--------- Here we go. 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. >> I don't know if any of us should be
getting involved with something. Um, >> it's enough now. Okay, moving on. Okay, I have no comments here. So, we're going to move on to anyone wishing to address
the county board on an item not on the agenda. Uh, may come forward at this time be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name, address for the record. Comments are limited to 5 minutes. Personal complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard
initially at a board meeting. Personal com uh complaints personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office. The person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language. Do we have anybody online?
Anybody wishing to address the board? No. Okay, we'll move on. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes. uh make the motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second it.
>> Okay, any discussion, >> Mr. Chair? >> Yes. >> Um I believe it was at our last uh county board meeting. Uh we received a presentation from the Northern Counties Coalition and that we asked that it be brought up at this meeting. I'm just
kind of inquiring or what what happened with with that. >> Uh, Mr. Chair, the direction of the board was to ask me to receive the joint powers agreement and to send it to the board and have you review it and then let me know if you wanted it scheduled.
So, I've heard from two of you now that say you want it scheduled. I just need one more for you to say that you want it scheduled and I'll get it scheduled. Uh well I thought we agreed on that at the last meeting. I'll have to
>> review. Yeah order right now anyways. >> What do you mean out of order? >> A motion in a second on >> but we're discussing >> this something part of the discussion. >> Part of the agenda. Okay. Um >> there was a question about why it wasn't
on the agenda. Okay. So that's why we need to I must have missed that but we'll take care I'll have to look at it too. >> Did you send out an email or something? >> Yeah the email was sent with the joint
powers agreement on Friday. >> Okay. >> When I at shortly after I received it I sent it to the board and in the email I'd mentioned if you want to have it scheduled let me know. Of course the agenda for this meeting was already published. I published that on Thursday. So um >> so it wouldn't have been this one anyway.
>> Wouldn't have been this one anyway. So, if you if you want it, just let me know. I just need one more of you. I got two that say yes. There's three. Okay. So, it'll be scheduled on the next meeting. >> Okay. >> You bet. >> Any other discussion? >> Okay. Hearing none. All in favor say I.
>> I. >> I. >> Opposed. 5. Approval of the consent agenda. Do we have a motion? >> So move. Okay. I'll second it. >> Second. Okay. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I.
>> I opposed. 5 again. Very good. Move to adjourn. Is it? >> No pressure. We have Did we have anything else on there? >> No. Wow.
>> Oh, just commissioner reports. Yeah, just a matter of if there's somebody that wants to second his motion to adjurnn or not. >> Any seconds? >> Oh, all right. You going to move on? Commissioner
reports. >> Who wants to start? >> Uh, Mr. Chair, I'll start. Uh, uh, thanks Commissioner Gold for for that. Nor on normally I I would second uh and and maybe today more so uh
because of uh caucuses this evening, but I I did have a lengthy report that I would like to give. Um, >> okay. >> You know, I guess in keeping with the uh the request of uh Commissioner Winger, but unfortunately
um I I did attend the uh Northwest Minnesota Juvenile Center meeting uh last Thursday, but my wife used my mobile office and I don't have my papers with me tonight.
So, I I will have to uh report that uh give give a more detailed report about the uh what uh Northwest does uh entail and and how we act as a as a board. Also, I want to mention that um I
registered for the uh annual NAO legislative conference that will be taking place in uh the February 21st through the 24th. And one of the questions that was asked during
um my my application or my registration process was they asked if our if our county has any legislative priorities and I couldn't think of anything. So if we do uh can you please remind me if
if not maybe something we can talk about in the future. I'm not too sure. um federal level, you know, you could you could actually the stuff we just talked about today, >> how the federal level it doesn't require >> um financial
evidence or proof of financial status for the SNAP funding, but yet they'll audit us and require that, you know, so so, you know, that would be something to talk about. >> Yeah. Well, I'm glad you brought that up because I just want to say uh thank you to to Ann, you know, for putting that
together. I thought that was uh very informational, >> her whole team. >> Yeah. Yeah. And uh I think we're fortunate to have the folks that we have here at the county and the work that they do, you know, just seeing that brief presentation um
makes me more appreciative of what they do, you know, because I mean going through that and the acronyms, it's a whole different language. Um, so you know, thanks to Ann and her team for putting that together
and and I'm hopeful that there may be some other uh time in the future where others might be able to participate or learn from it. That way we we're all on the same page when it comes to the SNAP and and um uh medical and and things
like that that uh HHS has to deal with. Also, um, Commissioner Carlson and I had a meeting with Judge Adam last week. Uh, uh, she's forming or she's part of a a specialty
court that involves IQA and uh, Commissioner Carlson and I attended that her her initial meeting. I think it was uh, very informative. Uh, there's a lot of folks that are involved. I I when when I first uh was
reached out by her, I I forgot that we had a specialty court committee. So, I uh forward the in information on to John and and uh was uh glad that he was able to attend as well. And and and I'm
hopeful that um learning more about this initiative helps, you know, helps Belramic County. So, >> what is that for? Uh, IQUA. >> It's an Indian child. >> Okay. >> Gotcha. >> Yeah. So, she's going to be the head
judge, you know, for for IQUA, similar to I believe um Annie is for >> Judge Schlutter used to be the one for DWI, I believe. >> Yeah. So, then she's retired. >> So, yeah, it's just another specialty
court. Got it. Thank you. >> Um, I think that is all I have tonight. Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, Mr. Gazik, you're I'll go um had continuing um negotiations with some more
bargaining units and as we as we passed tonight, one of the teamsters ones uh was on our consent agenda. So, that was good to see. We're making progress. Um at a airport authority meeting, nothing special to present there. uh Cast Lake
Fire Association at our first quarterly meeting of the year. I got u reappointed or reelected as the chair again. Um and the Health and Human Services demo that we had um that Commissioner Sumar and I attended just prior to the board meeting
today. That was very very enlightening and um really just and we're danged if we do, danged if we don't on that situation. And it's very unfortunate that the the state and federal rules are are so punitive and and um hopefully I
know our our local legislators heard it loud and clear and and hopefully they can try to help make some change even in the short legislative session this year. That's it for me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. G.
>> Yes. Uh, so I had a Minnesota rural counties yesterday. Uh, we talked about upcoming legislative session, including our 9ounty bonding bill project, um, which they're going to be working
on. So, that was great to hear. Um, I had Northwest Minnesota Juvenile Center meeting. Uh, they made me the treasurer again. I don't know why. Uh they like to have two
commissioners uh >> sign the checks. >> Yeah. So I go in and sign the financials uh after every meeting. So >> yeah, incentive for intendance. Yeah. Um,
Shaq, we had a a a Shack board meeting recently in a uh AMC committee meeting and we had a joint a joint powers board on natural resources uh meeting on the 26th.
So, uh that's all I had for uh committee meetings. >> Yeah, Mr. Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh along with Craig, we had the Bumiji Regional Airport uh monthly meeting. Uh and
thanks for Tim to send that invitation over to me for the Aqua uh kickoff for that. That was a good meeting. Um I did sign up for the training. Did you sign up for the training? >> I tried, but uh something happened where
where I wasn't able to. >> Let me know. We'll maybe go we'll ride down together. It's it's going to be over in Cast Lake. So, it kind but it's a two it's a two-day deal. It's like two full days. So, but I thought I should go just as long as I'm on there. So, um
Jail design and operations committee. We're go everything's going along pretty smoothly there. Um St. Philip school had an elected officials panel where they had u Lyn Eaton from the city council, the mayor was there, uh Bedell Duran was there and Jack Aus from the school board
and myself. Uh and they gave the sixth, seventh and eighth graders a chance to ask us questions about what do you do in your elected position and what does it take to to run and and um uh oh and then they had you can imagine uh sixth, seventh, and eighth graders kinds of
questions asked. What's your favorite color? What's the biggest mistake you ever made? You know, think >> Yeah. But but it was a lot of fun. It was about It's about an hour long and and it was a lot of fun. So, we enjoyed that. Uh we had newsletter committee, so
we got that just seems like it comes up so fast all the time. And Diane does such a great job. I think we just need to recognize Diane and the job she does putting together that newsletter. It's amazing. She is our editor-inchief on that and she does a great job. So,
thanks Diane. Appreciate that. Um, and then we had the land review committee meeting where there's some there'll be some parcels coming up uh at u not sure is it next meeting at our next commission meeting maybe or uh just some parcels that uh to be sold or not sold
or whatever but so look forward to that. Uh and then um Commissioner Winger joined me at the Department of Corrections Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act introduction that they had. It was a
two-hour introduction and this gal that did the presentation was was really good. I mean, she really knew her stuff and she ran and two hours and she was like as fast as she could talk and and she she really knew her stuff. I it was it was pretty good but
uh it's like wow how much was in there and it has to do with reducing sentences if inmates are following good protocol things like that so um >> that too >> oh yeah that's right you were there I'm sorry I'm sorry yeah you were
>> yeah you were I apologize yep um and then I joined the Minnesota rural county's zoom meeting also on Monday so that's it >> thank I don't have a whole lot more than that. I did chat about I was expecting a 15minute one like we normally do and it
ended up being a half hour. So that was uh yeah it was fun. Yeah. Uh then um I did the newsletter and the land committee and the one thing um uh I did
uh I got contacted by the extension office on uh to do a nomination for one of the 4 clubs that had done some outstanding work. And so they want them put in for a leadership award from AMC
and it needed a commissioner to do that and I think they talked to Tim also and and uh so we submitted those and went over and signed that and put that down. Um the Deer Lake Flyers had given out or
donated 40 turkeys for in in November uh of last year which was when SNAP was put on hold for everybody. So it was a really big deal what they did. So hopefully they will be able to get that
award. That'd be cool. Um yeah, >> Mr. Chair, just a quick question. I I have chat about tomorrow and I the question is going to probably come up. How far along are we on all the different unions? We have nine eight unions. Eight. Um how many of them are
already ratified? >> Two of them. And then we've also applied to our non-union as well. Well, we we should get hopefully some >> I'm just wondering if if there's what information I would be allowed to give
to on chat about tomorrow regarding union negotiations. >> Uh I think what you could probably say is yes, two contracts have been completed and ratified by both sides. So that's good. Um we have three votes that we're waiting results on for the other
three units. And then tomorrow we have a mediation session with one of our units. And then we have a scheduled meeting with the last unit. Um the one that kind of seems to be taking a long time coming back to the table. Um but we feel like that one's going well. So uh I think
we're in pretty good shape. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> So how do you figure that it might might come up? You know >> because it was on the it was on the consent agenda that one of them passed and so that's how I'm I'm and I'm just trying to be prepared because I'm not
going to bring it up. But I think, you know, if Kevin asks, "Oh, I see this, you know, you passed another union thing." I just want to be able kind of wanted to He did that to me the other day. >> Well, especially because when there's no items on our regular agenda, he starts
digging into the consent agenda. >> Talk more about the jail. >> Yeah. >> There you go. >> All right. Anything else? Second. All in favor? We're out of here. Part: 2
Wait, I think we should It was all 02 called the work meeting to order. Um do we have any new employee
employees? Any future work Okay. >> Well, I have something, Mr. Chair. Uh um wondering if uh >> perhaps the sheriff's department could come in. uh in the next uh meeting or two and and uh
talk about federal partnerships uh with um ICE not being out yet and continuing to terrorize people throughout the state. Um, you know, at the last county board meeting, I asked the question, how many
more people have to be murdered before uh they get the heck out or at least get back to their original mission. Um, so it's encouraging to see uh a lot of county sheriffs around the state um and
police chiefs um stand up and say that, you know, they they are there to protect the people. we the people um and not necessarily uh um enforce federal immigration law, which
is which is not their uh job description. So, with Border Patrol constantly in the area, um, and over 3,000 ICE agents, uh, all over the state, really,
I I'd like to know what the, uh, uh, sheriff department has to say as far as their, uh, working relationship with, uh, federal agencies. >> Mr. share. I would think that that uh that would be up to the sheriff to determine whether or not he um has
anything that he would be wanting or willing to share that wouldn't jeopardize um whether ICE or his own department. So, I don't know that it's up to us to to make we don't oversee the sheriff. We only oversee his budget. So,
I think it'd be up to the sheriff if he wants to to come in and talk about something he can. If he doesn't, he doesn't have to. Yeah, >> Mr. Chair, I would concur with Commissioner Gazwig. >> Oh, Mr. chair. You know, I think uh
you know, we we represent, you know, Bel Tramy County, and I think we owe to our to our citizens to uh do the best that we can to um have good relationships, you know, with with all our autonomous uh uh
elected officials, whether we agree with them or or not. I think it's important that, you know, we continue to have that, you know, open communication and transparency. So, you know, uh whether the sheriff wants to or not, I think that would be up to him. But um you
know, I would I would encourage that, you know, we do have some some conversations, you know, um maybe it's something that uh the administrator and the sheriff and and whoever else, you know, wants to to talk about, but we owe it to our people.
So, we're talking about the working relationship with ATF, with uh tribal, with uh Yeah. BIA. Yep. And uh uh the um
I guess as far as to go with the um Internal Revenue with all of their people that they put out to go after people who aren't paying taxes and the 80 some thousand right >> well some thousand people that are going
>> I wouldn't say it'd be open net I would say more like uh who they work with on a on a regular basis >> well that got up already because they don't work with them on a regular basis so um okay
you can talk to Jason and Z if you'd like >> uh yes Mr. shall reach out to the sheriff and then and let him know that the board has requested this and uh as he how he wants to proceed. Okay. Okay. >> We'll do. Thank you. The invite's there
anyway. Okay. Anything else? legislative discussion. We have a few people here for this one. So, Mr. Chair, members of the commission, uh
it's that time of year where we have the opportunity to discuss our legislative platform with our local area legislators. And so, first I want to thank them for being here. Thank you all very much for taking time out of your busy schedule and joining the commission today and listening to our concerns and issues and opportunities. Um and we are
excited also to learn about what might what we might expect out of the session this year as well. So thank you very much for being here. Also um thank you so much for all of the work that you've done on behalf of Belrammy County and our residents and citizens and business owners over the last year and years before that. So we really appreciate
that. Um I want to talk first uh just a little bit uh particularly for our area legislators on how our legislative platform was developed. uh this is a platform that begins development probably around August September time with various ideas and whatnot that eventually come to a formalized list
that then gets reviews by the management team. Uh there's a lot of input, discussion and those sorts of things. Eventually that gets tightened up. We invite uh input from our uh commissioners as well and then a final draft is put together and then shared with the commission. uh any adjustments
are made and then it's formally adopted uh by the commission to tee up essentially what our work is on the legislative front for the following year. Uh that activity uh culminated in the adoption of the current legislative platform on November the 4th of last
year and so um I have shared that electronically with our local area legislators and appreciate the opportunity to run through it very quickly. Uh we have a number of different items on the list to share tonight. And I'll have a couple of staff come up and help me uh present on their own area areas of uh interest. And uh
first I'll just kind of kick it off with a universal plea. I think this is a plea that is uh pretty universal across the state for that matter. And that is mandate reform. Uh just about everything you'll hear about in today's uh discussion or presentation is in is in
relation uh in some way, shape or form to unfunded mandates. Uh there are so many unfunded mandates that are out there right now and that have been especially recently passed that uh essentially is beginning to local governments and uh certainly that's the case for Belrammy County. Um
over the past half decade, dozens and dozens of these unfunded mandates have been passed and uh they're impacting adversely uh local county governments and our operations and in particular our finances. In the past four years alone, unfunded
mandates uh have and will continue to impact Bel Tramy County uh to the tune of about $180 million over the next 30 years in new capital construction and an additional $5 million in ongoing annual operating costs uh going forward.
Uh these unfunded mandates come in a variety of different forms. You know, we talk about the the straightforward unfunded mandate. this is a a declaration by the state for us to do something and it doesn't come with any money. Uh we also talk about unfunded mandates coming in the form of say formula uh modifications to existing
funding formulas that are administered by state departments uh or even say uh cost shifts for that matter. Uh there's a variety of different ways that um governments or local governments can be impacted by unfunded mandates. Um, Belrammy currents, our current fiscal
budget, and you all know it well because we just passed it recently and uh it just went into effect on January. Our our current fiscal budget includes $1.2 million of ongoing operational tropy tax increases to cover the first wave of
these cost shifts uh and unfunded mandates uh for this next fiscal year. that that unfortunately that number will continue to drive northward of 3.5 to$4.5 million over the next four years as the state considers and has
essentially announced uh its intention to shift additional costs onto local governments. Um our current uh situation is such that these unfunded mandates have risen costs for us and had uh required us to develop
essentially a 5/8 of a percent uh sales tax to finance our new county jail. Uh that was an unfunded mandate because of rule 2911 adjustments that were made uh at the department of corrections. That project initially, yes, it's going to cost about $80 million, but financed it
cost us $165 million. So that's the true cost of what taxpayers are going to be footing the bill for to institute um the full construction operation of that facility over the next 30 years. Um these cost shifts are very real and they're crippling essentially to local
governments. um they constrain as as much as we have done to constrain our growth, I should say, um and reduce departmental spending. Uh we've also eliminated seven staff positions over the last two years. Uh we've had to significantly reduce uh community
program funding and we've also had to institute one of the highest property tax uh increases uh in in modern history for the county. Uh these are these are very real modifications that of course we are having to endure uh in large part because of these unfunded mandates. Um
but we're not out of the woods yet. As I mentioned, we have a prediction uh essentially announcements by the state uh that there is going to be an additional three and a half to $4.5 million of additional cost shifts that are going to be placed onto local governments uh and in particular uh for
Bel Tramy County I should say. Um so you know what do we do about this? Um, you know, that's been the big question. Can we even do anything about it? I think our local area legislators, uh, you know, we've communicated with them a lot and they are very, uh, concerned about this and want to help. But, of course,
the reality in in the cities is such that, um, you know, we're not certain that we can make much progress on this front. But what we would say is that, you know, don't pass any more unfunded mandates. You know, simply put, just don't don't do that. Let's make sure that we have fiscal notes on every uh
piece of legislation that's going to have some kind of cost for uh outside organizations outside of the state. Uh we want uh to make sure that we roll back or eliminate unfunded mandates, particularly the ones that are the most costly right now. Uh and we'd like to see a regaining of oversight of
departments. Essentially, we won't want state departments to change regulations or codes for existing infrastructure. That if the codes are already compliant or the infrastructure rather is already compliant with existing infrastructure, then it should be and those new codes should apply to only new infrastructure. That's a problem for our demolition
landfill. That's the problem why we're having to build a new jail because they've changed the regulations on existing infrastructure. Um, additionally, we don't want to see state departments engage in unbridled rulemaking. We like to see a ratification of the state legislature of rulemaking. Uh that's not a process we
have currently in our state. Uh and then we like to see uh some kind of holding of state departments accountable for unilateral interpretations that violate legislative intent or legality. We've had clear legislation that has been passed that then doesn't get interpreted or implemented properly
by the by departments and we've had to go back to authors of that legislation to help them correct the interpretations of the departments. That's a big problem for us. Um, so we ask that essentially these reforms uh take place uh in some
fashion uh and we're happy to stand with uh our legislators and community to ensure that they do uh because if they don't uh the future looks pretty bleak as it relates to our financial outlook. We have to get a control of these unfunded mandates. Um they're having a
significant impact on our operation. Um, we have the third largest count or we are the third largest county in the state of Minnesota. Uh, but only less than 25% of our geographic area is eligible to be taxed from a property tax
standpoint. That means that every dollar that gets shifted uh from the state onto local governments, particularly for Bel Tramy County, has an impact of three to four times uh because we can't accommodate because of our our limited tax base
those types of uh those types of cost shifts. So, that's pretty significant. Um one of the things that we've tried, I mean, we we've been sort of talking about this for the last little while and um we've not been able to make very much progress. So, we've come up with a new
idea. Uh, and this idea is to essentially say, well, look, if we can't beat them, join them maybe. Uh, can we establish some kind of legislative language that defines economically disadvantaged counties? Uh, and essentially, if we can prove that we are economically disadvantaged based on some
set criteria, can we allow for an exclusion of these unfunded mandates or some sort of mitigation for the imple implementation of these unfunded mandates on our county? That's another area that we'd like to maybe explore. Um we understand the difficulty that that
particular strategy has as it creates carveouts for those counties that essentially would meet that criteria. Um and of course it would be difficult maybe to develop the criteria initially. We have ideas and we've kind of um discussed those ideas with various
senators and representatives at the at the state legislature last year including our own local area legislators. uh and it does seem to have some interest uh by some legislators. Um the reality is that we are a a economically disadvantaged county and we
have a very limited tax base and a very high tax burden and we rely heavily on the state and the federal government and that creates a significant challenge for us when cost gets shifted onto our our governments that look a lot like ours.
So, uh, that would be number two essentially in our list is to see if we could maybe develop some sort of criteria and some kind of language that would essentially recognize and allow for some relief of the cost shifts and
the unfunded mandate uh, challenges onto economically disadvantaged counties. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over now to our third legislative uh item, which is the demolition landfill. And uh our county engineer, uh Bruce Hazgen, is going to
come up and speak a little bit about that. And then also the windstorm and its impact on operations and cost recovery. So, next is Bruce. The next item would be our demolition landfill and the proposed uh rule
changes that the NPCA is uh uh has regarding the demolition landfills. Uh how it impacts us, the county, and many other counties is they're looking to close the online demolition landfills, which we currently have um and which we would like to use for many years ahead.
But, uh, with their proposed rules, um, we would need to be closing that landfill ahead of its, uh, uh, lifespan before we can use up that volume. Uh, and other counties again are are having this same problem, uh, with these rule
changes. The MPCA currently has proposed the rules, gone through the public hearing process, and now doing their final draft of the rules, but those have not come out yet. So, that time frame is kind of unknown right now. So there is some potential to maybe do something hopefully different. But the we've
worked with eight other counties. There's a nine county coalition to look into options and we've come up with our own uh solution uh called the hub and spoke. We have a couple of lined landfills. Then the other counties have some transfer stations. Um but those
come that comes at a cost. We have gone out to try to be get some bonding dollars for that. Been unsuccessful. Um so I guess the couple of options uh things that we're looking here for the potentially legislatively one would be
bonding dollars for that hub and spoke system. Uh right now it is roughly a $74 million cost across all the counties. Um we with the bonding it would have been $55 million from the state and then $18 million roughly for the locals. for
Belrami County that is a $10 million cost and so our local share is $2.5 million. Um the second option or second thing regarding uh the demolition landfill would be to one not implement the rules or uh do some type of uh
exemption where the existing landfills that are out there they at least can get to utilize the the volume or the space that they have. Um the next item would be our uh windstorm that we had uh this past summer and then
trying to recover our costs. Uh it was a huge huge uh disaster, huge blow to the county. um roughly uh you know 9 to10 million dollar estimate in damages that were submitted uh through our emergency
um I forgot his title here emergency manager and uh so we've submitted through the state uh they do have a state program that will cover 75% however there through that state program there's a 25% uh local match and so at a
10 million $10 million cost across the county. That's $2.5 million that the all the different local entities that would have to come up uh with there's already been some uh commitment to help try to get that uh the state to cover that
remaining 25%. And so that's our big request there is to push forward and see if we can get that 25% local match covered. um for about Tramy County and our agencies, our departments itself, we're roughly at a $3 million cost. So,
you know, it would be a $750,000 just for about Tramy County itself. But across all the other agencies, there's a you know, that 25% match is a huge huge lift. So, that would be the the big ask or the big request there is to continue uh trying to push the legislation there
that the state covers that disaster 100%. Thank you. >> All right. Item number five is uh property insurance reform and modernization. Uh as Bruce was just mentioning, the direct show that hit uh
southern Belrami County and Biji, our county seat in uh on June 21st, 2025 was pretty significant. Uh equivalent of a category 3 hurricane or EF2 tornado. uh 120 mph straight line winds uh with
reports of some circulation. Um and uh that that created massive damage for thousands and thousands and thousands of properties across southern Belt Tramy County. And uh having filed insurance claims to recover from the damage associated with the storm, many of our local business owners and
homeowners, residents and the like essentially uh found their claims handling processes to be marred by um essentially unreasonable delays, inconsistent application of coverage standards, gross undervaluation of materials and labor costs, and also
massive exclusion of damages. And in addition, some residents even uh have been surprised by the erosion of coverage in their policies over the years, expecting that what they signed up for uh was something that they would be recovered for, but actually that
provision or that significant uh claim or or covered areas was was essentially eliminated. Uh there's also been expansion of exclusions reported, inconsistent application of materials matching on claims, uh and the elimination of lowerc cost alternative
dispute resolution options like appraisal from policies across the state of Minnesota. That's created some pretty significant and uh long delays uh for property owners. Uh if you drive around town, you still see uh homes that are
derelct or with tarps on the roof despite the snow or boarded up or or such. Um and the complaints that we've been receiving uh and the city as well, including the building department from the city uh all align with these
observations and uh and concerns. Um Bel Tramby County uh and our plight have been the subject of a lot of conversation with the new insurance task force for homeowners, homeowners and commercial insurance that uh is just now wrapping up in fact. Uh and um that uh
task force is made up of industry representatives, unfortunately not really consumers. And so the voice there is pretty one-sided. And so there's a big concern that the types of issues that are being raised are the types of issues that will not get included in
ultimate recommendations to the legislature. Uh which is what have which is why some groups are are crying foul essentially early. I don't know that it's um I don't I don't know that it's fair to do that until we see what the recommendations of the task force are. Uh but I can tell you that um that it at
least has been expressed as a concern. Um, I do want to say that our our condition, our situation has also garnered the attention of the Department of Commerce. Uh, Commissioner Grace Arnold and Assistant Commissioner Sarah Payne and Haley Kolkind are scheduled to
visit with local area elected officials uh early next month to talk about these issues and concerns. Um, additionally, the Department of Commerce has been so concerned that they've created legislation, draft legislation, uh, that they've also introduced to the task force I just mentioned, uh, in an
attempt to sort of correct the balance, uh, as it relates to insurance, uh, and consumer protections. Uh, so in any event, uh, we are watching that particular situation closely. There are a lot of folks still uh, that have
not had resolution. Uh we've been reported that uh there are sometimes um homeowners or property owners that have experienced now five or six or seven adjusters and the storm was just six or seven months ago. Uh those are pretty
significant issues and concerns. So essentially the recommendation is that um we work with local area legislators to see if we can't make some improvements in this space. Uh, and I guess I would just again uh make it known or or encourage a review of Department of Commerce's draft
legislation to help try to improve these things. Uh, that would be the other thing that we would mention. So, uh, up next at number six, we're going to talk uh, we're going to hear rather from our health and human services director about a number of different uh, unfunded mandates and impacts and concerns and
cost shifts in and around the health and human services field. And I can just say that the list is a little bit daunting. We could have probably had another half a dozen more of these in the health and human services arena. Um, but of course there's not time or space for that. So, we'll just try to pick the big ones. So,
with that, we'll just have uh Ann Lynth come up and talk you through those. >> Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, commissioners, legislators. Thank you for being here. Um, number six talks about cost share for state direct care and treatment facilities. And the
request is that we look at updating the state direct care and treatment system and the funding requirements specifically which disadvantage and heavily burden counties especially counties like Bel Tramy County because as you heard the idea of being economically disadvantaged certainly
applies to our county. So a state direct care and treatment facilities are 10 are made up of 10 state hospitals that are located across the state. Some that you might recognize are noa regional treatment center, St. Peter Regional Treatment Center, um MSOP, which is the
Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Um and individuals go into these state hospitals for a variety of reasons, but the vast majority are ordered there um through court orders. There is this county cost share that's associated with these hospitals and that share is
outlined in statute. It is dependent on what uh what hospital they go into and then sometimes what program within that hospital setting they are in. The county share ranges from 10% to 100% of the daily rate. Um, and the 100% is specific
for individuals who are deemed does not meet criteria, which likely you have heard that terminology before, but ultimately what that means is that an individual goes into a state hospital and a physician or expert at that hospital states that they no longer meet the criteria for level of care that that
hospital provides. oftent times they're suggested to move into another state hospital setting and because of mental health bed availability that is often a delayed process and so when that occurs counties are charged 100% of the cost of
that daily rate which at no regional treatment center currently is over $2,000 a day. Um we do have two examples currently of this happening. Um both of which are in the Minnesota sex offender program where we have court orders um
ordering individuals to be uh hel kept there held there. Um and the facility does has deemed them not meeting criteria and so we are being charged the full daily rate for those two individuals currently. So this is not
something that is um all that rare. it does occur and so it is something that we certainly need to focus on for the future. The challenges over the years around this are related to the increase in those daily rates. Year-over-year they they increase and some years those
increases are larger than others. Um and also just the challenges around the mental health system in general and the bed availability with the mental health system. Um, we do have some plans as a state to expand the mental health bed availability, but ultimately the number
of beds that are being added are not going to meet the needs of our state. And so we're going to continue to have these challenges into the future. So the recommendation um that Belrammy County would like to see is that um counties be exempted from that does not meet
criteria daily rate charge. This is something that has some historical practice. uh it was added into statute um from July 1st of 23 to June 30th of 25 where counties were exempted from having to pay DNMC costs or does not
meet criteria costs. Um and so we would like to see that returned into the statute that would certainly affect counties across the state. Um but it would also certainly affect counties that are economically disadvantaged and do not have the means to pay for these astronomical costs that are associated.
The other uh recommendation would be maybe to look at reducing the county cost share percentages across the board for these state hospitals settings or create a carveout for counties that are determined to be economically disadvantaged. So that's number six. Number seven is
the elimination of the county share of the behavioral health fund. So the behavioral health fund pays for substance use treatment for people who have no other payment source. Counties are currently responsible to pay 22.95% of all behavioral health fund
expenditures for individuals who are determined our county of financial responsibility. Historically, counties were very involved in the process of authorization for individuals to go to SUD treatment or substance use treatment. That changed
in 2017 when the state statute passed something called direct access. And what that means is that individuals who want to go to substance use treatment um just need to go to a facility, do an assessment with that facility, and then can receive services from that facility.
No authorization needed from the county. This certainly helps with access, but it takes out any county authority to authorize that treatment. And then last session, um there was a change made around the behavioral health fund eligibility application. So, it used to
be that an individual went into a treatment facility, if they didn't have a payment source, a behavioral health fund application was then sent to their county of financial responsibility to determine if they were eligible and in fact our county of financial responsibility. That changed last
session. Now, the state is going to be managing those behavioral health fund applications. So with no authority for who goes to treatment and no oversight over that behavioral health fund eligibility, counties should not be charged a county cost share. There are
some additional concerns around the um behavioral health fund being determined at the state level in that if they do determine that county of financial responsibility incorrectly, which it is very prone to error and it is a complicated process. Um that would have
large impacts to counties and we would have limited ability to correct that after the fact. Um if the county cost share was removed, it would also simplify the process of determining the behavioral health fund eligibility for the state. Um so there is a positive there. Ultimately, Belrammy County
recommends removing the county cost share for the behavioral health fund. Now on to number eight, child protection opioid response allocation. Um Bel Tramy County is hoping that the legislature could restore previous funding levels
that we did receive um from this particular allocation. In the 2024 session, the legislature opened up this funding stream to additional programs and projects. Also, the funding stream itself brought in less revenue um from
its legislated sources. So, there were more programs to fund out of this pot of funding and there was less funding to do so. And when that happened, the funding formula that applies to counties was adjusted and Belrammy County lost $150,000 of annual funding. Um, very
significant to our budget. So, the focus of what were the funds used for? The focus of the funds were to support families affected by opioid use to either remain a family unit or reunify as a family unit. We do have a significant need for funds of this type
in Bel Tramy County. Um, we did lobby, Belrammy County lobbyed last session to um have a direct appropriation to make up for this funding loss, which we were successful. Um, thank you so much legislators for that. Um, we did re
receive $100,000 in 2026 and $100,000 in 2027. Um, but that is just two years. And so while it is wonderful that we have that for that time period to really sustain any kind of forward momentum for these families ongoing, we would
recommend that this funding stream be scrutinized to prioritize how and where the funding is utilized. And we would really like to see the legislature focus on the needs of local families with this funding. So to to
make counties whole and um for Bel Tramy County um to reinstate that $150,000 of ongoing allocation from this fund. Um I do have two of my colleagues here with me today who are going to talk about um the remaining legislative priorities because we do have quite a list. So
they're going to help me out. So Kurt Anderson, our economic assistance division director, is going to be up for number nine. Commissioners. Uh number nine is has to do with the cost and workload shift uh for federal SNAP changes. Of course uh this past summer uh the federal recon
reconciliation bill was passed uh HR1 and that substantially change the workload and cost distribution for SNAP program. We are one of only three states where the state supervises uh the county administers but the county
is responsible for any funding that is not federally reimburseable. So based off of that, what is getting ready to happen this coming October, October of 2026, our federal reimbursement for the work that uh your economic assistance
team does in support of the SNAP program, the federal reimbursement shifts from 50% down to 25% reimbursement rate. Also uh this year uh federal fiscal year October of 25
through September of 26 uh they will be looking at the SNAP payment error rate for this uh year for that fiscal year and that will determine whether or not the state of Minnesota uh if they have a high enough payment error rate would
then be required to do a cost share with the SNAP benefit payment to recipients. It could be anywhere from no additional payment if we are at a lower enough percentage to potentially 10 to 15% of cost would shift to the state and based
on what I just told you that shift then comes down to the county as far as for costs to pay for a full SNAP benefit for those recipients. Uh based off of that, uh that change would actually start, that payment error change, cost shift
would start in October of 2027. So just a little under two years. Um, with that piece of it, our recommended what Belrammy County would like to see is that the state of Minnesota takes responsibility for these increased costs and then prioritizes
streamlining the policies for these programs as well as the modernization of the equipment that we use to determine eligibility to help reduce payment errors. And with that piece, I'll be followed by Jeff. Good afternoon, commissioners. Um, I'm
going to talk a little number 10 here is the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. This was signed into law in 2024. Uh, and there was statewide implementation uh slated for
one of 27. That's except for Henipin and Ramsey counties who were early implementers. The legislation provided for funding for the early ad um the for Henipin and Ramsey counties but not for the rest of the state. For Belrammy County, we expect the cost of this to be
over a million dollars is what we're anticipating. Uh per year in staffing, administrative oversight, and active efforts such as you would see in the Indian Child Welfare Act. What we are recommending is that that we ask the legislature to provide adequate funding
to counties for this implementation and or to carve out have a carveout for economically disadvantaged counties as Mr. Barry has already talked about. And then number 11, the uh Indian Child
Welfare and Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act case reviews. Counties must demonstrate compliance with the DCYF developed review uh to receive their full out ofome placement aid allocation. If a county is deemed to be
non-compliant two years in a row, uh there may be a 50% reduction to county two counties and we use that money for staffing. We use it for administrative oversight and we use it to provide the active efforts. So if we're decreased by
that amount, it makes it harder for us to to meet what is being required by MiffPa and IQUA. Uh the issue is that we need to have 100% compliance and the audit to audit tool itself is subject
has subjective measures and there are requirements that are time at times outside of our staff's control. What we are asking is that the legislature amend statute 477A.0 0126 to establish clear objective audit
audit standards that are within county staff's control and or number two ask the legislature to divine to define the substantial non-compliance as anything less than 90%. Any questions?
>> Thank you with that. Mr. Chair, we'll turn the time over to you and uh if you have questions for the staff or uh if you would like to invite our area legislators up, we we'd invite you to do that as well. >> Okay. I I do have one question. Um you were
talking about errors. What What are the errors you're referring to >> now? So, so Mr. Chair, the the error piece is the payment error rate. Um, I had uh talked about that in November uh
with the board and uh those errors uh as we as I as I briefed back then they're not uh most of the time they're simple mistakes whether uh we use an outdated system that doesn't uh provide prompts
uh very well for certain changes. We have complicated policies uh that sometimes our residents while they're trying to provide the right information may not be providing it uh uh correctly and so there is a change in the payment
uh amount that they would receive whether good or bad uh whether it's an overpayment or an underpayment uh those are combined together to an overall error payment error rate. So, it's uh it's based on dollar amount. We as a
county um we only have had in the past fiscal year six cases looked at. We had a 9% error rate. It was on one case and it was a dollar amount um out of what they looked at uh in total. So those
payment that that payment error uh that's being um 40 a little over 40% of it comes from client mistakes. Uh a little over 50% of it comes from the agency and that's the area that we can
control and that's where if we would modernize our system we can help reduce that agency error rate uh piece. It's also for the state in total. It's a state payment error rate. It's not a Belrammy County payment error rate. And
so out of all 87 counties, it's their errors in total. However, it would be the county that would be responsible for that state error rate. If that does that answer your question? >> Thank you very much. Yes. >> Yeah. Well, I just had to hear it again,
you know. Okay. I don't have any other questions. Anybody have anything? >> Sure. Any of you legislators wish to >> just listen? You got questions? I'll try to answer questions, but I can't solve
your problems here today. There was a a comment made about uh um rule making authority and that you'd like to see that done and that's that's one of Steve's uh lifelong ambitions. Unfortunately, we don't get a lot of support down there for that. It's something I you still try.
>> My I still have the bills available and I will probably be dropping it this year because uh a lot of the things that I've tried over the years I never had a lot of support including from the counties. uh every um most of the feedback I've got is that people just want to comply
and move on. And we see that as the agencies be gain more and more power, they keep use going back, grabbing old rules, modifying them. Uh and for those who don't know, the rule is something that that never goes to the legislature. It's uh it's proposed by the agency.
It's signed off on by administrative law and and the governor signs it and it becomes basically a law. It's the wrong way. It's it's not uh it's not a constitutional way in my opinion of of making laws and uh the more the mandates that you see coming some of them a lot
of them from statutes we can change that but uh many more of them are from rules that have gone not gone to the legislature and we have the power to change that too we just need the result from the legislature and that's why it's good to be hearing from counties on these things if I could hear from all 87
that would be great uh it might it might uh give me a little more power to go in and change the not just the particular rule but the whole rule making process. >> And then the last thing I got to say is uh you kind of along the lines of uh you know making sure that we're working
together and keeping in contact with each other but also that your guys' voice needs to be heard. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of times that we go down there and we hear from, you know, the counties association or whatever, but we need to be able to push them a little bit more to get their
their voices heard. Right now, I mean, we're kind of playing the the political fence, right? We want to, you know, we want to teeter on both sides of the fence, but sometimes we need our voices heard a little bit more, especially up in northern Minnesota. We're struggling right now um to maintain what we have right now and the mandates that are
coming down from the state of Minnesota. I think we need to uh get our voices heard a little bit more and and and stand up, but we also need to hear from you guys and um who represents you guys. And then, you know, obviously, you know, from Health and Human Services as well, we we're going to need to work together
as a whole to be able to move some of these uh these big issues. We're going to continue to keep getting bullied around if we don't stand up and and and take a stance. And one of the biggest things, I mean, this isn't a Democrat or Republican deal at this point in time.
is the survival of our community. And if we want to continue down this road, we're going to continue to push people out of Belramley County and that's the state of Minnesota. So, I mean, we can continue to try to raise taxes and continue to try to pay for these mandates. Um, it's just going to force
people out of our county and it's going to hurt the people that are going to stay here more and then the businesses are going to be hurting for it, too. We're we're going to have businesses shut down because we won't have the workers. So, I guess my final last thought to you guys is, you know, we we
have to come together and we got to figure this out and we got to we we got to get our voices heard. Um it's we can't sit back anymore. We can't let this stuff happen. Sometimes you need to ruffle a couple feathers to get things done. Um but at this point in time, it's
it's go time. We got to we got to make a decision. Who knows how this session's going to go, right? It's a short session. Um, we got some bills that we want to pass. You know, I got the bill for the 25% reimbursement coming up here, guys. Um, I'm going to need all hands on deck with that. Um, I'm going
to need everybody reaching out um to the committee and we got to we got to all work together and explain why we need this up here. Um, you know, it's some of the other things that we need to work on and just keep keep that communication open. So,
>> just a plug on that just to give you guys kudos, too. And and uh and well, I shouldn't start naming people out. I'll forget something. But, uh we did move the needle just a tiny bit on getting some reimbursement for some of the placements that you guys had had in one
in particular. I believe it was about $300,000. And and so the the whole point of my saying that is that because these guys were down there helping out with working with guys on the other side of the aisle, that's how we got that through. It's a it's a far cry from where we need
to be, but it's a it's a good start that it gives you a little bit of >> Yeah, Mr. Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I I I heard and I it was a rumor and I was actually hoping it was maybe true that there's a
possibility that the legislature could postpone enactment of the African-American child welfare act because the current computer systems are not capable of handling the extra
workload. Is that a real possibility? >> I don't sit on those committees. So, I was actually just sex uh you know talking to Ann about this and um that there's a a court case out there right now that it's actually deeming that unconstitutional. So, I'm I'm assuming
that it's going to get further up the chain, but uh just we I mean, we got to kind of wait to see how that happens. But, I mean, this could be just another push for the state of Minnesota, not ready for something pushed out there, and we're going to have to reap the benefits of it. So, is that is that
something that uh as legislators you can help influence push that needle and and even holding it off another year, it's not the answer, I know, but it's better than having it enacted on January 1st, 2027. So, I don't know if
there's anything you three of you can do to be pushing and pushing and pushing to hold it off. >> Well, we hear a lot of stuff about unconstitutionality, right? So if there's a judge that deemed it unconstitutional, I think we need to rely on on that and figure something out
and let the court system run its process. But as of right now, I'd be hardressed to support anything that has a legal document that says it's unconstitutional at this point in time. So well, I mean, we realistically need to, you know, kind of see where things go with that. But absolutely, I mean, I don't think you're going to have a
person up here that's not going to um support the the constitution or the legal way of doing things. And I I've not been able to contact uh I shouldn't say that I haven't tried hard contact uh John Hoffman the senator Democrat senator that I
worked with on some of the other stuff u you know we had some issues earlier uh but he is back in the office now I did find that out so and he is the head of health or concern with that but uh um I will uh I will be talking to him on
that. kind of on my on my list of things to do. I don't know that I have the authority myself to to tell you right now how that's going to come out, but he never hurts to ask. So, so then in that same vein, uh the
question for maybe Ann and your staff, uh can you see a scenario in which the software and the computer systems that you have just absolutely are not going to be able to handle that workload? Sorry to put you on the spot, And
>> No, that's okay. Um, oftentimes when there's legislative changes, the software does not keep up with those changes. And we just had a technology demonstration where we were talking about this in systems that are over 30 years old. Um it is very
possible that legislation could be passed where we would have to do workarounds in our systems to manage the requirements of the legislation. This is something we do on a daily basis for other changes that have been made over the years. Um I my understanding is
there is a work group working on this legislation. So there may be changes to it that make it pass or move forward in a different way, but I don't know that anybody can speak to that at this point in time. I think
there's this work group that would provide recommendations to the legislature on how it would move forward, and I'm not privy to what those are at this point in time, but that may make the the legislation move um with different requirements around it. I
guess my biggest concern is that when we look at the potential cost to Bel Tramy County, that one act by the state of Minnesota could cost our citizens up to four levy points and one act. That's why I'm concerned.
>> Thank you. Um I have one. You heard what they all talked about and they're talking about carveouts. Um, how do you feel about that? And what do you think the chances of us getting anywhere with it? >> I don't I don't know what the chances
are. I've never liked cars, although uh in this case I I can't say that I'm not going to help Belby County because it's a big deal. But one of the one of the issues I have with the carveouts is that a lot of these things just need to be changed. And every time you carve
somebody out, you lose some of your support and trying to get those changes through. Uh I uh but I also understand that my county between Belrammy, Clearwater, and Monomoman counties, um I don't know where we go. Uh and so if uh
if for any reason I do get uh or we do get something through that that gives uh Belrammy County a little bit of uh relief there that you won't changes that we need. So, >> is there anything else?
>> Well, Mr. Chair, uh, thank you. Um, I'm not too sure if anybody else had any questions, but and, uh, I know that we're running out of time. Uh, so I'll try to get through all my my questions and hopefully um so I guess I was wondering did the
legislators receive a copy of our of our priorities? And if they didn't, I'm I'm hoping that, you know, we can get them to you again. uh because I know that uh we have a huge list of of priorities and and sometimes it's difficult to to uh
tackle every one of these, you know, especially with the uh the size of of the districts that you guys represent. But I'm hopeful that uh you will take uh our platform um into consideration when you're down in in St. Paul. Um, also,
you know, I was curious if they got a list uh because uh I I intend to be down there uh quite a bit, you know, this legislative session and and I'm hoping that um when I do visit that, you know, I can see them hanging up on your wall
or someplace as a as a as a visual reminder, you know, that um we have some huge concerns up here in Belrammy County and and uh so um you know, Representative Duran, you know, messaged
u um said that, you know, we need our voices down there. And I I agree wholeheartedly and that's why, you know, I spent the last couple of months, you know, trying to encourage my colleagues here on the county board to to join me down in St.
Paul and because often times our voices are aren't loud enough. So I'm hopeful that if if they listen to you that they will join and uh we we will you'll get some of our our platform uh through uh
legislation. Also curious to know if uh if if the representatives know our lobbyist. Um you know I think it's important that uh they they know who our lobbyists are. Um, you know, the county
has chosen to to hire a lobbyist when we have the capability of uh calling you guys or or going visit you guys down there, but we chose a lobbyist. So, I'm I'm hoping that uh you guys are acquainted to them and and they do a uh one heck of a job, you know, getting our
our platform across the finish line. Um again, I just want to thank you guys for for coming. Um, and I'm hopeful that uh, you know, we can put party politics aside and and do what's in the best interest of of all the people that we
represent. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Sun. Anything else? >> Okay. Well, thank you all for that time. Appreciate it. And we will be in touch for sure. housing study.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Nore from Minnesota Housing is going to make a presentation on uh the affordable homes and stable communities report that was recently provided to our community last year or late last year.
>> Yeah, good afternoon. Uh yeah, Nate Door here with Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. We are a nonprofit 501c3. We do get confused with Minnesota housing and the state agency we are not but we work in partnership on many projects. Uh been at the role in greater Minnesota
housing fund. I live and worked in Baiji. Uh but I travel and work across the state doing rural and tribal housing capacity building the program we offer at Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. Um we're a lender primarily a bank that works in affordable housing. We're a
like I said a 501c3 nonprofit. We're a community development financial institution. So we get access to US Treasury dollars at a slightly lower interest rate so we can invest in our mission of affordable housing. Um so yeah just here to talk a bit about
uh the work we do um the county housing study that we um commissioned with Maxfield Research. I'll share a bit about common challenges and opportunities that I see as I work across rural M Minnesota. And then I'll share a bit about our rural and tribal
program and how um hopefully we can offer some services um to the county and and cities within the county. Uh where's the clicker? Is that right by me here? Yep.
And thanks again for having me today. It's the best to point this way. It's coming. It's coming. So, yeah, our our priorities at Greater Minnesota Housing Fund or GMHF is to really preserve existing affordable
housing, support home ownership, and really that works towards wealth building of those that are in ownership and can earn equity in their homes, create new housing, new affordable housing, and work to end homelessness. And
um Ann's here. I want to give a shout out to Ann who was on our planning committee uh for our event we held in December. Um I'll share a bit about background with that. Um Greater Minnesota Housing Fund and Sanford Health worked together on a
workforce housing project that didn't quite make it to state funding. And so we wanted to uh keep the momentum going and leadership at GMHF and Sanford wanted to understand the issue a little better in a market area around Sanford and the commute shed. So that's how we
picked Belrammy County. They extended some of the study to um include surrounding communities. But um we wanted to use the study to hold an event to kick off um to get people working towards action and use the data towards
action. And so want to thank Ann Lindseth and uh Kayla Winkler at Samford for helping co-plan the event in December. Um I think saw some of you there and so thanks for coming to that. Um again
I'm going to point it here. There it is. Um so again we we hired uh GMHF paid for the study through Maxfield Research at the cost of about $35,000. Um Sanford Health was a partner and uh they have land to develop. They're
working with partners. They're trying to figure out workforce housing and uh rental housing and home ownership housing. Um all of it is really needed. That's the bottom line. Um so again, we use that data towards action. Um so I'll just kind of run down
the some data from the executive summary which is really dense the study's really long but um and then uh so really establishing the baseline here uh when we look at data when it comes to housing we look at households uh we can watch
population trends and household sizes that's great information but the number of households really tells us the number of units we need in housing. So here in 2025, the study reported 18,210 households in Belrammy County. Uh the
county is expected to add 640 more households from now until 2030. So in the next 5 years and of course households grew faster than population in Bumiji. So um I'm going to generally
talk mostly about the county and not Bumiji but um we know the dynamics with having a bigger metropolitan area in the county. Um so okay to the study
that the largest age cohort in the study if we look at 10ear groupings that 25 to 34 and 35 to 44. If we total those together that's 25% of the households in the
county and we'll be growing as a share. Um we're al so that's you know workforce generally um working age groups. Um we're also seeing uh and this is telling for developers of what type of units to build. Uh single person living alone is
the most common household type with 28 households. Uh married couples without children are 27%. We combine those of course it's a little over 50%. Um, so it just kind of speaks to the
need for more smaller units, one and two bedrooms. And uh, we have more single households in Baiji. Those could be students, retirees, workforce, divorcees, whoever. It's like everybody.
Um, and yeah, so one and two person households represent 64% of the household makeup. We do see larger household sizes in Redb, Red Lake, Pana. Um,
I think that jumped. Uh, let me find I think it jumped a few slides on me. Helen study. I apologize. Yep. Okay. Yes. No, we're on track. The delay is getting me. Oh,
okay. How about I do this and you click it. Okay. Thank you. Sorry for that. Um, so when I go to communities, I meet with city councils uh across this the state really and we ask, "What's your vision for housing?" Uh, most people say we just need workforce market rate housing.
And so, um, we talk a little bit about who can afford these things, but as we get into the study, uh, just looking at owner occupied housing, that's, uh, 68, uh,% of households own their own home. We see 80% of those units in the county
were occupied and 20% are vacant. So, you know, maybe there's a number of seasonal or trust um, land and trust properties. Uh you can see here the median home value of owner occupied is um 2224,734
as the median. So half of them are greater than that, half are less than that. Uh as of July 2025, there was 166 detached single family homes listed with a median sales price list price of 342
450. And those are not huge homes. They're, you know, a little over,400 square feet. And then we had lots for sale with a medium price of 45,000, a little over an acre. Thank you. Um, when it comes to new
construction, there was 120 new construction units that were sold in the three years leading up to 2025. So 80% of those were single family detached. The median list price is 400 just under
410,000 is the median list price and the median closing price um you know 337870. This really speaks to that there's a value gap. So the cost of construction is not always meeting the appraisal
value. So the appraisals may be lower than the actual cost of construction. This is true for affordable housing all the way to market rate housing. So that's what that data tells me a little bit. And uh when Maxfield did their study in September, there was 23 new
construction units listed. And so just calling out some data data on new construction. Click to rentals. So data Maxfield pulled on rentals was that the um and this is what was interesting to me. the rental market uh
median rents paid were uh 869 a month and Bumiji was a little higher. Uh we had single family units so that's usually uh forplexes and larger number of units in a building. The list price you can see there the the big thing is
we're uh the vacancy rate is really low. So there's not a lot of surplus. There's not a lot of vacant units. um equilibrium according to this study was somewhere around five to 7% which would give the market some equilibrium that gives people some options of what type
of housing they can they they want to need. Uh when we look at the average rental rate 190 that's for all units. Um you can see the breakdown for studio to fourbedroom.
Um so again just thinking the average on the bottom here a little over a thousand per month and then the median um you know869 so there's some skewing of the market there might be some high-end rentals and
there may be a lot of them that are more on the lower rent side of things too >> one more >> your last slide >> yeah Sorry. >> Um, so the average rent builds
>> is $1,90 >> per month. Yeah. Across the I believe it's across the county. It might be across the primary market area, which would just be communities close to the border. But yeah. >> So, how does the average person how are
they able to afford that type of of rent? >> Good question. I'll keep talking and we we'll get a little more clarity on that. A lot of people cannot but some can. So yeah, I'm with you. So yeah, next slide.
So this one also talks about affordability. And generally when we mean affordability, um if somebody's costbururdened, they're spending 30% or more of their household income on housing. Uh if they're extremely costburdened, they're spending 50% or more on on housing.
So here the average weekly household wages I believe uh using the data on household income and weekly wages um folks could afford $1,356 per month on average. If we look at the
median it's a little higher. Uh so what those data pieces are telling me with the estimated market rental units uh cost at 1,090 per month that rents could probably go a little higher
which is kind of scary to say for some people that are in affordable housing but um the quote here rental housing in Belrammy County is relatively affordable proportionate to wages uh but much of the forale housing would not be affordable to many single earner
households. s um there is still an issue of who can afford that. So uh we'll go to the next slide here. Affordability when it comes to home ownership. The study revealed that 50 or 49% of households could
afford an entry-level detached single family home at $275,000. Uh if we move that to $370,000 uh household or value of a home,
uh only 32% of uh homeowners in the community can afford that. And then again, that executive level single family detached at 600,000, we're down to about 12% can afford that. And I would say that uh it's really
difficult to build new single family homes for under $360,000 is what we're seeing as we work with developers. It can be a bit lower, it can be a bit higher depending on the type of things you're putting in the in the house.
This is a bit of data uh I pulled from Minnesota Housing Partnership. They do these county profiles. This was released um a little over two years ago, two or three years ago. So this kind of looks at the occupations and their earnings compared to that threshold of
affordability at 30% spending on households uh towards housing reg. And this is looking at occupations in demand. So it's pulling data on occupations with the most number of jobs um the greatest number of vacancies and
projected growth. Um here we're a a medical center uh and registered nurses. You can kind of see can probably as in a single earner household could afford both um the rental and a mediumric home. Nursing assistance is kind of towards
that missing middle where they can afford the rents but not new home ownership. And then retail health um health and home care fast food workers. So if you had two of those high occupation and demand jobs stacked, you could maybe
meet that um affordability on a medium pricriced home. But so we start personalizing a bit of at least when it comes to the occupations who these people are. I mean there are people in our community that are working and still can't afford things. So next slide
please. Okay. Yeah. And so this would be the headline for me from the study is that >> from now until 2035, we need uh 4,179 general occupancy units. That means
housing across the board, high-end, low-end, middle. Um it's break they break it down to the different types of units needed. Uh 1707 for for sale home ownership units. um more than that for
rentals. We also asked them to look at senior housing. Seniors senior housing is important for Samford and and the community. Um so you can see the data there. Um and towards the bottom here we can see market rate, affordable and
subsidized. So a lot of this is market rate housing. Um some of it subsidized and affordable. Um, from our perspective at Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, we need it all because the more we have in the market, uh, it
it will bring in more tax property tax revenue and it'll also give people more options um to move over from a larger unit to maybe downsizing smaller units. So, we could click the next one. Just a little more detail on the for sale
housing recommendations. So they talked about entry level housing, move up housing, executive level housing. So a lot of that's right in the middle of um these are kind of price points we're trying to to meet in the market. Multifamily again is uh units with
probably four units within that building itself or more. So total multif family of 683 units and uh yep detached. Okay, next one. Yep. And so these are recommendations
they had on on rentals. So apartments could rent one bedroom for 1,100 uh up to three bedrooms 1450. Town homes could uh fetch a little bit larger price on that. Again, they're generally recommending that rents could go up a
little higher because the demand is so great that we don't have the vacancy is so low. It really is kind of a supply and demand issue. and to incentivize developers to come in and um know they could maybe the market could afford uh
rents if they raised them. Next one. So these are just the recommendations uh kind of from the study and from work we've been doing um looking to support more options for seniors downsizing um leaving their larger home with maybe
some empty bedrooms into a smaller one and two unit town home. uh prioritize infill development. So, putting those lots back into a higher valuation that earns more property tax revenue. Consider density bonuses. I had to look
that up and I'm still not clear on what it is, but there's bonuses for increasing density. Um and as we increase density, we reduce the cost of infrastructure because we don't have to run it to one and two acre lots is is par. Uh revisit zoning and
land use regulations. I know the county may have lakes shore regulations, but cities and counties uh really have control over permitting and what's allowed in their community. Um I'll share a bit more about that because that's work I'll really dig into in my
job. tax increment financing, tax abatement, fee waiverss. Uh I'll share a bit more too. Uh Outer Sale County is doing a really good job at pulling a lot of these incentives together uh through their big build initiative they've done the last few
years. Um I saw Tom was on a virtual meeting that I was on earlier this week or maybe last week, last week it was. Um yeah. And then uh what can the county contribute maybe as in kind um time or skills or expertise? So if there's an
engineering or environmental somethings that um could be an ink kind donation contribution. The HRA programs I know the county has. It's contracted through HRDC. Um one of the moves Rodertale County did was to bring that back in house and had more
control and efficiency there. And the local housing trust fund. Uh that's just another financing tool. It's small, but it's it is impactful. Um again, common challenges. So, you know, we're not alone in Bel Tramy
County that small city staff um do not often have the expertise in housing development. Maybe it's a part-time city clerk working on these things. As I mentioned before, infrastructure is expensive and infill lots are easier. Uh there's generally a shortage of developers and construction firms
willing to take the risk to put up units. Um there is a desire across uh the community for home ownership and affordability. Just remembering who can afford to make um the market rate rentals or home ownership pricing.
Uh and these are some opportunities is just designing the units um to fit the demographics. So those smaller one and two bedroom units um again thinking about increasing the tax base rather than the tax rate. I know you're dealing with uh looking at tax rates and stuff
and it um is not a fun conversation but if we can if we can grow the tax base and spread the that pain a little more that's that's great. Land use and zoning to give devel developers asurances early early. uh you don't want the developer to get all their financing together and
then not get it permitted uh in the end. So that's a lot of wasted time uh again tax base and reducing development costs. Uh next one and I think I'll I'll just share a couple slides talk about my work and then just um so there's a lot of
slides I'm not going to get to. It's all our financing tools. U they're in there for reference. I'm not going to cover them. But what I do with my rural and tribal housing capacity program generally as a development guide or consultant as cities nonprofit developers for-profit developers we kind
of triage the issues. Um but we can offer a land use and zoning audit to cities and counties. So, if they're looking at zoning changes or land use uh policy changes, we have a technical assistance we can provide. That's
roughly uh $5,000 value to communities. We've worked in Fergus Falls, Winona, Key Waten, Floodwood um this last year and hope to do five communities a year, land use and zoning. And then technical assistance. I'm growing my knowledge in
housing. I'm not expert at everything, but I have a budget that can pull in a technical expert to solve really kind of sight specific problems or or challenges or or doing deals and financing. And then we have some grant dollars. So
the so some some of the grant dollars uh we've paid for housing studies um but we've done pre-development um title title work uh platting surveying stuff some of that's helped
with the soft cus of pre-development so and yeah I talk about my work as being a a guide like on the trail but I'm not going to get into that today which is kind of fun because uh it's really time talent tools and and treasure and and thinking about those in the housing
sphere. Um there's just so much in there like uh yeah, I'll kind of probably leave it there so as not to take up too much more time, but uh happy to answer questions and happy to have follow-up conversations um for any services we can
offer. So, >> thank you. Anybody got any questions? Tim, >> do we have his contact information? I can leave it with you. >> It'll be in the slides as well. We can pass the slides out. We just received those today. >> Yeah, I appreciate the time.
>> I have one quick question. Out of that 600 and some 640 that you're saying, are those are you looking at any of these things being apartment complexes and calling each one of those a unit or
>> um I'd have to what number you're referring to? You said that you're going to increase to 640 more housing units by between 25 and 30 >> in those years. >> Is that counting apartment complexes or
is it >> I think it's all all units. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yep. So it could be home ownership or rental >> housing or housing. >> Yeah. It's not like uh one apartment building would be one, >> right? >> And it has 20 units in it. Yeah. So we'd be
each unit within that rental building would be counted as one. So yeah, >> total of all of them. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> I was just wondering how you going to come up with 640 that quick. So that's >> that's it's a lot. It's a big chunk. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Carl.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so Nate, when we look at the housing needs and we talk about seniors, is is is that a bottleneck? seniors being able to move on into smaller senior homes because obviously as they move out of maybe a more expensive
house, then this person moves up, that person moves up, that person moves up. Is it is it more the bottleneck on on that senior end because we have so many more seniors than we used to have or is it just generally all across the
demographics? is generally across the board. But what we're seeing in communities like Krookton and here in Bumiji behind the Stanford Center where my mom lives is like um people are downsizing and they have the equity and can afford those new market uh new
construction and they're getting in the right size of unit and they're still living in the community. Um but then yeah, it's the move over housing. So the people can step into that with a larger family. They still have kids at home. They can take the
place of the senior that left that home. But that is a bottleneck. Uh we've seen it in Krookton where they're building those at 550 $600,000 per unit. So maybe a two or threebedroom town home with garage 1,200,400 square feet. They're
selling to folks uh 55 60 and older. And they they are the folks moving from the farm into town and want less hassle, less less chores, but we are seeing that. Anything else? No. All right.
>> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you for your time. >> If you were asking for a friend or yourself. >> All right. Sway solar project. >> Good afternoon. Um, you want me to just hop right into the presentation? >> Sure.
>> Very good. Um, so my name is Preston Reaver. I'm the project manager for the Sway Solar. Uh it's a 50 megawatt up to 66 megawatt solar farm uh just north of town where our combustion turbine currently sits. Um that combustion turbine's been there since I bet I
believe 2002 2003. Um and I'll get more into the details here on the project itself, but the we expect commercial operations in uh the end of this. That's our that's our current target. Is this thing working today? >> Not sure.
There we go. Did that was that me? Okay, awesome. Um, so the the project itself, like I had mentioned, it's a 50 megawatt solar generation facility. Uh, that number ultimately stems from what's called our interconnection rights with the existing combustion turbine. Uh, so
our CT unit there is also 50 megawws. And so what what occurs here is that when uh when solar is available, right, it'll it'll inject that solar energy um and when solar is not available, uh we still have the gas unit sitting there to provide uh that that additional
reliability benefit. Um and and I talk a little bit more about it, but that's one of the huge huge benefits for this project, right, is interconnections across the grid are are very costly. And so with with what's called a surplus interconnection here at Saltway, um you
remove that that large cost to the to the customer. Um as you can see on the screen, we have it's about 100,000 panels. Um we actually are now essentially complete with design. Um it's a 104,700
panels that will be out there um across uh it's about 224 acres of of land that actually gets occupied by the by the modules themselves. Um and then on an average basis, uh we have a a similar solar facility down in
Fergus Falls. It's actually 50 megawatts as well. Um and and it's it's enough to power about 9,000 home annually. Um again, that's an average number. The weather changes every year, but that's uh that's uh kind of the the average
annual um production maybe. Yeah, you can go try the next page. Uh so this here's slide just details out a little bit about uh Ottertale Power Company and our generation mix. Again, Ottertail Power Company, we serve uh uh
Baiji of course, but we serve customers across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Uh right now our load is about 40 and 40 in Minnesota and North Dakota and then about 10% uh in our South Dakota customer base. So that's the
current kind of energy makeup of of who Ottertail Power serves. Um you can see here this slide what it what it demonstrates right is just where where we were at where we're at today and uh kind of where we're headed. Um and it's just um you know we have all of our wind
farms right now are out in North Dakota on the eastern edge in the Ashtto little lever area and down into southern east u Marort is the is the small town there. Um we have coal units in in uh Big Stone
uh South Dakota as well as uh um Bea, North Dakota. Um and then of course the the solar farm I mentioned in Fergus Falls. Um and then this this project of course and we're actually building another larger facility in eastern North Dakota. Um then as far as gas goes, we
have the Soway uh combustion turbine and then we have a larger 280 megawatt unit down in Atoria, South Dakota. Um and then some of the smaller pieces there, the the hydro units that we have spread across mostly the Ottertale River. Uh
the Biji hydro is now um not an energy generation uh unit, but a dam control is what that one's used for. Um, so yeah, you can just see there again kind of where we're at today and and and where we're headed. And the Soulway project is
of course part of that. Uh, so this one just a little bit more of a technical dive here. Um, right. So the the solar panels themselves are just collecting the the heat off of the the heat energy off of the sun. Um what what
happens is you have electrons that are getting knocked loose on the panels in the uh the silicon wafers they're called. Um and once that occurs it it creates a basically a current that then gets passed through and up to um an
inverter. Um, and so the the DC energy, it's called, that the solar panels is making needs to be converted or inverted over to AC power, which is what our grid operates on, what your plugins are operating on. Um, so these inverters basically take that DC power, make it
into AC power. Um, and then eventually once we get to the substation level, a transformer steps up that that uh AC level to the the grid level. Um that's what the the transformer is doing at the substation. Um one thing here I'll just mention
again you know the one of the bigger reasons we we chose this site is uh it it was an excellent uh transmission interconnection available. Right. So one of the the the the general nature of a gas unit, the peaking unit it's called,
is that when the when the grid really needs energy, you know, last uh last week when when the grid is stressed due to cold weather and a lot of heaters being used, a lot of residential and commercial demand on the system, those gas units generally go up. Uh more more
peers, they're called across the system start to get used. Um, but a lot of the days of the year, uh, they sit idle, right? They they're not operating. Uh, the they're one of the more expensive units in terms of just pure megawatt
hour cost on the system. And so essentially what happens is all the other units across the system, whether it's wind, solar, nuclear, coal, with lower cost, those get picked up first and then those peaker units get picked up last in the in the event they're
needed. And so what this interconnection allows is there's a lot of space right on the on that interconnection that's ra uh otherwise sitting idle. And so the the solar farm is able to use up that that space that that would otherwise uh be unused.
Um and so of course when you when you have that and you have two units sitting behind the same point of interconnection, you have that increase for reliability and resilience. Um and then of when the sun is shining, it is a very lowcost uh energy source for our
customers. So the the economic benefits of this project um what what the state of Minnesota has is what's called a production tax. Um so for every megawatt hour that gets produced off the off the
unit, there's a $120 tax on that megawatt hour that the state of Minnesota collects. um that that tax that a$120 per megawatt hour then gets uh passed through to Bel Tramy County at
80% and and Lamer's Town Township at 20%. And so what that what that $4.2 million represents is over the life of the project, right? So over 35 years, um it the the production of the unit will
produce about $4.2 million in tax benefits. Um so again like I had mentioned the weather does its own thing every year. Um that that number is going to fluctuate from year to year. Um but but as of now you know we we expect
about 100,000 to 110,000 megawatt hours of production. And so if you use that 100,000 megawatt hours of production per year, you have $120,000 of tax revenue that gets brought in and then and then spread out between Belrammy and um
Lamers. Uh the other piece of that, right, is there will be a large influx of jobs um you know come peak construction. Uh we actually just did this exercise not too long ago kind of getting a an idea of of the amount of jobs uh that each of our contractors and
uh employees that will be brought onto the site over you know basically the construction season in Minnesota. Um you know we we hope to be really um kind of full go in May right when the basically the frost is hopefully out by May. Um
but the uh the the 70 jobs should occur around that July time frame with some ramping up across May, June, and then into July. Uh probably staying steady into August and then slowly tapering off uh throughout the fall and into the winter months.
>> Mr. Chair, >> yes. >> So you mentioned 70 jobs are expected to be created, but how many of them will will be around after the completion? >> Yep. No, great question. I should have mentioned that. So the 70 jobs is during peak construction. The the actual
operations like right now we have uh two employees that sit at our Fergus Falls facility, same size. Um we would expect the same here. However, there may be some rotational jobs that we have. Um so at the at the end of the day, short answer, two two employees would be able
to operate this facility. Um, but those two employees uh may also be navigating other solar facilities as well. Um, and so that Yeah. >> And another question is how did you get to the 8020?
>> Oh, the 8020 that that's uh straight from Minnesota uh tax code. That's that's uh just how the the law was created, I I suppose. >> Okay. Uh so this I I I mean this is the fun part for me. Uh the this what this solar
facility will uh will use is what's called a single axis tracking system. So if you've ever been to Fergus Falls and seen our Hoot Lake solar farm, they're they're fixed tilt and that's what a lot of your residential and commercial some of our smaller commercial ones that you've maybe seen around town are also
fixed tilt. Um but what this single axis tracking system does is essentially uh it tracks the sun east to west as the sun rises and the sun sets. Um one of the uh bigger benefits of this of course is more production uh which is uh of
course lower cost to the customers as well as more tax revenue. Um, and then from the federal standpoint, more production taxes, which should not be confused with a production tax that's put on by the state of Minnesota. Um, as
well as insurance. Uh, you know, the there's always the potential for damage, right? And so these tracking systems can actually tilt to a degree of 75 degrees um to avoid wind and hail. Um, and so that uh that's a huge benefit for for
the design here with the tracking system. As I'd mentioned, the 107,000 panels, uh, there's 14 of those inverters, right? So, those those colors on the screen, uh, that's essentially an inverter block, it's called. Um, and so
there's 14 inverters spread across the site. Uh, the panel, uh, none of our panels, none of our design, basically the project footprint, uh, avoids all the wetlands. You can see the wetlands there on the the north uh west side of
the project uh boundary. Um and then again the the project interconnects at that existing transmission line. So no no new overhead or any any underground will be you know outside the project footprint due to this project.
Um in terms of the visual impact right of course there's it it will be a change it will be an impact. uh there will there will be solar panels where there was once a kind of grazing field. Um so there uh there will be an impact right
to that that uh visual sense in that area. Uh one thing that uh has has done um you know we've I' I've been very impressed. It's not uh it's not uh our group you know we build design and construct and then we pass on to our
operations team. But one thing that I've been very impressed with by the Hoot Lake site is the just the the wildlife that you can find at the Hoot Lake site with the the various um you know we the what's mentioned up there the pollinator
friendly seed mixes across the site. Um you know there's a lot of different native grasses that get put into these sites. uh their their specialty grasses, but all you know native to this area, not only the state of Minnesota area, but even even more so northern Minnesota.
Um and so the that's kind of the what you'll see out at the site. These grasses grow to be about a foot and a half to two feet tall depending on their location. Um and again that's designed such that uh eventually it's kind of a I don't want to say off limits. You can
still as a as our ops team, they can still go in there. Um, but it's a uh it it's really a nature um neutral area if you will. There's a there's not much mowing and or spraying involved especially after those first three
years. Um and then oh sorry I'm talking too long. The the existing trees where where they are uh will serve as a as a project perimeter. Um again trees are not always great when it comes
to sun. So where needed we needed to remove some trees um to remove the shading on the on the project. Um again the the timeline itself um you know we went through the state permitting process which is detailed out and I won't spend a lot of time on the next slide just because the state
permitting process um due to the size of the facility uh basically the state uh requirement is if it's over a certain megawatt threshold you go through the state process rather than the uh you know the city or local governance uh for
zoning. Um, and so the the state process is about a year year and a half long. Um, which we finished up in September, end of September of 2025. And so that's that's when we moved into more of that construction phase in October. Um, and
so some some construction has occurred out there uh to date. Uh there's very minimal over the month of January due to weather. the we have an operations and maintenance building that will start to get built again once the weather cooperates here. Um, but that's that's
kind of the limit of the construction so far with some access roads, uh, vegetation clearing and some additional layown or not additional but the first layown yards that we use for staging of material as it starts to arrive in the spring. Um and again our our goal and uh
you know the the Q4 December basically of 26 operational is is heavily dependent on on weather. Um and so you know as Minnesota weather uh can be it all depends on basically the rainy season and and how the the thawing
occurs in in the spring. And again I'll I'll mention this one a little bit. You can see some of the the items that we we went through there. We we held some some public information and scoping meetings uh through the spring and into the summer uh last year over
over at the township hall as well as um the school there, the Soulway Elementary School there. Um and then you know essentially what goes through is a a pretty rigorous process, an environmental assessment that the state does in conjunction with us and then of
course from uh public input at those at those meetings. Um, and again then once that is all compiled, we have that public hearing again bringing the public in to see if there's any additional requirements or questions that anyone is looking to get answered. Um, and
ultimately then back in September, like I said, is when that that uh what's called the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission makes that determination as complete. Yeah. Very good. I that's that's what I have for you. Mr. Chair,
um had a couple questions for you, Preston. Um one, what how is there anything that's done with regard to the uh snow cover in the wintertime and that to help production or is it just kind of left to nature? >> Right. Yeah. So, that's that's another
benefit I didn't mention with the tracking systems, right? Um with with uh with Hoot Lake, it is fixed. Um, and so when you have, you know, snow, it's at an angle, so snow still sloughs off fairly decently, and when when these
panels are working, in other words, the sun is shining on the black panel, it does a pretty good job of melting off the snow. However, when you get those icy kind of 30° snows, then then you do have some basically delays in and days
of production, um, right? Because that snow needs to be melted off. with these tracking systems, it's uh you know, we should see a lot less of that issue. Again, when when there is snow, uh there's no sun and so we'll be in a position at like a maximum tilt to avoid
catching snow essentially. Um and so that that's one of the benefits here with a tracking system is to hopefully avoid that problem that you would see on a fixed tilt system. >> Okay. And then another question, I'm just wondering what what federal or state tax subsidies were are being
received for this project and what kind of dollars that is or >> Yeah. So the um it's it started with the inflation reduction act and then they they got somewhat extended, not extended, but they got uh um basically an end frame with the one big beautiful
bill this past summer. But the inflation reduction act had uh what's called production tax credits as well as investment tax credits. Um the the production tax credit is essentially um you know starting in 27 which is when we
would start receiving I want to say in the range of $30 to $35 per megawatt hour. So every megawatt hour you put on the grid it's it's 30 to $35 of a tax credit from the federal level. Um there's investment tax credits as
well. That's an all up that's either an upfront payment or like spread over one to five years. That's not what we're pursuing on these sites. Um with solar that production tax credit is generally what's pursued. So I don't have a a total number, just a per megawatt hour number for you.
>> Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to follow up on Commissioner Gazwig's question, without those subsidies, would this even be a reality? uh we would have um so what we do in in Ottertail Power Company we have what's
called a resource planning process integrated resource plan whatever gets uh basically um so what that does it's a it's a modeling software uh with a lot of different inputs a kind of a complex modeling software that looks at our load
needs um and it looks at all three of our our jurisdictions right Minnesota Dakota South Dakota um we put pricing into that model that reflects what we can build these these projects for, right? And those that
pricing includes federal tax subsidies. Um, of course, this project got picked up in that model. That's why we're here today building this project. If those tax subsidies weren't there, I there's there's a lot of different routes that we could have taken in terms of of
buildout. Um, I I don't have the answer in terms of if they weren't here, if we would still be building this project specifically, um, or if it would be a smaller solar farm, maybe it's one solar farm, like I had mentioned, we're building another one in in, uh, eastern
North Dakota. Um, but at the end of the day, uh, our system is growing. We need more energy. Um, and so I'd imagine some resource would have gotten picked up. Um, but I I don't have an answer for you as to whether this project specifically
would have been chosen. >> So with all the different alternatives that we have for producing electricity, if the state of Minnesota did not have a moratorium on nuclear, how would that impact whether you would do a solar farm
versus a nuclear plant? >> Yeah. No, I I uh I'm aware of the nuclear moratorum and there's in North Dakota you can't uh store spent fuel in that in in North Dakota and so nuclear is essentially off the table for our
jurisdictions. Um you know, from what I can tell from the news, the the new nuclear the small module reactors are still a ways out. Um and so I mean will they be an alternative someday? Maybe.
Uh but I because again they're essentially off the table for us. We don't review and research them as much as uh you know we'd maybe hope to. I guess >> Mr. Sar. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. You answered that
really well. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Um well, I apologize. You know, I'm not expert in in nuclear uh energy, solar energy. Um, and I might have missed uh your slide where you talked about the
the cleanup of of of these panels. Um, what is your plan for the cleanup? >> Yep. Yeah. So, you're talking basically at the end of the life or in the event they break something. Yeah. Right. Um, so part of that environmental assessment in in the in the permitting process is
what's uh basically an entire appendix called the decommissioning plan. Um it's something we've done with uh it, you know, it's it's not just with solar, it's with all our facilities, right? Our coal facilities, our wind facilities, gas facilities. Um we're a we're a
utility that, you know, we have we live and and work in the in the communities that we serve and that the communities that we build these projects in. So we I mean I get that it's a it's required as part of these permitting processes, but we do care about what these sites look
like after either end of life or in the event there are uh breakages and in this case panels. And so with that with that decommissioning plan that we have in place with the state and we'll have we'll update it every I believe it's 3 years maybe it's 5 years but we update
that every 3 to 5 years over the life of the project. And what that details out is essentially in the event of the breakage, what would we do? You know, right now we have uh we've worked with a recycling company. Um I forget the state that they're in, but we've worked with
the recycling company for you know, when you install these panels, there's potential for breakage, right, with handling. It's just how construction goes. Um so we've we've we've had to recycle at our Hoot Lake site, and we'll likely need to do some more of the same here. It's just I mean we hope that we don't break anything in construction,
but that's that's the nature of construction. Um but then uh the fullon decommissioning plan, right, is that I mean of course we'll we'll remove everything all the steel in the ground. Uh all the cable at certain depths will get out of the ground and uh and bring
it back to the the life that it had kind of before the project was there. Um, and so that's again part of our our environmental assessment and something that we'll we'll continue to do over the life of the project is look at that decommissioning plan.
>> Mr. Chair, so like none of the panels or or things like that would would would that come to the the county landfill or or >> No, you got >> No, our goal is Yeah, we would not want to be bringing these to landfills um at the greatest extent possible. we we
would look to recycle. Um now there are probably components that uh you know are are not completely recyclable. Um but it it is minimal, right? They have aluminum uh frames completely recyclable. Uh these these minerals within um that you
know the silicon wafers these of course we want to use those again or the industry wants to use those again in the next solar panel. Um, and so, uh, that that's one benefit here is that the the the panels themselves are nearly 100% recyclable due to the nature of the
industry and the fact that we continue to build solar. >> I just have one thing if you can make it quick because we're kind of out of time. Storage. You don't have any way of storing from this. So, you're still going to be relying on fossil fuels for a substantial amount of time. Yeah.
Correct. >> Yeah, absolutely. And I think our company's done a really good job of building a pretty diverse energy mix. Um, and it's going to continue to be that way from an earlier slide uh for the foreseeable future. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. >> Okay, we got uh Jared inmate locator. Diane, if you could bring up the county website, maybe bring up the site so we could reference it during this. Uh, the reason that I'm here to talk about this, I know the commissioners have had qu some questions
about it and asked me to come in front of the board. Uh, we made the time now to do it. So, while she's pulling that up, I'm just going to give a little bit of history. We all know I can talk fast. I should be able to get out of here in five minutes and leave Tom some time as well. But, um, with that said, we switched records management vendors or
law enforcement software software back in January 2024. We went from LEG to Pro Phoenix. With Pro Phoenix, there is a they have their proprietary inmate locator. It's something we cannot customize. It's kind of their their product they offer if you want to display the inmates that are currently
in your jail. I think uh Profix currently has over 900 customers throughout the United States. They're in Florida, New Jersey, Wisconsin, California. They're all over the place. So, they kind of have a cookie cutter inmate locator that they use. And just click right down there. Yep. Um, so and
this is what their product is. I know that we demoed them back in 2011 when we went with LEG, they had a very similar uh inmate locator back then. So that would have been about 15 years ago. Uh when we went with them in 2024, they this is the product that they had moving forward. I know that there is uh it's
not quite as userfriendly or does not display as much as LEG did, but this is something that we have very little ability to customize or to uh to make it our own. If you hit the search button on there, you'll see that it'll bring up all of our inmates that are currently housed or are responsibilities responsible of Belrammy County. You want
to hit the search button there, Diane, go the right. There you go. Um, these are all the inmates that we're currently responsible for. Even the ones that are housed in our county and that are housed out of county at Morrison County and Pennington County, they all show up on this list. It doesn't delineate what
county they're at, but they are our responsibility. They do show on this list. Um, and as you can see here, it uh, you know, our old system used to show the name, what the charge is, and automatically pop up the photo. Oh. Uh, and currently with the way this one works, you have to click into it in
order if you want to see any of the expanded data. You just want to click into Jared Anderson there. He's got a good name. So, we'll click into it. Now, scroll down just a little bit. No, on the other screen there. Then it brings up his uh his booking photo and what his current charges are that he's
being held in our jail. The old system, if I remember right, would show the name, the charges, and the photo for everyone just in one big list. This one makes you dive into it a little bit if you want to see the data for it. So, it's not not nearly as user friendly. Um, and of course, uh, it's all based off of an interface with our system, so
it it refreshes, I think, every couple minutes, so it's fairly current on who's currently housed in our facility. We do have the ability to uh if an inmate we don't want them to show on the list to do that and very rarely do we do that but if there's a certain situation where we don't want to we have the ability to keep them off for short periods of time.
That's kind of the inmate locator in in about 2 minutes. Uh I know that there are some questions about it and uh I'll turn it over to you guys for any questions. >> Mr. G. >> Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. Uh thank you for coming in. Um I I'm just wondering about
I know you said there's not a lot of control with this vendor. Was it uh was it more of a cost thing moving from this vendor from the last were they charging like an exorbitant amount and this one's more reasonable? >> Our other vendor got our other it's it's
your records management system. It's not who displays it. It's a one of a modules in the totality of a system. Our other system LEG was bought out by Zurker. Then it was bought out by TRC. Then it was bought out by Central Square and then they the Central Square said
they're not going to support LEGO that you need to move away from it. They said they're sunsetting it. So then we said, well, we got to change vendors because they're not going to support our current system. So that's why we moved to the system that we're on now. We had a little bit of a vetting process, but LEG they told us was going to go away. So that's why we left that system. Is there
any way you can put in a request so that when you go to it um the list already comes up without having to click on the search button and with their picture showing? >> Uh we could ask them. I mean it's a it's a program rewrite. I know they they have a lot of stuff uh that they're working, you know, priorities moving forward, but
we can always ask them. It doesn't hurt to ask. So >> that's kind of what um that's the a lot of anecdotal comments I've received is people think it's not working, you know, and so you got to tell them every time you got to click the search button and then there's like well where's their
picture and you got to click on it again and that sort like you were saying. So if if it's possible to put in a request, um I think the the public interest is there. And then maybe just a general question like why would you say it's
important for to even have this to begin with because don't some counties not have this at all? Um what what would you say the benefit to having it versus not having it? I think that you know people always want to know what's going on within our jail and if someone one of
their loved ones in here or somebody they know and the other option they do that they would call our jail and say hey someone's in our jail you know and it t it saves time in that aspect as well and it's just transparency with the public to show who's in our jail and and kind of let them know uh what's going on because it's all public data so
>> and how many current people right now in the jail >> this morning we had a between what we had housed in in in our jail and out of county was 115 15. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. Anything else? Okay. >> I'll put in the request, Joel, and we'll
we'll see how it goes. I know that there there we have a lot of other requests into them, but it's one that I'll I'll put on our list. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Commissioner Barry, Commissioner, administrator.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. uh provide a brief up update uh from the minister perspective. Uh we'll start with the jail and uh as you heard last time uh the weather is really kind of that cold weather took a little damper and uh progress particularly as it
relates to masonry work. So that would be like concrete flat work uh also brick work and those sorts of things. Uh but the temperatures have come back up which is great. So we're continuing to make small pores uh like the stair pans and column uh areas and then also uh larger
pores are being prepped and uh should be occurring this week for the kitchen and the receiving and maintenance areas. Um and we hope to have that all wrapped wrapped up essentially by the end of the week or so and that will take care of the majority of the large pores for the building. Uh the masons are uh returning
and are laying brick in some of the smaller areas like the intake medical uh walls and such and uh upstairs in area B and the west housing units as well. Uh the major push this week is in the area A housing units uh the day room walls uh
for them as well. Uh iron workers are setting a composite deck for the walkways and the mezzanines. Uh electrical, plumbing and duck work also is continuing throughout the building and uh the cold steel framers are starting on the walls in the administration areas of uh section or
area C. Uh and then we're planning another formal update for the board at the next board meeting and that will include a presentation by our construction manager and also uh with any luck another video tour that will give you a lot better sense of kind of
what's been going on since the last update and I think put into a much better perspective kind of how the facility looks like today. Uh a lot has changed since the last uh video tour and so we're excited to show you the next one. I put a plug in to see if we can't
get some music uh in the background of that one to make it a little bit more interesting. So, >> yeah, we're picking songs now. Jailhouse Rock and >> love that kind of stuff. All right. Anyway, uh just a quick update on the jail bonds. Uh that process went very
well for the county. As you know, we got a favorable bond ratings. Um a high degree of competition uh in regard to the bids. Uh those were sold. Uh we are expecting uh closing on February the 12th. And so there's a lot of paperwork that's being processed right now in advance of that. Board chairs signed off
on I think I think yours was the last signature we needed today. Uh so we've got those and um and uh so we're expecting a a pretty straightforward closing on the 12th and uh we'll get our money uh essentially almost immediately and uh project will continue. So the
good news is is that uh the schedule was pretty much almost to the week that we had predicted back in November that the process would run. So everything's gone very well on that process, too. So we're we're pretty pleased with that. Um in
case you hadn't heard, Biji Day of the Capital has been locked in with a scheduled date of Thursday, March the 5th. Uh there will be a couple of uh modifications to the schedule. One of those will be that the uh reception in the in the afternoon, late or early
evening is uh is being cancelled and so the bus will actually return a little bit earlier. Uh that will allow us to not have to be out till midnight or 1:00 that evening for those of you who plan to go. Uh and if you do plan to go, uh you just want to talk to the chamber
executive director, uh Scott Hearn, and and let him know and he'll make room for you on the bus. Um, I did mention in the presentation earlier today that uh the Department of Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold and the assistant commissioners uh Sarah Payne and Haley
Kolkind are scheduled to visit with the county and talk with county leadership uh including elected officials that have been involved in the insurance uh um concerns and then also city council members as well and also potentially
some residents uh and key staff between the city and the Um the uh they're going to learn about the storm recovery and hear about the the region's continuing concerns. Uh and uh we are working on an agenda right now and hope to have that finalized here in
the next couple weeks or so. Lastly, I was just going to give you a reminder that the years of service awards are going to take place next Tuesday and Wednesday. And finally, that county offices will be closed on Monday, February 16th in observance of President's Day. That's all I have for you, but I'll stand for any questions
you might have. >> Okay. Any questions for Tom? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Tom. >> Uh agenda, we don't have any other business. No. >> Well, does anyone have any uh changes to
the agenda? >> Right. Nothing. All right. Need a motion to adjurnn or just adjourn. Okay. We're we're going to adjourn then. All done with that