REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Tuesday July 5, 2022
ALL PRESENT: Commissioner Jones, Chair; Commissioner Ostlund and Pitman; Board Clerk Teri Reitz; Clerk and Recorder Jeff Martin.
PLEDGE.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON REGULAR, CONSENT AND FILED AGENDA ITEMS – Comments are limited to three (3) minutes or as set by the Board Chairman.
Commissioner Jones - Alright, the first item on the agenda is public comments on regular, consent and file agenda items. So that means everything that's on the agenda. If you have any public comments this would be the time. The comments are limited to three minutes and please come up and state your name and address and then we'll keep track of the time. So, it must be something on the regular agenda. If you have something that's not on the regular agenda, then we do have a time at the very end. So, I’ll go ahead and open that up for anybody that has comments. Public comments please step forward. State your name and address.
Jessica Flint – Good morning, Jessica Flint 177 Legends Way, Billings. I just want to say I am happy that the Chamber is finally decided to get involved in the discussions surrounding the future of MetraPark. I'm hopeful we as a community can come together in a real way to bring real vision for the future of Yellowstone County and the Metra. As you continue the discussion of potential management options for Metra, it's important to recognize the incredible job our Metra staff and new general manager and assistant manager continue doing. As you know, the Metra staff has been recognized on a national level for the great work that they do at the fair every year, they have also been recognized as one of, if not the first, arena to reopen successfully in the nation after the pandemic. I can only imagine what we could have done for the community if the Chamber had been involved, as involved and supportive of that effort, considering the immense positive impact it had on the economy and local businesses. We are looking at celebrating a historical financial success for the Metra this year and it is because of the Metra staff. I continue to be impressed with the accomplishments of the staff and their heart for serving the citizens of Yellowstone County. As the discussion of the management at Metra continues to make a well-rounded and well researched decision in a transparent way, all options must be pursued. This includes looking at examples of successfully publicly run public facilities solely seeking contract negotiations with private management companies does not fulfill the broad range of opportunities for successful management at the Metra. In the spirit of full transparency, I asked that the Commission put all options on the table for the best decision to be made and that includes leading the current structure in improving operations. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones/Ostlund - Thank you.
Gene Jarussi - Good morning, I'm Gene Jarussi, 1131 N 32nd St., as of today I’m a resident of Montana for 73 years and I've lived in Billings for 45 of them. I want to address the issue of whether management of Metra should be privatized. I always hesitate to read, but I want to get these comments in, so bear with me please. The impact of any decision was best summarized by Mr. Goodridge in his response to the Chamber of Commerce's position, as he stated the decision to privatize Metra and I quote “is an important decision, irreversible really, once you dismantle the public infrastructure, there won't be anything to fall back on if privatization turns out bad.” He goes on to state, and it's obvious, it's essential to have accurate and complete information. Here's the information I've been able to glean from various sources. I'm sure it's not complete and I can only hope that it's accurate. You, the Commission, issued a request for qualifications and information, as I understand that 2 Los Angeles, CA companies, OVG and ASM Global responded. A committee, I assume, appointed by you, the Commissioners, reviewed the responses and concluded in their review that ASM was the better fit for the County, fair enough. But the committee also concluded that the fact that the county had a three-year booking contract with OVG complicated the finances of the two proposals. Complications generally are not good as you know. The county Finance Director, Mr. Bryan, recommended that the privatization be put on hold for three years. That's allowing OVG's contract to expire, which would then start the process with a clean slate. That's a good recommendation in my view, and then Metra’s own Advisory Board voted to support Mr. Bryan's recommendation. Makes sense to me, but here we are today where I understand you're going to consider dissolving the request for qualifications and information, which you earlier issued and now issue a request for proposal. This does not make sense to me. In the meantime, we've got several things that have occurred. First, the voters in my view expressed their unhappiness with this issue by ousting Mr. Pitman in the primary election. Second, Mr. Goodridge states in his email that under the current MetraPark leadership, which has been in place for just six months, that the following things have occurred in six months. I think all of us would agree, is not very long to give a new administration a chance to do well or not do well. It's a little early to judge them, but at least things seem to be moving in a positive direction. With property taxes included, 2022 is supposed to be the best financial performance in 47 years. Great, Metra stays with and adheres to industry standard practices. Great again. Metra has started the process to write and adopt a policy defining how Commissioner’s directives are addressed. Great. Let's give it a chance. Let's adopt it and see if it works Metra’s instituting annual performance reviews for employees. Good enough. Let's give that a chance and Metra is trying to determine the real cost of events, and that's finances, and that helps address discounts. It's working to reduce long waits for consumers, good.
Commissioner Jones – Mr. Jarussi it’s been 3 minutes.
Gene Jarussi - Thank you. Stop this attempt to privatize the management with a California management company. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
Lou Moffett – Lou Moffett 2214 Green Valley Drive here in Billings and I agree with the gentleman before me 1000% and I believe we should go with our chief financial officers, Mr. Bryan’s recommendation just to put everything on hold for a couple, three years and then straighten everything out. I think the current Metra people are doing an outstanding job. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Julie Seedhouse – Good morning, Julie Seedhouse, 104 N. Broadway #28 and the current chair of the Billings Chamber Board of Directors. We believe the Metra is a vital public asset for Billings and Yellowstone County. MetraPark is a catalyst for visitation to our community and generates a significant amount of resident and nonresident dollars to regional businesses. The Chamber supports efficient and effective operations at MetraPark as well as improvements to its facilities to help maximize its potential. We believe MetraPark will be managed most effectively by a professional venue management company with arms -length oversight by the Commissioners and ownership remaining with the public. This is a proven national model for success and will ensure the facility provides an exceptional quality of place, increases nonresident spending, and uses taxpayer dollars wisely. We believe this is a necessary first step before county Commissioners consider asking voters to support a multimillion-dollar capital investment with the Vision 2025 plan. The Billings Chamber of Commerce supports County Commissioners taking steps necessary to contract with a professional venue management company for MetraPark’s Management. I would also quickly like to speak on behalf of Century 21 hometown brokers where I am a broker. We are one of the largest real estate brokerages in the region and are committed to all things positive for Billings and the surrounding area. Based on the current study, MetraPark shows a deficit of approximately $2,000,000 per year and we feel it would be a travesty for our county to risk losing $20 million over the next 10 years. We strongly support the use of private management to facilitate the growth and effective use of one of our greatest community assets to ensure its highest and best use. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Jess Peterson - Good Morning
Commissioner Jones – Good Morning
Jess Peterson – Jess Peterson, 4030 Thunder Ridge. You've made comments on a few different perspectives. I do serve on the Chamber board directors, and I do want to take a moment and say how much I appreciate each one of you and the work you're doing, I've cussed and congratulated you on several projects. I know you've done the same to me. We won't have to say where the score is at on that, but again, this is not an easy issue and I thank you. And I'm here again, working through some of the components we've already talked about from the Chambers perspective. I think everyone in this room, everyone on this board is biased and it's a good bias. We’re biased towards Billings, we’re biased towards the community, we’re biased towards this crown jewel, MetraPark. I think we all need to agree that that bias can work in a positive fashion. So, let's work in that direction. Folks of you that know that I'm involved in public policy to my conservative friends. I know that government is not always the answer. They're always telling me that, and I aligned with them. I think we can all believe in the private Public Partnerships have multiple successes out there. As we look at this executive management, I don't know about this privatization conversation getting tossed around. Our firm, I’m not bidding for this. Our firm does executive management for multiple nonprofits. I can tell you when you add those business services in place, and you serve a board. In this case, this executive management firm would serve you all. That's a public part on private public partnership. That has its benefits, if the board's not happy, I'm not happy, in this case, you're going have that oversight. So again, I think we have incredible staff. We've heard about that. Quite candidly. We've been trying to recruit some of that staff. I think if this executive management team comes in here. They'd be crazy not to do that. We have the best people in the nation right here. What is the answer for moving forward? I think there's a lot of uncertainty. I think a lot of us have watched this thing play out in the media. There's been some uncertainty. Regardless of what direction we go in, if we look at this executive management piece, if we look at this private public partnership, let's get some memorandums of understandings together. I don't want to have another conversation about, well, we think Nile's going be in this regard we think 4H, we think the fair here, everywhere you're going right now let's get some memorandums of understanding. What are the expectations, standards, and procedures, let's get that in place? Again, I'm going to be heading out of here in a little bit, to be cutting hay again along with my desk job. Our girls are involved in our farming and ranching operation. I want something that has a future from a citizen standpoint, both from an ag producer standpoint. Let's get that in place. And again, I appreciate your bias is towards Billings is towards the community. I thank each one of you and we look forward to working on a pathway forward. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
John Brewer - Good morning, Commissioners. John Brewer with the Billings Chamber of Commerce. At the core of our position at the Chamber of Commerce we believe in two core principles. One is that less government is better and two that we support utilizing the private sector whenever possible. Metra has basically been managed the same way, a very similar way over the past 50 years, which is directly by the county commissioners and it's not working as effectively or efficiently as it would if managed by private managers. A few things recently that I think have come to light that have really moved that conversation in this direction and one, I guess the understanding is that we're subsidizing the facility right now in the tune of about $2,000,000 each year, give or take. Recently you all commissioned Venue Solutions Group to interview staff and they came back with a report that highlighted a significant number of deficiencies in management and leadership and then there was the Vision 2025 study on the growth and future of MetraPark in which there was a segment that interviewed community user groups, residents and others and identified very similar concerns and issues as those identified by Venue Solutions Group. This is not an accusatory statement of current or past MetraPark staff. They're all doing what they can with the tools provided by our three elected officials. The management, leadership and booking of this facility should not be politicized. Best business practices should always be followed. Setting beer prices, developing RV contracts that create a monopoly, skybox pricing and other things in the minutiae of day-to-day management of MetraPark should not be a role of our County Commissioners. Commissioners should be governing the entire county. We do support leadership and professional development, management and growth through companies that do this as a profession. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Dan Brooks - Good morning, I have handouts. If I can approach.
Commissioner Jones – You bet.
Dan Brooks - Good morning, Commissioners. Dan Brooks with the Billings Chamber of Commerce at 815 S 27th St., I want to address one of the concerns that we've heard at the Chamber with our Ag committee and even at this body in front of you about concerns that Ag would be minimized if we go to a professional management model. So, I wanted to ask that question of facilities out there that have transitioned to private management and the one that I looked at and I've got in front of you there, a calendar of events for the Idaho Ford Center, their Horse Park facility there in Nampa, ID. I looked at the calendar and 2015, which is pre privatization and then at, 2022 to see what events and organizations still maintained their events at that venue after they privatized. And the answer is the vast, vast majority of them. In fact, you'll see. And for the benefit of everyone, I'll go ahead and read those events and organizations that maintained their events bookings, Idaho Cutting Boards Association, the Idaho State Horse Show, the Idaho Horse Expo, the Best little Derby in the West, the Boise Sideline Jump Club, the Idaho Rain Cow Horse Association, the Regional 4 Arabian Championship Horse Show, the Snake River Running Alliance, the Idaho Paint Horse Show, the Northwestern Affiliate Finals Low Roller Raining Classic, and in 2021 they had hosted the Desk Arab Arabian Horse show in the Idaho Dressage Festival. Those events that were not on the 2022 calendar and were on 2015 calendar, extensively, you know, they just decided not to come back for whatever reason. The Jesus SD was a concert, MacDon Academy training, a driving festival, and extreme Mustang makeover, which from what I can discern, was a TV show that was hosted there for a little while. However, what they did do is add a whole bunch of events after they privatized, and those are a gun show, the Idaho Catholic Youth event, barrel futurities, gem state Stock Horse Association, McDowell training, Mustang Mania, Zone 1 Paint Horse Show, Western State Stock Horse Eques and Overture, and a Festival of Trees. Additionally, in my correspondence with the general manager of the facility, also let me know that they host three different local riding groups throughout the week. It's not listed on their calendar, but they have it open for those community organizations and in the last six years they've built new stall barns, they've installed mats in those barns, they've upgraded the facility footprint, they've added Wi-Fi, LED lighting upgrades, etc. They're making all these great improvements while we're tearing down stall barns. I would say that moving forward with privatization would be a benefit for not only our Ag community, but for our taxpayers, for our showgoers and for the Community in general. We encourage your vote, yes, on the RFP in front of you and thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you. Any further public comment?
Kent Koolen - Good morning.
Commissioner Jones - Good morning.
Kent Koolen - My name is Kent Coolin, I live at 1828 Lindale. I’ve called Billing’s home for 60 years. I was a member of the Breakfast Exchange Club for 40 years and in that capacity spent a lot of time at Metra pouring beer out there and giving all our money to local charities over $100,000 a year for 40 years. We were cut back and much of that task was given to a private enterprise. I can't see that there's been any monetary benefit to the community, and in fact it just deprived all our charities. Of all the monies that we were giving to them.
Commissioner Jones – Mr. Koolen, we are talking about the privatization. If you can get to that subject. The beer exchange was not on the agenda.
Kent Koolen – All right. When the Chamber comes up here and tells you that they back the privatization, I was surprised that none of them responded to the comments made by Mr. Goodridge, who has disputed everything that they said. He said that the notion that MetraPark is failing and that the leadership and staff are not capable and don't know what they're doing is patently false. MetraPark is in the top nationally for facilities of its size and on top of that, the staff are responsible for hosting the biggest County Fair in the state and region every year. Few other facilities, if any, do this most either run arenas or fairs, not both. So, looking at these other occupations from Casper from Nampa are comparing apples and oranges, and Mr. Goodridge has recommended, he's your manager, that you chose and gave him this job, and after six months on the job he has decided that we can improve Metra. We cannot allow only six months asking him to turn things around and make it a good operation as responsible businesspeople, the Chamber should know that you can't do it in six months. A year would be ambitious, so let's have the proper research instead of rushing into this like, Mr. Jarussi says, quoting Mr. Goodridge, we need proper research. If we do this hastily it’s an irreversible decision and if we dismantle the infrastructure that we have running Metra and privatization turns out not to be good, we have no recourse, we can't go back. So, let's have some research. Let's slow down. Get the information that we need before we make a knee jerk decision. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
Lesli Glen – Lesli Glen, 3060 Farley Lane. I want to thank the Chamber guy, sorry I don't remember your name. You’re not a horse, I'm not going to remember, who came up and just made my point. The Nampa facility is amazing. We don't have that here. They built an indoor arena with dirt. It doesn't get taken out for an RV park show. It doesn't get taken out for anything. It stays there. That's what we fought for, for years. I don't see that happening because you guys, every time I see a new plan. Well, we're going to move the dirt in and out. We can't afford to move the dirt in and out. That's what's killing the Ag. You people in the crowd want to know why it's killing Ag, that's why you can't afford that. I got an estimate from and thank you, Tim. I understand why you did it, because at first, I was upset because I looked at my bill and went what? For my horse show that I just had. But he explained it to me, and I understand why he did it. Because he broke it down and what it cost to set it up. I understand that. But it shouldn't have been set up because the Super Barn is for horse events should have been left that way. Shouldn't be taken down, shouldn't have things stored there in the wintertime. It should be an AG facility 100% year-round. Then there wouldn't be the added expense. There wouldn't be the added labor to get it ready for an event we could actually use it in the wintertime. Imagine that. That would be amazing. My big problem I have with this. If you want 2-3 years down the road after the one contract is done, revisit this and do privatization fine. Look at it then. But there's a big mess right now and what's going to happen with getting new buildings. It's going to be the taxpayers that pay for it, not the new venue that's running it. US. So let us build it. Let management run it and in a couple of years, if they're not doing their job well, then we can revisit this. But they've already proven in six months that they're doing a great job. I don’t like the smell of what’s going on. It smells of a lot of underhanded under the counter activity, there's a lot of stuff and it's at the point where I'm wondering if it ought to be investigated because of the way it's been handled. That is what’s bothering me. And I'm going to keep it under 3 minutes, so you don't have to remind me this time, Mr. Jones. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you. Great job. Anyone else, public comment please.
George Maragos - Morning George Maragos, Chairman of the Billings TBID, as I've stated before and our board has stated, we looked forward to this process being completed and a vote for the privatization of the Metra. Thank you for your time and hopefully you can see this move forward in the near future. But as I've stated before and the board, we agree with moving it to privatization. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
Mike Marsh – Good morning, Mike Marsh, 2237 Green Terrace Drive here in Billings, a business owner. My company's been in operations moving claims in Billings since 1946. I've been a heavy user of MetraPark. I even did my scout training during MetraPark’, the buildings, building time when it was not even finished yet. So, I have a lot involved. I’m a life member of Billings Motorcycle Club. I've done many, many events in conjunction and partnership with MetraPark staff and have had tremendous success there. MetraPark is a staple of and a landmark in our city. I think that we need to respect that and take time to decide what we're going to do. I would urge you to consider these priorities, one as a taxpayer supported business entity it’s my opinion that we need to set as our first priority for MetraPark to operate as a break even or profitable point. Having worked directly with the management staff of MetraPark in the past, I can say that everyone that I've worked with have the same priorities. Number two, we need to increase our taxpayer base level of confidence in MetraPark’s operations. I believe we can achieve that through a long term well communicated vision and mission statement which demonstrates to the public the effectiveness of managing the tax dollars that are used to support the facility, local staff and management I believe are the path towards achieving that type of vision statement to our Community, delegating management to an out of state institution is a vote of no confidence in our local management and I believe will make it very difficult to pass bonds in the future. Three, we are Billings and we are Montana at this time of recovery in our local, state and national discourse is more important than ever to keep as much money, as many of the tax dollars as possible in and operating through our Community contracting management to an out of state entity obviously sends the precious dollars away from our community at a time that we can least afford it, I stand opposed to privatization at this time. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
Steve Wahrlich – My name is Steve Wahrlich, 2511 1st Ave N., interesting, I guess a couple of comments that I have regarding the topic at hand. First of all, I've been in Billings 17 years, and I guess I've purchased the hotel and Stella’s and one of the interesting items that I've always lived by, it's not how well I've done, it's how much better I can do and when I look at Metra and I look at what's in front of us, the opportunity, how much better can we be? And I think one of the things as a businessperson always going out and looking at other opportunities. It's a great learning institution. Look what happened when you had VSG come in and do their study. Just because you have a request for proposal doesn't necessarily mean it has to be accepted, and so what's the damage in looking at it from that perspective? You know, I think we've learned a lot from outside people. I think if I operated the same way I did five years ago, I'd be bankrupt. So, I'm willing to change and I have to change. I have to look at how much better I can do. Last item I have as a pure businessperson as a taxpayer. Losing $2,000,000 in a business on an ongoing basis doesn't necessarily make sense. The question is what we have done to try to do something differently, so once again we can stay the course, or we can look at it a little bit different and look to see what we can do to improve. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Dave Kelsey – Morning Commissioners. For the record my name is Dave Kelsey. I'm at 1902 Molt Rapelje Rd., Molt Montana, and I'm here today as a director of both the Nile and Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative. Let me start out by saying that it seems like this topic of public versus private management continues to be bantered around without any change in the items of concern that need to be considered when you make this decision. First of all, many of us believe that there was a huge lack of transparency when this discussion of private management of MetraPark first came up. We are concerned that some of the preliminary meetings and discussions with OVG bordered on being illegal. The decision to offer an agreement to OVG and the way the contract was worded is extremely concerning to a bunch of us. These folks were guaranteed money for a five-year period as I understand it. I'm assuming they have been paid and to my knowledge I don't believe they have provided much service to Metra. Having an ongoing contract with OVG undermines the objectivity and the transparency when you try to compare them to another private management company, you have really muddied the water by offering OVG the contract. Secondly, moving forward with private management now would be in direct defiance of Yellowstone County's Chief Financial Officer recommendation, which is for the county to hire the best manager possible that they can find and keep the management public for at least three years to allow the OVG contract to expire. At that point, the county could decide whether or not public or private management is the way to go. As far as those of us in the area, we think you need to look at both items, but you need to be transparent about it and you need to do it properly. Thirdly, if you decide to go private, you lose local control, local input, and all of the money to hire those people goes out of state. Not only that, if you were to hire another company besides OVG, then you would be paying 2 businesses to provide private management for the MetraPark. That means the pieces of the pie have to get bigger in order for everybody to get paid. So, what does that mean? The user fees of the facility will undoubtedly go up and at the end of the day Yellowstone County still has to deal with whatever is left. Finally, and preliminary information that we were provided, there was not much thought about how to maintain enough of the area for our Ag roots that is our number one industry in the state of Montana, as well as Yellowstone County. I'm talking about Nile, Mate, 4H, those type of events, our future in agriculture is our youth, and these programs offer training and input for these kids to become leaders of tomorrow in agriculture. And I have to say, very disappointed in the Chamber. It did not come to the Ag Committee and talk about what their endorsement was going be before this. They could have done that before coming out with a public statement. That was not done.
Commissioner Jones - I think that's off subject. You're actually addressing us, not the Chamber of Commerce. You're 3 minutes is up.
Dave Kelsey - All right. Sorry about that. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Bill Dutcher – Bill Dutcher, 914 Yale. I’d like to make just a few comments. Ever since last November, Don you remember the day you wanted to talk to us right after the board meeting and see your call. And this discussion came up about private management, whatever I could care less. But what I've seen since then when I traveled coast to coast, arena conferences, I don't care if it is Madison Square Garden, fair conferences down in San Antonio, every fair in the country. You know how they start out? In an arena like the Alberta Bair. Welcome everybody to start the conference. You got 1500 fairs there, 1500 arenas there. You know how lucky you people are? You're in the fun business, you get to put smiles on faces.
Commissioner Jones – Mr. Dutcher you need to address the Commissioners.
Bill Dutcher - OK, you're going put smiles on people's faces. You have the largest event coming in a month. MontanaFair. Last year's fair made $600,000, which still has not publicly been acknowledged that 1.6 million in expenses and 2.2 million in revenue. The enthusiasm and the morale and the lack of fun has been a train wreck ever since last November, I've always appreciated leaders. I know some are in this room. I've worked with leaders and appreciated leaders in all my 40 years and the lack of leadership has been absolutely horrendous.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you. Any further public comments?
Bruce Glennie – Bruce Glennie, 5025 Cherokee Trail. Commissioners, a meeting just recently, past president Breakfast Exchange. I just want to say we have been, we are so very grateful to be able to serve at the Metra and then give all those proceeds that we make back to the Community. We thank you for that opportunity and we hope that can continue in whatever venue you take and that, that it's well thought out enough to know that we are able to do that just that. Thank you and thanks for letting us do that now.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Mikel Sherman – Mikel Sherman, 2488 Trask Circle. I'm coming to you again for the second time with the same question because I've yet to see any written communication, any communication whatsoever via television or social media on the question that I had before. My question is, is that if we privatize the Metra, have you explained to the community outside the benefits of the good that you have so glamorously put out there to everybody. What that impact is going be on our tax dollars because as a tax paying citizen, I truly do enjoy everything that we get to do at the Metra. But it comes at a cost where a 2-income household and I have three children. We do enjoy going to the fair. We do enjoy going to the concerts and everything that is put on, but that comes at a cost and that comes at a high cost, especially if you're going to privatize and move forward with things that you're planning on doing at the Metra. Have you figured out who tore down the barns? Because you couldn't explain that last time and you lied blatantly to the crowd by saying that you all three commissioners agreed to it and then was had to back step and say no, no, no, no. That must have been somebody at the Metra. But everything has to come through you guys, right?
Commissioner Jones – Yes.
Mikel Sherman - OK. So, we are still waiting for that information. We're still waiting for that information to be said. Also, I find it very interesting that every meeting that I've attended, there's never been anybody up here and that has been spoken for and that has said that they were for privatization. We've asked you several times, all of your emails, all of your text messages, all of your phone calls are public record and we have asked for that. We've asked to see who your constituents are on multiple occasions. There have been several people in this crowd that have asked for that information to know who your constituents are, and you have yet to provide that information. That's public information. Your text messages, your emails. That's public information. So, we have a right to them. So, I find it very funny that the Chamber is here all of the sudden out of nowhere, supporting, and they haven't been here at all. I find that really interesting. So, if we're going investigate anything, I think we need to investigate the deals that you're making with the Chamber. Who, by the way, doesn't know what they're talking about? The guy talked up here and was an Idaho company is all he had. Find it very interesting. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you. Any further comments, if you could please get in line that way we can keep the meeting moving.
Tanya Weinreis – My name is Tanya Weinreis, Po Box 50626. Just wanted to say how grateful we are to have the opportunity to run our small business out of Metra as a food vendor and we would love to continue to do that in the future. I kind of wish that this topic could go to vote to the taxpayers. Because I think that it matters what they think and say about it. But I do want to just make the point that Mark Morse being elected, made a statement to me about how people in this community feel about potentially this topic and others as well. Also, Mr. Goodridge, I've done a little homework on you and I'm actually quite impressed with your background and what you bring to the table to MetraPark and to me as a food vendor as well and what you wrote, I printed, and it's been quoted already. I think that we need to give some credit to you guys and who you hired to manage Metra and give them an opportunity to do so. At the same time, we are breaking records. I wish Steve behind me could talk, but he could tell you all the details that we had at a meeting with all of us food vendors and we are breaking records unlike anything that we've done before and we work together very well as a team, like a family and I worked in business since I was 19. I'm now 40. I have been able to have the opportunity to work with amazing staff. That's another concern I have too. I've been talking with a lot of staff, whether they be management or maintenance guys. And it breaks my heart, mostly because I care about people so much that if this privatization happens, they are very likely not going to be around. I don't know if you guys know, I'm sure you do, how difficult it is to employ people, we employ about 70 people here in Yellowstone County. And you might notice that some of our locations are closed on occasion because it is very difficult to get staff. To think that we would make a big decision like this and lose a huge amount of the staff at MetraPark. Who's going to run this? I mean, obviously we have decision makers and leaders, but who are going to be the people that do the maintenance that come in and clean and so I would ask that you look into that a little bit. Of course, we appreciate all that you guys do and thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk and Bill I think has done a great job with his time 40 years running Metra. I think that there's a lot of changes we can make. I was very excited about the infrastructure plan. I think it'd be great, I think it would be wonderful for our community and I wish that was what we were talking about today. Thank you for your time.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Teddi Vogel - Good morning, Teddi Vogel, 2090 S 13th Rd, Ballantine. Two different hats here today. I am the executive director of the Chase Hawks Memorial Association and was just recently up in the Metra offices last week to sign two of our contracts for our two largest fundraising events, which are both held at the Metra fairgrounds. I was also previously a 10-year employee of MetraPark. I worked every fair. I'm heartbroken to walk into those offices and seeing my former coworkers as down and scared for their jobs and confused and frustrated, the morale in that office is pretty dismal, and it's frightening to see that and those emotions in that office. Metra is a family. It's a fun place, maybe a dysfunctional family, but it is a family nonetheless, and the employees that you have there, the staff that you have there from the top of the heap with Tim all the way down to the maintenance staff, they do their level best every day to ensure that events like mine like Nile, like fair go off without a hitch and they do a fantastic job. It's really concerning to me because I don't know that we will ever have that spark back in the staff again and bringing in a company from out of state, I don't believe we will ever have the level of care given, provided to us, the users of Metra that we have with their current staff. On the flip side of that, my other hat as a 4H parent, I chose to put my kids in 4H. All three are taking livestock projects. I will pay any amount of money to let my kids participate in such events, however, I just spent $500 to enter my kids in the fair. I'm happy to do so. $180 of that was simply to get in the gate every single day of the fair so that my kids can participate and take their livestock. Happy to pay that. But when this becomes private, should it become that way? At what point do you break the backs of families like mine and other 4H and FFA members? We are the ones coming to provide the MontanaFair a free event for the public to come and see, folks come to see our animals, folks come to see the kids. We're paying you so that there is an event there for the general public to come and see. At what point do our families get saddled with so much expense because then it's a private entity and they have to make money to keep the lights on that we can't afford to come anymore. That is very real concern amongst Yellowstone County and outside county 4H and FFA families. So, something serious to consider. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Bonnie Deverniero – Bonnie Deverniero, 2244 Bender Rd. I'm also here representing the Nile and I am the Equine Programs Director. I wasn't planning to speak, but because the Nampa facility there in Idaho was brought up, I would like to point out a few things. I've not been to that facility myself, but I do know that they have two permanent dirt floor arenas, and they can house over 850 horses, so we can't compare bananas and pineapples. You just can't look at a facility and go. That's what we're going to be able to bring in when we don't have a quarter of what they can provide and what they can offer to the venues and the events that want to be hosted there, the second thing that I noticed is I looked up that Nampa facility right here on my phone after it was brought up. And the first thing I saw is they charged $5 per vehicle to park. Where's that money coming from? They're going to charge everybody else. So, it's not only a gated mission, but also a parking admission. It's an increased fee because they have better facilities. So, I just think that those things need to be considered before you can compare and go. That's exactly what we're going to be able to bring in. Until we have those facilities, we absolutely can't compare to that. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
Dick Pence - Good morning, commissioners. My name is Dick Pence. I live at 4307 Palisades Park Drive. I have a little different kind of a background comment, sort of a 40,000-foot observation. There's an old proverb that says, without a vision the people perish, in the understanding of that versus is that they go out, there's no boundaries to the flow of the water. There's no vision, there's no direction. Vision is an important part of any kind of leadership. Forgive the reference to the past, but my father taught vocational agriculture at the Huntley Project for almost 30 years. He had a Gold Emblem chapter which was recognized not only by the state but also the national level as outstanding. But the thing about my father was he was a visionary. He and the number of his cohorts wanted to see the development of vocational training in our area. They also wanted to see and fought for, tried to vie for a packing plant in Billings and Yellowstone County and what they met was the status quo. At that time Pierce Packing was there, but it was relatively small. I've lived in Grand Island NE and worked in Columbus NE I understand what big packing plants are. I understand what happens when we ship our cattle, our calves to Nebraska to be fattened and slaughtered there instead of in Montana. My point is that as we, just status quo this thing I've worked in six different states and seen some different ideas and I want to just have people think about the fact that if we look at visionary leadership. We've got to realize that it's always controversial at first and there's usually resistance, and one of the things that usually stops it is it isn’t invented in Montana, and it's just so destructive. Thank you for allowing me to comment.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you.
Steve Solberg – Good morning gentlemen. My name is Steve Solberg and I live at 3513 Prestwick in Billings and today I'm addressing you as a businessperson who is involved in the automotive industry for 37 years and I wanted to make an analysis of the privatization and the electric car that's coming out. There's been a lot of commotion about electric cars and the politicians have jumped on board. The manufacturers have jumped on board and everybody's trying to save the world. Well, I think there's too many unknowns about that car to make it less confusing for the public. That's one thing #2 is my experience tells me that when the salesman of any kind tells you, you have to do this now. Most people are not that naïve, and they walk away. So, in the same way, the support of the privatization context is very much the same and most people bought a car, and you know what that's like. And most of us move slower when we're making life changing decisions. We need to know the impact of what we're getting ourselves into. Just ask your spouse how long it takes. Our community residents don't know enough about the facts of this proposal to be in favor or not in favor. Nor do they like being pushed into something they do not understand. Good business operations, like many of our Chamber members, understand that and should want to get all the facts to make a good business decision to benefit their business and to benefit our Yellowstone County for many years to come. The comment was made about losing $2 million. And what business, what good, businessmen wouldn't spend $2,000,000 to make 150 million? Which is what MetraPark generates for our community. So, let's not get sucked in to making an urgent decision.
Commissioner Jones – Thank you.
Commissioner Ostlund – Thanks Steve.
Commissioner Jones - Any further public comments?
Pam Ask - Good morning, gentlemen. Pam Ask 5320 High Trail Rd. A year and a half ago or two years ago, I made application to serve on the MetraPark Advisory Board and my main objective was because I was a believer that government can't manage anything as well as private can manage it and I was approached in October and introduced to OVG and met with them and was very impressed. And I loved what I heard and still sold on the idea that privatization is probably the way to go. In January, I became a board member and I have spent the last six months working with the people at the Metra. I have attended all committee meetings and all board meetings all six months in an effort to get my feet wet and to understand what the advisory board's position is and what's going on in the county. During that time, I have been in and out of that office and I have watched these people do a heroic job of running Metra and I feel like privatization is a possibility for us at some point. But I believe the job those people have done for the last six months, the innovations that they have brought to the Metra and the hard work and effort that they've worked together to achieve needs to be given a chance and I would like to follow the wisdom of Kevan and give our people permanent jobs and to allow them the opportunity to show us what they can do. Because it's really been a lot of improvements in the six months I've been there. Thank you.
Commissioner Jones - Thank you. Any further public comments? All right. I will close the public comment period. We will move to the first item. First item is to cancel MetraPark RFQ&I and Issue a Request for Proposal for private management of MetraPark. And I will move that motion.
Commissioner Pitmen – 2nd.
Commissioner Jones - So actually I'm going to move to cancel the request for qualifications. I asked for the, that's the action item on the agenda.
Commissioner Pitman – Okay.
Commissioner Jones - Then we deal with. They're probably your second. Then I'll put the actual motion on, I apologize for that. I moved to cancel the request for qualifications and information and reject all submittals received and direct staff to develop a request for proposal for approval by the board of County Commissioners. At the, there’s been a little bit of a hiccup here. I’m going to go for at the July 26, 2022, board of county commissioners meeting. Is there a second?
Commissioner Pitman – 2nd.
Commissioner Jones – Alright, discussion.
Commissioner Ostlund - I have a lot of discussion and this is probably going to take a little while so hope you guys will be patient. Here the Chamber brought up the Venue Solutions report and a lot of people in this room now and we like to cherry pick the things that we talk about any report. Well, the Venue Solutions report was the 2nd report. It was the one that was sent to us after it was revised and before it was revised, and I have the original 1 because I asked venue solutions for it. Before it was revised, it was highly critical of two commissioners being directly involved in giving individual direction to the Metra and if you wonder why policies and procedures are bad there's a damn good reason, they were bad because we got two guys running down there trying to individually micromanager. Then I want to talk a little bit about procedures and our chairman has said that we don't have any at the Metra and we don't have any in here. We've had procedures here for 20 years and we've followed them, and Commissioner Pitman’s been chair for two years, Commissioner Jones has been Chair, for a year and a half and we followed the procedures like this RFQ&I, this would have normally in the process referred to us by the county Commissioners or the County Attorney went to discussion first. We would have had a formal procedure. We typically set our agenda for the next board meeting at 9:00 o'clock. We changed that. Now we haphazardly set the agenda, or we don't set it at all. No one shows up, I sit in here at 9:15, we changed the time from 9:00 to 9:15. You know, if you're going to complain about procedures and then not follow any or not established any, we hear all these comments from both of my colleagues about I wanted to fix that MetraPark. Not one meeting, since the two of them have been elected, have brought the staff in, or tried to develop a policy or procedure or set something up. We've had a complete failure of leadership at the top an absolute total complete failure of leadership. If you want to change something, we're a policy board. You figure out what you want to change, you discuss it with the attorneys you bring it back to us, and we make the changes. We talk about two and a half million we spend at MetraPark as that's a terrible thing. Would anyone in this room invest $2.5 million into the stock market for $150 million return? Because that's what the community gets from MetraPark. It's not an expense, it is an investment and it's an investment in all the things that we've talked about here today. Lesli’s horse shows, the Nile, 4H, no private management company, don't kid yourself is going to come in here and pay for those things that we subsidized. They'll have them if we want, we'll pay for them. Two and a half million that pays down the dirt, the cost of moving dirt in and out of the Metra, that pays for 4H, that helps the Nile, that helps the Chase Hawks. All these nonprofits that are so essential to this community that two and a half million directly subsidizes, and I think it's a little disingenuous on the chambers part that they come in criticizing our revenue pictures. Can you imagine that? They received $30,000 in rent discounts because Mr. Brewer went out there and said these dinners that they have the chamber Ag dinner and their breakfast, those are fundraisers for the Chamber and they come in and ask for part of that 2.5 million and you got $30,000 in subsidies to the Chamber, so the taxpayers could subsidize their fundraising effort so they can come in and criticize our revenue picture. Anybody see anything wrong with that? I sure do. You know, dual paths, how many times have you heard this board talk about dual paths? I want to know, does anybody see a dual path here? I don't see a dual path. We've never, we haven't given it anything more than lip service. We don't have an RFQ or an RFP to look at the private management facilities versus the public management. So, he's like we said we were. Was that true? I don't think so. I got quite a bit more. I'm not anywhere near done. Chamber quotes the operational audit, saying private management companies tend to be more bottom line focused. We have consistently discounted chamber events at Metra. Would you have us discontinue that going forward? Garth Brooks had an enormous impact on the region setting records in the process but due to the desirability of that event Metra had no real room to negotiate with the promoter, we lost 137 thousand. Should we have said no to that? We lose money on high school basketball, wrestling, volleyball, rodeo, Ag events, the NIA tournament, graduation ceremonies, should we discount those events because they lead to some losses you point out in your resource library link? The truth is that a family home a $200,000 home in Yellowstone County paid less than $2.00 a month for all the Metra campus has to offer and the tremendous activity that it generates estimated several years ago to 150 million, I likely think it's quite a bit higher than that. I had to tell you, I think it's time that we stop this process, do what this board said they would do. Look at both options. Do a comprehensive study of the public option before we go out, guys this is just wrong.
Commissioner Jones – You are done?
Commissioner Ostlund – For now.
Commissioner Jones - You know, I’m going to start off with just some comments that I wasn't planning on making that the subsidies for the Chamber and all these other organizations, these private companies, when you go and look at them, the Casper has a state basketball tournament, I believe and all these other ones, they're all subsidized. That doesn't mean because we're going to go to a private management, it's just management, we will still have the oversight of being able to say, hey, we'll take the hit for this or whatever. I'll talk about that a little bit more. Venue Solutions Group, I've only seen one report, I guess there was two reports.
Commissioner Ostlund – I have it, I will send it to you, the Gazette and Evelyn.
Commissioner Jones – Absolutely, I would love to see that because there were some comments and if there's anybody that actually has more influence down there that can go down and I've gone down multiple times as I’ve had this happen and then there's other Commissioners and I won't I'm not going to get into this name calling going back and forth. You know, policies and procedures aren't needed if everybody gets along, and that's one of the things that we talked about, Commissioner Ostlund just talked about as far as how our meetings are ran, if they all go great, you don't have to have policies and procedures. Policies and procedures are when things don't go great. That's the reason that, it's the legislature, they have a set of standards, you know, others use Roberts Rules of Orders, Masons is legislature and those policies, those guidelines are so that maybe things are not going right that you have the policy that you can actually make sure it stays on track rather than taking off on crazy tangents. This is the only government organization that I know of that doesn't go by any Masons or Roberts rules of order. We have never incorporated those. We've never incorporated when you can speak and when you can't, when you can discuss back and forth and I got caught in that pretty early on that I said no, we're not going to take public comments in this part. I thought I was going by, well we don't have written rules, I thought we were going by the rules and then I end up getting a comment in the newspaper that says, you know, I didn't go by the rules. Well, there are no written rules and that's the reason we have them, it actually gives a logical methodology on how we do things, and we don't. I would be surprised if you could find another organization that doesn't go by Masons or Roberts Rules of order in order to keep everything going in the right direction. It's been a long process to get to this point. The first discussion on this subject was on August 9, 2021, when Commissioner Ostlund brought it up at a meeting and there was a commitment made that if we do look at private management, it would come to the board like the normal process, which is exactly what happened. It was brought to a discussion meeting and then it was brought to a regular board meeting with the motion to investigate an alternative form of management for Metra. The motion was to issue a request for qualifications and information to learn more about what an alternative form of management would look like. We were asked to slow the process down and we did. There's been an ongoing movement by individuals to use a sportster of tactics to derail and end this process it would have been easy for me to give up and move on to other things, but that is not what is in the best interest of MetraPark in my opinion or our county taxpayers, and that is not what I was elected and sworn to do. There have been many false allegations that I will personally gain from this. This is absolutely false. I will not personally gain anything from this except the same thing that all taxpayers will gain, and that is to use taxpayer dollars in the most efficient and effective manner and make Metra a prize asset in the community. In my years of public service, my goals have always been to provide citizens with a best government that we can. That we can have while keeping the tax burden on citizens at a minimum. When I was investigating running for County Commissioner, Metra management and public safety were two of the top concerns I heard about. Privatization of management is not new to this Community, School District 2 originally operated the bus system and the meal program. They privatized both. It was controversial when they changed over, but everyone that I've talked to that was involved says it was a great decision. They saved money and get better service because that is the specialty and the professionals of these companies that took it over, they have the operations finetuned and policies and procedures that make it work. I have heard over and over that the facilities like Metra cannot break even or make money. This rhetoric has continued for so many years. It has become the defacto comment when there is plenty of examples where facilities like Metra break even, in some cases make money. Most recently, I went to Omaha NE and met with the CEO for the organization that manages the facilities owned by the City of Omaha. The city owns a Convention Center, a 24,000 plus seat arena and a baseball field that hosts the College Baseball World Series with over 24,000 seats. The managing organization not only pays this operations and maintenance expenses, but they also pay for capital improvements. Will this happen overnight at Metra? Most likely not. It will take time to get finances in order, but it is possible. And unlike what has falsely been stated multiple times by other public officials. It was interesting I actually went on a tour, a private tour with the person that runs that organization and they actually had it set up that they figured they would lose $2,000,000 for 10 years, within the first three years they actually we're breaking even. They built up reserves for the next two years, so they had money in the bank and still took the two million. The next five years, they actually turned it down. They ran the facility and those are some big facilities. They ran them and made money, innovation is what these guys look at. I keep hearing that we should get a current management timeline to make it work, and I've heard that again tonight or today. Sensibly, we have been working on this for nearly 50 years and continuing to lose money even though we didn't lose as much, we still lost money. Recently it was reported in the paper that Metra was going to make $1,000,000. We didn’t quite get there, we weren’t going get to a profit of $1,000,000 no matter what within the time. That was not stated correctly 3.5 million of taxpayer dollars were allocated to Metra, decreasing that amount by 1,000,000 does not make it profitable. decreasing loss is great, but it is still a $2.5 million taxpayer subsidy. If the county commissioners want to supplement MetraPark events with taxpayer dollars, we can. But we should understand what those costs are and what we are supplementing to so an educated decision can be made. Management has made some easy changes in the past year that have helped increase the loss. They've been innovative, I agree, but it's going to take a lot more to get where we should be. It is not just about money. We need to have proven policies and procedures so we can make the facility better, both financially and operationally for everyone. The Venue Solutions Group organization review of MetraPark comments on the lack of policies and procedures. There's been a lot of misinformation on whether Metra will work with organizations such as Nile under the private management. The answer is yes. We brought examples the Stampede. The Stampede down in Nampa is 1 where they actually have a letter in the proposal. If you read the proposal, you could see it. They said they actually brought other things too. They brought innovation to the event, and they actually started buying equipment and stuff like that. That actually worked out really well. The two facilities I visited both has events such as Nile, the facility in Casper, has multiple community events and statewide events such as high school basketball tournaments. They also host a college rodeo finals and others. As a business owner, I've always donated food and caterings from my own business to local nonprofits and others on a regular basis and still made a profit for my family to live on. Most businesses do donate to charities, I think there's this perception that a private management firm will not donate. They definitely will. If you look at all the different information in their proposals, they talk about that on how they actually donate back to the different events and charities in the community. They become part of the community. So, I don't quite understand that. A private management firm that specializes in facilities such as Metra, will bring proven policies and procedures that we do not have in place at this time. They will also bring innovation, read those proposals and look at the innovation that they've done. It's amazing, it gets me excited to actually read that and say, hey, this is where we could be and this is where we could go if we had private management, they're out there looking at all these different facilities and seeing what the innovation is. If they're not creating it themselves, they're actually watching it for competitive reasons and going out and making it happen. They know what's happening in the industry and a lot of times they're the leaders in innovation. My core belief as a businessman and politician is if there's an opportunity to let a private sector business manage the government owned enterprise is most likely in the best interest of the taxpayer to do that. MetraPark is an enterprise fund in government accounting terms, which means it acts like a business and relies on revenue to sustain itself. The way governments are run is not normally the best environment to run businesses, innovation in government is almost always behind private business innovations. Hiring a firm that are experts in an industry has so many advantages. The proposals and answers to the questions from the RFQI process made me believe even more that we can come to an agreement through negotiations with a firm that specializes in managing facilities like MetraPark, this is in the best interest for the county to proceed. There were some comments made that the Chamber has never been to any of these meetings. They have, they have actually been into some meetings and actually commented. That's blatantly false. You know, we’ve had so many meetings on it, I'm sure they missed some. They have definitely been here, and they have talked about it and they actually encourage us to continue on and look at the RFQI process, so I don't think that's a fair characterization at all towards the Chamber. That's all I have to say.
Commissioner Pitman – I have a few things, I don't have it written out like you guys, but it basically comes down to the agenda. The agenda says that we were considering the RFQI and looking at proposals for private management of MetraPark. The simple fact is the RFQ came back and said that we had two qualified organizations, which is what we were asking. We weren't asking for all the details we were asking, are they qualified to come in and do this management and the answer was yes. All the other stuff that started getting thrown in and added in and just to confuse and make things more complicated, we're not part of the scope of what we were looking for. We were asking a simple question by professionals. Are they qualified? And our legal staff came back and said they're qualified. It's that simple. They are qualified. This next process is to take that qualification and say how do those numbers match up? So, 30 days from now, 45 days from now, we look at the process, we look at the actual proposals and the numbers and what they can bring to the table, whether OVG stays with their contract or, doesn't, all of those things we kind of played with well, if this then maybe this, but it wasn't anything solid. Getting all of that, and answering the questions that some of you been asking, what are the facts? Not the gaslighting, not the name calling, not the accusations, but what are simply the facts. Where can we be in the future? I think, Mr. Pence said it nicely with a vision and a future, how do you get there and what does it look like? And the questions are valid. We've been using this as a political football, and it's been very destructive for a lot of reasons. Venue Solutions Group just to be accurate, didn't say 2 commissioners they actually said all three of us because you're probably the biggest offender of going out there….
Commissioner Ostlund – Have you seen the original report.
Commissioner Jones – Hold on let him finish, this is Roberts Rules of Orders if we had it. We would know that that doesn’t happen. Go ahead.
Commissioner Pitman – But the fact is, it said, and it's been a chronic thing, if you look at the history of MetraPark the chronic issue of MetraPark and it's gone back 20-30 years, whether Mr. Dutcher wants to admit it or not, his biggest thorn probably has been past Commissioners going out there with personal agendas, trying to get things done. But the reality is, over the last three or four years, it's been a challenge to the staff to do better, to be better and to ask for that to be an expectation that we place our staff. And I think they've been stepping up. This board worked very hard through COVID to keep our entire staff working and doing things to make the facility a better place, we didn't furlough anybody. We didn't lay anybody off and the place was dark for an entire year. And so, I think things like that need to be reminded. People need to be reminded of that. There’s a lot of little examples, and if we want to get into the you said this, you said this, you did this policy, I did this policy. We can do this all day long. The reality is all the Commissioners probably for the past decade have had influence and vision out at MetraPark in different ways. Instead of that being utilized as an asset, we're using it right now to try to divide our community and our board. And that's unfortunate when we start doing that because I think all of us bring specific issues to the table to make the place better. I think ultimately if you look down this list, every one of you spoke to make the place a better place to make it an experience for our community and for our region. When you take our self-serving purposes or our protectiveness out of it, the reality is we just want MetraPark to be the best it can be. And I hope that's what we can move forward. I'm looking forward to seeing what these proposals will look like and see if the numbers actually match up. We have said continually it is a dual path because we have our current management and we're also looking at these other options. So, within the next 30-45 days, we should have black and white numbers, not hyperbole. None of these accusations and just be able to look at the numbers and go forward from there.
Commissioner Ostlund - I do have a couple more comments. Is the Idaho Center making a profit?
Commissioner Jones - I cannot tell you if they're making profit. I know that before Covid they were very busy, and they have a big yes.
Commissioner Ostlund - I'm not aware of any of these arenas making a profit. They're all built by government. They're all funded with tax dollars. Some are privately managed. But if they were built by the private sector and the cost associated with that construction and paid taxes on them, no one could afford a ticket. That's why they're all built publicly. My second question is we said we're following dual paths. I don't know that anybody in this room believes that. Are we going to or are we not, going to study the publicly managed venues that are making good on their management? Was that all lip service or are we going to do it? Because all we've ever talked about is private management. Are we going to study both? I think these people deserve an answer.
Commissioner Jones - Well, we did actually send out and you know we actually paid Venue Solutions Group to take a look at it and they, you know, to have that second…
Commissioner Ostlund – Are we going to issue…
Commissioner Jones – We actually, let me see, I don’t know if you remember but we actually asked staff to do that and at the time, the general manager said there's no way I will be involved in this and said there's no way I'm going to have anything to do with this. So, we did ask the Metra staff to actually look into that and see what was going on there, but I don't know. I haven't seen anything, and I know the general manager at the time said there’s no way I’m going to do anything with it.
Commissioner Ostlund - We don't seem to put much stock in our Metra staff, although I do. But I think we should do what we said. And we should issue a proposal and hire a company to study the private versus public solutions. Look at the publicly managed facilities, bring them back to this board so we can compare apples to apples.
Commissioner Jones - Commissioner Pitman
Commissioner Pitman - We did that, and you asked for that and we did it. And then we brought it forward to hire venue solutions. You voted no because that wasn't the answer you wanted. So, you actually said.
Commissioner Ostlund – That’s not accurate.
Commissioners Pitman - it is accurate. See this is where the problem is with you and the way you vote and then what you tell people isn't the truth. The simple fact is, and someone keeps asking it, I'm sorry, I forgot your name.
Mikel Sherman – Mikel
Commissioner Pitman – Mikel, thank you. You know who tore down the barns? I sat in a meeting where you yelled and screamed. Oh my gosh. Where? How did the barns get torn down? Who authorized this? And then you actually had to send an email saying, oops, I guess I voted for it and didn't remember doing so.
Commissioner Ostlund – Show me the paperwork on that.
Commissioner Pitman - I absolutely will. But we voted for…
Mikel Sherman – Those are public records, you can send those out.
Commissioner Pitman – Absolutely.
Commissioner Jones – No Problem.
Commissioner Pitman - So the simple fact is we voted, we budgeted. We actually paid for having the barns, the asbestos removed for the purposes of taking them down. You were all part. You were part of that and then you act like I didn't have anything to do with it.
Commissioner Jones - So let's get back on the subject that we have in front of us here.
Commissioner Pitman – Sorry. let's get the information, what we've been leading up to this point for long enough. You can try to do another study or another distraction, but the fact is, let's get these proposals out. Let's find out what the numbers actually look like and see if it's something that's doable.
Commissioner Jones – Okay so just to comment on some of the things that we just brought up and one that wasn't, you know, as we go down this track, we may not, I'm going to put it out there, we may not be able to come to an agreement with one of these companies. This agreement has to make sense. There's no way I'm going sign something or vote for something that does not make sense for the community. I looked at their proposals, they look, you know, they look great, but there's got to be a negotiation to make sure that we can actually make it work. And I'm sure that happened in the school district 2 when they were looking at it, they had to make sure that the contract, when they looked out for outside sources it had to make sense. So going down this road there's always a thing that says we will not have to give a contract and we'll have that in the language, that a contract may not come out of these negotiations and the whole process. You know, there was a comment made that I haven't done anything since I've been here as far as trying to make Metra better and that we had never brought anything up. And I would tell you that from the very beginning when I got on to the Commission that I started looking at things and there were so many different irregularities such as the skyboxes. I mean, when we have skybox pricing all over the place and we're government entity, this should all be, everybody should be able to see it. Everybody should be known. We should be consistent. And I mean you look at the skybox pricing and they were all over the place and it was kind of insane. There are all kinds of other issues that I saw, but during COVID. We actually set up management meetings, so that was a great time that I said, you know what, let's take a step back, let's start setting goals and figure out key performance indicators and different things like that. So, we actually set up meetings with Metra staff and the general manager and he was able to bring whoever he wanted to, and we actually met in this room. We said, OK, you know, what are we going to do on food services? Let's start setting some goals. What are we going to do on the utilization of buildings? What are the key performance indicators that we should be looking at, you know, bring those back to us? So, we give them two weeks and they came back and the person that actually gave the presentation went for 10 minutes, telling me and the Commissioners why they couldn't do that. Because there's so many variables. Well, what business doesn't have variables? I mean, my, every business has variables, and you have to jump, and you have to innovate to try to get around them and make things happen. But they actually they came back. And so, after 10 minutes of hearing why they couldn't do this, I said, wait a minute. Let's stop. I didn't ask you to come back and tell us why you couldn't do it. I asked you to come back and tell us how you're going to do it. Building utilization, our building utilization is pretty low. And we went through the whole thing well actually, Commissioner Ostlund and the general manager at the time said oh, you can't treat staff that way. You can't ask them those questions and it was a very legitimate question. And so, the whole thing fell apart and when you don't have the general manager and you don't have one of the commissioners on board, my goal was to wait until we had to change in management and then start looking at it and that's the reason why we are where we are is to start looking at what it is. This a $10 million operation a year should have goals and should have some vision. We don't. We haven't. It's just been. It just goes along and whatever happens, happens. It's my fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of Yellowstone County is not to just let things go along as they happen. My fiduciary responsibility is to make sure that we're running things operationally well and that we have goals and that we try to meet them and that we try to grow it. So, to say that we might have never brought anything forward before we actually had some really good meetings and then it just blew up. You know at that point I just went we’ll wait until we get a change in leadership. One of my other things is and the Chamber actually said this, and I think they said it very well and it's it was a concern of mine from the beginning. When we went out and we did the vision 2025 going out and meeting with people, management kept coming up consistently over and over and over again. So, we're talking about investing $80 million and we're going to keep running the organization the same way we have been and hopefully we get better results by spending $80 Million more. That $2,000,000 would probably grow to who knows what $10 million or who knows where that could go as far as operational costs and we're just talking about operations and maintenance. We presently spend $2,000,000 and were going to go out and spend $80 million. You know most bankers when your organization is losing $2,000,000 and you want to grow it, you better have a plan on how you're going to make up the rest of the loss that you're going to get from having more and more operations to take care of and so that was a priority to me. If we're going to grow it and I think the Chamber actually nailed it and they said this really early on, I heard the rumors coming back when they went over and met. They said, hey, you got to have operations and maintenance figured out before we're going to support the vision 2025 and they were consistent on that from the very beginning, and I didn't hear that from them. I actually heard it from other people that went to the meeting that said, well, they kind of got after us. They said we better have this figured out first and they're absolutely right. So, you know they've been involved, and they've made their comments over the years or over the year. Any further comments?
Commissioner Ostlund – I think James is out until July 18th, I don't know how he could possibly get an RFP written before the 26th. Why do we continue to shove things? I mean we act like our hind ends on fire. We're trying to get this done so quickly so we could achieve the desired result of a contract with OVG. It's not even a possible time frame and you didn't investigate it last time. You didn't this time.
Commissioner Jones - No, I did actually know that he was going to be out until that week. But I would think that there's somebody in our department that could actually work on this. It doesn’t have to be James. There are other people over there that do some purchasing, so if were saying that there's only, and I was actually going to do it a week earlier, I actually extended it out a week to give him more time because, you know, 450 some employees I would think that somebody here has some experience in doing that.
Commissioner Ostlund – Is there a deadline? Just has to be done before Commissioner Pitman leaves.
Commissioner Jones – We keep hearing, that the staff out there, this is very negative to staff, and it is very upsetting to staff and that’s all that’s ever happened this whole time and I feel sorry for the staff also. Although they are going to be, they're still going to be employed. We've been saying that all along there, you know the companies that’s part of something that we will negotiate with them. But to just drag it on and keep stalling it, which you have been successful at doing for quite a few times now. It is not fair to staff, it's not fair to anybody else, when I just sold my business recently. I didn't tell everybody I was looking at selling it so they would be upset for the next six months of wondering what's going on. We did it pretty quickly and that's the way you normally do this. This is government. So, we do have to go through a longer process, there's no doubt about that, but to keep extending it out further and further does not make sense. We need to close this and move forward either way.
Commissioner Ostlund - I think that we actually did what we said, you have said over and over again but you just said a minute ago that when you got the information you would look at it and if the shoe didn’t fit, we wouldn't put it on. Well, the Finance Director said it didn't fit, but instead of taking his recommendation, you attacked him publicly. And so now we're going to just say, well, we've got all the recommendations back. We know what the results are going to be. We got the proposals back, we got a recommendation from the Metra board, from the Finance Director, and from our attorney who were on that. But we didn't like the results of that so we're going to give her another shot.
Commissioner Jones – Please no clapping that's not appropriate for this. People that are clapping, you know that. You’ve heard it before that’s not new. You know, we had an attorney, but she wasn't acting as an attorney on the selection committee, but she was actually part of the selection committee that did it. We don't take recommendations from every staff member that says that we need to do something. I know we've gone against some things, you know, that's not. We weren't elected to listen to staff and say that's the way we should go, as elected officials. That's what we should do. That's not our job. Our job is to decide what we believe is best, take the recommendations into consideration and make the decision. Commissioner Pitman.
Commissioner Pitman – Ill call for the question.
Commissioner Jones – Okay, no further discussion? All in favor say aye.
Commissioner Jones – Aye
Commissioner Pitman – Aye
Commissioner Jones – All opposed?
Commissioner Ostlund – Aye
Commissioner Jones - All right. The next agenda item is the Emergency and General Services.
COMMISSIONERS – Cancel MetraPark RFQ&I and Issue a Request for Proposal for Private Management of MetraPark.
EMERGENCY AND GENERAL SERVICES – Changes to 911 Dispatch. Mr. K.C. Williams, DES Director state there is going to be a change to 911 dispatch. Historically there has been some issues with Rural Fire or EMS refusing to respond or not being able to respond to an emergency. Currently in the state of Montana the 911 Dispatcher has a legal obligation to find a solution to a 911 call, but the entities that are called don’t necessarily have to agree to provide that service. In the past when they would call one of these rural fire or EMS for a 911 call and they couldn’t get a response, they would call me. That delayed the process a call down tree to allow us to reach a solution faster for the citizens, so I have with me here today, the director of County City Dispatch, Derek Yeager. He’s made some changes to the notification policy, and we’d like to present that to the board and some of the reasons behind the policy change and then what the policy is just so that the Community will know that we’re making a change to expedite getting people services. Commissioner Pitman asked if there is going to be action required for this or is this just informational? Mr. Williams stated that this is just informational. Mr. Yeager stated that there is nothing that the Commissioners need to do, this is just for information only. We’ve had some discussion over the last several months just about taking what used to be mostly an exception and that’s becoming an expectation and how we address it. We may not arrive at a different conclusion, but it’s do so faster and I think some these instances that used to statistically occur about once a month, maybe, or sometimes happening two and as much as five times a day. These instances where there’s an emergency occurring at very nature are EMS and fires. There are no responders and that’s the vacuum that’s created in those instances as opposed to a burden to find someone to go is really what we’re talking about. The procedural change that we’re looking at is intended to address that with the order that would take place each time. While we’re intending to achieve with this is that instead of arriving an hour and 15 minutes into these calls at a conclusion, we’re intending to do that in 15 minutes or less. That’s really what this involves. The increase, I think is statistically pretty apparent the calls and these are just a few numbers to support the change, 23% or rural fire and EMS calls this year haven’t been attended at all. 47%, the service was not actually arranged for, and so you’re talking very rural areas where there is no ambulance service, but people would still call, or they don’t know that when they go there. The protocol is not magic, it’s not a silver bullet. There is no one single solution that you guys know that you’re award of. I’m not proposing one, but we would end up putting this into a policy for call takers and 911 operators to employ in a much shorter time frame. Our whole goal here is that in doing that, we could also then begin to have discussions with the various responder agencies about. We would also look at a public education campaign. I think a majority of fold who live in these areas don’t fully comprehend. I think everybody’s assumption is you call 911 and you get something from somebody somewhere. That’s not the case and you guys know that. I think putting that out there can allow people to make plans to become aware of what they don’t have, make contingency plans, things for themselves. That’s really the intent. Commissioner Pitman asked if he was having a heart attack if it would be better to just put me in the car and start driving to town versus waiting for an ambulance to show up. Mr. Yeager stated that under city and county legal advice, we cannot advise somebody to do something for themselves and we can’t say, call a neighbor. What we can do now that we have not been doing is advise them of the steps, we’re taking in the delay that’s being experienced, that allows them a conversation at home. The Commissioners thanked Derek Yeager for the update. No action required.
FINANCE – Resolution 22-40 of Intent to Change Boundary RSID #679M 69th Street and Setting the Public Hearing for Tuesday August 9, 2022 @ 9:30 a.m. in Room 3108. Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to approve Resolution 22-40, Commissioner Pitman seconded. Passed Unanimous.
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS – Resolution 22-38 of Intent to Adopt Addressing Policy for Yellowstone County and Setting the Public Hearing for Tuesday July 19, 2022 @ 9:30 a.m. in Room 3108. Commissioner Pitman made a MOTION to approve Resolution 22-38, Commissioner Ostlund seconded. Passed Unanimous.
PLANNING DEPARTMENT – The Highlands Subdivision – Preliminary Minor Plat. Mr. Dave Green, Planner stated the subject property is generally located east of Molt Road and south of Shorey Road. This subdivision would create 5 lots from a 157.3-acre parcel of land. Mr. Green went through the proposed conditions. Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to conditionally approve The Highlands Subdivision – Preliminary Minor Plat with the SIA and the Findings of Fact, Commissioner Pitman seconded. Passed Unanimous.
PUBLIC WORKS – FY22 Budget Adjustment for the Road Fund. Mr. Kevan Bryan, Finance Direct stated that the road fund needs a budget transfer in the amount of $300,000 to complete road work done in FY22. Commissioner Ostlund made a MOTION to approve the FY22 Budget Adjustment for the Road Fund, Commissioner Pitman seconded. Passed Unanimous.
CLAIMS – Batches 22-195, 22-196, 22-197, 22-198, 22-199, 22-200, 22-201, 22-202, 22-203 & 23-001. Commissioner Pitman made a MOTION to approve the Claims, Commissioner Ostlund seconded. Passed Unanimous.
CONSENT
AGENDA – 1. COMMISSIONERS – A.) Commissioner Board Reappointments –
Donald W. Jones & Denis Pitman to Beartooth RC&D Board. B.) Support
Letter - Montana Native American Center. C.) Board Reappointment – Daniel
Ewen to Huntley Project Fire Services Area Board/Gavin Williams to Laurel
City/County Planning Board. D.) Mastercard Corporate Multi-Card Fleet and
Department card Solutions Application. 2. FINANCE – A.) MetraPark ARPA
Contract Addendum with Tel-Net Systems, Inc. Data Cabling. B.) Amendment 1
for Yellowstone Title IV-E County Attorney Grant. C.) Facilities Contract
with Safetch, Inc. Change Order #1, Reduction of Scope. D.) MetraPark Request
to Expend 200 Portable Stalls. E.) MetraPark Request to Expend for Two Sets
of 10 Row Transportable Bleachers. F.) Aviation Liability Insurance Terrorism
Coverage Denial - TRIA Forms. G.) Youth Services Contract with Hardy
Construction for Installation of a Re-Purposed Security Window. H.) LPSD Task
Order 1, Appendix C with Sanderson Stewart. I.) 2022 Executive Summary –
Insurance Renewals. J.) Bond for Lost Warrant on Lost or Stale Dated Check.
K.) AFM Disclosure Declining Terrorism Insurance, Shooting Range Disclosure
Declining Terrorism Insurance and Surplus Lines Disclosure Statement. L.)
Contract Amendment #1 for County and Tribal Matching Grant. M.) Public Works
to Expend for a Replacement MIG Welder. N.) Metra Contract with Askin
Construction for Carnival Lot Leveling, Installation of Manhole Collars and
Asphalt Paving. O.) Resolution 22-42 Yellowstone County Travel Mileage
Increase. P.) MetraPark Contract with G & T Plumbing & Mechanical to
Repair ARPA Infrastructure Carnival Lot Plumbing &
Water Line Repairs. Q.) Updated ARPA Projects through 6/30/22. R.)
MetraPark Contract with G & T Plumbing & Mechanical for Carnival Lot
Bathroom Renovation. 3. METRAPARK – MetraPark – Haas & Wilkerson
Coverage Renewal. 4. PUBLIC WORKS – Contract with Streamline Markings
for the Striping of the Johnson Lane Old Hardin Road Intersection. 5.
SHERIFF – A.) Fifth Amendment to Professional Services Agreement between
Yellowstone County Detention Facility and Correctional Health Partners (CHP).
B.) Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office – Shepherd Schools School Resource
Officer’s Contract for 2022-2023 School Year. C.) Transfer of Medical
Services at Yellowstone County Detention Facility from Correctional Health
Partners to Turn Key Health Clinics, LLC. 6. SUPERINTENT OF SCHOOLS –
FY23 Contract with Rodney Svee for County Superintendent. 7. TREASURER
– Bond for Lost Warrant. 8. HUMAN RESOURCES – A.) TruSaic Agreement.
B.) Benefit Program Application – ASO Account. C.) PERSONNEL
ACTION REPORTS - Youth Services Center – 1 Appointment. Treasurer –
1 Termination; Clerk of Court – 1 Appointment; MetraPark – 1
Salary & Other; Detention Facility – 1 Appointment; Sheriff’s
Office – 1 Termination.
FILE ITEMS – 1. AUDITOR – Payroll Audit June 1 to June 15, 2022. 2. CLERK OF COURT – A.) Yellowstone County News Sworn Statement of Circulation. B.) Billings Times Sworn State of Circulation. 3. COMMISSIONERS – A.) Huntley Project Schools Budget Amendment Resolution. B.) Public Comment Story Road Special Zoning District. 4. ELECTIONS - Official Election Canvas for the June 7, 2022 Primary Election. 5. FACILITIES – Application to Use Courthouse Lawn. 6. HUMAN RESOURCES – June 1 – June 15 Payroll Audit. 7. PUBLIC WORKS – Contract with Croell Inc. for Road Material Prices for 2022-2023. 8. TREASURER – Delinquest List of Property – Saved on a Flash Drive. 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 - Four people spoke regarding a County Water District of Billings Heights board member. One person made comments to Commissioner Jones. Hearing no other comments Commissioner Jones adjourned the meeting at 11:33 a.m.
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