Mayor Cole recommends that the City Council confirm the appointments to the following Urban Renewal District Advisory Committees.  
 

	Name	Board/Commission	Term
			Begins	Ends
1	Mark Morse	EBURD Advisory Committee — Yellowstone County Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
2	Zack Terakedis	EBURD Advisory Committee — School District 2 Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
3	Robert Johnson	EBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
4	Jarod Greenwood	EBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
5	Jill Dawson	EBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
6	Patrick Scott	EBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
7		EBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
8		EBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
9	Mark Morse	SBBURD Advisory Committee — Yellowstone County Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
10	Jourdan Guidice	SBBURD Advisory Committee — School District 2 Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
11		SBBURD Advisory Comm — Elysian School District 23 Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/28
12	Scott Hanser	SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
13	Andrew Houlihan	SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
14	Michael Mayott	SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
15	Jeff Muri	SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
16	Kelphen Lienemann	SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
17	Joseph Walsh	SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
18		SBBURD Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
19	Chris White	Downtown Urban Renewal AC - Yellowstone County Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
20	Janna Hafer	Downtown Urban Renewal AC - School District 2 Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
21	Heather Kirpach	Downtown Urban Renewal AC - BSEDA Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/28
22	Mary Walks Over Ice	Downtown Urban Renewal AC - NA Development Corp	01/01/26	12/31/29
23	Nick Steen	Downtown Urban Renewal AC - DBA Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/28
24	Blake Wahrich	Downtown Urban Renewal AC - BID #0001 Rep.	01/01/26	12/31/29
25	Jan Peterson	Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
26	Sean Lynch	Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
27	JR Reger	Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*
28	Ethan Kanning	Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee	01/01/26	TBD*

*The length of each at-large member's initial term shall be established at the first meeting of the new committee
through a random process by having the members draw straws (or the equivalent), designating either a
three-year or four-year term.  All subsequent at-large members will be assigned four-year terms.


 

The 2025 Montana Legislature passed Senate Bill 3 (SB3) which required "the local government that adopts a tax increment financing provision shall appoint an advisory committee to advise the local government about the administration of the urban renewal area or targeted economic development district." The committee must include at least one representative from each incorporated city or town, county, or school district with boundaries that overlap with the urban renewal area or targeted economic development district.

At its meeting on August 25, per SB 3, the City Council approved resolutions directing the formation of three new Advisory Committees for the three Urban Renewal Districts in the City - SBBURD (Resolution 25-11292), Downtown District (Resolution 25-11293), and the EBURD (Resolution 25-11291). These resolutions specify the makeup of the new Advisory Committees and follow the City's code in BMCC 2-500 regarding operations of City boards and commissions. The new operation of the Committees, per Council direction, were specified to keep the operations of the districts and advisory committees the same, to the extent possible. Based on this direction, staff requested feedback from the three urban renewal districts to obtain their requests and recommendations about the makeup of the advisory committees.

Per the adopted resolutions, staff has coordinated with the Mayor and City Administrator application processes for the seats on the new Committees. The Mayor has reviewed those applications and is presenting these appointments for the the three Committees per the process for Council confirmation.

The City Council, County, school districts, and members of the public in Billings are all stakeholders in this process to provide advice to the City Council on the use of urban renewal programs, projects and processes for the benefit of residents and businesses of the community.

Council may:

• Confirm the proposed appointments; or
• Not confirm the appointments. Given that SB 3 required these committees to be in place bay October 1, 2025, it is important that these appointments and committee formation be accomplished as soon as is practical for the Mayor and Council to act.

The proposed action has no financial impact.