No, no. Mine says nine. >> Good morning. We have a party in the house apparently, which is great. Uh, we're going to call to order the December 16th, 2025 Scott County Board of Commissioners meeting. Please join me in the pledge. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you so much. All right. Item number two, amendments to the agenda. I did not see any. I always like to just take a look to make sure, but they will stand as distributed. Item number three, approving the minutes of the December 4th, 2025 board meeting minutes, which is also in our packet. Any changes? Any observations or what is your pleasure? >> I'll move them. >> All right, we have a motion. >> Second. >> We have a second on those minutes. Any further discussion? Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All right. Minutes are approved. Item number four, always a highlight of any board meeting, which is always open to the public. Uh, recognition of interested citizens. This is where you can come talk to the board about anything uh that is not on the agenda for up to five minutes. Are do we have any takers today? I am not seeing any takers. All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. These are items that will pass in one motion. We have 26 must be close to the year end. So I will read these and uh we can talk about it after. 5.1 adopt resolution number 2025-179 fixing the pdium rate for county board appointed citizen members of advisory bodies. 5.2 to adopt resolution number 2025-253 authorizing designation of a section of County Road 51 in Blakeley Township as a minimum maintenance road 5.3 adopt resolution number 2025-263 approving the final 2026 levy and budget for the Scott County Vermillion River Watershed Special Taxing District 5.4 4 adopt resolution number 2025-272 approving renewal applications for Scott County intoxicating liquor, wine, and 32 licenses for establishments within Bell Plain, Blakeley, Louisville, and Jackson townships for 2026. 5.5 adopt resolution number 2025-275 authorizing entering an agreement with the state of Minnesota for title 9 uh point D, child support services 5.6, 6. Adopt resolution number 2025-277 authorizing three lawful gambling off-site premises permits for Jordan Pride Booster Club in San Creek Township. 5.7 adopt resolution number 2025-278 adopting amendments to the Scott County employee relations policy. 5.8 adopt resolution number 2025-284 uh authorizing final payment to Sir Linesot for the 2025 annual pavement marking and striping project. 5.9 adopt resolution number 2025-286 modifying the post-employment healthcare savings plan for non-bargaining employees. 5.10 adopt resolution number 2025-287 authorizing entering an agreement for information technology security services. 5.11 adopt resolution number 2025-288 approving a lawful gambling premise permit for St. Patrick Athletic Association in Cedar Lake Township. 5.12 adopt resolution number 2025-290 approving the 2026 comprehensive county fee schedule. 5.13 adopt resolution number 2025-291 approving the appointment of Scott County Sheriff's Office staff to the Metropolitan Emergency Services Board 911 Technical Operating Committee. 5.14 adopt resolution number 2025-292 approving the appointment of Scott County Sheriff's Office staff to the Metropolitan Emergency Services Board's radios technical operating committee 5.15 adopt resolution number 2025-293 approving entering an agreement with the city of Credit River for law enforcement services 5.16 adopt resolution number 2025-295 setting the 2026 solid waste special assessment fee on residential ial, commercial, and industrial properties. 5.17 adopt resolution number 2025-296, excuse me, approving the reszone of 120.54 acres from transition reserve district to transition reserve cluster district preliminary plat and final plat of Porterview and conservation easements. Chris Kubish, applicant, and William and Gloria Henches property owners. 5.18 adopt resolution number 2025-297 setting the 2026 annual salary rate for the elected position of county attorney. 5.19 adopt resolution number 2025-298 setting the 2026 annual salary rate for the elected position of county sheriff. 5.20 adopt resolution number 2025-299 setting the 2026 annual salary rate for the county administrator. 5.21 21 adopt resolution number 2025-3000 setting the 2026 annual salary rate for the elected position of county commissioner. 5.22 adopt resolution number 2025-301 establishing the 2026 compensation plan excuse me policy and procedure including the county compensation grade schedule and excuse me getting close general adjustment increase for non-bargaining staff. 5.23 23 adopt resolution number 2025-303 approving a three-year agreement with American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Council number five, local 2440. 5.24 approve appointment and reappoint of citizens to advisory committees. 5.25 approve payroll processing of personnel actions. And last but not least, 5.26, approve record of dispersements and approve claims. those members of the 26 items on our consent agenda. >> Yes. >> I'm not sure everybody heard all this. Would you mind reading that? >> Sure. Yes. Let me let me just take a drink and forgot. Let me starting at five. No, >> I think that's I think that's a standing. Is that a standing? Yeah, >> I'll move approval. >> We have a motion. >> Have a second. >> We have a second. There could be some discussion. There's a discussion. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, I I alerted you and the county administrator. I wanted to pull 5.2 for just a little bit of discussion. So if and I would be um very much in favor of uh putting that after 6.1 to not hold up the the good recognition we have in the room. >> Okay. So we need to amend that. Do we need to amend that motion if we're going to pull 5.2? >> And there might be one other on 5.24. I just wanted I talked to Trace on uh Joe Till on he's in district one but it said district two. I just wanted to make sure that that was >> just we'll have to fix that, >> right? Yeah, we can make that change in the record. Yep. I believe. >> Exactly. >> So, procedurally, we're going to we're going to uh have 25 items going through. We're going to pull 5.2. >> So, is there a >> Oh, Mr. Chair, there's also another just as long as we're making changes. 5.24 Brady Juel. There's a typo where he says he's representing district one, but it's district two. So as long as the maker of the consent agendas are cons Yeah. motion >> those that amendment is your meanual fine. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So >> I just had one correction. Sure. >> Um a 5.5 I think you read it as title 9D and it's actually title 4. So make sure it's written right. >> It is. It is absolutely written right. I went right through it. I was trying to get through 26. So thank you for >> paying very good attention today. >> I love it. Everyone's bringing their best. I mean especially this guy over here. Love it. Love it. You're right. Yes. Thank you for catching that. So, we're going to pull 5.2. Everything else is um some typos and mis speaking. Um >> sorry. >> Is there any further discussion on this as amended? Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> All right. So, we're going to put 5.2 after 6.1. So, maybe a 6.2. I don't know procedurally. Um All right. So, let's move on to 6.1. recognition of Scott County retiree Victoria Bonro. Look at this party in the house. >> I love this. All right, come on up. Welcome and good morning. >> Good morning. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. Yep. You are green literally and figuratively. >> Okay. Uh my name is Lori Welden and I have had the pleasure of being Vickiy's supervisor for 22 of her 35 plus years with Scott County. Uh Vicki started working at the Shakipi Library in August 1990 as an unclassified library aid uh aka Shelver with uh encouragement from librarian Anime Walsh. She's now deceased. Several years later, library director Janet Williams created the position library assist assistant or library associate for Vicki. She's worked her way up to reference librarian at uh the New Library and uh has worked uh in that capacity for the last uh 22 years I believe. Um along with assistant library director Cindy Perer and Scott County Historical Society, Vicki formed the book club All Things Minnesota. Uh she led the book club for many years and the group still meets to this day. A couple years before co Vicki formed the book club, the Minnesota History Book Club for the new Prague branch and it has been full since that book club started. if somebody drops out, it is full immediately. Um, she does a great job and uh always has some momento or craft or fun thing to do that makes it memorable for them. Um, Vicki helped with getting the new two-story Shaki library um up and going by moving books and other necessary duties to get it ready to open for business. library school visits to promote the summer reading program were always um on Vickiy's agenda and uh these kids are now grown with kids of their own and they come in and have fond memories of Vicki coming to their classroom when they were small. So that's fun. The Shockby Library used to be the main reference branch when Vicki worked there. Vicki and her supervisor at the time, Barb Hegers, who's in the purple next to her. Um, they were the main reference branch. So, if I had a reference question I couldn't figure out, I called them and they they figured it out. Um, Jeanie's uh Vicki's been the genealogy specialist for the Scott County Library System for a long time now. Um, other branches send her uh their requests. She gets requests online also. Um she has done extensive family history work for people uh near and as far away as Canada. She just finished about a year-long project working on different things for this family from Canada and they have been very happy and very satisfied with her work. Uh Vicki received the Spirit of Scott award for a genealogy project where she located a woman's father's grave. This woman had never met her father, but was able to connect with his brother, her uncle, who she formed a relationship with, and he told her all about her father, and she was so excited. Um, so that was just a really great thing that you did. Vickiy's has taught one genealogy class per year to the public for at least the last 10 years. classes on ancestry, finding women ancestors, and many other family history subjects. She has had several regulars who attend each of her classes. On the library website, three of her classes have been recorded, and they can be watched by going to the reference and genealogy section. Immigration, cemeteries, finding free instruction classes are the titles of those classes. It's been a dream of hers to get these on the website and we are very glad to have those there for anybody who to watch. Now, previous library director Janet Williams encouraged Vicki to get her college degree. Um, but she kind of brushed her off for a while. Um, I did the same thing. I uh Vicki started Normandale Community College and received her associate of arts degree with high honors. Then she transferred to Metropolitan State University in St. Paul and received her Bachelor of Arts in history in 2020 by taking one class per semester and using the tuition reimbursement that Scott County provides. It has been my pleasure and my honor to work with such a dedicated and kind person. Vicki, you've always cared about your customers and your co-workers, which shows in your work and in your relationships. We wish you only the best in your retirement. I will miss you. I thought I'd get you for a couple more years. Um, and in the words of your favorite band, if you left here tomorrow, we would fondly remember you. Thank you for all you've done for us, VICKI. Good morning, Mr. Chair, board of commissioners. Um it's my pleasure to be here this morning to honor Vickiy's um not only her retirement, but her dedicated service to Scott County. Um while her um while her certificate says 33 years, we know Vicki's been here over 35 years with her initial work as a shelver. That's a long time to be in one spot and provide services um to all of the residents of Scott County and and I sincerely thank Vicki for her dedication. Um Lori already talked about many of the highlights of Vickiy's career. I just wanted to take a moment to um to thank Vicki for again her dedication to library. That doesn't always happen to have one person stay in one spot so long. Um I believe if I did my math right, Vickiy's probably worked for four directors now. Um I think she started under Janet Williams um and then followed by Vanessa Jake and now um the least amount of time with me. And um that's a lot of different leadership to work with over the years. And I will say that um one of the things I appreciate most about Vicki is she just rolls with whatever comes her way. She doesn't get riled up. She stays calm. She just she just goes with it. And again, you guys all know that leaders can change things and and make adjustments. and Vicki just shows up every day and does what's right for the residents and for the patrons. And for that, I'm deeply um my deep gratitude Vicki for that. Um the the one the other thing that I just wanted to um to talk a little bit about is um of course we as her colleagues will miss her deeply. I think more importantly her patrons and her customers that show up um will miss her even more than than that. um they come to see specifically to see Vicki and that's a real testament and an honor to the work that she has provided to our residents. So again, thank you Vicki. Um I uh while we will miss you greatly. I um am excited for you to start this next chapter um of retirement. And again, please don't be a stranger. Um there's always opportunities to volunteer at the library. We would love to have you back. Um so we can talk about that later. So, with that, I would ask you to come up, Vicki. I know um Vicki would like to share a few words, too. >> Please. Absolutely. >> But before I do that, I just want to um present you um Victoria Bonrode with a certificate of dedication and service from the Scott County um Board of Commissioners from May 1st of 1993 um through January 2nd of N of 2026. So, with that, Whoops. Congratulations. >> THANK YOU. UM VICKI'S GOT a few things to say and then hopefully we can get a picture of you all. >> So Mr. Chairman, before she starts though, I having been the division director for quite a while of libraries, I just want to comment on um I think you heard it in Lor's voice, the um working together. New Prague's library and the teamwork down there was always so outstanding. you always heard about that customer service, the personal approach, knowing their customers and working with them and I think you just exemplified that. Um, I very rarely was involved with all the things you do, but as your name arose, it was always about that. And when you hear about the genealogy and things today, I think it only reinforced um what I saw and observed over my 10 years as being the community services director and you guys being a part of that and caring about that community and that town and knowing what they needed. Um I also wanted to add just like Jen did, we have this new thing called returnships, I guess, that Danny has created. So we're looking for people to come back and volunteer and teach more on genealogy and those types of things. So, thank you for your years of service. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, um I can honestly say that the time that I've worked at the library, except for a few days or a few moments, I can say that I have loved my job. And um I I can I have just loved my job and I thank the county. so much for the opportunity to be able to get my college degree. Um, I thank the friendships that I've made through work, the um, I thank the health insurance, the health insurance for my husband that the great expense that um, we were able to keep him alive until he passed. and I thank you for the amount and I'm so grateful for that. Um, I guess I just thank you for the opportunity to work at the library, my friendships, the books, um, every just everything. I guess I'm at a loss for words. Um, I'm really not wanting to retire, but circumstances made it that I need to retire. But, um, I I'm not going anywhere. I will still be hanging around because I love to read and I will still be visiting the libraries as a customer instead of an employee. But, um, thank you so much everyone. Thank you. PICTURE. Picture time. >> Picture time. >> Light up the world. >> Center. Okay. >> Do you want the team? >> Okay. >> Yeah. Get the team up there. We want to know who was snoring earlier. That's >> what was the story. >> Snorting. >> Big trouble. Best for the best. I have a a a question of sorts. 30 some How many years was it? 30 >> 30 >> 36 >> and loved your job every day. most days. >> Most of So, it's so here's the deal. It's sweeps week, you know, it's a kind of end of the season. We want to hear the stories about those days and those moments where you didn't feel >> feel like there could be a story there. Um, >> so thank you for all of those years of of diligence. Um, okay. There's a little conversation. I was approached by an individual that would u was late, you know, weather, we'll call it weather. Um, we're going to we're going to reopen momentarily. Um, it's a Christmas miracle after all. Uh, and recognize an interested citizen. So, Lloyd, why don't you come on up and we'll give you your five minutes. Um, thank you for your ask and request and welcome. Thank you, Board Chair Beer, Scott County Commissioners. My name is Lloyd Urba and I am a resident of Prair Lake. Scott County is an excellent place to work, play, and raise a family. We are a county where individuals, families, and businesses thrive. The employees of Scott County have worked tirelessly to encourage people of all backgrounds and culture to join together and focus every day on improving the lives of all of us. In the last several days, we have seen an assault on who we are and how we are being treated. Hispanic, Somali, Muslim, and people of all faiths and backgrounds are being confronted by ICE agents. Our community groups, churches, and leaders of these communities are working around the clock to help out in any way they can. Based on the input of all the various sport organizations in Minnesota, we think hundreds of people have been taken and probably 50 to 65 here in Scott County. They are introducing a culture of fear and intimidation. We want people to live healthy lives and raise their kids to appreciate the opportunities here in our community and interact with people of all ages. This is not a partisan issue. This is about our kids, our families, and our communities. This is an opportunity for each of us to reach out to the people that we know in our neighborhoods, schools, and churches to find out who is being threatened, how they are feeling, and how we can help. Their needs may grow and change on a daily or a weekly basis. This assault on our way of life is devastating to all of us. And here in Scott County, our commissioners and the leadership team have worked tirelessly to provide a wide variety of services facing our residents. They have refined the goals and objectives for Scott County and developed a staff committed to interact with all our residents and provide ever more effective responses to the needs of children, families, and people of all ages. Thanks to all of our Scott Cowie employees. We support you as you respond. The needs are great. Please let us know how we can help in this crisis. God bless our country and our commitment to our fellow human beings here in Scott County. Thank you. Thank you, Lloyd. Okay, so we are going to um >> Yeah. Are we calling it Well, do we want to go to 6.2? two technically or is that procedure we're going to call 6.2 the pulled item which was 5.2 on the consent will now be 6.2 um Tony are you the man of the moment welcome good morning >> and Mr. Chair, thank you for that. I I just uh would appreciate a a small presentation on this. I know staff has has worked hard over over almost a decade now with the township on trying to find the right three decades. Well, I haven't been here three decades yet, but since I've been here, the right um solution for County Road 51, and that's very much appreciated. I want to start with that. Um, and I I do think the minimum maintenance road is is a really I I agree with the resolution and support the resolution in front of us. I just have um, you know, heard from from township uh, elected officials and township residences, residents about concern about the the closure of um, or the the barrier. I don't even want to say closure because the road's not closed. It just won't be a throughway. And so a little more explanation about that and why it's necessary. Um and and I think I'm just reiterating that the resolution in front of us is the minimum maintenance road really kind of a highway department decision as far as I understand and if you about the the barrier. So if you could just talk to that a little bit that would be appreciated. >> Sure. Uh good morning again uh Tony Winnicki County Highway Engineer. So um Mr. Mr. Chair, Commissioner Blackmani, thanks for bringing this to to light here and you're right, we have been working on this for for decades. Um, so and the resolution is for as a minimum maintenance road and then to close that and thank you for that clarification because it's not it wasn't as a a closure of that segment, you know, so it's the minimum maintenance is, you know, there's very few traffic out there today. And really from that where we paved this year from the the null property, so that pavement section down to the south, there's really no habitable uh residents or property in that area. So when we looked at making this a minimum maintenance, I would kind of look at it as if it's a a one or two inch snowfall, probably not going out there. If it's a six or 8 in snowfall, we would go out there to maintain that. So, you're right. The road is fully accessible from the north and the south, but we don't want to encourage that as a through roadway when it's a pretty long stretch. You know, it's it's, you know, nearly 3 mi long. And so, don't want to encourage that, put people in harm's way of getting stuck out there, not knowing kind of the environment that they're that they're entering and get stuck down there. So, um, and with that, if the road there's no accessibility in that area from a property standpoint, you know, we could close that roadway and essentially at least for the winter and not go through the expense of actually plowing that middle section, say, from Salisbury up to the NL property and just not maintain that this winter and then open that barrier up and still maintain it as a minimal maintenance road from that null property down to 19, which is in actually Lassour County, Tyrone. own township and we've had discussions with them as well. So, they're aware of uh what we're uh wanting to do here moving forward through this resolution. >> Thank you for that. And um I think the the concerns and and I know we and and Leslie and you, we've talked to to folks out there, the concerns about the um public lands that are available for hunting still will be accessible from the south. Um uh other concerns brought up were the parks master planning committee that's underway right now and we certainly support them and we'll continue to um think about those plans. Uh and then the final concern is there are some property owners um who of course use that that um stretch of road to get to agricultural property on both sides and and it is it is quite a burden and barrier for them. So, if as we think about those times of years, we can continue to brainstorm about some options that could be available, that would be good. Um, because that is quite a hall then to go all the way around with with farm equipment. So, that's just something to think about as we continue to work on this. I'm not I am in support of the resolution, but I I thought just because of the amount of um calls I've received in the conversation, it was worth it was worth talking about a bit. Um, I drove it again this weekend. I I drive it every now and then. So, uh, it's looking good. There were people snowmoiling. Um, all of that. So, thank you. >> Okay. Any more comments or questions on that? We're calling this now 6.2 procedurally. >> I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 2025-253. >> Second. So, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All right, that moves forward. Item number 7.1, adopt resolution number 2025-294, approving the 2026 Scott County legislative platform. Perry, good morning. Looking good as ever. >> Good morning, chair. I appreciate that comment. Um, I uh was going to wear uh the same outfit that Commissioner Alrich is wearing, but uh mine wouldn't fit and uh I wouldn't be able to pull it off the way that the commission >> I appreciate I appreciate your your humility there. You had that suit on and you saw him and you went and changed quick. So, >> correct. >> Wow. What a way to honor this guy. Awesome. >> Thank you. Uh my name is Perry Mullron. I'm the fiber and legislative manager for Scott County. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the board this morning about um the county priorities and uh and positions for the upcoming 2026 um legis legislative session. Um so I'll just get right into it. We have four uh four policy priorities um and two bonding um priorities uh for the upcoming session. Uh the first is uh support legislation that mitigates the impacts of SNAP and Medicaid cost shifts from the federal government through efficient administration and prevent counties from funding federal benefit programs. Recent federal legislative changes aimed at reducing federal costs will shift financial and administrative costs onto state and county governments. Minnesota is a state supervised county administered health and human services system. Per state statute, Minnesota is one of three states where the non-federal share of economic assistance is paid by the county. Without a solutionbased uh partnership between the state and counties, these cost shifts will force counties to choose between cutting services or raising local property taxes. According to data provided earlier this year by DHS, a preliminary estimate of lost federal dollars to state administered programs is expected to shift 946 million of the 1.096 096 billion in lost dollars to counties, providers, and beneficiaries in fiscal year 2028 and 2029. These costs are unsustainable and risk getting shifted onto property tax um as property taxes onto property owners. The funding um and program cuts across SNAP and Medicaid will have a direct and disproportionate impact on counties. Um the SNAP administrative cost share reduces federal contribution from 50 to 25% making state and counties liable for the total 75%. Counties including Scott County must pay then the remaining 25%. For these reasons, we are seeking to mitigate the impacts of SNAP and Medicaid costs shifts from the federal government through efficient administration of the programs and prevent the counties from funding federal benefit programs. Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency or Scale, the Association of Minnesota Counties, AMC, and the Minnesota Association for County Social Services Administrators, MAXA, also have this as one of their top priorities for the coming session. One of the ways that we can pro improve the efficiency of administration programs through improving the systems, which brings us to our second policy priority. Um, we support legislation that modernizes and streamlines health and human services programs and technology focused on system transformation for our counties. Minnesota human services programs processes, technologies are complex, severely outdated and burdensome. Um, counties which deliver these services need new systems to streamline access to client data, cut weight times for clients, and strengthen program integrity. counties um need new systems to best serve the people in need. The current systems are extremely dated. Max was implemented in 18 19 1989. Men choices in 2013, MEC 2007, MIMS was in 1994, Prism 1997 and SSIS 1994. Obviously, so much has changed with computing and applications since 1989 and the early 1990s. Minnesota system is not only archaic, but it's also unusual. Minnesota is one of three states that requires counties to pay the non-federal economic support administrative costs. Our county taxpayers are paying the for the inefficient systems with no end in sight despite previous investments. While the Minnesota legislature approved 200 million for the human services modernization in um I believe that's in 2023, improvements to the day-to-day work at the county level not been have not been realized. The systems mandated by the state to administer the programs have not been fixed. What has been spent spent has not resulted in improvements to the work carried out by counties on behalf of the state. We see a solution as a three-legged stool for modernization. At the state, we need immediate requirements. There's urgency to complete the updates related to the federal changes and work requirements and increase eligibility checks. At the county level, we need to bridge the relief. Counties need access to funding to move county developed systems through uh MC to add efficiencies for all 87 counties. The improvements would reduce data errors, speed up application processing, improve program integrity. And we need a long-term solution at the state. We need advocating at the state to take the lead to roll out a new long-term modernization system that benefits clients and government efficiency in all counties. The product should not replace existing or outdated siloed systems with new siloed systems. It should instead create a system where the core government functions together and it client data can be entered once and be accessible across all systems. State funding and modernization systems is needed as as a as new programs and mandates are enacted. Which brings us to our third policy priority. Um, we support the successful implementation of the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act, or from here we'll refer to it as the act through the funding and prevent prevention services, state ownership of case reviews, and timely completion of SSIS improvements. In 2024, the the state signed into law the act uh with Henipin and Ramsey counties uh as the phasing counties and statewide implementation in January of 2027. So, we need funding for that. Um, the primary goal of the act is to reduce disparities in child protective services with an emphasis on using community-based culturally relevant services to prevent reduce entry into the child protection system. Prevention services may include community and family resource center centers, community pathways of support for addressing school attendance concerns and meeting family economic needs. But again, we need funding to address and properly resource the act. Um, we we also recommend uh in this that the state um take ownership of the case reviews in Minnesota's state supervised county administered system. The state should own the case review process. There are 21 quantitative, five qualitative and two summary data elements required as part of the case review which SSIS is incapable of producing. So this would require the county staff to manually tally on paper um the the data. In addition, uh DCYF is already has case review infrastructure in place to conduct reviews and should be responsible for doing the case reviews and not in not the individual county social services agencies. And then we we need back to the first policy, we need timely completion of the SSIS improvements. Um successful imple implementation of the act requires timely completion of the SSIS improvements focused on administrative simplification and paperwork reduction uh for the frontline workforce. Our final fourth legislative policy priority also has to do with efficiency gains in program administration of the program Men Choices. County staff uses min choices to gather in uh information about individuals functional needs and determine determine eligibility for home and community based services. Following an initial assessment, those receiving services are required to do a reassessment annually. Increasing demand for these services and annual reassessment requirement creates significant delays in connecting clients with the services they qualify that qualify for. However, many clients experience stable conditions with minimal or no functional changes annually. For these individuals, requirement of an annual reassessment is unnecessary. According to a 2024 survey, 90% of the families individuals already receiving home and community based support at Scott County. Um we're advocate reducing the frequency of reassessment to every three years or upon request or if there's a significant change in their condition. In the past 2025 legislative session, the legislature allowed for an abbreviated annual reassessment, but reducing the frequency of reassessment to every three years would allow counties to allocate resources more effectively, reducing the workforce for conducting reassessments by up to 50%. And allowing greater focus on critical areas um such as initial evaluations of program integrity. That completes the policy priorities. If there's no questions, I'll move on to the capital investment priorities. Scott County has two capital investment priorities. Scott County is requesting a capital investment of $5.5 million for the design design and construction of the Louisville segment of the Marryiam Junction Trail. This this state bond request would be used to for the design and construction of 4.3 miles of multi-use trail that runs along County Road 14 on the south uh just south of Shockby, including elevated boardwalks over wetland and lake areas to close the existing gap of the regional bicycle trail network in northern Scott County. The Marram Junction Trail of the or the Louisville segment project would provide non-motorized regional connectivity, improve recreational opportunities for the 10 for 10 million annual visitors to the Southwest Metro and has a projected ridership of 250,000 users annually. It provides for accessibility and connectivity. The project will finish a 20-m loop connected residents to goods, services, jobs, entertainment values, and other amenities in Scott and Carver counties. on the relatively flat grade allows for uh trail visitors of all abilities to use. It serves historically underserved neighborhoods. It provides recreation and transportation. The trail connects both recreation and transportation opportunities for local, regional, and state residents. Completing the gap um creates significant travel time savings and connecting popular it will connect people to popular destinations in the area. Um finally, it provides safety. Currently, county road 14 has if I believe all the commissioners been out there, it's very narrow um uh um uh and with the shoulders and it does not allow for sale very um easily existing bicycle or pedestrian traffic. This jail would significantly reduce that or would fix that and would significantly reduce conflicts between cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles by providing an off-road connection. Um, our last uh capital bonding priority is um the uh Scott County request capital investment for 800 megahertz public safety radio equipment replacement for metro counties. Minnesota statewide radio system known as the allied radio matrix for emergency response or the armor system operates on the 800 megahertz band and is used by transportation, public safety, public health, prisons, EMS, medical, federal connect uh corrections, HHS, national guard, state patrol and tribal governments and many others. Construction of the armor system in the Twin Cities and metropolitan region in the late 1990s was expanded to the greater Minnesota area in the 2000s. In late 2020, Mandot completed its backbone of the armor system. There are 335 statemaintained and 100 locally maintained armor tower sites on the air on the air across Minnesota. The system provides 95% coverage for mobile radios across the state. Of the 100 locally maintained armor systems, 54 of them are in the metro region. As the armor system matures, there is a need to maintain and replace and upgrade the aging infrastructure, equipment, and technology. Currently, the statewide communications board, MINDOT, and the deep department of public safety um and armor stakeholders endeavor to develop capital improvement and governance and funding plans to sustain us across the need. But there's an immediate need now um for the end of life except for uh PAP or 911 equipment and a limited portion of the local infrastructure expenses which can be funded via the 911 special revenue fund. Local costs including tower site leases, utilities and system equipment maintenance associated with the armor systems are typically funded by local property tax revenues or per radio charges to the armor system users in the county. Due to these constraints, public safety agencies across Minnesota face significant funding challenges related to escalating costs of maintenance of armor system infrastructure, equipment, and technology. Without access to stable, adequate supplemental funding sources, it will be increasingly difficult for local entities to support their ongoing armor system maintenance and sust sustainment needs. If there's no questions, I will move on to our legislative positions. Um these are the positions that are um that the board has elected to if they come up uh during the legislative session um that we have a position on them. Uh they haven't changed a whole lot from previous years. Um and I will for interest of u time I will just cover briefly each one of the there's just a um summarize each one as I go down. Uh Scott County has opposed any unfunded mandates mandates uh and and do no harm. Over the years, state unfunded mandates and cost shifts to the counties have steadily increased cost causing county tax dollars to be increasingly relied upon. Hence our first four um priorities. This cost shift has been most evident in mental health, child protection, and cor and community corrections. before any new programs can be implemented um or new programs existing programs expanded current statemanded pro programs must first be fully funded by the state under general government. We support legislation mandating um employer employee premium payments and adequate state funding of the Minnesota paid leave um earn sick and safe and mandates for employers with leave uh with leave programs that already exceed the 48 and 480 hour requirements. Um, in lie of an alternative program, Scott County supports amendments to the current paid family medical leave program to allow for recognition of existing county employer health benefits and clarity around interactions between county HR professionals. We support legislation updating outdated legislation regarding data retention, data practices. Um, support limitations of data requests for on facility cameras and retention. Align other public safety re releasable um information to that of recent body camera legislation for public requests for release of information. Support ongoing efforts to ensure deputy continue deputy registar sustainability. Oppose restrictions on local government levies. Leave levy decisions to the local elected officials. Support local control by eliminating or mod moderating state requirements that limit ability of county boards to make local decisions. Support continued borderto-border broadband grant funding. Support an increase to library construction grant. Support the reform of the Met Council U governance structure under health and human services. Um the first four priorities uh are listed here as positions. Support the legislation that mitigates the impacts of SNAP and Medicaid. Support legislation that modernizes the systems. Um support the successful implementation of the act and support legislation reducing the frequency of men choices reassessments. Further under health and human services um we support the following legislation to address bed prioritization issue and develop mental Minnesota's mental health continuum of care legislation fully funding the community corrections formula. Support legislation that addresses chronic absenteeism for uh school children. support legislative efforts regarding establishing a state and local advisory committee to improve uh state and county governance uh during with the DCYF. Um as BA case management redesign efforts continue at the state lo state level support system and process changes related to billing and reconciliation to hold counties harmless. Support housing initiate initiatives incorporated in the 2026 scale platform. Support mental health continuing of care for children and adults. support increased access to metro counties for housing support demonstration units. Support ongoing funding for community uh family resource centers. Under parks, we support continued state general fund and lottery um OEM funding. Uh we support maintaining no changes to the existing legacy fund allocation for metrop parks of 40%. Under environmental health, we support statewide solution for e-waste. Under planning, we uh we support um the scale and city townships in seeking legislative authority to uh assess street infrastructure fees. Under election, we would serve early voting and voting before election day provisions are ad are administerable by election officials and provide for complete state reimbursement for the cost of administering uh presidential nom nominating primary. Under transportation, we support changing the condemnation process to make it more equitable. Support the continued funding of suburban transit needs. Support the DNR uh hazard mitigation grant fund for flood m uh damage mitigation. We support uh the current formula of the distribution of the Minnesota vehicle lease sales tax. Support consideration of the local funds in trunk highway projects as part of the match. and support transfer 100% of the funds from the sales tax on auto parts from the general fund to the highway user tax distribution fund. Under public safety, we support maintaining 911 special revenue fund for 911 public safety communications. Um support ongoing funding for county's ongoing maintenance of GIS data. Support MEESB's funding request for financial allocation of CAD to CAD um interoperability system. Support delaying the implementation changing in juvenile delinquency. And I'm almost done. and I appreciate everybody's patience. Under capital investment priorities, we again request the 5.5 for the design and construction 5.5 million for the design and construction of Louisville segment of the Mariam Junction Trail. Um investment uh capital investment for the Armor Public Safety support legislation addressing regional solutions for juvenile housing facilities across the spectrum. funding for Metro Parks, funding for local road improvement and local bridge replacement programs, um support for the wet line replacement program, and finally, we have a regional concern to support legislation addressing the statewide solid waste planning and investments. With that, commissioners, that completes my presentation, and I stand for any questions. Thank you. >> So, other than that, >> uh Mr. Chair, I'd uh move resolution number 2025-294 approving the 2026 Scat County Legislative Platform. >> Second >> motion and a second. I've got a couple questions, but any other discussion on this point before we vote? >> I have a a question. >> Got a hand raised first. >> Oh, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to thank staff and and note for the record that obviously even though we're just approving this platform and these priorities right now. Um I just so much appreciate um our leadership team and others working the last six months already on these priorities and platforms. A ton of work has went in already with our own legislators, with our organizations. Um and I think that was evident at AMC conference last week. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I and I I don't know if I know all the ins and outs of this, but on the AMC transportation U meeting the part of the conference there, they had two different amendments. One one or two different resolutions. One uh was that the wetland replacement would go to one. What I what I don't know is what it currently is. Do you do you know what it is? Is it two to one now? >> Two to one. >> Yeah. So to so one to one I'm just wondering if we're going to put this in here to support that AMC that just came up within the last couple weeks. So I that's why you know it might not be on our radar. >> Chair commissioner um I guess we would defer to staff on getting a position on that and bring that back to the board unless somebody has some position on it now or I don't know the impact of going from two to one to one commissioner. >> Okay. All right. Well, I just want to mention it. >> And then I've got a question on um the system modernization. I'm really happy that the the whole silo concept is is in there. Um we don't need new silos. We don't need new individual systems, right? We need the almost like think of an airport, you know, and you have the terminals coming in and they're all intersecting with one another. Um, and I I don't remember what board meeting it was at AMC U where Matt had talked about fraud and systems and and systems modernization could be a catalyst. Well, the fraud could be the catalyst to really get this thing going. So, I don't know if we need that in our talking points or we just have that. the idea that if you, you know, as long as you're in the airport and you get in at one gate, so to speak, or whatever picture, word picture we're going to use, that that would potentially flip a trigger in another system so that it's not such a silo. So you've got your eligibility or whatever in LMP system um that they're all tied together that of the checks and balances where I'm just wondering if that could be a catalyst to try to get this thing moving faster since fraud is such a I don't even know what to call it. Um, >> so I don't know if that needs uh or a tweak or we just go about that in our own conversations with our delegation and whoever else will listen um or if I'm off and wherever. So chair uh we uh we did add that um as our uh to our our one patron talk component about um on that about uh the system being able to talk all the way across and what enters once and then the fraud and cyber security >> okay >> onto that and um add did add it as a talking point um and I see our director of health and human services Barb doll is here >> and just one one on the talking points because when we go and talk with them we've got to leave behinds does that um make it kind of obvious guess that or is that our talking point or is it in there that there's a direct correlation between being able to catch fraud with software and potentially AI versus our talking point? >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, commissioners, I we tend to talk about it. I think we've kind of called it out here as program integrity. Um but that that really is I think a thread and I think a piece that could potentially be uh helpful. I I do think that there's obviously a lot of traction that could be gained this legislative session with the the media there. So I it is kind of embedded in this language here. >> Well, and language is is huge as long as especially that our team is all using a common language and then hopefully moving that to AMC whether the word picture is a you know saken bacham robot or this airport or whatever it happens to be the quicker we can get to common language the more power collective power we're going to have. So thank you for that clarification. Um, the other thing I had is DCYF, were were they sort of um shortcutting their own system like like trying to get a build a replacement for their system which would then be a standalone potential silo. Do we know an update on that which I know isn't necessarily specific to this, but >> Mr. Chair, are we thinking about SSIS? >> Well, I I thought that they were going to try to do a what were they trying to do when when Tiki was here and there was talk about um the understanding the need. Yep. >> Maybe not necessarily waiting for a minute, but trying to do a back end or um >> yeah, something. I I I don't think it was a full replacement. I just don't want to see, oh, they go down this rabbit hole and oh, oh, it's it's great, but it's another new silhouette. >> It doesn't do anything for any fraud prevention or doesn't do anything for the bigger system or for what we have to deal with. >> We can take it offline, too, if that's >> Yeah, I we can look more uh specifically if there's something that maybe I'm not thinking of right now. I think, you know, we were fortunate enough to have last legislative session move forward with SSIS funding and I think we're hoping to that have that still move forward. I think it's important that we think through this backbone system that can integrate into all of our other systems and I think hopefully that will be what we can um illuminate this session for them. >> Great. >> So, Mr. Chairman, if you take a look at the airport here, the band in the middle, it says fraud prevention about five times across >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I had to look at that. But yeah, >> from your talking point, it's in there, you know, and and remember like Julie Hansen sitting here said, it could help in elections. It could help in HHS. >> It could potentially save us from having to watch jail rosters if they were automated and doing some of that work. So, there's all kinds of things that would be beneficial from a system that was interoperable. >> And Mr. chair. As long as the um maker of the second agrees, I would would make as part of my motion that of course we're approving the um priorities and platform, but the materials we use to talk about it, those those do change and they have changed during session in the past and and I think that that's that's implied with with the motion. >> Yes. as we learn and can better articulate things and um take advantage of conversations and things that our partners are doing. So to Commissioner Eric's question to to yours, I would hope that's our intention. >> Yes. >> So typically things like that, Mr. Chairman, Commissioner Brekie would go back to the chair vice chair and make sure that we have their blessing to update and move things forward when we hear those types of things. >> Great. All right. Is there any other questions? Otherwise, we have a motion in a second. Uh, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All right. Perry and team. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Commissioners, >> good morning, Danny. >> Good morning, commissioners. >> Take it away. >> You're not going to read the agenda item? >> Oh, sure. Why not? You're right. I just I was so I've been anticipating this for so long. You're right. I can't read Roman numerals today. I'm anticipating this presentation. We are at 7.2. looking at adopting resolution number 2025-282 setting the Scott County Minnesota gross levy uh for taxes payable in the year 2026 in the amount of $14 million 920,829 less 8,240,55 certified property tax aids for a net levy of 968,324. >> Thank you commissioner and good morning and >> good morning. Uh the presentation I have for you today is going to cover both 7.3 and 7.4. So we've called it 2026 levy and budget adoption. Oh. >> Um I would just note this is I wouldn't even call it the end of a long process that starts really almost as soon as we hit January of 2025. Uh I think this year more so than most. Um we do regular presentations throughout the course of the year. There's regular updates and revisions to the budget as we go through this. Um, I want to take a moment uh specifically with this year and just having the legislative platform being presented of the significant impact what's happened at the state legislature has on this budget. This budget, more so than any budget I've been here for, has been driven by um legislative actions. Uh, as part of that, I also want to note the contribution of all of this from numerous people in the organization, starting with our division directors and their staff. Um, we have Alex Magcguire and Scott Head in the accounting department. We have Eric Cervanka who works tirelessly, frequently with me late at night to get things narrowed down. And then of course, uh, Steve Jones who's doing double duty right now as our workday expert and always getting called in to help things. But I also want to specifically call out Barb and Jen Schwarz. Um, probably more so than anybody in the organization. They have had to go through, monitor, revise, and bring forward different things on regular basis as legislation has changed. Um, I would say this budget was probably more directly influenced by those two um than by myself and our team as we just kind of work through those things. So, I just want to make sure that that is noted. Um, so like I said, we are here for the levy and budget adoption. Not much of this is new to you. Um, but want to make sure we're really hitting these points and driving home what is driving this budget overall. So, we have the 2026 budget drivers. going to talk about our financial forecast and what we're going to see in the future and then the impact on residents with some data to show how this budget is going to be impacting them. So for our budget drivers first we always start with our board budget and policy providing long-term fiscal stability while minimizing tax impacts maintaining a reasonable level and constant tax burden focused on modeling limited and relatively level increases manage limited resources over unlimited demands and provide the level of service services necessary to meet mandates and citizen expectations. Maintain a structurally balanced budget. Maintain the county's reserves or fund balance. Maintain the county's bond rating. Plan, prepare for the future. Don't spike the levy. No surprises. I would say the last several years, this has become a harder and harder set of um guidelines to meet. Uh not because of how the county has chosen to operate, but because of the things that have been thrown at us frequently at the last minute um or in the middle of the process that we have to react to and have limited time to adjust. So, as we look at our current budget status, we expect our revenue to increase by 1.82%. Um, this is almost entirely due to staff working hard to bring forth different alternative revenue sources. We have local affordable housing aid um that we are shifting things around in order to put uh funding on that. And then we have our certified community behavioral health center revenue um that we have been working to maximize that revenue source to limit the impact on the levy. I will say the largest impacts from state and federal government legislation that we were believing could hit this budget were delayed, but there's still a substantial impact for 2026. Over $713,000 due to cost uh shifted by the state from paid family leave, um competency attainment does not meet criteria, behavioral health funds, interstate compact offender tracking costs, and then $135,000 in costs from the federal government legislation that passed through the state. So that's SNAP work requirements tracking that supplemental nutrition assistance program. And then we also have SNAP administrative cuts. We also have our contractual increases that go up every year for various contracts we have in place for $884,000 um for a levy increase of 8.36%. When we started this budget process back in uh June, we knew it was going to be high and then the state legislation happened and in August um we had a much higher preliminary levy because there were so many unknowns hanging out there. Um we were up over 11% close to 12% at the time and we've made some very substantial changes to our assumptions in order to bring that down to the levy you have today. Um so for our 2026 budget there was a million dollar reduction in impact from SNAP work requirement assumptions. So this is the assumption as we look at um SNAP work requirements. We take in and process these things to validate whether someone is meeting that um there's an increase in those work requirements. We don't know what that final impact is going to be, but we had built-in assumptions for that. Uh we had $747,000 in levy contingency for some of these unknowns as well. For 2027, we had a reduction in $2.5 million for our Medicaid work requirement assumptions. Again, these work requirements, these increased work on our staff to validate that people are working is still coming. We don't know the impact. We were hoping we'd know more at this time. Um but we have reduced that assumption for 2027. And then for uh $235,000 for the assumed SNAP payment shifts and $75,000 in 2028 for the same thing. As Perry noted, this is federal benefits programs that now because of how the state is structured would require the county for the first time to actually pay federal benefits um to individuals as opposed to simply being the processor and the administrator of the program. So, this is a pretty significant seismic shift for us. Um in the next two to three years, there are significant unknowns. We still don't know how some of this legislation is going to be implemented, what it's going to mean for us. Um, we do believe these changes are reasonable based on what we know now, which is how we try and budget and forecast. Um, but I will say there's more risk in this budget than we typically like to see because of all those unknowns within there. So, for these budget drivers, we have salary increases based on the board's direction for our union negotiations, 6% increase in health insurance, um, a million dollars still set aside in levy contingency within this budget. the contractual increases. There's $353,000 for the impact of paid family leave legislation, $125,000 for the act, which Perry fortunately said so that I don't have to sound it out again. Um $150,000 for does not meet medical criteria. This is associated with people staying at the Anoka Medical Regional Treatment Center. uh that $135,000 SNAP shift, $35,000 for the ICOs funding shift, and then there's some things that we have looked at to try and bring some revenue back in. So, Min Choices standalone reimbursement. This is something that again uh Barb D went and fought for at the state to get us as a standalone county for our reimbursement rate for men choices that we expect to have a $400,000 positive impact. We increased our assumptions for the juvenile alternatives facility um and how many people would be staying there. again with work happening in HHS to kind of bring in additional revenue. We reduced our CIP funding increase that had been forecast by $200,000. Um we've shifted treatment treatment court onto opioid funding. Um and then the county is no longer going to be paying the credit card fees that we get charged by credit card providers um for transactions the county which is going to save us about $100,000 a year. So looking at our financial forecast, so across the four years of the uh forecast from 2027 to 2030, we only anticipate 1% revenue increases. This is because so much of our revenue comes in from the state and they have not been keeping up um with the increasing cost of these services. Uh we have our estimated salary increases based on where we think union contracts are going to land, 5% health insurance increase, $200,000 increase transfer to fund balance, and a million dollar for contractual increases each year within the forecast. If we look a little bit more deeply in the items that are in there for 2027, um we do have $2.6 million in identified and assumed budget reductions that are going to be helping to keep that levy lower. That part of that is because we have a $ 1.5 million increase from the act um that has to be implemented in 27. Um we have $350,000 in SNAP cost shifts, additional administrative cost shifts from SNAP for $270,000. still assuming $250,000 Medicaid work requirements. We have our increase to fund balance of $200,000 and then the impact of Mencho's flat reimbursement implementation of $162,000. We're including an increase to our CIP and then $75,000 to fund library extended access. 2028, we do have a debt service falling off, but we're shifting that to our CIP program to handle long-term building maintenance and replacement items as some of these buildings begin to age. We're starting to see million dollar, $2 million roof replacements that we'd like to have a funding source for those. $3 million as my boss is pointing to me now. A little bit over a million dollars in SNAP cost shifts. Again, we have a contractual increases and $200,000 increase to fund balance. 2029, smaller contractual increases, but then we are expecting $450,000 in corrections fee losses due to state legislative changes eliminating those fees. And then 2030 we only have a million dollars in contractual increases. >> Mr. Chair, Danny, um just just to again highlight since we see contractual increases all over, those are all the kind of things the county contracts for like IT services, licenses, all kinds of things we need to do business. That's not the contracts for employees. That's >> absolutely correct, commissioners. And this might include things like um lawn maintenance, software licensing, all those things have increases. Um we started to see those go up the last few years. So that's where we've been building into our forecast motiv more more to anticipate those costs. >> And they're going up, but that doesn't negate the fact that we're still negotiating, going out for bids, doing all that kind of work. Just wanted to put that on the record. Danny, I just want to make one comment on the um funding not keeping up from the state because you hit on it, but I just want to give a couple examples and make sure I can see Barb back there, but child protection, the rate we receive for that has not changed since 2013. Correct. >> Yeah, for the grant. >> For the grant that is 12 years with no increase in the other one is children's mental health. I'm going to call that out again. It's a $1.9 million program where the statutes are pretty clear of the county shell, the county shell, even the system we have to use. We couldn't use one that is better. And the state puts $35,000 into it. >> It's laughable. >> And so I I just when you talk about those, we see these increases that we have, but that is also a big part of our revenue issue. When you highlight the 1%, it's not keeping up with the cost of doing business. Not one bit. >> Thank you for that. >> Well, and since we're on this particular screen, um I know was brought up and and thank you to the many people that came to our truth and tax taxation meeting. Um this two million $2 million in in debt service shifting to the CIP. I mean, it's a bummer, but it's it's one of those deals where like I remember, you know, we built a new church and oh, it's going to be awesome. Went into debt, not so awesome. Dug our way out and oh, we're going to get rid of that. Oh, that big fat payment every month. Oh, our building's 15, 20 years old. So, it's like, ah, shoot. Um, we needed some of that funding to, you know, redo air handlers and all that stuff. And so, here we sit. So, um, Commissioner, I would just note like this was always part of the plan since I was part of the organization. We knew that we had this funding falling off and the goal was to always reduce those payments that were mostly going to interest for so long to be able to handle some of these bigger placements. We knew that our new our law enforcement center was going to be 20 plus years old and we were going to have to start having some major repairs in order to maintain that. So, this has been part of kind of that long-term fiscal stability planning we talk about. >> Now, now this is coming from a guy who still calls it the new zoo. >> So, you know, there's that sort of so so I get that. >> Mr. Chairman, when I got here, we actually had to bond for the public works roof. Y >> that is not a position that you want to be in, right? So when you take a look at this $2 million, a big chunk of that was actually a shift from the road and bridge fund to cover three projects that were constructed. So as you put this into a capital fund and depending what happens with the state and the removal of the road and bridge funds at some point to help the general fund, you might have to look at even something there at some point. But the the roof that we're going to talk about for the building across the street, by the time you get done with the doghouse, the roof, the HVAC rehandling, it is $3 million to do that. And so you have a justice center roof, you have a public works roof. Um these all need to have something in there to be able to fund those so you don't have to bond for those types of things. And so it is important that you have a fund balance for these major investments. Well, and then the other question was a slide or two back where there was like a million-doll contingency and one of the one of the folks asked, you know, well, what's going to happen to that? You know, can we >> So, we have these buckets, but it's not like, oh, what what are we at the 16th? Oh, how many we need to buy a bunch of printers and copers. Do we still I don't know, do copies, >> right? We don't it it it's that's not how we roll. But for good planning, some of the stuff needs to be needs to have some buckets in it. So, that Yeah, I hate that. I hate it. Well, the set aside contingency actually gets to your fund balance as well. So, when you take a look at that, you're sitting right at the minimum of the recommendation at 30% so that you can cover that 5% in May. We're in pretty good shape here for the next couple years, but depending what happens, you have to make sure you have adequate fund balance. And that's what a couple of the counties that you sit pretty close to are having discussions on right now. And so it is critical that just like everybody, part of your paycheck goes towards that fund balance. I don't know if Steve is here, but some of us that were here in 2008 when the state unallotted us, >> that was a big big deal. >> Well, so that was a decent segue into my next slide. So this slide represents that 8.36% levy and how we forecast it. The red line um is actual the levy in dollars. The blue line shows the levy for our forecast, the percent increase from the previous year. So if you take the uh red line 2026 and divide it by 2025, so 96.68 million divided by 89.2, you get that 8.36% right above there. Um, as you can see, we try and build things out into the future. As we get to those out years, it's always lower because we don't have as many things we know are changing. Um, this forecast when I started usually was 2 to 3% lower as we were looking at it. That's that state change to how they've been funding their programs that more and more is being picked up by the county um for those ongoing costs that used to be picked up more by the state. And then the green line shows the percentage of taxable market value that the county uh taxes our residents. This is one that we always want to be going down. It's one of the few leading indicators we have. You can see we've gone down from 25 to 26, but we're forecasting we're going to go up a little bit in 2027 um based on the percentage of taxable market value we tax in as levy for our resident services. And this slide shows our operating budget. So the yellow line is our budgeted operating expenses and the red line shows how much money we have in fund balance at the end of a given year. That's our money that we need to get us to May where we start getting property tax payments. And that's the 30% that Leslie was talking about. You take the red line, you divide it by the yellow line, you get the blue line up there at the top. So we have about 32.19% in our fund balance of our operating budget. But when we get to May, we're down to about five about 25% less than what that number is. That's where our fund balance is going. is going to re uh pay grants until we get reimbursed and pay salaries and benefits until we get property tax payments. So, green line is what we don't want to have falling below 5% um because that indicates that we may not have enough fund balance to handle an emergency situation where we need to respond and may not have funds immediately available for that. So, that's why we have this grass and graph and monitor it throughout the course of the year. So talking about impacts on residents. So this is our net levy versus new construction and inflation combined. Um so we have our CPI, the new construction. We add that together and it's long been a guide that we've utilized to say our net levy should mirror this somewhat. And you can see in 22 and 23 we are pretty well below where that was and right in line with it in 24, but the last few years we've been higher. And I think that'll be a theme you kind of see as we go through here. last couple years there's been more and more costs shifting to the county that has to be picked up by the property tax levy as opposed to where we've been historically hovering right in that area pretty consistently residential properties with property tax increase again since I've been working here this has shifted from when we had more people that weren't seeing a property tax increase about 60% to the right side of this graph has shift shifted over to the left side with almost 20,000 people seeing a $50 to $100 annual increase in their county property tax um bill for this upcoming year. And then this shows a 10-year history of what has happened to the average value home um for Scott County. So if you look at the far left uh column, that's the average value home. That matches up with the years as you go from left to right. So $263,000 was the average value home in 2017. $469,000 is the average value home for 2026. So, if you follow in, the average value home stayed the average value home as increases happened. Um, that home has gone from paying $952 in 2017 in county taxes to paying $1,314 in county taxes. So, that's a $362 increase over that 10-year time frame. Um, about $36 a year or about $3 a month increase over 10 years uh to the average value home. And then this is your 10-year tax rate. Again, as we look back, we are doing pretty well on bringing that tax rate down. This isn't a perfect indicator because of the math behind this, but again, 25 and 26, we're seeing that tax rate tick up as more and more is coming onto the property tax levy. And this shows the county's FTE per 10,000 residents. Um again, you look at the last couple of years and we've started to tick up in that number, but we're still one of the lowest within the uh our comparators for the number of FTE we have per 10,00 residents. So, we try and be very prudent with adding staff, which we know is an ongoing cost. Um even though I know our staff would like us to have more as they take on more and more work with increasing state mandates without increasing state funding. Levy as a percentage of the county's annual budget. Uh we always hover pretty close to 50% but we're ticking up to 53.3% of the levy as the county's annual operating budget. Um the bottom line is a capital budget. We do expect that to fluctuate more just because of how funding comes in for major projects. Um but really the number that struck me is 25. We're at 51.8 from being down below 50% for a while. Um and now at 53.3% for our operating budget being funded by the levy. And then county tax levy per capita. Um again, this last year was a little bit more of an increase than we've seen where 24 to2 was only about $26. Um now we've gone up about $37. Um but it's been a $104 increase from 2022 to 2026. So in the last 5 years on the county tax levy per capita within here. So with that, staff recommend that the board adopt resolution number 2025-282 setting the Scott County, Minnesota gross levy for taxes payable in the year 2026 in the amount of $104,920,829 less $8,240,55 certified property tax aids for a net levy of $96,680,324. And I would stand for any additional questions. Commissioners, >> Mr. Dan, you said there was salary increase. What was the percent increase for salaries across the board for the next >> for 2026? >> Yes. >> So, the way we set it up for non-bargaining units and you just approved the ask me contract that would go along this, but we still have some contracts that are being finalized. There's a 3.25% general adjustment starting January 1 and then a 3% adjustment on July 1st is included in the budget for this year. Okay. And so what would be the total for the whole thing? And is it like 5% for all salaries that we budgeted? >> It's probably close to that in terms of the budget impact. >> Okay. That's what I'm looking for. >> Yeah. Okay. I thought I saw it somewhere, but I remember. Okay. >> So, are we passing this in one motion or are you Did you say >> we're doing the budget presentation? Correct. We have a quick presentation as part of the CIP before you approve the budget. >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Sorry, I probably confused that. My presentation was covering both sides of it from the operating budget. >> Got it. All right. So, here we are. 7.2. It's already been read twice. Um, is there any other questions? I mean, we haven't had a motion or discussion on that yet. I >> I'll make the motion. >> There's a motion. There's a second. Now any further discussion? I know I have a few points. Nothing. This is one of my um I don't know what exactly. Um you know, here we sit December 25. It feels like it was just yesterday when we had the governor's budget release, which I think was January of this year. Well, we heard about it in December, a year ago at the AMC annual conference then about how we all have to make hard choices. And here we sit cuz then that very next month in January, it was all about shifts >> and not cuts. U and I'm so sick and tired of unfunded mandates. And it was one of those things where I said coming into this like I'm not just going to have it be one of the norms. And I feel like we really all made some progress last year. It feels like um with AMC leading the charge and a lot of us going down to St. Paul and talking to our delegation about this is not sustainable. Like what are we doing? and some longtimers here in this county saying like I've never seen it this bad um with shifts and we hear about un aotment and whatever that was 0809 before me didn't have to live through this we have to live through this um unfunded mandates you know we talk about what can we stop doing where someone doesn't get injured or worse or we don't get sued because again we have these mandates put on us by the legislative or the elected body the legislature in St. all um funding formulas are out of whack. What was it? Uh child's children's mental health was that the one that was like 34 grand like from 2012. What are we talking about? Um and I've talked also about, you know, are there funding formulas, you know, we have these mandates put on us, right? Um laws, statutes we have to follow. We don't want to get a bunch of lawsuits, but is there a legal challenge we can mount back upstream because they're not keeping pace? the state with what we have to do and if there's a funding formula attached really like to look at that St. Paul, you know, they're voted in. They get to make decisions. People vote them in to make those decisions. They get to make choices. They build programs, which I've talked about before. Um, and what I've said to many of them is like, and publicly, great. You're voted in. You get to make these decisions. You get to own these programs. Then, then own it. >> Don't be cowards. And it's all tax money. I get it. whether it's a Minnesota income tax or a property tax, but it sure feels like they're just trying to hide these taxes in a property tax. And then they get to continue their taxing. I I suspect if they had to raise their taxes to pay for these programs, they would feel >> different. >> They would feel a bit different. They would feel the wrath. And a lot of people, we've been pushing out press releases. We've been talking. We've been doing everything we can do, social media, and still the room is full like, "We've never heard this. we've not what what is happening with all these cost shifts? Well, we we've been trying to get that out there. Um so, we just can't keep imposing these taxes on our property tax base. Um it's not sustainable. They have to own it. So, that's where I in my own convictions just feels like if we continue the collective we again this is a state. This is not the county. This is the state puts us in this spot. if counties continue to we go up and we squirm and we you know get in some passionate agreements and disagreements and um which I'm grateful that most of our folks can have those discussions and we can still have further discussions later we can agree to disagree sometimes quite passionately. Um, but if we keep doing this, 87 counties finding ways to be upset with the state, but then we find a way to just figure it in and just increase like I just I I just I I can't I can't do that. It feels like I'm I'm speaking for myself complicit in the problem. Um, so I support our people. I the things that we're doing as a county at Scott County, unbelievable. Some amazing things that we're doing. There's some amazing green shoes. There's some amazing people doing amazing work in Scott County. So, it's that weird tension of like like I believe that I'm bullish on Scott County. I know I'm looking at you. I'm looking at everybody. I'm bullish on Scott County. Like I believe we are close to um being that county on a hill, that beacon of hope and beacon of trans uh transformation in people's lives. But this drives me bonkers. So again, it's not the county. I probably haven't been as clear on that in past years. Um, I have voted for the levy, by the way. I think someone doubted that, but I have voted for the levy. I know there's some people that might want to run against me because I don't want to spend. And welcome, welcome, cuz I am running. Um, I just can't take anymore. It's just a cup of coffee. It's just a pizza a month. It's just a just a just a just we talked about compounding yesterday, right, on these things. That Yeah, pizza gets pretty expensive 10 years down the road. So, anyway, I've I've I've said what I need to said. There's a motion. There's a second. Is there any further discussion? Thank you all for the hard work that you do that we're purveyors of hope and transformation. So, >> say a couple things. >> This does not, if I don't vote against this, this does not mean I don't support what we're doing. I know it's a weird tension. Yes. >> Obviously, we've gone through basically a year-long process to to reduce costs >> where we can and we've kept positions open as people have left. We've kept lots of positions open and not filled them. And in my estimation, we've done everything we we can to reduce costs. You know, we're in a climate where um costs are going up everywhere. It's just crazy. I agree with that. I mean, >> you can go to a fast food restaurant and for two people, you can spend 30 bucks, you know, just for a burger and fries and a a shake. You know, it's it's nuts. I remember years ago I I took my dad to a a supper club and it wasn't that long ago, but I took him to a supper club and he it was $16 and he he didn't he wanted to leave because it was too expensive. >> Now that's a McDonald's, you know, in many cases. I mean, so that's the climate, you know, wages are going up, >> cost of goods and services, everything's going up. Uh we're in a difficult climate. Um, >> but I think the county has done well. I think we were headed towards a 10 point what at one point, >> you know, >> 11.92 and then I think we at 9.97 for the um preliminary levy adoption. >> So 11 point what >> 92 I believe. >> 92. Okay. That's kind of the starting number that you we've been working to whittle down all pretty much all year and now we're at 8.36. Um, so thank you. >> Yes, I >> that's all I wanted to say. >> Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, we've talked about this for years. Um, give us the give us the outcome matrix that you're after St. Paul elected officials and let us figure it out because I think we we have a run rate of showing that this county, this body, this organization can do amazing things. Give us the freedom to do that without taxing everybody to death. I think it's possible. We can lower one of the big things is lowering the cost of government. And by the way, I'm heaven bent on this making this change somehow that lowering the cost of government and improving outcomes. Wow. What a day. What a day. Um so yes, I I agree. All right. Motion second. Any >> John, what what was the um levy when you came in? It was probably 2001 your first what was it? because it was 40 when I came in. I look at >> the 40 million. Yeah. I don't know. >> In 2002, it was about $32 million. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Uh Mr. Chair, thank you. I think these are all really great comments and we should talk about this. Um and I just want to I agree with everything you've talked about with unfunded mandates. And then on the other hand, I have to go back and say if we look at especially the levy dollars, an awful big p even if we solved all those other problems, a lot of those are there because we operate a jail, we operate 911, we have probation, we have county attorneys, we have those public safety type things along with >> um our folks with disabilities. And I think most people I talked to in the county, they still want us to do those things. >> Absolutely. And that of our levy spent, that's a lot almost, you know, >> getting these things done in St. Paul, which is consuming a lot of our energy and is so very important, >> isn't going to magically make us go back down to 32 because we still are going to do those very important things the government has to do. So, I I just think there's context there. That we have to think about. >> And just to be clear, too, um, and I know you're not saying this, but I am not looking to defund our public safety. Okay. >> Um, but now is there talk I mean we've talked about you know do we with jail numbers seemingly going down around the state like we're having discussions we're going to have a meeting with with Carver County on all kinds of things you know the million-dollar meeting finding ways to how do we work together. Is there a way to like maybe we just need one jail between the two of us like >> um or dispatch like like it drives me nuts. Why do we have so many dispatches when we could have still have a bunch of dispatches? We want redundancy, but um there's some savings there that doesn't that helps that helps. It gives us redundancy. So all those things we talked about, we don't probably need to. >> Mr. Chairman, I I I think we're leading the discussion on redundancy with dispatch. Your sheriff and your 911 leader and administration are leading that discussion. It takes time to implement it and make sure it operates, but hopefully that will become a model, right? and that other folks are watching it. Even the jail, there are requirements that Luke has to do in the jail that are put upon us by the state that drive up those costs as well. >> Y >> and we didn't put a graph of where the levy goes. We can go back to doing that if folks want to take a look at it, but a big part of it is towards public safety and it's in the sheriff's office. It's in the attorney's office. It's in community corrections. The highway department receives some levy from an operational standpoint. Um, which keeps those highways safe. I mean, we could not plow at 2 to 6 in the morning, but I'll tell you what, people are going to have a much tougher route. The first phone call I ever received from Commissioner Olrich in the winter of 200203 was, "Why isn't 42 plowed?" Well, we had a system back then that only one person could call it out instead of, "Nope, two o'clock is the time you're going out. you're getting that first shift in before people have to go to work. Um, and so we do those things from a public safety standpoint and I think it pays off for the public. So, yes, we continue to push in um St. Paul and in DC about funding the programs they want. We continue to say look for outcomes, not mandates on how to do it. But a big part of what we do is for public safety and I think we need to continue to fund that. We're doing good things there. We are showing leadership. We pursued the jail, but that is what our neighboring county chose not to. We've reached out at both the administrator level and the sheriff level. And so we can't change that. But your every one of these folks out here >> is looking at collaborations. They're looking at ways to do things more efficiently, whether it's health insurance, whether it's running a jail, whether it is PSIs, whether it's how we plow our roads. And I am extremely proud of how we do that and the leadership they show in the region to try to make those changes. >> Amen to that. I do think we lead the way. >> I have to have a little come. >> All right, here we go. You know, I think our snowplow uh efforts are stellar. Just fantastic. >> And but that was astounding amount of snow. And when I got the answer, all I said was okay. You know, and you know, I mean, just understand what where we were in the process. I mean, it was unbelievable. Unfort >> I don't remember the call that way, but it did change our process and who could call out. >> This is great. This is We're having discussions from 20 years ago on Snow Love. This is great. >> Time to get over it, maybe. >> Wait, no, we have a reach for a button. Or are you just saying get on with it? >> I just I want to say it it I agree with everything that everybody has said. It makes me sick to my stomach also. >> It does. But the fact is is that we all work hard >> to make those changes for for the coming years and advocating at our at the state and the federal. I mean that that's the only key um is to make those changes. So I appreciate all the work that everybody has done and you know and I still think about the person who needs our services >> and you you got you got to support them. >> Mhm. Nope. I would just like to be a little less encumbered so we could do amazing things that we're already doing. All right. Motion second. Any further discussion? Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Opposed. Passes. >> Thank you, commissioners. >> Thank you so much. Okay. Um, now we are going to 7.3. Uh, looking at adopting resolution number 2025-23. approving the 2026 budgets for Scott County, Minnesota offices, departments, and agencies and adopting a capital improvement plan. >> Good morning. >> Morning, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. I'm going to just give a quick update on the CIP um before you uh move towards adopting the budget and the CIP. And first off, I want to thank um Evan, Cole, and and Andy um who have really embraced their role in this in their leadership um in moving this forward. It is a um very difficult system when you have three different systems you're updating to maintain this. I have high hopes that workday will help, but um what Evan has learned over the past few years and his leadership in CIP and putting this together has just improved every time and he's done a a wonderful job and learned the importance of it. and Andy um taking over from Lisa and working with Tony up there as well has done a great job in putting the TIP the transportation improvement program together and feel really good about the information and and the way these two have um done that. So kudos to them. So just real quick uh this again is like a May to December process. Um, we have that draft. We send that out. We have a workshop around Labor Day, maybe a little later this year based on the dollars and what we were trying to figure out. It goes back out to all the cities, the townships, our partners. We do this final prep and then it comes to you as part of your budget adoption in December. Again, we are tied totally to that safe, healthy, and livable. Um, everything I usually talk about goes back to your mission and your vision on what we're trying to deliver and why we deliver that. And our buildings need to be safe, our highways need to be safe, um, our parks, um, our equipment. All of that ties back to your your mission and your vision. There's five chapters. We have transportation, we have parks, we have buildings, we have technology, and then you have your capital equipment um that you that you approve. All of the divisions are a part of this. Um next spring we will bring back the scoring for you as we talk about the CIP. That was a request. Um so that's one of the things as we bring back some transfer transportation um work sessions, we'll also bring back the CIP and the scoring and how we go through that. But there shouldn't be a division or an office in this county that isn't aware of the capital improvement program. Preservation, taking care of your roofs, your buildings, your roadways, the parks we have. That is our highest priority. There are very few uh new frontier or new strategies, capabilities that we're doing. Sometimes we try to enhance some things through our work, but most of our dollars go to preservation. So, in buildings, um, the green were completed this year. I don't need to read them all to you. Uh, the jail safety railings, we had to work through, um, that process because of a cost increase and some requirements. Um, Jaff is on hold until we know if we're going to continue to run a Jaff moving forward based on cost. And then the range man replacement, um, that is going through the federal process, but again, that's on hold. They haven't put those funds. So when you look at 26, we will have the LEC roof and the mechanical shaft, the doghouse. Um the HVAC recommissioning and upgrades and you have the summary of the projects there, but that was a major increase and it is a big project. The jail safety railings is another one that has had an increase. Um, but when we complete these and we've made the determination to do them at one time, it does give the sheriff more flexibility, those of us that took the tour that day, and how he operates based on numbers in there, which can be a benefit for us from an operational standpoint, the central shop boiler replacement, the quartz AV upgrade, which will be a rotation now with the quartz, um, the UPS, which is the emergency backup um, for when things go down, and then we have to replace some cameras. who are at end of life that Jaff security will be on hold and the range mancome are on hold. They're shown there. If the funding does come through or something moves forward, um those projects would be able to advance. In technology in 25, we did not have to do any work in the conference room display. So, we didn't invest any dollars there. That is a good thing. Um the traffic management system was moved back to 26 for completion. And the SECM is some services that we use that help automate um putting your computers out into the system. And then the library networking one, it's underway. They're working on that. We're doing um two libraries at a time, but this will improve our security and our capacity at the libraries. The annual device rotation. Again, we replaced what we needed to, but we deferred some of those until they need to be replaced. In the business application area, the green ones were done. Tyler cashiering went in September. Um, the ditch management Jared uh Katachic has been working on that. There will be some updates to some older data. We will put it into the system for but for the most part it will be complete this December. um your solid and hazardous waste online licensing. Brad and Brad Brad led that went on live November. Um the PSIS, so that's our public safety system um to replace LEG for CAD mobile. Uh that is going to go second quarter of 26 and we did not need to use any of our bench strength. That's just a small amount of dollars we have there if we have to bring in a specialist to help with something very specific. So for infrastructure, we have the server lease be up next year. Again, the annual device rotation. The networking will be finished. Um if we have to replace some conference room displays, there's some funds for that. The ATMS should be completed. And then the FCCM, which we hit on the technology um business, the library selfch checkckout machines will be updated. LEAG um should go live next year for the CAD mobile, the computerated dispatch and mobile. And then we are going to begin as soon as Danny can free up a project manager um the jail module to begin the requirements for that and move that one along. That will help us so much over in that jail. And then again, the bench strength if needed. So here's the big changes in those CIP projects. The railings uh was about a $1.2 $2 million increase. Um, we had to increase the railings we had done before have about a $500,000 to stabilize and make those reinforced. And then the law enforcement center, the roof is about a $1.13 million increase over what we had in there for that doghouse and that roof. Um, we chose to go with the roof that gives us a little longer lifespan than the cheaper roof, which we would have had to replace sooner. It was about the same cost per year. I think we will be happy with this roof. And then we have some building cameras um again that need to be replaced in that 26 27 time frame. The C. So this is your equipment over that $10,000. And I'm just going to go to this one in 25. You can see the green. We did our patrol cars are unmarked. Um Tom and Troy have done a great job here. Uh Tom really digs in and evaluates the vehicles, but we deferred one of the vans to 26. The brine applicator um system Tom and Joe made a decision to defer to 2030. And we're actually going to sell one of the highway project delivery vehicles based on use and need in the system. So again, we are evaluating and trying to um reduce and be as costconscious as we can be in this area. And then this year we'll have the four Mark patrol squads and the cab crew, the semitr, uh the tandem axle dump truck. So several of these Tom actually based on a blessing you've given us each year orders them this year to improve our price um for 26 delivery. And we have the snowblower and the tractor. One of the vans was carried over and then a couple motorpool vehicles. We have the uh 25. Some of the equipment, the sheriff's surveillance trailer, uh your AV equipment was upgraded here. We went through that earlier this year. Fiber oblique photography. The 911 voice logger um update that actually will be completed is my understanding now in 25. We just have to make the final payment on that. So that will go to green, we discovered. And then the election scanner replacement which we had planned on again we had a discussion with the vendor and that has been delayed until 2029 at this point. It will um handle what we need for the next several years. And the 26 again fiber oblique these are just annual things that we have um in the system. the 800 megahertz radio updates in parks. Got a lot done in the acquisition area and the long range plan is going in Blakeley. We did some microsurfacing on the trails. Um and then the McMahon Lake outlet. We are still waiting for Troy to negotiate the last easement with one of the property owners out there, but hopefully uh that will finally move forward. And then in 26 we will finalize that long range plan and we have a tree planting grant that is totally grant-f funded um that will be completed in 2026. So a little smaller year in parks after the last couple we've had with a lot of work going on. And then in the area of the tip, we had a couple uh really big uh ribbon cutings this year at 59 and 169. Um, I think Commissioner Olrich mentioned at last Thursday's tax meeting that we've been working on some of these since 2001, 2002. So, those are huge safety improvements that the county's sales tax dollars actually move forward. Of course, 169 and 282, folks are going to love driving through there for the next summer. Um, but that should be substantially open by next fall. um in my chats with Tony Miriam Junction Trail. Those of you that had a chance to hike that, I hadn't been out there since the railroad tracks were on it in 0809. That is going to be a beautiful addition to our trail system and the connectivity that is going to provide. It should um open next fall again. The 78 and 79 roundabout was done. We finished some overlays. We've done some sign replacements and then seal coats and striping. Here is the program if the public wants to see it for the next 10 years for our tip. And this year, of course, we'll have our annual overlays. We have our PQI target of 72 that we continue to strive for through our annual work. Um 16 modernization from 18 to 13 in that 3/4 intersection are in there. 23 and 68 roundabout which is a safety improvement on 23 and 21 in Southbridge. We have the 3/4 intersection going in there. We held a open house I think earlier in November on that project. And then 16 in Deans Lake trying to um take a look at that trail and the traffic signal which is over by the Lowe's entrance over there off of County Highway 16. We have some partnership projects. Spell plane is leading the 25 and county highway 3 roundabout. Um 15 which is the Alton Avenue realignment right now. We're having access um discussions with them. But New Prague has a development going north off of Trunk Highway 19 there that I think um will be a very nice connection for the county. We have the 16 extension um going west of Mary'stown. Uh we are to a certain distance now in that extension over to County Highway 69. And then we have the supporting roadway for 42 um along Marsh Drive um east of County Highway 18 there that will support access um and local connectivity on County Highway 42 and Prior Lake. We have the one stabilization study. Tony's working. I think he's out there with Sibi County, but that's really to look at some erosion and concerns with the river. Um, and then we will talk about with Carver County at our meeting in January, the joint studies of 41 and nine. And then we have some trail, the 17 last mile connection. Um, we have some expanded service we're taking a look at. and then Hopscot and then of course we continue to run the veteran services. So what are the big changes there? Um we moved the study on the river crossings to 26 county one that moved to 26. Um I think the 51 work in those interchanges took a lot of our time. The 16 extension that's development driven so we co coordinate and move that along with the city of Shakipi in their development. So that shifts with that and then they've moved the 16 modernization um into two phases. Quinton Avenue that is part of the trunk highway 13 project. Um uh Lisa Adam Tony had done a lot of coordination was saying in the city of Savage I do believe now we have an agreement there but that project will move ahead of 13 to make sure there's coordination and that includes a roundabout I believe at County Highway 16 and then of course continuing to move forward the Miriam Junction Trail along um 14 and and what that will look Like so you have your um signal at 16 there by Lowe's and Shakipi the 15 that we talked about the 25 and three roundabout for Bell Plane. These are projects now that have gone in the 16 trail gap completion and 27 the 18 um trail at Chakapi there. And then the 42 we have a federal overlay. So county highway 42 is eligible for NHS money. That's one of the importance of that being on the NHS system because it does allow us for some federal funds for a highway of that magnitude and that helps with that overlay in 28. And then we have the 1713282 intersection which actually Mindot um has initiated and taking a look at that. You authorized a study of that several months ago. Um we have some of the trail rehabilitation on the different highways and then the 15 and 78 roundabout and with some trail work going in in Shakipi in 2030. There's your sales tax um Quinton and 16 there it is 27 the county highway 17 project that we're moving through. We still need to have a discussion um on that frontage road with the city of Shakipi, but 17 and 12 roundabout, I think it was a pretty quiet uh open house the other day on that one for 12 and 17. The big 13 quarters of commerce project um 17 and 32's interchange intersection work 35 and two, we continue to show that in the cash flow, not in the document until MDOT steps up and begins to show that. And then county state highway 8 starts to come into play in 2031, which really is getting at almost all of the projects that you authorized as part of that um public hearing back in 2022. Um, I do believe at some point you're going to have to have start to have a discussion on some of the county roads in the southeast part of the county um with that rural residential and some of the needs you're going to face out there over the next several years. This just gives you um your tip cash flow. The year-end balance is uh I think that kind of orangey yellow one. Um and you know that as we get further out it could show negative. Those will all be balanced by our work. But so far, it looks pretty good as long as we continue to receive the TAA funding and the sales tax stays in play that the state authorized in 2023. That's an important part of this program. And there's the transportation sales tax cash flow. um that would get you towards 2033 at expending your last dollars on County Highway 8 or a program like that that would get you down towards um zero by that time frame. We also have some fiber um that we have to do some relocates on uh in 26. Those have been identified here. Um the cost to the CIP is about $30,000 and to the tip about 15,000 and the provider right around 44,000 for those different projects. And here is your CIP funding and the projections. Um it's 26 that is impacted in the budget. You can see the total tip is about 31 million and we put about 2.5 in. So we leverage a lot of state aid, federal partnership money. Um the same thing we put about 3.95 into the tip. Um and we've leveraged other money or using some fund balance for some of these projects we've carried over. Um we do start to increase the CIP um by 2027 and I'll show you that in a minute. Just like everything, those costs have gone up. We do decrease the road and bridge account. Um, and that's why I say that state aid funding from 23 is so critical. Um, we've decreased it based on that increase that we're seeing from the state. And so that's one that we need to continue to monitor. Um, I know we had to play defensive legislative uh last spring. Here is the cash flow. Um, Evan has done a nice job on this. So, at the end of 26, we anticipate about $1.6 million. Um, I feel much better with 2030s. I'd like to have us in that 800,000 to $900,000 range just if something comes in um over or we have to meet a need. Um but again we will balance 2029 on project letings and when the cash will go out the door. Um but that does include that increase that I mentioned in the slide before. So with that I'm happy to answer any questions um on the CIP or I think Tony might still be around if there's questions on the tip or Brad. >> Thank you very much. Members, any questions, comments? I just have one comment. Uh I appreciate the fact that the um project on Kinlock um and 16 has been moved up for um consideration and work. And so if it shows up on the CIP, it's a pretty sure bet that that's going to be actually an improvement to the system on County Road 16, >> right? when you when you approve the tip or Tony has recommended that right signals are based on warrants and so you have to have certain criteria before you would program it. If he's programmed it those warrants must be met and we would be moving that project forward. There's always also a um safety line in the tip annually that we can respond if we needed to begin some engineering or be looking at an intersection for the following year because sometimes a development in a fast growing county >> can you know cause something to change quickly and that allows them to be able to respond to that. So that's why you also see that line line item in there as well. >> Thank you. I I I I know that there's been a lot of concerns about that area and a lot of um accidents in that area. So, I'm glad that's being recognized as an improvement. With that, I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 2025-283 approving the 2026 budgets for Scott County, Minnesota. Sorry, that's okay. Go ahead. >> Sorry. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. All right. Now we will move to item number eight, committee reports and commissioner updates. Look down to my right. Commissioner Wman Brekie, please. >> I'm just there. Sorry. >> All good. All good. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, our last board meeting was on uh Thursday, December 4th, and we had our public budget meeting after that. Um, on December 5th, I had what's being called the ICS, that's human services steering committee for the state, working on the SNAP, Medicaid, and long-term service issues. December 5th had also big four meeting, the quarterly meeting with the leaders from county, city, school, and township. really that was just focused on each um group's legislative um plans for this year. December 7th was the AMC board meeting. December 7th through 10th was the AMC annual conference. December 10th, the Micah board meeting where we approved um the legislative priorities and platforms for Micah. Um the annual meeting for Micah to which all commissioners and and staff are invol uh invited is um January 29th. It's a Thursday in Sherburn County. It'll be, if you recall, um, historically that meeting started kind of midafter afternoon and went to the evening. Now it's going to be more of a daytime meeting. Uh, December 12th, the scale meeting. Today, December 16th, um, had my monthly meeting with, um, Health and Human Services Director Barb Dah and Commissioner Brennan. And then we all had Scott County ditch board this morning. End of my report. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner Wolf. >> Thank you. On the 14th, the TMT meeting that Barb mentioned there. Nice turnout. On the 8th, 9th, and 10th, the AMC uh association, Minnesota counties. Um on the 10th, uh congratulations to Barb. She was elected as the first uh chair, vice chair, right? What I don't know what they call it. >> Vice president, >> the one that does all the work. >> Yeah, second president, we'll call her. >> So, congratulations uh to Barbara on that. Then on the 10th, public works had a open house for 17 and 12. The roundabout that was discussed a few minutes ago. That'll be in 27. Uh I don't think there was too much opposition to it. Um on the 10th, Cedar Lake Sewer met on the 11th, Spring Lake Township. On the 12th scale, um just as a side note, Jake got ripped off on the contest with he got ripped off. >> Where's Sheriff? Sheriff was here. >> Oh, there's Jake back there. Yeah, Jake's there. But yeah, >> he got ripped off. And then we had a ditch uh uh four meeting on the Zoom after that. Um and we discussed that this morning. Uh had a little meeting with the mayor of Prior Lake yesterday about the 20 county road 23, the mail route, and uh um they're uh the Prior Lakes uh position is they're going to let the county take care of it. So because they only have a few people on that road. Um anyhow, we'll see what happens there. On the 15th, Niko had a uh Zoom meeting with them and they talked about the uh Gatsby uh generally accounted standards of whatever rules for accounting and uh Credit River last night or uh excuse me this morning met with him for a few minutes on the ditch. That's my report. >> All right. Thank you so much, Commissioner Brennan. >> Um December 7th through 9th I attended the AMC annual conference. December 8th was the MCIT annual meeting. Um, I have information, um, if anybody would like to get some handouts for that. Um, December 10th was the Dakota Scott Workforce Board annual event. >> Um, Greystone Construction and Friendship Manor in Scott County were both recognized for the work that they've done for workforce. Um, so it was a great uh, a great event. Um, December 10th was the open house for County Road 17, County Road 12 improvements. Um, December 11th was my meeting with Leslie Vermillion. December 12th was the scale meeting and December 16th, uh, this morning was meeting with Barb Dah and also our ditch board. >> Thank you very much. Moving on to Commissioner Claus. Um, >> thank you. On the fourth, I attended the U public meeting for our budget. Um, what I thought was kind of noteworthy, surprising maybe was the sort of uniformity and anger of the fraud in that's occurred in Minnesota. It was pretty strong and pretty widespread, which that shouldn't be surprising, but it was certainly not noteworthy. The fifth, I met with Kevin Burkhard to um check in to see if he wanted to be appointed to TAB. Um there was a position open for our county and Carver combined on the tab. He ended up um not wanting to apply. He had been on the tab prior, but he didn't want to continue with that. I don't think we submitted a name from our area. Um we got extremely late notice from the Met Council on the application. I think we got about less than a week notice on that. I'm getting a nod from the audience that that's true. On the 8th through the 9th, I attended the AMC conference. I mentioned the transportation committee, the the um one for one um um wetland replacement uh desire. What that would do obviously would reduce the cost of transportation projects, you know, because I mean it's if you have to have two acres for one, it's a more costly endeavor. So this is an effort to make it more efficient, more less costly. Uh there was another amendment that the desire was to have the the assets that are being sold off from the Northstar line that's being decommissioned. Basically, uh those assets, you know, there there's trains and there's there's other lots of assets. They want those the dollars from those assets to be uh redistributed to the the jurisdiction, cities or counties that paid in substantially for Northstar. They want to see that they they get some of the rec recoup of that. I wonder if that'll be possible or likely, but but that was one of the amendments had on the 11th my quarterly meeting with Savage that same day later in the day. uh second Thursday meeting of fish. Uh it was Bethy's last meeting. Uh I would say at the meeting there she ended strong, you know. So um and uh she's taken a position uh with the Benedictines with their foundation which Benedictans would be St. Girts and St. Francis. Um and they got a lot of facilities. Um and anyhow she will be working with her foundation tenant scale on the 12th uh 15th I had a coffee with Aaron Davich um just to talk about fish a little bit with him. Um later that same day the scale service delivery we talked all things health insurance pool and um there's more to come. I think we're we're headed towards a quick meeting here. The group really wanted the board to meet uh in January to they want to know if the board's in or out. They don't want to they don't want to spend $35,000 more for a feasibility study if the board is not in on this. And so originally the drop dead date for the I thought the onoff ramp was suggested was May 1st, but I think that the other cities are going to want a much more um soon position from the county on that. Um fish executive committee met that same day. We're obviously in the hiring mode for fish. Uh originally we had somebody that was uh very high quality former county uh employer recently retired that had indicated they they could uh do a interim part-time executive director. They had a change of circumstance situation in their family um extended family and they uh withdrew from that. So we're looking for a full-time uh director u soon. That's into my report. >> Thank you very much. Uh, nice threads. Those are good. Those are good. >> Oh, by the way, >> yes, >> I've suggested that next year on this equivalent meeting, we have a countywide ugly Christmas outfit competition contest. Uh, and maybe the commissioners judge it. >> Well, you would lose because that's not ugly. I mean, that's Styling and Styling. So, but I get your I get your drift. >> Yeah, I like I I just think it'd be fun a fun little uh event. >> We have to talk to the chair next year and see if he's up for that. >> I'm going to declare that January whatever >> sixth I think or whatever it is. Yeah, maybe >> because I almost I was going to call the sheriff on Jake losing that deal, but then I realized >> it was the sheriff that did it to him. So tomorrow, if you want to come and judge, community services is having a Christmas ugly sweater outfit contest. So if you show up at 11:30 in that, you might have a chance. >> No, I would be ineligible. >> Yeah, that's uh I love it. I love it. >> I got goated into wearing this. >> Oh, who ever would do that? I don't know. I don't know. Okay, looking good. Looking good. I got this Christmas ornament. You get this Christmas I don't know, couture. Is that how you I don't know what it is, but um it's kind of a throwback hippie kind of >> I love it. I love it. >> I think >> it's amazing. Yeah, maybe that's the new uni. I'm not sure. Okay, getting back to uh on track here. 126 uh uh our public budget workshop postboard meeting. 127 that Sunday had AMC board meeting followed by an AMC tribal meeting and then uh 8th 9th 10th 7th 8th 9th 10th whatever uh AMC annual uh it was always good it's great to make some really good relationships really good banter and chitchat in between um as you might expect budget was a was a big one there uh 1210 the open houses was mentioned 17 and 12 I when I walked in I think I was there like 5 or 5:15 um it was staff and consultants Um, so I left uh pretty quickly. So, um, you know, that's a safety that's a safety thing all the way. On the 11th, had a a Zoom call just with a group from that outreach round table that I missed. Um, so it was just kind of keeping up to speed with what's going on, keep that going. I think it's going to be in person, but it was just my first foray back into the roundts, which was great. Loved it. love to see the community coming together willing to be willing and um you know maybe the next the next new thing will be the first old thing where community helps community and we can be conveners and then get out of the way. Uh 1212 was scale. Um then we had a after that the ditch uh conversation with credit river with the zoom. Um 15th scale service delivery is talked about insurance pool. Yeah, I I'm tired of talking about all we got to figure it out one way or the other. Yes or no? And then they can figure out what they want to do if it's a no. Uh 16th uh earlier today ditch for meeting and then oh today this is my last official action is is uh board chair. No, no. >> Oh, you have to convene the meeting in January. >> I know, but for this year for this year, this year. So, been a been a privilege. So, thank you. And I know you're all excited for me to not be chair. So, >> you did a great job. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, with that, look to county administrator. >> So, um, I was also going to comment on the insurance and let the board know. We we'll have a meeting in January. Um, I walked more away from if it's just no, they want to know that. But if we still want to continue down the process and learn, the drop dead date is still May 1st. So, I think if we're a no, an absolute no, you just don't want to be a part of it, then they would make a decision. Do they want to proceed without the county? And what would that look like? If we're still a yes, the drop dead date still is May 1st. And so that's what I walked away with from that meeting. >> Can I make one little comment regarding that? One thing that was asked is, you know, what is the minimum number for the pool that would be required? >> And at some point, the idea of a thousand got in there and the thousand number was over a thousand, you don't have to have the the the back stop, the what is the term? >> Stop loss. >> The stop the stop loss. You don't have to have a stop loss if you're over a thousand. Well, there's probably no scenario where we would not have a stop loss. No matter what the size the pool was, we would always want to have a stop loss. So, but so they we did a little quick little addition. They without the county, they're at about 385 or something like that somewhere in that ballpark. Anyhow, so that's all I wanted to say. >> Yeah, that and that is right. And I think Darcy even made a statement. I don't know where Danny's, but I think she said organizations up to 10,000 still might carry stop loss. you have to have a very large organization before you go away from that. So, >> um the other thing is I did want to thank Danny. He thanked um everybody else and Barb who did a tremendous amount of work on the budget, but Danny responds to emails at 11:00 at night and 6:00 in the morning. So, he also put in a lot of time looking at and as we're making this transition to a new budget system and all of this going on. um he did a really really good job keeping us um on track and in the right places that we needed to be and working with Barb and her staff because it it was a tough year and um they should all be commended Brad and Jake as well for the work Lisa before she left as well on the work they did trying to balance this and shift and give up people and change dollars. >> Um and so I commend all of them for their work on this. They did a fantastic job. >> Agreed. Thank you. >> Oh, and we do have a work session after this just for a workday update. You've been probably seeing my >> 14 days of time card. So, anyway. >> Yes. Yes. Good times. Okay. Looking down to my right. >> Mr. Chair, commissioners, we have nothing we need to recess for today. >> All right. Well, then uh that takes us to uh item number 11 where we before we adjourn, we will be as as Leslie mentioned doing a little workday update and then a commissioner round robin as always. Make a motion to adjurnn. >> Have a motion. We have a second. Now remember, we got Hanukkah rolling this week. We got Christmas next week. We got happy new year coming. So gratitude is a choice and it's better to give than receive. So happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas, happy holidays. And >> with that, any more discussion? Otherwise, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. We