it's 9:00 we'll call the county board to order and we get the flag pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all roll call sure commissioner Benoy here commissioner Heinen here commissioner Pop present commissioner Johnson here commissioner Gapinsky here thank you approve or amend the agenda
mr chair we have one item to add it's the item consider resolution in support of the Great River Regional Library Minute System if you could please add that right after the consent agenda okay Mr chair also if we could I see there's a number of people here I think in
regards to CD4 abandonment so if we could move that potentially after Sheriff Hex presentations move to county ditch move the move to county ditch at that time is that it i'll make a motion to approve the changes second to accept the amended
agenda all in favor i opposed county Board meetings are broadcast live and video and video recorded on YouTube please restrain from speaking from the audience area and come to the podium so that viewers can hear you the county board observes the Robert's rules of order for its meeting so please obtain
the board's chair consent before addressing the county board public comments are generally reserved for the open forum segment or public hearings however public comments on the agenda items may be allowed at the discretion of the board chair as we begin today please turn off your cell phones and
turn your or turn yourself to vibrate thank you open form nobody's there on open form um consent agenda we got items 1 through 7 move for approval mr chair
second motion been made and second i would like to pull number seven for some discussion right i'll amend my motion yeah I'll amend my motion consent agenda items one through six for approval i will as well items one through six have been moved for
um approval all in favor i I Okay item number seven i just had some some uh concerns about the reimbursement policy so it says that in there it says that we'll be paid we'll be paid to the VI provider and then reimbursed by the
state and I wonder if anybody's here that can discuss are we going to be if the funding's not available or is it always available I guess is my the funding is available it is available okay um this is the third type of uh agreement that I've operated under for
this client specifically um we've had a successful transaction last spring of $5,000 we had a second su successful transaction this last fall of I believe it was around
$70,000 and we received those funds back within four to five weeks on both of those my concern is not that we didn't receive my concern is that when you hear what DHS and some of the cutbacks are going to be that we're not going to shell out the money and then we won't
get reimbured and that's not going to be the case no when I've asked about that funding specifically what I' what they've explained to me is that it's protected funding um and it wouldn't be anything that would be cut um that the money's there it's not anything that's they're planning on it coming in so yeah
it's there for uh distributement or redistributement for all these types of situations okay any other questions sir no just good explanation on that thank you thanks thank you um with that I so move for number seven to be approved second
all in favor i I carried um we'll go to the library resolution right now and we're sorry that that got omitted on the on the agenda but thanks for taking
care of that thank you Mr chair um we are here today uh my name is Jamie Trenham and I'm associate director of collection development at Great River Regional Library and I'm Brienne Fruth i'm the communications and development coordinator and we'd like to thank you
for some of your time this morning to discuss the resolution in support of increased funding to Minuteex which is a state entity responsible for coordinating library services such as interl loan and the electronic library of Minnesota minitex is funded through a
combination of state and federal funding the federal funding is administered through the institute of museum and library services which is also known as IMLS and these funds power interl loan um and the e library Minnesota outreach and
instruction uh the funds are administered to the state uh Minnesota department of education then subgrants to mitex and mitex intern subgrants to uh libraries such as great river we
provide the last mile delivery for institutions such as St cloud State University uh St cloud Tech College and St ben St john's um Minuteex was seeking additional state funding before the March 4th executive order which
essentially um has put the federal funding in question at the IMLS those staff have been laid off and as of April 9th Minnitex is planning for a loss of those funds um the direct funding impact for Great River and Benton County is
actually pretty small it's $7,000 and those $7,000 are to offset the expense of that interl loan to our local colleges the larger impact is related to services minitex is the glue that connects all types of libraries in
Minnesota from school to public to academic um last year our patrons at Great River requested over 14,000 items through our interl loan system and what that means is if you are here in Foley you can request an item for example
through the U of M in Duth and it can be here in a couple of days it saves Great River the uh need to purchase that material individually and the material is sitting on the shelf in another library so we're stronger together by being able to share these
resources um we also leverage interl loan to meet our patrons information needs in the past six months alone uh 900 items were requested to be purchased by Great River that we in turn were able to fill through interl loan and if you
consider what did we ballpark like $20 per item um you know that's over $18,000 in savings that Great River did not need to spend in order to meet those patrons information needs um the e library of Minnesota also provides access to
databases that are full of reliable information such as encyclopedia bratannica consumer health complete and learning express library without uh the funding for these resources Great River will have to make decisions on whether
we decide to fund those databases individually or if we need to let those resources go um of the roughly 50 databases that can be accessed by Benton County residents over half of them are funded through the state um
so in conclusion we would really appreciate your support of this increased funding for Minuteex um again we are stronger together and uh if you're interested in learning more we also have information on the Minnesota
Library Association's web page um are there any questions that we can address mr chair go ahead you know uh I I do support this resolution but I'll be the first one to say if the state cuts the funding and if
you think you're coming back for us for $7,000 more that's going to be a hard sell i'll be honest with you because if the state's going to cut all the funding we're going to have to figure out where to cut funding too right i do understand that is it is a trickle effect it it is
you know Mr chair I assume this is an addition to the $550,000 we're already spending is that Well um I mean because that budget was approved already for Great River to clarify we're not they're not Yeah there's no additional funding that we
are seeking at this point what I'm trying to articulate is uh what we will lose if the federal funding goes away so you'll lose 7,000 is what you're saying so I would imagine that that that would be up to the Great River Board of
Trustees to decide whether they're going to fund it or not fund it before it would come back to the counties without pushing it correct Mr chair right correct yes thank you Mr chair so that's kind of where it stands on that Mr chair yes where are you guys sitting on surplus on on that that's your fund me
oh I couldn't tell you without looking i think we're about four and a half to five months right now okay so this could come out of there if something happens well we've been using that at a pretty regular basis to offset increases to counties okay so and I think um we have
some counties that'll see an increase this year because of the shift in our and I believe we are one of them that as it sounds now we're we haven't got to the final budget process so a year ago weren't we like almost six months um probably two years ago two years ago
maybe okay we've been actively working to address and use the spend down it's been a number of years since we started addressing the surplus right and we've been using it you know 3 400,000 a year i think the larger issue is that we
wanted to make you aware not so much that we'll be seeking to fill this hole but it may impact services because there comes a point where we simply can't keep absorbing costs and there will need to be a point where services are impacted
but right now this resolution is only requesting that we support to continue funding yeah from the state yeah from the state so I'll make that motion to approve i would second i'll I'll I'll go on along with Commissioner Heinen but once again if
the funding is cut it'll be another hard it'll be another another uh topic that'll be in front of us any other discussion hearing none so the motion's been made and and seconded to support the resolution to continue the federal funding to or replacement by the state
all in favor i I opposed carried thank you thank you so much thank you okay we'll go to Sheriff Hec good morning commissioners morning morning have a number of items to get through today uh the first is the annual
report so each year I put together a report to summarize the activities of the uh previous year this year we're going to talk about what we did as an office in 2024 i will highlight a few of the things in the report i won't uh read the whole thing for you but uh go
through some highlevel uh again highlights and if you have any questions I'd be happy to entertain those so to start off with like to look at trends and uh I I include a lot of graphs in the report i I like to look at
the graphs because it helps you understand where we've been and where we're going and one of the trends that I I think is is very worth noting is the fact that once again we saw in 2024 a decrease in the number of crimes and
crime rate in uh the unincorporated areas of Benton County where we have primary jurisdiction and 2024 was the seventh year in a row that that those two statistics have tracked downward so I I think that speaks volumes for the uh
the team that we have not only in our office but also in the entire um public safety uh system operating here in Benton County so we we operate as a team with the prosecution the courts corrections we also work with human
services and most importantly we work with the public on prevention efforts um I would love to be able to claim that uh all seven of these years are simply the result of my fabulous leadership but that would be that would be very vain of me and I won't do that but I what I will say is I'm very proud to be part of the
team in Benton County that has achieved this um and I think we have we're very fortunate here to have the players in place that we do one uh kind of dark spot on that bright rainbow is the fact that for the second year in a
row domestic assault was the top was the most frequently reported crime in Benton County and also on the list was harassment that's again the second year in a row that's appeared in the top five so we're taking notice of that and we're working with our partners and also the
public to try to see what we can do to decrease the prevalence of both person related crimes because those are concerning to us when we look at all the metrics that we measured in 2024 we saw a modest modest decrease in all of our measured
metrics and I'm attributing that again to the the lessened demand because of the safer spaces that we've created here in Benton County we think that this is a great opportunity for us not only to talk about what a a great place this is
here but also to use some of this time that we're not spending having to be reactive when crime happens and be proactive to continue to drive that crime rate down as far as we can and to be out in the neighborhoods patrolling to be out there coming up with creative
solutions to local problems so we're looking forward to continuing to be able to work on those efforts one of the other things that we need to focus our attention on is um recruitment and retention it's no
secret that 2024 was uh a continuation of the trend of a tight labor market and we like everyone else are having problems finding people that are going to meet our standards and uh willing to come work and do some of these jobs that we have in the Benton County Sheriff's
Office we have um we have stagnant or decreasing enrollment our law enforcement training programs which is a concern for the future of our peace officer recruitment and we still struggled to find good people willing to come out and work in our our dispatch
center our public safety answering point and in our our jail to try to try to uh blunt that effect a little bit we've worked on first well uh retention and we worked on our wellness efforts we've formed a wellness committee of employees
that look at different things we can do to improve the health and wellness of the people that we have make sure that they're fit to do their jobs here and fit to take care of their family at home and continue to want to call Benton County the place that they go to every day for work part of that uh work the
wellness committee has been the creation of a peer support team so these are individuals who have been recognized by their peers out of our staff as folks that are um easy to talk to folks that will lend a listening ear and are people that they would normally go to anyway if
they have a problem or just need to spend a little bit of time working on something these folks are available to our staff 24 hours a day 7 days a week they're just a phone call away and they're there again whenever somebody needs a listening ear to talk to and and work through something that might be
might be bothering them to try to help find the the next members of the public to come work and fill spots on our team we have continued our work with um a marketing firm called White Box out of St cloud and they've helped us assemble marketing materials and a marketing plan
to get the word out to people about the jobs that we have here and opportunities that Benton County presents for them to to grow into a career in public safety and that's been that's been paying some dividends especially on our detention officer front as we've seen increased numbers of people coming in to apply for
the job and to to be part of that solution i'll touch a little bit on each division individually throughout our office to talk about what they do and what some of the metrics are that we've seen and we'll start out with the PAP with the dispatch center because that's the most
common entrance into the public safety system for the public in our PAP uh we answered not only calls that come in for the Benton County Sheriff's Office but also for the 911 calls administrative calls for our office Foley Police and
Fire Rice Police and Fire and Sock Rapids Police and Fire so in 2024 out of all those calls we initiated um 25,297 initial complaint reports so those are started whenever somebody calls into our sheriff's office and asks
for public safety services so we had again just over 25,000 requests in 2024 for those services uh from 12:00 p.m to 11:00 p.m was the highest percentage of calls with a peak between 3 and 7 um
Fridays were the busiest Sundays were the least busy and months of May through October had the most calls throughout the year uh next division I want to highlight is our civil process and warrant division one of the statutory
duties of the sheriff's office is to serve orders from the court to serve civil process to arrest people on warrants in 2024 we had 96 requests to serve civil process that was just a few a bit lower than in 2023 uh civil
summons made up almost well over a third of those requests and the next five most common classes of uh requests were harassment restraining orders orders for protection subpoenas ritz recovery and order to show cause moving on to the patrol division
this is the most recognizable division of the sheriff's office these are our uniform deputies out on patrol and squad cars doing investigations patrolling neighborhoods responding to calls for service in 2024 our deputies were assigned
13,724 initial complaints uh traffic stops accounted for the single largest uh share of that load following that we had assistance to the public and other agencies medical emergencies suspicious activity reports
animal related incidents and alarms the five most commonly reported crimes in Benton County in 2024 as I mentioned domestic violence was top at number one harassment was number two theft continues to be in the top five at
number three fraud everpresent in the top five at number four and illegal dumping peaked its way up into top five our deputies were busiest between the hours of 9:00 a.m and 7:00 p.m and especially between 2 and 5 that was when
we had a real spike in activity throughout the year and as with the uh PAP Fridays were the busiest Sundays had the least activity june July and August represented the highest uh number of calls that we took throughout the
year as I mentioned at the top um again we made gains in our total crimes committed and our crime rate statistic so crime rate is expressed as the number of crimes per 100,000 people in 2023 our
crime rate according to the BCA was 1,723 crimes per 100,000 people to compare that to the overall state average statewide the crime rate was 4,086 crimes per 100,000 people meaning that our crime rate was 58% lower than
the statewide crime rate and again when you look at our 2024 numbers our crime rate in 2024 declined again from the 1723 down to 1,038 crimes per 100,000 people so that's another significant
gain and again seven years in a row out of the uh ICRs that are assigned to the patrol division some of those include um a couple of uh administrative items that we track first would be the
permits to carry a pistol that are brought to our sheriff's office we received 642 of those in 2024 that was down about 8% from 2023 and 183 permits to acquire a pistol those were up about
9% compared to 2023 move along to the investigative division these are our detectives and investigators that work on our most serious crimes that require more work and effort in 2024 108 cases were assigned
to this division and out of those 108 cases 94 of them were cleared so we reached a conclusion either charging the person or reaching a point where we couldn't charge them that's 87% clearance rate which is fantastic um I couldn't be more proud of the work that
uh our investigative staff do to clear these crimes up within the investigative division we have two deputies that are assigned to the central Minnesota violent offender task force so this is a cooperative effort between Benton Sterns Sherburn
counties the cities of St cloud Weight Park Sock Rapids St joe each of these agencies uh gives I'm sorry and our friends in Morrison i almost forgot our friends in Morrison each of these agencies gives uh got personnel to the
group and this group is assigned to go after our most dangerous criminals within this entire central Minnesota area they focus primarily on drug crimes and crimes committed for the benefit of a gang as they do that they they work
diligently to put these people behind bars where they belong to talk about what they did in 2024 i'd just like to highlight some of the uh successes in 2024 uh methamphetamine which continues to be
the most commonly found controlled substance in the area we took almost 2 kg of methamphetamine off the street in Benton County next done list over 750 fentinel pills were taken off of the streets and 17 grams of fentinel powder
and just as an aside as I mentioned methamphetamine is the most commonly found drug but fentanyl is probably the most concerning it's on the rise year after year and it is the most deadly drug that we see currently out there on the illegal market um thankfully we do
have antigens Narcan Nlloxxone that we can give people that are suffering from an overdose but it is such a dangerous drug because of how potent it is if if the people down in Mexico that are mixing this in these huge vats just put a
little bit too much of fentinel powder in this mixture of 30 or 40 chemicals it's a difference between a high that they chase and and not being able to breathe anymore so it's it's very concerning to us
in addition uh investigators took off almost a kilogram of cocaine 80 grams of psilocybin mushrooms two firearms and about $2,500 in cash associate associated with controlled substances from the streets of Benton
County move along to our jail division uh in 2024 we had an average daily population of 36.48 inmates we reached that average daily population by booking in a total of
1,526 in inmates over the year of which 1,188 were male 338 of those were female um just like every other jail across the state we continue to struggle with people that have high needs we have people in our jail that suffer from
mental illness people in our jail that suffer from very complex medical problems uh uh withdrawal symptoms associated with addiction it's a difficult job back there to to make sure that we are meeting our requirement to keep these people um safe and secure and
healthy and it's it's a struggle that we face exacerbated by the um lack of attention I think that the state pays to these problems so if we're going to see any kind of a relief in our responsibility to meet these medical
challenges we're going to have to get some help from the state of Minnesota to address them in our jail uh in 2024 we collect fees to help offset the costs we collected over $30,000 in fees from
people that use our jail that are sentenced to our jail and we collected over $51,000 in revenues from other counties and other agencies that also board prisoners in our jail one of the functions in our jail is
a sentence to service crew um this is this crew normally goes out and uses inmate workers to uh perform public projects for school districts for townships for the county for cities it's been a bit of a challenge with this crew
with the reduced um inmate population and with uh with vacancies in the jail our crew leader has had to fill in uh some of those shifts and again not having the workers make it difficult to have the crew go out so we had about 6 months
worth of uh time that the crew could actually go out on projects and they completed 15 projects for Benton County Watab Township Langola Township and the Foley School District we are extremely fortunate that we have volunteers that come out and
assist us on a whole variety of uh projects for the sheriff's office one of our units is the mounted patrol these are um people that are willing to go through training with their horses to make sure that they are able and ready to assist us in search and rescue
operations and in security operations they do a ton of training they uh do excellent work with with controlling their animals you see them in the parades every year while mar uh marching through with the flags they they are really a asset to our office in
2024 they worked a total of 465 hours uh the next group we have is our reserve deputies these are folks that are interested in helping out the sheriff's office in ways that are safe for them to do as non-licensed folks so we have them help with directing traffic or doing
cabin checks or riding along with deputies that type of thing the 11 volunteers that we have on our crew perform 475 hours of uh service on various projects and also in our jail we have about 80 individuals who come in and
volunteer to do programs these are the programs that bring in uh religious programming to to uh prisoners that help them learn how to get their GED how to write uh how to write resumes these type of life skills that they're going to need to get once they get out of the
jail so they don't come back in 2024 these uh individuals performed 1,27 hours of programming in our jail and finally I want to touch on our public outreach we believe that reaching out to the public and sending
crimerevention information is key to reducing crime and keeping people from being victimized in in that aim we have not only our we have our social media presence on uh Facebook X and Next Door
we also have the ability to submit uh monthly articles to Foley uh the Foley newspaper and the Sock Rapids Herald we also reach out to uh to the children in Benton County with our DARE
program we had 526 students attend there in 2024 and uh we have our PAL program that each summer brings together children ages 5 to 15 um for uh the weeks of the summer
to hang out with uh cops in the park and play games do crafts help them see that cops are people too and are somebody that they can build rapport with and trust and also we offer youth snowmobile and youth ATV certification courses that
are always full so that brings us to the the end of my highlights any questions any comments mr chair go ahead sheriff touching on the illegal dumping yes it just it it's weird that
it brought up because I was coming back from uh Princeton on 95 and right at the border of Baton County and Sherburn County i literally seen this this old camper throwing things at one o'clock in the afternoon in I mean in front of everybody out of the camper and then
just drove away i'm like what in the world i couldn't believe it was happening it it it puzzles me a little bit too that you know it's always been a low-level issue but for it to crop up to the top five I I not sure exactly what's going on there but yeah it is it is an
interesting anomaly that people just brazingly would do that it was right on the corner of 95 in a gravel road and I mean just piles of stuff sitting out there and just drove off unfortunately Commissioner Kapinsky you need to sign up for uh adopt a highway and pick up
two miles or either that or maybe we need to deputize our area find out what they really do mr benite um I just want to say thank you uh for being very welcoming over there allowing me to sit with dispatch
and and go on a road tour with your officers uh I they do an amazing job absolutely we're glad to have you mr share one last comment sheriff can you share with us briefly where you're at with staffing today
so um today my license my deputies ranks are full um my dispatch ranks are currently full we have are well I should back up we have two deputies currently in training they're going to be probably
done with training by by summertime i have uh one dispatcher who is nearing he's probably 3/4 of the way through his training that will bring us up to full staff there we do have a couple out on medical leave at the moment so that is a
bit of a struggle because of those medical issues in our jail I believe that we are I think we have three or four full-time openings and perhaps one part-time opening which in the grand scheme of things I'm I would rather see
them completely full but that is not bad so we're making some progress especially considering that we added three at the top of 20 24 to the jail i assume this takes a little pressure on your existing staff's overtime requirements yes having those filled would be huge uh
we do have uh I think three currently in training in the jail so it takes you know it takes between three and six months to get these folks trained up to where they can be on their own so it it's a bit of a long leadup time but yeah we we need to get those filled to
reduce that overtime thank you anything else i think uh Sheriff Heck over the course of your tenure in Mittton County I think you've raised the social media has really helped you out you've done a great job on that thank you yeah we've you know we have a great team from top
to bottom um and some of these folks that step up to do some of these specialized bits are are really top-notch too and again I I'd love to stand here and say that I am I am the king of social media i'm not I have a very good team that I help contribute to but yeah we have some great people that
manage that and get that message out all right thanks anything else no just thank you thank you thank you okay now move on and you got a couple of u proclamations yes yes so all of the things I just talked about none of that
happens without great people and today we are in the midst of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week which we recognized at the previous board meeting um and so today we're going to talk about a couple more upcoming um recognition weeks uh the first one I
want to touch on is National Correctional Officers Week that is coming up the week of May 10 May 4th to May 10th 2025 and as you might imagine this recognizes the people that do the difficult work of uh staffing our jails
and our prisons without them uh we we would not have the safe place that we have today uh it's it's a very difficult job it isn't recognized nearly as often and as frequently as it should be these are folks that come to work every day
for 8 10 12 hours and they spend that time dealing with people that we've said you need to be separate from the rest of society because you can't get along and they present some very unique challenges and this the staff that we have are
excellent at handling them um excellent at diffusing conflict excellent at making getting people who are very difficult to comply with things that maybe they don't want to do but that's in everybody's best interest so recognizing them for this week in May is
very appropriate and and we really appreciate everything that our staff does here and all around the state okay okay with that I'll make a motion to adopt May 4th through May 10th 2025 and
designate it as National Correctioner Correctional Officer Week and uh approve or or motion to have the chair sign the proclamation i'll second motion made second to proclaim uh May
4th to the 10th for National uh Correction Officers Week all in favor i opposed carry thank you commissioners and then finally following uh corre national correctional officers week from May 11th to May 17th this has been
designated as National Police Week so this week honors the uniformed licensed peace officers in Minnesota and all across this nation that do uh the the difficult job of having contact with the public enforcing laws arresting
criminals keeping the peace solving problems in our neighborhood all these things that law enforcement is looked upon to do um when I look back on the 30 years I've spent in this career it's been a significant change and it seems
like every year incrementally there is more and more placed upon law enforcement with the expectation that we're just going to figure out a way to make it work when I when I started in 1994 my job was to arrest bad guys ticket speeders and you know put people
in jail right that was basically what I was supposed to do and once in a while if you wanted to get out and talk to some kids for a while fine but go find somebody to arrest fast forward to 2025 and the focus has changed I think for the better to being more uh community
involved more proactive we still want to arrest people that are committing crimes we still want to enforce the laws to keep this place safe but the method that we do that has and the the mindset has changed quite a bit and we're expecting these young men and
women with you know a couple years of college degree to go out and do some remarkable things to diffuse situations uh that you know diffuse situations in a home that have reached a boiling point to be able to successfully uh encounter
somebody with a weapon that might be threatening to harm the public and somehow manage to get them to stop doing that in a in a manner that doesn't or that minimizes the use of force and all you know become uh to to identify people who are in danger of harming themselves
and get them to the proper help and uh just on and on and on the list goes of the tasks that have been added to these folks and the fact that these uh these individuals come and they learn all these things and put and practice all these skills I I think is simply amazing
and I am very proud to be uh standing here asking for you to recognize National Police Week and also honor on May 15th those in our um ranks who have paid the ultimate price and given their life in service to uh their community
and I it wouldn't it wouldn't be right to brush by that without mentioning that Benton County does have one member that uh died in the line of duty and that was Deputy Sheriff Frank McGregor who was killed in a car accident in 1931 so appreciate your consideration mr
chair I'll move uh May 11th to May 17th 2025 as our designated National Police Week and to especially recognize our men and women here at the Benton County Sheriff's Office and direct the chair to sign i'll second motion been made and second to have May 11th to the 17th 2025
is National Police Week in Benton County any discussion comments all in favor i I post carried thank you Sheriff thank you very much commissioners at this time Senator thanks to everybody in your departments
at this time we're going to recess the county board and turn it over to ditch authority all right we'll call our ditch authority meeting to order we've already been roll call with all commissioners present uh we'll move on to approval or amendments to our agenda uh Chris good morning chris anything you need to add
to our [Applause] agenda i'm I'm not I saw your uh your mute came off but we're still not hearing you nothing yet so Chris if we can't conquer this issue you could call 9685060 we'll
we could get your audio on the speaker phone if you want to try that you could call 9685060 interesting so So everyone on Go can hear him but we can't can't yeah that's they can hear them on GoTo yeah they can
all hear them so Chris you want to make sure you shut your uh mute yourself so we don't get echo there you go we're good all right Chris let's try it again anything you'd like to add to our agenda i have nothing to add okay thank you the only thing I would like to if it's okay
with the rest of the board is to add maybe a potential open forum for weird we're getting a from us maybe turn your mic off is that any better okay is that better let's see are we getting an echo now we're good okay there must have been
There was two audio sources on i think we're good now all right there we go thank you the only thing I would like to add if it's okay with the board is an open forum uh part portion of this uh agenda in case anybody from the public would like to speak in regards to ditches so um is there a motion to approve our agenda with the edition with
the added edition i'll make that motion i'll second it all right all those in favor i opposed it's carried move on to consent agenda approve or amend the ditch authority meeting minutes of March 4th 2025 so move okay second motion a second to approve those minutes is there
any further discussion in regards to those minutes hearing none all those in favor i opposed it's carried we'll move on to our one action item for today is to conduct a public hearing on the abandonment of county ditch 4 chris I'll
let you lead off all right uh thank you commissioners um I will just provide kind of a summary of my report that hopefully everybody received uh yesterday the county ditch was established by
order of the county board on June 21st 1904 when the when established the ditch started in the southeast quarter or the southwest quarter of section 18 township 37 range 30 the open channel proceeded in a
northerly direction for approximately 8,800 ft to where it terminated at the channel of Sucker Creek and that that length becomes significant later the original viewers report determined that the original estimated number of benefited acres was 200 acres with the
value of those benefit being about $2,738 the viewers awarded no damages and there no therefore no buffer payments were made at the time of establishment 1904 when reviewing our files I could not find any documentation of the construction contract or other
documentation that indicated the original cost to excavate the ditch however I was able to find that there were ditch leans assessed on the benefited parcel and that all leans were released on January 4th 1916 and that lean
release goes on to describe that full payment had been received for the original construction of the ditch then a petitioned repair was ordered on August 2nd 1927 we do have a detailed plan and
profile of the excavation for this repair uh we do know that the cost of repair in 1927 was $563.86 the repair work was completed and accepted by the county board on December 6th 1927
so no other documentation of official ditch activities could be found in the file until the most recent redetermination of benefits that was completed in 2022 wow at this time the viewers determined that 69 Nice
future repairs of county ditch 4 would be subject to the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act this would include at a minimum a wetland typing to determine the types of wetlands that would potentially be impacted with the repair and excavation of the channel
the drains authority would need to mitigate i.e purchase wetland credits for certain types of wetlands that are impacted currently the costs for mitigation are unknown and it's possible that wetland mitigations could exceed
the benefits provided as determined with the most redetermination of benefits that kind of concludes my engineers report on CD4 all right members any direct questions for Chris at this time any direct questions for Chris at this time all
right well we'll now open the public hearing for the abandonment petition of drainage system number four uh Chris any additional comments i know that you've addressed a lot of these issues i don't know if we need to address the purpose of the public hearing purpose of the public hearing any any additional additional one thing I would add is that
I did have a brief conversation with H2O reviewers um to see if this channel existed back to the original length of 8,800 ft would that have affected the amount of acres that they determined to
be benefited the response was no and and the reason for that is because they look at the wershed having that channel lengthened doesn't change the shape or the boundary of the wershed okay thank you anything else Chris
before we move into public comment i I have nothing else unless there's any questions all right we'll now move open for public comment if there's anyone in the audience who wishes to address the county board on ditch number four so if you could please come to the podium and state your name and your address
anyone at all michelle go ahead we should probably have the petitioners at least do some presentation okay are the petitioners here for the abandonment of CD4 if you could please just come to the podium and state your name and address
and your request for the petition that would be great for our record what was I'm Jim Gans address is 3101 135th Street Northeast Rice Minnesota what was the question that you wanted you're just you're requesting to abandon
CD4 okay thank you and Mike there you are explain mike Rusky 3368 Little Rock Road Northeast Sock Rabbits okay and our friendly county attorney is asking me to ask you um a little bit of the history or why you're requesting to abandon what what
the purpose is for the record please well you know actually was maintained by my uncles uh back in probably 2011 they had uh either Berski or somebody clean it out and they actually went through the AFC office so it was maintained
after that the ditch that was there and you know a couple times uh uh beavers built dams and we just dug them out okay so other than that it was just you know the cost of everything else that's going to be in involved with this and we did tile
the ground into the ditch and stuff so we know where our tiles are and stuff like that too so currently it's more or less being taken care of by private land owners so yeah okay it was more of a cost factor that we figured we can save
ourselves some money and everybody else affected in the area thank you enough information michelle okay thank you gentlemen uh anyone else that would like to speak on the abandonment of CD4 final call anyone else like to speak
on the abandonment of CD4 not on abandonment of number four but I am one of the I don't want to say petitioners but I have uh on ditch number 10 and I had went and talked to Chris i come up I didn't know number four i didn't know if I was allowed to speak so I'm going to
I'm going to open that up for you later when we get done with four and we'll hear from that in open forum okay thank you anyone else on the abandonment of CD4 final call all right we're going to close our public hearing portion of this public
hearing um we'll move on to the county board we'll have time for questions for staff and discussion as a reminder to the audience the public comment portion is closed any questions or comments from board members before we take action uh and members I'd encourage you to look at the information in front of you there
are potentially three different options for motions so Mr chair go ahead Mr pensky uh Christine all the all all the bills and and leans all the assessments are taken care of on this there's it's a clean
so last year in August the uh maintenance assessments were put on or approved by the board and those have all been paid in full okay thank you and along that line Commissioner Kinsky uh Christine is there any type of balance
in CD4 there is a small positive balance okay um how are we Michelle so what do we do with that what we will do is we will make approval if you choose to approve abandonment we will make a
contingent on payment of all remaining fees because there is going to be a cost associated with this petition for abandonment okay so our intent is to get it to the zero so it would can still abandon if you
choose to but it would be contingent on payment so it wouldn't be effective until all that cost is paid okay like maybe for the record what are some examples of what additional costs there may be the mailings yep um the publication
fees and if anyone were to object which they haven't today y then that would have been an additional cost okay then hypothetically if there's still a positive balance in that account what happens that would go towards those costs and if it's sufficient then that
would be covered and if there's still additional balance I believe that you return that potentially I'm not sure okay does that need to be dealt with in the abandonment order the balance of the account yeah we will
figure that out okay all right members you've got a couple motions in front of you if you've heard enough or have any other questions on staff Christine Michelle or Chris we've heard multiple times from land owners and what their intent is
here so what are your wishes may I suggest that if uh you're inclined to do the abandonment we would look at item number three i don't see that in my stuff would be the bottom page of your information
that Michelle handed out rest of you have it no on my phone okay but you have it this one right yep do we have more copies of Yes yeah we don't have the Oh not in
your not in your pile i got it where is There it is you just can't find it there you go thank you Beth so on a second page item the bottom item three of page three [Applause]
if you take a look at that and then there's additional uh terminology on the back side to go with that [Applause] i'm going to make a motion to grant the petition of abandonment do we need to read the whole thing
i need you to provide some [Applause] to based on that criteria that's provided so there's either no useful purpose for the ditch or it's not practical
to construct or to fix it so I would need something to support Okay just include Michelle's in the motion so it would probably she's talking about item B I would imagine yeah yeah so you maybe want to read that finding
Commissioner Binsky i'll read uh if the drainage authority or the drainage author or authority determines to that the drainage system does not serve a useful purpose to any affected property and is not public benefit and utility
the drainage authority or court shall make a finding and shall by order abandon the drainage system and your motion includes granting the abandonment correct i'll second that okay motion in a second to grant the abandonment and
Michelle just for clarification we would also probably need to recess this hearing to a future date to allow staff to put together this information for a final grant procedure is that right is there a specific
support or it's not in addition to what he read in item B yes so what did you hear as part of the evidence to justify okay i personally heard that the land owners are are taking care of it themselves right okay you okay with that
on your second well so we still have to come back one more time yeah because they got to do all the stuff she's got to put the information together from today's meeting yeah for a final grant so will that be on a public hearing again i would assume just a formality
final order okay okay so we don't need to continue the public hearing no you continue the public hearing but that includes the public comment portion has been closed okay okay um did you hear anything regarding the
costs associated with repairing this dish that causes you any concern no no there Chris said what Chris Chris gave the amount of money and everything that it was not
practical chris basically said it wasn't it it would cost more than the benefit yep okay so can you uh Would you like to amend your motion i'll amend my motion to say that
the the cost outweighs the the benefit there we go i'll second that okay so we Okay in our motion in our second Yep clear as mud yeah all right mud in a ditch that's abandoned and and Michelle can we include the future date meeting or would you like that as a second let's
Yeah let's just do that your next regularly scheduled meeting i should be able to have that order prepared for you guys you okay with that yep um do we need that in the minutes for the date and the time so the next author ditch authority meeting Chris uh do we have
one coming up that you know of would be May 6th uh we certainly can i don't see any reason why we could not have a meeting on that date let's just get it on May 6th then at 9:00 um if we need to we can
move it up in the agenda again potentially Mr chair and Okay um that okay with your motion and that addition and your second yeah okay any other discussion now in this motion in granting the abandonment of CD4 and we'll direct staff to put together the
information from today's meeting and bring that final order to us on May 6th at 9:00 mr chair I want to uh personally say thanks to the people that put all this stuff together you guys did a lot of work and and and you came multiple times and and I appreciate you being
steadfast and and keep going on this because there was a lot of hoops to go through so kudos to you guys thank you appreciate your patience well we appreciate yours thanks for working together because it's something neither one of us has done before right so thank you for working together with it any
other comments from the board questions okay we have a motion and a second on the floor for the abandonment of CD4 with the final order to come on May 6th any other discussion hearing none all those in favor i opposed it's carried thanks for
not letting me read it again all right uh we will allow an open forum session so Mr benboom if you'd like to approach us maybe with your name and address and your comments please my name is Ken Boom and I live at 10546 Mayhew Lake Road Northeast um I went and talked
to Chris probably about six weeks ago i am not my land is not um a butt up to either county ditch number four or number 10 i'm probably two and a half miles away i just like you said it's clear as mud i have not gotten the
definition of how it benefits my land i like the people before have tiled my land i've worked with the county we have put a diverter in some of our land um and he said the water runs into the
the Sucker Creek there whatever and then it goes into Mayhew Lake south of Mayhew Lake where number 10 comes in he assumed that that's where I'm being charged for okay my question is is how do I benefit
that because south of Mayhew Lake for probably a half a mile it's DNR land which cannot be drained so how does not draining that to allow for the lake water to go benefit me for 10 miles down
all the way to Sock Rapids High School like you it's clear as mud and now I see with this petition that once that ditch was cleaned out it can be abandoned i was under the impression that Chris when he told me that this is going to be a
charge every year okay my first question Ken is did you receive a redetermination of benefits for CD10 that outlined your benefit to it i did not okay chris do we have that i am aware of okay chris do we have his redetermination benefits for CD10 for
his parcels or can we get it um we should have that we should be able to look it up by the ID number unless this is what it is out um back in 2020 and 2021 when we were going through those proceedings okay so Chris if it's okay
with you maybe we could ask Mr benoom if he could meet with you to get that redetermination of benefit so that he could see that and review that and if I guess if there's any specific questions on it I mean we're past the appeal process obviously uh but maybe EH reviewers could help answer any
questions that he might have that you're unable to answer is that something we could work on yeah um and it just it still comes back if the last redetermination of benefits that was accepted and and
filed includes that parcel uh of staff nor the county board can necessarily remove that without uh a legal process right and I understand that i understand that i'm It all comes back to those those partial maps and that benefited damages
statement for that those parcels right and and I understand that i don't think at this point we're requesting to remove it just to review his his benefit package that he should have received from his reviewers whether he received it or not I don't want we don't need to argue about that but we can access those
and maybe review those quickly with him if he doesn't have it y and Mr bin when you were in the office did you come by the office a month and a half ago you said yep did I hear those
because you he printed me off okay so you actually you actually he has a map here Chris that you had printed off for him but I'm not seeing his his redetermination of benefits package that he would have received from HD reviewers so maybe if we can access that digitally
for him and share that with him and have that conversation and I guess if there's additional questions I'm sure Brian Murphy would be willing to talk with him about that yep okay very good we can easily do that okay thank you Chris so Ken let's reach out to Chris again there's an actual
packet that you should have received that explains a lot of your questions and he has access to that so you can meet with him about that and if there's additional questions beyond that we'll probably have to uh line you up with the viewers to have them explain how they came up with your benefits okay but then
also like you know if there's going to be additional cost or once whatever the estimate cost of cleaning this ditch out he should have all that information well uh we have the redetermination of benefits to my knowledge we haven't uh uh requested a repair cost yet okay
there's a there's a valid repair petition on CD10 but to my knowledge we haven't looked at um estimates for the repair as an actual bid okay but he'll have your specific information through that redetermination of benefits package
okay so then according like now ditch number four once that's cleaned out then you can petition to to stop the payments is that what Well we're kind of mixing things we're mixing things here a little bit because
it's quite a process to abandon a ditch and CD10 is significantly different than CD4 and CD10 outlets into CD11 we've had land owners ask us to potentially abandon CD11 that'll be pretty tough if CD10 drains into it hey then my one
other question is the two people that were here my land up is right adjacent to theirs actually I'm in between them one is south of me and one is north of me or to the um west of me east of me whatever so if they
were considered ditch 4 maybe that's where I am because like I said Mike Kusky's land is south of mine i'm in between so maybe I am asking about ditch 4 i'm not certain because this is the map that Chris printed for me which
shows ditch 10 i don't Mr chair I don't believe um Ken that you were on the ditch for um benefited acres you weren't you weren't part of that to sign off right and but and that's why I'm wondering because unless they own
land north of me where ditch 4 is but like I said we're all three neighbors mhm and so that's why that's my question is why I don't know if I was considered as part of ditch four or ditch 10 because my land is probably about two
miles from each one i'm in the middle okay i I would Mr i I would tend to bet that you were not part of ditch four because that would have came up in the redetermination of benefits okay so you you must be part of ditch 10 which would might make sense draining towards could
you be part of both of them oh you don't it's a gift that keeps giving could be but you want to be I just because like I said my land is adjacent to theirs and that's why I'm confused as to Sure michelle do we have verification in front of you if you look at this map
Chris provided y this might be helpful to him i'm not seeing his name on here yeah this is the entire wershed of CD4 of CD4 y and and we we received them the names i don't know maybe a year ago at
least at least a year ago of who was in CD4 and you wasn't part of that because in order to abandon CD4 we would have had to have all the land owners sign off so that that picked so sorry thank you ken Ken lands north of that is ditch for
ditch number four or that's both of them no this is just ditch four so but you're saying my name is not on No it's not no no you're actually north of that ken okay and the unfortunate part is if you are a part of two ditches you will know
it 100% you would know that okay and it's not I mean it's not a privilege no so Ken let's get you to contact Chris have a discussion about your redetermination of benefits on CD10 he'll have he has access to that packet that you should have
receive from there yeah you're welcome anyone else open forum on ditch authority before I close the meeting please come to the podium state your name and address question for the record uh Jason Hollandamp 2521 15th Street Northeast i think I'm on ditch 11 or real close to ditch 11 and I'm just
wondering what is what's what's Chris's information for contact so that I can I know it's I know 11 really hasn't been discussed much but 10 is flowing into 11 mhm but we were just wondering is there a determination of benefit for 10 already and and and 11 there should be a redetermination of benefits for all
ditches all of them okay well we just bought the property there's four of us that just bought a big chunk of property right there and we're just wondering if we can get that packet that information from him if I can get his information his contact information uh Chris the directial there at Highway 5062
5051 okay 9685051 and they can set up a time to get together to get that okay perfect thank you yeah you're welcome thanks Jason anyone else any other comments from ditch authority board i'll let them do it ditch meetings adjourned at 10:07 thank you
you done in there thank you Michelle thank you Chris thank you Christine oh she's here i'm sorry do we want to do public health right away might as well might as well as long as you're here okay we'll turn it from ditch authority to public health
oh health board oh wow okay well that was quick well we'll call the order of Ben County Community Health Board uh note that all commissioners are present uh approve or amend the agenda jacqueline i do not have anything to add to the agenda today move for approval mr
chair great second okay we got a motion a second any further discussion if not I'll call the question all in favor say I oppos motion carries thank you consent agenda 1 two and three what would we like to do with that motion to approve second
got a motion and second any further discussion on one through three if not I'll call the question all in favor say I i opposed motion carries thank you Jacqueline yes you i can take it over yep it's you
all right well good morning commissioners and thank you for the time this morning i have a very light agenda but fun agenda today for us um we have some exciting news we have two new team members here with us today that I want to make an introduction to you all um we have one of our team members here
Chelsea um Chelsea is a previous Benton County employee and we were fortunate to take her from another department although we feel terrible about taking from another department we we love that we have staff that are interested in our county and
and staying with our county and so that's exciting um but we always feel bad when it's a transfer but we're very happy to have her um Chelsea is working in our women infants and children program in our WIC clinics uh we have a retirement that will be coming up here very quickly and she is um taking that
position so I'll let Chelsea come on up and do a quick introduction of herself and then we'll introduce our next new teammate hi good morning morning there you go i'm Chelsea Hildy i previously like Jacqueline said I previously worked for the county for three and a half years
and then I transitioned to public health okay um I studied at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and I got my dual major in um physiology and then my bachelor's of science and nutrition so I'm really excited to be able to work with the WIC program and use my
nutrition knowledge and be able to pass that on to our community great great welcome to Health thank you for sticking with the county too we're really happy to have her and our WIC program as you know works with moms um pregnant and who have children um on
those meeting those nutritional needs providing that nutritional education for healthy child development um helping to combat u mortality of mothers during pregnancy and then also helping with things like breastfeeding and and other education and resource connections so again very excited to have Chelsea and
her skill set being added to our team um the next introduction I'd like to do is for Tessa tessa is recently joining us from our funding opportunity from Blue Cross Blue Shield to work on oral and dental health so Tessa um I'll let her do an introduction as well but I know this is an area that we've been looking
to hit the ground running in so very fortunate to have her joining us as well so come on up Tessa good morning my name is Tessa Moresca i recently graduated from the University of Minnesota Rochester where I earned my bachelor's of science and health science
and while in school I had the opportunity to work at Mayo Clinic in both patient education and medical education research so I decided to move back here i'm originally from around the area i decided to move back here to serve and live in rural communities so I'm excited to be here and learn about
more learn more about the department and start working great right thank you welcome yeah so both of our new teammates have been hitting the ground running um Chelsea's been getting a lot of transition time and crossover with Sally our retiree um so thank you to the board for supporting that crossover
that's been very helpful to get somebody trained in before the retirement happens and with Tessa um she's also been onboarding um Wright County is fortunate enough to provide training and education so she'll be heading over to Wright County tomorrow I think yeah tomorrow to receive some education from Megan
Coleman who was re working on the dental issue for the central region previously along with Greg who I think you guys met um a couple of times um throughout past history so yeah again we're very happy to have him chelsea started on the 31st and Tessa started last week on Monday so
Commissioner Gapinsky yes tessa with coming back to the area and stuff like that what what drew your attention to Benton County and to this position was it one of was it the only job out there or was you know I'm curious because we're really trying to make a a push on
like attracting talent and everything like that and keeping talent so just just a quick question on that yeah so I'm originally from Sherburn County i actually live in Becker so I'm not too far from Foley um and this wasn't the only job out there there was multiple um
but I specifically wanted to continue working in like the education kind of side of healthcare um and this one spiked my interest because it was in a very rural community foley I think is more rural than Becker I would say um and so I was really interested in that
just because seeing the difference between Rochester where there's a lot of resources and back here there's less resources because it is a smaller town than Rochester um and so it really just spiked my interest being able to work for a smaller community and more rural community where resources are needed and
Tessa maybe to Commissioner Pinsky's point don't be afraid to remind Wright that you're coming down there to visit yeah exactly and throw a little jab too and one of the things that Tessa will be doing when she goes to Wright County is doing a tour of the nonprofit profit
dental clinic down there with the clinic manager I believe yes yeah um and so part of that initial orientation will be getting to know the community partners the dental providers that we talk to different community resources we have quite a few network groups that we've been meeting with over the past few years so getting her connected to those
regional groups um there's region dental coordinators in every single region so Tessa's representing region 7W so she'll be connected with all the other regional coordinators that are working on dental access across the state um and help bring that information back to us and vice versa so Mr chair if I can and
Jacqueline Tessa once you're you're settled in and ready to go I'd love to hear about that how that goes from the the regional report um obviously because that's something we're talking about potentially in the future so it'd be nice to hear when you're ready absolutely yeah so very happy to have
Tessa here to help support that and to do that regional work exactly commissioner Kapinsky thank you Mr here uh one last thing I I want to say thank you for sticking with the county uh as we heard from Sheriff Hec uh earlier it's very proud to see all these uh
people in the county make such a difference and and you guys don't get the recognition that you you should get a lot of the time and it's not that we don't mean it it it's it takes proclamations like like uh Sheriff Hec brought to us today to really bring out
and recognize people so just because we don't do a proclamation we love what you guys do and we appreciate everything you guys you guys help us move that pendulum forward so thank you i just want to give the board kudos to letting Chelsea start early so that she can gain all that
experience before the retirement share how instrumental that is you know with our especially with something like the wick clinics we have wick clinics that are booked out months ahead of time and lots and lots of appointments throughout the week and so having that additional training time before where we're down to
just one person because we only have two primary staff in Wick so that would have put us down to one position so the board support of allowing us to hire early allow for crossover and transition time was very very important for us to be able to hit the ground running and have Chelsea trained in um so when our
retiree leaves she kind of has at least her feet wet um while she still has some support but at least has some knowledge before um she's on her own so and Mr here too uh it's nice to see we're getting going on our Blue Cross dollars that were you Yep absolutely so that's
great thank you yep okay well thank you so much that's all I had for today wow short thank you yes at this point in time we'll adjourn the Ben County Community Health Board at 10:16 and turn it over to the chair um Monty Hedley
all right Mr chair occasionally we have a a batch of personal policy changes u we don't we like to try and bring you a group of them not like kind of peacemail one by one and uh over the last several months a few issues have come up and
been discussed by our management team and uh they felt these uh should be brought to you today i should just mention Mr chair is that the management team is our department heads and supervisors and we always take personal policy changes through that group to get
lots of discussion review and so on before bringing them to use so that it wants you to know that it's these have had a lot of discussion uh by the management team so first one is on page 100 of this
handout and if I can find that myself this first change Mr chair basically subjects all form of employee reimbursement to the 90day requirement um the previously the policy addressed just mileage reimbursement and our
accounting folks said look you know it's kind of confusing uh because sometimes employee may they maybe they buy some supplies or they it's a meal reimbursement or so on they felt that they all should be subject to the same 90-day requirement so that's what this change does is all forms of employee
reimbursement are subject to the 90-day time frame so that's the first one next one is 102 uh this one uh would prohibit the possession use of cannabis and its
related products on county property and a county vehicle or basically on paid time like if you're at a conference and so on um we I first had needed to check with uh our HR helpline through AMC is is can we actually legally do this can
we actually ban the use of possession of cannabis products on county property the answer was clearly yes so Melanie Alt who provides that service through AMC she sent me the statutory citations which made it clear that employers can in fact ban the use possession of cannabis products on their property so
that's what this does it basically says it's kind of like with alcohol you can't use possess uh cannabis on county property again county vehicle and so on so that's what this one does adds that to our policy regarding alcohol and drug
use the next one is on page 113 so uh this one uh I I'll give you kind of like the the inside story well why is this one here well I believe uh there was um an instance where uh a supervisor
detected a very pronounced odor of of of a cannabis product on an employee and uh felt that we needed language in our personnel policy to give the the supervisor the authority to ask the employee to correct that situation so
that's what this does it basically says it's if if if the there's an odor issue uh the supervisor can address it with employee and ask employee to correct that issue uh I know this is somewhat subjective but it would apply to
virtually any kind of odor it could be like strong cologne um or whatever it could be you know poor hygiene uh but the the policy in the past just addressed cologne and this broadsens it to
really almost any odor i guess I agreeably it's subjective but the the the supervisor then could ask the employee to correct it so that's that's the issue behind this one i see some looks of consternation i'm happy to you want to pause and and discuss this and
have some questions i I just wanted clarification i mean because I mean not clarification but I understand what this reads but at this point in time the grievance policy goes through the union then comes back to
us well so so let's just let's just take your example let's just say for example um the supervisor says to employee A uh I am detecting a really strong order of X i'd like you to correct that and the employee doesn't then I I presumably
then the the supervisor could order the employee to go home and and do something to correct the problem i I would presume if they refuse to do that that could be grounds for some discipline and you know Mr chair we would typically follow a progressive form of discipline in other
words that might be just a verbal and if it continues then you might progress to a written reprimand and so on if the employee were to grieve uh a um any form of discipline uh that could you know ultimately result in um an arbitration
hearing in front of an arbitrator it wouldn't come to the county board i would go to an arbitrator appointed by the Bureau of Mediation Services who would make that termination so uh knock on wood is grievances associated with discipline are very rare
i can count on one hand how many we've had in in 23 years so again knock on wood those are pretty rare so that's the odor one what's the last one i need I need a lot of the last one artificial
intelligence i can use a lot of that can we comment so so this is brought to our attention by I think it primarily human services and I think um of course you've seen a lot of buzz about chat GPT and other forms of artificial intelligence and
I've been to a few labor seminars where this is a hot topic where um people are using it for example to write a memo to write a report to write an email and so on or to do research and I think our departments felt it could be a useful
tool for employees ways to use but with caution uh for example and the policy states this you never want to type into any AI tool private data because that
system soaks up all that data it soaks it all up and and we don't want any compromising of private data the second is and I think there's been a lot of recognition to this is that there's a lot of inaccuracies in what AI spits out yeah so it says to employee look okay be
very cautious you're responsible for the accuracy of whatever you're drawing out of AI so uh it recognize again it can be a useful tool but use it with great caution no private data and it's its use is subject to department head
approval so that is the last one mr chair any questions or thoughts on this group of policy changes mr chair to me this is pretty straightforward i'll move to adopt the policy revisions as presented second motion's been made and seconded
to adopt the policy provisions that been presented before us any other discussion hearing none I'll call the question all in favor i opposed carried all righty thank you let's move on to the next one um the next one is to ask if you're
interested in appointing two board members to uh meet on the matter of the airport authority uh it was communicated to me by Sterns County that that at least Sterns County is willing to uh be a part of such a meeting of two board members from each of the three counties
at this point to excuse the city from that meeting one other uh ter condition I heard though is that Sterns wishes to include someone or folks from the airport authority itself at this meeting so two no more than two from the airport
authority yeah yeah i don't remember how many numbers I I think they just said they just said representation from the airport authority as a resource uh for the the county board members so they are not there to present they are there they're there as a quote resource uh for
you all so that that's the question do you wish to to name two board members to be a part of this meeting that's the chair i'll make a motion for Ed and Jared to be appointed to that committee who again ed and Jared second
this was discussion on our cow yeah we had this on the cow and and I yeah I've been communicating with Commissioner Bertram so he's done a lot of work on this so I think we'll move you know we're going to move forward mr here i understand airport authority is having their meeting with Sherburn today right
so we'll know more about We'll know more once that happens yeah y So there's a motion okay so is there a second okay motion's been made and seconded to appoint Commissioner Kapinsky and Commissioner Pop to the airport authority um discussion board or
whatever it is there you go i don't know what you're going to call it well Mr chair not appointed to the airport authority but to appoint over this meeting i just want to clarify that because we can't Yeah right we're not
putting you guys on the airport authority no any other discussion all in favor i I opposed carried all righty thank you my final item is uh the this year's positions for review as part of your
class and comp maintenance program so it's that time of year we kick off this year's review you have a memo attached to your agenda item from Tessa Melvin our DDA consultant and u Tessa has
selected the second third uh for our three-year rotation you see that's attached to your listing uh Mr chair just a a bit of background so Tesla uh will include positions really for a couple reasons they do a market study
and they they include positions which they feel are are fairly substantially behind market and then secondly they they also just select a group randomly to give you that one-third so really it's those two factors uh is behind market or just simply random to give you
the one-/3 i want to note Mr chair is that of this one-third it accounts for about 59 actual positions you may remember last year that number was well over 100 yeah uh and I think there was some concern about that because it included for example all of our social
workers all of our income maintenance eligibility specialists so it kind of evens out over the long term so it's just 59 actual positions affected this year mr chair Monty just for clarification so I understand the random selection but in the three-year period
everybody will have been reviewed absolutely Mr chair thank you for that question yes so next year the the last third will get reviewed okay i'm just my only question is I wonder how many more are going to get reviewed or asked to be reviewed as to be reviewed because that's been brought up even the last time we've had to add a
lot and I think we've held we've held the ground on that but we're not going to go outside you know what as long as we're doing a third yeah as long as we're going to get there eventually um my question was that is the cost the same as it was for last year the cost of
DDA yes this that hasn't changed it's like contract 21 22,000 somewhere like that yeah okay all right Mr chair and I I should just I think we're getting a lot of value for that for example is and I didn't actually realize this is DDA
did our uh pay equity report for us as part of their maintenance program which is a big deal and I I somehow thought that was going to be extra but that was included in the 22,000 was our pay equity down so that was a that was a nice surprise okay sure do we have a
credit there yet or not at DDA a what a credit a credit oh never mind um inside anyway uh the one thing that uh I was brought up to me uh a couple weeks ago is when we're evaluating these jobs
I sure hope Tessa takes into consideration that if we call this position here exposition it may be called something different in another county you know what I mean and that's I think there's there's a discrepancy on
on it's called something different but that never gets recognized and you know what I mean i understand your point it Yeah we call positions different things i think she does her best to try and create apples and apples comparison but sometimes it isn't easy right where a position is so unique and it's hard to
develop a comparison uh she was telling us we were just chatting with the other day they have she said they have 45 clients in their maintenance program so my point there is that they've got a lot of data for comparisons right uh so um but I I hear what you're saying there's some positions that are just tough to
compare and and I think uh uh traveling down a little bit more of that road I think the employees if they know that Sherburn County has this position that's equal to theirs I think they should probably put that in um and and give that information up front instead of
trying to do an appeal on the back end right would Well I know Mr is that so what Tessa will do is is with Shannon's assistance is we send out a position questionnaire to employees and that's our opportunity to put it all on paper
whatever occurs to them whatever they think has changed about their jobs any relevant information they wish to put they can put right there on this rea question questionnaire and it goes back to Tessa for consideration so and I think most of our appeals or most of our concerns came after Tessa's report they
didn't come during well you know Mr mr chair that's part of my question so in regards to that information that they can fill out historically when we've had an appeal has that information been filled out or are they appealing something that they never put any information into do you you understand
the question i see yeah I I I'm not really sure that's a darn good question i'm not really sure i know oftentimes the basis for appeals is often uh it isn't necessarily "Oh Tessa you didn't understand my job." It was "Oh Tessa I
think your market data is wrong." It's usually a market argument okay that I'm I'm not being graded correctly according to the quote market that's the typical it's usually less so again you didn't I guess part of my point is I want to encourage the employees to fill that
information out yes of course to his point we're not coming at it from the back end right yeah yeah you know I I remember last year's appeal i know some some positions did change upon appeal some did some didn't yeah mhm it just depends um so and are Mr chair yes are
they the only game in town dda i have not heard of other consulting firms which are doing what DDA is doing they do have a pretty unique product out there on the market and it's being used by more and more organizations in
regards to maintenance excuse me in regards to maintenance in regards to maintenance that's true i mean there are the companies that do class comp studies um but I'm not aware of any that are doing what they do okay right and from what you see they got market share well 45 clients that's
Yeah i mean that's a lot of people they got libraries they got cities they got you know so it's one way it's like you know are you going to be overworked and two is well you're getting a good comparison but back to the 45 clients is that 45
counties cuz it's a mixture of cities and counties it's cities and counties right y I want like one last point is is just like last year so Tessa will look at this oneird and evaluate whether any should be recommended for career ladders
or seniors so again that was done last year and I believe five or six seniors came out of last year's review so that may be applicable again this year and just as a bit of reminder you know well why do some positions get recommended for seniors there's various factors one
might be are you experiencing substantial turnover in that position are you having difficulty with retention another factor might be is there a logical progression of this position the best example I can think of for example is engineering technician you start out
maybe you go 1 2 3 4 5 and you progress as you get additional certifications through mendot there's a logical uh tangible progression of that position so that that's another basis for it it simply isn't just years of service no so
I just want to mention that that may be something that comes out of this year's review is is a few additional seniors okay mundy yes uh I guess the only question is that it gets done on a timely manner mhm you know Tesla's not
she has not given us how much time this would take she includes in her her memo a time frame a timeline yes yes uh let's see here i just don't want it to drag out June so it looks like um
June completion more or less June right and Tessa understands the importance of getting this done for budget purposes correct so you know it's going to be done June Julyish so we can plug it into the 2026 budget yeah and that was my point yep it's done sooner than later
yep okay that's it takes no action I take it so we're just looking for a motion to approve this listing positions for review in 25 so moved i'll second motion been made and second to um the positions for review on the class class
and compensation study for two years all in favor i I post carried can I just mention one last thing Mr chair so last night at the city here with us last night at the city of Foley Planning Commission the planning commission will recommend approval of our conditional
use permit for the drive-thru and the site plan for the building so that was approved last night at the city of Foley Planning Commission so thank you there was one condition attached that they needed to verify the drainage calculations by the engineers uh that was one condition that that Evan's going
to work on but more or less again they're going to recommend the city council approve okay great thank you and m Mr chair while we're on that if I could Monty or Sarah uh that comes up at your next council meeting May 6 thank
you okay sandy Shelberg good morning good morning good morning well today I only have one thing and it's a positive happy note so we did um interview and recruit hire a new deputy director for human services um you most
of you have probably met him before but I'll have Will Chu come up here and just give a couple of minutes i told him it was a 10-minute speech i don't think he prepared that but actually I told him just a quick note but I just wanted to formally introduce him as our new deputy director thank you we'll cut him off at
15 i didn't prepare that long don't know if you could do 10 minutes thank you Sandy for the warm introduction um I just want to say that I'm eager to embark on this new endeavor i've been with Benton County for a little over nine years last four and a half years as the child protection supervisor um in my role I
have had great successes in employee retention as well as cultural development and I plan to do the same and expand upon that in this new role okay great great well welcome to Welcome that was far short at 10 minutes it was a busy busy minute thank you thank you
Will christine auditor treasure okay I just have a couple quick updates for you um first with the tax system uh between my office the assessor IT and
GIS we attend about three to six meetings per week with Tyler it's gotten to be very time consuming we're getting there though and I just wanted to make you aware that April 29th 30th and May 1st the Tyler training team will be on
site here doing handson training and it's going to it's there we're going to have to all be there at some point for this training so there may be some time periods during the day where we're not able to collect tax payments so we'll
have a sign up but just so that you're aware if you hear any rumblings in the community Mr chair Christine does it I'm sorry if you said it but does it cross over the May 15th date is No nope it's the April 29th
through May 1st okay thank you um and then another uh update is our tax statements we had over 200 tax statements returned to our office due to rules being enforced by the fully post
office um if an address has a PO box they are no longer just sticking it in the PO box they are returning it to us and if we don't have their PO box we can't get it to them we did reach out to the city of Foley and they have provided
us with a list from water bills just because there's no way to get their address so we've forwarded some but we're doing what we can my other concern is come May 15th if
anybody doesn't use the green envelopes and they just write 531 Dewey Street on it it's going to be returned and it's going to keep getting returned until they put the PO box on so just to be aware of that because I am aware of a
situation where it got returned to the escrow company three times and the escrow company finally just said "Well I guess your taxes don't get paid." Oh oh boy so that's an issue um I don't know if you have any
feedback on that or Yeah so Christine when you're asking for the change from the city then you're updating up updating your records we're updating it with their PO boxes and how many did you say we had returned 200 200 wow and how many of those did the city's information
if I roughly um I don't know Sarah how many do you have i know we had we had the same issue and it took us weeks to get it sorted out we we called or tracked them down in person is what we ended up doing but then we're going to have issues people are going to have a
footing to stand on that their payment was late and then they're going to get charged because if you have the wrong address they do postmark it right so if it come if it comes to us she may not get it well she won't get it but when they get when they return it if
you get a return letter it's stamped no address and it's postmarked to date so we're gonna have to allow that even though the payment's not in the county you're gonna have to allow that to be right that would be as long as they have that letter that's as long as they have that no they throw that
away and then it's they throw it away and bring their check too bad you know have you had a conversation with postmaster by chance and this is the way we do it i suppose the the federal agency is coming down on him so that's
why he's been so strict with it okay so you guys needed a little more work in that office didn't you well it's going to be hitting us too yeah I know you'll hear about it the phone calls will be coming and then a
little update on the DMV as we all know the Real ID deadline is May 6th um we've seen a significant increase on Mondays and Fridays especially we've hit our record number of driver's license in one
day which is 46 um each driver's license can take anywhere between five and 10 minutes if the person comes completely prepared now 75% of them probably aren't prepared and they need to go to the recorder to
get a birth certificate or a marriage certificate so it the time is you know it's taking a longer time to get the driver's license processed um in 2024 we saw a 32% increase in the
DMV so that was $280,000 that came to the county it's continuing to grow and we're seeing a significant number of transactions from residents of other counties so it's kind of nice seeing those new faces coming in
and bringing us business uh my last item is I'm just looking for some guidance on our special event permits um currently we are requiring a $50 permit for outside events for
applicants that already hold a liquor license within the county right now there's no law statute or ordinance within Benton County stating a special event permit is required uh the county attorney's office has advised our office to create an
ordinance but right now what we're questioning is if there's currently no ordinance saying that we need to how can we enforce this to businesses that are coming to get them
and we current at the time we only had Raleighs was our only special event permit holder because of all of their outside events since they have constructed a permanent fence and that has been approved through the local
alcohol inspector as a permanent structure so they're able to take their liquor license outside of the building so that's no longer an issue the issue that we just had come up recently is an
event that is held within Benton County um it's held multiple weekends and there's a food truck out of St cloud that is wanting to sell liquor there we don't we don't know what to do
mr chair since my friend Roxanne is here could you do you could you just address do we have an ordinance for special events that you're aware of not in through your department not through my department i No we've got the large exhibition right ordinance but special
event it's always tied to the liquor license right i think yeah and would it be typical that another department would establish an ordinance like that wouldn't most of that no most of that would go through your office wouldn't it no not all ordinances go through my office okay nope if it's tied to the
liquor license then that would be through it's not really a land use issue necessar it's not really a land use issue per se no it's it's more an activity safety health and safety that kind of health and welfare issue right well the special event license is tied to the
liquor license the large exhibition ordinance application process is through the auditor treasures office but to her point if we don't have an ordinance for special events why are we trying to collect trying to collect the fee that's an excellent question it sounds like
that's an issue Michelle has brought up right is there not necessarily be a basis for collecting the fee right well I think or or necessarily regulating you're regulating the conduct of the activity yeah of course as right the large exhibition does all those things it talks about you know bathrooms and
water and security all those factors uh whereas in this instance I guess apparently we don't have any we don't say anything about I guess the reason it got brought up is because I reached out to the attorney's office trying to find out that gray area with the food truck
and the liquor license and then she said "Why have I never heard of this event before and why hasn't there been a special event permit for this event?" But the owner doesn't hold a liquor license so under our
current assumptions of a special event it doesn't qualify to need one so Christine um years ago when they had the halfway jam so they had food
and the liquor was by an liquor license holder from another county brought them in so that's and that's what this food truck is so that would be up to the food truck to make sure that they have a liquor so the
issue the food truck is pushed aside that's that's figured out it's held under their catering license that's not an issue anymore the issue is this why hasn't a special event permit come up for this event is it Can we ask the
event i don't know i guess Oh there is no event or Well there is an event can we ask the name of the event or not and we we don't have to i mean in my
opinion I I I it would be nice to have the $50 isn't going to kill anybody right to to pay it but it allows the county the police everybody to have know that something's going off right right that's what I like about it that's where I'm looking for the guidance in this one
because it it's multiple weekends for a two-month period it's every weekend for two months wow and um it may not necessarily qualify under the large exhibition which is 400 or
more people at one time so that there's a gray area here even even if we would get an ordinance they'd be grandfathered in because of them already doing it but at this point in
time we should have a small event ordinance where this this food this catering or food truck can sell liquor without a license no they they got a license they got they got a catering license and then it it falls under their catering license the only stipulation is
that it can't be sold out of the food truck they need to have a tent beside the food truck and sell it from there well that makes sense to me if we're gonna if we're going to require a fee without an ordinance it makes no sense no you can't you you have to have an ordinance if we're going to require a
fee so then I guess the simple answer is maybe the auditor treasur's office has to have a conversation with the attorney's office and establish an ordinance if that's the case if that's what we're going to do we can't but to collect a fee for and these fees aren't to punish people
they're they're just to let the county know something's going on because and they may have to address that in the ordinance if it's multiple weeks or if it doesn't qualify for the large gathering maybe there has to be a separate definition okay but is that something we want to pursue i think this
was just all past practice you know and it just kept getting handed down and now someone in my office has questioned why why are we doing this if there's nothing to back it up yeah my my question is is to research some of the cities because I
think they have ordinances in place with that stuff but if this is out in the county Mhm but we could we could take a look at their ordinance and then kind of make it our ordinance add our stuff
to it i I'm not positive but I believe city of soccer has an ordinance like that i think to Christine's point though is she's looking for direction if this is something we want to pursue as an ordinance and if it is then she's going to have to meet with the attorney's office or something if we're going to collect a fee we better get the
ordinance right we can't legally collect a fee but is that what we want to do we also better have an ordinance to protect ourselves from lawsuits and stuff like that boy right Monty well you know I know in the past
there had been a little bit of heartburn over the the large exhibition or especially things like how many security you had to have and some things of that nature and I guess I would suggest not necessarily mirroring what's in that but thinking about what's more appropriate for gatherings of this size and so on
because I know that's been an issue with that ordinance in the past so and that ordinance or permit is $500 yeah yeah is that per weekend per event
per event per event but that's where there's area with this one because it does go every single weekend wow what's your gut what's your gut telling you i think
that I don't know because I think it would such a unique event with it being multiple weekends that you couldn't classify it under a large exhibition or the special event as it lays now it's
almost like it needs its own i think it is important that for something like this that the the county sheriff is aware of it you know I I think that's an important thing mhm so if there is
issues they know about it i think we need to I think you we need Yeah we need to do something because I have I have real concerns if it's a event that's going to happen every week and alcohol is going to be served the sheriff the you know the highway everything else
needs to be in place i don't want to overgo this deal hopefully that come out okay but because that's what happens with everything right now for regular but but it's it's more the the fact of getting the county like you said the
sheriff's department to know in case there is an incident out there an an accident out in front or something we know that that's going on mr chair timing wise are we in front of this enough to get this in place before this year's event yes if it doesn't well yes
no matter what cuz the large exhibition is 60 days prior to the event so if we go that route there there's plenty of time okay and I don't think our goal is to hinder this that's been going on
and everything like that it's more of a cuz things happen and if we and if and if the sheriff's department's able to patrol some people over there in case something does happen it it it benefits that group too by having support nearby
right i think it's just trying to figure out because it is such an extended period of time how to write it so that you're not nickel and dying them and we're not having to write a permit for every single weekend like we used to do
with Raleighs and theirs was for every weekend and Raleigh's was also typically just Saturday night you know so it wasn't like a Friday Saturday Sunday I see this being like a a permit let's just say
it's for two months $500 for the two months but almost like a fire permit where you call in the you know the Friday be that it is hey just so you know we're having that event this week but then the next week it might be rained out you call and just say hey by the way we're not having anything
because of the the forecast and everything like that they just got to call in on a weekly basis mr mr chair I believe under one ordinance that I'm kind of familiar with if I remember correctly is that they went up to like 10 times a year mhm okay so they they
stipulated how many days per year on that type of event okay well and I know that with the township with the raceway um the raceway had to come in and and
list all their events for the year and then as the joint powers between the city and and and the township um we approved that event list listing so that's how the large exhibition is currently they need to go to the
township so I kind of feel like this one they should have township too because it is outside of city limits mhm should start there yep okay well I think we we she kind of knows what we want or
what we think we want clear as mud okay mr chair if I could thank you for the update Christine just a clarification question um you said a 32% increase in 2024 at the DMV 280,000 is that what came in or the 280
is the increase does that make sense the 280 is what came in what came in okay yes thank you right Mr chair yes and Christine I don't know if you're going to know but I think that it will help you guys in your office and probably
keep complaints to a minimum on the 29th through the 1st if you have time frames and you can post that in the window of the DMV saying "Sorry due to training we will be closed during this time this time and this time so that the public's
aware when they come in." They they they see that and not that they're standing there looking for somebody and then running to someone else's i think what we will do is if someone doesn't want a receipt I'll have the DMV take the payments you know or if we can mail them a receipt they just won't be able to get
one right then and there because all of us will be in here training so we'll offer that too is there a way of putting it on the website putting it on the website yep just saying that there's going to be
disruptions within the DMV from the 28th to the 1st well it wouldn't be the DMV it's just tax payment yeah we're not interrupting the DMV before May 6th forbid that oh my god it's weird these uh real IDs just come
out of nowhere didn't they yeah like right honestly four years the media is just really making it they're making a big deal out of it like if you don't have this you can't drive no more
and that is completely not the case okay all right so thank you for your time thank you thank you [Music] Roxan morning morning Mr chair hi this morning still morning it is still
uh two applicants are seeking score grant funding approval for three projects today i I'll go through them one by one um I just wanted to mention that this is not the usual process for this um but we did have two of the applicants that need early approval um
typically these applications get presented to our SWAC committee and then they will be brought to the board for approval uh with the permission of the SWAX chair uh we're just directly presenting them to you today just I didn't mean to cut you off go ahead i'm just going to give you guys explanation
we we at the score committee were actually wondering why we only had few applicants versus every spring we 10 to 15 you know and then all of a sudden out of the blue O and city of Sock Rapids came in so we don't know what happened
there i'm sorry go ahead no problem um so yeah with that mentioned we'll try to avoid this in the future uh quick note if you're unfamiliar the score grants are a 75% 25% uh cost share the
score will reimburse the 75% with the 25% being cash or inkind from the applicant the first one is um the approval score grant request by the city of Sock Rapids for the amount of
$15,46725 um with that the total propos proposed project cost will be 20,635 uh that would means the 25% cash will be $5,158.75 um last year just for a little note uh they were requested and approved
for $9,000 the final cost of the project was 20,635 which relates to the increase that happens this year uh the city did pay that a difference last year it was $11,635
that was a 56% increase they have been um requesting this since about 2006 so it happens pretty fairly every year um and uh total distribution uh if you're
wondering the score has uh distributed $117,369 to this project um these score funds available as of well today last week were $277,71769 in the fund and we get another payment coming up don't we yes
i'm unaware of the date but thought it was in June or something like that i think it's actually April so day now getting roughly $60,000 m Mr chair yes uh Luca Roxan did you reach out to the committee did you hear any feedback about this yes we did
uh I emailed uh everyone that's on the committee we did have one person reach back uh a member that was uh voted approval for this i I just wanted to make sure that they got notification that we were going to do this that's all and when we when we go through these um
we look and see what they what they actually spent the year before cuz if somebody comes up and say "Oh I want 30,000 but they only did 15 the year before." We usually cap it at that 15 and gole yep so this is this is a legit increase
uh next I can move on to the city of Foley there is two applications so I'm just they came in at the same time so I'm presenting at the same time as one um so the city of Foley is requesting for their annual cleanup
event $4,440 um so the total cost of that project be 5,920 the 25% of that would be uh 1480 uh last year another quick note they
were requested approved for $3,900 the final cost was $5,000 the funds reimbured were $3,750 u they've been doing they've been applying for this grant since about 2018
um and a total distributed amount of $24,345 um and if you uh want me to do the math we have it written down here that with the amount starting at $277,71769 if you approve the Sock Rapids we would now be at $262,25044 and then for their second
application is for the compost site they are requesting $7,500 uh dollar so that means the project cost would be 10 grand they 25% of that is 2500 last year it was the requested approve the same amount
$7500 and the they were reimbured $2,341.74 that was of their 75 eligible expenses the city ended up finding a local business to grind or remove the brush for free don't know if that's going to be continued this year hope um they've been applying for this one since
2005 with a total distributed of $121,24.82 sorry this is a lot of numbers and with the sock rapids the fully first one we and this one included we would be at $257,8104
mr chair Luke thank you for all those numbers i know can we go back to that number which one do you want the the score committee actually asked for all of this stuff so thank you no problem all of this stuff in front of us with with that I'll move to approve all
three applications i'll second motion been made and second it any discussion um the only discussion I would have that in future I would prefer that they go through the solid waste committee not come back to us that's why we have the solid waste committee and if the you know if they can't meet the time
deadlines or they don't know about them then I guess we're going to have to say too bad yeah i and I would have to agree too i just I'll just say that yeah it is it they are very good uh uh projects for the community projects that you know
that the money is there for yep and and we're done we'll be down to 250 with another 60 coming in so we'll be over 300 again but that's why we appoint this committee is absolutely look at these and have equal representation whatever so correct they should have it on their
calendar in the spring of when to approach us and it's always a second things happen though i will say that I I miss a lot of deadlines myself so I I get it y um with that I'll call the question all in favor i I opposed carried thanks
thank you thank you thank you sarah any updates from you okay she was just glad we approved it mark he was the one who uh make note to you Sarah tell Mark
early thank you Sarah thanks Sarah commissioner meeting updates who wants to go first i can go first go ahead man um we had our call with GLT on 48 um I had a mic meeting on 49 i gave you each
some copies of some numbers from there um we had the government open house on 49 um yeah um I attended the planning commission meeting on 410 and last night I had a meeting um with some resident
residents and representatives from um the Senate and the House uh at the government center in reference to uh Donovan Lake issue okay I can go uh April 3rd one water one
plan uh Mississippi met down in Sherburn County got our JPE board rolling uh Commissioner Dietrich from right will be chairing and I'll be vice chairing april 7th uh MRC virt virtual meeting was basically an update uh from
one of the senators nothing really new um of course our cow at GLT where we went over the finishes um of course our sock Rapids cow for the building meeting which I thought actually I'm going to be honest went better than I thought it was going to i was actually a little surprised i thought there'd be more
people there but that's was just my opinion uh and I have received and spent numerous hours on the phone with people who wanted to discuss the building project so I think overall I think a lot of it was questions more so than anything else
and trying to understand and really try to encourage them to attend our open house tomorrow and our tours so they seem willing to do that so that's all I had okay I can go next so I had my first uh AMC finance meeting that was uh
interesting they're we're trying to come up with a new way of um um doing county um our fees yeah and and stuff so one of the things I was brought up is about you
know with all the things coming back cuz it's I think we're in a world of hurt when it comes to uh the the cost shares and the shifts and all that stuff coming they were talking about holding AMC wages you know stagnant for the next year or two and I'm like I I was very
boisterous i said "So we're going to let these people leave." So and and and it came out that they need to give their raises because we need to keep these people more now than ever to keep fighting for us i mean we just addressed that last year up in
um I don't know where it was up whenever they had the workshop yep and it was all in favor of otherwise we're going to lose people so how can we change in that short period of time yep so there was that um uh we did meet we had the APO
meeting uh last Thursday uh there was really nothing that that came out of that i know we'll be coming back to the board on the cost share for the um belt line for the um uh for the environmentals and stuff like
that that's a no-brainer in my opinion uh that we support that it it makes sense but when it comes to So basically in a nutshell uh Baton County would be on hook for our portion of the beltline
environmentals for everybody but whoever's area it lands in they have 50% to start with and then they pay their portion of the APO for the other 50% okay so we're not we're going to be paying our portion all the way around
but it's nothing on the construction it's nothing on that and I' I've voiced our opinion or my opinion many times on on all of that um on on we never got that assistance but we're team players everything so in in the scheme of things
we're doing our part by helping it it's a fix that really moves the area forward um especially after this last meeting because now Weight Park is getting in involved and they're they're actually saying we want to get we we want to
build our corridor and actually get it down in writing so we stop development in these areas which is huge it um we had a corridor person come there that day and didn't really give any answers so it was a new government program two years ago that they started and it's a
corridor committee and all we got really was is oh that's great conversation but they hired eight or 10 people and Frank from Way Park was so so can I call you guys and get some help on this corridor well yeah that's that's a
good talking point and we're like talking point no we it's a legit job yeah and they they're like "No we can talk about that." And then Frank's like "Do you give us a notebook and we just doodle or what what I mean it was it was pretty direct like that." And then I
brought up I said cuz we had just come back from the the capital and I brought up the fact that listen we we just got back from the capital we're being told all these cost shifts are coming back to us and here we got a department that's a corridor department that really has no
meaning it's government at its best doing another department maybe Doge needs to get in there yeah so there was that uh we did go down and testify for the uh County One project thank you for doing that by the way yes it went very
well commissioner Hein did extremely well on on explaining a few things and and the it was after the fact that actually I thought went very well when we got to go meet all the legislators i gotta really send out a kudos to
um O'Drriscoll Representative O'Driscoll he had everything teed up like there's no tomorrow i mean between walking with the chair leaders over um making sure they had our pamphlet ahead of time introducing us ahead of before our
hearing and then going from number 17 all the way up to number one yeah i mean he teed everything up to the end and then he got scolded by so did a great job and he he did follow up i don't I don't know if he called you
but he followed up with me on Saturday and thanked us for coming down and said it makes a big difference and and he said that he's going to be calling on us again here in the next few weeks to to come back down and it's going to be the five minute hey shake
hands get in front of them it's not going to be testifying or anything like that but going down there so it's I think between there and Oh and and on the APO I did talk to the board uh the APO board we got the authority matter of fact I got Church's information we're
going to um have Church kind of try and and and push our raise grant or our build grant through uh and and get those conversations going and I know that Chris and Steve and I have been talking
on um uh Grady's assistant out in DC about potentially like an hourly deal because I I think right now is a time if we can if we can get these people pounding I think we can get money locally and I think we can get money down at the feds and I think we can get
this job done which is huge just just to add on that this is a team okay it's just not me it's all of us no it's you did a great job too i got to thank Chris for putting everything together for us talking points and everything but but
you're right a Driscoll had everything set up everything in place it and Grady and Grady grady grady i I absolutely Grady is very well known down there it's amazing everywhere he walks hey Grady how you doing Grady but but even O'Driscoll coming out of those meetings
or even before that talking to all these people what he was doing behind the scenes was I actually told Grady I said "I'd love to recommend you but we want to keep you as our little secret." Exactly you know and going back to that that belt line with the APO you know at
least they're starting to understand that because you know St joe's given away there right away they they have no idea where to put their belt line anymore right and this has been in in for what 20ome years yeah you know Wayey
Park Sartell you know so this has been ongoing with this bill with the APO i just it's just crazy i'm sorry i mean I just want to throw that i had all the other cows and stuff like that and that that's about it for me yeah and I same thing and that was fun actually I'm
truly I truly enjoy going down there now to the cap you know because everybody sees you they know you already what I would have to agree is that everybody knows about our project mhm everybody does whoever we talk to and the senators representatives and they're
all on board our local reps are all on board on Yeah all of them you know and then to find out that you know like the St cloud area doesn't have a lot of huge big projects for bonding that was really good that was really good to hear from
Senator Putman too i thought the when you listened to it I thought that I kept listening after that and I thought the one from Gaylord was your only downfall is when they ask about the cost of the project and they go $1 million and she says "Lord
Jesus this is the total cost this is all you're asking for." And you know you guys just got done asking for a pile of money and I thought "Wow that wasn't real good." Well you know Commissioner Yopinsky really clarified you know the exact amount yeah it was like I wanted to throw a
little joke in there but I didn't know i don't know if they do that but I'm like we're we're not we're greedy we'll take we'll take anything she the the chair was really good at she when Steve and I met with her prior to that she was very good at that yeah yeah very nice well
and the cool thing was is after that meeting she was testifying to a Driscoll oh so there's there are some there Yeah so that call her out for another night yeah well cuz he he called her out uh
earlier on something that must be an interesting concept to address both chairs huh it's kind of like we do up here we banter and stuff like that and it's all in good fun yeah but but they're they're dead serious you do go through the chair and Oh yeah oh yeah and they should be they won't even recognize but they got a chair and
co-chair so it's like madam co-chair and who's today huh don't they alternate oh I I I would assume they do i mean they being they've got a co-chair they do alternate alternate between us but she specifically wanted her to address the other one right both of them no no just
her just her she was running the meeting okay so she was just mad representative Lee was just just there just there i know so I would assume he does other committees sure but he walked over with Representative Lee and briefed him on everything and Okay yeah yeah so it's I
I I can't say enough thanks to uh uh O'Driscoll for Well been there a while he's got some you know he's got some He knows what he's doing right he Well he need to chair he's chairs of Ways and Means a Yeah so I mean that's the most powerful committee there is so
he's Yeah good partner yep very good so I had GLT I had the uh testify at the capital which was fun uh we had the county road 29 extension meeting too that was very good you
know they keep bringing up if we have money to bring the water across the sewer across the creek and I'm going "No it's going to happen." But we didn't throw out numbers because we know where that is yeah so uh what else i had one
more uh don't remember guess I'd have to look at my phone okay good or not yeah I'm good so I had all the same ones uh last night we had the extension committee to try and find farm family of the year we got to You
find some no we Well we found some to contact but um keep getting turned down so we'll see everybody's a little little bit gunshy I think um and that was about all i thought our meeting in Sock Rabbits went way better than I
anticipated you know i'm sure Rice will be the same oh yeah i'm sure too i got actually from not happy that it's on Thursday night holy Thursday oh we can set another one i mean it's
just our time really yeah it's a little late now to But I mean yeah somebody like you guys are having this meeting on Holy Thursday night don't you want people to go to church oh my yeah so I guess I never really realized it was only Thursday no I didn't either yeah Mr
chair I I do want to call out all of our legislators in the area um Senator How um Senator Putman uh Representative uh Wolgamont uh Perryman uh Damouth O'Driscoll Schultz
everybody because this is like like Commissioner Hein said earlier it's a team just because they are just not in our area right doesn't mean they're not helping push things across the finish line so I kudos to all of our legislators in our area they all know
it's a major project that needs to be done and that's probably going to hinge on how much they're willing to bond basically going to hinge so I'm I'm glad you brought that up so at one time at one point I believe they said it was 1
1.5 billion oh they're down to 750 million yep and each representative gets like one and a half million the House is not willing to bond near as much as the Senate's willing to bring right now so
it'll be interesting but we're at the table we got the we we're there our we're one of the 17 or whatever bonds on that so bills mr chair I just a couple questions i got some calls and I guess
I'm looking for some guidance from my fellow board members as to how how do um it was addressed at the annual township meeting that I don't the light
that's on Wakata end and Mayhew Lake Road do you know where I'm You all know where I'm talking there's a light right there um I had several people complaining that that light needs to be brighter because there's been like some rear ending and stuff because at night
you can't see there because the lights only on one side of the street so I don't know do I address that with Chris to see if maybe the light bulb needs to be changed or is that in city limits there um is eight isn't it county 8 uh is it
right at the Is it right in front of the It's It's It's It's on Mayhew Lake Road and number one it So if you go down Wapakata Road yep place and and you get you you go to cross May who lake it's on
It's up right there oh around that curve no it's crossing over May Lake just before you get to the apartment yeah no no you can go straight across to apartments and stuff like that it's a four-way okay
uh I I don't That would be Is it in the city that's a city light I would have to believe but a county road and those You're talking You're talking that four-way well that one Oh I thought you were talking further up i'm totally lost i
don't know so you know where where Wapakotta uh uh golf course is if you're coming from like Raleigh's the bar and you're and you're coming down you're going to take a left instead of going to the golf course wow and you're going to go all the way down to number one which
traffic goes this way on number one it's not a four-way though it's not a four-way stop but it Yeah okay i was cuz you said a four-way going that goes traffic can go all four ways but it is is only a two-way stop coming onto one i
saw Rapids that city is that be a city issue I think so yeah I think that the lights a city the roads are county because a county doesn't have lights I don't think on any roads do they let me let me ask Mark but I I I'm just I mean
yeah and then the the the other one that um uh someone contacted me on is Town Hall Road and 15 um they're wondering if they can get a flashing stop sign there
because that 15 is traffic non-stop and it's over by um I don't know how Philips 8 by Chad Flipson's it's 15 and Town Hall Road town Hall so it's just down from there
there's a house right on a half mile when you stop coming that is a hard one hard one it's a hard intersection to see that would be Well you're looking like going straight and you think you got the right order yeah and you don't and you don't and uh And that was that that
Bruce brought that up to me from the township well he said because he's gotten quite a few calls on it and he's driven down it and it's sounds like that's you said kind of road Kashaw 15 and town hall road yes okay gotcha no
the welding guy yeah the welding guy and that dairy down there uses that a lot probably you know well and Chad Flipsson is right there chad Flipson lives right there too you're right so um and then the other question that I
had is um she's full of concerns today excuse me um uh Kathy Ducing or Katie Ducing got a hold of me and on the relationships and connection
subcommittee we can't have three people in there to one of you two if you're not going to be able to make that meeting you you need to let me know that well I mean just or do we need I if you two want to handle it today I
would I here's the deal i I love the committee but but I I'll tell you it it's it's good to get other people in there too well and I have no problem i just know that three of us cannot sit on there unless it's listed on a couch nope and and that's where the the I got the
the information on the classifications and stuff I brought up earlier was that meeting so I if you guys want to take I I'm I'm fine with uh stepping back and I got definitely other things I can I can do well so do I so yeah but you're new
we need you to get on all this stuff well there's there's actually one today at 12:30 i'm sorry one today at 12:30 i'll check at 12:30 so Jared you're taking the one today i can yeah okay unless Unless you
want to go i mean well I just I have another commitment cuz I know that you're not and and honestly we don't have to have two commissioners there and stuff like that but no I I've got no problem going anything else and then afterwards you
I'll just let you know if I can't make it yep oh I thought we were done sorry you got I thought maybe she had something else you're gonna go keep it up i thought I heard I'm glad I'm way over here i'm not going
to say anything call for the cows would you yep set committee halls we don't have any thank you Mr chair yep that's so fast as Commissioner Gapinsky um Mallerie Voit who is the chair of the culture uh team has requested the committee of the whole of the board to
discuss career ladders um again she is chair of the culture team and they wish to discuss career letters um yeah but I think they they just they they want to just bring up that they believe that's a great avenue and stuff
like that so she says we would like about 20 to 30 minutes to go over our information okay let me ask you this information for what department all of them all of them okay yep it's all departments uh
Can we also Mr chair in conversations with uh one of our board members suggested having a committee the whole of departments discuss state and federal budget conditions and how it might impact our county and begin to talk about strategies and so on yeah so okay
i had the same idea yeah so put them together so you could you could have these of course together I think um Mhm when are you thinking and then and and Monty I do think Mallalerie was wanted to talk about trafficking at one point
which human trafficking which is huge problem it's a huge and I'll tell you she brought it up in the in our um public health is dealing with in our uh um culture team and it's shocking what some of I'm like we need to bring this to the board because there's a lot of
this going on in our area even in the city even in the school district yeah in the school district so I think it's very important that we we allow her to come in and do 20 minutes on just that i think it's going to grab your attention real quick what does uh next Monday the
21st look like for everybody [Music] um okay so uh I I am I also sort of pondering cities that's Mr chair is um how much information we have to share
with you that soon about what's going on at the state uh possible federal issues you know of course there's so many ideas at play at the legislature right now and who knows which ones are going to land i guess if it's a if it's a little bit
farther off you're going to be on if it's a little bit farther off um we might have better information to talk about right won't you leave the 29th and that's what I would so I'm thinking maybe you know even into the first week or so of May um the 5th
we have an 8:30 cow already on the You've got a human services public health cow on the 5th um we even have that so maybe the maybe the 12th 12th would work for me how about the 12th i just think we'll have more quality information if we've got a bit
more time the 12th that's a Monday that can work that works yep uh 9 8:39 what's What's your preference 8:30 8:30 okay do does do we know for sure that uh
the community health and uh excuse me services have something for us on the 5th no I'm sorry i don't have yet hearing anything it's been pretty pretty quiet between MDH and DHS right now at the state i mean let's Are we okay
asking them and if they don't we can we can roll right into this right into that one because so if if if we're tenatively scheduled for the 12th at 8:30 but if human services public health do not have sub substantive content for the 5th we'll just change it to the 5th then okay yep that's When was that going to
start on the 5th same oh 8:32 okay 8:30 yeah okay we'll let you know as soon as we can you know I don't want to necessarily push those folks into not having a committee if they have lots of issues they want to talk about you know I I know sometimes we cancel and so
that's all we have Mr chair in terms of they have something great if they don't they'd be surprised well and they don't have to if all of a sudden it's you know 45 minutes of updates we can still do we can do them both yeah yeah we can we can do that if I may add just one last thing uh it's it's not a committee the whole
but in conversations with the chair uh inviting Sandy and Jacqueline to be on your May 6th agenda to discuss the federal state budget impacts sit on what you know they know some of them have come down most of the counties through
Micah we heard are are doing that now they're starting um they're bringing in their their human service and public health director because that's where your most of your cuts are going to be exactly so I've asked Sandy to do the best she can to try and determine the Benton County specific impact of these
changes we've seen lots of statewide numbers but but we need of course local impact numbers so she and I have spoken about that move for approval of the cows second all in favor i was carried same
same