[Music] Scott County providing safe healthy and livable [Music] communities Scott deliver presentation where we're going to receive information on the evolving workplace uh Chris Harter uh will you kick that off for us morning Madam chair commission the title of our Scott delivers this morning to the evolving workplace and as you are all very aware uh a are you okay Diet Coke emergency over here let's pause for a moment that's happen that's why I didn't BR it okay um as you as you are all very familiar nationally at a Statewide level at a local level um workplaces everywhere are experiencing changes both in their Workforce and in how they deliver services and those are the really the two buckets of things we want to talk about with you today um certainly in Scott County we have seen changes in our Workforce many of them mirror National Trends um and we have some data that tells you a little bit about what's going on here here at home uh we have some data related to how we have changed Service delivery some of that started prior to covid some of it was expedited by Co um some of it continues as improvements that that we might not have gotten to in other ways so today we have brought together um what we have for data as indicators of some of those Trends uh we have about a fiveyear look back on most of those slides we brought together eight businesses to talk about how their Workforce or how their service delivery are changing and I it's important to me to say that these eight departments are not the only departments that are providing um Services differently or creating efficiencies these are eight Department Ms that we were able to bring together with some data so just know this isn't um the sum total of those efforts but I think they're really good Representatives um so with that um Evan could you just plug up punch up uh page six please and just before I stop chatting I think what we want to remember is that our overall goal here is to provide the highest or the most effective services in the most cost efficient way and this is the data that we typically use for the cost of government looking at what percentage of our Levy um impacts personal income for the people in our communities and as you can see that has trended down annually um the efforts that these people are going to talk to continue to impact that data uh and so I just want to remind us like why this is so important that we're talking about this today so with that um if the facilitators could introduce themselves panelists can introduce themselves and then we'll get started B help and Human Services morning J schs Health and Human Services Greg senson it Julie Hansen Community Services hi T Ward Behavioral Health and housing good morning Jennifer Schultz Library director Troy beam Fleet and facilities manager he sa Brodsky Public Health Danny L's Office of Management and budget all right can we start with looking at the graph on page two the work from home graph that um and D I'm hoping that you could um maybe just start fleshing out what that data means and and kind of start us off there yeah so this is showing just where um people are able to or expecting to work from home um based on the different Industries so you can see um some of the industries we would expect be working from home information including Tech Finance Insurance those businesses that really can work from home um where they are working and as you kind of come down you see government down there at you know 1.25 days week is their expected level of working from home and I think that's reflective of uh the variety of services that we offer where there are some places in our organization that very easily can work from home and there are other places in our organization that just absolutely cannot um and really across the spot there are places that have some sort of mix of that um so it's interesting to see that because that's to me how it feels we operate here at sagot county is reflective here in this data as well thank you I think it's helpful to see maybe what our um employees might be expecting as far as work from home but what do customers what do our residents expect we have offered a certain amount of virtual service is there anything that's we've seen change in their expectations and is there anything more that we could still deliver I'll look to the panelist answer it overall I do think that there is a change in expectation since we did live in a virtual world or a large a virtual world for at least a year um of what expectations are from what was just seen in the private sector but I'll look to the people that actually deliver the services directly to talk more about that I could speak to that um you seem to be seeing you know during during the height of covid when everything was either um shut down or virtual those kinds of things everyone had adjusted of course to a um non inperson sort of experience uh we seem to be seeing at least in our area for folks coming to the customer service check-in desk that that expectation of people being here in person is Raising again um and not for everyone there are many people who enjoy doing their business virtually um over a computer screen or over a phone but there is a definitely a certain um subset of our population that is going back to expecting those in-person Services again so I can um just speak from more from a space perspective um what we see at the library is our study spaces are constantly full and they're filled with people who are out in the industry working from home and they're coming to the library to do their work so that they have quiet space um if you're at the library before 10 o'clock most days there's people waiting outside to come in to use those spaces um so that and and they're literally working there all day um so that is one thing and generally it's difficult to get a get to get a space um there's other spaces you can use but if you need that quiet space those are generally fil filled at the library now I could say for public health um it depends on the service um there are some Services particularly TV and direct observe therapy that our clients actually really prefer a virtual environment because it allows them to be able to complete their visit at any time during the day and it allows um for privacy especially if they work during the day they can easily um do uh complete the service and their requirement virtually other um other uh services are not really conducive to Virtual visits such as home visiting but if there's a barrier um the virtual environment has allowed us to continue that service particularly during covid that we would not have able been able to do otherwise um and some clients just on the occasion will still be able to do a virtual visit if if they're ill or they can't make it so um they they really appreciate that flexibility Lisa do you have any sense because I recall it one time uh talking about um because that was such a labor intensive service to observe those those treatments do you have any idea what kind of time you're saving or what kind of money you're saving in delivering that service remot um I certainly could calculate it when we did originally look at whether we were going to adopt a virtual um uh virtual environment for TB it was hundreds of hours for just uh The Limited clients that we had so um I'm I could calculate it but I'm guessing it's we're saving given the size of our County and 89% of our TB visits are now done um virtually um we're probably saving I'm going to guess a full-time employee because each visit now takes 15 minutes instead of an hour right so if you do the math on the number of televisits 657 um we're we are saving quite a few they are still done we still are required to meet with them in person at least once a week to set up their meds for the week but usually the rest of the uh visits for the week are done virtually great thank you um an Tanya I know um this takes you back to your previous position but do you have any thoughts on the use of tele medicine and um the data on page 16 looks specifically at crisis appointment um but as you're leaving the mental health center position do you have any thoughts about that um what the um clients or patients are expecting through that yeah I think the graph here this is about crisis appointments and crisis assessment but I from a you know bruy perspective I think that this graph follows all of the Clinical Services that are offered at the mental health center and this trajectory um clients as time has gone on um assume that their appointments will be face to face um I think that that's something that that they they pref they prefer more the face tof face for therapy but we do have a a section of clients that prefer Ted and we're able to off both okay and is that how you is that a client selection okay all right thank you so on page seven as far as the kind of the 50% in Scott County by 2030 um over the last couple years we've clearly exceeded that and we look at the kind of the work from home environment does that change the target does that change what we're kind of going after because we've exceeded it what percent is due to kind of work from home and enablement there and are there any other initiatives that we're going to be pushing beyond the rates we're already hitting so there are no other initiatives that I'm aware of of changing those rates um I do think it's worth revisiting what the goal is there right because part A lot of that is driven not by people having jobs that are the businesses located in Scott County but just they are able able to live in work in Scott County in the way that the question is asked um so it's probably worth revisiting it to say is this still the metric because um it wasn't all just based on having the employment in Scott County it was about the benefit to the residents from not having to take the time for the commute so it's not just a one variable like this is the one thing we're trying to move on it it was quality of life as well as employment driven um and business driven within the county so I think it's worth a discussion on it um I have not been part of any discussions and r visiting that look since we started trending above that in 2021 and I think the like a lot of this conversation today is internally focused and this is a real external Focus um measure but like with that I mean do we have thoughts or regarding just economic impact Transportation impact um of seeing these numbers actually get up above 50% do you have a thought about that Barb I I I I do but I'm not on the panel you could still speak to it because I can pontificate on a lot of topics this is not that I have de into side yeah I I agree with you I think that it we probably need to take a a larger look at that and are there Transportation economic business impacts of that and if so like what does that mean for connectivity and our relationship for working with those different entities and think you're right about all those impacts um you know not trying to direct the conversation but I look at this slide on page two which shows the um career trajectory and changing Workforce looking at a variety of data which can talk to in here um the expectation from employees the expected career path for different employees different stages in their career you know this shows that um senior expert training like they're expecting to ease out of their career as opposed to just a hard retirement date you have younger employees who might take a different career trajectory and then come back you look at our turnover data um from the last few years and it looks like people are exploring different careers um probably can't read the newspaper in any given day or at least a week without a business saying we're bringing people back into the office for a certain number of days I think there's a certain level of we're still figuring out this new Work World um I don't think personally without any expertise in this area that we're going to settle into here's the new normal I think we're going to have different employees having different expectations out of their job based on what they do and how they want to do it and what their own personal kind of career or life trajectory looks like I think that's just a change and we're going to have to adapt and say yeah this type of employee is going to work well for us or nope the expectation is really that we need an employee that's this is the expectation so I think there's a lot of change to still come to say what is that kind of new normal and is The New Normal normal everybody's personal story is completely different in what their expectations for work is and taking it further what their expectation for government delivery of services do we not going to have PE I don't think we're going to be able to push everyone to it's all virtual because there going to be those people that want to be able to walk in the building and be served immediately um also there's the nature of there are some things we can't do virtually even if someone wants us to do it I think um Lisa is saying we have to have certain things that are in person to make sure doing it right that may not be what the customer necessarily wants but it really is the thing that we have to do for their safety for the communi wellbeing I would add that Robert G Johnson does have a metric that directly correlates with the number of people that are t or working outside and driving on the road and that's the air quality measure and we could take a look at that and see if it's gotten better over time but that is directly impacted by the by car emissions and people driving to and from Mar B I think a graph on page three also and I don't know if Lis or Tony one of them around but when you take a look at the work at home the we know Transit as a commuter is down mvta is well down right on its use how many spots are seen we have more local trips demanded you know commissioner ol consistently talks about the local swing trips that people are wanting to see what because they're staying more in their community and then the um drove alone has also decline so in the AM Peak especially I think we've seen a decline in some of those numbers um and so I would say that it has had an impact on Transportation at least on the regional system when you take a look at it even though I don't know if liser one of them sitting there the numbers are starting to climb back up they're not as low as they were during that 2021 time period but I think that graph reflects what you're seeing in transportation and I think from a fleet perspective if you look on page 27 graph um in 2018 there was 8344 reservations for vehicles that were completed um in 2023 it dropped down to 5,900 so that in our mind has a lot to do with telecommuting and people using Vehicles a lot less and they're they're not going to meetings as much as they used to in the past um that's the only thing that we can uh attribute that too there's a slight clim or incline from 22 to 23 so I'm not really sure where the going to go but um we did get rid of five vehicles because of that after 2018 and 19 we reduced our Fleet size by five vehicles just to accommodate for that um so yeah there's definitely an impact to Fleet can I um Shi gears a little bit to um from my seat one area that continues to be a challenge for us is technology adoption just across the board in everything we do and so ideas on how we can continue to approve that I've seen it do more around documents that come out that actually step by step so we are making some um I think strides forward but I think it's we we have lots of technology that we don't always take advantage of so any thoughts on that yeah um I think there are two sides to that expectations for citizens to have technological solutions being able to sign documents remotely um virtually those sorts of things I think there's also expectations from business units of hey there are all these new products that are available um that are coming out that we want to implement it's going to allow us to do more things that we currently are tracking or doing on paper right now um I think the pace of that from specifically like Boutique or new players into the system has created a lot of demand and desire for these things to be available um we have the person next to you who probably knows the most about this but um our Legacy systems though I think struggle to adopt those easily right and so I think the desire doesn't always match up with the either um technological needs of the Legacy systems or are matching the security requirements that we would expect for the data that is going through these systems um so I think that's just a constant struggle here especially just the pace of new things coming out um speaking to our experience during covid we had Adobe sign that we quickly tried to get up and running um to allow for those virtual signatures people not having to come into the office saving trips and I think I think within six months there were three or four different systems that had adopted their own technology solution that we had to then um work to implement and how do we figure this out and how do we want to keep it in that system of record but doesn't meet the security requirements we have all of a sudden it's a system only our staff was using and now we're opening it up to the people outside of our organization and what is the security tension there um so I think that is just the nature of the pace of change we have seen and people clamoring for these Solutions I mean you look at Zoom who was nobody heard of and then in the middle of the pandemic Zoom was everywhere how do we adopt those in a way that's still responsible for the um information that we contain and the security of our operations that we have to maintain well I think there's a gamit of employees that are technologically savvy to those trying to keep those that aren't as Savvy you know in the game and and understanding what they need to I think that's been a challenge too I would just comment on like there's so many more like Point Solutions out there so you talk about people may struggle with getting new technology you know some people because there's all these opportunities out there rather than doing your maybe main system business in one or two system you may have three or four because this system does this this system does this they're not really syst you would integrate but basically you know HHS has a lot of those just because the nature of your business and so I would say that even train time to get sub speed is a little longer and then when you have issues well which helped us I go to is it this vendor is it this vendor is it this vendor or this an IT supported it creates its own challenges when you have that many options to go after thank you so I guess I'll throw this question to both the facilitator group and the what it what it it seems like there's this overriding theme that is so much more complex right the world is more complex when you look at workforce planning for a number of the reasons that you just talked about so how well equipped are we to do that plan in this more complex Arena or what supports our ability I guess to do that planning like when I look at the graph on page two and I think in the old days you had to just follow a line and you kind of knew who was going to get old and retire and then and now you have this Myriad of opport options and so I'm wondering like what supports our ability to do good workforce planning so I'll ask the panelist to chime in because again we're asking my me my opinion I think one from the technology side not to leave that yet but I will um is patience like the clamoring for the new the things we have like we have the resources we have we're not looking to really expand those um so there has to be some patience right we have to do it in the way that yeah maybe these Solutions are out there but they're not meeting our security standards or um have other priorities that were already in the pipeline for the resour need so I think there's some patients both from ourselves as well as residents expectations where we can and can't do things quickly and easily um I think from the employee side it's less about the workforce planning in terms of what is the Staffing component we need I think there's work to be done in terms of what does it take to deliver the services um but I think it's more of our expectations for employees walking in the door right um I don't think we can chase every employee who wants to go off in a different career direction or looking for that advancement within six months if the opportunities aren't there um and but it's a different place right you know people were willing to have some patience and move up and now people may I either want this promotion or I'm going into a different career which is just a weird thing to get used to so I think it requires patience and also yep people are going to leave we're going to have to deal with a different environment so how do we train our supervisors our managers our leaders to be more Nimble um and resilient to those changes entering the workforce and I think it's it's both gamuts though it's those folks that are pushing for that new technology You' also got those others that you know are struggling to adopt the technology and so we're trying to deal with both sides of it and that can be really challenging to to keep everyone happy and moving in the right direction never keep everyone happy yeah well sad so on page nine we kind of look at the the demograph as the like employee turnover rate and one of the questions I had look at it seems like we've kind of gone back to almost pre-co levels as far as ratios but one of the questions I have is you talk about Danny about the people I'm not wait willing to wait I'm not patient I don't want to do that and so are we going to see like over time because maybe the average age going down to the employee because people are aging out are retirements just going to Trend to go down because people leave before they even elig for retirement what's the kind of demographic retirement planning that hits s succession planning because not keeping people as long because they're too anxious and they leave and so do we you there's a lot of facets here as far as succession planning and lower retirement ages what does that do to the kind of Workforce gonna have to talk to someone smarter than me um like I was I think just personally 2022 was a wild year I've seen it in the um actually talking to someone about the number of applicants they have for an open position right now versus to what I was hearing in the beginning of 20 3 and into 22 which was we're getting nobody for this I've had some postings and we've had lots of applicants I think 2022 from what you know it's still early in 23 or the day is just for 23 early in 24 I think there was a lot of pent up desire for change in a different exploration different Dynamics in the workforce from there um but seeing how it's kind of trended and leveled off in a couple of different metrics here it's what does that new normal look like right uh um I think there's going to be a desire for people to ease out of the regular Workforce into retirement where it's I'm not really up to working 40 and for a lot of us 50 55 60 hours a week what does easing out of that look like and what are the options that we can provide for it um I think having options to ease people out of the workforce helps us with that succession planning so you can have those conversations with employees to say what are your plans over the next five 10 years we should be talking about that anyways with employees of yeah once I make this much you know uh younger person in the workforce I heard this trend where they make as much money as possible they live in their parents basement they save as much money and then they retire early and you see that in that Trend and then they have to come back into the workforce if you know that you kind of know okay how much am I investing in this person early on if their plan is I'm going to make as much money as I can in the next five years and I'm going to retire for 15 years and then I'm going to jump back into the workforce not going to be the one you're building up to be your next manager for the organization the flip if you know this person wants to ease out you're having those conversations with them you know okay what are the options for easing this person out if they want to drop down to 30 hours a week or part-time as they enter into those retirement years um and it's not just those wild extremes that we're talking just any employee what are their expectations for growth and having honest conversations it's yeah we want to grow you here the opportunities we have and these are the opportunities we don't right now I think it's just comes as part of the conversations for supervisors and managers with their staff about at the department level like what are you all seeing as far as challenges with hiring retaining and how has it changed over the last five years we've been very lucky in our area um land records customer service um what we saw through covid in the deputy registar office specifically is that there was like a mass Exodus um other counties private organizations people just left they didn't want to deal with it anymore um we did not see that so for whatever reason people stayed which was great now we've started to see people uh retire maybe look for other options um generally it seems like once you get into this business you stick with it there are that small strange subset of us that love that Deputy register our work and yes we're very strange but we love it and um there are people that move on to other opportunities um other places can maybe offer more flexibility than we can um but we have started to see the retirements you know particularly in the land records area um so we've got newer employees two-thirds of our employees in land records are new um and talking about the technology and all of that they technically in a in an non-election cycle can do their work remotely most of it um but we just don't have the Staffing level to support everything that everybody wants right so we try and balance that out um but yeah things are changing um people don't generally come in necessarily like I did 25 years ago and think H I'm going to be here forever so it is it's different but um we adapt to that and we support our staff as best as we can in their development and um if they choose to explore other opportunities then we absolutely support that so I think I'm curious oh go ahead I'm curious to see what the data um about what folks are wanting in their job and what they consider you know healthy work life balance I'm curious about what that will look like in the next maybe three five years I I think um at least what I've seen with um hiring individuals you know in 20 in 2020 and 2021 um expectations changed about being able to work from home and all those pieces says and I think part of it is everything was moving so fast and they're listening to other colleagues but I think we're at a point now where employees are looking at their specific job and is this the best for the clients I serve and i' I've heard that shift in the narrative in terms of folks deciding do I want to work from home or do I want to do tella health or do I want to um see clients face to face and I I've seen it in different facets of mental health and Behavioral Health um and they're they're looking at what is the best how can I be the best clinician or whatever their role is I've heard that narrative start to shift back to um kind of more of um what's best for clients and and that's all always was there um but now I think the kind of the noise of you know as generation we should um you know we should have these opportunities I think they're now starting to kind of filter what fits each of them individually I was just going to say that as somebody new to my role um what I have found with um well first of all I think in the library we have pretty low turnover and folks stay for a long time um but just a um you know maybe on my part like taking my expectation that everybody wants to advance and grow that isn't necessarily true I've had lots of conversations with um folks in the library system they're like I like what I do right here and this is what I want to continue to do and this is good for me and so what my expectation was doesn't necessarily fit with everybody else and so then how do we just make sure that we are checking that and really trying to work with where people are at and setting those expectations so some folks are really pleased like this is where I want to be and and I'm good here I don't necessarily have to climb that ladder and and that's good that's okay I would say from a public health perspective I've definitely seen some shifts and Trends recently um know two years ago when we posted a phn position I got four applicants who didn't actually qualify um and the recent posting We got 16 and everybody qualified so and particularly with nurses that's pretty good right now because there is a nursing shortage so I was pretty pleased with that um we have lost several people in the last couple years particularly the mdh because they offer 100% work from home and um and that was the reason pretty much why they left um we do have a flexible work environment with public health and just some jobs cannot be 100% work from home um so there definitely has been a shift there uh it it seems to be a particular demographic that we get that really wants to work from home um I'll go on a limb and say it's that younger generation um and uh they're very technologically savy and they don't mind that flexible work environment and prefer it so but hiring I think we did the most interviewing and hiring last year that I've ever done probably combined in my nine years here where are where are the um where are the gaps or where are the challenges and what you need as Business Leaders to to support this kind of workforce planning like what do you need that you don't have I can say for public health we're pretty there's not a lot of promotional opportunities in public health unless you're leaving the department and um and that has been um I think um with the addition of the new uh Public Health supervisor it does um offer some additional opportunities for someone who is not a nurse um but that is also um what quite a few of my staff are looking for they've been in their position for five years where do we go from here and unless there is a promotional opportunity within Public Health they're either leaving the county or they're leaving the department I'm just going to kind that kind of promotional piece I mean there some divisions like H has quite big more opportunities but you get so many smaller divisions you don't want to be over burdened with management so you tend to run a flut or more doers than managers because too many managers is not a good thing and that just by its definition is going to have that issue right you know how do you make the job more interesting so basically what can you do to kind of challenge them more but there's only so much you can do because you got to do what what's good for the business and so when you get smaller leaner departments or areas you don't want to be bloated with management and therefore that's just a product of trying to run a lane or for the county to to be conservative what the money we're collecting from the tax Troy I was curious in your area and Facilities looking back over Co the and we added a building we removed a building all you know everybody left everybody came back how has that changed your service delivery for your area and what challenges have you seen you know I think we've been very for well with with turnover we've been very fortunate with our staff we haven't had like Julie very little turnover except for in the fleet area we lost the mechanics um and there very difficult positions to fill and in terms of um the the facilities area we um there was a lot of time it's hard to plan for how many staff are going to be coming into the building so that part of it was really we struggled with that um you turn the heat up do you turn the heat down you do you set the be the building when it's 3/4 empty I mean it was empty there for quite a while and so that part of it was we were adjusting that and we continue to do that on a daily basis we do that um but in terms of um we have to be here so in in terms of Staff we had to be here no matter what so um you have to be prepared for that that answers your question Tre can you look at page 23 and that looks at um you know we were we were trying to brainstorm what are some markers of B of building usage and because we don't have good data about how many people we don't have clear buckets of who works remote and who works in the office and so we were looking for some data that might suggest something about those patterns and so um when you look at this data like how is this inform planning for your team going forward well I think um again it's trying to adjust I mean everything that we do is based on the number of people that are in the building the building has to operate regardless of how many people are in there but you can address some of the things um and the only thing that we can do is monitor the usage and not necessarily the cost but the usage because the cost goes up and down but the usage itself is where we can probably do some improvements and once we once we level off from 22 to 23 and then into 24 we'll be able to monitor that and and probably better control how that works and how greats but until we get a a Level Playing Field it's been all over the place as you guys mentioned that we moved people from GCE to gcw and back GCE we sold the workforce center you know and everybody moved in from the workforce center came here so all of it's been kind of a Juggle um but I think after 24 we'll be able to see a pretty clear picture of how we can make some adjustments nice thanks on page 11 Jennifer we look at the kind of trending as far as the visits to the library um it doesn't look like we've come even back close to watch the kind of pre-co levels were and do you ever see it returning back to pre- pandemic levels and if not what does it say about the change in library service in response to changing Library usage behaviors so a a couple of things I think um you're right we're not back to pre-co for annual visits to the library branches but um so pre-co when you talked about Library visits you really were talking about times when there was staff present and then during Co we opened extended access for when staff isn't present so I think there's a couple of things you have to look at both of those data pieces together now for because we have four of our six libraries that are going to have extended access open with extended access so Library hours are no longer just staff Library hours it's extended access hours as well as staffed hours and so what does that data look like together I think the other piece that you have to look look at is um what we're doing out in the community with the re mobile initiatives like library to you and our Outreach in taking library to folks that can't necessarily come into the physical building so again I think historically data has been about who comes into the building and now I think you have to look at all of that data together um to plan and to think about what what does that mean so um just recently March 4th actually we um opened the library 35 hours a week across the system more um because we weren't back to preo hours even for staff so again for me thinking about that it's all of that data together and what does that picture now tell that's different than what the P picture was before Co and I think about it as Library utilization so where my mind goes is the annual circulation of Library collection um and going back to the expectations of residents from the questions we had from the very beginning is that yes they don't want to have to come in during Library hours necessarily as much but their expectations and the level of service we provide for the collections continues to climb we had the dip down in 2020 for the the physical collection but our Digital Collection has been going up and then after 2020 we have seen continual increase in our physical collection circulation as well which my understanding Jen you can correct me is that's not what every library system is seen in terms of the physical collection continuing to increase as well as the Digital Collection um so what I would say is we are well beyond prepandemic levels of Library utilization it's just maybe not the physical coming into the library for services as opposed to um the different ways where we've adapted to provide different levels of services based on expectations for res yeah I think that's a really good point Danny thank you so I had a question so yeah basically I'm surprised the fysical usage is kind of maintain and grow that's just shocking when this digital world and so given that's kind of either stagnant or growing if there's increased digital how do you manage it from a budgetary standpoint to grow that thing you look at the usage and then to have to support both those things financially how does that how do you plan for that we wait till they put in a budget request decide what the L is going to be and then we we Den we'll do that every year then just yeah you know I mean that's a that's a really good question my understanding and um I would certainly look to Jake um because he has more information about this but we had a budget request in 2024 and it's the first that we actually have had in a number of years for um for uh physical or Digital Collection most of that budget's being put to um the Digital Collection honestly the Digital Collection is also much more expensive than the physical collection too so you're also balancing those pieces so um yeah but again I think and again jack Jake correct me if I'm wrong probably in maybe 10 years we didn't have a budget request um and we were just able to continue to keep that collection you know um we have a we have a staff that focuses on collection and she's constantly looking to how to make the best those best decisions so that we have the collection that books are wanting not to put you on the spot but you shared last year when you were doing the budget request um the digital books and how much different that is you just don't buy the digital book and get to use it forever um is there anything I guess either one of you would want to share that but that was really enlighting to me yeah good morning Madam chair Commissioners um yeah digital digital books were we're buying a license to the content we're not actually buying the book that we get to keep into perpetuity and every large publisher has a different model for Digital Book some it's $120 per copy but you get to keep that license forever some it might be $50 or $60 and you get to use the license 52 times trying to make it like a physical book even though a digital book doesn't actually wear out some it's for 2 years and then you have to repurchase the license all the different models that out there but the one thing that's consistent across all those differences is that they're much more expensive than physical books which makes it a challenge especially when you have our unique situation of both physical and digital circulation going up thank you uh Jennifer before um before we switch gears on page 14 um there's a slide about attendance in youth centered programs and um and I'm I'm looking at the numbers related to the read mobile and I think for as long as I have been in my position we've been talking about how to maximize the use of the readed mobile and that's really looks like um some pretty substantial growth in the number of uh youth who are participating in that program I'm wondering what supports that increase um you know I think the a few things um I think some of that growth is is just some of the new places where they're reaching out to Summertime our off-site reading program hitting our um summer school programs as well as our child care programs um that is that is a big piece of some of that growth that has happened over the last couple of years um but again I think there's still um certainly some opportunities to continue to look at the um the raid mobile and what that could offer out in the community um but yeah I think some of that growth is really that um some of those offsite summer reading programs that our our groups are going to and adding so are there more sites or there more frequent visits or what's the change mechanism uh more sites um and and again I I staff would probably tell you they would like to be there even more often so the frequency probably is something that um we would like to do more of if there was you know more capacity to do that in the summertime we try to use some um uh uh on call or a temporary staff to try to ramp up those visits so that we can be there more frequently as well okay thank you part of planning for the future I would imagine would include looking at demographics so like getting your youth in at this age are you able to track retention like individuals that get a card and keep a card and how often they use a card moving forward yeah yeah we have I mean from like for checking out materials like a library c yeah we can we can track that um in terms of some of the demographics around who who is getting library cards and then who's checking out materials um we also check um we can also um track some of those demographics and who uses the extended access because your library card is also what accesses you into the building when the building's not open um so we have some um demographic data about a es of the groups of people and what time of day they're using the library more in the different locations which I think is really valuable information for us to continue to do some planning around um around those and we're seeing different things in each of the locations right um you know I I didn't include that data in here but you know in Jordan for example um our older population is using early mornings probably not a surprise but we don't necessarily see that in some of the other locations so like again it's kind of different between the communities which I think is is interesting too because each of those communities are so different hey Julie on page um 19 and 20 there's some really nice customer service data um I'm wondering if you can talk to a little bit about the evolution of this appointment I I think we had lots of mixed feelings internally and in the community about appointments versus walk-ins and so I'm wondering if you can talk about that data and also just really the nice improvements in weit times sure absolutely so if we start on um page 19 the visits by type um it similar to what Jennifer was saying um context means a lot on this graph so the 181920 um we didn't operate by appointment until May of 2020 um so all of these are actually transaction counts so one customer could have done five transactions they could have done one right so we really didn't know that so what we've got in the um 181 1920 era our transaction counts as we move into 21 22 23 um we are able through our no8 inside program to be able to track exactly what people are here for um how many bodies actually come in through our service center um and then we also do man track how many people come to us you know for other things that kind of thing um so we've really seen um actually a marked increase in business um than what we were able to do when we had what we traditionally call the cattle line um with folks just waiting down the hall um that brings us then to the wait times so preco um we had no mechanism to actually measure weight time other than putting someone in the hall with a stopwatch and a legal pad and we did it um it was very old school but it worked right it was just um every so often we would have someone out there um and they would track and then Jennifer Donnelly actually our customer service supervisor started using like little handouts with times on them so someone in line would be given a handout and then we would manually track that as they got to the counter so we got much more accurate um complete data once she started doing that then we moved into the hybrid of um everything at first everything was by appointment so during covid times once we were able to reopen again we did have everything by appointment driver's license Vital Records motor vehicle everything um as we started to move out of that a little bit we discovered that plan for driver's license in particular and allowing people to make an appointment for that really improved our service delivery and that is what has impacted our weight times so we have gotten a lot of great feedback from folks about I'm able to schedule my driver's license appointment and it takes a lot more planning than it used to you know if you want a real ID or an enhanced ID it's very different than just walking in 10 years ago and just saying it's my birthday tomorrow I need to renew my driver's license there's a lot of research and Gathering documents and all of that that's involved um so we've been able to find what we feel like is a really really sweet spot of all of our driver's license work is By Appointment driver's license ID and passports as well and then everything else is a walk-in um so that has contributed to our weight times changing 2020 um our average weight time was 34 minutes now we're down to 7 um and average weight time of course average is average so that means that some people are able to walk to the counter and here's my business and walk out and some people were waiting for two hours down the hall so um the response that we've gotten has been overwhelmingly good we do get the occasional but I'm here today and we understand that and and the other thing is and we've always said in this business is you only renew your driver's license every four years right so this is not a quick process to kind of teach people what our business model is we do put that information out there but you generally right we're human beings we don't care until it's time for us to renew our driver's license so we are getting into that um cycle now this year next year where people are starting to come back who did it this way before um and it's overwhelmingly positive so when you walk by the customer service area and you see that there aren't any people there that's by Design right we've been able to find what is the transaction time that works for everything um and able to shift our work towards that you do see again preo Mondays and Fridays where our busy times we are shifting back into that um so if you walk by in a Friday afternoon we are likely at capacity and we are full um but that doesn't doesn't last for long it looks like we're still seeing maybe 15 or 16,000 less clients than we did preco to what do you contribute that well what we're seeing actually that's transactions so the the preco that is not people that is like I said that could be they brought in five tab renewals to do okay so that 59,000 or 61,000 is actually how many transactions we processed through our receiving system at that point that was where we could get the numbers so it's not an Apples to Apples comparison quite yet um when we actually look at the sheer number of transactions we are operating um tell me Jen 34% more transactions than we were prior to co so we are actually doing a lot more work if you will than we were when folks would just come in stand in line thanks on page 18 Lisa you talked about the TB and so my question is obviously the virtual for that is incredible service that protects everybody better but my question is is because of virtual causing kind of more interaction are we seeing an overall growth in TV and what what's the trend there you know kind of going on and do we need Outreach or more you that kind of TV problem I want to know is it just more consumption or we have a growing potential issue in the public um we typically see about four active TB clients a year they just have to be seen every day but I would say last year I think we're up to S to eight um I would consider that a tremendous growth we have had some um uh cases transferred over to Dakota because they moved into our community so they were already um uh seeking treatment um and uh so they weren't bringing in active TB so I wouldn't say there is a huge Trend but it is impossible to predict how many TB cases we're we're going to get year to year and this is a mandated service we like whether we get seven or we get 70 we have to see them daily that is our requirement um so overall I I would say um we're probably seeing because we have virtual opportunities we're seeing them more regularly um versus when we were doing in home for every case we might skip a day or two might go Monday Wednesday Friday so now we do are are able to see them virtual uh daily which is preferred uh to make sure that they're taking their meds because they need some of these clients are taking 10 to 12 different medications for nine months and we don't want them to skip or Miss because then it would obviously put the community at risk so overall um I mean we've had some years and we've only had two cases and last year was just a very busy year um and it's impossible to predict okay on page 17 we've got the family home visiting service model and we have seen more in-person visits than any other year in 2013 so are is there any Trends any aha moments that you with kind of the increased high water mark there um I would say we're getting a lot more referrals from Wick now that we have it in house that was expected um and we do continue do expect to see that uh to continue um and uh so that you know the other piece too is we switched to a newer model last year the mesh model which um does require a lot less documentation time so our staff are able to uh spend more time with clients and they can see more clients than they have previously where previous models one hour of home visiting or one home visiting took two hours of documentation and we have really worked to increase efficiency in our documentation with ph Doc and um streamline some of that so they're spending a lot less time documenting and more time being able to see clients and they're very happy about that I just had one other question along the way you have all shared like anecdotes of things you've heard from um customers or clients have any of your business this area done anything um through surveys or some other kind of data collection to collect information about what your customers wish or what their expectations are going forward we collect customer satisfaction surveys okay and make tweaks related to that okay um particularly with our Clinic model they do regular um customer satisfaction reports our outreach program collects data from um parents um that are participating in programs so that then we get that annually and then also we get a number of comment cards um and and particularly um comment cards around extended access and so um we get information that way as well okay and part of the quality assurance uh with the mental health center is to collect uh surveys from clients at start end and at six months and that's also a requirement for a lot of um uh State programs and insurances and that comes up in audits great any last questions from the facilitators one last question so Troy on the page 28 I was kind of struck by the kind of between 2018 2023 your repair parts of Labor are going down yet you're dealing with inflation you're dealing with keeping Vehicles longer because you can't get them how have you been able to manage keep the cost down and keeping costs longer and all the the maintenance it goes into keeping a car longer by definition so we we have a a schedule that we that we maintain for replacement of the vehicles it's all based on mileage or condition um we've had a huge increase in not a huge increase but the costs in 23 as you can see went up significantly and that was due to a rate change so we build back the customers an hourly rate for their labor and then also for all the parts that go back so we build back those departments and it um and typically we were doing it by you know a mechanics wage and their benefits and so the rate was at like $62 an hour and we met with Finance because we were concerned about making sure that we were billing back the true cost and so that's why the C that's why the significant increase in the cost okay um so but that has nothing to do with the replacement of the vehicle so we we do those on a scheduled basis we have a actually a 25e plan that we plan out all the V and so it's all and it moves constantly based on condition and so thank you madam chair wonderful thank you much uh colleagues questions comments commissioner Al uh this may come from Left Field a little bit but i' I've circled key wordss in this front page here page one uh evolving workplace high quality Workforce improved Service delivery and investment decisions and Staffing changing employee expectations and work environment with those key words in mind I I would there's so few slides that I would would have liked to seen in here they're they're not but and maybe these are are carried out in some other presentation but the the slides would be really under one main heading investing in the organization itself so that would include opportunities for growth and training you know how can people as staff uh have opportunities to grow as people as professionals if they're growing you know they're they're going to serve the public more efficiently and better probably retention strategies what what strategies are we employing to retain our staff but you know a retained staff is a better staff is a more has more knowledge uh more effective you know so and serving the public you know so if you have a a staff that has some history and and background and is retained that's that's a good thing and then the other thing that I go back to the really early days when I was here in the country we invested a lot more in organizational morale um than we do today and I we used to refer to this as the Scott County family you know that we're a family one for one all for one and one for all kind of thing and so I think if there's a high morale happy Workforce and a retained Workforce and the growing Workforce we serve the public better and so I I would like to see some of these elements in this involving workplace presentation in the future thank you commissioner beer thank you uh just a couple things um one clarification question on 18 TB maybe I missed it um um I know Greg was talking a little bit about this what what were the actual case numbers like how many cases does that represent I know it's a higher number of transactions but how many cases roughly is that something I would have to double check but I believe that was um throughout the year we had seven or eight active TVs okay and I could confirm that no well I mean that just that window I just that so people understand that I mean it takes a lot to monitor what did you say how many drugs for 9 months like uh depends I suppose um some of them are on 10 to 12 different medications and it could be anywhere from 6 to 9 months someone who does not like taking pills that sounds excruciating so I could see where you you often times I mean the whole point of this is to witness this happening daily and we have to watch them swallow each one and we live in a country where we can't even get people to take 10 days of their antibiotics and that's one pill so it's very um High likelihood that they'll stop or they'll skip we also check them regular to make sure that they don't get any kind of medical reaction to some other medication because that does happen throughout the year and they get have to switch to a new medication so um it's very high intensive and so with the tele medicine which I love that I mean I know we've talked about this before what a great option that is are you finding like um not being there just virtually you're there's a more I'll call it an air rate or I don't know what the right term would be but people maybe not taking the right dose or doses at all um typically we we do like to see them uh once a week at least just to make sure to like they're not getting any rashes or Etc so there is that medical component that helps when we are physically there um the rest of the time it's such a timesaver to be able to get on virtually to watch them take their pills ask them do you have any reaction and we're done versus driving 45 minutes to new or or Elco New Market and then back for a f minute visit so um we like we are and that enables us to see them daily we don't have the Staffing Resources in order to see everybody daily um and because it's just so labor intensive even just opening up a new case takes about 20 hours uh of nursing time well and with uh Mr budget Mr Levy sitting right next to you there you know um I can't imagine um maybe we can save some money but this could be a new n nli documentary I'm not sure commission I know you have more but can I just clarify and and I want it just for anybody who's watching this is something that I think people don't understand but obviously we're mandated to do this and it's just a very important government role to make sure tubercolosis is not spread in our community so some people might be like did we choose to do this no we we have to do this whether there's one case or 12 cases and this is a protocol we we have to do exactly good point good point well I always know my interpreters going to come in and clarify so thanks for doing that thank you for um clarifying that commission it's high TB is highly highly infectious yes and so that's part of my question is making sure that love televisit but making sure that something's not squeaking out anything right right um let's see another question on one my dog pages I think it had with um where did it go where did it go it was about transaction here we go customer service trans this was transactions right 2018 2019 and then it's not necessarily transactions in the years when we had appointment is there a way to get like um like what is that is is there an Apples to Apples like is it dollars is it just some way to like help see what what that is doing over time or or something that's semi similar throughout those years there is commissioner beer um we do have in our regular dwm data more a little more apples to apples kind of thing um we can see we we're still on the same receding system we've been on um we can see transaction numbers correct so we could we could definitely get some more apples to apples um earlier we had talked about transaction counts a little bit and we're able to serve we're actually doing 34% more transactions than we were back in 2018 2019 so our transaction counts actually have gone way up right okay um so so that's where it's like yeah some if someone's looking at this you oh oh you know and you walk through the halls and it's remember the good old days of people being upset and frustrated and now it's I mean I don't know if I've ever seen that postco I mean with the appointments and I I've actually used the appointments works great um and I think some people probably figured out hey we can actually mail in tabs it's not me to see it happen um but some of those transactions probably they found new ways of doing it but if your transactions are hired because that's being missed here seems like um and my only other thing sorry taking a long time the good old days of what was when was the tech bubble was that late 990s early 2000s the good good old days when uh working from home our what do we call it 21st century Workforce that we're calling it and then our are we I was trying to look for our our phrase again for our customer service not necessarily that department but our citizen Focus are we calling that like ecitizen did I see that someplace or whatever our yeah okay um and then I see our our our it guy who's just looking for something else to do right just every day I mean you know and some of the things that are going well not going well there's so many different opportunities in software of like oh this is so cool this works great or hey we can sign off on something oh we did we did that seven different times through seven different um that we have some big programs going on or at least a few anyway and so um the things that maybe we learned back in those days when there was a push to go to work from home I remember getting caught up in that was sales and support which was awesome loved it um this isn't necessarily a new thing but hopefully we've learned mean I know I've been through that and I know many of you have been through that of what things that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves but also making sure that what we are choosing to do soft for wise actually sticks and is adopted which I know is a big big big deal um so let's double down on adoption of where we're at and then look at some of those things that's software guy talking all right thank you appreciate it Mr R I have nothing I I would just ask you know to kind of piggyback on what uh Dave said excuse me on page page 19 the weight times in some counties it sounds like they don't Julie have have as big a away times or need appointments and they go through quick so how do we compare with other counties around us are touching us or whatever we do uh commissioner wolf speak we have a monthly meeting with other counties and it is just County organizations it's not private so we get more apples to apples um there has been a shift to um back to more hybrid uh a lot of organizations do appointments for driver's license because that's what people want and then they also allow some space for walk-ins um they may not do the motor vehicle like we do or Vital Records by Walkin um I haven't seen current wait weit times from other counties in some time we spoke about it probably about a year ago um we were shorter weight times than other um counties that we spoke with and it all just depends on you know what what their model is um I know that there is another um office that doesn't necessarily provide the same services that we do that the typical way time is closer to an hour hour and a half because they've gone back to complete walk-ins went away from appointments um and that is really what we're trying to avoid so okay great thank you thank you commissioner up um thank you just a a couple of comments I I appreciate all of you putting this presentation together because I know the Topic's a bit nebulous really really giving some examples from from these different departments and um some of the things that I I heard I think that we all need to continue to work on is um with our evolving work force and the real need and desire for advancement that may be unrealistic in an organization like ours like we need this many Corrections officers at all time we don't need that many supervisors or Corrections Officers I think it's our challenge to um for some employees really maybe they'll stay in their positions where where they're really needed if they can be challenged in that position and have growth within that position and so I I wonder if we can think about as an organization what advancement means because a lot of people in our mind advancement means the next higher level job the next up up in pay that type of thing but an organization like ours and Greg made a great point we we work to be a flatter organization than some what can advancement and growth look like in a position and and I think it's up to us to promote that to really make that be a truth not just lip service um so that's one thing I heard that I I think we we need to put attention on um the other thing about the work from home I I know that's been and in the office as a challenge and we have many positions that never could work from home because they need to be directly serving the the customers here um but and others that could be work from home I think we can learn a lot from some of our private sector colleagues who in the last months have made some changes and some of those changes have been just because of what commissioner Al's talking about morale and participation and the whole we can do our job independently just fine but sometimes we're not going to get better at it because we're not having those conversations and those new ideas and and Evol in and so some of that's going to require time together or is it a technology solution that works I think there's plenty of of big businesses out there who have some data on this and we can learn from it as we continue to figure out what the new normal is in our different departments who I really appreciate I know it's hard for some employees to understand that we do it differently because it's more appropriate in some it's more better for the C for the residents in some and in some it's not so thank you very much for this presentation today I think we're based on the questions we're all very engaged and I see lots of notes on the paper so thank you very much thank you oh sorry go ahead commissioner I just wanted to say thank you for the comments from the board um your and commissioner R's comments are very pertinent to a discussion we had yesterday at the cabinet and what does it mean from a business standpoint to be here and all of those issues about morale and camaraderie and teamwork and Ingenuity and the reasons um that we do want people in the office so appreciate all of your insights on that thank you