REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Tuesday July 28, 2026
PRESENT: Commissioner Morse, Chair; Commissioners Waters and White; Board Clerk Teri Reitz; Clerk and Recorder Jeff Martin.
PLEDGE: MOMENT OF SILENCE, Held.
Commissioner Waters made a MOTION to move 2C and 5 from the Consent Agenda to the Regular Agenda, Commissioner White seconded. Passed Unanimous.
9:00 a.m. RECOGNITION – Mike Linder – Sheriff – 15 Years of Service – Retirement; Mike Powell – GIS – 23 Years of Service; Jennifer Hickson-Avants – Sheriff Records – 25 Years of Service; Raechelle Orth – Clerk and Recorder – 10 Years of Service.
9:00
a.m. PUBLIC HEARING – Resolution 26-90 Intent to Abandon Certain Roads
in Rockwell-Schauer Subdivision. Mr. Jay Anderson, Deputy Public Works
Director stated that this subdivision is located just west of Laurel, Montana
and south of the golf course. Existing
conditions, Rockwell-Schauer was originally platted in 1961 and many of the
roads were never constructed. In 1973 and 1984 again, the plat was amended and
those roads that are were abandoned at those times. There is golf course
property to the north. There is a county park to the east. That county park
would still have access from the south after this proposed abandonment. 25th
Avenue West there to the west of the subdivision is paved. And 24th is the
only actually constructed road in the subdivision, and it's right up there in
the center of that subdivision. It is not county maintained. Proposed
abandonments. We would abandon as platted. The roads were renamed afterwards,
but in the original plat, these roads are 35th Avenue, a portion of 2nd Street,
a portion of 4th Street, and 33rd Avenue in its entirety. Those other roads
again were abandoned in 1973 and 1984. Board of viewers report. The report
was submitted July 7th, 2026, to the board. Upon reviewing the site, the roads
were found to be unconstructed. The road dedications are currently being used
by the property owners. There are no current county improvements being
considered for that subdivision at the time. The petition roads are not
necessary to provide or continue providing access to the properties out there. There
is with that golf course to the north, we determined there's a lack of future
connectivity through that subdivision. With that, the board of viewers
recommended proceeding. They'll need to submit and record an amended plat to
the clerk and recorder's office. That amended plat will have to aggregate the
lots or the tracks as agreed by the affected property owners, and they will
need to maintain legal access to the existing properties out there. That needs
to be completed within one year. I need to note we did get some late
communication on this. There's a property owner. Okay, so there's a triangular
property up at the north end of 25th Avenue West, where there is not a proposed
abandonment. Upon trying to have the consent, for the petition signed there we
were unable to get that property owner to consent. So, we specifically left
off that piece of 4th Avenue because we could not get them to consent. Their
concern is that they would like to abandon that. They didn't agree to cost
sharing, but they would like to abandon that road. They think it would be
better if that road were abandoned. Our direction to them was bring another
petition back to the board for review at a later date and let this move
forward. Their concern is there's a property owner to the south of them that
they would need to get to consent.
They'll have to just work that out with the property owner is when we brought,
when this petition was brought forward to us, we delayed it. We tried to allow
that property owner to come back to the table to agree to consent. He did
not. So, we recommend, I recommend moving this forward as is currently blocked
out, proposed. And if he would like to abandon the remainder of 4th, he can
bring that back later. Commissioner Morse stated that he doesn’t believe you
can add, I mean, once the petition is in, you can't add another piece to the
puzzle, so to speak. You either have to pass it as it was petitioned or not. Mr.
Jay Anderson replied he agreed. Commissioner Morse opened the Public Hearing.
One person spoke in favor of the proposed abandonment. Hearing no other
comments Commissioner Morse closed the Public Hearing. Commissioner Waters
made a MOTION to approve Resolution 26-90, Commissioner White seconded. Passed
Unanimous.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON REGULAR, CONSENT AND FILED AGENDA ITEMS – Fifty-one people gave comments of opposition for the proposed Yellowstone County Public Access and Political Activity Policy – Policy 26-91
Item 2C moved from the Consent Agenda – Yellowstone County Public Access and Political Activity Policy – Policy 26-91. Mr. Steve Williams, Chief in House Counsel stated that this is the proposed policy regarding petitioning that was placed on today's agenda. Over the past couple days and including today, there has been a lot of public comment on it. Based on that feedback, it would be our recommendation that the policy be tabled and referred to staff for further review. The intent of the proposed policy was to establish content neutral guidelines that would apply equally to all petitioning and political activity on county property. It was not intended to restrict signature gathering in traditional public forums like sidewalks, parks or other public spaces outside of county buildings. That said, it's clear from the public comments that portions of the proposal should be reviewed and clarified. So, we believe that additional review would allow the staff to consider the feedback that's been received, evaluate the policy and determine what revisions are appropriate before bringing back any proposals to the board. Commissioner Morse stated that we've heard a lot of comment here today and you know people thought that we brought this up and it's something new that we put with the board. Commissioner Morse asked that a document from 2019 be put on the screen. Commissioner Morse asked Mr. Williams to walk us through what this is and the date and how it came to be? Mr. Williams stated this looks like a letter from October of 2019 from Jeana Lervick, who was the Chief in House Counsel at the time. I believe it was directed to citizens that wanted to petition gather inside the courthouse, it outlined a lot of the same requirements that are in the policy that was before the board today. Basically, I think the takeaway from this is what everybody's complaining about is actually they've gathered signatures under this existing policy for seven years. We haven't had a problem with it, and we were trying to expand it to county wide, so it was clear that all county property had to provide ingress and egress for people that wanted to do business. I think the distinction was this was to a specific community member. Now we're looking at broadening it out to the county. Like I mentioned at the start, though, I think we could do some revisions on this, make sure we're addressing all the feedback that we've heard today. Commissioner Morse stated that this was brought up last Thursday at discussion, that we were updating the policy, and we have published that. Commissioner Waters stated that check in when we said check in that was not just to be clear and was not intended to mean obtain permission correct. Mr. Williams replied, that's correct. Commissioner Waters stated that it's very clear that was to ensure that they understood what the policies on within the building were. Mr. Williams stated that some of that if we do revisit this, that could be made more explicitly clear. Commissioner Morse stated that there's been some insinuation that we tried to do this in the dark of night and in a back door deal, and can you go through what's published there on screen and explain to people this would be the agenda from July 23rd and that was the date where the policy was discussed with Kevin Gillen the HR Director. Commissioner Morse stated he didn’t know if Mr. Williams was there, but how many people came and spoke to us. Mr. Williams stated he didn’t recall any members of the public being there, but I can't say for sure. Commissioner Morse replied, ok. Well, that was three people because I wrote them down on my sheet, so I know exactly how many were there and they didn't really want to talk about this policy. They tried to talk kind of tangentially about this policy and the data centers, so I just want the public to know this is no back door deal. This is a posted agenda. It follows state law so. Anything else Steve. Mr. Williams replied, no. Thank you, Commissioners. Commissioner Morse stated we'll bring it back to this board for action. Commissioner Waters made a MOTION to table Item 2C from the Consent Agenda and refer it to staff to ensure we get the language right and get the clarity in the aforementioned areas, Commissioner White seconded. Commissioner Morse asked if there is any further discussion? Commissioner Waters stated Yes lots of folks coming out. We appreciate you coming out and speaking. Again, this was supposed to be an update of an existing policy across different properties. We've been in the Ostlund building dealing with expanded properties. It was already brought up there have been ongoing ballot initiatives from property taxes to now data centers. Normally I wouldn't even feel the need to address this, but I am not aligned with Quantica or any other company. So, let's just be clear about that. The goal was to ensure freedom of speech for ballot initiatives. But there's also a balance with those doing business coming in and out of the Ostlund Building. Yes, some people were concerned, and most all of the ballot gathers that I experience personally coming in and out of the building, I come in and out of the building quite a bit, as you might imagine. Are very professional, very courteous. Some, though, are more aggressive than others going in and up to and in and out of the entrances of some somewhere concerned, but I'm going to support tabling this because we want to get it right. We want to include the right language. We want it to be clear. We want to ensure it is constitutional. So. That would include everything else. So that's my comment. Commissioner Morse asked Commissioner White if he had any comments. Commissioner White stated that he agrees with supporting it and getting everything done correctly. Commissioner Morse stated that we have a motion and a second any further discussion. Motion Passed Unanimous.
Item 5 moved from the Consent Agenda – Recommendation to the Policy Coordinating Committee on the Economic and Financial Analysis of Complete Streets. The recommendation to the Policy Coordinating Committee on the Economic and Financial Analysis of complete streets. Commissioner Morse stated I don't know if we have anybody from planning here or not. Commissioner Morse recognized Elise Monat. Ms. Monat stated she gave the presentation at a Discussion meeting a week or two ago, my impression was that you were pulling it off the consent agenda so, you could vote on it separately. I don't have anything prepared, but if there's any questions, I can certainly answer those. Commissioner Morse stated this was moved to the regular agenda so that is could be voted on separately. Commissioner Morse asked if the Commissioners have any questions? Commissioner Waters and White had no questions. Commissioner Waters made a MOTION to not adopt the economic and financial analysis of complete streets of Billings, Commissioner White seconded. Commissioner Morse asked for further discussion. Hearing no further discussion the motion Passed Unanimous.
CLAIMS – Batches 26-189, 26-190, 27-004 & 27-005. Commissioner White made a MOTION to approve the Claims, Commissioner Waters seconded. Passed Unanimous.
CONSENT AGENDA – 1. CLERK OF DISTRICT COURT – Interagency Agreement with the Office of the Court Administrator – Pretrial Programs. 2. COMMISSIONERS – A.) FWP Cooperative Agreement Extension – Bundy Bridge Fishing Access Site. B.) Board Openings – Lockwood Urban Transportation District/Fuego FSA/Worden Fire District #4/Laurel Fire District #7/Custer Cemetery Board. C.) Yellowstone County Public Access and Political Activity Policy – Policy 26-91 – TABLED 3. COUNTY ATTORNEY – Arena Network Agreement. 4. FINANCE- A.) Montana Wool Growers MOU. B.) Landfill Use Agreement with the City of Billings. C.) VNN Request for PSMH Funds to Assist Veterans. D.) Facilities Contract – Automated Maintenance Services, Inc. – 3rd Floor City Hall Janitorial Services. 5. PLANNING DEPARTMENT – Recommendation to the Policy Coordinating Committee on the Economic and Financial Analysis of Complete Streets. 6. SHERIFF – 2026 Fair Stipend. 7. HUMAN RESOURCES – PERSONNEL ACTION REPORTS – IT – Salary & Other; Detention Facility – 1 Appointment, 1 Salary & Other, 1 Termination; Sheriff’s Office – 1 Appointment, 2 Salary & Other, 1 Termination; Justice Court – 1 Appointment; Public Works – 1 Appointment; GIS – 1 Termination; Youth Services Center – 1 Termination.
FILE ITEMS – 1. COMMISSIONERS – A.) Board Minutes – County Water District of Billings Heights June 2026 Minutes. B.) Board Minutes – DUI Task Force July 2026 Minutes. 2. FINANCE – Youth Services South Central Regional Juvenile Detention Grant for FY2027 – Special Conditions. Commissioner Waters made a MOTION to approve the Amended Consent Agenda and place the File Items to file, Commissioner White seconded. Passed Unanimous.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON COUNTY BUSINESS - Three people spoke about gathering signatures for the proposed initiative. Hearing no other comments Commissioner Morse adjourned the meeting at 11:17 a.m.
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