August 27, 2025 • 26 mins
Tom Gerhardt talks to Jason Tomanek about the Bismarck City Commission meeting that took place on 8/26/25.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
City Current, produced by Dakota Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six ZHO two HD, or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, Always Local, Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thanks for joining us on City Current. I'm Tom Gerhart
from Dakota Media Access along with Bismarck City Administrator Jason Timonic.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good to see you, Jason.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Thanks Tom, glad to be here fresh off a City
Commission meeting.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Let's go over a few of the bullet point topics
we'll be talking about in today's episode. We'll be touching
base on the alcohol license events permits and talk about
what was decided and determined last.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Night at the City Commission meeting.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Former Mayor Marlon Hockinson has a petition that he brought
before the Commission. We'll give you the details on what
he would like to see happen, and probably the thing
that affects all of us, or does affect all of us,
is House Bill eleven seventy six and R and B.
Office of Management Budget Director Joe Morsett came down and
(01:14):
addressed the City Commission last night and gave a lot
of information on particularly I think the education piece that
the City commission the mayor have been talking about what
it means for our property taxes if you have a
primary residence, and just trying to clear up some perhaps
some misconceptions. But I wanted to start things off with
(01:34):
one item from the consent agenda that will be front
and center on September ninth, and that's the twenty twenty
six city budget.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yes, so the action last night was the call for
the public hearing for the budget itself, and no discussion
from any of the commissioners. We have had several weeks
months that has gone into the preparation of this, and
one of the intentional steps that we take is to
(02:05):
incorporate the commissioners as we work through the budget piece
by piece, and ultimately one of their roles as a
portfolio holder is to participate and engage in those discussions
when it's their portfolio's turn. So the commissioners have seen
many fragments and pieces of this throughout. This was the
first full presentation that was put together by the finance staff,
(02:28):
and rather than kind of pick through all the different
components of it, I think what I would encourage people
to do is to navigate themselves to the City of
Bismarck website Bismark, Indie dot CoV if you go to
the Agenda Center, which is where we host and post
all of our agendas and minutes. The agenda packet from
the August twenty sixth, twenty twenty five City Commission meeting
(02:49):
will have the full budget, it will have the capital
improvements projects, It'll have the one time requests, It'll have
the general collections for general fund, all the enterprise funds,
fees and charges are in there. There's a lot of
information I understand, and we are here to help answer
those questions that come forward. So by all means, if
citizens have questions, they can reach out to staff. What
(03:11):
I would also encourage people is that in two weeks
we will have the public hearing and that will be
the time for our city commissioners to either approve as
presented or to make some changes to the budget as
they see necessary. And one of the things that I
think is important, and you'll hear this across all the
political subdivisions. At the primary budget introduction back in July,
(03:34):
that was really the first go of things, and really
what that did is it set the maximum amount for
the city's budget. No additional expenses can be added to
the budget for next year. Obviously, things can be reduced,
things can be eliminated, things, other things could be included,
but the full dollar amount cannot go up from this point.
(03:56):
So for anybody that would like to speak in two weeks,
encourage you to do a little research, grab and grab
some of this data. Again, if you have questions, you
can reach out to staff either in city administration or
in our finance department. I'm sure everyone would be more
than happy to help answer any questions that you may have.
In the past. You know, we definitely get a few
(04:18):
people involved and come to the public hearings and share
their thoughts, and we always appreciate that. But going forward,
I think we've got a it's a balanced budget, it's
a very modest approach to taxation, and it dovetails into
our next discussion here or one of our future discussions
with Hels Bill eleven seventy six. And so this is
our first goal at a budget with a three percent
(04:41):
cap on our total expenses total budget cap.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And you mentioned the full packet with the budget is
available in the agenda from that August meeting. Also Dmitri
gave a presentation that evening that you could go back
and watch that summarizes the twenty two twenty six budget
when it received its preliminary approval. So a lot of information,
as you said, is out there. But I think the
(05:07):
most important thing I've learned since coming back into this
position is that we all have a voice.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And so September ninth, you can show up and be heard. Yep,
absolutely so, onto the regular agenda and what you had
just talked about.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
House Bill A Love in seventy six is passed by
the legislature this last spring, and it did set a
three percent cap on growth for municipalities.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
But I think we've learned.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Listening to the City Commission meetings that we all, if
you have a primary residence, there'll be some significant property
tax relief coming our way. But maybe some confusion on
that three percent. Maybe homeowners, the primary residents are thinking
their property taxes cap at three percent and on, and
B Director Marsette came in last.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Night really tried to clear up some of that.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Right, it will come down to evaluations, It'll come down
to if you made improvements to your home. It'll just
come down to the general levee that is set by
the city.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
And so.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
We all appreciate mister morris AT's time and willingness to
come and help translate and make some sense of House
Build eleven seventy six, because I think everyone's takeaway might
be a little bit different all the way around. So
what he did say is that it really provides four things.
It increases the resident credit from five hundred to sixteen
hundred dollars. It provides a dedicated funding source for the
(06:34):
relief from the Legacy Fund earnings. It imposes a three
percent cap on political subdivision budget growth from property tax,
and then it allows a carryover of unused levey authority
if the actual amount is less than three percent. So
say a community raises their budget two and a half
percent one year, the following year, they could consider carrying
(06:54):
that additional half percent over In the following year it
could be three and a half percent. And I believe
there's a five year maximumm for the carryover amounts, so
it wouldn't be in perpetuity. So I think one of
the things that's important to note is what is the
revenue source for this property tax relief, and it is
the Legacy Fund earnings, and mister morrisad shared how those
(07:15):
percentages through the Legacy Fund are distributed and roughly this
next biennium, four hundred and nine million dollars of the
legacy earnings will go towards legacy property tax relief.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And the keyword there are just to reiterate, it is
earnings not actually taking from the Legacy Fund, but earnings
on the funds, on the deposits that are going in.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Through the deposits and the investments and all the money
that it is generating.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well, we do have a clip from Joe from last
night really focusing in on the primary residents and what
one a homeowner could expect with House Bill eleven seventy
six and how it'll impact them.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
It's not the three percent app does not apply to
the individual taxpayer. The three percent cap applies on the
city budget, and the impact on the individual taxpayer is
going to depend on their own situation and their own
change and assessed value. The very bottom line that the
taxpayer is going to see, though, is going to be
a significant reduction for everybody who's subject to the primary
(08:20):
residence credit, because that was five hundred dollars last year,
is going to be sixteen hundred dollars this year. So
in all of my examples, taxpayers that are getting that
credit are going to see an overall reduction of you know,
thirty eight to forty five percent.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So there we heard from mister Morrisset. We didn't actually
get to see him.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He did have a nice suit in tie on last night,
so I just want to say that. But he did
provide a lot of excellent information. I think cleared up
a lot with his presentation last night. Moving on, former
Mayor Marlon Hockinson was on the agenda last night, and
he has a petition that would, in essense, if I
(09:06):
understood him correctly, would roll back water rates and property
taxes to the year two thousand and eighteen for Bismarck
residents only. That's kind of a starting point.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
That's my understanding as well. Yes, and so Hawk, as
many of us know him as, has been working to
collect signatures for quite some time, and we're actually going
back a couple of years when we start to.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Start this conversation.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
North Cota state law allows for citizens to collect signatures
for initiated measures or ordnance changes, and in this case,
and in any case, the state law says that a
petitioner has up to twelve months to gather the minimum
number of signatures required. In the case of mister Hawkinson,
(09:55):
he was not able to successfully collect the minimum number
of signatures in under twelve month months, and it actually
went from our Attorney's office to the Attorney General's office
for an opinion as an interpretation to affirm that yes,
it is twelve months. And so I think what the
ask of mister Hawkinson was last night was to accept
(10:16):
those signatures that he had collected over that period of
time despite the fact that they have passed the twelve
month window, and there was no action taken by the commissioners. However,
there was quite a bit of discussion on what would
happen if that were to take place, if we rolled
back water rates to twenty eighteen dollars, and if we
(10:38):
also capped our city budget at twenty eighteen amounts. I
think one of the things that some of the commissioners noted.
Mayor Schmidtson primarily noted right away there would be a
significant reduction in force and meaning twenty eighteen budgets compared
to where we are today. We just simply don't have
the resources to pay for staff. And if we're apping
(11:00):
the general fund budget that we're really talking about public safety, police, fire,
emergency dispatch, public works, roads and streets, those are all
funded through the general fund. And so yes, we have
added staff since twenty eighteen. We are a growing community,
we have more responsibilities, we have a larger area to
provide service to, and frankly, I think asking city staff
(11:25):
to be able to do the job today and in
the future that they were able to do in twenty
eighteen with the same amount of money, then it would
be a pretty significant challenge for us to be able
to successfully deliver the same level of service that we
are today. And the Commission again took no action, but
did use the opportunity to kind of share some concerns.
(11:47):
Mister Hawkinson did indicate that it would be his intention
to potentially take an ad out in the Bismarck Tribune
where he could essentially collect signatures that way. He also
kind of tipped his hat towards some sort of a
lawsuit against the State of North Dakota. I'm holding the
ACLU potentially against the citizens for the City of Bismarck
(12:11):
as well. I'm certainly not going to speculate on what
his next move is. But for the commissioners, there are
again no action taken other than to receive his.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Request and maybe a bit of interesting details.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Certainly, I'm not an attorney, but North Kota Century Code,
which governs our laws here in North Dakota.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Says you have that year to collect those signatures, right
the Bismarck homer Will Charter.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I believe HOWK indicated last night that there's no time limit,
so you kind of forfeit towards state law. And so
that's I think something he also tried to interpret himself.
But I guess we'll see where what happens next, if
the ad is taken out, if a lawsuit is filed,
or something else happens in the future. But like you said,
(12:56):
no action taken last night, and it was being you know,
a resident to hear about how much a fire department
would have to be you know, the rifts in a
fire department, a police department. Nobody thinks their roads get
cleared fast enough during a blizzard as it is, so
going back seven or eight years certainly would be challenging
(13:17):
at best. Moving on to the public hearing on liquor licenses,
kind of.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Getting into the weeds a little bit.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You go onto a mend or titled not you but
a men, Title five of an ordinance that would change
some language, revise some language, and I guess there are
some concerns about how what used to be called special
event permits were used and now we're calling them event permits.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it's uns bundle this a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
This is where government kind of trips itself sometimes, and
Bismarck has a lot in many cities have a long
history of trying to regulate alcohol licenses, bars, liquor stores,
you name it. And we in Bismarck for years have
had a special event permit that can be applied for
(14:08):
by many of the existing alcohol license holders in the community.
And what does that special event permit do? It allows
them to provide a service outside of their normal location,
and so you can provide catering. It can be for
wedding events, private parties, whatever the case might be. And
so our office process is quite frankly, almost two hundred
(14:31):
of these things each year, and there's a lot of
activity in our community. There's a lot of requests for
catered events with alcohol. Where we find ourselves today is
that we have a business owner who did provide comment
at the podium last night, and she indicated that she
is an owner in six or seven different businesses in
(14:52):
the community, and not to put her on the spot,
but to use her words, she said, I might be
the the reason for this change. And I think one
thing that I need to state is that according to
our interpretation of the ordinance, according to the city attorney's
interpretation of the ordinance, no laws were being broken.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
But what was.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Happening is that there were special events being held, sometimes
private events, but sometimes also public events where anybody could
just stop in and have a cocktail. And that caught
the attention of some of the other establishments downtown, particularly
a couple of the bars that have made a significant
investment in the Class D alcohol license. It's probably the
(15:39):
most coveted license we have as far as alcohol licensing.
Boys Commissioner's anchor had noted, the city has really turned
this into a commodity because we restrict the number of them.
We say where you can and can't be with them,
You can't be too close to something else sometimes, and
there's a lot of regulation that goes along with alcohol licensing.
(16:00):
I think where we have landed is that there again,
there wasn't anything going on that was inappropriate, but yet
it came down to an interpretation. So the purpose of
the ordinance change last night was to clarify no longer
call these special event It's called an event permit. There's
a restriction on the number of days in a row
that you can host an event at a site, but
(16:22):
there is no cap on the number of special events
you can do annually. Because we do have companies that
rely very much on catering and we want to maybe
we want to make them able to perform to the
best of their abilities. There is demand for that in
the community. We're not here to stifle any of that.
But I think what some of the commissioners noted is
that this current situation we have with the D licenses,
(16:45):
it's been a problem in the past for some, it's
a barrier to entry for others going forward. And it
was Commissioner's anchor that remarked that he would like to
see the Class D owners come together and come back
with a proposal that would satisfy their needs but then
also open the door for more opportunities for other businesses
(17:06):
in the future. Are we going to get to that,
I don't know, but our office would love to be
a part of that if there are some ideas out there.
We've met with these these individuals several times over the
many years and understand that their businesses are challenging to run.
Many businesses are very challenging to run. But at the
same time I can appreciate where the commissioners are that
(17:27):
in some ways in this situation, government's got its thumb
on the scale just a little bit because we are
restricting certain opportunities that others might like to try and.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Be a part of.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So with that, I should also note we are in
the process of accepting sealed bids for new Class D licenses,
and this is part of that barrier to entry those licenses.
The bidding starts at two hundred thousand dollars. The last
time we solde there's three Class dfs that are up
up for auction up for bid. The last time we
(18:00):
sold a D it was just over three hundred thousand dollars,
And so I understand as a business owner that is
a tremendous investment to frankly buy a piece of paper.
Then you've still got to build your storefront and have
your employees all of the inventory.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
It's a lot. So is there a better way to
go about this? Perhaps?
Speaker 4 (18:21):
I think the mayor has some ideas, Commissioner's anchor may
have some ideas, But we also need to hear from
the existing businesses as well to make sure that we're
not jeopardizing anything going forward. But in the end, the
residents just want to be able to have a good time.
And that's where I say we as government, we kind
of trip ourselves a little bit because if you ask
the citizens, I think most people would just say, what's
(18:42):
the big deal, Let's just have some fun. But these
are the rules that we have inherited. These are long
standing ordinances going all the way back to the fifties
in Bismarck. So we'll see and we'll keep going.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
We'll see what happens on the page and see what
happens next.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
To talk about Elkridge's fourth edition.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And you know, you mentioned off and on through our
conversations just about the amount of growth that happens in Bismarck.
This is just another example. This is I guess, northwest
Bismarck and that Elkridge Elementary School area, And.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Did you say an additional forty forty six lots in
twenty three acres, so they're fairly generous size lots eleven twelve,
fourteen thousand square feet on the kind of on the
small end. But again it's just that intentional continuation of
measured growth. We're not sprawling into a remote area. This
(19:38):
is contiguous to city limits, so we can annex provide services,
have street connectivity, bus service, all of that comes along
with us as well. This is brought forward by the
Section eighteen land Company Elkridge. Much of that area is
under the leadership of the Canutson family and so Cam
and his partners, we wish them well with this one
(20:00):
is as they go forward, but I just want to
mention that we're we're still adding neighborhoods to town, no
question about it.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Also one final topic, some discussion on topics that could
be discussed that next the next Bismarck City Commission Burly
County Commission Combined meeting during the ETA, and.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
So that was brought up last night right that group.
So the Bismarck Burley Combined Commission's committee is Mayor Schmidts
and myself representing Bismarck on the Burley County side. It
is Commissioner Steve Backin and Auditor Marx Blunskowski. So the
four of us meet on the first Tuesday of every month,
typically at four o'clock in the Tom Baker Room. In September,
(20:43):
September second, first Tuesday, we will meet at five o'clock
and the request to move it to five o'clock is
to open the door a little wider for people that
would like to speak during public comment. We understand eight
to five is a traditional work day. I don't know
how typical it is for many folks anymore, but the
request was to move it to five. Not a problem.
(21:05):
If it makes it easier for some people to be
able to share their thoughts, that's ultimately the goal. We
had it on the agenda again last night had a
couple of comments from people that we've heard from in
the past relating to the ETA.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
But what the.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Purpose will also be on the September second meeting is
to start talking about some of those areas that our
planning staff is looking at in the rural areas where
the ETA may no longer be necessary, and we're looking
at rural subdivisions that are in many cases built out
or would be extremely challenging to convert to an urban
type neighborhood. So I think we'll see a few examples
(21:41):
of that from the planning staff. But then also during
last night's discussion, I think we should note, you know,
Commissioner Rish did kind of push back a little bit
on some of the remarks that were offered by the
Burley County commissioners. And I'm not going to get into
the political fray of things, but I think Missioner Rish
noted that Burly residents have some of the same opportunities
(22:04):
as Bismarck residents do, in particular the parks, the public parks.
Burly residents do not pay property tax to the Bismarck
Park District, but yet sor Tomal Park, Hillside.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Park, all these areas that are out there are.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Of course open and available for everyone to enjoy, not
just Burly residents but also man and residence, tourist visitors,
all those sorts of things. But I can I can
appreciate Commissioner Risch's comments, and he's speaking from a resident
of the city of Bismarck, and so I think there's
two sides to every story. And going forward, obviously we're
(22:40):
trying to figure this out and work together so everybody
can just get along and move forward. I don't think
we're there just yet, but we are still coming to
the table.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, movements being made.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It'll be interesting to see what happens that that next
combined meeting. Wanted to touch on a really neat event
that's taking place Sunday, September seventh, I believe, and it's
a community table is the name, and local food, civil conversations.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Tell us a little bit about this event.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
So our department, one of the departments of the city
is of course, the Bismark Veterans Memorial Public Library, and
Christine Quiava, the library director, does a wonderful job welcoming
everyone to the library. And she has partnered with forty
Abraham Lincoln Foundation, the downtowners, our public Health Department, and
a number of other sponsors here to bring this event
(23:35):
to the citizens.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
And I believe.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Registration is necessary. There's a limited seating, but the intent
is to just exactly that. It's to have a community
conversation over a meal. It'll be catered by a local
restaurant as well as a local familiar face from some
of the farmers' markets, and there will be a facilitated
(23:59):
conversation that will be led by some professionals in The
intent is to really break away from screens and keyboards
and get to know your neighbor face to face and
ultimately realize that you may not agree on everything, but
it's a lot better to have a civil discussion face
to face than it is to just pound out your
thoughts on the keyboard, hit the exclamation mark and walk away.
(24:21):
So come on out. Hopefully the weather cooperates. Sunday evenings
should be a great time. It's at the library. I
believe it's intended to be outside, weather permitting, and if
you have any questions, you can go to the library
website or the City of Bismarck website. There's a QR
code there where you can scan it and register and
be a part of it. Something really really fun, big event.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Pretty soon we'll have to change the topic from street
at least summer street construction to fall street construction and
then winter, but just not. I always like to remind
people if you want to see the latest, go to Bismarck,
Andy dot gov slash streets. You can see what's happening.
Perhaps in your neighborhood and how far along street construction
(25:03):
is as you mentioned, September is just around the corner.
And finally, again just want to remind people I use
it a lot.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I told you last night. I was decided I was
going to go for a bike ride and listen to
the City Commission meeting.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So I did so from our Radio Access one oh
two point five apps. So I just had that in
my pocket and it was very careful. Was not on dangerous.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Roads, but it wasn't. Yeah, it was kind of mellowing, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I didn't have the rocky theme song going for motivation,
but I did listen to the city Commission meeting while
I was getting a little bit of exercise. So our
two apps are great ways to access the information that
we've been talking about.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
So Jason, thanks for.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Joining us again and we'll see you next time on
City Current.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit Bismarck end dot gov or call
seven zero one three five five one three zero zero.
If you have suggestions, comments, or issues you would like
addressed in future episodes, contact us at info at free
tv dot org. This program airs on government Access channel
(26:11):
two and six oh two in HD or on Radio
Access one oh two point five FM. It's also available
as a podcast on Radioaccess dot org and as a
video viewing link at free tv dot org. Thanks for
tuning in to this edition of City Current
City Current, produced by Dakota Media Access in depth discussion
with Bismarck and Mandan city officials. Watch on Government Access
Channel six ZHO two HD, or tune in to Radio
Access one O two point five FM, Always Local, Always Current.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thanks for joining us on City Current. I'm Tom Gerhart
from Dakota Media Access along with Bismarck City Administrator Jason Timonic.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good to see you, Jason.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Thanks Tom, glad to be here fresh off a City
Commission meeting.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Let's go over a few of the bullet point topics
we'll be talking about in today's episode. We'll be touching
base on the alcohol license events permits and talk about
what was decided and determined last.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Night at the City Commission meeting.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Former Mayor Marlon Hockinson has a petition that he brought
before the Commission. We'll give you the details on what
he would like to see happen, and probably the thing
that affects all of us, or does affect all of us,
is House Bill eleven seventy six and R and B.
Office of Management Budget Director Joe Morsett came down and
(01:14):
addressed the City Commission last night and gave a lot
of information on particularly I think the education piece that
the City commission the mayor have been talking about what
it means for our property taxes if you have a
primary residence, and just trying to clear up some perhaps
some misconceptions. But I wanted to start things off with
(01:34):
one item from the consent agenda that will be front
and center on September ninth, and that's the twenty twenty
six city budget.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yes, so the action last night was the call for
the public hearing for the budget itself, and no discussion
from any of the commissioners. We have had several weeks
months that has gone into the preparation of this, and
one of the intentional steps that we take is to
(02:05):
incorporate the commissioners as we work through the budget piece
by piece, and ultimately one of their roles as a
portfolio holder is to participate and engage in those discussions
when it's their portfolio's turn. So the commissioners have seen
many fragments and pieces of this throughout. This was the
first full presentation that was put together by the finance staff,
(02:28):
and rather than kind of pick through all the different
components of it, I think what I would encourage people
to do is to navigate themselves to the City of
Bismarck website Bismark, Indie dot CoV if you go to
the Agenda Center, which is where we host and post
all of our agendas and minutes. The agenda packet from
the August twenty sixth, twenty twenty five City Commission meeting
(02:49):
will have the full budget, it will have the capital
improvements projects, It'll have the one time requests, It'll have
the general collections for general fund, all the enterprise funds,
fees and charges are in there. There's a lot of
information I understand, and we are here to help answer
those questions that come forward. So by all means, if
citizens have questions, they can reach out to staff. What
(03:11):
I would also encourage people is that in two weeks
we will have the public hearing and that will be
the time for our city commissioners to either approve as
presented or to make some changes to the budget as
they see necessary. And one of the things that I
think is important, and you'll hear this across all the
political subdivisions. At the primary budget introduction back in July,
(03:34):
that was really the first go of things, and really
what that did is it set the maximum amount for
the city's budget. No additional expenses can be added to
the budget for next year. Obviously, things can be reduced,
things can be eliminated, things, other things could be included,
but the full dollar amount cannot go up from this point.
(03:56):
So for anybody that would like to speak in two weeks,
encourage you to do a little research, grab and grab
some of this data. Again, if you have questions, you
can reach out to staff either in city administration or
in our finance department. I'm sure everyone would be more
than happy to help answer any questions that you may have.
In the past. You know, we definitely get a few
(04:18):
people involved and come to the public hearings and share
their thoughts, and we always appreciate that. But going forward,
I think we've got a it's a balanced budget, it's
a very modest approach to taxation, and it dovetails into
our next discussion here or one of our future discussions
with Hels Bill eleven seventy six. And so this is
our first goal at a budget with a three percent
(04:41):
cap on our total expenses total budget cap.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And you mentioned the full packet with the budget is
available in the agenda from that August meeting. Also Dmitri
gave a presentation that evening that you could go back
and watch that summarizes the twenty two twenty six budget
when it received its preliminary approval. So a lot of information,
as you said, is out there. But I think the
(05:07):
most important thing I've learned since coming back into this
position is that we all have a voice.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And so September ninth, you can show up and be heard. Yep,
absolutely so, onto the regular agenda and what you had
just talked about.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
House Bill A Love in seventy six is passed by
the legislature this last spring, and it did set a
three percent cap on growth for municipalities.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
But I think we've learned.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Listening to the City Commission meetings that we all, if
you have a primary residence, there'll be some significant property
tax relief coming our way. But maybe some confusion on
that three percent. Maybe homeowners, the primary residents are thinking
their property taxes cap at three percent and on, and
B Director Marsette came in last.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Night really tried to clear up some of that.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Right, it will come down to evaluations, It'll come down
to if you made improvements to your home. It'll just
come down to the general levee that is set by
the city.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
And so.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
We all appreciate mister morris AT's time and willingness to
come and help translate and make some sense of House
Build eleven seventy six, because I think everyone's takeaway might
be a little bit different all the way around. So
what he did say is that it really provides four things.
It increases the resident credit from five hundred to sixteen
hundred dollars. It provides a dedicated funding source for the
(06:34):
relief from the Legacy Fund earnings. It imposes a three
percent cap on political subdivision budget growth from property tax,
and then it allows a carryover of unused levey authority
if the actual amount is less than three percent. So
say a community raises their budget two and a half
percent one year, the following year, they could consider carrying
(06:54):
that additional half percent over In the following year it
could be three and a half percent. And I believe
there's a five year maximumm for the carryover amounts, so
it wouldn't be in perpetuity. So I think one of
the things that's important to note is what is the
revenue source for this property tax relief, and it is
the Legacy Fund earnings, and mister morrisad shared how those
(07:15):
percentages through the Legacy Fund are distributed and roughly this
next biennium, four hundred and nine million dollars of the
legacy earnings will go towards legacy property tax relief.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And the keyword there are just to reiterate, it is
earnings not actually taking from the Legacy Fund, but earnings
on the funds, on the deposits that are going in.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Through the deposits and the investments and all the money
that it is generating.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well, we do have a clip from Joe from last
night really focusing in on the primary residents and what
one a homeowner could expect with House Bill eleven seventy
six and how it'll impact them.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
It's not the three percent app does not apply to
the individual taxpayer. The three percent cap applies on the
city budget, and the impact on the individual taxpayer is
going to depend on their own situation and their own
change and assessed value. The very bottom line that the
taxpayer is going to see, though, is going to be
a significant reduction for everybody who's subject to the primary
(08:20):
residence credit, because that was five hundred dollars last year,
is going to be sixteen hundred dollars this year. So
in all of my examples, taxpayers that are getting that
credit are going to see an overall reduction of you know,
thirty eight to forty five percent.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So there we heard from mister Morrisset. We didn't actually
get to see him.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He did have a nice suit in tie on last night,
so I just want to say that. But he did
provide a lot of excellent information. I think cleared up
a lot with his presentation last night. Moving on, former
Mayor Marlon Hockinson was on the agenda last night, and
he has a petition that would, in essense, if I
(09:06):
understood him correctly, would roll back water rates and property
taxes to the year two thousand and eighteen for Bismarck
residents only. That's kind of a starting point.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
That's my understanding as well. Yes, and so Hawk, as
many of us know him as, has been working to
collect signatures for quite some time, and we're actually going
back a couple of years when we start to.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Start this conversation.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
North Cota state law allows for citizens to collect signatures
for initiated measures or ordnance changes, and in this case,
and in any case, the state law says that a
petitioner has up to twelve months to gather the minimum
number of signatures required. In the case of mister Hawkinson,
(09:55):
he was not able to successfully collect the minimum number
of signatures in under twelve month months, and it actually
went from our Attorney's office to the Attorney General's office
for an opinion as an interpretation to affirm that yes,
it is twelve months. And so I think what the
ask of mister Hawkinson was last night was to accept
(10:16):
those signatures that he had collected over that period of
time despite the fact that they have passed the twelve
month window, and there was no action taken by the commissioners. However,
there was quite a bit of discussion on what would
happen if that were to take place, if we rolled
back water rates to twenty eighteen dollars, and if we
(10:38):
also capped our city budget at twenty eighteen amounts. I
think one of the things that some of the commissioners noted.
Mayor Schmidtson primarily noted right away there would be a
significant reduction in force and meaning twenty eighteen budgets compared
to where we are today. We just simply don't have
the resources to pay for staff. And if we're apping
(11:00):
the general fund budget that we're really talking about public safety, police, fire,
emergency dispatch, public works, roads and streets, those are all
funded through the general fund. And so yes, we have
added staff since twenty eighteen. We are a growing community,
we have more responsibilities, we have a larger area to
provide service to, and frankly, I think asking city staff
(11:25):
to be able to do the job today and in
the future that they were able to do in twenty
eighteen with the same amount of money, then it would
be a pretty significant challenge for us to be able
to successfully deliver the same level of service that we
are today. And the Commission again took no action, but
did use the opportunity to kind of share some concerns.
(11:47):
Mister Hawkinson did indicate that it would be his intention
to potentially take an ad out in the Bismarck Tribune
where he could essentially collect signatures that way. He also
kind of tipped his hat towards some sort of a
lawsuit against the State of North Dakota. I'm holding the
ACLU potentially against the citizens for the City of Bismarck
(12:11):
as well. I'm certainly not going to speculate on what
his next move is. But for the commissioners, there are
again no action taken other than to receive his.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Request and maybe a bit of interesting details.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Certainly, I'm not an attorney, but North Kota Century Code,
which governs our laws here in North Dakota.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Says you have that year to collect those signatures, right
the Bismarck homer Will Charter.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I believe HOWK indicated last night that there's no time limit,
so you kind of forfeit towards state law. And so
that's I think something he also tried to interpret himself.
But I guess we'll see where what happens next, if
the ad is taken out, if a lawsuit is filed,
or something else happens in the future. But like you said,
(12:56):
no action taken last night, and it was being you know,
a resident to hear about how much a fire department
would have to be you know, the rifts in a
fire department, a police department. Nobody thinks their roads get
cleared fast enough during a blizzard as it is, so
going back seven or eight years certainly would be challenging
(13:17):
at best. Moving on to the public hearing on liquor licenses,
kind of.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Getting into the weeds a little bit.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You go onto a mend or titled not you but
a men, Title five of an ordinance that would change
some language, revise some language, and I guess there are
some concerns about how what used to be called special
event permits were used and now we're calling them event permits.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it's uns bundle this a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
This is where government kind of trips itself sometimes, and
Bismarck has a lot in many cities have a long
history of trying to regulate alcohol licenses, bars, liquor stores,
you name it. And we in Bismarck for years have
had a special event permit that can be applied for
(14:08):
by many of the existing alcohol license holders in the community.
And what does that special event permit do? It allows
them to provide a service outside of their normal location,
and so you can provide catering. It can be for
wedding events, private parties, whatever the case might be. And
so our office process is quite frankly, almost two hundred
(14:31):
of these things each year, and there's a lot of
activity in our community. There's a lot of requests for
catered events with alcohol. Where we find ourselves today is
that we have a business owner who did provide comment
at the podium last night, and she indicated that she
is an owner in six or seven different businesses in
(14:52):
the community, and not to put her on the spot,
but to use her words, she said, I might be
the the reason for this change. And I think one
thing that I need to state is that according to
our interpretation of the ordinance, according to the city attorney's
interpretation of the ordinance, no laws were being broken.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
But what was.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Happening is that there were special events being held, sometimes
private events, but sometimes also public events where anybody could
just stop in and have a cocktail. And that caught
the attention of some of the other establishments downtown, particularly
a couple of the bars that have made a significant
investment in the Class D alcohol license. It's probably the
(15:39):
most coveted license we have as far as alcohol licensing.
Boys Commissioner's anchor had noted, the city has really turned
this into a commodity because we restrict the number of them.
We say where you can and can't be with them,
You can't be too close to something else sometimes, and
there's a lot of regulation that goes along with alcohol licensing.
(16:00):
I think where we have landed is that there again,
there wasn't anything going on that was inappropriate, but yet
it came down to an interpretation. So the purpose of
the ordinance change last night was to clarify no longer
call these special event It's called an event permit. There's
a restriction on the number of days in a row
that you can host an event at a site, but
(16:22):
there is no cap on the number of special events
you can do annually. Because we do have companies that
rely very much on catering and we want to maybe
we want to make them able to perform to the
best of their abilities. There is demand for that in
the community. We're not here to stifle any of that.
But I think what some of the commissioners noted is
that this current situation we have with the D licenses,
(16:45):
it's been a problem in the past for some, it's
a barrier to entry for others going forward. And it
was Commissioner's anchor that remarked that he would like to
see the Class D owners come together and come back
with a proposal that would satisfy their needs but then
also open the door for more opportunities for other businesses
(17:06):
in the future. Are we going to get to that,
I don't know, but our office would love to be
a part of that if there are some ideas out there.
We've met with these these individuals several times over the
many years and understand that their businesses are challenging to run.
Many businesses are very challenging to run. But at the
same time I can appreciate where the commissioners are that
(17:27):
in some ways in this situation, government's got its thumb
on the scale just a little bit because we are
restricting certain opportunities that others might like to try and.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Be a part of.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So with that, I should also note we are in
the process of accepting sealed bids for new Class D licenses,
and this is part of that barrier to entry those licenses.
The bidding starts at two hundred thousand dollars. The last
time we solde there's three Class dfs that are up
up for auction up for bid. The last time we
(18:00):
sold a D it was just over three hundred thousand dollars,
And so I understand as a business owner that is
a tremendous investment to frankly buy a piece of paper.
Then you've still got to build your storefront and have
your employees all of the inventory.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
It's a lot. So is there a better way to
go about this? Perhaps?
Speaker 4 (18:21):
I think the mayor has some ideas, Commissioner's anchor may
have some ideas, But we also need to hear from
the existing businesses as well to make sure that we're
not jeopardizing anything going forward. But in the end, the
residents just want to be able to have a good time.
And that's where I say we as government, we kind
of trip ourselves a little bit because if you ask
the citizens, I think most people would just say, what's
(18:42):
the big deal, Let's just have some fun. But these
are the rules that we have inherited. These are long
standing ordinances going all the way back to the fifties
in Bismarck. So we'll see and we'll keep going.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
We'll see what happens on the page and see what
happens next.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
To talk about Elkridge's fourth edition.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And you know, you mentioned off and on through our
conversations just about the amount of growth that happens in Bismarck.
This is just another example. This is I guess, northwest
Bismarck and that Elkridge Elementary School area, And.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Did you say an additional forty forty six lots in
twenty three acres, so they're fairly generous size lots eleven twelve,
fourteen thousand square feet on the kind of on the
small end. But again it's just that intentional continuation of
measured growth. We're not sprawling into a remote area. This
(19:38):
is contiguous to city limits, so we can annex provide services,
have street connectivity, bus service, all of that comes along
with us as well. This is brought forward by the
Section eighteen land Company Elkridge. Much of that area is
under the leadership of the Canutson family and so Cam
and his partners, we wish them well with this one
(20:00):
is as they go forward, but I just want to
mention that we're we're still adding neighborhoods to town, no
question about it.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Also one final topic, some discussion on topics that could
be discussed that next the next Bismarck City Commission Burly
County Commission Combined meeting during the ETA, and.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
So that was brought up last night right that group.
So the Bismarck Burley Combined Commission's committee is Mayor Schmidts
and myself representing Bismarck on the Burley County side. It
is Commissioner Steve Backin and Auditor Marx Blunskowski. So the
four of us meet on the first Tuesday of every month,
typically at four o'clock in the Tom Baker Room. In September,
(20:43):
September second, first Tuesday, we will meet at five o'clock
and the request to move it to five o'clock is
to open the door a little wider for people that
would like to speak during public comment. We understand eight
to five is a traditional work day. I don't know
how typical it is for many folks anymore, but the
request was to move it to five. Not a problem.
(21:05):
If it makes it easier for some people to be
able to share their thoughts, that's ultimately the goal. We
had it on the agenda again last night had a
couple of comments from people that we've heard from in
the past relating to the ETA.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
But what the.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Purpose will also be on the September second meeting is
to start talking about some of those areas that our
planning staff is looking at in the rural areas where
the ETA may no longer be necessary, and we're looking
at rural subdivisions that are in many cases built out
or would be extremely challenging to convert to an urban
type neighborhood. So I think we'll see a few examples
(21:41):
of that from the planning staff. But then also during
last night's discussion, I think we should note, you know,
Commissioner Rish did kind of push back a little bit
on some of the remarks that were offered by the
Burley County commissioners. And I'm not going to get into
the political fray of things, but I think Missioner Rish
noted that Burly residents have some of the same opportunities
(22:04):
as Bismarck residents do, in particular the parks, the public parks.
Burly residents do not pay property tax to the Bismarck
Park District, but yet sor Tomal Park, Hillside.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Park, all these areas that are out there are.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Of course open and available for everyone to enjoy, not
just Burly residents but also man and residence, tourist visitors,
all those sorts of things. But I can I can
appreciate Commissioner Risch's comments, and he's speaking from a resident
of the city of Bismarck, and so I think there's
two sides to every story. And going forward, obviously we're
(22:40):
trying to figure this out and work together so everybody
can just get along and move forward. I don't think
we're there just yet, but we are still coming to
the table.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, movements being made.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It'll be interesting to see what happens that that next
combined meeting. Wanted to touch on a really neat event
that's taking place Sunday, September seventh, I believe, and it's
a community table is the name, and local food, civil conversations.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Tell us a little bit about this event.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
So our department, one of the departments of the city
is of course, the Bismark Veterans Memorial Public Library, and
Christine Quiava, the library director, does a wonderful job welcoming
everyone to the library. And she has partnered with forty
Abraham Lincoln Foundation, the downtowners, our public Health Department, and
a number of other sponsors here to bring this event
(23:35):
to the citizens.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
And I believe.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Registration is necessary. There's a limited seating, but the intent
is to just exactly that. It's to have a community
conversation over a meal. It'll be catered by a local
restaurant as well as a local familiar face from some
of the farmers' markets, and there will be a facilitated
(23:59):
conversation that will be led by some professionals in The
intent is to really break away from screens and keyboards
and get to know your neighbor face to face and
ultimately realize that you may not agree on everything, but
it's a lot better to have a civil discussion face
to face than it is to just pound out your
thoughts on the keyboard, hit the exclamation mark and walk away.
(24:21):
So come on out. Hopefully the weather cooperates. Sunday evenings
should be a great time. It's at the library. I
believe it's intended to be outside, weather permitting, and if
you have any questions, you can go to the library
website or the City of Bismarck website. There's a QR
code there where you can scan it and register and
be a part of it. Something really really fun, big event.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Pretty soon we'll have to change the topic from street
at least summer street construction to fall street construction and
then winter, but just not. I always like to remind
people if you want to see the latest, go to Bismarck,
Andy dot gov slash streets. You can see what's happening.
Perhaps in your neighborhood and how far along street construction
(25:03):
is as you mentioned, September is just around the corner.
And finally, again just want to remind people I use
it a lot.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I told you last night. I was decided I was
going to go for a bike ride and listen to
the City Commission meeting.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So I did so from our Radio Access one oh
two point five apps. So I just had that in
my pocket and it was very careful. Was not on dangerous.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Roads, but it wasn't. Yeah, it was kind of mellowing, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I didn't have the rocky theme song going for motivation,
but I did listen to the city Commission meeting while
I was getting a little bit of exercise. So our
two apps are great ways to access the information that
we've been talking about.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
So Jason, thanks for.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Joining us again and we'll see you next time on
City Current.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
For more information on what was discussed in this episode
of City Current, visit Bismarck end dot gov or call
seven zero one three five five one three zero zero.
If you have suggestions, comments, or issues you would like
addressed in future episodes, contact us at info at free
tv dot org. This program airs on government Access channel
(26:11):
two and six oh two in HD or on Radio
Access one oh two point five FM. It's also available
as a podcast on Radioaccess dot org and as a
video viewing link at free tv dot org. Thanks for
tuning in to this edition of City Current
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