--------- Uh hopefully Commissioner Gould will be able to hop on here shortly. Um at this time I'll accept a motion to end the closed session and return to the open meeting. Do I hear such a motion? Motion by Commissioner Carlson. I hear a second. Second. Second by Commissioner Winger.
And we'll do a roll call vote since we have a potential remote attendee. Commissioner Carlson. Yes. Commissioner Winger. Yes. Commissioner Sumar. Yes. And I vote yes. So we have a four to zero. We are back in our regular session
for the work session. On to introduction of new employees. I think we have at least one new employee. Sam, you going to introduce somebody for us? I'm Samantha Rex, finance director in the auditor treasurer's office. is here to introduce our new payroll and finance
specialist, Stephan Mayor. He started with us last week. Great. Stephan, you say a couple words of where where you're from originally or where or whatever how long you've been around the Bumiji area or Yeah. Um yes. Um from Elk River,
Minnesota originally. Uh moved up here in 2016 to go to school. Graduated from BSU. Um yeah, and I come from the DNR. Actually, that was my previous job. Oh. board for parks and trails. Great. Well, welcome aboard and glad to have you. Thank you.
Yeah. Any other new employees? Not seeing any. We'll move on. Got uh identify future work meeting topics. Anybody have any future work meeting topics they want to bring up? Not seeing any. We will move on to 2026
employee insurance. And we've got Anna is here. Yes. Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm here to present the 2026 employee health insurance. Do have a PowerPoint, so we'll wait for that to pull up.
All right. So, just to get into it, the employer contributions every year, um, flex dollars are given to employees to help cover their insurance. For 2026, the rates are yet to be determined because that is a negotiated item and we're currently in the midst of negotiations,
though, that will be forthcoming. Whoa, there we go. Oh, well, turn off. Okay. Off and on. There we go. Okay.
All right. So, for the medical insurance itself, there are no plan changes to the design, but we are looking at an average increase over each of the different plans of an 8.4% for our medical premiums. Um, and I'll touch a little bit more on that on the next slide. But
just to stick with what's happening with the medical insurance, we are increasing the HSA VIBA contribution 50 for singles and 100 for families. That kind of has been happening every year when the IRS changes the limits on the health high deductible plans. So in turn, that will reduce the out-of pocket for employees,
the $50 and $100 determining if it's single or family. Then the family rates for children and spouses. So those age bands for the spouses did change, but I will note that this is only the second year out of the last four years that that that has seen a change.
Commissioner Carlson. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um and is it true that most health plans in the state are going up by in excess of 14%. Yeah, this is significantly a less of an increase than like the blue cross and
that I 16.9% somewhere. I can't get to the typical increase. So yeah, I can't get to the next slide, but it does have in there. So we do have that the numbers for the average of the small
market and individual market is looking at a is it an 8.5 for that small group market and then a 7.5% for the individual market. The large group market hasn't been released yet for the average for the
statewide of Minnesota. That will be coming out in the next month or so once those renewals start coming through. But yes, to your point, we have been seeing the double digit estimates for the average for the large group um renewals for premiums. Um, but just to talk about that a little
bit, you know, our 12-year average before moving with Prime Health Ca is coming in at the 7.93% over the 12 years. Since we've gone to Prime Health, our 8-year average is at that 5.61. So, I know we've talked about
it previously how with other providers, it's kind of the high ups and downs, whereas Prime Health, you know, one of the points of when that was developed was to kind of just streamline that change. So it's a lower change over the course of the period of time and we are seeing that right now. And then just to
mention um the health you know the rates are kind of driven by when we have inflation the new highcost drugs that are coming into play and there's also been an increase in behavioral health use for insurance plans. And did you intend to change it?
Yeah but it's not working. It didn't change. Yeah. Technology isn't on our sides. People online to be able to see too. Okay. So, yeah. So, that's just showing that chart that the averages that I was just talking about before we got to the
Prime Health and then since we've been at Prime Health. And you can go to the next slide. This one is the dental insurance. I just want to touch on this briefly. I did go a little bit more into detail with our insurance committee, but our dental
provider just shared a word of caution of how our rate is increasing for the employee or for the members that aren't going in for their preventative maintenance. And you know, like why do we care about that? What's the big deal for us? Um it's just shown that people that have um that miss their
preventative appointments, it can turn into bigger health issues and higher cost repairs or not repairs, I guess, repair to your body, but in the future. So it's important to meet th or to go to those visits to attend, you know, to see what improvements you can make. So HR
over the next year is just going to work on pushing out just more reminders, just more facts about that, why people should go and do it to help our numbers on that case a little bit. And next slide. So our all of our other benefits are administered through our
benefits consultant, Integrity Employee Benefits. And you won't see any changes to vision, core life, additional life, or the AD and D. But new this year, you're going to see a change to the short-term disability. This is due to the Minnesota paid family leave, which I'll talk about in a moment. But
with that change, we have to move away from the self-insured fund. So, we're going to go to an employee voluntary plan. That way, the employees that could utilize it will be able to get that benefit, and the ones that don't need it don't have to worry about it. The biggest change you'll see with that is
we used to have a a six-month period and now it's going to be a 90-day period which is the industry standard for non-self-administered plans. And then with that, our long-term disability will change a little bit too because we'll see that instead of starting at 6
months, it'll start after that 90 days to match where the short-term disability ends. Um, so with that, you'll see a little bit higher premium amount to cover those additional three months that weren't there before. The other thing I'll note is we are going to switch from Sigma to Metife for
our critical illness accident insurance and then we're having the addition of the hospital insurance next. So to talk a little bit about the Minnesota paid leave, uh it's that new law in Minnesota that provides payments and job protections when you need time
to care for yourself or a family under specific situations. We'll have more details for that pushed out to the employees. The state's still working on the language that goes along with that that we are required to notice the employees. So, we'll be sending that out. There's an employee poster that
we'll put out. Um, what we're presenting is to go with Metife as our third party administrator. The reason we want to do that is they have experience with it. So, they are already set up with 12 different states that have similar programs and they've had a success administering those plans.
So, on our side, we're looking at that as a benefit that they know what they're doing. It's kind of set to go. Um, and then we'll also receive, if we go with MetLife, we will receive a 2-year guarantee of 79% compared to the state
of 88%. And we have that guaranteed rate for two years. And additionally, we'll also have integrity as a source of information and assistance if we're running into problems. If employees are running into co problems with the coverage or the payments, um it's just another source
for us to have a bigger play with our provider through integrity. Next slide. So the next steps I just want to let you know like excuse me I just want to let you know we met with the labor management committee. Um it's comp
comprised of employees, some supervisors, um department head heads. Scott was there as a representative for the prime health board. uh we went over all this information in a little bit more detail, but we did have the group support of moving forward with these recommendations.
So, with the board's approval on today's consent agenda, we can move forward with um our open enrollment, which is set for October, the month of October, as in years past, and then also get everything set up with our change to the short-term disability and um getting in line with
Metife and what that's going to look like for employees. Any questions? Any questions? All right. Commissioner Gold, do you have any questions from online? Yeah, thank you. Um, I'm just wondering uh what they cited as far as the cost
going up another 8%. Um, you know, maybe it's less than other insuranceances, but um I've heard time and time again from employees, especially ones that are on the family insurance, that it's too expensive. So if it's already too expensive and it's going up another 8%
uh you know is that because of inflation or technology costs or claims or or like what are the top two reasons? Yeah, it's just the note that you know I had kind of commented on was it's due to inflation. We have different drugs new
drugs that are higher costs and then also just the increase of behavioral health utiliz utilization. Um, and along with HR, you know, pushing out material about, you know, going to those preventative visits, we're also going to put put out material about making sure
employees know how to dis or view their bills, what they can do with their bill, making sure they're, you know, their invoice from the providers correct. Did the provider invoice them correctly? Is it syncing up with UMR correctly? And all those types of things that can influence this as
well. and just and making employees aware that if they have something come in it that doesn't seem right, you know, to question it and how you go about doing that. And then I did have one other question, Mr. Chair, go ahead. Uh, regarding the u um HSA flexible
spending account. Was there any more le leeway or flexibility, additional options on how to spend those dollars, or is it the same as last year? Right now it's set the same as last year to continue with the HSA contribution or
the VIA option. So employees would choose which route they want to go. Okay, that's it. Thank you, Ann. Yep. Thank you guys. Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Any other questions? Mr. Carlson, thank you Mr. Chair. I just want to thank Ann for her service. I know her days are short here. Maybe really short.
I'm your last day is today. So thank you Ann. I was a pleasure to have you working with us. Thank you. Yes. Thank you all for the opportunity to serve at Bel Tramy County. It was a quick two years, but hopefully I've had a positive impact and it can kind of
keep going. Yeah, very much appreciated, Ann. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we that uh moves on to our SWAT memorandum of understanding. I think Sheriff Riggs is coming up to address that.
She's walking out. Otherwise, I would give her I would I would maybe do a little bit more of the whole like make her feel guilty type thing. Good afternoon, commissioners. Jason Riggs, Belrammy, County Sheriff. Uh, I really didn't really need to talk to you a whole lot about this. This is pretty self-explanatory, but I just wanted to
provide a little bit of background. Um, Commissioner Winger probably remembers when the SWAT team was informed back in the mid 90s. Since that time, we've utilized Bamiji Ambulance for specific reasons. uh what we call a cold zone or
azone type of um medical prov uh medical care for officers, bystanders, and bad actors. And those are usually staged a mile or two away from where we're operating. And so, uh when I came on
board the SWAT team, uh back in 2003, we still had that that level of care. Bamiji Ambulance has done an excellent job of providing that care for us. But over the years, we've sought to have additional personnel on the team that would be more responsive to provide
critical care on site and we've just always run into roadblocks with like we had people from uh Bamiji uh back in the day, you remember uh uh Merit Care and Biji Hospital and now it's Sanford's great people. They want to do good, but we can
never get the insurance stuff figured out. Well, Biji Fire Department has stepped up and they're willing to do the work for us. Um, they have a trained paramedic. They have some ENTs. Uh, currently we're training with six folks. Um, we currently have a memorandum of understanding with the city of Biji and
Clearwater County, uh, Blackduck and Baggley for SWAT services. This would be just adding on the fire department in a capacity and they're already covered under their own uh League of Minnesota City's insurance uh their own workers comp. This is just basically adding
another resource to our SWAT team so that police officers can do uh law enforcement functions and let them provide medical services uh at a more uh critical care on an onseen type
of basis. uh where we can uh take care of the the things that we need to take care of. Um this was vetted through myself and our county attorney, David Hansen. Um and I'm just bringing it for you today just to hopefully you guys will sign off on it. So, do you have any
questions for me? Commissioner Carlson. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Sheriff, is there any danger that while those personnel from the fire department are maybe in a SWAT situation that all of a sudden something else doesn't break out that they're short staffed on one or the
other? That would be my only concern about that. Yeah. And there's, I mean, there's always that potential, but typically the fire department has a pretty good resource of people that are, you know, can go do those kinds of things. SWAT operations aren't generally lengthy in nature. Um, they can be. We've had
several operations that have taken, you know, 10 hours. Uh, but we would move people around as need be and their administration would be able to u move people from the scene or replace people from the scene if need be depending on circumstances. So, Mr. Winger,
I uh I just want to say that when I saw this, the first thing I did was wrote a list of questions. Sure. And then I read through it and you answered all of them. So, um, so I'm I think it's a really good idea. So, Okay. Thank you very much. Commissioner Sum
have anything? No. Okay. Commissioner Gold online. You have any questions, concerns on the swapou? No. Thank you. Looks good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you, All right. That moves us on to the automated license plate reader topic. I
believe Commander Hart is here to go over that. Thank you, commissioners. Uh David Hart, commander of Paul Bunny Drug Task Force. Um obviously like you said, here to talk to you today about automated license plate readers or recognition. Um
I underestimated the public interest. Um and this typically obviously the the task force does not um do things non-overtly. This is kind of the the first initiative we've had um in this in this space with something like this. And
it's something that um you know through some of our grant initiatives we found kind of aligned not only with our mission but the the mission of our local law enforcement to help them uh reduce and solve crime. So uh my plan is try to get through through
this in about 10 minutes or so and then leave in about five minutes for uh questions. So ALPR um basically what it is includes a camera, some processing software and a and a database. Um these cameras capture images of you know the vehicle as
they're traveling past in the surrounding area and then gets a nice zoomedin picture of the license plate itself. It turns that picture into readable data, you know, so those license plates can be read and then searched later on during investigations.
Again, ALPR stands for recognition or readers. The the terminology is used interchangeably. Um, it can also be used now kind of with advancements with AI technology to not only search for license plate, but search for make, models, colors, types of vehicles, and
then unique identifiers uh with vehicles. For instance, if we had a certain color and, you know, style of vehicle, leave a crime scene, something like that, and we don't know a license plate, we can kind of search um based on those factors and and hopefully identify
um suspect vehicles to solve crimes. ALPR has been been around for a long time. It was initially developed over in Europe. Uh came to the United States just like anything else. Uh you know, the technology wasn't very good at first. um things were very expensive,
not very um reliable, and with um the way technology moves, they've gotten um a lot better. Uh so, the vendor we went with was a company called Flock Safety. They're the largest fixed ALPR uh network in the
country. They're in 49 of the 50 states. um and they have um you know privacy kind of at the forefront of of their company. They're very very reputable company um American company, Americanmade products and so forth.
Um and then another big reason for for going with them is they are one of the improved vendors with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. So, how ALPR works? Um, again, we're using fixed uh license plate reader cameras. Um, there are mobile um cameras
that can be a fixed like patrol vehicles and stuff like that because this is um task force equipment. We don't have patrol vehicles. Um we just are using these these fixed locations. Currently, we have nine ALPR devices uh within Bel Tramy County. Again, the task force
serves um almost, you know, a 10,000 square mile area here in North Central Minnesota. We have nine member agencies, about 120,000 uh residents um across the task force area. So, uh we have other devices, but you know, just addressing
what's in Belrammy County here. So, eight of the devices are in the city limits. one devices one device is outside the city in northern township and these are on basically 365 um uh 24 hours a day. They're either a
fixed to um you know the utility grid or um in some of the locations where we can't um get access to power will do solar panels. The data is encrypted and it and it's stored on a cloud server per Minnesota statute. um we can retain data uh this
LPR data for 60 days. We're only doing 30 days right now and then the data is overwritten and um it's gone forever. So um we're not collecting data and having some large database or something like that. Um again it gets deleted uh 30
days unless it gets exported as part of a criminal investigation then it's obviously subject to the government data practices act. Uh so the use um of LPRs is permitted and regulated by Minnesota statute 13.824.
Um several other things are obviously addressed in that statute as well. Um regarding you know the restrictions, the data retention which I spoke about a little bit. Um sharing the data is kind of a a big thing right now. The way that the statute is written is we cannot share um any of our data outside the
state of Minnesota because per per that statute they have to conform to the same kind of data practices um you know per per that statute in the state of Minnesota. Then most importantly LPRs cannot be used to to monitor or track individuals. I know that's people's kind of big
concern uh right off the bat. Um we we can't track people without a warrant. So um these are not being used to to monitor track subjects of active investigations. Right now um I'm the system administrator um for the network. Um
I've also given access to Belrammy County investigators and city of Bumiji Police Department detectives. Um each group is classified into their own role and I've kind of limited some of the permissions you know based on um based on those roles.
Uh we adopted a policy under Belchammy County who's our coordinating agency for the task force. Um and I conduct a training and they all get copies and agree to abide by um the policy. So look up again 30 days historical
images. We they can look up for their investigations if they're trying to locate suspect vehicles. Uh the network does also communicate with the BCA uh to give some real-time alerts based on some of their hot list. So that's stolen vehicle hot list um you know wanted
people with warrants um and most importantly silver alerts and Amber Alerts um so NECME the National Center for Missing Exploited Children um you know if a children gets abducted we've all gotten the Amber Alerts and there's a vehicle associated with that alert um
these cameras already pick these cameras pick up on that alert and if one of the vehicle associated with a child abduction goes by one of these cameras, we're going to get notified in near real time. So, obviously, there there's a lot of
benefits for law enforcement. Um, again, stolen vehicles, apprehending wanted individuals. Uh, you know, these individuals that were attempting to locate and apprehend are out there committing crimes pretty much on a continuous basis um and are going to continue to victimize people in our
community until we get them apprehended and in custody. So the faster we can do that, the more we can reduce um crime and the crime that's that's being committed out in our community. And then solving criminal cases, uh you know, there's since we've gotten this, I've
thought back on so many cases to where if we would have had this type of technology and maybe been able to locate um a suspect vehicle early on investigations, the the amount of cases that we would have potentially been able to solve. Um even you know you go look back and think about highprofile missing
missing person's cases that we've had uh in the city and the county if we would have had some of these devices in some of those areas at that time you know who knows what what could have happened. So again the flock safety network um is the largest fixed a ALPR network in the
United States. Um there's 70 Minnesota law enforcement agencies that are using flock safety currently in the state of Minnesota. Um we are sharing data with 52 about 52 of them right now. So they're able to search our network. We're we're able to search their
networks and stuff as well. There is no cost to Belrammy County for this. Again, this is being paid for by the task force and we're just giving access to it to our local investigators and detectives. Um, this is funded through uh part partially, you know,
from our Haida initiative uh after we were designated as a high-intensity drug trafficking area. Um, and other grant funding we are using to communicate with the BCA and get some of these alerts. We do have to have an ORI with the task force not
being its own agency itself. Um and Belch Tramy County being our coordinating agency where we we are using Belch Tramy County Sheriff's ORI um to communicate with the BCA and transmit that information. We've had quite a few success stories with the technology um already. We've
been we've used it to locate missing people, silver alerts um as they call them, vulnerable persons or elderly. Um, one instance I know where uh we did locate somebody out of state in the state of Washington. Um, we had access to some of those networks out there and
and our local investigators were looking for um a missing person. And then obviously it's it's aided the drug task force uh you know quite significantly been able to help us with our investigations to identify vehicles and
interdict um narcotics traveling to to our community. uh the you know the big topic about this is obviously privac privacy concerns uh legal frameworks in place Minnesota doesn't have a lot so far with uh what
we call case law um instances where we can look back on where the courts have ruled um on certain things there is one unprecedented case out there um that we talk about when I do orientation This is a supplemental tool. It's kind
it's not just, you know, it's not an end- all beall to these cases. Um, conventional police work is obviously still a big part of these cases and uh this isn't just a a one-sizefits-all tool. Again, we adopted policy um
through Belchair County Sheriff's Office. This policy is available to the public on the on the public uh county website. And then per uh Minnesota statute on LPRs, um we do regular audits. We have some public reporting requirements, um
independent oversightes uh every other year um help ensure that these LPR systems are being used responsibly and ethically um and we're not um we're not uh ruining uh any public trust. So with privacy, you know, everybody has
the right obviously to to feel safe in the in their own community and uh you know that's a part of the mission statement of of flock safety. Um fourth amendment um in the 14th you know amendment um a reasonable search and
seizures as we know you know on public roadways uh the courts have ruled that you know you have very limited privacy upon public roadways um we're we're not overoling any data and and we're not tracking people. So,
you know, one of the biggest um violations of people's privacy is, you know, the people that are that are victims of of some of these crimes, right? Um that get cars broken into, cars stolen, burglaries, things like that. Um I think we're doing more of a
of a benefit protecting community's privacy by trying to um ensure they're not victims um of these crimes. with this, you know, AI is is going to probably be it's going to be the the future of policing just like it's the
future of of almost every industry out there. Um, we just got to make sure that we're using it responsibly and and ethically and we have the correct oversight. Um, flock safety is not just a LPR program. They have several other uh tools to assist law enforcement
agencies um including sound detection devices. They have a uh drone as first responders program uh to where they have these drones that have these housing units that can sit up on top of buildings um that charge themselves or
swap batteries, you know, and you know, from dispatch you can send these drones to um incident scenes and all kinds of crazy stuff. So, um, again, it's it's going to be the future of policing. We just got to make sure that we're using it responsibly, um, and continue to work
on on that public trust. Second of time, I'll I'll end it there and um, happy to answer any questions you have. Questions? Go ahead, Commissioner Winger. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I have just a
couple, you know, you've got the the mobile device that tells people they're speeding. Can this be attached to something like that? No. So, it is it is not um it is not used to um identify any moving or
equipment violations on for anybody on the roads. But would it have the ability to be used that way? No. No. Okay. No. And then one more. Um, you said that you can only store them if they're connected to a crime.
Suspicion enough to hang on to them longer or no? If we can export them if they're going to be part of a criminal case that where we're going to present um those pictures, you know, to a court of law as as evidence. Okay. Yeah.
Thank you, Commissioner Summer. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you, Commander Hart, for coming in and giving um an update and presentation in regards to the automat uh
automatically plate readers. I do have uh uh quite a few questions and it seems like I have more questions now than prior to the presentation, but I'll just uh go from the list of questions that I have. Uh what is the
cost of these license plate readers? So there the cameras themselves are leased and they're about $3,000 per camera per year. Per year. Yep. And you mentioned that uh
that you're using funds from the Haida, correct? And so what happens when and if the Haida grant uh expires, where's that money going to come from to Well, the the contract that we're doing with Flock or one-year contract. So, if
we lose funding, then the cameras are essentially gone. some of the some of the cameras are being funded, you know, that are serving the broader Paul Bunion drug tra Paul Bunnion drug task force region are being um paid for out of that separate office of justice programs
grant. Um but with the Haida, you know, designation, we focus a lot more cameras obviously um here in Bumiji and Bel Tramy County. So, but I guess the short answer is if that Haida funding went away, um these cameras would go away as well.
Okay. So, the Paul Bunan drug task force receives uh taxpayer dollars from Belrami County residents. Correct. Uh say that again. The drug task force receives funding from Belrami County.
We charge a a pretty minimal membership um cost. We're 100% grant funded. Okay. To through the Office of Justice Program. So, I guess short answer, no. Bel Tramy County does um appropriate one Belrammy County Sheriff's Office deputy
um to work on the task force. Um but that's about it. Okay. All right. So, I guess one of another question I had is if taxpayer dollars were used, why weren't uh the taxpayers informed of this initiative?
Because I guess local task force I mean local tax dollars weren't used. Yeah. But but in a sense well not in a sense they were but they weren't. Yeah. You know, I guess what I would like to know is why wasn't the public informed about
this initiative? Just be um it's just a little bit unrealistic to, I guess, advise, especially a lot of the stuff that we do. 99.9% of the stuff that we do is covert, right? And it's not stuff that that's information, you know, generally
made available to the public. Like I said, this is one of the first things that we did where, you know, I guess we're not trying to hide this. we can't right per per Minnesota statute. Um so it's just you know it's just not in our repertoire to um advise I guess the
public on um all of our purchases. Okay. Um also and in the documents that were submitted uh for the agenda bill, it uh it states that nationwide cities are experiencing
a disturbing rise in homicide and violent crimes. So I'm wondering what are the statistics for Bumiji and Belrami County? what statistics were used to determine the the implementation or do we I I didn't
see no statistics that that kind of gave you know the the task force the uh the numbers to implement this. So I mean do do we have a high do we have a high
crime rate in Bumiji and Belchamic County and and how was that used to determine that? I think the Haida I mean answers that question. We wouldn't have gotten the HITA grant if we weren't correct. We we showed through that through that Haida grant I mean we
showed that we have a problem right here in Belrammy County. So yes thank you. Well, I mean, I'm asking these questions because these are, you know, questions people, you know, asked and and often times, you know, the public really don't have access to, you know, the this information or or they
might not have uh watched uh a previous meeting or things like that. So, uh I just want to make sure that the public is is, you know, is informed as much as they can be uh in regards to to this. So, uh it's kind of where the questions are coming from. It's it's nothing, you
know, And I would say we have to report all of our um crimes to to the FBI, right? And uh uniform crime reporting. So, you know, the FBI website has, you know, great statistics and the most updated statistics on um crime rates, you know, throughout the country. So,
and it it also states that um that crime has reduced in in areas that has implemented this in throughout the country. Mhm. Um, I imagine that you're going to come back sometime in the future to to
compare statistics from when this was uh implemented to a year from now or or if and when this contract uh expires. I guess I would defer that to the sheriff's office itself and the city of
Bumiji. Um there is a way to uh track you know the success using the flock safety when you you know when they get an alert or they use the the software to solve a crime they I we promote you know
them documenting that in the software so we can go back and and show you know the times that was used and and those results um that came out of the use. But as far as the, you know, crime itself that, you know, decreases potentially in the city of Biji or the county, I would
leave to the chief of police or or the sheriff to, you know, report to you guys on that. I would I would like to, you know, have it be something we kind of put in the back of your minds to bring forward u some success stories of uses where it helped find somebody or what, you know, any of the things examples that you
gave, you know, a year from now to invite you back to to give us some success stories of of how this program actually helped our residents. Alers have been instrumental in finding hundreds of silver alerts and amber alerts across the country every year.
And that's and then and because of the fact that they run 247 that's the that's the big benefit to them is having that that information. Um just like our body camera we have to report the audit or the ALPRs to our to the governing body which will be you which will you you
guys we'll give that and then we also have to submit that to the office of administration. Yeah. Office of Administration with the state of Minnesota to show that we have been compliant with the the audit itself and that we've been public with our governing board.
Great. Mr. Chair, I'm glad you uh mentioned that chair because uh um uh Mr. Hart stated uh you know these are used responsibly and that was one of my questions. Who determines uh them being used responsibly? You know
where's our policy? our our policy is governed by state law and we didn't invent that wheel. That was invented for us. We just kind of uh took it from the state law and from other agencies that are currently using that technology and applied it to our
use. And all nine chief law enforcement officers within the uh task force Paula drug task force have all signed off on this. And that would include uh the chief of Leech Lake and the chief of Whiter as well. So
yeah. Um one final uh question, Mr. Chair. It said uh you mentioned that this will help apprehend wanted individuals. So I'm I'm trying to figure out how a
license plate reader can identify a wanted individual or how that works. Sure. Uh I'll make up a hypothetical here. So say there's a crime committed uh in the city of Bumiji. Um you know officers respond and say it's a
shooting. Um officers respond to a scene. Um they get information on the suspect or or the vehicle that left the area. Um they get a suspect identified. Uh what typically happens is a what's called a cops alert gets put out and it
gets put out with NCIC uh the National Criminal Information Center um that broadcasts alerts you know over regions right so like I said that once that alert is entered into NCIC um and the BCA communicates with NCIC and then
creates these hot list um once that vehicle passes by a camera will get notified. So, if there's probable cause to arrest somebody and that vehicle is involved um in that crime, like I said, there's probable cause to arrest them and that information ends up in this
database with the BCA. Once it goes by one of the cameras, we get notified. So, we'll help us locate and apprehend those individuals. And cops alerts are immediate from the dispatch center. So when we brought when our our dispatchers enter that into into
a teletype that goes out to either a regional or a statewide alert, the BCA is updated immediately. Well, thank you uh Commander. I appreciate the the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Sar. Uh
Commissioner Gold online. Did you have any questions? Um, no issues or comments, generally supportive. Um, you know, I was not super thrilled about the blow up on social media and and the misinformation.
A lot of unnecessary drama with this right away, and that's unfortunate. Um, I am looking forward to this technology helping locate uh uh wanted suspects. I think it'll help find u
It'll really ramp up our efforts with uh MMIW. Uh so hopefully we can solve some uh um missing person cases, but you know, when when stuff goes down and and there's a violent crime, we need we need as much
help as we can get, you know, cuz we're we're uh stressed personnel wise and and uh so I I think this technology can really help. So, I would be in support of of of additional cameras if if you can find the grant funding for it. Uh,
you know, I I think uh there definitely would have been a public meeting about this if this was the city of Biji Police Department putting up cameras or Belrammy County putting up cameras. But because it's the Paul Bunan Drug Task Force, you know, they generally operate um you know, if they were to tell the
public every little single thing that they were doing all the time, you know, it would hinder their their mission. So, um no issues or concerns. I appreciate the information. and uh officer Hart. So, uh thank you very much. Um I did have one question though, I guess. Um
does the D data stay with the flock company? Do they own that or does the task force own that? We own it. It's our data. Um it is on the Flock cloud server, but it's
encrypted and it's our data. Okay. The short story. Um, yeah. I mean, I guess the the blow up with this is on me. Like I said, it's not something we typically do and kind of announce what we're going to do before we do it. Um,
you know, looking back, probably would that have saved a lot of heartburn. Sure. Um, but, you know, that's on me. This is a decision, you know, that I made as a commander to use some of these grant dollars to, um, improve some public safety. you know, unfortunately in rural environments, um, we're kind of
the last to get, you know, some technology like this. You go down to, you know, St. Cloud or any other decentsized municipality, um, almost every single intersection you sit at, you I mean, you see, um, you know, cameras,
you know, it's crazy. So, we're behind we're behind the curve a little bit. Um, and I think it's important that that we try to try to keep up and do the best we can, you know, on our on our end to uh keep the public safe. So, one of the other things that you can think about is is prior to this kind of
technology, you'd have a warm body in a car at an intersection waiting for cars to go by on an operation. You think about what we pay per camera per year, that's pretty cheap as far as it's what its versatility is to to constantly
watch. And then it's also not distracted by things in the ditch or you know we don't have to worry about officer safety when it comes to this thing watching these cars on the road. That's it's instrumental as far as our our public safety goes. Commander Hart I one question and I
don't know if I misheard or what but I seem to seem like there was conflicting information. You mentioned something about the data not leaving the state or whatever. Um but then you mentioned them being able to search our data and stuff. Can you just really briefly go through
what you know so you get the data from these cameras and can anybody in the 49 states search that data for hits or does it get broadcast to everything or what what is the um you know how does that part work? So it's up to us. We we choose if we
want to share data and who we share data with. So we share it with other law enforcement data that or agencies excuse me that that use flock within the state of Minnesota. Um right now like I've you know since there was there was some confusion about this right away. So I've
since revoked we initially sharing with with people out of state. Yes. Um but I've since revoked that sharing just until we get some more clarification um on that statute. But we still have access to cameras all over the country with agencies that are still sharing
with us. We just can't share our data with them at at the current moment. that clarifies. I I would think unless it's not legal based on our statute, I would I would think it would behoove us to share with all of the states that we could, you know, as soon as they get a couple hours
west of here and they're in a different state, you know, we don't want them to just think that they're free and clear. You know, we would like to have them have the same technology to get back to us, too. A lot of this policy is driven by the BCA, too. Correct. Well,
it's just we we need some clarification per state statute. You know, again, that you know, the statute is saying we are requiring any any agency that receives the information that that we're sharing with to follow, you know, the same data practices under Minnesota statute. And
it's just, you know, these agencies in the other 49 states just can't say, you know, remember every state's different data practices and stuff like that. Okay. Attorney Hansen, did you have something you wanted to add or uh when you were talking on the crime
statistics? Oh, I hear it perked up. Okay. I walked up here. I do maintain a database or a spreadsheet of the crime rates for Bel Tramy County. I do I do all 87 counties. Um we're always in the top five um consistently since 2015 when
I started tracking it. So, we in my opinion do have a high crime rate in the crime rate fluctuates up and down, but we're always of the 87 counties near the top. So, we've got a issue where we
need to address it here. Thank you. And you see articles like came up what came out in the Star Tribune, you know, this year, you know, again, kind of bringing up, you know, the crime up here in Baiji. This is all of our communities. You know, I don't want to continue to see us in the news for for
things like that. Um, you know, we're all living here. I'm growing. I, you know, I'm raising kids here. Um, we need to do everything that we can uh to kind of turn turn the tide a little bit. So, well, great. Well, we appreciate you coming in to help clearing the clearing the misinformation and getting the word out
here um on this topic. Thank you, Commander Hart and Sheriff Riggs and County Attorney. Thank for your contributions. Thank you. Okay, that brings us to the Parkplace update. Got uh
couple people here to go over that with us. Hello. Hello. My name is Lori Riley. I'm from the main office um center city housing main office out of Duth. This is Miranda Wood. She is the site director at the
Parkplace program. um I can do a little background on how the program was developed and then we can get into some of the day-to-day um operation over there. So back in about 20145 um center city partnered with several
agencies in the Biji area to develop a housing program for individuals that were um challenging to serve. I'll just be real um straight with it. Um so H of Biji um Bel Tramy County Headarters Red
Lake Leech Lake I think I got everyone met for about a year in what this would look like and did a lot of data collection um in the area and in 2015 16 center city secured funding from
Minnesota Housing Finance Agency um center tax credits and federal home loan for the capital funding to build the building. It was about a $10 million project back then. Um and so in 2017 the
program was finished, open the doors. There are two sides to the building. There's um 20 units of HA funded units and 40 units of housing support um programming in the in the building. the
HA side 30% of people they pay 30% of their income and on the 40 unit side where people are struggling with substance use um homelessness they also pay if they have income so everyone pays to live there um Mr. Chair, go ahead. Commissioner Summer,
how much is the income or how much is the what do they pay if they don't have income? If they don't have income, they don't pay because they don't have income. Um, that part of the building is supported by Belrammy. It's a housing agreement that we have and they support that
program along with some DHS support. So, one of the questions that uh some folks ask me is they get uh like social security or SSI or you know some some benefits and and they say by time that
they get done paying you know their their share or or things like that they barely have anything remaining to uh purchase you know uh individual items or or hygiene things or
or so if I have a social security benefit that benefit goes to the cost of care in the program they receive a stipend 128 we don't set that the state sets that for the housing support program so we
provide all of the cleaning supplies all the hygiene supplies there's a fully operating dining hall three meals a day snacks um daily um soiety events we're doing a lot of things that they would be um spending that money on. So,
so it's it's more than the 30% the 30% more than 30%. On the 20 supported HA units, that's 30% regardless of their income. On the 40 units, the housing support side that is um the housing um
support rules through DHS. I know in some of the housing supports they have changed to the 30% board and lodge we hold a board and lodge license there that has not changed yet but the other um community supports of the housing support they have gone to
the 30%. So I imagine you have uh uh case workers and things like that about 20 to 25 employees in the building. Um, Miranda is the site director, overall operations, her responsibility, but there's a case
manager, a full-time nurse supported by Sanford Medical. Um, there's maintenance, there's uh transportation, there's a cultural um support person. So, there's plenty of supports on site for individuals. So the the reason why I
ask is um some some of these individuals aren't uh um I guess maybe capable of understanding that um the services that
you provide come at a cost and do these case workers help them understand that part of it during the eligibility or intake. Yeah. um that is all gone over what is offered, what it will cost, people
choose, they could choose not to live there because of that cost issue. But if you take rent and your food and your transportation, all of that added up, um you know, sometimes it's more reasonable to be there. And I mean, I I recall being on the board at
the time this was all developed and and you know, the groundbreaking and and things like that. And um you know it's a great program, you know, but I think maybe sometimes, you know, these these individuals that utilize these services
really don't fully understand, you know, what what they're signing up for when when they're looking for uh a place to stay, you know, during uh their their vulnerability
uh with with the housing. Um, so is is is there like uh classes or is there some sort of programming that that you offer, you know, these individuals um to, you know, maybe speak, you know,
other other living, you know, uh environments and and things like that. People have choice and some individuals will come in, get stable, and work with case managers for other housing options. Yes. um you must be able to live independently to be there. You've got to
take care of yourself and be able to um care for yourself. So, it isn't for some people due to the income part of that. Um but they've done they've helped people budget. They've helped people have goals to move on to move to a different type of housing. So, all that goes on for people. They all have choice
in what they would like. Okay. Commissioner Carlson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I just two questions. Um is your occupancy normally around 100% and what's your turnover? So right now um there's probably about
10, we've had some staff changes. Um so right now there's about 10 openings. We recently received some HUD funding, housing funding, and so we are now in the club of coordinated entry where they keep the the list of the most
prioritized homeless individuals in the area. And so our case managers, Miranda and other staff are working with them to prioritize the the next individuals in. So that's going on right now. So we're hoping to see that occupancy be a little better.
The uh HA side stays pretty much at 100%. Turnover. There is turnover. Um, I guess I the reason I asked that I I would hope that there'd be turnover that people would be able to graduate into a better situation
for themselves having had that. And some individuals will not graduate. They will choose to use substances and um, you know, to assist them in living safely. Um, nutrition is really important. Medication is very important.
We have seen individuals that struggle with substance use for most of their adult lives. We've seen some of that um lesson when they are securely housed with people who care about them, people making sure they're eating, having some family interaction, all of that. And for
the first time, some of them it's the first time they've been able to take a look at that. Many of them have been in treatment 12 to 15 times, been homeless for years and years. So, you know, that is our goal also. even if they do choose to stay. Right
now about 35% have been housed over six years. Um but there is turnover. Um there are people that choose to move on there. We do have some death on occasion due to health issues. Um
we've had people transition from the one side, the 40 side to more independent side, the H side. Several individuals have gotten to a point where they're able to transition into the other side and still have some support. Okay, great.
Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Gold online, did you have any questions for Parkplace? Um, no questions. Just generally supportive of the program. Thanks for doing what you do. I've had some volunteer experience there uh some years
ago. Uh, thank you for coming in. Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Just want to make sure that we don't forget about you being online. So, thank you very much. Thanks for your work. Question. All right. Thank you. And we'll move on
to the uh road tour date. We've got a couple of dates uh being presented for for our annual road tour. Uh I think it was October 13th and 14th. It I don't believe Columbus Day is a
county holiday. Um, not in general. Okay. I mean, not not for us as county commissioners and not for Bruce. Yeah. So, hey, Bruce, I steal your thunder there.
Nope. Uh, no thunder at all with this topic. I just need to pick a date. Um, I guess, uh, I know Commissioner Gould with his other job. Um, I wasn't sure if one of those dates worked better with the school calendar.
Um, 15th is better for me. The which day? 13th. The 13th. It's a 13th and 14th are the two options. Monday. The 14th at Tuesday.
Yeah, that's better for you. How about the rest of the board? on Monday the 13 and we had a jail design committee on the 14th I'm pretty much but I agree with Commissioner Ro the 15th worked better for me
uh not not necessarily for me either um yeah what um what's it look like for the rest of the board for the 13th or 14th
I mean, I I can actually do either of the 13th or 14th, but how does it look for you, Commissioner Sumar? Doesn't look good. 15th looks better, but meeting I can always catch up with you on the 13th after my time.
Yeah. What? 14th was better for who? Um, yeah, I think Joe said the 14th. I mean, 14th is better for me as well, but um although we do have a chamber thing for
the airport at 4 that day, but that we would that's not a requirement. Um, those dates pretty much the only ones that work good for I had just threw them out. They were kind of the historical dates that we had used kind of the off week from a board
meeting right in October Tuesday. I think last year we tried the Monday but uh usually it's an off week Tuesday is what we have been doing but it's no reason why we have to stick with it. It's just historical.
The 16th seems better. Um, I got a Tri County Ambulance Board meeting that morning. 22nd. Um, 27th 28th 20 I've got to go to an Alaska on the 28th.
That I'm going to be gone. Yeah, I'll be on the road to Wisconsin. Um maybe our roads are so good we don't need to get them. Okay. Well, I I do want to compliment you on,
you know, the the improvements that have been taking place over the summer. I know we've uh you know, gotten some some feedback on on other you know, roads, chloride and things like that, but I think uh you know, traveling around the county, you know, I I see a lot of
improvements. So, I just want to uh commend you and the board and and everybody that's involved with uh you know, improving our our road system. Um I don't know where we're at with uh the cost or or what what it would cost to you fix all our roads, but
I remember a number of years ago, we were at $80 million. I don't know if we're still at that point or not. Um but I I I think a lot of our roads are are being improved. So, so I want to acknowledge that. Thank you. Commissioner Sary, what's uh
what's the possibility of is the 17th any better for anybody the Friday? I'm supposed to be u out of the area that day. Oh, but um if if there's a date that works for the
four of you, um I'll I'll try to make it work. If I can't be there, not the end of the world, but I'd like to be there preferably. But um so if the 13th works for you guys, um normally Monday is due for me, but it's a professional development day and they get kind of
cranky with us if teachers aren't at work for training days. So what if we bumped it up to the end of this month, like the 29th or 30th of September? Would either of those dates work?
Keep in mind this is the five Tuesday month and so if you're going to take a little time out of it, that would be when you would do it. Yeah, I I get that because that's a that's we're planning on Yeah. I'm I'm going to be gone the previous
week. I've got a conference that I'm going to the previous week, so I wouldn't be able to do it the the week right before the 29th. So, um, so I don't know what who who all could you make the 13th word
you you got a doctor's appointment you said that morning? Yeah, it's at 9:30. Usually only takes about a half hour. So, you could catch up to us possibly somewhere or Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's true. Yeah.
But you know what? Then we'd be going without two of you. Craig, what about the 29th or 30th? You said either of those work for me. I think Commissioner Carlson's going to be gone, but yeah, those those work for
me. Um, either of those dates of September. Yep. No, September. We're talking 29th or 30th? Either one.
Are you Are you planning on going out town that entire week or could you do the 29th of May Monday or Oh, oh, okay. So, I mean, so we four of you can make it make it and if we don't go, I'll join
it. But we do go. This is the road. Yeah, pretty sure we could shuffle a lot of them out of his district during that meeting. Yeah. Um, so preference on the on September
20th, but that work for you, Brian, or Bruce, the 29th or 30th of September? They both work. Okay. So, a preference on the 29th versus the 30th. Commissioner Gold, do you have a preference on those one or the other of those two dates? No. Either one.
What's that? No. And you you guys uh want somebody want to make a recommendation or uh Okay. Um Tuesday gives me a day to prepare. Okay.
And remind you guys to show up. So, well, it's uh September 30th. September 30th. We'll plan on um being here at 8 a.m. Bruce, correct? Yeah, correct. Meet in the parking lot here at 8 a.m.
on September 30th. Road tour back by usually around 3:00, 8 to 3ish. Got it. Thank you, Bruce.
I think Diane took care of posting September 30th, 8 to three. All right. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you. Next up, we've got the 2026 preliminary budget. And Tom, I assume, is going to
do that. Oh, Joe fell off. Is uh internet connection glitched or something? Okay. So, is done Commissioner Sumar? Did Did he message why he dropped off?
Monday the 29th. Whatever works. We could take pictures. Yeah, we could, you know, maybe we could uh have it virtually. We could hold our phone and you could feel how much it jiggles.
Yeah. Yeah. We'll put it on the outside of the of the bus so that you can get sick watching it. You can give me a list of the road we go drive down. These are the these are the alligator
cracks on this road and these What's this? Any verdict on Commissioner Gold? Folks, I lost service there for a minute. Commissioner Gold is back. All right, let's
get rolling on the budget book here. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Oh, it looks like we're running a little late today, so I'll try to speed through this a little bit more quickly. Um, but uh nothing really should be too much of a surprise. There is a presentation, Diane, if you've got
that can load that up for the board. I'll go ahead and get started. Um maybe while she's doing that, I'll just jump in. Um the first couple of slides you're kind of familiar with anyways as we relate to some of the impacts or
drivers on the budget while we were putting the budget together this year. Um obviously some of the big influencers um are related to demographics and also uh geographics and our reliance on uh state and federal funding as a county.
Those three drivers have a huge impact on what happens uh to our budget. Um particularly when some of those revenue sources begin to wayne just a bit. Um I had talked about influences on the budget um particularly from a state and
federal funding standpoint um many many months ago back as late as or as early as February and had mentioned that essentially nearly half of the revenue that we receive as a county for our budget about 50 million or so uh comes from federal and state sources. And so
that's a big component of our overall budget as you can see. And so when those sources begin to shift costs back to the county, it has a much bigger impact on us. And so essentially uh because property taxes have historically made up
about a third of our budget, um we are having to see and absorb more local property taxes to cover the cost of those state and federal cost shifts. And so this is a trend that we're concerned about. It is something that uh we've been informed will likely continue to
the foreseeable future. And so as such, we've incorporated that anticipatory um reality into the budget uh going forward as well. So federal impacts uh and state impacts are pretty similar. There's program reductions, funding formula changes, cost shifts, new
mandates, all of those sorts of things. And they have huge impact on our budget. So do tariffs and inflation. tariffs admittedly has not been as bad as we had predicted early. Uh so that so that isn't quite really a driver at this point in time except for some very small
areas. But inflation um you know has also waned so it's not a huge driver for us unless you look at inflation for things like uh energy or for things like insurance then then you see a different story there. Uh then there's also uncontrollable costs as I mentioned a little bit as well. Insurance and
utility are among those. Uh and so if we don't get mandate relief um particularly from the state level, we can expect to see additional cost shifts coming in the next uh several years. Uh one of the other things that impacts us as a county is our geography, the size and um how
much we draw from a tax base. We have a very very small tax base despite the the fact that we are the third largest in geography uh county in the in the in the state of Minnesota. Uh because only a quarter of our county is taxable,
residents essentially bear about four times three to four times the amount um over other counties that are able to absorb cost shifts who have a much larger tax base if you will. Uh and also we have a quarter of the county that uh our residents live under the poverty
line. So it's particularly hard-hitting for us when cost shifts occur. And unfortunately that is the trend as of late. Uh we have had I've talked to you about this slide many many times. We've already absorbed many cost shifts. Uh particularly uh two of the biggest cost
shifts are just you know the state wiping away uh or changing rules right the rule changes at the DOC level uh precipitated the the need for a new jail. The same thing is happening as it relates to the closure the early closure of our landfill. Uh those two capital
projects alone uh total almost $90 million for the county that we've had to come up with. We've developed new sales tax of 58 of a percent in order to come up with funding to pay for uh the jail. Uh we're having to increase property taxes to cover these mandates. These are
these are really big deals. Um as a result, the county has one of the highest tax burdens in the state. Uh we constantly are near the top when it comes to tracking tax burdens across the state. And we've been trying to communicate that. I know I have and others have been communicating this
throughout the legislative session. Um but without little result uh or change. Uh so absent any kind of mandate of regulatory reform, we're going to see that local governments are going to be required to absorb cost shifts. This is where it gets real sobering for us because as we've done the analysis, we
anticipate now despite the state in particular having a $19 billion surplus just a few years ago, they're now projecting a $6 billion deficit uh in the second bianium. And so we anticipate significant revenue reductions uh for the fiscal year 26 and 27 about 700,000
to 1.7 million uh and then another two to three million in the next bianium as the state tries to work out how it's going to balance its own budget. So if we were to have to make this up in levy uh we're talking about over those two periods of having to increase the levy
between 2 and 12 to 6% in the first bianium and between an additional 7 to 10 1.5% in the second bianium. So, we're looking at total increase approaching 20% over the next 3 to four years of a consolidated levy increase just to cover what we know um is is likely coming our
way in regard to to to cost shifts from the state level uh at least. So, this is this is really concerning uh because it doesn't include any other operational increases that we know churn all the time. You know, staff wages, insurance, electricity, and you fuel and and the
cost of purchasing goods and and other services and that sort of stuff. Uh so for this reason we talked to the board many many times across the the last several months and we did approach or did um develop a different approach um that the board was instrumental in helping to develop. Uh the staff began
the budget process earlier so we could assess impacts, develop strategies and also uh refine budgets and have time to actually work on those budgets as we produce them. or we modified the budget calendar so we could develop that time and we also included um the board
earlier in the process. Typically um the board has been involved after the budget committee uh does its work but we wanted to involve the board in advance and we did this because we wanted direction from you on levy targets which you did provide for us and we also wanted an
adoption of a new um sort of appro policy approach and that was budget principles um and priorities. And so these are the budget principles and priorities that uh the board had officially adopted and the budget committee and all of the department heads had incorporated into development
of their budgets. And I'll just highlight a few. I won't go through all of them. But of course reducing reducing overhead our operational expenses is is pretty critical. Um as well is important is uh finance mission focused operations before outside organizations. As
difficult as that has been, um that has been approached that has been embraced in the development of the new budget. Uh enhance existing revenue sources by updating fees and recovering costs and reducing property tax subsidies to take pressure off the levy. So if you come in to to purchase a service, you know, you
should pay for that service as opposed to having property tax subsidize that service. So we're moving in that direction as well. Um and then uh one of the other big ones is finance anticipated state reductions over time to minimize one-time impacts so that we don't wait until the fourth year for
that 20% levy increase. We actually start modifying uh the levy now so that we can um anticipate and plan for it along the way. Um additional principles are these that were included also and I won't go through those because you've had those and of course you help develop
those. The budget process is pretty straightforward. We follow the same process pretty much every year. Uh the committee did change a bit this year because we had Commissioner Carlson and Commissioner Winger s serve on the committee and then it's the auditor, treasurer, the finance director, and myself that uh round out the rest of
that committee. These are the milestones which we generally uh tend to focus on. Of course, we're in September. So, we're presenting you today the preliminary budget, the preliminary levy, and also uh the fee schedule for next year. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute, but let's move to the budget details first. Uh this is what
the budget looks like for FY2026. Uh you'll see here that revenues will be up about $2.3 million uh from FY25. So it's only a 2% increase in total budget, but there's some shifts that are going along in here. We've got additional tax revenues that are going to be driven
largely by two components inside the levy. One of them is operating increases and the other one is uh the component associated with state and federal cost shifts. Additionally, we have intergovernmental re intergovernmental revenues that are also increasing just a little bit. And then there's reductions
in other financing sources, particularly because we showed the posting of the nearly $40 million for the jail bond that posted in 24. So that's where you see under other financing sources at that 40,800,000 that comes off. Uh and then also the
we've expended the funds that we were saving for a while for the classification compensation study, too. So there's adjustments inside the budget that do these types of things. Uh when it comes to the property tax levy and this is a component uh one of the components of the revenue streams for the for the total budget. Uh I want to
just point out a couple of different things. Obviously um we are unfortunately having to recommend a 9.63 increase in the levy for this next year. Uh that would generate $3.2 million of additional revenues that's needed. uh 2
million of that is attributed to operating increases uh such as utilities, insurance, maintenance, staff overhead, uh demand for services. And when we do continue to have an increase in the demand for services, that adds costs as well. Um so it's not just runaway costs that we can't control, we
also have increases for demands as well. Uh but what's interesting is that 1.2 million of that 3.2 million uh or about 3.65% is attributed to state and federal cost shifts. And I want to talk about that here in just a little bit. But before I do, uh just a reminder here, if
you've done the math with me, uh if we did not have to plan and prepare for these cost shifts, the levy we would likely be recommending to you would be under 6%. That's pretty significant. Um and I'm afraid to tell you that next year's
budget and probably the two following, we're going to have a similar trend, but the numbers will probably be slightly worse. Um unless we do something with the state legislature in particular. Uh this is the evolution of the levy as it relates to our process. When uh the
staff were given all this information, they did a really great job right out of the gate uh trying to to develop budgets that were responsive to the direction that the board had provided. Um and we came up initially with about a 16.5%
levy when all totaled. Uh then we go through a process internally where the administrator sits with all of the department heads. We go through different questions and we we evaluate different priorities and different funding sources and different ways to to generate revenue and reduce costs and those types of things. And through that
process um I was able to help reduce the budget by or the levy I should say by about a million dollars. So we got it down to 13.5%. We took that work to the budget committee and that's where the budget committee started. And so the budget committee worked uh for several days with the department heads and we
were able to generate a levy that was uh under the 10% goal for the board was about 9.63%. Believe me, we worked really hard to try to get under nine and uh I think your colleagues will attest that it's it's extraordinarily difficult. I mean when you tighten your belt time and time and
time and time again, you get to a point where you you really just you you really got to do something more drastic than tightening the belt. Um so um that's where we are essentially. Uh but we were able to reduce the budget by about or the levy by another 1.25 million. So
through the process almost $2.25 million came off the levy uh through the process that we utilized and I think that's really important. Let's talk about these cost shifts because they're really significant in the overall budget. Um first of all the probation. Uh there's been a significant cost shift by the
state real re sort of redoing the way that it wants to pay for probation services. The the short story is that they're giving us a full allocation. The the the but but they're adding a whole lot more expenses. So, the net result is
an increase uh of $185,000 that need to be covered to offer the same probation services. So, that's really a cost shift um just disguised in a different way. Competency restoration does not meet criteria and SNAP administration reimbursement reduction and behavioral health fund reductions. These are all
reductions um essentially from the state and federal government uh as it relates to reducing um uh funding to the county to run these programs. And so we have to plan for those reductions. And then lastly, um one thing I wanted to mention
to the board is that we did put in a cost shift contingency. So, we built in an additional $700,000 to help smooth what will be future major impacts that we've been informed are going to come our way and that we need to plan and
prepare for. So the idea here is as we've talked before and it's budget principle number five that we had mentioned uh earlier today and and in meetings of past instead of having a big giant increase in the overall levy when that in when when those cost shifts actually occur we're trying to smooth
the line to have less impacts on an annual basis so that hopefully we can predict closely where the ultimate um levy needs to be but we have four years to get there instead of just waiting to do it all in one year and having a 25%
increase in levy when it happens. So that's the thinking. And so 700,000 uh was the dollar amount that we put into it. Uh you'll see that in the commissioner's budget because that's uh where we wanted to make sure that you all knew as a policy decision. Um it was
it was going to be placed. Um but here's the sad news. As I've mentioned many times, by FY28, it's estimated the county is going to need to absorb another 3 to4 million in these federal and state cost shifts. Uh that's what we're planning for. That's why the
700,000 is there. Uh we'll have to continue to build up to that to meet that that overall dollar amount. But of course, if that changes, we will change the budget in the future years and and and and adjust accordingly, hopefully in a downward direction. Uh but it's just
not looking that way at this point in time. I wanted to give you some bottom line adjustments because I think the staff deserve a lot of kudos here. The staff were really great. Um it was tough for all of us. I mean, this is a this is a really tough budget. It's it's a budget that we're not nobody's really
excited about. Um because it's a barebones budget as bare bones as you know kind of you can get. Um, most of the departments here are below the red line, meaning that they showed a 0% increase or a reduction in their budgets. The ones that are above the
line were really driven by uncontrollable costs. For example, probation or Trish, you know, she got surprised with the rest of us. Um, Trish Hansen when when she got her budget and, uh, so then we were surprised and she was upset about that. Uh, because the state did shift its cost and that
increased her budget 49%. human resources, we had 18% increase largely because of the new new state mandate, the paid family medical leave act. Well, we got to pay for that. So, there's a huge increase as well as some other insurance adjustments. Uh facilities has a large capital project. Uh this is the
two rooftop units on top of the CSC building that need to be replaced. Uh it's a one-time expense. It's an outlier. We talked a lot about how to finance it. It's being financed from three different sources. It's being financed from reserves from ARPA dollars and a little bit of levy increase as
well, but it creates a 12% increase uh at one time. That'll come back down next year. Uh the recorder, unfortunately, the document counts are lower, so revenues are lower. Well, if revenues are lower and your expenses are pretty much the same, it makes it appear that your your expenses went up. So, that's
where that 9% is. And then Health and Human Services, subject of a lot of the cost shifts. uh and although they have a really large budget, that's why this is a lower amount, but the dollar amount's big. It's four and a half% for state state uh and federal cost shifts. One of the other things I wanted to mention is that um community programs we did reduce
by 42% uh utilizing another one of the budget principles that the board had had talked about. So we reduced the library, Paul Bunan transit and the historical society contributions. Uh as well aortionment adjustments were made uh to natural resources management uh where we
reallocate expenses and you should know that by doing that we are driving down the aortionment meaning the amount that's going to be shared or available to be shared with other organizations including the community development fund. So um we've been now reaching into
nooks and crannies in places we haven't had to reach before to try to balance the budget and reduce the levy as much as possible. And as you can see, um, it's become a lot more painful, uh, and difficult for us than than it has in the historic past. Um, here's the
anticipated revenue sources. One thing I want to note is you get this pie chart every year we present the budget. And that pie pie slice there that says taxes 40.65%. I've been monitoring that because when I started, it wasn't all that long ago, maybe 5 years ago, it was floating
around 33%. So each year we've had to increase taxes more and more and more because the amount of the intergovernmental was coming down. Those cost shifts and those unfunded mandates and those additional driving costs have required us to develop more or generate more local
revenue and that's why the tax pie is starting to get bigger and you can expect that to grow if the state continues uh down the path that is headed. Uh and that's going to be pretty significant. Uh here's the expenses. um they don't change a whole lot in regards
to who draws or needs the majority of the expenses to operate. You know, health and human services is a a big driver. That's one of our mission critical uh aspects of of what we do as counties. So is highways and streets, public safety. Um and then general government and sanitation are the other
two that round out essentially the majority of the budgeted expenses. Uh we have zero net uh staffing changes for the county. Uh you might say, "How did you do this?" Because you added two temporary full-time employees for solid waste, remember? Because of the storm
debris and our response. So those two positions have been added already, and they will expire in two years, so they'll come back off the books. They're in the um they're in the enterprise portion of our of our um budget. Well, we really don't have an enterprise
budget, but it's essentially in the solid waste fund. Um, and so what we had to also do is we uh eliminated two additional health and human services positions through attrition, an eligibility specialist and a support enforcement aid. I just want to remind
you that health and human services has been taking it on the chin lately um and has now lost seven staff members in the last two years. So again, when we talk about trying to develop a budget that's responsive to the needs of the people um in the conditions that we've been or
constraints that we've been given by the state federal government for cost shifts and rising costs elsewhere, this is a this is a budget that's that continues to be very difficult to sort of manage going forward. U these are not easy decisions to make. Um but you should be
aware of the types of adjustments we've had to make in order to get the budget to where it is. And Tom, just to be clear, those we have not laid people off. We just haven't rehired in those seven positions. Correct. That is true. We do not lay anybody off. That is correct. Just want the public to know that. Y thank you for that, Mr. Chair. Uh
American Rescue Plan Act funding. Uh this is money that we received uh during the COVID times. Well, we received about 9.17 million. Uh we've been using that as one-time funding. Uh it's important to use this funding to offset those one-time costs. Uh the funding funding
is dwindling. Uh but here's what the requests were for this year. About $344,000 um for motorpool vehicle computer replacements, four snowplow units, and two a portion of the two CSC rooftop units. Those rooftop units are going to
be pushing close to a million dollars. So we're only borrowing or I should say taking if you approve $200,000 uh for those CSC rooftop units. Uh, you always ask, so I'm prepared to give you the ARPA accounting. If you were to approve the FY26 requested funds and add
that to what's already been encumbered with the from the additional or from the original aotment, you'll have remaining about 1.1 million for future budgets. Again, we do look at that as one-time funding. So, it can't be used for operations. I mean, it it can be, but then you've got to figure out how to
unwind that after you use it for operations. One last thing I want to say is um we included the fee schedule as well. And the fee schedule is not something we typically present during the budget. It's something that comes usually in December because we tee it up for uh January, but we've decided to
include it because we want the fee schedule to follow a similar process for adoption as does the budget because we want to be able to rely on the revenues and program them into the budget um which we hadn't been doing before. So essentially what we've been doing is setting a budget, trying to balance the
budget and then we come in with these fees and the fees add additional revenue and then it kind of throws us off and it doesn't keep us in alignment. Um and it's sort of hard to hard to kind of keep all that together. So essentially if we can move the fee schedule adoption to align with the budget uh then we'll
tie revenues to expense projections inside the budget. We'll also do a better job of capturing revenue inside the budget and offsetting the budget budget needs. And then um we'll have a review and approval process that coincides with it too. So the goal here
is to keep pace with inflation, keep line or keep uh fees in line with costs, reduce property tax subsidization smooth fee adjustments over time, and of course improve countywide fee consistency. So a lot that goes into developing the budget and uh which want to thank a bunch of
folks for helping us do that. Uh here's your time frames as it relates to what happens next. Essentially September 30th, we have to pass a budget. If we don't, then we revert back to the old budget. So, if you need additional budget meetings or you want to spend a lot of time, if you have questions, please let us know in preparation for
the next meeting on September 16th, which is where we'll be asking for, uh, adoption of the preliminary budget. With that, um, statemanded public hearing will be on December 2nd, and December 16th is when final adoption is slated for, um, approval. That's what I have for you. I'll stand for any questions
you might have. Well, let's uh in the interest of time, we'll move the administrator's report to the regular meeting and uh we can ask any questions maybe during the administrator's report. We um Commissioner Carlson, did you have something? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I um
we had 503 already. Yeah, I know. But the public works solid waste approval of the mixed solid waste. We didn't get a chance to talk about that or have a explanation and so I believe that that would be appropriate to not have that on the consent and just I I don't have a problem with it but I
think that for general public purposes that that we should have a discussion quickly about that instead of on the consent. So I'd like to move 7G to 9A and then 9B the admin update. That's all right. So 7G will be to 9A and 9B will be the
administrator's report. Commissioner Winger has got that. Any other changes to the meeting? Okay. Well, we'll Mr. Chair like you to move the insurance
move the insurance out of consent and onto the regular agenda. Item 7E, the approval of the employee insurance. Do we want to put that as uh 9B and the administrator's report afterwards or? Yeah, let's do that.
So, we'll make 9B will be the insurance item 7E from the the consent and 9 C will be the administrator's report. Okay. 9A was the public works.
All right, we will adjourn for a couple minutes so that we can get uh the regular meeting on Zoom for you, Commissioner Gould. And we'll be back. Part: 2
[Music] All the regular meetings commissioners take order. Please stand for the pledge. 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. All right. I will forego the board chair comments and we'll look at any citizens addressing the board. Anyone wishing to address the county board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this
time to be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name and address for the record. Comments are limited to 5 minutes. A personnel complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard initially at a county board meeting. Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office. A person addressing the board may not use
profanity or vulgar language. Is there anyone wishing to address the board? Seeing no one here, anybody online, we will move on. We have uh looking for approval of uh amended agenda. Commissioner Winger, I move to approve the agenda with these
additions. We will move 7G to 9A, move 7E to 9B and move the administrator's report to 9 C. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Winger. Do I hear a second to that motion? Second. Second by Commissioner Carlson. And uh
we'll have to do a roll call vote because we have Commissioner Gold online. Commissioner Gold, are you in favor of the amended agenda? Yes. You, Commissioner Carlson? Yes. Commissioner Winger? Yes. Commissioner Sumar? Yes. And I vote yes. The agenda is approved
as amended. Five to zero. On to the approval of the amended consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the amended consent agenda? Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the consent agenda. minus 7E and 7G that we
move to the regular agenda. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Winger. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none, we'll call for a roll call
vote. Commissioner Sumar, Commissioner Winger, yes. Commissioner Gould, yes. Commissioner Carlson, yes. And I vote yes. So, the consent agenda is approved. 5 to zero. On to item 9A is a public works the solid waste. We have
Bruce here. I believe he's going to give us a quick rundown just to make sure people are aware of what that is. It's more of a formality than anything, but uh Bruce fill us in there. Yeah, we'll see if I Oh, I butcher this,
but u um everybody pays a solid waste management tax when you're providing a a service. So either it's us collecting it or the hauler that is picking up and and delivering it. There is a state tax that
is paid on that service. And for some entities uh they have to come up with a market price that that tax is put onto. Uh, and it is the case for Bel Tramy and all of
the the um counties in our uh that deliver the um waste to the Poke County facility, the MURF. Um, because if a hauler in Belrammy County were to go around and pick up all the garbage here and actually deliver it all the way over
to FOST, they pay zero um when they go in the door because Bel Tramy County uh covers that fee. And so we cannot pay tax on $0. So you have to come up, the state allows this
uh market price and so Poke County actually does it for us. They help determine what the market price is. Um and that is determined on the lowest cost options for us. uh though they look
at the lowest cost option is for them to haul um and tip their waste in their own landfill. So they use that for all of the counties and then actually the lowest cost for hauling is what Bel
Tramy receives uh with Hubard Poke Hubard Poke and Bel Tramy County um because we get a nice rate because we're back hauling and so our our rate hauling rate is actually the lowest. So they use uh Poke County uses that rate to come up
with the market price for all the different counties. He sends that off down to the MPCA for approval and then they give the approval and comes back to us. And this is done every year. uh the each county has to pass the resolution
setting the market price and then we end up paying uh tax the solid waste management tax based on what that market price is. So the individuals out there bringing garbage in um never see this, never pay
this tax. Um, but the county as a taxpayer and then the county uh pays that tax uh on the garbage that we are are hauling away over to Boston. So, did you have a question, Commissioner Carlson? Okay. Going to make
Okay, we good. I'll look for a Well, we can discuss after, but Yep. Go ahead and make a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I would move that we approve the the 2026 mixed solid waste market price resolution per our annual requirement. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Do we have a
second? Second by Commissioner Winger. Further discussion. Thank you for the for bringing for for that. Just I think that was more for the general public so we they knew what it was. Thank you. Yep. Well, that was I think it was good for the board to hear. I, you know,
being on the solid waste committees, I knew what it was, but I I think it's good for the rest of the board to hear that as well and know know what they're voting on. So, that's good. Appreciate you doing that, Bruce. I I kind of generally knew what it was, but John over in Poke County had
provided that up that summary to all the counties in case there was questions. So, much appreciated. So, we'll we've got a sec a motion and a second. So, I'll call for the question. Commissioner Gould? Yes. Commissioner Carlson? Yes. Commissioner Winger. Yes. Commissioner Sumar.
Yes. And I vote yes. That passes 5-0. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. And yeah. And now we're on to the human resources approval of the 2026 employee insurance. Commissioner Gould wanted to
pull that um from the consent agenda. Um and I I see Ann is still here, Commissioner Gold. So if there's something in particular that that uh you wanted explained on that or do you want to make a motion somebody or and then
have discussion? Yeah, if someone wants to make a motion that's fine. Yeah, I'll make a motion. Commissioner Winger to accept the 2026 employee insurance. Do I hear a second?
I'll second that. Second by Commissioner Carlson. And now we can have discussion. Commissioner Ghoul, do you have a Yeah, Mr. Chair. Thanks. Uh I just I wanted it pulled cuz I I want to vote
against it. I just can good conscious uh support the uh 8% jump. I I think 1 2 3% would have been reasonable uh and helpful for folks. But um and just a reminder, I think we should look at uh other insurance companies when the time
is when the time is due. And I was hoping for a little more uh um options on that uh flexible spending account for uh this upcoming year. And so it's the same. Not crazy about that. So um I'll be a no vote.
Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Any other discussion on this topic? All right. Seeing none, we'll call for the vote on it. Commissioner Sumar, yes. Commissioner Winger, yes. Commissioner Gould, no. Commissioner Carlson,
yes. And I vote yes. So, it passes 4 to one. Thank you. On to the administrator's report and any any further questions. Uh, since I cut Administrator Barry off a little short on the u the budget and fee schedule information there.
Administrator Barry, if you want to go ahead and start with your uh your report and then we can interject with any questions on the budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a brief uh update for you. As you may imagine, uh most of the time over the last few weeks has been spent on refining the budget,
getting it in a format, uh writing the narratives, um building the preliminary budget book, uh checking numbers, proofreading, all of those sorts of things. So, quite a bit of time doing all of that. Um and then um also been working with the staff to revise and put final numbers to the fee schedule which
you also have um in front of you. Now uh additionally though uh I've met with uh staff from the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. Uh we are talking about a number of different things around housing uh issue issues, opportunities, challenges. Uh you know some of the obstacles that
are in our way. Uh there's going to be a housing summit on December 2nd that uh an invitation has been extended to you all to attend uh that's being sponsored by the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. Um it's an all day event. I've informed them that is a board day. So um they are
going to attempt to modify the agenda, I believe, to allow for uh the most beneficial stuff uh to be discussed earlier in the day. So, in the event the board can't attend, uh, you'll be able to get some, uh, access to that kind of
information. Um, we're also meeting several of us. Um, we've kind of developed an ad hoc, you know, task force. I don't even know if you can really call it that. Just a working group maybe on the whole building the tax base issue, uh, that Commissioner
Gold had brought up. Uh, wanted a presentation from the chamber, Greater Baiji, uh, HRDC. uh that's precipitated a number of different conversations and uh we've utilized that to uh essentially start to brainstorm different approaches
uh with more of a focus on actions. Uh so I've been a part of a couple of those meetings and uh I think another one of those is scheduled for this week. So, as we work on that information um and have something more sharable, we'll uh bring
that back to the board um and maybe get some ideas or direction or just provide an update. Uh but that will probably be a little ways off as we continue to work that particular issue. Um wanted to also update you on the HR director transition. Of course, uh it's a sad day
tomorrow really, but today as well, uh Ann is leaving us as our HR director and uh she'll be working half day tomorrow and then um and that'll be it. So, in the interim, uh Sher West will be assisting on some of the higher level duties as we work to fill the vacancy.
Um I think I reported to you that we had seven candidates that we are planning to move forward to interviews. One of those candidates has dropped out. Uh we're waiting to hear from another that appears that they may be dropping out. So we may be down to five candidates. Um which is still a good crowd. Uh and then
we have scheduled the hiring committee to conduct the interviews on September the 12th. So we're hopeful that that round of interviews is productive for us and that we'll be able to make a recommendation uh for a new uh human resources director shortly thereafter.
Uh lastly, I was going to touch base on union negotiations. So they continue to proceed slowly. Um we have met with six of the units. Uh two uh we have not yet scheduled uh meetings with. I know one of them we are in the process of trying
to schedule meetings with. Um but for whatever reason these meetings are like getting pushed out into now uh late September, October and into November. Uh of course that's well beyond the preliminary budget establishment. So, um, that's going to make things a little
more challenging as well. Uh, but, uh, that's what I have for you. I know that we kind of zipped through the budget pretty quick, the budget presentation and the work session. So, I'll stand for any questions on the administrator's update, but also additionally any questions you might have regarding
budget as well. Thank you, Tom. Any any questions on anything here? Uh, Mr. Chair, Commissioner Sar. So, I I don't know how much of this has to do with the budget,
but I know um last meeting I requested that we discussed the uh uh the jail, the current jail at our October meeting, and since then, it's been doing a lot of thinking and I appreciate uh you having
this time to think about it. So, it's more of a jail question than a budget. um and and trying to figure out, you know, what would make the best uh
I mean I thinking about it. Well, anyways, you said it would be expensive to uh keep it in the current form also uh a partial
would be, you know, expensive. And you you mentioned, you know, the maintenance and operation operations of a a partial. Has uh the design and operations committee
um put any numbers together on what those expenses would be? I know you mentioned that it that the central school and the federal building are on the market and I'm just kind of wondering are the the three options that were
presented are they a fair comparison um being that they all have different uses to to their buildings
um compared to what we could do if we did a partial demo. Um I'm also wondering uh it was mentioned that there's a demand of services. So if there's a demand of services,
have has the committee looked at a the future workforce growth um and maybe the future population growth of of Belrammy County to make
uh the pitch for for a complete tear down. this kind of some of the questions I've been thinking about um that would help me make a better informed decision on you know what to do. I mean, I know that I'm only one one vote, but I want
to make sure that I'm making, you know, the best decision that I can um with the information that we have and and so that's why I'm asking for additional information.
Um, would it be would it be um something that we could have this as a future work meeting topic to to talk through any of that kind of information or or how would you suggest that we do that, Tom? Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for
your thoughtful questions, Commissioner Sumar. I I think it would depend on specifically what you're looking for in regard to information because the approach that was taken and the contracts that were drawn up for the study that we presented to you were really to only look at the capital
construction comparison. And so that's really all we're looking at. We're just looking at what would it cost to rehabilitate the entire facility. That number came out to be almost $10 million, right? What does it cost to demolish approximately 75%
of the jail building and repurpose other 25% that came in around 8.6 six million and then what if you just demolish the whole thing um and did you know your sally ports under each strip of those and that was around six million in those options we didn't talk about um
I mean briefly we talked about it but we did never we never quantified what would the operating costs be under each of those scenarios we just strictly had them look at the capital construction related and demolition costs and sallyport construction costs um one of the things we were sensitive to was sort
of what you're getting out, Commissioner Sumar, in that uh Okay, if we were going to do a demolition and we were going to reconstruct a sally port or something, how can we preserve maximumly max maximize the preservation of existing
land in a campus to offer uh space for future growth that we might need for increased staffing due to demands or growth in the county population or those types of things. And so that's why when we look at that option three um the
configuration of the concept shows the maximum footprint of a future building that we could possibly get by the demolition. So the the conversation sort of focused on well would you want to preserve a building and limp it along with increased electrical gas and
maintenance costs that's going to sit there for the most part pretty vacant until you needed it. And then you're going to have to kind of modify it or to to to get it to work for you and that's going to add some additional cost and then it's probably not going to be exactly what you want and it's still
going to be old and those things or do you just kind of demolish all that stuff and say we need a new X type of building and now you can build exactly to your needs. Yes, it'll cost a little more because it's in the future at future construction costs, but you're getting exactly what you need and you've
preserved a maximum footprint for that facility. Um, so that's about the extent I I guess I'd look to Commissioner Carlson, but but really there was there was no conversation about operating expenses. If that's something the board would like us to look at, we could put
some time to that, but it probably will end up being my guess is more of an internal analysis uh by staff. you know, we have to get Steve and the sheriff and others to kind of feel like what do we put into that on an annual basis? And if we upgraded these types of
infrastructure, what would that cost likely be? Uh we could get um our consultants involved, but it'll likely require a change in scope and maybe a little additional fee. But if it's that important, you know, I would advise the board to do that if you felt like you
needed that information to make a better decision. Well, Mr. chair. And and I think what kind of sparked that question was I was um at the AMC uh board uh strategic planning last week in Hastings
and the city council and is operating out of a former uh county building that's over 100 years old. So I'm thinking, well, you know, we we got a jail that is what 30 40 years old. I'm not too sure,
but could we repurpose it? I don't I don't know. I mean, that's that's why I want to make sure that, you know, we we try to get as much answers questions answered as as as much as we can because, you know, once it's demolished,
you know, we we can't, you know, replace it or bring it bring it back, you know. So, I just want to make sure that we're we're doing, you know, uh doing what we can. So, I appreciate that and and I mean if if it's too much, I I
I don't know to, you know, for an internal um analysis. Um but I I just think um we have time to, you know, maybe figure this out, you know, a little over a month, but I I know that, you know,
people are busy. Uh but I don't want that to be an excuse and and not trying to, you know, figure out something. Mhm. Yeah, Mr. Chair. Yeah, Commissioner Carlson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Commissioner Summer, those are great questions that we talk about all the time at the DNO
committee. And, um, I think Tom's exactly right. The person that's going to really need to come up with those numbers. It's not an outside firm. It's going to be Steve and his and his group uh, that'll have to put together those numbers. And actually, we've talked about doing that in that
committee. Um, the reason we didn't go further with it was waiting to see what the general idea, what the general feeling of the board was. Um, and if you're feeling like and if the other commissioners are feeling like we kind of need to go ahead
with that, what would it cost to mothball it or whatever? I I think that's a great idea. And I and I and I know that's an extra burden on Steve, but I think, you know, I he's Steve's great. He'll he'll he'll he'll man up and do it. And uh um and so I think that's that's probably a good next step.
Um because I think all we have is really kind of anecdotal information about yeah it's going to be expensive to mothball it, right? Um well, how much is expensive? Well, it wasn't it wasn't really mothballing it. The proposal that was almost 10 million was remodeling it and putting in another elevator and other stuff. Correct.
Well, that's true. That's true. But what was left is um what is left, you know, and it's and and is that square footage anywhere near what a new building would be in the future for whatever purpose is necessary. So, I think that's but but
yeah, absolutely. Um I know that Steve could come up with some uh pretty good idea of what it would take to to uh keep alive the whole building or just that 25%. So, I think that's what at the next we meet next Tuesday again and I will
bring that up to Steve and and see if he can't provide us with some numbers. I think a good idea. I I would like to maybe go at it a different way and look at if Steve could come up with an approximate number for how much money we would save by demoing
that building. M how much would we save on electrical and and you know all of the maintenance and everything of the boilers and all the other stuff that is you know may not be 100 years old but it's 100 years old because it's a jail cuz it it's ran 24/7
whereas the rest of the buildings aren't. So it it is old as far as the the use of it from what they've said to us in the past. I recall that. Um, and so I would look at it as a how much money will we be able to save by getting it demoed in 2027
and not having those expenditures when we're knowing that we have are going to have budget issues to begin with. So having our costs still at a higher level when we know we're going to have budget issues coming up because all the other stuff and so that I would like to see us see what we're going to have for savings by demoing it. And then the other part
is, you know, we didn't have the option, but you know, if we weren't going to demo it, then what is the um what is the ongoing cost going to be because we we simply can't afford to do option A? They don't we don't have that much money in
the sales tax referendum money to to be able to even do option A. That's really a non-starter for me. So, Commissioner Carlson. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. think that was that was our intent when we talked with Steve about the possibility of doing that is just exactly what you said. It's
what is that cost? That is our saving, you know. So that is so that would be answered in in that. So I I think that would be good for the public to know that we're looking at by choosing option C or whatever. Um we're it's going to be more efficient. We'll
have the space for future growth of a building that is actually needed and whatever at that time if if and when that needs and in the meantime, we'll have a better view of the current courthouse. Um, and then, uh, you know, how much money can we save? Is it 100,000 a year? Is it 200, 500? How much
is it going to save us that'll help offset some of some of the costs that we know we have coming? Commissioner Winger, I just have one comment. It's, you know, the building there. I worked in the building, so I I know what it's like. Um
the jail is a lot different remodeled type of thing because of how it's designed than some of the office type of buildings that you know are 100 years old that are designed to be office space. It it it would be pretty
incredible task to turn this thing into something that's user friendly. Those the windows and everything else that it doesn't have much of. Um just a lot of things there that just aren't the same kind of a remodel in my opinion.
Yeah. So commission or Tom, you have a Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I just want to make sure that we're clear on the wishes of the board and that we get you what you need to make your decision in October. There's been some dialogue that's gone back and forth. Are are you
is the board still desirous of us doing some sort of costs save analysis from an operating standpoint? Ju just I for my standpoint I think just you know getting an idea of what the operational costs would be to mothball it and keep it running which is also
going to be the same amount of how much we would save by demoing it. Okay. You know getting that number I think would be of value. I don't know is there anything in addition to that that you would want to see Commissioner Sar? No. Okay. So, how about Commissioner Gold? Does he got Yeah, I I was going to ask that. Next.
Commissioner Gould, do you have any anything that uh any comments regarding this subtopic? Uh, no. I mean, I'm personally still leaning towards the third option and and and uh demoing it and hopefully something meaningful and and uh
productive goes there in its place. Uh I I like what John was saying. I like what you were saying, Mr. Chair. Uh, so no for forge ahead with that. That's I'm happy with that, too. So, sounds great. Thank you, Commissioner Gold.
Mr. Mr. Chair, I just not want to try to make things difficult for you, but um I know when I think about doing an analysis like this, there's often assumptions that go into the analysis, which we can easily describe and caveat and all that stuff, but but one of the primary ones is do do you want the
analysis to include the leasing of any space that may be preserved in that facility because that'll offset your costs. However, um I think we have to go into this eyes wide open in that there is a lot of leasable space out there right now. And
um we'd have to make assumptions as to how much space would be leased. And I mean, if we did have that available, I'd probably be undercutting the market to try to offset those costs. Personally, I don't I don't see how we can even consider doing option A. we're strapped for money so much in the first
place that and we we don't have that much money left over in the sales tax referendum. So to me it's a non-starter that there's it's there is no option A even available in my opinion. I would not vote for it certainly because it's just we we don't have the cash for that.
So, I mean, you know, the only only option that I, you know, as far as looking at would be if we didn't remodel it right off the bat, but we really, I mean, that I don't think that would be smart either because then we'd be spending money on a on a just a mothball
facility that is going to end up getting demoed down the road anyways. So, we might as well use this sales tax dollars to demo it now while and not put it on the on the, you know, 100% on the local property taxes later. So, um, so I would just say let's let's get the operational costs. Um, you know, what what do we
typically spend operating it right now for heat and and whatever air conditioning and and just building maintenance, that kind of stuff. If we can get a ballpark number, I don't think we wait on on on option option zero. Just what do we currently
spend? What are we going to save basically if we demo it? That's what I'd like to see. I don't see us keeping any of it. Um I I think that what Commissioner Gold said and what others probably, you know, we're more than likely, I think, going to end up doing
option C or option three. And so how much is that going to save us would be what I would like to see. If somebody else wants to see something in additional, but I don't want to spend a whole bunch of cost or time, you know, getting those numbers, just ballpark figures. I think I'm clear. I think what we'll do is we'll run the analysis with no lease
offsets. Yes. Okay. Yeah. because just wanted a picture of me. That's all I needed to know because that's a different analysis. So, we'll just proceed that way. Yeah. Because if we did option two, that wouldn't be lease space anyways. That would be kitchen stuff and and that down there. So, I don't think we'd be getting
much any lease space out of that, right? So, okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Good. Thank you. So, I think that brings us on to uh unless anybody had any any questions about the budget stuff or fee schedule or anything or we want to just review that and bring that up at a at a
later date or is anybody have any questions right now since we I guess Mr. Chair, I was just thinking um has the the county or the budget committee looked into a third party
billing or or uh grants or any type of anything like that to help offset uh some of these cost shifts. Uh I'm not aware of any of the departments looking at thirdparty billing.
Um I guess in in what areas and health and human services. Okay. Um so you know a number of years ago the county was in a financial situation with with our out of home placement
and uh since then uh the tribe Red Lake has taken over you know um some of those responsibilities and it's my understanding that the tribe does third party billing to offset some
of those costs. Um, I don't know how much if if if they're gaining lots of revenue or or what it is, but it seems like they're not in the
same financial situation that the county was in prior to uh the tribe, you know, becoming an initiative tribe. So, um, if I was kind of wondering if if there's any possibility that the county can do
something similar to that where we can offset some of those cost shifts in in any way. Thank you, Miss Commissioner Sner. We can look into that. Uh, I don't know if that has been done at one point in time
or another. Um I do know that the tribe does get different allocations, different formulas. You know, it is a different it's a different set of funding and rules and those sorts of things. So that may impact uh that sort of look, but I think it's worth asking
the question. So I'll go back and talk to staff about this and and see if there's any um potential for savings um with what you're proposing. So yeah, because I mean looking through the bills, I mean it it looks like we still have, you know, some equa cases that
might, you know, qualify for, you know, some some sort of funding. So I mean, just want to make sure that we're exhausting all our possibilities when it comes to, you know, trying to uh balance our budget. Yep, definitely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Summer. Any other budget related questions for Tom? Commissioner Winger. Oh, no. Okay. All right. Well, let let's move on to our commissioner reports. Legislative lobbying and commissioner reports. We'll combine them together. Commissioner
Gold, do you want to go first? Um, sure. No significant updates or announcements to share. Pretty typical committee meetings lately. Um, I believe there's also a housing event scheduled for September 20th. It's
a Saturday coming up. That's um that's what I heard at our last um BCAP meeting. So in addition to the December meeting, I believe unless um administrator Barry, you know for sure, I think there's also a September 20th one coming out and and there should be
some details coming out within a few days on that. That's all I have. Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Don't know. Uh yeah, Commissioner Gold, there is another event. I believe it's the one that the city's leading. I don't have
the details, but I think what you've described is pretty accurate. Uh I could double check and get that information to the board. Okay. Thank you for that. But it but it is a separate housing activity for sure. Commissioner Carlson, do you want to go? Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Just kind of
the normal stuff just like Commissioner Gold said. I airport meeting uh jail uh design and operations committee meeting. we continue to meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Um September is going to be a nice month. I'm actually looking forward to one
Tuesday off. Uh and that's why I wanted to go on a little vacation. Um and then I have Prime West meeting coming up this Thursday. Great. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Commissioner Sumner, um what month are we in?
I know we met a couple of weeks ago, right? So since then uh I attended the um uh AMC board of directors uh strategic planning session in Hastings uh home of uh AMC president Mike Slavic.
And there we talked about uh the future of AMC and trying to uh do what we can to improve uh the association to include um member participation whether uh you're you know a seasoned commissioner
or a new commissioner. Um just trying to get uh more involvement and input um about the association. Um so that was that was nice. Um, last week I think I had a actually a week off, so that was
kind of nice. And those are pretty rare. Uh, I'll be at the AMC fall policy committee meeting uh next week. Um, is it next week? Yeah, next week. Um,
Wednesday to Friday. Um, I know that there was Oh, so today is the beginning of of the school year and I just want to uh say that uh I hope that you know everybody all our young learners have a
good good school year uh especially with what happened uh last week in in Minneapolis. Um kind of hit close to home. it actually did hit close to home and it reminded me of of uh you know the situation that happened in Red Lake uh
20 years ago. So I I know firsthand you know what what that's like and and uh I just uh pray and hope that our that our young learners you know uh can go to school and and don't have to worry about about you know adult things, adult
situations, you know. Um, this year I my twins are seniors, so it's it was good to see them, you know, actually excited to get, you know, get to school this morning. So, it was nice. Uh, when I first started, you know, uh, this commissioner job, I think they
might have been like kindergarten, first grade, and and to actually have them as seniors is makes you wonder where does the time go, right? So I just want to to say uh wish everybody a good school school season you know grandparents you
know take care of their kids you know parents you know everybody so that's my report thank you Mr. here. Thank you, Commissioner Seer, and thanks for the sentiments about that. I I remember that, you know, situation in Red Lake. Uh I was there
right after it happened to help with the stuff that I dealt with for my real job and and um I still know a lot of the staff from back then and it's a it was a tragedy. So, anyhow, Commissioner Winger,
um I did the uh household hazardous waste meeting. uh they held it in thief river so I just did it via zoom not really a lot to report that affects us locally uh directly affects us anyway um did the
benefit committee on the 25th and uh there for that um you know and all of these the benefit one with the insurance going up um you know it was difficult at the at the prime health meetings
uh to try to keep that down. Um you know, costs of everything are going up in the in the health field and that and that's hurting all insurance companies and I don't think we're going to see anything better. Um and so that's where that's at. Uh the
budget committee stuff was really difficult. I can say that now because it's been put out. uh some of the cuts that we had to make, I didn't like having to make, but we can't we can't keep adding to our our people and having
them stay here. So, we had to make some really difficult cuts. Um so, when you're looking through it, just understand it. We had to do what we had to do on some of these things. So, to try to keep it down under the 10, which we all wanted. So, um that's all I have.
All right. Thank you, Commissioner Winger. I had uh several meetings uh you know as Tom alluded to union negotiations. We're still trying to get all the different union groups to work into our schedule and
their schedules and everything. That's uh been more of a challenge than what we maybe thought it would have been um to try to get our schedules to drive. Um airport authority, John mentioned that. Um nothing super special there. uh at a Mississippi headers board meeting and um
was able to actually help a resident on a last minute type of a thing to you know for a couple of land land purchases that came up with a thing that really shouldn't have to come to the Mississippi waters board but because it was considered a variance we and I just
worked to worked to try to help them get a letter from the MHP you know got our board to give them kind of some some grace there you know we'll they'll officially approve it, but uh hopefully allow those two land transactions to go through for a couple of the northern
township residents. Um planning commission um just had a regular um regular meeting for that. However, I did find out that um sounds like one of I know the state has been really really slow on getting things going on the cannabis thing, but one of the one of
the local um businesses that had applied for um that was on the ball enough and sounds like they have their tenative approval. So, we will be I think registering the first cannabis business in the not too distant future and that they should get their license uh
forthcoming. Uh and then had uh Headwaters Regional Finance Commission which is part of you know offshoot of the the HRDC. Uh had our meeting on that which was pretty uneventful. Found we have um extremely
good payback on the loans that the HRFC gives. Um and they only a couple of them that are very small dollar amounts that are in default on that. Um so that was good to see. And then uh afterwards we took a tour of Lavali Industries and our mayor works for Lavali was our tour
guide. And so that was pretty interesting to see and hear all of the things that they have going. They're doing a big expansion on one of their facilities there. Uh um and uh doing um remarkable amount of work I didn't realize to the extent that they did. It was pretty pretty interesting to uh to
go on that tour and um see all the good things that that uh we have going on with the Valley Industries. So, that's my report. Uh, oh, and oh, and the HRFC, um, just to make sure that the public knows, the the lending that they do with the with the revolving loan funds and
stuff that they have, um, it's all what's called GAAP funding. It's not in direct competition with our local banks or financial institutions. It's basically, um, you know, to help businesses that otherwise might not be able to afford to do the things that they're doing. um to uh you know they
they get x amount of money from a regular bank loan and then um this is like a a a gap between how much they total that they need and the bank can only go up to a certain amount and you know so they need another $100,000 or whatever then that's where the HRFC
would be able to come in and and some of those monies we actually have quite a bit of you know a couple million dollars still available to lend um because when they had the some of the co money that came out once we did the initial co loans for the businesses that were struggling back then. Um once we got those loans paid back, which are paid
back now, um we're able to lend that back out again as part of our revolving loan fund. So, we basically about doubled the amount of money that we had originally. Um if it wasn't for that money, we would probably have things pretty well lent out right now, but we have substantial amount of money left to lend. So, um so pretty good pretty good
news all all in all. And that's about it for my report. If there anybody else has anything else, otherwise I'll look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Commissioner S. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Second by Commissioner Winger. We'll do a roll call vote because of our
situation. Commissioner Gold, are you ready to adjourn? Yes. All right. Thank you. Commissioner Car Carlson, yes. Commissioner Sner, Commissioner Winger, yes. And I vote yes.