Good morning everybody. It's 8:30. We'll call this morning's meeting of the Klay County Board of Commissioners to order for Tuesday, May 13th. Our first item is the Before I do that, I just want to mention that uh this morning,
Commissioner Mojo uh is in St. Paul on our behalf working on some important legislation. we're down to the final days of that and and she got a call and needed to be down there and she let me know late yesterday that she was going to be there and we're glad that she's
there working on behalf of Klay County. So, so with that we'll uh look for a approval of the agenda. So move second. Motion by Commissioner Bear, second by Commissioner Ebinger. Any further discussion on the motion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor
signify by saying I. I oppose the same sign. Motion carried. Citizens to be heard. Do we have any citizens to be heard? Not there's no one in the audience. Anybody online? No one online. Mr. Chair, we'll move on to the approval of bills and vouchers. I move to uh pay
the bills and vouchers. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Krabanhoff and second by Commissioner Ebinger. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. oppose the same sign.
Motion carried. All right. Next, we have a request approval to of addendum number two for the Metro Street Crimes Unit. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Commissioner. Morning, Sheriff. Thanks for having me here this morning. If I may just start out, uh, it is National Police Week. So, I'd just like to recognize the fact that
it is National Police Week and it's a time that we um honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice and did not make it back home to their families and their loved ones. So, we will be uh doing a memorial service, I believe, over in Fargo sometime this week. Um, but it's time to honor all all law enforcement
officers as well. So, thank you. Thank you for that. Uh, the first item that we have here is the approval of uh the Metro Street Crimes Unit agreement. Um, this is just updating the agreement. This agreement was first put in place in about 2015. Um, there was just some
language changes more or less. Um the previous agreement had it uh written to where it was more of a mutual aid style agreement where our Metro Street Crimes Unit is uh they work uh daily together on both sides of the river. So it's not really a mutual aid. It's a it's a daily
working um relationship that we have with them. And this has been reviewed by the county attorney and approved um by them. Sheriff, what's the um is the is the I remember when that was set up. Uh was that is the are the
members still the same on that from um years ago? They are. Yeah, it does consist of uh Fargo, Morehead, West Fargo, Cass County, Clay County, and there is also now uh US Marshalss on that as well. Okay.
Well, certainly a very valuable very valuable to have. So, Commissioner Amir. Yeah, this was put together while I was still chief. Um, great uh example of what we do,
right? And we found that out when there was some legislation that caused our partners on the other side of the river to be reluctant for to engage in mutual aid. And I'm glad we got that resolved. This is an invaluable thing. we are basically well we are certainly one
community and uh this is an example of how our law enforcement people work together to handle it that way. So I having said that I'd like to make a motion that we approve the addendum two to the metro street crimes unit agreement and joint exercise of peace
officer duties. I'll second that. Okay we have a motion by commissioner second by commissioner bearer. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppos the
same sign. Motion carried. All right. Thank you. Next, sheriff. Next, it's to uh lease 10 vehicles from Enterprise Leasing. Um five of the vehicles would be a new lease through Enterprise and five of them would be um just a a renewal of a lease, so to
speak. We're going to be selling five of our vehicles at uh our auction and then five of them will be turned over to Enterprise to be sold. Um as you can see um from what I had there, our internal service funds available are 253,914 and the estimate through
Enterprise is $136,332. And I would like to note that last year when I was here, um, with the estimates that Enterprise gave us, I just gave you some rough numbers. They gave us an estimate of $1,02 for a Chrysler Pacifica per month, but the actual amount was
$96. And the Durango, they gave us an estimate of $1,18, but the actual estimate was $94. And the Taho, they gave us an estimate of $1,420. And the actual that we're paying is $1357. So their estimates are a little bit
higher compared to actual. Um but this is just enough so we can come to the board to get these approved. So Mark, the the um numbers you have here are the are these estimates or are these actual quotes from these are going to be estimated numbers. Okay.
Okay. Um and as you can see these estimated numbers are even less than what they they gave us last year. So prices are going down. So, right now you're you mentioned that right now that you have 253,000 in the internal service fund for the five vehicles that we owned that we
own. Correct. And then and then you're you're going to sell those five vehicles. Would the proceeds of those then go back into internal service fund? That is correct. They would. And and then um you talked about the uh fitup
cost in here for the five new ones as well. Yep. Is the uh And then are we going to be able to transfer any of those fitups from the old vehicles to the new ones or Yeah, we we uh try and use as much equipment as possible. For
example, this year we went from a 2021 Tahoe to a 2024 Tahoe and everything was able to transfer over. So, the cost to upfit that Tahoe was about $6,000. Uh one of the things that we kind of have to look look for in the future and I have talked to uh Lori about this is
that we've had that money in internal service for three years and then after the three years it would no longer those funds wouldn't be available. So in six or nine years if we end up having to buy new equipment for these vehicles we wouldn't have those funds available. So Lori was going to look at that and be
able to um figure out how to work that out in in internal service so we would have funds available so we wouldn't have to have new funds for that. Why would the funds not be available? Uh so Mr. chair. If you guys recall when we went to this Joe, I think Joe was in here. We had a year where we went through a year
through the process uh and we were able to based on the resale of the vehicles that we went through, we were able to take everybody who had internal service and adjust uh the amount that we put us put away each year at a lower amount. Uh and we didn't have that exact number yet
for the sheriffs. And so that's where Lor's tweet would be tweaking that. Mr. Share. Yes. Share. $6,000 for fit up. If you're transferring the equipment, everything. Yeah. What's the cost if it if it's not a full trans or
complete transfer? If it's not a complete transfer, if we're uh if we can't transfer everything over, then you're looking at about 15 to 18,000. Um we usually are able to transfer like our cameras, our radios, um radars, things of that nature. But some
some things like the um the push bumpers, the cages and stuff like that are vehicle specific. Well, and the radio equipment and radar and everything's got its own account. It does. Replacement. It does have its own account for replacement. Yep. Okay. And
I I don't know if Steve the question for you or or to the sheriff. So once once we get into this three-year leasing of these vehicles, does that become the line item budget item as opposed to a dollar
amount that's set aside for internal service fund? That'd be correct. So there is no investment into internal service fund other than for maybe the uh equipment. The equipment equipment. Well, and they do. I mean, our leases are set aside so when they trade them
in, you know, when we when we trade them our vehicles in on a lease, we generally just turn it in. If there's equity in that lease, that those dollars do go back into the internal service. But but there's no additional dollars in the budget, correct? For internal service
other than for equipment. Correct. And if the board recalls, part of the reason why we don't have the updated information is the sheriff's department came on app a little bit later on the fleet piece. And so, uh, so that's where why we're still tweaking what we are. And we do internal service that
equipment as well. So, um, just so we have those funds available so we don't have to come back and ask for additional funding for equipment. So, we do internal service that equipment. But, yeah. Yes. Yes. Joel, does Sheriff, does this
take all your vehicles to put them into lease then? Um, it'll it's not all of them yet. We're not uh we're not to that point, but a good majority of them now will be leased. Right. And then with these five that you plan on auctioning, do we need to have a motion on that to allow them to auction those off? We've
never done that in the past. We've just uh we've been able to auction auction them off. We follow the I think I think what just with what he's showing here, he's showing that they're to be sold at auction. So I think we it's just an automatic approval as we approve is what
he's proposing. Commissioner Kraov. Just a gender question from the past. So these um you've been doing this program what three years now or so or Yeah. Yeah. Uh and are you seeing the uh the
savings on it pretty continual over the years as you're doing the trades or is there some fluctuation? And then the second part was I remember about a year ago I think it was you were you know you were desiring Taho and they were in
short supply. Some of that turned around now you're getting the product you want. Yeah to answer the first part of the question. Um I believe we are seeing a slight savings in our internal service because of that. It's um it's really hard to make that determination because
everything has gone up as well over the past couple years. everything has kind of climbed as far as prices. So, it's really hard to say exactly what we're seeing, but I do believe there is a bit of a savings there. And then, um, the second part of your question regarding the Taho, they are starting to get a
little bit easier to to acquire. Um, but we are still waiting for five more vehicles to come in yet this year. So, I'm hoping they do arrive soon. And does that make any difference on the uh fit up the vehicle? If we can go Tahoe to
Tahoe that uh that does that is a cost savings. If we have to go from like Tahoe to Durango or something like that then there is an additional cost to that. The other additional cost that does occur is that um the vehicle manufacturers do like to do redesigns of their cars and sometimes when they do
the redesign of their cars then um you know some things don't fit. For example in 2025 Chevy Tahoe did a refresh of the front end of their car. So, our push bumpers won't fit. So, we have to get new push bumpers. Now, I know in 2027,
they're going to do a full redesign. So, then we're going to have to take a look at what's going to be able to transfer over and things like that. Sheriff, on the the five new vehicles, those will obviously need to be fitted new with equipment, right? Some of them will be able to transfer
that equipment over. Well, Okay. So, you're going to be taking the equipment out of the vehicles that we're turning in, correct? Okay. Okay. Yep. Yep. Okay. And then there's still then there's also 55,000 in the internal
service fund for equipment. Yeah. For the five vehicles that are currently leased, um, apparently they're just doing the equipment for upfit and things like that. They have a separate account for that. Okay. And then the 250 go going back to the
253 for the new leases. Uh the total annual lease is 136 for all of them for all 10. And um are you anticipating having to pull some funds out of that 253 to
fit up any of those? Yes, there will be some funds that have to come out of that. Okay. to fit those cars up because the 55,000 will not cover that. Okay. All right. So, we're looking
for a motion to approve the 10 vehicles from Enterprise Leasing for the Sheriff's. Mr. Chair, I move we approve the 10 vehicles from Enterprise Leasing for the Sheriff's Office for 2026.
We have a motion by Commissioner Abby, second by Commissioner Krabanhoff. And again within that that also um going to Commissioner Bear, the intention would be for five vehicles to be sold at auction. Correct. I include
that. Okay. Right. Any further discussion? Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I oppose the same sign. Motion carried. All right. Thank you, Sheriff. And Mr. Chair, if I could. Yes. Oh, yes. Um, on
an annual basis, the sheriff's department is is has a compliance review from a training perspective from the Minnesota Post Post Board. Uh, and uh this week I received notification that uh that the sheriff's department passed their review. Uh again, we're fortunate
to have professional, skilled, trained uh men and women in our in our sheriff's department. And I think that this just goes uh to show again uh the great work that they do and and making sure that they're up to date with all the not only the legislative trainings that they're
required but also the the departmental. So thank you. Thank you. Right. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next we have our request approval for the yearly supply bids.
Good morning Justin. Good morning. Yes. So the first item I have is approval of the yearly supply bids. So we did open these on May 7th and this covers corrugated metal culverts, furnishing batuminous asphalt, and then rental of construction equipment. So
what this does is when we buy culverts throughout the year, it just gives us a locked in price for the entire year as well as if we need to go buy mix from either Northern or FM asphalt, we have a price for that. and then rental construction equipment. If we ever need
to rent something from somebody, we have a set price that we can go off of as well. So, for that, I would just be looking for a motion to approve all bids because that just gives us flexibility to go wherever we need to in case. And I, you know, and obviously, for example,
when it comes to the construction equipment, not all of these ones that we're uh approving here are the same rates. Mm- However, when you have to consider where the work might be being done, it might be cheaper to be having
somebody from the Holly area, for example, do it than to have somebody come from correct local. So, so that's why the why we approve them all and allows you some discretion and and it also means that maybe one company might not be available. Exactly. Go to the
next one. So, it's good to have all of them approved up front. So, okay. Yes, Commissioner Bear. Do we rent a lot of equipment? Um, not a lot. Kind of from my understanding is why we first started doing this was during flood
events, we never had set equipment rates. So, it's more so in case we do ever flood, we have set equipment rates that would do it. I think there's there's really two times when it can be really used. One would be during flooding and another one would be during
real heavy heavy winters like the winter of 96 97 when you know we have we had snow 8 ft deep on every county road we had. So so that that's kind of the reason for that kind of stuff. Like two years ago we rented a dozer for about a month to
push snow back. One year we rented snow blowers too I think. Yep. Does do do these bids go from April 2025 to Yes. A full calendar year? Yep. That's
correct. All right. So, we're looking for a motion to approve the yearly supply bids as recommended in the packet. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve the yearly supply bids as recommended in the packet. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner
Bear, second by Commissioner Ebinger. Any further discussion on the motion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose the same sign. Motion carried. All right. Next, we have
our request approval of four pickups for the highway department. Nope. Five. Oh, excuse me. I crossed one up. Gravel bids. Yes, we got one bidder. We did receive two bids for um gravel. One from Turner and Gravel and one from
Fitzgerald Construction. This is not out of the norm. Um, we did see a little bit of an increase in gravel prices which was to be expected. Um, but my recommended motion would be to accept low bid of Turner sand and gravel for townships 1 through 30. That's just that
mainly just means that we split out our county graveling by township. So, we get a price for each township. Um, Turner did not bid. There was three townships that went on the bid with us. He did not bid any of those. So, it's all county
work on this contract. So, by doing this and then then um the townships get that same rate. Is that correct for No, they had their own um there was three townships 15A, 19A, and
30A. It was Highland Grove, Holly, and Tansome did try to go on the bid, but they did. Turner did not provide them a number because from in talking to Turner, he thinks he can do it cheaper for the townships if he doesn't have to
join the county bid. So that's what he did this year. So that's So the townships are on their own. They're getting their own bids. Yep. And we get it seems to me back in the years when I was on the township board that the townships were able to get the county rate and that's how they kind of did it
back then. That was probably also when we were allowing township gravel out of the Felton Pit, too. And now that that's heavily restricted due to the Dakota Skipper, I think that's changed. Okay. And right around the time when we do our yearly maintenance contract rate, we
send out emails and letters to all the townships letting them if they want to join our gravel bid that they can do so, but like I said, there was only three that joined this year. Okay. All right. So, we're looking for
approval of the gravel bid from Turner Sand Gravel for Townships 1 through 30. Make that motion. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Crab. Second by Commissioner Bear. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same
sign. Motion carried. Now, we'll get into the purchase of four pickups for the highway department. Yeah. So, I'm seeking approval to purchase four pickups from Nelson Auto Center. This is a cooperative purchasing contract. So the three halfton pickups that I'm looking to purchase are Ford F-150s.
Those are used by three of our engineering technicians in the summertime and then the winter time they get used by maintenance staff to check roads. And then the 3/4 ton is a GMC that is to be used by our road foremen. So all four existing pickups that we
have will be handed down to our maintenance department. And then once we actually know that we're going to get these vehicles, I'll be coming back for approval to sell some of the older two-w wheelel drive pickups that we have. And do you want to do you want to
explain? Um, yes. So on my spreadsheet, so unit 105, 107, and 119 are the halfton pickups. The cooperative cooperative purchasing price with tax is $52,913.81 each. And then the unit4
which is used by a road foreman is a 3/4ton ton. The purchase price after tax for that one is $59,44516. And the internal service fund is short by $57827 with tax, but after we sell those vehicles, we'll be well ahead and that
money will go back into the internal service fund. Just a curious question. Um, how do you determine when you want to get new vehicles? Um so in our internal service fund there's a life that's expected that we
put in that after five or seven years that vehicle should be fully funded. Usually it's about five with these increases in prices that we've seen the engineering tech pickups we have now I believe are eight. So they've gone three years past about how many mile I'm sure
it varies but what's the range of miles? Um, so on the three tech pickups, they vary greatly. So the one that's used for bridge inspections and used the most by the maintenance department, I think is at about 120,000. But we're not selling
that. That's going down to the maintenance department. Yeah. I would guess the ones that we're going to sell around the time we would sell would be well over 150. Okay. And those are the two wheel drive ones, correct? Yeah. And
just curious just because I do it, but do you do extended warranties to help you on that? On the pickups, we don't. Um, for the most part, I mean, with having a shop foreman and a mechanic in house, we try to fix what we can in house. If it's not if it's outside that
standard warranty. Yeah. Great. All right. Thank you. One question. I see that you have an upgrade from XL to XLT. Is that that's interior stuff. Is that necessary? Um, so the I think you see that package
that's like the workstation package. I don't know. I don't have that sheet exactly. Yeah. Mobile office package in the Yep. To go with the mobile office package, you had to upgrade to XLT. So it doesn't wasn't for an interior purpose. It was so plug in
everything that's in the vehicle. Yes. So that engineering technicians obviously are working on their laptops and having the in board inverters is a big deal for us. That makes sense. It gets kind of goofy with these pickups when you I mean
different trim levels. You add one thing and it's definitely I know it's so and it by the this was brought through our highway tracking committee meeting too and it was recommended for approval by highway tracking. Just one question. um as we just went through with our
sheriff's department and a lot of our vehicles we lease and I'm just curious as to so and that's another thing when you're going for as far as asking when we replace vehicles. So Joe and I spent well over a year looking at leasing for
the highway department didn't make sense for a few different reasons. Um, the last vehicles we looked at, it was actually cheaper to purchase them. And then just how we kind of handle in internally handing vehicles down and how long we keep them. We felt
as though we get more bang for our buck if we purchase them. Very good. That's You'll be You'll be auctioning off four vehicles here once you get these and everybody gets handed down there next. Yep. And I the only reason I don't have um vehicles to sell
today is there's a note on those quotes too that's basically if we don't get the vehicles, we're not price log. So there's not there's a good chance we get them, but I think after everything that's happened in the vehicle world, they throw that caveat on there now.
All right. Okay. Well, I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of the four pickups with Nelson, right? Yep. At uh 52 91381 each for the units um 105 107119 and
5945 445 uh16 uh for unit 114. Second motion by Commissioner Krabanov, second by Commissioner Abbinger. Any further discussion on the motion? One one question to Justin there. Nelson Auto Center. How
do we decide to buy from them? So, they offer the cooperative purchasing. Um, it's not source well. It's a state contract. I don't remember the name of it, but that allows us to soul source it, whereas we've tried to get them from Holly before and they don't participate
in cooperative purchasing. So, we'd have to advertise for bids and it's just a lot easier to go. So, Nelson can bring in a GMC and the Fords there all at one location instead. Yep. for from Holly and Okay.
All right. Any further questions? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose the same sign. Motion carried. That is done. Thank you. Thank you, Justin. See you at noon. All right. Next, we have our risk
management and MCIT presentation. Yes. Do you prefer the podium or would you rather? He uh is a minor. Yes, he is nursing an injury so he's Oh, okay. You don't mind? Not a problem. We're going to modify today. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. All right. Uh good morning, Mr. chair, board members. Um today I'm here to uh I have Joe Smezky here from MCIT and um he's going to be giving a presentation and update to the board as far as MCIT goes. Um I thought real quick I would
sneak in before him and just do a quick risk management policy um um update on on just a review of what we've done in the last couple years. So I'm going to make it kind of short and then turn it over to him. Joe and I are definitely two different uh presentations today,
but we have come to find that it's a they both go hand in hand and we work closely together. So I'll uh do this quick and then I'll turn it over to Joe. So um so I'm just going to touch on our risk management policy. Um basically our
purpose uh a couple years ago we had formed this policy. Um our purpose is to create a process for Klay County which would identify, measure and treat property liability, income and personal personnel exposures to loss. So it's our goal of risk management is to the
preservation of physical and human asset of Klay County and develop a common understanding of risk across the county departments. That was our main one of our main issues um is trying to get one uniform process. And then our risk management is a shared responsibility
that extends to all employees while specific related tasks are assigned to various groups and levels within the organization. Just a quick history. Uh this was the vision of the county administrator a couple years ago when uh uh the facilities director position was
created. Um this is one a task he felt should we should have and so we did that. The board passed a policy in 2023 and at that same time MCIT administrators group was formed is what we're calling it and um um we we work
closely with with risk and loss control consultants. I believe Joel you're the risk risk uh we call you the risk consultant because we ask you all the questions. So um and then we we've formed a policy group uh that looks at each polic looks at all the policies
each year, make sure they're updated and um we've made sure that we collaborate with our management team during this process. And we feel that this policy really um acts as an overall reference policy to all other um policies that might have some risk uh within those
policies. So, so here's just a uh I got ahead of you. Here's just a snapshot of of what we think risk management is for our for the county. Within each one of these categories, there's a lot going on within, but this is just a high level shot. You could see we have a lot going
on with our auto and fleet vehicle policy. Um, right below it, we have compliance. That's something Rory's been working heavily on. Um we have our inland marine which is all our mobile equipment uh safety our safety program our our safety committee does meet once
uh quarterly and um we go over and make sure our safety program is is implemented. Uh we have our technology and electronic data processing. Uh that's something Rory's also involved in. Um and then our record retention that's we're working on that this year.
That's I I think one of our main goals there is to figure out um what's the best way to keep records and then um personal employment and then our uh contracts and um of course our buildings. So that's just a a snapshot of there's a lot going on with each one
of these but but that's just kind of a high level look. So here is our Clay County MCIT administrators group. This has been very beneficial. Uh we meet quarterly to go over certain things. we ask questions. Um the department uh the MCIT
administrator uh was selected for each department. Those are typically the people that deal with with all the MCAT claims and adding stuff. So um our central administration central administration assistant is which is Sarah. She kind of represents all the
smaller little departments. So, myself, my my uh department, we I have Betty that works and there's a lot going on there, but there's other little departments that don't always have a lot going on and Sarah's kind of stepped in and she she's who they go to. So, and then we we do again we we meet quarterly
and then once a year this group actually attends the annual MCIT coverage. It's actually online. We do that once a year. It used to be just Steve and I, but we've uh there's 10 more people added to that. So, it's a it's a good thing. So, so this is our kind of our flowchart here of who's responsible for what and I
think that's really cut down the gaps that we were finding prior to this. So, uh also we created a risk uh quarterly risk assessment every um uh we do this we send this out and it's really just a line of questioning
that to remind department heads and representatives for each of their department did you buy something? Uh have you taken something off? It really just takes you through and makes a person think uh what to make sure that you've done uh the right thing and added stuff to it. We've found this has been
very helpful. Caught a few things. Um and it's we do this every quarterly and it it some departments it's just they don't buy a lot of stuff but some do and it's just a real good reminder and it's been good. I do get uh we get when this comes in I do review it with um with my
my assistant and we just make sure that that was added. So it's been a definitely a a benefit. Basically a conclusion uh with this we feel that uh with this risk is being uh actively managed. Um that's that's kind of what I've been doing. Uh
the MCIT administrators group they always control inventory and update MCIT schedule. So, and we do our quarterly risk assessment and we have a we have a we have formed a kind of a central file where we keep all our records and they all know where they are and it's been a
huge benefit. And I guess lastly, it's been it we really tie all our other our policies together to to ensure that uh we're we're in compliance. So, questions for me? I know it was kind of quick, but questions. Okay. With that, I'll I'll
actually turn it over to Joe and he'll uh he'll give his update. We're gonna go from Joe to Joe. Joe to Joe. Yep. The better Joe. Good taste in names. Yeah. Again, my name is Joe Saminsky. I'm a risk management consultant uh with the MCIT or the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust. Here to report
to you on on MCIT. Talk a little bit about what MCIT is, what we do, some of what we don't. Uh talk about some of the numbers uh over the last uh year. So, and some of the issues that everybody faces. So, um the first item about
benefits from the risk sharing pool, we're talking about what MCIT is. We're a joint powers entity formed by the uh counties and associated members to provide risk management uh cons and um and uh claim payments. And uh we're
tailored to government operations. It's specialized sets of coverages and comprehensive coverages for the government operations. Um the contributions are there. The contributions are payments from the members are there to uh have enough to
cover claims and our services and run a a stable business and and uh while not overcolcting. That's you know the pricing is is an important aspect of of what we do and it's part of our mission statement. Um, one of the, uh, unique
aspects of what we are, we're not an insurance company. We provide those insurance services, but there's other things that set us apart from the insurance industry. Um, the board of directors for MCIT are are your peers, you know, other commissioners,
administrators, auditor, and they feel the the same effect that you feel in their decisions. So, kind of a nice uh aspect of what we do. Uh beyond the claims, we have risk management consultants like myself and loss control services. We'll talk a little bit more
about that as we go. Um the commissioners, uh it's important to know that you can make a big difference. Um some of the things that we talk about in this second panel is not necessarily a list of what you need to start doing, but what you just continue to do well.
Uh things like learning how coverage applies before making final decisions. um having your contracts reviewed by county attorney, risk management consultant. It's a very important aspect of what you do. Uh as everybody knows, staying alert for data and cyber
security threats, that's everybody's world right now. Supporting safety and risk management. Um I know the county is really doing a lot to uh develop that program and supporting that is is vital. um safety committees and return injuries
or return injured employees to work programs. Um all of our members do their part and we want we we want to encourage that to keep occurring uh such as mitigating claims, collaborating with MCIT when claims occur and fulfilling
financial obligations. Second page talk a little bit about reinsurance. If you're not familiar, reinsurance is basically the reinsurance or the insurance for the insurance company or in this case the pool. Um
this is something that's really affected uh our organization and the pricing and affects uh all the members. Um property reinsurance has uh increased 10% from 2024 due to a large rise in uh value of
of of properties. We'll talk a little bit about that in the next panel. The chart provides um a split between property and liability. You're going to see the properties climbing. Uh one of the major things that we're working through with pricing. Uh some of the things we're doing to try to feather
this effect back to the members and and lessen the impact is uh in in uh in the deductibles or what we would call the retention uh for the reinsurance. We have increased um our retention in
casualty or liability claims from 850 to a million and that saved a 21.5% increase in the reinsurance premium. Uh we also increased uh work comp from 500 to a million on the retention and that saved
$470,000 in premium. So we're trying to do what we can and examine all our options to feather that effect back in a more you know gradual manner. the next window we're talking about uh total insured values uh continue to climb. Joe, can I ask you a question while just
while we're on the reinsurance uh piece? So, um that that the rise seems to be in the property. Yes. It and because we're dealing with reinsurance, are those reinsurance rates
based on what might be going happening throughout the country? Yep. versus claims that are specific to county governments in Minnesota. Very astute question. Uh reinsurance is purchased
from the private market and it is uh affected by what's going on in the world overall. Um that you can't get around un just like a homeowner's insurance. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. You might not have a claim on your house, but you're about that big time, too. I I I that's a
really good point. um separating that. Um so we're getting at it from a couple different angles when it comes to property prices, which is what we're talking about in the next window. If you look at uh uh the amounts that the value of the property alone is going up, it's
going up at and it's in increasing at an increasing rate. So it's looking less like a a graph and more like a hockey stick. You know, unfortunately, we're not seeing the plateau in property values. So that directly impacts the cost to ensure set values or cover said
values in our world. Um so we're getting hit at, you know, from uh in property alone and that dramatic increase in labor and and materials and and also from the reinsurance costs going up. So we're getting it from a couple different
angles. And uh you know with the property rising and the and and rising at such a dramatic rate, you you can't get around that it costs more dollars to cover the same properties and repair them when the bad things happen. So um and I think you had your appraisal in
2023. We do every five years we we do an appraisal on the building values to help you set your values uh for your coverages. And uh so 2023 is u actually a decent time. So, you know, you know, you're right at the head of when all these the the major raises are
occurring. So, um there'll be another one in five years. Hopefully, things plateau a little bit. It's a little bit easier on the budgeting side, obviously, for you. Um some of the other things to talk about on the positive side of property, there's a few enhancements for equipment breakdown coverage and um so,
uh impairment um to electric circuitry was added. uh some sub coverages for maintaining green designation with an equipment breakdown claim the additional cost for that and some off- premises coverage for equipment breakdown claims.
So a little bit of a positive side that we're able to expand some of the coverages that's through Hartford Steam Boiler who does a reinsurance for equipment breakdown claims. The uh next window talks about rates, contributions um and they're there to
anticipate the expenses and again you're going to see in the blue which is property and liability a higher number uh u on the increase end of things and that's in good part due to what we were just talking about with property that's really affecting everybody the most. Um
you'll see on the on the bottom the orange uh the workers compensation there's a huge drop there in 2023 and what that is just out of curiosity. A lot of the COVID claims have have fallen off and and uh so that's that's a good sign too that the world's moving on
there. Um dividends uh for approximately 30 years we've been able to give a dividend back to to members when when it's financially and actuarally actuarially sound. Um this year it's based on work comp only uh due to the
issues with property. Um and you see a a solid dividend there return to the county. Uh the next window we're talking about cyber claims. Yep. Please do. Paul, can you get closer to your mic?
Thank you. Yeah. some of the uh when it comes to the claims and that type thing, does that seem to have a uh consistent relationship with the growth of
uh of people, you know, that are in the system, you know, for claims or are you talking about workers compensation? Yep. Um yeah, it can. If there's more in there, your odds are that you're going to have more losses. Um, we're going to
talk a little bit more about mod rates on uh on the next page which gets into what uh you know the experience rating end of things which has to do with an actual rating and what's going on by member. You got good numbers to report
on by the way. So, okay, a little sneaky but yes, so there's there's that generalized view of it and it's uh but there's individualized things to to analyze too as far as how you're each member is doing. So, but yes, it can
have a general effect. Uh the more the more employees, the more risk there's going to be that you're taking in. So, um good question. Thank you. Um, with cyber claims, I did want to point out that if you look at the bottom line on the graph, we're seeing a slight
trend upward in cyber claims, which probably won't shock anybody. Um, there's a major spike uh in 2023, but you see that it's coming back down again. That's obviously at least a good sign that we're moving in a positive direction there. Most of that is due to
the fact that we've had a drop in ransomware claims. So, um, they've fallen off, uh, dramatically. And that's that's just, uh, a a compliment to all the members that everybody's doing everything they can to to try to, you
know, stop that, you know, prevent it. And there's been a lot of work on that. So, that's a positive for for the members. Most of it has to do with um with emails. Everything starts with email. 85 to 90% of the claims with cyber start somehow with email. So,
email filtering and beefing up systems and training members to keep away from clickbait is is is what uh everybody's doing and everybody's doing a good job and this is at least showing some improvement there. So, even though it's a very challenging environment on the last page, we uh like
I mentioned, we're going to talk about work comp claims. Uh the experience rating uh has to do with um just comparing um the the number uh and the cost of work comp claims and the amount in your payroll specifically. And it's
an average for or an expected amount of claim activity and an average so to speak. Anything over 1.0 costs you additional contributions. Anything below 1.0 uh saves you money. This actually shows a a solid savings to to an
excellent number and consistently excellent number is under 1.0 um actually under.9 and um kudos to the county and and you know this this goes to the riskmanagement efforts that that uh Clay
has done on a on a regular basis. These numbers are phenomenal and you should be happy about that. Continue to do what you're doing. Um, that's where the rubber meets the road on dollars. It shows you how much money was saved by having, you know, safety uh measures in
play to take care of your people and it turns into dollars. So, congratulations on that. Yeah. Go ahead. Can you give me uh a definition if you will of modification? What that give me a little more depth to moderate? Yeah, it's basically factor. So, just curious how
that word is used. It's uh it's it's experience rating in short. So it's taking into effect what claims you've had and it compares that with the amount of they they put a class code on your
positions. So this position is this class code and it's a complicated equation which compares what you have for complicate for for risk factors by position and it compares what the claims you actually had and intersects them to
come up with this this formula um to to to figure out what your contribution is going to be. And um so those are the two factors that are used to develop the mod rate and the the the even point or the average point is 1.0. That's what's
expected. Anything over 1.0 for a moderate uh shows an opportunity to improve potentially. Anything under is shows you're doing what you need to do. So I don't know if that it's hard to give an exact definition because the the
equation is pretty complex but those are the major factors on and I hope that helps. Yeah, I did. So and and again we're doing really well there. The uh thanks for the question. Uh the the next uh graph just shows uh the workers comp
and the u property and liability annual claim averages. Uh shows the number of claims and the amount paid per claim. Some of the things that'll stand out to you if you look on the lower uh side for property and liability of the auto claims the number of claims at a
thousand seems to stand out. I don't think that's a negative trend. It is what it is. That's part of what our our pool absorbs with the specialized coverages. Um the law enforcement liability as we know it's tough environment out there
for liability claims with law enforcement and um that's been a high number for for years for for the world that we live in. Sheriff and jail for workers compensation is uh also uh shows a lot of claims. But you have to keep in
mind too that's a 247 job, dangerous job that they do for us. So, um, not necessarily, uh, something that's trending up. It just that's the way it is. So, just a few things to look at there. With the last section, uh, we're talking about some of the other services
that we provide uh, that MCIT provides our members. As mentioned before, risk management uh, and and loss uh, control consultants to discuss safety and the loss control end of things. Risk management uh, we work closely. I've
I've talked a number of times with with Steve and Joe uh uh from a claims end of it in in a prior position that I was in and with risk management. They do a great job in communicating and getting things out there just to talk about it and see what we need to do to you know improvement opportunities or things to
consider when when you have those uh you know extreme situations that you're working through. A lot of compliments I have for them. um the resourcerich website. I do encourage you if you have time to look at the website, look at the search engine. Uh there's a lot of great
material in there that you might be able to use. Um open meeting law, for example, if there's some things you want to touch up on, there's a lot of good information that we've developed in there, but type in anything that uh has to do with county operations and there's some great resources. I'm sure that I
know for a fact that Joe looks at on a regular basis. I'm sure Steve too. Um just I encourage you to look at that. Uh some of the other programs and services that are included with the membership are employee assistance program and um you have high utilization for the
employee assistance program. Again that's uh that's a good thing to see. Uh numbers uh over seven over six in the last couple years. Anything over four is considered high uh utilization for using the program to take care of your of your
employees. um benchmark analytics for uh the sheriff's office for risk mitigation. Uh workplace injury hotline to help triage uh some of the middle mid-level injuries and get those reported. Uh membership to the Minnesota
Safety Council, a lot of good information there. HSB or Hartford Steam Boiler and uh uh pressure vessel inspections. So they take care of our equipment breakdown claims from a reinsurance standpoint and they take care of all the dangerous um pressure vessels that have to be inspected by
state requirement. Um there's also training such as seminars and webinars um and speakers for on-site training that are provided um peace officer accredited training on liner patrol um and defensive driver training through
the Minnesota Safety Council. So um that's it in a nutshell. I tried to move quickly with respect to time and if there's any questions I'm happy to hear them. Any questions for Joel? If I could, Mr. Chair, we really appreciate MCAT. Joe uh and the staff at
MCIT, we don't we really view them as a as a true resource, whether it's uh bringing MCIT through our correctional facility, whether it's going through just our regular claims, but also uh also uh different scenarios that that uh we're going through contracts and and
working with Brian and MCIT to make sure that we have the proper uh proper work there. And and so we really I know Joe specifically in his risk management role works closely with them. and we're fortunate to have the relationship that we do. I agree and thank you very much. Mr.
Chair, can I Yes, Joe. Yes. I just wanted to comment working with Joe and we created this riskmanagement policy the last few years. Anytime we throw any question scenarios when our MCIT administrator group gets together, we always have a whole bunch of questions. We throw it at Joe. He just doesn't give
us oneline answers. By the time he's done, we understand and we and he's guided us to the right direction. So I hope that's a compliment. Oh, it's it's it's a hu in this kind of thing. It is a huge compliment and he really clarifies things. So we we do appreciate how you get back to us quickly and um your help
to get this risk management up and going. So all right. Well, thank you Joe for being here today and providing us with your update. I appreciate your time. Thank you for the questions and again thanks for inviting me. Thank you. Good
day. All right. Next, we have West Central Initiative Update. We have Lynn and Greg here this morning. Good morning, Greg. Either wherever you like. Thank you.
Well, just make sure your uh mic is green. Green. Go. Green is go. Morning, commissioner. Oh, I like that check. Staff. Yeah, I know. Well, we should write a big like do not cash across the top. Oh, darn.
While Greg is handing out a couple of publications here, I just want to get a start. I'm Rebecca Lynn Peterson. I'm the director of development and philanthropic services. And let me explain the check. But first, I want to say uh we usually come about this time every year to do updates and to thank
you for your ongoing partnership and support. So, as you know, we this is not a meeting where we ask. I'll send a letter to Stephen later uh and then you can discuss without us present. And I did get your letter, Stephen, consider your request during these uncertain
times. So, I uh I took that uh wholeheartedly. So instead of bringing our packet full of many papers, we have a couple of publications that I think speak to our work well. And so an explanation of the check on the front.
Um I want you to pull out this one pager on the inside cover. We created this last year because people ask us, well what's the initiative? I've heard of you, but what do you do? And it's hard to in an elevator speech explain that.
So, we have it in a one-pager and on the flip side, you'll see a list of all of the programs that we offer. And I'm going to let Greg talk a little bit more about our economic development work. But on the very front, since 1986, and as
you'll notice, we're celebrating our 40th year next year. Uh we've we've reinvested 59 million in loans throughout our 9ount region, 84 million in grants. the jobs we've helped create
and the businesses we've impacted. So, you've been part of that and so we're here to thank you for supporting us and our work, but also hoping to show you your reinvestment in the community. So, that $18 million check reflects the
dollars that we've returned to Klay County in grants and loans over the past almost 40 years. So, that's a little description about the check. somebody said at another county visit, "Well, next year we expect one that we can cash." Um, and then our annual report is
just a nice snapshot of all our programs. I'm going to ask you to turn to the back. We're going to start at the back inside cover. We have uh Oh, yeah. This one, sorry. Our annual report. The Almanac is just another fun
publication. So, we've added some staff because we got some grant money for some special programs for the next couple of years. We also have a couple of new board members, one of them from Klay County. Lisa Tillitson, she joins Janice Tweet on our WCI board and Paul
Krabenhoff uh has been on our EDDD board and Greg will talk a little bit more about that. Then if you flip forward, there's a list of our grant recipients, uh, a list of our contributors, and you're listed there as our county
contributor, and then a number of programs. We have just finished our like kickoff campaign to start a ripple of generosity at just showing people how a little bit can go a long way. uh individuals who contribute as well as
units of government and different corporations. We continue to do our work in sustainable agriculture, transportation planning, early childhood work, economic development work, and Greg will talk about that a little bit further. And
then rural belonging and rural democracies. So, we've just distributed our sponsorship grants for our welcoming week events. And I know that Morehead is very busy in that regard, as are some of our other Klay County communities. And
then our rural democracy program continues to help people through leadership training for commissioner post, council post, schoolboard posts. We're not trying to take your jobs away from you. We're just trying to train the
next generation. So with that, um, and then also the view from here, just our almanac. We had an event a couple of weeks ago just looking at our region. So the thing that's nice about these is you don't have to like throw them in the recycling. You can put them in your
dentist office or something like that. So feel free to share. I'll turn it over to Greg. Thanks, Rebecca. And, uh, thank you for the opportunity to come and speak again, Mr. Chair, and members of the the county board. I am Greg Wagner. I'm the director of business and economic
development at West Central. And so I oversee our lending and our economic development programs. And I like doing that work because oftentimes it's it's very visible and the impact is is realized quite quickly. Um because of uh
our economic development work and and uh our kind of partnerships with both the state and the federal government, we've been able to attract some resources uh for the region and for Klay County that uh is not what you would traditionally
see primarily, you know, during the pandemic. And then there's been uh some partnerships that have extended beyond that with the state of Minnesota. Uh the main street revitalization program which was a a sizable uh program
from the state uh West Central Initiative applied for that on behalf of three corridors including the County 10 corridor which ran through uh starting at uh the river here in Morehead on Center Avenue and extended all the way
to Bluffton uh on the the far east side of the of ourh region. We've uh allocated a million dollars so far in grants to businesses along that highway 10 corridor in Klay County. So that's Morehead, Dillworth and uh and beyond.
And then uh last year uh we received an allocation through the promise act program from the state both loans and grants. It was a very competitive grant program. Uh we had 451 applications and uh were able to award 52 in total across
our nine county service area. Three of those were in Klay County. So uh that was a a sizable investment. I think it was about $70,000 directly to uh Klay County businesses that had been um pretty significantly impacted financially over
the course of uh inflation and supply chain challenges. And then in the last year, we've done just under a million dollars. And actually, I should preface it, not the last year, last 17 months, uh we've done $950,000 in loans to Klay County
businesses. Uh and then, uh the total grants and loans invested in Klay County, uh in the last 17 months has been $2.8 million. So, an impact um that's, you know, near
near-term uh as as an example of this total $18 million in investment for the county. Some of the additional work we do uh as the economic development district, uh we have a partnership with the federal EDA. Commissioner Krabanhoff is the Klay County representative on
that board. that allows us to attract federal funding resources from the Economic Development Administration to our region and uh and do economic development work for communities that don't necessarily have the staff capacity to do so or we partner with the
staff in uh developing that. One of the big deliverables we have for that uh economic development district is a five-year regional economic development strategy called the comprehensive economic development strategy or SS. We are uh nearing the end of our current
5-year plan and so in 2027 uh we'll be uh releasing a new 5-year SDS and that will identify priorities, strategies and goals for economic development for the region. We've
already started the the uh initial information gathering be it data or um strengths, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis with stakeholders from across the region on on that work. So uh
the updates continue. Um, we continued to connect with uh with staff and community leaders and and their communities within the county on uh potential projects that we can bring to the feds or to the state and are just uh
glad to continue to be a partner with with you and uh with the communities. And I'll stop there with any questions, comments, questions? I'll make a comment. Okay. Yeah. Uh it's
been a um our meetings are quarterly so I mean you know u it's been for me to take all in what you all do. It's um the more I'm involved, the more I'm appreciative and amazed of the things
that you do and the the diversity of range of what you do as well as you know the loans that we get involved with in those opportunities and and I just really on your second page here where I talk to you about your 17 you know
areas. I mean it it's really wide ranging. Um, at the meetings I'm uh always moved by not only your staff and the commitment of your staff and the outreach, but also the people and the range of thought we have in that
conversation. Again, it's it's um I feel like it's very macro in a certain sense, but your work comes on in and it works in very to small businesses. So, um appreciate your work and glad to be a part of it. Thank you.
make some great comments and we'll share that with I do want to add a Well, I know you've served play county. Well, I mean, obviously when we see the number $18 million that have come back into the county is it's real significant
and I'd like the fact that we're seeing um some of our businesses be able to use the loan program. I think that's whether it's new or um maintaining to keep going. It's really important. And Greg, I wanted to mention to you that we
recently had you come to Klay County uh to talk about something that's really important on our agenda in Klay County and that's the water for rural water system. Um, it's it's an ongoing thing and I know Commissioner Bear and I serve on
that board and it's a multi-county project right now, but it and it's something that it's going to take many many years to um complete, but it's it's so important, you know, to have clean
water for every resident in in the the three counties involved is is critical. and your ability to just that day when we were able to sit down with you and the ideas and the areas where you
thought of and suggested that we go to obviously this is something um and I've I've said it multiple times but to to bring water to some of those rural areas it's obviously very expensive per
user and there's no way that that can never be accomplished without the help of the federal and state government. We we know that as a board and you know so we look for every agency and entity that can help us that with that regard and
you guys are very good at that and so we hopefully we can continue moving forward with that. It's just you know it I often say that that's bringing water to some of those rural rural areas. It's no different than broadband. But yet broadband in some of our rural areas,
it's critical for those people who live in rural areas to have broadband. They have most of those families have kids and those kids need it for their education. And there's nothing more important than clean water uh for everybody. So So I just want to thank
you for for being there and listening to us and helping us come up with ideas on uh ways where we can accomplish that funding. Absolutely. Anybody else have anything to share? All
right. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for the update. And I'm sure we'll see a a suggested letter coming later, right? Okay. As long as you right. Thank you. All right. Our next item is the request
approval for to fill a part-time victim witness coordinator position. Mr. Melton, morning. Uh, unfortunately, we had a resignation. We had Britney in her office. She was only there a short time. um married to one of our uh
sheriff's deputies and and uh she she was doing great work and and she was really fitting in well, but uh I think some of their complications with uh family and and children and I think they foster as well and so uh she uh need to resign. So we do need to refill the
position. Uh it is a budgeted position so we're asking to be able to fill that part position. Yeah, I've had the opportunity my entire career to work with uh people with prosecutor's office with victim witness coordinators. Um and here in Klay
County, we have a good one. We have people work hard at it. This is a a vital function for our system of justice to make sure that the people were impacted by crime, have the support they need to to uh you never make them whole,
but get them back as close as you can. So, with that, I'd like to uh make a motion to fill the part-time victim witness coordinator position. Second. Motion by Commissioner Bearer or Commissioner Einger, second by Commissioner Bear. Any further
discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. The same thing. Motion carried. All right, Brian. There you go. Next, we have the approval of the 2026 budget
timeline. Steve. Morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Uh about this time each year, uh we come forward with you for a request of approval of a timeline. Uh starting back in April, Darren uh gets a snapshot of our employees. Uh it's
really the trigger for our for the start of our uh start of our budget season. Uh and generally around the middle of May, we come here with our timeline. Uh budget packets go are going out this year around the 23rd to each of our departments as we've talked before. uh
and we share each year, but specifically this year uh work with our department heads to to bring forward budgets that are uh that best meet their needs, but also our good stewards uh to our citizens. Uh they have roughly three weeks to complete those uh those budgets
uh and hand those into to Lor's office. Uh once those uh once those are compiled and put together uh in in a computer format, uh we begin to sit down and meet individually with each department head. uh Sarah has already scheduled those starting in early July. Uh and uh then
those board presentations will become uh come before this board uh for for presentation. Uh our goal uh this year is to be completed by the end of August with those presentations. Uh and so we'll have the opportunity to set the preliminary levy by statute u before the
the 30th of September. Uh we are looking at the the 23rd in September this year. There are five there are five uh Tuesdays. So in the event uh that uh we wouldn't be able to come to a conclusion of support uh from this board on the
23rd, we would have one extra week on the 30th uh to come back for we try to leave one one week uh one week gap for any other feedback. Uh right now we're looking at uh truth and taxation as December 2nd. uh that will be at uh 6:00
pm. We've already made it taken board action to shift our meeting our board meeting to 5:00 pm that evening. Uh and uh this year the AMC conferences the the following week and so we're able to do it uh the first week of December. Uh we would then allow for two two additional
weeks to review uh and have board input with the final adoption uh for for the final levy in the year budget on December 16th. With that, I'd yield for any questions. I I just want to make note I this could be a challenging year from
a budget standpoint with what we have going on at the state level and we have negotiations and all these different type of things going on and I I guess I would just ask that the commissioners do reserve September 30th um on your
calendars is a date that we may need to hold another meeting in the event that we I don't want to be like the state where it comes right down to the wire But uh if need be, I think I just ask that we all reserve that date in the event we need to have another
meeting with that. Are there any uh questions regarding the timeline? Any questions? Um do you do? Yes. Okay. I just before that um um when the very first
one we talk about and that being today and it's a set budget parameters are I think generally Mr. Chair, one of the things that you've done in the past is once once uh you've uh Lori's
accumulated all of the budgets and we come in with that first levy document uh that uh is always too high and you kind of give us our targets at that point. So, um, so we're probably looking more in that in that July July time frame than I I guess I guess just like what
you did earlier on early on though, knowing what we're up against this year when you you sent a letter out to all of our outside agencies, letting them know about the, you know, the potential for this year. And I and I I do think that
that same message needs to apply internally as well. Uh and I I know that um you know our departments always uh you know try to submit what they what their feel their needs are and
um ju just throwing caution into the wind so to speak that that this might be a very difficult year. Uh last year we we went from a state budget having $18 billion
surplus to a a $6 billion deficit and a lot of that u right now you know many many millions of that is being planned to shift to counties and hopefully with uh Commissioner Mojo's efforts down there today some of that might be uh
reduced but along with other commissioners. So, but I just I just want to, you know, suggest that we should be caut have caution out there in terms of what we're going to be able to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have uh we've already have
been having discussions at our management meetings. Uh there's also a narrative memo that goes out with the timeline once this board approves it. Uh I can tell you that that uh shares the sentiments that you just did with us. Okay. All right. So I will make a motion
to approve the proposed 2026 budget timeline. Second. All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Kabanaghov, second by Commissioner Abinger. Any further discussion on the motion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I.
I. Oppose the same sign. Motion carried. Are you all good with uh wanting to continue on with the update or do you need a break? Are you okay? Can we'll take a five minute break if that sounds good. All right, we're back in session
here and our next item on the agenda is the Klay County budget update. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. have uh several different items I'd like to go over with you here today, both uh going back to 2024 and then looking into our
current fiscal year. The first item though I want to touch with touch base with you on is our half cent sales tax. I try to provide updates three to four times a year on on where our figures are coming in. Uh I think we last t touched at the at the budget uh cycle last uh
last December, beginning of January uh where we we saw a little bit of a dip in both November and December's collection which ended up resulting in a 2% uh 2.19% decrease uh in uh in collections over the entire year uh at
4,560,34 excuse me 4,560,34185 As you recall, the halfs and sales tax was established to cover the law enforcement center and correctional facility. Uh we have three bonds. Uh two 2016 we have a go jail bonds that deal
dealt with um the acquisition of the two city blocks and homes in preparation of the of the construction. Uh in 2017, we had both a goat jail bonds uh and geo capital improvement for the law enforcement center. And so the the total
dollar amount just fluctuates a little bit each year, but in 2025, we're anticipating needing three 3,946,425. And as you can see, uh that uh that dollar amount does uh cover the collection of the half cent sales tax
does cover that dollar amount. Uh even today uh we did uh we've received three payments uh in uh in uh 2024 2025 time frame. Um that all are right around where we've been in previous years. We
did receive uh we did receive March's uh excuse me, April's uh um acquis or funding yesterday and that was $318,991.74. And so again, that was one of the higher higher amounts that we've received over the last seven seven and a half years.
So from a sales tax standpoint, we have been pretty consistent uh as far as as far as those payments. We like I said, we did see a little bit of a dip last year, but we've seen 40% increase of of uh in sales tax over the previous three
cycles. Uh as you recall, initially we had anticipated $1.6 6 million of of sales tax in the first year with an increase up to 2.2 million. Uh initially this board had set aside fundings within the levy and also uh other funding
resources such as the $150,000 that we received through uh the electric electricity from the windmills. Uh we've since removed those. This is this will be the fourth budget cycle where we we would not have any levy dollars uh but only only s the half cent sales tax fund
to cover the principle and interest. Steve, on that on that note, um it it'd be nice to get an update. So, like you said, we had originally anticipated a 1.6 six million. Um, and
now we're represent four million. Uh, at some point in time, it'd be nice to um get a a new forecast out into the future for the remaining life of that um bond payment and where we're where
we're setting. I know there's um there's there's limits to what excess dollars can be used for. Uh but I think as as we look longterm for capital improvement needs, I think it would be
good to see a a forecast with the understanding instead of 1.6 million, we're collecting four million. And what does that do later on in the cycle? And the reason I bring that up for um our new commissioners probably well I think Dave if Dave
wasn't the commissioner at the time he was certainly involved with the planning on the on those facilities but um one of the things that we had in had in had incorporated in in the overall
plan was an extension of the uh correctional facility. And you know, so just just as we think about moving forward, um you know, there's there's talk, do you sunset this early or or do you um
finish or or could we use those dollars? Anyway, I I just I think it would be really good for us to revisit the long-term based based on I don't see I I think it would take a real economic
crisis for us to be dropping from 4.5 million to 1.6 million. Right. Correct. Yeah. You know, over, you know, over the life of what we're doing. So, so clearly something is going to it's it's excellent on our to
our benefit. But at what point in time do we you know do we start saying okay even with what our future needs are uh can we sunset this early? Sure. Yeah. I can work with our auditor
treasurer and put out some projections and uh come back on another day. Yeah. One question for you, Steve, there with that payment that we have is right close to $4 million coming due in 2025.
What do we do with the extra money that we do generate from the sales tax? Where does that go? It currently is in its separate file and it sits there. So, we have we have access to it. I mean, we could pay that down if that's what the boards Yeah. That's where that money goes. It just So, it's sitting
collecting interest sitting on another it's restricted. Yeah, restricted for the purpose of that project. And so part of the the idea of the commission is to have that money aside. So in the event that we had an off year, there would be funding to cover that so we wouldn't be in a challenging. How much how much
money is sitting in that account? Do you know that off the top? I don't know that off the top of my And again, I think that's part of what my what I'm asking. And so when we look at a future forecast, we can say, okay, here's here's what we're collecting over and above what we anticipated collecting. How is that
balance that Commissioner Bear is talk asking about? How does that how can we best use that moving forward? Okay. Um and I you know and I and I think part of that deal because again
um those funds from the sales tax have a very restricted use and and you know basically it was for the law enforcement center and it was for the correctional facility as as Commissioner Aberinger will will remember he was on the board
with us at the time or or worked was on the committee. There were two components that we left open. There was the additional um correctional facility cells to be constructed and there was
also an additional portion above the law enforcement center. That was another I believe another 5,000 potential 5,000 square ft. So again, in this long range planning as we look at, you know, if we can in if we can incorporate if those
things are are needed, we'll have to have those conversations with the sheriff. Uh but if those things are needed within the next few years, do we incorporate that capital planning where we can get that done at at no additional
property tax levy to our citizens? I think that's very important that we start making that plan. Okay. All right. Mr. Chair, Miss Johnson sends her apology.
She had planned to be here today but had an appointment. She is watching today. She just did share that we have 3.6 million in debt services right now. 3.6. Yeah. Yes. Just a point concurring with with
your observations. Uh an early sunset may be an option if we have the continued impact of having to get funding uh through our property taxes on things that the state shifting
over into our responsibility. we would need we would really want to look at some means of of giving the citizens a little bit of a break. The problem is with the sales tax, it really is no way reflective of the people that are most
strongly impacted by uh a shift in property taxes, but you know, it's it's something we could do. Again, those you know the extra sales tax that we have collect that we're collecting that's
very restricted use. You can't, you know, we can't use that, you know, to offset levies, right? You know, so but we can what we can what we can do is if there's future capital needs, we can
avoid the the need to have to have additional levies in the future by using those funds. um because it was in the long-term plan of those two projects and we'd have to make sure and check with Lori on that. But I would think that those would qualify for those funds.
Those would be the only two projects. I'm trying to remember what Yeah, because that's the only uh when we went and got the permission from the state for that local option sales tax, it was for the correctional facility in the law enforcement center. And when you do
that, you know, we can't use that for roads, you know, we can't use that to um build a new addition to our government center. It's very restrictive. So, what's the end?
I believe it was a 20 year. Yeah. 20 years. So, 37. It's either 37 or 38, I think. is anyway. So, okay, Steve, you can continue on. All right. Well, and that that concluded my h have sales tax
if there is any other there's any anything. But just real quickly on that, but if we can have that as part of our this summer's update. Sure. Lori is going to be with us. Okay. Thank you. All right. The the second item that I
wanted to just cover was a year in review uh from from last year. Again, I'll I I will say that uh highway, road and bridge, public health and solid waste are still waiting on uh some some final work. U so they are not fully uh
fully correct yet at this point. Uh but just wanted to touch base on on the revenues uh and expenses from 2024. Uh on the the first uh the first the one side looking at the general revenues. Uh I just want to touch base on on some
additional things. Um from a motor vehicle standpoint, we had an additional $145,000 of revenue. I I know that this board is uh taken a great deal of attention to uh to uh the the motor
vehicle area. Uh and so we've added several staff over the last year. the new DMV opened uh here this last fall. Uh with that said, last year we generated additional revenue. Uh wait times continue to uh to be lower. Uh and
so overall that is a positive. Uh the treasurer's revenue was up at 898 uh%. Uh just we'll touch a little bit more on the fund balance section here, but just to kind of give you a general idea. If you recall uh two years ago, we had a
pretty significant uh drop in in what the our investments were worth based on what was happening financially in the United States. Over the last two two years, we've seen an increase uh in in those funds coming back. And so last year, we we had a market adjustment,
which again is just on paper, as long as you don't sell, was 1.317 million. Uh and so uh we're getting close to being back to where we were two years ago. And we also Lori had uh haded had $400,000 invested in or had
down for invest our investments in interest uh with the interest rates increase last year. Uh we did see a much more significant significant increase there of $1.8 million in interest rather than 400,000. So that was a benefit. Uh
we did make an adjustment in 2025 to around a million dollars and so uh we'll see where that uh where that comes at the end of the year. Question there. Yes. With that extra money from the sales tax, are we investing that in can we invested into something like that?
Yeah, Lori Lori invests all of our all of our cash into a an investment piece for your interest. But does the investments for the sales tax does that have to go into that account or is that open to use for something else? I believe the interest can be used in
other other areas, but I is that what's is that what we're doing? Um yeah, I mean it's a question. Sure. Yeah, I will. It can get answered later, but Yeah. Okay. um technology services. Uh we had an
increased revenue of 146,000 from our platform uh that uh the increased platform that we we house that we no longer house this year but had an increase last year. Elections uh we received a grant uh last year to for election equipment that uh had an
increased uh amount. Uh there our grounds grounds and building uh had a had a a decrease. Uh that's really an in and out that comes from the family service center, James uh James at the juvenile center and the jail. Uh and so
whatever whatever revenue uh is is short just means that our expenses uh were were lower on the expense side. Uh also planning and zoning uh we had additional revenues uh there uh
uh that she said had more to do with necessarily uh but payables came through several of these sometimes from year to year they don't get on the right area and so uh so that was that the the next area would we want to touch paces on the
narcotics task force and had to do with funding again there's an in and out with the narcotics the additional overtime that officers receive there. Corrections uh had a had a a revenues over expenditures of
$221,46. Uh as we talked about throughout last year, uh our facility was able to utilize some of the empty beds uh for other counties. Uh we specifically helped one county uh out uh during a several months last year as they were having issues at their jail.
And so that translated into additional additional dollars. The emergency management uh uh has uh uh saw an extreme increase. That's where our uh ARPA dollars showed up or were one of the areas where our ARPA dollars showed
up. Uh and so that's the reason for that increase. And uh overall we saw we saw a total revenue fund increase of 132 thou 132% based on what what was planned for
budgeted for again roughly roughly oh five roughly seven for 5.5 million of that uh was just an ARPA funds loan. Uh and so um just wanted to touch base there. Any any questions on the revenue
section? So on the expenditure side just to just in total so where it shows us 6 million more was that also because we spent the ARPA money that's correct. Yes. So yeah 5 5.5 million of that of that 5.6 6
million in general unallocated is ARPA and then the other 148 48,000 of that is the house which we purchased over here on on 9inth Street showed up in that area. Uh other if there's no questions
in in the revenues on this side we have the expenses just want to touch base on a few different areas there. uh internal accounting uh just has to do with the timing of the journal entry uh and that increase. Uh when it comes down to information uh services, we had increase
in uh staff salaries and then also last year we had to address some software licensing uh midyear and that contributed to the increase there. On elections again Lori saves uh election funding uh for both our budgets for it
in the off years uh of elections. We had the elections last year and so you see the expenses uh higher than what was anticipated. Um the next item is the uh is the recorders. Uh there were some equipment uh that uh that were was
purchased there that had a little bit of an increase. We step down to medical examiners. Again, that's just an estimate from uh from the sheriff's department. Again, depends on the number of uh examinations that have to happen. So we had a little bit of an increase
there. Emergency management again as we we talked about an in and an out uh from the from the ARPA funds uh there. Uh and then again touching based on the unallocated general uh additional additional ARPA dollars uh and uh public
safety funding also is in that along with the the house. Overall we saw increase of 119 119 excuse me 19% over what we had anticipated. again 5.5 of that is is connected uh directly or
excuse me 6 point 6.8 eight of that is is connected to ARPA. So actually we we were as a whole under where we projected. So so Steve I I had asked a question. So under under emergency management we had an increase of 7
million in revenues over what we had projected and that was ARPA funds coming in. That's correct. And that shows but then but then I and I asked the question did it go out any but I'm only show it's showing here that the expenditures were
1.3 million and then sorry Mr. Chair the other area is in the unallocated. Okay that's what I that was that's where I was going. So that 5.6 million is also Yeah. So rough roughly 55 5,550,129 is ARPA out of is ARPA money
there. The other portion of that is uh is the house that house we purchased. The house we purchased. Yes. Okay. Question. Yes. Yes. So the difference between the revenue and the expenditures is roughly 3.7 million.
Correct. And so we'll uh Mr. Chair, Commissioner Bear, that'll when we go to the fund balance page next, that'll show the exact number. Uh if you go to the next page, we have uh the road and bridge social services
uh area. Uh the the first area, again, we'll kind of touch on the the revenues uh in income maintenance. uh we ended up having 17% higher than what we had anticipated which uh which uh was about $1.1 million of additional
revenue. Um I'll touch base on the income maintenance side. If you recall last year the board made the made the decision we had two staff that retired that had over 70 years of experience and were carrying about four times the case load of a of a normal income maintenance
worker. um this board approved the hiring of two additional staff uh to to cover that. Uh and so uh you're you'll you're seeing in in the they were able to generate or part of the team to generate the additional income. Uh but then you also saw some of the expenses
that went along uh with that that was a 10% increase. So uh and that was and that was all done in 2024. Correct. Um so even with that we gained came out ahead. Yes. Yeah.
Um touch base uh on the uh the public health would be the next area again uh that we saw revenues of 177,000 those that had to do with the money transfers that we had from ARPA to detox the detox
project. uh solid waste recycling. We we saw commodities have a little bit of an increase in at least in some of the areas uh last year and so we uh we saw 33% uh increase of projected revenues based on what we had
anticipated. Uh anybody have any other questions uh in as far as the revenues in in the any of these areas questions? A question on the debt retirement for the law enforcement center. Yes. So the revenues coming in
would have been 40 4.2 million, right? And then the bond payment is 3.9. Correct. All right. And then the extra money goes into a separate account. Yes. That that 3.6 million that we talked about. And and Lori did text in just back to your question earlier, the
interest from from the half cent sales tax does go into the general fund. Um, if no there's no other questions, I'll move on to the expenses. Uh, uh, unallocated unallocated in road and bridge of
$228,390. Uh, was the the purchase of the Holly shop. Uh, that's where that uh that showed up. Uh, there. Um again in uh we touched base on the income maintenance already in social services. Uh shifting down towards the the middle
bottom of the page of of uh recycling. Again there are some additional uh costs cost there um that were that were provided for recycling was had 124,000 or excuse me
24% increase. So, Steve, I I thought we did uh you're you're I know the question you're going to ask, you are correct. Several years ago, we set the exact dollar amount that each county could request. Um again, this is goes back to a timing issue. So, if if they
asked for their if their allocation didn't get marked down until from the previous year till 2024, that's how it it ended up uh higher than what it was anticipated. So if we paid out874 and we only
um budgeted 706 706 how how did how did so that would so let's say Barnesville didn't ask for their aotment in a timely fashion for 2023 uh there it was when it came to the audit part they they ended up having it
receded in 2024 so in a couple of those locate cup situations uh to get to the 167,000. So So the 23 would reflect that that they didn't get the money in 23. Correct. Correct. That number would be under 124%. Right.
Uh the the next item uh just I can just so at at I know Lori has some abilities to put things in the proper year. Sure. But at at what
point, you know, because this can be confusing if, you know, going back, you'd have to go back and look at 2023 to see that it was sure revenues over expenditures, right? I think there there comes a specific date date from an audit
standpoint that they can no longer go back and make adjustments. Yeah. And I'm I I'm assuming that, but I just don't know when that is because right now you even mentioned that there's these aren't final numbers because there's still some adjustments Sure. being made. So, yeah.
Okay. Uh existing landfill, we ended up having additional revenues uh from tipping fees uh of uh 24% above what was anticipated. So, additional $553,837. Uh, and so that uh again was a
positive. I think it goes to uh the work the SWAC commissioners and Corey have done. Uh, you know, this was the first year uh the first year that we've that we've really uh had the full a full calendar year of expenses. And I think, you know, we still have we're waiting on
WINC uh on on some other couple documents, but u based on what we have, I think we're going to show that we've hit hit our targets fairly well on solid waste here in the next document. And uh so with that, I would yield for any questions on
expenditures. Overall, we were in this group uh collectively. Um uh you know we we did fairly well uh from a from a percentage standpoint of from expenses uh in 103 103 overall uh 78 101 100 uh
81 and 85 85% of total expense expenses. So um appreciate that from our staff. Just going back to that resource recovery center for a minute on the expenditure side. We budgeted um oh excuse me. Yeah, we budgeted 2,230
and we're showing actual of 695,000. Why why is there is there a bond payment not made or something or a bond payment and then I think we have the shift we shift a portion of the that 500,000 from um from the operating no from the
capital to the operating um but wouldn't that show up as a wouldn't that increase that 695,000 the let's the resource recovery. You can Yeah, you can follow up. Yeah, I'll follow up on this that one.
Oh, Lori says depreciation of 1 million and the depreciation isn't shown on this on these statements. It's in the budget. It's in the budget but not on the statement. All right, if there's no other
questions, then we'll move to the the fund balance document. Uh, as I mentioned, road and bridge, public health, and solid waste still have a little bit of work to do. Uh, but starting out uh starting out in the general uh general fund balance, uh we
saw a an increase again uh 1.3 of 1.3 million in our investments uh and then 1.8 8 million in additional interest which had revenues over expenditures of 3,683,955 of of that that $18 million uh
total. Uh so I brought our total fund balance at 1231 to18 million8 $8,490. Of that total dollar amount uh 88 8,730,196 uh dollars is unassigned. Um with the understanding
that as you recall this year the board approved utilization of $1.85 million of in uh in fund balance uh to to help lower the levy. And so that would be decreased uh decreased by that dollar
amount. Uh road bridge again we have a couple different areas of of work that we need to get done. We'll bring that back at a later time. Social services uh had revenues over expenditures of $57,514. Uh so uh of of that that that
brought us to 11,936,24 unassigned there is 11,610,127. Uh the building fund again for Joe again we put in roughly $50,000 each year into that fund. Uh they uh they which brought us up to $134,046.
uh and $84,96 that is unassigned. Uh in our internal service, uh we saw revenues over expenditure increase of 1 493 million. Uh again, a significant portion of that had to do
with a highway. Uh didn't purchase any any much inventory or new vehicles. As this board knows, they certainly have uh started to make some of those purchases this year. public health. Uh again, uh not that
should be done any any time, Lori said, but right now we're we're at a fund balance of $18 million 28,60. If you take a look at that significant portion of that over the last two years is the addition of detox. Uh and
so that's where you see that larger increase. solid waste as I mentioned uh again from a budget standpoint uh we're we're just about spot on where we had expenses over revenues of 8760 again uh we have uh we're waiting on some last
journal entries from wink uh on that and so that uh I can bring that forward at a further time again public health solid waste uh the family service center and juvenile facility are all enterprise funds so they operate outside of our essentially outside of our levy
uh family service center is is uh had um a budgeted loss of $281,000 $210. Uh if you recall, we budgeted for a $400,000 loss. Uh again, $360,000 of that again is depreciation.
So, uh if you take out the depreciation piece of that, uh we actually uh did much better in the family service center than what we had anticipated. Uh uh and then lastly um the juvenile facility uh they budgeted for roughly
roughly over a million dollar uh loss because of their two-year look back and the revenues that they get from non-members. Uh they're showing they're showing expenses over revenues of 2002 $245,684. Uh but actually I believe James has indicated that uh that's about
$1.2 $2 million of surplus that they'll let from previous years from previous years. So, so they'll be able to uh make those adjustments again for both Klay County and our member counties uh to the pdium for for the following years. So, with that, I'd yield for any questions.
Can I can I just go back to public health? Can you explain the revenues and expenses? Yeah. So, so, so the the public on the fund balance or the Yeah. So, the fund balance increase
as we inc we started in 2023, uh, there was a there was an increase investment to the detox facility of 5,921,381. Uh and then the completion of the completion uh of the project in
2024, another eight 8,86,850 was transferred. Uh and so we have that the value essentially of the of the new detox facility uh becomes the new the new fund balance um fund
balance uh bottom line. So in all these other instances, we're talking cash, aren't we? And so so not in not in all situations. So like in the in the general budget for example um you know the unassigned the unassigned of the 18 million is is 8
875,000 or 87 8,730,000 minus the 1.85 from from this year. Uh so some of those are assigned to different funds. Um the juvenile center does have some you know has some responsibility
um to uh to the uh the bond payment. Uh but uh Lori doesn't didn't have the juvenile center for example broken down into what is one is unassigned there. So, just again going back to public
health at the end of 2023. Yeah. We had $8,895,98. That's not that's not cash. Yeah. No, that it's the detox building is adds to the fund balance because it's an enterprise fund. I see. Okay.
So why wouldn't the value of the family service center be incorporated into the val into the I mean that family service center's got a significant value. Why wouldn't that that's an enterprise fund. Why wouldn't I I guess I'm confused on
that. Yeah. I I wonder I could I can certainly check with Lori. I'm guessing some of it might have to do with the depreciation portion. I'll depreciate it out. Yeah. appreciation. That's a It's a line item that's just there.
You're taking money out that you're not writing a check for, right? And it run back to the public health one more time. When that goes that to the 18 million, that's the value of the building.
that made that increase. Correct. That's correct. So, going back to detox, is that building fully paid for then? Um, are we paying a bond payment somewhere or No, we don't have a bond
payment on the on the detox that was covered by by ARPA dollars, uh, some opioid funding and then a small about half a million dollars from our from our um, fund balance. So, the county owns that free and clear. Yes. Correct. Yeah.
The only the only other one that we have a bond on is the DMB. Do you think we should split off detox off? So, so Mr. Chair, Commissioner Bear, that is one thing that I do have uh to talk to our finance committee this
year. I think that from an operational standpoint. There's always going to be a connection to public health just because of the state statute requirements. Uh, but I think that's one of the things that I want to talk with our finance committee uh this year about about splitting that off now that we've had several several months of operation. I
think that it would make sense to do that. Yeah, I'm I'm a little I'm a little confused on on these when we're referring to these fund balances and we're taking the asset value and putting in our fund balance. I mean, you look at
Road and Bridge and we're showing $7.5 million in in value there. I I mean, we've got to have, you know, the value of all of our bridges and everything are and I think that goes back to the enterprise portion fund of
that road and bridge is part of our it's part of our just overall budget where the the public health detox the juvenile center um has the has that as part of their enterprise. Yeah. you know, from a standpoint of
being able to uh deal with budgets when it comes to our enterprise funds, we so we've got solid waste as a enterprise fund. So, you know, when we're looking at this when when we're comparing when we do an
annual budget and then we're and we do a you know, you you anticipate your revenues and you anticipate your expenditures in here. It's kind of confusing because here all of a sudden now you're incorporating other assets
into the into the fund. Uh you know when we want to look at budgeting purposes we want to deal with just cash cash and not depreciation and not and yeah and not depreciation either. So and again these are not for today but I you know I think
I think we need to clarity. Yeah. Can you can you tell us you don't have to tell us today, but how much cash we actually have that we have that we can use for the budget cycle in these in
this balance fund? Well, I think again, you know, one of the things that that we've we as a county um you know, when we go through the audit process, they you know, the auditors like to see six months of operating. That that's understandable. And well then that's
um and and so again yeah a portion of a portion of the of that would be looking at as a county we don't have a we don't have a set policy that that sets um where you know where we want to be from a from a cash standpoint. Yeah. Um but
certainly it's something that uh that as far as our you know as part of this explanation that this board's asked for we could pro provide that because is it that 8,778? Yeah. So in general right now well as of
as of 1231 it was uh $8.7 million with the understanding that this board put $1.85 million towards this budget. So um you know so we're so um in order to lower the levy so that it it wouldn't be 8.7. Yeah. So it' be but is that in
taking in the public health solid waste? No. These are all these are each are separate separate areas. Can we have a number for all of it? Um well, she has I mean she has everything laid out uh other than uh other well she has
everything other than uh the internal service account which would we probably wouldn't want to we have access to that uh but we wouldn't spend that. So, so right now up in the top in general road and bridge social services building um she has she has the unassigned as of
123123 and the only one that wouldn't be uh correct as of 1231 would be that the road and bridge which they're still they're still working through. I know, but you got to get detox out of that. The building out of public health and Right. Yeah. Oh, correct. Yeah. Those
and and again, those are outside of the levy. The the public health solid waste, family service center, and juvenal center or enterprise funds. And what if there's money sitting in there? Can we take that money and put it towards the levy? Well, yeah. So, so public health
you did this year you utilized a half a million dollars out of their out of out of their account towards the towards the budget. Um, solid waste is is specifically to um I mean they do provide they provide roughly
$125,000 annually to our general fund. Uh again, as a as a board you could make a determination that if they were in a financial spot that you could you could make that shift as you already do. uh family service center generally is is you know shows a shows a loss because of
uh because of the uh because of the depreciation. Uh and again the challenging part as we've talked about in building committee and as a group that at some point there'll have to be some decisions made there is from a from a renovation standpoint. Uh and then juvenile detention has a contract with
its member counties um that uh that it the first option goes back to the members. uh the the the uh James and the commissioners can make a request to have funds uh shifted like they've done at different times to fix roofs or put in a
new gym for floor recently. Um but but generally that part of the agreement that we have with them because they also then if the juvenile center were ever to lose money they would also have to share in that cost. Uh and so um so that the the public health and the solid waste
that we would have the juvenile detention would probably be pretty limited just to just to clarify. So going back to the general yes in 2023 we had 14,324,5 and that was that's cash. Well
that that was not cash. That was a that was uh a combination of of of cash and also then our investments. So that's where that when we Oh, that's that's cash. I I Or or in the investments buildings? No. Well, the
investments the investments No, 3M fund or wherever the money is. But it's it's it's money. Correct. Correct. It's not it's not it's not a capital asset. No, it's money. Right. And so so we raise so we have an additional
3.6 million in 2024 and and you told us that what 1.8 million 1.5 came out of came out of general or excuse me 1.35 came out of general a half a million came out of public
health. So for a total of three 1.85 85 but but yeah 500 came out of public health 1.3 1.3 came out of general oh so we shifted from public health to general yeah okay but then we also had more interest yeah
we had 1 1.317 or excuse me 1.8 eight in interest when we budgeted for 400,000 and then we had revenues over expenditures. We had revenues some revenues over expenditures and the other was the pay the paper investments uh of
1.317. Um again when we saw that we saw the significant loss in 2022 in our investments uh we we've had two years now of of uh of gaining those funds back through the the market. But I mean that that goes that goes to show in previous
years. So at one point in time we in 2021 we had 10 million in cash and then in 2022 we had 8 million. Right. But now we're Yeah. So yeah. So just the the two the interest and the pay the paper
investment was 3 point over $3.1 million of the 3.6 by itself last year for the for the revenues over expenditures. So, we're sitting on $18 million of cash in investments. In the general fund. In the general
fund. General fund. Yes. That's unassigned. Well, the unassigned The unassigned is what what's the difference between unassigned and Well, I think that the issue is why we didn't lose money in 2022 is we didn't sell our investments. We would have sold our investments at where they were at. Yeah.
And so, so so they're tied Some of that is cash, some of it's tied up in CDs. Yeah. But it's it's still money, right? Right. How much of that is investments of the 18 million? Well, so if you take out the eight 8 be roughly Yeah. 9.3
million. So that that that when you say assigned, that's where it's in investments. Yeah. Where if you take it out early, you could Yeah. Yeah. You get penalized or but it's, you know, but it's still money. But yeah. Any Yeah. So it's and again that all of that kind of
goes into play for you know when we have to make considerations of what the state auditor says about the six month supply which I've got documents from AMC that AMC doesn't share that. Sure. AMC doesn't share that we have to have
six months. I've got documents that show what they suggest we have. So anyway this is it's been a good conversation this morning but Any other questions on fund balance? And we'll we'll work to get some of that information questions that you had also
for that. And again, Steve, if I if I can and and I don't want to create additional work for for Lori either, but if we could if we could kind of um separate out even from our our
um our funds like solid waste and those to get an idea of what cash we have versus what it's split out separate from the assets that we have. Okay. uh within those fund balances. You know, if solid waste had
$3 million or $4 million or $6 million in cash last year, what do we have this year? And then everybody has to understand that we're required. And for example, in solid waste, you have to have money reserved for closure, postclosure, and all that. So there are there are issues that you have to
reserve money for even though it's in the bank. Um, yeah. And detox, too. Separating that out. It's okay. Do you want to Yeah. Just had a 2025 update. Again, this is through uh
through April, so about 33% of the year. Again, the challenging part that uh that we have when it comes to revenues is we're often often a month to six weeks behind. Uh but just wanted to touch on on a couple different revenues on the front side of this document. Uh again
the auditor standpoint uh under auditors we have revenues of 353% already based what was budgeted that's a journal journal entry uh uh from last year. Uh again that covers
mortgage registration and deeds. Uh the the next area county attorneys. Um again 89 89% of our our revenues were down 89%. Uh again, two different things is they bill quarterly uh to to our
different uh departments uh and uh and it actually is a one transaction at the end of the year. Uh and so uh that's why that shows uh shows that we'll show a loss throughout the year till the final one. emergency management. Again, uh we had some of our final revenue dollars
from ARPA uh that show up in that area both in the uh revenues and the expenses. Uh and then also showing up in the unallocated general of expenses uh for for those funds. Uh and then uh
unallocated general sits at 0% again uh this is where our tax collection is is uh it comes into play and so that has not shown up obviously yet this year. Um anybody have any other questions on on revenues? Again like I say they
generally sit uh sit a month to six six weeks behind uh expense-wise. If there's no other questions, uh we're we're sitting in in good position uh at 33% of the year. Again, just want to highlight the emergency management that we touched
touched on. Uh and also, uh unallocated general, uh this is where our insurance comes out. Uh and so, uh buildings and also our other insurance. And so, we're at 63% uh of the year again, but the building
piece of that is just a onetime payment. Uh so uh we're in a solid position uh there. Anybody have any questions on the front side of the front side of 2025 uh year-to- date expenses? Uh if not, we'll switch over
to to road and bridge uh excuse me, the road and bridge side. Uh again, from a from an an expense, excuse me, a revenue standpoint. Uh again, some of these areas are just one-time aotments and so we don't have uh anything that really stands out uh from a from a concern
standpoint in the revenue section. Again, uh with revenues being behind also. Uh so I I just moved to expenses. Again, there's no significant area of concern here. Uh again, just want to highlight one area again is the debt retirement law enforcement center.
That's a one one-time payment. We're at 84% uh again. And so, uh, that's actually in a a better spot than what we had had anticipated, but that is a onetime payment. So, with that, I' I'd yield for
any questions on the on the 2025. Uh, from a financial standpoint, we appear to be in in a good position from where we came in uh, budgeted from each department. questions. Karen, do you want to give us an update?
Hopefully mine won't be quite as confusing. Um, but this is going to be an interesting year. Uh, as you know, we have nine unions. Uh, all of them are going to be up for negotiations this year for 2026 and onward. Um, we have
received uh three desire to negotiate. That's like the initial paperwork that we say that we get from the unions. Those are from the deputies, the LEC admin assistants and the corrections. And I've lined up our first negotiations with them on either the 25th, 26th of
June or the 2nd of July. Um I talked to uh Josh yesterday and we kind of went over some of our uh ideas on going forward. Um, this is really the first year that I've never had a cola already set for the following
year. Um, which is kind of unique. I I did change the way that I do the grid this year where what I provided Lori and MCIT in in April. I have to provide MCIT with a uh personnel uh idea on a on a
payroll estimate for the following year. And so what I did not do is for the MCIT portion I used a templated uh percentage but for Lor's purposes I just gave her what people were making this year and
then she will add the whatever the cola uh comes up to be. The other thing that I learned from MCIT is that I can always update that their numbers uh as late as November which I actually never knew that before. where I thought it April
was the the cuto off date, but uh they said that we can update. So I can rerun these numbers because a lot changes from April to November with people leaving and and everything else. Um the other thing that is unknown is the benefits to
county contribution. Of course, uh we are going up we we in the past five years or past four years, we've had a designated increase each year. um this year was 9% but that four-year guarantee
is up this year. So next year we're going out for RFP for the health benefits and uh hopefully that comes back a little bit better. So that's kind of where we are getting back to the negotiations. Um like I said, I have the
deputies the LEC admin assistance and corrections uh scheduled. Um, we'll probably start collecting data because AMC runs their salary survey from the first of the year and
through April and then in June and July they come out with the um data for all the counties on what um increases they're making and and uh colas that they're giving. So, I think after we get that AMC data, we will know a little bit
more on what's going to be uh the normal cola that people are giving. Um, the other thing of course that you already know is that the legislatures legislators are still in session. There's a lot of uh contention on the paid leave and the 50/50 split, but what
I've seen from some of the uh counties that have already negotiated, as a matter of fact, the ones I got information on, they have really done 50/50. They're not doing 7030 or 6040 or anything like that. And I think that's
will be of course what we'll probably be shooting for as well. Um, does that take effect in 2026? Correct. Yeah. January 1st, 2026. Um, that is included in the numbers that I gave Lori. So, that is already
included at the U.4%. Um, I think what's going to help us in our negotiations this year is we did do a wage study last year and which was implemented this year and so I think we have pretty good numbers from that.
wage study. So, we're not really out of align with a lot of the other counties that we're seeing. There are some counties that are way high on their colas, but they probably haven't given a cola or they're just counties that normally give a large cola. But, um
we'll we'll dive into those numbers a little bit more. So, the first negotiations with all the um unions is going to be basically getting their information and their their demands from them to us. And then we'll I'll put together my big spreadsheet that I did
last time and kind of lay it all out on what their demands are and then bring that to the board. We'll have a close session and then I'll know a lot more on what we're dealing with uh as far as uh requirements and requests go. Um Darren,
just real briefly on the on the paid family leave act and you said you gave those numbers to Lori and it's anticipating it's 5050, right? Y I wonder could we and maybe Steve could we ask Lori to create a an additional line
item for that so that we can start to monitor those costs you know is right now you know they're saying it's what 8% or who knows what that's going to go to but
yeah I think you you factored want to say the full full percentage at 088 was right around just under 400,000 Yeah. Um the the44% is about $198,000 based on the the but I guess
what I'm asking can that is there a way that Lori could incorporate that as a separate line item. We we can certainly track it through our HR payroll system. I don't know if Lori how I don't know the line items on how she would want to do that, but we could
certainly pull it at any time and probably get the the exact tax that we've paid because as the employees change come and go, the amount that we pay is going to be based on their their
their pay. But it's a brand new expenditure to the county. That's absolutely thing. It's a absolutely. So um with that it you know I say that we normally have three maybe four
negotiations with each of the unions. So I we are starting a little earlier this year. Uh usually I I start around September to get them done. Um, but that's why we wanted to start in June because there's a lot to talk about and
uh hopefully we we can get them all negotiated within three or four sessions with them. So, that's what I'm shooting for right now. Well, I mean, we have a preliminary levy to set by September. Right.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I I think once we you know, we do a lot of pattern bargaining. So once we get an idea of the first call is after we have our closed sessions and everything, we'll have an idea of where we're going to be with that. And I and I can I can then
the way I set up the grid this this year, I can easily change it to whatever cola is decided upon and then I can rerun the numbers for the payroll. And uh we could have a pretty good update
later in the year rather than just working off the April numbers. Right. With that, I'm open for questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Today, right, let's go into committee
reports. Ezra, do you want to start? On last Wednesday, I had the Klay County Collaborative where we set the agenda and we set the agenda and we added Cal Cap
LP to that. One second here. We set the budget at the K County Collaborative where he approved 15 program names and added Cal CAP LP to that program. So it' be 16
total to get the grant money. That's pretty much what we discussed there. M Mr. Krabanov was there also. He's the chairman of that committee. So I'll let him go farther into that. And then Thursday, last Thursday, I had the
yellow ribbon. I went there with Mr. Ebinger and I don't have much to report there. The people there are doing good work, but yeah, that's I gave an update on the tribal situation with the land on 336 there. And that's all I have for my
committee reports. Chairman. All right, Dave. Thank you. Last Wednesday on the 7th, I attended the meeting with Dan Molly and Mike Ritz and Shelley Carlson from Morehead and uh Commissioner Nelson from
Becker County and Commissioner Jacobson from Norman County with Leaky uh Regional Library Administration people uh trying to negotiate a um lease agreement with City of Morehead for Lake
Agassy's office space in the new library being constructed. Uh we covered some issues. We I'm going to take it back this Thursday to the Lake Agassy board and and we'll discuss
it further. Uh we really didn't come up with a a solid uh number to discuss, but we'll try and get move that forward. Uh the next day, Tuesday the 8th, I went beyond the yellow ribbon, which Commissioner uh
Bears's already touched on. Uh general business things. We did have report from Kirk Cannon. Uh he is uh holding down the fort basically for Becker County right now with their veteran services. They've got a new uncertified VSO. Uh so
Kurt's having uh he's agreed to work with their uh veterans as well. Uh and sort of a field training position, I guess. But uh he's he's covered a lot of he's covering a lot of business. He's
doing a good job on it. And that completes my reports. Right. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh going back to uh Wednesday on the 7th again, Commissioner Ber already brought up the first part of the collaborative meeting
that we had. Um just to go back um some things that I learned on these grants that we uh had applications for, as you mentioned, we had 16 of them. uh they amounted uh it was really um good to get
these grants out at high higher dollar amounts helping our schools and other providers. So anyway uh we put out 448 almost $449,000. So, uh that's a a big help to
these places and that's and then we will actually do our budget for the year next meeting on Thursday. Um I had the class WCD on U monthly board meeting uh four water sediment
control basin projects couple u farmstead wind breaks and do oh otherwise mainly general business and really uh about uh what's going to happen with the legislature obviously
have concerns about their SWCD aid the family paid medical or paid uh family medical uh acts reduction invasive species and riparian aid and we're also affected by the same things.
Um I think that's probably what I'd say about that. Their tree plantings our jobs are going. They're about a third complete and there's still potted trees if people uh are interested in for their farmsteads.
um on the on Monday, yesterday, uh started out the day with the AMC legislative update. Uh we'll have full detail when Jenny comes back, but she's down there working and I'm really glad she is. So, we'll see where the shifts
go uh to the counties. Um yeah, and we'll just see. And there just there seems to be quite a bit of difference between the Senate's approach and the House approach. and and uh we'll just see as it all comes together and what they have to have as a universal
universal budget target and they need that very soon. So that's what we're working at. Last night I was at the uh monthly meeting at the Buffalo Red River WHED. We had a hearing at 5:00 on ditch
nine. That's the ditch where the roundabout is on uh Highway 52 and County Road uh 12. And uh everything um even the landowners are there that are mostly affected. Everybody's right in
line on this thing. Um and again, just the importance of this roundabout. It was noted again uh we've had 18 crashes there over 10 years at higher speeds and one fatality in 23. So um that can't get
in soon enough I think with to help the higher speed traffic flows that go through that that intersection. Um one thing I will bring up um like to give a little detail to it. So, there was a hearing on the upper uh uh Buffalo
River, a project all in Becker County. And the reason I want to talk about it's the first time I've had it come up and or seen it and and maybe it has before, but anyway, long short of it, they made a water uh district area manage area
where the assessments would be for a project put in. and the appointed manager from Becker along with a voice from Becker County felt it was wrong that they're footing
the bill for this area but they're the ones giving the contributing water to this project and we do that down the system right all the way down anyway they were just adamant about it that they thought it was a decent project but
they didn't want to pay for it and So, the the whole thing was denied and that um I'm just going to say our our representative Bill Davis in particular uh really stood up for us. They were trying to make it so it' be on the whole
waters system and Bill was very clear. Clay County 72% of paying that bill and that's not right. That's not fair. And you know we and and what's concerning to me as this goes on and who knows maybe
my next becker will kind of you know re-evaluate but we don't have much time because we have uh about a$1.7 million of $4 million project. We don't get that done at a certain timeline we lose those
funds. So I mean and that would kick it off. But um I I just I'm I'm concerned that it would set a precedent, right? And then and they wanted to make it bigger. Well, you know, the people down below are are going to fight that for
you to be back in the same spot. So, just want to bring the awareness and and I I really really do uh thank uh our representative Davis for helping us on that one. My view. Great.
Does that conclude your report? Yes. All right. I only had one meeting this last week and that was highway tracking committee meeting and we um we continue to have uh discussions regarding the comtock project and a meeting at noon
today with Justin and Chris Bakyard regarding the the component that was within the city limits of comtock. Um, as we are all aware, we agreed to hold off on that till after
the legislative session. Um, Comtock has voicing some concerns about delaying that project. So, we're meeting today and we're going to be meeting with Comtock, I believe, on the 22nd of May. Then, we also talked about the pickup purchase, which we acted on
today. And and then there was we did have some other discussions regarding the Buffalo Red River wershed district in some of the ditches. Uh and the Buffalo Redwater has asked our
engineer if we would consider ever consider a cost share in fixing some of these sloping issues or Yes. Um, so that's more that's more conversation to
be had on that. So, and then the last thing that we had was just a brief discussion. There's some information that came out regarding the city of Fargo uh their 12th Avenue to 15th Avenue North Bridge project. They're looking at
um raising the elevation of that. And of course I I mentioned here at our board meeting that's a really important bridge to have open. And so I just you know we had that discussion at the highway tracking level to make sure that um we
lend whatever you know support there is for that project to move forward. Um not not financially by you know but it's it's it's a really important bridge project for what's the raise on that? I'm just curious. Well, I think they're,
you know, they're what they're want to raise it to would be the new in town 100-year flood plane with the diversion. So, that would be 37 ft. So I think so they'd be raising that
quite a quite a bit, you know, and I um on the on right in that particular area on the Morehead side, it's, you know, it stays lower quite a bit further to the east, whereas on on the far that's one area on the Fargo side where
it rises really quick up to, you know, so there's some maps out there that show the impacted area or whatever, but anyway, That's just I I just think that's a really important bridge. Um Morehead and Klay County benefits from
that bridge from an economic development standpoint. We have a lot of people who come over here to to use that. So that's all I have for my committee report. Steve, thank you, Mr. Chair. Last week I participated in highway tracking which
has been well covered. uh also had conversations with some of our administrative groups from Klay County, excuse me, about uh about rural cities and dispatch. We'll be having a update meeting in July uh with our different rural cities. I met with Dan Molly,
Derek La Point, and Payton Mastera and coordinate coordinations regarding the the casino project. uh basically shared that with them uh the board this action took and assigning two commissioners uh to any potential committee. Uh we're
meeting again uh this week's in hopes of having the impact or the the feedback, excuse me, from uh from those cities as far as having involvement. Also looking at having township involved in that.
Um I that afternoon I we' previously talked with Commissioner Neil Gzwigg from Cass County. Uh that yet on the 7th I spoke with Josh Stevenson uh the Cass County administrator of North Dakota or excuse me of Minnesota. uh while it's a
different tribe, they they're uh they have a I guess stand out of having a good relationship uh with the with the tribe uh in their area and spoke with them to kind of better understand their procedures and operations with the tribe. Uh met that afternoon with Robert
Wilson uh Dan Molly, talked about budget budget discussions and also the legislative impacts on both states. Uh on the ETH I met with Joel Olsen and Mark Sloan. Uh we're working on a capital planning uh document to bring to the building committee here this summer
uh that uh eventually we hope to bring before the board just as a kind of a more of anformational uh status of of of our year essentially of the county. Uh yesterday I participated in the AMC legislative update. Again, one of the positive
things that we did hear yesterday is Senator Abler, Senator Hoffman did pass out of out of the Senate a bill which would shift which would remove almost all the cost shifts uh from the Senate. Uh they're instead asking for two task
forces uh to look into uh look into the impacts of the budgets on a human service standpoint. Um I think today is tax committee. Uh and uh again I think there's some interesting portions that potential that
will come out of there. Uh we'll see if that the omnibus bill passes. Uh and we during this time we also did receive an email from AMC. Uh they're requesting the county's uh report down to St. Paul tomorrow at 10 or excuse me, Thursday at
10:00 a.m. uh for a county at the capital. Uh one of the things that we heard yesterday is that the impacts of the of the board's request to have letters sent to the governor to to legislature is having an impact. Uh and so they want to focus on the shifts uh
from from that standpoint. Um just a few notes here. Uh this week you all should have received an email. The the AMC district meeting uh in Fergus Falls is going to be held June 4th. Uh agenda is going to follow.
Uh a just a couple other uh things. Uh we are Klay County is under a red flag warning. We're one of 77 counties uh with are in extreme danger of fire. We had a few different fires that were going on uh within the county yesterday according to the sheriff. And so we're
on a do not burn ban. Uh, also, uh, just, uh, we received a, uh, uh, had a conversation with Derek La Point, Clay County, city of Morehead, and and Downtown Morhead, Inc. received a outstanding achievement in economic development for the work that's being
done on DG Fuels by the Trade and Industry Development Magazine. And so, I'll pass this around. Uh, there's a story on that project, but I wanted to to highlight the success of of that. Uh and uh with that that concludes my
report. All right. Thank you Darren. Thank you Mr. Chair. Um very quickly on Wednesday I met uh with uh IT and HR uh to discuss some personal action forms and workflow changes. Um Thursday and Friday I was on vacation which is nice.
Monday, I also attended the AMC update uh negotiations discussions with uh Josh Hegim, our labor attorney, which we've already covered, and I had a meeting with uh HR regarding some personnel issues yesterday. That was my report.
Thank you, Sarah. Anything for us? Right, Where?