[0:06] It is 9 o' folks. We're going to call
the meeting to order.
[0:14] » All right. Madam clerk, would you uh
present us with a roll call?
[0:18] » Keith Carpensky
>> here.
[0:20] » Adam Jarko
>> here.
[0:21] » Jeremy Hall
>> here.
[0:25] » Duke
>> here.
[0:26] » And Russ Arcan
>> here. Everybody is here today.
[0:30] » All right. Before you is an agenda. Is
there any um questions, additions or or
[0:36] requests, sir?
[0:43] » Second. Motion's been made and second to
approve the agenda is written. Is there
[0:48] any discussion?
[0:51] » Any discussion? Hearing none. All in
favor signify by saying I. I.
[0:56] » Oppos? Nay. Motion passes.
Minutes of August 12th.
[1:02] » Motion to approve as presented.
>> Second.
[1:06] » Motion's been made. The second to
approve the minutes. Any discussion?
[1:10] » Hearing none. All in favor signify by
saying I.
[1:13] » Post. Nay. Motion passes. Public
comment. We're going to limit this to
[1:20] three uh minutes per person, not to
exceed 30 minutes. And um we're going to
[1:25] stick pretty close to that. So, anybody
for public comment?
[1:37] Good morning. Uh my name is Perry Lee,
spelled P A L I N St. Cy Falls or Rural
[1:44] St. Cy Falls. Um,
I'd like to speak briefly in favor of
[1:51] the 95% service rate for the library.
Um, my wife and I are
[1:59] we use the library. If if we reduce the
service rate, I think the service to the
[2:06] community would be less would have to be
less.
[2:09] Um, how much if we if we stay at 95%,
how much is what's the difference for me
[2:15] in my taxes? Is it $2? I don't know. My
wife and I get hundreds of dollars every
[2:20] year of service from the the library. We
just don't want to see it reduced.
[2:26] Um, when we go into the library, we see
people there that are using the
[2:30] computers to apply for work. We see uh
school students, public school students.
[2:37] we see homeschool students using the
library. It's an important resource for
[2:42] our community. We should be supporting
it at the highest level that that we
[2:47] can. Um that's really all I have this
morning. Uh thank you for listening. Uh
[2:53] let's vote for the um highest service
rate that that we can for the libraries.
[3:00] Thank you.
[3:04] » Anyone else?
[3:13] Good morning. My name is Kathy Hink. I
live in Oyola.
[3:17] I also want to support the libraries to
the best and maximum that we can. I want
[3:22] to also say thank you for your time and
work at that you do for our Pope County.
[3:27] It's important work. It requires
significant time and effort and I
[3:31] appreciate that. Thank you.
and the support of all our libraries. I
[3:35] want to say we could have a list longer
than my arm telling you all the things
[3:39] our libraries provide to our
communities. Thank you to our libraries.
[3:43] Thank you. I don't want to see it stop.
I use a library for several things. My
[3:49] husband uses the library. When my
grandchildren come to town, they ask to
[3:53] go to our library.
I'm aware of the many services it
[3:58] offers. Many groups use their library
for using different rooms there. We vote
[4:02] in the library.
I want to express that the library fund
[4:06] is a pass through tax that cannot be
used for any other purpose. Withholding
[4:11] money from the library does not benefit
any other Pulk County entity.
[4:15] Withholding the money handicaps the
libraries.
[4:18] When I check out a book at the library,
the due date paper tells me how much
[4:21] money I've saved by borrowing the book
instead of buying it.
[4:25] I have saved vastly more money by the
contribution I make to the library by
[4:31] checking the book out than the
contribution I make to the county pay
[4:35] for it. It's well worth my money. I urge
you to support the county libraries to
[4:41] the maximum allow. Thank you.
[4:53] » Good morning. My name is Josh Carlau. I
live in St. Croy Falls. I'm also
[4:57] president of the St. Croy Falls Library,
but I'd like to just say that it is a
[5:02] service that's provided then to the
public for the public. And at 95% which
[5:09] we have right now, if we can be 100%
that'd be great because
[5:14] that cost also includes keeping the
facility open for the people to use. And
[5:20] we have to have people there to maintain
the facility and that is part of the
[5:25] cost. And if we lose that percentage of
money, that means that's less staff,
[5:30] that means less hours for the building,
that means less public use. And that
[5:35] just is not good for public for our
county at all. And that's the main point
[5:41] of why we need to keep at least 95%
and if we could get to 100% that'd be
[5:47] great. Thank you.
[5:55] Anyone else?
[6:00] Anyone else?
Right. Um
[6:05] any other public comment at all
appear to be anyone. All right. So
[6:11] supervisor Naz committee members I see
France here.
[6:15] » Yes.
[6:23] » Morning everybody. I'm Fran Duncinson.
I'm the supervisor for district 12 which
[6:28] is the city of Amry and I also chaired
the county's library planning services
[6:34] committee on the last goaround. So I
don't know if any of you remember back
[6:38] in the day when Poke County had a county
library that the county managed the
[6:43] county ran and the county paid for as
part of the county tax levy.
[6:48] the decision was made to abolish that
and then at that time uh act 15 came
[6:56] into play because we do have to provide
services to everyone in the rural areas
[7:02] as well as cities and villages. So I
just wanted to stress that this isn't a
[7:07] burden on any county budget. The county
simply acts as a pass through, levies
[7:13] the required amounts on towns and
villages, collects it, and forwards it
[7:17] onto the library. The funds are not
discretionary, can't be used for any
[7:23] other purpose, and they don't affect the
county's own levy limits. Nobody makes
[7:28] money uh from Act 150. It's a fair and
balanced system. When you think about
[7:33] it, it's a pretty good deal for the
townships because
[7:37] I don't know that the townships would
want to build their own libraries, staff
[7:42] them, fund them, and go to all of that
expense. So, the the uh reimbursement is
[7:49] is actually a pretty good deal for him.
You know, too, I just want to recognize
[7:55] and I want to appreciate the value of
the rural residents that v that visit
[8:00] our villages and cities and visit our
libraries and patronize our businesses
[8:06] and visit our community.
But due to cities and villages own levy
[8:12] limits,
they can't be expected to subsidize the
[8:17] expanding services for the neighboring
towns.
[8:21] So um in conclusion I think you know if
we want thriving modern libraries that
[8:27] serve everybody including the real
residents we have to support the system
[8:32] fully and consistently.
[8:40] » Okay. Moving on to number seven
presentation regarding the 2025 audit.
[8:50] Morning.
[8:59] My name is Jonathan Sherwood. I'm a
principal with Clifton Larson Allen. Um
[9:03] I'm responsible for the uh completion of
the 2025 uh audit audit report for the
[9:10] county. Um I've summarized it down into
an executive audit summary. I know that
[9:13] that was previously provided to you all.
Hopefully, it's being able to be brought
[9:16] up here momentarily for us so we can
hopefully follow along and try to keep
[9:20] it as lively as possible. Um, if there's
any questions or uh comments for you uh
[9:26] from the committee members, I'm happy to
address them as we go along. Uh, if I
[9:29] don't know them off the top of my head,
we've got Sher and obviously Mo is here
[9:32] as well to help me out as well. Um, so I
just want to start off my presentation
[9:35] by again just thank you for having me
here this morning. Uh, giving me the
[9:38] opportunity to go into some of the
details. Um and also just extend a uh
[9:42] tremendous gratitude to the county staff
that we interact with in preparing your
[9:46] audited financial statements. Um there's
a tremendous amount of effort and work
[9:50] that goes into this, not just by your
finance team, but department heads
[9:53] throughout the county. There's a lot of
uh grant requests and uh reimbursements
[9:58] from state and federal agencies and
dealing with all of those individual
[10:01] programs uh that get quite technical. Um
so our auditor requests out to them are
[10:06] definitely not they don't go unnoticed
by your departments. um and they're not
[10:09] just brushed aside, you know, they're
readily uh responded back to. So that
[10:13] makes uh completing our audit uh that
much more efficient. So we very much
[10:16] appreciate those efforts. Uh before I
get into some of the numbers for you, um
[10:20] I will start with the audit report
summary which is on page one. Uh just to
[10:26] highlight some information for you of
your giant, you know, over 100page plus
[10:30] audit report. There's essentially only
about three or four total pages in this
[10:33] whole report that actually belongs to
CLA, your independent auditors. And
[10:38] that's what's known as our auditor's
opinion. So we issue what's known as a
[10:41] clean opinion or an unmodified opinion.
It's the highest level of assurance that
[10:45] an outside agency can place upon your
audited state your audited statements.
[10:49] Basically means that your financial
statements are free of material errors
[10:52] and can be readily used upon internally
externally to make some you know
[10:56] educated uh decision-making based on the
financial health of Poke County. Um,
[11:02] through our audit work, we also take a
look at and we evaluate the internal
[11:06] controls of the county. If there's any
any issues there that raise to a level
[11:10] significant enough to be brought up to
governance, we include those in our
[11:14] internal control communication. So, we
issue what's known as two material
[11:19] weaknesses. So, there are issues that we
have that that we'll discuss here for
[11:22] you briefly. Um, these items are um
they're same as last year. Their
[11:27] presence by themselves um are not
necessarily red flags saying you have
[11:31] major issues, you must do something.
Fire alarm ringing. Um there are just um
[11:36] significant enough for you to be aware
of so that you can have some
[11:40] compensating controls around them so
that you're aware of governance. You can
[11:43] ask appropriate questions and gain
additional clarity throughout the year.
[11:47] Uh the first is material audit
adjustments. basically means that
[11:50] through the course of our audit work, we
propose audit adjustments to your books
[11:54] that had they not been made, they would
materially impact a decision that could
[11:59] possibly be made um based on your audit
audited numbers. Um also more more of an
[12:05] important uh item from my perspective is
limited segregations of duties. So this
[12:10] is through all of the transaction cycles
through all of the departments of the
[12:13] county. at times you have limited staff
available that are they're functioning
[12:17] in more than just processing and
reconciling and doing kind of all of the
[12:21] control work of that specific item. You
think some of your smaller departments
[12:24] that do cash handling at times um
smaller um like county parks and that
[12:29] kind of stuff, they're doing all of the
cash receiping, they're doing the
[12:32] reconciling of those record of those
reports and then the reporting up to
[12:36] management at that point. So, or there
isn't proper checks and balances, you
[12:40] know, as a um as like a replacement type
situation where if they were gone on
[12:45] vacation, somebody else wouldn't be able
to step in and readily do that same
[12:48] activity. So, just know that that that
those situations are present throughout
[12:52] county departments. So, as a
compensating control, being very active
[12:56] as a committee member, uh as a board
member, asking for clarify clarifying
[13:01] questions as to what disp what uh
dispersements are, asking for support
[13:05] for those types of things is very
important. U from an external audit
[13:08] perspective, you're actively involved in
the internal control structure of the
[13:13] county. Um as also as part of our work,
uh we have to perform what's known as a
[13:18] single audit for federal purposes. So
the county obviously receives
[13:21] significant amount of federal funding
and as such we're required to do
[13:24] compliance audits over certain programs.
Uh for 2025, we actually took a look at
[13:29] three federal programs and then the
state has a subsection of additional
[13:33] state programs that we were required to
look at as well. We had to test five
[13:36] state programs through all of our
compliance testing and compliance work.
[13:40] There were no compliance issues that we
needed to report. Um there is an
[13:43] additional filing with the federal
government that we still are working on
[13:46] which is due uh September 30th which is
just to basically verify and and you
[13:51] know make that reporting back to the
federal government.
[13:56] Um so now to turn the page here to item
number two. Uh diving into some of the
[14:00] actual financial results for you. Um
item number one is this is everything
[14:05] that's referred to as the general fund,
general operations of the county. So
[14:09] general operations included in here are
um public safety, uh culture, wreck,
[14:14] education, kind of all the nuts and
bolts, everything that's not required to
[14:18] be reported elsewhere is included in
your general fund. when we're looking at
[14:21] a general fund and we kind of, you know,
boil it down to what's the fiscal health
[14:25] of Poke County. Um, there's three
highlighted shades or highlighted rows
[14:30] up here. And I know it's a little
difficult for some people to probably
[14:32] follow along. Um, so to cut to the
chase, we basically take a look at the
[14:36] total number of total amount of
expenditures. What did it take to run
[14:39] Poke County operations for the year?
Compare that against what are the the
[14:44] true unassigned reserves that you have
at the end of the year, your fund
[14:47] balance that could be used to meet
future obligations. and we we compute a
[14:51] ratio and that ratio is 94.3% for fiscal
year 25 basically said otherwise you've
[14:57] got about 94% of total general fund
operations for one year is set aside in
[15:02] your reserves which from an outside
perspective I would consider that you
[15:06] know fiscally healthy for sure um you
have a an internal policy that your
[15:11] minimum fund balance policy is between
40 and 50% of total general fund
[15:15] expenditures so even that your minimum
fund balance policy for the you're
[15:20] actually meeting that and exceeding it.
So overall, again, that's strong
[15:23] financial results at the end of 2025.
Having such a robust unassigned fund
[15:29] balance will allow the county multiple
benefits for you. Number one is to
[15:33] completely eliminate any need for
short-term borrowing, which is apparent
[15:37] throughout governments of your size. So
you'd avoid any short-term interest
[15:40] expense out there. Uh number two would
be it's definitely favorable from a bond
[15:45] rating uh situation. If if the need
would arise to go to issue some some
[15:49] debt, you would get more favorable
repayment terms because you have you
[15:53] know liquidity available to meet future
debt service obligations. U and then
[15:57] third it does also offer kind of in
conjunction with that um capital project
[16:01] flexibility. So, if there's any major
pro uh capital projects on the horizon,
[16:05] such as a, you know, aging nursing home
or maybe some additional county roads
[16:09] that need to be uh replaced or county um
investment in infrastructure, you have
[16:15] some uh some reserves set aside to help
finance or help fund that upfront and
[16:19] then ultimately reduce the amount of
financing that you would need available.
[16:24] Um, also the last comment I wanted to
make for you on your general fund
[16:27] operations for 2025,
um, you have a total um, total budgeted
[16:34] expenditures for the year of just over
$34.1 million in total expenses that we
[16:39] basically came into the year, we being
the county came into the year saying
[16:42] that's what we intend to spend. Um,
actual results was just over $35
[16:47] million. Um, so it's a little bit hard,
you know, to wrap my head around at
[16:52] times of such large dollar amounts. Um,
so you did technically have an
[16:55] unfavorable budget variance. We
basically spent, you know, more than
[16:58] what we said we were going to. But in
context, that's 2.6% to your budget. So,
[17:04] you know, from an individual standpoint,
I would think that we when you're trying
[17:07] to hit a target of trying to spend $34.1
million and you're within 2.6% of that,
[17:12] I consider that very strong budgeting
management. you know, you basically came
[17:16] into the year said we're going to spend
34.1 million and we came, you know, for
[17:19] all intents and purposes, very close to
what we said we were going to spend. So,
[17:23] overall, this very strong financial
results, strong budget acumen, uh, for
[17:27] the general fund of the county.
Before I switch gears on any special
[17:32] revenue funds, everybody still awake?
Any other questions I can answer for you
[17:36] right away? Um, if not, I can dive into
some. Item number two here on the very
[17:40] bottom of the page, these are all the
special revenue funds. So these are
[17:44] other activities that are tracked
specifically for these purposes. They're
[17:48] special revenue funds, meaning that the
revenue source that goes into them are
[17:52] restricted and must be used for those
specific purposes. They're either
[17:55] restricted by internal county policy,
meaning there's a separate tax levy
[17:59] that's set to support those or that
there's uh state grants or federal
[18:03] grants that are set aides that must be
used for these purposes. Uh the two that
[18:07] usually get the most interest at county
uh presentations such as this is
[18:11] children's and families and health
services fund. You see that there are
[18:15] some zero rows up there and it's zero
through the last four years that that
[18:19] I'm presenting here in this handout. And
that's by design. It's an internal
[18:22] county policy that at the end of every
year if there's a deficit or a surplus,
[18:27] those activities get transferred over to
the general fund. So, in 2025,
[18:32] Children's and Families had a transfer
back to the general fund, meaning it
[18:36] ended the year with a surplus of about
$137,000.
[18:40] And in health services, it was a
transfer of $1.2 million transfer back
[18:45] to the general fund for 2025.
Um, in 2024, it was a similar activity.
[18:51] So, just for some comparison, similar
activity for the the children's families
[18:56] fund. However, health services fund
actually required a transfer in of about
[19:00] 173,000. So, just for context,
Children's and Family had very similar
[19:05] financial results for 2025 as compared
to prior year. And in 2024 for health
[19:10] services fund, it was actually running a
deficit and it had some very positive
[19:14] results in 2025 for health services
funds because again, it had about a $1.2
[19:19] million fund balance that was
transferred to the general fund. So the
[19:22] result of a health services fund, you
know, the kind of the reasons behind why
[19:26] that had such a vast improvement from 24
to 25. There's some intergovernmental
[19:30] revenues, so uh state and federal
programs, grant programs. Some of those
[19:35] additional funds came into uh health
services fund in 2025. So that kind of
[19:39] gives you some context of why those
operations uh were so much improved in
[19:44] 25. Um, the other thing that's likes
that I like to point out for children's
[19:49] and families is essentially how much tax
levy because you do again you have some
[19:53] specific tax levy that goes in to
support these activities. Children's and
[19:56] families um had a tax levy support of
about $2.2 million and then health
[20:02] services fund has a tax levy of just
over $1.6 million in total tax levy
[20:07] going to support those those activities.
Uh those are slight increases for health
[20:12] services fund of about $100,000 that
went into from tax levy changes from 24
[20:17] to 25. Uh and the tax levy requirement
for children's and families actually
[20:21] decreased. Um it was at 2.3 million and
it it decreased to 2.2 million. So
[20:27] essentially between those two activities
it was tax levy neutral. One increased
[20:30] and one decre decreased by roughly the
same dollar amount.
[20:36] Um, other things to actually point out
here real quick before I move on is you
[20:39] do have some negative balances up here
up here. So, those are negative
[20:43] deficits. So, eventually you'll need
additional revenue sources to help cover
[20:47] those activities. Um, and the one that
really is standing out there the most is
[20:51] the dams fund which is at $2.6 million.
Uh, the reasoning for this is it purely
[20:57] is a timing situation. During 2024 and
2025, the county actually took ownership
[21:03] or took responsibility to maintain some
of these dams. Uh the work was then
[21:07] required to be done upfront with federal
and state funds now being received in
[21:12] 2026. So it is a little bit of an of an
anomaly here for the report in 2025.
[21:18] You're sitting at a deficit of 2.6
million, but just know that there is
[21:22] additional funding that will be
recognized in 2026 to help uh alleviate
[21:26] that deficit. Um the other one of note
is the recycling center fund and that is
[21:31] the operations of the recycling center
not necessarily the construction that's
[21:35] a separate fund. Uh so this is just the
the pure operations. So you can see that
[21:38] that deficit has been out there for a
number of years and it did increase in
[21:43] 2025 total deficit of about $600,000. Uh
but as you may be aware, the county did
[21:49] adopt a recycling um essentially
special, you know, a user charge or um
[21:55] charge for service that did get
implemented in 2026, which will also
[22:00] then be used to offset and then fully
fund those operations.
[22:04] I think that covers everything I have
for you on page two.
[22:08] So I can change gears a little bit here
for you. Um on page three, um item
[22:13] number three is your debt service fund.
This is just uh purely um all of your
[22:17] debt service obligations are required to
be reported separately standalone in its
[22:22] own fund. You do have some reserves at
the end of the year of about $176,000
[22:26] that will be used to meet future debt
service obligations. For context, the uh
[22:31] county did uh get its debt service
requirements for 25. You have principal
[22:36] uh principal payments of 1.9 million in
total interest of about 164,000. So just
[22:41] over $2 million in total debt service
obligations were paid in 2025. Got a
[22:47] couple more comments on debt. Uh one of
my very last points here for you. So
[22:51] I'll save some additional commentary for
that time.
[22:55] Item number four, your capital projects
funds. So again, these are separate
[22:58] capital projects. You know, typically
one one time not necessarily recurring
[23:03] projects over and over again. Um you do
have uh three separate capital projects
[23:07] funds that you report in your audited
statements. Um total reserves are about
[23:12] $1.1 million. So you do have, you know,
essentially set aside or committed
[23:16] dollars for specific projects. One being
the grandstand project, the rebuilding
[23:20] of the grandstand project. Uh the other
is the there's some residual work that
[23:24] needs to be done u or some some cleanup
work, some finalizing work at the
[23:28] recycling center itself. Um and then
there's a very small dollar amount uh
[23:32] set aside for parks and recreation
purposes.
[23:36] Uh the next item I have for you here is
the business type activity uh that we
[23:41] report the for the nursing home or
golden age manner. So this is a
[23:46] standalone audit that we also perform
because there you know it's its own
[23:49] complex regulatory environment. We
complete that audit separately but
[23:52] obviously it is an entity of the county
and it gets rolled up into the full
[23:56] county statements as well. Um so this is
just a snapshot in time here for your
[24:00] balance sheet summary of your your
nursing home activities for context. If
[24:04] you're looking at, you know, what the
the overall um operational results were
[24:09] for 2025, it did have a positive net
income or change in net position. So, it
[24:14] added to its net position, it increased
by about $79,000.
[24:19] Um that did uh it does appear that it is
a decrease in overall because if you
[24:23] look at 2024 the last line up there uh
for the 2024 column was just over $1.1
[24:28] million and then the decrease now in in
operations it was quote unquote only a
[24:33] $79,000
increase. So it is a slight you know it
[24:37] appears just based on this commentary
that appears that the Golden Age Manor
[24:41] went quote unquote backwards from what
it was in 2024. Um, however, I do
[24:46] caution that because now we're looking
at what's known to without getting too
[24:48] far into the weeds. This is full acrruel
accounting. So, there's additional um
[24:52] expenditures that you're seeing in in
these operational results that aren't
[24:57] necessarily kept into, you know, when
you compare apples to apples for your
[25:01] your governmental activities. Uh, one of
the biggest issues is that that kind of
[25:05] throws some of this analysis off is the
county's involvement in the WRS
[25:09] retirement system. So that necessarily
the the significant um expenditures that
[25:15] hit these these numbers because they are
allocated across I mean it is you know
[25:19] quoteunquote the true cost of doing
those but those are non-cash
[25:22] expenditures. It's not like you're going
to have to come up with and um you know
[25:25] come out of pocket in order to fully
fund that those liabilities. So that is
[25:29] in the $700,000 and it is also in that
$1.1 million. the amount of that that
[25:35] swing varies greatly based on the
financial results of the WRS system in
[25:40] total. So overall I kind of when I'm
looking at nursing homes I basically go
[25:44] right to what is the the things that the
county can control. So overall
[25:49] expenditures yes we did um we are facing
challenges in nursing homes in general
[25:53] with increased staff costs. So total
expenditures are increasing across the
[25:58] board in nursing homes. Uh but then on
the other side of it kind of it's a you
[26:01] know double-edged sword. The the good
news is the reason that you had to
[26:05] increase costs for nursing and salaries
is because you did have positive results
[26:09] operationally with an increase in
occupancy. So if you have an increase in
[26:12] occupancy, of course you're going to
have some increased costs, but you know
[26:16] when push comes to shove, you did have
positive results overall for your
[26:19] nursing home.
Um, moving on to page four. There's a
[26:26] couple other funds to get through and
then the long-term debt discussion and
[26:29] then I should have uh put a bowl on it
here for you for this morning. Um, the
[26:34] next fund that we have to quickly
discuss is your internal services fund
[26:38] of your highway department. So, this is
all of your, you know, the maintenance,
[26:41] the construction of all of the
internally serviced county highways.
[26:45] Yes, you do also provide some work to
outside um municipalities, but for the
[26:50] most part, the primary purpose of your
highway department is to service county
[26:54] roads in Poke County. Um you will see
that there was a negative change in fund
[26:58] balance, so it did decrease and it's
been a trend here since 2022 through
[27:02] 2025. The highway department itself is
incurring more expenses that it's
[27:06] bringing in in terms of charges for
services in reimbursement from the
[27:10] state. So, a lot of that is, you know,
you can only charge the state back for
[27:14] reimbursement based on uh DOT formulas
and everything that goes into developing
[27:20] those rates that you can reimburse from.
Um, so, you know, it is something just
[27:23] to keep an eye on in terms of long-term
projections if you're going to have some
[27:27] major county highway needs and some
projects that need to be get done that
[27:31] need to get done. Um, I don't think
it's, you know, too out of line to say
[27:34] that, you know, your your money that you
used to be able to invest, you know, 10,
[27:38] 15 years ago in order to pave roads
doesn't get you nearly as far. You know,
[27:42] all pun intended. You know, you're not
going to go as far. Your dollars simply
[27:46] don't go as far in terms of um battling
increased costs across the board for
[27:51] construction and highways. Um, total
revenues that came into the fund in 2025
[27:55] is about $9.2 million. Um, and again,
that's state aids, that's department,
[28:01] uh, DOT reimbursements from the state,
as well as charges for services for
[28:05] outside entities that you're doing work
for. Um, and then you compare that to
[28:09] 11.5 million in total expenses, which
kind of, you know, whittleles your way
[28:13] down to about an $800,000 loss for the
year. Um, tax levy that went into
[28:18] support highway operations in 2025 was
just over $4 million as opposed to 3.9
[28:23] million the year prior.
Uh last but not least here is for your
[28:29] internal services fund for your self-
insuranceances fund. And you'll notice
[28:33] here that the change in net position
about you know halfway down the page
[28:36] here it's been a deliberate drawd down
of net position since 2021 2020 time
[28:44] frame where the health health
insurancees fund actually had a very
[28:47] robust significant uh surplus and it was
deliberately drawn down over a number of
[28:52] years. the last few years, however, it's
drawn down, I would say, at a rate
[28:57] higher than anticipated. You've had some
very high claims years. Um, and the
[29:01] change in net position in 2025, so it
reduced or it lost $1.6 million in fund
[29:06] balance. Um and if you consider that
that I know that in 2026 um you've got
[29:12] some additional um losses to incur but
then ultimately the decision going
[29:16] forward is to basically completely get
out of the self- insurance type
[29:20] situation and go move to a full insured
plan u through another health insurance
[29:24] provider. So, just know that there's,
you know, it it has been maintained. It
[29:28] has been watched vigilantly um by
management um in finance to make the
[29:33] proper decisions there and and ensure
that you're still able to uh offer
[29:38] health insurance benefits to county
employees, which is obviously very uh
[29:41] very important.
Last but not least are your total
[29:45] long-term obligations. Um so, in 2025,
you have just over $9 million in total
[29:52] general obligation notes. So general
obligation notes are backed by the full
[29:56] faith and credit of taxpayers. So it's
completely allowed by state levy to
[30:02] include whatever the annual requirement
is for principal and interest payments
[30:06] by state levy uh limits. You're allowed
to include those and in you know
[30:11] basically make sure that you're able to
meet your debt service obligations. for
[30:15] a county um of your size, you are uh
limited by state statute of how much
[30:20] total geo debt you're allowed by state
statute to issue. So, it's about 5% of
[30:25] total equalized value of all equalized
value in the county. Um from a county
[30:31] standpoint for you ever to to bump up
against the total legal statutory limit,
[30:37] um it's, you know, basically not very
feasible. You know, if you get to 90%,
[30:40] you'd be very very unpopular politicians
overall. um you're carrying about 2 and
[30:44] a.5% of what your total outstanding
obligations are. Um from my perspective,
[30:48] counties of your size and counties in
this area, um that's an extremely low or
[30:52] light uh debt capacity. Um some of the
other counties in the area are carrying
[30:57] which I would consider more towards, you
know, as soon as you start getting to
[31:00] about 25 35, you know, some of them will
brush up against 40% of total um geo
[31:07] debt capacity. Um, I would consider
those communities more highly leveraged
[31:11] or they have quite a substantial debt
burden. And typically counties get to
[31:15] that situation when they have major
projects. So, if you look around some
[31:18] neighboring counties, you know, they've
got brand new general uh government
[31:21] county buildings, brand new jails, such
as that. If you look at their financial
[31:25] statements, they're going to look at
your 2 and a half% and compare it to
[31:29] their 30 35% and you're in a much more
favorable position overall. Um, long
[31:34] story short, so if you have the need to
go to, you know, issue debt, um, you
[31:39] know, you're you're in in an
advantageous position. Um, the other
[31:43] side of things that's a little
counterintuitive at times is because of
[31:47] that whole intricacies of being able to
use the general obligation debt in order
[31:53] to build that into your levy. It also
allows you when it comes to budget time
[31:57] to make sure that tax levies don't vary
uh vary um widely from one year to the
[32:04] next. So essentially it is a budgeting
tool to help smooth transitions of tax
[32:09] levies. So if one year you you've got a
lot of debt and then all of a sudden
[32:11] your debt capacity falls off, well now
by statute you're not able to include
[32:15] that in your levy. So tax levies would
decrease significantly. The next year
[32:20] you would issue more debt for whatever
reason and then it would spike wildly.
[32:23] So I know that it's usually a very
unpopular uh method to go where you know
[32:29] you want to avoid those swings is
basically what I'm getting to. Uh
[32:32] outside of that
um I think that that checking my notes
[32:37] that does uh cover all the talking
points I wanted to to give you uh pages
[32:42] four and five for those visual learners
in the room and these are bar graphs um
[32:46] which basically can show the the first
page here on page five is the total
[32:50] revenues that are coming into the
county. Um it is kind of interesting to
[32:54] see that you can see your tax growth.
How much has been uh levied from 2019
[32:58] all the way to 2025. And then you can
see the uh the interest interesting line
[33:03] to me as an auditor might be of interest
to folks in the room. Uh the
[33:07] intergovernmental line up there that's
all the state and federal dollars that
[33:10] are coming into to governments. So this
is just kind of more or less interesting
[33:14] again where you can see in 2020, you
know, as a result of 2020 um with COVID
[33:18] 2021 2022, it has a significant spike in
total revenues essentially coming from
[33:23] the federal government. Um that's really
what's causing those spikes. Um and then
[33:27] in um uh page number six here, which is
all of the expenses, uh this is
[33:33] essentially, you know, where all of your
expenses ended up um as a result of, you
[33:37] know, the revenue sources coming in.
Again, there's usually a fairly decent
[33:41] spike when you're looking at health and
human services. Uh that's all public
[33:45] health response to COVID and that kind
of stuff for those interesting years
[33:48] later as well. Um any questions,
comments, concerns that I could address
[33:53] for our committee members?
>> Yes, sir.
[33:57] » Um you quickly covered the recycling
center.
[34:00] » Um I think I heard you say there's a
$600,000 deficit without the third the
[34:05] recycling fee. So, if that's not
reapproved this budget year, there's a
[34:10] $600,000 deficit in 2027. Did I
understand that correctly?
[34:14] » The $600,000 that you're referring to is
a cumulative deficit. So, it's not an
[34:19] annual deficit. That's, you know, from
inception to current where you're at in
[34:23] 2025. So, the 2026
uh recycling charge that's that's out
[34:30] there that will help start whittling
that down. Uh to get the exact annual
[34:34] deficit that you're referring to, like,
okay, what would 2027 look like if we
[34:39] removed that? I'd have to do a little
bit more analysis. Maybe Sherry and Mo
[34:42] have something a little bit off the top
of your head that you could speak to it
[34:45] better. Yeah, the recycling fee right
now is in place for um 26 27 28 and then
[34:51] it gets readressed um for 2029 um on the
program to see where it lands.
[35:02] You mentioned that uh I believe you
mentioned that we're at the for 2025 we
[35:08] carried a reserve of about 94% of the
total budget. How does that compare to
[35:13] prior years?
>> If we back up to page two,
[35:19] um the high water mark in that I'm
showing here in 20 for the four years
[35:24] that I present, um in 2022, you carried
101.8%.
[35:29] So, you're actually 100% fully funded
for one year. Um and then it, you know,
[35:34] decreased slightly in 2023, 2024 with
some intentional spend down, additional
[35:39] projects and whatnot there. And now in
2025, you bumped back up to about 94.3
[35:43] million or 94.3%,
excuse me.
[35:52] Any other questions? Anybody?
All right. Well, thank you. No problem.
[35:58] Appreciate it.
>> Moving on to number eight presentation
[36:03] by library planning committee um
services committee for 2027
[36:08] reimbursement rates. who is presenting
that
[36:11] » from the library. Um there we've done
this in past years um with the library
[36:16] fees and stuff. So the opportunity and a
little bit of history of um how we got
[36:21] where it was.
[36:26] » Good morning. Um I'm John Thompson. I'm
the director of the library system. We
[36:31] are headquartered in Oaklair. One of my
primary responsibilities is library
[36:36] administration consulting and as part of
that um I assist the county library
[36:42] planning committees with their county
library planning efforts and so I'm here
[36:48] to help answer some of the questions
give an overview of county library
[36:51] funding from a historical perspective
I've worked on
[36:56] at least the last three county library
plans um so I do have a little bit of
[37:02] background of how we got to where we are
today and then um also answer any
[37:08] questions that you might have related to
the statute that underlies county
[37:13] library planning funding. And Heather is
here as well from Amory.
[37:18] » Hi. Good morning. Uh my name is Heather
Warda and I'm the director at the Amory
[37:23] Public Library. Uh my husband Brandon
works across the way at the USDA and I
[37:27] have a daughter in the Amory Middle
School. We live in Lincoln Township and
[37:31] we have a small farm where we grow
garlic of all things, large amounts of
[37:36] garlic for wholesale. I just wanted to
thank you for the chance to stand here
[37:39] and answer any questions that you might
have and thank you for your service to
[37:43] PT County.
Does this work or you are you
[37:50] okay? So, we did that slide. Okay. Um so
as part of the uh county library
[37:59] planning process, the county board of
supervisors when they approved the plan
[38:04] um a few years ago determined how
library service is provided to the
[38:11] county residents that live in
municipalities without libraries. So
[38:16] that responsibility is given to the
libraries that are within Pulk County um
[38:22] which are all listed here as well.
Turtle Lake is a little unique in that
[38:26] they rest both in Baron County and Pole
County. So they serve um both libraries
[38:32] and are considered um libraries um for
reimbursement by each of the counties
[38:38] where the library service resides.
So to take a look at the county library
[38:46] service as a whole, most of
county is rural in nature. Um there are
[38:55] approximately 15,000 folks that live in
the municipalities with libraries.
[39:00] Of that um there are 30,000 of the folks
that live in areas outside of P County
[39:07] with the library. So the vast majority
of the population is served from or the
[39:13] service comes from folks that live
outside of municipal limits. So when we
[39:19] look at the circulation from the
libraries, I'm the chart's a little hard
[39:24] to read, but of of the total circulation
for the libraries, there's 280,000 items
[39:30] checked out.
About 84,000 of those items were checked
[39:35] out by residents of the municipalities
and then 146,000 items were checked out
[39:42] by rural Pulk County folks living in
areas without a library. And that is
[39:46] just within um Pulk County. Those
residents could also go to St. county,
[39:53] um, Bernett County, uh, Dun County,
wherever they the the dollars from
[40:00] county funding follows the folks where
they go to the library. So, that's where
[40:06] the adjacent county funding is is put in
place. We're really here looking at the
[40:12] dollars that are going to the individual
Poke County libraries.
[40:18] So libraries typically are funded by
their municipalities as well as the
[40:23] counties. So uh act 150 which was
established in 1999
[40:30] provided a mechanism for the counties to
fund
[40:34] library service.
[40:38] We we then received additional revenue
from adjacent counties with act 420
[40:45] which followed about five six years
later. So act um 420 is established in
[40:51] 4312 of Wisconsin state statute and what
it did was set a rate of funding for the
[40:59] libraries based on a common
way we track library use which is
[41:05] circulation of materials. What it
determines is a cost per circulation.
[41:11] What that represents is the entire use
of the library by the public. So it
[41:16] includes library programming,
um, internet access, um, whether they
[41:22] sit and read a magazine, look at a
newspaper,
[41:26] um, come to the, you know, a program out
in the rural areas, whatever
[41:31] partnerships the libraries may have, it
funds the entire operation of the
[41:36] library. And, and notice I said
operation, it does not fund capital
[41:41] expenses for the municipality. So
when Oyola built their brand new
[41:46] building, when Amry moved, those funds
for those capital expenses were borne by
[41:53] the municipalities and donations that
were given to the project. The county is
[41:58] not um
funding those capital expenses.
[42:04] Um
statute requires a minimum of 70%.
[42:09] Um what the last three the last two
prior county library plans had a goal of
[42:16] funding at 100%. The current current
plan removed that percentage.
[42:22] The goal of the county library planning
committees for those years was to move
[42:27] from that 70% to the 100%. Currently the
county has been at 95%
[42:34] which is where um it rests now. pending
whatever resolution you make today.
[42:43] As a library system, we are comprised of
10
[42:47] individual counties. Of those counties,
there are only two that fund at 70%. One
[42:54] is Russ County and they are unique in
that they fund a city county library in
[42:59] Lady Smith. So their funding for
libraries is different than the state
[43:04] formula. The other one is Pepin which
consists of two public libraries. On
[43:09] paper they're at 70% but their county
has a hold harmless so they are actually
[43:14] at an amount higher than 70%. But for
example Dun County, Oakclair County and
[43:21] St. Croy County are all at 100%. Um
other counties are moving forward
[43:26] increasing from the 70%. Some of them
are 80, some are at 90. And like I said
[43:31] Pulk County is at 95.
[43:36] One of the um
unique pieces of this funding is that
[43:43] it's basically being paid two years
after the fact. So the data that you're
[43:49] going to be using to pay for the 27
expenditure is based on 2025 data. So,
[43:56] we're we're taking the data that the
libraries filled out on their annual
[44:00] reports for 25, making a request for
payment in 2027. The chart here gives
[44:07] you a rough idea of what that looks like
at either 100% or 95%.
[44:14] Um the cost per circulation does vary
amongst libraries based on
[44:20] total circulation expenditures for like
staffing um what other types of programs
[44:27] they're offering. So every library is
unique and what how they serve their
[44:31] communities. Some smaller communities
they may have a higher cost per circ but
[44:38] that's there's an infrastructure that
every library has to have. They have to
[44:42] have a director that's certified. They
have to pay for the utilities. They have
[44:47] to pay for building um expenses. They
have to pay for
[44:52] their participation in in more our
shared catalog. So there is a a set
[44:59] amount of money that every library
basically needs to operate and then
[45:04] library boards that are appointed by the
local municipalities
[45:09] approve policies and budgets moving
forward for the services that they
[45:14] provide.
And then um
[45:18] when we look at again those two sources
of funding, the municipalities
[45:26] um are funding about 1
one,79,621
[45:34] in 2025 and the county funded 1,00 1
million excuse me1,55,122.
[45:43] So that's a
slightly under what the municipalities
[45:47] are paying, but the usage from
the rural residents outstrips what the
[45:53] municipal residents are using their
libraries for. If we were to look at it
[45:58] from a per capita funding basis, P
County is at about $34.54.
[46:03] The minimum a municipality is paying per
capita is about $53. So, um it as Fran
[46:11] mentioned, it is a bargain for rural
residents.
[46:16] And then this is just a sample of um
Amry's budget to give you a sense of how
[46:22] what makes up um a budget. Obviously,
Emry's budget is significantly larger
[46:28] and different than maybe the library and
century or dresser. Um but they all have
[46:34] the same basic
um components. the the amounts the
[46:40] amounts are just different. And then the
next slide just to give you a quick
[46:44] overview of kind of what libraries do.
Libraries are just not books. They're
[46:48] programs services helping uh with
filling out applications. Ego government
[46:54] types of things. Um some folks don't
have an email address. They don't know
[46:59] how to set one up. Libraries are there
to help them do that. Um they also
[47:05] are wayfinders. Um, there are places
people know they can come get
[47:10] information, point them in the right
direction. There's been many times I've
[47:15] been sitting in the library in Boston
Lake where they've pointed
[47:19] residents to where the county buildings
are. They're not sure where the county
[47:23] places are. That's the people know they
can get valid information at the
[47:27] library.
[47:31] And then we also have a variety of
partnerships that the libraries do with
[47:36] not only governmental agencies, other
businesses um and the schools within the
[47:41] area.
And
[47:46] Brandon touched upon this too. Um county
library payments are outside of the levy
[47:51] limit. So they do not have an impact on
any other the county departmental
[47:55] budgets. Um and the funds go directly to
the libraries and those funds fall under
[48:03] the control of the library board.
Municipalities cannot use those for any
[48:07] other purpose
[48:11] questions.
[48:17] Um thank you very much.
>> You're really great information. I don't
[48:21] think I have the same stuff that you
have.
[48:22] » I think you have the county plan that
was passed. Yes. So I have 208 and 2024
[48:28] and I think you presented 2025.
So I just want to make sure I kind of
[48:33] understand the numbers right and I'll
take the blame for having this
[48:37] discussion today for raising the
question at the last meeting.
[48:40] » Uh I represent all rural residents in my
district. So just kind of want to make
[48:45] sure if I'm I'm on page 10 of the
library plan which is the 2024 numbers.
[48:51] I don't know if you
haven't.
[48:55] » I've got the 24. Yep.
[49:05] » Number differently. Okay. Um, which
number? So, at the this at the top it
[49:10] says 2024 municipal per capita support.
>> Yep.
[49:15] » Okay. Yep.
>> So, and then that's $1,49,96,
[49:19] right? You see that number?
>> Yep. So that if I'm and I'm just asking
[49:22] the questions I'm trying to understand
how this works. So that is how much
[49:26] these communities that are listed put
into the libraries.
[49:30] » Correct.
>> And then if you go to the bottom
[49:33] 1,78,000
is what the county the non
[49:38] village city residents of the county put
in. So it's about half 50/50, right? Is
[49:42] that fair?
>> Right. and and the the note with the
[49:46] amount for the county that also includes
payments that Pulk County is making to
[49:50] the adjacent county. So, it might be
money going to Deer Park. It might be
[49:55] money going to
um Webster or whoever else is in
[50:01] adjacent county. That's okay. That's
helpful. So the the 31,000
[50:06] non what you guys call non-resident Pulk
County residents are are paying about
[50:12] half for the libraries. And then if you
go to that next one
[50:18] um the circulation
it looks like and I think you said in
[50:23] your presentation that circulation is
kind of how you base this.
[50:28] » So um I'm just back to page nine one
page ahead.
[50:33] 159,000 circulation to the non-residents
and total circulation of 309.
[50:40] So again, roughly half of the
circulation is to non residents. Is that
[50:46] roughly close? Yep. Um and then the last
question that I have and it gets to the
[50:52] circulation is you got to go all the way
back to 2018.
[50:55] The the cir total circulation then was
419,000.
[50:59] In 2024, the total circulation was
309,000.
[51:04] And in your your presentation, the 2025
was 280,000. So from 2018
[51:12] to 2025, we've had a reduction in
circulation library systemwide in Pulk
[51:18] County of about a third.
And then if you look at the the
[51:23] electronic stuff, it appears that that
has increased by maybe 50% or more even.
[51:31] » Um, so tell me what is circulation what
I think about it is when I was a kid I
[51:36] went to the Amry Library and checked out
a book that's circulation. What is the
[51:40] what is the other what's the electronic?
What does that involve? So that would be
[51:45] using um the Libby app to download a an
ebook or an e audio material so that
[51:51] they're using a device to listen to that
material versus coming in physically
[52:00] into the library and grabbing a book or
a DVD or an audio.
[52:05] So I'm a member of the Amry Public
Library. Probably am not anymore, but I
[52:08] I have been for a long time over the
years. Um, I can go somewhere and
[52:13] download an ebook onto something onto my
phone and listen to it. That's what
[52:17] that's what that's talking about.
>> Correct.
[52:19] » Yeah. And so how does how do I I
couldn't figure out how that compares
[52:26] resident to non-resident. Do you guys
have that
[52:28] » great
>> information? it. We don't really have
[52:33] that specific of information because the
vendors that supply those materials
[52:39] don't get it down to the detail of what
township a person lives in when they
[52:45] check that or borrow that item. So, we
have raw numbers. We could extrapolate
[52:52] based on physical circulation and guess
what that might be. Um, but areas that
[52:59] don't have a high-speed internet that's
reliable, they're less apt to download
[53:04] those materials. So, it it it may not be
a true um one for one comparison based
[53:11] on physical circulation.
So, and and to that usage,
[53:17] the expenses that the libraries pay for
those materials, that's part of their
[53:22] operational budget. So, it's kind of
figured into that cost per circulation.
[53:27] » That's what I was going to ask. So,
there's some I assume sub subscription
[53:30] that the Amry Library or the Pulk County
Libraries or someone has with these
[53:35] services that then allow me as a member
to download the books. Yep. So, it it is
[53:41] a statewide overdrive collection. The
libraries and library systems within the
[53:47] state of Wisconsin pay for those
materials. So there is a giant
[53:53] collection on Libby app for those items
and then individual libraries and
[53:58] systems pay for additional um licensed
copies of those items so people can
[54:04] check them out. So let's say it's a
super popular um item
[54:10] and there's a lot of people waiting for
it um the library system or an
[54:14] individual library may purchase or lease
additional copies. So that reduces the
[54:20] wait time for folks.
[54:25] » Thanks.
[54:29] » Any other questions? Anyone?
>> All right. Thank you.
[54:34] » Thank you.
>> Appreciate all your support.
[54:40] See, we went on to um
Number nine, discussion and possible
[54:46] action regarding resolution 3826
setting the rates for library
[54:58] » wants to start the discussion I guess.
Well,
[55:05] I don't know what there's left to
discuss.
[55:09] » Well, I think did we got to move this
on?
[55:13] » If I remember how we left it last month,
we we were going to send it to the board
[55:17] without a without a percentage
recommended.
[55:21] Um, I kind of think we should probably
that this committee should probably
[55:26] recommend it at percentage. Okay. And um
that can be that can be amended at the
[55:34] board level or or whatever. But I think
we should send this forward with a
[55:39] recommendation. Would that that be
appropriate?
[55:43] » Yes.
>> So the resolution needs to get passed so
[55:46] that be included in the budget. But um
whether this committee assigns a
[55:52] percentage today and then sends it with
a recommendation or sends it neutral
[55:58] with no numbers in there so that the
board can amend it um at the at the full
[56:05] county board.
That sort of discussion potentially may
[56:09] require going into committee as a whole,
but all of that's for the board to
[56:12] decide. You can do either thing. You
could send it with a neutral
[56:16] recommendation since there is no
percentage in there and say board you
[56:21] contemplate what to do with this or if
you all decide uh on a percentage you
[56:27] could put it in there and then send it
with recommendation. If you do that the
[56:32] board can still amend at the full board
to a different percentage uh at that
[56:37] time and that's resolution 3826 that you
have in our packet. Is that right?
[56:42] » Correct.
>> Correct. Well, I' I'd move to approve
[56:45] resolution 3826 at and then fill in your
blanks at 95%.
[56:51] » I'd second that.
>> All right. So, we've got a motion.
[56:54] » Just for point of clarity, it would be
move to approve with an amendment. So,
[57:01] » you want me to take the amendment?
>> I think the cleanest way would be move
[57:04] to approve and then get a second and
then during discussion move to amend.
[57:09] Get the change.
>> That's my motion then.
[57:11] » Okay. So, we've got a motion to a motion
and a second to approve the resolution.
[57:16] Send it to the board with recommendation
>> with a recommendation of 95%.
[57:23] » You want me to make a motion to amend?
>> So, on the floor it would be motion to
[57:27] send to the board
uh with recommendation and then you all
[57:32] have to vote or you go get seconded. So
for discussion and then we would need a
[57:38] motion to amend to replace the X's the
>> So currently we've got the motion and a
[57:43] second to move the to move the
resolution forward
[57:49] » and I'll make the motion to amend to
95%.
[57:52] » So first of all any discussion on that
moving it forward
[57:56] » but you don't want to you don't want to
vote on that until
[57:59] » right. So now the amendments he's made a
motion to amend it to add the 95%. Is
[58:05] there a second on that?
>> Yes.
[58:07] » Right. So that's been properly moved and
seconded.
[58:10] » That's leaving it as is
>> with 95%. Yeah.
[58:15] Uh any further discussion on that?
>> I just want to say one quick thing.
[58:20] Thank you so much for the presentation.
Very helpful information. It appears to
[58:24] me that from the circulation, if that's
the right number to use, and I'm not
[58:29] sure it is after after what we've seen
today, maybe we need to move away from
[58:32] we're doing electronic more than
circulation now. Um that the the rural
[58:37] residents, and that's what I've been
concerned about, are actually using a
[58:42] little bit more than 50% and they're
funding it at
[58:46] essentially half. So, it seems to me
that my question of is this fair to the
[58:51] rural residents has been answered and it
is. It does seem that it it's fair. The
[58:57] one long-term concern I would have our
circulation is plummeting the way that
[59:00] it has over the last seven or eight
years. Maybe there needs to be a look
[59:05] long term at a how the how this model is
set up because it seems like people
[59:11] aren't checking out books, they're doing
other things. But I guess that's for
[59:15] another day. I would assume that other
counties are experiencing similar things
[59:20] especially the rural county.
So we'll we'll be getting that
[59:26] information over the years
[59:30] » discussion
and I someone from the library could
[59:34] correct me but I believe that
calculation is determined by the
[59:37] statute. So it would be the legislature
that has to take a look at it and and
[59:41] » yeah I my point was more how we operate
as libraries then you know if we're not
[59:47] checking out books but we're doing
downloads maybe there's a more efficient
[59:51] way to do that.
>> All right we'll be voting now then on on
[59:58] moving this to the board with a with
recommendation I believe is how is is
[1:00:04] how you um worded that.
>> Yes. and adding the 95%. Is that
[1:00:09] correct?
>> Yes.
[1:00:10] » Did we vote on the amendment yet?
>> No.
[1:00:12] » No.
>> So, vote on the amendment first and then
[1:00:14] » So, we'll vote on the amendments. Hey,
add the 95% in. All in favor signify by
[1:00:18] saying I
>> I
[1:00:21] remember.
>> Sorry, Jeremy. Was that was that an I or
[1:00:26] an A?
>> I
[1:00:29] so it passes unanimously.
Now to move the entire the entire
[1:00:36] resolution forward as amended.
All in favor signify by saying I
[1:00:40] » I
post nay and that passes too. All right.
[1:00:50] » Uh number 10 update in remote work
professional services and independent
[1:00:56] contractors.
>> Yes, Mr. Chair. Um that was a request by
[1:01:00] Hall for an update on remote work. um
from HR HR professional Stephanie um is
[1:01:05] going to update you on our latest
numbers.
[1:01:11] Bring that up. Thank
>> you.
[1:01:16] You should have brought dropped that in
your box. It's along with the it's on
[1:01:20] the end of the budget one
halfway through
[1:01:26] » slide
[1:01:30] nine.
[1:01:35] Yes.
[1:01:55] » All right. just really Hi, I'm Stephanie
Lauder and I'm the senior affair
[1:01:59] generalist county. I've been with the
county since December.
[1:02:04] Um and really quickly um we do offer our
employees, you know, the opportunity to
[1:02:14] um
remote work. So we have occasional which
[1:02:19] employee requests from a supervisor as
needed. So kind of like on a ho ad hoc
[1:02:24] basis whether they live far away and you
know are going to a doctor's appointment
[1:02:30] so that they can still be productive and
be working in a you know a high capacity
[1:02:36] of their time. Uh we have hybrid and
field office work. So if somebody were
[1:02:43] to be on the field um let's say a social
worker and uh they were working in the
[1:02:50] field and hybrid so that they wouldn't
spend a majority of their time driving
[1:02:56] um they could be productive you know
working and then uh right now we
[1:03:02] currently actually have 65 employees on
approved telecommuting agreements. Um,
[1:03:10] and the next slide breaks it down by
division and department.
[1:03:19] So, it's a total of 65 and out of um the
county's regular employees about 17%.
[1:03:28] Have this
agreement in place.
[1:03:35] Any
[1:03:47] questions?
[1:03:52] » Do you want me to do the next slide?
>> Yeah.
[1:03:55] » The other the other thing I hall asked
on was uh contracted services,
[1:04:00] professional services. Um, with that in
your slide, if you go to the next slide,
[1:04:06] Claire, please.
We have different types of of contracts
[1:04:10] we work up naturally um with our
contractors. Um, we utilize them for
[1:04:16] employment law, bonding, uh, government
with the uh, HR management, IT, security
[1:04:24] among other ones. Um, some of the other
smaller contractor firms we deal with
[1:04:28] are individuals. Our deer removal
contract on our on our county highways.
[1:04:33] Uh, the state has a separate one. We do
squad outfitting uh with Anderson Tech.
[1:04:38] He does the decals on our squads. Foster
care HR. Um, Scott Good for IT um is one
[1:04:45] that we used when he left the the
organization. We had him sign a contract
[1:04:50] with us to bridge that gap before we
hired a new IT director to keep our
[1:04:53] cyber security going for forward with
that. Um other things we do with that um
[1:04:58] we contract out line striping um paving.
We don't own our own paver. It's more
[1:05:04] efficient for monarch to layer mix and
we just haul it. Um so of that currently
[1:05:09] in 2026 we have 170 uh 1099s we're
doing. Um and of that we um 2.2 2
[1:05:17] million in 2026 for current payment of
those contracted services and that's
[1:05:21] throughout the entire organization. We
contract out our janitorial services. Um
[1:05:27] along with um we used to do security in
the justice center and now we brought
[1:05:31] that in house using jailers. But um it's
something we can provide contract
[1:05:36] services more efficiently and cheaper
for our residents uh than doing it in
[1:05:40] house. So that's kind of a snapshot of
what uh professional services and
[1:05:45] contracts we have with um general
speaking without uh bringing the entire
[1:05:50] list.
Not sure if there's any questions on
[1:05:53] that slide or one question they I didn't
realize the dead deer removal were or we
[1:06:01] pay per animal or is it a contract that
uh you know is an annual fee or how do
[1:06:08] we do that? Uh they bid it. It goes in
per animal and on a monthly charge. Uh
[1:06:13] and there's a time frame depending on
the time of year of whether it's um 72
[1:06:18] hours in the
in the winter, 24 hours in the
[1:06:22] summertime. There's an they expediate
that. If you get call in and say it's in
[1:06:27] front of someone's front yard, they'll
come get it. But remember, that's only
[1:06:31] on county highways. Um the state
utilizes the same contractor um on state
[1:06:36] highways. uh depending there is some
kind of delays on some of those
[1:06:40] » the towns work with the same contractor.
>> Uh I I don't know if they've reached out
[1:06:46] to this contractor for town work.
>> Um one more question and then I guess do
[1:06:52] they so do we pay per incident then or
or how does that work?
[1:06:57] » It's kind of like a an overall bundle
contract for the year. Um, I forgot what
[1:07:03] the last numbers were, right around 12
grand or 10 grand. Ran the numbers of
[1:07:08] what it cost to have two employees going
out hooking up a deer and where to
[1:07:12] dispose them at Waste Management or some
other facility. Um, was much more than
[1:07:17] that. The critical thing is is the
timing of the call. Um, we have a system
[1:07:22] where we fill out a sheet and it gets
faxed and emailed right to the vendor so
[1:07:26] that he knows exact location by um
what segment and uh address where to
[1:07:34] move that deer. There is a stipulation
in the DNR contract that they can move
[1:07:38] them off and pull them off right away
depending on where they are located. So,
[1:07:42] not all of them just get picked up and
shipped off
[1:07:47] and sometimes it's easier for highway
staff just to pull them off right away
[1:07:50] and depending where they're at more so
or a resident that's in the yard or
[1:07:56] something in the sheriff's department
use that too. So, if you see one
[1:07:59] underneath a mailbox that's high
priority.
[1:08:06] » See if Jeremy's got anything.
>> Yeah, I just have a couple questions.
[1:08:10] Um, I'm wondering uh when the HR
contract will term out and the IT
[1:08:15] contract and what our processes will be
to hire those positions and what's the
[1:08:19] timeline on those?
>> The IT director has already started. So,
[1:08:24] Scott Good's contract will phase out
here shortly.
[1:08:27] um the IT or the excuse me the HR um
contract um those hours now have been
[1:08:34] reduced to 20 hours a week and we'll
phase out as we go into the process of
[1:08:38] hiring an HR manager
[1:08:42] » and then do we have any um
changes coming from working remote
[1:08:48] policies as far as the number of people
and how often
[1:08:53] » um this is con this is looked at uh
continually with the directors and the
[1:08:57] managers to see if it's efficient and
they're getting their work done. If not,
[1:09:01] those um remote agreements are pulled
and they're brought back in house
[1:09:06] depending on what that is.
>> Has there been any pulled in the last
[1:09:09] two years?
>> Yes.
[1:09:12] » Do you know how many?
>> Not off hand. No.
[1:09:16] » Okay.
[1:09:20] » And I can Jeremy. So if you look at the
telecommuting by division and
[1:09:24] department, this is Joe Lo corporation
council. So you'll see
[1:09:31] my office under general government makes
up the lion share of the 11 people that
[1:09:37] are working remotely. Um that includes
myself
[1:09:44] one day a week maybe uh attorney
Schiffer one maybe two days a week on
[1:09:50] the occasion when he doesn't have court
which is rare um
[1:09:56] him Mortonson also similarly if she has
court and is needs to be in the office
[1:10:02] is in the office for the three of us in
corporation council it's up.
[1:10:09] For example, Pierce County is trying to
hire a corporation or assistant
[1:10:14] corporation council. The person that
they wanted to hire was requesting full
[1:10:19] remote work. Um, one of the district
attorneys in uh Pierce County was full
[1:10:27] remote work.
We at least in my office are at a
[1:10:32] professional level in this um
geographic area don't have the level of
[1:10:40] professionals that want to necessarily
come into this field. So, at least for
[1:10:47] my office, which is the only one I can
really speak for, there's a need to
[1:10:52] extend that benefit so that it attracts
the type of people that want to be
[1:10:57] working for the county. Uh, the other
five in my office are all child support
[1:11:05] specialists. Most other counties, sorry,
some other counties have full remote
[1:11:12] work for their specialists to where they
don't come into the office ever. Um,
[1:11:19] they work fully remote. That is not how
our office operates. Uh, our office
[1:11:23] requires our specialists to be in the
office again if they have court, which
[1:11:28] is probably two to three days of the
week. Um, I think we at most allow
[1:11:33] people to work from from home two days a
week. So that those employees all fall
[1:11:39] under that hybrid kind of scheduling.
Um, so all eight of the employees in my
[1:11:45] department fall under that type of
schedule. And it's a determination that
[1:11:50] I have made and that Malia made before
me that in order to get the type of
[1:11:55] people that we want to work in our
field, that's a benefit that we need to
[1:12:01] extend. Um
what my job is as the manager is to make
[1:12:07] sure uh at least for
child support, it's relatively easy,
[1:12:12] right? We have five or six KPIs that the
state dictates to us. We can look at
[1:12:20] those KPIs not just by our office but by
each individual worker and we the state
[1:12:26] has a process by which they uh send
random notifications to your computer
[1:12:31] and you have five or 10 minutes or
something like that to reply and put in
[1:12:36] a case note and do something. So there
are mechanisms that are built into at
[1:12:41] least my systems that require a person
to be at their computer and actively
[1:12:47] attentive and working. Um, similarly, if
there was any problem with
[1:12:55] Attorney Schaefer or Miss Mortonson,
I would see those pretty quickly in a
[1:13:01] failure to file something on time or a
failure to reply to an email that I send
[1:13:05] or a failure of either of them to reply
to an outside attorney or something like
[1:13:10] that. And I'll hear about it relatively
quickly. I can only really speak for my
[1:13:15] department, but I can only imagine that
the department heads of other
[1:13:19] departments are in similar situations.
Um, but again, I can't speak for them,
[1:13:25] but that that's kind of a snapshot of
what that looks like. Uh, and I would
[1:13:31] assume that that's across the the
government. And I I know that community
[1:13:34] services has KPIs that they have uh for
their employees. Um but again I can only
[1:13:42] speak to to my particular department
>> and one of the other being a border
[1:13:47] county also next to Minnesota one of the
other things that we have to be very be
[1:13:50] conscious of is their family their FLMA
that's paid. So if you reside in
[1:13:55] Minnesota and you work here in P County
you have to be in office 51% of the
[1:14:01] time. You know that being said if you
took two days vacation a week you you
[1:14:06] can't you can't be remote the rest of
the week. you have to be in office so we
[1:14:10] don't get caught up in paying for paid
family medical leave.
[1:14:14] » So I guess that is to to your question
Supervisor Hall the somewhat an answer.
[1:14:20] There has been a development in the
policy for work from home but it it is
[1:14:25] related to the the change of the law in
the state of Minnesota. Correct.
[1:14:35] » Anyone else?
All right. Thank you.
[1:14:38] » You bet. Stay up here update.
>> Yes.
[1:14:44] All right. Well, that's one of the
things we have to do naturally is is a
[1:14:48] structurally balanced budget every year.
And um this is your first look at that.
[1:14:54] So, um we can go with that and see how
important that is. Uh next slide. So,
[1:15:00] the slide you saw last month at general
government. Um this is the outside
[1:15:04] agencies. You can see the the second
column is their request for 2027
[1:15:10] and the last one is going to be my
recommendation for each outside agency
[1:15:15] with that and that's what we put in the
budget. Um
[1:15:19] that are in there the historical society
asked for 67,165
[1:15:25] a $7,000 increase. I kept them at last
year's level. the same with uh tourism
[1:15:32] and the other ones are the same with
except for West Central Wisconsin
[1:15:36] Planning Commission. That's a formula
done by statute with that one. Next
[1:15:40] slide.
[1:15:45] These are uh all the AFRs now have been
through committees. These are the public
[1:15:51] work capital AFRs.
That's $2.4 million worth. Um of that
[1:15:57] 2.2 two is part of debt service. Keeping
our levy flat, keeping our levy the same
[1:16:02] with that debt payment um allows us to
do these projects. We got two highway
[1:16:06] projects, seven squads, m uh windows for
the museum, uh lighting controls for the
[1:16:12] justice center, remote controls for the
Clam Falls Dam, again, replacing carpet
[1:16:17] in the Justice Center, part of it,
control boat that's paid for um over
[1:16:23] four years from uh the DNR through a
grant. the same with their players
[1:16:28] expedition UTV.
We got fluorescent lights in the CISA
[1:16:32] building,
uh the sheriff's office, cubicle
[1:16:37] remodel, uh mixing valves in the jail,
and then for parks, snowblower, and a
[1:16:43] zeroturn lawn mower that's paid through
the one tenn fund. So 2.2 of that is
[1:16:48] debt financing to keep our levy the same
as last year.
[1:16:53] Next slide.
uh public safety, public works operating
[1:16:58] AFRs. Um these are um staff driven. Uh
most of them are staff. The first one
[1:17:04] though is the one uh 150,000 for the
ster litigation. We add that line item.
[1:17:10] Uh we have increased costs for uh
medical costs for the jail.
[1:17:14] Um adding the AD the DA to the Axon
contract. Those are for the body cams.
[1:17:20] Um how they go through their process.
And then these are employee ones. an X
[1:17:25] once for a highway taking a maintenance
worker to a maintenance techni or a
[1:17:29] highway technician
uh increasing a parks maintenance worker
[1:17:33] to a park uh parks uh maintenance
technician due to certifications and
[1:17:38] licensing.
Next one's from the CJCC
[1:17:42] uh coordinator of diversion going to the
full CJC coordinator position and then
[1:17:47] the other two are from the courts um two
legal assistants going to parillegal due
[1:17:51] to more duties they are doing. Um, next
slide. ES committee only had two FR
[1:17:57] AFRs. That was an increase from
administrative assistant to
[1:18:02] administrative specialist due to duties
again. And then for the register of
[1:18:06] deeds was an optical character
recognition software for $5,000 to help
[1:18:11] um searching documents.
Uh there was no AFRS for health and
[1:18:17] human services which was nice. Um and
then the next one is general government.
[1:18:23] Uh these ones here are um for admin
increasing uh finance manager to
[1:18:29] controller due to change in duties and
what they've been doing. Uh it is
[1:18:36] increase of an from an M to an L
position for our public information
[1:18:41] specialist
to a public information communication
[1:18:45] coordinator for the duties that have
expanded on on that position. And then
[1:18:48] the other one's from court counsel. Uh a
great increase from NIL for legal uh
[1:18:55] legal office manager to a legal office
manager to position.
[1:19:00] Uh next slide.
Uh provisionally this is all the
[1:19:04] approved AFRs that we did 2.7 million uh
received over $6 million in requests
[1:19:11] from departments uh for not only
personnel but for capital projects.
[1:19:16] Again 2.2 two of that is our debt
financing to keep our levy flat um with
[1:19:21] that and that allows us to do all these
projects
[1:19:25] with that. So um you'll get the full
budget then uh next week at the county
[1:19:31] board it'll be yours and then in October
we'll look at technical amendments or
[1:19:35] changes that you would like with that.
But this is a structurally balanced
[1:19:39] budget right now
for um for 2027.
[1:19:50] Any questions?
Anything? Jeremy
[1:19:57] doesn't appear to be
[1:20:01] um administrator's update.
>> Sure. I only had three things on my list
[1:20:06] this this I've been telling the
committees. Um
[1:20:10] sales tax for August was down 4% but
we're still 2.6% above uh what we were
[1:20:15] last year about 90 grand. So that's
good. Um County Road H north of Highway
[1:20:20] 8 is closed currently for the bridge
repair over the Apple River replacement.
[1:20:24] About six weeks for that. And then
coming up in October, Oyola 243 closes
[1:20:29] for one year to replace the 243 bridge.
And then subsequently 8 to 10 years
[1:20:36] highway 8 into Taylor's falls that
bridge will be replaced.
[1:20:44] All right. Um
review work plan and identify subject
[1:20:49] matter for the next meeting.
[1:20:58] I don't know what what we've got for
that, but
[1:21:02] probably isn't anything. It'll be the um
finalizing budget stuff. I would imagine
[1:21:08] I don't know what else we would have for
>> there'll be actually a couple of things
[1:21:12] coming from my office for October. Um
there's going to be a couple of
[1:21:16] resolutions for annexations. So, when a
city or village annexes land from a
[1:21:22] town, uh we have to sometimes do
adjustments for supervisor district
[1:21:26] lines when it comes to like elections
and who votes where. Um we've had a
[1:21:31] couple of them come up over the last
couple of years that we have not taken
[1:21:36] care of because we were not aware that
we had to make those changes. Thought it
[1:21:39] was all done at the municipal level.
We're going to get those cleaned up and
[1:21:43] make sure that everything falls in line
and is contiguous with the rest of the
[1:21:46] supervisor districts. So, we have those
annexations ready. And then, um,
[1:21:50] something I've talked to, uh, the
administrator and Don Woram about also
[1:21:56] is the Arnellou is coming up, uh, in
December. Um, so that's a discussion
[1:22:02] that's going to be coming up also, and
I'm just involved in that one because we
[1:22:06] handle dog takes with them. Um, so
that's something that kind of comes
[1:22:10] through my office.
>> So those items will be for October's
[1:22:13] meeting.
>> The annexations will for sure be in
[1:22:15] October. I guess it's kind of up to you
guys as to when you want to. We are now
[1:22:20] discussions. Okay.
>> That contract I believe is up in
[1:22:23] December, so sometime before then. But
those annexations will come up next
[1:22:28] month because we have to approve them
and then they take effect in November on
[1:22:32] November 15th. So we want to make sure
that they're approved before then.
[1:22:37] Just a point of clarity before anyone
panics about voting or anything like
[1:22:41] that. In previous elections, all of the
annexed areas had zero population. So
[1:22:48] stemming any paranoia on that
>> one is a is a z6.068
[1:22:56] acres from town of Lincoln to city of
Amory. It's just one little like
[1:23:00] rightway road. And then the other one I
believe is the where the um
[1:23:06] the new hospital facility is going in
St. Croy Falls. Again, population zero.
[1:23:12] They're annexing that from town of St.
Croy Falls to the city.
[1:23:16] » Okay.
>> And we will have some I believe moving
[1:23:20] forward. I know the village is working
on some of theirs, but you'll maybe see
[1:23:24] this a little more often as they come up
instead of just kind of cleaning up
[1:23:28] these these previous ones.
So, it might be something you see in the
[1:23:32] future a little more often.
>> Well, inform us early.
[1:23:38] » We'll do my best.
>> All right. Final final agenda item.
[1:23:48] » Jeremy,
[1:23:51] » he does not appear to be on any
>> motion to adjourn.
[1:23:57] Second.
>> All right. Motion has been made and
[1:23:59] second to adjurnn. All in favor?
>> I oppose.