STRATEGIES THAT SUMMARIZE 2019

A YEAR FULL OF STRATEGIES

A FOCUSED APPROACH: This section highlights how the City of Minot has worked towards big picture goals in 2019. Whether it was strategies to combat small problems that may manifest into larger ones, or big problems creating enormous challenges

FLOOD PROTECTION - FIVE THINGS TO REMEMBER The City of Minot, partnering with the Souris River Joint Board along with state and federal partners, made great strides toward permanent flood protection in 2019.

Construction will continue in 2020 on a large storm water pump station near the Broadway Bridge. In 2019, four 500 horsepower pumps were installed at the pump station, which will be one of the largest flood control stations in the state when completed. 01 |

Work progressed along Phase 2 and Phase 3 throughout 2019. The Wee Links golf course’s impacted holes were reconstructed. The Perkett Ditch Pump Station was completed and tested. Crews replaced utilities in the area of 16th Street SW as part of the project to build flood walls along the north side of the Souris River. 02 |

Underground work in several locations, including along phases 1, 2, and 3 in the City included rerouting and upsizing water mains, sanitary sewer lines, and storm water pipes. 03 |

Phase 4 (Maple Diversion) continues to move forward after Lt. General Todd Semonite, chief of engineers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, signed a report in support of the $87.3 million project. The next steps include obtaining congressional authorization for the project, which could lead to partial federal funding. 04 |

Flood protection in Minot will cost approximately $565 million, with the basin-wide project estimated to cost more than $1 billion. 05 |

A SOLUTION TO SEVERAL PROBLEMS The Problem Properties Unit was created and is charged with identifying the City’s most challenging properties and developing an action plan to resolve their issues. The PPU includes staff from various City departments. The PPU will focus on resolving issues involving any building in which illegal activity takes place or that is unsafe and reduces the quality of life for the surrounding neighborhood. COMMITMENT TO BUYING LOCAL An eight-member Buy Local Task Force was established, including the Chamber of Commerce, to study and develop buy local solutions in the City’s procurement practices. The recommendation was approved by the City Council. FIGHTING FIRE WITH STRATEGY The Minot Fire Department, at a cost of $9,430, conducted operational strategic planning that outlined the department’s objectives and then backed up these goals with realistic, thoroughly researched, quantifiable benchmarks for evaluating results.

O N T H E C A P I T O L STEPS O N T H E CAPITOL STEPS

Left: Mayor Shaun Sipma testifying at the Capitol on behalf of the City of Minot.

Right: A chart showing how the recent changes to the Hub City funding formula will add up for Minot.

Thanks to months of preparation, hours of testimony, and nearly two years of work by city staff and leadership, Minot is set to collect approximately $6 million more in state hub city funding this biennium. Hub cities are cities of 12,000 or more residents that contribute to the employment and quality of life in the Bakken. Minot lands squarely within those boundaries. That was the message City Manager Tom Barry and City leadership sent to state lawmakers. A message that proved fruitful for the Minot community. That good news and account of the fiscal impact was shared with the full council in June of 2019 by City of Minot special counsel, Shane Goettle. Goettle informed council that under a new formula approved by the North Dakota Legislature the new conservative estimate for Minot’s hub city funding is around $14million for the 2020-21 biennium, compared to $8.036 million that Minot received for the 2017-2019 biennium. The new method, which was approved as part of House Bill 1066, also known as the Prairie Dog Bill, is far more permanent than it was before. The new production tax distribution rules take effect July 1. A pool of $44 million per biennium will be split between the designated hub cities of Williston, Dickinson, Minot. The funding amount could rise depending on a new impact scoring method. “We worked incredibly close with the leaders of those cities as well as lawmakers,” Barry said. “Our goal was to get Minot its fair share. We made our point to those communities first and they helped carry our message too.” The impact scoring method approved by the Legislature includes: • Hub city’s percentage of mining, quarrying, oil and gas employment. • Average of mining, quarrying, oil and gas employment relative to total employment of all industries in each county for all the counties in the human service region in which the hub city is located. • Percentage of establishments engaged in mining, quarrying, oil and gas relative to total establishments of all industries in the county in which the hub city is located. • Percentage of oil production in the human services region in which the hub city is located. • Percentage change in population in last five years. • Percentage change in population in last five years for the county in which hub city is located. Goettle said the Legislature based the new tax distributions on estimates of 1.4 million barrels per day at $48.50 per barrel for 2020, and 1.44 million barrels per day at $48 per barrel for 2021. An accomplishment that Barry beTWO YEARS IN THE MAKING: Efforts by City leadership to help show Minot’s role in the Bakken began in 2017 with a two day Legislative Committee meeting hosted and lead by City Manager Barry.

HUB CITY FUNDING

lieves will reverberate true positive impacts for Minot for years. “The whole process was grueling work for us,” Barry recounts. “But i think we now see the juice was well worth the squeeze.”

Hub city funding adjustments was just one of eight top priorities the City set forth heading into the 2019 legislative session. City Manager Barry also lead staff into the legislative session with a more focused approach on what needed to happen to help the City of Minot. Among the rest were: 1. Flood Control Funding 2. Low Interest Revolving Loan Legacy Fund 3. Workforce Shortages and Solutions 4. Property Tax and Budget Control 5. Special Assessment Restrictions 6. Civil asset forfeiture 7. Local Decision Control

EFFORTS THAT MATTER

Minot raised building permit fees that were below market rates. Some fees had not been adjusted in 25 years. The changes reduce the Community Development Department’s dependency on property taxes to fund building inspection services. MARKET ADJUSTMENTS

City departments oversaw an eight-month public education and input process related to expansion of the City Landfill, including creating a focus group and holding several public meetings that resulted in a compromise to reduce the expansion project and begin a formal search for an alternative site. ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

The Minot Police Department held its second Citizens Academy in more than 10 years. The academy consisted of a fourpart course and helps citizens better understand and appreciate challenges faced by the Police Department. It also serves to improve community relationships by equipping the attendees with knowledge and building relationships with their public servants. BACK TO THE PEOPLE

The City of Minot began the Town Hall Series in 2019, a pledge to move City Hall into the neighborhoods across the city to talk about the most pressing issues we’re facing. The first started in February of 2019 with an impassioned Stat of the City delivery by the Mayor. This was when the first pledge to ‘no property tax increase’ manifested, a promise later delivered. In the Spring of 2019, staff recapped some of the results of the 2019 North Dakota Legislature that impacts Minot moving forward. Later in the year, the National Disaster Resilience program was the topic discussed. Affordable Housing projects and the Downtown Gathering Space project dominated much of the conversation. All Town Hall meetings were streamed live on YouTube and can still be watched retrospectively. TOWN HALL SERIES