I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America in to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you all uh as this is our statutory organizational meeting I will call for a nomination for the election of the chair for the upcoming year I'll nominate commissioner vetch for the chair for 2024 all right second that I have a nomination by commission catchmark second by jeie Holland uh all in favor hi hi uh any opposed all right with that I will turn it over to the new chair to run the meeting from this point Thank you thank you fellow board members and administrator Kelly uh we'll start with the second item here is to uh elect a vice chair uh they'll stand for any nominations for vice chair Mr 24 yes I'll nominate commissioner Shane for vice chair for 2024 all right we have a motion for commissioner Shane uh by Commission C I'll second that second by commissioner Holland is there any other nominations any other nominations any other nominations hearing none all in favor say I I hi post same sign commissioner Shane you are now the vice chair for 2024 next is the uh formality of transferring back the unused funds in the county attorney's contingency fund and the sheriff's contingency fund and any incidental funds back to the general fund send procedure looking for a motion for such action so moved motion by commissioner Shane I'll second that second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I poose same sign next would be a motion to recall all unused clerk hire and unused budgets from 2023 I'll make that motion motion by commissioner Holland M second second by commissioner catchmark any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes unanimously next is to uh set the time and date for County board meetings for 2024 uh as listed within the packet here it would be the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 9:00 a.m. in this room uh is that's the desired path the board members would like to go with at this time yes you want a motion for that or both yep I'll need a motion for that I'll make a motion that we do regular board meetings on Tuesdays the 1st and third Tuesdays at 9:00 a.m. all right and County Board workshops on the second Tuesdays of the month at 9:00 a.m. and second T yep and I'll second that all right motion by commissioner Holland second by commissioner Shane to set the time and date and locations of County board meetings for 2024 any further discussion Mr chair yes for the third year in a RW just which is now dwindling to a flicker of Hope for an occasional evening meeting but I just have to throw that out there for those constituents that think we should entertain or or address it so that's just going to put that on the record that uh I understand from last year that there isn't the interest in the Motions were made today so I'll leave it at that right all right so uh we have a motion we have a second uh any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes unanimously next would be to vote on the appointments of committees for 2024 uh listed within the packet are the assignments for 2024 I believe there was uh one minor correction but there may be others that'll entertain from board members uh otherwise with that correction on the EDP was my name was missing on there with commissioner shanes for the appointments for 2024 Mr chair I have some um additions as well I uh it is not noted that I'm on the OPI settlement committee um that's blank on there so I should be included on that I've been attending those meetings um also um I did attend the nuclear uh committee the emergency exercise and I it I wouldn't mind having my name on there as well I know it's every other year so yeah yeah it's it's not technically like a formalized but yeah y but yeah if you want to put on there y absolutely you can put your name on there and also if there was an alternative necessary to the revisers um committee I would like to put my name down there as a alternative on the which one revisers revisers okay and then I want to note to um that starting in June we started a homeless Workforce committee and I'm on that and it's just to uh see how the county is tracking and what what um Avenues we want to um take for our homeless population perfect homeless and we meet monthly all right monthly all right all right any others uh changes or Corrections that need to be made to the uh listed committee assignments at this time yes Mr chair we would like to add u in light of our cannabis moratorium a cannabis workg group or committee um comprised of two Commissioners if we could I could be on that especially because it's Planning and Zoning Mr chair yes just a question do you have any idea when it would convene uh is this potentially a year two or well we need to meet probably going to be almost monthly I bet for the next year to try to come up with an ordinances and regulations and try to map out how this is going to look in January 1 of 2025 oh okay I'm just trying to get a time frame I'm I'm fine being on that do we need a motion to if that's what you guys are uh commissioner Holland and commissioner catchmark M okay will we meet in the future to determine the dates and times so I think as staff we can set out an email okay discuss it you and we'll have a the makeup of this group will probably have a discussion at a later date outside of the County board members what we would like for other participation outside so yeah M Mr chair members of the board I'm envisioning Planning and Zoning HHS Finance being in there our office being in there as well um so we'll kind of I mean we at least need to start meeting here there's some interest by some cities that are delegating authority to maybe have a couple cities with some staff that would participate on this that they just they want to understand the ins and outs of it so yeah Mr chair I I welcome that that'd be great okay uh so with that with the addition of the Cannabis work group we assigning commissioner Holland and commissioner catchmark as long as along with the other noted changes I will entertain a motion to set the committee assignments for 2024 so moved motion by commissioner Dietrich second second by commissioner Shane any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign committee assignments are set for 2024 all right now moving on to back to the regular agenda for today uh we have the minutes that we have from the 1214 1218 1219 and 1227 we can uh approve them individually or collectively I will entertain motions or Corrections Mr chair yes I have aors on a missions for the Hazardous household waste meeting go ahead okay well first question is was this meeting recorded no I don't believe that it was okay um and I submitted some of these to the minute taker already but the second paragraph we're talking about expanded services and the Egg bag service and it should be noted catchmark wasn't in favor of discontinuation without another plan such as participants in the egg service bringing the bags to the Compost Facility I didn't say uh I wanted to hold on to it for a year and kind of a see what happens deal so that would be the part for the egg bag and then the other part the board was advised by Mr Wagman that the county was paying cities and townships over $180,000 in score money to get a recycling report which was redundant information since he gets the information from theall licensing program he noted that Ray County was the only County paying this and that he found this to be an unlawful practice catchmark noted for the record that he wanted legal advice on if this payment could be continued or needed to stop immediately and this goes to uh later in the meeting Mr chair on the recommendation as far as context with something else but that's why there this was a big piece that was introduced by the staff and there was discussion and different points of view and the whole thing was left out so I'll speak for myself and what I said at this point on that I thought de uh administrator mati did a good job of in the recommendations trying to keep everything straight about what we are in favor of or what we weren't but I don't know if that was reflected as everyone else remembers it in the recommendations others can speak to that later so uh that's what I have on those minutes I don't know if anyone else has anything to change or add on just the minutes for hazardous household waste if not I'll make a motion to approve those minutes along with the drainage Authority public hearing minutes from 12:18 all right so we have a motion by commissioner catchmark to approve the uh committee the whole from 12:14 and the drainage public hearing from 12:18 do I have a second second second by commissioner Shane any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppose same sign minutes are approved unanimously Mr chair on the County board meeting minutes from 12:19 I got one typo I told a minute taker about it falls under the truth and Taxation Corrections where it says dire instead of fire and she can make that change yeah so I'm okay with making a motion unless someone else has something for that County Board meeting from 1219 to 23 meeting minutes thank you so we have a motion by commissioner a catch Mark to approve just the County board meeting or or you going to collectively approve the minutes from the Personnel committee as well I there I won't do that make that motion okay but you'll make a motion to approve the County board meeting from 12:19 right I'll second that all right second by commissioner Holland uh so we have a motion and a second for the county board meetings for 1219 any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign minutes are approved unanimously from 1219 the Personnel committee minutes uh I know uh only myself and commissioner Shane were there but uh we'll entertain a motion I will attest to that the accuracy of the minutes are true so so moved motion by commissioner Shane oh second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oh same sign minutes are approved unanimously all right uh moving on today's agenda would anyone like to make any additions Corrections or modifications through today's agenda uh Mr chair if I could yes just a closing out of we did receive the signed copy of the law enforcement contract from monacello so same terms as everything else would just like to sign that move that on so all right so I would say we can just move the signed copy and that as as a consent agenda item because we don't have that's fair my standpoint yep all right so that would be added the approval of the city of Moni La law enforcement contract that would be under Administration 2 A2 under consent all right with that I'll entertain a motion I'll make that motion Mr chair I'll second that motion by commissioner catchmark second by commissioner Holland to for the approval of today's agenda any discussion hearing none all in favor say I hi post same sign motion passes unanimously today's consent agenda would anyone like to remove anything from today's consent agenda for further discussion Mr chair I would like to remove E1 just so we can have a little bit more understanding of the stuff that was brought forward in the classification and reclassification just for a better understand okay and I would um uh like a discussion on the appointment um for the if you guys could just give us a rundown of the great R River Regional Library um appointment sure yeah all right here I get remember where that was on there that was under A1 A1 that's right it was the very first one I miss that all right with that I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make motion by commissioner Holland second by commissioner Dietrick uh to approve today's consent agenda all right any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign consent agenda approved uh with the removal of A1 and E1 starting off with A1 uh we have the Phil I wouldn't call it necessarily the vacany or maybe we' call it or the additional seat to the uh Regional Library Board of Trustees um do you want to start off or I could speak to that certainly um because we have uh now taken the lead in um the amount of uh population um is it the three factors that considers the posts on the on the Great River Regional Board um and usage um that uh we were able to put another person on the board so we um put this out for bids uh or not bids for application I'm sorry and um in the newspaper on Facebook and on our on our website and we actually had six applicants correct is that it was six and I think one ended up withdrawing so we ended up interviewing five five of them and so um really a great turnout when it came to um the opportunity to get transparency and involvement um from across the county so it was a really good experience and um we just felt this was the best qualified candidate came forward um that we you know agreed upon so it just uh it was a good experience really fun to come they sit down and actually had interviews so and filled out that application and what was missing from our packet was the just general in where is she from where I mean um what like what based your you know uh qualifications they put they put applications they they they didn't distribute it that was what we found out on the back side the applications didn't get distributed out that was in this light of this new process this is the first time of us using the board collectively to do this appointments uh there was a hiccup in that I I know that going forward we'll make sure that you get to see the the application of the approved uh or the recommended uh appointee in the future uh I will say that Teresa is an avid uh uh Library user uh she's from Buffalo she had anandale was her she originally was from yep now lives in Buffalo uh she has utilized uh numerous locations of libraries in Wright County uh she had a good knowledge and scope of the Regional Library system which is kind of one of the reasons I felt that she was a good fit for it uh she understanded the complexities that are challenging the library now and in the future so I feel like she's well suited for this role and I think one of the you know key things that we did with all the interviews was um you know what what what could we be doing better and um it came through on a few of the interviews was um reaching out more to our elderly population um because I think a lot of us with our young kids when we took the kids to the library and they had a lot of programming and really Drew um families into the library so I'm also adding and and really focusing a little bit more on um on programming and and getting um our older population involved at the library as well so nice so thanks yeah no absolutely and we as we hone this process down uh we will make sure we make that correction so that we can get uh you fellow board members a better understanding of who we're recommending and why so I appreciate the question now moving on to the consent agenda next item would be the uh E1 and that was the adoption of the revision of section 101 on the right County Personnel manual uh I guess do you want to talk a little bit about it or do you want to say a few words commissioner Shane I maybe kick it off um we just felt that there was some clarification needed in the process of how classifications and changes of job descriptions would work in the future hence the redline changes in there and kind of talking with those uh a couple Commissioners these were recommended uh thought that this would be workable for the specific sections under so Mr chair and Lee I just have a question because I feel like this last year we've kind of came to we were trying to have a better understanding to how many times these could come forth and and that kind of stuff so is this going to address those because it still is bringing back to the administrator right and so isn't I mean we were still discussing those issues even though we were trying to impose those correct uh correct and what you'll note um I believe it got referred to the upcoming uh workshop on the ninth regarding midyear reclassification requests so that'll give another layer on top of this as well okay okay so this was kind of one piece of the overall puzzle okay thank you but if there is other changes or recommend we could also add this to a future meeting if you would prefer to not address it [Music] today I guess the the question is is does everybody have a a an understanding of where the policy was and where it's at now and and the comfortability I guess if there's another layer on top of this then I guess yeah I'd like to yeah and then it'll probably be addressed Mr chair yes and I was talking on Friday with clay and when we went over this he relayed that there is an extra layer built in here that we didn't have before and I think whoever did the red line changes and pointed those out cuz we can look to those right away and see for ourselves also but if you go back to when we were talking about the that reclass the heavy one where it took effect January 1 and there were some positions that got dealt with that were contrary to meeting minutes and this adds another piece another layer of Staff that's going to look at these before they get sent to Baker Tilly with the understanding more of an understanding of what what the outcome could be and also a question that I had was the language under 101.0 4 request for reclassification one of the the last lines says what reclassification shall not be used for and it talks about attain attaining demotions transfers layoffs compensation adjustments or position elimination if duties change and they're taken away from some staff and Baker Tilly gets a hold of that and lowers the grade I guess I'm wondering what's the definition of demotion if he comes back with a lower grade you're going to take money away is that considered a demotion and does this stop that then but we don't take money away we Redline them so you you just don't you won't get raises at that point so you that's kind of been the practice at the county so if you if if through a reclassification if your pay grade was found to be that the workload isn't the same and it was less than it was before you would be redlined where you're at within that pay grade you wouldn't move down to that lower pay grade I'm glad you brought it up and put it that way instead of me trying to interpret it for the whole board but then when we're looking at the taxpayers paying that salary we're we're allowing them to for some time frame collect money that a reclass has said they're not deserving of because of a of a county philosophy or press practice that could be changed well you have to look at anytime you change a person's compensation you open open your door for them to uh be entitled to unemployment benefits and when that happens we are a one to one pay as an un as an employer as a government agency so we end up paying 100% of those costs and largely you create a negative work environment if you adjust people's compensation downward it's just a bad practice in almost all businesses all businesses would choose usually to lay someone off before demoting their wage it it's just never going to be in your best interest to lower a person's wage you're better off eliminating eliminating the position at that point which says we can't do that either though well it it's saying that you can't do it through this process I mean if you if if that if that workload is no longer necessary because it's been diluted that much or you can take that workload and move it to three other people then yes you can do that and eliminate that position but you can't use it as a way to reclassify the points down to I don't even know how you could do it to be honest that language and there's kind of pointless because I don't know that you can ever reclassify something to be a non- job I mean other than saying that there's here's a job description that has no duties so therefore it doesn't exist I mean that would be about the only way you could do it okay well thank you I just it's good for the whole board to understand the if Duties are taken away from a position and you can't supplement it with other duties and the duty comes back at a lower grade I just want the board to understand that the way this government here operates is we don't lower anyone's pay and that's it's a little different to me because it's taxpayer money rather than running your private business then you maybe you wouldn't do that as as a as a former business owner myself I wouldn't it's just not even a practice that you is as an old owned business owner is moving wages down where it just isn't going to work out well for you as a business owner operator on the short side of maybe some catastrophe environment of like a Great Depression I businesses just don't practice that way and I don't think we're doing anything different than what the general business culture does with that policy okay thank you but uh good questions good clarifications on that um is everyone as a board collectively comfortable with these changes and understanding them this policy the additions to it now I think are gives everybody a little bit more clarity on how this process works so all right with that uh I will entertain a motion to approve the two pulled consent agenda items so moved I'll second motion by commissioner Shane second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oh same sign all right consent agenda items are approved next moving on to timed agenda items we have the first one here uh Clay's making his way to the podium uh to receive the report from the right County Economic Development partnership and thank you Mr chair board members so in August when the board discussed the economic development and historical society's funding the board requested that both those organizations come forward quarterly to give reports to the county board so this would be the first of those reports there were payments that were scheduled to happen three times every year in equal amounts or close to equal amounts throughout the year as well um so just bringing that forward for discussion today I know that there has been some questions about whether the funding is predicated on these reports or not and the timing of them so would also be open for any conversation or question regarding that as well otherwise go ahead go good so I'm going to start off by saying uh I I appreciate the work that Jolene has put into this report uh in the distribution of it I will say that I being the first time out with this one I would like to give this topic its due diligence and getting the uh my fellow board members the time to have a good understanding I ideally would like to see us refer this to next Tuesday so we can actually have spend a little bit more than just uh five minutes in this room discussing it but maybe we can give a good you know 15 to 30 minute conversation on the EDP and getting everybody a good understanding uh because that document is is a a good first step in getting the board a better understanding of the ins and outs and the daily operation of the EDP and the value that it has here in Ray County but that would be my uh preference than to try and drink from a fire hose here in 5 minutes and get all everyone here I agree so Mr chair uh I didn't know Clay was going to be the spokesperson or how this was going to go today but it came up on the agenda I met with them on Friday and I said where's the presentation and he said well they won't have it ready till Tuesday morning I for the record I want to note that this was agreed to about 3 months ago that this was the way this was going to happen that there was going to be a quarterly report and it was addressed with the EDP in the past that presentations last minute that we haven't seen uh beforehand has has happened before so there's there's been that past practice and you talked about the distribution of it Mr chair so it could have been avoided and and we would have had adequate time and and it wasn't by people that made those choices so I also just for the record I misunderstood I thought that the allocation hinged on the measurability of the report and I guess forgive me if I misunderstood but I talked to someone in administration that actually understood it the same way but apparently it was just two of us that thought that this report is what we would base a motion on three times a year to give that allocation and so that wasn't clear to me but I just wanted to throw that out there that was my understanding as well is that we we get three I don't know how we got to four I think it was just needs to get changed and really the report should be tied to the funding if we're going to do it that way and just it should be three reports uh three times a year and we have a discussion about it that it's just the cleanest way to do it right I think for the for the future in these reports at the very least put it on the agenda when the presentation can accompany it when the agenda comes out then we avoid the separate ation of oh looks like a presentation is coming but we won't see it till the meeting and Mr chair I I can clarify that so in the minutes it specifically states that there will be four reports that was the request of the board there would be four reports annually and then there would be three payments my understanding as well was that they were tied together but then going back and looking at the minutes it seems like it was a difference um as for the timing of the report going out to the board Jolene and I worked last week to put this together this format is a little bit different than what she had intended to do and so it took her a little bit longer than um I think what we had originally anticipated and I I'll also say that I wasn't clear with her that Wednesday at noon was the deadline so part of that's my fault as well that I wasn't in there but um we did get it out Saturday morning and from now on with that report being sort of a standardized report going forward it'll get in the packet with everything else and to that degree I don't want to ding the EDP or Jolene with this because this is our first time doing this um I ideally don't know that I I'd rather see us do these in the workshop because it's almost like an interview of the EDP and I don't necessarily know I I'd rather see it come out of it from a minutes and a recommendation from a workshop than I would see it as us interviewing or going in depth on onethird of the year of the edp's operation here on from this format chair I I'm not sure that I mean in our Workshop that it was clear that this the the reports tied it wasn't to me I assumed that we're our funding we appropriated it's in the budget it's just going being distributed in that third or a quarterly manner um the reports was also included but I never I my understanding was never that they were tied together we've already allocated them it's just a matter of the distribution um so unless there's some clarity in that I don't think we should be assuming that you don't get your money unless the reports what we want to see I mean I'm I'm just really kind of what would be what that criteria would be if we get a report or you know what what is the reason why it would have been tied together Mr chair to that point and it's a good one then I my question is why are we separating the money in the first place why not just give it all at once and say see you next year and then you can still give your reports as a formality but then what's the point of separating the money and that's what we approved to do that's the reason it was is because they the board my understanding is as a board we wanted at least in the interim period of time to have a little bit more of a control in getting the desires of the county Eda and the County Board met with the EDP and by allocating the money and tying these reports to it it gave the the County Board a little bit more attention slash uh desire for the EDP to work closer with the County Board throughout the year versus just coming in front of us annually getting their money and walking away so that was well certainly the reports coming in more frequently and the appointment of them or the porman of the funds but I didn't see them tied together and I don't think that was clear in the meeting Mr chair members of the board I just wanted to inform you that I did receive uh the uh format for a performance measures early on Wednesday so there wasn't time to complete this spreadsheet of performance measures by Wednesday afternoon so I was it was completed by Friday afternoon at 4:00 fortunately you didn't have quite enough time to review it I guess in retrospect um I had been working on a the format of our strategic imperatives that the partnership has been working 2022 through 2024 we have strategic imperatives that are 15 member volunteer board of directors does their performance measure on so there were two different um formats going here and I didn't realize that the Commissioners were asking for a specific performance measures document but once I received it on Wednesday morning I worked to complete it by Friday afternoon so that is what you received on Saturday morning I have all of the other information that the partnership requests for their strategic imperatives that we measure from our our objectives okay Mr chair thank you for giving that info I was going to ask because you said these measures came to you late where did these measures come from was that from your your board then no I worked with um assistant administrator Wilford oh so between the two of you then came up oh well clay had I have no I had had some conversations with Clay about what things we'd like to quantify from the EDP and that document to Jolene on what information we wanted from her in this report didn't get to her tell Wednesday morning Wednesday is Tuesday afternoon y hot Wednesday morning so that that's where she's like she was in Lee of that before that she was making her own report to this she didn't realize that there was other information that was going to be desired by the board and that's why it came late into late here it wasn't of her doing she had a separate information she was going to provide but then coming out later out finding out that there was a document that we wanted different information so then she had to go collect that information to present it to us hence the reason you got that on Saturday that's the reason I was asking the board uh to move this maybe to next Tuesday so we can have a good discussion about it I think there's a lot of good information in there and I think some other information that isn't included in that document that Jolene has I think would be also uh very good to share so especially as this is our first time out with this I just want to get everybody a good understanding of where the EDP is at the EDP has made a lot of great improvements in in the short term and has an intent to do a lot of good improvements in the long term and I don't want that to get shortsighted either by a late document or or even just a a lack of understanding or lack of time to get everyone understanding so I would ask that the board would uh give the EDP an opportunity next Tuesday to discuss this in a much robust much more robust fashion chairman vetch I agree um I feel like we have a lot of questions because um you know I too thought it was tied to funding because you know just to make sure that they're on track for the year so I would like to have a good discussion and I think next week would be a good time to have it so we'll make that Mo I will make that motion to um Mr chair members of the board I just did want to comment that uh one of the confusing factors also is that the lease office the office lease payments are now being asked for monthly versus twice a year which was our previous agreement and the payments were received twice a year the appropriation payments from the Commissioners were received twice a year by the partnership so we would receive the appropriation and then we would pay the office lease but now this year we've got this quarterly and this three times a year and now the office lease requirements are monthly so it is a tad bit confusing what it exactly the Commissioners are looking for and to receive this performance measure document sort of at a later date it's good that we have a week for the Commissioners to discuss it and we can have a more in-depth conversation next week thank you thank so we have a motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland to refer the uh report from the EDP to Tuesday November or November January 9th workshop for further discussion uh any other M yes is it uh a possibility to bring it to that meeting just have the discussion on if we can tie the quarterly reports to the allocation are can we still do that as a board yes commissioner catchmark my intent would be to CL create Clarity on all aspects of this everything from the lease payments to the payments from the county to the EDP and the reports and get a good holistic understanding of how all them play together so that they're all tied so we definitely have a discussion about the process itself as well as the report okay thank you sounds good all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I post same sign motion passes unanimously we'll be referring the uh EDP report to the January 9th Workshop now moving on to the uh 920 timed agenda item uh Virgil Chad chairman vetch Commissioners thank you this morning we um Virgil's out at an emergency dental appointment so I'm filling in for him and we just have one item today it's just approve resolution of of sponsorship for the city of Clearwater they're applying for a transportation Alternatives grant for some uh uh for some trail improvements and additions in through clear water all right and any discussion otherwise I'll entertain a motion to uh approve the resolution in sponsorship of the Clearwater Transportation alternative program so move I'll second motion by commissioner dietr second by commissioner Holland all right any further discussion hearing none resolution commissioner catchmark i i i i i motion passes unanimously thank you thank you moving on to the uh 9923 uh timed agenda item we were under the parks and recation review a petition submitted by land owners on the abandonment of County ditch 16 and 19 Matt welcome to the podium yeah Happy New Year we just discussed 16 and 19th quite a b quite a bit and now we get to discuss it again absolutely yeah good morning Mr chair members of the board um so yeah today um we just brought this forward to discuss the petition that was received um by commissioner Dietrich via email I believe yep um by a land owner on County disch number 19 um staff riew this petition and it appears they were petitioning for full abandonment of both of these ditch systems um after the redetermination of benefits that we had completed very recently so I'll just go over quickly what drainage law states for a petition for abandonment uh petition for abandonment is covered under minota statue 103e um a petition for full abandonment must be filed with the auditor of said County and is reviewed um it requires 51% of signatures that 51% can be by the area or the acreage of the drainage system or 51% of the land owners on that drainage system staff including myself and Lindsay Salo has reviewed both of these petitions and neither meets the required 51% um since this is a little bit irregular and and commissioner D did receive this via email we wanted to bring this to the board to discuss and get staff Direction on what next steps would be because standard practice after a redetermination of benefits is to complete repairs that's the first step that must happen happen in order for repairs to be completed but obviously we have uh benefited land owners who have petitioned for abandonment or to remove the drainage system um and we would no longer maintain that if that was approved so just looking for some direction from the board on how to proceed and I'm going to refer this to Matt and Greg I I don't see that because it's not a complete petition I don't feel like I would want to incur the cost of setting a public hearing to entertain this petition because it it's going to end up incurring a cost to the benefited land owners in which ultimately we couldn't honor it because it doesn't even meet the statutory requirements for it so therefore it wouldn't be financially prudent for us to to incur the cost of a public hearing but I would entertain your thoughts Mr chair members of the board I would agree with your statement there I I think in light of the lack of meeting the bare basic requirements of the statute I I think directing staff to draft a resolution to declare it as an invalid petition would be an order so uh open for discussion I just at the end of the day even if we would hold the public hearing it it wouldn't be we wouldn't be able to take action on it because it's not a valid petition per statute and at that point even if they came back at a later date with 51% on a new petition we would have to hold another public hearing so we would end up incurring that cost twice I think at this time it' be mostly it' be beneficial for us to uh get a resolution by the board uh directing staff to find this petition invalid uh for stated reasons Mr chair thanks for the background attorney kryer and Matt was this uh tactic I'll call it because it's been deemed invalid so I'll call it a tactic to stall or stop the process and project that happened in the past was this one used in the past to try and stop this ditch process because we know it stopped and started before Mr chair members of the board we've never received an abandonment petition on these two systems okay so they got a new tactic yeah we we've really received petition for partial abandonments in the past two which doesn't require 51% of landowner signatures so it's a little different process for full abandonment yeah Mr chair with legal advice and Council that says the the petition isn't valid no matter which way you look at it I don't know what other option we have um unfortunately commissioner dedri bared the brunt of that email rather than me I don't know if some of it goes through your District or not but I got plenty of Correspondence on on it myself but not that one so I would uh make a motion to deem the petition invalid and then what's the next step in the process staff to uh send notification of the uh invalid uh petition Mr chair I I think the prudent thing here would actually be to table this for two weeks and staff will draft a resolution to that effect okay okay I'll make that motion then just direct act to come back with a uh yeah I would recommend a resolution because then we can adopt findings State our position in there and then that gives them the ability to appeal under the drainage law okay thank you all right right motion made then I guess at this point uh there's enough direction for staff to come forward I don't think we need to vote on any direction to staff I think you have enough information to move forward right we do all right thank you thank you now moving on to item D on the agenda we have Parks and Recreation accept donation by resolution from Mike and Mary Wahlberg in the amount of $1,600 to be set aside for Robert NY Regional Park in the purchase and installation of a memorial bench at Stanley Eddie Regional Park very nice thank you Commissioners appreciate it Happy New Year uh before you here is a resolution to accept a donation of $1,600 to be set aside the Robert knif fund it's kind of an In-N-Out process for the purchase and installation Memorial bench $1600 covers the installation the purchase of the bench and then maintenance up to 10 years any discussion we greatly want to say I appreciate the donation by Mike and Mary uh to the parks in wri County but with that I'll entertain a motion for the resolution so much I'll second motion by commissioner dietr second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing done resolution commissioner Shane I I hi hi I resolution passes unanimously thank you thank you moving on to our health and human services portion of the agenda as Jamie makes her way up here we have the first item on the Health and Human Services agenda would be the consent agenda would be the approval of the annual HHS policies and procedures um but do you have some quick words on that otherwise I'll entertain Mr chair I'll make a mo that we pull E1 from the consent agenda for discussion okay perfect I second that second that all in favor I post same sign all right items pulled it's the only item on the consent agenda just trying to follow orders Mr chair yes we're we're following Robert's Rules orders good all right so when I was going over the agenda with Administration on Friday and I inquired about the changes in the lengthy report here for the policies and proced procedures and I was told that they'd be ready by 8:30 on Tuesday Morning Sounds like this is required annually and then it's it has to be approved it doesn't have to be approved at the first meeting of the year but just annually I've addressed this with this department in the past and others that you give us the information last minute this one there was like 12 months notice that it was coming and then we're supposed to uh look at changes just before during the meeting and figure out if we have any questions I know that there's already a project an inquiry from staff on the debt right off process we talked about that before as I was rolling through this report that is in there and so this is still subject to change there might be other inquiries that are subject to review from the HHS policy and procedures so I would move to table this until the board has a chance to review and that propos changes are looked at according to whatever administration's findings are specifically to the debt write-off piece maybe clay has something to add about other parts of it that might be under review but I just lack of information and background timing and I can speak to I think the majority of that Commissioners um this is the same process that we've used for five years and the same way that we've brought these policies and procedures forward there's no requirement to bring them to board we do it for clarity and for I think an appreciation of the that we do internally I anticipate other large departments also have internal policies and procedures that they likely don't bring to board this is really our um if there is something like the debt write off like the burial policy like changes that impact we bring those under a separate agenda item to the board should the um debt write-off change you know based on any kind of future board thing then we incorporate that into these same policies and procedures that we then again would anticipate bringing them to board um this is really just a matter I would call this more of a courtesy matter and we have had them in the very same rendition that we've done over the last five years since we started doing these these are all internal policies there's as far as I'm aware no statutory requirement to bring them here um I do want to say that these are our internal policies we usually have them because we're such a large department and when we have let's say social services has a policy where like we're you know reimbursing a foster care family or whatever it is and when would go through our our own internal Finance or else County finance so we have things that we can do when we go between interdepartmental or inter even even inter divisional um I would say the bulk of these changes that I don't know that the board would want to see them redlined it's things like we change the name of our collection officers to revenue debt coordinators so then we change that in our policy um we have a different way now to request County cars for staff we Chang that in our internal policies and procedures um I'm just kind of at a loss as to any scrutiny because these are really just the way that we do work the staff are using these now they've been using them over the course of time this is how we instruct staff and how to do fairly complex things um again there's I think the transparency is here for you to see it not that we're trying to ramrod a bunch of 159 pages of policies and procedures through you these are our acting internal policies right now we bring anything to you that would require board action also I wanted to mention that like if we change something on our safety policy we run it by Tim doll if we have something that we update um based on our finances we bring Lindsay in if it's a dress code thing or something with HR we run it by Sean so we get admins input on all of our policies and procedures throughout the entire process again I think this is more or less like a seal of approval on the work we're currently doing and there's nothing that we're changing and as of January 2nd on these policies and I would say probably other departments likely also have policies that they do internally and likely don't come to board unless it's like prerequisite based on what's required by board to see chairman V yes I I too was alarmed just because uh 14 years in the school board we do review a lot of policies because that's we're a governing body that's one of our most important tasks and I too had no idea when these policies were in front of me what was changing and I was alarmed as well so I would have pulled them as well just because when I see a policy then I don't know how we're going to get stuck with something that if you want us to review an approv a policy then I and then then I as a board member want to see how it's changed and why so that's why the red line is just a a a cur cour toy to us so maybe I think maybe where the construct is a little bit different these are procedures we call them policies I think over the over the overarching thing there could be policies in there these are really procedural ways that we internalize processes within within HHS um and if you notice I think one of the reasons why you're maybe if you look at the top of them where it talks about an expiration date we expire them purposely so we can just review them to see is this still adequate is this still something that's changed is this a new process that's come down through either mdh or DHS I mean if if there was going to be and when I say scrutiny I don't mean scrutiny in a bad way I mean I would just hate to take the board's time in looking at things that are really just internal documents that I would say and i' I've never been on a school board I wouldn't characterize these as policies that would really change anything other than how staff do their day-to-day operations within our agency they're not public this is not for public consumption they're not put out there for the public public these are just our internal day-to-day processes Mr chair yes well I didn't pick the wording on the agenda here Jamie but it says the board is supposed to look at approving the annual HHS policy and procedure and it's public you made it public because it's part of the agenda so that's what we've got here it's not top secret and I for one want to know what I'm approving and it makes it easier if I know what the changes are from one year to the next and if you've been doing this for 5 years I didn't start that I'm just looking at what's coming before us well I think where that part comes in is that if there's anything that requires board change or board approval as again like the funeral policy debt write off any of those kinds of things come under a separate heading for the board so that we put those in here so you're basically seeing any change the board has made in the past year to these policies and procedures again I would characterize the large bulk of them as being not board you know required for Board review but you're right we put them on WE again I thought of it as a courtesy as like um and again kind of a this is the depth and breadth of what we do um within our agency and the the complexities and how we do work across our our four divisions and along with the rest of the county so this is for you to look at I just think the administrative burden for creating a separate redlined version for things like name changes and you know minor things for you to review I would imagine I just can't imagine that there'd be anything there that you would um that you would find significant or you know that to be reviewing I guess this is kind of what I feel as a departmental process I'm going to first off and say I I appreciate the information because at the end of the day it gives myself as a board member an understanding of the workflow in Health and Human Services uh to the effect as to whether we do or do not need to adopt this to your point uh the highway department has internal practices I'm going to call them not maybe is it policies as written practices which in some ways we could call that these could be practices and procedures yeah call it where do you want it to be at the end of the day uh I I can understand my under the uh reservations by commissioner catchmark and commissioner Holland when something comes in front of us and asks for approval and then the Prelude piece that reads into it states that this is something that statutorily and that's where I saying but we only are given what's given in front of us I think in that that Prelude page that you fill out it did it say statutorily I don't think it does that came from my conversation with clay that his belief or interpretation there's no there's no statutory this is just our internal there's no requirement to do this other than effic having an efficiently running or you know um agency that everybody's kind of being consistent I do get here I hear from staff all the time we need consistency this is our attempt and it's a it's a big administrative burden to come up with these and review them and you know maintain them but it is our attempt to have consistent practices across HHS I guess with this point uh we can we have the information I hope you continue to share this because I don't I think there's it it would be nicer for us to all have this information so we have a better understanding of how the inner operations of your department is I'll defer it to Administration to decide whether this needs to be uh approved by the board or not uh so at this time I would just defer to Administration to make a determination whether the Board needs to adopt or approve this practice that would be my recommendation at this time so I guess essentially we're tabling it to a later date or indefinitely depending on what the outcome needs to be on the item perfect Mr chair that was my original motion basically basically well and I guess my request would be this the administrator burden of creating a yet a second copy I mean I'd be open to if there's any any one of these p&ps that you'd want to see the updates on that we could provide that but um administratively it is just kind of a lot of work to recreate and go back and keep the versioning intact so we can certainly find it if there are certain ones in here that you want to see versus redlining the entire version when they're really just name changes you know um insignificant things that make sense to our staff Mr chair yes and you mentioned name change as far as Jobs a couple of times well I know from the little bit of time I've been up here that a name change often relates to then a future reclass for one thing but that came from Administration they have that we were going to get the changes at 8:30 today it's 959 and I still haven't seen the changes so right we didn't right well I was I was in here last week and my Administrative Assistant wasn't here last week then what's the urgency of having this today is there any no I'm just saying that I don't want to create a whole new Redline 159 page document if there are areas in here that you would like to see where the changes were made versus the again the bulk of it is really um it would be an administrative burden to to go back and find it for you I guess things that we were already acting under I mean these are these are ones that the board approved last year and I mean I'm you know uh schools have copious amounts of policies um and so you come to us every month maybe instead to you know to do this come come forward and say this is what we're you know these are the this month we'd like you to review these policies and then red Lineum if that is something that you want us to do I think as a board member as a commissioner I have a really hard time that like a name change is something but it's still something and I'm not I'm thinking some big change might happen in here and then I'm I'm saying okay to it when it it it could very well change the whole dynamic of the whole policy right and that's what I'm that's what I'm saying those if there's something that requires board action and you know I would say not month maybe once or twice a year we would have something that would maybe change the level like our County Crisis fund I think that's in here where if we decided we were going to change the annual amount that we would allow for a County crisis when it's not County dollars but it's something that the County Board should weigh in on and where where you feel that that level that threshold is we would bring that to you we've brought things to you we brought the debt collection one here we brought the County Burial one here we do bring them here and I think those are the items that we're talking about and if you had a concern commissioner Holland I think those are the areas there's nothing hidden in here and I can guarantee you that that is going to change the way we do our internal practices it's really pretty mundane ways that we can maintain again the efficiency and the viability of our office Mr Sheriff real quick just a question on you know you're saying you you give this criticity to bring it up um and you say other departments may or may not is that something we should actually discuss and what our expectation is and what should or should not be approved um or have to come before the board I mean is that something we could just put on a workshop and have a little discussion about and and this is we can have we can discuss as a whole not just your department but as a whole and just for context again and I'm sorry I'm taking up so much of the board's time um we we regenerated these were all a paper you know big three binder paper thing that every person in our office had sitting on their desk and it was like this huge thing anytime there was one thing change we'd have to make copies for everybody what happened about five or six years ago is that we made it an online process and that's when we first brought it to board to say hey look board this is what we've we've done we took a big administratively heavily burden of these um and they were called administrative memos then I think we were thinking we were being more clear going from administrative memos which maybe wouldn't raise any concern about they're just administrative memos versus calling them policies and procedures because we like the alliteration of PNP so we call them our pnps so that's really what you're looking at here our administrative memos about when things change or when Hey listen staff this is now the thing or this is how you know things go from now on or whatever it is um this is where they're found so I think of removing policy and we if we want to have a much briefer policy manual we could do that but those are the things that we bring to board that I think you would care about I think there's a misunderstanding of what this document is it it it is not an adoption of any County operational policies abely this is purely a document that illustrates the workflow within HHS and they're doing this as a courtesy as more of an educational tool to the board not so much as a document that they're looking for us to find the gotcha moments in or to look at removing liability it is purely just to give an understanding to the board on the complexities and within that complexities we have good workflows to manage that and we want want to show you that we review it on a continual on a continual basis uh we once again I wanted I I I'm afraid what's going to come out of this based on this conversation is that we'll never see this document again the reason we're seeing this document right now is because uh HHS is following the previous practice of of giving it to us so that we can show that they are articulating to us that they are diligent in quantifying the work and how it needs to be done and making changes as needed uh it's not something that needs to happen and now we're probably likely based on this conversation we'll probably never see this document again and that's what I'm afraid of because I think there's a notion that this is more than what it is so then let's label it such and that's right it should be it should it should be practices and procedures is what it should be not policies yes yeah policy makes me nervous y yeah anything that's policy related comes to the board we're we're very we're clear on that I think we're not trying to step out here whatsoever I think the Mund the mundane of this would really um be pretty stifling for you within the first few pages um but when you look at the titles of some of these things like determining financial responsibility you know you think it's not just a one or two person thing it's like who contacts which county in which situation and which law applies and you know all these different kinds of scenarios come come into play this it's just to give our staff someplace to go it's really not for the board it's for our staff and they have an easy access to it um you know but I think if it's a concern of making our our practices and procedures public maybe not bring them to board in the future but know that you have access to them anytime you want and anything that needs board action we're certainly going to do that thank you um I I really we don't even uh I guess it is on the consent agenda and we did have a motion to uh indefinitely table it or maybe table it for a later date till if it needs to come back or not if changes our needed board if we change the title that'll change every single page of the document to practices and procedures so we uh that was a motion by commissioner Dietrich wasn't it correct to yep that was mine what that was my Mo was your okay your motion by commissioner catch Mark second by commissioner Dietrich to table this item and it can come back at a later date if necessary uh any other discussion on it hearing none all in favor say I hi hi fa same sign all right motion passes unanimously now I'm moving on to the timed agenda items to recognize Karen and I'm don't want to like the name uh is it Karen Bouch Bouch I did get I was going to get right we do have the resolution however chair you adopt the did I the December donation resolution under 212i oh I was on the first one but okay we're on we're on the retirement is yours different there is one prior to the retirement but we can do the retirement now there was we have it different years I'm sorry okay I'm sorry I've got adopt resolution accept December donation um I'd like to invite Karen sorry about that um I'd like to invite Karen Bou up and Karen supervisor Lisa Spencer board um I'm very happy and excited for Karen did let you know that she is retiring what's your date Karen Friday on Friday um Karen has has been with HHS entirely I think all the time spent in the county has been with HHS since October 7th 2002 um a couple of things I just want to say about Karen I think she probably remembers as maybe as vividly as I do I think when I first got to um see Karen on a regular basis because when I was a financial services manager of course I was downtown at the third floor HHS and Karen was out at the HSC um as a um front desk receptionist there and then when we did our very first the County's very first onbase iteration which was we brought it up in our financial services area we physically brought Karen and her counterpart Betty Johnson over to the um third floor and they spent months scanning our voluminous you know 10 15,000 cases of financial assistance cases and some of them are like you know this fat so um spent hours days months you know um converting all of our many documents to a scanned image which we rely on now so that was a huge effort um and then I just also want to say that and I say this to Lisa's front desk people all the time the director cannot show up for two three weeks and nobody you know really raises an eyebrow like but the front desk person isn't there for two minutes and the whole place falls into chaos and um things go arise so I just want to really appreciate and admire the fact of about being that front desk person being the one who's kind of getting the Flack and the and just the again I used the word mundane already on the mundanity of people coming in every day what their requests are and the smiling face that greets them so with that I will turn it over to Lisa and Karen thanks Jamie Mr chair and members of the board thank you for recognizing one of our very own today um Karen exemplifies the qualities of a team player and the Health and Human Services office support team will certainly miss her Karen will'll miss you and congratulations on your retirement thank you would you like to say anything Ken no Ken I we can't thank you enough for the many years of service to Wright County and to the citizens we hope you enjoy a great retirement and thank you for all your uh hard work thank you yes thank you you congratulations thank you very much thank you all right item 22 adopt resolution HHS 2401 uh for the 23 uh 20 uh two 2023 donation acceptance sir any questions or I'll entertain a motion for uh such resolution I'll make that motion all right uh motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Shane any further discussion hearing none uh resolution i i i i i resolution passes unanimously director's comments yes I have a couple today thank you um just an as of the first of the year now we just so for your awareness um and I let um admin and the county front desk know this that we've updated our phone system um and we'll give you a bigger report on what that's looking like um Health and Human Services gets about 54,000 calls a year um and we had the opportunity to take a look at how calls were coming in and being received by our agency and we believe that the changes that were enacted as of today will be a um great Improvement um so hopefully we'll bring more information about that to very soon um also re County or I'm sorry HHS has been awarded um $147,500 16 for the response sustainability Grant so this is going forward and this was discussed at our budget meetings um if you recall during the budget process and not to be confusing here but we reclassed it's the same step or same um classification within the county structure a public health nurse vacancy to an emergency preparedness response person and we said that the C the state was coming up with additional funding for emergency response for the counties and we just weren't sure yet what our part of that was going to be that it but that it would provide um the basically the full amount that we would need to support the position um that had previously been a public health nurse position so we have now found out that that amount is $147,000 plus some change this is a new ongoing annual appropriation of State funds for public health preparedness previously our programs were funded solely with Federal pass through funds we'll be referring to this internally as emergency preparedness the EPS Grant and each year will be awarded a similar amount based on an established formula you know probably slight variations depending on um population changes and things like that these funds support a 1.0 FTE emergency preparedness coordinator position which is approved by the board in August of 2023 and then at the tax and truth and Taxation meeting certified um and that the phn position was reclassed at the same grade to a be coordinator position and internally our two um emergency preparedness folks are Greg wise and Jacob oh my gosh Jacob Anson Anson I want to say anel at my in-laws Jake Jake Anson also Bard um I wanted to give you an update on the 60 plus clinic and the reason for the update I think is because this is a very popular um this is a very popular program that public health runs that we've changed recently with the addition of some fee charges to this um so just want to give an update on that along with the fee charge so um one of the goals of this proc was process was to maintain uh an accessibility to our constituents to proper foot care through Public Health but also um we were actually um I think um seeing a lot of people from other counties that were also aware of this um valuable service that we provided So based on some of our new calculations we are decreasing um about 180 client spots and 30 trimmer spots throughout the year so um it'll be a decrease of Staff time spent on going to these clinics and I anticipate um the people that are no longer the 180 reduction and we also not taking new clients right now the F for the first part of this year um again a very popular service um so if the board if you do hear from people that either unhappy with the new service fee or feel like um you know I would just direct them to myself or Sarah to discuss where we're at with this with this um again a very good service um but maybe a little overused service um I don't know if Sarah would like to add anything but I think that's kind of where we're at right now so we're happy to maintain it it's just that we pulling some of the spots that we um we were sending out like six to eight people to some of these clinics at one time and now we're pulling that back a little bit and I've got the breakdown of the spots that were reducing going forward and I think we because we had a discussion on this at a a different time that we have the ability to direct these people to other services that can do this that are Min minorly maybe a little bit more than what we would charge for a fee for it but it's better sustainably done privately than it is for us to be doing it publicly you know and I see there's value I mean I think people really do come and there is a social aspect to it but when we're running a public health you know Department with other needs and other priorities we have to be careful about how we use our staff and our our Personnel throughout some of this yeah I would a couple of compounding factors I'd just like to add um board uh is uh the um utilization of out of County residents for the service which is just making it hard to sustain so we've with the the fee structure prioritize our County folks and um uh let that other County particularly know um and and also told those folks that they could speak to their counties about adding a service because it's a service they had prior to co um I there's that component so that has freed up some spots because those folks have found other alternative services but we've had a a decrease of our patry services at the clinical level like the the foot doctors taking clients for this because they don't get reimbursed as much from Medicare and that's going to be a continued we're going to have to Advocate that we cannot just take all of their patients because they don't want to provide the service we cannot get reimbursed from Medicare for it they can thank you Sarah all right um the my last item I just occurred to me while you while um um administrator Kelly was setting the board um the board um off officers for for this year I had a discussion with um Clay earlier this year that our because our HHS board is kind of a separate entity that's been incorporated into the County Board we still need an HHS board chair and vice chair and that our discussion was that it would just make sense to have our County Board chair and County Vice chair fill those same roles so I'm assuming that the motion that was made earlier today is assuming the role for both the County Board and the HHS board shares yes yeah that that we I think that we should probably memorialize that in the future in the past they were two separate um but I think now that we've combined them if we could for in perpetuity have them be the same that would just make everything easier for getting contracts signed and things like that some of our contract sayable HHS board share and things so we did that in resolution last because we made that change like in March so or April and we did that in resolution by adopting them collectively the question would be is do we want a resolution to to that effect or are we good just at this do you want to vote on it do you want something in the record to quantify that that is the intent Mr chair I think maybe the more prudent thing to do is kind of like what we do at ditches when we start the HHS agenda just make an acknowledgement at the beginning that everything here on out is part of the your statutory duties as the HHS board which we do that when we items yep and the roles would be the same then which is when so when I title into it like we're going to the HHS section of the agenda it's kind of I note that we're putting on our Health and Human Services Board hat per se that's correct okay thank you all right thank you moving on to items for consideration we have the first is to schedule a committee of the whole to discuss law enforcement training facility and usage agreement uh with that looking to schedule something I would say prob I would look more towards the end of the month giving time to collect information and give people time to digest a discussion um but I'm sure we we would like the sheriff to participate as well as we need Administration uh and legal to have that conversation so with that I'd be looking for something in the the very soonest I would say would be the 17th of January but IDE I'd look towards more the 24th or 31st how about after the board meeting on the 23rd we don't have a board meeting on the 23rd oh we can have we can have a meeting on the 23rd I just we just don't have a board meeting how about the 16th after that board meeting we can go after the 16th there was a discussion or we were have there was a possibility of moving leadership to the 16th because we the uh workshop on January 9th I have had had some preliminary discussions with uh administrator Kelly that we have concerns that the workshop on the 9th might go all the way up till noon and that would then uh run over the quarterly leadership meeting we feel that the quarterly leadership meeting is very important and we don't want that to uh get missed and also we don't want it to be rushed so we were considering moving the leadership to the 16th I would I we can still do it but I would say if want to do it on the 16th you probably would want to go like a 1:00 uh just so we could still get leadership in and okay yeah Mr shair can I clarify does this have to do with the agreements with the um the other PDS in the community that um Mr chair having discussion on yes uh commissioner catchmark thank you yeah I was going to see for those that are seeing or reading that's the first time to give a little background for people on what I think we should be looking at at this meeting and of course it's in District 5 and I get the questions who's doing what and what does it cost and all that so I'd request that that user agreement between the FBI and the and Ray County be sent to the other board members that spells the agreement out but I'd also like for finance or whoever looks at user agreements if you look at that one the only name right County Affiliated on there is the past Sheriff there's no administrator or board chair which seems odd for this amount of money in this time frame so I'd like clarification from the resident experts on user agreements if this fit then if it fits now but if you read the language it says that either side can propose a change and as I look at the cost now to own and operate that facility that wasn't known when this was signed I think that there's room for our side to propose a change I don't suspect the other side will propose a change because it seems like a very good deal for them so that's a little bit of what I would hope would get shared ahead of time with the rest of the board and and the kind of information I'm looking to discuss is if we could propose a change to make it maybe more fair and Equitable on the actual cost to own and operate that place with the other user in this agreement does that help I I think with to I entertain putting this on the agenda uh largely because I think there's a I want to get some clarity and give the board some understanding of this agreement with the FBI and the mechanisms within it and getting with that Clarity so everybody understands and you can help get to your constituents what that agreement means and how it operates uh going forward so to that effect whether we can or cannot make changes to it uh we'll have a discussion on that and if there is what whether there is even what that would cost or what that would mean to do so uh we can have that discussion but I think it's important uh since I've been asked Now by a couple different individuals on what that agreement is and how it works so I I I known that none of you were on the board at time at the time when that uh contract was signed so I think it's beneficial that all of you have an understanding of it so chairman bch too any other users in that building at all um do we besides the FBI do we does the state troopers use that building no so yeah any entities that actually use a building is probably just FBI not covering anything up the Troopers there's been about three Troopers that have come out there on two different occasions and have used it uh for a purpose that they had but consistently no they don't okay we can have a a more of a discussion on that when we uh the 1:00 on January 16th is that still the intent of to the board is there an understanding of what the uh topic of discussion is then is everybody comfortable yep I'll entertain that motion I'll make that motion Mr chair motion by commissioner catchmark I'll second second by commissioner Holland to set a committee the whole to discuss the uh law enforcement training facility and usage agreements for January 16th at 1 p.m. here at the County Government Center all in favor say I hi oh same sign motion passes unanimously next on the item for consideration was to schedule a closed session to conduct an annual performance review of County Administrator so um I would entertain this one probably uh Mr chair I was looking around the 16th we just took that date so looking at different times go ahead yeah I was thinking either 17th 18th I just want to make sure that you the board has adequate time it would be even okay to wait a further week because uh uh I assume that you'll be uh Distributing a document uh to the members Mr chair and board traditionally I've put together kind of a summary of the past years's uh kind of a summary of planned goals for the upcoming year for myself as well as Administration and then some uh different comparable information as well as the usual uh review form that we have if the board wishes to fill that out so uh it would be ho us to give you plenty of time to review those documents so I I think your pitch for mid January is a wise one because I want to get that distributed out uh somewhere around the 8th 9th um I'm thinking if we do it the 22nd 23rd 24th that way gives everybody a good week's time to digest all that information so 22nd works 22nd yeah 20 23rd would be better for me 23r better too yeah 23rd works I works for me you want to go 10: a.m. 10 is fine yep all right so with that I'll entertain a motion to set a closed session to conduct annual performance review for County Administrator on January 23rd at 10:00 a.m. I'll make that motion Mr chair motion by commissioner catchmark I'll second that second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oh same sign all right now moving down to uh refer the January 9th Workshop uh see so Mr chair there were a number of items included in the packet to refer over in addition today's meeting we've added the discussion on the r County EDP uh so I would plan to put that towards the front uh what's not listed also of course is the scheduling meetings as needed and any commissioner updates that would like to be given for that meeting so quite a few items there is there any uh additions or corrections as well as the ones that we just added from today um if that I our practic is then uh informational only all right next would be the approve the recommendations from the December 14th Committee of the whole Mr chair yes just uh could we discuss that a little bit yep I was just going to recap real quickly uh so the first recommendation it was the consensus the committee to bring to the January 2 SEC uh January 2nd board meeting the expansion of the household hazardous waste Services uh to include mattresses very uh vsqg business waste limited to hHw only uh satellite pickup uh bulk furniture uh bulk a big bulk plastic solar panels anything with a cord plastic bags compost loading and with waivers so so this is and I want to make sure that that understanding that a lot of those things were already doing and this is to be planned in the scope of the facility not necessarily saying that we are going to do these services but just to incorporate them that in a future date when we're designing this building we're taking these Services into consideration um then the other part would be to discontinue the hHw egg bag Service uh it was a consensus of the committee to bring to the January 9th 2024 County Board Workshop further discussion of the hHw quarterly reporting and Grant options so at the workshop we'll have a bit more of a discussion on that that quarterly report aspect Mr chair yes thank you so uh I added some context to the meeting minutes earlier that related to this egg bag service deal I like that catchphrase egg bag that sums it up better than I could but um so so we're talking about it at the meeting about this this score money going to cities and townships and it's it's quite a bit overall but when you part it out amongst the cities and townships in some cases it's a few hundred now in contrast the egg bag we were told is $40,000 plus spread out to 24 Farms 16 of them of which happen to be in District 5 so what we heard during that meeting commentary on those two items was yeah egg Bak service that goes away not much an afterthought commissioner Dedrick and I try to tap the breaks on it but when it came to removing the 180,000 score money for cities and townships and the foundation that we were given I assume this was vetted from office and Department staff before it was presented that this was unlawful practice in his opinion but the the response from at least two Commissioners maybe three was was oh we can't look at stopping this the they've already budgeted their budgets for 2024 but there was no consideration for the 24 Farmers that may have a budget it was just to stop and and assist in two weeks with two weeks notice so I want to just reiterate that that it it doesn't just look the best on the the fair and consistent side of the board from what I heard that day and and I'm going to be opposed to that disc continue the egg service and that's my uh Foundation just for recollection here for everybody so to an understanding I want to get a little Clarity on it and I don't necessarily uh what I think there was some misspoken that that that quarterly reporting piece is unlawful I think that that was maybe a misspoken by Planning and Zoning on that uh it was it's not best practices Which is far different than being illegal um that being one statement the other statement uh the egg bag that that loss that we're taking on that score funding is not very Equitable dispersement it's almost in in one sense a subsidy to a business expense whereas the quarter the reporting is a a Equitable formula that is based on that's distributed as a benefit to all citizens within those jurisdictions uh widely across the county so that's that that's where the point where it is is and we were fine with doing the egg bag piece as long as it wasn't losing money but because the fact that the I'm going to take it the recycler is finding that these egg bags are just not meeting their criteria what they need and therefore we just can't continue the practice if it's costing us uh money on our bottom line it's just not a good allocation of the funds so I think if you talk with those farmers and letting them know that we're we're by us doing this we're we're just wasting tax dollars uh spaying thousands of dollars they they would probably find another way of doing it so yeah Mr chair thanks for giving that input it it's just uh but besides the questionable unlawful statement it was also that it's redundant information that we're getting for free by a licens uh hauling license ordinance he said we're already getting it so then what are we really paying for I guess that's what I really want to hear from staff I know there was a staff meeting I didn't hear the findings of when that was where we are as you see as part of the recommendations we're going to discuss that quarter reporting in the next steps on uh next week on Tuesday so we we do recognize that we need to do something different uh and I and I'm not saying that I don't agree with that I just I I don't know that you want to tie one to the other so I don't we can have a discussion right now but all the information isn't put in front of us yet there is a presentation and information that's going to be shared with us at the workshop next Tuesday to discuss how we want to move forward with the uh cour of the reporting from a best practices perspective uh do you want to get do you want mati to speak on it now or no my point was just how the the reasoning got dealt out wasn't quite the same for one as the other that the budgetary deal was mentioned by two or three Commissioners as the main reason not to change the recycling money that's what it was it didn't make the meeting minute but it was said but on the egg deal there was very little discussion we did hear that uh there were poor choices made on disposal of the bags they they wrapped something in there they maybe shouldn't have and then at Denver did go to recycling it went to the landfill but uh there was more emphasis on oh we can't do this because they've already budgeted I just want to make the point that farmers have budgets also and I and I totally sympathize with a twoe notice for 24 and potentially $2,000 each is way more of an impact than a few hundred bucks on a city or a Township which we see in these recycling allocations my other question for maybe Mark is when is this first quarter allocation doe to the cities and townships is there going to be already checks mailed before we have our meeting on the 9th Mr chair members of the board we don't plan on mailing checks before that because we have the meeting next Tuesday staff met legal Planning and Zoning administrator and our environmental health officer met to discuss that program okay was that last week greig week before something like that two weeks now maybe two weeks so we have uh got legal because we were asked to get legal council if the program was unlawful or not uh the word illegal was maybe strongly used best practices might have been a better word for that okay talk about quarterly reductions versus full payments um and then bring that to you along with potential future Grant ideas um to those communities that's what was recommended and that's what staff will be prepared to discuss I don't know how big a presentation it'll be but there'll be items to discuss all right thank you a couple bull points of some possible ways we can pivot to I guess I'm looking at like a one a one pager is is more of my expectations you have a staff recommendation yes because in theory Mr chair this these two expenses amount to almost exactly half of the score funding right now we40 we get 440 this amounts for 220 and some change I mean the quar of the reporting is is a large portion the egg bag is is not that combined it's 4,80 yeah okay all right I'll leave it at that so with that we have the uh recommendations from the December uh 14th uh Committee of the whole regarding household hazardous waste uh I'll entertain a motion so to approve such recommendations I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Shane any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I poose same sign motion passes unanimously uh the Personnel committee uh we had a few different topics the first was the recommendation uh for the US Bank contract we've discussed this on a couple of occasions regarding the Minnesota sports facilities and the agreement between the two uh the recommendation from the Personnel committee was uh for approval but also have a reservation for maybe some more discussion that needs to happen on that um I'll come back to that one the other one was the rwm contract it was a the consensus of the committee to bring to the 2024 uh agreement for the legal services between the our attorneys there's some name change that's uh what is our previous legal council is now I remember what's the name again now oh Mr chair you're gonna make me go off of memory here I think it's squ walburger and mace mace that's what it is yes so they they they took some names and added some names so uh but it's the same firm in all respects um so then the other one was the commissioner expense policy it was the consensus of the committee to bring the uh reimbursement policy to the January 9th uh County Board workshop for further discussion so that will be discussed next Tuesday so we have an education on what this new policy means and how that is uh applicable to us as board members then the final one was the Erp Phase 2 go live update uh this is largely just informational letting him know that I think we're live right now in the phase two of the Erp uh will be fully implemented here uh in moments right in great stride Heather promises great things back there uh so with that uh the first item back on the US Bank contract uh the recommendation was to for approval but I also think that there's a uh maybe some a lot of information for the board here to digest in such a short period of time and that there is no hurry to approve this contract as there isn't any events at the uh US Bank St Stadium imminently so we have time that we could discuss this maybe next week at the workshop or at a different date and still be able to bring it back by January 16th and making it uh able to be approved before February I'm kind of more inclined with that uh just given some red flags that people wanted more time to discuss but I'll open it up to the board uh for the approval of the recommendations from the Personnel committee mini meeting on December 27th I'll make a me recommendation to move those all forward you have a motion by commissioner Dietrich do I have a second do I have a second do I have a second for the lack of a second the Personnel committee uh minutes uh motion dies uh so with that we are at a we can make modifications we can take them one by one um so we're going to go one by one at this point uh let's start with items two three and four and at least see if those ones uh are able to be approved Mr chair yes I wasn't there but it sounds like there was a an hourly rate increase for the services right to maybe 10 bucks an hour or something two for the for the number two the legal service contract yeah it was it was a nominal amount um in comparison yep rest of the terms is the same rest of the terms are the same it was I I I think you're spot on at $10 I think one of them might have went up 15 based it was 10 it was all 10 across the boarders and Associates yep well I'd make a motion to approve that if that's the only change in there just the well the other one's just referring to the Personnel committee for the commissioner expense one that's not even a that's just going to Workshop next week yeah that with that one as long as you bring that up that's something that I I don't see it as being an appropriate subject for a Personnel committee meeting because it's specific to the Commissioners and I think it puts our two Commissioners in a bad position at Personnel to have that brought in the first place I'm disappointed that made it to the agenda and went this route well it's not we're not approving it we're we're just we're they started in the Personnel committee to get an idea of what type of a policy they would want and then they're going to bring it to the workshop to discuss as a whole board and say do you like this do you not do you want to tweak it and then it would come forward to January 16th for adoption it was purely they didn't want to just throw something at us with 100% staff and they didn't want to sit in the room and try to develop a policy as five as a whole so they this is the route that they chose for right wrong or indifferent all right so we have something to react to that's all we're doing so chair it was a streamlining yes to get to it to get to an end you everybody still we haven't adopted it it's just here's something if you like it don't like it want tweak it we're open to it all right okay well I so I'll add that one on that that can go with that recommendation to the January 9th workshop for disc okay and then the other one's just informational so we're we're approving the and this was the same email that uh Lindsay sent to the entire board that that email that she about phase two uh that was really didn't need to be at the Personnel committee I think they put it on there because it was kind of more of an ad hoc item to discuss they they ended up I think all board members got a critis email from Lindsay I believe on the Erp go live and the aspects surrounding that and I had conversation with Clay on Friday and my concern was the 16 Consultants to the tune of $1.75 million that are currently well they were on the payroll till 1231 we haven't seen any come to us going forward to be renewed and I'm looking for kind of a part two update on where we at with Consultants going forward claya said that they're thinking of a shorter term therefore a smaller dollar amount maybe not even to the level that will come to the board but I had asked him about that um if that's going to be in a further I think that's in the works for update for us yep but that's kind of the two-piece to the go live is are we going to be live on our own or we going to have a attach to the life raft of CRC and I think a lot of that is they're trying to determine based on what things look like over the next two weeks so that that's Mr chairman board members thanks for the question yeah we do have some information gathered and I can share that with you I I have an email from Lindsay about specifically what we're doing going forward with those agreements but commissioner katchmark is correct that we're planning on stepping off of most of that in 2024 okay I'm good with those all right three recommendations so we have a motion by commissioner catchmark to approve items uh two three and four from the Personnel committee do have a second second second by commissioner Shane further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I post same sign all right uh motion passes unanimously uh item number one um I ideally feel that there my original feeling at the Personnel committee is that this should have been uh pushed to uh the workshop and or a committee the whole uh I was persuaded uh at the time that they wanted to just take their chances and bring it to this board meeting I I I said I I would I will give them that due diligence I don't necessarily know that this has given everybody the ample time uh to to vet this get their questions answered to make get their concerns covered but uh with that I mean I ideally would like to see this get pushed off to uh either the workshop next week or to a separate Committee of the whole to discuss but if you want we can have the discussion now and uh see where the board's interest is Mr chair yes and I agree thanks for making those points on the time frame it it seemed a little off again just like the commissioner's deal that it came by way way of personnel committee it's a joint Powers agreement not a Personnel that we usually see that's a reclass a reorg and asks for a new staff all those things joint Powers agreement and then in the past it came to a board meeting it came to a board meeting the first time it came to us for Renewal and then for all those contract language changes for the wages came to a board meeting and this one went to personnel and it it just seems I was a little bit outside the scope of a Personnel meeting I'm fine moving it to somewhere else uh or further down the line I don't know what the rest feel the reason we got it asked or asked to put it on this is I am out of the office next week I would like to get this resolved we've been doing this for a year and four months now it's all laid out in front of us we just had our meeting with uh US Bank Representatives on December 14th after that meeting attorney kryer joined us for that meeting down at us W Bank he's the one that actually drafted the new jpa it's beneficial to the the county I have some statistics if you want to hear them we have now worked 28 events in total uh since September of 2022 20 of which have been Vikings games there's been five concerts and two Monster Jams I would like to get this accomplished because once we get the new jpa in place we can get the new contract that represents a the new rate of 105 an hour which was the request of the County board I would like to get that started after the first of the year and the first event February 2nd or 3rd something like that it's right after February it's a monster jam and we would like to obviously we have to iron out the details of the contract between now and then and we need to get have time to get these shifts posted so that's why I asked to bring it here there's there's nothing nothing new it's an agreement that's been in place for the last 16 months now and uh shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone those you were all here back in September when we had a pretty robust conversation about what this looked like so Mr Charing question remains do we want to do it now or not we're going to go well over two hours if we're going to go into it then now I don't want to do it twice so either you're going to go into it now or you go into it a later date um Mr chair yes I would like to move it forward to a workshops so that's you guys want to make a motion on that or you guys wanting to start open the discussion Mr just real quick what were the issues that you said you were concerned about and because it seems like all the things were discussed with when I read the minutes with the m with the um wage or the hourly rate the looking at liability looking at um um over time if it's being equitably handled those kind of things like like what what what parts were missing for you there wasn't any missing for me uh the reason I had the reservations at that meeting was is that I knew that from previous discussions that board members have had concerns on this this has always been a very contentious discussion and that the fellow board members from previous votes and previous discussions on this didn't want to be given not an adequate amount of time to ask their questions and to feel comfortable with this and this was that same continued practice and that's the reason I was my I was very reluctant but I I I I went along with that to move it forward I myself don't have a an immense amount of reservations on it but I don't want to just to have a perception of being a controversial item and that's the reason I want if there is things that discussion that needs to take place I'm open to it I'd rather have the board feel like they had their opport their their opportunity to be heard and is that now or is that next week I don't know I'm looking for direction from my fellow board members and I I've been here since the beginning I'll let the others if they want to carry it Forward I can I'm prepared to deal with it now but if others want more time to research I'm not going to take that away I asked about the cut off for agenda time it was noon on Wednesday this meeting went probably 10: to 11: it put the staff in a difficult to get the meetings all done again by a deadline of noon and then get it on for today so it was kind of another a last minute thing like kind of the way we started this but so I think if we're going to get into what all the issues are then we might as well do it if someone wants to continue it because they want to do more independent research then they'd have to make a motion to continue it for another day don't make look at this point either we I'm prepared to talk about it I don't I don't know what would be unresolved at this point okay I guess well I have a lot of questions um first of all the fact that it's a two-year that makes me nervous um but one of the most glaring things is if anybody watched the fall of Minneapolis and they realized that uh George Floyd was they used uh a a hold that was uh viewed differently until the body cams were shown okay we have no body cams we're sending these guys Downtown Minneapolis with no body cams is US Bank providing body cams for our guys when they go down there no so in another uh a lot of events lately in the news is that there's a lot of protests Palestinian protests they're ramping up uh our guys you know could easily be sucked into uh Pro on the street I I I don't really age agree that they're all tucked in safely in the US Bank but they can easily come into US Bank and I I am really nervous now what I would rather see is a 1099 like they do for Huntington Bank Stadium or if US Bank wants to take them in like the state fair does and pay them as State Fair employees but there I don't care about the rate if they want to go with $102 and give that directly to the officer the deputy for $15 and then they can put money aside for their legal counsel if they need to go into court for any reason but that is a big trepidation that I've had and I've had it I mean that's not new that I've I'm very nervous about our our guys I want to protect them it's a volatile situation down there and I feel just like my husband was a carpenter and if he decided to do side jobs he went out and did a 1099 very similar to How the City of Minneapolis when we have a friend that worked for the City of Minneapolis and whenever he did a side job like working at SA or working at any of the bars then he got he got a 1099 that way the liability is not on us because there is some long-term consequences one of which is you know just uh if somebody gets injured or PTSD PTSD right now is unregulated anybody can come back and say they're traumatized so there is a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to just the pure safety so here's what I would have to say you you threw a lot of things out there this is our job commissioner Holland we could get called today by henpen County uh if there's a protest happening down there we have been down there and obviously when those requests come into me I take my due diligence and I vet them where we going to be what is going to be the scope of it reach out to Brian loots I reach out to attorney kryer This jpa spells out the liability and keep in mind we don't force anyone to go down for the these events so they are being adults they are doing their risk analysis that if I go down there make premium pay I am willing to take on whatever personal risk they think that it is we're not forcing anyone to go down there so I think that that spells it out and I know that you and I align perfectly almost perfectly with our politics we don't want government in our way so this is kind of very similar that you would take it a be upon yourself to make a decision on behalf of 180 staff members that doesn't allow them to make that decision as as as it relates to their own family but I'm protecting the 158,000 people of Ray County that would incur a cost for them to go and and they're they're going they're they're increasing their high five so it's a double whammy that we have a lot of them that go just so that they can get that extra money to increase the high five I know I I lived in that World um so I'm trying to protect the the monetary expense from our County and I agree it it's a fun thing for them to do on their on um on extra Duty I know that they go and do it themselves but there is a li ability that incurs on our County and that's the one that's what I'm worried about I would rather still let offer them the opportunity but then with a 1099 then then they can choose because then they are they're still choosing it's something that they can choose on their own to go to knowing that they would incur the risk US Bank doesn't have the same statutory authority to have their own Police Department like the State Fairgrounds that's in statute they are a police department H Huntington Bank Huntington Bank gives 1099 Mr chair commissioner Holland I believe they operate underneath Metro or not Metro Transit the University of Minnesota police operates that I'm guessing so um there's no way that they could issue a 1099 from given the governmental setup of the Minnesota sports facility administ ation no they do not have their own separate Police Department that they could do that how do you why would you have to have a separate Police Department to give out a 1099 because they don't have any law enforcement Authority they couldn't work private security they couldn't use their they would they' be operating just as private security they couldn't actually site people they couldn't do things as a police officer they could only operate as a security agent that that would be correct Mr chair commissioner Holland the only Authority that an employee not working for us working as an independent contractor for the msfa would have to be an independent contractor with the private security company that provides the general unarmed security for US Bank unless they are inside the borders of R County yes so then when I'm a nurse and I go with chugging along with my nurses license and go take care of people I get a1099 just like Carpenters with their expertise chug along we incur our own liability we incur if something happens we in we have the liability insurance why would that be different wherever you go you're operating with another hospital no they don't have a I am not a i no I am I am a private contractor well obviously two very different things right so I go with my nurse's license and take care of them if I incur any any injury or anything it's on me because that's the nature of being a 1099 is basically what you're saying is that you then will get taxed differently you will and that's why Minneapolis they could go Minneapolis Police he worked the IDS Center IDs Center does not have a law enforcement license he's working with his Minnesota license as a police officer he'd also work at sa sa doesn't have a a a a do you get what I'm saying like what you're doing then is you're going and saying okay I I am going as a registered police officer in the state of Minnesota just like I'm a registered nurse in the state of Minnesota and then you go and you do your duties and then you in turn get paid at 10.99 so you're incurring the cost of any any liability that would happen in that process I would suspect that you would in that case the sheriff in henpen County would have to sign off on saying that I am giving you statutory authority to use that license in hennipen county and therefore you can work as a1099 in that your dition because otherwise I I mean yes you're licensed with the state of Minnesota but you are not employed so you just being licensed doesn't allow you to write tickets your ability to write tickets is by being appointed by a sheriff or a chief so without having been appointed to it if if that was the case yes you could probably enter into some sort of a 1099 agreement but you'd have to get the henpen county sheriff to agree to giving you that delegation to write tickets right anytime we can anytime that we operate outside of the boundaries of Wright County we have to be on duty in order to take any type of enforcement action that goes along with our licensing an on duty peace officer can operate throughout the entire State off-duty peace officers have the same powers and authorities outside of our County as any other citizen would so in Minneapolis I'm going back to my friend who would work at the IDS Center they're working events in Minneapolis minis so they're within their jurisdiction you can work shifts anywhere in right County used sh because you're within we used to have off duty events that were $10.99 for all the years that we did the travel plaza they would 1099 they would 1099 us they would write the checks right to me it was probably the better part of 15 years ago that we have taken the umbrella into the Sheriff's Office where we invoice what was happening is some of our staff were getting to a wedding dance nobody pays the bill at the end of the night and then the deputy or whoever worked it was trying to follow up with a wedding party and it just got to so we have we do off-duty contracts we sign off-duty contracts and then we take care of all of the invoicing so we used to have the ability within Wright County events to 1099 but we've haven't done that for 15 years that's been three administrations I've still worried about the body cameras I mean there is a lot of liability pieces that I mean we're we're putting these guys in In Harm's Way they are assuming the risk on their own nobody is being forced to go down there and believe me we are working as diligently as we can I hopeful that sometime this summer we will have our new system in place with body cams Squad cams everything the the the the program that we have with Oracle is moving right along on schedule as designed and we are working diligently to accomplish that M Mr chair commissioner Holland if I could interject here um on the body camera issue the nice part here is that US Bank is a facility it's a closed facility within a secure perimeter I'm guessing they have security cameras in every corner of that building on absolutely everything so whatever would happen in there would be on camera and also my understanding is we're paired up with another law enforcement officer from henan County when we're there and they would also have body cameras on them that's well Mr shair yes I just want to add I just appreciate your concerns about our deputies moving forward I really really do and and having said that I'm just could you review like just the liability that we that covers Us with m CIT or with our with our deputies while they're down there yeah Mr chair member dedri um mcit would provide coverage for all of our employees if they're down there um they're working under the umbrella of Wright County and then they have the insurance limitations and the vigorous defense that comes with mcit on these claims as well uh while they're down there with that said I don't see this as a very highrisk situation I think this is actually a fairly as minimal risk as it can get um in meeting with the security director of the US Bank Stadium he indicated to us that you know they have 60,000 people there for a Vikings game if they get three ejections that's a bad game when three people out of 60,000 get ejected that's considered whoa what happened here um so the risk here is absolutely minimal I think there's you know potentially more risk from people working in the courts um with people coming in there and you know we've had more severe incidents in our courtrooms with a lot less people than what our deputies have seen in the 28 times that they've been at US Bank thank you and I think that that's why our training Protocols are just so important right everything that we do comes with risk believe me commissioner nobody loses more sleep than I do um I pray up our people all the time is there some concern with hennipin County believe me I am so I feel so immensely blessed that we have the county attorney that we do and the relationships out here that we do um but I I think that it just it goes without it should be mentioned um again nobody is being forced to go down there it's volunteer they are adulting they are making that risk assessment and as far as the overtime and upping top five there isn't a cop in Minnesota that doesn't take advantage of of a of a system in place that could increase their potential retirement benefits um I think if you I also there's been 90 different deputies that have worked at least one uh of those 28 events that we've been scheduled for to this point so I think that um our people have enjoyed it I I know that commissioner katchmark has talked to some constituents about it um I have i' I've had two dozen conversations with people around rri County um catching me out and about and saying hey I was at a Vikings game on Sunday and uh I saw our people down there had a conversation with them that's really cool so I have not as the sheriff I have not got a single comment negative at all about it and then to know also yes there is some risk it's risk in everything that we do uh but once we go to 105 an hour given the current parameters that we're I'm saying between $60 and $80,000 a year in Revenue to the county and so far since we've been scheduling these we've build them almost $400,000 some of that has come back to re uh the county in Revenue but that's $400,000 being enjoyed by 88 different staff members to dat okay and then is there a way too that we can more equitably uh give out the I know you and I talked about this you know just giving the deput that could be possibly sleeping during it you know when the initial step invite goes out or a deputy that's working on the road we uh tend to be you know uh administrative heavy uh down there with a lot of white shirts um is there a way that we can change that up be more Equitable well when with that being said uh I think it would be irresponsible ible to have 22 of our people down in hpin County with 60,000 people and not at least try to have a member of My Command Staff it's I don't it's a captain either Todd Todd sandine or Ryan Ferguson it's rare that two of them are down there but if they are both down there there's a purpose for it um because we also need so much supervision there's four different floors there's a lot of areas of responsibility Ryan was uh describing it to me this last week week we can have another offline conversation about it there's several areas of responsibility that we have there's a lot of moving Parts while we're down there I have to have some supervision down there and um and again the captains they're not making anything more than sergeants so I've had a captain and up to three sergeants down there at any given time if there's two captains down there then I probably have two sergeants down there and so just so you know there was uh on Christmas Eve we had 19 St members down there so if you want to have an indication of how many people are enjoy it they're willing to give up a Christmas Eve to go down there there was 22 people on New Year's Eve and there were three people that were actually on the waiting list ahead of the New Year's Eve game all three of those people were taken down there so anybody that wanted to sign up that signed up had the opportunity to go okay and as far as the alerts and I I I don't know if I've said it in a public board meeting or if it's been offline when we post our off duty every Deputy can go into the system and set up their own alerts however they want it if they don't want to get woke up they don't have to set it um but if they want to get woke up be at the top of the list they can set themselves an alert to either come to email text message um so as soon as those things are posted it gets blasted out there I remember 25 years ago we would have to line up at Raleigh helgason lieutenant helgeson's uh office door on Tuesday starting at 100 p.m. and there would be 12 of us lined up down the hallway so we've come a long way we we've employed the technology as as we've been allowed to and uh we're we're certainly in the 21st I cannot come up with and obviously this last year we we we used some board recommendation there's different people that are posting it they're posting it at different times and so I can't imagine that we could come up with a better system to be more Equitable as far as the alerts and things like that that they can set up within the system and it works really well okay that all you got Mr chair yes and we exchanged cordial emails and I appreciate that and appreciate you being here and this isn't anything personal this is part of business and you bring stuff forward and we talk about it and I so what had to go on as meeting minutes so the meeting I wasn't at that was last Wednesday and then I had the joint Powers agreement and I got I'll have to reference to them both can you tell me if there was any because it says attorney kryer crafted and drafted this deal is there any changes from the past one to this deal other than the dates the dates um I took out the hourly provision in it um because that's underneath a separate contract so we can deal with any changes as they come up um yeah we we had talked about that ahead of time we wanted to put that in the contract because we can run this JP out through the term but the contract is going to go year to year so then if there is any new rate increases that we can reflect that within the contract without having to go back to the table and uh go through the jpa process again and and that was one of my next ones was you brought up the wage and that was noticeably absent from the agreement yep so there's like a page two that says this is what you would pay in 24 and then it'll be up for review in 25 or what does that look like so once the jpa is done with Minnesota sports facility Association then we do the contract through their subcontractor which is ASM Global ASM Global so then our contract will be with ASM Global and uh John drum had actually passed on to attorney kryer and myself that once the jpa was done that we didn't have to deal with him anymore that we could use uh go through Aaron liens and their board is already authorized 105 per hour so they all know that that's coming and now we can work directly with Aaron liens at US Bank through ASM Global okay so that separation and the dates was there anything else so not that I can recall so liability and everything stayed the same everything stays the same yes cuz that that was one giant word salad I don't know how else to describe it yeah Mr chair and and for commissioner catchmark if this is approved just so the board knows I worked off of a I I had a PDF copy and I had to convert it over to word through optical character recognition I'm sure fomi is typing me right now to correct me on what I just said but with that I know that there are some statutory references here that are incorrect I think like in the third where as I think it's 473 I I think that's supposed to be or actually 4731 Maybe I think that's supposed to be a j so when it converted over that has to be changed so um if this is approved it would be subject to minor um Corrections like that so because under five Roman numberal five general terms four it kind of jumps around that we will cover this unless this happens and I thought well I'm just going to ask if anything change from the other one for starters uh the training piece there all equipment and training Falls to Ray County therefore you bring what you bring and they don't hand you anything training is up to you if you get into something down there where the training records and instructors are required it comes from the files out here correct including the pro service at at the shooting facility right correct because uh that's another piece if they would offer a training like another department would then you'd fall under their policies procedures equipment and there's no connection then out to here that there's other arrangements that are like that I'm I'm in one myself well even with like the I'm sorry to cut you off even with like the state fair police when uh they go down to work state fair we sign off on all of their training records and provide some of that documentation to them ahead of them uh being sworn in as a state patrol or a state fair police officer for 12 days or whatever that looks like so even all of those records they're getting those records that even as their own police department they don't take care of anything but they do issue like R portable radios and stuff like that when they go down there but all of their equipment that they're issued here uniforms they're all right County issued equipment outside I believe of the portable radio so sorry okay what about what about uh at Huntington Bank do they have to do the same because you have some people that go to the TCF like gophers do they have to do the same they're all they actually are part-time uh officers with the University of Minnesota oh okay so they've been uh backgrounded so we've had to provide that documentation to background investigators but that's different because they're actually off or they're they're part-time police officers for U uh for the University of police police department all right so the public comment side as you alluded to most people are probably going to come up and say good job that's great I don't know many are going to come up and get in your face and said get them out of there but I don't know you haven't heard that but what I hear and this is without me giving much narrative they come up with this on their own and they also made the blue color comparison but this guy one guy recently set a cement uh truck deal where they're pouring sidewalk cement for a stadium and someone down the street says if you got extra come down to my uh my yard and pour a sidewalk and they do it as a side hustle and the cement truck runs over their foot Knife River is not going to cover them on that side Hustle but uh Reich County will under this kind of an agreement the so that's most of the hang up for my citizens is the liability piece they've came up with it on their own the 1099 thing and they could you know do it that way you're saying that's not an option but I just want to give a reference to what I'm hearing on the street the here's another Point that's been referenced to today and in the meeting minutes very influential statements that this is a very well-controlled environment with very little risk we've heard perimeter fencing and very secure I'd like to share with the board the decision makers here today on this joint Powers agreement what I've seen personally in the last two months as far as what Ray County deputies are doing and I I don't doubt that they're following this agreement but I've seen them on foot patrol in you have uh US Bank Stadium you have it separated then by Chicago Avenue public Street they block it off for the event then you have a large Plaza area I'll call it that's open to the public to anybody to come through that's next to the light rail stop at US Bank Stadium you can read your own very high crime there's a long House Bar open to the public that's there and then in between thousands of people that come and go during this game so I've seen our deputies on foot patrol in this common area it's not secured by fence or anything else I've seen them patrolling the bar inside where it's open to the public and they serve the alcohol in there I've seen them escorting a disorderly person off that area and into the street so it I know the sheriff told us at another meeting they never leave the building I point out what I've seen at that time and then he had said well it's the common property there but we've heard it referenced as well controlled very little risk I'm here to tell you that it's a little different than working Apple Jacks or the Jerome Center or St Michael days and nights I seen uh commentary about the liability agreement is the same as all off-duty contracts I just want to reference that that is not the same as working at an event in Ray County there's just a lot of different things we've heard from the sheriff and attorney loots how blessed we are to have them an attorney out here to support our troops it's not the same down there and and that's a consideration also found a study here very recently sports book review put it out they listed the most dangerous stadiums in the country NFL stadiums and this report was relative to the zip codes around the each NFL stadium in the country and it was based on a thousand residents living in the zip code of the stadium and and the average uh victim of a property crime or all crimes the highest US Bank rank number four for the highest local crime and number four for highest property crime for everything ,000 people the one is 44 people out of a thousand are victims the other one is 58 that gives another context to this neighborhood this area that these folks are working in so I I want to just bring that attention to the board here about that can you can you answer that like so if he if you said it's a bar so it's it's on the Plaza so there there are checkpoints around that we can be responsible for keep in mind we're always partnered with someone from another agency um and so we do go out there pregame we do go out to that bar in the plaza area once the game starts those folks are in get moved inside and those are roaming patrols often times uh Captain Ferguson said that he is the one responsible for going out on the Plaza we do have other people out there that he checks in with and uh then once the game starts they go in so the the bar then is that whose jurisdiction is the bar is it a bar owner or do the does the US Bank own the plaza and the bar the US Bank owns The Plaza and I'm guessing that it's just like the person inside that's doing cheese curds they lease that space so that space is probably being leased by a private party just like everything else on on US Bank okay cuz the bar parts are arming um and for the record Mr chair I've never seen Captain Ferguson I've seen other staff out there maybe he's in another corner I don't know but those are for all those Reasons I'm I'm not in favor of of continuing the the contract okay I would I would probably point out commissioner katchmark I'm guessing you're not just down there observing on the sidewalk you're probably working down there so you've done the the same thing you've taken the whole risk and you've assessed that to your personal well-being for working for an agency down there so I mean it's the same thing that I'm allowing you to allow our staff to make that same kind of decision and since you drew me into my role I'll have to explain what the role is I was going to leave it as an independent Observer but my arrangement for last 24 years has been I was approved by the sheriffs when I was here and now from the other agency I work with but the understanding when I started there was that we want we don't want you bringing your gun down there we don't want you counting on our training because we the sheriff at that time didn't want our trainers to be responsible than to come down there and testify to what you were trained or what you weren't trained in so I fall under the training of I've had for 20 years what they give me down there and it's a different uniform it's yeah my own risk and my whole deal but that's that's a decision I make as an officer part-time side hustle whatever you want to call it but then I have to take that uniform off potentially come up here and unfortunately or fortunately depending on who you are I have all the inside knowledge of being down there for a long time with that comes the training and experience of working in that environment of high crime and anything stepping off that light rail that's a mere feet away from where the deputies are working and can erupt or evolve at any time especially the now it's the the Palestine and the Israel conflict pop up at any time I've been down there when there's no notice of these conflicts and riots and all of a sudden you're surrounded by these people so that's uh yeah my decision that's why I'm there that's what I see and a different arrangement though it's closer to what the public likes and what commissioner Holland spoke as your own your own Arrangement subcontract mine happens to be ran through a a different Police Department altogether but maybe more than you wanted to know but you kind of lured that out of me so no and that but that's fine my my whole point is you've made that decision to cross that boundary and you've you've done that risk assessment and obviously we probably wouldn't be having this conversation it would be more of an agency assist minus a jpa and all the the risk language that Associates with it if they had the ability to be their own agents similar to the agency that commissioner catchmark is working for so um they don't have that ability so all of their um parameters have to be covered through jpa which has now been extended so it's Minneapolis henpen County Anoka County Sheriff's Office McLoud County Sheriff's Office and the right County Sheriff's Office and actually I got it several text messages I showed it to the members of the committee but here's the public safety wall it's in one of the main corridors at US Bank Stadium so they recognized all their partners and actually uh um this last well New Year's Eve game uh Captain sandine was actually brought out on the field uh for a recognition ceremony for the time that he spent down there and some of the coordination that he's done and his efforts so it was kind of cool they're very appreciative uh they did pass on to us in our meeting that we had down there that uh when they had their board meeting uh there was a lot of positive comments about the staff that we have and they're very appreciative of of what we're doing down there so Mr chairman one point to the wall of fame that you pointed out when you leave District 5 right County you pass through about six other law enforcement jurisdictions before you get to Minneapolis and where the stadium is and none of those are participating there's 87 Sheriff's Office roughly in right in Minnesota and a lot of police departments and yet you can see the small representation of cleos the chief law enforcement officers that choose choose to send their troops down there for their own reasons so it was an open invitation as I understand it to many I'm sure all the sheriff's offices that wanted to participate State Patrol and different ones that a lot of times will participate in Republic convention and Super Bowl but for their own reasons have chosen to think that this isn't a good fit for their officers I think that's a fair point and that might be a fair point but I think that uh there was probably a lot different participation obviously Minneapolis PD took care of this many years and the only reason that we're involved in the first place is because of their Staffing uh Staffing levels um I I can tell you and once again it's a credit to the people in this room and the relationships that we have uh we're not facing some of the same staffing issues it's by God's grace uh that other agencies are right now so if they're looking at Staffing and they're looking at off-duty events that we can participate in again this is not affecting our scheduling at home or our ability to do our job at home this is strictly off duty and uh we're just in a really good place right now we're in a good place to share some of the resources that we have at no cost to the county in fact a revenue stream Mr chair yes so for the yeah the revenue stream I don't I don't know how that would shake out necessarily but you had the rest of the board wasn't here other than commissioner vetch and I when this started and you talked about the number you could send down there and it was a referen I think to 10 to 12 to maybe up to 15 now there's a platoon of 20 there was no governor in the arrangement about numbers to say you know if you had 30 40 in a in a weekend that if you could justify it you'd send them down there are you keeping that as open discretionary as far as the numbers of valuable assets to Ray County that you would send on there so they've been uh they've been dictating the numbers and it fluctuates within three um but we are Vikings games are 19 to 24 concerts are 15 to 18 and Monster Jam is eight so that's it's so no it's not really we can't just sign up 40 people and say you're going to pay all 40 people they have parameters so there has to they have to maintain through the NFL and when we go for our briefing meetings um you know every three-letter Federal agency is also involved Homeland Security so they have their ratios that they have to meet and so much of those ratios have to come from licensed peace officers and uh so they set those parameters and this is what we have been this is what we have felt comfortable providing if that changed obviously in the future we would decrease those numbers commissioner VCH can I ask if there's 40 guys that that go down to some of these uh games do they do they carpool do we take a van are we taking squads down there are are potential um you know loss of a squad you know we were talking the other day about how you know you you're worried because they're hard to come by do are we not we aren't taking squats are we so we're taking uh combination of squads and transport bands we do carpool down there and it is we get to park in a secured parking area that's guarded and uh we also put in for reimbursement we put in for mileage at the federal rate and that's all so spelled out in the contract we build them for all of all of those squads that go down there or or our B and it's in a secured parking we got a it's a it's right across the street and uh there's there's people that are stationed right there so yes we usually take I don't four or five Vehicles whether it's van that's another and then we that's just adding to my anxiety but okay and we're also reimbursed for that too and that's all covered by our insurance and liability well it's just a matter of finding a squad right now is like that's what you'd hate for a car to get shot out I don't know I I'm there's just a lot of things that make me nervous um and I and I understand that it's a good thing and a good way for our deputies to make more money um I just feel like our our residents are incurring a lot of risk just a lot of risk I don't I don't know where to come up this one I don't think our people are incurring that type of risk Mr Sher every every day our deputies that's their job is to put themselves at risk to enforce the law and protect people I know I don't think that this this is an exception to that and they're volunteering to go down there to do this and we have them covered they're not doing Palestine you know protests and R but if something were to happen even on their way they're mandated to stop and help they are mandated to do that if there was an accident on the side of the road you have to stop and help when you have that badge on that's your job so don't it's not there it's not just there it's anywhere they go it's going through all of henan County and getting to there in Minneapolis well do you go into Anan County at all no you out to St paa where's at why Z and Oro along the shores happen we're we're certainly not averse to bad things happening here unfortunately we deal with more than uh more than what we would care to some days and um it's it's part of what we do it's it's how we're wired and and I think that if you weigh the the risk again this is all voluntary I think that there's more benefits or the benefits far outweigh um the risk on this certainly as it relates to to our staff Mr chair I think everyone's had enough chance to speak their mind you want to call the question I'm going to make the the motion that we have we don't even have a motion so we need a motion can't call a question yeah no I'm gonna make a motion that we do not sign the JP agreement for US Bank Stadium that's presented to us today I'll second that all right we have a motion by commissioner catchmark to uh not approve the uh US Bank contract for 2024 or subsequent years second by commissioner Holland any further discussion Mr here I think we've all had the discussions previously I think if anybody has any other questions please the sheriff's here and and I just encourage you to move forward with approving this so we have motion and no other discussion um with that all in favor say I I post same sign I motion dies 32 um Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve this contract or the jpa moving forward second we have a motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland to approve the US Bank contract uh discussion if we go forward can we make it for one year instead of two just to so that we can assess our risk if if things get riskier down there that we can pull out next year and have the same discussion next year well I think you we could this the language in this contract we could leave it at any time it just don't have to come back in in a year to year on the on this they can modify the numbers the dollar amount year to year but correct I it's cleaner to me because we can leave 60 days from now I think we all we have to do is give them notice that we're not going to we want out and we can get out at any point we want Mr chair commissioner Holland the nice part about this is you have a joint Powers agreement and then you have a separate off-duty contract with ASM Global and that ASM Global Contract is what can be what will be renewed annually and looked at and also the sheriff at any point in time can say I don't have the Staffing to send down here we're not sending anyone down and it's done immediately like that um second thing Mr chair um just for the record you indicated the second came from commissioner Holland I believe you meant commissioner Shane oh you are right you yes it was second by commissioner Shane you're right so and I have analyzed the you know the the cost benefit analysis on this and I yes it is there is a lot of things that we want to take into considerations and law enforcement isn't quite as fluid to be able to do the things that we can do from a carpentry perspective from a 1099 piece uh just because of the constraints of way the legal aspects of it work uh but ultimately at the end of the day I I I still feel that this is still in the more positive than negatives with doing the work there at this time so we have a motion we have a second any other discussion here in none all in favor say I I I POS I motion passes 4 one thank you everyone for the discussion thank you thank you well with no other items on today's agenda we will uh adjourn today's County board meeting at 11:31 thank you thank you well you don't have to change the stationary now because we kept