--------- It's 3:00. We'll call the county board meeting work session to order. First item on the agenda is an introduction of new employees. Do we have any new employees here tonight? Tom? No. Okay. Move on to identify
future work meeting topics. Anybody have any f future work meeting topics that they'd like to bring up? Commissioner Sar. >> Uh Mr. Chair. Um I see that we're going to be getting an update this afternoon in regards to uh I believe HR1.
Uh but I would also ask the board if we can reach out to uh any of the local food banks or see what the local community has in regards to plans uh for distribution or or things like
that. and wondering if there would be an opportunity for us to get an update um on the uh food situation here in Belrammy County and possibly um
uh discuss any potential contributions that the county may uh be able to assist with. Um if not knowing how long this government shutdown is going to last uh from
uh what I heard at our at our district meeting it may go through uh the month of November. So you know what's going to happen in December. I think uh you know we all have some concerns about you know the the food insecurities that uh are in
our county. So I I think it would be prudent that we uh receive some sort of update. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. Others um I just would like to bring back up I know I sent the information out with regard to the uh Minnesota Nuclear
Energy Alliance and like to uh bring that up uh either as a consent or regular agenda item at our next meeting um to get a get a vote on that. So if we could get that added that would be good and we will move on to the Kitami
regional library system update. I think Melissa is here to present >> Afternoon Florida commissioners. Thank you so much for having me here today to discuss the Kitagami Regional Library and our budget adjustments for 2026.
So what you have there is a budget packet that includes information on our 2025 overall budget that gives some general information on Kitagami, who we are, the counties we serve, and then it does also then get into what our 2025
budget numbers were in Blackduck, Baiji, and Belrami County. And then it looks into if we were to look at the budget reduction that has been requested by Belrami County with the preliminary levy that was set that maintenance of effort amount
how could Kitigami make that work. So we are looking at about a 40% cut from the initial levy request placed by Kitagami on the county board down to the maintenance of effort amount which is the legally required minimum in order to
participate in a regional library system. So we took a look at that and tried to figure out how we could make that work given the levy that was initially included. If we were to take the full impact of that reduction, again, we're looking at
about 40%. You'd be looking at some very significant reductions in the county both at our Blackduck library and our Biji library. In some ways are limited in our options by some of the state aid programs we participate in. So, all of
our branch libraries must be 20 hours at a minimum in order to be eligible for regional library telecommunications aid. So, we really can't cut in Blackduck almost at all. They're currently at 21 service hours per week. The most we could cut in Blackduck would be a
service hour per week and that information is given there for you. So, the greatest place of impact that you're likely to see these cuts is at the Bamichi Public Library. There are no county funded programs that we can cut here. Other counties do have options in
outreach services, but Belrami County does not participate in our outreach services. So really, we only places that we have to cut are in our libraries. So your BIA public library would unfortunately be the one that would have the greatest impact being felt by these
cuts. So I spoke with the local regional branch manager Sherry Warren about how these impacts would be shown in the community, talking about staffing and scheduling. And we believe that a 40% cut in funding is probably going to in equal about a 40% cut in service hours
at the Bamichi Public Library. That's an incredibly significant cut and it's going to impact your community in a lot of ways. We would like to request and propose a meet me halfway option with the Belrami County Board. So, Kitagami
would be willing to redee release additional funds, be willing to release funds that were earmarked for Belrami County for the 2027 levy buy and promote those now in 2026 in order to make these budget reductions work for
us. So, if we were to look at a meet halfway option, then Kitigami would support more from their reserves as well as making local reductions. We still would be wanting to ask Belrami County to also make additional funding
to Kitagami. So we'd be asking for about $81,000 additionally from Belrami County to make the meet me halfway option work. Otherwise, the second column you see there is the maintenance of effort reductions and the full impact of
Kitagami going from the requested levy amount to the 40% reduction to the legally mandated minimum. Thate maintenance of effort amount is the legally mandated minimum set by the state of Minnesota and it was set in
2011 based on numbers from 2009. So, the maintenance of effort amount used to be tied to real numbers and really mean something about the reality of your county, but since the time that legislation changed, it is that same
dollar amount. You'll get a letter every summer telling you it's that same dollar amount. And that maintenance of effort amount really does not reflect the increasing cost of library services. The maintenance of effort amount has not changed from the time it was set. flat
line all the way across. And if we actually look at the contributions from Belrami County to Kitagami, those contributions have kept up with the pace of cost increases in the libraries. So over time, it's gotten up
to that $450,000 because that really is what it requires to run this library. as inflation has occurred, as price changes has occurred, that number has gotten more and more meaningless over the last 14 years since it was set. So that is the legally
required minimum from the state. It does not reflect the current library needs of your community. So I would urge the Belrami County Board to consider some other options for funding for the Kitigami library system. We are also willing to look into
reductions in additional funding to help make the 2026 budgeting year work. And these are the options that we are presenting today. I'm happy to have discussions. Perhaps we can land somewhere in between the two, somewhere on one side, somewhere on the other side. I hope that the support and
feedback from your community gives you an idea of the importance of these services in your county, but I'm certainly open for questions regarding the budget. >> Thank you, Melissa. Do we have questions for Melissa?
>> Commissioner Gold. >> Yeah. Uh thank you, Melissa, for coming in. Uh about how many jobs are on the line, would you say? Um >> um so we can make some workforce reductions to things like our substitute budget. So the staff who are available
to fill hours when others are sick, but I think you'd probably be looking at one FTE to four FTEE worth of workforce reductions. I'm thinking one FTE under the meet me halfway option up to four FTE if we have to go down to that maintenance of effort minimum.
>> So up to four too many. We don't need four more people filing for unemployment uh or SNAP all things considered. >> We're four less people able to help the public in times when they need those public services, help with the computers
and printing, accessing e resources. Our regional staff here really supports a lot of the communities. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> Mr. Sure. >> Commissioner Gold, excuse me.
>> Well, I'm just kind of curious has um what kind of discussions has the KRLs board have had since uh maybe the last month or two um in regards to uh their budget, the Bumiji budget and things like that.
>> Sure. Yeah. So um from the time that we sent out the initial draft in July and then received your preliminary levy amount of that maintenance of effort amount those are the discussions we've been having are how can we make sure these local libraries are funded under
the terms of our budget policy in order to make those services happen as best as possible. So we started with if that's the only dollar amount we are going to get worst case scenario what options do we have including looking at extending more funding from our reserves and
looking at the least painful cuts that we could possibly make. Um so this has been reviewed initially based on the feedback by the board budget committee. The draft was put together and presented to the board budget committee and I believe they plan to bring these for
full board approval November 20th. Once we receive feedback from cities and counties on what their actual final levy amount was, then we received those dollar amounts pass our final regional budget in January given the responses from our cities and counties. Um, so
there's 461,000 that is what KRLS has in their reserves currently. >> 461 where >> um on the second page on the bottom of the second page it has
KRLS reserve general funds 461,000. What page are you looking at on there? >> No, I'm sorry. That was the full cost of regional library services in our fivecount region for 2025. >> So all of the city and county library
budgets in total for 2025 equal that full dollar amount. That was our operations. >> Is there so what what does um K RLS have in the reserves currently? Um we are currently
I think at about 5.6 but we are within um the limits of our fund balance policy. We actually just got our audit in September finalized. So >> 5.6 million or >> see and that includes all of our reserves, all our contingency funds.
Yes. 5.6 currently in our general fund. Now that does include all of our assigned and restricted balances. So our unassigned is about a 2.2 2 million which is what they want for our unassigned fund balance to make sure that we are fiscally responsible throughout the year.
>> Okay. And um I know that the reserves in the past year has you know has been a topic of of >> maybe discussion or >> uh some curiosity
and I was just kind of wondering we we've always been told that reserves couldn't go to operational cost. Is that a um KRLS board policy or how does how did that
uh get determined that it would only go there to maintenance of uh capital improvements of buildings and things like that? >> It sounds like you're talking about the capital appropriations fund that was set up by decision of the board sometime around 2021. That sound about right? and
that was specifically to be released to the cities in order to improve their library buildings. We also put together the county levy buy down fund to help our counties afford some of those library service costs over and above what they were willing to pay. So the
board up a capital appropriation fund the cities may request money from and the board can approve. And then we also, you can see in your budget there, have been using the county levy buy down fund, which the board set aside to help our counties to help absorb some of
those levy costs. So that is planned to end in 2027. And so part of what they're releasing early to make the 26 budget work is releasing the 27 funds in 2026 to make that budget work for you this year. >> Okay. So, I guess I was kind of confused
because we've always been told that reserves couldn't be used for or operations, but now I'm understanding that they can be used for county operations from the
the county library buy down fund. >> So, these are all Kitagami funds which Kitagami board has decided to earmark for those purposes. So, >> so they have looked at their own funds, created a fund balance policy and said,
"What do we think is the correct amount to have available and when we have anything additional beyond that, I asked the board to assign that to a specific project." So, they've assigned some to a hoopla overage to help with e- resources funds. They've assigned some to a uh
insurance overage in case we see great costs increases in insurance. Like these are all reserves they have put together to try to keep their business going and operating well despite future contingencies that may be possible. >> All right, Mr. Chair uh Commissioner
Sumar, uh what the consensus among the KLS board and budget committee for years has been let's not uh tap into reserves in such a way that it takes from other counties. Um that's what we definitely want to avoid. So
Melissa, if you could elaborate on that a little bit perhaps. >> Sure. Um so we've kind of dealt with this the last few years with Crowing County as well, right? So they had been at their maintenance of effort minimum of 509127 since it was set. This year they approved a 3% increase. But in
dealing with those budget limitations, always hitting that ceiling when we came to the county, we have also found ways for Kitagami to be able to try to release those funds actively. So when we were trying to help out Crowing County, what we would do would say, we have an
outreach funds reserve. what I'm willing to do is pay for some of that from the reserve to make the budget work for this year. And that helped us in Crowing County. We said, "We will take on a share of part of your outreach funding." Here, I can't really do that. I can't
dip into the outreach reserve to help you because you don't have outreach services, but the county levy buyown fund helps all of our counties in an equitable way. So Kitagami was willing to pre-release the 2027 funds for
Belrami County to make this work. They had done the same for Crowing County last year so that the Brainer Public Library didn't have to face $25,000 worth of cuts. >> All right. Well, Mr. Chair, I think u my final
comment would be is that I hope you know this situation here gives us an opportunity next year to actually have this discussion and dialogue uh prior to um setting the pre preliminary budget. I
I believe Tom has done an excellent job and and the budget committee uh bringing up you know our budget process you know this this year and I think as a community organization um it's important that we have you know
some communications with them uh prior to um setting the preliminary that way we can try to avoid you know this uh these you know difficult conversations you know I want to make sure that you know we are
community partners um but it's often difficult when when we receive the information you know after we said our our preliminary so uh thank you Melissa >> thank you commissioner sar any other commissioners
>> Mr. Chair. Uh, Commissioner Sumar, I guess my response to that is we did start earlier than usual the budget process this year be because of how concerned people were about the budget and and Carol did communicate a 3%
uh ask increase to the budget committee in a timely fashion like they have in years past. And the budget committee said no to that. They said screw that. They said let's go down to the statemandated minimum. And so we're having this conversation because of what
the budget committee decided. I think the communication has been happening, the process has been happening. Um it's just, you know, um this is where we're at because of decisions that have been made up to this point. So I Mr. Chair, I wonder if we can't hear from uh Sherry
and and Kelly quick uh on what the cuts would mean to uh Bamiji and and Blackduck libraries if the minimum goes into effect. Yeah, I'd like to speak one more comment. Um, so in 2013, Belrami County supported at 328 395. We've seen steady
growth since then. So it's surprising to me that a 40% cut would not be surprising to you. You know, like that why wouldn't it continue business as usual? Why would it be so significantly cut? That's a question that I have for
the county. Is there a 40% level of issues you need to see solved? Like what what is this 40% coming from other than this is where we could get to at the lowest if we wanted? Like I'm >> Commissioner Carlson.
>> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh thank you for that question. I think that was addressed very well a couple meetings ago uh by Administrator Barry and I would offer um administrator Barry to reiterate that information to Miss
Watley. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Mr. here. >> For those who haven't been following the news, the issues that we are addressing as a county are largely been given to us by our state government and our federal government.
Um, there have been massive cost shifts that have been proposed and are currently occurring to counties across the United States. Uh, in Minnesota, there's significant cost shifts that have occurred. We're having to bear about $1.2 2 million of additional cost
shifts uh in the next budget because of uh real and announced cost shifts that are coming for the fiscal year 2026. We have had to lay off seven staff members essentially over the last two years to constrain our budget and that's
been difficult for our team as well. The budget has been something we've talked about as a county for the fiscical year 26 budget has been something we've talked about as a county since um I think it was February of this year. In May of this year, the county board adopted 10 budget principles and
priorities. And those principles and priorities is what was used to develop the 2026 budget. And I wanted to just maybe go over the two principles that have guided
the decision-making and thinking around the budget. The first one was to fully finance mission focused operations before outside organizations and redirect county funding to cover those operations. County board had made a
decision unanimously actually that it was very critical given the financial situation that we were up against with the state and now the federal government in regard to cost shifts to focus our resources on county operations not
external operations. As much as we would like to, there's only so much available that we have. And the the principle that was adopted was to focus those limited resources on county mission operations first. The second one was to this is a
principle again adopted by the board attempt to meet but do not exceed mandated levels of service unless those services add net revenue or preventatively avoid higher net costs elsewhere in the county. So those two
principles were used when the budget committee put together its budget and its recommendations. Community programs are important things to have in a community. But when our county is facing a situation where we're looking at the potential of up to $5 million
of budget reductions at the hand of the state and federal government agencies, we have to make adjustments. And we've been making those with our department heads. We've been making those with inside our budgets, within our operations. We're going without police vehicles. We're reducing our staff.
We're reducing all of these things as an operation. And the board had made a decision with these budget principles and priorities that we're going to have to constrain our budget to work within our means and focus the limited resources we have on the county and and
that's the reason for it. So, it doesn't have to do anything with, you know, not liking the library, not wanting to support community programs. It has to do with limited resources. And I guess what I would say maybe just to finish is that if folks don't like the decisions that are being made, they need to direct
their time and attention to the state and federal representatives that are driving the budget decisions the county board is having to face right now. >> Thank you, Tom. Any other comments? Otherwise, we need to get moving to the next item on the
agenda. >> Mr. Chair, >> thank you, Miss Watley. >> I guess uh um yeah, we passed those budget principles. Uh and and what did I say when we uh passed those? I said, let's not use this as a pitiful excuse
to defund the libraries because I saw that coming a mile away with those. Those are guidelines. They're a sham excuse to defund the libraries. It and we have four different pots of money that we can still fund the
libraries and two other community organizations with um for years to come. Um so let's let's not talk about the budget principles and guidelines as as if it were the Bible. Let's not hide
behind staff. Let's talk about the real reason why you want to do this because I know for a fact two of you, two and a half of you have wanted to defund the libraries for years because you simply don't want to fund the libraries. >> Thank you, Commissioner Gold, for
putting words in our mouths. And thank you, Miss >> repeating facts. >> You're out of order there. Thank you, Miss Wley. And we will go on to the next item on the agenda, which is the Belrammy County Historical Society. I think Emily is here.
So you don't want to hear from the local library branch managers from your own district >> and we already heard. Thank you. >> Interesting. >> Okay. Right. Well, good afternoon
commissioners uh board. Thank you very much for the chance to share a brief update with you from the Belrammy County Historical Society. Our mission to collect, preserve, and share the history of Belrammy Countyy's people, land, and stories directly supports the county's
mission to promote healthy families, environmental quality, economic opportunity, and a quality of life second to none. We do that work every day with one full-time staff member, hundreds of volunteers, one part-time
staff member about 12 hours a week, and a community that believes that history should be shared and not shelved. Where do I point it to? Oh, well, no, that would help, huh? All right, there we go. All right. So the
ven diagram shows um our mission side by side and at the center people, community, stewardship, well-being, growth, environment, and quality of life. Um the historical society directly strengthens these shared priorities.
Nearly 10,000 people, visitors, volunteers, students, and researchers have come through our doors so far this year, connecting through shared stories and civic engagement. So our 2025 theme is empowering women
bely's journey toward equality guiding a year of programs that has linked women's history to community well-being. We've hosted monthly women's panels featuring leaders in engineering, healthcare, and the arts. We've offered art is her story
workshops featuring intergenerational storytelling. and we've revived the North Country Journal focused entirely on women's histories across Belcheremy County which I believe all of you have a copy of. Um, one of our largest collaborations was menstruation health week which was
developed with the Bamiji public library, Sanford Health, the University of Minnesota and many other partners. We combined historical and health education for all ages and distributed more than 20,000 menstrual care products countywide.
The program examined the his history of how menstruation and women's health have been understood across time medically, socially, and culturally, and locally, while addressing today's realities. As costs rise and safety nets like SNAP
shrink, many local families cannot afford these basic necessities, impacting women's abilities to attend school and their own employment. This initiative met a tangible community need while showing the health equity as part of public health history, not a modern
luxury. Additionally, our annual history mystery telling this true story of Emma Davids, which was featured in the North Country Journal, continued that bridge between history and community care in partnership with Within Reach, who
distributed Narcan kits and harm reduction information during the event both days. Our volunteers continue to be the heart of this organization, contributing over 8,000 hours so far this year. Their work supports
everything from exhibitions and research to major preservation improvements. These efforts um in part that we've done in this shelving work. Um, we got a legacy grant for that and we began to replace the shelving and our boxes and
our mezzanine storage with archival grade materials and that really improved our preservation and the environmental stability of the of our of all the archives. And so it's like 1 million items that we have upstairs that we've replaced these materials. So we went from the wooden shelves that you see on
the left to the very sturdy, nice and tidy, neat metal shelves that you see on the right. Um, these efforts stem from a federally funded collection assessment for preservation grant which guided a multi-year plan to raise our collection to national standards.
Online, our Facebook community now includes over 5,000 followers, and we've reached 1.3 million views in 2025 alone. It's become a living archive where people share photos and memories, helping us to preserve the county's
story in real time. Okay. So, looking ahead, one of our most meaningful initiatives in uh 2026 will be the voices of the Mississippi or oral history project, which is funded by a
welcoming communities grant from the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. The goal is for us to record at least 100 new oral histories with Bel Tramy County residents about what makes this place home and to share our existing collection of oral histories from our
archives which date back to the 1950s. These interviews represent farmers, newcomers, indigenous community members, business owners, and families who've lived here for generations. Each voice helps us document how people are connected to the land and to each other.
The project will include both a public listening gallery at the history center and online access for schools, researchers, and the public. It continues our mission of collecting and preserving living history while strengthening belonging and
understanding across our community. We've also um got really exciting news about our Minnesota 250 work that we are planning for next year. So, we're going to have three major components in this work celebrating the semiquincentennial.
Semiquincentennial, let's say that three times real fast, of our nation. Um so, the first exhibit that we'll be doing is doing history, the preservation of community memory. Now, doing history is one of the major themes that was provided by the American
Association of State and Local History for the Semiquentennial, and we took that on with Fervor. Um, we will have a special exhibit in the museum that will feature um artifacts from across time and how we work to preserve that history, how artifacts change and and
how technology changes and how we work in that preservation work. We're also going to have a declaration book club and we will start that in January. So for folks who um want a little bit of um light winter reading um we'll pull out the declaration of independence for
folks and then we're going to continue that work through a panelist series throughout the year our founding documents in context. I'm also very pleased to publicly announce for the very first time that we
have secured private grant funding for the complete redesign of our permanent exhibits. We've contracted a Minnesota based design form firm and are we are forming a community exhibit advisory group to ensure that new galleries reflect all
voices and experiences of Belrammy County residents. installation is slated for completion by the end of 2026, hopefully just around the time that the YMCA opens. This is another example of partnership-driven growth where outside
investment shows confidence in the historical society and local government support would demonstrate pride in Belrammy County itself. Minnesota recognizes public investment in history as a civic duty even before statehood
and that tradition remains vital today. I do want to provide a little bit of context regarding some funding uh across this region. So neighboring counties in our area contribute between most of them 15,000 and $89,000 annually to their
historical societies. And this is the list of contributions um that is slated for fiscal year 26 from uh counties around us. So even though we will not be receiving funding from the county next year, uh we
will continue to be open more hours than many of these other historical societies and we continue to offer more public programming than most of them. And it's not a competition. We will be here regardless that we get from the county. We will continue to offer these services
to all residents. We will continue to offer free entry to those persons who receive SNAP because we believe it's the right thing to do because we need to be open for the folks who deserve our history and that's our entire community.
So for some additional perspective, our community investment includes over 100 public programs this year, nearly 10,000 visitors and participants in our programming and our volunteer work, which resulted in over 8,000 volunteer
hours. We received over $300,000 in grant funding in 2025 alone. And none of that goes toward our operations. All of that goes toward missiondriven work. We operate right now on a budget of roughly $98,000.
That's our operating budget and that's for internet and power and and our salaries. I also wanted to share that I completed the small museum proc certification through the American Association for State and Local History this year and that was supported through the Northwest
Minnesota Foundation. its rigorous nationally recognized credential requiring advanced coursework and demonstrated excellence in management, collections, care and community engagement. I am committed to this work. It ensures that the historical society
meets and models best practices while delivering extraordinary public value within limited resources. Bel Tramy County history is one of resilience, cooperation, and pride. We've shown that modest local investment
yields enormous community return in education, tourism, and in civic well-being. Private and foundation grants will come and go. Private checks and small money to help us get through will come and go, but local government
partnership roots this work in place. We appreciate your partnership. Reinstating operational funding would infirm the Belrammy County values, it pass, its people, and its shared future. But regardless of the funding, we
appreciate your support of our history. We appreciate that you allow me to be here today. Thank you for your time and for your ongoing service to the community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Emily. Any questions or anything for Emily? Go ahead, Commissioner Summer. >> Mr. Sure. Emily, thank you for for the
update. Um, I'm always impressed with, you know, the work that you do there. You know, the the artifacts, the preservation, um, and and the services you provide. I I was hopeful that we would have been able to
save, you know, that the $7,000. Um, but unfortunately, it it didn't pass. So, I'm hopeful that we can figure out, you know, some some solution to maybe help out uh, you know, the history center going forward,
whether it be this year, next year, I'm not sure. But, uh, do you know how funds are allocated from these other counties to their >> the majority of their funds are used for for their salaries. So, yeah. Are are
they are they tax levby dollars or or how do you know how they get like crowing for example do you know where the $55,000 come from >> levby they're all this is all county this is all directly from the county budgets so like I pulled these numbers
from the county like I go into the county budget and line item and I pulled it out of there. So I don't know I don't know how the county then subsequently funds that. I just know that it's been included in that general FY26 budget information.
>> Yeah, looking at the numbers and seeing, you know, the zero be, you know, behind Belrammy County is a shame. Um, you know, Bel Tramy County, we we like to pride ourselves in being, you know, first in a lot of things and and, uh,
you know, seeing seeing that zero is is disappointing, you know, especially, you know, seeing that the work that the history center does offers, I'm kind of curious about, you know, the you mentioned the community return. Um do you know the what the return of uh
investment is you know to Biji or Bel Tramy County for uh the uh 10,000 visitors and volunteers are >> so I can tell you that the return um on museum dollars like the studies have shown that for every dollar that's
contributed to a you know in a museum that's donated the return is around $3.70. So, you know, if if you look at just every visitor that comes in, whether they're a member, you know, they're paying $7, that's, you know, so if you're looking at your $7,500 previously
contributed, multiply that by 370, that's, you know, that's your ROI, give or take. >> I would I would argue that we probably contribute a little bit more, but you know, that's that's me bragging. So, >> well, I'm hopeful if there are any future discussions this year or next year that, you know, we take that into
consideration. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Summer, Commissioner Winger. Thanks for being here. >> Sure. Thank you. >> And uh and I agree. I think what you do over there is amazing. Um you brought up
uh quite a few views on your online stuff. Um have you looked at attaching that to any kind of ads and things? Because I know people who do that with some of the stuff they put on and they make a lot of money. We've made $75 so
far in the last month and a half. I'm so excited. Yeah, we just Yeah. So, we're just starting to do that. We've also we just also got a Google Ads grant and so I'm learning how to do that. But we don't have like a >> Most of my most of my volunteers I mean people who love history and who have
time to volunteer are older than me. Okay. and not all of them. They are really great at some computer things, but like setting up a Google ad account and like doing all the ad stuff like they're not right. So, I'm I have to learn how to do that and then I gota or I have to like find a
specialty volunteer and that's not always so easy to do. So, I'm looking forward to getting it done so that we can get that in there. It's just a matter of time or getting the expertise. So, thank you though. It's really great and I'm Yeah, so far so good on the Facebook stuff. So, >> appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Anybody else? All right. Thank you, Emily. Appreciate the update. >> Thank you. >> And that'll move us on to a few public works items with uh we have the highway division ATV committee representatives. Uh I think Bruce. Yeah.
Take it away. >> Yes. Good afternoon. The first item I have for the board is uh representation for our ATV committee. This is not a standing committee. Uh the county does have an ATV ordinance that
helps regulate uh where ATVs can um operate on county roads. Um it is in within the the state rules, but uh with that ordinance, we can designate where those ATVs are at or where they're allowed. In that process, there is a
corridor access permit and that allows the ATVs to and clubs to designate certain routes uh county roads as their trails. And when we adopted this ordinance uh quite a few years ago, um the
club's Kelly Blackduck area uh we went through this process and we use this committee to review some of their their requests. Uh recently I just received one from the Forttown Griggla area. Um, again, we don't have a standing committee, so I'm looking for a couple of commissioners that we could um put on
that committee to review their request. >> Commissioner, >> so I was uh part of this committee when it was um a committee a year or two ago, and I would be willing to
uh join again. and and I'm not too sure who uh did away with the committee, but I would uh offer a recommendation of of uh the commissioner that um did a way to committee join me
as well. >> I don't think one commissioner can do away with anything, but >> well, there there was some recommendations. So, I I'll leave it at that. Whoever wants to join me, >> I was going to recommend that you be on it. Obviously, it's in your district, so that would make sense. So, um as one of the other commissioners um would like to
be on it, Commissioner Commissioner Winger, is that okay with the others? Yep. So, Commissioner Sumar Winger will be your representatives. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Is that on a consent? >> Um I don't think we need to actually
have a formal vote on that, do we? >> I don't. >> We always do for other committees. I I guess I just assumed it. Mr. Chair, if you're appointing a liaison to a formal committee or even if it's an ad hoc committee, it does need
to be approved on the regular agenda. >> Okay. So, we'll move move that uh that item to the regular agenda as get that out. Um
we could put it on consent. Yeah. If that would be agreeable. Yeah. Make it item 7 L on consent. Does that work? >> Mr. Chair, the the only challenge is that if you just move the item to the
consent agenda, it would >> Oh, it doesn't have any verbage on it for who's going to be on it. >> Correct. So, it doesn't >> So, we probably can't do that. >> Um, let's see. We got the public hearing classification of tax for the land. Um,
>> Mr. year. >> Yeah. >> I'm just wondering, Bruce, how soon do you need to have that? Could it wait? It could it be now that we've discussed it at a work session, could it be put on the next agenda for two weeks from now? Is that a
possib uh and we'll probably do that with the next one or two here that we have to go over as well. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. So, we'll move on to the item seven then and that's with you too, Bruce.
>> Yeah. Uh kind of similar request here. I'm looking for a couple of commissioners to help out on a uh a task force. Uh this is our development of our safety action plan or our county road safety plan. Uh we've had two of those
in the past and so this is kind of the third time we're going through it. Uh this process will look at all of our all of our roads and specifically segments, intersections, curves, um wherever crashes, vehicle crashes may happen. Um
and then in the end, the result is we would end up with a list of projects to help reduce the crashes that we have across the across the county. Uh so it is a kind of technical process that it will be done. Uh but this task force
will help uh lead um on different items such as the types of projects, public engagement, um just a general vision, goals. Um this will come in front of the full county board. Uh the plan does need to be adopted by the full county board.
So, I guess that's why I'm asking or hoping for a couple of commissioners to sit on this task force and kind of help direct it so that it is got some, you know, county board involvement before it comes in front of the full board for approvement. I don't want want this to be, you know, Bruce's plan that I'm
putting in front of you. I'd like it to be a, you know, a county plan. We will again have the public input. Uh, lots of opportunity for the public to input on it, too. U, but I guess I'm looking for a couple of representatives to help out with this process. Any volunteers?
>> Commissioner Carlson. >> Mr. Chair, I have sat with Bruce on the TAC committee. They we meet at least once a year, the transportation advisory committee. So, I'm somewhat familiar with some of the things that are going on. So, I I'd be willing to if no one
else wants to. >> Okay. Looks like we've got one one potential volunteer. Anybody else interested? >> Commissioner Wer. >> Yeah. Mr. Zer. Um, >> Mr. Chair, Bruce, so does does this uh
committee have any uh weight on who who uh gets their road and improved or anything like that? Uh hopefully we can move the 32 up to next year. >> So these will be again crash reduction
type of uh projects. Our simple ones have been six in stripes, rumbles, um widening the shoulder. Uh we have had some recently some bigger ones, the roundabout that will be coming out on
Adams and 15 15th Street. Um but it's the type those types of projects are are what will be in this plan. It's not our regular overlay projects or or improvement projects. >> Those all fit for 32, don't they?
Yeah. So, looks like we've got two volunteers like Commissioners Carlson and Winger. If we could make a note for a consent agenda item for the next meeting for that. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Okay. And then you got the naming and
memorial designations. Oh, no. The Wilton Cemetery. Sorry, I got to Thank you, Commissioner Summer. Um, the Wilton Cemetery one. That's That's you also, Bruce. >> Yes. This is a new item for the highway department. However, the county has been dealing with this. Um, and I have had
some questions and I'd like some direction from the board on this, but it's the Wilton Lutheran cemetery. It is an abandoned cemetery. Uh, that church is gone. The cemetery was there and, uh, it was handed over to us by default. Uh, abandoned
cemeteries come to the county. Um, the NRM department had been maintaining it uh, for many years. and then whatever did some finagling and gave us the hot potato to deal with the maintenance of this uh cemetery. Um and so we've been
mowing it for the last couple of years. Um this year we actually had to do some other repairs with the storm. Had a bunch of trees down and fences uh um damaged. Um but the real question we have uh that I would like some direction
on is is would we allow future burials? Um, out of the blue, I had uh uh someone approach us um from a funeral home and they uh had uh couple people come to
them asking if they would have the ability to be buried in this uh cemetery. Um and then through that little bit of research and checking with NRM, they said, "Well, there's paperwork um also showing that there is still one
person that has uh paid for a plot that is still living that potentially would uh want to be buried there because their spouse is there." And so it kind of comes to the board of how do we want to handle this? Um
no money in it. So it's uh all county dollars. It's county dollars going towards the maintenance of it right now. Um just trying to get some direction on if for how we want to proceed. >> Commissioner Carlson and and then we'll have Commissioner Winger after that. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um Bruce, I really
thought that the recommendation that you had on the agenda bill, the very last line, I thought that was very appropriate that someone that has actually already purchased a lot would get that we would honor that, but but otherwise closing it. think that was a really good suggestion that so I would
be in favor of that. >> Commissioner Winger. >> Well, a concern that I would have is does somebody have I mean if you were going to proceed at all, does anybody have the plotting that's there? Because I mean it's an old cemetery. There may
be people without stones and things like that. So, we don't want to get involved in excavating things that shouldn't be. >> Yeah. You have an answer for that, Bruce? >> I do not. I looked at the documents a while back and uh I guess I didn't
refresh on the that kind of stuff before I came but uh we uh yeah that would definitely be a consideration that we would have to do is um because we got the documentation I know of the plots and which ones were used where they're
physically at out there or what's available how much is available you know I don't have that but we would yeah we would have all those hoops to go through we were to proceed. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I would generally be, you know, in agreement with the
recommendation and with what Commissioner Carlson said with the caveat of as long as we know where that plot that was purchased is specifically and that it's not going to be a potential of like you like Commissioner Wer said, excavating something that could get us, you know, in hot water and
and be terrible for another family. So, um, >> yeah, if if the board were to say okay with that one, I one, I would reach out to that person and check, do you still want to? And then if they say yes, then we're going to go out there and want to
have as much of that figured out now ahead of time >> before it's crunch time. >> No, that uh sounds good. Anybody else have any comments on that? Commissioner Sum. Well, >> Mr. Chair, I just uh I guess for the benefit of of the public and the people
that might be watching, the recommendation is to is that the cemetery remain closed to future burials. Correct. >> With this one exception, the one that was previously purchased. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. That's my understanding. >> Yep.
>> And to me that makes sense and it's honorable to thing to do. So you got consensus there. Bruce, if you want to move forward and then bring it you would you have to bring it back to us then um for an official vote or anything or or would you be able to move
forward with with the consensus? >> I will >> get back to us >> get back to you on that. >> Okay, that's fine. I think uh you know probably if you get the details on it as long as it's not a contentious thing you could probably put
it on consent and if we decide to pull it off consent we can. >> Okay. Okay. And now we're on to the naming and memorial designations. You got a lot of them today. You've been busy >> flying right through these here. Um,
this item uh was requested to be brought to the county board for discussion. Um, it actually had been previously discussed and kind of uh tabled or not. No action was taken on it. So, it wasn't a lot of new work on my part, but uh what we have is a a kind of a policy or
guidance on when or how the process would go for naming andor using a memorial designation on county owned property. So, this could be buildings, uh roads, bridges, uh something physical out there
that we um that you might want to put a uh name to. Um, in the end, uh, with or without this policy, it is the board's, uh, up to the board if they want to, uh, name a road, the Veterans Memorial or
something like that. Um um so but this policy um having this policy would kind of help guide those requests when you get them um how you would handle them, what you're kind of looking for and uh just again kind of give you some
guidance on when those requests come forward. >> And uh we put exclude roundabouts in there, right? Um, questions for Bruce on the or or comments on the naming and policy. >> Go ahead, Commissioner Carlson.
>> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm really conflicted on this one. I I I'm cons I'm concerned that we that we go down a road of every other meeting we have somebody that wants to name a road or a building or and I'm just that that concerns me. I
don't doubt that there's a few minor or a few a few occasions over my lifetime that maybe someone deserves something like that. But it's it seems like a slippery slope. I I'm just I'm really concerned that it's kind
of like with license plates in Minnesota. There was at one time there was only going to be one license plate. We're not going to have any other license plates and now we must have I don't know 100 different license plates. Um and I guess that's all well and good,
but I I just I'm concerned. Is there anything administratively uh Mr. Barry that you can think of that um you would want to offer us? >> This is uh Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Uh you've set me up a few times
this evening. >> Uh no, this is really a political decision. Um it's really how you feel um you should approach this. There's nothing under the law that would prevent you from doing this. There are some concerns administratively from a safety standpoint. For example, if there's an
emergency and and somebody needs to respond and they use an address that's on a name renamed roadway and not the original, there's there's some of that that could be impactful. Um, that can be worked out as well. But, um, you know, there's there's the signage issue.
There's the the the slope that you're talking about as as you know the criteria around who actually qualifies, how do they qualify, how can you make that more objective as opposed to subjective, how can you avoid being arbitrary and capriccious in your decision-m around naming. All of those
types of things do become complexities that can be worked out with a good policy um and consistent application of that policy. But absent of that, it it can get pretty unwieldy. So, um I know that's a general generic not so great
uh response, but it it really does come down to what you as the county board want in regard to policy on the issue. >> My biggest concern is is uh you know who who makes the call on whether it's Billy
Bob Johnson Road versus John John Smith road. you know, if they're people that have contentious, you know, both want to name a particular road because they their families have lived on it forever or whatever. Um, you know, then we're in
a pretty, you know, tough spot for trying to say which one deserves it more than the other or whatever. Some of these other issues that you mentioned are are spelled out in Bruce's policy as far as it doesn't replace the existing road name. Um, so addresses and that
stuff wouldn't be an issue if we went with the policy. Um, and the costs are all on the people that want to do it. So that, you know, we don't have additional costs and burdened by the county. Um, other than time to go put the sign up because we want to put it up so it's safe um, and in the right spot. But, um,
I just I don't know if it's if there's a a need for it. I know we do have a a policy in place for unnamed lakes and that is a different different deal altogether but I don't know how often this would actually get used either because of the costs involved in the
fact that it is only approximately 15 years before that sign needs to be replaced and then there would be additional cost involved or it would go away. So I don't know that it would actually get used that much. So that actually brings up another point of if it's not needed that much then why are we have a policy for it?
Those are my two cents. Anybody else? Commissioner Ringer, >> I have a couple of thoughts. You know, first one is that when the E911 stuff was coming out, they did not allow for names to be named after people for those exact reasons. And that's and that's
still there when new roads are put up. >> Um >> they try to avoid that being the case. There are a lot of organizations though, if you go to a lot of places, you will see things like Veterans Memorial Highway. you will see that in a lot of places. And so,
um, you know, if there's a policy that says we they can't do that here, that would kind of be a shame. Um, again, like he said, I guess it could be overridden, but there's fine line when you start
allowing somebody to change policy just for this one thing or that one thing. So, um, I don't know. I think a policy is a good idea, but that's my my feeling just to have something there that we could fall
back on. But >> Commissioner Carlson, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. Bruce, I think I appreciate the time and effort you put into this because I know this this is very comprehensive. It's a good really good crafted policy. I'm just wondering if something like this
in order to have enough teeth might require either a supermajority or or um uh unanimous decision by a board so that it's less likely that we we go down this road too often.
>> I'm just I don't know if that would be if that would help at all. I I do think the way you crafted the policy is good. Um I I appreciated what you did there. Um I'm still just wondering whether I want to do it at all, but if I if we were going to do it, I I like the policy.
>> I guess on that any >> chair. Sorry, Bruce. >> Go ahead. >> Um you know, I'm not Yeah, I agree. I think we're going down a slippery slope if we do, you know, um, uh, pursue this. Um,
I have concerns, but, uh, I lost my train of thought, wouldn't >> want Bruce to go. >> Yeah, go ahead, Bruce. >> Sorry. Yeah, I was just going to kind of answer that that question was just like any policy, it can be readdopted by the
next board on a you know 3 to2 vote or whatever it is. So even if you put that in this policy, the next policy could change that. >> Yeah. >> Is my understanding. Correct. Yeah. >> And if there were things we wanted to amend this policy before um bringing it forward, we could send comments to you
about that and and look at revising it prior to passing it too. Oh, >> like if you wanted to add something to say that we needed a, you know, at least a four vote supermajority to pass whatever naming was or something if that
was deemed to be legal. >> Yeah, Mr. And that's that's what I was going to ask is the supermajority. >> I guess I would >> inquire with legal to see if if the current county board has the ability to
set, you know, the these type of uh u motions for future boards. I mean, I guess it's my understanding that any future board can change the current board's decisions.
>> So, >> I think a future board could change it to say that no, it doesn't require a supermajority anymore. Y >> Yeah, but that was my concern was the the supermajority. Okay. >> Any other comments, Mr. G? No,
>> I think it's great. Okay. I like it. Okay. Well, what what do we have for consensus? Do we want to have Bruce spend any more time on it or not? >> Whatever the majority thinks here.
>> No. How would you? >> Well, I see it. >> You'd like to. Okay. So, we have a no and a yes. And you are in favor of it. If we were to be in favor of it, I like his policy the way he wrote it, but I
just I'm just not in favor of us going down that road of naming stuff. I just >> Okay. >> Some someone's someone's going to feel bad. Somewhere along the line, someone's going to be, you know, whether it's you or me or Tim or somebody's going to have to say, "No, that's not a good idea."
And all of a sudden, you're the one person that everyone looks to say like, "What do you mean you can't do that?" It's like kind of puts in a bad spot. Yeah. Well, it's tied right now and I'm the tiebreaker. So,
I I I think that we pass on it. Bruce, I just uh don't want to open that can of worms at this time. >> But don't throw that. >> Yeah. No, he won't. >> Yeah. Hey, exactly. Yeah. All right, that moves us on to HR1 impacts to
public assistance followup. and Kurt is up here to give us some more info. >> Yes, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, uh, commissioners. Um, as you might recall, um, in September, I did provide you an update on the impacts that HR1, uh, that
was passed this summer will have on a couple of my programs, uh, which is the SNAP program and Medicaid. Um and there were some questions about the cost shifts uh that were associated potentially with that in regards to um what is a SNAP payment error rate. And
so this brief uh this information is is hopefully will be helpful in kind of simplifying uh what a SNAP pay payment error rate is. So going to give you the bottom line up front. If there is nothing else that board members, you
take from this or those that are watching online, you know, I really want you to know that a payment error happens when someone's eligibility or benefit amount is determined incorrectly. And these errors are not the result of fraud. These in many cases are simple
mistakes. Whether it's a mistake of a worker in a, you know, inputting the income wrong into an outdated system that we currently use or whether it's a complicated um verification requirement that a client does not or one of our recipients
uh fails to report something. Those are those are mistakes. Those are that's not fraud. And the error rate um catches those type of mistakes. And these mistakes uh as I've kind of alluded to come from complicated rules, an outdated
computer system that we must use that is provided to us by the state of Minnesota for the determination of eligibility and a very difficult verification project uh process. And so if we if the state and could come together and modernize
technology, simplify verification requirements, both our workers, uh your workers within your economic assistance team and our recipients at the county level would make fewer mistakes. This would improve the accuracy. It would
reduce costs for the state that could be coming because of the cost share uh benefit change under the new rules of HR1. So with that, what are uh payment error rates? As I've um it's a statistical
measurement of the accuracy of the SNAP benefit calculation. Now again, as I stated before, it's not a measurement of fraud and it's not a measurement of the total number of cases with errors. It's a it measures total dollar amount. That's it. Um, and it's really
interesting in the fact that if you have a 5% overpayment and you have a 2% underpayment, it doesn't equate to 3%. It equates to 7%. So that error rate is total. Um, with that
and another piece of that is the amount that we get audited for this SNAP payment error rate. Statistically, it's very difficult to make a determination for a county that this is something across the board. These are audits that are happening at the state level for
stata for state statistic statistical measurements. Sorry, between my mouth and uh STS uh it's getting a little uh crazy. So to kind of help understand the audit process with this which uh it in order to understand the SNAP payment
error rate you really kind of need to understand when a case gets audited what happens. So when a case is pulled the state determines each month they pull so many cases and with that they assign it to a QC reviewer quality control reviewer. That quality control reviewer
uses the um the US Department of Agricultures standard for quality review. And what that means is they dig deep into a case. They go back and contact the client. They reinter the client. They will ask for verifications
that they they first get the file that we provide them that we have on hand. And then they'll go back and they'll take a look at verifications that we don't have on hand that they have to go and dig into detail. For us, if policy says if it's not questionable, you don't
ask for verification. We don't ask for a verification. But the QC uh uh reviewer must ask for that verification and they get that verification and then they'll take all of that together and they'll redetermine the correct benefit amount then for the
client. So with that if they determine that the benefit amount is less than $57 of what we uh determined or more than $57 of what we determined, that amount doesn't count in our error rate. Okay? But our workers still go back and we
correct the case. So either way, even if it doesn't go into the payment error rate, we still have to do administrative work and we correct the case to make sure that it's correct based on the information now that's presented to us from the QC reviewer.
And again, as I kind of alluded to, the sample size of these cases is not big enough to calculate a county payment error rate for most of our counties. So the sources of errors once an error has been determined by the QC then the
QC has to determine is this an agency error or is this a recipient error. So they will make that determination but honestly it doesn't matter whether it's agency or recipient it's all in your
error rate. So with that, just for your information, 59% of all of the errors in the state of Minnesota are agency errors. 41% are recipient errors, mistakes that recipients make um in
reporting. So there's 41% that as a eligibility worker or your economic assistance team doesn't really have control over. So with that, here's some examples of uh what the error what has been what has
happened with error rates in the past. We had a recipient uh here in Belrammy County that failed to report a change in their utility uh amount. This wasn't found out until the QC reviewer called did the interview with the with the
recipient and then got that information. And so what happened with that is actually the recipient was owed more money. Um they didn't get they got they got underpaid. So we then had to go back we made that adjustment. The recipient got uh got the the amount that they
should have had. But again at the time with what we had since it wasn't reported this would be what is considered a client error. On the second one at reertification the recipient reported that hey I'm no longer paying heating. All I've got is my phone and
phone is a utility cost at a lower value. We have a standard utility deduction that is given for heating. So through our the panel that this needed to be updated in our outdated system did not get updated even though it was
reported by the client. And so that resulted in um an overpayment of of benefit that then the recipient is responsible to repay. And then you can see the other one again is another QC reviewer doing an interview um and
finding out that the household composition which can be very complicated in SNAP um as well as a utility or an wage income was inappropriately reported to the county and then that also resulted in an overpayment.
So for 2025, to break it down specifically for this year, what we currently have information and data on is from October of 2024 to April of 2025 because the SNAP payment error statistics run on the federal fiscal year, which starts from October to se to
September. So they've got seven months. In seven months, we've only had six cases pulled. So this is where I start talking about statistically valid data. Um, out of that one case was determined to be an
overpayment. Total benefit amount that was supposed to be paid for those six cases should be $1,584. There was an error rate uh error payment in utility where they were overpaid $155 of their SNAP benefit. So you take that
$155 because that's the error amount and you divide it by the total amount of benefit that was paid and that gets you your 9.79% SNAP payment error rate. So again it is
not a measurement of the amount of cases that we have an error. It is purely a measurement of dollar payment error dollars versus total payment that should have been made. And to give you example, as I looked up online what is considered considered
statistically significant data if we had 1,200 SNAP cases. So that we would have a 95% assurityity of the percentage that we have with a plus or minus of 5%. Which is rather huge shift.
You would have to do an audit of 292 cases. We did an audit of six. Great. That was one of my questions. How many total cases of the you the six are of how many? In other words, >> the six are of almost 2,000 cases.
>> 2,000. Okay. So, yeah, that it's a very statist statistically insignificant number. Um, and that's that's just what the state chooses to do. That's not in our control. >> Yeah. the the state is is pulling numbers that are statistically
uh significant to them, >> not necessarily statistically significant to the counties. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And to follow up with that, out of that seven-month period, there are 27 counties and tribal nations that have
had no cases pulled. None. So, just to give you an idea of how that how that works out. >> So, some opportunities uh there for improvement. the biggest thing upfront and um this is and you'll you'll hear this discussion later on on the
legislative priorities but it's really to get our technology to be improved. We're operating on a system that was created in 1993. It is DOSsbased. Any of like when I went to BSU in '91 and I took my basic computer course, that's
the screen and everything that I was working with. We use Windows, we use a whole bunch of other apps and this and that. And so this system has had to we've had to try and make adaptations. I mean, it's a great system. It can be adapted, but when you adapt it, you're
creating workarounds. The system is not designed to do what the policy is now requiring you to do. It should do it for you. You should not have to do a workaround. That creates errors. That's the biggest thing right there that can
be done to improve the accuracy of that that we are determining that your that your economic assistance team is determining. We need to streamline verification requirements. And by this I mean the federal government states that this is what is required for a
verification. So I've got an example here for SNAP. Federally required documents that we have to have to determine SNAP are proof of identity, residency, income, and medical expenses. Those are the four. We
only require these documentations if it's questionable. Shelter costs, utilities, and child care costs. That's what the federal government says. State of Minnesota says we need verification of shelter costs, rent and mortgage is required in order to claim it as a
deduction. So we are adding more on in order to get a deduction. So we're making the computation more difficult than it needs to be because the federal government says if it's not questionable, I don't need to see a verification. I don't need to make the client provide me something that might
be difficult for them to have you know on there when it when it comes to payments. So when we talk about streamlining verification requirements that creates simplicity that reduces errors uh both for the workers and it also makes it more understandable for
our recipients. And then there are a couple of things that can be done at the federal level or at the state level. they can request the federal government to do a demonstration or a waiver. Demonstrations and waivers are kind of more effective and efficient ways to do administration of SNAP. One of the
things that can be done as a demonstration or a waiver has to do with our elderly or disabled population. There's currently a pilot there uh that some of the states are utilizing where if you have an elderly or disabled individual that's not earning any income, only has their stable social
security income that they're getting, they are having to renew only once every three years as opposed to once every two years. Anytime you go into a case and you touch it, you create a chance for errors, whether it's on the recipient's
part or whether it's on the worker's part. inputting uh information into an old system. So, those are the type of things that can be done as we move forward and at least a couple of them you're going to hear about later on. Um
or you'll kind of see it brushed over quickly with our legislative priorities. Commissioners, that concludes my presentation. What are your questions? >> Commissioner Winger, um you talked a lot about this old system. Who's responsible
to bring it up to something new? Is that the state or something you do? >> Okay. So, the state is responsible for, you know, they they provide the supervision for SNAP and the counties
have to administer it. But to do that administration, they write the policy, they provide the system that we utilize. Unfortunately, what's happening right now, um, and there are other counties that maybe are more financially,
uh, have a maybe larger tax base than ours. Um, and so there are counties that are spending their own county levy dollars to come up with techn technological solutions uh, for this. It costs money because our state is not
providing that uh, level of feedback. And there are counties like us that are that are more income starved um or property tax starved areas that it we we just don't have the money to be able to invest in that. That sometimes means
then that you need more people to do something than because technology can help you reduce your human cost. And so I mean you're going to pay a cost one way or the other. And it's not also feasible to hire enough people as well.
Um, with that, >> Commissioner Summer. >> So, um, I have a few questions here. Uh, you mentioned the system, a system that was created in 1993.
And, uh, can you remind me which system? >> The system is Maxis. >> Maxis. >> Yes, sir. Mets. Uh, you know, all those >> Mets is the is the baby of the system. I think that was >> 12 years old. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean that um
thank you for the clarification and and I'm sure you know there's there's you know folks uh that that are probably wondering you know what system you're talking about as well. Um I know at the uh AMC ball policy
conference uh they they did a demonstration which was which was really great. I think was beneficial uh for myself and probably a lot of uh uh commissioners and and um county staff that were able to uh see, you know,
these systems and and how archaic they are and how complicated, you know, uh the the workers have to to work with these systems. Uh and and I I couldn't believe it. And I'm hoping
that there would be some sort of way or possibility that AMC or or you or or the county here can give that same type of demonstration to to the board because
I'm not too sure if we would fully understand how complicated this is if we don't see it day in and day out and I think that would be helpful and beneficial
for our efforts based on what the legislative priorities are. I think that's how we can help, you know, as as a board is is seeing that. And maybe maybe we can, you know, lobby uh
Representative Duran to to help us out there. I'm not too sure. I mean, I appreciate him coming to the board asking, you know, what we need and and how how he could help if that's one priority of mine, and that's what I'm going to push for. Um,
and and Kurt, I don't want to put you on the spot or or or anything like that, but you know, I I I read the news. I I hear the news and and you know, we're talking about SNAP and systems and things like that and and people are saying, you know, uh there
there's huge fraud and and things like that. People that aren't eligible to get receive these and and they're saying that illegal immigrants are are receiving benefits. What's true and
what's not true? Uh are are they able to um receive assistance? I'm not I'm not too sure. It's it's complicated. >> No, it is it it is complicated depending on the program uh that you have, but uh based off of uh the rules that were
passed with HR1 um as of one November um there is more stringent uh citizenship requirements that have to be looked at when it comes to SNAP. Um we have always looked at citizenship requirements with SNAP. Um it's just that there were
certain documents that could be utilized that we need to um relook at uh going forward. So depending on a person's immigration status uh and uh whether or not you know there
there were some people who were fleeing from war torn countries that uh based on the status of their uh visa documentation could receive. Those are having to be relooked at.
And another question I had was um I think it would be helpful and I don't know if there's if there's something saying that you know we'd be committing fraud or not but I think you know if the
commissioners us up here were able to reveal an application you know put in you know information as John Doe I think that would help myself and and hopey way, you know, my colleagues here to to know and understand
what all it entails to fill out, you know, these these benefits and and things like that. Um, I would encourage you if we can, you know, to, you know, take some homework home and and review and and and that way when when people have
questions, you know, we we know, you know, how complicated it is, you know, and and what what you know, your staff have to to do, you know, to ensure that everything is on the up and up. I think that would be helpful. Um, so with that
being said, what is the lifetime eligibility to receive these benefits? Because it's my understanding that once you apply uh if you you have like 80 months uh through your whole life to
>> receive SNAP Commissioner Sumar for SNAP you can receive those benefits as long as you remain income eligible or you're determined elig eligible for those benefits. So you have an income threshold that you have to meet as far as a federal poverty guidance level to
meet. as long as you meet that for SNAP, you continue to receive that. There's another program, uh, our Minnesota Family Investment Program, uh, we MIP, which is in some states called Tannif. Um, and that is a food and cash benefit.
And so the cash benefit currently by statute has a limitation of 60 months. >> 60 months. Um however it can be extended out depending on certain exemptions i.e. uh if you have a
physical disability you could potentially extend past your 60 months. If you are a victim of domestic violence or um you could extend your benefits past 60 months for the MIP program. So
it's two different programs. um one does have time limited uh for for a majority of those who receive it and then there is the SNAP program which is um both programs are based on income. Um but the
SNAP program there is no time limit. >> So a person can have a job and still receive these benefits. >> Yeah. Well, let me let me let me step back just to make sure. Okay. Um, with the SNAP program
there is, if you are considered able-bodied is the US Department of Agriculture term, we call it time limited recipients here in Minnesota. So, if you are an adult and you don't have a disability and you
don't have a child under the age of 14, um you and you're not uh those are probably two of the biggest things. You are required to work or a work-related activity for 80 hours a
month. As long as you maintain that, you can continue to receive SNAP benefits. If you don't meet the work requirement or workrelated type activity, um then you receive three months of benefit for
every 36 months. So we have a 36-month clock uh that is getting ready to expire here December 31st of uh 2025. A new 36-month clock will start one January.
So any individual who timed out of benefits the previous three years come one January can reapply and get three more months of benefit again before they then time out if they are not meeting uh
certain requirements of the program. Um and they're con considered a time limited uh recipient. Well, I mean it it it sounds complicated and and and there are eligibility requirements and and and times and things like that. So,
it's it's not like somebody can just sit at home and and collect benefits. Correct. >> No. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Commissioner Summer. Um I one question for you, Kurt. That I've heard some talk on the news about some limited funding possibilities. Have you heard
anything as far as um for SNAP benefits statewise if there's money that supposedly was going to be allocated from the federal to >> as of the time of me coming over here? Uh there there was that ruling uh that was pushed out on the 31st that uh
required uh the contingency funds to be utilized. Um but the US depart the administ the US department of agriculture has still not gotten back to the state on um how those funds are going to be distributed across the
multiple states because um don't know if you've heard it's like 4.5 billion but there's over 8 billion a month across the entire United States. So it's not enough money to cover a full month's benefit for every recipient. So, there's
a determination being made and then that'll go out to the state. Once the state gets that, we're going to push that out um through our public service announcements uh update our online uh piece so that uh uh people can be aware,
but at this time, we don't know when that money potentially will hit their EBT cards at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. Any anybody else have any last minute things? All right. Thank you, Kurt. Okay. >> And we'll move on to our legislative
priorities that we were just talking about. We >> Tom coming up with that. >> All right. Good afternoon, commissioners. Um, we're going to tag team the legislative priorities because, um, good number of them involve health and
human services aspects of our operation. And so, uh, Ann Lindseth, our health and human service director, and her team members are going to cover some of the, uh, various priorities that we have presented to you this afternoon. Um, I'll start with the first several, though. Um, the first one, as you can see, and these are in no particular
order, um, is mandate reform. Of course, that is probably the single biggest concern that we have as a county, is the continued entourage of these unfunded mandates. Just in the last half decade or decade or so, we've had dozens upon
dozens of unfunded mandates that have come our way. Either partially funded activities or fully unfunded activities that the county has had to absorb in some way, shape, or form. As you know, our county jail was an unfunded mandate, having to build a new jail uh before the
time of our current one expiring. Uh the demolition landfill is another unfunded mandate by the strike of a pen. Um down at the state house, uh we have have changes in rules and regulations which are unfunded mandates. We have formula funding changes which are unfunded
mandates. We have new legislation which is unfunded mandates. It's kind of just gotten out of hand. And uh of course now we know that uh largely in part uh to a lot of these unfunded mandates uh we are seeing the state project a $6 billion
deficit um for the next two b in the next or the second bianium. Uh and of course that has now caused um or caused the the state to want to shift even more costs uh for what was potentially funded mandates now are being less funded or
not funded at all. So this is a huge area of work that we feel like we need to just dedicate an enormous amount of time. There's a lot of ideas uh we've talked with Senator Green about also Representative Duran. Um we have ideas internally. We just would like to have
time and space to work on them. Um and so that's why we've put it down as a as sort of a general um uh legislative pri priority for our platform for 2026. Uh moving on, uh one of the areas that we've become extraordinarily concerned
about is as these cost shifts continue to come to the county, uh particularly from the state, uh there seems to be this um lack of knowledge or ignorance or awareness about how mandates impact economically disadvantaged counties. I don't have to tell you that we are the
second poorest county in the state of Minnesota and that our poverty rate is among the highest in the state. Our medium income uh household income is low comparative to the state. I mean we have the statistics we have a very low tax base under 25% of all the area within
our jurisdictional limits is taxable 25%. So every dollar that gets shipped to Bel Tramy County, we have to bear four times the burden that a county that has um a large much much larger tax base, say 90 95% tax base has to bear.
And so um we think that there needs to be some work around helping to educate and inform legislators about the impacts of these cost shifts particularly on economically disadvantaged counties. Uh so that's what that particular one is. The third one is the demolition landfill. You've heard this for a long
time. It's been on our legislative platform for a few years now. The early closure of our demolition landfill, 10 years early, uh, no less, is a very costly endeavor for the county. Um, we've placed about the cost of about $9
million or so, uh, to come up with an alternative solution that does require participation from a number of other county counties. Um, the the request in the past has to put this in the bonding bill as a regional solution. that did not go very far. Uh we just want to
continue to work this issue because it's an expensive one for the county and it's again another one of these kind of unfunded mandate issues. Um so that appears on the list again um with a couple of different approaches to consider for this year. Uh number four is the windstorm recovery. Um most of us
in southern Belrammy County were affected pretty significantly by the the June 21st or retro that came through um our county seat. And um when we had the governor here, we talked uh during the press briefing and and uh during his tour about the possibility of trying to
access additional funding from the state to make us whole uh from the disaster contingency fund. There seemed to be some openness to that. Um as you know, we did qualify um thanks to the help of the governor for 75% reimbursement of the of our costs for public
infrastructure. Uh, so about $7.5 million or so, but there's still $2.5 million that the county at this point in time is still going to have to come up with to pay for the the the the devastation that occurred to public infrastructure associated with the storm. Uh, Representative Duran has um
been working with us and I believe actually already has legislation in draft form on this very issue. So that appears here as one of the items we'd like to take to the legislature, work on as a legislative platform this year. Continuing that very theme, uh, property insurance reform and modernization has
come to the forefront kind of out of a surprise to us. Uh, I've been working with leaders from the city of Baiji. Um, and we have been sharing or community members have been sharing with us borer stories about trying to move through the insurance claim process, being denied
um, coverages for things they thought they were coverage covered for. um having delays and uh a number of different adjusters um moving through the process extraordinarily slow or having denials um all sorts of things like that and then also to find out that
the appraisal process is no longer offered for certain insurance companies in the state as an alternative dispute resolution. All of these things have culminated in a lot of concern uh by residents because there were thousands and thousands of properties that were
impacted by um and have coverage under private insurance. So, uh that's why that one appears on the list as well as something that uh we want to consider putting some time and effort to uh bringing awareness to legislators and uh
and working with what ironically is a task force that was uh developed by the state legislature this year. Uh so there's a task force already kind of working on some of this stuff. So it makes a lot of sense to kind of partner and work with that task force as well.
So that's what's uh on the list. We're up to number six and that means that it's the Health and Human Services Show. So, I'll turn the time over to them with your approval. >> Thank you, Tom. Commissioners and Lindsath, director of Health and Human Services. So, number six on your list is
cost share for state direct care and treatment facilities. So, direct care and treatment facilities are state operated hospitals or facilities. There's 10 of them. Um, some that you might recognize would be St. Peter Regional Treatment Center, Anoka Regional Treatment Center, um, and the
Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Current statute requires a county cost share percentage for these state hospitals. And just for your information, we do set aside about a million dollars annually to pay for that county cost share. There's some concerns with that cost share because those daily rates for
those state hospitals go up and we've seen some pretty dramatic increases in a few years, not every year. Um, but ultimately the statute also requires that that county cost share be paid out of county dollars, meaning county levy dollars. We can't use grants or other
funding sources. So, um, this is just a heavily burdensome cost for us um, as a economically disadvantaged county as Tom mentioned. And so I do think that it's pertinent for us to spend some focus area um, with our legislators talking about this county cost share and how it
affects disadvantaged counties. Um, and that also leads into the other concern regarding um, state hospital payments. Um, there was statute language that went back into effect as of July 1 of 2025 that um, requires counties to pay 100%
of the daily rate for individuals who are what has been termed does not meet criteria. And so an example of that is when an individual is at Anoka Regional Treatment Center, they need to be going to St. Peter Regional Treatment Center, but St. Peter doesn't have a bed and so
they wait at Anoka Regional Treatment Center. When that happens, counties are charged 100% of that daily rate, which is over $2,000 a day. Um, and ultimately, counties oftent times don't have a lot of authority to move them into different settings, county staff,
uh, per se. So, this is a huge concern area for us. We currently have two individuals who are court-ordered to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program who are considered does not meet criteria. So, we already have two individuals in this circumstance currently. And so, this is
a huge focus area that we want to spend time looking at with our legislators um on how we can get verbiage returned into statute to exempt counties from the DNMC cost share. So, that's number six. Number seven on your list is to
eliminate the county share of the behavioral health fund. Behavioral health fund is a fund that pays for substance use treatment for individuals who don't have any other uh way to pay for that treatment. So, no other insurance coverage. Right now, counties have a cost share of 22.95%
of the behavioral health fund. And there's been a lot of changes with our SUD legislation over the past eight years. Um, SUD treatment is now something called direct access, meaning individuals can choose when, where, and how to receive substance use treatment, which is a good thing, but it also takes
county authority out of the mix. So, it used to be that counties authorized treatment options. That no longer is the case. And then last legislative session, um, counties were removed from the eligibility process for the behavioral health fund. So, uh, it used to be that the behavioral health fund eligibility
was determined at the county level so that we could ensure that they were eligible and our county of financial responsibility. That was changed in this last legislative session, it's now going to be done at the state level. Um, so considering the state of Minnesota has removed all county authority around this
and oversight, um, we are hoping to gain some traction with not having to pay that 22.95% cost share. Um there are also some concerns about it being uh determined at the state level with that county of financial responsibility determination.
It's very challenging when you're looking at the whole state to determine what county is actually responsible for what individual especially since people can receive treatment anywhere they choose across the state. So um this is an area that I I believe should be focused on as we move forward.
Number eight on your list is the child protection opioid response allocation. We had a large change in the statute um that authorized this funding through this uh opioid response allocation and in the 2024 session there was changes
made and expansion in where these funds could be spent. Um also to couple the issue is that there was less revenue going into this account from the legislative s legislated sources. So there was a lower amount of revenue and then more places that it could be spent.
Ultimately, what that did to affect Bel Tramy County is we received $150,000 less in this allocation. Um, this allocation is used to support families to either remain a family unit or to reunify with children. It's for children affect or it's for families affected by
opioid use disorder. And so, we're really hoping that we can um regain some of this funding, have this statute scrutinized. We were very successful working with our lobbyists and with our legislators in securing some direct appropriation to fill in for Belrammy
County for this funding loss. We received $100,000 in 26, $100,000 in 27 to fill in for this funding loss. But that's just two years. And so we'd really like our legislature to take a look at the statute and hopefully um focus this funding on local support to
families affected by opioid use disorder. Um, I'm going to have my colleagues Kurt Anderson and Jeff Lynn come up and talk about uh number 9 through 11. >> Thank you, Aners. Again, uh number nine uh is cost and workload shifts for federal SNAP
changes. Um, these I've talked with you about in in previous, uh, based on the changes of HR1, um, that SNAP payment error rate, uh, if it's over 6% and it's a state percentage, not a county percentage, that could be a 10% cost
shift, um, that the in benefits that the state may end up passing to the counties. Uh right now with that, if you take a look at our recipients, uh we had about $8 million in SNAP benefits over a year. If you take 10% of that, that's
$800,000 that could potentially be a shift to the to the county. Then you look at the administrative cost shift from 50% administrative reimbursement down to 25% reimbursement. We had about 1 million worth of reimbursement uh
activities. So taking 25% of that is about another $250,000 that may be shifted to county levy and you're talking about a million dollars between both of those. So to help with that, what we'd really like to petition the state to do is, as I said earlier,
really need to modernize um and prioritize our system updates um to help us reduce error rate changes and to streamline the policies with that. And with that, I'll turn it over to Jeff. >> Thanks, Kurt. Good afternoon, commissioners. Jeff
Lynn, Bel County Health and Human Services and the Social Services Division Director. Um, number 10 on our list is the fiscal need to um fiscal need to implement the Minnesota African-American Preservation and Child
Welfare Disproportionality Act. This legislation was enacted to in an effort to avoid involvement for youth disproportionately involved in the child protection system and ultimately to invo to avoid placement for these youth.
While this while this has the potential to improve outcomes for disadvantaged youth families, it comes with a cost. Uh the added oversight, administrative requirements, and active efforts are expected um will likely cost over a million dollars uh for Bel Tramy County
alone. Um while so what we are looking for is we'd like to see to request the legislature to appropriately fund uh these services uh and the nec that are necessary to implement the uh Minnesota
African-American family preservation child welfare welfare disproportionality act. Say that three times fast. uh and or it or carve out um do a carve out for counties that are economically disadvantaged. We've talked about that a
couple times already. Uh and then number 11 is the IQUA Miffbah case review impact on on county out home placement aid, the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act
are pieces of legislation that were intended to ensure Indian children that are that are over represented in the child protection system are not duly un not unduly separated from their families and tribes and that active efforts are
in place to assist these families with their struggles. Counties are subject to auditing to ensure compliance with these acts and funding is attached to these audits which sometimes is not the case when we're audited by the state but in this case it is. Uh first we'd like to
use these we use these funds. Now, the problem with this is we like to use these funds to both um fund staffing to ensure that we can apply the that we can comply with the legislation and then to make sure that we have that we're able
to do the active efforts to ensure compliance with the legislation. Um the second requirement is that we have to have 100% compliance. I'm not aware of any other um state audits that require 100% compliance. Uh Bel Tramy County has
actually done well. We've we've passed this audit on several occasions. We're one of the few counties that has. Uh what we would be asking is that there be clear, objective, and attainable audit standards that they be developed uh and that the legislature define substantial
non-compliance at 90% not less than 90%. Which Belrammy County would have passed every time except possibly the first audit. Um, so that's what we're looking for in regards to this. >> Thanks, Jeff. >> There any questions? >> I think we'll
>> continue on with the administrator's update, Tom. >> Well, thank you. I was going to ask if there were any questions as well. Uh, that's our legislative platform. Just a reminder that sits on your regular agenda as item number 10. Uh, so there could be additional discussion if you'd like at that point in time since we're running a little bit long tonight. Um, yeah, on the administrator's reports,
since I'm up here, I'll just give it from here. Um I did attend the AMC District 2 meeting uh along with three of our commissioners which was great to have. Um we were really well attended actually. We had representatives u from not just our regular district area but
also from Marshall County as well as um um Clearwater County as well. So that was great to have uh kind of a full house and a larger representing area. Uh we had a lot of good uh conversation around things that are impacting each of us both um as neighbors and and kind of
regionally and across the state. Uh and then ultimately we did uh get to vote on the statewide issues of priority for AMC. That information will be consolidated with a number of other districts and use 10 to create the AMC legislative platform um which will be uh
due here in the next month or so. So, um, one thing I did want to mention is that, uh, we were asked and, uh, challenged, I guess maybe is the word, to, uh, come up with a couple of potential achievement award, uh, nominations for the AMC, uh, conference, and we did do that. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we have two
submissions. Uh, one is the Veterans Trailer. Uh, you all are very well familiar with that. We thought that was, you know, a state-leading initiative. We're very proud of. Uh, the state was a great partner with us on. It's a really good story with a lot of great statistics around it. And then additionally um with the storm water
pond at BSU was a uh three agency collaboration between the uh soil and water conservation district BSU and of course our own Belrammy County um environmental services division. So uh that's taking care of a large environmental impact associated with
storm water runoff as well for a good portion of our community there. So those will be the two that we submitted and hope to do well in that submission. Uh, no administrator's update would not be uh complete without an update on the jail. So, I'll give you just a quick update on where we're at on the new jail
project. Uh, natural gas is complete to the building, which is great. So, now we can start running the temporary heaters. That's going to help us on the inside trades and also with curing and other sorts of things. So, that'll be really good. Um, electricians are finishing all the underground in the electrical room. Masonry, plumbing, and HVAC has all been
mobilized. They're inside the facility starting to work right now. Uh we're buttoning up the roof, which is going to take another couple of weeks. Uh wished it was done by now given the weather that we're expecting, but we're still in pretty good shape on the on the roofing. And uh we're going to have um pretty
close to um the majority of the facility enclosed, which is going to be really helpful to work over the dur during the winter months. Um, as you know, to come later this month and to go through December is going to be the jail cells themselves that are going to arrive on site and uh and those will go in. So,
we'll have some good pictures of that. Probably another video maybe that we could share with you of the installation of those. Pretty interesting how they're going to do that. They'll double stack them and then shove them right through the side of the building. And then when they're all done with that, they'll put the last panel on or the last couple of panels on, I should say. So, that'll be
kind of interesting to see. Since uh we're talking about the jail, I just want to tee up a subject that'll become more frequent at the next couple of meetings, and that's going to be the issuance of our next jail bond. As you know, we've only issued a partial uh bond to cover the initial uh
construction and certainly all of the design of the jail. Uh that was a amount of about 38 $39 million. Now, we have about the same amount that we're going to need to issue in order to get the project through the finish line. uh the sales tax uh is already being collected for this. So there's no additional taxes
that we're that we're talking about raising or any of that. That's already been set in place. We are just we just split that bond amount in half so that we wouldn't have it would minimize our arbitrage um issues and uh so that we wouldn't actually have to pay interest
on funds we weren't using. So uh so delaying that uh has been helpful for the county. Uh the schedule around the second issuance looks something like this. At the next board workshop, we'll probably have a presentation on the process like what we expect over the
next several months. Uh based upon our spend rate analysis uh that we've been working and managing uh we expect to be sort of out of money quote unquote on paper uh by March. And so we want to make sure that we get everything teed up and get our second issuance you know by January or February. Of course, we pay
in a rear, so we do have a little bit of flexibility on on payments. Um, but right now, things are looking really good and it's it's time to tee this this process up going forward. So, the NE November 18th workshop, we'll have a discussion about the jail project, local option sales tax collections to date.
We'll also talk about preliminary series 2026A bonds uh and the structure and the proposed timeline for those bonds. uh by the December 2nd meeting, I would like to review the series 2026A bond uh plan uh that we're going to, you know, essentially finance, talk about the
terms, those sorts of things because you'll have some decisions to make on terms like you did the last one. Um and then we'll also want to consider a resolution at that point in time uh that would uh allow us authorization to run through the steps uh to take a competitive bond proposal uh to market.
And uh we want to do that on January 6th and then have that hit market and then hopefully close on January 29th. That's kind of the process that we've we've worked up in order to meet the timelines and the milestones to keep the project fully financed and running smoothly and all of that sort of stuff. Um so you'll
just be hearing a lot more about the bonding stuff as we go. No surprise there. Everything's on track the way it's supposed to be on track. Now that you've made the decision on what to do with the old jail, we can make sure that we have enough money in that new or that second bond uh to ensure that we can get that project included and and financed
as well. Uh then the last thing I have for you is just a reminder that next Tuesday, November the 11th, uh offices will be closed in observance of Veterans Day. That's all I have for you, but I'll stand for any questions you might have. >> Any questions for Tom?
>> Thank you, Tom. Anybody have any items that they would like to have pulled from the consent agenda? Hearing none, we'll move with the consent agenda for the regular meeting as as it sits and we will adjourn until 5 o'clock. Thank you. Part: 2
Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
All right, I will forgo any comments by myself this evening and we will go right into the uh citizens addressing the board se section. We do have a public hearing that is going to be immediately after. So I'd ask that those addressing the
board not repeat some concept that somebody pri prior to them has just uh spoken about in the interest of time for our public hearing. Um, 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 company at a 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. And I see
we have Yep. Go ahead. >> Hi, thank you. My name is Cherylyn Warren. I am a resident. My address is 708 Maple Ridge Court, Miji. I am the branch manager at the Bumiji Public
Library and um as you know, my director spoke previously at your work session and I did not get a chance to discuss what the 40% cut what kind of um what kind of impact that will have on the library and
on our community. So, I did want to address that while I had the chance to um speak before you. So, right now we have nine employees at the Bumiji Public Library. A 40% cut of that would be losing about 3.6 employees. Of those
nine employees, um five of us are full-time employees, four of us are part-time employees. So, when I say that we're losing 3.6 employees, that doesn't mean we're losing 3.6 six uh people. That could be five employees depending
on on the hours that uh they work. Currently, the Bumiji Public Library is open 56 hours a week. Uh that's 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday. Looking at a 40% cut, we would be bringing that down to 35 hours. That's over two days a
week. So, we'll be going from open six days a week to four days a week. Um, I think that there may be a misnomer, a misunderstanding of what kind of services the library provides or who the library serves. Um, yes, we are a place
for books and yes, you can come to the library and check out books and yes, there it is a place where people can gather all day long if they want to with no expectations of spending money or doing anything other than than using our services. Um, so we do see all walks of
life in the library and that includes the young families, the young mothers who come in and for our story time which is offered three days a week where they have a chance to socialize their children and have a chance to socialize with themselves with other with other
parents who might be socially. Uh, when I was a stay-at-home parent, I was I went nuts because it was just me and four kids. And so it's a good opportunity for them to come and see be around other adults. We have um
a puzzle set up at the table for anybody to come and work on a jigsaw puzzle. We've had one man come over from the apartments behind the library every day. And he says that that puzzle gives him a reason to get out of his house when before he only left his house to go to
the doctor or to get groceries. and he lays in bed and looks forward to coming to the library. I've had personally I've had a woman come to me asking for help leaving uh domestic violent home because
the library was a place that her partner allowed her to go because it was a safe place and I reached out. I helped her reach services and helped her get to those services to her and her child. We help lonely elderly people. We have I
had a um a man come into the library. He had just been diagnosed with cancer. He was probably in his 70s. He had he needed to apply for Medicaid and he um didn't have anywhere to do that. He had to come to the library. He didn't know
how to use a computer. we because we had nine employees, I was able to sit down with him and help him um apply for those social services that he needed at a time um where he was devastated. When we lose those 3%
u employees, we're not going to have that opportunity to sit down with them. I understand that that times are tough and I and I completely understand the budget restrictions that you are all facing and I don't um I can't imagine the kind of
decisions that you all have to make with um with this job that you have doing this, but I did want you and I and and I'm kind of defeated. I understand that we're most likely looking at making those cuts and cutting those hours, but I did want to let you know that there is
a very human impact that your decision is making. And it's not just homeless people, and it's not just it's not just um old ladies who want to read, but they're equally important, but there are there are people there are faces behind these cuts that are going
to be affected. And um and I wanted you to be aware of that. And I hope that in the future when you're facing these types of of budgetary restraints and budget um
discussions that you'll you'll keep that in mind because cutting the library a size of the city the size of Bumiji to cutting the library to 35 hours a week doesn't look good for any new residents looking to move to to the county. It doesn't look good for businesses as a
place to relocate when we don't offer those basic services to their employees. So, um, Bumiji is a great place to live and I and I'm I'm afraid that cutting our our library is just that first step in a
slide downward where maybe Bel Tramy County is not going to be the best place to live if we don't put our people first. So, thank you very much for listening to me. >> Thank you. Next >> again, please state your name, address.
>> Hi, my name is Christie. I live in Baiji and I want to speak as one of the faces of one of the library users. Um, I have a master's in literacy. So, I do a lot of tutoring. I tutor students. I work with students um in general who are in Baiji, but I also work with students out
of the area. And one of my literacy practices is to go online uh via Zoom with students to the library and we look for books that they want to read that are leveled to their level. Um this was my every every day every session
practice when I lived in a different state because I could always get books online that the kids were interested in and I saw their abilities grow. here in Baiji, I can't do it because when I go online to check out the books, every
single time I get a notice that we have already reached the collective checkout limit for the day. And when I've talked to the library, what they've said is, "Well, yeah, cuz we don't currently have the money to keep being able to pay for you to check out books past a certain
time." time and it's going to be a different time every day, but as soon as that limit is reached, you can't check out any more books online until the morning. I've been testing this now for several weeks, and it's generally about 1:00 in the afternoon that you can't check out online books anymore. What
does that mean when I'm tutoring at 7:00 p.m.? It means we can't use the library to get books. It means I can't meet that kid's need for literacy. This affects my employment. It affects the quality of the services that I can provide to kids
online. Also, in my personal life, I sometimes end up just spending money. Like, I'll give money to Amazon or to Hulu or to these national and international streaming services, which is sad cuz that's money I'm not spending
here in Baiji. If we can get our books for free online without having to wait until 7:00 the next morning, Biji is going to be a stronger community. So, thanks for listening to another face of someone who believes that the library
already doesn't have enough money. So, please let's not cut it more. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Sher Koa. Um, good evening gentlemen. and I live in Baiji and I'm also very much a library supporter. I've been my whole life. Um,
I remember as a kid my mom opened the first library in Warro, Minnesota where I grew up and um, it was well used and well appreciated and Margaret Marvin the founders her husband the founder of Marvin Windows um, was also a big
library supporter and um, funded their gorgeous new library which is well loved in in a small town of War. um they still um the county still supports the library, but she funded the the building itself.
So, I realize we're under tough times. Um I can hear a lot of um concerns from your employees um and from the administrator, but I can't help but wonder if there's still some personal bias against the library. I just really
sense sense that there's there's some of that going on because it's been an issue for quite some time. Um but tough times call for tough decisions, right? And um I know I listened to some of the videos from the last couple public comments and
I saw repres Representative Duran talk about state um funding, but I was glad to see the administrator talk about the federal funding as well because it all rolls downhill right from the federal to the state and now it's running and now it's it's um coming uh to us at our
local level. But I think that there's been a lot of citizens that have spoke eloquently that love their library. And I I just think it's all about values. It's like what do we value? Um we value access of information to our citizens,
right? That they should have equal access. If they there's a lot of people that don't have a printer, they don't have internet. And if we want them to thrive, they need that. They need that to in this day and age. Do we value
education and the promotion of literacy at Christie just spoke about? Do we value a safe, quiet space where you can just be and not have to buy something like the library just spoke about? We value those things. Your community
values those things and we need to reflect that. Um, no one's going to come to Baiji or want to come to Bumiji or stay in Baiji if we don't value the kinds of things that want that people want. They aren't going to be all
excited about, oh gosh, oh gee, we have a brand new jail. Let's move to Baiji. They are going to value things like parks and education, healthcare access, and a library. So, those are the things that people notice. Those are the things they need. Those are the things they
want. So in tough times, it's easy to do the easy thing or we can do the right thing. And the right thing is to support things like libraries that are high value dollar.
They they I should say they they have high value is what I'm trying to say. So please find a way to find a way. There's got to be a way to support our library and not have these drastic cuts. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Jack. Next. >> My name is Cheryl Schaeel. I am a resident of Bel Tramy County. I live in Joe Gold's district. I was looking online, you know, for Bel Tramy County information on the county
and I found some interesting information like right under Belrammy County Health and Human Services. The vision, the county's vision is that every child, adult, and family has the resources they
need to be safe, healthy, and independent. The library provides those resources. The mission promote community and family strength
and to work and to ensure the safety and well-being of all Bel Tramy County residents. If we listen to the first speaker tonight, she talked about how the library provides well-being for
many, many of the county residents. Approximately 14,000 people have library cards. That's 30% of the residents of Bel Tramy County. So, we're not talking at just a little
bit. We're talking 30% of the residents in Belrammy County use the library. In 2024, 9,000 people used the internet services in the library because they couldn't get
internet services anywhere else. That's 20% of the people who are residents of Belrammy County. Those services contribute to the well-being of all well
of 30% of the people in Bel Tramy County. And the county here says that their mission is to help provide for the well-being of all of the people. Doesn't that 30% count? Doesn't that 20% count
in the all? Thank you. Commissioners, my name is Randy Berg. I'm a resident of District 3. Uh, Commissioner Winger is my representative on this board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you again regarding the library.
I attended the work session which preceded this meeting. I heard the county administrator attempt to justify the proposed cuts to the Kitikami budget request. I heard him say two budgeting principles agreed upon by the board were served by
such cuts. first assuring that Bel Tramy County funds were used strictly for Bel Tramy County services rather than flowing to non-county entities presumably meaning
Kitagami uh of which Bel Tramy County is a legally mandated participating governing and funding member. Second, that a board was a board determination for the county to live within its means.
In other words, the shifts of financial responsibility from federal and state governments to the county oblige the county to live within its means. What the county administrator did not
mention is that the Bel Tramy County Board is vested with authority to increase the means available to fund important government services by increasing taxes. In other words, the ability to address funding governmental
priorities is not beyond the board's control. Now, the board had an opportunity at September meeting to direct the county administrator to recalculate the proposed levy to raise the money needed to satisfy Kitigami's budget needs. The
board declined to do that. The ensuing passage of the preliminary budget has created the present situation where only two funding alternatives are available to the public or the board. The first is to raid the budgets of
other county departments, and no one wants that to happen. The other is for the board to dip into reserves or other extraordinary funds in order to prevent the disastrous loss of
services at our local libraries that has been described uh this evening by a number of speakers. Such a use of extraordinary funds or reserves is what must happen. It's not a desirable situation, but it's not a
situation of Kitigami's making. This board has many unfunded obligations foisted upon it by the federal and state governments. The county administrator has urged us to direct our dissatisfaction to the elected officials
at the federal and state level responsible for that situation. We have done that. Indeed, I have suggested to the board that it may wish to add its voice to our criticism by passing a resolution condemning any
elected official who voted for the so-called big beautiful bill which has rep which represents an enormous financial and logistical blow to the county. But blaming the federal and state governments does not absolve this board
of its responsibility to identify, prioritize, and fund essential government services. It is implicit, I'm sorry, it is implicitly suggested in the county administrator's comments that
the Bumiji and Blackduck libraries are really not county operations because they are operated and staffed by Kitigami. But the KitKami Regional Library System is a multi-county consortium of of which Belrammy County is and must
be a responsible participating governing and funding entity. Because Belrammy County has libraries, it must be a member of a regional library system and it must provide funds to maintain that system.
But what is now suggested is that we do so at the statutory minimum level. In my opinion, that is an indefensible position. Libraries build good citizens. Libraries are essential to maintaining
an informed and engaged electorate. There can be no better investment of public money for the public good than libraries. There can be no better guarantee of the continuation of our
democracy and a society of ordered liberty than fully funded libraries. I know that you have heard from your constituents. Heed their voices. Fund Kitami.
Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to come forward? Anybody online? Diane? No. Seeing no one, we'll move on with our agenda. Look for a motion to approve the agenda.
>> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as written. >> We have a motion by Commissioner Winger. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Carlson. Any further discussion on the agenda, >> Mr. Chair? >> Yep. Commissioner, >> did we remove something from the agenda?
>> We did not. We decided not not to. Yeah, >> that'll be at the next meeting. >> That'll be at the next meeting. Yep. >> Thank you, Commissioner Sar. >> Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of approving the agenda, say I. >> I. Any opposed? Agenda is approved. Five to zero. On to
the consent agenda. There a motion to approve the consent agenda as it was presented. So move. Motion by Commissioner Carlson. I hear a second. Second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. Any further discussion on the consent
agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Any opposed? >> The consent agenda is approved. 5 to zero. At this time, we will have our public hearing on the liquor and beer license
fee increase. So, at this time, I'd like to request a motion to open the public hearing. Do I hear such a motion? So moved. >> Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Second. >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. All in favor of opening the public hearing say
I. >> I. Any opposed? We are at any open of the the public hearing is now open. So we look for staff to come forward. Thank >> I Leela Roth the license center division director and I do the liquor licensing
for our county. Um, so what we're having our public hearing for is our proposed liquor license fees that were put into the 2026 fee schedule. According to statute, we have to have a public hearing in order to pass those fees
officially into the the schedule. Um, notices were all sent out with the annual renewals to fulfill the 30-day requirement for notification to the lenses. So that's been done to notify them of this public hearing. Um in doing
the proposed fees, I looked at other surrounding counties, city of Bumiji's to make our fees um similar to theirs because we were a bit lower than all the other ones. Um these proposed changes will allow approximately $5,000
additional into our budget. So that is why we're coming forward to have our public hearing today. >> Thank you, Laya. So have uh anybody wishing to make any public comments, please come forward at this time and state your name and address for
the record. Come up to the microphone if you want to make any comments on the the fee increases. No, not online either, Diane. Okay, so I'll ask again if anybody wants to come
forward. Now will be the time. And seeing none, I'll ask one more time. And if anybody wants to come forward, now is the time. For some reason, you're supposed to ask three times on these things. So that's why I'm doing that. Uh and um
and any final comments from the staff? That basically is it, isn't it, Jody? Yeah. Okay. Um so we look for a motion to close the public hearing. >> So moved. Motion by Commissioner Carlson to close the public hearing. Do I hear a second? >> Second.
>> Second by Commissioner Gold. Any further discussion on closing the public hearing? >> Chair. >> Yep. Commissioner S. >> Um, so close. So, >> and then we debate it after we close it. Yep. Okay. >> Yep. >> So, all in favor of closing the public hearing portion say I.
>> I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. 5 to zero. Now we move on to any discussion or debate on on the uh issue at hand with regard to the proposed fee changes for the liquor license. Commissioner Sumner.
>> Uh Mr. Chair, I was just I'm curious to to know uh what the $5,000 uh increase will be used for. It says general fund, but is it there.
>> Yeah. >> So, those proposed fees >> once it gets to the general fund, what is what is it going to be used for in a general fund? Is it is it >> It'll go into the general fund. >> So, >> so whatever we >> Oh, the commissioners, if we wanted to
assign that to let's say the a history center, we could do that. Is is that is that what I'm hearing? >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, hope hopefully uh there's some consideration for that. Thank you, Commissioner S. Anybody else have any discussion on the issue?
Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I think it's just important to note that in developing the budget, having been on the budget committee, the increase was anticipated in the budget process, um, as were all the fees, not just the
liquor fees, but and that was done purposefully so that instead of waiting until the beginning of the year or until after all of the budget um, was passed and then all of a sudden we're dealing with increases or decreases in in fees.
Um that that was done purposefully during the budget process anticipating a positive vote. Now had we not if we don't approve of these liquor license fees increases then that would
reduce the amount of the $5,000 that we have allocated in the budget which would be part of that department. I believe that was part of the budget for the license center department and it's used however it's for salaries and whatever but that was already anticipated in
that. Am I correct Jody? So that if that helps >> it's not like it's a windfall it's more of already baked in. Any other further discussion on this gold?
Yeah, I just am opposed to this because um I I don't see how $5,000 is going to make or break the $100 million county budget. If we need to take it from somewhere, I'm fine with, you know,
taking it from uh the $700,000 uh contingency fund that's in the commissioner's line. I am. Um, you know, I also think that money should go to KLS, uh, Paul Bunan Transit and and the History Center, but um, you know, I I
feel like we could have talked about this, uh, back in September. Um, you know, so I feel like the opportunity to at least first address it would have been instead of last minute. Now,
uh, kind of a technical question, too. Um, are we able to um like wave building permit fees uh at this time as well? Because I think that would be helpful to um encourage some
developers uh with the housing crisis. I think uh a small thing that we could do is is wave a new building permit fees and and entrance fees. Um people are struggling right now um including our small business owners. I I don't care if
it's a bar or a restaurant or a mom and pop shop on on Main Street. I can't support uh an increase on our small business owners like this. >> Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Any other discussion?
Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to um to approve the license fee increase as it's presented. Uh, Mr. Chair, I would uh move that we accept the fee increases for um the
liquor and beer licenses. >> Okay. Do I hear a second to that motion? >> I'll second. >> Commissioner Winger is a second. >> Request roll call vote. >> Thank you. We will do that. Commissioner Gold. Any further discussion on the
motion? Hearing none, we'll do a roll call vote as requested. Commissioner Carlson, >> yes. >> Commissioner Gould, >> no. >> Commissioner Winger, >> yes. >> Commissioner Sumner, >> yes. >> And I vote yes. So it passes 4 to one.
Thank you very much. And uh let's see. So that ends that section. So, we'll move on to classification of tax forfeited land resolution. And looks like Mr. Foley is on his way up here to go through that
with us. Uh, good evening, commissioners. I'm Shane Foley, director of the natural resources management department. Um, to be honest, I was a little intimidated being part of this meeting because I knew there was um a lot going on and
usually nobody's here to hear me speak. Um, but as I thought about it, it's kind of fitting because what I'm talking about is a direct result of the same budget constraints that everyone else is concerned with. And I personally am glad that people are aware of it. And there's
a lot of frustrating things out there in government right now. And I hope people are taking a close look at it and seeing where waste is um, and where fraud is and all those things. Before I started the county and I understood the background of county government, I
thought of state budgets as just being some nebulous money that's out there. But now I know it's it's money that directly affects each one of us in a personal way. Um I would also like to say that I'm going to be talking about land classification of tax forfeited
lands um with the intent of selling some lands. That's a very personal thing for myself and my foresters that manage the land. And it's very personal for a lot of people in the community as well. Um I have over 10 gallons of blueberries in
my freezer, five gallons of juneberries in my freezer, all picked off of public land. All three of my kids shot a deer this youth season. We have over a 100 pounds of great ground meat in our freezer that's worth over $500 in the store right now.
We use public land. I value it a great deal. But knowing the budget constraints that are in front of us, there's a few parcels that I'll talk about that although I would like to never sell parcel of public land, there is some that truly to me make more sense um to
get into private hands. Um and then to be clear this this classification um and the resolution that follows does not mean we are going to sell these lands. It's the first step in a process. They would be brought back before the
land review committee and then also to you gentlemen um to decide ultimately once more investigations are done. but I I'm required to bring it forward. And I also thought this would be a good time to just um prime the pump, so to speak, on the kind of lands we're looking at.
So, the first parcel um is a pretty simple one. It's a parcel um that's 2 acres in size, but it's the entire road rightway of a 10 Lake Township roadway. It makes no sense to be in our county
hands. Um the management of that road goes through the township. The township said they'd be willing to take it over. Um and so this is one that we just turn over to the township most likely, but still has to go through the same process. Um so this is a parcel that we would
actually sell. Um it's only a portion of a parcel that we own. Um so highlighted in red on the screen is the two acres um that's adjacent to some private land. This land has topography such that no
timber harvest can be done on that land there. It's in basically the backyard of somebody who is using it as a backyard. It would be unbelievably uncomfortable for anyone in the public really to go use this land. It would increase the um taxable value
of the property. We would we would receive revenue from the sale of the property. It wouldn't limit anyone's use of the lake or any land besides this exact two acres that isn't being used anyway. Um so it seems like this is
going to be one that's going to be a best use to be in private hands. Um, now this is a 40 and usually we would never sell a 40 acre chunk and especially this one is adjacent to other state and trust land. Um, the issue with
this property is there's no timber value. There's never in the history of us owning this for 60some years. There's never been a timber sale on this property. No timber value. And on top of that, there's a ditch for a ditch that runs through there. So, we actually pay
a ditch assessment to hold on to this land. Um, there is an egg lease on the property. Um, which we get $48 of revenue each year off of. Um,
I think this is one that the being on the tax roles would be more advantageous since there's this there's yeah, no timber value at all there. Um, oh, this one's a little trickier. This
is a 77 acre parcel with beautiful timber on it. Um, it's in Liberty Township. The problem is is that this parcel is completely landlocked. Um, none of the adjacent land owners will allow us to get um there's about we
estimate about $80,000 worth of timber that's ready to be harvested right now. um and we can't get access to it. Um there are ways through a cartway path um that we can force access or attempt to
force access through. Um but this is one of those parcels since the public has absolutely no use. Um we can't recoup the the timber value off of it and it's not adjacent to any other tax forfeited land. Um it seems like
this is another one that would probably be better to um let someone purchase and develop. Um this next one's a 31 12 acre parcel. Um similar to the last one. Um there's uh this is a completely landlock parcel
that we have no way of accessing. Um and then this one has no timber value to it at all. Um, you can see that there is trees on it, but it's basically all balsam fur and other lowland species that really there's not merchantable
size here. And it's it's all if I had the contour lines on there, you could see that that entire parcel is basically wetland. Um, there's also an encroachment on the parcel that's um been in place for quite some time. This would be an opportunity for the landowner to um purchase the property if
they um don't want to deal with someone else on that encroachment. This one's a little different than the others in that this parcel was forfeited in 2024. It's it's right across the road from the highway department in Bumiji Township. Um it's a halfacre basically
undevelopable parcel based on Bumiji Township zoning rules. The reason it's on this list is because it went to auction twice. It didn't sell at either either of those auctions. So the new state law says that it reverts into our normal tax forfeiture procedure. The
first part of selling this in that procedure is to classified as non-conservation and to send it to the DNR for review. So that's why that one's in here. Um and then this parcel is a tiny little
slit of land that separates um a landowner's residence from a road rightway. It's83 acres in size and as you can see of no use to anyone else and certainly no timber value. The best use for this parcel is certainly to get it
in the hands of the individual who would then have full access to their property. Um the final parcel I believe that I'm going to talk about is in Roosevelt Township and it's 4 acres. This is another one that if the contour lines were up there it would help because this
is a very steep slope. Um there's no realistic timber that can be harvested off of this parcel. Um but there's a cabin encroachment from 40 to 50 years ago. I can't remember the exact date off the top of my head. Um but there's a little cabin that sits in the middle of
the parcel. It's um circled in red. Um so it would provide an opportunity for someone to um build on that the cabin encroachment to be resolved. and again to get some taxable value off a land that's
really not very usable for anyone else. Okay. Okay. So, what I'm asking for tonight is that you could approve the resolution that's in the packet um authorizing the classification of and then sending um all these parcels off to the Minnesota DNR for review um so that
we can then move forward in the process of evaluating these um parcels for sale. So, that's all I have. You have any questions? >> Anybody have questions for Commissioner Winger? >> I have a question on that last one. Um Yep. with the cabin that's encroached
onto that other piece of property. Uh he has sent me some emails on that. Um and has, you know, he's concerned about what he can do. It's the cabin was put what they thought on their property in what
1980 I think he said. Um and um is has he been notified of this sale? I mean, does he know about that? Has he talked to you? um he's talked to me. Again, this isn't a sale. It's the first step in seeing if the DNR will allow us to
sell it. If that's in our best interest to sell, >> it's just the first step. And since there was a bunch of them, I thought it'd be prudent to add this one in in case that's the route we go with it. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions for Shane? >> Mr. Carlson.
>> Um Mr. Sure. I would make the motion that we approve the resolution addressing the reclassifications of the eight parcels that uh Shane brought to our attention. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second to that motion? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. Further
discussion on the reclassification of these parcels. Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All in favor of approving this resolution say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes. I got
your marching orders, Sheen. Thank you. 2026 legislative priorities. I'll went through those during the meeting, but we were somewhat limited on time. If anybody has any further questions, I believe most of the staff are still here if they want to have any
any questions answered or anything as Commissioner Sumar. >> Mr. Chair, maybe a question for Tom. I just kind of curious that are we still contracting a lobbyist? >> That's an excellent question, Commissioner Sner. that is uh going to come to you as a separate agenda item
here in the next meeting or two. So you have um we have budgeted for that but we do not um currently have a decision from you on whether you would like to have a contract for that service. So we'll just bring that back to you at another meeting here in the next meeting or two.
>> We're currently under contract through the end of the year. Correct. which isn't I since I don't go back into into session until February is kind of a little bit of a mood point, doesn't it? >> Um, slightly. I've been working with the uh current contractor to develop a
strategy for next year as an example. So, we are meeting and we've had a couple Zoom meetings uh with the team and he's put together a page and a half proposal on things to consider for next year which we're going to be meeting on again. So although we're not necessarily writing legislation currently, that
doesn't mean we're not talking about the issues. I've shared the platform in draft form with them, asked for feedback, made adjustments, you know, so there's that work that's going on behind the scenes right now. It's just not active lobbying per se at the legislative level. That can start as soon as December uh if that's um I mean
under the current contract, but I don't know if we'd really want to do that if we weren't going to continue that service into the next year. So that's why at the next meeting or two I'll be bringing that uh contract discussion to you for a discussion and um and see what you may want to do moving forward.
>> So do we do we need to contact the lobbyist if we uh 30 days 60 days uh if we decide not to >> No, the term ends on December 31st. So it just terminates. there's uh there's a
you know the only way to sort of get it started again is to go with a new contract and of course that's we've done this twice now it's essentially the same contract that they've offered. One thing to keep in mind though is the current lobbyist that we had been using at Flattery and Hood uh is no longer with
that um organization any longer and I've talked with that individual and he's not lobbying any longer. So, uh, we are working with two other members inside Flattery and Hood, uh, that are lobbyists and so they're they're carrying on that work for us. Uh, and we'll be putting a proposal together
that I'll be bringing to you for their services. Um, and then again, as I say, you can decide as to whether or not you want to do that. >> Okay. >> And Mr. Chair, I think uh, you know, I appreciate the presentation that uh, the town and the team has has provided. I
think maybe one of the concerns that I have is you having 11 platform items might be a lot. You know, especially with election year, you know, everybody's going to want to, you know, have a project to
bring back home and I don't know if we can really necessarily bring all 11 home. So is there a possibility to reduce the 11 to three four make it more realistic? I
mean I you know for me I I'll I'll speak for myself as I mentioned earlier in in the work session you know a lot of this health and human services is is a priority for me and you know when I go down to the capital
and uh I'm probably the only one that goes down to the capital most times right I'm it's my job to go down there and and lobby on behalf of the county but it's often difficult ult when I'm the only one there lobbying when when I
I don't know much about, you know, the solid waste and and things like that. So, it would be nice and it would be helpful if we can get more folks, you know, down to the capital to to lobby for our efforts if we're going to have uh 11 um items because it it's going to
be hard and it's going to be a lot. We're not the only county that's going to be lobbying uh our local legislators for for our needs and our wants. So, I'm hopeful that whatever we decide um
that we do it in in a unified effort um because I I've been trying to uh go down there as much as I can. I think it's important that we show up. Uh, I I understand that it it's easier to to call our representatives, our senators,
you know, from home, but um, and maybe Commissioner Carlson knows, you know, it's nice to put a face, you know, to the names. I I think, you know, the the in-person meetings are are more meaningful than the the phone calls. Um,
so I'm hopeful that we, you know, whatever we decide that we we try to do our best and and and advocating for for our issues because I think it's important, you know, now more than ever to uh to get down there and and you
know, try to bring uh awareness to our issues. Um because I mean hearing about the the million dollars for the M AF PC WDA, you know, where are we
going to get that? We're going to have to increase our our levy. You know, we everybody sees the situation that we're in now with with our levy. um you know to to bring a million dollars home it cost
$500 to go down there to bring a million home I think uh the benefit of going down there would be uh beneficial so I'm encouraging folks and I know I know folks uh really
don't have an appetite you know to to go to St. Paul, but it's important. I, you know, our staff do what they can to to advocate, and I'm I'm just encouraging my colleagues here to do what we can to advocate for our 11 uh
priorities. Uh um that that's all I have, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Commissioner Sumar. Other comments? Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I appreciate Commissioner Sumar's uh thoughts about how many I do see that some of those are
kind of overlapping. So, I don't know that we really have I maybe it's a matter of distilling the list. Um, but my other concern or question is how many of these are on the
AMC and specifically on which is the Association of Minnesota Counties and specifically what is on the Minnesota rural counties agenda. I suspect that we probably have some overlap in those areas. Um, but I don't know that MRC has
their legislative agenda out yet. I believe that's coming in December. Um, so I don't know. Um, I guess I'm not sure where to go with that, but I but I agree with Commissioner Sumner that if we had
the list, maybe we have 11, but maybe it's a consolidated list of six and maybe there's three of the top priorities. Uh, that might be that might be helpful. I I I agree with you that having been there, you know, someone comes and they say, "Oh, and by the way,
oh, and then just one more thing, Senator. Oh, and Mr. Representative, just one more thing. Um, it does get to be a little bit well, what do you want me to work on? So, I I I think that's important what you said. I how we do
that, I guess I'm not sure. Um, I think we do have some time because we don't really have to have this today. We we we hopefully have it soon, but I think if there's a way for us to distill that, I'd be willing to work with uh Administrator Barry on that. just from
the perspective that I have as prior legislator. Um, and and then also working with our folks at AMC and MRC to make sure that we're not, you know, that maybe we're helping them state our case, but maybe that's our priority, something
different than theirs. Maybe Mr. Barry could speak to that. >> Merry, I think you were looking to try to get something passed yet tonight, weren't you? >> Correct. There's some things teed up uh legislative committee hearings and things like that that are taking testimony now. So, it'll be good to know
what our platform is uh actually before the next board meeting, but maybe I could put some minds to rest here by just talking about the legislative process, right? Um and you know, Commissioner Carlson, you know this well, but um I'm not afraid of a large
list. I mean, we started with 15 originally. Actually, it was 17. Then I will it down to 15. We went to the management team, got it down to 11. We could probably put it down to 10 if you took the first and second and combined them together because they're really kind of the same thing. >> The reality is that these legislative
items are so varied and they're going to hit different committees with different legislators that we'll be working on that you can run them concurrently and not run the risk of saturating a single senator or representative with these
items. Right? You've got a lot of health and human services things. You got some things in the tax committee. You've got some things in insurance committee, you got some things in like they're all over the place. So, you do have the opportunity to um utilize the the lobbyists to go to these various
meetings to meet with various legislators and senators and chairpersons of the committees that are going to be taking on these issues and get a lot more done. Last year, I think we had nine or 10. I want to say it was might be 10. >> I think it was 10. >> Uh yeah. So, we're only one off of that.
Uh we could get it to 10 if you'd like tonight. Like I said, by combining one and two, but the reality is majority of those quickly got cast aside. And so had our top three quickly been cast aside, we have nothing to work on for the remainder of the year. Each one of these
items has been vetted by our team as important and meaningful, particularly on the financial front, which we are struggling so much to try to just hold ground on. So I I I feel like that's important. The other thing maybe I would just add is we could have one singular
agenda and I will guarantee you that we as a team will be working on 15 anyway because we're going to be in a reactionary pattern. So this is just what we want to drive from a strategic standpoint. We do know that there's a whole host of work that's going to come
our direction that are things we're going to have to work on um that are going to be defensively, you know, we have to defensively posture on. So, you know, that's just the nature of the legislative session. And maybe with that point, I want to emphasize um two
things. Maybe one reinforce what Commissioner Sumner has said. It is super helpful if we can get commissioners involved in the process because your voice is the loudest voice that um other other than the the people we represent coming from our our county,
yours is the next loudest voice. um they don't really care a whole lot for the staff that are down here. We're just paid talking heads that, you know, have been asked to go down there and make comments and we're we're treated well, but it's not as meaningful our testimony as it is when you all are able to
provide testimony for them. So So that's an important thing. The second thing is, you know, we're four hours from the cities. An eight o'clock hearing is a 3:30 morning uh for our staff. It's it's snowy a lot of times. It's it's treacherous. It's difficult for us to
get down there. Um, we we do try to get down there when we can, particularly on very important issues, but that's where the lobbyist really does help us out because that is a consistent person that's down there all the time. They're hearing the whispers and they're hearing the overtones of what's going on and
they're apprising us. Hey, did you realize there's actually an alternative that's being suggested to this? What do you think about that? if if we're not there constantly and consistent consistently um say we're only there to give our five minutes of testimony and then we we jet back to Baiji and we're
not there for what's going on in between. We miss all of that stuff and that's where the lobbyist really does come to help us because we pick up on so many things. In fact, we started getting a lot of traction on some of these very ideas before the shootings occurred last
year and before the session ran out of time essentially. um we were actually making good progress on on several of these initiatives. So, just a maybe a couple things to put some context around all of this. Um it's a lot of work. I get it. I I wish we didn't have to do this work. I wish that our team could
focus on county business, but we have to focus on these statewide issues in order to be able to continue to do the county business that we do. Um it's just that critical. >> Thank you, Tom. With that being said, u
>> So, Mr. Chair, you're you're right. That being said, I I will make the motion that we approve the draft legislation priorities as presented. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second to that? >> I'll second. >> Mr. Weer seconds it. Any further
discussion on the the draft legislative priorities becoming our 2026 legislative priorities? Commissioner Stard. >> Uh, Mr. Mr. Chair, I just want to say again, hopefully uh we can get some help from from our commissioners because last year going down there, this is a a
three-page document. If I got to carry, you know, 50 documents, what's that? 150 pages. It gets to be a big folder and uh help is is is appreciated. >> Great. Any other discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the
question. All in favor of approving the 2026 legislative priorities, please say I. I >> I any opposed? Motion carries. Five to zero. Brings us to the HR director recommendation. Uh who's doing that?
Toms. I think um just kind of um bring the board tonight uh the hiring recommendations on the hiring committee that evaluated uh the human resources
director position as you know the previous human resources directorated the position on September 3rd. Uh county did a national purge and uh received more teaching along the way. Uh two hiring panels were set up. Uh we had Carlson
speak with those panels with three additional staff including myself. Uh we did go through two rounds of interviews uh totally separate rounds. First round we interviewed four uh candidates and um and selected an individual and offered a
position to that individual who unfortunately then withdrew from consideration during that process. Uh that process then was a second round. So went back to those full retraining and interviewed four additional candidates
and in that second round the hiring committee unanimously go Mr. Jordan Hickman to serve as our next HR director. Um want to give you a little background on Mr. Hickman and also talk about the recommendation that's before you for consideration tonight. So Mr. Hickman obtained a bachelor's degree in
business administration and the minor in political science. Uh he started his career uh in county government ironically worked for for 11 years at St. Louis County as a personnel analyst uh before he was then hired as the director of human resources for Virginia
State uh where he worked since January of 2004. Uh based on Mr. Hickman's extensive experience uh he's requesting salary and benefits that require board approval. As you know, as the administrator, I'm only authorized to approve up to a certain
level on steps that we have. Um, we have, as you know, a nstep um pay grade and uh essentially I'm only authorized to approve up step four. Anything over that requires your approval. Uh each step generally represents, you know, one
year of experience. So, staff get hired, you know, you have a brand new staff member, they get hired, they're in step one, and then each year that they work with the county, they a rising step right out at the n step which theoretically n years right um
has 21 years of experience as a public uh sector HR director in an organization that is twice our size um technically he should be placed at step 21 but of course we don't have step 21 um
therefore based on knowledge skills, abilities and experience and time and position. Uh as a seasoned HR director, the hiring committee is recommending that the board approve organ HR director with the salary to begin at step nine and a PO approval to begin at
20ear period. >> Thank you, Tom. First off, I I don't discount any of the applicants, you know, qualifications. Obviously, I feel like like Mr. Hickman obviously has the experience and everything needed. However, I can't
support this just because I I feel it flies in the face of our our budgetary constraints and for us to hire the most expensive possible HR director that we can get. I just I just don't think that that's um you know I think settling for the most expensive person we can get is
is just not something I can support. So, um, that being said, I'll look for a a motion one way or the other on the the directory recommendation. >> One question. >> Yep. Go ahead, Commissioner May. >> Um, you know, I know back been a lot of
years since I worked for the sheriff's office. I know I did see times that they brought in people and uh I was working there and they would bring somebody in and they would go to the top of the scale and it was frustrating for me. Um,
however, they had a lot of experience that I didn't have. Um, and that's why they got there. Is that something that has still been going on, uh, where people come in at different levels? >> Uh, yeah, does have a long history of hiring
qualified staff above that point. Uh, in fact, uh, every case we we hire, we always bringing language or experience um and um that means paying for that experience and we have done them many times. I look
back over the last four years and we've hired 64 people above step one over the last four years. Um six of those times the request had to come directly to the board for consideration. Uh and the board did approve those the last time
the board approved was March of this year. Uh so yeah, we we that practice. Again, the idea we're looking for the best people we can now uh work for us. Uh we don't hire based on, you know, the cheapest person that we can find. Often
times that very financial and other liability risks for us. Um you know, if you get a person in a senior position that's not um experienced, that can create a lot of problems by the organization that you end up dealing
with later. So, um yeah, and and maybe just to put one other statistic behind this, the difference between the starting salary for this position and the top salary is $30,000. That's that's the top um scale. So, maybe that's
helpful, maybe it's not, but what's the difference between step four and the and the top? So, what what you could have authorized as a as a um committee without bringing it to the board? Step four would have been $1,000.
>> Okay. >> Okay. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yeah. Go ahead, Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I was a member of that of the committee for hiring uh for HR director as was Commissioner Winger.
Um, and we went through, I think, what is it? Uh, eight, seven or eight different candidates. Um, and even the first candidate that we offered to after having interviewed Jordan, I'm
actually glad that she dropped out because I actually didn't think that she was as good as maybe some of the others thought. That was just my opinion. Um, I I would also rem remind the board that had Linda TR still been our HR director,
she would be at that exact wage. So, it's not like we're paying more than we would have paid if Linda had not retired. So, that's that's where that's at. I I was impressed with Mr. Hickman's responses to our questions. Um, but I still had some reservations. And so, we
did a third round with Mr. Hickman. Um, and that was with Sherry, um, Tom and Scott and I. We did one more round just just kind of wanted to know is this just just really wanted to make sure
because we knew that it was probably going to take the full Monty to get him on board if he was still willing to come and we didn't know that at the time. Um, and so I committed myself at that time to say, "Well, if that's what it's going to take, I think he's worth it because
we've got some things that we need to do as a county to move forward with uh having programs put in place so that our current employees can go through leadership training so that they're willing so that they're able to take on leadership roles as we move forward so
we don't have to go outside. Uh, and I believe that Mr. Hickman is uniquely qualified to be able to help us with that. where we haven't had that in the last couple years. Um, so I'm I'm excited about that opportunity. Um, I also know that if if that doesn't
happen, I would be really disappointed. Um, and and and we have an out. I mean, there's there's there's I mean, there's there's some probation periods. Um, I'm not saying that that would happen, but I'm just saying that um I feel good enough to say that I would make the
motion that we hire Jordan Hickman as our HR director at the step 9 and the PTO at the 20-year level as recommended. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second to that motion? >> Second.
>> Okay. A motion by Commissioner Carlson and a second by Commissioner Winger. Commissioner Ghoul, you would like to speak? >> Yeah. Um what is the salary being requested and what's the PTO number? >> Use
being requested is about 138,000 approval is I want to say about 10.6 hours uh period. >> Thank you. like 30 some days, 33 days. >> Um,
>> huh? >> 33, I think. Um, and there also currently in the the fact that Mr. Hickman does not require our health insurance. He would actually
get an additional over $6,000 in in pay on top of the 138,000. Um, so it's a it's a significant amount of of money that we wouldn't necessarily have to spend in addition to the savings that we are currently experiencing by,
you know, not having that salary outgoing right now. Um, I just as as much as we're tightening our belt and everything else, I just can't support it. So, >> Mr. Chair, >> we have a Go ahead, Commissioner Sar. >> Um, what kind of did you have any
negotiations? I mean, is looking at this, it almost seems like there isn't any negotiation. You know, give them give him the top of everything and and we got to settle. I I don't know. But normally I I try my best to support
committee recommendations, you know, because I know the work that it takes uh for for any committee to to, you know, give their their input, their advice, but this is just one that I don't know if I can I can support.
You know, we we have employees here that probably have the same same degrees that are making less and and working that that been here 10 years
making less. Um, no type of negotiation. And then you know uh let's see the individual uh has 21 years of experience. Um I'm kind of curious does does the
individual have the experience of of what like the current situation you know you know we we we're struggling to to keep employees. Uh our our younger generations are only staying at uh employment you know a couple of years.
uh what what did do they know about that? Do they are are they going to help us? I'm I'm not too sure. Um you know, what types of questions were were asked? Um I I have a lot of concerns and and I
mean I I'm glad we're having this discussion. Um because again, I I I just can't support it. >> Thank you, Commissioner Zer. Any other discussion, >> Mr. Chair? >> Yeah. Go ahead, Commissioner Gold. I
think uh the job market the way it is, this is where we're at. I mean, we don't I kind of feel like we don't have a choice. Um I So, I'm looking at the facts. I'm going with my gut. I I think he'll be good. So, um I'm supportive.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Gold. >> Any further discussion? Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Commissioner Sumar, I I agree with the questions that you asked because those are the questions that we asked Jordan in our meetings. Exactly. Um, and the responses
that we got assured me that he understands this situation. Uh, he currently is an HR director of over almost 800 people. Um, and and they really understand the fluctuations of employment at the at a at the school district level. So, and then having been
in county government for 11 years prior to being at the school, um I believe that he's uniquely qualified to really help us and be able to hit the ground running. Um and and without I know in the past Tom's had to do yman's work in
in getting some of our hires up to speed leadership wise. Uh I I don't believe that that'll have to be the case here with Mr. Hickman. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Commissioner Summer. Yep. So, 21 years at at a school you mentioned, right? 11
years at a county. That's 33 years. >> 32. Yeah. >> Yeah. Of experience. So, we're going to be going through this process again potentially in a in a couple of years. I mean, you seen how
hard it was already. Yeah. I mean, I had a I I guess I guess I'll call the question. we know how it's going to go. So, >> well, don't know until they vote, but yeah. So, um, yeah, I I think that it's
u, in a way, like what you said, Commissioner Sar, I think it's it's it's, um, settling because we've gone through the process a couple of times and, um, I don't know what the what the anal what what the analogy would be, but uh, you know, you you know, like you
said, the um, I think that, you know, if if we if we were to adver if we were to advertise for if we were to advertise for we'll we'll pay you step nine, would we get more applicants. I don't um I don't know. Um but we'll go go ahead and
call for the question, I guess. And let's just go for it. And Commissioner Carlson, >> yes. >> Commissioner Gold, >> yes. >> Commissioner Sumner, >> no. >> Commissioner Winger. >> And I vote no. It passes three to two. Thank you.
on to um legislative lobbying and we'll combine that with commissioner reports. Commissioner Carlson, >> do you want all of it or just >> Yeah. What or or a to >> Well, that's always a possibility, too.
>> Oh, okay. Do I hear a second to motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Sumar. discussion on adjourning uh and forgoing the commissioner reports. >> Mr. Chair, >> yeah, Commissioner Gold. >> Um I do want to give a shout out and a
congratulations to Chief Sherwood. He was awarded by the uh Minnesota um Fire Chiefs Association for his uh um excellence and professionalism and and a track record of success with our local department here. So, I wanted to make
sure that um he received some accolades tonight. >> Nice of you. Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Any other discussion? >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, >> Commissioner Sar. >> Um, I just want to remind the county and and our neighbors that November 4th through the 11th, 2025 is uh operation green
light for veterans. Um, I think in the past years, uh, the Bumiji signed by the pollen babe have been lit green. So, I think it uh hopefully I can encourage my colleagues to to light your your front
yard, light uh green uh in support of our veterans. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Any other further discussion on our motion to adjurnn? >> All right. Hearing none. All in favor of adjourning say I. I. And we are a dend.