Bismarck commission adopts 2026 budget, adds municipal court clerk and freezes commissioners’ pay for 2026

The Bismarck City Commission on Tuesday approved the city’s 2026 budget (Ordinance 66-38), adding a deputy clerk position for the municipal court and authorizing specified use of reserve funds for one-time capital projects.

During a lengthy public hearing, the municipal court judge told commissioners the court faces an unfunded state mandate to become a court of record and rising caseloads. “We have some unfunded legal mandates we’re facing. Specifically, the biggest one … is becoming a court of record,” the judge said, outlining additional recording and staffing needs and citing what the court presented as roughly 99,484 new cases over five years.

Commissioners debated funding options, pay increases and program tradeoffs. The budget committee and finance staff explained the administration’s recommendation of a 3% cost-of-living adjustment plus a 2% merit pool based on prior compression studies. Dimitri, a city staff member who addressed compensation timing and prior grade-range studies, said some salary savings and staffing turnover accounted for part of the year-over-year budget differences.

Amid the debate, the commission voted to add a deputy clerk for municipal court, citing the need for in-court recording and case-management support. The meeting record included two slightly different fully loaded cost figures for the position; the judge and staff cited approximately $88,426 in one exchange and $88,004.26 in another. The commission stipulated the new position would follow normal hiring review by the budget committee before being filled.

Other contested items included whether to delay a planned fire-department vehicle purchase and whether to change the city’s compensation approach to a flat-dollar 3% pool. The proposal to remove a planned Ford Expedition from the fire budget failed on a roll call vote. A separate proposal to convert the 3% increase to a flat-dollar pool also failed after commissioners raised concerns about pay-range compression and long-term market alignment.

Commissioner Connolly’s motion to freeze mayoral and commissioner pay for 2026 passed on a separate roll call vote; commissioners said the freeze would apply for one year only.

The final motion to adopt Ordinance 66-38, including fee schedules and the allocation of committed reserves for specified one-time projects, passed on a 4–1 roll call vote. Staff noted the budget will use part of committed balances to fund planned capital items such as an ERP replacement and a fire station project.

The commission directed staff to continue working with municipal court on implementation, technology options such as Odyssey for online payments and to return with any budget amendments if more precise state guidance on court-of-record requirements or new IT savings materializes.

What’s next: the budget ordinance was adopted and staff will proceed with the hiring-review process for the deputy-clerk position and with project planning for items funded from reserves.