REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Tuesday February 22, 2022
ALL PRESENT: Commissioner Jones, Chair; Commissioners Ostlund and Pitman; Board Clerk Teri Reitz; Clerk and Recorder Jeff Martin.
PLEDGE.
9:30 a.m. RECOGNITION – Troy Charbonneau – Sheriff Detective – 20 Years of Service; Carissa Keithley – Sheriff Records – 10 Years of Service.
9:30 a.m. PUBLIC HEARING – West Meadows Subdivision, 2nd Filing, Phase II Opening. Mr. Dave Green, Planner stated the Planning Division received an application for opening Phase II within West Meadows Subdivision, 2nd Filing. The subject property is generally located on the east side of Whistlers Way and south of Central Avenue. This phase will open 8 lots. The subdivision is for residential development. The Planning staff is recommending approval of the opening of Phase II of West Meadows subdivision, 2nd Filing. Commissioner Jones opened the Public Hearing. Hearing no comments Commissioner Jones closed the Public Hearing. Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to approve West Meadows Subdivision, 2nd Filing, Phase II opening, Commissioner Pitman seconded. Passed Unanimous
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON REGULAR, CONSENT AND FILED AGENDA ITEMS – Hearing no comments Commissioner Jones continued the Board Meeting.
COMMISSIONERS – Commissioner Ostlund would like to take item 1A and 1B out of order. B.) Discussion on Engaging a Professional Consultant for Privatization Negotiations. Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to engage Venue Solutions Group to be our owner’s representative, Commissioner Jones seconded. Commissioner Jones amended the MOTION by saying they will facilitate the conversation on the review of the RFQ&I’s for MetraPark Management, Commissioner Pitman seconded. Commissioner Pitman asked legal if the cart is too far ahead of the horse on this one, our next item is to go out for the RFQ&I, should we wait until those come back. Commissioner Pitman stated he is not opposed to engaging Venue Solutions Group. He stated he thought it is a good idea. This starts presuppositioning something that we haven’t gotten to yet. Ms. Jeana Lervick, Chief Deputy County Attorney stated that would be up to the board. Commissioner Ostlund stated he would like some clarification as to what the change to the motion means. Commissioner Ostlund stated he recommended the motion to mean that we retain Venue Solutions Group as an owner’s representative, to do all the things that we request (ie: review the proposals, answer questions that we may not know to ask). Commissioner Jones stated that the scope of work is going to be critical in hiring a consultant and we need make sure that they have no decision-making authority. Commissioner Pitman asked whether this needs to be part of the motion or part of the discussion because we usually get proposals and refer them staff. To have this group help us walk through this process is ok, I just don’t want there to be a presupposition that we’re already there before we get there. If it is a matter of just a scope and a matter of finding out or exploring, I am ok with that. Commissioner Ostlund asked, what does that mean, we’re already there before we get there? Commissioner Ostlund stated that one of the items on our agenda is an RFQ&I for MetraPark Campus Management Services and my motion was to engage them to be the owner’s representative to guide us through that process. We know that process is going to happen, and I am asking that we have an owner’s representative and that was the discussion last Thursday. What am I missing? Commissioner Pitman stated my question and concern is we are going to start this process over again, so if we weren’t doing that and we had the actual RFQ&I’s and we opened them and then we were moving forward from there, but now we are starting the RFQ&I process over and we are going to have a period of waiting for those proposals to come in and so we don’t have anything and part of that proposal was that we looked at what our options are before moving forward so if they are going to help us when they come in to kind of go through them, I guess I am trying to find out what your intent is. Commissioner Ostlund stated that the intent is to have an owner’s representative there to go through the proposals with us, that was the crux of the discussion on Thursday. Commissioner Pitman stated that becomes my question, right now we don’t have any proposals before us. Right? We rejected all the proposals. Commissioner Ostlund stated that when you are going to get proposals, you will engage a consultant before the proposal are received. Commissioner Jones stated he doesn’t have a problem engaging at this point because we won’t be over the $80,000 limit. We need to have the understanding of the scope of work and a little more that will need to be done to solidify it. Commissioner Pitman stated just for the record, because we will walk out of this meeting and somebody will start saying they have already made up their mind and they are hiring all these reps to go forward with a process that hasn’t even started, I want to make it clear that we haven’t gotten to that point. I think if we got one quote from MetraPark on a possible amount of money that Venue Solutions Group would charge. We need to hear from Venue Solutions Group directly on what they will bring to the table is going to be important. As long as this is just a conversation. On the agenda it is listed as private negotiations, and we are not there yet. Commissioner Ostlund stated privatization negotiations. Commissioner Pitman stated, right. I just want to make sure that there is no presupposition that we are already in negotiations. Commissioner Jones noted that he thinks they are all on the same page. Commissioner Ostlund clarified his motion to have James Matteson, Purchasing Agent work with the Board to engage Venue Solutions Group as a consultant for privatization negotiations with the scope to be determined. Passed Unanimous.
A.) MetraPark Questions Regarding MetraPark Management. Commissioner Jones goes through and answers the questions. Commissioner Ostlund
MetraPark Management
Private Sector Option
February, 2022
1. Is Metra's mission statement still valid, or in need of revision? If changes are needed, what changes are to be considered and why? Commissioners Jones response – One of the biggest things is adding maintaining facilities on this. I believe maintaining facilities is crucial. A little paint and a little loving care would have gone a long way.
2. Why hasn't a member of this board addressed a perceived need to consider this concept in the past 3 years? The past 5 years? Or at least at some point before the Metra board started educating the public on the masterplan options? Commissioners Jones response – When we were doing the Master Plan and out talking to people one of the biggest things people brought up was management at MetraPark. Management is a critical issue that needs to be addressed especially if we are going to add on 60 million-dollars-worth of facilities. I am not going to ignore the management issue and it seemed like that is the way we were going. I think we could have done this process half-way decent if we did not have this scorched earth problem on the other side. This is something we need to have figured out before we take it to the voters to add on more facilities.
3. Why did this board not wait until after the masterplan vote, so any prospective management firm would know the size and scope of what they are bidding on, and how to structure rates and incentives for a possible contract with the County? Commissioners Jones response – This is a three- or four-year project and if we are going to continue to manage it in the same way we are now, based on this report we are not managing it well. We had the perfect opportunity because the General Manager just retired, and this is the time we need to take a look at it and move forward. We could have built all the new infrastructure and said oh dang we don’t know how to manage it because we haven’t managed it well in the past so let’s start taking a look at that.
4. Before we look at RFQ responses next month, what are the goals and objectives for utilizing a private, out of state firm? Examples could be reduced or eliminated tax subsidy, reduced staff, etc. but should be expansive and not limited to a single reason. It should NOT include new or better events since that was the whole point of the OVG booking contract. Commissioner Jones response – There are some issues right now down at Metra as far as infrastructure. I don’t believe we will be cutting that down, but what we will do and hope that we do is if we build something else out is that we won’t increase it. If we keep managing it the same way this would be a 4-million-dollar taxpayer subsidy. We need to get this figured out before we move forward and add on additional facilities. Hopefully, we can keep it at the 2 million or less. The future County Commissioners are going to have to deal with that. Our goals and objectives on this has to be to increase facility usage, increase revenue and run it like a business. That 2-million-dollars will help subsidize some of the organizations like 4-H. Those will all be decisions that will have to be worked out. I have no intention of running off 4-H, Toys for Tots and organizations like that. This will have to be worked out as we move forward, there is no answer, that is part of the negotiation. That is what I keep saying, we need to sit down and talk with these guys and figure out what that looks like. I don’t know what that looks like and if we can’t make it look like what we want it to look like then we won’t go there. It’s that simple. It is a pretty easy concept, and I am not sure why these questions keep coming back. We don’t really know what that agreement would even look like and if we can’t come to an agreement that is in the best interest of the Metra or the County, then we won’t do it. We are in a great position right now, we have public management right now that we can go and make some major changes and make it happen, it is not going to be easy, but we can get there. A private management company would come in with policies and procedures already set. One of the questions you have asked, and you have several different forms of questions that you have asked here through different media types. There is no way that you asked the questions in 900 words, and I am supposed to answer them in 900 words and when you have that many questions you can’t do that in the newspaper. The first answer to one of your questions would be 900 words and you can’t do that in the newspaper. A lot of this is going to come down to looking and talking and figuring out what can happen in this negotiation and whether it makes sense. We are in the best position we can be in, we can go either way, we don’t have to go one way or the other. If we can’t come up with an agreement that makes sense, or we look at it and say we better stay on the course we are on now with public management, we can make that decision. I am not sure why that has become so controversial and the scorched earth method to try and kill it other than going back to your August 9th meeting saying that it has never been successful, which isn’t true, and the user groups are all decimated by it, that wasn’t the exact words but basically that is what you are saying.
5. If tax dollars directed to Metra are reduced, what is the board's plan for that? Commissioner Jones response – I mentioned that earlier, we have lots of use for that, we will probably have to invest the tax dollars to keep things going.
a. Drop those mills as a tax reduction to our taxpayers?
b. Re-direct some portion of those mills to Metra's CIP Fund, since I've heard that maintenance, repairs and improvements have fallen behind —for more than just the past 5 years? The grandstands and old barns have been in decline for much longer than just 5 years. That money will have to come from somewhere under any scenario going forward.
c. Re-direct some or all of those possible savings toward other areas of Yellowstone
County operations such as the detention facility, law enforcement, Youth Service Center, County Attorney or the courts? None of these areas are guaranteed to keep up with demands in the future.
6. Does this board want to retain the final say in pricing for events run by non-profits in our region, recognizing that the good to the community outweighs the almighty dollar? This includes, but is not limited to:
a. 4-H
b. Toys for Tots
c. Flakesgiving
d. Spay and neuter clinics
e. Festival of Trees
f. NILE
g. Riverstone Health uses
h. Indirect subsidies at work to help land Montana High School Association events and tournaments
Commissioner Jones response – It is my understanding, and it will be part of the negotiations is that we can retain the pricing and we will have to figure out what that means in our contract. We may have to subsidize some of those programs. I don’t know, that will be part of the negotiations. This isn’t unique. We are not going to run these programs off and say they are never going to be in here. There is so much rhetoric that it sounds like we are not going to have the facility used at all. A private enterprise is going to try to use the facility as much as possible. Some events will not be as profitable. Businesses are always donating time and money for different facilities. I don’t know how this looks, it is something we will have to negotiate and if we can’t negotiate out a reasonable solution, we won’t sign a contract with them. To keep putting this out to sound like, oh my gosh, these guys are all going to be ran off, I have said this before, this will all have to be negotiated. If we can’t negotiate it and can’t get there, then we won’t go there. It is that simple.
7. How will we address conflicts between longstanding dates and schedules on any of the above when a firm wants to consider a more profitable event for those timeslots? Commissioner Jones response – We can write that into the contract. There will be certain items that the Commissioners will have override authority. That is part of the negotiation of the contract. You keep asking these questions over and over, it comes down to contract negotiations.
8. Will this board stand up for making sure that current staff gets first shot at jobs with a private firm? Commissioner Jones response – I believe, yes, we will. Look at all the places that are looking for workers, I think we would be insane if we didn’t do that. It would be insane for them not to keep the employees on. I think they will come in and basically run with it.
9. Will this board protect the full-time jobs with benefits currently provided by the County, and not claim savings by the firm turning the majority of those jobs into part-time with no benefits, then getting a portion of those savings for themselves? Commissioner Jones response – That will all be part of negotiations. They are going to take a look at what our management structure looks like and what our employee structure looks like, and they will be protected from the beginning and then after they get into it, they may say, we need more people here and less people here. There were some concerns with what the Casper facility has for full time and part time employees but when you convert that over to Metra and you look at the full time, employees compared, we are a bigger facility, and it isn’t a lot different then what we have here.
10. Will the private management firm be allowed to charge all renters and promoters full actual costs for set up, tear down, dirt events, cleaning and loading in and out?
Commissioner Jones response – I am not sure why this question is asked, we don’t do that right now. We can go through how we are going to charge full actual costs, but that is part of the negotiations. We are trying to figure out what it costs to put on a dirt event. We are only charging 1/3 of what it costs to put dirt in and take it out. That is part of management of scheduling, we need to get better at that. That will come down to the County Commissioners and the negotiation of the contract. This isn’t going to be a one way, we hand it over to them and they do everything that they want to. It will be a public/private partnership. The public part of it is the Commissioner will still be in control of a lot of this.
a. What happens when an act like Garth Brooks comes in and the promoter refuses to pay? Do we lose those events? Commissioner Jones response – I believe that was a business decision that the County Commissioners made. By the time you start looking at the alcohol sales, which is where we make our money, and the food, it probably made sense. That is something that will be negotiated. These are great questions to have in the contract that we will need to have addressed.
b. What happens when the full cost of some non-profit and ag related events means the difference between having the events on campus and those entities facing losses so large that we lose them altogether? Commissioner Jones response – That goes back to the same thing. We will have to negotiate them. When I visited the Casper and Nampa facilities, they thought this question was funny because their objective is to increase revenue, not to decrease revenue, so we will work with these entities and try to find ways to grow them. With all the connections these companies have throughout the United States they could finds ways to leverage that and make things even bigger. They aren’t going to make money by decreasing the events.
11. Before RFQ detail comes back to us, how does the board envision responsibilities for large equipment acquisition, ownership and maintenance going forward? Is the County comfortable with the legal exposure that would come to us by allowing a third party operating our equipment? Commissioner Jones response – This happens everywhere, and they will give us a budget that we will approve it. That is part of the negotiation. I am not sure how that works, but I am sure we will find out when we go through the RFQ&I’s when they are returned.
12. Before RFQ detail comes back to us, how does the board see the costs of building needs and maintenance being addressed? Who recommends and who pays? What if the private firm says that any denial of funding in either of these areas negatively impacts their ability to hit their 'targets' or 'incentives'? Commissioner Jones response – It is part of the budgeting process. If they don’t do it, we won’t sign an agreement with them. That is all part of the negotiations. That is part of the reason we are doing this process. I have said this multiple times and I am saying it again “these are all part of the process as we move forward of looking at all these questions and asking, that is the reason we put out an RFQ&I.”
13. What will the board do about current contracts in place with food and beverage vendors? Commissioner Jones response – We have contracts with them, and we will be able to say “whether or not” they can kick someone out. That will be part of the negotiations. We can say the vendors that are there, we think they do a good job, and I don’t see any changes with that. The vendors, I believe will stay where they are at. We will have a say in that and can write that into the agreement whether we approve or disapprove of vendors that they will bring in and the same with advertisers and different things like that.
14. How will the board allow for proper evaluations and scoring of submissions knowing that one firm has what is perhaps an unfair advantage by already having a booking agreement in place? Commissioner Jones response – That is a question that we just addressed today with Venue Solutions Group. I think they will have some good ideas on that.
15. Since the Chamber of Commerce has already weighed in on a willingness to endorse private management without seeing any possible terms of agreement, will they now commit bed tax or other funds to subsidize non-profit events we currently book should those groups be priced out of Metra grounds by rates set by a private management firm? Commissioner Jones response – The Chamber of Commerce has stated they would like to move forward at looking at both options. You keep asking the same question here that you keep asking others. We don’t know what that looks like, and you keep trying to get an answer before we know what that looks like.
16. How can we accept and evaluate bids for management services without knowing the final decisions for the masterplan, much less the results of any public vote? Commissioner Jones response – If we don’t have this figured out before we build this out, that’s crazy. We need to know what this management is and how it looks going forward and they need to have to time to build on their confidence in this facility when we build on and add additional infrastructure. Now is the time, we just had the long-term General Manager retire and we are converting over to public or private management, and this is the time to make that decision. There is no way around that, and we need to get it figured out before we go to the taxpayers.
a. Will both parties commit to re-negotiation if a masterplan is approved by Yellowstone County voters? Commissioner Jones response – No.
b. Should we wait until the masterplan vote before any negotiations relating to a contract? Commissioner Jones response – No. We need stable management in place if we grow the facility.
c. We need to keep in mind the enormous upheaval and delays involved in not only a potential buildout for a masterplan, but also the $15+ million in infrastructure currently in its beginning stages. All of this could actually suppress activities and financial performance before there is any benefit derived from these improvements. How do we intend to factor these issues into any proposed contract? Commissioner Jones response - That is going to be of the negotiations. We need to sit down, and we must figure that out. I think we have someone very competent in Kevan Bryan, our Finance Director, to look at those and figure those out. My frustration started within the first three months of his term. It all started when he heard that the contracts down at MetraPark with the promoters were somewhere, not sure where. The box office would build a ticket and put all the items on it, and we wouldn’t know that there was a deal made by whoever was negotiating the contract that they rebated certain money or that they demanded something on a ticket. We would end up eating those costs. The accountant at Metra would complain all the time that she would get different parts of the contract when the settlement was occurring. The promoter would comment that things were agreed upon and the accountant at Metra would say “where is that”, then that paperwork would show up. This has gone on for a long time, I don’t know if this has been corrected or not. I know Tim is working hard trying to get that fixed as far as having a process and procedure so that everybody has visibility of these things and there are no side deals we don’t know about. That is unacceptable that we can’t even know what our contract agreement is until we get to settlement. This is not a good way of doing business especially in government. Talking about doing business in government, one of the things that I have consistently talked about is the contracts and missing dollars because we didn’t put it on the ticket, being charged for things we didn’t know we were going to get charged for. I could go on forever, I will tell you my story. I started looking at our skyboxes and asked the questions of rental prices for the skyboxes. The biggest skybox we have was being rented for $10,000, it is a car dealer here in town and I looked at another car dealer’s skybox which is half the size, and they are being charged $15,000. Then I asked the question on how this works because we are government, there should be some consistency here. The answer was it is all about relationships. Well, we are government, relationships are important, but consistency is also important. We should not have inconsistent pricing on skyboxes where the only rational is it is about relationships. That is not acceptable. I have been worried about the management out there and the lack of policies and procedures, it has been a concern of mine since I was elected. We tried to sit down and set goals for sales and utilization of buildings and we actually in early 2001 sat down and asked management to go back and give us a five-year average to what it looked like with sales and utilization and come back and give us a presentation of how we are going to get better and set some goals for the future. Management came back and told us for ten minutes why they couldn’t do that because there are too many variables. Let me tell you there are huge corporations that have all kinds of variables and they figure that out. They have key performance indicators that they can put in there. They have sales goals and different things like that. By the time we got done I finally gave up and said you know what, I am not going to push this issue if we have management that is not going to get behind it. When we get a new management, it is something we are going to put forward and setting goals. I can guarantee a private company is going to come in with goals for their personnel and we still don’t have goals for our sales and different things like that. We keep hearing about OVG, we are doing great and OVG hasn’t been involved in the sales and different things like that and I would actually contend that the reason that we are actually doing our job down there and doing a lot better is because we are trying to outdo OVG to make it look like OVG hasn’t done anything. We are trying to make it look like we are doing better and didn’t need OVG. There was no motivation for them to do better previously. I have heard they are not attending the meetings with OVG on a consistent basis. We went through one list and there is another list, and I could start going down that list, but I think I will stick to the one list. Thank you. Commissioner Ostlund stated that you didn’t allow me to answer on some of the questions. Commissioner Ostlund stated that he takes exception when you say that I brought a scorched earth policy, thank you for looking at the questions. I quite honestly view every one of these as darn important to Metra and the negotiations down there. The scorched earth policy that you are trying to change the narrative have nothing to do with November 1st after some illegal meetings you came out with an agenda item as big as privatizing Metra without any discussion with the Metra Board, any discussion with myself or the Commissioners publicly and just an item to change the management system there. There couldn’t have been a worse process to do it and the reason this has been messy is because the process has been so poorly done. The high school tournaments that you talk about, we have to bid on, that is why I keep asking the questions, I am glad we are having these discussions in public because this is an important discussion to have. You bid on them because the High School Association wants them way below their cost. The dirt events that you talked about, we have some costs on that because I have had them put together. On the last few small dirt events we have written off as much as $10,000, so the question becomes are we going to have small promoters out there and we want them to work with the community locally we will have to put some money in. That’s why I am asking the questions because I want to know what the board thinks and what the policy is before we start negotiating. Do we want small promoters out there or don’t we? You made the comment, maybe we won’t be able to have some of the 1500 person events, maybe we won’t, but we need to let them know what we think about the deal. I think these are important conversations to have. Commissioner Jones stated that those conversations will part of the negotiations. Commissioner Jones also stated that he didn’t know what illegal meeting Commissioner Ostlund is talking about. Commissioner Jones stated we need to get better at having dirt events around the same time, so we are not moving dirt in, dirt out, dirt in. Commissioner Ostlund stated it is difficult for promoters to get together and say we are having dirt events in April, can everyone schedule their dirt events during that time. Most of the scheduling of non-profit groups don’t allow them to hold their events at the same time. Commissioner Jones stated that the non-profit groups will be kept going which will be part of the negotiations. We will need to look at what authority we have and what authority a private management company will have. We can negotiate that in and say we are going to make that decision, there will be ramifications for it, but we may be able to do that within the 2-million-dollars we have that we subsidize the facility right now. That will all be part of the negotiations, we don’t have answers for it. Commissioner Pitman stated that he had a few comments. I am not going to go through the whole list of questions. Commissioner Pitman stated that he wanted to point out these are good questions. Commissioner Pitman stated that all three commissioners went through the agreement with OVG, and it was a way to try and move the needle and push us to obtain better things. Commissioner Pitman asked what the engagement level we have with OVG? Are we having weekly meetings with them? How do we gage that? Ultimately, as I went through the contract over the weekend OVG came to us and said this is my concert or your concert, they are MetraPark’s concerts. OVG is here to facilitate or bring groups/acts to the facility. Is that how it is working? Are we keeping a journal of our engagement with them? The statements are being made that OVG is doing nothing and MetraPark is having a great year and why did we engage them in the first place if we are doing so good now? Mr. Tim Goodridge, General Manager, MetraPark stated that what has been happening since we signed that contract is we have been having regular booking meetings, Mr. Ray Massie, Marketing Director has been sitting in on the OVG meetings. The meetings consist of the OVG managed buildings and those buildings that OVG has a booking agreement like ours and the discussion is about tours that are coming out, tours that are booked, dates that are being held in other buildings and Ray will pay attention to things that make sense in our region. They are looking for markets like we have. I know that we have one concert that has come through OVG so far, but in my opinion, it is like anything when you are coming new into market it is going to take time to establish yourself in that market. The calendar is the biggest blockade to adding events. The tours are also under promotion because we don’t do self-promotion. It is hard to gage the efficacy of the contract until we put some time behind us and find out how much they are pushed our way. Commissioner Ostlund stated he is going to correct the record, that I said OVG is doing nothing. That is not the case at all, that is not what I said. What I said specifically is that they don’t have to do anything to make money. What I said, and thank you guys for joining me in hiring Venue Solutions Group as a consultant because if you get beat up once shame on them, if you get beat up twice shame on us. What I said is OVG does not have to do anything because we allowed them a guaranteed base, that should have been in my opinion a commission. We all got beat up on that and we don’t have to get beat up on the next one. I want the record set straight, I didn’t say they were doing nothing, I said they didn’t have to do anything. Commissioner Pitman stated the reality is they are doing something. Commissioner Ostlund commented that’s good. Commissioner Pitman stated that Commissioner Ostlund is insinuating and implying that they weren’t and that was a bad thing and we got beat up, we didn’t get beat up. If the projections at MetraPark are accurate we are exceeding the dollar amounts and levels that we set as goals. That would be like looking at this process in five years and saying we got beat up because they made money. The reality is that is what we want everyone to do is make money, we want this whole boat to float. That is exactly what we are expecting and so to try to set it up as if they start succeeding, we messed up. This was a good contract, we spent hours going through this, so for you to say we got hoodwinked or whatever else is not an accurate statement. It is a good contract and has thresholds that must be met before anything gets paid out. We need to be careful with some of the words and rhetoric we are using. Commissioner Ostlund stated he wants OVG to make money and he want MetraPark to make money, that is not the context of the conversation that you keep changing. The context of the conservation is that could have been simply a commission, we didn’t have to allow them a guaranteed threshold for them to make money. Could have just a commission, which is typically what you get for someone who books events. Commissioner Ostlund stated I just want the board to be aware and I think we can do a better job negotiating and I think Venue Solutions Group will help us do that. Commissioner Pitman stated we are in a contractual relationship with them and instead of just throwing that out we could invite OVG and MetraPark to a meeting to explain to us how they are doing and what they are doing and how their relationship is working. Commissioner Pitman stated that Commissioner Ostlund gave out an implication that not only did they not have to do anything, but nothing was happening between the two organizations, and that just simply isn’t true. Those words get out and people that approach me just as much as they do you, saying what is going on, why do we give them money when they don’t do anything. I end up explaining just what we had a conversation about, so I think it is important that we are careful with our partners. I think they are some opportunities for us to do better and I think that is the whole point of this entire conversation we are having, is how do we move MetraPark forward in a better way. Whether MetraPark stays public or goes private, everybody on board says something needs to change, you can’t keep doing the same thing that has been done for 20 years and expect different results. It is not possible because we will end up 20 years from now with dilapidated buildings and another commission will have to tear down. We can’t allow that to happen so there has been a problem with the way we have moved to this point. We are just at a juncture now on how to figure out how do we move forward and make Metra the best possible place it can be and best in our infrastructure out there and continue to grow and if that becomes phases or how that plays out is this conversation we are having. I think it is an important conversation to have. Commissioner Ostlund stated, you may in fact want to review the minutes of that because I thanked OVG for working with us. I told you in the meeting that I want them to be successful and I want Metra to be successful. My issue is, I think the contract could have been better done. My issue is that I don’t want the contract next time to be done like that. Commissioner Pitman states, I will disagree, and I will go back and look it up because you like to change what you think you said and what you actually said. You actually said, knowing what you know today you would have not voted for that contract. Commissioner Ostlund stated he would have voted for that contract in a different form. Commissioner Pitman stated that is not what you said. Commissioner Ostlund stated he wouldn’t have voted for it giving them a guaranteed contract. Commissioner Pitman noted one final thing, and this is the last point here, we directed our ARAP fund money out to Metra. In the last year we built a horse barn, installed a new parking lot, torn down some buildings, all with cash on hand plus now we are investing 32-million-dollars. I think it shows the public we are committed. We are not selling MetraPark, we are not giving away the farm. This is an important asset in our community that this board has committed to reinvesting in and part of that reinvestment ends being how it is managed because without the management we will end up back in the same spot in 20 years. Commissioner Ostlund stated we have a lot more than that, that we should be congratulating ourselves, the public and Metra staff for. We have a new storage going up, we built a new shop, we put in paid parking. There is a whole list of investments we have made to rehabilitate MetraPark over the past 20 years that I am proud of. That is why it looks the way it does, sure there are some old horse barns, but we have done everything we have done with money on hand. Commissioner Jones stated he wanted to go back and talk about the process. Commissioner Jones stated that he talked to the MetraPark Advisory Board and stated he was looking at this and told the board that Rick Reid and I had gone to Casper and we both saw some merit in at least looking at it before I brought it out. Commissioner Jones stated that Commissioner Ostlund asked him why he didn’t come and talk to him, Commissioner Jones stated it would have been an illegal meeting according to Commissioner Ostlund. Our process is that it is open, so when we bring an idea like this up, we are supposed to make it a public meeting. You keep saying it was ill-conceived and you didn’t go through the right process. Commissioner Jones asked what is the right process? Commissioner Jones stated the process is, we bring it to a discussion, and we talk about it, we don’t talk about it before hand, which I am assuming I should have talked to you and got your blessing. That is our process, that is the way I brought it forward. Commissioner Ostlund stated you are wrong. The process is to bring it forward, but the process wouldn’t normally be bring the item with a Request for Qualifications and Information for private management. The normal process would be to hold a public hearing and meeting with the promoters, inform the public and inform the Metra staff and inform the Metra Board and do a public process much like we are doing right now. Commissioner Jones stated that is exactly what I did, I put it on and said this is what we are looking at and let’s have a public meeting. Commissioner Jones stated we did have a public meeting afterwards and you got all your friends to come out and bash it. Commissioner Ostlund stated, I thought those were promoters. Commissioner Jones stated that was a public meeting. I have asked our County Attorney if we did a public meeting. Ms. Jeana Lervick, Chief Deputy County attorney interrupted and stated we are straying from our meeting today. Commissioner Jones answered, I know.
C.) Resolution 22-12 to Cancel the Tuesday March 1, 2022, Board Meeting. Commissioner Pitman made a MOTION to approve Resolution 22-12, Commissioner Ostlund seconded. Passed Unanimous. D.) Request for Qualifications & Information for MetraPark Campus Management Services. Commissioner Pitman made a MOTION to approve the Request for Qualifications & Information for MetraPark Campus Management, Commissioner Jones seconded. Passed Unanimous. E.) Notice of Public Hearing Regarding Floodplain Permit – Setting the Public Hearing for Tuesday March 15, 2022 @ 9:30 a.m. in Room 3108. Commissioner Pitman made a MOTION to approve the setting of the Public Hearing, Commissioner Ostlund seconded. Passed Unanimous.
CLAIMS – Batches 22-121, 22-122, 22-123, 22-124, 22-125 & 22-126. Commissioner Pitman made a MOTION to approve the Claims, Commissioner Ostlund seconded. Passed Unanimous.
CONSENT AGENDA – 1. COMMISSIONERS – A.) Board Reappointment – Woody Woods to Lockwood TEDD Advisory Board. B.) Collective Bargaining Agreement between Yellowstone County and Teamster Union Local #190 Representing the Yellowstone Deputy County Attorneys and 2021-2022 Bargaining Note Regarding Retroactive Pay to Teamsters – Attorneys. C.) Board Openings – Updated List. D.) Resolution 22-13 and Letter Designating the Environmental Certifying Official for the CDBG Grant for Billings Food Bank. 2. COUNTY ATTORNEY – Resolution 22-11 Requesting Prosecutorial Assistance in State v. MLH. 3. FINANCE – A.) MetraPark Addendum to Agreement with Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company. B.) Bond for Lost Warrant. 4. PLANNING DEPARTMENT – Amended Condition of Approval – Amended Plat, West Meadows Subdivision, Lot 3, Block 2. 5. PUBLIC WORKS – Invitation for Bid for the Asphalt Overlay of Roads 4 North, 7 North, 10 North. 6. HUMAN RESOURCES – PERSONNEL ACTION REPORT – MetraPark – 1 Salary & Other, 1 Termination; Motor Vehicle – 1 Salary & Other; Sheriff’s Office- 1 Salary & Other; Detention Facility – 1 Salary & Other
FILE ITEMS – 1. COMMISSIONERS – A.) VSG MetraPark Organizational Analysis Report. B.) Letter from Mental Health Center Regarding SAC. C.) Letters Against Metra Privatization. D.) Comments Regarding Northwestern Energy Floodplain Permit. 2. FINANCE – A.) Huntley Water & Sewer ARPA Contract with MT Dept of Commerce. B.) Detailed Cash Investments Report January 2022. 3. PUBLIC WORKS – Contract with Hydrometrics. 4. TREASURER – Treasurer’s Disbursements and Checks for January 2022. Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to approve the Consent Agenda and place the File Items to file, Commissioner Pitman seconded. Passed Unanimous.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON COUNTY BUSINESS – Two people thanked the Commissioners for holding a public hearing regarding the floodplain permit for Northwestern Energy. One person spoke regarding Metra privatization. Hearing no other comments Commissioner Jones adjourned the meeting at 10:49 a.m.
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