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[2:34] 90 well 90 minutes but I

[2:40] don't it are you ready okay and we're back we reconvene the Ken County Board

[2:47] of Commissioners meeting in a work session regarding the

[2:52] budget Mr Baker good afternoon I think it's

[2:57] afternoon uh after 12 uh Kelsey Waker candy County

[3:02] Administrator uh I am here with uh department heads and staff to present

[3:07] the 2025 budget we have um a presentation for you all you have

[3:13] binders that were handed out in your seats they have um they have the this

[3:18] presentation so you have a a paper copy they have the spreadsheet that was

[3:23] included in the board packet so you have that more in detail um and they have

[3:28] some other information that you'll and then they have the full ifs 2025

[3:32] preliminary budget this is not the official certified official budget this

[3:38] is our this is actually our third working draft there's already probably

[3:43] maybe um some changes that will be made to this so just remember in today's

[3:48] discussion um the overall departments those are pretty much solidified that's

[3:53] why we're presenting this information but there are some other maybe quazi

[3:57] government um health insurance that are still kind of fluid numbers within this

[4:02] budget um that we haven't finalized quite yet Minister Baker before you go

[4:08] into the kind of the uh yeah the details uh give us a quick background of the

[4:14] process how when you start how how you process with the different departments

[4:19] and how you arrive at at this preliminary I was going to do that oh

[4:24] good I didn't see it on on the it's not on

[4:28] there um so the 2025 budget

[4:33] Focus so when I start meeting with each department um initially we have it on

[4:38] the agenda the department had agenda in May and we start scheduling those

[4:43] one-on-one meetings with each department in June I like to have initial meetings

[4:48] with department heads just to have an idea that's when we're just having a

[4:52] conversation we don't have maybe numbers finalized by any means but we're just

[4:56] having conversations So within those conversations I have an idea that we're

[5:01] going to be doing a landfill we're looking at a cell construction so Gary

[5:06] then tells me that's a big number right and so then we're looking at Human

[5:10] Services and when in talking with each department in June and July I look for

[5:15] common themes and at your rad and Bridge work session Mel talked about

[5:20] preservation and planning for the county moving forward so that process entails

[5:25] meeting with department heads in June meeting with them possibly again for a

[5:30] second or a third meeting in July and really that's what it entails it's

[5:35] meeting with the staff figuring out where we want to come and present our

[5:40] preliminary budget fine-tuning FTE how many are we um how many should we

[5:45] approve for the 2025 budget what is being requested um and what's the

[5:52] analysis is there background information of why it's being requested are we not

[5:56] meeting deadlines things like that are we looking at technology and so all

[6:01] those things come into play but really June and July um all the finance staff

[6:06] administrator are work and department heads are fine-tuning next year's budget

[6:12] sometimes we have to wait for numbers and so we can't put things in um and

[6:17] really that's the overall process you really work on the budget from when it's

[6:21] approved to when it you're um continuously there's never a time when

[6:26] you're not necessarily working on a budget and that not just probably the

[6:30] administrator that's our CFO that's our finance staff that's our department

[6:34] heads I think this we do a really good job of being um staying on top of the

[6:39] budget and staying on top of the planning moving forward and so one of

[6:44] the common themes surrounding 2025 budget was planning um you'll hear Scott

[6:51] from our it Department talk about planning with technology we need of the

[6:55] game and maybe spend a little bit more to get us up to speed on spending uh

[6:59] planning with our Levy and Reserve goals um later on this year you'll hear with

[7:04] our financial audit for 2023 where we're coming in with our reserves you heard

[7:08] from CLA last year that we have healthy reserves the recommended amount is three

[7:13] to five months we're sitting about eight and a half months so we have overall

[7:17] very healthy reserves uh Implement new technology um I've said before we

[7:22] continue to analyze FTE and that's something that our HR department is

[7:26] continuously doing within departments if they're needed if or not how do we look

[7:30] at that do we are we understaffed are we overstaffed how can we collaborate with

[7:35] other departments how do we utilize technology so this all plays a role with

[7:39] our planning department restructures building assessments and staff

[7:43] development one thing that I think as the as an administrator I think is truly

[7:47] important is professional development we can't expect staff to be supervisors

[7:53] when we have not done the work to train them and set them up for Success um to

[7:58] be a successful super supervisor without that training and so one thing we're

[8:03] looking at for 2025 and this is kind of a common them again in all departments

[8:08] is Staff Development and providing professional development trainings for

[8:13] All County Employees these are preliminary numbers

[8:19] um as of right now the proposed budget is at 48,4 30,000 that's the gross Levy

[8:27] um this year our program our County program Aid increased um

[8:33] overall last year we received about 3.2 million this year we receiving

[8:38] 3.3 as of right now um with these numbers in the budget um we're sitting

[8:45] at an eight and a half percent which I think is uh a really good area to start

[8:50] and so on today's agenda we're going to hear from the budget planning from our

[8:54] department heads um after they're done I'll kind of go over and re recoup

[8:59] everything go over some Levy amounts where we're sitting at where some

[9:03] recommendations would be and I'm also going to be looking for feedback from

[9:06] the County Board where do you want the levy to come in at um and that will help

[9:12] guide these final this final month um for putting in numbers and putting in a

[9:17] preliminary Levy amount um we'll go over wages the levy history and then if

[9:22] there's any questions um and so from here I'm going

[9:26] to hand it off to Val our County Assessor

[9:38] morning or good afternoon good afternoon Mr chair and Commissioners I am Valore

[9:43] County Assessor and I'm just going to go over some basic information here I big

[9:49] part of our budget is um staff and we do have to go through a lot of training um

[9:55] we do have um this is our first year of true

[10:00] County this is our first year of true County so we no longer receive the

[10:04] income payments from our billing for our services so that was for 2024 and moving

[10:10] forward that will also remain the same that we no longer receive any income

[10:14] from our billing but when we did take on the 4,400 additional Parcels we did not

[10:20] um add in a full-time employee to replace our local assessors each of my

[10:25] staff did agree to take on the extra three 630 part Parcels amongst the seven

[10:30] staff that are doing the on the ground work and viewing and inspecting the

[10:34] parcels um but by doing true County we are improving our efficiency improving

[10:40] our quality of assessment and this is a great opportunity to communicate with

[10:45] the taxpayers of these districts and you know sell our services and so they

[10:50] understand where we're going and what we're doing we did also have a really

[10:53] nice article that showed up in the paper um last Friday so I don't know if you

[10:57] had an opportunity to read that also our staff um is a huge investment for our

[11:03] office because of the um the first three years of any staff it takes about

[11:08] $10,000 to train them to get them to the three-year point where they're mandated

[11:12] AMA lure and then after that we have about 50 to 60 hours of continuing

[11:17] education for each staff after that so education is a huge piece of our budget

[11:23] and um we have had you know wages and benefits is retention has a huge part um

[11:30] that you know as a county that we haven't had any change in staff and that

[11:35] is a very good thing for us um other costs in our office are obviously the

[11:39] printing costs of valuation notices that go out that's a a fairly large expense

[11:44] and then the appraisal and tax court costs which um that is in the budget and

[11:49] you know if it's needed we use it and based on you know what petitions we do

[11:53] get over the year and that is about what I have for you

[12:00] thank you um any questions and before I before I open the floor for questions or

[12:04] comments um I think I heard you say almost out of the out of the U get-go

[12:09] was staff is the primary expense and I'm sure you got pencils and need equipment

[12:15] but basically staff is is the major portion of your budget yes that's

[12:20] correct all right any questions or coms

[12:29] and uh go ahead well thank you Mr chair

[12:33] first off nice article in the West Central Tribune very well done trying to

[12:37] explain a very complicated process and that was very well done um so don't have

[12:44] your budget in front of us of course but you're not adding any staff then no we

[12:48] just taking on all this additional on top of this all correct you're still

[12:52] going to be able to try to do uh reviews every uh five years all of them yes we

[12:58] have to visit properties that's State mandated and

[13:01] then when when we get audited I have to report what hasn't been inspected in

[13:06] that threeyear time and we actually had three Parcels on my audit last week so

[13:11] so far so good so I I think one of the questions that's going to be begging all

[13:16] of us is your budget go up or down or stay the same as last year it went up

[13:22] like 360 thou going forward to the new year it's going to stay flat from last

[13:28] year it went up I think we got for the two County yeah what yeah and that was

[13:32] in the board pment based off each department so that's also in your binder

[13:38] as well and also was in the board packet and so this time we kind of want to flow

[13:43] through this the directors for doing their presentations and so I think if

[13:49] there are any FTE that are added that'll be talked about but overall there

[13:54] weren't many the the reason I asked there

[13:58] weren't any is added for 2025 the reason I asked the question is because in your

[14:03] uh early in the presentation you're going to ask us for um our thoughts on

[14:08] is 8.5 the right number or isn't it and so it does relate to you know the

[14:14] Departments is because we did have a significant uh wage and benefit increase

[14:19] last year which I assume comes out of the Department's budgets those

[14:23] increases thank you all right any other questions for Bale well thank you very

[14:30] much thank you and I agree that that article really helps if people read it

[14:36] uh helps them to understand the process because I just got that recently about

[14:40] why is my evaluation so much higher than someone else's and we have to do it one

[14:45] at a time if they read the article we can educate them several of yes thank

[14:50] you all right up next Mark Thompson auditor treasur

[14:59] what do you hit just return

[15:07] here perfect good morning good

[15:11] afternoon uh trying to keep this here short uh again our the I'm I'm speaking

[15:18] not only for the auditor office today but also including the records and the

[15:22] license bureau departments um our primary focus is

[15:27] service to the public and taxpayers candyi

[15:30] County we're also responsible for the collection and distribution of property

[15:34] taxes to cities townships and schools and to the various funds in the

[15:40] county uh we're responsible for paying the County's bills in a time of

[15:44] Mayor responsible for submitting an annual financial statement to the County

[15:48] residents showing the County's fiscal Health we oversee the county election

[15:53] processes to assure accurate election results we provide reporting services

[15:59] for property transactions such as deeds and mortgages

[16:04] and verifying with that we verify correct legal descriptions on those doc

[16:10] documents we record Vital Statistics birth and death

[16:16] records marriages military discharges and notary

[16:22] commissions the license bureau they provide licensing services such as

[16:27] vehicle registration and title transfer automobile license tabs renewals renewal

[16:33] of driver's license and DNR watercraft snowmobiles and ATV

[16:37] registration and title

[16:41] transfers primary increase in in the auditor recorders and the license bureau

[16:49] departments is primarily um

[16:55] payroll we also continuously look at the auditors and the records and the license

[17:00] bu staff duties and processes to find ways to be more

[17:06] efficient budget amounts outside of payroll are fairly consistent from year

[17:11] to year while taking on inflationary

[17:15] results so we do have some some increases but those are

[17:21] minimal um the budget for elections however will with the implementation of

[17:26] newer technology advance ments to assure

[17:30] election security we'll see costs rising in the future in future election

[17:36] Cycles we are focused on applying for any and all grants that come available

[17:41] to offset those Rising costs associated with election equipment and software and

[17:47] with that are there any questions again uh I think the the significant change in

[17:54] our budget is due to payroll we do have increases in other areas but those are

[18:00] are [Music]

[18:02] minimal Mr chair thank you I I appreciate those comments because one of

[18:06] my major concern is is that the payroll or uh salaries employees salaries are

[18:11] placed on the levy and so we know that the levy number is really being used for

[18:17] that as much as possible so I really appreciate feedback from all the all the

[18:21] people reporting today you know is a primary Le uh primary salaries or not so

[18:27] thank you for sharing that yeah anyone else I'm just looking at so

[18:33] when I when I typically look at a budget um it by the way it would be really nice

[18:38] to have a percent increase or decrease so a percentage one but I look for flags

[18:43] and one of the things I saw here was one that went from 6,000 license buau from

[18:48] 6,000 to 55,000 um and so to me that's wow how

[18:54] come that such a and there's I'm sure a good uh reason for that like your

[18:59] election year we're going to have a lot more expense than in a non-election year

[19:02] but um which account number was that you said license I'm looking under license

[19:07] bureau I'm looking at colored sheet we got it's probably the synopsis of your

[19:13] you know C was well

[19:22] you okay um I can look for it later but

[19:28] those are the things that as I look at a summary of a budget um it's nice to see

[19:33] the percent change or and the flaged items and so that one jumped out at me

[19:39] as a big a big change and always usually an explanation for it but curious what

[19:45] that might be but we'll move on because of time no I think you had K do you know

[19:50] what the what is the act

[19:55] title 42

[20:01] it just says license bureau oh the oh the overall I see what you're talking

[20:05] about I okay I thought it was one particular li no no just the license bu

[20:09] 6600 to 55,000 sure yeah total I see all right thank you

[20:20] y okay Human Resources is

[20:25] Mart good afternoon Connie Mort uh Human Resources Director for candy oh high

[20:32] County um mine is going to be a very short report I don't really have a lot

[20:36] of increases in my budget outside of um the two staff members that are in my

[20:41] department myself and our HR generalists our HR generalist has also taken on uh

[20:48] the additional responsibilities of payroll um so she does payroll from

[20:53] start to finish at this time um she had taken over part of it last year and now

[20:58] she has taken over the entire process so that has run very much more smoothly uh

[21:04] without an increase in salary in my department things I'd like to uh kind of

[21:11] highlight today for you is it's not on my slide but so far we have had 51

[21:17] postings uh job postings in the county to date uh that's in

[21:23] 2024 um and we also I guess again took on payroll

[21:28] right now um I am doing my recruiting and purchasing recruiting software

[21:34] through neogov and that is a line item on my budget as you probably see there

[21:39] uh for 2024 it will be 15, 670 was my current outstanding bill in 2024 excuse

[21:46] me um other ongoing expenditures for onboarding software starting in

[21:52] 26 it's we're still looking at some options

[21:56] in that so we won't be ready to implement onboarding software to make

[22:01] that a seamless um self-serving process until

[22:06] 2026 so for 2025 we won't have an expenditure for that but just for future

[22:11] planning we will have uh an expenditure for onboarding software if we go down

[22:16] that road and that can be anywhere from one vendor is starting out at

[22:21] $117,000 for onboarding software for a county of our size with the amount of

[22:26] employees that we have to anywhere to $29,000 so it depends on your vendor and

[22:32] what some of those um processes look like and some of the other services that

[22:36] they provide but those again are still in the planning stages and won't affect

[22:40] the 2025 budget uh the expense of going paperless

[22:44] I know that it will talk a little bit about this too but we are looking at

[22:48] what the indexing software and where those um records will um now be stored

[22:56] uh we would like to go paper l and that would be including our Personnel files

[23:00] and our payroll files if you've been in the administrative conference room you

[23:04] see all of those file cabinets in there those are those are all paper and so

[23:09] that would be part of our process going forward then ongoing General and

[23:13] Leadership training uh administrator Baker kind of touched on this a little

[23:18] bit as well we are having a countywide mandatory um harassment training program

[23:25] here on Thursday it will be over at uh the Emergency Operations Center it is

[23:32] mandatory for all employees if the employees cannot possibly be there

[23:37] physically there will be a recorded one that will be um they will be required to

[23:43] view and so we will do that through our no software as well uh the cost of that

[23:47] is just over $3,000 that's going to be pretty representative of what any other

[23:53] trainings that we were able to get through this provider as well and so

[23:57] we're looking at at doing doing some of those trainings in uh

[24:01] 2025 and those are in my budget under Professional

[24:07] Services any other questions Mr chair thank you kind of like the last question

[24:15] I see your budget is $3,000 under and with the salary increases and so forth

[24:21] uh how did you accomplish that there was some is there one big item or something

[24:25] no there was there was some line items that historically I had not used a lot

[24:30] of um and so I was able to cut some some fees there um I did reduce profession my

[24:37] professional um Services budget by a little bit but it was just it was maybe

[24:43] three or four line items that I was able to historically just take down a little

[24:48] bit so I don't have a very big budget so it's it's a it's a very small budget but

[24:54] uh over 200,000 so yes yes yeah good job thank you thank you any other questions

[25:00] yeah any other questions thanks Connie thank

[25:04] you I assume we're doing this in the order of what they're in our booklets so

[25:09] attorney Shane Baker County attorney Shane

[25:18] Baker Shane Baker candy County attorney on this year's budget we have no staff

[25:25] increases as far as positions no special

[25:31] projects um most of our budget comes through salary and then there's some

[25:36] others a lot of that is driven sometimes by the case load and work we're

[25:42] doing um we had some areas go up like Professional Services and books and

[25:47] employee travel um so my presentations is a little unique in the senses in the

[25:54] sense that I point out volatilities that can come up from

[25:58] year to year time to time um first it's Technology based um from the time I've

[26:04] started in this office to now it's really gone from paperless to a lot of

[26:08] processing by um electronic means so that means as you know a few years ago

[26:13] we got a new case management software system fortunately we had a grant for

[26:18] 140,000 um during Co funding for that but that helps Drive other costs because

[26:25] now that's how the core operates business they're going to need need a

[26:28] new have juvenile filings by E charging so we need to get that although I think

[26:34] I can get that under this year but that's an example of how the tech drives

[26:39] costs it can drive it because law enforcement gathers a lot of information

[26:43] from body cams there's so much done that way these days um legal research is

[26:50] electronic so it's not book but it's um West

[26:56] law and we do our research online of course they have almost like

[27:02] these large Cable packages where they have all sorts of options

[27:07] that that's worth that's worth getting because you just very narrow it down to

[27:11] say just Minnesota law very narrow area it' be more

[27:16] prohibitive so um and then evidence making evidence

[27:21] for courts you know we may have situations where we got to remove or

[27:25] redact certain information from our data

[27:30] so we will continue to see Tech kind of driving how our costs operate which

[27:36] leads us into transcription um it's a lot of stuff's

[27:41] done by Body Cam and it's not the standard um voice activated digital or

[27:49] recording equipment that makes transcriptions a little harder some of

[27:53] the equipment that um some law enforcement agencies

[27:57] have used are not compatible for making transcriptions so that cost then gets

[28:02] pushed down to us and we got to find providers to who do that not all those

[28:07] there's some things Sheriff's Office Still Still does and some equipment but

[28:11] that they do more than what other law enforcement agencies we work with do and

[28:16] of course with that driving certain cost for

[28:20] needing the transcripts for use in court is we have a very diverse population in

[28:25] this County so that leads to to our issue number three is translations um

[28:31] whether it's our victim Services individuals meeting with Witnesses and

[28:35] victims on cases and we need a translator there to provide that service

[28:41] or we need transcripts translated both with Spanish

[28:45] and English on them to help us have the evidence we need for court um but that

[28:50] also presents an opportunity maybe working with human services where we can

[28:54] maybe have economies of scale where how we go about getting

[28:59] Services provided for translation um training that's been

[29:05] discussed already a few times but um we certainly try to find as many lowcost

[29:12] items as we can but put on by the County attorneys Association but there are

[29:17] other Law related subjects for example I have two attorneys next month and I know

[29:23] Sheriff's Office is sending some people to a mental health and crime um

[29:28] education training because we're seeing a lot of those issues pop up over and

[29:33] over and over again in the community and staff are need to be trained to know how

[29:38] to what's

[29:42] the new issues in the field and be up to speed on those areas so it's not also on

[29:50] Law related subjects it's also on leadership since

[29:53] 2016 I've been sending staff to Vision 24 de what's now the lead program there

[29:59] it's a leadership program and so we that's about

[30:06] $1,100 per person per year but it's well worth it because whether their

[30:12] department head or just a Frontline attorney they there leaders in the areas

[30:18] where they're working and whether it's in court committee meetings what have

[30:22] you you need trained staff um and then that brings us to

[30:27] Talent um and that's more that's more about

[30:30] turnover what I'm trying to say there and since last year we've been operating

[30:36] an internship program we had one intern last summer we had one in the fall and

[30:42] we had one this past summer and that's been beneficial in two ways we were able

[30:47] to fit that in our budget but we've had such turnover the

[30:51] whole legal profession Prosecuting profession has seen a lot of Staffing

[30:55] changes but this helped us weather the storm we had one attorney who left us in

[31:01] at the end of March but we had already lined up an intern for the summer so

[31:06] that bridged us to our new person starting just a few weeks or a week

[31:12] ago

[31:17] um and that new person who started I should mention that's the one we had

[31:20] interning this past fall so basically it's building a farm team of potential

[31:26] hires and and whether it's for us it worked out that way I mean we had

[31:31] some job hostings where we one time we had two applicants and that was after

[31:37] not getting any of the first go around other times it's been kind of four three

[31:43] so when you have limits on the applications you want to bring in as

[31:48] create the environment that you can get more talent coming in and that worked

[31:53] for us this last time so

[31:58] we hope to continue that throughout the summer because you never know when

[32:01] you'll have someone depart for something else any questions any questions

[32:08] commissioner B yeah thank you Mr chair U are are they paid internships our are

[32:14] yes yeah which makes sense I'm not saying no no no no um I assume so but I

[32:19] just want to be clear on that and your budget seems you know pretty reasonably

[32:24] priced reasonably priced that's probably not the word I want but it seems very

[32:28] reasonable actually what was unusual about that is I actually called Karen

[32:31] Anderson because our salary went down okay and I was one from the 2024 PL I

[32:39] was wondering what where did that come from because that made no sense yeah

[32:43] during the changes but there was fluctuations during the year and then we

[32:47] had a very experienced attorney leaveing replaced with a someone just out of law

[32:53] school one more just a followup comment too uh interesting presentation uh

[32:58] thinking of body C cameras uh I always just think of the sheriff's department

[33:03] about you know they have to wear them they got them but there's all these

[33:07] other things connected with it that your department has to go through too as well

[33:11] it's also just the volume of use these things it's not just that they're used

[33:14] to them at all it's like everything is on body cam then when they're speaking

[33:18] with the witnesses or offenders or victims a lot of times that is by Body

[33:24] cam it was interesting thank you for sharing other

[33:29] questions all right thanks ATT Baker Community Corrections Tam ocean I saw

[33:36] you leave and then I didn't see you come

[33:42] back good afternoon I think I sent everybody into a little panic when I

[33:45] walked out the door um I gotta move it for there we go

[33:52] um so Community Corrections um in in your packet in the slide talks a little

[33:57] bit about all of the things we do in our department to address Public Safety um

[34:01] as we know um Community Corrections is pretty critical in addressing long-term

[34:06] Public Safety we have specialized units um and we work with you know all levels

[34:11] of supervision from the start of a criminal justice case at a bail study

[34:16] all the way to when somebody comes out on a life sentence review um which we've

[34:21] had many of lately the main drivers that you would

[34:25] see in our budget at this point like everybody else we're looking at um

[34:29] Staffing costs for a variety of different things but some of those I

[34:33] would like to talk about is we have some offsets right so my budget is mostly

[34:39] County funding but on the other hand I also we have state funding because the

[34:43] state has some requirements for what they are supposed to fund and then we

[34:47] actually have been lucky enough to be participate in two Grant projects this

[34:51] in the next coming upcoming years that have offset some of those costs for us

[34:55] um when we talk about State funding we were really successful in changing some

[35:00] of our state funding last year as you know um instead from $800,000 to1 1.4

[35:06] million around dollars that we're getting annually from the state when we

[35:10] approach the state at looking relooking at that that's funding that we've been

[35:14] looking at for the last 25 years because the state wasn't following through with

[35:17] their requirements um we were not fully

[35:21] successful and so in the upcoming Years Years we're going to be looking again at

[35:25] going back and discussing that with the state about according to the workload

[35:29] studies and the state mandates they are supposed to be funding us at a higher

[35:33] level so we'll continue to look at those options as we go forward in particular

[35:38] you can also see a little bit in the budget um it's not as apparent right now

[35:42] but it will be over time is the legislature has um eliminated our

[35:47] ability to charge supervision fees going forward and so that will affect our

[35:53] budget um and so as we kind of keep going forward and what that is and some

[35:57] of our driving costs may be affected by that so another area we've seen an

[36:03] increase in costs is drug testing um that's substantially increased over the

[36:08] last couple years the cost of it um and our state funding hasn't kept up and the

[36:14] supervision fees technically may go away that we may not be able to charge those

[36:18] back going forward um another area that we're seeing an increase in cost which

[36:23] is one of those areas in my department that goes up and down um last year we

[36:27] saw increase um I expect one this year is juvenile out of home placements and

[36:32] as we look at that it's very difficult for us to predict what types of Auto

[36:37] home placements we're going to need for juveniles in an upcoming year so we some

[36:41] years are lower or higher this year is a higher year hopefully maybe in the

[36:44] future it'll be lower I I have no idea how how to know when we're going to have

[36:48] be able to put what types of placements and that cost is going to be be from

[36:52] year to year um I think that's pretty much you

[36:57] know upcoming training and different things of our grant we have a grant

[37:01] right now that's going to provide um quite a bit of funding over the next

[37:04] three years for training um in developing programs for um

[37:09] evidence-based practices and quality assurance so that's going to be a huge

[37:13] Focus for us going forward any questions

[37:18] for Miss lber go ahead commissioner Dwayne so juvenile our home placement is

[37:25] that no we um for my department so all of our departments here in the county

[37:31] have some juvenile out of home placement cost just here where so um Social

[37:35] Services is going to have a cost that they have to pay for the sheriff's

[37:38] department has a cost that they have to pay for and Community Corrections has a

[37:41] cost that we have to pay for and so the only individuals juveniles that we are

[37:45] looking at for those aut home placement costs are individual juveniles who are

[37:49] under some type of probation supervision so there are criminal charges um that

[37:54] have to be placed in a setting that we have to pay for um so in this year's

[37:59] cases the the kids that we are looking at that we're paying for have had some

[38:04] pretty significant higher end charges and that means that that increases my

[38:07] budget from sex offenses to um assault charges things that we we were not able

[38:13] to um manage in the community so so the placement is like in a facility or it's

[38:19] in a facility yes right or example I'm sorry what for example for

[38:24] example parade Lakes youth programs actually the kids that we've been

[38:28] dealing with right now we've actually had to have a higher level um even to

[38:31] the point where um this year we had one at Redwing that we had to pay for which

[38:36] is you know the juvenile prison so other

[38:44] questions yeah just a couple questions reference to the placement for example

[38:48] PR L youth program do get a discounted rate so that help we do and we're very

[38:53] involved with programming and making sure that when we place kids at Prairie

[38:56] Lakes that we have a continuation of program so that's why um myself and

[39:00] staff work very closely um I'm a part of the board that we work with our facility

[39:06] here in our County so that we don't have to send them out if we have a choice and

[39:10] can work forward with them and then just a follow question if I may um you

[39:15] mentioned the additional State funding which is fantastic U and you're feeling

[39:19] that's sustainable then going forward because otherwise we going to have to

[39:23] look at staff and Levy up so our state funding right now is um it will go

[39:29] forward where there's an issue with it is the way our funding formula works

[39:33] it's based on the legislature appoints a dollar amount for the state and the

[39:39] state then it's divided up and right now what our funding formula did two years

[39:44] ago is it meant that it's Equitable funding across the state no matter what

[39:48] delivery system you have we're still working at the state level to determine

[39:53] how that study or work we have a workload study coming up we have a

[39:57] variety of different things to stabilize that funding get things situated but I

[40:02] would say the funding itself is there as populations change it could change so we

[40:09] have a set amount for Community Corrections funding across the state and

[40:14] if um all of a sudden our population increased on what we were supervising

[40:20] and another Count's population decreased we may have more additional funding

[40:24] coming from the state out of that pot or vice person so if our probation funding

[40:29] is based on the work we're doing at the state level I think the question always

[40:34] comes up uh to commissioner Berg's point about sustainability is like grants like

[40:39] the or Grant or something you know yeah so we do have a couple grants and we're

[40:42] we're very conscious of the fact of those two crants we will Monitor and

[40:47] keep going forward and hopefully those will be okay but no the state funding is

[40:51] not a grant it's it's ongoing funding but it does have some fluctuation based

[40:55] on case loads very good Jo thank you very much thank

[41:03] you Emergency Management is a here are you gonna hand um he had to be at Kanas

[41:09] so I will do my best based off his notes um so we have on here the weather radar

[41:15] Gap uh strategic planning with the rescue squad and then overall awareness

[41:19] with the Emergency Management Programs and our Rescue Squad um the weather Gap

[41:24] I would say ace Bonar our interm director has done a phenomen phal job

[41:27] with us he he sits on state committees he's making a lot of awareness regarding

[41:33] this at legislative uh levels as well um I'm not going to do the joke as good as

[41:39] he is um but I'm gonna I'll read it uh so I laugh when he gave me the note

[41:45] everyone sees The Radars apparently are like sewer plants or group homes

[41:50] everyone sees the benefit but no one wants them in their backyard and I just

[41:54] think that is a true Ace fashion so um I hope I did that Justice um but there

[42:00] there's a whole lot of benefit for having this um and there shouldn't be a

[42:04] cost for the county other than his time he has done a lot of work going to

[42:08] different counties and educating other County boards regarding what the weather

[42:13] Gap means and not just County boards but legislators as well um Emergency

[42:18] Management also oversees the rescue squad we just had our 75th Anniversary

[42:23] um ace and I are personally proud of the work and the commitment that this group

[42:27] pass uh sometimes they go underlooked many times but the the dedication that

[42:32] these members have to our Rescue Squad um is beyond words I mean some of them

[42:37] are third generation Rescue Squad members which is really telling of the

[42:41] commitment and time and the dedication that they have to overall candyi County

[42:45] so some of the work that we're going to be doing is looking at some strategic

[42:48] planning and priorities and making sure that everyone's on on the same page with

[42:53] how we want this department to move forward um what are the stat staing

[42:57] levels look like what does our equipment look like and really G uh gauge where

[43:02] all the members are coming in at and then finally awareness is a huge part of

[43:06] Emergency Management um from tabletop exercises to evaluating our facilities

[43:13] to educating our own employees to educating the public um one of the

[43:18] things that is a project that we've been working on is the school reunification

[43:22] program and then you'll um that's something you'll hear about at our

[43:25] September 3rd board meeting a will provide an update on that and so it not

[43:30] just awareness to be proactive but we also have to be reactive and going

[43:35] through those exercises and creating the awareness and the response times

[43:40] regarding the train derailment or windstorms or tornadoes and so just

[43:44] creating awareness about that is one thing is a goal of ours is that we want

[43:48] to improve on moving moving forward Mr thank you Mr chair going back

[43:54] to the radar Gap uh any guest when that might come to

[44:01] fruition I I don't I know Ace is waiting on a few different things but like I

[44:05] said he'll provide more of an update to the Coney board at the September 3rd

[44:09] meeting I I'm shocked that there is such a thing but it really makes sense now

[44:13] every storm comes I'm watching and Els said there's no storm and EL boom

[44:17] there's a storm where was that before you know yeah so it's very much needed

[44:21] and I I appreciate them working on that and moving trying to move forward as

[44:25] fast as as we can and fill in that Gap and also this really comment about the

[44:29] rescue squad what a good job they're doing and trying to meet their needs as

[44:33] much as possible thank you so I'm having a hard time finding

[44:38] out where he is on this here it doesn't say emergency civil defense civil

[44:42] defense okay thank you that's right actually went down a little yeah

[44:48] I'm making I'm making a couple notes because some things are combined and so

[44:52] if I knew what was combined it would be helpful to all right um Environmental

[44:59] Services Mr

[45:03] gear thank you Mr chairman Gary gear Environmental Services director here uh

[45:07] this afternoon and bringing the uh Environmental Services budget before you

[45:13] uh and just kind of going to touch on the main drivers and the bigger items

[45:17] for Budget 2025 and uh the lfi cell construction

[45:22] will be is the significant driver this year uh it's going to be completed uh

[45:28] which will include development of 295,000 cubic yards of waste disposal

[45:32] capacity and revenue generation through 2029 and uh potentially further if

[45:38] permit modifications which I'll touch on in a minute uh allow for vertical

[45:42] expansion of the MSW disposal area uh it involves placing 15,000 cubic yards of

[45:50] clay material liner and 3.4 Acres of geom membrane

[45:55] liner uh Le collection pump piping granular material as the barrier on top

[46:01] of the the Geo membrane liner and then Frost protection mssw uh that's one

[46:08] piece you don't when as soon as you build a cell and you got the piping

[46:11] under there and you're collecting the leate we can't have it freeze

[46:14] immediately in November so uh we're a lot of folks don't realize that but

[46:19] we're we're moving we we're considering the fact that we're getting close to

[46:24] capacity with our current space available Within mssw but then as we

[46:29] develop the new cell we actually push 4 to8 ft of mssw on top of that new cell

[46:34] that we be building in 2025 and then we're technically backing up as we

[46:39] accept new waste then because we have space available where that just came for

[46:43] but that provides us our Frost protection for the leech a collection

[46:45] system underneath the cell construction so a lot of moving parts to building a

[46:51] cell and a lot of work involved in doing that uh additionally there'll be

[46:55] ultimate development Road uh improvements within the landfill uh

[46:58] storm water conveyances and basins um additional litter fence uh that we built

[47:04] two years ago that's been a significant Improvement for us along the road and we

[47:09] will capture just the the approximately 700 ft going north yet and that would

[47:14] complete that uh piece for the litter retention uh the permit modifications

[47:20] for the landfill we do are A Primitive fil facility through the Minnesota po

[47:24] control agency uh we will renew in 2025 which would include uh requests for

[47:30] additional vertical expansion of the mssw disposal are area uh we're looking

[47:35] at between 20 and 30 ft of additional height and changing our slopes from what

[47:40] has been historically 5:1 to 3:1 and what we're doing of course is

[47:45] selling space and we can create more volume and more space extend the life of

[47:49] the landfill so uh that is our desire as we move forward in rep permitting

[47:55] because our ultimate capacity capacity is approved through that permit so then

[47:59] the way to gain that space is through height and slope so that is part of the

[48:05] plan for 2025 and then in addition uh lee8

[48:10] recirculation uh we would be proposing but I can't keep glasses on or glasses

[48:15] off um so recirculation of the leech eight

[48:21] uh which uh historically the only option has been well historically we have

[48:25] trucked our leate through the last number of years we've been using our Le

[48:28] treatment facility uh that has been operational uh throughout this whole

[48:33] year now so we're gaining some traction and success with that uh the the idea

[48:39] with the recirculation of the lee8 and get it permitted to be able to do that

[48:43] would be that any downtime or occurrences when we're not able to treat

[48:48] the leech a we can recirculate it through the cell and not have to truck

[48:52] off site so again we're uh a little extra uh liquid in the the mssw uh in

[49:00] our eyes will Aid in compaction of the mssw which again is what we're after

[49:04] because more we can come back more space we can uh maintain to uh continue to uh

[49:11] add disposal within that so uh and just then I guess I mentioned

[49:16] that no no Trucking would be the goal with that too that's kind of been the

[49:19] behind the scenes goal but I think we've learned through our DRP process with the

[49:24] Lee treatment system that it isn't the Magic Bullet that there will just never

[49:28] be any Trucking there is going to be issues in timing uh when things are

[49:32] either broke down or not functioning for some Reas so being able to recirculate

[49:36] will be a big plus for us in our permit to be able to uh inove compaction go

[49:42] ahead commissioner yeah thanks uh this a SE well it's kind of part of the budget

[49:46] I suppose um with all the rain this year that's probably been a huge issue with

[49:51] uh it it hasn't been as bad as maybe uh past

[49:57] situations we've done I believe a little better job of storm water management on

[50:01] the facility we used to uh went and it's it depends on the timing of the cell as

[50:07] well see we have a lot of uh MSW in the current cell so we have absorption so

[50:13] we're a little bit delayed there's a delay in leei coming through it doesn't

[50:17] rain rain today and we see it tomorrow so it there's a little bit of a bounce

[50:22] with that of knowing that exactly but we've also done a better job of storm

[50:26] water managing we used to have a fair amount of runoff

[50:28] into our cells that we've really worked to not allow to happen anymore so uh we

[50:35] are you're trying to just treat leech a and not additional water so that's kind

[50:40] of what I just had said to uh the storm water uh conveyances and basins we can

[50:47] develop and work those as best as possible and it helps our chances to

[50:51] keep the additional rain water and I understand rain water right on the sale

[50:55] yes but it's pretty much just sell then that you're yes correct okay so that's

[51:00] the big gain or the buer Mr thank you so what I hear you

[51:05] saying the leage system is working fairly well this year it's it has been

[51:10] operational we we still are Desiring a higher percentage of permeate which is

[51:16] the clean water going out of it and the concentrate which is what we also

[51:20] recirculate into our cell but we're we're operational which has been a you

[51:26] know it's been two steps forward one step back for a number of years of

[51:28] course but we're it's going well this year and one other followup question any

[51:34] uh chemicals new chemicals that we have to be aware of that you have to be aware

[51:38] of uh to test for I would I would I would say not not

[51:44] anything new that we're uh we are and we had implemented posos testing last year

[51:49] already too that's just kind of the the hot uh Front Burner one that we're

[51:54] watching for but we had already already been monitoring for that and then

[51:58] testing for a of course a laundry list of chemicals through our sampling that

[52:02] we do and uh nothing that we are not finding anything in our monitoring Wells

[52:09] that is coming from any cell we've constructed so we're we're pleased with

[52:14] our reporting results good thank you okay I'll keep trying to go here

[52:21] um oh and well I do want to add one other piece with the Dr the DRP that

[52:26] we're under and you know we're at some point we need to get that pulled into

[52:30] our facility permit as well um and it's good to know that we're we're

[52:36] getting consistent production out of our treatment system do we wish it was would

[52:42] have been working better sooner have we invested a lot yes we have but all mssw

[52:47] landfills have just been informed that they need to have a DRP and a way to

[52:51] treat their leech Aid within five years so I credit the board and past

[52:57] administration and staff that uh worked uh stuff you next out to introduce and

[53:05] try a Le treatment facility uh because we are on the front side of a lot of of

[53:12] a path that's coming for everybody else so at least we're I believe in a good

[53:16] position for what we have done and uh moving

[53:20] forward jumping to equipment uh as another budget driver for 2025 uh a new

[53:26] tra to Dozer The the current one we have is on the 5-year program that we've been

[53:30] under for the years that I've been around so that's this a a replacement

[53:35] but it is a significant item looking to go to a full-on dozer instead of a

[53:40] crawler uh a crawler is kind of a hybrid between uh payloader and and Dozer and

[53:46] the Dozer as we're phasing which the crawler was used primarily in our

[53:50] demolition cell and that phasing out will uh a true Dozer will be a better

[53:56] piece of equipment for landfill operators uh primarily in the MSW cell

[54:01] and again a big plus for providing the compaction that we're looking for

[54:07] um that's it for the landfill just a quick highlight on Planning and Zoning

[54:12] then as well salaries are the main driver there uh number of permits that

[54:17] we've averaged are just over 600 over the last five years uh average fees

[54:22] we've received 357,000 uh there's been 4 new homes

[54:27] permitted this year so those are just some of the things again salaries main

[54:31] driver uh the ssts low interest stolen that's a septic system program it's been

[54:38] a great program over the years a lot of money has been uh loaned at a low

[54:42] interest rate through that um and in recent years we've got the income based

[54:47] grant program available as well uh and that in conjunction with the glacial

[54:51] Lake Sewer District you know we're covering a lot of properties that have

[54:56] good Waste Water treatment and Improvement in the long term so good

[54:59] things going on there so that is all I have for Environmental Services unless

[55:05] there was further I guess I got some questions Midstream but if there's

[55:08] anything further I just make a couple of comments um you know technology is

[55:14] defined as not just equipment but ideas too and uh really have to commend you

[55:19] for I mean we the GLA Lake Sewer District does the same thing we don't

[55:23] want storm water being treated in the sewer district because it's expensive

[55:26] and keeping that storm water out is I think a great uh move forward and then

[55:32] the recirculation you know instead of hauling It Away pump it back on and give

[55:36] it a few more days buy some time as it re or rep percolates I think that was

[55:41] also a good idea couple of big goals for us through the new permit C thank you

[55:45] all right thank you

[55:49] all Andy you haven't had enough of us yet look at back yeah let me hit you

[55:58] okay Andy after Andy is I'll make your short and sweet

[56:04] gentlemen um so most of my operational budgets I was able to have no changes

[56:11] with the acception of some of the larger ones and those driving factors of course

[56:17] are wages and benefits um I did have to raise utilities on three

[56:26] four of those budgets um I wish I would have had a little

[56:32] foresight that uh when was going to start charging us a uh fee for natural

[56:39] gas now too otherwise I would have raised up my budget a little bit more um

[56:45] but we'll see what happens there Mr chair can I ask excuse me where are you

[56:50] on the budget here I mean what oh not on there what's the name of it oh I have

[56:56] all over okay yeah overall it's like 15 okay right that's why I can't

[57:04] find so there's nothing big on any of my operational budget should be fun one uh

[57:14] fun 15 and fun 16

[57:18] um the major changes will be to fund 13 which is our abil

[57:26] fund um so if you look at each of the numbers

[57:33] on a 2025 budget those numbers reflect the capital Improvement plan so

[57:42] how much will be spent in each one of those

[57:44] facilities um to go over uh next year's Capital Improvement plan um we have uh

[57:52] the attorney's office we have the elevator that's going to be a big line

[57:57] item I did hire an engineering firm to write the specs for that is that not

[58:03] nothing I can do um Library we have a proposed roof um

[58:10] the main air conditioner which is original to the building so 25 years

[58:16] old um we have some a split unit to put in in the

[58:21] uh the it room um some vfds for for controlling the

[58:27] fans um County office building we have the elevator that should be right around

[58:33] $95,000 um Public Works would be replacing the majority of the INF floor

[58:39] heat boilers um they've come to their end of the life um we had replaced one

[58:45] last year ready and plan is for uh in-house staff

[58:51] to paint the facility next year and law enforcement center um we

[58:57] have uh building water pumps and drives um we do not have enough water pressure

[59:05] out here so we have to have supplemental pumps to keep the water pressure up in

[59:12] the building not only for showers and stuff but for mainly the fire system to

[59:18] keep the code [Music]

[59:21] um they're failing we've had replaced Parts on the 10 there now it's just dep

[59:27] part was $7,000

[59:30] um so we got that coming down the pipe uh maintenance garage um that's coming

[59:37] on 20 years old um we're looking at the boilers over

[59:42] there and that's about it but you know that comes to a price tag of $960,000

[59:51] amongst all facilities and then you know I I'm going

[59:56] to calculate another 5% on top of that for inflation um so that's another

[1:00:04] $48,000 so we're nearing a million dollars for the capital Improvement plan

[1:00:08] next year and what have we been putting away for

[1:00:12] that 1.3 so we're staying ahead of it yes okay thank you um any questions for

[1:00:21] Andy what I'm going to suggest if I think this is getting a little long for

[1:00:27] those of you who have reported I think it's safe for you if you want to leave

[1:00:31] free to leave and and uh we're not going to ask any more questions

[1:00:36] afterwards we'll get our answers another time thank you all right thanks

[1:00:45] Andy SC

[1:00:56] afternoon try to Breeze through this a little bit

[1:01:01] um so we've got a few priorities for this director Scott hoveland IT

[1:01:07] director um so we got a few priorities for this year

[1:01:11] uh as a whole we tried to stay pretty close to where we were um at up a bit um

[1:01:19] cyber Security's been a big thing in the last couple of years um so and as you

[1:01:24] know we've had a couple of recent events that have thrown us a curve um we've

[1:01:29] invested a lot of money and ironically the things we invested money on were

[1:01:34] things that had issues so sometimes you can't win um but those uh those tools

[1:01:40] that we've implemented are um because of Regulation from the FBI the

[1:01:46] DCA um and so we've purchased some things that we've been really benefited

[1:01:53] from what you've given us through arpa funds uh we're going to continue those

[1:01:58] and next year I think we'll be okay uh be prepared for some other numbers if we

[1:02:03] don't have other grants to pay for those incoming

[1:02:06] years um we've been working with modern modernization of different it systems

[1:02:12] throughout the county uh number of our departments have brought up that it has

[1:02:18] been involved with uh whether we're looking at HR uh scanning or um bringing

[1:02:25] some of our on Prem uh applications to the cloud uh we're looking at various

[1:02:32] things and with all of those bring questions

[1:02:36] concerns U stress so um and money so um there as we've seen there's there's

[1:02:44] money invested here to have it on Prem there are some benefits to having it in

[1:02:49] the cloud um but sometimes that cost us a

[1:02:52] little more money too do it that way um we've done some pilot projects with

[1:02:59] candra County and several counties throughout the state to try to be ahead

[1:03:03] of some of these initiatives and that's been beneficial

[1:03:07] we're trying to get some group purchasing so that we can drive down

[1:03:11] pricing that's what we did with our Sim project that we have implemented uh

[1:03:16] without that big group we would have paid significantly

[1:03:20] more uh operational expenditures uh

[1:03:27] that's that's where we're kind of getting hit um we've got licensing that

[1:03:32] unfortunately Microsoft doesn't ever charge us less than they did the year

[1:03:36] before our backup software our you know all kinds of stuff

[1:03:41] um that's where you know I guess as we were looking at budgets I could not have

[1:03:47] a level budget there because of an uncontrolled um

[1:03:51] fee we're looking at this next year to probably move to Office 365 for the

[1:03:57] whole County uh what that looks like is probably about

[1:04:00] $100,000 and we can take care of that through some of our arpa funds but

[1:04:05] that's not a one-time cost that is an ongoing cost from and I think I've

[1:04:10] talked to a few of you he said hey we just gave you money for this well guess

[1:04:14] what here here's what once we go and put our foot in the water um we're going to

[1:04:19] invest that

[1:04:22] um we're always trying to keep up to date with our our our servers our PCS

[1:04:27] you know we've got a load on a truck right now for the county office building

[1:04:31] so we're always trying to keep our staff working to keep our the rest of the

[1:04:35] county staff up to date so we're not uh fighting old

[1:04:39] equipment um and then security within that infrastructure too we've invested a

[1:04:45] lot of money there to again back to the cyber security what do we have to do to

[1:04:50] keep candy County function um some of the other things

[1:04:55] we've done this year and we're going to continue to do next year we've done some

[1:04:58] Innovation with our technology uh including as you're looking here at your

[1:05:03] uh consoles in front of you U that was one of our big Investments through arpa

[1:05:08] dollars uh we're this next year we'll be looking at boardrooms and things like

[1:05:12] that to make them more usable for County staff uh and then the last would be

[1:05:17] Personnel um as we know that's not something that

[1:05:23] with our salary changes that's been a bigger amount um but that's what we can

[1:05:28] do we're going to look at some different on call um benefits for our staff right

[1:05:33] now it's kind of a comp time one for one and so we're going to look at that

[1:05:36] through this next year um again I don't know that that'll be a big expenditure

[1:05:41] in the future but down the line so um with this like I said we have

[1:05:48] greatly benefited from the decisions that have been made to give the the IT

[1:05:53] department uh financial assistance through grants

[1:05:56] uh we're going to invest those things to do the right thing however um in coming

[1:06:03] years we're going to be asking for more money or more or we're going to be

[1:06:07] continually looking for Grants to fund those things sure keep looking for

[1:06:11] Grants what's that keep looking for Grants yeah yeah well and I think that's

[1:06:15] just it I think as a county um I think we're always looking for that right and

[1:06:20] and who is that and who's got time to do it so um yes

[1:06:26] um so um with that like I said we're trying to look at long-term Solutions

[1:06:31] not onetime Solutions onetime payments and that's where we're at as far as

[1:06:38] technology for the county any questions question cor just a

[1:06:43] comment and a question um have you seen a lot of changes it over the years I can

[1:06:49] remember back uh when Jay helped me with a floppy disc it's a long long way since

[1:06:55] then hasn't it been and uh you got a lot of experience I appreciate that and

[1:06:59] you're doing a good job in that aspect um one thing I hear from some of my

[1:07:04] meetings U is that we need a a room you know with a good uh uh monitor you know

[1:07:12] for Zoom meetings and things like that is there plan to set up one of the uh

[1:07:17] the meeting rooms building what we'll start to see with as I talked about with

[1:07:20] our board um our different conference rooms um something in so you can walk in

[1:07:25] with your laptop connect to the screen and then you just that'd be really nice

[1:07:31] needed you know and as we see in this building there are not enough there's

[1:07:35] not enough spaces to have big meetings like that so but even the smaller rooms

[1:07:41] we do have we still get you know 10 15 20 people some of them so be nice to

[1:07:46] have one there thank you all right other questions thank you Scott appreciate

[1:07:52] that I'm gonna pause for just a second here we've got

[1:07:56] so the agenda initially said 90 minutes for this and need just started at 11:

[1:08:01] we're approaching no start at noon was no but start at about 11 so now

[1:08:10] we're quite a bit over is there any way we could uh take five minutes well I'm

[1:08:15] just wondering if we could uh do the rest of this at the next meeting I know

[1:08:19] we've already had staff waiting around or we power through it because no we

[1:08:23] might have it another okay I just wanted to ask all

[1:08:33] rightline good afternoon Caroline Khan uh Health and Human Services director I

[1:08:37] know you guys have ifs reports um but Carol puts together these really nice

[1:08:42] easy to follow would you like a copy of those um I can pass those

[1:08:50] around a little EAS to walk

[1:08:56] oh mov

[1:09:00] over he's pred ready for me so uh today I'd like to just talk to you a little

[1:09:05] bit about our themes for the upcoming year and how we're really going to be

[1:09:08] focusing on optimizing our Synergy uh we've been a health and human services

[1:09:12] department for I believe since an Steen was our

[1:09:16] director is when we made that transition um and we're still continuing to to way

[1:09:20] look for ways that we can leverage both sides of our department to to really

[1:09:24] improve the work that we do um so we're going to continue to focus on right

[1:09:28] sizing our initiatives and optimizing our resources to streamline some of our

[1:09:32] processes and efficiencies some of those things that you know Scott talked about

[1:09:36] in partnering with it uh we're looking at moving forward with a tech program

[1:09:40] that allows like our text messages instead of typing them out we can just

[1:09:44] cop click and drag uh and still meet some of the requirements that we need

[1:09:49] but really decrease some of that staff burden on areas such as that as well as

[1:09:54] things like we've talked about uh with our caseworks and E signature

[1:09:57] and finding ways that we can use the systems that we have or other systems to

[1:10:01] improve the way that we work um continue to look at our organizational Frameworks

[1:10:07] and team designs so we've recently had some changes within our Public Health

[1:10:11] Department under foundational Public Health responsibilities and instead of

[1:10:14] adding staff really did an assessment of capacity within our staff uh to see

[1:10:19] areas in which we could grow we've identified some other areas of

[1:10:22] opportunity where we were able to ask um our Services side what are areas that

[1:10:27] you need uh so we'll be moving forward with looking to uh bring forward an

[1:10:31] opportunity to do jail parenting programming and how can we work um for

[1:10:35] needs on one side and benefit from the other and work together to accomplish

[1:10:40] some of those goals and that kind of still rolls into like our our culture of

[1:10:44] shared services and team design and how can Public Health and Human Services

[1:10:48] continue to to partner and and move forward for things such as parenting

[1:10:53] education and others um and the again continue to identify um and strategies

[1:10:59] to boost productivity for our and satisfaction overall for our staff and

[1:11:03] our clients um with that comes some changes as you can see if we'll I

[1:11:08] believe the public health one is on top um Carol has done a remarkable job

[1:11:13] putting this in a nice easy format for us so just to call out some areas in our

[1:11:18] revenues I really want to highlight that foundational Public Health dollars uh it

[1:11:23] was really a strategy from the state to make sure that this doesn't decrease our

[1:11:26] Levy um that's very important so you're going to see a decrease um in candy

[1:11:31] ohigh County's Public Health request on a levy but that's because our our team

[1:11:35] is doing such a great job and Carol's team on the finance side is doing a

[1:11:38] great job on Revenue recapture and providing Revenue delivered Services um

[1:11:43] so that the reason you're witnessing that is because of this this these

[1:11:48] foundational dollars but it is a direct result of the revenues that we are

[1:11:52] receiving for the services that we're delivering to the community

[1:11:56] um we continue like everybody else to look for Grants and utilize grants

[1:12:01] within the work that we do to to reach our goals most of our um change that

[1:12:07] you'll see I know that it's probably jumping out so I'm just going to address

[1:12:10] the elephant is that increase on our health promotion line we've seen

[1:12:14] decreases a in availability for funding to support areas like CTC and our Public

[1:12:19] Health has done a really good stewardly job um and with that increase in Revenue

[1:12:24] uh we were still a ble to modify some opportunities to still achieve those

[1:12:27] goals for like our child and teen checkup and our other health promotion

[1:12:30] goals um and so we chose to allocate putting in a few more dollars to

[1:12:35] maintain that consistency in our our community impact um while still moving

[1:12:42] forward with a decrease on that Levy request again if you move over to our

[1:12:47] Human Services side you'll see uh modifications some of our Public's uh

[1:12:52] purchase of soil or our recoveries uh there was a change in Parental fees uh

[1:12:57] from a legislative standpoint uh so we are no longer able to collect those and

[1:13:02] that is where you'll see a majority of that decrease under our recoveries line

[1:13:06] um other revenues we continue to move forward and find ways that we can

[1:13:12] leverage the revenue opportunities that we can get under our time study and um

[1:13:17] other areas uh Carol's team does a really good job helping educate our

[1:13:21] staff especially with staff turnover to make sure we're optimizing every

[1:13:24] opportunity to receive that state and federal funding for the work that we do

[1:13:29] um and then if you move down you will notice uh a shift in in Personnel that

[1:13:34] is our main about 64% of our budget does go to Personnel so that is um

[1:13:40] able it's a it's a pretty hefty portion but I think it's really stable if you

[1:13:44] look at the budget that you're looking at from 2024 didn't yet allocate for

[1:13:49] those increases and we're having more staff participate in our health

[1:13:52] insurance um so that's why you're noticing that in increase there but

[1:13:56] overall I'm really impressed with the way that candy ohigh county has been

[1:13:59] able to keep their per capita cost of of Levy dollars spent on the Human Services

[1:14:05] delivery if you look at that uh number our per capita cost is pretty in line

[1:14:10] from 2020 and if you look at the Statewide per capita cost that they had

[1:14:14] a pretty significant increase so I think it really goes to the Testament of the

[1:14:18] work that candy ohigh county has been doing to maintain a stable Service

[1:14:22] delivery while um increased demands and regulations and changes on the work that

[1:14:27] we do so I'd just like to highlight that as

[1:14:32] well Mr thank you yeah per capita costs um we're staying pretty reasonable there

[1:14:39] that's good still a lot of money per cap when you think about Services uh but uh

[1:14:45] at least we're staying pretty much in as we go along um I noticed also on here

[1:14:50] that the arpa funds you know they're running out now we hired the staff with

[1:14:54] them and I'm assuming then for the health or the for the Human Services

[1:14:58] Levy increasing by 463,000 um that's mainly Levy dollars for

[1:15:04] salaries for these positions having to pick up the full amount for that as well

[1:15:09] and is there any new hires in this position no going forward now we are

[1:15:15] still analyzing some needs but at this point the budget we're putting forward

[1:15:18] doesn't have the FTE um we we'll always find needs and desires but we still have

[1:15:22] to remain stewardly so we're going to Contin to move forward with

[1:15:26] opportunities to see what we can do to meet that need uh without the additional

[1:15:30] increase of Staffing at this and so the the levy increases of mainly salaries

[1:15:34] and that we're trying to yep and then the offset of that minor recovery

[1:15:39] reduction so that's kind of if you look on that differential

[1:15:43] side yep so okay thank you all right any other

[1:15:51] questions thank you I have a few questions but I'll I'll ask

[1:15:55] at a different time because in the interested time

[1:16:01] yeah members of the board M Public Works director um on your screen is I've kind

[1:16:07] of done it in four four major areas this is the

[1:16:11] proactive side of my budget the reactive side is the maintenance side which is

[1:16:15] about three and a half million um I didn't list that out because it's kind

[1:16:19] of what people expect this is what um we are they they expect it to do forward

[1:16:26] thinking they kind of assume that we're doing maintenance with that note

[1:16:31] um the other thing I don't have just for the record is the glacial lakes will be

[1:16:36] coming up in October November that's an Enterprise fund so that's not included

[1:16:40] in here and I think that's oh and then so

[1:16:45] let's just start out with Capital Equipment we have

[1:16:49] $778,000 of Capital Equipment we're looking at and we're recommending that

[1:16:55] we split um that between Levy dollars and buffer fund dollars we did have

[1:17:00] about 120,000 of that is eligible for the buffer fund which would be the skid

[1:17:05] steer tra o conditioner stump grinder so I is a as kind of a the administrator

[1:17:11] and I were thinking like if this is a you know like a headd direction we can

[1:17:16] go this will help also the the levy reduction because our Levy has remained

[1:17:21] the same for Public Works 4.7 and so this would be one way that we have a

[1:17:26] revenue Source or an area that we could use which is an eligible cost now this

[1:17:33] will leave at the end of the at the end of 25 we'll still have a balance of

[1:17:37] about $700,000 in that so with these purchases so you did I hear you looking

[1:17:46] for some sort of well to me it just makes we were just we were just thinking

[1:17:51] like because it is a direct impact to the levy it's not you don't need to make

[1:17:56] a vote but I'm just if the general direction we we haven't done a lot of

[1:18:00] purchases with the buffer account but we do and we can't and I guess the point I

[1:18:06] would make is that the money is there continues to come in there's no sense in

[1:18:11] sitting on it so if we have eligible purchases and eligible uses for that we

[1:18:16] may as well use it otherwise and granted we have pretty good interest rates right

[1:18:20] now but money is there to use and on that note one of the things that we were

[1:18:26] looking at buying in 2024 was the we're buying the skider a trailer right now

[1:18:32] Austin uses just a pickup and then we borrow one ton from public works and we

[1:18:36] would just um maybe get rid of his pickup and go with a 250 or 3/4 so he

[1:18:41] can pull it so with that being said um we would like there's no impact to the

[1:18:48] 24 budget but maybe to purchase that now with the $24 it would still that was all

[1:18:55] calculated into this whole um balance of the

[1:18:59] buffer anyway you can think about that um but we would like to maybe proceed

[1:19:05] with that um as as administrator said you know this is for us kind of a

[1:19:10] planning and preservation year um but I do want to highlight four projects that

[1:19:15] we're going to be doing for safety projects one is we're going to do the

[1:19:19] grade separation over the Burlington Northern railroad tracks the the $9.6

[1:19:24] million grade separation 're we're going to be doing

[1:19:28] uh 12 intersections with LED stop signs we're going to throw in some where two

[1:19:33] of the sites will have rumble strips so that's a big change we're going to have

[1:19:37] I believe uh 35 or so intersections with with LED stop signs now U that because

[1:19:46] the state did an overb Buu last year um we're going to be doing our grounding

[1:19:49] what reflective again this year through the federal dollars and then um we do a

[1:19:55] off-road Trail project every year um and we're doing one on Lake Avenue South and

[1:20:02] then one up from kind of the Bible Camp Northerly on our County Road

[1:20:07] 95 uh construction is 25.2 million that's 31 miles of Paving and overlay

[1:20:13] there is no construction in there but we are going to be doing um some full depth

[1:20:18] Reclamation which is we have the grade we're going to go all the way down into

[1:20:22] the gravel and then build it back up so it's quasi the same as construction

[1:20:27] you'll have the same quality as a new constructed Road and then the last um

[1:20:33] thing I want to point out uh maybe I'll go back to construction some of the

[1:20:37] notable projects we're going to be doing next year is a Tri County

[1:20:41] Road we're going to be doing the College Road um from 5 over to

[1:20:47] 41 um we'll be doing the bridge over here and then um 7th Street in Wilmer or

[1:20:53] Our Kind Ro 41 from the fairgrounds up to Walmer Avenue so those are kind of

[1:20:57] like your Flagship bigger projects that you might see if you

[1:21:08] will it would be all of our County we would

[1:21:12] start where 10 and two split and do the 10 and two little dance there and go all

[1:21:19] the way up then go all the way North to

[1:21:25] a mile North I think of 102 I think it's five

[1:21:31] miles yeah yep yep and we would what we're looking at doing is an FDR and

[1:21:36] Paving grass line to Grass line so it would be almost it would it

[1:21:42] would be the identical same road as eight BL and North it would be the exact

[1:21:47] that look would be what that would be up to is it not nope NOP no you can tell we

[1:21:55] love construction um the full depth Reclamation uh on roads used for Highway

[1:22:01] 23 detours yeah people are going to be very happy about that is that covered in

[1:22:05] the cost of the no uh orlane project by the state no we don't get

[1:22:12] no um not even close like it that's just a

[1:22:17] token of feel good what you have to do to get

[1:22:22] yeah the inter agency cooperation we use there incidentally you know we do

[1:22:27] use trunk highways as Rd tours as well and we don't pay them anything so um on

[1:22:33] the budget side our Revenue um we have 12 Revenue sources

[1:22:39] that we fund this program with I listed the top six and as far as budget goes

[1:22:45] our Levy has not changed so 4.7 million our budget changes because our budget

[1:22:53] fluctuates with construction Revenue so it went from a little over 30 million

[1:22:58] last year to 32.16 um with that I believe that was

[1:23:07] and that 32 includes uh the bridge y corre so in another year it might be six

[1:23:13] million for The Interchange at New London yep so yeah that that's why this

[1:23:19] this budget is a little hard to when when we

[1:23:23] show it in the budget report because if you get a big Grant if you don't get a

[1:23:28] big Grant if you it it goes up and down quite a

[1:23:33] bit all right any other questions no good thank

[1:23:38] you CHF little break oh I'm sorry corki requested a three minute break and I am

[1:23:44] going to set a timer on you used to have a little thing with

[1:23:48] s I'm gonna set well no that was a 15 minute

[1:24:23] e

[1:24:53] e

[1:25:23] e

[1:25:53] e

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[1:26:53] e

[1:27:23] e e

[1:28:23] she we reconvene the KY County Board of

[1:28:27] Commissioners sh welcome afternoon chairman members of the board Eric tffs

[1:28:33] from cany County Sheriff um well here to just give you

[1:28:37] some highlights for for blow lights however you want to look at it for

[1:28:41] 2025 um as far as the Sheriff's Office concerned when you're looking at your

[1:28:47] document um there's three main areas of course the county jail falls under my

[1:28:55] budget uh Dispatch Center and then there's one listed as Sheriff then also

[1:29:01] boat and water safety and and uh snow bill Patrol and saf so those are small

[1:29:07] little things that are just taken care of by grants and stuff

[1:29:11] so for your reference but one of the biggest things that will probably happen

[1:29:17] in 2025 will be the purchase of a computer

[1:29:20] AED dispatch um records management Corrections management

[1:29:24] civil process and law enforcement mobile software currently we're running LG

[1:29:30] which we purchased for a really really low price a long time ago um and uh

[1:29:37] they're sort of the company is sort of ending it so to speak through lack of

[1:29:43] support and there's a few aspects of it that don't currently work um we did kind

[1:29:49] of scramble in 20 when I first took office in 2023 all of the uh law

[1:29:54] enforcement agencies that were using letg were under the assumption turned

[1:29:59] out to be false information that letg was just going to end of life at a

[1:30:02] certain time and not support its software which would of course

[1:30:07] essentially us uh that didn't happen but they have really backed off

[1:30:11] on their support so a lot of agencies are looking at different different

[1:30:16] products that are out there um some agencies have already gone Sterns County

[1:30:20] has gone to another replacement um called Tyler

[1:30:26] Technologies um we're looking really hard at some of these vendors right now

[1:30:32] and we're also looking at the possibility of maybe being a host site

[1:30:37] for the outlying uh agencies that's around us that's what Sterns County is

[1:30:41] actually doing with Benton County and a few other agencies up there so there

[1:30:45] might be some Senate appropriation appropriation funding available for that

[1:30:50] type of scenario but we're still kind of exploring that so uh the next item would

[1:30:57] be we're going to trade in if it's worth anything we still have the old style ATV

[1:31:03] we haven't upgraded to a side by side so um we've been kind of on our wish list

[1:31:07] so we're looking at working with some of the local businesses on that as well um

[1:31:14] far as Staffing one thing we're going to try to explore we haven't posted for it

[1:31:19] yet but we will be shortly uh part-time positions in the jail that will be

[1:31:23] correct directional officers that will be assigned to court

[1:31:26] security that is in response to more in-person uh Court hearings so things

[1:31:31] are moving away from virtual when we were having virtual hearings the

[1:31:36] correctional officer that was escorting the person to their hearing wasn't

[1:31:40] technically leaving the facility so didn't really affect Staffing levels but

[1:31:45] when they leave and go to the courthouse that affects the Staffing levels which

[1:31:48] are based on inade population that kind of thing so now that we're doing more in

[1:31:51] person so we're going to explore you know the word is

[1:31:57] that maybe part-time position will be more you know desirable for some people

[1:32:02] out there we'll see so and then also a medical secretary to assist with the uh

[1:32:07] medical records within the jail which were required to

[1:32:10] maintain and Cooper who's coming up on 11 years of service um and be our German

[1:32:16] Shepherd Canine will be retiring at the end of this year so the intent then

[1:32:20] would be to purchase another uh K9 in 20 25 but for that we we still have uh um

[1:32:28] donations that we had received from from dunck and from the wi Area Community

[1:32:31] Foundation to fund that so any questions nice and brief question for the sh so of

[1:32:38] the it's a significant increase of nearly 10% what portion of that maybe

[1:32:43] it's a better question for administrative Baker what portion of

[1:32:46] that would be Levy dollars it's all Levy isn't it well is

[1:32:51] there any do we use any of the funds to the jail is one of our um areas where we

[1:32:57] do have um Revenue positive Revenue uh can we offset that with that Revenue

[1:33:05] um instead of using levies Levy dollars I would recommend that um but

[1:33:13] the sheriff's budget is in the general fund so therefore yes it is all

[1:33:19] ly all right thank you other questions all the yes so all the software

[1:33:26] increases of a million plus is that Levy them too they saying that's what I mean

[1:33:30] that yeah I can explain that further so that will come from you know we a

[1:33:35] significant portion of that can come from our 911 fund uh because you know

[1:33:40] the cad system for instance which is a bulk of this you know we could it's a

[1:33:46] it's a pretty comprehensive Software System it's everything from the the

[1:33:50] mobile system that your squad cars are running that the each office

[1:33:54] using it's the management records management system and the jail software

[1:33:59] for intaking booking in inmates retaining uh records of them uh it's uh

[1:34:06] so that's the corrections management the Civil process software and then of

[1:34:09] course our records management itself because we hate we keep all of the uh

[1:34:13] Public Safety records for the county and but yeah so areas of that

[1:34:19] software that directly relate to the piece that was dispatch CER Center then

[1:34:24] that can come out of the 911 fund then of course you know other agencies that

[1:34:28] contribute will be part of that as well because Wilmer will be on the same

[1:34:32] system as us as well more likely okay so all these that you listed here are not

[1:34:38] weren't budgeted items last year right no they were not so really it's more

[1:34:45] than $460,000 or whatever

[1:34:47] 40 a lost number whatever the uh 10% increase this is on top of that

[1:34:55] correct yes yeah what fund would that I'm sorry I missed your question so um I

[1:35:02] lost the uh the number but roughly 10% increase the question I asked about the

[1:35:08] levy if that all comes out of the levy and the answer was yes but then um then

[1:35:13] there's this we'll call it a million dollars for the mobile software uh uh up

[1:35:18] replacement 33,000 and 120,000 so roughly $1.2 million

[1:35:24] does that also come out of Levy or where does that come from well medical

[1:35:28] secretary position we were discussing if that would come out of the reserves the

[1:35:32] carry over yeah boarding Sheriff from the jail Reserve what about the 1

[1:35:37] million one to two million on mobile software so that that's just the total

[1:35:42] proc price of the U particular software that we're looking at right now so

[1:35:48] that's total software and implementation and everything so like it explained it

[1:35:53] could come come from you know some of that's going to come from existing funds

[1:35:56] within the 911 fund that we have um some could come from other agencies um if we

[1:36:02] end up being a host agency there could be some possibility for Senate

[1:36:06] appropriation funds as well uh because they're they

[1:36:11] funding like using the word consolidation but at the combining of

[1:36:15] resources so like if we have you know surrounding counties then um participate

[1:36:20] in the same uh software as us that would be a cost savings for everyone and then

[1:36:27] so there uh St Louis county is actually going through that process right now and

[1:36:31] I believe they I guess my bottom line question is that do we have everything

[1:36:36] in and I know this is a draft but is everything in the 88.5% proposed okay so

[1:36:43] if this is part of the levy then it's already included in that

[1:36:46] 8.5 if this would come from existing other funding sources as well as a Le so

[1:36:53] otherwise it's it's about what 1% increase in the levy but it's not going

[1:36:57] to be totally one the 439,000

[1:37:04] so in other words that's that's my I just want to know where the money's

[1:37:08] gonna come from so it's I'm not saying what you requested and what's what you

[1:37:13] got have now you need so this how it's all going to work yeah I I know I may

[1:37:17] have misunderstood too my role here but I'm just uh pointing out some of the

[1:37:22] highlights good so the the the software it may not

[1:37:27] even happen in 2025 we may stick with LJ through that year the uh um yeah and

[1:37:34] then the and the can9 and that's that's money we already have okay and if the

[1:37:39] software happens and I think I'm understanding it now it then it would

[1:37:42] come out of um either grants or reserves wouldn't we wouldn't add to the general

[1:37:48] fund correct where Sheriff tson was kind of coming in with the slide and maybe I

[1:37:52] missed it from the beginning was part of the um the directive I gave to

[1:37:58] department heads is what's planning even if it's not 2025 planning what's

[1:38:03] upcoming and so this Pro process might start in 2025 but it might not be

[1:38:09] implemented till 2026 so this is not included in the budget so that 88.5% is

[1:38:16] everything that's included in your ifs a little bit I can I can explain more um

[1:38:22] but some of stuff on his slide like that medical secretary I know he's been

[1:38:26] having conversations with Connie and I regarding you know maybe that comes from

[1:38:30] the carryover dollars from our reserves because it's a part-time position there

[1:38:36] would be no benefits let's maybe look at this more creatively um and really this

[1:38:41] is needed because of you know our ice contract and all of the documentation

[1:38:46] that they're needed um they need to do right now it's it's a lot of work for

[1:38:51] correctional officers and there they are are already worked very hard with the

[1:38:56] amount of um individuals we have in our County jail and so and like he said the

[1:39:01] the K9 we already have those funds so these are just kind of upcoming things

[1:39:06] that are we're looking at moving forward as well so when he comes back maybe does

[1:39:10] request to to utilize reserves or something on um to outdate the board on

[1:39:16] this this is you would have had a heads up so the medical secretary will happen

[1:39:21] in 2025 we're hoping because it is needed and

[1:39:25] it's causing a lot of distress with but it's not in the

[1:39:28] 8.5% because it wouldn't need okay I really feel strongly yet that any salary

[1:39:35] increases or positions be put on the levy and not come out of reserves

[1:39:38] because then next year we're have to put on the levy in addition to the increase

[1:39:43] over that year so I'm fine if but then we should be in the in the

[1:39:48] levy so if that's the need there for for those positions let's do it let's put it

[1:39:53] in the levy instead Tak on reserves so my question Mr chair would

[1:39:59] it would it be are you talking the Jil the reserves from the jail or okay so

[1:40:04] that's that's income so it's kind of like you know paying for that position

[1:40:11] yeah it's not coming out of general fund reserves it's it's just coming out of

[1:40:15] what excess the jail has so the jail is basically for the medical secretary as

[1:40:19] well but but that position excuse me Mr chair is

[1:40:24] it may be pay for that position for that year but you're going to have to put

[1:40:27] that on the levy sooner or later and you have to make that up am I am I correct

[1:40:31] on on that Karen well right now the jail is

[1:40:35] carrying um a healthy reserve it would it would pay those salaries for quite

[1:40:41] some time well there if the ice contract were to change in the near future that's

[1:40:47] going to change are and I think nobody's

[1:40:52] questioning the need no just how we do it yeah what bank we we take what fund

[1:40:57] we take it out of CU When we approve this Levy after a while whatever percent

[1:41:03] it ends up being um is that 125 for the secretary coming being added to that or

[1:41:10] is it out of your F and I think I heard the answer those are really small

[1:41:13] details in the grand scheme of things 1% is 350,000 I mean those are things that

[1:41:18] Karen and I administr but three of those makes it gives you another percent I

[1:41:22] don't those are things Eric and I have had conversations if we would add a

[1:41:26] correctional officer if the medical secretary would have we needed if

[1:41:30] something were to happen with contract those are things we have right this is

[1:41:35] just Eric's Department if you get 30,000 another department you add them

[1:41:40] all up and pretty soon you've got another percent on the on the

[1:41:45] budget deal Eric if if that dispatching part of it if that breaks

[1:41:54] are you like in trouble or you got some way to keep it going I guess that's my

[1:41:59] if it's something that's going to break and it's going to be broke then I know

[1:42:03] that's a lot of money but you need that yeah I I know what you're saying it was

[1:42:08] kind of the fear early on um but uh know it's it's a company that's been so the

[1:42:13] reason we got it for such a good price many years ago is because we were one of

[1:42:16] the first people that bought into it they were they were like a startup and

[1:42:20] they they gave us a really good deal I think right around 250 50,000 we paid

[1:42:24] for that entire system um but you know I as things happen as companies change

[1:42:30] hands and then you know they they sort of you know how technology they sort of

[1:42:35] just make things become outdated intentionally so the company that

[1:42:39] currently owns what we're using offers another product and they they want to

[1:42:44] push you to that you know so I mean the support is still there the company still

[1:42:47] exists it's not like they but you know the the the scramble or the

[1:42:53] the Panic that we experienced a little over year a little over a year ago was I

[1:42:57] think just a rumor amongst probably these companies you know it was kind of

[1:43:01] a mess so M Mr yeah so at at my Emergency Services Board we had we had a

[1:43:08] big conversation about this a lot of these providers they they kind of got

[1:43:12] you because at when they first sell it to you they go we got support but then

[1:43:17] after about five years they go yeah we're not going to support this year

[1:43:21] anymore but we have a you on here and so that's where they they kind of get

[1:43:26] everybody and everybody feels like what how can we do what we do about this and

[1:43:31] there really isn't you're kind of stuck I mean y I'm glad we didn't there were

[1:43:36] some counties that jumped onto something really quick um and I'm glad we didn't

[1:43:40] because now we have the advantage of being able to sit back and look at this

[1:43:45] product that we're really interested in that is currently being put uh to work

[1:43:49] or to put to use in Sterns County and uh to see how it goals for them and uh

[1:43:54] especially that part where where Benton is actually is is going to be

[1:43:58] participating as a user within so Stern already got B County on board it's it's

[1:44:04] kind of neat so I'm glad we're able to to see that to let that them kind of

[1:44:08] Blaze the trailer so to speak all right well thanks Sheriff

[1:44:15] right free to go all right thanks veteran services I don't see Trish here

[1:44:20] so I assume administrator breaker is going to handle this one

[1:44:23] TR was unable to be here so I'll just do a a quick recap

[1:44:28] um information on the slide what we're trying to do within the veteran services

[1:44:32] officer or veteran service office um we did increase the pums for the advisory

[1:44:38] council members that's been talked about and so that was added in the budget um

[1:44:43] we're planning multiple veterans events throughout the county but those events

[1:44:47] are paid for through the grant that we get through the state which we get that

[1:44:52] $10,000 Trish was just here to approve that contract so that's what um pays for

[1:44:58] the majority of those outings and some of that is in kind or um different free

[1:45:05] events and things like that throughout the community um and then we're working

[1:45:10] with St Cloud standown and bringing food to Veterans um who are struggling

[1:45:15] financially um or have uh personal burdens things like that to deliver uh

[1:45:21] five to 10 boxes a week so they're narrow down um some of those veterans

[1:45:25] that would be able to be able to have that service one thing we're also

[1:45:29] working on is providing a timely newsletter with the information that

[1:45:33] we're working on um and then some sort of mass communication so we can send out

[1:45:38] a text where all veterans that sign up receive the same information a reminder

[1:45:43] if there's an event reminder for the advisory Council different things like

[1:45:47] that and so we are working um we're working with Melissa actually be on a

[1:45:53] software that's been utilized in our Emergency Management and then we'll

[1:45:56] eventually be working with Scott to see if there's other solutions that we're

[1:45:59] able to use so that's a wrap up for all the

[1:46:02] department heads reasoning why and I think I said this a lot before was the

[1:46:07] reasoning why I had departments had department head heads come and present

[1:46:11] is because this is an increase in the levy I wanted you to hear not just from

[1:46:16] me um because of the raise uh increase in the levy I wanted you to hear it from

[1:46:21] them that these are the needs that I hear from them on determining whether or

[1:46:26] not it's approved or denied in the overall budget and so one thing I I

[1:46:31] think we'll start doing this maybe every other year not every year we need to do

[1:46:34] this presentation like I said before some counties do it some counties don't

[1:46:39] um but I think it's really important to hear from All County departments and for

[1:46:42] you to hear from them because that's what I'm hearing when I present to you

[1:46:47] the final Levy so moving forward the wages so this is something I also

[1:46:52] included at the TNT meeting as well um so included is the full-time wages for

[1:46:57] 2025 2026 and 2027 that's just a look ahead on what we're seeing so this does

[1:47:04] include um the steps in Cola and um this also fluctuates um like Shane said

[1:47:13] sometimes when you have someone retire and they're at the the top of the scale

[1:47:17] and you have you bring someone in and there at a step one or two that makes a

[1:47:21] huge difference if somebody's coming in taking our insurance things like that

[1:47:25] health insurance plays a role in all of that and so um this is always a moving

[1:47:29] Target but this is the best guesstimate that we have for 26 and 27 and to note

[1:47:35] 26 would be the end of our three-year contracts uh and so 27 would be a new

[1:47:40] contract and I don't um I think the staff have really appreciated the wage

[1:47:44] increase and the the relook at the the insurance and the benefits and in

[1:47:50] conversations you know Connie and I have already talked T won't be here um for

[1:47:55] going into 27 I don't feel that we'll need to relook at our wage we might

[1:47:58] modify our wage scale and maybe relook at the percentage in between steps how

[1:48:04] many people are at a step 10 and kind of re-evaluate that but I don't for see

[1:48:09] coming to the board and asking for an increase um I I got a question Karen do

[1:48:16] you have the 2024 numbers for for those um but if you had the total I do not

[1:48:26] have those with me okay I could get those though and send okay and then um

[1:48:31] this does not include I think this year if I understand right this year I

[1:48:35] understand we still have the uh we still have the health Reserve

[1:48:42] health health insurance Reserve but I don't see health insurance or is that in

[1:48:47] here some 25 26 27 no so we don't have our final health

[1:48:53] insurance numbers for 25 and so that's something that we um we receip numbers

[1:48:59] this morning I'll I'll get into that um but if you give me one second I'll

[1:49:05] have and if you if you could do the total that's good

[1:49:10] enough of full-time wages part-time wages overtime wages F and P you

[1:49:15] received that in the TNT presentation yeah do you have them in front of you

[1:49:19] okay

[1:49:31] 2024 was 36987 300 and that was all included in the TNT presentation from 20

[1:49:40] yeah would you repeat that again 36 um for 2024 fulltime wages were 34

[1:49:47] m987 300 parttime wages we estimated at 3

[1:49:53] 96,000 OT wages we estimated at 445,000 F Pera we estimated at

[1:50:01] 5,577 300 totaling 41,46 that's the number I'm looking 41

[1:50:08] million you talk fast 41,46

[1:50:16] 1100 okay thank you and so go there's a lot of moving

[1:50:22] parts right now um I was at my regional meeting that we host here in Wilmer a

[1:50:28] couple weeks ago and I was asking other counties where they're at and on the

[1:50:32] preliminary Levy and they were like oh my gosh we're not even close yet Kelsey

[1:50:35] where are you you're really ahead of the game and so there's a lot of moving

[1:50:39] parts from today until September 16th now and that's where today really the

[1:50:46] budget work session how I look at this is really the guidance and direction

[1:50:51] from you not to get in the weed that's my job to do that work is really the

[1:50:54] guidance to when I get to the September 16th that we can approve that you can

[1:51:00] approve that Levy September 3rd I'll provide an update to the board on where

[1:51:04] we're coming in it so we're still kind of fine-tuning things

[1:51:10] um that's typically how this work session should work then is um you know

[1:51:16] Gathering that information looking for guidance from the board the next slide

[1:51:20] would be the Quasi government requests that come into the county um you can see

[1:51:25] there's an additional column it says requested 2025 those are all the amounts

[1:51:32] that have been requested and the total at the bottom

[1:51:36] and then you see the last column there is recommended

[1:51:39] 2025 these are the recommendations that I have put

[1:51:44] in how do you reach how do you arrive at those

[1:51:47] recommendations I base it off the levy so however what's requested for the

[1:51:56] 2025 that's in that 8.5% Levy so when I say that

[1:52:02] 88.5% don't take that to heart because if you were to look at me and Nod say

[1:52:08] Kelsey go with that recommended that amount that already lowers the

[1:52:13] levy in on the quasa government I'm sorry I'm a little

[1:52:19] confused on that yeah you're which one you're talking about with if you were to

[1:52:24] look at the requested 2025 yeah those are all in the ifs budget that got us to

[1:52:30] that 8.5% ly right but if I were to put in the recommended that already lowers

[1:52:36] that 88.5% Levy oh gotta yeah okay thank you for the

[1:52:42] explanation but so yeah so the the the requested is the

[1:52:48] 8.5 no you or the I'm talking about the

[1:52:54] total uh recommendation for the levy it's not really a recommendation or

[1:53:01] where it would be at if we accepted it today right y if we accepted the

[1:53:06] recommend your recommended instead of the requests no the request the request

[1:53:11] yeah so I'm sayfe yeah okay and I'm okay with that I think it's right

[1:53:18] on and so these are you know I I lowered so like s swcd they requested that

[1:53:26] 536 536,000 I lowered that to 350,000 now this doesn't I I want to really

[1:53:33] preface this doesn't mean I don't support the S swcd and support the water

[1:53:38] initiative this is in order if the board at the end of this work session says

[1:53:42] Kelsey I really would like you to get in get the levy to a six to a six seven and

[1:53:47] a half% then that is what I'm going to look at to cut um and so that's where um

[1:53:55] some of my recommendations there is some areas of

[1:54:00] improvement and so if we wanted to use one-time exception funds like reserves

[1:54:05] things like that what we did with s swcd this for 2024 we approved their request

[1:54:12] at 285,000 but then the board approved to

[1:54:16] pull $300,000 from the building fund reserves for their new building and so

[1:54:22] are there is some wiggle room when I say if we couldn't approve the the entire if

[1:54:28] you wouldn't want to approve the entire requested

[1:54:32] amount Mr chair thank you so with with the soil and water request for the

[1:54:38] 536 what is all that for then wages that is all for wages exactly

[1:54:45] okay so this would be an ongoing request I mean or or that it's in the it's going

[1:54:49] to be built in the levy so each year then if we did the full

[1:54:54] amount typically their requests don't go down but in this instance it could go

[1:55:00] down I you know that's really up to that operating board like if you can see CCT

[1:55:05] in 2024 requested 20,500 and in 2025 they requested 20,000

[1:55:13] so it's not typical that you're going to see a a quasi government entity go down

[1:55:18] in their request um but because of the jump from with s swcd from 285 to 536

[1:55:26] you might see that go back down or kind of even out a little bit but I I'm not

[1:55:30] sure on that so I because I I I may misunderstand this but is some of the

[1:55:37] requests including uh matches local matches fromc yeah not from the these

[1:55:43] are straight County Levy requests but I mean are they used for match so if

[1:55:49] there's less projects in another year it can go down yeah yeah yeah and there is

[1:55:53] a I'm just going to throw this out here there is a way to meet that without

[1:55:59] using Levy dollars and that's those excess dish funds that that are they

[1:56:04] qualify for water yeah so and that account still continues to build even

[1:56:10] with the what they're taking out so we could you know what's going to get lost

[1:56:15] the first one taken off the list is games nor because it was the last one on

[1:56:21] so and those are things absolutely that I

[1:56:25] can look at and we can we could utilize the repairing $8 and um I could still

[1:56:30] keep it at the 350,000 and we could use the the buffer dollars to offset that

[1:56:36] cost to get it up to that 5 530 no so let's say I would use Levy use

[1:56:43] County Levy dollars at that point oh yes yes yes got it y yeah so then we would

[1:56:47] use the repairing a to like offset that difference right I think it's that we

[1:56:51] should consider I go ahead oh I actually I think this is a year that that we

[1:56:56] could go 8.5 I know it's a big jump but I think we looking back historically

[1:57:01] we've done so well and this is kind of an adjustment and yet moving forward

[1:57:05] with some um some positive things taking place meeting the needs out there so I'm

[1:57:10] com comfortable with what you what's there at 8.5 without digging into more

[1:57:15] and going have more questions like I said it's going to change but I I I I

[1:57:19] see yeah and there's a couple things though we go to the next slide for the

[1:57:23] 2025 proposed Levy that you know the listed gross Levy that we're had that

[1:57:27] we're at that's where I'm at yeah yep that 48 million the 2025 CPA yep County

[1:57:34] program Aid and our 2024 net Levy was that 38 million and so that jump right

[1:57:39] now is that 10 right there and so um I had this slide too and I think this is a

[1:57:45] really just transparent basic sixth grade math level like telling how we get

[1:57:51] there and so after CPA we you know we minus that off we get to that 45 million

[1:57:56] so the landfill cell construction which Gary talked about in the heavy equipment

[1:58:01] purchase that um combined was 3.6 million and so I have taken that out of

[1:58:09] the reserves and so when we get to our that's how we get to that 88.5% I'm not

[1:58:15] including the landfill cell construction project within that

[1:58:20] 8.5% preliminary level it's a wash with the reserve yes right and it's

[1:58:24] absolutely and it's a one time expense and so that has been done in the past

[1:58:29] and so that's why we went with that 8.5 that's the proper use service

[1:58:35] right um and so the levy history in this is I

[1:58:40] kind of have gone over this in the past two and so we've really kept it under a

[1:58:46] 5% so I appreciate your comment Corky regarding that 8.5%

[1:58:52] um but some next steps are um thank you to all the staff all the department

[1:58:58] heads we I mean I think I've been working on this budget longer than any

[1:59:01] other administrator in the state of Minnesota I feel like um and the staff

[1:59:05] we talk about this almost at every monthly if unless we've had to cancel a

[1:59:09] department head meeting we talk about the

[1:59:11] budget um and so it's really the direction from the County Board where's

[1:59:16] that sweet spot that the board is looking for are you comfortable with

[1:59:19] that 8% because there's still some moving Parts like I said health

[1:59:22] insurance it's a 5050 split so employer and employee it's that 5050 split we put

[1:59:28] in for a 20% um we had uh Connie and Lisa were on

[1:59:33] a call this morning with a finalized number or their their proposal um but I

[1:59:39] want to wait to talk with them but that's a lot lower than that 20% so we

[1:59:43] could probably see a good 300,000 come out of the budget right there that quasi

[1:59:50] governmental come out of the budget or be added to it come out of the budget

[1:59:55] and so um the Quasi government if I put in that recommended we use some of the

[1:59:59] repair need that's probably another 160,000 give or take so right there is

[2:00:04] almost a percent and a half so and then if we were to use any of the reserves

[2:00:10] and I don't if we go with that higher Levy we shouldn't have to use if the

[2:00:14] board is okay with going with the higher Levy we honestly shouldn't have to use

[2:00:18] any of our reserves to for the preliminary Lev I I guess for me I feel

[2:00:24] comfortable um going with that because then that gets us from where we should

[2:00:29] have been for 24 moving forward going into 25 for 26 and 27 it Le it levels

[2:00:35] out that Levy um so the reason I asked that about the

[2:00:41] 2024 and this does not include insurance I think last year Karen was like three4

[2:00:46] of a million dollars that we use a of reserves to cover the health health

[2:00:50] benefits maybe even 850,000

[2:00:54] 600 but there's all that that's a finite 147,000 there's a finite account amount

[2:01:00] there so at one point that probably has to get added in here no I don't think we

[2:01:06] have I don't think this year we'll have to use our no not this year but but in

[2:01:10] 2026 2027 so without the insurance in here

[2:01:15] and I'll get to my point in a minute I did a calculation from 2024 our current

[2:01:19] year so next year just just because of wages part-time overtime that whole

[2:01:26] package we go up 5.2% following year is 5.2% as it's

[2:01:32] proposed here the following year after that is

[2:01:35] 6.3 so I think it's 100% reason that we're at 8.2 because or whatever because

[2:01:42] there's other inflation involved besides wage inflation you know the cost of fuel

[2:01:48] can go up the cost of pencils can go up and so if just if you took the

[2:01:54] wage inflation if you will and took General inflation you probably at that

[2:01:59] 8% and I know people are saying I get it because we're paying

[2:02:05] more at the store for salaries and McDonald's is paying more and so they

[2:02:10] get it when you have to raise wages and most of our cost is wages and I

[2:02:16] absolutely and that's very typical when it comes to any business I just have uh

[2:02:22] yeah so I you know this is a big concern for me too you know it's hard because

[2:02:26] Farmers you know they their income is going down when we're going to be going

[2:02:31] up but I talked to a county commissioner I can't remember which conference it was

[2:02:35] we were at and he'd been a commissioner for close to 30 years and he said you

[2:02:41] have to go he said your budget almost has to follow inflation or he said you

[2:02:46] get in trouble if you don't and and and it happens really quick he said and it's

[2:02:51] hard to dig up out of that so I don't like that it's eight and a half but I I

[2:02:57] understand it you know we we have to be yeah I'm saying it

[2:03:02] times I'm the only one here up for election that is but you know but I I I

[2:03:07] get it but at the same time you know as a you know land owner it's hard to

[2:03:13] stomach it but but I you we're stuck I mean you have inflation and that factors

[2:03:20] into a big and if you look at our his we've been pretty good well and and

[2:03:24] actually probably Mr CH we've been pretty good because other counties the

[2:03:30] last couple years they've all been almost I many were a lot higher on their

[2:03:35] Levy than we were cities yeah oh in the cities and yes you know uh a county

[2:03:42] commissioner once told me that it's you shouldn't always pride yourself on

[2:03:45] having a low Levy Y and sometimes that's hard to wrap your head around that's

[2:03:50] hard to tell your constituents um and that's hard coming

[2:03:55] into a county that's always consistently had a low Levy and here I am disrupting

[2:04:00] every apple cart there is but I think the work that we're doing also shows it

[2:04:06] and I think one thing I wanted to end on when you go back to the beginning slide

[2:04:10] is the planning and I think I really credit the staff to this work we're not

[2:04:15] only just planning what we're doing with our roads which seems to get a lot of

[2:04:20] air time but we're also going to be looking at strategic planning with the

[2:04:24] board what is the vision what are the goals for the county we're planning

[2:04:28] Caroline's doing a phenomenal job looking at our staffing and our

[2:04:32] technology and how do we better serve our clients and our

[2:04:36] constituents um how do we better serve with technology and that all kind of

[2:04:41] encompasses that planning and not that we haven't done a good job and I we have

[2:04:46] done a good job but we want to continue to do a good job with that and so I

[2:04:51] think to 20 for 2025 if we can really dig in and get some planning done to set

[2:04:58] us up for 26 and set us up for 27 you all will be aware of what is coming down

[2:05:04] the pipe for a budgetary request and so I'll end it at that I think I have a

[2:05:11] good gauge on the8 and a half% the the one comment I have that I don't know if

[2:05:16] that'll be the preliminary because we'll I'll kind of fine-tune some numbers I'm

[2:05:20] not going to just cushion it just to cushion it um but we'll fine tune some

[2:05:24] numbers in between now and September 3rd at the September 3rd meeting I will

[2:05:29] provide just a short update of where we're at um with the levy and then at

[2:05:34] that September 16th they'll come with a resolution on the final preliminary Levy

[2:05:39] so there are some more questions well I guess and I'm just going to be the

[2:05:43] devil's advocate here because I talked to somebody and I won't say what county

[2:05:46] it was this weekend and they're going to come in at 12% so my question is I know

[2:05:52] it's high but is it high enough to start as a preliminary is it high enough I

[2:05:58] mean you have to ask the question even though we don't want to even think about

[2:06:02] you didn't say that with all the

[2:06:06] department write that down I think Caroline said it best when there's

[2:06:10] always she said it best there's always needs and desires for more Staffing

[2:06:15] right right but we have to be Steward right well and like I said I'm just I'm

[2:06:20] just saying it because it needs to be yes I'm not saying I want to do it

[2:06:23] either but I'm just I think that's where we're looking at the planning I will be

[2:06:27] honest in the in Department 880 I know if it um Shane Tammy Joe some

[2:06:33] departments added training dollars within their budget I did add dollars

[2:06:38] within the 880 which is kind of the um depart the commissioner's budget I would

[2:06:43] call it under Professional Services I cush I shouldn't say cushion but I added

[2:06:48] dollars in there for training not only just training but also strategic

[2:06:52] planning if we have public committee events um and so I don't always like to

[2:06:58] cushion the budget on that because we have such a large budget um and I would

[2:07:04] to be honest I don't know if there's is a lot of cushion these we've really fine

[2:07:08] tune on where we code things in line items where we're pulling it out of

[2:07:13] who's paying for what um sort of thing so we've really fine-tuned that and

[2:07:18] that's has been set up by that my predecessor as well well and I don't

[2:07:22] know other than one other Western County that is this well with you know

[2:07:27] Financial reserves so kudos to Larry for doing that for me to come in as a new

[2:07:33] administrator that's really healthy um to come in with really healthy reserves

[2:07:38] to work off budgets in this time Mr yeah so going back on like Soil and Water are

[2:07:44] we going to is there consensus that we can take out of that buffer strip money

[2:07:50] to help meet their goal so that they can access you know funds I mean they they

[2:07:56] have a lot of projects they want to do and there's a lot of money available if

[2:08:01] they can I think I have the consensus now that would still all be approved at

[2:08:05] the September 16th okay when we do that then I'll explain you'll see that in the

[2:08:10] budget I'll have this I'll um have the budget presentation numbers in the board

[2:08:16] package all right great thank so I got a question it's my last question um

[2:08:22] you your budget and the commissioner's budget is down by about 8% or something

[2:08:29] like that how will that affect what we're is that because we were going to

[2:08:34] take a pay cut I'm just kidding your wages are up to you so we haven't added

[2:08:38] that in there get that so your W your department will increase depending on

[2:08:43] what you do for your wages um we don't do that until until December um but how

[2:08:49] how does how do you you know what's that 35,000 has that been over budg budgeted

[2:08:55] over the years is that why you're able to for the Commissioners yeah and your

[2:09:01] you're down 14 you're down 14,000 too you didn't know that wages yeah but I Mr

[2:09:08] CH my feeling is it's a budget we'll go with it you know both of our budgets we

[2:09:15] do what we have to do if some training comes up and we meet meet the max we'll

[2:09:19] still probably find a way to do it you know so it's I think we're okay no I I

[2:09:25] mean I'm just curious from 24 to 25 how it could go

[2:09:31] down in in our case 35,000 in your case 14,000 and maintain what we've been

[2:09:36] doing e either for our wages or our because our our travel and our our all

[2:09:43] policy and all that stuff comes out of there too right for you guys yep yep

[2:09:49] cover all or was it you're typically a little over on your travel okay um but

[2:09:55] you're really I think I don't have why wouldn't we increase it a

[2:09:59] little bit rather than decrease it to make sure that so we don't go over well

[2:10:04] it it could be a one-time thing one time year thing take reses you typically

[2:10:09] don't do that all five always go um come out of

[2:10:14] reses if they have an idea what you want your wages or to go up we can certainly

[2:10:22] put that in the budget well they're not going to change much I would think not

[2:10:25] like hen County want what I'm seeing is that but I mean

[2:10:30] if you're thinking 5% right but if we've been using pretty much what's been

[2:10:36] budgeted for 23 to 24 to 25 wouldn't you go just add 3% to it just like we did

[2:10:43] for the employees and call that the number rather than you know go down 35

[2:10:50] didn't last you didn't take AE correct that didn't make $35,000 difference for

[2:10:56] this year right but we can put something in for 25

[2:11:03] but that W only erase that whole 35,000 what even a 3%

[2:11:10] increase yeah 3 maybe when you add p and all that stuff to I I don't think have a

[2:11:15] budget breaker and I just think we should leave and vote on it not I'm not

[2:11:19] supporting a we increase

[2:11:26] no budget work thank you for your time um longer

[2:11:31] than 90 minutes but we'll get the hang of this you know we're not going to do

[2:11:36] the department head every year but I think um that's all I have that was okay

[2:11:41] and if we want have questions we can probably ask you or Karen if we have

[2:11:46] a but we're

[2:11:49] not and then we will

[2:11:53] Jour holy I

[2:11:59] got is this going to be on YouTube too

County Board Work Session 8-20-24

Transcript