Belgrade City Council

CITY OF BELGRADE COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES COUNCIL CHAMBERS August 4, 2025 7: 00 pm This meeting was open to the public and attended in person. Deputy Mayor Meis called the meeting to order. Council Members in attendance were Jason Guffey, Jim Simon, Kristine Menicucci, Erin Bell, and Renae Mattimoe. City staff in attendance were City Manager Neil Cardwell, Assistant City Manager Greg Tryon, City Attorney Kyla Murray, City Clerk Camille Gregory, Executive Assistant Dana Jambor, Executive Finance Director Charity VanKirk, Chief of Police Dustin Lensing, Municipal Court Judge Chris Gregory, Executive Consultant Jason Karp, Chief Building Official Lucas Sobeck, Director of Human Resources Becky Wilbert, City Engineer Joe Hauck, Public Works Director Camaree Uljua, Library Director Alina Prunean, Senior Planner Bran Stein, Manager of Information Technology Justin Clevidence, and Fire Chief Jay Wittwer. Others in attendance were Chad Davis and Dave Tuan with AE2S. ACTION: Council Member Mattimoe moved to excuse Mayor Nelson. Council Member Simon seconded the Motion. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. PUBLIC FORUM Deputy Mayor Meis called three times for public comment. There being none, the Public Forum was closed. CONSENT AGENDA Consider Approval of Council Minutes: 6- 16- 25 ACTION: Council Member Simon moved to approve the Consent Agenda as submitted. Council Member Menicucci seconded the Motion. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. PUBLIC HEARING Discuss and Consider Second Reading of Ordinance 2025- 07 Zoning Map Amendment( ZMA) 184 Baileys Way Senior Planner Stein explained that this is an applicant- driven request to change the property located at 184 Baileys Way from Residential Suburban to Flex Employment( FE). This change would allow for commercial use. Page 1 of 5  Stein noted this property is not within city limits, but it is a contiguous property located around the City. Therefore, the City has zoning authority over it under §76- 2- 310, MCA. Stein also advised that the City' s staff is recommending a change from residential suburban to FE because this property has an underlying future land use map designation of Commercial. Additionally, the required publications and notifications have been met, and no public comment was received. Chad Davis, representing the property owner, spoke and pointed out that the property is immediately adjacent to I- 90 and a small pocket of residential properties surrounded by older and recently rezoned commercial properties. Therefore, this property is a good candidate for rezoning. ACTION: Council Member Menicucci moved to open the Public Hearing. Council Member Bell seconded the Motion. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. Deputy Mayor Meis called three times for public comment. There was none. ACTION: Council Member Mattimoe moved to close the Public Hearing. Council Member Simon seconded the Motion. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. ACTION: Council Member Menicucci moved to approve the zoning change of the property located at 184 Baileys Way, owned by Sharon Galicia & Kenneth Nabours, to change the property from Residential Suburban ( RS) to Flex Employment( FE) District as defined in the City of Belgrade Zoning Ordinance. Council Member Mattimoe seconded the Motion. Deputy Mayor Meis called for a vote. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. Discuss and Consider Resolution 2025- 22 to Creating Street Maintenance Forestry Assessment City Attorney Murray explained that, due to a publication issue, the City is asking the Council to continue this item until the September 2nd meeting. This continuance is intended to allow for proper publications to run. ACTION: Council Member Menicucci moved to open the Public Hearing. Council Member Bell seconded the Motion. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. Deputy Mayor Meis called three times for public comment. There was none. ACTION: Council Member Simon moved to close the Public Hearing. Council Member Mattimoe seconded the Motion. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. ACTION: Council Member Mattimoe moved to continue the Public Hearing to September 2, 2025, to give an opportunity to advertise appropriately to the public. Council Member Simon seconded the Motion. Page 2 of 5  Deputy Mayor Meis called for a vote. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. DISCUSSION AGENDA Discuss and Consider Mayor Appointments to Various Advisory Boards City Manager Cardwell explained that Council Member Menicucci had requested to switch boards with someone because she had been having a difficult time keeping track of when the Water Quality Board meets. A list of the current board assignments was provided to the Council. Deputy Mayor Meis offered his spot on the Urban Transportation District Board, if Council Member Menicucci would consider it. Council Member Menicucci accepted. The Council expressed support for this re- assignment. Menicucci also offered to continue trying to nail down the details of the Water Quality Board meetings. Deputy Mayor Meis then recommended that the City Manager attend the Central Valley Fire District Board meeting in place of a Council Member. Council Member Simon agreed that it would be beneficial to have the City Manager at those meetings. Simon further noted he could still attend those meetings as a member of the public if he chose to do so. Deputy Mayor Meis called three times for public comment. There was none. ACTION: Council Member Mattimoe moved to adopt the appointments and recommendations to the various boards as discussed. Council Member Guffey seconded the Motion. Deputy Mayor Meis called for a vote. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. REPORTS Deputy Mayor Meis had nothing to report. City Attorney Murray reported that she will be absent from the August Council Workshop. City Manager Cardwell turned the beginning of his time over to Assistant City Manager Tryon. Tryon advised that there have been several requests to use or reserve the community room in the new library building. He explained that the City is currently working on an HVAC system to maintain a consistent temperature in the room while also updating some of the AV equipment, which will make meetings in the room more hospitable. Additionally, Tryon noted that the City is working on adopting scheduling software for parks and pavilion reservations. This is slated to be in place by the end of October. Page 3 of 5  Deputy Mayor Meis asked if the City has a policy on alcohol possession/ use for events held on City property. Cardwell answered that the policy is that no alcohol may be brought onto City property, but the issue could be revisited. However, he noted there are many factors that go into having alcohol on City property, including issues with liability insurance from multiple outlets. Cardwell then advised Council that he and Tryon would be leaving for the Great Open Cities Managers Association( GOSMA) conference in Kalispell on Tuesday morning. After that conference, Cardwell would then go on vacation. Cardwell also reported that the City has received the taxable values back from the Department of Revenue, which showed that the City' s revenue had decreased from the previous year. This decrease will negatively affect the fixed voted mills. However, the 15- 10- 420 rule will not be affected in regards to the standard non-voted general fund levy. Cardwell explained that the drop in revenue is due to the new tax rate laws that were implemented during the latest Legislative Session. He informed the Council that staff will present the Council with a choice, to either maintain the mill numbers for the levies or adopt a fixed dollar amount for the levies. That decision will come with a resolution for whichever choice the Council makes. Lastly, he thanked Public Works for their street improvement progress. He also thanked the staff for submitting their supplemental budget requests. FOR YOUR INFORMATION Council Member Guffey reported that the Belgrade Public Library currently sees between 10, 000 and 13, 000 visitors per month. They also now have 47 Volunteers. Further, Guffey expressed his thanks to the Public Works Department for their efforts in filling the potholes around town. Council Member Simon reported that the Central Valley Fire Department recently put on a training with Dan Clark, from the Local Government Center. He also noted that he has attended his last Fire Board meeting, since the City Manager will now attend the Fire Board meetings in his place. Finally, Council Member Simon advised he will be absent from the Council' s August 18th meeting. Council Member Meis requested that the Council Workshop and UTD Board meetings be added to the FYI section of the agendas. Council Member Menicucci stated that the Cameron Avenue improvements look great, expressing that she is really happy with them. Menicucci then mentioned that the recent incident in Anaconda had brought up many feelings for her, and she thanked law enforcement and public safety figures for all they do in those situations. Page 4 of 5  Council Member Bell also commended the improvements to Cameron Avenue. She then reported that the plant swap was held in the park as previously scheduled, but it was cut short due to rain. Lastly, Bell reported that the Fall Festival had been moved up from September 28, 2025, to September 13, 2025. Further, Fall Festival breakfast would be provided at Belgrade High School by the school' s culinary group, Home Start. Cardwell added that the Fall Festival has grown so much that the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce decided they wanted to do something a little different for the meal in the afternoon. Therefore, the City will not be sponsoring a community meal at the Fall Festival this year. Instead, a food truck-based event will take place, and the City will be the title sponsor for the Fall Festival to help with the food. Council Member Mattimoe reported that the Parks Board meeting was rescheduled for August 18, 2025. This will be the meeting to discuss the budget, and the extension was necessary because the Board had only just received the valuations. Mattimoe also mentioned that there will be a roller derby bout on Saturday, August 9th. ADJOURN Council Member Simon moved to adjourn. Council Member Mattimoe seconded the Motion. Deputy Mayor Meis called for a vote. All voted aye, Motion carried unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 7: 52 p.m. Mike Meis, Depu Attest Ct/ Yl/ L! Camille Gregory, City ler s Page 5 of 5