--------- work. We have Jason, but introduction of new employees. Jason's on the phone. Give him a minute. come up. >> Jason would normally do the
introduction but on those >> where do you want me? >> My name is Mike Edggerdoll and I'm starting as a baiff. >> Thank you. >> What was your background? I worked at Ziggler Caterpillar, the heavy equipment
dealer in town, and I had law enforcement further back in my background. Went to school at Hibbing Community College, uh, two-year degree in criminal justice. >> Welcome aboard. >> Thank you. >> Are you from Baiji here? >> Uh, I've been here about 15 years. I
grew up on the Iron Range. >> Okay. >> Went to school in Nashwalk. >> Okay, cool. Yeah. Welcome. >> Spartans. >> You got it. Do you need me anymore? Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up.
>> Oh, that's it. Okay. Any other new employees? >> They don't always know that that's part of the job that they had to come in. >> Yeah. By the way, >> we don't tell them ahead because we don't want them to not not be a good
job. >> Yeah. >> All right. Future work topics. Anybody have anything? >> Yes. >> Um, we all got an email from Leading Age Minnesota. They are hosting a panel
discussion. their nonprofit uh association uh serving older adults um assisting folks in nursing homes, assisted livingings, senior housing, and they have a big meeting in Thief River Falls coming up on June 3rd. Uh we were
all invited to it, but that is our AMC district region meeting here that day. Um they said they would be interested in in coming specifically to us uh at some point this summer or even September. um to present uh the latest facts and
figures on on uh is issues facing seniors uh Leading Age Minnesota. So, um it'd be good to have them come in, I think. >> So, Joe, I'm just curious. It sounds like that would be competition to a group that we're already invested in
with the Dancing Sky that that deals directly with. So, I'm just curious why why would they come in and try to take over a job that's already been done by um one of the areas on aging? >> No, I don't think it competition would
be the right word. I think they uh they do similar work. Um, and you know, they uh uh the purpose is just to bounce ideas back and forth uh regarding um policies
that would be helpful to um people that are aging in our community. They're they're here to um share the latest updates on um services that we have and that need to be expanded upon. So I I think it's similar work. I wouldn't say
competition, but um probably there's probably a little overlap there. >> I I guess I'd be concerned that why we would do that when when we already have that whole aspect of the aging covered with the dancing sky. >> Maybe you could talk to the the area a
area agency on aging of I can call >> and talk to them about it before we anything. >> That's probably a good idea. Um, I think that would be appropriate to find out if there's I just want to make sure there isn't anything nefarious going on. I mean, because of the fact that we already are involved with Dancing Sky, I
would hate to think that some other group is going to come in and want to take county dollars and take it away from something that we've already had as proven records. So, I I can reach out to other >> Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Senator. um hoping
that we can get a legislative update sometime in the near future. >> Thank you. >> Well, I just want to make sure that uh we got the best bang for our buck with our lobbyist and and see what kind of uh
see if we got any um good news out of out of the the session. So, So that's you're asking to have the lobbyist come. >> Okay. >> Oh, Mr. Chair, they're scheduled for June 16th, just so you're aware.
>> Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. Anything else? Okay. Going to go down to Number five. Well, four. Now, Elen Township Division of Road Maintenance Responsibility. >> Good afternoon, commissioners. I need
you to take off your commissioner hat and put on your town board hat. >> Okay. >> Um, Elen Township is an unorganized township, so that falls underneath the jurisdiction of the county board. Um, Springrove Court is a road that is on
the border with Elen Township and Shotley Township. Uh Shley Township has been maintaining uh 1.1 miles of Spangru Court. Uh the the remainder is been minimum maintenance and actually zero
maintenance. It's but it is the designated township road. Um but that uh road is on the border between the two townships and by statute uh shared roads should be uh have shared costs or through maintenance and
jurisdiction. Uh the township association has a sample agreement out there that can be used by townships to to delineate the jurisdiction and maintenance. Um but Shley Township uh came and asked uh if Elen Township would
start paying for half the costs. And so I guess I'm looking for direction from the board to uh proceed with uh coming up with some type of a division of jurisdiction and maintenance costs uh for for Spain Court.
>> The township hires it done right now. It's not something the county does. >> Uh right now Shley Township is covering all of it. So Elen Township's been doing zero. >> They're hiring a contractor to do it. We're not doing >> Correct. Correct. Correct. >> Okay.
>> We don't really have a choice, do we? I mean, that's part of our obligation. I mean, if if we we got lucky so far that we haven't had to do it up till now, right? >> Uh, correct, >> Mr. Chair. Yeah. Just wondering um have
you do they have a desire to do it in a particular way? I know when I was on the town board, we had a similar road and we shared with another township, not with the county, but um we split it where we one one township did all the winter plowing and the other one did all the
summer graveling and road road work or whatever. Um and have is are we wanting to just you know are they saying that they'll keep the same contractor doing the entire road and we'll split the cost or or how what's a preferred way to do it? Uh, I guess we didn't get into the
details when they came, but the the first take on it is they've got a contractor hired that's doing the maintenance. And so my first expectation is they're going to want to split the bill. >> Okay. And that might be simplest anyways, especially if it's only a one
mile road instead of us trucking all the way up there to do stuff, you know. Yeah, we are again we're maintaining the other Elen Township roads. So, we are in the area, but I I guess that's I just wanted some direction on the board to start start negotiating and figure out
how we're going to split those costs. Um I do want to point out that you know Elen Township is in the hole right now. Uh what we've been spending on maintenance for those township roads uh that Elen Township has had to borrow from the other other unorganized
townships. And this is the same township that uh we've have uh Sunny Beach Road uh shared road with Washkish Township that I've brought up in the past about how we should be sharing costs with
Wkish right now. Um in the past uh Elen Township's been doing 100% of those. Uh we did come up with an agreement but Wkush won't formalize it in that agreement. And uh but that agreement was like um you you said commissioner um one
is during the summer and one is during the winter >> blading but um there could be a time here in the near future when the road's going to need some gravel and that is not uh hasn't been negotiated because by
the draft agreement that was going to be split you know one half of the road to one half the other to the other township. But so that agreement is also uh kind of sitting out there with no not being approved. But it's just something that Elen Township uh it's these
townships should be sharing those costs in those in those shared roads. >> You have an estimate on the cost that have they shared with you how much they've been paying? >> No. >> Mr. here. >> Um, have you talked to um the Washers
Township? Because it's my understanding that there are a few new board members on there and >> I might be open to some discussion. So, >> yeah, >> I guess I could uh re retry that discussion. Um, yeah, it's been a couple
years. They were just kind of steadfast against signing it at that point. I I certainly agree with what Commissioner Carlson mentioned that, you know, we should be doing what's right and splitting it with them and and uh whatever I would direct you to do
whatever negotiate whatever is most expeditious to make it happen. You know, >> Mr. Chair, so uh Bruce, you mentioned that Elen Township uh is in the hole right now financially. So, how would how
would we cover the the cost? >> Uh, >> because it's borrowing from Peter to pay Paul isn't always the best practice. >> Yeah. Um, again, it's something that we I mean, the statutes say you shall
share. Um, and so to come up with those additional funds, it's raising the township levy or again trying to minimize what those costs are. But, uh, yeah, it's going it would be raising the town road levy
and there's the issue is there's only so many private parcels in that township. There's a lot of public land. Um and so it's hard to make a huge huge increase, but um that is brought to the board uh you know every budget cycle and and uh
there's been a kind of a small increase that we've been doing there each year to try to help address that being in the red. Okay. >> Okay. Proceed. Y >> proceed. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you.
Then next item is good news that I have for the board. Um we the county has received uh three different grants uh here recently. Uh the first one is a federal grant from the carbon reduction program. Um that is for an
existing road project we have going uh in our five-year plan. Uh it is for $370,000. um is just to help with the resurfacing of uh Adams Avenue. Um so that'll just kind of offset some existing uh funding that we've got for that road project.
The second is another federal grant. It's the highway safety improvement program uh $223,000 uh that is for some uh edge line uh and center line uh rumbles. Uh this
is uh a new program that the state came out with where um we are going to be lumped in with a bunch of other projects all across the state. Um but if you joined this project, they would fund 100% of the project costs where if we were to apply on our own, it would be a
we would have a 10% match that we would have to put up for these federal dollars. So under this program here, we're going to get 100% of those those costs covered. And so that'll be a new project that will uh be added to the the five-year plan to be approved this fall.
And then lastly is the the largest one uh $1.1 million from the local road improvement program uh for the Carl Lake Road down in the industrial park. It is our number 11. Um it's between our 50 and and uh trunk highway 197. This was a
new project we added to the five-year plan last year, and I had talked about applying for this grant, and we were successful. But it'll uh be a reconstruction project. With this grant, uh we'll extend the curbon gutter that is there and add a sidewalk or a trail
that will be connecting with the Paul Bunan trail and it'll bring it to the to the west to to 197. And the one thing with that project, uh, just the grant timeline that will we will need to bump that up by one year, but that's still it'll fit in the
five-year plan. Uh, so that's, you know, 1.7 million for the county, but then additionally there, just kind of noteworthy, there's another million and a half for Turtle River Township, uh, for their local road improvement program. uh they're going to be able to um get some funds to help with the
Little Pass Lake Road improvements that they've that they've uh got there. So, that was a good a good win for the for the township. I was honestly quite surprised that they got it. And uh so, but that'll really really help out with their road project that they going got going.
So, >> got a little flat here, wasn't >> Yeah, there's been uh let's see, Faggrounds Road was uh one of the township road projects that >> Yeah. And uh
potentially, we'll see how it uh works out, but uh legislatively here, they put some more dollars into that uh program. And since they just went through this solicitation, they might just go further down that list. And uh I know Northern Township was close there, so we'll see
if they make the cut or not. But there'll be some another potential project. >> Thank you for finding us all that money. >> Well, Mr. Chair, >> good. >> Uh Bruce, you mentioned that uh we were
receiving 1.7 million in in grants. I'm curious, are these competitive grants or are they how how do you go about looking for grants and and things like that? >> Yeah. No, these ones were all competitive and
um I guess that's my secret, >> but uh no, I guess it's uh being aware of the grants that are out there and uh and aggressively applying for them. >> Um the local road improvement program is a statewide grant. uh dollars are um uh
I have inside knowledge. I sit on that committee. I don't get to select the projects but I approve the projects but I help with the criteria. So I have the kind of the inside knowledge of what is uh being sought but there are dollars that are set aside for counties uh
townships small cities and large cities and then it's also split out by uh districts and so they spread the dollars around to all those different uh areas and agencies. Um and so it's yeah it's uh knowing and it's applying and um
>> so how how much um do you apply for in a given year and how much do you receive? >> You're killing my points that I was going to use later here, but uh um >> Okay.
Um, >> yeah. >> Well, it was 1.7 this year. Last year it was 2.3 million. Um, and over my career it's about $2 million a year. >> Um, I've applied for and successfully
got grants 80 grants uh for the county and that's uh federal uh federal roads, federal safety and state grants. Um, so it's about $38 million in my uh 16 16 years here. So that's uh two million 2
million plus a year. But >> and and we're still working on uh I was kidding. >> One of the one of the biggest ones is in uh your commission or your district, the next year commissioner on 32 going across there. That was a 3
3.6 million or 3.4 four something like that million dollars. So that's well above average you know roughly again you kind of saw here a lot of the grants are small you know for 80 80 successful grants for you know 40 roughly just about 40 million it's a half million
each so you know that 3.6 is a larger one and that means there's a lot of smaller ones underneath there too but >> they might scenic highway >> I think Yeah, pretty pretty.
>> Yeah, every it was done in five segments and there was five different federal grants to help that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bruce. >> Yeah. >> All right. Uh, Health and Human Services
client support stories. Good afternoon, commissioners. Annth, director of health and human services. And as you know, we like to come every once in a while and talk about our mission moments. Um, we have three staff here today that are going to share some
realw world client stories with you. Um, and we just really appreciate the time you give us to share some of those successes. So, >> good afternoon, commissioners. Amy Bulls, your public health director for Bel Tramy County. And to uh this afternoon, I'm going to read to you a
story written by one of my social workers. Sometimes we must define success in different ways. It doesn't always mean that everything worked out perfectly or that all problems are fixed, but rather we made it from trajectory point A that was full of
hardships and trouble to a new trajectory that allows choice and hope for a better future. I worked with a young single mom when we met. She was new to the area. She had lost her housing and had come to Baiji
because a relative lives here. But a relative was in subsidized housing, so the client could not live with her. She was pregnant, single, and homeless. She used a variety of substances with frequency as a way of dealing with her
anxiety and mental health. At the time, she was unable to go into a store without having a panic attack, and so she kept herself mostly isolated. She agreed to meet with me for case management and sobriety support in
addition to a public health nurse for family home visiting services. Together, we helped this mom have a healthy pregnancy, significantly cut back on substance use, and not because of threats, but because we were able to educate her on the effects of substance
use, and she made healthier choices. We helped her find stable housing, get a job, and avoid an unhealthy and possibly even dangerous relationship. She navigated childbirth, set healthy
boundaries as a new parent, and increased her support network. She had never been a legal driver because she was afraid of failure. But she persevered to get her driver's license. And as a result of her efforts
and consistency in working with her support systems, her conviction grew. She went from a very low wage job with minimal hours that she hated to a job that allows her room in her budget with
better flexibility. She has gained confidence and is doing well with single parenting. She has access mental health services to help her understand how her past impacts her present and to continue to help her to reinforce those
boundaries. She outgrew the need for case management support and so she's graduated from that program, but she continues to work with our home visiting services to keep learning about child development through the ages and stages.
She is an attentive mom who is determined to provide a better life for her child than she once had. She still has a lot of work to do and she is learning that parenting is hard and that relationships are tricky. But the path
she is on now holds a lot more options for her health and her happiness, for herself and her child than it once did before. >> Thank you, Amy. >> Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, commissioners. uh Kurt Anderson, your
economic assistance division director, and I am uh able to provide you two stories uh that kind of relate back to uh last board meeting. Um I was able to introduce uh our workforce impact team that had gotten the award for
exceptional teamwork. And uh as a testament to that, we've had uh I've got two cases. Uh, one, uh, was a disabled vet that was, uh, supported by our workforce impact team lead, Chad Troth,
um, who had come into the office. He was looking for something to, uh, keep him busy. He was retired from, uh, the postal service, uh, but really wanted, uh, that job to keep him from potentially, uh, as he put it, avoid uh, some things that had caused him trouble
in the past. uh he had worked in the food service industry and uh based on Chad's uh connections uh that that he has as a career force um navigator in the past, he was able to reach out,
refer him to a local uh chef who knew of an upcoming opening in the food service ability. So our disabled vet was then able to connect uh get an interview and has successfully landed that job. also our business account rep uh Amy Mystic
uh whose uh main job duty is to reach out and connect uh with all of our local businesses uh trying to ensure that we have the most up-to-date uh jobs and referrals on our board for individuals who come into our office. Uh we had a resident and her daughter come in. Uh
she was looking for work. Amy was uh able to go out uh work with her uh give her all the contacts that she needed for businesses within the areas that she was looking for. And she was able to land a
job here at Menard's. And uh what was um great for the team to to hear is uh how appreciative she was of the help uh that she received uh and just uh the ease of working with Amy. So again, those are
two of our great workforce impact individuals that we have and those are services that we provide not only to our public assistance uh recipients, but to all county uh members are able to come into our workforce and receive help as they're looking for jobs. That's my
story. Commissioners, >> thank you. >> Good afternoon. I'm Cararissa Golden from the Child Protection Intake Investigations Licensing and um reset program. I'm happy to share a story with you
today for two reasons. One is I think it highlights some of the good collaboration that our unit does with other units within our agency and also with community partners. And the second reason is because it really shows um a
lot of great progress that one of our community members has made. Um this report came to us last fall. It was regarding a mother who has been struggling with significant um addiction for the last 20 plus years. Um she has
lost over the years she has lost permanent custody of four other children and she was pregnant last fall um unhomed and also continuing to use both fentanyl and methamphetamine. Um when the report came into us we couldn't open a child protection case
because there was no baby yet. But we opened a child welfare case to try to help this mom access services and motivate her to make some changes in her life. That did not work. Um so we then referred the case on to adult services who also attempted to work with her
voluntarily. It did not work. Um ended in a civil commitment um where this mother had to against her will go to treatment until that baby was born for the protection of the baby. When the baby was born that civil commitment ends
and we opened a child protection investigation at that point because of the mom's use during pregnancy. Um, this mom at that point had been in treatment for a little bit and she it was like talking to a different person for the investigator. She the mom was
very motivated to um remain in treatment to get clean and be healthy for her baby. Um, so she and the child protection investigator worked together to make an arrangement with a family member who took that baby in out
of the hospital last fall. That baby still remains with that relative um on a just a voluntary family arrangement, but gets lots of visits with her mom in treatment. Um the mom and the child protection case manager have worked with
a a housing program to get this mom housing that was just recently secured. She's going to leave treatment successfully, move into this housing at the end of this month. Um, they also work to get some accommodations put into
that housing because of this mother's disabilities, things she's going to need for success for herself and her parenting. Um, we've worked with income maintenance unit to make sure that the mom can get financial benefits as soon after leaving treatment as possible.
um working with um providers in the community for her disability for treatment, outpatient treatment after she leaves inpatient treatment. Um we have a lot of services set up for this mom to help her um hopefully be
successful. She is going to be um 200 days clean this week. She is very proud of her sobriety. She is motivated to continue in that sobriety. She's working um
really well with all the service providers accepting their help. Um she's going to continue with voluntary production case manager with the investigator to help her with that transition into housing for the first time in a lot of years, transition into
living um sober outside of the treatment program and to parenting full-time this baby. Um but we're very proud of her and I'm proud of the work that not only my worker has done but other workers from
in our agency and um the workers from the community agencies that are providing a lot of support to her. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next up Health and Human Services cost savings.
>> All right, thank you commissioners. I'm back. Ann Seth again, director of Health and Human Services. Um, we're going to shift the focus now to the Health and Human Services budget. And we do have a PowerPoint to work through, but
basically we're coming back to the board to report on some cost savings that was presented to the budget committee and ultimately approved by the board for our 2025 fiscal year budget. So, we're thinking back in time now. I know we're
almost to the budget season where where we're going to start thinking about 2027. So don't think about 26 or 27. I'm specifically talking about fiscal year 2025 in our presentation today. Um so >> oh
let you run it. >> Maybe. So, thinking back in time to mid 2024, um, Health and Human Services became aware of two revenue losses that were very significant, um, totaling over a million dollars of revenue reduction for
2024. Those were specifically related to two funding streams. One was out of home placement aid, which is state funding, and the other was federal 4E reimbursement. Both of those are related to um, child protection, child welfare placements. um and ultimately changes in
the oversight of those child protection cases changed the funding formula around that a number of years before that and then that impacted our budget starting in 2024. So based on the reality of over a million dollars of reimbursement loss,
we had to come up with some strategic planning on how we were going to do some cost-saving measures um instead of looking at um increases to the levy to offset that loss. Um so we did present to the budget committee and again
ultimately approved by the board um for the 2025 fiscal year to make some significant changes around three areas u programmatic changes process changes and workforce changes. And so I'm going to go through what we um had proposed as
well as the goals that we had set at that time and then we're going to share what the savings actually were. So for program adjustments, we had five main areas. Um the first two are goals to reduce expenses and the last three
are goals to increase revenue streams. Number one is rule five placements. Rule five placements are high need uh placements for children who have significant mental health or behavioral health challenges. um they they are almost the highest level of placement
that can that we have available to us in Minnesota and they have significant costs associated with them. Um we had a lot of um costs that we were expending locally around these rule five placements and so we we came up with a strategy to reduce our expenses in this
area and our goal was $200,000 of reduction. We wanted to do this by a different way of screening these cases, looking at what community services were available, looking at lower level placements, looking at step down options. So, it wasn't that people
weren't still receiving services. We were just looking at different ways for youth to receive those services. And ultimately, we saved $47,000 in this area, far exceeding the goal that we set. Um the second area is what
we call flexible funding, but basically what that means is direct expenditures for clients. So if a client needs a phone card or a gas voucher in order to fulfill plan uh their plan requirements, um these historically we utilized some
levy funds and some um state and federal grant funds to support these. What we wanted to do was to reduce the expenses in this area by $55,000 by only utilizing grants from the state and federal government um up to the
allowable amounts that those grants would support. And ultimately we actually saved $73,000 in this area. Um we also uh put forward a new way of tracking it for our managers um and our fiscal manager Josh Bham which I think I
neglected to introduce at the beginning. I'm sorry. >> Do that on the next slide. Okay. Um so he put together a reporting mechanism for our managers. Uh so they get a report every month with what their budget is and what their expenditures are and a um average monthly amount to
expend to the total that they can by the end of the year. So we've just put a lot of tracking me mechanisms in place around that particular budget. >> Mr. Good. >> Um, with the flexible spending, you mentioned that you use this to help uh
clients with with phone cards and and other things. And and by uh reducing some of those expenses, we aren't creating additional burdens or or anything for for them to continue on a path of of beame becoming
self-sufficient. We support clients to reach the plans of their their goal plans. So, whatever is set forth by the court and by our social workers, we want to support them in getting there. And we're using grants to do so without dipping into any levy
funds. We also have received a few additional grants um as far as like uh the family first prevention service act which actually allows us to use um that grant for these flexible funding um expenditures. So we we can use other
grants to offset instead of levy. So I would say that we are still continuing to provide for the needs of our clients. >> Thank you. Um the next area is elderly waiver billing and this again is increasing revenue coming into the health and human services budget. So an elderly waiver um
is a social worker who's working with someone eligible for that waiver program and the social worker is able to bill their time to that under medical assistance. Um we did have a goal to increase that revenue by $41,000 um in 2025. We did come up a bit short
of that goal, but ultimately we were able to uh increase our revenue by $25,000. We do have to have clients that are eligible for that waiver program in order to be able to bill that waiver program. So, there's other variables that affect our billing capacity there.
Um, but I'm very happy that we didn't increase it by 25,000. The Family First Prevention Services Act is a new funding stream that we are able to bill against. I think it was passed in 2023. Um, and that funding stream helps to
support social workers to work on prevention services with eligible cases. Uh, we're able to bill our time there. And so our goal was to increase revenue by $90,000 under that grant. We were actually able to increase our revenue by $22,000 under that grant. Um, so that
was very beneficial. And then the last program adjustment area is to utilize our adult mental health initiative funding. We have regional funding to support access for mental health services and that is exactly what our adult mental health social workers do is they connect individuals to mental
health services in the community. Um and so we are able to bill our time against that grant as well. Our goal was to increase that revenue by $200,000. We increased it to by $300,000. Um our next area that Josh is going to
talk about is process adjustments. Uh thank you commissioners for having me today. My name is Josh Bernham. I'm the finance manager at Health and Human Services and uh thank you an for asking me to come up here and be a part of this presentation. Um so I'm going to go through process adjustments. First one I'm going to
touch on is staff training. Uh so staff training we believe is a critical area for our staff for to succeed in the work that we do. But unfortunately in the area and the time that we were going through with the budget and and whatnot, we just really had to draw that back and look at mandatory trainings that our
staff had to go to. That's what we originally budgeted for. Um we're also very thankful for other departments that are within the health and human services budget such as public health. Um Amy has been very open to giving our other staff opportunity to build a foundational
capacity of their knowledge and to continue to do those additional trainings that might have been cut before, but she had grant dollars that were able to cover those. So we are very very thankful for her and just the collaboration that we have at Health and Human Services is just it's just a
wonderful place to work and work with a group that's not just holding on to their pot of money and saying it's mine, you know, it's it's it's a really collaborative effort and it's it's a really good place. Um we also always look for free trainings and we really want to focus on resilency resiliency and helping our staff maintain a balance
in the workforce. Um if we can't help ourselves, we have a hard time helping clients. So, we just really believe in that ideology. Uh, the next one I want to talk about is staff travel. Um, our goal was to reduce that exp or to reduce that expense by $15,000.
Um, unfortunately, we actually ended up overspending in that area by about $30,000. Um, we had some changes that went through budgetarily that were related to COVID that we didn't accurately see and also legislative changes that happened
from COVID that they reverted back that in order to us for us to get reimbursement for visiting some of our clients. We actually had to visit them in person. Uh, during COVID, we could do telework type of activities and be able to achieve those reimbursements. So, we're always strategically looking at
what's our cost, what's our benefit, how are we helping clients to ensure that they're receiving all the services that they need to, but just always strategically looking at that from a financial perspective as well and just taking that into um incorporation into what we're doing. Um the next one is to reduce staff
reimbursement for day travels for meals. Um our goal was to reduce that by $4,000. We were able to reduce that by $4,000. So, we hit that goal. Uh the last one is rent. Our goal was to reduce expenses in the rent that we pay by
$10,000. Uh we're very thankful that the commissioners and the county administrator being Tom Barry um worked that through to have a rent freeze from 24 to 25 for health and human services. So that helped us achieve that goal. Thank you guys. >> And our last area of cost savings is in
workforce adjustments. We had to make some very difficult um challenging decisions to reduce our workforce in order to meet a goal of saving over a million dollars. Um we did strategically look at our staffing. Um and through attrition we did reduce five positions.
Um we were able to as people naturally left the agency um reduce those positions by the end of 2024. So ultimately in 2025, we were looking to save $416,000 by reducing those five positions. We actually saved $358,000.
We had made that goal based on an average pay grade of five, which is the middle of the road. Um ultimately people leaving the agency ended up not being at that pay grade. So our savings were slightly less because of that. Um another workforce related savings is in
our vehicle purchase. We do have a vehicle fleet at Health and Human Services for travel to see our clients. Um, usually we do have a $40,000 um set aside to purchase a vehicle. We did not do that in 2025. Um, we have since talked with the budget committee and
board and been able to uh purchase some vehicles to support our staff, but that was a savings at that time. >> And I feel like we should be like tag teaming up here or something, huh? Um so just wanted to talk to you guys about going forward what's it look like? What are we doing in what are some budget
tracking strategies? Um so if we look back at we have right now we have director and finance manager review budgets that we do monthly. Um prior to that if we kind of look back in time um all during fiscal year 2025 myself and an we worked directly with Tom and Jod
the auditor and treasurer um to really go through our budget. I helped develop a summary of areas for revenue and expenses to pull them in and kind of align them to make it a little bit more palatable to look at. We have about 1400 individual line items in Health and Human Services, so it can get quite
overwhelming uh looking at every single one. So just pulling all that together. Uh we did that with Tom and Jod through all fiscal year 25 um and continue to do that into fiscal year 2026 as we've now incorporated all of that into all of our
director team. Um for quarterly reviews are held with higher level leadership. Um, so then we then branched that down from director team down to the management team and really trying to bring them into the budgeting process, bring them into alignment to understanding all these
different 1400 line items, how they impact them, how they can have influence over them with their decisions and just really making everyone feel empowered to holding themselves and others accountable to what we're doing at Health and Human Services.
um we've developed key performance indicators and have been identified and tracked. So in fiscal year 25 we really focused on the social services unit um considering that was where some of this really kind of started from but since then we've expanded that expanded that
out to all of our different divisions. Now, um monthly reporting is provided to managers for client expenditures, budgets, and managers are held to budget limitations or limits. Um as Ann had mentioned before, um these are
considered flex funds for our clients. Um and are not paid out of levy. They're from state and federal allocations. And there's a spreadsheet that I send out monthly that tracks all these expenditures. And I've also developed a couple formulas at the bottom that basically calculates here's how much
they've spent every month going forward. Here's how much the budget is and here's how much they can spend to not overspend. It's also colorcoded so it turns colors if they're in the good or if they're in the red. So I believe it's my job in fiscal to help communicate
complex financial ideology to other people that don't want to do that or aren't very good at it. So I try to simplify it and make it so in terms that they can quickly understand and make decisions off of. Um we've also been working really hard
on building out uh database dashboards. One that I'm very proud of is a PowerBI dashboard that pulls in uh a variety of different staff activities and pulls it into a singular area and then starts to um just give context to managers for it
provides managers a better understanding of each staff's billable capacity and effectiveness. So it's again it's these are all calculations that the managers could have been doing but took them a good significant amount of time on a daily basis to track those and we're
just trying to continue to develop tools and and strategies to be able to make things easier, quicker and just more aligned as a whole. So in summary, these cost savings have helped to minimize the impacts of cost shifts, funding formula changes, and
increased statutory workload requirements. And I just want to be clear that we've minimized that impact in 2025, but as you're well aware, cost shifts, funding formula changes, and increased statutory workload continue to be a reality for health and human
services moving forward. Um, and we are very dedicated to continuing the efforts to identify efficiencies and ways that we're able to manage the budget effectively locally. I do want to celebrate the win in that health and human services did achieve the total
savings goal that we had identified for budget year 2025. Our total savings goal was $1,73,000. We saved $1,452,000. Um, we do have unexpend unexpected expenditures in 2025 too though. We did
have does not meet criteria that went back into effect July 1 of 2025. We had the um cost share for nursing facility cost of care that was higher than expected. So, there are always these unexpected costs happening in health and human services and things that we need
to plan for for the future. Um, like I mentioned, we're going to continue to do all of these strategies and more if we find them to be effective. Um, uh, key performance indicators is something that's been extremely helpful in tracking progress and tracking our
budgeting. Um, some of these, uh, dashboards that are being developed are only going to continue to help us to manage our budget, um, in a in a more efficient way. Um, but I do it would be remiss of me if I did not give credit to
our health and human services staff. We have just had an incredible staff during I mean we always have but over these last two years we have had significant fiscal pressures. We have lost resources and our staff have continued to provide
quality service to Bel Tramy County. As you heard in the presentation before, we're making real impacts in people's lives and we continue to do that even under the fiscal strains that we've been under. So, I just really want to give credit to Health and Human Services staff. I also want to thank our county
administrator, Tom Barry, as well as the board um for all of your support over the last two years. I know that there has been significant challenges and things to work through, but I really appreciate the support so much. So with that, um, does the board have any questions?
>> Yeah. So, um, that last couple things that you mentioned, um, even with all these savings, I think we still transfer like 312,000, um, from our general fund to make you whole this year. And that was those last couple of things that you said were unexpected cost shifts or whatever.
>> The 300,000 was actually from the prior year. So 2024 we shifted 300,000 from general fund. There will be a request to shift general fund. I anticipate. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Thanks for all the hard work.
>> Uh Mr. Chair. Well, I'm glad Commissioner Gosby asked that question because I was about to. But but maybe I'll uh take it back a little further. I know a number of years ago, uh, Health and Human Services, um,
received some money from the general fund for out of home placements, and I was just kind of curious if if the county has been made whole on that on that agreement. >> Yes. Uh, my first year in the director position, we did uh, pay back $800,000
to pay that uh, totally off at that time. Um, so then there was a request for 324 and I anticipate there will be a request uh for 25. I do not know the exact amount between 150 and 200,000.
>> Thank you. And I appreciate the work that you and your team are doing at Health and Human Services. >> Anything else? >> Nice job. Thank you guys. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, first call 211 presentation.
>> Must be going on. I'm off. >> I know. >> Thank you for having me today and for adjusting the agenda to give me a little time to get from Grand Marray here. Um, my name is Cre Laren. I'm the executive director of First Call for Help and we
are First Call 211. That's United Wayfunded Program. As part of what we do, we are located in Grand Rapids. Um, and we are a 24hour resource referral um, and information center. Um, among several other things
we do, we have about 123 staff that man our programs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of the programs that we do includes the Belrammy area. We're responsible for seven counties in Minnesota, making sure when a resident
calls 211, no matter what time of the day or night, we're able to link them with um there's a little over 42,000 resources in our database. Um, those resources could include financial difficulties, homelessness, it could be
a child or grandchild that needs tutoring, um, youth services, child care, education, legal concerns. Um, United Way has this number across the nation, um, to make sure that resources are at the fingertips of individuals who call
in. Um other programs we have at first call that impact um Belcham County. We have one of the 17 crisis beds in the state of Minnesota and that is a um program that is not within a hospital.
So if an individual is having mental health symptoms symptoms or distress and their symptoms are a little too high to remain safely at home but not high enough to want to go into behavioral health unit, we have a 10 um day crisis
bed. Um and that crisis bed for Belrammy County is based on insurance. Um, and so they can stay within this facility, community-based, in a lodge looking home, and have 24-hour a day um, care to
help restabilize and then transition back into their house um, avoiding a psychiatric bed um, placement. We answer 47 counties for their crisis lines and Belrami County is one of
those. So 47 counties out of the 87 for the state first call for help answers. We roughly answer 95,026 calls is what we had in 25. And that means we have trained counselors on the phone that um visit
with the individual calling in, hear the story, do a risk assessment, and then if appropriate page out the mobile crisis teams. So, we page out the Belrammy team um as well as the Leech Lake um band of
Ojiway um team. That team covers all four counties of the reservation for band members. Um anyone who um if they're not available, then we backfill with the county teams um of those those counties.
We also answer um the entire state of Minnesota for the farmer's distress line. And this is farming whether you're a backyard beef farmer, whether you're a farmer that brings to the farmers market or whether you have a large production.
Farmers are under a lot of pressure um financial pressure for yield costs and um their costs with fuel that have risen. It puts a lot of pressure on farmers. They have a very high suicide rate in farming communities. And so we
have a contract through the Department of Agriculture and we answer all the calls that come into the egg line, giving them financial resources, um farmers advocates that will go to their homes throughout the state to help farmers um cope with those stresses.
Those stresses could be it's time for retirement and you haven't done anything else. your entire life you've dedicated to a four generation farm and the farms allowed your children to go to college and none of them chose agriculture
and so now you're um at a tough spot where you're releasing your property, selling your cattle, selling your your milking cows. It's very distressful and we have trained staff that um help them through that and then provide financial
um avenues and advocates for that. Um we also partner with emergency preparedness um for the counties that we cover for 211. And so part of that is an example when the the um high winds come through
Baiji. Um 211 has an agreement with the VBRRO nationwide and your health and human service department called in and we were able to get VBR VBRRO up to 2 week housing for individuals while they
were trying to figure out how to get the trees off of their house, get power back to their home. That's part of the 211 services that we provide that partner with your Belrammy emergency preparedness as well as the Leech Lake
um emergency preparedness. And the last um project or program I wanted to share with is our call center is one of the three 90-day call centers um in the state. So that is a new mental
health line. If an individual resident in Belramic County doesn't know the direct dial number to their crisis line, it's three easy numbers to remember to get them to mental health supports. And we are um one of your three 988 lines.
All of these services are 24 hours a day. There is never a bad time for a resident um or a service provider in Belrammy County to to call in and ask for assistance. Did I do it in my aotted time? I think I got it.
>> I have one question for you. Can I get more of these? >> I absolutely can. I can um get an mailing address. I can get a pack of them mailed right out to you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome. Mr. Chair,
>> uh, is this a state program, a federal program? I'm sorry. >> This is a I should have started out. It's a nonprofit program. We have been in existence since 1974, right? >> And we just keep growing and and um
growing and so the financial um support underneath this is pretty diversified. I've been the director for 12 years and that was the mission of the the directive of the board actually is to diversify so that the programs can remain in place. So there's fee for
service. The crisis lines are on contracts with counties or regions. The crisis bed is um third-party insuranceances coming in or some of the regions and counties have contracts with us for the underinsured or uninsured. Um
federal and state grants is a very small amount because they way and flow so much. They they scare me to have too much based on grants because sometimes you can build a program on a grant and then two or three years later when it's done the program
goes away. Um we do have donations um that come in from cities, townships, and some counties. Um we have other contracts with a state contract in a department like the
department of egg. That's a a fee for service contract through them. And so in total um it to operate all of the programs within first call for help 24 hours a day, it's $7.2 million. And
that's my responsibility to keep being aggressive with funding and um make sure the program stays solid. And we have not lost a program in in 12 years. But it's I call it
fearbased seeking to make sure that when there's an uninsured or underinsured individual, they can access the services. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate the the the information and and your willingness to to come uh before the board, but I do
have a question for I don't know, maybe the chair or or Tom. Um so at the beginning of the meeting there was discussion about bringing another group in to uh give a presentation to the county. Um and this presentation almost seems kind of
similar to what other services that are offered within the county. So, I'm I'm just trying to differentiate what how how certain groups can come before the board
and and how others can't. So, um I would hope that we're fair. Um and I think it's important that we um allow, you know, people to to come in and and learn about services. Um but I just don't want
to pick and choose, you know, who who is allowed and not allowed. So, I just want to make that point. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Mr. Chair, uh could you share again where the bulk of your funding comes from? Is it a handful of foundations uh
or is it a one or two of the initiative foundations or blend foundation or could you just share uh where you get pretty regular donations from? I know you mentioned cities and counties, but >> Yeah. Um it's really the philanthropy
foundations that help fund so Bland and we're in Grand Rapids and they really are gracious to funding um the region. We also um seek funding from like the Sawyer Foundation, the Wilder Foundation. Um, and I I'm so respectful
of of the concerns about extra services coming in and what those look like, but I think in the climate that we're living in and trying to be remain well in, you can never have too many free services to impact a family. one program might be
running out towards the end of the year and hopefully another one of us can um overlap or sometimes guidelines for funding can be a box and so if you can overlap a family with multiple boxes you might be able to meet all of their unmet
needs. Um I would love to say that there's enough services throughout our entire state um to meet all the needs of our residents, but that would be fibbing because there isn't. Have you seen a increase or decrease in calls over the
last year or two? >> Oh yeah. Um so in 2024 we answered about 81,000 calls and it went from 81,000 and some change in 24 to 95,025
calls in 25 the first quarter of this year. We're already set if we repeat that pace of the first quarter, we'll be over a 100,000 calls um in the completion in 2026 as a projection.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you so much for the um opportunity to come in and visit with you. >> Thanks for making the trip over. >> Administrator Bar. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was also going to respond to Commissioner Sumar's question and concern about board setting
um agenda setting. I just want to let you know that uh this particular agenda item was requested by the board and agreed to by the entire board on May the 5th. You may not have been here, Mr. Sumner. Um but just like the last
request for an agenda item did not get the support of the board, it will not appear on the agenda. So that's how we set the agenda. The board is the one that makes those calls. And so that's uh how the agenda gets put together. Just wanted to clarify that for you. >> Thank you.
>> Uh thank you. I um I do appreciate the update, but uh the tone and the demeanor uh is not appreciated. So thank you. >> Okay. >> Here, huh? You know, I got other
responsibilities as well. So let me know. Okay. Uh 2026 allocation of opioid settlement dollars. >> Good afternoon, commissioners. Amy
Bulls, your public health director. And before we begin our presentation, I just want to give you >> our group >> launched a campaign called funding >> and
good >> and I brought extra copies if you want more than one. All right, but why we're here today. So, I am here to present to you because in January of 2026, we released an RFP and the intent was to
allow community agencies of Bel Tramy County to apply for the Belrammy County Opiad Settlement Funds. The funds are awarded on a yearly basis to support the work of organizations and to expand or improve services provided throughout our
county. The opiate steering committee is recommending funding be distributed to the applications that you'll see listed in exhibit A. In exhibit A, you will see that we are recommending as a committee and this was
a unanimous vote to fund Stellar Human Services, ours to serve House of Hospitality, also known as Village of Hope, the People's Church, and the Ecquin Vista Ram. I have more that I can say, but I just
want to open it up for questions. Or do you want me to give you a little bit of background on how we came to this decision? >> Mr. Chair, >> good. >> Amy, was this the only request that came in? >> No, we received a total of eight applicants.
>> Okay. And is there any reason why we didn't get to see those even though you didn't act on them? >> Yes, this is the way we've presented it every year. We only present the ones that we're recommending. I think it's out of fairness to the applicants that were not selected. Uh we allow them that
privacy. Um but as a board member, you are more than welcome. I could give you a list of all of them. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Mr. Chair, I think a couple years ago we did receive um a list of all the the grant
applications But at that time there was some discussion amongst the board that created some uh confusion and some some back and forth about you know
the board the county board's uh ability to fund uh separate things that weren't in alignment with the recommendation of the committee. So maybe that is also, you know, why it might not be. >> Yeah, I think just out of respect for
the commissioner's time, um, we just wanted to make the recommendation for these four applicants that made it through the competitive scoring process, um, I did bring with all eight applications. If you would like me to disclose who was uh, not re being
recommended to you today, I'm more than happy to do that. any of those that were not recommended ones that had been funded prior and just didn't make the cut this time. >> Um, I do not believe so. Let me just double check.
Nope. Everybody that was is not being recommended to the committee has not been awarded money in the past. >> Thank you for clarifying those. Yep. >> Anything >> else? Okay, that's it. >> Um, then I have the proposal presented
to you on the consent agenda. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Opportunity zones. Yeah. Look up thing. Well, good afternoon um commissioners. Thanks for having me in and Tom, thanks for the invitation to to be a part of
the conversation. So, I'm here to uh talk to you about a federal incentive we typically don't spend a whole lot of time talking about and but in this case, you are bringing being brought into the conversation in part because you're going to be asked to recommend to the governor opportunity
zone uh potential opportunity zones within your county. And I kind of want to walk through that with you today. You can make a decision today or I think you can kick it to to June. But I definitely want to give you a feel for for what this is. And and as a caveat, by the way, I'm not a financial planner. I'm
not somebody who is eligible for this. So if you are eligible or someone is interested in opportunity zones, make sure you talk to your financial adviser and your accountant. So um opportunity zones. So the first Trump administration created opportunity zones back in 2016,
a really significant incentive. And what it was meant to do was for people who have investable dollars to invest, really encourage them to invest in distressed areas. And they designated those distressed areas based on demographic criteria that automatically
census tracks were either in or out, right? And that was sunsetted in 2019. And with the new administration and the big beautiful bill, uh it's being reinstated with one significant change, which is not all eligible census tracks
are going to be selected. Rather, they're going to target them down to 25% of eligible ones based on recommendations from governors of which the governor is turning around and asking you uh for your advice. and hence why I'm standing uh in front of you.
I'll give you a little bit of a background on what opportunity zones are all about. So an opportunity zone, if you are a high netw worth individual happens to have a large capital gain to avoid your capital gain tax, you could take that tax that gain and and and uh
invest it in a project in what's called an opportunity zone, a distressed area distressed area of the nation. And what happens then is that tax you would normally have to pay gets deferred until you sell that that uh asset at least at
10 after 5 years and then or longer and then 10% of that tax is automatically forgiven. In other words, if you have a $1 million capital gain, uh you would only be taxed on $900,000. In rural areas, by the way, that's even
higher. So in this case, in our case, and there's a slide in a minute, we would actually be a 30% reduction in your capital gain. So if you're a person uh who's invested million dollars, 700,000 of which will be taxed on the sale of that on on the sale of that
investment. But here's the biggest uh incentive as part of the opportunity zone. any um any gain you get from investing in a project in a distressed area there will be no capital gain on that gain. So you invest
hypothetically you invest invest million dollars in a project in an opportunity zone uh that makes money over time after 10 years you sell it you will not be taxed on that gain. That's a big deal for people who have significantly high
capital gains. And so that's the intention of the the legislation. Again, it's taking investable dollars that are out there in the nation, targeting them down into highly distressed areas, of which of course we have some in our
area. So, here's a process uh that is being uh put out right now. Uh, and I talked to the folks at deed about this and how the governor is going to handle it. And so in January, the districts are named. There's nothing we could do to
say that this census tracks eligible versus this census track is and make a case. It is simply based on demographics from this census. So the maps I'm going to show you in a minute aren't adjustable. They are what they are. Uh, and I've had questions about why why not
this or why not that place. It just is what it is based on the demographics they use. In July, the governor will seek your recommendations and then by October he has to submit those to Treasury for selection. And then from there, the districts or the zones will be announced in in about
January. Here is a map of our region. Uh roughly uh our region including the county. You can kind of get a feel for where the counties are. And if you look carefully at our county of course or area, uh, three reservations are all
included. White Earth, Leech Lake, Red Lake are all, uh, districts that are eligible or census tracks that are eligible. And in fact, what I'm hearing from the state is they're automatically going to be included. So you don't have to worry about uh picking Red Lake or
portions of leaks, any of that. Rather, that they are automatically included in the in the proposal. The more difficult thing, however, is this one. The only other census tracks in the county that are eligible are the city of Baiji,
which sounds great, uh, with the exception of this. Uh, the district or the tracks for census tracks are goofy and they're it's strangely laid out without a whole lot of thought. And if you look at the three census tracks that are eligible, uh, to the to the
southeast is our industrial park. That's not eligible. Not in a census track. Um, you look up in the where it kind of juts down in the upper part, that's Sanford Health area. Not eligible. Across the street, the tech park, it is eligible. Uh, the
airport is eligible. And in between, you can kind of see real tight, and I asked Diana if we could blow it up. I don't know if we were capable of day on doing that, but you could start to see that the jutting of all uh the where the census track
zones are is goofy. So half of downtown's in one census track and half of downtowns in another census track. And so there you go. This gives you kind of a feel. So that wouldn't be a big deal if all three were going to be
selected. Unfortunately, you don't know if all three are going to be selected. and I would argue very unlikely all three of these uh census tracks are going to be selected. Hence your your ranking of these census tracks in terms of what you think is most developable
quite frankly is important. And so what what I'm saying is you are going to be asked to rank these three census tracks and submit them to the governor. We'll help you with that. uh submit that to the governor for his selection as part
of his selection process. As I said, he could he may select zero. I would argue that's probably unlikely, but I doubt he's going to select three. And so, we're kind of stuck in between. Uh Commissioner Carlson was at my board meeting last Friday. We had quite a
conversation about this uh trying to figure out exactly uh how to rank these projects and we we struggle with it quite frankly or rank these districts and ultimately what we came up with and recommend to you is that uh your number
one district be that airport tech park area. Now why do we do choose that in part because there's a lot of land available for development. We're certainly hoping to develop it, right? And that's kind of been designated in in in our city to be developed,
particularly the airport recently, but even prior Tech Park by Bel Tramy Electric and and Paul Bunion back in the day and still land available for development there. The second one would be the uh the the uh census track that kind of goes south the southernmost
portion which includes portion of downtown but also includes kind of up uh runs a little bit up towards highway 2. Um as you go through you see kind of Adams Avenue being the western edge of that. The third one we uh selected was basically the BSU and existing housing
stock. there just frankly isn't a whole lot of developable properties uh in that in that census track. So that's I come to you with that recommendation um from our board. Again, I don't think you need to make this decision today. I do think
you're going to need to make it next month for sure and you're certainly welcome to make it today if you feel so inclined. >> Questions? >> I have one question. >> Yes. >> Who's eligible? I mean, it doesn't have to come from this area. It can come from literally anywhere.
>> Anywhere. The investment can come from anywhere. >> Okay. >> And in fact, I I think there have been investments in opportunity zones from all over the place. Uh previously it was not all that used in Minnesota, but it was used on other places quite a bit. And so I think we're as a state they're
trying to get on top of this sooner than they did last time through. But investments can come from anywhere. You could invest in, you know, Mexico City or I'm sorry, not Mexico City, Arizona, uh somewhere uh down south if you wish. You could you could invest in Texas or
vice versa, right? >> Uh Dave, >> yes. >> Uh I'm sold on the furthest north one. I mean, or the south one like uh I totally see the point where um the BSU area is
mostly uh dense housing, so I'm not sure what we could do there. I'm sure maybe something, but um I could live with either the north or the south one. Uh like you said, the
tech park, a lot of developer land. Um personally, I would just be happy if we got anything out of either of these, >> right? >> Like we got something out of any of these, I would be happy. So, um, yeah, I
just appreciate the time that you put into this and and I think it's worth exploring further. Um, >> could you share like an example or two of something that might be possible with one of these?
>> Uh, and really, I mean, if this were uh two years ago, I I might have recommended differently. So, for example, as you all know, I'm a bit of a homer on the rail corridor. If we hadn't already had developers lined up for the rail quarter, this would have been one
heck of an encouragement to have a project within the rail corridor. Now, we already have them lined up. So, it's unlikely to matter to that project or else I would have encouraged that site. So for example in uh if you think about the hotel uh the hotel that's going to be developed likely going to include
some investors uh that those investors could be opportunity zone investors uh in in addition right next to the proposed YMCA will be a mixeduse uh building uh that too um certainly will include investors that could have been opportunities investors. So it really is
diverse what you can do and what you can use the funds for. And have you thought about the uh the city's doing their comprehensive plan right now? Uh could that um be a resource to mesh with this? >> Should uh I will talk to the HRDC about that. I hadn't even thought of it. Uh I
know they're aware of this legislation though. I have visited with Cal about that before. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I would agree with Commissioner Gold that area, the Northwest area. I don't not not sure how
many people are aware of the emphasis that the airport authority is having on on building out areas of u opportunities for businesses to come in planning area three specifically uh and there's lots of room for more development there uh and again the tech
park. So, I guess I would agree with Commissioner Ghoul that my priority would be that Northwest one, but I don't know. Um, Tom, are we going to be able to are we going to have this on a June meeting so that we can have be ready to submit our response to the governor? >> Uh, thank you, Commissioner Carlson.
Would you have some time before you have to actually make a decision? You could either give a straw poll tonight if you felt like you wanted to, or if you wanted more time to discuss it, we could bring it back on a future agenda. Um, I would encourage the board to think about
parcels in particular you may want to see developed. Uh, certainly the airport area is a good one, but you know, we have that site behind Target, for example, that the county board has been entertaining that would not be included in that. >> Uh, the industrial park has some opportunity that may not also be incl. I
mean, it's a tough choice either way you look, but I think maybe a little more time for you to mle over those various opportunities and then um bring this subject back to actually make a decision and recommendation on for the governor's consideration would be great.
>> Yeah, that's actually a very good point, Tom. I didn't even think about the property behind Target and and in fact it is divided the dividing line between the two census tracks Middle School Road and so the one that includes the southern part of downtown will be your property. Uh the one on the you know the
airport uh tech park would not just so you know and I did I made a pitch to try and you know add other census tracks and is there a way of combining them and that type of thing. I got that no. So
that was pretty quick. >> So I are we going to um when we make the recommendation are we going to have to choose one of the three or are we going to prioritize them? >> Prioritize. >> Okay. So we' say maybe the north one is number one the one next to it which includes the old fairgrounds property and behind target be number two or something like that.
>> Right. >> Yeah. Okay. So yeah it'll be my recommendation commissioner is that you submit all three obviously >> but in what order? >> Yeah. So, I mean, that'd be the order I would I think I would go for would be the, you know, just like that. One, two,
three top second third Jim, you got anything? >> You sure? >> Okay. >> Oh, yeah. >> Mr. Chair, I guess I would just ask the board how much time it would like before we brought this back. I mean, there is some time, but would you like the next
meeting or two meetings after? I mean, how much time would you like before we place this back on the agenda? >> Next meeting is fine with me. I >> Yeah, me too. >> Be nice to have a better delineating. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Yes. Commissioner, thank you. By the way, thank you to Diane. I mean, we were on the phone multiple times uh trying to figure out how how to show it because I knew it was going to be the questions because it's so goofy. So >> you you can go to hub zone on the the
web and go to hub zone and you and you and then go to opportunity zones and then you can really start spreading it out and see exactly but it's difficult and it's >> if it's of help I can send you that link as county board members. You bet. And you can just zoom right into it. So
>> that would help. Yep. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thanks for your view. Okay. 27 budget discussion. Okay. Third time's a charm on this subject. We've had this before the board
a few times. So, um we are talking about the development of the fiscal year 2027 budget and uh have a couple of things that we wanted to chat through with you. First of all, um we are struggling as we did last year
and probably will as we predicted for some time into the future with regard to state cost shifts, funding formula reductions on all of those sorts of things. So again, we're under enormous pressures to continue to provide the same level of services with reduced funding that's coming from the state and now the federal government to a certain
degree. So uh the recommendation that the management team had after reviewing the budget principles and priorities document that we had last year was to essentially adopt uh that same document and use it as a guidance uh for development of this next fiscal year's
budget. Of course, these principles and priorities are yours. They're the county boards and so they're yours to change or modify or add to or subtract or or throw out alto together. So, that's one of the reasons for the conversation this evening is to get your uh preference for
how you'd like to approach the budget in regard to setting some sort of guidance for the staff as they put their budgets together. Uh the second thing we wanted to talk about a little bit is um the budget committee membership. Uh that was initially discussed a few times last
time we brought this up. Uh I just wanted to let you know as you mle that over who's going to participate in the committee that we've set the budget calendar such that the budget committee is uh intending to convene uh during the week of July 27th. So July 27, 28 2930
are the general dates that we're looking to try to uh have the budget committee do the majority of its work. So I don't know if that fits within schedules or something that the board wanted to know, but we wanted to throw that out there as well. And then lastly, as we begin putting the budgets together, it would
be helpful to know uh it's always the tough question, you know, because we don't want to see the levy increase at all really, but what would be the target that the board would want to see as a maximum and we'll always try to do our best to get it under that. uh that may be a conversation that comes later not
necessarily need that tonight, but certainly the sooner we get that information, the more helpful it is for us in regards to um uh doing what needs to be done to keep the budget within those tolerances. So those are the areas of discussion that we had intended for this afternoon's conversation. And with
that, I'll pause and turn it over to you for questions or discussion. I'll throw it out there again. I'm willing to uh volunteer as tribute one of Duke commissioners on committee. I think it's my turn. I feel kind of
guilty for skipping out on it the last two years. Well, miss the first year I was on it. we were on it and then so I haven't been on it the last two years, but looking at the rotation email that Tom sent out and
I I'm willing to do it. I'm not out ballots here and that's kind of our been our past practices. So, Mr. Chair, I I know that we'll have the vote on that at the at the regular meeting, but I would concur with Commissioner Gould that as long as he's
willing and I think Commissioner Sumar, were you willing? Yeah, I it's my opinion if those two are probably up next and if they're willing, that seems like a slam dunk to me. But >> well, I get, you know, we'll take that up. I I'd gladly make that motion at the
meeting coming up. >> Okay. All right. Fantastic. Thoughts on the other items? >> Well, Mr. Chair, I think that those budget priorities served us well last year. I I don't see any reason to change them.
>> Based on the lack of stuff they got done at the legislature to try to keep the the levy down anyway. So having those parameters in place by default I think.
Well, in being on the budget committee last year and seeing how hard everybody worked to get within those, I think they'll do everything they can to do that again. So, it seems reasonable that we go with the same standard. >> Mr. Chair,
>> yes. >> Um, I do have a concern about items number two and four on the list. Number two says, "Fully finance mission focused operations for outside organizations and redirect county funding to cover those
operations." Um, I didn't really like how this was used as kind of a a political tool last year. Um, something to kind of hide behind. uh in my opinion. I I was just wondering if we could just
uh strike number two from the list, how willing the the board would be uh with that. And also number four uh if we could just get just delete those right out of there. Um four says if any program, project or service is
targeted for reduction by the state, the county shall evaluate that activity for reduction or elimination, identify new revenue streams to offset the reduction, evaluate the potential to transfer reduction to the levy or combination
thereof. I I think we would strive to do that anyway. Um I think that number four there just kind of goes without saying. I I feel like we did that last year without really um that just seems like kind of a no-brainer when setting the
budget. So, I just fundamentally disagree with number two, but I think number four is kind of a best practice when setting a budget anyway. So, I don't know. What do you guys think of getting rid of those two items? >> I my personal feeling is that's probably
why it's there. It's just the the practice that they've done and so they're just saying this is what we've done and you know laying it out that way. This is what we did last year and it's the same thing. That's kind of what I think my feeling. Am I right on this?
>> Well, Mr. chair. I I think last year was our first year having uh the budget principles and priorities and and to be honest uh I feel the same way about number two, especially hearing from
uh Tony at 4 and and their request and and wanting to help uh their employees there. And if they're not a mission critical uh department of the county, then then why do we tell them no? there's no way that we can help the 4.
So, you know, using the the this document um I feel really hinders our our ability to help, you know, our community partners. So, I wouldn't uh be in agree with the with this and and
being that it's on the uh regular agenda, I'm going to vote against it. But I understand that there's already a majority uh vote. So, I mean, what what's the point in and discussing it. So >> on the U extension, there is a
requirement for a county to fund something with the extension agents, right? Or the extension office. >> That's what you're >> There are agreements in place that require the county to fund portions of the extension office. Correct.
>> Yeah. So we do have a requirement there of some kind. >> So Mr. Chair, I guess my question remains uh >> can can we uh strike number two and four or do you guys want to leave it on there? >> I want to leave it.
>> I do too. >> I Yeah, I don't >> we have to have all options on the table, but I mean we're going to be higher than we want to be for a tax increase anyways and we need to have all options on the table. Well, and I I think we will regardless.
>> Why not have an internet? >> Well, because I I I think it limits our ability to to make these decisions if if we're kind of boxed into a corner with with these uh Well, we're not really because they're just it's still just guidelines.
>> It is. Yeah. you know. So, um, number six, how willing are you guys to edit? Uh, number six, what I would suggest is
um, strike attempt to right away and strike but not to exceed. So, so then it would read meet mandated levels of service unless those services add net revenue or
preventively avoid higher net costs elsewhere. If if we leave it the way it is, I feel like we might not be in 100% legal compliance if it says attempt to meet state mandates.
So, are we kind of saying, "Ah, maybe we won't meet the law's requirements." So, I I just feel like number six could use a little work to at least say meet mandated levels, >> thoughts, but at the end of the day, I don't think
we always do meet mandated. We, you know, we do attempt to, but we we aren't able to at some some points. That's one of the reason why I think we got um reduction in funding in one of the health and services because we didn't
quite meet the mandated level. Tom, you probably elaborate on that or whatever. >> Yeah, it's it's without getting too sideways on things. It it can be difficult to meet every
single mandate that's out there. Uh we do the best we can like other counties and other cities. uh occasionally. That's why you have audits, that's why you have audit findings, that's why you have all of that sort of thing to help us identify those areas where we either overlooked or unintended you know had an
unintended excursion from those mandates. But yeah, the the attempt is always there. um that not all not all the time can you meet every single mandate especially when you have so many changing every single year as we do through the
legislative process as well and with the lack of clarity >> other things. Sure. You want you want to leave that one alone? >> It appears there's no willingness to compromise. as
okay. >> I agree with you. It doesn't mean the whole it doesn't change a whole lot one way or the other only because it's we are going to do everything that's here one way or the other like you said you know or to the best of our ability get there
I guess right and they are a guideline one way or the other like you said so there was a comment that was made last year that the >> that these were just guidelines but It was also stated and mentioned that
these guidelines were voted on and passed by the board. So, I mean it >> that's a good point. >> So, I mean sounds like they're written and stolen if they were passed by the board.
I don't have any other comments or questions. No further discussion on that then. So I don't know if you're willing or wanting to talk about the levy, give staff guidance on I mean you can just send us on our way and we'll do the best we can and bring it bring it back to you and
you can trust in your budget committee or at the same time give us a target that you say not to exceed and then we you know gives us a little bit better guidance in putting the in the budget together. I know these are tough decisions and it's hard to know kind of where we are right now. We haven't got the forecast together yet. Um, and
that's something that could be developed a little bit later, too. But, um, >> well, Mr. Chair, I think, you know, if we give you a number right now, that that seems to be a hard number. I mean, if we give you 10%, that's going to be your objective. So, that doesn't allow
us an opportunity to discuss or even review any of uh the proposals that are submitted to the budget committee. um knowing the way that things have been operating in the past, there is no flexibility. So if we start with a hard
number of 8 9 10% that's what you're going to stick to. So we won't even have the ability to negotiate a 13 or or a 12%. So I would I would hate to to you know give you a number and and and say
that's it. That that limits our ability. So I'm I'm not um I would like to see uh the department department heads the management to you know produce their budgets and have that discussion from there before giving you a number.
>> Well would think without that we would have been over 18 last time >> and we don't have that money. So >> start what we said is a start you know I mean it can go lower but we're not saying we're so tan. What is the 5 million I
mean that you're talking about here? Is that the maximum amount we're looking at? >> Is it still roughly 300,000 for a levy point or >> 333? >> It's about 333,000. And maybe to Commissioner Sumner's point, uh the just
uh going off of memory from last year's budget when we pulled the budget together internally before we sent it to the budget committee, I want to say it was just over 16%. So, we knew right away because the board had set a a levy amount not to exceed
10, we knew we had to get it down. And so, additional efforts were taken to try to get that down. I think when we went to the budget committee, it was something on the order of 11 or 12 or something like 13, somewhere in that ballpark. Um because once you get to a
certain point then it becomes okay now you're cutting you're cutting areas that the board needs to their policy you know or program or or workforce type of decisions that the board should have more of a role in guiding what needs to
be reduced uh in order to make those targets. So a a target is good. I mean you could set a target at 0%. we'll work our tails off to try to get at 0%. You know, um you could set it at 10, you could set I mean it's it's really just
guidance to to help us try to get but at the end of the day keep in mind the budget is yours. I mean at at the end of the day we turn that work over to the county board and you make a decision on whether or not you agree with the budget committee's recommendation. if you want
additional things included or excluded. All of those decisions come through the iterative process of putting the budget together. That's why we give you the budget as a board at the first meeting in September and you have the entire month to kind of go through it and say
what you like and what you don't like and debate it. Um, typically, you know, that occurs with a final adoption recommendation or of the preliminary budget at the second meeting. Uh but you do have the the month of September, the the statute allows you until the end of
September. So if you wanted an additional meeting to have additional conversation over what may need to be adjusted, if you want to send back the staff to do additional homework, gather different additional information or those sorts of things. That's always part of um of the process you could
elect to to to undertake in the development of the budget. Mr. Harrison. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we probably can all agree that we would love to have a budget not over CPI,
but the reality is what the state has been doing to us. So, if if you want a number, start at CPI, and then don't go over double digits. And that's the problem. It's going to be somewhere in there. Um, I just can't I think with what we did
last year in setting aside some money for what we knew was coming to make sure that we didn't get into double digits again this year. Um, somewhere between CPI and 10%, but that's I mean that's a big spread. I understand that. Um, I I
believe that most of us would like to see it lower rather than higher, but without having seen the results of the last legislation that just ended on Sunday, um, or at least the voting ended on Sunday. Um, it's it's pretty tough
until you come back was with some more concrete things. What really happened in Health and Human Services because that's probably the big driver, I'm guessing. >> Right. It is. And unfortunately, we'll talk about it in the administrator's report, but just a brief review. We we weren't
as successful as we hoped on some of the carveout language and some of the other financial uh bills that we were trying to to help our situation out with. We weren't we weren't successful on those. So, it tease up another difficult year essentially for us.
>> That being said, we will be seeing new monies. >> Yeah, there'll be some new money that comes for sure. that will be extremely helpful especially for the IT modernization all but that's not the only area I didn't total it up but I would suspect it's
2 three million new dollars just for the next budget >> had seen that so that's good >> according to our lobbyist report so >> that's according to our lobbyists not AMC or anyone
But if that's for it modernization, then that's your mark. That doesn't really help our budget and that just that just >> No, but there's money in there for the African-American act and several other areas. So again, I didn't total it up, but I did read
through the lobbyist report and >> I can say with confidence there will be significant new dollars coming. >> But you're right. We need But it's yeah, it's early. I mean, we got to flush out without seeing exactly the new state numbers.
>> Don't have the current budget in front of us. Don't have the proposals in front of us. I think it's a little early to determine a target. >> Yeah, I agree with that. >> Okay. All right. Anything else on
>> discussion on that one? Okay. >> Administrator's update. >> Yeah, I guess while I'm up here, I'll just run into that here real quick. Um, just wanted to give some good news about the current county jail. Uh, we did have another annual inspection that occurred last week and we came out very well. Uh,
and that's just a testament of the staff continuing to do a great job at that facility. uh given its age and its condition and all of those sorts of things, you know, are still lots of challenges operating the existing jail, but the staff um have done a very nice job keeping that going and uh and
keeping us compliant. So, that's really good news. Um the new jail project, the one construction continues. Uh it's kind of the same story pretty much every time we get together. The Masons are still doing their work, laying block essentially on the east side of the building, the
kitchen and the programs areas. Um, and uh, they're also continuing to finish up at the west end in area A in order to prep the walls for paint. Uh, electric has been working outside. There's actually a lot more sight work that's being done right now, which is good. So, we're laying conduit for electric like
street street uh, lights and those sorts of things. Uh, duck work is also being installed in areas where the mason masons have finished the walls, which is good. Uh, and the same is true for plumbing as well. uh framers and rockers are concentrating on the hard lid ceilings that are around the facility as
well. So they're putting in sheetrock and whatnot in those areas and the tapers and the mudding crews of course right behind them as well. Uh manpower has been consistent about 85 to 92 folks over the last couple weeks or so. Uh on the legislative front as I mentioned the
session concluded on Sunday night uh with a set of number of bipartisan compromises. Most of the compromises were done essentially behind closed doors. Uh, so there's still a lot of information to be gathered about kind of what happened and what the end results are. Uh, as Commissioner Ghoul said,
there is going to be some money that comes our way. The African-American Disproportionality Famil Welfare Act, and I've got that all mixed up, but you know the one I'm talking about, did get $15 million worth of funding, but that $15 million worth of funding is statewide. So, we're one of 87 counties.
Uh, we'll get something, but, you know, we don't know exactly what that aotment will be just yet. Uh the same went uh to SNAP uh administration benefits. We also are getting some money for SNAP administrative benefits, but again that's a that's seems like a large pot, but once it gets distributed across all
the counties, it gets much smaller. Um and there's different programs like that that there has been some some funding that will be uh coming our way. Uh there's also been reductions as well that the that the uh state is continuing uh in their cost shifts and such. So, we
do have to just kind of figure out how that all washes out in the balance and and kind of see what it does to our to our overall budget. Um, largely most of our initiatives unfortunately fell a bit short this year. Um, there are 42 legislators that are retiring or
electing not to run again. So, we'll have a pretty big change next year uh with this midterm election. And so maybe another opportunity to take some of those initiatives that we weren't successful on this year and attempt to uh give them another go. That'll be a
question the board will have to address at some point in the future. Um as I mentioned earlier, there'll be a full legislative report that will be provided to the board by our lobbyists on June 16th. So stay tuned for that. Uh, one thing I wanted to mention, uh, as well,
moving on to a different subject, is the state the state flag keeps coming up as a discussion item, and I wanted to get, um, the board's uh, direction on how to handle this. Uh, just so that you're aware that, you know, the new state flag's been out for
a while. There's been some pressure uh, reported um, to move towards adopting or utilizing the new state flag. Um, I will just emphasize that uh state law does not legally mandate local governments to fly uh a specific state flag. Um, and
the choice remains fully at the discretion of the of the the township or the the county board or the city or whatnot. Um, there was a bill that was proposed this year, and I think that's what's got the conversation kind of more
uh out in the open, but there was a a a proposed bill in the House that would have financially penalized any city or county, 10% in state aid for not flying the current or new state flag, I should say. uh that did not pass, but I think
it was that effort that got people kind of excited and reinvigorated this conversation around what to do with the state flag. So, there is no law and there's uh no requirement uh no new law. Uh we are currently flying the 1983 flag uh revised. So, I'm I'm just wanting to
make sure that that practice is something you endorse or if you'd like us to switch out flags, we'd we just like to know that as well. So, not to make this a debate or any of that sort of stuff. I just putting it out there. We just want to get some clarity um so
that we we are operating our entire organizationwide with the the board's directed um flag of choice if that makes sense. Um Tom, do we do you need us to just
give you a um consensus or something as to to keep the current flag or we don't need to I know some cities and some other counties and stuff have been doing actual resolutions or something. We don't need to do that, do we? That we just need to say this is what we want, have it on the record and be done with it. >> Yeah, if if you want to do just give a
head nod like we want to keep the practice or change to the new flag right now, that will be good enough. But there you're right. There are counties and townships that have gone the extra step by developing a resolution. I think their resolutions have been um inclusive of more than just the adoption. In some
cases, there's, you know, additional information they'd like to have included in those. So, if you should choose to do that, we could look into that and have that run. For all intents and purposes, from operations standpoint, all we would need is >> I'm I'm in favor of keeping it just like
we have, you know, that's my opinion. >> Mr. Chair, I agree with Commissioner Gosig. I just the status quo with our old 1980 or 189 what 18 whatever that the one we have is just fine.
>> Not a big fan of the new flag. >> Mr. chair. Administrator Barry, I like the new flake. Uh, blue is my favorite color and there's two different kinds of blues on there. Um, I like the star. Um, I think it's pretty apparent where I
where I fall on that. But uh at at the risk of not banning political flames any further and and dividing the community, I would say let's just I think we've been doing a good job of of
not making this situation worse. So, um that bill I thought was completely unhelpful from that bill author. Um and I don't think it has a chance no matter who's in the majority. So, um,
>> yeah, I I like the new flag, but I'm I'm fine with us keeping the status quo, too. >> Okay, >> I I'd rather keep this just the way it is. >> Okay, great. Thank you for that. Uh,
lastly, you may have noticed uh there's an event behind us. This is the burgers for the brave event, and hopefully we can get you out here just a few minutes so you can grab a burger before the next meeting. But, uh, that's going on right now. sponsored by the Farm Bureau, which we're very appreciative of, and they're
recognizing um fire and public safety um and and public officials al together. So, please make sure you go out and grab that. And then lastly, uh county office will be closed on uh Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day. That's all I have for you. >> Okay. Thank you, Tom.
>> You bet. agenda. Do we have any changes additions? Jim, do you have any changes for the agenda? >> I'm good. >> It's good. Yeah,
>> Mr. Chair, if I might, um, just want to say that I appreciate the the audience that we have today in in my years of, uh, being on the county board. I I don't recall or remember a time where we had a a child in in our meeting. And I do
appreciate, you know, um, the mother's willingness to to, you know, bless us with with the, you know, the the child there. and uh hopeful that you know it was a good experience because it's been a a good experience for me you know
listening to to that. So thank you. >> Right. If we have nothing else we'll adjourn. Part: 2
Please rise for the pledge. Pledge >> algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay.
the general comments from the board chair. Normally I don't have any. Tonight I do. Um I just want to on behalf of myself, my family, and the county um condolences to uh Commissioner God and his family for the loss of his
father. All right. Anyone wishing to address the board on an item not Oops, went too far. on a an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name and address for the record. Comments are
limited to 5 minutes. A personnel complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard initially at a board meeting. Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office. A person addressing the board
may not use profanity or vulgar language. Okay. Patricia Hart of um Leech Lake Reservation and Ten Lake Township. You know, I bring you flowers to thank you for your service. I always get impressed
at how much you have to read and all the committee meetings you go to and all the people you have to listen to. Uh so, thank you for everything you do. Um and I want to mention one other thing because I've heard you talk about looking into energy. I think some kind
of nuclear possibility mating. Anyways, um two of us have solar power and I want to tell you what it it's not very convenient. I have a few panels and in the winter I
have very limited lighting. I only um can listen to the radio and have the light on for a few hours cuz you know the days are short in the winter. And then if they're cloudy, well then I have to resort to other kind of lighting, which I'm fine with. I wouldn't even have solar panels except that somebody
bought them for me. I think they're very ugly. They're not nice to nature, which I love. And I know somebody else north of MSPA who has a huge solar array. You know, she runs a refrigerator, washer, dryer, just everything. But it's very
inconvenient for her also, you know, especially in the winter. But not only then when the power gets low, you know, she has to boost her batteries with a generator and she has to watch a meter all the time to make sure it's not getting too low because she can ruin it. It can get
ruined if it's too low. So, I just want to say they're pretty inconvenient, not very efficient. That's all. Thanks. >> Any other comments? Anyone else wishing to address the board? Do we have anybody online? No.
All right. Looking for approval of the agenda. >> Mr. Chair, I I missed the the end of the meeting at the regular meeting or the work session. I didn't hear if anybody >> Okay. So, I'll make that motion without uh any additional corrections uh
deletions or was the last corrections deletion. additions. >> Second. >> Second. All in favor? >> I I approved.
Approval of the consent agenda. Do we have a motion? >> Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I.
>> Okay. Consent carries. Uh, county highway engineer reappointment. Thank you, chair. Members of the board, under Minnesota statute 16307, uh, the county highway engineer must be
reappointed every four years. Um, and the term of service is for an additional four years. The statute requires that that action take place in May of each of that fourth year. So, we are presenting for you this evening um
proposal and recommendation to reappoint Bruce Hazbaren for another four-year term. The statute also requires that the board establish the compensation for the county highway engineer as part of that
process. um looking at where we are at in terms of um market and where we're at in terms of um compensation for the highway engineer. I do have some data that I would like to present to you for
some consideration. Thank you, George. As you are aware, there was a compensation study that was completed in 2024 and the results of which were implemented in January 1st of 2025. At that time, all classifications within
the county were brought into a position within market that was um to be within approximately 5% of the average of our comparable counties. Subsequent to implementation of that, uh
it has been determined that the county highway engineer has fallen outside of the appropriate market. This information reflects the current rates of pay for each of the comparable counties that
were used in the compensation study. There are also some options that are being presented or recommended for your consideration this evening. Each of these options would allow you to consider where uh you would like to
place this position within the compensation system. Um, if we're trying to maintain consistency with the compensation study and look at that within 5% of the average point, then I would recommend that option three should
be the option that you consider this evening. >> Mr. chair. Oh, it I'm wondering if this is since it's personnel, would it make sense to go into a closed session for this since we're talking about personnel
and salaries and numbers and performance possibly? >> Um, I don't believe that this would fall under the basis for which you could go into a close session. >> Mr. Carson.
>> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Jordan, thank you for the diligence on this. Uh, it's been my experience in the few years that I've been on the commission that our county engineers done an exemplary job. And I also know how hard
it is for counties to get good engineers. I also know how many dollars our county engineer brings in to our county relative to our um to our size and uh the millions and millions of dollars
that he brings in every year. Um he's not told he has to do that, but he does it and he does it year after year after year. Um, I would hate to think that we knowing that there's many openings out there across the state and maybe across
our north our Midwest area, I would hate to I would like to think that our county engineer likes it here well enough that even if we can't pay him maybe what he's worth, if we could pay him a little bit more would would help. Um, with that in
mind, uh, Mr. Chair, I would move that we reappoint Bruce Hazbargan as Belrammy County Engineer to a 4-year term of office beginning June 1st, 2026 at paygrade 23, step 9. We have a second.
>> I'll second that, Mr. Chair. >> Okay. Discussion. >> Uh, Mr. chair. Well, I um Commissioner Carlson just made a statement that if we couldn't get him to
to what his desired request is, but then we're we're getting him through there with your with your motion. So, there there is no room for negotiation or or any type of anything like that.
I you you make a good case, you know, for for our engineer and I agree. Um but it just seems like there's there was really no uh opportunity to discuss or
or anything like that. So So that's why >> still So Mr. Chair, I I I appreciate Commissioner Sumar's question. Um, I believe that if this motion were to pass that then comm or administrator Barry
then would also go and and Jordan would meet with Bruce and say this is what the board has offered. Um, if for some reason he doesn't accept that, I I I guess then it would maybe have to come back and then we could re-evaluate and then maybe
we do have to have close session. I don't know. But I guess that's this is this is the best offer I think I can come up with at this time. >> I have one comment on on something. Um, you know, just hearing all of the
all of the grants and things that he gets for us. I know people who just write grants and a lot of those are getting up to 10% of that money. um which is a substantial amount um that he
is gaining for us by being the one writing these grants instead of us hiring a grant writer to try to get them. So even with this we're saving a lot of money and in my opinion that's uh something that uh we wouldn't be having
all our in any other way. So >> well Mr. chair. Um let's say that we do you know move on option three it passes uh the engineer decides to leave
two 3 years or wants to retire then what's going to happen to the grants? >> Yeah. you know, I mean, >> is that something that we should >> we we should discuss or think about as a board because, you know, if if one of those happen then
then, you know, we're at that grant money, right? So, so then what square one >> we're not really out it it's still here now. Well, I mean somebody else >> hearing the comment at the uh work session about he has a lot of pull and
sway on on this board who determines. >> So I mean >> we would lose that if we lost him. Yeah, that's what we don't want to lose. >> Yeah. Well, I mean I I I don't want to lose him either, but you know I mean I I I uh at least want to have a discussion
about some sort of future succession plan, you know, if something should happen. I mean I mean I think that's something that we should do as as an entire county. That's just my thoughts and I'm only one person but you know uh
giving him everything limits our ability to even possibly have that conversation. Um, again, I I agree that, you know, I mean, he he's worth his weight and gold, but
you know, I just I'm not too sure if I'm ready to give him everything. You know, >> what what is the current salary? >> No idea. >> I would assume that's this 8378 number. >> It's on the back side.
>> That would be correct. I understand the the hourly rate and I see some percentages there, but it doesn't say the salary and I suspect that might be by design. But um I I need to know what his actual salary is >> and what Commissioner Carlson's
motion would equal into a percentage increase because all our county employees are getting a 3% increase. I think all of our employees do a great job and I could support a 3% increase because that's
what everybody else is getting, but I need to know the numbers, please. And thank you. >> Yes. Be something like this. I'm just guessing because I don't I'm assuming >> I don't think we should make decisions on guesses. I I I believe it'd be times
two 20 280 hours, would it not? >> Right. Correct. >> What the 64? >> No, the the 8378 time 2080 would be what he's currently at. And then, you know, an additional $5.3 an hour times 2080 be
about 10 grand. You know, a little over 10 grand increase. And then same thing for the final one be another 444 >> 28. So be about $19,000 increase over what he's currently at.
>> Yeah. >> So it's well over a 3% increase. >> Well, it's it it's pretty close to that 12% that it says because he said he's 12.525% below the average and that's bringing him to 008 below. So it's a 127
average or increase. >> M Mr. Chair, I I would just add that I would love to give them more if I could, but but but I but I don't think that it's fair to all employees when we're trying to stay within that 5% of
maximum average. Is that Did I say that right Jordan? >> Right. Um we're seeing right now is a function of supply and demand for qualified county highway engineers. uh it's a very small pool of people who meet those requirements and it's caused
the demand to go up in order to fill vacancies. Our comparable counties have increased their salaries accordingly which has caused this to be a position that two years ago was at market at the
current salary. At that time it was about a 12% adjustment to bring it up to market which was below the average of adjustments that were made in my understanding of the comp study. We're now again with this
position which is exceptional because of the demands and the marketplace for licensed highway engineers in order to maintain the same relative position of within 5% of the maximum average
would require that movement indicated in option three which would reflect um approximately a 12 11.3 12% increase. I have one more question, Jordan. Um,
this you're talking highway engineer here. Is that what this number is or is that a combination of public works and highway engineer? Because the public works also requires more in Belrammy County. Your public works
director is also your designated county highway engineer. So in addition to those responsibilities of county highway engineer, he is the director in charge of the public works department and the solid waste functions. >> Right. Is is that the same with all the
rest of these counties that are comparable? >> Not necessarily. In some of these counties, solid waste may be a separate department. Uh in some larger counties that are part of the comparable study,
such as um St. Louis County. They may have multiple county highway engineer positions in different districts due to the geographic size of that county. >> So, Mr. Chair, could we um
redistribute the uh public works classification to solid waste or >> there's special training and certifications? Am I not correct on that that you have to have for that position?
>> Well, then why don't we train and and offer these special uh qualifications and certifications for for somebody to to obtain? >> That'd cost us more. be the >> I mean >> the money's the same one way I would think. Yeah. You're gonna have to pay somebody more.
>> Yeah. But I mean it if if the reason for for asking for an increase is because of uh the workload and the huge responsibilities it seems uh you know should we lighten the load? I I don't know.
>> No. But it's these guys aren't doing it for for more money than he's getting. >> Right. So, you're not going to change, in my opinion anything. >> I think it's like Jordan said, it's a supply and demand thing. And we've we've literally seen that with both Clearwater
County and Hubard County losing their highway engineers and needing to borrow ours. And we've, you know, having to charge them to use ours. And Clearwater managed to get a a replacement. So, we didn't do that this year, but um we're seeing that develop all over the state.
So, I think this is our best shot at at being able to to retain our our highway engineer who's doing a great job for us, bringing in lots of money for another four years. That's why I seconded it. >> Could we give him a 3% this year and revisit it a year from now?
>> He probably won't be here a year from now. Yeah. Well, >> I don't disagree with uh his skills and knowledge and and all the grants that he's brought in, but it certainly puts us a rock in a hard place. Uh
I I agree with keeping them on, but I don't I don't agree with the amount. I think it's too high. I I don't see the fairness or the or the equity when everybody else is getting 3%. So, that's where I'm at. I would say theirs
is probably in line with every other place around that was done quickly. I would think >> it's a very specialized >> role difference. I guess >> that requires a lot of special education
degrees and certifications >> chair members >> everybody getting 12%. Chair, members of the board, if it uh provides you with some additional information when we collected the data from the comparable counties, we also collected data for the other appointed
officials. There are three appointed officials within Belrammy County. Based on that data, the other two appointed officials are within market and are within the established target from the comp study. This was the only position
that was significantly out of market and is why we're bringing a rec a recommendation that you're seeing this evening. >> Sure. >> Apples to apples or apples to oranges here.
Well, when you're comparing him to other people doing the same job or like job, you're comparing apples to apples. >> Yeah. >> And in some of those cases, those people are doing less. >> We're talking about Clear Water and Hover and all these other places.
Are there really apples to apples? But I was just saying that they lost their engineers, you know, not that they're apples to apples with what we had, but that we had to help them out because they didn't have an engineer. Oh,
>> discussion question. Okay. All in favor? >> I >> I opposed. >> No. >> Okay. Three. Yes. Two. No.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you, Jordan. >> Okay. Northern Township Agreements. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you know, the county has been working with Northern Township to coordinate uh a utility installation, the sanitary sewer project
that Northern Township is contemplated around the north end of the lake. And uh we have delayed our highway project, our um county state aid highway 20 project for a few years to accommodate uh the
time frame that the township was operating under. Uh however, we are growing concerned with that time frame uh particularly since we have received funding from um grants that have an expiration date on them. And so, uh,
while we've been working closely with the township to ensure that we continue to coordinate and collaborate the two projects, uh, we want to make sure that the county is, uh, protected from a possible, uh, delay on the township's part that
might actually harm the county in particular, uh, jeopardize our funding from those grant sources that have a timeline on them. So, uh, we've, uh, we've engaged the township and expressed that concern, and we've come to an agreement that the township will hold
harmless, the county, uh, in the event that a delay on the township's part, uh, would potentially cost the county any additional funds. Uh, so those details and those terms have been laid out in what we are calling a hold harmless agreement. That's what's in front of you
in your packet today. Uh so that hold harmless agreement um has a certain timeline and certain you know guarantees and that sort of thing. Uh that has been uh sent to the township board and they have acted favorably on that and signed
the agreement. Uh there was a concern as we talked internally with the county about how to enforce this agreement. Right? So let's just say there's a $300 or $500,000 expense to the county. how could we enforce the recuperation of
those funds from the township, right? If they just refuse to pay. Uh a suggestion had come up in discussions about utilizing a performance bond, right? So some sort of shy that would obligate the township to make the county whole. Um
that's expensive. It's difficult to get. Uh we decided not to pursue that uh guarantee. So instead what we've done is we've tied the performance of this hold harmless agreement on the part of the township to the purchase and sale
agreement uh as a condition that has to be satisfied before uh the conveyance of the land that the township is contemplating purchasing from the county if that makes sense. You can't have a sewer line that goes to nowhere essentially. So that's how we've tied a
shity or a guarantee to ensure that the county will be held harmless. Uh so the second agreement that is incorporated in your packet is the amendment to the purchase and sale agreement which has also been executed by the township. So essentially those two agreements
together constitute the entire hold far harmless agreement and also give us uh essentially the shy we need to guarantee the performance on the township's part. So that's what you have in front of you. a little bit complicated. I know you've been involved in the conversation over the years about this project. Uh this is
just a little bit of uh shity, if you will, that the that the county will remain whole and that the two parties continue to work in a good faith manner uh under a time-sensitive um calendar. So stand for any questions you might have, but that's what's in
>> I I have one if this you know my understanding they are trying to become a municipality. Is that going to change anything from where this is saying township and all of a sudden now they're a city? Does that where's
that going to put all this? It will. So, Commissioner uh Winger, we did contemplate that had that discussion with the township and the decision was made because the township is still a bonafide township at this point in time. Any agreements that we enter into with them are going to be under the township
name. However, if they do, and I understand they're thinking about um maybe November or December or something like later this year, um moving towards incorporation, uh their contract with the county will have to change. Uh, and so what we will do is likely we'll talk to the county
attorney about this, but what I would contemplate is we would do an addendum and assign the agreement essentially to uh whatever I guess it's going to be the city of Northern or Northern City or I'm not sure exactly how they're doing that, but uh and then and then with the county. And so we would keep the
agreement uh the same. Okay. >> With just that name change. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Great question. >> Any other questions? I'm guessing the uh county attorney is the one that drafted this and is recommending this.
>> The county attorney I have been consulting with each other. He reviewed the document and his team as well and and this is what we moved forward as well as the township's attorney also reviewed it uh in addition to their board chair and their township administrator. >> The township administrator is
Mr. Lon >> Lane. >> Mr. Lane. >> Lane. >> Chris Lane. >> Yeah. Does he plan on staying on as the city administrator? >> That I do not know. Uh that information hasn't been shared with me. I'm I'm not certain what their plan is for
leadership. >> Are there elections uh this year for Northern Township? My understanding there is >> going to be >> that new board if it is new probably have to appoint him or hire him if he if
he has or or somebody else. >> Okay. That's the only thing that gives me pause is the people changing potentially changing from township to city and >> Sure. >> But bottom line, this protects us.
>> Yeah. >> Correct. I mean, I suppose I could talk to the county attorney about this. I don't want to put them on the spot, but I I suppose we could in an anticipatory way get into Well, but that binds a I don't think we could do that. I mean,
yeah, I'm just trying to think out loud. I better not do that. So, this is probably as good as we can get at the moment. >> End of the day, they still need our our land right? >> And if the contract is needing to be redone, it's to their benefit to redo it at that point also, right?
>> So, I don't I don't think it's a problem. Okay. >> Well, Mr. Chair, I I I would just want to say I appreciate working with Northern Township. They've been really good to work with. Um, I think we may have taken them a little bit by surprise
with the um with this addendum to the purchase agreement and the hold harmless just um but but they and after uh I think administrator Barry did a good job of explaining to them. We had a number of meetings uh both out at Northern Township and here uh I attended because
I was the district rep for for Northern Township. Um, and so just want to say I appreciate the due diligence that the township put into this and uh and their willingness to accept this uh as a condition moving forward. Um, so thank
you. >> Make a motion. >> Anything else? >> So, Mr. Chair, >> yeah, >> I would have a second here. I would make a motion that we approve the hold harmless agreement and the purchase and sale agreement with
Northern Township as presented. >> Okay, we have a second. >> I'll second that. >> Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> I >> I carry unanimous. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you, Tom. Um, where we at now? Next up, budget principles and priorities. >> Where are we going with that? >> Mr. Chair, I'd make a motion that we
approve the budget principles and priorities as they were presented. >> Okay, we have a second. >> Motion and a second. Any other discussion? >> Mr. Chair? >> Yes. >> Uh, I'm wondering if we could add a line or two.
that states, "To many, a budget is a moral document that reflects the values of our constituents and the integrity of the county board, and to the extent possible, we will work towards restoring any lost library funding.
Thoughts, comments reactions? >> I say no. >> What? That's me. >> Otherwise, I'll have to be a no vote on this. >> Okay. >> Any other discussion?
Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? I >> Okay. 32. >> Uh, Mr. Chair, I move that uh the Commissioner Sumner and Commissioner Ghoul will be our uh representatives on the budget committee.
>> I'll second that. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. >> Abstain. Okay. You going to go get a burger or you? >> You bet. >> Oh, okay.
Good luck with that, Tim. All right. Any additional items. Okay. Legislative and lobby issues, commissioners reports. So, let's start with Commissioner Godman. All right. Make it brief here so we can hopefully
catch something there. Um, had our first park planning committee meeting last night. Commissioner Gold and I attended that. went had a full uh full attendance and um had a really well-rounded group there. Um looking forward to working with them to make the most of our county
park system. Um had a fair board meeting last night and um we're well on our way on the sponsorships for an overall fair planning is going well. Um had a solid waste committee meeting this morning. Um roof repair on the building A is all
done and it's about half done on building B. Um, so that's going well and uh I'm going to sit in for Scott tomorrow or for the chair tomorrow at the the municipal solid waste meeting um in Bagley. That's my report. Thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Want to go next? >> Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh couple of regular meetings recently, Hope House last Thursday and tomorrow I have um KLS. I just wanted to say thank you to all
the legislative staff at the Capitol and and the legislators and and uh the retiring legislators. There's going to be 42 new legislators next year between the House and the Senate. And uh um you know, of course, the real work is done
by the staff. So, I want to give a special shout out to those folks, but um want to thank uh both staff and legislators for their service. And um it was a it it wasn't a great session, but it wasn't a bad session either. Some
progress was made on a number of uh county items. Um do appreciate the uh new dollars that will be coming uh county the county's way um based on what was passed uh yesterday in the last few
days. So, um, more to come on that, but just wanted to share my appreciation to legislative folks. >> Okay, Mr. Carlton. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to start out by recognizing Mr. Oz and his um uh government and politics class. Thank you
for coming today. We appreciate that. Uh, I know you've been here in the past and uh and I hope that uh you will continue to bring your class. I had the pleasure of being invited to Mr. Oz's class. Uh I believe it was last week, wasn't it? Um and uh it was I've been
invited to attend many classes at uh at the high school when I was in insurance and insurance as you can imagine is pretty boring, right? And so most of the kids would fall asleep in class or they didn't engage. Um and I know it wasn't
me this time, but this class was totally engaged. They never fell asleep and they asked great questions. So congratulations Mr. Oz and to the students of that class. You guys were marvelous and thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Um uh I had a pretty full couple weeks.
I had Prime West Health Finance and Operations Committee um and then the Joint Powers Board. And then we had Jim Prisbella's retirement party uh outgoing CEO. He's been there since the start. Uh and has done a great job with that. Uh so we wish Jim well in his retirement.
Uh I had a magic fund board meeting in St. Cloud. Uh jail design and operations meeting, management team meeting, um regional airport affairs council. Uh I attended the law enforcement memorial. Um so thanks to our uh law enforcement
folks that uh were there for that memorial. Appreciate that. Greater Bumiji um attended the AMC end of session update on Monday. Uh yesterday we had the Bel Tramy County uh the comprehensive safety and action
plan task force. Uh that was our third meeting. We still have a couple more to go there. Uh we did have some interesting crash facts that at some point I hope you all get a chance to see them because they were it was interesting because as much as we all hate the J turns, I think we do. At
least I know I do. Uh it was amazing how it reduced fatalities and in and bad crashes. So that was that was a big eye opener. Um and then uh upcoming we have the regional airport authority tomorrow and then uh I think you all got the
invite for the cross country ski club open house Thursday 4:30 to 7:00 at their new facility that we help them get them land available for them. And so if you can get out there for that that'd be great. >> Anyway, thank you Mr. Chair.
>> Okay. All right. Um, for me, I did the uh Northwest Radio board um via Zoom and for some reason my mic wasn't working for the whole thing and halfway through my camera went out so I could hear them
and see them, but they couldn't hear or see me. But, uh, I'm waving my hands and Yeah, exactly. That would be good. Uh, I went to Buzzle Town Board meeting last night. That was a really good meeting and they they had
some really good questions and I have gotten some answers for them because I didn't have all of them. So, I went and found as much as I could today, but I got to do some more digging on a couple. Um, been getting a few well, a lot of calls on uh the roads. um you know, not
not our county roads necessarily, uh because of the roundabout stuff up on the north end and and then Highway 71 between Black Duck and and and Bamiji or Turtle River that are they're shutting down and and so I I I hope I was able to
calm some of that down a little bit. uh have been getting some people who are a little upset only because with those the construction a lot of people are cutting across on Balsam Road now and I know Bruce is well aware of all of that that's going on
there but um because they don't want to go down and come in through all the other they're going all that traffic from Eckles Township and up that direction is cutting across on Balsam and coming over to the hospital and coming coming in that way to avoid did all of
it which makes complete sense but um but I understand where it's frustrating but Bruce is on top of that just so anybody listening knows that he is taking care of it. Um I had a solid waste meeting this morning.
I have chat about tomorrow. I wasn't sure I was going to be done in time for the hazardous waste. So I asked Greg to take my spot on that one at 10:00 tomorrow just to make sure that we had somebody there and so he agreed to do that one for me. So, I appreciate that. Uh,
other than that, you know, we got uh we're coming into the end of the school year, so hopefully all the kids have fun and stay safe. And so, yeah, that's all I got. >> Move to adjourn.
>> Second. Second. All right. All in favor? I. All right. We're done. Thank you, guys.