This meeting is being recorded. Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, May 6th. We'll call the Ray County Board of Commissioners to order. We'll begin with 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. On this beautiful Tuesday morning, summer has finally arrived here in Wright County. Uh we have a pretty robust here agenda. We'll go right at it. First would be the approval of the minutes from the April 15th county board meeting. Mr. Chair, I will approve the minutes with some modifications. I would like to add on the uh end of the agenda, we we review committee minutes and make recommendations. I would just like to state what those recommendations were. Um number one was to approve the change to Wright County Probation Delivery System to Community Corrections Act. Um, number two was to approve the allocation of $72,000 from joint ditch 15 funds to cover outstanding expenses. Number three, approved adoption of the Great River Regional Library Minute Resolution. And number four, approved updated RFP process and bylaws for opiate advisory council just for some clarity as it's not stated in the agenda itself um that those recommendations are clear. I'll second that. All right, we have a motion by Commissioner Dietrich, second by Commissioner Moina. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Same sign. All right. Minutes approved. Unanimous. All right. Next would be today's agenda. Uh to start off here, we have a few items here to uh move on today's agenda. Uh would administration, you have some Mr. Chair. Thank you. I'm going to request that the board remove from the agenda and place upon the table consent agenda items A3, B1, B2, D1, and then under items for consideration, letter B, committee minutes. Number three, the personnel committee minutes from April 24, 2025. And I'm asking for this in light of the uh budget shifts that the legislaturator is forcing on us. I'd like to hold this off to at least May 20th so we know what the session is going to look like here in the next two weeks before we make any moves uh on rehiring any staff at this point in time so we can get ready for budget implications that are coming from that pass through from the state down to us which um from I'll be honest from the time we got this agenda on Thursday to today um is only getting worse. I appreciate that administrator Kryer. In addition, I would uh like to add on to items for consideration a time change to the parks committee of the whole on May 12th. I had a unexpected funeral come up for that Monday that I'd like to have a discussion. So, since I have items on that committee of the whole on May 12th. All right. And with that, I'll stand for a motion to approve today's agenda with the modifications. I'll make that motion. Second. Motion by Commissioner Holland, second by Commissioner Moina. Uh any further discussion? No, I'd like to say thank you uh for um you know, we had some really good discussion about uh like with with uh holding off on some of these rehires. Th this is a scary situation that we have at the capital. So, thank you for uh postponing that. Um we directed staff to really take a good look at that. Mr. Chair, Commissioner Holland, we haven't seen anything like this probably since 2008. And frankly, I think the shift coming down on us is probably going to be worse than 2008 recession. What this and this is completely manufactured by the state with funding shifts. All right. I think we can have more of a discussion on that too at the uh HHS portion of the agenda. All right. Thank you. Uh any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Oppos same sign. All right. Motion passes unanimous. Uh, next, today's consent agenda. Would anyone like to remove anything from today's consent agenda for further discussion? Otherwise, I'll stand for a motion to approve today's consent agenda. So moved. All right. Motion by Commissioner Dietrich. Second. Second by Commissioner Mina. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Same sign. All right. Uh, consent agenda approved unanimously. All right. Now, moving on to timed agenda items. Uh we have uh Mr. Loots here who he has someone to introduce to us. Welcome, Brian. And I believe it's welcome Brian and Brian. It's easy to remember, right? So, uh good morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Um I want to take the opportunity to introduce my my newest attorney. I think you're going to be working a lot with with Brian Wool. He's going to be assigned to the civil division. Uh Brian grew up in Elk River and he went to undergrad at Drake and he went to law school at Hamlin. He's been a lawyer long enough where it was just Hamlin. It wasn't Hamlin. Mitchell then. Um he did nine years um as a lawyer in Malax, 11 years total as a law clerk and then most recently was in Scott County for more than a year when he joined our attorney. um he's been historically a criminal prosecutor, but during the interview process, he fully embraced uh being part of the civil division, knowing what the job is, and he he started April 21st, so this is his third week. And I know he met uh Mr. Chair and Commissioner Moya yesterday on a ditch meeting, so he's jumping right in and and learning things. He's very intellectual, very studious, so I think he'll fit in uh very well uh with the civil aspects, which require, you know, a great eye for detail. um still kind of a work in progress as all of his as to all of his assignments, but he's going to handle uh tax appeal matters, uh drainage issues. He's going to be my main administrative representative to the sheriff's office and the jail um and also handle some some planning and zoning matters. So, very excited to have someone with with Brian's experience join the office. That said, I'll turn it over to Brian. Welcome, Brian. Yeah, thanks. I don't know if you have any quick words, but uh you come with a pretty robust resume. We're uh very privileged to have you here in Ray County and look forward to all the great talent that you'll be able to bring our way. Yeah, I appreciate the kind words and I appreciate the opportunity. Looking forward to it. We're very excited that you're that you're willing to wrestle ditches. We'll see how long it lasts. Yeah, both both of our heads were spinning a little bit after yesterday's meeting, so we'll get there. Oh, very welcome aboard. Welcome. At this time, I will uh stand for a motion to approve and authorize signatures on the oath for uh Brian Wol. So moved. I'll motion by Commissioner Shane, second by Commissioner Holland. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Uh all in favor say I. I. Oppos. Same sign. All right. Motion passes unanimous. Welcome aboard. Thank you. All right. Next, we have uh Mr. Ali, this is our favorite week of the year. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Morning board. Good morning. Uh, thank you for the time. I have a proclamation and a resolution to read. Correctional officers and employees are capable, committed, patient, persistent professionals. They serve admirably in our correctional facilities all across the country as chaplain, teachers, counselors, supervisors, managers, and directors. They help keep our citizens and communities safe. Correctional officers and employees teach, train, mentor, preach, and cure. Through the job of correctional officers and employees is often very challenging and at times stressful. The thousands who work in the corrections profession every day perform their duties well and with great pride. They are brave, courageous, and tenacious individuals who put their lives and health at risk every day to keep the public safe and provide a multitude of services to the nation's offenders. They have a tremendous responsibility owed our nation's gratitude. Our rate county correctional officers are most deserving our respect and our thanks and highest praise. They are well trained, always on watch, prepared to meet any challenge. The men and women working in the sheriff's office jail make a difference in our communities. They work with and manage more than 4,000 offenders a year in our county. Their abilities and reputation have allowed us success to successfully work with multiple jurisdictions, assisting them with overcrowding issues as well as disciplinary and behavior management problem inmates. On behalf of the sheriff's office and sheriff's command, we commend those who serve in our corrections profession. Um, this is also a resolution proclaiming May 4th through 10th of 2025 is correctional officer and employee week. Um, correctional officers are trained law enforcement professionals dedicated to maintaining a safe correctional facility and ensuring public safety. And correctional officers are essential to the success of our criminal justice process. And correctional officers work includes daily exposure in a hostile environment with some of the most dangerous individuals in our society. And correctional officers provide offense offenders with direction, hope, and new focus while assisting re-entry with re-entry and life outside of corrections. correctional officers and employees raised to meet the challenge and serve the honorable profession notably and admiraably. And now therefore be a resolve we Ray County Board of Commissioners do to hereby acknowledge the week of May 4th through the 10th, 2025 as correctional officer and employee week in honor of the dedicated professionals who serve the citizens of Wright County by supervising the county's inmate population. Thank you for that time. Thank you. Thank you, Captain Omelly. uh you yourself and your staff does do a fantastic job. This is always a great honor to uh recognize the work that you and your team do over there. Uh it's hats off to you. I hear from all across the state when I go to different things on great things about our uh jail and its operations. So, thank you. We try very hard and it's and it's well noted out there. So, keep up the great work. I can be loud at times. Is that what it is? Yeah. Then at this time, I'll stand for a motion to proclaim May 4th through the 10th as correctional off correctional officer week here in Ray County. So move. I'll second that. Motion by Commissioner Dietrich. Second by Commissioner Holland. Any further discussion hearing? None. Resolution vote. Commissioner Moa. I I I I Oh, thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. And Jamie's on her way up to the podium as we now put on our health and human services hats as we move into the health and human services portion of the agenda. Um at the beginning of the agenda here to approve the consent agenda. Uh administration I believe there was a note here to remove from the consent agenda items four, five, and six. Uh that is correct, Mr. Chair. Following what we did earlier, um I held off on these items because this is where we're wearing our HHS hat. So wanted to respect the bifurcation of duties and do the separate motion here. All right. So there would be standing for a motion to approve the consent agenda item with removing four, five, and six. I'll make that motion. Second. Motion by Commissioner Holland, second by Commissioner Shane to approve the consent agenda with the removal of items four, five, and six. Any discussion, Mr. Chair? Just Yes. Just to be certain that we're tableabling it until we understand what the state budget is going to look like. So, we're not saying no, it's just a table. Yep. For Yep. Just to hold it off so we have some more time to do some vetting. Yep. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. With that, we have a motion and we have a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Post. Same sign. All right. Consent agenda approved unanimously with the removal of four, five, and six. Timed agenda items. Jamie. Um, yes. Thank you. So, I have a resolution for the board to consider the as May 2025 as child foster care awareness month. Um, and with that, I have I'm not sure if they're going to join me or um or I'm just reading it. I think Christine Tler is in the room. Um, so I think I'll just do it here. We we have our folks over here. Um, so I'd like to proclaim May have the board proclaim May 2025 as childc care foster child foster care awareness month. Um, strengthening and preserving families is vital to building our strong communities. Children deserve a stable, supportive, and loving home in which to grow, thrive, and realize their fullest potential. Foster care plays a critical role in providing a place of refuge for young people who are removed from their homes. When children when children must be separated from their parents, kinship care provides children with the opportunity to grow and learn in supportive, loving, safe home environments while retaining a sense of family, cultural heritage, and community ties. And we encourage all citizens of Wright County to invest in the lives of children and to provide them with unconditional love, support, guidance, and every available resource to ensure their health and well-being. We acknowledge with gratitude the selfless citizens who open their hearts and homes to children in need and the organizations that tirelessly support foster and kinship caregivers. And this month and every month, let's take the time to help children and youth in foster care and to recognize the commitment of those who touch their lives. um particularly celebrating the foster care providers and I would like to add also our foster care and licensing um social services staff as well. We have wonderful staff who do an amazing job and I think we are um always stewards and people that other other counties look to for how we're governing our own um foster care programs in Ray County. And if you'd like us to stand up. Thank you. So, I would like to ask the board to um proclaim May 2025 as child foster care awareness month. I'll make that motion. Second. All right. Motion by Commissioner Hall and second by Commissioner Shane to proclaim May 2025 as foster care awareness month here in Wright County. Uh I want to thank all of you and the uh wonderful families that uh take in these children uh for your hard work. you have endured over the last decade quite a roller coaster of uh placements. Uh sometimes at extraordinary highs and other times at lows uh which I believe we're at this time is kind of one of our lowest placement times that we've seen over the last decade which is uh a a good thing. So keep up the great work. We appreciate that and all the wonderful training that you bring to these families and the support that you bring to these children. I appreciate that and I probably would be remiss if I didn't mention I believe we are at an all-time low in the number of children that we currently have in foster care. Um and it is less than half even though we have more children in the county right now. It's less than half the number that we had several years ago. So it's amazing job and effort on everyone's on everyone's part. It's great. Thank you. All right. We have a motion and a second uh resolution vote. Commissioner Shane I I I I I motion passes. uh unanimously and we will inform you of any upcoming events in relation to foster care month. All right. Um next we would ask the board to accept our donation, our March, April 2025 donation resolution. All right. Um members, I'll stand for a motion. So moved. All right. Motion by Commissioner Shane, second by Commissioner Holland to approve the HHS resolution 256 accepting the March and April 2025 donations. Any discussion? Hearing none. Resolution vote. I vote I I I I I. All right. Well, we appreciate all of the support from the citizens and uh organizations across the county. Thank you. Um and now I'd like to invite um our mental health advisory committee chair Carl Haru to join me at the podium to provide the board with our annual stat statutoily required unmet needs report. So Carl um is a member and our current chair of our again our mental health advisory committee and I believe in your packet you have information regarding the unmet needs report. Good morning chair and commissioners. Taking one hat off. Usually when I meet with you, it says the mayor of CO, right? So, as the chair of the unmet needs or the mental health advisory committee, we do the annual unmet needs. Um, some of these I think you'll find good because the responsibility doesn't fall directly on you. One of the things we're looking at, uh, we've identified daycare, affordable daycare options, and I don't think that's a surprise to anybody. Um, we've looked at, you know, childc care assistance available within the county. Um, continues to be a obviously a statewide issue, but um looking at possibly um again ways of getting people to qualify for additional financial support or things like that. Another idea or unmet need support for youth in crisis. We actually did have a couple of new members join. This was one of their very high areas of interest. And so we have formed a youth coalition um committee along with members of the health and human services board or health and human services um members and then a couple of community members at this point. Looked at promoting trauma-informed care principles. um pre preventing access to lethal means and then suicide prevention and a couple other proposed solutions looking at teen mental health hosting those courses finding somebody or to be continued another program on suicide prevention and then um peer training for schools. Uh we had a consumer report that they attempted to call the 988 the mental health hotline. Um where call was sent over to 911. Um and you know of course probably wasn't law enforcement response probably wasn't what they were needing at that time. Um fortunately again Wright County has established the co-responder program. Um I'm sure at times they wish there were multiples of those, but at least there is one going looking at other um warm lines utilizing some of those. Uh we do have a 4 county crisis response team um and even a mobile team. So and again some looking at some peer support programs there. uh always looking for additional mental health resources and supports for parents when their children are in that transition from childhood to adulthood. Um one of the issues of course is once the children do become adults the parents um legal responsibility kind of diminishes even though necessarily the the care doesn't. So again looking at the peer resources um things like that. So um and trying to educate with even the children as to what resources are available within the county already. Uh lack of transparency between employer employees and insurance companies. Uh we do fortunately have a couple of insurance company representatives who do attend our meetings. So they are getting this message. I'm sure they're getting it from other places also. But again looking at educating people on finding their what mental re health resources are available with their insurance through their insurance things. Also want to commend you um I've been attending a state review commission with local advisory councils geared towards mental health. Um sat through several of them that were reviewing bylaws and Wright County did it right the first time. Each county should have a local advisory committee and so far everything that has been discussed is already being done in Wright County. So, good job with setting up that local advisory and also to the health and human services for getting that established and set up. Well, Carl, I I appreciate your time and all the individuals that sit on our mental health advisory council and putting this annual report together of these unmet needs. This is one of the few documents in the year that I I I feel is super important. Being able to really target different items that we're struggling with in the county and being able to make some progress forward. Uh this is one of those key performance indicators that tells us whether we're uh doing the right thing or not and what things we're missing. So, I appreciate your time on vetting that out. in those uh those conversations when those insurance agents are there, have they have they mentioned or has there been anything brought up in the past um you know prior to me starting where um you know they've talked about the lack of mental health services that are covered by a lot of insuranceances. I mean there's a lot of insuranceances that I've seen over the years they only cover two or three visits and then it's all out of pocket at that point. A lot of people can't afford those out-of- pocket visits for how expensive some of those therapy services can be. And two or three visits that barely gets you an introduction to your therapist, let alone a rapport to be able to work on any services. So, has that been any topic of conversation that's been that has been and I believe it comes more from the consumers who are on members of our boards. Um the insurance companies obviously they're showing us or explaining to us what services they do provide. Unfortunately, of course, the other flip side to that is with our lack of providers, um you might only be able to schedule two to three visits a year. Uh so I know of some people who contact their psychiatrist or psychologist and it's a six-month wait to get in. So, but yes, uh those things are discussed. I think at least the representatives are hearing from the consumers. Hopefully, they're bringing it back to their companies. Mr. Chair, if I could just make a comment. First off, it's good to hear that they're recognizing our our leadership in the state with the advisory um committee. Also, it's nice to been about a year, year and a half since we started this co-responder thing. So, it's kind of nice to hear an update on that that you know, you're exactly right. We probably need more but in time when we have such need but it's good to hear that that process is working. Yeah, I believe it's been very effective and we've got some good reports about the um interactions that have occurred and the results of those. So, it's been a very good um I think we're just over a year. I think actually coming up this fall. It takes a little while to get anything kind of off its feet, but I think this fall will mark maybe the two-year anniversary of the board approving the co-responder program. Wonderful. Thank you. Sure. Bet. I also like it's interesting about how child care weaves into everything. Um I know this this legislative season um we've been working really hard with Christine Tricler and then uh the Missy from the EDP. It it's it's hitting it also uh the CMJTS workforce. It's really a problem. It's a nationwide problem. Um we just don't want to lose those home daycarees. So, I'm glad that, you know, people are advocating for no change at to that level of because we need those we need as many dayc carees as we can, right? We we rely heavily on the daycarees. Um, I wouldn't say that we're in a super strong position, but I think we're doing as best we can with the resources that are out there right now. Um, I don't believe Right County lost any daycare spots over the last we maybe added a few daycare spots overall in the county. Um but again we have a very large child population and um a lot of parents who obviously need to work and sometimes their work takes them further away from home than maybe other places. So very reliant on our daycare providers and I think um uh talking to some of our constituents that do daycare, they're they're really getting concerned because if a lot of these things are enacted, there will be more more home daycarees that go under and we just don't want that. Well, our staff do our best we can to support them, but we're all at the mercy of what the state, you know, legislates in the in the end analysis. Yeah. And just again with May being mental health awareness month, um we find it it carries all the way through. Even our correction officers, unfortunately, they kind of become our mental health providers when nobody else is available. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Carl. Well, Jamie, I appreciate you see right on the first item on your director's comments is the governor's budget imple implications. I think we could probably talk all day on this. Uh, I have a synopsis. So, if you'd like to hear it, I'm ready to go. Sure. I'll let you kick off because I know I have some potential comments. Well, you know, and we are looking at significant as you know, state cost shifts to counties from the governor's proposed budget would not only impact the cost to the counties, but also our, you know, the cuts and the shifts would affect our communities, our clients, our taxpayers. Both the Senate and the House also have out, you know, um different um versions of it. Um it's basically all is on I would say most of it's on the back of HHS and particularly on our adult services, mental health, um in those areas. our waiver our waivers programs as as well. So it does impact the people that we serve. Um, I've been out of the out of the country actually for the last 10 days, but um, Greg, administrator Kryer did attend a Micah legislative um, meeting recently and I'd like to run through just some of the points that that legislative that Micah came up with, which closely mirrors both MAXA, AMC, you know, all of our organizations that work together to um, you know, work together to lift counties up during um, situations. And I know somebody mentioned like we're kind of back to like the 2008 and 2011 and some of those kinds of times that were very difficult. I was here in 2007 and 2008 and at that time our public assistance um um cases doubled and you know I mean we went through some very difficult times different types of difficult times but it's like this is not our first time kind of wrangling things to see how we can at least come out if not on top at least as unscathed as possible. Um, and with that, these proposed shifts, um, some of the things I would like to mention, the proposed shifts in the governor's budget don't allow for any changes of services or operations. So, we're still mandated to do the work that we're mandated to do regardless of the cost shifting from the state to the counties. Um, the state is shifting costs to the counties, which require higher property taxes. At the same time, the state is increasing its own agency operational budgets and opting not to increase taxes. So, it's um, kind of a I would look at this as kind of a fairness issue. you know, shifting costs on one hand, yet um increasing their budget in other areas um and not taking that hit um and passing that hit on to the counties. So, effectively, the state is passing the buck and having counties make the hard decisions, which is you folks sitting in the chairs that you're currently sitting in. During deficits in prior years, like 2011 and the mid 2000s, some costs were shifted to counties, but this was um done in combination with cuts to agency budgets, and that's not what's happening this time. um this proposed budget burden is not being shared the same way. These human service shifts are on county specifically. They're not being shared with other local entities like cities. And if the costs become law, many counties will have to raise um levies at a level not seen in over 15 years. And as you know, the property tax is regressive and it will hit low and moderate um income motans and Wright County residents particularly hard. It's not a hidden cost since homeowners will get the property tax statements mailed directly to them and show the increase from the previous year. I think a lot of questions will follow that increase. Um and while and because legislators are concerned about the potential federal cuts and cost shifts that would apply from so at the same time that I think that the kind of the knee-jerk jerk reaction the state is passing this on to the counties without knowing really where the feds are going to you know file as far as cuts coming to the state. it's hitting us harder because that unknown is still there. And we would really like to work better with the state to mitigate and not um penalize counties at this time, especially in this time of uncertainty uncertainty of not knowing where the federal cuts are coming or what that's going to look like down the road. Um so if the budget if the governor's budget could um you know could just better mitigate some of these costs and have an awareness that we're all in a state of uncertainty. And again, I would just like to make a statement. We'll be going into a budget meeting very soon here. Um, but Health and Human Services seems like it's a particularly difficult place to um, extract cost shifts from since we're operating under very close to an entirely mandated operational system and, you know, again, a growing county and the costs that are involved with that. So, it's a disservice to our citizens and it's a disservice to the state, I think, just to shift costs from one area to another. Um, so that's kind of what my statements are here. I'm sure you have other comments regarding the budget. Well, at this point, I'm going to say this is a call to action. Uh, I'm going to start off by saying I want to thank the uh dozen citizens who have already copied me on the emails that they've sent to the governor's office. We greatly appreciate it. Uh, we need to call more individuals to actions. This cost shift is going to be farreaching and it will be potentially longlasting. I say farreaching because it is much as the cost shifts are isolated to HHS in order for us to shore up that increase, we are going to have to go outside of HHS to make the cuts because being able to pass all of that on to the taxpayer isn't going to be palatable or feasible. So the when I say we're going to be farreaching, we will be reaching across all departments in the county to try and shore up that. When I say long lasting, when we go backwards in services, it will go back. It will lose those services fast and it will take a decade to bring those services back. So that's the longlasting side to it. I ask any and every citizen out there to contact the governor's office and tell them what the potential impact to their household is in this cost shift and what it will mean uh to you as a taxpayer. Uh we'll help you articulate what our cuts will be in the upcoming months uh to be able to shore up the financial aspects of it here at the county as much as we possibly can. But there will be uh changes in levels of services in order to do that and those cuts will be challenging. So hopefully in the next month the legislature and the governor will get wise and decide to make some internal cuts on their end versus just shifting their burden on to the local taxpayers through the county. Uh m Yeah, Mr. Chair, thank you. Um, I'm really worried about this uh the fiscal year with the state versus us and it's House File 2434 and how is that going to affect our budget even now going forward after July? Yeah, Mr. Chair, Commissioner Shane, specifically on that budget or that House file alone um where it deals with the uh rate share exceptions. They're looking at increasing that on the counties um assuming that the federal share is still there to the rate of 16.28% and in 2023 our rate share exception was $16 million that has only gone up in 24 and it's likely going to be higher in 25 and higher in 26. So taking the known 2023 numbers that is estimated to be a $3.3 million hit to the levy instantly just from that bill alone. And going over the entire bienium, you're looking at a $6 million hit. And this is only off of 2023 numbers which have gone up. And that's assuming that the federal share is still at 50%. If the federal share changes, that 16.28% only increases up to potentially 33%. And you're going to compile that with the addition of adding on the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionate Act as well, which has uh is another unfunded mandate. That is correct, Mr. Chair. Yeah. What is collectively called the act, that act you just referred to, the act um is really reliant upon federal funding which may go away and that act requires us to maintain that level of federal service. So if the federal government does any cuts to SNAP, you know, supplemental nutrition assistance program, they cut any other services, the act still requires the county to provide those dollars even if the federal government doesn't. So the entire act is really built upon the shell game of the federal government still being there which it may not be come October 1st and then that those dollars I mean we were just looking at a staff impact from the act alone of a million dollars but if you have to add on the federal gap that's now being passed down because of this mandate that completely unfunded you could be looking I mean I'm just going to be speculate it'll be millions more I don't even want to put a number out there because I'd have to probably retractor to go higher Chairman BCH. Um, in my 14 years at the school board, um, the thing that we always paid attention to is that, uh, the the people on fixed incomes, and this is going to hurt them. And the other thing we know from my 14 years is that once something shifts down, it they never clap back. So once they do and and talking to my superintendent, they the schools also have unfunded mandates heading their way that are costing them a lot of money. I know St. Michael Albertville is going to go out for a levy and a bond and many of these other schools are going to go out for levies. And so that also impacts that general um dollar from uh these poor people that are living paycheck to paycheck um which is very hard to to stomach, right? And we've seen that play out in HHS several times with the mchice assessments and things like that where you know the amount that we weren't hit up for that at the beginning and then we were um and to administrator Chryser's point for the exceptions we the county this is an invisible number to us. This is not a number the 16 million that we've ever seen. We had to ask the state to provide that to us because they're not even dollars that go through our coffers so to speak. So, um, you know, it's something that we've never paid into before and starting this kind of slippery slope of having to pay an exception rate now. So, um, I think this is definitely a difficult situation that I hope gets, you know, in some way mitigated before the legislation ends. And to your call to action, Commissioner Betch, I'd also say contact the governor's office and your legislators quickly because May 19th is the um, legislative, you know, end. So, don't don't wait. I think it needs a call to action. and it needs to be fast. Yeah. And Mr. Chair, if I could follow up on that bill, um given from the our consultants comments from Micah, apparently at the end of the House file when they talked about House File 2434 in the last committee meeting, a comment was made that it could have been much worse, but that they did the best that they could. And I I think that's a little disingenuous when they're not cutting their own agency budgets. They're maintaining HHS at the same level, state DHS at the same level and passing the buck to us and saying it could have been much worse. Well, especially in light of the fact that there is even some departments that are even seeing increases in state agencies. Well, and to that effect, they just created the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, which incre you know is if not mirroring DHS as an addition to DHS now. So to the cost of the state, millions of dollars. Well, I I I think all of our heads are spinning here right now. Uh and I know mine is Yeah. Um moving on to your other uh items here on your director's comments. Yeah, there's some some mixed in some some good things. Um back on April 9th, we had a HHS all staff um all staff training. Uh we had um a presenter that came in and did a look for the good to makes today better. We had over 200 people attending that. We also did a safety at the doorway with Detective Blake Lamire from the Wright County Sheriff's Office and we provided some county and agency updates. Um so well attended, wellreceived. It was a a good day. I think it was a two-hour um total time for that. If I could make a comment on that. Um that was very that was very good. It was entertaining. Um the speaker uh is from St. Michael. We applaud him for giving us a deal. Uh he is a national act that came and did it for us which is really great and um it it was it was very fun and um it was really good information too that that uh Deputy Blake gave um which was really good information and uh yeah it was really nice to put that together and thank you Thank you. Um I want to do some recognition as well. So, we had a report just recently um and I know we've been here talking about our fraud and collections and things like that um since we added the fraud investigator um about it this past year, but I also want to say now that one of our our main collectors Shellyley um Stococo collected the eighth largest amount in the state of Minnesota um and it was 2 million and 2 million10,000 I think I'm saying that right. um in comparison to the year before was 600,000 and the year before that um just under a million dollars. So, she's done an amazing job and she's collecting lots of uh money that these would be collections that would have gone out um to people in benefits or things like that and that we collect them back either through a state recovery or different types of collections. So, doing a really great job and she was um um acknowledged as one of our top state collectors. So, good job, Shelley Satco. Great. Um, I also wanted to give you an update on our our recently had a name change. It's our family community resource center, our FCRC. Um, and we are, this is the one that we're working with, um, community action out of Maple Lake. And just for your information, we've connected our county GIS team to the FCRC coordinator to map out these events calendars. So the community will be able to interact with the calendar on the website to search for specific needs and see when and where services will be be provided in their community. So we're kind of in the idea stage. So I think it's something will be very tangible and visible to our young families to be able to work and you know um technology is everything now. So if they can go online and find resources um I think this will be a big bo for the county as well. Um next I would like to invite Jake Jacob Anson to join me up at the podium. Jacob recently um he's a member of our public health area and he recently completed um an completed the 18month center for homeland defense and security masters program through the naval postgraduate school. The board allowed this to occur part partially on staff time. There you are Jacob. Um so this is a this is a program I'm going to let Jake speak to it in a little bit. provides leaders um with advanced education and policy strategy and emergency preparedness, combining academic rigor with real-time application. And Jacob earned his masters of arts and security studies alongside 30 outstanding classmates from across the United States. His time was supported by our public health preparedness grant funds while he was completing his degree. So, I think you have some information in your handouts about it, but I would like Jacob to give you just a little heads up about what that meant to him um and what that looked like. First, I'd like to start by thanking the board um for allowing and the county overall for allowing me to go through this program. Um it was a very unique opportunity and it's one that um I did not take lightly. So, I greatly appreciate um the advocacy and the work that the board did to make sure that I would get into the program. Um overall, it was an 18-month program um as mentioned through the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Throughout the program, we learned the different aspects of homeland security. um as mentioned myself and 30 other individuals um from a wide variety of disciplines and across the nation um went through this and learned from each other and learned um with each other both how homeland security started and where it is now. So I look forward to taking my knowledge forward and doing well by the community and putting stuff into practice. So I would also be remiss if I didn't thank my wife for putting up with it while I was there. So did want to say that. Great. Thank you, Jacob. We're very proud of Jacob and his wife Ellie. Thank you. Um and also I wanted to um our Americanore program. As you know, the board's been involved with Americanore and RSVP and you've seen them come in. You we do have their annual report as part of their packet. Um so I'll just let you peruse that on your own. I did want to say that um they are a fedally funded program as well and I heard um that they will continue to be funded at this point. So, um, we're not in danger of losing our RSVP or Americanore. Um, I shouldn't say that. Our RSVP program. We are actually did lose our Americanore. Um, we were we were having students or I don't they volunteers, I guess you'd be considered Sarah. Um, we've been running a program over the last several years where they've come in and worked sidebyside with our public health staff. That program will cease to end at the end of August this year. Yeah, we've had at least one and sometimes as many as two full-time staff that worked alongside our staff to complement it, actually reduce the need for staffing requests. Um, fully funded, we didn't have to pay a a buy in or anything. Um, several of them were completing their masters throughout the process. Um, and our many of them were community members that have gone on to get full-time positions in public health and we are losing that program. Thank you, Sarah. And finally, I have a recognition letter um somewhere in my pile of things here. Um congratulating Wright County um for our financial reporting success in the past year for 2024. So, just a um shout out to the folks um both in HHS and obviously in our um fiscal area that um contributed to this success. So, um it's kind of a I believe the um Commission Commissioner Veetch would have gotten the same letter. So, just kind of a um we done good kind of thing. So, that's all I have. Thank you very much. Unless you have any other questions. Thank you, Jamie. Um I would just like to uh at this time thank Sarah for allowing us to go last week. Uh we spent a week uh at a um emergency preparedness uh convention. So, very much glad that we have Jacob because uh some of that stuff is frightening. And uh it was we learned a lot. It was um very very good information that we will bring forward uh to our our county and work through some um things that will make us safe. So thank you. I appreciate it. I'm glad there was an opportunity for people to attend that. I heard only good things. So thank you. If if I could just make one comment, too. Um, I went to um a state and local legal authority meeting. I was so overwhelmed and was trying to take notes so fast. So, I would like to sit down with Sarah and stuff afterwards. There was so many classes there. I just was overwhelmed. Never been so educated, enlightened, like she said, scary in some aspects, but then then they had this to give you points to kind of where you could go, what you could do. So, I look forward to being able to utilize those as well. I will make Sarah to your disposal. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And moving on to our 925, which is now our 9:45 agenda item. Uh Lindsay Meyers, she out there. There she is making her way to the podium. And once again, we get to accept the in this case it's the 2023 certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting. How many of these have you gotten now? We are up to nine consecutive. Wow. Um so as as you said we have once again been awarded the government finance officers association certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for our 2023 annual comprehensive financial report. It's been prepared by our finance department. This like I said marks the ninth consecutive year that we have earned this prestigious honor. Every year which we have participated in this program, we have received this award. Um this recogn recognition represents the highest form of achievement in governmental accounting and financial financial reporting which is awarded by the GFOA. It reflects our commitment to transparency, accountability and excellence in financial management. To receive this distinction, a government must demonstrate comprehensive reporting that conforms to generally accepted accounting principles, complies with all relevant legal and contractual requirements, and provide sufficient detail and clarity. Reports must be both thorough and accessible, embodying the principles of full disclosure and transparency. Importantly, this is not just an award for how financials are presented. It's really the result of a year'slong organizationwide effort to ensure that every transaction is properly documented and reported. We should recognize the outstanding work of assistant finance director Heather Lemieux for her leadership as well as her leadership team and every member of the finance department. Their diligence, accuracy, and unwavering commitment to integrity have made this accomplishment possible. The entire team deserves recognition for this continued achievement. I think it's great that you are able to still nine years running be able to achieve these standards in light of some challenges with implementing different softwares and and different uh processes within your office uh which were necessary. uh but you're still able to make sure that you're able to get the reporting and the transparency necessary uh to be a good uh financial steward of taxpayer dollars. They really have worked hard. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving forward here. Items for consideration. We have to set the agenda for the May 13th uh county board of commissioners workshop for next Tuesday. included is the agenda items. I will stand for a motion to approve the agenda for the workshop. Yes, I would like to add um just a discussion further discussion on the county board minutes to the agenda, please. All right. Um standing for motions. I'll make a motion with that addition. All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Dietrich. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Moina. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Same sign. Uh motion passes unanimous. The agenda is set for next Tuesday. All right. Now, moving forward, we have the committee minutes from the revisor work. Nope. You want a time change for the 12th? You added that? Yeah, added that one. Oh, yeah. I I was going to put that one very last, but that's fine. We can do that, too. Uh, so we'll do the I have a funeral now that is during the parks committee the whole on Monday the 12th. I'm looking to see if we can move that to 9:00 a.m. uh versus the original scheduled time of 10 a.m. If we can move it back an hour, I can be able to make that and mostly just because uh looking to move it because I have a particular item on the agenda on there. So is a does that work for members to move it from 10 to 9 next Monday? Works for me. Works for you. Everybody's good. Getting nods. Then I'll get a motion. I'll make that motion to change it to 9:00. All right. Second that. A motion by Commissioner Shane. Second by Commissioner Holland to do the parks committee the whole at 9:00 a.m. on May 12th versus 10 a.m. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Go ahead. I I do have public health that day, so I'll go between the two. Okay. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Post. Same sign. All right. Motion passes unanimous. Now we're down to the revisers workg groupoup recommendations. Uh so coming forward from the work uh advisor group that met on April 14th, the consensus of the work group was to bring forward to the planning commission to set a date for a public hearing for the May 2025 planning commission to adopt of ordinance amendment 25-1 following the public hearing. Um do you guys have any uh comments you guys want to make? That's regarding to the uh solar farms and uh energy systems mostly just updating the shity amounts and some aspects relating to that. Yes, Mr. Chair. It was just mainly dealing with um some issues with the codification because one of the amendments from 2023 didn't get incorporated fully and then just adjusting the table for inflation. So public hearing has actually already been conducted last one last Thursday. So, I'm anticipating you'll see this final result with any comments from that public hearing um at the next meeting on May 20th, which is great that we actually have an an inflation piece on it because otherwise that uh amount is getting diluted out very fast with the uh inflation. So, thank you for the clarity on that. All right. Is there any other discussion? Others, I'll stand for a motion. So, moved. I'll second it. All right. Motion by Commissioner Moina, second by Commissioner Holland. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. All right. Motion passes unanimous. And onto the second item here. We had the ditch committee meet uh myself and uh Commissioner Moina on the 15th of April to discuss uh county ditch 33. Uh discussing different outlet options regarding the project there. Uh uh the recommendations were to have uh Mati schedule a meeting with Chad and Jeremy Carlson and Matt Denon to discuss potential easements for feed title purchases with uh affected land owners and then to uh confirm with the city of Monaceel exiting easements can be utilized for future empowerments and then authorize up to $10,000 uh from the county ditch 33 account code which is listed the 62 261 last four digits to be used for legal opinions regarding the empoundment easement and wetland banking. So that's they have county ditch 33 is one of the few ditches that has a positive balance. So they have money in their account. They're just authorizing to use money out of the county ditch 33 fund to uh pay for some engineering. So So Mr. Chair, is that is this this will come back to the ditch authority for approval or is this something that just is internal to that ditch? So, it's both approval. So, it'll go to the full drainage authority when we look to move in a an in action. The ultimate action we're looking to get to is an abandonment. Uh that may be a little bit further down the road. What we're looking to right now is in order to move forward with this storm water project which needs to take place uh we have to work on being able to impound water uh so that we can demonstrate to the TP board and the DNR that we're not draining public water. So we have to and also we have to demonstrate that we're not flooding out other individuals as well. So there's some uh pieces that we have to do from some hydraology studying and engineering as well as there's some work that we have to do with uh landowner agreements uh with either them creating wetland banks or us working with them to create wetland banks or us doing wetland banks ourselves because we do own some property in that area. So this is just one of the steps of probably five uh we've there's another minutes we have some myself and commissioner Mo just met the other day on a subsequent meeting of this. So there's many steps but when we finally figure out a methodology and an actionable item we'll come to the full drainage authority with that. Yep. Thank you. So, with that, I will uh this is largely just the approval of uh getting the $10,000 and then just some communication pieces uh Alex executed out of the county ditch 33 fund. I'll make that motion. All right. Motion by Commissioner Holland. Second. Second by Commissioner Moina. Any further discussion? U Mr. shared just with that recommendation with the funding for that out of that ditch. Um is that something that is now is that always been the policy that it comes before the board um for approval um within that you know this this seems like a new process to me. No. Well, generally they wouldn't have needed to because it's under $15,000. I could have just uh executed out and directed Matt because it has a positive balance. I could have or even if I didn't have a balance at all, I could have instructed Matt because any commissioner within their district can approve up to $15,000 in work within that ditch system and it can either be charged to the benefited roles or if there's a positive balance in this case, it could be paid out of that. Uh we just included in this because we were just trying to keep the board uh up to date because there will be a bigger movement on the back side of this. When we hopefully are able to get the impoundment that we is needed and we uh secure the outlet to the river, we look to hopefully abandon a good ch a good section of county ditch 33. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Uh any other discussions? Yeah, Mr. Chair, just one thing. I got an update from Flarity and Hood, and I know that this is important to the board and you've been following it, but I was informed that uh Senator Lucero's HOA bill for homeowners associations will be on the floor today. Oh, so or it's at least been calendared for today. So, that's better than what I knew at 8:00. So, hopefully we get some action on that today and it passes. All right, we'll get this uh voted on. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Oppos? Same sign. All right, the ditch committee minutes are approved or recommendations are approved unanimous. All right, now moving on to the uh personnel committee ones which were tabled out to the 20th. So, no action there. And now we'll bring it back to you. Sorry, Mr. Chair, I jumped the gun there when you said anything further. So, I should have been I should have been more specific. Any other discussion on that item? No, there is there I' I'd like to say a couple of things. Um, you know, I just wanted to reiterate the, you know, the the foster care proclamation that we put out. I know that we have some people on the board right now that have done foster care in the past. I've worked with foster homes in the past and it's a very tough job for those foster parents to do and the workers because they, you know, they develop relationships with these individuals and these kids and, you know, it's very tough and there's there's an emotional toll that gets taken on them and I don't think we give them nearly enough recognition. Not just us in general. I just in general people don't give foster care uh providers and the the county workers that work with them enough recognition because it it's very tough. It's a tough thing to deal with when they you have kids coming from those situations and uh you know you're taking that on yourself to help deal with it. So and I know that a couple of you have done that and uh you know it's very commendable that you've done that. So, I just wanted to say another thank you. And then and then on top of the the conversation that uh Jamie had brought up as far as the governor's budget uh proposals, there was uh an article that was sent out to all of the papers in Wright County. I believe all five of us gave a quote for that article on our thoughts towards the the cuts and the well, not the cuts, the shifts to the county uh from the state budget. And when I had looked through the papers, all but one of the papers covering Wright County had had that article in there this week. And um you know, the the Buffalo paper especially and and they they do letters of the editors very very well. So if people want to write extra letters about it, especially in that paper, it's a good thing. But yeah, the the article that the commissioners put out is in all but one of the local papers. So thank you, Commissioner Mo. Uh if there's no other business to attend to at uh today's county board meeting, we will adjourn at 10:00 a.m.