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Good

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morning. We're holding special meeting and budget workshop, the Leader County Board of

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County Commission. At this time, I'd like to call on Commissioner, if you're on your

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highest, lead us in the prayer, Commissioner Desiree Nils, lead us in the prayer. Please

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stand.

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Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this rain. We thank you that

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you're here with us, that you'll help us tend to the business of the county today. And we

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thank you we're in a free country that we can have these meetings. And everyone has

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voice. We're just grateful to you. We ask that you be with our first responders, our law enforcement,

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our military that's in harm's way. Father, be with their families for comfort. We just trust

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you today to guide and direct our path and Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Please join me in a salute to the

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flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which

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to stay in one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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Okay, I'd like to ask the clerk to call the roll, please.

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District one, County Commissioner Charlie Kennedy, Vice Chair.

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Here.

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District two, Commissioner Rock-Makes.

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Here.

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District three, Desiree Mills.

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Here.

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District four, Chairman Tim Hodge.

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Here.

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And District five, Commissioner Johnny Hires.

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Here.

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All right, approval of the agenda.

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There's any deletions or modifications need to be made at this time.

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Mr. Chairman.

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Yes, I move to approve the agenda that stands.

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Okay, we've got a motion by Commissioner Desiree Mills,

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second by Commissioner Rothmeats.

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All in favor say aye.

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All opposed.

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Motion passes.

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All right.

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Public comment.

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Before we go to our first public comment,

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I'd like to read a few House.

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keeping rules. Public comment is allowed at the three minutes per person and

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you will be tied. Each person is allowed one time to speak per item not

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multiple times. We do not yell from the audience. Each person who wishes to

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speak will be recognized by the chair, come forward, state your name and complete

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address for the record. If you have come to speak on a specific item that is on

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the agenda, it is appropriate to wait until the item is presented to speak. It will

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be given an opportunity. We will not allow comments or questions to be

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address your staff. Anyone make the comment should address the board. That, do we have any public comment?

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All right. So you know, we'll close the first public comment. Go on to our first, uh, business item.

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Uh, the accounting manager is Maria. Good morning. Good morning.

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So this morning just before we go in, I wanted to review where we are in the budget process.

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and what steps we have left to complete the budget.

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Our agenda for today is to set a proposed military

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for the purposes of providing notice

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and setting a public hearing as required by section 200.065

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floor statutes.

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And then after that,

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Ms. Elizabeth will come up to discuss

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the employee health care contribution.

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As the budget stands,

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we are here today in workshop number seven.

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We then have a meeting on August 25th,

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where you will see a summary of all the proposed reductions

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that you requested and have the opportunity to decide which reductions you want to add

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into the budget and which ones you do not. If we need to add an additional meeting after that,

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we can certainly do that. Our last two meetings are the public hearings where we do the

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proposed and then the final milleges. So that gets us right through the budget process but we are

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on the home stretch. For today's meeting we are here to set the proposed millege. So this is for

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the purposes of noticing the public hearing and putting that information out. Again, you can

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And always reduce it after today, but once you set the rate, you cannot go any higher.

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You will see from the paperwork in front of you that in 2025, the mileage was 9 and

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2026, it went to 8.75.

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So you've got the estimated rollback rate, which is the 7.9 470.

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What that is is if you wanted to keep it so that you made the exact same amount of revenue

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as you did last year, not including new construction, that would be your estimated rollback rate.

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With that, we just need a decision on where you'd like to set it.

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Mr. Chairman?

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Yes.

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Knowing that this is the not the complete, this is just proposed millage.

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So once we set this amount, it can't go any higher than this, it can go lower but not be higher.

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I move for the rate to be 8.75, which is the same as last year.

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Okay.

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Okay. Well, I have a motion by Commissioner Desiree Mills to lead the raid at 8.75 and a second by Commissioner Charlie Kennedy.

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Is there any further discussion?

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Mr. Chairman.

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Yes, sir.

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I just want to reiterate so everybody knows Commissioner Mills stated that this is a just a proposal.

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This is not set in stone.

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So, public's listening, just you understand that it's not said in stone and it will come back, and we'll make a decision later, but it's just a proposal for now.

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That's all, thank you.

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Any further discussion?

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I just have one thing that I'd like to make mention of.

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As Johnny just said, this is a preliminary rate set, it is where we're at right now.

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I would encourage to study up on it at different rates as to where we can bring it back at,

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because most definitely, I feel like we could, I think we can lower this to a much

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lower

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4% on Millage. So what mean will this be coming back for a final budget that

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mean to put anybody on the spot?

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The proposed Millage and tentative budget will come back on 9.8 and then we will do the final vote on 9.22.

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Okay. I got some ideas just so I'm going to be working with Mary Ellen online.

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Okay, public having any comment?

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I'm going to motion my commission to remove the second by commission to Charlie Kennedy.

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All of the members say aye.

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Aye.

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All opposed.

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Motion passes.

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Good morning commissioners.

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Good morning.

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Good morning.

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We are here this morning for you to review the proposed health insurance carrier renewal

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rates for 2026 to 2027 plan here.

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In advance of determining the percentage that the county will contribute toward employee premiums

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effective on October 1, 2026.

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Board approval is requested to establish the employer contribution rates for the group

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health insurance premiums and the approval of the contributions will ensure that the

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continuation of health insurance coverage for eligible employees and implementation of

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the fiscal year 2026 employee benefit programs as budgeted.

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The information is presented for consideration at the August 3, 2026 meeting in advance

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of the board voting on the percentage that the county will contribute toward premiums August 4th.

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Elizabeth, just so I'm clarifying for the other board members, we are not taking vote today.

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You're given us this information for informational purposes tomorrow to vote tomorrow.

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Yes. Thank you.

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Okay, and right now we currently offer three different plans.

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We have the PPO Blue Options Plan and our HMO Blue Care and the PPO Health Savings Account Plan.

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If you were to contribute 100%, we have each of the rates if you were to do for blue options employee only at 100%, you're looking at 373,896 dollars.

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And if you were to do the same employee rate at 100%, the majority of our employees are enrolled in the HMO plan.

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If you contribute 100%, that's $2,135,280, and for PPO health savings, we have approximately

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five employees enrolled in that plan.

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That would be $38,340 at 100%.

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Now if we look at 95% that does go just slightly down, I'm not sure if you want me to read each

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one by one or if you'd like to view the rates, whatever you prefer, no need for you to read them.

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Okay,

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so that would be at 95% and I believe the year previous you did 85% and this past year was the

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first year that I've seen for 100% contribution,

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90% and

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85.

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Okay, board,

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one of those,

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one of those

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thoughts on the percentage.

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I'm good. I don't have any questions. Okay.

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Scene bailouts. Nope.

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I'm good. I'm good.

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So

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that's just going to be on the, uh, gender for tomorrow.

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Yes, for the meeting for tomorrow. Yeah. Okay.

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I

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don't really have nothing.

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Any questions about any of the plans or anything at all? Okay.

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All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for giving us this information in advance. Oh, no problem. Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Do I just turn this off?

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Okay.

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Well, you're having a thing to commission having a thing I will say.

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I do have one thing I want to say. Are we about this item? So that you're asking? Yes. Oh, yeah. No, I'm good.

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All right, well, if you need any further questions,

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this meeting will be adjourned.