Will the clerk call the role, please? >> Commissioner Heinrich >> here. >> Commissioner Brastead >> here. >> Commissioner Reiner >> here. >> Commissioner Gamash >> here. >> Commissioner Schulty >> here. >> Commissioner Jeepson >> here. >> Commissioner Meisner >> here. >> And we're all present and accounted for. Next, we'll consider accepting the regular claims paid over $500 and purchase card claims paid for the period ending December 12th of 2025. >> So moved. >> There's a motion by Commissioner Brassstead. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Jeepson. Any further discussion? Seeing none, this is a roll call vote. >> Commissioner Brassad. >> I. >> Commissioner Reiner. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Gomesh. >> I. >> Commissioner Schulty. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Jeepson. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Meisner. I, >> Commissioner Heinrich. >> I >> And that passes. Next, we'll look for approval of the minutes from December 16th, 2025 county board meeting. >> There's a motion to approve the minutes from December 16th. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Meisner. Is there any corrections or additions to the minutes or changes at all? >> Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes, please say I. I. >> I. Anyone opposed? Those minutes are passed. Next, we have chair's remarks. I have a few for you today. Um, it's a new year and, uh, we have a lot of new things to tackle in 2026 and I'm looking forward to, uh, being a big part of that solution. >> [gasps] >> Um, I'm hoping you're all willing to tackle this and and jump in with me to see what we can do um in a in a fashion that we probably haven't done for a really long time. Um, the board has been divided and I've been a part of that and I want to be a part of the solution. Um, and it's no surprise in today's society that society is divided. It's divided pretty equally between the right and the left. Uh, and people declare what they are. They declare declare whether they're DFL or right or left or whatever whatever you want to put the moniker, whatever it is. And this board's no different. Even though our offices are nonpartisan, city council, school boards, county boards are nonpartisan offices, but people have their proclivities. We are human beings. Um, I'm a noted and I guess just noted conservative. It's the way I lead my life. It's the way I govern. Um, and our new vice chair, Commissioner Meisner, is a noted DFLer and that's self admitted and she's proud of that. Um, and together we have worked together in the last few weeks to put together a leadership model where we're going to work together to solve a lot of problems. And we think it's a new leadership model for In Noa County. And we're hoping our fellow county board members will not only buy into it, but will work with us to show how that will work to how that's going to be the best for in Noa County residents and noa county staff and the future elected in county officials beyond the current board because people are going to be divided. They're always going to be divided. They're always going to be in different factions. But that doesn't mean you can't work together. can't it doesn't mean you can't solve problems together because it's our charge. It's what we're elected to do. So with that, we're also going to work on a a model how we can elect chairs and vice chairs going forward. Whether that's a rotation basis, hopefully it's a rotational basis that we're going to we're going to put together in coming meetings, incoming workshops where it's set up where people are going to rotate into these positions where they know where they're going to come in, how they're going to come in, and how they're going to work together. Um, I think it can be done. Uh the last thing I want to mention is that uh at this meeting today uh when committee assignments come up for uh for their reports uh the the leader of that committee from 2025 will give that report because those meetings were in 2025 and the 2026 lead will uh do that in the subsequent meetings for committees. Basically, I think that just means transportation because management was Commissioner Meisner and is Commissioner Meisner and internal audit was me and is me. Um, so with that, um, I think the vice chair does have some comments [clears throat] for vice chair's reports today. >> Commissioner, >> thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for for your comments. Uh, first of all, I would like to thank Commissioner Gamash for his two years of leadership as chair. also Commissioner Reinard for his three years of leadership and vice chair. Uh Commissioner Gamash and I for many years have wanted to establish a rotating chair practice and while most of this board could actually get behind that idea, it it has proven very challenging to implement. Um for myself, I have wanted to support a rotating chair practice because it it takes politics out. It puts putting and serving the public first. Um, as uh, Commissioner uh, Schulty mentioned, county government is local government. It is about our own backyard and it is a nonpartisan seat. And it is true. None of us have to answer to a caucus. We don't have to battle through an endorsement process. We answer directly to the voters and not to a party. Um, that is frankly why I was interested in running for this office in the first place. But the reality is politics is and the letter that comes after your name um has become the silent underpinnings of being an Anoka County Commissioner. As someone who did not have a political background before this role, I never quite understood the degree of which that this played out. I mean to Commissioner Schulty's point, this is America. We do have the right to vote. We all get to choose what most aligns with our values. And I am proud to be a DFLer. That is my voting history. But some of my colleagues choose a different team and that is not the problem. The problem is when we get our own personal politics in the way from serving the public. Republican or Democrat, Republican, conservative or liberal, us against them. It is time that we set aside our labels in Enoka County. And we do have a long-standing tradition of having a political majority rule. For decades, the In Noa County Board has been a race to get a political majority, which of course over time just switches from from one to the other. Today, the political divide is not only widening, it has gotten violent. Only months ago, we endured the political assassination of the Hortman's and the shooting of the Hoffman's in their own homes. Senator Hoffman is a friend and a mentor of mine. And when I was first uh elected as commissioner, he told me that the biggest mistake people make in politics is letting things get personal. It should never be about you or your feelings. It should always be about working together and figuring out solutions. I believe the best long-term solutions that we can all get behind is by working together. By establishing a rotating chair practice puts the focus on what local government should be about. Working together to serve our communities. It's time to break the status quo in an NOA County and usher in a new era. And I am thrilled to be part of this bipartisan leadership team. I want to thank my colleagues for their support, not not just for me as vice chair, but support for the shared vision of rotating chair. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Meisner. Uh that will move us to our next item on the agenda, which is committee of the whole reports. We'll move to the management committee which has someformational items. Commissioner Meisner. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under the management of the committee of the whole, we met on Tuesday, December 16th in this building at 8:15 a.m. There were no public comments in person. As always, I do also accept them via email. There were none via email, but you may reach me at mandy.mmeisnermn.gov. This isformational, but I will just kind of recap. Um the first one was uh approving following positions for the employment employee assistant program and these are two positions that have been switched up that actually went directly to the board last meeting. So that's that's been all approved. We also discussed discussed an employment agreement with Kevin McN uh as his appointment to the assistant director of emergency communication. And last, we discussed the legal publication bids for 2026 with contracts to be considered for approval at the 2026 organizational meeting, which we also passed earlier this morning at 8:30. Um, we did have a closed session to talk about some legal matters. And then the last item that we discussed was related to the county's cyber security systems and cyber security policy. So with that, that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Commissioner Meiser. And that will bring us to the committee of the whole transportation, and we will turn to Commissioner Jeepson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh the transportation committee met December 3rd at 1 p.m. at the highway department building. Uh there was no one from the public to make comments. Uh there were a number of projects for the county engineer to advertise for bids um including projects for the 2026 countywide pavement preservation program and projects in Fidley Spring Lake Park and Rapids. Uh but the only item on our agenda for today is a recommendation to award contract C0012042 in the amount of $4,556,82920 to Northpine Aggregate. Uh North Pine Aggregate was the lowest responsible bidder with their bid coming in over $2 million below the engineers estimate. Those are numbers we like to see. Uh this project is for the reconstruction of Bow Street uh which will include removing of poor soils, widening the roadway core, uh batuminous through lanes, batuminous shoulders, right turn lanes, and adding left turn lanes at 187th lane, 190 90th Avenue, and 194th Avenue. And so with that, I will offer the motion to approve the contract with North Pine Aggregate. >> There's a motion before us. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by [clears throat] second by Commissioner Heinrich. Is there any further discussion? It is impressive. $2 million $2.4 million below budget or below engineers estimate. That's really quite impressive. Very competitive. A lot of bids. >> With no further discussion, this is a roll call vote. >> Commissioner Reiner. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Gamash. >> I. >> Commissioner Schulty. >> I. >> Commissioner Jepson. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Meisner. >> I. >> Commissioner Heinrich. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Brastead. >> I. >> And that vote passes. Yes. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could just make a small comment here. Absolutely. Um, yes. During our um oper uh excuse me, during our organizational meeting, yes, I will no longer be leading the transportation committee. Um, there are a number of other boards and commissions that I have chosen to be on or been appointed to uh to repres. So, I am very excited that um my colleague, Commissioner Heinrich, is going to step into that role as he has an equal passion for transportation and I know that he will represent Anoka County and this board uh internally um very well. So, I look forward to his leadership. >> Well, and thank you, Commissioner Jeepson, for your work on the transportation committee. It's been exemplary and and certainly staying on the transportation advisory board and your work regionally has been very important to Anoka County and we look forward to your continued work there. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh that concludes your report with transportation. We'll move on then to the internal audit committee report. Uh and we held our meeting on December 15th here in conference room 772. Um, our first item, uh, Julie Mater and Felicia Tri, the office of the state auditor conducted their entrance meeting here and that is for the county's annual audit for the year of 2025. Uh, that report will be completed by June of this year. Uh, that was their entrance meeting. Uh, and then secondly, we had our 2026 audit plan was presented by our internal auditor. uh that was approved and accepted our 2026 audit plan and then uh we had a verbal report on other areas of audit work and there were no concerns raised at all. Uh and then we did also uh approve the internal auditors uh possible 2026 travel plans that are actually paid for by the institute of internal auditors. All the travel costs are covered. So, we just more or less approved those and made sure it's on record that uh that he has those continuing education credits, that he's doing that work appropriately, and the county approves of that. And that does conclude the internal audit report. And with that, we are going to move to the additional agenda item that's before you. Uh, and you'll notice that something we covered in our organizational meeting today that was a little bit of a uh misstep. Uh, Commissioner Reiner was listed on the U canvasing board, but because he's on the ballot this fall, he cannot be on the canvasing board. So, you'll see we're going to consider appointing Commissioner Meiser to the canvasing board, replacing Commissioner Reiner. Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Have a motion by Commissioner Gomesh. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Heinrich. Is there any further discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Anyone opposed? And that item passes unanimously. Is there anything else to come before the county board? Mr. >> Chair, Commissioner Gomesh. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I just want to uh congratulate Commissioner Schulty on becoming the chair uh for 2026 and Commissioner Meiser becoming the vice chair for 2026. I want to thank um the board for their support over the last two years of being your chair. Um it's been a tough couple years, but uh we've uh we've got a lot done at the same time and I'm looking forward to uh some of the things that were discussed earlier by uh board chair um Schulty and uh Vice Chair Meisner about coming together and working on the plans for having the the um rotating chairs. It's something that Commissioner Meisner and I have been talking about for a number of years. And I think um um that was what my hope was as we moved into the phase in 2024. Um and then 2025 I had another year of being the chair and that was great. Um, but I was always looking that we started this process and I know it takes some time to get used to having um it laid out and some having having a platform that actually works and I'm confident that uh through the year we can put that together and be successful at it and I think that will give us as Commissioner Meiser said in her in her statement some opportunities uh to really uh balance things. Now we did some balancing u when when Mr. Dickson came in and he was also proposing the U committees of a whole and the committees of the whole I think have worked great over the last couple years. Um it really I think gets us really involved in what's happening on every committee instead of um having three commissioners here and two commissioners there. Now we're all in every single u one of those committee meetings. Um it's very helpful u moving forward and I think that has helped balance things a little bit. it uh it did reduce some of the power of the board and I was okay with that and Commissioner Schulty is okay with it as well. Um the discussion that we had about the um as we were pointing out the leads and other committees that we were um being appointed to we've changed that a bit too. Now we've got everybody involved in that in a in a fall meeting in November October meeting that we can discuss which committees we're going to sit on and and what we want to focus on. So a lot of those things have reduced uh some of the power of the of the board. But in my mind, that's a good thing. I think that's that's working to um our our benefit and I'm looking forward to to 2026. So, thank you both. >> Yeah. The only correction I would make is it hasn't reduced the power of the board at all. It's reduced the centralized power. >> Yeah. >> Of specific people on the board, right? >> The the actual board has all the same powers, which is fantastic. >> Yeah. To say board, I meant chair. [laughter] >> Thank you. Sorry. >> Any further comments? Seeing none, we're adjourned. Thank you all.