e this meeting is being recorded e e e e e e [Music] good morning everyone it is Tuesday April 16th uh we'll call The Rake County Board of Commissioners to order it is 9:00 a.m. 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 nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good morning everyone it is a nice rainy Tuesday morning here in April which we can use the rain uh we'll begin here with the uh approval of the minutes we have uh five sets of minutes here we can either approve them individually or collectively I will entertain a motion or Corrections Mr chair I have one error to be corrected uh page two two on that Committee of the whole from 48 to 24 first sentence should be catch Mark said that the goals being proposed and discussed fit more for an organization that has been in existence for a year or two rather than a 30-year organization and that change has been given to the minute taker all right any other Corrections uh hearing none I'll entertain a motion to approve those minutes with the recommendation and if they would please stay whether they're approving them collectively or individually Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes with that one correction all right I'll second that all right we have a motion uh by commissioner catchmark second by commissioner Holland to approve uh minutes a b c d and e uh do I have any other comments hearing none all in favor say I hi hi ohst same sign minutes are approved unanimously uh today's agenda we have a few items here to petition on uh one item we will add on is the approve the uh contract between the county and wood Seth for the Maple Lake out uh Highway Maintenance Shop and the other one is a to honor the Corrections Officers week here in the first week in May uh the resolution and the proclamation for that here has been distributed uh with that I will place the resolution for the correction officers as the first at timed agenda item and the wood set Maple Lake authorized contract we will put on for items for consideration under uh item number a B what that five all right all right with that do I have an approval or any other additions to the agenda nothing further sir all right I will note that under the items for consideration there was a distribution of uh some resolutions passed by some cities for the uh right County EDP that we a little bit late to game to making the packet but just wanted to note that they were distributed all right with that I will entertain a motion so moved motion by commissioner Shane I'll second second by uh commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I close same sign all right agenda is approved unanimously today's consent agenda would anyone like to remove anything from the consent agenda for further discussion Mr chair yes Item B is in boy one for further discussion on the resoning in Franklin Township B1 okay if that'll entertain a motion I'll make that motion to approve the consent agenda with the one item B1 removed all right motion by commissioner catchmark second second by commissioner Shane any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oh same sign all right consent agenda approved with item B1 removed item B1 commissioner catchmark no thank you Mr chair I spoke to staff I spoke to Township supervisor and I read a lot of the comments all the comments and I know it's been several meetings Township Planning and Zoning commissioner Holland has on that and I had asked the staff ahead of time could a slide be put up for those that haven't been heavily involved to show kind of the layout of that call the act now and the proposed housing I'd like the board to to see see that when we're discussing so a lot of the feedback that I read and if you read the public comment from the citizens is the anticipated traffic um keeping this as a culde-sac rather than a through Street there now granted it's 11 homes if you figure two cars a day and the trips that go with that that's potentially 44 vehicle trips by extra that they don't have now but what I also considered is that we have a a land owner that's a good picture right there uh that one so if you see the Colac uh and the to the left of that is where the proposed 11 homes are on both sides of the street that's not there now the culdesac is off to the left now they would extend that and add these 11 homes then off to the right you see some buildings that's a a horse farm that happens to be owned by the same person that's proposing the development so it seems it was also uh spoken about I'm sure commissioner Han remembers but if it was a through Street it would go through that person's uh yard and property and be more intrusive on him and break up some of that traffic for the rest of the folks that are already there on the culde ACT that are speaking about the extra traffic so I just want to call attention to who's benefiting from from this is the developer and the land owner the land owner is able to keep his farm and everything intact and develop kind of the back 40 and anything else that comes out of that is going to be extra traffic to the residents that are already there that's uh my summary Mr chair if anybody wants to weigh in but there was a lot of comment on that maybe commissioner Holland uh as a fellow decision maker that's been on those meetings and site visits if you have anything to share well Barry do you want to go first or yeah me to go really I mean you have the minutes you have all the plans I I really don't have a whole lot to share there was a lot of discussion about um from the planning commission's end of it whether this should or shouldn't be a CU toac um ultimately what we got back from the township was they preferred it this way they did not approve the through through Street we they basically approved this General concept three different times uh we required the applicant to go back to the township on a number of occasions uh and they came back with the same approval all three times were they requesting a through Street originally no no there was never requesting a through the the the two basic concepts of plans that we have is this one which is uh the large farm parcel as a restricted parcel which is the exact same way that the parcel to the South was developed uh leaving the farm with a larger piece and then restricting that to any nonfarm development um and that's also done in a number of other ones in this area uh and then the other one was more of what we see standard for puds which was uh common open space um in the end the the basic Road design and culdesac are the same on both plans um that's something that can be you know somewhat modified at the at the subdivision process too so um whether it's the fin approval is this that's it not necessarily it could go back to um that open space concept but um that's what I got commissioner catchmark are you asking are you uh working to to ask the board to deny this rezoning request uh and if so uh based on what grounds uh I believe it meets looking at all the information that I've reviewed it meets all setbacks it meets all the requirements rezoning I guess I don't know what under what grounds you we we would be denying it so no that's a fair question I just I think it could go either way I mean not that the vote could go you're going to win you're going to lose they'll be maybe split but I just I wanted to call more attention to it the township supervisor that I spoke to now this is only one I didn't pull the whole board but they uh they saw this as a reasonable proposal for development and that they would be able to work with the road either way and I confirmed with them because I know how some of these have gone in the past where the developer is responsible for building the road to the standard so that's not a cost to the township initially to build the road but it is ongoing maintenance of the road then would be up to the township which uh potentially in this case I think is maybe an extra 3,000 ft of road to come in from that landowner's property versus just extending the culdesac that's there now but I I wanted to give time to the commissioner Holland that's been that's serving on both boards because kind of put myself in your shoes so I I really want to hear and understand because there were some good cases and it I think that it could go either way to where then it's a business decision by the developer if he wants to pursue the through Street Road or not and that could be a business decision of his well we it came forward to us uh we this has been ongoing I don't know Barry six months I feel like it's been it for sure every month uh the people that originally uh um bought on that culdesac that was the design they knew that eventually that culdesac was going to be there correct Barry and then it was an afterthought to put in the road cuz at first when they came to add those few to round out the culdesac the residents were upset and then they did put in a road like and did a cost analysis and the township said no because uh because of it was too close to the river um and it had a lot of um like retaining wall which would be very costly for uh Township to maintain and so it it it's not feasible to make the road go through there um and then the residents had said that they you know if the road went through that they would maintain it but not understanding that how much it would cost to maintain it I said you know at the meeting um you know people have a hard time paying for that little bit of you know when they get assessed when the cities go in I said I've been to many City Council meetings where they go in and they have a little assessed area in front of their house and they don't like the fee of it if they would have had to also maintain that stretch of the road I don't think they understand the the price for 11 homeowners to actually maintain that road because the township has no interest in maintaining that road extension okay so thank you commissioner H what when you initially started you said that the residents that are already there knew about the culdesac coming or I mean this culdesac has been there since they moved pretty much right there was it was a dead end street so what what what did they know about the future before 6 months that are you saying when they signed on and built some 15 years ago that there was some type of a a mock plan that was shared with them or did they find out about this all 6 months ago also well it's it's the general concept of of development and and the way our ordinances and subdivision regulations are designed is is the way that southern property was developed so if you if you're a budding property that can be developed the preference is and what we generally require is that they provide something similar a dead end with a uh temporary culd toac to allow development to take place without automatically requiring additional culde acts so if you don't do it the way it was done to the south then things get Messier and so you know from a a planning standpoint we like to see dead ends in a development when property near it or next to it is also something that can get developed at some point in time so it it can make for better developments better through streets where possible um not saying that's always possible not saying it's impossible here uh But there again I'm not the road authority and and based on the the information we received back from Franklin this was the development and how they wanted to see it laid out um that doesn't necessarily mean those Property Owners asked but it's all out there and if we were asked before well can the property to the north be developed well it's in our plan there's a dead end there this is a possibility but there's there's no way for us to notify everybody that goes to build what's possible all around them uh unless they ask and Mr chair and those are good points I recognize that I'm just going by what commissioner Holland said that the existing residents knew that this was coming and so then I have to ask how did they know other than if you look at the End of the Street well geez uh someday someone could propose something cuz our Planning and Zoning says that it's set up that way but nobody told them specific spe Al when you're when you folks are going to build the plan in five or 10 years is for this to happen and that that didn't happen at best we can tell well isn't there there's also a couple other developments in Franklin Township with the same concept with a with a with a uh culdesac wasn't there down lots of them yes so it seems to be the the preference of the township to have those culde Acts okay so with that uh commissioner Holland do you have a any reason or cause to want to change your original thoughts on the approval of this resoning no all right uh are you comfortable with where we're at on a commissioner catch Mark call for a vote I'll let someone make the motion I'm not going to go with it I think the owner should have more skin in the game and the developer too but that's that's no ill will to anybody that's just being a voice for what I read and I respect everyone else's decision plan so carry on all right with that I'll entertain a motion at this time I'll make that motion a motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Dietrich any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppos same sign I all right the uh resoning is approved for one thank you all right now at this time we're going to call uh Mr omali here to the podium and we are going to honor the great work that our Corrections Officers here in R County do thank you Mr chair board appreciate the time thank you for letting me petition on to the agenda um first let start by reading a proclamation uh correctional officers and employees are capable committed patient persistent professionals they serve admirably in the correctional facilities all across the country as chaplain teachers counselors supervisors managers and directors they help keep our citizens and communi safe correctional officers and employees teach train Mentor preach and cure though the job correctional officers and employees is often very challenging and at times stressful the thousands who work in the correctional profession every day perform their duties well and with great pride they are brave courageous and tenacious individuals who put their lives in health at risk every day to keep the public safe and provide a multitude of services to the nation's offenders they have a tremendous responsibility and are oldow our nation's gratitude the r County correctional officers are most deserving of our respect our thanks and the highest praise they are well trained always on watch prepared to meet any challenge the men and women working the Sheriff's Office Jail Division make a difference in our communities they work with and manage more than 4,000 offenders a year in our County our right County Corrections Officers are also role models who give guidance and hope to those who are ready to make changes in their lives on behalf of the sheriff and the Sheriff's Office Command Staff we commend those who serve in the correction profession resolution proclaiming May F 5th through the 11th of 2024 as correctional officers and employee week in re County whereas correctional officers are trained law enforcement professionals dedicated to maintaining a safe Correctional Facility ensuring the public safety and whereas correctional officers are essential to the success of our criminal justice process and whereas correctional officers work include daily exposure and hostile environment with some of the most dangerous individuals in our society and whereas correctional officers and employees provide offenders with Direction hope and a new Focus while assisting with re-entry and outside life and life outside of Corrections and whereas therefore our correctional officers and employees rise to meet any Challenge and serve this honorable profession nobly and admirably and now therefore be it resolved that we right County Board of Commissioners do hereby acknowledge the week of May 5th through 11th 2024 is correctional officers and employee week in of the dedicated professionals who serve the citizens of right County by supervising the County's inmate population thank you Captain Elli thank you for the time uh we have an amazing uh staff of correction officers here in Ray County and your office has done an amazing job in dealing with the difficult situations especially in light of the Mental Health crisis in our community uh I think you're housing more of them than they probably should at times but unfort it's the reality of the world we live in it is and it's changing rapidly and it's uh yes it is a challenging thing and it's becoming more challenging every day we appreciate that thank you very much commissioner dri I just want to thank you um that you emphasize training and professionalism and um that they the people that work under you um treat the people on their worst days with such a dignity and respect I just want to thank you for that that's why we have so few problems even we have problems don't get me wrong but so few that make the news or or get blown up so it is because of our our officers the way they handle people the way they treat people the way they deal with people um and our supervisors that watch those officers and making sure that everybody is treated with with dignity thank you yes great thank you commissioner catchmark and thanks again for coming over and it's good to see your support staff over here also to recognize it and did you bring any more guests of the facility with other than the one in the corner back there no we've we've left them all left the ball over there okay thank you very much at this time I'll entertain a motion to declare uh May 5th through the 11th is uh correction officer employee week in Ray County so move I'll second that motion by commissioner dietr second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none resolution commissioner catchmark i i i i i resolution passes unanimously thank you do want picture at all or anything I think they did that last time we went over there yeah okay thank you we'll set up a time to come over and be able to maybe get some pictures with the the some of the staff we'll be there all right very good we hope so we might have bigger issues otherwise all right at this time uh we have the the timed agenda item Mr Matt dchen is going to make his way to the podium the first one we have here is to accept the multi-purpose drainage management Grant from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil res resources uh for County ditch 19 yeah thank you Mr chair members of the board um so I just want to cover the first two items because they are the same Grant just in different fiscal years and I really just want to highlight all the work that the right SW water office did on these grants um this grant funding pool is $1 million for the state total and as you can see we got quite a bit of that funding and that would not be possible without Luke and his team um so I just really want to thank them and and all the work that they put into this um as you can see today for the first item you are accepting the grant um but the right so and water actually applied on our behalf so that also adds additional administrative and and tracking work um to their staff that already has quite a few projects going on as we know um so that's just another thing that takes resources off right County staff so I I just want to make sure I'm wrapping my head around this so you telling me we got 70% of the granting available in the state that's what that's what we're I think it's the same fiscal year funding so 71 71 and a half perc which I my head is still wrapping it my head around it is pretty yeah it heads off to it's impressive there were the other applications so our application had to be that much better for them to allow that much funding to come to one County so it was honestly great job Mr chair yes so Luke is this in-house expertise at writing these or do you have a pro service that's involved too um Mr chair Commissioners um that it's all in- house so it's with our staff and and Matt and Matt is under selling his his efforts on this too so he's without mat and um all the work he's putting in this we wouldn't have been able to get these either or the support from the County Board and they was he board so um but no we didn't go outside for these these applications some we do but this one we did all in house with with Matt's assistance as well well thank you I even give more credit for that I think that's really a a showing of of what you can do with over there combining with Matt and it was a good effort so thank you oh man maybe we should have Soil and Water and Matt write our border to border Grant applications and maybe we can have uh uh Broadband every house right County if you guys can get 70% of that pot of money be buying a lottery [Laughter] ticket um so yeah so the first item is to accept the the grant for 215,000 for County ditch number 19 which we will also discuss later in the agenda I'll make that motion Mr chair motion by commissioner catch Mark second by commissioner Shane uh to accept the multi-purpose drainage management Grant in the amount of 215,000 for County ditch 19 sh yes just a comment on that um just that that will help offset costs as we make improvements to that ditch is that's how that will yeah yeah both of these Pro projects um Target you know sediment and erosion so the the less erosion we have coming to the ditch the less need for maintenance there is and so those improvements that are made with this grant won't be um I don't know benefit they won't be distributed to the to the home owners or anything on those costs yeah so yeah both these s do require a 10% match but for one we have Federal funding and another one we have our general ditch allocation funding um so NE neither of the grants will have any assessment to the benefit of land or that's the right word assessment thank you so with that uh we have a motion and we have a second any other further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right next would be the second one which we've uh kind of already overviewed on it which would be the accept the multi-purpose drainage management Grant in the amount of 500,000 for joint ditch 15 I'll entertain a motion I'll make that motion motion by commissioner um second that catchmark and second by Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say i i i o same sign the grant is approved unanimously thank you next to review a repair request submitted by a benefited landowner on County ditch number 30 yeah now that we've had our dessert now we have to eat our veggies right so um yeah so we received a repair request on County dist number 30 um the uh landowner um did work with uh a previous disch inspector Mike young um that uh and was not able to find the survey but uh he stated that Mike surveyed the ditch and there was a culbert that was 3 feet too high um that he was looking to lower and it's actually on a a neighboring property so that was his uh repair request um biggest concern with this one um anytime you're working uh lowering culverts digging a ditch especially on a ditch system like this that has a large Wetland complex Upstream uh you need to do a lot of surveying and and Regulatory prep work before that can be done obviously if we lower that CT by 3 feet that could have a substantial impact to that Wetland complex Upstream um so our recommendation is to to get um direction from the board but also um to get approval for uh completing a reestablishment of re where we would survey that ditch and find what the legal ditch bottom is so Mr D we don't have as builts on this one this is one of the few that we weren't able to find in that box huh yeah it went through an improvement in 1984 um so I was hopeful you know it's relatively recent that would have that but uh they do not have a profile drawing or an ads buil drawing so unfortunately Mr chair and uh for the rest of the board and if I understand this right that we we're going by basically a past philosophy ophy on how this private Crossing is build as opposed to the way it would be if it happened today and can you share that because that's it's a it's a big difference from now in our consideration here but go ahead yeah so obviously we've discussed quite a length you know drainage line and private Crossings um if they're done as a part of a project and and approved as that a part of the ditch um then the maintenance of those private Crossings is done and assessed to all the benefit of land owners and that's what happened in this case uh when they did that improvements in 1984 um four Crossings across the ditch were all done as a part of the project um so then at that from that point on they're all considered infrastructure as a part of the ditch and would be maintained and and assessed across all the benefited land owners so the difference if it happened today is that we would assess the landowner only that has the private Crossing which makes right yeah or or notify the land owner that they need to lower their Crossing and then it would be on their own expense which seems more fair because no one else is getting the benefit of this private Crossing hence it's a private Crossing if they want to call it a public Street then you can build and everyone anyone can use it but this was because of a past philosophy decision on this that we can change going forward and in my district when we talk anyway these are handled by the private land owners for The Crossings and they've already resisted and said hey in the past everybody paid for these well sorry it's a change now and that's for the rest of whoever you've got Ditch Projects in your area but just something to consider but I think if we can't find the records we can't just go by a hearsay or a land owner that you know unfortunately benefits so are we just going to take their word for it I think we that's where this extra cost is going to be to go over again maybe repeat the effort we can't verify the record so I in my opinion we have to verify them before we okay the low ring do we have bids on what the cost for the engineering to get the as builts would be roughly um to do the the survey portion the surve um yeah after approve on this I was going to reach out to Engineers or surveyors to get quotes for that okay so we don't we don't have an idea what it's going to be but okay just curious so it's been a few years since we've had to do one so I don't know what what it cost to in the today's market to get the surveying done for that uh M Mr chair commissioner catchmark just to follow up on the comments that have been made here I I believe that a reestablishment of Records is needed it's a legal proceeding it gives us a legal Baseline of what the ditch bottom would be and I think as part of that process we can ask the engineer to also look at private Crossings and to review those records as well to go back historically and see how they got there when they got there and going forward what the legal process should should be as part of that process and you're doing it for the entire system so this way in the future we have the as builts or or reestablishment of Records so therefore we don't have to ever do this again so yeah we can we can adjust CS as necessary based on that information going forward so yeah because we were able to find a a repair report repair report typically should have a a profile drawing and then after that and as built drawing this one just doesn't it just States um the work that was involved and then uh me and staff I had to follow up and and review old um uh assessments that happened on that ditch from the 80s to verify that those colberts were you know not just proposed but were paid for for the ditch and that's what I'm seeing based on the engineers report and what the costs are for the total project so Mr chair so the question I think that commissioner katchar was bringing up is could we change how that um how the culverts are and to be assessed with this project Mr chair commissioner dedri I would prefer to answer that question after we get the reports back from the engineer okay we possibly could but I don't want to go on the record here and say affirmatively we could but I'd rather see the records and see what the ASA grade comes back and see what their final report indicates before making that final call okay all right with that I'm going to entertain a motion to uh to uh move forward with the reestablishment of of records for County ditch number 30 Mr chair I'll make that motion motion by commissioner catchmark second second by commissioner Dietrich any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign motion passes unanimously last item here would be to schedule a ditch Committee of the whole to discuss potential next steps on repairs for County ditch 19 yeah so I um we obviously went through the redetermination benefits County just 19 I gave you guys one of these huge folders um just on some of the the history and repair requests and some other information on County dish 19 um so we are looking to follow up with that and and proceed with next steps um I did have I believe it was May 7th at 8:00 a.m. originally um staff we reviewed that and we are recommending May 8th at 10:30 a.m. for the committee of the whole and that was just to provide you with an option um for dates works for me Mr Jer which one the May 8th at 10:30 10:30 all right and this is a district five com combined with commissioner dedrick's right all right so uh entertain a motion I'll make that motion Mr chair for May 8th 10:30 here all right we have a motion to set a ditch committee uh of the is it of the whole then or are we doing it for just the two I just I see of the whole but then I didn't know if you were you just mentioned there that it was going to be you and commissioner diet no I'm mentioning that for reference that for sure we should be here but just so people geographically know where in the county it falls and uh but I'm always in favor of the whole group for this if they're interested but for sure commissioner dedri and I that it work for us works for me that's F all right so uh we have by commissioner catch mark is set May 8th as a ditch Committee of the whole uh for repairs and next steps on County ditch 19 at May 8th at 10:30 a.m. do I have a second I'll second second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none I'll in favor say I I oh same sign ditch commit the whole is set unanimously thank you Barry is still in here uh we have action on ordinance uh amending ordinance 24-2 uh under right county code of ordinance chapter 155 on zoning at this time there uh yes Mr chairman this is an application uh that was based off an application by a resident to amend the R2 zoning District to allow non-commercial contractors yards as an interm use uh the item was heard by the Planning Commission the Planning Commission has set forth uh a resolution recommending denial of that request this uh request has far-reaching implications uh that if we opened up this box and and did this resoning request our uh our two districts could look vastly different than they do right now and I I strongly believe that we would get a large amount of complaints based on changing and allowing such uses in uh R2 District uh so I in favor of the denial of such amend I'll accept the denial of the amendment brought forth motion by commissioner Dietrich Mr chair Mr chair if I could clarify it's a resolution it's on page 133 of the packet it be a motion to approve the resolution and order for denial of ordinance amendment number 24-2 a proposed amendment to ordinance 155.50 pen are hyphen to and P I will amend my motion to what he said please Mr chair we have a motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland to uh for a resolution denying ordinance Amendment 24-2 uh pertaining to Ray County code of ordinance chapter5 regarding zoning is that correct that'd be correct Mr chair all right with that is there any further discussion hearing none resolution commissioner Shane i i i i i resolution passes unanimously thank you thank you all right items for consideration uh we have a number of recommendations coming forward here the first would be the recommendations from the County Board Workshop uh if there's any particular items that anybody wants to discuss otherwise largely a lot of them were informational only there was a few recommendations uh regarding the recycling center the building Advisory Group uh in the law enforcement uh training center in those Municipal contracts with the cities um so at this time I will entertain any uh questions otherwise I'll entertain a motion I'll go ahead and make that motion all right motion by commissioner Shane I'll second that second by commissioner Holland to approve the uh County Board Workshop um recommendations from April 9th any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I post same sign County Board Workshop recommendations approved unanimously please not commissioner catchmark had to step out uh we just approved the recommendations from the workshop on April 9th they're all pretty much informational you didn't have any concerns no thank you Mr chair thank you uh next would be the April 9th uh border a border or B border the Broadband committee meeting in the up update on our border to border the recommendation was the consensus of the committee was to make the following recommendations which was to uh negotiate with Charter and midco projects areas to remove overlapping uh the we are finding out that we are potentially uh harming ourselves in supporting two ISP providers in the same area in which case the border to border would like us to uh work with those ISP providers to make sure that they are is only one ISP provider applying for particular areas and that we would be help facilitating and supporting those so I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Dietrich I'll second that second by commissioner Holland to approve the uh recommendations from the Broadband committee on April 9th any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I close same sign motion passes unanimously next would be to approve the recommendations from the aggregate uh tax fund uh the recommendation was to approve the suggested aggregate material product tax Reserve fund offering committee changes as outlined in the document the document is included any discussion otherwise I'll entertain a motion I'll make the motion I'll second it motion by commissioner dietr second by commissioner Holland any further discussion Mr chair just a comment this was a a thre member Comm community board besides the two Commissioners and due to some a correspondence glitch a couple didn't make the meeting so uh but they're still interested and it was no fault of their own but uh you saw the slight changes and there were no other complaints on on how the program ran in the past year thank you thank you for that update all right any other discussion all right then all in favor say I I I post same sign all right uh recommend ations approved unanimously all right the fourth item here was the April 8th uh Committee of the whole uh regarding the right County Economic Development partnership the recommendation was to discuss the County's 2024 uh Economic Development funding at today's County board meeting which will be the next item up on our agenda I don't believe that there's any action that needs to be taken on that one as it's uh there's it's done yeah it's done all right uh which brings us to our next item on discussion uh I'm going to bring up assistant administrator clay yeah thank you chair and board members so early 2024 the board directed staff to bring forward for conversations three times throughout the year the funding for the wri County Economic Development partnership and as you just heard in the committee of the hall from last week the direction was to bring that forward to this meeting so just a brief brief bit of background on this thus far in 2024 the county has not sent any of our budgeted dollars to the economic development partnership thus far the county did budget $120,000 for the EDP in 2024 included in your packet was information that was requested of the EDP to bring forward which is just information about their goals about their organization and then they included some resolutions of support from cities in there as well so really at this time what we're looking for as staff is direction of how to proceed forward with funding the EDP and then um also note that there are a number of members of staff and board members from the EDP in attendance today if there are specific questions so staff's just looking for that direction today and if I'd be open if you have any questions so board members we've uh we've discussed this uh at Great length on numerous meetings uh on goals and we've discussed uh operations I think everybody's very very acclimated with uh the EDP and its operations at least at this point based on the number of conversations that we've had I do know you all of you have probably uh been reached out to by numerous entities or individuals because I I know I have so I can likely believe they all the rest of you have um I I first off want to say that I'm hoping we can find a way to move forward here with the EDP the EDP is an organization has good value you can't get the economy a scale where you can take uh multiple government agencies and private businesses mold them together and be able to leverage that those dollars and those volunteer efforts to really holistically go after Economic Development and a business in working to create a business climate that is beneficial for all parties involved in bringing us forward and trying to achieve a goal now and in the future that that meets the desires of both the public and private together is there bumpy road sometimes in those past absolutely and uh I I think we maybe found some of those but I I'm I'm hoping that we can work our way through that uh and I believe we've worked our way through some of it are we exactly where we want to be no but I believe where we're at right now is actually holding us back especially uh by uh not moving the funds forward we need to they need to be able to have the funds so they can make decisions and knowing where they're going in the future um so I'm at this point want to ask the board what we need to do to be able to make that happen uh chair yes um I do want to say that uh I I see Great Value in the EDP um but right now I would like to make a motion to hold funding until the July 2024 to re-evaluate funding at that time um just because I don't see this same I don't I don't feel like the same strategic values are matching up so so your motion is to just send no money until July of 2024 okay and so we have a motion by commissioner Holland Mr chair can I clarify the motion does that mean that it will be open for the same type of discussion that we scheduled for today at that date it's just a delay of game yep that would my my guess but I just want to be clear that we got all the expectations if July comes around um I'll second that all right we have a motion by commissioner catchmark discussion Mr chair I have a lot of points and as you said uh we all got a good understanding through a lot of meetings and different things is I I want to throw out there what we haven't heard before for consideration and we did this with the Historical Society but I did some figuring on some in-house uh finance and admin work that's been done that's not been accounted for in any appropriation like we brought up with the historical society and where I'm at is around $3,000 so I'll ask uh for July then that staff continue to track any time that is spent on that so that if the board chooses to give some funds that I think some math should be done to consider what kind of money has already been spent we did it for historical on it support and I think snow plowing and maybe something else to the $15,000 that was never accounted for and now it is so to be fair I just want to keep that going if there is some efforts that uh we don't know about and then I'm going to ask that I hope there's minimum effort that from here to July to make it simpler but uh so that's where I'm at for the discussion and the clarification thank you okay thank you commissioner catchmark yes commissioner di um real quick last year during budgeting season we did agree um to the Appropriations based on the meetings that we had we had a meeting and and got the priorities worked with staff for with the EDP um and they never got their funding um and and we also add an additional commissioner to the board um with that so that your voices could be heard um to to express your priorities which I've heard you you know we've discussed um and I I guess I feel frustration that we haven't kept to our word when it came to uh as we move forward that that they have a they're running a nonprofit that benefits over 80 businesses in the in the county every city is a is a partner with the EDP um I we get feedback um they work with deed they work with uh all the communities the businesses um I've I've yes everything can be worked better on but think we have a good thing going and to then now push this out into July um we can be working with them as as we move forward like we have been um but to say no more funding until July um with with the wages that we the what we provide is 70% of their budget I mean that's hard that's a hard for any business let's just take away 70% of their budget and and try to operate I just I just disagree so commissioner Dietrich to your point um I look at by saying we're not giving them any money till July of 2024 you're and so you're starving them out essentially um and with that being said you're going to measure them on their efforts in in the in the intern period of time in which you're in the intern period of time you're starving them out uh I I only see that that is it's only going to point in the direction that you're not going to like the efforts that they have because you're not giving them any funds to be able to do anything but yet you have expectations for them um I I don't necessarily know that those two are going to equal a a product that that you're going to like which is going to in turn probably result in defunding them holistically altogether I guess to my point is where is the what's the direction that the board wants to go what needs to be done for something to actually happen Mr chair I'd like to address that starving out comment and the funding and tie it to these resolutions that we got all identical I don't know who drew them up or what the background was but I it's very interesting that all these entities that want to support the EDP never come forward and say uh we understand the financial burden right count we really believe in this organization to the tune that we're not going to only give $900 we're going to give we're going to put an extra zero behind the nine and ease that financial burden or whatever you want to call it to Ray County all we get is a resolution saying please continue the funding we talked about goals the goals have differed between right County the right County Board the Eda the EDP and the cities the one common goal and we've had a lot of conversation about goals is we got to get that money from Ray County every year that for from previous boards and all the other entities is the one common thing that I've seen to the tune of over 300,000 now with this another 120 we're going to get close to a half a million and I have to ask the question if the benefit matches the payment of uh taxpayer dollars to that and uh and I don't think it does but my compromise is that I'm giving it I guess to your your comment at putting them on life support uh till July but I'm not voting to abolish it can be supported by someone else also there's other people with other checkbooks out there uh not just us so I just want to clear that up because we have a lot of the folks in the room that are very interested chairman b i on the same on the same note you're right I uh I'm getting quite frustrated that our staff is having to uh backfill and I feel like our voice in that realm is not being heard heard and it was interesting that in my two cities that support the EDP when the biggest city in right County came to me that the hit the administrator came to me and said what is this resolution why you're going to cancel out the EDP and I said I have no desire to cancel out the EDP I said but I think our strategic Visions aren't the same so he didn't send a resolution his City he didn't make his City uh sit down with false information and that those these resolutions that came in were the like the final straw for me I'm instead of going and getting more businesses like Mike said or have cities pay more it's having people email having people call having resolutions and not going out and getting more 80 80 businesses we could have 80 businesses right in Odo St Michael together and yet we have only 80 businesses for all of rake County and and it and it's a minimal fee for them to be involved so I until till I see more skin in the game I'm just not for and like Mike said every time our staff's going to be back filling I I want a bill Mr so commissioner dri go ahead well I just going to say we had directed as a board for clay to work on the um measurable goals that we had requested with those meetings so I I'm and we have an Eda which you know we work together with the EDP on those things so I'm I'm struggling to understand what what you're talking oh chairman V it is not Clay's I'm not not clay not clay other staff time so my biggest U piece you got to understand is the EDP chose a a county funding piece largely because of it wanting to be not have the perception that it is benefiting one city or one business more than another is the the commonality is that we all live in right County and that being the pretense as to why the county was the largest funer of the organization uh so and it serves a lot of purpose for to it the biggest piece that has changed that that we' really struggled is that the county has uh over time especially over the last uh short period of time right prior to covid the county has doubled its investment into the organization but the part that was missed with it was that we didn't have a conversation with us doubling our investment into the organization what is it that we had from an expectations in return and then Co hit and we never ever came back to having that conversation and we and during that meantime we created our own Economic Development Authority here at the county we started reaching out to our stakeholders and now we have kind of gotten our own goals here from our own Economic Development Authority and we are trying to meet them but we have our right now our funds we don't we don't put nearly as much into our own Eda as we do into the EDP so we are using trying to meet our Eda goals through the the EDP and they we have to have a conversation about how is this going to work together because in order for us to fund the organization at that $1 1220 $140,000 whatever that dollar amount may be we have to make sure that the EDP is helping us meet our stakeholder goals because our stakeholders whether anybody believes it or not are the same stakeholders of the EDP I think we can get there but there we have to have some more open dialogue to it and I think it's largely because the conversation didn't take place when it should have Mr chair is there a question on the reserve funding that might kind of alluded to the dollar amount that they still have in reserves they've been using some of their Reserve funds um I would have to bring Jolene up to it I think there's around a couple hundred thousand that's in there is that a sound about correct okay so Mr chair I just want to direct it back to um a Lifeline as far as the funding that you're saying that we're cutting them dry right here but is it that the best use of their funds I mean that's the the end of the day that those funds were ideally put for long-term strategic initiatives but now they are using it to just meet General operational expenses instead of actually using them for uh mid and long-term strategic uh initiatives which would actually yield some sort of benefit but in the meantime they are just using him for to keep the lights on uh so there's not as much value with that because at this point organization is but again where you know exactly where it came from and why we've been limping this along for the last year and I'm I'm not against the EDP I just feel that we're trying to get what everybody's needs to get this accomplished and that's why I called that meeting last week so that we could all get on the same page Mr shair yes and that's where I would agree as we continue to work through this year to fully fund them so that we can attain those goals and we can make the suggestions and changes that you need that are needed and we delve into what next year looks like and that can be that conversation on who pays what um or increases that's that's all part of those conversations but for now we had committed um funds for the EDP for this year Mr chair I'm going to call the question because everybody up here the decision makers have had a chance to to speak we've had a first a second and discussion all right the questions been called we had a motion to uh hold any funding to the EDP till July 2024 uh just for clarity that means I guess we wouldn't re the revisit the discussion till July essentially then I would is that my y interpretation okay uh with that uh the all in favor say I hi opposed I I all right the motion passes 32 all right at this time I would encourage at this time uh board members to at least have some dialogue with the EDP on what it's going to take to move to move forward if there is the desire to move forward with the EDP so that there is uh some chance of some sort of a resolution come July I would definitely open my door to that conversation because I do not want this to go downhill I want this to progress forward so I would open that completely thank you same all right all right uh at this time we have the uh acknowledge the date and time for the oso fun uh County board of appeals and Equalization uh the recommended or suggest the date would be Monday June 17th at 4:00 and uh yes Mr chair uh as noted we had put a placeholder on that and communicated that date out just wanted to make sure that it was on the board's radar so just kind of a follow-up item for today I like how you put 4 and 900 p.m. so we're having two meetings at night one at 4: and one at and at 9: it's there's a period of time we'd have to have it held open for so I hope we're not meeting again at 9 42 n okay with that I'll entertain a motion I'll make that motion second all right motion by commissioner catch Mark second by commissioner Dietrich any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right motion passes unanimously second would be to schedule a board retreat for May 6th uh this is a great opportunity that uh we get to do annually and this is uh with the goal uh getting an understanding of the forecasting and developing priorities prior to going into the Oho fun robust uh budgeting time of year over the summer and commissioner go ahead yeah Mr chair I'm going to be out of town on the six I'm wondering if we can move that to the 7th maybe after the County Board regular meeting or we already got the committee of the whole on the 8th but wondering if we can do that on the 7th instead we can move the probably move the seventh one to the eth and do the the so do the uh so Mr chair a couple thoughts uh currently we have the board meeting of course that morning a Clos session scheduled following the board meeting at 10:30 we could look at either moving the Clos session or having this meeting the retreat at 1:00 in the afternoon if that would work as well I vote one on the 7th yeah you can go one o'clock on the 7th okay Mr chair yep uh because we're calling this a retreat does this mean that it's just this then is that or who is our audience do we get Finance there yes it was planed to be Administration and finance to go over the uh cut of the forecast as we best have information at that time some of the impacts that we know are going to be impacting the budget also give you the opportunity to prioritize items for next year's budget so okay and that'll be here in this building uh we talked about using NY uh NY Park I'm I'm not interested said we got a $50 million building plenty of conference rooms I see no need to go over there we can secure ourselves in the back but I'm not interested in going to NY Park whichever that's fine I'm not I can't do any work between here and there in the commute I just I I'm retreated out with that kind of thing yeah there's no facilitator there's nothing of that nature this is purely uh just an opportunity for us to uh talk through the process and small for Mr chair but let's use what we got but we do have we we do own park it is a county park we do but there like I said I can't do any work between driving there and back and I just am I the only one I guess we can take a vot I like night Park I mean they have a setup there it's nice and it's uh we have Windows more concerned about having the meeting than the location it's at least of my concerns right I'll make a motion that we have it here okay on that date and time Mike I'll give you a ride you can work all the way there yeah there you go you can go you can go afterwards and walk around all right I made a motion for it do we need we have a second do we have a second oh I'll okay okay we have a second all right so we are setting The Retreat on May 7th at 100 p.m. here in the Government Center the location within the government center to be determined is that fair enough sure okay I just want to thank you Mr chair I was gon I was going to give you a hard time because if I said the third floor you might not be able to go work that sorry I was gonna give you a hard time I'll take it I'll take it on the record I took it from Mr chair it's just too fun I know you were going to get limousine service from commissioner Shane though I mean that's that that would have been good that would have been nice I know she hasn't even offered to so I could get work to and from pick me up on my way in here I'll buy I'll drive the big red Van Well Mr chair commissioner Shane I was hoping it was going to be the Harley and commissioner mark would you grab me on the back I would I would like to see him on his laptop on the back of Harley that would be that would be good that would be a good meme for a be a good picture all right uh with that all in favor say I hi oh same sign all right uh now we are moving the was going to be May 7th for the uh budget committee the whole but we'll probably moving that to the eth I'm assuming that was the thought sir yes okay uh one o' still or what is the eighth live don't know what that date ditch is at 10:30 so you want to go right at 11: afternoon's bad for me if we're done by noon 12:30 I'm good I don't know is there some reason we can't do it at 9: do it before that no that's fine 9's yeah I don't know how much time we're thinking yeah like for the budget for the budget for an hour and a half is that going to give you enough time that's for everybody right yeah quick turn around okay I don't know I'd rather not be rushed and I mean well an hour and a half is is a and if we're a little 10 minutes after that the ditch committee if it starts at 10:40 it's not going to be the end of the world so yeah pretty good I think 9:00 we'll be chewing up those numbers the day before anyways yep 9:00 on the 9 all right so we have a motion by is that a motion commission all right motion by commissioner catchmark to set a budget committee the whole at 9:00 a.m. on sorry Wednesday May 8th uh here in the government center I'll second that second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oose same sign all right and the last one uh an item that was uh petitioned on coming out of yesterday's Transportation committee the whole to be able to move forward so we can get bidding documents sooner than later was to move forward with the contract with wood Seth and wri County to for the Highway Maintenance Shop uh yes Mr chair can speak to that I do have copy of the document if anyone from the public would like to view it uh it is 30 plus pages so I did not make full copies but did provide you with the digital yesterday uh as we did discuss that at the transportation Committee of the whole so uh this would allow us to move forward knowing this is the busy season and get the advance uh moving on a few weeks toward moving the project forward so that's why it's brought today for discussion all right is there any question or a motion I'll make the motion I'll second it motion by commissioner dri second by commissioner Holland this is any other discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right uh staff will be working with wood to uh get that moving forward all right at this time it is just uh slightly after 10:00 a.m. if there's nothing else to come before the County Board we will be adjourning here at 10:07 [Music]