I appreciate the show of support and will get started on the next item on the agenda today which is the election of the County Board Vice chair for program year 202 and I will place a nomination in the name of Jeff Reiner.

I was at the Blaine city council meeting yes last night and um they do their Nom they do their um swearing in before the meeting so they had a lot of things on their agenda so they had a packed house I mean literally they had to open up side rooms to hold people it was so packed but I thought to myself I'm my glad we're starting at 8:30 in the morning and we get that all that stuff out of the way before we get started on anything.

I want to thank judge judge Jess Walker Jasper for swearing me in this morning she did that after I bed 22 as well we've been friends for a number of years and her and her husband as well Jonathan and I want to send out to him because he had been ill for a while had to retire from the judge SI but the last time I saw him when we were at Margies together and's doing well so I appreciate that but I appreciate the friendship from them and appreciate that she was able to do that this time.

I just I want to make a Qui comment on our process for chair selection some of my constituents contacted me and asked me if I would be interested and asked me if I'd throw my hat in the ring and I did comment to him that at our work session that I had expressed interest in being chair and that I was going to throw my hat in the ring but there was obvious that the majority of the board was supporting you and that so that I wouldn't Cloud the process at this meeting by by making a circus of throwing my hat in the ring here but that I hadn't previously had done that so I I made sure my constituents knew that and wanted to make sure they knew that again today.

we're trying uh to build think again this year as we move from a difficult year in 2024 we had had the tough job of having to find a new administrator that took a lot of time and but we also have some big issues on the on our agenda again for this year as we still have conversations going on regarding what we do with a new jail and where it gets located so there are a lot of things that we have to work on we have to work on as a group and as a team and that's the biggest part of this board.

we had a great meeting yesterday morning with three of our state senators one of our state representatives over in at the Blaine Health Human Services building talked about issues that are going to come up in the next legislative session they're obviously having a very difficult time that they're already talking about possibly delaying possibly the session a little bit depending on how things go but that's not good but we have things that we need to look at and we need to get done including the work that needs to get done on Highway 65 and the money that needs to get brought in from different areas.

having former state representative Hinrich sitting here on the board is going to be helpful I think he already has U some knowledge of people that we will be working with and I think he's got some relationships that we can take advantage of in when we're down there dealing with them and talking with them so that's always that's always good.

I just want to say one thing you know I support you Mike for chair and I did support you last year and you know we don't share the same politics but you are honest and you do have integrity that's why I support you.

I want to thank you and our administrator and the staff this is a huge change in terms of the construction of how we conduct our business and I am personally really excited about this change we are are all going to be there as a board getting the same information able to ask our questions so I really am very optimistic about it and I will also say I'm sure that the first couple meetings might be a little bit bumpy that is my expectation because this is a huge shift but thank you again both so much and for staff for for doing this I think this is a very positive move.

as a Committee of the whole and just for the Public's knowledge Committee of the whole means usually at this point in time we would be showing the appointments of the chair the vice chair and the members for each of these committees now we are all going to serve on these committees so there's going to be a lead commissioner and the lead commissioner will serve as that chair of that meeting.

if someone is not available as the lead for their meetings it is my suggestion that the board chair would then step in as the lead and if the both the lead and the board chair are not there then the vice chair would step in as the lead that should give us coverage I would think moving forward.

just just comments I I want to thank you and our administrator and the staff this is a huge change in terms of the um construction of how we conduct our business and I am personally really excited about this change we are are all going to be there as a board getting the same information able to ask our questions so I really am very optimistic about it.

I thought this was one and the same because I believe my predecessor Jim cordak used to be the commissioner that was assigned to this and it was it was commonly talked about as the the weed inspector but I think he did that for for many many years so I think about Jim cordak every time that this comes up.

the joint law enforcement has this and the sheriff makes these appointments of Mayors from cities that use the Sheriff's Department as their police force and I was honored to be able to sit on that for many years as the Andover mayor and congratulate I think I'm trying to remember I'm not sure if mayor walf was on there last year he but I congratulate mayor mayor barell or soon to be mayor barell because I think he gets sworn in tonight as the new mayor of Andover but they will serve on that as well.