Allegiance >> indeed. I >> aliance to the flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands. One nation [clears throat] under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> [snorts] >> All right, thank you for that. Uh, next item is public comments. Comments that are not related to an item already on the agenda. Have anybody that'd like to speak? Come on up. State your name, your address. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Mon'nique LCroy and I am a resident of district 4 in Chaza. Last time I was here, I shared a personal story about witnessing a young man named Alex being detained by ICE as he was leaving the immigration courtroom in hopes of humanizing immigrants. Today, I will share from a different perspective. I want to begin by thanking Commissioner Fehey and Commissioner Udman. I sincerely appreciate that you took the time with me to listen to my concerns over the phone and to discuss the complexities of immigration and public safety. That dialogue is what good governance looks like. Commissioner Lynch, you are my representative on this board. I have reached out to you to request a meeting, but I have not yet received a response. I would still very much welcome the opportunity to sit down with you constituent to commissioner to discuss this important decision. I am here to ask you to oppose any agreement that uses Carver County resources to house ICE detainees or participate in federal immigration enforcement. Commissioner Lynch, as a logistics professional and former township supervisor, you understand supply and demand. When you have a supply shortage, like staffing sheriff's office, it is not advisable to take on high-risk clients like ICE that drain your core resources. Right now, the sheriff's office is facing a severe supply shortage. We have seen turnover rates as high as 40%. The staffing crisis is so acute that the county had to issue a refund of nearly $200,000 to the city of Chanhassen because we physically could not provide the deputies they contracted for. If we cannot even fulfill our paid contracts to our own cities, why are we volunteering to do the federal government's work? We are facing an 8% levy increase next year. We cannot afford to divert scarce deputies or tax dollars to subsidize federal operations. But the cost goes deeper than just deputy wages. And this is a critical point for this board specifically. As you know, Minnesota is unique. We are a state supervised county administered system. That means this board is directly responsible for paying for and implementing child protection, mental health services, and economic assistance. These services already consume the largest portion of our county budget. When the sheriff partners with ICE to detain and deport local residents, he is creating a downstream fiscal crisis that we taxpayers have to pay for. When a bread winner is deported, the family is often plunged into poverty, requiring the county's assistance. When parents are separated, excuse me, when parents are separated from their children, those children often enter the county's child protection system. When families live in terror, the demand for county mental health services spikes. From a fiscal perspective, this is a bad deal. The sheriff gets the enforcement headline, but the board gets the bill for the social services cleanup. Every family separated by this policy is a potential new line item in your h human services budget. Commissioner Anderson, this negatively affects your priority of upstream thinking. You have correctly argued that we spend too much time reacting to crises rather than preventing them. You advocate for mental health reform and family stability. Partnering with ICE is the very definition of a downstream disaster. It creates trauma. It destabilizes families. It generates the exact mental health and economic crisis you are trying to prevent. If we want to practice upstream thinking, we must stop policies that traumatize our community at the source. Now, we cannot build a healthy community on a foundation of fear. Finally, there is the risk of direct legal liability. We know that Operation Metro Surge has been chaotic. Just last week in Minneapolis, ICE agents tackled and detained a US citizen simply for looking Somali. Carver County is already facing litigation from the ACLU regarding the detention of Michael Bella. When a mistake is made, when a US citizen is detained in our jail, it is Carver County that gets sued. It is our levy that pays the settlement. The federal government does not indemnify us for their mistakes. >> Mon'nique, if I can interrupt, we do have a fiveinut limit and you're pushing six. So, >> I have 10 seconds left. >> Okay. >> Commissioner Udman, you asked me for a solution. In this moment, I believe the solution is focus. The solution is to say no to the distraction of federal immigration enforcement so that our sheriff can focus 100% on hiring deputies, fulfilling local contracts, and keeping our community safe. The solution is to support the family resource center you mentioned, keeping families together rather than policies that create traumatized children. I ask you all to protect our budget, protect our upstream investments, but most importantly, protect our neighbors. Please oppose any contract with ICE. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. [applause] >> Okay. Anybody else? [applause] [applause] Hi, my name is Chris Moral. I'm a Henipin County resident. Thank you for providing this open public forum. I was at the recent Chanhassen raid on Saturday, December 13th. I know you received my email, but wanted to tell you in person what I saw and experienced that day. With ISIS history of assaults, disregard for constitutional rights, and inhumane treatment of people, immigrants and citizens alike, I felt the need to show up as a citizen constitutional observer documenting [snorts] ISIS actions. Saturday, I witnessed an ICE officer assault a peaceful protester by shoving her forcefully. She wasn't doing anything wrong. I feared for her safety, the safety of the other protesters on scene, and the safety of the two immigrants on the roof during sub-zero weather. In response to what looked like escalating ICE violence, I asked the Carver County deputies on site to move closer so they'd have an unobstructed view of exchanges between ICE, the immigrants, and the protesters. I generally understand the limitations that local law enforcement is under when dealing with federal law enforcement agencies. I did not ask the deputies to obstruct or breach the perimeter ICE had established. I simply wanted to have a local law enforcement officer there to witness and document any further abuse from ICE, hoping ICE may be held accountable. I presume the sheriff's department was there to keep the community safe and help deter violent and aggressive behavior from ICE without obstructing or impeding. Aren't local police there to help prevent and stop aggression and violence towards its community members? Is my question. [clears throat] I was surprised with the reaction I received. I had to make my request six times over half hour's time until finally a deputy reluctantly walked a couple hundred feet down the public road so he could see what was going on. This resistance from the sheriff's deputies looked as if they were supporting ICE over their own residents. Additionally, [snorts] I've heard Carver County is considering entering into an agreement with ICE to utilize its detention facilities. ICE is an agency that racially profiles. Last week, a 20-year-old Somali American citizen was rushed, tackled, and forced into a vestule where he was put into a headlock and thrown into an ICE vehicle. All while he was telling the agents that he was an American citizen. They didn't talk to him. They didn't identify themselves as ICE agents or ask him to show his ID, passport, or papers. They simply took him away because his skin was black. Prior to that, a 53-year-old woman in Burnsville was yelled at and pinned to the ground because she refused to let Ice into her apartment building. Her husband is a lawful immigrant who is now afraid to go outside. Note, ICE did not have a judicial warrant. Only after she told the men she was going to call the police did they start to let her up. Here's an example that local police can be a deterrent for ICE violence if they want to be. Yet another 55-year-old woman was thrown to the ground because she asked some men if they were ICE agents. One ICE agent asked who she was and told her to back up. She stood still. The ICE agent then threw her to the ground, handcuffed her, and took her to the Whipple detention facility for several hours. In no way was this older woman a threat to anyone. One more. Yes, believe it or not, do you notice a pattern picking on vulnerable people here. One more 55-year-old woman observing and documenting public ICE activities was boxed in by four unmarked SUVs and surrounded by masked men. The ICE agents threatened to arrest her for impeding. Following an ICE vehicle to document their actions in public is not impeding and is a constitutional right we all have. If ICE is using these kinds of intimidating and violent tactics toward US citizens, imagine what they're doing to immigrants when no one's watching. It looks very much like Carver County supports ICE. I'm not a constituent since I live in Henipin County, but would ask that you all simply and clearly let your constituents know whether you support ICE or not and let them decide at the polls. I can only hope that policies can be re reviewed and revised in your local law enforcement department to better protect your residents, the public, and immigrants from ISIS's aggression and violence. I know if any of my representatives facil facilitate and cooperate with ICE, they for sure won't have my vote. Thank you for listening. Thank you. [applause] Hey, anybody else? >> Good morning. Can you hear me? All right. My name is Gracia Losano. I am the executive director of Latino Voices of Minnesota. We are at 123 West Third Street here in Chesca. As an organization, we are here to voice those who are oppressed and afraid of speaking for themselves. So this morning, I am here to share two testimonials of Chaza residents who are afraid to be up here by themselves. As a citizen, a resident of Chaza, and a member of the Latino community, I do not agree with the county lending our jails to ICE to imprison members of our community. I am against our count county being a part of the injustice of imprisoning innocent people whose only crime is seeking a better future for our families. Accepting this will only create fear and distrust towards local authorities. The presence of ICE in our community has created racism, violence, and insecurity. And we do not want to this to be a reality in our community where simply having a different skin color means being singled out and judged as criminals. Every day my children go to school with the uncertain the uncertainty of whether we as her their parents will be home when they return. Every time we hear ISIS in our city, my whole family panics. And now turn to learn that there is a possibility that there will be always that they will be always in our city. I don't even want to think about what daily life will be like for our community, for my family, for our people. Please, let's not be a part of the injustice that is being perpetrated. We are not criminals. We don't want handouts. We are hardworking people who want to work every day to earn our daily bread. [applause] >> All right. Well, thank you. >> This is a second constituent also here in Chesca. Every day I wake up and I see more and more ICE presence in our communities. It takes me back to when I was a young girl many years ago. One of my parents left our home and never came back. They were simply out on their way to the store to buy whatever we needed for dinner, but they never returned because they were pulled over by Carver County Sheriff and detained for not having a license. Although my parent was held at Carver County Jail for a short period of time, they were only there for 3 days. and he they were moved quickly to a different facility where they were held for months, far longer than they were here in Carver County. During that time, we didn't go visit. It didn't matter how close they were or where they were being held. The fear was overwhelming. That fear stayed with me for years. Just the side of a sheriff's car was enough to terrify me, making me believe my other parent would be taken as well. This happened many, many years ago. But now, as an adult, I look at the children who are leaving through the same reality. Today, I remember how hopeless I felt, and I know this is how they must feel, too. I think about holidays and birthdays spent without one of my parents and how being held in custody nearby wouldn't have made a difference. Nothing would have eyes in our communities brings nothing but fear, trauma, and lasting pain for our families. Thank you so much. [applause] Okay, anybody else? [applause] Oh, sorry about that. >> Okay, thank you. Um, my name is Bridget. Um, I'm from Chaska. And >> Bridget, what's your last name? >> Roofy, I'm sorry. And my commissioner is Matt Urderman. Um, I'm opposed to Kyber County entering into a contract with ICE for the following reasons. Many of the people being unlawfully [snorts] detained are either US citizens or legal residents, either through visas or in the process of working towards citizenship. ICE is illegally detaining people through the crulest means without warrant and based on racial profiling. This county does not need to invite ICE presence to our city. It is bad for our community and citizens, sends the wrong message of who we are, and is bad for businesses. So, US history is full of examples of good people who followed along and did bad things. The Japanese internment camps and our treatment of Native Americans [snorts] are just two examples. Being complicit with this government's racial cleansing attempt is not something that this county should be a part of. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I'm Colleen Clingal Hutz. I live in Laketown Township. When I initially became aware of the Carver County Sheriff considering contracting with ICE, I brought it to the attention of Chairman Griffin and Commissioner Fehee that I thought this would open the county to possible lawsuits. A Star Tribune story November 3rd reported in Oka County and Nobles County had both been successfully sued for illegally holding people for ICE and that there was a similar lawsuit pending in Carver County. I believe that was what Monique was referring to as well. Um I'd like to know how that lawsuit turned out, the one against Carver County, um how much county attorney and county staff hours were spent on that, how much it cost the taxpayers of Carter County itself to defend. I've heard some of you say that you want to build healthy community in Carver County, but last night on the television news, it was reported that was when I first heard about the Chanhassen incident. It's clear to me that a number of Carver County residents would not be supportive of Carver County Sheriff's Department contracting with ICE in the way they were um supporting the residents in Chanhasson that day. And I just want you to know, I want to be on record that my husband and I do not support the county contracting with ICE in any way. Both the cities of Eden Prairie and the city of Chaza have come out, their law enforcement departments have come out to let the residents know that while they'll be there for protecting public safety, they will not be supporting the illegal actions of ICE. So, I certainly do not support it. Thank you. [applause] Good morning, commissioners. My name is Katie. I'd rather not state my last name for fear of retaliation by federal agencies. Uh >> Katie, where are you from? >> I was just going to say I'm a resident of Henipin County. >> So, you have no last name. You're from Henipin County and you're in a Carver County boardroom. >> Would you like to hear why, sir? >> Not particularly. We we ask the public to identify themselves >> and so if you don't want them, we're less likely to >> probably listen too well, but >> we want to listen to our constituents. >> We all want to hear what she has to say. >> Yeah, [cheering] >> let's let's hear it. We'll figure it out. >> When >> you sir, sir, >> you can just keep it down over there. All right. >> When Chris was speaking before and he said he witnessed someone be assaulted by an ICE agent, I was the one in the back that said that was me. Would you like to hear about it? Because it was in Chanhassen. It was in Carver County. >> I'd like to hear about whatever you want to talk about. >> Thank you. I live close to the border of Chanhassen and frequent your businesses often. However, this past Saturday, I came to your city for a different reason. Because of foreign invaders who were here committing illegal activity. I'm not talking about immigrants. I'm talking about the ICE agents who showed up at a construction site and trapped two men outside in sub-zero temperatures. Men that they didn't have a judicial warrant to arrest. men who were there building a home for the community. During the brief time I was there, I was assaulted by an ICE agent. For any of you who may have been there, I was the woman standing outside the ice perimeter, outside the perimeter, blocking the portaotty a particularly aggressive agent wanted to use. So, he shoved me out of his way with both hands. Other observers rushed forward to help me and ICE took that opportunity to escalate the situation even further by storming forward and ordering all of us farther back from the perimeter. When the ICE agent who assaulted me was done going potty, he came back to the same spot and stood holding a giant can of pepper spray menacingly. At one point, he got out his camera and started filming us, presumably in an effort to intimidate us out of exercising our First Amendment rights, which is why I would like to not share my last name today. Thank you very much. I'm 5'2, by the way. I have heels on, so I might look a little bit taller, but um the agent was twice my size and wearing a gun. When I told Shanhassen police officers who were on the scene about the assault, I was denied protection or support. They told me multiple times, "Ma'am, this is a federal investigation. We can't interfere." One of them told me I should file a complaint with ICE. They did not ask me if I was hurt or if I wanted to file a police report. They dismissed me. This is not what it means to protect and serve the community. This kind of response, and worse, is why so many people do not trust local police. I have video evidence of all these encounters I've described, which I've been informed I'm not allowed to play during this meeting. But I spoke to a lawyer yesterday who is working with an ACLU team to put together a lawsuit against ICE for use of excessive force against Minnesota residents. They have many more examples besides mine, including the young Somali man who is a US citizen. You already heard about him being violently arrested by ICE in Minneapolis. the pregnant woman who was thrown to the ground and then dragged through the street by one arm yesterday by ICE agents. Uh pictures and video of my assault are also already being shared on social media by people I don't even know. These events are also getting national coverage. In case you missed it, my mother-in-law texted me last night to say Rachel Matt was doing a segment on the Chanhassen Ice Raid on her prime time MSNBC program. [applause] Good job everybody. So if you're not yet taking ISIS presence and activities in our community seriously and considering how you want to position Carver County in relation to these thugs, you need to start. Chanhassen has won many accolades for being a great place to live and raise a family. And we all want to keep it getting better. I've heard from many people about the excellent communication of ECCS Superintendent Rafkkey to families regarding how the district will respond to ICE. You need to decide right now if your leadership will also live up to Eastern Carver Countyy's wonderful reputation. Terror and anger are mounting in our community because of what is being allowed to happen. My own children are terrified and they're white. I can't even imagine what it's like for black and brown families. I sincerely hope you choose solidarity with the local community against the creeping authoritarianism of this lawless federal regime. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. [applause] [cheering] Anybody else? [applause] >> Any Sorry. >> My name is Pam Wentick. I live at 2399 Mul Court, Chesa, Minnesota. I am here today to discuss the potential ICE contract the sheriff is considering signing with to house detain detainees in the county jail. The events this weekend demonstrate how ICE intends to interact with our community. Your mission statement expresses a desire to make Carver County a place to live, work, and play. How do the events this weekend make Carver County a better place to live? Do they lower the cost of housing by removing an essential part of the workforce? Do they expedite more housing being available in our county? On Friday, a restaurant in Chesca had to close for lunch because their employees were afraid to come to work. Does that make it easier for businesses to operate in the county? Does the county get more or less tax tax revenue when an when a business is unable to operate? Uh parents have been afraid to send their kids to school. There have been ice sightings at local bus stops. Does instilling fear in lives of the community improve our mental health or make it worse? Does does ISIS presence in our community decrease the needs that HHS is going to have to provide to our community? If ISIS work does not align with your mission statement, why are you allowing them access to tax funer taxpayer funded resources to support their work? We are also frequently told that in the near future, the county is going to need to build a very expensive new government center because we just don't have enough room. Yet, the jail is reportedly so underutilized that you have space to rent to the federal government. I think that we should do a study and analyze how we can repurpose unused spaces in the county to meet your needs. and ICE who is going to receive an additional $75 billion from the big beautiful bill can build their own detention facilities. I am a frequent viewer of commissioner meetings. Many of you have professed your Christian faith from the dis. Let's examine some of what the Bible says about how to treat foreigners. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native born. Love them as yourself for you were a foreigner in Egypt. Leviticus 19:34. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. The king will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:3540. A national publication, the other 98% reported on the event Saturday in Chanhassen. They had some impactful words. Neighbors, workers, organizers, people who understood instinctively that letting someone freeze to make a political point is cruel. It is not law enforcement. They brought blankets, hot drinks, food. They stood outside in the cold for hours refusing to leave. While the ICE agents lingered below, the crowd did what the state, in this case, you guys are the state, would not do. They protected human life. They checked on the workers. They gave words of encouragement. They made sure those men were not alone on that roof. [clears throat] isolated and expendable in the eyes of a system where the government treats immigrant labor as disposable until it decides to punish it. When you objectively look at what happened in Chanhassen on Saturday, which group, ICE or the citizens of Carver County lived out the words of God? Does ICE reflect our community values? Today I brought my 84year-old father, Roger, with me. He is a Vietnam war vet who lives in Chesca. As he has been watching what is happening to immigrants in our country, he often says to me, "I didn't fight a war for this." Those words stayed [applause] with me. Those words have stayed with me and propelled me to engage. I understand that the sheriff can sign this contract independently of you, but you are all in a position of power and have the ability to engage. During your board comments, you could speak out against this contract. You could pass a resolution opposing the sheriff signing this contract. You control the power of the purse. You could tell the sheriff for every dollar he accepts from this contract, you will remove a dollar from his budget. History will not look favorably on this period of time. Men and women will be judged by their action or inaction. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? [applause] My name is Nicole Scaro and up until a couple of weeks ago I lived at 1683 St. George Street, Wakonia, Minnesota 55387. And we were told to leave under Jason Cameron and Carver County Sheriff for playing Mexican music. For two years, the sheriff, Sergeant Ston, Jason Cameron, and Carver County Sheriff worked with my neighbors to call the sheriff on me anytime I was outside listening to Mexican music and gangster rap to the point my children still tremor when they see a sheriff's car. It t still takes me a lot to go outside of my new house which I moved to a different county because what your prosecutor's office because since my husband allowed me to play music, they're trying to prosecute him for aiding and abetting disorderly misconduct allowing me to play Mexican music. And when we moved, his attorney reached out and said, "You got it." They moved out of the county because yes, that was on official court record. That's what they wanted. They said, "Do you know what? We spoke to the sheriff's office. We want them to not be able to enter Wonia city limits ever again." >> That is what it's like being a minority outspoken woman in your county. I lived here for 9 years. My son died from cancer and was well known in this county. We donated tens of thousands of dollars to Wakonia public schools in his honor. In their response, I have hours of ring footage of the st sheriff sitting in front of my driveway staring at me as I landscaped. There were over 200 calls, 22 court cases for music and Mexican music. I am a classically trained opera singer. If you go on to my Facebook page, you'll see. You want to know what my neighbors also called up police on me for? Singing outside. That's you give this man any more power over minorities. It will be the definition of dangerous and my life can show. I gave my full name and my full address cuz you can Google it. My videos are public. I am not making any of this up. And I've got 16 27gallon totes of court paperwork showing the blatant discrimination by your sheriff's office against my family. So this is I can say what I can about being the daughter of an undocumented man in ICE. There are plenty of things. I am telling you as a resident for nine years, two and a half of them were the epitome of hell on earth. I worked in antihuman trafficking. My husband is a 20-year military veteran. We [applause and cheering] >> we have fought this world >> for justices that I assumed as an American I got and I didn't even get it from the place I was paying taxes. So do not give him the power because I guarantee you I will be back up here with a large lawsuit against you. [applause] This is verifiable. This is truth. And it was systemic discrimination and it is in your county like a virus and if you vote on anything to let it perpetuate you are supporting it. So I ask you what weighs on your conscience. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Everybody else. [applause] Good morning, council members and neighbors. My name is Jerry Leno. Uh I have lived in Chaza Shock Peach and went to school in Chanhasson for 28 years now. Um is how old I am. And as a child, I have had to have this worry every day of my life. Now, as an adult, I can't imagine what those children are seeing because I have had to see it myself. Today, I can honestly say that this is the worst situation I have ever seen in my lifetime. Families are afraid to leave their homes. Parents are afraid to go to work. Children are afraid to step outside. Our streets are quiet, not because they are safe, but because fear has taken over. Local businesses are suffering because people are staying inside. Afraid that a simple errand could end in family separation. We have witnessed inhumane treatment right here in our community. A man was surrounded by ice for 4 hours. That is 4 hours in the cold in sub-zero weather. He was left outside isolated, powerless. And no matter someone's immigration status, no human deserves to be treated that way. That is not safety. That is cruelty. I can speak for myself, not in this community, but Scott County's police officers have racially profiled me since the age of nine. Families are being torn apart in front of their fam in front of their children. Parents are being taken away, leaving kids confused, terrified, and traumatized. This kind of fear stays with children for their life. As a parent myself, this breaks my heart. My daughter is a US citizen. She is 5 years old. This Christmas, when she was asked what her wish was, she said, "My Christmas wish is for the bad guys to go away." No 5-year-old should have to carry that fear. No one should believe that their community is dangerous simply because they see parents being taken away. I want to be very clear. I am a US citizen. I do not feel safe. Racial profiling has made people like me fear being questioned, followed, or looked at or targeted simply because of how we speak. Citizenship should mean protection, not fear. Yet, many of us now feel vulnerable in our own neighborhoods. Allowing Carver County Jail to use their beds for immigration ties our community to a system that thrives on fear, family separation. It sends the message that the kind of harm, this kind of harm is acceptable. It tells children that this is normal. It tells families that their pain does not matter. This is not who we are. The people being impacted here are our neighbors. They work here, shop here, worship here, and contribute here. When they live in fear, our entire community suffers economically and morally. Public safety should never have to come at the cost of humanity. Real safety is built through dignity, compassion, trust, not fear. As of 28 years in this community, I am asking you, please do not allow Carver County Jail to house immigration and ICE and give them beds here. [applause] Thank you. >> You do not want to see what children are facing every day because of this. I have seen it my entire life. And if someone has the right to speak of what it feels like, I I know what it's like. I know it might not touch everybody's heart and I know there are a lot of people that don't believe in what we do but if even one person can change their mind that is a big difference as of today. Thank you. [applause] I'm Megan Marsik from 803 Woodridge in Chaza. Um my husband is brown and so are my children. Um, I can move about this community and call it relatively safe, but my kids and my husband cannot. [snorts] We really don't go anywhere in Chaza anymore. Um, my son has been pulled over on my road for nothing, no reason. Um, I had to come out in my bathrobe with his passport because he looked Somali. There was no reason my husband and I don't go anywhere because, well, we're not going to go to Willie McCoy's anymore. That one's off the list, right? We're not going to go to Home Depot anymore. If all of these stories about racial profiling and racism don't move you, I don't know why they wouldn't. You don't have a moral compass. But if those stories don't move you, then maybe the economic factors will move you because we're not going and we're not going to the places we used to go. We're in our houses. We're not going. We're not supporting the community. this community is going to fall because of the racism in this community. We're not going anywhere. And if you think it's just the people of color or the people married to people of color, it's not. Look at this room. We'll boycott. I promise you, [applause] >> good morning, commissioners. >> Thank you for having me here. My name is Andy Derdowski. I'm a disabled veteran and I live in Chaza. I'm here because there appears to be a dangerous disconnect between the law, the sheriff, and this board. Last Friday, Minnesota's attorney general issued a binding legal opinion confirming that the county sheriff does not have the authority to unilaterally bind the county to the federal government. The sheriff told residents in an email that has been distributed that the final decision has not been made, as if it belongs to him. It does not. And this is not a simple business deal to rent beds. When you rent a bed to ICE, you import federal liability. ICE has sovereign immunity and we do not. They get the space, but our taxpayers get the lawsuits. This isn't hypothetical. We are already defending against lawsuits like case 10, TAC CV, TAC 25, TAC 312, Saras Varela versus Carver County and the Carver County Sheriff. Here is the truth. Carver County is not required to help ICE. Carver County is not required to assume federal risk. So before a contract is discussed, I'm asking for two things. [clears throat] Number one, pass a resol a resolution stating clearly that only this board may approve federal contracts. And second, commit that no ICE agreement will be voted on until the full contract has been made available to the public for 72 hours. [applause] Taxpayers should not be asked to fund raises for conduct that increases our legal exposure instead of reducing it. This board has a choice today. You can assert your authority or you can confirm you've surrendered it to the sheriff. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else? >> Hello. My name is Michelle Davis and Lisa is my commissioner. Hi Lisa. Um I am a retired teacher of this year of Eastern Carver County and I have some wonderful neighbors that inform me what was going on. You must understand that I also have had these students in my class. I am compassionate and caring. I also am a resident of this county for 42 years. I pretty much know all your background. I research. I read intensely. I know where you've been. I know what you've been doing. I read everything. OKAY. [cheering] [applause] >> CORRECT, TOM. I know everything. I read. I'm a very educated woman. So, my friends called me and told me what was going on. I cared about those people that were on the roof because I am a motan. I know what happens. I know what frostbite is. I know what hypothermia is. The thing is I was more interested in the ice. I wanted to know what they were doing, what their thought processes were. I'm not a person who gets mad. I'm a person who wants to learn from others. I want to create bridges. I want to know what their thought process is. And actually, to be quite honest, I got to know the really tall ice guy really well. And I also got to learn a lot about the Hispanic ICE woman. Matter of fact, she asked me if we could have supper together. We talked about the Constitution. We talked about due process. We talked about racial profiling. We talked about their training five months prior to being tr President Trump being in office. So, I understand contracts with billionaires. I understand it all because I read both sides of the story. But that day, I was on the front line and I wasn't yell yelling. I was not screaming. I was not swearing. The Carver County Sheriff's Department was not there. They were hundreds of yards away. And when the family came and pushed through the tape, I have it all on camera. I could send it to national TV. >> Okay. And I haven't. I [clears throat] was the sheriff department. I told ICE to calm. Take deep breaths. Don't you dare. And at the very end, the Hispanic ICE person said, "We need to have supper." [snorts] They were pushing. They were going to spray the family that also had children. How would you guys have felt if that was on your hands? I should be paid as a sheriff in Carver County, a resident. And so I'm asking you not to put the ICE contract here at Carver County. I am proud of our county. I know how the people feel and I know all the other counties in the state of Minnesota who have signed. There's not a metro one, so don't do it. If you do, I'm sending my footage. It's a threat. Correct. [applause] On the most part, I love what Carver County does, but there's sometimes that we get our political beliefs involved and we should not. Okay? We're all good people and we need to um embrace everybody. There should be no racial profiling in my community because I will stand up. I will be the sheriff. Thank you. [applause] >> Anybody else? >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Good morning. My name is Jen Price. I am a resident of the city of Chanhassen. Um I am in Tom Workman's district and many others have spoken about points that I plan to raise today. I simply want to add my voice uh to urge the county to not proceed uh with a new contractual arrangement with ICE. It's my understanding I was wanting to educate myself a bit about the history of the county, excuse me, um our relationship if we've had any uh with ICE. And I believe that I learned that um we have had past agreements actually longstanding agreements and only recently um no longer have such an agreement. I don't understand the exact timing of that and I don't understand the exact impetus for um closing out uh or ending those contractual um obligations. What I did want to say is that though I do understand that every county, municipality and community has a responsibility uh to its neighbors and its area to be creative and bringing in revenue to do the things that we need to do for our communities. I understand that. I also understand that it is and can be a normal and important function of different levels of law enforcement to cooperate to support each other with the ultimate goal of protecting their residents and the community in general. And I would just like to say that I do not believe that this is the way to do it. This being an agreement um with ICE at this time. I think as other people have very passionately spoken about, we are seeing practices um that are both morally and legally problematic on a consistent enough basis um that can form I I have very strong personal opinions. I believe that that is morally wrong. Um I I personally have those beliefs. Um, but I also believe that it represents a risk that just is not appropriate um or responsible of the county to take on uh for our community and our residents. I also have great concerns about um the the growing feelings of fear um and uh concern for any number of our residents who I think every last person in this room. Um, I want to assume goodwill would overwhelmingly agree that the immigration immigrant population in our state, in our cities, and our counties are net positive. These are people we want who have long been part of our communities. We want them to continue to be part of our communities. And I think that should we choose to enter into another agreement with ICE at this time um we would be sending to put it mildly the very very wrong decision to all of our community members about our priorities um and our views of their humanity. I thank you for your time this morning and I appreciate the work of the committee. >> Thank you. [applause] Welcome, >> Becky Veron. I live in Chanhasson. Tom Workman is my commissioner and um I uh was employed by Carver County for 31 years in social services. I just want you to know that the people gathered here today are only a tip of the iceberg. We are collecting a petition to um to submit to Sheriff Camarude. So far, we have 324 names on that petition. So, there are a lot more people out in the county. These are all county residents. All of the people that vote for you, that support you. These these all of the people on this petition are saying, "No, we do not want our jail to be used as an ICE facility to detain people." Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Okay. >> Good morning, Chair Workman, commissioners. I'm Sally Brown. I'm a resident of Chanhassen and I happen to serve on the Minnitonka school board as well, but today I am here as a resident. Um, just wanted to lend a little additional perspective because I think everything I have been thinking about has already been expressed here. I am the wife and mother of immigrants from Sierra Leone. People who according to our president are no longer welcome in this c country. And although my family members are citizens, I can tell you that the anxiety level is skyhigh right now. And that concerns me a great deal as a spouse and a mother and community member to watch what they're going through simply because of what they are witnessing. Um Saturday I had the opportunity to be in Chanhassen at the site of the construction site and observe what was happening. It was I had heard the stories. I had heard about the behavior of these federal agents. Um and to see it firsthand to see how trigger-happy they were with their pepper spray walking around shaking their cans like threatening when you have residents like me standing at the tape like really. Um, and I was also going to bring up the incident where the family came forward with a toddler and the ICE agent held that that pepper spray inches away from that child's face. I'm not kidding. Could not have been farther than that. And so that kind of behavior, I do not believe that our sheriff's department or any of you want to be associated with that in any way. I would run as far away from that federal agency as I could and I implore you to take a stance against involve being involved in any way with these functions. I think that there might be some nostalgia from preandemic days when we did provide some beds in our jail for detainees. This is not that ice. This is a completely different thing now. And I stay say stay clear. I beg you. And as a woman of faith, which I have also heard you all, many of you express, I also could not tolerate this happening in my community without standing up to it. It is not what I believe as a Christian woman. It is not what I believe as someone who looks to God for guidance. Thank you very much for the time. [applause] >> Anybody else? [applause] Anybody else? >> Good morning. My name is Abraham Ladesma. I live in Madr. Uh I'm a business owner here in the community. I've been living here for about 10 years. You know, I've been in Minnesota uh most of my life. I immigrated here from Mexico back in the '90s. You know, I I just want to add my voice and say that I'm hoping that you all don't approve this or at least make your voices known that you oppose it. You know, I I have to tell my wife when I leave the house and when I come back from from from work because she's afraid I'm going to get pulled over. I'm a citizen, but she's still worried, you know. Um, none of you guys have to or ladies have to worry about that. Think about that. Please look into your heart. Our kids are afraid. My parents, they're they're here in Minnesota. They've been living here just long me. They're afraid to go to Walmart for God's sake. Come on. Like, you have to look at your heart and understand that this puts our communities at risk. And a lot of people are just afraid of doing common things like going to the store or going to anywhere. Like, we're all leaving in fear. you all can make your voices known and at least make us feel like we're welcome in this community, which I hope you do. [applause] Thank you. [applause] >> Welcome. >> Hello. I'm uh Hunter Leslie. I've uh you know, I've lived my I lived my whole life in Carver County. I guess two years, but otherwise, like I've lived my whole life here. You know, I grew up here. every minute of my life has [cough and clears throat] been spent here. And I think it's kind of a joke that this is even people are even talking about finances in this situation. This isn't like a talk of like, oh, is it economically viable for this to happen? We're looking at the fundamental question of human rights and the fundamental question of what it means to live in a free country and the fact that ICE is able to do this on our day-to-day is like it's frankly appalling. Um, the fact this is even existing in the United States today and that it's something that we even have to watch happening in our neighborhoods. I mean, it it's almost hard to believe that it's even real cuz I was always taught that this isn't something that could happen here. Um, but yet, you know, just the other day, some of my friends, some of their neighbors, they were kidnapped by ICE just out of nowhere. You know, I my girlfriend at her salon, you know, she has people in her chair crying about being scared to live their lives. you know, go out into the street and just go about their dayto-day. And in the United States, you don't hear about that in the United States. So, the fact that we're even thinking about accepting that in Carver County is it's disgusting, you know, and the fact that anyone can sit in a position of power and even debate like, oh, is it okay or is it not okay? I think I just can't even believe that that's something that we're engaging with, frankly. Um, so fundamentally, like I don't think it's economic at all. I think we're talking about if this is as a human being morally acceptable to allow this in our neighborhoods or not. And in 201 10, 20 years, 30 years towards the end of your life, do you want to look back and actually take a stand or you just want to watch it happen? >> Thank you. [applause] >> You didn't. [applause] >> Where do you live? >> Uh I live in Chesa. >> I live right out next to Cloveridge Elementary School. That's where I went to school. >> Thank you. >> Okay. [applause] [cheering] Anybody else? Anybody else? >> Going once, twice. Anybody else? >> Welcome. >> I'm Thank you. I'm Jill Randall. I had planned on this, but I have to say it. I live in Chaska. I've lived in my home here for 38 years. Before that, five years in seven years in Chanhassen. It all boils down to due process. I I look at what has happened with ISIS all over this country. Look what happened in Chicago flying in with Blackhawk helicopters, vandalizing apartment building. Not one person was arrested for that. And it's wrong. And I've been saying many times, I'm too glad I won't be alive to read the history books um in 30 years from now. But it is wrong and it's not following the law. And uh that's basically what it comes down to. We are a country of immigrants and we need to stand up to that and do what's morally and legally right. Due process. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Hey, anybody? Anybody else? Yes, sir. Good morning, everybody. My name is Jay Brish, spelled B R U S C H. I'm a resident of Minatrista, which for all practical purposes makes me a resident of Carver County since ain't much shaking in Minatrista. Uh I only have about an 10-minute thing to say 10 seconds sorry 10-second thing that I want to say to you which is it's decision time now and a bunch of people have spoken to you and I don't have anything additional to add other than that um let me just say that I'm a a white evangelical Christian which kind of should make me the enemy but I just want to remind you to listen to the words of Jesus that were already spoken to you today as you do to anyone the least to my brethren, you do it to me. All right? And we think of that as you decide today whether to allow ICE um to have a base in in Carver County. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Welcome. >> Thank you. I'm Maurice Nodgrass and I live in Chaska. And I had a little spiel to write today. I just got back from uh a trip to visit my son in Texas. Um but I guess what I want to say is my daughter lives in Amsterdam. She's been there 5 years. She bought a home. She's not ready to come back. I've been to the museums there. We don't want to see what has happened in Europe during We don't want to see the concentration camps. And that's basically what these detention centers are. It's it's horrifying. you go there, you can see they've got these little step um little plaques in front of people's homes and it shows where they were taken to and killed. Um they've got the Dutch Resistance Museum which is extremely powerful. I went there a year ago and that was before Trump took over and before it got as ugly as it has gotten and it was so powerful. People were scraping in like five gallallon plastic buckets trying to find anything they could get to eat there. people were being in hiding and that they came as they say. I can't remember what the quote is, but they first they came for the Jews, then they came for the colored and then they came and and then it's like, "Oh, I'm the only one left. I guess they're coming for me." So, we don't want to repeat what happened with Hitler. And that's what's going on right now. We're profiling people, picking them up, and then nobody knows where they go, and she's staying there. She bought a home, and I feel that she's safe there. Do you really want your 30-year-old daughter to be that far away? In this case, I do want her there because she is safe. Thank you. And please do not invite ICE into our community. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Welcome. >> Thank you. My name is Charles Liieber. I live in Carver at 511 Sky View Lane. Uh I I didn't come here intending to say [snorts] this, but I agree with just about everything people have said, but the other thing that I've observed is your patience, and I just want to thank you for your patience in listening to all. [applause] Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you. My name is Barbara Brooks. I live in Waconia. I'm probably out of order, but I would just love to hear your response. Look at how we've responded. I I would really like to hear from the commissioners how you're going to respond to all of this that's been said today. [applause] Uh if that was a question, the board during public presentations does not respond. It doesn't matter if it's about a property tax bill or u a business complaint or this. We don't get into a debate at the board meeting about it, but we'd love for you to keep in touch with us any way you can. I thought Mo'Nique was going to be the only one to talk today. Where is she? Um, and she did invite me to get together with her and I'll find time. Hopefully, we can get together and talk. Um, there she is. Keep looking over your head. Sorry. So, but no, we it's a recipe for disaster to get into a debate and and talk uh or back and forth over the issues. So, we don't do that. We do appreciate your input. I don't know if everybody's done coming up. Um, we'll have more of the person who said we're a pretty good bunch. Who was that? Charles, Charles, you can come back. [clears throat] But, uh, but we do appreciate it. Uh, this is a complicated issue. Um, most of what most most of what doesn't have anything to do with the Carver County Board. Of course, we don't defend anything any law enforcement does. That's out of line, out of order. They're not ordered by us. They're not ordered by the sheriff. So um very little is in our hands. >> But when when that >> it is not true and you know it >> I just >> I don't I don't think hooliganism >> hooliganism >> responding to hooliganism is going to work for you miss. It's not going to work. >> It's not going to work. So, so when the board uh has a question in front of it, you guys will know that um four days before it's decided on and that's the way it works. Did you have something to say? >> I did. Okay. >> My name is Rachel Leno. I live in Chesa and we've been here over 20 years and I've never seen anything like this before. And the amount of fear in our neighborhoods is astounding and embarrassing. We should we have um you have on your website translated into Spanish and yet you're telling people you're not welcome here, but we're going to go ahead and use your language and pretend you are, but we're going to also arrest you and let ICE into our communities. It doesn't make any sense to me. You're speaking out of both sides of your mouths. And I want to call ICE what it is. It's a gestapo. And if people were just if if the contract was put this way, we're going to allow people to kidnap citizens off the street. How would you vote for that? Are are we saying that that's okay? Because there's no due process. And if we are a constitutional country and you take an oath to the constitution at all, then how can you go ahead and say that it's fine to just take people and then not give them due process? So I oppose any kind of partnership with ICE or using my tax dollars for that. I want to be on the right side of history, not the right side of history. [applause] >> Thank you. Anybody else? Anybody else? Okay, hearing none. Thank you very much. And we're going to get on with the rest of the meeting. >> All right. Do I have a motion for the agenda review and adoption? >> So move, Mr. Chair. >> Second. >> Commissioner Lynch moves now. I do have two amendments. [clears throat] Can we should we wait for the room to clear? >> Yeah, let's wait. Should you want to take a three minute? >> Yeah, >> we're going to take a three minute break >> and then there's Yeah, it's a good venue. Did you see that? The >> And I think we had an agenda review and adoption. And I think uh >> that's with both changes. >> With both changes and I had Commissioner Lynch approve on the >> Wait, what are those changes? >> Sorry. And who second it? Anderson. >> Anderson did. >> I second it. Okay, I'm good. >> Okay. Any other discussion on the agenda? >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> Those opposed? Motion passes. Approval. >> I've got Commissioner Fehee moving to approve the December 2nd minutes with a second by Udman. >> Yes. So moved, sir. >> Any discussion on that? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I those opposed. Motion passes. Community announcements. Let's start with Commissioner Lynch. I'd like to wish everyone a very, very merry Christmas and uh be the ice may look good, but it's not safe yet. So, uh be careful. >> We're not talking about ice. [laughter] >> It's not safe to go out fishing yet. Might be in Lake of the Woods, but then they just had to get a stranded guy off the lake, too. So, uh just be very careful. Have a safe holiday season. Thank you. Very good. Commissioner Fey. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just a heads up if you haven't been impacted already, but Highway 212 is closed today between Cologne and NYA from 5:00 a.m. to 700 p.m. Uh, so today and Wednesday. Um, please follow the detours. Um, and also it was good to attend the AMC conference. It was a great opportunity to learn more and a lot of the breakout sessions that we are part of and just to connect with other commissioners and then also to be part of the MCIT award for Carver County within the state. And then uh Baylor Park events uh snowshoeing and crosscountry skiing. Hopefully the equipment rentals are going to be ready uh snow providing on January 3rd uh at Baylor and uh Lake Minawashta Regional Park. So definitely get out and enjoy those amenities within the counties and then uh happy holidays to staff and the residents of Carver County. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Very good. Commissioner Udman. >> Well, Mr. Chair, you know, we're all part of a lot of things outside of the walls of these uh um on Tuesdays. Um one of the things that I'm part of is um workforce development and so we got an update from Kate and her team. Um we're going to try and squeeze in one more meeting, but I don't think it's very favorable to have that a day before Christmas. So, um that's going to get moved, but she did send along an update. And one of the things I'm super proud of, and we heard it in some of the comments from some of the people in our public, um is our trades program. uh Trades 360 has touched uh the lives of about a hundred individuals from all walks of life and so I raise that up as um as an example of good uh with within our staff. Um I've had the opportunity the last four years to represent the county being um interviewing some of the local school kids and particularly at Lock Academia. My kid goes there so she's a fifth grader. It's her year to do this thing called Biztown which is pretty cool. They uh set up a um a business if you will in St. Paul, I think it is. And they've got all these leadups to it where you have to interview the kids. They have to do special curriculum and other things. And um so tomorrow I get a chance to go to uh St. Paul to to see that and see the kids participate in that. I think in the district it's mostly fifth graders, but it's fourth, fifth, and sixth graders across um the state. I just think it's a great program. And um one of the things that I stand on is um workforce development and talent pipeline. And this is an example of ways to see fifth graders participate in that. Everybody gets their their job. And it was funny because I asked my daughter, she's 10, um, what she was going to go for and the conversation came up. Are you going to go for mayor? And she's like, no, I know what Papa you go through. I don't want anything to do with that. But there was, uh, there was 13 kids that did an interview for it. So Henley is the one that um, won the ballot. Um, I knew about half the kids. Um, so it's good to see them in involved with in civic government. Um, to echo what Commissioner Fehee said about AMC, there was a lot of breakouts that we had the opportunity to go and typically the format is is seven or eight. Uh the kids are saying six or seven six seven things that they can participate in. Um but I had the chance to see a presentation by Wright County on a talent pipeline leadership development that they've been doing. I think they said the program cost them $175 last year. They're going to do it again this year. Um and they've worked through some stuff. I know others have as well. I know our team has looked into that. And um I know we were all at the legislative priorities. There's so many distractions right now to keep us from doing some of that stuff that is upstream. And [clears throat] I appreciate um Lisa bringing the voice to the to to the table of of upstream. Um but leadership development was one of those topics. Other topics were autonomous vehicles, energy including nuclear and the lifting of a moratorum potential. Um the need for a business and robust tax tax base even was shared that I think Minnesota is the 44th in overall tax competitiveness. And so while we talk about defensive strategies, I think we need to also look forward to proactive strategies. And I think a robust business tax bases there. There's a reason we build these roads. There's a reason we take care of the people in our community. It's so that we can um continue to be here is a great place to live, work, and play for a lifetime. And I think that business community needs to be a little bit more of a focus. We talked about um legislation potential to automatically u make your homestead a reality because right now I think everybody has to apply for it. It's a lot of, you know, work for the staff and whatnot, but there's stuff on the table. That homestead exemption would be automatic in the dollars associated. Uh, of course this year it phases out at 517,200 which is just north of what our median house value is in Carver County. The economic development award was uh listed. One of our peers in a neighboring county got um the commissioner of the year award. Uh Roger uh he he he represents us well. And then again commissioner [snorts] had mentioned um our ER team won the MCIT and I think all the on that team including Sonia would also say um that for risk management it's not just on those people alone. It's on the sheriff's office to take uh strides and do the things that they need to do. It's on HHS. It's on our other teams, parks and roads, um to work together to limit our risk um and then maybe take some risk sometimes to do what's best for our staff. So, it's good to get that recognition. Clearly, we don't do it for those reasons. Um there was a at AMC a recap of the 41 reconstruction. I think that was reconstructed three times in 15 years. I see Eric in the audience. Bolton and Mink made that presentation. and um somebody that they employed that was a former fire chief um that did a lot of community development and outreach and I think it's important to stay in touch with those businesses not only when it's convenient but when it's sometimes challenging and then Ellers we use Ellers for a lot of things here they did a presentation um about responsible future planning and I'm happy to say that I think a lot of the things that Ellers has recommended that we're doing we're looking out into the future we're responsibly funding a expensive building as one constituent said um and make making sure that we look at um that impact to the local taxpayer. Um I'll also echo what Commissioner Lynch said, merry Christmas. Um it's a season that is the high of all highs for some people and the low of all lows for other people. So um one last thing is Commissioner Anderson and myself were invest in invited had a chance to go to Project Linkage Christmas party. >> I think it's a three or four maybe a fiveyear tradition that they do that. But it's it would be uh remiss if we didn't mention that there's a lot of people in this community that are absorbing a lot of things so we don't have to pass it on in the form of tax increases. Our not for profofits, our civic organizations, our places of worship. And so Kai and his wife Heather have spearheaded this initiative. Um they brought it together. Everybody's welcome to do it on on some weeks there's 60 different organizations present. And so that's kind of the work of government that as Tom says is not sexy, but it's happening behind the scenes um to to satisfy the needs of our community. We're listening to all topics and um the ICE conversation is a hot topic right now. There's people lined up on both sides of that that aisle. Um waste, fraud, and abuse is a hot topic. Uh that doesn't always explicitly come into the boardroom, but we have to talk about it. And so anyway, those are my comments. Thank you, >> Commissioner Anderson. >> All right. Thank you. Like um all of us were at the AMC conference, [snorts] um I just do want to shout out to um a couple of our staff members who who presented at that. So, Lyndon, you're in the room. Thanks so much for your participation. And Kate Probert also talked about um SNAP benefits and that. So, I'm um always proud and again, you know, we are mic Well, anyway, we won award um and uh thank you so much for our ER team who did that and and I think that um Carver County um light shined brightly at AMC and so I'm grateful for that. One of the best sessions that I went to was on elections. Um the uh election person from Scott County bravely shared their story and and how things went a little arai in the city of Shakapei and um and what we can do as commissioners and [snorts] as a county um to um ensure that our elections are transparent and um run effectively. We're very blessed to have um some of the best election um minds in in the state for that. Um with that said, also uh a merry Christmas to all. Happy Hanukkah for those who who um celebrate that. And um that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes, I uh I will repeat the MCIT. Uh >> at least you can say that. I couldn't say that. Uh the I I always think the I is insurance but it's not. It's uh >> intergovernmental. Um but uh of 87 counties uh you know somebody could like the county administrator of the year. It's fa b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b based on maybe some politics, but I think the MCIT award is based on actual hard good figures of a wellrun and lucky county uh to have avoided some major problems and uh bring back some value for uh for for our taxpayers. Um I it was weird getting our picture taken with that plaque. I was just happy. Ari, you took that picture, didn't I? I was grinning like an ape. I >> But uh but I I loved it. Uh merry Christmas also. Happy Hanukkah and whatever else you celebrate. Um December 26, go for football. One last chance to have some fun. Bad day to have a bowl game the day after Christmas in Phoenix. Uh, so I'll be uh camping at my casa for uh for the game. Come on over and [clears throat] uh have some fun. Gophers win. That's all we got. All right. We do have a pretty big consent agenda. I will not be reading through it, but if I can get a motion for that, >> I would move approval, Mr. Chair. >> Okay. >> I would like to add that uh you say we don't do the sexy things. How is like um 2.27 professional service agreement for rusty patch bumblebee restoration and tamarack area enhancement for highway 5 project. How is that not sexy? >> Yeah, agreed. [laughter] >> Well, it will be when I order the t-shirts and then and it'll be undersized crop top for me. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. A second for discussion. >> All right, I got a motion by Lynch and a second by Uterman. Discussion. I just wanted to call out 22 221. I think it's within our um um decision-making and I'm sure staff has looked at it to um purchase things locally if we can. I think the contract is headed towards um somebody that's out of state for that. Um but I think that if there's an opportunity to keep that purchasing local um I think that some of the points that were made by open forum um about the businesses and supporting our businesses, I'd like to see us um make sure that we're considering our local folks if it's just a couple percentage points more to do so. Um, and then to echo what Commissioner Lynch said on the the bumblebees, I think it just impresses upon people, again, I see Eric and in the audience, and I know Bolton's uh um taking care of some of our interests, how complex that project is. We're going to probably approve the funding of that road, and and it seems [snorts] just an amazing job. Uh we don't have a full appreciation for how complex it is to get that thing out of the ground for a project that isn't easy on ours to do, but wouldn't be done if it wasn't for the state. >> [snorts] >> So, bumblebees or turtles or gosh knows what else, all the things you guys have navigated. Um, so with that, I support the um consent. >> All right. Hearing no other discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. >> All right. Regular session item 3.1. This is a big one. Award of construction contract to CS McCroen, Inc. for the highway 5 project arboratom area. >> Morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Yes, big day today. Uh consideration from you to award a contract um contingent on a couple things that I'll go through in a second. Okay. Um so yeah, as you mentioned, Commissioner Udman, a lot lot of work went into a huge project that we are going to be constructing in the next couple years. Um in the cities of Victoria, Chaska, and Chan, the you can see on the map here, everything in in orange will be under construction in 26 and 27 all the way from 80th Street in City of Victoria. That's where the current fire station is. even they're building a new one. Um there'll be a roundabout there commercial all the way east to Century Boulevard past lifetime [cough] rolling acres road construction on that as well and then a a ton of u padike improvements uh throughout the area. It's a [snorts and clears throat] very very large project with significant uh funding. So with that, um, which one do we use here? [snorts] So brief project overview, summary of the bids, then I'm going to hand it over to Eric Johnson, who's [clears throat] our project manager, to talk about the funding and and maybe skip really quick. I know we've described the schedule and the staging a few times with you um before, but we can go through that as well for the public if necessary. Um the next step, we do have a few things to to finish off um before we get into construction, but we're very close. And then the recommended action uh for you all today. So on the screen here, I mentioned uh commercial uh this is a rendering of the future roundabout >> as you enter Victoria. um what the future will look like. The in the in the background there, you'll see a a pedestrian bridge that will go over the highway that connects both sides of town um which is very important to the city. It's a pretty nice picture there. >> Is this Lyndon? Is that east to west? How are we viewing that? >> You're looking east. >> Looking east. Okay, that's what it >> is in front of us. Yep. And >> sorry, Lynden. So that roundabout is a part of this. Okay. >> Certainly is. What isn't a part of this? [laughter and snorts] Just big picture here. These are the this is basically a higher level layout of the the whole project phase. So the roundabout is on the left corner there you'll see and then um on the right of your screen there southeast there's the lifetime fitness campus. So we end at Century significant construction on 41 itself. Um, also today you approved a contract to do construction admin. We're also building an underpass just north of basically where the screen ends. Um, as a separate project, but at the same time there'll be another pedestrian underpass on 41. >> Are you talking by Century? >> Um, no on 41 itself. >> Okay. >> So, does this clicker work? Yeah. Can you That's this one right here. Right. Oh, here we go. Right up here we're building an underpass. [clears throat] >> Instead of an atgrade pedestrian crossing here, we're connecting a trail and putting an underpass here with with Chanhass. Separate project, but is it'll happen at the same time. [snorts] Um all kinds of underpasses on this project. I think total do you remember off the top of your head, Eric? How many? Six or seven maybe. Um, and then the bottom of your screen here, this is the work that we're doing on rolling acres. So to the right is north. So we're going down from almost from 82 to the church up here by Interlockan. So a couple roundabouts. Significant project, a very nice improvement on the regional trail and another underpass there with with some serious retaining walls. And then we're also going to pave the trail to the west. Anyway, very significant work. We did a bid opening on November 13th. Um, we got very good bids, I would say. So, our estimate was 98 million and the low parent low bidder CS McCraen. They're out of Maple Grove. Very large contractor, very reputable firm. They are constructing the uh 494 project right now in in the on the Bloomington strip. them and London are the are the main contractors there. So, the timing works good because they'll be done with that first phase. They can come out here, build our job, and then I think phase two of 494 is going to be bid for 28, the year 28. So, they saw this as a good window to mobilize their equipment and hence we got a pretty good price, I think. [snorts] So, you can see we got some pretty big contractors bidding. There was five in total. Um, but three out of the five came in under our estimate. >> Hey, Lynn, if I may. Um, I know that they're a big contractor on 212 and there's others that I thought would have been part of the bid the bid. Do they just not is it is it they're they're tied up on 212 or some of the other biders or is it too big of a is a different project? Why wouldn't have we seen some of the other names that we've seen traditionally as part of the bid package? >> You're talking about Mat them or others? Yeah. >> Yeah. Maths. We were surprised they didn't bid. I think they >> they like rural grading projects. move a lot of dirt. Although there's a lot of dirt on this, there's also a lot of concrete, a lot of other stuff. >> So, um, and they're doing work all over the state. So, they just chose not to go after this one. Um, Ames, I was a little surprised. I thought they would come in a little more competitive, but >> this is, you know, in their wheelhouse, but it's a it's a good sweet spot from across, and they're very good for them. So, I'm very happy that that they're the apparent bidder. So, so anyway, [clears throat] I'm going to hand it over to Eric. We'll talk about the funding package and then uh maybe I'll come back right at the end for the for the recommendation. [clears throat] >> Does Eric get less money if the bid's low? >> I like that. >> Yeah, right. It should go the other way. >> Should be the other way around. >> Bids coming in low made our whole funding package just work even better than it it did last time we were here. Um, so now our total project cost is right around 117 million. Um, so that that's less than what we talked about last time. We have 16 different funding sources. They're on the screen there. I'm not going to go through them. Uh, we've leveraged over hund00 million in outside funding. Um, we have the federal funds uh maxed out for construction. So 80% of the construction is fedally funded and our funds are 8020. with some of this extra room we had here, we also got to go deeper on the the non- construction costs uh with eligibility. So things like the rusty patch bumblebee mitigation is fully covered by state funds. Uh wetland bank replacement um the consulting engineering time is mostly paid for through competitive sources. even the funds we owe Mindot uh for part of their work on the inspection uh comes through that. In addition, we have about 10% of the construction cost on hand for contingencies. So, you know, if some unforeseen items are um become um apparent in construction, we have some some competitive funds still here before it would kick in to be a county cost. Um, in the end, the city of Victoria's Kasher is 2.8 million and Carver counties is 6.6 million. So, those are the numbers that have continued to decline as, uh, we've assembled more and more of these funding sources. So, um, it worked out very good [clears throat] where we were even a year ago, those numbers have come down considerably. project schedule. Um, as you know, the last last two years have been focused on getting the project ready for construction. Um, completing the design, the environmental clearance and uh uh acquiring the property needed to build it. [clears throat] Now, the next two years will be construction. We'll have uh substantial completion in uh in two years uh from this time. our construction schedule here. Here's just a little bit more detail than what I just said. Um, in we're going to uh continue utility coordination and relocation uh now some utilities have already moved. Uh we need to do tree clearing this winter uh in it uh to [snorts] get ready for the 2026 work. Um, and that'll go spring through fall and that'll be focused more on the north south routes. Uh, in 2027, Highway 5 will be closed and we'll we'll complete the east west in that time frame. As you know, this is a major project as a major disruption to all the the travelers, the businesses, people who live along it. Um we have um we we've worked together as a a broad project team to do a lot of planning and how we build this and how we stage it uh to to minimize impacts and expedite the construction. So we have a we have an aggressive plan but I I we feel it's a doable plan. So to keep it moving like this is where Lyndon [clears throat] mentioned in interest of time I could I could quickly breeze [snorts] through this staging. It is the same staging plan that we reviewed in September when we were here. Uh or I could bypass this part of the presentation if you like. >> We like this stuff. Oh god. >> Do we like this stuff? >> Okay. So, from a a broad perspective here, depending on the work we're doing on the project, we want to catch people early uh and far back. Give them opportunities to avoid the construction zone if they don't need to be there. So, catch folks in Waconia or on 494 or 212 and let them know there's alternative routes and that that would be the official detour to catch folks and reroute them. Uh there will always be a way to get get through within the project zone more of that purple purple area as well. Alternative routes. Just wanted to mention that. But as we then dig in here is the first stage in 2026. The uh the red the red line work is would be full closure. Orange that you'll see on the maps is uh traffic under construction. So the road remains open, but it it's impacted by construction. And blue are the the ways to get around the closures. So for our spring spring 26 uh to July, we're going to focus on Bavaria Road that will be closed south of five and highway 41 north of five will be closed as we build those pieces over the first three months of the project. >> Linda, does 18 alignment, is that stretch no longer called 82nd? Correct. >> It's it's now 18 or Lyman. >> It's Yep. It's officially in in process still. The city councils are have uh some approvals to do to officially change the road name, but that's all happening here over the next couple months. >> West of Bavaria will remain 82nd though. >> Correct. >> Or the name change that we're working on that we're coordinating is between Bavaria and 41. >> Okay. So, west of there would remain 82nd. I don't I think that's already 18. >> We don't have to do it today, but >> now that >> Well, I drive on um what's the road that I go every day? Break Bart. [laughter] >> I'll bury it. >> No. Um 10 is the same as Angler is the same as you know and then Jonathan Carver Parkway becomes 11 becomes >> yeah so just for clarification thank you >> thank you [laughter] >> every day >> let us tell you where you're driving >> every day yeah the second phase of 2026 then will um highway 41 south of five will be closed and constructed You'll notice, I didn't say it on the last slide, but [clears throat and cough] Highway 5 from the Arboritum entrance to the east to Century, that's going to be built under traffic with lane reductions, one lane each way likely as traffic flip to the north, to the south to build that, keeping it open. Um, in this second phase, we're also building Rolling Acres Road north of Highway 5 and also paving the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail. So that gets us to the fall and the the final stage in that uh is completing the the roundabout at Interlockan and some uh finished work on 41 south of five. So by the end of fall in 2026, the north south roads will be fully constructed in their final form open to traffic. So for winter suspension, everything's open until spring of 27. And that's when we close Highway 5. Um we're going to build the the west part of Highway 5. So from downtown Victoria to the commercial roundabout, that will be built under traffic. That's the orange shading there, keeping access to those businesses. Um but the rest of five all the way to the arboritum entrance will be closed. Traffic detourred to the north and south. And there's a good plan for Rolling Acres Road for people to get out of there when it's under construction. Is that going to be a mess? >> Yeah, it's um I mean we're displacing [snorts] over 20,000 cars a day and so we want to catch as many as we can further back. >> I'm worried about the locals. >> Yeah. >> You talking about in this phase or the previous one? >> Next year. previous >> Well, I mean, they'll have to be able to get out. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> So, you're going to you're going to start south and get everybody out north and then you're going to do the church in the north end. >> Well, like for the regional trail, we're going to construct an underpass. So that will be open cut. So at there will be points where people who live south of the trail will have to go south through the construction zone, you know, to get get to five or if you're north of the underpass during that stage of the construction. I think it there's going to be some changes as we go. Um >> the good news, Mr. Chair, is it'll be a nice quiet country road for a while, right? Because there'll be no through traffic. >> [laughter] >> Way to spin it. >> That was some wild meetings out there. >> I'm sure Commissioner Workman will appreciate all the calls. >> I know those people will. So, as we progress in 2027, um, into July, the goal is, notice the west side just flipped to blue, that we finish from downtown Victoria to that new commercial roundabout, have that be done and open um, in July. >> Work will Highway 5 will remain closed east of there. work continues. Um and by uh later the summer, here's the next stage. So incremental completion to Rolling Acres Road, Bavaria Road um by September is the goal. So there from downtown to Bavaria Rolling Acres would be open in its final form. And we have that last stretch uh you know where a lot of that heavy construction is including the causeway area through uh the Lake Minowasha area that needs that full summer. The next incremental goal is then by October that we have the new arburitum entrance open and operational that the signal at Minowasha Parkway will be working. We will have Highway Five westbound uh open to traffic, eastbound still closed for those final two months as that work is finished there. Uh but by end of November 2027, substantial completion, everything open. Uh as we go into 28, there there will be some um final cleanup and and landscaping likely needed, but substant substantial completion by fall of 27. So that's the the high level staging plan there. [cough] Eric be before you move on, can you tell us a little bit more about that bridge or that causeway? Is that just one bank culbert per se or >> front of the arboritum? >> Yep. It is a um column supported embankment for about 1500 feet over the Lake Minasha area [cough] which means it's really the road it's we're saving the existing road and roaded really the roaded the structure is stable but we're going to widen it. So, we're going to uh we need to stabilize through a lot of geotech technical work, put in all these columns along that whole stretch uh to support the expanded roadway. And so that's all with piles and fabrics, >> 1,500 ft >> roughly. >> The bridge, >> it's not a bridge. It's more of a So, you basically drill holes about six feet apart on a grid. But there's a there is a gap or a culvert. >> Yes. >> Connecting the lake. >> There's a smaller one. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Much smaller. Couple hundred feet long. >> But most of it is a soil stabilization. >> We find out what's under there. >> Cuz how far do you have, just out of curiosity, how far do you have to go down before you hit something solid? Don't you know? >> What that one is? Do you remember how deep? 30 to 40 feet. Sounds about right. The ones on the one on 212 by Bongards is 60. So, so yeah, you you basically drill a hole and you fill it with concrete and you do this grid and then you build like a geoteex or geopric or I mean grid on top and then that becomes the platform for the road. So, it's almost like a land bridge but you can't see anything covered up with >> and will that be mainly on the south side of the >> Yes. >> nothing on the north side. >> Keep the north. So, there'll be a barrier in between. So, where the current road is now, it's already settled. So, it's stable. It'll be on the the widening. Most of the widing's on the south, >> but we'll put that large culvert through the north side. >> Yeah, the large there's a separate bridge that goes all the way through. That's uh really Do you remember where that one is, Eric? Yeah, you can't really see. >> No, go back to the first go up there. Oh, to the very >> Yeah, right about there. >> That's about Was that about 200 foot st >> arch bridge? >> Yep. >> Separate from this >> pile supporting the bank. >> We did a lot of work in the geote. >> The Tim Lynch memorial bridge is right there. bike bridge. >> I have to be dead for it to be a memorial. >> Yeah, [laughter] it's preferred. >> So, let's not go there, shall we? >> Thanks. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, there are a few things like I mentioned at the beginning that we still need to finish. We're still working with the youth. There's a lot of agreements with the university [clears throat] uh whether it's the bumblebee mitigation, the land swap we did. We just got to finalize those agreements, but they're in play. They're getting finalized. The DOT federal grant, this is a big one. We got $25 million DOT grant. That agreement is not signed by the federal government yet, but we've heard it's coming any minute. So, it's kind of a big deal. That's 25 million. Um, luckily that the way we're working out our funding cash flow is we're using that money kind of downstream so we get a little time to get that finalized. We're using the other federal money first. So, um, Mando cooperative agreement, you'll see that's why the award language is a little bit different. That's done. You guys approved it uh, last meeting or the meeting before, but it it's in it's in the state chain for signature and that [snorts] takes time. So, it hasn't been totally um [clears throat] executed yet. Joint powers agreement with the city. Those are done, aren't they? Pretty much. Yep. I think they're in the contract review process. Uh pretty much done. The another big one is the engine the core of engineers permit in order to fill wetlands. We need a core of engineers permit. That one with the federal shutdown got delayed, but um we're we're in good shape. We can't do any wetland fill until we get that permit. So, we're hopeful that's coming in in the next month. And then, of course, you know, we're going to have a big open house coming up, winter, spring to inform the public what's going on. So, this is the agreement with the U. Actually, Eric, you want to do this one? I'll just I'll I'll run through it. So, [laughter] the big one is the Tamarak the transfer of the Tamarak lands. If you recall, um we the agreement we made was the city had some property of 24 1/2 acres, mostly outlaws from development that we acquired from the city and we exchanged that with for rideaway property we needed along Highway 5 and 82nd uh with the university. And then they're also going to help us with the um the bumblebee uh mitigation uh as part of that agreement [snorts] with the university. That's this area right here. This is where right is this right Eric? Am I right? >> Green and yellow. >> The green and the yellow. This is where and even this one is where the bumble the bumble rusty patch bumblebee mitigation will happen. So the agreement will be with the university. It's in perpetuity. So you calculate the cost of maintenance forever. Then you bring that back to present value and that's the agreement we make for them. Obviously they are experts at the at uh um farming if that's the right word but conservation. So that I think that's a really good >> have we seen a rusty patch? >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Um, we've when they they did a the university I think did a survey a few years ago and they found some in the ditch, >> dead ones. >> Have we seen any live ones? I I I I don't know. I have in my yard and another patch, but I live in Bloomington, so >> they're all over the city. >> I'm sure they'll find the spot when it's all done. >> Could you catch them and let them go out here? >> Did I? >> Yeah. from your yard. >> No, I didn't. >> Okay. I just wondered. >> I think [snorts] you should work on that. >> Yeah. >> So, anyway, um we are we're obviously going to have a very robust business and community collaboration with us. Ari and her team are going to be leading that and then there's going to assist. So, it'll be as you as you can probably imagine quite a significant project um and uh process for us to keep the public informed, keep the businesses informed. We actually have an onsite person. You mentioned that actually it was that 41 that 41 AMC uh uh presentation you went to. >> There's a person that's going to be on site. Is he a retired >> same fellow? >> The same fellow that did that. He's going to be on this project coordinating with the businesses on the ground. So did that in 41 downtown Chaza here. Worked really good. So, so with that, Mr. Chair, this is the recommended action for you all today. >> I move to approve. >> Like, you got to read it. >> I know. I I need I need more [clears throat] time. >> Should we read it, Madam County attorney, out loud for 100 million bucks? 86 million. >> It's a motion to adopt a resolution that authorizes and directs the county engineer to award a construction contract to CS McCraen, Inc. for 86,617,274.89 89 cents for the highway 5 project arboratum area after execution of cooperative construction agreement number 1058994 between Carver County and the state of Minnesota and upon pending finalization of the contract review process and I have a motion by >> second >> and a second by Anderson discussion >> I was wondering that 89 cents if we could just round up to a buck No way. No way. [laughter] >> That would change the motion. [snorts] >> So, a couple comments. This is huge, right? Like I don't know, five years ago, I think when I came in, we were saying that 82nd Street couldn't be done and it it got done. And I think we should point to, you know, um, former rep Bo who carried the bill the first time and then I think Coleman and and Ram got it over the line showing bipartisan support for that. I think we go back to um uh um Congressman Phillips to give us initial money to study Highway 5 and sometimes we forget after people are out of office the things that they did and so kudos to them. Um sometimes you're lucky Lynon, but more often than not you're good. Um the timing of put going out for bid this was not coincidental. Uh others couldn't bid at that time. Um and and we did. we went out to bid and we took advantage of that and hopefully scooped up a few few uh extra biders and [snorts] clearly 12 just short of $12 million worth of savings. Um I think that if you look at it in terms of what we saved the city of Victoria um potentially 4 to 8% of their levy because instead of $1 million hit for them it was less than 3 million somewhere between 2.2 and 2.8 depending on what day you you get them. Uh but I know that they're appreciative of that at the government level. I don't know if the residents really realize that. Um, I think that the investment that the board made, and I do say investment in the communications team, we're going to find major savings, um, with you, leaning on you guys, not just for groundbreaking and whatnot, but, um, communication. You did a good job for 41. I think you're going to do a great job when it comes to five. A lot of learnings and a new young team trying to figure it out. So, appreciate that. Um, business owners were letting us know clearly that they didn't want to be interrupted. So, we won't necessarily see this um with kudos in 26 and 27 and 28, but I think the initial thought that we had was 28 months of full closure on Highway 5. You guys whittleled it down to six um by piecing together all the uh the pieces of the math equation that made it work. And so, I'm sure maybe some of that will slip, but right now it looks like six months of full closure, eight months of full and partial closure. And so that's millions and millions and millions of dollars of benefit to the business owners to get that open because nobody wants to close these down. [clears throat] Um and then um uh we don't build roads for fun. Um and this is one that's probably has its share of pros and cons and different things, but big dollars at play. 86.6 million. We've got 212 going on in 41. None of that would have been done without your leadership, Lynon, and your team and the stress that it puts on you and your partners. U but we do it because we want it flow of traffic. We want safety. We want growth within our community. And so I know that that's real. And I guess I'd just cap it off with one one last thing. I'd ask that as we do closures um and learnings from 41 and other closures um that we continue to keep our businesses and particularly the residents that are on there informed. Um, and I would specifically ask that we have like a link that's something simple, carvercount.com5business or whatever, so that when they drive in and they're frustrated for the, you know, week or two before they realize where the flow of traffic will go, that's always the most crucial time that we have a QR code and we have a short length that they can get to. Not, you know, ABCD EFG1759 blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, but something really simple that we can communicate out and that they can find it at their point of stress. um because nobody really cares to go, you know, seven clicks in on a county website to find something that they wouldn't normally do. They care about it now where their pain point is coming in and out of church or going to get their kids at soccer or whatever it is. And so you guys have been responsive. Um and as part of that, I also think that as you plan your open houses, consider hosting them at local businesses. I know Omni is a good place. It's a local brewery that people can um can participate in. I know the arburedom's getting been a good participant. and it gives a benefit to the the the local taxpayer to you get in for no cost on that particular day. But um if we could be really business and and resident centric as we know that this is going to create some interruptions and maybe [clears throat] give a little bit of that budget back to you know those local businesses as we plan those things. So thanks for being here and all the work that you're about to do on it and all the work that you've done so far. Well, I know the marketing plan and it reminds me of back when the telephone companies were trying to get everybody on voicemail. And so they had a commercial and somebody called up Tom's auto body and the beep went off and it said, "Hi, this is Tom's auto body. We're closed right now, but if this is a real emergency, listen carefully. We're closed." Uh [laughter] um I don't know how the QR QR codes I mean we're going to be close. It's going to be tight and bad and we're all going to be on uh 18 linemen and and seven and everything else. It's going to be not fun. I think it's going to be worse than Engler and 41. Is that possible? Maybe not. [clears throat] But this is going to be sustained and and not good. So >> much longer than that. best to really prepare. I know I have. I've talked to everybody about it. 41 and five next year and then the big E after that. So, but um and it's unlike Ingler, it's very close to Commissioner Workman's house and and places we want to go. So, but uh >> Engler was just close to Commissioner Anderson's. >> Well, that didn't matter, >> right? [clears throat and laughter] >> You know, if I may, one more thing, too. I remember being in when when projects are this big and this is for the benefit of anybody listening online um but but when when um projects are this big we we have the statutory requirement to reverse engineer and try and figure out how we can pull cost out and I remember one of those meetings by chance I was there and the question was is that that house that's on the peninsula that that was built just north of the arboritum and at the time if you guys remember we were talking about having to get access to that individual you know a frontage road or acqu a sizable acquisition and at the same time he was building a house every right do. So, we had the eligibility and I think you were there when we're like, "What if we just pushed that bridge west a little bit because we needed to have water flow and the DNR was involved and all that other stuff and your team not only pushed it a couple hundred yards to the west so it's a right in right out, but kept pushing and and pulled some cost out of it. I think overall it was 6 to10 million of savings just by moving that proposed bridge to the west." And again, those things get lost in the details sometimes, but it's it's it's a group of a whole lot of people that are really close to it and then far away to find those solutions. So, we're delivering a road that I think at one time was supposed to be north of 100 plus million dollars and a lot of interruptions. So, again, kudos to you guys. [snorts] >> Okay, any other discussion? >> Incredible project. Incredible project. Let's get through it. >> Okay, hearing no more discussion, all those in favor of the motion say I. I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Good to see you, Johnson. >> Eric. >> All right. Right. Item 3.2, resolution setting 2026 county attorney and county sheriff compensation. [clears throat] >> Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and commissioner. >> Afternoon, Carrie. >> The county board has the authority to set compensation, including salary and benefits for elected county officials, including the county [clears throat] attorney and the county sheriff. Minnesota law requires that the board set the salaries for these elected officials with regard for the responsibilities and duties of office as well as the elected officials experience, qualifications, and performance. In addition, court rulings indicate that commissioners should take into consideration salaries in similarly situated counties in the state. The recommended resolutions address the 2026 compensation for the county attorney and the county sheriff. County Attorney Mark Mets's 2025 current salary is set at $228,720. County Sheriff Jason Camaroo's 2025 salary is set at $24,322. Market data has been provided for the county attorney and county sheriff positions reflecting current year 2025 data. The metro area 2025. So current year average salary for the county attorney excluding Carver County is $227,862. Serving in this role since 2011, County Attorney Mark Mets's performance reflects substantial experience and expertise. Based on a review of the relevant factors for determining the county attorney's 2026 salary, it is recommended the board consider an increase of 16,10, which is approximately 7%. The resulting 2026 annual salary for county attorney Mets would be $244,730. The salary increase suggested would recognize relevant factors for consideration and maintain competitive pay with regard to the market. The metro area 2025 average salary for county sheriff positions excluding Carver County is $210,513. [clears throat] Serving in this role since 2019, Sheriff Camroode's performance reflects substantial experience and expertise. Based on a review of the relevant factors for determining the county sheriff's 2026 salary, it is recommended the board consider an increase of $14,33, which is approximately 7%. The resulting 2026 annual salary for Sheriff Camarude would be $218,625. Again, the salary increase suggested would recognize relevant factors for consideration while maintaining competitive pay with regard to the comparable market. The action requested of the board at this time is a motion to adopt the resolutions defining 2026 compensation for the county attorney and for the county sheriff and providing both with 2026 cafeteria benefits and HSA contributions at the same rates and in accordance with the same terms and timing as non-bargaining county employees. >> So, Mr. Sure. >> Second. >> Okay. Got a motion and a second on [clears throat] the sheriff and the county attorney's salaries. Any discussion? Commissioner Rutderman. >> Mr. Chair, I I think that sometimes we just we don't say it as explicitly as we should, but our number one priority in Carver County is public safety. And sometimes because it h it gets handled so well, we don't talk about it. We don't put it on our priorities list. We don't we didn't have an item from the sheriff's office on our legislative priorities. It doesn't mean it's not important. It means it's being handled well. Um also, for those that are watching, um last two years, we decided um in negotiation with our labor folks, uh to give staff 7% each year for the last two years, and this is consistent with that. Um and then finally, um I think sometimes people forget it, but sometimes when you come into an elected role, particularly the sheriff's role and the county attorney role, there's a pullback for somebody that comes in new to that that role. And so in years past, you saw that um both our our county attorney and our our sheriff um came in at a lower rate than their predecessor. And so some of the years have been catchup from that. And so the the risks uh and the costs to an individual and their family to be in an elected role are real. And I think this recognizes the work that these gentlemen have both done and will continue to do on behalf of our county. Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else? Hearing none. We have a motion on the floor. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. [snorts and clears throat] >> All right. 3.3 Resolution setting 2026 county commissioner compensation. >> The county board is also charged with the responsibility to set compensation, including salary and benefits for county commissioners. Several factors are [clears throat] typically considered when setting commissioner salaries, including market rates and internal salary history and patterns. Metro area market information was included in the board packet which reflects Carver County Commissioner's current 2025 annual salary set at $89,633 in comparison with the Metro County average of $100,377. Comparison data reviewed in relation to the elected salary setting process includes the same counties referenced for purposes of Carver County's most recent classification and compensation study, which includes the seven metro area counties. The county's current collective bargaining agreements establish a 2026 performance-based compensation system and general adjustment increase pattern, including a January 2026 general adjustment of 4% and performance-based compensation determined by each employees overall rating on their performance evaluation with no increase for needs improvement or 3% increase for an achieve performance rating. An increase of around $10,700 would be required to move the Carver County Commissioner salary to the current year metro average. It is anticipated that comparable counties will also be increasing their county commissioner salaries with regard for the current market. Is recommended the board consider an increase that would reasonably move alignment toward the market average or at minimum avoid increasing the gap. When defining the 2026 county commissioner salary, the board could consider an increase of 7% applied to the current commissioner salary in order to maintain a salary relatively aligned with the comparable county data. A 7% increase um which would be $6,274 applied to the current commissioner salary of $89,633 would result in a 2026 county commissioner salary of $95,97. The recommended resolution provides annual salaries to be set by the board, cafeteria benefits and HSA contributions at the same rates as non-bargaining employees, and monthly expense allowances maintaining current rates for of 715 for the chair, 640 for the vice chair, 615 for the other commissioners um or amounts as updated and defined by the county board for 2026. The action requested is to define the 2026 county commissioner compensation and benefits and adopt the resolution establishing Carver County Commissioner salaries and monthly expense allowances for 2026 providing 2026 cafeteria benefits and HSA contributions at the same rates and in accordance with the same terms and timing as non-bargaining county employees. Okay. I did have a commissioner talk to me about the idea that the expenses have not gone up in seven or eight years, I believe. I don't know if there's an appetite from the board for that as part of a motion. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, I had talked with you about that. I had had staff go back and look at to see when the monthly expenses were changed. The last time they were changed was in 2017. And prior to that, it was changed in 2008. And both of those increases were $100 per position across the board. And [snorts] you would propose what? >> I would um [clears throat] propose another increase of $100 across the board for the monthly allowances, the monthly expense allowance. >> Okay. Are you making that a motion along with the recommended 7% increase? It all has to be together. Carrie, is that correct? >> I would probably the county attorney's office on that. You need to set the salary for the coming year. Um, potentially you could do that through two motions. In in the action request, it says county commissioner annual salaries and monthly expense allowances for 2026. Unless you'd separate them, I'd assume. >> Mr. Chair, commissioners, I I think you could do it either way. I don't think there's a legal requirement one way or another. If you want to approve just the salary and have more discussion on the expenses, you could separate them at this point. >> And when we talk about our salaries, Mr. chair and uh and Carrie had mentioned that point. We continue to be below the average. I remember when Garrison Keeler came to my college graduation speech and spoke to us and said that everyone should be average or at least above average. >> St. Thomas >> St. shots. [laughter] [clears throat] And that just made me think of that comment as we go to all the various meetings that we attend to and there again to talk to different commissioners at these AMC functions that we took part of in in last week. and that the comment to be well at least we should be average and and how do we get to average granted if we do an increase of 7% and then those other counties do X amount then we'll just continue to be below the average and I think the time that all of us spend as commissioners and the commitment and the various text messages and emails that we get and we talk about public safety and things that take place and all of our families. It's definitely challenging. Okay. Uh is that a motion for the 7% and the 100 on the expense? I'll say that's a motion. Do we have a second? Mr. Chair, I'm I'm This is the most uncomfortable we ever all throughout the year to say the least. >> Earlier this morning wasn't >> um No, that was actually fun. Um [snorts] I don't disagree with anything Commissioner Fehee said and I agree with him wholeheartedly, but setting your own compensation um makes me very uncomfortable. So, I I won't support the $100 the $100, but I will support the 7%. So, um if it goes through, I guess I will >> um Okay. So, I'm looking for a cleaner second than that. >> That wasn't a second. >> Uh that was Mr. Anderson, Commissioner Rutderman. >> Okay. No. Okay. Then it >> I mean in fairness I mean I struggled because just just the amount of money I have to spend in my personal safety um being in this job. I mean I get I understand where Commissioner Fehee is coming from. Um so I I I don't want to um you know I in theory I support it but I I I struggle with both. Um, so yeah, I can't second the um the other $100 in expenses. >> Okay. Well, then the fee motion dies for a lack of a second. Commissioner Fay, you want to amend your motion? >> I don't think I made a motion, Mr. Chair. >> I think I truly tried to help you make one. [laughter] [clears throat and cough] I was not successful. Okay. Anybody else have a motion? Are we going to dig down to the chairman having to make a motion? I don't think he's supposed to. Right. >> Chairman Ken, >> you could, but >> All right, I'll make a motion on the 7% increase for county county commissioners. >> All right, I'll second that. >> Okay, got a motion and a second on that 7% increase. Uh, any discussion? Commissioner. >> Mr. Uh, Mr. Chair, sorry. Uh in years past I've suggested a formula because it is an uncomfortable conversation and I've suggested a formula that took the last two or three years of staff average and then uh deduct a quarter or half a percent. So we're always a little bit lag uh versus staff and so I'm not going to support 7% today. I I think if we move to a formula we can avoid the awkwardness in the future. Um I also think that some people have taken um the the um within their choosing uh to to um um expense other items. Um, print cartridges are example. I think you know some individuals have expensed in excess of $500 a year in in print cartridges that should come out of the expense dollars that are associated. I think um I don't know if that was included in the language last time but I think to make it cleaner I think if we just tag ourselves to our staff and their well-being um it would be a lot easier conversation in the future and it would also help us guide our decisions when we're making our decisions that we should be invested in our staff and and their well-being there. Some of these people are working well past 40 hours a week to try and service our our community. And so I've been in support of their 77 the last two years. I think I was laughed at last time I pres I suggested three years ago for of sixes. I backed off of that a little bit. I said 667. I am in support of of similar or or or um um uh uh comparable for the next two or three years as we have those conversations mid year. So those are those are my comments and the reasons I won't be supporting the motion. [snorts] Well, [clears throat] if I can take a little history from the legislature, that's exactly what the legislature did. Um, too weak and feeble to raise their own pay. And so they let's give it to a board and have them set it and and uh the gas tax is now uh set by the consumer price. Uh, so instead of me blaming a legislator, it's just well the computer it's going up because a consumer price. So I'm not a big formula guy. Um, but gas taxes are going to go up every year all on their own. The legislature I think it's sherking your your duty there. Um, and you know to Commissioner Fehee, you know, you get out of whack. Uh, we were, Commissioner Lynch and I were here and didn't support a very large, if not a $16,000 raise the board took cuz we were out of whack. Um, and uh, so it it can go either way, I guess. But, uh, you know, we're we're hired to make the tough decision. So, anyway, anybody else? Mr. >> Chair, just a point of clarification. You're proposing the full resolution that's on page 98. Is that correct? [snorts] >> Throughout the numbers, the 7% and the same expense allowance. >> It's that's what the resolution >> res Yeah. But your motion [snorts] is the full >> correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed I. >> Motion passes. 4 to one. Mr. Chair, Commissioner Lynch, I'd >> like to make the motion to recess as the county board and convene as the regional rail authority. >> Second. >> All right. Commissioner Lynch has moved to recess as the county board and convene as the regional rail authority. And that was seconded by Commissioner Uterman. We have to vote. >> Oh, we have to vote on that. >> Oh, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Okay. Sorry. >> Uh, good afternoon, Mr. Chair and board members. Uh, Dave Fishman, property and finance director. On December 2nd, the region rail authority adopted a motion to approve the levy and budget for 2026. And, uh, my finance staff um, I put together the RBA. Mary Kay was gone. uh when she got back she pointed out that we did not adopt the resolution and [laughter] she asked that we [clears throat] actually adopt the resolution. So before you is a resolution um with the same numbers, same levy numbers, same budget numbers just uh administratively kind of cleaning that up. So apologize for that. Um but um if the board would um adopt a motion approving the resolution, uh that's the that's the request for today. >> Great explanation. Uh with that, Mr. Mr. Chair, I'll make the motion to adopt the attached resolution setting the regional rail authority 2026 budget and levy. >> So move or second. >> Okay, got a motion by Lynch and a second by Fehee to approve the resolution. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> Those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Mr. Chair like to make the motion to adjurnn as the regional rail authority and convene as a community health board. >> Second. >> Commissioner Lynch has moved to adjurnn as the community health board. Wait a minute. >> Regional rail >> adjourn as the regional rail authority and convene as the community health board and commissioner Lynch has second lynch second. Fehey has seconded that. Any discussion? >> Commissioner did. >> Oh, Commissioner did. Close. [sighs] >> Been a long morning, sir. >> It has. Uh, any discussion? None. All those in favor say I. I. >> Those opposed? Motion passes. >> Board chair >> Workman. >> How are you, sir? >> Board Chair Workman, Commissioners, County Administration, and those in the listening audience. Thank you for this opportunity to present the second semianual report to our community health board. Um, I will try to shorten my remarks in light of a long day, but at the same time want to highlight the impact that our staff are doing to promote the health and well-being of our residents as well as our business owners and others that have an opportunity to live, learn, work, and play and pray in Carver County. So, um, I'm always impressed when I have an opportunity to start doing some research and preparing for this presentation. and I'm overwhelmed often and I'm reminded how proud I am to be a part of this community, be a part of our staff and our team, both our staff that work directly with public health, but also our internal and external partners. Uh this is an amazing community and they and I think even just how our community responded most recently to the shutdown stepping up in order to meet the needs of those that live on little in order to provide for the food insecurity is a testimony to how we can work together and through that create that sense of synergy of making this the healthiest county in Minnesota and hopefully we continue to do that. Normally I spend this time talking a little bit about the health status of the county, but I was hoping to shift a little bit today to talk a little bit more about what goes behind the scenes to make it the healthiest county. We made reference earlier today about um all the stuff that goes behind the scenes. What you see is the top of the iceberg, but all that stuff in order to see that park goes under the water and oftentimes that gets neglected. Um I we are in the process of putting together an annual report. We've done that in the past. We haven't done it for several years and I will be hopefully uh including more of the detail in that annual report and obviously make that available to the board. So I'll probably not go through all of that level of detail but just more showcase the highlights of some of the programs that we do. The first one um I want to talk about is communicable disease. Obviously that was on everybody's mind during the pandemic and I remember thinking about that between my wife who was serving as the nurse manager of ICU at Rididgeu and myself in public health serving as the incident commander. We saw both sides, both the the the the dark side as well as um advocating for the prevention side. And we were heroes when that first started and we were often considered villains at the end because it was a very difficult time for um our residents and our partners. And I understand that challenge and through that time was the beginning of an erosion of trust, I think, and that has continued even to this day. And I'll talk a little bit more about what we're what steps we're taking to rebuild that trust, sort of re reinvent government, if you will, at least from a public health perspective, to work collaboratively with our community in order to preserve the health and well-being of our community. Couple of things that we do under communical disease is that we play really close attention to what's happening. What are those business trends? So, it's a community disease surveillance and monitoring. We actually do a monthly uh situational analysis report. We have our data health specialist along with our communicable disease uh cont content expert uh review what's happening and we do a report to our team to kind of so we're all up to date on what's happening about various uh diseases as well as those policies and and guidelines that can affect the impact that we're having. We work with Minnesota Department of Health on contact case investigation and contact tracing. And one of the interesting things that we had a focus on this year is actually in response to pertasus. We did 53 contacts and there was about 40 uh 45 cases of pertasus in Carver County this year. Um across Minnesota there was uh 13 uh over 1300 cases which was uh considerably more because the previous year we only had 147 and of those uh 1360 25 of them ended up ended up hospitalization. So obviously being mindful of a communical disease is an ongoing concern. The other area in response to that is our immunization program. We work obviously collaboratively um with both our health clinics but also you know pharmacies provide that uh variety of different vaccine programs. And of course with the pandemic and the anxiety associated with that many people were beginning to not necessarily get all their children immunized and we were beginning to see a significant drop off on the immunization of of our young people as well as adults and I think that's part of the reason why we saw an uptick in measles an uptick in pursel pessus [clears throat] and also an uptick in chickenpox or paricella as a result of that but we our team has really been intentional about working with our schools working with our health health clinics working even with the pharmacies is that how can we sort of build that sense of trust in the value of of the vaccination program so we can increase the rate and we've done that and that has been remarkable and I think um if we hadn't done I think we would have had a lot more cases of communical disease in our community the other area that we're always concerned about is tuberculosis and so we often are working with those who have been diagnosed either with latent or active TB to make sure that they're taking their medications as prescribed to reduce the risk for the rest of us here in the The other area that we focus a lot on is chronic disease and injury prevention. Uh one of the things I'm always amazed about is we even help families figure out what's the best way to uh fit their car seats. And for those who struggle financially, we also have a program to provide car seats for them so that their kids can be safe. I think you all can appreciate how many lives have been saved as a result of proper use of car seats as well as seat seat belts over the years and we be a part of that. The other area that we work with to reduce the risk of chronic disease is our commercial tobacco program. Uh we provide uh training to businesses and I think we provided uh 12 programs to 11 businesses to help them uh learn how to do the appropriate carding how to uh you know how to so that they're legally uh involved with the sales of those products and as a result of that one even in Chesco we had 100% compliance based I think a lot on the training that we've done and that's good. The other area we work on now we have a new grant with cannabis and substance use prevention. So we're hoping to work with the schools and others on the prevention side of that providing p um you know educational materials uh looking at working together for programming so that kids can be well informed about the harms and dangers of of inappropriate substance use and again to try to keep them healthy. The other area I think that we've really begun to shine in is how are we handling the funds associated with the opioid settlement agreement. We were a little slow on the upstart. Uh we had to get a few things settled. We also wanted to see kind of where the landmines were by what others were doing. And so we learned I think both from the the successes and the challenges that other communities did to put a system in place for us. And it was amazing. Last year we had uh sponsored uh two community programs. I think we had nine internal programs within the county that we use those fundings to help support across a variety of services. and I'd love to be able to come back at some point to present just on how that effective that program has been and how we've leveraged ether funding and other sources to maximize its impact. One of the other thing we've been hoping to do for some time but it's been challenging with capacity is how do we address asthma in our young people especially and so we're hoping going to be launching that program next year. The other area of focus area of course is wellness initiatives as well as emergency preparedness. And one of the things that stand out here is uh listed up there is our communities of belonging. I think I've shared with this group before that of my 30 plus years 40 plus years now uh in in in public healthare as well as education and other areas. I've really come to appreciate that we're hardwired for three things. We're hardwired for an safety. Commissioner Udman, you referenced that before. We're hardwired for a need of significance. And I think you'd also enjoy this, Commissioner Udman, is that is that we need to realize that we are hardwired for a sense of mattering. We matter. And there's two sides of that coin. One is that unconditional positive regard for people regardless of who they are. The other side of that coin is providing opportunities for them then to matter to other people. And that's a sense of contribution. And I really understood the value of that when I was doing some consulting in what is now Southwest Metro because we would have kids that were some of the most challenging kids be served uh at that school. And it wasn't until we gave them an opportunity through a program called service learning that they could have a meaningful contribution to the issues and challenges that are happening in the community that changed them around. And all of a sudden you realize that a significant change in their behavior and their willingness to pay it forward to help the community. So that sense of cont that sense of contribution is that other half of significance. And the third area is that sense of belonging. When we feel like we generally belong and don't have to just to struggle to fit in, we are more willing, we feel less anxiety. We're more motivated to be a part of the solution and and and as a result of that, we can contribute to making this a better place to live for all of us. So, I'm really appreciative of the commissioner's support for that initiative and a lot of our programs are sort of how can it help foster a sense of communities of belonging. And I may have shared last time too, one of the um conference I went to on emergency preparedness, uh the keynote speaker who got his doctorate in looking at what are those factors that influence a community's ability to both prevent harm from from a natural disaster and what are those things that help mitigate or recover at a quicker pace. And he did this work internationally. He looked at Katrina. He looked at the tsunami. He looked at a variety of other public health not but um disaster kind of events and he said there was a direct correlation between the amount of social capital and the reduction in deaths and the speed of recovery uh in a community after national natural disaster and that and that essentially is what communities of belonging is how are we cultivating a sense of social capital uh and that's neighbor helping neighbor knowing each other building that trust that it not only helps reduce mortality associated with natural disasters. It helps improve the recovery and I think that can be that concept can be transferred to almost everything that we do. We we've been a um a county that's had an office of aging for some time and then a lot of the folks from office of aging are also working with the communities of belonging and that has helped initiate the senior commissions in almost all of our communities across Carver County so that we can be very intentionable about what are the needs of our aging population because that's where we're headed right and how can we be more responsible but equally important how can we solicit the help and the engagement of our older adults in part of that solution and that's what the office of aging really tries to help. The state health improvement partnership program or SHIP program is really designed to focus on those elements that reduce the risk of chronic disease and we've been real fortunate and working with a variety of partners. We've always tried to allocate most of that funding to support the community itself and to work with them in order to do a variety of programs to promote health and well-being. And that also is worth a whole presentation on itself, but I won't get into that. Food access. Um, again, we've done a amazing amount of work. I think I referenced it earlier with our response to uh response to the the uh federal shutdown, but just to kind of get briefly an idea with our work on that, we we helped involve 120 volunteers that put in over 1,200 hours and we provided over 105,000 pounds of food distributed accounting for over almost 88,000 meals. And what's also nice about that is that the 95% of the families that participated in those program said they ate more vegetables and more fruits and they felt they ate healthier as a result of our distribution initiatives. So we weren't only just providing food, we were also helping encourage them to make healthy choices as it related to those food. The other area is innovation grants. We were um a competitive bidder for that from the state and we've won that now two cycles in a row and that's designed primarily to work with our community partners especially those partners that are focused on working with the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in our communities. How can we work with the those organizations that have a greater impact on helping those people that are struggling? what's what what the hearts safe community is some is a relatively new program that we're working with now and the intent of that program u it's a multi- sector public health effort aimed at improving survival rates from cardiac um from sudden cardiac arrest and so we're working with the the uh Ridgeview we're working with other other folks to see how can we increase awareness how can we about sudden cardiac arrest what can we do to promote the use of AEDs what can we to have more people trained. Um, how can we be develop a a better response system in place so that when people are struggling, we can have more immediate response. And so that that's that's been a something that we wanted to do for a long time. Um, and it's nice that we're beginning to resurrect that as well. And then emergency preparedness. Obviously, we learned a lot during the pandemic. We're hoping to institute a lot of those um initiatives so that we'll be prepared for the next one um and hopefully prevent the next one. at least be prepared when it happens. We strengthened our partnership with emergency management because obviously they've gone under a new personnel change over the last couple of years and then we're also working with our other partners. We're also have a very robust uh Minnesota uh I mean medical reserve corps or MRC and providing opportunities for them to volunteer, pay it forward if you will, uh to help out um even during non-emergency times and that leverages our staff to be more impactful and make a difference in the community. And [clears throat] the other area listed there is a health alert network. We work with the Minnesota Department of Health to let our health partners know when they should be mindful of something that's brewing that's something that could be concerning so that they would recognize it earlier and able to respond. The next major area of our work is in the area of maternal child and family health. Child and teen checkup program is a way to work with clinics so that they know how best to screen for health issues with kids at different ages. We work with parents so that they're mindful of that change in growth and development and what to look for. We provide direct in-home family visiting especially for uh higher risk pregnant and parenting parents and moms. And that is probably very significant. That's sort of my history in public health. My master's project [clears throat] was actually looking at the correlation between frequency of visits during maternal child health and child outcomes. And there was a direct correlation that we're more apt to reduce the risk of child maltreatment. We're more to reduce the risk of delayed learning when we can have and work with those families early during those critical first couple of years of life. And that's one and so that's one of the programs that we provide. We also do lactation support for people to help promote breastfeeding. Uh we do newborn high-risisk outreach um program. So when we get lists um of the birth data from the state, we reach out and just let people know that we're here. Uh we uh kind of suggest we do often do some screening to help identify issues that might identify some of those risk issues early and then to make sure that parents are fully aware of the resources that are available for for them. And then the other thing that we've just started doing a little bit more recently is the maternal substance use prevention and early intervention. We're working with professionals at Review Medical Center. We're working with our child and family team here [clears throat] on how can we provide both early identification, intervention, and support for those moms who might be struggling with substance use to reduce again the negative impact that could have on their children. The other area um now is environmental health. One of the main areas that we focus here is the public health nuisance program. It's really the only regulatory function we have as a local public health agency. Um, and that is basically working with families that are struggling to keep their house fit and sanitary [clears throat] uh, uh, in order to support healthy living. And just to kind of get an example that sometimes goes up and down, but we had had 24 inquirs, almost two a month of referrals, usually from family or community members or neighbors who are concerned about somebody and the welfare of their house. And so we go in and do an assessment and make a determination on the level of safety of that house and what needs to be done to sort of clean it up if you will so that it continue to be safe. And then I already think I talked about the food rescue program, but this is sort of what's also we partner with environmental services. We partner with several other communities and the food shelves to have a way to sort of rescue food, if you will, like food that was being it's going to be be tossed out either at grocery stores or at restaurants, but it's still healthy. Uh, and as long as we can just repackage it and provide it for those in need. And then also for that stuff that we may not be giving to humans, we can also help with our farmers to use that to supplement some of the animal feed. So, it's a nice way of reducing the waste in our food system. From my understanding in the last report I read almost 40% of our food that we eat is wasted in our stream from from the time it's harvested to the time that it's ends up in the person's home. So if we can help reduce that that not only reduces food waste but it's also repurposing that food for for health and human consumption. And then finally that we also are involved in reducing the risk associated with childhood lead. And I won't go into too much details there. The next major area of our concern is the public health infrastructure and support system. I think I've shared quite a bit with this group uh before about our community health assessment and our community health improvement plan. Uh so I won't take much about that. Obviously we have a very robust data analytics. We're fortunate here uh that we do have we put a very strong emphasis our ability to understand the data to collect the data and to report on the data to help inform uh our decision making uh as we move forward. The other area we focus on communications both in community outreach and engagement. We're working with our communication team and that's going to become ever increasingly important obviously for a lot of the things that we talked about before when we're talking about highway construction, you know, but also I think it's a way for us to get our messaging across but also to be responsive to the concerns within the community and hopefully that will go a long way in really fostering a sense of trust. Information referral. Again, when people have questions, [snorts] they can call our our sort of our hotline. Um, it's not always answered. We don't have the personnel capacity to to staff that all the time, but it's an answering system where people can call, express their concerns, their questions, and then we have a nurse that responds to that on a very timely basis, and then they will follow up with that person to answer their questions as best as they can. And then we're also really focused now on workforce development. Uh, and that includes a whole variety of things. It improves knowledge and skills of the staff. It better helps resident improve their health. It's both recruiting, retention, and professional development. And we're very intentional about that as well. So, moving forward, what are some of the challenges that we see for 2026? These are similar to what I may have shared before, but a couple of things that we're really concerned about is the changing public health landscape and funding priorities. I think we've had a lot of conversations about um how the feds and the state are going to affect us. I think I shared before almost 55% of Minnesota Department of Health's funding comes from the feds. Roughly 30 to 35% of local is feds. It could have more of an impact depending on what happens with MDH. So that obviously is something that we need to be responsive to. We've talked about a changing population growth. We're getting older and [laughter] more diverse. Uh and we're growing. So, you know, we're more people um different people as well as older people. And so that can be a real positive opportunity if we get in on the front end of that and and and and embrace that and work with those folks to help us find those solutions so that they can feel more comfortable and and provide a great opportunity to contribute. The other area is increasing risk of both chronic and communical diseases. We chatted about that a little bit. Increasing capacity to respond to community health uh public health emergencies. I shared a little bit about that as well. um obviously expanding uh our substance use and opioid settlement program u and we can talk more about that at a later time. And then finally cultivating communities and belonging and trusted relationships and this kind of um this leads me to what so what are like the four core questions that [clears throat] are driving our response. One is how will you effective meet the growing needs of our changing population and ensure that we can do so within an evolving socioecon so sociopolitical um environment and as even just this morning the challenges this morning what are we doing to engage our communities to develop a trusting relationship so that we can work together in a meaningful way that promotes optimal health and well-being and so this includes specifically uh includes current and future residents who are more likely to experience health challenges due to the circumstances which makes it very difficult for them to meet the needs of their own. Obviously, we're one of the more affluent communities in Minnesota and we are the healthiest community in Minnesota. Um, but not all of our residents have a chance to take advantage of all that as best they can. public health. I think it one of our unique charges is to make sure we're working with all of our residents, including those that might be more marginalized that live on little so they can be fully engaged in our community and be a part of that contribution instead of having difficulties with access and utilization of services. The next question that drives us is how will we effectively train, develop and support a strong public health workforce? This includes, like I mentioned before, staff recruitment, staff development, uh staff self-care, staff retention, and filling staff vacancies. [snorts] How will we define a department scope of work to operate effectively and deliver on the core public health responsibilities for our residents even under ch uncertain and changing circumstances. And this includes both our structure and function, our procedures, policies, practices. We're developing a whole new strategic plan process that's going to be fully aligned with the revised core public health functions. This is going to improve our practice. It's going to provide the metrics for continuous quality improvement. And equally important, it will make it easier for us to report back to the Minnesota Department of Health on our required annual reporting. And then finally, how will we ensure that we are consistently practicing effective communication and engaging with community members and our partners? And this includes obtaining and maintaining accurate, timely, science-based data information. And that has been subject to question lately. So, how are we vetting that to make sure that we're providing accurate information to our partners and to our residents? It involves growing our ability to contribute local data to tell our own public health story. we may need to have more involvement in actually on the on the primary data collection side instead of just reporting what we hear from others. We might need to be more involved in the actual data collection ourselves and we do that through listening sessions through key informant interviews for through randomized adult health surveys. This also includes strategic and creative communications and planning for active effective delivery of our messages for each intended audience. realizing that people hear differently. Uh different things are important and how are we tailoring our message to resonate with those different um target groups. And finally, it involves engaging with segments of our population where we're not currently well integrated uh to communicate the work of the department and also cultivate and build that sense of trust. And I was just talking with Ari earlier about how we work together. We're really fortunate to have her and her team, Amber, to help work with us on delivering those messages to the public. Here are some of the key strategies we feel will be more effective in in rebuilding that sense of trust. One is expanding our capacity for community um communications and community engagements, which I referenced. Key objective will be to help people understand that public health is not something being done to them, but rather public health is community empowerment and developing relationships to make a healthier community. We work alongside our residents and our partners. Continue to build upon our current social media ease newsletters and in-person advisory committees and community events. So, we have multiple ways of having that cultivate a two-way sense of communication. And then finally, collaborate with our communication department in developing seven short vibes as they say. I suppose this mean videos, but I like the word vibes. That kind of that was a typo. Surprised I missed that. But I maybe I like the word vibes. [laughter] We're going to create seven positive vibes. to be [snorts] released about every four to five weeks and we're and and and I would like to if I can get it to work uh I did ask the communications department can they just give me a little trailer of what we can expect but it's [clears throat] going to be a nice video short video interactive well not so much but short video about the various things that we do in public health and again to build that awareness cooperation ultimately to greater trust so I don't know if there's a way to click on that >> are you sure that's not just slang and you want to show us how hip you are >> hey >> you know he [laughter] Um, and I was going to wear my my my holiday tie, but I thought probably that went went the appropriate. >> We would have loved your holiday tie. >> There you go. Um, so I don't know. Is there a way to activate just if you just click on that >> the vids the vides >> on that uh the trader? Yeah, just click on that. It's just about 55 seconds and that will conclude my presentation today. >> Richard Colin can make anything happen. >> Colin can make >> No, I I I [clears throat] thanked him earlier today. >> Isn't it Colin today? Oh, okay. Well, never mind. I will we can make that available as a link to each of you. But it it just it just talks about a little bit about what public health is about and kind of a teaser of what's to come. So, that's all that there is. But with that, I would surely entertain opportunity for any questions or comments that you may have. >> Any questions? >> I have two. Uh thank you. I know we're getting a little later than we normally are, but um two to two to two to two to two to two to two to two to two to two to two to we we know that ba based on birth rates and the relative affordability of Carver County that there's fewer kids uh up and coming. It impacts our schools, it impacts the vibrancy, it impacts costs. Um are we is there anything we can do proactively to address that? Um and then my second question may have something to do with that as well is I know we've said on the board that you can't compel somebody to want to do something often times unless you're building a foundational trust it takes a long time. For instance, I know Commissioner Fehee had talked about moving from $100 to $200 in our health program. If people don't want to go for the walk or if they don't want to go check the box, they don't want to do their things, you're not going to do so. So, is there anything within public health that we can help that you see is working elsewhere that we can help compel people to do the things we think will work to ultimately get us to be a healthy organization so we can bring our cost down, we can pass those dollars forward. >> Yeah. Um, it's a good question. I uh what a quote that came to my mind when you're talking about that you can't you can't force a horse to drink what you can salt their oats right I mean what are we doing to and I may not have gotten that quote just right but what [laughter] are we doing to create the desire people support what they help create you know and people also support what they value and how are we communicating with with our residents to show the value of engaging in healthy activities to show the value of community engagement and being part of a group in order to make their place a better live for everybody And so I think that then people are more willing to do that. There's another quote that's been really influential in my career by John Maxwell is when you have hope in the future, you have power in the present. And while that matters, especially with our more marginalized community members, is that what are we doing to give them hope? Because when while hope is not a strategy, it's surely a motivator. And it gives them the willingness and the eagerness and the commitment and the passion to do the tough things in order to get to where they know now they can be. When we worked with those at risk kids at the Southwest Vetro, they had no hope, right? They were considered a problem and they saw that's how everyone. [clears throat] When we put them in a position to make a difference in the community, all a sudden now they says, you know, I can I matter. I can make a difference. It gave them hope and then they were willing to do better in school. They were willing to follow through on their projects. Um, and they had a better option because now they had hope. What are we doing to cultivate that hope? Anytime we work together as a team, we obviously are going to create a sense of synergy and that by definition is going to save money. Like even our ship program considering, you know, we gave out over $200,000, a lot of money, but we leverage probably four to five times that amount in commitment by the partners to contribute and be a part of that project. So that's just one way I think we can help both save money, invest in the future, and improve our community engagement and then build trust. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, that it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Commissioner Lynch, >> like to make the motion to adjurnn as the community health board and reconvene as the county board. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Commissioner Lynch to adjurnn as the community health board and reconvene as the county board. It's seconded by Commissioner Udman. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Okay. Year in review. Is it tradition to go stand at the podium? >> Up to you, Mr. Chair. But yes. >> All right. Uh, this is difficult every year because [clears throat] I'm going to read a bunch of stuff off that you already know about. >> So, but uh we'll see what happens. >> Let's do it anyway. >> I'll try. You know, as you're getting to the podium, I wish a lot of the people that were here earlier would have a chance to see this. Um, >> well, I'm sure they're tuning in >> and I'll be I'll be sharing the contents. I know that you guys do it, Dave. Your team does a nice job of pulling this together twice a year. So, thanks. Sorry. >> Yeah. Okay. Carver County 2025 year and review presentation. Um, it's been another outstanding year in Carver County. We completed many key projects and continue to be highly ranked in terms of the happiest and healthiest county in the entire nation. This year, I'm especially grateful for the collaboration and cooperation between Carver County and cities and townships and state and other agencies. And of course, thank you to all of our staff elected and otherwise and our uh county commissioners. This year, Carver County Public Works delivered major progress across the county from fully opening the Highway 41 and10/Ingingler corridor with new roundabouts and pedestrian underpasses to advance the 82nd Street connection that will ease congestion. We opened the rebuilt Highway 11. This was not a fun one for me and Victoria between highways five and seven. Improving safety with wider shoulders and modern design features. And we constructed new roundabouts at Highway 10, Wakonia Parkway North, Victoria Drive and Pioneer Trail and Marsh Lake Road that help traffic move more smoothly and make our trail connections even stronger. We also moved into two, year two of three on the major highway 212 expansion between Norwood, Young America, and Cologne. Continuing work to complete the final four lane segment of this critical regional corridor. >> Mr. Chair, you might want to click through the slides. >> Well, I was being told to do that. >> I guess so. >> He has to do it all. Yeah. There we go. >> Okay. Um, I'm gonna have to start over and read everything again. >> No, sir. [laughter] >> Uh, >> okay. We're going to be on slide four. What is that? Three. >> Look at that. This year marks several key improvements across our parks and trails. At Lake Minawasha Regional Park, we replaced the aging facility with a new creative playground which opened in spring and has been a seen strong community use. That uh that uh play area there up on the left uh was absolutely amazing when I saw it, laid eyes on it. >> Yeah. Uh, in Chaza, the city led city led the Circle the Brick Trail and Highway 41 underpass project, realigning the Minnesota River Bluffs Regional Trail off the levey and through downtown, enhancing connectivity and safety. I love that project, although I don't mind riding on the levey back there. In Makonia, we completed a new trail head facility along Highway 10 for the Dakota Rail Regional Trail. addressing access and safety concerns. Usage has been consistently strong since its fall opening. We also partnered with Scott County on the Miriam Junction Trail Connection, which you guys all know I'm very excited about. We also launched a long range planning effort for Baylor Regional Park, engaging the public to shape future development and services. In November, Carver County celebrated the grand opening of the Family Resource Center, a new community hub designed to connect individuals and families with vital services and support located at Chesca Moravian Church, FRC, was made possible through strong collaboration among local partners, nonprofits, and county departments. The Chanhassen Service Center. The Chanhassen Service Center has introduced two new customerfriendly enhance enhancements this year. First, it now offers digital passport photo services for individuals renewing passports online, making the process more [clears throat and cough] convenient and accessible. Second, a new self-service kiosk has been installed, allowing walk-in visitors to check themselves into the no wait inside appointment queue. On slide seven, a military appreciation day at the 2025 county fair saw its largest turnout in years with around 100 attendees braving the 90°ree heat to honor our veterans. The event featured a powerful keynote from Lieutenant Commander Mike Peterson who shared reflections on his service and the true cost of freedom. Uh in addition, our uh office hosted a veterans mental health resiliency summit this summer at the Vil Common Pavilion in Norwood, Young America. I'm saying that right, Commissioner, >> I can say the V, right? >> No. Uh >> welcome. >> All right. Yeah. >> Pavilion. >> The summit featured a panel of experts from four organizations representing different stages of the mental health care continuum. With roughly 70 attendees, the event was wellreceived and praised for its meaningful outreach. Carver Link reached a major milestone this year, completing a decadesl long effort to bring high-speed symmetrical internet access to all rural areas of Carver County. In addition to full rural coverage, fiber construction advanced within city limits, reaching roughly 80% of Victoria and only 10% of Chanhassen. A key infrastructure collaboration also wrapped up a $500,000 equipment installation shared by Carverl Link, Metronet, and Ridge View Medical, enhancing connectivity and reliability across partners. And I'm going to leave that at that. three times. >> Carver County libraries delivered a vibrant year filled with creative educ creative educational and communitydriven programs for children, teens, and families across the county. In Norwood, Young America, over 170 school students participated in STEM and literacy activities, while a new Kids in the Garden program pilot program taught 28 children how to care for the library's garden plot. Watertown hosted the popular program with purpose where families built bird feeders with Elpus Enterprises supporting youth who've experienced homelessness. Watertown and Mcconia partnered with the Twin Cities PBS hands-on learning events that drew over 180 children. Wonia also engaged teens with escape rooms and dungeons and dragons and rallied community support through letters and artwork for service members. In Chaza, more than 200 people stopped by for a llama visit and storytime attendance rose over 72%. >> This year brought major conservational wins across Carver County in Chaza. The East Creek Daylighting Project restored a 450 ft stream channel, replacing a decade's old [clears throat] underground pipe. The new channel includes a flood plane and 10 riffle areas, boosting aquatic life and improving storm water management. At Hazeline Lake, six years of goldfish removal led to the dramatic water quality turnaround. Phosphorus levels dropped nearly 50%. Mavis Lake also saw remarkable progress. A fish barrier and electrical guidance system helped remove invasive carp. I'm almost done. >> You're doing great. To meet growing demand, the Carver County Environmental Center expanded its hours in June, improving access and reducing weight times with nearly 38,000 vid visitors through November and projections over 41,000 by the year end. Meanwhile, Southwest Metro Lending Library in Chaza celebrated its first year of promoting community sharing with over 190 members and more than 2,700 items available for checkout. Uh there's they're offering a market space for repair supported by Carver County, the MPCA, and Rack Retail Shop. And the end here, what an incredible year it's been. And I want to express my deepest thanks to each of you for your dedication, collaboration, and the shared momentum that continued continues to make Carver County such a special place to live and serve. I'm truly honored to celebrate this moment and close out the year with all of you. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be your chairman this year. I appreciate that. It was a lot of fun and everybody did a great job. Thank you. [applause] With that, do we have a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Administrator report. >> I'm not touching that. I can't top that. No. [laughter] No report. >> No report. >> No report. >> Okay. No. County uh county administrator report. Do I have a motion to >> to adjure? >> So moved. >> Second. We got a motion by Anderson, second by Fee to adjourn this meeting.