Good morning. I will go ahead and call the July 28th, 2026 Washington County Board of Commissioners meeting to order. Clerk, please take the roll. Commissioner Miron. Here. Commissioner Karwoski. Here. Commissioner Cox. Here. Commissioner Bigham. Here. Commissioner Clasen. Here. Roll call taken, all present. Thank you. Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We are at the comments from the public portion of the meeting today, and I do not have any speaker cards at the desk. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to address the board today? Seeing none, next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Chair, I would like to have remarks before a motion. Go ahead. Thank you. I am asking that policy 1300 be pulled, that is item number G from consent, and placed on policy or referred to a workshop. When this item was pulled last week, the understanding of the action was that questions would be answered before it came back. I appreciated the responses that I received from Attorney Stuart Campbell, and he had generously offered to sit down with me and walk me through my remaining concerns. But that conversation has not been able to happen yet. A few questions are still open, including the recourse for requesters that have without government ID, and the fact that we don't currently track the cost or revenue tied to data requests. A policy governing the public's access to their own government deserves a few minutes of open discussion, not a consent vote where questions feel out of place. I'd ask the board today that we adopt a written procedure for when items come off consent so we're consistent going forward. But today I ask that we move this agenda item to policy, and I ask one of my board members to please... I will motion, sorry. I will motion that we move this consent item G to policy, and I ask my board members to also second my motion. Thank you. Thank you. There's been a motion to remove item G from consent and placed on the general area of the agenda, if you will, or a workshop. Is there a second? Seeing no second, the motion fails due- Madam Chair, maybe- A lack of a second ... I would just, often the case, we move forward with things because of timing. I was just curious from staff, is there any harm in delaying this matter? Madam Chair, Commissioner, I do believe there's an August 1st deadline for reviewing this policy every year. Okay. I'm comfortable with that, but there's nothing prevent us from reviewing the policy after August 1st, at any point, like often. Madam Chair, Commissioner, we review the policy every single year. Yeah. So that can be done. Well, in lieu of the deadline of August 1st, I will not second then. But I'm always open to reviewing this in a workshop prior to the next calendar year at any time. Okay, so there's no second on the motion, so that fails due to lack of second. So, is there a motion to approve today's agenda? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Cox. Is there a second? Second. Moved by Commissioner Cox and seconded by Commissioner Miron. Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Nay. Motion carries. The next item on today's agenda is consent calendar. Are there any items on today's consent calendar that members would like to pull? Seeing none, the clerk will take the roll. Madam Chair, you need a motion. Oh, moved. There's no discussion. We do still need a motion and a second. Madam Chair, I will move the consent calendar, all items A through G. I'll second that. All right. Commissioner Miron has moved it. Commissioner Karwoski seconded. The clerk will take the roll. Commissioner Miron? Aye. Commissioner Karwoski? Aye. Commissioner Cox? Aye. Commissioner Clausen? Aye. Commissioner Bigham? Aye. Consent calendar passes 4-1. All right. The next item on the agenda is a presentation from our library regarding approving contract number 18290. And, Robert Trousdale, that's not right. Am I close? Madam Chair, Truesdale. Oh, there you. Okay, got it. Will be presenting about legal kiosk. All right. Good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners. My name's Robert Truesdale, and I'm the Washington County Law Librarian. I'm here today to request approval of contract number 18290 with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services to install a legal kiosk at the Washington County Law Library. The short presentation will first explain what a legal kiosk is and why there's a need for one at the Law Library. I will then highlight some of the specific benefits and features of a legal kiosk, and finally I'll explain the project's implementation plan and make a request for board action. A legal kiosk is a workstation which includes a computer, software, scanner, and printer. They're built with the sole purpose of helping self-represented litigants. I often refer to it as a self-represented litigant's one-stop shop. One can access forms from the Minnesota Judicial Branch, apply for legal aid services, scan and upload exhibits to the Judicial Branch's digital exhibit system, and access remote court hearings The customized software allows users to effectively and efficiently communicate with legal aid attorneys, court administration, opposing parties and their counsel, and judicial officers. As a library with 1.5 FTE, we typically serve around 4,000 patrons a year. With reference transactions commonly lasting 30 minutes or more, there can be a brief wait before speaking with a law librarian. The intuitive nature of the legal kiosk software allows users to get started on their case while waiting to speak with a librarian. In addition, legal kiosks are often a tool used by librarians themselves. Prior to Washington County, I worked in Dakota County at the law library there, and we had a legal kiosk, and when a patron would come in, we'd often start the reference interview at the kiosk. If a patron needed a specific form off the Minnesota Judicial Branch website, the best place to access that form was the kiosk because their software was fully compatible with the court's fillable smart PDFs. Additionally, if a patron came in needing to attend a remote court hearing, the kiosk's Zoom link brought patrons directly into the court's virtual waiting room, instead of having to grab a laptop, connect to the wireless internet, and then fumble around trying to find the correct Zoom URL. Similarly, if a patron needed to connect with legal aid or upload exhibits to their court case, the kiosk was simply the fastest, most secure, and efficient way to complete these tasks. There are so many benefits of these devices. They have tools that improve access which are built in, including text-to-speech, dyslexia-friendly fonts, virtual meeting captions, and voice typing. There's an icon on the kiosk home screen that provides information on how to use these tools. All kiosks installed are height adjustable, and information is available in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. And the legal kiosk software ensures that personal information is kept private as user data is cleared after every session. It's important to note that the computer, monitor, printer, scanner, and software are all provided by SMRLS at no cost to the county. This includes toner and service on the device. The CARES Act provided initial funding for these legal kiosks. However, moving forward, the cost of maintaining the kiosks will be absorbed into the ongoing administrative frameworks of Minnesota's regional legal aid providers. So we plan on installing a kiosk in one of our three law library study rooms. This will allow users to attend court hearings and connect with legal aid service providers privately. And so I come to you with one request for board action, to ask for approval of contract number 18290 with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services to install a legal kiosk at the Washington County Law Library. Thank you, and I'll stand for questions. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the contract? Motion to approve as presented. Moved by Commissioner Karwoski. I can second. Seconded by- Madam Chair, if I could read it more- Yeah ... legally properly. Yeah. Thank you. Make a motion to approve contract number 18290 between Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services and the Washington County to install a legal kiosk at the law library. That's been moved by Commissioner Karwoski and seconded by Commissioner Cox. Discussion. Commissioner Karwoski? Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the presentation. Seems like totally supportive. It's a nice improvement. I just want to verify for the public, not only attorneys would go to our law libraries, don't we have a lot of citizens that want to do some research about things, that this would be open for their use also? Chair, Commissioner, that is correct. The lion's share of our patrons are non-attorneys. They're self-represented litigants who are- Yeah ... looking for help to proceed in a variety of cases; divorce, responding to an eviction complaint, obtaining an order for protection from an abusive partner. And so yeah, the majority of our patrons are self-represented litigants who cannot afford an attorney, and we're there to serve them, and this kiosk will help us do that. Great. I think it's a great service for our citizens. Thank you. Yeah. Commissioner Cox? Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Trousdale, thank you for the presentation. You answered my questions as you were speaking. I would just be curious, in six months or a year, if there's data that you can come back and share with us about how many people maybe are utilizing this. I can't imagine that that 4,000 number is going to go down. I'm sure there will still be that many people coming into the library, but I'm wondering if their service then will be faster, right? Do they need to wait the 30 minutes while you're helping someone else, or does the kiosk kind of manage what they need right away? So, just curious as to stay in touch as it moves forward. Chair, Commissioner, I'd be happy to do so. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Trousdale. I think this is a wonderful service to offer. If folks haven't been to our law library, I encourage you to go because it is a fantastic resource. And I had talked to Mr. Trousdale about this a little over a year ago. I serve on the law library board, and this is a good start. I hope that we can maybe add another one, if the organization is so generous, in a couple of years at Stafford. It makes sense to have one there in one of the boardrooms or breakout rooms. And so I'm hoping that that can be considered in the renovation and remodel in the tech portion of the bidding or designing of that, because I think it would be helpful. So Seeing no further discussion, all in favor of approving contract number 18290 say, "Aye." Aye. Opposed say, "Nay." Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next item up on the agenda is property records and taxpayer services, about adopting a resolution recognizing National Poll Worker Recruitment Day in Washington County with our election division manager, Matt Moore. Welcome. Hi, good morning. Good morning, Chair. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Matt Moore, division manager in elections for property records and taxpayer services. I'm here today on a request for board action to adopt a resolution recognizing National Poll Worker Recruitment Day in Washington County. In 2024, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day was established to encourage individuals across the United States to become poll workers and to recognize the essential contributions of those who serve their communities through election administration. To honor the dedication of election judges, election workers, and volunteers whose service strengthens democracy and protects the rights of Washington County voters, the Property Records and Taxpayer Services Department recommends that the county board declare August 11th, 2026, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day in Washington County. And I am happy to say that I'm joined by four of our poll workers here today. We have Tammy, Betsy, Karen, and Jill, four of which we would not be able to run this election without. So just wanted to add that. Awesome. Yeah. And we would recommend that, again, the board pass this resolution. Director Moore, would you like to read the resolution, or would you like the clerk to? Or- I would love to read it. Feel free. Thank you. Thank you. Resolution recognizing National Poll Worker Recruitment Day in honoring Washington County election judges and election workers. Whereas the right to vote is a fundamental principle of our democracy, and the administration of fair, secure, and accurate, and accessible elections depends on the dedication and commitment of the individuals who serve Minnesota voters. And whereas Minnesota's election judges are appointed and trained to perform essential duties at polling places, including assisting voters, verifying voter eligibility, maintaining the security and integrity of election materials, administering election procedures, and ensuring every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot. And whereas Washington County elections are supported by thousands of dedicated election judges, absentee ballot board members, early voting staff, election office employees, and community volunteers who work before, during, and after election day to ensure elections are conducted in accordance with Minnesota law and the highest standards of accuracy, transparency, and professionalism. And whereas election judges represent the best of civic participation by setting aside personal time to serve their neighbors and their communities while working together in a bipartisan manner to protect the integrity of the electoral process. And whereas National Poll Worker Recruitment Day was established to encourage individuals across the United States to become poll workers and to recognize the essential contributions of those who serve their communities through election administration. And whereas Washington County recognizes that recruiting, training, and retaining qualified election judges is essential to maintaining public confidence in elections and ensuring that every election is administered effectively and efficiently. And whereas the Washington County Board of Commissioners wishes to express its sincere appreciation to the dedicated election judges, election workers, and volunteers whose services strengthens democracy and supports the rights of Washington County voters. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Washington County Board of Commissioners hereby recognizes August 11th, 2026 as National Poll Worker Recruitment Day in Washington County, Minnesota. Be it further resolved that the Washington County Board of Commissioners extends its gratitude and appreciation to all election judges, absentee ballot board members, early voting staff, election officials, and election workers for their commitment, professionalism, and service to the voters of Washington County. Be it further resolved that the Washington County Board of Commissioners encourages eligible residents to participate in the democratic process by considering service as an election judge and supporting the continued administration of secure, accurate, and accessible elections. Thank you, Director Moore. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? I'll move to the motion to approve the resolution in front of us. Moved by Commissioner Clausen. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Miron. Commissioner Clausen. Thank you so much for the presentation, Matt. You are doing a wonderful job. I know that you are still new in the position. And you've taken and given us some really great information already, and I'm excited to see how this season goes. Can you, for us, for the public, tell us how many people potentially do you hire for election judges temporarily? Yeah. It depends on the exact election, but we're anywhere between 900 to 1,200 election workers per cycle. Great. And I want people to know that it doesn't matter if you're not assigned to a certain city. You can be at any city or county for that matter and be an election judge. So just because you don't get selected at Washington County, you can still go to other counties and be an election poll worker. I think it's really important to be a poll worker. I think to be a part of the democratic process and to see it live and how it's done is really something everyone should do. It would be nice if we required that for college entrances or other types of certifications that people do have this type of experience. I was a city clerk, so training the 900 or 1,200 people was a part of my job, and I got to answer and have so many different questions . I can't even tell you how many questions come at you in your position. So I want to thank you for all of your staff and your-- Some of the staff is here. And all your staff's hard work. We know that you're going to have long hours Yes. And we know that all of making sure everything gets done and checks and balances are complete. More importantly, we have all the supply items back. We even count voting stickers, if people didn't know. We count everything. So, and I know there's so much of that that goes into this. And so those that are doing this, and the people who are poll workers, they always come up and tell me that, "I'm an election judge, and I've been an election judge for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." And it's such an important pride to them. And so, I just also wanted to special thanks to them, special shout-out, because those are long days. They are. A lot of times they're doing full schedules, not just part days. So, really appreciate that from them. Thanks. Thank you. Commissioner Miron. Yeah. Thank you, Manager Moore. I appreciate you reading that resolution. It really does spell out all of the aspects of why we're identifying this week, and recognizing our voter workers. I have utmost confidence in our elections. Washington County, in my opinion, does a fabulous job, and certainly that's a large part in due to the volunteers that participate in our civic process here in elections and protecting those rights. So, I think the final statement, just thank you to all of those workers and all of those within property records and taxpayer services that manage the elections. It is a busy time of year, and there is a lot of effort that is put into our elections here in Washington County. So, thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Karwoski. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Moore, for presenting. I totally agree with my commissioner colleagues' comments, but I think it's also worth mentioning again about when we meet poll workers, how prideful they are to profess that. And I think it's only appropriate to recognize them with a resolution prior to the upcoming primary season starting. It's only appropriate to recognize them with a resolution for the important work they do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Manager Moore, to you and your whole team. We are currently in the throes of early voting, big E, big V voting, where you direct feed the ballot- Yeah ... as we learned before. How's that going? It's going very well. To date, that process started on Friday, July 24th. So we've had two full days of early voting. And as of close of polls yesterday, we've had 453 voters come through our four different vote centers to cast their ballot, again, like you said, directly into the tabulator machine. That is in addition to the nearly 4,000 absentee ballots we have accepted since the absentee ballot process has begun 46 days prior to the election. And so that puts us at about 2.1% voter turnout two weeks before primary election day. Nice. Well, thank you for all that work and just so much gratitude to the poll workers. And just the long hours, as it's been said, the training, and it's just to really see our democracy in action is quite amazing, and you're the main part of it. So, just thank you very much. Why don't you stand up if you're a poll worker there and thank you very much. And I did see one more person sneak in, Cheryl. Is a full-time election staff, so I want to make sure she gets recognized as well. Well, thank you. No further discussion, then the clerk will take the roll on the resolution. Commissioner Miron. Aye. Commissioner Karwoski. Aye. Commissioner Cox. Aye. Commissioner Clausen. Aye. Commissioner Bigham. Aye. Resolution passes five zero. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is with Public Works on adopting a resolution on the Jamaica Avenue and Ravine Parkway project in Cottage Grove, and Zach Raven will be presenting. All right. Good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners. My name is Zach Raven. I serve as an assistant traffic engineer with Washington County Public Works. Today, I'll be presenting a proposed resolution for the installation of an all-way stop at County State Aid Highway 20, also known as Jamaica Avenue at Ravine Parkway in the city of Cottage Grove. Here's a quick overview of what I'll cover today. First, I'll review existing conditions of the intersection. Next, I'll walk through reasons Public Works is recommending the all-way stop. And finally, I'll present a resolution for the board's consideration to authorize the installation of appropriate signs and pavement markings at this location. CSAH 20 at Ravine Parkway is located in the northeast portion of Cottage Grove. Right now, it operates as a three-legged intersection. However, a fourth western leg is currently being constructed, which is ultimately planned to connect over to Hilton Avenue at 65th Street South. CSAH 20 has a posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour. Ravine Parkway is posted at 40. There's currently one sidewalk on the east side of CSAH 20. However, additional sidewalks are planned as part of the Lockridge development on the west side, along with a new park near the southwest quadrant of the intersection. These changes set the stage for reevaluating the appropriate traffic control for the intersection. The Lockridge development to the west, as a condition of access, was required to install dedicated left and right turn lanes on CSAD 20. Although a temporary all-way stop or a permanent closure of the intersection would be required to construct these turn lanes. Current traffic conditions do not warrant an all-way stop, but with developments occurring on both sides of CSAD 20, it's only a matter of time before the current two-way stop would become problematic. The CIP team is evaluating this intersection as part of the CSAD 20 project scheduled for 2028. However, there have been no formal conclusions on any sort of intersection improvements for this particular intersection. Both developments in the area will increase traffic entering CSAD 20 from Ravine Parkway, both motorized and non-motorized. An all-way stop provides operational benefits for side street traffic, offering more balanced right-of-way assignment. It would also provide more opportunities and safer conditions for pedestrians to cross, especially since the Lockridge development will be including a park, as I mentioned earlier. And lastly, implementing this change negates the need for repeated construction and helps avoid disruptions by addressing anticipated traffic conditions upfront. While all-way stops offer benefits, it's important to mention what they can and cannot do. All-way stops help assign right-of-way to intersections, but they're not a cure-all solution. They can increase delay for county road traffic. However, they can reduce delay for drivers driving or trying to enter the county road from the side street. They can be effective at reducing certain crash types, particularly right angle crashes. However, they can increase noise, emissions, and frequency of rear-end crashes. So while the treatment is appropriate here, it's not universally suitable for every intersection. Based on existing conditions, anticipated traffic growth, operational benefits, and pedestrian needs, Public Works recommends adopting a resolution authorizing the installation of necessary signs and pavement markings to establish an all-way stop at CSAD 20 and Ravine Parkway in the city of Cottage Grove. This action will allow us to proactively manage safety and operations as the area continues to grow. I will now stand for questions. Thank you. I will go ahead and move to adopt a resolution authorizing the installation of appropriate signs and markings to establish an all-way stop condition at the intersection of County State Aid Highway 20, Jamaica Avenue South at Ravine Parkway in the city of Cottage Grove. Second. It's moved and seconded. Thank you, Mr. Raven, for the presentation. This is a project that is in the works with two different developments on the side of Jamaica, and the 2028 project will be a roundabout at the top, right off of Military, and they're gonna be at the top of the project. And the two huge developments, one's on the McCaddy farm that is currently underway, and then there's a Pulte development right across the street from it. And the construction traffic too is immense. And so, I think this is warranted. And then I also just... The park on the side where the city will have the sidewalks and entrance there. Just a note is that that park's gonna be named after a former Washington County Commissioner, Myra Peterson, and her husband, Roger Peterson, who was the longtime mayor of Cottage Grove. So, the city is really pushing and developing out in this area, and so it is gonna increase the traffic and pressure on Ravine Parkway. So I think this is definitely warranted and do appreciate the time and effort. Commissioner Cox. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Raven, thank you for the presentation. I know I looked a lot at the picture with the purple and the orange. Mm-hmm. And I just really appreciate the thoughtfulness of working ahead of this. I know that in some of my communities, when stop signs go in after the fact of new developments being put in, it can be a real disruption. Mm-hmm. So I appreciate this going in ahead of time so that the traffic pattern can change before all of those families move in. That just felt really smart. And then I also really appreciate the resolution from the city of Cottage Grove being included as well. It just really shows that the local community there also sees the value of this, and just impacts the power of this all-way stop at this intersection. So thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Clausen. Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. I'm confused about this project. I don't see the amount of money and the budget amount. Can you tell me what project is this from? Madam Chair, Commissioners, or Commissioner Clausen, it's not associated with the project. It is simply adding some pavement markings and two signs. I'm sorry, did you just say it's just adding some pavement markings and two signs? Correct. So it doesn't have an allocated amount of budget. I'd presume that we'd be taking that out of our traffic operations budget. Thank you for that comment. It's interesting because I have worked with the Public Works department, and have been told that anything we do has to have some type of traffic study or some study in regards to this, and that it also needs to be written in the CIP, the capital improvement plan that we adopt every year. So can you explain to me why this is different? Madam Chair, Commissioners. Installing the all-way stop, it has been studied, and we found that under current conditions, it did not warrant an all-way stop, so we did perform that analysis. And in terms of intersection control improvements, I guess I can't speak on the installation of something as, say, a roundabout or a signal that would need a CIP project. This is a back-of-the-pocket item that we have to address certain traffic control needs. Thank you. It looks like County Administrator Corbid would like to say some words, because this is out of the norm from what we usually see. Mr. Guserson to-- Oh, Mr. Guserson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I can just add on that I'll concur with what Zach said, that this is not a capital expenditure, this is an operations expenditure, so this is budgeted through the public works budget. Thank you. It's just not written on the staff report. Normally, when we have any type of project, I can pull some from the past. We have the budget listed on there. How much is it going to cost? What plan is it from? But right now, you're speaking in more general terms than I'm used to. And so based on the information that you're providing me today, it doesn't give me a clear understanding of why this is happening before other projects. Because I imagine you have multiple projects that are going on, and so in order to do this project, something else is going to the wayside. And so I'm not on the same page. I don't understand the priority of it, and so I'm not going to be able to, if I don't know what the cost, approve it today. Okay. I know that this is part of in 28, the capital improvement plan, RB2691, which is in the narrative for the board packet today. But seeing no further discussion, the clerk will take the roll. Commissioner Miron? Aye. Commissioner Karwoski? Aye. Commissioner Cox? Aye. Commissioner Clausen? Nay. Thank you. Commissioner Bigham? Aye. Resolution passes four-one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is general administration, and the first item is adopting a resolution to approve a Land and Water Legacy Program conservation easement project on 27 acres in Marine on St. Croix. And today, Ms. Rath is going to start us off, and then we have Mr. Ostlie to have some discussion after that and presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair, commission members. My name is Trina Raths. I'm a planner in the Office of Administration working on Land and Water Legacy Program. And as mentioned, Wayne Ostlie is here with me today. He is the Director of Land Protection for the Minnesota Land Trust. We're also lucky enough to have some other partners in the audience today, specifically Lydia Freimanek, who's a program manager for the Minnesota Land Trust, as well as the project we're discussing, and Adam Heathcote, who's the director of the Science Museum's St. Croix Watershed Research Station. So I will kick us off with a brief overview of the presentation. So we'll start with the purpose, then discuss the Land and Water Legacy Program itself before I present on the project under consideration. That will include the location, scope, prioritization, terms, partnership, and funding. Then I'll close out with the existing support for this project and the requested action. So the purpose of today's item is to consider a potential Land and Water Legacy Program, or LWLP, conservation easement in Marine on St. Croix on roughly 27 acres in partnership with the Minnesota Land Trust. But before we dive into that project, I'll start with some background on what Land and Water Legacy Program is. So the Land and Water Legacy Program was officially created in 2006 when Washington County voters approved a $20 million land and water protection referendum. As you all know, the board did approve a renewed Land and Water Legacy Program referendum question this past June for the 2026 ballot. But for today's presentation, we'll still be focusing on that 2006 bond era that this project falls under. Land and Water Legacy serves two functions for the county. The first is acquiring land for the county's regional parks system from willing sellers. What land is acquired is determined by the long-range parks master plans, and those are pre-approved by Washington County and the Metropolitan Council. The second is conservation easements, which is when the county works with willing landowners to permanently protect a property's natural resources. So unlike parks, there are no pre-approved master plans for this area of the program, so every single conservation easement is independently reviewed and approved by the board as we're doing today. Throughout the history of the program, it's protected over 1,900 acres throughout the county. 53 projects have been completed. 29 of those are conservation easements, and then 24 are parks acquisitions. Over $53 million have been invested. Of that $53 million, over $19 million of that is county funding, and then the other 34 is invested from partnerships like the Metropolitan Council, nonprofits, and various state grants. So essentially, for every single dollar the county's invested in this program, there's an additional $1.80 that's been leveraged in return. So the project that we're discussing today fits under the conservation easement side of the program. A conservation easement is a permanent, legally binding agreement between a landowner and the county to keep the land in its natural condition while allowing the landowner to maintain ownership. And conservation easements serve an important role for the county as one of our most effective tools to permanently protect natural areas, and that contributes to things like wildlife habitat, clean water, recreation, and overall community wellbeing. But now that we know more about Land and Water Legacy as a whole, we'll dive into the project before the board today. So this is what we call the Pine Needles Conservation Easement Project. It's a potential Land and Water Legacy program conservation easement property that's owned by the Science Museum of Minnesota. And it's called Pine Needles because it's home to the historic James Taylor Dunn Pine Needles Cabin. This is a cabin that was built in 1912 and occupied by James Taylor Dunn, who was chief librarian of the Minnesota Historical Society and publisher of the first major history of the St. Croix River. It was donated to the Science Museum in 1998, and it's now where they host their annual Artist-in-Residency program, which is a program where artists stay at the cabin and make art inspired by the river and surrounding nature. And since 2002, that residency program's hosted over 80 talented artists. It's also inspired countless others through Science Museum's outreach and events. So there's not only significance for the local habitat here, but for community and culture as well. The property is located at 18037 St. Croix Trail North, again in Marine. It's very close to William O'Brien State Park, being only around 300 feet away at its shortest distance. So there's really great habitat connectivity here with that surrounding green space. And of course, that habitat does have a great steward, again, being the Science Museum. I think we all know the huge impact that the Science Museum has had in Minnesota. Now it's connected hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to science and nature. The Science Museum is a cornerstone of learning for people of all ages. They host interactive exhibits and collections with more than two million objects. They're also a leader in scientific research at both their St. Paul location and beyond. And one of those facilities is the St. Croix Watershed Research Station that's located in May Township. That's just three miles down the road from Pine Needles. The research station was actually protected by a conservation easement in 2022, and that's co-held between the Minnesota Land Trust and the Land and Water Legacy program. And the research station is home to scientists who study water around the world and provide essential data to improve water quality and reduce the pollution of our lakes and rivers. That permanent conservation easement now ensures that this land is well-supported and available for this research in perpetuity. And the research station project is, of course, separate from Pine Needles, but it serves as an example of a partnership between the county, Minnesota Land Trust, and the Science Museum, that we're hopeful the Pine Needles project can expand upon. And like the research station, the Pine Needles property does host some fantastic natural resources. It does contain regionally significant ecological areas, or RSEA areas, according to the Minnesota DNR, and it's ranked medium-high and high for quality of habitat for species in greatest conservation need, according to Minnesota's Wildlife Action Plan. And just a handful of those species include the Blanding's turtle, bluesucker fish, bog bluegrass, red-shouldered hawk, rusty patch bumblebee, and stemless tick trefoil. All of those species have a status in Minnesota that range from special concern to threatened to endangered. The Blanding's turtle, for example, is a threatened species in Minnesota whose habitat has been consistently threatened through fragmentation and development. So protection of their habitat is known to be critical. Another example is the red-shouldered hawk, which is a species of special concern, and they prefer to home in large natural parcels with mature deciduous forests with access to water bodies, just like this property. And then the last example is the stemless tick trefoil, which is a threatened species that was once widespread before European settlement. But according to the DNR, over 90% of its habitat's been degraded, but it does reside in this property. So the protection of this property will ensure that the habitat for these rare plants and species, as well as countless others, is preserved forever. And that critical habitat component is a large part of our prioritization for this project. So as the board knows, habitat quality and the protection priority of potential projects are reviewed according to a countywide ranking system that we developed in collaboration with the Washington Conservation District. And WCD used a wide range of natural resource datasets to create our countywide ranking system. So through that system, areas that rank highest are known as our top 10 priority conservation areas. And while those areas give us a good general guide of natural resources throughout the county, they're not the end-all be-all for Land and Water Legacy protection, so areas that fall outside of the top 10 priority areas can still be considered. Projects are also reviewed for regional significance, so we work very closely with our cities and townships to prioritize projects that are a high priority for those local communities as well. And ultimately, if a project moves forward or not is a decision made exclusively by you all as the county board. Every project is independently reviewed and approved by both you as the board and our Parks and Open Space Commission. As for how Pine Needles fits into that ranking, the Pine Needles project is located within our St. Croix River buffer zone top 10 priority areas because of its proximity to the St. Croix River. Under the Land and Water Legacy program's ranking assessment that we conducted with WCD, it ranked very high overall for protection according to that criteria, and very high overall for habitat quality according to their natural resource datasets. So that shows us that this is a great fit for the Land and Water Legacy program's established criteria. So we know that this project fits into the county's goals, but a major aspect of this project is also our partnerships. Again, we're lucky to have Wayne Ostlie here from the Minnesota Land Trust, so I'm going to pass it off to him, and he'll walk us through the easement scopes and partnerships that'll guide this project moving forward. Welcome, Mr. Ostlie. Thanks, Serena, and chair, and commissioners. My name is Wayne Ostlie. I am the director of land protection with the Minnesota Land Trust. I'd like to first talk a little bit about who we are as an organization. We are a nonprofit conservation organization based in St. Paul with a mission of protecting and restoring Minnesota's land, water, and wildlife so that nature thrives for everyone forever. And we've been around since 1991, and during that timeframe, we've protected over 90,000 acres across the state of Minnesota and 600 miles of fragile shoreline. We also have a restoration program that works with our conservation easement landowners to protect and restore their lands once those easements are in place. To date, we've restored over 12,400 acres of critical habitat across the state of Minnesota. We do most of this work in partnership with other conservation organizations. State, federal, as well as local units of government are really important to us and the success of our programs. Partnerships are key, just as it is here in Washington County. And a little bit about our origins. Washington County is home to us. We started in 1991 as the Washington County Land Trust. And so, in 1993, we decided to, as an organization, go statewide. But to date, we have more conservation easements, about 90 of them, here in Washington County than in any other county in the state of Minnesota. We hold currently nine conservation easements in partnership with the Land and Water Legacy program here in Washington County, totaling about just under 500 acres. I want to mention the photo that you see here. This is the Herried property in the city of Afton. It's one of our recent projects that we worked on and completed in partnership with Washington County, as well as the city of Afton. You may not get a good sense of it here, but it is about a 39-acre property that sits on the bluffs overlooking the beautiful St. Croix River. Quite a spectacular property. We collaborated with the County of Washington to protect the property through conservation easements, and then city of Afton was able to then purchase the property, and it will become a public park, open to the public, we think, sometime this year. So that's a success story of the Land and Water Legacy program and our partnership, and an example of what we'd also like to do with the Pine Needles property and Science Museum of Minnesota. So, a little bit of project scope. You've seen the outline of this property and the ecological merits of it. It is a spectacular property. You may not get a good sense of it as you're driving north from the city of Marine, but once you get down into it, it's a spectacular property and certainly a city benefit. What we've done with the context of this property, much of it will be protected for its ecological values in perpetuity. You'll see on the map here a blue area highlighted. This is a building envelope. It says on the screen that this will be excluded from the easement. It's actually going to be included within the easement. Typically, what we do when we have areas of infrastructure within the conservation easement is put that within what we call a building envelope. This allows the landowner to maintain those buildings and also serves to concentrate activity or use within a defined area, allowing the other areas of the property to be more hands-off. The other thing you'll see on the west side of the property adjacent to the highway, this is St. Croix Trail North, is that we've excluded the right of way from the conservation easement. This was intentionally done so that the county, going forward, as road is potentially expanded or there's maintenance on the road, really doesn't have to do anything or impact the conservation easement in any way, shape, or form. With those boundaries established, then we can effectively protect the rest of the property. A little bit about the conservation easement terms that are in play here. You have, in your packet, the conservation easement document. The conservation easement document defines exactly the legal terms of the protection that will be afforded the property. And so those terms will be upheld by both Washington County and the Minnesota Land Trust as co-holders of this easement. Generally, in the conservation easement, we provide certain allowances or uses that the landowner retains and can utilize the property for going forward. We also then put restrictions on the property in terms of things that we won't want to see happen so that we can ensure a long-term protection of the property. So we can go over those in a little more detail. Trails and footpaths, existing ones on the property, are allowed to be maintained. We typically curtail the development of more trails and don't allow for that without approval. Maintenance, repair, and remodeling of existing structures within the building envelope is allowed and permitted in their current locations. Low impact recreational use for Science Museum of Minnesota programming Including the artists at Pine Needles program is allowed. Habitat management is actually encouraged in accordance with an approved habitat management plan. We provide that habitat management plan to the landowners with their input. And so that serves as a guide. Going forward through time, we often work with landowners to provide them or connect them up with resources to make that habitat management possible. The other thing that Science Museum is, they are a scientific research organization, so the allowance of scientific research on the property is certainly one thing that we allow within the context of the conservation easement as well. Some of the restrictions that come into play, there will be no industrial, commercial, or agricultural use, no development, no division of the property, no mining or docks, no new roads, no alteration of the surface, shorelines, water bodies, or wetlands on the properties is permitted. Minnesota Land Trust, as I mentioned before, we have over 800 conservation easements in the state of Minnesota, and we monitor each one of these annually. And so that's a major undertaking we do within the organization, and we will do it for this property as well. Funding for us to do that monitoring of these properties comes from the Outdoor Heritage Fund, which is funding a portion of this property. We'll get into that piece in a little more detail. So the other thing I wanted to talk about is another property which came before you previously in discussion. We've been working with the Science Museum of Minnesota on a complimentary property called the Tanglewood property, just south of Scandia Marine. It's also just west of the Watershed Research Station property that Serena mentioned earlier. We completed a conservation easement on this property in late June of this year. And so the reason I'm presenting this and talking about this property is that this is a property that in early discussions with the Science Museum of Minnesota, our goal was to close on these two properties together. The timelines didn't quite work out that way, but we'll be closing in close proximity to each other. Each of these properties was contingent upon closing of the other conservation easement, and so I wanted to bring that forward. The Tanglewood property here, about 100 acres in May Township. It closed under a Outdoor Heritage Fund grant that Washington County and Minnesota Land Trust collaborated on the phase one of that grant program. The county is not a co-holder of this conservation easement. This easement is held solely by Minnesota Land Trust. As I mentioned, Science Museum of Minnesota agreed to fully donate this conservation easement under the condition that the Pine Needles project move forward. I would also like to mention here that staff from Washington County did brief May Township board on this connection last April, and they did that to really ensure full transparency regarding the relationship between the two projects, and the township board expressed support for both projects. Now with that context, I'll explain a little bit more about how the project fits into the broader grant partnership. This gets a little bit into the weeds, so I'll try to clarify it as best as I can. We are currently or have been working with Washington County on two successive Outdoor Heritage Fund grants. Phase one was a $4.3 million award to both Washington County and Minnesota Land Trust back in 2022, with $3.3 million of that going to the Land Trust for conservation easements, $970,000 of that going to Washington County for staff, as well as habitat restoration and enhancement work. The grant period for land protection, the conservation easement piece of that, sunsetted on June 30th of this year. The restoration element, which is the piece that Washington County is working with, has an additional year to complete their work. As I mentioned before, the Tanglewood easement closed under the phase one grant. Phase two came online July 1st of this year. It is a $2.8 million award to the partners, with $2 million coming to the Land Trust for conservation easements, $760,000 to Washington County for parks natural resource staff and habitat enhancement. That project is just underway, and so on the land protection side, will run for another four years and another five years on the restoration side of the equation. We had desired to bring the Pine Needles property through and close initially under phase one due to some programmatic delays at the We needed to get a review of the appraisal at the DNR. That timeline shifted, and so right now, we're not allowed to close conservation easements under a new grant until we have executed grant agreements with the DNR. The timeline for doing that is sufficiently far removed that we'd like to close this project, the Pine Needles project, as soon as possible. And so it falls into this gap between when the project is officially online versus when we have signed executed grant agreements. And as a result, the land trust is going to use one of its other funding sources through the Outdoor Heritage Fund to meet its obligations related to this project and move it forward as a result. I think that's where I need to stop, and I'll hand it back to Serena to continue the presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Wayne. So for every single conservation easement project that we do, an appraisal is required to determine the exact conservation easement value. So as Wayne mentioned, they did conduct an appraisal for Pine Needles. That totaled to $1,930,000. So that cost will be split between Washington County and the Minnesota Land Trust as co-holders. So Washington County's contributions include staff time and a proposed contribution of $900,000, or 46.6% of that easement value. These funds will come out of the 2024 to 2026 Land and Water Legacy Interim Fund that was approved by a budget amendment passed by the county board in May of '24. MLT will also contribute their staff time. They'll cover all due diligence costs and contribute $1,030,000, or 53.4% of the easement value. One thing that we do want to make clear with the board is that this does differ slightly from the county and MLT's usual cost share. So past projects that we've co-held with MLT are funded usually 40% by the county, 60% MLT. This easement did end up appraising higher than we anticipated, so we're proposing that the county increase that share from 40% to roughly 47%, just to lessen that share and make sure that we're still seeing this project to completion. I will note that that 47% share is not uncommon for the Land and Water Legacy program overall. So every single project that we do is unique in terms of funding, but our unofficial standard for Land and Water Legacy is that we try not to pay more than 50% of the total conservation easement value, and we do that by leveraging partnerships, donations, and grants. So while this doesn't push us past that funding standard that we have for Land and Water Legacy overall, it just deviates a little bit from our historical 40/60 split with MLT. So, as with any Land and Water Legacy program project that we have for approval, we also made sure to do our due diligence for support before bringing it to the board. To give you a high-level timeline of the journey of this project so far, the board was first introduced to the project back in January of 2026 through a workshop where you all signaled your interest to continue exploring the project. Then we introduced it to the Parks and Open Space Commission in March, provided a motion of support. I do want to provide a slight correction here. It was actually July, not June, so just this past week, where we went back to the Parks and Open Space Commission, and we reviewed the habitat management plan with them for comment. In terms of outside support, we started with Marine on St. Croix. They provided a resolution of support for the project back in March that's also included inside in your packet. As Wayne mentioned, we did go to the main township board in April to review this project and the connection to the other project, the Tanglewood property. Then in June, both the MLT board of directors and the Science Museum board of directors approved the project to move forward. So now we're seeking approval from the Washington County Board to close on this project. So the request before you all is to adopt a resolution to authorize the county board chair and county administrator to sign on behalf of the board for a Land and Water Legacy Program conservation easement on a 27-acre parcel in Marine on St. Croix and authorize a financial contribution of $900,000. But with that, we're happy to stand for any comments or questions. Commissioner Mira. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will move a resolution to authorize the county board chair and county administrator to sign on behalf of the county board for the Land and Water Legacy Program conservation easement on the 27-acre parcel in Marine on St. Croix and authorize a financial contribution of 900,000. I'll second. Moved and seconded. Commissioner Mira? Thank you. First of all, I want to thank Minnesota Land Trust, the partnership that we've had with you on these conservation easements, and for providing some of the history of the organization. I didn't realize that you had established yourself in Washington County initially and then expanded to the state, so that was interesting. And I also appreciate the partnership that you've developed in creating the management plans that go with these conservation easements. Certainly, as Serena pointed out, we work with willing sellers, and the allowances and the restrictions on this property are embraced by the landowners, along with the county and Minnesota Land Trust, and just appreciate the opportunity we have for preservation within Washington County. Serena, I am so impressed with your personal growth as you worked within this arena for some time now, but I remember when you first came on board, and I'm just so impressed today with your presentation and your own personal growth. And I see Emily is in the audience here. She works closely with you and I think has been part of that ... personal growth for yourself, but I want to thank both of you for the work that you're doing. This is historic site, and it's had historic uses, which I think are going to be allowed to be preserved under this conservation easement. As you pointed out, I think it's a special property being so close to the William O'Brien State Park, and obviously some continuity on the quality of environment and environmental protection opportunities that exist within those areas. And the amount of shoreline here on the St. Croix River and the importance of the river to Washington County, and the quality of that river is really, really important to us. And so I'm really pleased that we're able to preserve that amount of area along the river. And then, just so appreciate the outreach to both May Township and Marine on St. Croix on these projects. Both communities have been very supportive of so many of the conservation projects that their residents have a desire to achieve and protect property that they own. And then just fabulous that we're able to be a partner with those property owners, and that these properties continue to remain under private ownership, but with significant protection. So I'm excited to support this and just appreciate all the work that's gone into this effort. I know your timeline shows that you spent a significant amount of time and effort on this project, and just appreciate that. Commissioner Karwoski. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Rath and Mr. Ostlie for your presentation. I want to give a shout-out here to Commissioner Miron and Commissioner Cox, which represents a great deal of the St. Croix River. I know Chair Bigham has some of the southern part of the river, but you all do a great job on knowing your communities and knowing what's a good fit. It's great to see those, like you say, these partnerships not only with our city, the private homeowners. So I couldn't agree with everything Commissioner Miron had to say. I know in District 2, I'm on the western side of the boundary, and I think people all over the county, in my opinion, strongly supports the protection of these key water sources. I know this one rates really high as top. Rated number 10, I think is the number used. Well, first of all, this 27 acres, not only as Commissioner Miron pointed out, it's probably hundreds of feet of St. Croix. In my younger years, I did St. Croix, canoed this area, and so it gives you that extra balance of just how special it is. But I wanted to point out that 27 acres, there could've been several homes. So the conservation easement preventing homes, driveways, I believe it restricts farming, so pretty much keeps it in a natural state. So there's all sorts of harmful sediments and possible manufactured home chemicals off the roof, traces of that would get into the river. I'm also struck by all the, and this is for the residents, because I've asked it many times in workshops, are the slides really the pictures of the property? And it always is. I'm surprised at the beauty. So in particular, there's many, not only of the St. Croix, slide nine I think does a ponding. But slide three, if you could put that up there. Pictures say a thousand words. No. My slide three I think was, yeah, that one. Yeah. That's amazing to me. When you see that, you go, "Wow, that's what we're protecting." I think it was worth putting up there. I have a few comments regarding slide 22, though. I always ask this, and I didn't see the figure on there. I fully supported the acquisition, acquiring this conservation easement. And I think why the land value isn't on there, so if we had to purchase the land, 27 acres, or if it was up for consideration. Because in recent years, we've really been migrating to a lot more conservation easements almost as a preference because we can get a lot more buying power. But I think the land value, I believe the conservation easement is somewhat of a ratio of the land value, and that's probably why it's not listed. But I think it's worth mentioning, I'm kind of curious for the taxpayers if you could know what the land value is for 27 acres on the St. Croix. Ms. Jorgensen? Yes. Madam Chair, Commissioner Karwoski, thank you for asking that question. I remember that this is something that was particularly important to you on the last easement we did. So apologies for not including it on the slides this time, and we will never forget. But I want to say this is the benefit of having our guests in the audience because I had them quickly crunch the numbers for me so we had it at our fingertips. So I'd like to thank Lydia from MLT for being here today. So the full value of the land if we were to purchase the land outright would be $2,895,000. So our easement at $1,000,930 is about 67% of that value. Okay Thank you. I did reach out. I didn't want to blindside staff with that question, so I did reach out, but not that much prior to the topic here. So I apologize. It's better to ask those questions on a Thursday or something. But thank you. But I think those are a worthy figure moving forward to always put in a presentation. That's all I have. Fully supportive. It's just a magnificent piece of property. Commissioner Clausen. Thank you for the presentation. I appreciate it. We recently had the Land and Water Legacy partnership approved in front of the board, and during that time, I had researched a lot about where MLT, Land and Trust, DNR, and I looked to see, do we need to be a land and water legacy in order to work with them? And that we don't. We could just be a county, and we could have a budget towards parks and rec, which we currently don't have, and we could direct those funds to work with Land and Trust. And so for me, the Land and Water Legacy represents really land use. So it's a planning document. It was pointed out today that we have three commissioners versus two that have the St. Croix area to protect and represent. But the other two, we don't have any conservation areas. And so I continue, and since you're here today, of course, I'm going to take the opportunity to state that Woodbury, Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Landfall, Birchwood, Mahtomedi, Lake Elmo, all are in very important areas too, that I know the cities would love to have opportunities to conserve and provide this opportunity. So, I'm not saying no to this project. My hope is that we start to look at the entire county on how we can be equitable with the types of money we're putting in. Because the bigger cities that I talk about and I represent are the ones that are the most populated and giving the money to the county. So, my job as a representative is to make sure that that money is also going back to my local communities, and this does not. And so it is hard for me to continue to see these projects being recommended by staff, but not seeing the other aspects that I've been asking for, which is equity. So, thank you. Commissioner Mira. Yeah, I just want to respond to that. Sure do. Washington County has been involved in this work for 20 years. And originally, the priority areas were identified by the county board. I don't think any member of that county board is here today. But overall, looked at the entire county and established the high-priority areas, and that's the priority areas that our staff have been focused on in identifying. And there's still obviously a lot of opportunity within those high-priority areas. And as was pointed out, we work with willing landowners, and so we can't necessarily dictate a property owner in Landfall, for example, to come to the county board and negotiate easements. So, we have the guidance that was developed by a previous county board identifying the areas that we should focus in within the county, and our staff has done that. And again, we continue to work with willing landowners. And so, those are the two guiding principles on where we acquire land, and I think staying that course and continuing to follow that policy that was created earlier is good practice. Commissioner Clausen. Yeah. Thank you. I think that we all need to look at the board makeup and understand that we have three commissioners that represent certain areas and the other two don't. And as we grow, because these are old policies, as we grow, we need to reexamine and look at equality. And we actually should have seven board members on this commission. So I want to just state that this is an example of what happens when we become too big, and people who are at cities are losing their voices. So that's what's occurring. The most populated residents are losing their voices, and we need to make sure that we are being more equitable. And I'm not seeing that in practices, policies, even though there are things that are said that we do outreach. I know that there will not be anyone holding the hand of someone from Landfall and helping them through the conservation easement part of this. This is complicated. And we know that they are also all trailer parks. So even to mention that doesn't make sense. It's the fact that literally this project eliminates some cities, and Landfall is one of them. And that needs to be discussed because they are trailer parks. Just for the record, we are not eliminating Landfall You're watching. Administrator Corban. Madam Chair and commissioners, just to add to the comment that Commissioner Miron meant about on the top 10 priority areas, we also have a very active portion of this program where we work directly with cities to identify projects within their boundaries for protection, and oftentimes it's a partnership on the more passive park type of opportunities that are available. So we have done, over the last 20 years, projects in a number of the communities that Commissioner Clausen mentioned, the City of Woodbury, the City of Oakdale, the City of Stillwater. Those projects have come forward under that local match portion of our Land and Water Legacy program, and the intention is that that will continue if the referendum passes in 2026. So those opportunities do exist, and they have been successfully part of the program over the years. So again, we can share that information with you, but we want to be clear with the public that the opportunity for these is countywide, and we have a very active program so that more developed areas also have projects in them as well. The other note I would just make, too, is there was a comment made about the split of the county contribution and the MLT being a little bit higher than typical in a lot of our projects. I would also note that, as Serena mentioned, we are not a funder of the Tanglewood property, right? And so as staff reviewed this project, we looked at it as in the totality that we are benefiting from the Tanglewood easement that is being paid for completely by MLT, and then we're a little higher on the project share for the Pine Needles project. But together, we're certainly within that realm of a typical county MLT split or county partner split on conservation easements. So I just wanted to note those two items. Okay. We're going to go to Commissioner Cox- Sure ... because she hasn't had any comments yet. We'll come back through. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. R**s and Mr. Ostlie, thank you for the presentation. I'm going to go back to the project that we have here at hand. I'm happy to support this, it being along the St. Croix River in the top 10 area. This checks all of the boxes for Washington County for sure, and also then for the partners that are here with us today. So thank you, Science Museum, for being here as well. We can talk equity about this, and I think it's just really interesting to note that we work with eligible people that come forward with their own properties. And, I know the City of Stillwater has one plot of land that's 20 acres. That's the only plot that's left. Some of our communities are just built out, and they have been. We're part of the oldest part of our state. And so, the opportunity does look different by community, but I don't think that as staff or board members, we're picking and choosing our favorites based on that. It's based on who's coming forward with us and who our partners are working with as well. So I appreciate this project. I think it's very important, and I love what it stands for the community at large. Commissioner Clausen. Thank you. Based on the comments from County Administrator Corbid, I think it's very fair to say now that the Land and Water Legacy is a substitute for the Parks Department's need for a budget, and that's really what is happening is that because there is no budget for parks, that this has really become the Land and Water Legacy. But, as I said, this is a land use. This is forever a conservation easement. So as we develop these areas around the cities, we will see less opportunity for commercial and residential and industrial tax base. We will see an ongoing need for cities like Oakdale and Woodbury and Cottage Grove to have to pay higher taxes than other communities. Currently, Woodbury is the highest taxed residents of the county, and it's going to continue to be that way if we're going to have this much pressure on the developed areas rather than in protecting the areas that are in three out of the five commissioners' districts. Thank you. Commissioner Karwoski. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good conversation. I did want to, since I represented a couple of communities mentioned, I really needed to weigh in on how I represent those communities. First of all, I'd like to commend Commissioner Cox. I think she described it well as far as communities that lack less available land that could be protected under the Land and Water Legacy Program. So first, I represent Landfall. It's a manufactured home park community, wonderful community. It's very small. I'm speculating, but one, strike me, I got a background of very much a parks naturalist kind of person. That's been my whole reputation in being elected. So in reference to no one being there to help them, I would be first to be advocating for Landfall if they wanted to try to act on anything. So would our staff. Possibly the CDA would be involved. But as an example, they're on Tanners Lake. They've got a park on Tanners Lake. There could be some potential there. And it could be a win-win, although what they have right now seems to be protected of Tanners Lake. Oakdale, I think we've mentioned that we just need to be more persistent with our communities that are more urban to just remind them that we can work with them to try to identify properties. But as mentioned, you need a willing city that maybe wants to give up development land, and you need a owner of that land that's willing. I know as an example, since I just mentioned Tanners Lake, we can work with those cities in various other ways. I had a resident just about a month ago that I worked with the Ramsey Washington Watershed District and the conservation district, the Washington Conservation District, to handle some Water issues regarding erosion. So there's various ways we can protect our water. Then Birchwood was mentioned to the north, and that's one of my northern cities I represent. Again, big lots. There's probably some internal properties and ponding that could be considered. Again, either me reminding those cities, our staff reminding, and we have various ways to communicate through our newsletter to say, "Hey, be open about potential land you might want to protect." The big one for Birchwood is they have property on the White Bear Lake. A lot of that might be DNR protected. There could be opportunities. Again, I'm working constantly with, currently actually, with a big topic of the Rice Creek Watershed District regarding water quality that moves through Birchwood. So there's various ways we work with our cities to protect water. I just wanted to be on the record that I reach out to my communities. I'm aware of their needs, but that's not to say I can always ask more and remind them more of look for opportunities where they can protect water sources through the Land and Water Legacy program. You just got to be harder, more persistent, and really have to work harder because there aren't as many opportunities. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation to our guests today, especially the science museum guests, our friends from the science museum. This is what a great partnership, and what we strive to do on behalf of our residents to conserve and protect the natural condition and natural lands of Washington County. So we certainly really appreciate that with willing landowners. And so I just think that this is a great project to utilize these funds with in protecting the natural areas. I will say, and I'm sure Administrator Corbid will talk about this at the end, but our budget books are here, and the parks budget starts on page 19 of public works. So just for the public at home. Wanted to let them know that. All right. Seeing no other discussion, clerk will take the roll. Commissioner Miron? Aye. Commissioner Karwoski? Aye. Commissioner Cox? Aye. Commissioner Clausen? Aye. Commissioner Bigham? Aye. Resolution passes five zero. Thank you very much. The next one is to approve contract number 18410 with Plant Morren in... This will be for the ERP, and this is going to be Joe Ayres-Johnson, our senior planner. Yes, thank you, Chair and commissioners. As noted, I am Joe Ayres-Johnson, a planner in the Office of Administration, here to present today on the proposed assessment of the county's enterprise resource planning platform, or what is much more commonly referred to as our ERP. So we'll start with just a bit of project background, what an ERP is, why we're doing an assessment, and then we'll summarize the RFP and proposal evaluation process, as well as give some context about why we chose our selected consultant. And then we will give a high-level overview of the project scope and timeline before ending on our requested board action, which is to approve the contract for the ERP organizational assessment and solicitation process. So let's begin with some project background. There is a fair amount of industry terms and jargons associated with this space, so I'll do my best to navigate that in a way that's accurate, but not totally incomprehensible here. An enterprise resource planning platform, or ERP, is essentially the software platform or system that an organization uses to manage day-to-day business activities. So for Washington County, our ERP system is actually made up of two core components: our financial system, which includes all of the county's financial processes and services, as well as our human capital management system, or HCM, which encompasses all the county's HR functionality. So currently, both the financial system and HCM system, again, those are the two core components of our ERP, those systems are both outdated, and no longer considered adequate to support the scale and complexity of our county operations. And therefore, a real need has arisen here to modernize these systems and to improve efficiency, data integrity, and county service delivery into the future. And so if some of that sounds familiar, that is because there was a somewhat similar ERP evaluation in 2025. And that process was driven by an even more immediate need, which is that our current HCM platform, NEOGOV On-Premise, is in the process of being discontinued. And so just a quick aside on that, much of these softwares are going the same way everything else seems to go, which is that we're moving away from an on-premise model or a model where you purchase and you own that, to a cloud-based model, to which you purchase a subscription. And that's also happening with our HCM system, NEOGOV. So that 2025 ERP evaluation process looked into different options for replacing or updating that system while also, at least at a high level, assessing the feasibility of replacing the financial system. And so the staff recommendation at that time, coming out of that process, was to focus solely on HCM services and migrate from that NEOGOV On-Premise, which again, is being retired, to the newer NEOGOV cloud-based SaaS solution. The board direction at the time was to say, yes, pursue that HCM migration to NEOGOV SaaS in the interim, addressing that immediate need. But then also to go back, expand the scope of the evaluation, and perform a more comprehensive assessment of the county's full ERP platform Both HCM and financial systems to determine what the county's long-term approach to these softwares should be. These ERP systems often remain in place for around 15 to 20 years. We currently find ourselves in one of those moments of changeover. So there was a desire by the board to ensure that whatever we do now with regard to Washington County's next generation of ERP systems, that it was really rooted in a clear, transparent process, and a comprehensive organizational assessment. Which is what we hope to accomplish with this project. To boil it down to the basics, this project will assess the county's existing ERP systems, including both HCM and financial systems. Leveraging previous work done as part of the prior process, but also expanding upon that and engaging extensively with county staff and leadership to understand the current gaps, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. So through this process, we will assess the county's long-term needs for ERP systems in the future, including whether we should move forward with separate financial and HCM systems as we currently have, or whether we should pursue a more unified solution that brings those systems together into one. And ultimately, we will work toward developing and presenting to the board a recommended approach that meets county needs with the understanding that any approach that we recommend must be scalable, sustainable, and capable of supporting all departments across the county. And while this recommendation will certainly be informed by an analysis of possible software solutions, we will not be selecting a specific software or vendor as part of this organizational assessment. However, once the board hears and weighs in on a recommended approach, and pending board direction at that point, we would then develop a solicitation process and issue an RFP informed by this assessment and all the requirements and needs identified through that process, through which we would then secure future ERP services. And that is the point at which we would be selecting a solution that best meets our needs as a county. So just to emphasize that last point again, one thing we want to be clear about at the outset of this is that it's important that we don't enter into this saying that we do or don't want any specific type of software or solution. We want that all to be borne out through the process. So in addition to myself, who will be acting as the project manager for the ERP assessment, this project is guided by a staff project management team, or PMT, which will help guide the consultants' work by providing expertise on the county systems, processes, and culture. There are PMT representatives from HR, accounting and finance, and IT, who are the key internal services most involved in this space. And this group will really be the operational core of the project and will be the most involved in the project day-to-day. However, we do know there are significant organizational implications for this assessment, so we have also brought together a group of executive sponsors. And that's made up of directors from those departments as well as a deputy administrator, who will be closely involved throughout the entirety of the project to provide strategic oversight, organizational alignment, and executive-level support. And none of that's to say that those will be the only groups involved either. It will be essential that we are tapping into key county staff from all departments, as well as other groups like the IT steering committee, financial leadership team, department heads and deputies, and the county board throughout the process to make sure that we are gathering perspectives from across the county and moving forward together as an organization. Okay. So just some details on the RFP and that proposal evaluation process. We released our RFP in January for a period of one month and received 24 proposals, so there was significant interest in this project from the industry. PMT members performed an initial review and evaluation of all the proposals, coming to a consensus around the top five. We then advanced those top five proposals to be reviewed by the executive sponsors, and after some discussion, the PMT and executive sponsors agreed on top three consultant finalists to bring in for interviews. Both the PMT and executive sponsors sat on the interview panel, and there was a strong team consensus around the preferred consultant. And after some reference checking, we are happy to announce that we selected Plante Moran to be our partner on this ERP assessment journey. To give you a bit of an idea of how Plante Moran emerged as the preferred consultant, I've summarized some of the key takeaways from their proposal and interview, as well as what we heard from their references. This is very high level, obviously. But the team felt that Plante Moran demonstrated a strong project understanding and work plan and project approach. They were able to clearly articulate our needs, put together a project approach and work plan that reflected the nuances of our organization. And one thing that set them apart was a clear emphasis on project management, both early on but throughout the whole project. And I always appreciate that attention to detail. But both the firm and project team also have lots of experience with ERP assessments across a wide variety of organizations, including with local government specifically. And their local partners feature some familiar names. So they've worked with Ramsey, Anoka, and Scott County, who all spoke really highly of their experience with Plante Moran, further lending confidence that this is a group that not only is familiar with assessments like these, but they're also familiar with and have positive relationships with organizations like ours. Additionally, they used their interview to elaborate on some key items for us. They really emphasized organizational change management, which is something that we've heard from virtually every organization that we've talked to is really where this type of ERP transition lives or dies. So that was something that we were looking for, and the fact that they really hammered on that further won confidence in their team. And then kind of piggybacking off of that point, we also felt that they presented a clear communication framework which featured intentional stakeholder engagement throughout and emphasized transparency and clear expectations, which are things that we know will further support change management efforts here at the county And finally, I did allude to this a second ago, but both locally and nationally, organizations that we've called about Plante Moran spoke highly of them as an organization and a team, and felt that their organizations had a high degree of satisfaction in their work. So that's a bit about the project background and project team. But what all goes into a project like this? What can folks expect? So there are five main phases to this project, but we've added a sixth, or a phase zero, just to better capture those project management activities. But really the meat and potatoes of the project really starts in phase one. So phase one is the current state needs assessment, during which time we'll seek to get a better understanding of the existing ERP landscape at the county, gaps, opportunities for improvement. And this phase is where much of that staff and leadership engagement will be, as we both want to ensure broad participation and input gathering from across the organization. But we also really want to connect with folks early to let them know that a change is coming, and to give them an opportunity to be a part of that, and to help influence the county direction. We know that that's an important tenet of change management and adoption of any future approach or solution, that those conversations happen early and often so people feel a part of the process rather than the sudden change happening to them. In phase two, we will build upon that extensive foundation to establish a future ERP state, a desired future ERP state. And phase three goes hand-in-hand with that, identifying the county requirements necessary to be included in that desired future state. Then that is essentially where the assessment part of the process ends and the solicitation process would begin. So at this point, following phase three, we would then be approaching the board with a recommended future state and pending board direction. If there was approval to proceed, we would then advance into phase four, during which time we would develop and distribute an RFP for a future ERP system, and following review and evaluation of proposals and vendor demonstrations, would select a potential vendor. The scope also includes a phase five. So once a future vendor is selected through the solicitation process, Plante Moran would help support those contract negotiations and help prepare Washington County for next steps and implementation. They wouldn't actually be implementing the system themselves, but they would act as a bridge between the county and whoever we do select at that point to implement the system. So this is what that looks like temporally. Essentially, we are anticipating a 15-month planning process, at the end of which, provided everything goes according to the scope of work, and provided there is organizational and board support for moving forward with an ERP solution at that point, provided that we've identified a solution and vendor through the solicitation process that meets our needs, we could be positioned as an organization to begin transition to a new ERP system. However, just because we know the song and the steps doesn't mean we have to dance. So if we hit that point and the leadership or the board don't feel that we're ready to begin a transition to the new ERP system, or, for example, if we need to take some time to identify funding sources, we can of course hit pause and assess at that point until we're ready. It doesn't necessarily lock us into any implementation timeline. So with that, that brings us to the end of the presentation and to our request for board action, which is that the board approve contract number 18410 with Plante Moran in the amount of $299,300 to provide consulting services for an enterprise resource planning, ERP, organizational assessment, and solicitation process. And with that, I'll stand for any questions and turn it back to you, Chair and Commissioners. Thank you, Mr. Ayers-Johnson. Comments? Commissioner Cox. I would move that we approve contract number 18410 with Plante Moran in the amount of $299,300 to provide consulting services for an enterprise resource planning, ERP, organizational assessment, and solicitation process. Is there a second? I'll second that. Seconded. Commissioner Cox. Thank you, Mr. Ayers-Johnson, for the presentation and for a quick joke that you squeezed in there. This is quite the process, and I know that it might not be the most exciting thing to lead, but I appreciate you stepping up and leading this. And I see some directors in the back of the room, so I hope that our Directors Nalezny and Director Piepho will be the two best friends that you have for the next 15 months as we move through this process. But I just appreciate the thoughtfulness. I really appreciate Plante Moran's references and for you sharing that with us, too. Knowing some of our other metro counties have used them and had great success helps a lot with approving a contract like this. Thanks. Commissioner Karwoski? Well said by Commissioner Cox. Fully supportive of this resource planning step. Commissioner Clausen. I'm going to ask a question, because I think we should ask questions about expenses like this. Because I'm interested to know, first of all, is this budgeted for long-term, where we're going to go back and make this more of a maintenance similar to the strategic plan? And then my second question is, can you provide an example of how this is going to be efficient for a department so I can grasp what this actually is? Thank you. Sure. Madam Chair, Commissioner. Go ahead. Sure. Madam Chair, Commissioner. Go ahead. So to start with the first question, I believe we're budgeted for the actual assessment and solicitation process for this at that point. Whatever program or software is identified, that has not been budgeted for as of yet. So that, at that point, would require us identifying some sort of budget. But we wouldn't need to maintain the assessment necessarily as we currently do for the strategic plan, for example. The assessment and solicitation would lead us up to that point, at which time we would procure whatever that would be. For the second item, I'm not super familiar with this space myself. I don't actually work in the ERP much. But from my understanding, from when I talk to my colleagues, the software we currently have, specifically on the financial side of things, isn't really built for county government. And so there's a lot of workarounds and really inefficient ways that staff have adapted to make those systems talk to each other and even run well within themselves. If someone else has another better example of that, but I do know there's a lot of inefficiencies going on behind the scenes with our software that I think was built for manufacturing. So this would be an opportunity for us to kind of revisit that and what do we want our future, knowing what our processes are today, and how they could maybe be streamlined in the future. How do we want that to look moving forward? Can I ask what the platform you're referring to is? Is it Tyler Technologies? No. Chair, Commissioner, currently our financial platform is E1. JD Edwards E1 is the manufacturing technology. And then our HCM is currently NEOGOV. So those are the two primary systems at play right now. And so it's particularly E1, I think, that folks have a lot of trouble behind the scenes, both just making that work efficiently, but also talk to our HCM. I think my issue is the cost. The cost is a lot, and I know that the cost of the system's going to be a lot. But I already actually feel that we know the information, because we, the county, county staff, and other counties and other city staff, we all work on the same types of systems. And so it's just really expensive, and I know that we commonly have done this in the past, but with the budget limitations, these are the types of contracts that I don't feel comfortable approving, because I believe we could do it internally and make the selection and use this 300,000 for what it's going to cost. Because it's going to be expensive, and I think that we should just be budgeting for that. I trust staff. I trust your decisions. I know that you're going to ask the cities and counties what to do and how to best perform the implementation of a new financial system, and I know that IT can handle it too. So I'm not going to be able to vote for this today, but you did a great job presenting. It's the price tag. Thanks. Any other comments? I do know that this was discussed in a September 2025 workshop, that also was a very robust discussion about the, I think it's SAS that is expiring. And so we have to make a decision as to which new platform for people to apply for jobs, and everything from the training from HR that is required and necessary, all the documents that are requested from the federal government that need to be disclosed to employees. And then there's also, in my opinion, the antiquated finance accounting system and the manual entry that some of it has to do that some other software is obvious. Newer software wouldn't have that be necessary. They would all talk to each other. And so I think this is an opportunity to make sure we get it right between the two systems. And this has been very vetted from the onset, I think, of it, because it is a very serious investment. And I just appreciate the thoroughness. I appreciate you leading the team here on that. And I think this will be very exciting and efficient for audits, for statistics in HR about demographics, and projections of data for hiring purposes. So, all those things need to happen and are useful for us, and we'll get to the bottom of it to which software is needed. So, Commissioner Clausen? Yeah, I just wanted to clarify. This is for the assessment of our organization. Mm-hmm. It's not to do anything with NEOGOV. NEOGOV is NEOGOV. We've spent money on that. Mm-hmm. This is just to evaluate it, 300,000. It's to evaluate the systems we already have. So I want you to understand what we're putting forward. Staff can do this and also look into other options besides $300,000. That's a hefty amount. That is for assessment and solicitation of process, just that alone, for 300,000. So I just want to make sure that we're all clear on what's in front of us today. Thank you. I do believe SAS is going away, so you can evaluate that, and the evaluation is it's going away. So- Administrator Corbid Madam Chair and Commissioners, certainly with a project of this size, it is typical to go through the steps that Joe outlined with this assessment happening first, and allowing that assessment to identify the county's needs long term, what we currently have, where there are gaps, and also make sure that we have the information needed to prepare that RFP so that when the request is made to companies who provide these things, they know what we want, what we need, and they can provide us a proposal that fits that or shows where they have gaps. And so, certainly that is not something that we have internally for expertise and frankly, and/or time. Because all these other people that work in these functions have their daily jobs they need to complete. So it's very common to go outside the organization for these assessments through these consultants, to do this work. And so all of these processes need to be competitive. They need to be bid out. They need to have the work done to make sure that we get good information back from these organizations so we can get what we need as an organization for the long term. So, this is not something I would recommend that we try to do internally, on a project of this size. Chair. Commissioner Clausen. I'd like to respond to County Administrator Corbid. We have hired and we do have consultants that we hire, for specific subject matter expertise that are a lot less costly than 300,000. Have you looked into a consultant in this manner, similar to our HR consultant that we brought on? I believe the vetting to come to the decision today and recommendation today was- Excuse me, I'm trying to get a response from- And I have the floor. So, I do believe that that is what got us here today to make this decision, was the vetting by staff, which is in the slide that was in the presentation. I would like to have a direct response from County Administrator Corbid. He's the one who deals with this on an everyday basis, not you, Chair Bigham. Thank you. Kevin, could you please respond? It's also in the-- I have the chair. You're not the chair, you don't get to call on people. And it's in the packet that it was one of the first slides in there, so... Chair Bigham, this is a local government. This is a board. We can ask a question to the county administrator and get a response. What you're doing is not procedurally correct. When the floor is yielded to you, we can. No. It's not. We're not the Capitol. Well, we definitely aren't. We get more done, but- You were a former senator, and I know you've brought some of that practices here, but that's not what we do here in local government. The county administrator can respond directly to the chair or to the commissioner. It doesn't go through the chair. It actually does. All the speakers would go through the chair. That's how Robert's Rules works, and it started well before- Chair Bigham ... either one of us were there. Can we please have county administrator speak? All right. Administrator Corbid, if you... Madam Chair, I think the answer that you gave was correct. The process that we outlined today with Mr. Joe Ayers Johnson identified the process that we went through to get to this point. We had 24 different consultants, firms, issued a response to our RFP. They ranged anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars in their cost of what they would do to provide to us, and we selected the vendor we believe that will best suit the needs that we have in this organization to get us to a point where we can issue an RFP for a new enterprise resource planning system. So, that's exactly the ask we're making the board today, is we've identified the group that we think is best suited to help the organization get to the next step in this process, and we're asking for support for that contract. Sounds good. Chair. Commissioner Clausen. Thank you. I would like to respond to County Administrator Corbid. Regarding the work session that you, or workshop that you just commented about, do you have notes on that and what was discussed in that meeting? You had said that you remember that, and then you went on and talked about the amount of procedures you had for the RFP. But my question, and it still remains, is if we actually looked into an individual who we could hire as a consultant, and that question hasn't been answered. Madam- Can you please answer that? Madam Chair, Commissioner Clausen, we do have the documents from the workshop that was held in 2025. Certainly, we had a PowerPoint that was available. We had the ERBA that was written. I do not have individual notes from that. I know that after that workshop, you were given the direction to the county staff to do the process we just outlined here today. We issued an RFP to look at what firms, individuals, people that were available to help us get to this part in the process, and that's the recommendation that Joe has brought forward today. Chair. Commissioner Clausen. Thank you. It is true that we issued an RFP, but what we have in front of us today is approving $300,000. So the two are different. Yes We said we can look into what we could possibly get for this project, but the results are a lot. It's expensive. And so that's why it's in front of us today, as a county board, to approve the cost. And so I do believe if we could have taken in this amount, we could try and come up with something that would be a little less expensive if we all just asked the questions and did the things that we were supposed to do as a board to try and make sure that this is the least expensive for our residents as possible. I don't think that we did this today. I don't think that this amount is the best that we could do. Because you said that we got back RFPs as high as in the millions, that makes me feel like the request for proposal was not specific enough. And maybe what we needed to do is go back to the drawing board and look at specific ways that we could have made this cheaper, meaning that we do separate requests for proposals for different jobs and different work. I think that would've been efficient when it comes to cost. So it's a big-ticket item, and I appreciate the time I got to talk about it today, but I don't believe we did the best we could when it comes to decreasing this amount. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Cox renews her motion to approve contract number 18410. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Nay. Motion carries on a four-one vote. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is with Administrator Corbid on adopting the resolution to accept 2026 second quarter donations. Madam Chair and commissioners, as noted, this item is to approve the second quarter 2026 donations. The majority of the donations this quarter are the typical donations that we see that are going to the parks division, our libraries, and our sheriff's office. I would just note that we have less than $6,000 in monetary donations and just more than 1,700 in in-kind donations. The in-kind donations are to the sheriff's office and the community services department. There is one donation that was made to the community services crisis response unit. You might note that this is a unit that does not typically receive a lot of donations, and they received a donation that was over $1,000. By policy, those typically come before the board individually. We did not note that or discover that until we were preparing this second quarter report. Therefore, you are seeing this on the quarterly report. But those individuals are aware that any donations of that amount in the future will come to the board individually. So with that information, I'd answer any questions you might have and request approval of the resolution accepting the second quarter 2026 donations. Would anyone like to make- I'll move. Moved by Commissioner Miron. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Cox. Discussion? Commissioner Miron. Just continue to be impressed by the generosity toward Washington County by the people that live here and support the programming that goes on within Washington County. Just mention, I had a resident within my district recently reach out with a desire to donate stock, and I know our county attorney reviewed that. And he actually reached out to me yesterday, Kevin, so I'm hoping you can get back to him. He was looking. But these kinds of donations, it's because people believe in Washington County. They believe in how we function and operate here. They have trust in the work that we're doing, and oftentimes, and in this particular case, an individual that wanted to support the K9 unit within our police department. So, people have good reasons for being generous and thinking about the county, and I just continue to be impressed by that and thank all of the people that have made donations here during this second quarter. Absolutely. Commissioner Cox? All right. Seeing no further discussion, clerk will take the roll. Commissioner Miron? Aye. Commissioner Karwoski? Aye. Commissioner Cox? Aye. Commissioner Clausen? Commissioner Bigham? Aye. Resolution passes 4-0. That's good. Thanks. Madam Chair, just a- Administrator Corbid. Yep. Madam Chair, just a couple other updates. As you mentioned, the recommended 2027 budget books are in your offices this morning. Next week we will have the presentation by Deputy Administrators Wagenius and Lucke on the overall county budget. As well, we will start the internal service department presentations next week. We actually are starting our budget workshops this morning with the Community Development Agency and Executive Director Melissa Taphorn here shortly. Also, I just want to note on your consent calendar today was the agreement with the county attorney's office for a contract for 2026 through 2028. I am pleased to report that that is the final agreement that was necessary to complete the negotiations for that three-year period. Just want to give my appreciation to the county board for your leadership throughout that process and the support to both the management and our employees. I want to thank the employee negotiating teams, their business agents, and others that supported them, as well as thank our county management team, which is mostly made up of our human resources individuals, members from administration, including the deputy administrators, and then all the people that support them in that work. So, we're pleased to have that behind us and look forward to a number of years with settled contracts with all of our unions. So with that, I would answer any questions you might have. That's the end of my report I will start with commissioner reports. Commissioner Miron. Thank you, Madam Chair. I attended the Mental Health and Disabilities Employee Recert Group event. I know many of you were out at NACO and weren't able to attend that, but a first-time event for that group, and just appreciate all the effort that was put into that and the sharing of resources available as it relates to mental health within the county. I know that was an issue that came up during our union contract negotiations, and just really appreciate the effort put forward in that event. We had our community development agency meeting. We reviewed resident satisfaction survey results that were done. We approved staff moving forward with negotiating a contract for audit services. We had a report on the Red Rock Crossing development and some property that the CDA still owns there, but the city may have interest in redevelopment of that property, and the CDA board gave direction to allow for that to happen there. And then we reviewed the budget, which is going to be before you in the levy that we're going to have some discussion about in workshop. And then we talked about property management services for all of the property that the CDA owns. Metropolitan Mosquito Control District met. Commissioner Cox and I attended that. We had an audit presentation. We accepted construction bids for the St. Paul lab and Maple Grove facilities, just under $7 million in contracts that were approved there. Our attorney presented a records retention policy for the organization, which the Mosquito Control Board approved. Commissioner Cox may have other items that she wants to identify that we accomplished under mosquito control. Commissioner Bingham and I attended the Joint Commission on Solid Waste Management at the MPCA offices. Good discussion there. I really appreciate Commissioner Bingham's leadership in that area, and the discussion that we had and some of the frustrations that we've had. And we had good staff participation in that from Washington County as well. I want to thank the attorney's office and the Community Corrections Department, the pretrial probation and parole supervision week celebration that was had. It's always good to meet with employees in a casual setting, and I know Commissioner Cox and I were able to attend that. Had some meetings with Watershed, with some of the communities I represent, and then also had a Lower St. Croix policy committee meeting. And just largely presentations on programming that's going on, Watershed education. I think a number of you are registered for the workshop on the water scheduled later this week, so it'll be good to see you there. The clean water funds that were appropriated and then we had a special presentation on the Sunrise River and the work that's being done there and the impairments within that river that contribute to the St. Croix water quality. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thanks. Commissioner Cox. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was able to attend the Mental Health Advisory Council meeting. Still focused a lot on planning for this year and into next. I was able to attend the NACO 2026 annual conference in New Orleans. I would say the two things that I wrote down that had the biggest impact was the Opioid Settlement Summit, so attending that on the Thursday, and then the health committee meeting all day on Friday. Both very great conversations. Did attend Mosquito Control. I think you said that the max levy was set there, too. So that was the big thing there from my notes. I did attend the Community Corrections picnic, and I'm curious, I didn't hear who received the golden rolling pin, so I have to follow up on that one. But a coveted award within that department. Hmm. And then just yesterday, I was able to attend the first meeting of the Community Supervision work group. Oh. And so that's Cass County Commissioner Neal Gaalswyk and myself as elected officials, and then the Otter Tail administrator, Nicole Hanson, was there, as well as Wright County administrator Greg Kriser, I believe is how you pronounce that, as they have both recently undergone some transitions within their community corrections departments. And then last night, there was a very brief but important Board of Adjustment and Appeal meeting. Thank you. Sounds good. Commissioner Karwoski. Thank you, Madam Chair. Since our last meeting, some of the bigger topics or some of the highlights for me were, got called to go to a special meeting in the Independent School District 622 Education Foundation, which I served on for 12 years. I'm not currently on there, but they had their 30th anniversary, and I know we have education foundations at all our districts. That was an honor to go to that. Had a county Park and Open Space Board meeting this past week. They supported the November ballot item for the Land and Water Legacy ask. So they kind of reinforced what we supported weeks earlier. They also had a lively discussion on park fees and passed them with one recommendation of a daily fee increase to have staff reevaluate that. So that will be evaluated, and those park fees recommendations will be coming to us, I think, in the weeks to come. The big item for me, as mentioned by Commissioner Cox, I also attended the NACo annual conference out of town in New Orleans. The full days were Friday, July 17th through Monday, July 20th. Some of the things I was participating in, I serve on the membership committee. There's some activities for new attendees I participated in. My policy steering committee is transportation. That was an all-day Friday event, as each of us head policy steering committees, and that was an all-day commitment. We attended the open session, general session, some breakout sessions, all under education topics. Attended the midsize county caucus, the central region caucus. We all attended the Minnesota caucus to get together on voting for that next president of NACo, which was done at the annual business meeting, which was towards the end of the conference. Good conference. That's my report for today. Sounds good. Commissioner Clausen? Oh, yeah. Thank you. Last week, we had a lot of visiting local communities. I will be visiting neighbors as well as sign-waving at intersections at Valley Creek and radio. It's been a busy couple of weeks just getting out into the community and just talking to people. And it's been really a great way for me as a commissioner to connect to constituents, because that's why we're here. We're here representing constituents. And it's been just a really great opportunity. A couple of opportunities to talk to me would be the Night to Unite. I will be visiting with Senator Hemmes and Jaeger. As well as many picnics that are being posted around the local communities for different groups, such as Rotary, that are coming up. We also have a suicide prevention 5K that is done every year, in which I have been asked to try and find additional volunteers for September 19th, 2026. If you have people who are wanting to get involved that are of the background of men's health, we are looking for volunteers for that. For me as a commissioner, I am getting presented to by the public work staff for the first time on Stafford Library after the results were in on all of the surveys. So I will get that next week, and we'll have a little bit more understanding of the options in front of us for the improvements of the library. And then, also, Melsa is the library state board, and I am on that, and they are going through their personal committee HR employee handbook and other organizational development measures that we are working on. And then in regards to the elections, there are such a need for volunteers. We heard about that today. So if you are looking to become an election volunteer, please apply now. We have several opportunities to become a volunteer for the elections. Not just for the general election, but for the primary and as well as next year for the school districts. So there are elections going all the time. So if people are interested in volunteering, definitely now is the time, and also you can vote for primary. So please get out and vote. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. So first off, I want to highlight that the Washington County Fair starts tomorrow, the 29th, and goes through this Sunday. So get out there and see the animals and get the corn dog. I'm Team Corn Dog. Ice cream. Yeah, there's ice cream. Pork chops. So anyway, enjoy the time out there. It's fantastic. Wear sunscreen. I was in NACo down in New Orleans, which this week, weather-wise here is no different. It was very hot down there. But I serve on the Justice and Public Safety Committee, and I think two highlights that came away from there was ghost guns, and they're being printed on 3D printers that obviously are in our libraries. And so they discussed the training or just the understanding of what to watch for on that, which I thought was a good warning. I will spare the details that freaked a lot of us out on different other incidences that the ATF is looking into and being prepared for. One of the handouts, and I did share this with some folks, regarding the age of delinquency and just juvenile delinquency- ... second V-- Well, now she's first VP. Aisha Bell had a program in her county in Michigan about how to have a central port about services and wraparound services that are available to youth, and it was like a portal, and it's really, really interesting. And so I brought that back to folks. I think to streamline the preparedness of this change would be good, and so I'm excited about the discussions that'll be moving forward on that. Another breakout session I attended was on EMS service. And I have been thinking about this, and we have hospitals throughout. We have three? At least three, right? Yeah, three. And then we have a lot of clinics. I really would like to see if we couldn't put together a roundtable or a discussion with the CEOs of the hospital, with some of our public health folks, and some of the clinics around here, and the EMS service because EMS is usually one of the primary entries into the healthcare system if you're having an emergency, right? So, to establish some sort of relationship, listen to each other a little bit, to have that discussion, I think would be a good idea. I did attend one on elections and preparedness. I attended a breakout session on youth mental health and childcare, and I have to say that I learned that law enforcement, one of the largest impediments to retention and recruitment is access to daycare, especially on that dog leg shift. And there's a pilot program, but it's going to be a new build in Missouri that we learned about, and I'm very excited about it, and I sent that to some folks as well. And then I attended a youth justice breakout session, and I visited the Real Time Crime Center, which had-- They have over 2,000 cameras in New Orleans across the whole thing. So it was interesting. Did attend the meeting on solid waste, was a titch frustrating, but we may have a solution coming out of that situation. And I'm hoping that minimum we get better communication from the MPCA. But stay tuned. I do think that staff is on that to move something forward. I did have a meeting of the African American Family Preservation Act. We did have a library board meeting yesterday where we got project updates on Park Grove and the long-term strategic plan, and notice that Stafford, as Commissioner Clausen pointed out, the options will be coming forward soon. So, there is no board correspondence. After this meeting, why don't we take a 10-minute break, so just maybe a little before 11:30 so we can get Ms. Taphorn back on her daily schedule, regularly scheduled progress programming. Chair, we're already over time. Can we start sooner? I think you went like 10 minutes. Yeah. We'll start in about 10, 15 minutes. I think 11:25 is- You have to stay on time, correct? So seeing no other items on the agenda, we are adjourned. All right. We will go ahead and start our Washington County CDA 2027 Levy Request with Executive Director Taphorn. Take it away Madam Chair and Commissioners, thank you for having me before you today at this workshop. My name is Melissa Tapporn. I am the Executive Director of the Washington County Community Development Agency, and from here on out, I will refer to it as the CDA. I want to first thank our CDA board and our management team, and particularly our finance director, Erin Christensen, for pulling together this draft budget that I'm going to present to you, as well as our preliminary levy request. And then just for a refresher for the board, but also for the public, the CDA was created by state law and county board action in 1981 to address the community development and housing needs in the county. And then in 2016, we added economic development powers. In our 45 years of operation, we have made significant strides on economic development, community development, and affordable housing. But there is more work to be done. And then just a little bit of context for the budget for this process for our levy. The CDA is legally a separate political subdivision of the state of Minnesota from the county. However, we are considered a discrete component unit of the county for audit purposes. And the CDA, our agency, is governed by a board of seven appointees who set and approve our annual budget and set and approve our levy amount. The county board has oversight over the CDA through the appointment of those commissioners. We have a board of seven. Five of them represent one of the five county districts, and then one that represents a HUD program, a federal rental assistance or public housing program. And the third is an open seat, which a county commissioner has been historically appointed to that at-large seat. And so that's currently held by Commissioner Miron with Commissioner Karwoski as the alternate. As the elected body of Washington County, your consent is required for us to levy any property taxes, and then for that to be certified and collected. Unlike the county and cities, the CDA's rate for our levy is capped at 0.0185%. So that's not 1.85, that's 0.0185 of the taxable market value. And although when we set our levy, and you'll see this in our request, it's not a blanket up to that max, it is based on the need of our budget. While our budget book is also a ream of paper, this is the really condensed version. And I'm going to talk about the expenses here. So we're projecting a budget of $42.1 million. This is a $4.5 to $5 million increase, or 14% increase, over 2026. That increase is mainly seen in that operating expense line item. It's expansion of programming to low-income renters, homeowners, homebuyers, and affordable housing developers primarily. And a greater summary of this budget is included in the agenda packet, and the full draft budget is included on the CDA's website in our July 21st agenda packet. So we build our budget around these needs and then determine the resources and revenue sources based on that. So from last year, our debt service has gone down. We've paid off some bonds, and our net capital activity is down. We had a large redevelopment project at one of our properties last year. Our salary and benefits are expected to go up. This number reflects what we expect historically, negotiations on increases to healthcare costs and salaries, as well as performance-based increases. And I'm going to talk about the revenues in more detail later. However, spoiler alert, while our expenses are going up 14%, our levy request is not 14%. And so I want to talk about the revenues later, but that increase in programming and expansion of programming is really due to increases in the local affordable housing aid, not just from Washington County, but also from the cities of Stillwater, Forest Lake, Hugo, Lake Elmo, and Oakdale. They are all relying on the CDA to deploy those funds on their behalf. And then also the statewide rental assistance program, which is called Bring It Home. So there's a grant from Minnesota Housing that the CDA is receiving and deploying. So that is where while we've got this great increase in expenses, it's really being funded in different ways than the levy. I want to talk about our core programs. We operate over 40 different programs, and they fall into four buckets, more or less. So property management, we own and operate 1,150 rental units. There's 18 different communities and a handful of scattered sites. They're all income and rent restricted. They all serve a public purpose to either provide deeper affordability or development of sites that the private market can't or wouldn't do. And then we have a tenant-based housing assistance, we call rental assistance as well. Right now, we're serving approximately 725 families and seniors We do expect that to go up as we deploy more and more of the Bring It Home rental assistance. We have 80 families yet to lease up there, and then 20 more families in the Federal Family Unification Program. So we could be adding 100 more over the next 12 months. And I just want to say, this is a program that the CDA has done for decades. It's not something that we did in 1981 per se, but definitely in 1991. And it has grown really quite a bit, both with state resources and some federal resources for particular populations. So in 2023, at the start of 2023, we were serving 603 families or senior households. That's a 20% increase just in those four years alone. Community development, this is the bulk of our work, or what I think is most visible beyond our buildings is community grants. So we administer the CDBG, Community Development Block Grant, and Home Investment Partnerships Programs on behalf of the county. We offer a ton of different housing finance options. We're a sub-allocator of low-income housing tax credits. We have a local housing trust fund called the Grow Fund. We will issue bonds on behalf of developers with the caveat that these are affordable, rent-restricted, and we're looking for deeper affordability and longer-term affordability in those programs. We offer redevelopment services to cities and then homeownership programs. This can be education, counseling, home improvement loans, working with public health and environment on septic repair and replacement programs. So there's a lot in that little bucket. And then economic development. As I said earlier, this is our newest line of work. So we operate the Open a Business program, which is business advisory services to entrepreneurs and small businesses. Our Pre-Development Finance Fund, this is available to cities and townships to help them either study sites or prepare them for development. And then marketing of the county in general. So we work with all of the city economic development departments in there. And when we talk about money, sometimes we lose sight of who exactly we're helping. And so we offer, along with NARA, which is our industry membership group, a What Home Means to Me poster contest annually. And in addition to drawing on their poster or creating a wonderful piece of art, they also need to write an essay. And I just want to read you a couple pieces from the most recent ones. "What home means to me: my family, food, and technology, taking care of friends and my family, having friends, and laughing." "My home is my family because they will be there for me no matter what." And I think about how stabilizing a good home and an affordable home can be for our youngest citizens and residents. All right. So I'm going to talk about the components of our levy one by one. So I'm going to start with senior and workforce housing. As I said, we own property. $1.5 million of our levy is attributed to this line item. It helps support the financing. So we've issued bonds for a number of our properties when they were developed, and so it helps support the debt service on those bonds. It helps support operations and the maintenance or ongoing capital improvements of those properties. Housing partner, $337,000 of our levy goes to this, and that helps support the administration of our tenant-based programs. State programs provide adequate administrative fees for that program. However, the federal program, they are underfunded. The appropriations that we receive for administrative fees are prorated at 89% of what the true cost to run these programs is. This is not unique to Washington County CDA. It is for all housing authorities across the country. So the levy supplements the administration of those programs. Our general fund, $1.2 million of our levy is attributed to the general fund. That covers our staffing costs for general operations of the CDA, so administration, particularly our finance staff, making sure that the organization is well run. And then it also pays a portion of our office debt service. And then I'm going to switch now to our strategic plan. So those are three core things. And then the strategic plan, the CDA developed a five-year plan from 2023 to 2027. So we're in year four of that strategic plan, and there are five strategic priorities within that. Economic vitality is one of them, and this included some stretch goals on business support, the Open a Business program, and the Pre-Development Finance Fund that I talked about. So with the levy as well as some other funds, including a $1.5 million EPA grant that we just received for brownfield study and cleanup, we've been able to, over the past three and a half years, so up till June 30th, been able to increase the number of businesses that we've supported by 2.5% and the number of sites we've been able to study and clean up by double. And then one of the areas that we hadn't been working in prior to the strategic plan is really about supporting workforce needs. So we've been working with the workforce development director here at the county, and school districts to figure out where the CDA can support them financially and with capacity to expand the programming that they already have. Financial flexibility, which is a little weird of a title, but $1.5 million of our levy goes to this. Part of it is to make sure we've got a capital improvement plan for all of our properties. We know that the reserves that we have in those properties is not enough to really meet that need when we are looking out 10 years. And so some of it goes to that. So this past year, we did a large renovation project at Ramey Johnson Estates just across the way in Oak Park Heights. And we've got a plan moving forward for that, as well as expanding and diversifying our revenue sources. So, we hoped to have three new sources, just to make sure that we could weather any storm, and be more resilient to federal or state appropriations. We've added four new sources since 2023. And I will say, part of that $1.5 million in receiving the LAHA funds, the Local Affordable Housing Aid, that cannot pay for administrative costs. And so we raised our levy to accommodate, and be able to staff that appropriately. And then, just making sure that we're deploying those funds appropriately. Empathetic, intentional service, we really wanted to focus on how we meet people where they are and make sure that we are a welcoming and inclusive workforce. So this focus on making sure that we have proper translation services available and that we're responding and engaging people in the media or method that they want, not just what is best and easiest for us. So we've been creating a variety of different standards around that, surveying staff and surveying clients. And we're starting from a really good place. So 92% of our staff said they felt like they were working in an inclusive culture. 80% of the clients feel like that they were served in an empathetic and intentional way. And so we just have a good base to work from and continue to improve on that. Oh, I should say 17,000 of our levy is allocated to that service. And I don't think I mentioned on the economic development or the financial flexibility. Yeah, I did. Okay. Trying to keep up. Expanded housing opportunities. So this, again, is where the bulk of our work is. 2.1 million of our levy is allocated to this. Our biggest issue in Washington County, and actually in the metro area and across the state, is the lack of affordable housing. So we're trying to bring additional resources to support developers of affordable housing and also incentivize them to increase the amount of affordability, so lower rents, and longer terms of commitment. So a lot of our tax credits and typical financing requires 30 years of affordability. We're asking for 40 and 50 when we're allocating these funds. So far, when we did this, we did not know about the state funding that we would receive, and so we set a goal of 400 new units. At this point in time, we are at 1,100, sorry, that would be awesome, 1,108 new units that we've financed. So we're really proud of that and continue to work hard talking with developers and seeing where we can do more. We want to land bank some property for future CDA development. We expect to close on a property in 2026 yet, and then reduce the homeownership racial disparity gap in homeownership. So far we've increased home buyers, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, by 12% over the last four years. And then no net loss in preservation of existing affordable housing, because we can build new, but if we're losing it at the same pace or higher, we're not really making any progress. Right now, we've seen no net loss and the other part of this is ensuring that people have access to affordable rental. And so we really have been focusing on landlord engagement. So when we have all of this increase in tenant-based rental assistance, that we have landlords that are going to accept that, and we've seen a 27% increase in the number of landlords that we've been engaging with. And the last strategic priority is community partnerships. So 121,000 is allocated towards this of our levy. There's other pieces of our budget that feed into all of these five strategic priorities, but just talking about our levy in particular. So, we really wanted to focus on being visible in our community, making sure that the communities understand what we do and how we can help both the community and their residents. So that really shows up in deepening our partnerships with cities, townships, and nonprofits, and other foundations that operate in the county. So we've ... been out there more than we have in the past, I would say. So we've got seven new partnerships, and we've done nine city presentations over the last few years, and we've increased traffic to our website and phone calls by 150% or more. We developed a communications plan, so you see a stronger presence on social media as well. And then we've been advocating at the state and federal level, not just with elected officials about appropriations, but also staff at Minnesota Housing and HUD for different policy changes as well. I want to pause here and talk about the local affordable housing aid and statewide local housing aid. Our proposed uses for 2027 have not changed as we've presented to you each year. But a portion of it will stay with the county in community services department, and then a portion comes to the CDA. And we've been allocating that to 50% to expanding the supply of affordable housing, 45% to preserving, and 5% to increasing access to affordable housing. And where that shows up is providing gap assistance to existing affordable housing to maintain those rents, and then also building or acquiring, sorry, to expanding. Building or acquiring deeply affordable rentals for CDA ownership. Right now, we're looking at four different sites, which could add 600 new units over the next five to seven years. We're really excited about that. And then preserving, so this is increasing the amount of home improvement loans we do, but also... Sorry, this is where I got a little mixed up. Preserving the existing housing. So we've made one loan so far through that program, but we've been talking with a lot of landlords about it, so. One of the things about the LAHA is that it's funded by a metro area sales tax, and the Department of Revenue certifies the formula and the amount that's going to go to each of the counties and cities over 10,000 population. That certification happens at the end of June or early July in the year that it's being deployed. So we just found out what our amount is for 2026, and so we're using that for our 2027 budget. The amount for Washington County is $7.665 million of LAHA, and then $175,000 in SAHA funds. And the SAHA is a state appropriation to all of the counties and greater Minnesota's communities. So community services will retain $1.5 million of that and the remainder will come to the CDA and then will be used for these activities. We've increased or introduced a new program to help with the racial disparities in homeownership and incentivizing first-generation home buyers through home buyer grants. These are up to $5,000. They've been well-received and are coupled with other programs that are meant to help people that do not benefit from generational wealth. So here's where we go back to the revenue. Our grant revenues have expanded exponentially over the past few years. Like I said, it's about a $5 million increase over last year, just in that green portion alone. But when we look back to 2024, it was $8.3 million. So we have really jumped in that arena. Our rents are expected for 2027 to increase by 3%. Our levy is a 2.88% increase, and then the other income increases slightly, but that's not really necessarily within our control. It's investment income, so in TIF revenues. And then this is a breakdown of our levy. So this is a compilation of everything, all those slides that I was just talking about. So it totals up to $7,283,446. So an increase of $204,000 over 2026 or a 2.88% increase. As I mentioned before, we're capped at the 0.185. This is a 0.13% tax rate, essentially, based on what we know today about the taxable market value. Thank you. But I want to go back that this, again, is reduced because of the great increase in grants. And so, this does fund 40 FTEs, full-time equivalencies. That is not a change from 2026. So this is not a reflection of adding any new staff. It is adding dollars that are being passed through to the public for clients and homeowners, renters, communities. Okay. This is a look at the past 10 years of our levy. The blue lines are the actual levy that was approved. The gray bars above are what we could max out at, and then the orange is the proposed for 2027. We are at 71% in 2027 of the max levy, which could go up to $10.3 million. So, you're at the end, and the CDA will consider approval of the preliminary levy at their August meeting. There is some direction that we received last week that is not included in this presentation, so you may see a slight increase, but we expect that change to be incorporated by other revenues and resources. So, we don't expect to be a bigger change, but I didn't want to surprise you when we come back with our preliminary levy in September, if you see that not be exactly 2.88%. But we will be back to you in September, and then would ask for the certification of the preliminary levy by the end of September, and then we would come back in November and December with the final levy, which can go down but can't go up from what the preliminary is approved at. I'll stand for any questions. Thank you, Executive Director Tapporn. Commissioner Miron, you want to start us off? Yeah. Thank you. I think this was a good primer for the county board on the CDA's strategic plan and how the plan guides the budget and the levy that the CDA establishes. So, I don't know, what are we, five years into our-- Four years into our strategic plan, and that continues to be obviously the focus of the work that we're doing. The 2.88% increase that is being talked about here, I think is really manageable. And I think I saw a number, it was less than $2 impact on a median value home in Washington County. So when you look at the services that are being provided, I think that certainly is a very reasonable increase. I continue to be impressed with the collaboration that goes on within the CDA, with our staff here at Washington County, particularly community services. The partnership that's created there and the partnership with the cities that we're serving. And I think that's reflected in them really wanting the CDA to manage the allocation of funds that many of the cities have received. Just the trust and the confidence that they're placing in the CDA. I continue to be impressed with the team that Melissa has put together. Forty employees doing the level of work that they're doing in managing this budget. And I can tell you just in my visits with that team, this isn't a job for these people. This is really a vocation, and dedicated to the mission and the guiding principles of the CDA, and I just really appreciate seeing that within employees. So, and I can also share with you that the CDA board really spends a significant amount of time analyzing the revenues and expenses within this budget. I think we've got a significant amount of diversity on the board, and the skillsets there to really scrutinize and understand the expenses and the programming that's going on within the county, and the CDA. So, I think this is a good budget, a good levy proposal, and hopefully the rest of my colleagues here see it that way as well. But Melissa continues to impress me as the executive director, just providing guidance and allowing her staff the flexibility to lead in the program areas that they head up, and just, again, a very skilled, reliable workforce within the CDA that gets the work done that the board requests them to do. Thank you. Commissioner Karwoski. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair, and appreciate Commissioner Miron's comments and insight. Totally agree. Between Executive Director Tapporn and Commissioner Miron, they call me the alternate. I feel like the Maytag repairman. Commissioner Miron hasn't missed a meeting for over a year. I never get called on. Once in a while I show up because there's something pertinent to my district. But had to get that out. I wanted to highlight a few things within the budget. Great presentation, Executive Director Tapporn. That 2.88 levy increase, as Commissioner Miron pointed out, like $4 per house. But what's really interesting is you're able to... I didn't do the number, but I think it's 14%, your budget went up. But that's with new revenue, either federal, largely federal and state. Those are taxes we pay in, so we're garnering more of those. And that has increased in the last few years, our ability to partner and build more affordable homes. What I'm curious on the question, Executive Director, is are we making our populations pretty aggressively growing? Are we able to make strides to add some affordable housing above and beyond our population growth? Madam Chair and Commissioner Karwoski, that's a very good question, and I do feel like we're in an uphill battle because while we're Building more than we set out as a goal, or financing what we plan for additions in the next five years. We don't have control over how affordable those are, because I don't have control over how much businesses pay their workers. I don't have control over a variety of other things that really factor into each of our personal budgets, right? And so, we're making a dent, but the CDA alone isn't the solution. But we're doing our part to- Yeah ... make sure that new homes are being built. And there's a lot of things that are happening at the state level to help increase that. I think at the federal level, the HUD administration is proposing deep cuts to a lot of these programs. Now, the House budget is not in alignment with what was proposed. It's higher. It's not what I would want, and I expect the Senate budget to be a slight increase over the House budget. And so, I think that the amount of state resources that have come in and our levy are really, really important to sustaining the momentum we have. And I am really excited about the four sites that we're looking at, because I think that we'll be able to assist people at the deeper or lowest of incomes through those properties. Thank you. A few other comments. The LAHA funding that you represent, I really like the aspect of that was an area of growing new funding, and to basically, I think it was any city over 10,000. So I went to the Oakdale workshop where it was really interesting to see there, it's only a few months ago, where they had a really interesting topic on just the flexibility that the CDA performs and how they could best allocate those home improvements to their residents. But they were very grateful. And what I like about it, and as you mentioned, that's why our budget has artificially grown, because we're managing that. I would say the management would be low, but why have each city try to manage that? So I think the assistance you play to the cities is really valuable. And thank you for that. I know Oakdale's been appreciative, but I know any of our cities, Woodbury and the others that are over 10,000 would get those LAHA funds. I also wanted to point out Chris Sang and the economic development effort he does. So you touched on it with the workforce development and his focus with public schools and career pathways is really meaningful. He's always an open mind to assist any entity working with Open for Business, with any opportunity to land a business. And that's why we really need the affordable housing so people can conveniently... We're kind of tied at the hip. If we want to keep our property taxes down to residents, we need to get some good jobs, good company growth, and we need that affordable housing. And then, maybe my last comment is I want to thank the CDA board, Commissioner Miron, that serves on that, as he mentioned, a very talented board, but also commend the staff. You certainly work so well with the board, and as you pointed out, only 40 employees, and as Commissioner Miron pointed out, getting to know the operations some. They're so passionate. They really care. All our employees throughout the county care, but there's something about those helping people with financial needs, which largely is a big part of the CDA. You just see that passion. They're always putting their best foot forward. So thank you for your staff. That's all I have, thanks. Commissioner Bigham? Thank you. You answered my question about the federal funding, just the impact on that. So I appreciate you doing that. My only other question is, I believe I have this right, but the first-time home owner loan program, that actually is administered through Minnesota Housing, not your organization, correct? Madam Chair and Commissioner Bigham, the First Generation- Yeah ... Home Buyer Grant program, that is administered and funded by the CDA. But we participate in a statewide program called the Minnesota Cities Participation Program that Minnesota Housing administers, and that is bond funded by all the participants. And Minnesota Housing works with local lenders to provide what's called startup loans- Got it ... and step-up loans. And so the startup is for first-time homebuyers. So it doesn't need to be a first generation caveat, but a first-time homebuyer. And so we have participated in that program for decades, and it is something that we would not be able to finance locally to the level of the number of loans that are given out, that's lent, money is lent, mortgages lent in Washington County through that program. And it also provides those homebuyers with access to state down payment assistance programs, and I think like 90% of the buyers in Washington County are also receiving down payment assistance, so. Yeah. Thank you. I just wanted to highlight those particular programs, because I do think Maybe people don't know so much about that, that it's something that the agency does. But thank you to you and your staff. And I know that each of the communities that I represent that partner with you have just a lot of wonderful, good experiences with you and your staff. You even got recognized at the City of Cottage Grove for your award. So we just appreciate all the relationships that you and your staff have built throughout the county. So thank you very much. Commissioner Clausen, anything to add? Sure. I don't think it's going to be any different from what I've said every year. I always think we need more. You know I'm going to say it. 2.9% increase, I think we could do better. I know that I've been researching the amount of revenue we get at the county, and it's at 18% every year. So I know we could provide a little bit more. I know it's a different levy, but it still talks about the growth. And so we're seeing a growth of 18%, but I'm not seeing that reflected in the CDA. And so I'm not going to complicate it any more than that. It's pretty basic. We could do more than what we're doing. 40 people, that's a lot of people, but there's a lot of need. And Commissioner Miron, I've appreciated your leadership, but it's time for another commissioner to be on the CDA. I've been a city employee. I've now worked as a county commissioner, and everyone should have an opportunity to be a leader on the CDA. It shouldn't just be one person who always gets that representative position. I actually think we should have more than just one. Like for instance, the Minnesota Extension Committee, we have three commissioners on that, even though that actually meets quorum, and we shouldn't do that. Also, on a couple other committees, we've had three commissioners. So I do think that we could do that for the CDA, and it would bring a better understanding of what we're doing and why we're doing it, so that we have better dialogue as commissioners in front of the public, so they can see the information and really feel a part of it, because they do meet monthly, and I rarely hear enough about it, and it is actually super important. So thank you for your presentation. I really appreciate it. Madam Chair, if I can, not necessarily respond to that, but you represent District Five, your district is Woodbury. And Woodbury and Cottage Grove both receive their own allocations of LAHA funds. But one of the new things that I didn't talk about in the inclusion of the increase is the City of Woodbury, the Woodbury HRA, has contracted with the CDA to deploy some of their first-time home buyer programs. So we're really excited about that partnership as well. So I failed to mention that earlier. No, I appreciate that program, and I appreciate you identifying it because it needs so many more people who know about it. Because when I ask about the numbers associated with the program, and I look at our population, it never feels quite right. And I need Woodbury and Oakdale and Cottage Grove to talk about it a lot more, because, as you said, they get LAHA. Oh, Oakdale doesn't get LAHA? Yes, they do. I was going to say. Okay. Because they get LAHA, so it's really important collaboration that we all work together. And I know we had an event, maybe more than six to eight months ago, that we all talked about housing, but then we don't talk about it. And it's only these times that we get to hear from you. So I know I'm speaking to the choir here, but this is my last time I get to hear your lovely presentation, and I want to make some final statements. So I appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Commissioner Miron. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. The representation on the CDA board is dictated by state statute. Not necessarily the individuals, but the positions that are there. And we comply with state statute with respect to those appointments. And then obviously, the county board each year talks about and establishes representation for the various joint power boards and committees that each of us are assigned to. So I respect that process, and if there desires to be changes there, I'm fine with that. But I have enjoyed my time on the CDA board. All right. Executive Director Taphorn, I'll wrap us up and say thank you for the presentation. I am supportive of what you brought forward today. I also just want to say a quick thanks. I know Cy and Truong, our budget gurus, are sitting quietly, but I appreciate you both being here to support us in this presentation as well. So with nothing else, we will end our workshop and see everyone next week. Thanks.