REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

Tuesday May 24, 2022

 

          ALL PRESENT:  Commissioner Jones, Chair; Commissioner Ostlund; Board Clerk Teri Reitz; Clerk and Recorder Jeff Martin.

          PLEDGE.

          9:30 a.m. RECOGNITION – Nadine Boyd – Justice Court Supervisor – 32 Years of Service.

          9:30 a.m. BID OPENING – Bid Opening for Yellowstone County Elevator Maintenance Service.

                PUBLIC COMMENTS ON REGULAR, CONSENT AND FILED AGENDA ITEMS – Mark Morse, my address is 5201 Moon Ridge Trail, Huntley. So good morning, Commissioners. I have attended every public meeting concerning the future management of MetraPark since November 2^nd, 2021, when you first discussed an RFP for private management. As a result of this process the County has received bids from ASM and OVG. You established a committee to review these bids, the committee returned its recommendation saying ASM had the best bid. The County’s Chief Financial Officer recommended you table this proposal for 3 years. Mr. Bryan’s reasoning is there will be no economic value to Yellowstone County when one private company operates MetraPark’s booking agreement and a different private company operates the management agreement.  I think second place OVG over ASM is fraught with possible procedural violations, procurement violations which could lead to legal action.  Both ASM and OVG are out of state for profit entities, revenue from MetraPark will leave Yellowstone County rather than recirculate through the local economy.  I ask that your follow the advice of your CFO and set aside the private management option for a period of 3 years and utilize Venue Solutions Group for nationwide recruiting services for vacant senior management positions and add management consulting services over the coming year. Thank you.

Commissioner Jones – Mr. Morse I just want to straighten something out. You said best bid, this was actually a request for qualifications it wasn’t a bid.  We did have some dollars in there.  As far as no economic value, the way these normally work is there’s actually a base line that’s based on the past history.

Jeana Lervick Chief Deputy County Attorney – Commissioner, this is public comment.

Commissioner Jones – Yep, but it’s actually an agenda item that we have on our agenda so it should be allowed.

Jeana Lervick – It can be addressed during the item.

Commissioner Jones – No this is for public comment, we should be able to address it during the public comment time.

Jeana Lervick – Commissioner it’s not proper to communicate back and forth with the public.   

Commissioner Jones – Well you’re changing the rules then.

Jeana Lervick – No I’m not.

 

Commissioner Jones – Yes you are.  Because you said if it’s on the agenda, we can actually talk about it.  This is an item that’s on our agenda and we can have that discussion.

Jeana Lervick – During the agenda item it can be addressed.

Commissioner Jones – But you can’t talk to the people that are talking.  So, you’re having a double standard here.  I got chewed out last time because we didn’t have this dialog and now, you’re telling me I can’t.

Commissioner Ostlund – Commissioner, the first meeting that we had when the public showed up, I asked for a public meeting for the people that rent the facility, promoted the facility, worked the facility, use the facility, and pay for the facility and that wasn’t approved last week.  And at the first public meeting when they came in and talked it was the chairman who said we don’t answer back on public comment.

Commissioner Jones – That’s absolutely right.  That’s the reason I’m saying we can actually comment and have this discussion because that’s the problem right now.  I’m beating up MetraPark for not having policies and procedures, the Commission doesn’t have policies and procedures either, so we make it up as we go.  That’s frustrating for somebody that’s sitting in my seat.  I’m the chair of this meeting you can have your opinion but I’m going to move forward with this questioning.

Jeana Lervick – Commissioner I have given my advice, you can follow it or not that’s up to you.

Commissioner Jones – Okay, thank you. As soon as we get policies and procedures then we can actually have this laid out.

Jeana Lervick – I’ve given you legal advice that you can follow or not.

Commissioner Jones – So you know this contract is actually based on, you said a target, and its anything above is where you actually can have, that’s where they will get paid.  They won’t get paid if we do what we did last year.  There is some economic value there. And then also dollars, I’ll leave it at that, dollars would leave Yellowstone County, if we ever had that opportunity because they didn’t increase it, we wouldn’t actually lose dollars, by not going this way potentially.

Mark Morse – Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Jones – Thank you.

Lou Moffit, 2214 Green Valley Drive, Billings, MT.  I agree with our finance officer for the County that we should pause this for 3 years.  That’s my opinion.  Am I able to talk and give my opinion?

Commissioner Jones – Yep and thank you very much.

Lou Moffit – Thank you.

Commissioner Jones – Any further comments?

Kevin Richeson, 4550 Clapper Flat Road. Good morning, I am here to express my feelings that we should proceed the way MetraPark is being managed right now.  And see where the numbers are going down the road.  I say this because of a few reasons. Number one, the numbers finally are good so why are we going to give it away. Number two, Metra is full of events there’s not room for much more events without more staff.  If you don’t staff it, we can’t have a lot more events.  I’m not sure what private management can bring to us that we don’t already do.  This brings me to my next question.  I’m not sure but I know you’re not supposed to go on and on, but Denis and Don do you believe and trust the financial director Kevan Bryan that he knows what his job is?  I would think what you would do, if you didn’t trust him, is send him down the road.  Don, do you believe its Kevan Bryans fiduciary duty to let you know when something does not make financial sense? I know you love that word because I heard you say it a million times.

Commissioner Jones – Absolutely, that’s my job.

Kevin Richeson – Do you know what fiduciary means?  It means that the person with the duty must act in a way that will financially benefit someone else.  Usually financially.  With that being said, that brings me to the next question which is, is that someone else the County or the private management firm?  This is me, just what I see from the outside in. I just want you to know as a spectator, not as a worker or anything else but watching these meetings we can see you get visually upset whenever OVG isn’t mentioned as the top candidate. We’ve all witnessed it. My opinion, 100%. Okay. With this there’s speculation in the process that’s been corrupt. We all think that, outside in. Don when asked a while back, I asked you about Brad Murphy and approaching him again with the management here. You said he would not be interested but OVG stated in their letters, over 30 of them, that he would be the next manager of MetraPark if OVG got the contract. I don’t see why, if that’s the direction you want to head, why we can’t approach him again and see if money can buy him. I’ve seen some big CEO’s, I know some big CEO’s, that will come with the right amount of money. If that’s the way you think, I’m not saying I heard nothing but great things about Brad, so this has nothing to do with Brad. You’ve traveled to Casper, you’ve traveled to Nampa to look at OVG, great ran facilities. But did you go any place that ASM Global has been running. Or did you specifically take OVG’s facilities. We don’t know you’ve never talked about it. As you can see, it looks one sided. It seems you want to head one direction. A couple other things looking outside in I know the Anderson Group is doing some major remodels to MetraPark. I’ve been involved in some of the meetings. I as a person, it’s not my business, but I as a person am wondering why are they improving Metra when we go private, they don’t even know if they’ll have a contract at Metra. Why are they putting all that money in. This is one of the companies you wanted in the Metra. This is purely hear say Don I don’t know I could be 100% wrong but there’s been rumors spread that you bought a house in the Nampa area. Or are buying a house in the Nampa area. So, from looking on the outside in it seems like this is revolving around one big circle. And that circle is OVG and you. Now if I’m wrong please redirect me because I’d love to know the truth. I try to say nothing but the truth and like I said its purely speculation. I’m not opposed to bettering Metra. If this is what is decided I just think we can improve with everyone’s input and everyone’s help to get there to be where you want us to be. We work hard for you guys. We think we deserve a chance. We’ve shown it this year, we’ve broke records already this year why not let us prove to you in the next 3 years that we can do it before we bring some out of state company in. Thank you I appreciate it.

Commissioner Jones – Please hold the applause. This is not appropriate in this setting. We want it to be a setting where everyone feels comfortable to come up and make comments and if somebody’s clapping and then they boo somebody else that really is not the environment that we want to set here.

 Kevin Richeson – And please address me if I said something wrong because I’d appreciate it.

Commissioner Jones – Okay, absolutely. I got a list here so we can start going down the list. You know the numbers are good they are better, but we actually put out there, somehow it got out there that we made a million dollars. We didn’t make a million dollars, were putting 3.5 million dollars into this facility every year. We maybe took a million off we don’t even know that yet, but we might have decreased that by a million dollars, we did not make a million dollars in profit and were still subsidizing it so that information was really misinformation that was put out there.

Kevin Richeson – I’ll agree with that. On each question can I answer you a little bit on it.

Commissioner Jones – Let me go through mine then we can do it. Our finance director is very competent, but we can agree to disagree, and he did look at that, the whole process, the way this process is set up, if you look at the solicitation that we sent out for the RFQ it has a schedule, and the schedule actually goes down and it says selection committee recommendation April 12th, the dates don’t matter, they got pushed back. And the next step was to negotiate a potential contract and that’s because it’s based on qualifications, not price, and that goes back to what I said to Mr. Morse because he said it was a bid. It’s not a bid, it was based on qualifications and that’s a huge difference than what we’re looking at here is because it is based on qualifications, we did ask for some price, but it’s based on qualifications. So, the next step and all the vendors, this is what they looked at, you know put in their proposals. The next step is actually negotiating a potential contract. And so, there’s that expectation here and everything’s on the table. We can sit down, and we can talk about everything that’s in their RFQ.  We can actually go back and look at that. When you talk about fiduciary responsibility it’s my fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of Yellowstone County.  I want to make sure that we get the best deal we can. If it doesn’t work out, that’s the best part about this, I’ve said it multiple times, if it doesn’t work out where it’s the best deal then we won’t do it.  You talk about ASM and OVG, I did not buy a house in the Nampa Area.  I haven’t bought a house in Idaho at all.  There’s nothing to that, that I bought a house.  I will tell you that I did buy some property back before COVID and it was really cheap, and I looked at it and it was speculative.  I do have some property but not in Nampa this is on the other side of the state from Nampa. I don’t have any interest in moving to Boise if that’s what you’re inferring or in that area at all. In fact, the area that I bought is at the base of the Tetons on the Idaho side, its beautiful, beautiful area. And I bought that well before, I mean it was before COVID and everything else just because the price was incredibly low. Brad Murphy, so my discussions with Brad Murphy, and this happened because he actually applied for the assistant general manager and I’ve had conversations with him before we ever went down this road and he told me at that time, I’ve worked in the public sector and I’ve worked in the private sector and his comment was and very specific he said I’ve worked in both and the private sector works a lot better than the public sector. He said I don’t want to go back to trying to manage a facility where you’re trying to make it work right and do it under public management and public oversight.  That’s the reason he did put it in or put his name in there was because it was a private company. I was actually, before we went down this road of looking at privatization that’s when I hit him up and I said Hey I’d love to have, you know, you’ll be right in there in the mix if you do it.  He said I’m not going to put in for it, and he didn’t.  When we actually advertised and that was his rational, he said I’ve been on both sides of the fence on that, and privatization is definitely the better way to actually try and run the building appropriately.  Bottom line is, were going through this process its actually laid out and that’s where I would say we have a solicitation here, there’s that expectation here that were going to talk to them.  It’s all up for negotiation.  We are going to sit down and talk to them if it doesn’t work and that’s written in here multiple times, we will not execute that contract. We will not have a contract with that company.  We don’t have anything to lose by looking at this further.

Kevin Richeson – Quick question if I may then?

Commissioner Jones – Absolutely.

Kevin Richeson – As far as him and you said he doesn’t want to work for public, just private. What’s the difference because you said over and over in your meetings that you will still run them even though they will be private management. They will still have to come to you and the board for any major discussion.

Commissioner Jones – They will actually bring their policies and procedures in, and they will run it like one of their other facilities.  But major decisions, I mean, what was it two years ago, three years ago we ended up increasing the 4H fees by $20.  That didn’t come before the Commissioners I guess maybe the Ag board or I’m not sure how maybe Bill did it but that was an increase, I found out about it by a phone call from a constituent that said, Hey what’s going on here, and I said I have no idea what’s going on here and I had to go back.  In order for them to increase a fee like that they would have to come in front of the board and be a public process. It wouldn’t be this back door, however it happened, I don’t know, I don’t care, at this point going forward I do.  It pretty well lays it out in this contract on what they can and cannot do and that’s part of the negotiation on what they can and cannot do without board approval.  The people down, you know I talked to the City Administrator and Mayor down in, and actually the City Administrator, different title down in Nampa but down in Casper and all of them said they are all involved in all these types of decisions.

Kevin Richeson – So have you toured any ASM Global or talked to any facilities.

Commissioner Jones – I haven’t. As far as that goes I didn’t actually tour an OVG facility at the time it was actually a different company. OVG bought them and I had no idea at the time that they were going buy them.

Kevin Richeson – Was the other company Nampa OVG or the other company that got bought out.

Commissioner Jones – It was the other company. I didn’t go to an OVG facility at the time, obviously they have bought them since.

Kevin Richeson – You haven’t talked to nobody with ASM or find out how theirs are ran then.

Commissioner Jones – No and you know my main concern in going there was to see if it was even a viable, I had heard pretty steadily that there is no way, that’s never worked anywhere. And I said, I heard from Brad Murphy saying it does work.  And so, I said okay I want to go down and take a look at it and just see if it works or not. 

Kevin Richeson – Okay, thank you very much.

Commissioner Jones – Thank you. Any further comments?

Steve Solberg - 3513 Crest Wick and I’ve served on the MetraPark Advisory Board for the last half a dozen years or so. Anyway, you guys were hired by the community to provide common sense leadership. However, your common sense is turned into arrogance and let me explain that. When you surprised us with your personal privatization agenda public meeting participants were overwhelmingly opposed to your aggressive pace of this idea, yet you continued on with your agenda. In doing so you handcuffed our new MetraPark management staff, and you didn’t give them a chance to perform, and you entirely destroyed our employee morale who wasn’t worried about their job security. And yet, you continued with your agenda. Your actions torpedoed the master plan in progress which could have been and estimated 150 million additional economic benefit to our community, and you disrespected the business community which donated approximately $200,000 to help the master plan succeed, and you betrayed the MetraPark advisory board planning committee efforts, and yet you continued with your agenda. This year MetraPark is looking at a million-dollar improvement to our bottom line, that’s the best ever, and yet, you’re continuing with your agenda. The chief financial officer of Yellowstone County has recommended to slow down and take a break only to be humiliated in a public meeting for doing his job. I hope this doesn’t become an HR issue. And yet, you continue with your agenda. Something fishy’s going on here. I urge you to listen to the community and your Yellowstone County finance director and set aside your personal agenda. If you still think MetraPark is really that bad, we can review it down the road. But let’s give the new MetraPark management staff a chance. How about we take some of that incentive that were going pay to a private management company, let’s say its $200,000, and we put it in, it’s going to go to California by the way, and we put it into support staff for the people that are working here. So, lets take off our political hats and get back to providing leadership by using and displaying good judgement and common sense.

Commissioner Jones – I have a quick couple questions for you as long as were going down this road. We did a study right, vision 2025 did a study and management came up as an issue that people were concerned about.

Steve Solberg – Correct.

Commissioner Jones – And so I guess what you are telling me is that because management was a concern just not worry about it. Let’s double the size, lets add another arena, lets do different things like that and even the Chamber of Commerce has come out and said, hey, you kind of got the cart before the horse and as much as you need to take a look and make sure that we have the right management structure and that they’re actually working correctly before you add on, you double the size. I’ve known businesses that actually were not functioning very well, and they double in size, and they are out of business really fast or in this case because it’s not out of business the taxpayers actually end up paying a lot more in fees which were already subsidizing into the 3.5 million dollars a year. They end up paying a lot more so my priority when we got through this and were looking at what the masterplan, our outreach said was management was a concern and management is an issue. I will tell you that I would not put it on the liability, on the taxpayers, and that’s my fiduciary responsibility to make sure we are running this place appropriately and not increase that 2 million-to-4-million-dollar loss and now we have to make up by taxpayers. And that’s a priority. I think it would be reckless to not take a look at what the possibilities are, and how its best ran. And you’re saying just forget what the people said in that survey and lets just march forward and let’s go ahead, we know management is a big issue were losing 3 million half million dollars if you add in the CIP 3 to 3.5 million dollars and let’s move forward. The Chamber doesn’t agree with you I don’t agree, you said everybody disagrees with me, but I’ll tell you what, I have a lot of people telling me that I’m on the right track.

Commissioner Ostlund – I don’t think he’s suggesting anything.  

Steve Solberg – I didn’t say that. Here’s what I am saying, you’re trying to put words in my mouth.

Commissioner Jones – You put words in my mouth

Steve Solberg – The management of MetraPark has already changed and the reports that we get are based upon previous management and you haven’t given the new management a chance to perform. And I think from being around the Metra a lot that we’re doing a lot of right things. And so, to kick them aside without a chance makes no sense.

Commissioner Jones – I will agree they are doing a lot of good things. But the basic infrastructure, having those policies & procedures set up, they put a policy and procedure book together but it’s, trying to implement that, and a lot of it is not really that great of policy.  I mean if you look at it, they took the TSA on scanning people coming in if we had that as our policy we would have to actually do all kinds of extra steps to make that actually appropriate then we could end up getting ourselves in real problems.

Steve Solberg – You cannot overhaul a business this size in the few months they’ve been on staff. It takes time.

Commissioner Jones – And what I’m looking for, I’ll leave it at that.

Commissioner Ostlund – Okay, procedures are the most important thing that we do, and we voted down a public meeting then turned public comment into one, why don’t they apply to this board?

Commissioner Jones – We don’t have policies & procedures, that’s what I just got through saying for this board. I’ve actually asked for them and were gonna actually put some together, but we don’t have policies and procedures set out.

Commissioner Ostlund – We actually have a lot of procedures as we said in the meeting over here previously in discussion. We have a lot of procedures and the county attorney’s office in the civil division in the past and Dan Schwarz created a lot of them in the 20 years I’ve been here. Created the procedures where we move things through discussion, talk about them publicly, give the public an opportunity to come in and visit and then we move agenda items to our board and our board votes on them and talks about them again publicly, if they choose. We’ve had a lot of procedures there not written down but there given to us by the count attorneys office and up until now we’ve followed them.

Steve Solberg – We, it’s like taking advice from a finance director and from the attorney, you’re not listening. And to the public.

Commissioner Jones – I am listening to the public I will tell you that. I absolutely am. If you hear what I hear I’m listening to the public. There’s a lot of people that think this is a great idea to look at both of them and keep this process going. You’ve even said to look and both of them and keep the process going. This actually says the next step is to negotiate and see if we can come to something or not. That’s the next step in the process. And its actually laid out in this request for qualifications.

Steve Solberg – I’m saying we don’t need to do that.

Commissioner Jones – Okay, thank you. Any further comments?

Lesli Glen 3060 Farley Lane. I’m gonna start out. I had really straight notes here and then it all went crazy here during this meeting so were going to maybe jump around, we’ll see. So, you’re talking about policies and procedures, and we go back to Brad Murphy. Brad Murphy was obviously interested in the job. And then he told you, this is my red flag, way back when, when your comment was when I talked to Brad, we became great friends he would not manage a facility that was publicly run. Well, if he’s worried about policies and procedures, if that was me, and I was working for a company like OVG or whoever it was before that, and I knew the policies and procedures that would be an ideal opportunity for me to jump into the Metra and import policies and procedures from that business. It’s not that hard. That doesn’t make sense to me at all. When you have your CFO, and I was not at that meeting and I really wish I was because your behavior was uncalled for and unprofessional, should have been shut down at the time because to tell your CFO we didn’t ask for that report, we didn’t want that report, well your financially and ethically responsible for that report. So, you should have wanted that report before anything else. Before saying whether ASM or OVG was even capable of running this, or a viability. You should have talked to the CFO and said okay if it’s not viably possible let’s hang on for 3 years or 4 years, what’s the rush. Because you’ve just got this group in, let them figure out. If you need policies and procedures, I’ll help you. Because I know some and I can help you make them. I’m sure your attorney can too. So, one of the things that really upsets me and wonders about the ethical things going on with this Commissioners is I heard from, and this is hearsay, I can only say it’s hearsay, from a board member from the Nile that he was called by Brad Murphy and promised that Nile would be okay because I am going to be running the Metra. Where would he get that idea? He shouldn’t have that idea that’s wrong.

Commissioner Jones – And that’s a lot of hearsay that you just said.

Lesli Glen – It is hearsay, but I can pull that person in.

Commissioner Jones – So you know. What actually happened I can’t tell you but that’s a lot of hearsay.

Lesli Glen – So it raises a lot of red flags on that and when you don’t like what we say, and you get mad, and you shut us down because I know another meeting where Dustin Bretz stood here and asked you questions, and he was told you wouldn’t answer them but today you want to answer them. So that’s your fault because you changed the rules. Your attorney said that you changed the rules, it was not the rules in the first place. So, all of this and what’s the rush. Why are we in a rush. Give these guys at least a year to figure it out. If they’ve got issues, help them with their issues. Help them with, this is what we need, this is what we need to establish. We also, I’d like to know who authorized the tear down of the barns? You can answer that one if you’d like.

Commissioner Jones – All of the Commissioners did.

Lesli Glen – Did they? John didn’t.

Commissioner Ostlund – We did not. We did not have, only the Commissioners can get rid of public property. We did not have a motion, a discussion, or a vote.

Commissioner Jones – So then I’m not sure. Metra must have just torn them down on their own.

Lesli Glen – Really? Did Metra just tear them all down on their own?

Commissioner Jones – I did not direct them to tear them down, I will tell you that and no one Commissioner can actually direct someone to do something.

Lesli Glen – Well it wasn’t all 3. So there again, financial responsibility and ethically because there’s no accountability. Where’s the accountability. Who was responsible for that I want a name because so far, you’re throwing everybody under the bus? So, with that said this is also hear say which I’m gonna just put this out there that if any MetraPark employee has been threatened with their job that they were going to be replaced by privatization or if they signed the recall that they would lose their job they need to go to their union and there needs to be class action lawsuit because that’s unacceptable from both of you.

Commissioner Jones - And that's speculative also.

Lesli Glen – It is. But I just gave them a call to work.

Commissioner Jones – I don’t know where you're coming from on that.

Lesli Glen – Really.

Commissioner Jones – You can make this stuff up.

Lesli Glen – That’s okay, I’m not making it up. I've heard about it and it's up to them. I can't bring it up. It’s up to them.

Commissioner Jones – I’ve heard all kinds of stuff too that’s off the wall.

Lesli Glen - And I would think that you would address that and try to let them know that right now your jobs are safe. When they're working under this threat and this veil, their performance goes down. They do whatever they can to do their job, but would you feel good? If someone had threatened you or you felt like you were going to lose your job at any minute, you've invested in this business for how long? I know I wouldn't keep employees if that happened. It wouldn't happen and I get turnover because people want more money. I can only pay so much, I’m a small business. I understand it. But I don't want them to leave me because they feel threatened. I never want that to happen. I could go on more. I have a big, long list here. I'd like to know what survey these people said they'd like to see a privatization. Well, I don't remember that survey. Is it public record somewhere? Can I look it up?

Commissioner Jones - When they did the 2025, they actually went out and talked to people. The vision 2025.

Lesli Glen - They talked to people, but there's no official on paper.

Commissioner Jones - They filled out some information and so that was one of the things that came up was management for sure.

Lesli Glen – Okay, so with that being said. You've had people here. Where's all your people that are for this? Sure. The chamber came. Couple people, city council, city chamber. But the city doesn't deal with that facility. They have no idea what goes on in that facility. We don't have an act or show in front of Montana Brew Pub. They don't know what all that entails to run that. So, asking them to give their opinion as a city chamber. Really. I want that individual to come and tell me. How did it affect you? Because when we did this survey that I was in San Diego when they called me on the phone to ask me what I thought about the Metra, and I said I have had no issues that I could not resolve with talking to the Metra employees. I talk to the Metra employees when I have an issue. I go directly to them, and they have done everything they can. Mind you, this last weekend was a little bit of a debacle. We managed to get through it. But that was something that had happened with a previous employee who is gone because his job was threatened, and he didn't want to stick around and wait. He left. So, there's no reason, and I told that company I'm perfectly happy with the company the way it is. If there needs to be procedures, then there needs to be a big committee get together. I am on the Ag Committee. Metra Ag Committee is one of the committees that was held responsible for building the new stall building.

Commissioner Jones – And the Ag Committee actually was dissolved here recently, and I don't know how that happened.

Lesli Glen - Because we had, I was told.

Commissioner Jones – The Metra Ag and that didn’t go through the Commissioners and all sudden now it's maybe back. I don't know.

Lesli Glen – I was told that it was dissolved because we had no idea what was going to happen with privatization. And yes, it started back up again. I guess, I have yet to hear so spending this much time and energy, and I really obviously love beating my head against a cement wall because this is what this is, and I appreciate you actually looking at me while I'm talking because in the past, I know you haven't. And this is respect. This isn't respect. (Referring to the commissioner’s head down writing on a piece of paper) Ok, so I suggest strongly that you table. I don't care if you talk to these people or not. Don't do it again because your CFO said do not do this for at least three years, if not 4 until your current contract is over with. Because if it causes financial problems for our county, how are you going to get out of that? We're going to be, like, Great Falls.

Commissioner Jones - So I've said it multiple times. We will not sign a contract if it gets us into financial problems. Everything is negotiable in this. And that's what we're going to look at and see if it is so I will not. I will repeat that over and over and over again. This doesn't mean that we're going to have a contract at the end.

Lesli Glen - Okay.

Commissioner Jones - We actually, if it is not a good contract, we will not do it and it is actually the Billings area Chamber of Commerce. It's not just Billings they're not, it's not downtown.

Lesli Glen - I don't care. They're not here.

Commissioner Jones – Hold on let me finish my comments. Please.

Lesli Glen – Okay.

Commissioner Jones - They take in the whole County I mean, they do a lot of stuff, and they actually help out. I believe they help. They help out on a lot of different venues and different things like that. You talked about the general manager, and I’ve heard this twice now, you know, let the manager actually do it. He's an interim general manager right now in order to become the general manager, we will have to advertise and go out and that's a policy. That's a nice policy that the county has is that if we decide to go that way, we will actually have to go out and advertise. You can't take an interim without advertising. So, that's part of the policies.

Lesli Glen - I didn't say that isn't something you shouldn't do.

Commissioner Jones - A lot of a lot of the you know you talked about accountability with the barns and stuff. A lot of that has to do with no policy. That's how that stuff happens. That's the reason it happens, and I have no idea how it happened.

Lesli Glen - Nobody goes and just automatically breaks some, tears something down.

Commissioner Jones - So I'm assuming the Metra must have done it. I don't know.

Lesli Glen - I can guarantee you Bill Dutcher didn't advise it.

Commissioner Jones - So and I'm not really sure.

Lesli Glen - That's a problem to me. Why are you not investigating that?

Commissioner Jones – It is to me to. That's the reason that I'm talking about we don’t have policies and procedures and that concerns me.

Lesli Glen - You don't hire somebody else. You investigate why.

Commissioner Ostlund – We do have policies about disposals of public property.

Commissioner Jones – We do. That is a county policy.

Lesli Glen – And it wasn’t followed. So, who, I want the person, I want to know who authorized it? Because that person needs to be pulled up on the carpet.

Commissioner Jones - Yeah. And then you talked about changing the rules. I guess that's, that's my whole point is that this body does not have rules that are laid out that I can look at and say, do we allow public comment or don't we at this point and time.

Lesli Glen – According to your attorney there’s rules.

Commissioner Jones – There aren’t. She can say that that's probably best practice or whatever, but we don't have any rules that actually say that.

Jeana Lervick – It’s the Montana Constitution

Commissioner Ostlund - I think in the last public meeting…

Commissioner Jones - And that's not even, that's not true. You have to show me where that is.

Commissioner Ostlund – Mr. Chairman when you did not talk to the people at the last public meeting, this is probably on the record, you stated this is public comment time we don't interact.

Commissioner Jones - And then I was corrected after the fact. You didn't, you didn't say anything during that meeting of hey, yes, we do.

Lesli Glen - Wait a second. The committee was done.

Commissioner Jones - Until you wrote it in the paper and then I went, oh, maybe, maybe we should have. And so, I'm trying to be as transparent and have this discussion as we go.

Lesli Glen - I appreciate that you're actually interacting with us, whether it's right or not.

Commissioner Jones – I would have gotten beat up because I didn't allow comments, which I did last time. That’s the problem with not having any rules.

Lesli Glen - So one thing, I'm going to say one more thing and then I'm going to be done because there's a long list here and I'm just going to cut it short. In my position in the past and mind you, it was just a horse club I was on the director for the International Appaloosa Horse Club. I had to know the rules. So, there you go. You probably need to read the rules.

Commissioner Jones – I absolutely agree. We need to have rules and then we can figure it out.

Lesli Glen – Thank you.   

Commissioner Jones - All right. Any further public comments?

Bonnie Deverniero, address 2244 Bender Road in Billings. Thank you for the opportunity. I apologize if I have to read my notes because this is a nerve-racking opportunity, but I appreciate it. So, thank you for the opportunity to share my opinion at this time and it is about private management topic at MetraPark. I feel I've been very involved in this process since the beginning and I have a fiercely invested interest because management at MetraPark effects my daily workplace and the future of my career for those that might not know, I'm the equine programs director at the Nile.  The Nile hosts many events throughout the year at MetraPark which means we work closely with the private or with the management there as well as with the employees and we know how critical the success of our events rides on those relationships. We know things haven't been perfect in the past, but I do know that all of us have been working hard to correct those things and progress has already shown it's there. We just need to give it an opportunity to grow and continue to see that progress. After being witnessed to multiple meetings and discussions, I do still ask myself why we're clinging so pugnaciously to an idea that has been repeatedly advised against. I don't have an answer to that, and Commissioners, as you prepare to make a decision on this topic about the management at MetraPark, I urge you all to take the advice of our Counties, Finance director and advisor, because I truly believe his reasons were objective. And I believe that he has our county's best interest in mind. I appreciate his thorough review. I was at that meeting where he gave that and I appreciated his opportunity and I will say that I was embarrassed for him, for the way he was reacted to, and I don't appreciate the unprofessional way that that was carried out. I've heard Commissioner Jones that you've said, and I witnessed these at those meetings, that we owe these companies a chance. I feel that Yellowstone County does not owe them anything and as a Commissioner, I feel you owe the taxpayers and the residents of this county a decision that is financially sound, a decision that aligns with what the taxpayers want. We're here again today to repeat our opinions because we feel we're not being heard. You were elected to the position you hold and the promise that you would do the right thing by the county residents. And again, I urge you to follow the advice that has been given by both county residents, taxpayers and county employees as the Financial Director to not go forward with the private management option at MetraPark.

Commissioner Jones – Thank you. Any further comments?

Bear with me. So, I'm Michael Sherman. I'm at 2488 Trask Circle in Worden, Montana. My question/comment comes to you as a taxpayer and an avid patron of the Metra. My question is, is that if you privatize the Metra, have you explained to the Community any type of repercussion that this is going to have on them as taxpayers? Have you explained that even though we are going to privatize the Metra as taxpayers, we're still responsible for any upkeep that you would decide as the board and as the Commissioners to do any new buildings that you decide to put on the Metra property? As we move forward with this also, I have become aware of that we are now paying a company to bring in different acts and with that, the privatization of the companies’ you guys have looked at that is also something that they offer and provide. So, with that being said, have you discussed with the community and the taxpayers that this is something that they also offer, and we will be paying a company both companies for the same job. That to me seems like that's something that needs to be stipulated and broke down and negotiated in the contract that one company is already being paid for this and so we will not be using your services and it will not be paid for. With that being said, I also urge and beg you to look at this from a standpoint of a taxpayer. I am a two-household income with three children. With that being said, I pay my taxes and I appreciate paying my taxes because I enjoy the things that we have in Yellowstone County, and I enjoy what we provide with those taxes. But that being said, we are already overpaying for schools. We are paying out the wazoo for everything that the county wants and needs to do, updates on roads, things like that. So, I feel that with the new management we should be waiting the three years that was suggested and let us rebuild what we need to do, fix the roads, fix the schools, pay our officers more money, do those types of things rather than doing this and give this a chance. That is my comment and questions.

Commissioner Jones - Alright, thank you very much. I want to just point out as far as you said private, it's going to be private management. We're not actually privatizing the facility.

Michael Sherman - So you need to explain that to the taxpayers because the Community and people that I work for, and I talk to think that their responsibility as taxpayers is no longer there. When you do this. So, you need to make that clear to them.

Commissioner Jones - It's private management.

Michael Sherman – Right, and they still don't understand that. So, you need to make that clear whether that be in the newspaper or anything else. That's on you. And that's your responsibility.

Commissioner Jones - Ok. Thank you very much. Any further public comment?

Teddi Vogel, 2090 S 13th Rd in Ballantine, Montana. I just have a question. I spoke both with ASM and OVG both and with Chase Hawks being one of the major users of the MetraPark. I've had an opportunity to visit with both companies. My question would be, if this goes forward and you begin discussing, are these companies going to be a good fit? Once you've done your investigation, will you come back to those of us, Nile, Chase Hawks, and Home Improvement Show folks and ask us what we think of these companies? Is our thoughts and opinions on our feeling on how these companies will do? Does that come into play at all?

Commissioner Jones - Before we do the contract, absolutely. We'll come back, if we do a contract then because we don't know, yes, there will be a public comment period at that time. So, we can come back and say this is what it looks like, and this is what the agreement would be.

Teddi Vogel – Ok, I asked this question simply because there was a comment made when I spoke with Catherine Crone who was with ASM. There was a gentleman from Helena I believe and then this gal and as we were visiting, I made a comment about sponsorships and as Nile does and we do. We live or die by our ability to have our sponsors for our events. And so that question did come up with them and they talked about sponsorships for the building and what struck me, she said, we're not a part of your community, so we would have to learn who your sponsors are. So, we're not stepping on toes or we're not. And that concerns me because when I go to the Metra and I sit down at the table with the current management, they know our sponsors, I know who theirs are, they know our community very, very well. They know our event, they know everything that we need, and they know how we can interact and get the most bang for our buck for our event. So that Metra can be successful, we can be successful. They know us very, very well. So that's just my concern with this outside company. They're going to have to step in and try to learn our whole community and that is frightening to someone like a nonprofit like ours. So just, I just want to make sure we get to continue to stay in the conversation.

Commissioner Jones - Absolutely. And that will be part of the discussion on how, I know I can tell you what I heard down in Casper from the City Administrator and Mayor, but I won't go through that. But it was not a concern there. It all worked out and they said it worked really well together. So that's that case. I mean, every case is different and that's something that we definitely, when we're going through and looking at this we have to make sure we have an agreement that we can come up with, because I understand all of you and Nile and everybody else they're definitely, you rely on that income and we're not going to, I'm not going to allow that to be taken away from you for sure.

Teddi Vogel - Appreciate it. Thank you.

Commissioner Jones - Thank you. Any further public, any comment? Seeing none.

Waldi Bloom - No, wait a minute. pull back.

Commissioner Jones - OK. If you're ready to do it, step up, next time I'm going to hit the thing pretty quick. So be ready. Go ahead.

Waldi Bloom. I'm at 944 Noble Wood Drive. I strongly disagree of any motion whatsoever to move forward with this. Please listen to the CFO. Please listen to those who are standing here saying that this is not a good idea. Also, I want to know where are the people that support this? Why aren't they stepping up? So far, it's been everybody's against it. Where are your people that you claim you're talking to that support this?

Commissioner Jones - And that's the best part about being a representative government is they can call and talk to me. They don't have to come to this meeting.

Waldi Bloom - Who are they?

Commissioner Jones - They're all kinds of people.

Waldi Bloom - What are their names?

Commissioner Jones – A lot of businesspeople.

Waldi Bloom - What are their names? I'm standing in front of you. I told you, my name.

Commissioner Jones - I don't have the list of names, but that's my job. As an elected official. Is to listen to my constituents.

Waldi Bloom – I see, you understand that people in this room don't believe you, right?

Commissioner Jones - And you know what? The people though that are watching online, that actually, my constituents will all say, yep, I've told him that. So that's your prerogative to do that but.

Waldi Bloom - Maybe they should speak up, but I'm a taxpayer. And I don't approve of how this is moving forward, and I strongly think that you need to reconsider before you roll over everybody, your attorney included. And I've got to say I've just now for the first time seen you in action. I am not impressed with your anger issues. You are not behaving properly. You're not listening to your attorney. You're not listening to your CFO. This needs to stop. I am a taxpayer. That's everything I have to say.

Commissioner Jones - Thank you. All right. Any further public comments?  The public comment period is closed.

          COMMISSIONERS – A.)  Area II Agency on Aging Advisory Board – Commissioner Appointment.  B.)  Resolution 22-26 to Cancel the Tuesday June 28, 2022, Commissioners Board Meeting.  C.)  Time Frame for ASM Negotiation & Committee Selection.

          PLANNING – South Sky Estates Subdivision – County Major Preliminary Plat.

          CLAIMS – Batches 22-175, 22-176, 22-177 and 22-178.  Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to approve the Claims, Commissioner Jones seconded.  Passed Unanimous. 

          CONSENT AGENDA – 1.  Commissioners – A.)  First Amendment to the Interlocal Agreement between the City of Billings and Yellowstone County Joint Communications/Dispatch Services.  B.)  Custer Clean Up Day Dumpster Request.  C.)  Board Appointment – Zachary Hassler to Historic Preservation Board.  2.  Finance – A.)  Bond For Lost Warrant.  B.)  MetraPark ARPA Contract with Askin Construction for Premium Parking Lot Rebuild and Notice of Award.  2.  MetraPark – A.)  Professional Services Contract between Board of County Commissioners and Eric Jubinville.  B.)  Request for Metra Staffing-Custodial.  4.  Public Works – Great West Engineering – Amendment #1 Task Order 2 for 2022 Bridge Deck Repairs Project.  5.  Sheriff – Insight Medical Group Agreement – Addendum #5 for Telehealth Coverage Services for Period 7/1/2022-6/30/2023.  6.  Human Resources – A.)  The Phia Group – Mental Health Parity NQTL Analysis Customized Fee Agreement.  B.)  PERSONNEL ACTION REPORTS – County Attorney – 1 Salary & Other.

          FILE ITEMS – 1.  Commissioners – A.)  Public Comment – SZD Story Road.  B.)  Public Comments – MetraPark Privatization.  C.)  ASM Global Letter.  2.  FINANCE – Detailed Cash Investment Report – April 2022.  Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to approve the Consent Agenda and place the File Items to file, Commissioner Jones seconded.  Passed Unanimous.

          PUBLIC COMMENTS ON COUNTY BUSINESS – Elected Officials Compensation Hearing on 05/24/2022 at 10:00 a.m. Today in Room 3108.  Hearing no comments Commissioner Jones adjourned the meeting at 10:38 a.m.

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