[0:01] for two days.
[0:06] » Good morning. I'd like to call this
meeting to order for the Blackhawk
[0:09] County Board of Supervisors for
September 8th, 2026. Roll call, please.
[0:13] Miss Schwhalder.
>> Schwarz
[0:15] » here.
>> Paul
[0:16] » here.
>> Bryant
[0:17] » here.
>> Curtainbach
[0:19] » here.
>> Layen
[0:20] » here. Would everyone please join us for
a moment of silence as we reflect on
[0:24] today's actions.
[0:38] Thank you. Would you please join us for
the pledge of allegiance?
[0:43] » I pledge to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic
[0:50] for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
[0:56] justice for all.
[1:01] Item one is the agenda received as
proposed or as amended.
[1:04] » So moved.
>> Second.
[1:06] » All in favor say I.
>> I.
[1:08] » I.
>> I. Same sign. The agenda is received.
[1:11] Item two is public comments. Is there
anyone here today that would like to
[1:14] speak on something that is not on
today's agenda?
[1:20] Anyone online?
[1:24] We'll move right on to the
proclamations. A is September is hunger
[1:28] action month. Barb Prather Northeast
Iowa food bank and perhaps others are
[1:32] here today.
>> I was not feeling well today. So I'm
[1:35] Abby Turman. I'm the director of
development communications.
[1:38] » Would you were you planning to say speak
and say a few words or just the
[1:42] proclamation?
>> Did you want to say a few words first
[1:44] and then I'll read it?
>> Go to the podium and give
[1:48] » I've never done this one before.
>> Well, we're sorry, but yes, you're give
[1:52] your name and your
>> You're good. All right. Hi everybody.
[1:55] I'm Abby Turpin. I'm director of
development, marketing, and
[1:57] communications at the Northeast Iowa
Food Bank. Um, every September is hunger
[2:02] action month. It's a time for us to
bring awareness to the community about
[2:05] what a serious problem food insecurity
is. I can tell you that currently right
[2:10] now we serve 16 counties and there's
over 45,000 people who don't know where
[2:14] their next meal is coming from. And in
Blackhawk County, that's actually one in
[2:18] five children. So over 20% of kids don't
know where their next meal is going to
[2:23] come from. So this month is important.
We have many events. We ask for
[2:28] everybody to wear orange on Hunger
Action Day, which is September 29th,
[2:32] just to really highlight what an issue
hunger is in our community. So, thank
[2:36] you very much for having us today.
>> Thank you.
[2:41] » Karen, thank you very much for reading
it.
[2:45] » This is a proclamation for Hunger Action
Month. Whereas hunger is a vital concern
[2:50] in northeast Iowa where 12% of people
including one in every six children
[2:54] experience food insecurity
and whereas every person deserves access
[2:58] to the food and resources they need to
live a full and healthy life yet
[3:03] millions of people in the US experience
food insecurity and when people don't
[3:07] have enough to eat it impacts their
health, education and future
[3:11] opportunities. Whereas the Blackhawk
County of Iowa is committed to taking
[3:15] steps to combat hunger in every part of
our community and to provide additional
[3:19] resources that are needed. And whereas
the Blackhawk County of Iowa is
[3:23] committed to working with the Northeast
Iowa Food Bank to educate people about
[3:27] the role and importance of the Feeding
America network and how it stands
[3:31] alongside community members facing
hunger to ensure everyone has access to
[3:35] the food and resources they need to
thrive. And whereas more than 17,000
[3:40] individuals in Blackhawk County
experience food insecurity annually. And
[3:44] whereas Northeast Iowa Food Bank
distributed more than 4.2 million meals
[3:49] throughout Blackhawk County and their
most recent fiscal year through a
[3:53] network of agency partners, food
pantries, meal programs, and other
[3:57] community organizations.
Whereas the month of September has been
[4:02] designated hunger action month to bring
communities together to elevate the
[4:05] voices of people who experience food
insecurity and inspire everyone to take
[4:10] action in the moment to end hunger. And
whereas food banks across the country,
[4:14] including the Northeast Iowa Food Bank,
will host numerous events throughout the
[4:18] month of September to bring awareness
and help end hunger in their local
[4:22] community. Now therefore, we, the
Blackhawk County Board of Supervisors,
[4:25] do hereby recognize September 2026 as
Hunger Action Month in the Blackhawk
[4:30] County of Iowa and call this observance
to the attention of our citizens.
[4:36] » Thank you very much.
>> This is a resolution, I guess. Do we
[4:41] need a vote? I was going to say, would
you like a vote on it?
[4:45] » Let's do it.
>> Yeah. All right. Motion.
[4:47] » I'll make a motion.
>> Second.
[4:49] » Okay. Um, all call vote. Please answer
your name is called
[4:54] » Brandt.
>> Yes.
[4:55] » Hall,
>> yes.
[4:56] » Schwarz,
>> yes.
[4:57] » Curtainbuck,
>> yes.
[4:59] » Leilen,
>> did you guys want a picture now or
[5:02] » I don't know if we do without Barb or
with Aby's willing or whatever we kiss
[5:06] her. Okay.
>> Yeah.
[5:08] » All logoed up.
[5:12] » Yeah.
just
[5:20] » Oh, great. Thank you.
>> I know, right?
[5:26] » Awesome.
[5:30] » Perfect.
All right.
[5:43] » Very good. Thank you. Thank you so much.
>> You're good.
[5:47] » Yep. You can legislate. Yeah. Thank you.
>> She's going to sign it and then we'll
[5:51] send you a copy. You guys are awesome.
>> Okay.
[5:58] Item P is a proclamation on Labor Day
holiday. And Rich, I believe you
[6:03] submitted this.
>> Yes, this is uh again it's the day after
[6:07] Labor Day, but it's again just formally
acknowledging uh the Labor Day holiday.
[6:13] Proclamation reads recognition of Labor
Day holiday. Whereas working men and
[6:19] women built this country and our county
to keep our economy running and there is
[6:24] a foundation of prosperity and vibrance
in Blockhaw County. Whereas the first
[6:28] Labor Day was observed on September 5th,
1882 when thousands of workers marched
[6:34] in New York City and working people have
gathered on the first Monday in
[6:38] September every year since to demand
working wages, decent hours, safe
[6:43] working conditions and dignity on the
job. Whereas the working people block
[6:47] our county in manufacturing and in food
processing, in construction and building
[6:52] trades, in transportation, utilities,
healthc care, education, public service,
[6:58] and agriculture and small businesses
across our communities have built the
[7:03] county we live in today.
Whereas protections that every Ians now
[7:09] take for granted, including the weekend,
the 8-hour day, workplace safety h
[7:13] standards and an end to child labor and
the employer provided benefits were
[7:18] secured through the perseverance and
sacrifice of organized workers. Whereas
[7:23] residents of Blackhawk County saw
plainly during the floods of 2008 and
[7:28] the CO 19 pandemic, the essential
workers and frontline workers carried
[7:32] this community through its hardest days.
Whereas Labor Day as is an opportunity
[7:38] both to honor the progress that has been
made for the workers across Iowa and
[7:43] across the United States and recommmit
ourselves to the work that remains. Now
[7:48] therefore be resolved that the Black uh
Board of Supervisors formally designate
[7:54] September 7th, 2026, this Labor Day in
Blackhawk County, Iowa, publicly honor
[7:59] the working people, this community in
the labor that sustains our county every
[8:04] day and calls upon all residents to
observe the day with appropriate
[8:08] ceremonies and activities.
[8:13] I'll
>> stand there. So moved.
[8:16] » Second.
It's roll call vote. Please answer your
[8:19] name is called.
>> Curtainbach.
[8:21] » Yes.
>> Paul,
[8:22] » yes.
>> Schwarz,
[8:24] » yes.
>> Bant,
[8:25] » yes.
>> Leilen,
[8:26] » yes.
>> Item number four, presentation on the
[8:30] TechWorks proposed partnership.
>> Mr. Dver,
[8:35] » I believe you have a presentation. Thank
you.
[8:38] » I have a presentation.
>> You are. And you're a PowerPoint, too.
[8:41] You said
>> yes.
[8:44] » Uh just here today uh to chat with you a
little bit about Tech Works. Uh I chair
[8:50] the board of Tech Works. Uh give you a
little background to me. I retired in
[8:56] banking. Uh helped found First National
Bank of Cedar Falls, now called First
[9:02] Bank as a dropped out national and went
to a state charter. uh also uh chair
[9:09] Mercy 1 northeast Iowa and I'm on a few
foundation boards too. Uh but this rolls
[9:16] back to Tech Works. Uh I don't know 15
20 years ago. Uh John Deere wanted to uh
[9:25] give the their old foundry activity
downtown to someone and obviously get a
[9:32] tax credit for that. uh individuals uh a
lot of people didn't want to take the
[9:38] liability that might uh be created with
that. Uh so uh we developed a
[9:45] corporation a 501c3
corporation and we called it Tech Works
[9:50] and the mission of Tech Works was to
develop and see what we could do with
[9:55] that manufacturing facilities.
Obviously, we took a lot of buildings
[10:00] down. Uh and today through all the years
of
[10:06] work uh we now have Tech 1 which uh
houses the uh University of Northern
[10:15] Iowa metal casting which there was a
nice article in the paper the other day
[10:21] about them receiving about a million
dollars to further their efforts uh in
[10:27] developing metal casting and
manufacturing.
[10:30] 4.0 5.0 uh type of thing. We recently
sold the second and third we we own
[10:39] first floor. We lease that to to you and
I. We recently sold the second and third
[10:44] floors of the facil tech 1 to Hawkeye
Community College for for them to set up
[10:52] their robotics training and workforce
training facilities.
[10:57] The upper three floors uh are owned by
Lincoln Savings Bank.
[11:03] With the rest of the 42 acres, uh John
Deere uh put in their uh museum, tractor
[11:10] museum. Uh the city worked in putting
them the basis for a marina at some
[11:17] point in time. Maybe that will come
together. Uh the Marriott Hotel took one
[11:22] of the facilities and uh now under
construction is the entity called Court
[11:28] Works which will be uh built for
regional basketball volleyball
[11:34] tournaments. Eight basketball courts and
12 volleyball courts. With that,
[11:42] pretty much all of the uh
development uh of the real estate is
[11:48] completed.
And we ended up with about four mill
[11:54] with $4 million
uh that we have now invested or in the
[12:00] process of investing. And then so we're
transitioning really from working with
[12:06] the the real estate piece of all of this
now to what we think our mission is to
[12:11] develop manufacturing 4.0
uh and advanced manufacturing within the
[12:17] Cedar Valley.
As part of this, as we uh
[12:24] decided to work with this, we've
identified as a 501c3
[12:30] uh we have to uh make grants because
what we're planning on doing is taking
[12:36] those funds having invested the funds,
the investment returns that we get off
[12:41] of that we want to invest back into the
Cedar Valley and create as much as we
[12:48] can manufacturing
advanced manufacturing and manufacturing
[12:53] 4.0 5.0
uh as and since we're a 501c3
[13:01] we need to
make these grants out uh to charitable
[13:07] uh organizations or charitable purposes.
uh what's the situation that we have? Uh
[13:15] many of these are going to be
manufacturing types of companies. Their
[13:20] interest isn't necessarily
charity. They're they're for-profit
[13:26] organizations.
However, as we've reviewed this uh with
[13:32] individuals, they say if we make these
grants to a governmental agency like
[13:39] Blackhawk County,
then as that can be a charitable purpose
[13:45] as they then
transfer these funds to the companies
[13:50] that we're looking at. Uh Tavis is on
the board uh of the uh Tech Works. Nolan
[13:58] Anderson's on the board. Uh Randy
Pilington from you and I. Drew Conrad
[14:04] from you and I. Uh Jim Miller from First
Interstate. Uh and several others. But
[14:11] and I say that just to give you an idea
that the board is, you know, very
[14:16] knowledgeable in identifying this
activity. We're not asking you for any
[14:23] work or anything that you you would have
to do. The board is uh interested in
[14:29] going out and searching and and trying
to find these opportunities
[14:35] uh for the Cedar Valley. Obviously,
Blackhawk is part of that. And uh once
[14:42] we find appropriate opportunities, we
intend to provide funding to uh develop
[14:49] it. So,
we're going to provide the expertise and
[14:56] labor actions and we're going to f
provide the funding. We just want to be
[15:00] in a partnership with Blackhawk County
uh to then make this all come together.
[15:08] Questions?
>> Well, I'll just I'll just start. Thanks
[15:12] for for coming and speaking to the
board. I've talked with Dave a few times
[15:17] on this. Um,
I'll admit I was a little befuddled that
[15:24] he first met with Nol Anderson. Uh,
that's crazy to me. Why would you ever
[15:28] meet with N? Oh, just kidding. Um, but
the practicality of what they're looking
[15:34] at doing in each municipality seems
overly cumbersome. Uh, so for instance,
[15:44] uh, to speak a little bit more on on on
the ask, right? of establishing a fund
[15:50] that we'd be able to support advanced
manufacturing efforts throughout the
[15:54] Cedar Valley throughout Black County.
If that were reserves for just Waterlue,
[16:01] if it went to Waterl with that
agreement, they'd have to go to Cedar
[16:03] Falls with that agreement. They'd have
to go to Hudson to Evansdale to so on
[16:07] and so forth. um versus
board of supervisors who has
[16:12] jurisdiction and and and a a natural um
connection uh to these businesses um
[16:20] success.
So the the practicality of this seemed
[16:26] to make sense to me. Uh I encouraged
Dave to meet with
[16:32] um with staff. So he's met with Kathy.
Initially I envisioned it going through
[16:37] the seed out the the economic
development
[16:41] action planning team.
We went through a pretty extenuous uh or
[16:46] an extensive
effort with our strategic planning.
[16:51] Economic development was one of those
areas that we prioritized in that
[16:55] strategic plan. Uh and this presents an
opportunity for us to no cash out. We
[17:01] don't have to expend dollars. Uh but we
are partners in this effort of economic
[17:07] development specifically in that area of
advanced manufacturing. After meeting
[17:11] with Kathy um Dave met with Michelle and
Mike uh just to make sure that
[17:17] everything was sort of up on the up and
up and and we were able to able to do
[17:22] something along these lines, you know,
in uh in conjunction with with state
[17:26] law. And I know Mike reviewed it. Um
Michelle heard out the proposal and I'll
[17:31] let them each speak to to how that uh
moved forward. But ultimately I I got
[17:37] the sense from them that we could bring
this seems like a thing to bring to the
[17:41] board um for us to to talk about and uh
and weigh if it's a a place that we want
[17:48] to uh want to engage. But it seems to me
as if uh this is a pretty lowrisk uh
[17:54] opportunity for us to engage in
meaningful economic development. Um it
[17:59] doesn't cost us dollars. Uh we're we're
working with a nonprofit uh to be able
[18:06] to to
generate uh some economic activity uh
[18:10] here within the county.
So the grant applications that are to be
[18:16] awarded to the charitable organization
that would become us
[18:21] » or not.
>> Yeah. Tech works. And I sent some
[18:26] materials out to you just to give you
some guidelines.
[18:29] » You did of of how we're Yep.
>> how we're working through who we're
[18:34] going to look at, what types of uh
entities and opportunities that we're
[18:38] looking at in that advanced
manufacturing piece. And then also we
[18:42] will work through all the you know try
to develop the grants. We'll review the
[18:48] grants. We'll then make decisions on
what we see as priorities and and
[18:54] positive things that we would try to
fund. Uh at that point once we've
[19:01] identified that grant piece, we would
then come to Blackhawk County and
[19:07] identify it and have you guys hopefully
determine that yeah, good idea. Let's
[19:14] move forward. Uh, and if you approve it,
then we would, if we're going to fund
[19:20] it, let's say we give them $100,000,
we're going to then send those funds to
[19:25] Blackhawk County, and you'll make uh
funding to the entity that we've
[19:31] identified.
>> But if if you approve,
[19:35] » yeah, I mean, you'll have all all the
faces. I was just thinking it says
[19:39] eligibility when I looked in there and
it said grant applications must be
[19:42] submitted by organizations recognized as
501c3s
[19:47] charitable organizations which typically
wouldn't be your advanced manufacturing
[19:51] projects
>> but but this is the piece of if they
[19:54] aren't a 501c3 this is an opportunity to
work through that
[19:58] » so it's actually us receiving it
>> so Mike I'm I'm guessing how this would
[20:04] work and we can provide clarity because
I I this Sounds exciting. I'm glad that
[20:08] you came to the county for this. I want
to see how we can make this work. Um I'm
[20:14] guessing that we would be entering like
into a development agreement with these
[20:20] places and then passing the money
through cuz I know that we certainly
[20:23] can't just donate. We're forbidden from
that. Um is is that what you envision?
[20:30] Um, so essentially what would happen
here is the tech works would
[20:38] come to the county and say we have a uh
we have an organization or we have
[20:44] business that we want to provide uh some
f some economic development funding to.
[20:50] uh they would uh provide those funds to
the county if the county approved the
[20:56] economic funding to the business. Uh
economic development funding is
[21:01] permitted as a public purpose under
chapter 15A. Uh the question in my mind
[21:07] as I researched this was whether the
county could serve as a pass through of
[21:13] sorts for these funds. And we we can't
serve as a straight up pass through, but
[21:18] as long as the board retains its
discretion whether or not to approve the
[21:24] funding to the recipient business,
um it is uh permissible for us to serve
[21:32] in the capacity that uh Mr. Dver's uh
promoting here or suggesting here. And I
[21:38] I actually ran this by a representative
with the state auditor's office who did
[21:44] not have any concerns about it. I did my
own research on it as well. And and
[21:50] that's the key distinction. If it was if
we were required or our hands were bound
[21:55] to give it to that business, then that
would create a red flag, create a
[22:00] problem for us. But as long as the board
retains discretion as to whether to send
[22:05] that funding on, then uh then that's
permissible. In addition, I ran by uh
[22:12] both I I worked through in my own
research and I also ran this by the
[22:16] state auditor's representative and I
don't remember that person's name off
[22:19] the top of my head. Um but it uh it is
permissible for us to do this knowing
[22:26] that uh the tech works will not be
providing the funding to the county
[22:32] absent the approval of the business
recipient and that is also permissible.
[22:37] So then to your question about a a
funding agreement, we would we would
[22:42] have to create a county funding
agreement similar to what we do for for
[22:47] uh you know for public purpose funding
uh with the recipient business. Uh that
[22:55] would just be necessary because the
county would effectively at that point
[22:59] be providing the funding. Um do we need
to have an agreement with the uh with
[23:05] the tech works? uh technically we we
don't need to but I think it would make
[23:09] sense to have one so that you know or at
least a memorandum of understanding so
[23:14] that it's clear uh how this is going to
work structurally uh once we we begin to
[23:21] engage in this. So yeah I think we need
to have some kind of an agreement with
[23:24] the tech works from a um a practical
perspective. Uh, finally, as far as the
[23:30] as the tax avoidance for the tech works,
I did not focus my research on that. My
[23:36] understanding is Tech Works has had that
legal research done for them already.
[23:42] » Yes, correct.
>> I And so I think that's pretty much
[23:45] Dave, did I get that about right?
>> Yeah, absolutely. and any other issue as
[23:49] far as this working agreement or however
you want to identify it is certainly at
[23:56] any time that Blackhawk County feels
like this doesn't work for you or or
[24:01] whatever then fine you know and probably
hopefully it'll be a good positive thing
[24:09] and even every year we can review it and
say yeah we want to keep on going but
[24:14] you know our intent is just to kind of
keep on working at it. My intent is uh
[24:19] not to work on it too much longer. I'm
getting too old. But uh at least try to
[24:24] get this up and running for a couple of
years and we'll let the rest of the kids
[24:29] play with the the deal
>> questions.
[24:34] I've got one.
Uh so where's the money come from then?
[24:39] Is that you guys already have that
liquid? when when we sold uh the the
[24:43] second and third floors,
>> okay,
[24:46] » uh to Hawkeye, uh we received basically
$4 million. Obviously,
[24:52] we we went through a whole lot of money
from deer as we went through the process
[24:57] of tearing down buildings and and
rebuilding the campus. Uh but, uh we're
[25:04] at the kind of the end of the road of
all of that and we've got $4 million and
[25:08] now what's the next step? And for us the
board we've identified the next step uh
[25:15] as uh moving forward with that mission
mission on advanced manufacturing type
[25:20] of thing which is of course what the
first floor is all about with you and I
[25:26] and the second third floors with
robotics and and that and at the very
[25:30] beginning we thought it might be more
biio manufacturing
[25:35] uh as we started just setting up
thinking about Iowa and all the crops
[25:39] and stuff and then John Deere but that
type of piece didn't necessarily pan
[25:44] out. So we and of course now the the
issue is you know the advanced
[25:49] manufacturing piece the AI all the all
the stuff that uh can create you know if
[25:54] you read the article you identify how uh
you and I can bring in this sand printer
[26:01] you know and then use that technology to
help other industries that you know
[26:07] small shops that don't don't have
million2 million three million dollars
[26:11] or so to to purchase some of the
advanced things. So hopefully we can
[26:17] promote and help help people develop
that develop jobs uh make this a better
[26:23] place to live.
>> That was my next question was what
[26:26] exactly is this going to fund? Education
for for would be employees or a
[26:32] combination of things that equipment
>> could be all sorts of things. Yeah,
[26:36] could be equipment, could be education,
uh, bringing people in to to help
[26:40] identify pieces. Uh, you know, a little
deal that happened, a nephew that
[26:47] decided to go to Stanford when he was 15
years old, and he came out, and when he
[26:52] got done, he and a friend started a
little AI business uh, where it hooks in
[26:58] for small and medium manufacturers and
processes their orders. This AI does it
[27:05] 10 times faster than the individuals.
It's 99% accurate. Uh when that they do
[27:13] the training is an individual sits with
the entity, the AI component and uh
[27:20] identifies where it's made a mistake. It
never makes the same mistake twice. So
[27:27] now he's just start he was just starting
his company. he actually sold the
[27:31] product uh to a local manufacturer and
then of course he's then he's thinking
[27:37] well shoot now I'm selling stuff I need
employees to do the input and things and
[27:43] so had we been kind of up and running we
might have been able to provide some
[27:48] startup dollars for that to develop here
in the area so that's
[27:55] » how are the uh
the grant
[28:00] candidates at like how's the grants
advertised? I'm just thinking, you know,
[28:03] I'm vaguely familiar with the Cedar
Valley Manufacturers Association,
[28:07] » right?
>> Is this like a
[28:11] a membership that you have to kind of
buy into to be to qualify?
[28:16] » No.
>> Okay. I mean, obviously that would be a
[28:20] source, you know, a group type of thing,
but no, we're we're looking and we're
[28:27] obviously we'd like to find items in
Blackhawk County. The reality is we're
[28:33] Cedar Valley, uh, type of thing. So, uh,
we'll also look at other counties in our
[28:38] Cedar Valley area. Uh but uh and if you
read through some of the stuff, it
[28:45] identifies that even even if you're not
located in the Cedar Valley or Blackhawk
[28:52] County, if what you're going to do is
going to
[28:57] support and develop the county, then you
would you could qualify. But all of
[29:02] these things are going to, you know,
have different levels of priority. Sure.
[29:06] as we walk through it. How are we going
to identify the the opportunity of these
[29:12] grants? Well,
this is the reason I'm here is this is a
[29:19] work in process and so we'll we have a
website. So, we'll do some things on the
[29:24] website. we'll learn, you know, uh some
of our people are already uh well
[29:31] identified within the Iowa economic
development uh community. So, uh we'll
[29:38] kind of figure it out. You know, our
funds are now just in the process of
[29:43] being invested through the dollar cost
averaging types of things. That'll be
[29:48] completed at the end of the year and
then at that point we'll start to work
[29:53] through the process of granting any
funds.
[29:58] I sent uh a little bit of the uh
financial piece to you that identifies
[30:04] the 4 million. Right now we've got about
$50,000 in there. reality would say
[30:10] typically uh in a foundational type of
uh investment process four 5% after fees
[30:18] uh would what we'd be looking at you
know so couple hundred,000 250,000
[30:24] each year might be available and we
could look at it from pledge parts you
[30:31] know of identifying maybe two 200,000
for five years so it's a million dollar
[30:37] type of pledge
which they could then leverage for other
[30:40] funding uh as they develop their entity.
So
[30:47] » So Dave, this could be a long-term
process is what you're trying to allude
[30:52] to.
>> Yep. Absolutely. or
[30:56] if the right opportunity came up to us
and was going to put a 100 jobs in
[31:02] Blackhawk County and they needed $4
million. It might be a short process.
[31:09] It's you know
>> and the decision is made by the board. I
[31:13] mean the I guess the evaluations and the
looking at each project and
[31:17] » yeah, we're going to we'll do all that
provide you all of that materials and
[31:22] and then you can then make a final of
whether we're just a bunch of
[31:28] knuckleheads or we got really something
that would work for Blackhawk.
[31:34] » Well, I assume your the Tech Works
attorneys looked at this and knew this
[31:37] was an option considered. Well, this
yeah, this is just a piece. Yeah, a
[31:42] piece that is in process,
>> you know. I mean, first thing is, are
[31:47] you guys interested? And if you're not
interested, I guess I've enjoyed a half
[31:53] hour,
I think, with other
[31:57] » and we're on we're on to something else.
>> Would they what other options would
[32:01] there be? I mean, if the county was not
able to do this process, this pro go
[32:05] through this, what other options do you
have in trying to
[32:09] » Well, again, if Black doesn't want to do
it, maybe Chickasaw wants to do it for
[32:15] their area uh cities. I I did talk with
null uh from the city of Wateroo because
[32:23] he's on the board and I just trying to
develop how this inner play would work.
[32:30] Uh, and I of course know uh the guys
over in Cedar Falls, so I talked with
[32:37] them a little bit. Uh, but yeah, it's
just we'll put it out there. Now, let's
[32:42] say no governmental agency wants to deal
with this. Then the next piece uh is
[32:50] there are entities that we could for fee
work uh for this or uh you start then
[33:00] bringing in these expensive attorneys.
Oh. Oh, sorry Mike. I'm not worth the
[33:06] expenses.
>> You're not one of those. But you know,
[33:09] but you can bring in attorneys that
would then work through a process to
[33:14] identify that this particular case would
be charitable. So it there's other
[33:19] options. this just seemed like a
>> a good one to me
[33:24] » uh to work with you guys for and I
started with no but then as as we were
[33:29] talking it became the issue of well if
it's outside the city boundary or then
[33:37] we'd have to go to Blackhawk County and
then thinking of it as a Cedar Valley
[33:42] thing
there's a lot of cities and communities
[33:48] you know dyke and whatever you know, so
you just it just it made it more sense
[33:53] to deal with it on a county bycounty
basis.
[33:57] » Well, it looked like from the materials
you provided just you were looking at
[34:00] all six counties.
>> Yes.
[34:02] » Not just Blackhawk County,
>> right? Yeah. Well, and I I started here
[34:06] cuz I thought since we live here and
Tech Works is here and I know a few of
[34:14] you guys through the 60 years I've been
around that maybe
[34:20] if I couldn't talk with you guys then
Yikes.
[34:25] » Is there a preference for Blackhawk
County in any way?
[34:29] » No.
>> Like an advantage?
[34:31] » No. I I I would I would say not reality.
We're looking for the best projects
[34:36] » for the region.
>> For the region.
[34:40] » And Dave, you sort of already touched on
my next question. Um on the $4 million
[34:46] endowment, you're estimating about
$200,000 in revenue from that annually.
[34:52] Um well, but you said that there would
be some flexibility of, you know, really
[34:56] great opportunity that you would cut
into the endowment.
[35:00] Correct. Y
>> um what would you um ever have years
[35:05] where you were um carrying over what was
um gained in income to potentially build
[35:12] up? Okay.
>> Yes, absolutely. That's you you have all
[35:16] of that types of possibility.
uh maybe because you know we don't have
[35:22] anything that really raises to the level
that we want to give in any particular
[35:26] year but we also may know there's
something out there that is developing
[35:32] and so we may pull these resources uh
and in a couple years we would spend
[35:39] them on out
uh you know
[35:45] in part of my life I I I was a chair for
the Cedar Falls public library and
[35:51] redevelop some funds and I mean and
that's exactly the type of things that
[35:55] we did uh and I mean the other
possibility there can be some other
[36:00] foundations sometimes places what
matching funds we can be the provider of
[36:07] of the matching funds and so double
money uh for entities that are working
[36:12] on it or like you say you see something
that's a little bit in the future that
[36:17] you might need 500,000 or so, then then
maybe the board will hold it on back. Uh
[36:23] type of thing. It's
it's whatever comes
[36:29] before us and try to do the best that we
can. I kind of think they should send me
[36:37] to Hawaii every year, you know, with the
funds and and do something like that,
[36:42] but the board seems to think that's not
what they want to do.
[36:45] » Not the type of chair they want. and and
we're just volunteers, you know, we're
[36:51] we're not asking for any money. We're
just uh local citizens
[36:58] trying to do the right thing. Dave, I've
got just two things to think about. I
[37:02] love the idea of it um going forward.
But things I guess that I think about is
[37:08] uh how the expenses with the county
being involved potentially in any way,
[37:13] how the expenses will be accounted for
and what guard rails are in place to
[37:16] ensure don't take this the wrong way
>> that we're not giving money using the
[37:21] government as a passer to our friends
organizations.
[37:24] » Sure.
>> That's my concern. I don't have any
[37:26] reason to think that you guys would do
that,
[37:28] » but we know it happens in this world
that we live in. And so I mean, those
[37:32] are some things that we can work
through. Uh, you know, I
[37:36] » I didn't necessarily come here with all
the answers, right?
[37:40] » We don't even have all the answers of
how we're going to put this thing
[37:45] together, but we've got a few months
here that we're going to work through
[37:48] it. So uh but yeah obviously there'd be
we're looking also you know my years of
[37:56] United Way activity there comes that
process of you're giving out funds now
[38:02] you want to look back and see what were
the outcomes
[38:06] » how how did those funds how how did that
organization use the dollars so we'll
[38:12] develop some stuff like that
>> yeah because that was going to be my
[38:14] followup really to the compliance and
the liability
[38:18] » in this partnership wouldn't be on the
county taxpayers
[38:22] » and and of course
>> agreement type of things to
[38:25] » Yeah. And and and any of the expenses
that we're going to develop and trying
[38:30] to identify uh recipients and that
obviously that's all on us too
[38:37] » because I think we did start the
conversations talking as a pass through
[38:41] the county be the pass through and Mike
really kind of clarified that we can't
[38:44] be the pass through. that comes
>> not not just a straight up pass through.
[38:49] We have to have discretion
>> sounds easy but there's a little more to
[38:52] it. We need to just make sure protection
>> and I think that the way it we set up
[38:58] you know in many ways the board of
supervisors becomes one of those guard
[39:01] rails because it's has to be approved by
your board first and then by us and so
[39:07] um in many ways I think this can lead to
um much stronger development um um
[39:14] proposals being pushed forward because
it's going to be vetted by two different
[39:18] bodies. Um, so I think it's we've got
the framework for a pretty good system
[39:24] uh here that I feel pretty comfortable
and I I definitely offer my support
[39:29] today.
>> Yeah, if it works for the both the
[39:31] guardrails, I think I like it with the
two entities, but I wasn't sure that
[39:35] that was, you know, you weren't finding
the projects, working through the
[39:38] projects and the applications and then
saying, "Here's the funding. You know,
[39:42] we'd like to see this pass on."
>> No, you you're going to then then review
[39:45] it. And of course, every time you do
that, then you're going to have to
[39:50] listen to me tell you, "No,
well, you send me the information. You
[39:55] guys decide if it works or not." And
>> from administratively, you don't see
[39:59] that being a large staff related issue
with us other than like I said the board
[40:04] involvement. That would be
>> Yeah. I mean obviously there's a
[40:09] always an element of trust you know uh
and so hopefully you will understand as
[40:16] we get this thing going as you see the
one or two of these things start to to
[40:21] move through you'll read through it
you'll say hey uh you know these guys
[40:27] know what they're doing uh these
companies look good so uh you know and
[40:35] and The hope is that we create something
that's a little bit seamless that we
[40:40] don't talk with a entity and then it's a
year down the road before we can provide
[40:45] any funding because these things like my
nephew he was here today as he did that
[40:53] he was on his way to Ames in De Moine uh
for venture capital funds uh to fund it.
[40:59] So,
we need to be able to
[41:03] feel comfortable of moving things
through expeditiously as possible.
[41:08] » What are you estimating for a timeline?
Would you like to have this up and
[41:11] running or have you given that thought?
>> When would you like to do it?
[41:17] » It's possible if there's businesses out
there that take advantage. No, I mean
[41:21] our our thought process is again the
funds are now in the pro investment
[41:27] process at the end of the year basically
because I mean we we work off of a
[41:34] fiscal year but investments work off of
a calendar year typically. So, at the
[41:41] end of this year, if we've got all the
if we're comfortable enough with all of
[41:45] our processes, then we would start
looking for opportunities. This first
[41:51] year is going to be pretty minimal
because we've just getting the funds in.
[41:56] We just received them this spring. So
the the real piece would be probably in
[42:05] 28 because then you'd have a full year
of investment activity to work with it.
[42:10] But yeah, if we saw something that
$50,000 would make a difference in
[42:16] Blackhawk County, why not?
>> Well, you said if you saw something four
[42:21] million would make a big difference.
>> Sure. and and well and
[42:26] » I I will I will tell you
because of my position with Mercy 1, I
[42:32] was up in line to see our visit our new
administrator and a new board member and
[42:39] the board member took me over to their
economic development individual and I
[42:44] kind of walked through this a little bit
with them and she got fairly excited
[42:51] because she was in the process of
looking for $3 million for an IT company
[42:56] that wanted to buy a couple of buildings
downtown and bring a hundred to 150
[43:01] jobs. Now, when I said we weren't really
looking to advance all the funds out
[43:08] right away, different story, but yeah,
but this stuff is and of course, you
[43:14] know, the other
piece of this that spins off of it, if
[43:19] we can get a few of these things
happening,
[43:22] you know, then other entities say, "Wait
a second, Blackhawk County is really
[43:30] working to develop advanced
manufacturing
[43:34] opportunities.
Maybe we should talk with them.
[43:38] Otherwise, it may it's when I was
working through college, I went worked
[43:46] at HY,
we put the milk way in the back
[43:51] so that as you walk through the aisles,
you found other opportunities of thing
[43:56] that you could buy even though you're
just coming for a gallon of milk.
[43:59] » Opportunities.
[44:03] Anyway, that's the thought process.
>> Well, I was excited to to ask Dave to
[44:08] come and and talk. I I really wanted to
sort of check the temp of the board. If
[44:12] it's a no-go, then
>> Dave, go find somebody else so you can
[44:17] get this thing moving along. if there's
an interest in working through a plan.
[44:22] You know, I'm hoping that we can at
least provide some level of direction
[44:27] or, you know, insight that I'm certainly
in favor of of this, but wanted to talk
[44:32] with the rest of the board, too, to see
where you all were at.
[44:35] » Guess my biggest concern is ongoing
liability for the county and additional
[44:39] costs on taxpayers.
I like know more of the framework and
[44:44] then hear more from Mike as far as our
ongoing liability for future situation
[44:50] with
>> the devil's in the details part.
[44:52] » Yeah.
>> Yeah.
[44:52] » Yeah. And
>> but if we're saying let's
[44:55] » let's crack the crab so we can get to
the details. That's one thing. Or if
[44:57] we're
[45:00] » Yeah. I'd say let's let's begin
exploring how to make it happen and what
[45:05] roadblocks there might be. I like it.
[45:11] And perhaps we we reach a point where it
doesn't make sense to I mean at this
[45:15] point I'm supportive of it
>> for what that's worth.
[45:20] » Mike, you had a comment?
>> No, I all I was um commenting on was uh
[45:26] I think we probably need to have a uh
work session of some sort where the
[45:30] board discusses this. Um I don't uh
based on my research so far, I don't see
[45:36] a lot of potential for liability
u per se. I mean there will be some
[45:41] administrative costs in uh in carrying
out this role and the board will have to
[45:46] decide you know what what it wants to do
relative to that and and that can be
[45:52] anything from having a fee structure to
to just deciding that that's that's the
[45:57] part the county is going to take on and
and the um there is a certain kind of
[46:04] regional aspect to this so it isn't
entirely for blackhawk county entities
[46:08] necessarily ly, but still,
um, I can see what what Dave's saying
[46:14] about the the benefits that it's going
to provide the area, the county
[46:17] regardless. So, it is it isn't a big com
I I actually had some concerns early on
[46:24] about the, you know, sound like a pass
through and all that, but as long as the
[46:28] board retains its discretion and can say
no, um, that is where, uh, that is where
[46:35] things should clear up for us. It'll be
interesting if the board ever says no
[46:39] how we resolve some of that though that
that's
[46:42] » well then the money doesn't come right
but I mean it's unfortunate
[46:46] we find a different direction
>> supportive of it and then we have to
[46:49] argue with you
>> which is always fun so
[46:54] » I I think I
>> convince us to why we were wrong I may
[46:57] have gone beyond my five to 10 minutes
>> hopefully that doesn't happen. So Dave,
[47:02] is the money currently in an interest
bearing account where it's acrewing more
[47:05] and more more?
>> Yeah. Yeah, it's
[47:07] US bank. We sent it out for RFP and 23
different entities uh responded to to do
[47:17] the MA funds management part. US Bank
ended up being the one that we selected
[47:23] uh and they're in that process right
now. So, no, it's a and it's invested
[47:26] obviously in the markets and bonds and
all the things that money managers
[47:31] invest stuff in.
>> So, we could be talking closer to 5
[47:35] million if it's building up over series
of years.
[47:38] » Well, yeah. Well, I mean it could, but
that's not our intent,
[47:41] » right?
>> Because our intent is to spend it as it
[47:44] becomes available,
>> right?
[47:46] » But yeah, I mean it
>> Okay,
[47:49] » this was the initial phase, so there
could be more funding available later.
[47:52] » No, probably not. Okay.
>> Uh, you know, the the 42 acres is
[47:58] developed. There's not much left to do,
which is good for the county and for the
[48:04] city and everybody involved. And all of
that has finally through all the years
[48:10] uh found a home for multiple entities
that uh she was the museum, the Marriott
[48:18] had a one of the new heads for Mercy.
One was in town the other day to chat
[48:23] and use the Marriott and uh the city
still has a the basic foundation pieces
[48:30] for the marina. That may happen. There's
a couple of small lots that you could
[48:35] squeeze something in, but uh you know,
>> yeah,
[48:39] » maybe the supervisor would like to build
a facility for them to
[48:46] » we don't know.
[48:50] So maybe in the next few weeks,
>> just the idea of of drafting a
[48:54] memorandum of understanding probably
seems like a natural thing for us to
[48:59] work through at a work session and just
to keep the ball rolling.
[49:03] Yeah. I mean, I'm here
now
[49:08] because,
you know, let's get the pieces of the
[49:13] puzzle put together so we're ready
>> to move when we have an opportunity to.
[49:20] » Dave, you'll notice that expeditious is
not one of our core values. A wall. So,
[49:25] nothing moves fast in this building.
>> Government that's intentional.
[49:29] expeditious, but you know, ease like
efficiency.
[49:34] Create expeditious activity.
>> Yeah. No, that's great. You'll be
[49:39] surprised how fast you'll go through $4
million, though.
[49:42] » Well, well, I
>> think they
[49:45] does.
>> When I started the bank, they gave me $2
[49:48] million.
I lost $1 million the first two years,
[49:53] » but uh it's now 150 million, so it
worked out.
[49:56] » It worked out. Thanks so much.
Yes, sir.
[49:59] » No, thank you.
>> And I think provided your information,
[50:02] my contact if anybody wanted to reach
out. So, thank you.
[50:08] » Yes, we don't mind.
>> Take care.
[50:14] » Item number five, claims and payments
resolution that the board of supervisors
[50:17] approved expenditures and that the
county auditor be authorized and
[50:20] directed to issue payments against the
various settlement of such claims as
[50:24] allowed.
>> So moved. Second,
[50:26] » Miss Weedner. Good morning, board. Our
total bill payment today is $44,7726.
[50:35] The 6040 fund portion of that is
$2,95760.
[50:41] There's really only one uh significant
payment today. We are purchasing the
[50:46] boom lift for the road department from
Alterper for $18,750.
[50:53] Everything appears to be in order. Any
questions for me today?
[50:57] No questions. I just wanted to point out
another $26,000 in out of county uh
[51:02] expenses.
>> Yes.
[51:04] » For from the sheriff's office.
>> Housing inmates. Yes.
[51:08] » And I'm sorry, I almost forgot. I was
also supposed to say payroll was
[51:12] 1,694,000
roughly two weeks.
[51:18] This is a resolution. Please answer your
names. Call
[51:21] » Schwarz.
>> Yes.
[51:23] » Briant.
>> Yes.
[51:24] » Paul,
>> yes. Bach,
[51:26] » yes.
>> Leilen,
[51:27] » yes.
>> Item number six, receive project updates
[51:31] from department heads and elected
officials.
[51:34] » Good morning, board. Kathy Nicholas,
engineer.
[51:38] I'm pleased to give you an update this
morning about our proposed new shop
[51:42] facility.
I just got a real short presentation
[51:46] here.
[51:51] So, I'm going to talk to you about these
few things. the the site um the cost of
[51:55] the facility and how we are proposing to
pay for the new facility.
[52:00] So just to focus on the site for a few
minutes I know I believe you've all
[52:03] you're all familiar that we have been
talking with the city of water you've
[52:07] signed an agreement with the city of
water that we would like to move out to
[52:11] their air and rail uh facility their
industrial park which is uh northwest or
[52:18] west of the airport in in water. Uh we
have been looking at a few different
[52:23] parcels with them, but uh last week we
we kind of collectively agreed that we
[52:29] the roads department would go on the
north side of Hyper Drive.
[52:34] Uh it's technically two parcels 300 by
about 900 ft each,
[52:41] but collectively they add to about 14
acres. Uh the current Longfellow
[52:46] facility is is about 15.9 or about 16
acres.
[52:50] Uh we also asked for an easement out
like a backdoor easement or driveway out
[52:56] to what's called Warp Drive and then
this goes curves right around and ties
[53:01] into Lone Tree Road. So either way,
we're getting really good access to uh
[53:06] Lone Tree Road, US Highway 218, and then
Dunkerton Road, which is of course a a
[53:12] county road.
[53:16] Uh all the utilities are in at these
parcels and it is pretty much ready for
[53:21] construction this site.
[53:25] Uh the cost of the new facility we are
we are relying on that study that
[53:30] Envision completed for us. They
completed it last fall about this time
[53:34] last fall and at that time their study
did show that or the concept was that
[53:40] the engineers office would move out of
the courthouse. We would be colllocated
[53:44] with our roads department. We would
become we would integrate into one big
[53:49] department.
Uh this would include office space, warm
[53:54] storage like for example this is where
we park our trucks and to get them out
[53:59] of the elements and that is it's not a
cold storage facility. It is slightly
[54:04] it's warm. It's not heated to the way we
would heat a home of course but it is
[54:09] warm storage so that the snow is melting
off of our vehicles in the winter for
[54:13] example. it wouldn't include new
mechanics bays, uh, wash bays, a sign
[54:19] shop, chemical storage. So, they kind of
looked at everything we need, envisioned
[54:23] it, and they came up with an estimate of
20 to $30 million about a year ago. And
[54:28] this, of course, was just a rough
number.
[54:31] In further refining that, we've uh
visited a lot of facilities. This is
[54:36] this is a photo of actually the new
Faget County shop and and their new shop
[54:40] is strictly office space and mechanic
space.
[54:44] Uh we you know we've been thinking about
this for almost three years now working
[54:49] on this for almost three years. Uh we've
been saving money for a number of years
[54:54] to purchase to to pay back to pay bonds
for a new facility. So of course that is
[55:01] the way we would finance a new facility
would have it be an initial down payment
[55:05] out of our secondary road fund.
We are calculating we have approximately
[55:10] 4 to 4.5 million in our secondary road
fund right now that we could use as a
[55:14] down payment.
Uh we are calculating that the initial
[55:19] cost the most we can afford
based on things being as they are right
[55:24] now and I'll get get to that caveat in a
minute is that we can afford
[55:29] approximately 15 to 18 million in
initial capital costs. We of course
[55:35] would repay this with local option sales
tax funds which we are now cleared to
[55:41] do. We are now eligible to use those
funds for uh repayment of a building
[55:45] facility.
We anticipate we could repay
[55:49] approximately $1.5 million a year for
about 10 years. And these are of course
[55:54] just rough numbers. We we have an we've
been working with an initial interest
[55:59] rate of 4%. Uh that could change of
course especially when we're talking
[56:05] this amount of money. So that's just
these are all rough estimates based on
[56:09] that. Uh but we feel like 15 to $18
million is is pretty doable right now
[56:16] and that we are working on an RFP and
those are the numbers we've used. Uh
[56:22] currently our biggest unknown of course
is our secondary road transfer amount
[56:26] and that's the amount that you transfer
to us out of the general fund and the
[56:30] rural fund
into the roads department fund. So we'll
[56:35] we'll see how that goes as we go through
the budget next next spring. That could
[56:40] if that changes that's could affect
whether we can build a new facility or
[56:44] not.
And so we we are ready to go out for
[56:49] architectural services. We've been
working pretty hard the last all summer
[56:52] long on an RFP to send out to
approximately 6 to8 architects. Um, a
[56:59] lot of those are who we sent our last uh
the the need study to.
[57:06] Uh, they will help us determine what we
can build and determine if that 15 to$18
[57:11] million is feasible. And we are hoping
that if all things go as planned, we'd
[57:17] like to have an architect under contract
sometime in November.
[57:22] We would allow about a year for plans
and then possibly be under construction
[57:27] by late late 2027,
but probably most likely early 2028.
[57:34] Uh we are ready to send out the RFPs
today. Ryan will probably send them out
[57:39] today. So, can I answer any questions at
this point?
[57:45] Just glad to hear the news. It's moving
forward.
[57:47] » Thanks. I appreciate Yeah. Provided a
good update. Thank you, Debbie.
[57:53] » This Chris, just a quick question maybe
for Michelle. Um just as we think of the
[57:57] the budget in the coming years and the
um constrictions we'll be facing facing
[58:04] because of the actions of the state
legislature this past year and past
[58:08] couple of years. Um can you remind us
what approximately the annual transfer
[58:14] has been on average from the general
fund to the secondary roads fund?
[58:20] » The general fund it's around a million
but we also provide about 3 million from
[58:25] the rural fund and then they also are
receiving about um 2 million annually
[58:34] from the local option funds.
6 million tax support
[58:39] » annually.
>> I'm more concerned about the constraints
[58:42] we'll be facing on the general fund. I
I'm still concerned about well we'll be
[58:47] facing on the royal fund, but the
general fund especially is is just going
[58:51] to be tighter and tighter
>> most likely. But that will also that
[58:56] could also impact rural fund. So it's
all a intricate puzzle there. But um I
[59:05] would not anticipate the board
needing I guess or choosing to
[59:11] dramatically reduce the transfer. So I'm
not sure that that's a
[59:18] huge concern. I think there could be
some reductions just because I don't
[59:22] think it's makes sense to expect other
departments to have reductions you know
[59:29] com and nothing in this department but
yeah the um didn't have a chance to
[59:39] get back to Kathy but I I think that
it's possible with that if we're
[59:44] planning to use 1.5 million in local
option tax to repay a bond
[59:49] that could be closer to 14 million. And
there is also a balance in the in the
[59:55] load road local option tax fund. I can't
say that this morning. That could also
[1:00:01] help fund it. So I think
>> And that was in what fund? You said 1.5
[1:00:06] and what? They're planning to use local
option funds to repay the bonds and they
[1:00:12] were estimating at 1.5 million which I
think like with a 12 million or 12-year
[1:00:18] repayment you can get about 14 million
principal paid for with 1.5
[1:00:25] » and we reduced that transfer this year
this past year.
[1:00:29] » Actually we didn't we didn't reduce it.
We did we did not
[1:00:34] » we we did not increase it from the
general fund but we did not reduce it
[1:00:39] and the rural fund increased. So the
totals going to roads increased and also
[1:00:46] the local option tax revenue has been
increasing. So there's there was
[1:00:52] increased revenue to roads.
>> Well increased revenue but I just meant
[1:00:57] that transfer amount that we typically
do. But the so the transfer amount was
[1:01:02] exactly the same. The percentage
>> percentage is what I'm after. I'm
[1:01:05] » Yes. The percentage of the maximum that
we can transfer. That's there is a
[1:01:11] maximum in state law about what we can
transfer. Yes,
[1:01:15] » that was reduced but not the amount, you
know, and again the the rural piece of
[1:01:20] it
>> still had an increase. So
[1:01:24] » it was I just meant I misspoke. It was
the amount. It was the percentage we
[1:01:27] could increase.
>> Yep.
[1:01:33] And maybe some of you can re increase
that next year
[1:01:37] » for the building. You got to pay for the
building.
[1:01:40] » Maybe.
>> We'll find out.
[1:01:43] » I do have two other things to update you
on. I would like to schedule a work
[1:01:47] session probably in the next two to
three weeks to talk about the speed
[1:01:51] limit here in Blackhawk County. Uh we've
done some work on that. Had some uh
[1:01:57] productive meetings with law enforcement
last week. Uh so we feel like we're
[1:02:01] ready to come to you with I feel like
we're ready to come to you with some
[1:02:05] decisions.
I can work with you all on a a time
[1:02:09] frame for that work session. And then
the last thing I wanted to update you on
[1:02:13] was we we were able to set beams on
Hoffro Bridge uh last week, last
[1:02:18] Thursday. Gabby had some social media uh
out there on it and we are hopeful that
[1:02:23] um I know they had to do the closure
pores and then put the the uh excuse me
[1:02:28] the guardrail on and we are hopeful I
would be hopeful that we would have that
[1:02:33] road reopened probably within two weeks.
So can I answer any other questions?
[1:02:39] » The crane's up and running again.
No, no, no. We hired Emerson crane just
[1:02:45] to be on site out out on Hoff to set
those beams for us. Uh we used our We do
[1:02:51] have two cranes. We have a smaller crane
that sat at Longfellow and was able to
[1:02:55] pick up the beams and place them on our
semi to haul them out to um Hoffro and
[1:03:01] then we were able to set them. Emerson
was able to set them for us.
[1:03:06] The our crane is still going to be down
possibly for six more weeks. We're
[1:03:11] waiting on parts.
[1:03:19] » Kathy, would would next Tuesday be too
soon on the speed limit deal? I've got
[1:03:24] people itching to get to 60.
>> So, I did I would like to invite a few
[1:03:31] other Nate, of course, I would like him
to be here. So, let me
[1:03:36] » Okay,
>> we can try for that. Let me see if he
[1:03:38] can make it for that date as well.
>> Fair enough.
[1:03:40] » They're holding down. I'm sticking at 55
right now.
[1:03:43] » They're not 56. 55.
[1:03:48] » We're 62.
>> Thanks, Kathy. Good update. Anyone else
[1:03:52] for an update for department or elected
official?
[1:03:57] » Anyone online?
>> I have a quick one. I just wanted to say
[1:04:01] that the capital improvement program
five-year requests are out to
[1:04:06] departments. So hopefully they will
start figuring out what their needs are
[1:04:11] over the next 5 years so we have a
better idea of what we're looking at.
[1:04:18] » Anyone online with
>> And good morning board. This is Yolando
[1:04:22] uh from Veterans Affairs. I I just had a
a couple things. I wanted to let Jim uh
[1:04:28] Bush Camp know that we're here to
support you. Uh we had a walk-in first
[1:04:32] thing this morning and I got a funeral
to go to, but we're here to support you.
[1:04:35] But also, board, I wanted to share a
couple things uh from our commission
[1:04:40] meeting that we had. Um if you don't
mind, I'll just go quickly through
[1:04:44] those, just the highlights of them,
>> please do.
[1:04:48] » And can you see the uh slides?
>> Yes.
[1:04:52] » Okay. So, a couple things. the warrior
expedition. Uh they completed their
[1:04:56] coast to coast ride. Uh again, I want to
take my hat off to uh supervisor uh
[1:05:01] Tavis Hall and supporting. We we've been
doing that for Blackhawk County with our
[1:05:05] supervisors and with the experienced
water. We been supporting for almost 6
[1:05:10] years. Um and they've completed their
their ride uh from Washington DC to
[1:05:16] Washington uh state using the uh Cedar
Valley Trail and the Great American
[1:05:20] Trail. So, thank you for that support.
Um, and then just quickly, I'm going to
[1:05:26] slide through these. Um, one thing that,
uh, hope everyone enjoyed their their
[1:05:30] Labor Day weekend. Uh, but over the the
Labor Day weekend, um, there was some
[1:05:35] damage to, uh, a particular banner, and
that particular banner belonged to me.
[1:05:39] Um, as you could see, the the Veterans
Way. Usually, this is my fourth year
[1:05:44] participating in that. Uh, but someone
took advantage to, uh, create googly
[1:05:49] eyes on my banner uh, over the weekend.
Maybe I do have googly eyes. I don't
[1:05:54] know. Um but that that was a point of
emphasis. Couple of the things uh that
[1:05:58] we talked about last Wednesday was
celebrating our oneyear anniversary. Uh
[1:06:02] and again, my hats off to the board of
supervisors, to the um our veterans
[1:06:07] commission, particularly Rory and his
department, uh Michelle with financing,
[1:06:12] everyone that made this very successful.
Uh we are appreciative of being in this
[1:06:17] facility. Uh we want to be good stewards
of this facility. Um, and we look
[1:06:21] forward to doing great things. We
continue to get accolades from our
[1:06:24] veterans coming in saying this is a very
conducive environment for sitting down
[1:06:28] and doing um claims uh for veterans. So,
thank you again. Um, our hidden hero for
[1:06:34] the month of of August uh was uh Jordan.
Uh she's a Marine uh who is actually
[1:06:42] working with um still attending school
at UNI. uh a very active uh veteran at
[1:06:48] the veterans organization at uni and
she's doing some great things there and
[1:06:52] so this month we took opportunity to
recognize this young Marine and for the
[1:06:57] great service that she's done for her
country serving as a Marine and then
[1:07:00] what she's currently doing in the
community and then this slide is just
[1:07:04] I'm going to pass through but the things
that we we're getting ready to celebrate
[1:07:08] 911 the 25th year we just celebrated 250
years um and now we're celebrating the
[1:07:14] 25th year of 911. Um, and I could tell
you 9/11 changed my military life and it
[1:07:20] just kind of shows you the aftermath of
uh what's going on. But to celebrate it
[1:07:24] is the biggest thing is to recognize the
lives that were lost uh both in the
[1:07:28] military and the lives that were lost
civilian whether it was the towers,
[1:07:32] whether it was the uh the Pentagon or
the aircraft and all of the lives that
[1:07:36] were lost in the towers. Couple success
stories that uh I shared. I'm going to
[1:07:41] spin through these because I did send
you these slides. uh but to know that
[1:07:45] again interacting one to another with
another veteran, you never know how
[1:07:49] we're going to touch that veteran's life
or that surviving spouse. And then uh
[1:07:53] the paragraph two was a surviving spouse
whose husband died uh from uh a
[1:07:59] presumptive condition. She didn't know
about it till she came in and spoke with
[1:08:02] one of the veteran service officers and
she ended up getting almost $20,000 in
[1:08:07] retropay and now she has a benefit for
the rest of her life. Um the the third
[1:08:12] one is the Marine who succumbed and is
still living but succumbed to some um
[1:08:18] Marine Corps hazardous water that was
out of Camp Lun. Um he fought it fought
[1:08:24] it and eventually uh the the VA said,
"Yeah, I agree that the conditions
[1:08:28] you're suffering from affects your your
your ability to work and your overall
[1:08:33] lifestyle." And they paid out $94,000 in
retropay. And now he has a benefit for
[1:08:38] the rest of his life. again, changing
lives one claim at a time. Um, and then
[1:08:45] the other part of that is the positive
thing is we're starting to see more uh
[1:08:48] donations come in. Uh, I I put two
months together. So, you have the two
[1:08:53] months calendar year, we took in $8,385
so far in donations. A lot of them are
[1:08:59] associated with our success that we're
having with our lunches. And then, um,
[1:09:03] in particular, uh, the Kevin Deal
Foundation provided us $1,000 just
[1:09:08] recently. And this morning, uh, we just
had a walk-in where they provided $300
[1:09:13] based off the success that we've and a
lot of it has to do with Gabby promoting
[1:09:18] our promoting the lunches on social
media. And veterans are seeing it. We've
[1:09:22] been doing this for a while now, but
veterans are seeing how successful this
[1:09:26] has been. And now we're starting to see
new faces come in and they're they
[1:09:30] really like this ideal. And again, it's
all based off of your support, board of
[1:09:34] supervisors, for allowing us to be in a
new space, a new facility that is
[1:09:38] conducive for veterans. And then for
August, our our production for August,
[1:09:42] you can see uh we brought in about uh
$34,000
[1:09:48] in federal funds to uh for retro pay.
You can see our individual client
[1:09:53] support. And then what we're really
adding to the county about $38,000 in
[1:09:58] additional monies that veterans and
surviving spouses are receiving. And you
[1:10:03] can see our July report. So uh close to
almost $500,000 in the first two months
[1:10:08] um is what my staff is doing. And again,
I take my hat off to our staff, uh
[1:10:13] Stacy, Michelle, and Sarah. And one of
the other reasons why I'm not there in
[1:10:16] person is Sarah's doing court duty
today. So, uh, it just adds up, but
[1:10:21] we're still going to be able to support.
Um, and then you can see our our July
[1:10:25] and August production. Um, where the,
uh, veterans are coming from, uh, their
[1:10:31] service. Uh, in particular, we did see
an uptick, um, from other counties,
[1:10:36] about 12 coming in, um, from various
counties. Um, but again, we are going to
[1:10:42] service every veteran. A couple of the
things that I've been doing lately is
[1:10:45] recognizing what their pay grades are of
who's filing those u disabilities. Um
[1:10:51] and then this key slide here is kind of
talking about where we're at. You see
[1:10:55] that, but down at the bottom is the the
point of emphasis. Uh about 1856 are
[1:11:00] receiving some type of compensation u
for disabilities. Uh so 502 of them are
[1:11:06] receiving it at 100% which is close to
about 27% of those veterans out of the
[1:11:12] 1856. Uh you also can see 328 of the
2184 that is our total number are are
[1:11:20] receiving either a survivor's benefit or
a pension. And then lastly, I kind of
[1:11:25] looked at okay 100, 50, and 10. And you
can proceed to percentages associated
[1:11:31] with the veterans who are receiving a
disability at those uh percentages. And
[1:11:37] then lastly, uh what we've done out of
county and donated funds and supporting
[1:11:41] veterans um was a good month for us. We
didn't have to help anybody with
[1:11:45] utilities or uh with shelter. Uh but we
did see an uptick with the gas card
[1:11:50] production. And then the trust fund
dispersements was about $2,500 and that
[1:11:55] was in support of a some auto repairs.
Um and then you can see our first two
[1:12:00] months um we've only um used $1,000 out
of our 53,000 that we have quarterly
[1:12:07] budgeted as we get ready to go into our
budgeted session uh to look at how we do
[1:12:11] things going into FY27 and 28. Uh but I
think we're doing a great job there. And
[1:12:17] just uh just one short slide is this is
my fourth year uh going out to the UAW
[1:12:24] um at the veterans conference about 400
veterans attended. It gives again an
[1:12:29] opportunity for a young guy from Iowa
which was the only presenter out of that
[1:12:34] international um UAW veterans conference
was the only one from Iowa. Everyone
[1:12:40] else was from all over the 50 states. Uh
but it gave me an opportunity again to
[1:12:44] interact with other veterans, see the
great things that we're doing and some
[1:12:48] of the things that we could add. But I
will tell you for assurance that talking
[1:12:51] with other veteran service officers that
were in attendance and with veterans
[1:12:55] that we interacted with as we talked for
the 3 days, um we are doing uh a job
[1:13:02] that uh most people would say, "Hey,
wait a minute. How let me follow your
[1:13:08] lead." And so we we had a lot of uh BSOs
say, "Hey, Yolando, how you doing that?"
[1:13:12] And so it gave me an opportunity to
interact uh with other BSOs from other
[1:13:16] states. Then we want to thank our
sponsors uh for our lunches. Again,
[1:13:20] that's where um the road meets the
rubber, so say um this is how we really
[1:13:25] do do a lot of our our articulation to
hey veterans, make sure you get out
[1:13:30] there and get involved. But those are
the other things and and so I share that
[1:13:34] with you guys to just say thank you
again for the opportunity to uh be in
[1:13:39] this position. Um you know I I was not
elected official. I'm a darn uh what
[1:13:45] they call a war fighter. So I'm not a
politician. I I speak from the truth. I
[1:13:50] speak uh truth to power. And I'm just
very appreciative of everything that you
[1:13:53] guys have allowed us to do. And with
that first year in this uh environment,
[1:13:58] I think it's now time for me to step
down and and allow someone else to move
[1:14:02] into this position. So uh I'm going to
probably step down in November of this
[1:14:07] year to allow a new BSO to come in, new
director, new executive director to come
[1:14:11] in and move Black County forward. But I
do appreciate all the opportunities that
[1:14:16] I've had in the last eight years.
[1:14:20] » Well, I'd say Elon but not today. Go
>> ahead. No, I was just going to say thank
[1:14:26] you much so much for your service,
Yolando, but um so sorry to hear that,
[1:14:30] but um certainly understand you have
priorities and things to consider and
[1:14:35] and uh other ventures in your life you
may want, but can't say enough about
[1:14:39] your reporting and the working together
and the relationship we've had. So,
[1:14:43] sorry to hear that news.
>> Gerando, I just want to again pass along
[1:14:49] the words I heard at the ISAC
conference. uh four different counties
[1:14:55] spoke very highly of your leadership and
I appreciate all your help with their
[1:15:01] veterans from their counties. Uh you are
definitely been setting a standard for
[1:15:06] the state of Iowa and and that setting
that role. So uh just again thank you
[1:15:11] and just appreciate all you do over
there.
[1:15:16] Yolanda, I just echo that. It's been an
honor to have you as the director and
[1:15:21] you look at uh where things have
advanced over your tenure here. we've
[1:15:26] got this brand new facility that um we
all work together to help make happen
[1:15:30] and it's just really remarkable to to
have and just a shout out that um both
[1:15:36] you and your wife Chakita have just been
a an awesome power couple in the service
[1:15:41] of veterans in this community and it's
it's been a joy to to be able to support
[1:15:47] you.
[1:15:53] Yeah, you'll end up definitely surprised
to hear this. Uh you've been great to
[1:15:57] lean on. Uh very easy to work with in my
short tenure here. I'm disappointed to
[1:16:03] hear that, but at the same time, uh you
deserve to live a a good life in
[1:16:07] retirement now and and dedicate time to
yourself and your wife. So for that, I'm
[1:16:13] glad to hear it for you guys.
>> I'll just also add Yolando. Um
[1:16:20] it's been about 4 years uh that I've
known you uh since seeking this role. I
[1:16:26] think it's probably the one of the first
times I met you. Um with the exception
[1:16:31] of course uh dating back I guess
actually to that to those to those
[1:16:35] warrior rides. Um
your work is meaningful. Uh your
[1:16:41] leadership is meaningful. Um it's been
an absolute pleasure getting to know
[1:16:47] you. uh working with you uh and and
calling you a friend. So uh excited to
[1:16:52] continue to do that uh and maybe we can
golf together a little bit more uh
[1:16:57] moving forward. So congrats. Uh
definitely not the news I was expecting
[1:17:01] to hear this morning. Um but uh really
honored to uh to know you and to call
[1:17:07] you a friend. So thank you.
[1:17:13] Any other department heads or elected
officials online with a report?
[1:17:19] We'll move on to item seven, minutes
approved for September 1, 2026. So move
[1:17:24] second.
>> All in favor say I.
[1:17:26] » I.
>> I. Same sign. Minutes are approved. Item
[1:17:30] eight is the consent agenda. The
following items are acted upon by a
[1:17:32] single resolution unless someone wishes
to remove something for discussion.
[1:17:36] » Move.
>> Second.
[1:17:39] » This resolution. Please answer. Your
name is called.
[1:17:41] » Curtainbach.
>> Yes. Grant,
[1:17:43] » yes.
>> Paul,
[1:17:44] » yes.
>> Schwarz,
[1:17:46] » yes.
>> Leilen,
[1:17:47] » yes. Item nine, contracts and
agreements. resolution that the federal
[1:17:51] aid agreement between Blackhawk County
and the Iowa Department of
[1:17:54] Transportation agreement number
2-26-CHBP-025
[1:18:01] for the competitive highway bridge
program grant project BRS- CHBP-
[1:18:08] C00007
parentheses 181-GB-07
[1:18:15] on Eagle Road over Miller Creek be
approved and direct the chair to sign
[1:18:18] for same as recommended by Katherine
Nicholas, County Engineer.
[1:18:21] » So move.
>> Second.
[1:18:23] » Uh good morning again, board. So this is
our standard DOT agreement uh that says
[1:18:28] we will receive up to $795,000
when we replace Eagle Road bridge. It
[1:18:34] was selected as as part of a competitive
BR highway bridge program. We're
[1:18:39] estimating that cost will be about 1.1
to$ 1.2 million. Uh we have submitted
[1:18:45] plans. It is it should be let in
February in the in one of the DOT
[1:18:49] February letings
and I would just ask for your approval
[1:18:53] that be we be allowed to move ahead. It
just uh we are agreeing to follow all
[1:18:58] federal aid and state DOT requirements.
[1:19:05] » Any questions for K?
>> This is a resolution. Please answer.
[1:19:08] Your name is called
>> Schwarz.
[1:19:11] » Yes.
>> Briant.
[1:19:12] » Yes.
>> Herinbach.
[1:19:13] » Yes.
>> Hall.
[1:19:14] » Yes. Leland.
>> Yes. Item B, resolution that the lowest
[1:19:18] responsible bid received from NB Cook
General Contractors Inc. Cedar Falls,
[1:19:22] Iowa for the repair of the skywalk over
Lafayette Street between 225 East 6th
[1:19:27] Street and 316 East Fifth Street in
Waterlue in the amount of $25,390.
[1:19:34] Engineer's estimate was $30,89
be approved and the chair be authorized
[1:19:39] to sign the contract contingent upon
receipt of certificate of insurance as
[1:19:43] recommended by Rory Gbing, facilities
director.
[1:19:46] » So moved.
>> Second.
[1:19:48] » Morning.
>> Good morning board. Rory Giving,
[1:19:50] facilities director. Uh this is as a
result uh to damage that the Skywalk
[1:19:55] sustained uh back in October of 24 uh
from a garbage truck that had their
[1:20:01] front uh forks lifted up a little too
high. Uh fortunately in our case uh it
[1:20:07] was not a structural situation. It was
more of a cosmetic. Um we did reach out
[1:20:12] to AECOM who is the uh engineering
services that put this uh project
[1:20:18] together for us. Um, we did put it out
on our website and we've received one
[1:20:23] proposal from uh Cook uh construction.
We're just asking for the board to
[1:20:28] approve us to move forward with that.
And this is an insurance claim. So,
[1:20:33] » I was going to say Ry all of this will
be from insurance.
[1:20:37] » This will be submitted to uh uh to the
that company's insurance
[1:20:43] and we are working with our IAP as well
just to make sure that that's a smooth
[1:20:47] process.
Any
[1:20:52] questions?
>> No.
[1:20:53] » Resolution, please answer. Your name is
called.
[1:20:55] » Brandt,
>> yes.
[1:20:56] » Curtainbach,
>> yes.
[1:20:57] » Hall,
>> yes.
[1:20:58] » Schwarz,
>> yes.
[1:21:00] » Leilen,
>> yes. Item 10, other business. This is a
[1:21:04] motion that the appointment of Jim
Bushamp as commissioner on the Veterans
[1:21:07] Affairs Commission be approved to serve
the remaining term ending on June 30,
[1:21:11] 2027 as recommended by Yolanda Loveless,
Director of Veterans Affairs.
[1:21:15] » So moved.
>> Second. Would you like to say a few
[1:21:19] words, Jim? I was going to say you don't
have to, but you certainly hope we
[1:21:22] should because your wife says no.
[1:21:28] » Good morning, ladies, gentlemen, board.
Um, given the information that uh uh
[1:21:35] Yolanda just passed out, I would like to
make a comment.
[1:21:39] I know Yolanda from about two years ago
when I worked with him on my own claim
[1:21:46] and in more recent months um working
with the uh with the commission board as
[1:21:54] a private citizen and I truly appreciate
his uh kind and encouraging comments to
[1:22:00] me. Uh I approach this with both great
deal of humility and a great deal of
[1:22:06] excitement. Obviously, one of the first
elements that we're going to have to
[1:22:12] address is to try to find a suitable and
competent uh replacement for Yolanda,
[1:22:19] which is going to be exceedingly
difficult. But it is one that we will
[1:22:24] face and do everything that we can as a
commission to ensure that the quality of
[1:22:31] services that our veterans get um
remains at the same high level. Uh so
[1:22:39] with that
uh my comments conclude.
[1:22:43] » Okay. Well, thank you very much and
thanks for being here this morning to
[1:22:46] share comments.
>> Thanks Jim.
[1:22:51] All in favor say I.
>> I
[1:22:54] post oppose. Same.
>> Thank you again for your service and
[1:22:59] congratulations on your point and your
job ahead.
[1:23:04] Item B, resolution that the statement of
completion and final acceptance of work
[1:23:08] for project LFM-5031-7X-7
[1:23:14] HMA resurfacing on Raymond Road be
approved and direct the chair to sign
[1:23:18] for same and authorize and direct the
auditor to make final payment in the
[1:23:22] amount of $28,641
[1:23:26] with a total project cost of $954,000.
954,7361
[1:23:35] as recommended by Katherine Nicholas,
county engineer. Project contracted
[1:23:39] at1,756,192.70
[1:23:44] contractor Aspro Waterloop.
>> So move second.
[1:23:50] » Good morning again, board. As is
customary during a final acceptance, I'd
[1:23:54] like to show you some photos so you can
see what we've purchased with our $1
[1:23:58] million. And I will try to be
expeditious as I uh go through my slides
[1:24:03] here. Just a few comments about what
this road was like before. This is the
[1:24:07] Raymond Road portion from uh the new
fire station in Gilbertville up to the
[1:24:13] the four-way stop at Deuke Road. That
portion from Highway 20 north up to the
[1:24:18] four-way stop. That's our I believe
that's our busiest portion of roadway
[1:24:22] out in the county and it has probably
our most truck traffic. Uh so it gets a
[1:24:27] lot of wear and tear from uh the trucks
and the heavy amount of traffic. It was
[1:24:32] last resurfaced in 2009. So
um several years ago obviously and an
[1:24:39] improvement we did uh in 2018 was we
base widened the road from the Gville
[1:24:46] city limits up to the Raymond city
limits. And by base widening means we
[1:24:50] put an extra 2 ft of shoulder. We paved
the shoulder essentially 2 ft wide
[1:24:54] because our maintenance crews were just
doing a lot of what we call filling in
[1:24:59] the edge rut. You can see that uh we get
off traffic off trafficing of the
[1:25:05] asphalt roadway onto the shoulder by the
large semis and they are uh constantly
[1:25:11] tearing away or eating away at that
asphalt shoulder creating this edge that
[1:25:16] that of course is dangerous a dangerous
drop off. So our uh we were spending
[1:25:21] quite a bit of time doing this edge
writing uh maintenance responsibility
[1:25:24] until we did this this uh project in
2018.
[1:25:30] However, as I said, it stopped at
Raymond Road. So the Raymond Road
[1:25:33] portion never did receive the edge the
base widening. So they were continuing
[1:25:38] to experience this edge rut. And this
these this photo on the right, it was
[1:25:43] taken in the city limits of Raymond. So
again that was we have maintenance
[1:25:48] responsibilities by our 28e agreement
with them that was just taking a lot of
[1:25:52] time for us. So we were really anxious
to when we came back and do did this
[1:25:57] resurfacing to improve to do the base
widening in the city of Raymond.
[1:26:02] Uh other than that the general condition
of the road the ride was getting pretty
[1:26:06] rough at this time. Uh we done crack
sealing multiple times. It started to
[1:26:12] exhibit transverse cracking etc. it was
time to do a resurfacing on the roadway.
[1:26:17] Uh you've already given these pertinent
details. We did split the contract into
[1:26:22] three divisions. The city of
Gilbertville had that small share in
[1:26:27] excuse me about 800 ft long right in
front of their new fire station. So then
[1:26:32] they owned half the road and then of
course our portion was most of it and
[1:26:37] then the city of Raymond
uh north up near the four-way stop was
[1:26:43] their portion. I just have a few uh
photos of the construction. The first
[1:26:48] thing we did was Aspro came in and did
milling milled several inches off the
[1:26:52] entire surface. Then the base widening
in that portion of Raymond was
[1:26:59] completed. And that simply means milling
a hole, a trench uh 24 in wide by about
[1:27:06] 5 in deep. And then that was filled with
a little bit of rock and then it was
[1:27:11] shouldered or paved. The shoulder was
paved with this small shoulder uh paving
[1:27:17] machine. Then after that, two lifts of
asphalt were placed with about 2 in of
[1:27:23] asphalt in each lift. Uh here you can
see the the uh paving crew placing the
[1:27:28] first lift of asphalt. And then this was
up near the new Dollar the newer Dollar
[1:27:32] General up up at the four-way stop right
here. Placing the first lift of asphalt
[1:27:38] and then the final lift of asphalt. The
second lift was placed. And there's some
[1:27:43] nice photos of uh the aspro work here uh
taking care at some of the driveways.
[1:27:49] And then here's a final look to the uh I
guess this would be I believe to the
[1:27:55] north. Uh these were our final costs
about 11% under our our contract cost
[1:28:01] and these were the percentages broken
out. Uh we've we have of course
[1:28:06] submitted bills or payment plans to uh
Gilbert Valley and the city of Raymond.
[1:28:10] Uh ASPRO did finish uh under the the 25
working days. So no liquidated and
[1:28:16] damages were assessed. It was built in
substantial conformance with the plans
[1:28:20] and specifications. So I am recommending
that you approve the project so that we
[1:28:25] be allowed to release uh the retainers
back to Aspro. Can I answer any
[1:28:29] questions at this time?
>> Okay. Thank you. Looks nice.
[1:28:37] » This is a resolution. Please answer.
Your name is called.
[1:28:39] » Schwarz,
>> yes.
[1:28:41] » Curtainbach,
>> yes.
[1:28:43] » Hall,
>> yes.
[1:28:44] » Bryant,
>> yes.
[1:28:44] » Layen,
>> yes.
[1:28:47] » Item C, discussion, possible board
action concerning the proposed animal
[1:28:52] control ordinance.
>> All right.
[1:28:57] So, per the uh email to the board last
week, there were u
[1:29:03] number of changes made to the last draft
of this um proposed ordinance. I'm just
[1:29:09] going to highlight those right now. Uh
first of all, we redefine the appeal
[1:29:13] board as being the Black County Board of
Supervisors.
[1:29:18] Um secondly, under repeat offense,
um made a couple of changes. Number one,
[1:29:25] uh we made it second offense and each
subsequent offense. We've no longer
[1:29:30] referenced third offense because we no
longer have a three tier uh civil
[1:29:35] penalty structure for this. Uh we also
uh and this was something that was at
[1:29:42] the suggestion of the sheriff. I put in
a line which states, "Prior violations
[1:29:48] of any provision of this title within
the preceding 10 years shall be counted
[1:29:53] toward determining a second or
subsequent offense." Meaning that if
[1:29:57] it's been a decade since an offense of
this uh of this ordinance has been
[1:30:03] found, it's kind of like it goes off
your record at that point. Um, we define
[1:30:10] violation. Uh, that's number 20 on page
four.
[1:30:15] And moving on,
um we did make a reference
[1:30:21] uh because there uh section 11.03 dealt
with prohibited conduct that uh and
[1:30:29] prohibited acts that anybody who engages
in those in that conduct uh commits a
[1:30:34] violation. We reference that at the end
of 11.03.
[1:30:40] Um in 11.04 4. Uh, subsection 6 and
subsection 7 now state that the, uh,
[1:30:49] violation penalty is $500 for first
offense and $1,000 for each second or
[1:30:55] subsequent offense.
[1:31:01] Uh, under
11.05,
[1:31:04] 5
[1:31:09] we have changed and this is in uh
subsection 10.
[1:31:16] Uh we we've talked a great amount in the
last uh board meeting where we
[1:31:21] considered this about the animal
disposition review committee.
[1:31:27] Um, at that point the board had
suggested that it be the chair of the
[1:31:30] board of supervisors along with the
sheriff and the director of who happened
[1:31:36] to be the contract animal care provider
uh which is currently the Cedarbend
[1:31:41] Humane Society. Um, after that there was
some discussion I learned of
[1:31:48] uh with the conservation director and I
confirmed with him uh that he would be
[1:31:53] willing to have himself or his designate
be named as one of the uh people on this
[1:32:01] commit commission or committee uh so
that the board could come off of this
[1:32:06] committee. There was some concern that
because the board is the final appeal
[1:32:09] board, they shouldn't have a member on
this committee. Uh since then, I
[1:32:13] understand there's been some concern
about whether we should have, and we'd
[1:32:17] certainly want to talk to them about
this, whether we should have the animal
[1:32:22] care provider provide one of these uh
committee people. And that uh that's the
[1:32:30] board should kind of determine at this
point. Uh it does occur to me that I can
[1:32:36] add a provision after this sort of a
savings clause so to speak where we say
[1:32:43] the uh that if anybody would be
unwilling or unable to serve who is
[1:32:48] listed here the board could designate
someone else and I think we should do
[1:32:53] that. Um but that uh that was an idea
that came a little later that happens
[1:32:59] sometimes. Um, so that's something the
board ought to discuss, but I want to
[1:33:03] get through the rest of these highlights
first. And that means skipping all the
[1:33:07] way to uh 11.14.
That is our last section. And that has
[1:33:13] to do with appeals. And really the only
change that's been made there. It is in
[1:33:18] subsections 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 is
that now the board of supervisors is the
[1:33:26] appeal board uh for the county. So,
those are the changes that have been
[1:33:31] made. Um, did add a spot to put in an
ordinance number at the top. That's a a
[1:33:36] technicality, but it's something we
usually have that I've left out of
[1:33:39] earlier drafts. And so, um, if there's
an area to be discussed, unless
[1:33:45] something new comes up, I I assume that
it would be the animal disposition
[1:33:50] review committee uh, under section
11.05. Oh, and by the way, we changed
[1:33:55] the title number from 19 to 11. that was
at the suggestion of the concern of who
[1:34:02] compiles our ordinances. So I had gone
after our last one. They wanted to use
[1:34:07] one of the reserve numbers. So
another technical change.
[1:34:16] I was going to say I know when an email
I'd sent it was really just my concern
[1:34:20] and and that's why I said I want
certainly others to weigh in but it was
[1:34:24] the fact that number one the Cedar Band
Humane Society is contracted by us for
[1:34:28] services and whether or not we are happy
with that or not happy with that or
[1:34:32] continued that service or not or whether
they needed to go out of business or
[1:34:37] something too that it's still that
relationship I guess because this is a
[1:34:41] county created ordinance. I I was just
looking out for that and and when you
[1:34:46] mentioned um conservation, I was pleased
that some like say with Mike and his
[1:34:51] background in history and that he would
be willing to sit on it, but I wasn't
[1:34:54] thinking about the fact that the chair
that would take the place of the chair,
[1:34:58] I was looking at more the fact that it
might take this fact the role of the
[1:35:01] Cedarband Humane Society and remove them
kind of from any conflict or anything
[1:35:07] that could come up too with animal.
>> Yeah. And if uh and that that could
[1:35:11] happen um that would leave two because
we'd no longer have the board chair
[1:35:15] designate on there. And
>> are we procluded from having a board
[1:35:20] members?
>> No. In my opinion, I don't have an issue
[1:35:23] with the chair serving on that initial
committee and then if there is an appeal
[1:35:28] coming to the full board. I don't
personally I don't have an issue with
[1:35:31] that. I don't know how the other
supervisors feel. I I can understand the
[1:35:34] concern of one
>> being on there, but at the same time, I
[1:35:38] don't think it's a problem either. I
think that you're you're looking at a a
[1:35:43] one board member versus a five member
full board considering it on appeal.
[1:35:50] » I think I think the concern was more
when we tossed around the idea of two
[1:35:54] board members being on there as we were
trying to fill out the committee. And so
[1:35:58] I'm supportive of having a board chair
for design conservation
[1:36:03] um and sheriff or designate. Um I think
that that takes care of it.
[1:36:08] » When when we say designate, does it have
to be a board member or
[1:36:13] as a could that be at the discretion of
the board in the negotiation with the
[1:36:19] animal service provider? Could that be a
design could that designate be for
[1:36:24] instance Cedar Band? Um, in my opinion,
it could because when you say the board
[1:36:28] chair or designate, that gives the board
chair the power to designate someone
[1:36:33] else.
>> Then we aren't requiring them to do it
[1:36:36] in this ordinance. But if they are
agreeable to it and we just feel like
[1:36:40] it's it's best to remove the board from
that, then there's
[1:36:43] » it could be them or anybody. It's just
it's just like not designating them as
[1:36:48] it I think is the only one. So then
we're committed to doing it. And I I
[1:36:52] know for example, in the case of Mike
Hendrickson,
[1:36:56] » um he would he's he's happy to have it
worded this way. He would probably
[1:37:00] designate someone else who was currently
in the uh in the active dealing with
[1:37:06] animals a little more than he is because
he has a a couple of uh of rangers who
[1:37:12] are dealing with pet issues pretty
frequently.
[1:37:18] And um should it maybe be clarified
um at least for for the board design
[1:37:24] that it's a board um board chair or
design as agreed to by the board of
[1:37:30] supervisors. Um just I don't foresee a
problem with our current makeup, but who
[1:37:35] knows what the board will be 10 years
from now, 20 years from now. Um and just
[1:37:42] to make sure there's not some funny
situation.
[1:37:46] I think that's just transparent anyway
bringing it before the board for the
[1:37:49] decision instead of just one person
making it anyway
[1:37:53] for me.
>> Yeah.
[1:37:55] » So a designate approved by a majority
>> of the board
[1:38:00] » of the board of supervisors.
>> Yep.
[1:38:05] » All right. Um, so as I understand it,
the kind of direction the board wants to
[1:38:11] take to approve a final version of this
would include the sheriff or sheriff's
[1:38:15] design,
the board chair or design approved by
[1:38:21] the board of supervisor
and the director of Blackout County
[1:38:26] Conservation or the conservation
director's designate. And then we would
[1:38:31] put a clause that would say if anyone
one is unable or unwilling to serve the
[1:38:36] board of supervisors shall by majority
vote designate um an alternative
[1:38:43] committee member in the event committee
needs to be convened.
[1:38:50] » We we tracking so far
>> we're tracking
[1:38:55] » among the many changes made. Thank you.
So, we also have as a later agenda item,
[1:39:02] I think it's the next one,
um the publication of notice of a
[1:39:07] hearing for this. I believe
that
[1:39:13] we could do we should probably get the
ordinance in final form and approved
[1:39:19] before we do this ideally. And so, I
think we should perhaps wait on that
[1:39:24] until next week. Um, technically you
could do it, we could change it, it
[1:39:29] would be in in time. Uh, but it just I I
think setting hearings should be after
[1:39:35] the board is satisfied that we have a
final version to vote on unless you want
[1:39:39] to vote on it with the changes that
we've just articulated. That would be
[1:39:42] the other
>> I'm ready to do that.
[1:39:44] » I'm fine to just
>> You're fine doing that bandaid off.
[1:39:46] » And we can do that.
>> No band-aid. We've just been working.
[1:39:51] » It it gets there's a fatigue effect
after a while on this. Well, we've made
[1:39:55] progress in just a few weeks, so it's
taken a while, but Yeah.
[1:39:59] » All right. Well, then I think that uh
when you
[1:40:02] » So, you want possible board action to be
action?
[1:40:05] » Yep.
>> On the on the previous item.
[1:40:08] » Yep. I think that uh item D would be
where you take the action
[1:40:13] » and specify when you when you read this
this motion that it incorporates the
[1:40:19] changes previously discussed in item C.
[1:40:24] and you
>> and I should have a draft out to you
[1:40:27] fairly soon on that. Hopefully either
yet today or tomorrow
[1:40:33] » famous last words until fire comes up.
>> I've so far kept up the last few times
[1:40:38] but
>> I didn't mean anything by that like you
[1:40:41] you've been great. So thank you.
>> Does that sound like the motion we want
[1:40:47] to go ahead with item D?
>> I'll make the motion.
[1:40:50] » What's your motion?
>> Item D. And what was that language you
[1:40:54] wanted us to add, Mike, to make?
>> Okay. So, as I understand it, the motion
[1:40:58] is to direct the county auditor to
advertise for a public hearing to be
[1:41:02] held at 9:05 a.m. on Tuesday, September
29, 2026 in boardroom 2011 of the
[1:41:09] Blackhawk County Courthouse, 316 Eth
Street, Waterlue, Iowa, on the proposed
[1:41:16] animal control ordinance number 149.
with the changes discussed under item C
[1:41:23] in today's meeting. Uh that would
provide for the supervision and control
[1:41:28] of animals within Blackhawk County so
that animals may be kept in a manner
[1:41:32] consistent with public health, public
safety, property rights, animal welfare,
[1:41:39] and applicable state law.
>> Second.
[1:41:42] » Think this is a motion. Do we want a
resolution?
[1:41:46] » No. We're just advertising. This is this
is just
[1:41:50] » All in favor say I.
>> I
[1:41:53] » oppose. Same sign. The motion carries.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Mike. It was a lot
[1:41:59] of work and a lot of effort in all the
changes as well as the revisions and
[1:42:04] things to come. Item E, discussion
possible board action on temporary
[1:42:08] security services at Pinerest.
[1:42:13] » Good morning board. Jim Bor giving
facilities director. Um as we're nearing
[1:42:18] the uh completion of the uh new clinic
entryway,
[1:42:23] um we uh our next steps are to uh move
forward with the other two entryways on
[1:42:28] the south side of that facility. Um, and
so what that means is we'll have to uh
[1:42:36] come up with a plan to direct uh the
general public um through the new uh
[1:42:42] clinic doorways and uh direct them uh
through uh into the uh lobby area. And
[1:42:49] so what we're asking for is during this
time is to allow us to uh hire a uh
[1:42:56] security service uh one person that
would be at the entryway of that clinic
[1:43:01] area um serving nothing more than uh
direction as far as uh for the general
[1:43:08] public uh anybody visiting that
building. Um also uh making sure that uh
[1:43:14] people are not uh uh going outside of
the uh general path to the lobby. Um the
[1:43:22] health department, they do have some of
their uh
[1:43:26] uh clinic space. Uh they do have some
equipment in there. They have
[1:43:30] refrigerators in there with vaccines. So
although those doors are going to be
[1:43:35] locked, uh we still feel it's necessary
uh to have somebody there to have eyes
[1:43:41] on that uh to make sure people are going
where they're supposed to be going. Um
[1:43:46] and so we're the goal is uh to get these
other two entryways completed within 6
[1:43:52] weeks. Um we're asking for uh security
services not to exceed nine uh just to
[1:43:58] cover ourselves uh just in case it uh
does go over that 6 weeks so we don't
[1:44:03] have to come back to the board and ask
for an additional uh time. Um so the
[1:44:08] amount uh that we estimated for those uh
um 9 weeks is $11,520.
[1:44:16] Uh that is $32 an hour for the security
services. Um, we did look at uh
[1:44:22] potentially other options uh doing this
in-house. It's just uh you know most
[1:44:28] departments are running fairly lean. Our
department being one of them. We just
[1:44:32] don't have the resources to set somebody
up there for uh 8 to nine hours a day.
[1:44:37] So, um and I believe the health
department's probably in the same
[1:44:40] situation. So uh if you are in agreement
um we will go ahead and make those
[1:44:46] arrangements with permar and uh get that
set up with them.
[1:44:52] » Do you have a separate contract already
made up for this then?
[1:44:55] » Uh they did provide us a uh document um
for the chair to sign.
[1:45:01] » So if we approve this is we got to
approve that contract separately or will
[1:45:04] this
>> uh
[1:45:07] let me let me check on that. I don't
have that in front of me. I need to see
[1:45:11] what that verbiage says actually if it's
actual contract or if it's agreement. Uh
[1:45:16] but uh we could put in the in the
verbiage here um to sign
[1:45:23] uh you know to allow the chair to sign
whether that's an agreement or a
[1:45:27] contract. Then I wouldn't have to come
back again for a second time.
[1:45:31] » Meaning you could put in contingent. You
could do the approval contingent on
[1:45:35] whatever you
>> Yeah. something along those lines just
[1:45:38] to
>> if there's some way you'd rather have
[1:45:40] it.
>> So, this is they're not going to do
[1:45:43] screenings or anything along those
lines. This is just sort of directional
[1:45:47] » traffic control. Yep. A little bit of
security again. Uh making sure that uh
[1:45:53] you know they're not wandering off into
other hallways within that clinic space.
[1:45:58] Uh but really just traffic control into
the main lobby.
[1:46:04] » Be cheaper. Yeah, that seems like a hell
of a lot of money. $11,000 for signs.
[1:46:09] » Yeah, there's
>> Yeah, there is a uh signs.
[1:46:13] » I think there could create some
confusion when you go in through that
[1:46:16] just the way that clinic is designed.
There is a stairwell also um right
[1:46:21] there. Um even though those doors going
into uh each wing are locked. Uh you
[1:46:30] know, we should be okay there. But I
think for the sake of uh making sure
[1:46:35] that uh people know where to go once
they get in there um and keep uh those
[1:46:40] areas those clinic spaces safe.
[1:46:46] » Could we
>> we could try we could try signs for a
[1:46:49] week or so and see how that goes. I mean
I'd be definitely open to something like
[1:46:54] that.
>> We looked at other employment services
[1:46:56] outside of Perar. I mean again $32 an
hour is is that's good. That's good
[1:47:01] money for
>> Yeah.
[1:47:03] » nine weeks though.
>> Yeah, we can search other uh we just
[1:47:07] went with Perark because that's who we
have our existing contract through.
[1:47:12] » I have an idea.
>> Could we use one of the health
[1:47:16] department interns?
>> We could reach out to them. I'm assuming
[1:47:20] that each one of their staff has, you
know, their normal duties to do. But
[1:47:25] » um
>> I'm just being facitious.
[1:47:28] I I would maybe we table this till next
Tuesday. I'd like to go over there today
[1:47:33] after the meeting.
>> Okay.
[1:47:34] » Walk through, see it for myself
>> and and kind of get a feel for what the
[1:47:39] situation
>> and I can definitely go with you if you
[1:47:42] » I mean and I don't mean to diminish it,
but if the if the scope of the service
[1:47:45] was going to be more screening and that
sort of thing, I could understand the
[1:47:49] permar.
>> Yeah. My my concern is just we're we're
[1:47:53] we're basically paying $32 for a greeter
is what it sounds like.
[1:47:58] » And that that seems
>> I don't know.
[1:48:02] » Yeah.
>> And that security position's come up
[1:48:04] several times.
>> Yeah. And and and screening Yeah. for
[1:48:07] that facility. If we were going to do a
true screening, then obviously we would
[1:48:11] have to follow the other guidelines that
we need to that are
[1:48:15] » required here at the courthouse.
>> So yeah.
[1:48:18] » Yeah. I' I'd like to see what one of the
temp agencies could maybe offer
[1:48:24] um instead cuz of course that $32 an
hour um not very much of that is
[1:48:29] actually going to the to the guard um
right
[1:48:33] » that's mostly going to per I'd like to
see us try to utilize a a temp agency
[1:48:39] that's taken less of the cut
[1:48:45] » something to explore and come back to
next week
[1:48:47] » yep please.
>> Yeah. Um, like I said, we're hoping to
[1:48:51] have that uh clinic entryway completed
by this Friday. So, uh, as they move on
[1:48:57] to the next ones, we'll make sure to get
this back in front of the board before
[1:49:01] we actually close that down. So, all
right. Thank you.
[1:49:09] » Item F, discussion, tax abatement
procedure and request.
[1:49:13] » Do we anticipate this being more than 15
minutes? Otherwise,
[1:49:16] » what do we think? Maybe maybe I was
going to say
[1:49:18] » I can give you the overview real quick
and then it's going to depend on the the
[1:49:23] uh discussion that uh that ensues.
>> Well, and I I will too kind of overview
[1:49:29] of your overview coming what's coming up
and why this is on for an agenda item. I
[1:49:33] was going to say we have had tax
abatement requests I mean forever um way
[1:49:38] before me but I said they've always been
done and and they've typically always
[1:49:41] been from a church or um a nonprofit and
there have been a variety of reasons.
[1:49:47] Sometimes it was all that February 1st
timeline. Some met it, some had missed
[1:49:53] it, some had forgotten just a whole host
of things um that um they'd come to us
[1:49:59] for requests. And the board always as TJ
is always good to point out to them as I
[1:50:04] think others have that it's kind of a
board responsibility that they make the
[1:50:07] request they can or they don't whether
they have a recommendation or not where
[1:50:12] the project is that we're kind of the
final step and they can make that
[1:50:15] request. So they always do and but this
year there's been an unusual amount and
[1:50:21] number of unusual requests I should say.
Um there were um just that come to mind
[1:50:28] I know there was one from a church um
where the seller had paid the taxes but
[1:50:33] the church wanted to go back and have
receive an abatement um for the taxes
[1:50:38] because they were a church and so and
there was also a business that had
[1:50:43] taxable properties that had requested
some properties um that receive
[1:50:47] abatement for that. And then um in the
last few weeks we did have um someone
[1:50:52] that had had destruction of property or
they felt their property had been
[1:50:55] destroyed and there was a tax abatement
request they wanted to come to us that
[1:50:59] they did too. So, um, I have learned so
much and I've kept going back to, like I
[1:51:05] said, TJ and Linda and and Tim and Mike
and we had to always go back to others
[1:51:10] and kind of find out what was legal, but
what was kind of going on and why some
[1:51:14] of these requests were, yes, the board
could override some of that, but
[1:51:19] understanding all the the things that
had been done or needed to be done or
[1:51:23] clarified before you actually made that
sometimes were not something that had
[1:51:27] been done all the previous years I'd
been there because they were pretty
[1:51:31] standard in the types of requests and
these all seem so different that it was
[1:51:35] like okay what am I missing because I
wanted to learn what it was so it was
[1:51:38] kind of I thought very helpful
information Mike's kind of been involved
[1:51:42] in this last one was just kind of from
another again legal standpoint but Tim
[1:51:46] and TJ and Linda work with this all the
time and I thought that's kind of the
[1:51:52] key people that have just been so
helpful to learn more know more and not
[1:51:55] just think that oh yeah take it put it
on the board agenda and we get to say So
[1:51:59] that's what led me to ask for this for I
thought it would be beneficial for all
[1:52:03] of us and it always has been for me. So
it's up to you and your questions or
[1:52:08] anything too but Mike kind of and the
staff
[1:52:10] » so I want great
>> I want to know supervisor hall when do
[1:52:14] you have to be done here?
>> I just need to use the restroom.
[1:52:16] » You want to go
[1:52:20] » well maybe we uh maybe we take care of
that now and then started. Yeah.
[1:52:26] » Not trying to make it longer but Just
trying to be kind. But yeah,
[1:52:37] » I hope I didn't just elongate this.
[1:52:43] » Hands are freezing.
>> See, that's what Who was it said they
[1:52:47] wanted to keep it this way? Tim, I
think.
[1:52:48] » Yeah.
>> Said, "I wish my office was the same."
[1:52:50] » You got a jacket on you. Yeah, that's
>> sleeve. It is cool. My hands are cool.
[1:52:57] Yeah, Julie fingers are numb. Actually,
>> I was going to say I wonder if you had
[1:53:03] any security questions like for
Washington.
[1:53:06] » Well, I'm curious. I'm curious.
[1:53:12] » Yeah.
[1:53:15] » Before Decat was dissolved, that's where
their meetings were.
[1:53:19] » Oh, were they?
>> Up on the second, third floor. And
[1:53:25] » so,
>> thanks very much for coming today.
[1:53:27] » Congratulations, Jim.
[1:53:31] » It was kind of I always question the
purpose of the guard out there. didn't
[1:53:36] seem to have any
real
[1:53:47] » obvious
[1:53:58] construction became like okay there's
[1:54:04] » always been
I'll be I'll let you guys have thoughts.
[1:54:09] Let me know. I'll be out there.
>> Well, yeah.
[1:54:23] » All right. Are we are we back in
session?
[1:54:26] » I can relate.
>> We are.
[1:54:27] » All right.
>> Thank you. Uh so real quick I'm going to
[1:54:31] give a little overview and then um and
then the the various departments that
[1:54:35] are involved. Uh they're represented
here uh for you know questions that
[1:54:41] involve their department.
First of all key distinction is
[1:54:45] suspension versus abatement. Um
suspension means you're putting off the
[1:54:50] collection of property taxes. Uh
therefore there's not going to be any
[1:54:55] enforcement of them for a period of
time. But taxes do continue to acrue for
[1:55:00] payment at a later time. I think a
common instance is that that payment
[1:55:05] occurs when the property is sold.
Uh another key principle here is that
[1:55:12] abatement requires statutory
authorization. So the board does not
[1:55:17] have general equitable discretion to
grant this grant abatement. uh the code
[1:55:24] must specifically
uh authorize it and we're going to talk
[1:55:28] about those areas that are authorized.
So most of this is go is is governed by
[1:55:33] Iowa code chapter 445 but there are a
number of provisions that affect this in
[1:55:38] other chapters including chapter uh 331,
chapter 427 and chapter 446.
[1:55:46] So specific grounds uh first of all
there is uh a ground where we can
[1:55:55] suspend taxes again distinction here
uh under uh for hardship or inability uh
[1:56:03] to pay hardship or inability to
contribute to the public revenue and
[1:56:06] that is under uh sections 427 and8 and
427.10.
[1:56:14] So the uh in those situations, a
taxpayer needs to file a petition with
[1:56:19] the treasurer and most of this requires
a petition to be filed with the
[1:56:23] treasurer uh by March 1. Uh petition
must be sworn by the taxpayer. So there
[1:56:30] must be a swearing statement within it
for it to be valid. The board then has
[1:56:36] discretion to suspend taxes. Again, that
doesn't mean abate, but suspend taxes.
[1:56:43] So taxes would continue to acrue uh for
payment at a later time. We see that
[1:56:48] quite frequently.
However, and this is important, the
[1:56:53] board may
the board has discretion to abate
[1:57:00] previously suspended taxes in the event
that payment appears that it's never
[1:57:05] going to happen. I guess that the board
under 427.10
[1:57:10] 10 has the discretion to abate
previously suspended taxes. Now, there's
[1:57:15] not a set time frame as to when that
happens after that, and we can dig in
[1:57:20] further on that, but as an overview,
427.10
[1:57:24] gives the board authority to abate
previously suspended taxes.
[1:57:30] Uh, next ground, casualty loss. All
right, this is one we've dealt with
[1:57:35] recently, uh, through a request. Um, it
didn't come as a matter of public
[1:57:41] record. I don't believe an agenda item
was created for this, but this is under
[1:57:46] uh section 445.62
of the code of Iowa. Board has the
[1:57:50] authority to abate or refund in whole or
part taxes of any person whose
[1:57:58] buildings, crop, stock, or other
property has been destroyed by fire,
[1:58:03] tornado, or other unavoidable casualty.
uh this abatement or refund is allowed
[1:58:11] only to the extent that the destruction
wasn't covered by insurance.
[1:58:17] Now uh as the board's aware, I've
recently researched this particular
[1:58:22] ground. Uh case law is not 100% clear on
it. However,
[1:58:28] um the wording of the statute uh
together with the other authority that I
[1:58:32] found suggests that destruction does not
mean simply damage or repable damage. Uh
[1:58:39] people generally have the obligation to
repair damage to their to their
[1:58:44] property. Uh destruction means actual
destruction of property. They don't
[1:58:50] define that term in the code but that
term has
[1:58:55] kind of understood definitions and it
goes beyond
[1:58:59] um beyond something for which repairs
are made.
[1:59:03] uh even if less than full destruction
were to be accepted for purposes of
[1:59:08] abatement and that's something I don't
advise the board uh consider because I
[1:59:15] think it could set a dangerous precedent
uh at the county level but if it less
[1:59:21] than full destruction were accepted the
abatement wouldn't be measured by the
[1:59:27] amount of destruction
uh but rather it would be measured in
[1:59:32] how much taxes you know value would go
down. So how much taxes would be reduced
[1:59:38] due to the dei the dimmonition in value
of the property. All right in the case
[1:59:43] of uh in the case of less than full
destruction
[1:59:48] um being accepted for purposes of
abatement.
[1:59:52] Uh, next ground uh when the county holds
a tax sale certificate or the parcel is
[2:00:00] unsold at tax sale. So now the county
purchases at tax sale and I don't
[2:00:06] believe we currently do this. I don't
believe this has happened in the time
[2:00:09] I've worked here, but I know it's
legally permissible.
[2:00:14] uh board of supervisors can compromise
those taxes by written agreement or
[2:00:19] abate by resolution the tax interest
fees or costs.
[2:00:24] Uh if a parcel is offered at tax sale
but not sold, the county can compromise
[2:00:30] by written agreement or abatement by
resolution
[2:00:34] uh the tax interest, fees or costs. I
believe we have done some of that where
[2:00:38] we have a property sitting uh without
standing taxes and we enter into an
[2:00:43] agreement so that it can be acquired and
uh and hopefully put to productive use.
[2:00:49] Uh this agreement must be filed with the
treasurer. A next ground for abatement
[2:00:55] late acquired exempt property. Now
there's a deadline for someone to
[2:01:02] petition for exemption and that is
February 1 of that you know that
[2:01:08] calendar year that tax year.
Um, if someone buys, say somebody buys a
[2:01:14] church, uh, but they did so after the
February 1 deadline and there's still
[2:01:19] taxes owing on it, um, they can then
petition
[2:01:25] to have that property be declared exempt
and to have that go back as though they
[2:01:33] were able to timely file a uh, petition
for
[2:01:38] uh, the exemption. So this is only good
and there's there's a very tenuous
[2:01:44] exception you can find under case law.
We've dealt with that I believe several
[2:01:48] years ago. But technically you're not
supposed to do this unless they could
[2:01:55] not meet the February 1 deadline. So if
they got that property before that, they
[2:02:00] need to meet that February 1 deadline.
And then of course the property is
[2:02:05] something that would have been exempt
under Iowa code 427.1.
[2:02:12] Um another uh area where the board has
discretion or authority to abate is
[2:02:20] clerical error. This is under 331.301
subsection 14. So it's under county home
[2:02:27] rule. Um this is when it's just as it
sounds. It's when there's a clerical
[2:02:33] error that resulted in assessment of uh
penalty, interest, cost, taxes that
[2:02:39] shouldn't have been. Then we we
typically would wave all of that in that
[2:02:44] circumstance.
Um in fact there's a uh
[2:02:49] you'll uh you'll find later there's a
mandatory
[2:02:54] um abatement in cases where there is uh
where there's an erroneous or illegally
[2:03:00] paid tax and I'll get to that in a
second. So now I'm moving on to another
[2:03:04] category of abatement and this is where
the board must abate. All right. Uh
[2:03:09] first of all and some of these by the
way are are are sort of head scratchers.
[2:03:13] We'll get into that in a second here.
Um, number one, uncollectable taxes
[2:03:20] returned by outofcount treasurer. So
when a treasurer receiving an abstract
[2:03:27] endorses it uncollectible
and administratively
[2:03:32] impractical to collect the tax, the
board of supervisors
[2:03:37] shall compromise or bait the tax
interest and cost under Iowa code
[2:03:45] section 445.56.
[2:03:49] Um, next one, impractical
when when it is impractical to collect
[2:03:55] taxes after tax sale and personal
judgment remedies. So, if the treasurer
[2:04:01] determines that it is impractical to
pursue collection of the total amount
[2:04:07] due through the tax sale and through
personal judgment remedies. And by the
[2:04:13] way, personal judgment means that it is
that one of the remedies that is
[2:04:18] permitted to the treasurer is to file
suit against the taxpayer to try to
[2:04:24] collect through a personal judgment
against that person. We have done this
[2:04:30] one time uh since I've been employed by
the county. Uh we had to serve somebody
[2:04:35] down in Florida for it, but then it was
later determined that it would be
[2:04:38] uncollectible. and the treasurer who was
then Rita Schmidt determined that we
[2:04:43] would not persist in in trying to
prosecute the suit. So, we dismissed the
[2:04:48] suit in that instance.
Uh but anyway, if the treasur determines
[2:04:52] that it's impractical to pursue
collection of a total amount due through
[2:04:56] tax sale and personal judgment remedies,
the treasurer shall make a written
[2:05:01] recommendation to the board of
supervisors to abate the amount due and
[2:05:06] the board of supervisors shall abate by
resolution the amount due and direct the
[2:05:12] treasurer to strike the amount due from
the county system. I believe we've seen
[2:05:16] this on occasion on recommendation by
the treasurer.
[2:05:21] Um, next one where we must debate are
taxes owed on state or political
[2:05:29] subdivision property. All right. So
445.63
[2:05:34] 63 uh is where we find this uh this
provision and that is when taxes are
[2:05:41] owing against a parcel owned or claimed
by the state or a city or county. So any
[2:05:48] political subdivision
uh the taxes preeded their ownership.
[2:05:54] The treasurer shall give notice to the
appropriate governing body which and
[2:05:59] this is the part that's kind of the head
scratcher which shall pay the amount
[2:06:03] due. But if they don't pay then we must
abate. So we have to give notice to the
[2:06:09] government that they need to pay the
taxes outstanding. But when they don't
[2:06:13] pay it on time then we have to abate
them. Um and so then there's a separate
[2:06:21] section 446.7
sub2 that's very similar municipal
[2:06:26] political subdivision parcels at tax
sale.
[2:06:31] Uh so when taxes are owing against
parcels owned or claimed by a municipal
[2:06:36] or political subdivision of the state of
Iowa or parcels of the state or its
[2:06:42] agencies, the treasurer shall give
notice to the appropriate governing body
[2:06:46] of whichever government owns it claiming
ownership anyway that owns it uh that
[2:06:54] they owe it and the amount due. And then
if they fail to pay the amount due, the
[2:06:59] board of supervisors shall abate. Um I
don't believe I've seen either of these
[2:07:04] circumstances arise in my time here.
Um finally, and this was the one I
[2:07:10] mentioned earlier,
uh refund
[2:07:14] of erroneously or illegally paid tax. So
the board of supervisors shall uh direct
[2:07:22] county treasurer to refund any uh to any
taxpayer any tax or portion of tax to
[2:07:29] have been found erroneously or illegally
paid together with all interest fees and
[2:07:34] costs actually paid.
Um, now it is it typically is not to be
[2:07:40] ordered
uh unless a claim for refund is
[2:07:44] presented to the board within 2 years of
the date the tax is due. There's kind of
[2:07:49] a statute of limitations on this one.
Um, or if it is appealed to the board of
[2:07:54] review, the property assessment appeal
board uh, director revenue or district
[2:08:00] court within two years of the final
decision. So if they appeal it to one of
[2:08:04] the tax assessment appeal through the
tax assessment appeal routes and that's
[2:08:09] within two two years prior then they are
effectively tolling the statute of
[2:08:14] limitations so they're still on time. Um
next category and I promise we're almost
[2:08:20] done here.
>> I'm learning more today and more than
[2:08:22] I've ever heard.
>> I tell you and I and one of these
[2:08:25] already gave me a question mark that I
have to go back and research. It's funny
[2:08:29] how that works though.
specific circumstances where the board
[2:08:34] cannot abate. And that doesn't mean
they're the only ones, but these are
[2:08:38] ones that that are important to keep in
mind. Number one, as I already
[2:08:42] mentioned, no general equitable
authority. So Iowa courts have actually
[2:08:48] confirmed this over the years that
there's not a general
[2:08:54] uh equitable authority by either a court
or the board of supervisors to
[2:09:00] compromise or abate taxes just on
general equitable grounds. So again, we
[2:09:05] have to have a statutory ground. Each
time one of these comes before the
[2:09:09] board, we have to find that statutory
ground.
[2:09:13] Um the uh
[2:09:18] with regard to uh a circumstance that
could arise, I've never seen this arise
[2:09:24] here. The board of supervisors could be
put into a position where they may act
[2:09:30] as a board of equalization. And if that
were to happen, equalization duties are
[2:09:35] limited to equalizing the value of the
property assessed by the property
[2:09:40] officer. Again, I don't see that ever
happening. We've had equalization
[2:09:44] orders. Those have been addressed by the
assessor. They happen. They have never
[2:09:49] come before the board. And I'm not sure
that there's really a circumstance where
[2:09:54] the board would serve in this capacity
anymore, but it does technically still
[2:09:58] exist on the books. Um,
[2:10:03] next one. No authority to abate another
taxing body's levy. It's if it's a
[2:10:09] different government's taxes, our board
can't abate them. That's the bottom
[2:10:12] line. Um
and then uh
[2:10:19] other than that, you know, you just look
to the statute for your grounds to
[2:10:23] abate. But if you don't have if you
don't have statutory grounds,
[2:10:28] um if the taxes,
you don't have general, you you can't
[2:10:32] just do it based on equity. Uh so you
got to have specific grounds in order to
[2:10:36] abate. Now,
if
[2:10:41] there are, it's important to understand
the procedure here as well, and I think
[2:10:45] this generally happens, but petitions
are to be filed with the treasurer by
[2:10:48] March 1 in the event that there's going
to be a discretionary abatement.
[2:10:55] Um, and that's under 427.8 or 427.10.
Those are the hardship abatements.
[2:11:01] Um
the uh abatements under 44516
[2:11:09] which are the where it's impractical to
collect after tax sale and personal
[2:11:16] judgment remedies have been exhausted or
or found impractical.
[2:11:21] Um that you know must be accompanied by
a resolution of the board and we've had
[2:11:26] that come before us before.
Uh mandatory abatements require written
[2:11:32] recommendation from the treasurer
uh before the board acts by resolution.
[2:11:39] And uh any suspended taxes or abatements
the county treasurer shall remain within
[2:11:45] the county system an official record or
the official record of those
[2:11:49] determinations and what was decided.
[2:11:55] Um moving right along.
If in the event by the way that uh any
[2:12:01] taxes are abated for for and
recommendation of the treasurer, they
[2:12:06] shall be deemed fully satisfied and
cancelled and the records need to
[2:12:10] reflect that. Now, for refunds of
erroneously or illegally paid taxes, a
[2:12:15] claim must be presented to the board
again within two years after the date
[2:12:19] tax is due or within two years of the
final decision if the matter was
[2:12:25] appealed. So if it goes down one of
those assessment appeals. All right. So
[2:12:29] the the bottom line here and the one
thing that the board needs to remember
[2:12:34] on all of this is that when an abatement
and and the board's always done a good
[2:12:39] job of this in my opinion at least since
I've been here has when a request for
[2:12:44] abatement comes to the board don't ever
suggest to a taxpayer if you're the one
[2:12:50] talking to them that you know oh yeah
you know it sounds like you've got a
[2:12:53] good case or it sounds like no we've got
to we have to find our specific statuto
[2:12:59] ground in order to go through with that
or we don't have the authority to abate
[2:13:04] and that's the important thing to
remember. All right.
[2:13:08] Um so I think that's uh my part. If you
have any questions for me right now, I
[2:13:13] will do my best to either record them
and come back later or to uh try to
[2:13:18] explain what my thoughts are.
>> Well, I know that's where like in this
[2:13:22] last incident where we were asked that
and it sounded like something
[2:13:25] legitimate. I think the person said
they'd even seen the form on other
[2:13:30] county sites or whatever that they could
use and they were just looking for
[2:13:33] something similar on our website. And
so, um, then I reached out to, like I
[2:13:40] said, I mentioned in the email, I think,
to all of us that I was going to re we
[2:13:43] had to reach out to different department
heads because that would be the
[2:13:45] treasurer that'd be involved and be the
assessor that'd be involved. Sometimes
[2:13:49] it's Tim that's also involved, but we
also needed the legal counsel from Mike
[2:13:54] before we just put something like that
on the agenda and approve it. And then
[2:13:57] we started running into the different
aspects of it which were totally unknown
[2:14:01] to me, I guess, of how it could be done
or how it was done. So
[2:14:08] that's the part I think that's difficult
to know to work through or how or even
[2:14:11] in the case of the church where um they
thought they legitimately had a com not
[2:14:17] a complaint but a reason to do the
abatement and typically we'd say yes you
[2:14:20] did you didn't you got the property is
at this date you know and that type of
[2:14:24] thing so you probably would but then
Linda suggested I can't remember what
[2:14:28] the document was called um
>> sales agreement
[2:14:31] » like a what was it
>> a closing statementing the closing
[2:14:34] statement
>> and then when we got that and everybody
[2:14:37] took a look at that then it was then you
actually saw that that had been paid by
[2:14:42] the seller. So while it would have been
something that you might have put on and
[2:14:46] listening to the not that the church in
any way tried to mislead us but they
[2:14:51] felt they were entitled to that because
they were a church and they wanted us to
[2:14:55] put it on and were very frustrated and
kept saying you know hey let's do this
[2:14:58] why aren't you doing this and um didn't
didn't maybe understand either. So it
[2:15:04] was great to have all those individuals
have that expertise. So I guess if
[2:15:07] anything it's kind of reaching out to
make sure all of them including just the
[2:15:12] legal aspect but of all the different
aspects of it. And I know TJ even when
[2:15:16] you mentioned this last one about the
property being destroyed um and what is
[2:15:21] destroyed I thought you had certain
things um that if you wouldn't mind like
[2:15:26] I said that was what constitutes
destroyed or not or to what level and it
[2:15:30] isn't just
>> having damaged roofs and things like
[2:15:33] that. uh TJ Koixfeld assessor. Um we do
look we look at properties every year
[2:15:39] that you know not we're not seeing every
single property every single year but we
[2:15:42] are reviewing properties and when he
mentioned that his property was
[2:15:44] destroyed and unmarketable um we
instantly tag it and then we go out and
[2:15:48] we take a look at it so we can verify if
it truly is unusable we'll assess we'll
[2:15:53] we'll assess that differently if that's
the case of January 1st. So we we assess
[2:15:57] as of January 1st each year. So, if they
fix it throughout the year, you won't
[2:16:01] see any kind of relief at all. Um, just
because it's it was if it was damaged in
[2:16:06] let's just say July or April or May or
June somewhere, whatever that hail was.
[2:16:10] Um, they fix everything by January 1,
then it never really happened in in
[2:16:16] valuation ice because we value January
1st. So, that's the important thing to
[2:16:20] remember. And the taxes that are
currently out there now are for 2025.
[2:16:24] So, any kind of abatement would have
been for something that was prior to any
[2:16:27] damage at all anyway. uh the taxes that
will be coming out after this coming in
[2:16:31] January will be um for the our 2027 year
be for uh 28 2028 in the fall. So how
[2:16:39] how the assessment process will will
keep up with this as it's moving along.
[2:16:43] Now this is where it comes down to
cosmetic versus not hail damage on a on
[2:16:48] a commercial building. You know for our
purposes I don't know if it would affect
[2:16:52] assess value much. Uh we don't we we
haven't had any any kind of input or any
[2:16:58] kind of appraisal work or anything to
say due to hail damage it's worth 5% 10%
[2:17:01] less. I don't have a clue. Um you know
it there's there's no market on that
[2:17:06] right now. We haven't had any
catastrophic hail like this to see hey
[2:17:10] this house has this house had vinyl
sighting and it's got a bunch of dimples
[2:17:13] all over the side of it. What does that
mean? I I don't know. You know we'll see
[2:17:17] down the road if that really truly
matters or not. Um, but yeah, in this
[2:17:20] case here, I can't say that it wouldn't
affect market value, but I don't know
[2:17:27] how much or or anything about that.
There's been nothing submitted. I'll say
[2:17:30] that. So, other than just, you know,
this this should affect market value.
[2:17:34] That's all we've heard. We do have it
flagged at his other parcel. Um, we do
[2:17:38] have it flagged to come take a look at.
I believe they've been in contact with
[2:17:40] them. So, but that's the process on the
values. And so, and that happens with
[2:17:46] floods, um, fires, they're all treated
the same way. If you have a firehouse,
[2:17:51] you know, you're going to get a tax bill
still because where everything's 18
[2:17:54] months in the rears. So, to bait
something like that would be basically
[2:17:59] getting rid of taxes that's prior to
anything that's actually happened.
[2:18:02] » But TJ, do you guys ask if any of the
damage is covered by insurance and being
[2:18:08] repaired?
>> No. No. For us, valuation wise, we're
[2:18:11] just January 1st looking at evaluation.
That's all we're doing. We're not
[2:18:15] » Well, and in fairness to get to your
question, I I want to make sure you
[2:18:19] understand this.
>> He's he's looking at value, the board
[2:18:22] would consider abatement. So, the board
would be concerned about the insurance.
[2:18:26] » But if if he's getting called out there
because of damage,
[2:18:29] » yeah.
>> Is it going to be repaired after you've
[2:18:31] been there?
>> Yeah. Well, that's the thing. We'll keep
[2:18:33] up with that. But we're valuing as of
January 1st, too. So, you know, it may
[2:18:38] be we go out to a house that had um you
know, say had fire damage to it. we see
[2:18:42] it in May, we're not going to make that
final decision till December, January,
[2:18:46] sometimes even February. So, hey, were
you done by January 1. And so, you know,
[2:18:51] and and and that happens quite a bit
where you will see fire damage and the
[2:18:55] house is repaired and they never saw a
decrease in their tax bill because it
[2:18:58] was completed by January 1st. So, in
that situation, we wouldn't just say,
[2:19:01] "Hey, here's, you know, x amount of
dollars that your house or your your
[2:19:05] building is worth less now." And then we
uh we would still want to know as of
[2:19:10] January 1, where's it actually sitting
at, you know, has it been repaired or
[2:19:14] not? We Yeah, we won't just ignore it, I
guess. Yeah, we we chase them.
[2:19:18] » Yep.
>> Let me ask this question. This is
[2:19:21] because this is how you guys always have
helped me. Um when we get requests
[2:19:25] because many times they come from people
that have already worked with you and
[2:19:28] missed the timeline and so you really
update us and tell us this is going to
[2:19:31] be the case or you know, we've already
worked with these folks. But in um like
[2:19:35] when someone just reaches out to us and
thinks like we'd like to request tax
[2:19:38] abatement because we think we have this
reason or whatever should we refer them
[2:19:42] to you to start and then maybe after
that conversation would they be best to
[2:19:47] help all the supervisors that
understanding I'm just looking at ways
[2:19:50] to help everybody I guess thinking that
it's difficult to be put in that
[2:19:54] position and we don't understand any of
that and we don't work with any of that
[2:19:58] yet we're the ones that are able to do
the abatements and give the approval and
[2:20:02] it sounds like you say when they talk to
you, it sounds like a case that maybe
[2:20:06] does make sense or something and then it
isn't
[2:20:09] » right. So then
>> yeah, it happens where you know they
[2:20:11] don't we we do our best to contact if we
know if we can tell that they're going
[2:20:15] to they're probably going to be exempt a
church selling to a church or you know a
[2:20:19] nonprofit selling to a nonprofit. Some
nonprofits we're not aware of. They, you
[2:20:23] know, we don't know. So we but we're
contacting who we can to say, "Hey, make
[2:20:26] sure you sign up if you are going to be
nonprofit." So hopefully it avoids this
[2:20:30] kind of issue with them just simply
forgetting. Um because a lot of people
[2:20:34] don't a lot of nonprofits don't know
what they have to actually file to be
[2:20:37] exempt. You don't just you're not
automatic. Churches aren't just
[2:20:40] automatic. So when they do when they do
get um a tax bill, that's when you
[2:20:45] usually see it because we don't pay
taxes and here it comes. Yeah. You can
[2:20:48] forward on to us. I work with Tim and
the auditor's office and Linda and
[2:20:52] treasur's office and you know I can tell
them on our part here's what we found.
[2:20:56] They didn't sign up by February 1
deadline. they probably would have
[2:20:58] qualified if they would have and then
you kind of go from there on how much it
[2:21:02] would have been looking at closing
statements and all that kind of stuff.
[2:21:04] » Or does it make sense to send an email
to you, I guess, and copy the others
[2:21:07] since
>> Oh, I would send to everybody. Sure.
[2:21:10] » Yeah, I'd send to everybody because
we're all going to be involved with it.
[2:21:12] » That's what I do.
>> Yeah, we all have our own little part in
[2:21:15] every single one of these. So, yeah, it'
be no problem.
[2:21:17] » Well, we've had in the last couple of
years to a church that did um purchased
[2:21:21] a building or a building. There was a
business that purchased it and thought
[2:21:24] they were a church and thought they were
exempt and they didn't pay the tax bill
[2:21:27] and it had come twice
>> and they wanted us to evade it and they
[2:21:32] thought they were exempt.
>> Yeah.
[2:21:34] » Yeah.
>> Yeah. There's there's there's all types
[2:21:36] of different scenarios out there and so
we just we just uh try to just sum up
[2:21:41] here's the steps of what took place and
um you know go from there. Obviously
[2:21:46] it's your final call. We just can just
get
[2:21:48] » all the information we need to still we
can make the
[2:21:51] » Yeah, you'll make the final call. Well,
we're just kind of just guiding you on
[2:21:54] here's what happened and you know this
what this is the the process and then
[2:21:59] Mike can weigh in on the code portion.
>> I think I mean in a lot of these cases
[2:22:06] I mean some I would I would think that
some of the owners would be falling on
[2:22:10] either the real estate agents or the um
real estate um attorneys that are often
[2:22:18] times being paid a hefty amount in some
cases. You know, I know I bought my
[2:22:22] house, they had to do very little. I
found the house myself.
[2:22:26] » Um,
>> and so I I I wonder if if the county I
[2:22:32] don't know if this is your suggestion,
Mike, that we set out some more clear
[2:22:37] parameters within what's allowed in the
state law of what Blackhawk County is
[2:22:42] going to be sticking to. And maybe that
would make it more clear to folks like,
[2:22:46] hey, at closing, this is something that
you need to be aware of. and and check
[2:22:51] those boxes.
>> I would uh this is uh kind of out of
[2:22:56] left field for me, but bear with me
here. Um I have some concerns about the
[2:23:01] county trying to set out parameters.
Parameters are already set by state law.
[2:23:07] And if the county tries to
summarize or reword those, um, we could
[2:23:14] potentially be held
liable if there were a a circumstance
[2:23:20] where say the state didn't agree with
our decision or something like that for
[2:23:25] for misstating
the rule or the law. And that in
[2:23:28] addition to that, I I don't know how you
go about communicating that. you know,
[2:23:32] there are, yeah, there are closing
companies, there are realtors, there are
[2:23:36] real estate attorneys, there are others
who are involved, but do you actually
[2:23:40] get this through to everyone? And then
if somebody doesn't see this, do they
[2:23:44] claim that they were somehow, you know,
left in the dark or or didn't have a
[2:23:48] right somebody else had by not getting
that? Um,
[2:23:53] this is one of those circumstances where
it it comes up
[2:23:58] infrequently enough that I think it's
better to leave things the way they are
[2:24:04] since the parameters are already set by
state code.
[2:24:08] » Maybe just to me the procedural kind of
stuff helped us when we all got
[2:24:12] together. I mean, it helped me
tremendously then to understand
[2:24:15] everybody's role and where that was and
each had an opinion and thought on it.
[2:24:20] But yet it was something then to share
with the board, not just me. So
[2:24:25] great. Oh, thank you. Please.
>> I was just gonna add to the closing
[2:24:29] statement. Uh, Linda Hinsman, treasurer.
Um,
[2:24:33] I think all of us communicating the
board and all of us back here, um, TJ,
[2:24:40] um, Tim, Ashley, and myself has been
very helpful
[2:24:44] on the on the church that we had. I
think where the confusion was was the
[2:24:51] they didn't understand what had happened
at the closing.
[2:24:55] So when they closed, it wasn't like they
bought it from a business. The business
[2:25:01] pro the taxes were prorrated like they
should have been. They didn't actually
[2:25:05] receive the money in their hand. They
received basically a credit. So they
[2:25:10] paid less for that building because of
the business.
[2:25:15] They paid what was it the September
taxes I believe. Was it September?
[2:25:20] » They they had paid the September. Okay.
But when March rolled around, they were
[2:25:24] confused. Well, we should be abated. And
that's where the confusion was was, you
[2:25:29] know, us asking, hey, can we see your
closing statement? Um, so they had
[2:25:34] actually received credit of
uh where were we at? Oh, proration of
[2:25:41] $154,891.
[2:25:45] They didn't understand that that credit
they received upfront that they paid
[2:25:50] less on in the end was actually
designated to come to Black County to
[2:25:55] pay the taxes. So, I think with all of
us working together, um, communicating
[2:26:01] was a good way to try to communicate
with that church, saying, "Hey, I I see
[2:26:07] where you're coming from, but I don't
think you realize that the church
[2:26:11] actually
got paid the money up front. Um, they
[2:26:15] actually came out ahead than what the
taxes were in all honesty. But like I
[2:26:20] said, I just I feel like we have a great
group here and we all communicate very
[2:26:25] well. But I I think it's our job to
inform the public or whoever's asking,
[2:26:31] you know, this is why we're saying this
or this. So,
[2:26:35] » no, I thought it was a great job you did
for the taxpayers is really looking out
[2:26:38] for the taxpayers in this, but I said
the church still doesn't feel
[2:26:41] » Yes.
>> the people we're talking to.
[2:26:42] » Well, and and now the church knows
moving forward they're within the
[2:26:46] guidelines. They're now exempt and
everybody's happy. So,
[2:26:49] » yes, going forward they are. But I just
Yeah. I asked if it was resolved the
[2:26:53] other day and they said no, it hasn't
been. And I thought, well, it has.
[2:26:56] » It's been,
>> but we're sorry.
[2:26:58] » Yep. They should be happy.
>> I found it interesting that the three
[2:27:01] examples, one was from California,
another one was from a county in
[2:27:05] Washington, and then the the
questionnaire came from Ohio. None of
[2:27:10] these were from Iowa. There's I don't
know if this is something something
[2:27:14] specific to Blackhawk County. It's
happening or is there other counties in
[2:27:18] Iowa don't have something already in
place similar what they're giving us?
[2:27:21] » Go ahead, Tim. You want to speak to it,
too? You were talking about the history
[2:27:24] of when this had happened before that
one.
[2:27:26] » Yeah, sorry.
>> I do have four slides, but I can skip
[2:27:29] them. Uh Tim Jameson, real estate tax
manager in the auditor's office. First
[2:27:34] thing I wanted to point out, uh Mike was
talking about the casualty abatements or
[2:27:39] the uh you know, flood fire. Um I did a
minute search um on our new searchable
[2:27:45] minute system, which is great. Thanks
for letting us do that. I only found
[2:27:49] four instances where that code section
was mentioned. one where they abated the
[2:27:53] taxes in 19 1983 for a person whose
house was destroyed by fire and it was
[2:27:58] like $114 were abated. It was half of
what what the bill was. um it was
[2:28:03] briefly mentioned in relation to another
uh tax abatement request, but it wasn't
[2:28:08] relevant to that request in 1993.
And then in um 1994, there were two long
[2:28:15] board work sessions, and there's some
extensive correspondence in those
[2:28:20] minutes about what was discussed. At
that point, I think it was all related
[2:28:23] to the 1993 floods, if anybody remembers
those, but it was a lot of statewide
[2:28:28] damage. So, a lot of counties were
talking about that policy. From the
[2:28:32] minutes, it sounded like only Scott
County implemented any kind of a policy
[2:28:35] to uh uh pay any claims on that. Pulk
County specifically said, "No way. It'll
[2:28:40] destroy our budget." So, um and
Blackhawk County took no action at that
[2:28:45] point. But I emailed you all copies of
those minutes this morning. Uh so you
[2:28:50] can read those yourselves um if you're
interested. It's four pages, but it's
[2:28:54] from four different meetings. So, um,
the other thing I was just going to
[2:28:58] mention briefly,
if I can,
[2:29:03] » while you're looking, I was going to say
that makes sense to you because during
[2:29:06] CO, remember, there were people that
came to us then and were hoping we could
[2:29:09] evade taxes just to kind of help out
because their businesses have been
[2:29:12] closed or they've had
>> uh so um when those requests for tax
[2:29:20] abatement come, uh the assessor's
office, our office, and the treasures
[2:29:25] office all work really closely together.
We're not making making a recommendation
[2:29:29] to you. Uh but we can provide some
technical information that might be
[2:29:33] valuable when you um make your decision.
One of the things that TJ mentioned I
[2:29:38] wanted to point out was that you pay the
taxes the year after you incur them. So
[2:29:43] uh for the tax bills that just went out,
those were based on the January 1st,
[2:29:47] 2025 value that TJ sets. And at that
point he's also setting the
[2:29:52] classification and also whether it's
exempt or taxable property. Um the taxes
[2:29:58] actually start in being incurred or
acrewing on July 1st of 2025 and that
[2:30:03] runs through June 30th of 2026. Then we
mail the bills out or or Linda mails the
[2:30:08] bills out in July and you pay half of
them in September and half of them in
[2:30:13] March. So again, the point is you're
you're paying taxes the year after
[2:30:16] you've actually incurred those. And it
works both ways. If you build a brand
[2:30:21] new house, the first year you're living
in it, you don't get a tax bill for that
[2:30:25] house, right? Because it comes a year
later. Um,
[2:30:29] and and and so what our office will do
when we get these requests for tax
[2:30:33] abatements is just look at the
proration. So here's a here's a standard
[2:30:36] proration, right? Your taxes are in are
being incurred from July 1st through
[2:30:40] June 30th. Well, what happens if
somebody buys your house in April? How
[2:30:44] do you deal with the taxes then? Because
the seller owned it for three4s of the
[2:30:48] year. or the buyer is only going to
order it for a quarter of the year that
[2:30:51] those taxes were incurred. So, the
example being if the if the buyer was
[2:30:55] getting it on April 1st of 2026 and
they're expecting a $4,000 tax bill,
[2:31:00] your closing agent is going to credit
the buyer with $3,000 in taxes for that
[2:31:05] 34s of a year. Um, we don't in the uh
treasur's office and auditor's office
[2:31:10] don't bill each of you for your portion.
We build a person who owns the property
[2:31:14] on July 1. So, the buyer is going to get
the full $4,000 tax bill. They should
[2:31:19] have been credited if they had a good
closing agent with three grand at
[2:31:23] closing as part of their closing. And I
think Linda mentioned the church had a
[2:31:27] closing document that showed how much
they received at closing for the taxes.
[2:31:32] Um, so the reason I brought this up is
when we get a request for tax abatement,
[2:31:38] the county gets a request for tax
abatement and we're looking at that.
[2:31:42] What our office does is looks to say,
well, the person that's requesting this
[2:31:46] abatement, did they own it for that full
year, or did somebody else own it for
[2:31:50] part of that year? And if so, wouldn't
you want to know that if you're deciding
[2:31:54] whether to abate those taxes? Um, maybe
you only want to abate the taxes if you
[2:31:58] choose to abate the taxes for the period
that the person requesting that or the
[2:32:03] current owner actually owned the
property. Um, the second thing, and we
[2:32:07] don't get closing statements regularly,
but if you had a situation, maybe you
[2:32:11] would want to ask for that to find out,
did you get those taxes at closing? Um,
[2:32:16] why are you asking for us to abate it if
you receive those taxes at closing? Um,
[2:32:20] so that's what our office does. And then
I just wanted to note in general, and TJ
[2:32:24] mentioned this, that we've we get
requests from churches, uh, 501c3s,
[2:32:29] charities, um, for tax payments. they
automatically assume they just don't pay
[2:32:33] taxes, which is not true. Um, first of
all, just because you're a nonprofit
[2:32:38] doesn't mean your property is taxexempt.
You might be using it for a taxable
[2:32:41] purpose. TJ's office, the assessor's
office determines that. You also have to
[2:32:46] apply for that abatement uh with the
assessor's office. You don't
[2:32:50] automatically get it. So, by February
1st of the assessment year, you have to
[2:32:53] apply for that exemption. And this is
where we run into a lot of those
[2:32:58] requests is they don't apply for that
exemption. A because they didn't know
[2:33:01] they had to uh or B they were late. Um
and also um another misconception is
[2:33:09] once you buy that property, if you're a
taxexempt uh uh organization, you don't
[2:33:15] you don't prorrate the taxes in the
middle of the year and stop paying when
[2:33:18] you're buy it. You're exempt for the
full year. You're taxable for the full
[2:33:21] year. Um the second one is government
property. Uh, as Mike mentioned,
[2:33:27] federal, state, county, city, local
governments are exempt from taxes and
[2:33:31] they don't have to file applications for
that. It's automatic. Um, the exceptions
[2:33:37] to that is when properties used for a
pecuniary profit, and we have plenty of
[2:33:41] those examples. When cities buy a land
that they're going to use for an
[2:33:45] industrial park and they've got a a crop
agreement with somebody on that, it's
[2:33:49] taxable. the the city owns it, but they
have to pay those taxes and hopefully
[2:33:53] they're getting them from the person
who's farming it. Um, you could also
[2:33:56] have a building that the city owns
that's being leased uh to a for-profit
[2:34:00] entity. Um, the public market in Waterl
was a good example. There was a
[2:34:04] restaurant and a brewery in there for a
while. They were they were paying taxes
[2:34:07] on that even though the city owned it.
Um, when state and local governments uh
[2:34:14] buy taxable property midway through the
first through a through a a year that's
[2:34:19] being incurred, like the proration
example, um, they'll get a tax bill for
[2:34:23] the full year and then they reach out uh
to the treasurer's office and we all
[2:34:28] work together to review those. And the
question we have for them is, did you
[2:34:32] collect any taxes at closing like you
were supposed to? Uh, we bought a house
[2:34:36] we're going to tear down. Well, uh, you
bought it in January. Did you get half
[2:34:40] the year's taxes from the person you
bought it from? Um, you should have. Uh,
[2:34:45] the DOT is supposed to do Well, they're
supposed to help with that. The DOT
[2:34:49] doesn't actually collect the prorated
taxes, but they're supposed to help us
[2:34:52] collect it. I'm not sure how that really
works.
[2:34:57] If we're lucky, the person pays them. Um
but then um once we've worked through
[2:35:03] that process, determined how much the
the cities uh should have collected in
[2:35:08] taxes, um and then what is legitimately
should be abated, we come to the board,
[2:35:14] Linda, uh the treasur's office will
bring to the board um a motion to abate
[2:35:18] taxes on properties that have come into
public ownership. You may remember one
[2:35:22] of those um from last year when
University of Northern Iowa bought a uh
[2:35:27] uh $10 million apartment complex. They
bought it in January. They collected
[2:35:32] taxes from the June through January
period. They remitted that check to the
[2:35:37] treasur's office and then asked to abate
the balance, which is what we did. So,
[2:35:42] um that's all I have. I'm sorry it went
long. I know it's late in the day, but
[2:35:46] um all three of our offices do work
behind the scenes to provide any
[2:35:50] information you might need for those.
Tim, is there a place to find what is
[2:35:56] the tax exempt would meet the tax exempt
um exemption or property as a nonprofit
[2:36:03] or is there others are out there besides
churches or uh you know there's there's
[2:36:08] ch you know any 501 churches, museums,
there's there's a huge list of what can
[2:36:13] be exempt in Iowa code. It's it's uh
multiple uh there's there's ones for
[2:36:20] wind turbines even. You don't even have
to be an exempt property. There's just,
[2:36:24] as TJ knows, there's a gazillion
different exemptions out there. Um, the
[2:36:28] more common ones though, outside of
government ones, which would be the
[2:36:32] largest category of exempt property in
our county. The more common ones are,
[2:36:36] uh, charitable and religious
institutions, um, which includes
[2:36:40] hospitals, um, on the charitable side of
things, and then religious on the
[2:36:44] churches, but you'll get like YMCA or
YW.CA. Um, and again, and I don't want
[2:36:51] to uh uh speak for TJ, it's just because
you're a 501c3 does not mean you're
[2:36:56] taxexempt. If you're using that
property, uh if if if you're not using
[2:37:02] it for an exempt purpose, you'll be
taxable. Um you'll get a tax bill. It's
[2:37:08] it's not just because you're a
nonprofit.
[2:37:12] If the board could uh write down one one
code number to look up, it's 427.1
[2:37:19] and I kind of mentioned that earlier
that actually lists out the exemptions
[2:37:23] and Tim is absolutely correct. It's a
long code section
[2:37:28] and and they uh they try to explain
everything. We usually see like like he
[2:37:34] says, we we usually see the same ones
come up, but uh yeah, there's a lot.
[2:37:40] » Okay. And typically I don't think like
say if they've come to you Paul that
[2:37:44] then it's very it's a different
procedure because by then we get the
[2:37:47] information but these three that we've
had this year that I knew were unusual
[2:37:51] they all came to the supervisors first
without talking to any of you first and
[2:37:56] so then it became a different
>> I think we treat the governmentowned
[2:38:00] property process a little differently
because you know it's the the cities are
[2:38:05] getting tax bills
>> and they're reviewing those and then
[2:38:09] they send a
um to the treasur's office saying, "Hey,
[2:38:12] we we don't think we owe taxes on this
property or this property or or you
[2:38:17] know, we collected taxes and paid half
of it, so we think you should be evading
[2:38:21] the rest." And so we, you know, this is
going to happen every single year on a
[2:38:25] regular cadence. And so it's something
that we all look at and work with the
[2:38:29] cities on, you know, before Linda would
bring that motion to you. That's a lot
[2:38:34] different than these tax exempt
properties where they're expected to pay
[2:38:37] taxes that are legally build and they
come irregularly at uh you know when
[2:38:42] usually around September when they see
the bill but um uh that's when they'll
[2:38:48] uh I guess we don't treat those the same
way as like a regular routine situation.
[2:38:54] You guys will correct me if I'm wrong,
but
[2:38:59] » thank you. Well, if you have any
questions, we've got the teams in place
[2:39:03] obviously, but for any other time, but I
was going to say it's just great
[2:39:08] sometimes that they have come back with
a wealth of information that yeah, we
[2:39:12] didn't have. So, thank you. Thank you
all.
[2:39:16] Well, we'll not going to make quite
noon, so we don't need lunch. So,
[2:39:22] reports for information from the board.
>> Update. Last Friday, I attended the UCCC
[2:39:30] uh briefing. It was down at Lynn
Countyy's building. Uh Michelle zoomed
[2:39:35] in, went over the items, the list for
legislative concerns and needs for next
[2:39:41] year. Uh one point of discussion again
is the u cost of publishing board
[2:39:48] minutes and or the thought of posting.
So um we may hear more about that coming
[2:39:55] up yet in this session being one of
their issues.
[2:39:58] » And I did want to remind folks uh Friday
there is another n webinar on data
[2:40:03] centers specifically on water issues. So
you can get signed up on that as well.
[2:40:10] » Karen had contacted us. I was going to
comment on the dates that we were
[2:40:13] available for that 99 county tour.
>> I did get a response if you want me to
[2:40:18] share that. Well, yeah. I was going to
say, and did you get a a date for us all
[2:40:21] then?
>> Yeah, just going from the responses I
[2:40:26] got back from the board members. Um,
from the responses I got back that both
[2:40:32] dates were available. So, I sent her
that either date works. So, let me know.
[2:40:36] and I actually during this board meeting
um heard back from her and so she said
[2:40:41] let's go with November 12th at 1 p.m.
And then the survey was a long time ago
[2:40:47] but she also wants to know what um
facility that we want to use and that
[2:40:52] survey we gave like I don't know three
or four different uh county options. So,
[2:40:58] um, we also need to just decide what
what facility if we want. I think some
[2:41:04] of them were using conservation
courthouse, the VA building. So, I just
[2:41:09] need to let them know where to meet.
>> VA.
[2:41:12] » I would think VA for parking with
parking in mind so we don't have to use
[2:41:17] snowshoes.
>> It's available.
[2:41:19] » Yeah.
>> Especially in November. Yeah. At the
[2:41:21] time it was this whole calendar year.
So,
[2:41:25] » VA Yeah. This is taken back.
>> Was that one or did you say two?
[2:41:30] » November 12th at 100 p.m.
>> And we also needed a date to have the
[2:41:39] work session for the budget carryover
>> and etc. That came back from the staff
[2:41:45] that responded with 10. Tuesday the
September 15th Avenue had 10 afternoon
[2:41:51] had 10. But what is what works for the
board? I guess too. I don't
[2:41:55] » I had I was trying to read that off my
phone. I thought it was said October
[2:41:58] 15th, not September 15th. So my response
was
[2:42:04] u wrong month.
[2:42:08] » So So September 15th works for me though
>> at 10 a.m.
[2:42:13] » No, no, no. There were 10 people
the afternoon of that day worked
[2:42:19] » done
>> for that work session.
[2:42:22] So that doesn't mean it works with
everybody here.
[2:42:25] » I do have um call scheduled at 1 1:30 to
2:30 probably that afternoon.
[2:42:35] » Does
>> you want to do three?
[2:42:38] » Three.
>> Is it three work?
[2:42:41] » I'm completely open. I'm flexible.
>> Yep.
[2:42:44] » Three o'clock is fine. That's good. Keep
it roughly hour is good. Yeah.
[2:42:49] » Yes.
Yep. Okay.
[2:42:52] » Al, did I know you had sent an email
about
[2:42:57] that downstairs
room
[2:43:00] » being available?
>> Will that be available on the 15th? Do
[2:43:02] we think at 3?
>> We can still use it for We just need to
[2:43:05] book it. We can still use it for the
meeting. It'll just be the old camera
[2:43:09] angle from Yeah.
>> Okay.
[2:43:14] » Okay. And we've got I think the
presentations for the action committee
[2:43:17] is next on the 15th, too. So that's in
the morning. Okay. 3:00 on the 15th.
[2:43:22] Gotcha. Thank you. That's all.
So nothing else.
[2:43:29] » Motion for adjournment.
>> Some moved.
[2:43:31] » Second.
>> All in favor?
[2:43:33] » I
>> I
[2:43:35] » meetings. We almost almost made it.