity is a work environment and job

00:45:43,530	progression. And that’s one thing that I implemented when I first became auditor with the then auditor. Treasurer’s office was a job progression so that there is an entry level job and there’s all the way to the very top position in that office.

00:46:01,570	That way you get them in, you make it a good working relationship, you make it a great place to work. And as these individuals grow, as they grow their families, as they grow as as their professional career, they can grow within the office and therefore preferably by the time the top person chooses to retire, we have one, 2 or 3 other

00:46:19,130	individuals who are ready to take the helm. That way you keep progression, you keep that experience, and you can continue to grow that office. All right. I’ll open that to any discussion.

00:46:39,430	County commissioners said in a very important position in a lot of ways, one of which is leading by example, leading by example about how they treat each other, how they treat other people, and the public sets the tone for the rest of the staff and the rest of the county.

00:47:01,370	It is also incredibly important that our county commission is able to provide clear direction and goals and objectives for our employees to meet. You can’t hit a moving target and you can’t micromanage your way into good performance. Yeah. So I would say department heads and employees, they are hired for a reason.

00:47:21,070	So when I whenever I would interview anybody for the office or for my office, the way I saw it is if you made it to interviews, you’re qualified for the job. When I was interviewing an individual, I wasn’t taking notes. I was looking at the individual to see if they seemed like somebody who would be a good fit for the office. And that’s what you want. You want to create this culture.

00:47:36,030	You want to create something that is a good place to work. And like Kay said, you can lose it so fast. It’s so delicate, but you can build it quickly, too. When I first became auditor, it was, it wasn’t. There was issues within the office.

00:47:50,970	There was inner personality issues within that office. Within 6 to 8 months of being an auditor, all those issues were taken care of through good leadership, through respectful professional actions and and also just again, creating that that culture that people enjoy going to work in.. Any other comments? Steve? I. Uh.

00:48:15,000	Mentioned that a lack of transparency in a lot of this stuff, and when you hire a department head, they go on six months probation and they’re either going to stay or they’re going to be terminated.

00:48:49,130	I look at like the the VSO and they were doing terrible things for employees in their everything is on record. It’s open record. They were doing everything, including pornography. Three of them got fired and one didn’t. And the one that didn’t now is on his second term of, uh, are you going to make it in December and still be the head? He’s unqualified and he’s unqualified for what he did there. But he’s still there.

00:49:22,230	There he is. Look it up. Open records. I don’t want to. I really don’t want to say much more on it, because I’m sure kids are watching this show. All right. Thank you. Um, we’ll move on to the next question. And, Steve, this one’s for you first. Sure.

00:49:43,030	What are your thoughts on the county discontinuing partnerships with other governmental entities, and how will you ensure that any resulting duplicate services are delivered in a cost effective manner, particularly for residents who may end up paying twice for the same services through two taxing authorities? So what services are you referring to that we pay for twice? That’s just a question.

00:50:11,270	Take the highway department. I have that portfolio. We get along great with public works in Bismarck. We work together, we have equipment together. Uh, the problem is more of the high officials not getting along. And. Our working relationship, though, is is good. It’s it’s mutually if they need some help, we’re there.

00:50:44,230	We need some help. They’re here. And, uh, all it is, is most of the problems are caused by the generals. Let’s put it that. Way. But but the grunts, the soldiers, they get along fine. All right. Mark? Yeah.

00:51:09,430	I think one of the examples we’ve already talked about public health, it’s being if we split it off, we’re two entities are paying for it. And so I think that’s that is a prime example. We need. And it’s been mentioned here several times. We need to get back to having a relationship with the city of Bismarck, with the townships.

00:51:28,370	And you and I, I’ve talked about that a couple of times and that’s gone to you in a lot of ways. And why is that gone? And why are we not able to sit down across the table and say, how do we make this work? And how do we do this together? And that is something that needs to be brought back.

00:51:46,630	And unfortunately, that probably means a change of some people to do that and to make that happen. And to Steve’s point, it does rely with the generals. And if the generals aren’t out there doing what they should be doing properly, this is going to continue. And so the generals are the city commission and the and the county commission. All right. Okay.

00:52:06,830	Can you repeat the question, please? Sure. What are your thoughts on the county discontinuing partnerships with other governmental entities? How will you ensure that any resulting duplicate services are delivered in a cost effective manner, particularly for residents who may end up paying twice for the same services through two taxing authorities? I’ve consistently said this entire campaign season that one

00:52:28,170	of the most important things that we need to implement at this table is to check cost, capacity and consequences, especially before we walk away from relationships, leave agreements, take on new departments, or add more services.

00:52:53,330	One key example is the Bismarck Parks and Rec and the whole looking ahead at possibly developing a Burleigh County Parks department, we went from less than $100,000 being being paid for the management to our parks to stand to looking at developing a department with a price tag of over $1 million. That is not the way to protect taxpayer dollars. Remark when political subdivisions fight, the taxpayer loses every single time.

00:53:25,170	There are several examples of this within Burleigh County. We have public health. We have parks. We have. The biggest example is the Provident Building remodel. That right there is a behemoth based on our current rent for this building is going to take 87 years to break even on just the, the, the, the improvement cost on that building.

00:53:47,070	This over seven, $17 million is what that project is going to cost. And it’s just going up. That’s the cost of infighting. That’s the cost of duplicate services. That’s the cost of having two different buildings to have your public services to have your, your, your offices within.

00:54:06,900	So there are there’s example upon example in multiple millions of dollars that cost to taxpayers because of this infighting. It’s got to stop. We have to think about the repercussions. And again, how do we serve the people best? All right, Jim. I don’t know all about all the infighting that’s been going on. Um, I haven’t been watching it that close.

00:54:26,830	But at the end of the day, people need to work together. Uh, County needs to work with the city. City needs to work with the county. We’re lucky to have a city this size in our county. Otherwise there would be nothing here. Obviously.

00:54:44,370	Um, we need we need to mend fences and work together on every avenue that we can. And people just need to work together. All right, so I’ll open that up to any other discussion. That really comes down to asking questions, getting the appropriate answers and bringing the right people to the table. And it’s not that hard.

00:55:09,230	And disagreement isn’t the problem. It’s disagreeing without being able to move forward. And that’s what we put ourselves in right now, is that we’re disagreeing and then we just stop everything, and then we start getting personal versus looking at a fact that it’s okay if we don’t disagree.

00:55:34,370	And quite honestly, we shouldn’t agree every time because it’s that friction and that difference that creates creative answers and gets us to new solutions. It’s nobody has it all, not one side has every answer. So working together gives us the best solution for the citizens. Any other comments? Steve. Uh. He’s absolutely right on that.

00:55:59,430	Uh, I, I would hate to see the Burleigh County Commission and the city of Bismarck on agreeing on everything, because then you do not get no debate. You you know, it’s just boilerplate stuff coming through that everybody agrees on. And, uh, I’ll tell you what, debates. That’s why we’re debating here.

00:56:28,300	Debates and, you know, bringing up different issues concerning something is real good for government. And as far as right or wrong, takes two sides to fight. They gotta make peace. One individual issue at a time. We we talk a lot about. Budget line items, but my concern really isn’t founded in one individual budget line item like we’re talking about here.

00:57:00,300	My concern relies or lays in those decisions that are being made outside of the budget. These agreements that we look to exit or relationships that we’re walking away from, that’s going to cost us. way more money than approaching those kinds of decisions with planning, pragmatism and priorities.

00:57:31,100	So there’s an old farmer saying, I might lose some of the younger ground right here, but there’s a saying that says the farmer, the grandfather plants the tree rose, the father tends the tree rose. The grandson tears down the tree rose. The great grandson replant the tree. Rose. That’s what we’re doing here. We need to start looking.

00:57:46,500	Why did we get into these agreements in the first place? There? Somebody at some point thought it was a good idea. So maybe we need to pump our brakes. Look at this again. And then if we still if we still think that we should go a different route, we need to look at it then.

00:58:00,200	All right. Thank you. So this question will be our last question. It’ll go for Mark Wagner. First. What should be the county’s strategy for addressing its county roads and bridges infrastructure backlog? And how should those projects be prioritized and funded? Yeah.

00:58:20,470	The the final part of the question is, is actually what we need to do is we need to go take a look at at the projects that we have out there and what are the priorities.

00:58:41,970	Where are we at in terms of projects that are in need of immediate fix, repair, that type of thing? Where are we at those that have a time frame and put that plan together and have that in place? Uh, Commissioner Schwab obviously is going with that portfolio is going to have a lot more information, deep information on that. But again, it’s having that plan, understanding what we need to do.

00:59:03,030	And then putting in placing the budget around it and remembering that we just can’t go back and raise property taxes to fill that bill. So we’re going to have to make sure we know what we’re doing and when and how are we going to put that financing together to make that happen. And that’s got to be a collaborative discussion. All right. Okay.

00:59:20,630	Deciding on the priorities and the projects to address first needs to rest with the subject matter experts. And that’s our highway department. Our highway department has done a fantastic job doing what they can with the resources that they have. One opportunity to fund more staff, more projects, more equipment is through the 1% sales tax.

00:59:44,700	After we’ve removed the public safety off of the tax rolls, we hope to continue to see greater returns than what we planned on. And it’s written in the Home Rule Charter that we can use the leftover funds for other priority county services. That’s where I would lean. All right. Mark.

01:00:05,470	Yeah, we have to have we have to have a plan on how to move forward. The one year, three year, five year, ten year. And that’s relatively typical. I know the the previous county engineer did that periodically. And I believe that the current county engineer is going to going to continue those practices.

01:00:23,870	And, you know, the highway department, that’s one of our top priorities. That’s infrastructure. With all those. We can’t we can’t do anything without good roads. And so that’s always very important. I myself I lived within the city of Bismarck for ten years now.

01:00:38,730	I live on one of the most easterly roads in Burleigh County. I’m almost in Kidder County, so I have a a, I believe I have a very good balanced viewpoint on being within the city as also being extremely rural. And so there are conversations that need to be had with the highway department.

01:00:55,630	How can we do services as best as we can? And I do have to toot my own horn a little bit. I was one of the individuals who was able to get that verbiage on the 1% to have it. The bucket system, so that anything over that would could be spent by the Commission at their discretion. All right. Thank you, Jim.

01:01:10,070	The, um, takes a lot of planning, takes a lot of a lot of, uh, a lot of time and effort. Um, this spring, we had a brutal year with the way the the frost went out of the ground. There was people calling from all over. Having problems with stuff. I heard about it through the grapevine.

01:01:30,470	Um, it is a lot of planning. You can’t really plan for a spring like this, but, um, we might might not be that way next year. And it might be worse. Um, just takes a lot of planning, a lot of looking forward. And the engineers have been doing a pretty good job.

01:01:45,900	Um, we got a couple of. We got a new engineer out there now at the county. I think he’s going to going to pick up the the ball and run with it. I think we’re going to be in good shape in the future. All right. Steve. Yeah.

01:02:00,330	This being that this became a highway department question at the highway department, since I’ve had that portfolio, now we’ve instituted a lot of changes. Number one, we recycle. We don’t give the the asphalt, we grind off to the top to the contractor. We recycle it. We create our own gravel by collecting fieldstone rocks.

01:02:32,000	All this stuff that we’ve done up there saves money, which allows us to modernize. And our highway department is getting to the point where it’s got equipment that it needed. Way back, and is a lot more efficient now. And we did that by saving money.

01:02:54,230	And one other thing about the highway department, they cannot spend funds, highway funds on anything other than roads. All right. So I’ll open this topic up to debate or any other additional comments. All right. Seeing none, that was our last question. Um, so thank you all. Um, you’ll now each have 60s to provide a closing statement, and I’ll start with Kay As I stated that.

01:03:17,670	As I stated at the beginning, I am running because I believe it’s time for Burleigh County to get its house in order. I have three goals for my first four years, and I’ve touched on each of them already.

01:03:38,570	First and foremost, to have a set of priorities tied to a comprehensive and strategic plan that connects public dollars to core county services, build and maintain the relationships that benefit the entire county and develop the Missouri Valley Complex as an economic powerhouse for the entire region.

01:04:11,630	We do that by building trust with the taxpayers, and that’s accomplished by open conversations, transparency, and providing more opportunities for meaningful public input before the decisions are made. All right. Mark. Yes. So my name is Mark Splonskowski and I’m running for Burleigh County Commission because we we need change. We need leadership. Uh, we need proactive decisions being made at the commission table. Uh, we need commissioners up here who know the work, who talked to the department heads before.

01:04:33,030	They they react. We need proactivity, not reactivity at this table. Um, and I know the job because I’ve done the work. I’ve assessed the houses, I’ve talked to the tax payers, I’ve ran elections, I’ve processed tax payments, I’ve helped people vote. I put the budget together.

01:04:51,770	I’ve calculated the mill levies, I’ve done the work. I know what needs to be many aspects of what goes on in Burleigh County, and that is what I’m looking to bring to the commission. Is that experience not only in the in the government sector, but also by talking to the people on a daily basis. All right, Jim.

01:05:10,330	I’m Jim Small and I’m running for county commissioner. I’d like to thank the League of Women Voters for having this forum tonight. I recently learned when I was doing a little research today that, uh, you guys actually do an awesome job.

01:05:29,630	And what you do in your nonpartisan stuff, I think it’s a good idea. Um, I spent nine years on the planning commission. Uh, moved away from that in 2019 because I moved my business to Williston. Um, and now I’m back on it in January. I’ve got a little bit of experience with that on my own business.

01:05:50,470	Um, pretty much all my life did work for UPS for a year and a half painting their trucks. So I have worked for other people. But, um, I, I’d like to be a fair and honest voice on the commission. All right. Steve. Yes? I’m running for county commission as as to be reelected. I hope you vote for Steve Schwab. And I my idea of being a commissioner. And we.

01:06:17,100	This is getting back to the highway department. I have probably put on my personal vehicle close to 6000 miles since I took the portfolio for the highway department. I have taken calls in the middle of the night and gone out and met people.

01:06:39,170	When there’s a snow event and everybody is complaining, I have the highway department confirmed to me. I go out and talk to the people because they want to vent to help the highway so they can do highways and clear snow.

01:06:56,100	So the thing about it is, if you’re not willing to put the time in, I don’t care what time of day it is, night or day, I’m going to have a problem. All right, Mark. Mark Wagner, running for Burleigh County Commission as everybody else’s.

01:07:20,100	Um, I’m just going to refer back to experience 40 years of working with budgets, operations, planning, working with difficult problems, diverse people, bringing them together, getting through all that and coming up with the right decisions and the right problem solving methods. I also want to talk a little bit about the plan. When people talk about plans, I’m all for it.

01:07:36,170	I believe it, but we can’t just stop with developing a plan, and we’ve had that happen a lot because the 85, 95% of these strategic plans end up on a shelf. So you got to have a plan. You have to be able to implement it, you got to execute it, and you got to follow up on it.

01:07:48,470	And if we’re not going to do that, the plan is worthless. So when we talk about that, that’s the piece I want to bring in. We have to follow through, get it done, but we have to do it with respect and dignity. Working together and not getting personal. Have disagreements that we can work through.

01:08:06,030	All right. Thank you. And thank you to all the candidates. I wish to thank Dakota Media Access, AARP of North Dakota, the Bismarck Mandan Chamber, EDC, The Bismarck Tribune, and the volunteers from the League of Women Voters for organizing this debate.

01:08:21,570	Thank you to the voters for taking the time to learn more about the Burleigh County Commission candidates and issues. This program will air several times on the Midco channel 602. It will also be available for on demand viewing at DakotaMediaAccess.org and on the Dakota Media Access apps, in the days leading up to the November 3rd election.

01:08:39,630	Before we close this debate, we will remind you that you will need a form of identification to vote in North Dakota. You can find identification requirements and additional voting information on the websites or at the offices of your county auditor and the North Dakota Secretary of State. For candidate profiles, please visit. Vote411.org.