e e e e e e e e good morning everyone it is Tuesday July 23rd we'll call the right County Board of Commissioners to order we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so starting off here uh we have a variety of minutes from the uh June 26 July 2nd July 8th July 9th and July 10th uh meetings we can approve them collectively or individually I'll stand for any modifications and the one it does say 726 but it is 626 Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve those minutes collectively all right we have a motion by commissioner catchmark I'll second that second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I FST same sign all right minutes are approved unanimously uh moving on to today's agenda would anyone like to modify today's agenda items the agenda it items for consideration A4 and5 is it okay Mr chair I'd like to remove two items from agenda item A4 and A5 um as they they have not been properly processed through the bedded through the same processes and um I'd like those to go back to uh Personnel committee or as we've discussed earlier today through the proper processes so what I would suggest is we will uh remove both A4 and A5 and we will schedule a committee of the whole as a board um uh later on in the meeting to determine so we replace A4 and A5 with a new A6 to schedule a committee of the whole to discuss uh said positions uh and processes for said positions I'll second that if that's okay with commissioner dedri I'll second that all right so we have a motion by commissioner dietr second by commissioner uh catchmark to uh remove items A4 and A5 as well as uh adding A6 to schedule committee the whole to discuss uh said positions correct all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppos same sign all right motion passes next uh we any other uh consent agenda anything else uh like to be removed from today's consent agenda for further discussion Mr chair I'd like to remove e is in Edward one and C is in Charles three for discussion see oh sorry I'm going backwards you're doing that just to make it uh see well I'm paying attention oh yeah I guess sorry about that C3 and E1 all right and anyone else like to remove anything from today's consent agenda other I'll stand for a motion to remove the or approve today's consent agenda with removal of uh C3 and E1 I'll make that motion Mr chair a second all right we have a motion by commissioner catch Mark second by commissioner Holland further discussion what further discussion any further discussion yes I I just want to say under uh C six um I just the budget to actual report that got done I just want to say a great job to finance thank you it's um just good information to have as we review the and and St top of our budget so a huge thank you to everyone thank you all right no other discussion all in favor say I I post same sign all right consent agenda is approved with the removal of C3 and E1 uh first would be C3 uh approve attached budget amendments through June 2024 uh commissioner catchmark uh thank you so we've we've looked at these in the past and I thought collectively we were I know I point out nobody disagree that we should have more information on these budget amendment changes and I went through most of them with staff yesterday but as you can see there just there isn't any supporting documents or explanations to these there was one that we didn't come up with an explanation which is the second one to the last where it talks about uh 2024 paab budget increase calculation eror in the budget book for 10,842 and the outstanding question was when and how was that error discovered good morning Commissioners Mr chair um I believe that this was discovered as we were doing budget to actual review and when was that recently is that something that just occurred then or because we're seven months into the year when did the when did it actually happen my understanding is that this would have occurred in the creation of the 2024 budget we calculate manually all of our payroll liabilities and then we transfer that data manually from our payroll workbooks into the department workbooks which is then transferred from the Department workbooks manually into the comprehensive budget document I believe that it was an inadvertent um [Music] Miss okay Lindsay in my understanding it it was just in in certain areas that the calculation of the increase in the pair wasn't uniformly done across all the Departments it was missed in a couple instances it was only identified in the attorney's office so um okay granted we wouldn't like to see that but at the end of the day I mean uh human error is possible and it especially in light of the fact that the amount of accounts that we are transferring from one workbook to the next workbook to the next broader workbook uh there is a there's opportunities for error though we review the heck out of these and we do our best to make sure it's not there it it is possible that they inadvertently got excluded does our system now going forward have the ability for uniformity in certain categories like well I guess even Paris varies depending on what union you belong to so even the uniformity there still requires a certain amount of manual input it's just a matter of if you can limit the number of times you have to manually input the information as we move forward we have the Oracle Fusion system we have intent to use that for the 2025 budget 2026 budget I'm sorry okay we are still currently working with our very manual process at the moment okay well just can we have more of a a guideline maybe a directive that we get more of an explanation on these budget amendments Mr chair I think so too that that's absolutely perfectly fine um I In fairness to everybody I tried to do my research before getting to the big room and I didn't wasn't able to get it that's why we're talking about it today but if we got the background ahead of time I it saves us all time and and people time in the Woodshed as people sometimes call the podium but okay yep Mr chair if I can make a comment on one other two and maybe get some clarification as to there was a suicide prevention Grant I know commissioner catchmark has had some questions on and maybe just get some clarification as to exactly what that is for so that um we all are aware of what we're voting on because there's some information that's changed since I talked to you this morning Mike so I don't know if someone from HHS Jim if you could speak about that quickly about what that's about yeah well Mr chair and board let me make my apologies in for our alphabet soup here in Health and Human Services the uh F uh fpsp Grant is the Family Planning special projects Grant not Family Planning Suicide Prevention at the time we were submitting this uh changed budget for Family Planning we were also working through Suicide Prevention and I was associating SP with suicide prevention in my head I am so sorry this is the this is a budget amendment for the uh grant that was approved back at the February board meeting for Family Family Planning special projects which had been which has been renamed as uh sexual reproductive Health Grant Mr chair does that help I don't I didn't see any reference to that in the material that didn't we look something up and we found it all related to Suicide Prevention didn't we and that's what I wanted Jim to clarify is that the fsps grant was there is there is another grant that does that is specifically for suicide prevention if you looked that one went up no I didn't CU it wasn't provided but right I guess I just don't want something slip through here on the Family Planning side because I've been clear on my position in the past and I got kind of a mixed message on what happened well it was approved on the vote the majority of the board but I I wasn't sure on what was approved actually when we see here family plannings suicide prevention they're saying it got turned around so yeah you want to speak well I was just going to say because I was here at the febrary board meeting and at that time it was clear it was um Family Planning um special projects it was not mixed up at the time of the at the when the board approved it for the language of the approval from the board we were talking about Family Planning special projects yeah it was just this budget amendment that was put through in that we submitted in in June that was where I had told Janice hey this is Family Planning Suicide Prevention because they were the SP in my head at the time with suicide prevention because we were working on the suicide prevention Grant but there was no inaccuracy at the time that it came forward to the board in February right and there was a discussion and your your remarks were were stated at that time so okay thank and yes we would not we would not uh attempt to um to subvert any kind of transparency or anything like that this was uh we if we do call it alphabet soup there is a lot of um different acronyms but um just to clarify this is the Family Planning special projects amendment to that grant that was approved in February okay thank you any other questions commissioner catchmark no that that covers those two with that I'll stand for a motion to approve the uh item C3 uh the approved the attached budget amendments through June 2024 I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner catchmark I'll second second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign all right uh motion passes unanimously uh next is item E1 the approved the request to rehire a senior TSS uh position within it uh thank you Mr FBI uh I'll start off uh do you want to Mr fby start off with just kind of clarify or do you want to instead of a fishing Expedition could I maybe point to why okay thank you could we put up the org chart yes for that there was a nice org chart provided thank you Mr fomi for that helpful as we wait for that to come come up reference that intern position was there any job duties or description provided for what the intern would do or has done in the past the intern has helped out um with things like our auctions we're not allowed to get rid of any equipment period we have to auction it off even if it's only a penny um so the intern will help out with things like that they help out with little things around the office and they just bring somebody into the office and gets trained in fact uh Jacob Swanson who's currently one of our system Engineers he actually started as an intern got hired as a TSS was hired as a senior TSS was hired as a system engineer and come September is actually getting promoted to warrant officer in the United States Navy and it's going to be going or I'm sorry Army he should have been in the Navy that was his mistake but uh and it's going to be going to training so it's been a successful program to bring new people into right County it exposes them to the county gives us an opportunity to get some uh work done from them and we do it intermittently it's not a scheduled thing it's every once in a while okay so there wasn't anything in the material like you have for the senior Tech specialist as far as duties or what they do or help out in general assistance a lot of times they' man the front desk things of that nature okay it it is a good to bring in not vital are they what kind of pay scale do you use for that um intern pay scale is fair I want to say it's honest to God I think it's less than Target that's all we got I won even want I don't even want to throw the numbers off the head my numbers are probably a couple years old um Mr chair members of the commission each department kind of sets their own intern pay scales that they have within their budget I can look that up as we move forward I think it all depends too on the on the qualifications that where some of them are grad ours always no ours always have to be in school and things of that nature he usually a student usually sophomore junior that kind of thing I think the highest intern we had for Budget last year was $18 an hour okay thanks they want to make the big that big money they generally go to Burger King okay all right so then moving to the TSS I see as I'm reading that when you look across the tssb is not a lead position they no just cuz I couldn't stack them all underneath there was some space constraints there okay so they fall along the lines there's seven of those tsss yes and then this would be to rehire the TSS which is the senior which would be senior to those seven yes okay and then above that we have a TSS so and you followed the process and the consensus with the board was all these rehires would come to consent if we wanted to pull them we could for our own reasons or group effort and so that's what I did today uh in kind of General across the county and I think just business-wise we're looking at how many supervisors per staff that we're seeing and by my math here if we take that TSS team one away we're left with a TSS supervisor that's supervising seven people uh yes and no so the the issue we have currently at the moment is the senior TSS actually has some very specific duties that are U elaborated on above a t TSS so for example the senior TSS runs the update program so they update all 900 computers across the county so they push those things at the end of this year we have to push a Windows 11 upgrade because Windows 10 is reaching end of so we got to upgrade to Windows 11 they will be having that that is their specific Duty um in addition to being a higher level so TSS takes a job fix this computer they hit a roadblock they'll elevate it the senior TSS the senior TSS gives a shot at it senior TSS also leazes directly with delery repairs as well as the infrastructure team in order to elevate things to a higher level um without the senior I can't have a TSS do things like uh cuz those Duties are specifically called out in the job descriptions the job descriptions actually very different that would be have at TSS operating outside of scale now the intention was to hire a TSS and then leave that TSS position open so it' still be budget positive in the long run we're still saving money but I need that position because amongst other things like I said they push all the updates and you don't want to end up in a position like we were last Friday where the entire world shuts down because somebody pushed the wrong update which is exactly what that was somebody pushed an update incorrectly and the world shut down and that job specifically in all of it is pushed with pushing those updates to the laptops um the other problem is like I said um we're really happy about the fact that one of our people was selected as a warrant officer in the Army but they're going to have to go to six months training so I'm going to be down a system engineer here come September for about six months so I'm already going to be light I can't pull a system engineer to do that sort of thing because I'm going to be down that I really do need that senior TSS to complete those sorts of actions and act as that intermediate for the higher level stuff they also handle like bigger projects that come along at the TSS level but just more requires more technical expertise and uh I use the term maturity but that's not necessarily one I want to use but that's what that job does so at the end of the day we're hiring inhouse we had already been approved to do this previously and for the first time uh to hire for a system engineer the senior TSS applied he had never applied for the two previous options but he applied this time and I said pick the right person for the job and they picked him so that's why we're here again otherwise we would have Simply Hired one of the tsss for a system engineer and it would have been done with two months ago so I really do need that position because I can't have a TSS do it because they'd be definitively working out of class and the TSS supervisor is dividing his time too much between elevating things handling budgets and Acquisitions and things of that nature so it really does leave me a big hole and being down a system engineer at the end of the year creates a bigger hole so I'm okay being down a TSS I'm not okay being down a senior TSS operationally because I do not absolutely want to put us in a situation where the entire County can't work cuz somebody pushes the wrong patch Mr chair yes and thank you for that explanation so the TSS supervisor supervises the TSS team one are yes I know you don't you don't prefer because they're they have a lot of work already but are they capable to do those duties being there the supervisor of the TSS he could do them but that would be dividing his time amongst two major positions and that's a lot of work for one person um I like I said I if you want save money I'd prefer to have we're going to hire from within it's going to be one of the TSS they meet their qualifications I'd prefer to hire that way and leave the TSS position open that was the original um marching orders I got like a year ago was that after this entire thing happened we were going to leave a TSS open and save money that way okay any other board members have any comments no Mr chair y if there's no other comments I'll make a motion to approve the request to rehire senior technical sport Specialists and it inter turn as requested all right motion by commissioner Dietrich I'll second that second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppose I motion passes 31 all right eight all right um moving on to the timed agenda first one here uh the which is now the 920 905 uh Captain omali making his way up here good morning Mr chair board I hope you're all doing well today yes all right so uh some questions in regard to the uh AAR contract this is a renewal of it's more of a service agreement than it is a contract per se we're not actually buying any any equipment or anything we're paying for meals this is just on a per meal basis the meal the meal costs cover not only the food but they also cover the labor the management of the kitchen services within the within the jail we budget or we pay for separately all the equipment um the maintenance the upkeep of the kitchen stuff uh aark people are responsible for cleaning cooking purchasing and and servicing all the the making all the meals and and all that throughout the contract um the contract the way it's set up it is on a sliding scale um on meal costs the fewer the meals the higher the cost the more the meals the lower the cost it's all on a ability to purchase is where that comes from volume buying is is is cheaper than than buying small amounts um but in average uh the cost of our meals regardless of where we're at with our count is right around $8,500 a week um that's why when account goes up the cost stays about the same for us that's we get more efficient that way um uh we've got or for this year we had a it's a three-year extension we've been in this contract since 1999 with aromar um I do talk to other food service companies uh we and we sit down and we'll have a discussion so we're actually doing an Apples to Apples comparison of of what they can provide versus what we have um no one's even put forth a uh I had one time I think three years ago and another company actually put forth a bid and it was within $2,500 of what we're currently paying when we figured it out so um to make those kinds of changes for $2,500 possibly didn't seem to make a lot of sense for us um as far as uh other I can tell you in the last three years food food costs have grown immensely um I am aware of throughout the state of a number of jails especially those that go out bid which the larger portion does um because it's low it's low bid typically is what they take um they're look they were looking at 10 to 30 plus percent increases over the last three years um we have not experienced that we've we've stayed between I think two and a half uh two to three and a half% over probably the last five years um and this year we got a 0 3535 um I think I've answered I think I've covered everything in our contract do we have any questions about what we're doing or how we're doing it well I will say at least good or bad however you want to look at at least we keep a pretty consistent uh jail population if I think where you see those big increases are when you start seeing the populations drop down to the 30 40 50 population side of it because it just gets too hard for them to recuperate the the cost actually they the the last three years that's not been the case the last three years because because of low bid situations they bid a contract at the beginning of a of of a cycle and thinking those costs will carry over and they don't and they haven't prepared for potential increases and so counties actually had food services walking out not being able to fill their contracts um last minute I know a couple of years ago Lee brought that up because he was getting calls from other counties too that were experiencing that and wondering what we were doing uh different that we weren't having the same kinds of problems but uh it's hard for them to make any money if you're if you're only having 20 30 40 people in there that their volume charts don't even kind of that's on the very bottom of them so they they couldn't charge enough to be able to make it turn be profitable right yeah Cher vetch um question yes what is our general population uh on an average of a you know oh the overall population we're running about 150 a day right now okay I think this morning was 151 cuz you have this uh this um I was looking at the uh table but it doesn't say what our general is so no it changes and that scale fluctuates based on whatever we order a day for meals so every day we order every morning we order meals based on what our count is in the afternoon because the count changes throughout the day so we order at each meal time what we want for meals for that particular meal oh okay Mr chair I just like to also um thank you for partnering with our Mark with the into work program um been very successful so I think that goes hand inand with the contract I appreciate that thank you it's working really well yep Mr chair yes and thanks for coming in did you give my phone message this morning no I did not oh okay I wish you would have cuz you I had I asked questions about I thought I had for the answers figured out but the one remaining was so there was these extra treats that people can buy for family members that was part of this right yep and we get Commission because we charge above what the cost is of those right yes okay but this is the overall meal piece that yeah so those the the programs don't actually add any cost to this they're above and beyond so aark makes whatever money if you have a person in jail that you want to buy a hamburger for you can order it through their we have a connection or website or aark has a website that you can order it through and they'll get that order they'll they sell that and that has nothing to do with our jail other than we allow them to do that and when they when we allow them to do that uh we get a percentage of whatever those sales and they're not huge these are new programs for the most part we're just starting them out um but it it we get family members that don't want to put money on an inmate's books but they want to do something for their inmate and so things like this uh allow them to control what that person spends money on you know what I mean does that make sense and that's part of this contract right does that it's allowing them yeah so Mar and there things like burritos hamburgers you know things like that that they wouldn't typically get through the jail food service okay thank you that's all I had Mr chair all right uh any other questions board members otherwise I'll stand for a motion to approve the signatures on the contract Amendment with air mark So moved all right motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right motion passes unanimously thank you very much you Mr chair yes we have a 930 public hearing yep all right at this time it is 9:30 we will go to open up the public hearing on the property tax abatement for sjb Holdings LLC at this time if there's anyone here in the public that would like to uh come forward and speak uh regarding the property tax abatement uh for the property in montose uh Minnesota right County uh please come forward at this time and state your name for the [Music] record would anyone like to speak would anyone like to speak is there anyone like to speak or comments for the record hearing none uh at this time we will close the public hearing and bring it up here to the Das for uh discussion all right uh board members uh at this time we uh have a resolution before us to authorize signatures approving a property tax abatement and business subsidy agreement with sgb sjb Holdings uh which was discussed and vetted through the county Eda uh discussion Mr chair I have just a couple comments on that I I understand also with this agreement the city is going to be participating in the tax abatement and then they brought this forward to the Eda and I'm part of the Eda and we moved it forward to here um and looking as a whole um even as our Budget moving forward even decisions today um I I was curious if we could have reduced our amount or our cap I guess that would we that we could put on that um I didn't know if that we were past that point um I would I would like to reduce it about 50,000 over that 9-year period so we're still contributing um but there's some you know even items uh coming up on our agenda that if we could save money long term uh for other for those priorities um I think we would be offering a a still a subsidy to this um with the tax abatement but just reducing that cap um I guess the question would be then does it change the applicant's appetite to move forward I couldn't State I don't know where they are on it um clay do you have some comments on it yeah Mr chair I don't know I I would have to speak with the applicant to determine if that would change their appetite to move forward to answer commissioner dedrick's question yes you can change that amount we would have to change the agreement to reflect a reduction in it and we'd probably want to have a conversation with the applicant to see if that would impact their decision to move forward for sure and a total over 9 years is $365,000 in tax abatement correct yeah Mr chair and board members correct between the city and the county I believe that's the total amount the County's cap was at 165 and just to explain how we get there our policy says that uh we follow what the city is going to do is sort of our Baseline of how we move forward and and we followed the same calculations that the city did where they did sort of a ratchet down over nine years where it started the first four years abating 100% of the property taxes and then it moved down from 7550 and 25 in subsequent years and understood and you're you're asking the county to reduce their their abatement down to 115 from 165 correct if that's possible to have that discussion um certainly I would I don't know that it's an all or nothing I want to make that decision here either um either reduce it or nothing um I just think having that conversation and see if that still works for the business Mr chair yes I have a question if making that change since we had our Eda caps on when we agreed to that figure if we have to Route it back to put our caps on for Eda to change the dollar amount uh at this point it's the county board's decision to Abate uh the Eda is just a recommending body uh to the county board for the abatement so we wouldn't have to run it back to the Eda for their opinion okay so um I I'm a little hesitant to just universally make that adjustment without having the conversation with the applicant um largely because I don't want to lose uh a a good business opportunity here in Ray County to bring their business from elsewhere in Minnesota to right County um just on a uh uh a last minute change without having that conversation with them um I don't believe that this item is necessarily time sensitive so I think we could hold it off to the next agenda is there there's I should qualify that clay I don't know of any time sensitivity on it but yeah Mr chair and board I don't know if Elizabeth knows their schedule because I don't know if I'm not familiar with their planned construction schedule and would impact it I see she may be looking it up back there right now Mr chair and I think I said this before but there's no guarantee that even if he wouldn't get any of the money that he wouldn't still build here now if I'm a good businessman and want to use some gamesmanship I would lead to believe that if I don't get this I'm going to Carver County but we don't know that for sure we don't know that for sure and there can be contingencies that that his this abatement his financing may be tied to getting this abatement uh that that could change the project immensely either in scope or in just the entirety of it be able to move forward uh that's largely the bigger concern is how much of his financing is tied to needing this abatement so um do you need a motion on that or just well your motion is to you have a couple different options here you can improve it as is you can approve it with the modification or you can uh we can table it out was waiting to find out if Elizabeth had any idea of any time sensitivity on it if we tabled it uh to be able to have a discussion with the applicant uh my first initial perspective would be either tabling it or approving it as his um I would hesitate without talking to the applicant uh about approving it with the modification at this time right I'll make a motion to table it until further discussion with the applicant and um bring it back at a later date so um I'm gonna put a time date to bring it back on August 6th because I I just want to make sure that we get this discussion with them so you have a motion by commissioner Dietrich was that a second by commissioner Holland yes to uh table the resolution for authorizing signatures approving tax abatement for the sjb holding company uh with a discussion about a modification in the reduction of the abatement by uh $50,000 uh and if there's any uh justification or do you want to share with that I'll let you get that off the Record uh with st for them all right all right is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I hi oh same sign all right the item a E2 is tabled to August 6th all right moving on to F uh is the Finance taxpayer Services ad do amendment to oh no we got to move back sorry I moveed to the public hearing 910 910 thanks for I caught myself there thought we're were going to be able to skip through a few things all right Chad making his way up here don't tell my doctor I'm not using both both crutches so we're good you're just too proud right yeah still a little stubborn but no it's all good um chairman V Commissioners we have two items the the first item is the approved mot agency agreement 10 15729 and adopt corresponding resolution for the mot joint Powers contract this is for the engineering reimbursement for um the two round offs we're doing on their trunk highways at 13 and 25 and casassa 14 and 12 all right any discussion board members Mr chair I'll I'll make that motion to approve this contract and just really happy those those are really good projects that they're moving forward with the engineering this year all ready for next year all right motion by commissioner Dietrich I'll second second by commissioner catch Mark to approve the mot agency agreements contract number 10572 n0 uh in cor adopt corresponding resolutions and any further discussion hearing none resolution commissioner catchmark i i i i resolution passes unanimously right thank you and there'll be separate agreements for once the the construction funds too so um second item before you today is to award contract 2406 the casa 5 Federal Bridge replacement project subject to mindat um approving the uh award letter from the mot office of civil rights um the uh uh cafi bridge will we don't have word from the contractor yet the contract allows for construction either this fall or next summer just to open it up for more biders and um we haven't got final word yet so once we get final word on when they want to build it then we'll update everybody so all right recommen Warden yes yeah there's a lot of entities involved with Bridges and water but I didn't expect to see civil rights office involved but I'll approve that contract award as stated all right I'll second motion by commissioner catchmark second by commissioner Dietrich to approve uh contract number 246 for Casa 5 Federal Bridge replacement project any further discussion Mr shair I've been across that bridge it's a well- needed repair um it's going to be a really great Improvement once that once that bridge is is done thanks thank you all right all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes unanimously thank you J thank you all right Ross has been waiting back there so patiently coming forward to adopt a res resolution related to a Grant application through the Greater Minnesota parks and trails commission for construction of a trail head in parking lot at Stanley Eddie Park thank you Mr chair members of the board uh staff is requesting the board to adopt a resolution related to the Grant application to the Greater Minnesota parks and trails commission for the construction of a trail parking lot Stan lady Park um this project would be located right off of pleas and there's an easement between the two South units uh there was a property acquisition just for this specific trail head back in 2022 through the same Legacy funds um so this would include overnight or parking for day use Backpackers and equestrian horse trailers and also include Vault toilet and a solar powered well potentially U electric well depending on how we are able to access power there and this is just a just to go after a grant the grant itself where it's estimated to be around $310,000 so with a fund matching fund of $ 35,000 which would come out of verite improvement I'll make a motion to approve that all right motion by commissioner Dietrich I'll second second by commissioner Holland any further discussion Mr chair yes um as the park board this is a priority and it would be a great Improvement for that Park I agreed yeah it's a very heavily used area that we have kind of an unimproved parking area right now that's used quite often and there's really nothing else off of please so agreed very good any other discussion all right resolution vote I'll vote i i i i resolution passes unanimously thank you Ross you all right now our 920 Lindy has been waiting back there ever patiently as well uh to approve a adopt a recommendation from the r County aggregate tax committee good morning Mr chair Commissioners um the aggregate tax committee was created two years ago uh just as a refresher on where we got to where we are today for this um two years ago we created this uh we have two townships representing um the township and one city is appointed as well as um we've got Commissioners we've got pnz representatives and I have delegated Lindsay Salo as the representative from my department on this um so I don't want to steal her Thunder she's pulled together a presentation on the committee activities and the recommendation good morning good morning Mr chair and Commissioners morning good morning all right sure thank you well I can start while she gets that up so um as Lindsay kind of described this program is intended to help right County complete projects that meet our County objectives uh the grant aims to fund projects that will facilitate restoration of abandoned aggregate pits or if there are no abandoned aggregate pits then we move on to other unmet Reclamation needs um conservation projects and other environmental projects uh the people that can apply for this grant are County departments cities townships schools and Lake Improvement districts which we call Lids for short uh we have decided as a committee that we will fund up to 880,000 annually um no more than 40,000 per project and requests cannot exceed 80% of the total project cost so they do have to contribute some in-kind labor or materials or something like that okay and go to the next slide here is our scoring criteria I'm not going to go through all of it um a lot of it is the same but we do have two sets uh primarily because uh one is for the Reclamation of abandoned pits and the other is for the conservation projects so we have waited it in a way that any abandoned pit Will score high because that is our statuto or statutory requirement so this year we open the applications in April they were due to me June 15th the committee met at the end of June to review and form the recommendations that I'm presenting to you today uh we received five applic ations this year that are eligible and we are recommending four for funding here are the projects uh the first one of course is the pit Reclamation submitted by the wri County highway department uh the next two uh were very similar to projects that were submitted last year so we've got one from Buffalo school district one for city of monacello both for uh Native grasses Prairie restoration uh so for that reason we did decide to recommend funding at half level because very similar projects were submitted last year and we would like to encourage some variety uh we had one from the plase late Improvement or lake improvement district uh we decided not to recommend funding for that one because it was a temporary project these projects should be longer term in nature and then we finally have the city of ATO who uh submitted a observation well that we recommended for full funding so was there any questions or any discussion great presentation thank you Mr chair I'd just like to add it was really good discussion going over the point scores and the and then just how to divvy up the money between the the different applicants it just was really we had a really good discussion as a group so yeah all right no appreciate the time and effort that uh both of you put into it I think you got some good recommendations here uh at this time I'll stand for a motion if there's no other comments I'll make that motion to I'll second that all right motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland to approve the uh recommendations for the Ray County agregate tax committee uh grants all right hearing no other discussions all in favor say I I I post same sign motion passes unanimously thank you Lindsay thank you Tyler and Lindsay's gonna stay up here as well and we have to adopt the resolution uh 2417 establishing the absentee ballot board yes Mr chair members of the board uh we're here today to amend our previously passed ballot board resolution it came to our attention from the legal department that were some changes we needed to make to conform with P litigation I think in 2023 that occurred so uh these changes are to conform to the new language the major change is that our original resolution said the board will consist of election judges and so the litigation stated that it must say must consist of election judges so we've made those changes uh We've also presented a list of ballot board members uh our election judges who will be uh deciding on those those ballots that comments we have that list presented for you as well um at the end of that resolution so we just ask for your support all right any discussion board members Mr chair I just thank you for catching that and making these Corrections yeah if if I may add we'll also bring up another resolution uh sometime in August or September we're going to be opening up our uh clerk hiring uh in August so we'll be inviting uh new ballot board members and election clerks so we'll be sure to post a notice uh on the County website and other uh resources to let the public know about that I think that wasn't ask and so we're more than happy to let folks know about that opportunity I think there's a lot of interest when we posted it back in the spring and so we're looking forward to see uh who's going to come in to help uh support our ballot board so we'll be coming back to you sometime in August or September perfect appreciate it thank you all right at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the amended resolution 2417 I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Dietrich any further discussion hearing none uh resolution i i i i motion passes unanimously all right and now we have the item F2 the approval of a large group assembly permit for up the creek uh this was one that was continued on from our previous board meeting uh I see that there's a lot more documentation in here so uh any discussion board members just look into attend all right great at this time I will if there's no other discussion or comments uh I appreciate the efforts that the staff and uh the applicant has put into putting in uh a complete application uh greatly appreciate that Mr chair if I may I think at the when I was looking at the notes from our previous board meeting you suggested a variance for the music to be turned off at 12:00 p.m. I believe just to allow for time to get folks out of the building by 1:00 I'm just not sure if you want to entertain that again for this year but just wanted to throw that out there so the okay so currently right now they're it may already be in place I think it was just something that was suggested that they the band cuts off at midnight it was a stated it was a stipulation of their application that that was previously last year that the music had to end at midnight so yep so they could get people cleared out by one did we put that in the ordinance though it's not in the ordinance I believe um it is just it was a stipulation that we put in condition kind of a condition of the permit large assembly permit that the music had to end by uh midnight and you're saying that's not in there currently I thought I I I haven't suggested as a variance just as we brought it up from the previous meeting so just something to consider for this prior to issuance yeah because there was the concern was because their law enforcement contract ends at one if they play music till one uh they then law enforcement is gone at the time when the music is ending in basic people haven't dispersed yet potentially it worked out well last year it was fine with that stipulation honestly that's what most cities do too is midnight you y so then I what I would do is I would stand for a motion to approve the large assembly permit with the uh uh stated condition that music end at uh 12 midnight I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Dietrick any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign motion passes unanimously should be a very fun weekend should be a hot one there out there on Saturday at 90 degrees they're saying oh gosh 1800 people are interested in going according to Facebook all right very good uh now moving on to the uh G oh 950 sir 950 We're right on time look at that we caught back up I didn't think we could do it right on H so right this time Mr mati to approve a agreement with the University of Minnesota extensions uh Lorie's making her way up here Mr chair members of the board Lori was able to make it today so we'll let Lori handle this one uh I do know this is typically something you'd like to consider at budget time for 2025 however our partner counties are considering it here in July with merer County approving on July 2nd McLoud county is also considering the uh updated memorandum of agreement with the University of Minnesota for each extension today as you are as well so we'll let Lori talk more about it chv members of the board thanks for having me um I think most of you know a little bit about this contract it's a three-year contract uh we ask for renewals across all the across the entire State 87 counties every three years our contracts are up this year so this is the new year uh but what's different this year is that there is a more significant increase in the contract rates for our staff um just like everybody else we've been having issues attracting and retaining Talent our Fringe costs have gone up uh and under the last contract we couldn't make any of those adjustments so they're they're made this year it's a one-year adjustment in the price and then the following two years the contract we go back to a 3% cost of living in increase so the contract that is in your packet today is a status quo as far as Staffing it's the same staff we've had uh wri county is in a partnership with Meer and McLoud counties like Mark was saying uh and that funds three Educators those of you who know sorry that it's information you already have but um I think we're quite proud of this partnership because instead of having one educator that has to know everything about everything you guys have experts so you have an expert in Horticulture an expert in livestock uh and an expert in crops and you share that expertise with Miker McLoud Miker McLoud County uh counties both did approve their contracts at their previous board meeting uh so that is a done deal so I think they're eagerly awaiting what wri count is going to do here uh to maintain that partnership uh then you also fund uh 1.375 uh positions to take care of the 4H program here in Wright County uh and then interns to help out with that work as well sum are interns so it's a small But Mighty staff uh and this new contract would keep that status quo so we're asking for approval of that new contract today so board members I'll kind of speak to on this briefly uh we myself and commissioner dri we vetted this quite well uh this contract is a largely front-loaded contract subsequent years uh the increase is uh much more uh mundane hence the reason this contract was largely front loaded is because it was catching up the previous contract did not uh keep up with the hyper inflation uh so it was made out negotiated out almost four years ago for the three years that it served but during that three years there was hyperinflation so they had to make the adjustment to catch back up uh that's where they're at so the choices are right now at this point is either we the board would approve the three-year contract or otherwise if it chose not to uh the only way to uh reconcile the dollar amounts would be to remove some of the potential shared positions that we have with our partner counties or uh one of our or some of the hours from our 4 uh facilitator I guess I call it yeah um which I would caution on the 4 position this is one that they've been asking for increasing on staff but we've held the line on it now for I think what about four years longer than that longer than that probably you and I go a long time back on this but I I will give you hands off that the numbers have continually increased year after year I I've had the uh privilege to attend some of those 4 meetings so seeing the involvement is great uh so I I would caution board members from going backwards on an area that the growth and involvement is increasing um but I'm open for discussion Mr sh I'd like to also add that the the contracts for employees was negotiated with the team um from AMC and that did include County Commissioners on the board and so just to have that input um and I'll also add that i' I've seen and and worked with s SW uh CD and and then these these uh Educators they work hand in hand and they're doing just they just a great job in right County honestly um and then with for 4 as well they just add more to those Pro to those programs so I I would really encourage us to approve um this agreement with the University of minnona extension commission catchmark thank you thanks Lorry for coming in I just like it's interesting that the other counties I thought everyone was kind of on the same kind of budget schedule and they kind of in haste that sounds like approved this already but is there any input from Finance about how this affects our process to have one coming this early is that any difference in how things are figured U Mr chair commissioner catchmark it does affect us it is basically it's not necessarily a pre-approval but you're approving 2025 budget before you're approving any departmental 2025 budget okay guess close to the same amount of time we can figure it in if we know about it and we can we'll have discussion as usual Mr chair yes um I didn't draw the attention to the budget with extension they did In fairness so I'm going to bring something else up earlier in the meeting we approved a HVAC cost of which I found is over $200,000 to the building that they occupy Public Works down the block uh in looking I mean just for consistency we have a lot of outside entities that are paying rent to use space here I asked the staff on the legalities of charging rent and it really doesn't address that so at the proper time I want to talk about the fairness and and potentially charging grant for usage of this space like we do everybody else americore EDP Dental Clinic everybody pays and we haven't found a statute that exempts them so this is budget they want it's not just take there's some potential give and take here I see a frown from Mr chair but I guess at the proper time I'd like to talk about it I I guess what they would would would it triculate down to it whether you you you think of them as a department or you don't think of them as a department they are a department so it's no different than if we started charging rent to the veteran services uh they're just going to come right back to you and ask for the money to to pay for that rent you're you're not getting ahead on it so your choices would be okay we can charge extensions rent but they're going to say well you have two options either we get rid of our 4 hours of our educator or we don't pay rent I mean those are the choices so either you you remove services and and charge rent I mean it doesn't you their money isn't coming from anywhere but us yeah commissioner catchmark it's on unusual Arrangement but it is a department of the county so it would be like the county charging itself rent and and they do that Char that kind of thing yeah commissioner vet is correct we would have to look for that money within our existing budget and the our budget is Tiny and so the only place we have to go is Staff that's that's it but Mr chair the books do show we aren't collecting rent from everybody aren't we no Mr catchmark no that is not correct we typically in general we only charge rent when we have an outside funding opportunity grants um are our primary example where we do charge rent to the department because that is an overhead expense that they can recoup and we can get some of that paid back in instances for for the most part our departments are not charged rent the vast majority do not correct see I thought they were due to an arrangement with HHS that required everybody to pay so you can find a column that everybody paid no that is only a specific Grant related um situation okay all right there's some other departments that pay rent the Sheriff's Office plays rent for the correction so I don't want to say all Grant I just want to clarify that Mr shair I'd like to make a motion to approve all right we have a motion by commissioner Dietrich to approve the University of Minnesota extensions program agreement uh for 2025 through 2027 do you have a second I'll second but I do want to say um I'm not happy that it's coming at this time and not during the budget process time um very disappointed in the other counties as well um it kind of It kind of ties our hands and I I hope this doesn't happen in the future if it if it does continue to be in this I I I will um you know be very disappointed okay so we have a second by commissioner all what I'm going to I want to put a bit different framework on this so this is is kind of no different than a Union contract in in the sense that it is ranges colas and that is where that is adjusted that those are done outside of our budget here with our staff this is something is done on a more grandioso Statewide level that is done through AMC with all their Commissioners and they're basically asking us to approve their it's not Union contract but it's their labor contract for their employees and what they're getting for ranges and colas and so the only way for us to the workers are getting that those those pay adjustments no matter what it's just a matter of how many hours they're going to work for us here in right County that's the only way you can modify it so it's not necessarily a budgetary request as it is for us acknowledging this new contract and saying how much of our money are we going to be able to use based on these new rates for the staff so I don't want you guys to get confused as this is as budgetary thing because it's no different than we have we already have pre-approved contracts with our unions that are already hand handcuffing our budgets already it so it's really no different than that so don't I don't want you guys to uh give extensions a hard time this is they are put on this time schedule to get this approved because our sister counties want to know whether we're going to do it or not because if we are going to say no we don't want to have a Horticultural uh expert in right County that means that they have to decide well either we going to pick up those hours or we're not going to have one either so they want to know that before budgets Mr chair and and I don't want to minimize our roles as decision makers either I didn't write the agenda but the first word is approve the second one is agreement it's not something that's on auto renew or autopilot if it is then why are we here why is it on the agenda so it is fair we can discuss and ask questions and we don't want to minimize or take that away I don't think and that's what I'm not saying it's not approve or discuss we it's the the approval choice is do you want to how many hours do you want to have for these workers you you don't have the ability to say I don't want to pay this rate you you're going to pay that rate per hour for the employees you get to determine how many hours they're going to work for the county that's the the decision I I don't want people to think that well I think a call of 2.5 is too high well you don't have that choice to modify that Cola percentage you only have the ability to say because that is so high instead of having 1.375 hours for a 4 educator we're only going to have a 1.0 for 4 educator I just want to make sure that we're under the understanding yeah and I I would speak to the timeline of it it's not atypical for us to do the contract negotiation separate from the budget because then we have the line item for the budget uh especially now that we do have this Tri County partnership but Point noted you know I can work with Administration in the future to talk about what's most palatable for this board for the next three years it won't be an issue because this is a three-year contract in the next two years it's a three-year Cola increase and that's it um but after that we can talk about what we do thank you Lori so we have a motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland uh I appreciate the good discussion uh at this time if there's no other comments hearing none all in favor say I I pose same sign motion passes unanimous all right now moving on to items for consideration uh it sorry hiccups A1 is to uh schedule a finance committee of the whole to discuss the 2025 audit suggested dates of July 29th next Monday uh this is one we had some discussions earlier it's a little bit time sensitive it became aware to us just late last week that if we intended to want to use the uh uh osa's office that we would have to by resolution inform them by August 1st uh so that kind of put us under a tight deadline uh so we I wanted to have a a discussion with the board uh discussing the pros and cons of of such a decision U versus just uh uniformly just jumping into it uh so with that I want to schedule a committee the whole next Monday and have a good robust discussion with some information in front of everyone I can't do it you can't do it next Monday I'm not on Monday I'm tell till noon we post this Friday this week could we do it Friday I could do Friday morning hold on early Friday because we got some Fair activity yeah later what time8 8 sure you can do 8 amm Friday morning all right so with that uh making looking for a motion to schedule a committee of the whole uh to discuss the 20 25 audit uh at 8:00 a.m. I can't I can't make it you can't make 8: a.m. no all right um did we do the 25th maybe in the morning 8 we won't meet posting requirements for 25th if we post it now if we do in the afternoon does that meet the survice on the 25th and we have the cmrp that morning there oh we got to have it by the 31st is that it yeah we'd have to have it by the 31st how about the morning of the 31st well we have to because we have to schedule a special board meeting uh to take action on this if you decide to go with the Osa we actually have to have a formalized board meeting could we do it in the I after the could we do the do Friday that's fine I just won't be here for that will commissioner Shane be here Friday she'll be here Friday yes um well we got four out of five we can have the discussion here I just I I wanted to kind of just slow down this process of going to the osa's office potentially uh just it may have I I commissioner v um what I've what I've been relay to by uh um staff is that if we don't hit this August 1 date then we cannot do so for two years isn't that right clay yeah Mr chair and Commissioners we spoke with the office of the state auditor and per state statute if we want to utilize their office to conduct our audits we have to let them know by August 1st of even numbered years for the following Year's audit so if we were to notify them August by August 1st of 2024 then they would conduct 202's audit so they would take the books from 2025 and audit them in 2026 so there's about a year lag time but if the board doesn't decide by August 1st of this year your next opportunity to request it would be August 1st of 2026 I guess my thought at this point is you know I'm we we Ray County has spun a decent a fair amount of money to fight to get this right to be able to use any outside auditing firm that it wishes if it wishes to use somebody outside of Clifton larel and I'm all about it um I'm not necessarily in favor of using an office that that is a potentially uh politically motivated office uh I believe the person that is in this office right now would be very uh judicial in in in their work in looking at our numbers but I always know that the future of that or even having that office potentially being having its arm Twisted to use it as a politicalized weapon is always there uh hence the reason we spent a great deal of time uh fighting at the Minnesota Supreme Court to get the right to be able to use outside services for our office um I'm I'm just a little bit cautionary that I want to go back into it especially not knowing what the cost may be potentially on it as well because it is built back on an hourly basis uh I think if there's concerns about the Integrity of our of our current audits uh I would be all in favor of of of looking at other firms or interviewing other firms I think that it would be prudent of us to do so uh but I don't necessarily know that I want to pass that resolution and uh lock Us in with the osa's office at this time and I chairman vet I disagree I think they'll be fair and partial it's just a one-time audit we're not going to continue the audit process with them um I think we that's what the state is there for that office is there to um I I just feel that um with the uh right now with Clifton Larsson Allen and the hiccups that we've had with them with CM jts I feel like it's important to have um a a non um moneymaking entity to our books I think it's nice when the state can come in and objectively look at all of our books um and that's where I'm coming from Mr chair I'd agree with commissioner Holland Mr chair I'd hesitate to go towards the state obviously I you know going through audits many times in the past it's a snapshot it's not every you don't go through everything in the book it's they they pull things out and they make summaries with that and and I think I I haven't I haven't been part of the discussions that included if there's problems with our current auditor um if we want to go out for bids for those I prefer that I would prefer not going with Osa Mr chair one comment I would like to make too is that if we moved forward with the Osa they require that we do two years of audits with them so we would be obligated to do two years of audits with them um and to the chair's comments we did ask specifically the auditor if they could give us a a quote or a price and or if they had similar counties that we could compare ourselves to and get an estimate they cautioned us to not look at similar counties because in their experience just given um Financial practices within different counties it differs so much that they can't really accurately predict how much it would cost they did say that they bill back on an actual cost basis so whatever hours they used is what we would be build and they couldn't really tell us what that would be until the audit was completed the only comment I wanted to add to this conversation Mr chair um commissioner Holland it echoes Clay's comment typically in an audit um the audit firm learns a lot about your entity in year one where it will be more costly with the Osa whereas when you're looking at an outsider they typically want you to do a three-year contract so that they can even out their own costs um so it would be a more expensive year one and less expensive generally speaking in subsequent years if we stayed with the same audit team because they understand our system they understand our internal controls and it's more of an update to understand whether we've had internal control changes um so that's the only comment I wanted to add is that there would be benefit in having a longer than one year whichever direction you decide and we just did rfps from MTI County RFP last year right and for how many years with that um we're with the other we're with three other counties it's um for well it's a year by year from here on out but we're getting a discount by going with these other counties three of us pick the same audit firm CLA for how long it's year by year we're going to renegotiate so we're partnering with Carver who has the original language and we're piggybacking on their language so we don't want to lock ourselves in getting higher rates so we want to negotiate on year by year so if they get too high we want to have the ability to take our Three Counties and go other places can can we get a new auditing firm we can yeah or we can go separate from them or we can stay on board with them that's what we chose to try to get the discount by going with multiple counties last year so T at this point it's either the state or another company I and I know that there's probably some cost savings I know this this would be uh quite costly I just feel um that they're not serving us well they are not serving CM jts well um I just like somebody else looking looking at all of our processes a new set of eyes not a kind of getting caught in the Rut and seeing the same things um so I guess it's up to the board whether you know we stick if we have the state come in or if uh we you know entertain uh RFP for another company so I'm all favor like we have time here to find another firm if we we don't have a deadline of August 1 yes we're getting close on a deadline to get somebody else chose if we want to go for an RFP for another auditing firm outside of the volume group contract with CLA uh I'm I'm would be in favor of that versus the osa's office just because I I just have a lot of concerns with the office being a a politically endorsed office and potentially having political more uh motivations and as well as the fact that we fought very very hard to uh have the right to choose so Mr chair I I I guess that was the intent is to schedule this for a discussion uh as a in a committee um I just think of some of those wise that you're insinuating like is is if our current one has been not doing a good job and I certainly W let that out you know as publicly that there's something that that they've done wrong and and I and I can't I can't you know I would rather have that in a workshop discussion if we're saying we need a different auditor for for certain reasons honestly only reason I'm saying this Mo had precipitate the conversation here because I agree we would have better in a committee is the fact that with the Osa we have to notify them by August 1st and it is a two-year contract uh push come to shove right now I'm not going to vote in favor of going with the OSA at this time uh I think if we push it out to committee we're it's just going to be a noo because of timing because uh the two dates that we thrown out there uh have been shot down uh so I guess at this point I'm more than willing to uh schedule a date for us to have a meeting to discuss other options outside of CLA uh but I think the Osa one just for lack of interest on a couple of us and then just not the ability to meet as a group to have a discussion prior to the deadline uh makes that a no-go option as well but I'm open to comments well Mr chair I'm in favor of Osa even more by hearing some of the responses here I would like to have the discussion um so we got Friday or Monday we have because we would have to if we decided to want to go at the Osa we would have to pass a resolution and hold a special board meeting on July 30th to uh pass resolution make a motion we uh Friday at 8: a.m. no second motion by commissioner Holland uh second by uh commissioner catchmark to schedule a committee of the whole to discuss the 2025 audit uh as it pertains to Clifton Larson All and other firms and the osa's office further discussion would it be possible to make it 11 o'clock that morning and I can make it there's a I have a doctor's appointment I I am out at I could go like 10: I can't go any later than 10: because I have a another meeting that afternoon so can I have we have the fair that's right because you have yeah have another so you have the senior citizens at noon so you have a motion we have a second any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppos same sign all right commit the whole scheduled at 8: am on this Friday Mr chair 3 to one if there's any material could we get that I know that's short notice but I'd sure like to see whatever there is ahead of time sure you want to see like the RFP that we sent out to I think that would be a pertinent one is the RFP that we'd have to it the communications that we had with the osa's office we can include as well I think that should be a pretty robust enough information unless there's anything else that you'd like let me know I don't know the most to ask so I'm kind of at your mercy but thank you all right yeah Mr chair we can get that info to you and I was also so that would be a committee of the whole on Friday would the board like to also schedule a special meeting in case there's action required out of that prior to that August 1 deadline and we could go with like sometime next Tuesday Tuesday or Wednesday if that's works for the board just so we can meet notice requirements in case because if you will we'd have to post it by tomorrow so we might you want to schedule one we can always cancel it if it's uh unnecessary all right so we'll just do the 9:00 a.m on the 30th like the typical time if that becomes the situation I'll make that motion motion by commissioner catchmark second that second by commissioner Holland to schedule I guess I'm going to call it a special board meeting maybe provisional uh for July 30th at 9:00 A.M uh to take action on on a potential uh contract with an auditing firm for 2025 all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right motion passes unanimous all right uh review the 2024 board Workshop meeting schedule um Mr chair members of the board with the Washington flying in September we have some conflicts and be limited on number of Commissioners uh we would like to propose uh replacing our regular meetings of September 3rd and September 17th with September 10th and 24th so that we can have uh the full board and and then canceling the workshop for September okay uh which one would we be cancelling then the so we would have a board on the third there would be nothing then the 10th there would be a board meeting there would be nothing on the 17th because uh uh members of the board would be in the DC flying and then we so we would have no Workshop that month and then we would go to the 24th for another board meeting for September okay what was the proposed dates for Budget third um we haven't got to that one yet but that's the next one budget would be in the next uh scheduling that we' be doing for Budget Committee of the holes um those fall fall relatively in line with what we're proposing or County board dates and just to clarify the 20th we will not be having that Committee of the whole meeting correct yeah we'll discuss that after the next item you guys will jumping we're on two we're just talking about the uh September board schedule so we're talking about uh flopping the two Tuesdays and canceling the workshop so uh you're no longer going to have a board meeting on the 3rd and 17th you're going to have a board meeting on the 10th and the 24th and we are not going to have a workshop that is what's being proposed oh okay okay all right I got a nod nods all right now I'll entertain a motion I'll make a motion all right motion commissioner Holland second by commissioner catchmark any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes unanimous now we're on to the budget discussions uh so we kind of uh moved things around and uh moved some of them earlier uh largely trying to accommodate uh some conflicts that are coming up on the last part prior to Labor Day weekend U trying to free that up for a variety of different people um as well as giving us more time and capacity to have discussion if we need subsequent meetings uh so with that moving some of them starting on the 31st here just coming up in the following week and uh coming into the week subsequently uh there was some discussion I think on needing to have the 20th need to end at like early at like noon was it I know myself I I can go till about 12:30 on the 20th but I think after 12:30 on the 20th uh that day I am unfortunately maybe I can go to 1:00 so Mr chair are we starting with the beginning there 7:31 and going through yeah if you want to go through them all yeah I think the only one that I knew that there was notable conflicts I know that you had stated commissioner Holland just here a second ago and I know on myself on the 20th the afternoon of the 20th is the one day that was a potential conflict yes and we have some alternate date for 820 that we're looking at 88 Mr chair Comm Commissioners I have collected the availability from some of you and we've got some options um if we are rescheduling the entirety of the August 20th date we can do um I understand most or most are available the 8th 12th 13th um the 14th is not an option at this point so we can do from 12:30 to 4:30 on August 8th 12:30 to 4:30 on the 12th 12:30 to 4:30 on the 13th those are the options that we need to discuss I'm good with any of them I okay so the four of you are available I have no idea on naen at this time yep I I guess yeah you can reschedule to any one of those dates if you want to check with naen hopefully one of those got to work unfortunately the one day on the 20th at past one o'clock just yeah that's yeah and Mr chair are we Crossing off the 14th then all together uh correct okay I'll just wait for you to send me invites because I was good with everything else so okay all right um I guess I'll wait for the invites I don't necessarily know that we do we need to even take action on it this time or do you want to just wait till she gets to we have nothing to take action on because we don't know what commissioner Shane has available so I'd say at this point uh check with her and we'll formalize an approval well we we we need approve the 31st because that when we don't have a meeting before right we need to and the eth and the eth and the 12th please okay and if can we tentatively do the 8th and 12th um extend those through 4:30 yep so and I can confirm and then we'll get those scheduled but I'd rather because we don't have a board meeting between now and then I think we need to get them scheduled here that works that way we have options and we can always cancel if they're not necessary all right so entertain a motion to uh do schedule budget committees the whole for July 31st August 8th and August 12th uh from 10 to or not 9 to 4:30 sure yep um 18th 19th and September 4th is well okay and including uh August 19th and August September 4th from 9 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and August 19th from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 Commissioners I may have misspoke when commissioner catchmark asked me about the 14th we still need the 9 to noon as presented in the agenda I'm just not extending that from noon to 4:30 okay and iess say we're going to approve all of these as printed with extending August 12th to 430 12 14th yep extended to 4:30 and the 20th is next next yep all right I'll entertain a motion I'll make that motion motion by commissioner catchmark I'll second second by commissioner Holland to approve the budget Committees of the whole uh as presented with the removal of August 20th and the change of August 12th from ending at noon to now ending at 4:30 and August 8th all right further discussion any discussion yes I just I would just ask um request the ability attend to attend via Zoom as needed at all for these workshops it's not a board meeting but a workshop I'm I'm just asking the board if that would be allow open meeting laws doesn't permit us to be able to do uh Committees of the whole uh remotely I think you you have to have there's some Artic reasons you have to have for it and then you have to post the location that you're at as a correct yeah I guess Greg Mr chair let me do some research on it and get back to the board as to the specifics of it it changed after the pandemic and I want to make sure that my advice is spot on to how I proceed cor it's an option we can always post it for that if it meets requirements absolutely I'm I'm just my daughter is expecting a baby in in that time frame and I would I would probably more than often than not be in no in Denver for a short time yeah well and rightfully so but I still think this is important to at least hear sure um if my vote doesn't count that's fine but I mean this is for discussion if I can just still be part of the discussion if we can meet the requirements I have no problem by it so thank you all right uh any other discussion all right hearing done all in favor say I hi post same sign all right the uh revised budget schedule is approved unanimously um approved the other two items were tabled uh now we are on to the items for consideration would be to adopt the resolution for final acceptance of contract 2208 and authorized final payment to ninth River for 2,256 53 I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Dietrich any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign oh was a resolution wasn't it I'm sorry yes sir yep so uh resolution vote commissioner Dietrich i i i i resolution passes unanimously all right now we are down to the committee recommendation from the County Board Workshop uh we had just a variety of them the one was the uh recommendation of the payment to the right County EDP the informational on the uh County board or County Fair sorry uh we had the information on the correctional uh contract with the work release the we had the information dissemination discussion we had the front desk was the recommendation to uh Direct staff to fully uh staff the front desk uh with only uh 15minute absences for breaks and 30 minute lunch uh we had the uh discussion of the mayor's association with the board uh agreed for individuals to determine their own uh participation in said membership of the mayor's Association uh we had a uh the appointment of Dan Mo as the at large member for the board of adjustments uh for another term we we had the review of the engagement survey uh and then we have the uh discussion of the um County Fleet and charge back for the County Board and then we had the uh information from the close session uh from the previous board meeting Mr chair yes I'll make a motion to approve all the recommendations except for number three okay we have a motion by commissioner catchmark to approve the recommendations from the County Board workshop on July 9th uh with the exclusion of item number three can you state that which one recation the one that's that would be the uh the payment to for 2024 for the r County Economic Development partnership right so we have a motion by commissioner catchmark uh with all the items except for the uh item number three do we have a second do we have a second Mr chair again I don't think they understand the motion is to the motion was to approve all the recommendations except for three right so no one wants to approve anything I think they're just looking to make a separate motion potenti well let me finish my first ask for a second there's no discussion till I have a second is there a second hearing none motion dies for the lack of a second now at this time we can entertain a uh any other motions I'll make a motion to approve all the recommendations as stated I'll second that all right we have a motion by commissioner Dietrich uh to approve the recommendations as presented and we have a second by commissioner Holland any further discussion Mr chair yes uh so we didn't spend any time talking about the employee engagement survey report because we ran out of time or interest or both I'm not sure at the workshop but I'll just reference it for the board that there was at least one question that pertained to the County Board in that survey and I don't want that to go unnoticed because the 300 or so people that completed it did uh answer that question so you guess it's on your own time you can go look at it but I want to reference that there is one question in that survey that applied to the County Board okay right and uh I I'm kind of baffled as to why there it's not okay to to part out everything but one and why we can't take a separate motion on on number three I I don't understand that it happened once before and I clarified it and and then we we went on allowing that so I I guess I'd like some discussion as to what the trouble is with separating that I think it still gets the same effect I don't think you your Mo your point has been that you're in you're you're planning to vote for all of them uh to me this is this is more of a political play of saying well you know we're not going to give you that luxury of voting for them all separately they it's it's the board's Collective ability to manage the agenda how they do it based on on three votes i i i to me you've made your point that obviously you're not in favor of three but you're in favor of all the rest and I get your point that you don't want to have to vote against all the other ones just in order to vote for the one well right I I guess gu I don't understand the gamesmanship and you're speaking for the other two but maybe they made motions that's the only reason I can say that you know well can we hear from I was confused I I would like more engagement I I was thinking that recommendation was to move forward with the engagement survey to the next uh meeting so now that I'm reading it it says to do the engagement survey to move forward with the plans because we didn't tell talk about it at all we didn't talk about the engagement service at all blew it over and said that'll be at the next Workshop no we didn't we said uh we're running out of time here as Administration asked is is everyone good with the engagement study and going forward and everyone said yes my point was just bringing up in discussion that because we glossed over it kind of the perception is that we didn't take any time to discuss what 300 of our staff filled out that was just my point in discussion that if take the time to look at it if you haven't because we haven't talked about it here I mean that I think there that is something is like a living breathing document until you till you do your next engagement survey I don't expect it in my mind it wasn't like we did it we didn't discuss it that day to me it's like it's something that we keep going back to until you do one that's more relevant in a future date so to me it's always relevant always necessary we can discuss it almost at every meeting cuz almost any every everything that we do should pertain at some level to to that engagement survey uh so I I I I I understand your point that it didn't get maybe the Limelight that it did there but I think it can get its Limelight at multiple other subsequent meetings uh that point I think the other part was too is like the to moving forward was a lot of it was my thought was the direction to staff to move forward with the external survey which was the the which is better being outlined in this recommendation was to move forward kind of with the one that is live right now uh which I encourag people in the public to take our external survey uh of County Services Mr chair and I didn't write the wording but the wording under number nine was to review the employment engagement survey report to review it and we didn't so I just think In fairness to the 300 that took the time and I'll I'll leave it at that but it sounds like there's confusion over this motion yet I really did when I read that I I left that meeting thinking that we were going to be talking about this at the next Workshop um so I would hope that we disseminate it a little bit so yes there is staff that filled it out and we're very appreciative of that and and that's why I do think I'm sure there's some things that we need to move forward with um now with things that you guys want to implement but I think for the large scale I do think we should have a discussion on it but I'm confused your motion was to approve all the recommendations minus three not removal of nine right there was to remove all of them so so but we're discussing nine not three so I'm a little bit confused here I'm I was in the discussion phase Mr chair of the engagement study and I said my piece on that now the others take your time or no time to look at the survey if you wish now if you want to petition that onto a future you can so that's my only piece so now we could but but now we're still in that discussion phase for like this coverall and I don't know if you two understood where I was coming from like another meeting where then you said oh okay we thought it was something else and then you agreed with approving them all except for in this case number three and then one of you can make a motion to deal with three separately it it only Parts it out which me saying I'm okay with 1 through n but most likely not three is is that just but you made your motion it didn't get a second I made a motion it got a second we're having that discussion based on that motion I mean this that's just the process but the last time the point was that people admitted that they didn't understand it right remember that and then don't I think they knew what they were doing because they they could have done that they knew what they were doing they chose to yes they knew what they're doing the first time I think they I I think they're they're quite intelligent and they understand what they're doing it's it's they're forcing your hand sometimes like how bad do you want to to vote against the EDP are you willing to vote against everything because you want to vote that bad against it they're forcing Your Hand by not giving you the luxury to vote for it on a one by one basis sometimes that that is it's a political tool or a strategy you could use to somebody but Mr chair just so I'm clear what I mean by the first time was like a couple weeks ago when this happened and they said oh we thought it was something else and then it changed and then it was allowed to do the one through except for one that's my point is just the past once they understood it but if they want to hold their ground I guess uh you know take the vote all right there we do have a motion and we have a second any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed I I so two two so now we're so the recommendations fail um now now we're going to get deep into my uh so in order to make a for a motion forward it has to come from a descending side of the vote so in order to uh can we remake the motion what can we remake the motion you can make a new motion yes as a as a descending vote I'll make a motion that we approve all um all recommendations uh excluding nine of the county to be pushed forward to the next Workshop all right U Mr chair can I help with the conversation just a bit I think what we're looking to do is approve to remove item nine from the recommendations to take a separate vote on it okay and to approve items 1 through eight is that what you're looking for commissioner H separate action on item nine yes there yes so we have a motion to approve 10 there one through so uh one through eight and 10 and 10 10 removing number nine for separate consideration all items with the removal of nine all right so motion by commissioner Holland to approve the County Board uh Workshop items recommendations one through nine or one all of them except for nine all right and do I have a second do I have a second I'll second it second by commissioner Dietrich any discussion I think I mean I think nine whether we approve it or don't approve it it doesn't matter because we can still come back and have the discussion it's purely it's not even a recommendation as it is informational item it could have been listed as an informational item that the engagement survey was presented to the board it so so yes we've seen it is there chance to have more discussion yes we can put it on every board every Workshop if we want for the rest of the year if that if that makes the board happy I just wanted people to understand that it's not it's not a really actionable item per se yeah and Mr chair I can maybe comment on that at the board meeting we were running short on time and so we offered to just briefly offer Commissioners an opportunity to comment on it we're happy to come back and present on it have a whole presentation already put together so we don't really take any more work if you'd like in August we can bring it back to the workshop and present and just get consensus of the group a little more thoroughly than we did before happy to do that perfect all right thank you very good so we have a motion we have a second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I I pose same say hi all right uh um sorry Workshop agenda approved uh for 31 all right now we have to deal with item nine I don't even necessarily know that we even need to take action on it because it's not there's no action to it the survey has already been done it was just purely acknowledging that it was discussed in in there which it was already approved in the minutes so I don't necessarily know that's even an actionable item but if the board wants to take action on it they certainly can Mr chair I think we can just move the discussion on the employee engagement survey to the workshop in August happy to bring It Forward at that time I think that be yeah because there's no changes to it or anything so I think if that sense all right um now we are on to the last one is D1 uh we have the approved the reimbursement for money spent on the connection with Fair uh the felsa a journal entry budget amendment pardon me good morning board again um this is a request to approve a journal entry and budget amendment it is related to a a known calculation missing calculation we'll say in the Oracle system at the time we went live on phase two which is the payroll um we began discussions with Sierra Cedar in October as we were preparing for go live they called our attention to this that the calculation for the flsa credit was not um working out correctly and they needed more time to do it and we would be delaying our go live timeline if we held off on ensuring that this credit was in the system prior to go live staff discussed this we included the sheriff's office in this discussion and decision- making for their awareness um and ultimately based on the timeline it was a decision on our end to move forward without this calculation knowing that ours incurred by the Sheriff's Office who is predominantly impacted by the flsa credit would be at their lower end um summer is when they typically have the higher end of these flsa uh eligible hours which where we would have this credit effect um unfortunately in May an incident occurred increasing the liabilities on our flsa being that we were not allowed to take the credit it caused a larger dollar amount than originally anticipated um so we are requesting that we make the Sheriff's Office whole for this item which is outside of their control discussion Mr chair that just makes sense to me let's just fix this problem and moving forward it's all been adjusted and it it'll it'll be correct moving forward the correction was put into place on June 6th so the credit is now being taken as we are allowed it was the most costeffective prudent uh way to move forward so with that I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh uh budget amendment with the uh changes for the felsa journal entry so moved I'll second all right motion by commissioner dri second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I post same sign all right motion passes unanimous thank you all right it is now uh 10:45 uh we've come to the end of today's uh board meeting so Mr chair yes there was one item you did add at the beginning of the meeting and that was a scheduled committee Hall to take uh to discuss items four and five from items for consideration oh yes oh you're right I scheduled you correct thank you for catching that so uh with that let's look to find a date here when we want to Circle back on those said two positions and how we want to move forward um so it looks like uh I would say we don't want to go too far I would I would ideally like to do something next week uh to keep the ball rolling on it since this Friday is out so what does everybody look like next week PR maen around yeah she's she's back she's she's available next week when does she go to Louisiana not until in August I believe okay with the 30th in a week would that work the 30th is good for me we have the canvas work group or is the what will will that give us enough time in between that's that's on one we do it in the morning yeah we can do in the morning I'm good schedule something in the morning of that day we scheduled a a tentative board meeting at 9:00 A.M depending on the yeah so we could do it so we could do 10: at 10:00 yep so I'll entertain a motion to schedule a committee of the whole on July 30th at 10: a.m. Mr chair just for clarity is that will we have the information we need at that point or we'll just be discussing what we will do be be reviewing well I guess information is really largely driven driven by the board because based on earlier discussions you wanted to to define a process and then there was things brought up about job descriptions and such um those things can't be done without the collective discussion of the board and we have to have a bigger we ran a little bit shorter in time this morning to for sure so I think it's more of a continuation of those discussions and what that process I just want to clarify was yep so it's more about discussing because we don't have a hard and fast process when uh appointing interims uh in this organization so uh it's more to Define what that process is so with that uh uh I'll entertain a motion to schedule a committee the whole uh for the said items for the uh two interim positions at 10:00 a.m. on July 30th I'll make that motion motion by commissioner Holland no second second by commissioner catchmark any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oppos same sign the committee of the whole is scheduled for 10: a.m. on July 30th unanimously all right we are now at the end of today's uh agenda I just wanted to quickly note that uh Central Mississippi Regional planning uh group uh which is for the river crossing was uh very uh graciously blessed through deed with a million dooll uh Grant to go forward with the tier one environmental process so that'll be a substantial savings to the region on getting that uh very costly analysis done as it is required as part of the NEPA process to move forward with uh that potential Crossing will that cover the whole cost paron me will that cover the whole cost of that no it will not the uh tier one environmentals it could be anywhere from two to three million uh so but it will cover a good chunk of it though congratulations yes yes all right Mr chair I just have to add one thing um I have I I know that uh we are all in and out of the office and sometimes if constituents want to get a hold of us our information is on the website but I'd like to give my cell phone my work cell phone number and my email um so that if there is any questions um that I could answer anytime that people wanted meet or invite us to events that I'm certainly available so my email is tina. m. d.r. mn. us and my cell phone number I always have to look this up is 612 4771 1785 and those are both my County contacts so please i' would encourage anybody that needs some help with anything um that would like to meet discuss items please contact me and we can certainly do that thank you all right uh thank you commissioner Dietrich uh at this time we will adjourn today's uh County board meeting at 10:50 a.m.