Pursuant to a previous Council Initiative, the City Administrator appointed an internal staff committee consisting of Tom Binford, Aviation and Transit Director, Dave Mumford, Public Works Director, Mike Whitaker, Parks, Recreation and Public Lands  Director and Brenda Beckett, Community Development Manager, to review the City’s policies and methods of selling, donating or otherwise disposing of city-owned property. This committee reviewed the current version of City Code sections 22-901 and 22-902. These ordinances authorize the Council to sell, donate or otherwise dispose of property owned by the City. The internal committee made recommended revisions to the Ordinances to clarify Council’s authority and to also include the sale of buildings or other structures. These proposed amendments were presented to the Mayor and Council during the August 16, 2010, Work Session. Changes requested by the Mayor and Council during that Work Session have been incorporated into the attached draft ordinance for First Reading and Public Hearing included here as Attachment A. These proposed revisions including those requested by the Council are shown by strikethroughs and underlines in Attachment A.  During the Work Session, staff recommended that these revisions be postponed until a series of complex land exchanges occurred between the City, Billings Clinic and Underriner Motors which was completed in mid-2011. These land exchanges also required significant analysis and concurrence by various utility companies who had equipment and service lines within the affected properties.

During the First Reading and Public Hearing, Council approved a minor amendment to the draft Ordinance by inserting the word "exchange" in every location where the words "sale or donation" occurs. The amended phrase now reads" Sale, Exchange or Donation". This phrase recurs at several parts of the amended ordinance. Adding the word "exchange" will give Council more flexibility in managing City-owned land.

The Council may approve or disapprove of the proposed amendments, provide additional amendments or postpone a decision on the amendments.

There is no significant financial impact if the proposed amendments to Ordinance Sections 22-901 and 22-902 are adopted.

Staff recommends that the City Council approve Second Reading of the proposed amendments to Sections 22-901 and 22-902, BMCC authorizing sale, exchange or donation of City-owned real property and buildings.